Series Talk: North Division Round 1: Leafs (1) vs. Canadiens (4)

[wingman75]

Yup! Fans can be a detriment to the home team too if things are not going all that well remember...

No doubt though, it would be better with them (us!) in the stands.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Deal with it and don't make it an excuse would be my advice

it should be up to the league to have teams be on an equal footing rather than give certain teams a competitive advantage and tell the other teams to deal with it

 

[Bluelines]

I think there’s an argument to be made that we could get out worked and still win the series but it wouldn’t be an encouraging sign for “process” and growth and development and positive signs for upcoming rounds. We have to work.

Anything can happen, I agree. If you look at bad teams and how they beat us, they out worked us. think every loss to Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary.... we weren't even close in the give an effort category. We got outworked.

 

[mydnyte]

Anything can happen, I agree. If you look at bad teams and how they beat us, they out worked us. think every loss to Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary.... we weren't even close in the give an effort category. We got outworked.

Outworked, and clogged the slot in the d-zone... pretty much same recipe for every loss, that, and blatant giveaways for easy goals.

We must lead the league for goals surrendered as a direct result of a d-zone giveaway (within seconds too).

 

[Gabriel426]

We really only had two bad stretches in the season, the 1-6-1(something like that) and the 0-3-2. I would say the team pretty much played the same way throughout the season in the 1-6-1 slump, while they were really bad in the 0-3-2 slump.
I think it is safe to say the 0-3-2 slump was the outliner of the season in terms of how the team played.
One thing that I have not seen since AM and the boys started playing is the fact that this current team will raise to the challenge such as the 3 games series with the Oilers and the 3 games series with the Jets.

 

[zeke]

Troof

 

[zeke]

Outworked, and clogged the slot in the d-zone... pretty much same recipe for every loss, that, and blatant giveaways for easy goals.

We must lead the league for goals surrendered as a direct result of a d-zone giveaway (within seconds too).

Funny thing is the most outlier stat in a our bad stretches was awful goaltending, not overall play.

 

[zeke]

Ooh did Sheldon steal Bergy's line?

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

last season, the Leafs lost the expected goals battle in 40% of their games. this year it was just 25%. They are a much more consistent team and don't need to suddenly flip a switch and start playing responsible hockey

 

[zeke]

 

[Stephen]

Anything can happen, I agree. If you look at bad teams and how they beat us, they out worked us. think every loss to Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary.... we weren't even close in the give an effort category. We got outworked.

If you distill any hockey game into 3x elemental categories of skill, effort and goaltending, you can see where the door is left ajar for another team to beat the Maple Leafs. I think if the Leafs can be better in 2 of the 3 categories they have a good chance of winning. And effort is the easiest factor to take in their own hands. If you can outwork a less skilled team that only has work to fall back on, you put all the burden on their goalie.

 

[zeke]

If you distill any hockey game into 3x elemental categories of skill, effort and goaltending,

In 3 of the 4 series so far the other team has had both the skill and goaltending advantage. In the 4th they at least had the goaltending advantage.

 

[Fogelhund]

 

[Menzinger]

I just think it's funny that people think the Habs are going to magically turn into this defensive juggernaut just because it's the post-season. Yes play tends to tighten up, but it's not going to turn average players into stars.

Matthews' absolutely feasted on them this year.

 

[Twine Tickler]

Funny thing is the most outlier stat in a our bad stretches was awful goaltending, not overall play.

THIS. We have been the better team in about 75% of the games this year. Even during our losing stretches.

this was our first losing streak at all strengths...

statistically dominated....and I mean dominated 4 of those 7 games and we only had 1 win in that stretch.

the most recent losing stretch

again, statistically dominated at all strengths and could not find a way to win.

This could happen in the playoffs, but I am not going to be betting money on it happening. As you said, these are statistical outlier's that are unlikely to happen. Not worth my time worrying about.

 

[Fogelhund]

 

[Menzinger]

Scared to have them out against Simmonds cant say I blame them.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Romanov is also sitting out

.. they're really afraid to play their youngsters.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Scared to have them out against Simmonds cant say I blame them.[/QUOTE

What makes you say that, aren't we expecting Simmonds to play in every game? He said he expects to use them at some point ...

 

[BertCorbeau]

So this looks like the Habs' line up for Game 1:

 

[Mess]

If you distill any hockey game into 3x elemental categories of skill, effort and goaltending, you can see where the door is left ajar for another team to beat the Maple Leafs. I think if the Leafs can be better in 2 of the 3 categories they have a good chance of winning. And effort is the easiest factor to take in their own hands. If you can outwork a less skilled team that only has work to fall back on, you put all the burden on their goalie.

One of the biggest factors in team success which is a sub-component of skill quotient is specialty teams along with goaltending.

Leafs enter the playoffs as one of the most skilled teams without question, but one of the least effective PPs despite the skill, and that then puts the focus on coaching, who can't seem to figure it out.

Leafs enter the playoffs starting their backup goalie who has a real confidence issue and lack of experience, and their true #1 goalie as their backup because of injury and inconsistent play.

Effort is the easiest factor to apply, but we haven't always seen Leafs apply that when they need to, and often end up playing down to their level of competition and thus playing into the strengths of the opposition.

Should the heavily favoured Leafs bow out early and disappoint, then the above factors are likely going to come into play during the "what went wrong again" retrospective analysis.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Sure Keefe, just keep throwing shit at the wall until something starts working.

Better than doing nothing I suppose

 

[BertCorbeau]

Ooh did Sheldon steal Bergy's line?

I'm getting a sense fo Habs hatred from Keefe here

 

[ACC1224]

Sure Keefe, just keep throwing shit at the wall until something starts working.

Better than doing nothing I suppose

They must have some type of strategy that they didn’t want to show during the season. They can’t just keep doing what they’ve been doing, can they?

 

[mydnyte]

Funny thing is the most outlier stat in a our bad stretches was awful goaltending, not overall play.

giveaways can make any goalie look bad ...the time to get 'set' cannot be overcome for example on a slot pass to the wrong team, which has happened too many times this season.