Season is over - thoughts on 2019/2020

[ACC1224]

Now that the season is over what are your thoughts and grades on what transpired?

Offense - B
Defense - C
Goaltending - D
Coaching - C
Management - C
Biggest surprise - Mikheyev
Disappointment - Barrie

Overall I found this to be a season that failed to meet my expectations.

Click to read more...

 

[robertmac43]

Frustrating start to the year, felt like the team never fully meshed for a variety of reasons. They just kind of seemed out of rhythm at points. I think Keefe coming in was a helpful turning point and we definitely played better under him, however it was not consistent.

I still had a lot of fun watching these guys and I'm definitely looking forward to their return.

 

[Mickey Marner]

I would probably bump offense up to an 'A' as they finished 3rd in goals, but I can't say I disagree with anything else. This season did not come close to meeting expectations, but a playoff win over Boston/Tampa could make up for that.

 

[weems]

Coaching

Keefe - B+
Babcock - F

 

[zeke]

No doubt it was a disappointment.

But it is nice that a 95pt pace, 13th placed, 11th most ROW season is now considered a disappointment, when its actually our 3rd best season since the '04 lockout.

Biggest disappointment of the season is definitely the bottom-10 goaltending.

The offense was elite as expected (top-5 by every measure).

The defense was average (in the teens by most measures) as I expected but I was hoping for more (which we did see under keefe).


And of course the other major disappointment was babcock tripling down on putting his ego before the team and trying to stick it to his young GM, which tanked the first quarter and stuck us in a huge hole.

 

[Guided by Veseys]

Probably just me but I cannot remember another more manic roller coaster of a season.
From B Tkachuk scoring first shift of season, Kapanen stick throw, Fleury save, devastating losses, Spezza/Rielly against Colorado, zamboni driver, coaching change, incredible comeback in young guns game, amd so much more only to be shutdown in the midst of fighting for the playoffs. Just an insane season

 

[TheTotalPackage]

Offense - B+
Defense - C-
Goaltending - Andersen C+ / Backups D- (the few Campbell games propped this from an F)
Coaching - Babcock D- / Keefe B-
Management - C
Biggest surprise - Sandin
Disappointment - Barrie is the runaway easy choice. Besides him, I'll go with Dermott

Disappointing season. This team should not have been fighting for a playoff spot, and there is only so much of that that can be blamed on Babcock's start to the year. The players should bear the responsibility after that, and I thought Keefe's loosey goosey system starting to show cracks in the team as more games were played under him.

 

[ACC1224]

I would probably bump offense up to an 'A' as they finished 3rd in goals, but I can't say I disagree with anything else. This season did not come close to meeting expectations, but a playoff win over Boston/Tampa could make up for that.

Yeah I initially gave it an 'A' but changed it to a 'B' based on the PP.

 

[markh100]

Offense - A-
Defense - C+
Goaltending - Andersen C-, Campbell A,
Coaching - Babcock F, Dubas A-
Management - A-
Biggest surprise - Hyman/Nylander/Mikheyev
Disappointment - Andersen/Ceci

 

[ottomaddox]

Offence B+
Defense C-
Goaltending C+
Coaching C+
Management C-
Biggest Surprise - Mikheyev and Campbell
Disappointment - The Spoils of the Kadri trade (Barrie/Kerfoot), Petan, and Malgin.

They met my expectations.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Now that the season is over what are your thoughts and grades on what transpired?

Offense - B
Defense - C
Goaltending - D
Coaching - C
Management - C
Biggest surprise - Mikheyev
Disappointment - Barrie

Overall I found this to be a season that failed to meet my expectations.

Agreed ... offense a little bit better at B+ defense worse at D (Barrie and Ceci huge disappointments) . But we have to finally FIX our D. We are not winning anything with that crew.

 

[X66]

Disappointing for mostly because we never got to see the team at its best.

Babcock was fired too late, should have been in the summer, team was learning Keefe system and did much better, but having a full off-season with it would have been better.

On top of that, just too many injuries, you never got to see the team at full power, ever.

Games missed:

Tavares 7
Marner 11
Dermott 14
Ceci 14
Hyman 19
Rielly 23
Mikheyev 31

The one thing that is low-key potentially big for the Leafs going into this summer playoffs is that they will have a completely new look.

Not only will they be healthy, but they potentially get the next year version of their younger players, so who knows what level Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Robertson, Sandin, Liljegrin etc will be after 4-6 months off. Could be incredible.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Disappointing for mostly because we never got to see the team at its best.

Babcock was fired too late, should have been in the summer, team was learning Keefe system and did much better, but having a full off-season with it would have been better.

On top of that, just too many injuries, you never got to see the team at full power, ever.

Games missed:

Tavares 7
Marner 11
Dermott 14
Ceci 14
Hyman 19
Rielly 23
Mikheyev 31

The one thing that is low-key potentially big for the Leafs going into this summer playoffs is that they will have a completely new look.

Not only will they be healthy, but they potentially get the next year version of their younger players, so who knows what level Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Robertson, Sandin, Liljegrin etc will be after 4-6 months off. Could be incredible.

Pretty much agree with this. And considering all of that, throw in sub-par goaltending and they were good to be were they where

 

[Morbo]

Andersen was shit, but really only Matthews and Nylander had what I would consider a good year. Disappointing regular season with the flakiness in net and the injuries. Good news is we got a fairly brief glimpse of the future once Babs got canned, and the same team performed much better defensively (other than in net) by keeping the puck.

 

[WTFMAN99]

Now that the season is over what are your thoughts and grades on what transpired?

Offense - B
Defense - C
Goaltending - D
Coaching - C
Management - C
Biggest surprise - Mikheyev
Disappointment - Barrie

Overall I found this to be a season that failed to meet my expectations.

Offense - B
Defense - C-
Goaltending - C+ (our defense sucks)
Coaching - C
Management - C-
Biggest surprise - Mikhayev and Holl
Biggest disappointment - Barrie and Kerfoot

*edit* - Saw the poll. Wow. Dubas running the show has certainty sucked in most people's eyes.

 

[deletethis]

Mostly in agreement with OP.

Offense - B- (This team should be 2nd in the league in scoring if it maintained more intensity)
Defense - C
Goaltending - C+ (Andersen wasn't bad, Hutchinson was awful, Campbell had a promising start)
Coaching - C (The critics of Babcock are at least correct about his stubbornness. I don't find Keefe to be some sort of coaching genius thus far - he's more conventional than Babcock playing the stars more and going back to circa 2010 strategy.)
Management - B- (Dubas addressed some holes at the trade deadline to bump himself from a GM I would have considered firing to one who deserves another full season and playoffs.)
Biggest surprise - Mikheyev, HM: Sandin
Disappointment - Barrie and Kefoot

 

[stickty111]

Offense - A
Defense - C
Goaltending - D
Coaching - B
Management - B

Dubas has done a nice job in addressing the weaknesses of this team, and the objective fans know his performance has been more the fine. If the goaltending was up to standard, the team would be in a better position.

 

[Rare Jewel]

Disappointing for mostly because we never got to see the team at its best.

Babcock was fired too late, should have been in the summer, team was learning Keefe system and did much better, but having a full off-season with it would have been better.

On top of that, just too many injuries, you never got to see the team at full power, ever.

Games missed:

Tavares 7
Marner 11
Dermott 14
Ceci 14
Hyman 19
Rielly 23
Mikheyev 31

The one thing that is low-key potentially big for the Leafs going into this summer playoffs is that they will have a completely new look.

Not only will they be healthy, but they potentially get the next year version of their younger players, so who knows what level Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Robertson, Sandin, Liljegrin etc will be after 4-6 months off. Could be incredible.

You say Babcock was fired too late, and perhaps, but yet the injuries that you've listed just below most of them happen with him still as the coach. Hyman, Dermott and Marner in particular.

Whether he should been gone in the summer is another discussion, but throughout his last few weeks he was basically missing a whole line if throw in Tavares' hand injury as well. I do agree that his methods of motivating were likely wearing on some players, but at the same time with margins of time and patience seemingly low, I do feel he was set up not in the best way.

If it really was that bad and management thought and .500ish record at the time (was not acceptable with some of the aforementioned injuries) then why was he even brought back then? It does seem like ill preparation and disorganization from management.

 

[stickty111]

The performance after Babcock was fired proved he was a huge problem. "He was missing players" is a bad excuse considering Keefe lost even bigger players to injury on defence, which is a position we are weak on, and somehow kept us afloat. Looks like the Babcock defenders were incorrect, in thinking he wasn't given a good situation.

 

[Ziggdiezan]

Offense - A-
Defense - C+
Goaltending - Andersen C-, Campbell A,
Coaching - Babcock F, Dubas A-
Management - A-
Biggest surprise - Hyman/Nylander/Mikheyev
Disappointment - Andersen/Ceci

Boy wonder has such a big ego he is coaching now too??






(sarcasm)

 

[IPS]

The performance after Babcock was fired proved he was a huge problem. "He was missing players" is a bad excuse considering Keefe lost even bigger players to injury on defence, which is a position we are weak on, and somehow kept us afloat. Looks like the Babcock defenders were incorrect, in thinking he wasn't given a good situation.

Missing Rielly and Muzzin simultaneously was way a horrible situation for our already thin defense. Keefe should get full credit for keeping the team afloat during that period but I don't expect some folks to. Keefe had the team playing super good when he had a healthy lineup, much more confident with him at the helm then Babcock.

 

[The Iceman]

Offense - A
Defense - D+ Injuries didn't help
Goaltending - Andersen B, Campbell B+, Hutch F
Coaching - Babcock D, Keefe A-
Management - B+ and improving
Biggest surprise - Hyman/Nylander/Mikheyev
Disappointment - Kerfoot/Ceci/Barrie/Johnsson/Reilly (explainable by injury)

 

[Ziggdiezan]

Missing Rielly and Muzzin simultaneously was way a horrible situation for our already thin defense. Keefe should get full credit for keeping the team afloat during that period but I don't expect some folks to. Keefe had the team playing super good when he had a healthy lineup, much more confident with him at the helm then Babcock.

I think you would have to have an insane bias if you think that Babcock was doing a better job than Keefe this past season. Maybe Babcock lost the lockeroom too but the on ice results speak for themselves as does simply watching the games.

There were a few games under Keefe where everything clicked perfectly and it was a thing of beauty. Consistency will hopefully come, we just need the players to buy in and have the willpower to dig deep against trap teams in the playoffs.

 

[stickty111]

Missing Rielly and Muzzin simultaneously was way a horrible situation for our already thin defense. Keefe should get full credit for keeping the team afloat during that period but I don't expect some folks to. Keefe had the team playing super good when he had a healthy lineup, much more confident with him at the helm then Babcock.

Exactly, and this is with poor goaltending for the most part.
Another thing to think about. Our underlying numbers were good, and the PK was fantastic by those numbers as well, where under Babcock the PK was bad.
Keefe said mutiple times he let the assistants handle the special teams. Just goes to show if Babcock let the assistants do their job, instead of taking control of every situation, maybe the PK would be good under him as well. Another red mark for Babcock.

 

[ACC1224]

You say Babcock was fired too late, and perhaps, but yet the injuries that you've listed just below most of them happen with him still as the coach. Hyman, Dermott and Marner in particular.

Whether he should been gone in the summer is another discussion, but throughout his last few weeks he was basically missing a whole line if throw in Tavares' hand injury as well. I do agree that his methods of motivating were likely wearing on some players, but at the same time with margins of time and patience seemingly low, I do feel he was set up not in the best way.

If it really was that bad and management thought and .500ish record at the time (was not acceptable with some of the aforementioned injuries) then why was he even brought back then? It does seem like ill preparation and disorganization from management.

He was which is why is one of the reasons why it's tough to give management much of a passing grade.
It makes no sense(if you're being honest) to put all the fault on the Coach when the management is responsible for having him behind the bench.