TSN: Serious team?

[PROUD PAPA]

You don't know who Bryan Hayes is from Overdrive??

I've heard of that guy because somebody posted a link about O'neill and some other fat dude in a foot race. It was hilarious.
In general i watch as many hockey games as i can squeeze in but the only time i watch people talk about hockey is during intermissions when there are no other games to switch to.

 

[Mr_Fun]

Ok, so they're the Toronto Shirley hockey club.

 

[mikeyz]

In other words, their playoff futility is not far off from that of the Leafs. But, like Toronto, they keep bringing back the same core of players with fringe guys around the edges. It makes them no more or less "serious" than the Leafs, because being serious about winning is irrelevant unless you actually win. Like the Bruins, the Leafs have to prove that they can win.

You’re kidding right?

 

[mikeyz]

Winning a playoff round isn't nothing. Every game means something actually, this narrative that 31 teams fail every year and only winning the cup means anything is nothing but an excuse so people like you can feel better about this sad group of losers masquerading as a team.

Boston has done a lot more winning than we have over the last decade or so, especially in the playoffs.

Dude. Boston has won just as many cups as we’ve won playoff rounds in the last 20 years. The success between them and us is so far and wide it’s not even funny.

Comparing the success between them and us is like Giorgia Palmas and Rosie ODonnell comparing who looks better.

 

[HolyCrap]

In other words, their playoff futility is not far off from that of the Leafs. But, like Toronto, they keep bringing back the same core of players with fringe guys around the edges. It makes them no more or less "serious" than the Leafs, because being serious about winning is irrelevant unless you actually win. Like the Bruins, the Leafs have to prove that they can win.

You can’t be serious. I mean we all know you’re a blind homer but this has to be an act.

 

[GoonieFace]

Dude. Boston has won just as many cups as we’ve won playoff rounds in the last 20 years. The success between them and us is so far and wide it’s not even funny.

Comparing the success between them and us is like Giorgia Palmas and Rosie ODonnell comparing who looks better.

It’s Rosie O’Donnell right?

 

[Strangle]

I do not think this team is **serious enough**

I think they are serious about some things. Willy is serious about his next contract, Matthews is serious about designer purses, Marner is serious about summers at the cottage and lame dance music, but they aren’t serious about winning the Stanley cup.

Off topic but since the main board thread is currently closed:

If Corey Perry becomes Bedards new dad, would it be the first time a father/son duo played in the league together?

I don’t think gordie howe did it in the NHL, did he?

Anyways, no I don’t believe the Leafs are serious about winning.

 

[Evilhomer]

You can’t be serious. I mean we all know you’re a blind homer but this has to be an act.

Yes, the great Boston Bruins. One Cup in the last 50 years. Yes, that is one more than the Leafs have won, I agree, but this media-driven narrative of Boston being the holy grail of NHL franchises is over the top. When they get bounced in the playoffs again this season I'm sure people will still sing their praises.

You want a model franchise, look at Tampa. They are on the decline now as every dynasty eventually does, but that team has been run like a machine for a very long time.

 

[Strangle]

I'm pretty sure it was O'Dog who said it first, and he is anything but a "random sports reporter".

How does one define it - I think it's pretty obvious what he meant, and I think it's pretty obvious that he's 100% correct.

Actually, maybe it's not that obvious since you don't seem to get it but I'll try to help - it's not a matter of winning or losing, it's the way they're playing. Does that help?

This 100%

This team has a really hard time with putting teams away they should walk over.

It should have been questioned when they lost against Columbus. It was painfully obvious when they blew the 3-1 series lead to the canadiens.

Serious teams don’t perform like that

 

[colchar]

We need more players with experience winning the Cup, being all-stars, etc. to show the younger players like Matt and Mitch how it should be done. Apparently someone with that exact resume is about to hit free agency................

 

[Strangle]

Good assessment.
Like you said, I think Marner is the Alpha emotional leader. The rest take that vibe.

For Matthews, yeah winning is hard work, easier to follow the leader above.

Tavares, there is a reason he has 2 playoff wins in his career. Robot.

Nylander, the best spoken of the group. Doesn’t say ridiculous things like the top guy, insult our intelligence or make excuses. Says the right things. But isn’t the Alpha here.

The last GM spent how many years trying to get this core past 1 round. Now the new guy thinks Bertuzzi, Reaves and Klingberg is what’s missing.
Sorry.

You both are bang on with Marner. He is the most immature player on an immature team

We need more players with experience winning the Cup, being all-stars, etc. to show the younger players like Matt and Mitch how it should be done. Apparently someone with that exact resume is about to hit free agency................

Why can’t Matthews and Marner learn those things by going out and winning a cup? What do they think is stopping them do you think?

 

[Strangle]

https://x.com/spittinchiclets/status/1729578792270590083?s=20

I will take them seriously if they sign Perry right now


January???? Why not December.

Ohhhh @Evilhomer You're not going pessimistic on us now are you????

I’m 100% behind signing Perry too

There is zero reason for this team not to do that, if winning is really their top priority

 

[Strangle]

In other words, their playoff futility is not far off from that of the Leafs. But, like Toronto, they keep bringing back the same core of players with fringe guys around the edges. It makes them no more or less "serious" than the Leafs, because being serious about winning is irrelevant unless you actually win. Like the Bruins, the Leafs have to prove that they can win.

How many times have the bruins missed the playoffs in the last … 60 years?

 

[LeafGrief]

This team's identity is "our best players are better than your best players". There is nothing in their DNA about hard work, overcoming challenges, or achievement. They have enough pride to want to beat top teams in yardstick games, but a single game is about all the peak that they can ever manage. There is no leadership to be seen from anyone other than Rielly.

After years of going all in, our assets are all but gone. We've got the big guns, Rielly, and tiny handful of promising youngsters. We don't have goaltending, our defense is atrocious, and we don't have a stable of quality depth forward signed to term. The teams of yesteryear were really quite good, but we've bled off so many assets on failed playoff runs that this roster is a shell of its former self.

So no, this is not a serious team. Our core players are not serious about winning and we do not have the roster or organizational depth to be considered legitimate contenders. We were once, but not this year. It's time to retool.

 

[Superstar]

This team aint' serious until Matthews and Marner are as serious with their game play on ice as their contract negotiations...

 

[Evilhomer]

How many times have the bruins missed the playoffs in the last … 60 years?

But is that the standard? How often has this current iteration of the Leafs missed the playoffs? Not once. But who cares. Making the playoffs is irrelevant. My definition of winning is winning a championship. I think this core group of Leafs players will win a championship, but if they don't then I could care less how many playoff rounds they win.

 

[Strangle]

But is that the standard? How often has this current iteration of the Leafs missed the playoffs? Not once. But who cares. Making the playoffs is irrelevant. My definition of winning is winning a championship. I think this core group of Leafs players will win a championship, but if they don't then I could care less how many playoff rounds they win.

No, I understand that.

What I’m saying is that there is a lineage of players and systems and buy in from a team like the bruins that the leafs lack.

The bruins have never had to ‘rebuild’. Like, ever. The bruins have traded top ten picks and superstars for almost zero return over the past 20+ years.

The bruins teams have played to win despite a perceivable talent gap, and they have done that for longer than I’ve been alive, let alone longer than I’ve been watching hockey.

That’s what’s under question here. The results are the results, but it goes without saying that the bruins would not have stuck with this core if it wasn’t working.

And they’ve been able to pick players based on talent and attitude and character and put together teams over the last 60 years that have consistently been ‘play to win’ teams.

You don’t need to win the cup to play to win or to be serious about winning. It’s why we all love the early 90’s and early 2000’s leafs.

They didn’t win the cup, but we all agree that they left it all out on the ice.

That’s what we are discussing here, and what a majority of people agree with

 

[colchar]

Why can’t Matthews and Marner learn those things by going out and winning a cup? What do they think is stopping them do you think?

Lack of maturity? Wrong attitude? Inability or unwillingness to put the team first? Not focused enough, or not focused on the right things?

If I knew I'd be sending the Leafs my resume.

 

[Strangle]

Lack of maturity? Wrong attitude? Inability or unwillingness to put the team first? Not focused enough, or not focused on the right things?

If I knew I'd be sending the Leafs my resume.

Good answers

I agree, sign Perry. Marner’s mom isn’t as cute as bedards

 

[colchar]

But is that the standard? How often has this current iteration of the Leafs missed the playoffs? Not once. But who cares. Making the playoffs is irrelevant. My definition of winning is winning a championship. I think this core group of Leafs players will win a championship, but if they don't then I could care less how many playoff rounds they win.

"I could care less" doesn't mean what you think it means.

 

[Jojalu]

Yes, the great Boston Bruins. One Cup in the last 50 years. Yes, that is one more than the Leafs have won, I agree, but this media-driven narrative of Boston being the holy grail of NHL franchises is over the top. When they get bounced in the playoffs again this season I'm sure people will still sing their praises.

You want a model franchise, look at Tampa. They are on the decline now as every dynasty eventually does, but that team has been run like a machine for a very long time.

If we going back to when the Leafs drafted Nylander and this current Leafs model began to exist then Bos has been pretty poor.

Missed playoffs twice,
Knocked out in the first round 4 times
Knocked out in the second round twice
Lost in SCF.

Still better than the Leafs by a quite a bit, but nowhere near this mythology that exists.

Tampa is a far better measuring stick for greatness

 

[Evilhomer]

No, I understand that.

What I’m saying is that there is a lineage of players and systems and buy in from a team like the bruins that the leafs lack.

The bruins have never had to ‘rebuild’. Like, ever. The bruins have traded top ten picks and superstars for almost zero return over the past 20+ years.

The bruins teams have played to win despite a perceivable talent gap, and they have done that for longer than I’ve been alive, let alone longer than I’ve been watching hockey.

That’s what’s under question here. The results are the results, but it goes without saying that the bruins would not have stuck with this core if it wasn’t working.

And they’ve been able to pick players based on talent and attitude and character and put together teams over the last 60 years that have consistently been ‘play to win’ teams.

You don’t need to win the cup to play to win or to be serious about winning. It’s why we all love the early 90’s and early 2000’s leafs.

They didn’t win the cup, but we all agree that they left it all out on the ice.

That’s what we are discussing here, and what a majority of people agree with

Boston has drafted well with the picks they have had. I am not denying that they don't have competent management. But my lasting memory of the Bruins is watching them be absolutely manhandled by the Islanders in the second round a couple of years ago. I knew from the moment I watched that series that this iteration of the Bruins wasn't going to win anything. It will be the same this season. I don't care where they finish in the regular season. They will flop in the playoffs.

I understand that a lot of people don't like the current Leafs' players right now. I can equally point you to stretches where 99% of this board has absolutely been in love with many of these players. When the team wins 4 or 5 in a row, the same thing will happen again. That is the nature of this market.

 

[Strangle]

Boston has drafted well with the picks they have had. I am not denying that they don't have competent management. But my lasting memory of the Bruins is watching them be absolutely manhandled by the Islanders in the second round a couple of years ago. I knew from the moment I watched that series that this iteration of the Bruins wasn't going to win anything. It will be the same this season. I don't care where they finish in the regular season. They will flop in the playoffs.

I understand that a lot of people don't like the current Leafs' players right now. I can equally point you to stretches where 99% of this board has absolutely been in love with many of these players. When the team wins 4 or 5 in a row, the same thing will happen again. That is the nature of this market.

Bruh, I don’t think you’re engaging with what I’m actually trying to say.

Maybe that’s my fault, I dunno

 

[Evilhomer]

Bruh, I don’t think you’re engaging with what I’m actually trying to say.

Maybe that’s my fault, I dunno

I get what you're saying. I understand why fans are frustrated with some of the guys on this team. I just think people are largely reacting to a slow start to the season. I expect the tone to change here in the next 20 games.

 

[Gary Nylund]

I get what you're saying. I understand why fans are frustrated with some of the guys on this team. I just think people are largely reacting to a slow start to the season. I expect the tone to change here in the next 20 games.

What you expect has become the biggest joke on these boards. We were going to beat Boston, then Buffalo, the Chicago for sure because you know, according to you the fact that we lost to them earlier this season made it less likely that we'd lose to them again.

One of these days we'll win a game, then you can start bragging about being right, for once. So far though, you've been wrong about everything.