Game#19 Toronto @ Nashville 8 pm LeafsTV, AM640 blah blah blah

[Erndog]

I think this game was the perfect example of how critical goaltending is.

I think the Leafs severly outplayed the Preds.  The difference was goaltending.  We allowed a crappy goal or two and they didn't.  Switch the goalies last night and the Leafs win 5-1.

 

[L K]

I think this game was the perfect example of how critical goaltending is.

I think the Leafs severly outplayed the Preds.  The difference was goaltending.  We allowed a crappy goal or two and they didn't.  Switch the goalies last night and the Leafs win 5-1.

I'll second that.  And the number of times the Leafs threw the puck at the net and had it hit a leg, or Rinne when he wasn't even looking...that just doesn't seem to happen with the Leafs.  They weren't even plays where you could argue Rinne was just better at positioning himself in the net.  That one play where he was facing backwards and had half the net open.  The Leafs threw the puck at the net and it hit him in the leg, he was out of position and flopping around.

One big concern for me was a play late in the 3rd where Gardiner and Phaneuf? were in the defensive zone and all three forwards skated up the ice and STOOD still at the blueline while the two defensemen were penned in the zone.  After about the 10 minute mark of the 3rd period Nashville kept 4 players back in the neutral zone. What the hell is wrong with this team.  You can't pass the puck through the trap like that, and you will never win a foot race for the puck in the offensive zone if you are starting from a stop position unless you are maybe Kessel or Lombardi who have an extra gear that most other NHLers don't have. 

This team has some serious issues understanding how to break any form of defensive hockey that is based around limiting speed through the neutral zone.  The Leafs dominated the Predators for most of the night because they managed to keep the puck hemmed in the Predators zone when the game was more of a north-south approach, but once Nashville went into "protect the two goal lead" mode, the Leafs looked lost.  Some of it was probably fatigue due to the injuries and a useless 4th line when Rosehill was dressed but it happens too often to not be an issue.  Wilson's "dump the puck in the corner and go chase it" approach just can't break the trap.

 

[Boston Leaf]

I think this game was the perfect example of how critical goaltending is.

I think the Leafs severly outplayed the Preds.  The difference was goaltending.  We allowed a crappy goal or two and they didn't.  Switch the goalies last night and the Leafs win 5-1.

Yup... It was  such a killer a the beginning of th ethird when we were all over them. Rinne making save after save. They get one breakout come down and one shot BOOM 3-1 game over

 

[Erndog]

I think this game was the perfect example of how critical goaltending is.

I think the Leafs severly outplayed the Preds.  The difference was goaltending.  We allowed a crappy goal or two and they didn't.  Switch the goalies last night and the Leafs win 5-1.

Yup... It was  such a killer a the beginning of th ethird when we were all over them. Rinne making save after save. They get one breakout come down and one shot BOOM 3-1 game over

Yup, not to mention the beginning of the game.  We came out very strong... had a number of decent chances, carried the play and bam, their first shot on goal, it's in.  1-0 Nashville.  Shots 7-1 Leafs.

The Sens started the season in a complete mess.  Absolutely atrocious... they are now playing fairly well and have the same amount of wins as the Leafs.  Why?  Their goaltending has settled down quite a bit since the first two weeks.

It's critical.  Without Reimer we're in a world of trouble.

 

[AlmosGirl]

jonasTSN1050 Jonas Siegel
Lombardi left the building with his left arm in a sling.

That's what you like to read.  :'(

At least it wasn't his head in a sling. 

First game I've missed this year, sounds like they played well but ran into some good goaltending? Also sounds like our goaltending wasn't much to write home about?

What more can I say?  It is what it is.  I really had no expectations this year.  I didn't allow myself to get too high because I just didn't want to be disappointed.  I just don't think that they can keep going and stay in the running for a playoff spot with all of these injuries.  Maybe if the goaltending was ok, they might be able to pull it off but not with both issues.

 

[Mikhail Bloodnovsky]

This is a second game in the row where Scrivens can't stop a first shot on net. He wins against the worst team in the league and luckily beats another crappy team in St.Luis and for some reason they made him the starter. He gets blown out by good teams.

 

[bustaheims]

First game I've missed this year, sounds like they played well but ran into some good goaltending? Also sounds like our goaltending wasn't much to write home about?

THat sort of covers it, yeah. Based on the way the team has played, I really don't understand why some people believe they're headed towards a prolonged slump. If anything, to me, they look like a team that's about to turn things around and win a bunch of games. If they keep this up, the bounces will start going their way (that just seems to be how things work), pucks will start going in and the wins will start to add up. Losing sucks, but, all in all, I found last night's effort to be very encouraging.

 

[Bender]

I think this game was the perfect example of how critical goaltending is.

I think the Leafs severly outplayed the Preds.  The difference was goaltending.  We allowed a crappy goal or two and they didn't.  Switch the goalies last night and the Leafs win 5-1.

Agreed 100%. It's easy to say the team played poorly in the loss, but we handily outplayed them. We also had excellent scoring chances, and I didn't count too many for the Preds. And outside of that one great save from Scrivens he wasn't tested all that much. A few more shots on Rinne and I think one would've trickled in. When your offense can't get it together you need to at least give them a fighting chance, keep the game at 1-1 or 2-1. 3-1 become mountainous when your team is afraid to take chances to tie it up, like on the Preds' 3rd goal.

 

[Bender]

First game I've missed this year, sounds like they played well but ran into some good goaltending? Also sounds like our goaltending wasn't much to write home about?

THat sort of covers it, yeah. Based on the way the team has played, I really don't understand why some people believe they're headed towards a prolonged slump. If anything, to me, they look like a team that's about to turn things around and win a bunch of games. If they keep this up, the bounces will start going their way (that just seems to be how things work), pucks will start going in and the wins will start to add up. Losing sucks, but, all in all, I found last night's effort to be very encouraging.

There are some encouraging signs, but we saw that last year too. This reminds me of when we made every goaltender look like a vezina candidate. Couple that with 7 injuries (almost 1/3 of the roster) to a roster that's already somewhat weak and we're in dire straits going forward I think.

 

[L K]

First game I've missed this year, sounds like they played well but ran into some good goaltending? Also sounds like our goaltending wasn't much to write home about?

THat sort of covers it, yeah. Based on the way the team has played, I really don't understand why some people believe they're headed towards a prolonged slump. If anything, to me, they look like a team that's about to turn things around and win a bunch of games. If they keep this up, the bounces will start going their way (that just seems to be how things work), pucks will start going in and the wins will start to add up. Losing sucks, but, all in all, I found last night's effort to be very encouraging.

I hope so, but I don't think effort and attempts to score were an issue last year either.  For the past few years it seems like the Leafs have a lot of bad luck with pucks going at the net and bouncing away, or being stopped by the goaltender.  Take Bozak for instance, he has had glorious chances to score, and the puck seems to roll off his stick a lot.  I think that might have more to do with limited skill level more than "bad breaks".

Kulemin on the other hand is due to score. 

I am getting concerned about Frattin at this point though.  He's not making high percentage plays in the offense zone anymore and while he's not 'Kadri as a rookie' bad in the defensive zone, I think that part of his game has waned too.  16 games and one assist to his name.  The injuries make this a bad time to send him down, but I think he needs seasoning at this point.  It's starting to go beyond a simple slump when he's played 17 games and has 1 point.  The chances were coming early, but he's really not getting great scoring opportunities anymore.  I still like some of the things he is doing, but the team needs a little more balance....again, when some of these guys come back from injury.

 

[Bullfrog]

THat sort of covers it, yeah. Based on the way the team has played, I really don't understand why some people believe they're headed towards a prolonged slump. If anything, to me, they look like a team that's about to turn things around and win a bunch of games. If they keep this up, the bounces will start going their way (that just seems to be how things work), pucks will start going in and the wins will start to add up. Losing sucks, but, all in all, I found last night's effort to be very encouraging.

I think it's easy to understand. Encouraging as last night was, it's still a loss by 3 goals. Without a number one goalie, it'll be hard to swing these encouraging games into wins on a sustained level. I don't think it's out-to-lunch to be skeptical that the bounces will go our way when the bounces keep going the other teams' way.

 

[ZBBM]

I'm naturally a pessimist but even with the goaltending they've got right this moment I don't think we'll drop out of the playoff picture entirely.  There callups we can make from the Marlies -- Colborne, Kadri, Aulie, e.g. -- are not useless stiffs.  The key is to try to play .500 until the injuries resolve themselves. 

If Reimer is out long-term -- or God forbid the whole year --  or even more God forbid if he comes back and the injury affects his play -- then we very likely won't make it.  But everyone knew that going in.

 

[Tigger]

jonasTSN1050 Jonas Siegel
Lombardi left the building with his left arm in a sling.

That's what you like to read.  :'(

At least it wasn't his head in a sling. 

First game I've missed this year, sounds like they played well but ran into some good goaltending? Also sounds like our goaltending wasn't much to write home about?

What more can I say?  It is what it is.  I really had no expectations this year.  I didn't allow myself to get too high because I just didn't want to be disappointed.  I just don't think that they can keep going and stay in the running for a playoff spot with all of these injuries.  Maybe if the goaltending was ok, they might be able to pull it off but not with both issues.

Probably the best head space to adopt given how badly we all want them to make the playoffs/improve. I agree, it's a toughie right now, I guess we'll see what they're made of.  :-\

 

[maplesyrup]

It's really a valid point AlmosGirl brings up. I didn't expect us to be a playoff team either and its funny I need to be reminded of that now. The hot start was just such a tease. I think that's a big part of my frustration. 

 

[Tigger]

First game I've missed this year, sounds like they played well but ran into some good goaltending? Also sounds like our goaltending wasn't much to write home about?

THat sort of covers it, yeah. Based on the way the team has played, I really don't understand why some people believe they're headed towards a prolonged slump. If anything, to me, they look like a team that's about to turn things around and win a bunch of games. If they keep this up, the bounces will start going their way (that just seems to be how things work), pucks will start going in and the wins will start to add up. Losing sucks, but, all in all, I found last night's effort to be very encouraging.

That's really good to hear, thanks.

 

[princedpw]

I'm naturally a pessimist but even with the goaltending they've got right this moment I don't think we'll drop out of the playoff picture entirely.  There callups we can make from the Marlies -- Colborne, Kadri, Aulie, e.g. -- are not useless stiffs.  The key is to try to play .500 until the injuries resolve themselves. 

If Reimer is out long-term -- or God forbid the whole year --  or even more God forbid if he comes back and the injury affects his play -- then we very likely won't make it.  But everyone knew that going in.

At the beginning of the year, pretty much everyone said that in order to make the playoffs, Reimer had to play well -- almost as well as last year (and then some other things had to go well too).  Since he's out, it's pretty much our worst case scenario ...