Season is over - thoughts on 2019/2020

[ACC1224]

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.

Does anyone think that though?
IMO, Babcock did a horrible job where as it's far too early to judge Keefes performance.

 

[7even]

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.

Hyman with a smooth 21 goals, 37 points in 51 games. That's probably going to be his career high on a per game basis. Shame it was wasted.

 

[SnizzNasty88]

Anyone giving the goaltending a worse grade than the defense is so out to lunch I don’t even know where to begin. Our defense sucks ass, put any goalie in net and you’ll get the same result or close to it with our trash backend. Jeeez man Freddy can’t be awesome every single game like Leafs Nation expects. The amount of games over the years we had no business winning that he stole for us is obscene but obviously people forget about that. All you clowns grading the defense better than the goaltending probably use those pencil neck geek advance stats as a basis. Pathetic.

 

[Rare Jewel]

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.

Bigger players than Tavares and Marner? Not to discount what Hyman does or Dermott either really. Rielly up that point by most people's opinion was having an off year for whatever reason.

Also, I hope you aren't labelling me as a Babcock defender because I have my share of criticsm for him, but also for other parts of the organization as well.

 

[Advanced stats]

Disappointing-- I'm willing to place 75% of the blame on Babcock. I still believe in this group(ownership, coaching, management, players. Reflecting on the season, I'm optimisticly disappointed

 

[stickty111]

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.

Agreed here as well. That doesn't mean I agreed with every thing Keefe did. Breaking up the 3rd line when they were terrific is something I criticized, along with small stuff like starting Tavares in OT over Matthews, but overall he did a solid job.
In regards to the 2nd paragraph, work ethic will be key, but Keefe potentially getting a 3 week training camp should be huge. He could adjust some things or add things defensively that he didn't get the chance too.

 

[nsleaf]

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 "C" average which is quite dis-appointing, was expecting/hoping for a B+ or better.

 

[Ziggdiezan]

Does anyone think that though?
IMO, Babcock did a horrible job where as it's far to early to judge Keefes performance.

You dont have to look far to find incredible bias on these forums lol

Agreed here as well. That doesn't mean I agreed with every thing Keefe did. Breaking up the 3rd line when they were terrific is something I criticized, along with small stuff like starting Tavares in OT over Matthews, but overall he did a solid job.
In regards to the 2nd paragraph, work ethic will be key, but Keefe potentially getting a 3 week training camp should be huge. He could adjust some things or add things defensively that he didn't get the chance too.

Agreed, I don't expect a coach new to the NHL to be perfect but he was definitely a big upgrade.

Ya I hope the team took time during covid to focus on tactics, structure and tape of how Keefe wants the team to play. Work ethic will be key though, especially with the forwards due to the amount of pinches required by the defenders in Keefes system.

 

[kb]

I put met expectations, but I am factoring in all the injuries, the backup blowup, and the requirement for a coaching change.

They met my expectations after Keefe was hired with all the injuries.

 

[ACC1224]

You dont have to look far to find incredible bias on these forums lol

.

Yeah it's certainly one of the stranger things here. It's seems so difficult for some to just be honest.

 

[ACC1224]

I put met expectations, but I am factoring in all the injuries, the backup blowup, and the requirement for a coaching change.

They met my expectations after Keefe was hired with all the injuries.

I get what you're saying and it makes sense if you're looking at where they are now based on what they went through.

I think most, including myself, look at it as more what was expected from the team and how did they end up.
Unless of course you expected a border line playoff team, then good call!

 

[Rare Jewel]

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.

Yeah, I mean who knows with all management politics that went into it, but bringing him with back with such a small margin to screw up or not ended up a mess. Which gave him not a lot of power with the players at that point.

 

[kb]

I get what you're saying and it makes sense if you're looking at where they are now based on what they went through.

I think most, including myself, look at it as more what was expected from the team and how did they end up.
Unless of course you expected a border line playoff team, then good call!

I just looked at the Leafs pace in their current iteration. Even with the injuries plus shaky goaltending all season, their pace under Keefe would have placed them in the Tampa range, which would have been my expectation.

It would be like running this for St. Louis at the 70 game mark last season prior to the playoffs - a tale of 2 seasons in one.

 

[Mess]

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.

Those grades would be mine as well and the sentiments.

Pretty average team we have been turned into.

 

[Menzinger]

Was definitely a weird season.

The whole drama surrounding coaching certainly didnt help things. And too many nights some of the core guys looked off - be it Andersen playing like trash or Marner looking almost disinterested, and of course too many injuries at the worst times

Im hoping the guys are able to leave that behind (and some of the star players able to shake off the contract negotiation baggage) as they head into the playoffs and the next season.

 

[Maplebeasts]

Offense: A
Defense: B-/C+
Goaltending: D
Coaching: Babcock: F Keefe: A-
Management: C+
Overall: C

The offense was elite as expected and it was nice to see our powerplay improve from the dog crap it was last season. The D was about league average when looking strictly at how the defensemen played. The forwards and bad goaltending made it look worse than it was. Babcock was absolutely horrendous for the first quarter but Keefe was pretty damned good once he took over. I like Dubas, but the Kadri trade is looking worse as the season was shortened, and Kerfoot looks like he could be gone as early as this summer. He needs to re-sign Barrie to a team friendly deal to make that trade look palatable. He did seem to fix our backup goaltending though as Campbell was awesome in the games he played for us, and the defense looks noticeably better than last season. We'll be in good shape when all 3 of Sandin, Liljegren and Robertson make the team full time next season. The season was disappointing, but when you look at injuries, the terrible coaching for a big chunk of the season, and the brutal play of Andersen and the back-ups pre-Campbell it's understandable.

 

[Maplebeasts]

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.

Ah but it is widely speculated that Dubas wanted to fire Babcock after the playoffs last season, but was told he couldn't.

 

[Maplebeasts]

Anyone giving the goaltending a worse grade than the defense is so out to lunch I don’t even know where to begin. Our defense sucks ass, put any goalie in net and you’ll get the same result or close to it with our trash backend. Jeeez man Freddy can’t be awesome every single game like Leafs Nation expects. The amount of games over the years we had no business winning that he stole for us is obscene but obviously people forget about that. All you clowns grading the defense better than the goaltending probably use those pencil neck geek advance stats as a basis. Pathetic.

Wrong. The defense was average by most defensive stats with the exception of GA. Andersen played MUCH better the previous 2 seasons despite the defense being statistically weaker. The bolded shows me that you are another one of those people that do not understand the purpose of advanced stats and therefore feel the need to bash anyone using them.

 

[ACC1224]

Ah but it is widely speculated that Dubas wanted to fire Babcock after the playoffs last season, but was told he couldn't.

Yes the management chose not to remove the coach, thought my post was pretty clear

 

[Maplebeasts]

Yes the management chose not to remove the coach, thought my post was pretty clear

Fair enough. I mostly thought of management as Dubas but you're probably more right.

 

[Nineteen67]

Played out exactly as I expected. I thought Babcock was on the hot seat from the beginning and would be replaced at some point in the season and they would be in a battle for a playoff spot.

 

[ACC1224]

Fair enough. I mostly thought of management as Dubas but you're probably more right.

I don’t think it’s fair to put it all on him, they’re a team. If a GM doesn’t have total say that’s another issue but that still comes back to the management as a whole.

 

[ACC1224]

Played out exactly as I expected. I thought Babcock was on the hot seat from the beginning and would be replaced at some point in the season and they would be in a battle for a playoff spot.

Good call then. I wonder if there was a thread done at the beginning of the season? Be interesting what expectations were then seeing as most felt they failed to meet them.

 

[7even]

Anyone giving the goaltending a worse grade than the defense is so out to lunch I don’t even know where to begin. Our defense sucks ass, put any goalie in net and you’ll get the same result or close to it with our trash backend. Jeeez man Freddy can’t be awesome every single game like Leafs Nation expects. The amount of games over the years we had no business winning that he stole for us is obscene but obviously people forget about that. All you clowns grading the defense better than the goaltending probably use those pencil neck geek advance stats as a basis. Pathetic.

The goaltending was worse relative to what it has been. The defense was worse in a net suckage sense.

 

[Notsince67]

The team was kind of doomed from the start. Muzzin was a great pickup last year but the defensive juggling after that was a waste of time and a good asset (kadri). I like Jack campbell but the goaltending has been f'ed for a year and a half thanks to Dubas. I agree that Anderson was crap and is probably given far too much leeway from the coaches. They need to pull him before he kills the team on a bad night.
The injuries were a bit nasty but again, the delay in signing players, cost the team cap flexibility so we had that as a problem too.
Dubas has one kick at the can left to address defense. If he cant do it, there will be hell to pay.