Post-Game Talk: Leafs Lose 3-0

[Al14]

8-6 is a 94 point pace which might barely be enough to make the playoffs this year.

At least it's better than just a .500 record since January 1st!

 

[Loosie]

Watching the Kessel era Leafs teams never hurt this bad. The talent level of this team and the first 20 games of the season had me excited for this team. It felt like the team finally took their play to the next level.... no one looks like they are having fun anymore. It's a complete 180 from how they played early on in the season. There ou s no excuse to enter next season with the same coaches behind the bench. At a very minimum the assistant coaches need fired and Babcock given till the All star break to get this **** straightened out.

If Pittsburgh can fire a coach midway through the season and win a cup, so can we.

Much much earlier in the season when this happened. Pittsburgh had a rough start out of the gate. Everyone keeps holding up New Jersey as an example when Lou did it late in the season, still doesn't mean it's a good idea.

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

No but they will. Only 3 teams have clinched so far, Tampa Calgary and San Jose.

Montreal 8 points back with 9 games to go. It's not unthinkable. And it's not like being 8 points back of 8th place where you're fighting 5 other teams chasing the final spot. Montreal only needs to catch one team: us.

 

[Loosie]

Montreal 8 points back with 8 games to go. It's not unthinkable. And it's not like being 8 points back of 8th place where you're fighting 5 other teams chasing the final spot. Montreal only needs to catch one team: us.

Montreal is trying to catch the wild card teams not us.

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

Montreal is trying to catch the wild card teams not us.

I edited that BTW (9 games left). I understand that but it's not like they're just going to stop playing if they reach a WC spot because they will also need to maintain it. I.e., they will be battling hard the rest of the season and if the Leafs don't get their act together, it's a very real possibility they will be the ones desperately trying to hold onto a WC spot.

 

[inthe6ix]

moral victory, we outplayed them for most of them game

keep the momentum going tonight vs buf

it's gonna be a good one

 

[socko]

Watching the Kessel era Leafs teams never hurt this bad. The talent level of this team and the first 20 games of the season had me excited for this team. It felt like the team finally took their play to the next level.... no one looks like they are having fun anymore. It's a complete 180 from how they played early on in the season. There ou s no excuse to enter next season with the same coaches behind the bench. At a very minimum the assistant coaches need fired and Babcock given till the All star break to get this **** straightened out.

If Pittsburgh can fire a coach midway through the season and win a cup, so can we.

Babcock was the coach for the first 20 games. We did add someone right about December 1st though, right when the team started to sharply decline.

 

[ACC1224]

Thought they played well enough to win.
Lets hope they can score enough tonight to win.

 

[inthe6ix]

Thought they played well enough to win.
Lets hope they can score enough tonight to win.

i like our odds scoring a few on hutton more than rinne

question is more what we'll get out of sparks and how many go in

 

[Nineteen67]

how do you claim Dec 1 when they were 8-3-2 in December?

Expanding the original post by a month. 8-5 in Dec and 25-23 since Dec 01 puts them in the neighbourhood of 15 th or so overall and about 10th in the east.
But you can’t ignore Oct and Nov which puts them around 7th overall and 5th in the east.

 

[ToneDog]

I was watching the Pens Canes , 20 shots doesn’t suggest the goalie stole anything. Did they have legit scoring chance in the 3rd?

Believe shots were 22-20 Leafs. Renne and the Preds D was solid. He may not have stolen the game but he sure stoned JT, who scores on that chance on most goalies in the league.

 

[RLF]

Played waaay better last night. More physical. More commitment, More compete. More aggressive. They capitalized on our few mistakes and we didn't on theirs. That's the difference in the game.
An great game as an example of why people shouldn't look at hit stats to count how physical a team is. I thought Kappy was quite aggressive last night and finished every check. I counted at least 3 hits watching the game. I look at boxscore this morning, he is credited for 1 hit? We were way more physical last night than the hits stats say.
If we get some hurt D back and play like that, we have a chance. Back to back game tonight, it is crucial to see if this team learned anything despite the loss and come out to compete tonight like last night.

 

[Nineteen67]

Babcock was the coach for the first 20 games. We did add someone right about December 1st though, right when the team started to sharply decline.

@Throw More Waffles may have hit the nail on the head when he posted the team started to divide when Nylander didn’t take a team friendly discount that Shanahan was publically requesting. When Matthews signed his extension the writing was on the wall for some of the underlings. And maybe even the team’s best forward.

Of course we don’t this any affect on then or if there are other issues we don’t know about, but the signings do coincide with record.

 

[ShaneFalco]

First game with Boston, Petan should drop 'em and fight Chara

 

[Nineteen67]

Played waaay better last night. More physical. More commitment, More compete. More aggressive. They capitalized on our few mistakes and we didn't on theirs. That's the difference in the game.
An great game as an example of why people shouldn't look at hit stats to count how physical a team is. I thought Kappy was quite aggressive last night and finished every check. I counted at least 3 hits watching the game. I look at boxscore this morning, he is credited for 1 hit? We were way more physical last night than the hits stats say.
If we get some hurt D back and play like that, we have a chance. Back to back game tonight, it is crucial to see if this team learned anything despite the loss and come out to compete tonight like last night.

More physical? Really? Shoot, I wish I had watched.

 

[RLF]

More physical? Really? Shoot, I wish I had watched.

IMO, yes, we were much more physical and competing, pressuring at a much higher level. If we had played like our past few games, I think we would have been beat 6-7 nothing.

 

[biotk]

If Pittsburgh can fire a coach midway through the season and win a cup, so can we.

Much much earlier in the season when this happened. Pittsburgh had a rough start out of the gate. Everyone keeps holding up New Jersey as an example when Lou did it late in the season, still doesn't mean it's a good idea.

The Pens actually fired a coach during the season in two of the three years they have won the cup in the last decade. The first time 25 games remained in the season and they played at 0.800 for those 25 games after being just over 0.500 before. With LA also changing coaches during a season they won the Stanley Cup in the last 10 years it actually seems to increase a teams' chances of winning the cup. What is there? Maybe 6% of teams change coaches during the season? 30% of cup winning teams in the last decade have done so.

 

[Loosie]

I edited that BTW (9 games left). I understand that but it's not like they're just going to stop playing if they reach a WC spot because they will also need to maintain it. I.e., they will be battling hard the rest of the season and if the Leafs don't get their act together, it's a very real possibility they will be the ones desperately trying to hold onto a WC spot.

True, but it's not like the Leafs are going lose the rest of their games as well.

 

[Loosie]

Expanding the original post by a month. 8-5 in Dec and 25-23 since Dec 01 puts them in the neighbourhood of 15 th or so overall and about 10th in the east.
But you can’t ignore Oct and Nov which puts them around 7th overall and 5th in the east.

This is very true, but so many people want to forget it and focus only on the negative.

 

[ULF_55]

2-0 in a fairly even game.

Thought the Leafs offensively did more, but they were contained by a better defense.

Matthews had a few good chances, and Nylander was skating well and drew a penalty which was wasted by the #1 unit.

Just because a player has been on the team forever doesn't mean said player should get gifted PP time.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Leafs Report Cards – Game 73 at Nashville

Are we sure he actually played tonight?

Justin Holl – I think I saw exactly one zone entry, so good work there, Justin.
Andreas Johnsson – As Matthews and Nylander continue doing their thing, Johnsson has mostly faded into the background over the last week.
Nic Petan – The only time I noticed Petan was when he was easily knocked off the puck on the power play and lost possession of the puck.
Connor Brown – It’s amazing how much Brown flies under the radar depending on who he plays with. A very forgettable effort.

Worst player(s) on the ice: Igor Ozhiganov – It’s been over an hour since the Predators scored their second goal of the game and I’m still not sure what Ozhiganov’s “plan” was defensively there. The Leafs had some momentum up until that point, but that goal against sealed it.

 

[Loosie]

Believe shots were 22-20 Leafs. Renne and the Preds D was solid. He may not have stolen the game but he sure stoned JT, who scores on that chance on most goalies in the league.

If I'm not mistaken it was still 1-0 at that time too.

It was a really good defensive effort by the team. Two big mistakes led to goals by the Preds. Muzzin with a horrible giveaway in his own zone led to the first goal, Simmonds being left alone led to the second goal.

The Leafs held the Preds to 2 shots in the 2nd and only 1 shot in the first half of the 3rd. Once the Preds scored to go up 2-0 the Leafs focused a lot more on offense to try and get back into the game so it ended leading to more shots against in the later half of the 3rd.

 

[The Man with a Plan]

Have to add though, I dislike Matthews so much, I don't watch the Leafs hardly at all.

If you don't like Matthews... you don't like hockey. He's been our best player night in and out for the most part.

 

[Bomber0104]

This is very true, but so many people want to forget it and focus only on the negative.

How we performed in October and November means absolutely nothing.

All that matters is how we are playing entering the playoffs.

 

[Loosie]

Leafs Report Cards – Game 73 at Nashville

Are we sure he actually played tonight?

Justin Holl – I think I saw exactly one zone entry, so good work there, Justin.
Andreas Johnsson – As Matthews and Nylander continue doing their thing, Johnsson has mostly faded into the background over the last week.
Nic Petan – The only time I noticed Petan was when he was easily knocked off the puck on the power play and lost possession of the puck.
Connor Brown – It’s amazing how much Brown flies under the radar depending on who he plays with. A very forgettable effort.

Worst player(s) on the ice: Igor Ozhiganov – It’s been over an hour since the Predators scored their second goal of the game and I’m still not sure what Ozhiganov’s “plan” was defensively there. The Leafs had some momentum up until that point, but that goal against sealed it.

Petan did have one decent chance on a PP, but this is not an unfair assessment. overall of those 4. Brown at least had limited ice time being on the 4th line.