Oilers @ Leafs - Nov. 14th, 7:00pm - SN

[Chris]

I love Stecher’s effort and gumption, but cutting to the middle off the boards on his off wing with his level of puck skill is not working

Trying to do too much.

 

[herman]

Other than not scoring, good to see the high commitment game from the Leafs, shorthanded though they are.

 

[herman]

Matthews bails out Tavares’ very unwise turnover with the empty net

 

[herman]

Their best loss of the season (against a very good team on a roll)

 

[Chris]

One of their better recent games but still 0 points.

 

[Guilt Trip]

Good game, good effort overall.

 

[ZBBM]

Their best loss of the season

taking 4+ minutes to overturn a goal called on the ice is total horseshit. Goddamn league.

 

[Bill_Berg]

 

[ZBBM]

No matter how this one went, or how tough the competition is, losing all 6 on a homestand is completely unacceptable.

 

[Andy07]

Played well. NHL officiating/the NHL is still laughable. Such a bland, boring product. But great, at least we get to watch alot of shot "attempts"

 

[azzurri63]

Can’t they find some help overseas? Nothing in the minors or junior that is of immediate help. You telling me there’s nothing out there some unsigned player that’s better than what we have especially on D?

 

[cw]

Better game than I expected but 0 points hurts

They're in 28th place in win% .409.
To make the playoffs, they have to play like a top 10 team ~ .661 win% the rest of the way
Their next 7 games are fairly easy - only one tough team: Boston
They have to rack up some points in that stretch or its a fire sale

 

[Chris]

111 point pace required - for the rest of the season - to get to 100 pts.

5 of the next 7 games against teams under .500 but then they have Florida, Carolina, Dallas, Vegas so they need a LOT of wins in this upcoming group of games.

 

[L K]

The last 3-4 games I haven't come away from the game thinking they were the second best team on the ice. But the problem is they have thrown away too many points in a division that is too good.

Luck is definitely happening here. I don't entirely disagree with the no goal call on Tavares but it was close. So of course it had to go against us. Yet another game where we draw very few PPs.

The team isn't good enough but they aren't this bad. They probably go on a run soon and then we have hope again only for it to fall apart

 

[Bill_Berg]

Ya the problem is even if you play well, you have a 50/50 shot of winning, so you really can't suck for long stretches.

 

[cw]

Some bad luck - they've hit a lot of posts recently including Nylander last night
They do seem to be on the short end of the reffing. There was a blatant bad trip behind their net last night but no hint of a call.

They were always a bubble team. No one picked them as a true contender.
Currently, instead of likely to finish between 12th and 20th, they've probably slipped to 15th to 24th
All in this short-sighted effort to try to re-sign Matthews who is so likely to leave to play for a real contender (that they have little hope of becoming any time soon) before his prime years are over.
An old team doesn't get better with age.
I always pull for them and hope for the best but it is tough when they have little chance of doing anything special.
Hoping they can achieve a first round exit isn't exactly setting your sights very high.
But here we are ..

 

[Chris]

Some bad luck - they've hit a lot of posts recently including Nylander last night
They do seem to be on the short end of the reffing. There was a blatant bad trip behind their net last night but no hint of a call.

They were always a bubble team. No one picked them as a true contender.
Currently, instead of likely to finish between 12th and 20th, they've probably slipped to 15th to 24th
All in this short-sighted effort to try to re-sign Matthews who is so likely to leave to play for a real contender (that they have little hope of becoming any time soon) before his prime years are over.
An old team doesn't get better with age.
I always pull for them and hope for the best but it is tough when they have little chance of doing anything special.
Hoping they can achieve a first round exit isn't exactly setting your sights very high.
But here we are ..

It's not setting your sights high but you know the old saying - get in the playoffs and "anything can happen." Maybe playoff Bob appears. Maybe a bunch of other teams have serious injuries. Maybe the Leafs actually get healthy and maybe somehow, through some miracle, they can clean up their cap and get an impact player or two at the deadline.

Of course, with the mountain they now have to climb just to get to the playoffs...it's probably not something we're going to need to worry about.

I think Matthews has already decided what he's doing - just the way he is talking to the press this season, he seems more at peace. I don't know what that decision will be, though I'm hoping he'll agree to a trade that allows the team to begin a real rebuild. If he goes I'm sure Nylander will as well since he already said he doesn't want to be here for a rebuild.