Are the Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup contenders?

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Only saw the highlights and looked like they gave up a bunch of chances again and Jones was fair in nets. Wouldn't say the loss is on him, but rather the defense/defensive play

 

[General Fanager]

They need massive changes and until they get rid of Shanny those changes wont happen

 

[Leaf Fans]

Not a Cup Contender confirmed. As if that even needed to be confirmed, they haven’t been one since 1967.

Why? Allow me to educate:

- Nylander overpaid. This is Johnny Contract Year all over again as I said when the contract was signed; except i didn’t expect it to happen this soon. 0 points in 4 games? Time to get refund.

- Mitch is a loser. Plain and simple. If his on ice quitting hasn’t taught you this, his multiple loser-talk press conferences should have. Pulled the “scrambles in my brain” narrative again tonight. I thought Marner Sr taught him accountability with all that side line yelling, guess not.

- Matthews ain’t it. Great shooter but a ghost when it matters. He will never lead a team to a Cup. It’s not in his DNA. Supreme, Beanie Hats, and Clout are his DNA.

- Keefe is a fraud. He’s been riding Babcocks offensive system for years. Couldn’t get a team to compete to save his life.

- Goaltending complete trash. And it has been for how many years now. What is this the 10th “starter” they’ve had in the Mathews era?

- Tavares has fallen hard. Game has passed him by as it has Gio and Brodie. Unfortunate that he wasted half his prime in a No Chance at a Cup scenario. Could have retired an Islander legend and got closer to a Cup to boot. Oh well, atleast he didn’t take a discount to do it.

- Defence? Well, just LOL.

- Treliving is the savior maybe? This guy signed the worst contract in NHL history. Had nearly unlimited time to build a contender in Calgary and never got close. Doesn’t have an eye for talent, doesn’t have an eye for roster construction. Great on the mic though and selling the dream. But this silver spoon fed GM who’s never earned a thing in his life will not be building a winner in Toronto. Oh and he’ll be around for a longgg time, keeping his job in spite of no success is his bread and butter.

Lol. Did you just copy and paste that from the Leaf board?

 

[PaulD]

Leafs have won 5 of last 14.
2 wins against Sharks,
the other 3 - Ducks, Jackets, Kings.

 

[AvroArrow]

Leafs have won 5 of ladt 14.
2 wins against Sharks
1 against Ducks
1 against Jackets
1 against Kings

yikes

4 Blown leads in a row

Mitch Marner post game says some bullshit like "I thought we played great again" not an exact quote but you get the idea.

That was the last straw for me with Marner. He said that after the series against Montreal where he was playing like a frightened little child, you're not winning anything with a guy like that on the team.

0 accountability, can't handle fair criticism, ego is through the roof, doesn't want to compete on a consistent basis and the guy is completely ok with losing and playing incompetent hockey.

Not a winner. I've said it about players in the past as well, guys from other sports too, like James Harden and Carmelo Anthony. Elite talents, but don't have the will to compete on a nightly basis, can't handle being critiqued and are ok with losing as long as their stats look good.

Time for Leafs nation to move on from him. Far too entitled for how poor his effort and attitude has been.

Look to trade Marner for either a couple of good forwards who play with an edge and compete, or help on the back end, maybe both in a package. But he needs to go.

 

[Frank Drebin]

16 games were tied after regulation

 

[Michel Beauchamp]

21-13-8 overall though

Did I state otherwise ?

 

[Leaf Fans]

Did I state otherwise ?

Lol.

 

[Michoulicious]

Just watched the highlights of yesterday's game.

What a pathetic effort by Matthews and co at the end of a tie game. Getting dominated in their zone, losing all the battles.

Another blown lead.

Only 2 points up from the teams out of a playoff spot.

Is it the time to panic? That team has NO confidence at all.

 

[thebestnic]

I'd like to dunk on the leafs but most of their problems come from bad goaltending. You fix that and everything else falls in place...

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Just watched the highlights of yesterday's game.

What a pathetic effort by Matthews and co at the end of a tie game. Getting dominated in their zone, losing all the battles.

Another blown lead.

Only 2 points up from the teams out of a playoff spot.

Is it the time to panic? That team has NO confidence at all.

Is that Matthews’ Selke-level defense I keep hearing about?

 

[Dr Pepper]

4 Blown leads in a row

Mitch Marner post game says some bullshit like "I thought we played great again" not an exact quote but you get the idea.

That was the last straw for me with Marner. He said that after the series against Montreal where he was playing like a frightened little child, you're not winning anything with a guy like that on the team.

0 accountability, can't handle fair criticism, ego is through the roof, doesn't want to compete on a consistent basis and the guy is completely ok with losing and playing incompetent hockey.

Not a winner. I've said it about players in the past as well, guys from other sports too, like James Harden and Carmelo Anthony. Elite talents, but don't have the will to compete on a nightly basis, can't handle being critiqued and are ok with losing as long as their stats look good.

Time for Leafs nation to move on from him. Far too entitled for how poor his effort and attitude has been.

Look to trade Marner for either a couple of good forwards who play with an edge and compete, or help on the back end, maybe both in a package. But he needs to go.

Oh he was getting buried on First Up this morning, Colaiacovo roasted him after they played a clip from last night.

Marner was asked if he's frustrated following another loss, and in his response he's just so nonchalant, like "Nah, we're not frustrated, we're doing great things out there. Bounces didn't go our way."



The Leafs and Coyotes are both at 21-21 on the season.

I think maybe there should be some frustration in the Leafs' locker room over the way their season is going......and Marner's unwillingness (or perhaps his inability) to see this must be annoying to the Leafs fans.

 

[Ducer]

The Funny thing is it's Kerfoot that was a shut down for the leafs last year playing in Arizona.

 

[RobBrown4PM]

OFC we're not.

Th Peg and Van City are our only hopes for Lord Stanley coming home at this point. Go either them.

Authors note: Leafs might be bad, but the Oilers actual logo is a monkey paw. No hope in hell they get Stanley.

I'd like to dunk on the leafs but most of their problems come from bad goaltending. You fix that and everything else falls in place...

I hate posts like these because Jones has been playing out of his mind. He was not responsible for any of the goals that occurred tonight. Every single one of them (Except for the flukey one) can be blamed on bad D coverage.

 

[PaulD]

4 Blown leads in a row

Mitch Marner post game says some bullshit like "I thought we played great again" not an exact quote but you get the idea.

That was the last straw for me with Marner. He said that after the series against Montreal where he was playing like a frightened little child, you're not winning anything with a guy like that on the team.

0 accountability, can't handle fair criticism, ego is through the roof, doesn't want to compete on a consistent basis and the guy is completely ok with losing and playing incompetent hockey.

Not a winner. I've said it about players in the past as well, guys from other sports too, like James Harden and Carmelo Anthony. Elite talents, but don't have the will to compete on a nightly basis, can't handle being critiqued and are ok with losing as long as their stats look good.

Time for Leafs nation to move on from him. Far too entitled for how poor his effort and attitude has been.

Look to trade Marner for either a couple of good forwards who play with an edge and compete, or help on the back end, maybe both in a package. But he needs to go.

Nobody can dispute any of that.

 

[PaulD]

Only saw the highlights and looked like they gave up a bunch of chances again and Jones was fair in nets. Wouldn't say the loss is on him, but rather the defense/defensive play

Oilers didn't play exceptionally well. Gave the puck away for the first two periods constantly. Played smarter in the third and apparently one good period is all you need to beat these leafs.

 

[PaulD]

Oh he was getting buried on First Up this morning, Colaiacovo roasted him after they played a clip from last night.

Marner was asked if he's frustrated following another loss, and in his response he's just so nonchalant, like "Nah, we're not frustrated, we're doing great things out there. Bounces didn't go our way."



The Leafs and Coyotes are both at 21-21 on the season.

I think maybe there should be some frustration in the Leafs' locker room over the way their season is going......and Marner's unwillingness (or perhaps his inability) to see this must be annoying to the Leafs fans.

That's the modern day leafs for you .....Dubas gone and getting ripped, Keefe job in jeopardy, Shanny getting slammed, goalies thrown under the bus, Reaves under a microscope then scratched, defence dumped on , .......but the core 4?? Rock stars. Having a grand ol time. $$$$
Keys to the city. lol !

 

[thegazelle]

They need massive changes and until they get rid of Shanny those changes wont happen

This is absolutely it. Any other personnel changes will be superficial in nature and will continue to buttress Shanahan's "vision". I honestly thought that the Leafs would move one of their "big 4" with a new GM, but now it looks like they will be saddled with all of them and it seems right now, the focus is to try to make this current configuration work. On paper some things look good, whereas in practice not the case. Vegas was a good case study in that you don't need a ton of top heavy offensive contracts - a lot of good role players and guys with grit made that team what looks like a perennial contender. The Leafs have never been short on offence and for sure, that's one of their key strengths. But the imbalance between that and their defence and goaltending is pretty evident. They are not going to be able to improve in the other two areas unless they sacrifice something in the first area...which apparently Shanahan is not willing to do, signing Nylander now long term.

 

[MrCreamm]

Don't understand why Keefe is here, because I don't think it's on merit, I think it's cause the players probably like him. Treliving shoulda started with a clean slate when he came into the org, because it still feels like the exact same Leafs from past seasons. Although Shanahan is probably an even greater concern to the Leafs success. I don't think the Leafs are contenders with Keefe, I think they need a big change up and a coach that won't be afraid to discipline them. I can't remember the last time the Leafs had a resilient identity, but right now it's almost like they've been broken and submitted by other teams into being perennial chokers/underachievers.

Keefe has had 4 playoff appearances and has done f*** all aside from beating a worn out TBL where Vasilevskiy was not on form. They then got shut down ridiculously hard by the Panthers in 5 games, sure the Panthers were the best team in the East, but they didn't even put up a valiant fight. If the Leafs ever want to have marginal success in the playoffs, let alone a cup or finals appearance, they need a tough coach who is gonna make them work hard and beat it into them.

You're stuck with Reilly, Matthews, and Nylander for a long time, and Tavares and Marner are there for till the end of 24-25. It's not like you now need to worry Matthews or Nylander are gonna leave if you bring in a coach who will play them hard, and Marner can probably be resigned with Tavares big contract coming off the books.

 

[I Hate Philadelphia]

Leaf fans here and on social media are losing their minds. You would think that after 6 straight decades of failure that they would be used to this by now. Act like you've been these before!!!

 

[Joe Hallenback]

They are just one 11+ million dollar player away from being contenders

 

[Sheppy]

Watching Tavares get pushed and shoved after whistles last night and him just standing there with that bozo look on his face tells you everything you need to know about him as a captain.

I feel like every other captain would at least push back.

 

[thebestnic]

OFC we're not.

Th Peg and Van City are our only hopes for Lord Stanley coming home at this point. Go either them.

Authors note: Leafs might be bad, but the Oilers actual logo is a monkey paw. No hope in hell they get Stanley.



I hate posts like these because Jones has been playing out of his mind. He was not responsible for any of the goals that occurred tonight. Every single one of them (Except for the flukey one) can be blamed on bad D coverage.

That Drai goal was bad and changed the momentum of the game. Every game behind Samsonov was bad... Jones is fine as a backup but I do think they need an upgrade for the playoffs. Seems like too big of a gamble to rely on Woll who has been injured and Jones...

 

[Suntouchable13]

Don't understand why Keefe is here, because I don't think it's on merit, I think it's cause the players probably like him. Treliving shoulda started with a clean slate when he came into the org, because it still feels like the exact same Leafs from past seasons. Although Shanahan is probably an even greater concern to the Leafs success. I don't think the Leafs are contenders with Keefe, I think they need a big change up and a coach that won't be afraid to discipline them. I can't remember the last time the Leafs had a resilient identity, but right now it's almost like they've been broken and submitted by other teams into being perennial chokers/underachievers.

Keefe has had 4 playoff appearances and has done f*** all aside from beating a worn out TBL where Vasilevskiy was not on form. They then got shut down ridiculously hard by the Panthers in 5 games, sure the Panthers were the best team in the East, but they didn't even put up a valiant fight. If the Leafs ever want to have marginal success in the playoffs, let alone a cup or finals appearance, they need a tough coach who is gonna make them work hard and beat it into them.

You're stuck with Reilly, Matthews, and Nylander for a long time, and Tavares and Marner are there for till the end of 24-25. It's not like you now need to worry Matthews or Nylander are gonna leave if you bring in a coach who will play them hard, and Marner can probably be resigned with Tavares big contract coming off the books.

They absolutely shouldn’t re-sign Marner. You know he will want more than Nylander, which will be 12+ most likely. Leafs need to go in a different direction. Nylander and Marner at more than 23 million combined is lunacy. These wingers ain’t gonna get you to the promised land. Not at those numbers.

 

[PaulD]

This is absolutely it. Any other personnel changes will be superficial in nature and will continue to buttress Shanahan's "vision". I honestly thought that the Leafs would move one of their "big 4" with a new GM, but now it looks like they will be saddled with all of them and it seems right now, the focus is to try to make this current configuration work. On paper some things look good, whereas in practice not the case. Vegas was a good case study in that you don't need a ton of top heavy offensive contracts - a lot of good role players and guys with grit made that team what looks like a perennial contender. The Leafs have never been short on offence and for sure, that's one of their key strengths. But the imbalance between that and their defence and goaltending is pretty evident. They are not going to be able to improve in the other two areas unless they sacrifice something in the first area...which apparently Shanahan is not willing to do, signing Nylander now long term.

Core 4 is shrinking to a core 2 .
Marner and Tavares strike fear on absolutely no opponents