Series Talk: [A1] Toronto Maple Leafs vs [WC1] Ottawa Senators (TOR Leads 1-0)

[TheGreenTBer]

Max Domi foreheads lmao

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Ottawa vs Toronto not being on saturday sucks.

It’s Easter Sunday, close enough for the government workers of Ottawa! No work on Monday.

 

[saintflannel]

toronto should beat ottawa in 4 or 5 but they never make things easy on their fanbase so i'll say leafs in 6 or 7.

 

[thusk]

I'd take the Sens D and it's not close.

Sanderson is clear cut ahead of everyone on both teams. The gap between him and the next best D on either team stretches multiple Max Domi foreheads. His partner is also Zub who is a solid top 4.

Chabot is playing the best hockey of his career and has a solid partner in Jensen.

Bottom pairing is young and inexperienced and is definitely the weakest link.

Ottawa D is probably the softness D and less physical D in the east. They are good in transition but to defend and play playoff style of hockey, i'm not high on this D

We talked about how sens foward a physical and will be in leafs face but guy who will need to make life miserable to Matthews, marner, nylander and cie in dirty place, it's not Tkachuk, amadio, greig and whatever... It's the D but Can this D play a high physical type of game come playoff time to force leafs foward to stay in the outside? i don't think so and if they can't, good luck they will need it.

 

[Commander Clueless]

All the "Leafs should win this handily" talk has me 100% assured this thing will go 7.

 

[Nineteen67]

Oh, I'm pretty sure every single person on HF Leafs knows who it is my guy.

That is literally the only thing that is important.

If this team loses this series to Ottawa then Matthews and Marner are both gone, the latter immediately and the former either when his contract expires in a few years or before. Lose and we nuke this shit from orbit and rightfully so. It would have to be a retool until we have our 1sts back and then a total demolition. This is the best chance we are ever going to get but Ottawa absolutely can take us down here. If they do, it's over for this whole group.

Of course it is important, but the most interesting thing to me about this series is how Marner plays. If he’s pushed out again the Leafs brass will have a hard time explaining re-signing him, regardless of who wins the series.
On the other side, he may play really good and it’s justified that they re-sign him even if they lose.

 

[swiftwin]

Leafs fans talk so much shit for a team of perennial playoff chokers.

Yeah, I really don't get it.

 

[leafsfan5]

I'd take the Sens D and it's not close.

Sanderson is clear cut ahead of everyone on both teams. The gap between him and the next best D on either team stretches multiple Max Domi foreheads. His partner is also Zub who is a solid top 4.

Chabot is playing the best hockey of his career and has a solid partner in Jensen.

Bottom pairing is young and inexperienced and is definitely the weakest link.

Not close is hilarious

Leafs top pair of McCabe - Tanev is one of the best shutdown pairs in the entire NHL. They're 2nd in xGA/60 with the Sanderson pairing third in the NHL. Both pairs also have comparable xGF% (55.1 vs 56.3%)

Leafs 2nd pair of Rielly - Carlo has been unreal since Carlo has come over. The pair has an xGF% of 57 which is 4th in the entire NHL since the TDL

Leafs bottom pair also isn't an absolute dumpster fire

Ottawa might have the best defender, but Toronto's top 4 complement themselves perfectly and OEL on the third pair is a luxury compared to what the Sens have

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Sandy is breaking out into a Norris level dman baby! 28 points in his last 30 games all while being a top shutdown dman.

 

[ottawagm]

Sandy is breaking out into a Norris level dman baby! 28 points in his last 30 games all while being a top shutdown dman.

That's what not having to play with Hamonic will do for you. You can play a 2 way game instead of having to focus on covering for your partner half of the time.

 

[Goose]

This is the most confident I've been about a first round matchup in a long time.

No disrespect intended towards Ottawa, but unless the Leafs goalies turn into hot garbage, I don't see how Ottawa is scoring enough with their offense to win this series.

If they do, I'll congratulate them, but I don't see it. Should be a good series either way.

 

[winnipegger]

K but seriously. If Ottawa wins this series Toronto is never going to recover.

 

[KAWAIlllI]

Yeah, it's a weird comparison cause Ovechkin had won six playoff rounds before the post-season they won the Cup had even begun, so it's not like the core was "failing" each year unless he's trying to suggest "not winning the Cup" and "not winning a round" is the same level of failure.

It's an even bigger stretch when you factor in that the Capitals didn't just keep rolling out the same core that "failed." Core players Mike Green and Alex Semin were let go and the core was re-shaped.

Precisely, mentioned that earlier as well but it got ignored. Facts are not interesting anymore, and I’d gather that it’s hard to reason with that poster

 

[ACLEVERNAME]

Gabagool

 

[Mr Nogatco]

I’m more worried about our depth scoring. Contrary to popular belief our stars have outperformed the other teams several times and we’ve still lost.

It’s not enough to outperform the other team’s stars, gotta perform proportionally to your cap hit.

If the superstars take more and the depth suffers because of it, you can’t really turn around and blame guys like Kampf and Holmberg for not outperforming other teams’ depth pieces

“To whom much is given, much is expected”

 

[Johnny HFBOARDS]

WOW 73 pages already!

You Leafs fans know the playoffs span over 3 months right, you don't have to cram the posting all in at once?

 

[umma gumma]

What does that say about your rebuild if you can't even beat choke artists? Even the Habs and CBJ could do that

It says we lost to the team we were supposed to lose to? Why is this is so hard to grasp? I thought you said yourself this is a different Leaf team, so what to do those CJ and MTL teams have to do with anything today? That the Habs and CJ pulled it off is all on the Leafs anyway, and nothing to do with Ottawa. You are supposed to eliminate us...that, and the last 7 years, is why Toronto has all of the pressure.

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

Ottawa in four with a huge upset to Toronto.

 

[winnipegger]

Goaltending super important. If leafs get average or above average save % I don't see how they lose this.

 

[S E P H]

This series is tough to predict because my rational side is to pick the Leafs, but my heart says the Senators. I went with Ottawa in 7 games, but honestly, that might be truly wrong. I feel that if Sens lose, it is because they lack that postseason exp, but Leafs have mental demons they can't shake out. The biggest difference though, is that all the pressure will be on the Leafs. The Sens will be happy to be there and enjoy themselves, playing however they want to play, while the Leafs will struggle with those winning expectations. Because of those reasons, my heart is leaning towards Ottawa, which is why I chose them in seven games.

 

[RuudeDog]

Leafs win in 5. Sens fans will get all excited because they may outshoot the Leafs and feel good about possession times until they realize this is how the Leafs have won all year. First round won’t be hard. It’s Tampa in round two …..

 

[SwissLeaf]

There will be an all-canadian Stanley Cup Finals. The winner of this series will be (the winning) part of it and it's the blue&white force!!

1/16 on Easter Sunday.

 

[RuudeDog]

Find it funny how Sens fans say they have no pressure. Like losing to the Leafs yet once again will be just fine

 

[RuudeDog]

These two fanbases f***ing despise each other man, neither one's going to agree to a ceasefire.

To be honest. I really don’t hate the Sens much at all. Never think about them. My hate is all in on the Habs

 

[Bouboumaster]

I hate both teams, but this is a "pick your poison" kind of situation here, and the one thing that can't happen, is Toronto getting out of first round

Ottawa, you'd do the World of hockey a solid if you could take care of those overrated scrubs and send them packing