Are the Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup contenders?

[Voodoo Child]

The Leafs are a poverty franchise.

No Stanley Cups in an NHL with more than 6 teams. It's f***ing hilarious and oh so pathetic.

Who just happen to - along with 5-6 other teams - pay for everybody else’s meal.

Here’s a link you might like.

 

[pekka55]

That just sounds like a bunch of excuse making man..

After reading this thread is seems as though some people (probably Leaf haters) like to point out Toronto's lack of playoff qualities and act as though the Panthers are some intimidating juggernaut that the Leafs don't even belong on the ice with....Totally ridiculous , like i said Panthers have never won anything......Even Boston has lost their last 3 playoff series and before that they were Tamps's whipping boy in the playoffs...........Jackets did them a huge favor getting rid of Tampa for them in 2019 and they still couldn't win ..

Point is that if you think that the Panthers have done nothing, then you also have to realize that Toronto has actually done even less of nothing.

I mean, think about it. Panthers are nothing, but Toronto is even lesser than nothing. They're not even zeros, they're in the minus.

 

[Ducer]

For a team that went to the cup finals you sure are infatuated with Toronto is there some trophy you win for beating the leafs.

 

[pb1300]

Yeah, we saw something similar with the Panthers last year, where they squeaked into the playoffs, but then brought this "we're the underdogs, %$@# the doubters" energy. And you could tell everyone on that roster bought into the message. Tkachuk was repeating how everybody had written them off, and that fueled them to upset teams like the Bruins.

Could Toronto replicate that, if they have a rockier regular season? Try to embrace the underdog role? Maybe. But as you point out, the media will make that difficult, and you also need to have the personnel with the right mindset to buy into that message.

I have never seen the Leafs core be capable of doing that. Not one of them have that "dog" in them. They do not have that Tkachuk on the team, or a Bennett or Gudas even, that brings that energy and style required to win multiple series. Their top players do not have that in them, and when your leaders fail to bring that type of play, it trickles down the lines.

You saw it when they were taking runs at Tavares. Nobody on the Leafs team took action in return. They just watched.

Even if you hit the Panthers 7th Dman, or 13th winger, you knew the rest of the game, and series, that you had to have your head on a swivel.

 

[pb1300]

well the second half of the season your team was a bit over .500. Leafs and Panthers are comparable, either can beat the other on any given night - but sure you guys are great almost stanley cup champs. And not arrogant or ignorant in any way

They are not comparable at all. The Panthers play with a style the Leafs wish they could. They are well coached, relentless on and away from the puck, better defensively, and better in net. While obviously still flawed, I believe most teams would rather face the Leafs in the playoffs, than the Panthers.

 

[The90]

I have never seen the Leafs core be capable of doing that. Not one of them have that "dog" in them. They do not have that Tkachuk on the team, or a Bennett or Gudas even, that brings that energy and style required to win multiple series. Their top players do not have that in them, and when your leaders fail to bring that type of play, it trickles down the lines.

You saw it when they were taking runs at Tavares. Nobody on the Leafs team took action in return. They just watched.

Even if you hit the Panthers 7th Dman, or 13th winger, you knew the rest of the game, and series, that you had to have your head on a swivel.

Or a Bob to mask that any of what Gudas Bennett or Tkachuk did. Tkachuk aside from game 1 was a ghost in the leaf series.

Bob won the panthers those series, not your warm fuzzy hits. They help, but the puck side of it, Florida was not that great.

 

[TheImpatientPanther]

Or a Bob to mask that any of what Gudas Bennett or Tkachuk did. Tkachuk aside from game 1 was a ghost in the leaf series.

Bob won the panthers those series, not your warm fuzzy hits. They help, but the puck side of it, Florida was not that great.

Bobrovsky is 6-1-0 with a 1.86 GAA and .935 sv% in his last 7 games.

Looks like he's almost close to the 9 game level he blasted the Leafs and Canes.

Maybe it is sustainable after all, you just can't win can you?

"Mmm Bob....mmm .943.....mmmm Bob....mmmm .943....mmmm"

 

[The90]

Bobrovsky is 6-1-0 with a 1.86 GAA and .935 sv% in his last 7 games.

Looks like he's almost close to the 9 game level he blasted the Leafs and Canes.

Maybe it is sustainable after all, you just can't win can you?

"Mmm Bob....mmm .943.....mmmm Bob....mmmm .943....mmmm"

…. If you only take into account 7 games. Meanwhile he’s .914 on the year. Womp womp.

 

[TheImpatientPanther]

…. If you only take into account 7 games. Meanwhile he’s .914 on the year. Womp womp.

Keep moving those goal posts.

And yet the "shitty ass wildcard Panthers" are still above your Leafs...

 

[pb1300]

Yeah but they got swept in their President's Trophy season and then when they had their chance at the Cup they gave up a combined 21 goals in games 1, 2, and 5...

Panthers are far from being the gold standard............They haven't won a thing when it really counted........I'd still take Toronto's roster and many others over theirs any day ......

Its always the ones thats have a few hundred posts, that tend to sound the most ignorant.

Panthers are more complete team than the Leafs, that is not even a question at this time. They are much better set up for now, and in the future, than the Leafs are. Anyone taking that team over the Panthers team now, is just people like you.

That Finals team was so devastated with injuries. Multiple players were player with broken bones. Even Tkachuk had to have the medical staff put on his uniform before each game. Their injuries were no match to a healthy Vegas team, who had additional help with Stone coming back.

 

[pb1300]

Just use the bolded instead of the novel. It was 75% of the answer anyways forechecks and backchecks though, not the statistical outlier of a ridiculous goalie performance for a month and. A half lol


Panthers fans are the only ones who don’t see that it seems. Great run, but ultimately everyone knew it would fizzle out eventually. Same happened for Montreal in their improbable run. It happens every couple years for a team.

The Habs run, and the Panthers run last year are two different scenarios. Dont be that ignorant. The Panthers were decimated with injuries to their top players, while Vegas was not. If that Panthers team is as healthy as Vegas was, then its a completely different series.

 

[pb1300]

Or a Bob to mask that any of what Gudas Bennett or Tkachuk did. Tkachuk aside from game 1 was a ghost in the leaf series.

Bob won the panthers those series, not your warm fuzzy hits. They help, but the puck side of it, Florida was not that great.

Oh please, your team is a bunch a p**sies. Take the body to them, and they fold. They have no fight in them, no will to win games in the playoffs. If Florida was not that great, with our warm fuzzy hits, what does that make the Leafs? That series was over before Game 1 even finished.

 

[The90]

Keep moving those goal posts.

And yet the "shitty ass wildcard Panthers" are still above your Leafs...

So, just to clarify, you’re aloud to ‘move the goal posts’ to 7 games, but I’m not allowed to use career averages, or to identify an outlier in those.

Does that sound reasonable to you?

Oh please, your team is a bunch a p**sies. Take the body to them, and they fold. They have no fight in them, no will to win games in the playoffs. If Florida was not that great, with our warm fuzzy hits, what does that make the Leafs? That series was over before Game 1 even finished.

The leafs didn’t play well. I’m not saying they did/ deserved to win, but even with that, Florida literally scraped by on the back of Bob lol. You won every game by a goal iirc, and were outshot in every metric. Truth hurts bud. You guys got the bounces. That’s it.

The Habs run, and the Panthers run last year are two different scenarios. Dont be that ignorant. The Panthers were decimated with injuries to their top players, while Vegas was not. If that Panthers team is as healthy as Vegas was, then it’s a completely different series.

See this is the joke here. That Vegas team absolutely dumps on Florida healthy or not. You got the saves one day and didn’t the next. You have a thread on your own board, that is ‘why didn’t we win’ and 90% of posters literally write, ‘Bob cooled off’ as the reason. The other 10%, you, Laus, impatient etc are here arguing till you’re blue in the face that it was team defence and buying in etc etc. the stats don’t back that up.

A healthy Tkachuk doesn’t win you that series. He was a ghost against Toronto outside of game 1. Your bias doesn’t allow you to see that.

 

[Laus723]

So, just to clarify, you’re aloud to ‘move the goal posts’ to 7 games, but I’m not allowed to use career averages, or to identify an outlier in those.

Does that sound reasonable to you?


The leafs didn’t play well. I’m not saying they did/ deserved to win, but even with that, Florida literally scraped by on the back of Bob lol. You won every game by a goal iirc, and were outshot in every metric. Truth hurts bud. You guys got the bounces. That’s it.


See this is the joke here. That Vegas team absolutely dumps on Florida healthy or not. You got the saves one day and didn’t the next. A healthy Tkachuk doesn’t win you that series. He was a ghost against Toronto outside of game 1. Your bias doesn’t allow you to see that.

Lmao! Imagine needing to cope so badly that you take 8 wins in 9 games as “scraping by.” How’d you hit send?

 

[The90]

Lmao! Imagine needing to cope so badly that you take 8 wins in 9 games as “scraping by.” How’d you hit send?

You did scrape by lol. How many 1 goal games did you win?

 

[TheImpatientPanther]

So, just to clarify, you’re aloud to ‘move the goal posts’ to 7 games, but I’m not allowed to use career averages, or to identify an outlier in those.

Does that sound reasonable to you?


The leafs didn’t play well. I’m not saying they did/ deserved to win, but even with that, Florida literally scraped by on the back of Bob lol. You won every game by a goal iirc, and were outshot in every metric. Truth hurts bud. You guys got the bounces. That’s it.


See this is the joke here. That Vegas team absolutely dumps on Florida healthy or not. You got the saves one day and didn’t the next. You have a thread on your own board, that is ‘why didn’t we win’ and 90% of posters literally write, ‘Bob cooled off’ as the reason. The other 10%, you, Laus, impatient etc are here arguing till you’re blue in the face that it was team defence and buying in etc etc. the stats don’t back that up.

A healthy Tkachuk doesn’t win you that series. He was a ghost against Toronto outside of game 1. Your bias doesn’t allow you to see that.

Oh so you wanted Bob to have a .943 sv% for 50 games?
Just admit you say things and then fold when evidence is presented to disprove your claims..

 

[The90]

Oh so you wanted Bob to have a .943 sv% for 50 games?
Just admit you say things and then fold when evidence is presented to disprove your claims..

… if I’m using a career average, or an outlier 7 game sample size, what do you think is more accurate? You’ve never presented any facts whatsoever that support whatever argument you’re trying to make. We go through some fun interactions where you think you have some sort of a gotcha moment that doesn’t even make sense. For example, you thought somehow using a 7 game sample size, was me shifting the goalposts lol

 

[TheImpatientPanther]

… if I’m using a career average, or an outlier 7 game sample size, what do you think is more accurate? You’ve never presented any facts whatsoever that support whatever argument you’re trying to make. We go through some fun interactions where you think you have some sort of a gotcha moment that doesn’t even make sense. For example, you thought somehow using a 7 game sample size, was me shifting the goalposts lol

I think you need help at this point.
Panthers broke you, Samsonov and your boy HockeyVirus.

At least HV learned his lesson and stopped making silly threads and posts.

 

[pb1300]

So, just to clarify, you’re aloud to ‘move the goal posts’ to 7 games, but I’m not allowed to use career averages, or to identify an outlier in those.

Does that sound reasonable to you?


The leafs didn’t play well. I’m not saying they did/ deserved to win, but even with that, Florida literally scraped by on the back of Bob lol. You won every game by a goal iirc, and were outshot in every metric. Truth hurts bud. You guys got the bounces. That’s it.


See this is the joke here. That Vegas team absolutely dumps on Florida healthy or not. You got the saves one day and didn’t the next. You have a thread on your own board, that is ‘why didn’t we win’ and 90% of posters literally write, ‘Bob cooled off’ as the reason. The other 10%, you, Laus, impatient etc are here arguing till you’re blue in the face that it was team defence and buying in etc etc. the stats don’t back that up.

A healthy Tkachuk doesn’t win you that series. He was a ghost against Toronto outside of game 1. Your bias doesn’t allow you to see that.

You Leafs fans keep bringing up Tkachuk not doing anything after a game 1. Well, they still got smoked without him. He was still more noticeable, and more productive than the great HoFers on the Leafs.

And what about the Carolina series? Was he quiet then, with his 4 goals, 3 of which were GW goals? You act like he was completely silent for the rest of the playoffs, after Game 1 against the Leafs.

He was one of several Panthers players playing severely injured, against Vegas. It absolutely is a more competitive series if they were as healthy as Vegas. We knew it was a long shot once it was evident how injured the team was.

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

Leafs are 2 decent d-men and a goalie (one of their existing goalies stepping up and going on a heater) away from from being a true contender.

The defense could be addressed by trading Nylander and some picks/prospects at the deadline. The goaltending either sorts itself out internally or forget it because they can't do both. See where the team is end of February and make some decisions then. If Woll or Jones or both step up (they both look capable of it) then hell, trade Nylander, shore up the D and go for it. If they're still hovering around 0.500 with suspect goaltending, then forget it and be sellers at the deadline (and still trade Nylander but as a rental for picks and/or prospects and use the space to fix some things this summer).

 

[Sasha Orlov]

So, just to clarify, you’re aloud to ‘move the goal posts’ to 7 games, but I’m not allowed to use career averages, or to identify an outlier in those.

Does that sound reasonable to you?


The leafs didn’t play well. I’m not saying they did/ deserved to win, but even with that, Florida literally scraped by on the back of Bob lol. You won every game by a goal iirc, and were outshot in every metric. Truth hurts bud. You guys got the bounces. That’s it.


See this is the joke here. That Vegas team absolutely dumps on Florida healthy or not. You got the saves one day and didn’t the next. You have a thread on your own board, that is ‘why didn’t we win’ and 90% of posters literally write, ‘Bob cooled off’ as the reason. The other 10%, you, Laus, impatient etc are here arguing till you’re blue in the face that it was team defence and buying in etc etc. the stats don’t back that up.

A healthy Tkachuk doesn’t win you that series. He was a ghost against Toronto outside of game 1. Your bias doesn’t allow you to see that.

I’ve never seen anyone struggle this hard to cope with a loss that they had literally zero stake in

 

[TheImpatientPanther]

I’ve never seen anyone struggle this hard to cope with a loss that they had literally zero stake in

They couldn't beat CBJ, MON or FLA.
All shitty teams in his opinion because the Leafs were just unlucky and got goalied, so pay the core 4 more money, thatll work.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

They couldn't beat CBJ, MON or FLA.
All shitty teams in his opinion because the Leafs were just unlucky and got goalied, so pay the core 4 more money, thatll work.

It’s actually insane

He also made a point to tell me 3 times he’s “not saying the Leafs were a better team than Florida” then spends 10 pages saying exactly that lmfao

 

[pb1300]

Leafs are 2 decent d-men and a goalie (one of their existing goalies stepping up and going on a heater) away from from being a true contender.

The defense could be addressed by trading Nylander and some picks/prospects at the deadline. The goaltending either sorts itself out internally or forget it because they can't do both. See where the team is end of February and make some decisions then. If Woll or Jones or both step up (they both look capable of it) then hell, trade Nylander, shore up the D and go for it. If they're still hovering around 0.500 with suspect goaltending, then forget it and be sellers at the deadline (and still trade Nylander but as a rental for picks and/or prospects and use the space to fix some things this summer).

That’s not happening. They are going to sign Nylander to an 8 year $10+ million per year deal, and handcuff themselves with 4 players making north of $40 million combined per season, so we can get the same pointless thread started every season.

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

That’s not happening. They are going to sign Nylander to an 8 year $10+ million per year deal, and handcuff themselves with 4 players making north of $40 million combined per season, so we can get the same pointless thread started every season.

Sadly (as a Leafs fan), I think you're right and it will just extend the Leafs' term in Purgatory for the foreseeable future. They have a solution right in front of them to fix it...and they won't. Actually, I think it's more likely they use Nylander as an own-rental and watch him stroll into UFA status. That was his dad's MO after all.