Maple Leafs

[chakhae1]

Nothing matters in the regular season but this is the most dominant I have seen Matthews play as a Leaf which bodes very well in the playoffs. Seems like he is sick of losing and if no one else on his team cares, then he'll carry the team by himself if he has to. Mikheyev has gone cold again and his little hot streak seems like an aberration. Maybe playing him with better players will get his scoring going but he is valuable as a checker and penalty killer too, so we'll see what Dubas does in the next couple of weeks and see where guys like him plug in.

[Cunnuc]

Matthews felt bad about the first goal they allowed, he could have gotten the puck and he knew it. Afterwards he started chasing players down and stripping the puck off them like he was Pavel Datsyuk. At one point he stripped the puck, turned and shot it in the same motion, took seemingly less than 1 second. Just nasty stuff. Also what were his faceoffs? 17-2? Ridiculous.

Toronto really should go for a top 4 defenceman. Hopefully someone that can play with some cohesion. Doesn't matter how much offense you get, if you're playing Tampa or Florida first round the offense won't show but your lack of defense will. Lack of defense will make people think the goalies are weak and neither of their goalies are weak.

[chakhae1]

Robertson got called up probably for a showcase and should play with JT and Nylander. Let's hope he performs and we can land that top 4 D. The names are out there but God no Chychrun please! Then again Bunting has worked really well for us, so maybe there is an omen.

[chakhae1]

That was the most disgusting display of goaltending and defence I've seen from a Leafs team in a long time. Maybe since the days of Vesa Toskala and the d core led by the likes of Ken Klee. Our defence has a fundamental problem in that there are too many guys that either don't know how to defend or don't want to defend. On two of the goals the Campbell allowed in the third it would have taken a simple play by someone to get in the way of the scorer or to check the stick of the scorer to prevent a goal. What actually happened? No one was near any of the scorers. Come on man!

Why Keefe moved Brodie away from Rielly was also stupid. It is not often that I criticize Keefe b/c overall he has done a really good job, but why mess up the one pair that has been consistent through all the ups and downs since they were together? Just mind boggling! Robertson looked ok on the 4th line and got a couple of good chances, but if it weren't were the excellency of our first line this would have been a loss. The second line also continues to contribute nothing, even though Nylander got a goal they were invisible for most of the game again.

[jameslacarte]

That was a crazy game last night!! I dont blame Campbell for 3 of the 5 Goals he allowed. They were Tips in the slot that he had no chance on.
What else can we say about Mitch Marner!! 4 Goals & 6 Points last night. 2 Weeks ago Marner wasnt even in the Top 50 in points for the year & now he is Top 20. Matthews was also hovering around 20th spot & now he is in 4th overall. Soon the Leafs will have 5 guys with 50 pts on the season & by the end of the year they could have 7 guys with 50 points or more!!
Nice to see Robertson back in the Leafs lineup too. He had some good chances to score too. If we can keep him healthy & he can be just half as good as his brother is in Dallas this will be a very good addition to the Leafs Line up!!
Liljegren just plain stunk last night!! I cant believe he was a 1st round pick!! He is just plain brutal defensively!! Someone's gotta teach him how to stand up at the blue line. Leafs need to trade this guy while other teams still think he has some value..
Caps are next on Monday!! Go Leafs Go!!

[chakhae1]

The goaltending has been the worst in the league since December 1 and I only know this since TSN repeats it 20 times a day. Like we get it the goaltending has been bad. GEEZ.The Leafs have maintained a playoff spot and that's all that matters now. Matthews has showed a next levelness this year as I have said and I am confident that Marner will bounce back from his poor play last year since he is playing like his old self now and Bunting has been a solid piece on that line as well. The secondary scoring from the second like scares me. Taveras needs to figure things out soon, and getting some juice to his line is paramount for Dubas at the deadline. I don't think Robertson is the answer there since he has barely played any games in the NHL and he is more useful at the bottom of the lineup for now, but the D is what it is and no more damn tinkering!

[jameslacarte]

Good on the Leafs tonight to keep going strong in the 3rd period tonight to win the game. They worked hard for all 3 periods tonight. Some bad luck let the Caps back in it but we out played them in the 3rd to get the Win. The Caps scored on the Engvall penalty that wasnt even a penalty, Engvall clearly never touched him & they scored on the Power Play & on the short handed goal the Caps scored the puck should have went all the way down the ice to Mrazek but it hit something & gave them a 2-1 where Wilson scored. Good to see the Leafs shrug that off & come out in the 3rd like they wanted to win the game. Those efforts usually get rewarded. Go Leafs Go!!

[chakhae1]

Holl looks like paul coffey all of a sudden and playing with Brodie has boosted his confidence a ton. Hopefully Rielly has the same sort of impact with whoever he plays with but that's not likely. Matthews didn't get a shot on net for the first time in 100 and whatever games, but a win is a win! Marner remains on the heater and Tavares really impressed me with his effort and getting the job done on two huge assists.

[jameslacarte]

Yeah, Tavares is taking some heat for not scoring any goals but games like last night is the reason why he was brought here. In the 13 games that he hasnt scored he has 11 assists & he had at least 2 really good chances to score, he hit the post on 1 & missed the net by inches on the other. Im not worried about JT, he's going to score!! He's also picked his game up defensively too..
Our next 5-6 games now are against teams that are not in the Playoffs. A nice stretch to gain some ground on Florida. We are tied with Tampa now but they have 2 games in hand now on us. Crazy season!! A few weeks back we had 4-5 games in hand on them now they are up on us. Thats Toronto making up cancelled games from Covid. Good thing about that is that we will rarely go more than 2 days between games from now til the end of the season.
Holl has looked much better the last couple games. Playing with better more reliable partners helps there. I know Sandin scored last night, the game winner, but he & Liljegren are are just plain brutal in they're own zone. They give the puck away on every shift!! They are both too soft & other teams know that if you hit them every shift, like Playoff Hockey, they will make mistakes.
Now that Ritchie is gone we are once again a soft team to play against. Back at the start of the season the Leafs could have fixed that whole problem for 1 Million dollars & all they had to do was sign Chara while he sat there looking for a team to play for before the Islanders snatched him up. I know he has lost a step over the years but he is still the most intimidating guy on the ice & he has absolutley no problem cleaning out the front of the net for his goalie. It probably would have made Marner & Matthews super happy too. The Leafs missed the boat on that one.
Go Leafs Go!!

[chakhae1]

Chara is still one of the most intimidating players in the NHL. Being 6 foot whatever he is will do that. I don't really notice Sandin do anything on the ice until he is on the powerplay but Liljgren gets picked on a lot and thus makes errors. The two of them are what they are. They are not big or aggressive and rely on their sticks and hockey knowledge to make plays all over the ice. They have not been good defensively, but every team has young guys back there that they are trying to develop.

The Leafs are higher on Sandin than Lilijgren from what I have read on The Athletic and pretty much any package for a d man involves timothy or holl. The only forward being mentioned is Robertson but his price is so low right and I don't want the team giving up on him already b/c he is a proven scorer.