Pre-Game Talk: Leafs@Flyers Thursday Jan 18

[Suntouchable13]

The Atlantic is terrible. 3 good teams. The worst team in the Metro (8th place with 48 points) is still better than 5 Atlantic teams. Best Atlantic team 43 points. We could play .500 the rest of the way with no worries. Not much in the way of competition this year.

I'd rather not have that mindset. They need to turn it on. They can't just crawl into the playoffs and expect to be successful.

 

[PromisedLand]

If it was upto me I would shake the entire line up the F up

Martin-Matthews-Marner
Marleau-Bozak-Hyman
Komarov-Kadri-Nylander
JVR-GOAT-Brown

run 4 lines to score, screw the checking or shut down line mentality BS

Depending on the play of the lines on any given night give them more ice time.

There is no line1 line2 BS, we have 4 lines to score

 

[stuart5035]

The player with the 4th most 5v5 points on the team? And the 2nd most 5v5 primary points on the team?

Yup, clearly an issue offensively at 5v5

Our beloved Leafs are a confused, fragile lot. As it stands they rate as a middle of the road NHL team (sure there is talent and offensive depth, but a team that features the well meaning Roman Polak and the aging, fading Ron Hainsey as regulars on defense, a trio of newbies and an error prone poke-checking Jake Gardiner is a team with holes at the backend)

The confusion is whether they are a “dump and chase defensive outfit” or a “run and gun” skating team (which their previous dressing room placard said). The players can only be hesitant with this confusion.

The strange tactics of Babcock have been well covered. I can only hope that if they are determined to be that defensive team that they 1- unleash the power play as their prime means to score (Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Rielly, Van Reimsdyck?) 2- Go with a lineup like “Cor” suggests 3-stop the insane line matching in overtime that has Kapanan and Hyman out there, isn’t the idea of overtime to go for it?

If their identity is “run and gun” then get that missing good mobile defensemen and play Dermott every game. Coupled with fast yet lightweights Rielly, Gardner, Zaltsev and that 4th piece, we would have a defense to match this identity. The “run and gun” works best for teams with a Grant Fuhr of the old Oilers and the Leafs have that with Anderson.

 

[LeafalCrusader]

I'd try just about anything right now that doesn't involve

-Hyman with Matthews
-Komarov and Marleau with Kadri
-Komarov in the top 9

 

[Mr Hockey]

Leafs are playing good hockey, no need to panic, nobody is blowing us out.

 

[FlareKnight]

Oh well. The ride continues on. Let the coach be stubborn. That is certainly allowed so long as he's still got the job. And they have such an insane cushion that there isn't much pressure for him to actually try to win games.

There is a positive side with the Leafs being a combination of boring and frustrating. Easy to multitask and play some video games or watch some movies with the Leafs in the background . Ok haven't actually tried that yet....but I have a gut feeling it'd work.

 

[PuckMagi]

Leafs are playing good hockey, no need to panic, nobody is blowing us out.

Thanks to our goalie

 

[rent free]

holy **** i just realized leafs are in playoffs by 11 points more that the closest team... I forgot that they have the 3rd atlantic spot and was looking at the closest wild card... This entire time I was thinking they were holding on for dear life against the wildcard teams

they're gonna be doing that if they continue to play like this

 

[Kiwi]

Leafs are playing good hockey, no need to panic, nobody is blowing us out.

Not being blown out and actually playing well are two completely different things

We're hanging tough but we're not playing well at all, thank God for Andersen

 

[Mr Hockey]

Not being blown out and actually playing well are two completely different things

We're hanging tough but we're not playing well at all, thank God for Andersen

Andersen is playing like a #1 should, but he doesn't close out games well, imo... leafs are playing good hockey, blues are a good team and not easy to play against.

 

[Torontonian]

Thanks to our goalie

I mean.. is that not the job of the goalie? People would be crying if Freddy was playing like ass and we were still playing like how were playing now..

I can hear the crys now.. "we would win some of these games if freddy was a good goalie!!"

 

[ULF_55]

What line are you putting out as our shutdown line?

Maybe the Leafs could trade for one of the 28 lines that have shut them down the last month.

Seems to me every team the Leafs play have multiple shutdown lines.

 

[Kiwi]

Andersen is playing like a #1 should, but he doesn't close out games well, imo... leafs are playing good hockey, blues are a good team and not easy to play against.

Andersen's playing like an upper tier #1, he's also been ridiculously good since October, way better than a team could possibly expect

The Leafs haven't been good, we're either God awful defensively and scoring or defensively sound and can't score if our lives depended on it

The Blues are ok but there nothing special, we shouldn't be getting outshot 31-42 playing them at home

 

[Mr Hockey]

Andersen's playing like an upper tier #1, he's also been ridiculously good since October, way better than a team could possibly expect

The Leafs haven't been good, we're either God awful defensively and scoring or defensively sound and can't score if our lives depended on it

The Blues are ok but there nothing special, we shouldn't be getting outshot 31-42 playing them at home

The all situations shots on goal stat is a bit flawed and can deceive, imo ... 5-vs-5 stats were pretty close,but favor the blues. Blues have been near the top 5 all season long, nice looking team.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Maybe the Leafs could trade for one of the 28 lines that have shut them down the last month.

Seems to me every team the Leafs play have multiple shutdown lines.

The Leafs' shut down line is so good, they've been able to shut themselves down.

 

[ULF_55]

they're gonna be doing that if they continue to play like this

Only hope is some of the teams behind them decide the gap is too far and pull a Horachek.

You don't hold unto a spot playing .400.