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

[Fogelhund]

I dunno, an NHL coach should be furious at losing due to crazily soft goals, especially when the skaters did enough to earn at least a point. Going public is a not-so-veiled threat of fix-it-or-else to Rittich. Probably quite appropriate for this situation.

Imagine Tortorella if this was his post game interview

He was brought in to be better than Hutch. He hasn't been better than Hutch for us, and if he sucks one more time, he'll sit the rest of the way, and Hutch will get those starts. It's pretty simple.

 

[Stephen]

We've seen it the past 3 years now, the Leafs come flying out of the gate and then struggle as teams start tightening up entering the playoffs.

You know what, culturally speaking the fast starts and hard fades have been a characteristic of the Leafs since the 2011-12 season. I remember being abroad for work the year Kessel came out with his 80+ point breakout and the Leafs were buzzing in October and November and what an amazing feeling it was to wake up on Sunday mornings and hear them rolling and Kessel blasting off for 2 G 1 A and Lupul flying etc. That was the first of the 18 wheelers.

I think the nature of offensively oriented teams that have the swagger and mentality to out scoring their problems will often run into problems when they get wrestled down to the matt and have to win ugly or play 60 minutes of detailed hockey against another team that has a more coherent game plan and detail.

 

[MSZ]

You know what, culturally speaking the fast starts and hard fades have been a characteristic of the Leafs since the 2011-12 season. I remember being abroad for work the year Kessel came out with his 80+ point breakout and the Leafs were buzzing in October and November and what an amazing feeling it was to wake up on Sunday mornings and hear them rolling and Kessel blasting off for 2 G 1 A and Lupul flying etc. That was the first of the 18 wheelers.

I think the nature of offensively oriented teams that have the swagger and mentality to out scoring their problems will often run into problems when they get wrestled down to the matt and have to win ugly or play 60 minutes of detailed hockey against another team that has a more coherent game plan and detail.

That mentality eventually led them to the game 7 meltdown in the 3rd period.

 

[Mess]

You know what, culturally speaking the fast starts and hard fades have been a characteristic of the Leafs since the 2011-12 season. I remember being abroad for work the year Kessel came out with his 80+ point breakout and the Leafs were buzzing in October and November and what an amazing feeling it was to wake up on Sunday mornings and hear them rolling and Kessel blasting off for 2 G 1 A and Lupul flying etc. That was the first of the 18 wheelers.

I think the nature of offensively oriented teams that have the swagger and mentality to out scoring their problems will often run into problems when they get wrestled down to the matt and have to win ugly or play 60 minutes of detailed hockey against another team that has a more coherent game plan and detail.

At the beginning of seasons the offense is ahead of the defense, but as the season progresses serious contenders get stronger structurally, and then its "Defense that wins Championships".

Your goalie and his performance is at the heart of that belief that success comes from the Goalie Out, through strong defense and not the high scoring forward talent In.

No better example than last years CBJ play-in series where Leafs and their #3 vaulted offense got shutout and shutdown regularly, and toppled by a team with limited offense but a strong defense and strong netminding.

 

[egd27]

IMO the Leafs need to go back to Galchenyuk on Tavares line and eventually have either Foligno or Hyman on the first. Even going back to the Ottawa game, I don't really think Galchenyuk has shown much chemistry with Matthews and seemed to look a lot better with JT.

Marner only looks for AM34, not much point of anyone other than a puck hound on that line.

 

[egd27]

I dunno, an NHL coach should be furious at losing due to crazily soft goals, especially when the skaters did enough to earn at least a point. Going public is a not-so-veiled threat of fix-it-or-else to Rittich. Probably quite appropriate for this situation.

Imagine Tortorella if this was his post game interview

Here's a somewhat hot take:

Keefe is in over his head and doesn't know what to do.

 

[therealkoho]

As soon as Foligno and Hutton get here Keefe might really want to talk to Dubas about getting Sabourin in and Engvall right off the team. The signing was a mistake ok fine. If i have to suffer watching that Thing play another game for the Leafs i will not enjoy games as much.
Complete uninspired useless tool. A huge part of why our bottom Six is doing nothing. He gives up on every puck weakly and everything is so light in in his dance of hockey. He just kills every play,hides behind the net when his mate has the puck looking for someone in front.
Trash this f*** out of this organization. I just cant stomach watching that waste of skin any longer. There were many other no darn good tonight but this guy seems to just make my skin crawl. Not end of rant. If he was a dog he’d suck on a bone not chew it

Sabourin (undisclosed) was placed on injured reserve Tuesday, retroactive to April 13, per PuckPedia.

 

[Stephen]

At the beginning of seasons the offense is ahead of the defense, but as the season progresses serious contenders get stronger structurally, and then its "Defense that wins Championships".

Your goalie and his performance is at the heart of that belief that success comes from the Goalie Out, through strong defense and not the high scoring forward talent In.

No better example than last years CBJ play-in series where Leafs and their #3 vaulted offense got shutout and shutdown regularly, and toppled by a team with limited offense but a strong defense and strong netminding.

The NHL playoff format is geared towards disruption. It’s ironic how the Dubas and Keefe talking points vs Columbus were always geared on playing a skill game and yet the game was exclusively played on Columbus’ terms. The premise of simply outskilling the opposition is a flawed one because a less skilled team can fall back on other tactics to ruin yours. If you don’t have those extra defensive gears, hunger to dominate and details, you don’t have much.

 

[Clark4Ever]

Surprised Keefe came out and isolated the goaltending in the loss when the team didn’t really look good for a lot of the game. Made sure to pump up the team, Jack Campbell and isolated the new guy Save Rittich. So much of the loss was indeed on Rittich but seems like a dubious strategy to alienate the brand new guy and insurance policy if Campbell can’t get going.

In fairness to Keefe, there was really no way to sugar coat that performance by Rittich, and Rittich would be the first guy to acknowledge it.

He singlehandedly cost us that game.

Hopefully he'll shake it off.

 

[therealkoho]

Tell me it’s 4/20 without telling me it’s 4/20

that was Leafs haiku the extended version!

 

[hoglund]

There's a contradiction there.

Do you mean grammatically, figuratively or literally?

 

[rumman]

I am telling you guys. If we lose in the 1st round, Dubas and Shanny really need to consider the retooling option.

This team just doesn't have it.

you mean ownership needs to retool management..............

 

[therealkoho]

Foligno is done too. Just as done as Simmonds. Good comparison actually.

weird question, but why is Foligno done?

 

[rdogg]

I'm not willing to say they have no chance in the playoffs. They are like 2 weeks removed from a 10-game unbeaten streak (and that was with a PP that provided zero help).

Every playoff series has its own narrative. Anything can happen, no matter how well or how poorly they are playing going in.

You're right. Anything can happen in a playoff series. But usually it's not a good sign for a team when they back into the playoffs

 

[therealkoho]

Exactly what grit that Dubas acquired at the TDL played last night. You can't mean 33. If Dubas makes moves based on what the fans want he should be fired immediately. Me thinks it is more likely he listened to his boss.

because the Boss obviously listens to what the fans demand

 

[therealkoho]

Just like Holtby did, and Ottawa's goalies have and in the play in's both Columbus' backups were lights out. You know it can't be us tho, Vezina backups all of them.

ahhh think of the days when the Sens were an unstoppable scoring machine with Patty Lalime in net and the Leafs breaking their hearts with regularity in the playoffs

 

[Czechboy]

Oiler and Czech fan.. what is the Leaf record after absolutely demolishing us 3 straight with 3 different goalies? That was such a dominant asskicking and I feel like Leaf's have been struggling since but don't follow it closely enough.

Also, poor Rittich.. I was hoping he'd go to the World's for us after Flames didn't make playoffs now all Im seeing is tweets of commentators laughing at him after allowing some of the worst goals of the season. Send him back to the Flames!lol

 

[keonsbitterness]

In the light of the next day, I choose to believe our recent goaltending was an anomaly, our scoring will rebound to match our scoring chances, and that Vancouver came out of their Covid crisis inspired rather than, as we expected, going through the motions.

But if the Winnipeg games are more of the same, we're in deep doo-doo.

 

[therealkoho]

Can we agree to make this a "Dangle Free" zone? The mere sight of that obnoxious moron makes my skin crawl....

he has a face made for punching

 

[Bluelines]

Here's a somewhat hot take:

Keefe is in over his head and doesn't know what to do.

That thought did flash in my head after Torts completely schooled him last year

 

[TheDoldrums]

We've seen it the past 3 years now, the Leafs come flying out of the gate and then struggle as teams start tightening up entering the playoffs.

Thats not at all what's happening lol.

*Rittich lets in a shot that was going to miss the net*

Boy these teams sure are tightening up!!!

 

[ViewsFromThe6ix]

We've seen it the past 3 years now, the Leafs come flying out of the gate and then struggle as teams start tightening up entering the playoffs.

I hate stupid posts like this because they're 100% narrative driven and not in any way based in reality. The Leafs are generating more chances than they did earlier in the season, they just aren't wining the games.

 

[Not My Tempo]

On a side note, I hope fans really start to see just how important Willy is.

He’s assisted on both PP goals these last two games, and the second goal was scored because he’s a terrific net front guy. Players like Simmonds might be decent at screening goalies and banging home rebounds, but the inability to rotate and make plays down low effective makes them useless on the PP.

When Vancouver was clogging up the NZ, Willy was the only player we had who consistently was able to transition through it.

There are definitely times where I wish Nylander showed the same “heart” as guys like Marner and Rielly, but watching last night, I kinda wished the other guys had Nylander’s calm mind.


Also really really glad that Tavares and Willy are piling on the points now. It’s almost like they were playing well during the year and just Really unlucky with their shots.

 

[ViewsFromThe6ix]

Thats not at all what's happening lol.

*Rittich lets in a shot that was going to miss the net*

Boy these teams sure are tightening up!!!

The sooner you figure out how stupid hockey fans are, the better. The narratives are all driven by wins/losses and not how the team actually plays.

 

[showtime8]

Here's a somewhat hot take:

Keefe is in over his head and doesn't know what to do.

Why do you think that?

The old adage of, show me a good goaltender and I'll show you a good coach rings true. With the current roster structure, what major changes would you make?