I have a nasty feeling a Matthews hatty's coming on Thursday... His quote seemed like he was pissed off

It created half their goals... All from mental breakdowns (where have I seen this before?) or soft plays

By the looks of things... If Toronto holds onto the 3rd spot in the Atlantic... They're going to get Florida or Boston

If Tampa catches them, they are going to get.... Florida or Boston lol

Hope so ad I hope defense matures and the goalie can stop a beachball this time

Give Woll a break...

a knuckler, 2 on 1, 2 breakaways and 1 shot from the slot after bailing Toronto out 2 days prior is worthy of getting a mulligan game

Keefe coaches them to play that way.

2-4, 3.65GAA and a save percentage of .871SV in his last 5 games

And NJ had a 1.87XG for 90% of the game yesterday.

https://twitter.com/josephdzita/status/1772807948844101894


Sammy didnt get a pass when he had these kinds of games so cant be pick and choose with Woll. Woll's gonna need to figure it out fast as there not be many games left till playoffs


But as of now its Sammy's net and its well deserved

Lol, you have been Sammy's biggest fan since he became a leaf. No surprise he gets all the passes from you. Even since Woll has been back, Sammy's numbers haven't been terrific. He also lets in bad goals often. But this is what you do, blast who you don't like and blame them for everything and anyone you like can do no wrong. Like I bet it was Brodie and Matthews who caused goal one vs Carolina Sunday and definitely not McCabe who put the puck in the crease with a no look between the legs pass that immediately was intercepted and put in the net. Definitely Woll and Brodie's fault. Probably Liljegren's as well somehow.

He doesn't though... The goals the Leafs allowed were mental mistakes... and FLO capitalized... That's what happens... You've got to have steady personnel in the room and Keefe's done an ok job



I was giving Sammy a pass from preseason all the way to the Columbus 6-5 OTL game (the one in Columbus)...

And Woll doesn't even get a preseason to come back... He played well vs Carolina and well vs WSH (2 goals were Ovi from the slot on a 1T) and was solid against Boston...

Sammy's been better than Woll since the injury lul

Have u not seen his record? Was good against Edmonton last time he played and has a 19-6-7 record since coming back from waivers with a 0.910sv last 10

Wolls lost the net to him nothing wrong with that as Sammy's earned it especially after he stole the WPG game

If he want to it back has to earn it

We can blame ABC, but at the same time nothing is stopping yah from making a save especially last night when XG from NJ was below 2.00 for 90% of the game. Keefe's assessment on it be spot on "cannot allow the first shot to go in"

Some people think if a player makes a mental mistake it's on the coach. A coach can only do so much

If McMann misses an assignment that's not on Keefe

Has Keefe been perfect no bit he's done a lot of both good and bad

Last night was an example as goalie and team were caught with their pants down playing luke game 1 of the season

WSH Woll had a 0.867SV thats not really well played. Of his 6 starts ARI and CAR were his best BOS x 2, WSH, and NJ not great

His record since coming back has not been great. Keefe's assessment is right on with him rn

In the end things need to improve fast as playoffs be right around the corner. Cant have a struggling guy there


Sammy yes had his struggles to and we let him know and gave him passes here and there but it got bad enough to the point of waivers and then the rebound story was one of the best out there 19-6-7 record since and stole some pretty notable games (WPG 2-0 and stopped em)

Goalies be voodo but at the same time results be expected especially at this time of year. Good luck to Woll is all we can say rn as hes gonna need it

Probably gonna get flamed for this - don't care.

Domi needs to stay with Matthews. He's too much of a defensive liability to be anywhere else come playoff time. We can't afford to be sheltering him while also trying to get our best player(s) the favorable matchups.

Can we make you the head coach?

Domi-Matthews-Marner
Bertuzzi-JT-Willy
Knies-Holmberg-McMann
Dewar-Kampf-Robo

Rielly-Boosh
Edmundson-Liljegren
Benoit-McCabe

Woll
Sammy or Jones

Scratches:

Gregor, Brodie, Timmins, Reaves

This is what I’d run next game, especially if Sammy isn’t 100%.

I mean it would be to everyone’s detriment, but you could try petitioning

I mean why get flamed for what's correct. People wanted Matthews and Marner to be split up anyways and Domi's a playmaking guy seems like a good trade off

And by doing so u can spread the offense with Nylander down to the third line if you so wish and make an all Swede line

Bertuzzi-Matthews-Domi
Knies-JT-Marner
Jarnkrok-Holmberg-Nylander
Dewar-Kampf-McMann

I dont know if its wise to have 2 pass first guys or playmakers on Matthews line. One's enough

Robertson is such an IF for playoffs it sucks but man idk if he's got enough of Keefe's trust rn for a series vs. BOS or FLA

And that third line has not been great would rather not have those 3 together.

At this point, you can't separate Bert-Matthews-Domi

So:
Bert-Matthews-Domi
McMann-JT-Willy (As we know these lines work together)
Knies-Jarnkrok-Marner (That way we can roll 3 elite lines)
Holmberg-Kampf Reaves (One of the best XG% lines in hockey)

Why would u put Marner on the third line and not with his former linemate in Tavares?

If your separating Matthews from Marner via Domi your not lowering Marner to the third line that would be a waste of his playmaking. You would put him with the other big center on the team JT. That way Matthews and Tavares both have a playmaker on their lines and JT takes on less of a load with Marner helping him. Willy drops to the third line to spread out the scoring threat all 3 lines.

Jarnkrok also aint a good center option his place is wing.

I don't know if you're aware of past discussions about having Matthews, Marner and Nylander all on different lines but at least some of us feel that the team could take advantage of opponents with various matchups.

This is just another thing that some of us feel Keefe hasn't figured out during his Leafs tenure.

I don't know how much you guys watch HNIC pre-game stuff but recently (Carolina game) Bieska compared team systems between Toronto and Carolina. The differences seem to be night and day. At the end of the segment Bieska mentioned the NHL being a copycat league. Now there's a thing I'd copycat but that hasn't occurred to Keefe in his tenure.

Last thing about coaching/D-core: Leafs have to be one of the worst D-core at defending a 2 on 1. I don't once remember in the 6 years of this core where they managed to not allow a pass during a 2 on 1.

Before people jump on me about these things, I know there's assistants in charge of PK/PP, offense/defense but the buck stops with the head coach, period, case closed.

This is why we see assistants let go and new ones brought in but the head coach answers for things that don't work.

Brodie in his first 3 years here was pretty good at stopping 2 on 1's but this year has fallen off. Rielly has done a good job at times along with McCabe


But the copycating has happened but not from Keefe more so Brad.

VGK won the cup with a football team on the backend. Big guys with size and skill. Brad went

Edmundson 6'5 221 pounds
Benoit 6'3 203 pounds
Brodie 6'2 187 pounds (7th maybe? or Benoit idk)
Lybushkin 6'2 200 pounds
Rielly 6'1 225 pounds
McCabe 6'1 204 pounds
Liligren 6'1 192 pounds
Gio 6'0 205 pounds (8th Dman)


Im hesitant to fire the PK coach. Dean Chynoweth had this PK running at above 80% for the majority of his time here. Kerfoot and Holl left and it seems the PK just never could stabilize and really took a snag in March. This just feels odd this year in that department.

Now Marner being out is a factor but not perfectly replacing Kerfoot has also come into play as while Nylander and Matthews have taken a bigger role, Nylander should not be the backup PKer. He should be for select situations. Dewar coming is a start but this offseason were gonna need to focus more on 2-way guys

Brodie falling off also was a pretty big factor in the PK drop as when your most steady defender falls off not easy to replace that.

In the end Keefe usually will keep the guys the guys that are playing well together even if other guys return. Got a feeling Marner when he's back will be with JT.

Bertuzzi-Matthews-Domi will probs stay together for playoffs and either we see

Nylander-JT-Marner or Knies-JT-Marner for the 2nd line

LoL..I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on how 2 on 1's have been defended.

As for Marner being on a different line now, this late in the season? Well done, /golf clap. Had the whole season to build chemistry with guys on different lines but let's try it now..

I'm tired of pointing out things about Keefe at this point.

While it would make things weird in terms of our Dcore next season and while I will put it on the fence until I see the playoffs and what he brings

I am leaning towards bringing Edmundson back for next season on a 2 year deal in around the 2-2.4m range

This guy has brought an element to this Dcore we have not seen from anyone except for McCabe and Benoit here and there. Saturday man he targeted McDavid and gave it to him (Crosschecks, Big hits, messing with him). He has also made a nice third pair with Liligren and I have quite enjoyed it. Its almost like Muzzin has kind of come back.

Yes he cannot skate fast and this and that but if you use him as a third pair guy and PKer I think its fine.

The one issue is k u do it Dcore =

Rielly-new partner
Benoit-McCabe
Edmundson-Liligren

Does that feel improved idk as sure you can go get Roy or Demelo or Pesce but will one of those guys alone make enough of an impact.

I mean Marner has played with Tavares before and with this team potentially wanting to increase scoring through the lineup it could be beneficial. Often Keefe when JT and Nylander would fizzle out would swap Nylander with Marner for a while to go okay we need a spark. If Bertuzzi-Matthews-Domi is working I dont see why Keefe would split it up as usually he goes with what works

I got a feeling we may see some experimentation once everyone's back like he did last year with ROR on the 2nd and 3rd lies to go okay what works and doesnt work