Hes not Vezina but not F-tier. The kid played out of his mind whenever we got a chance. But man the formula to beat this team be so simple sometimes. Just clog the middle something we could learn for ourselves sometimes.

Anyways on to Florida

Yeah fair enough, but he played well above expected tonight.

I hope they show up on thursday, 88 and 34 (and Woll) were the only ones I seen really giving it their all.

34 wasnt really there tonight though in terms of what we saw game 1 and 2. In general only time I was like k we got something was those 2 shifts from Tavares and Willy.

Everything else was just zzzzzz

Do like the fact they finally changed the D-Pairings.

But yea would not surprise me if tomorrow we may see Minten go back to WHL

I mean compared to everyone else Matthews was playing hard, I think he will be credited with their lone goal tonight.

How can he be credited when he wasnt on the ice

It was Tavares from Willy who got a nice feed from Giordano.

Matthews had one good moment that game with a deflection but for the most part was just missed opportunities and passes.

Anyways on to Florida

Got to tighten up defensivly though

13 GFand 13 GA in 3 games is not good.

This Leafs team reminds me an awful lot of the 2019-2020 Leafs, which scares me a ton. Why can't we ever get it right? Either our offense is elite and our defense is s***, or our offense is s*** and our defense is alright. All I want is a blue line made up of 6 Mackenzie Weegars. Is that too much to ask for?

I wouldnt say its that bad as that team was bad top to bottom.


This just feels like Oct Leafs with the fat TRIPLE QUADRUPLE DOWN ON BIG 4.

And its so weird how this team sucks in October. Looks amazing in November and rest is history

But in order to get there defense needs to get better. As from what we have seen Yikes. Goaltending Woll actually looked good just never got the support he needed. I want to see more games out of him.

But yea thank **** Keefe adjusted the pairings

As its like did we not learn from Muzzin-Barrie. Having an offensive Dman on what should be the shutdown pair never works. McCabe-Klingberg felt like a disaster waiting to happen which is why I kept saying put Klingberg down to third pairing. And while sample size has been small results have been better than we have seen when McCabe-Klingberg were together


6 on 5 man its almost as if we forget Bertuzzi and Domi are a thing. Why have new offensive weapons and not use them lul.


Anyways despite past stuff we always act surprise when they make some rookie goalie who hasnt won in a long time look good and or play worse than the lottery teams they face.

I got some strange feeling Bortuzzo gonna be a Leaf soon

As he fits what they are looking for

Big Dman who clears the front of the net

That said hes not looked great for a bit so yea bit iffy with that

I have the exact same feeling. One of him or Tucker would be great, but I feel like the Blues will probably want to hang onto Tucks. As a Thunder Bay resident, I approve of either

Im not opposed to it but yea as long as you dont play him with Rielly it should be fine lul

Rielly-Liligren
Brodie-Klingberg
McCabe-Bortuzzo


At least is decent till the TDL. Just dont overpay lul

Honestly I want to see Woll play on Thursday as of the 2 he looked better (despite the results)

And if he does well keep going

Make Sammy earn his net back.

Cause man if both continue to struggle wont be just defense needing a fix.

Definitely wiling to give this till American Thanksgiving to really evaluate the Treliving’s offseason but so far my concerns over Klingberg (will the offence out way his defensive issues, nope), re-signing Kämpf, Domi (where do you put him to get the best, clearly isn’t working with Tavares/Nylander) and how well this team play’s defensively with all the new additions being poor at it.

Plus how well the new defensive coach Van Ryn works. Don’t love how this team still can’t break out of the zone.

Plenty of time to work things out but giving up 13 goals in 3 games (two against rebuilding teams) is pretty on par for how I thought things might look

Looking back the funny thing about this team they always have **** Octobers. And we judge them and go they need ABC

Yes defense and goaltending (besides Woll) has not looked good but than again this always seems to happen now

2021-2022

2-4-1

GF 21
GA 29

2022-2023

4-4-2

GF 27
GA 30


And despite that come November they figure it all out.

2022-2023

12-2-0

GF 45
GA 20


2022-2023

11-1-3 (OT was their kryptonite lul)

GF 49
GA 32

Believe Rielly and Brodie were hurt mid way through

So im gonna wait till Dec before concluding anything significant. Like remember last year they had a **** roadtrip in California and we said blow it up then in November they basically made us go why were we mad again lul

Do I think they need a Dman rn yes. But come November/Early Dec they could erase that thought. Brad should be looking but does not need to make a panic move

https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/toronto-maple-leafs-record-by-month-of-october-last-12-years

But what should make people happy Keefe called out the big names and didnt go back on it

Hawks with their three ELC Dmen outplayed the Leafs Dmen. One reason I against trading picks/Dman for a short term upgrade.
Teams need ELC players playing above their contracts to make the cap work. Dubas never realized this.....and I hoping Trevling (who was bad at Calgary signings) doesn't fall into the same trap.

Remember though Leafs always play down to their opponents

So of course they gonna make some random guys on ELC's look good especially on Lottery teams

For once would love to see them utterly bully a bottom feeder team demonstrating the no mercy rule

We have seen flashes but they hey as long as they perform strongly vs other contending teams im good

As if they were doing great vs non contenders and awful against contenders that would be a bigger problem

Honestly vs. FLA I would try

Bertuzzi-Matthews-Nylander
Jarnkrok-JT-Marner
Knies-Domi-Minten
Gregor-Kampf-Reaves

Keep the pairings the same after period 2 vs. CHI

I agree but we all know Keefe won't try this until we've lost 8 games in a row and have dug ourselves into a deep hole

Well he has swapped Domi and Jarnkrok and the results were almost instant along with the Dpairings

Hes gonna need to do something once Minten goes down after game 8 and so Tinker Keefe may come out

So I think changes are gonna come but will be more so game 8.

Will be interesting to see what the third lines gonna be

As with their play one of McMann or Robertson is for sure getting a promotion back up and I think Knies-Domi-McMann just makes sense

I agree with this entirely.
Big games for Lily coming up.
Love that twitter embedding is still broken
https://twitter.com/Banx_Leaf/status/1714414123578986757?t=7W6RAhRaiVAdJXgmkiyqQg&s=19

Agreed in a sense. Now if he doesnt work with McCabe I would say try him with Rielly one more time to allow Brodie to go down and see if that works

Basically

Rielly-Liligren
McCabe-Brodie
Gio-Klingberg


But yea if he does not adapt or can show he can be more than what were seeing on the third pair looking for an upgrade might not be the worst idea. Just I feel at 1.4m moving him and getting an upgrade at the same price or less gonna be a tall order lul

And yea **** this stupid not being able to embed **** anymore

Was doing some digging on potential extra Dman who Toronto could try and make deals for and an interesting name came up

Jalen Chatfield

Last year he had himself a season and looked good with everyone he played with from Ghost to Burns to Skeji to Slavin

Hes making under league min and is the Canes #7

Other names (That we need and not whats entirely out there)

Robert Bortuzzo (net front)
Mike Reilly
Dante Fabbro
Andrew Peeke

Names that interest me from what you said :

Fabbro
Chatfield
Peeke

In that order


Did any notice the contract payout for Klingberg?
Makes it highly tradeable to me

Klingbergs deal is tradeable but the issue then becomes okay so whose gonna provide offense on the back end besides Rielly

When its 6 on 5 or PP he looks good

5 on 5 especially where they had him playing (2nd pair with McCabe) is just no

I think in a third pair role against lesser competition he should do fine with Gio. Now if we can get someone to play with Rielly and Liligren works with McCabe I would like to than shift Brodie to the left to play with him as that might be for the best.

So rn this is the mindset

Rielly-?
McCabe-Liligren
Brodie-Klingberg
Gio

Our issue on the back end is not offense right now.

It was bad signing.
Looks bad, plays bad, yeah only 3 games in I know.

Just was not fan of that move and want to move on ASAP

The thing is Brad and the staff knew Klingberg was not gonna be brought in to help on the defensive end.

He was brought in to help increase the offense on our blue line which has been lacking over the years. We have Gio, Brodie, Liligren and McCabe for defense but only Rielly for offense well till Klingberg came along


If we look at Toronto's Blue line production reg season last season (Everyone who wasnt traded or left in FA)

Liligren 6 goals
Reilly 4 goals
Giordano 4 goals
Brodie 2 goals
Timmins 2 goals
McCabe 1 goal


Now lets compare to a top blue line like Carolina

Burns 18 goals
Skeji 18 goals
Slavin 7 goals
Chatfield 6 goals
Pesce 5 goals
Ghost 3 goals
De-Haan 2 goals

Klingberg had 10 goals. So yes we can move him for a defensive D but then were running into the same issue as before where our Blue line will be entirely reliant on Rielly for offense. Well unless they can somehow turn him into a 2-way upgrade like Toews but thats not happening lul.

Lowering his role and using him selectively should help as with Gio or Brodie things will most likely work out much better. As come playoffs if Rielly's hurt Leafs do not have an other guy to rely on offensively. Liligren got 6 goals but idk if he repeats that. Cause yes even though hes not great defensively Klingberg makes it to where we dont just need all the goals from forwards. As in the playoffs having someone who can be a threat on the backend offensively also helps (Montour in FLA)

Its been 3 games and while 5 on 5 it has not been great hes done everything else right on PP and 6 on 5. Lowering him to the third pair is a good start to potential change.


Now if by December or January we dont see improvement than moving on is best. Which may happen anyways but we cant just flip him for a good defender who wont do anything offensively as then were back in the same boat we had last year.