Post-Game Talk: Guess what, we won! (no just kidding we lost again), 3-2 Florida

[gabeliscious]

And now Kessel will go missing for another 8-10 games.

thats because he is a team player. if you were kessel wouldnt you rather have mcdavid/eichel feeding you passes then bozak?

 

[hfman]

this is just embarrassing. I would never go to ACC to not cheer. As far as the losers on this team are concerned I would rather not go to ACC than go and pull this crap....

Just tells me people are getting weirder with every passing day. Whatever happened to pride and integrity?

those are the fans that have ultimately killed this team over the years- the blind, the clueless fans who don't know who Dave Nonis is, and who couldn't name 4 players on the Leafs roster. They continuously dump their money into the Leaf pit and keep feeding this sad organization. THAT'S why this team keep selling tickets and merch because the fans that buy their stuff are the uneducated ones, the ones who just want to "cheer" for the sake of cheering. But again none of them even heard of Phil Kessel...

 

[Woll Smoth]

those are the fans that have ultimately killed this team over the years- the blind, the clueless fans who don't know who Dave Nonis is, and who couldn't name 4 players on the Leafs roster. They continuously dump their money into the Leaf pit and keep feeding this sad organization. THAT'S why this team keep selling tickets and merch because the fans that buy their stuff are the uneducated ones, the ones who just want to "cheer" for the sake of cheering. But again none of them even heard of Phil Kessel...

Get off your high horse.
This team is terrible and everyone knows it. I still went to a game this year and cheered when they won. I still bought a jersey. But what do I know? Me and everyone who has been to a game or bought any leaf related merchandise are all just clueless and uneducated

Edit: since 1967

 

[Nithoniniel]

I thought Kadri was lackluster in the first and second periods but really came on strong in the third. His line had the opposition hemmed in their zone a few times in the third period.

Agreed that Gardiner is playing far better than he did earlier in the season. He's still not where he was at the end of last season, but you can see his confidence is climbing.

Jokinen looked good as well, but as I suspected, he wouldn't get much done with Clarkson on his line losing pucks and falling down as he does.

Agree on all three points.

 

[stealth1]

Wow, 5 page PGT........guess it's just not the players that have lost interest.

I have noticed that too. Even GDT are rather low now. I have also noticed that a lot of the posters who where high on this group of players either don't post anymore or they do very rarely.

 

[Pi]

Bernier is a good goalie and I am probably his biggest fan around here but I don't want him signed long term. He doesn't seem like a team player at all. He tries his best to deflect criticism away from him. Reimer on the other hand always has his teammates back.

I want to keep both for as long as we can. With cap space not a problem, I hope we can do that.

 

[Stephen]

Kadri was our best forward tonight and got less ice time then some of the forwards who did not deserve it.

Rielly played a game high 25:27 of ice time tonight. The old man looked good tonight seeing as he had not played in 9 days, he looked good. I think we will be able to trade him at the trade deadline.

Kadri flubbed a short pass to a sleeping Panik which resulted in a Florida cycle which lasted a minute and ended with a power play against. You could see him struggle big time against kids like Barkov and Bjugstad out there. It's stuff like that.

 

[Stephen]

Bernier is a good goalie and I am probably his biggest fan around here but I don't want him signed long term. He doesn't seem like a team player at all. He tries his best to deflect criticism away from him. Reimer on the other hand always has his teammates back.

I want to keep both for as long as we can. With cap space not a problem, I hope we can do that.

The man requires further assessment.

 

[TheOneArmedMan]

Bernier is a good goalie and I am probably his biggest fan around here but I don't want him signed long term. He doesn't seem like a team player at all. He tries his best to deflect criticism away from him. Reimer on the other hand always has his teammates back.

I want to keep both for as long as we can. With cap space not a problem, I hope we can do that.

Yeah i noticed this too. He has a huge ego, and when he gets asked about goals that he should have stopped he blames the team and defense. I hope they keep him but not for long term. He hasn't proved anything yet.

 

[Nithoniniel]

Bernier is a good goalie and I am probably his biggest fan around here but I don't want him signed long term. He doesn't seem like a team player at all. He tries his best to deflect criticism away from him. Reimer on the other hand always has his teammates back.

I want to keep both for as long as we can. With cap space not a problem, I hope we can do that.

I've noticed this too. Not sure how I feel about it. Sometimes I think it's taken out of context, like the latest thing where he said he didn't need to worry about what the rest of the team did. To me that sounded more like him saying that it can be very frustrating for the other players because they are so inter-dependent, while his performance is all about him and thus easier to control. I don't think that's anything bad to say. Other things he's said doesn't sound as good.

I would like to say that I consider these things as rather minor compared to his main thing, and that is making saves and keeping pucks out. His ability to do this is what determines 95% of his worth to keep IMO.

 

[Pi]

I've noticed this too. Not sure how I feel about it. Sometimes I think it's taken out of context, like the latest thing where he said he didn't need to worry about what the rest of the team did. To me that sounded more like him saying that it can be very frustrating for the other players because they are so inter-dependent, while his performance is all about him and thus easier to control. I don't think that's anything bad to say. Other things he's said doesn't sound as good.

I would like to say that I consider these things as rather minor compared to his main thing, and that is making saves and keeping pucks out. His ability to do this is what determines 95% of his worth to keep IMO.

True. Rask is a whiny crybaby but he stops the puck and that's what keeps him in Boston.

In the end, I don't care much as long as he's stopping the puck when we need him.

 

[Nithoniniel]

True. Rask is a whiny crybaby but he stops the puck and that's what keeps him in Boston.

In the end, I don't care much as long as he's stopping the puck when we need him.

Maybe it could be seen as a plus that he's not stopping pucks now that we don't want him to.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

I found this ironic when I thought about it that I had to chuckle.

Florida was coached by Peter Horachek last season, he coached them into a pick of Aaron Ekblad. A year makes a big difference.

 

[Leafs at Knight]

I found this ironic when I thought about it that I had to chuckle.

Florida was coached by Peter Horachek last season, he coached them into a pick of Aaron Ekblad. A year makes a big difference.

Looks like he'll be in Arizona next year to get them Matthews.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Looks like he'll be in Arizona next year to get them Matthews.

After we draft Mcdavid, we can pass on the wealth to other teams.

 

[Leafs at Knight]

After we draft Mcdavid, we can pass on the wealth to other teams.

Exactly haha.

 

[indigobuffalo]

those are the fans that have ultimately killed this team over the years- the blind, the clueless fans who don't know who Dave Nonis is, and who couldn't name 4 players on the Leafs roster. They continuously dump their money into the Leaf pit and keep feeding this sad organization. THAT'S why this team keep selling tickets and merch because the fans that buy their stuff are the uneducated ones, the ones who just want to "cheer" for the sake of cheering. But again none of them even heard of Phil Kessel...

If you honestly think a "boycott" could work against a capitalist juggernaut like MLSE then it's not the "dumb fans" who are living in a clueless world...

Furthermore, the Leafs already spend more on management and off-ice personnel than any other team in the NHL.

Add to that, they've been a cap team since the cap was introduced, and they were one of the highest payrolls prior to that for years.

So clearly, the organization likes to spend money. If they weren't concerned about the on-ice product, they'd do like any major company does and downsize every-which-way and every-which-where until the cheapest possible product could be shovelled onto the ice.

But they don't. They spend and spend and spend and spend. They want to win. They want post-season berths. It makes them more money, it gets them more fans. Losing disgruntles the fan-base and gets people looking elsewhere to cheer for a "winner". That's not good business. MLSE is absolutely NOT INTERESTED in losing on the premise that the "fans will keep eating the garbage they put on the ice."

MLSE knows that won't work and they act accordingly.

The only people for whom it makes any sense to continue to make this ludicrous claim that fans should boycott the team to "encourage" ownership to "ice a competitive team" are people who've spent 15+ years on the waiting list to get season tickets and are hoping that a few idiots will give up their season tickets to "boycott" the franchise, as if that would actually do anything.

 

[likeabosski]

If you honestly think a "boycott" could work against a capitalist juggernaut like MLSE then it's not the "dumb fans" who are living in a clueless world...

Furthermore, the Leafs already spend more on management and off-ice personnel than any other team in the NHL.

Add to that, they've been a cap team since the cap was introduced, and they were one of the highest payrolls prior to that for years.

So clearly, the organization likes to spend money. If they weren't concerned about the on-ice product, they'd do like any major company does and downsize every-which-way and every-which-where until the cheapest possible product could be shovelled onto the ice.

But they don't. They spend and spend and spend and spend. They want to win. They want post-season berths. It makes them more money, it gets them more fans. Losing disgruntles the fan-base and gets people looking elsewhere to cheer for a "winner". That's not good business. MLSE is absolutely NOT INTERESTED in losing on the premise that the "fans will keep eating the garbage they put on the ice."

MLSE knows that won't work and they act accordingly.

The only people for whom it makes any sense to continue to make this ludicrous claim that fans should boycott the team to "encourage" ownership to "ice a competitive team" are people who've spent 15+ years on the waiting list to get season tickets and are hoping that a few idiots will give up their season tickets to "boycott" the franchise, as if that would actually do anything.

So basically the issue is not that MLSE doesn't care about winning. They just don't know how to run a hockey team?(If so, we would be in agreement).

At any rate, MLSE is finally getting it right with the Brendan Shanahan hire. I hate to make it out like Shanahan is the saviour of the organization. But it's nice to see that finally there is someone in the Leafs head office who is actually listening to us stat nerds after being blatantly ignored and criticized by Brian Burke (who went as far as to crash advanced stats conferences to make a point). And David Nonis went to bat for his mentor Brian Burke so obviously he's not going to buy into the advanced stats thing. Shanahan is like our Billy Beane (except he's a president, not a GM) and Dubas is our Paul DePodesta.

The Oakland A's never won the World Series under Billy Beane. But they have made the playoffs very consistently despite having a payroll that is a small fraction of the top teams in baseball. And despite the fact that it is very difficult to make the playoffs in baseball (If you don't win your division, you have to win the wild card match. Due to the large margin of error of just 1 game, no stats nerd can help you out there. If you want to make it into the playoffs, the only surefire way is to win your division. They have 6 divisions in baseball instead of 4 but it's still very difficult to win your division every single year in baseball. Having to beat 4 other teams every single year to get that playoff birth. Also the best of 5s in the baseball playoffs is even more fluky than the best of 7 series they have in hockey playoffs) Also The Boston Red Sox basically copied what the A's did and won the world series and most baseball teams have an analytics teams.

 

[4evaBlue]

I'm not sure what it is, but I'm starting to enjoy these games more and more. The compete level has definitely picked up for the group as a whole over the last couple of games.

Bozak was the best player on the team last night, Panik had whale of a game on both sides of the ice and Kozun looked decent in his 7 mins of ToI. More importantly, it was the cleanest/best possession game the I've seen the Leafs as a team play in some time. Certainly during this slump.

When Booth and Komarov(?) set up shop in the Panthers zone on the PK, I had a good chuckle. The last 3.5 mins, I absolutely loved. No dumb/careless mistakes, and pretty much every player stepped on the ice with the gaping empty net. It's like everyone was playing for their lives out there.

Also, LOL @ the Luongo attempting the empty netter debate. IDK, I was entertained by last night's game, and the result favored the tank. It could have been a lot worse.

I wasn't sure what to expect of Jokinen, and I was getting ready for Clarkson v2.0, but I was pleasantly surprised. It really helps if you set the bar low. as he looked like a serviceable #3C. He may yet be flipped for peanuts.

Other than his grievous turnover that led up to Polak's penalty and later the 2nd PPGA, Kadri had a pretty responsible game with the puck. Granberg had a rough game, Winnik had a couple of questionable shifts and *sigh*...

JVR. I don't know how someone could manage to be such a non-factor and still end up on the scoresheet on a semi regular basis. I don't think his name was mentioned more than 5x last night.