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GDT Game 7 - Smells like Victory

This is almost as much on Matthews.

You can’t not produce shit for seven playoff games.

I swear I never would’ve expected this to have been possible.
 
zeke said:
In the end, this series loss lands squarely on Auston Matthews.

We'll be in tough to win any series against any team with him being invisible.
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yeah still holding out some faint hope it's his shoulder but I don't really believe it...he simply got owned by Chara and Bergeron.

he didn't even look remotely himself. other than that one shot he scored on.

kid's going to get a taste of the bad side of Toronto now too...he'll be reading Feschuk articles questioning his heart and whether he's really an elite player for the next 12 months.
 
I don’t think he’s injured.

When they shook hands at the ends, he initiated a prolonged conversation with Chara when they got to each other. It looked like he was telling him something to the effect of no one ever having dominated him like this is his career.

I don’t care how beastly Chara is, it’s insane that Matthews didn’t own him over seven long games. The youth, the skating - it should have won the day. As Babs said after game 4, I thought Matthews would dominate, but he just didn’t.
 
The criticism of matthews reminds me of the criticism yzerman got when he was a youngster... no heart they said.
Matthews will be fine....he is a stud and will lead the leafs to the cup soon.
Even though anderson shit the bed on a few goals, he has been doing it all year and last year too. Like i mentioned earlier, anderson was the direct cause of 2 losses against washington in last years playoffs. But anderson can be brilliant too. Goalies are a weird bunch and they seem to hit thwir stride later on in their careers. I wouldnt get rid of anderson (he is way better than reimer ever was or ever will be).
I think shannahan and lou have to take a portion of the blame,
Babcock for all his stubbornness, (and fixation on giving particular guys icetime because they are gudpros) only has the players that lou and shanny are able to deliver.
I dont believe for one second that the leafs hierarchy really believed that the team as it stands would be a rrue stanley cup contender. Otherwise they would have brought in help at the trade deadline. Pleks was nothing more than a token gesture.
As someone mentioned earlier, the pens were able to win with their defence the way it is because of their offence. I agree, and the leafs dont have the pens offensive ability, YET.
I think that this coming season, has been the time frame all along that shanny, lou, and babcock have been striving for as beginning to start investing inparts to be serious contenders.
I really think that they are going to go after tavares because with him in the stable that would help make the leafs comparable to the pens offensively.
I do believe they were hoping that gardiner would mature into a really serviceable number 2-defenceman, but it is painfully obvious that this guy has to go ... i wouldnt even keep him as a 3rd pairing dman.
As funny as it may sound, i think weber would be a great addition for the team and he would be extremely useful for at least 3 seasons. I think he would pair beautifully with reilly. Yes, there is the contract, but alot can happen in 3 or 4 years. Weber could retire or get injured and there will always be owners who will take on the contract to get a draft choice if need be.
Is weber too old and slow.... i dont know, chara is old and slow and he dominated his matchup. Oh and weber can fire the puck better than any other leaf dman on the team presently .
Finally, i would tell polak that he did a great job with his limited abilities and if he wanted to stick around as a 7th dman next season i would resign him. But the bottom pair guy i would go after would be bieksa. He can pass and skate ok. He can play defence well enough and is as tough as nails.
Reilly weber
Zaitsev dermott
Hainsy beiksa

Just a thought
Btw i think marleau played a good series and plek did too and even though the kids made mistakes, they played well too.
Disappointing ending to the series but our top 8 core maybe have a combined age average of 23 .... that is still really really young.
 
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Pleks was a ****ing rookie on the Bergeron goal.

I wanted to punch him in the head through the screen. He was not good tonight.

And why was Marner playing with Matthews again? Why did we change anything from the last two games??
 
zeke said:
In the end, this series loss lands squarely on Auston Matthews.
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Lots of blame to go around. Freddy, Matthews, Nylander, Kadri, Gardiner. But I think it was clear that over the course of 7 games there was a gap between the Leafs and the Bruins. Not a big one, but there is clearly still some work to do on all fronts. We definitely had a chance, and I think its important not too overlook that they dug in deep and got themselves out of a big hole to give themselves a legit chance to win the series against one of the top teams in the league. This series was a big learning experience. But its hard to say the end result wasn't deserved.

The thing we can't forget about Matthews and Nylander is they are 20. They are kids.

Also, in all the disappointment I do not want to overlook the fact that a couple of our kids were flat out beastly. Marner and Rielly both proved themselves this year in a big way. Marner was dominant this series, and the concern with him has always been the size. So to see his willingness to take hits to make plays, and not being thrown off by the extra physical attention was just huge. The size clearly isn't going to hold him back from being a superstar.

And Rielly. Oh man, he's been great all year, but he was also great last night with the busted face. That was a big impressive, Gud Pro, real man effort from him.

its unfortunate that we had to go against the Bruins in round 1. They probably get by a lot of the other teams in the East.
 
What a bummer....

When it was 2-2 in the first, we had to know that either team could run away with the game.

That friggin' set play off the end boards to make it 3-2 at the end of the first - saw that coming a mile away.

Then the Leafs poured it on in the 2nd and had a 4-3 lead going into the 3rd - I had absolutely no confidence that the game would end that way and as soon as the Bruins had a lead, they just played their asses off to hold on. The Leafs had their chances, but nothing was getting through.

It's disappointing, but the Leafs again gave their first round opponent fits and played really well at times.

The first two games, and Kadri's suspension were the difference. I don't think the series even goes to 7 if the Leafs are in playoff mode from the first period of the first game. They need to learn how to play against a physical-style.. and speed was the answer. Took them 3 games to figure it out.

Oh well, 82 games next season and we'll see where we're at. Hopefully we get a defensive upgrade in the offseason, it'll make a world of difference especially for Freddy.
 
All things being equal, even with our weaknesses on defense and in net being exposed, if Matthews plays like Matthews we win this series.
 
Volcanologist said:
yeah still holding out some faint hope it's his shoulder but I don't really believe it...he simply got owned by Chara and Bergeron.

he didn't even look remotely himself. other than that one shot he scored on.

kid's going to get a taste of the bad side of Toronto now too...he'll be reading Feschuk articles questioning his heart and whether he's really an elite player for the next 12 months.
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Sometimes shit happens.

Of course he will have to learn to play against those other teams top defenders. No avoiding that in the playoffs. There are probably not much better than PB (though he had plenty of time away from him) but there are better that 40 year old Chara.
 
zeke said:
All things being equal, even with our weaknesses on defense and in net being exposed, if Matthews plays like Matthews we win this series.
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Yup. There’s intangibles involved too.

Your best player sets the tone. He’s supposed to be dangerous every time he’s on the ice. He’s a PPG player that somehow only got 3 points in 7 games. He just wasn’t a factor at all, and you can’t win like that. I don’t see the Caps advancing if Ovechkin did that, for instance.
 
Will be interesting to see how the Leafs brass reacts to this series.

Big changes coming or just some tweeks as the core comes of age?

What say you?
 
Sometimes it is better to know the devil you have than the devil dont.
Wholesale changes are coming, jvr isnt worth what he will be offered by another team, bozak can go too unless he gives a big discount, which is highly unlikely.
Komarov can leave asap and gardiner will become mr whoops no matter what he does here.
So that is 4 players and including martin and polak that will possibly be 6 players moving out.
Bring in tavares to nullify jvr and bozak.
Use gardiner the first and maybe lolly to hopefully get the dman needed.
As for the other positions, i think that most can be filled internally
 
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