Post-Game Talk: Leafs Dominant in 3-0 Win | Prayers Up for Muzzin

[RealisticLeaf55]

Should see the Jackets board calling for Cliffords head even though PLD ran Muzzin with a crosscheck. Regardless I am thrilled about the easy win and hopefully this is a sign of things to come. Let's hope Muzzin is back and healthy in no time and Marner just fires on all cylinders like Tavares and Matthews.

 

[stickty111]

Was this our best game of the year?

The Pittsburgh 4-0 response game is up there.

 

[meefer]

If Jake's out, I'd consider dressing 11F and 7D. Drop Robertson (through no fault of his own) and allow a committee of Hyman/Nylander/Mikheyev/Clifford/Engvall to fill in on 3rd line LW. Dress Sandin and Marincin, Marincin for PK duty, 'cause there's no way we see Columbus not come hard the next game. I suspect Keefe will want as little disruption to the pairings as possible, but I can't see how Dermott doesn't become the most important player for the team. I think he has to move up.

Rielly Ceci (your default #1 pair as opposed to the 1A/1B when Jake is available, scary but Ceci just played his best game in ages)
Dermott Holl (Dermott's chance to shine, our closest thing to Jake, physical but no thunder checks, skates better, good at gap control, might compliment Holl well, )
Sandin/Marincin Barrie (5x5 Sandin with Barrie. O zone starts. Sandin is going to have to play conservatively. Huge responsibility to Fs when this pair is on the ice. Our Cs and LWs will have to be aware in our zone of offering support down low. If overwhelmed...Marincin)

I expect Rielly to be worked like a plough horse.
Forwards in our zone being accountable is critical.

I might try to set the tone early:
Clifford Matthews Marner (give Clifford a chance at Jones, can there be a repeat of today's hit?)
Mikheyev Tavares Hyman (a heavy line)
Nylander Kerfoot Kapanen (the fastest line in the series and a threat from anywhere on the ice)
Clifford Engvall Spezza (I want Clifford to fire up this team with early statements, and to deny Columbus the chance to push us around)

 

[ToMaLe]

Just got back from the bar, a few habs friends there, had fun with them lol, honestly I haven’t been this happy about the Leafs since Babcock was fired!

 

[ToMaLe]

Was this our best game of the year?

yes, yes it was!

 

[SeaOfBlue]

If Jake's out, I'd consider dressing 11F and 7D. Drop Robertson (through no fault of his own) and allow a committee of Hyman/Nylander/Mikheyev/Clifford/Engvall to fill in on 3rd line LW. Dress Sandin and Marincin, Marincin for PK duty, 'cause there's no way we see Columbus not come hard the next game. I suspect Keefe will want as little disruption to the pairings as possible, but I can't see how Dermott doesn't become the most important player for the team. I think he has to move up.

Rielly Ceci (your default #1 pair as opposed to the 1A/1B when Jake is available, scary but Ceci just played his best game in ages)
Dermott Holl (Dermott's chance to shine, our closest thing to Jake, physical but no thunder checks, skates better, good at gap control, might compliment Holl well, )
Sandin/Marincin Barrie (5x5 Sandin with Barrie. O zone starts. Sandin is going to have to play conservatively. Huge responsibility to Fs when this pair is on the ice. Our Cs and LWs will have to be aware in our zone of offering support down low. If overwhelmed...Marincin)

I expect Rielly to be worked like a plough horse.
Forwards in our zone being accountable is critical.

I might try to set the tone early:
Clifford Matthews Marner (give Clifford a chance at Jones, can there be a repeat of today's hit?)
Mikheyev Tavares Hyman (a heavy line)
Nylander Kerfoot Kapanen (the fastest line in the series and a threat from anywhere on the ice)
Clifford Engvall Spezza (I want Clifford to fire up this team with early statements, and to deny Columbus the chance to push us around)

I think they just run with the typical 6.

Muzzin only played 17 minutes last night due to the number of PP's we had. Dermott only played 13 minutes. We could bump up the amount of ES minutes Dermott gets and then just have Marincin take all of Muzzin's PK minutes (which was 3 minutes) while getting like 10 or so ES minutes... As much as people crap on Marincin, he is good enough to handle that kind of role.

 

[SweLeafsFan]

Great effort from the first minute. Keep this up and we will win the round. More early start games please.

 

[Antropovsky]

Heading into this game I was saying how it's on Keefe to provide the adjustments .. His only real adjustment was flipping Nylander and Marner, and get them a bit more motivated and focused. Seems to have worked for this game.

Good on him. In a short series (as he should know from the AHL), there isn't much rope to "figure it out" so mixing the lines to catch lightning in a bottle can be necessary.

He also played clifford more...

tooting my own horn... but after game 1, i did suggest flipping marner and nylander (marner, tavares were too slow together), and i suggested using clifford to set a physical tone.

But i also think Marner has looked bad... yet he played the most minutes in game 2. Stats also show that Marner had the best zone entry stats. Soo.... shows what i know.

 

[Leafs1991]

Where are the posters from the other day who said they wanted Dubas fired?

 

[fbalmeida]

You gotta feel great about how we've just so matter-of-factly dominated the puck and the game's flow and pace.

I doubt it's our year, but if we can magically upgrade our blueline in the time it'll take for our outrageously talented young core to add some experience and gravitas, we are going to be an absolute powerhouse.

 

[Heritage]

Where are the posters from the other day who said they wanted Dubas fired?

They are all currently on their main accounts.

Generally they only appear when the Leafs lose or have a bad game in order to troll the actual fans of the team.

 

[Leaffan1991]

Really hope Robertson adds some strength this offseason,He works really hard but seems easy to knock down.
Also Engvall was really solid all around hopefully he continues playing this way, keep it simple and you will do well with that size and skating.

 

[mapleleafs34]

See what happens when you have a coach that doesn't have his head up his own ass. Lose Game 1 and come back in Game 2 with adjustments (Flipping Marner/Nylander & bringing Engvall in). Babcock would have kept everything the same and we'd probably get swept.

 

[SlpLessInMuskoka18]

Its a shame the Willy/Matty magic was gone.. Hyman didn't even look like Hyman. That line really clicked when they first arrived. Oh well.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Where are the posters from the other day who said they wanted Dubas fired?

They'll disappear until the next loss

 

[BoredBrandonPridham]

I'm not sure how you could watch both games and come to this conclusion considering that the first was pretty even whereas game two was way tilted in the Leafs' favour.

I mean just for one the fourth line played pretty well today outside of Spezza's dumb penalty.

There are 2 teams on the ice.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Heading into this game I was saying how it's on Keefe to provide the adjustments .. His only real adjustment was flipping Nylander and Marner, and get them a bit more motivated and focused. Seems to have worked for this game.

Good on him. In a short series (as he should know from the AHL), there isn't much rope to "figure it out" so mixing the lines to catch lightning in a bottle can be necessary.

I'd say it was more of a game-plan change.
Clifford's hit off the get-go set the tone
Great win!

 

[Merrrlin]

Marincin right now:

Keefe putting Clifford on the top line against Dubois for shift 1 next game:

 

[SHANNYPLAN]

Its a shame the Willy/Matty magic was gone.. Hyman didn't even look like Hyman. That line really clicked when they first arrived. Oh well.

Hyman didn’t look comfortable playing the right side. Much better on the left.

 

[Notsince67]

Do you really need to keep pushing this distinction between "offense", "goaltending" and "defense" when crediting a win?

Can you not just accept that playoff success usually comes with a complete team effort regardless of position?

Except when its a loss and then it is the fault of either Marner, Tavares, Anderson, pick one

 

[ShaneFalco]

Awesome!

John Tortorella Post Game: “Toronto was really good and we sucked”

 

[Duffman955]

Andersen deserves some credit.

He came up with timely saves, and a couple of those were break aways and very good tips.

 

[Morgs]

I'm fully comfortable with Dermott playing shutdown minutes with Holl. It's not ideal taking him away from Barrie, as they've been fantastic, but it's far more important seeing if Dermott can handle the minutes Muzzin was being given in case he's not out for just a single game.

I think Keefe is going to be going with Marincin as the replacement and it's hard to blame him, but Barrie played his best hockey all season in a sheltered role with Sandin.

 

[ToneDog]

Where are the posters from the other day who said they wanted Dubas fired?

They'll disappear until the next loss

LOL. I look at big picture, when I form my opinion of Dubas and this team. They are playing against a team that has 1 20 goal scorer (Weresnski) and have not even made it into the playoff round. It is far from the team that beat TB last year. Let's get by this offensively challeged team and see how they measure up againt the top 4 (Bos, TB, Wash, Philly) seed they meet in round #1 before we start calling out the fans who are not fans of Dubas' vision.

As Cam Jannsen said, if they can't beat CBJ, who can they beat ?

 

[hoglund]

Where are the posters from the other day who said they wanted Dubas fired?

They're all in hiding, don't worry they'll return after a Leaf's loss, hopefully that won't be soon.