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

[Jimmy Firecracker]

 

[Superstar]

What exactly is the big picture?

That the Leafs will struggle again in the playoffs like the way they played Vancouver the last 2 games, the games against the Sens, and against Columbus last year?

 

[bossram]

He chose poorly and not the Leafs are in big trouble for it

They didn't have the availability to go bigger. Dubas accumulated a bunch of goalies with the hope one would work out, because goalies are voodoo. I'd say Campbell has been a moderate success.

 

[egd27]

Why is it every goalie has stunk the joint out this year, with the exception of Campbell for 11 games? Are we poor at goalie evaluation? Is it our team defensive structure? Fire our goalie coach. Is it our goalie coach? Fire our goalie coach? Fire our goalie coach. Do we not have players that can play 200ft game? Pure luck? Fire the goalie coach? fire the goalie coach.

I’m assuming sarcasm with the fire the goalie coach.

Goaltending used to mask a lot of problems. This year it hasn’t.

actually, you’re right.....fire the goalie coach

 

[showtime8]

Anthony Duclair, maybe Lehrner/Talbot.

Would've made some trades as well. Grubauer, Montour (from Buffalo), possibly Neiderreiter. Kept Matt Martin.

Lots of possibilities would be available.

I mean, you can make the case for 1 or 2 players, but you can always trade players in any given year.

Duclair signed a 1.7mill deal this past off-season and has 2 more points than Jason Spezza.

 

[Gallagbi]

Meh, I expect that going down the stretch we’ll see a lot of these trends continuing where Toronto will run into inexplicably hot goalies, struggle to generate on the special teams and get beat on goals with in the slot miscues topped off by a sprinkling of off the rush softies. I think we’ve seen these trends emerge at both ends of the ice and I think it’s the F and D group that is the common link.

It looks like it’s boiling down to inexplicably slow starts, playing down to the pacing of the competition, inability to generate offense by taking direct routes to the net and having defensive miscues that spring the opposition for quick counter attack and losing defensive positioning around the crease.

Truthfully it looks like we're scoring as expected for the year with a weaker than expected PP. Defensively our downfall has been poor goaltending primarily.

Goaltending we've faced on the year hasn't been particularly incredible, but we're coming off a few games that are outliers there

 

[Gabriel426]

Babcock tried this already and everyone screamed to have Mathews and Marner on the same line.

Well they were not making 10mil plus back then. There were actually real forward depth back then

 

[Cobra777]

The Leafs did dominate the 1st game against Vancouver, the only reason that they won was Holtby stood on his head, I'm not sure what happened last night.

I agree we had better chances but our offense and tic tac toe beautiful scoring plays is also off and made Holtby look better than what he is. He also has not played in over a month and before that was as bad as how our goaltenders are playing recent.

When our offence is making those beautiful crisp plays and the shooters are on we can make goalies look bad but when whiffing on pucks and rebounds not elevating the puck and passes are forced and off with our shooters missing the net or putting it into the bread basket and although still getting the most opportunities, we make the goalies look incredible. How many times this yr has everybody witnessed a second string goaler stand on his head when they play us? yes even Mr. Rittich and that is because our PP and the sharpness of passes and shooters is just off

 

[rumman]

If there was an extra $2 million available, it could be spent on getting a player that's way better than Wayne Simmonds.

It's pay to play in the NHL.

You don't get good depth players for $1.5 million or less 9 times out of 10.

This is Dubas’ fault, he thinks you can pay a majority of the cap to 4 players and surround said players with tables scraps. Can’t work, won’t work. He’s created a caste system within the team. Elites and commoners. Having two tiers of players doesn’t bode well for team cohesiveness, let alone no finical upward mobility for those worker bees.

 

[Throw More Waffles]

Because we're a top 5 offensive team on the season with below average goaltending. And the only reason we're "just" below average is because of backup and journeyman 3B have held it together.

When you step back and look at the team, the offense has done it's job minus the PP and that area takes a ton of heat. Overall were scoring about where you'd expect. Our team D has limited chances. Our goaltending has performed well below expectations.

Generally you fault the areas lacking the most

The leafs record is still great overall. They have stretches where everything is going well. They have stretches where they're slumping in some areas but being carried by others.

Then they have the low points, like these past 5 games. It's being blamed on goaltending... but as I'm showing, it's also lack of finish. It's primarily lack of finish. Many of these games have been close, and our team just can't capitalize. It's not just our goaltending.

Again, the opposing teams goalies these past 5 games (who mostly have been mediocre all season) have a .940 save percentage in that time. So it's not JUST our goaltending. In fact, I'd say it's more so our forwards lack of finish.

 

[Stephen]

Truthfully it looks like we're scoring as expected for the year with a weaker than expected PP. Defensively our downfall has been poor goaltending primarily.

Goaltending we've faced on the year hasn't been particularly incredible, but we're coming off a few games that are outliers there

One thing I really want to see more of us quick cross ice passing that can exploit seams as teams over play the puck carrier. Borrowing from a basketball term the spacing can be a lot better. Just want to compare and contrast a lot of those Avalanche or even Oiler PP goals where a hard cross ice pass is finished off with a one timer into an open net. We don’t get a lot of that due to being so slow with puck distribution.

 

[Gallagbi]

One thing I really want to see more of us quick cross ice passing that can exploit seams as teams over play the puck carrier. Borrowing from a basketball term the spacing can be a lot better. Just want to compare and contrast a lot of those Avalanche or even Oiler PP goals where a hard cross ice pass is finished off with a one timer into an open net. We don’t get a lot of that due to being so slow with puck distribution.

It's also not a strength of Mitch's or Rielly and they handle the majority of the puck. Willy, Tavares and Matthews are better going over sticks and hard through lanes. The additional movement and high/low should support in opening things up and overall it looked much better the last few PPs

 

[Gallagbi]

The leafs record is still great overall. They have stretches where everything is going well. They have stretches where they're slumping in some areas but being carried by others.

Then they have the low points, like these past 5 games. It's being blamed on goaltending... but as I'm showing, it's also lack of finish. It's primarily lack of finish. Many of these games have been close, and our team just can't capitalize. It's not just our goaltending.

Again, the opposing teams goalies these past 5 games (who mostly have been mediocre all season) have a .940 save percentage in that time. So it's not JUST our goaltending. In fact, I'd say it's more so our forwards lack of finish.

Average goaltending wins the last two games. Average offense doesn't based on the play we faced.

Last night we scored 3 goals, allowed 5 against our goalie. Based on the quality of chances, you could argue we should have potted 4 ; quality of shots against and it's likely a 1-2 GA game.

 

[hoglund]

The leafs record is still great overall. They have stretches where everything is going well. They have stretches where they're slumping in some areas but being carried by others.

Then they have the low points, like these past 5 games. It's being blamed on goaltending... but as I'm showing, it's also lack of finish. It's primarily lack of finish. Many of these games have been close, and our team just can't capitalize. It's not just our goaltending.

Again, the opposing teams goalies these past 5 games (who mostly have been mediocre all season) have a .940 save percentage in that time. So it's not JUST our goaltending. In fact, I'd say it's more so our forwards lack of finish.

I can't comment on last night's game because I didn't see it, but the 1st game against Vancouver I thought the Leafs were over passing especially on the power play.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

It's also not a strength of Mitch's or Rielly and they handle the majority of the puck. Willy, Tavares and Matthews are better going over sticks and hard through lanes. The additional movement and high/low should support in opening things up and overall it looked much better the last few PPs

Marner is the guy who would be doing most of the cross seams. Rielly seems to just be a guy who facilitates the puck to the flanks and opens up lanes by moving up top, and that seems to be by design. IDK why we don't try to incorporate our points more, especially when you have a high end PP QB option in Rielly there, but you can probably get Martin Marincin to do what Rielly/Muzzin/Brodie/any other point guy on our PP is doing right now.

 

[baton elevated]

Offense basically comes off of motion and offensive rushes. This team is not skating efficiently anymore. Just being in the offensive zone and passing it around doesn't cut it.
The way the game needs to be played is like the 3 game domination of the Oilers. That is text book hockey. This team doesnt get up for anybody but the Oilers unfortunately.

 

[Gallagbi]

Marner is the guy who would be doing most of the cross seams. Rielly seems to just be a guy who facilitates the puck to the flanks and opens up lanes by moving up top, and that seems to be by design. IDK why we don't try to incorporate our points more, especially when you have a high end PP QB option in Rielly there, but you can probably get Martin Marincin to do what Rielly/Muzzin/Brodie/any other point guy on our PP is doing right now.

They're too high to use Rielly effectively right now IMO

 

[Darch]

I'm good with the 2 loses to the Canucks. Makes the Habs fans stress a bit more.

 

[baton elevated]

The points are ineffective because defending teams are like mad dogs attacking the puck. They barely have time to pass it off quickly let alone set a play up. They are clogging themselves up in front of the net and there are no shooting lanes. We need howitzers to s are the defense off. There is no fear from defenses with our muffin shooters.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

They're too high to use Rielly effectively right now IMO

100% agree, and I have been saying so for weeks now. IDK why anyone thinks Marner and Matthews are dangerous hanging around the blueline when teams are super aggressive against us right now. If they are passive, work it up high. If they are aggressive, move down low. Depending on how the PK is playing you, adjust accordingly.

Even simpler than that, move it into the dangerous areas where the PKers are not and do it quickly to open up that space for yourself.

We really need to get Rielly more involved though. I have seen him take a couple of shots from the point on the PP and they are getting through and causing nice second chance opportunities for our guys out front (Tavares and Nylander). Even once or twice when it didn't get all the way through (it was blocked in the low slot, which happens when there is traffic), Tavares was able to still get a nice chance off of the scramble. So it gets Tavares involved a lot more often than it did previously, and Tavares is a hot hand right now, and it makes teams at least respect Rielly... Who is a serious threat on the PP if you let him be a serious threat on the PP.

That also means teams have to take their attention off of Marner and Matthews, who are your real threats, and Nylander can be a mirrored version of Rielly down low (except he goes for tight shots and goal line passes to the slot instead of shots for tips and facilitating the flanks from the point) to just create even more complication.

 

[Racer88]

They didn't have the availability to go bigger. Dubas accumulated a bunch of goalies with the hope one would work out, because goalies are voodoo. I'd say Campbell has been a moderate success.

I guess it depends on what Campbell really is. Is he the goalie that as a 29 years old has not proven to be an NHL caliber tender but just has a Cinderella run for a few games. Or his he the poor goalie that he has shown the last handful of games.

 

[bossram]

I guess it depends on what Campbell really is. Is he the goalie that as a 29 years old has not proven to be an NHL caliber tender but just has a Cinderella run for a few games. Or his he the poor goalie that he has shown the last handful of games.

The answer is clearly...neither. He's in between.

He's at a .917 for his career. I think (and hope) he can keep doing that going forward.

 

[Bluelines]

I’m assuming sarcasm with the fire the goalie coach.

Goaltending used to mask a lot of problems. This year it hasn’t.

actually, you’re right.....fire the goalie coach

LOL. no, kidding, I don't want anyone to lose their job.. fire the goalie coach.

 

[JayfromNB1219]

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

Lmao really? The amount of stupid hot takes on here and dangle is your issue lmao
I watch him for what he is...entertainment

 

[Confucius]

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

ahh No! lol! I like the guy, another true fan, much like Bowen.