Berube Stanley Cup Lines 2019 - What are the main differences compared to leafs?

[hamzarocks]

The blues had an elite defense and their forwards all played well with their stars not being shut down as easily as 16, 91, 34 and 88 are in the playoffs.

Leafs only have 1 model left to hope to emulate and that is 2018 Caps. The blues were contenders from 2011ish and had a WCF run in 2016 before their cup.

Hope and pray for a fluke run which somehows ends in a cup. There is no help on the way and no trades in the horizon with this core group being are all in bet

 

[Da Mash]

St. louis blues wre actually a good playoff team unlike softleafs

During the cup run sure…what is their excuse the next 3 yrs. ??
they did similar to leafs…first rd exits twice and then got beat in 2nd rd after the that…and then missed playoffs

so I don’t quite understand on how they are a good playoff team.

Magical year with a hot goalie and the rest of the yrs were leaf like

 

[Gaberd2608]

Thought it would be fun to look at the roster and lines St. Louis Iced to win the Stanley Cup in 2019 under Craig Berube....and compare to the what we have with the Leafs now

The lines were:

Jaden Schwartz--Brayden Schenn--Vladimir Tarasenko
Sammy Blais--Ryan O’Reilly--David Perron
Pat Maroon--Tyler Bozak--Robert Thomas
Ivan Barbashev--Oskar Sundqvist--Alex Steen

Joel Edmundson--Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester--Colton Parayko
Carl Gunnarsson--Robert Bortuzzo

Binnington

Are we close to matching that level of depth and firepower? If not, what are we missing and how far are we?

1. Top to bottom play team defence.
2. True #1 defense Paryko at time was solid #2
3. Hot goalie.
4. Coach not making dumb unexplainable decisions.
5. Functional special teams.
6. Top players showed up, support players contributed.
7. Depth!!!!

 

[Sypher04]

The blues had an elite defense and their forwards all played well with their stars not being shut down as easily as 16, 91, 34 and 88 are in the playoffs.

Leafs only have 1 model left to hope to emulate and that is 2018 Caps. The blues were contenders from 2011ish and had a WCF run in 2016 before their cup.

Hope and pray for a fluke run which somehows ends in a cup. There is no help on the way and no trades in the horizon with this core group being are all in bet

We are probably closer in model to the 2016/17 Pens cup teams to be honest.

The forward group hopefully gets some adjustments still before the regular season, but if not I’d expect it to the focal point of trade deadline work. Still lots of time to improve that end before we go back to the playoffs.

I wish I could say I’m surprised by your claim that if we went to the cup it’d have to be fluke but you always find the most overtly negative viewpoint to discuss from, so par for the course

 

[egd27]

The difference is that Blue's team had a few ex-Leafs on it. (Like most SC winners)

 

[Ianturnedbull]

Berube School 101

Fight through checks
Dump and chase
Finish your checks
Block shots
No easy passage
Go to the net
Stick up for your team mates
Make the simple play
Forecheck fearlessly


Etc.

I don't think any of these players are ready for The Berube School.

 

[hamzarocks]

We are probably closer in model to the 2016/17 Pens cup teams to be honest.

The forward group hopefully gets some adjustments still before the regular season, but if not I’d expect it to the focal point of trade deadline work. Still lots of time to improve that end before we go back to the playoffs.

I wish I could say I’m surprised by your claim that if we went to the cup it’d have to be fluke but you always find the most overtly negative viewpoint to discuss from, so par for the course

The point was the Caps cup run was a fluke as they went back to being chokers after that and have done nothing since then. That is the type of run Id expect Toronto to have, we are a third rate team top to bottom.

Im not surprised you went with 2017 Pens though. Definately the hope for leaf nation homers as they had a below average defense like ours (due to letang injury), and having a lot of high priced forwards.

Leafs dont have a 81, 87, 71.

We have 34, 16, 88, 91 who find difgerent ways to underperform in the playoffs

Our core are proven failures. The 2017 pens had won the cup in 2016 and Crosby is a top 10 player ever with Malkin also top 40

Leafs core will be regarded as the worst "contender core" of the post lockout era

Blues got it done
Caps got it done
Sharks didnt get it done but had multiple deep runs including a finals loss in 2016

2017 leafs - present are the worst "contending" team in north american sports. No core has had such long ineptitude and failure for as long as TML have. Its remarkable how MLSE convinces fans like yourself to believe this is a team with any shot to win in the playoffs

 

[Racer88]

Berube School 101

Fight through checks
Dump and chase
Finish your checks
Block shots
No easy passage
Go to the net
Stick up for your team mates
Make the simple play
Forecheck fearlessly


Etc.

I don't think any of these players are ready for The Berube School.

We are going to need about 15 new players then

 

[conFABulator]

Thought it would be fun to look at the roster and lines St. Louis Iced to win the Stanley Cup in 2019 under Craig Berube....and compare to the what we have with the Leafs now

The lines were:

Jaden Schwartz--Brayden Schenn--Vladimir Tarasenko
Sammy Blais--Ryan O’Reilly--David Perron
Pat Maroon--Tyler Bozak--Robert Thomas
Ivan Barbashev--Oskar Sundqvist--Alex Steen

Joel Edmundson--Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester--Colton Parayko
Carl Gunnarsson--Robert Bortuzzo

Binnington

Are we close to matching that level of depth and firepower? If not, what are we missing and how far are we?

I will take the unpopular opinion and say, yeah we might match that level of depth. Of course, it would require some growth and development, things that could come from another year or experience and a new coach...the coach that guided that Blues team to a cup.

Schwartz - Schenn - Tarasenko
Knies - Matthews - Domi
This Blues line combined in the regular season for 61 goals and 158 points. The Leafs trio obviously surpasses this with ease and with Matthew and Knies are at least as strong defensively. The Blue #1 put up 28 goals and 51 playoffs points.

Blais - O'Rielly - Perron
Jarnkrok - Nylander - Marner

This Blues line combined in the regular system for 53 goals and 127 points, chipping in 16 and 41 in the playoffs. Obviously the Leafs offer more firepower and a couple of strong and versatile defenders. Can they lift their game when it matters. Not so far, but did I mention we have a new coach?
Maroon - Bozak - Thomas
McMann - Tavares - Robertson

This Blues line combined in the regular system for 32 goals and 99 points, chipping in 9 and 26 in the playoffs. These Leafs can top this, no? This was rookie season Thomas. Robertson or maybe even Cowan could contribute his offense from that year.
Barbashev - Sundqvist - Steen
Holmberg - Kampf - Dewar

The fourth line? Who knows. It is not about offensive output. Our group has some utility as checkers and PK. This one would look different come playoffs. Maybe we add a vet or two at the deadline. Maybe Grebyonkin or Cowan or Holmberg crack the top nine and Jarnkrok or McMann join the bottom line.
As for the D. St. Louis was solid, can we match this?

Joel Edmundson - Alex Pietrangelo
Rielly - Tanev

If Tanev is healthy and on his game and this helps Mo raise his game, we could match these guys or at least not be too far behind.

Jay Bouwmeester - Colton Parayko
McCabe - Hakanpaa

If Hakanpaa is healthy, we got him for the playoffs and he can bring the size and grit of Parayko and McCabe can bring at least what the 35 year old Bouwmeester did.

Carl Gunnarsson--Robert Bortuzzo
Ekman-Larsson - Benoit

It seems like a pretty good matchup here. The Leafs must have the edge here too, no? Liljegren could factor in here somehow as could a deadline pickup.

Binnington
Woll or Stolarz

Binnington wasn't Binnington until he went on a heater. Woll or Stolarz are both capable of this.

The question was could we match the depth of the lineup Berube won a cup with? Yes. We can. We need health and we need some development and some chemistry come playoff time we have yet to see. This is why the coaching change was so necessary. Berube might have the pieces he needs here, if he can get the most out of them.

 

[al secord]

Soooo... Berube took the job thinking there would be a complete makeover, or, he likes the makeup of the current team and thinks he can help them get over the hump?

 

[Maple Leaf]

Soooo... Berube took the job thinking there would be a complete makeover, or, he likes the makeup of the current team and thinks he can help them get over the hump?

Berude wanted to make some cash

 

[Confucius]

The difference is that Blue's team had a few ex-Leafs on it. (Like most SC winners)

The difference is the Blues got lucky and we didn’t.
Let’s see they were outscored 22 to 18 over the 7 games but won the series anyway
They missed the playoffs in 2018 but won the Cup in 2019
Lost 1st round the next season and then lost in the 1st round the season after that.

Classic example why I say the playoffs are great to win and everybody’s dream but in no way it means you had the best team. You get lucky beat 4 teams and omg the greatest team of the year. Yeah sure. lol!

 

[Racer88]

The difference is the Blues got lucky and we didn’t.
Let’s see they were outscored 22 to 18 over the 7 games but won the series anyway
They missed the playoffs in 2018 but won the Cup in 2019
Lost 1st round the next season and then lost in the 1st round the season after that.

Classic example why I say the playoffs are great to win and everybody’s dream but in no way it means you had the best team. You get lucky beat 4 teams and omg the greatest team of the year. Yeah sure. lol!

Or you could be unlucky like the Leafs and win 1 round in the last 9 seasons.
Just bad luck

 

[Its not your fault]

I don’t believe we have the depth to match that blues team, but that can change after the deadline.

It was a solid team, but it was a cup winner because of one reason IMO, Jordan Binnington. A hot goalie is the single biggest factor in the playoffs. They can’t score you goals, but they can make the biggest difference. See Bob, Vas, Quick, etc. Our biggest opportunity to become a legit contender is with Woll staying healthy and playing to his ability.

Woll in net scared Boston.