Toronto Maple Leafs

[2014olympicgold]

Leafs haven't stepped on the throat of a good team in weeks. Passive coaching is my blame with this roster. If you have strong D you can play passive, but with their group you need to push offense HARD. It eases the strain on the D, gives you a legit cushion, and if you keep pushing it ruins the mental game of the other team.

Leafs push, then stop. They don't knock out. And I think that has a lot to do with Keefe's comfort of what he has in net. He goes up by a couple, and he starts making decisions like using Kampf more, D collapses more, then the wingers collapse and get beat to the boards when the D try to ring it out. Causing the Leafs line to get trapped in the D-zone. It might not cause a goal that shift. But they clear it out, go change, and then Matthews comes out to the other team having the puck with a free zone entry into the Leafs zone.

A lot of issues to me has to do with 3 things:
- Defensive time in your own zone with failed zone exits
- Lack of offensive push constantly
- Poor effort from start to end of shifts (lazy line changes annoy me when watching, and it has nothing to do with the whole change, it's mentality).

With poor D, extended defensive zone time is the death of the team. Each Dman gets stretched thin, and by the 3rd they have nothing left in the tank to push offensively. If you get the puck out quickly, your D has enough energy to push more in the offensive zone, which then tires their D out. It's a big snowball effect that the Leafs are losing. Flip it and they win.

[BloodSport]

Berube is the new coach by next game if the Leafs lose this tonight. Keefe is a dead man walking either way though. Shouldn’t need to wait for this next loss.

[2014olympicgold]

Berube is the new coach by next game if the Leafs lose this tonight. Keefe is a dead man walking either way though. Shouldn’t need to wait for this next loss.

It won't happen on a road trip, especially a western road trip, and a few games before the ASG break. The timing just isn't there.

[BloodSport]

Is Berube who fans want?

[Feenom]

Is Berube who fans want?

better than Babcock I guess.

[havanablast21]

better than Babcock I guess.

What does Babcock have to do with this? And no... I haven't heard many fans screaming FOR Berube. I have heard some Woodcroft rumblings of late. But I have my doubts.

[2014olympicgold]

It's very obvious that Woll won't be playing before the All Star Break, but traveling with the team is a positive sign.

He'll be off about 8 weeks if he plays the first game back post-allstar break on Feb5th vs NYI at home. But over the 2 weeks starting Feb5th, they play 5 of 6 games at home. I'm looking at somewhere in that 2 week span he's playing. Just a guess though, no insider knowledge.

[Axeman33]

It's very obvious that Woll won't be playing before the All Star Break, but traveling with the team is a positive sign.

He'll be off about 8 weeks if he plays the first game back post-allstar break on Feb5th vs NYI at home. But over the 2 weeks starting Feb5th, they play 5 of 6 games at home. I'm looking at somewhere in that 2 week span he's playing. Just a guess though, no insider knowledge.

Once Woll comes back, who's the odd man out?

[2014olympicgold]

Once Woll comes back, who's the odd man out?

I wonder if they run 3 goalies on the roster with Woll+Samsonov starting. Then come the deadline depending on what they want to do, Samsonov might be a cap dump and then they run Jones as the backup.

However, Jones is showing why he was signed as a 3rd string goalie right now.

Leafs have 16 games between Feb5th and March 8th (Trade Deadline). So 16 games in 31 days. I think you run 3 goalies in that time with Jones+Samsonov getting 8-10 of them, and Woll getting 6-8 of them depending on how healthy his ankle is.

[2014olympicgold]

Ryan Reaves activated
Tyler Bertuzzi put on "Non-NHL Roster" as he's expecting a child soon
Samsonov starting tonight.

Practice Lines from Yesterday:
Knies-Matthews-Marner
Holmberg-JT-Nylander
Robertson-Domi-Jarnkrok
McMann-Kampf-Gregor
Reaves

Rielly-Brodie
McCabe-Liljegren
Benoit-Timmins
Gio-Lagesson.

[Axeman33]

Did anyone else hear the interview with Reaves the other day when he said he's been healthy for a couple weeks now but the Leafs didn't activate him right away? After saying that to the media, he gets activated. Reaves knew what he was doing there. Leafs doing Leafs things again.


https://russianmachineneverbreaks.co...jured-reserve/

[2014olympicgold]

Did anyone else hear the interview with Reaves the other day when he said he's been healthy for a couple weeks now but the Leafs didn't activate him right away? After saying that to the media, he gets activated. Reaves knew what he was doing there. Leafs doing Leafs things again.


https://russianmachineneverbreaks.co...jured-reserve/

He also went on and said his knees pop out when he gets out of bed and he can't even practice without 2 knee braces. I never liked the signing, but omg if your 36yr old slow enforcer needs knee braces to even practice, he's not healthy to play.

[hockeyrobot]

Did anyone else hear the interview with Reaves the other day when he said he's been healthy for a couple weeks now but the Leafs didn't activate him right away? After saying that to the media, he gets activated. Reaves knew what he was doing there. Leafs doing Leafs things again.


https://russianmachineneverbreaks.co...jured-reserve/

Yuuuup heard it. Waiting for the fine from league offices.....

[2014olympicgold]

Yuuuup heard it. Waiting for the fine from league offices.....

Signing him to a deal is another debate on this but, he literally said his knees are shot in the same interview. He would fail a physical. This isn't a thing besides a player thinking he's healthy enough to play, but is always dealing with pain.

If the Leafs knew about his knees (which I would assume they did), they likely saw it as an out if he doesn't work out.

[2014olympicgold]

Woll is hopeful to start full practice after the All Star Break. Which would be Feb 5th. So he's not playing that first week probably after the ASG.

We might be looking at late February/Early March return now.