WordsOfWisdom

While I'm here, although slightly off topic but purely out of curiosity, did Mike Babcock have a defensive system during his time in Detroit, or was his defensive system just: "Play Nicklas Lidstrom"? I'm trying to figure out whether or not the guy can coach or whether the Leafs really have no good defensive players since defence and special teams really are about the only thing you CAN coach in the NHL. But I digress.... Back to Blashill....

And no, I did not read Bob McKenzie's tweets before I posted the thread lol!

Bob McKenzie echos my sentiments. I looked at his record this season and the game in Chicago last night and thought wow, this kid never had a chance with that defence in front of him. I couldn't believe they gave up on him already. Unreal.

Definitely. Toronto fans have a completely different mindset than fans in Boston. Boston fans expect to win now. Toronto fans don't expect to win at all.

The danger there is if a guy like Kucherov gets booed, he has plenty of other options as far as interested teams are concerned. So if things were to go bad in Tampa, a player like Kucherov is going to land on his feet in a place like St. Louis, Colorado, Boston, Philly, New York, etc... You name it, teams with cap space would be lining up to acquire him.

If you look at the game against Chicago last night, most of those goals against Hutchison he had no chance on. Chicago forwards were getting clean one-timers, were able to skate right into the slot untouched, etc... Hutchison becomes the latest Leafs goalie to be ruined in Toronto. I guess since you can't fire the six guys in front of him, you have to fire the goalie. Codi Cedi (lost coverage), Jake Muzzin (horrible turnover). Spezza's line seemed to be on the ice for every Chicago goal. The Leafs stars showed up offensively. Matthews, Nylander, Tavares, all contributing. Their talent is being wasted on this pretender of a team.

Fans in Toronto have a fairly long leash actually, mostly due to fan apathy I think. If you look at players who got booed out of Toronto, they had to significantly under-perform for a tremendous length of time before fans finally turned on them. If any of those same players had played in a town like Philly or Boston and done the same, they would have been run out of town way sooner. My two cents. In recent years, the only players to be booed out of town were Jonathan Bernier and Phil Kessel. What did they do? Well, Bernier was statistically the worst goalie in the NHL during his time in Toronto and was eventually demoted to the minors. Kessel was a moody, strange, distant winger who was a locker room cancer, who refused to learn any kind of defensive game, and who initiated the "stick gate" incident where the players didn't salute the fans after a game. He was Toronto's highest paid player and he played like the 5th best player on any other NHL team during his time here.

The Leafs played this way for most of the past 20 years of my prime hockey viewing life. You can see why I've become the glass-half-empty (and cracked) person that I am today!

Eastern Conference Standings GP W L OL PTS PTS% GF GA SRS SOS RPt% RW Atlantic Division Boston Bruins 17 11 3 3 25 .735 60 43 0.99 -0.01 .706 11 Toronto Maple Leafs 19 9 6 4 22 .579 64 62 0.03 -0.07 .500 6 Montreal Canadiens 17 9 5 3 21 .618 61 54 0.27 -0.15 .529 7 Florida Panthers 17 8 4 5 21 .618 62 63 0.24 0.29 .500 5 Buffalo Sabres 17 9 6 2 20 .588 50 48 0.01 -0.11 .529 6 Tampa Bay Lightning 15 8 5 2 18 .600 52 52 0.24 0.24 .500 6 Ottawa Senators 16 6 9 1 13 .406 45 51 -0.39 -0.02 .406 5 Detroit Red Wings 19 6 12 1 13 .342 42 72 -1.42 0.16 .316 6 Metropolitan Division Washington Capitals 18 13 2 3 29 .806 74 55 1.22 0.16 .694 9 New York Islanders 16 12 3 1 25 .781 49 35 1.01 0.13 .719 9 Philadelphia Flyers 17 10 5 2 22 .647 56 52 0.21 -0.03 .559 6 Pittsburgh Penguins 17 10 6 1 21 .618 58 44 0.91 0.08 .559 7 Carolina Hurricanes 17 9 7 1 19 .559 53 50 -0.09 -0.26 .500 6 New York Rangers 15 7 6 2 16 .533 51 51 0.04 0.04 .500 7 Columbus Blue Jackets 17 6 8 3 15 .441 40 58 -0.86 0.20 .353 3 New Jersey Devils 16 5 7 4 14 .438 42 61 -1.00 0.19 .375 4 Points Percentage is the definitive stat for where a team really is in the standings. The concept is simple: Points gained divided by total points available. The Leafs have one of the worst points percentages in the Atlantic division at .579, meaning they have accumulated little more than half of the points that were available to them in the standings and squandered the rest. Although they sit just behind Boston in the standings, the two teams have nothing in common. Boston is far ahead. A quick glance down the standings and we can see that Montreal (.618), Florida (.618), Tampa (.600), and even Buffalo (.588) are still ahead of Toronto in the standings, despite a recent 5-game losing streak by the Sabres. But it gets even better... With a top 3 spot in the division gone, the Leafs are looking towards a wild card spot to make the playoffs. Well, Pittsburgh (.618) and Tampa (.600) have those covered as well. Thus, despite sitting second in the division, the illusion of the current standings is such that the Leafs are realistically on the outside of the playoffs looking in. They're actually the 10th best team in the East right now!

Well, the reports are in: Mitch Marner is expected to miss AT LEAST a month with the ankle injury he sustained in the Flyers game when he fell awkwardly. Chances are, he'll miss more than that (or it'll be much longer before he's 100% again). I suffered a severe ankle sprain a few years ago where I damaged some of the ligaments down there. While I was walking on it (with an air cast) fairly quickly, it took a long time to fully heal.

Well, so much for that one. With every game going to a shootout these days, everyone is collecting points.

Hiya Podein! Well, definitely not the start to this game that I expected. Leafs penalty kill is horrendous (at least in the games I watch).

Are all the Flyers fans asleep tonight or does my presence in the Flyers section scare them away? Normally there are a thousand replies in a Flyers thread by now...

That pretty much says it all. Are the Leafs really the 21st best team on the power play? Again, I'm expecting major shifts to these stats as the Leafs start to play at 100%. The Leafs should be a top 5 team on PP.

True, but one could say the Leafs have underachieved thus far given the talent they have and the injuries to key players. A healthy Leafs team that lives up to expectations should begin to start putting up some big numbers on the scoreboard. We haven't really seen Toronto's star players take over a game yet. They've been contributing but not dominating. Sooner or later it has to happen. As for the Flyers, not sure where they're at yet in their development. They seem to be a playoff bubble team again but who knows. Obviously a win is a win, but the Leafs need to start getting 2-point wins over their opposition and not 1-point wins. Every game the Leafs win they seem to do it in OT or a shootout. They need to start getting more regulation wins.

Best thing for Flyers fans is if Spezza really IS a healthy scratch this time.

Leafs have been playing a better defensive game recently, and the team is healthy. Toronto hasn't scored more than 4 goals in a game since October 12 against Detroit. This team is due for a blowout game.

Whatever happened to 2 minutes for roughing? #NoHittingLeague

With all the cap problems the Leafs are having, Kapanen may be a Flyer before long.

This was "gut check" time for the Leafs. They needed this win to stay relevant in their division because they were dropping to the bottom fast. It was a good start, and then they seemed to lose all momentum after giving up a goal on the penalty kill. It was like someone hit the "OFF" switch. I actually started to fall asleep late in the first period because nothing was happening. I must have slept through the intermission with Coach's Corner because when I woke up it was mid-second period I think. Started to get interesting again so I stayed awake and watched the rest. It certainly wasn't the 80's style hockey like I was hoping for but the Leafs pulled it out.

Turns out Spezza did play... and was involved in everything tonight.

Didn't take long for Spezza to become a healthy scratch now did it?

I glanced at the Flyers forwards quickly (really quickly) and all I saw was: Raffle Frisbee German Rubics Cube

I almost forgot about JVR. He'll get a double hat trick tonight against the Leafs for sure. Fear not.

Well, I'm up for some 80's style hockey tonight. With the Leafs, it'll go like this: Toronto will have an 11-2 lead going into the third, will give up 9 unanswered goals, then it'll go to overtime and it'll be a coin toss to see who makes it 12-11.