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This year does not feel different e: case in point the Leafs recalled Simon Benoit, which… why
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Oct 11, 2023 20:10
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 11:14 |
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Ok I take it back, this season now feels a little different https://twitter.com/sunhornby/status/1712196376082219294?s=46&t=HQKtcRjDK4S81BLV4tbVnw RIP to the best goal song
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Oct 11, 2023 21:33
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Who wants to bet the Leafs don’t score tonight so nobody hears the new song
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Oct 11, 2023 21:34
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Whoever called Samsonov falling off a cliff in the predictions thread gotta be feeling pretty good right now
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Oct 12, 2023 02:37
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I will say, Reaves isn’t good at hockey but he’s not worse at it than the grit ‘n sandpaper guys that Dubas stapled to the team in past seasons. He might even be better in that he can actually do the “job” he’s supposed to (boarding people, getting away with it and fighting about it after) better than Simmonds or Clifford could
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Oct 12, 2023 03:13
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Starsfan posted:yeah people have been spitting out that line about Ryan Reaves for like 8 years now and he's always been completely unplayable even in his 6 minutes a night role in the lineup I guess the point I’m trying to make is that Simmonds and Clifford were also unplayable but they never got the rep and also didn’t actually grit properly either
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Oct 12, 2023 03:41
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Darude - Adam Sandstorm posted:Neither Clifford or Simmons ever flexed and got their gm all excited More value added!
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Oct 12, 2023 03:43
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The fact that the Oilers were the favourite pre-season Cup winner prediction in the media really adds another level to getting completely rocked by the Canucks in game 1, just a tremendous night for chaos
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Oct 12, 2023 16:40
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The posturing and breathless coverage of mediocre shoving by the media is definitely the worst part of enforcer culture. Well that and, you know, the getting away with obvious penalties because of “toughness” aspect
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Oct 14, 2023 20:52
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Leafs off to a hot start but Max Domi’s homecoming isn’t going so great, he was benched after a giveaway in the third period of game 1 and tonight he was demoted to the third line after a pretty bad second period. Keefe has turned on FA signings pretty quickly in the past, even ones making decent money.
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Oct 15, 2023 03:04
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Twin Cinema posted:This is good. Matthews has never scored hat tricks in back-to-back games to start the season before Reaves joined the Leafs. I loved the first intermission bit where Bieksa claimed that Nylander’s first goal wasn’t a move he would have made last year without the “toughness” around the team, then the broadcast immediately showed a clip from last year of Willy scoring the exact same goal against the Wild in OT. The Toronto media frenzy around Reaves is already ridiculous and it’s game 2.
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Oct 15, 2023 16:53
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Matt Zerella posted:The early time with Reavo are always fun and good. Then reality sets in and it's no longer fun or good, so enjoy it Toronto. Pretty much the instant refs start calling him for obvious penalties is when this is all gonna go off the rails
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Oct 15, 2023 17:26
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Reaves is absolutely the guy Dubas thought he was adding with Simmonds/Clifford in years past. The issue is that Reaves makes enough to actually limit the Leafs roster slots so there’s no real opportunity to bench him. Keefe loves playing guys like that though, as evidenced by several lost playoff series, so the salary issue is kind of moot.
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Oct 15, 2023 17:39
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Jhet posted:He was a pain in the rear end, but really not that useful in that game. Matthews line had a field day though and that’s very annoying. Just bad team defense from Minnesota. Toronto played well. The Wild carried play at evens to be fair, though score effects played a part in that. The Leafs PP has been covering up a lot of nonsense from the defence and Samsonov made some big stops in the second half. If the PP keeps this up I might need to reevaluate my opinion on Guy Boucher.
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Oct 15, 2023 18:45
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McCabe-Klingberg getting annihilated at evens was incredibly predictable, putting a new guy who’s notoriously defensively indifferent with the second newest guy who’s always over-aggressive all over the ice was never going to work. I get that Rielly-Brodie is Keefe’s security blanket but Rielly-Liljegren and Brodie-Klingberg would be a lot better off imo. Similarly with the third line, Knies-Minten-whoever Keefe dislikes right now is setting up every single person there to fail.
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Oct 17, 2023 04:39
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Haha what the gently caress
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Oct 26, 2023 16:28
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Re: skating speed https://x.com/jhanhky/status/1716462704645308868?s=46&t=HQKtcRjDK4S81BLV4tbVnw EDGE is measuring top speed and bursts, but the vast majority of game situations don’t involve a player skating downhill with open ice in front of them. I think a lot of what people consider team speed has to do with puck movement over raw skating talent too, of course.
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Oct 31, 2023 03:57
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fawning deference posted:Why does Huberdeau suck now? His big pre-trade year was obviously not repeatable, and a lot of the evaluation of him after the fact stems from him being compared to Matt Tkachuk which does him no favours. He's also an all-offense guy that needs open space and a run and gun system to be effective and Calgary doesn't have the personnel or coaching to take advantage of his strengths. Doesn't help that the age 30 wall appears to have hit him harder than other top-end guys. Similarly, Kadri was signed after a career year at age 30 that he would obviously never repeat, and moving to a worse team only magnifies his regression and age drop-off.
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Nov 2, 2023 17:39
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I don’t believe that most/any NHLers are actively trying to be malicious when making plays on the puck, but I do think that guys like Marchand will do things that are reckless in order to gain an advantage and the end result is often the same. There’s no world where he’s thinking “this is a good chance to break someone’s leg” but he is definitely attempting to mess with Liljegren’s balance in order to win that battle at a dangerous area and speed.
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Nov 3, 2023 15:34
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Hey would you believe this guy is letting in easy goals https://x.com/tictactomar/status/1721690641837568334?s=46&t=HQKtcRjDK4S81BLV4tbVnw
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Nov 7, 2023 01:51
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Jhet posted:Well it's not like the penalty killers were moving around. That's just dire looking. Oh and you better believe that group got scored on later on in that PK, Marner doesn’t understand how to pressure, Gregor and Benoit are just plain bad, but generally speaking it’s also bad when a goalie loses their net on every pass and routinely trips in their crease cause they’re all over the place.
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Nov 7, 2023 02:13
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One game, but Robertson-Domi-Jarnkrok looked like the most real third line the Leafs have had all season, and just as important they keep Kampf where he belongs on the fourth. Kind of frustrating that they could have started the season with that combo instead of giving Minten his cup of coffee. I think the issue with Bertuzzi so far is that he really, really sucks at moving the puck through the neutral zone, he’s still pretty effective in front of the net. Also I have a hard time reconciling what I know about Simon Benoit (and his PK performance) with how he played 5 on 5 in that game, I figured the org was looking for a Justin Holl-lite but they got that and more for about 10 minutes there.
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Nov 7, 2023 03:56
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JT is also pretty bad at transporting the puck up ice himself, which makes Bert an awkward fit on his line even though they should match up well in-zone.
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Nov 7, 2023 04:22
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Precambrian Video Games posted:Not gonna happen, the Leafs are good again (except when they're not). For me I don’t really see much to panic about from the Leafs so far. Obviously they’re not setting the world on fire but the vast majority of their issues are very fixable early-season things: Keefe being stupid about his lines, their #3, 4, and 7 dmen all being out long term, the PK and new defensive structure not gelling yet, all of those things should improve without outside interference. Samsonov going back to being as terrible as he was with the Caps is not great, but Woll has been fine and as Edmonton just demonstrated you don’t have to keep playing a terrible goalie. Sammy calmed down after a few rough October starts last year too, there’s even odds he can do it again anyway. https://x.com/friedgehnic/status/1722328761163481435?s=46&t=HQKtcRjDK4S81BLV4tbVnw Hey remember when Dubas signed this guy for ~$3.5x4 when the Leafs were at their biggest cap crunch?
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Nov 8, 2023 20:42
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Levitate posted:how's reaves doing this yaer About as well as you’d expect
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Nov 9, 2023 04:42
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It's very funny watching Erik Gustafsson, a guy Keefe also deemed unplayable who often looked lost in this team's structure last year, now lighting it up for NYR while the Leafs go through the exact same song and dance with pretty much the same (though much more expensive) guy in Klingberg. This same coach basically made Domi eat poo poo for a month before trying him 1) at the position he actually played last year and 2) with linemates worth a drat and all of a sudden Domi's contributing and doesn't look totally useless. The same coach is benching Tyler Bertuzzi regularly while still searching for a space for him on the roster. At some point I'm more interested in why year after year so many pieces added to the team don't fit than I am blaming individual players.
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Nov 9, 2023 17:10
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https://x.com/frankcorrado22/status/1722637830868848759?s=20 Frankie Corrado has been great with these breakdowns, btw, but this has been bothering me about people posting Reaves’ (and to a lesser extent Klingberg’s) goals against this season: at least half of the goals the 4th line has been on for have been directly David Kampf’s fault, and his numbers are not only bad but worse when he’s away from Reaves. It’s easy to see that line get lit up and think it must be the puncher’s fault but the Leafs worst forward so far might actually be Kampf.
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Nov 9, 2023 18:03
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Matt Zerella posted:I was nonplussed when they signed him this summer but he fuckin rules. Everyone was going "Wheeler at that price is a great signing!" when we should have been saying that about Gusty. He was clearly skilled and added an element that the Leafs lacked down their lineup but Keefe just hated his guts and put him in bad spots to fail, and I earnestly believe a similar thing is happening to Klingberg now. Both players have warts but a coach should be able to find a way to utilize talent.
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Nov 9, 2023 18:05
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I’m not trying to imply that Klingberg is secretly an all-star waiting to come out or whatever, but at least he was definitely more productive regular season and in the playoffs for Minnesota. If he was scoring at any sort of clip with the Leafs it would be easier to accept the defensive foibles, but Keefe is getting nothing out of him at either end of the rink and it’s hard to believe that he’s that much worse of a player since April. Goals and production from the Leafs back end has been a problem for Keefe his whole tenure, and he’s drummed out multiple talented offensive dmen while here. Other coaches find ways to get some juice out of these guys.
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Nov 9, 2023 19:03
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Jhet posted:Reaves was actually defensively responsible in Minnesota last season. He knows what he’s expected to do on the ice, for sure. And yeah, he can’t skate and he’s never going to make a play other than a chip out or a short breakout but he’s rarely ever the guy making these catastrophic blown coverage plays that have been the hallmark of the Leafs’ play to start the year. Kampf has been playing with this team for years and been successful defending once upon a time, I imagine they’ll figure it out. But Reaves and Klingberg for all their faults are also getting saddled with blame for poo poo other people are doing.
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Nov 9, 2023 19:14
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Eric the Mauve posted:You might be right but it's a common misconception that old players just kind of gradually lose their ability little by little as the years go on. More commonly an old player just falls apart overnight. Happens all the time. Yeah, he could just be cooked, though he looked totally fine in preseason (when he played, he sat a bit with injury) for what that’s worth. His play has degraded as Keefe continued pushing him down the lineup, off the top PP, and giving him worse partners so I can also imagine that confidence and comfort level are part of the issue.
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Nov 9, 2023 19:20
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The Dirty Burger posted:This could be easily solved by not putting your 4th line out against the opponents top line. I get Reaves is unplayably bad, but Keefe had last change all game lol This is another thing that Keefe is terrible at but I can only complain about so many things with his coaching at a time before my posts get unwieldy
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Nov 9, 2023 19:42
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So the issue is that after Klingberg falls down there's a hole in coverage and multiple people change what they're doing in order to cover for it, and once he's back up nobody has time to sort out their roles because the puck is in a dangerous spot. Everything after he falls isn't the team's defensive structure, it's players being reactive.
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Nov 9, 2023 21:30
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Redeye Flight posted:That makes sense. I still don't like it, though -- even as a complete novice it just looks bad. There's got to be something else they could have done -- keep the cover guys in their scramble roles and send Klingberg to chase the puck and get in the holder's face, something proactive. Hell, even just spread out the guys farther so they're more actively covering all sides of the net. I think it’s important to note that a lot of these guys haven’t actually been on the ice together for very long, it’s basically one month into the season and because of injury and Keefe being an idiot about his lines there’s a lot of unfamiliarity between these players (some of which are new to the team). It’s pretty understandable, once Klingberg falls down a forward goes to cover for him, but his d partner doesn’t know that’ll happen so he also comes across. Then it becomes a guessing game of who needs to take who. Does Klingberg replace the forward (Marner) covering for him? Does he go to his partner’s vacated spot? Or does he act as a forward now that there’s someone else playing D? Who’s F1? All this happens in like three seconds. Credit to the Sens players for keeping up the pressure too. Some teams (and not to belabour the point, but the Leafs are particularly bad at this under Keefe) would get the puck off of a defensive breakdown and hold onto it or send it up the boards to allow their set offense to take shape instead of taking advantage of the open ice and confusion, which would give the D time to figure things out and set up themselves. I think most coaches would look at this as a fluke play with unfortunate results. It’s a lot easier to see why that goal happened than the play highlighted in the tweet I posted by Corrado, where the forward order and roles defensively are pretty obvious and a guy just… doesn’t do it.
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Nov 10, 2023 08:57
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With McCabe coming back Klingberg is now out with an undisclosed injury, optimistically if something has been nagging him and he couldn’t sit because of all the other injuries to the Leafs d corps then getting healthy should see his play improve. Hopefully McCabe used his time off the ice to watch video of all his insane pinches to start the year and learned to stop doing them.
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Nov 10, 2023 17:28
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https://x.com/reporterchris/status/1723195883779453220?s=20 Eww
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Nov 11, 2023 05:51
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Darude - Adam Sandstorm posted:Better than Klingberg? Right now, obviously yes, and it’s pretty much the only way to make the salary work without cutting bait on Samsonov or some sort of retention scheme. But the Leafs kinda need Klingberg to work out, there aren’t any shooting threats or playmakers outside of Rielly on the back end. Adding Zadorov is more “sandpaper” but not a lot of needle moving imo.
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Nov 11, 2023 06:51
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fawning deference posted:Is Zadorov bad? His defensive metrics seem fine and 14 goals is good? Seems like a good pickup for a bottom four guy? He’s never scoring 14 goals again, that season was a fluke, and he takes a ton of bad penalties
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Nov 11, 2023 18:32
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Szechwan posted:Yeah I can't figure out why op would be complaining about that outside of his own team being the one taking a dumb penalty. You can't just force a guy to fight whenever you're mad and not expect to go on the pk. People complain because we’ve been conditioned to expect these calls won’t be made, so when the standard changes it feels unfair. The rationale’s pretty straightforward, the question is if this actually is a new standard that we’ll see consistently or if a couple teams just get hosed for a little bit before going back to status quo (it’s the latter).
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Nov 12, 2023 06:01
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 11:14 |
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https://x.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/1723747338777190457?s=20 I understand the optics of firing a guy after a win but ultimately the decision to can a coach should be a long time coming after a lot of deliberation so it shouldn’t matter what happened in the last game or whatever
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Nov 12, 2023 18:08
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