Steve Dangle recaps and analyzes Game 78 of the Toronto Maple Leafs season against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Why is Matthew Knies SO GOOD against Tampa?
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29 Comments
420th like💙🩵💙
Yes
Auston Matthews evolution into a playmaking 2-way center isn't being talked about enough
Bertuzzi who?
Dear god…. Dangle saying be cool… this is it. This is the year!
Prison rules Paul!! 😂😂😂
I hated Robertson for most of this game but then he'd have a good play in a shift.
Steve trying to get a sneaky head start on his playoff beard
I need a Knies jersey ASAP
Steve I swear if “WHERE IS THAT MUTHERF******G BUILDING?!!” is not in next year’s intro
I swear the leafs score on the first shot vs vasilevskiy soooo often.
I'm starting to think the Knies/Matthews pairing is more important then Marner/Matthews
That's nice!
Need more of that Don Cherry impression in future LFRs that was golden
keep Knies at all cost
Steve, on your next podcast can you and the guys have a conversation about the fact that Berube and company played OEL 5 mins more than Rielly this game? He was also 2 mins more than Tanev despite them being the "top pair" and Tanev playing full 2 mins on PK. It's rather hypocritical given when the team needs to win in OT, they are rolling out Rielly like crazy. It's getting frustrating because they obviously believe Rielly is their best chance to win when skating and offense are needed. Yet, for some reason they won't play him during at 5 on 5, they use OEL and McCabe over him and I think it's having an impact. I'm really starting to think the reason Rielly hasn't done so well this season is a lot on how the coaching staff have deployed him, or the lack there of. I mean Benoit played more than Rielly today. Now it was only 30 seconds but Rielly doesn't play PK and got put out with Myers a lot in the 1st / 2nd period. As you said, Myers didn't play much at 7 mins for the game (I don't think he took a shift in the 3rd).
This honestly felt like Rielly was relegated to 3rd pair and Myers didn't play after the 2nd period basically, finishing the game with like 7 mins. So I don't think it was a Rielly demotion or else he wouldn't play either right? I just don't understand what the coaching staff are doing here and why they think this is the winning formula. Rielly finished the game with 1 assist, +1, 3 shots, 7 blocked shots and only 1 giveaway. Compared to OEL who was no points, +1, 1 shot, 2 blocks, 1 hit, 3 giveaways at 7 more shifts and 5 more minutes than Rielly.
Listen, I get Rielly has had a tough season, but surely we don't think OEL is better than him and is the answer right? Like its no comparison when you match them up. Rielly has more career points, is younger, and has a better career +/- (substantially). Yes OEL is playing well this year and works well with Tanev but like what are we doing? 5 minutes? 5 more minutes than Rielly; why?! And I get OEL is filling in for McCabe but even McCabe isn't the answer to replace Rielly, he has less points than OEL and gets fatigued with brain farts when he plays more than 24 mins a game. It just feels like the coaching staff are neutering Rielly for no reason and its hurting them; yet they will crawl back to him on cold legs later in the game when they need offense all the sudden. Then they wonder why he's not able to skate as well as he used to. It's basically exactly what Babcock did when he came in: be a stubborn coach and run the team's #1 talent on D into the ground for no apparent reason.
Here's the facts: this team wins an absurd number of games when they get scoring from their defense. The only guy on the team doing that consistently is Rielly (although not as much as previous years this year). Despite playing less on average and only playing 1 more game than OEL, Rielly is like 10 points up on him and leading the defense in points and goals. This team needs to play Rielly more with the top guys and get him skating more if they want to win in the playoffs. Playing neutral hockey with the likes of OEL won't last because of how bang and crash the playoffs get. You need to move the puck, you need to be out of your zone. The only one who does that consistently is Rielly. So many times this game I watched as they deployed Tanev & OEL with the 1st line in the offensive zone (yes the offensive zone) for the draw to be lost, then TB end up in our end for a bit and finally a whistle happens. Then they throw out Rielly Carlo in our D end to get the puck out of our zone. I just think they are wasting Rielly's effective use.
Sorry for the rant, I'm just frustrated at watching this team destroy the talent they have for no good reason. And this fanbase hates on him because they say he's not a #1 but by all comparable metrics, he is – especially our #1. Case in point, some quick stats:
https://www.nhl.com/stats/skaters?reportType=season&seasonFrom=20132014&seasonTo=20242025&gameType=2&position=D&sort=points,goals,assists&page=0&pageSize=50
Since 2013-2014 when Rielly came in the league, he sits 8th among D with 510 points currently in 869 games played. OEL is 14th with 433 points (and 12 more games played than Rielly too!). Rielly is also 3 years younger and more durable. To all the haters, that makes Rielly a top 10 D man in the last decade, why are we trying to run this guy out of town? It's not easy to find talent like his. No other team is offering you their top D man and they don't grow on trees. Unless I'm mistaken, we also don't have a replacement in the minors for him right? So I ask again, what are we doing here?
Now if you wanted to account for a lot of the star talent that's risen over the last 5 years, lets say the Makars, the Huges, etc., we can adjust to the 2019-2020 season (so the last 5 years) and see the difference. Well here it is: https://www.nhl.com/stats/skaters?reportType=season&seasonFrom=20192020&seasonTo=20242025&gameType=2&position=D&sort=points,goals,assists&page=0&pageSize=50
When you do that, Rielly drops to 12th (only 4 positions) with 267 points in 399 games. OEL doesn't even make the top 50 (he's #54 with 166 points in 402 games played, -15 over that time too). Like Rielly is just ahead of Devon Toews in points and imagine what Rielly would be if he had a Makar beside him? Like case in point: Rielly sits at +17 over that time, Toews is +180!!! (frigin mutant, yes that's the best in the league over that time. Makar is #1 in points and +138). We need to start recognizing just what Rielly means to the leafs and why the team needs him. I don't think leaf fans appreciate what we have in Rielly and this team is ruining the relationship and his performance despite him doing everything for the team including taking a back seat on most nights. He's changing his game and he's taking a back seat so others can thrive. I mean tonight Knies takes a roughing penalty on the PP and instead of throwing Rielly out, the coaching staff keep 5 forwards and put Domi. They immediately lose the PP to a penalty by Domi whose just a little bit too eager in the moment. I don't think Rielly played for a solid 4 mins of game time after that because of it. I'll ask one more time, what are we doing here? We have our answers, we need to play our #1 d more but that probably starts with recognizing him as our #1 d.
Berube and company needed to let Rielly play through his woes this year and I'm not sure they have been allowing that to happen. We're 4 games away from playoffs and I just don't know when they decide to flip the switch here or if they even will. Anyways, really hope you guys spend a good 10 mins or so objectively looking at Rielly deeper and how much this team might be partially at fault for the regression in his game this year. I don't think it's fair to say that Rielly doesn't know the system or can't play it, that's definitely not the case (especially at this stage in the season). We need Rielly to be a monster in the playoffs. But I'm not sure Berube and the coaching staff are going to give him the chance to be one. I really hope I'm wrong.
Mattie with the Hattie. I want to keep hearing that for the next decade!
Who cares about knies hatty they are still shit first round exit
I have no respect for the Lightning. Cooper whines so hard and has taught his team to do the same. It's despicable. Kucherov is a little baby who throws fits (and his gloves at his equipment man)
I hope Patches comes back for the playoffs. No way should Jarnkrok or Robertson be in the playoff lineup.
What an O.T. 🍻
The scene of fighting Amalie arena HAS TO BE in next year's intro 🤣
So, as I mentioned, I'm in the finals of my fantasy league. Stolarz has been awesome for me, gets me another win tonight. I have Leon MF Draisaitl, who has been out for 3 games. I had picked up Dubois from the Caps, but he wasn't playing for a few days.
Guess who I picked up to replace Dubois
Matthew Knies you're my hero!
Hat trick bitches! Give him a blank check! GO LEAFS GO!!!
will marner choke again in the playoffs??? i say yes
Just all things Mat
Mats
Matthew Knies
Auston Matthews
Magnificent Mitch Rielly-ed Hedman to start, Rielly Rielly-ed himself (again) and Stolie saves the day for Knies to tip his hattie!
Stop D riding one trick kenny
I WILL RUN THROUGH A WALL FOR KNIES
Its funny how howerver great vasy is the leafs always own him…same thing with hellebuyck…oth no matter how bad babrobsky is he always plays like hasek against the leafs…same thing with georgiev…
Every time Knies goes on the ice you know he’s out there, always around the puck