Post-Game Talk: Leafs Lose in a Shootout 4-3

[MR4]

Willy's allowed to have a bad game while learning the C spot.

Yep, seeking perfection at the start will just breed bad habits

 

[666]

How many times does a player get a second chance for a penalty shot? To not have JVR shoot instead of Marner shoot in the shoot out is one of the dumbest decisions yet.

 

[lifelonghockeyfan]

Overtime is all about skill and speed...
Nylander,Marner , Kapanen,Reilly and Gardiner should be the main focus...and I would also like to see Dermott..
The rest of the forwards should only be used to give the others rest..

Babcock always defaults to defense ...fine for regulation but really silly in OT.

Well remember last year he always started Kadri and Komarov in OT. At least he's learned not to play Komarov. I do agree with a lot of posts, Babcock's game management seems poor at times.

 

[Once]

How many times does a player get a second chance for a penalty shot? To not have JVR shoot instead of Marner shoot in the shoot out is one of the dumbest decisions yet.

Yup. JVR's attempt was embarrassing. Ah well, got a point against the top division rival

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

He says it in his post interview. He wanted to quick changes on the 4 on 3. Nylander a was suppose to come out next whistle. Then vice versa but the line got stuck out there . He even said himself he started to second guess himself. So he is not some delusional coach who doesn't know what's he is doing. Said he may have over thought that powerplay. I harp on his line choice alot myself but come on, some of you act like he is an ahl coach. Kinda ridiculous no..

No it isn't not in this case, because you don't need to be an NHL coach to know to get your leading scorer on the ice on s 5 on 3, that doesn't require being an NHL coach that is something anybody can do.

Babcock failed to do it Mitch did not see the ice until after it had become a 5 0n 4 and there was 8 seconds left

You don't need to be an NHL coach to know that is not good, I don't know that the team would hae scored if Nylander and Marnr had been on the ice together, but I do know, EVERYBODY knows that the 2 of them on the ice together gives you the bet chance to do it and Babcock failed to give his team the best chance to score.

The PP unit we should have seen in that spot was Marner, Nylander, JVR, Rielly Marleau that is the best 5 man unit you have without Matthews THAT is the 5 man unit that should have been on the ice and it wasn't.

You don't need to be an NHL coach to know that.

 

[The Examiner]

Babcocks fault
JVR vs Marner In the shootout

JVR is 35% in the shootout and Marner is 29%.

JVR also has 9 more goals than Marner.

JVR also won the last shootout for the team (vs Islanders). A shootout Marner missed in.

Marner also missed a penalty shot earlier in the game.

So explain to me this logic of Babcock’s fault.

EDIT: I mixed up the Islander and Predator games. JVR had the shootout winner in the Predator game NOT the Islander game. Mitch missed in that one too.

 

[egd27]

A shootout loss on the road against the #1 team in the NHL.........unacceptable!

edit: Oh yeah, without our franchise centre.

 

[BertCorbeau]

JVR is 35% in the shootout and Marner is 29%.

JVR also has 9 more goals than Marner.

JVR also won the last shootout for the team (vs Islanders). A shootout Marner missed in.

Marner also missed a penalty shot earlier in the game.

So explain to me this logic of Babcock’s fault.

Here's a fun fact:

Tampa Bay used Ryan Callahan first in the SO - the same old Callahan with 4 goal on the year, and has not had a shootout attempt all season.

Tampa Bay did not use Steven Stamkos who is 2/3 in the shootout this year.

Yet they still won the SO.

It's a crapshoot.

 

[Walshy7]

JVR is 35% in the shootout and Marner is 29%.

JVR also has 9 more goals than Marner.

JVR also won the last shootout for the team (vs Islanders). A shootout Marner missed in.

Marner also missed a penalty shot earlier in the game.

So explain to me this logic of Babcock’s fault.

its purely wanting to see marner get a shot, nothing based on better player. Marner isn't great at shootouts he only has one move and a good goalie doesn't bite on his move. Nylander same thing he has 2 moves but they aren't different enough to worry a good goalie like vas. JVR's move was horrendous but it was a different move he doesn't do the same thing every time.

 

[Drytoast]

I thought Willy's line was incredible.

They skated Stammer's line to the ground and you could see how frustrated Stamkos was. I'm extremely pleased with Kappy's level of play lately. He brings a whole new weapon to our team.

Speed. Speed. And more speed.

 

[ShaneFalco]

It is a crapshoot. Still wish they'd get rid of it. If it's not used in the playoffs, why the regular season?

 

[Clark4Ever]

The Nylander line didn't look good yesterday. I'd give it another shot tonight and then decide whether or not to put Marner back.

 

[The Examiner]

Here's a fun fact:

Tampa Bay used Ryan Callahan first in the SO - the same old Callahan with 4 goal on the year, and has not had a shootout attempt all season.

Tampa Bay did not use Steven Stamkos who is 2/3 in the shootout this year.

Yet they still won the SO.

It's a crapshoot.

I agree. It’s definitely a crapshoot.

My issue is blaming the loss on Babcock because he put JVR over Marner.

 

[The Examiner]

its purely wanting to see marner get a shot, nothing based on better player. Marner isn't great at shootouts he only has one move and a good goalie doesn't bite on his move. Nylander same thing he has 2 moves but they aren't different enough to worry a good goalie like vas. JVR's move was horrendous but it was a different move he doesn't do the same thing every time.

This is it.

I’m noticing that a lot on this board. People don’t get what they want and they throw a temper tantrum.

“The team is 4th overall but they didn’t put my favourite player on the power play. Babcock sucks!”

It’s pathetic.

 

[BertCorbeau]

I thought Willy's line was incredible.

They skated Stammer's line to the ground and you could see how frustrated Stamkos was. I'm extremely pleased with Kappy's level of play lately. He brings a whole new weapon to our team.

Speed. Speed. And more speed.

To be honest, outside of OT, I didn't think Stammer was that noticeable and was really surprised to hear he played 27 minutes.

 

[Drytoast]

To be honest, outside of OT, I didn't think Stammer was that noticeable and was really surprised to hear he played 27 minutes.

His line did generate a goal from what I remember...but there were more than a few times he tried skating through the neutral zone only to get back checked by Kappy who caught him.

And his PP unit was useless.

 

[Babcocks Marner]

I get what everyone is saying about the 5-3.
However, re-watching it, I am pretty sure the plan was to have Willy and Mitch together, probably for some solid time of that 5-3, but the other line couldn't get off
I don't get putting Kadri out as the 5th guy after the penalty, but it's not really the end of the world.
It's not like Kadri is a scrub.
As for the shootout, Mitch and JVR have super similar numbers, so again, no point crying over spilled milk.

 

[Marshy]

Maybe in the playoffs Matthews plays 27 minutes in a close game and they pull out a nail-biter 1 goal win.

Wait who am I kidding?

 

[Pi]

Willy's allowed to have a bad game while learning the C spot.

He wasn't even that bad. Definitely could have done better on the first goal but deflections happen, had no chance on the third goal against and still almost got it. Thought he did good considering he was up against Stamkos all night. I didn't see Stamkos have a great game on ES either. It was sloppy for both teams.

No idea why a player like Polak who doesn't have much talent besides icing the puck and playing physical would try a pass like that.

 

[Daisy Jane]

It is a crapshoot. Still wish they'd get rid of it. If it's not used in the playoffs, why the regular season?

because something something, people love it!
and something something "ties are wrong"

 

[Walshy7]

I thought Willy's line was incredible.

They skated Stammer's line to the ground and you could see how frustrated Stamkos was. I'm extremely pleased with Kappy's level of play lately. He brings a whole new weapon to our team.

Speed. Speed. And more speed.

I agree, a few posters trying to pin a lot onto nylander especially the 3rd tampa goal. Nylander made a mistake on the 1st goal for sure, there was nothing he could do about Polaks inexcusably bad 2ft pass on the 3rd goal. The kid is learning to play C yet there are 3 or 4 posters who think he should be Bergeron level 2way already. They were good mostly a couple of bad shifts, he still has not done anything to suggest he cant play C long term.

Kappy was fantastic, I think he could move into babcock son territory by the end of the season and once he does that he very well could displace hyman with Matthews. Hyman was his usual hard working self

 

[Pi]

I agree, a few posters trying to pin a lot onto nylander especially the 3rd tampa goal. Nylander made a mistake on the 1st goal for sure, there was nothing he could do about Polaks inexcusably bad 2ft pass on the 3rd goal. The kid is learning to play C yet there are 3 or 4 posters who think he should be Bergeron level 2way already. They were good mostly a couple of bad shifts, he still has not done anything to suggest he cant play C long term.

Kappy was fantastic, I think he could move into babcock son territory by the end of the season and once he does that he very well could displace hyman with Matthews. Hyman was his usual hard working self

Nylander's game proves he's going to be a long term C for the Leafs. We are never going to ask him to go against the top defenders when Matthews is healthy. He'll be taking advantage of the weaker pairings just like Kane, Malkin etc do for their teams.

If he's at worst breaking even (I think he's doing better than that) against tougher match ups, you can tell how great he's going to do when he's not facing those match ups.

 

[X66]

I actually didn't like any of the goals Andersen let in last night. I can probably give him a bit of a break on the first goal, but that's how I felt.

 

[BertCorbeau]

His line did generate a goal from what I remember...but there were more than a few times he tried skating through the neutral zone only to get back checked by Kappy who caught him.

And his PP unit was useless.

Yeah it was at the beginning of the game and I was thinking "here we go" but he was nullified otherwise.

Kappy proved he needs bigger minutes with his speed and defensive acumen last night. I think he's going up in Babcock's books.

 

[Critical13]

Regarding Corsi: I agree that it doesn't tell the full story of a game, but I think it does a lot of the leg work. What I saw lined up pretty well with the corsi stats.

It even opened my eyes to my own bias regarding Nylander - he had an awful, awful game. I was to busy defending him to notice.

I am not in the Nylander hype camp, so take this as you may, but in my opinion, you are blaming Nylander for something he doesn't have a lot of control over. He's on a line with a rookie and a puck retriever, and spent a lot of time on the ice with Polak, Gardiner and Zaitsev, who all had a rough outings. He's a 2nd year player, and is playing only his...5th? game as a centre. He's lining up against one of the best offensive teams, and saw a lot of ice against the big boys.

He was in a position to "fail" last night, and all it proved to me was that he can't carry a line at that level yet as a C. He's not Sundin or Matthews. Beyond that, when I isolated and just watched his play, I thought he was alright. I liked his positioning, however he lost too many battles. He seemed to be on his heels and not his toes.

I make the same argument about Drouin...people laugh at that trade, but is there any wonder he's struggling on that awful Habs team while Sergachev plays shelted minutes on the top team in the league? Do people really think that if you reversed them, it wouldn't be Sergachev struggling and Drouin would be lighting it up? I don't like zeroing in on a single player too much in hockey, I think more than most sports, the individual is influenced by the quality of his teammates.