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GDT #7: 14/5/22 - Must Win

Preston said:
Just 1. It would be an awesome way to break out of this funk. They could have been eliminated by Florida next round and I wouldn't care if Auston had a 3 point game tonight to eliminate Tampa. It's a "would be nice" kinda deal more than anything. He doesn't have much space out there so I get why it's difficult but it just sorta feels like they need him to go superman in these moments. Crazy and possibly unrealistic expectations but I get why some would be frustrated.
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It's not unrealistic to expect a timely Matty 2 goal or hat trick performance when the lights are the brightest. It's just not. He does it all year long.

And yeah, I would've been completely fine getting swept out by Florida next if we'd just won tonight.
 
Habsy said:
It's usually the coach before the core. They need a new voice. Talent is there. Something still bugs me about the D and Wings on the team.
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This. They need better defensemen. The only way to get them is to bust up the core. Don5trade Nylander for another forward. Get a blue liner who isnt pushing 39 like Giordano.
 
MindzEye said:
That led the series in scoring.

There's 20 other guys man. Some of them play some pretty heavy minutes with some very good players.
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Kaprizov had like 7 goals. Marchand had a 5 point night. Makar had 10 points in 4 games. Verhaeghe destroyed Washington singlehandedly ffs.

Naturally, a couple of those in a losing cause, but still. We need Matthews to do what Gilmour did back in the day. Was Gilmour a superman? No, but he stepped up like a superman when it got toughest. Matthews, nor Marner nor any of the core 4 has done it for one measly 7 game stretch.
 
CH1 said:
I think he played well…. but don’t blame folks who want to see him author a magical moment or two
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Sure, but that's some hollywood shit against this level of competition. Does not happen very often. So sure, if the expectation was that he was going to choose right now to have the games of his life, okay. But even among the absolute best we've seen in this era of hockey, those games don't happen often at all. It's a bad place to set your expectations.
 
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LeafOfFaith said:
It's not unrealistic to expect a timely Matty 2 goal or hat trick performance when the lights are the brightest. It's just not. He does it all year long.

And yeah, I would've been completely fine getting swept out by Florida next if we'd just won tonight.
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In fairness Matthews isn't a 60 goal guy if he had to play Tampa 82 games a year. So I don't quite have 60 goal expectations. But I do expect him to create a lot more in a game like tonight's where Tampa goes into a tight checking shell. You'd hope the skill guys can do a better job breaking through that.
 
And they're still young, but this "still young" excuse is pretty worn out by now.

I don't date mention it to Frenemy tomorrow. The learning process is over. They need to graduate.
 
Preston said:
In fairness Matthews isn't a 60 goal guy if he had to play Tampa 82 games a year. So I don't quite have 60 goal expectations. But I do expect him to create a lot more in a game like tonight's where Tampa goes into a tight checking shell. You'd hope the skill guys can do a better job breaking through that.
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Fair. But he has the ability to be that 60 goal guy for some of the games. And he has to find that gear for the final two.
 
MindzEye said:
Sure, but that's some hollywood shit against this level of competition. Does not happen very often. So sure, if the expectation was that he was going to choose right now to have the games of his life, okay. But even among the absolute best we've seen in this era of hockey, those games don't happen often at all. It's a bad place to set your expectations.
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All true… needed more PP glory especially tonight
 
CH1 said:
Numbers aside, I thought he was better than he was vs the Habs last year
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He gave up the series defining muffin against the Habs imo and didn't give up one of those here against the Lightning, so okay. Short series numbers can be liars. But I don't think he was particularly good against the Lightning. Felt like for every save we got that we absolutely needed, a much easier to stop chance found it's way through him.
 
Artnes said:
People calling for Dubas head will cringe at the replacement if it happens. Dumb dumb dumb
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That's my top fear now. I have no worries going into the offseason with Dubie making whatever changes he wants to make. I'm sure I'll be happy with them like I am 99% of the time. But his successor will trade for the sake of putting his stamp on the team, and disaster will follow.

I honestly don't think Dubie's job is at risk here though. Not after the season they had. I think he gets one more full season to break out of the playoff funk. The question is, does he let Keefe have the chance to do it again? I think the answer is yes, because he wants the script to say that his loyalty won out in the end, but will we actually win?
 
CH1 said:
All true… needed more PP glory especially tonight
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Yeah, the PP was totally broken until that last one they had where they weren't passing around till the got the ONE perfect shot, but instead kept peppering the net. I don't know why this was so hard to correct earlier than the last PP of the season.
 
MindzEye said:
He gave up the series defining muffin against the Habs imo and didn't give up one of those here against the Lightning, so okay. Short series numbers can be liars. But I don't think he was particularly good against the Lightning. Felt like for every save we got that we absolutely needed, a much easier to stop chance found it's way through him.
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I thought he was really good night, with positioning and play reading — Tampa created a lot of chances in periods 1 and 2
 
CH1 said:
I thought he was really good night, with positioning and play reading — Tampa created a lot of chances in periods 1 and 2
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He was good. And with this roster, if you want to stack it, you have to keep costs down. So at this point, he doesn't have the leverage for one of those 5 x $5 deals. I'd expect a Mrazek type $3.8M x 3 contract, and Dubie's first order of business now being to get rid of Mrazek.
 
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