Tampa defeats Toronto 4 games to 3

[Sasha Orlov]

Ok Jimmyapples, maybe we should hire you as GM

Seems like literally anyone else would be better lmfao

 

[AvroArrow]

Can’t be much worse than Dubas

Sens fans talking about bad GMs is comedy gold

 

[AvroArrow]

Seems like literally anyone else would be better lmfao

If you watched this year and series and came to the conclusion that the GM is the issue, your hockey takes cannot be taken seriously

 

[MikonD600]

I think these are the two best teams in the East. I like Toronto jokes as much as the next guy, but they have nothing to be ashamed of here. TB barely pulled this off. By far, FAR, our toughest series of the cup runs.

It's incredible the Leafs just happen to lose to the only team better then them every post season. What are the odds?

 

[MikonD600]

Nice to have a series where officiating isn’t the main storyline and it’s just recognized that the better team won

Only Leafs nation seems to focus on the officiating as some sort of excuse to whitewash the fact the team is full of losers.

 

[AvroArrow]

It's incredible the Leafs just happen to lose to the only team better then them every post season. What are the odds?

Remind me who the other teams were that beat Tampa in the last 3 years ? Refs gave them a freebie in game 6 and really bad non-calls in game 7, despite that it was just a 1 goal loss in 7 games. It's incredible the lengths some people go to, to troll Leaf fans. People really have no hobbies

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Remind me who the other teams were that beat Tampa in the last 3 years ? Refs gave them a freebie in game 6 and really bad non-calls in game 7, despite that it was just a 1 goal loss in 7 games. It's incredible the lengths some people go to, to troll Leaf fans. People really have no hobbies

This isn’t a good tampa team… they with get slapped around my flames oilers Florida Carolina and prob Pitt…. Leafs just got paid before accomplishing anything and don’t actually care about winning in the playoffs. Only reason leaf fans are acting like tampa is good this year is to cope with another disappointing showing by the team

They hate their GM, they hate the sport of hockey and most of all they hate their fans.

 

[Transplanted Caper]

Another reminder for all my fellow Leaf fans

Ovechkin didn't win until his 13th year
Stamkos didn't win until his 12th year
Yzerman didn't win until his 14th year

Matthews is going into year 7

Yes it hurts more than ever right now, but blowing up this core is not the answer. You keep adding to it, the core guys are only getting better and growing. Stick with it. Trolls are gonna troll. If it was a badly played series with zero compete/structure etc. Yes we can make a case for serious core issues. That was not the case. Stick with it, run it back, add some more pieces, keep this core.

This is 100% correct. The Leafs are an easy target, but the best bet is hoping this core gets the job done. It's not guaranteed, but the core pieces are too good not to keep trying. This isn't a middle of the road team where you're leaning on good, but not great pieces. Matthews and Marner are two of the best forwards in the world, Nylander is an excellent complimentary piece who you'd spend all next year trying to replace. Tavares is who he is now and will need to be deployed more efficiently, but doing something just for the sake of doing something makes little to no sense. This was a 115-point team who had one less bounce than Tampa. If there was a time to try something different it was after they puked all over themselves against Montreal. Overreacting to losing that series would be a mistake.

EDIT: Obviously you make *some* changes. They'll have to figure out the goaltending, and you're going to need to reconstruct the 4th line, and as much as like him, I think you have to find a taker for Muzzin (good series but that cap hit plus the potential for injuries and falling off a cliff is too high), but I don't think the change needs to be a change in philosophy or in the front office.

 

[BackLightningBack]

Leaf fans, maybe this will help some. Go back and look at this Lightning's core post game interviews after getting swept 4-0 after president throphy, after blowing 3-2 series lead verses Washington, and after blowing 3-2 series lead against penguins. What your players look/sound like now, reminds me of how the Lightning players acted after losing good opportunities to advance.

1st, your players care they lost. This matters more than it's given credit for. 2nd, they're very skilled and that will eventually break through. 3rd, once they get that monkey off their backs. They'll make decent playoff pushes for titles. A monkey on someone's back doesn't matter if it's losing conference finals or any other round ( AKA - Leafs/rd1 & Caps /rd2). It's still the final boss to beat! Once a team finally does it, magic usually follows.

Sure, make a few changes but that core deserves to stay together. After the Lightning got swept by Jackets, many were saying... "Blow it up, this Lightning core missed their window. They don't have that IT factor" Love Steve Yzerman, he helped with building a powerhouse for Lightning nation, but he figured Lightning window closed , and we're done after Jacket loss. He left for his true love Detroit and we were happy for him. Our new GM deserves major credit because he made some brillant moves at trade deadline that helped extend cores window. Looks like he found some friendly cap space depth this year too (Paul & Hagel). Thank goodness Lightning front office still believed in those players. My point, make a few cap friendly tweaks or get a creative GM. But I think it'd be a mistake to blow it up. Your core has now felt the pain most champions do before finally breaking through.

Go Lightning!!!

 

[JoVel]

This isn’t a good tampa team… they with get slapped around my flames oilers Florida Carolina and prob Pitt…. Leafs just got paid before accomplishing anything and don’t actually care about winning in the playoffs. Only reason leaf fans are acting like tampa is good this year is to cope with another disappointing showing by the team

They hate their GM, they hate the sport of hockey and most of all they hate their fans.

Saying Tampa isn't at the level of previous two years is very reasonable, but having Flames and Oilers above them is just insulting lol

 

[AvroArrow]

This isn’t a good tampa team… they with get slapped around my flames oilers Florida Carolina and prob Pitt…. Leafs just got paid before accomplishing anything and don’t actually care about winning in the playoffs. Only reason leaf fans are acting like tampa is good this year is to cope with another disappointing showing by the team

They hate their GM, they hate the sport of hockey and most of all they hate their fans.

Only reason Leaf haters are acting like the back to back champs aren't a good team is to shit on the Leafs it's comical. Before the series started "Toughest match up" "Tampa will threepeat" "New dynasty" "Leafs have no chance" After the 7 game series "Tampa is a bad team, lol leafs"

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Only reason Leaf haters are acting like the back to back champs aren't a good team is to shit on the Leafs it's comical. Before the series started "Toughest match up" "Tampa will threepeat" "New dynasty" "Leafs have no chance" After the 7 game series "Tampa is a bad team, lol leafs"

Actually I watched the series and realized this ain’t the same tampa, Toronto shoulda won the series but unfortunately they don’t care about winning

 

[AslanRH]

I'll go back to peruse this thread so these points are probably already stated, but

While the disappointment is still there, that was quite the effort from the Leafs team.
That didn't look like a team that was terribly unbalanced or lacked "playoff effort".
That looked like a dangerous team that ran into a battle tested champion.
A couple upgrades in their support players and they look set for some consistent runs in the next few years.

 

[Karl Eriksson]

They can not be the “same Tampa” and still objectively be better than the leafs. I don’t know why this is an ‘either/or’ debate. When it matters Vasy was better and the D was insane. That was the difference.

Better team won, but yes, after that many years on top this isn’t the same Tampa. And Point is out, so it’s clearly not the same Tampa.

 

[Dubi Doo]

I don’t.

Same. TB isnt in a godly tier either. Both teams are good. No doubt, but theyre not ahead of Carolina or Florida. TB probably in a similar tier. Leafs slightly below.

I think certain fans are in the post game 'feel good' vibes toward the Leafs. Theyre a good team. Dont get me wrong, and couldve definitely went on a run, but theyre on the same level of a few teams in the East.

The fact they couldn't put away TB while they missed Point and were down to 11 forwards tells me the Leafs likely are a slight tier below TB/Carolina/Florida. In that 5-10 range league wide.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Who?

Two time Stanley Cup champion Pat Maroon.

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

This guy ended the Leafs season

 

[AvroArrow]

Actually I watched the series and realized this ain’t the same tampa, Toronto shoulda won the series but unfortunately they don’t care about winning

You watched the series and came to the conclusion that "Tampa is not a good team" If your previous posts weren't telling enough of your hockey understanding, this one here paints a perfect picture

 

[JimmyApples]

Another reminder for all my fellow Leaf fans

Ovechkin didn't win until his 13th year
Stamkos didn't win until his 12th year
Yzerman didn't win until his 14th year

Matthews is going into year 7

Yes it hurts more than ever right now, but blowing up this core is not the answer. You keep adding to it, the core guys are only getting better and growing. Stick with it. Trolls are gonna troll. If it was a badly played series with zero compete/structure etc. Yes we can make a case for serious core issues. That was not the case. Stick with it, run it back, add some more pieces, keep this core.

The Leafs haven’t even won a playoff round, though. Sure, these guys didn’t win the Cup til then, but they were at least closing out series. Leafs haven’t even won a round…they are as far away as anyone in the league.

 

[SanDogBrewin]

Another reminder for all my fellow Leaf fans

Ovechkin didn't win until his 13th year
Stamkos didn't win until his 12th year
Yzerman didn't win until his 14th year

Matthews is going into year 7

Yes it hurts more than ever right now, but blowing up this core is not the answer. You keep adding to it, the core guys are only getting better and growing. Stick with it. Trolls are gonna troll. If it was a badly played series with zero compete/structure etc. Yes we can make a case for serious core issues. That was not the case. Stick with it, run it back, add some more pieces, keep this core.

This is a good post. The Leafs will get over the hump at some point. Matter of time.

 

[HuGort]

Leafs were playing dynasty caliber team. Last year they ran into hot goalie.

 

[JimmyApples]

This guy ended the Leafs season

View attachment 547259

Nick Paul was a beast all series. Driving the net, creating chances, getting under every Leafs skin. I’m so, so happy and proud of him for that Game 7 performance. He just cemented himself as one of the villains in Leafs Nation, and judging by his stare down to the crowd after the second goal, I’m sure he couldn’t be any happier about that.

 

[BackLightningBack]

Hope Point is OK, he's given so much for us. Plus, he's such a great player to watch when 80-100%. Lightning will miss hm dearly if he's not able to return.

This years Lightning team needed to make their own playoff mojo. They accompished that after coming back from series deficits of 0-1, 1-2, 2-3, and cameback from a late 2nd period meltdown during game 6. Showed some serious mojo overcoming the adversity again, again, and again this series. We'll see if this give them the engery boost they needed to make a serious push.

Go Lightning!!!

 

[U55]

Fans love to bash other team but shows their lack of intelligence with some of their statements . TML had to play the 2 time defending champs and played them as close as they could with out winning .

I came in to another thread say congrats after game 5 and was told thanks but still hope the Oilers lose by a Leaf fan . Fitting that they lose and the Oilers win . Karma is a bitch but you still have to tip your hats to the Leafs . They played hard and by the eye test they were the better overall team .

Yeah eye test and stats have them as the 27 year defending champs.

 

[HuGort]

Leafs were playing dynasty caliber team. Last year they ran into hot goalie.