Faux pas; the Reimer Primer 3

The guy who should be traded is Reimer. 48 hours before Saturday night Reimer could do no wrong. He has one bad game and the fans are all over him. That's totally disgusting. Again the fans came down even to the point of threatening his wife.

This city is toxic. Reimer deserves better from the team mates and the fans. The goalie that did get the Leafs into the playoffs last time was Reimer, not Bernier. Even if he doesn't play, if Reimer is playing well the whole team is playing well. And vice versa.

On the first goal that was on Reimer, but the second goal was a disgrace. The Sabre forward came unchallenged down the wing. The only reason, and the only reason a goalie leaves the net on that play is because the defense playing in front is total crap. If Reimer had managed to poke check successfully he would have been a hero. The margin between goat and hero is thinner than a razor's edge. Case in point.

To aggravate the bad play the Leafs defense was nowhere to be seen. Obviously they were in the wrong end of the rink Phaneufing around. When the two defensemen did show up, they were looking at the puck. One guy of the two just had to pick up the trailer and the other cover the net as Reimer scrambled back from doing their job. Just one had to turn around and mark the trailer, just one guy. Nope.

What is most aggravating is that the Leafs can play a much better defensive game. They have stymied the opposition to ten shots on goal for the whole game. The topper was the third goal on Reimer. The Sabres Forward moved to the point to Reimer's left. I'd swear there were four Leafs between that guy and the goal. The forward had time to set and shoot. No one came to challenge at all. The shot went through the 4 man screen and into the net. No one thought to try to stop the puck.

I don't know of any goalie that could anticipate the path of that puck. It was a perfect screen and worse the entire screen was composed of Reimer's team mates. At that point, Carlyle should have swapped out Reimer and Bernier. Nope.

At that point I switched to the Florida State vs Miami game. Which was far more entertaining than watching the Leafs.

To the glue factory

Don Cherry begins his exit from Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC). This Saturday past he complained on air somewhat bitterly about the length of time Rogers assigned his Coach's Corner rant. Basically, Rogers sort of reneged on their commitment to Cherry. Before the deal was signed with the NHL Rogers swore up and down about giving Cherry a wider fan base. Well its seems that the new boss is retrenching or going back on the CBC veterans.

The new producers slyly began the process of putting Ron MacLean out to pasture. He has been assigned to a pathetic national grand tour of Canadian towns, designating one unlucky community as hockey town of the week. It shows on Sunday evening. Its the slow dismissal by a thousand cuts.

Why? Its very simple. They want their man Stroumboulopoulos to shine away from the shadow of McLean or Cherry. Its sort of working. Strombo has youth, experience and interview skills. Strombo also equals or excels most of the colleagues regarding sports, and especially hockey. He began his career as a sports producer on radio. One of his resume references comes from the fact that he produced Prime Time Sports hosted by the notoriously cranky Bob McCown. To survive that, and get a good reference out of McCown, one must know their stuff.

CBC rather in one of their bizarre moves employed Strombo as an Entertainment and pop host. Strombo emerged from the period when the CBC was trying to attract a younger audience. It was the motivation that deposed Definitely Not the Opera with Nora Young, with "Q" hosted by the now notoriouser Jian Ghomeshi. CBC made a mistake with both. Strombo being badly assigned and Jian  a horror waiting to happen. But the Mother Corp. refused to put him into Sports where his real talent lies.

Rogers wanted to change everything. Its much like the spouse walking into a mansion with grand staircases, Victorian black oak furniture and simply disliking the place based on the fact that the drapes were all wrong. Cherry and MacLean are part of the HNIC furnishings. Typical of designers Rogers doesn't want to totally piss off the house owners. The house owners being the audience.

Cherry's confrontational style caused friction all the time with the CBC executives. But he was making them money, an unusual thing at that publicly owned broadcaster. Indeed their segment was the highest rated television period in all of the network. By association Ron MacLean's stock grew. Enter a new player Rogers/Sportsnet. They bought the entire NHL television rights for the next decade paying out Billions. Enter the dragon of private ownership.

Cherry chafes big time about everything. Like the Scorpion in folklore, its in his nature. Unlike the CBC though, Sportsnet isn't likely to be pushed around. They have control of the material for the next decade. They are locked in for success. Right now he has no leverage. He threatens to quit. They will just point to the door. Even if his certain departure comes sooner this company will not shed one tear.

And even if there is a furor over Cherry the Darth Rogers storm troopers have landed on the rebel planet hockey. Cherry has no more leverage on pay, time or issues. By the time the monopolist contract expires, departures of Cherry and MacLean become a distant dim memory in the media Oort Cloud.

Cherry bomb

Fine. Leafs lost. They call it an OT loss. Still its a loss. Meanwhile back at the hanger, they received a deluge of Cherryisms. Apparently he wants them to pick a number one goalie. What's wrong with the Leafs have nothing to do with the goalies. Its lousy defense. The coaches are listening to living fossils instead of using their own experience.

Time to retire Donnie boy.

Leafs - the Bermier Conundrum

Y'know I think Carlyle is starting to like jerking everyone around 4 fun. The fact he can go to any either goalie and trust they will play well is a really good place to be. Its a long season. Last year he went away from rotating in mid December, and it cost them the trip to the playoffs. That won't happen this year.
... Certainly, the new coaching staff will put more effort in trying to figure out in what situations where each excels. The other challenge is to set up the defense strategy playing in front of each goalie. It appears that Bernier plays better when the defense works to force shots on goal to come from the outside. Reimer seems to play better when the shots come from in front of him.
... After midseason last year it seemed that many of the scoring plays began from the corners. Also I noted during the last game that the defense put more effort into clearing the screen from tne left side of Reimer's net. Bernier seems to play better with the defense two steps closer to the net.
... Last year, after New Year's day the Leafs seemed to play the defense one way. That way favored Bernier's style. This year it appears the Leaf's are trying to adjust to the goalie style.to a greater degree.-