Post-Game Talk: "I was saying 'Boo-urns...'" Hawks fall in Toronto, 7-3

[Ace Card Bedard]

i was just wondering why you thought your pk wasn't so good this year. i was looking at nhl.com stats and it shows the hawks pk as even worse than the leafs which is totally bizarre because your defense is so much better. do you think it's a coaching thing. i was just wondering because your defense and goal seems so good, that's all. is it because you have better competition in the western conference?

anyways, thanks for the unexpected win. i see after the win for the leafs you guys stay as the best team in the nhl and the leafs are still in playoff position.

I think some guys are playing to not get hurt.
Olympics, short offseason, long regular season this year, etc.

You really wanna break your leg blocking a shot and miss the Olympics or playoffs?

They probably think they can turn it up when they need to, but bad habits become hard to break.

 

[hisgirlfriday]

Yeah, and tbh, I don't like Versteeg there either. I'm getting flashbacks of how his peripheral play bothered me in his first stint here. I realize he is not back to 100 percent, but whatever happened to the Q code, where a player must earn a top 6 job? KV seems to be one of those privileged ones where the code doesn't apply.

I repeat yet once again: Q needs to reunite Toews and Kane permanently, and work the top 6 from there (without Zus and Versteeg). Eventually, I reckon Q will get it.

Versteeg just had a pretty good game against the Flyers and I think Versteeg plays better with Zus than Saad did so I don't mind him on the 2nd line if we're stuck with Zus at 2C.

I do think sometimes I forget how young some of the players are just because they were part of a Cup run last year. In one of the pre-game articles it was mentioned that Shaw had never played in Toronto before and how pumped he was to be on HNIC. Maybe that got to some of the young guys like him? I thought Shaw did not look like his usual self anyway.

Now why Sharp, Hossa and Toews and the top D-men were invisible and/or bad... that I couldn't tell you.

 

[hisgirlfriday]

I repeat yet once again: Q needs to reunite Toews and Kane permanently, and work the top 6 from there (without Zus and Versteeg). Eventually, I reckon Q will get it.

If "getting it" means having them play together on a regular basis, I'm not sure about Q getting it. At least not this year with the existing personnel when he doesn't have to play them together.

Toews and Kane playing together just seems like Q's "break glass in case of emergency" option that he likes to hold on to until the last possible minute. Almost like he thinks if he played them together on a regular basis then he has nothing else to go to if the team still plays bad and needs a way to improve things or an energy/momentum burst.

Maybe that will change though when Bickell comes back and that reshuffles the forward situation a little bit. We can hope? Regardless, I am excited to see Bickell back in the lineup next week even if his start to the year was not the best if only because I am quite curious to see what Q does with the lineups when both Versteeg and Bickell are playing.

 

[Salvaged Ship]

We are scoring goals in bunches, so reuniting Kane and Toews is less important at this time. Even on a lousy night we scored 3. The Toews/Sharp/Hossa line was great for long streches, just not as good lately. The focus needs to be on figuring out how to slow the opposition down and improve the PK.

 

[BobbyJet]

Versteeg just had a pretty good game against the Flyers and I think Versteeg plays better with Zus than Saad did so I don't mind him on the 2nd line if we're stuck with Zus at 2C.

I do think sometimes I forget how young some of the players are just because they were part of a Cup run last year. In one of the pre-game articles it was mentioned that Shaw had never played in Toronto before and how pumped he was to be on HNIC. Maybe that got to some of the young guys like him? I thought Shaw did not look like his usual self anyway.

Now why Sharp, Hossa and Toews and the top D-men were invisible and/or bad... that I couldn't tell you.

It's not rocket science. Pirri needs to be here, and the top 6 balanced out to play a 2-way game. Versteeg goes to line 3 until his game gets more urgency and hence earns his way to the top 6; and Zus plays in the bottom 6 with perhaps a stint or two in the top 6 against some of the more physical ops.

Damit, I should be the coach.

 

[theaub]

it might have been me.

i was so excited seeing the hawks in toronto for the first time...but then, as was pointed out to me after the game, my 'leafs win when i attend' streak for this season was kept intact.

maybe i should have stayed home

Haha me too

I've seen 6 Leaf wins in a row since last May...people should start getting me more tickets tbh

also re: the Bob Cole stuff, he's a Habs homer but I seriously can't remember the last time he called a Habs/Leafs game (fully expect to be wrong here and he called opening night or something)

 

[UsernameWasTaken]

Haha me too

I've seen 6 Leaf wins in a row since last May...people should start getting me more tickets tbh

also re: the Bob Cole stuff, he's a Habs homer but I seriously can't remember the last time he called a Habs/Leafs game (fully expect to be wrong here and he called opening night or something)

He may have called that. I watch the Habs hnic games sometimes and his homering looms large. Not in a nasty way...he's a bit like Joe Bowen and gets over excited every time the Habs do something good, like Bowen is with the Leafs. I mean he's not an idiot like say Jack Edwards.

 

[Kurtosis]

May be time to bump my thread about the defense.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Next GDT's up. Just went ahead and assumed nobody was making one, so skipped the usual make a pre-game and hurriedly turn it into a GDT a minute before puck drop routine.

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1561651