Leafs @ Bruins - Apr. 25th, 7:30pm - CBC, TSN 1050

[ZBBM]

A lot of great players look pretty plain on a steady diet of Chara.

A 41-year-old Chara who looked gassed out there a lot tonight.

 

[herman]

I wonder if any of the reporters give Babcock a grilling on his ice time distribution. It was evident pretty early on that Gardiner was struggling and Dermott was playing well yet Gardner ends up playing 24 minutes to 11 for Dermott.

Kapanen scored an amazing shorty and be played under 9 minutes??? Like c'mon some of this is on the coach for not managing his team in game

The kids from the Marlies were nice-to-haves; I agree they're generally the better option, but the coach has gone through the entire season leaning on his prime players to pretty good effect and you sort of have to bank on that. I'd like Babcock to be faster on the uptake, but that's just how I see it.

I thought Kapanen and Johnsson should've been up with the Leafs last year instead of Matt Martin and whoever so that they'd be ready to be relied upon this year, but there's also their confidence and developmental readiness to account for. Johnsson said he appreciated the extra time they afforded him with the Marlies, rather than calling him up to be the franchise saviour and yo-yoing him when he inevitably faltered a bit.

Herman I respect your comments on this forum but Gardiner was plain and simple horrible all night. Man if you have the game recorded or a chance to watch it again in it's entirety count the number of mistakes Gardiner cost us today plus all the ill advised bad passes and icing and running around in his own end. Minus 2 in the collapse in 2012 and even better minus 5 tonight. Enough said.

You're right that Gardiner had a forgettable night (that none of you will forget). What I was talking about has less to do with Gardiner specifically and more to do with the general coaching formula.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

A lot of great players look pretty plain on a steady diet of Chara.

A 41-year-old Chara who looked gassed out there a lot tonight.

Yeah, he's still 6'9" but he's a shell of his former self.

 

[azzurri63]

A lot of great players look pretty plain on a steady diet of Chara.

A 41-year-old Chara who looked gassed out there a lot tonight.

Are we talking about Matthews?

 

[Joe S.]

I honestly feel that the bruins were the better team for the vast majority of the series. I'm glad the the leafs made a series of it and it's unfortunate that the league has a weird ass playoff format.

But these last 2 years have been gravy to me. The real contention clock starts ticking next year in my mind. 

 

[CarltonTheBear]

https://twitter.com/YakovMironov/status/989338414032941056

I hate this tweet.

 

[herman]

A lot of great players look pretty plain on a steady diet of Chara.

A 41-year-old Chara who looked gassed out there a lot tonight.

Yeah, he's still 6'9" but he's a shell of his former self.

It was a mistake not to try to ramp him up earlier in the series with more pucks behind. Tampa is going to have a much easier time now.

 

[Bender]

I get a sinking feeling that Gardiner is done as a Leaf. He's too risk/reward. But man, we are so thin on D if we're getting rid of Polak and who knows about Zaitsev. This team is lacking so badly on D.

And beyond that I feel like the Leafs were outplayed pretty soundly this game. They were badly outshot and I think were lucky to be up in that game. Boston is just ahead of us in their window.

And I mean, Freddy still has to have that De Brusk goal (and maybe one or two more). He's bad in game 7s if 3 games is something to go on.

 

[Zee]

I wonder if any of the reporters give Babcock a grilling on his ice time distribution. It was evident pretty early on that Gardiner was struggling and Dermott was playing well yet Gardner ends up playing 24 minutes to 11 for Dermott.

Kapanen scored an amazing shorty and be played under 9 minutes??? Like c'mon some of this is on the coach for not managing his team in game

The kids from the Marlies were nice-to-haves; I agree they're generally the better option, but the coach has gone through the entire season leaning on his prime players to pretty good effect and you sort of have to bank on that. I'd like Babcock to be faster on the uptake, but that's just how I see it.

I thought Kapanen and Johnsson should've been up with the Leafs last year instead of Matt Martin and whoever so that they'd be ready to be relied upon this year, but there's also their confidence and developmental readiness to account for. Johnsson said he appreciated the extra time they afforded him with the Marlies, rather than calling him up to be the franchise saviour and yo-yoing him when he inevitably faltered a bit.

You pay the coach 6 million a year to do whatever it takes to win. He's got to assess who's playing well and who doesn't have it. It was fairly evident to everyone that Gardiner didn't have it tonight, evident to everyone but the coach. Part of the blame goes to the coach

Winning at all costs isn't his job though.  Throwing the young guys to the wolves and destroying their confidence isn't Babcock's job.  The Leafs are trying to build something long term, and bringing along your younger players is more important.

In the playoffs his job is to win and put players on the ice that give you the best chance of winning. Gardiner wasn't one of them tonight.

Look at the Boston side, Debrusk is 21 and played over 15 minutes, they weren't afraid to give a young guy who was playing well a shot. Kapanen should have gotten more ice, Dermott should have gotten more ice. You play to win, otherwise what's the point?

 

[ZBBM]

A lot of great players look pretty plain on a steady diet of Chara.

A 41-year-old Chara who looked gassed out there a lot tonight.

Are we talking about Matthews?

Yes.

 

[Guilt Trip]

Perspective is hard this soon after, but despite their young age, there are some issues here.

I think there are some concerns about Matthews.  He was largely ineffective and for a player of his talent and size it is of concern.

There have to be questions about Andersen.  While some games he was great, in three of the games he was not.  Is he consistent enough to be the guy?  That isn?t clear to me.

The defence is bad.  Really bad and if it isn?t fixed there won?t be much chance of being a Cup competitor at all.  Not sure what they do about that.  No more high picks to find a stud D-man.

There were of course some positives, but difficult to see those in the context of a Game 7 loss.  It is so disappointing because the Bruins were there to be taken tonight.

I'm not concerned about Matthews at all.

Unless it's revealed that he's been playing hurt I agree with BBF on Matthews.  My concerns are that we might be overrating him just a tad.  He got neutralized and the very best of the best find ways not to be.

Matthew is not overrated and I'm def not worried about him. Give some credit to Chara. I think Babs said that Datsyuk didn't score a goal in his 1st 4 playoff series. He's 20 years old. I really hope Babs gives him Johnsson or Kaps for a winger next year.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I get a sinking feeling that Gardiner is done as a Leaf. He's too risk/reward. But man, we are so thin on D if we're getting rid of Polak and who knows about Zaitsev. This team is lacking so badly on D.

He still led the team in ice-time in both the regular season and playoffs. As much as fans love to rag on him Mike Babcock is still probably his biggest supporter.

 

[herman]

Winning at all costs isn't his job though.  Throwing the young guys to the wolves and destroying their confidence isn't Babcock's job.  The Leafs are trying to build something long term, and bringing along your younger players is more important.

In the playoffs his job is to win and put players on the ice that give you the best chance of winning. Gardiner wasn't one of them tonight.

Look at the Boston side, Debrusk is 21 and played over 15 minutes, they weren't afraid to give a young guy who was playing well a shot. Kapanen should have gotten more ice, Dermott should have gotten more ice. You play to win, otherwise what's the point?

I agree with the both of you.

We saw this with the Penguins and the Lightning when they made their coaching changes. The lineup got turned over to the kids on their second layer of depth because the coaches (coming right out of the AHL) knew them and already trusted them. Cassidy is in a similar position.

The difference for the Leafs is that Babcock doesn't know our kids well enough, and our first layer of depth is not Stamkos-Kucherov-Hedman, Crosby-Malkin-Kessel-Letang, they're Kadri-Bozak-JvR-Gardiner-Rielly. DeBrusk can be put into position to excel with minimal responsibility because he's behind one of the best, if not the best forward line in the past two season.

 

[azzurri63]

I wonder if any of the reporters give Babcock a grilling on his ice time distribution. It was evident pretty early on that Gardiner was struggling and Dermott was playing well yet Gardner ends up playing 24 minutes to 11 for Dermott.

Kapanen scored an amazing shorty and be played under 9 minutes??? Like c'mon some of this is on the coach for not managing his team in game

The kids from the Marlies were nice-to-haves; I agree they're generally the better option, but the coach has gone through the entire season leaning on his prime players to pretty good effect and you sort of have to bank on that. I'd like Babcock to be faster on the uptake, but that's just how I see it.

I thought Kapanen and Johnsson should've been up with the Leafs last year instead of Matt Martin and whoever so that they'd be ready to be relied upon this year, but there's also their confidence and developmental readiness to account for. Johnsson said he appreciated the extra time they afforded him with the Marlies, rather than calling him up to be the franchise saviour and yo-yoing him when he inevitably faltered a bit.

You pay the coach 6 million a year to do whatever it takes to win. He's got to assess who's playing well and who doesn't have it. It was fairly evident to everyone that Gardiner didn't have it tonight, evident to everyone but the coach. Part of the blame goes to the coach

Winning at all costs isn't his job though.  Throwing the young guys to the wolves and destroying their confidence isn't Babcock's job.  The Leafs are trying to build something long term, and bringing along your younger players is more important.

In the playoffs his job is to win and put players on the ice that give you the best chance of winning. Gardiner wasn't one of them tonight.

Look at the Boston side, Debrusk is 21 and played over 15 minutes, they weren't afraid to give a young guy who was playing well a shot. Kapanen should have gotten more ice, Dermott should have gotten more ice. You play to win, otherwise what's the point?

I honestly would have rested Gardiner early in the second. He had already cost us and I recall a shift early in the second again he was giving the puck away and making poor decisions. The time to pull him was then. He ended up costing us even more. He was a minus 5 tonight albeit one was the empty net I believe but he was flat out atrocious. Hrudey in the second intermission was all over his horrid play. 

 

[ZBBM]

Perspective is hard this soon after, but despite their young age, there are some issues here.

I think there are some concerns about Matthews.  He was largely ineffective and for a player of his talent and size it is of concern.

There have to be questions about Andersen.  While some games he was great, in three of the games he was not.  Is he consistent enough to be the guy?  That isn?t clear to me.

The defence is bad.  Really bad and if it isn?t fixed there won?t be much chance of being a Cup competitor at all.  Not sure what they do about that.  No more high picks to find a stud D-man.

There were of course some positives, but difficult to see those in the context of a Game 7 loss.  It is so disappointing because the Bruins were there to be taken tonight.

I'm not concerned about Matthews at all.

Unless it's revealed that he's been playing hurt I agree with BBF on Matthews.  My concerns are that we might be overrating him just a tad.  He got neutralized and the very best of the best find ways not to be.

Matthew is not overrated and I'm def not worried about him. Give some credit to Chara. I think Babs said that Datsyuk didn't score a goal in his 1st 4 playoff series. He's 20 years old. I really hope Babs gives him Johnsson or Kaps for a winger next year.

I hope I'm wrong but he's definitely got something to prove in the playoffs next year (assuming we make them).

 

[Guilt Trip]

I wonder if any of the reporters give Babcock a grilling on his ice time distribution. It was evident pretty early on that Gardiner was struggling and Dermott was playing well yet Gardner ends up playing 24 minutes to 11 for Dermott.

Kapanen scored an amazing shorty and be played under 9 minutes??? Like c'mon some of this is on the coach for not managing his team in game

The kids from the Marlies were nice-to-haves; I agree they're generally the better option, but the coach has gone through the entire season leaning on his prime players to pretty good effect and you sort of have to bank on that. I'd like Babcock to be faster on the uptake, but that's just how I see it.

I thought Kapanen and Johnsson should've been up with the Leafs last year instead of Matt Martin and whoever so that they'd be ready to be relied upon this year, but there's also their confidence and developmental readiness to account for. Johnsson said he appreciated the extra time they afforded him with the Marlies, rather than calling him up to be the franchise saviour and yo-yoing him when he inevitably faltered a bit.

You pay the coach 6 million a year to do whatever it takes to win. He's got to assess who's playing well and who doesn't have it. It was fairly evident to everyone that Gardiner didn't have it tonight, evident to everyone but the coach. Part of the blame goes to the coach

Winning at all costs isn't his job though.  Throwing the young guys to the wolves and destroying their confidence isn't Babcock's job.  The Leafs are trying to build something long term, and bringing along your younger players is more important.

In the playoffs his job is to win and put players on the ice that give you the best chance of winning. Gardiner wasn't one of them tonight.

Look at the Boston side, Debrusk is 21 and played over 15 minutes, they weren't afraid to give a young guy who was playing well a shot. Kapanen should have gotten more ice, Dermott should have gotten more ice. You play to win, otherwise what's the point?

Agree with that. You have to play who's going. Babs should have sat Gardiner but couldn't early when Reilly got hurt. He def could have later. Gardiner's mistakes were the ultimate downfall in this game.

 

[gunnar36]

A few thoughts on game...

1)Yes it wasn't Gardiners best game. But cut him some slack, we would have never got to game 7 without him. He was the best dman on both teams in game 6.  He is the one guys who can separate guys from from puck and skate puck out of danger areas consistently. He is constantly making difficult plays look easy (and sometimes easy plays look difficult but not nearly as often ).

2)Nylander on at least 3 plays could have easily beaten Chara cleanly to a puck but choose to pull a Kessel and lay up.  I would like to see a little more fire from a guy playing for his next contract.

3)  the Bruins play far better team defence, not just the 6 guys on the back end, but the forwards in their end are far more involved in winning puck battles then the Leafs.  By virtue of the size and toughness advantage the Bruins have, I feel gave them a big advantage on defending and making it hard for the Leafs to sustain an attack.

 

[Guilt Trip]

Perspective is hard this soon after, but despite their young age, there are some issues here.

I think there are some concerns about Matthews.  He was largely ineffective and for a player of his talent and size it is of concern.

There have to be questions about Andersen.  While some games he was great, in three of the games he was not.  Is he consistent enough to be the guy?  That isn?t clear to me.

The defence is bad.  Really bad and if it isn?t fixed there won?t be much chance of being a Cup competitor at all.  Not sure what they do about that.  No more high picks to find a stud D-man.

There were of course some positives, but difficult to see those in the context of a Game 7 loss.  It is so disappointing because the Bruins were there to be taken tonight.

I'm not concerned about Matthews at all.

Unless it's revealed that he's been playing hurt I agree with BBF on Matthews.  My concerns are that we might be overrating him just a tad.  He got neutralized and the very best of the best find ways not to be.

Matthew is not overrated and I'm def not worried about him. Give some credit to Chara. I think Babs said that Datsyuk didn't score a goal in his 1st 4 playoff series. He's 20 years old. I really hope Babs gives him Johnsson or Kaps for a winger next year.

I hope I'm wrong but he's definitely got something to prove in the playoffs next year (assuming we make them).

I agree with that. He was fine last year but Washington doesn't have a Chara. It's not like he didn't get any chances. He had 9 shots on goal the last 2 games. He can't do it on his own either. No offense but Hyman and Brown don't exactly scream offense. Kaps would be a better fit IMO. Nylander played scared out there..Matthews didn't. One good thing tho, it should keep Willies contact reasonable

 

[azzurri63]

A lot of great players look pretty plain on a steady diet of Chara.

A 41-year-old Chara who looked gassed out there a lot tonight.

Are we talking about Matthews?

Yes.

I've said it earlier this year and thought I would get blasted for it but Matthews lacks that little bit of nastiness or grit. Some guys have it some don't. I don't think it's something you acquire but who knows maybe it'll come. He's a huge talent. Top 5 centers in the league and personally think he can get into the top 3 behind Crosby, McDavid. He's an exceptional player but that element he's missing right now is what will separate him from Crosby and Connor but in the wrong way. What troubles me is that he has the size over those 2 but doesnt use it as much as he should. Again maybe that will come. Personally I don't think so. players like him and Nylander their games are great for the regular season but playoffs is a whole new ballgame. You have to bring it, can't be afraid to go in the corners, take a hit, dish a hit etc.

 

[Kin]

Oh good. I was wondering if somehow this loss would be attributed to someone's inability to hit someone else.