Jackets - Leafs best of 5 play-in

[KJ Dangler]

Just have to laugh when people try to simplify the last 3 minutes were on Elvis . Never mind the fact that you have Harrington in for Murray , you have Werenski, out for the last 10 minutes , you have a team that tried to sit on a 3-0 lead and quit trying to play offense . Should Elvis have saved one of those goals ? Maybe ... He’s a rookie netminder that played out of his mind the whole game . He provided them a victory in game 3 , he saved 48-52 shots in yesterday’s game . His playoff stats are a sparkling 1.96 Gaa and a .946 save %. Yesterday sucked , and could very well cost us the series , but game 3 , we were down 0-3 , came back and won the game in overtime 4-3 . The narrative wasn’t that Toronto collapsed around here , it was the Blue Jackets made it happen . In reality , Toronto tried to sit on the lead , momentum took over . Same thing last night, except the roles are reversed . You have 2 evenly matched teams , and it comes down to 1 game . I expect Torts to go back with Korpi. I won’t trash talk Korpi, I don’t think he’s remotely as good as Elvis , because he does have a history of making great saves but letting a softy in , but the key will be hopefully Werenski able to play , Murray able to play , and the team playing in front of their goalie , not hanging them out to dry, and playing solid defense , yet counterpunch the crap out of Toronto when they try to push the pace .

 

[ColumbusOwl]

No time for recriminations. Play the suffocating game for 60 mins that frustrated the Leafs and this is just a bad memory. I will not throw our GKs under the bus who frankly stood on their heads most of this series.

 

[rotsbu]

I'm still speechless.

Here's how it went down in the rotsbu household last night: rotsbu accidentally falls asleep early in the third period while the score was 2-0. rotsbu should have known to sit up r/t lie down with a full belly at the end of the week. Oh well, it was a good nap and felt really good to wake up with about 4 minutes to go and see that the CBJ were winning by a wider margin. The next ten minutes of real-time are still making rotsbu incredulous this morning.

 

[Fro]

Gah...i was certain the Boone goal was the dagger

 

[flyerslducks]

Is werenski good to go tomorrow?

 

[ClevelandUke]

Is werenski good to go tomorrow?

All quite so far. no one even knows what kind of injury he had

 

[Monstershockey]

They were up 3 with 4 minutes left. Most teams will play defense to run out the clock. You have a 3 goal lead. You have insurance goals in hand. They failed to play defense and Toronto stepped up. You can't pin it on just Elvis, but he failed along with the D. Doesn't matter what anyone did the previous 56 minutes, they all failed the last 4. Don't for a minute think though, if it was Korpisalo in net for this, he would be getting the brunt of the blame. People were calling him out for game 3, saying stupid things like the team is more aggressive for Elvis. This was a team meltdown coupled with Toronto finding another gear.

 

[ViD]

God damn, that was a tough one. Took me a while to get over it.

I still think we take game 5, but even if we don’t, I don’t have any complaints about the team effort, it’s there.

 

[KCbus]

It was tough loss. I feel for Jackets fans, you guys show a lot of class on the mains. I said this in the GDT last night, and unfortunately for the Blue Jackets it became true. Those missed empty net shots, may come back to haunt them. One or two more inches to the right, and the series would be over. I thought the refs made a bad call in OT. If they were calling it, it should have been 2 mins for the trip and 2mins for a dive on Rielly.

Rielly went down very easily and sold it. Video below. I would use that as motivation for game 5. But it shouldn't have even gotten to that stage. Torts will have to use all of his us against the world coaching techniques to get the Jackets mind set right for game 5. It's good to have a day off after a tough loss. Series is not over. I think the Jackets can still take this. But they will need Werenski. That was also a reason perhaps why there was a 3rd period collapse.

Rielly didn't dive.

He got his skate blade poked out from behind. If a guy was going to dive, I don't think he'd decide to go feet-first that close to the boards. Some awful things have happened in those situations.

It's a penalty. Foligno can jump up and down all he wants about it, but it's a penalty. Could they have let it go in the interest of swallowing the whistle? Sure they could have. They didn't. Sucks for us.

 

[Viqsi]

Honestly, I think I was able to rebound because I was expecting something like that all series... from the Leafs.

We've known all along that they've got some really skilled guys. We've known that they're good enough that they could throw us off our game. We just hadn't seen it at all yet that series and so started to assume that maybe it wasn't going to show. And then it did.

I'm not going to claim that I'm not shocked or anything - I wasn't expecting it to that degree. But the potential for a sudden game momentum switch was always there. We've known it, and that's why we've all been watching these games with that extra little bit of caution.

And, most important of all - that's not the end of the series. We can still fix it.

If we win Game 5, it'll be a footnote. If we lose Game 5... depends on how we lose. If we were competitive but just get outplayed in the end, then, well, these things happen when you're evenly matched - and we are; nobody can realistically deny that at this point. If the team doesn't show up, then... well, then I'm going to be very disappointed. But I don't expect that to happen.

 

[Viqsi]

Rielly didn't dive.

He got his skate blade poked out from behind. If a guy was going to dive, I don't think he'd decide to go feet-first that close to the boards. Some awful things have happened in those situations.

It's a penalty. Foligno can jump up and down all he wants about it, but it's a penalty. Could they have let it go in the interest of swallowing the whistle? Sure they could have. They didn't. Sucks for us.

As I said last night, I don't think he dove. I think he embellished a tad, but he was legitimately tripped.

 

[MoeBartoli]

God damn, that was a tough one. Took me a while to get over it.

I still think we take game 5, but even if we don’t, I don’t have any complaints about the team effort, it’s there.

Congrats on getting over it. Hoping to get there. At the moment I’m still in a funk.

 

[flyerslducks]

All quite so far. no one even knows what kind of injury he had

damn hope he plays. Would be a such a bummer if he sits out of an elimintation game for y’all

 

[We Want Ten]

Congrats on getting over it. Hoping to get there. At the moment I’m still in a funk.

I managed to tune in right around 4 minutes left in the 3rd when it was 3-0. What I saw was brutal and complete.

Right there with ya. I feel like this one is gonna linger for awhile, especially if they lose the series.

 

[flyerslducks]

They were up 3 with 4 minutes left. Most teams will play defense to run out the clock. You have a 3 goal lead. You have insurance goals in hand. They failed to play defense and Toronto stepped up. You can't pin it on just Elvis, but he failed along with the D. Doesn't matter what anyone did the previous 56 minutes, they all failed the last 4. Don't for a minute think though, if it was Korpisalo in net for this, he would be getting the brunt of the blame. People were calling him out for game 2, saying stupid things like the team is more aggressive for Elvis. This was a team meltdown coupled with Toronto finding another gear.

so who gets the start? Elvis played so well before that team meltdown.

 

[ViD]

You gotta give Toronto props as well, to find that spark when it looked it was all over is respectable

 

[DarkandStormy]

so who gets the start? Elvis played so well before that team meltdown.

He also played fine in OT until the team gave up PKing.

 

[Monstershockey]

so who gets the start? Elvis played so well before that team meltdown.

They have the same chance with either one. I wanted Korpisalo at the start because of various reasons, but if they started Elvis it wasn't a big deal. Goaltending isn't an issue with this team. I don't have the man-crush on Elvis a lot of people here have, I just feel he still has to prove himself here, and he just hasn't played enough. Korpisalo earned the starting job and didn't do anything to lose it, but around here the writing is on the wall for him so no matter what he does, he won't get any credit, it will always be he was good because of something else, or if he was bad, it was him, like game 3.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Effing Leafs fans only had til the next day to live with their team’s collapse.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Effing Leafs fans only had til the next day to live with their team’s collapse.

They're really showing why they're one of the more insufferable fanbases in hockey. I thought Tampa fans were absolute dickheads last year, but the Toronto base is 5x worse. Its going to be f***ing awful being here for a while after tomorrow night, we'll never live this down lol.

 

[aRussian]

I woke up and that loss is still with me. What the hell did we witness?

I’m also seeing an article where Nick is bitching that the Leafs are always looking for calls. Petty from the player that keeps taking obvious penalties; needs to step up his game instead of his excuses

 

[Johansen2Foligno]

I woke up and that loss is still with me. What the hell did we witness?

I’m also seeing an article where Nick is bitching that the Leafs are always looking for calls. Petty from the player that keeps taking obvious penalties; needs to step up his game instead of his excuses

Not a good look from the guy who blatantly tripped someone. Focus always needs to be kept forward on the future. One day, perhaps when the ability to travel through time is discovered, we can go back and right wrongs and get our chance to do things differently. But today we learn from our mistakes and try our best to be better going forward.

I'm over it and looking forward to tomorrow. I enjoy hockey for what it is -- entertainment. Both these teams are laying it all on the line, and you have to respect that.

 

[DarkandStormy]

 

[NotWendell]

I'm still a little gutted from that game last night. I can only imagine the challenge the players have mentally.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

I'll be the pillar of doom. I fully expect the CBJ to have their heads handed to them tomorrow. They let it completely slip away from them in a monumental collapse yesterday and the loss of Werenski is the final nail in the coffin.

But, then again, if Korpisalo has his game 1 magic..........