Hey guys. Not typically a follower of your team, but my best friend is a die hard life long Leafs fan, so I was watching all your games on her behalf, and cheering on the blue and white.
Didn't hurt that you were playing against the Bruins, either, to be honest, but that's neither here nor there.
Certainly not as gutting a loss as 2013, and you did well to take one of the league's elite teams to seven games. The frustration comes from the fact that Boston showed you their throat a bit in the 2nd there, and it just sort of...slipped away.
Anyway, I had a few thoughts, feel free to ignore them or hurl fruit at me or whatever.
- Matthews had a tough series but it's my understanding he was playing injured, and Boston is (still) an elite defensive team. Bergeron and Chara is a handful for any player to get through, let alone a 20 year old. You would have liked to see him take over at least one game and impose his will, but I'm sure those series will come in the future. He was engaged, at least.
- I've long been an admirer of Hyman and Brown, and I loved them again in this series. Obviously you don't get far when Hyman and Brown are among your best players, but those guys just oozed battle and heart all series long, and had some clutch moments. Those are guys you win in the playoffs with. Appreciate them!
- Marner deserves a lot of credit...he took an absolute beating all series long and just kept bouncing up and back into the play. Boston is a hard team to generate offense against and he was your most consistently dangerous forward on the rush.
- I thought you guys were nuts for signing Marleau but he still has that veteran wiliness. Was money in close around the net.
- Forgive me for saying it, but what the hell is up with William Nylander. I was a huge booster of this guy. Wanted him badly in that draft. Been jealous of you getting him this entire time. So soft on the frickin' puck. Looked passive, disengaged, scared of contact. Forget Matthews...he was ineffective but he was trying. Nylander was completely AWOL for almost the entire series. And while we're apportioning blame to forwards not carrying their weight, JVR was often nowhere to be found either.
- On the flip side, Kapanen and Johnsson had excellent series. I don't know where you unearthed Johnsson but he's sneaky fast and plays with pace.
- Didn't love Babcock's passive box on your penalty kill (at least in games 1-2, didn't notice if he changed it up, I'm sorry). You guys have a lot of burners. Should be aggressive.
- Your goalie is taking a lot of heat in here. I thought Andersen played *really* well. Maybe the solitary reason the series went seven games. Yes, he got ventilated, but that's what happens when the defense is terrible. And on that note...
- The defense was terrible. It was Rielly, Dermott, the animated corpse of Hainsey, and then three guys who looked like they were in a heated competition to play each other out of the league. Zaitsev in particular had a shockingly bad playoff. The group improved as the series went on but in games one and two especially, it was a complete clown show back there. The gap control was non-existent, lots of standing and watching, lots of guys losing their check entirely or letting guys slip in behind them. Pastrnak could have set up a shoe shine stand in the time he was given to dipsy doodle in the slot. I've seen Gardiner play a LOT better than this, but the rest of these guys...I dunno. I was pretty stunned when you guys added Plekanec at the deadline and did nothing to address the D, it had always seemed like an Achilles Heel. I thought "Maybe Zaitsev is just way better than I realize". Nope.
Alright that's enough out of me. It's a shame that this bonus window when Matthews/Marner/Nylander et al are on their ELCs is kind of slipping away, but seriously, you guys are going to be annual playoff attendees for probably as long as Matthews wears the sweater at the very least. I know it stings and the Bruins are in your heads a bit, but Bergeron and Chara are going to retire at some point. Marchand is going to age into irrelevance. That particular rivalry is going to wither away. You'll fix your D and be looking at a Conference Final in the next two years, I'd wager.
Peace from the West Coast, Leafers. You'll get em next time.
PS - This isn't sympathy, I know you hate that. I'll get right back to hating you properly when the regular season starts. Lousy, star-studded jerks. <shakes fist>
, I am pretty sure Mathews is dealing with shoulder injury. It should be and I think we will find out when they are clearing the lockers. There's no way he could have disappeared in the series without some sort of injury.
