Torontonian
Registered User
hopefully the boys have a good response against philly after a bad game today, I just hope we dont start a losing streak out of this
Post-Game Talk: There's Nothin' Fin-ah than losing to Carolina, Leafs 1, Canes 4
- Thread starter Daisy Jane
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Warden of the North
Ned Stark's head
Torontonian
Registered User
This. It's been a big problem for a while now; having two defensively poor wingers on the same line is a recipe for disaster.
Peasy
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Nithoniniel
Registered User
Game
Predictable. It's been heading this way for a while now, and with Carolina on the other side it was only as expected that they would have a game where they put in a third of the effort needed at this level for at least 30 minutes. Ward having a good game made the numbers bigger, but we just came in and gave the worst team in the league who were also completely cold an easy win. On another point, this is why you make changes even during winning stretches. Changes make sure that you don't get stuck in patterns. Also, what is up with our faceoffs lately?
Great
-
Good
Phaneuf - Had some nice pinches, nice puck movement, played a solid game and gave some hope with a boomer. I like Dion this season, by far our best D-man so far.
Kadri - The best on the line when it struggled early on, even though it was a rather mediocre performance at that point. Really good along with Santorelli when we started to take control of the game more. His puck handling at some points were just incredible.
Average
Bernier - We get average goaltending and struggle to score. The great teams win those games, we are not even close. Bernier faced a lot of shots, but Carolina were kinda trigger-happy from all over the ice tonight.
Rielly - Had a pretty decent game tonight, looked solid defensively and moved the puck out well. It's worrying me a bit that there's still so little initiative in his game. For him to become the player we hope he needs to be a player that dictates the play, now he rather just follows it along.
Robidas - Robidas had a pretty good game tonight in my opinion, looked solid back there through the game. Considered putting him as good on the night, but then felt like a few of the mistakes and the overall lack of impact in his game kept him down.
Kessel - Had actually one of his better performances from an effort and defensive game-standpoint. Also created a bunch of chances. It was decent, feels like he is on the right track.
JVR - Worked his way up from a bad start to the game to a second half of the game where he had plenty of jump. Felt like at times he was not using his linemates well when bumped off the top line, but the effort and hustle is exactly what I've been asking from him for a long time now.
Santorelli - Halfway through the game I thought to myself that this is the worst I've seen Santa play as a Leaf, one of the most invisible players on the ice. Then he pulled the kind of performance in the second half that we've come to expect. I could marry him and let Daisy have his kids at this point, I like his game so much.
Holland - Had a fine game overall, nice assist on the goal and put in a solid effort both ways. I have to say that he is not a very good PKer though, sometimes he makes really bad mistakes in terms of coverage. Would rather see us use someone else.
Booth - Starting to get his legs going, and had some of our best zone entries while drawing a penalty on one of them. He's not very skilled, just enough to play at the speed he prefers, but he feels like a guy who could be an asset if used right. Another guy that deserves to play over Clarkson.
Bad
Franson - Played himself out of the awful territory for a while there with a bunch of really good shifts, only to almost play himself down there again. His worst game in a long, long while.
Polak - He looked very rusty, missed some positioning, skating wasn't quite there, timing was understandably not there. Looked better as the game went along.
Bozak - Man, Bozie annoyed me tonight. Lackadaisical and all the bad habits on full display. At one time he tried to force a pass through four players. Guess who the recipient would have been?
Lupul - Sometimes Joff does some of the more stupid things I've seen an NHL player do on the defensive blueline, and he did one of those tonight. Luckily the Canes player missed the puck and it ended up going the other way. If Joff could learn stick positioning and what 'simple play' means then I'd love him, even if he was not very effective tonight.
Panik - Had some jump tonight, but it just wasn't really his night as things had a tendency to go wrong for him. There is plenty of skill, patience and power there, and at this point he deserves playing over Clarkson without a doubt.
Smith - Very anonymous game. It's not that I think there was situations where he was really bad, it was just that he was a complete non-factor when on the ice. And as I've said before, on a fourth line with limited numbers you have to be better than that.
Awful
Gardiner - I have no idea what to do about Gardiner. I hate the idea of trading at his lowest, but right now I just don't see him breaking out of this slump. Had a good game offensively, but his defensive work was just disastrous. I just hope that he gets three-four games of puck luck going his way so that he can restore that self-confidence, because right now he's as lost as any D-man I've seen since Del Zotto, and that's not a comparison you want to make.
Winnik - The worst I've seen from Winnik. The first period was awful, he didn't do anything right. Then it started to get better, until he had a clean out and decided to keep the puck in the zone, leading to a really deflating goal against. Luckily, this is not the kind of performance you see often from him.
Clarkson - I really wish Toronto was like some other teams, Detroit for example, where you're out if you don't perform no matter the contract. Detroit didn't care about the investment in Weiss, he was awful so he didn't get to play. Clarkson gets fed quality minutes despite being completely inept for our team. He brings literally nothing at this point.
EDIT:
Bernier changed to good, while Canes did shoot a bit from everywhere they also created enough high quality scoring chances for his performance to be good despite the three goals against.
Predictable. It's been heading this way for a while now, and with Carolina on the other side it was only as expected that they would have a game where they put in a third of the effort needed at this level for at least 30 minutes. Ward having a good game made the numbers bigger, but we just came in and gave the worst team in the league who were also completely cold an easy win. On another point, this is why you make changes even during winning stretches. Changes make sure that you don't get stuck in patterns. Also, what is up with our faceoffs lately?
Great
-
Good
Phaneuf - Had some nice pinches, nice puck movement, played a solid game and gave some hope with a boomer. I like Dion this season, by far our best D-man so far.
Kadri - The best on the line when it struggled early on, even though it was a rather mediocre performance at that point. Really good along with Santorelli when we started to take control of the game more. His puck handling at some points were just incredible.
Average
Bernier - We get average goaltending and struggle to score. The great teams win those games, we are not even close. Bernier faced a lot of shots, but Carolina were kinda trigger-happy from all over the ice tonight.
Rielly - Had a pretty decent game tonight, looked solid defensively and moved the puck out well. It's worrying me a bit that there's still so little initiative in his game. For him to become the player we hope he needs to be a player that dictates the play, now he rather just follows it along.
Robidas - Robidas had a pretty good game tonight in my opinion, looked solid back there through the game. Considered putting him as good on the night, but then felt like a few of the mistakes and the overall lack of impact in his game kept him down.
Kessel - Had actually one of his better performances from an effort and defensive game-standpoint. Also created a bunch of chances. It was decent, feels like he is on the right track.
JVR - Worked his way up from a bad start to the game to a second half of the game where he had plenty of jump. Felt like at times he was not using his linemates well when bumped off the top line, but the effort and hustle is exactly what I've been asking from him for a long time now.
Santorelli - Halfway through the game I thought to myself that this is the worst I've seen Santa play as a Leaf, one of the most invisible players on the ice. Then he pulled the kind of performance in the second half that we've come to expect. I could marry him and let Daisy have his kids at this point, I like his game so much.
Holland - Had a fine game overall, nice assist on the goal and put in a solid effort both ways. I have to say that he is not a very good PKer though, sometimes he makes really bad mistakes in terms of coverage. Would rather see us use someone else.
Booth - Starting to get his legs going, and had some of our best zone entries while drawing a penalty on one of them. He's not very skilled, just enough to play at the speed he prefers, but he feels like a guy who could be an asset if used right. Another guy that deserves to play over Clarkson.
Bad
Franson - Played himself out of the awful territory for a while there with a bunch of really good shifts, only to almost play himself down there again. His worst game in a long, long while.
Polak - He looked very rusty, missed some positioning, skating wasn't quite there, timing was understandably not there. Looked better as the game went along.
Bozak - Man, Bozie annoyed me tonight. Lackadaisical and all the bad habits on full display. At one time he tried to force a pass through four players. Guess who the recipient would have been?
Lupul - Sometimes Joff does some of the more stupid things I've seen an NHL player do on the defensive blueline, and he did one of those tonight. Luckily the Canes player missed the puck and it ended up going the other way. If Joff could learn stick positioning and what 'simple play' means then I'd love him, even if he was not very effective tonight.
Panik - Had some jump tonight, but it just wasn't really his night as things had a tendency to go wrong for him. There is plenty of skill, patience and power there, and at this point he deserves playing over Clarkson without a doubt.
Smith - Very anonymous game. It's not that I think there was situations where he was really bad, it was just that he was a complete non-factor when on the ice. And as I've said before, on a fourth line with limited numbers you have to be better than that.
Awful
Gardiner - I have no idea what to do about Gardiner. I hate the idea of trading at his lowest, but right now I just don't see him breaking out of this slump. Had a good game offensively, but his defensive work was just disastrous. I just hope that he gets three-four games of puck luck going his way so that he can restore that self-confidence, because right now he's as lost as any D-man I've seen since Del Zotto, and that's not a comparison you want to make.
Winnik - The worst I've seen from Winnik. The first period was awful, he didn't do anything right. Then it started to get better, until he had a clean out and decided to keep the puck in the zone, leading to a really deflating goal against. Luckily, this is not the kind of performance you see often from him.
Clarkson - I really wish Toronto was like some other teams, Detroit for example, where you're out if you don't perform no matter the contract. Detroit didn't care about the investment in Weiss, he was awful so he didn't get to play. Clarkson gets fed quality minutes despite being completely inept for our team. He brings literally nothing at this point.
EDIT:
Bernier changed to good, while Canes did shoot a bit from everywhere they also created enough high quality scoring chances for his performance to be good despite the three goals against.
Last edited:
Nithoniniel
Registered User
What does his point production over the year have to do with how he played offensively tonight?
Bernier should be good IMO. The first goal Gardiner failed to cover his man in front, and the second goal he had zero chance. He also came up with a few key saves to keep us in it throughout the 2nd and the majority of the 3rd.
Nithoniniel
Registered User
Such an unlikeable team. Can you at least work hard when you lose? Especially to the last place team in the league. So embarrassing.
Disgusting the amount of times we have to hear "We got outworked."
Also lol at Dave Poulin on That's Hockey Tonight.
Disgusting the amount of times we have to hear "We got outworked."
Also lol at Dave Poulin on That's Hockey Tonight.
We need to find another quality RHD.
Phaneuf - Franson
Rielly - XXXX
Percy - Polak
Robidas
Maybe we look at the team we played tonight for the help? Justin Faulk would be a great fit. Tyler Myers is a guy we can try to get on a buy low option. Zbynek Michalek is another option.
Phaneuf - Franson
Rielly - XXXX
Percy - Polak
Robidas
Maybe we look at the team we played tonight for the help? Justin Faulk would be a great fit. Tyler Myers is a guy we can try to get on a buy low option. Zbynek Michalek is another option.
dubey
$$$$$$$*NICE*$$$$$$$ 69 in 79 $$$$$$$*NICE*$$$$$$$
Nithoniniel
Registered User
You can't seriously judge a D-man and his contract based on how many goals he has? Phaneuf has played a very solid season, pretty much up to his contract for a UFA D-man.
Clarkson on the other hand is back to playing like a fourth liner who should be paid not even half of what he gets.
Ratboy
I made a funny!
- Jul 15, 2009
- 16,855
- 3,343
Yes I seriously can! 7 million is elite money, he is not elite. judge judge judge~!!
You're comparing the production of a forward to a defenseman?
Phaneufs job isn't to score bunches of goals, its to shut down the oppositions top line night in night out, and hes been doing a pretty damn good job of it this year.
His contract is light years better than Clarkson's, AINEC.
Ratboy
I made a funny!
- Jul 15, 2009
- 16,855
- 3,343
Phaneuf is overpaid by 500k. Clarkson is over paid by 2.5-3 million, and 3 years too much term. LOL your post makes zero sense.
7M was elite money in 2008. Not anymore.
Phaneuf has been great this season. Has cemented himself as a top pairing guy, and as a leader.
He is getting there.
When you look at stats last season, JM Liles was the only player on the team who had a higher CF% without Rielly on the ice, than with him on the ice. Which is a positive sign, and means he makes players around him better.
Obviously needs to take some strides offensively, but the core of his game is going in the right direction,
Trapper
Registered User
- Nov 21, 2013
- 24,094
- 11,697
I stopped caring about all these things because only one thing matters: make the playoffs.
IMO it is unacceptable for this team and its core to miss the playoffs anymore.
Tonight was bound to happen so no big deal. Long range picture, make the playoffs.
So either we start making the playoffs for the duration of Kessel/Phaneuf's contracts (and the core) or we get a new core.
Either way win/win.
And he's on pace for what, 44 points? Do you even grasp that?
And....technically it would be like 3.50 million for 2 goals, as we aren't even half way through the season.
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