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Series Talk: Leafs Vs Lightning- Thunderstruck

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Who wins?

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    446
  • Poll closed .
Gutsy win in game 3. Held on to the lead just enough to get through. Campbell with some big saves when the pressure was on. Can’t dislike much about it, even after the soft call on Muzzin and the missed call on Vasilevsky playing the puck
 
Tampa slept through game 1 and about half of game 3, but when they woke up they were extremely dangerous. This is going to be a very long and stressful series. Hopefully Toronto can keep consistent and pull off the upset.
 
NoName said:
Tampa slept through game 1 and about half of game 3, but when they woke up they were extremely dangerous. This is going to be a very long and stressful series. Hopefully Toronto can keep consistent and pull off the upset.
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I wouldn't really call it an upset lol
 
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ruaware41 said:
so when exactly will tampa burn out physically from back to back cup runs?
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Not in round 1 ... winning games against them will be similar to tonight. Not easy.

The Leafs can have successful by continuing to try to get on Tampa early and build a lead. They'll be tough to chase a game against if the Leafs are down.
 
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Tampa outplayed the Leafs for the second half of this game, but the Leafs outplayed Tampa for the first half.

People need to stop saying Tampa sleeped through the times when Toronto is outplaying them... Toronto just outplayed them and made them look bad at times. Just like Tampa made Toronto look bad for parts of this game and game 2.


That's what happens when you have a good team... they can make the other team look like shit when they're playing well.
 
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Great game 3 win on the road!

Now, I want to see that vaunted never-lose-two-in-a-row streak to come to an end Sunday night.

I swear, if we didn't have Holl in that game we win that in a walk.
 
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What a save!



Screenshot_20210525-224945_Twitter.jpg
 
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Through 3 games
Positives
Matthews and Marner have responded to the critics. They were bad today but generally have been good especially Marner.
PK has been good. Some bad breaks and Kerfoot handed them a goal today but I have liked it.
Depth have shown up and rewarded with goals today.

Negatives
The 2nd line needs to be better. Tavares can't be only a faceoff guy. He needs to contribute. After a great 1st game, Willy has been quiet too.

PP needs to be more dangerous. It can't give away momentum at the very least..


Surprising positives
Muzzin has been fantastic. When he plays like his old self, it's like you got a top pairing defenceman added to your team.

Campbell has outplayed Vasi
 
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The Leafs were the better team in games 1 and 3. These haven't been lucky wins or freebies (no matter what Cooper says).

So far, the Leafs deserve the wins they have, and are in total control of the series.

Awesome.
 
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The Leafs got badly outplayed for the 2nd and 3rd period. They better step the intensity up big time for game 4. The line top needs to show up, as they were invisible tonight.
 
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34 said:
The Leafs got badly outplayed for the 2nd and 3rd period. They better step the intensity up big time for game 4. The line top needs to show up, as they were invisible tonight.
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They got outplayed in the third for about 10 minutes. Trust me I was surrounded by Tampa fans

PLAN THE PARADE
 
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Keefe will never do it but he should play Tavares on wing. Dude just doesn’t look good at all right now.

Tavares Matthews Marner
Bunting Kerfoot Nylander
Engvall Kampf Mikhayev
Clifford Blackwell Kase

Also hopefully Lily is back in for Holl next game
 
authentic said:
I wouldn't really call it an upset lol
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The Lightning are the two-time defending Champions and the Leafs haven’t won a playoff round in nearly two decades. Tampa has the best goalie, best defender and arguably the best winger in the whole league, as well as a generally stacked roster. Toronto putting up 115 points vs Tampa’s 110 in the season does not make them the favourites in this series and I think a pretty strong majority of neutral observers would have picked Tampa to win this series at the start. Heck, I still think they are at least at even money to come back from 1-2 and beat the Leafs and I am a Leafs fan like everyone else here.

If Toronto pulls off the series win then that is a pretty impressive accomplishment. It isn’t just a typical 4 seed beating a typical 5 seed.
 
Big mistake for tampa not winning a game Matthews and Marner got dominated for 40 minutes. Realistic speaking tampa won't win 3 in 4. Matthews and Marner have too much good hockey left and JT and Nylander still haven't done anything offensively (again realistically they will soon).

2nd round for Toronto look like finally happening.
 
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Marner has been incredible. MVP of this round.

After last playoffs I thought he was broken, but he's not playing scared this series. He's willing to take punishment now and sacrifices his body regularly to make plays, which means more puck touches for an elite IQ wizard.

Short sample size, but he's in the conversation with Kaprizov, McDavid, etc. as most impactful players in the first round so far. Not even sure they win this series but this could be his Kane esque run if the chips fall right. He's dialled.
 
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The reffing is beyond predictable. It just depends on which bet they're leaning on. Underdog, or up and comer. Based on this the leafs actually have a good chance, it's been lot of punishment for a big money reverse.
 
Tampa's weakness is becoming more and more obvious. Their D don't skate that well at all. Hedman is obviously still a 240lbs gazelle but McDonagh is really losing a step with all the hard miles he's put on in his career, Cernak, Sergachev and Foote are not that great of skaters (slow acceleration), and Bogosian is a turtle.

I suggested this top-9 in another thread:

Bunting-Matthews-Marner
Nylander-Kerfoot-Kase
Engvall-Kampf-Mikheyev
Blackwell/Clifford-Tavares-Spezza/Simmonds

Build a top-9 that can abuse the speed of Tampa's D. Tavares is not the answer to anything, he can't accomplish anything against Tampa's D - they're too big for him and everybody knows he can't outskate any of them. When we push the pace against Tampa that's when we really start making them look bad.
 
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Hoglund4MvP said:
Big mistake for tampa not winning a game Matthews and Marner got dominated for 40 minutes. Realistic speaking tampa won't win 3 in 4. Matthews and Marner have too much good hockey left and JT and Nylander still haven't done anything offensively (again realistically they will soon).

2nd round for Toronto look like finally happening.
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They sure can … I wouldn’t underestimate the back to back defending cup champions.

I have a hard time seeing Tampa losing two in a row at home, I imagine they’ll even it up tomorrow.
 
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NoName said:
The Lightning are the two-time defending Champions and the Leafs haven’t won a playoff round in nearly two decades. Tampa has the best goalie, best defender and arguably the best winger in the whole league, as well as a generally stacked roster. Toronto putting up 115 points vs Tampa’s 110 in the season does not make them the favourites in this series and I think a pretty strong majority of neutral observers would have picked Tampa to win this series at the start. Heck, I still think they are at least at even money to come back from 1-2 and beat the Leafs and I am a Leafs fan like everyone else here.

If Toronto pulls off the series win then that is a pretty impressive accomplishment. It isn’t just a typical 4 seed beating a typical 5 seed.
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Lol. This has nothing to do with how good the teams are right now. We were the better team this season and we were better against all the top teams in the East. We have outscored them 13-7 in the series so far. Matthews has 5 goals and 9 points in his last 4 games against Tampa. Even if you want to say we aren't the favourites which I could agree with (neither team is really a favourite here) that does not make us winning an upset. Far from it.
 
The way this series has been officiated (very good for NHL playoff standards), I wouldn't be surprised if neither Clifford or Simmonds dress again this series.

I'd always dress at least one of them to start a series though & then go from there.
 
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