Post-Game Talk: Leafs win! 5-1

[hoglund]

IMO.....the soft call on Hyman was a make up for the ref not getting out of the way of the puck that resulted in the Spezza goal.

Game management at its finest.

I thought that refs weren't doing game management anymore, lol.

 

[Gallagbi]

IMO.....the soft call on Hyman was a make up for the ref not getting out of the way of the puck that resulted in the Spezza goal.

Game management at its finest.

That was my read, especially when they were so hesitant to call some blatant penalties at the end of the first

 

[egd27]

That was my read, especially when they were so hesitant to call some blatant penalties at the end of the first

And the Leafs were a lock to get the next penalty after the Sandin goal until the Habs made that stupid challenge and pissed the Refs off by trying to show them up.

Talk about a coaching / GM horrid decision.

 

[TOCap1]

I don’t get why people are complaining that Nylander bailed on that play..... Chariot was lining him up not even looking at the puck. He was definitely going for the hit and with the way he’s taking runs at people with no regard I would have done the same. Live another day that play more often than not leads to nothing so why take the chance at getting hurt and potentially altering the series if Nylander gets injured

 

[Not My Tempo]

I don’t even understand the complaining about the penalties. Out of the 6, one was in the last minute of the game to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand, one was because they made the worst goalie interference challenge I’ve ever seen, one because of a cross check to the head in front of a ref and one was a cross check which resulted in a broken stick.

If the Habs don’t want to be called for egregious cross checks, maybe they shouldn’t commit egregious cross checks?

 

[crump]

100% this. Spending 5 minutes to make an easy decision reeked of trying to find fault. Defeats the whole purpose of it. Don't create controversy where there isn't any, it opens too many doors. Killed the momentum of the game for the Leafs. I thought it was a Mickey Mouse move by the league, typical.

Took longer to review because they couldn’t find the right angle to review because it didn’t exist.

 

[Cor]

Some Observations:
- Kerfoot - Engvall - Mikheyev is quite the third line. They never leave the puck alone. It's awesome to watch.
- Joe Thornton would've been 2nd on the "super physical" Habs, in hits last night.
- Jack Campbell has a .943 through the first two games of this series.
- It's funny people always talk about people who "step up" in the playoffs, and then don't recognize Alex Kerfoot for doing just that. Dude has been awesome so far this series, and was good last year as well.
- Kerfoot and Hyman, as well as Lehkonen were the leaders in hits+blocked shots last night with 6.
- I have been tough on Morgan Rielly for a lot of the regular season. The dude has been awesome through these first two games.
- Rasmus Sandin over Travis Dermott was risky, but certainly looking good so far.
- If the Habs best forward continues to be Joel Armia, the Leafs will be able to take advantage
- By my count, the Leafs were 3-1-1 in Montreal this season.
- The Habs shot chart is quite something. Other than their goal, there was nothing allowed inside the circles/hashmarks. The Leafs dominated defensively.

 

[crump]

That's the message. It takes 3 Habs to try to tackle Simmonds. Meanwhile he skates off like Leo used to do. Simmonds is right in their heads. Probably why Anderson was so quiet tonight.

Planting seeds he is, he’ll be in their minds Monday.

 

[ToneDog]

Habs got their split on the road so they are going home somewhat optimistic. Leafs PP clicking twice last night should keep some of the Hab flies off. A win tomorrow night could take away some of the Habs morale.

 

[The Big Swede13]

Hopefully this game gives our PP some much needed confidence. The 3rd line is a pain in the ass to play against keep them together

 

[Isaac Nootin]

I don’t get why people are complaining that Nylander bailed on that play..... Chariot was lining him up not even looking at the puck. He was definitely going for the hit and with the way he’s taking runs at people with no regard I would have done the same. Live another day that play more often than not leads to nothing so why take the chance at getting hurt and potentially altering the series if Nylander gets injured

It's not just the Chiarot play. It happens multiple times a game.

 

[SeenSchenn2]

Going to MTL with the split is obviously not ideal, but outside of both 1st periods, we've played really well. Gotta carry that into MTL.

 

[Garthinater]

That might have been the worst coaches challenge i have ever seen.

Good win over all.

Should be fun playing in Montreal with fans.

Any chance some leaf fans are able to sneak into the bell center?

 

[3blizzard4]

Leafs win and certain posters who were out in full force after the loss disappear

Happens on HFBoaards everywhere when the Leafs win. Especially to a certain fanbase obsessed with the Leafs and so easily triggered (to the west of us in Alberta).

 

[fahad203]

Who were the four young guys scratched? Caufield, Romanov, KK...? Such a corny gesture

Also Suzuki got taken over last night.

I think Jake Evans

 

[fahad203]

That might have been the worst coaches challenge i have ever seen.

Good win over all.

Should be fun playing in Montreal with fans.

Any chance some leaf fans are able to sneak into the bell center?

Really tells you who's in charge in Montreal. That was brutal in so many ways. Not from the actual call but where the call came from: their GM

 

[Gallagbi]

Some Observations:
- Kerfoot - Engvall - Mikheyev is quite the third line. They never leave the puck alone. It's awesome to watch.
- Joe Thornton would've been 2nd on the "super physical" Habs, in hits last night.
- Jack Campbell has a .943 through the first two games of this series.
- It's funny people always talk about people who "step up" in the playoffs, and then don't recognize Alex Kerfoot for doing just that. Dude has been awesome so far this series, and was good last year as well.
- Kerfoot and Hyman, as well as Lehkonen were the leaders in hits+blocked shots last night with 6.
- I have been tough on Morgan Rielly for a lot of the regular season. The dude has been awesome through these first two games.
- Rasmus Sandin over Travis Dermott was risky, but certainly looking good so far.
- If the Habs best forward continues to be Joel Armia, the Leafs will be able to take advantage
- By my count, the Leafs were 3-1-1 in Montreal this season.
- The Habs shot chart is quite something. Other than their goal, there was nothing allowed inside the circles/hashmarks. The Leafs dominated defensively.

Great post, and completely agree on Rielly and Kerfoot especially.

The shot chart is really interesting since the Habs seemed to be keen on goal mouth scrambles. Toss a puck at the net and just send everyone to hack, like the first goal. I'm surprised it didn't result in a few more actual shots.

I'm very interested to see what the Habs do with their roster. It's even ground, it likely needs to be a tight checking, low event affair for them to win. Do they risk some defense to add in Caufield and Romanov? If nothing else it could make a lot of sense for the PP, but takes away from their overall plan.

 

[The Apologist]

Gotta say, I was wrong about Engvall. He was great. Like really good.
Still think Nash needs to play just not sure where.
Also Dermy needs to slot in, likely for Holl. Holl has been a tire fire for the better part of three months.

 

[Muston Atthews]

Nylander has been amazing so far. Engaged, battling, sniping. Looks like he wants it

 

[DarkKnight]

Considering the stats show no home ice playoff advantage even with fans first round, I’d say this “split” talk this year is largely irrelevant.

 

[notbias]

I thought every line looked great last night, adding that extra speed really helped.

If the third line can continue to dominate and the line of Foligno/Gally/Nylander looks good.

What happens to Tavares if we make it far enough that he can come back?

Is Gally the odd man out and Tavares moves between Foligno and Nylander? This is probably more likely.

Or do we do something crazy like don't mess with what is working and slide Tavares into 4C, and move him up and down the lineup throughout the game where needed to give him his 20 mins of ice time? Something like this may give us a huge boost over other teams trying to match us and allow for things like Tavares on Matthews' wing for an ozone draw or centering Gally/Nylander for an ozone draw. I think something like this could be interesting, although it is super unlikely.

 

[CanadasTeam]

That might have been the worst coaches GM challenge i have ever seen.

Good win over all.

Should be fun playing in Montreal with fans.

Any chance some leaf fans are able to sneak into the bell center?

Fixed

 

[3blizzard4]

"It's one game at a time, every game is different," Canadiens coach Dominique Ducharme said. "I don't think they're going to be scoring five goals a night. Tonight was a different night."


Challenge accepted coach!

 

[Gallagbi]

I thought every line looked great last night, adding that extra speed really helped.

If the third line can continue to dominate and the line of Foligno/Gally/Nylander looks good.

What happens to Tavares if we make it far enough that he can come back?

Is Gally the odd man out and Tavares moves between Foligno and Nylander? This is probably more likely.

Or do we do something crazy like don't mess with what is working and slide Tavares into 4C, and move him up and down the lineup throughout the game where needed to give him his 20 mins of ice time? Something like this may give us a huge boost over other teams trying to match us and allow for things like Tavares on Matthews' wing for an ozone draw or centering Gally/Nylander for an ozone draw. I think something like this could be interesting, although it is super unlikely.

Depends on how well that Foligno line plays, but they're missing talent right now that JT would bring. Neither of the tip 2 lines are clicking the way they can at ES right now, so I wouldn't hesitate to tinker. Only thing I'd definitely keep at this point is the speedy 3rd line

 

[The Iceman]

Solidarity for the 4 scratches in the press box apparently.

I think he was making a correct prediction on how many goals his team would lose by.