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Series Talk: Leafs vs Lightning Pre-Playoff Thread

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Who wins?

  • Total voters
    482
  • Poll closed .
IPS said:
Refs will put the whistles away until Tampa needs a 5 on 3 late in game 6 down by a goal.
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I think the series will start off tightly called, and as the series progresses the calls will slowly disappear. Blood or scoring chances only.
 
Tampa is dealing with injuries but they’re a special group and competitors dig deep in the playoffs. Just look at 2021 when Montreal went to the finals while Price and Weber were dealing with career ending injuries. Leafs will have to be at their best and the mission stays the same.
 
I wish Jeannot hadn’t been injured. He was helping the bolts suck and now they will find an appropriate replacement. As for the rest of hateful eight i.e cirelli, hagel and the fat guy, no doubt they will be back for the start of playoffs.
 
The Leafs bottom six looks like it has been settled. ZAR-Kampf-Lafferty have been on one recently, and while it was only one game Kerfoot-O’Reilly-Acciari got good results and asserted themselves well. The top six needs to figure it out, either through better line combinations or Nylander deciding to start giving a damn again.

Defence is nearly set except with regards to Rielly’s partner. McCabe-Brodie is too effective to break up, and we know Rielly-Holl never works. Don’t think Liljegren has enough time to play himself back into the lineup and I believe Schenn’s physicality is much needed. Rielly is just going to have to be a bit of a drifter back there, changing to Brodie as a partner if the Leafs are pushing for offence, similar to how the Leafs can make a super line up front if the going gets tough.


Bunting-Matthews-Marner
Jarnkrok-Tavares-Nylander
Kerfoot-O’Reilly-Acciari
ZAR-Kampf-Lafferty

McCabe-Brodie
Giordano-Holl
Rielly-Schenn

Samsonov
Woll


To me that’s be our most optimal lineup. A good mix of skill, grit, and defensive acumen.
 
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leafsfan2point0 said:
For those of you that browse the main boards, noted avid leaf hater ‘zegs2sendhelp’ spent the evening on the Bruins board trolling the leafs and even got an infraction for it.

The haters are worried.
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If my username was after a player who puts out the amount of small dick energy as Zegras does I’d probably be a hater as well. He even f***ed around and found out like Zegras did.

‘He’s a disgrace to the site and the admins should do something!’
 
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leafsfan2point0 said:
For those of you that browse the main boards, noted avid leaf hater ‘zegs2sendhelp’ spent the evening on the Bruins board trolling the leafs and even got an infraction for it.

The haters are worried.
Click to expand...
It's weird how these dudes from fanbases we have little connection with randomly hate the Leafs so passionately. There's also that GirardSpinorama guy who is an Avalanche fan and he's made it his life's mission to go into every Leaf related thread and shit on the team with multiple posts as much as possible. Even literally right after Colorado won the Cup he was still doing it to the point where others called him out saying how he should've just been enjoying his team winning it all.
 
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Nylander has been playing the last few games like it’s game 7……and he has a plane ticket in his pocket.
 
Peasy said:
Tampa's record
Home: 27-7-5
Away: 18-21-1

Toronto's record
Home: 26-8-6
Away: 20-13-5

Looks pretty big that the leafs were able to get home ice.
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Didn't realize they weren't that much worse on the road. Home ice is big.
 
Took a quick look at the arena schedules. Good chance this series starts on TUE since Amalie is booked on both FRI and SUN... so they prob go in TOR on Tue and Thu, and in Tampa on Sat and Mon. That prob means an afternoon game on the Sat... booo.
 
wingman75 said:
Took a quick look at the arena schedules. Good chance this series starts on TUE since Amalie is booked on both FRI and SUN... so they prob go in TOR on Tue and Thu, and in Tampa on Sat and Mon. That prob means an afternoon game on the Sat... booo.
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Could still be Monday/Wednesday in Toronto and then Saturday/Monday in Tampa, but yeah the Tuesday/Thursday is more logical if they want to limit breaks between games. I guess depends on if they want our series going night 1 of the playoffs. And I'd guess that the Saturday game would be 7pm not the afternoon.
 
Rob Brown said:
Could still be Monday/Wednesday in Toronto and then Saturday/Monday in Tampa, but yeah the Tuesday/Thursday is more logical if they want to limit breaks between games. I guess depends on if they want our series going night 1 of the playoffs. And I'd guess that the Saturday game would be 7pm not the afternoon.
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Right... all depends on some of the other series I guess. Hope you are right about the Saturday night game. Rags are in, so they are a great afternoon candidate as are the B's.

I do hope it is every other night... and no nooners!
 
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wingman75 said:
Right... all depends on some of the other series I guess. Hope you are right about the Saturday night game. Rags are in, so they are a great afternoon candidate as are the B's.

I do hope it is every other night... and no nooners!
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IIRC the only afternoon playoff game we've had in 2013 and then between 2017-2022 was the Game 6 vs. Boston at home on a Sunday. I want to say it was Easter, too, and the game started at like 4pm. Feel like we're pretty well locked into the 7pm slot but I could be wrong.
 
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Jojalu said:
I like these lines and the only thing I think might be different is ZAR has shown he deserves to be in. At least for game 1.

I am having a hard time trying to figure out where Knies might slide in.

Possibly instead of Lafferty? Kerfoot I think they love his versatility so I doubt it's him.

Keefe was praising ZAR being able to chip in without sacrificing his defensive game so I doubt it's him
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I doubt Knies plays in the playoffs
 
I’m reading all these posts about how we have dominated this or dominated that but somehow we always manage to lose every elimination game the last 6 years……maybe we don’t dominate as much as some of us think we do
 
wingman75 said:
Took a quick look at the arena schedules. Good chance this series starts on TUE since Amalie is booked on both FRI and SUN... so they prob go in TOR on Tue and Thu, and in Tampa on Sat and Mon. That prob means an afternoon game on the Sat... booo.
Click to expand...

Playoff Leafs game on Saturdays are like the biggest hockey events of the year for Rogers, I think there's zero chance its not in primetime.
 
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That stat in last night's broadcast about their goal differential per period was worrisome, and oh-so-this-team: They are -2 on the season in the 3rd period (not sure if that included last night as I believe it was shown after Boston scored).

So, first two periods they are pretty much juggernauts (for some reason even more so in the 2nd), but fade in the final frame. Much like most (all) of their playoff performances: Start relatively strong but in the final 1/3rd or so of the series they fade (choke).

Perhaps the only answer is to bring in a team of world class team of sports psychologists to convince this team in-game that every period is the second, and each game is the 3 or 4 of the series?
 
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