Game 43: Leafs @ Capitals - Apr. 16, 7:00pm - TSN, TSN 1050

[sneakyray]

still don't understand how ovie's shenanigans are only worth 2 minutes and orr's gets him kicked out of the game.

ovies was worse

 

[Kin]

You don't think over a season those things would even out?

No but even if I did I'm not sure everything needs to be looked at in a macro level to that degree. If a team scores 4 goals on 15 shots because they converted on high quality chances I think that's a good offensive evening.

I don't see how over a full season it wouldn't even out.  You'd have an unsustainable SH% if it didn't (at least if you were winning any games you would).

I think in general that it would have as much to do with your ability to reproduce those high quality scoring chances. 

Crosby/Ovechkin/Stamkos etc. don't outscore everyone else because they simply take a lot of shots.  They produce higher quality scoring chances because they are able to do so, and thus they score more.

And for what it's worth those guys' teams finished 3rd, 4th and 1st last year in shooting percentage respectively.

 

[Stickytape]

So, don't get me wrong: the Leafs played a horrible game.  But it was the butt-end of a back-to-back, on the road, against a team on a 7-game winning streak battling to stay in the playoffs, with the backup goalie in net.  So I wasn't expecting a win, though I was (foolishly) hoping for an OT point.

Still, that was pretty damn stinky, and I hope the team got the message that they can't keep playing like that.  Carlyle had better find a way to wake them up.

This game was an absolute chore to watch.

 

[Redleaf]

What do we blame tonight's loss on? Fatigue? Goaltending? I suppose it would be a little of both. I'm not too worried. In fact, I think the Leafs could still dispose of the Caps in a 7 game series, for whatever that's worth tonight.

 

[Bender]

So, don't get me wrong: the Leafs played a horrible game.  But it was the butt-end of a back-to-back, on the road, against a team on a 7-game winning streak battling to stay in the playoffs, with the backup goalie in net.  So I wasn't expecting a win, though I was (foolishly) hoping for an OT point.

Still, that was pretty damn stinky, and I hope the team got the message that they can't keep playing like that.  Carlyle had better find a way to wake them up.

This game was an absolute chore to watch.

It sucked, but I don't think you can't grant even the best teams a couple of stinkers. I think we've got some pretty great hockey out of this team in the last 15 games or so. They won, what, 12 of their last 16 games?

I get that we don't want the to ever lose, and especially not lose badly, but sometimes you have to accept a bad loss and not really chalk it up to having to "wake" the team up or any other cliche answers. They had a bad game and hopefully over the long term they can keep these kinds of losses to a minimum (which they seemed to have done lately).

 

[TheMightyOdin]

I started watching from the second period on and to me the Leafs  looked really slow.  Back to Back and the 3rd game in 4 nights. It showed.

 

[bbt]

There is no long term left this season.  Two stinkers back to back..face it there was little effort against NJ.....going to be a short playoff run if they play like the last two games.

 

[nutman]

I'll give them this stinker, after all we had a hard one the night before, as well as a travel night, then we run into the hottest team out there, and they were packing Ovi. so thur I expect nothing but a win.

 

[Bender]

There is no long term left this season.  Two stinkers back to back..face it there was little effort against NJ.....going to be a short playoff run if they play like the last two games.

You know, we did beat NJ. A win is a win no matter how you slice it.

Only in Toronto do we criticize HOW a team wins a game.

 

[Zee]

There is no long term left this season.  Two stinkers back to back..face it there was little effort against NJ.....going to be a short playoff run if they play like the last two games.

You know, we did beat NJ. A win is a win no matter how you slice it.

Only in Toronto do we criticize HOW a team wins a game.

No, they complain in Montreal too, even when they win.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

There is no long term left this season.  Two stinkers back to back..face it there was little effort against NJ.....going to be a short playoff run if they play like the last two games.

You know, we did beat NJ. A win is a win no matter how you slice it.

Only in Toronto do we criticize HOW a team wins a game.

It's called being realistic. I have a hard time being impressed with the effort in a 13 shot victory and some of us saw this stinker coming against Washington.

We're all glad they did get the W, but it doesn't mean that we should just ignore the tell tale signs of a team that has some major corrections to make. The game last night just made those issues more glaring.

 

[Jalili]

There is no long term left this season.  Two stinkers back to back..face it there was little effort against NJ.....going to be a short playoff run if they play like the last two games.

You know, we did beat NJ. A win is a win no matter how you slice it.

Only in Toronto do we criticize HOW a team wins a game.

It sounds like he's looking at it beyond the outcome of the game.

Nothing wrong with that. People do the same thing when the team plays well but loses due to fortune.

 

[Bender]

There is no long term left this season.  Two stinkers back to back..face it there was little effort against NJ.....going to be a short playoff run if they play like the last two games.

You know, we did beat NJ. A win is a win no matter how you slice it.

Only in Toronto do we criticize HOW a team wins a game.

It sounds like he's looking at it beyond the outcome of the game.

Nothing wrong with that. People do the same thing when the team plays well but loses due to fortune.

Yeah but what I don't understand is this: Sometimes goaltenders need to steal games. We finally had that occur in the last game and now we're complaining that sometimes the goaltender has to steal games?

Sorry, but I find that a bit odd. Its not like we're playing like garbage on a regular basis. Besides, like was stated earlier, this was basically the foundation of the successful hockey clubs that Pat Quinn ran in the 90's-00's.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

There is no long term left this season.  Two stinkers back to back..face it there was little effort against NJ.....going to be a short playoff run if they play like the last two games.

You know, we did beat NJ. A win is a win no matter how you slice it.

Only in Toronto do we criticize HOW a team wins a game.

It sounds like he's looking at it beyond the outcome of the game.

Nothing wrong with that. People do the same thing when the team plays well but loses due to fortune.

Yeah but what I don't understand is this: Sometimes goaltenders need to steal games. We finally had that occur in the last game and now we're complaining that sometimes the goaltender has to steal games?

Sorry, but I find that a bit odd. Its not like we're playing like garbage on a regular basis. Besides, like was stated earlier, this was basically the foundation of the successful hockey clubs that Pat Quinn ran in the 90's-00's.

You are correct in all your points.

All I am saying as I can't speak for everyone is, they need to correct some issues. Regardless of what people say about chances vs shots, I don't think anyone can truly argue that this team takes enough shots.

Their giveaways have also shot up in recent games I believe and that's what wins and loses the big games.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy the team has done well this year. I'm just not satisfied with status quo.

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

Yeah but what I don't understand is this: Sometimes goaltenders need to steal games. We finally had that occur in the last game and now we're complaining that sometimes the goaltender has to steal games?

Sorry, but I find that a bit odd. Its not like we're playing like garbage on a regular basis. Besides, like was stated earlier, this was basically the foundation of the successful hockey clubs that Pat Quinn ran in the 90's-00's.

So the problem is, statistically, The Leafs are playing so far above themselves, it is astonishing.

To give you an idea, the teams who have performed statistically as the Leafs have, have finished in the bottom five of the league over 95% of the time.

The only thing separating these teams from the current Leafs is the Toronto shooting percentage at 5 on 5, now if you think the Leafs can maintain their current shooting percentage success at 5 on 5 (something no team ever has) then yeah we might have some success.

But if you believe the shooting percentage will come back to something around the league average, then we suddenly become a very poor team, very quickly.

Very simply, do you believe this Leafs team is the greatest group of shooters of all-time?

If not, things need to change fundamentally in how the play the game or we're in for a rough ride.

All that being said, I hope for the best and am looking forward to the playoffs.

 

[Zee]

Yeah but what I don't understand is this: Sometimes goaltenders need to steal games. We finally had that occur in the last game and now we're complaining that sometimes the goaltender has to steal games?

Sorry, but I find that a bit odd. Its not like we're playing like garbage on a regular basis. Besides, like was stated earlier, this was basically the foundation of the successful hockey clubs that Pat Quinn ran in the 90's-00's.

So the problem is, statistically, The Leafs are playing so far above themselves, it is astonishing.

To give you an idea, the teams who have performed statistically as the Leafs have, have finished in the bottom five of the league over 95% of the time.

The only thing separating these teams from the current Leafs is the Toronto shooting percentage at 5 on 5, now if you think the Leafs can maintain their current shooting percentage success at 5 on 5 (something no team ever has) then yeah we might have some success.

But if you believe the shooting percentage will come back to something around the league average, then we suddenly become a very poor team, very quickly.

Very simply, do you believe this Leafs team is the greatest group of shooters of all-time?

If not, things need to change fundamentally in how the play the game or we're in for a rough ride.

All that being said, I hope for the best and am looking forward to the playoffs.

Statistics, Stashmistics.

 

[Bender]

Yeah but what I don't understand is this: Sometimes goaltenders need to steal games. We finally had that occur in the last game and now we're complaining that sometimes the goaltender has to steal games?

Sorry, but I find that a bit odd. Its not like we're playing like garbage on a regular basis. Besides, like was stated earlier, this was basically the foundation of the successful hockey clubs that Pat Quinn ran in the 90's-00's.

So the problem is, statistically, The Leafs are playing so far above themselves, it is astonishing.

To give you an idea, the teams who have performed statistically as the Leafs have, have finished in the bottom five of the league over 95% of the time.

The only thing separating these teams from the current Leafs is the Toronto shooting percentage at 5 on 5, now if you think the Leafs can maintain their current shooting percentage success at 5 on 5 (something no team ever has) then yeah we might have some success.

But if you believe the shooting percentage will come back to something around the league average, then we suddenly become a very poor team, very quickly.

Very simply, do you believe this Leafs team is the greatest group of shooters of all-time?

If not, things need to change fundamentally in how the play the game or we're in for a rough ride.

All that being said, I hope for the best and am looking forward to the playoffs.

I don't want to sound like a douche here, I honestly have not seen the stats you're referring to. Can you post them and/or point me in the right direction for your evidence?

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

I don't want to sound like a douche here, I honestly have not seen the stats you're referring to. Can you post them and/or point me in the right direction for your evidence?

No worries, that's reasonable. One of the media guys posted a good article on it on twitter the other day, I'll try and find it again, don't have it to hand.

EDIT: Annoyingly I am struggling to find the original, so many of these guys post so much on twitter, trawling through their history is nigh on impossible. I'll keep looking.

 

[princedpw]

Yeah but what I don't understand is this: Sometimes goaltenders need to steal games. We finally had that occur in the last game and now we're complaining that sometimes the goaltender has to steal games?

Sorry, but I find that a bit odd. Its not like we're playing like garbage on a regular basis. Besides, like was stated earlier, this was basically the foundation of the successful hockey clubs that Pat Quinn ran in the 90's-00's.

So the problem is, statistically, The Leafs are playing so far above themselves, it is astonishing.

To give you an idea, the teams who have performed statistically as the Leafs have, have finished in the bottom five of the league over 95% of the time.

The only thing separating these teams from the current Leafs is the Toronto shooting percentage at 5 on 5, now if you think the Leafs can maintain their current shooting percentage success at 5 on 5 (something no team ever has) then yeah we might have some success.

But if you believe the shooting percentage will come back to something around the league average, then we suddenly become a very poor team, very quickly.

Very simply, do you believe this Leafs team is the greatest group of shooters of all-time?

If not, things need to change fundamentally in how the play the game or we're in for a rough ride.

All that being said, I hope for the best and am looking forward to the playoffs.

I don't want to sound like a douche here, I honestly have not seen the stats you're referring to. Can you post them and/or point me in the right direction for your evidence?

Here is one short piece that explains that teams that finish with a shot differential like the leafs, typically finish approximately 12th in their conference in the next year and rarely make the playoffs (It's an Oiler's blog -- their shot differential is even worse):

http://www.coppernblue.com/2013/4/11/4212504/can-we-at-least-look-forward-to-next-year

I am pretty sure I've seen a better article somewhere though.  I'm not sure where at the moment.