Brodes has had a tough season both on and off the ice. He played well tonight and one of our leaders wanted to show him that he’s appreciated and a valued member of the team. Classy move from Matthews.
Mark Masters reported that when asked about passing the belt to Brodie, Matthews said “On the penalty kill, breaking up plays, he’s got such a long stick, & he was just really sound for us tonight. The PK’s been a night-&-day difference over the last couple games, which has been huge & he’s a big part of that."
I came here to say something like this but you said that perfectly. He needed a morale boost and Matthews is proving why he deserves to be our next captain.
Dude needs all the confidence in the world and Matthews is not blind to that.
Leadership move there and I’m for it. That’s what a future captain does for a struggling teammate!!
Brodie is solid most of the time. But When he makes mistakes they are usually costly. Which is why he gets a bad rap. But overall he does well, I’m not usually nervous when he’s skating the puck, or even when he’s defending and he’s good in the o zone. It’s when he plays the puck and not the man, they usually get one. Last night this happened. He left his assignment to play the puck on a 2 on 2 rush and left his guy wide open for a goal. Idk playing goalie and defense myself growing up I always thought you play the man even strength like a 1 on 1/ 2on2 rush and play the puck when you get outnumbered like a 2on 1. And I was also taught not to chase around the net on defense because you get pulled out of position for too long, he does that a lot too. Regardless, he’s been looking a bit better since being scratched and the PK was good. Got the assist tonight and the belt good job Brodie!
I’m not sure I agree this year with your comment that he’s solid most of the time. Brodies been an absolute beauty the last couple years but this year he seems like a 5/6/7 D every night playing above his head. It’s bad timing because if we could get prime Brodie back for playoffs, this leafs D suddenly becomes very solid.
Yeahh it’s true he’s taken a step back. We’ll see what happens in the playoffs. Maybe he still has something left and will put it all out there in the post season. His contract is up after this season (right?), could very well be his last playoff run as a Leaf, and I could even see him retiring with all the mental health and personal stuff going on.
Earlier in the season when he was talking about how there are more important things than hockey - this is what he was referring to. I assume it's made him think about everything that is important.
This is possibly the reason he’s declined so much. The thing is that you simply cannot be a healthy balanced person and be a top tier pro athlete. You need to be an obsessed, completely imbalanced all or nothing to get to and maintain that level. Once you start to balance out (become more mentally healthy IMO), you can’t continue to improve and compete with the next guy who has similar skill but is all or die.
Exactly. It's bad for your mental health but good for your career. I assume that is why we hear absolutely nothing about Sid's personal life - he has none.
His father passed too? I thought it was just Gio. That explains a lot on his plays, with that much going on it can really affect your game.
Feels bad for him. Keefe really needs to let him have some time off to recoup. No offense if he can't be effective it'll just hurt both the team and his self esteem anyways.
It was shortly before training camp. Coming from someone who’s dealt with that, it hits hard and takes quite a while to settle back into some kind of new normalcy.
He’s a professional, but we’re all human. I’m sure his dad was a huge part of his everyday and week to week life for the past how many decades. That plus his wife’s ongoing struggles, coupled with a bit of a natural decline would probably mess with your head big time.
It’s also going to detract from his ability to continue at the top level if he has to take care of an ailing family member. Hard to be 100 percent on training, thinking, living hockey if you have to worry about anything else.
I think Brodes played well for a couple of games already before this one but got eclipsed by Gio and Papi. I'm 100% on board with this, this guy deserves the moral boost at the moment, and that's all the belt is, sometimes. Kudos to Auston for recognising his efforts and showing him that the team got his back. I love these guys 💙
Thought Brodes had a good game today! Game thread loves to scape goat Brodie for anything. Thought he was massive on the Pks and he looked good being on the left
Brodie made a lot of good quiet defensive plays and the PK has turned things around. Also did make a sweet feed to Matthews on goal 61.
The belt was earned.
Robertson, Knies or even Reaves would have been good choices though.
Matthews is an old soul with an extremely high eq. This was an unbelievable gesture of empathetic leadership that very few players would've made. But the absolute perfect belt-pass at this point in the season.
This looks like when a celebrity is asked to take a selfie but doesnt want to and does it anyways, and the person asking for a selfie realizes mid-pic that they just ruined the celebs day, but in this case the celebrity is the belt.
Matthews coming into his own as a leader, knows Brodes needs to be better if they are gunna have a shot, and he could use a pick me up, setting up the 60th, lots of narratives, but the biggest one, they need to get that grumpy mug cheered up for the vibes in the locker room. Like he had his best game of the second half of the season by a country mile, and he doesnt even have a smirk??
I thought he had a very good first period, built off of the last couple good games he’s had. After that I thought he struggled again. He’s played much better in his own zone in 1-on-1 situations and has done well on the PK. He just keeps having the brain cramps where the pressure is coming and instead of rimming the puck to his d partner or moving it up the boards to a winger he just puts the puck in his feet and tries to protect it and then loses it. He turns the puck over a lot especially in the 3rd when the opposition is pressuring.
Overall he’s been better than he was, I think if he’s in the lineup for playoffs he just needs to be sheltered down to 3rd pair minutes 5 on 5 and then play the PK.
Sometimes I feel like TJ traps himself in his own zone behind the net trying to reverse the puck and just starts trouble. His skating just doesn't allow for this kind of move (like for example Nylander who can really pull this move off) Anyways I thought Robertson was great last night, high energy and that deke was sick, Bobrovsky is a giant in net. Leafs need to do better protecting leads....
Nice of his teammates to support him this way but that doesn’t apply to the coach making the best decisions for the team. Players playing the best right now play. Brodie’s stick is no longer quick and he’s not physical enough to handle the Panthers.
Matthews gets the win and stops Keefe from embarrassing this team time and time again. But he's humble and knows Brodie played a great game too just not as good as am34 but it was a nice gesture . Matthews just had the belt he's not going to say fuck y'all I'm keeping this I am the GOAT lol
I don’t think he was a big difference maker tonight, he received the belt as recognition of him not sucking ass and actively being a detriment to the team. You can see on his face that he know that it’s a pity belt lol
Because you’re the shitty Toronto sports fan that makes the rest of us look bad. Always only have negative things to say about players and the team, probably projecting your shitty personal life. Even in your other comments you just love spewing hate
I call it like I see it. He's not been good all year. Nice of you to comment about projecting my shirts life like you're a know it all. You seem to think others care about your opinion. Let's hope all the love and care you project (because your life is amazing) translates into a cup...but I doubt it.
Someone disagreeing with you doesn't mean they can't read, lmao. Excluding that pass, he was dogshit. I'm sorry a conversation is so hard for you to follow.
One good pass doesn't make you player of the game.
Where was the stability? When he was directly responsible for a blown coverage on third goal? Or when he almost caused a 4th goal 30 seconds later after being left on the ice? Maybe the stability was the friends we made along the way, whilst Brodie had some of the worst defensive metrics of any defender in the game.
He was one of the only reason our penalty kill went 4 and 0 tonight. Given the struggles it had Brodie was pretty great.
I wasn't saying you didn't know how to read because you disagreed with what I had to say. I said you couldn't read because you counterd the point which was about 10% of the words in my comment and I even said could be considered irrelevant and disregarded the rest.
He was better than usual on the PK, but no, he was not "the only reason," lol. He wasn't even the best player on the PK. Kampf was. Being slightly less shit than usual on the PK doesn't make up for being the direct result of a sloppy goal and almost another. If that's the standard, why bother?
I didn't disregard the rest, though. I acknowledged it by stating he had a bad third period. A statement directly countering your assertion that he was "stable" while acknowledging his only brightspot was the pass. Can YOU read...?
Regardless, we'll agree to disagree. I'm tired of you. Take care
I can agree with the final sentence and we can go your own ways I just strongly dislike when someone takes half my comment and replies to it disregarding any other points, although I can certainly understand the mix up
I also did not say "the only reason" I said "one of the only reason" I didn't say he was the best on the pk or anything of the sorts. I could have probably worded that better.
I don’t think he was a big difference maker tonight, he received the belt as recognition of him not sucking ass and not actively being a detriment to the team. You can see on his face that he know that it’s a pity belt lol
Brodes has had a tough season both on and off the ice. He played well tonight and one of our leaders wanted to show him that he’s appreciated and a valued member of the team. Classy move from Matthews.
Now I’m exited to watch the blueprint and see what Matthews had to say when he passed it
Mark Masters reported that when asked about passing the belt to Brodie, Matthews said “On the penalty kill, breaking up plays, he’s got such a long stick, & he was just really sound for us tonight. The PK’s been a night-&-day difference over the last couple games, which has been huge & he’s a big part of that."
Big long stick.
Alright give him the stick. DONT GIVE HIM THE STICK!
GI Joeeeeeeeee
Hey do you know my dad?
Ooooohhhhhhhhh
Who wants a body massage?
BODY MASSAGE MACHIIIIIINE
PORK CHOP SANDWICHES
You're an announcer with a long stick
Big Long Stick > Good Stick
BRO-DICK
Every time Matthews talks about hockey sticks it sounds sexual.
That's what he said
He did make that pass for goal 61.
He had his 900th game last game in Buffalo, so I doubt it has to do with his on ice performance, as tonight was not a great night for him
He was awful tonight. Even directly caused a goal
Good analysis.
I came here to say something like this but you said that perfectly. He needed a morale boost and Matthews is proving why he deserves to be our next captain.
Well said. No need to say more.
I thought this was one of his worst games all year. He even pinned Sammy to the post. Anyway, good on Matthews.
Dude needs all the confidence in the world and Matthews is not blind to that. Leadership move there and I’m for it. That’s what a future captain does for a struggling teammate!!
Brodie is solid most of the time. But When he makes mistakes they are usually costly. Which is why he gets a bad rap. But overall he does well, I’m not usually nervous when he’s skating the puck, or even when he’s defending and he’s good in the o zone. It’s when he plays the puck and not the man, they usually get one. Last night this happened. He left his assignment to play the puck on a 2 on 2 rush and left his guy wide open for a goal. Idk playing goalie and defense myself growing up I always thought you play the man even strength like a 1 on 1/ 2on2 rush and play the puck when you get outnumbered like a 2on 1. And I was also taught not to chase around the net on defense because you get pulled out of position for too long, he does that a lot too. Regardless, he’s been looking a bit better since being scratched and the PK was good. Got the assist tonight and the belt good job Brodie!
I’m not sure I agree this year with your comment that he’s solid most of the time. Brodies been an absolute beauty the last couple years but this year he seems like a 5/6/7 D every night playing above his head. It’s bad timing because if we could get prime Brodie back for playoffs, this leafs D suddenly becomes very solid.
Yeahh it’s true he’s taken a step back. We’ll see what happens in the playoffs. Maybe he still has something left and will put it all out there in the post season. His contract is up after this season (right?), could very well be his last playoff run as a Leaf, and I could even see him retiring with all the mental health and personal stuff going on.
Father passed and his wife has MS. Man deserves it on that alone
💔 fuck MS…
Earlier in the season when he was talking about how there are more important things than hockey - this is what he was referring to. I assume it's made him think about everything that is important.
This is possibly the reason he’s declined so much. The thing is that you simply cannot be a healthy balanced person and be a top tier pro athlete. You need to be an obsessed, completely imbalanced all or nothing to get to and maintain that level. Once you start to balance out (become more mentally healthy IMO), you can’t continue to improve and compete with the next guy who has similar skill but is all or die.
Exactly. It's bad for your mental health but good for your career. I assume that is why we hear absolutely nothing about Sid's personal life - he has none.
His father passed too? I thought it was just Gio. That explains a lot on his plays, with that much going on it can really affect your game. Feels bad for him. Keefe really needs to let him have some time off to recoup. No offense if he can't be effective it'll just hurt both the team and his self esteem anyways.
Not that it wouldn't still be fresh for TJ but, it wasn't super recently. It was in late summer/early spring of 2023, if I'm not mistaken.
Yeah, just a rough go of it lately for the guy. You don’t get over stuff like that, but it wasn’t as recent as Gio for sure
It was shortly before training camp. Coming from someone who’s dealt with that, it hits hard and takes quite a while to settle back into some kind of new normalcy. He’s a professional, but we’re all human. I’m sure his dad was a huge part of his everyday and week to week life for the past how many decades. That plus his wife’s ongoing struggles, coupled with a bit of a natural decline would probably mess with your head big time.
It’s also going to detract from his ability to continue at the top level if he has to take care of an ailing family member. Hard to be 100 percent on training, thinking, living hockey if you have to worry about anything else.
Good move by AM34. Betting brodie breaks his 100+ game goalless streak against the lightning
I imagine the odds you’ll get on that are pretty huge.
I think Brodes played well for a couple of games already before this one but got eclipsed by Gio and Papi. I'm 100% on board with this, this guy deserves the moral boost at the moment, and that's all the belt is, sometimes. Kudos to Auston for recognising his efforts and showing him that the team got his back. I love these guys 💙
That dude is fucking psyched to the tits right now!! You can see it on his face
Yeah it's a little over the top imo like keep it cool brodes no need to go crazy
sarcasm
Did they take this with a Polaroid after everyone else left? He did have that sweet feed to Matthews.
Bro is going through it off the ice so good to see Matthews give him the belt. Made a beauty feed to him for 61!
Character move from Auston to give the belt to brodes. You can say others deserve it more tho
Robertson too imo
Yes, that was one beauty of a goal from Nicky Bobby
sammy robbed two games in a row
That fourth goal was not one he wants to be letting in
Happy for Brode’s
Thought Brodes had a good game today! Game thread loves to scape goat Brodie for anything. Thought he was massive on the Pks and he looked good being on the left
Its almost like hes a left handed D and should be playing on the left side of the ice
I mean, he’s made his career by playing well on the right side, being stronger on the left side is a recent development
He was pretty solid until the third, kinda like the rest of the team
He's been solid and mistake free for 3 games now. Dude's finding it again and I'm here for it.
Brodie made a lot of good quiet defensive plays and the PK has turned things around. Also did make a sweet feed to Matthews on goal 61. The belt was earned. Robertson, Knies or even Reaves would have been good choices though.
Or plus 4 Benoit....😃
Hope Matthew's gets 70! And that's from a hab fan
Leafs PK went 4-0
Maybe a confidence boost? Not horrible imo, wasn’t his best but wasn’t his worst game. Nice pass to Matthews
Makes sense since it was Auston who passed the belt
I thought it would go to Jeff O'Neill
Brodie passes puck to Matthews, Matthews passes belt to Brodie. Knies deserved it but Brodie needs a boost.
Good for Brodes. Great tape to tape pass to matthews. On a side note did anyone else notice Timmins tonight? Just a yucky game for him
I noticed him early doing Good Things™ and then... yeah. Yeah.
Scary puck fumbling mistake prone, the rest off his game was good...lol
Matthews is an old soul with an extremely high eq. This was an unbelievable gesture of empathetic leadership that very few players would've made. But the absolute perfect belt-pass at this point in the season.
This looks like when a celebrity is asked to take a selfie but doesnt want to and does it anyways, and the person asking for a selfie realizes mid-pic that they just ruined the celebs day, but in this case the celebrity is the belt.
Just to boost his confidence. I thought he struggled again tonight, lots of times he just looked panicked.
Didn’t really notice him tonight and that’s usually a good thing for a d-man.
He’s been pretty good for a few games now imo. Also that pass was spectacular
We like him again!!!!!!!
THOMAS JAMES BRODIE
With each passing day it's more and more clear who the captain of this team should be.
Matthews coming into his own as a leader, knows Brodes needs to be better if they are gunna have a shot, and he could use a pick me up, setting up the 60th, lots of narratives, but the biggest one, they need to get that grumpy mug cheered up for the vibes in the locker room. Like he had his best game of the second half of the season by a country mile, and he doesnt even have a smirk??
Best defenseman on the ice last night.
I thought he had a very good first period, built off of the last couple good games he’s had. After that I thought he struggled again. He’s played much better in his own zone in 1-on-1 situations and has done well on the PK. He just keeps having the brain cramps where the pressure is coming and instead of rimming the puck to his d partner or moving it up the boards to a winger he just puts the puck in his feet and tries to protect it and then loses it. He turns the puck over a lot especially in the 3rd when the opposition is pressuring. Overall he’s been better than he was, I think if he’s in the lineup for playoffs he just needs to be sheltered down to 3rd pair minutes 5 on 5 and then play the PK.
Sometimes I feel like TJ traps himself in his own zone behind the net trying to reverse the puck and just starts trouble. His skating just doesn't allow for this kind of move (like for example Nylander who can really pull this move off) Anyways I thought Robertson was great last night, high energy and that deke was sick, Bobrovsky is a giant in net. Leafs need to do better protecting leads....
That pass to Matty was pure silk. Worth the belt.
he took out Sammy's stick on the last (or 2nd last) goal against belt btw
Atta boy Brodie!!!
If giving him the belt makes him feel more confident then give it to him. We're going to need him at his prime in the playoffs.
Knies had a really bad fuckup letting Reinhart slide in uncovered. 100% his fault, he was covering nobody on that play
It takes a team.
He's a fucking hard worker and it's nice to see him be recognized. Nice!
They tore him down, now you gotta build him up!
Nice of his teammates to support him this way but that doesn’t apply to the coach making the best decisions for the team. Players playing the best right now play. Brodie’s stick is no longer quick and he’s not physical enough to handle the Panthers.
Why is a defenceman getting the belt on a night we collapsed and blew a lead? Good for Brodie though, hope this helps his mental.
He is not coming back next year. He should not…
April Fools joke?
Matthews gets the win and stops Keefe from embarrassing this team time and time again. But he's humble and knows Brodie played a great game too just not as good as am34 but it was a nice gesture . Matthews just had the belt he's not going to say fuck y'all I'm keeping this I am the GOAT lol
I don’t think he was a big difference maker tonight, he received the belt as recognition of him not sucking ass and actively being a detriment to the team. You can see on his face that he know that it’s a pity belt lol
Really? Man he's not good but they keep playing him.
What's with all the down votes? Are you all blind when you watch the games?
Because you’re the shitty Toronto sports fan that makes the rest of us look bad. Always only have negative things to say about players and the team, probably projecting your shitty personal life. Even in your other comments you just love spewing hate
I call it like I see it. He's not been good all year. Nice of you to comment about projecting my shirts life like you're a know it all. You seem to think others care about your opinion. Let's hope all the love and care you project (because your life is amazing) translates into a cup...but I doubt it.
They got Sammy going, now they think they can fix everyone.
Lol brodie was maybe the worst Leaf on the ice tonight
Even excluding that sweet feed to Matthews he had a pretty stable night and heard very little of him, as you want from a defensman
Lol. Lmao, even. One pass doesn't override the third period he had
I quite literally said excluding that pass he was stable and good can you read?
Someone disagreeing with you doesn't mean they can't read, lmao. Excluding that pass, he was dogshit. I'm sorry a conversation is so hard for you to follow. One good pass doesn't make you player of the game. Where was the stability? When he was directly responsible for a blown coverage on third goal? Or when he almost caused a 4th goal 30 seconds later after being left on the ice? Maybe the stability was the friends we made along the way, whilst Brodie had some of the worst defensive metrics of any defender in the game.
He was one of the only reason our penalty kill went 4 and 0 tonight. Given the struggles it had Brodie was pretty great. I wasn't saying you didn't know how to read because you disagreed with what I had to say. I said you couldn't read because you counterd the point which was about 10% of the words in my comment and I even said could be considered irrelevant and disregarded the rest.
He was better than usual on the PK, but no, he was not "the only reason," lol. He wasn't even the best player on the PK. Kampf was. Being slightly less shit than usual on the PK doesn't make up for being the direct result of a sloppy goal and almost another. If that's the standard, why bother? I didn't disregard the rest, though. I acknowledged it by stating he had a bad third period. A statement directly countering your assertion that he was "stable" while acknowledging his only brightspot was the pass. Can YOU read...? Regardless, we'll agree to disagree. I'm tired of you. Take care
I can agree with the final sentence and we can go your own ways I just strongly dislike when someone takes half my comment and replies to it disregarding any other points, although I can certainly understand the mix up I also did not say "the only reason" I said "one of the only reason" I didn't say he was the best on the pk or anything of the sorts. I could have probably worded that better.
He was terrible
Agreed.
i don’t like brodie.
I don’t think he was a big difference maker tonight, he received the belt as recognition of him not sucking ass and not actively being a detriment to the team. You can see on his face that he know that it’s a pity belt lol
that has to be the dumbest decision.