Post-Game Talk: Leafs lose 6-2.

[Nithoniniel]

Tampa is no doubt a better team, but the Leafs are much better than what they showed yesterday.

Woah woah, don't set your expectations too high here.

 

[X66]

One thing I wished Babcock learned is to activate the D more in the offensive zone, Tampa opens up so much space and extra opportunities because they're allowed to activate their defence.

With Rielly, Muzzin, Gardiner & Dermott(when healthy) and even Zaitsev from time to time, it seems like a wasted trait of their talent.

Leafs Dmen are always stationary on the point.

 

[Trapper]

If you listened to Babs post-game it was the players fault for taking too long of a shift and then leaving Reilly by himself.

That kind of stuff is easy to correct.
What isn’t easy to correct is what we’ve been talking about since the start of the year.

The inability to adapt (and adapt from the stars) when it’s time to play a little physical, when it’s time to forecheck, win battles, aggressive puck pursuit, heavy in our end moving the puck out.

We like the good times. Skate and make plays. Maybe an extra pass or two. Cheat up the ice. Give us time to work. Take all that away and we don’t like.

 

[ACC1224]

Yeah. That one is on the players. They basically just said "**** it" and went to the bench. Some of them were perfectly clear on the situation too.

Looked to me like they thought Sparks would play the puck.

 

[crump]

Crappy bounces, we looked scared or in awe, didn't rush at anyone, no energy........bad game.

 

[TheTotalPackage]

Looked to me like they thought Sparks would play the puck.

As the play happened, I was thinking the same thing. Was actually surprised he didn't come out and stop it before hitting the no-touch area.

Doesn't necessarily excuse the poor line change however.

 

[Mess]

You can see why there is 20 points difference in the standings between these two teams.

TB started the night with 108 points with 13 games remaining, and in comparison our Leafs after 100 years in the NHL have a franchise best 105 points which happened last year.

 

[diceman934]

I think the standard is a fine and public excuse. That should cover it.

If he said it to a ref he will get a game. He knows better and I know he is not the type of person who would generally make slur like this. At high school he was one of a few young gifted players who treated everyone with respect and this was not typical at the school he attended for grade 9 and 10.

If he did say it I would have expected that he would have came out and appoliged already. Which to me is why I think what was posted on here earlier could be corrrct.

 

[ACC1224]

As the play happened, I was thinking the same thing. Was actually surprised he didn't come out and stop it before hitting the no-touch area.

Doesn't necessarily excuse the poor line change however.

Nope but that situation does happen quite often on the PP.

 

[Raging Bull]

Starting to wonder if Nylander will ever hit his stride this year. He has alternated between looking good and not producing and looking awful and not producing for the last bit.

 

[Mess]

What was amazing was the most common event during this game was the little clock/timer that kept showing up with the scoreboard that kept keeping track of how long every sustained TB shift was in the Leafs zone with many +30 secs or more which seemed like it happened a dozen times.

 

[notDatsyuk]

Against the best teams in the league the Leafs are

NASH 0-1
WAS 2-1
WIN 2-0
CAL 1-1
VGK 2-0
BOS 1-3
SJS 2-0
TBL 1-2
NYI 0-2
PITT 2-1
CAR 1-1

So thats 14-12 total

But if you look at the best defensive teams in that group (Isles, Boston, Tampa, and Nashville), the Leafs are 2-8.

 

[RLF]

Looked to me like they thought Sparks would play the puck.

At first yes, but when he stopped, they watched and just kept heading to the bench. It was not like Sparks got really close to the puck and bailed. That is totally on the players.

 

[Macallan18]

Woah woah, don't set your expectations too high here.

lol Tampa did to us what we did to Calgary last time we played them.
Bounces and bad deflections happen.

 

[Slyfox]

One thing I wished Babcock learned is to activate the D more in the offensive zone, Tampa opens up so much space and extra opportunities because they're allowed to activate their defence.

With Rielly, Muzzin, Gardiner & Dermott(when healthy) and even Zaitsev from time to time, it seems like a wasted trait of their talent.

Leafs Dmen are always stationary on the point.

My biggest issue with this stems from stretch passes. Notice how Tampa and Boston rarely stretch pass. People like to point out how Babcock helped Gardiner's game but I hate how Gardiner rarely joins the rush and often instead will go for a failed attempt at a stretch pass. Watching Hedman, McDonagh rush and seeing Gardiner throw hail marys from our blueline is disappointing.

 

[56 Years No Cup]

Yeah. That one is on the players. They basically just said "**** it" and went to the bench. Some of them were perfectly clear on the situation too.

That was exactly when Reilly allegedly uttered the "homophobic slur". They were all shocked and offended by it and didn't know what to do so they went to the bench.

It's safe on the bench.

 

[ACC1224]

At first yes, but when he stopped, they watched and just kept heading to the bench. It was not like Sparks got really close to the puck and bailed. That is totally on the players.

Not sure why he stopped.

 

[RLF]

One thing I wished Babcock learned is to activate the D more in the offensive zone, Tampa opens up so much space and extra opportunities because they're allowed to activate their defence.

With Rielly, Muzzin, Gardiner & Dermott(when healthy) and even Zaitsev from time to time, it seems like a wasted trait of their talent.

Leafs Dmen are always stationary on the point.

The reads are on our D whether to activate and pinch. The issue I see is that since we do not pin guys or forecheck hard, the opposition has the ability to make good passes and not just ring the boards which would allow our D to activate. The lack of true pressure by our forwards leaves our D with no choice but to back off or give up two on ones if they don't win the puck because on top of a lck of real pressure by our forwards, usually all 3 of our forwards are hash marks or deeper even when their D have the puck.

 

[zeke]

played like crap, but also got a lot of crap luck.

let's see how they respond to this one.

 

[Nithoniniel]

If he said it to a ref he will get a game. He knows better and I know he is not the type of person who would generally make slur like this. At high school he was one of a few young gifted players who treated everyone with respect and this was not typical at the school he attended for grade 9 and 10.

If he did say it I would have expected that he would have came out and appoliged already. Which to me is why I think what was posted on here earlier could be corrrct.

Yup.

 

[RLF]

Not sure why he stopped.

Neither am I. regardless, he barely came out and stopped. Probably thought he couldn't get to it before it hit the no play area. Our players should have easily read what was going to happen and got on their horse and came back. No excuse for heading to the bench imo

 

[crump]

Yeah, just saw that. When I first saw the video, I thought it was pretty damning for Rielly, but Flintor slowed it down and it really does look like he didn't say that. Really hope that's the case.

Here's the video slowed down:

yup
Rielly: "F%&k"
Bolts Bench: "rag it" then "rag rag rag" can clearly be heard 100% that was it. They wanted them to kill time on the PK

 

[Clark4Ever]

It was just one of those nights. Let's see how they respond against Chicago.

 

[ACC1224]

Neither am I. regardless, he barely came out and stopped. Probably thought he couldn't get to it before it hit the no play area. Our players should have easily read what was going to happen and got on their horse and came back. No excuse for heading to the bench imo

I'd have to see the clip again.

 

[DarkKnight]

Funny, I was thinking about how good Sundin really was with Toronto last night.

He really took over the team at age 24, and carried much of the load for the next 12 years.

Gilmour broke through with the Blues at age 23. Had his best year at age 29, and started his steep and dramatic decline at age 30.

Matthews is 21, Marner is 21, Nylander is 22.

Lightning had some fortunate breaks, kind of like Rielly's goals on the road trip, seeing eye goals from the blueline.

So you're saying it's not over?

 

[TheTotalPackage]

Not sure why he stopped.

It seems like Rielly, Sparks and the rest of the players on the ice thought there would be a penalty called against the Lightning. So perhaps they figured they could get away with a line change for fresh legs knowing that if a Tampa player touched the puck the play would have stopped. That's how it looked to me in real time.