Post-Game Talk: Mother's Day Massacre. Series tied 2-2

[keonsbitterness]

"Powerplay is our enforcer"

As soon as i heard those words couple of years ago, I knew Dubas and Keefe weren't gonna cut it

Didn't Babcock say that?

 

[All Mod Cons]

Yet the series is 2-2 with both teams blowing out the other in a game.

Almost every series is 2-2 and did you really think Tampa was going to be an easy matchup and roll over?

100% the Leafs need to show more in Game 5 but I don't find them soft. Too easily complacent maybe..

Yeah, it would be nice if they could try in every game though. It's not unreasonable to ask they give a f*** and not mail it in.

 

[rdogg]

Would you fire Dubas after this year's first round loss?

I like how he's been drafting & developing players, but he can't take the next step with the big club

 

[sampollock]

I am going to keep harping on Tavares until he is gone. Sorry, not sorry. Dude gets spoonfed ice time because of his cap hit and does nothing at 5v5, ruins transition/rush chances because he's slower than the average skater you see at a rec skating event and even his good hands are gone and he bobbles the puck 3/4's amount of the time he receives a pass. I don't want to hear this garbage that he's a PPG centre and we could be worse off. Dude is getting paid 11 million and most of his points/good stretches all year are on the PP. The whole point of him signing here was so he could feast on weaker match ups and he doesn't do that at all.

John Tavares signed a seven-year, $77M contract four summers ago. He has averaged $8.5M per playoff point so far.

Like Gomez in MTL

 

[Malkin like score]

Pittsburgh starts Guentzel-Sid-Rust EVERY single game. Why can't we start our best god damn forwards and not over think it.

Pens fan here ... Dude relax you guys are gonna win cups really soon. That team is stacked with young guys. Trade Tavares for some younger talent. Maybe for bottom 6 guys to help kill opposing team momentum and your set for 7 or 8 yrs. That core reminds me of the pens in 2007 08

 

[TorMapleJays]

Tampa gets 8 powerplays while blowing us out and the refs didn't call either the slash or the crosscheck there. The refs haven't been that bad overall in the series but they sure as hell were today.

The refs got swept away by the noise of the crowd. It just became quicksand.
First shot of the game.

3 goals on the first 6 shots. Tough.

 

[Stinger8]

I knew we were in trouble BEFORE the opening face off. Their right winger was 2 feet into our zone and our left winger (Mikayev??) just moved back and let him take his lunch money no push back to speak of. Cowardly, and I actually am getting a kick out of watching Tavares get punched in the head and staring back dazed and confused no self preservation no self respect just a dumb stare, Cowards. Muzzin could show some back bone too although he has made a few solid hits.

 

[DarkKnight]

Didn't Babcock say that?

Hey there….

 

[Future]

In Keefs's post game presser, Steve Simmons directly asks, "why did you start your worst defenceman in a game like this with the crowd the way it would be". Keefs of course asks "who is our worst defencemen", Simmons says "Justin Holl", Keefe responds with "Well, that's your opinion". That led to the "starting 5 question" where Keefe responded with "they were our best line last game".

Really like Keefe as a coach, but the fact he cannot see how bad Holl is, is beyond me. Is that his pet project? If it is, it's an F.

Also, on the 'best line last game'... they might have been, but that does not lead to overall team success. Start your best players, period.

Can’t believe he framed it that way, although it needed to be said.

 

[2 Slick]

Pens fan here ... Dude relax you guys are gonna win cups really soon. That team is stacked with young guys. Trade Tavares for some younger talent. Maybe for bottom 6 guys to help kill opposing team momentum and your set for 7 or 8 yrs. That core reminds me of the pens in 2007 08

You can't trade a player with a NMC, his family is in Toronto, he's not uprooting to move to another team. No other team wants to take a cap hit that big for someone that can't produce in the playoffs, it's never going to happen. Ever.

 

[Mopar]

Would you fire Dubas after this year's first round loss?

I like how he's been drafting & developing players, but he can't take the next step with the big club

Yes.

He's the General Manager. The buck stops with him. He's made plenty of good moves and of course he's made mistakes.

We've got probably the best roster the Leafs have iced in my lifetime but we've got a major question mark in net and we have a coach that's incompetent. One or both of those things may cost us majorly this year.

 

[ECanuck]

I knew we were in trouble BEFORE the opening face off. Their right winger was 2 feet into our zone and our left winger (Mikayev??) just moved back and let him take his lunch money no push back to speak of. Cowardly, and I actually am getting a kick out of watching Tavares get punched in the head and staring back dazed and confused no self preservation no self respect just a dumb stare, Cowards. Muzzin could show some back bone too although he has made a few solid hits.

You don't even have to push! I would just kindly move to the other side and use the extra space.

 

[DarkKnight]

I’d sit Keefe next game.

 

[PromisedLand]

I honestly don't know how to be positive or negative considering we've seen two variations of the Leafs in four games so far. The game 2 loss was just due to taking way too many penalties, for 70% of the game, the effort was still intact for large chunks of the game. I complained, but I actually had positives to bring from that game.

Even though they got 3 goals in the third period, it's tough for me to bring anything positive out of this game.

The defense and entire team hung Campbell out to dry, but Campbell wasn't great either, so while it's not all on him, some of it was just bad goaltending too.

Just Holl was absolutely atrocious in the first period. Absolutely mind-blown at how Keefe decided to put him back in after his game 3 performance? Pinches, took a dumb penalty, gave Tampa Life with a powerplay goal in game 3 and the Leafs hang on by the skin of their teeth the rest of the game, Holl shows up in game 4 and basically says, hey Tampa, want a free 3-4 goals? Just flabbergasted at the chance after chance this piece of shit is given. WHY? Who the f**k cares if he's good on the PK. If he's terrible at 5 on 5 and makes his team worse, I don't give a flying shit how good he is on the PK.

Tavares? Embarrassing would be the nicest thing I could say about his overall effort. He had maybe one good play all game and that lead to a goal by Nylander. Complete non-factor in this series. At least in games one and two he was a monster on faceoffs, now he can't even do that properly. No foot speed, no offensive drive, no 50-50 battles being won, no passion, no effort, no extra pep in his step, all the cliches, he's completely a ghost out there.

Nylander does what he always does. Coasts, plays soft, scores a few goals, disappears for 3-4 games. I don't even care that he scored twice, that gaffe at the blue-line was just soft, led to the empty net goal. Same for Tavares, lost a 50-50 battle, ends up the ice, in the back of our net, 2nd empty net goal.

I guess the lone positive I have about Nylander is that maybe this will spark and motivate him to do better in game 5?

Matthews I'm very disappointed in. I don't care about a useless powerplay assist, at 5 on 5, he and Marner brought nothing in game 4 and for the most part, did the same thing 5 on 5 in game 3. You can't be a 60 goal scorer, have 106 points and then decide to play scared when the games matter most. His two goals in this series are A. One from being at 5 on 3, was a good shot, but it's pretty much a gift. B. Second goal was an empty-netter gift from Vasilevskiy. I mean, good on him for having the awareness, but that was just a freebie.

Zero goals in games two, three and now four from our top offensive producer... it's not good enough. He's doing what he's done most playoffs, show up for a game or two, coast the rest of the way and play scared. He was good in his rookie series against Washington and had another good series against Boston, but was invisible last post-season, one goal, 2 goals in 5 games against Blue Jackets, 1 goal in 7 games against Boston in 2018. It's... NOT.... good enough.

Marner isn't putting up goals either when it matters most.

When David Kampf has as many goals as your two offensive weapons, a guy who had ONE goal all season with the Blackhawks the season prior, then you know they aren't doing their jobs.

Campbell is pretty much playing like I expected he would. Lets be realistic, I was giving him shit for months from December 15th all the way until early April. He was hovering at around 880% and 3.25 GAA for 4 months straight, my confidence in him was pretty much nil.

He was good in game one, but wasn't tested, he was gifted a shutout by Tampa Bay. They now showed that one. He was great in game 3, but pretty meh in games 2 and 4. Not all his fault, mind you, too many penalties in game 2 and just bad all around in game 4, but him being streaky is pretty much how I expected him to be.

My only positive from this game? Kallgren gave up 0 goals in relief, then again, he wasn't tested overly either, but I have to try to find something? Anything?

I said the Leafs would take this series in 6 games, I still feel they will. I don't know why I feel that way, but I choose to have some faith. The series isn't over yet. If they lose game 5 at home, then it's over. If they win game 5, then I think it's the Leafs for the taking.

I'm exhausted from this team, they know how to make you sing their praises one game and then make you hate them the next game. Two polar opposites in the playoffs. I just HONESTLY felt like we wouldn't see a complete NO show in game 4 after that heartbreak in the playoffs last year. I mean.... HOW do you do that? I just... I have no words for itt. So baffling that a team with THIS many talented players can look like an ECHL team.... it BLOWS my mind.

So disappointed.

Quite frankly to me its simple.

At home when you can dictate match ups; you play matthews-marner together

Away: when you don't dictate match ups you break them up; at least start that way. If you keep matthews and marner together don't expect much production 5 on 5 BUT and a BIG BUT ->>> On special teams especially in the away games matthews/marner have to shine. Away games: when matthews marner get shutout 5 on 5; depth needs to show up; if not - at least special teams i.e. PowerPlay has to show up.

Home games you get more opportunities to catch opposition or jump on weak lines so special teams do not play a larger role.

 

[Smif]

YUP.

It wasn't Keefe or Dubas as GM when that was said.

 

[Future]

You can't trade a player with a NMC, his family is in Toronto, he's not uprooting to move to another team. No other team wants to take a cap hit that big for someone that can't produce in the playoffs, it's never going to happen. Ever.

There has never been a player more untradeable than John Tavares, and he plays like he knows that.

 

[Hoglund4MvP]

Guess how many PK minutes Brayden Point takes away from his 5v5 when he wins cups for Tampa? If you guessed close to 0 you are genius.

Another year of wasting a player in Marner who has the potential to put up same amount of points as McDavid in a season

 

[JSn0w93]

You can't trade a player with a NMC, his family is in Toronto, he's not uprooting to move to another team. No other team wants to take a cap hit that big for someone that can't produce in the playoffs, it's never going to happen. Ever.

I know the options to get out from that deal aren't plentiful, but we need to explore them all.

 

[6ix]

There’s guys like Bergeron, Pavelski, Marchand, who produce at high levels well into their 30’s

But of course the leafs get a guy who looks done and can’t produce in the playoffs at 31. Can’t make this up

 

[Leafsfan74]

The missing ingredient is "killer instinct". Without it they will never throw the KO uppercut when they have their opponents on the ropes in a series.

It's why I am puzzled why Keefe tries to outsmart the opponent by sitting players who will bring an edge to their game. The edge that Clifford and Simmonds bring, when disciplined of course: rubs off on others The same way a Muzzin or Lybushkin can. It is in short supply so why nullify it?

Considering they gave up 8 PP (can that ever be legitimate?) without them in the lineup, why have them sitting? It clearly makes no difference to the league who the Leafs employ each game the refs will find a soft penalty and dishourable TB players will oblige with embellishment.

Name another playoff game in which a team had 8 PPs. Tampa had 7 PPs the other game. Are the Leafs somehow a dirty or menacing team?

 

[Dave92]

It wasn't Keefe or Dubas as GM when that was said.

It may have been Dubas but it was definitely Babcock that said it.

 

[CabanaBoy5]

I wish I could talk my way out of slacking at work like the Leafs do.

Can you imagine a doctor screwing up a surgery and then saying "I expect more of myself, and want to do better". Possibly the worst captain in our history.

 

[wingman75]

Can’t believe he framed it that way, although it needed to be said.

Well, Simmons strong point isn't tact.

 

[All Mod Cons]

Pens fan here ... Dude relax you guys are gonna win cups really soon. That team is stacked with young guys. Trade Tavares for some younger talent. Maybe for bottom 6 guys to help kill opposing team momentum and your set for 7 or 8 yrs. That core reminds me of the pens in 2007 08

We've been doing this for years.

 

[DarkKnight]

There’s guys like Bergeron, Pavelski, Marchand, who produce at high levels well into their 30’s

But of course the leafs get a guy who looks done and can’t produce in the playoffs at 31. Can’t make this up

Marchand put up 5 points today.