Post-Game Talk: Leafs lay a next-gen egg in a lackluster loss 4-2 to the Senators.

[ToneDog]

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I know people say Keefe can't play defence or goal. But a good coach can demand & expect the forwards to consistently help out. He can get them to buy in. Not everything but alot of this is confidence. I know we need additions, but for now, Might the goalies not make the key save because they have been left in the lerch so many times. Might the forwards and def not be playing well cause they lack confidence in the stopper? Alot of this and a lot of that.
Keefe "Best Before" Date is up.
We need a fresh voice then go from there. On a side note I don't want Guy Boucher.

Imagine Torts today if he was Leafs coach and witnessed what we did last night.

 

[stickty111]

Not sure about "work". A more defensive personnel went 7 straight playoff games scoring < 3 goals last year.

Obviously playoffs are a different topic, but I'm talking about regular season and just defensive play in general

 

[francis246]

Not sure about "work". A more defensive personnel went 7 straight playoff games scoring < 3 goals last year.

We need puck movers on the back end who are big and we need shooters with edge. The three guys I’d target if I were the leafs would be Jamie Oleksiak out of Seattle and then swing a big trade for Kyrou/Binnington.

Oleksiak is big, can skate and shoot the puck.

Then move one of our surplus’s LHD for a RHD

 

[stickty111]

I do think those are our biggest needs.
1 top 4 RHD, maybe a bottom pair D as well
Ideally a 3C
4W to replace McMann

Bottom pair we are probably okay. Our depth is strong. I also don't want Liljegren pushed down if we add on D. He's consistently playing 20+ mins now and overall been good. Yesterday he was bad no question. A 2 way 3C is vital.

 

[Da Cool Rula]

Imagine Torts today if he was Leafs coach and witnessed what we did last night.

Agreed. Id love Gabby and his leafs butt tattoo but I think he's past his time. We missed the boat with Laviolette too.

Gallant for me

But he might be too hard on the cupcakes of this team. Atleast according to Shanny.

 

[Sypher04]

I will say I don’t entirely subscribe to the idea this drop in defensive play is the result of significantly less capable defensive players in our roster construction.

This team is largely unchanged from the beginning of last year

Bunting who stinks defensively was replaced with Bertuzzi who stinks defensively. No net difference.

Kerfoot out is unfortunate, he was useful defensively. Domi is a clear defensive downgrade, but actually contributes offense.

ROR, Lafferty, Acciari were added at the deadline and we were good defensively before they arrived.

Klingberg was a misstep but one that rectified itself so no longer an excuse.

We let Holl go and his role is now filled by McCabe. Holl was a good penalty killer but lousy in most other facets.

I’d say Brodie not playing his best is a bigger factor than any of the personnel choices given how important he’s been to our defensive game.

 

[Cleetus]

Wow Letang had 5 points in the second period last night leafs lost guess that's allowed here now

 

[Da Cool Rula]

I will say I don’t entirely subscribe to the idea this drop in defensive play is the result of changing our roster construction.

This team is largely unchanged.

Bunting who stinks defensively was replaced with Bertuzzi who stinks defensively. No net difference.

Kerfoot out is unfortunate, he was useful defensively. Domi is a clear defensive downgrade, but actually contributes offense.

ROR, Lafferty, Acciari were added at the deadline and we were good defensively before they arrived.

Klingberg was a misstep but one that rectified itself so no longer an excuse.

We let Holl go and his role is now filled by McCabe. Holl was a good penalty killer but lousy in most other facets.

I’d say Brodie not playing his best is a bigger factor than any of the personnel choices given how important he’s been to our defensive game.

Same coach/voice too

 

[stickty111]

Agreed. Id love Gabby and his leafs butt tattoo but I think he's past his time. We missed the boat with Laviolette too.

Gallant for me

But he might be too hard on the cupcakes of this team. Atleast according to Shanny.

Gallant isn't hard nosed. He was fired from Vegas because he was too nice. Laviolette was my guy. Always liked him

 

[Da Cool Rula]

We need puck movers on the back end who are big and we need shooters with edge. The three guys I’d target if I were the leafs would be Jamie Oleksiak out of Seattle and then swing a big trade for Kyrou/Binnington.

Oleksiak is big, can skate and shoot the puck.

Then move one of our surplus’s LHD for a RHD

Binnington???? Yikes

 

[leafs in five]

Kind of, yes. He can't recognize that none of the other D have any kind of skill in the offensive zone and should just play their f***ing positions. What have we got with years and years of bottom pairing Dmen pinching? The answer: endless, absolutely endless, odd man rushes and year after year of the worst point production from the D in the league.

are there stats for odd man against? that show the Leafs giving up endless odd man rushes year after year? if there are and they do then ok but I have a hard time believing they did last year given that they were what, 3rd in goals against

 

[Da Cool Rula]

Wheres Blue Jay Hatin Shaner to fire up the troops!!!

 

[leafs in five]

Our record is terrible in the black jerseys. f***s sake wish we’d trash them already. Don’t care if Bieber helped design them or whatever the f***.

bad record or good I do hate the black jerseys a lot

 

[leafs in five]

Domi line was 9 scoring chances for 1 against at even strength according to naturalstatrick dot com

 

[Hellcat]

Good Canadian boy



2 losses to Ottawa, 2 losses to Buffalo, 2 losses to Chicago..... *sigh*

 

[Doublerum1975]

So many missed wide open nets cost us that game

 

[Canadian Finn]

That post reads like someone that's actually cheering for the Pens to finish with more points than the Leafs.

are you new to the dubas taint lickers.

they are an active group.

 

[leafs in five]

folks on the other side of that argument have posted about wanting to punt this season for the draft pick

 

[horner]

I thought that was the plan for this past offseason too?

Treliving just joined the organization ..

He now knows what ŵe need to do.

 

[weems]

I will say I don’t entirely subscribe to the idea this drop in defensive play is the result of significantly less capable defensive players in our roster construction.

This team is largely unchanged from the beginning of last year

Bunting who stinks defensively was replaced with Bertuzzi who stinks defensively. No net difference.

Kerfoot out is unfortunate, he was useful defensively. Domi is a clear defensive downgrade, but actually contributes offense.

ROR, Lafferty, Acciari were added at the deadline and we were good defensively before they arrived.

Klingberg was a misstep but one that rectified itself so no longer an excuse.

We let Holl go and his role is now filled by McCabe. Holl was a good penalty killer but lousy in most other facets.

I’d say Brodie not playing his best is a bigger factor than any of the personnel choices given how important he’s been to our defensive game.

Just went and looked at Brodies 5v5 defensive giveaway stats.

2023-2024
18 defensive zone giveaways
794 total shifts

2022-2023
17 defensive zone giveaways
1246 total shifts

There was a play in the first period where he just threw a grenade mindlessly right in front of our net which I couldn't believe.

 

[Srsly]

I’m starting to question the people that say we need a starter. Even if we get a legit starting goaltender we’ll either play him until his body breaks down(Andersen) or has bad enough PTSD that he’s afraid of the pick (Campbell )

We have deeper problems that need to be addressed first. Coaching?

 

[Gallagbi]

I will say I don’t entirely subscribe to the idea this drop in defensive play is the result of significantly less capable defensive players in our roster construction.

This team is largely unchanged from the beginning of last year

Bunting who stinks defensively was replaced with Bertuzzi who stinks defensively. No net difference.

Kerfoot out is unfortunate, he was useful defensively. Domi is a clear defensive downgrade, but actually contributes offense.

ROR, Lafferty, Acciari were added at the deadline and we were good defensively before they arrived.

Klingberg was a misstep but one that rectified itself so no longer an excuse.

We let Holl go and his role is now filled by McCabe. Holl was a good penalty killer but lousy in most other facets.

I’d say Brodie not playing his best is a bigger factor than any of the personnel choices given how important he’s been to our defensive game.

Bunting = Knies
Domi, Bert, McMann/Reaves are pretty big drops from Kerf, Engvall, ZAR. We saw more Holmberg last time at this point who was also better than the above in his own zone, but at a large offensive cost compared to Domi. This all changes how we deploy lines. You had the bottom 6 getting defensive starts, our top 6 getting offensive. Now it's more balanced and we're protecting some of those bottom 6. Sadly they haven't produced much offensively though and a lot of or depth is scoring at the rate of the guys they replaced while being much weaker defensively.

On D we've swapped Holl, Sandin for McCabe and an AHLer (Laggeson, Benoit). We're shallower overall and have to rely on the depth more, sooner. Last year we lost Muzzin in the first 5 games, Sandin/Lilj were 6 & 7.

Goaltending is worse at this point, Murray was a .925 goalie at this point last year and Sammy was .920, both approx splitting games.

Add in the drop off for Kampf and Brodie, you can see personnel is an issue defensively. They made some choices on it and we're seeing the results. It's not all bad, Domi's been good IMO and I don't mind Gregor at all, but some pretty easy swaps would make us a more more rounded team. Laff for Reaves has been done to death, but it's an obvious upgrade in every way but heavyweight fights. Kling for OEL, Dumba would improve us outright given the injury, but even in the small sample Kling was borderline unplayable and slotted behind Dumba last year on Minny.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Good Canadian boy



2 losses to Ottawa, 2 losses to Buffalo, 2 losses to Chicago..... *sigh*

Leafs will lose the division once again because they can't be arsed to show up against the worst teams in the league.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Domi line was 9 scoring chances for 1 against at even strength according to naturalstatrick dot com

They looked good last night. Robertson was solid on the forecheck.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Agreed. Id love Gabby and his leafs butt tattoo but I think he's past his time. We missed the boat with Laviolette too.

Gallant for me

But he might be too hard on the cupcakes of this team. Atleast according to Shanny.

Cupcakes describes this group so well, should consider changing the name of the team. The Toronto Cupcakes.