Playoff hockey > regular season hockey. It's a damn shame Dubas has built this team for the latter, but the former is far more entertaining despite the Leafs constant failures
Eastern Conference playoff picture: Leafs HOST Tampa Bay
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Playoff hockey > regular season hockey. It's a damn shame Dubas has built this team for the latter, but the former is far more entertaining despite the Leafs constant failures
ToneDog
56 years and counting. #FireTheShanaClan!
outcoached by rookie coach Descharme who was fired this season and now he goes up against b2b SC champ Cooper. Hope Keefe is up to the task.
ACC1224
Super Elite, Passing ALL Tests since 2002
- Aug 19, 2002
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Stephen
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- Feb 28, 2002
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Baptism by fire. Best team and best time to bring everything you got and win the damn series.
Suntouchable13
Registered User
Maybe they should beat TB if they want to be considered legit cup contenders? You gotta beat the best in order to be the best. How can you be considered a cup contender if you can't beat great teams?
deprw
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They were best defensive team that year, that got really really hot goaltender and scored timely goals when needed. We mostly dominated 5v5 play, but most of our blunders ended in back of our net. Korpisalo was something else in that series, that his been before or after.
It's way easier to have few month break and come up with a trap and all out defense, than playing our brand of hockey after that pause. CBJ played to their strengths and in the end were better team. Though we couldn't became CBJ just for sake of playing against Columbus.
I think in our case, this are losses that benefit us later on, when our players have that experience from this kind of games and series. Matthews was 21 at the time and Marner was 22. If we study Stanley Cup winning teams their core is older and has way more experience than what we had 2020.
Somebody has to beat them eventually, why not us ? We are more than capable of winning this series. We were going to get a difficult opponent regardless of who we are matched up against, the Atlantic is crazy stacked. It's obviously not who we wanted, but I don't wanna bitch and complain about the match up. Our guys are more than capable of winning this series. Matthews and Marner need to be dominant, Campbell needs to play steady and we will really need JT to step up and play like the elite player he is. And we are technically the favorite.
Keys to our playoffs
1) Matthews/Marner continuing to play like superstars. The regular season was phenomenal, but that needs to translate to the post-season if this team wants a chance. They are the biggest reason we have as many wins/points as we do, and they need to continue to be our best players. This team will go as far as they carry us.
2) Steady goal tending. Soup looks much better since coming back, he needs to be GOOD for us to have a chance
3) 2nd line needs to chip in. Willy/JT have nearly PPG, but they need to be impact guys, they can't just be passengers.
4) Blue line. We have all gloated about our depth on D, now they need to continue to play like it. I would like Holl to sit, but against the b2b champs we cannot give up too many chanees against
5) 3rd line. They have been one of our biggest strengths all year. Absolutely crucial on the PK but also able to chip in offensively and play a good checking role. Our 3rd line IMO is better than Tampa's, it's an advantage for us but only if we capitalize on it.
Stephen
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Really feels like you’re trying to defend the 2019-20 Leafs, but you’re playing zone defense and don’t know what to cover.
Were the Leafs a marginal bubble team on equal footing with the Columbus Blue Jackets? I don’t think anyone felt that at the time. We were built on skill, skill, skill and people compared our loss to Tampa’s loss to CBJ in 2019.
Were the Leafs a well motivated, tactically proficient and organized team in that series and showed up each and every game? I don’t think so…
So to answer your question, if a skill team doesn’t show up and doesn’t look prepared, the only explanation is they weren’t well prepared. That’s an easy fix because they should prepare better and not worry about which bench they’re changing from.
Gary Nylund
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We made him look a lot better than he really was. Not saying he didn't play very well, but it wasn't some godlike performance either and IMHO Price for MTL played better against us. Time and time again, we hit the goalie or the post or missed the net entirely (Tavares missing the empty net comes to mind).
When you get "outgoalied" year after year after year, there comes a point where you start to wonder if maybe there's something else going on here. JMHO.
deprw
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To me getting goalied isn't Vasilevsky or Price bringing their A+ game. It's what they can do and that level of goaltending is hard to acquire and you to respect what Price did against us last year. If Vasilevsky steals the series, so be it. They pay 10 million a season for that.
Getting goelied to me means something what happened in that Columbus series with Korpisalo or when Halak shut down Capitals. Out of blue you ran into hot goaltender, that against all odds steals the series and plays beyond his normal abilities.
Only way you can control that is to pummel in high danger scoring chances as much as you can.
...so this is all because they were playing pretend in the visitors dressing room instead of watching tape?
I agree to an extent. But truly great teams don't get "goalied," that's just another excuse for a shitty team.
Also teams that rely on "goalieing" other teams don't win the cup. Quick and Thomas, no matter how great they were, still had elite teams in front of them. Teams aren't winning cups on the backs of the Halak's and Hammond's of the world
deprw
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Well great teams win championships and there are usually one of those. I'd say there is area between great and shitty. Are we shitty if we lose to Tampa Bay outgoalied or not? We can be, but are we. Were we last year? In some extent yes, our big stars dropped the ball and our coaching didn't deliver either.
It's these extremities that bothers me in these discussions and I don't mean you are doing it. Shitty is an expression. We are learning to win with our young team, there will be disappointments way more than there will be celebrations.
I don't care if we win Tampa Bay. I have hated this playoffs system from the start and we don't get any benefit from our great regular season performance, but it is what it is. I don't care if it's Tampa Bay or Boston. We can take either one, if we play our A game.
It's the ultimate challenge and I think we're underdogs which should be in someway good for us. I still hope there is other scale than great and shitty which isn't determined just by winning or losing.
HellasLEAF
'93 to Infinity
- Sep 14, 2006
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It really is unbelievable.
So many milestones this season that a potential 1st round exit, again, would overshadow.
Leafsfan74
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One big advantage of playing the cap circumventing, often classless Lightning in the first round is that a victory would exponentially increase the Leafs chances of winning the Cup.
Secure home ice advantage, develop a strong, unwavering hatred and disdain for the opponent, follow with commensurate play in excess of this hate if they want to slay them.
You can bet that T.B is trash talking the Leafs behind closed doors and laughing at the matchup. Their arrogance should be conveyed to the Leafs in the form of blackboard material.
Secure home ice advantage, develop a strong, unwavering hatred and disdain for the opponent, follow with commensurate play in excess of this hate if they want to slay them.
You can bet that T.B is trash talking the Leafs behind closed doors and laughing at the matchup. Their arrogance should be conveyed to the Leafs in the form of blackboard material.
Stephen
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I think it's a blended strategy. So move the puck quickly and make it difficult for a park the bus defense to be static in the slot, open up seams and backdoor plays, dump the puck in to force puck retrievals. Basically make it harder for the defense to protect the goalie and crash the net to unsettle a goalie who is feeling confident.
Peppering the net with clear sight lines is a double edged sword. High volume saves can build up an opposition goalie's confidence.
Stephen
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You almost think of the first round as a conference finals matchup, and work your way backwards. So the thesis that the Leafs could go on a run after getting out of the first round actually holds some water.
Leafsfan74
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Menzinger
Kessel4LadyByng
What did Tampa three consecutive losses to end the 2020/2021 season say about their competitiveness and preparedness for that playoffs?
You can't be serious with this ? Boston got absolutely destroyed by Vancouver that series, the 5 on 5 play wasn't even close. Thomas absolutely goalied them and with some help from Campbells daddy. Teams get goalied all the time. Kings were elite, that Boston team was not, but they were good.
A team getting outplayed but winning because of their goaltender is a real thing, it does not make the other team shit. Bad take. Tampa doesn't get past the Isles without Vasi, not even close.
Vasilevsky, Thomas, Cam Ward have all recently carried their teams to the cup. Price and Lundqivst have carried their teams to the finals, neither of those teams had any business making the cup final. You can even talk about Binnington/Quick.
I've known sypher for a lot longer than you realize, go whine about something else
I promise myself this is the last reply you will ever get from me
"Montreal frustrated the Leafs" You have no clue what the f*** you're talking about, stop posing like a fan and stop with these ridiculous garbage takes.
Dermott unforced turn over leads to MTL gwg
Galchenyuk unforced turn over leads to a 2 on 0 in OT gwg (moments before that Matthews hit it off the post)
Sandin loses a foot race where he has like a legitimate 20ft head start, leads to the gwg
Somehow you watched those plays and thought to yourself "wow Montreal really frustrated them there and won the game"
Please stop the bullshit as if the Habs were some great team that outplayed us. That was literally as lucky as you can get, that Tavares injury and then the Leafs shooting themselves in the foot. If you actually watched that series and believe they were the better team aside from goaltending, you actually have no clue about the game of hockey at all.
