NHL Hockey

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by Linus

You can't have Reimer doing all the games. He'll burn out before they get to the Playoffs. Additionally, Gustavsson wasn't solely responsible for all those goals. As a former goalie, if those in front of me aren't doing their job (aka defense and scoring) there is only so much a goalie can do (he faced 43 shots on net compared to Thomas who had 28). Additionally, there were a lot of stupid penalties.

And the Bruins shut down Kessel since they knew what he was like. Even the Leafs admit to allowing too many turnovers. (see here, last paragraph: http://www.nhl.com/ice/recap.htm?id=...0&cmpid=ggl1bx )

It's game 6 of the season. There wasn't such a huge risk of burning out Reimer that they had to throw away all strategy in putting in Gustavsson against Boston of all teams. It was poor strategy and poor decisions in this team aren't exactly counter to history. When a goalie lets in two goals in barely more than a minute's time and three goals in the span of five minutes...there's a goaltending issue. If they're going to rest Reimer then they should realise Gustavsson has never been a strong goalie (Gustavsson himself acknowledges he's been doing a shit job), and they would have been better off bringing up a back up from the minors than even keeping Gustavsson as the official backup. The more a team is in the hole, often the more stupid penalties players take and the more enforcers step up which never really helps.

Not to mention poor decisions in other line shuffling: inserting Kadri is a poor choice. Inserting Rosehill instead of MacArthur is a poor choice. Another attribute of a poor Leafs team this last decade...not allowing lines to solidify and work together, but pointless shuffling when current lineups are working well. Every time they get the opportunity to insert Kadri because he's supposedly the "new up and comer" yet it doesn't translate into consistent contribution. Instead they've got real "new up and comers" who are doing a better job. So yeah, neither Gustavsson and his poor goaltending nor the staff who made these decisions get any sympathy from me They need to stick with what worked the last 5 games.