Around the League - 2024-2025 Part II

[Jojalu]

The TO / First Round thread is still going strong on the playoff board, with the regular cast of HF losers throwing in their worthless 2 cents.

Say we do get past the first round, do these morons have a contingency plan in place?

My guess would be they will say it was juat Ottawa. They can't beat a serious team.

 

[Stephen]

Hadn’t been following Tyler Bertuzzi very closely but he has his usual 20 something goals and 40 plus points. Just like last year. Did not expect to see that stats line after he started off pretty slowly in Chicago.

 

[Stephen]

See that's funny, according to HF Finland he was going to be twice the player 34 is and would average 70-80 goals per year, so I for one am shocked things turned out the way they did.

I always thought it was interesting how the Leafs never seem to be on side with HF Team Finland. We just never have good Finns, or had back luck with the ones we do manage to acquire (Rask). It’s always annoying to hear those guys pump up their okay players to outrageous levels.

 

[MSZ]

I want Columbus to crush Habs fans souls lol. Imagine missing the playoffs because you lost to Chicago at home! That’s embarassing

Pittsburgh did exactly just that two years ago. Imagine if the Leafs played the Pens in round 2 that year instead of the Panthers?

 

[TheGreenTBer]

I always thought it was interesting how the Leafs never seem to be on side with HF Team Finland. We just never have good Finns, or had back luck with the ones we do manage to acquire (Rask). It’s always annoying to hear those guys pump up their okay players to outrageous levels.

Nobody on HF homers like HF Finland.

Not Montreal, not Edmonton, not Boston, not Ottawa, not Vancouver, not even us.

Nobody.

 

[Stephen]

Nobody on HF homers like HF Finland.

Not Montreal, not Edmonton, not Boston, not Ottawa, not Vancouver, not even us.

Nobody.

They have a little thing with Florida. Which makes them extra annoying. Like an unholy alliance of Florida-Finland centered around their 3 headed monster of Barkov, Lundell and Listerine.

 

[MSZ]

They have a little thing with Florida. Which makes them extra annoying.

And Dallas too. Those teams have been long associated with high profile Finnish players for many years.

 

[Stephen]

And Dallas too. Those teams have been long associated with high profile Finnish players for many years.

Yeah going back to the good old Jere Lehtinen days.

 

[MCR74]

My guess would be they will say it was juat Ottawa. They can't beat a serious team.

Frankly we're possibly going up against a playoffs warrior, 3 or 4 elite D and the best top 6 in the league. Where does it end?

 

[Nineteen67]

Before the trade they were pretty damn deep

But they’re missing key ingredients

 

[Jojalu]

Frankly we're possibly going up against a playoffs warrior, 3 or 4 elite D and the best top 6 in the league. Where does it end?

Oh that juggernaut Sens team.

 

[Stephen]

Would be so funny to see CBJ get past Montreal.

 

[MCR74]

Would be so funny to see CBJ get past Montreal.

Montreal keeps this up and it might well happen. You'd hate to see it.

 

[Enga Olly]

The most knowledgeable, enthusiastic and sophisticated fanbase in hockey are simultaneously planning the parade and ready to slit their wrists on missing the playoffs

 

[MCR74]

The most knowledgeable, enthusiastic and sophisticated fanbase in hockey are simultaneously planning the parade and ready to slit their wrists on missing the playoffs

Personally I want Columbus to grab that last spot in honor of Johnny Hockey. The Habs' all-star lineup can sit out another year.

 

[torontoblood]

I always thought it was interesting how the Leafs never seem to be on side with HF Team Finland. We just never have good Finns, or had back luck with the ones we do manage to acquire (Rask). It’s always annoying to hear those guys pump up their okay players to outrageous levels.

The Leafs always had very few Finnish players on their teams historically. If I recall correctly, the only Finnish players that played full seasons for us are Jyrki Lumme, Aki Berg, Leo Komarov, Vesa Toskala, Niklas Hagman, and Kasperi Kapanen. We drafted Rask in 2005 but we traded him to Boston for Raycroft a year later in 2006. We signed Hakanpaa last September but he hasn’t played a game for us yet this season. And Olli Jokinen played only 6 games for us back in the 2014-15 season.

When it comes to nationalities, The Leafs historically always had much more Canadian, Swedish, Russian, and Czech players on their teams than Finnish, Slovak, Norwegian, Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Polish, German, and Swiss players.

By the way, we also didn’t have many American-born and raised players who played full seasons on the Leafs before 2010 either( with the exception of Al Iafrate, Tom Fergus, Brian Leetch, Eddie Olczyk, Damian Rhodes, Craig Wolanin, Bates Battaglia, Mathieu Schneider, Darby Hendrickson, Bryan Berard, Lee Stempniak, Corey Schwab, Mike Komisarek, Jeff Finger, Jason Blake, Ken Klee, Hal Gill, John Pohl, Kevyn Adams,Tom Fitzgerald, Tom Barrasso, Dave Ellett, and Phil Housley) but since 2010, our best forwards in the last decades were both from the USA( Matthews and Kessel) and we had plenty of American born and raised players on the Leafs since then like James Van Riemsdyk, Connor Carrick, Matt Hunwick, Zach Aston-Reese, Justin Holl, Jack Campbell, Joseph Woll, John-Micheal Liles, Tim Gleason, David Booth, Jake Gardiner, Ron Hainsey, Alex Galchenyuk, Max Pacioretty, Zach Bogosian, Nick Foligno, Nicholas Robertson, Anthony Stolarz, Jake McCabe, Noel Acciari, Sam Lafferty, Brandon Carlo, and Matthew Knies.

Nobody on HF homers like HF Finland.

Not Montreal, not Edmonton, not Boston, not Ottawa, not Vancouver, not even us.

Nobody.

Yes. They are behind their countrymen, right or wrong, during the good and bad times. They are wildly dedicated to the defense of their players.

I remember these ridiculous laine vs Matthews debates. They really thought laine would blossom into a perennial superstar and Matthews would become a second liner at best.

Btw are you transported upstater from the old hfboards?

They have a little thing with Florida. Which makes them extra annoying. Like an unholy alliance of Florida-Finland centered around their 3 headed monster of Barkov, Lundell and Listerine.

And Dallas too. Those teams have been long associated with high profile Finnish players for many years.

Yeah going back to the good old Jere Lehtinen days.

Montreal is also another team traditionally associated with Finnish players. Saku Koivu is obviously the most famous example, but they also had Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Janne Ninimaa, Joël Armia, Patrik Laine, and Antti Niemi in their ranks. Unlike Toronto, they had very few Swedes who played full NHL seasons on their teams. Only Mats Naslund, Kjell Dahlin, Peter Popovic, Andreas Dackell, Jonas Hoglund( yep that one), and Niklas Sundstrom played full seasons for the Canadiens.


And Anaheim was a very popular team among the Finnish hockey community when the Ducks had both Koivu and Selanne together on their team 15 years ago.



But yes these chauvinistic and Homer finnish hockey fans now favor Dallas and Florida much more than other teams in the League for obvious reasons.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

Btw are you transported upstater from the old hfboards?

Never heard of her but she sounds HIDEOUS









(guilty as charged)

 

[1specter]

The Leafs always had very few Finnish players on their teams historically. If I recall correctly, the only Finnish players that played full seasons for us are Jyrki Lumme, Aki Berg, Leo Komarov, Vesa Toskala, Niklas Hagman, and Kasperi Kapanen. We drafted Rask but we traded him to Boston for Raycroft in 2006. We signed Hakanpaa last September but he hasn’t played a game for us yet this season. And Olli Jokinen played only 6 games for us back in the 2014-15 season.

Jesus if there was ever a Hall of Shame list this is it lol, minus Komarov and I guess Lumme was alright.

 

[Seath The Scaleless]

Sounds like Landeskog may suit up for game 1. Crazy comeback.

 

[francis246]

Demidov was better than advertised, the guy is going to be a superstar in this league. If he wasn’t Russian he would have went 1st overall. Montreal is going to be a fun team to watch

 

[Stephen]

The Leafs always had very few Finnish players on their teams historically. If I recall correctly, the only Finnish players that played full seasons for us are Jyrki Lumme, Aki Berg, Leo Komarov, Vesa Toskala, Niklas Hagman, and Kasperi Kapanen. We drafted Rask in 2005 but we traded him to Boston for Raycroft a year later in 2006. We signed Hakanpaa last September but he hasn’t played a game for us yet this season. And Olli Jokinen played only 6 games for us back in the 2014-15 season.

When it comes to nationalities, The Leafs historically always had much more Canadians, Swedes, Russians, and Czech players on their teams than Finnish, Slovak, Norwegian, Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Polish, German, and Swiss players.

By the way, we also didn’t have many American-born and raised players who played full seasons on the Leafs before 2010 either( with the exception of Al Iafrate, Tom Fergus, Brian Leetch, Eddie Olczyk, Damian Rhodes, Craig Wolanin, Bates Battaglia, Mathieu Schneider, Darby Hendrickson, Bryan Berard, Lee Stempniak, Corey Schwab, Mike Komisarek, Jeff Finger, Jason Blake, Ken Klee, Hal Gill, John Pohl, Kevyn Adams,Tom Fitzgerald, Tom Barrasso, Dave Ellett, and Phil Housley) but since 2010, our best forwards in the last decades were both from the USA( Matthews and Kessel) and we had plenty of American born and raised players on the Leafs since then like James Van Riemsdyk, Connor Carrick, Matt Hunwick, Zach Aston-Reese, Justin Holl, Jack Campbell, Joseph Woll, John-Micheal Liles, Tim Gleason, David Booth, Jake Gardiner, Ron Hainsey, Alex Galchenyuk, Max Pacioretty, Zach Bogosian, Nick Foligno, Nicholas Robertson, Anthony Stolarz, Jake McCabe, Noel Acciari, Sam Lafferty, Brandon Carlo, and Matthew Knies.



Yes. They are behind their countrymen, right or wrong, during the good and bad times. They are wildly dedicated to the defense of their players.

I remember these ridiculous laine vs Matthews debates. They really thought laine would blossom into a perennial superstar and Matthews would become a second liner at best.

Btw are you transported upstater from the old hfboards?






Montreal is also another team traditionally associated with Finnish players. Saku Koivu is obviously the most famous example, but they also had Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Janne Ninimaa, Joël Armia, Patrik Laine, and Antti Niemi in their ranks. Unlike Toronto, they had very few Swedes who played full NHL seasons on their teams. Only Mats Naslund, Kjell Dahlin, Peter Popovic, Andreas Dackell, Jonas Hoglund( yep that one), and Niklas Sundstrom played full seasons for the Canadiens.


And Anaheim was a very popular team among the Finnish hockey community when the Ducks had both Koivu and Selanne together on their team 15 years ago.



But yes these chauvinistic and Homer finnish hockey fans now favor Dallas and Florida much more than other teams in the League for obvious reasons.

We’re definitely Team Sweden here in Leaf Land. Happy with that. Forget the Finns!

 

[Stephen]

Demidov was better than advertised, the guy is going to be a superstar in this league. If he wasn’t Russian he would have went 1st overall. Montreal is going to be a fun team to watch

Man, if Montreal had drafted Michkov instead of Reichbacher they’d had quite the little two pack.

 

[francis246]

Man, if Montreal had drafted Michkov instead of Reichbacher they’d had quite the little two pack.

I think they made the right choice, they would have gone defense last year instead of Demidov, no way they risk having both guys in the KHL because remember it was a surprise both Michkov and Demidov got released early by SKA. I can even imagine what Montreal and Philly had to pay the club under the table to have that happen.

Now Montreal needs to flip some of their players for an impact RHD to play with Ghule or Hutson and they are good

 

[torontoblood]

We’re definitely Team Sweden here in Leaf Land. Happy with that. Forget the Finns!

The red wings, canucks and the wild historically favor Sweden too with many players of Swedish nationality who were on their teams over the years. The avalanche too most notably with forsberg and landeskog.

 

[Jacquestrapless]

Put $70 on the jackets to win tonight. See how it goes