1. Barkov and Bob are being paid more than Tkachuk. and I agree with you that Barkov played a more important role than Tkachuk but is Barkov a ROCKET winner, or score over 50 goals in a regular season or known as the best goal scorer in the current generation or the highest IQ passer in the league since Wayne? Don't think Barkov ever hit 40 goals in a season and I think he is pretty much a 30goals/50assists regular season player. Then you look at his goals scored in the playoffs, esp the past two playoffs. He pretty much averaged that in the playoffs too.
2. You are using ONE example that happened 7 yrs ago to make your point. Which also overlooking the fact that Turtleneck always had Bergy's number throughout his career. And ultimately did the Leafs beat the Bruins that series?
3. We can blame the coaches on PP all we want but when will the guys on the PP takes accountabilities in the fact that they can't score. Great that you have the stats that said winning special teams battle will most likely result in winning the series, pretty sure thats the case before all our core was drafted. Question is, what the F had our core done about that over the past 8 playoffs? Even Forrest Grump would had learn enough lessons to know whats needed to be done by now, have our Core 5 done anything to improve the PP over the past 6 playoffs with essentially the same PP 5-AM, MM, Willie, JT and Reilly?
We can all micro dissect each playoffs series down to a missed assignment on D, a hit, or a save that the goalie should had got...but what about chances that guys didn't convert or the fact that our Rocket winner is being shutdown by Coyle who would had been the 3C if he was playing on the Leafs that year.
Once again, I am not saying our Core is crap, bc they are not. And it isn't some voodoo that they still couldn't produce in the playoffs, but more to do with the way they play and approach the game. Lack of urgency, lack of leading the engagement and waiting for others to take over, lead instead of being led....As of today, they had shown that they are all great Betas and not Alphas. It is not just about winning the Cup or playoffs rounds that makes you an Alpha, it is about the way they play the games when the deck is stack against them. Do they rise up and play better than normal or just turtle, play it safe, hope not to make a mistake and someone else to take over. Past playoffs showed, Our guys tend to fold when it matters.
Now this can all change with one playoffs but until then, they are a whole bunch of Pippen and Klay at best and not Jordan, Kobe or Lebron. Or in Hockey terms, they are Jurri, Seabrook, Francis, Brad Richards, Stamkos instead of Toews, Messier, Mario, Kuch, Makar and Mack.
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