Pre-Game Talk: GM#9:Feb 4th, 2013|Carolina @ Toronto|For the love of god Kessel score!

[Leaf Rocket]

Leafs aim to bounce back against Hurricanes

HURRICANES (3-4-0) at MAPLE LEAFS (4-4-0)

TV: FS-CR, SNET-O

Season series: This is the first of three season meetings. Carolina took three of four from the Maple Leafs in 2011-12.

Big story: Two teams figuring to be on the cusp of playoff contention in this shortened campaign will look to secure a valuable two points Monday in Toronto. The Leafs had won two straight before falling 1-0 against Boston on Saturday, while the Hurricanes fell to the Flyers, 5-3, in their most recent outing.

Team scope:

Hurricanes: On Friday, goalie Dan Ellis recorded

http://mapleleafs.nhl.com/club/preview.htm?id=2012020123

"They started to grind us,” Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said. “That's the way they play and they're a good team. They did what they had to do to be effective to play a road game and we didn't do enough of the things that we're capable of to establish a strong home game in the 60 minutes." - Carlyle on the Bruins game.

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[legendinblue]

 

[Revolt]

We need a win.

 

[Leaf Rocket]

We need a win.

That'll be nice for sure. I wonder if Scrivy will get one of the starts.

 

[ACC1224]

That'll be nice for sure. I wonder if Scrivy will get one of the starts.

Hopefully not tonight, looking forward to this one.

 

[SprDaVE]

Hopefully they can start stringing together wins.

These win on lose one back to backs are pretty lame.

 

[LeafOfBread]

Hopefully not tonight, looking forward to this one.

Yeah Scrivens would be better against Washington. Though really, I don't feel comfortable with Scrivens in net at all.

 

[TML g u n n e R s*]

Please win! PLEASE after last night i need some hope in life lol

 

[Chandrashekhar Limit]

Kessel needs to score one ASAP. O goals in 8 games pathetic, considering the number of good chances he has gotten.

Hope Reimer gets the start tonight.

 

[7even]

Kessel needs to score one ASAP. O goals in 8 games pathetic, considering the number of good chances he has gotten.

Hope Reimer gets the start tonight.

Pathetic? Nawh man. Unlucky as ****.

 

[SprDaVE]

With 3 crossbars in the last couple games and another few chances that he got robbed on, I think it's safe to say he's been quite unlucky.

It hasn't been a lack of effort for the most part.

 

[Penalty Kill Icing*]

I don't buy the "cross bar is unlucky for shooter, lucky for goaltender" argument for even one moment. Parameters are pre-defined, and you shoot for the net. Shooting posts/crossbar just tells you weren't good enough.

Same thing for goaltender. If he earns shutout, and had 3 shots hit the post behind him, he still did his job which was stop all the pucks that were going in the net.

 

[TheGroceryStick]

Just win. Who cares if Kessel scores...they will come and in bunches.

 

[Revolt]

Not unlucky. Kessel is way too predictable and defenses have adapted. You know Kessel isn't going to take it to the net, so all you have to do is cut the angle and get your stick in his shooting lane.

And guess what? Just off memory from watching every game i can safely say about 25-35% of his shots have been deflected or blocked. Not to mention if he does get a shot to the net, its generally from 30 ft+ out.

Until Kessel does something that is a little less obvious, anyone with a brain of how to skate could be put out on defence to stop Kessel because realistically you don't have to worry about him cutting back in towards the slot and taking it to the net, rendering him very easy to defend against. The only thing you have to worry about is that if he miraculously finally gets his shot off, he HAS the ability to pick corners unlike many players in the NHL.

Unfortunately for us, that does not have a high probability and has made him have 0 goals in 8 games. Kessel either needs to drive to the net with his speed to draw a penalty and show that he's a multi threat, or flip the puck into the slot and then snap it on net much like Kadri. If he keeps skating to the outsides, or keeps shooting from 30 ft out, i don't expect him to have many goals at all this season.

 

[Warden of the North]

I don't buy the "cross bar is unlucky for shooter, lucky for goaltender" argument for even one moment. Parameters are pre-defined, and you shoot for the net. Shooting posts/crossbar just tells you weren't good enough.

Same thing for goaltender. If he earns shutout, and had 3 shots hit the post behind him, he still did his job which was stop all the pucks that were going in the net.

Aucoin pulled one off the line in the NYI game. Thats being unlucky

 

[Erndog]

If Kessel doesn't score tonight I literally expect ledges everywhere to be monitored.

 

[NaiveLeafsFan]

Not unlucky. Kessel is way too predictable and defenses have adapted. You know Kessel isn't going to take it to the net, so all you have to do is cut the angle and get your stick in his shooting lane.

And guess what? Just off memory from watching every game i can safely say about 25-35% of his shots have been deflected or blocked. Not to mention if he does get a shot to the net, its generally from 30 ft+ out.

Until Kessel does something that is a little less obvious, anyone with a brain of how to skate could be put out on defence to stop Kessel because realistically you don't have to worry about him cutting back in towards the slot and taking it to the net, rendering him very easy to defend against. The only thing you have to worry about is that if he miraculously finally gets his shot off, he HAS the ability to pick corners unlike many players in the NHL.

Unfortunately for us, that does not have a high probability and has made him have 0 goals in 8 games. Kessel either needs to drive to the net with his speed to draw a penalty and show that he's a multi threat, or flip the puck into the slot and then snap it on net much like Kadri. If he keeps skating to the outsides, or keeps shooting from 30 ft out, i don't expect him to have many goals at all this season.

Really? You mean the NHL just got the book on Kessel? In his 7th season? Dude has consistently scored 30g a season every year practically.

If he wasn't generating offense or shots I'd be concerned. He leads the league in shots, meaning as soon as they start going in for him his SH% is going to go through the roof along with his goal totals.

You can bet on that

 

[ACC1224]

Not unlucky. Kessel is way too predictable and defenses have adapted. You know Kessel isn't going to take it to the net, so all you have to do is cut the angle and get your stick in his shooting lane.

And guess what? Just off memory from watching every game i can safely say about 25-35% of his shots have been deflected or blocked. Not to mention if he does get a shot to the net, its generally from 30 ft+ out.

Until Kessel does something that is a little less obvious, anyone with a brain of how to skate could be put out on defence to stop Kessel because realistically you don't have to worry about him cutting back in towards the slot and taking it to the net, rendering him very easy to defend against. The only thing you have to worry about is that if he miraculously finally gets his shot off, he HAS the ability to pick corners unlike many players in the NHL.

Unfortunately for us, that does not have a high probability and has made him have 0 goals in 8 games. Kessel either needs to drive to the net with his speed to draw a penalty and show that he's a multi threat, or flip the puck into the slot and then snap it on net much like Kadri. If he keeps skating to the outsides, or keeps shooting from 30 ft out, i don't expect him to have many goals at all this season.

Took them long enough.

Kessel is the least of this Teams worries.

 

[Urban Explorer*]

Jesus H Murphy, for the love of pete, score a goal Kessel!

 

[blue82]

we cant afford to start scrivens in any game this year..hopefully reimer is up for the heavy workload

 

[Chandrashekhar Limit]

Pathetic? Nawh man. Unlucky as ****.

The stat is pathetic. Kessel himself has been a little bit of both. Unlucky on the Aucoin goal, and on some of the saves. Pathetic on the empty net miss and a couple other really good scoring chances.

 

[TheBigThree]

We can't be a .500 team, if we lose this i'm switching to tank crew and hope we have a major losing streak to claim top 3 pick.

 

[iArts]

Both today and tomorrow are winnable games. Carolina and Washington are not doing well at all.

But as we all know, you can never expect anything when it comes to our team.

 

[GalacticaActual]

Does anyone think Kessel is shooting from the outside perimeter way too much? There's more ways to score a goal than a wrist shot.

I've seen him take a bunch of nice slapshots during the power play, but I don't see him getting in front of the net. He is indeed getting dirty along the boards. That's one thing I like about him, he fights for the puck along the boards, digs for the puck and wins some board battles.

But he has to do something other than skate wide and shoot at the goalie with a wrist or snap shot. I'm sick of seeing him do that. I heard a nice comment on the radio: Kessel should take a long hard look at the way Kulemin scored against Washington, diving to the ground and flailing his stick behind the goalie to tap a freebie into the net.

 

[iArts]

Does anyone think Kessel is shooting from the outside perimeter way too much? There's more ways to score a goal than a wrist shot.

I've seen him take a bunch of nice slapshots during the power play, but I don't see him getting in front of the net. He is indeed getting dirty along the boards. That's one thing I like about him, he fights for the puck along the boards, digs for the puck and wins some board battles.

But he has to do something other than skate wide and shoot at the goalie with a wrist or snap shot. I'm sick of seeing him do that. I heard a nice comment on the radio: Kessel should take a long hard look at the way Kulemin scored against Washington, diving to the ground and flailing his stick behind the goalie to tap a freebie into the net.

He would get knocked down in less than 5 seconds in front of the net.
Let him do what he did his whole life and brought him success. He's always been a shooter.