Post-Game Talk: Stolarz SHUTS OUT the Habs on HNIC -> LEAFS WIN!

[Squiffy]

 

[Squiffy]

Freaking cool. Did not disappoint.

 

[Leafs98]

Get PP back though ..yikes

 

[Donnie740]

Get PP back though ..yikes

The power play was at 40% in March and 50% in February but it’s completely unrealistic to expect that level of success to continue.

Tonight the power play had incredible sustained pressure. If they have the same level of pressure throughout the playoffs the power play will put up goals.

 

[LeafEgo]

I don't disagree that McMann makes the second line stronger, however he also makes the third line better. If Patches can get back to playing well with JT and Willy, it might make more sense to do this.

I don't understand what the lineup critique is on Berube. We have our first and fourth lines in good shape and just juggling 2nd and 3rd, made more difficult by Pacioretty on IL. What are the specific complaints?

Nylander at center changes everything. He has only shown promising signs of success, but only got a few shifts.

We waited a decade to activate Rielly and create a traditional dominant first pairing and Tre got Tanev - perfect. They got a few games, played well, and never again.

Lily got one game - that was awkward.

Domi's package included the upside of working on L1 - never given the chance.

He never split the amigos. Tre has clearly been hesitant on the value we get from Marner since last offseason. We never got to see him run his own line, so unless the playoffs are unreal, we're stuck figuring out how much of a hit we can make work, as opposed to discovering if a secret sauce exists, that provides full value.

Nylander has been our most potent game breaking weapon this season, but Chief has only tried his best to slow him down. #WillyMustBeStopped

On the margins, now we're talking about McMann, but through the season there have been others, taking too long to discover the obvious. I think about what could work, and he does it three weeks later.

I'm still happy with Chief on the whole, but he is not on the same page as Tre, and not strong on personnel.

IMO

 

[Evilhomer]

The power play was at 40% in March and 50% in February but it’s completely unrealistic to expect that level of success to continue.

Tonight the power play had incredible sustained pressure. If they have the same level of pressure throughout the playoffs the power play will put up goals.

The power play will win them some playoff games. They just need to tighten their penalty killing.

 

[mix1home]

The power play was at 40% in March and 50% in February but it’s completely unrealistic to expect that level of success to continue.

Tonight the power play had incredible sustained pressure. If they have the same level of pressure throughout the playoffs the power play will put up goals.

I agree with you. They changed positions, had different looks, just muffed pucks few times and goalie stayed on his head. They did everything but scored. PP should be all right.

 

[wingman75]

Had to watch this one on delay.

LOVED the committment to defence. Every single player was all in. I don't know if in my lifetime I have seen the Leafs committed like that... can't remember at least.

Robertson had a game. Reckless abandon. Love it.

Stolarz is the game one starter. So underpaid. Thought the entire team was good.

Am still concerned with our ability to generate offence in tight games. Dobes made a couple good saves, but I feel we have to find a way to generate more.

Marner tiptoeing towards 100 while still playing an honest game..

Felt like Matthews was knocked off the puck relatively easily. Not enjoing that so much.

f*** the Habs.

 

[torontoblood]

Yes. Of course it does. I'm just a guy who watches games and cheers for them to win. I, like all fans, play no part in the team winning or loses games. When a fan shouts "We Won!" it feels like that fan is trying to take credit for something the actual people on the team did. It's disgusting.

Sports are entertaining and unite all kinds of people from all walks of life. We cheer for teams for multiple reasons:

because of hometown pride, because of external influence ( friends, community, school…we human beings are basically products of our environment) because we like their logo and color scheme, because we grew up in it as our fandom was inherited from family - our parents, uncles, grandparents- because we love their style of play, their history, or their traditions, because we desire to connect with other people in the city etc )

Fans of teams, particularly hardcore ones support their favorite teams through the best and worst of times. They enjoy the meaningful moments in real time and cherish their memories for life. They are deeply, seriously and emotionally invested in the team. It’s not just a simple hobby, a random pastime, mindless entertainment or something to kill time, but for them it’s a way of life and a core part of their personality and identity. It brings them joy and escape from the drudgery, cruelty and uncertainty/unpredictability of life. Various political and cultural shifts may change the world forever, close friends and loved ones can pass away, etc but at least despite these troubles around them, fans can always count on their favorite sports leagues and their favorite teams to provide them stability, entertainment, pleasure, consolation, reassurance and comfort in these sad and emotionally difficult times.

Sports team fandom teaches you discipline , loyalty, resilience, patience, delayed gratification, adversity, and civic pride. We vicariously live through their triumphs but we also take their defeats as our own. No bandwagon or fair-weather mentality here. We are not opportunists but loyalists. We have emotional and cultural ownership of our team. We socially and personally appropriate our team as our own. We share the collective love of our team as a social group all across the world. Our team is for made for us and made by us.

Of course in the grand scheme of things and from a rational, logical and spiritual point of view, you can argue that being a fan of a sports team is meaningless. As a fan, you don’t have a direct influence on the team results, win or lose- you don’t help the team with your own skills. And maybe There’s much More to life out there. There are more important and meaningful purposes in life. It’s just entertainment. Knowledge and understanding of politics, economy, international diplomacy, ecology is more important, these are more serious things than sports. Giving your hard earned money to corporate entities like sports teams and spending your free time to watch a random collection of athletes playing a sport just doesn’t make sense for many people.

And caring more about family and kids is obviously more important than caring about sports, movies, Netflix series, reality tv, video games, social media, etc. I understand.

But even as spectators/fans, we play a strong but underrated role in the culture around the team. We are not as insignificant and irrevelant as we think. We have a direct and powerful influence on the finances and cultural/social standing of the Leafs in the sports world. Without all their fans, their cultural relevance , their brand and their financial profits would suffer greatly. Our collective passion, enthusiasm, and knowledge for hockey and the Maple Leafs makes the city of Toronto the center of the hockey world and turns the Toronto Maple Leafs into the most followed, most profitable and most popular franchise in the league . They don’t call us Leafs Nation for nothing. We are everywhere and anywhere.

I don’t think Leafs fans are insignificant per se here but instead are the passive and junior partners of a dual, mutual and symbiotic relationship. We support the team with our money, hearts and free time ( gate attendance, buying concessions/sports merchandise/cable, watching them on tv and giving them huge ratings, our passion and interest fueling the massive and constant media coverage around the team, because of fan interest in the team etc) The players on the ice, the head coach behind the bench , the management team (the GM and his associates) upstairs and the owners with their wallet are the active and senior partners. The players play the games on the ice, the coaching staff manages the team, the amateur scouts/director of player personnel and drafting find and select young rookies in the draft, the GM and the rest of the management team builds the roster of the team and manages the salary cap, and the owners ( MLSE and now Rogers) finance the team.

Fans : passive, indirect
Players/coaches/gms/owners: active, direct

Fans of any sports team should never be taken for granted or viewed as irrelevant in my opinion.

This is a great example of a typical mutual and Symbiotic relationship. The players, team managers/coaches, team builders and team owners are more important than fans because they directly build and create entertainment but without the money, support and love from their fans, the Leafs wouldn’t exist and matter anymore. Name any sports league in the world that thrives without its fans? It’s impossible to find a single one. Any team or sports league needs other people ( media and fanbase) to be interested in their business/activities.


We are all in it together. Every one in this relationship plays its own role and has its own place.

 

[AcerComputer]

Very happy with Domi tonight. Spark the boys to a win!

 

[Donnie740]

LOVED the committment to defence. Every single player was all in. I don't know if in my lifetime I have seen the Leafs committed like that... can't remember at least.

What a massive difference from a year ago at this time.

Bozo The Keefe had them playing the sloppiest most ragged style of pond hockey imaginable trying to force-feed Matthews goal #70.

It was the most asinine display of coaching incompetence that I’ve ever seen. Not surprisingly, they were obliterated in Game 1 by an inferior Boston team.

Some Leaf “fans” were complaining about Toronto blocking so many shots - - what a dumb complaint to have - - and that’s indicative of the time wide commitment to defense.

Such a HUGE improvement having a competent professional instead of a useless hack like Bozo The Keefe.

 

[rojac]

Are you kidding or is this an actual rant ?

It's an actual rant. Why wouldn't it be?

 

[torontoblood]

Had to watch this one on delay.



Am still concerned with our ability to generate offence in tight games. Dobes made a couple good saves, but I feel we have to find a way to generate more.

How the Leafs can generate scoring chances and score goals in tight games without space and time to make plays:


By creating heavy and constant traffic around the opposing crease. By Keeping it simple and not overthinking things. By cycling the puck down low, shooting pucks at the net, Fighting for rebounds and Scoring the dirty goals.

By Controlling the play along the boards and winning the puck battles..
By being first on the puck, by using smart positioning and stickhandling, and being aware of their movements and surroundings. By being smart, proactive and Anticipating the play before it happens. By Making the right plays in the Right place at the right time. And by going hard to the net with purpose and authority. (Obviously without getting penalized for goaltending interference)

It’s proven time and time again that Rush/perimeter offense almost never works in the playoffs, simply because there’s no time and space available to forwards to create and finish perfect or fancy plays and also because in the playoffs, most of the teams in it play much better team defense than average . Come playoff time, almost every opposing team is on extreme defensive mode.

Teams that succeed in the postseason always execute High percentage plays instead of low percentage plays. Basically the Leafs, if they want to win, they have to use the old tried, tested and true methods. By being physically involved in plays, by controlling the play along the boards and winning the puck battles, by being first on the pucks, by working hard, by keeping things simple, by paying the price through sacrifice and grit, by winning the war of attrition, by scoring nasty but simple goals, our Leafs will have no problem generating offense in physically and defensive tight games. I hope they learned their lessons of past playoffs.



But one concerning problem for our team is that we unfortunately don’t have the personnel on our lumbering, unimaginative, conservative and stay at home type defense to drive the play the other way, to take risks offensively and sustain offensive possession in the opposing zone. Our defensemen are much more comfortable blocking shots and keeping opposing forwards from going near the net than moving the puck on the transition and generating offense at the other end of the ice. They don’t have the puck carrying ability that will help the forwards to maintain and sustain puck Possession and generate offense in the opposing zone. That’s the main reason why mitch marner plays the role of a Quarterback PP/offensive defenseman at the point even though his shot isn’t the hardest. Reilly used to do that but it seems that his best years are behind him. His offensive instincts, hockey sense, speed, shot and skating ability have all deteriorated significantly since last year. OEL can still do that but in limited spurts. And he’s like on our third pairing anyway. He doesn’t play as much minutes as our big 4 of Tanev, McCabe, Carlo and Rielly.

We are also slower than most people think. We’re in the middle of the pack team when it comes to speed. In the playoffs, a team needs a lot of speed to get to the puck first, to win puck battles, to create turnovers in the neutral zone and organize counter attacks, to easily score on breakaways etc.

 

[Skullz]

couple of thoughts:

Great win firstly!

I would put McMann back on the second line. Jarnkrok just isn’t good enough, and it’s not as if the third line is going all of a sudden.

I think for as poor as Benny played a month or so ago, he has been lights out the last few games. Hope he keeps it up.

Robertson should be in the playoff lineup. Has energy, finishes checks, and is a threat to score.

 

[Seras]

Huge game, huge points and a huge win against a team also starving for points.

 

[Gabriel426]

IS this the first game that Anderson didn't score on us?

 

[Divine]

I was worried this was one of the games we dominate and lose the way it was going

Glad I was wrong. Leafs clinched home ice in the first round with this win!

 

[TMLBlueandWhite]

How lucky is Montreal that Vegas said no to Cody Glass and offered up Suzuki instead.

Wouldn't it be great if the Leafs could make a predatory trade of older declining vets for young up and coming talent. Instead they make trades like this one. The only way Laughton is a difference maker is in a negative sense.

Hutson is everything Reinbacher was supposed to be.

Not bad for a second round pick. I actually wouldn't mind seeing the Habs start to be competitive again. A Toronto-Montreal rivalry could only be a good thing so far as I'm concerned.

LIke I'm really looking forward to the first round against Ottawa.

This is the most excited I've been for a playoffs series since they played Montreal. I just hope the result is different this time. I'm not betting on it though.

If they lost to a much worse Habs team they can lose to anyone.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

Leafs have the second tie breaker ROW but they’re tied with Tampa in RW which is the first tie breaker. Right now Leafs need another three points to clinch.

So wouldn't two points get it done then? Most Tampa can get is 104 points. If the Leafs finish at 104 points, we win the 2nd tie breaker and end up in first.

 

[conFABulator]

Nylander at center changes everything. He has only shown promising signs of success, but only got a few shifts.

We waited a decade to activate Rielly and create a traditional dominant first pairing and Tre got Tanev - perfect. They got a few games, played well, and never again.

Lily got one game - that was awkward.

Domi's package included the upside of working on L1 - never given the chance.

He never split the amigos. Tre has clearly been hesitant on the value we get from Marner since last offseason. We never got to see him run his own line, so unless the playoffs are unreal, we're stuck figuring out how much of a hit we can make work, as opposed to discovering if a secret sauce exists, that provides full value.

Nylander has been our most potent game breaking weapon this season, but Chief has only tried his best to slow him down. #WillyMustBeStopped

On the margins, now we're talking about McMann, but through the season there have been others, taking too long to discover the obvious. I think about what could work, and he does it three weeks later.

I'm still happy with Chief on the whole, but he is not on the same page as Tre, and not strong on personnel.

IMO

I get that you are happy with with Berube and not overly complaining. If you go back through my threads from eight months ago there was no one pushing for Willy at C more than me, or even Willy on a line with Holmberg as C. I also wanted Marner with JT and Domi with Matthews.i was all about balance and depth and I though we had some duos that were worth working around.

I could never make the TOI work though. How were we distributing the shifts in this makeup? Now, as the end of the season approaches we have the top two lines combining for about 40 minutes a night and a fourth line that earns their 8 to 10 minutes per. Which one (or two) of our three amigos are we cutting down to 10 to 12 minutes a night? As re we cutting them all down to 17ish? Even with this, they did try Willy at C for a minute and stopped...again. There is something about that experiment that doesn't work and we will never be told what it is; either Willy doesn't want it (in spite of what he says) or his defensive aware at the C position is not something we can absorb. We did see Chief hold Willy accountable for defensive lapses more than previous years, even as a winger.

Having said all of this, here we are about to win our first division title of the Matthews era, which was a stated goal. We have a top line that might be the best we have ever had, certainly in this era. Matthew had a funny year so his stats don't pop (Still at a 40 goal, 100 pt pace) but this line has to be one of the best in the league, particularly when you consider the 200 foot game, this would not be true if Domi were swapped for Marner. We have Nylander and Tavares combining for 80+ goals on L2 and we have these two lines on the ice for two-thirds of the game every night. We also have a pretty decent fourth line.

So, yes...this is about McMann. He makes the second line better and maybe we keep him there but I also think he makes the third line better and that Paccioretty, Holmberg, or Jarnkrok (even Laughton) for better on L2 than L3.

 

[pdson]

So wouldn't two points get it done then? Most Tampa can get is 104 points. If the Leafs finish at 104 points, we win the 2nd tie breaker and end up in first.

No because Tampa would have more RW which is the first tie breaker. They are tied right now. Leafs 1 more win Tampa 3 more wins. Unless Tampa were to win every game in overtime highly unlikely

 

[horner]

Leafs have been solid for a bit now. They look a little underwhelming but are getting the job done. I wouldn't be surprised if they win out the season.

Once we clinch first rest some players for the playoffs .
It's more important to be healthy going in to the playoffs.

 

[Jojalu]

I thought all of our D especially Benoit and Carlo were really good tonight

Carlo was a huge addition.

When McCabe returns the Leafs D is actually pretty great. Weord to type but true

 

[Westlander]

Not an impressive win imho - took us until overtime where 3 on 3 anything can happen - but I’ll take it.

I’m seeing a lot of dumping on MTL but I thought they played a fair road game and stopped the Leafs from getting many open looks at all. I don’t think they’re undeserving of their spot in the standings either; it’s not their fault the Rangers had such a disgraceful season.

I’m glad they didn’t clinch with a win against us though!

 

[TheBeastCoast]

No because Tampa would have more RW which is the first tie breaker. They are tied right now. Leafs 1 more win Tampa 3 more wins. Unless Tampa were to win every game in overtime highly unlikely

Yeah so there is a chance 2 points could do it. Tampa should drop a point along the way anyways and ideally we just win today and they lose and we can move onto shit posting Sens fans.