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

[Pi]

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

Our entire season depends on goaltending. If Bernier is healthy, he will likely take this team to the playoffs.

If he gets injured, Reimer will need to continue to play as good as he has. IIRC Reimer has a SV% of .918 in games he starts...so he's pretty good this year when he doesn't have to come in relief.

 

[swint]

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

to think that if we didn't have a goalie in net we would've lost 34.4 to 4 tonight..... preposterous

 

[diceman934]

Bernier had a great game.....thanks for the two points Bernier.

Dion had his best game this year tonight...he was good all game long. Love the fact that Roussel got him going right from the jump..

Kadri had a very good game as well.

Holland did not play much at all the last two periods...he played 3:31 in the last two periods. Smith played in his spot.

Over all any game with 2pts is good.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

 

[Clark4Ever]

Very entertaining tilt. If not for spectacular goaltending and goalposts on both ends, we would have won this game like 8-5, LOL.

 

[Duffman955]

I dont like our #1Dman having the most fights on the team.

Someone else needs to step up. Replace Booth with Broll/Devane/biggs since booth does almost nothing anyways

 

[7even]

I dont like our #1Dman having the most fights on the team.

Someone else needs to step up. Replace Booth with Broll/Devane/biggs since booth does almost nothing anyways

Booth is fast as all hell and forechecks hard. Doesn't generate much, but he's pesky and gives the other team a handful. I like him as a 4th liner.

 

[The_Chosen_One]

We really need to get Lupul off the top line. Put a puck retriever like Winnick or even Booth to better balance the lines. Lupul with Holland and Panik gives us a strong depth scoring line.

 

[7even]

We really need to get Lupul off the top line. Put a puck retriever like Winnick or even Booth to better balance the lines. Lupul with Holland and Panik gives us a strong depth scoring line.

Agreed, Lupul has been absolute junk on the top line. But I also don't think Winnik has any business playing with Kessel.

I'd still like to see

JvR - Kadri - Kessel
Lupul - Bozak - Santorelli
Winnik - Holland - Clarkson
Panik - Smith - Booth

at some point. Decent balance on all lines, and hopefully Kadri is enough to stem the flood against the first line. I also really like how Lupes and Santa play together.

 

[Moncherry]

What are the odds we finish the season #1 in goals scored?

 

[Nithoniniel]

Interesting thing. At one point the shots were 19-18. Halfway through the third they were 22-34. Abysmal second half of the game, outside a few players.

My review will come later tonight, not that I imagine that a lot of people will read it.

Merry christmas everybody.

 

[Nithoniniel]

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.

I think I've seen this comment after every leaf win where we get outshot badly. Tonight I don't really agree, the Dallas feed showed shot positioning and the Stars had a ton of shots from the high slot which is a high scoring area. Bernier has a tendency to make good saves look routine, and the Stars shot a lot of pucks wide.

I agree with ponder, games like these will end up as losses a lot more often than wins.

 

[X66]

I think I've seen this comment after every leaf win where we get outshot badly. Tonight I don't really agree, the Dallas feed showed shot positioning and the Stars had a ton of shots from the high slot which is a high scoring area. Bernier has a tendency to make good saves look routine, and the Stars shot a lot of pucks wide.

I agree with ponder, games like these will end up as losses a lot more often than wins.

I'm all for the Leafs are terrible shot differential/scoring chance/corsi team, and will always argue for it; but tonight I still think we had better scoring chances, despite the shot total.

Seguin alone could have buried us, but we missed a ton of breaks and odd man rushes compared to The Stars that just pile on the shots in tight.

In saying that, they could have easily lost this game with a more skilled opponent on the other side, but I still liked our chances more.

 

[HellasLEAF]

people are talking about Bernier, neglecting the 4 or 5 ten bell saves Lehtonen made in this game.

could have been 6 or 7 nothing. or 6 or 7 to 2 say.

this game was never really in doubt imo.

 

[Slot]

people are talking about Bernier, neglecting the 4 or 5 ten bell saves Lehtonen made in this game.

could have been 6 or 7 nothing. or 6 or 7 to 2 say.

this game was never really in doubt imo.

Everyone kvetching over seguin's posts is missing the fact that the leafs got stopped by the goalie's best friend a few times last night as well.

When the score was 2-0 the shots were evenish. The leafs unfortunate tendency to turtle with a lead tends to allow other teams to run up a shot total on them and in the past has let teams back into games when the goalie isn't putting on a clinic.

My question is, is this a system issue or a player issue? My gut says system but the sour look on the coach's face says differently.

 

[ACC1224]

people are talking about Bernier, neglecting the 4 or 5 ten bell saves Lehtonen made in this game.

could have been 6 or 7 nothing. or 6 or 7 to 2 say.

this game was never really in doubt imo.

Leafs were the better Team right from the opening puck drop.

The only thing in doubt was whether some would get their Christmas wish and Seguin would out score Kessel.

 

[crump]

Christmas break. Last game before is sometimes a road hockey game. Glad they won, but not surprised it was a goalies nightmare game. Bernier came through.

I am finding it hard to sit through and watch games on tv live now, I PVR them, watch a little to get the feel of how they are playing, get frustrated and skip through watching only the big plays. This team needs something. Not sure what..., Komarov is missed more than you would think...having said that, Phaneuf played how he should every game. Somebody should whack him every game.

 

[Trapper]

I really like the JVR/Kadri/Santorelli line.
Interesting how the spoke about JVRs stats increasing greatly with Kadri.

I still don't like the line of Bozak/Kessel/JVR or Lupul. Despite its scoring I still think it's our weakest link. Some bad giveaways last night that thanks to the Stars poor play and bad luck kept them off the score sheet. Dallas was better before the brought in Spezza/Hemsky. How many times have we said our top 6 has to be the worst at 2-way play. Apparently the Stars are giving that a run.
Our Bozak/Kessel line needs to be re-worked through whatever combination.
You either get the appropriate center for Kessel in win now mode or try to get the young center of the future in a Kessel move.

 

[mcleex]

Bernier was ****ing awesome. Of course when the Leafs finally win so do all the teams ahead of them (Montreal, Tampa, Detroit )

 

[Kelly]

I dont like our #1Dman having the most fights on the team.

Someone else needs to step up. Replace Booth with Broll/Devane/biggs since booth does almost nothing anyways

Agreed.

We need a Nolan or a King type of player, a guy who can throw the fistacuffs but can also keep up.

I don't know if Broll/Devane/Biggs could be that for us though...? You're right though our #1 can't be leading our league in FM -- what the **** has David Clarkson been doing?

 

[ULF_55]

I really like the JVR/Kadri/Santorelli line.
Interesting how the spoke about JVRs stats increasing greatly with Kadri.

I still don't like the line of Bozak/Kessel/JVR or Lupul. Despite its scoring I still think it's our weakest link. Some bad giveaways last night that thanks to the Stars poor play and bad luck kept them off the score sheet. Dallas was better before the brought in Spezza/Hemsky. How many times have we said our top 6 has to be the worst at 2-way play. Apparently the Stars are giving that a run.
Our Bozak/Kessel line needs to be re-worked through whatever combination.
You either get the appropriate center for Kessel in win now mode or try to get the young center of the future in a Kessel move.

Just stats/facts:

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20142015/ES020512.HTM

Stars had 17 giveaways, Leafs 12.

Stars: 43 shots + 26 misses + 17 were blocked: 86
Leafs: 26 shots + 9 misses + 11 were blocked: 46

Bernier was 1st. star.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Gotta love it when your goaltender is good and lucky at the same time.

 

[Warden of the North]

Bernier was ****ing awesome. Of course when the Leafs finally win so do all the teams ahead of them (Montreal, Tampa, Detroit )

Staying in a wildcard spot is enough for me. We burned our games in hand so this was a crucial win.

 

[Razz]

Happy for the win for sure. Another typical Leaf win, getting outshot after pulling ahead early.

 

[Kelly]

To be fair- we were only killed in the shot department in the third period (19-7) where Dallas seemed to throw anything at the net. Still not a good recipe for success though.

 

[ryno23]

Booth is fast as all hell and forechecks hard. Doesn't generate much, but he's pesky and gives the other team a handful. I like him as a 4th liner.

I think Booth should be moved up the lineup. I think he has his legs back and could be better off playing a few more mins and giving a shot at scoring more.