Capitals @ Leafs - Nov. 26th, 7:00pm - CBC, Fan 590
- Thread starter CarltonTheBear
- Start date
McGarnagle
New member
Nik the Trik said:
Ha.
McGarnagle
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Damn, I'm torn on the motm. Martin, Marner, Andersen, Kadri. Hmm.
Arn
Active member
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:
Not by design - I've just been lucky the last 4 years I think it is now to get over for a game in Toronto, Boston and now NY.
Before that I hadn't seen the Leafs since 2004 or so when I caught 3 games in a week against Tampa (lost 7-2), Colorado (won 5-2) and Ottawa (finished 2-2)
barney_rebel
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We rule man...
McGarnagle
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When you think about it, this might have been the best team game of the year.
azzurri63
Active member
Nik the Trik said:
You're telling me they couldn't have knocked Backstrom down? JVR was 2 feet from him flailing his stick at Backstrom if he would have taken him out that goal don't happen. Plus if you look at the replay OV taking shots at Carrick while he's on the ice. There were 5 Leafs standing around near the crease Carrick unfortunately on the ice but the other 4 really doing nothing.
azzurri63
Active member
Nik the Trik said:
Nik obviously we can shred this anyway we want. What it boils down is my passion for this team and my desire to see them succeed. Unfortunately my Italian blood gets the best of me and it reflects on my posts. When I see players standing around the crease and taking extra shots at goal and no Leaf is laying a hand on him that irks me. Call me old school whatever but that will never change. Yes I know the game has changed. Defensemen can no longer do what they once did but in my opinion that's one of this team weaknesses. Do we have to knock the f*****s down like I said NO. But at the very least try and take the guy out. This team is easy to play against I think and opposition players take more liberty why because we really don't have anyone that strikes any kind of fear into anyone. If you rewind that whole game you'll probably see OV take numerous cheap shots at our guys. Why? Because he knows we have no-one that will come back at him. I don't care if it's OV lay him out. Other than Martin who's known for his toughness the only other players on this team that play with an edge are Kadri and Polak. Rest of the guys if you watch them whenever something happens they don't do squat. I can live with some of the smaller players shying away from that. I don't expect Marner, Brown etc to play that way but some of the bigger guys should. I think it benefits players when the play with that edge because the other team may give them more room.
Some players don't have it. I know it's not really something you acquire. You either have it or you don't but if say a player like JVR could play with a little bit more aggressiveness and use his body more he would be an even better player. Anyway it was a great game last night, they played well, wish Andersen could have gotten the shutout. Have a great remainder to the weekend.
GhostofPotvin29
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Well my prediction was wrong.
Kin
New member
azzurri63 said:
There's a lot to unpack there so I'll try to get to it all:
1. I get it, you'd like the team to be tougher. You've made that well known.
2. I don't agree that "knocking Backstrom down" was either a possibility or good play there. For starters, Backstrom is not a small guy. He's 6'1 and 213. He's hard to knock down. He's also very good. If you try to knock him down every time he crosses the blue line you're more likely to wind up out of position than actually succeeding.
2a. That goal didn't get scored because nobody knocked Backstrom away from the front of the net. Backstrom was behind the net. The fact that he was on his own is a result of defensemen getting out of position which throwing big hits tends to result in. Backstrom wasn't JVR's man. The only way for him to "knock him down" would be to either take him when he entered the zone(again, putting him out of position) or, when Backstrom was behind the net, JVR somehow figuring out a way to accelerate enough in two steps to knock him down without drawing a penalty. I've watched that goal a half-dozen times now and JVR is helping Andersen cover up because he didn't know the puck was going to bounce to Backstrom. That goal was a result of bad luck and players getting out of position, not a lack of body slamming the opposing forwards.
3. I watched the whole game and didn't see Ovechkin throw any cheap shots.
4. I've said this elsewhere but the whole "If JVR started throwing his body around" stuff has been said about JVR since he came into the league. It's really just not who he is. If it were, he wouldn't have been available for a slow stay at home defenseman that the Leafs were fed up with.
5. I generally don't think the team needs to be tougher. Like you say Polak is one of those guys and his benefit to the team is pretty questionable.
