Post-Game Talk: Fought to get one point back!

[bunjay]

Crosby/Malkin/Letang/Neal got nothing on Jay Mcclement.

He was incredible shorthanded last night. And Carlyle even smartened up and bumped him down significantly in even strength icetime.

 

[LeafOfBread]

That was a fun game to watch.

Thought Dion had an incredible game and did a great job at defending Crosby. Everybody else? Not so much. His defense was really good last night and the offense was just gravy. I am glad Carlyle finally took Holzer off the pairing, he's been dragging down Dion quite a bit. Franson and Dion looked pretty solid together. I don't think I would mind seeing more of that.

Up and down night for Reimer. Looked great after allowing the 4th goal but he gave up some really weak ones. Solid offensive nights from Kessel and Mac.

The team collectively needs to stop allowing so many shots. It can't be considered good defense when you are consistenly giving up that many shots a game. They need to play a bit more of a puck posession game where you are controlling the game and not letting the opposition do what they want.

Agreed. You know a big reason why we have no puck possession? We have no PMD playing! A PMD goes a long way in carrying the play from the back-end and we don't have a guy who can rush it from end to end, like Gardiner or even Liles. It's frustrating as hell to watch, seeing all these shut down d-men (with the exception of Franson) get hemmed in their own zone.

In recent games, the only time we can actually manage decent puck possession is when Kadri's line + Franson have been on the ice together. Franson's got a nice outlet pass and Kadri is silky smooth at carrying the puck.

I'm getting ****ing tired of watching Gardiner rot while Holzer is up here getting hemmed in his own zone constantly. I like Holzer and I think he will be a decent #4-#5 guy, but he needs more time and he should NOT be on the first pairing.

The only game in the last few weeks where we haven't gotten dominated in shots and puck possession was, ironically, the Boston game. We actually played pretty well, but the few brain farts made by the defense where they got hemmed in their zone and were out of position (twice it was Holzer) cost us the game.

 

[Leafs Forever]

Ummm...no. This is not flipping a coin. This is something where there is a roughly 20% average chance of success, and it's not just completely random. When you've scored 2 goals in under 40 seconds of PP time, a team (particularly the goalie) starts trying a LOT harder to prevent the next one. There is a reason that teams don't score 3 PP goals in a game very often.

Not saying that there is necessarily an increase chance of success, just that the odds do not decrease because previous attempts have been successful.

And at the same time, accomplishing that feat is indicative of a power play that is clearly performing and likely to have a ton of confidence to play well, and/or a penalty killing that is shakey in confidence and might not play well as a result. It is situational, and you can't really state that the opposing PK will necessarily perform better and/or the PP will perform worse in this scenario with certainty.

Scoring 3 PP goals doesn't happen often because it's hard to do, when you have to put that number from 0 PP goals to 3 PP goals. It's a lot easier to put the number from 2PP goals to 3 PP goals.

Irony alert. Even the most basic independent probability with no external factors tells you that if you have basically a 1 in 5 chance of a result, getting it 3 out of 4 times is highly unlikely. The chance of success in each individual try is the same, the probability of going 3/4 or better is exponentially less with every attempt.

Exactly- the success of each individual try is the same. I don't really want to argue that our chances of scoring on the PP a 3rd time was more likely than normal. I am arguing that it is stupid to say that our chances go down because previous attempts succeeded, and that is not how probability works.

To put it another way, if you roll two dice, you have a 1/36 chance of rolling a 12. You also have a 1/1296 chance of rolling two 12 results in a row, but that doesn't change the fact that each individual dice roll has a 1/36 chance.

If you successfully roll a 12 on your first roll, it does not impact the odds of the second roll. The chances of rolling a 12 on the second roll is still 1/36.

 

[Eb]

Kessel was flying last night and aggressive. I loved it.

 

[leafspring*]

It didn't look very promising after 1 period, but the boys finangled a point out of it.

A team with a reputation of being physical shouldn't come out flat as much as they have made a habit of doing. They need more jump out of the gate on a consistant basis.

Reimer battled for that point after looking pretty shakey too. We take the point and run.

 

[Sergei Berezin]

Man, Kessel in the third was something else. I loved the one play where drove to the outside and actually leaned on the defenceman! His outside speed is so deadly... wish he wasn't afraid of using it.

I kept wondering why they didn't throw out JVR in OT? Does anything think he might've got injured on that Malkin hit? He went down awkwardly, too.

Gotta love Reimer's effort in the third. He knew he was shaky, and during the 2nd intermission, I was thinking about how this is a big moment for Reimer. Everyone has shaky games, it's whether you can battle through it that separates you from a mediocre goalie. Reimer really battled in the third to help the team get the 1 point.

Still bitter about some of the missed calls, though. I mean, is it possible that they put the whistles away after realizing that the Leafs PP was running hot? On that note, WTF was up with the ref handing Crosby his helmet at the end of the third?

 

[MapleLeafs9]

Man, Kessel in the third was something else. I loved the one play where drove to the outside and actually leaned on the defenceman! His outside speed is so deadly... wish he wasn't afraid of using it.

I kept wondering why they didn't throw out JVR in OT? Does anything think he might've got injured on that Malkin hit? He went down awkwardly, too.

Gotta love Reimer's effort in the third. He knew he was shaky, and during the 2nd intermission, I was thinking about how this is a big moment for Reimer. Everyone has shaky games, it's whether you can battle through it that separates you from a mediocre goalie. Reimer really battled in the third to help the team get the 1 point.

Still bitter about some of the missed calls, though. I mean, is it possible that they put the whistles away after realizing that the Leafs PP was running hot? On that note, WTF was up with the ref handing Crosby his helmet at the end of the third?

No he didn't miss a shift after the hit. It's just that in 4 on 4 they needed to have Bozak at centre, and of course they are going to put Kessel on the wing.

 

[Warden of the North]

Pretty sure I saw one shift in OT where we iced 3 F with JvR playing on the left point. As OT was pretty back in forth he didnt jump up often on it.

 

[mix1home]

How was that 'bashing' anything? You're that sensitive? We were already 2-for-3, what are the chances of going 3-for-4? Pretty low. You've gotta be some kind of moron to think a couple PP goals in a row means you're going to continue scoring at 3x the rate of the typical #1 powerplay percentage in the NHL.

I'm sorry to get into your conversation, but for whatever odd reason teams score 4-on-3 much more often than 5-on-4. Not to mention that our PP was on a roll. So I would have liked our chances.

 

[hockeyfanz*]

Interesting reading the different perspectives of the game...I thought it was a very entertaining game and the Leafs were fortunate to gain the point...Pittsburgh was dominant the first two periods and the Leafs won the third...if it were boxing the Pens easily win in points...(punches and counterpunches)...Unfortunately I missed the OT cause I had to pick up my kid at the movies but listened to it on the radio...sounded like I missed a whale of an OT...got home in time to see the shootout. Crosby's shot was incredible. It seems to be trending where the Leafs are badly outplayed but somehow they stick around and pull it out or make it a game.....I dont like the trend.

 

[Duffman955]

Despite scoring 4 goals, Pitts had very few quality chances. 2-3 of the goals were soft and were not even good chances

 

[marquee]

Man, Kessel in the third was something else. I loved the one play where drove to the outside and actually leaned on the defenceman! His outside speed is so deadly... wish he wasn't afraid of using it.

I kept wondering why they didn't throw out JVR in OT? Does anything think he might've got injured on that Malkin hit? He went down awkwardly, too.

Gotta love Reimer's effort in the third. He knew he was shaky, and during the 2nd intermission, I was thinking about how this is a big moment for Reimer. Everyone has shaky games, it's whether you can battle through it that separates you from a mediocre goalie. Reimer really battled in the third to help the team get the 1 point.

Still bitter about some of the missed calls, though. I mean, is it possible that they put the whistles away after realizing that the Leafs PP was running hot? On that note, WTF was up with the ref handing Crosby his helmet at the end of the third?

He's been fighting pucks the whole year. Ill admitt he bounced back in the 3rd period and made timely saves that the team needed. But this game just proves why we still need a #1 goalie.

 

[LeafShark]

He's been fighting pucks the whole year. Ill admitt he bounced back in the 3rd period and made timely saves that the team needed. But this game just proves why we still need a #1 goalie.

Even Luongo has bad games... Even Brodeur lets in bad goals... 11th and 12th in save percentage isn't good enough?

 

[CanadasTeam]

Oops...

Seth Rorabaugh ‏@emptynetters
Bylsma: Malkin has an "upper-body" injury and will be sidelined approximately 1-2 weeks.
Retweeted by James Mirtle

 

[Ari91]

I was watching the Pens post game comments and both Crosby and Letang said that despite losing the lead, the team played well and it was one of their best defensive games recently. How bad have they been that that game was considered one of their best defensively? They were talking about how some of the goals scored against them were lucky yet ALL of the goals they scored were lucky because Reimer let in goals that he usually stops and gave up rebounds that he normally wouldn't or would have had better control over. Watching their vidoes I couldn't help but think how much crap the Leafs roster would get if they won a game the way Pittsburgh did and then turned around and said they played well and were pretty good defensively. They'd get eaten alive on here

 

[Hurt]

Oops...

Seth Rorabaugh ‏@emptynetters
Bylsma: Malkin has an "upper-body" injury and will be sidelined approximately 1-2 weeks.
Retweeted by James Mirtle

Not again. My fantasy pool!

 

[thewave]

Agreed. You know a big reason why we have no puck possession? We have no PMD playing! A PMD goes a long way in carrying the play from the back-end and we don't have a guy who can rush it from end to end, like Gardiner or even Liles. It's frustrating as hell to watch, seeing all these shut down d-men (with the exception of Franson) get hemmed in their own zone.

In recent games, the only time we can actually manage decent puck possession is when Kadri's line + Franson have been on the ice together. Franson's got a nice outlet pass and Kadri is silky smooth at carrying the puck.

I'm getting ****ing tired of watching Gardiner rot while Holzer is up here getting hemmed in his own zone constantly. I like Holzer and I think he will be a decent #4-#5 guy, but he needs more time and he should NOT be on the first pairing.

The only game in the last few weeks where we haven't gotten dominated in shots and puck possession was, ironically, the Boston game. We actually played pretty well, but the few brain farts made by the defense where they got hemmed in their zone and were out of position (twice it was Holzer) cost us the game.

And its funny because we have two PMD sitting on thumbs or running around Ahl rascals