Post-Game Talk: Leafs lose 5-2 | What Is There To Even Say?

[theTTC]

Look at the Raptors leader Lowry.

The skill, the heart, the desire, the fight, the sacrifice, determination

That attitude was absorbed by the team.

Tavares has been mostly drunk for this season

I've always believed that professional athletes should not marry and should not have kids before retirement. Slays most of'em.

 

[Shanwhatplan]

Oh I am not happy with Dubas, but if you expected a team to add two star contracts and not take a step back, that's on you as a fan.

Lou had these guys playing only slightly below their current level but for 1/15th the cost, and couldn't build a contender. Expecting Dubas to somehow mitigate that 18m in cap isn't realistic.

The argument I would make is that he should have bridged one of those stars, but I don't know if that was even an option for them.

I totally agree. I said the same thing. Maybe all 3 could have been bridged, especially if that would have allowed a major upgrade on defence and showed them that winning the Cup was a legit possibility.

 

[The Apologist]

Look at the Raptors leader Lowry.

The skill, the heart, the desire, the fight, the sacrifice, determination

That attitude was absorbed by the team.

Tavares has been mostly drunk for this season

I disagree. I think he, much like the rest of us, is at a loss how such a talented group can struggle so much. A team that has been one of the best in the NHL two years running.
I think the Rielly injury is bigger than people think. He was a key element of last year's team and was clearly injured before the season. Barrie is clearly not the superstar many thought he was. Muzz has been ok but Dermott looks lost, Holl varies from all star to useless (a poor man's Jake?) And the rest are either useless or top young to be carrying such a load.
Andersen has been subpar most of the season and the rest of our goaltending pre Campbell has been ECHL level. Personally I don't believe Andersen is 100%.
It's literally been a season of everything that can go wrong doing so.
The funny thing is that with all that we are still very much in the hunt. Now if only someone would tell the Leafs that so they can wake the eff up.

 

[The Apologist]

So then we start from scratch replace all the pure skill players with gritty skill players
Matthews, marner, nylander, reilly all out and more tkachuk types in

Can I introduce you to the colour grey? It's the one in between the two extremes of black and white.
Why can't we have both?

 

[Suntouchable13]

I've always believed that professional athletes should not marry and should not have kids before retirement. Slays most of'em.

A lot of them are married, have kids.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

the kids are actually playing well for the most part , if anyone of the highly paid core is letting the team down it's the Capt who played like ass the majority of the season yet has endless excuses made for his mediocre play

we've had injuries which has affected our record but it comes down to our coach/gm and their wide open system which teams have adjusted too that is the main problem

The kids are producing points yes. and if that is playing well then yes I agree. But Crosby's line massively outplayed Matthews line all night long except for a few shifts. We got Matthews and Marner pretty much going up against Crosby. Zucker and Simon are not all stars. We should have killed that line all night on every shift. But we did not. That was my point.

It had nothing to do with tavares although he was useless too. Sandin played his worst game ever with barrie.

 

[Muikea Bulju]

I love that this person honestly thinks Clifford and Timashov in the top 6 is the solution here. Thank you for your input.

No, they are not the solution. The solution is the better 3rd line that gets created when some of the better players are put there. Now all the best players are together in the first two lines.

Is putting Dominik Simon on the first line the solution in Pittsburgh? No, but playing Malkin + Crosby on separate lines is the solution.

 

[The Beyonder]

I'm getting sick and tired of everyone who thinks Anderson is not at fault, Toronto only allowed 4 fkn shots on net in the second period and that bum let in 3 goals. Make a goddam save like all the other teams goalies fk me

In what universe do we expect to have a goalie make tap in saves? That defence by the leafs was utterly disgusting beyond belief. They should be embarrassed as an NHL team to have put up such a s***ty defensive effort like that. To expect a goalie to perform with the a team defence like that in front of him is not only having undue expectations of Andersen (or any goalie in the league) but is utterly disrespectful to him. This isn't on Andersen, 2 nights in a row he's the only guy that shows up both games. This is on everybody else, not on Freddy. And all those guys thinking Campbell is going to make a difference with this effort is fooling themselves and are in for a rude awakening.

 

[Puckstuff]

What’s frustrating is that it’s a mental and habit problem, not a skill problem. They don’t want it badly enough.

 

[SuperHockeyFanSN]

You cannot win with the atrocious goaltending the Leafs have gotten all year.

The TAMPA BAY LIGHTING aka one of the best teams in the NHL were literally in 11th at one point when Vassy was sub 900.

The problem is twofold, Hutch should've had a shorter leash and Anderson has been awful relative to his capacity.

At the end of the day a top 4 of:
Rielly-Muzzin
Dermott-Barrie

Is totally fine, it's not the best by any stretch of the imagination, but let's not act like it's the worst either. The Leafs goalies get plenty of support from the offense too considering they are basically tied with Tampa for goals scored.

Marner is not the problem, a 100 point pace player cannot ever be the problem
Tavares is not the problem, having Tavares playing his last 2 years basically as he has played the previous 5 is fine, having 11 million in useless cap space does nothing for the team, 11 million would be used for what exactly? And what do we do at 2C?

You wanna know the difference between Toronto and Boston?

Boston save percentage: 923
Toronto save percentage: 898

Take Boston down to sub 900 and see how good they are, take Toronto up to 923 and see how good they are and yes I'm aware this is a function of D as well, but Toronto is basically the best offense in the league, if they didn't have nearly the worst goaltending in the league, they'd be in a fine playoff position.

If you're going to lament losing Kadri, at least get it right, the Bruins series was basically a tossup that Babcock ruined on his own WITHOUT Kadri. No Kadri's 36 points vs Barries 33 and Kerfoot's 25 is not some magical answer.

This season is whatever, too many injuries, should've fired Babcock earlier, should've got a backup earlier. I don't care if they buy or sell, but don't delude yourself, this team isn't some awful team that is "far away from contending," it's basically the same team as last year+injuries+awful Babcock coaching+horrendous goaltending. If this team is far away from contending, so is the team that took the SCFinalists to game 7.

Personally, I would just go all in and trade all the draft picks available this year to try and salvage this year because a team with that disgusting offense can always win or if people have hardons for Kap or Johnsson or Barrie, I'm totally fine selling the house.

 

[steam whistle]

One thing they are really good at is saying all the right things before and after a game. It's kind of heart warming.

Hahahahaha
What a embarrassing moment.
We always had excuses no matter win or lose. Geez!

 

[56 Years No Cup]

Dubas has absolutely, categorically made this team worse. I honestly don't know how anyone could suggest otherwise. Surely, even the most ardent Dubas supporters are running out of excuses now.

It's not Babcock, it's not Lou, it's not Hunter, it's not the PK coach, it's not the PP coach, it's not Kadri, it's not Hainsey, Zaitsev, Brown or Polak, it's not the board who made Dubas trade Kadri, it's not the bus driver, it's not the schedule, it's not the refs, it's not Hyman, nor the owners, nor Simmons, Feschuk, Cox or Button.

Just let the GM own it. Whatever alternate NHL he thinks exist, just does not exist.

Stop with the excuses (not pointed at you).

You forgot the guy who operates the T shirt launcher. And the fans. Yes, especially the fans.

(/s)

 

[Shanwhatplan]

Also all the people talking about cross seam passes and horrible defense...like you guys realize 3 out of the 5 goals were on the PP right? And another goal was literally Andersen giving Pittsburgh the puck on a botched attempt to play it.

Pittsburgh scored 1 goal 5v5 that wasn't directly handed to them. I don't understand how the narrative is our stars suck defensively and we can never win with them or whatever.

But it’s more than that. It’s about their compete level, a willingness to want the puck more than the opposing player. Skill alone is nowhere’s near enough. The players are quick to point out what they need to do. It would be nice to see them put their words to action. Talk is cheap! I’m getting sick and tired of listening to all their catch phrases!

 

[Shanwhatplan]

Overpaying a 40g/year player at age 21 by a million isn't the reason we are where we are.

I’m not so sure I agree. That’s great that he can score goals, and he is quite exceptional at it. But there just seems to be times where he’s not focused in games, and it usually leads to either a goal against, or having to stay on for too long of a shift and as a result someone takes a penalty. (It applies to more players than just Matthews, in fact, quite a few).
And we paid these 4 players when they haven’t even won a playoff round (I think JT did win 1 round with the Islanders). I think bridge deals may have been better. At least then we could have properly addressed the defence. (I have no idea how bridge deals work, or even if that could have been an alternative).

 

[The Apologist]

I’m not so sure I agree. That’s great that he can score goals, and he is quite exceptional at it. But there just seems to be times where he’s not focused in games, and it usually leads to either a goal against, or having to stay on for too long of a shift and as a result someone takes a penalty. (It applies to more players than just Matthews, in fact, quite a few).
And we paid these 4 players when they haven’t even won a playoff round (I think JT did win 1 round with the Islanders). I think bridge deals may have been better. At least then we could have properly addressed the defence. (I have no idea how bridge deals work, or even if that could have been an alternative).

You've basically described every player ever when describing Matthews. Sid has off games, ovie has off games, mcJesus, Eichel, Stammer, all have off games. The difference is the amount of people paying attention when they do.
Regarding JT, he's one of the best in the game. He wasn't coming cheaper and is hardly the issue with the team.
Bridge deals would have the fanbase blowing up worse than we already are, assuming they were ever really an option.

 

[WillNy29]

Can I introduce you to the colour grey? It's the one in between the two extremes of black and white.
Why can't we have both?

doesn't work like that with the leafs

 

[authentic]

I've always believed that professional athletes should not marry and should not have kids before retirement. Slays most of'em.

Ovechkin seemed fine.

 

[notDatsyuk]

Three perfect cross-crease passes to an open man for three PP goals. The other two scored by a player left alone in the slot.

Five goals scored by uncovered players, all in the "high danger" area. Our goals were both scored from outside that area.

I saw Crosby standing in front of our net, with a Leaf standing beside him. I saw Matthews standing in front of their net, with a Penguin bumping, pushing, and whacking at him non-stop.

Every time there was a 50/50 puck, 90% were won by Pittsburgh.

Far too many Leafs think they can do everything with their stick, and don't need to commit their body.

I don't see how anyone could blame Andersen on any of the goals, except for the last one where he flubbed the pass, and even then he was back in the crease in time to prevent Crosby from scoring, and Blueger was untouched in the slot by any of the four Leafs surrounding him.

 

[Stephen]

Three perfect cross-crease passes to an open man for three PP goals. The other two scored by a player left alone in the slot.

Five goals scored by uncovered players, all in the "high danger" area. Our goals were both scored from outside that area.

I saw Crosby standing in front of our net, with a Leaf standing beside him. I saw Matthews standing in front of their net, with a Penguin bumping, pushing, and whacking at him non-stop.

Every time there was a 50/50 puck, 90% were won by Pittsburgh.

Far too many Leafs think they can do everything with their stick, and don't need to commit their body.

I don't see how anyone could blame Andersen on any of the goals, except for the last one where he flubbed the pass, and even then he was back in the crease in time to prevent Crosby from scoring, and Blueger was untouched in the slot by any of the four Leafs surrounding him.

There was a play when angry Matthews just bowled a guy over into the Penguins bench. He could have just pasted a guy to the end boards to start a game to set the tone and create a loose puck. Same energy output. Different context.

 

[The Apologist]

doesn't work like that with the leafs

Lol truer words have never been spoken.

 

[Polaris1010]

Lol truer words have never been spoken.

There is no gray here.

There is only two colours.

The players and owner all they see is green.

Us fans, after 50+ years, all we see is red.

 

[The Apologist]

There is no gray here.

There is only two colours.

The players and owner all they see is green.

Us fans, after 50+ years, all we see is red.

Are we back on the owner thing again? That was already thoroughly debunked.

 

[Cleetus]

Ovechkin seemed fine.

that man is not human!

 

[yubbers]

that man is not human!

Russian men don't get whipped like NAs :p

 

[Guided by Veseys]

We looked like the better team until the bad first call against. Honestly that was a really light call and then Pittsburgh scores.
The second goal was unfortunate, bit of weird play. It’s not unusual to see a player get stripped from behind from time to time but for that to lead to an automatic goal: we were on the wrong side of probability for sure

Two more pp goals (penguins pp had been unstoppable lately) and that was the game.
We didn’t have much pushback, I suppose that is what is causing the giant freak out but as a reminder:
We are missing our 1D and our defence is pretty weak in general.
Pittsburgh is one of the top teams in the league, rarely lose at home, and we are supposed to beat them?
Mentally fragile team gets blown out by pp goals and unlikely plays.

I want some bounces to go our way for once. The season has been weird and frustrating. Anything that can go wrong has and if we make the playoffs it will be monumental achievement.