Post-Game Talk: Game 1, Leafs lose 4-3 .. Come up short in the shootout

[Trapper]

Trouble with this team is the guys responsible for getting us the 3-1 leads are also the guys responsible for giving it away. Your top 6 stars can't be doing that. Orr and McLaren aren't the ones on the ice for 3 goals against.

 

[7even]

Trouble with this team is the guys responsible for getting us the 3-1 leads are also the guys responsible for giving it away. Your top 6 stars can't be doing that. Orr and McLaren aren't the ones on the ice for 3 goals against.

Never judge a team by a preseason.

 

[Stephen]

Trouble with this team is the guys responsible for getting us the 3-1 leads are also the guys responsible for giving it away. Your top 6 stars can't be doing that. Orr and McLaren aren't the ones on the ice for 3 goals against.

Kadri was really frustrating as usual. Looked all world in the opening minutes and then just seemed satisfied for a while, floated around, dangled like an idiot, stopped skating. Then he re-engages and almost wins it on two rushes in OT, strips a guy of the puck, etc.

How about some ground rules: 1) no dangling when standing still, 2) no dangling when protecting a lead 3) don't take off any shifts.

Kessel is Kessel, Nylander is a little reminiscent of Kadri, seems to force the offense a little too much, JVR looked pretty good.

 

[Incetardis]

I think you're right for the most part: it is just preseason, but with the loser-y loosey goosey culture hardcoded into the Leafs culture by now, it's hard to tell if they have an ON switch as a team.

Agreed but if you think about the guys they brought in to up the compete level and right the ship when the offensive guys are sleepwalking (Komarov, Winnik, Polak, Robidas, etc) none of them were in the lineup so I'm not ready to say that its the same old same old yet

 

[Trapper]

Never judge a team by a preseason.

I'm kinda basing that on the last 5 years.

 

[sommervr]

Blah. Everyone played like they were hungover.

 

[leafsfuture]

BTW... id sooner have McKegg and Leivo (though Leivo was very sluggish in the 1st and 2nd) wearing the big club jersey before Kontiola

 

[Stephen]

Agreed but if you think about the guys they brought in to up the compete level and right the ship when the offensive guys are sleepwalking (Komarov, Winnik, Polak, Robidas, etc) none of them were in the lineup so I'm not ready to say that its the same old same old yet

You might be right about the people brought in to bring up the compete level. But the fact that our core needs energy guys to keep the offensive guys awake is not that encouraging.

 

[Stephen]

BTW... id sooner have McKegg and Leivo (though Leivo was very sluggish in the 1st and 2nd) wearing the big club jersey before Kontiola

It's still very early, but you're right. He looks like a creation of the internal hype machine like Rickard Wallin or Jonas Frogren. No name Euros who are no name for a reason...

 

[weems]

BTW... id sooner have McKegg and Leivo (though Leivo was very sluggish in the 1st and 2nd) wearing the big club jersey before Kontiola

Kontiola has been extremely dissapointing.

Slow, hardly any offensive creativity and not much in terms of physical play.

He played with the teams 2 best forwards tonight and was still very invisible.

 

[FlareKnight]

In the end it was not a pretty game. Very much getting outplayed in a similar fashion to the previous year.

Sure, the Sens players had a lot to be playing for, but so should some of our guys. Not everyone in our lineup has a roster spot locked up or anything.

 

[Swervin81]

Kontiola has been really slow and sluggish. He might just be even slower than Jason Allison.

 

[TNCHL]

Worried because we were heavily outshot and I hate that so much

 

[HockeyCA]

Essentially you didn't like anybody?

If Reimer is in net, we absolutely win. Thought a few guys stood out amongst the forwards. On D, Loov struggled, Franson with the terrible turnover, Gardner looked pretty good. Kadri and Kessell are completely one-dimensional, unfortunately. JVR looks like a guy you can win with.

 

[leafsfuture]

It's still very early, but you're right. He looks like a creation of the internal hype machine like Rickard Wallin or Jonas Frogren. No name Euros who are no name for a reason...

After smashing Kontiola I will come to his defense -- his play at the Olympics and WC was no aberration. The guy has ability, its just that he has absolutely zero AGILITY and ACCELERATION, two things which are vital on small ice.

On larger ice its obvious he benefits greatly from extra space he has. Hes simply not built for the NHL

 

[HockeyCA]

You might be right about the people brought in to bring up the compete level. But the fact that our core needs energy guys to keep the offensive guys awake is not that encouraging.

Did you catch that quote by Carlyle? He wants team toughness. I tough team to play against, a team that plays hard every shift, every night. He wants a team that can go into any building in the league and compete. We have some of those guys, some of the others I'm not too sure. I know its the preseason, but some guys we have still aren't physical, they don't cycle the puck, they sometimes float.

 

[Trapper]

Essentially you didn't like anybody?

If Reimer is in net, we absolutely win. Thought a few guys stood out amongst the forwards. On D, Loov struggled, Franson with the terrible turnover, Gardner looked pretty good. Kadri and Kessell are completely one-dimensional, unfortunately. JVR looks like a guy you can win with.

If Reimer was in net we absolutely win.
See there's a problem. We think we are playing the system well by being outshot and possessed because we won. Then at some point it becomes unsustainable. Even though it's preseason, bad habits are bad habits. We've seen this movie.

 

[leafsfuture]

If Reimer was in net we absolutely win.
See there's a problem. We think we are playing the system well by being outshot and possessed because we won. Then at some point it becomes unsustainable. Even though it's preseason, bad habits are bad habits. We've seen this movie.

Except the roster basically had 1 guy we brought into to solve that problem: Santorelli.

No Booth (though I heard he was bad), no Winnik, no Komarov, no Polak, no Robidas.

 

[Ratboy]

Two games ? That's stupid.

I want ten games played by the leafs tomorrow night.

 

[Orfieus]

I think this loss is very concerning. I mean, honestly, look at this game and compare it to last year and ask yourself an honest question, did you notice a change? Or did this game look like every other game from last year?

 

[Mattavarner]

Who else loved Van Riemsdyk getting pissed at the end of the 3rd there and absolutely crushing the guy that hit him? Love JVR, favourite player on the team

 

[Paradoc]

How do you get badly outshot by Senators AHL team with the kind of roster we have? It was such a lousy game and honestly, the defensive system looks the same as last year. Forwards cheating, defense makes stupid play at the blue-line, bad turnovers, etc. I know this is pre-season, but it is rather concerning that the core of the leafs are still making bad habits on the ice.

 

[Stephen]

I think this loss is very concerning. I mean, honestly, look at this game and compare it to last year and ask yourself an honest question, did you notice a change? Or did this game look like every other game from last year?

The team is just hardwired this way. Yes, it's preseason, but a team with so much to prove really shouldn't be taking and carrying on like they can just flip a switch, because that's exactly how they carried themselves last year before the epic slide. In the end, things will take their course and the team will be blown up if they don't improve.

 

[Stephen]

Who else loved Van Riemsdyk getting pissed at the end of the 3rd there and absolutely crushing the guy that hit him? Love JVR, favourite player on the team

We definitely need more of that.

 

[Ratboy]

If we play every friggin night of the pre season our players may get tired and or injured. just putting that out there.