2-0 Day for Toronto
What an exciting, nail-biting, tension-filled day...
Both the Raptors and the Leafs won their respective playoff games on the road today. The Raptors weathered some late storm and hung on to beat the Magic 98-93, taking the 2-1 series lead. The Leafs stole another one on the road, beating the Bruins 2-1 and pushing them to the brink of elimination
With these teams playing at the same time, and some parental duties to handle, there was no way I could watch both games simultaneously.
But I did manage to catch most of the second half of the Raptors' game while watching the third period of the hockey game on two devices.
(I had to stop here Saturday night. About 30 mins. past midnight and just too tired to go on...)
So I am back on the post, more than 24 hours after these triumphs...
To talk more about the nervous 30 or so minutes of watching these two games at the same time...
My kids were in their weekly inline skating class. I was sitting by the bench on the sidelines where other parents hang out. I only had the sound on for the basketball game and just the streaming on for hockey with no sound.
I was solely focusing on hockey at first, but got the itch and tuned into the Raptors as well. It was 61-60 for the Magic in the third quarter.
And then I worked some, um, magic. We went on a 16-0 run!!!!
I watched the full match later Saturday night. So it turned out that we were ahead for a bit and once Marc Gasol went to the bench because of foul trouble, Vucevic, who'd struggled all series, broke free and scored a bunch of buckets. A jump hook over Lowry, a couple of 3-balls, etc, etc.
But Coach Nurse didn't call a timeout and let the guys figure things out. And the guys responded with the run to blow the game open.
Meanwhile, over in Boston, the hockey game was still tied at 0-0. I started paying a bit more attention to the hockey game though I still had the sound on for basketball. (I could have changed it but for some reason, I didn't bother.)
I had just missed Auston Matthews' goal in real time while following the Raptors' run. So it was 1-0, but wait. The goal was under review for a possible goalie interference.
I watched the replay. Zach Hyman, standing on the top of the crease, hit a Boston defender from behind, and bounced off and bumped into Tuukka Rask just as the puck was fired.
Without listening to any commentary, I felt there was no way this goal would be allowed to stand. It just looked obvious to me.
Only later did I realize, the longer the refs and video guys in Toronto discussed, the better it'd be for us. If it had been so blatant of an interference, then they wouldn't have taken it so long. But they were clearly talking about some stuff that made the goal stand.
Matthews has had a handful of goals wiped out on a review. I've probably watched all of it live. I didn't like his chances in this one either, but man, he finally got his break when we needed it the most.
Kapanen scored later to make it 2-0. Boston scored with a goalie out to cut it to 2-1, which made Matthews' goal loom even larger.
There were still more than 40 seconds left when the Bruins got their goal. Way too much time, if you ask me. (Or ask the Winnipeg Jets, who gave up a go-ahead goal to St. Louis with 15 ticks left in Game 5. They ended up getting eliminated in Game 6).
But we survived. The Raptors, too, weathered some 4Q storm to win by five points.
A quick few thoughts, starting with the Raptors.
Siakam Steps Up
On a night when Kawhi was fighting his shot, Spicy P stepped up big time and dropped in 30 points on 13-of-20 shooting.
And he finally made 3-pointers and shot them with conviction, too (3-for-4 from downtown). In the midst of our 10-0 start, Siakam drained a corner 3 that was so reminiscent of his second-half surge during the regular season. Had 12 in the opening frame with a couple of 3s.
I think this may well have been Kawhi's worst game as a Raptor. To his credit, he kept getting hammered down low and didn't get any calls (officiating was terrible on both ends in this one). But his jumpers kept falling up short, a sign of a shooter having no legs. And the Magic deserve some credit for double-teaming and trapping Kawhi in the post when he had the ball, and timing it so that he couldn't get the ball out of trouble effectively. This is one area that needs adjustments on our part the rest of this series.
Except for their blowout loss in Game 2, the Magic have been every bit as pesky and annoying to play against as I'd predicted. Even in this one, they didn't let our 3Q run deflate them. They battled back to make it to a single-digit deficit.
I mean, we were up 86-69 with under 8 minutes to go. Looked like it was a done deal. But the Magic outscored us 24-12 the rest of the way. They just ran out of time.
Game 4 Monday back in Orlando will be huge. I hope we won't make things any more difficult on ourselves than necessary and close these guys out in Game 5 on home court.
Leafs Play D!
From start to finish, and considering the context, this was perhaps the Leafs' best defensive game of the season.
Not much happened in the first period. A lot of neutral zone time by both teams. The puck was moving, all right, but there wasn't any sense that a goal was about to be scored at either end.
I thought we did a great job staying within ourselves and playing such a tight checking game. Come to think of it, we've won three out of five games so far, and I think we've been a better team in four of the games, and if I may break it down by periods, I think we've been outplayed in maybe just two or three periods, at most.
5-on-5, the series has been pretty tight or slightly in our favor. The bad guys have scored a bunch of power play goals, but not once in three opportunities in Game 5.
The Bergeron line's struggles are a mystery to me. Just saw some advanced numbers here and I am beginning to believe whispers that Bergeron and/or Pasta are both playing through some injury. Not to dismiss any work John Tavares' line has done to nullify them, but you'd think Bergeron and Co. would still be better than this.
But hey, I am not complaining too much. As I noted in my preview, if the top lines from both teams cancel each other out in their matchups (JT's line hasn't exactly set the world on fire, either), then we should be able to win the battle of depth. I'd take Auston Matthews as my second line center over David Krejci any day of the week.
Outlooks for Both Teams
The Leafs will get a rare afternoon puck drop in Game 6, 4 a.m. Monday my time. The Raptors will play at 8 a.m. the same morning.
As soon as I learned of the Leafs' starting time, my first reaction was, "Oh man, that's too early."
Then I realized, "Wait, so that means the Leafs and the Raptors don't play at the same time! That's awesome!"
Barring an OT action (knock on wood), the Leafs game will end around 6:30 a.m. That's about when I wake up on a typical work day to get ready, etc. So I only have to get up about 3 hours earlier to watch the Leafs.
The best thing about the early puck drop is I can watch hockey in peace without distraction of work or family or both.
The first elimination game of the series. On our home ice. Uninterrupted hockey at 4 a.m. This is going to be fun. I'll have a chance to celebrate the Leafs' first playoff series win in 15 years while the dawn is still breaking!!
The last meaningful Leafs playoff run that I watched and witnessed was back in 2002, when we lost to the Hurricanes in the conference finals. I was serving in the military the next two springs and obviously had no access to NHL.
Losing to Washington a couple of years back, well, we had been last place the year before and we were happy to be there. Dropping to Boston in 7 games after blowing 3P lead, well, that was painful.
Our core guys are a year older and playing with more maturity. New pieces have done their part, too. Without Lightning, the path is wider open than at the start of the playoffs. This could be it!
Maybe Game 7 is inevitable between these two teams. But we've proven that we can play any type of hockey against these guys. The Bruins were probably shocked that we were so tight defensively in Game 5. Maybe even some of the Leafs' own players didn't know they had that in them.
When the Raptors play, I may be too busy with work to pay full attention. We have proven we can beat these guys without Kawhi at 100 percent, though it's not ideal for him to be missing a dozen shots every game. I have a feeling Playoff Kawhi will show up once again and just destroy whatever D the Magic will throw at him.
If the Leafs go to Game 7, it will overlap with the Raptors' Game 5. Well, if the Raptors had been able to sweep the Magic, I wouldn't have had this problem. Now it's up to the Leafs to try to finish off Boston in Game 6. That way, the guys will get a bit of rest before taking on CBJ. And at least for the first round, I'll no longer have to worry about watching two games at the same time.
Both the Raptors and the Leafs won their respective playoff games on the road today. The Raptors weathered some late storm and hung on to beat the Magic 98-93, taking the 2-1 series lead. The Leafs stole another one on the road, beating the Bruins 2-1 and pushing them to the brink of elimination
With these teams playing at the same time, and some parental duties to handle, there was no way I could watch both games simultaneously.
But I did manage to catch most of the second half of the Raptors' game while watching the third period of the hockey game on two devices.
(I had to stop here Saturday night. About 30 mins. past midnight and just too tired to go on...)
So I am back on the post, more than 24 hours after these triumphs...
To talk more about the nervous 30 or so minutes of watching these two games at the same time...
My kids were in their weekly inline skating class. I was sitting by the bench on the sidelines where other parents hang out. I only had the sound on for the basketball game and just the streaming on for hockey with no sound.
I was solely focusing on hockey at first, but got the itch and tuned into the Raptors as well. It was 61-60 for the Magic in the third quarter.
And then I worked some, um, magic. We went on a 16-0 run!!!!
I watched the full match later Saturday night. So it turned out that we were ahead for a bit and once Marc Gasol went to the bench because of foul trouble, Vucevic, who'd struggled all series, broke free and scored a bunch of buckets. A jump hook over Lowry, a couple of 3-balls, etc, etc.
But Coach Nurse didn't call a timeout and let the guys figure things out. And the guys responded with the run to blow the game open.
Meanwhile, over in Boston, the hockey game was still tied at 0-0. I started paying a bit more attention to the hockey game though I still had the sound on for basketball. (I could have changed it but for some reason, I didn't bother.)
I had just missed Auston Matthews' goal in real time while following the Raptors' run. So it was 1-0, but wait. The goal was under review for a possible goalie interference.
I watched the replay. Zach Hyman, standing on the top of the crease, hit a Boston defender from behind, and bounced off and bumped into Tuukka Rask just as the puck was fired.
Without listening to any commentary, I felt there was no way this goal would be allowed to stand. It just looked obvious to me.
Only later did I realize, the longer the refs and video guys in Toronto discussed, the better it'd be for us. If it had been so blatant of an interference, then they wouldn't have taken it so long. But they were clearly talking about some stuff that made the goal stand.
Matthews has had a handful of goals wiped out on a review. I've probably watched all of it live. I didn't like his chances in this one either, but man, he finally got his break when we needed it the most.
Kapanen scored later to make it 2-0. Boston scored with a goalie out to cut it to 2-1, which made Matthews' goal loom even larger.
There were still more than 40 seconds left when the Bruins got their goal. Way too much time, if you ask me. (Or ask the Winnipeg Jets, who gave up a go-ahead goal to St. Louis with 15 ticks left in Game 5. They ended up getting eliminated in Game 6).
But we survived. The Raptors, too, weathered some 4Q storm to win by five points.
A quick few thoughts, starting with the Raptors.
Siakam Steps Up
On a night when Kawhi was fighting his shot, Spicy P stepped up big time and dropped in 30 points on 13-of-20 shooting.
And he finally made 3-pointers and shot them with conviction, too (3-for-4 from downtown). In the midst of our 10-0 start, Siakam drained a corner 3 that was so reminiscent of his second-half surge during the regular season. Had 12 in the opening frame with a couple of 3s.
I think this may well have been Kawhi's worst game as a Raptor. To his credit, he kept getting hammered down low and didn't get any calls (officiating was terrible on both ends in this one). But his jumpers kept falling up short, a sign of a shooter having no legs. And the Magic deserve some credit for double-teaming and trapping Kawhi in the post when he had the ball, and timing it so that he couldn't get the ball out of trouble effectively. This is one area that needs adjustments on our part the rest of this series.
Except for their blowout loss in Game 2, the Magic have been every bit as pesky and annoying to play against as I'd predicted. Even in this one, they didn't let our 3Q run deflate them. They battled back to make it to a single-digit deficit.
I mean, we were up 86-69 with under 8 minutes to go. Looked like it was a done deal. But the Magic outscored us 24-12 the rest of the way. They just ran out of time.
Game 4 Monday back in Orlando will be huge. I hope we won't make things any more difficult on ourselves than necessary and close these guys out in Game 5 on home court.
Leafs Play D!
From start to finish, and considering the context, this was perhaps the Leafs' best defensive game of the season.
Not much happened in the first period. A lot of neutral zone time by both teams. The puck was moving, all right, but there wasn't any sense that a goal was about to be scored at either end.
I thought we did a great job staying within ourselves and playing such a tight checking game. Come to think of it, we've won three out of five games so far, and I think we've been a better team in four of the games, and if I may break it down by periods, I think we've been outplayed in maybe just two or three periods, at most.
5-on-5, the series has been pretty tight or slightly in our favor. The bad guys have scored a bunch of power play goals, but not once in three opportunities in Game 5.
The Bergeron line's struggles are a mystery to me. Just saw some advanced numbers here and I am beginning to believe whispers that Bergeron and/or Pasta are both playing through some injury. Not to dismiss any work John Tavares' line has done to nullify them, but you'd think Bergeron and Co. would still be better than this.
But hey, I am not complaining too much. As I noted in my preview, if the top lines from both teams cancel each other out in their matchups (JT's line hasn't exactly set the world on fire, either), then we should be able to win the battle of depth. I'd take Auston Matthews as my second line center over David Krejci any day of the week.
Outlooks for Both Teams
The Leafs will get a rare afternoon puck drop in Game 6, 4 a.m. Monday my time. The Raptors will play at 8 a.m. the same morning.
As soon as I learned of the Leafs' starting time, my first reaction was, "Oh man, that's too early."
Then I realized, "Wait, so that means the Leafs and the Raptors don't play at the same time! That's awesome!"
Barring an OT action (knock on wood), the Leafs game will end around 6:30 a.m. That's about when I wake up on a typical work day to get ready, etc. So I only have to get up about 3 hours earlier to watch the Leafs.
The best thing about the early puck drop is I can watch hockey in peace without distraction of work or family or both.
The first elimination game of the series. On our home ice. Uninterrupted hockey at 4 a.m. This is going to be fun. I'll have a chance to celebrate the Leafs' first playoff series win in 15 years while the dawn is still breaking!!
The last meaningful Leafs playoff run that I watched and witnessed was back in 2002, when we lost to the Hurricanes in the conference finals. I was serving in the military the next two springs and obviously had no access to NHL.
Losing to Washington a couple of years back, well, we had been last place the year before and we were happy to be there. Dropping to Boston in 7 games after blowing 3P lead, well, that was painful.
Our core guys are a year older and playing with more maturity. New pieces have done their part, too. Without Lightning, the path is wider open than at the start of the playoffs. This could be it!
Maybe Game 7 is inevitable between these two teams. But we've proven that we can play any type of hockey against these guys. The Bruins were probably shocked that we were so tight defensively in Game 5. Maybe even some of the Leafs' own players didn't know they had that in them.
When the Raptors play, I may be too busy with work to pay full attention. We have proven we can beat these guys without Kawhi at 100 percent, though it's not ideal for him to be missing a dozen shots every game. I have a feeling Playoff Kawhi will show up once again and just destroy whatever D the Magic will throw at him.
If the Leafs go to Game 7, it will overlap with the Raptors' Game 5. Well, if the Raptors had been able to sweep the Magic, I wouldn't have had this problem. Now it's up to the Leafs to try to finish off Boston in Game 6. That way, the guys will get a bit of rest before taking on CBJ. And at least for the first round, I'll no longer have to worry about watching two games at the same time.
Comments
Raptors need to Dominate and finish this in 5 games. With it being an older roster they can use the rest. Spicy P, went from being an energy guy to being the engine. Amazing how far he has come.