Modifié 12 juill. 2022 à 15 h 13
Quoting: ChiHawk
This is exactly why they have 6 first series post season losses in a row.
Colorado had very good possession but that all started with their defenders being able to steal pucks, create turnovers and transition the zone and with speed. Their defense is night and day better then the Leafs. The bottom line, outgunning the team in a scoreboard run-up doesn't work in playoff hockey but it's entertaining and that's how the Leafs have built themselves for entertainment during the regular season. If you look at the vast majority of cup winners in the cap era, they have all won through great defense and goal tending. Chicago, Pitsburgh, Tampa, Colorado, St Louis, etc. You only need to score 1 goal to a win a game if you have great defense and goaltending, if you don't and the other team does, you aren't going to make it through the series.
Look at the playoff stats; out of the 16 teams in the playoffs, Leafs were #9 in goals allowed per game. Tampa #1 while in goals scored per game the Leafs were #4 while tampa was #9...that screams defensive and goal tending problems.
In the regular season, Leafs were #2 in most goals scored per game but the 14th worst team in the league in goals allowed (Colorado #24 and Tampa #27)...Rangers were #31 which is why they had so much success in the Playoffs. Scoring is not the issue with the Leafs.
Rangers couldn't score against TB and neither could FLR. In past playoffs Leafs had other issues in which they had to outscore teams because their defence was not that great but they are always improving (mind you Matthews and Marner didn't have too many goals against CBJ in the play ins and MTL).
In the last 3 post-seasons by the end the other teams goaltending out did theirs. In the TB series the biggest difference was the Leafs depth other than kill penalties didn't do much, they couldn't give them any edge over TB. I didn't mean to say that Toronto has to outscore their problems since it's not that they are abysmal defensively.
They seem to have the same results but they way they get there is always different. Usually exchange blowouts early in the series but it ends in a similar fashion on paper.
CBJ: 3-4 OTL, 4-3 OTW, 0-3 L
MTL: 3-4 OTL, 2-3OTL, 1-3L
TB: 4-3W, 3-4OTL, 1-2L
Another way to look at it is that the other teams goalies just out did TOR goalies so you can say help your goalie out better defensively or you can say they need to finish off the games.
Looking at the TB series specifically, TB was able to get back into the game in game 5 because of the 5 on 3, it happens but the Leafs only hope of winning in OT was their top lines and pretty sure they were tired if you look at that final play, where Marner tries to send a stretch pass to Matthews who tripped over himself (or maybe was tripped) and then the puck ended up going back into the zone and shortly after into the net.
In game 6, the Leafs seemed like they didn't want to play to desperate and make an error since it was a one goal game. The depth really had nothing to show for it, they couldn't score or keep the puck out of the net. Engvall and Mikheyev plus minus was a 0, pretty sure all they scored were empty netters from one of them. The other guys were mostl minuses with the few minutes they played.
So the way I see it is the depth needs to be able to score more but ofc keep the puck out of their net too, but if Matthews and Marner are being used to shutdown top players, the Leafs would have to rely solely on line 2 for offense.
I'm not saying they need to win games with higher totals, just that it can't be that when thr depth shows up, the stars are absent and when thr stars show up the depth is absent offensively. The Leafs defense is not elite, they do need to find a way to defend better as a team but that can be in any zone.
What I should have said is they need depth forwards who can play the possession game and be able to provide some scoring.