Post-Game Talk: Auston Matthews. Leafs win 6-4!

[nsleaf]

What you are doing here is a classic pivot move or what many here call "moving the goal posts"....and this isnt a Leaf fan thing.

You claimed Tampa outplayed Florida. I just proved to you they didnt is all......but that doesnt mean I think the better team lost. Vasy is 100% part of Tampa and if he played for Florida, we may be talking them as the champs. You just have a really flawed way of looking at the value of playoff goaltending and also how insane it is to both acquire.....and made even worse by the fact it can disappear faster than any position in hockey (the voodoo aspect a la everyone from Jim Carey to Matt Murray). Goalies are almost a separate entity from the team that make or break all the effort put forth in front of them. You could outshoot a team 50-1 and still lose due to goaltending but you can also get fooled by apparent good goaltending as well as they can crack under pressure in big games (the biggest problem this team has faced IMO).

I don't think budget has much to do with it at all. You have to find that great goalie before you sign him to big dollars and the Leafs havnt. If you see a team with a big budget goalie, that goalie has already proved himself....and thats why the Leafs dont have one (and havnt had one for decades). Campbell looked good last playoffs until he didnt.....and looked good until mid Jan. until he didnt. You didnt see me really singing his praises that often because he has to prove himself, especially after wearing the goat horns last year...which he did. Can he turn it around? Maybe?....and it would be great to see a nice guy like him get it done too but in the end, he needs to perform. It's literally the most important position in the playoffs. The MVP position and the final fortress. If the Leafs are to win, it's going to be because their goalie finally stepped up and played like a winner....and I'm sick of seeing the ones playing like winners being in the opposition nets.

Poster claims to be a fan, but all he does is constantly shift the posts around. Poster is constantly slinging crap at the Leafs' top players. IMO, he's a Tampa fan and Leaf critic.
Every thread is infiltrated with the poster's Buzz Killington shtick.

 

[budzz]

All I know is alot of people keep hammering on the way the team is constructed with top heavy forward contracts.

Last night we won 6-4.

Matthews - 3G
Marner - 1G
Tavares - 1G
Nylander - 1G

Looks to me like the "big four" just doing their job

As for the goalies... they are not as good as the first 2 months of the season, and not as bad as the last few. I suspect it'll settle somewhere in the middle. Even Tampa with the great "Vas" have only allowed 9 less goals than us with one less game played, so there's that.

 

[Gary Nylund]

All I know is alot of people keep hammering on the way the team is constructed with top heavy forward contracts.

Last night we won 6-4.

Matthews - 3G
Marner - 1G
Tavares - 1G
Nylander - 1G

Looks to me like the "big four" just doing their job

As for the goalies... they are not as good as the first 2 months of the season, and not as bad as the last few. I suspect it'll settle somewhere in the middle. Even Tampa with the great "Vas" have only allowed 9 less goals than us with one less game played, so there's that.

If we're discussing how the team is the team is constructed, do you really think that looking at one regular season game against one of the worst teams in the league is enough to draw any conclusions? I would think that looking at the entire body of work with the current core makes more sense, and I'd also give extra weight to playoff performance, but maybe that's just me.

It's true that this season our goals against is almost the same as TB, I actually pointed that out in another post earlier today in response to a poster who said this years goaltending is the worst we've had since the 80's or something, yeah that's just not true. I would say though that when the playoffs start, the smart money is on Vasi playing like a star and it's also true that our goaltending in an alarming downward trend. It's also natural for a team that just won the cup (and especially for a team that has won two in a row) to be not so concerned about the regular season, as what they're really trying to do is win another cup so they're basically on cruise control. Despite that, they're still ahead of us in the standing, yeah that's a powerhouse team they have over there and Vasi is a big reason most people would say they have a much better shot than we do of winning the cup this year.

Anyhow, I'm not saying that we can't win with the team being constructed the way it is. That said, considering the fact that we've lost 5 playoff rounds in a row and most people are putting a huge amount of the blame for that on the goaltending, I'd say it's at least worth thinking about, that that sound reasonable?

 

[Gary Nylund]

Poster claims to be a fan, but all he does is constantly shift the posts around. Poster is constantly slinging crap at the Leafs' top players. IMO, he's a Tampa fan and Leaf critic.
Every thread is infiltrated with the poster's Buzz Killington shtick.

I've been fan of this team for 50 years sport and I post plenty of positive things about the team and our players. I try to be objective though which means I'm not adverse to pointing out the negative things also, like it or not those exist as well. If you are somehow blind to the positive things I mention and only see the negative, that says more about your mindset than anything else.

 

[budzz]

If we're discussing how the team is the team is constructed, do you really think that looking at one regular season game against one of the worst teams in the league is enough to draw any conclusions? I would think that looking at the entire body of work with the current core makes more sense, and I'd also give extra weight to playoff performance, but maybe that's just me.

It's true that this season our goals against is almost the same as TB, I actually pointed that out in another post earlier today in response to a poster who said this years goaltending is the worst we've had since the 80's or something, yeah that's just not true. I would say though that when the playoffs start, the smart money is on Vasi playing like a star and it's also true that our goaltending in an alarming downward trend. It's also natural for a team that just won the cup (and especially for a team that has won two in a row) to be not so concerned about the regular season, as what they're really trying to do is win another cup so they're basically on cruise control. Despite that, they're still ahead of us in the standing, yeah that's a powerhouse team they have over there and Vasi is a big reason most people would say they have a much better shot than we do of winning the cup this year.

Anyhow, I'm not saying that we can't win with the team being constructed the way it is. That said, considering the fact that we've lost 5 playoff rounds in a row and most people are putting a huge amount of the blame for that on the goaltending, I'd say it's at least worth thinking about, that that sound reasonable?

Yes that is absolutely reasonable, and we all have the same trepidation about goal tending. And it's also correct that Vasi has proven himself and when he gets in his groove, with that offence, he has proven to be money.

Also true that last playoffs, Price was out of his mind, and you could say we got out-goalied, but Jacks numbers were .934 save percentage and 1.81 ga. It was a bermuda triangle... no matter what the rosters, Habs always play Leafs hard. Always... and always back and forth games. That matchup terrified me from minute one. Truth is they managed to shut us down, and Losing Tavares was likely a huge factor, like losing Kadri at times in other playoffs.

Only saying our D and goalies have been in a bit of a funk, which happens to every team Tampa included. That we are managing to win games while that happens separates the great teams from the average, and other teams are not immune to these kinds of stretches. Missing a top 4 d on and off for a few months doesn't help.

While many are saying the sky is falling and our goalies are the worst since Jesus was an alter boy, I think it is a wake-up call at exactly the right time heading into the stretch.