Post-Game Talk: Leafs win 7-6 in OT

[Kurtz]

Yeah, so? He's not their GM any more.

Are you going to be like one of those obnoxious trolls who gives no credit to Dubas for getting JT and yet will fault him for every little thing like keeping Marincin over Carrick and Sparks over Mcbackup all year?

 

[lovemyleafs]

Didn't marleau steal and pass the puck to rielly?

No, Matthews stole it from Kane, passed it back to Marleau, who gave it to Reilly.
Turns out Matthews DID get credited for the assist! 4 point night!

 

[Puckstuff]

I LOVED the personality shown from the players tonight. Very NBA esque. Makes it more exciting imo.

 

[PromisedLand]

Okay, let's build a 3rd. and 4th. line out of:

Kadri, Lindholm, Leivo, Brown, Ennis, Johnsson.

Are we sure Engval wouldn't be a better fit in there.

Two line team right now.

I would do this:

Johnsson-Kadri-Leivo (some speed on Kadri's LW with Kadri's natural pass to a RW who shoots right and can snipe)

Engvall-Lindhom-Brown (good energy line)

 

[Macallan18]

quick thoughts
Sparks wasn't great, but it was one game, still very much a rookie. Give him a chance. If we have to pick up another back up, it will be cheap.
So Sparks had one bad game, and Hainsey is on what, 47 or 48 stinkers in a row?
And Zaitsev was no star tonight, very passive in our zone, allowing Kane oodles of time for his shot with no pressure.
And Marincin was better than either of Hainsey or Zaitsev.
Dermott keeps developing.
AND WE WON!
Go leafs go!!!

 

[Nithoniniel]

Umm it’s pretty much a fact that the Leafs don’t have a great d core, pretty much every Leafs fan will admit that.

I counted dozens of comments about how terrible Sparks was through the GDT as well. But if you want to ignore those facts go right ahead.

Leafs backup goaltending and defence is not good enough as if this moment to win a cup, that is as close to a fact that you can get.

So the facts you are alluding to was something you didn't mention in your post? That is still not a fact, just a popular and reasonable opinion? Got it.

I haven't argued that Sparks was not bad. What are you going on about? We just won, and all I did was point out was that the actual win did feel like a win for me, and that not everything needs to be all negative right now.

Oh, and backup goaltending has pretty much zero to do with our chances of winning in the playoffs. As for defense, if we play like this it'll be hard. But as recent history has shown, you don't need great defense on paper.

Oh, and as close to a fact that we can get would be an actual fact. Like that we just won, our newly acquired franchise center had a hattrick, and our other franchise center just had four points.

 

[Seath The Scaleless]

Rielly. Dermott
Gardimer. Zaitsev
Borgman. Marincin

Next game?

I wish, but the Bobcat loves Ronald

 

[Menzinger]

I will say, these first few games don’t reflect well on a Babs, as head coach it’s his responsibility to make sure the team is fired and prepared to play at their best right at opening night faceoff, and this team has looked off a bit minus their stars.

I’m not a Babcock critic (think he’s a fantastic coach) but he doesn’t get to escape some of the blame here.

Still: had a lot of fun with tonight’s game.

 

[ottomaddox]

Kadri is so out of sync now.

I could see this as being a problem in the future.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

lets see hometown hockey put a show on like the leafs and the hawks did tonight lol.

Yeah for as much as Babs and the coaching staff are going to hate tonight's game, it was extremely entertaining. High scoring original six matchup, a hattrick, competing celebrations, and overtime. Doesn't get more prime time than that. Glad we came out on top.

 

[Nineteen67]

Feels good man lol

Normally, but it really doesn’t after this start......

 

[Antropovsky]

That why I said that he resembled Raycroft. Same style.

Raycroft was more of a positional goalie with an atrociously bad glove, and slow to his feet... seemed lazy too (remember his sleeping on the bench?) I feel like Raycroft was more comparable in style to Reimer... except reimer had a moderately better glove, and was much better at making desperation saves.

Sparks is in a league of his own with style..... I get tired watching him. Hopefully he will settle down/Dubas and co must have chosen him for a reason (I'm sure Babcock and Keefe had a hand in the decision).

 

[HamiltonNHL]

Biggest surprise for me was the Auston showboating

The are friends.
Mostly just joking with each other.

 

[43Kadri43]

I’m objective

No you're not.

and perfectly cable of calling a spade a spade.

No you're not.

 

[LeafChief]

If the Leafs could somehow acquire a legit RHD to play with Rielly and move Hainsey into that Marincin/Ozhiganov spot, the D doesn't look that bad. Easier said than done obviously.

 

[Whaleafs]

Trade Sparks for McElhinney

 

[pucky]

What piece of dung game.

So much awful hockey on both sides.

Toronto looks like unorganized from the top on down.

Just awful.

Sparks is bad. He looks like a ***** back-up goalie: big equipment guy that drops into the butterfly at every shot.

A few fans said to keep Pickard. I also advised to keep Pickard. Both McBackup and Pickard will be decent on their respective teams. Sparks will be released or sent down before the year is over.

 

[weems]

you think?
he did. it was a dumb dumb mistake. dumb dumb.
i don't mind 80 night style games. they are fun but it bugs me when it happen that we're just so passive. several of those goals were because of that or massive turnovers. the rest was because Sparks can't close his five hole. geeze

I'm going to eat crow right now.
I previously said to you I thought our D was sufficient enough and that our lack of physicality wasn't a huge issue. I was a analytics hater at first mostly because I didn't understand them. Took some time to look into them and really liked the basic premise behind them and then became obsessed with skill, skill and more skill. Well after watching this roster for a good sample now this D cannot take this team where it wants to go and we definitely need more players that are willing to sacrifice the body and do the ugly things needed.

The Sparks thing I never really had a opinion on seeing I hadn't watched him all that much but this preseason and first game don't leave you feeling very optimistic.

We need a competent RHD do who can skate, play with some jam and be reliable with the puck.

 

[Kiwi]

It could just be a panic attack!

Probably just a stroke, I swear Sparks wants me dead

 

[Macallan18]

I just hope we aren't afraid to hurt Hainsey's feelings and sit him.

Lol, i wish Lou was here to send him to Robidas Island!!

 

[NeelyWasAWarrior]

This is like last season too for the Leafs. Tons of goals, they eventually tightened things up and Andersen got out of October

Yeah but you got Tavares now so you guys are still going to score a boat load of goals.

Loved the Matthews celly. Great stuff.

 

[Cleetus]

Yeah for as much as Babs and the coaching staff are going to hate tonight's game, it was extremely entertaining. High scoring original six matchup, a hattrick, competing celebrations, and overtime. Doesn't get more prime time than that. Glad we came out on top.

haha had flashbacks to the 80's.

 

[inthe6ix]

Not sure why all the Sparks hate, just reviewing their 6 goals and 4 of them were not on Sparks.

Goal 1 - Toews, tip, no chance
Goal 2 - Debrincat, Tic tac toe, no chance
Goal 3 - Manning, screen shot from point off the post, no chance
Goal 4 - Hayden, squeezes one 5-hole which should have been stopped
Goal 5 - Kane, left hash marks, should have been stopped
Goal 6 - Kane, deflects off Hainsey's stick, no chance

So two goals which should have been stopped, but I'm not putting the others on him. He bailed us out a few times throughout the game as well (stoned Kane a couple of other times during the game), so all the we shoulda kept McBackup BS, is just that.

 

[pucky]

If the Leafs could somehow acquire a legit RHD to play with Rielly and move Hainsey into that Marincin/Ozhiganov spot, the D doesn't look that bad. Easier said than done obviously.

Except, it does look that bad.

 

[Peiskos]

So the facts you are alluding to was something you didn't mention in your post? That is still not a fact, just a popular and reasonable opinion? Got it.

I haven't argued that Sparks was not bad. What are you going on about? We just won, and all I did was point out was that the actual win did feel like a win for me, and that not everything needs to be all negative right now.

Oh, and backup goaltending has pretty much zero to do with our chances of winning in the playoffs. As for defense, if we play like this it'll be hard. But as recent history has shown, you don't need great defense on paper.

Oh, and as close to a fact that we can get would be an actual fact. Like that we just won, our newly acquired franchise center had a hattrick, and our other franchise center just had four points.

So Andersen goes down in game 3 of the conference finals and we are left with an NHL rookie goalie in Sparks..it’ll have no effect on our ability to win the cup? Okay then.

Backup goaltending has EVERYTHING to do with a teams ability to win in the playoffs.