dappleganger
Active member
Hey, look on the bright side, at least next year he'll clear waivers. 
2018-19 Toronto Maple Leafs - General Discussion
- Thread starter herman
- Start date
Highlander
Active member
I will be the thumb on the other hand. Let face it Sparks has been successful at every level he has played at, I compared him to Riemer the other day as someone who did the same. You don't throw out the baby with the bathwater for Chrissake! This guy was the top Goalie in the AHL and won a championship last year. He is still a rookie in every sense of the word. Do you remember Lanny McDonalds first year on the team, he fell down at least 3 times on every shift. Did he eventually get it together???herman said:
The first half of the season Sparks was an adequate back up, I think he started to lose confidence a month or so ago when Freddo was getting shelled and pulled, putting Sparks in the unenviable task of plugging the hole in the Dyke while the rest of the team faltered. In his remaining starts the D was lacking and he was hung out to dry. For a guy wrestling with confidence issues, not good. He didn' make the stops, granted. Not making excuses, just observations. Remember when they put him on the Solar Bears? He rebounded from that, he will rebound again.
Sparks is an emotional guy, does wear his heart on his sleeve. He has the talent, he just needs to work it out with the coaches, take the pressure off himself and hopefully finds himself again. I like the kid no doubt. And if he doesn't with the Leafs, he will find himself with another team that will give him the chance.
I think the Leaf D is going to get a lot better in the next two years and provide much better support for our Goalies then they have been getting this year.
Highlander
Active member
Do you remember Lanny McDonalds first year on the team, he fell down at least 3 times on every shift. Did he eventually get it together???
I posted this above as part of my Sparks comments at 9AM today, by 1PM I bump into these guys, how weird is life
https://imgur.com/a/PZh8kjo
I posted this above as part of my Sparks comments at 9AM today, by 1PM I bump into these guys, how weird is life
https://imgur.com/a/PZh8kjo
Phileas Fogg
New member
I was listening to some radio program, and I thought the gist of it was that JS Gigure mentioned that his save percentage and gaa was worse that Sparks for the equivalent number of games he played at the beginning of his career.
I may have said this before, but my personal experience with goalies is that they're largely a pretty eccentric lot. I expect there's something going on with Sparks apart from his direct play, whether it be confidence or something else on top, and he needs to take a step back and regroup.
I may have said this before, but my personal experience with goalies is that they're largely a pretty eccentric lot. I expect there's something going on with Sparks apart from his direct play, whether it be confidence or something else on top, and he needs to take a step back and regroup.
Kin
New member
I don't buy the idea that the Leafs finished significantly off where their talent level would indicate. They finished with 100 points. If you even chalk at least anything up to injury/absences, to suggest that they should be significantly better than that would mean you think that with everyone healthy they are a 110+ point team which I don't think there's any reasonable expectation of.
They're a very good offensive team that doesn't have the goaltending to bail out a not very good defense. 100 or so points is about right for that.
They're a very good offensive team that doesn't have the goaltending to bail out a not very good defense. 100 or so points is about right for that.
Kin
New member
freer said:
Andersen isn't the only goalie on this team. If anyone thought a team that was always going to rely on questionable back-up goaltending for a quarter of the season was a 110+ point team they weren't thinking clearly.
And Andersen does have something to do with it. Andersen's a good goalie. Maybe even a very good goalie. But he's not going to win the Vezina any time soon and realistically if the Leafs are going to win with this sort of defense he does need to be among the league's elite. That's a tough standard to set for him but if we're assessing the team honestly then Andersen having an up and down year that ends up balancing on the good side of league average is basically who he is at this point.
herman
Well-known member
They fell shy of last year's points mark by 4 pts with 4 more ROW, relying on far fewer one-goal game victories + 0-2 on SO instead of 7-1 (coin tosses), no powerplay outside of the first 2 months, a backup save percentage of .908 (combined) instead of 0.934, and missing top players in each position for month long stretches.
https://twitter.com/steveburtch/status/1114945868270952449
https://twitter.com/steveburtch/status/1114945868270952449
Highlander
Active member
Thanks Hermanherman said:
I got you, Highlander
If they don't get past the first round this season has been an utter fail. I expect next the team to take a step back next season as we'll be losing some players due to cap issues (Gardiner, Hainsey, one of Johnsson or Kappy, and maybe even Brown, Kadri, or Willie via trades).
If we get out of Zaitsev/Marleau we'll be ahead imo. Sandin's looking great and Bracco is amongst AHL leaders in scoring. Losing someone via trade means we get a valuable piece back. Not sure if they do take a step back actually, but they might. I think we're going to see a really interesting off season regardless.Leaffan61 said:
TimKerr
New member
Leaffan61 said:
I don?t understand this mindset at all. You can't look at things in a vacuum but rather in the appropriate context. If they lose to Boston in the 1st round it means they lost to the 3rd best team in the league! Just because it happens to be in the first round due to a flawed playoff system isn?t an indictment on how bad the Leafs are.
Kin
New member
More to the point, I'd expect management to look at anything short of a Stanley Cup as a disappointing outcome. The real question isn't whether or not the season feels like a success, it's what steps the team should take going forward. Unless you're going to argue that a win in the first round drastically alters those steps, I'm not sure it matters that much.
OldTimeHockey
Active member
Nik the Trik said:
No kidding! What sane manager would trade a guy with Nylander's upside coming off a season where he held out, and then struggled to fully put it all together?