The Core and its flaw, imo.

[The Blueprint]

We paid top dollar to have one of the best 1-2 center punches in the league and we...don't have that.

Tavares seems like a stand up guy, good person. But he isn't bringing 11m value to this team, period. Can't fault him for what happened in the playoffs last year, obviously... that was horrific. But he was supposed to push this group over the top and he just hasn't.

The contract created an obvious issue when time came to resign the kids, and the rest is history.

The 2nd line is wildly inconsistent. Maybe it's him and Nylander, but they'll have stretches where they're good and stretches where they get absolutely caved in and are a liability on the ice, can't have that for that kinda cash.

 

[bigbabybuda]

I like this. You keep on seeing in any McDavid and Draisaitl thread, a group of posters, many being leaf fans, saying that “McDavid and Draisaitl don’t play defence, so why would the lesser players battle if the star players don’t do it?” And it completely applies to toughness on this leafs squad.

Matthews, Marner, Tavares, Nylander have a combined ONE fight in almost 31 seasons of nhl hockey. And that one single fight was Tavares, 12 years ago. If the bottom 6 guys see the big 4 cruising around shying away from any sort of psychical play, and completely avoiding confrontation, why wouldn’t they follow the lead of their leaders?

Because their jobs in which they're paid for is to show toughness and sometimes fight maybe. The top 6 arent paid for that and we DONT want them fighting. Id be very happy if Matthews played for us for 20 years and never got into 1 fight. God forbid he gets a broken hand or a broken jaw. If the bottom 6 guys wont do their job then you replace them with playerd who understand Nylander and Marner arnt payed to protect anyone. Simmonds and others get a pay cheque for that.

 

[Menzinger]

That is a bit misleading when you use only the total goals in the series, because even though Leafs scored more goals overall this is helping prove "offense doesn't win".

Its not most goals in a 7 game series that wins, its on a game by game basis, where first team to 4 wins advances.

In Leafs 3 wins they only gave up 2 goals against total, but it doesn't matter if you win 5-1 or 4-0 or 2-1, that is a lot of excess goals [11 GF] that don't factor in the outcome because you only gave up 2 combined to win those games. Only 5 of those Goals For factored into winning those game.

However in Leafs 4 losses they surrendered 12 goals against = average of 3 GA/g and would have needed 4 goals for themselves to give themselves a chance in games #5, #6 and #7 when they lead the series 3-1 at the time. Montreal only gave up 7 goals against in their 4 wins = < 2 GA/g in victories and cementing the "defense wins" theory.

Conference First Round
DATE	OPPONENT	RESULT	Goalie	Top Performer
Thu, May 20	vs Montreal	L2-1	Campbell	Campbell
Sat, May 22	vs Montreal	W5-1	Campbell	Matthews
Mon, May 24	@ Montreal	W2-1	Campbell	Campbell
Tue, May 25	@ Montreal	W4-0	Campbell	Campbell
Thu, May 27	vs Montreal	L4-3 OT	Campbell	Muzzin
Sat, May 29	@ Montreal	L3-2 OT	Campbell	Brodie
Mon, May 31	vs Montreal	L3-1	Campbell	Nylander

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

I don't really think better defensive teams get blown out by 4+ goals

 

[cupcrazyman]

We need a 20 year old ish Lucic on our team.

 

[Teeder Keon]

We need a 20 year old ish Lucic on our team.

I’ll take a 39 year old Colton Orr

 

[diceman934]

Sadly the leafs still lack D man and a couple of guys who can skate and hit lack a Mack truck.
We need to change our team dynamics to be much harder to play against. Team toughness can be achieved by standing up for each other. God I miss Kadri