Post-Game Talk: Wow. We looked Good. (but we lost). That wasn't painful at all.

[Leafsman]

The Leafs are definitely going to miss his goal scoring, but if you take a look at the entire work that Spaling's line put in, I'd rather take that for a full 82 games.

Structurally, I agree with everyone, I thought that was the best they had looked in years.

Just keep in mind, they won't be playing the best goalie in the world for every game and Bernier isn't going to play like that every game either. Although, he did calm down after that awful first goal.

- Really liked Harrington's game last night.
- Didn't love Arcobello & Marincin's game

I think Marincin will be the first up in the box.

I can see Arcobello, PAP or Grabner gone at some point and one of the young guns called up.

 

[Shwaguy*]

Hard to believe we sent Percy down for Marincin. I think we see Percy playing on the big club sooner than later

 

[SprDaVE]

Hard to believe we sent Percy down for Marincin. I think we see Percy playing on the big club sooner than later

Marincin will definitely sit for Corrado or Polak friday.

 

[deletethis]

It's not going to help the long term of this team.

Teaching the vets then the youth of this organization how to play structured disciplined hockey that might have the team contend for a playoff spot sooner than later is a bad thing?

Any plan that starts with turning your team into a joke for a half decade IS the bad plan. And it offers no guarantees of anything better than a 4th overall pick plus many years 1st overall's are anything but a sure thing. As long as they don't start getting in the mindset to start plugging holes by trading youth and high draft picks, this is the way it is done.

 

[Pookie]

People are complaining about Bernier's softie but he made a terrific save with the blocker in the 3rd period.

Gardiner too deserves a tip of the cap for his reactionary kick save on the line in the 3rd as well.

 

[KGL]

Toronto was the better team watching from golds at ACC (shots and possession prove it out). Kadri outplayed Plekanec all night long. Toronto defence played a strong game. If not for the Bernier softie in the first we got a point out of that game and maybe 2. However Kadri was playing a low level centre. I will wait until Friday night when he plays an elite world class player in Datysuk to reserve judgement but I think he has progressed over last year when Plekanec would have eaten his sandwich all night long.

You'll have to wait a bit longer for that, Datsyuk is hurt.

 

[Banic]

I find it interesting that Leo played 3 minutes less than the next lowest (Arcobello). Just 1 game, but maybe Babcock doesn't see the same way about him as many people here do. My guess is he will be the healthy scratch next game (if he's not suspended).

 

[Gallagbi]

Hard to believe we sent Percy down for Marincin. I think we see Percy playing on the big club sooner than later

Percy's down the list of potential replacements now with Polak and Corrado around

 

[Nithoniniel]

Game
------
I don't know about you guys, but I thoroughly enjoyed this game. We shouldn't forget that the Canadiens weren't having their best game with the strongest effort, but at least a part of that was due to us. We had some of those dominant shifts that we've barely ever had since the days of Sundin. We carried play. We forced Price to have a great game to give them the win. This was what I expected to see from us, but started to doubt in the preseason.

Great
-------
-

Good
------
Bernier - Weak to start it off, made a bunch of great saves afterwards. Gets the good grade because I really like the response from him after the bad goal and sarcastic cheer.
Hunwick - Our best defender in this game, in my opinion. Quietly effective, gets into play quickly and makes quick decisions. That's an effective combination.
Rielly - I liked Rielly a lot in this game. Chose his opportunities well to go on the offensive, creates chances and disarray. Had some ugly mistakes defensively though.
Kadri - Felt like he created chances every shift, while also being defensively responsible. Very encouraging game from him.
JVR - At first I was thinking about having him as average. Felt like he wasn't involved as much as we want. But then I started to realize that often in the replays, I'd find him making a smart, skilled play to open up space for his linemates.
Spaling - I didn't have especially high thoughts of Spaling, but I think we've found a good spot for him to get the most out of him. He and Winnik works well together. Neither of them are not creative or unpredictable, so they are on the same wavelength all the time. That showed consistently throughout the game, as they dominated their shifts.
Winnik - The difference between Winnik and Spaling here is that I didn't expect it from Spaling. I did from Winnik. I absolutely love this guy.
Matthias - His line wasn't the best, but everything that happened was due to Matthias. Not every player can have a complete skill set, and that is fine. What players can do to still be effective is play to their strengths, force the game to fit those strengths. Matthias did that consistently with his skating and size. Simple, straight, powerful. I liked him tonight.

Average
---------
Phaneuf - Rather quiet, rather effective. Interesting that he seemed to play third option on the PK. Nevertheless, he shouldn't be the second best player on his pairing.
Gardiner - Was good through most the game. Started chasing the game after their second goal, which lowered his rating. His solutions to move the puck out with control was a joy, as always. Nice save too.
Harrington - Started out very shaky, making missed passes and having trouble with the pace. After the midpoint of the game, he settled in and once was solid afterwards. Not afraid to shoot.
Boyes - Quieter than you'd like, but when I noticed him it was often for a good reason. Not actually ideal to have him on a top line, but he did fine.
Parenteau - The most quiet of our fourth line guys, perhaps because that particular style doesn't fit him all that well. Hopefully he will find himself in better positions to use the space that the others open up.
Komarov - Worked himself into the game, but he can do better than this. That hit on PK wasn't the smoothest. He chased the game, luckily he caught it and settled down. Had a good third, winning pucks and throwing hits.

Bad
-----
Marincin - Didn't play to his strengths this game. Stood still a lot, didn't take decisions fast enough. Struggled with the puck.
Bozak - Now I didn't actually mind Bozak this game. But as time went by he was just not involved enough, and there were times when he reverted to playing like his line did last year.
Lupul - About the same as Bozak. Doesn't get enough done offensively. I do like that he has improved his effort level defensively.
Holland - I don't know really about Hollands game tonight. Borderline average, but he had a way of putting both himself and others in tough spots tonight. Didn't like that.
Arcobello - Worst of our forwards tonight. Made some pretty bad mistakes, just like preseason. And just like preseason, you also finds him making some really nice plays in between. But it's too much ups and downs, he has to clean some of that up.

Awful
-------
-

 

[dballislife2]

i admit i didnt really pay attention to harrington during preseason and was shocked hes on the team...but hes very steady this game, liked what i saw...good combination of decent speed and physical play too...even made some nice passes

 

[Leafsman]

People are complaining about Bernier's softie but he made a terrific save with the blocker in the 3rd period.

Gardiner too deserves a tip of the cap for his reactionary kick save on the line in the 3rd as well.

Goalies get it rough, they make a mistake and 90% of the time it's a goal. A player makes a mistake and 90% of the time the goalie saves their ass!

However, I was a little more concerned about his shaky game overall. A few posts and Gardiner and this could have gone a whole different way,

First game of the season though so I'm not going to abandon all hope in him yet. A hot streak and this team could pull of some wins.

 

[janesy12]

Arco and PAP...

.....whats the point of these two?

This is what I was thinking as well. Two wasted roster spots.
With 2 minutes left in a game with the goalie out, both of these guys saw ice time.
That's atrocious.

 

[BertCorbeau]

People are complaining about Bernier's softie but he made a terrific save with the blocker in the 3rd period.

Gardiner too deserves a tip of the cap for his reactionary kick save on the line in the 3rd as well.

He also made a great aggressive pad save on Fleischmann in the second off of that horrific giveaway by Arcobello in the neutral zone.

The first goal was a softy .. Kind of weird, as it hit it shoulder and rolled up on him, but after that he was good. Definitely gave the Leafs a chance to win.

 

[ToneBone03]

Marincin will definitely sit for Corrado or Polak friday.

Interested to see Corrado play. Legitimately haven't seen anything from him. I just know he played with Leivo in Sudbury and Kitchener. Canucks fan have spoken pretty highly of him in the past but a lot have soured on him recently. I don't know whether to take the recent negative attitudes at face value as usually when a player leaves a team everyone's opinion of him changes pretty quickly (negatively). I suppose we shall see!

 

[deletethis]

I find it interesting that Leo played 3 minutes less than the next lowest (Arcobello). Just 1 game, but maybe Babcock doesn't see the same way about him as many people here do. My guess is he will be the healthy scratch next game (if he's not suspended).

Speculation on my part but maybe in river hockey or run and gun Komarov looks competitive and defensively responsible while in a more structured system his lack of flexibility starts to show. Or maybe with naturally competitive players like Komarov and Polak, Babcock knows that ice time is a big motivator for a better performance.

 

[Mess]

Marincin will definitely sit for Corrado or Polak friday.

If we base this on performance than Frankie C should be in for Marincin and Grabner should dress in place of Arcobello, as I would rate them as the #6 dman and 12th best forward in this game.

Detroit is a quick team that will force the play and I would be surprised if Babcock called on Polak in this one, to play against a skill team and not a physical one.

Polak on Saturday verses the Sens with Neil buzzing around is when I think he might get into his first game.

 

[Clark4Ever]

Harrington looks like he could be a nice piece of the Kessel trade.

 

[Guy Boucher]

All I took from this game is that Montreal is the same crappy team with the same crappy coach and the same elite goalie.

Toronto doesn't have the snipers to take advantage of dominating Montreal, but other teams will take them down with much more ease.

 

[Pookie]

Goalies get it rough, they make a mistake and 90% of the time it's a goal. A player makes a mistake and 90% of the time the goalie saves their ass!

However, I was a little more concerned about his shaky game overall. A few posts and Gardiner and this could have gone a whole different way,

First game of the season though so I'm not going to abandon all hope in him yet. A hot streak and this team could pull of some wins.

Sadly, I don't think Bernier or Reimer will be here when this team is good. Even if they stick for 3-4 years… 3-4 years of losses isn't going to help with confidence.

Fans will have already formed an opinion as to their abilities based on the losses and it will be hard for them to shake.

We will probably need a guy to step in to the number 1 role when they are serious about winning and expectations are raised.

 

[BertCorbeau]

All I took from this game is that Montreal is the same crappy team with the same crappy coach and the same elite goalie.

Toronto doesn't have the snipers to take advantage of dominating Montreal, but other teams will take them down with much more ease.

We said the same thing last year ... Didn't happen. Price is that good.

 

[Duffman955]

Kadri, lupul and jvr are the only forwards that have any skill.

Rest of these morons just pass around the boards and take shots from 40 ft out on price. Wtf did they expect?

Defence looked decent, outside of marincin. How did this guy make the team over Percy?

 

[Zybalto]

He also made a great aggressive pad save on Fleischmann in the second off of that horrific giveaway by Arcobello in the neutral zone.

The first goal was a softy .. Kind of weird, as it hit it shoulder and rolled up on him, but after that he was good. Definitely gave the Leafs a chance to win.

Thats whats odd about calling it a softy. If he actually gets less of the puck it looks like a great save as it deflects away and if he gets a little more of it, he grabs the rebound.

More bad luck than anything IMO but those always look bad.

 

[deletethis]

I like that the Leafs didn't rush Corrado into the lineup. This says that Babcock and his coaches don't think it takes a day to understand what they're doing.

 

[ToneBone03]

Harrington looks like he could be a nice piece of the Kessel trade.

Without a doubt! He played a solid game & looked to be positionally sound (amazing for someone his age). Gotta love them Knights alumni!

 

[Zybalto]

Kadri, lupul and jvr are the only forwards that have any skill.

Rest of these morons just pass around the boards and take shots from 40 ft out on price. Wtf did they expect?

Defence looked decent, outside of marincin. How did this guy make the team over Percy?

They traded a 4th to get him so they want to give him a chance. Lets see how he looks after a few games. He does some good things out there too so maybe he'll find consistency.