Post-Game Talk: We Lost. Again. 52 Shots For. Small Building Steps. Can't Complain

[Gary Batman]

Habs fan here. Just wanted to say the Leafs played awesome tonight. Montreal looked winded (Burnt out) and felt like the leafs were on the PP for 40 mins.
I know the loss sucks for you, but damn the leafs earned my respect tonight. Please play with that tenacity for the rest of the season and we'll see you in the playoffs!

Hello Mr. Craig Simpson.

 

[Nithoniniel]

if not for superior goaltending the Leafs win both games against the Habs this season.

Sure. But at the same time:

* Price did screw up a few times. We couldn't capitalize.
* We did score three, after all.
* Bernier wasn't sharp.
* Our defense had really bad blackouts that lead to a lot of high quality chances.

If we could have limited their cross-crease, odd man rushes and Subban point blank execution style shooting opportunities, we might not need more than 3. With a Bernier playing better on top of that, and 3 would easily be enough.

 

[showtime8]

Habs fan here. Just wanted to say the Leafs played awesome tonight. Montreal looked winded (Burnt out) and felt like the leafs were on the PP for 40 mins.
I know the loss sucks for you, but damn the leafs earned my respect tonight. Please play with that tenacity for the rest of the season and we'll see you in the playoffs!

Thanks for the compliment.

We'll take a raincheck on the playoffs this year and next year. But in like say 4 or 5 years, we'll see you there!

 

[Cor]

And throwing in a free 4th.

And retaining salary.

Good god.

Pretty sure the Blues aren't happy with Gunnar either.

But yeah, the free pick is kinda a piss off

 

[dballislife2]

loov and percy cant be worse than polak and marincin right now

 

[Gary Batman]

so over/under when we win our first legitimate road win?

ie: we don't break both goalies and have to force the goalie coach almost to come in or the starting goalie doesn't go "i have no confidence in myself"?

2 wins in almost a calendar year.

I think this year is already wasted. We need to go for the kill and get a big fat zero for 2016. Gotta make records that noone can come close to.

 

[FlareKnight]

so over/under when we win our first legitimate road win?

ie: we don't break both goalies and have to force the goalie coach almost to come in or the starting goalie doesn't go "i have no confidence in myself"?

2 wins in almost a calendar year.

Haha well...such is how it goes.

In the end that kind of shocking statement has its benefits for our future so I'm ok with it.

So long as we play hard we can lose every game on the calendar and I won't mind.

 

[hamzarocks]

loov and percy cant be worse than polak and marincin right now

they will be much better, look at harrington i would rate him the worst of the 3 and he is starting to get comfortable, had a great game tonight, all 3 should be on the team this year and can be a big part of the future here

 

[Demon Wolf]

You were better than us tonight, Habs looked out of gas. See ya next time.

 

[rdogg]

I remember when the Leafs were winning these games! and I don't look back on those moments fondly.

 

[Pyromaniac3]

The PK strategy seriously needs to change. PK has looked awful so far.

We are really good 5v5 team. Our special teams just sucks.

 

[hamzarocks]

I remember when the Leafs were winning these games! and I don't look back on those moments fondly.

yes but we were the habs during those games and the habs were us in terms of shots and chances being generated

 

[ULF_55]

Pretty sure the Blues aren't happy with Gunnar either.

But yeah, the free pick is kinda a piss off

You wouldn't take a 2nd. pairing defenseman for a 3rd. pairing defenseman?

 

[mikebel111*]

I have liked JVR so far

Good game by Leafs. Just not enough talent. Also Habs are terrible. They are being saved by Price again.

Kadri, and Rielly are the future

 

[CanadiensforLife]

if not for superior goaltending the Leafs win both games against the Habs this season.

"Ifs" are not actual reality, just wishful thinking.

 

[Daisy Jane]

If the Leafs had Gunnar, chances are we'd be trading him anyways. and I don't think (I'm not paying that much attention to the Blues so I could be wrong) Gunnar is playing all inspired hockey.

stop lamenting over so so players.

 

[Mitchy]

Another tank victory. As a bonus, Arizona also won.

Some takeaways:

- Terrific game from Rielly
- Good games from Kadri, JVR, Komarov, Boyes and Harrington. Lupul was decent too.
- Polak was as bad as it gets
- Sub par game from Bernier
- We heavily outplayed Montreal at even strength. We gave them too many PPs and odd man rushes, though.
- Price isn't human

 

[Budsfan]

That was a great game and we out shot them but they got timely goals and great goal tending but they knew they were in a game tonight and we were not a push over, for sure.

 

[Gary Batman]

Out of town scoreboard alert: Columbus is leading the game vs Colorado in 1st intermission.

 

[Nithoniniel]

harrington just needs to get faster and working on skating...once that improves he'll be a solid 3rd pairing stay at home D

I think he's performing at that level or better already. Really like his decision-making in all three zones as well. I'd rather say that if he improves his skating some more, he could be a #4 kind of guy.

Very good effort. I know they lost, but I haven't really felt ripped off by their effort yet this year. Just a couple of bad plays turned out to be the difference.

Marincin and Polak were awful. Screw you Dave Nonis for giving Gunnar away.

Man, I've defended both Marincin and Polak before. Martin is just completely out of sorts. His best sides have suddenly turned to weakness, he can't handle the puck, he tries too hard to find good plays that he forces them. He needs to sit.

Polak has never been a great 5-on-5 player but this year he's awful. Doesn't matter how good he is on the PK, if he plays like this he needs to go. Might be that the system doesn't fit him very well?

I don't really care about Gunnar to be honest. He's the better D-man, but not enough that it really matters.

Rielly was the best player from start to finish and the best Leaf tonight.
Strongest game yet.

He was absolutely awesome tonight.

 

[hockeyes]

I'm not sure there was is a better way to lose a game than this.

Montreal is not good at all, they better hope Price doesn't get hurt or their wheels will fall off very fast.

Kadri drawing penalties again tonight, he should mentor Dion in this area.

Bernier has to learn to make a save while "cold", it's going to kill his career if he doesn't. Nobody will give him anything besides a backup roll if he can't sort that aspect out.

Weise has the most punchable face of all time, I can see why Dion couldn't help himself.

 

[htpwn]

Another solid effort.

Hard not to like what Babcock is doing with the club thus far. Maybe too good, if this losing tapers off and we end up finishing out of the bottom three.

 

[Gary Batman]

If the Leafs had Gunnar, chances are we'd be trading him anyways. and I don't think (I'm not paying that much attention to the Blues so I could be wrong) Gunnar is playing all inspired hockey.

stop lamenting over so so players.

DJ, Honestly I dont think anyone is missing Gunnar. But just pointing out the fact that Nonis traded for a worse player and even threw in a pick to boot.

 

[Mess]

Pretty sure the Blues aren't happy with Gunnar either.

But yeah, the free pick is kinda a piss off

Gunnarsson leads all Blues Dmen in scoring.

He would be tied for 1st on the Leafs team in scoring.

Blues play Gunnar in their top 4 and are very happy, while Polak is more of a Lumberjack then a hockey player.

 

[Daisy Jane]

I agree with hayes -
Dion took a dumb penalty, and he didn't really "do" anything. he just hit him and Dion-smouldered at him. (and this goes back to what Babcock says that the ultimate thing was winning. let the clock/situation dictate your response). dumb penalty, powerplay goal, game over. take a number and pummel him later.

this isnt' taking away from his overall play - which has been good, but that was a selfish dumb dumb move.