Post-Game Talk: Leafs Shut Out Kings

[WillNy29]

Yeah, they only have a 2 point lead over Tampa Bay, but they also have 4 games in hand. They're not as close to falling out as the standings suggest.

people misrepresenting numbers to push their narrative about the leafs....I'm shocked i tell you, shocked

 

[ULF_55]

people misrepresenting numbers to push their narrative about the leafs....I'm shocked i tell you, shocked

But they could lose all the games in hand.

 

[WillNy29]

How do you calculate winning percentage?

its a good thing the league goes by POINTS percentage

 

[BraveCanadian]

Managed to stay up for all of this one and the Leafs played a really solid game defensively. Jones only had to make a couple of saves that were difficult. Nice and tidy unlike some of the games recently.

 

[Sypher04]

We needed that one.

After predictions of President trophy or at very least division win , missing playoffs is not out of the question...


+ 9 points to win the division, - 2 points to be out of the playoff picture

I don’t think many people at all had us predicted for presidents trophy but yeah the division was something many of us expected to challenge for. May yet still. But either way, no one anticipated the goaltending we’ve had from samsonov being so bad this year. If we had goaltending from samsonov similar to last regular season this year so far I’m very comfortable in saying we’d be right in line with that expectation of battling for the division lead.

Also as others have mentioned we have a bunch of games in hand you conveniently don’t mention

 

[Sypher04]

For all the hand wringing going on this year, and don’t get me wrong, some is deserved, the Leafs are still top 10 in the NHL in points percentage at the beginning of the new year. Get a couple meaningful upgrades with term before the deadline and we can still solve several of our problems and make a run of this year.

 

[Mr_Fun]

Not sure I get the trepidation about starting Hildeby in this back-to-back. He's a 22-year-old overager and the assignment is a temporary backup gig as our #4 against a bottom feeder in the other conference on the road. Tell him to go out and have fun with it. Is the risk really that great that this could ruin him?

If a bad game tonight ruins him, he isn't really cut out for the NHL.

 

[Gallagbi]

I think there is a big difference in the east between Washington/Pittsburgh and Boston/Florida....

Feels like WSH and Philly will fall off and TB, NJ will rise.

 

[Budz]

Switch marner and nylander on the zone entry Willy and matty are the best at attaccing they should be carrying it in I know it will probably piss marner off but that’ll save us 30 second

I hate the drop pass back, I think our math/analytic guys should calculate the loss of time to expected goals for.

I think a more traditional entry with urgency is still better. Just my opinion though.

 

[BayStBullies]

I'm surprised there is no pre-game thread? Either way, the Leafs need to stop blowing easy games.

I hate the drop pass back, I think our math/analytic guys should calculate the loss of time to expected goals for.

I think a more traditional entry with urgency is still better. Just my opinion though.

Agreed, I'm tired of Reilly never keeping the puck in the zone and then burning 30 seconds repeatedly failing at this cycle crap.

 

[PromisedLand]

Tried to stay up to watch the full game. After the 2nd ended; I dozed off lol

Good to see we got a shutout. Hopefully we continue with the same solid effort tonight. Noticed the TOI; doesn't seen guys were overplayed. So they should hopefully have some juice left for tonight too.

Any news who is starting in net tonight?

 

[Buds17]

If a bad game tonight ruins him, he isn't really cut out for the NHL.

I could somewhat understand the rationale of not wanting his first NHL start to be in the back half of a back-to-back in front of a "tired" team. That stated, I'd probably still lean towards starting him because of my dislike for utilizing any one goalie in this situation barring the occasion in which the team absolutely needs the two points and said goalie is clearly its #1.

 

[Al14]

But they could lose all the games in hand.

And that is the most Leafy thing they'll probably do !!!

 

[TMLife17]

I'm surprised there is no pre-game thread? Either way, the Leafs need to stop blowing easy games.


Agreed, I'm tired of Reilly never keeping the puck in the zone and then burning 30 seconds repeatedly failing at this cycle crap.

I don't know, I don't like the look and feel of it either but at the end of the day we almost always get setup in the zone for some scoring chances. I would like to see a secondary look though because I think almost all of our first unit could carry the puck into the zone. And I feel like when a zone entry fails its when they defer to JT on the left boards.

 

[Al14]

I hate the drop pass back, I think our math/analytic guys should calculate the loss of time to expected goals for.

I think a more traditional entry with urgency is still better. Just my opinion though.

Me too. In my playing and coaching time, it was a rule to keep the puck always moving towards the opposition net.

Now it's like... I'm too scared to cross the opposition blue line, here you take it and good luck.

IMHO, the LONG drop passes are WASTING significant time, especially on the power play.

 

[studebaker17]

I hate the drop pass back, I think our math/analytic guys should calculate the loss of time to expected goals for.

I think a more traditional entry with urgency is still better. Just my opinion though.

It does seem weird and you get a bit bored watching it but zone entries doesn't usually seem to be any real problem for the Leafs . Marner / Nylander are both world class in this and Mathews not to bad either .

 

[notDatsyuk]

I'm sure some of you east coaster's wouldn't have stayed up for this one as the game would have wrapped at just after 1AM EST, so I will do my best to summarize the game in its entirety.

In short, it was easily the most complete game all season. Start to finish we played a complete 200ft game with an incredible attention to detail. The last time I can recall us playing anywhere close to this was against the Canucks or Preds in November.

The thing that separates this win from the wins above were that I actually don't think LAK played all that bad. In fact I think they played quite well. They played hard, and structured as they always do. We just were better in every aspect.

Simply put, there was a complete buy in for the entire 60 minutes.

-Gio with a huge block on the PK in the 3rd
-Marner going hard into the corners and trying to physically win puck battles
-Knies drawing 2 clear and obvious no doubt penalties in the 3rd period just by out working his man
-Bertuzzi grinding along the wall to set up 2 goals
-Jonesy steadying the ship whenever there was a hint of a breakdown
-Benoit dropping the mitts, albeit he needs to pick a better time and place in the game lol. It gave life to LAK and the entire building for that matter when we realistically could have lulled them to sleep. Nonetheless, beggers can't be choosers. I will take any sort of physicality at this point.
-Literally everyone on the ice engaging physically after Matthews hit, including Marner who may have been first man in
-Kampf was a dog all night. Clearly took the HS personally
-Whenever LAK did establish the O-Zone, we kept them to the outside and never gave them an inch

The list of positives is truly as long as it's ever been after any game all season. Not really even close IMO. I am stuggling to find 1 player who didn't have a strong effort.

This needs to be the benchmark going forward. If we can find this level of consistency in all 3 zones going forward, we can compete with any team in the NHL.

More of this please.

Benoit didn't have a chance to "pick a better time" as he was confronted by Englund, who was trying to give life to his team.

No mention of Jarnkrok with the pretty goal, or Nylander with two?

 

[TMLBlueandWhite]

its a good thing the league goes by POINTS percentage

Why would I use points percentage to determine if they are a losing team?

It's great they get an extra point for losing in overtime. Good on them for that. But using points percentage only obscures their actual won-loss record.

Which, at 18-17, or one game over .500 if you prefer, isn't very good.

 

[Twine Tickler]

Benoit didn't have a chance to "pick a better time" as he was confronted by Englund, who was trying to give life to his team.

No mention of Jarnkrok with the pretty goal, or Nylander with two?

1. Benoit doesn't need to take that fight. It didn't benefit the team in any way. I love his willingness, and as I said I will take that willingness in any form at this point. So I am OK with the fight on a larger scale. That said, in a vacuum, Benoit taking a fight with less than 10 minutes to play in a 2-0 lead is exactly what you don't want to do. It serves more harm then good. As proven by the following 2-5 mins of gameplay before we were rescued by a penalty call on LA. We were well on our way to lulling the entire building to sleep, including the Kings themselves, and the fight woke everyone up. It worked out fine this time around but that is not something you want to see at that time of the game, on the road, with a 2 goal lead against a very good LA team. Again, I love Benoit's willingness and desire to step up, so beggers cannot be choosers in that sense. He's just gotta be a bit smarter on the timing.

2. Of course Willy and Jarny had great games. I was trying to bring to light some of the more detail oriented aspects of the game that have been largely absent all season. ie the puck battles, the physical engagement, outworking the opponent etc..

 

[therealkoho]

I had no idea Cassie Campbell was a Colour Commentator in the US.
Does she do all Kings games?

Don't know, but I think she has said goodbye to HNiC

 

[PromisedLand]

Paging mitch marner to please wake the F up

 

[therealkoho]

I personally think that’s pretty debatable. I think Matthews, Nylander and Knies together was better, but 34 & 88 have been our best two forwards this year so I don’t think that should be surprising.

Sure but I think the coach might know a thing or two, wouldn't he?

 

[ITM]

Speaking of the Kings; Bjornfot was waived.

Surely that's an opportunity if available we take?

 

[Strangle]

If Benoit continues to step up physically like this and play solid D, he will become a legend in this town very quickly.

Paging mitch marner to please wake the F up

This looked set to me?

 

[AvroArrow]

Late night games suck lmao missed the entire game but glad to see the result.