GDT: Around the League - Stanley Cup Edition - Round #2

[ToneDog]

With this current core group.

Still 3 playoffs ago. Bruins are a deeper team now and our guys got paid and have been no shows in elimination games.

 

[fahad203]

The leafs lost 2 series under Lamoriello, who wasted picks on f***ing Boyle and Plekanec.

If you pine for Lamoriello, you're just trolling.

No GM is perfect. Lou was horrible giving Zaitsev 5.5 and Marleau. No doubt

But he's better than Dubas in building playoff team that's for sure. He values old school work ethic and game. Time and time again thst has tested to be true than statistics

 

[socko]

Still 3 playoffs ago. Bruins are a deeper team now and our guys got paid and have been no shows in elimination games.

I miss Kap and Andreas.

 

[Mess]

I’m never defending any of our players in comparisons again. Cizikas over Matthews? Sure what the f*** do I care. Tuch over Marner? You bet man. These guys come to play in the playoffs, Matthews and Marner don’t. I won’t begrudge any fan picking other players besides our choke artists.

Here is a perfect example ..

Lou Lam goes out and gets JG Pageau at the TD for the NYI and gives up his 1st round pick, 2nd and 3rd round pick and then signs him to a new long term 6 year extension at $5 mil, because he understands the kinds of playoff performers you need to win.

In the last 2 playoff seasons in 32 games now over 6 series Pageau has 11 goals 10 assists for 21 points as NYI 3rd line centre.

Just for a comparison to Leafs star players Matthews and Marner during that same time using +$22 mil Cap.

Matthews 3 goals 8 assists for 11 points and Marner 0 goals 8 assists 8 points in 24 games and 3 goals 16 assists and 19 points combined.

Look at the return NYI are getting for $5 mil cap and 3rd line centre >> Leafs star top liners combined come playoff time.

How do you compete with that?

 

[Cleetus]

Lol adding Foligno diluted the Leafs identity. What a clown Jeff.

lol A twitter nobody of course!

 

[Superstar]

Lou Lam has won 5 playoffs series and counting these past 3 years since replaced as GM in Toronto.

Leafs last playoff win 17 years ago.

Sometime Life just doesn't seem fair.

We got boy genius, you should feel blessed...

 

[rdogg]

I miss Kap and Andreas.

I don't miss either of those guys.

I miss Connor Brown. He would have been nice to have vs Montreal

 

[Mess]

I don't miss either of those guys.

I miss Connor Brown. He would have been nice to have vs Montreal

Connor Brown for Canada and Trevor Moore for USA both played as top line players at the WC and excelled in the tournament.

These ex Leafs are the kinds of player you fill out a roster with that work hard and compete and played in all sorts of roles.

 

[socko]

I don't miss either of those guys.

I miss Connor Brown. He would have been nice to have vs Montreal

Brown would have been good too. Although I easily pick Kap over him. Dubas overpaid Andreas but he overpays everyone.

 

[GQS]

No GM is perfect. Lou was horrible giving Zaitsev 5.5 and Marleau. No doubt

But he's better than Dubas in building playoff team that's for sure. He values old school work ethic and game. Time and time again thst has tested to be true than statistics

Seriously though what more do you want Dubas to do? To me he's been the best GM the Leafs have had in 20+ years. What other Leafs GM has done more to try and address all the weaknesses of this team in recent years? How many Leafs GMs have done a decent job of drafting and improving a previously bad prospect pool? Have we ever had a GM who constantly tries to find decent players internationally who we can get without giving up anything?

I get its frustrating that we still can't get out of the first round, but at least Dubas has tried to find solutions to every issue that the team has had so far. Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don't. That's how it is in pro sports. I haven't liked all the moves that he's made, but I've like many of them and to me he's been the best GM the Leafs have had in recent memory.

At some point when a team isn't performing, you have to start looking at the players and/or coach and hold them accountable when the GM has done as much as they can to help.

 

[Trapper]

The leafs took the bruins to game 7 twice.

And the Montreal Canadiens once.
Sorry Columbus was only 5. Might have been 7.

 

[Trapper]

Seriously though what more do you want Dubas to do? To me he's been the best GM the Leafs have had in 20+ years. What other Leafs GM has done more to try and address all the weaknesses of this team in recent years? How many Leafs GMs have done a decent job of drafting and improving a previously bad prospect pool? Have we ever had a GM who constantly tries to find decent players internationally who we can get without giving up anything?

I get its frustrating that we still can't get out of the first round, but at least Dubas has tried to find solutions to every issue that the team has had so far. Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don't. That's how it is in pro sports. I haven't liked all the moves that he's made, but I've like many of them and to me he's been the best GM the Leafs have had in recent memory.

At some point when a team isn't performing, you have to start looking at the players and/or coach and hold them accountable when the GM has done as much as they can to help.

Maybe the weakness of the team is paying 4 forwards half the cap. In which case, he hasn’t addressed the issues. And the ones he’s paying have to provide what is missing. He’s just running around trying to compensate.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Connor Brown for Canada and Trevor Moore for USA both played as top line players at the WC and excelled in the tournament.

These ex Leafs are the kinds of player you fill out a roster with that work hard and compete and played in all sorts of roles.

Imagine having Brown and Moore on this roster instead of Mikheyev and Engvall.

 

[Superstar]

Maybe the weakness of the team is paying 4 forwards half the cap. In which case, he hasn’t addressed the issues. And the ones he’s paying have to provide what is missing. He’s just running around trying to compensate.

And using euphemisms like filling around the margins...that sounds like a recipe for success, like feeding leftovers to the pigs or bread crumbs to the dogs...

 

[cookie]

In the end, your best players need to be your best players. Bottom 6 players running around hitting people won't make a major impact

17
13
11
11
11

Those are the point totals of Kucherov, Stamkos, Killorn, Point, and Hedman after 10 games. Tampa has 14 PP goals. Did the Leafs even total 14 PP goals in their final 30 games + playoffs?!?

After the game 19 outburst - 3 PP goals against Montreal - the Leafs have only managed 13 PP goals in both regular season and playoff play.

36 regular season games + 7 playoff games = 43 games with only 13 power play goals to show for it. Power play opportunities: 99 in the regular season, 23 in the playoffs for an astounding 10.66% clip rate. Then there's also the 6 shorthanded goals the team gave up in that stretch, about one every 7 games. You'd hope someone in the organization would notice.

 

[All Mod Cons]

Seriously though what more do you want Dubas to do? To me he's been the best GM the Leafs have had in 20+ years. What other Leafs GM has done more to try and address all the weaknesses of this team in recent years? How many Leafs GMs have done a decent job of drafting and improving a previously bad prospect pool? Have we ever had a GM who constantly tries to find decent players internationally who we can get without giving up anything?

I get its frustrating that we still can't get out of the first round, but at least Dubas has tried to find solutions to every issue that the team has had so far. Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don't. That's how it is in pro sports. I haven't liked all the moves that he's made, but I've like many of them and to me he's been the best GM the Leafs have had in recent memory.

At some point when a team isn't performing, you have to start looking at the players and/or coach and hold them accountable when the GM has done as much as they can to help.

Having 3 x 11mil players and trading away so, so much of the depth overshadows anything else he's done. The "trying to fix areas of weakness" is useless when such a huge issue keeps being ignored. It's the equivalent of trying to improve a boat in all areas yet refusing to do anything about the hole in the side.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

Imagine having Brown and Moore on this roster instead of Mikheyev and Engvall.

What's the issue with Soupy? Yeah the guy has stone hands but he makes peanuts and is due to put up some goal totals at some point.

 

[3blizzard4]

What are the viewing numbers for the snooze fest series between Montreal and Winnipeg?

 

[3blizzard4]

Oilers fans loving the beer smashing on the head Islanders fans? Hmmm no correlation there.

 

[GQS]

Maybe the weakness of the team is paying 4 forwards half the cap. In which case, he hasn’t addressed the issues. And the ones he’s paying have to provide what is missing. He’s just running around trying to compensate.

Again I get that every dollar counts, but this whole thing about 'overpaying' 4 of your best players is slightly overblown in the sense that what does signing those 4 players to 'reasonable' contracts and giving you that extra cap space, what one or two players can you get with that capspace that will suddenly bring you to the level of the Bruins/Isles/Bolts etc?

The money you saved is enough to get you a resigned Hyman at the 5+ million that he's reported to be asking for. Or maybe you go out and sign one or two decent players for that money. Is that suddenly going to make the Leafs good enough to compete with the Bruins? Probably not.

The point is bringing in a couple of better players might help to an extent, but in the end its your star players that have to perform and the entire team having to have the same hunger and fight that we're seeing from the American teams right now and simply bringing in different players isn't suddenly going to inject the Leafs with that heart and fire as we've already seen.

Maybe eventually you have to look at a different coach or find some other way to motivate the team, but again I don't know what players you think Dubas could've brought in that would make the Leafs a top tier contender with the will to fight like we're seeing from other teams.

 

[GQS]

Having 3 x 11mil players and trading away so, so much of the depth overshadows anything else he's done. The "trying to fix areas of weakness" is useless when such a huge issue keeps being ignored. It's the equivalent of trying to improve a boat in all areas yet refusing to do anything about the hole in the side.

As I said in another post I just made, I know it isn't ideal to have 3 x 11 million players who aren't performing at the level they're capable of in the playoffs, but even if they were signed at more reasonable contracts to allow for more flexibility, bringing in a couple of decent players or having the cap to resign your own good players doesn't change the fact that the biggest problem of this team isn't talent, but rather the will to fight and battle and never give up.

Compare the Leafs lineup to the remaining teams and the Leafs on paper should be able to compete against them pretty well. The problem is mental and as people have noted their lack of fire and 'killer instinct'. The most fight and urgency that I saw the Leafs show against the Habs was game 6 OT where they took the fight to the Canadiens and dominated them for practically the whole time until they made that one bad turnover that led to the Habs winner.

If the Leafs competed like THAT all the time, win or lose people would be complaining alot less about them than they are now. Having some extra cap space from signing the big 3 to slightly better contracts so that you can bring in a guy or two probably isn't going to make nearly as much a difference as finding a way to get the team coming out fighting like a hungry lion every single game the way we're seeing other teams doing.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

What's the issue with Soupy? Yeah the guy has stone hands but he makes peanuts and is due to put up some goal totals at some point.

Literally that. Infuriating to watch him botch every chance the third line got and fail to complete a pass. Guys like Brown and Moore would also bring more tenacity than he does.

Mikheyev is good defensively, but man his ply in the offensive zone was frustrating.

 

[Stephen]

Having 3 x 11mil players and trading away so, so much of the depth overshadows anything else he's done. The "trying to fix areas of weakness" is useless when such a huge issue keeps being ignored. It's the equivalent of trying to improve a boat in all areas yet refusing to do anything about the hole in the side.

If the Leafs are a BBQ, Kyle overpaid for and overcooked the wagyu steaks but hopes the pasta salad can save the party.

 

[cookie]

This offseason is going to be a re-hash of the saying "winning fixes everything" where stats majors will come out of the woodwork and forget all about the existences of sample sizes or the incompatiblity of a playoff series to regular season playoff games wherein coaching strategies and deployment take a more pronounced role.

2018-2019 Conn Smythe Winner Ryan O'Rielly went the entire second round without a goal, capping off the deciding game 7 with a 0-0-0 -1 stat line in 28:08 game time. Yes we are looking at a Conn Smythe winner. And yes, he had 5 assists vs Marner's 4 assists this time around and yes there's a salary cap discrepancy but if Paul freaking Byron doesn't do his best Sidney Crosby impression, we're going to be facing the Jets and this "conversation" would be behind us. Yes, both Marner and Matthews' playoff production has been downright awful but in these situations, it makes little sense to let go of talents of their level when they're in their primes. They were getting chances this year and Marner especially was being relied on heavily in all aspects of the game and doing a damn good job at it defensively. Make a trade if it makes sense, not just for the sake of making one.

 

[ToneDog]

This offseason is going to be a re-hash of the saying "winning fixes everything" where stats majors will come out of the woodwork and forget all about the existences of sample sizes or the incompatiblity of a playoff series to regular season playoff games wherein coaching strategies and deployment take a more pronounced role.

2018-2019 Conn Smythe Winner Ryan O'Rielly went the entire second round without a goal, capping off the deciding game 7 with a 0-0-0 -1 stat line in 28:08 game time. Yes we are looking at a Conn Smythe winner. And yes, he had 5 assists vs Marner's 4 assists this time around and yes there's a salary cap discrepancy but if Paul freaking Byron doesn't do his best Sidney Crosby impression, we're going to be facing the Jets and this "conversation" would be behind us. Yes, both Marner and Matthews' playoff production has been downright awful but in these situations, it makes little sense to let go of talents of their level when they're in their primes. They were getting chances this year and Marner especially was being relied on heavily in all aspects of the game and doing a damn good job at it defensively. Make a trade if it makes sense, not just for the sake of making one.

The last thing we need is Dubas making another Kadri trade.