Maple Leafs 2018 - 19

Darts said:

I was wondering what happened to him. He used to make those obscene hand and arm gestures. Based on his name, he is probably a descendant of the million Franco Quebecers who emigrated to the eastern U.S. in the 1800's.

Rene Rancourt - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rene_Rancourt
Rene Rancourt. Rene Rancourt (born August 4, 1939) is an American singer. Rancourt sang the U.S. and Canadian national anthems at the National Hockey League's Boston Bruins home hockey games for over 40 years. He performed his last regular-season anthem on April 8, 2018 after 42 years.

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I just assumed that the guy who does the anthem now ate him.

Interesting without Kadri Debrusk is hardly noticeable out there. Did he play?

see you tuesday night!!

Insidious Von said:

I'm my youth, it was uncool to like Hall and Oates. Funny thing, in my maturity, I prefer their music to AC/DC.

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...that's because over the age of 25 the rate of brain decay accelerates.

Kathleen said:

That sucked.

First, I hate these afternoon games. But not only did Boston show in GM6, but Toronto didn't start playing until the 3rd.
How... how do you NOT wake up for these games, or raise the level of play from the opening face off.

GM 5 and GM 6 were like two completely different Leafs teams.

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The clinching game is always the toughest. The Leafs needed to come out hard in the 2nd period and they came out like a dud. Didn't register a shot until the 7th minute. You can't win if you don't get shots on net.
What frustrated me about this game is Babcock's decisions. he continually played Nylander/Marleau/Brown and they, for lack of a more appropriate word, suck as a line. No chemistry at all. His refusal to play the Moore/Ennis/Gauthier line more than 7 or 8 minutes per game is dumbfounding. That line exhibits great energy and chemistry and quite often are pressing in the offensive zone. I like when he cycles Matthews with Moore and Ennis on occasion wish that were done more frequently.
Putting Hyman in to take face offs when we are short handed has to cease immediately. And for the love of God will Babcok stop putting out Hainsey and Zaitsev as our first line penalty killing unit. They are 7 for 16 against us time to switch it up. It ain't working!!!
Game seven is a crap shoot.

The 3rd goal cost by 51Jake Gardiner's ineffective defense was a turnning point reminded me of last year his weaknesse of tackling the puck running around for nothing, helpless! It's a waste of Freddy's talent. I felt so sorry for him. I really hope Babcock could send Gardiner to the bench for Tuesday's game just to give fans a say about this. It's nice to see some of the young fresh players played hard in this serie. Everyone has to give everthing you have to get the w. It's going to be the hardest game ever to win. I still believe in you, will you? Then please show... The longer the Leafs can hold on to it the better chances are for the Leafs. Extremely tight on defenses, be patient on offenses. Defenses have to be effective- get the puck or stop the play.

I think the only way the Leafs could advance this serie is to play their own style cause the Leafs have got nothing to loose in the end. Forget about the cup just having fun enjoying playing the hockey that's all. Play wildly like unleashed dogs. Simplify the game-shoot, shoot, shoot...

Go A. D! Go Rielly!

Leafs in 7!

Boston's strategy is to beat the Leafs with their PP. Hence the dives. The only game the Leafs were able to stop Boston's PP was game 5. Every other game Boston scored at least 1 PP goal. Their PP is dangerous. Leafs changed their PK strategy and stopped chasing and positioned themselves in the passing lanes. Boston still scored 2 goals. That was the game. Boston won a lot of faceoffs. 7 goals in 16 Powerplays.

Gardner is playing sheltered minutes. Very limited when leading and definitely not against the top line if at all possible. He is very likely not a Leaf next year.

Imagine if Leafs take the lead into the 3rd period again in game 7.

superstar_88 said:

Leafs changed their PK strategy and stopped chasing and positioned themselves in the passing lanes. Boston still scored 2 goals. That was the game. .

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Yeah but they collapsed to deep. Resulting effect was Boston's PP shortening the attacking zone, their pointmen where 10 -15 feet deeper inside the blueline than the Leaf's PP and the whole attack was twice as far in from the perimeter which made passing distances shorter , the pass-across was quick enough to have the D and Goalie scranbling to catch up, the pass-back to the point and point shots happened in a flash and shooters got into juicy positions like on Krug's goal.

Toronto only accomplished this on the Riley goal, otherwise thier passes generally travelled much longer giving Rask and the the PK time to align to the recipient and cgalleneg the shot which probably contributed to the Leafs reluctance to shoot.

It was a poor game but not at all in the way I was afraid of. They were too patient and indecisive with their attacks. The shot desparity in the first two periods wasn't entirely reflective of the run of play. The Leafs just seemed to be a little indecisive, overthinking, always looking for something better or more clever. The first half of P1 in particular was a missed opportunity to geto ut to a bigger early lead. Boston on the other hand was really direct and decisive with their attacks, the first half of pushing pucks and bodies at the net wherever possible and trusting themselves to compete for the lose pucks from rebounds and shoot ins.

Hard Idle said:

Yeah but they collapsed to deep. Resulting effect was Boston's PP shortening the attacking zone, their pointmen where 10 -15 feet deeper inside the blueline than the Leaf's PP and the whole attack was twice as far in from the perimeter which made passing distances shorter , the pass-across was quick enough to have the D and Goalie scranbling to catch up, the pass-back to the point and point shots happened in a flash and shooters got into juicy positions like on Krug's goal.

Toronto only accomplished this on the Riley goal, otherwise thier passes generally travelled much longer giving Rask and the the PK time to align to the recipient and cgalleneg the shot which probably contributed to the Leafs reluctance to shoot.

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That is a very good assessment. Boston is able to adjust. Leafs really need a PP coach next year that can make adjustments

superstar_88 said:

Interesting without Kadri Debrusk is hardly noticeable out there. Did he play?

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he scored the winner in game#6.

The only good news out of all this doom and gloom periods is that Kadri will end his suspension after tomorrow. Or, he might have to wait till next fall! I am hoping that coach Babcock still has one more trick up his sleeves. He should double shifts both #34 and #91. Or,nothing wrong by playing them together. No point of saving them in gm7! F**k fourth line for god's sake...lol!

Kadri's suspension has hurt the Leafs by shifting Willy to the 3rd line center position. The Leafs strong point coming into this series was their 1-2-3 punch down the center. Willy's best suited to the wing. Center requires a really strong 200' game and that's just not him.

I think Babcock should double shift Matthew's and Tavares's lines. Marleau is a nice guy, but he looks one of his 39 years.

Leafs need to get the lead in game 7 if they want any chance of winning this series. The team that falls behind and ends up chasing it, will lose.

GO LEAFS GO!!!

Next year playoffs against Boston again. Kadri will cheap shot another player and get suspended. Leafs will get to 7th game take a lead into the 3rd period and ...

GameBoy27 said:

Kadri's suspension has hurt the Leafs by shifting Willy to the 3rd line center position. The Leafs strong point coming into this series was their 1-2-3 punch down the center. Willy's best suited to the wing. Center requires a really strong 200' game and that's just not him.

I think Babcock should double shift Matthew's and Tavares's lines. Marleau is a nice guy, but he looks one of his 39 years.

Leafs need to get the lead in game 7 if they want any chance of winning this series. The team that falls behind and ends up chasing it, will lose.

GO LEAFS GO!!!

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Does it not feel that Cassidy has made adjustments and his players have shined. The Bruins won their 3 games with those adjustments and playing their style.

Babcock does not seem to make the obvious adjustment of stacking his lines when down and benching his older players who are unlikely to score, when you are down a goal.

The Leafs played great the first 10 minutes of period 1. Had I turned off the game, I would have assumed they would win 4 - 1 or something.