GDT: Stanley Cup Playoffs - Round 1, Game2 - Leafs Vs Bolts; May 4th. 7:30 p.m. EST

[Gary Nylund]

Man some of you are just complete sheep who are incapable of independent thought. Acting like this whole crap about "oh we're going to see a much better tampa team tonight" is some special insight... thats all BS. Last time I checked, this same tampa group got routed 4 in a row vs columbus a couple years back. Get out there tonight and bring the same level of compete and we will get the same result. Stop being apologists and start realizing that we win or lose because of US, f*** tampa. It doesn't matter how good or bad they are if we get out there and whoop their asses.

Not sure why you're so angry but recent results are more relevant so a few years ago against CLB carries less weight than back to back cups the last two seasons. There's no reason to fear TB but there's no harm in understanding that they have a very good team either. And it's extremely likely that they will be much better tonight then they were in game 1 whether you understand that or not.

GLG!!

 

[zeke]

Let us dissect then, Jon.

View attachment 540346

So close!

maybe he was looking at their PP stats and thinking that those were pretty decent numbers for 5v5.

 

[notbias]

Not sure why you're so angry but recent results are more relevant so a few years ago against CLB carries less weight than back to back cups the last two seasons. There's no reason to fear TB but there's no harm in understanding that they have a very good team either. And it's extremely likely that they will be much better tonight then they were in game 1 whether you understand that or not.

GLG!!

On paper, the team is more similar to the CLB series, no?

They lost their entire best line on a lot of nights.

 

[kevsh]

It's critical to not let Tampa even things up tonight.

So the message is clear to the home team: Crush them. With extreme prejudice. Kill any notion in anyone's mind that the Bolts just weren't ready last game. That when they really show up the Leafs are doomed, etc.

With a win tonight, Cooper will be scrambling to come up with more excuses on why his team lost. More importantly, the Leafs can head to Tampa with the opportunity to finish the Bolts off quickly and painfully.

 

[Rob Brown]

Cut the politics rob. I stated my opinion, I'm not looking for anyone's approval, thank you.

What? You're the one that came in here insulting people, all I did was suggest a better way to word it. You do you, though.

 

[supermann_98]

I hope Spezza plays today

I'd be okay with getting Spezza in there assuming Bunting isn't yet 100%. He played with as much grit as anyone the last couple playoffs against Montreal and Columbus, and it's not like the Tampa defense are a bunch of speedsters out there where he couldn't keep up or make plays in the O zone

 

[LeafalCrusader]

May the 4th be with us!

 

[Vaive50]

You beat me to it.

You beat me to it

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Expect another grinder game from our D .. i think another 0-0 game must be expected .. assume Vasi picks up his game .. and lets hope we see another Mitch game like last game .. if Mitch plays same way again tonight Tampa will have no answer again .. Mitch was da ultimate wildcard in game 1 .. and Muzzy and Engval too .. those guys were studs .. we have a much better chance in a half ice game against Tampa where Mitch's strengths truly shine through (PPs and PKs drive a half ice game and Mitch is master of that type of game) .. so loads more penalties likely helps us out again

 

[Vaive50]

Coach Cooper quotes from last game, builtin board material for the Leafs.

Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper on Game 1: It wasn't them, it was us​

On their way to winning two Stanley Cups, the Tampa Bay Lightning lost all of 13 games. But not one of them was like the 5-0 loss to the Maple Leafs Monday night. Not one of them a beatdown of significance. Over these playoff years of greatness, the Lighting have lost nine one-goal games, four of them in overtime, almost all of them low-scoring: Getting whacked is new for the champions. Being outplayed in every facet of the game has never been their calling card.

They have been the team that dictates pace, that dictates style, that is impossible to play against, as Montreal found out in last year’s Cup final or Dallas discovered nine months earlier.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve lost a game,” said Tampa coach Jon Cooper. “It’s not like we’re in uncharted waters.”

Cooper being Cooper was more impressed with the score than he was with the Leafs in Game 1.

But what he wasn’t impressed with was his own team. He thought they made it easy for Jack Campbell in Game 1. He thought they didn’t challenge the goalie enough. He thought the normally automatic Tampa power play was off and being pushed off their game by the Leafs’ aggressive penalty killing. He didn’t like the way his team played. He wasn’t as impressed with the Leafs as others might have been. If he was, he wasn’t saying so. And he wasn’t particularly enthralled by the officiating, which makes it unanimous now among NHL coaches.

“The amount of power plays both ways in the first periods is kind of unheard of,” said Cooper. “If you dissect the five-on-five play, it was pretty even. We didn’t generate much. They didn’t generate much.
“To me, that was the aberration. And so that’s our hope, anyway. We didn’t take advantage of our situation early (five-minute power play). But let’s call it like it was.”

“They took advantage of our mistakes, but they were our mistakes. And boy did we make it easy for them … It was a little lazy on our part and we can’t continue to do that or it’s going to be a short series. But I don’t expect that.”

Full Story: SIMMONS: Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper on Game 1: It wasn't them, it was us

I hope so badly that the crap Cooper spoke comes back to bite him. Is he going to say that same crap if our boys beat Tampa again. The only reason Tampa looked so bad is because they couldn't handle our speed and skill. I've never watched a game that complete by our boys. They did not win by luck, the score could have been much higher, they already took Lily's goal away.

I'm glad that our boys learned some good lessons from when they lost to the Panthers after a 5-1 lead and to the Avs after a 4-1 lead. Now let's hope they learned the same from the Habs series to not just keep the foot on the gas for the whole game but until you're the first team to win 4 games.

 

[SprDaVE]

Sheesh... That's why he missed the skate too.

 

[zeke]

On paper, the team is more similar to the CLB series, no?

They lost their entire best line on a lot of nights.

maybe.

let's take a look, in general order of ice time.

2019 --- 2022

Point 22 --- Point 25
Kucherov 25 --- Kucherov 28
Stamkos 28 --- Stamkos 31

Cirelli 21 --- Cirelli 24
Palat 27 --- Palat 30
Killorn 29 --- Killorn 32

Gourde 27 --- Colton 25
Miller 26 --- Paul 26
Johnson 28 --- Hagel 23

Paquette 25 --- Bellemare 36
Callahan 33 --- Perry 36
Joseph 21 --- Maroon 33
Erne 23 --- Nash 32


Hedman 28 --- Hedman 31
McDonagh 29 --- McDonagh 32

Cernak 21 --- Cernak 24
Sergachev 20 --- Sergachev 23

Rutta 28 --- Rutta 31
Girardi 34 --- Bogosian
Coburn 33 --- Foote​

worse maybe?

 

[crump]

Man, that's sucks. I had food poisoning once. I thought I was going to die. Out of it for a week after. Hopefully it was just a mild touch of it for him.

 

[Gary Nylund]

On paper, the team is more similar to the CLB series, no?

They lost their entire best line on a lot of nights.

You probably know such details better than I do. All I know is that TB has won back to back cups, most people would say they have the best goalie in the world, they still have all their top players and before the playoffs started, the bookies had their cup chances as being better than ours. Not by a wide margin mind you and after game 1, we might be now be ahead of them in that regard but in any case, TB is a very good team and thinking they won't be better tonight than they were in game 1 seems pretty naive to me. JMHO.

 

[wingman75]

Sheesh... That's why he missed the skate too.

Is it me or has that happened a few times, even this season? Dude needs to re-evaluate where he gets his food lol

If that was the case, his performance was even more impressive!!

 

[Gary Nylund]

Sheesh... That's why he missed the skate too.

Yikes! I hope learned his lessons, with all the money he makes, surely he can afford to eat at top shelf sushi joints where that sort of thing shouldn't happen.

Man, that's sucks. I had food poisoning once. I thought I was going to die. Out of it for a week after. Hopefully it was just a mild touch of it for him.

Wow, that sounds awful. I had alcohol poisoning once, I thought that would be similar to food poisoning but I recovered a lost faster than that. And the 2 weeks of fun that led to this was well worth it.

 

[JoeyBeans]

Man, I need something to relax my nerves.

 

[notbias]

You probably know such details better than I do. All I know is that TB has won back to back cups, most people would say they have the best goalie in the world, they still have all their top players and before the playoffs started, the bookies had their cup chances as being better than ours. Not by a wide margin mind you and after game 1, we might be now be ahead of them in that regard but in any case, TB is a very good team and thinking they won't be better tonight than they were in game 1 seems pretty naive to me. JMHO.

Tampa is a great team, and not counting them out, but their team has gotten worse due to the cap over the last two years, that's all I was pointing out.

I don't even consider their cup last year to be legit, they bent the rules (I think broke them by purposely sitting a player out), and now their team is much worse.

 

[Shooter2x]

Nylander dude what are you doing eating sushi from Fortinos on game day.

 

[Not My Tempo]

Sheesh... That's why he missed the skate too.

There were a few times during game 1 where I thought Willy was a bit slow to react. This would explain it lol.

 

[ZEBROA]

Sheesh... That's why he missed the skate too.

He should always eat bad sushi then. Impressive.

 

[Tufted Titmouse]

Nylander dude what are you doing eating sushi from Fortinos on game day.

Sushi on game day just feels like a very Nylander thing. This dude just doesn't hear the noise.

 

[DraftSchmaft]

Nylander playing through injury playoff beasssstttttt

 

[Coachcorner]

Yikes! I hope learned his lessons, with all the money he makes, surely he can afford to eat at top shelf sushi joints where that sort of thing shouldn't happen.


Wow, that sounds awful. I had alcohol poisoning once, I thought that would be similar to food poisoning but I recovered a lost faster than that. And the 2 weeks of fun that led to this was well worth it.

Humans should only eat alkaline anyway sire. Apples, turmeric, avocado, melons etc. Gather information and do not eat raw fish before the gezame fools. There are many levels of food poisoning too. Some give bad nightmares and shakes, fever, fever-nightmares. Think about it. Me, I'm never sick, never.

 

[supermann_98]

Sheesh... That's why he missed the skate too.

Every sushi lover I know has had food poisoning from it at some point. Don't know how people roll the dice and eat raw fish thinking it's all prepared properly and it's still healthy to eat