After that period, I'd be okay with letting Brind'Amour sign anywhere else he wants to. Thankfully cooler heads than mine will be making that decision.Dump and watch has NEVER been a viable offense.
Maybe the coaches need to all be replaced too?
Yes....who was worse…Freddy or Orlov?
Rod had some blunders and overplaying Shit the Bed Fred was his biggest. He needed to work Kooch in round one, he failed miserably at that, then he was stuck. I agree that the rotation was working because Freddy needed the rest, it was clear as day to see.Ya know…. The goal tender rotation was working. Then they played Freddie for all except 1 in the playoffs. You know he doesn’t have that every game kind of endurance. How’d they think that would end.
Our D was also a bit off. I know we were down Pesce but Burns and Slavin were not fantastic (it didn’t seem to me). Surprised that Slavin seemed mortal defensively.
Orlov and Kuzy next year stealing millions with elevated roles when all these free agents have to go will be fun to watch…good times ahead!!! A morning later this feels worse than last night...cannot help but feel like they beat themselves in many respects...Rangers were awful five on five for the most part, this was not a case of just get beating by a better team.Orlov is definitely one of the biggest mistakes Dundon/Waddell/Tulsky has made. While it looked at the time like that signing would give us incredible depth and at least one year of insurance when either Skjei or Pesce (or both) sign elsewhere, the reality was that Orlov actually played no better than an actual #6 Dman most of the season. I definitely don't look forward to seeing him get 2nd pair minutes next season if that ends up being how things play out. He was was pretty terrible most of the season and in these playoffs. He is a shell of the player he was in Washington. At $7.75 million he is stealing money from us.
As Leafs fans would readily tell us, we also got Freddied tonight. Awful unacceptable goals at horrible times in playoff games are kind of his thing. And there it was again tonight.
That’s an interesting way to put it. I see it differently. The Rangers were the better team exactly because they did not make those costly mistakes and were able to capitalize on the ones that the Canes did make. The Canes are very good at some things and not so good at others. Same with the Rangers. The Rangers’ mix of strengths and weaknesses proved more successful in a head to head matchup. Therefore the Canes got beat by the better team.Orlov and Kuzy next year stealing millions with elevated roles when all these free agents have to go will be fun to watch…good times ahead!!! A morning later this feels worse than last night...cannot help but feel like they beat themselves in many respects...Rangers were awful five on five for the most part, this was not a case of just get beating by a better team.
The rub on Freddy has always been great regular season numbers with just a very ok playoff performance resume...mentally for whatever reason he just loses focus and many times loses pucks that have to be routine saves and plays in the post season. Those miscues are back breakers in tight series...as much as you can blame Orlov for that first goal giveaway, what was Andersen doing with his movement and positioning on that first goal? In game one when it was a one goal game in the third period you simply cannot give the Rangers a freebie...he did. He lost the puck and positioning on another couple goals that changed games in the middle of the series...he had very eerily similar brain farts in Toronto in key post season games for them in multiple seasons. Razor thin margins for error in most playoff series and Freddy makes a lot of them.As someone who has defended Andersen based upon his actual numbers in the regular and post-seasons, a big chunk of that was on Freddie. He needs to be able to control some of those shots that he dropped leading to a few GA this year.
Next year needs to be Kochetkov backed up by someone (Andersen and Martin are both under contract).
My rub with the rub is that it's wrong, but in a way that you can justify either position. Toronto fans never forgave him for 2018 when he DID suck in the playoffs, even after he was terrific for them the following two post seasons ... but 2018 set his rep in stone in Toronto and it's like arguing with the wind from there. Also, like a lot of former Leafs, what he did on other teams gets dismissed or overlooked. He was borderline great for Anaheim in 2015 and 2016. He was also borderline great for Carolina in 2023.The rub on Freddy has always been great regular season numbers with just a very ok playoff performance resume...mentally for whatever reason he just loses focus and many times loses pucks that have to be routine saves and plays in the post season. Those miscues are back breakers in tight series...as much as you can blame Orlov for that first goal giveaway, what was Andersen doing with his movement and positioning on that first goal? In game one when it was a one goal game in the third period you simply cannot give the Rangers a freebie...he did. He lost the puck and positioning on another couple goals that changed games in the middle of the series...he had very eerily similar brain farts in Toronto in key post season games for them in multiple seasons. Razor thin margins for error in most playoff series and Freddy makes a lot of them.