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Playoffs Round 2: Panthers vs. Maple Leafs

Someone sent me a clip of Steve Dangle talking about the possibility of an illness going through the dressing room.

OEL skipped practice today due to illness. Murray wasn't on the bench for Game 3...maybe a flu bug played a role in their Game 4 effort?
 
bustaheims said:
Maybe if it goes to game 7, but even that feels unlikely. Definitely not before then, though.
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Agreed...if Woll completely craps the bed in one of the games or is forced out due to injury, maybe Stolarz comes back for game 7. But even then, they might have to go with Murray.
 
L K said:
Someone sent me a clip of Steve Dangle talking about the possibility of an illness going through the dressing room.

OEL skipped practice today due to illness. Murray wasn't on the bench for Game 3...maybe a flu bug played a role in their Game 4 effort?
Click to expand...
It possible, but I still see those penalties as throwing them off so much that they were basically still in start of the game mode into the 2nd period. Illness could have definitely compounded that. I expect a better effort moving forward, for sure. Cannot overstate the importance of the game tomorrow.
 
L K said:
Someone sent me a clip of Steve Dangle talking about the possibility of an illness going through the dressing room.

OEL skipped practice today due to illness. Murray wasn't on the bench for Game 3...maybe a flu bug played a role in their Game 4 effort?
Click to expand...
Not seeing anything on Google but boy wouldn't that be something? It would explain game 4 and and of course everyone would get sick at the worst time of the year...LOL
 
As much as he hasn't done anything this year I would strongly consider dressing Reaves and basically tell him to hit everything he can. Florida is taking liberties out there and other than Benoit noone else really to worry about. Knies is a battler but you don't want him in the box potentially. Reaves might keep them honest. Robertson and Reaves in for 19 and 29.
 
azzurri63 said:
As much as he hasn't done anything this year I would strongly consider dressing Reaves and basically tell him to hit everything he can. Florida is taking liberties out there and other than Benoit noone else really to worry about. Knies is a battler but you don't want him in the box potentially. Reaves might keep them honest. Robertson and Reaves in for 19 and 29.
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Dressing Reaves would essentially mean the Leafs only have 11 forwards. He's done. He can't catch up to guys quickly enough to get any good hits in. Not only would it have no impact on the liberties the Panthers are taking, it would be actively detrimental for the Leafs when he is on the ice. It would be beyond useless.
 
bustaheims said:
It possible, but I still see those penalties as throwing them off so much that they were basically still in start of the game mode into the 2nd period. Illness could have definitely compounded that. I expect a better effort moving forward, for sure. Cannot overstate the importance of the game tomorrow.
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I mean the penalties were penalties. Maybe the Knies one isn't a playoff call (certainly not as the 3rd in a row) and you could maybe argue the McMann call given that they ignored Marchand launching into Tanev earlier.

But they also had very little push back in the 2nd and 3rd periods. That could still just be that everyones timing was off from the mess of a 1st period (and the reality that the Panthers are a really good team) but they just didn't seem to have anything to give later in the game.

Also on a side note the way Berube talks about Nylander is hilarious. If he was giving quotes about Marner ignoring him on the bench people would be frothing.
 
bustaheims said:
Dressing Reaves would essentially mean the Leafs only have 11 forwards. He's done. He can't catch up to guys quickly enough to get any good hits in. Not only would it have no impact on the liberties the Panthers are taking, it would be actively detrimental for the Leafs when he is on the ice. It would be beyond useless.
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This. Reaves of last year I would dress. He was skating reasonably well after his extended time off in the middle of the year. The Reaves of this year was unplayable. He wasn't hitting guys. He couldn't catch anyone to hit them and the only way he does is if the team is hemmed in their own zone. I can count on maybe one hand the number of big hits he threw this year.
 
L K said:
This. Reaves of last year I would dress. He was skating reasonably well after his extended time off in the middle of the year. The Reaves of this year was unplayable. He wasn't hitting guys. He couldn't catch anyone to hit them and the only way he does is if the team is hemmed in their own zone. I can count on maybe one hand the number of big hits he threw this year.
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I agree with both you and Busta but if not then the rest of this soft bunch need to figure it out. I don't know how many times I see our guys skate by a Panther when they could have laid a hit. I know it's tough for some to do that but Florida finishes checks constantly why cant we? Run their D every chance they can. Our D guys are getting beat up from the tough physical forecheck we should be laying out guys as well. When Pacioretty is leading the team in hits somethings wrong.
 
The stats for the "core 4" in the final 4 games of the series are truly putrid. 2 combined points in 4 games and minus a lot. Throw in Morgan Rielly as the 5th man and it's even worse.
 
This could be the top for this group. The team may have peaked. Maybe in some strange world it’s addition by subtraction. Forcing new players into roles that can manage the playoffs better than the team does now. The only constants from this group have to shoulder all the blame. We put all our eggs in one basket and it didn’t work.
 
You need depth scoring to win in the playoffs. It's really that simple but getting the right guys is key. Berube gets a failing grade from me. The bottom 6 couldn't score for the most part. Would it have really hurt to try a guy like Steeves on the 3rd/4th line? All he did was score on the Marlies and he does play a good defensive game. Nope let's keep playing Jarnkrok/Holmberg who is never going to score in the playoffs. 89 lead the team in g/60 and pts/60 and only plays 3 games. Leafs need scoring so let's bench that guy for someone who won't contribute offensively.
 
Guilt Trip said:
You need depth scoring to win in the playoffs. It's really that simple but getting the right guys is key. Berube gets a failing grade from me. The bottom 6 couldn't score for the most part. Would it have really hurt to try a guy like Steeves on the 3rd/4th line? All he did was score on the Marlies and he does play a good defensive game. Nope let's keep playing Jarnkrok/Holmberg who is never going to score in the playoffs. 89 lead the team in g/60 and pts/60 and only plays 3 games. Leafs need scoring so let's bench that guy for someone who won't contribute offensively.
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The guy who showed in Game 5 was 89. The guy who showed in Game 7 was 11. The depth was there. And not playing Steeves didn't sink this series. The DNA of this team as constructed by Dubas and Shanahan (and Ownership) sunk this series. It wasn't lost in game 7.... it was lost in 2017.
 
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