Round 1 MVP?

[Crazy Monkey]

For me, Rielly, then Matthews, Schenn, and

 

[The Iceman]

ilya hands down...
if we had that goaltending in any of the last 6 playoffs, the leafs would have easily won a round

IIlya ended round 1 @ .900
Will be one of the lower statistical goalie performance of the playoffs...but in OT!!!

 

[ECanuck]

Morgan was a monster all six games.

 

[authentic]

Matthews or Rielly... I went with Matthews since he came up huge in a couple of games, but Rielly was more consistent, which is impressive since I think he is considered a #3 by a few people.

Came down to these two for me as well but I'll throw my vote to Rielly. He is more special than I imagined even having watched his whole career.

 

[Gabriel426]

Sammy for me.

 

[wingman75]

I would have ordered my MVP like this:

(1) Samsonov
(2) Rielly
(3) Matthews

 

[TheRumble]

Samsonov. We were outplayed in 4, arguably 5, of the 6 games.

Tampa got Halak'd.

 

[ruaware41]

okay so can’t believe I did this but I’m one of the 2 people who selected luke schenn. from my perspective if we’re talking about mvp we have to contextualize it with what we have done and have not done in our history. We have won games before. We’ve won 3 games before. What we haven’t done in forever until today is win a series. So going to have a heavier bias towards series deciding games.

Tavares scored the ot winner but he didn’t do enough all series. Matthews scored today and last game so that counts but we have had that before.

What we haven’t had is solid shut down play in series deciding games and Schenn provided that in game 5 and 6. You could also give it to samsonov for having a great game in a series decider which we haven’t had from a goalie in such games.

Actually I might even select knies. Sometimes it’s just about having a player who is carrying that luck with you. Kapanen had that. Knies seems to have it. Very underrated assist on the game winner today and has looked dangerous every time he touched the puck. That depth forward - aka someone other than mmn & jt getting a point he provided. We didn’t have that contribution from non core players in such games in previous years. Fuk it my mvp is knies and schenn.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

The man with two shiners, Morgan Rielly.

 

[ruaware41]

The man with two shiners, Morgan Rielly.

Morgan Rielly just reminds me of a friendly bear. idk why tho

 

[1specter]

Rielly. Absolute stud every single game and dominated his minutes overall.

 

[pcruz]

Look at the heat map of this guy's events for the series.

Just absolutely focused on the dangerous zones of the ice with both the offense and defense.

Just unreal.

Compared to the heatmap of the other players, his is so much more concentrated in those 2 zones.

 

[fahad203]

Hands down Samsonov. This is from someone who is Sammy hater

Hw single handily out played the best goalie in the world

 

[Community]

I think Matthews for taking us back in game 4 and helping it along whenever it was a close game. The amount of puck battles he wins as well is insane, just look at his goal today, the play was all him.

The reason I wouldnt say Rielly is that sometimes he would struggle to move the puck out of our zone for the periods where we were getting smoked. Schenn was quite amazing paired with him.

Happened to all our dmen at times (which will always be true in a closely contested series), but I think this happened the least when Rielly was on the ice. Tampas quick forecheck caused quite a few turnovers due to dmen not moving the puck quick enough and Rielly was usually the quickest to make a decision with the puck.

My order:
Rielly (consistent beast, Game winning and tying goals, 4a night, best he's been defensively in quite some time, and fantastic transition game... helped create space and pulled players out of position constantly with his o zone involvement and quick skating)
.
.
Matthews (put the team on his back and dragged them back into game 4, great 2-way game throughout the series)
.
Samsonov (Solely here because he stepped up when he had to which our past goalies notoriously haven't done). His overall series performance isn't too great but he kept us in most games and saved his best for tonight which is what you need!
.
.
ROR/Marner/JT - good/great in some games; not super consistent over the series IMO.


I expect Nylander to be better next series as he was rather pedestrian for a lot of it and the whole team to play a bit quicker after getting this monkey off their back.

 

[The Best Leafs Everr]

Give me Samsonov, we have been down this road many many times but no goalie stood on his head when the team couldn't get going. He did and that's all that matters to me. He is my hero for the series.

 

[Superstar]

Rielly is the stud!

 

[tmlms13]

Rielly and it's not close.


Good thing we didn't trade him like half of hfboards wanted to right

 

[Budz]

I’ve been the the band leader for 44 hate this regular season - calling a spade a spade.

He is finally playing to his potential and contract! Difference maker.

 

[Duffman955]

Rielly for me

Matthew's is a close 2nd

 

[Antropovsky]

Hands down Samsonov. This is from someone who is Sammy hater

Hw single handily out played the best goalie in the world

Well Vasy wasn't that good. Samsonov was great... But I wouldn't say he was incredible. He still popped out a lot of rebounds, looked pretty shaky at times and let in a couple stinkers. Which is why I put Matthews and Rielly above him. But Samsonov did perform better than I was expecting too.

 

[LeafalCrusader]

Rielly

Anyone who wants to convert him to a winger is a moron.

 

[FlyingLeafus]

I feel like the biggest difference to prior years was Samsonov coming up with a big save when it really mattered. Love how Mo steps up in the playoffs but for me that goaltending is the x factor.

 

[JKG33]

Voted Schenn because #SchennForCaptain

But any vote other than Rielly is wrong

 

[Puckstuff]

1) Rielly
2) ROR
3) Matthews
4) Marner
5) Schenn
6) McCabe
7) Brodie
8) Samsonov
9) Tavares
10) Knies

 

[IPS]

I really thought Marner was going to be the consensus MVP of the series after starting with 8 points in 3 games. Seems like he got jumped a bit by Samsonov and Rielly. Even with that said you still have to appreciate the elite production he brought, 11 points in 6 games is by far the best offensive series a Leaf has had in the big 3 era.