Wow lily is not doing himself any favours tonight…

He's noticing Knies in the dog house and is like: "You can't come in, it's mine and I'm not giving it away" lol

While stuff like this probs be a one off yea for a guy whose trying for a promotion and with a HC whose angry and stressed rn its not good for him to be doing that lul

I’m kind of disappointed Matthews picked this game to score a hatrick since I could have realistically gone to that game but it didn’t work out. Would have been nice to be able to see Matthews get a hatty in person

I get Matthews could have had his fourth, but before it cut to TV timeout, was that him getting in the middle of a scrum?

With how the JT's lines been they needed him to do this lul

We won cool

But can we talk about the fact marner missed an empty net almost point blank lul

WE WONNNNN…. FINALLY

Yeah that was funny tbh…

Lady luck graced them tonight

Third periods are still an issue

We cant score lul

Didn't really notice Willy - but he got 2 assists.

How many breakaways and ENs?

Marner and Domi had breakaways and didnt get it

Nylander tried to give it to Brodie who got stopped

Basically a bunch of stops

Then Marner missed EN twice

Pretty funny

He did make that one good pass to Brodie who almost got his first but yea other than that him and or the JT line in general yea not good

But yea for Saturday I would try this for the blue line

Rielly-Liligren (I know he was meh but is he gonna be stupid like that twice in a row no)
Benoit-McCabe
Brodie-Timmins

Just try it once or heck if it works keep it going till u get someone to play with McCabe as while Benoit has been good hes not top 4. Like having 2 guys who cant score or aim for **** back there aint fun lul

So unless we plan to overwork Sammy what games he gonna get

SEA or VAN

I would give him Van as last time he beat em 5-2 only allowing 2 PP goals

Jordan Bean and Sam Kim better wake up to 11m tomorrow lul

I’m confused by some of the observations.

Willy dealt two incredible primary no-look assists and had a couple blocked shots. Over the losing streak he had a ton of shots and a handful of posts hit. Yet so many trying to make the narrative that he’s disappeared since re-signing work that they’re overlooking what’s actually happening.

Bertuzzi I also noticed a fair bit tonight on the forecheck and back check. He didn’t contribute a whole lot offensively but he was disrupting a lot of plays

Defence as a whole wasn’t great. Didn’t look at the stats but felt like a lot of high danger chances given up again. Definitely agree that JT, Brodie and Gio are all showing their age all year and I’m
not sure how far this team goes with those 3 continuing to play key roles.

Problem is we need a D to bump them all down - but there really aren't any top pair D available. Hanifin and Chychrun are the closest in that they might be able to play as a #2 most of the time

https://twitter.com/ARHockeyStats/status/1748128601411653766

I think PHI might be giving us the answer

Brodie is just odd as its like he looks lost out there alot of the time and its weird as Rielly is amazing this season. I think his mins need to go down and that probs means he and Rielly got to split. Gio should be sitting for either Timmins or Lagesson for a few games as were gonna overwork this 40 year old

Now for a potential solution; PHI is presenting us with an opportunity rn since the Drysdale trade they got to many Dman and Torts dont seem to want to scratch em and instead be doing Bobby Brink

I got a feeling one of Seeler or Walker heck both could be moved via TDL

Just to add to your Brodie " look lost out there". I'm in Mexico so I haven't seen the the the past four games just the YouTube highlights.
In the Colorado game, I believe it was the winning goal, scored from the ten feet in front of the crease. Brodie left his defence right spot to pursue the puck carrier who had crossed the blue line, and was been chased and angled off by two other Leafs. The ensuing pass came to the scorer in front of the net, as Brodie was a step behind to check the scorer.
What was he thinking??? And you can't blame age.
IMO there isn't anything trading for that is gonna make a marked difference in the Leafs fortunes this season. The other item, is when is Woll returning? Leafs have to know before TDL if he NHL good and ready to carry the load, cause I doubt if Jones and Samsonov can play anywhere near "top level" needed to make a long playoff run.

It's a valid point...the Brodie errors appear to be both mental and physical. Could be any one of or a combination of:

a) Age
b) Being overworked
c) some sort of nagging injury
d) lack of forward support on the backcheck and he's either trying to over-compensate or doesn't trust and leaves his own position...something like that

While I'm not advocating for spending assets right now, I do think a Tanev type would at least help.

Interesting SN article on him: https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/is-chris-tanev-the-defenceman-the-maple-leafs-need/

But the time and space we're giving up to oncoming rushes is a major concern and Brodie is a part of that mess for sure.

It's funny...



Willy: I think the reason why this narrative is here is bc it started off as a joke but bc they were losing... And fans don't want to accept that this team is missing identity and trying to grasp at straws, Willy becomes whipping boy... Mind you, I'm not a huge Willy hater but not a huge Willy fan over his contract, I said he should have gotten 8-10 mill bc that's what he's worth and I stand by that claim, but that's what it looks like

Bert: He's been great, he's doing everything Hyman did but better when he was in Toronto... His biggest issue is that the puck won't go in to save his life... I want the Leafs to resign him so bad

Defence: Issue here is that they don't have another really reliable defensemen other than Rielly an McCabe, Lilly's been playing well (minus 2 brain farts lat night) but he's not there yet... Brodie hasn't been playing well; Gio hasn't either and Benoit's a soli 3rd pairing defensemen... If they go out and get Hanifin or Chychrun or even a Zub, that defensive core automatically becomes 5x stronger as it pushes everyone down...

I'm in this boat....don't love the Willy contract but don't hate it...but yes...he's a common whipping boy if he goes a few games without lighting up the stat sheet.

Re-signing Bert...it would be interesting to know what he'd be looking at on a 3-4yr deal. If he goes off in the playoffs again demand will be up for him but maybe he's open to a reasonable number right now. Risk on both sides for sure

Rielly has been great this year...but we've seen how much better he can be when paired with a defensive d-man
McCable has been good....he's prone to turnovers when making cheeky outlets and sometimes pinches at inopportune times....but overall good
Lilly needs to keep on this projection....most nights he's just a solid presence
TJ has gone from one of our most reliable guys to someone you can't trust right now
Gio...I just think his body can't match up with his desire and IQ...still ok but another guy who has understandably taken a step back
Benoit...I love more and more...don't need him to have more minutes or responsibility but happy to send him out there every night