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Flames @ Leafs - Feb. 24th, 7:00pm - SN, Fan 590

Bill_Berg said:
Heroic Shrimp said:
May we go this whole season without a shootout.

Bring back ties!

cropped_GettyImages-802925078__1_.jpg
 
CarltonTheBear said:
https://twitter.com/kristen_shilton/status/1364776239328813061

Matthews-Nylander-Marner next game?
I was thinking about that earlier today. Give Tavares a line where he can be the main guy, maybe with Hyman on one side and...I don't know, Barabanov on the other? (edit to add, maybe Kerfoot would be the best option) I know people seem hesitant to break up Matthews/Marner but maybe that OT switch should be tried for the next game. Something is needed to get Tavares going.
 
Guilt Trip said:
herman said:
https://twitter.com/mapleleafs/status/1364766623266144260
Are Flames fans griping about Sean Monahan with the lazy flyby defense on this?
Bad coverage on the Flames there but high skill from Willy

When he's got space to get going with the puck he's pretty impressive.  Obviously you could say that about most goal scorers but what impressed me tonite was how he battled.  Good effort ... except on the Flames goal.  I think that was his fault, not Engvall's.  Oh well, he made up for it.
 
herman said:
https://twitter.com/mapleleafs/status/1364766623266144260
Are Flames fans griping about Sean Monahan with the lazy flyby defense on this?

They certainly should be. That's peewee stuff right there. Angle him out. Force him to shoot from a bad angle or carry the puck behind the net.
 
That wasn't an overly exciting game, which is fine, but the Leafs as a whole seemed off. The passes, just weren't connecting. Nothing to be overly concerned about.

On the Tavares front, I actually think he's going to break out of the slump very soon. You can see his frustration and pucks just seem to be jumping over his stick or deflecting on the way to the net. He'll be fine.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
Hutchinson's 2-1 with a .924 sv% now. I mean I'd be thrilled if he only had to play 3 games for us and there's certainly been a couple goals he'd like to have back, but that's pretty good for a "scrub".

Credit where credit is due - he played well last night. I thought he was pretty bad in his first game, but the team outscored his issues. He didn't inspire confidence in game 2, but neither did the team as a whole. For a guy intended to be the team's 4th string goalie, he's provided everything that should reasonably be expected of him.
 
bustaheims said:
CarltonTheBear said:
Hutchinson's 2-1 with a .924 sv% now. I mean I'd be thrilled if he only had to play 3 games for us and there's certainly been a couple goals he'd like to have back, but that's pretty good for a "scrub".

Credit where credit is due - he played well last night. I thought he was pretty bad in his first game, but the team outscored his issues. He didn't inspire confidence in game 2, but neither did the team as a whole. For a guy intended to be the team's 4th string goalie, he's provided everything that should reasonably be expected of him.

If he could just save the ones you would expect an NHL goalie to save he could be a serviceable back up.  Problem is he's not consistent enough, so he may play well here and there and then put in a load of stinker games.  Never know what you're gonna get with Hutch, but thankfully he did what he had to last night.
 
Zee said:
bustaheims said:
CarltonTheBear said:
Hutchinson's 2-1 with a .924 sv% now. I mean I'd be thrilled if he only had to play 3 games for us and there's certainly been a couple goals he'd like to have back, but that's pretty good for a "scrub".

Credit where credit is due - he played well last night. I thought he was pretty bad in his first game, but the team outscored his issues. He didn't inspire confidence in game 2, but neither did the team as a whole. For a guy intended to be the team's 4th string goalie, he's provided everything that should reasonably be expected of him.

If he could just save the ones you would expect an NHL goalie to save he could be a serviceable back up.  Problem is he's not consistent enough, so he may play well here and there and then put in a load of stinker games.  Never know what you're gonna get with Hutch, but thankfully he did what he had to last night.

If he consistently made the saves you would expect of an NHL goalie, he'd be a starter.
 
herman said:
If he consistently made the saves you would expect of an NHL goalie, he'd be a starter.

Not necessarily if he only made the saves you expect to be made. That's basically when you're looking for in a backup. In a starter, you're hoping for someone who can make the save on shots you wouldn't expect to be stopped.

Basically, you need your backup goalie to give your team a chance to win every night they're in, but you don't expect more than that. With your starter, you expect them to give your team a chance to win every night, but you also need them to occasionally steal one for you.
 
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:
Guilt Trip said:
herman said:
https://twitter.com/mapleleafs/status/1364766623266144260
Are Flames fans griping about Sean Monahan with the lazy flyby defense on this?
Bad coverage on the Flames there but high skill from Willy

When he's got space to get going with the puck he's pretty impressive.  Obviously you could say that about most goal scorers but what impressed me tonite was how he battled.  Good effort ... except on the Flames goal.  I think that was his fault, not Engvall's.  Oh well, he made up for it.

Engvall left his "guy" open in front of the net to chase after two flames, who were covered by two leaf defencemen. Nylander's guy is at the point. So either Engvall takes Holl's guy and Holl covers Engvall's in front of net, or Engvall stays with his own guy in front. That's the way it should work, as I see it anyway. Nylander was covering the point and had to make up for Engvall's lack of coverage. That's WAY more on Engvall.
 
bustaheims said:
Not necessarily if he only made the saves you expect to be made. That's basically when you're looking for in a backup. In a starter, you're hoping for someone who can make the save on shots you wouldn't expect to be stopped.

That might be what you're ideally hoping for but I think you're kidding yourself if you don't think there are 10-12 teams in this league who'd happily take a guy who just sort of competently did the basics as their #1 guy if he could do it with the stamina required of a starter.
 
Andy said:
Engvall left his "guy" open in front of the net to chase after two flames, who were covered by two leaf defencemen. Nylander's guy is at the point. So either Engvall takes Holl's guy and Holl covers Engvall's in front of net, or Engvall stays with his own guy in front. That's the way it should work, as I see it anyway. Nylander was covering the point and had to make up for Engvall's lack of coverage. That's WAY more on Engvall.

Further to this point: big scoring chances generally happen on the spectrum of Defense Mistake <--------> Offensive Wizardry. People usually lean on the side that they're rooting for. i.e. we see a huge defensive lapse, Willy is closest, ergo he is the culprit.

Actually, the Leafs had possession behind the net and it got rimmed out of reach into a turnover that Mangiapane/Lindholm/Tkachuk just executed on. The Leafs were in the middle of a line change, hence the 65-47-88 mix. Engvall got caught puck chasing and Willy didn't recognize the coverage gap in time to gain a useful defensive posture on his numeric counterpart (who is known to be hella sneaky).

We can also cross-examine Nylander's tying goal and see the Flames defense and forward coverage where highly effective at making Rittich's life harder. Why is Tanev in mid-air? why is Hyman, looming over Rittich but not touching him, allowed to stand there for the entire duration of the play? why did Mangiapane let Nylander get 4 whacks at the loose puck?
 
Andy said:
Engvall left his "guy" open in front of the net to chase after two flames, who were covered by two leaf defencemen. Nylander's guy is at the point. So either Engvall takes Holl's guy and Holl covers Engvall's in front of net, or Engvall stays with his own guy in front. That's the way it should work, as I see it anyway. Nylander was covering the point and had to make up for Engvall's lack of coverage. That's WAY more on Engvall.

https://twitter.com/jtbourne/status/1364964375342243843
 
I was just going to post to Andy that I thought Nylander was too slow to react to the open man, but the blame here is very arguable.  Whether it's on Engvall or Nylander, the concern is letting a guy get open at that point in a 0-0 game.  You'd hope the primary team-D  awareness would be to not let that happen.
 
If I'm Engvall or Mikheyev or Boyd at that point of the game, I'm thinking, don't let anyone get open or get a chance.

If I'm Nylander or Marner or Matthews or Tavares, I'm thinking, next goal wins so I gotta get it on top of don't let them score.

What Nylander needs to add to his game, that Marner and Matthews have, is the mindset of "If I stay on top of the play and in good position, it will give me more and more options throughout the game to make a good play and generate offense". If he does this, he gets more minutes and more opportunities to positively impact the game and feel great.
 
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:
I was just going to post to Andy that I thought Nylander was too slow to react to the open man, but the blame here is very arguable.  Whether it's on Engvall or Nylander, the concern is letting a guy get open at that point in a 0-0 game.  You'd hope the primary team-D  awareness would be to not let that happen.

Agreed. It was a sequence of compounding errors. Engvall shouldn't have left his man to follow a covered player into the corner, Nylander should have been in better position, Holl probably should have stepped outside the crease more to cut off a potential pass, etc. If one of these things was executed correctly, that goal probably doesn't happen. It starts with Engvall's poor decision, but lots of blame to go around.
 

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