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fangm

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Forum: Toronto Maple LeafsSat. at 11:05 p.m.
Thread: Leafs 2023 2024 Season Discussion Part 6 - Nearly Playoffs
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>aadoyle</b></div><div>Leafs played undisciplined so what more could Keefe do lul. This be on the players

3 offensive zone penalties by the top line says enough

Horrible officiating nothing new play through it you did against TBL

Nobody looked good that game cant really single much but the top line taking 4 penalties. Only line I got impressed with for a second was the 4th at times

Having that short of a leash on a goalie after one bad game will get us no where. What if Woll sucks then what? Sammy gets game 2 if team continues like this then Woll game 3</div></div>

If you think everyone was just bad then we watched a different game. Clearly there were issues but the Leafs out shot and out hit Boston. Moneypuck has the expected goals at 7.4 to 3.7 in favour of Toronto.

The lesson I take is that we need more of what we got from the first line. Boston was doing the same **** but since everyone does it nobody gets called. On Toronto it stands out when Domi or Bert do it cause nobody else does.

Also the two high sticks are complete flukes, wouldn't read into it.

In terms of the goalie. If it's going to be a tight checking defensive game then we need Woll. Sammy will give you the brilliant save that Woll won't but he also lets in a bunch of ****ty screenshots like 2 of the goals today that Woll rarely allows. I'd rather give up the 1 goal on a crazy play that Sammy would save and get stability that this team didn't have this game. That 2nd goal was a backbreaker. Never goes in on Woll.
Forum: Toronto Maple LeafsSat. at 10:56 p.m.
Thread: Leafs 2023 2024 Season Discussion Part 6 - Nearly Playoffs
A few talking points:

1. More poor decisions from Keefe. Jarnkrok on PP1, not pulling Sammy at the start of the last PP. Again he really seems to struggle to motivate the team and get them to play the right way at the right times.

2. Horrible officiating.

3. Jarnkrok and Holmberg stand out as two guys who played really poorly. Both honestly looked completely lost and had many turnovers. Robertson is the only guy on that line who can carry the puck. They knew that and kept stepping up on him but the other two couldn't capitalize on transition chances.

3. Knies looked great but Marner as always disappeared. He seemed completely lost out there.

4. Woll should start next game. Not blaming Sammy but he didn't do enough to win the next for the next game.

Thoughts?
Forum: Toronto Maple LeafsThu. at 11:12 p.m.
Forum: Toronto Maple LeafsWed. at 12:29 a.m.
Thread: Leafs 2023 2024 Season Discussion Part 6 - Nearly Playoffs
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>LeafsFanForSomeReason</b></div><div>I get people like to blame the coach, but there's really no evidence that he did nothing.

Like he can't overhaul the system mid-period. It's up to the players to execute that system and make the right decisions out there on the ice, which they very, <em>very</em> did not.

I'm sure he's not standing on the bench with his thumb in his ass going "gee I don't know what's going on here, just keep doing the same thing fellas"</div></div>

I agree that at times Sheldon is an easy target but having played to a high level I can say from what I see he is a really bad coach.

I'll give you a few reasons why I think this:

1. A common problem I see with the leafs (especially on the PP and in transition) is that they overthink everything. Their PP id actually at its best when individuals are chasing stats because then at least everyone is feeding Matthews or Knies or Bert or whoever is chasing the milestone/hatty/etc. I blame Keefe for this. If you read any "behind the scenes" on Keefe he's a massive strategists and he's know for studying other games, teams, sports and constantly proposing new ideas but rarely acting on them. Essentially the way he coaches (loads of thinking and strategizing with minimal action) is exactly how the team plays on the ice.

2. Team doesn't show up on time or for big games. Having played AAA to the point where teammates respect each other more than the coach (likely the situation in the Leafs room) one of the main things a coach needs to still be capable of doing in that environment is motivating the team. If he losses that control/respect then he is reliant on team members to do this. Some teams (like the early 2010s rangers had a strong leadership core and this was fine) but the Leafs don't have that and if Keefe isn't doing it then it seems nobody is (maybe this is changing we've seen Tavares and Rielly specifically be more engaged this year).

3. Lack of adjustments. O'Reilly essentially called him out for it last year but Keefe defaults back to certain players and combinations when the team struggles. Despite all his strategizing he doesn't rearrange his team to meet the tasks at hand, he rearranges them to what worked in the past. If things go south you'll see Rielly/Brodie, Mathews/Marner, Jarnkrok in the top 6, Lili's ice time down. This is just his default and it shouldn't be. He should be more flexible and adapt based on what is needed to win. Maybe that means that the Leafs trust their bottom 9 is better than Bostons given their depth issues so they load up Nylander/Matthews/Marner to make sure they win the top line matchup. Idk what the series will need but I'm pretty confident Keefe won't deliver.
Forum: NHLApr. 9 at 9:23 a.m.
Thread: New Regular Season/Playoff Format
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>Leafsfan98</b></div><div>Aren't there 32 teams... 32x2=64

But also, for a guy like Matthews who's case is about 70 goals... Wouldn't it be better for voters to see that happen...

And why so much divisional play? Like you said, the Pacific's so much worse than the Atlantic, so how is that fair? The ATL team will just beat up on each other</div></div>

I said statistical awards at the end of 62 games, voting awards at the end of 82 games.

In terms of divisional play. My point is that either they should go all in on divisions and ditch the conferences and then have the top 4 teams from each division in the playoffs OR if you don't like that then I think they should ditch the Divisions and go all in on Conferences.

Think about how much more unfair it is right now that Detroit and Pittsburgh are fighting for a playoff spot when Detroit has had to play Toronto, Boston, Florida, Tampa and extra time and Pittsburgh got extra games against Columbus. Like there are 4 "top" teams in the Atlantic and 2 "top" teams in the Metro. So Detroit gets a minimum of 2 harder games (4 points) which right now is the difference between them making the playoffs or not.

It seems much more fair just to have everyone competing for playoff spots play the same schedule. If your division is too hard then that sucks for you, work on becoming a top 4 team in your division. That seems more fair than the current system where if your division is hard you get screwed in the wildcard race against teams from another division with easier schedules.
Forum: NHLApr. 8 at 7:27 p.m.
Thread: New Regular Season/Playoff Format
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>Leafsfan98</b></div><div>So, Are all 62 games against non divisional rival teams? And what about the wild card? Wouldn't it be better to have top 4 teams in each division or just 1-8 in each conference?

Also, the awards should be pushed back to after the 82 games... For example, if Johnny Hockey starts the first 62 games with 38 goals and ends it with 70... He derives an award over Matthews Tkachuk who started the season with 45 goals and ended it with 50 (These 2 players are completely random but the example stands)</div></div>

62 games includes 2 against each divisional rival. It's 2 games against the other 31 teams in the league.

Playoffs are based on the full 82 games and are 1-4 in the division. So in the 82 games you'd face your division rivals 34 times in total (14 times in the first 62 games then 20 times in the last 20 games).

I get your point on the awards but think of it from this perspective. After 62 games each you've played each team 2 times so (aside from injuries) every player/team has had the exact same quality of competition. I think its more fair to determine the best "regular season" team or goalscorer or pointscorer at that point than it is after 82 games when (if they used this format his season) McDavid would have played 10 games against the Ducks+Sharks, 36 games against teams with under 80 points (as of standings right now) and 19 games against teams with 100 points. While MacKinnon would have played 28 games aginst teams with under 80 points and 24 games aginst teams with 100 points.

With so much divisional play in those last 20 games you also have a chance for players like McDavid to just light up the bad teams in their division which guys like Matthews can't do.
Forum: NHLApr. 8 at 3:42 p.m.
Thread: New Regular Season/Playoff Format
I've been thinking about this a lot lately and wanted to share a potential new format that the league could use.

<strong>Stage 1: Regular Season</strong>
From October to the end of February, the league should have a 62-game schedule where each team faces each other two times. This would be the most fair way to create a standing of 32 teams ranked from best to worst.

At the end of this 62 game "season" they can award the Presidents, Rocket, Jennings and any other trophy that is determined based solely on statistics. So non of the voting trophies just the stats based ones.

<strong>Break</strong>
After these 62 games (so last week of February/first week of March) the league should take a 1 week break. During this break they should have the all-star game, an awards ceremony for all the stats based trophies and the trade deadline. So all of this happens in one week, something like:

Friday: Skills Competitions
Saturday: All Star Game
Sunday: Awards
Monday Off
Tuesday Off
Wednesday Off
Thursday: Trade Deadline
Friday Off

<strong>Stage 2: Push for the playoffs</strong>
After that week off the last 20 games of the "season" are only played against division rivals. So you keep the standings as they are but you no longer play games against any teams outside your division. So you have 3 games against 6 divisional rivals and 2 games against 1 divisional rival.

This would give the league a chance to rebrand this with something like "Push for the Playoffs" or something like this to compete with March Madness and other events that cause a dip in viewership in March. It would also mean every team has 20 games each season post-deadline with their new acquisitions.

Since there is such a heavy emphasis on divisional play now. The Playoffs would also change with each division's top 4 teams making the playoffs in a simple 1v4 and 2v3 format.

<strong>Playoffs</strong>
So the first two rounds of the playoffs determine the winner of each division and they can create trophies for each division winner. When you get to the final 4 instead of having conferences, they can take the standings from the end of Stage 1 (so when everyone had played the exact same opposition in the exact same number of games) and re-seed 1v4 and 2v3. In the finals you can also pick home ice advantage based on the standings at the end of Stage 1.

<strong>Comments</strong>

Benefits:
1. I like the idea of having "equal" standings from everyone playing each other twice to determine seeding for the semi finals and finals of the playoffs.
2. The league has a weird emphasis on conferences given that there are very few cross conference rivalries. In short being in the East or West is really important but doesn't really impact much other than the wildcards and the third round of the playoffs. It makes more sense to either go to 2 conferences of 16 teams and use the 1-8 system is conferences matter or dump the conferences and stick to divisions. The fact we have both seems like a failure to let go of the past.
3. The last 20 games being against divisional rivals only helps with travel which every team should be happy about. It also makes those games much more important.
4. Having that week off means that the impact of the schedule from October to Feb/March is less important. Everyone will have played the same amount of games by then and then get a week off. You don't have teams with crammed/empty schedules towards the end of the season.
5. A fixed time for the deadline seems way overdue. Having it on a Thursday also removes a lot of the problems with Visas where players getting traded late on Friday cross border have to wait till Monday to file for a visa and often don't get with their new teams for a week.
6. Having stat based trophies awarded at that break when the schedule has been "equal" seems more fair and adds something of importance to the all-star ceremonies. It also means that there is less "awards talk" towards the end of the regular season and more focus on the playoffs. It would also make the Presidents feel more important if a team actually is awarded it and gets to celebrate it and stuff during this ceremony.

Let me know your thoughts... I feel this is a relatively minor change (more of a marketing tactic) that can drastically increase viewership, interest and fairness across the league.
Forum: Armchair-GMApr. 8 at 12:04 a.m.
Thread: Just Imagine
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>jaok3</b></div><div>To soft mentally, couldn't handle the Toronto hockey atmosphere.</div></div>

I feel like this is just being a bit mad at the guy for not wanting to play for us.

It's his life and if you hear him talk about it instead of just second hand stuff from the press the dude had valid reasons.

1. He's said a bunch of things that indicate he didn't like Keefe's decisions/coaching style.
2. He mentions that the 'pressure' he wanted to escape was that hundreds of people from when he was young harassed him non-stop for tickets. (Pretty sure you wouldn't want hundreds of random people you went to school with and haven't spoken to in a decade + nagging you do things.)
3. He wanted to be able to raise this kids in a place where they could go to school without being bothered.

Like non of this makes him a bad, soft or weak person. He's near a PPG in Nashville. He's a great dude who works hard.

I'd also point out he isn't alone in his complaints. Tavares moved out of Toronto at the end of the second year of his contract because he felt his kids were having the same issues.

Phaneuf's wife didn't even live with him in Toronto cause of the pressure she was under.

Actually most players with kids or recognizable wives tend to either live on the outskirts of the GTA or leave Toronto.
Forum: Toronto Maple LeafsMar. 28 at 5:13 p.m.
Thread: Leafs 2023 2024 Season Discussion Part 6 - Nearly Playoffs
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>aadoyle</b></div><div>That line really has not been good. Its had moments but when u look at the stats opposing teams do more dmg when they on the ice

SF 18
SA 23

CF 37
CA 53

GF 4
GA 3

A defensive playmaker is what you want to help ease the load off JT and when we look at when JT and Marner have played together results were good. For Willy and JT its always way to streaky

Nylander can score on any given line. Marner's playmaking is best suited for when there is a top center with him to utilize his passes

We saw it with Domi, Matthews, and JT at times this season. In the end it better helps the depth scoring to have Marner paired with JT and Nylander to drop down with Holmberg and Jarnkrok

Bertuzzi-Matthews-Domi
Knies-JT-Marner
Jarnkrok-Holmberg-Nylander
Dewar-Kampf-McMann</div></div>

I'd be more inclined to go with these lines solely because Willy can carry a line and Marner can't. He needs JT more than Willy does.

That being said, I'd like to see:

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

I think that 4th line can eat 70%+ of your D-Zone draws even against 1st lines. And all you need them to do is start in the D zone and get a faceoff in the O-Zone or dump and change. Then let the other three lines attack.

Similar to how Tampa deploys the Paul line so that their top 6 doesn't waste minutes paying defense.
Forum: Toronto Maple LeafsMar. 24 at 9:05 p.m.