Yea I know but they heavily turned things around in the 2nd half when Sutter joined. Preds have been consistently average
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The Everything NHL Thread
- Thread starter Jackal
- Start date
shush im a sad falcons fan
If it wasn't for Dan Bylsma, Crosby and Malkin would be winning their 5th Cup by now.
Rip pens is it too early to start the trade for fleury movement?
White house curse LUL #GoKingsGo
Dude.
Duuuuude.
a) we literally can't miss the playoffs we have a bajillion in-division games ahead of us including 4 against buffalo the remainder of our schedule is by far easier than what we've already played through throughout december including most of our b2bs
b) putting the blame on babcock is ridiculous literally who on earth is going to replace and outperform him, assume he's only a top 10 coach and not a top 5 is the assumption somehow that the 9 coaches ahead aren't already hired or if one isn't that management knows where they are?
c) komarov is being played too high up the lineup and polak probably shouldn't start, that's undeniable. a 3rd pairing defensemen and a checking winger aren't responsible for using losing games. we're still young. we're still developing. marner/nylander have had rough patches but they're coming out the other side. borgman and dermott look like excellent bottom 4/top 4 futures respectively (rielly/gardiner/liljegren/dermott/borgman/x hngggg) but they've got their rough spots. we're still trotting out a third line that can't play defense. kadri has been in a major slump that it looks like he might be coming out of
i've been saying this for weeks, the leafs are getting a bit luckier than they should so yeah, e can expect their performance to dip (which it has), but they're also playing way below their true talent level so if and when we figure it out and pick it back up, we're right back in contention. the larger sample size from going back to last year suggests we are not a 49% corsi team, that we're a few percentage points better than that.
we have a major cushion courtesy of our weak division which means we have the time and we have the leeway to figure these issues out ahead of playoffs and next season, look at how the team has responded since andersen and marleau spoke out. we're not some team playing above their heads, we're a strong team playing poorly with room for improvement
depression? hardly.
(also freddy 'fuck you' vezina candidate andersen and auston 'the big cactus' matthews exist)
lmfao you have no idea what bad coaching is
#Carlyle2K18
How can you not blame babs for the steady decline in offense when he is the one that decides the lineups and strategies those lineups use. Our security in the top 8 exists because most of the teams that were competing with us have been doing horribly as well. We have 3 wins in the last 11 games, and our gpp has dropped almost a full goal since November-ish.
Babcock is the one that decides to give Komarov and Polak way more ice time than they deserve, because he values "hard work" over actual results. Komarov can barely skate or pass, and his shot rivals that of a house leaguer, especially compared to his linemates, yet Komarov is on the first power play unit and is the first on during overtime. I can see some sort of reasoning behind babcock not starting matthews line on the powerplay, assuming matthews line drew the penalty, but how can you possibly justify komarov's line starting in OT. It is incredibly painful for a long time leafs fan to watch us get a superstar like matthews, only to have a coach who is completely unable to play him right. Another thing that baffles me is how babcock players gardiner during powerplays, but if I get started on the knuckle dragging mouth breather that is gardiner I'll be here all night.
I agree we're playing way below our skill level atm, and I got nothing bad to say about nylander or marner. It's not the players that I have grievances with (bar gardiner/borgman/rielly), but the way that playtime is distributed. Komarov should be a fourth liner penalty kill specialist, as opposed to the first powerplay / overtime unit that babcock uses him as. I don't hate Polak as much as some, and enjoy the way he actually defends Andersen unlike most leafs, but he is not nearly good enough to be played as much as babcock does.
I'm not saying Babcock should be fired, but someone from leafs management needs to tell him to stop playing the team like a retard.
Also yea I fuckin love freddy, feel horrible for him because hes one of the best goalies in the league with one of the worst defenses in front of him
Babcock is the one that decides to give Komarov and Polak way more ice time than they deserve, because he values "hard work" over actual results. Komarov can barely skate or pass, and his shot rivals that of a house leaguer, especially compared to his linemates, yet Komarov is on the first power play unit and is the first on during overtime. I can see some sort of reasoning behind babcock not starting matthews line on the powerplay, assuming matthews line drew the penalty, but how can you possibly justify komarov's line starting in OT. It is incredibly painful for a long time leafs fan to watch us get a superstar like matthews, only to have a coach who is completely unable to play him right. Another thing that baffles me is how babcock players gardiner during powerplays, but if I get started on the knuckle dragging mouth breather that is gardiner I'll be here all night.
I agree we're playing way below our skill level atm, and I got nothing bad to say about nylander or marner. It's not the players that I have grievances with (bar gardiner/borgman/rielly), but the way that playtime is distributed. Komarov should be a fourth liner penalty kill specialist, as opposed to the first powerplay / overtime unit that babcock uses him as. I don't hate Polak as much as some, and enjoy the way he actually defends Andersen unlike most leafs, but he is not nearly good enough to be played as much as babcock does.
I'm not saying Babcock should be fired, but someone from leafs management needs to tell him to stop playing the team like a retard.
Also yea I fuckin love freddy, feel horrible for him because hes one of the best goalies in the league with one of the worst defenses in front of him
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I don't really have the energy to debate this with you so what I'll do instead is say that you're definitely on the ball with a lot of your complaints, look into some of the work done by tyler dellow and draglikepull and jonas siegel, i've linked some example articles for you, things aren't as bleak as they might look on the surface and there are reasons for why babcock does the things he does (and yes some of those reasons are stubbornness)
Liking how the lightning are playing for the most part this year, but we've had an issue with defense for the better part of the year. The Mcdonagh trade will probably help (full effects aren't realised yet), but the rest of the team needs to step it up too if were going on a deep run (cup maybe) this year.
How do you guys feel about your chances of getting the cup this year?
How do you guys feel about your chances of getting the cup this year?
Kings fan here.. Idk man as long as we can get into playoffs anything is possible. I just don't wanna miss playoffs again tbh
Don't Lusczyszyn puts our odds (Toronto) at 5% to win the cup so I'm okay with it. Most metrics put us precisely as the 6th best team in the league so we definitely have a chance. Our biggest hurdle is having to go through all of BOS/TBL/PIT to reach the final, pretty much the hardest road possible so of we do make it we'll definitely deserve it.
That being said we have the talent. If Freddie plays like he was most of the season and Matthews comes back in form than we can outscore anything teams can throw at us.
That being said we have the talent. If Freddie plays like he was most of the season and Matthews comes back in form than we can outscore anything teams can throw at us.
I've felt your pain, we missed the playoffs last year by a single point. Lesson learned though: You can't have a "I don't care about the regular season" attitude.
Yeah the east is loaded the year, won't be an easy run, but hey, when is winning the cup easy? Can't say much about the west though, haven't been watching them much. Vegas is pretty surprising though, I didn't expect the expansion team to be this good in their first year before the season started.
I STILL can't believe Vegas might win the cup
given our lack of defensive play freddy's gotta stand on his head for us to have a chance, but then again when hasn't he. biggest hurdle is definitely boston, even though we're 3-1 vs them this season they're a far superior playoff team. tbl / pit games are usually tossups, we're 1-2 and 2-1 vs them respectively but I believe we are better offensively then either of them. if I had to bet 3 teams to win id say bos, preds and kings, although if we beat boston i dont see anything stopping us
I honestly hope pittsburg doesn't win the cup again this year, time for another team to have a turn, perferebly the lightning but that depends on them playing well. Might post a bracket of my own later, and if I do you can guess whos in the winners spot cause I'm biased.