General Leafs Talk

[Zee]

BTW, Zee... Thanks for keeping track of these 10 game stretches.

Helps break up the season and keep things in perspective.  Given that crappy 2nd set of games, I'm *hoping* Leafs can win 6 of the third set of 10 to stay near the top of the conference.  Anything short of that and we'll be dropping in the standings.  The east is tightening up.

 

[cw]

BTW, Zee... Thanks for keeping track of these 10 game stretches.

Helps break up the season and keep things in perspective.  Given that crappy 2nd set of games, I'm *hoping* Leafs can win 6 of the third set of 10 to stay near the top of the conference.  Anything short of that and we'll be dropping in the standings.  The east is tightening up.

Before the Carolina game, the Leafs were .600 pts win% which had them around 10-11th. After the loss to Carolina, .571, 19th - 8/9 place drop with one loss. It's still very tight with the difference between 3rd place and 25th place being 6 pts - not a lot with 61 games to go.

 

[Bender]

BTW, Zee... Thanks for keeping track of these 10 game stretches.

Helps break up the season and keep things in perspective.  Given that crappy 2nd set of games, I'm *hoping* Leafs can win 6 of the third set of 10 to stay near the top of the conference.  Anything short of that and we'll be dropping in the standings.  The east is tightening up.

I think things will find a way of evening out. Reimer will be coming back soon by all indications and we have a lethal PP. We just need work on balanced scoring and better PK. I think Connolly being back for an extended period will help that, and I think the D just needs to be more responsible instead of dual-pinching.

 

[bustaheims]

I think things will find a way of evening out. Reimer will be coming back soon by all indications and we have a lethal PP. We just need work on balanced scoring and better PK. I think Connolly being back for an extended period will help that, and I think the D just needs to be more responsible instead of dual-pinching.

Yup. Somewhat lost in all of the losses is how much the special teams have actually improved over the last stretch. Over the last 9 games, the PP has converted 8 of 25 opportunities, for a 32% rate, and the PK has killed off 25 of 29, for a 86.2% rate.

 

[Bender]

I think things will find a way of evening out. Reimer will be coming back soon by all indications and we have a lethal PP. We just need work on balanced scoring and better PK. I think Connolly being back for an extended period will help that, and I think the D just needs to be more responsible instead of dual-pinching.

Yup. Somewhat lost in all of the losses is how much the special teams have actually improved over the last stretch. Over the last 9 games, the PP has converted 8 of 25 opportunities, for a 32% rate, and the PK has killed off 25 of 29, for a 86.2% rate.

All we need now is some balanced scoring, which might not be an easy thing to do in practice, as I feel like the Grabbo line's lack of ability to do a whole lot is head scratching. I understand their drop in minutes, but for some reason I got the sense that they were invisible more than they were visible.

 

[Corn Flake]

Zee's 10 game-at-a-time watch is into the 3rd set of 10 now.

First set - excellent
7-2-1

Second set - disappointing failure
4-5-1

Third set - work in progress, going to be tough - 7 of 10 on the road
0-1
Next 9
@Tampa
@Dallas
@Anaheim
Boston
@Boston
@Rangers
NJ
@Washingon
Carolina

I don't think I would categorize the second set of games as a disappointing failure.  One game below .500 over a stretch that included not having Reimer at all, plus all the other injuries, is not all that horrible.  They could have completely imploded but so far have at least kept their heads above water, which is about all we could ask for without Reimer.  Even through this whole mess they have given up a lot of goals against, but the PP and PK have shown signs of being respectable and the top end scoring is still top end. 

I would say they "survived" set 2.

The next stretch will be real tough. Those Boston games I don't look forward to but hopefully by then the B's will have settled down a bit.  I think .500 over the next set is realistic.  Hopefully they win that and steal a couple more, esp if Reimer returns soon.

 

[Zee]

Zee's 10 game-at-a-time watch is into the 3rd set of 10 now.

First set - excellent
7-2-1

Second set - disappointing failure
4-5-1

Third set - work in progress, going to be tough - 7 of 10 on the road
0-1
Next 9
@Tampa
@Dallas
@Anaheim
Boston
@Boston
@Rangers
NJ
@Washingon
Carolina

I don't think I would categorize the second set of games as a disappointing failure.  One game below .500 over a stretch that included not having Reimer at all, plus all the other injuries, is not all that horrible.  They could have completely imploded but so far have at least kept their heads above water, which is about all we could ask for without Reimer.  Even through this whole mess they have given up a lot of goals against, but the PP and PK have shown signs of being respectable and the top end scoring is still top end. 

I would say they "survived" set 2.

The next stretch will be real tough. Those Boston games I don't look forward to but hopefully by then the B's will have settled down a bit.  I think .500 over the next set is realistic.  Hopefully they win that and steal a couple more, esp if Reimer returns soon.

Yeah, you're right.  After the 7-2-1 start I had hoped they could play over .500 the next 10, but with all the injury woes I suppose it's not that bad a stretch all things considered.  Amazing how my expectations changed after 10 games.  I'm hoping for at least .500 over the next 10, preferably .600 6-4 like I mentioned.

 

[Zee]

I think things will find a way of evening out. Reimer will be coming back soon by all indications and we have a lethal PP. We just need work on balanced scoring and better PK. I think Connolly being back for an extended period will help that, and I think the D just needs to be more responsible instead of dual-pinching.

Yup. Somewhat lost in all of the losses is how much the special teams have actually improved over the last stretch. Over the last 9 games, the PP has converted 8 of 25 opportunities, for a 32% rate, and the PK has killed off 25 of 29, for a 86.2% rate.

This is the most encouraging thing of the last little while.  Slowly but surely the Leafs have moved out of 30th in PK (now up to 27th).  If they can continue to improve upon that, the wins will start to come.  PP too is now 5th overall, that's great.

 

[bustaheims]

All we need now is some balanced scoring, which might not be an easy thing to do in practice, as I feel like the Grabbo line's lack of ability to do a whole lot is head scratching. I understand their drop in minutes, but for some reason I got the sense that they were invisible more than they were visible.

To me, the biggest issue is still goaltending. A lot of the team's issues stem from there. If the team can minimize the soft/bad goals against, I think we'll see a number of the other issues begin to sort themselves out. Not having to play from behind as much or be as concerned about making mistakes and all that could do wonders for this team.

 

[maplesyrup]

I would say they "survived" set 2.

3-2-1 over a 6 game stretch is pretty much what get you into the dance. Point wise, that's roughly 5-3-2 over 10 games.

 

[sampson]

Really too bad they didn't win last night... would have put them alone in 1st in the East...

 

[Zee]

Really too bad they didn't win last night... would have put them alone in 1st in the East...

Boston is going to pass us real soon, they have 3 games in hand and only 2 points back.  I can't imagine them losing all 3 of those games in hand.

 

[Britishbulldog]

Really too bad they didn't win last night... would have put them alone in 1st in the East...

Boston is going to pass us real soon, they have 3 games in hand and only 2 points back.  I can't imagine them losing all 3 of those games in hand.

If the Leafs had won though the Bruins would have had to continue playing top hockey to overtake them in the standings.

 

[Corn Flake]

Yeah, you're right.  After the 7-2-1 start I had hoped they could play over .500 the next 10, but with all the injury woes I suppose it's not that bad a stretch all things considered.  Amazing how my expectations changed after 10 games.  I'm hoping for at least .500 over the next 10, preferably .600 6-4 like I mentioned.

There will be ups and downs all year, but I think the key from the sched point of view is to not go on any prolonged losing streaks throughout the year as they did last year in Nov and sunk the season.  A bad stretch of 4-5 games without a win could cause them to tumble from 6th to 10th or worse. 

 

[freer]

Just to nikpick, Komisarek not having a point in 5 games is not really 'interesting' and moreso expected.

Sure, some of those are not expected to produce, but it's still pretty crappy that they have a combined 2 points.

I don't disagree that they've been slumping offensively the past few games, but some of them are weird # of games choices.  Like Liles - 1 point in 4 games, but 3 in his last 6 and 7 in his last 11.

I'm mostly worried about the Grabovski line turning their totals around, and hopefully they do so the next few games so we can see those stats in the opposite direction.

Blame TSN That's where I checked. I think that they should split up the Grabovski line. To be honest I think we should try splitting up Kessel and Lupul too, even if they're finding eachother, we need more balanced scoring. I think that we should move Kulemin to the 3rd or 4th line. And I think that Lombardi should get a chance at the 1st or 2nd.

You're asking for more struggles if you break up Lupul and Kessel. Why mess with a scoring formula?

Well we can't have one line that scores only, and I think it would be good with a little shakeup. Kessel will score anyways, Lupul? Hopefully. But the Grabovski line must be split imo, Kulemin is looking crappy, and McArthur is not very consistant.

Lupul hopefully? Do you not think that Kessel's success has something to do with playing with Lupul and vice-versa? Its not a surprise that Lupul and Kessel are top of the team regardless of who the centre is - and Bozak clearly isn't that big a beneficiary. Connolly will be back soon and they've shown enough success to keep them together. If you need to jumble the second and third lines then that's fine, but to jumble up our best scoring line because our second line isn't scoring is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Well the problem is if that other teams shut down our first line, then we are done.

Right, but it's not like we have a whole load of options, our forwards still leave a lot to be desired. What would your forward lines look like?

I would try something like this:

McArthur-Lombardi-Kessel
Frattin-Grabovski-Lupul
Kulemin-Bozak-Crabb
Dupuis-Steckel-Brown

IMO I think it would be crazy to move Lupul for Kessel's line they are currently the top scoring players in the league

 

[hockeyfan1]

Zee's 10 game-at-a-time watch is into the 3rd set of 10 now.

First set - excellent
7-2-1

Second set - disappointing failure
4-5-1

Third set - work in progress, going to be tough - 7 of 10 on the road
0-1
Next 9
@Tampa
@Dallas
@Anaheim
Boston
@Boston
@Rangers
NJ
@Washingon
Carolina

They need to beat the Bruins, both at home, and in Beantown.

The last time Leafs lost to Boston, that 7-0 trouncing they took, they proceeded to go into a 'slump', and the Bruins proceeded  onto a  long winning streak....  I consider these games important for psychological reasons.  It will give the Leafs a 'lift' if they can tango with the Bruins and not endure another blowout, and with Kessel breaking out of his Boston funk.  That would be nice.

As we can all note, most of these will be road games, a chance for the Leafs to play a tighter defensive game against the more offensively-inclined teams such as the Rangers, Bruins, and Caps.

 

[hockeyfan1]

Nice, upbeat (media) article about the Leafs....for a change....

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/What-We-Learned-Why-aren-8217-t-the-Maple-Leaf;_ylt=Ah9ymEVFwgFPkBFIMhrNZVgJfwM6?urn=nhl-wp17903

 

[Redleaf]

I agree with much of this article. This team should have a better record than they do based on the injury to our #1 goalie (not to mention Armstrong, Grabbo, Mac, Lombardi etc.). If you put as much stock into the goaltending problem as I do, the loss of Reimer has substantially affected our overall record. To get a better read on where this team should/could be in the standings I would take 3 games from the loss column and move them to the win column.

So...

GP 21- W 11- L 8- OT 2- PTS 24

becomes

GP 21- W 14- L 5- OT 2- PTS 30

Give or take a point or two in either column, I think this is a pretty fair assessment of where this team could have been with better goaltending (and less significant injuries to key pieces like Armstrong and Connolly)

 

[Madferret]

I agree with much of this article. This team should have a better record than they do based on the injury to our #1 goalie (among others). If you put as much stock into the goaltending problem as I do, the loss of Reimer has substantially affected our overall record. To get a better read on where this team should/could be in the standings I would take 3 games from the loss column and move them to the win column.

So...

GP 21- W 11- L 8- OT 2- PTS 24

becomes

GP 21- W 14- L 5- OT 2- PTS 30

Give or take a point or two in either column, I think this is a pretty fair assessment of where this team could have been with better goaltending.

What would Columbus's record be with better goaltending?

 

[Kin]

What would Columbus's record be with better goaltending?

Something, deep down, tells me you understand the difference between "What if this player hadn't gotten hurt?" and "What if this team had better players?".