Series Talk: Round 2 discussion || North vs South || Leafs vs Panthers

[The Shadow]

I think it's really good they had to experience some serious adversity in Rd 1. If they had cake walked into FLA they may had under estimated how much they are going to have to STEP UP in order to win this series.

I was thinking the same. 100% true

 

[thusk]

Tryouts, yeah OK sure thing, whatever you say.

Who is the best G giving the most confidence to everybody in front? Stolarz so he play and every reflexion stop right here...It's just not even a question to ask or think if its a good idea to send Woll on thr ice. Stolarz is the guy making you better as a team right so he's playing, over.

 

[Stephen]

I'm curious to see how their blueline looks as they have Ekblad (except Game 1), Forsling and Jones playing big minutes and then it drops off at Mikkola, Kulikov, Schmitt and Balinskis. Top to bottom our blueline is a little more egalitarian and the minutes distribution is closer to 22-18 minutes, so no soft third pair.

I think Nate Schmitt will be a guy you have to target as a weak link, and put a lot of physicality on Forsling. He's a conditioning freak from what I've read and you need to disrupt him.

They don't feel the same without Montour.

 

[LeafEgo]

I'm curious to see how their blueline looks as they have Ekblad (except Game 1), Forsling and Jones playing big minutes and then it drops off at Mikkola, Kulikov, Schmitt and Balinskis. Top to bottom our blueline is a little more egalitarian and the minutes distribution is closer to 22-18 minutes, so no soft third pair.

I think Nate Schmitt will be a guy you have to target as a weak link, and put a lot of physicality on Forsling. He's a conditioning freak from what I've read and you need to disrupt him.

They don't feel the same without Montour.

It's a good observation after what happened with the Kings.

I wouldn't target the conditioning freak though, those dudes don't break. Focus on the sick and weak like the rest of the kingdom.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Who is the best G giving the most confidence to everybody in front? Stolarz so he play and every reflexion stop right here...It's just not even a question to ask or think if its a good idea to send Woll on thr ice. Stolarz is the guy making you better as a team right so he's playing, over.

Woll's SV% last season was .907, then .964 in the playoffs and .909 this season, Stolarz finished with .901 against Ottawa. Thinking about starting Woll for one game with a 3-1 series lead when Stolarz hadn't played anywhere near his best hockey to that point is entirely reasonable. Woll's a very good goalie who performed like a hero under enormous pressure last spring, I'm quite sure the players have full confidence in him and saying that he's not even worth considering at that point just shows that you're not giving him the respect he deserves, over.

 

[PromisedLand]

Lets f***ing gooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Is it Monday yet?

 

[thusk]

Woll's SV% last season was .907, then .964 in the playoffs and .909 this season, Stolarz finished with .901 against Ottawa. Thinking about starting Woll for one game with a 3-1 series lead when Stolarz hadn't played anywhere near his best hockey to that point is entirely reasonable. Woll's a very good goalie who performed like a hero under enormous pressure last spring, I'm quite sure the players have full confidence in him and saying that he's not even worth considering at that point just shows that you're not giving him the respect he deserves, over.

Sv % doesn't matter, whats really matter is

 

[Stephen]

It's a good observation after what happened with the Kings.

I wouldn't target the conditioning freak though, those dudes don't break. Focus on the sick and weak like the rest of the kingdom.

Very insightful. Yeah maybe you go after Schmitt and Ekblad. He’s missed some time, is on the DPOS radar and a bit of a snap show. Hit him on retrievals and hope he breaks down. Put pressure on the Latvian kid too see what he’s made of.

 

[Nineteen67]

Going into the season the goal was to be competitive in round 2. In reality they could get swept or lose in 5 and it still be considered a successful season if they play right. There are a few that we know can’t play so we must judge by how well they overcome that as a team.

 

[horner]

Going into the season the goal was to be competitive in round 2. In reality they could get swept or lose in 5 and it still be considered a successful season if they play right. There are a few that we know can’t play so we must judge by how well they overcome that as a team.

For me it's how the lose , if our core guys wilt under the pressure then that is really bad and changes need to happen.

If the lose in 4 or 5 get there nose bluddy and bring everything they have then we have something to add to the mix.

 

[Nineteen67]

I hope Tavares is ok. He wasn’t the same after that hit. The poor guy has some bad luck.

Florida knows where everyone is ailing and we’ll all know real earlier in the series by where they target.

 

[horner]

I thought we could have beat TBay , I don't think Vasi was great ( which we had his number ).

We need to bring another level mistakes will cost us and the PP has to be lights out .
We need to stay away from dumb penalties.

 

[thusk]

I thought we could have beat TBay , I don't think Vasi was great ( which we had his number ).

We need to bring another level mistakes will cost us and the PP has to be lights out .
We need to stay away from dumb penalties.

half of tampa team played injured

Hedman, kucherov, cirelli, hagel, cernak, gourde, bjorkstrand, paul, glendenning

 

[Kazparov]

Honestly guys, we need the hockey gods to shine on us to win this one.

 

[Jojalu]

5a for Matthews.

Nylander also had another assist I guess on Pacs goal. I didn't realise that til this morning

 

[Nineteen67]

For me it's how the lose , if our core guys wilt under the pressure then that is really bad and changes need to happen.

If the lose in 4 or 5 get there nose bluddy and bring everything they have then we have something to add to the mix.

It’s 100% on how they play. For example, Marner can’t get pushed out again if he wants an offer from the Leafs so he has to be involved. I don’t expect anything from Nylander or Matthews, if they play, but the rest can and should be competitive.

 

[Nineteen67]

half of tampa team played injured

Hedman, kucherov, cirelli, hagel, cernak, gourde, bjorkstrand, paul, glendenning

Hedman must have played a long time with that broken foot because he’s been bad for a long time. Maybe consider retiring bad.

 

[Gabriel426]

Going to be war.

 

[RomanianLeafs]

Leafs roster is 1000x better than it was in 2023 and better built for this type of series.

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People don't seem to understand we have a better goalie, a playoffs type of D, and a much better coach...this is going 7

 

[Brobust]

Florida killed TB's defence but Toronto's better.

Florida killed TB's offence, and Toronto's offence might not be better than Tampa's.

This will be an extremely low scoring series where you really hope that Toronto can continue to score first, Toronto's PP can be at least decent and Stolarz can compete with Bobrovsky for them to have a chance to win.

 

[Gallagbi]

I wouldn't target the conditioning freak though, those dudes don't break. Focus on the sick and weak like the rest of the kingdom.

This


Big thing for us will be slowing them down throughout the series. They play fast, we like to play slow

 

[Maple Leaf]

i hope they show up to play
where is that energy we saw in game 1

 

[budzz]

Nylander also had another assist I guess on Pacs goal. I didn't realise that til this morning

Off topic a bit but I was looking at the Nylander empty net goal.... He's skating in basically alone and gets dragged down. The ref put his hand up... Willy managed to compose and backhand it in. But with the refs hand up and nobody else between him and the empty net, it would have been an automatic goal as it would normally be a penalty shot but with the net empty it's an automatic goal. Just not sure who would have got the credit for it, I guess Willy?

 

[thusk]

Florida killed TB's defence but Toronto's better.

Florida killed TB's offence, and Toronto's offence might not be better than Tampa's.

This will be an extremely low scoring series where you really hope that Toronto can continue to score first, Toronto's PP can be at least decent and Stolarz can compete with Bobrovsky for them to have a chance to win.

Florida outworking an injured tampa team who was extremely soft.

But i'm agree it will be probably a low scoring serie. It will be harder for Florida to attack leafs net and be in front of the net than vs tampa.

 

[Kiwi]

We need to come out fast and get the first goal, settle everybody down so we can get into the grind

We can't afford to have the puck in our own end for to long either, we need to break it out quickly and at least get it to the neutral zone