Pre-Game Talk: It’s almost time.... Habs @ Leafs | Wednesday @ 7pm

[Cor]

It’s almost time!

Doubt anything changes from the standard lines we’ve seen. Perhaps Kerfoot is healthy enough to play. I assume we will see our waivers dump today.

expected lineup:

Thornton - Matthews - Marner
Vesey - Tavares - Nylander
Mikheyev - Engvall - Hyman
Barabanov - Spezza - Simmonds

Rielly - Brodie
Muzzin - Holl
Lehtonen - Bogosian

Andersen
Campbell

Click to read more...

 

[TheBeastCoast]

The Leafs against the self proclaimed best team in the division....until they lose a few games and want to fire Bergevin again!

 

[Welsh Maple Leaf]

5-2 to the good guys

 

[Notsince67]

Things I'm happy for.

1. The possibility of a leaf win
2. In the case of a loss, maximum pressure on veteran players who choose to not show up
3. The tribal council to remove the first depth player

 

[ShaneFalco]

I'm wondering if Engvall may be on the outside looking in soon

 

[8816 others]

It's always interesting to see how officiating and the DoPS handles Canadian match ups. I wonder how a full season, without favoured American teams, will play out.

 

[The Podium]

Im sure we, the team that is given the least amount of PP’s since forever, are suddenly going to be given power plays “like candy”

28th in the league since Matthew's rookie season.

The only teams lower are Vegas (a full season fewer), CBJ and ANA

However, in Montreal's defence they were 25th in that same timeframe.

 

[diehardleafsfan9878]

Going to see 2 different leagues this year. Old time hockey league in the north, where anything goes. And a powerplay league in the south, where the entire game is spent on the powerplay.

 

[Advanced stats]

Is it just me or is Montreal's defense incredibly underwhelming? They rave about it like its the best in the north division, but they're running out:
Chiarot-Weber
Edmunson-Petry
Kulak-Romanov
Mete.

Not to homer here, but that's definitely worse than ours imo.

 

[Nineteen67]

Is it just me or is Montreal's defense incredibly underwhelming? They rave about it like its the best in the north division, but they're running out:
Chiarot-Weber
Edmunson-Petry
Kulak-Romanov
Mete.

Not to homer here, but that's definitely worse than ours imo.

They’re big and Weber is arguably the best between the two teams.

Depth, IMO, is especially crucial this year. The Leafs have some experience from 5 to 10, and I’m not sure anyone else in the conference does.

 

[ToneDog]

Is it just me or is Montreal's defense incredibly underwhelming? They rave about it like its the best in the north division, but they're running out:
Chiarot-Weber
Edmunson-Petry
Kulak-Romanov
Mete.

Not to homer here, but that's definitely worse than ours imo.

I think it is you but we will find out soon. If Weber has not lost a step I like their top 4. Don't know much about Kulak and Romanov.

 

[Nineteen67]

Going to see 2 different leagues this year. Old time hockey league in the north, where anything goes. And a powerplay league in the south, where the entire game is spent on the powerplay.

By old time hockey , do you mean pre 1995 NHL or 2019/20 nhl?

 

[Notsince67]

They’re big and Weber is arguably the best between the two teams.

Depth, IMO, is especially crucial this year. The Leafs have some experience from 5 to 10, and I’m not sure anyone else in the conference does.

A healthy Rielly is by far the best between the teams

 

[tom leafers]

god im excited

 

[tom leafers]

A healthy Rielly is by far the best between the teams

Its funny how on their board their pumping Weber and Petry so hard in their PGT.

A healthy Rielly, with finally (hopefully) a good partner, i think we see him take another step this year.

Embarrassing to think Rielly's best partner has been... Ron Hainsey

 

[Advanced stats]

They’re big

We're bigger... And I'll take Rielly this year and going forward

 

[Notsince67]

Its funny how on their board their pumping Weber and Petry so hard in their PGT.

A healthy Rielly, with finally (hopefully) a good partner, i think we see him take another step this year.

Embarrassing to think Rielly's best partner has been... Ron Hainsey

Not saying they aren't good. They are. My defensive concerns are far from Rielly though.

 

[Cor]

The Habs board really is pumped eh.

There's some trying to say their top 6 is on par or even better than ours lol Some also trying to say that Allen + Price is >>>>>> Andersen + Campbell.

While it's certainly arguable Price + Allen is the better duo (statistically the past three seasons, that's not the case, it's certainly not >>>>>>).

Thankfully, there are even some Habs fans arguing against that.

I think our forwards are better. They probably have the better core six D on paper (though, if Lehtonen looks as advertised, and Brodie-Rielly mesh well, even that is arguable) and the goaltending is a wash, as both Price and Freddy have tendencies to be unreal one game, and then shit the next, and both Allen and Campbell are solid backups.

 

[JSn0w93]

Is it just me or is Montreal's defense incredibly underwhelming? They rave about it like its the best in the north division, but they're running out:
Chiarot-Weber
Edmunson-Petry
Kulak-Romanov
Mete.

Not to homer here, but that's definitely worse than ours imo.

I think it's a good group, but not exceptional by any means. I think our d will be able to move the puck up ice a lot better, and their d will be better than ours in their own end. I think our forwards are worlds apart from their forward group though which is the biggest gap when comparing the two teams.

 

[Nineteen67]

A healthy Rielly is by far the best between the teams

Potentially......

 

[tom leafers]

Not saying they aren't good. They are. My defensive concerns are far from Rielly though.

Not saying they arent good either! Just didnt like how they were downplaying our duo

 

[JSn0w93]

The Habs board really is pumped eh.

There's some trying to say their top 6 is on par or even better than ours lol Some also trying to say that Allen + Price is >>>>>> Andersen + Campbell.

While it's certainly arguable Price + Allen is the better duo (statistically the past three seasons, that's not the case, it's certainly not >>>>>>).

Thankfully, there are even some Habs fans arguing against that.

I think our forwards are better. They probably have the better core six D on paper (though, if Lehtonen looks as advertised, and Brodie-Rielly mesh well, even that is arguable) and the goaltending is a wash, as both Price and Freddy have tendencies to be unreal one game, and then shit the next, and both Allen and Campbell are solid backups.

This is delusional. Just to simplify it their best forward whoever you want to say that is (Gallagher? Suzuki? Tatar?) would be no better than our 5th best forward.

 

[ToneDog]

Its funny how on their board their pumping Weber and Petry so hard in their PGT.

A healthy Rielly, with finally (hopefully) a good partner, i think we see him take another step this year.

Embarrassing to think Rielly's best partner has been... Ron Hainsey

No sure why so many Leaf fans care that Hab fans are bullish on their team. Afterall, this is the time of the season to be optimistic.

Rielly can be a dominant offence dman but he can never come close to what Weber was, true #1 shutdown dman, size, strength, smarts, howizer from the point, and mean streak. IMO he is the perfect partner for Rielly.

 

[Notsince67]

I think Simmons will look to send a message early. He seems to know what the team needs and he will be looking to set the leadership standard in the gritty department.

 

[ToneDog]

This is delusional. Just to simplify it their best forward whoever you want to say that is (Gallagher? Suzuki? Tatar?) would be no better than our 5th best forward.

Habs to 4 no match for our top 4, however IMO they do not suffer as big a drop off between their top 6 and bottom 6 as we do.