Post-Game Talk: ..::Leafs Win

[1specter]

My hot take?

- Boston is done coming at us or Ottawa but they could still take the 2nd wild card.

- New Jersey is done. Too many games and the metro is too good.

- Detroit and Buffalo, done, pack it in. Tampa looks bad but they're Tampa and I can't write them off just yet.

- The islanders and Florida are the scary teams.

- If we can stay up on Philly, were okay.

I wouldn't write up Buffalo or Detroit just yet.

Buffalo has picked it up a bit, Lehner is sporting a .920sv%+ and Kane has been red hot for them. They're getting healthier as well.

Detroit looks awful and will probably miss but at the same time they are masters of the loser point...they made the playoffs the last 2 years by scraping out as many loser points as possible. I do agree though the Islanders and Panthers are much scarier at this point.

 

[Rick74*]

If the Calder vote was right now, Laine probably edges Marner with the 23 goals...Marner is close though.

I think the census has marner playing better defense

 

[Canada4Gold]

I'd rather miss this years first round exit to insure that we expose the right players in this expansion draft for the long term.


Ainec

edit: Oh you mean playing Smith

Yeah Laich already qualifies so we really could resign him for the same purpose and expose Laich and Martin who won't be taken. I really don't think it's the reason we are playing Smith

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Lol the playoffs are of such low priority this year...get over it.

maybe, but it's a higher priority than pissing the season away to have to sign Smith to expose him for the draft. Way higher

 

[moon111]

Worrying about the playoffs is such a short-sighted thought it's not funny. To be willing to sacrifice a core player just to get ? in over Smith? The improvement isn't that big. And if the Leafs can't manage to get into the playoffs with the 'adversity' of having Smith on the roster, then they're a pretty pathetic bunch that doesn't need to get into the playoffs.

 

[Alerion]

Ben Smith with the 8.33% possession at 5 on 5 tonight.

What a stud.

I don't think I've ever seen a worse single game rating for a Leaf. That's mind numbingly bad.

 

[ponder]

Solid game by BackupElhinney, and the team in general. Not dominant or anything, but good. I like seeing Matthews and Marner getting some burn defending the lead in the last 1.5 mins too, good learning experience. They're both going to be "all situation" players in their primes, nice to see Babs upping their defensive responsibilities already.

 

[kk87]

Ben Smith with the 8.33% possession at 5 on 5 tonight.

What a stud.

Is. This. Real.

 

[ponder]

Matthews is still the heavy favorite with the goals totals and playing center but Marner is catching up to Laine.

Matthews and Marner are both amazing, and I'm obviously cheering for them, but Laine is phenomenal too. There's no heavy favourite at all, the 3 of them are all extremely close for the award. As another poster mentioned, when the award goes to a forward, it almost always goes to the top scoring rookie - it'll likely go down that way again. If choosing one of these 3 for the future, I'd pick Matthews, so much potential to be a truly dominant 1st line centre, but comparing their rookie years, all very close so far.

If one of Matthews/Laine hit 40 goals, though, we might see the Calder go to the 40 goal scorer, regardless of points. No player has hit 40 goals in their draft+1 season since Lemieux hit 43 as a rookie over 30 years ago. It'd be an extremely rare and impressive feat, and Matthews especially has a good shot - if he scores a goal next game, he'll be back to a 40 goal pace.

 

[Wendelstache]

Smith needs to simply GTFO, he should take the high road and tell Babs he's not good enough to be in the NHL and sit himself out.

 

[Willchel Marlynder]

Fun fact:

We are 8 points behind the Habs with 3 games in hand (they are down 2-0).
And the Habs started the year 9-0-1

Imagine if we won the Atlantic.... Going from finishing 30th to winning the divisin. That would have to be an NHL first.

 

[Willchel Marlynder]

I know the narrative all year was Matthews vs Laine, but if we're being objective Marner is easily on par with Laine right now...I wouldn't trade him for Laine, he has more impact on a game IMHO.

Marner is on par with Matthews right now. Laine is right their with them.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Imagine if we won the Atlantic.... Going from finishing 30th to winning the divisin. That would have to be an NHL first.

Shutout by the Av's tonight

Simply put - the Leafs can "tie" them in the standings if they win the final head to head matchup in regulation and are able to win all 3 games in hand, assuming they have the same number of points in the other games.

It's not impossible, but there's a slim chance.

For now I'm happy they're in a tie with the Sens again .. Hopefully they can pull ahead with the Panthers making a push.

 

[TimeZone]

Ben Smith makes Justin Smoak look like Michael Jordan.

Does that make sense?

 

[Optimist]

Anyone else notice Nylander whiffing on the puck a lot lately? What I mean by that, is when he has the puck on his stick, he goes to pass or shoot and then the puck is no longer on his stick and he passes or shoots nothing? Just air? Sure. Everyone does this once in a while, but I've seen him do this 4 times now in 3 games. Cause for concern??

 

[Liminality]

In the end that's a win you can get behind. This is the kind of play you want to see from the Leafs more. Less outright dumb moments in their own zone and actively protecting the front of the net better.

You'd probably expect the PP to score more than it did in this game, but such is. At least they got something out of it.

Got the 2 points which is big. Played well, kept the goals against down and even came up big on the second half of a back to back situation.

Carry that forward to the next game.

Yeah they do normally go with the points and I get why. Though I think if one of or both Matthews and Laine hit 40 goals...one of them is getting the Calder even if Marner has something like 5 more points than them. Pure goal scoring at that level is just more likely to get the votes.

I've done a bit of research while visiting the Calder threads and for my own amusement. Drury is the last rookie forward to beat other rookies for the Calder while being behind in points in the 1998-1999 season, almost two decades ago.

Posted this in the Calder thread on the main board but these were my findings.

Jackman was the 2nd highest dman in scoring with 19 points in 82 games when he won the Calder in 2002-2003. 1st place for dmen was Jim Fahey with 20 points in 42 games and 1st for forwards was Zetterberg with 44 points in 79 games.

Drury won it in 1998-1999 with 44 points in 79 games over Brendan Morrison who had 46 in 78 games and Milan Hejduk with 48 in 82 games. So that would be the last forward to have won it without leading the rookies in points.

Pavel Bure won it in 1991-1992 with 60 points in 65 games over Kevin Todd who had 63 points in 80 games and over Tony Amonte who had 69 points in 79 games.

The last year they have on nhl.com was 1987-1988.

 

[Muston Atthews]

Leafs all day

 

[BertCorbeau]

Anyone else notice Nylander whiffing on the puck a lot lately? What I mean by that, is when he has the puck on his stick, he goes to pass or shoot and then the puck is no longer on his stick and he passes or shoots nothing? Just air? Sure. Everyone does this once in a while, but I've seen him do this 4 times now in 3 games. Cause for concern??

He also has 4 goals in his last 3 games so I don't think there's much cause for concern

 

[teeder333*]

Matthews and Marner are both amazing, and I'm obviously cheering for them, but Laine is phenomenal too. There's no heavy favourite at all, the 3 of them are all extremely close for the award. As another poster mentioned, when the award goes to a forward, it almost always goes to the top scoring rookie - it'll likely go down that way again. If choosing one of these 3 for the future, I'd pick Matthews, so much potential to be a truly dominant 1st line centre, but comparing their rookie years, all very close so far.

If one of Matthews/Laine hit 40 goals, though, we might see the Calder go to the 40 goal scorer, regardless of points. No player has hit 40 goals in their draft+1 season since Lemieux hit 43 as a rookie over 30 years ago. It'd be an extremely rare and impressive feat, and Matthews especially has a good shot - if he scores a goal next game, he'll be back to a 40 goal pace.

Way too thick, seriously, cut it right down, I didn't even read this slop.

 

[mix1home]

Why did Columbus give up on McElhinney anyways? He had solid numbers with them.

Seems odd for a team on a roll like that.

They had like 4 goalies at that moment that were better than McE and no space on roster. Funny, but two of them got injured right after they put McE on waivers. iirc

 

[Orfieus]

9 pages in and I doubt anyone will read this but Anderson should and will play the next game. Mac played fantastically but he is Toronto's backup goalie.

Maybe if Anderson lets in a soft goal or two do you pull him but make no mistake Anderson is our #1 goalie.

 

[saltming]

I was at the game and my thoughts are;
We played well. I noticed the team was more verbal on the ice and really talking a lot to each other.
We played smart. We didn't assume our speed and skill would win the game. Everyone played their assignments and trusted thw system.
Dallas was not nearly as aggressive as Boston or the Isles in front of the net. We boxed out better bit I'm not sure if that was a product of us boxing out better or Dallas not being as aggressive in the net front presence as Boston or NY. Both those teams came back because of their net presence and fortuitous rebounds.
Jake needed a game like that after the way he's played. Good bounce back for him and the team.
When this team plays like that they are a force to be reckoned with.
McElhinney played well but we played well in front of him. I would like him to start the next game just to give Freddie a mental rest. Mc certainly can do the job.

 

[EXPECT THE LEAFS]

looks like Matthews tipped the 2nd goal... number 25.

 

[Giuseppe Sallo]

CMAC was the difference, leafs could have lost. Marner looking like a magician out there. Ooooh weee!

 

[saltming]

CMAC was the difference, leafs could have lost. Marner looking like a magician out there. Ooooh weee!

He was solid but not the difference. The team played a great game. First good team game in a while. Mc was only tested 2 or 3 times and even then we were there for support.