Game 4: Bruins @ Leafs - Apr. 17th, 7:00pm - CBC, Fan 590

[Guilt Trip]

Matthews, Tavares, Marner, Johnsson, Rielly and either Nylander or Moore/Kapanen. Is it that hard to pick your 5 best scoring forwards?

Apparently it is with Babs. He got out coached tonight. Every time Boston doesn't catch the JT line out for an icing, the Bergeron line is over the boards. Babs had 2 chances in the second period, he puts out Nylander's??? One of the Matthews or JT's lines would be ready.

People think it's not a big deal but all these little coaching decisions add up over the course of a game and series. If you're not consistently putting pressure on the other team when you have good chances to you're just wasting time on the clock. Same with those Gauthier 3rd period shifts, basically killing a minute of the clock whenever he's out

Couldn't agree more. Every shift counts. When you're trailing by 2 in the 3rd the 4th line shouldn't see the ice. You have to roll your top 3. I have the same issue with Babs when he puts he 4th line on after a goal against or after a PK. Makes no sense to me. I think it's also time for Babs to move Moore up the lineup. He has more speed then Marleau and probably more offensive touch to at this point.

 

[Andy007]

Hmm, weird, I actually thought Nylander (for the 2nd straight game) played pretty well. Marleau, who's raking in a similar paycheque, is an absolute albatross on that line (and on the PP, for that matter), and deserves far more scrutiny imo.

Frustrating game but what more can you do. Leafs badly outplayed them for nearly 2/3 of the game and bested them physically too. Special teams just need to come through. That PK is simply not working.

 

[Andy007]

Willie has to be willing to go to the front of the net when the chance arises.  He's just not there often enough.  That's where the playoffs are usually won or lost.  He has to contribute that way.  If he does, it will open up ice for him elsewhere.  Until then, he'll be the target of criticisms, some of which are unfair -- but some aren't.

You didn't see him right in front of the net on, what was it, Dermott's goal? And is that really the integral part of Nylander's game that's missing? He needs to crash the net more? I just don't get it...

 

[BermudaBudsFan]

Hmm, weird, I actually thought Nylander (for the 2nd straight game) played pretty well. Marleau, who's raking in a similar paycheque, is an absolute albatross on that line (and on the PP, for that matter), and deserves far more scrutiny imo.

Frustrating game but what more can you do. Leafs badly outplayed them for nearly 2/3 of the game and bested them physically too. Special teams just need to come through. That PK is simply not working.

PK is too passive, but it?s probably far too late to institute a serious change now.  I?m really gutted over this loss.  It has cost them the series.

 

[Stronger Than All]

Maybe Nylander played well but he sometimes skates
Fast up the wing and completely stops up instead of driving hard to the net.

 

[Guilt Trip]

Hmm, weird, I actually thought Nylander (for the 2nd straight game) played pretty well. Marleau, who's raking in a similar paycheque, is an absolute albatross on that line (and on the PP, for that matter), and deserves far more scrutiny imo.

Frustrating game but what more can you do. Leafs badly outplayed them for nearly 2/3 of the game and bested them physically too. Special teams just need to come through. That PK is simply not working.

PK is too passive, but it?s probably far too late to institute a serious change now.  I?m really gutted over this loss.  It has cost them the series.

Series is not over. The PK wasn't the main problem or the reason we lost. The even strength goals, 3 and 5, given up by the JT line were brutal. Both were totally preventable and were caused by terrible plays from 2 usually reliable players in Marner and Hyman. Leafs outplayed the Bruins and if they keep playing the way they are and tidy up the D side of things they have a good chance.

 

[Guilt Trip]

Maybe Nylander played well but he sometimes skates
Fast up the wing and completely stops up instead of driving hard to the net.

He does that all the time. Once in a while he needs to drive the net.

 

[BermudaBudsFan]

Hmm, weird, I actually thought Nylander (for the 2nd straight game) played pretty well. Marleau, who's raking in a similar paycheque, is an absolute albatross on that line (and on the PP, for that matter), and deserves far more scrutiny imo.

Frustrating game but what more can you do. Leafs badly outplayed them for nearly 2/3 of the game and bested them physically too. Special teams just need to come through. That PK is simply not working.

PK is too passive, but it?s probably far too late to institute a serious change now.  I?m really gutted over this loss.  It has cost them the series.

Series is not over. The PK wasn't the main problem or the reason we lost. The even strength goals, 3 and 5, given up by the JT line were brutal. Both were totally preventable and were caused by terrible plays from 2 usually reliable players in Marner and Hyman. Leafs outplayed the Bruins and if they keep playing the way they are and tidy up the D side of things they have a good chance.

You may be right.  I just think the Bruins have much more to give.  I also don?t think the Leafs can win Game 7 on the road.

 

[Bender]

Matthews played well for stretches.

Unfortunately Tavares was invisible (again), Marner was ineffective, the third line continued to do very little and Andersen was very shaky.

It would have been nice to squeak out a win here but it seems like Babcock is incapable of getting the Leafs to ?start on time?. This series is probably going 7.

Bruins in 6 written all over it.  Babcock refuses to adjust.

You've been calling the Bruins since the regular season. I don't get what fan thinks he's being insightful calling for a loss before the series starts and when the series is tied. Like if you guess right what's do you gain? No one gives a shit about your hot takes.

 

[Bender]

Matthews played well for stretches.

Unfortunately Tavares was invisible (again), Marner was ineffective, the third line continued to do very little and Andersen was very shaky.

It would have been nice to squeak out a win here but it seems like Babcock is incapable of getting the Leafs to ?start on time?. This series is probably going 7.

I don't understand what you mean by again. He's been generally very good this series.

1 goal in 4 games?  An empty netter.

He matched up against Bergeron and was a big reason we won game 2. But hey, counting stats are the only important ones.

 

[ZBBM]

Willie has to be willing to go to the front of the net when the chance arises.  He's just not there often enough.  That's where the playoffs are usually won or lost.  He has to contribute that way.  If he does, it will open up ice for him elsewhere.  Until then, he'll be the target of criticisms, some of which are unfair -- but some aren't.

I think the problem is that, on his line this series, the chance to that won't arise very often.

All the more reason to do it 2 or 3 times a game.  He's in the offensive zone, skating the puck around, and the guys on his line aren't open and can't get open.  Cut to the net and shoot if you can.

 

[ZBBM]

Willie has to be willing to go to the front of the net when the chance arises.  He's just not there often enough.  That's where the playoffs are usually won or lost.  He has to contribute that way.  If he does, it will open up ice for him elsewhere.  Until then, he'll be the target of criticisms, some of which are unfair -- but some aren't.

You didn't see him right in front of the net on, what was it, Dermott's goal? And is that really the integral part of Nylander's game that's missing? He needs to crash the net more? I just don't get it...

No, I didn't but that's great he was there.  More please.  I'm not saying he has to play like Tavares, but yeah in the playoffs it's an integral part of a winning game.  And it will make him harder to defend when he is playing his strong suits.

 

[Guilt Trip]

Matthews played well for stretches.

Unfortunately Tavares was invisible (again), Marner was ineffective, the third line continued to do very little and Andersen was very shaky.

It would have been nice to squeak out a win here but it seems like Babcock is incapable of getting the Leafs to ?start on time?. This series is probably going 7.

I don't understand what you mean by again. He's been generally very good this series.

1 goal in 4 games?  An empty netter.

He matched up against Bergeron and was a big reason we won game 2. But hey, counting stats are the only important ones.

It was game 3 and I have no issue with JT. Unfortunately his line was horrible tonight. Marner was on for 5 Bruin goals, JT 4 and Hyman was on for all 6 of them. That's the ball game. They need to be better and will be, no doubt.

 

[herman]

Maybe Nylander played well but he sometimes skates
Fast up the wing and completely stops up instead of driving hard to the net.

That?s Kapanen, who did exactly what everyone else has been trying to burn Nylander at the stake for tonight: giveaways, turnovers, shots sailing well wide.

Vs Nylander who generated several actual chances for himself and his line mates but they couldn?t bury (because they?re offensively inept at this point) or couldn?t get into the zone in time to support the entry. The third line crushed their match up. The first line did not.

Guess who is getting ripped here and in the media. 

https://twitter.com/moneypuckdotcom/status/1118690396773556225

 

[herman]

Willie has to be willing to go to the front of the net when the chance arises.  He's just not there often enough.  That's where the playoffs are usually won or lost.  He has to contribute that way.  If he does, it will open up ice for him elsewhere.  Until then, he'll be the target of criticisms, some of which are unfair -- but some aren't.

I think the problem is that, on his line this series, the chance to that won't arise very often.

All the more reason to do it 2 or 3 times a game.  He's in the offensive zone, skating the puck around, and the guys on his line aren't open and can't get open.  Cut to the net and shoot if you can.

Nylander goes to the net on nearly every opportunity his wingers have control of the puck at the circles. That?s literally the offensive structure that the Leafs deploy. The problem is his wingers are often battling below the red line or they don?t have the puck at all, so Nylander?s responsibility is to shade above the puck to try to keep it in the zone or be first forward back with the defense.

https://twitter.com/hockeydaily365/status/1118694034627878913

The other problem is people only remember seeing Nylander when the puck slips off his stick, like mr grieves said, after doing all the work of gaining entry and surveying for non-existent options. It?s  like people hating on Gardiner?s turnovers when it was always the forwards facing the other way 100? down the ice not even looking for his pass.

 

[herman]

This won?t make any difference to some people, but here?s some empirical evidence.

This line was a Connor Brown tap in away from reversing the damage.

r/leafs

William Nylander @ 5v5 2019 Playoffs:
84.49 CF/60
3.51 xGF/60
57.6 CF%
3 Goals For (1 Goal Against)

Team Without Nylander @ 5v5 2019 Playoffs:
58.91 CF/60
2.39 xGF/60
48.99 CF%
4 Goals For (8 Goals Against)

For people who enjoy "normal stats":
T-2nd in 5-On-5 Points (T-6th Overall)
2nd in Face-Off %
T-2nd in +/-
T-3rd in Takeaways
T-7th in Blockshots
T-12th in Hits
13th in Minutes

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I'm glad that when Gardiner leaves in the summer half the fan base will still have a terrific hockey player to irrationally hate. I was really worried about you guys there.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Literally all season long: Marleau and Brown are the two worst players on this team why does Babcock even play them

Now: I can't believe that Nylander isn't successfully winning the face-off, transitioning play from the defensive zone to the offensive zone, gaining a zone entry, maintaining possession, doing my laundry, going to the net, setting up a goal and scoring a goal. Wow I don't want him on my team.

 

[cabber24]

The Leafs could have scored 8. I felt like we played well enough to win but Boston was able to capitalize more. That friggin Chara goal, are you kidding me? Brown got stoned, not a bad play by Brown.

How about they kill a penalty? Boston at 44.5% on PP, 5 for 11. I hate losing because of special teams.

 

[bustaheims]

That?s Kapanen, who did exactly what everyone else has been trying to burn Nylander at the stake for tonight: giveaways, turnovers, shots sailing well wide.

Yup. I like Kapanen, and his skill is undeniable, but his hockey sense/decision making leaves something to be desired.