Leafs Regular Season Discussion

[Bankai]

Bruins are notoriously known to be a low scoring team, they usually win by a low scoring game. I dont have a hockey comparison but every time they face the Leafs, they look like the Phoenix Suns out there. They are running circles around the Leafs and scoring at will. Wouldnt surprise me if they averaged like 6 goals against the Leafs this whole season, while the Leafs average 2... it just seems like it.

[Death Knight]

6 meetings this season with Bruins. All losses of course. Outscored 10-36. Easy math 36/6 = 6 goals/game for Bruins. Leafs 1.67 goals/game. Mercy asked, mercy not given. Condolences can be given though.

[TheRealistGM]

After a while I just couldn't stop laughing. It was so bad that it was comical

[whysoserious]

And this is why you need to be able to call up more guys after the deadline, so some of the guys from last night could be benched. They go from playing two pretty sound defensive games to completely blowing up against Boston.

I just want to see them improve over the last few games (which they have been other than at various moments or last nights game) but keep on losing the games, playoffs are done.

[whysoserious]

Crowned, I know this is based on the Leafs/Bruins series since the trade. But you can see clearly how much scrutiny Kessel is constantly going to come under. Every time they play, it's going to be all about Kessel vs. Seguin. This is why I think no matter what Kessel does here, that trade is going to be blasted. He's just not going to get a fair shake from the media and the fans.

If he can get to 40 goals, it may be the perfect time to entertain the notion of trading him. Again, this is not based on him playing poorly. I just think he'll never get a fair shake and if I had my choice between him and Nash, I'd take Nash. That's just personal preference because I doubt you can manage the cap effectively with both here if they make the move for Nash and keep Kessel.

[Deron05]

Lol, Did anyone else here how dead Joe's voice was in that game?

[Brew666]

Bruins are notoriously known to be a low scoring team, they usually win by a low scoring game. I dont have a hockey comparison but every time they face the Leafs, they look like the Phoenix Suns out there. They are running circles around the Leafs and scoring at will. Wouldnt surprise me if they averaged like 6 goals against the Leafs this whole season, while the Leafs average 2... it just seems like it.

I don't know what the goal differential in the season series is but it's gross, they lost another game 7-0. The only consolation is that BOS did beat CAL 9-0 this year so at least one other team has lost bigger to BOS. Not only is BOS a much better team but we much up horribly against them. We have a better chance of beating PIT than BOS.

[TheRealistGM]

If we faced boston in the playoffs and they were trying their hardest. The puck would never leave toronto's end. This matchup is that lopsided

[Crowned]

Yeah, I truly think Ron Wilson couldn't have done any worse. Carlysle has shown absolutely nothing since his arrival. Remind me again about this 'defensive specialist', and his 'hard ***' personality that was going to turn the team around? Yeah, right.

[Crowned]

That was horrendous. 14 shots against the Islanders? Some of which were just dumps on net.

[Jay_Hawk]

Not only has Carlysle done nothing, his style of hockey is far less entertaining to watch. The Leafs are losing, and they're not even doing it in style.

At some point our media has to realise how god-awful this team is. Seriously, it has nothing to do with coaching or goaltending- the entire team is horrendous, and that falls on one man's shoulders.

If anyone thinks this team is on the cusp of contending for anything, they're delusional. Forget a stanley cup, this team would be lucky to make the playoffs in the next few years, and if they do, can anyone actually see them as being a lock year-in-and-year out? The BEST this team could accomplish in the near future is a playoff appearance. Not multiple. Not contending for the cup. Just one, single, invite to the big dance- accompanied by a quick exit.

[whysoserious]

Not only has Carlysle done nothing, his style of hockey is far less entertaining to watch. The Leafs are losing, and they're not even doing it in style.

At some point our media has to realise how god-awful this team is. Seriously, it has nothing to do with coaching or goaltending- the entire team is horrendous, and that falls on one man's shoulders.

If anyone thinks this team is on the cusp of contending for anything, they're delusional. Forget a stanley cup, this team would be lucky to make the playoffs in the next few years, and if they do, can anyone actually see them as being a lock year-in-and-year out? The BEST this team could accomplish in the near future is a playoff appearance. Not multiple. Not contending for the cup. Just one, single, invite to the big dance- accompanied by a quick exit.

I hear your frustration Jay_hawk. But keep things in perspective, this team was in a playoff spot about 1 month ago and with some flaws we were all looking at a team on coming up. Not a complete team and definitely areas of concern. There are some solid pieces in place and with a few tweaks and stuff, could be right back on track.

I think Carlyle has added some defensive systems that do work but we are not consistent with them or we don't have the right bodies to play it all the time. Is it boring? Maybe, definitely in comparison to Wilsons run and gun style. But it's proven effective. I don't hear people complain about Boston playing boring style, and they have more skill. So with the right pieces I think you can find the right balance of defense and offense.

It will be quite the interesting off-season. Just keep losing for the rest of the season and let's see if we can get a potential game-changer.

[LLJ]

It's not a good time to read too much into things now. The team is just playing out the string now, the coach could be Scotty Bowman and the team probably would still be phoning it in at this point.

This team won't go on a run because in years past, they'd spend 3/4 of the season in the cellar and then try to get inspired with a late run. This time, the team was in a playoff spot for 3/4 of the season and then just blew it all in a month. That just deflates a team at the end.

"There's always next year..." Ugh.

[whysoserious]

It’s interesting to hear all the criticism coming lately towards Burke. He deserves every bit of it at this point of the season. He’s created the team that’s on the ice. Now, in saying that it looks like this team has just given up this season and I think you need to be fair in assessing the overall season rather than just what’s happened in the last two months of the season.

Clearly Burke is not going anywhere. If there was any lack of support for him as a GM, there’s no way Carlyle gets the lengthy contract he does. So he’s here at least for this off-season and probably a little longer than that as Rogers/Bell settle in to ownership. Whether that’s the right move or wrong move, I can’t really say. I think Burke deserves one more shot this off-season but he’s really got to come out with flying colours this off-season.

Foundationally speaking, I like that Carlyle is here. His style of coaching tends to lead to more winning even if it’s a little more boring than what we saw with Wilson. I hope they don’t go full out New Jersey 90’s defensive style but I don’t see that being Carlyle’s way unless he doesn’t have the talent up front.

Burke has fielded one of the youngest teams in the league, however not with the most promising young players. But he has been resourceful in getting some prospect on this team. His biggest mistake may have been mis-calculating where this team was when he got Kessel. I don’t want to open up the trade talk, but he read the team as being a playoff team, made the deal for a bonafide 20-something sniper and thought with signing of defensive players it would be playoff team. It wasn’t and they screwed up.

Ever since then he’s been trying to build off that instead of taking a step back. Instead of committing so much money to role players, he should have been looking for more assets – picks and prospects. Now he’s done a good job finding prospects like Gardiner and Aulie secondary to other deals where he’s taken on some salary so good for him.

This off-season, he needs to find a deal for a front line center if he’s keeping Kessel or move him. Kessel is just not a fit with the coach he hired but if you find a big time Center (say Thornton as an example, not that he’s available or coming) then maybe you can justify keeping him. If you can’t find that elusive center in a trade, move him now. This guy will never get a fair shake. You may not get back what you gave up to get him, but you won’t know unless you try. This is where Burkes ego sometimes gets in the way, he doubles down to prove he’s right, he needs to step back. Kessel’s a heck of a goal-scorer and young, if he hits 40 goals, he has significant value to get a good deal.

The other thing he has to do is cut some dead weight and give some of the young prospects a chance. Ashton, Kadri, Colborne, Biggs, Holzer – if none of these guys are traded to get a big piece, then they need to be given a long look at the NHL level next fall.

Lastly, he’s got to upgrade in goal, this may be number 1 on his list of things to do. All these things are interdependent. If you can’t get a number 1 goalie, look to Center, if you can’t get a deal for a Center, look for a goalie. Both angles need to be worked at the same time.

Sorry for the long post, but all these articles got a lot of stuff going in my head. I don’t think this is ground-breaking stuff.

[s e n s i]

bottom line is that it's a joke this team hasn't made the playoffs in 8 years, and in 4 years since burke has been GM. it's embarrassing and guess what, we're the laughingstock of the league once again. amazing that we gotta bust out the paperbags in a season that started off pretty promising and turned to sh*ts in a heartbeat.

reimer is still young i guess, but i can admit i was wrong about him this season. even pre-whiplash (i still think gionta is a d*ckhead for that bush-league elbow) he was playing poorly. no comment on bustavsson. the main priority this offseason should be goaltending, and i think even if kessel hits the 40 goal mark, there is nothing he can do to make his acquisition less of a fleecing than it already is or was. i've always liked kessel, but he's so mentally soft that it's hard to be a huge fan of his game now. never dekes/no backhand either which pisses the hell outta me. and phaneuf still isn't captain material imo. and a litany of other holes that need to be address this offseason.

[Bankai]

Phil Kessel is the Leaf version of Demar Derozan. Both are touted as goal scorers, they seem to only know how to score, but the ways that they can score is pretty limited. Ive been saying it for a long time, he is an overrated goal scorer that the Leafs killed themselves for. The trade was terrible for the Leafs then, now, and looking back at it in 5 years.

[hsb]

How is the league's third highest goal scorer an overrated goal scorer?

[s e n s i]

lol kessel is twice the pro derozan is. he is a legit goal scorer and probably the teams best player in terms of overall talent. but his fragile and easily intimidated mentality coupled with his diminutive stature, make him less of a threat than he should be. he gets knocked off the puck and tends to disengage along the boards far too easily. that and his utter lack of a backhand has frustrated me all season.

[whysoserious]

I don't understand why this team, when they are hemmed in in their zone, when they have a simple option to get the puck out of the zone, they always go back and try to go to the other side. Every single game there is example after example of this play in their zone and they just end up hemmed in for longer periods of time and they miss the simple play out. You don't always have to create a play coming out, sometimes just get it out.

[LLJ]

Kessel has elite talent, but he's just soft.

DeRozan has rotation player talent with decent work ethic. But still, there's a wide gulf of talent difference here.