Post-Game Talk: Leafs beat the Sabres 2-1 .. By God we won in Buffalo!

[Pyrophorus]

pretty bad game. but ill never complain about points.. they gotta play better though, unimpressive.

Somewhat.
They didn't play well, and beat an injured team, which was playing well.

Its all on Freddy, and we'll need a few more like this from him.
Overall, its a testament.

 

[Pyrophorus]

He played centre in the OHL playoffs against McDavid and was lights out. I don't see the need for Marner playing C though. Drafting Matthews helped us out there, we don't need to develop him as a C because he plays like a centre from the wing position anyways.

I do like the fact, that when Bozak was tossed, Mitch came in, and I know he could do it.

 

[Throw More Waffles]

This team is legit one good defenseman, experience and tinkering away from being a Stanley Cup contender, provided Andersen can provide league average to slightly above average goaltending.

I can't wait to see what the Leafs do with the cap space they are going to have.

This fan base...

THIS FAN BASE...

We have four wins out of eleven,
We have 7 rookies dressed every game,
We finished dead last the previous season,

And we're "one defenseman" away from contending for the cup.

It's embarrassing...

 

[FearTheBeard]

This fan base...

THIS FAN BASE...

We have four wins out of eleven,
We have 7 rookies dressed every game,
We finished dead last the previous season,

And we're "one defenseman" away from contending for the cup.

It's embarrassing...

We've played better than our record, and the big 3 rookies have been phenomenal so there's definitely reason for optimism.

However, you're correct, that statement is ludicrous. Much more than 1 defender away. We're lucky we didn't get blown out against a fringe playoff sabres team missing 2 top 6 forwards and a top 4 Dman

 

[fahad203]

He's solid defensively and on the PK.

He does have some problems handling the puck under pressure though, which is why he can't play a lot of minutes or he gets exposed.

I think he's been fine.

I disagree completely. During PK he gave up the puck 3-4 times easily. Twice on the back hand and once in a clearance. He's just not good. He's been worse than Polak. At least Polak you can always get some grit. You don't really get anything out of Marincin

 

[ACC1224]

We've played better than our record, and the big 3 rookies have been phenomenal so there's definitely reason for optimism.

However, you're correct, that statement is ludicrous. Much more than 1 defender away. We're lucky we didn't get blown out against a fringe playoff sabres team missing 2 top 6 forwards and a top 4 Dman

Has anyone actually said that?

 

[The Examiner]

This fan base...

THIS FAN BASE...

We have four wins out of eleven,
We have 7 rookies dressed every game,
We finished dead last the previous season,

And we're "one defenseman" away from contending for the cup.

It's embarrassing...

The only thing that's embarrassing is your reading comprehension.

 

[SprDaVE]

I disagree completely. During PK he gave up the puck 3-4 times easily. Twice on the back hand and once in a clearance. He's just not good. He's been worse than Polak. At least Polak you can always get some grit. You don't really get anything out of Marincin

Bad games happen. He's consistently a better player than Polak.

 

[ACC1224]

The only thing that's embarrassing is your reading comprehension.

Credit to their consistency though.

 

[ryno23]

I disagree completely. During PK he gave up the puck 3-4 times easily. Twice on the back hand and once in a clearance. He's just not good. He's been worse than Polak. At least Polak you can always get some grit. You don't really get anything out of Marincin

It's quite easy on Marincin. The Oilers gave up on him and they needed NHL quality D and felt he wasn't one. He is a 7th D who can sit for months on end and come in if an injury happened for a few games. Allows younger guys to develop in the AHL instead of rushing them to the NHL.

He is being kept here so they can expose him in the expansion draft. You will see next year the Leafs will have replaced him with a better player.

 

[GrizzLeaf]

This game was some kind of karma or whatever. The Leafs played poorly in the second and terrible in the third. Anderson was pretty much the only reason the Leafs were still in it by the end.

It makes up for the Montreal game where the team played really well and should have won but got Priced.

It also was a nice redemption game for Anderson for the Tampa game.

 

[FearTheBeard]

Has anyone actually said that?

quote was a defender, experience and tinkering. But this team needs more than 1 solid addition + experience. Our defence as a unit is quite weak, it'll take more than that

 

[ACC1224]

quote was a defender, experience and tinkering. But this team needs more than 1 solid addition + experience. Our defence as a unit is quite weak, it'll take more than that

Probably what they meant by tinkering?

Anyway, no one thinks they are one piece away.

 

[FearTheBeard]

Probably what they meant by tinkering?

Anyway, no one thinks they are one piece away.

tinkering is moving around bottom 6 guys and bottom pair Dmen. What I'm saying is they need another couple solid additions, IE top 4 dmen to get to Stanley Cup caliber. Pretty much arguing over semantics I think we're generally on the same page

 

[Pi]

This fan base...

THIS FAN BASE...

We have four wins out of eleven,
We have 7 rookies dressed every game,
We finished dead last the previous season,

And we're "one defenseman" away from contending for the cup.

It's embarrassing...

I don't think you realize how quickly bad teams can turn things around and become contenders provided they do they right things.

We've had three good drafts in a row. Experience for Matthews, Marner, Nylander. One good defenseman (Rielly, Zaitsev, Gardiner, ________) and tinkering (get rid of Marincin, Polak, Smith, Hyman etc for better depth) and average to slightly above average goaltending.

It's okay if you don't realize this yet.

Not to mention the millions of dollars in cap space we will have. I never said they are contenders right now, only said how close they are to putting the pieces together.

The core is 75% set. We need to upgrade our depth, use cap space wisely and hope Andersen can play more like yesterday than like he did against Tampa.

 

[Budsfan]

 

[Duckrider]

People seem to forget that this team has had a lot of turnover since this time last year. I think if and I mean if everything works out(goal tending, rookies being more consistent, etc) we could make the playoffs. If not we are picking 10th.

 

[Duckrider]

Strong silent type?

 

[Damisoph]

I'm late to the party.

The red-headed Dane was unbelievable. That pad stop in the 1st...

Also, Marincin is just awful. They should have moved him in the off-season when there was some doubt about his being terrible due to his apparently good advanced stats.

 

[Pi]

People seem to forget that this team has had a lot of turnover since this time last year. I think if and I mean if everything works out(goal tending, rookies being more consistent, etc) we could make the playoffs. If not we are picking 10th.

Playoffs IMO are out of the question unless Andersen can play like Price. We would need to not play Hunwick, get consistent effort from all three lines and have Zaitsev/Rielly play elite competition well every night to have a chance.

83-84 points shouldn't be hard though. That's a huge improvement over 30th place/69 points without leveraging the UFA market at all and a line up with lots of rookies.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

I'm late to the party.

The red-headed Dane was unbelievable. That pad stop in the 1st...

Also, Marincin is just awful. They should have moved him in the off-season when there was some doubt about his being terrible due to his apparently good advanced stats.

I agree. If you struggle that much to clear the zone, I don't really care what you can do well. It is highly frustrating to see

 

[Duckrider]

Playoffs IMO are out of the question unless Andersen can play like Price. We would need to not play Hunwick, get consistent effort from all three lines and have Zaitsev/Rielly play elite competition well every night to have a chance.

83-84 points shouldn't be hard though. That's a huge improvement over 30th place/69 points without leveraging the UFA market at all and a line up with lots of rookies.

At least now its a "possibility" compared to the previous 3 years. I think there are going to be a lot of crybabies come the last 15-20 games when the team has started to really gel, and some teams start coasting. We could end up a lot higher in the standings than the left over tank crowd would like.

 

[Bullseye]

Polak>Bryan McCabe last night - yeah!

 

[Pi]

At least now its a "possibility" compared to the previous 3 years. I think there are going to be a lot of crybabies come the last 15-20 games when the team has started to really gel, and some teams start coasting. We could end up a lot higher in the standings than the left over tank crowd would like.

Tanking this year doesn't make sense at all. The draft isn't that good overall. I'd cheer for a win on the last day if it bumped us from 6th to 10th overall. I don't care about tanking anymore.

We have so many good prospects in the CHL/KHL/AHL etc. If we pick talent over grit, one of these days we'll hit a jackpot sooner or later.

 

[FearTheBeard]

Tanking this year doesn't make sense at all. The draft isn't that good overall. I'd cheer for a win on the last day if it bumped us from 6th to 10th overall. I don't care about tanking anymore.

We have so many good prospects in the CHL/KHL/AHL etc. If we pick talent over grit, one of these days we'll hit a jackpot sooner or later.

Agreed. Winning and learning is more valuable to this young core than any draft pick next year. With the new lottery system you could get lucky regardless of where you finish (out of the playoffs of course)