NHL 2021 Irregular Season and Plagueoffs

Denamian said:

Hell, it makes me feel better about the Wings.

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Don't overdo it now.

Denamian said:

Don't worry, wheel team will still be bad for another decade or two.

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FTFY

Man, unlucky bounce for the Bruins there. With next two back up in NY, that's a series now.

This offseason is going to be wild. Plenty of teams poised to do something desperate/stupid

Ishad said:

This offseason is going to be wild. Plenty of teams poised to do something desperate/stupid

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Seattle just sitting there licking their chops hoping some of those desperate moves include them

Someone is going to massively overpay for Seth jones in a trade and regret it. Fingers crossed someone overpays for bertuzzi

Fucking Bruins.

They always end up in 7 game series, I bet this one is no different.

Toronto.....

One of the goals gave up by Toronto goalkeeper was pretty bad. If he simply stops that straight on ho hum shot maybe things go differently.

Maybe not though. They were playing overly cautious and still made mistakes.

Denamian said:

Hell, it makes me feel better about the Wings.

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Yeah, they have officially claimed the record for longest cup drought previously held by the Rangers so that's nice I guess. On the other hand, the reality of just how hard it is to actually win a cup is pretty discouraging.

It's not only about if you lose but how you lose. For a team that obviously has more talent and playing at home (fans or not), the effort looked so bad like it was just a regular season game instead of a game 7 to advance. Literally no fight until the very end when it was too late. Some of that has to be on coaching. Toronto should of came out on fire, exert their will. At least if you lose you fought like hell. Didn't see any of that last night.

I think Toronto played tentative due to losing the previous two games in overtime due to mistakes. They were being so cautious it worked against them.

Vandyn said:

It's not only about if you lose but how you lose. For a team that obviously has more talent and playing at home (fans or not), the effort looked so bad like it was just a regular season game instead of a game 7 to advance. Literally no fight until the very end when it was too late. Some of that has to be on coaching. Toronto should of came out on fire, exert their will. At least if you lose you fought like hell. Didn't see any of that last night.

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Did have 18-11 edge in scoring chances. Crazy enough at 5 on 5, there were only 3 credited high danger chances credited among both teams combined. Not saying they couldn't have shown more effort or "fight" as we like to call it sometimes...but it's not like they gave up a ton and were getting outplayed all over the ice, either.

Merrith said:

Did have 18-11 edge in scoring chances. Crazy enough at 5 on 5, there were only 3 credited high danger chances credited among both teams combined. Not saying they couldn't have shown more effort or "fight" as we like to call it sometimes...but it's not like they gave up a ton and were getting outplayed all over the ice, either.

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The point is good teams find ways to create chances and give themselves a chance to win. I think I heard that the Leafs had 'one' odd man rush the entire game. Yea give credit to Montreal but like I said if your a good team (with expectations to go deep this year based on the regular season) you find ways to create chances. From what I saw it just didn't look like they had a ton of scoring chances. I especially expected them to come out in the 3rd period (with a power play to start the period too) and just firebomb pucks at Price but it didn't happen.

Merrith said:

Did have 18-11 edge in scoring chances. Crazy enough at 5 on 5, there were only 3 credited high danger chances credited among both teams combined. Not saying they couldn't have shown more effort or "fight" as we like to call it sometimes...but it's not like they gave up a ton and were getting outplayed all over the ice, either.

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I disagree. They were getting outplayed all over the ice. They were absolute trash in the neutral zone, and they dumped too early and never recovered it.

Vandyn said:

The point is good teams find ways to create chances and give themselves a chance to win. I think I heard that the Leafs had 'one' odd man rush the entire game. Yea give credit to Montreal but like I said if your a good team (with expectations to go deep this year based on the regular season) you find ways to create chances. From what I saw it just didn't look like they had a ton of scoring chances. I especially expected them to come out in the 3rd period (with a power play to start the period too) and just firebomb pucks at Price but it didn't happen.

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Your first sentence is true...but it's also the HEAVY narrative that will be said after any bad playoff loss or blown series. Again, there's some facts there, but it's also okay to say that Montreal got much better goaltending when it mattered and their guys finished chances a little better. Against some teams that are willing to just pack it in, you can't always just "create chances" out of thin air. 3 high danger combined for the game tells me not a whole lot of fire wagon hockey with D on either side pinching left and right leading to many potential odd man rushes.

Not sure how many of the shots were late in the 3rd, but Leafs outshot Montreal 16-5 in the final period. They had an edge in 5 on 5 shots for the game as well if I recall. None of this is to excuse losing 3 straight to blow a 3-1 lead btw, it's just that the whole "they didn't work hard enough", "didn't come out with the fire you'd expect" etc stuff will go way over the top for how thin the margins actually probably were.

lurkingdirk said:

I disagree. They were getting outplayed all over the ice. They were absolute trash in the neutral zone, and they dumped too early and never recovered it.

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I don't think they really outplayed Montreal at all, but I can't watch that game and say Toronto got outplayed all over the ice. Your neutral zone point was definitely true at times, though.

Some levity that is true.