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Post-Game Talk: Maple Leafs win big! Matthews is the hero

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Ports said:
Sorry but Rielly is not close to a top pairing defenseman. He makes poor decisions, gets caught out of position, doesn’t defend the net front and the puck stays on his stick too long on the PP. He’s a great skater with a good wrist shot. He should be a winger not a dman playing top minutes for a cup contender. What difference does a narrative make anyway? He’s not reading it.
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He barely touches the puck on the PP. D mans job on our PP is to literally give it to Matthews or Marner and then be support for them. Our PP was also much worse without him too if you want to bring PP into this. What d man on our team doesn't make poor decisions? Hell, what forward doesn't either. They all do it yet y'all try and blame just Rielly for any little thing. Guess that's just the Leafs fan base though, use the highest paid d man as the scapegoat for everything.
 
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Nice win! Finally got a damn 5 on 3.

Refs are too keen to pick on bunting while giving cousins the benefit of the doubt? Called bunting for interference, cousins did the same thing on Marner in the 3rd.

I missed it, why was rielly scratched? Sorry to say but he really wasn't missed much.
 
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Can't believe we finally got a 5 on 3 PP, it's been almost an entire calendar year since our last one LOL. Betting the league probably gives us a couple random ones now to end the season so the stats don't look too skewed heading into the playoffs, expecting the same nonsense again once the post-season starts.
 
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Solid game. Everyone right down to Murray stopped them in the third
Tonight we have seen the true meaning of &^$% block. Matthews is heating up at the right time. Matthews was rock solid tonight
 
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LaPlante94 said:
He barely touches the puck on the PP. D mans job on our PP is to literally give it to Matthews or Marner and then be support for them. Our PP was also much worse without him too if you want to bring PP into this. What d man on our team doesn't make poor decisions? Hell, what forward doesn't either. They all do it yet y'all try and blame just Rielly for any little thing. Guess that's just the Leafs fan base though, use the highest paid d man as the scapegoat for everything.
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We must be watching different teams.
 
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They just let Alex kerfoot score on them…

All I’ll say

Actually Matthews was really good
 
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mapleleaf979 said:
Reilly ruins the PP, been saying that for years. GUstaffson runs the PP far better, it took a few touches for me see this. Quick decisions, deceptive, confident. Reilly has none of those things on the PP.
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Are you suggesting that Gus is the man and healthy scratch Rielly?
 
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mapleleaf979 said:
Reilly ruins the PP, been saying that for years. GUstaffson runs the PP far better, it took a few touches for me see this. Quick decisions, deceptive, confident. Reilly has none of those things on the PP.
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Seriously watching him on the powerplay is the weirdest thing ever. An offense only defense man who’s not good on the powerplay?
 
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LaPlante94 said:
A stretch where our goaltending played their best all season and when Marner was on an absolute tear and the top 6 was giving us offence? We need to stop this narrative that we suck with Rielly in the lineup when we look like this with him in the lineup as well. Brodie was also out for a bit of that stretch too, should we sit him as well? It's amazing how good we can look when our top paid players do what we pay them for and when weird bounces/bad goals don't get let in by goalies.
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While I agree that the goaltending during that really hot stretch was very good and the offense was pretty good too, we can't deny that the defense really stepped it up as well. During a good stretch of that time Gio and Holl were playing the most minutes with Liljegren and Sandin among others playing 2nd pairing minutes and whoever they threw in on the bottom pairing also looked solid.

Then Timmins arrived and also looked good and was chipping in with offense and the Leafs were winning one goal games as well as games where they were putting up a bunch of goals. Pretty much the whole team was clicking together and our defense really hasn't looked that good in a very long time when every pairing looked solid and could play decent defense.

When Rielly came back the balance on defense was back out of wack because you were now back to trying to fit a guy on defense that you're going to play 20+ mins a game with suspect defensive play and we're back to fixing a problem that seemingly can't be fixed. I like Rielly and I want him to succeed which is why it sucks to criticise him, but its been years now and its always been the same where the Leafs keep feeding him minutes that he perhaps shouldn't be getting based on his defensive play.

Give Rielly a few less minutes in the 2nd pairing and give someone else a chance at top pairing minutes and see how it works out because we've seen for many years now that Rielly playing the most and toughest minutes won't be a good outcome for the Leafs more games than not and I'd be happy to be proven wrong by him.
 
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I think Liljegren has been amazing, and I'm probably one of his biggest fans here.... but I am kind of warming up to the idea of:

Rielly - Schenn
McCabe - Brodie
Gio - Holl
 
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Thank goodness AM showed up, and looked like he cared and had desire and success.
The D did not miss Reilly.
Murray moved better,
Kerfoot scored although is was a huge piece of luck.
We had a lot of luck, wtf was Marner thinking on the empty net goal
Skating across the line up was good.
Almost no physical push back, at times I wonder whether this team likes each other. Who will defend MM when Marchant pushes him around? Do each of our lines have a defined role or do we just have 4 lines trying to play soft like a first line.
Does our Hyphen man on 4th line believe he is a scorer in the NHL? Why does he think he is on this team?
Can we win a round with a 4th line not knowing their job?
 
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Great game to go too!
What was notable and not always evident on TV is Matthews 2 way play.
He really takes the 200 ft game seriously.
And I guess Samsonov woops I mean Murray has sealed the starter role in the playoffs lol!!!
 
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Wins and efforts like this are why I get so pissed off when we lose to trash teams.

BTW as much as I love Reilly and have always been a fan it is not a coincidence they held the opponent to 2 goals without him in the lineup. He's been the jigsaw piece that just hasn't fit this year
 
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Murray was solid, but the one question I ask, on the “almost” save of the year, “why were you facing backwards on that play”
 
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