2017-18 Toronto Maple Leafs - General Discussion

[herman]

MLHS's Anthony Petrielli and TLN's Ian Tulloch teamed up for a pair of podcasts last week.

This one is with Off the Post and about the best lines in the NHL right now
https://soundcloud.com/off-the-post/cream-of-the-crop-which-lines-are-the-nhls-best-ep-70

This one is on Ian's Leafs Geeks Podcast and specifically about the Leafs' State of the System that we've been hashing out lately
https://mapleleafshotstove.com/2017/12/26/anthony-petrielli-analyzes-toronto-maple-leafs-systems-leafs-geeks-podcast/

 

[disco]

https://twitter.com/mikecommito/status/947139028205408257
Here's a fun blast from the past
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5jKAsnYYF8

 

[CarltonTheBear]

The Leafs don't have a single back-to-back until January 24th/25th. But they have 10 games in 23 days in that time, including a stretch where they play 6 games in 11 days (that starts today against Vegas). Lots of home games though (6 in a row after Vegas). It'll be interesting to see how Babcock uses Pickard/McBackup prior to the next B2B. Or if he uses them at all.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Zaitsev update:

https://twitter.com/sunhornby/status/947612063140057088

That means likely a minimum of 5 more games without him.

 

[herman]

https://twitter.com/steveburtch/status/947880628338298880

Thread: click through the tweet

I?m looking forward to 2018. We aren?t playing at our peak yet and have had a nasty road heavy schedule for the first half and we are still sitting on a decent cushion of points (poorly earned or otherwise).

We will see the contrast between us, a good team, vs Tampa Bay, a great Cup contender, and it will still be stark difference at the moment. But the pieces for greatness are there and growing and cap room is coming (briefly). We don?t have the injury luck of last season or the overachievement of so many players, but bounces will come.

 

[ZBBM]

https://twitter.com/steveburtch/status/947880628338298880

Thread: click through the tweet

I?m looking forward to 2018. We aren?t playing at our peak yet and have had a nasty road heavy schedule for the first half and we are still sitting on a decent cushion of points (poorly earned or otherwise).

We will see the contrast between us, a good team, vs Tampa Bay, a great Cup contender, and it will still be stark difference at the moment. But the pieces for greatness are there and growing and cap room is coming (briefly). We don?t have the injury luck of last season or the overachievement of so many players, but bounces will come.

I hate to break up this guy's lazy lede but there is no sky is falling panic in anything I've been reading.

 

[herman]

https://theathletic.com/199613/2018/01/02/qa-lou-lamoriello-on-upgrading-the-leafs-defence-auston-matthews-and-if-hell-remain-gm-next-season/

Jonas Siegel sat down to pick Lou's brain, and as usual, we got next to nothing out of a lot of words.

 

[herman]

ImHuge @ r/leafs has been tracking our 6pts in 5 games target Babcock set out last season.

Someone else (bravenewname) added formatting for away games, so if we're wondering why December's record was so dismal (on top of losing Matthews for a stretch and playing like garbage):

 

[bustaheims]

Unless the Goat!

 

[Highlander]

Unless the Goat!

Here's to you Busta...LOL

 

[ZBBM]

https://theathletic.com/199613/2018/01/02/qa-lou-lamoriello-on-upgrading-the-leafs-defence-auston-matthews-and-if-hell-remain-gm-next-season/

Jonas Siegel sat down to pick Lou's brain, and as usual, we got next to nothing out of a lot of words.

Lou's skull is fashioned of tungsten and various rare-earth minerals.  Not possible to infiltrate.

 

[disco]

https://twitter.com/steveburtch/status/947880628338298880

Thread: click through the tweet

I?m looking forward to 2018. We aren?t playing at our peak yet and have had a nasty road heavy schedule for the first half and we are still sitting on a decent cushion of points (poorly earned or otherwise).

We will see the contrast between us, a good team, vs Tampa Bay, a great Cup contender, and it will still be stark difference at the moment. But the pieces for greatness are there and growing and cap room is coming (briefly). We don?t have the injury luck of last season or the overachievement of so many players, but bounces will come.

x2

 

[princedpw]

ImHuge @ r/leafs has been tracking our 6pts in 5 games target Babcock set out last season.

Someone else (bravenewname) added formatting for away games, so if we're wondering why December's record was so dismal (on top of losing Matthews for a stretch and playing like garbage):

I believe I read that the Leafs had 18 back-to-backs this year.  I think they have complete 13 (70% of them) and have just 5 more to go.

All other things being equal, there is reason to believe the 2nd half will go a little better.

 

[LuncheonMeat]

ImHuge @ r/leafs has been tracking our 6pts in 5 games target Babcock set out last season.

Someone else (bravenewname) added formatting for away games, so if we're wondering why December's record was so dismal (on top of losing Matthews for a stretch and playing like garbage):

I believe I read that the Leafs had 18 back-to-backs this year.  I think they have complete 13 (70% of them) and have just 5 more to go.

All other things being equal, there is reason to believe the 2nd half will go a little better.

Fourteen this season, but I'm not sure how many they've played so far.

 

[Bullfrog]

https://theathletic.com/199613/2018/01/02/qa-lou-lamoriello-on-upgrading-the-leafs-defence-auston-matthews-and-if-hell-remain-gm-next-season/

Jonas Siegel sat down to pick Lou's brain, and as usual, we got next to nothing out of a lot of words.

Lou's skull is fashioned of tungsten and various rare-earth minerals.  Not possible to infiltrate.

Uninfiltratium?

 

[Zee]

A buddy of mine, not a Leafs fan, mentioned to me that the Leafs are 1-13 when Graham Skilliter is a ref.  Not believing him I googled it, and sure enough it's a thing. https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/disturbing-trend-emerges-between-the-maple-leafs-and-one-particular-nhl-referee

Coinkidink?

 

[louisstamos]

A buddy of mine, not a Leafs fan, mentioned to me that the Leafs are 1-13 when Graham Skilliter is a ref.  Not believing him I googled it, and sure enough it's a thing. https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/disturbing-trend-emerges-between-the-maple-leafs-and-one-particular-nhl-referee

Coinkidink?

Probably - the Leafs were very bad 2 years ago, and just barely made the playoffs last year.  Still, that's pretty lobsided.

 

[Zee]

A buddy of mine, not a Leafs fan, mentioned to me that the Leafs are 1-13 when Graham Skilliter is a ref.  Not believing him I googled it, and sure enough it's a thing. https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/disturbing-trend-emerges-between-the-maple-leafs-and-one-particular-nhl-referee

Coinkidink?

Probably - the Leafs were very bad 2 years ago, and just barely made the playoffs last year.  Still, that's pretty lobsided.

True enough, I'd throw out the 0-5 from 2 years ago since the Leafs were the worst team in the league, but the last 2 seasons combined they're still only 1-8 with him as ref and the Leafs have generally been pretty good over that span.

Since this has been made into a quasi-story, I'm interested to see how the next game goes with this guy as ref.

 

[bustaheims]

True enough, I'd throw out the 0-5 from 2 years ago since the Leafs were the worst team in the league, but the last 2 seasons combined they're still only 1-8 with him as ref and the Leafs have generally been pretty good over that span.

The Leafs were not particularly good in 15/16 when they went 0-3 with him as a ref. They went 0-5 with him in 14/15 (also, not a good team that year).

In the span they've been a reasonably good team, they've gone 1-5 (assuming the other night against Tampa was the first time he's officiated one of their games this season). Still not great, but, not enough to draw much of a conclusion from without knowing when he was the official last season - as they were still a pretty middling team early in 16/17.

 

[Zee]

True enough, I'd throw out the 0-5 from 2 years ago since the Leafs were the worst team in the league, but the last 2 seasons combined they're still only 1-8 with him as ref and the Leafs have generally been pretty good over that span.

The Leafs were not particularly good in 15/16 when they went 0-3 with him as a ref. They went 0-5 with him in 14/15 (also, not a good team that year).

In the span they've been a reasonably good team, they've gone 1-5 (assuming the other night against Tampa was the first time he's officiated one of their games this season). Still not great, but, not enough to draw much of a conclusion from without knowing when he was the official last season - as they were still a pretty middling team early in 16/17.

Oh I read it wrong, I saw 3 separate seasons and figured the 0-3 was from last year, but it's from 2 seasons ago since it's 15-16.  So yeah since last season's team + this season they're 1-5 with him.