Post-Game Talk: Leafs Lose 4-3 In OT

[Gary Nylund]

It is when there's enough back pressure to force him into a telegraphed backhand.
He did make some good saves. Just like the player that made the bad pinch made a lot of good plays through the game. That's hockey, games are decided by moments, and who steps up in them.

The blame for the game does not rest on Freddie's shoulders alone, but he is far from faultless in this loss, and it's playoff trend. I'd be the happiest man in the world if he reverses it and puts the team on his back when they need him to.

I'll try it this way. If Binnington doesn't stand on his head last year on several occasions making all the saves he did at high leverage moments, the Blues don't win the cup. Would that make it his fault that they lost? Should he be blamed? No to both. He made other great saves, he played well enough to give them a chance to win. But that lack of blame doesn't replace a cup now does it? In the NHL playoffs "good enough" isn't good enough from goalies. If you're going to go the distance there's going to be defensive miscues on both sides, there's going to be siege's at both ends of the ice. And the team that wins is most often the one who's goalie rises to the moment more often then not.

You're talking about what you need from a goalie to win the cup when we haven't even won a series yet.

A .948 SV% is good more than good enough to win the cup. When it's not even enough to win 2 out of 3 against a mediocre opponent then the problem lies elsewhere.

Andersen has been one of our best players and if everyone had played as well then this series would be over and we'd be preparing for the next one.

 

[freewilly]

a full game ends when the game ends, not when the 3rd period ends. Again, I like Freddy, just pointing out your framing is inaccurate at best

 

[Buds17]

I don't think so. Nylander only makes 6.9M. Marner makes more and also has more value. You're more likely to get a great D in return for Marner than you would for Nylander.

This also suggests that they'd be trading away the better player of the two in Marner, no? I still imagine Dubas will explore many other avenues before looking to trade either of Marner or Nylander.

 

[Gary Nylund]

I feel bad for Keefe. What is he supposed to do with this joke of a roster? Bring in a coach that tells the team to shape up and F-off and they whine like little babies and get the coach fired.

In the end players have to own up; if they can't then GM has to face the music for giving out ridiculous contracts and handcuffing the team to not be able to ice a balanced roster.

To quote Sean Connery from the movie "The Rock"

"You'll (do) your best? Losers always whine about their best; winners go home and make love to the prom queen"

Haha, great quote.

We can still take this thing, it's up to the players.

 

[PromisedLand]

Anderson should have been pulled to staunch the bleeding after the tie. Coaching failure. The stupidity of blaming Marners contract is astounding but such is this place.

I am still trying to figure out the time out in the OT; like wtf? why not take it when leafs gave up the 2nd goal?

What the hell did I miss?

 

[Beyonder91]

I don't think so. Nylander only makes 6.9M. Marner makes more and also has more value. You're more likely to get a great D in return for Marner than you would for Nylander.

Marner is a better all around player. His higher cap hit also makes him slightly harder to fit into a teams structure. He isn't going anywhere... You also have to consider he is the local Toronto boy heavily involved in the community.

Nylander's lower cap hit makes him easier to move and should provide enough value (possibly along with picks) to pull in a solid d-man.

 

[egd27]

I’m so used to being disappointed by this team. All my life. I’m 38 and I’ve been a hardcore fan my ENTIRE life. Disappointed after disappointment. I don’t know what it is about our leafs.. can’t explain it, they just cave when it matters most. I’m sad. Not even mad anymore. Just kinda expect it.. just the truth. It’s normal for my team to f*** up when games mean something.
Matthews was great, he played hard but there are some highly paid guys on this team that look sorta average. Back to the drawing board I guess. Hope we play with a purpose tonight.

If you're 38, you already know how the next few days will likely play out.

Sure would be nice to be wrong about this franchise for a change.

 

[hoglund]

Maybe the Leaf's plan is to lose the series so they can draft Lafreniere.

 

[Gary Nylund]

If you're 38, you already know how the next few days will likely play out.

Sure would be nice to be wrong about this franchise for a change.

Hope is always the last thing to die. I'm well beyond 38 and I still believe we can take this thing. Mind you I'm not overflowing with confidence the way I was when we were up 3-0 ...

 

[PromisedLand]

I will say that Matthews was the only one giving a full effort all game

Matthews was the only guy showed up

- blocking shots
- playing body
- making plays
- taking shots

everyone else just want to get on with their vacation plans

 

[downer ending]

I think it's time for Shanahan to go. I remember years ago watching the press conference where Tim Leiweke was out and Shanahan became President. There was so much talk about "culture change". Now here we are so many years later and it's still the same shit. The Toronto Maple Leafs are perpetually less than the sum of its parts. Put Crosby, Marchand, Ovi, Bergeron, hell even McDavid or Drai in that f***ing sweater and it would still be the same lukewarm bathwater f***in Presidents Choice brand hockey team

 

[downer ending]

Matthews was the only guy showed up

- blocking shots
- playing body
- making plays
- taking shots

everyone else just want to get on with their vacation plans

I wanna throw out Morgan too. He played hard and had a great game.

 

[PromisedLand]

I disagree that this philosophy works.
The team has shown time and again it does not. I’m not talking about the philosophy of skill, I’m talking about the philosophy of overall construct. Yes they are individually skilled. But a a sum of the parts, it is deeply flawed. It’s like Kessel,JVR,Bozak etc. Put them in teams with the hard work, strong forecheck, defensive focus (intensity/edge) and they add to the philosophy. Put them all together and no. It’s lacking.

If Columbus could score, this series would be done. Now the Leafs might come back due to the above (it’s doubtful Dubois has another hat trick game) but if anything it is shown that the NHL strong D/forecheck/intensity is the underlying philosophy. With skill that compliments it. Again we may get by this preliminary round due to outscoring but when we meet the team with the above philosophy + scoring, no. I don’t trust the construct of this build. And it goes back to the day Carolina stopped us with 8 shots and a Zamboni driver. It was a lesson in unity, adversity and philosophy we don’t have.

Just my take.

This!

 

[GoBuds14]

Fortunately it wasn’t a series deciding game, let’s see if they can overcome it. They obviously have a lot to prove to this fan base, let’s see what happens

 

[Vaive50]

I put this entire loss on Kerfoot, the way he just gift wrapped their second goal, that was so unacceptable, there were no Leafs in sight, what kind of a Fu__in clearing attempt was that. The BJ's were all over us from the start of the 3rd but couldn't score until Kerfoot's weak clearing attempt set up that goal. Totally unacceptable. If not for that goal, we win the game.

And give the Jackets some credit for doing what they had to do the prior game when they intentionally got rid of our best defensive defenseman, that cross check had no other intentions but to injure. If Muzzin played last night, there's no way we give up that 3 goal lead just like we didn't in game 2.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

I feel bad for Keefe. What is he supposed to do with this joke of a roster? Bring in a coach that tells the team to shape up and F-off and they whine like little babies and get the coach fired.

In the end players have to own up; if they can't then GM has to face the music for giving out ridiculous contracts and handcuffing the team to not be able to ice a balanced roster.

To quote Sean Connery from the movie "The Rock"

"You'll (do) your best? Losers always whine about their best; winners go home and make love to the prom queen"

He could have done a Torts in 3rd period by calling a timeout and setting ground rules for last 15 minutes. Who cares if other team hears it? He has had it done to him MANY MANY MANY times by his dad and coaches over da years. He is not in a teflon position. He will die by da sword here. This absolutely could have been avoided.

 

[ryno23]

Here is the thing with that group. We can bash them all we want and be like Marner is making 10 mil , Nylander is back to floating, and so on.

Besides the 3rd period, the Leafs pretty much owned the play. Game 2 was a clinic on how the team can play.

The biggest issue with this team is the maturity and mental struggles they have. It is not hockey skills or talent it is between the years

They remind me of the Ovi's caps early on in his career when they should have won more but didn't or the Sens teams of the 2000's when we would beat them with Alyn McCauley as our 1st line C when we had so many injuries. We had a Gary Roberts who led the way and people followed.

The team as assembled has shown they can play great hockey when they want to. The issue is they get comfortable like last night up 3-0 and decide to go back and play firewagon hockey high-risk hockey vs bearing down and playing smart position hockey and understand the danger.

So do you sacrifice talent aka trade Marner or Nylander to bring in lesser talented players but who are mentally tough or do you hope this team grows?

Do you throw away youth and skill to get older less skilled but mentally tougher? That is the question Dubas faces this offseason.

 

[egd27]

Hope is always the last thing to die. I'm well beyond 38 and I still believe we can take this thing. Mind you I'm not overflowing with confidence the way I was when we were up 3-0 ...

Hope is what the Leafs have been peddling since I started watching them with Davey Keon and Bruce Gamble.

Just a few in the relatively recent future:
Burke brought hope but no results
Kessel brought hope but no results
Babcock brought hope but no results
Matthews brought hope but no results
Tavares brought hope but no results
Barrie brought hope but no results

 

[Gary Nylund]

I put this entire loss on Kerfoot, the way he just gift wrapped their second goal, that was so unacceptable, there were no Leafs in sight, what kind of a Fu__in clearing attempt was that. The BJ's were all over us from the start of the 3rd but couldn't score until Kerfoot's weak clearing attempt set up that goal. Totally unacceptable. If not for that goal, we win the game.

And give the Jackets some credit for doing what they had to do the prior game when they intentionally got rid of our best defensive defenseman, that cross check had no other intentions but to injure. If Muzzin played last night, there's no way we give up that 3 goal lead just like we didn't in game 2.

On the other hand, Kerfoot was just fantastic on our 1st goal. This was a team loss, plenty of blame to go around.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Here is the thing with that group. We can bash them all we want and be like Marner is making 10 mil , Nylander is back to floating, and so on.

Besides the 3rd period, the Leafs pretty much owned the play. Game 2 was a clinic on how the team can play.

The biggest issue with this team is the maturity and mental struggles they have. It is not hockey skills or talent it is between the years

They remind me of the Ovi's caps early on in his career when they should have won more but didn't or the Sens teams of the 2000's when we would beat them with Alyn McCauley as our 1st line C when we had so many injuries. We had a Gary Roberts who led the way and people followed.

The team as assembled has shown they can play great hockey when they want to. The issue is they get comfortable like last night up 3-0 and decide to go back and play firewagon hockey high-risk hockey vs bearing down and playing smart position hockey and understand the danger.

So do you sacrifice talent aka trade Marner or Nylander to bring in lesser talented players but who are mentally tough or do you hope this team grows?

Do you throw away youth and skill to get older less skilled but mentally tougher? That is the question Dubas faces this offseason.

Maybe you can do it without unloading those 4... hard to know for sure ... but we need Muzzy and 2 more Muzzy clones

 

[PromisedLand]

He could have done a Torts in 3rd period by calling a timeout and setting ground rules for last 15 minutes. Who cares if other team hears it? He has had it done to him MANY MANY MANY times by his dad and coaches over da years. He is not in a teflon position. He will die by da sword here. This absolutely could have been avoided.

This team cannot achieve anything until Dubas changes his dumbass philosophy or the Leafs brass change the GM

 

[Just Rude]

I am still trying to figure out the time out in the OT; like wtf? why not take it when leafs gave up the 2nd goal?

What the hell did I miss?

I think Keefe has done an amazing job, but I couldn't believe he didn't call a time out when the train started coming off the tracks in the third.

From the goalie change on, the Jackets took over. It was clear as day to anyone watching it.

 

[Stephen]

Every player on the Raptors work hard on the defensive end; the Leafs not so much.

Also, speaking of Raptors. I think it was Game 4 of the finals when they got out to a 3-1 lead the Raps came off the court and they were all business as usual, job is not complete, we are on a mission type mentality... it was super impressive how dialed in the future champions were.

I remembered that moment at the end of Game 2 and that Right Back To Where We Starter From song was playing and all the Leafs had these relieved happy looks on their faces, and I was just thinking how satisfied they looked after 1 win out of 19...

 

[Kalaish26]

The fact that this happens with our team so frequently, I question the leadership group in our locker room. There is zero excuses for a team this talented to constantly be blowing leads/sitting back like they the last few seasons. Obviously we're not there in the locker room or on the bench so we don't know what's being said, but I feel like we need more vocal leaders like Muzzin who are not afraid to call out the team when they play like crap or lead by example. Not guys who say all the "right" things to the media, then go out on the ice and do the complete opposite. Regardless what happens this series, Dubas has his work cut out for him this off-season. I think he has to look into somehow moving one or 2 of his core players not named Matthews as well as some of the secondary players to help fix the weak mentality of this team.

Matthews, Freddie, Robertson and Kerfoot have probably been our most consistent players throughout the entire series. It's honestly great watching Matthews this series, you can tell the guy really wants to win. Aside from being dangerous offensively, he's also been great in his own zone (aside from that one bad turnover), and has been using his body more. JT and Marner had really strong games, but we need more production from them. Can't have 22 million spent on 2 forwards and have two points between them. I'm a big Nylander fan, but a few times during Game 1 and late in Game 3 I noticed him floating, casually waiting for the puck to come to him. Not sure if it's fatigue, but can't have that kind of effort from Nylander. Also need more from Kappy and Mikheyev, they have been no shows. Thought the 4th line played great last night. Hopefully, yesterday was a wake up call and this team can pull it together and win two straight.

 

[BrannigansLaw]

Hope is always the last thing to die. I'm well beyond 38 and I still believe we can take this thing. Mind you I'm not overflowing with confidence the way I was when we were up 3-0 ...

More power to you. I’m younger than you are and the only hope I have is years down the line at this point. I can no longer envision this group we currently have winning even a single f***ing round.

Hope that optimism pays off for you. I’m not going to set myself up for what I know is coming from these bums