Are the Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup contenders?

[Sheppy]

Having lived in both Lethbridge and the GTA, I can assure everyone -10 in Toronto feels like -30 in Lethbridge because of the humidity difference (maybe an exaggeration but not by much). Lethbridge is pretty arid though and I have no idea if it's the same or similar in Edmonton.

Agreed with this, honestly. The "wet cold" hits differently.

That said, we hit -54 here and I'd trade that for wet cold 100/100 times

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Not a character team

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

I think this is the first Leaf team where I looked at the leader and best players on the team and have thought “I don’t f***ing like any of these guys”

I miss Jake Muzzin

You forget too soon. You don't remember stickgate? Those were the darkest days in the last 20 years.

 

[General Fanager]

He wanted the power to not have to answer to anyone, essentially to be GM and POHO.

Not exactly true. He wanted to report to the board of MLSE himself. As GM he should be making the calls. If he has to ask big daddy Shanny for every little move then why bother being there and just let Shanny get a yes man ( which is what he did). He told Shanny he didnt want to be a yes man for him and Shanny got butt hurt and canned him....

Dubas is better off now in Pitts and The Leafs are stuck in ground hogs day....the same nonsense every year thinking this is finally the year......Ill save you the trouble it isnt.

 

[PaulD]

I'm a die hard fan but disagree. This team as it is constructed today has no chance of getting past Boston and or Florida, no chance.

They are a playoff team, nothing more. It's the sad reality but there's tons of time to make changes. Treliving needs to get on it asap.

Everyone wants Keefe fired, but he just extended him. I don't know if he'd let him go and use a life line that quickly. Burke fired Wilson shortly after an extension but that was after multiple years of having Wilson fail under him. It's year 1 for Keefe + Treliving. But in all honesty Keefe should have been fired 2 years ago, cut your losses but I don't know if Tre will.

Marner needs to go but has a NMC and will not waive which is awesome (sarcasm). Same for Tavares.

Make a splash for some big physical D-men. Looking at Tanev. Should've went for Zadorov but Tanev is still a great option, older but would do great here. Lindholm would be great as well but not sure if we can go after both guys, with the cap situation.

Reminder to my fellow Leaf fans, we play in the Atlantic. Which means we have to go through the Bruins and Panthers, think about that before you call this team a contender.

What crock of $hit.
Shanny stopped Dubas???
Yea right - it was Shanny and MSLE that wanted Babcock gone.....and hire Sheldon Keefe??? Sheldon Keefe. That was all Dubas and his boy.
The core 4? "Everything is on the table" Well who are you talking about?
• Nylander ? Dubas publucly stated he won't trade Nylander. "Leaf for life"
• Tavares?... contract is untradeable.
• Matthews Dubas nor Shanny would ever trade Matthews and rightly so.
• That leaves Marner. So where did you get the information that Shanny stood in front of Dubas trading Marner. Lol.
Shannys days are likely numbered no doubt. But make no mistake....this is Kyle Dubas's team. The way he wanted it.
Shanny has made some mistakes. None bigger than putting Dubas in charge.

 

[Strangle]

13-13-16 in regulation
4-7-5 in overtime
4-1 in the shootout

Very average team, which is a bit scary to consider when Auston Matthews is pacing for like 80 goals or whatever. The funky way the NHL does overtime points, where it's neither a pure win/loss system, not a win/lose/tie system and not a 3-2-1 system, but instead the least intuitive method where overtime wins are treated as full wins, and overtime losses are only treated as half-losses, has covered them for now, but they aren't playing like a contender, nowhere close.

A lot of this record in regulation is on Samsonov. He’s gotten 8 OTL and a lot of those were from him not making saves that caused the OT’s to begin with.

Leafs aren’t playing well right now, that’s for sure. But using their OT games and ignoring why they happened in the first place is disingenuous.

Samsonov has 6 OTL in 14 games. Almost half his games. And I’m pretty sure Will bailed him out in 2 games that don’t show up on these stats.

Joseph Woll's Stellar Performance Leads Maple Leafs to Comeback Win Against Lightning

Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll played a key role in the team's comeback victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Despite being outshot, the Leafs managed to secure a 4-3 win…

bvmsports.com

Recap: Leafs make a huge comeback, win it OT

After being down by three goals in the first period, the Maple Leafs storm back into the game...

www.pensionplanpuppets.com

Jones and Woll have both also played 14 games, and they each have 1 single OTL

The reason the Leafs are going to OT so much is battling through the worst goaltending in the league. You put Jones or Woll in those games and the Leafs have MORE points. Because a lot of those samsonov OT games are just regulation wins for the Leafs

In 14 games for each of the 3 goalies and Samsonov is 4 games below .500.

The other two are both 2 games above .500

That’s where you get them exactly at .500

 

[General Fanager]

What crock of $hit.
Shanny stopped Dubas???
Likecyea, it was Shanny and MSLE that wanted Babcock gone.....and hire Sheldon Keefe??? Sheldon Keefe. Thst was Shanny man was it? ha!
The core 4? Well who are you talking about?
• Nylander ? Dubas publucly stated he won't trade Nylander. " Leaf for life if I have anything to say about it"
• Tavares?... contract is untradeable.
• Matthews Dubas nor Shanny would ever trade Matthews and rightly so.
• That leaves leaves Marner. So where did you get the information that Shanny stood in front of Dubas trading Marner. Lol.
Shannys days are likely numbered no doubt. But make no mistake....this is Kyke Dubas team. They way he wanted it.
Shanny has made some mistakes. None bigger than putting Dubas in charge in the first place.

His last presser Dubas said nothing was off the table. So yea sure this was his team but it looked like he finally saw the light and maybe that was part of what cost him his gig in Toronto.

 

[Strangle]

FYI for whoever needs it: I think there’s some missing context for the Marner interview. He did say they were playing well which may not be true but it also seemed like he acknowledged they had things to clean up and improve on.

The reporter took a terrible quote out of context.

Journalists do this misleading shit all the time

 

[North Cole]

Oh man, you guys don't have the bagged milk?

Nope, we missed out. Of all things edmonton gets pooped on for, everyone thankfully forgets about the milk cartons. I don't think I could live it down otherwise

 

[Mick Riddleton]

Martin Jones is 6’5, he could easily see past McDavid if he wanted to.

I thought goalies were supposed to try and look around screens.

Always the goalie's fault, lol. It is never the team's lack of hockey awareness or players who just will not pay the price.

 

[b in vancouver]

It's gotta be a strange dynamic in that dressing room. I know they're professionals but how do you keep anyone accountable when you have a group of guys making 10x their teammates while showing inconsistent effort.
The big money players know there's no repercussions while if you say something to the bargain bin guys they gotta be thinking, 'what the hell? That guy makes $10M more than me, why you singling e out?' Same as if Marner or Matthews tried to be leaders. Why would anyone listen to them?

 

[Golden_Jet]

Not exactly true. He wanted to report to the board of MLSE himself. As GM he should be making the calls. If he has to ask big daddy Shanny for every little move then why bother being there and just let Shanny get a yes man ( which is what he did). He told Shanny he didnt want to be a yes man for him and Shanny got butt hurt and canned him....

Dubas is better off now in Pitts and The Leafs are stuck in ground hogs day....the same nonsense every year thinking this is finally the year......Ill save you the trouble it isnt.

So warrior was right, wanted to go over his superiors head.

 

[North Cole]

Having lived in both Lethbridge and the GTA, I can assure everyone -10 in Toronto feels like -30 in Lethbridge because of the humidity difference (maybe an exaggeration but not by much). Lethbridge is pretty arid though and I have no idea if it's the same or similar in Edmonton.

Ibe worked outside in -58 windchill in Alberta. If you dress properly and cut the wind its not that bad. You cant stay out for hours, but you can rotate in and out just fine.

Coldest I've ever been is in Thunderbay -35 with 98% humidity. Ain't shit layers can do. Just run for your life

 

[Golden_Jet]

Martin Jones is 6’5, he could easily see past McDavid if he wanted to.

I thought goalies were supposed to try and look around screens.

Goalies are never in a standing position, when play is their end, they are in the crouch ready position.
Weird you didn’t know that.

 

[Coffey]

Ibe worked outside in -58 windchill in Alberta. If you dress properly and cut the wind its not that bad. You cant stay out for hours, but you can rotate in and out just fine.

Coldest I've ever been is in Thunderbay -35 with 98% humidity. Ain't shit layers can do. Just run for your life

So what you're saying is that the Leaf players should have been more than ready to handle our dry -20 coming from their wet -20?

 

[General Fanager]

So warrior was right, wanted to go over his superiors head.

nope.

He wanted to power to do his job. The General Managers job. Then report to the board on his calls as the GM.

This has nothing to do with POHO

 

[Leaf Fans]

Agreed. Klingberg, Matt Murray and Reavo.
No team can afford to lose a top D, starting goalie and head locker room music DJ without suffering.

I guess, so?

O

But an injury to the big 4 and reilly obviously matters way more than to the scrub depth. Unless you severely overpaid and overrated the big four.

Yes, an injury to the top players will have a bigger impact than an injury to depth players.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Not exactly true. He wanted to report to the board of MLSE himself. As GM he should be making the calls. If he has to ask big daddy Shanny for every little move then why bother being there and just let Shanny get a yes man ( which is what he did). He told Shanny he didnt want to be a yes man for him and Shanny got butt hurt and canned him....

Exactly what I said, he was trying to get Shanahan removed from the picture, aka usurp his position.

 

[Mick Riddleton]

I'm aware.

I have the same mentality as I did when people were laughing at Edmonton earlier in the year. They will do what it takes to turn it around and ensure that they don't miss the playoffs.

The Oilers fired the coaches and told the offensive guys to pay some attention to defending and no more cherry-picking for goals. Be more like Kopitar, Bergeron or Datysuk. Preventing 3 goals a game is better than scoring one. Those guys on a nightly basis did that and astute fans, coaches and commentators knew the real value of them. There has to be a total change in this team's run-and-gun mentality of outscoring your mistakes.

 

[General Fanager]

Exactly what I said, he was trying to get Shanahan removed from the picture, aka usurp his position.

again,

im not sure why this is confusing but Dubas wanted to make the calls any GM would make. If he has to go ask big daddy Shanny then Dubas isnt really the GM.

 

[castle]

Took me a few minutes too. I think what he’s trying to say is ….

Leafs have 13 regulation wins and 13 regulation losses and have 16 games tied after regulation

I don’t think there’s much need to focus on any of the numbers after the first 13. The Leafs are 25th in the league in regulation wins. They’ve got to show something better than that over the next big stretch of games to be considered a contender. There’s no 3v3 or shootout in the playoffs.

 

[Strangle]

Goalies are never in a standing position, when play is their end, they are in the crouch ready position.
Weird you didn’t know that.

This is why all the players now know where to put the puck, because all goaltenders play exactly the same way

 

[WarriorofTime]

A lot of this record in regulation is on Samsonov. He’s gotten 8 OTL and a lot of those were from him not making saves that caused the OT’s to begin with.

Leafs aren’t playing well right now, that’s for sure. But using their OT games and ignoring why they happened in the first place is disingenuous.

Ok, it's not "disingenuous" to just de-construct the Leafs record a bit and not also point out (objection - conjecture) that it's all Samsononov's fault (aka the hero from last season that "fixed" the Murray goaltending problem who "fixed" the Campbell goaltending problem who "fixed" the Mrazek goaltending problem who "fixed" the Andersen goaltending problem who "fixed" Bernier goaltending problem, and so on and so on.

I'm not obligated to say "the Leafs are an average team, but they're only average because the goaltender sucked but that problem is fixed now that they have *checks notes* Joseph Woll, so it's all good" just because that's the current wishful thinking mantra.

 

[PuckG]

The reporter took a terrible quote out of context.

Journalists do this misleading shit all the time

I’m no Leafs fan, but getting shit on for the wrong things or journalistic errors is unfair to everyone.

 

[PaulD]

His last presser Dubas said nothing was off the table. So yea sure this was his team but it looked like he finally saw the light and maybe that was part of what cost him his gig in Toronto.

ha!!! He had no room to do anything. He left the 2023 -24 handcuffed. He blew his wad.
Nylander would have been his only move. And Dubas loves Nylander. Stated many times.
"Nothing is off the table" Doug Fords favorite line when he has no answer.