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Panthers @ Maple Leafs - Mar. 13th, 7:00pm - TSN, Fan 590

You have to figure that whatever Matthews has either isn't a surgical fix or is one that takes him out long term. What I don't understand is why we are playing him like he is healthy down the stretch. Matthews is fighting the puck...don't have him on the ice for 3+ minutes straight
Coaches will coach to win regardless. Matthews at 70% is better then almost everyone on the team. His line is still generating a lot of chances and did again tonight. They were the only line to generate any high danger chances minus the 1 the 4th line got. Who knows what's wrong with him. Back, wrist??? Whatever happened at 4 Nations? Hopefully he can pot a few down the stretch and in the playoffs.
 
He's hurt. The real question is why didn't they just address it back in October and shut him down if need be? It's doing no one any favors to watch him running a half-speed.
He didn't look like crap in the 4 Nations. If hurt agree with you let him rest. Not like he's playing lights out. get him ready for the playoffs. People laughed at me here in my hometown when I said it's going to be tight. A little losing streak and we are a wild card team and missing is not entirely out of the question. Didn't watch any of it tonight but hurt or not Matthews and Marner sound like they were in playoff mode. Panthers missing 3 key players you think they would have taken control of the game.
 
They're 11 up on Columbus...not happening.
And 12 on the habs who are in 9th. I agree, not happening. Falling to a wild card is probably within the realm of possibility, but not likely either. They may lose Saturday but then they will string together a few wins like they usually do and stay top 3. I find it fascinating that all Canadian teams are either in the playoffs or one point out.
 
.......... - said everyone in summer of 2021.
Yep and I was probably the biggest advocate of that. Management is hooped as players hold all the cards. Said it a million times NMC are horrible. You wanna get paid top dollars like our greedy core is then no NMC. Marner is getting overly paid again or we lose him for nothing.
Matthews highest paid player only signs for 4 years. Only in Leaf land.
 
Yep and I was probably the biggest advocate of that. Management is hooped as players hold all the cards. Said it a million times NMC are horrible. You wanna get paid top dollars like our greedy core is then no NMC. Marner is getting overly paid again or we lose him for nothing.
Matthews highest paid player only signs for 4 years. Only in Leaf land.
Leafs will re-sign Marner for over $13m and "Run It Again" for another 3 seasons with 34 16 88 91. And fans will cheer. Until early May.
 
Leafs will re-sign Marner for over $13m and "Run It Again" for another 3 seasons with 34 16 88 91. And fans will cheer. Until early May.
I hear ya. Let's hope we are wrong but if this core doesn't get it done in the playoffs this year everyone from management top down to all the players should be on the table or let go.
 
I hear ya. Let's hope we are wrong but if this core doesn't get it done in the playoffs this year everyone from management top down to all the players should be on the table or let go.
........ - said everyone in March of 2022.


The worst part is Shanahan offered Dubas an extension!

It's Groundhog Day!
 
I'm not drawing too many firm conclusions from this game.
It wasn't their best. I've seen worse.
They're trying new personnel.
Matthews still seems off.
Marner and his team have been through the deadline.
I need at least a few more games.
 
I dunno, Panthers were down Ekblad and Tkachuk and they still looked like the better team. I hope they can turn it on for the playoffs, but it's really hard for me to feel confident.
 
The Leafs have scored 3 goals when they pull their goalie. They have given up 17. There have been 6 times where the Leafs or their opponent didn't score.

Compare that to the Leafs scoring 20 goals with their opponent net empty while giving up TWELVE.

They dump the puck in the corner and then don't get to it first and the puck comes right back out. STOP IT.

Meanwhile Matthews has 5 primary points at 5 on 5 in his last 16 games.

We sit Robertson for multiple games in a row and cant' score enough goals.
 
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Willy has stood people up at the blueline and is now smearing them out on the boards on the backcheck
Those two hits gave GayLea a grand total of 12 on the season. It got him out of the top 10 worst in the league in hits/60 to 16th worst (40GP). He remains worst on the team in that stat. So it is notable when he hits someone - good catch.
 

Especially knowing Matthews is not dominating five-on-five play at the level the Leafs need him to, why they turn to him so often to start PKs alongside Marner continues to make me scratch my head. Save him up for a big post-PK shift with totally fresh legs. Kampf-Marner has a long history of reasonable success together, they now have Laughton-Jarnkrok as another pair, and they can still mix in Matthews here and there with Knies when they want to (or with Marner if he’s taking another shift later on in the kill).

Fresh okay player can outmatch a tired elite player, so I’m not sure what the coaching staff is doing here, Lane Lambert.
 
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I'm not drawing too many firm conclusions from this game.
It wasn't their best. I've seen worse.
They're trying new personnel.
Matthews still seems off.
Marner and his team have been through the deadline.
I need at least a few more games.
A balanced take.
 
The Leafs have scored 3 goals when they pull their goalie. They have given up 17. There have been 6 times where the Leafs or their opponent didn't score.

Compare that to the Leafs scoring 20 goals with their opponent net empty while giving up TWELVE.

They dump the puck in the corner and then don't get to it first and the puck comes right back out. STOP IT.

Meanwhile Matthews has 5 primary points at 5 on 5 in his last 16 games.

We sit Robertson for multiple games in a row and cant' score enough goals.
You know what I see with the extra man and the reason for the above numbers. We don't seem to be tough or hard enough battling or attempting to retrieve pucks. The core and one rap against them is their timid play and I see that being part of the problem when we are trying to tie a game up. Got to be giving it everything and at times I don't see that with the extra attacker. You got to be going in the D zone and giving it their all to win battles and try and regain and keep possession. Times I feel they give up the puck too much or not win it for that reason. then the puck gets dumped out or ends up in their net. Maybe I'm wrong but that's my view.
 
Leafs played ok last night. The deflation is related to a couple of major items. First Panthers are missing key guys and they still win.

Second, Panthers dominated in hits. They even ran at the goalie several times. And except for Domi, Benoit and Stolarz, the Leafs looked shook.

And the two guys who noticed this imbalance of hits and both surprisingly reacted were former Panthers OEL (sucker punch) and Stolarz (tried to fight). They watched their old team push around their new team.

Panthers leave Leafs shook.
 
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