Confirmed with Link: Sheldon Keefe extended 2 years

[egd27]

Matthews line:
3-1 goal differential

Kerfoot line:
3-2 goal differential

Sorry but still not clear on what you mean.

Are you saying that at even strength AM's line was on for 3 GF and only 1 GA and while Kerfoot/Nylander were on for 3 GF and 2 GA ?

 

[Zybalto]

Sorry but still not clear on what you mean.

Are you saying that at even strength AM's line was on for 3 GF and only 1 GA and while Kerfoot/Nylander were on for 3 GF and 2 GA ?

Yes, although the latter line did it in not even half the minutes against weaker comp

 

[Gary Nylund]

The +2 5v5 goal differential the Matthews line had matches.........the +2 goal differential they had during the regular season. So overall effectiveness from that line was exactly the same despite finishing issues. It's why I put more emphasis on the PP as a failure of the top players. Matthews line may have had finishing even 5v5 but the overall game was so strong they were still able to completely shut down one of the best two way lines in hockey.

It's bizarre to hear you praise our top line for "shutting down" the opposition. Isn't it you who keeps telling us that they're maybe the best line in hockey and if that's true, shouldn't the goal for them be to dominate the opposition, not just shut them down? I remember how the Bergeron line has crushed us in past playoffs, shouldn't that be what we should hoping for from M&M?

I think MTL's goal was to shut us down and holding that line to +2 over 7 games sounds like mission accomplished to me. I think they have good reason to be as pleased as they can be with the way the top line match-up went and we have good reason to be very disappointed.

The reason I think the injuries hurt so badly is that it puts pressure on bottom lines and D to carry more of the load. Muzzin out put more responsibility on Sandin/Dermott and Tavares/Foligno out/hurt put more responsibility on depth forwards. If we don't have the injuries, do we lose those last 3 games? I know who made the big mistakes. Just something to think about is all.

Injuries always hurt but like I said, we were still favourites in every game. Can we please just win for once instead of losing and looking for excuses?

When it comes to the goalie, can a Leafs goalie please just steal a game for us for once? Especially seeing as we have been the better team more often than not.

When it comes to our team, can we just win for once instead of losing and blaming our goalies who's SV% of .936 and .934 have been more than good enough to win?

 

[egd27]

Sorry but still not clear on what you mean.

Are you saying that at even strength AM's line was on for 3 GF and only 1 GA and while Kerfoot/Nylander were on for 3 GF and 2 GA ?

Yes, although the latter line did it in not even half the minutes against weaker comp

May want to double check that.

NHL.com has
Matthews +1 / Marner +1 / Hyman +2
and
Kerfoot +3 / Nylander +3 / Galchenyuk +2

 

[Zybalto]

It's bizarre to hear you praise our top line for "shutting down" the opposition. Isn't it you who keeps telling us that they're maybe the best line in hockey and if that's true, shouldn't the goal for them be to dominate the opposition, not just shut them down? I remember how the Bergeron line has crushed us in past playoffs, shouldn't that be what we should hoping for from M&M?

I think MTL's goal was to shut us down and holding that line to +2 over 7 games sounds like mission accomplished to me. I think they have good reason to be as pleased as they can be with the way the top line match-up went and we have good reason to be very disappointed.



Injuries always hurt but like I said, we were still favourites in every game. Can we please just win for once instead of losing and looking for excuses?



When it comes to our team, can we just win for once instead of losing and blaming our goalies who's SV% of .936 and .934 have been more than good enough to win?

Well, the Bergeron/Marchand line 5v5 against the Leafs in the playoffs:

Goals for: 12
Goals Against: 11

Didn't exactly crush us but really lit us up in special teams/4 on 4 differential. Hopefully the changes made this season will give us that advantage.

I guarantee the Habs hated their top line was getting crushed (and broke it up after winning game 5). I dont think you can find a worse 7 games stretch for Danault in his career. You can take any random 7 games from the 10 games during the season against the Leafs and put together a better 7 games for the Habs top line and they lost most of those games.

As far as save% go, the Leafs have arguably the best defensive numbers over the last two playoffs so you have to take the save% with a grain of salt (and the save% takes a nosedive in more important games). I think the injury to the underrated Muzzin (easily our best playoff dman the last two years)was one of the big turning points in the series as it directly led to Sandin and Dermott being put in positions they would not usually be in to make unpressured giveaways for key goals for the Habs (that Campbell was unable to make a clutch save on). I think any top team would suffer from losing your main shutdown dman though.

A close series that shouldn't have been close as everything went against the Leafs really.

 

[Zybalto]

May want to double check that.

NHL.com has
Matthews +1 / Marner +1 / Hyman +2
and
Kerfoot +3 / Nylander +3 / Galchenyuk +2

I was calling out the lines themselves. More goals may have gone in away from each other but, hey, they are way more effective together than not right?

Not a fan of +/- anyways as Galchenyuk was a disaster of a player carried by better ones and was rightly unsigned after giving game 5 away.

Nylander and Kerfoot were overall great in the playoffs and Matthews and Marner were not what we wanted but not in the bottom half of performers, thats for sure. Not sure I would hold it against either of them with the goal Campbell gave up in game 7.

 

[Nylanderthal]

Best win% is more the ideal circumstance he found himself in than his ability, IMO. He and Dubas did walk into a pretty sweet situation that not many are gifted. Perhaps he is the greatest coach in Leaf history, we'll know better in a few months.

Situation Dubas walked into? As if he wasn’t the interim GM two off-seasons before taking over for good and being the right hand man of the guy in charge those couple seasons in between and had a large impact on the way the team was already set up.
He did have a doozy of a mess Sweet Lou left with the Marleau deal.

 

[Gabriel426]

If we are going to continue to break each series and games, then all these stats need to break down a bit more. Such as defence men pairings at that time, the time of the game and series, like did the line scored a goal when the team was ahead by 3 goals with a minute to go in the game or scored a goal while being down 3 goals with a minute to go, might also want to look at did that line just joined the play after hemming the other team in their zone, was it the end or beginning of their shift when they scored or being scored on, was it an individual mistake that led to the goals or just a great shot or a shot bouncing off someone.....
Honestly, FACT is the Leafs led by AM, MM, JT, Willie and Reilly have not advanced further than the 1st round. It doesn't matter if WIllie scored 5 goals and 3 assists the past playoffs or MM had the most playoff points of all Leafs for the past 5 years, all of them could not get it done. Most of them didn't play to their regular season standard which is set by themselves, and thats why Leafs were a top 5-10 teams in the league but always end up losing in the 1st round.
If you believe that the depth was a reason, then take a look at the contracts the top guys are getting.
Zeke and I had a pretty good discussion a while back about the Top 4 needing to score 150 goals, which is about 57% of goals in the regular season. The Leafs scored 18 goals against the Habs and the Top 4 scored 6(Willie got 5), it is true that JT was injured, but the other three needed to provide more offence. Even if I add Kerfoot and his 1 goal to the top 4, thats still 7 goals. Can't blame the depth if the top guys are not doing their jobs.
Against BJs, the top 4 got 6 goals while the Leafs got 10 goals in total, depth needed to score more, as the top 4 combined for 60% of the goals scored.
Against the Bruins, the top 4 got 10 goals while the depth(supposedly the best depth we had) scored 7 goals, once again the top 4 produced and scored enough goals but depth was solid.

 

[Jojalu]

What I can't figure out is how did Keefe and Dubas walk into such a great position if the team is so constantly flawed?

Zero toughness.
Core are soft and can't perform when it matters.
Goaltending sucks
Defense is a tire fire.

None of this suggests a great way to start a Pro Career

 

[Stonehands1990]

It's bizarre to hear you praise our top line for "shutting down" the opposition. Isn't it you who keeps telling us that they're maybe the best line in hockey and if that's true, shouldn't the goal for them be to dominate the opposition, not just shut them down? I remember how the Bergeron line has crushed us in past playoffs, shouldn't that be what we should hoping for from M&M?

I think MTL's goal was to shut us down and holding that line to +2 over 7 games sounds like mission accomplished to me. I think they have good reason to be as pleased as they can be with the way the top line match-up went and we have good reason to be very disappointed.



Injuries always hurt but like I said, we were still favourites in every game. Can we please just win for once instead of losing and looking for excuses?



When it comes to our team, can we just win for once instead of losing and blaming our goalies who's SV% of .936 and .934 have been more than good enough to win?

I’m so sick and tired of hearing how Matthews & Marner “shutdown” the competition that was deploying a 1-2-2 forecheck, never pinched and was mostly focused on giving up zero odd man rushes

 

[Mess]

"They believe in him, but it's a prove-me contract at two years, not five."

In sports usage, a coach or general manager in the final year of their contract without a forthcoming contract extension is often described as a lame duck.

You don't want a lame duck coach on an expiring contract, and need him focused entirely on winning.

 

[Gary Nylund]

I’m so sick and tired of hearing how Matthews & Marner “shutdown” the competition that was deploying a 1-2-2 forecheck, never pinched and was mostly focused on giving up zero odd man rushes

That is very well said my man, very well said indeed!

 

[Zybalto]

I’m so sick and tired of hearing how Matthews & Marner “shutdown” the competition that was deploying a 1-2-2 forecheck, never pinched and was mostly focused on giving up zero odd man rushes

Considering the Matthews line had more odd man rushes and outnumbered situations than other lines, pretty brutal take.

Just focusing on games the Leafs lost here, Did shutdown D make that game-saving save on Marner in game one on the two on one caused by the Habs brutal D..or did Price? Did it prevent Matthews and Nylander from hitting posts on great slot chances due to skuffed D play or did those guys just miss? Did their D stop Matthews left all alone in the Slot multiple times or did Price? Did Price stone Matthews going fivehole on a 2 on 1 with Rielly or did the D?....jeez, this is still just game 1.....and I really shouldnt have to go through the numerous odd man rushes, the lost shots, the Hyman breakaway the Matthews posts etc. etc. etc. That should be good enough.

The reason they started playing more defensively is that they were forced to turtle. The Habs had arguably the best shutdown line in hockey rocking a 60% goal differential during the regular season but they just couldnt handle the Matthews line. The line literally got broken up after a win in game 5 it was getting owned so badly.

Habs shutdown line = 60% goal differential during the regular season.....0% against the Leafs.....60% the rest of the playoffs.

Cheerleading the dumb coaching on the Habs side didnt serve Habs management well since the playoffs and doesnt look any better when Leafs fans are doing it.

They should be doing what you should be doing. Admitting the Habs got damn lucky the Matthews line was piss poor at finishing their chances/Price went god mode. Stop building bad narratives on bad narratives.

 

[Stonehands1990]

Considering the Matthews line had more odd man rushes and outnumbered situations than other lines, pretty brutal take.

Just focusing on games the Leafs lost here, Did shutdown D make that game-saving save on Marner in game one on the two on one caused by the Habs brutal D..or did Price? Did it prevent Matthews and Nylander from hitting posts on great slot chances due to skuffed D play or did those guys just miss? Did their D stop Matthews left all alone in the Slot multiple times or did Price? Did Price stone Matthews going fivehole on a 2 on 1 with Rielly or did the D?....jeez, this is still just game 1.....and I really shouldnt have to go through the numerous odd man rushes, the lost shots, the Hyman breakaway the Matthews posts etc. etc. etc. That should be good enough.

The reason they started playing more defensively is that they were forced to turtle. The Habs had arguably the best shutdown line in hockey rocking a 60% goal differential during the regular season but they just couldnt handle the Matthews line. The line literally got broken up after a win in game 5 it was getting owned so badly.

Habs shutdown line = 60% goal differential during the regular season.....0% against the Leafs.....60% the rest of the playoffs.

Cheerleading the dumb coaching on the Habs side didnt serve Habs management well since the playoffs and doesnt look any better when Leafs fans are doing it.

They should be doing what you should be doing. Admitting the Habs got damn lucky the Matthews line was piss poor at finishing their chances/Price went god mode. Stop building bad narratives on bad narratives.

I don’t think you read my post and I’m not gonna bother explaining it

 

[DraftSchmaft]

Well, the Bergeron/Marchand line 5v5 against the Leafs in the playoffs:

Goals for: 12
Goals Against: 11

Didn't exactly crush us but really lit us up in special teams/4 on 4 differential. Hopefully the changes made this season will give us that advantage.

I guarantee the Habs hated their top line was getting crushed (and broke it up after winning game 5). I dont think you can find a worse 7 games stretch for Danault in his career. You can take any random 7 games from the 10 games during the season against the Leafs and put together a better 7 games for the Habs top line and they lost most of those games.

As far as save% go, the Leafs have arguably the best defensive numbers over the last two playoffs so you have to take the save% with a grain of salt (and the save% takes a nosedive in more important games). I think the injury to the underrated Muzzin (easily our best playoff dman the last two years)was one of the big turning points in the series as it directly led to Sandin and Dermott being put in positions they would not usually be in to make unpressured giveaways for key goals for the Habs (that Campbell was unable to make a clutch save on). I think any top team would suffer from losing your main shutdown dman though.

A close series that shouldn't have been close as everything went against the Leafs really.

Spot on with the Bruins analysis. Leafs could have went as far as sweeping the Bruins if we had a PK that year (18/19).

 

[Its not your fault]

I'm fine with it he's in a spot that you don't want him to do what AA did to the Jays for marginal upgrades at best.

 

[Morbo]

Until they play TB, but as Kuch said, they had their Cup celebration after Game 4, lol.

that one cut to the bone, too. no comeback to that really.