Maple Leafs @ Red Wings - Nov. 28th, 7:00pm - SN, TSN 1050

[Britishbulldog]

Just turned the game on...who is doing colour tonight?

Galley.  He's kind of an odd duck, in my book.  Sometimes he's pretty good, a lot of times he spouts cliches like most color guys do, and sometimes he sounds kind of aggrieved for some reason.

Thanks!  Yeah, I didn't recognize his voice and was curious on some of the commentary which seemed odd to me but some seemed relevant.

 

[ZBBM]

Giordano with a nice stick to stop a breakaway.

 

[Guru Tugginmypuddah]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[lamajama]

Bonsie is sick so they?ve got the Marlies guy doing p x p?and I?ve never liked his goal calls. Always sounds like someone grabbed him by the cujones just as he says they scored.

 

[ZBBM]

Now gotta finish this one out, 4-2.

 

[Britishbulldog]

That's a high stick!!  The Leafs NEVER get a break on called back goals!!

j/k

 

[ZBBM]

Whoa, they just survived that too-long shift.

 

[ZBBM]

Murray the with double exclamation point to ice the win!!

 

[Redleaf]

Nice win. Nice road trip!

 

[Britishbulldog]

I haven't felt this comfortable with the Leafs goaltending in years. Wow!

 

[ZBBM]

I haven't felt this comfortable with the Leafs goaltending in years. Wow!

Murray sure looks back on form, and Samsonov was great before his injury.  Dubas looking like a full-grown genius at this point.

 

[rdowdall]

I think they need to look at how they allowed the number of shots that they did, but other than that it was a solid game from the Leafs.

 

[L K]

I think they need to look at how they allowed the number of shots that they did, but other than that it was a solid game from the Leafs.

Third game in four nights at the end of a 4 game road trip with a banged up defense. 

 

[herman]

I think they need to look at how they allowed the number of shots that they did, but other than that it was a solid game from the Leafs.

There?s some stuff to clean up for sure, but the public stats are a bit simplistic. The Leafs for the past little while have not cared all that much about raw Corsi (shot attempts), but more about certain dangerous chances against: odd man rushes, pre-shot movement through the slot or into the slot, shots the goalie can?t see, etc. I?m pretty sure they are blending their Sportlogiq data and their Clear Sight Analytics data into their own proprietary game KPIs/xG model. Like a fancier version of Carlyle-puck if I?m being glib and cynical about it, but with puck possession and five-man attacks instead of cheating off dump out rushes.

Edit: and after I write all that, here it is from Keefe himself
https://mapleleafshotstove.com/2022/11/29/sheldon-keefe-post-game-leafs-4-vs-red-wings-2/

I thought we defended way too much because of our inability to break out, but especially in periods two and three, we really didn?t give up the big chance. There were a lot of shots from the perimeter and a lot of long shots.

They got a tip on one that went in in the third there, but by and large, I thought the guys did a good job of allowing Matt to see the puck. With the way [Murray] is playing, if he is seeing it, he is stopping it. That was really good.

 

[Bender]

Might be too early to say but like... where was this Matt Murray for so many years?

Ottawa.

I get that but he was also booted out of Pittsburgh for sucking.

 

[herman]

Might be too early to say but like... where was this Matt Murray for so many years?

Ottawa.

I get that but he was also booted out of Pittsburgh for sucking.

There was a HockeyPDOcast during the offseason that addressed Murray's issues and potential for Toronto.

https://hockeypdocast.com/2022/07/15/ep-449-the-goaltending-excellence-department/

New HockeyPDOcast on goaltending, featuring a conversation towards the end about Campbell ?> Murray (1:05 mark)

The jist of Murray's situation is, the game has changed since he won the Cups, and became far more lateral (Royal Road passing; east-west lane crossing). His playstyle prior was getting set in his save position (low and wide) once the puck crossed centre ice. His injuries gave him an opportunity to initiate a change to his playstyle (that side-to-side movement mentioned earlier), staying narrow and upright longer. It was just starting to solidify towards the back end of his tenure with Ottawa, where the relationship soured.

 

[rdowdall]

I think they need to look at how they allowed the number of shots that they did, but other than that it was a solid game from the Leafs.

There?s some stuff to clean up for sure, but the public stats are a bit simplistic. The Leafs for the past little while have not cared all that much about raw Corsi (shot attempts), but more about certain dangerous chances against: odd man rushes, pre-shot movement through the slot or into the slot, shots the goalie can?t see, etc. I?m pretty sure they are blending their Sportlogiq data and their Clear Sight Analytics data into their own proprietary game KPIs/xG model. Like a fancier version of Carlyle-puck if I?m being glib and cynical about it, but with puck possession and five-man attacks instead of cheating off dump out rushes.

Edit: and after I write all that, here it is from Keefe himself
https://mapleleafshotstove.com/2022/11/29/sheldon-keefe-post-game-leafs-4-vs-red-wings-2/

I thought we defended way too much because of our inability to break out, but especially in periods two and three, we really didn?t give up the big chance. There were a lot of shots from the perimeter and a lot of long shots.

They got a tip on one that went in in the third there, but by and large, I thought the guys did a good job of allowing Matt to see the puck. With the way [Murray] is playing, if he is seeing it, he is stopping it. That was really good.

Yeah, I think it's my oversimplified view of things, and the leftover residue of the Carlyle years where it was like "Yeah we give up a lot of shots, but we are okay with it" approach that leads me to get worried when I see shot totals rise.  There is a lot more that goes into though, and they have been pretty good about keeping shot totals down.  The Pittsburgh game was great for that.  Totally dominated the shots. 

 

[OldTimeHockey]

The defensive zone is a disaster which is leading to the shot totals. As great as it is to say "the shots are from the outside", they are only from the outside because Toronto's entire defensive structure this year is to collapse into the House. There was one play last night where the 5 Leafs players were below the hashmarks and in perfect formation. It looked like they were getting ready to take the face off right at the top of the crease.

Yes, having their top 3 Dmen out hurts big time. But there was signs of this type of "crowd the net" attitude right from the start of the season and that concerns me. it's not sustainable. Any shot that gets through creates a rebound and any rebound that gets out of the scrum causes a scoring chance.