I see this being said a lot by both players and fans:
And I don't like it at all. We were getting badly outplayed pretty much all season long, and were managing to scrape out wins against the odds. It wasn't just a "bad stretch," it was the good luck running out for a fairly bad team. We played without the puck, in our own zone, all season long - if anything we were lucky to do decently for as long as we did without collapsing.
The logic in Kessel's quote is basically saying "we don't need to change, we were a good team last year who just got unlucky! Things will get better by themselves!" In reality, we were a weak team, terrible at puck possession, that needs to make serious changes to be a good playoff team.
And I don't like it at all. We were getting badly outplayed pretty much all season long, and were managing to scrape out wins against the odds. It wasn't just a "bad stretch," it was the good luck running out for a fairly bad team. We played without the puck, in our own zone, all season long - if anything we were lucky to do decently for as long as we did without collapsing.
The logic in Kessel's quote is basically saying "we don't need to change, we were a good team last year who just got unlucky! Things will get better by themselves!" In reality, we were a weak team, terrible at puck possession, that needs to make serious changes to be a good playoff team.
Nithoniniel
Registered User
Yeah I agree, it makes me worried to.
On the other hand, I'm not sure that it's just not what they have decided to say. They might be aware of the issues, working on the issues while saying what they think they need to say in public.
On the other hand, I'm not sure that it's just not what they have decided to say. They might be aware of the issues, working on the issues while saying what they think they need to say in public.
Primary Assist
The taste of honey is worse than none at all
- Jul 7, 2010
- 5,960
- 5,848
Pretty much. It will probably help us with a better draft pick, I suppose but still, its worrying to hear that they think they "had a bad stretch", when the bad stretch was the whole year.
hatterson
Registered User
I'm not really sure what else he's supposed to say.
He basically has to say he's confident of avoiding a tailspin or else he'd be crucified in the media.
He basically has to say he's confident of avoiding a tailspin or else he'd be crucified in the media.
Kessel said he was confident their team is now set up to avoid collapses now. Was he supposed to say something else?
And he's right. With the changes we made, and the changes we are making to how we play, and the fact that we are balancing ice time taking away some of the load from guys like Kessel and Phaneuf, I think we will be a lot less prone
And he's right. With the changes we made, and the changes we are making to how we play, and the fact that we are balancing ice time taking away some of the load from guys like Kessel and Phaneuf, I think we will be a lot less prone
Phil Kessel gets a lot of unwarranted criticism, he carries the Maple Leafs’ offense a lot of the time. JVR along with him.
Bardown warrior
Registered User
With us being able to play our 4th line now maybe the depth scoring will take some of the pressure off the first line. They burned out at the end of the year, which is one of the reasons that i think we collapsed.
Nithoniniel
Registered User
Yes for sure. Leafs had plenty of problems, but one of them must have been that we were living off of unsustainable success from our first line and first pairing for a very long time.
Now there is no line in the league that carries a team throughout a season, but where others have the depth to minimize the effect of such a slump, we had nothing.
Kind of like how Carolina has been before. Putting up a challenge when the first line has been clicking, but when they don't work as well then the team is one of the worst in the league.
Warden of the North
Ned Stark's head
TootooTrain
Sandpaper
- Jun 12, 2010
- 35,505
- 461
Quote grabbing from Kessel isn't the most interesting thing to do lol. It's just a 2min blurb. Not really thread worthy.
Please don't over analyze this.
Please don't over analyze this.
Leafidelity
Best Sport/Worst League
Seems pretty obvious to me we had a good team playing a bad system and still managing to win in spite of it.
Nice to hear Phil talk confidently about the team.
Nice to hear Phil talk confidently about the team.
TheLeafsBro
Registered User
Well if Randy ****ing rolls 4 lines, which I'm pretty sure management is telling him to do, then the pressure will be taken off Phil and JVR a lot more and they shouldn't run out of gas. That's the one thing that makes me hopeful. We need scoring from all of our lines because there's going to be nights where our top guys come up dry. It happens.
Based on how they played, the way the team performed for the entire year was DISGRACEFUL!!!
How about instead of lying... LYING... right in the face of leaf nation, he just said something like:
"Nevermind just the collapse, I think our team as a whole can perform much better than we did last season. We've made some key changes, and making changes to our system, and I've very hopeful for next season."
WHY IS THAT SO HARD?????
It included no LIES and was positive? WHY ON EARTH WOULD THAT BE SO DIFFICULT?
zoA
Registered User
- Mar 23, 2010
- 836
- 292
Does it seriously both you so much that you have to turns caps on to respond to a thread on HF about it?Kessel didn't lie. In his opinion, he felt they had a good team (makes sense since most of that team made the playoffs in the shortened season). The word stretch doesn't have a set length in this context, so it very well could relate to a longer time than most people would use the word for.
I mean, I get what you're saying, but you're getting too emotionally involved if his neutral response is really bothering you.
Phil Kessel and the first line isn’t, and wasn’t, the problem. Kessel pulling double shifts, and JVR/Kessel playing in the Olympics, and they and Bozak playing the big minutes that they did…how could they not be exhausted. The problem was the bottom six; they simply were not good enough. And I really do hope that the Leafs have fixed it this year, but we’ll find out.
The Great Gazoo
Hello, dum dum
Ya! Damn them for playing hard for their country. It's all their fault the Olympics was played, and they tried, and it hurt the Leafs. Grrrr, those guys!
Chandrashekhar Limit
From the runaway slave to a modern day king.
This team choked three times in the last three years. Shut your trap and have a year without ******** the bed, and we might start believing you.
TeamBester
Debunked
Of course not. However, I think both the players and the fans need to acknowledge that last year was not a case of:
"We had a legitimately good team, just had a little bad stretch, need to fix that one little thing and we're good!"
The team doesn't need to learn how to not collapse, the team needs to play better puck possession hockey. This means both being able to maintain possession when they have the puck, and even more important for the Leafs, get the puck back quickly when they lose possession, instead of running around their own zone for ages without the puck. The collapse was not some weird, bad luck outlier, it was a true indication of the quality of the team.
Something along the lines of this would make me feel more confident that the players are in touch with reality:
"Our team had serious issues last year, we played without the puck in our own end too often. These issues don't fix themselves, we have to fix them. We're going to hustle harder, focus on winning puck battles all over the ice, and improve our cycle play. We do this, and we can be a good playoff team."
However, these kind of statements:
"We were a good team last year! Just need to fix that little collapse thing."
Make me nervous.
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