MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
No, I think he caves under pressure. Habitually.
Around the League 2019-2024 Edition
- Thread starter LeafGm
- Start date
No, I think he caves under pressure. Habitually.
leafman101
Well-known member
The Avs are what the Leafs could have been if instead of playing trap/dump and chase and acquiring guys like Krok, Kerf, Schenn etc we played fast and kept the puck and acquired players like Middlestadt, Lehkonen,
Gerard, Walker etc.
What a dodged bullet by the Avs. Shanny saved them.
Gerard, Walker etc.
What a dodged bullet by the Avs. Shanny saved them.
leafman101
Well-known member
Why can’t we score in the playoffs?
I don’t know, maybe try surrounding Rielly with dmen like Toews, Gerard and Walker instead of Boosh, Edmundson and Benoit.
I don’t know, maybe try surrounding Rielly with dmen like Toews, Gerard and Walker instead of Boosh, Edmundson and Benoit.
Slinger 48
Well-known member
Apparently Samsonov was his protege.
Wayward DP
Well-known member
Fred tho
Wayward DP
Well-known member
He consistently allowed back breaking muffins at the worst times
CH1
The Artist Formerly Known as chiggins.
Dom from the Athletic echos this in his post mortem today. It’s obvious to all but those stuck inside their own stubborn belief system of what is “the right way”. Easy to spot for me because I’ve seen it play out across all pro sports and even in trading markets (where the expression is “do you want to be right or do you want to make money?”)
>>>Slowly and agonizingly, the Leafs have abandoned their most potent strengths in favour of covering up perceived weaknesses. They’ve morphed into a bland, milquetoast team with a borrowed identity that prioritizes nothing but playing The Right Way to an extreme fault. And it was all for absolutely nothing, leading them to the same place they always end up anyway.
SundinsTooth
Leafs Moderator
Biggest sin, is they are boring in the playoffs.
Great regular season entertainment, generally, but rather watch lawn bowling come playoff time.
Great regular season entertainment, generally, but rather watch lawn bowling come playoff time.
CH1
The Artist Formerly Known as chiggins.
It’s a great read. Basically Matthews and Marner offensive ratings crash during the playoffs (more than should be expected) while their defensive ratings shoot up.
>>While McDavid and MacKinnon are out there thriving in the playoffs because they assert their tempo, Toronto’s top duo seems to prefer to accept whatever tempo their opponent throws at them instead in the name of responsible defending. It’s the distinction between focusing on your own arsenal rather than obsessing over what’s on the other side of the fence. While the percentages may be similar, the actual differences are, well, the difference.
Does anyone care that the Leafs only concede 1.67 goals against per 60 with Matthews on the ice compared to McDavid’s 2.95? No, because the Leafs only score 2.45 compared to McDavid’s 4.6.
>>While McDavid and MacKinnon are out there thriving in the playoffs because they assert their tempo, Toronto’s top duo seems to prefer to accept whatever tempo their opponent throws at them instead in the name of responsible defending. It’s the distinction between focusing on your own arsenal rather than obsessing over what’s on the other side of the fence. While the percentages may be similar, the actual differences are, well, the difference.
Does anyone care that the Leafs only concede 1.67 goals against per 60 with Matthews on the ice compared to McDavid’s 2.95? No, because the Leafs only score 2.45 compared to McDavid’s 4.6.
leafman101
Well-known member
The thing is, they aren’t even a great regular season team. Other than the shitty Canadian division year, they never compete for the division or for the presidents trophy. Why would they suddenly become the best team in the playoffs?
Preston
MBow30 alt account
I don't care who the coach is, no team will be fun with that d corps. Even their extra d with offensive juice is boring and plodding.
CH1
The Artist Formerly Known as chiggins.
No kidding. The players aren’t designing the game plans
leafman101
Well-known member
Value aside, having 3 players in the top 9 in cap hits definitely has hurt the Leafs ability to build a good team. No other team has that situation, good or bad. And every good team is still deep in top end talent.
Next year its 4 in the top 12.
The other part that hurts is they are all forwards, so there is no balance.
And its just not clear that the advantage of having four * elite forwards outweighs the disadvantage of having four huge contracts at forward.
* - three
Dumping Tavares is kinda key to solving this whole mess.
Next year its 4 in the top 12.
The other part that hurts is they are all forwards, so there is no balance.
And its just not clear that the advantage of having four * elite forwards outweighs the disadvantage of having four huge contracts at forward.
* - three
Dumping Tavares is kinda key to solving this whole mess.
CH1
The Artist Formerly Known as chiggins.
Dom agrees
>>Maybe this all stems from roster construction. It’s hard to take risks when there has only ever been one defenseman on the backend capable of doing so. Doubling down on that with three safety blankets, one on each pair, in these playoffs felt like a complete misunderstanding of what was wrong with Toronto’s blue line. It’s true they were all solid defensively and rarely made many mistakes. It’s also true they offered next to nothing in terms of jumping into the play or creating much of anything in the offensive zone. Can the team’s superstars really be expected to deliver offensively to their usual degree when they don’t have a defenseman on the ice helping them attack with numbers?
Then again — maybe they’ve had to do it that way because the Leafs have never had the best goalie in a series. It’s easier to take calculated risks when your goalie is Jeremy Swayman, Sergei Bobrovsky, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Carey Price, Tuukka Rask, or Braden Holtby. After all, the “safe” defense corps have routinely been able to mask the Leafs goaltending deficiencies, enough to make every series close. They did their part in these playoffs too.