Our last 3 game win streak was in February 2019, and we are 15-16-6 since then

[Advanced stats]

There is no 7 game sample. This team has been a joke since DEC last year. That's the sample. Other teams play us hard and we fade under pressure. They can't pull out the wins.

While it's very true, I still can't combine last year's team and this year.

They're completely different.

Additionally, that takes the bulk of the blame in my mind for our mediocre start this year. There's 13 new players and 2 new coaches trying to learn one cohesive system. Of course there's going to be growing pains.

 

[TheDoldrums]

lol.
when your team doesnt perform, it's always the goalie. The easiest to blame.
I'm not saying Freddie is great, but we have far, far bigger problems than goaltending.

1st in Corsi, 29th in SV%

yeah blaming the goalies seems pretty fair

 

[SeaOfBlue]

lol.
when your team doesnt perform, it's always the goalie. The easiest to blame.
I'm not saying Freddie is great, but we have far, far bigger problems than goaltending.

He was awful against Tampa and shaky against Ottawa and STL. He was able to split the shaky games, mostly because Ottawa sucks, and obviously lost the awful game against Tampa.

Andersen can't be shaky or worse half of the time.

Hutch is a far bigger problem. The guy is nothing more than a decent #3 who can fill in against bottom feeder teams and not lose (sometimes). He's not going to steal you a win, but he will certainly cost you games. He already has. He's 0-1-1, and if not for Matthews, he would be 0-2-0.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

6-3 W vs Montreal on February 23rd
5-3 W vs Buffalo on February 25th
6-2 W vs Edmonton on February 27th

All non playoff teams (at the time). Then the rest of the regular season we went 7-8-4, lost in 7 games to the Bruins, and are off to a 4-3-1 start after 8 games, making our record 14-15-5 ever since. Or 11-11-5 if you don't wanna count the playoff games, but that's still a bad record for a team with supposedly so much talent and skill.

With us seeing the same old Leafs to start this year, our problems may be deeper than people think. This team may not be that good after all, or it could be a coaching issue. We blamed Gardiner, Hainsey, Babcock, DJ Smith (D coach before he left to OTT) last season, now who can we blame? Is it the players? Is this team too soft? Heartless? Is it Babcock's system?

Something isn't right with this team, and we have 4 players making 40 million dollars here, it needs to get figured out fast or we could miss the playoffs.

I mean Babcock is still here and he's a pretty big part of the team so... It could very well just be him.

The guy is still up for he majority of the blame. Goaltending needs to be better. Andersen can't be shaky 50% of the time, but he usually figures it out. I haven't been impressed with Marner, even though he's our top scorer. Too inconsistent for an 11 mill player. A few other guys like Tavares and Rielly have been shaky at times too, but it's usually not long stretches. Matthews has been amazing, Nylander has been playing like he and Marner should be swapping point totals, our bottom 6 and role players has picked up a ton of slack, and for the most part I think our defense hasn't been awful outside of stupid mistakes.

This is a team that should be in a better spot than their record suggests, but they need some people to step up. Babcock is likely included in that mix.

 

[Zybalto]

6-3 W vs Montreal on February 23rd
5-3 W vs Buffalo on February 25th
6-2 W vs Edmonton on February 27th

All non playoff teams (at the time). Then the rest of the regular season we went 7-8-4, lost in 7 games to the Bruins, and are off to a 4-3-1 start after 8 games, making our record 14-15-5 ever since. Or 11-11-5 if you don't wanna count the playoff games, but that's still a bad record for a team with supposedly so much talent and skill.

With us seeing the same old Leafs to start this year, our problems may be deeper than people think. This team may not be that good after all, or it could be a coaching issue. We blamed Gardiner, Hainsey, Babcock, DJ Smith (D coach before he left to OTT) last season, now who can we blame? Is it the players? Is this team too soft? Heartless? Is it Babcock's system?

Something isn't right with this team, and we have 4 players making 40 million dollars here, it needs to get figured out fast or we could miss the playoffs.

Leaf 5v5 numbers since February 28th, 2019:

CF%: 53.97 (5th in the NHL)
SCF%: 56.59 (1st! in the NHL)
Save %: 90.07 (29th in the NHL)

Now I'm no rocket scientist but........

 

[JEI]

The names change, but the game remains the same.

 

[thewave]

Leaf 5v5 numbers since February 28th, 2019:

CF%: 53.97 (5th in the NHL)
SCF%: 56.59 (1st! in the NHL)
Save %: 90.07 (29th in the NHL)

Now I'm no rocket scientist but........

Why hasn't Toronto been able to get a good tender since I don't even know when? Is it the ice? Is it our crappy ice or do we have bad lighting? Maybe we need a new lighting system. Something is clearly wrong where all tenders we have suck or are good and then start to suck.

 

[kb]

 

[Joey Hoser]

Why hasn't Toronto been able to get a good tender since I don't even know when? Is it the ice? Is it our crappy ice or do we have bad lighting? Maybe we need a new lighting system. Something is clearly wrong where all tenders we have suck or are good and then start to suck.

Because there's like 3 goalies in the world that you can count on, and the rest are up-and-down. The Leafs have better than most in Andersen.

 

[Zybalto]

Why hasn't Toronto been able to get a good tender since I don't even know when? Is it the ice? Is it our crappy ice or do we have bad lighting? Maybe we need a new lighting system. Something is clearly wrong where all tenders we have suck or are good and then start to suck.

Anderson got banged up and was never able to recover that well until the playoffs when, in his defense, he was one of the better goaltenders but went up against an all world version of Rask who carried his team to the finals. He's a quality keeper who has brutal Octobers and has frankly been the 2nd best keeper in every playoffs round. Only the media's love affair with him has stopped some harsh criticism from coming his way......but for some reason, I think he has a deep run in him for this year. I was very impressed with his Worlds performance after his awful first go round with the Bruins (which showed fatigue was not an issue) and I think he has more to give to this team and this city.

 

[Orfieus]

I remember making posts about how terrible the Maple Leafs were in the second half of the season, I even broke everything down month-to-month and just as a reminder I will post it again (I will even add in October)

January 4-6
February 9-5-1
March 4-3-1
April 1-2-1
---------------------
October 4-3-1

 

[MyBudJT]

What does 42 of those games have to do with anything?

We’ve had a difficult schedule to start the season and 8 games is much too small a sample size!

 

[Orfieus]

What does 42 of those games have to do with anything?

We’ve had a difficult schedule to start the season and 8 games is much too small a sample size!

I guess I'm saying Toronto is starting off the season exactly how they finished it last year...terribly

 

[MyBudJT]

I guess I'm saying Toronto is starting off the season exactly how they finished it last year...terribly

It’s a completely different roster. Why combine seasons?

 

[Orfieus]

It’s a completely different roster. Why combine seasons?

Same coach

 

[Jozay]

Tank for lafreniere

 

[Advanced stats]

Again, you can't connect the two teams seeing as there's more than 50% roster turnover. Last year is last year and this year is this year.

 

[MyBudJT]

Same coach

So, why does that matter?

Still, Don’t we have a thread for that?

 

[smitty10]

Of course they have. When your coach can't manage ice time and Matthews only plays 17 minutes a game he can't make much of an impact.

Look at the ice time of McDavid, Draisaitl, Kucherov, Mackinnon, Rantanen, etc. It's disgusting.

 

[egd27]

Same coach

Perhaps if that’s your point, you would be so kind as to post in the “fire Babcock” thread?

This would keep the animosity toward mike in one place (well at least less spread out)

 

[Snip Genos]

Who cares? I’m pretty sure there’s a few games left to prep for the playoffs right? Or is this team just not making it? Lol

 

[HolyCrap]

Who cares? I’m pretty sure there’s a few games left to prep for the playoffs right? Or is this team just not making it? Lol

Its very relevant. If they play like they have the last 50 games then no. They won’t make the playoffs. That’s the whole point of the thread. Lol.

 

[Snip Genos]

Its very relevant. If they play like they have the last 50 games then no. They won’t make the playoffs. That’s the whole point of the thread. Lol.

Ok yes for sure you’re right. I’m just not worried about it yet because it’s a whole new team now, but yeah at some point, there will be big decisions to be made if this doesn’t change soon.

 

[HolyCrap]

Ok yes for sure you’re right. I’m just not worried about it yet because it’s a whole new team now, but yeah at some point, there will be big decisions to be made if this doesn’t change soon.

I hear ya. I’m trying to be patient too. Hopefully this team can turn things around. Lotsa new faces on the team this year.

 

[hoglund]

Same coach

Same head coach, but a few new ones.