Post-Game Talk: Written in the Stars, a million miles away: Leafs win 4-0. Bernier played okay.

[Al14]

Bernier Won this game for the Leafs and Dion was in Beast mode, good game.

 

[mulefarm]

Probably because he got caught flat footed at the offensive blueline with a 1-0 lead in the first period, which resulted in an odd man rush culminating in a pp for Dallas where Seguin hit the first of three posts in the game.

Great way to instill confidence in a young player.

 

[King85Kong]

Happy to see no "Lose Leafs Lose" non-sense being posted.

 

[ironhorse384]

Great way to instill confidence in a young player.

That depends on your point of view I suppose. One could say that they want to teach him that maybe,with a one goal lead, its a good idea to think defense first. If Dallas scores on the play or the pp suddenly you change the momentum of the game at 1-1. He's a young player that's gotta learn from his mistakes after all he's going to be the anchor on the defense for years to come, so the sooner he learns the better he'll be.

 

[yubbers]

Good win for the boys

 

[HoweHullOrr]

Bernier was busy tonight and played well. Stars defensive (team D) play was bad.

 

[mulefarm]

That depends on your point of view I suppose. One could say that they want to teach him that maybe,with a one goal lead, its a good idea to think defense first. If Dallas scores on the play or the pp suddenly you change the momentum of the game at 1-1. He's a young player that's gotta learn from his mistakes after all he's going to be the anchor on the defense for years to come, so the sooner he learns the better he'll be.[/QUOTE
So sitting or playing less is how you teach a player? If Morgan is playing not to make a mistake, then I think you have him playing to his weakness and not his strenghts? I would think with film seesions and working on things in practice would be more benefical.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

and when did he shave the pornstache?

Yess !

 

[91Stammer*]

Awful.

 

[cookie]

Some thoughts:
- I did not expect Dallas to be so whiny and dirty. It's like Anaheim and the other "top" teams: they complain waaaaaaaaaaay too much to the refs, and by the looks of things, they seem to get their points across.

- Weak officiating once again. Is there a pattern going on as blatant Dallas penalties were being missed (Kadri headshot and JVR stick slash).

- Solid showing by Bernier, JVR, Kadri, Kessel, Phaneuf, Polak, Santorelli, Winnik

- I'm still not sold with Holland's ability to neutralize his competition. Also looks like Kadri's line may be "over performing" defensively (if you can say that)... there's been a visible increase in quality scoring chances against them.

- Can't wait for the Korporal to come back

- We're still playing too loosey-goosey and would like to see the team tighten up even moreso defensively.

 

[pucci2001]

This was Dion's best game as a leaf to date. I think it took the other team attempting to bully him to get him to play this way but the woke a sleeping giant tonight, he played great. Hope he is okay after the scrap.

 

[91Stammer*]

Trade everyone. BURN THE BOATS!

 

[ironhorse384]

That depends on your point of view I suppose. One could say that they want to teach him that maybe,with a one goal lead, its a good idea to think defense first. If Dallas scores on the play or the pp suddenly you change the momentum of the game at 1-1. He's a young player that's gotta learn from his mistakes after all he's going to be the anchor on the defense for years to come, so the sooner he learns the better he'll be.[/QUOTE
So sitting or playing less is how you teach a player? If Morgan is playing not to make a mistake, then I think you have him playing to his weakness and not his strenghts? I would think with film seesions and working on things in practice would be more benefical.

That wasn't his only mistake in the game he allowed another guy to get behind him in the second period, and he flat out didn't hustle to get a puck that went behind the net allowing a star to get there first. He would have beat that guy to the puck and didn't even try. What do you think the coach is going to do when he sees that? If they allow these habits to manifest themselves its going to take longer to develop him.

 

[ponder]

Good to end the losing streak, and a number of players played well individually. Still did not like our defensive or puck possession game, or how much we sit back with the lead. We won this game, but got brutally outshot, had way too little of the puck, Bernier stood on his head, and Seguin hit the post 4 times. This is definitely not a recipe for consistent success, despite the score.

I like the win, but this felt like we played very similar to the previous 3 games, just with a different result.

 

[Durrr]

Good to end the losing streak, and a number of players played well individually. Still did not like our defensive or puck possession game, or how much we sit back with the lead. We won this game, but got brutally outshot, had way too little of the puck, Bernier stood on his head, and Seguin hit the post 4 times. This is definitely not a recipe for consistent success, despite the score.

I like the win, but this felt like we played very similar to the previous 3 games, just with a different result.

Eh the third period was a little rough, but I'd disagree with this.

A lot of their shots through the first two periods were mostly weak perimeter shots, meanwhile, the leafs were getting quality chances. It wasn't until we had a solid lead that they sat back and got heavily outshot.

Have to work on play with the lead, but the shot totals were not exactly a good depiction of who actually controlled the game imo.

 

[p.l.f.]

So everyone's happy again
That's good

 

[Daisy Jane]

So everyone's happy again
That's good

just wait until they rip off 5-6 in a row

 

[hockeyes]

This was Dion's best game as a leaf to date. I think it took the other team attempting to bully him to get him to play this way but the woke a sleeping giant tonight, he played great. Hope he is okay after the scrap.

I agree, he needs to bring that kind of intensity more often, particularly when the team is slugging around and needs someone to wake them up. He looked like a leader out there.

Glad they gave Dallas the only penalty after trying to fight him on the hit, so tired of that ********. A clean hit that doesn't injure anyone is no reason to try and mug a guy. Dion should continue doing this as much as possible and just draw the penalties after the hit.

 

[thewave]

This was Dion's best game as a leaf to date. I think it took the other team attempting to bully him to get him to play this way but the woke a sleeping giant tonight, he played great. Hope he is okay after the scrap.

He plays hard when angry. He was full rage after the first attempt and helped pot us one seconds later. If he played with that fire more often you can see he would not be called overrated etc. excellent game for Dion.

 

[ponder]

Eh the third period was a little rough, but I'd disagree with this.

A lot of their shots through the first two periods were mostly weak perimeter shots, meanwhile, the leafs were getting quality chances. It wasn't until we had a solid lead that they sat back and got heavily outshot.

Have to work on play with the lead, but the shot totals were not exactly a good depiction of who actually controlled the game imo.

Dallas' defence in general were pretty brutal, often killing plays for the Stars in the o-zone by taking ****** point shots when they should have kept cycling, and getting worked pretty badly by our forwards off the rush. The 1st and 2nd periods were definitely better, but we got outplayed pretty badly in the 3rd. Maybe I'm getting too pessimistic, but it felt like we didn't have the puck much, and got lucky on some key moments - i.e. when we gave Seguin a very open, way too much time, point blank shot off the rush that he clanged off the post, then immediately pushed it up the ice to JvR who had gotten behind Dallas d for the breakaway goal. That was the "2-0 instead of 1-1 moment", and Seguin did hit the post a whopping 4 times over the course of the game. I dunno, I feel that if we play like that consistently, I see it generally turning out like the previous 3 games more than tonight's game.

 

[Liminality]

Not happy that Bernier had to stand on his head again but a win after a couple of real stinkers is nice to see.

 

[AuGsY]

Dallas' defence in general were pretty brutal, often killing plays for the Stars in the o-zone by taking ****** point shots when they should have kept cycling, and getting worked pretty badly by our forwards off the rush. The 1st and 2nd periods were definitely better, but we got outplayed pretty badly in the 3rd. Maybe I'm getting too pessimistic, but it felt like we didn't have the puck much, and got lucky on some key moments - i.e. when we gave Seguin a very open, way too much time, point blank shot off the rush that he clanged off the post, then immediately pushed it up the ice to JvR who had gotten behind Dallas d for the breakaway goal. That was the "2-0 instead of 1-1 moment", and Seguin did hit the post a whopping 4 times over the course of the game. I dunno, I feel that if we play like that consistently, I see it generally turning out like the previous 3 games more than tonight's game.

Yeah, you can't get outshot 42-26 every night and expect to be a winning team, its just not reasonable. This game could've easily been ALOT closer than what the scoreboard shows.

 

[TheLeafsBro]

Good road win, definitely will take it. Let's clean up those shots against next game boys!

 

[AuGsY]

The Leafs are now 29th in shots against with 34.4.

 

[ironhorse384]

The Leafs are now 29th in shots against with 34.4.

That's not a good stat. I just don't get why they refuse to put a little effort into their defensive zone. How many times the forwards are completely blowing the zone after a defenseman gets the puck is astounding.Like tonight, all the forwards on the fourth line blow the zone, the leafs turnover the puck , the stars hit the post and Kadri finds JVR for a breakaway. It's nice that it worked out that way but its not a good formula for winning hockey.