"The Toronto Maple Leafs Weren't Close. Stop Lying to Yourself."

[MCR74]

Leafs have peaked.

So has the poster who started this thread.

 

[Leafshater67]

They weren’t close but they would have crushed Carolina too and got to the finals if Florida didn’t exist.

Still, that’s irrelevant because they do and they’ll have to battle them for some time.

 

[GlitchMarner]

If game 5 and 7 hadn’t happened the way it did…there could be an argument.

But game 5 and 7 did happen. Not close.

Agreed. After those games, I definitely do not want them to run it back again.

They need to let Marner walk and make other changes. See what happens next year and go from there.

 

[Vukotal Recall]

View attachment 1052391

Yep, Doug Jarvis, 4-time Cup champ and true warrior!

 

[Vukotal Recall]

Game 5 and 7 was a decade long build up of failure.

Six decades

 

[A1LeafNation]

Six decades

Well in terms of this core.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

Lmao daily Leaf thread. Stay obsessed.

 

[MCR74]

Lmao daily Leaf thread. Stay obsessed.

Just wait til Marner hits the market. This place will go nuclear.

 

[Divine]

In on Leafs owning the mains

 

[KniesMadeBradyCry]

The Oilers would have dog walked the Leafs the way the Panthers dog walked the Oilers. Just because Florida flubbed a couple of games doesn't mean the Leafs were magically a well built playoff team.

Yeah because the Oilers are known to play so well against the Leafs lmao. The Leafs would have sparked them up bad

 

[Ghost of Murph]

Have to admit, impressive that the Leafs took FLA to more games without Matthews than the Oilers did without Hyman.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

They were probably the Panthers toughest opponent but you can't really draw any conclusions from that. A 2nd round series is very different from a cup finals. We have no idea how Toronto would play deep in the playoffs battling fatigue.

 

[Christ]

What's the purpose of this thread? The Leafs are just like every other team not named Florida, they lost. Does not matter how close they were...ask Edmonton.

 

[NYRnine94]

Leafs fans are insane. You lost the series, you suck. You were never beating Florida and the series lead was because Florida was still warming up. Nobody cares who took who to 7 games, you lost

 

[GlitchMarner]

Have to admit, impressive that the Leafs took FLA to more games without Matthews than the Oilers did without Hyman.

Matthews played...

Wait... that's the joke, isn't it? haha.

 

[jaric1862]

They were for sure the second best in east.

 

[NYRnine94]

They were for sure the second best in east.

Carolina was, Toronto lost in round 2. Toronto is second round warmup fodder

 

[Nothingbutglass]

In on Leafs owning the mains

Almost as sweet as actual victory, I'm sure.

 

[SImpelton]

Even if they were does it matter?

Who remembers almost? It’s either you win or don’t

As a Bruins fan, I sure wish you got hardware for almost winning things, we'd have so many.

 

[SImpelton]

Agreed. After those games, I definitely do not want them to run it back again.

They need to let Marner walk and make other changes. See what happens next year and go from there.

Frankly the Leafs need a 5 year plan at this point. They need to get younger and deeper, and need to work on their desperately depleted defense.

I'm not sure this is all fixable in one offseason, so unless you want to be the team that almost made it to almost making it for another 3-4 seasons, it's probably time to make some very hard decisions.

 

[GlitchMarner]

Frankly the Leafs need a 5 year plan at this point. They need to get younger and deeper, and need to work on their desperately depleted defense.

I'm not sure this is all fixable in one offseason, so unless you want to be the team that almost made it to almost making it for another 3-4 seasons, it's probably time to make some very hard decisions.

They've had a few years where they lost a seven game series to the eventual Cup winner or the team that lost in the SCF. I don't see anything changing for them if they keep their core together. Since Marner is a UFA, I'd let him go and use that money on another player or two. Try to move Rielly out. Listen to offers for Matthews and Nylander. At least try get something for these guys while they still have value.

If they can't get anything worthwhile for the core players who aren't UFAs, they should try to be deeper and harder to play against up front next year and see if that makes them a better playoff team.

 

[jaric1862]

Carolina was, Toronto lost in round 2. Toronto is second round warmup fodder

Ok - If we're using stupid logic - Toronto won 3 games against Florida, Carolina won 1.

 

[jgs]

Leafs cannot figure out why their so called highly talented core 4 cannot score in the playoffs let alone win the cup. Until they solved their core 4 problem, they shouldn't even be thinking about the Cup.

 

[Metroid]

Glad to have non leaf fans tell leaf fans what's up.

 

[NVious]

Nah they were close, their core was always extremely talented and finally had the capacity to get over the hump, better goaltending, better defense, better depth, specifically with Knies/Patches/Domi providing true secondary scoring away from the core 4.

They had 2 breakaways they missed, 1 towards the end of game 3 with the score tied and 1 in OT that would've won it and made it 3-0. Same thing in game 4, donno if it was 2 or 1 breakaways when it was tied, but they could've won that game too.

They were close and you can try and cope how 2 OT wins>>>3 regulation wins, but they were close. Kind of funny how people are mentioning the Tampa series when it literally mirrors the Leafs series 2 years ago where they lost 2 games in ot and 3 by 1 goal. They were close then and close now, but the core's problems were just too much to overcome.