colchar
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- Apr 26, 2012
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What, exactly, do the likes of Matthews and Marner do in the playoffs then? Miss the net? Check. Make blind spin-o-rama passes that lead to goals against? Check. What else do they do?
Speculation: Chris Johnston "An atom bomb could drop"
- Thread starter Rare Jewel
- Start date
What, exactly, do the likes of Matthews and Marner do in the playoffs then? Miss the net? Check. Make blind spin-o-rama passes that lead to goals against? Check. What else do they do?
Honestly, the only wingers to truly be the best player on the team bar none to win a chip is Kucherov.
Even Ovi was outmatched by Kuznetsov that run imo. Kane was always 1A/1B/1C with Toews and Kieth.
Even Ovi was outmatched by Kuznetsov that run imo. Kane was always 1A/1B/1C with Toews and Kieth.
TopCheeseShotta
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- Mar 1, 2020
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Uhhhh... so the Leafs ain't half bad after all, eh...??
As if we didnt already know, turns out this Florida team is indeed an absolute juggernaut that'll f your shyt up 9 times out of 10 - ar least for every other team in the NHL... Yikes.... Tampa and the Canes look like laughing stocks compared to how our sad sack Leafs did. Maybe don't "atom bomb" drop like a bunch of angry 5th graders who need someone to blame?
As if we didnt already know, turns out this Florida team is indeed an absolute juggernaut that'll f your shyt up 9 times out of 10 - ar least for every other team in the NHL... Yikes.... Tampa and the Canes look like laughing stocks compared to how our sad sack Leafs did. Maybe don't "atom bomb" drop like a bunch of angry 5th graders who need someone to blame?
Let's run it back again for the 10th time. Maybe, just maybe this time Matthews and company will show up come playoff time.
LaPlante94
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TopCheeseShotta
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I dont think there shouldnt be changes. Just not A bomb level. You're right - Matty can go. He's the one with the noticeable yips when the going gets tuff. Even then, team did as well as any Squad has against Fla in the last 2 years.
TopCheeseShotta
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I've never had that take. They're all different years, and not as linked as you think they are. Thats far too reductive. Changes? Yes. Absolutely. Again, not A bomb level. In this case though, this is as good as it gets against the way this Florida team is playing, the way it is coached, the way it believes in itself, the way it is fully allowed to cheat, and without Stollie controlling the D zone for us. It just is what it is.
Sure game wise, they did well. If you look at how they played when the game was on the line, they folded like they always do. This core will never win together.
TopCheeseShotta
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Not true. Game 6 was a clinic and the best game any NHL team will ever play against this Florida team. It was probably the best game of their year and it was with all the chips on the table. Now, Game 5 and 7 kinda eclipse that, I get it. But let's not say it didn't happen against the best this league has to offer.
Dreakmur
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So the best game any team has ever played against Florida is getting 17 shots on net?
The Leafs need to decide whether they view this Carolina-Florida series as what could have been or we got that close to beating the best team in the NHL currently. Closest anyone has gotten since Edmonton in the finals last year. From there you decide how to handle the summer. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Changes are needed, which I think are the bottom six, and support guys. There’s a saying my dad used to always tell me, and it’s that the toughest stretch comes right before the greatest success.
The Hanging Jowl
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The problem is that to make those changes to support players you need to let Marner walk. There's nothing else significant they have control over. After the way the fand treated the team in Game 7, they may not even have a say in that.
Brown Dog
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Coming to the conclusion that letting Marner walk and moving Rielly out are the big changes that make the most sense.
Brown Dog
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My concern is that this management group thought Scott Laughton was a support player worth giving up a 1st rounder for. A few more Laughtons in for Marner seems like a great way to regress to mediocrity.
I agree. There's one thing about signing complementary players who boost an overall team versus swapping out talent for commitments to mediocre players who don't individually move the needle much on the ice other than subjective intangibles (e.g. toughness, culture, etc.).
All in favour of letting Tavares and Marner walk to recoup the $21M in capspace, as long as it's used more soundly going forward. This is why the best way for immediate and long-term success is to lock up young, potentially elite players for the long term ASAP. There's something to be said about Dallas doing this in a very savvy way - drafting great, young players and locking them up well before their ELC expires.
$8.5M X 8 for Knies and buying up his UFA is the best decision that this organization can make this offseason.
Cowan is starting to look like a possible keeper. Let's see how he gets on in the NHL, but if he plays like an excellent Top 6, you'd want to lock that up July 1, 2027.
rumman
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Acquiring Kaughton at the price Tre paid is the reason he gives me concern, for every good move he makes he makes a bad move…..
How's it any different than any other year we lost to a "juggernaut" in 7 games?
rumman
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- Sep 10, 2008
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Leafs made Florida look mediocre at best in the first two games, then things got hard and they folded like a cheap suit……
Who gives a flying fig about what's happening in another series? Whether it's a series against Goliath or Stuart Little, our guys collapse when the pressure mounts. They humiliate themselves every year in May, and have for close to a decade now.
I no longer care about how good the team is. I care that the team's name is synonymous with choke, and for that I am willing to nuke the team completely.
Is missing the playoffs the next few years worth it, if that's the cost of sending this core to the sun? Absolutely.
Crossing our fingers that Marner walking will reset the mix and our guys will magically figure it out next year is not the path to restoring this franchise's respectability. That's just letting the rest of the guys off the hook for yet another year. No, respectability comes from accountability for the players, and for that there must be a reckoning.
I no longer care about how good the team is. I care that the team's name is synonymous with choke, and for that I am willing to nuke the team completely.
Is missing the playoffs the next few years worth it, if that's the cost of sending this core to the sun? Absolutely.
Crossing our fingers that Marner walking will reset the mix and our guys will magically figure it out next year is not the path to restoring this franchise's respectability. That's just letting the rest of the guys off the hook for yet another year. No, respectability comes from accountability for the players, and for that there must be a reckoning.
The Hanging Jowl
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It's not about letting guys off the hook. It's about not paying $15M for one player. And someone will definitely pay that with term. The Leafs can do other things with that kind of money.
- Let Marner walk
- Buy out Rielly
- Offer Tavares a team friendly deal and if doesn't like that, let him walk too.
- Use the min. $25M that frees up to fix some weaknesses.
- Dec 12, 2017
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They need a long term plan and hopefully won’t spend all the cap money this July because next July’s UFA crop looks strong. They can’t put themselves in a situation where they cant make offers because they don’t have cap space, but I bet they will. I can see Bubbles staring into the camera with that stupid look on his face explaining why they couldn’t offer Makar after he signs with TTOE.
Stephen
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Game 6 wasn't really a "clinic." It was a well fought, defensively conservative and air tight road game where they got a breakthrough goal. They shelled up pretty good but it wasn't what I would characterize as a clinic.
Even the Lightning managed to beat the Lightning 5-1 on the road.
TopCheeseShotta
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Choose your words cleverly if you want... But for that Leafs team to beat that Panthers team, it was as close to a clinic of teaching them and us how we would beat them, as anything we've seen to date. So, kinda a clinic.
And if the Lightning managed to beat the Lightning, that's truly cosmic levels of clinic-ness.
capfit9
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- Oct 29, 2009
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This is my thought exactly. People think that by moving on from Marner we’ll be better. The free agency pool is very lacklustre after him and we have no assets for trades. The best course at this point may unfortunately be to run it back with a completely different bottom six. This is by no means ideal, and I would have absolutely traded Marner, but letting him walk for free is bad asset management imo and gets us in a worse position next year. The whole team sucked in games 5/7.
