Golden Knights vs. Leafs - Jan. 15th, 9:30pm - TSN4

[herman]

Missed this one, how did they look? Seems like they came out strong, but losing Nylander (and 3-1 PP opportunities against) kinda sunk them?

The Leafs led throughout the game but didn’t step on Vegas’ throat when they had the chance to put the game away earlier. Losing Nylander to injury after 2min of ice time (while still producing an above average full game’s worth of production) didn’t help, so you could see the weight of managing that got to Matthews in the latter third of the third and beyond.

Dorofeyev had some nice shots (he’s a very clunky skater, however), but the loss was largely self-inflicted.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2012035124817510878

This with a minute-ish left Leafs up one, probably needs to be reviewed with the stripes. Probably another case of Laughton deserving it because he could see it coming.

 

[Joe S.]

If the goalie fell instead of Laughton, there would absolutely have been a penalty against the leafs

 

[cabber24]

Watching the ESPN feed and seeing Matthews deep in the Vegas end and coasting back is unacceptable. How many times has he cost us in OT with either being gassed or lazy. He needs to be called out for it but nothing will be said. Brutal.

He's the most tired "super star" I ever seen. Let's get some cardio going; use those giant nostrils to turbocharge via cold air intake.

 

[azzurri63]

He had a 40 second shift to start and then there was this shift of 1:16. He was gassed. There was zero chance he was getting back. Calling him out for being tired?

So why doesn’t he get off prior to getting to that point. Cowan carried the puck out of the zone at least twice. Change up. I get it you want to be the hero and at times he is but he’s cost us a lot because of not getting back in OT. That was pathetic and even the ESPN guys were calling him out. Look at the replay Eichel basically scores before Matthews even gets in the picture. Brutal.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

He's the most tired "super star" I ever seen. Let's get some cardio going; use those giant nostrils to turbocharge via cold air intake.

He was on the ice for 1:16 at that point. Cowan was at 1:06. The issue isn't really their cardio, it's that they were still on the ice at all. Nobody is going to be able to pull off speed bursts at the end of those shifts with the way 3-on-3 goes. I remember specifically thinking they had an opportunity to change when they had possession and didn't take it. I don't know if it's the coach or players but someone needs to take a hard stance on forcing changes anytime a shift starts getting past like 30-40 seconds in overtime.

 

[cw]

He was on the ice for 1:16 at that point. Cowan was at 1:06. The issue isn't really their cardio, it's that they were still on the ice at all. Nobody is going to be able to pull off speed bursts at the end of those shifts with the way 3-on-3 goes. I remember specifically thinking they had an opportunity to change when they had possession and didn't take it. I don't know if it's the coach or players but someone needs to take a hard stance on forcing changes anytime a shift starts getting past like 30-40 seconds in overtime.

Agreed
All the other Leafs skaters in OT (not Cowan or Matthews) played less than a minute of OT.
Matthews was on for 1:56 of the 2:44 OT. So at the end of those nearly 2 minutes, ending 23:35 mins for the game, he'd be gassed.

 

[Guilt Trip]

I blame Bérubé more for this. He overuses Matthews (and Nylander) in overtime and it leads to plays like this where Matthews is out late in the 3rd a lot when the bench shortens and then we double shift him in OT. He has game breaking ability so I get why you want him there but Matthews has never been a MacKinnon or McDavid where they seem to get faster the longer they are on the the ice. Matthews gets gassed. He can't get back in the play and then we have effort conversations when it's pretty Damon obvious that Bérubé can't manage the bench

Oiler fans are bitching about McD's overuse now as well. They lost a game in OT recently where McD was totally gassed and couldn't get back. Look at the Avs game when Willy took the puck off Mac. He didn't get back in the play either. These guys are elite but they also get tired.

 

[herman]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2012200128023531851