Post-Game Talk: Utterly Rittich-ulous Leafs Lose 6-3

[The Hanging Jowl]

well look at the last 4 seasons 1st round exits, the book is out on this team, clogg the middle, trap and tenaciously forcheck and get on our defense. I dunno am I the only one seeing all the turnovers, hurried bad passes and decisions with the puck and no flow to our game when teams play us this way? Certain players trying to stickhandle around 2 or three guys coughing up pucks, Reilly playing poorly along with Muzzin and Holl while Bogo and Dermott being our stalwart pair making the least boneheaded plays. This team being far too easy to play against and see a big 0 tenacity or battle from our guys and a couple old guys with former glory of being able to play heavy hockey and age and injuries have nullified them. I could go on to so many more points but its just not worth the type. This team played 3 exeptional games against Edmonton in that 3 game series where everyone battled, finished checks top to bottom, speed and passing top notch with high caliber creativity with the puck, Edmonton didn't know what hit them and I have not seen that effort since from each player, this team while in 1st never fires on all cylinders it always a line here or there or certain players rise on different games. This core lost to a freakin Zamboni driver and lost twice to a team that has not played or exercised for over a month what else do you want me to say

Nope, I've posted the same thing a few times now. It's definitely the game plan against this team.

 

[Racer88]

What a mess this team is. How does Dubas or any of the coaches still have their jobs.

 

[Racer88]

Poorly constructed team, no balance, no depth, no goal tending........Dubas you are have made them the laughing stock of the league.........but wait Foligno will come in and fix everything

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

And 3 of the top 10 salaries in the league and only one in Top 10,

*2 in the top 5 actually. Just sayin'.

 

[Racer88]

I wonder how Lou’s team is doing?

 

[JayfromNB1219]

Well I turned it off when amber dove into the George Floyd thing in the pregame sounds like I missed another ugly one

 

[dubplatepressure]

Definitely. The thing to note is that our defense has remained consistent up until this last little stretch.

(Note: At all strengths)
March 4th- March 19th (start of that brutal Andersen losing streak until Andersen was hurt):
5th in xGA. 29th in save percentage.

March 19th - April 10th (Campbell's hot stretch):
3rd in xGA. 3rd in save percentage.

April 10th - Present:
21st in xGA. 30th in save percentage.

I think Muzzin-Holl have had a consistently rough go of it the past week or two, which is contributing somewhat, but poor rebound control and positioning has also been a major issue in both of those metrics.

Interesting - yes Holl particularly looks like he's struggling. I wonder how strongly correlated xGA and SVP are.

 

[BoredBrandonPridham]

Before the game:



The responses:









What now boys?

View attachment 424819

So proud you made a 48% chance call On to the next game.

 

[Torontonian]

I love the hot takes, as if we got dominated and didn't stand a chance last night. Now our team is full of losers and no depth etc.. Our coach literately called out the reason why we lost tonight.

.839 save percentage in the past 6 games.. How do you expect to win any hockey games when you can't get a save.

 

[Racer88]

I love the hot takes, as if we got dominated and didn't stand a chance last night. Now our team is full of losers and no depth etc.. Our coach literately called out the reason why we lost tonight.

.839 save percentage in the past 6 games.. How do you expect to win any hockey games when you can't get a save.

That’s all on Dubas

 

[hoglund]

I missed last night's game because of work so I can't give an informed opinion, looking at the shots on net and other stats it would appear that the Leafs had the slight edge and the goaltending issue has come back. It looks like they have a good enough team to win with the core, but they still need a goalie. I'd like to hear objective, rational and informed opinions of last night's game.

 

[Torontonian]

That’s all on Dubas

Agreed. I also would expect out of the 3 goalies Andersen, Campbell (although hes been good up until the last 4 starts) and Rittch one of them could put up .905/910 numbers. The team has shown when it gets average or above average goaltending, they win games. You can argue Rittch might have been the wrong guy to go after at deadline, but under the circumstances of the world right now it looks like they wanted to not have a goalie sit around for a week under quarentine.

When we lost 6 of 7 earlier in the season, Freddy was putting up .870ish goaltending and now in this losing streak were getting .840 goaltending.

 

[Bluelines]

4 goal difference between winning and loosing is not a small sample size. Only a low iq assessment blames a player like Marner with 5 shots on net for losing. More likely you should be angry at how poorly you were taught basic logic let alone statistics

Most of those shots were Muffins. The team as a whole was poor not just Mitch. Their mind is not ready to play at puck drop.

 

[Bluelines]

So Keefe willing to call out the backups, which is nice, but Andersen is bad all season and not a peep.

Babcock was the same way, do the sport psychologist just tell them this guy can't handle criticism. Or maybe he's just 6'5 and scary in person?

There is that injury Andy had been paying with all season but yeah lets call out Andersen for playing hurt.

 

[Bluelines]

Why is it every goalie we get in Toronto seems to go to shit?

Steve? Any answers?

 

[BertCorbeau]

Glad I went to bed after the second period.

The team looks like it’s falling apart post deadline.

 

[Notsince67]

Most of those shots were Muffins. The team as a whole was poor not just Mitch. Their mind is not ready to play at puck drop.

6 goals on 28 shots points to one main problem. All other considerations are akin to blaming a riot on a parking ticket.

 

[Bluelines]

6 goals on 28 shots points to one main problem. All other considerations are akin to blaming a riot on a parking ticket.

I think 2 of the goals were 100% the goalies fault, puck went right through him. I don't recall the others, I turned the TV off after the 5th goal. Lots of blame to go around for that stinker. When you have AM, MM, JT and WN in the line up you should not get outscored and outplayed as bad as we did, yeah we outshot them but the stats are kind to us. Really we are missing just Hyman, that was for the most part our playoff lineup, minus Big save Dave.

 

[janesy12]

.839 save % in the last 6 games. I get there are some issues (for example Simmonds and Thornton do not deserve to be in the lineup, but will never be scratched).

PP is also a disaster (no coincidence both of those players are playing on the PP).

However, I'm not sure you can look at these losses and not blame goaltending. Campbell & Rittich have both been abysmal. Meanwhile at the other end of the ice goalies are winning games.

Against MTL: Allen .920% Campbell .875%

Against CGY: Markstrom .923% Rittich .893%

Against WPG: Hellebuyck .939% Campbell /Rittich combined .826%

Against VAN: Holtby .949% Campbell .875%

Against VAN: Holtby .925% Rittich .821%

The league-wide save % is .908. In literally EVERY game, the opposing goaltender has been far better than average, and our goaltenders have been far worse than average.
This team does have some issues, but man our goaltenders are nearly letting a goal in on every 5 shots.

 

[hoglund]

Most of those shots were Muffins. The team as a whole was poor not just Mitch. Their mind is not ready to play at puck drop.

I didn't see the game and saw the shot differential and thought that the Leafs was probably the better team and with a combination of our poor goaltending and their hot goaltending we lost. You're saying that their shots were low quality and they didn't look ready to play?

 

[Gary Nylund]

Glad I went to bed after the second period.

The team looks like it’s falling apart post deadline.

I was thinking about doing the same but unfortunately stayed up to watch, yuck.

I said it way before the TDL, as long as our goaltending is a huge question mark, there is zero point in spending futures on skaters. When we traded for Foligno (not to mention the other lesser deals) I assumed Dubas had confidence in our goalie situation. I can't say this last stretch has done much for my confidence in Dubas, I wish I could say it wasn't so.

 

[dubplatepressure]

Agreed. I also would expect out of the 3 goalies Andersen, Campbell (although hes been good up until the last 4 starts) and Rittch one of them could put up .905/910 numbers. The team has shown when it gets average or above average goaltending, they win games. You can argue Rittch might have been the wrong guy to go after at deadline, but under the circumstances of the world right now it looks like they wanted to not have a goalie sit around for a week under quarentine.

When we lost 6 of 7 earlier in the season, Freddy was putting up .870ish goaltending and now in this losing streak were getting .840 goaltending.

I really dont understand the notion that it's "all on Dubas". Campbell's a .917 in his career, Rittich is a .907, Hutch is a .906, and Andy's a .906.

So, doesn't it seem reasonable to assume that acquired players would play to their career average? And if they don't over a short period of time, how is that the GM's fault? Seems like that should be more coaching and player focused.

 

[BertCorbeau]

I didn't see the game and saw the shot differential and thought that the Leafs was probably the better team and with a combination of our poor goaltending and their hot goaltending we lost. You're saying that their shots were low quality and they didn't look ready to play?

Through the first two periods Vancouver really clogged up the neutral zone and the middle of the ice, making it tough for the Leafs to gain the zone or get a lot of quality chances. They still had some, no doubt, but it's far from the control we've seen outside of this slump.

The Tavares line was the most consistent in their zone. The Matthews' line struggled but they did get some off the rush type chances.

TBH this looked like how teams will play the Leafs' in the playoffs and that's a bad thing if they can't break through that type of defense.

 

[Cappuccino]

With Florida arriving, the Sens only getting better and the odds are Buffalo will eventually figure things out, the Leafs can’t afford to have this kind of goaltending next season.

In this years playoffs it looks like Andy needs to be at his best.

 

[hoglund]

Through the first two periods Vancouver really clogged up the neutral zone and the middle of the ice, making it tough for the Leafs to gain the zone or get a lot of quality chances. They still had some, no doubt, but it's far from the control we've seen outside of this slump.

The Tavares line was the most consistent in their zone. The Matthews' line struggled but they did get some off the rush type chances.

TBH this looked like how teams will play the Leafs' in the playoffs and that's a bad thing if they can't break through that type of defense.

So they didn't play well and goaltending wasn't the only issue, that's concerning. I hope that they can bounce back and get out of this slump.