R1 - Series Thread - Bruins (A2) vs Maple Leafs (A3)

[Steve Bozek]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

The Leafs D was the biggest reason why Anderson struggled at times. Without Anderson this series is probably a 4 or 5 walkover by the Bruins. As heroic as Leaf fans want to portray their team . . . really not that heroic.
......

This. Save percentage is important, but for evaluating a goalie, it’s an overrated statistic that also reflects the team playing in front of the goalie.

Now that the Leafs are out, we can look forward to a more balanced media view of the playoffs.

[Roof-Daddy]

I see savemedrzauiss was drowning his sorrows last night dipping into the sauce.

[puckedoff]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Also, have the Wild won one since the lockout? There's a lot of first round exits there. Maybe they beat the Avs one time? I forget.

They swept Chicago last year

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by puckedoff

They swept Chicago last year

Ah that was the Preds

[dash_pinched]

https://twitter.com/user/status/989474117836574721

[CaptainCrunch]

[Toonage]

Man, no one panics like Leafs nation.

Just this morning I've heard:

- Babcock may not be the guy for the job (NHL Network Radio)
- Matthews may have tuned Babcock out (Sportsnet)
- Leafs goaltending could be a concern going forward (Sportsnet)
- Is Matthews worth big money? (just now on Hockey Central)

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Toonage

Man, no one panics like Leafs nation.

Just this morning I've heard:

- Babcock may not be the guy for the job (NHL Network Radio)
- Matthews may have tuned Babcock out (Sportsnet)
- Leafs goaltending could be a concern going forward (Sportsnet)
- Is Matthews worth big money? (just now on Hockey Central)

To be fair it's not like this place was a lot different after losing to the Ducks last season. After a disappointing playoff loss fans are always going to take shots at the coaching staff, top players, leadership, etc. Making the playoffs is great but losing in the playoffs is another level of disappointing over missing the playoffs entirely. Overreaction is pretty normal. We have plenty of posters here that feel the Flames roster needs to be blown up despite ample evidence the coaching staff was part of the problem. Guys like Hamilton and Gaudreau has been mentioned by posters here as players that should get traded so I don't see much of a difference. It wasn't a good series for Matthews but I don't know how healthy he was and as I have said before a single playoff series is an extremely small sample size and you have to be careful not to overreact to certain players going on slumps at the wrong time as it happens to the best over their careers.

[SuperMatt18]

The Matthews one is crazy to me.

He didn't look like a guy who tuned out the coach to me - he looked like a guy who was playing through injuries and couldn't move as well as normal.

My guess is he played through a pretty bad back injury.

[Toonage]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

To be fair it's not like this place was a lot different after losing to the Ducks last season. Making the playoffs is great but losing in the playoffs is another level of disappointing over missing the playoffs entirely. Overreaction is pretty normal. We have plenty of posters here that feel the Flames roster needs to be blown up despite ample evidence the coaching staff was part of the problem. Guys like Hamilton and Gaudreau has been mentioned by posters here as players that should get traded so I don't see much of a difference. It wasn't a good series for Matthews but I don't know how healthy he was and as I have said before a single playoff series is an extremely small sample size and you have to be careful not to overreact to certain players going on slumps at the wrong time. It happens.

We had legit reasons to be concerned over our coaching and goaltending. I really don't think the Leafs do. They had a 105 point season. They came back from being down 3-1 in the series largely due to goaltending. I think its an expected overreaction as its the morning after being eliminated but even then, its at the high end of overreacting.

And yeah, in regards to Matthews, they kept him out of the lineup over a month to rehab an injury. Probably still hurt.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Toonage

We had legit reasons to be concerned over our coaching and goaltending. I really don't think the Leafs do. They had a 105 point season. They came back from being down 3-1 in the series largely due to goaltending. I think its an expected overreaction as its the morning after being eliminated but even then, its at the high end of overreacting.

And yeah, in regards to Matthews, they kept him out of the lineup over a month to rehab an injury. Probably still hurt.

I think it's fair to point some fingers at Babcock. 105 points is a nice season and the Leafs defense group will never be confused with the best in the league but we have seen teams with lesser talented groups manage to play tighter defense. For a guy getting paid all that money I would expect better than tire fire defensive coverage. Even Bob Hartley things the Leafs play defense poorly.

[dino7c]

dead last, first round loss, first round loss

A coach of another name would be taking some heat

[Toonage]

It would be very Leafs to sign Babcock to that big contract just to fire him a few years in and pay him his full salary to go away.

[Locke]

Honestly, Babcock has always been gifted with great teams, which the Maple Leafs are not.

That being said though, who else could coach that bunch to the playoffs?

Their epic collapse was fun to watch, but I feel for Gardiner.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by dino7c

dead last, first round loss, first round loss

A coach of another name would be taking some heat

I disagree.

They were supposed to be bad year 1, completely overachieved in year 2 when they weren't supposed to be close to the playoffs, and then had real improvement this season with a great regular season finishing 6th overall in the league in the regular season but lost to the team ranked 4th that had a 112 point regular season in 7 games.

If there are any Leafs fans or management disappointed with this season they need to give their heads a shake.

Now if they lose in the first round again next year, or don't take another step forward in the regular season then I think the noise may start up in Toronto.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Locke

Honestly, Babcock has always been gifted with great teams, which the Maple Leafs are not.

Were his Ducks teams great?

He took a team with Kariya and Giguere and not a lot more and took them to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

[ForeverFlameFan]

Originally Posted by dino7c

dead last, first round loss, first round loss

A coach of another name would be taking some heat

Not even. The Leafs have just had some bad luck and had to play against the Caps and Bruins as a 1st round opponent.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by getbak

Were his Ducks teams great?

He took a team with Kariya and Giguere and not a lot more and took them to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Those Ducks teams weren't that great as they caught lightning in a bottle the first season and then crashed hard the next season missing the playoffs with only 29 wins. He did inherit a really good Wings team though and he had considerable success in the regular season. Still he's not been in a Conference final in 9 years and has only got to the 2nd round of the playoffs 3 times over those 9 years. Since losing to the Penguins in the 2009 finals his playoff record is actually worse than Boudreau's so it is interesting how he manages to skirt the criticisms of not being able to advance in the playoffs.

[Firebot]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Those Ducks teams weren't that great as they caught lightning in a bottle the first season and then crashed hard the next season missing the playoffs with only 29 wins. He did inherit a really good Wings team though and he had considerable success in the regular season. Still he's not been in a Conference final in 9 years and has only got to the 2nd round of the playoffs 3 times over those 9 years. Since losing to the Penguins in the 2009 finals his playoff record is actually worse than Boudreau's so it is interesting how he manages to skirt the criticisms of not being able to advance in the playoffs.

Are you serious?

He took a Detroit team to 10 straight playoffs, without any pick in the top 14 to replenish the cupboards. Let's not forget that when he took the Maple Leafs job, he took it with the understanding it was a bottom dwelling rebuilding team. The fact the Leafs made it 2 straight seasons to the playoffs after picking #1 is a testament to his coaching.

He made the playoffs with a 40 year old Daniel Alfredsson as the leading scorer and one guy above 20 goals for crying out loud. Coaching is the only way that team made the playoffs. The Flames couldn't make it with 4 20+ goal scorers and a 84 and 64 point players.

[Oling_Roachinen]

The 2015 Toronto Maple Leafs were absolutely terrible. Don't be fooled by the Sabres and Oilers tanking (and Arizona doing whatever the hell it does), that team was bad enough to finish last in any other year where McDavid wasn't up for grabs.

Then Shanahan took that terrible team and enacted the scorched earth policy. Traded away their best player to Pittsburgh in the Erixon trade, which also included Kessel, and later in the season got rid of their captain and (pathetically) top defenseman. Babcock still had the team improve on points from the year prior. But Scotty Bowman with Al Arbour as his assistant couldn't have got that team out of last place.

Babcock was fortunate to have some very good young pieces in Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Reilly come around, but to get what he's gotten out of them was good coaching.

Now he's almost a product of his own success. Had the Leafs improved but didn't make the playoffs last season, no one would have cared about a first round exit to a top four team this year. They still would have been ahead of schedule on the rebuild. But because of the skyrocket improvement last year, people are questioning his coaching abilities. Nothing would please me more for Toronto to turn their back on Babcock and bring in some ####ty coach to appease the fans, but realistically they know Babcock is the reason playoffs are even on the table.