GDT: Leafs vs Canes

[moon111]

It's happened before, many times. Young team with no emotional resilience to speak of.

I'll apologize in advance, long time Leafs fan here. And I've seen the Leafs collapse so many times. And I was really done away with what I thought was the Cane's lack of effort. Now honestly, trying to be objective here, think overall in the grand scheme of things, it's good that the Canes loss. There was a time the Leafs constantly did good. They bought players to be good, but not good enough. This happened for a very long time. Think they dipped to 10th worst team and were able to draft Nik Antropov, like that's about it for years. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh failed their way into rebuilds that peaked into Cup wins. Flat-lining in the standings is horrible. Go up, go down. Try to sky-rocket to the top. Don't get stuck in the middle. In all honestly, embrace a tear-down. Look at Toronto winding up with Matthews. That being said, the never say die attitude wasn't there. I'm not sure what was up with that. But it's obvious some spark is needed. I rarely think of the Carolina Hurricanes, but tonight, was hoping to see them show more fight... but still lose of course. But I'll be watching this rebuild. Hopefully it follows the Leafs, not clashes with it.

 

[DaveG]

You're preaching to the choir on that one. We've dealt with ****** hockey for 10 of the past 11 seasons now, and only under Francis for the past 3 have we made any effort toward a proper rebuild. That said, we NEED things to go to **** for the rest of this season, this draft is so shallow that a finish without a top 4 draft pick is prettymuch a death sentence in terms of the rebuild.

 

[Roboturner913]

 

[Tryamw]

Make it a Triple.... and leave the bottle.

 

[A Star is Burns]

I don't drink, but this team sure makes me want to.

 

[Brock Anton]

**** just give me one of Patrick, Hischier or Vilardi at this point (don't care if they're not "elite" any one of the three would be huge for us). No miraculous runs at the end to finish middle of the pack. Just ****ing tank for once.

 

[TheOllieC]

oh, the canes lost again

 

[Savitar]

Owen Tippett would be amazing too !!!

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

[/b]

i would like to take this opportunity to echo my sentiments from earlier:

 

[go comets]

This team is still one of the youngest in the league, they are still going to have growing pains. Team needs more size up front to give their skill guys more room. Hopefully goaltending can be addressed over the summer.

 

[Breakdowns]

Last year we lost against Leafs and Francis decided to sell at trade deadline, I think this year it`s the same.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Safe to say we're not buyers this year.

 

[Joe McGrath]

Last year after 55 games they had 58 points. This year 56. Taking a step back in year 3 of a regime change is a really bad sign. The obvious glaring hole is 1C. They don't even need an elite 1C, just someone who is a level or two above Rask so he can be the 2nd scoring line center he actually is.

As for goaltending, well when you're getting shutout by ****ing Curtis Mc****stick that doesn't make a **** bit of difference does it?

 

[Unsustainable]

Unless we are in on Landeskog (someone who would make us better in the long run), I can't see us buying anyone.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Last year after 55 games they had 58 points. This year 56. Taking a step back in year 3 of a regime change is a really bad sign. The obvious glaring hole is 1C. They don't even need an elite 1C, just someone who is a level or two above Rask so he can be the 2nd scoring line center he actually is.

As for goaltending, well when you're getting shutout by ****ing Curtis Mc****stick that doesn't make a **** bit of difference does it?

So at at all the arbitrary points of the year when we were better than last year, was it an amazing sign? Even with as bad as they've been recently, it wouldn't be that surprising to finish the same or better than last year. Of course there's still work to do. And of course it won't be ideal if they finish worse than last year. But even if they do, they have some good pieces on the roster, some good future pieces, and more than enough assets and cap space to get the pieces needed to make this a playoff team. It's on Francis to make that happen this offseason. No excuses next year.

 

[Joe McGrath]

So at at all the arbitrary points of the year when we were better than last year, was it an amazing sign? Even with as bad as they've been recently, it wouldn't be that surprising to finish the same or better than last year. Of course there's still work to do. And of course it won't be ideal if they finish worse than last year. But even if they do, they have some good pieces on the roster, some good future pieces, and more than enough assets and cap space to get the pieces needed to make this a playoff team. It's on Francis to make that happen this offseason. No excuses next year.

At the trade deadline when it's time to decide to buy or sell isn't exactly arbitrary.

 

[NotOpie]

The team probably ends up just about where they were points-wise as last season. That may put them a slot or two up on the draft table, but the team isn't any better or really any worse. We have bad goaltending. We have young defenders learning as they go. We don't have much physicality and if our skill goes missing for a few games, then we lose....and lose badly.

Personally, I think we'll see tinkering around the edges at the TDL, not much major. If I'm Viktor Stalberg, I want to get sent to a potential playoff team this season. I probably like most of what I saw and would consider resigning in the off season. Hainsey has got to want to taste the playoffs once in his career. Jay McClement won't yield much of anything, so I think he stays to the bitter end.

The question for next season is what do we do in the off season. The UFA class is very thin, so the only way we could get any significant experienced talent is via trade. Frankly, we all talk about our improving depth, especially on the blueline, but that isn't there yet either. We need to be a team that has 3 scoring lines. Right now we have no scoring lines. The Aho/Staal/Lindholm line looks like a real NHL line, but none of the others do. I'd like to see Skinner/Rask/PDG play together for a while to see if what they had last year was a fluke or real chemistry. And we need a couple more big bodies to be competitive.

We're still a good bit away from playoff contention.

 

[CandyCanes]

I think a lot of people are forgetting we are a team that just a year ago traded our only semi capable #1 C, a solid 2nd pairing defensemen, and a solid depth forward. We came back and replaced them with less talented players. We are still well within the rebuild unfortunately. Us taking a step back this season truly hasn't surprised me. It just sucks as the Canes earlier in the season gave us some glimmer of hope, and started giving us some false expectations during this rebuild.

Making a trade for Duchene or Landeskog would help expidete the rebuild, will be interested to see if Ron Francis stays the course or tries to get a little more aggressive. I still really believe Ron Francis is building something great here, it's just gotta take its time. Which is unfortunate cause we have spent 10 out of the last 11 seasons waiting for some good hockey.

 

[SaskCanesFan]

**** just give me one of Patrick, Hischier or Vilardi at this point (don't care if they're not "elite" any one of the three would be huge for us). No miraculous runs at the end to finish middle of the pack. Just ****ing tank for once.

Yeah, I think that's where I'm at by this point too. Enough useless "moral victories." Bottom out this year and get one of the 3 top centres in the draft. This middle of the pack thing is getting maddening.

 

[Unsustainable]

Playoffs? Nope
Lottery Pick? Nope

We aren't allowed to have nice things.

 

[moon111]

You're preaching to the choir on that one. We've dealt with ****** hockey for 10 of the past 11 seasons now, and only under Francis for the past 3 have we made any effort toward a proper rebuild. That said, we NEED things to go to **** for the rest of this season, this draft is so shallow that a finish without a top 4 draft pick is prettymuch a death sentence in terms of the rebuild.

Not that the Leafs didn't love Clark, but tanking and winding up with a decent winger instead of a top notch franchise player hurt. I look at a team like Montreal drop down and took Price 5th overall. Had they repeated that low, they would of had a Kessel. Think if there was any problem with Montreal's dip, it wasn't long enough, and they're kind of hurting now that they've climbed to the top. The dip just wasn't long enough to replenish all the missing elements. So if this draft isn't strong, maybe it's not a huge problem. Because you don't want to spring up too quickly. In some ways, if that draft pick isn't an immediate impact player, the better. Because you don't want that creep up too soon. If the Leafs had a Marner playing last season, they don't get Matthews in the next draft.