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Leafs @ Islanders - Feb. 28th, 7:00pm - TSN4, TSN 1050

Zee said:
Gender Bender said:
Jeremiad said:
BermudaBudsFan said:
Per Bob McKenzie ?the Islanders play a heavy game and the Leafs seemed to shrink from the challenge.?

I agree.

Yeah, that about sums it up. Does not bode well for April.
What about TBay getting crushed by Boston? Does that not bode well for TBay in April? The narrative being spun out of this one game is highly overstated.


Once again I hate to keep harping on the schedule but look at Tampa and Boston tonight. Tampa, 3rd game in 4 nights, Boston well rested. Shots are currently 42-17 Boston, hmmmm Tampa can't match that physicality!!
May as well fold it up now! [emoji23]
 
Jeremiad said:
Gender Bender said:
Jeremiad said:
BermudaBudsFan said:
Per Bob McKenzie ?the Islanders play a heavy game and the Leafs seemed to shrink from the challenge.?

I agree.

Yeah, that about sums it up. Does not bode well for April.
What about TBay getting crushed by Boston? Does that not bode well for TBay in April? The narrative being spun out of this one game is highly overstated.

It's not just one game. We've seen this over the whole season. I'm not saying we're screwed. I still believe the Leafs can beat Boston in the first round. But, yeah, after tonight's game in Beantown, if I'm a TB fan, I would be praying to face the buds in round 2 and not the Bruins.


The Leafs dominated the last 2 games against Tampa and only lost the one cause Vasilevsky went into video game God mode
 
Gender Bender said:
Why? We beat TBay in our last game. Everyone's memories are only as good as the most recent loss it seems.

More than that, you know what team went 3-1 against the Bruins? Last year's Leafs.

The playoffs are a different beast. Different stuff happens.
 
lc9 said:
Gender Bender said:
lc9 said:
This is the team that will beat the bruins though, so nothing to worry about.
Your Eeyore schtick is getting old.

The complaints are legit. You just don?t want to hear them.

If you knew me, you would laugh as I nail most impersonations, including the old western movie stars.

I sound exactly like Eeyore, everyone kills for it.  I take the message a lot deeper, we have two polarities, positive and negative.  You want to live from the negative, living from the negative means you create the negative, just like living positive makes the positive happen in your life.  Sounds simple but it is just universal energy.
I think most of us here understand your frustrations with Mike and they management of the team, I do think we all share this to some limited extent.

But at the same time, with even a stinker tonight, we have the most talented team, that we ever may have now or in future, so the best fucking thing is to get behind it, support it and to love it.

On another not I have a heart condition which may see not me to another Cupl  Not crying, but believing for 2012 and 2023. If so I can die at rest, if not I say 4 Cups in the 60's
 
These have got to stop.  It?s turning the game into a farce and hurts a team?s efforts through loss of confidence and a psychological disadvantage:

[tweet]1101291297338466305[/tweet]
 
Well personally I'm just glad that nobody got hurt. After that 1st period WWE Steel Cage match featuring WWE-calibre refereeing I was afraid someone was going to give Tavares a Stunner and impale him on a table.
 
Driving into to work today and listening to TSN1050 a lot of lc9 type doom and gloom about the Leafs.  I mean c'mon it's ONE game with a highly motivated Islanders team pumped up by their crowd and a tired, shorthanded Leafs team.  Could the outcome have been better, sure, but it's not any indication that the Leafs aren't "tough enough", "not built for the playoffs" or "lacking character".  Sheesh
 
Zee said:
Driving into to work today and listening to TSN1050 a lot of lc9 type doom and gloom about the Leafs.  I mean c'mon it's ONE game with a highly motivated Islanders team pumped up by their crowd and a tired, shorthanded Leafs team.  Could the outcome have been better, sure, but it's not any indication that the Leafs aren't "tough enough", "not built for the playoffs" or "lacking character".  Sheesh

Agreed. The only head scratcher for me was the decision to start Anderson against the Oilers and Sparks against the Islanders. We likely may have seen a better outcome and 2 possible wins had Babs flipped the 2 around.
 
RedLeaf said:
Zee said:
Driving into to work today and listening to TSN1050 a lot of lc9 type doom and gloom about the Leafs.  I mean c'mon it's ONE game with a highly motivated Islanders team pumped up by their crowd and a tired, shorthanded Leafs team.  Could the outcome have been better, sure, but it's not any indication that the Leafs aren't "tough enough", "not built for the playoffs" or "lacking character".  Sheesh

Agreed. The only head scratcher for me was the decision to start Anderson against the Oilers and Sparks against the Islanders. We likely may have seen a better outcome and 2 possible wins had Babs flipped the 2 around.

Hard to say, it was always going to be a tough game last night.  You grab the sure 2 points anytime you can against a crappy Oilers team and the Leafs did just that.  Could they have spanked the Oilers the same way with Sparks in net?  Probably, but hindsight is 20/20
 
Zee said:
RedLeaf said:
Zee said:
Driving into to work today and listening to TSN1050 a lot of lc9 type doom and gloom about the Leafs.  I mean c'mon it's ONE game with a highly motivated Islanders team pumped up by their crowd and a tired, shorthanded Leafs team.  Could the outcome have been better, sure, but it's not any indication that the Leafs aren't "tough enough", "not built for the playoffs" or "lacking character".  Sheesh

Agreed. The only head scratcher for me was the decision to start Anderson against the Oilers and Sparks against the Islanders. We likely may have seen a better outcome and 2 possible wins had Babs flipped the 2 around.

Hard to say, it was always going to be a tough game last night.  You grab the sure 2 points anytime you can against a crappy Oilers team and the Leafs did just that.  Could they have spanked the Oilers the same way with Sparks in net?  Probably, but hindsight is 20/20

The leafs only scored one goal and there were a lot of Islanders goals where the goalie had no chance.  Maybe Anderson plays out of his mind and the score is just 3-1.

More generally, trying to guess how to deploy goalies to maximize the number of points your team gets isn't worth the effort.  With either goalie, the leafs can win or lose to any team.  It's extremely difficult to say with much certainty how much a goalie change shifts the leafs odds of winning.  And even if you know that exactly you'd have to carefully calculate the odds.... Playing the better goalie against the better team may not actually have the effect of maximizing expected points.
 
hockeyfan1 said:
These have got to stop.  It?s turning the game into a farce and hurts a team?s efforts through loss of confidence and a psychological disadvantage:

[tweet]1101291297338466305[/tweet]

My feeling is that this is currently the worst rule in hockey.

I would simply disallow review of goals based on offsides.  If a ref does not call an offside while the play is happening, the player is close enough to the line that no significant advantage is gained.  Moreover, there's no "slippery slope" here and no temptation for players to push offsides any more than they do.  These calls just retroactively take away fun skill plays, which is not what the NHL wants.
 
It also just seems weird that this particular infraction, which almost never has any real effect on whether a goal is scored is one of the only infractions that can be reviewed whereas a trip or hold or slash can't be reviewed.  And plays that can cause injury aren't reasons to take goals back.  It's super irritating.

And it's not just because the leafs have been on the wrong end of a bunch of these.
 
Yeah the rule and review is flawed, but I think the whole coaches' challenge crap should be changed.

Example:  coaches have no access to tablets/video on the bench.  They want to review, they have to call it right after the play in question without being able to study video beforehand.  Also there should be a time-limit.  Instead of a ref waiting around to see if the coach wants to challenge they have something like 20 seconds after a goal is scored to indicate they're challenging.  That would speed things up and take away alot of these "offside by a millimeter" challenges.
 
Zee said:
Yeah the rule and review is flawed, but I think the whole coaches' challenge crap should be changed.

Example:  coaches have no access to tablets/video on the bench.  They want to review, they have to call it right after the play in question without being able to study video beforehand.  Also there should be a time-limit.  Instead of a ref waiting around to see if the coach wants to challenge they have something like 20 seconds after a goal is scored to indicate they're challenging.  That would speed things up and take away alot of these "offside by a millimeter" challenges.

I think it will be impossible to circumvent the ipad thing.  If you ban them on the bench then there will just be a guy in the box whose job it will be to look after every goal and call down what to do.

Offside by a millimeter just needs to not be reviewable.  It's the simplest thing to do.
 
Zee said:
Jeremiad said:
Gender Bender said:
Jeremiad said:
BermudaBudsFan said:
Per Bob McKenzie ?the Islanders play a heavy game and the Leafs seemed to shrink from the challenge.?

I agree.

Yeah, that about sums it up. Does not bode well for April.
What about TBay getting crushed by Boston? Does that not bode well for TBay in April? The narrative being spun out of this one game is highly overstated.

It's not just one game. We've seen this over the whole season. I'm not saying we're screwed. I still believe the Leafs can beat Boston in the first round. But, yeah, after tonight's game in Beantown, if I'm a TB fan, I would be praying to face the buds in round 2 and not the Bruins.


The Leafs dominated the last 2 games against Tampa and only lost the one cause Vasilevsky went into video game God mode

The Leafs match up well when we play a team that is closer to the Leafs style - fast, wide open offensive hockey like TB. But when the Leafs
come up against a team that plays the (new trendy word) heavier game and a far more rigid game in terms of structure, the Leafs cannot handle it. If their goalie doesn't give up some goals fairly quickly and our offensive guys can't produce, the game is a mighty struggle for the
Leafs.

3rd game in 4 nights, injuries, Sparks etc to me is certainly not a great way to go into a game but to me this game was one the team should have matched the Isles in - for John especially obviously. This situation of rising to a challenge and their inability to do so may be part in due to the experience level but for many fans including me it was a major disappointment.

As said before, playoffs are a different animal. The free-flying is minimized quite a bit. In saying that I don't know what would have worked in regards to re-jigging the roster. The team, IMO, will never have a better talent level for a number of years die to cap concerns...but would I have wanted to deal Kapi or John Jr even Willie to gain a "heavier" player? I just don't see how you'd be getting back a player with enough talent other than maybe being "heavier"....

One last 5 cents....far different talent level and I would much rather have the talent and watch the Leafs style but when you see a coach like
Trotz take a team from 31st to 1st in GAA it makes me wonder about a lot of Babcock's ability to get this team to play with structure in our own end.

Rant over. 
 
princedpw said:
How was Holl last night?

I thought he played fine, which translates to "surprisingly well" considering his lack of playing time. Marincin OTOH was a disaster and I'm usually a defender of his.
 
lamajama said:
Trotz take a team from 31st to 1st in GAA it makes me wonder about a lot of Babcock's ability to get this team to play with structure in our own end.

Rant over. 

I'm not saying that Trotz isn't an upgrade over whoever the heck coached the Islanders last year, but no coach can make his goalies go from terrible to Vezina-quality. Last season the Islanders had the 4th worst team save percentage in the league. Their goalies were Halak (.908 Sv%) and Greiss (.892).

This season they have the best team save percentage in the league. Among goalies with 30 games played this season Lehner has the best save percentage in the league (.931) and Greiss is third (.928). I know that I keep beating this same drum but that's the single biggest reason for the Islanders improvement this season.

 
CarltonTheBear said:
lamajama said:
Trotz take a team from 31st to 1st in GAA it makes me wonder about a lot of Babcock's ability to get this team to play with structure in our own end.

Rant over. 

I'm not saying that Trotz isn't an upgrade over whoever the heck coached the Islanders last year, but no coach can make his goalies go from terrible to Vezina-quality. Last season the Islanders had the 4th worst team save percentage in the league. Their goalies were Halak (.908 Sv%) and Greiss (.892).

This season they have the best team save percentage in the league. Among goalies with 30 games played this season Lehner has the best save percentage in the league (.931) and Greiss is third (.928). I know that I keep beating this same drum but that's the single biggest reason for the Islanders improvement this season.

Perhaps an upgrade player-wise over last year but I don't think it's a stretch of any kind to say that the system the coach has implemented has greatly helped the goaltenders and that's my point. Trotz has been able to do this. Babcock not so much.
 
I think Gord Miller just said the Leafs are 3 and 8 vs top 10 defensive teams this season. That's a little concerning.
 

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