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Yup. If we lose this game on saturday, we'll end up playing Pittsburgh, which is sucks when we could've had Montreal or Tampa.

****. But if we win tomorrow and them Bernier comes back we have a shot

James Reimer is the harbinger of death

Reimer has lost all confidence. This defense in front of him sucks ass and has all year and not all the goals are his fault but he can't let in any softies the way he plays. Team has no confidence in front of him.

Every game, before you even turn it on you're down 1 or 2 goals.

Looks like Reimer is yet again in the middle of another classic Leafs choke job.

whysoserious wrote:Reimer has lost all confidence. This defense in front of him sucks ass and has all year and not all the goals are his fault but he can't let in any softies the way he plays. Team has no confidence in front of him.

Every game, before you even turn it on you're down 1 or 2 goals.

Carlyles "system" is being exposed. We've been lucky in the fact that we got stellar goaltending all year from Bernier, and now the we have a goalie who isnt standing on his head and it really shows just how weak defensively we are. If theres one positive we can take out if we slip out of the playoffs, is that Carlyle might be fired.

Adrian_05 wrote:

whysoserious wrote:Reimer has lost all confidence. This defense in front of him sucks ass and has all year and not all the goals are his fault but he can't let in any softies the way he plays. Team has no confidence in front of him.

Every game, before you even turn it on you're down 1 or 2 goals.

Carlyles "system" is being exposed. We've been lucky in the fact that we got stellar goaltending all year from Bernier, and now the we have a goalie who isnt standing on his head and it really shows just how weak defensively we are. If theres one positive we can take out if we slip out of the playoffs, is that Carlyle might be fired.

The Defense has been a problem for a long time, they were giving up too many shots and Bernier was saving them (and Reimer earlier this year). Now that they aren't, they're exposed.

Franson and Gleason I don't believe are as bad as they've looked recently so Carlyle's system is clearly failing this team and the defense.

That still doesn't excuse Reimer for all the softies he's been letting in the past week and not giving his team any chance at winning these games.

Yeah, but Carlyle's system is the only system so far that got this team to the playoffs (albeit in a lockout shortened season). They should be better defensively with this personnel, but a coaching change might expose new deficiencies in this team and hearken back to the Ron Wilson era.

LLJ wrote:Yeah, but Carlyle's system is the only system so far that got this team to the playoffs (albeit in a lockout shortened season). They should be better defensively with this personnel, but a coaching change might expose new deficiencies in this team and hearken back to the Ron Wilson era.

You're right but it's a flawed system and last year may have been fool's gold. When this team is on offensively, it can cover up for the poor defense. Individual defensive parts suggest the blue line should be much better too, but they still give up 40+ shots on way too many nights. That's a recipe for disaster. Carlyle has talked about this being a problem but nothing has changed so either he can't get them to play defensively, they're doing what he wants and his system is a problem, or the personnel needs to change.

They overpaid for Clarkson and Phaneuf now and are in a terrible cap situation so player changes are going to be tough so it might come down to the coach.

I'm not a hater of Carlyle either, I don't remember his Anaheim teams giving up this many shots. I think we have too many guys that think offensively first and clearly don't have a defensive mindset at all because how else do you explain this many shots every single night?

Our puck possession seems pretty bad. The offensive system is predicated on getting rid of the puck and looking for a quick strike instead of being patient and looking for the best chances. Carlyle's system takes advantage of our speed which catches many teams off guard. We get away with that better than most teams because of the speed and offensive talent on the team who can score even while not generating optimal looks, but we're not good at getting the puck back enough on the other end. This can catch up on us and why we blow big leads or look bad when the legs aren't there. They are a fast finesse team who don't have enough heady puckhandlers on the blueline who are also big and strong enough to win battles in the trenches. Dion is probably the best mix of the two but he is error prone and kind of dumb. Defensively we either have skill guys who can't battle or we have battlers with not enough skill. Ideally they should complement each other but it is not working out well at all. So we end up conceding more quality looks than we're generating for ourselves.

The answer of course is to slow it down when we have a lead and be more patient and diligent but I'm not share the Leafs know how to play that well, nor does their system allow for such adjustments mid-game.

Down 2 men, 3 second in to the power play and they give up a goal. Simply awesome.

Well, another familiar Leafs year. I guess this is what they mean by losing culture. There's no way this team should have missed the playoffs given where they were just a few weeks ago.

LLJ wrote:Well, another familiar Leafs year. I guess this is what they mean by losing culture. There's no way this team should have missed the playoffs given where they were just a few weeks ago.

It might actually be better long-term that they miss.

The core is actually not bad, but they've had huge misses around that core for support. They weren't able to fight as much this year cause teams figured out that the Leafs thrived off of bullying teams, Orr and McLaren became useless.

JVR, Bozak, Kessel, Kadri, Reilly, Gardiner, and Bernier are you're absolute keeps as a core.

Out of that group, I don't like Bozak but he's done an admirable job filling in but you need an upgrade at first line C somehow. Still he's acceptable and they produce like a top line.

Beyond that core you have two other pieces that are signed long-term in Lupul and Phaneuf so those two will probably remain. Both are fine. Phaneuf is overpaid but if Reilly and Gardiner improve he could slot in to the 3rd defense slot fine even if overpaid.

Kulemin, Clarkson, Gunnarson, Franson, Ranger need to all be replaced. Probably impossibles that Clarkson is gone so you better hope he steps it up. Trade Gunnarson and Franson and sign a replacement stay at home defensemen and hope one of you're young guys are ready to step in. Leafs have depth at Defense with the young guys coming. Gleason I can live with as well he's just being asked to play higher than his level. Good for a fifth defensemen role.

Trade Reimer, Gunnarson, Franson, and if you find a taker for Clarkson to consolidate and bring in some of the young guys.

But the core is still young and can grow. They need better support from the role players around them. And their cap is a complete mess.

Another thing that absolutely sucks about this collapse is that Eakins is gone and in Edmonton. He hasn't had a lot of success in his first year but all the young guys coming up learned under him with the Marlies. He's shown an ability to coach those guys and you want that if they made a move on Carlyle and that opportunity is gone.

Its never a good thing to miss the playoffs, expecially with where this team is at in its development. But I guess its natural to try to look for the silver lining.

Kulemin and Gunnarson are very solid hockey players whom I would try to keep. Everyone always feels these guys are very easy to replace but they are steady and reliable. If the price is right they definitely need to stay with the blue and white.

Clarkson might be the worst hockey player I have ever seen. Atleast this years version of him. He looks lost out there, not only is he slow but he also sucks at the cycle game and forechecking. His signing is going to set this team back for years. Especially since we can't bury him in the minors.

First line needs no upgrade, bozak is on a point per game pace this year. He has been a beast and proven his worth to all naysayers

The only reason I think it's good is it might actually open Lieweke's eyes a bit. I'm not really a fan of Nonis and he came here after a playoff run and Nonis was an easy sell. Now that they've fallen back, he might call for some significant changes.

How are Kulemin and Gunnarson solid, they add nothing of value. Kulemin was paid to score, not be a defensive player. If he's not scoring, he's useless. You can find defensive players or just play young guys.

Gunnarson is another replaceable piece and we have youth on D coming up.

They do have some nice pieces for a bounce back next season, but that would require Nonis not being an idiot like he was with Clarkson. Not confident with this guy running the team.

We definitely need to think of some way to improve this team's defence, first and foremost.

A new coach. Thats all we need.

If we do miss the playoffs, Carlyle NEEDS to go. I'd like Barry Trotz, if he were to get fired. Nashville is a solid defensive team, granted they have better defenceman than us. But still, he has a much better system. My only concern with him is, would he hurt the offensive side of our game.

Adrian_05 wrote:A new coach. Thats all we need.

If we do miss the playoffs, Carlyle NEEDS to go. I'd like Barry Trotz, if he were to get fired. Nashville is a solid defensive team, granted they have better defenceman than us. But still, he has a much better system. My only concern with him is, would he hurt the offensive side of our game.

Changing a coach is the simple and easy answer and I'm sure they'd get a huge lift from a coaching change but the fact is there are still horrible decisions in personnel on this team and the way the cap is managed. A coach can only do so much with what he's given.

You can't expect to win when you have guys like Clarkson making 4-5 million, providing 3 goals, no defense and taking the worse penalties I've ever seen a single player take. The defense is left out to dry by the forwards who don't put in the effort to support and the defense makes stupid decisions to move the puck in to the worse areas giving opponents the number of shots they give up.

You need a system change but you need personnel changes as well.

Not sure if anyone noticed but Lieweke will be on Strombo this Thursday. I’ve been told it’ll be well worthwhile to tune in because he’s quite clear how he feels about the franchises under MLSE at the moment.

In hindsight, last season is looking like fool's gold. This current Leafs team has shown to be good in spurts but never for a long run. I've heard some thoughts that Nonis ruined Burke's team which doesn't make much sense to me b/c they're not that different of a team. The defense core is the biggest issue with this team and it'll continue to be unless if it's completely revamped. They're all offensive dmen [except Gleason] and Phaneuf should never have been made captain/deemed #1 dman.

This isn't basketball where I feel a full tank is necessary but this team needs to take a step back and clear some space, cap wise and on the roster. Get rid of Nonis and Carlyle and start with new faces/leaders in mgmt. The Leafs finally have a farm system and within a couple years could be back in a playoff spot with a better built team. It starts from the top and I hope Lieweke head hunts for a new GM/President versus take what’s available on the open market.