Game 33: Kings at Leafs - Dec 19th 7pm SNETO (OTL3-2)

[lamajama]

What a joke listening to this whole controversy about not having a french speaking coach in Montreal. Only thing I can say is WHO CARES.

Apparently, Montreal.

Not to drag this out, but if they hired a non-English speaking coach for the Leafs I would think that we'd be annoyed but because we're in the majority hockey-wise we're a bit baffled at it.

Maybe Wilson could pretend to not speak English? Or we could hire
Esa Tikanen as our coach. He can't speak any language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-L6v7dlaC0&feature=related
Just a little reminder of Tik. Lamajama go to the 1:00 mark gets good after that WTF is he saying. Priceless.

LOL. He gets rolling and runs off the road.

 

[ZBBM]

Why am I not surprised that Hendrick didn't even ask him?

 

[Kin]

Paul Hendrick, always asking the hard questions.

 

[Zee]

Let's go!!!

Make Zee proud!!

 

[Jeremiad]

Can't wait to see what Doughty says about the play in the interview coming up. Holding back the smile he'll say it was in.

They should have asked him in the interview.

 

[crazyperfectdevil]

don't like our chances...leafs have been outplayed for most of this game

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

I hope Phaneuf proves me wrong with some really heroic play in the 3rd, but right now I'm going to emote and say he's been pretty freaking useless recently.

He still plays 24:00+ in all situations, so even if he's not doing something flashy, he's still doing things out there.

If he's not playing very well, I don't think an abundance of ice time is a positive.

And I don't think he has been that bad in that ice time.  His offensive game hasn't been very good over the last little while, but I don't think he's been particularly bad defensively, other than a couple obvious gaffs that got a lot of attention.

 

[pnjunction]

Oh boy can Doughty keep a straight face...aww they didn't even ask...llame

 

[azzurri63]

Why am I not surprised that Hendrick didn't even ask him?

Really

 

[Derk]

Ah, the slumping team comes in and plays well against the Leafs! Slump busters!

Well so far they're up by 1 on a goal that bounced off the glass to a wide open King in front, and on a goal that should have been blown dead.

Lots of shots in the 2nd, but not many great chances, and pretty fortunate to be ahead.

I did mention that the game was close and was far from over.

I heard about half the period on the radio in the car. Most of that time, the play was in the Leaf end, and the Kings were controlling the play - lucky bounces and bad calls tend to have a way of happening sometimes in situations like that.

And that doesn't really change that the Kings are playing well tonight and have been arguably the better team.

 

[bustaheims]

A lucky bounce and a sleeping linesman...

Well, not really, because the linesman made two very emphatic motions about it being on-side.  So he wasn't sleeping, hallucinating perhaps, but not sleeping.

Seriously. Everyone in the arena knew that puck came out except him. Ridiculous.

 

[Kin]

And I don't think he has been that bad in that ice time.

Which is a fair enough basis for a disagreement. I'm just not much for "The food is terrible but the portions are terrific".

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

A lucky bounce and a sleeping linesman...

Well, not really, because the linesman made two very emphatic motions about it being on-side.  So he wasn't sleeping, hallucinating perhaps, but not sleeping.

Seriously. Everyone in the arena knew that puck came out except him. Ridiculous.

And he probably had the best view of anyone.

 

[Tigger]

You know, I'd be curious to see if there is a relationship between PK success and shot blocking. I understand the thinking on it but I sometimes think the instinct to block shots leads to a lot of out of position defensemen and screened goalies.

NHL's blocked shots stats have Montreal at #1 in both blocked shots and PK%.  Minny is #2 and #8 PK.

But then you have Carolina and Toronto as #3 and #4 in blocks and both in the bottom 5 of PK%.

Were there any pk blocked shot stats?

Not that I can see.

Might be a more helpful stat, I couldn't find it anywhere either.

I tried looking at it from shots against per game, Toronto is 18th overall, 20th total shots against on the pk with 123 ( for reference SanJose is 1st with 91 sa/pk but they're 29th pk%... and 2nd in blocked shots), Montreal is 5th in sa/g but 25th sa/pk with 134, Minnesota is 29th sa/g and 14th sa/pk with 118, Carolina is 27th sa/g but 10th sa/pk with 115.

Yeah, a pk blocked shot stat would make things easier to have a think about it but some of the above speaks to goaltending, some of it overall pk execution.

 

[Zee]

I got a good feeling about this period.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

And I don't think he has been that bad in that ice time.

Which is a fair enough basis for a disagreement. I'm just not much for "The food is terrible but the portions are terrific".

It was moreso saying, if he's been that bad, playing that many minutes, things would be a lot, lot worse than they are.

 

[Zee]

Reimer is looking solid.

 

[bustaheims]

And he probably had the best view of anyone.

I think that's the most frustrating part out of all of it. I mean, no, the Leafs probably don't deserve to be leading right now, but, when the go ahead goal is a direct result of such a clearly blown call . . . that's hard to swallow.

 

[harps64]

And I don't think he has been that bad in that ice time.

Which is a fair enough basis for a disagreement. I'm just not much for "The food is terrible but the portions are terrific".

Lol

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

Reimer's puckhandling seems to be worse than it was last season, but maybe I am overestimating what it was to begin with.