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Leafs' Prospect/Marlies Discussion Thread!

I find this goalie issue similar to the "[insert superstar name] never wins" issue.

Except Fred is never, and has never been a superstar.

He consistently finds a way to be the 2nd best goalie in any playoff series we're in, and even regular season Fred is best described as "good, just good".

He's just not good enough. That he has a tendency to flop under pressure makes matters worse, but overall he's just not good enough.

These guys are all putting it together, and Andersen no different than the rest.

Matthews was 20, Marner was 21. Fred was 29 during his last flop show. Fred isn't "putting it all together", he's just not good enough.
 
It's similar to us sitting here in April with many of us wanting to fire Babcock and many wanting to wait and see until after this upcoming playoffs, IMO. You've had 3.5 years to evaluate Fred at this point so as a GM you should know whether you really believe if this is the guy you can win a cup with in net. Not just maybe get past the first round, win a cup. If he's not, you're just wasting time.
 
gonna be a tough pill to swallow for the media that their hero Freddy is actually the biggest weakness on the team.

They will never allow that narrative to take root. They'll find any other excuse they can. It would take a near historic playoff flop from Fred that makes his game 7 performances look like prime playoff Roy for the media to not try to spin it.
 
I still think Fred is well good enough to put together the hot streak that wins a cup, but many goalies are. He's just not dependable enough to be our only roll of the dice, though.


I dunno. Winning the Cup would mean Fred having to stay hot from mid-April through to early June.

I'm not sure we've ever had the "good" version of Freddie for that long of a run before.
 
As we discussed a week or two ago, the list of starters who are consistently great consists of like three names. They're not available. The rest are all up and down, and this focus on Lehner is misplaced. He seems like a recipe for disaster in a market like this.

To win the Cup, you need a hot goalie, who goes on a streak. Freddy can certainly be that guy. If we get in and have to beat Boston again, I think we will this time, and at that point, all bets are off on Freddy. With the confidence of slaying that dragon, he could be unbeatable the rest of the way, and next year too.
 
You see Fred as "putting it together"? He's having his worst season yet with the Leafs.

Up until a few games ago, he was having the same season he's always had with us. If there's one thing about him, it's consistency. He'll go on a tear and get right back up to his usual numbers.
 
Up until a few games ago, he was having the same season he's always had with us. If there's one thing about him, it's consistency. He'll go on a tear and get right back up to his usual numbers.
That's not even close to true. He had one good month. He's been shit since the beginning of December.
 
Yeah, Freddy's not the weakness. The weakness is not having another NHL goalie when Freddy isn't playing well.

Not sure there is any team out there that has the ability to get through an 82 game season and cup run with only one option in net.

All the contenders that have that situation have struggled with consistency and under performed versus expectations this year (Tampa, Leafs, Vegas).

Meanwhile teams that haven't had to rely on one guy this year (Boston, Islanders, Washington, Pittsburgh, Blues, Dallas, Colorado) fill the top of the standings.
 
He is consistent in the fact that he will likely finish off the year at .918

How he gets there is the problem. We cant afford month long stretches of subpar play at this point
 
He is consistent in the fact that he will likely finish off the year at .918

How he gets there is the problem. We cant afford month long stretches of subpar play at this point

6 weeks of .898 now.

If you cherry pick just a bit, .889 since December 11th, or .883 since the 15th.

That's Toskala type shit.
 
As for Freddy hitting his customary .917-.918 again this year. Maybe, but he's going to have to get hot in a hurry. Only 36 games left in the season, if Freddy plays 30 of them he's going to need to play pretty consistently in the .925 range over those 30. Freddy has had one long term stretch of that level of play since he joined the Leafs. He put up a .930 over 32 games back in 16-17.
 
I'm starting to think that Fred has lost it. Normally, he rebounds by now. It may be that treating him like a normal goalie (pulling when shitty) is affecting him. Some times goalies fall off a cliff (think of Potvin after the McInnis goal or Bernier).
 
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