Maple Leafs are better, but are they a playoff team?
- Thread starter cw
- Start date
ZBBM
Active member
I thought a bit about this last night over the latest issue of THN and reluctantly I have to conclude that we are still a longshot to make it in. Foundationally, Reimer has to keep it up -- a tall order in itself. The D has to gel; of that, I'm actually fairly confident. But the forwards, the forwards: slice it and dice it anyway you want, but it's still pretty much a piece of Swiss cheese -- many holes. If Lombardi and/or Connolly can miracle-ize.... But less than that, we'd have to see continued improvement on many fronts, of a magnitude that only our esteemed friend nutman can conjure up.
Bender said:
Was just talking about the boys in blue over a beer last night ,and the jersey fan i was talking to agrees that the leafs are looking very good, and if the goaltending holds up we should not have a problem getting in the playoffs. i feel the same. so i hope this little energy boosts helps.
Zee said:
I don't but .920 is still a pretty tough mark. Only 13 goalies posted a .920 SV% or better (Reimer was one). Among those that did not were: Jonathan Quick, Ryan Miller, MA Fleury, Jaroslav Halak, Jimmy Howard, Miika Kiprusoff, Martin Brodeur, Niklas Backstrom, among others.
Reimer can still very well have a good season and not post a .920 SV%. I'd be happy with anything above .910.
dappleganger
Active member
Erndog said:
If we can get team goaltending anywhere above .910 I think our playoff chances improve exponentially.
Zee said:
It'll all be in hind mind, because I definitely think he has the physical capacity to do it. He seems like the type of player to keep his mind in the game. Watching him play last year night after night, I was almost always consistently impressed by his performance and determination. It definitely felt like we had better goaltending just by watching what he was doing out there. (I always bring up the Minny game where he made at least 2 breakaway stops as what won me over).
And as an aside, I was really impressed when he was playing at the WC and went to the coach after letting in 4 goals. He said he was sorry and had to play better for the team in front of him. Awesome.
Zee said:
I wouldn't necessarily call it a fluke -- that seems to suggest (negatively) that reimer had nothing to do with his success. Nevertheless, if you look at his month-by- month save percentage you will see that it was not stable. It started out as high as .930 and slowly decrease towards .910, if I recall. As teams scout his weaknesses, he will inevitably encounter some difficulties.
princedpw said:
I think the whole scouting for weaknesses to some degree is nonsense. I mean, you can look for certain deficiencies but that doesn't necessarily mean he's not up to making the saves. I remember one game last year I think TB scored 5 or 6 goals on Reimer and the coach said they scouted him and he was beatable and that the book on Reimer was out. But he came back and had a brilliant game the next. So it's tough to answer. I wouldn't say it's
Scout Reimers weakness = inevitable drop in SV%. I agree he probably won't be playing at .920 the whole way through but I think it's more a case of Reimer punching above his weight class than shooters having a lack of preparation.
I look at Tim Thomas and ask myself "How do you scout a guy's weaknesses when essentially his entire game is a weakness?"
And yet somehow, he stops pucks. Would you all say that Reimer is a very technical goalie, and that he relies more on technique than anything else to stop the puck? I don't know if I would, but then I'm not a scout...
And yet somehow, he stops pucks. Would you all say that Reimer is a very technical goalie, and that he relies more on technique than anything else to stop the puck? I don't know if I would, but then I'm not a scout...
Reimer is a very good techinecal goalie, nothing flashy just plays the percentages. Tim Tomas is more like Haske (sorry about the spelling) not a techinical goalie, who stops everything akwardly and is impossible to scout. With our improved defense, Reimer should be able to keep us in most games.
bustaheims
Active member
Every goalie has weaknesses, but not every goalie has weaknesses that are able to be exploited easily and/or consistently. Where Reimer's weaknesses fall on that spectrum is still unknown.
I like Reimer's demeanour.
The last couple of Leaf goaltenders haven't had the mental makeup to handle playing in Toronto. Gustavsson might end up in that group as well. Granted, they weren't getting much help, but both Raycroft and Toskala had that annoying "Hey, it's not my fault if we suck" attitude about them when all too often it was their fault.
Reimer, so far, seems to be taking everything in stride. I'm sure opponents will 'get a book' on him, but that's a 2 way street as well. He strikes me as being capable of making his own adjustments. What he's shown so far is encouraging. I'm looking forward to watching him play this upcoming season.
The last couple of Leaf goaltenders haven't had the mental makeup to handle playing in Toronto. Gustavsson might end up in that group as well. Granted, they weren't getting much help, but both Raycroft and Toskala had that annoying "Hey, it's not my fault if we suck" attitude about them when all too often it was their fault.
Reimer, so far, seems to be taking everything in stride. I'm sure opponents will 'get a book' on him, but that's a 2 way street as well. He strikes me as being capable of making his own adjustments. What he's shown so far is encouraging. I'm looking forward to watching him play this upcoming season.
TheMightyOdin
New member
I am so ready for the season to start. This off season seems to be dragging more than past years.
L K
Active member
Busta Reims said:
Some nights his glove looked vulnerable, and other nights teams seemed to go high on him and he seemed fine. I'm hoping that just means that he had a kink that he needs to get more consistent on where he holds his hand when setting up for shots. It certainly went bad on him when teams scored a bunch of goals but I wonder if some of it was also a problem of a younger goaltender getting sucked in during the moment and making a weaker element of his game a full out flaw when things aren't going his way.