Canadian Division (Canada Cup) Part IX

[NyQuil]

Edmonton or Ottawa?

Yeah, we had some hilarious goaltending, especially early on.

 

[AvroArrow]

You guys won for most of the season with the goalies you had.

The timing isn't great for a goaltending slump, I'll grant you, but better now than 3 weeks from now.

The PP was actually doing well and we were outscoring our bad goaltenders. Freddy was just as bad as Rittich, no exaggeration. But our PP was just scoring at an absurd rate, the PP has cooled off now and the goalies are even worse now than before.

Freddy .897 on the year
Rittich .877
Campbell .919 on the year, not bad right ? Look at his last 4. .875, .500, .875, .844

Our only hope is Campbell can go back to being at least average, but nothing suggests that it's gonna happen.

 

[34]

Yeah, we had some hilarious goaltending, especially early on.

I wouldn’t laugh, it is still better than Toronto’s.

 

[Fatass]

Your theory makes sense but I am not sure that will be the outcome. All the other teams in the Canadian division have fantastic goaltenders that have the ability to steal games. That is how you win in the playoffs, not by playing run and gun high-risk hockey.

Imo the only goalie better than a well rested Freddy is Hellebuck.
I don’t think Price is what he once was, and I’m not at all confident in what the Oilers have in goal. It’s just a scenario I can see happening. A rested Freddy comes in, plays great, and the Leafs move on.

 

[c9777666]

Pains me to say but the Leafs goaltending will waste a good opportunity to advance through the division and into the semi's.
Campbell had a nice few weeks but has fallen off hard, Rittich is strictly backup material and Freddie is a giant question mark. There's no way the team can have any confidence in any of them at this point. It has to be disheartening to outplay the opponent and watch the goalies piss games away. If i were in charge i would put more emphasis on drafting and developing goalies because the really good ones rarely come available and we haven't produced one of our own in ages. I don't know if any decent ones will hit the UFA market this summer but if not, Dubas has to find a way to acquire one from somewhere. Maybe even try a European if nothing is available here. It's too late to address the problem this season but you just can't go into next year relying on any of the current group for anything other than the backup role. I honestly have no confidence in the Leafs regardless of the playoff opponent unless somehow one of the goalies can raise their game to average, and i don't see that happening.
I could see Helly and the Jets forwards rolling through the division and into the semi's.

The Jets are like the 2014 Avalanche with Varlamov- heavily reliant on shooting percentage and Helly basically having an unsustainable save percentage despite giving up high-danger scoring chances.

Many say if TOR gets to round 3, they'd be outmatched by their opponent- who's to say WPG's tendency to give up high danger chances doesn't sink them too if they get that far?

The Jets have to cut down on that unless they think Helle can bail out their leaky defensive corps esp. with no more Big Buff.

Plus, I don't trust Paul Maurice as a coach.

 

[Fatass]

Yeah, we had some hilarious goaltending, especially early on.

I really like the Sens. Very fast young team. Lots there to look forward to, that’s for sure.

 

[34]

Imo the only goalie better than a well rested Freddy is Hellebuck.
I don’t think Price is what he once was, and I’m not at all confident in what the Oilers have in goal. It’s just a scenario I can see happening. A rested Freddy comes in, plays great, and the Leafs move on.

I am surprised you have that much faith in Freddy Andersen. That is more than most Leaf fans.

I hate to say it, but I think it will be Edmonton and Winnipeg coming out of the North division.

 

[Fatass]

Do we know which divisions match up in the semis?

 

[NyQuil]

I really like the Sens. Very fast young team. Lots there to look forward to, that’s for sure.

Well, it’s hard to tell because, on the one hand, the post deadline team is the one the fans wanted all along and they are playing much better.

On the other hand, we had tremendous turnover and insufficient prep at the beginning to the season so it may be a bit unfair to those players who played in those atrocious games at the onset.

It remains to be seen if the younger and faster version of the Sens is here to stay or that it’s just a hot streak that coincided with getting rid of a lot of the old and slow.

 

[Fatass]

I am surprised you have that much faith in Freddy Andersen. That is more than most Leaf fans.

I hate to say it, but I think it will be Edmonton and Winnipeg coming out of the North division.

I can see the Jets wing, because of Helle. The Oilers have two fabuloûs players, but are kind of thin after that, and their goaltending is very questionable.
I see Leafs v Jets, and the Leafs winning, providing Freddy is in goal. He can match saves with Helle. And the Jets don’t have a Reilly level D man.

 

[NyQuil]

You can win a series without your goalie stealing any games but it’s hard to win a Cup without it.

 

[Fatass]

Well, it’s hard to tell because the post deadline team is the one the fans wanted all along and they are playing much better.

On the other hand, we had tremendous turnover and insufficient prep at the beginning to the season so it may be a bit unfair to those players who played in those atrocious games in that early part of the season.

It remains to be seen if the younger and faster version of the Sens is here to stay or that it’s just a hot streak that coincided with getting rid of a lot of the old and slow.

I remember Tortorella, when coaching out here in
Van, saying “it’s a young man’s game.” Of course those young guys need to be good, but the Sens have lots of good young players, and more on the way.

 

[c9777666]

Do we know which divisions match up in the semis?

They will not. The final four will be re-seeded based on regular season point totals, 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3.

Hypothetically, we could have a Tampa Bay/Washington or Toronto/Boston Stanley Cup Finals

 

[c9777666]

Well, it’s hard to tell because, on the one hand, the post deadline team is the one the fans wanted all along and they are playing much better.

On the other hand, we had tremendous turnover and insufficient prep at the beginning to the season so it may be a bit unfair to those players who played in those atrocious games in that early part of the season.

It remains to be seen if the younger and faster version of the Sens is here to stay or that it’s just a hot streak that coincided with getting rid of a lot of the old and slow.

They're basically a .500 team when they don't have to play Edmonton.

 

[NyQuil]

They're basically a .500 team when they don't have to play Edmonton.

I’m curious to see how we do against Vancouver who are also unbeaten against us.

COVID complications aside, it’ll be interesting to see if we’ve made any progress.

The Edmonton games are a bit funny because we managed to outplay them in a few but got torched by McD and D anyway.

Smith stood on his head in our last match-up.

 

[Fourier]

I can see the Jets wing, because of Helle. The Oilers have two fabuloûs players, but are kind of thin after that, and their goaltending is very questionable.
I see Leafs v Jets, and the Leafs winning, providing Freddy is in goal. He can match saves with Helle. And the Jets don’t have a Reilly level D man.

Smith has been fantastic this year. And he has historically been very good in the playoffs. Koskinen was a basket case when he had no one backing him up. This has been a pattern when he has been over worked. But in the 9 games since Smith came back Koskinen is 5-4 with a .925 sv% and a 2.47 GAA. It could go sour but right now the Oiler's goaltending has been very good for most of the season.

 

[bukwas]

The Jets are like the 2014 Avalanche with Varlamov- heavily reliant on shooting percentage and Helly basically having an unsustainable save percentage despite giving up high-danger scoring chances.

Many say if TOR gets to round 3, they'd be outmatched by their opponent- who's to say WPG's tendency to give up high danger chances doesn't sink them too if they get that far?

The Jets have to cut down on that unless they think Helle can bail out their leaky defensive corps esp. with no more Big Buff.

Plus, I don't trust Paul Maurice as a coach.

Oh they'll need Helly on top of his game but he's shown he's capable and reasonably consistent at being there. By round 3 teams are getting into the possibility of attrition playing a sizable role so who knows how things shape up at that point. I still like the Leafs with decent goaltending i just don't have confidence on anyone providing it. Hopefully somebody proves me wrong but there's no way i'd count on it happening.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Yeah, we had some hilarious goaltending, especially early on.

I was looking at Murray's game log. Apparently he's 7-4 in his last 11 games. His numbers since the horrific 10-ish game start aren't all that bad.

 

[WillTheThrill]

Is the first round of playoffs 5 games or 7?

 

[34]

I really like the Sens. Very fast young team. Lots there to look forward to, that’s for sure.

Stutzle is going to be a superstar.

 

[NyQuil]

I was looking at Murray's game log. Apparently he's 7-4 in his last 11 games. His numbers since the horrific 10-ish game start aren't all that bad.

He’s had three starts since returning from injury and looked pretty solid.

Fingers crossed because that contract is still pretty significant.

 

[34]

I can see the Jets wing, because of Helle. The Oilers have two fabuloûs players, but are kind of thin after that, and their goaltending is very questionable.
I see Leafs v Jets, and the Leafs winning, providing Freddy is in goal. He can match saves with Helle. And the Jets don’t have a Reilly level D man.

The Jets are the best team in the division for sure. Smith likely steps up in the playoffs for the Oilers as well.

The Leafs are a fragile team with skill up front. That is about all.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

He’s had three starts since returning from injury and looked pretty solid.

Fingers crossed because that contract is still pretty significant.

Bierk making a difference?

I don't know about the technical side of the goalie position to recognize whether Bierk has Murray doing anything differently than the previous goalie coach.

 

[Paperbagofglory]

I didn’t say any of that. I said fix your goaltending or stop crying about it.

We were rioting from our Game 7 Stanley Cup final loss. When was the last year you were even in the finals? Were The Beatles on tour?

Wow you sound like a hipster. We used to riot before it was cool.

 

[NyQuil]

Bierk making a difference?

I don't know about the technical side of the goalie position to recognize whether Bierk has Murray doing anything differently than the previous goalie coach.

It’s an interesting wrinkle to the whole story.

Some Sens fans, who are a cynical bunch, thought that it was a bit of an attempt to distract blame away from Dorion’s role in bringing Matt in.

The statement wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy:

“Unfortunately, a number of our goaltending performances this season have been underwhelming,” Senators general manager Pierre Dorion said in a media release issued Tuesday, an off-day from practice. “I think very highly of Pierre Groulx, he’s as dedicated and tireless a worker as anyone in the organization, but we recently reached a point where we thought a fresh outlook could help return some stability to our crease.”

Also, Bierk has a history with DJ Smith whereas Groulx was Boucher’s guy.

But Murray has looked better, so who knows?

It’s hard to think that there would be this kind of impact so quickly, but as you say, I don’t know a lot about the techniques of goalie coaches.

Anecdotally, I think the Sens have moved the puck out of their zone much more quickly with Brannstrom and Mete in place of Gudbranson and Coburn and I think the number of shots against has been lower.

One may have something to do with the other.