Post-Game Talk: Leafs win 5-3

[Drytoast]

Matthews is having a killer start and the media want to surround him in respects to that.

This media shit could be the deal breaker come UFA. Some players just hate it. Matthews clearly is one of them. We have a plethora of stars. We dont need Matthews answering the same shitty questions after every damn game.

Let the kid have his space. Maybe when he's older he will grow into it.

If I were Shanny, I'd limit the number of interviews each season. Let Matty be interviewed every 3rd game or so. Let him do more GQ interviews, he seems to be more comfy with those.

 

[ULF_55]

My hot take this summer was Leafs would score a ton of goals and be at the top of the league in GF, and also give up a ton and goals and be in the bottom 1/2 of the league in GA.

25 GA = #1 (best) vs 20 GA = #1 (worst).

Leafs are going to win a lot of games 5-4 this year based on their player personnel and style of play.

Mine is that beards will make them better at scoring.

 

[X66]

As sick as Matthews is playing overall, his line needs to be better 5 on 5.

Too many goals against, and teams are racking up chances against them. Their possession numbers aren't the best either, but it's early.

 

[araisarena]

Freddie Anderson wont be posting an .800% all year. The defense has been fine.

 

[Zybalto]

Toronto has a long proud tradition with dumping on their defense and usually getting it wrong.

The worst dman on the Leafs this season factoring in role and expectations has been Gards and it isn't even really close.

One of things that was great last year was that he really drove offense and gave us an amazing 2nd 50 point puck moving dman despite not being not great defensively.

This year the whole first part of that has been cut out and we've been left with the latter.

Hes played 105 minutes including almost 7 minutes of power play time and hasn't even been able to get a shot on net. Hes really struggling.

Even the narrative about our defense not being good enough for the playoffs is garbage. The last two cup winners were high octane offense teams and both had a worse D than ours. They both also had their keepers get hot at the right times and played the right teams. If it seems like a crapshoot, that's because it is.

Sad but true.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Game #5 Review: Toronto Maple Leafs 5 vs. Detroit Red Wings 3 | Maple Leafs Hotstove

Amid the copious criticism that’s being lobbed Ron Hainsey’s way (a good amount of it deserved), seemingly the dirty little secret right now is the Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev’s numbers are continuing along the same pattern as previous years — not good — except worse early on this year.

This has been the only partnership Gardiner’s ever been a part of (with a significant sample size) where he’s consistently posted negative possession numbers. Individually, he’s currently at 43.6 CF% through five games and the pairing is at 44 CF% while getting outscored 5-3 at evens (they were on the ice for the second Nick Jensen goal tonight). Last year, they were sub 49 CF%, albeit they were on the ice for a couple more goals for (39) than against (36).
Gardiner has played a few minutes less with Tavares than Rielly has and a few minutes more with Matthews at 5v5. It’s true the Tavares line has been far and away the biggest possession-driving forward unit so far for the Leafs, but if you’re playing against second and third line competition with Auston Matthews on the ice quite often, it can’t be totally excused. Gardiner needs to be better and will/should get better, although this pairing maybe doesn’t get talked about enough for how underwhelming it’s been for a long time now.

 

[Just Rude]

Fans want to know what AM has to say. Yes, some media members need to be smarter.

Not only that, for all we know, it could have been a Detroit reporter who asked the question and has never heard to answer.

Media can be annoying, but you take it for what it is and move on.

 

[Mess]

Mine is that beards will make them better at scoring.

Must be working as Matthews has 9 goals on 17 shots for a 52.9 SH% with his beard and only 17.2% last year without it.

Lou Lam was holding Matthews back with his no facial hair rule.

Unfortunately facial hair + more goals = > next contract $$. Matthews + facial hair = McDavid contract.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Washington's defence and goalie are top 3 in the NHL with Nashville and Winnipeg. The Leafs are a bottom half defence. Some say we are bottom 5 others mid pack. To compare the 2 are like comparing an Accord to a Lambo. There is no comparison. I think you meant Pittsburgh which had over the top amazing goal scoring talent and a HOT HOT goalie. But it does go to show you can win the Cup with best offence in league and the top HOT HOT goalie in league.

 

[The Podium]

Watched the game live last night. Some notes:

Matthews is massive and makes everything look effortless. It’s near impossible to knock him off the puck.

Tavares and Marner were easily the most ‘traditionally skilled’ players on the ice.

I can’t imagine Rielly going a game without getting a point, everything runs through him when he’s on the ice.

Hyman likely had his best game of his career to date. As much as we ragged on him last season, his forecheck and consistent effort has meshed well with Marner and JT.

Gardiner and Zaitsev looked really bad. The 4th line was invisible which I guess is a good thing.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Gards is not getting any better he is who he is at this stage of his career. An offensively gifted defence with a flare for making the most bone headed plays in history of the NHL. It was not just game 4 and game 7 of playoffs last season where he cost us both games with dumb decisions but look at season opener 3 give-aways to start the year off. If not for Freddy we lose to the Habs.

 

[slozo]

My greatest pleasure, after not being able to see the game, was watching the highlights from Youtube. It happened to from the Detroit feed, so it was the hometown guys calling it.

I laughed so freaking hard at some of the sighs and expressions of disgust and amazement at our skilled guys potting goals . . . it was like a flashback to the what we suffered through in the past, and a hilarious and fun thing to listen to as a fan all at the same time.

Now, instead of us being ticked off all the time when playing a skilled team where we could have worked our butts off all game but lost the game because of a few mistakes and their skilled guys killing us . . . the shoe is on the other foot.

Glorious times, after decades of dirt.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

I don't know. But part of the benefit of having JT is to take this **** off of Matthew's shoulders. He clearly hates doing interviews every post game. It's in his body language and with how he answers. Just let him play, let JT take the questions.

A captain has to deal with the media.

 

[Drytoast]

A captain has to deal with the media.

He's not the captain.

Not yet.

He needs to grow into the role and responsibilities both on and off the ice. I just worry about retaining him when he's UFA. If he hates the media...keep him away from the media. If that means he's not the captain then that's fine. I'd rather a happy matthews who stays but isn't the captain, versus a miserable Matthews who leaves once UFA who was the captain.

 

[Zybalto]

Game #5 Review: Toronto Maple Leafs 5 vs. Detroit Red Wings 3 | Maple Leafs Hotstove

Amid the copious criticism that’s being lobbed Ron Hainsey’s way (a good amount of it deserved), seemingly the dirty little secret right now is the Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev’s numbers are continuing along the same pattern as previous years — not good — except worse early on this year.

This has been the only partnership Gardiner’s ever been a part of (with a significant sample size) where he’s consistently posted negative possession numbers. Individually, he’s currently at 43.6 CF% through five games and the pairing is at 44 CF% while getting outscored 5-3 at evens (they were on the ice for the second Nick Jensen goal tonight). Last year, they were sub 49 CF%, albeit they were on the ice for a couple more goals for (39) than against (36).
Gardiner has played a few minutes less with Tavares than Rielly has and a few minutes more with Matthews at 5v5. It’s true the Tavares line has been far and away the biggest possession-driving forward unit so far for the Leafs, but if you’re playing against second and third line competition with Auston Matthews on the ice quite often, it can’t be totally excused. Gardiner needs to be better and will/should get better, although this pairing maybe doesn’t get talked about enough for how underwhelming it’s been for a long time now.

Even though its early in the year, this is an extremely bad take.

By the end of the last year, Gards had better numbers with Zaitsev than with any other dman and they had arguably the best numbers of any 2nd pair d in the first round of the playoffs.

Gards has had a fractured camp and a new baby at home and will pick it up but this article smacks of a guy who was preaching this last year when Zaitsev was struggling and had to shut up about it when the numbers wernt making sense any more and is now back on it after 5 games except with a more general approach to the pairing instead of the Zaitsev ducks narrative.

Still early, gotta wait it out a while longer.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

Even the narrative about our defense not being good enough for the playoffs is garbage. The last two cup winners were high octane offense teams and both had a worse D than ours.

Interesting point.

Anyone disagree? It seems our D is even more sketchy?

I wonder what Dubas thinks ? Does he want to keep Nylander or trade him for a RHD ?

 

[SprDaVE]

Interesting point.

Anyone disagree? It seems our D is even more sketchy?

I wonder what Dubas thinks ? Does he want to keep Nylander or trade him for a RHD ?

Our D hasn't even been that bad in terms of the shots and scoring chances. Our goaltending has just been sub-par by far. Andersen has a .893% save percentage...

It's ok to hold our goaltenders to a higher standard and not blame every goal on the defence, system or the coaches.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Watched the game live last night. Some notes:

Matthews is massive and makes everything look effortless. It’s near impossible to knock him off the puck.

Tavares and Marner were easily the most ‘traditionally skilled’ players on the ice.

I can’t imagine Rielly going a game without getting a point, everything runs through him when he’s on the ice.

Hyman likely had his best game of his career to date. As much as we ragged on him last season, his forecheck and consistent effort has meshed well with Marner and JT.

Gardiner and Zaitsev looked really bad. The 4th line was invisible which I guess is a good thing.

And Leivo fought!!! Or was that last game ?

 

[HamiltonNHL]

Our D hasn't even been that bad in terms of the shots and scoring chances. Our goaltending has just been sub-par by far. Andersen has a .893% save percentage...

Makes sense.

Nor have we played tough competition.

But we will in the next five games !

 

[Trapper]

And Leivo fought!!! Or was that last game ?

No Leivo fought DeKeyser last night.

 

[X66]

Our D hasn't even been that bad in terms of the shots and scoring chances. Our goaltending has just been sub-par by far. Andersen has a .893% save percentage...

It's ok to hold our goaltenders to a higher standard and not blame every goal on the defence, system or the coaches.

We're still giving up a lot of normal scoring chances(worst in the league) and top 5 for high danger scoring chances allowed, BUT a lot of that is still heavily skewed from the Montreal game.

The goalies definitely need to be better though, although Andersen was great yesterday.

 

[Koolboss]

As sick as Matthews is playing overall, his line needs to be better 5 on 5.

Too many goals against, and teams are racking up chances against them. Their possession numbers aren't the best either, but it's early.

Move Marleau to center the third line and move 43 up and see how it goes

 

[SprDaVE]

We're still giving up a lot of normal scoring chances(worst in the league) and top 5 for high danger scoring chances allowed, BUT a lot of that is still heavily skewed from the Montreal game.

The goalies definitely need to be better though, although Andersen was great yesterday.

We've also played the most games in the league, so those numbers will even out probably with us falling somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Andersen had one of the easiest games he's had in awhile yesterday. He faced 10 shots in the first 35 or so minutes of the game. While he made some good saves, and one being a huge save on Anathasiou, I think that's what you'd expect a #1 goaltender to do. That 3rd goal yesterday was a stinker and a half.

 

[Trapper]

Mine is that beards will make them better at scoring.

Will it also improve the defense?
If so a couple of guys should be working on the Burns beard right now.

 

[hamzarocks]

Leivo and Kadi are two guys who have been very snake bitten. Leivo was very close to getting one and kadri had several close chances. Connor brown has been useless so far. Pretty disappointing considering he put up great stats from 12/13-16/17 in his career. Last year he slumped and that looks to be continuing right now. He just does not generate any scoring chances for himself or his linemates. I want johnsson back in the lineup. Either scratch brown or Ennis and put Johnzson at their wing or take Goat out and put lindholm back on 4th line. Gauthier was mediocre yesterday and still looks way to slow for a nhl player.