Pre-Game Talk: FEB 12, Bolts @ Leafs, It's Business Time

[zeke]

I'm sure there will be a couple minor changes to the lineups but close enough.

I'll say it - I still don't buy the Bolts as being nearly as good as their record. Just look at the ridiculous per minutes scoring numbers they're getting from the likes of Killorn, Gourde, Johnson, Namestnikov, etc - these guys are just not good enough to be putting up elite per minute offensive numbers, period.

That being said, they're still an elite team and it sure would be nice if the Leafs didn't just decided to hold on for dear life against one of these teams and tried to actually enforce their will on the game.

Mo/Hainsey/Zaits have had enough games to get back into the swing (and all were great vs OTT), so that excuse from the BOS/NSH games is much less of an excuse now.

It's about time we step up and take it to an elite team.



Legend:

Letter Grades = Quality of Competition measured by opponents' time on ice, Converted into Letter Grades for simplicity
p60 = points per 60 minutes
CF% = Corsi For Percentage (i.e. shot attempts for percentage)
xGF% = Expected Goals For Percentage (i.e. shot attempt percentage adjusted for shot quality) - this stat is already adjusted for zone deployment and game score
In Brackets = CF% and xGF% relative to team
dsv% = difference between save percentage and expected save percentage



Line 1

Matthews (20): 46gms, ES 16:12 (A+), 2.95p60, 50.4cf% (-0.6), 54.2xgf% (+3.4) / PP 2:13, 3.55p60 / SH 0:01
Point (21): 55gms, ES 15:00 (A), 2.48p60, 52.9cf% (+1.0), 54.7gf% (+3.2) / PP 2:13, 3.51p60 / SH 2:08

Nylander (21): 56gms, ES 14:29 (A-), 2.55p60, 51.0cf% (+1.0), 51.3xgf% (+0.3) / PP 2:09, 3.49p60 / SH 0:01
Kucherov (24): 55gms, ES 16:21 (A), 2.94p60, 52.9cf% (+1.1), 50.3xgf% (-3.3) / PP 3:43, 7.19p60 / SH 0:00

Hyman (25): 56gms, ES 14:41 (A+), 1.79p60, 50.3cf% (+0.0), 53.5xgf% (+3.7) / PP 0:08, 0.00p60 / SH 2:42
Killorn (28): 55gms, ES 11:14 (C+), 2.18p60, 55.0cf% (+3.7), 55.9xgf% (+4.8) / PP 2:59, 2.99p60 / SH 1:43

Line 2

Kadri (27): 54gms, ES 14:20 (A), 1.75p60, 50.3cf% (-0.2), 49.1xgf% (-2.9) / PP 2:09, 6.25p60 / SH 0:00
Stamkos (27): 55gms, ES 14:56 (A), 2.63p60, 53.5cf% (+1.8), 54.2xgf% (+2.5) / PP 3:40, 8.21p60 / SH 0:06

Marleau (38): 56gms, ES 14:19 (A), 1.68p60, 50.5cf% (+0.3), 47.8xgf% (-4.5) / PP 2:11, 1.97p60 / SH 0:32
Johnson (27): 54gms, ES 12:54 (B), 2.31p60, 50.7cf% (-2.2), 50.6xgf% (-1.5) / PP 2:17, 5.40p60 / SH 1:54

Marner (20): 56gms, ES 13:22 (C+), 1.87p60, 52.8cf% (+3.4), 55.3xgf% (+5.6) / PP 2:16, 6.61p60 / SH 0:02
Gourde (26): 55gms, ES 12:36 (B), 2.63p60, 52.8cf% (+0.7), 53.9xgf% (+2.0) / PP 1:55, 4.56p60 / SH 1:28

Line 3

Bozak (31): 55gms, ES 13:06 (C), 1.62p60, 52.1cf% (+2.6), 55.1xgf% (+5.4) / PP 2:17, 3.82p60 / SH 0:00
Paquette (24): 36gms, ES 9:30 (D+), 0.70p60, 50.7cf% (-1.4), 48.1xgf% (-3.9) / PP 0:04, 0.00p60 / SH 0:18

VanRyk (28): 55gms, ES 12:23 (C), 1.54p60, 53.5cf% (+4.3), 55.5xgf% (+6.0) / PP 2:20, 6.53p60 / SH 0:00
Kunitz (38): 55gms, ES 11:05 (C-), 1.39p60, 52.1cf% (+0.1), 50.5xgf% (-2.1) / PP 0:06, 0.00p60 / SH 0:32

Brown (23): 56gms, ES 11:39 (B-), 1.50p60, 48.2cf% (-2.6), 46.9xgf% (-5.2) / PP 1:23, 0.78p60 / SH 2:01
Callahan (32): 45gms, ES 11:11 (D+), 0.73p60, 50.9cf% (-0.4), 50.0xgf% (-1.6) / PP 0:28, 0.00p60 / SH 1:16

Line 4

Moore (37): 38gms, ES 9:06 (F), 1.35p60, 49.8cf% (-0.2), 48.7xgf% (-3.2) / PP 0:03, 0.00p60 / SH 1:31
Conacher (28): 23gms, ES 9:47 (D+), 2.40p60, 52.1cf% (-2.0), 54.2xgf% (+0.8) / PP 0:15, 0.00p60 / SH 0:00

Komarov (31): 56gms, ES 12:59 (A-), 0.58p60, 46.9cf% (-4.5), 47.5xgf% (-4.8) / PP 0:42, 3.14p60 / SH 2:43
Namestnikov (25): 55gms, ES 14:20 (A-), 1.86p60, 51.9cf% (-0.4), 50.5xgf% (-2.9) / PP 3:24, 4.58p60 / SH 0:04

Kapanen (21): 13gms, ES 10:18 (D), 1.24p60, 51.5cf% (+1.5), 55.1xgf% (+5.7) / PP 0:02, 0.00p60 / SH 1:00
Erne (22): 2gms, ES 10:10 (D), 3.01p60, 57.9cf% (+2.6), 62.7xgf% (+13.0) / PP 0:00, 0.00p60 / SH 0:00



Pair 1

Rielly (23): 50gms, ES 18:18 (A), 1.01p60, 51.9cf% (+3.6), 50.2xgf% (-0.8) / PP 2:17, 7.32p60 / SH 1:21
Hedman (27): 50gms, ES 19:22 (A-), 1.22p60, 54.1cf% (+1.9), 54.2xgf% (+2.3) / PP 3:29, 4.96p60 / SH 2:41

Hainsey (36): 54gms, ES 17:51 (A+), 0.82p60, 49.1cf% (-1.0), 49.3xgf% (-2.3) / PP 0:08, 9.76p60 / SH 4:16
Stralman (31): 53gms, ES 17:55 (B+), 0.84p60, 51.9cf% (-0.5), 50.8xgf% (-2.7) / PP 0:30, 0.00p60 / SH 2:45

Pair 2

Gardiner (27): 56gms, ES 20:09 (B+), 1.14p60, 49.5cf% (-1.2), 52.5xgf% (+2.2) / PP 2:15, 4.21p60 / SH 0:30
Dotchin (23): 42gms, ES 15:58 (B+), 0.82p60, 52.7cf% (+1.0), 53.6xgf% (+1.8) / PP 0:06, 0.00p60 / SH 0:39

Zaitsev (26): 39gms, ES 18:55 (B+), 0.74p60, 47.2cf% (-5.0), 51.4xgf% (+0.1) / PP 0:15, 0.00p60 / SH 3:26
Girardi (33): 50gms, ES 14:14 (B-), 0.86p60, 50.6cf% (-2.5), 53.6xgf% (+1.7) / PP 0:01, 0.00p60 / SH 2:31

Pair 3

Dermott (21): 13gms, ES 15:39 (C), 1.36p60, 54.7cf% (+4.9), 53.0xgf% (+3.4) / PP 0:07, 0.00p60 / SH 0:37
Sergachev (19): 53gms, ES 13:56 (C+), 1.39p60, 51.9cf% (-0.7), 52.7xgf% (+0.7) / PP 1:55, 7.10p60 / SH 0:01

Polak (31): 34gms, ES 14:35 (D+), 0.73p60, 48.8f% (-0.1), 50.9xgf% (+0.4) / PP 0:00, 0.00p60 / SH 2:26
Coburn (32): 48gms, ES 14:08 (B-), 0.81p60, 50.3cf% (-1.6), 49.3xgf% (-2.9) / PP 0:02, 0.00p60 / SH 2:25

Carrick (23): 34gms, ES 14:40 (D+), 0.71p60, 51.8f% (+0.9), 53.5xgf% (+4.5) / PP 0:23, 4.43p60 / SH 0:02
Sustr (27): 31gms, ES 12:03 (B-), 0.64p60, 53.3cf% (+2.9), 52.3xgf% (+0.3) / PP 0:03, 0.00p60 / SH 0:37



Starter

Andersen (28): 47gms, 92.1sv%, +1.3dsv% / ES 92.8sv%, +1.1dsv% / PK 88.9sv%, +3.1dsv%
Vasilevsky (23): 46gms, 92.9sv%, +0.9dsv% / ES 93.4sv%, +0.8dsv% / PK 89.5sv%, +0.6dsv%

Backup

McElhinney (34): 10gms, 93.2sv%, +2.3dsv% / ES 93.9sv%, +1.7dsv% / PK 90.6sv%, +5.4dsv%
Domingue (25): 11gms, 87.7sv%, -2.8dsv% / ES 90.2sv%, -1.6dsv% / PK 76.6sv%, -7.7dsv%

Click to read more...

 

[Mugzy97]

Gut check time

 

[Cor]

Tampa has looked average the past 4-6 weeks.

Big 2 points

Edit; Maybe “average” isn’t the best word for it. They’ve looked like a team we can beat

 

[Tall Morty]

 

[Apotheosis]

Time for a 7-5 game boys!

 

[IBeL34f]

Technically, the game against Columbus is business time, but a beautiful reference regardless.

 

[Kiwi]

We're going to be in a tough fight but if the boys put there heads down and work without sitting back at any time during the game were a good chance of getting a favorable result

Andersen playing like he has been recently wouldn't hurt either

 

[Cor]

We're going to be in a tough fight but if the boys put there heads down and work without sitting back at any time during the game were a good chance of getting a favorable result

Andersen playing like he has been recently wouldn't hurt either

Just a feeling, but I think this is a game where we’ll see the JVR, Bozak, Brown line shine.

 

[Kiwi]

Just a feeling, but I think this is a game where we’ll see the JVR, Bozak, Brown line shine.

I hope so Cor, if we're going to be a contender this season that line has to score

We're way more dangerous if all the forward lines are offensively threatening

 

[Mikeyg]

we're going to get these guys, they are looking shakier now then they did last time we played. We seriously could have won last time in OT, we made 2 big mistakes that game. We were also playing that bullshit dump and chase game last time as well.

 

[Cor]

I hope so Cor, if we're going to be a contender this season that line has to score

We're way more dangerous if all the forward lines are offensively threatening

Yeah, that’s for sure.

Tampa’s D depth isn’t that great, and the Bozak line will only draw the 3rd/4th lines. Which is a terrific matchup.

That’s the advantage this team has.

 

[The List Of Jericho]

Tough game, have a feeling Vasi will be the difference

 

[Kiwi]

Yeah, that’s for sure.

Tampa’s D depth isn’t that great, and the Bozak line will only draw the 3rd/4th lines. Which is a terrific matchup.

That’s the advantage this team has.

Yep Kadri and Matthews are going to draw the big boys so it's time for our depth to start making a difference

That's our best chance of beating the Boston Tampa and Pittsburgh's of the world imo

 

[zeke]

almost named the thread Business Socks.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Opportunity here to make a statement.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

hoping for a statement win here. They're a good team but we can beat them

 

[LeafChief]

Call me crazy but if the Leafs can pull off a W tomorrow, I don't see any reason why they can't catch Tampa for the division.

The Leafs have 4 games in March against Buffalo who will be without Eichel and probably Kane (trade). They play Boston on Feb 24th. Boston has a lot of games coming up in a short amount of time.

 

[Daisy Jane]

we're gonna win.

 

[MJ65]

This is going to be a tough one and I hope we can win this one

 

[Rare Jewel]

First thing I thought of as well.

 

[ToneDog]

Just a feeling, but I think this is a game where we’ll see the JVR, Bozak, Brown line shine.

Probably just gas. Time for TyBo to show Lou and Babs he wants to be here after the TDL. Time to up his "give a crap" meter and show that he belongs but I doubt it. He has been the difference in less than 5 games IMO.

 

[Kiwi]

we're gonna win.

I like the confidence Daisy

 

[Daisy Jane]

I like the confidence Daisy

well i've always said.
we play tampa relatively. steady. if they smack us, we can smack them. we can play each them tight and win, and they can win. I'm not taking anything away from Tampa they are good but I'm not scared of them. we can beat 'em.

 

[Kiwi]

well i've always said.
we play tampa relatively. steady. if they smack us, we can smack them. we can play each them tight and win, and they can win. I'm not taking anything away from Tampa they are good but I'm not scared of them. we can beat 'em.

Yep, let's stuff em and send a message that you don't want to see us come playoff time

 

[Daisy Jane]

Yep, let's stuff em and send a message that you don't want to see us come playoff time

yeah. exactly.