LFR Following Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Tampa Bay Lightning | Dec 9, 2021 SDPN: www.sdpn.ca/ CAMEO: www.cameo.com/stevedangle BOOK: bit.ly/2I9hmWP AUDIOBOOK: bit.ly/2GIgYya EASTER SEALS: bit.ly/3vcBVug
I miss the 1-8 conference format for the playoffs. It diminishes an 82 game slog if you go on to punish good teams because they happen to be in strong divisions, and reward weaker teams for being in weak divisions.
The Atlantic is THE division in the NHL. It's a shame that a worthy team must be eliminated in the 1st round every year. Remember... Montreal is in Hell right now but last year's Cup Final was a divisional match-up
The Eastern conference as a whole is ridiculously stacked. They are either really good (FLA, TBL, TOR, WSH, CAR, NYR) or in absolute hell and an embarrassment to the east (MTL, OTT, BUF, NYI, PHI) It's just the way the east has always been....in order to advance in the playoffs you need to be the best of the best.
@@Nicole-ed1zg there's always one in the bunch... and guess what cupcake? Today that person is you! Do I really need to explain the joke that I was including myself in? In the meantime, iron the knot out of your girdle, go to your local Canadian Tire, buy a toilet seat and wear it around your neck for the rest of the week - that's your prize.
The defensive structure of the Leafs has deteriorated over the last few games. The coach needs to get the video out and get them back on track playing as a 5 man unit. These last few games the defence pinches have been ill timed, and either the forwards have not covered, or they couldn't cover because they are too deep and the D made a bad call. This has led to numerous odd man chances over the last few game that became goals against. So, stop making bad pinches without a forward back, and you eliminate those chances. Sounds simple in practice. I would rather see the defence stop the risky plays for a couple of games, just fall back and defend. Those 2 on 1s become 2 on 2s, and less likely to become a goal against. All this is fixable, please fix it Leafs. The offence of this team is more than capable without the risky plays. Just take it easy and get back on track.
Love useless and pointless drop passes, allowing opposition to catch up. I especially like cross ice passes, giving the opposition two and three on ones...
As a bolts fan we haven't had kuch since Game #3 vs Washington and Point since our game vs New Jersey but holy Stamkos has stepped up and is very hot but as far as a 4-7 series vs Toronto it depends on our injuries
It's a very fair and balanced take on what we've all seen so far. It seems like the games where they should win they've won. They've won some that I was extremely nervous about, and they're fighting through on more of them. I'm hoping that when everyones healthy they'll figure it out, because I want them to beat Winnipeg and Minnesota to a bloody pulp come March and April and hopefully the the Florida teams/Hurricanes come playoffs. We need better D in the first pair, and unfortunately Muzzin and Holl have carried us as far as they can go, just like Andersen carried us as far as he could go until we got Jack in the net. We need to get a Campbell like person in D to replace Holl most definitely.
2021-22 MVP: Producer Drew!!!! The possibility of the Leafs facing either Florida team or either Florida team facing each other in the first round of the playoffs is asinine and the best example of the NHL needing to scrap this playoff format and go back to the 1 through 8 seed format.
I can’t wait to see Mrazek! When he was in form in 2015/2016 with Detroit he was amazing. I hope you seen him like this in Toronto. Good Soup is good but you can only stand on your head for so long.
I remember that run he went on. He was my favorite player at the time. The Bruins scored a bunch of goals on him on his birthday and he wasn't the same after
Campbell is not the trouble. With certain players out right now it's hard to find lines that work as they're not use to playing with one another. Not to mention, half the time the team doesn't show up to play. I'd say at least half the wins in November, maybe more, the Leafs were lucky to get the win as the team wasn't playing well for whatever reason. They don't play to their full potential most nights. I know fans are happy when they get the win but it's not always pretty. The thing that bothers me most are games like this past weekend road trip where the refs were clearly bias and calling everything against Toronto and very few against the other teams. Did Toronto deserve to lose both games? Maybe? Probably? We won't know because of all the non calls and allowing players and goalies to get run over, hit kneed, etc. They deserved to lose the Tampa Bay game and as a Leafs fan myself, I'm not afraid to say that. I'm one fan that calls everything like I see it regardless for my team or against. I wanna see my team win fairly.
bud, he got injured in the first 5 seconds he played with us, after we were all told how injury prone he is..... ill put 100$ that he gets hurt the first game he returns. we shouldnt have Mrazek on this team anymore, take the hit on the salary cap and dump his ass
@@itsallovernow2929 They win but like you said they don't play very well,Campbell saves them a lot of times and the turnovers are ridiculous, they lead the league with the most giveaways
It's pretty apparent they cant build a deep team . It's like you're given 100$ to buy a new wardrobe and you spend 80 bucks on sunglasses.. doesn't leave much for socks..
What I'm seeing lately is a lot of brutal defensive giveaways. Not turnovers, where the opposition forces it, but giveaways where the Leafs are being fancy and pass it to the other team, or doodle around with it in their own zone and then give it away. It was especially bad this game, but it's been this way for a while now. The were scoring more goals in previous games which concealed the failings. When they're not scoring... the defense looks horrible.
@@oceanmachine420 His 3 giveaways led to 3 goals tonight. Holl certainly didn't help him out on any of those plays. As a pairing, they were BRUTAL last night.
Love you Steve and producer Drew! You guys have made the Leafs and Avs. (my favourite teams), more exciting to think about and watch. I don't know any Avs. fans where I live in Ontario but Drew doesn't make me feel alone.
Played toe-to-toe with the champs? Stanley Cup champions like Taylor Raddysh, Boris Katchouk, Corey Perry, Pierre-Eduoard Bellemare, Gabriel Fortier, and Riley Nash, amirite?
Isn't it unbelievable he's never gotten the Jack Adams? Or for that matter, Julien Brisebois has never gotten the Jim Gregory. They're just kind of an after thought by the voters because of how good the on-ice team is. That should change.
Welcome to Penguins 2017, Steve. The Pens were the 2nd best team in the league by points. Their playoff path? 1st round: 4th best team in the league, Columbus. 2nd round: President's Trophy winner, Washington. They still won the Cup. Just the way it happens sometimes.
Steven, it's past 3 AM for me. I didn't need to remember that the Leafs are cursed and will most definitely lose in round 1 to Tampa or Florida. Goodnight, sir.
I am a Canucks fan but I have been watching for years(Phil Kessel trade) Steve and I watch leaf games just to see what your gonna talk about and Matthews is fun to watch!!
Best case scenario, they pass both Florida teams and end up with Boston in the first round. How do you think that will go, especially if Tuuka Rask comes back in January?
Boston might not even make it. The top 3 teams in each division then there’s two wildcards that goes to the next best teams in the conference. Washington, Carolina, NYR and Pittsburg are all playoff teams in the metro. Florida, Tampa and Toronto are all playoff teams in the Atlantic. That leaves one wildcard spot for Boston, Detroit, Columbus, New Jersey, Philadelphia and NYI to fight for. If the Leafs want to make the playoffs for sure they have to stay ahead of Boston. Florida in my opinion is the best team in hockey this season so I don’t see anybody in the division catching them. We’re gonna play Tampa in the first round and with this defence as is we’re gonna lose. Harsh reality but if that’s what it takes for Dubas to be fired and bring in a manager who knows how to build a winner I’m fine with it.
I wouldn't say it's the Leafs "defense catching up to them" (not as in the position, but the whole team). For most of that stretch in November, they were winning close, chippy matches. I felt it started to change after the California road trip, where they were blowing out everyone. They have to get back to the structure they had before that road trip, hopefully with the offense still clicking as it was during.
Steve says that if the Leafs pass the Panthers and Lightning, they’ll have an easier path. But that would put them on a collision course with… the Bruins. So that’s also a no.
@@Woody13ify Yeah the Bruins would be the most optimal playoff opponent for sure. Erase and put the bad memories behind you and beat them, we had to the same thing with the Jackets. Big sigh of relief when we finally did.
Got to love it when my Bolts win, but Cheez n' Crackers, Steve! I love your videos! The "OOooooo, I'm DYIN'!" -- a perfect callback to a Bugs Bunny cartoon take -- was just too much! But I really have loved your vids in November. Cannot wait to see how the Leafs handle the next couple of months. I think we're still going to see them come the playoffs. From one Steve (Stephen) to another, keep the faith and Go Leafs Nation!
The problem I see is that getting a better D is A) going to be expensive for sure but they can work it out B) they are going to hate playing here and the fans are going to hate them because the fans always want to burn a defensive defenseman at the stake. Holl and Muzzin have both been inconsistent this year and if we are being honest there's been issues slowly getting worse with Muzzin for a while now. That being said Holl actually did an amazing job all last season and all last season the fans wanted him beheaded and the Leafs to bring in a "better" defenseman who can score and get assists. The problem with this is that it was exactly the opposite of what they need. The Leafs need a defenseman that can be Brodie's or Reilly's other half. A defensive stud who can quarterback an offensive D's play. The fans loathe that. Most fans have zero idea how defensive systems work and they are all, "Hey if we take Morgan Reilly and pair him with Victor Headman we will have the best defensive pair in hockey" which is exactly the opposite of what would happen. We would have a horrifically bad defensive pair where anytime the other team ends up in our zone we are screwed because there's a reason every coach tries that and quickly decides it's a very incredibly horrible idea. You have an offensively incredible D who's passible defensively but what you never get is an offensively incredible D who is defensively incredible. It might look that way but that defenseman you don't notice who is his partner, you know that guy you often don't know his name, yeah that guy is the reason he looks good defensively. So what we need is a guy you never notice who plays with a guy who takes an insane amount of risks that never seems to bite him in the ass, and we need him for a 2m AAV cap hit.
Any Stanley Cup winning team always has defensive defensemen. This small puck moving mobile guys are a liability. There's a reason Chara , Cernak, Hedman, Weber lead Habs to finals. Big defensive defensemen. Watch Girard for Colorado get destroyed in the plus minus. He is an elite skater. Puck mover. But cannot defend. Just a few observations
As a neutral fan who watched this whole game, leafs offense was not a problem. Vasilevsky is somehow underrated this year because Tampa is not playing great team defence this year.
tampa fan - vasy has been stellar with pretty bad support, missing games from cernak has hurt as has missing our best defensive center point (and now cirelli). he’s currently 5th in sv% for goalies with 20+ games, i’m hoping he sneaks into the vezina convo if we can get healthy
@@McNutEVD Let's be honest - Fleury got the Vezina last year for the sentimental vote. He's great, but that screwed Vasy. He proved it by winning the Cup and Conn Smythe.
Is it possible, with cap restrictions, to upgrade the defence? Who’s, out and who’s in. Dermott, Holl, Engvall and Mykehev (spelling) are tradable but for who?
i can tell you why there was no icing call. all refs are the same. once i "asked" a ref why he didnt call icing. his answer: "i want the game over as fast as possible and go home". ;-) 😞
Hey I know I didn't get to see it because it was on TSN, I didn't remember the highlights. Rielly's Contract is working really well considering he's played 20 g for 19 p.
@@FrenchToast_28 until you consider they lost to Tampa in a shootout when Tampa were missing their top 2 forwards and had their backup goalie in net because they were playing the second half of a back to back.
@@TheFerg y’all act like Tampa is some unbeatable force the bandwagoning is hilarious Minnesota was also down 2 top players in both games against even with one against vasy(4-2 win) the shootout loss was also the tail end of a back to back after playing against the panthers then the next week rematching them with 1 day off. Not that the backup status matters but Minnesota played their backup against tampas
The top of the Atlantic is stacked. Of the 5 teams with 38 PTs+ 3 of them are in the Atlantic. Also Tampa doing what they're doing withOUT 2 of the top offensive players in the league is insane. Most teams missing their top 2 guys might be lucky to go .500 in wins.
Tampa is the favourite to win the cup for a reason. They always maintain their spot in the standings thanks to their depth and then when playoffs roll around you'll see Kucherov and Point return....plus playoffs Vasi is tough for any team to beat.
Florida was missing Barkov and Duclair their two top scorers along with a top 4 pairing Dman and good depth pieces and were still finding ways to win as well. Both Tampa and Florida are deep as fuck this season. The first two rounds of the playoffs are going to be an absolute bloodbath lol.
Steve you should know the Leafs are notorious for going on a hot and cold streaks. It’s the never ending agony as Leafs fan that we have to go through these ebb flows
Steve, our team defense has been good up until these last 4 games. I think loosing Marner hasn't helped, but we are also not going to have 82 perfect games. Rielly and Brodie are good. If Muzzin and Holl figure it out they are good. And I think Sandin amd Liljgren and Dermott all look very good this year. I don't think our D is as bad as you think. It wasn't bad last year either...
How come you didn't mention Brodie when talking about issues with the defence? Might be that my way of viewing the game was biased after seeing the one Tampa goal, that happened directly as a result of Brodie's inability to handle the puck under pressure in his own zone. I noticed it happen at least a few times in not that challenging situations, and one of them lead to the Tampa goal. Again, might be biased and to be honest, i didn't evaluate his game during the whole game.. Does anyone have a well studied opinion on Brodie?
1) #gobolts 2) as an American, I find your state of the union title humorous. Clever. 3) scorpions 4) LFR being a nightly is the way to go. 5) Keep it up Dangle & Drew
I'd like to see Rubin's be in the lineup over both Holl and Dermott. He seems to make good decisions and is quite quick for his size.... Good 6th defender, they need 5 better defense to be okay.
Defense concerns .. enough talk which leaf will be on team Canada ... Problem they can't afford to upgrade by trade unless they do something with a dance partner who is willing to do the same
I’m also baffled at how we won this game, I give most of the credit to Stamkos with the 4 points. Nice assist on the empty netter too. Missing cirelli, point, kuch is massive
Tampa just capitalized on the numerous give away! What is up with Muzzin ? As with Riely Nylanders blow by on the missed pass from Muzzin. They got beat by their own mistakes.
Atlantic has 3 top heavy teams and gonna go against eachother in the first round? Ask the metro about that, seeding doesn’t matter it’s gonna suck regardless 😭
Welcome to the AL East of hockey. The Leafs had MORE points through 28 games 3 years ago and were behind Tampa and only slightly ahead of Boston…I still think that Leafs team was better than the current one (worse d but Forward depth was off the charts - we had a Boston team that went to game 7 of the cup finals) - but the teams around that time were also better (now they’re worse). But it’s still a rough division and rough conference. The metro still takes the cake for toughest division. But let’s not be too surprised that a couple of losses push us back - this has been the case since we’ve been competitive.
That's.....An interesting thought experiment to say the least. Aho is obviously undeniably the better pick with hindsight, but I wonder what kind of 'butterfly effect' it would have on the team going forward. If I had to guess, it would change things pretty significantly. Would we still draft Matthews? Most like yes assuming we still get that 1st overall pick...What happens to Kadri? Do we trade him earlier? To who and for what? Would we sign Tavares? Honestly, probably not. Since Aho would (again, probably) be our 2nd center behind Matthews, I imagine that big Tavares contract goes to a defenseman instead. Who would it be? Would we have signed Karlsson instead? Looking back on THAT deal it seems like that would have been a bad idea. Who else was available? For what money? We have to remember Aho would have needed a big contract too, so that would have cut into our cap space in ways that didn't with Dermott. Would whatever player we sign be a good deal or a bad one 3-4 years down the line? Would we sign Tavares anyways and TRADE Aho for a defenseman? Really hard to say...At least the Tavares deal so far has looked pretty good, no significant drop off in play or anything. I imagine drafting Aho would result in a better team, hard to imagine that not being the case....How that team would look today on the other hand? Very difficult to say....Anyways very interesting "what if" I don't think I've seen posed before, so thanks for letting me think about that haha.
You know who else was dropped to third in their division? Steve's other favourite team, the Edmonton Oilers. Four straight losses now, including last night against Boston, who were playing the second of a back-to-back. 12 seconds into Foligno's penalty, the puck finds its way past the EDMONTON GOALKEEPER. 10 seconds into the second, Leon gets called for a penalty. Boston would score in the dying seconds of that power play. Both of Edmonton's goals were scored on the power play, with the SAME THREE PLAYERS GETTING POINTS. Leon with both goals, Barrie and McDavid with two assists each. You know who else registered two assists in that game? FORMER EDMONTON FIRST OVERALL PICK TAYLOR HALL. Right now, the Leafs appear to be a lock for the top 3 in their division. The Oilers, not so much. We currently sit in third with both the Knights AND the Sharks in our rear view mirror. I read a letter posted by the Edmonton Sun after the Oilers' loss to the Wild saying that Tippett has let his two best players take over the locker room, and that one of those two players should be traded.
Ho Sang bring him up.! Need a solid right side Defense.. Lilijgrin top 6 . Steeves on the right side on of the top two lines give him and Ho Sang the opportunity!
