Post-Game Talk: Woll/Devils 5 plus EN, Leafs 3

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""

Keefe on if this type of game was a one-off?"Well, it has happened a lot for our group over the years. And I'm talking about the experienced people. And that came back tonight. And I thought the game invited it. It's 25 shots, everybody's feeling great, you got lots of puck touches, you think it's going to happen again, and you're going to stay with it. I don't know if anybody's ever got 75 shots in a game before. I don't think it happens. Usually things adjust and the opposition pushes back. The game kind of tidies up a little bit. But I just thought we got incredibly sloppy, careless, and that's disappointing. But to your point, that hasn't been us. We haven't played that way for quite some time. So I thought our guys got a little too excited, a little too carried away. And we'll tighten that back up real quick."


I don't agree with Keefe here.... we've been sloppy, careless so many times this year. Even games we win.

We were good offensively, crap everywhere else. Careless with the puck, leading to breakaways and odd man rushes, careless in the D zone... just a terrible game, except for offensive play.


I think in terms of "Team Stats"

- GF per game Leafs are 3rd in the League
- Shots taken per game Leafs are 7th in the League

- GA per game Leafs are 19th in the League
- Shots against per game Leafs are again middle of the pack with 17th rank in the League

Leafs PK has been absolute trash with 26th rank in the league


Leafs need to improve their shots against as a 5 man unit; that will automatically improve the goals against metric. And then they gotta figure out their PK with only 10 games left to go.

All data from the following link:
 
For the W.
I respect that he spoke the truth about the game.

That's all I have to say about that.
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I think in terms of "Team Stats"

- GF per game Leafs are 3rd in the League
- Shots taken per game Leafs are 7th in the League

- GA per game Leafs are 19th in the League
- Shots against per game Leafs are again middle of the pack with 17th rank in the League

Leafs PK has been absolute trash with 26th rank in the league


Leafs need to improve their shots against as a 5 man unit; that will automatically improve the goals against metric. And then they gotta figure out their PK with only 10 games left to go.

All data from the following link:
It's not just the shots against, but the high quality shots given up. The odd man rushes, the breakaways... the lost players in the D zone, the sloppy passes... it's the attention to detail. We even give up odd man rushes regularly on the PP.
 
I'm not particularly bothered by this game, over any other. What we saw tonight, is something that we've seen over, and over throughout the years. Even in games where we are winning big... there is always that feeling, that we are going to become undisciplined, stop trying, or play sloppy D and lose the lead. I'm passionate about the Leafs, but at the end of the day this is entertainment, and if they lose early in the playoffs, I'll be outside enjoying the weather.

But even with all those players you've listed back, there are times we play like this... and if they ever want any success in the playoffs, you just can't take nights off. Maybe they'll surprise us in the playoffs... but probably not.

IMO it will always come down to the "leaders in the locker room". They've gotta be dialed in. If they are doing all the little things well; other will automatically follow -> especially the young ones. As they will not try to cheat for offense (forwards) and the D-man will not try to make cutezy passes (Lily/Timmins).

We need the vet guys to up their game. Like Matthews said "its on us". I think this is the first time I've ever heard Matthews take some responsibility for their play.

Last season he had said "balls to the wall" before the playoffs so that got us 1 round win. May be taking responsibility will get us 2 round wins or better.... ;)
 
""

""

Keefe's reaction to Matthews and Nylander also voicing their displeasure in their game tonight: "They got to be the example. John Tavares has been the example for us. He's been outstanding for us for a long period of time. He himself got carried away tonight. That's our captain. So if that's going to happen, well, like the rest of our bench is now, we're just making it up as we go. When you do that, you open the door for the opposition to have a good night. And they did that. And I thought the last goal at the end of the third period there, that's indicative of our second and third periods."


"Killer Instinct"

Is Shanny out there in the locker room? :laugh:

We need Tavares to lose his shit in the locker room. Then get all emotional with Gio as to how this is probably the last hurrah and they gotta be better and what not. May be that lights a spark lol
 
Missed it. Was Woll as bad as his save % shows?

Ewww

He wasn't good, but neither were the players in front of him. This was a team fail in regards to the defensive aspect of the game. I don't believe they weren't working hard; in was more of a lack of awareness. Like a really bad lack at that.

He is feeling the pressure and knows he’s gone if they get bounced in the first round.

TBH, if they can find a way to win one round, they can find a way to win the whole damn thing. At least that's where I currently sit.
 
Yeah but the Leafs slip more than others. It partially explains why they’re in this unusual purgatory of being better than Wild Card teams but always falling behind the division leaders.

They simply throw away their shot at the division title every year with poor efforts vs poor teams.
So far, In the Matthews/Marner/Tavares/Nylander/Rielly era :

They never won the division title ever.

They never won the president trophy ever.

They only won a single playoff series against a tired and injured Tampa team in the first round last year.

They still haven’t obtained quality right handed defensemen. They struggle to get them and haven’t got one this season again. Waiver tier D like Lyubushkin dont count.

They never had a legitimate Norris caliber defenseman elite in every aspect of the game(offensively, physically and defensively)

They seldom play with purpose, poise, awareness and intelligence. They take useless risks with the puck, often try to make low percentage fancy plays , often play with tunnel vision and are often Making bad decisions on the ice, and aren’t often playing as a cohesive and collective unit.

The leafs face the same problems and repeat the same mistakes every year, and can’t seem to solve them and learn from them. That’s why they go through the same patterns, go through the same motions and get the same results. NHL’s version of Groundhog Day.
 
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Nah... our team D was deplorable. I blame the team, far more than the goaltending.

the 1st goal was awful,
the 4th was bad

his positionning all game long had been awful, was out of position most of the time...result every shot in his direction was looking extremely hard


hard to play with confidence defensively when your goalie playing that way sorry

Woll since he came back from his injury was looking closer of the samsonov first 2-3 month of regular season than the Woll we saw at this moment.
 
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It's not just the shots against, but the high quality shots given up. The odd man rushes, the breakaways... the lost players in the D zone, the sloppy passes... it's the attention to detail. We even give up odd man rushes regularly on the PP.

I think 2 things. The 5 man unit defensive structure and mental strength to be able to do the boring thing again and again and again and again because it helps team defense.

We need our video guys to put in a collage of stupid and then give out individual video packages to the players for them to have a look at it lol

Missed it. Was Woll as bad as his save % shows?

Ewww

I missed half the game but from what I saw it was a combination of bad goaltending and really stupid team defense. Emphasis on team defense not just on D-men btw... lol
 
you just switch goalie and this game probably finishing like 8-1 in favor of leads.

This game was 100% goaltending
Well maybe not 100% because the defence was awful, but Woll just can’t let that first goal in when we’re dominating, nor let rebounds out in the slot. A few saves on the many odd man rushes or breakaways would have been nice too.
 
Well maybe not 100% because the defence was awful, but Woll just can’t let that first goal in when we’re dominating, nor let rebounds out in the slot. A few saves on the many odd man rushes or breakaways would have been nice too.

Probably a good thing he didn't; this way the forwards and team D will have to tighten it the F up and not rely on goal tending always bailing their stupid crap LOL
 
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He is this team's second best offensive defenseman, gets scored on less than our other defensemen and gives up less chances and every statistic out there backs this up. Like if you think Liljegren sucks you HAVE to hate literally every other defenseman on this team because they are statistically worse and make just as many if not more stupid mistakes.
That just shows how misleading stats can be.
 
Few elements that are important in playoffs besides being heavy and physical that are missing from the Leafs' game IMO are:

- chip and chase (need it when center ice is clogged)

- working the puck up to the point, taking goalies' eyes away and let the point shot go in (Leafs never do it; when our D gets the puck up at the points they always look to either pass or put the puck in corners because our forwards are hardly in front of the net crowding the space)

- looking for rebounds/crashing the net doesn't exist for Leafs

- When in doubt -> OUT! Our d is always looking to make plays in the d-zone; the most annoying of them all are the backhand hailmary passes. Bieksa called it out finally on HNIC I think.

- Game awareness. Leafs still don't have much game awareness on what to do when you have the Lead specially and how to kill the clock

- Puck management of the Leafs under keefe hasn't improved much IMO. We still do stupid shit

- Cycling the puck in the o-zone. We can't cycle and we suck at breaking cycle when opposition has the puck in our zone; we chase the puck instead of keeping with the structure and forcing opposition to force passes/plays

I could list more but these are the prime things that I think is missing from our playoff arsenal
You’re not wrong.
 
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That just shows how misleading stats can be.

If you take a peek at out of town games and look at how two way, puck transporting defensemen who can skate look, defend, distribute the puck, Liljegren isn’t really doing a great job at either end of the ice. Generally it’s very vanilla but he’s prone to massive mistakes that burn the team whether it’s a pinch that turns into an odd man rush or just getting muscled out of a play in the defensive zone. Or targeted for a heavy forecheck.
 
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Yup. The keyword is "Team D"

If you recall the penguins' roster when they went on to win cups. They freakin' had no stud Ds but their 5 man defense was so clutch that it helped quite a bit including MAF going super saiyan against the caps and murray playing solid too.

Leafs' team defense needs to be better. If we can stop chasing the freakin' puck in the d-zone and have a bit of structure as a 5 man unit out there; it would help a bunch!
Having Sidney Crosby setting the example helps. Who’s the Leafs Crosby ?
 
Few elements that are important in playoffs besides being heavy and physical that are missing from the Leafs' game IMO are:

- chip and chase (need it when center ice is clogged)

- working the puck up to the point, taking goalies' eyes away and let the point shot go in (Leafs never do it; when our D gets the puck up at the points they always look to either pass or put the puck in corners because our forwards are hardly in front of the net crowding the space)

- looking for rebounds/crashing the net doesn't exist for Leafs

- When in doubt -> OUT! Our d is always looking to make plays in the d-zone; the most annoying of them all are the backhand hailmary passes. Bieksa called it out finally on HNIC I think.

- Game awareness. Leafs still don't have much game awareness on what to do when you have the Lead specially and how to kill the clock

- Puck management of the Leafs under keefe hasn't improved much IMO. We still do stupid shit

- Cycling the puck in the o-zone. We can't cycle and we suck at breaking cycle when opposition has the puck in our zone; we chase the puck instead of keeping with the structure and forcing opposition to force passes/plays

I could list more but these are the prime things that I think is missing from our playoff arsenal

In a full 7 game series, I budget for the Leafs playing the style of complete playoff style game you mentioned 1-2 times.

They will have about 1 party win, domination game where they run up the score and look like Harlem Globetrotters, no details necessary.

They will have a no-show humiliated game, possibly after the party win and look like the Washington Generals.

And probably 3 games were everything will grind down to a halt. Complete slog fest, OT affair, special teams breakdown and grip the sticks. Etc.
 
""

Keefe on if this type of game was a one-off?"Well, it has happened a lot for our group over the years. And I'm talking about the experienced people. And that came back tonight. And I thought the game invited it. It's 25 shots, everybody's feeling great, you got lots of puck touches, you think it's going to happen again, and you're going to stay with it. I don't know if anybody's ever got 75 shots in a game before. I don't think it happens. Usually things adjust and the opposition pushes back. The game kind of tidies up a little bit. But I just thought we got incredibly sloppy, careless, and that's disappointing. But to your point, that hasn't been us. We haven't played that way for quite some time. So I thought our guys got a little too excited, a little too carried away. And we'll tighten that back up real quick."


I don't agree with Keefe here.... we've been sloppy, careless so many times this year. Even games we win.

We were good offensively, crap everywhere else. Careless with the puck, leading to breakaways and odd man rushes, careless in the D zone... just a terrible game, except for offensive play.

Players playing for themselves and their stats. Tavares has always been that way and he’s their captain. The other three in the core group have never won anything and don’t know how. Too busy choosing their wardrobes and counting their money.
 
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