Pre-Game Talk: Lightning vs Leafs | January 28th, 7pm EST | TSN

[Muston Atthews]

Phil kessel left the ice limping 10 minutes ago and has yet to return. #TMLTalk

...................

 

[Peasy]

^ Dudes an ironman, not worried about it.

First game against the Lightning this year IIRC. Weird considering its halfway through the season already...

 

[ThrillinPhil]

David Alter ‏@DavidAlter590 5m
Phil Kessel will not return to practice. Nazem Kadri taking his spot at practice switching to a white jersey.

 

[LeafsMonster]

Oh godd please don't be too seriously injured kessel

 

[BonMorrison]

Well guys who were arguing about injured players, looks like we're gonna get our answer.

 

[Pi]

Well guys who were arguing about injured players, looks like we're gonna get our answer.

Don't worry. The good thing about soft players like Patrick Kane, Kessel etc is that they are never injured.

 

[Felstead]

That's great, I'm going to the game tomorow and if my fav player isn't playing, that's bs!

 

[ACC1224]

That's great, I'm going to the game tomorow and if my fav player isn't playing, that's bs!

Kessel's not playing? or is Bolland your favourite player?

 

[Pinto]

No worries...

David Alter ‏@DavidAlter590 50s
Phil Kessel has returned.

Paul Hendrick ‏@HennyTweets 1m
Phil's back !! #TMLTalk

 

[Felstead]

Kessel's not playing? or is Bolland your favourite player?

Said "if". Not stating he isn't. Nt one for panic ever, but I want to atleast get my best bang for the huge dollars I spent.

 

[Schennanigans]

Thats a relief.

 

[Peasy]

Oh look hes back, this isnt the first time Phil has left practice.

 

[ACC1224]

Said "if". Not stating he isn't. Nt one for panic ever, but I want to atleast get my best bang for the huge dollars I spent.

Hope it's a good one for you. I dumped it, never enjoyed Tampa games.

 

[Felstead]

Hope it's a good one for you. I dumped it, never enjoyed Tampa games.

It always is everytime I go, which isn't too often, ovechkin potted a hat trick last time so I can do without stammer. Takin the girlfriend

 

[Muston Atthews]

now jvr is injured

James van Riemsdyk forced to leave practice with an apparent injury. Seemed to tweak something in leg during drill.

 

[Bardown warrior]

now jvr is injured

James van Riemsdyk forced to leave practice with an apparent injury. Seemed to tweak something in leg during drill.

I was wondering when he would get hurt... it seems inevitable with JVR, although he has managed to dodge the injury bug while in Toronto. Fans in philly hated the guy because he was always hurt

 

[Jazz Jackrabbit]

rip, season

 

[Pinto]

Jonas Siegel ‏@jonasTSN1050 47s
Carlyle says Kessel and JVR should be fine for tomorrow.

James Mirtle ‏@mirtle 5m
Carlyle says Kessel and JVR have been nursing injuries lately.

 

[Delicious Dangles*]

Talk about not using injuries as an excuse for failure.

Lightning are the poster child to support this, as missing Stamkos one of the best players on the planet and not missing a beat as a team tied for 2nd in the Eastern conference standings.

Our Leafs are not missing a Stamkos but are not able to keep up with the Lightening. TB finished 3rd last overall last season while the Leafs made the playoffs.

Why are TB outperforming the Leafs this year?

Replacing a bunch of players, especially all from certain positions all at once, are MUCH harder to replace than a single player, regardless of the quality of that player.

Tampa has actually not had to deal with much adversity this year.

Tampa's goaltending is night and day from last year, which perfectly explains their rise in the standings.

 

[Paradoc]

Please be alright JVR and Kessel

 

[Delicious Dangles*]

TB was a bottom 5 lottery team last season, just like our Leafs the prior one (Rielly), why aren't we seeing similar team improvement with goaltending improvement?

The Leafs saw the improvement last year, when they started getting solid goaltending, just like Tampa is this year, now that they are receiving solid goaltending.

If not for Bernier (7th best sv%) would Leafs be a lottery team? Similarly if Leafs were missing their best player Kessel for months would they be better or worse in the standings?

We have no way of knowing, so there is no reason for continuous negative speculation.

What we do know is that team performance has very little correlation to singular injuries (except goalies), regardless of the player quality.

To give a real life example, a team will struggle MUCH more with their top-3 centers out (Leafs), than a team will missing one of the best players in the world (Lightning).

 

[zeke]

TB and TOR were the two teams most savaged by horrific goaltending for most of the last decade. Leafs finally fixed it with reimer and now bernier, and now it looks like the bolts have done the same with bishop.

Its nice to see.

Its just a crying shame that both teams sabotaged themselves for so long with incompetent goaltending.

 

[Sonofamitch]

Massive game

 

[mikebel111*]

Please be alright JVR and Kessel

Based on randy comments, they should be fine

 

[LeafOfBread]

My biggest concern with JVR and Kessel is the fact that they won't have any rest. With how much JVR gets banged around during games (especially against teams like Boston), I'm sure he's probably hurting and could use a little time off if it was possible but obviously he's going to keep playing through it (he basically did the same thing when he had a pretty bad hip problem in Philly). Kessel has seemed off/hurt at times this season as well. There's been a few times at practice this year where both had to leave the ice because it seemed like they were in pain.

It would've been nice if they could just stay home for the break and rest up, but oh well, that's life. At least other stars will likely be worn out as well.