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The 2019-2020 MotherFucking Season Thread

TinCow said:
I have heard that the stats say the Leafs D is fine and we just need some saves.

That said.... it seems strange Dubas would come out with this strange hot take...
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hockeylover said:
Actual context of that headline -- him talking about why they didn't make a deadline deal...
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Looks like someone got caught click bait headline watching...
 
TinCow said:
“it’s a long term need for us.“

🤔
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I'm not sure what you're on about. None of us have ever stated that the Leafs are elite defensively. The metrics we use don't suggest that either. It suggests that we're a 10-15 team defensively and when you look purely at the personnel makeup of the blueline, we have two veteran RHD hitting free agency this summer (and unlikely to be back). So of course we have a long term need at RHD, even if Lilly is one of the answers there, we still need another RHD, preferably a legit top 4 body who allows us to not force Lilly into big minutes before he's ready.

Even ignoring that for a moment, if there were no pending personnel issues...if you were a top 3 offence and a top 10-15 defence, why wouldn't you put a premium on defensive help? Admitting that it's a long term need doesn't mean that you're admitting that it's terrible. The goal is to be elite at everything, no?
 
for the record, under Keefe and with a reasonably healthy blueline, we were looking like a borderline top-10 defensive team, even whilst playing a very aggressive offensive style.
 
zeke said:
for the record, under Keefe and with a reasonably healthy blueline, we were looking like a borderline top-10 defensive team, even whilst playing a very aggressive offensive style.
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and yeah, there's that.

Morgan Rielly is far and away the best defenseman on this team (sorry Presto, but it's true) and a top 10 (minimum) around the league. We were a juggernaut with him at 85%, but in the lineup. He's back as early as next week.

If I had told the board back in November that there would be a month long stretch of the season where we received .900 goaltending, Rielly was out of the lineup, and we played at a 100 point pace, there would have been a massive session of dutch ruddering.

But because some of the losses have been ugly and embarrassing, motherfuckers are all up in their feelings.
 
These injuries have fucking killed us this year.

I mean, if Rielly, Muzzin, Mikheyev, Johnsson, and Ceci were all playing last night, is there any chance in the world that we don't win that game in regulation? Those first three are huge players for us, and while defensively we didn't necessarily need them last night, they can generate on the offensive end.

Having to constantly have this patchwork mix and match thing going all year is not easy to deal with. No stability, no consistency in the lines, just a nonstop fire drill all year long.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
These injuries have fucking killed us this year.

I mean, if Rielly, Muzzin, Mikheyev, Johnsson, and Ceci were all playing last night, is there any chance in the world that we don't win that game in regulation? Those first three are huge players for us, and while defensively we didn't necessarily need them last night, they can generate on the offensive end.

Having to constantly have this patchwork mix and match thing going all year is not easy to deal with. No stability, no consistency in the lines, just a nonstop fire drill all year long.
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Honestly, it's kind of fine.

Adversity is good. We're getting all of them back before the playoffs and we're looking at getting healthy right in time to play Tampa instead of Boston in the 1st round. We were always really likely to have to beat both to get to the ECF, I'd much rather face Tampa first. They're mentally fragile.

Getting the full group together and the lineup smoothed out in time for the playoffs will be huge. Hopefully Fred's performance last night is a sign of things to come. He was a little shaky in the rebound control department, but he was challenging shots aggressively, making big saves when we needed them, no laughers for a change, etc. A potential step in the right direction and towards normalcy. This (healthy) group doesn't need elite goaltending to win a bucketload of games, it just needs good goaltending. Normal Fred and Campbell should be able to provide that.
 
Like Doughty said, just get into the playoffs and anything can happen. Maybe this team gets hot as we get closer to the playoffs and JT is lifting the Cup over his head this summer. Gotta BeLeaf!
 
I still feel Rielly was playing with some sort of injury before the injury that took him out. If this time off gets him back to 100%, and we get 18/19 Mo back just in time for the playoffs, that's huge.
 
WellPlayed said:
I still feel Rielly was playing with some sort of injury before the injury that took him out. If this time off gets him back to 100%, and we get 18/19 Mo back just in time for the playoffs, that's huge.
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Yeah Rielly confirmed after that crazy McD goal that he was playing with an injury. Would definitely be really nice if both injuries were healed during this time off.
 
Agreed I think this foot injury allowed him to rest and seek therapy for his back and here's hoping his batteries have been fully charged and he's ready to go.

Load management baby
 
As long as they're all back and legit healthy come playoffs, the only real downside to all the injuries is whether it costs us playoffs position. And it doesn't seem likely that we'll fall out of 3rd. I think we might have had a run at 2nd if we were completely healthy, even after the Babcock start, but that was always a longshot.

So as long as it doesn't cost us a playoffs spot, then it's mostly upside - our key guys getting a nice long rest to heal up other nagging injuries, the rest of the team learning how to bear down and win in tough circumstances, and some valuable experience for some of the kids. That's as long as these guys come back fully healthy by the playoffs, and hopefully a bit before so they can get back into playing shape.
 
WellPlayed said:
I still feel Rielly was playing with some sort of injury before the injury that took him out. If this time off gets him back to 100%, and we get 18/19 Mo back just in time for the playoffs, that's huge.
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Yeah, he was clearly hurting. I'm hoping that whatever injury was nagging him before has had a chance to fully heal. If we see wheels Rielly again, that's a top 5ish defenceman....adding a Norris threat to this group would be huge. Getting Soupy back so that I never have to see Evgeni Malgin shit out on huge chances again will also be massive.
 
Based on the description it's pretty clearly a sports hernia. He'll need to get that sorted in the summer.
 
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