Is it fair to blame Hutchinson ?

[Kiwi]

Yes, management as well for not recognizing how bad he is as well

 

[phillipmike]

In the season after where we finished last, we cut the cord on Enroth after 6 games and replaced him with McBackup. This GM let McBackup go for nothing and replaced him with Sparks and Hutch.

We are in contention and we stuck with Sparks for 20 games. Probably lost home ice and lost in the first round.

We are in our contention window and out of the playoffs and Hutch just played his 15 game.

This is all on Dubas.

 

[saffronleaf]

Hutchinson is awful.

 

[nuck]

Michael Hutchinson is being paid $700k to play backup for the Leafs. The NHL salary cap this year is $81.5 Million .
IMO the amount of pressure being heaped on this guy given his percentage of the pie is ridiculous .
It’s like hiring a handyman to do a job of an electrician and then crying when the house burns down because you were so cheap .
His numbers still aren’t great even for what he’s being paid ( although greatly skewed because of the Babcock months IMO ) .
However I believe the fans have found the wrong scapegoat when the team loses .
Thoughts ?

There is no license to suck just because you are the lowest paid guy on the team. Hutch could likely do better with some sort of reset but it isn't up to the Leafs to offer him that. 4-8 .886 is worse than Sparks or Bernier who were run out of town on a rail. I guess one has to look at the other side which, this doesn't look like a playoff club and its not just the goaltending. Maybe they just struggle along with what they have and don't blow assets trying to tweak a mess.

If you have an AHL goalie and you insist on playing him in the NHL is it totally the goalie's fault? Not really but he deserves what he gets if he isn't cutting it. A 900 goalies sucks and Hutch only dreams of a 900 sv%. And WTF is Barrie doing playing 25:00 a night? that isn't a play you make if your goal is to win games

 

[Buds17]

Times of success, times of failure. Just like anyone on the team. He's one of the lowest cap hits. The nature of the position is to not play every game. As primarily a backup, he won't play in most games. He's of utmost importance though in the games he does start/appear in. He's playing for his next contract. Maybe it isn't surprising, but it has to be somewhat disappointing. Completing the goalie tandem has been the toughest test for Dubas to this point.

 

[bodechek]

Hutchinson is done! He was drafted back in 2008 and has failed to make his mark in the NHL. Although he has managed to stick around. I don't see him in the NHL after he is a free agent at the end of this season.

 

[Duke Silver]

Michael Hutchinson is being paid $700k to play backup for the Leafs. The NHL salary cap this year is $81.5 Million .
IMO the amount of pressure being heaped on this guy given his percentage of the pie is ridiculous .
It’s like hiring a handyman to do a job of an electrician and then crying when the house burns down because you were so cheap .
His numbers still aren’t great even for what he’s being paid ( although greatly skewed because of the Babcock months IMO ) .
However I believe the fans have found the wrong scapegoat when the team loses .
Thoughts ?

Criticism shouldn't be based on salary.

 

[Luminiferous]

No. We knew what he was. He was a piece of turd on skates, guarding net. All the blame belongs on the leafs players for not taking extremely slight discounts and GM for not managing the team better.

 

[MattySnipes]

I mean yeah maybe its not. He is what he is. An AHL goalie. FWIW, the games he started of late were all wins. Thought he had a good 3rd period, just didn't like the 4th goal. Ew.

 

[LeafsNation75]

I mean yeah maybe its not. He is what he is. An AHL goalie. FWIW, the games he started of late were all wins. Thought he had a good 3rd period, just didn't like the 4th goal. Ew.

This was also the second straight game where Hutchinson has given up a bad goal. The winning goal against the Panthers was horrible at how the puck got past him and tonight was even worse, because the Leafs had the momentum after Matthews made it 3-2. Assuming he doesn't let that 4th goal in and Matthews still scores his 2nd goal of the game, most likely the game goes to overtime and Toronto gets at least 1 point in the standings.

 

[tokyoite]

Hutch is a career low level minor leaguer

 

[Deuce Awesome]

He was given a chance for redemption and it just didn't work out for him. He would be a fine backup on a small market team with no pressure.

We are a high flying team with poor defence and you need a certain kind of goalie (see: a really good one) to make that work.

Hutch isn't as bad as some make him out to be, but he's not a fit here. DUbas rolled the dice on him. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Just wish he would have made this LA deal months ago rather than trying to stick it out. Lets hope Campbell plays well for us.

 

[Channelcat]

Only saw the highlights, but that d coverage was brutal. That being said, JC should be an improvement

 

[Blowfish]

Pretty soon folk will realize the team doesn't know how to play defence.

 

[egd27]

He's been that since Keefe took over.

Over .900? I don’t think so

His sv% is marginally better under Keefe, not significantly better as some are claiming.

Keefe may have given him easier assignments, but he didn’t really do anything to improve his stats

Actually, aside from the Isle anomaly, I think his sv% has been worse under Keefe

 

[Nithoniniel]

Pretty soon folk will realize the team doesn't know how to play defence.

The biggest reason people say that is because we're not getting saves. Hutchinson has in the last two games have let in all but two good scoring chances, which has been a theme through a year now. The average NHL tender saves the majority of them.

The Leafs have trended upwards in how many passes we allow to the slot, how often we let up shots from dangerous areas. We're still bad at giving up rushes, but we've become better. As a result, our underlying defensive numbers have gone up under Keefe, and is pretty average league-wide. Meanwhile, we have the worst save percentage in the league.

This is on the goaltenders, including Andersen. The only reason people say differently is because they somehow think that goalies shouldn't be expected to make saves on good chances.

 

[theIceWookie]

Michael Hutchinson is being paid $700k to play backup for the Leafs. The NHL salary cap this year is $81.5 Million .
IMO the amount of pressure being heaped on this guy given his percentage of the pie is ridiculous .
It’s like hiring a handyman to do a job of an electrician and then crying when the house burns down because you were so cheap .
His numbers still aren’t great even for what he’s being paid ( although greatly skewed because of the Babcock months IMO ) .
However I believe the fans have found the wrong scapegoat when the team loses .
Thoughts ?

Ummm yes yes it is fair.

Hutchison has played 15 games for the Leafs this year. In nine of those games, he's given up three goals in a SINGLE PERIOD.

His save percentage is an .886 Do you know how many goalies he's better than this season? He only has a better save percentage than thirteen other goalies in the NHL. That's out of 82 goalies that hae played a single game. Nine of those fourteen have played less than six games. Only Kincaid, Domingue, Howard, and Broissoit have plyed more than six games and have a worse pecentage than him.

Out of 82 goalies that have played this season, he has the TENTH worst GAA in the league. Howard is the only goalie other than Hutch who has played double digits in games and has a worse GAA than him.

We can absolutely blame Hutch and have it be fair. His job is to play goalie at an adequate level and he has not done that.

We can also quite fairly blame the person who hired a handyman that wasn't well suited for the job and continued to let him do the work seeing the job he was doing. But you still blame the handyman for that work.

 

[theIceWookie]

The biggest reason people say that is because we're not getting saves. Hutchinson has in the last two games have let in all but two good scoring chances, which has been a theme through a year now. The average NHL tender saves the majority of them.

The Leafs have trended upwards in how many passes we allow to the slot, how often we let up shots from dangerous areas. We're still bad at giving up rushes, but we've become better. As a result, our underlying defensive numbers have gone up under Keefe, and is pretty average league-wide. Meanwhile, we have the worst save percentage in the league.

This is on the goaltenders, including Andersen. The only reason people say differently is because they somehow think that goalies shouldn't be expected to make saves on good chances.

The goal Hutch let in last night after Matthews scored to draw within one is the perfect example of this. It's a bad goal, and not at all the result of the defense.

 

[Warden of the North]

The biggest reason people say that is because we're not getting saves. Hutchinson has in the last two games have let in all but two good scoring chances, which has been a theme through a year now. The average NHL tender saves the majority of them.

The Leafs have trended upwards in how many passes we allow to the slot, how often we let up shots from dangerous areas. We're still bad at giving up rushes, but we've become better. As a result, our underlying defensive numbers have gone up under Keefe, and is pretty average league-wide. Meanwhile, we have the worst save percentage in the league.

This is on the goaltenders, including Andersen. The only reason people say differently is because they somehow think that goalies shouldn't be expected to make saves on good chances.

Great post

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Hutch has been letting in 1-2 house league level goals per game (on average) since his 2nd year with Jets. It is on Leafs management for lack of understanding of this. We have to STOP emotional decisions on players who are great guys. Between Sparks and Hutch 2 great guys but flawed goalies. Sparks good athleticism but horrible technique. Hutch good technique but horrible athleticism. We need a guy who has both characteristics. and then to get a winner you further need to get a $$$ goalie. This is a guy who in playoffs just makes 1 more save then his counterpart to win playoff games.

 

[KuleminFan41]

Not entirely but yes you can. You can't win many games when your goalie posts .886 SV%

 

[horner]

This is on Dubas hutch and the team.

Listen to what Muzzin said last night.

With Clifford coming in in w we have 2 veterans with Stanley Cup experience.

As Muzzin said we have to realize that when we have the lead we need to really dig in.

Maybe we are still to young.

Hope Campbell is ready for a sloppy team.

 

[Nylander88]

Hope Campbell is ready for a sloppy team.

As I said earlier, he's coming from the Kings. People on here acting like he's about to get shell shocked by poor defence lol

 

[horner]

As I said earlier, he's coming from the Kings. People on here acting like he's about to get shell shocked by poor defence lol

From what the hockey experts say we do give up the most high quality scoring chances.
Hope we clean up that area.

 

[LeafsNation75]

The biggest reason people say that is because we're not getting saves. Hutchinson has in the last two games have let in all but two good scoring chances, which has been a theme through a year now. The average NHL tender saves the majority of them.

The Leafs have trended upwards in how many passes we allow to the slot, how often we let up shots from dangerous areas. We're still bad at giving up rushes, but we've become better. As a result, our underlying defensive numbers have gone up under Keefe, and is pretty average league-wide. Meanwhile, we have the worst save percentage in the league.

This is on the goaltenders, including Andersen. The only reason people say differently is because they somehow think that goalies shouldn't be expected to make saves on good chances.

I wouldn't say the Panthers 4th goal and the Rangers 3rd goal which were the two bad goals he let in, along with the fact they ended up being the game winning goals were good scoring chances.

The goal against the Panthers was shot from the side of the net and there is no excuse for how it got past Hutchinson.

The goal against the Rangers looked bad because of Hutchinson losing his stick and allowing the goal seconds later.