Wild @ Leafs - Dec. 7th, 7:30pm - SN, Fan 590

[azzurri63]

Clean check means ya gotta fight.  Jeez.

Ya thats the way this league is now. See that a lot. League wants to cut down fighting start giving guys instigators. There was nothing wrong with that hit and it really wasn't much of one. Plus Stewart can handle himself.

 

[ZBBM]

My feeds delayed, and I saw a "Bozak sucks" post on twitter before that goal, so I kept my eye on him in the defensive zone before it happened. Dear god that was a bad shift for him.

Neither he nor Bozak have had much jump tonight. Games like this... why not overload a few lines with scorers? What good is Nylander on the 4th line in a game like this?

I agree.  It doesn't seem to appeal to Babs though.

 

[Zee]

Sweet Bozak goal

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Smith and Bozak. One of Hunlak are scoring tonight for sure.

edit: that's actually not fair, Bozak doesn't really deserve to be mentioned with those guys even if his defensive game is poor.

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

Ugh the Wild are disgusting with that 1-3-1 inside their own side of the red line.

 

[Arn]

Fair play Bozak.. owed us that one!

 

[gunnar36]

Bring back Joe Bowen please!
Romanuk just seems to call everyone Soshnikov by default.

 

[Arn]

Polak. Icing. Honestly.

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

The Wild get away with a lot of stick work and holding in their own zone.

Nylander has been terrible in his own zone at least twice tonight, to the point he completely disregards the position he is supposed to be in or just refuses to do it. In fairness to him, he usually looks decent as a finesse defender, tonight has been the worst I've noticed.

 

[Kin]

Clean check means ya gotta fight.  Jeez.

To be fair, it didn't seem as though Polak had his arm twisted. If Gabriel had dropped the gloves and started swinging then sure, that's an instigator but it just looks like he had one of those "Hey you, let's fight" sort of bumps and Polak eagerly accepted.

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

They're talking like Dubnyk is Price, he has a team playing a five man trap in front of him the majority of most nights. That will inflate any goalies numbers.

When he's on he's good, he's not invincible.

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

The Leafs forechecking pressure was excellent in the 2nd. Of the 45 times the Wild tried to exit their zone in the period, they did it in control only five times. Twenty times they where pressed into dumping it out and twenty times the Leafs forechecker stopped the exit attempt.

 

[bustaheims]

I know it's been said many times, but the way Marner reads the play is just exceptional.

 

[ZBBM]

I know it's been said many times, but the way Marner reads the play is just exceptional.

I never imagined he'd be so tenacious too.

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

That shift summed up Hunwick, two great plays and then a total brain fart as he fires the puck into Polak's skates while he is trying to change.

 

[Kin]

Millen made a good point there. Teams are reacting to what the Leafs had early success with on the PP and their lack of depth is now an issue. Gardiner taking wrist shots from the point with Komarov standing in front is not much of a strategy.

 

[ZBBM]

Why not put Matthews, Nylander, Marner all out there for this last gasp try?


EDIT: or not. 

 

[Kin]

Well, they're still a bad team but they're a fun-bad team at least. And there's no quit in them.

 

[bustaheims]

Well, they're still a bad team but they're a fun-bad team at least. And there's no quit in them.

Yup. They're the kind of bad that shows potential for future good, and, well, that's alright.

 

[TBLeafer]

Man we really deserved that one.  We drubbed the Dub, but it didn't work out. 

0-1-1 against hot goaltending where we were clearly the better team.