True. But, rolling out a stream of Mike Smiths and Cam Talbots says a team is not serious about winning. They could at least try harder.
- GalacticStone

I think Campbell was the try harder.
But hey, the leafs are throwing out sammy, so who am i to judge. Although i feel sammy is much better than soft soup.

Canadian teams goalie rankings:

Vancouver (Demko/DeSmith)
Winnipeg (Hellebuyck/Brossoit)
Calgary (Markstrom/Vladar/Wolf)
Toronto (Samsosoft/Woll💙)
Ottawa (Korpse/Forsberg)
Montreal (Allen/Montembault)
Edmonton (Skinner/Jackoff)

Canadian teams goalie rankings:

Vancouver (Demko/DeSmith)
Winnipeg (Hellebuyck/Brossoit)
Calgary (Markstrom/Vladar/Wolf)
Toronto (Samsosoft/Woll💙)
Ottawa (Korpse/Forsberg)
Montreal (Allen/Montembault)
Edmonton (Skinner/Jackoff)
- mr.sir

Hellebuyck should be first by default imho.

It's close between Demko and Markstrom. They can either be great or terrible.

The rest is close to a crapshoot where they'll have good games and bad games.

A "good enough" goaltender works if you have a very good team in front of him.

Leafs can score (alot), but they can't afford shaky goaltending with their current defensive corps.
- Scabeh

No...but also (frank) you anyways SCAB

No...but also (frank) you anyways SCAB
- AdamFrench

wow.

WOW.

wow.

WOW.
- Scabeh

I had to listen to Ottawa radio talk about Parker Kelly being good for 15 minutes. I'm in a tizzy my friend! A TIZZY!

I had to listen to Ottawa radio talk about Parker Kelly being good for 15 minutes. I'm in a tizzy my friend! A TIZZY!
- AdamFrench

He's already halfway to last season's production after 1 game.

He's in full progression!!!

They — more pointedly, Connor McDavid — were sour that the Canucks ran their top power play out there late in a 6-1 game, but it should be said the power play opportunity came courtesy of a needless McDavid cross-check that reeked of frustration. And it was followed by a wicked Leon Draisaitl slash that Oilers fans would bemoan, had that lumber landed on the back of their fallen player’s leg.


The Leafs had issues last night … but at least they won.


- dozerD10

Matthews stepped up last night. McDavid didn’t.

Leafs arguably are the best team north of the border. They are better positioned to make a deep run than any other Canadian team. Jets have a goalie but no team in front of him. Flames haven't been relevant since Iginla. Canucks are a perpetual tire fire. Montreal is not even close to contending. Ottawa will take years to recover from Melnyk's incompetency. If McDavid had a lick of sense, he would demand a trade out.

That's my cold take and I am sticking to it.
- GalacticStone

Or, he could just wait a couple years and pull a JT, and he and Mattews, Marner and Willy can become the Voltonesque Cup winning machine they were always meant to be.

Burn it all down! 🔥

Plan the parade .... plan the parade

I think Campbell was the try harder.
But hey, the leafs are throwing out sammy, so who am i to judge. Although i feel sammy is much better than soft soup.
- Fakepartofme

I think so too. And no offense to Campbell, he's OK. But, OK is not good enough for most teams.

The Lightning would be a wildcard team at best without Vasi.

Samsonov wasn't great last night either, from what I saw in the extended highlights.
- gravyface

Name a single goal that was Samsonov's fault.

I dare you.

They — more pointedly, Connor McDavid — were sour that the Canucks ran their top power play out there late in a 6-1 game, but it should be said the power play opportunity came courtesy of a needless McDavid cross-check that reeked of frustration. And it was followed by a wicked Leon Draisaitl slash that Oilers fans would bemoan, had that lumber landed on the back of their fallen player’s leg.


The Leafs had issues last night … but at least they won.


- dozerD10

I don't care what sport it is, you should never take your foot off the pedal... unless, maybe*, it's toddlers playing.

* sometimes those little poops need to learn a lesson

Neither one of them received much help. The Leafs' D and the Oilers' D were just garbage - from bad decisions and missed assignments to lost battles and poor gap control. I watched both games start to finish and there was very little good on the back-end for either. I will give the Oilers this bit: Eklholm does a ton to stabilize their D and he is out for a bit, recovering from surgery, so they have hope on the horizon.

The Leafs' D, for me, continues to be a concern. When it goes it well, it'll be great, but that is not a rugged or tough enough core to manage the harder games. Rielly - Brodie, McCabe - Klingberg, Giordano - Liljegren - they are all decent D with some merits, and all capable of being top-4 D (maybe not Klingberg - he sucks) - but where is the toughness and muscle? Who's getting the puck? Who's winning battles? Who's clearing out the front of the net? Who's tying people up? I hate it because it _feels_ like a retread of the 2019 defense that was woeful.

I hope I'm wrong. I like the potential of this forward group.
- Monkeypunk

While I agree with you that this D corps will not cut it, I was actually impressed by Klingberg last night. There were a few times were he skated the puck up the ice - calmly, head up, made good decisions with the puck.

I don't care what sport it is, you should never take your foot off the pedal... unless, maybe*, it's toddlers playing.

* sometimes those little poops need to learn a lesson
- mjones242

In our beer league, if we're leading by more than 5 goals, we usually take it easy so we don't anger some bumhole on the other side and someone gets injured.

But in professional hockey? Score as much as you want.

While I agree with you that this D corps will not cut it, I was actually impressed by Klingberg last night. There were a few times were he skated the puck up the ice - calmly, head up, made good decisions with the puck.
- Atomic Wedgie

Klingberg can do good things with the puck Wedgie.

That was never the problem with him.

Every single person that complained about the old goal song (which was perfect) deserves this new bullpoop.

The rest of us don't deserve this absolute garbage as a goal song, though. Holy (frank), it's terrible.

Every single person that complained about the old goal song (which was perfect) deserves this new bullpoop.

The rest of us don't deserve this absolute garbage as a goal song, though. Holy (frank), it's terrible.
- GreatGigInTheSky

What's the song now?

In our beer league, if we're leading by more than goals, we usually take it easy so we don't anger some bumhole on the other side and someone gets injured.

But in professional hockey? Score as much as you want.
- Scabeh

Frank McDavid's fee-fees - higher personal stats means higher next contract.

Plan the parade .... plan the parade
- gkspartan

the parade happens in the last weekend of June.
hope to see you there

Every single person that complained about the old goal song (which was perfect) deserves this new bullpoop.

The rest of us don't deserve this absolute garbage as a goal song, though. Holy (frank), it's terrible.
- GreatGigInTheSky

The song was franking terrible.

Why the frank wouldn't we have a song from a Toronto-area artist?

What's the song now?
- Scabeh

Yeah. I could not hear it while watching the game

Name a single goal that was Samsonov's fault.

I dare you.
- Atomic Wedgie

There were tough plays by the guys in front of him on all the goals. He probably should have held the post on the last goal but Brodie, Lilli, Domi mistakes were all pretty bad. Willie, who was covering for McCabe on the second goal wasn’t great but Willie having to be the Dman facing a rush is going to be an adventure

Hellebuyck should be first by default imho.

It's close between Demko and Markstrom. They can either be great or terrible.

The rest is close to a crapshoot where they'll have good games and bad games.
- Scabeh

I would agree that Winnipeg is far and away the #1 with Hellebuyck. Demko is #2 based on repeatable performances, despite last year being a down year.

Markstrom to me is very inconsistent. He had one good year (his last) in Vancouver, and one good year in Calgary, but he also had two poor years in Calgary and the rest of his time in Vancouver was poor to decent. Just because I have little faith in his consistency, I probably personally rank him a bit lower - but based on the lack of depth in Canadian goaltenders in general, it still probably keeps Calgary 3rd.

The rest of us have hope in our future prospects - Woll and Skinner are younger and have the opportunity to emerge; personally I think they do. Not crapping on you, but Montembeault is 26, so he has to show up now. He was probably your best goalie over the past couple of years, but he is still woefully inconsistency game-to-game.

The Senators are a hard read. Korpisalo can be brilliant and outright awful - sometimes on the same shift - but certainly year-over-year he is as inconsistent as they come. That said last year was the only time in the last 6 years that he has posted a positive GSAx - and while we could argue, "Well. Columbus." one thing of note is that of the 19 goalies to play for them since 2018, Korpisalo holds the 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18th worst GSAx spots among them and he never started more than 35 games there in his career, so it wasn't just accumulation of games played for Columbus.