The talent on the leaf's roster is pretty good. Incase you haven't noticed. It's kind of hard to blame the Goalie against Columbus. The team not scoring, losing one on one battles. We got beat by an Actual well coached team. You ever notice that trend? What this team did against Boston or Washington does not matter as Keefe was not the coach.
Now i see what Keefe is trying to do. For example putting Tavares against McDavid against Edmonton in OT was so Brilliant. Our offense is neutered and now relies on the PP in order to win games. We still come out of most games where big chunks of the game we are stuck in our zone. We are still losing one on one battles.
On the positive he has reduced our shot's against. It of course hasn't really improved our GA. Our PK is worse. But we have a really good PP that has been carrying us in games. We still haven't had a single game where we can say we where honestly the best team. We did have one period against Calgary though
Considering the talent that is on the Leafs, a D- was more then fair. So far this season that grade has not changed. The leafs are a very talented team and there winning on Talent and the PP not because of Keefe. Oh and Keefe is not the PP coach so shamefully he can't even take credit for that.
So what exactly are we supposed to give him a higher mark for? Winning close games while being outworked for most of game? The playoff success last year? I really am confused on what exactly merits Keefe getting a really good passing grade. We are a very talented team that is winning on talent not because of coaching. NYI is a team that wins because of coaching and structure.
The last time i can honestly say the Leafs where well coached. Was 15-16 we finished dead last. I could see the difference what a system and a coach could do. For example that team has the same GA as this team, we lost so many one goal games that season. Kadri the growth he made in that season was unbelievable. We had so much hope going into the next season as we had talent coming in. We then made the Playoff's barely the next season with a lot of growing pains with our youth. But the talent was there and we could all see it. But we had a coach that could not adjust and his ego and all the other crap he was doing got in the way of a very promising team.
This season we are winning those games and that is great and all. When i see us start to dominate teams on a nightly bases. As we should with the talent we have on this roster then I will say we are well coached. Look at Montreal, I'd say looking at just the rosters we have the better roster. When you watch them play it's exciting and you can see they are being well coached. The players has fully bought in and are playing as hard as they can. Can you honestly say that about the Leafs under Keefe? Cause i can't. We are winning on talent not because we are a good team. Maybe it will happen I don't know. I really do hope it happens though
It's why i watch every game. I want the Leafs to do well I've been waiting since 93 for the Leafs to win the cup. I really do hope Matthews and Marner find success in the playoffs. They are my Favourite leaf duo since Gilmour and Clark.
Sorry it's kind of jumbled mess and i repeated some things. I got high in between paragraphs and i mean every paragraph lol
I tried to edit it and i couldn't bring myself to Deleting some of it. With all those losing we have done over the years. I also think it's what drives most fans nuts is how horrible we play in our end and how good we can play when we want to. Doing a line change while in the offensive zone while not giving up possession you can see how much talent we have in the line up. Maybe the Losing has jaded my opinions. But the talent we have seems to always under perform instead of overperforming.
I will say this though and it's the reason my grade didn't go down. I feel more comfortable in a close game this year. When McDavid scored that highlight reel goal and made the score 3 to 1. Normally i would have to turn the tv off and go smoke a couple and calm down. As before that would have burried us and i feel we would have been blown out normally. Instead we tied up with in minutes. That has improved. But we still can't figure out how to keep the pedal down though. So there is hope in Keefe i just need to see the results before i go gah gah