Miscues lead to loss in South Florida

by birky on Dec 27, 2011 11:27 PM EST in Game Recaps

[Corsi & Fenwick] - [Shift Chart] - [Faceoffs] - [Head to Head]

The Leafs were mostly done in tonight by two poor decisions by defensemen and a few minutes of bad goaltending. Jake Gardiner's offensive zone pinch immediately following Mikhail Grabovksi's game-tying goal in the second period led to a breakaway chance for Bill Thomas. Coupled with James Reimer playing too deep in his net, Thomas scored his first goal of the season and the Leafs never completely recovered. When they did pull to within one goal in the third period, Luke Schenn decided to try and take on four Florida players at once, coughing the puck up at the Panthers blue-line for a quick counter-attack. Tomas Fleischmann buried the chance, the Panthers walked out of the rink with two points. The Leafs have now given up 10 goals in two games against Florida.

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Could be worse.

Could be Ottawa.

by handknit on Dec 27, 2011 11:31 PM EST reply actions

Well

Goaltending wasn’t the best tonight but the coaching was pretty well missing, again. Really no semblance of a true system on the PP, I see more organization in peewee games. Losing is never good but with so many lax plays by the forwards and two soft goals, even lucky goals for us weren’t enough.

by dsciswe on Dec 28, 2011 12:33 AM EST reply actions 3 recs

I must of been watching a completely different game.

"There's been four different Cup winners the last four years, and I got one of them (Anaheim) and it was a fighting team. We're playing it that way regardless." - B. Burke, Toronto Maple Leafs GM

by BlueBuds on Dec 28, 2011 1:55 AM EST up reply actions

I dont think anybody watches the same game he does.

Mike Weber Pressbox Incarceration Status: Free to roam the blueline.
"Ville Leino may stink but he’s still way better than Colin Stuart."

by Ubiquitous on Dec 28, 2011 9:56 AM EST up reply actions

I’m pretty sure I did, given that I didn’t watch the game

In summing up, it's the Constitution, it's Mabo, it's justice, it's law, it's the vibe and... No, that's it, it's the vibe. I rest my case

by PKSube on Dec 28, 2011 10:11 AM EST up reply actions

I missed the 1st period, but the PP’s I saw were horrendous. Florida had 2 on 1’s and a 3 on 1!!! How does a PK unit get a 3 on 1???

Dion got a goal and than stopped skating (watch him on the play’s when Gustavsson does the diving pokecheck, and when Gus skated to get the puck at the top of the circle)

Schenn needs to learn what a “Stay at Home” defencemen does.. He’s been caught a couple times in the past couple games trying to pinch in. Hopefully he’ll learn from this and never try that again.

Aulie’s played 6 games and has taken 5 penalties.. and i don’t think I ever seen him take a “good” penalty.

The only bright side was that RW did something that he never use to do.. He pulled the goalie when it was clear to everyone that tonight was not his night… usually he would leave the goalie in for a couple more goals before finally pulling the trigger.. Great Job RW!

Overall a frustrating game..

Changing my "Goat of The Year" player from Armstrong to Kulemin

by Gebx on Dec 28, 2011 10:47 AM EST up reply actions

PP looked a mess without Liles. It’s amazing how much difference one player can make, I hope he’s back soon.

by TomK421 on Dec 28, 2011 12:43 AM EST reply actions

this game was very frustrating to watch, the Leafs controlled the play for most of the first, then tied it up early in the 2nd only to see Gardiner make that blunder and go down again, it seemed after that they played lethargic for the remainder of the 2nd and then it was too late to get any points…Hope for 4 pts outta Carolina and Winnipeg to end this road trip

by WorldSeriesTiger on Dec 28, 2011 9:13 AM EST reply actions

I’d mention the PK but seems a bit redundant at this point

"Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants won't help." Calvin and Hobbes

by D_Tone666 on Dec 28, 2011 10:10 AM EST reply actions

This one – again – is on Reimer. He hasn’t been good enough, often enough since he came back from the injury … what with the game before xmas where he couldn’t catch, and this one where he couldn’t stop a shot from the blueline.

I’m not happy with his play right now – either he gets it together in a hurry, or they switch to Gus and he responds with a string of good play … or we’re not going anywhere in front of this tandem.

This space for rant...

by fair_n_hite_451 on Dec 28, 2011 10:15 AM EST reply actions 1 recs

Of course 3 goals on 8 shots is unacceptable but every goalie puts up a real stinker now and then. Reimer strung together two consecutive .952’s against LA and BUF, plus a .909 against NYI. Last night could have easily been a fourth consecutive loss if not for the goaltending.

Now about the PK. As happy as we all are with the team’s offensive production as of late, perhaps Burke needs to peddle some of that in exchange for some actual two-way players? This team is playing on a razor’s edge right now. We’re 4th in PP, 30th in PK. We’re 7th in GF, 27th in GA. We need to get some stability here.

by lucc on Dec 28, 2011 10:38 AM EST up reply actions

Reimer was getting his game back.. he had a couple bad games last year and would bounce back every time. Like lucc said, every goalie has a bad game or two.. Hopefully this is just what this was.. a bad game for Reimer and nothing else.

Changing my "Goat of The Year" player from Armstrong to Kulemin

by Gebx on Dec 28, 2011 10:49 AM EST up reply actions

Since his return from injury:
3 of 9 games = better than .940 save %. That’s great goaltending.
5 of 9 games = less than .900 save %. That’s poor goaltending.
plus one game of .909 as you mentioned. (and I’ll class that as “barely adequate” – in that we’ll need to outscore that goaltending to get a positive result)

That’s what I’m talking about. He’s been good occasionally, but not often enough for us to get a consistant run of W’s.

This space for rant...

by fair_n_hite_451 on Dec 28, 2011 10:51 AM EST up reply actions

Curious, so I looked up Jonas’ numbers in that same stretch.

3 games, 1 w/ a .938, two (including last night) under .900.

Right now, he’s not the answer either.

I’ll give you our PK is bad (like “all world” bad) – and that the two issues are related – but we need better goaltending if we’re going to make the playoffs this season.

This space for rant...

by fair_n_hite_451 on Dec 28, 2011 10:56 AM EST up reply actions