Post-Game Talk: Leafs win 6-5 in OT

[SprDaVE]

Why is Klingberg still on PP1 anyways? Guy has zero goals, and only 5 assists. Put Rielly back where he belongs.

I think it's helped Rielly a lot by taking away some of those minutes. We need him to play the harder minutes.

The Leafs PP has been very good for the most part. Klingberg does a decent job at it and that's where he does good.

 

[Dough72]

His stick handling and puck skills used to be pretty good, but they aren't any more, and his decision making was never great. i

He is the best stick handler in a phonebooth on this team. Or Matthews I guess. But he is higher level than Nylander or Marner even though they are far better puck carriers especially Nylander.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Admittedly, I thought that Keefe would come around to the appropriate lineup combinations a bit quicker than this, but it looks like he is finally there (for now). Keep these line combinations in place and I think we will see a very long run by this team.

I'm sure well go on several runs during the season, the question is as always - what will happen in the playoffs?

Huge comeback and a much needed victory. After last night's performance, 2 things should be obvious to Keefe:

- Woll needs to be given a bit of runway as the starter

- Knies needs to stay on the top line

Yeah 100% this. I wasn't paying close attention last night but even to me, those two things seem pretty obvious. Sammy will still play a lot of course but for now, Woll should be playing about 2 out of every 3 games until something changes, and hopefully nothing will change.

 

[Enga Olly]

Sorry man the last few decades of pain and I've become disillusioned. Carolina, Boston, Boston...then Montreal in game 7 was the straw that broke the camels back. It's hard to watch all the dumb decisions get made. And don't worry, you don't have to invite me to your party. I won't come anyway.

Well I understand to an extent. I've been there every step of the way. I was 18 months old when the Leafs last won the cup and have been following ever since I can remember. Yeah that last loss against Montreal left a mark but dude it's all part of the ride and a great comeback or hell any W is great. Sure at the end we're left disappointed but that's the journey. Enjoy the good parts, only Rachel Dretch is funny as Debbie Downer

 

[Twine Tickler]

Is Sammy working covertly as a Russian spy for another NHL roster? I swear to god he is doing everything he can to sabotage this season for us.

Jokes aside, this goaltending tandem is so eerily similar to the 2020-21 Maple Leafs tandem of Freddy and Soup. Freddy was so f***ing lost in the blue paint. No goal more evident to me than goal #3. Everyone on the f***ing planet knew that puck was going to Kuch for a 1T. Sammy fails to read the play yet again, and makes a pathetic attempt to make a save. He's face down on the ice as that puck sails past him. As good as Kuch is, both of his goals last night were not the best placed shots. A goalie with average stuff should have been able to make both of those saves quite easily TBH. And that's not even talking about the Hedman goal.

All things considered, I actually thought we played a really solid game. I genuinely loved our start. Thought we had good jump on all 4 lines. Opened the scoring with a great O-zone shift by the top line, only to be let down by Sammy 35 seconds later. As mentioned earlier, the 2 goals that followed that one were also not very good. I don't blame Sammy for goal 4, he should have been tugged at 3 GA. That is entirely on Sheldon. The team had quit on Sammy, and rightfully so. Brain dead Keefe somehow thought it was the right call to keep him in there for what reason I have no clue.

The second Woll came in the team settled back into the game they had at the start of the 1st. I loved the compete they showed to rally back. A bit of a fluke goal for the Bolts to tie it late, but ultimately it was nice to see them walk away with the 2 points.

Couple notes:

-Knies - Matthews - Marner is clearly the best option for L1
-Robby - Domi - Jarnkrok (what a f***ing concept )
-Benching Reaves was the best our lines have looked, not sure why he is even playing TBH
-Woll needs to get a fair run now. No more babysitting Sammy

Lastly, I know a lot of the attention will be directed to Knies, and rightfully so, but I actually thought that was Robby's best NHL game in his career. He played within the structure incredibly, looked as strong on the puck as he's ever looked, created several HDCF (backhand sauce to Domi, and Assist on Jarny's 1st). Overall he just looked like he was a value add every shift. I really hope this is a sign of what's to come, because he was fantastic.

 

[Willchel Marlynder]

Can't disagree.

He didn't have any help though.

He made some good plays that died on other sticks.

Tavares seemed very slow last night.

It was good they put Nylander out with Rielly and Jarnkrok, players who can skate. Lightning were so worried about Nylander's speed on that they over pursued him and opened the ice up for Rielly.

It's been a subject of discussion, Tavares speed playing with Nylander. Last night that seemed obvious, but unless they try Nylander at center not sure the options.

Domi looked better at centre last game. Maybe you try Robertson-Domi-Nylander. I won't crap on JT as he's been pretty good for most of the start, but seeing Nylander's speed wasted playing with a guy like Bert leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

Let me use this as a time to actually go off on Bert. I didn't watch much of him in Detroit but I heard good things so I was excited. Though 12 games I think there's only been 1 game where he looked alright. Outside of that he's looked mediocre to bad. I hope he's just battling something (which at that point rest him), because right now he's entering Reaves level of disappointing for me.

 

[mclaren55]

I think it's helped Rielly a lot by taking away some of those minutes. We need him to play the harder minutes.

The Leafs PP has been very good for the most part. Klingberg does a decent job at it and that's where he does good.

He's playing the most minutes of his career right now.

 

[ULF_55]

Nylander is not "stuck playing with Tavares" he is lucky as hell to have someone that good on his line. I get what you are saying but fans shouldn't lose the forest for the trees it's overall a great situation for Nylander

Did I say he was stuck playing with him.

It isn't about being "stuck", it is about putting players together that excel together.

 

[fahad203]

Kampf didn't start OT and we had few chances to score including the winner

Who knew?

 

[gtforepro]

Oh hell naw

View attachment 764117

But isn't that okay? We all know what Reaves' role is. It's a deterrent. The shit with Marchand shouldn't have happened the way it did, but it's been discussed. If he doesn't do his job the next time someone is running around taking shots at our guys, then talk about getting rid of him. In the meantime, what's wrong with having him play single-digit minutes and get double-shifted for now and then? I like that he's on our bench.

 

[Dayjobdave]

My takeaway from last nights game is that if the Leafs coaching staff listened to the advice on HF boards the team might be undefeated.

 

[Jojalu]

My takeaway from last nights game is that if the Leafs coaching staff listened to the advice on HF boards the team might be undefeated.

If the Leafs lostened to the HF boards they would be a drastically different team.

Everyone would have already been traded or fired into the sun.

 

[Nineteen67]

If the Leafs lostened to the HF boards they would be a drastically different team.

Everyone would have already been traded or fired into the sun.

No apprentice GM, no JT and kept rebuilding? They would potentially be a cap world dynasty.

 

[notDatsyuk]

He is the best stick handler in a phonebooth on this team. Or Matthews I guess. But he is higher level than Nylander or Marner even though they are far better puck carriers especially Nylander.

He may be a good stick handler in a phone booth, but not on the ice!

He's still not bad, but he's a long way from the best on the team.

 

[notbias]

I think it's helped Rielly a lot by taking away some of those minutes. We need him to play the harder minutes.

The Leafs PP has been very good for the most part. Klingberg does a decent job at it and that's where he does good.

Rielly has outplayed him on the PP though... PPGF/60 is 3 higher, PPP/60 is 5 higher... he has done this while mostly being on PP2

It is a small sample size, but Rielly seems to facilitate the puck much better and Klingberg hasn't gotten many shots through.

Klingberg has upside and you'd hope he figures it out, but he hasn't been good or decent anywhere.

If he can figure it out and be solid PP specialist, that is a big perk as Rielly can eat more 5v5 minutes and he is PKing.

 

[Stephen]

He is the best stick handler in a phonebooth on this team. Or Matthews I guess. But he is higher level than Nylander or Marner even though they are far better puck carriers especially Nylander.

JT’s puckhandling in a phone booth style is suited for a down low grind it out, small area kind of game where deception buys you 3 feet to make a play or take a shot. It’s like ball hockey on feet and well suited to a non free flowing game. Sidney Crosby would be the gold standard of this type of play.

He’s also not that good transporting the puck 200 feet though. Compare him to even an old Jason Spezza, who could wind it up and elegantly move it all the way up the ice solo with his long stick, or a little Kerfoot who could handle a puck beautifully at speed but not the wherewithal to do anything with it or go anywhere useful.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Saw on the replay today Tampa’s tying goal in the third actually saw Domi tip the point shot which made it tricky for Woll to track and hold onto

 

[Enniskillen]

We’ve got our own Robo now!

 

[Community]

Rielly has outplayed him on the PP though... PPGF/60 is 3 higher, PPP/60 is 5 higher... he has done this while mostly being on PP2

It is a small sample size, but Rielly seems to facilitate the puck much better and Klingberg hasn't gotten many shots through.

Klingberg has upside and you'd hope he figures it out, but he hasn't been good or decent anywhere.

If he can figure it out and be solid PP specialist, that is a big perk as Rielly can eat more 5v5 minutes and he is PKing.

Maybe people will start realizing that dmen have a job to do on the PP other than slapshots from the blueline (puck distribution and timely pinches/movement) and that Rielly does his job very well. Glad some posters (not saying you) are eating crow and starting to realize that Rielly is a great player that also steps up during the playoffs.

People have been pushing for a point shot for a long time, but I think that's overrated and mostly a thing of the past. Shots for tips, distributing the puck down low, and cross ice passes/quick shots are how most powerplays score in today's game and Riellys skillset (including his skating and pinching) suits our first unit better than Klingberg.

Happy to have Rielly on PP2 if it means more even strength minutes and only a small dip in PP production, but he is the better powerplay dman.

 

[Notsince67]

Knies on the top line with a goal and a couple of assists.
Robertson playing third line with a lovely assist.
Reaves Benched!!!
I was pinching myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.
If only Klingberg was benched, and traded for a bag of pucks I'd be in heaven.


Still surprised that Benoit wasn't a complete disaster, maybe Kllingberg was his anchor last year?

I'm going full crazy and suggest that Brodie gets put on waivers if we see more of this.
Can't say I would miss him this year.

 

[leafs in five]

 

[Jojalu]

I'm going full crazy and suggest that Brodie gets put on waivers if we see more of this.
Can't say I would miss him this year.

While Brodie has regressed a bit, the results are by no means terrible.

Possibly playing with Rielly has helped but it hasn't been disasterous