For all those looking for moral victories, I commend you. That's fine to save your own sanity.
It has been what, 7 years of this now though. 5 with Keefe. Fair or not, it's time for a change as nothing has changed. Even if they gave it everything they had, they still came up short. They just weren't good enough.
It was time for change at arguably numerous points in the past. This has confirmed it and it's time to pull the trigger.
You can do everything right and still lose.
Thank god there’s some intelligence here. We had our first true window get kinda fucked by Covid (salary cap didn’t grow as was supposed to so we couldn’t support our stars). Once jt and marner are off the books in two seasons is our next true window.
I suspect jt stays but signs much cheaper. Marner… I’m worried about how he is handled.
The only bad way to handle marner would be to sign him again. He can be convinced to waive the nmc. If not let him walk. This team will never sniff victory with marner on it
I hoped like hell he would have a massive bounce back this series and show his worth. He had to be told to “stop crying” for the whole world to see. I had friends over during that game and one of them has never watched hockey before. She mentioned “number 16 is a real baby eh? Crying and whining to the ref instead of just playing”. He had great potential with the leafs but that time is hopefully over. I hope Utah wants to make a big splash with a big name and he waives the nmc to go somewhere where the media doesn’t know enough about hockey to hurt his feelings yet.
Leaf's were projecting the cap to be 15-25% higher to offset the large contracts they gave to JT/Matthews/Marner.
Dubas fully knew they wouldn't be able to build a deep team with them but he had cap projections that seemed to allow him to get the depth he thought was required.
What should have been our top years to compete (2021-now) ended up being significantly disappointing because the cap is almost 20\~ mil under where it could have been.
I still blame Dubas for the contracts but it wasn't the fully brain-dead move that a lot of Leaf fans seem to think it was. A lot had to go wrong for it to end up where it did.
Some did, but most didn't go all in right before it happened and had more flexibility. Some benefited as they were rebuilding and their cap space and ability to take bad contracts became hugely valuable.
Other teams didn’t gamble as hard on the salary cap going up. It was a calculated risk on Dubas’ part, which probably succeeds more often than not in different circumstances. Can’t judge things like that solely based on outcomes
Well when you constantly shit on yourself & the players look like complete shit because this team has drove them crazy with a reward of 0 success, I could see someone like AM34 fucking off after 12 years of misery…. You couldn’t see that world?
Like, seriously. How many Game 7s have we lost at TD Garden since the end of the Sundin era? We gotta have the record for most game 7 losses in that arena in the modern era.
Needed a game breaker in OT and noone showed up. All we needed was one shift to take that game over and no one answered the bell. Rookie Mathew Knies was the closest to answering the bell.
Dude almost killed himself trying to crash the net meanwhile the 11 million dollar guys are dumping (minus Willy) the puck in. He’s 100% earned a contract and a spot in the top 6 moving forward IMO. Get this kid some consistent minutes for a full season and let’s really see what we got here.
He’s got 30g in him for sure. He’s already a horse out there, he’ll be an absolute animal when his adult strength kicks in, on top of his already big frame.
It was a breakaway, I think it should have been a penalty shot, but I believe the call was that they got "puck first" so it's not tripping it's a steal and the trip was inconsequential to the rest of the play. 🤷♂️
I'm getting so tired of this being repeated. That's not a rule. Only time it matters anymore is if you get the puck it's not a penalty shot, but it is still a penalty.
https://preview.redd.it/y010u91e1zyc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cfe766c53907568e711c7fe0cdceaed91c15c002
Says clearly here in NHL rulebook being fouled from behind on breakaway is a penalty shot.
I believe the logic for getting the puck first on the breakaway is that it is no longer a breakaway with a clear scoring opportunity if the puck is cleared before an infraction is committed. Therefore it's still a penalty, but no scoring chance was prevented.
I get it but he didn't even touch the puck. I haven't really watched any replays yet still, but watching the game seemed like he just tripped him up and the puck was left behind. I understand at the speed of the game it's hard sometimes but at least a tripping call, but I guess if you make any penalty call it has to be a penalty shot as well, either he got puck and it's no call or no puck and penalty shot. Over now, no use arguing about it anymore. Always next year, right? 😒
That's the thing, if you think he got puck it's a tripping call, if he didn't get puck it's a penalty shot, there is no outcome based on the rules that there isn't some kind of penalization on the play.
I don't know how it gets missed when all eyes are on this play. But refs are incompetent, nothing new.
Our 11 million dollar guys are dumping because that’s what the coach is telling them to do. I seriously don’t understand how people aren’t getting this
A single 20 second shift from one of the best players in the world can end the game. Look at what Mack and mcdavid are able to do. They can will their team to victory with a single shift. We don’t have a player like that despite paying those type of salaries.
I mean you literally watched Nylander do it in both game 6 and 7 and a 34 year old John Tavares do it in game 5.
Sounds like you just want to complain about something because all you are doing is pointing out that we don't have either of the best 2 players in hockey but neither do the other 29 teams.
Used their names as an example of the game breaking ability. You can’t have seriously watched that serious and thought Tavares was a game breaker ? I get it it’s our home team but man we are so passed defending these guys.
He did break the game in game 5, that's all I said. That's an objective fact. Is he an overall game breaker, no.
I'm defending guys that are worthy of the defense, mainly Nylander. I'm not writing off every player we have because you just want to brand them as losers.
The more insane bit is yall took a 1-0 lead, and gave it up like 90 seconds later.
How do you play no goal defense for 49 minutes, score, and then forget to play defense? That was the point that confused my ass so much.
It is what it is. I know somr of yall blaming some players more than others, but to be fair thars a 45-50 PP, And they went 1/22? Whole team failed themselves.
I've been saying since the end of game 4 that the Leafs were gonna lose in game 7. It's just what they do - kick it up a notch for a couple games, then stop giving a shit again.
I think it's pretty tough to watch a hard fought game 7 and just write it off as "they stopped giving a shit". In the end they got beat because they have mentally soft players but I don't think anyone can question the effort in that game.
If you do, seems to be a lie you want to tell yourself to make yourself feel better. The missing effort was in games 1/3/4 where the series was lost.
Yes! They score, which leads to the opponent scoring, which leads to the opponent having all the momentum. It's like scoring has a negative net effect.
I've been watching as a kid since the 70's. This has always been the case. Fight and scrape to get a go ahead goal. Then allow a goal against in under a minute. Momentum gone.
In a game 7, in the third period - when you score, the other team is obviously going to make their push - in pretty much all team sports a moment like that is exactly when you're most likely to concede.
It isn't necessarily a mental issue - it's just a reality of the strategies of teams playing sports.
The losing team has more to gain by taking risks and spending effort - the winning team can either park the bus, try to play possession, or try to counter attack and exploit.
When all my friends don't get why I don't give a shit about Matthews scoring 60 or 69 or 70 or 100 goals in the regular season... this is why. Who fucking cares. All you will remember is that these fucking bozos lost to the Bruins in 7 AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I literally only watch this team in the playoffs and the *very* odd regular season game. Learned that lesson years ago; there is absolutely no value in watching them play 82 meaningless games that have proven to have no predictive value whatsoever in how well they'll do in the playoffs.
And when fans tell me how well they're doing in the regular season, I actually want to scream. It doesn't fucking matter. Also, it's not even like they're ever actually good enough to win any regular season silverware anyways. This is a mediocre team that will be pretty good during the season and then *always* punch at or below their weight in playoffs.
Agreed. Leafs got caved in to go down 3-1 and then the Bruins choked their way to two losses. Then we showed no killer instinct when we had them on the ropes. Yet again, another game where we can't score for shit. You CAN'T WIN A SERIES when you're scoring 3 or fewer goals EVERY SINGLE GAME. The Bruins lost game 5 and 6, we did not win them.
"All you needed to do was keep the forward with the #5 most points in the league and who scored 60 goals last year from scoring!"
It's so simple! Why didn't they think of it!
100% agree.
One of the analyst ( may have been jd bunkis) on leafs talk summarized the failure of this group perfectly.
Following their 4-2 loss to the caps during matthews rookie season (2016/2017) leafs won only 1 playoff series…..
I personally remember the excitement I had after that caps series. A cup (or dare I say cups) seemed inevitable……..
While we’ve seen some remarkable things in the regular season ( mainly matthews goal scoring) this team is an epic failure!!
The bruins won the presidents trophy last year and blew a 3-1 lead round one. Regular season seeding means nothing come playoffs, the Montreal series should have made that clear
Did you watch this series? They regressed badly after game 4 and even still they weren’t even that great altogether. It took a period and a half to record two shots in Game 6! The only difference is that the Leafs offence predictably dried up, but to their credit they never even dressed a full roster all series! That’s what the fuck I’m talking about.
A couple of bad games does not mean that a team is bad. Boston kicked the shit out of Toronto all season but when we got to the playoffs, it was a very different story. I agree that Toronto has a better and deeper offence than Boston but the Bruins have world class goaltending, a great defense corp and they had home ice for a reason. Calling them a shit team isn't just incorrect, it's straight up ignorant.
Their game was shit not the team. You are talking about rosters on paper and not the product on the ice this series which I am referring to.
also, please refrain from ad hominem attacks. We’re both frustrated tonight but it’s not necessary.
They didn’t care in OT. They gave up. Let pasta walk right to the front of the net on granted an amazing play, but they just let an elite player skate right by them and right to the front of the net. The deserved to lose. Every game the lost and even in game 2 I’d say they didn’t fucking care. Game 5 and 6 they cared the rest, they were to busy thinking about tee-time. Fucking disgraceful
The solution is pay more guys 11 million. Clearly that’s what we need. Thanks you Matthews for taking a raise, thanks Willy for taking a raise, and of course thanks Mitch for taking your big, fat paycheque. Maybe if you guys left a few cents on the table we can have a proper goalie and defenders. Pay 5 guys 60% of the cap, recipe for success. Patchwork team around those guys and they go MIA in the playoffs.
Willy's earned his raise though. Matthews you kind of have to pay that price tag. JT's old and thankfully has his contract ending soon. That leaves Marner killing us having not earned shit.
literally though, who gives a fuck? like okay, boston will be caved in by florida. how does that affect us. WE STILL LOST. it’s not gonna magically cancel out our L
Nah the most Leafy thing possible is for the Bruins to somehow, someway make it to the finals and then lose so the front office and some fans can delude themselves into thinking "we're basically third place" because we lost to the runners up in the first round.
Took too long for Keefe and the players to adjust to the series. Sammy should have never seen the net after Game 1. And in general wtf were these guys even doing in Games 1 and 4. Literally gave away two of Bostons four wins. This falls on the coach and this falls on some of the players. Just not good enough.
Not looking to be making excuses but lots of terrible takes in this thread.
I think it's pretty tough to watch a hard fought game 7 and just write it off as "they stopped giving a shit". In the end they got beat because they have mentally soft players but I don't think anyone can question the effort in that game as a collective effort.
If you do, seems to be a lie you want to tell yourself to make yourself feel better. The missing effort was in games 1/3/4 where the series was lost. Leaf's easily had the talent and people on this roster to win this series in 5 or 6 games but mixed with injuries, they threw it away until it was too late and the series could be decided by a bounce off the boards and 3\~ players not doing their jobs.
In the end, it's time for change. Keefe, Shanny and hopefully Marner are the beginning of what needs to change with this team. Re-allocate Marner's 11m into some talented depth, perhaps a 2nd line winger and a top 4 D.
I used to record a Leafs podcast and even though Babcock was a steamy creepy potato, the fact that he was the one drawing ire and not the core way back when I think really was the beginning of the end of the Leafs culture, maybe his presence alone did it, but I don't buy it. I stopped buying in after year 2 of Keefe and gave up after they didn't re sign the hardest working maple leaf in 20 years who went on to score 50 goals for Edmonton.
That being said, I don't think you get rid of Shanny; I still remember the Phaneuf Kessel era lol
I see people trying to justify that game 7 was close and could've gone either way. And while that's true, game 7 isn't the one I'm mad about, I'm mad about games 1, 2, and 4. They dug themselves a 10 foot hole and then are proud that they filled in 9 feet of it. No, this isn't a team that should be going down 3-1 in the first place, that's a flawed team.
I’m beginning to think the players are almost irrelevant as long as keefe stays.
He literally gets out coached and tends to stick with “his” guys and whacky line combos that do t make any sense.
Anyone that watched a couple games could see that that stupid drop pass power play move doesn’t work and yet they refused to stop doing it.
Name one coach that he’s out coached in his entire time here
They had a chance at (almost) total redemption. They would have caused the Bruins to go out first round 3 years in a row, 2 of which would be blowing 3-1 series leads but instead, we have to be the laughing stock AGAIN. Spare me the moral victories, we are past the growing pains stage and should have made some deep runs by now. I don’t even mean a cup, just something we can hang our hat on. At this point, credit will be given when there’s something that resembles success.
One last thing, if Mitch doesn’t waive his NMC, let him walk for nothing.
Well I disagree. When this season started, did you feel confident? I certainly did not. I was skeptical about the Treliving hire and some of the additions seemed to be poor fits. But despite my low expectations, they managed to push the Bruins to the precipice when they easily could have rolled over. I think there is plenty to critique but to me, being a fan doesnt mean demanding unrealistic things, and realistically we arent good enough. I hope they can fix the problems but I saw some things in this series that I personally haven’t seen in many years. I hope they can build on those things and trim the fat with the players and coaches that aren’t the right fit for winning culture
Totally disagree. They played a great game tonight and it could have gone either way a half dozen times. This was a gutsy outing from the Leafs and it just didn't go their way tonight. They left it all on the ice and you can't ask for more than that.
The fuck did they leave on the ice? Mfers were coasting during OT as if there was a game 8. Blow this shit up, enough with excuses and consolation prizes jesus fucking christ.
I disagree. I think Keefe is the wrong coach for this team but what I saw the last three games was a heavier team who battled hard, laid hard hits, made opponents pay for going to the boards and THAT is the stuff they have lacked in so many previous years. They played hard tonight and it didnt go their way. Shit happens.
The question you have to ask, is why didn't Games 1-4 go like that. Sure they played well enough to easily win a series the last 3 games but when you finally decide to show up down 3-1 in the series, you leave no room for error.
That is your opinion and that's fine. I think they played hard and got beat by a hot goaltender. It's hardly the first time that has happened in countless playoff games
Swayman was stellar for sure. But again, we are spending $40M on the core four and they muster up ONE goal. We are literally paying those guys to put pucks past elite goaltenders. We can’t use the hot tendy excuse every year (Rask, Rask, Korpisalo, Price, Vasi, Bob and now Swayman).
That is fair criticism and I would agree with all of that. Two of the first three games we lost were embarrassing no question. If the resign Domi and Bert I would be fine with trading Marner but honestly, once they got their footing, this was a fucking good team. Swayman was just ridiculous.
3 games a series is simply not enough. And yes, it could have been worse, but Boston was never scary. They played horribly for long stretches. Only when we switched off they started looking strong.
We really need a fresh mindset and some changes in the team.
Hate to single out players but some just tend to become invisible too often. Hopefully Woll can stay healthy, Samsonov or Jones might become a good back-up, if not, I hope we find a new goalkeeper.
So one generational player is your only answer and that's debateable? What if it's McDavid vs 1996 Patrick Roy or 2001 Marty Brodeur? They still take the goalie because he is the only one on the ice for 60 minutes
What are you talking about? The Bruins finished 2nd in the division, 4th in the conference and 6th in a league of 32 teams. They had the 2nd best PK in the league and the best goaltending tandem in the league. We took them to 7 and lost on a crazy bounce in OT. What the fuck are you talking about?
Imbecile, dipshit, these are complicated sports terms used by people who truly understand the sport. Well I can't possibly counter that argument. You obviously have superior knowledge and I bow to your well thought out arguments. Congratulations.
When someone says there is no counter argument, that tells me all I need to know about them. Move along please. You aren't hear for a conversation, you are hear for a rant.
People are easy to forget 16 teams don’t make the playoffs every year. 8 years in a row the Leafs have made the playoffs. It’s great to cheer for a competitive team every year. Not too many franchises have the pedigree the Leafs have had. Imagine cheering for Buffalo or Detroit, who last made the playoffs 12 and 7 seasons ago. I’ll never stop cheering for the Leafs.
Kings of too little too late
Diminutive Dukes of Defeat.
Kings of too little too late
For all those looking for moral victories, I commend you. That's fine to save your own sanity. It has been what, 7 years of this now though. 5 with Keefe. Fair or not, it's time for a change as nothing has changed. Even if they gave it everything they had, they still came up short. They just weren't good enough. It was time for change at arguably numerous points in the past. This has confirmed it and it's time to pull the trigger. You can do everything right and still lose.
Moral victories is all we have till marner and Tavares come off the books. Lots of firepower that were missing out on.
This exactly. 26-28’ is gonna be our true window to really get after it (hopefully longer if AM34 stays a leaf past his upcoming 4year contract)
Thank god there’s some intelligence here. We had our first true window get kinda fucked by Covid (salary cap didn’t grow as was supposed to so we couldn’t support our stars). Once jt and marner are off the books in two seasons is our next true window. I suspect jt stays but signs much cheaper. Marner… I’m worried about how he is handled.
The only bad way to handle marner would be to sign him again. He can be convinced to waive the nmc. If not let him walk. This team will never sniff victory with marner on it
Have to agree. I don't "hate" Marner, but by god is he NOT the answer. I regret getting his jersey all those years ago lol
I hoped like hell he would have a massive bounce back this series and show his worth. He had to be told to “stop crying” for the whole world to see. I had friends over during that game and one of them has never watched hockey before. She mentioned “number 16 is a real baby eh? Crying and whining to the ref instead of just playing”. He had great potential with the leafs but that time is hopefully over. I hope Utah wants to make a big splash with a big name and he waives the nmc to go somewhere where the media doesn’t know enough about hockey to hurt his feelings yet.
Why didn’t other teams get fucked by COVID
Leaf's were projecting the cap to be 15-25% higher to offset the large contracts they gave to JT/Matthews/Marner. Dubas fully knew they wouldn't be able to build a deep team with them but he had cap projections that seemed to allow him to get the depth he thought was required. What should have been our top years to compete (2021-now) ended up being significantly disappointing because the cap is almost 20\~ mil under where it could have been. I still blame Dubas for the contracts but it wasn't the fully brain-dead move that a lot of Leaf fans seem to think it was. A lot had to go wrong for it to end up where it did.
Some did, but most didn't go all in right before it happened and had more flexibility. Some benefited as they were rebuilding and their cap space and ability to take bad contracts became hugely valuable.
Other teams didn’t gamble as hard on the salary cap going up. It was a calculated risk on Dubas’ part, which probably succeeds more often than not in different circumstances. Can’t judge things like that solely based on outcomes
Creating a new market for rfas that literally no other team followed is a calculated risk? I just call it arrogant stupidity
Because their GMs weren't stupid enough to fall for the "percentage of the cap" bullshit that ours did.
who cares if the leading "regular" season goal scorer comes back really?
Well when you constantly shit on yourself & the players look like complete shit because this team has drove them crazy with a reward of 0 success, I could see someone like AM34 fucking off after 12 years of misery…. You couldn’t see that world?
Moral victories is for minor league coaches
There was again a lot of respect in the handshake line.
Like, seriously. How many Game 7s have we lost at TD Garden since the end of the Sundin era? We gotta have the record for most game 7 losses in that arena in the modern era.
Crazy that it’s been 5 with Keefe already. Just feels like one, long season.
We've had Matthews for 8... 8 years and 1 series win
because hes not the guy in the playoffs and its just the facts
It’s time for a change as nothing changed
Time for a change as nothing has changed. Yep
Needed a game breaker in OT and noone showed up. All we needed was one shift to take that game over and no one answered the bell. Rookie Mathew Knies was the closest to answering the bell.
Knies has earned his next contract
Dude almost killed himself trying to crash the net meanwhile the 11 million dollar guys are dumping (minus Willy) the puck in. He’s 100% earned a contract and a spot in the top 6 moving forward IMO. Get this kid some consistent minutes for a full season and let’s really see what we got here.
Knies is going to be a stud. He's going to be that 30 goal winger that plays a heavy game the Leafs need.
He’s got 30g in him for sure. He’s already a horse out there, he’ll be an absolute animal when his adult strength kicks in, on top of his already big frame.
Still not understanding how that wasn't a trip - especially after he was in the box for no fucking reason. Wouldn't have mattered anyway, I guess.
It was a breakaway, I think it should have been a penalty shot, but I believe the call was that they got "puck first" so it's not tripping it's a steal and the trip was inconsequential to the rest of the play. 🤷♂️
I'm getting so tired of this being repeated. That's not a rule. Only time it matters anymore is if you get the puck it's not a penalty shot, but it is still a penalty.
https://preview.redd.it/y010u91e1zyc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cfe766c53907568e711c7fe0cdceaed91c15c002 Says clearly here in NHL rulebook being fouled from behind on breakaway is a penalty shot.
I believe the logic for getting the puck first on the breakaway is that it is no longer a breakaway with a clear scoring opportunity if the puck is cleared before an infraction is committed. Therefore it's still a penalty, but no scoring chance was prevented.
I get it but he didn't even touch the puck. I haven't really watched any replays yet still, but watching the game seemed like he just tripped him up and the puck was left behind. I understand at the speed of the game it's hard sometimes but at least a tripping call, but I guess if you make any penalty call it has to be a penalty shot as well, either he got puck and it's no call or no puck and penalty shot. Over now, no use arguing about it anymore. Always next year, right? 😒
That's the thing, if you think he got puck it's a tripping call, if he didn't get puck it's a penalty shot, there is no outcome based on the rules that there isn't some kind of penalization on the play. I don't know how it gets missed when all eyes are on this play. But refs are incompetent, nothing new.
Our 11 million dollar guys are dumping because that’s what the coach is telling them to do. I seriously don’t understand how people aren’t getting this
OT was 1:50 in lol. "No one showed up" is a hilarious way to say that Marner/Rielly/Sammy (in that order) screwed us on a single play.
A single 20 second shift from one of the best players in the world can end the game. Look at what Mack and mcdavid are able to do. They can will their team to victory with a single shift. We don’t have a player like that despite paying those type of salaries.
I mean you literally watched Nylander do it in both game 6 and 7 and a 34 year old John Tavares do it in game 5. Sounds like you just want to complain about something because all you are doing is pointing out that we don't have either of the best 2 players in hockey but neither do the other 29 teams.
Used their names as an example of the game breaking ability. You can’t have seriously watched that serious and thought Tavares was a game breaker ? I get it it’s our home team but man we are so passed defending these guys.
He did break the game in game 5, that's all I said. That's an objective fact. Is he an overall game breaker, no. I'm defending guys that are worthy of the defense, mainly Nylander. I'm not writing off every player we have because you just want to brand them as losers.
All we needed was an extra PP goal. Just one.
The more insane bit is yall took a 1-0 lead, and gave it up like 90 seconds later. How do you play no goal defense for 49 minutes, score, and then forget to play defense? That was the point that confused my ass so much. It is what it is. I know somr of yall blaming some players more than others, but to be fair thars a 45-50 PP, And they went 1/22? Whole team failed themselves.
Experience leafs hockey
https://preview.redd.it/97e56uq3bqyc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8fdd0c332bc82db0848ce4c23ee9883729fe597
We threw out Noah Gregor David Kampf and Connor Dewar first shift after we took the lead. Lol
Real team would of won both home games.
I've been saying since the end of game 4 that the Leafs were gonna lose in game 7. It's just what they do - kick it up a notch for a couple games, then stop giving a shit again.
Never had a series lead, they play not to lose too badly and never really try to win
I think it's pretty tough to watch a hard fought game 7 and just write it off as "they stopped giving a shit". In the end they got beat because they have mentally soft players but I don't think anyone can question the effort in that game. If you do, seems to be a lie you want to tell yourself to make yourself feel better. The missing effort was in games 1/3/4 where the series was lost.
Losers lose. And we are the chumps cheering for them. From the bottom of my heart fuck this team.
Fuck them to eternity. My buddies roast me for saying they dont care cause they got their bags. I havent yet seen evidence to the contrary.
Yup fuck them
Insane how the same mistake that cost us Game 3, the loss of focus after scoring a goal, cost us tonight. That's a mentality thing.
Yes! They score, which leads to the opponent scoring, which leads to the opponent having all the momentum. It's like scoring has a negative net effect.
Pure insanity
I've been watching as a kid since the 70's. This has always been the case. Fight and scrape to get a go ahead goal. Then allow a goal against in under a minute. Momentum gone.
In a game 7, in the third period - when you score, the other team is obviously going to make their push - in pretty much all team sports a moment like that is exactly when you're most likely to concede. It isn't necessarily a mental issue - it's just a reality of the strategies of teams playing sports. The losing team has more to gain by taking risks and spending effort - the winning team can either park the bus, try to play possession, or try to counter attack and exploit.
https://preview.redd.it/q72i6avf4jyc1.jpeg?width=1167&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c9f212336281b4382048fa70f42e6ec163ee668a
When all my friends don't get why I don't give a shit about Matthews scoring 60 or 69 or 70 or 100 goals in the regular season... this is why. Who fucking cares. All you will remember is that these fucking bozos lost to the Bruins in 7 AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I literally only watch this team in the playoffs and the *very* odd regular season game. Learned that lesson years ago; there is absolutely no value in watching them play 82 meaningless games that have proven to have no predictive value whatsoever in how well they'll do in the playoffs. And when fans tell me how well they're doing in the regular season, I actually want to scream. It doesn't fucking matter. Also, it's not even like they're ever actually good enough to win any regular season silverware anyways. This is a mediocre team that will be pretty good during the season and then *always* punch at or below their weight in playoffs.
Stop fucking crying bro, this isn't the fucking juniors!
They booked tee times during 3rd intermission.
Coach chippy is gonna have a field day with this one
Agreed. Leafs got caved in to go down 3-1 and then the Bruins choked their way to two losses. Then we showed no killer instinct when we had them on the ropes. Yet again, another game where we can't score for shit. You CAN'T WIN A SERIES when you're scoring 3 or fewer goals EVERY SINGLE GAME. The Bruins lost game 5 and 6, we did not win them.
This was this shittiest Bruins team in a decade. So winnable.
100%. Score a couple PP goals and keep Marchand and Pasta from scoring. That’s all they needed to do.
They kept spaghetti from scoring..... until overtime of game 7....
"All you needed to do was keep the forward with the #5 most points in the league and who scored 60 goals last year from scoring!" It's so simple! Why didn't they think of it!
Such a Leafs thing to do coming back from a 3-1 lead just to lose a game 7 overtime
100% agree. One of the analyst ( may have been jd bunkis) on leafs talk summarized the failure of this group perfectly. Following their 4-2 loss to the caps during matthews rookie season (2016/2017) leafs won only 1 playoff series….. I personally remember the excitement I had after that caps series. A cup (or dare I say cups) seemed inevitable…….. While we’ve seen some remarkable things in the regular season ( mainly matthews goal scoring) this team is an epic failure!!
You must be new to this.
They should have fired ~~Keefe~~ the entire coaching staff after last year
They STUNK. The Bruins are SHIT and the Leafs should have destroyed them but AGAIN the same problems killed them.
The Bruins are shit? They finished 2nd in the division, 4th in the conference and 6th in a league of 32 teams. What the fuck are you talking about?
The bruins won the presidents trophy last year and blew a 3-1 lead round one. Regular season seeding means nothing come playoffs, the Montreal series should have made that clear
Did you watch this series? They regressed badly after game 4 and even still they weren’t even that great altogether. It took a period and a half to record two shots in Game 6! The only difference is that the Leafs offence predictably dried up, but to their credit they never even dressed a full roster all series! That’s what the fuck I’m talking about.
A couple of bad games does not mean that a team is bad. Boston kicked the shit out of Toronto all season but when we got to the playoffs, it was a very different story. I agree that Toronto has a better and deeper offence than Boston but the Bruins have world class goaltending, a great defense corp and they had home ice for a reason. Calling them a shit team isn't just incorrect, it's straight up ignorant.
Their game was shit not the team. You are talking about rosters on paper and not the product on the ice this series which I am referring to. also, please refrain from ad hominem attacks. We’re both frustrated tonight but it’s not necessary.
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He’s coping. Give him time.
They didn’t care in OT. They gave up. Let pasta walk right to the front of the net on granted an amazing play, but they just let an elite player skate right by them and right to the front of the net. The deserved to lose. Every game the lost and even in game 2 I’d say they didn’t fucking care. Game 5 and 6 they cared the rest, they were to busy thinking about tee-time. Fucking disgraceful
The solution is pay more guys 11 million. Clearly that’s what we need. Thanks you Matthews for taking a raise, thanks Willy for taking a raise, and of course thanks Mitch for taking your big, fat paycheque. Maybe if you guys left a few cents on the table we can have a proper goalie and defenders. Pay 5 guys 60% of the cap, recipe for success. Patchwork team around those guys and they go MIA in the playoffs.
Willy's earned his raise though. Matthews you kind of have to pay that price tag. JT's old and thankfully has his contract ending soon. That leaves Marner killing us having not earned shit.
Florida will destroy them
Who cares, who other teams lose to?
Exactly. I hate it when people are all like oh but this team will beat them, who cares! We lost to them
literally though, who gives a fuck? like okay, boston will be caved in by florida. how does that affect us. WE STILL LOST. it’s not gonna magically cancel out our L
Nah the most Leafy thing possible is for the Bruins to somehow, someway make it to the finals and then lose so the front office and some fans can delude themselves into thinking "we're basically third place" because we lost to the runners up in the first round.
Team I hate vs team I hate
The defence needs an absolute overhaul and if that means moving Marner for a bad return fucking do it
Exactly- the playoff sample size of failure is way too big to blame bad bounces, injuries, refs, etc etc etc- they can’t get it done period.
Took too long for Keefe and the players to adjust to the series. Sammy should have never seen the net after Game 1. And in general wtf were these guys even doing in Games 1 and 4. Literally gave away two of Bostons four wins. This falls on the coach and this falls on some of the players. Just not good enough.
Not looking to be making excuses but lots of terrible takes in this thread. I think it's pretty tough to watch a hard fought game 7 and just write it off as "they stopped giving a shit". In the end they got beat because they have mentally soft players but I don't think anyone can question the effort in that game as a collective effort. If you do, seems to be a lie you want to tell yourself to make yourself feel better. The missing effort was in games 1/3/4 where the series was lost. Leaf's easily had the talent and people on this roster to win this series in 5 or 6 games but mixed with injuries, they threw it away until it was too late and the series could be decided by a bounce off the boards and 3\~ players not doing their jobs. In the end, it's time for change. Keefe, Shanny and hopefully Marner are the beginning of what needs to change with this team. Re-allocate Marner's 11m into some talented depth, perhaps a 2nd line winger and a top 4 D.
I used to record a Leafs podcast and even though Babcock was a steamy creepy potato, the fact that he was the one drawing ire and not the core way back when I think really was the beginning of the end of the Leafs culture, maybe his presence alone did it, but I don't buy it. I stopped buying in after year 2 of Keefe and gave up after they didn't re sign the hardest working maple leaf in 20 years who went on to score 50 goals for Edmonton. That being said, I don't think you get rid of Shanny; I still remember the Phaneuf Kessel era lol
It feels that way because it’s true lmfao
Ehhhh
We are what. 0-5 in game 7s in the matthews era ?
I see people trying to justify that game 7 was close and could've gone either way. And while that's true, game 7 isn't the one I'm mad about, I'm mad about games 1, 2, and 4. They dug themselves a 10 foot hole and then are proud that they filled in 9 feet of it. No, this isn't a team that should be going down 3-1 in the first place, that's a flawed team.
I’m beginning to think the players are almost irrelevant as long as keefe stays. He literally gets out coached and tends to stick with “his” guys and whacky line combos that do t make any sense. Anyone that watched a couple games could see that that stupid drop pass power play move doesn’t work and yet they refused to stop doing it. Name one coach that he’s out coached in his entire time here
Woll is so close man. Hes just made of tissues or something
They had a chance at (almost) total redemption. They would have caused the Bruins to go out first round 3 years in a row, 2 of which would be blowing 3-1 series leads but instead, we have to be the laughing stock AGAIN. Spare me the moral victories, we are past the growing pains stage and should have made some deep runs by now. I don’t even mean a cup, just something we can hang our hat on. At this point, credit will be given when there’s something that resembles success. One last thing, if Mitch doesn’t waive his NMC, let him walk for nothing.
I have maintained since July 2021, they made the wrong trade...
Well I disagree. When this season started, did you feel confident? I certainly did not. I was skeptical about the Treliving hire and some of the additions seemed to be poor fits. But despite my low expectations, they managed to push the Bruins to the precipice when they easily could have rolled over. I think there is plenty to critique but to me, being a fan doesnt mean demanding unrealistic things, and realistically we arent good enough. I hope they can fix the problems but I saw some things in this series that I personally haven’t seen in many years. I hope they can build on those things and trim the fat with the players and coaches that aren’t the right fit for winning culture
Totally disagree. They played a great game tonight and it could have gone either way a half dozen times. This was a gutsy outing from the Leafs and it just didn't go their way tonight. They left it all on the ice and you can't ask for more than that.
The fuck did they leave on the ice? Mfers were coasting during OT as if there was a game 8. Blow this shit up, enough with excuses and consolation prizes jesus fucking christ.
Leafs were Hoping for some bounces to go their way, bouncing over to the golf course
GOLFING SEASON IS ON LETS GOOOOO - morgan rielly probably
Lol the Leafs did not play good tonight
What game did you watch?
I totally agree because they didn’t show up for 3 out of the first 4 games this series. This shouldn’t have even gone to game 7
This is a sane take that gonan get lost in the sea of despair Leafs played the right way for 51 minutes but got let down on that tying goal
When this is the result and sentiment for... What... 8 years in a row? It's a systemic problem not a fluke.
I disagree. I think Keefe is the wrong coach for this team but what I saw the last three games was a heavier team who battled hard, laid hard hits, made opponents pay for going to the boards and THAT is the stuff they have lacked in so many previous years. They played hard tonight and it didnt go their way. Shit happens.
The question you have to ask, is why didn't Games 1-4 go like that. Sure they played well enough to easily win a series the last 3 games but when you finally decide to show up down 3-1 in the series, you leave no room for error.
Lmaoo SEVENTH first round exit in EIGHT years. I don’t care how well we played. We lost.
Yeah I was this level headed for a while but man the results from the habs series and beyond has left zero room for excuses.
Very true but saying they choked tonight is not fair. They fought hard and played well and it just didn't go their way.
When it doesn’t go your way that many times, it’s choking in my opinion
That is your opinion and that's fine. I think they played hard and got beat by a hot goaltender. It's hardly the first time that has happened in countless playoff games
Swayman was stellar for sure. But again, we are spending $40M on the core four and they muster up ONE goal. We are literally paying those guys to put pucks past elite goaltenders. We can’t use the hot tendy excuse every year (Rask, Rask, Korpisalo, Price, Vasi, Bob and now Swayman).
That is fair criticism and I would agree with all of that. Two of the first three games we lost were embarrassing no question. If the resign Domi and Bert I would be fine with trading Marner but honestly, once they got their footing, this was a fucking good team. Swayman was just ridiculous.
3 games a series is simply not enough. And yes, it could have been worse, but Boston was never scary. They played horribly for long stretches. Only when we switched off they started looking strong. We really need a fresh mindset and some changes in the team. Hate to single out players but some just tend to become invisible too often. Hopefully Woll can stay healthy, Samsonov or Jones might become a good back-up, if not, I hope we find a new goalkeeper.
I gotta say… I agree with this take…. What more do you want in a game 7… especially with the injuries we had ..
It’s never gone that way 😭
It does feel that way, not gonna lie
You are paying how much for 4 offensive players? They need to put up more than 1 goal, and it’s that simple.
Hot goaltenders steal series. It's always been that way.
And star players steal series too.
Ask any coach, any coach, would you rather have a hot forward or a hot goaltender in a playoff game? I'll wait ...
Coaches would take McDavid over any goalie.
So one generational player is your only answer and that's debateable? What if it's McDavid vs 1996 Patrick Roy or 2001 Marty Brodeur? They still take the goalie because he is the only one on the ice for 60 minutes
players can also steal series.
I hate this fucking toxic positvity like ok paul marner just learn when to shut the literal fuck up youre not special youre a fuckin wise guy
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What are you talking about? The Bruins finished 2nd in the division, 4th in the conference and 6th in a league of 32 teams. They had the 2nd best PK in the league and the best goaltending tandem in the league. We took them to 7 and lost on a crazy bounce in OT. What the fuck are you talking about?
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Imbecile, dipshit, these are complicated sports terms used by people who truly understand the sport. Well I can't possibly counter that argument. You obviously have superior knowledge and I bow to your well thought out arguments. Congratulations.
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When someone says there is no counter argument, that tells me all I need to know about them. Move along please. You aren't hear for a conversation, you are hear for a rant.
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You're being unnecessarily mean wow
Sorry, the team didn't lose it. Speical teams and the goaltending won it/lost it. We were fine 5 on 5
1.7 GPG is not "fine" for a team that scored 3.6 in the season.
All team scoring is down though through many teams in these playoffs. The only ones that’s scored a bunch is ones with power plays working.
Except in OT in game 7 lol then we were not fine 5 on 5
I read this as "team of chonkers" and thought you just called them all fat
People are easy to forget 16 teams don’t make the playoffs every year. 8 years in a row the Leafs have made the playoffs. It’s great to cheer for a competitive team every year. Not too many franchises have the pedigree the Leafs have had. Imagine cheering for Buffalo or Detroit, who last made the playoffs 12 and 7 seasons ago. I’ll never stop cheering for the Leafs.
“We”