Series Talk: ECQ: Boston Bruins (2-0) Toronto Maple Leafs. Well. We can Win at Home. We Have to.

I hope its either

Hyman-Matthews-Marner/Johnson/Kapanen or
Marleau-Nylander-Marner/Johnson.


I dont wanna see Komarov anywhere on those 2 lines.

 

Honestly, I think we all welcome Johnsson, but don't you want to see 1 or 2 more Marlies promoted? We can do more than Tomas Plekanec no?

 

Who is "Emily Jo Michelle" and why should I care?

 

Yep. I'm usually all over Freddie if he has a bad game but I couldn't fault him in this one. The bad last goal didn't matter as the game was already "over".

 

no idea but that's a pretty dumb take. Swapping Hyman out for Komarov does nothing for our depth scoring. It's also more likely Matthews' line ends up a negative now, rather than playing them even like last time

 

I'm so glad you have appointed yourself the arbiter of what is and what is not a "stupid opinion".

The arrogance.

 

okay this is getting ridiculous.

 

I mean, If I think it's stupid, you'll know it. If @ACC1224 thinks it's stupid, he'll tell ya. It's more of a personal opinion, than any one arbiter.

 

Freddie was just OK. Had ref not blown the whistle early, it would have been 6-1. He needs to be much better the rest of the series.

 

Why is it that sentences / thoughts on messageboards always fall short?

 

I honestly think Komarov on first is smart. If we can shut down their top lines and have our 4th line destroy their 4th line I think that’s the key

 

I wouldn’t mind seeing Nylander centering fourth line either and turn Matthews into complete shutdown line

 

Change the breakout-run reverse play into attacker (take the hit to make an easy out) and force Boston to change their forecheck otherwsie they will keep doing same play and we will keep getting stuck in our end, put the heart in the dog for puck battles in their end, increase the pace to force slow Boston defence to tire, start game ready to play from shift 1 and we should be ok. Lot to ask but Babs is making 50M for 8 years so he should get it figured out. If we get outcoached again like in game 1 then I will be disappointed. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why it happened. I watched the game over three times today.

 

It's not over, but if they don't win tonight I have a hard time seeing Boston losing 4 times out of 5 games.

 

Leafs best players have to step up, that's the bottom line. I think the fact they were embarrassed in game 1, they will step up. This is a character game, we'll see.

 

they wanted get paid big money ,they better show up in the playoffs ,this very board anointed these players with 7 -7 year 45 million dolar deals .
lets see if they can win a round first .

 

Yay! Hyman off Mathews line finally. Komo can make soft 2-3 foot passes which Hyman can't. Hymans passes are so heavy. If you ever played hockey you'll know what I mean. I think Matthews will have a big game tonight.

 

Need this next game.

JVR-Matthews-Marner
Johnsson-Nylander-Kapanen
Hyman-Marleau-Brown
Komarov-Plekanec-Leivo

That looks infinitely better than today's lines. Use the 4th line ****ing sporadically, mainly for working them like a mule on special teams (Komarov ONLY PK, Plekanec PK, Leivo PP)

 

My lineup for Game Three:

Marleau-Matthews-Hyman <- Bergeron Matchup #1.
Leivo/Martin-Nylander-Marner
JVR-Bozak-Brown
*Johnsson-Moore-Kapanen* <- Bergeon Matchup #2 (But double shift Matthews, in for Moore from time to time).

 

This didn’t age well

 

Series ain't over... but as Babcock put it, we NEED our best players to be our best players. Marner has been decent, but the rest are not up to par.

We NEED Andersen to be on his game
We NEED Matthews to be on his game

Even if just these two players are clicking, and the rest of our team play 'averagely', we will beat Boston.

 

Weird but exactly 100 defenders have played so far in the playoffs.

By the numbers, how are ours doing compared to the rest?

5v5 minutes have been spread around pretty good so far.

Player	Corsi	Scoring Chances	HD Chances	Off. Zone Deployment
Rielly	34%(92/100)	32%(83/100)	23%(91/100)	50%
Hainsey	40%(77/100)	39%(75/100)	40%(71/100)	29%
Zaitsev	52%(50/100)	62%(27/100)	71%(16/100)	50%
Gardiner	50%(56/100)	53%(50/100)	53%(44/100)	46%
Polak	65%(6/100)	59%(35/100)	75%(10/100)	50%
Dermott	62%(11/100)	60%(30/100)	50%(48/100)	68%

Top pairing:

Rielly looked better in game 2 but he and Hainsey were almost historically bad in game 1. Not often you see a #1 defender with a Corsi below 10%. Also hard to create any offense when you're penned in your own zone. Hainsey should have been rested down the stretch and now we're paying the price. Not even his saving grace,the PK, has looked that good.
By far our biggest problem on D the first two games. If these two play the same way the rest of the series, we're cooked but home team advantage is certainly going to help.

Middle pairing:

Gards has been a bit uneven but also a bit snake bitten as he's set up some real nice plays but hasnt gotten a good bounce all series. Got back really well to correct that giveaway in the 3rd yesterday even if others blew coverage after. He's actually been better than what some are saying. Speaking of which.......
Zaitsev had a bit of a disaster of a first last night but has been real good otherwise. Our best D (and best player IMO) in game 1 and has been physically engaged so far. Outside of not tying up his mans stick in front on the 2nd goal last night, he has been decent on the PK overall too. Saying that he's been underrated around here this series (and the last quarter of the season) is an understatement. Current king of the hot takes despite having Amazing SCF and HDCF numbers.

Bottom Pairing:

Dermott and Polak have both been very good mostly due to Dermott's excellent puck moving ability and vision and him and Polak have developed surprising chemistry but I think Dermott is the real driver here. The sky may be the limit for this kid. Don't wanna take too much away from Polak though as he has been real solid 5v5 despite his PK woes. Dermott is still the most sheltered dman though and I'd be interested to see how he would fare with tougher matchups/deployment.

 

2-game F'ers :

Matthews - Slow, zero urgency,intensity, aggressiveness. Scared for 5 periods. Not qualities you want to see in your Franchise savior.

Nylander - Soft, carries the puck way too much in the offensive zone. Does his perimeter thing until he's forced into a bad play or physically overwhelmed. Detriment to whatever line he's on this series.

Rielly - Rat race all over the place, terrible positioning, non existent offensively again and makes weak plays when he does have the puck

Zaitsev - this is more of an 84 game F. Shame

Andersen - Brings life to the phrase "any hole is a goal"

JVR - Every shift for this guy looks like a commercial timeout effort level

Marner - probably deserves a D for at least trying, but he's basically a rag doll for any physicality, without proper help his weaknesses are glaring

Bozak - Weak

Hainsey - trainwreck defensively, failed miserably at the only things he was supposed to do.

Komarov - 84 games of being where offense goes to die

Brown - 84 game streak of ineffectiveness

Plekanec - Play Moore over him, at least he uses his speed. Watching him play makes me ill


Honorable Mention: Kadri for wilting


Round of applause though and participation ribbons for everyone deciding to finally try to play hockey once we we're blown out in game 2. Sorry but no praise for that. Smoke and mirrors until they prove otherwise.

Hyman, Dermott, Kapanen are the only players who were actually effective or playing while the games were still competitive, Kadri was for half a game. Everyone else not listed is only marginally better than the worst of the bunch.

Our best players are physically intimidated, and heavily revolve their play and skill around NOT being afraid to get hit. It's game over once they get shy. Bruins know that the only thing we'll try to do to them is poke check or stick lift so they take all the ice they need and pass or cycle around us at will.

 

We need help and fast. Whether it be in form of new line combos or stepping up the game. Boston coming to ACC with too much momentum, winning is one thing but dominating is a totally different animal when you continuously play the same opponent over and over again. It is a good thing that we are coming back to ACC after being dominated and going to their home ice.

There is still hope on Monday, after that only miracles done by teams like Philly and LA can save us. I don't think we are that luck to have miracles happen to this team.

 

What's also frustrating about the series so far is there's this narrative of "veteran Bruins" vs "young Leafs" but from what I can tell, the Bruins youth are very much thriving: Pastrnak, McAvoy, Heinen, DeBrusk, Acciari, Grzelcyk, Schaller, etc.

They're all playing various roles but they're playing hard, focused hockey and our guys look disorganized, scared, out of gas.