Post-Game Talk: Not good enough Bruins win 3-2

[Suntouchable13]

The Matthews trade will likely happen over accepting 4 first round picks.

LOL Matthews is not going anywhere.

 

[Nineteen67]

Please explain.

Humility is a great teacher.....management and players

 

[Sniper99]

You honestly think Nylander is worse than Zaitsev? Maybe take a break from this board for a bit lol.

The whole board needs a break

 

[justafan22]

Humility is a great teacher.....management and players

and pissing away the last ELC year of two of the young stars is smart?

 

[Sniper99]

The Matthews trade will likely happen over accepting 4 first round picks.

Get over it with the negativity. Matthews isnt leaving. You dont learn by missing the playoffs. You learn in the playoffs. I dont give a **** if its another 1st round exit or game 7 stanley cup finals loss thats where you learn.

 

[mikeyz]

Woah, the classic hot take on a hot take! Well done son.

Do you even know what a hot take means? LMFAO!!

 

[Mess]

Humility is a great teacher.....management and players

First round early exists like last year should be serving that purpose to educate and motivate players and management.

 

[IBeL34f]

and pissing away the last ELC year of two of the young stars is smart?

I don't believe anyone's saying it's a sound business model - Simply that it'd likely be a solid learning experience. I don't think they're wrong.

 

[Heritage]

Wow,

There are a lot of people who need to take a few games off and step away from the keyboard.

Try going out for a walk, fresh air and exercise are a wonderful thing.

You will feel calmer, refreshed, and relaxed afterwards.

 

[Nineteen67]

and pissing away the last ELC year of two of the young stars is smart?

It’s not like they have complete control of the situation.

 

[FlareKnight]

Wow,

There are a lot of people who need to take a few games off and step away from the keyboard.

Try going out for a walk, fresh air and exercise are a wonderful thing.

You will feel calmer, refreshed, and relaxed afterwards.

Nonsense. I take the dogs for long walks every day. Come back and the game was still bad and the prospects for this team in the first round are still dim.

People need to stop taking "others don't agree with me" as "they should disappear and somehow change their minds." You don't run other people's lives or what they think. It's fine to think things are fine and this game doesn't matter. And it's fine to care about the situation. Everyone should just take things as they will and not expect everyone to share their views.

 

[Jmo89]

Overall it was a decent game, but is a frustrating loss.

3 players were at the bottom of the bunch and those were Hutch, Gardiner, and Zaitsev.

Hutch is a 3rd string goalie, or at best a backup. With that in mind his performance is fine. Gardiner and Zaitsev played a part in all 3 goals against and were atrocious.

The Kadri's line inability to shut down a 3rd liner is also disappointing, but again, it's a little hard to do when your dmen give the puck away over and over, or just lose battles.

IMO the second pairing needs to be split up. Gardiner and Z don't compliment each other in any way and I think they both play better apart. This is where the lack of defensive depth hurts.

 

[Budsfan]

 

[great]

I was just angry that they played hard, and still lost because of 3 stupid turnovers. I think Marleau is killing Kadri’s line offensively and defensively. Contrary to this board’s belief Kadri and Nylander were hustling yesterday but Kadri kept hitting posts and their play died on Marleau’s stick. Babs should ty to juggle the lines to create more chemistry.

 

[Budsfan]

 

[ULF_55]

I was just angry that they played hard, and still lost because of 3 stupid turnovers. I think Marleau is killing Kadri’s line offensively and defensively. Contrary to this board’s belief Kadri and Nylander were hustling yesterday but Kadri kept hitting posts and their play died on Marleau’s stick. Babs should ty to juggle the lines to create more chemistry.

Marleau should be on the 4th. line.

Or they could stop his current iron man streak and rest him.

Not happening.

 

[Pookie]

I was just angry that they played hard, and still lost because of 3 stupid turnovers. I think Marleau is killing Kadri’s line offensively and defensively. Contrary to this board’s belief Kadri and Nylander were hustling yesterday but Kadri kept hitting posts and their play died on Marleau’s stick. Babs should ty to juggle the lines to create more chemistry.

All 3 of those guys need to be better.

Kadri got a point but on the PP. He’s got 1 goal in 15 games. And drawing the 3/4 lines as match ups.

Nylander’s struggles are documented. Marleau’s declining skill set was known at the time some folks jumped for joy when he was signed.

There’s 18 million tied up in that line. It is getting easier match ups. They aren’t paid for posts, they are paid for what they were expected to produce.

We were beat by the Bruins 3rd/4th line last night. Marleau was -3. Kadri and Nylander were -2.... only because they got to the bench before a goal went in seconds later.

Kurlay went up against our “shut down” line and came out +3

There are 18 million reasons why that is not good enough.

 

[mulefarm]

People have been saying plus minus isn’t a good stat for evaluating players?

 

[Ports]

My point is, no team in the Cap World can afford paying 3 players 10+mil each.
Since JT was signed last summer, you can't trade him.
If it is between Marner and Matthews, quite honestly, the differences between them must be huge like Marner and Kadri in order to justify keeping Marner and letting go Matthews.

I don’t see them letting either of them go although I may not understand what you mean by that.

 

[ULF_55]

All 3 of those guys need to be better.

Kadri got a point but on the PP. He’s got 1 goal in 15 games. And drawing the 3/4 lines as match ups.

Nylander’s struggles are documented. Marleau’s declining skill set was known at the time some folks jumped for joy when he was signed.

There’s 18 million tied up in that line. It is getting easier match ups. They aren’t paid for posts, they are paid for what they were expected to produce.

We were beat by the Bruins 3rd/4th line last night. Marleau was -3. Kadri and Nylander were -2.... only because they got to the bench before a goal went in seconds later.

Kurlay went up against our “shut down” line and came out +3

There are 18 million reasons why that is not good enough.

IMO, Marleau has not been good defensively for most of this season.

I'm not sure if Kadri's footspeed is slowing, and he was never fleet of foot anyway.

Nylander has been getting better each game, but that's only 1/3 of the line.

 

[hector morrison]

Interesting how Babs throws together 3 slumping players in Naz ,Willy and Marleau. Should be an awesome line really,but they are all'snakebit' at the moment.

 

[ULF_55]

People have been saying plus minus isn’t a good stat for evaluating players?

Well, then let's say the Kadri line lost their head to head battle last night. The result being they allowed their opposition to outscore them.

 

[WestCoastLeafs]

Matthews was on the bench because he had just finished a shift and couldn't get back on.
I guess you would have had one of our forwards ignore the fact we had the bruins hemmed in and skated to the other end of the ice so Matthews could get on instead.
That would be some fine coaching there Willie.

If Babcock knew as much about hockey as our esteemed posters, he would just go to the options panel and turn off line changes.

 

[Ignatius Reilly]

You can tear apart "moral victories", particularly when it comes to Boston, but for the most part I loved our game.

That was the "heaviest" we've played, our jam was fantastic. The Kadri line was buzzing all night, down low winning battles, great compete. AJ with eye popping tenacity, that was his best game of the season for me, that's playoff hockey. The Tavares line played well. Hutch was fine, he held firm at the beginning when we were a mess and actually made some good saves, last goal a slight odour. Dermott was fantastic, so smart in tight quarters, again playofff hockey.

We failed because we lost a man here and there and we missed scoring opportunities. Gards and Zaitsev were a nightmare, that's fair criticism. Apart from that, the way we played actually excited me, and showed we can play a tougher style. We lost the battle, but I feel better about the war.

Back to the sky is falling....

Now that the pain has dulled, I think this is a good way to look at it. So many positives, especially the "heavy" play. Feels like that's a first against Boston.

Hutch was good for what he is. Maybe better than good given the defensive gaffs. Rask is much better. A couple of All-Star games and a Vezina kinda tells you that.

Kadri line looked much better. That's gotta lead to results.

The opening minutes we were down 5-1 in shots, by the middle of the game we were up 16-6 or something. Great example of waking up and taking control of the game. OTOH that final minute or so when we needed a goal and spent like half a minute unable to control the puck going in circles in front of our (empty) net? Ouch.

All in all pretty positive in hindsight, but I realize I'm much happier winning a game we should have lost than losing one where we played well.

If they get beat bad again by Tampa will the game plan be to try and face the Caps /Pens?
Or
One of the best things for the growth these young players might be to miss the playoffs entirely.

No. Just..... no.

The Cup is the goal.
The playoffs are the only road to the goal.
Playoffs are different.
You learn playoff hockey in.... (wait for it....) the playoffs.

 

[WestCoastLeafs]

Drinking game: Take a chug every time Zaitsev makes an outlet pass instead of just passing it back to his defense partner. You'll never get drunk!

Must be real easy to game plan when you know every outlet pass is coming from the LD.

Better drinking game: take a chug every time Zaitsev misses his partner with a pass.