News from Around the AHL/NHL/KHL 2018-19 Pt. IV

[Vaporwave]

Who is/are the mods here in this forum?

 

[Richie Daggers Crime]

Who is/are the mods here in this forum?

There's a link at the top of the page of the forum.

 

[Sparksrus3]

Filthy ties up the Oens with 19 sec..in OT now, let's go you bastards take them down in OT

Flyers do us half a favor. OT wi

Filthy wins it in OT with 3 sec left, thank you cock suckers now go now each other

Great job Flyers! Worse draft pick for you losers and ya beat the Pens for us!

I felt a little dirty cheering for that Flyers goal. But I got over it. Big non-pt there.

Its so much better when the cheering is for playoff position instead of draft position. Good job all.

LGI

 

[PK Cronin]

Who is/are the mods here in this forum?

Hello.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

Its so much better when the cheering is for playoff position instead of draft position. Good job all.

LGI

The comfort to be found in this statement is that, and I'm sure some here can verify this feeling, even with a 1st rounder in the mid to late 20s, we can still find a real beaut in this upcoming draft.

I.e., this draft is that solid enough!

Let the playoffs rage on AND still make use of a nice draft this summer!

 

[BTrotts19]

 

[BTrotts19]

Wow, this could be a series changer if it goes longer than a couple of weeks

 

[BTrotts19]

not bad for a career backup average goalie..

 

[notDatsyuk]

not bad for a career backup average goalie..

Glad he's come back down to earth, and has reverted to the form everyone expected.

 

[Lame Lambert]

Mirtle: It's time to ask some tough questions about these...

 

[Sparksrus3]

not bad for a career backup average goalie..

Without checking the stat sheet it feels like he faced 1000 shots and stopped 959 of them in the last 4 games.

 

[SI90]

Mirtle: It's time to ask some tough questions about these...

Solid read. A lot of blaming of Babcock and Lamoriello I felt. Lou left them with Marleau and Zaitsev.

They seemed to have regressed towards the mean since their hot start.

Their forwards are going to have to bring it because the defense is horrible. Really not conducive for playoff hockey.

 

[doublechili]

Mirtle: It's time to ask some tough questions about these...

I'm big into numbers and have been saying that TOR's undertavaresing (sorry, underlying) numbers have not been great. Especially their PDO, which indicates an unsustainability in the areas of winning and goodness. They've been relying for too long on unrealistic goaltending numbers (unsustainable, you might say). And their team defense, as indicated by their Ballsac of 1.2, while bad, could be even worse and could be characterized as unsustainable. The only thing they have going for them is their ability to score and give up goals in bunches, which is tailor made for playoff hockey, but I worry that while lots of pucks go in the nets, it's probably unsustainable to believe that those kinds of numbers are sustainable.

 

[wingnutks]

LOL
"NHL's top 22 scorers(in points per game)"

Even their writers have to have caveats

 

[BTrotts19]

Solid read. A lot of blaming of Babcock and Lamoriello I felt. Lou left them with Marleau and Zaitsev.

They seemed to have regressed towards the mean since their hot start.

Their forwards are going to have to bring it because the defense is horrible. Really not conducive for playoff hockey.

December Cup hangover, obviously

 

[doublechili]

Here's my nomination for the sentence that best captures the essence of Leafs fans/media:

"Whether it was weariness from their Western Canada road trip, the effects of the ‘spring ahead’ time change, the impact of illness running rampant through their locker room or just simply not being up to the task of facing the NHL’s best club, the Toronto Maple Leafs were not ready for the Tampa Bay Lightning, losing 6-2 at Scotiabank Arena on Monday."

HockeyBuzz.com - Mike Augello - Tampa schools listless Leafs, Rielly cleared, pursuing free agent Duszak

 

[SI90]

Here's my nomination for the sentence that best captures the essence of Leafs fans/media:

"Whether it was weariness from their Western Canada road trip, the effects of the ‘spring ahead’ time change, the impact of illness running rampant through their locker room or just simply not being up to the task of facing the NHL’s best club, the Toronto Maple Leafs were not ready for the Tampa Bay Lightning, losing 6-2 at Scotiabank Arena on Monday."

HockeyBuzz.com - Mike Augello - Tampa schools listless Leafs, Rielly cleared, pursuing free agent Duszak

I’d be embarrassed to make that many excuses.

 

[Mr Misunderstood]

Here's my nomination for the sentence that best captures the essence of Leafs fans/media:

"Whether it was weariness from their Western Canada road trip, the effects of the ‘spring ahead’ time change, the impact of illness running rampant through their locker room or just simply not being up to the task of facing the NHL’s best club, the Toronto Maple Leafs were not ready for the Tampa Bay Lightning, losing 6-2 at Scotiabank Arena on Monday."

HockeyBuzz.com - Mike Augello - Tampa schools listless Leafs, Rielly cleared, pursuing free agent Duszak

I just spit out my coffee

 

[kmo429]

Solid read. A lot of blaming of Babcock and Lamoriello I felt. Lou left them with Marleau and Zaitsev.

They seemed to have regressed towards the mean since their hot start.

Their forwards are going to have to bring it because the defense is horrible. Really not conducive for playoff hockey.

Solid read. A lot of blaming of Babcock and Lamoriello I felt. Lou left them with Marleau and Zaitsev.

They seemed to have regressed towards the mean since their hot start.

Their forwards are going to have to bring it because the defense is horrible. Really not conducive for playoff hockey.

Both of them definitely deserve SOME blame if the Leafs see a first round exit this year, but now to defend MY GM.

I recall Leafs fans talking about Zaitsev's contract as a really good value, although risky after 1 strong year:

Confirmed with Link: - Maple Leafs re-sign Nikita Zaitsev for 7 years, $4.5M per

Seems like a deal 90% of Leafs fans or more generally approved of at the time. Although the GM should be much smarter than the fans, but he made a mistake as did many fans in judging him too early. Hard to blame him for hat. Maybe he could have done 5 years at 5 million but everyone would have the same problem with the contract today if that were the case.

On to Marleau, Mirtle makes a good point that his usage makes no sense given his production on the ice, which leads me to believe that it is possible that Babcock had a lot of push on the signing as well as Lou. With that, Marleau scored 27 goals each of his first 2 seasons with the Leafs, which doesn't make him worth 6.25 M a year, but my understanding was that he was brought in more than anything yes to fill a hole in the top 6, but moreso to be a team leader who can hopefully elevate the game of the very young/promising forwards the Leafs had at the time. Although his 6.25 million probably contributed to limiting their cap flexibility this season, they have enough cap space currently that they absolutely could have been creative and moved around some pieces on D so have more than enough room for a solid UFA signing or mid-season trade. His contract is up this offseason, which coincides with when Matthews/Marner were both due to become UFA's. With that in mind, the term Lou went with for Marleau honestly made perfect sense. It's the capp next season and beyond that is a much larger concern for TOR than this year, and Marleau won't be a part of that.\

Neither were great signing. Marleau was overpaid but to insinuate it has been a disaster that has hurt their chances is just wrong. It is his usage that has caused a problem. Zaitsev was a mistake, a mistake that all Leafs fans made as well.

 

[BTrotts19]

I'm big into numbers and have been saying that TOR's undertavaresing (sorry, underlying) numbers have not been great. Especially their PDO, which indicates an unsustainability in the areas of winning and goodness. They've been relying for too long on unrealistic goaltending numbers (unsustainable, you might say). And their team defense, as indicated by their Ballsac of 1.2, while bad, could be even worse and could be characterized as unsustainable. The only thing they have going for them is their ability to score and give up goals in bunches, which is tailor made for playoff hockey, but I worry that while lots of pucks go in the nets, it's probably unsustainable to believe that those kinds of numbers are sustainable.

Can ya help a brotha out because I don't think the ballsac I know is what you're talking about here

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Didn't read Mirtle's article. But he is bad. I don't think he is unbiased enough being he used to be a Dumbass mouthpiece. Heard a clip of him this morning, asking why the Laff fans were scapegoating Nylander? Seriously 5 goals this year is not enough evidence? Carlo Colliaccovo rightfully called him out on this. He is not getting paid 7M per to look good, he is getting 7M per to produce. Also saying without research that Andreas Johnsson may be one of the best 7th rd picks is laughable, Pavalelski to name a player would be hurt. Too many awful takes to take seriously.

 

[doublechili]

Can ya help a brotha out because I don't think the ballsac I know is what you're talking about here

Oh, that's exactly the ballsac you're thinking of - and it has about as much relevance to winning and losing as PDO does.

 

[BMOK33]

Didn't read Mirtle's article. But he is bad. I don't think he is unbiased enough being he used to be a Dumbass mouthpiece. Heard a clip of him this morning, asking why the Laff fans were scapegoating Nylander? Seriously 5 goals this year is not enough evidence? Carlo Colliaccovo rightfully called him out on this. He is not getting paid 7M per to look good, he is getting 7M per to produce. Also saying without research that Andreas Johnsson may be one of the best 7th rd picks is laughable, Pavalelski to name a player would be hurt. Too many awful takes to take seriously.

I’m not surprised at Nylander’s lack of production. He’s somewhat of a smaller guy and often time we will see this with smaller players who don’t really ever reach elite status. They can have a big first year or two and then usually get neutralized after that. See Jeff Skinner as an example. He’s since had a good season but he really was a pedestrian player for the majority of the last 6-7 years after he had that great first season

 

[BTrotts19]

Caps win =obviously bad, but expected
Canes SO win = best case scenario after it went to OT
Pens get a point= meh, but still have 1 game in hand

Jackets losing, hopefully loses in regulation = one for the good guys

Leafs being shut out in Nashville = just pleasant

Bad night but not devastating so far

 

[Pumpkin Pal]

Considering how they match up with Boston, tonight was the isles' toughest matchup left in the regular season.

Coupled with the fact that tonight vs NJD was also the caps' easiest game left in the season. Every other game they have from now on is either against a team currently in the playoffs or at least in the race.

So being 2 behind them with 9 games left isn't too bad all things considered. Obviously the isles turning in their worst performance of the season tonight isn't great, but hopefully that can be chalked up to Boston and they get back to their winning ways vs MTL. Winning the division is still very doable if they get their act together.