Post-Game Talk: Matty Almost Hatty - Leafs win 7-3

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Impressive game by Matthews, Nylander, Domi and a few others. Nice to see Matthews moving the puck a bit lately so he isn’t so predictable.
Yes indeed! We're used to Matthews and Nylander playing lights out from time to time, but seeing Domi play the way he did was especially sweet!

So let's put our leading scorer and best playoff performer on the 3rd line?

Domi Matthews Nylander
Bertuzzi Tavares Marner
I don't mind trying anything and everything but I do like the idea of M&M and Nylander on separate lines better. Maybe something like this:

Matthews/Domi/xxx
Marner/JT/Knies
Nylander/Bertuzzi/xxx
 
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Keefe is awful. I am pretty sure we have a losing playoff record on home ice. I need to verify that but the guy cant even use timeouts correctly or line match. Its honestly pretty bad.

Essentially any time the opponent makes an adjustment it takes Keefe a game or two to even adapt.
Nah it's better just to shoot from the hip and when the smoke clears then ask your questions, or pose any suppositions. Frontier justice is young, exciting and it has almost always worked for William Munny!
 
Brodie has been a very good NHL defenseman for a long time. Easy to respect a guy like that, amongst the elites at defending for much of his career. It's a real shame that he's fallen off the cliff, as his skating declined. I can understand why the loyalty, given the long career, and how well he's played for us previously. I hope that they can put that loyalty and respect aside, and do what is best for the club moving forward. It's not like Brodie is even that old, and I don't know if he can bounce back elsewhere next year... but man, has he declined. Sad to see.
He has for sure and no matter the reason it's not fair to the club nor all his team-mates to have too bare the brunt of that decline.

Brodie though as a consumate pro should willingly sit and do what's right by stepping aside or at least down in order to allow a more able player to fill his spot.
 
Oh I get that and I fully understand. But to completely ignore the mistakes just because he hit is where I think it's a little much that's all.
Who's "completely ignoring his mistakes"?

It's a 775K defensemen that's playing way over his pay grade, what are you expecting people just come in and grill him every time he misplays the puck? Brodie is the one who's making 5M and is the one who's been playing far below his paygrade this year, so your whole "if Brodie made those mistakes people would grill him" doesn't really make any sense at all. There's very obvious and logical reasons why Brodie would get grilled if he made those mistakes, and why Benoit gets proportionately less criticism.
 
Yes indeed! We're used to Matthews and Nylander playing lights out from time to time, but seeing Domi play the way he did was especially sweet!


I don't mind trying anything and everything but I do like the idea of M&M and Nylander on separate lines better. Maybe something like this:

Matthews/Domi/xxx
Marner/JT/Knies
Nylander/Bertuzzi/xxx
Come playoffs our 4th line should be playing 6-8 minutes a night, our horses should be our horses and then perhaps creating a shutdown 3rd line

Domi Matthews Nylander
Bertuzzi Tavares Marner
McMann Kampf Jarnkrok
Knies Dewar Holmberg
 
Who's "completely ignoring his mistakes"?

It's a 775K defensemen that's playing way over his pay grade, what are you expecting people just come in and grill him every time he misplays the puck? Brodie is the one who's making 5M and is the one who's been playing far below his paygrade this year, so your whole "if Brodie made those mistakes people would grill him" doesn't really make any sense at all. There's very obvious and logical reasons why Brodie would get grilled if he made those mistakes, and why Benoit gets proportionately less criticism.
Put the best players on the ice. Don’t put a lineup out there based on experience, pay, or loyalty. We shouldn’t play people wishing that they rediscover their glory years. If that’s the case, play Giordano who as recently as 5 years ago won a Norris Trophy. Benoit should play every night because he’s been our most consistent dman this season.
 
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Come playoffs our 4th line should be playing 6-8 minutes a night, our horses should be our horses and then perhaps creating a shutdown 3rd line

Domi Matthews Nylander
Bertuzzi Tavares Marner
McMann Kampf Jarnkrok
Knies Dewar Holmberg
I agree with those 4th line minutes, I still like the idea of 3 scoring lines though. Let the other guys shut us down, not an easy task if we play the way we can.
 
Just as a point of interest, Mike Bossy (a favorite of mine from way back) has a career goals per game that's even higher than Lemieux's, .76 to be precise. To be fair, he had to retire early because of health issues and had he kept playing, he would surely have declined and that number would have gone down but still, he was a natural born goal scorer, .76 is a very impressive number.
Different players, but I have said many times that matthews' ability to score seeing-eye goals reminds me very much of Bossy.
 
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Combination of embarrassing effort vs Philly + Caps coming off a west coast trip led to cookie night.

Not sure either the Philly or Carolina games count as “embarrassing efforts”

The Carolina game was a mix of sloppy and unlucky at the end. Third Carolina goal was 6 on 4 due to the penalty, that’s tough and the tying goal was a deflection off a skate with 6 seconds left. But ultimately we still were not beaten in regulation despite a bad like 3 mins

Philly we had heaps of chances and kept ringing it off the posts losing ultimately by 1. That shit happens sometimes

The special teams however ARE embarrassing
 
Domi - Matthews - Bertuzzi
McMann - Tavares - Marner
Knies - Nylander - Jarnkrok
Dewar - Kampf - Holmberg

I’d give that a go.
 
Domi - Matthews - Bertuzzi
McMann - Tavares - Marner
Knies - Nylander - Jarnkrok
Dewar - Kampf - Holmberg

I’d give that a go.

Putting Nylander at C with 15 games left in the midst of a career year on the wing is not a good decision.

Put Holmberg at 3C and drop Jarnkrok if you want to go with that line-up. I personally think Robertson should be in our starting line-up, but think he might get pushed out by role players (if we're fully healthy) given our PK has been so bad.
 
You guys make up some narrative that Parros hates Toronto. He doesn’t. maybe he is not that good at his job, but he doesn’t hate Toronto. Sorry, people love to play victim too much here.
Feels like one of the first times an opponent has been suspended for something done against the Leafs. I'm sure it isn't but it is a rarity.
 
Different players, but I have said many times that matthews' ability to score seeing-eye goals reminds me very much of Bossy.
I've never thought of that comparison but now that you mention it, yeah I can see the similarities there. Deadly accurate wrist shots for both of them.
 
Not sure either the Philly or Carolina games count as “embarrassing efforts”

The Carolina game was a mix of sloppy and unlucky at the end. Third Carolina goal was 6 on 4 due to the penalty, that’s tough and the tying goal was a deflection off a skate with 6 seconds left. But ultimately we still were not beaten in regulation despite a bad like 3 mins

Philly we had heaps of chances and kept ringing it off the posts losing ultimately by 1. That shit happens sometimes

The special teams however ARE embarrassing
The first 40 minutes in Philly were embarrassing, imo. The final 20 took away from how bad that was. Carolina I thought they played well and let it get away at the end, not a result of effort.
 

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