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Toronto Maple Leafs are surprisingly underperforming

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I highly doubt Matthews stays at 5% shooting long (17% 21-22). They will be fine.
 
I was kinda surprised when some of the Toronto media guys were talking about how they have depth at D and they like their bottom-6. I didn't see it at all. Sure, now they have injuries in their D-corps but the point about their forward depth still stands. If the big-4 are not carrying them EVERY NIGHT, they don't win. 2 goals per man for Matthews and Marner in 8 games is simply not good enough, especially when you consider that the Leafs have played 3 of the perceived bottom 4 teams this year already, and lost to all of them.
 
They’ll turn it around. They always do. Probably dominate November then cool off again but easily make the playoffs. Far too much talent on that roster to struggle for too long.
 
Chips said:
Tampa core and multiple key support guys specifically who’ve been on the Bolts all this time have been to four Cup Finals and several Conference Finals (including the cup finals years). Each of those years they won the cup or lost to the cup winner. Way more than Covid went into their cup runs

Also they have core and support players on their recent two cups who hadn’t been on those early deep runs in particular, but went on deep runs with other teams before joining. Those two cup runs/this Bolts team is as legit as it gets. Easily right at the top tier for team success the last like 10 years


I wouldn’t use “Cinderella” exactly (applies more to the Habs. Whole lot of great timing and convenience working for them then), but I assume that guy is talking about the Canada division possibly misleadingly making the Leafs and Oilers look like top tier teams, which completely failed to pan out (again) that year.


Regardless of what you think of the cup finals opponents those years (on the one hand they possibly; likely w the Habs; wouldn’t have made the playoffs had the season worked normally, but on the other hand they came back more prepared than the other teams),

the Bolts absolutely faced multiple, at least two, very tough eastern opponents each year; and the Stars looked like they were gonna make it rough and probably would have for most other teams, but those Bolts were so stacked

People had been half-jokingly saying “the real finals is the 2nd(Caps-Pens) round/ECF” for years before covid as the east had easily been deeper with teams built for playoffs for years


Even if you still somehow wanted to believe the Bolts runs weren’t legit, last years deep run with a depleted team should have dispelled that
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The 'pretending' Leafs are one of two teams who took the Lightning to an elimination game the last 3 seasons who didn't win the Cup. They're the only team to take a 'non-playoff' Montreal team to an elimination game who didn't win the Cup.

So the notion the Leafs are pretenders but TB is legit makes no sense. TB was a phantom high sticking penalty away from getting eliminated by the Leafs. That phantom high sticking penalty directly resulted in a 2 min 5on3 in an elimination game where the Lightning were getting dominated. With Montreal, the Leafs lost their captain in Game 1 of the series. The Leafs got unlucky in the playoffs due to injuries/phantom calls.

If the Leafs benefitted from Covid, the Lightning did 10 fold. The Lightning also got to go 17M over the cap because the season was 56 games instead of 82 (Kucherov wouldn't stay on LTIR for 82 games as he was healthy for Game 1 of the playoffs), that's way, way, way bigger of an advantage than the North division - as it's a playoff based advantage as a direct result of the Covid shortened season.
 
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Watching the Leafs fans go nuts over the slow start and negative comments here is fun.


With that being said the Leafs are a good team and will bounce back and easily make the playoffs, then once again get eliminated in the first round as usual before getting mucho respect in the handshake line
 
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WetcoastOrca said:
They’ll still finish top 10. A lot of us predicted they’d take a step back with the loss of depth, defense getting older and questionable goaltending.
Still a solid team that should improve once Matthews and Marner heat up.
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I wasn’t not reading that at all!
Leaf fans were saying their defense was top 3-5 in the league and that they had great depth.
 
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Divine said:
The 'pretending' Leafs are one of two teams who took the Lightning to an elimination game the last 3 seasons who didn't win the Cup. They're the only team to take a 'non-playoff' Montreal team to an elimination game who didn't win the Cup.

So the notion the Leafs are pretenders but TB is legit makes no sense. TB was a phantom high sticking penalty away from getting eliminated by the Leafs. That phantom high sticking penalty directly resulted in a 2 min 5on3 in an elimination game where the Lightning were getting dominated. With Montreal, the Leafs lost their captain in Game 1 of the series. The Leafs got unlucky in the playoffs due to injuries/phantom calls.

If the Leafs benefitted from Covid, the Lightning did 10 fold. The Lightning also got to go 17M over the cap because the season was 56 games instead of 82 (Kucherov wouldn't stay on LTIR for 82 games as he was healthy for Game 1 of the playoffs), that's way, way, way bigger of an advantage than the North division - as it's a playoff based advantage as a direct result of the Covid shortened season.
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But they didnt. Would have, could have should have.... TB would beat the Leafs in a playoff series 10 out of 10 times, maybe close games, maybe blowouts, but Leafs would still lose.
 
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This is a team that is lead by Kyle Dubas and Sheldon Keefe, with Shanahan god knows what he actually does. You think that is a recipe for a Stanley Cup? This team will probably turn it around win some games in the regular season and then same result in the playoffs. There is nothing special about this squad. Not even close to top 5 Stanley Cup contenders, in my mind.
 
Divine said:
The 'pretending' Leafs are one of two teams who took the Lightning to an elimination game the last 3 seasons who didn't win the Cup. They're the only team to take a 'non-playoff' Montreal team to an elimination game who didn't win the Cup.

So the notion the Leafs are pretenders but TB is legit makes no sense. TB was a phantom high sticking penalty away from getting eliminated by the Leafs. That phantom high sticking penalty directly resulted in a 2 min 5on3 in an elimination game where the Lightning were getting dominated. With Montreal, the Leafs lost their captain in Game 1 of the series. The Leafs got unlucky in the playoffs due to injuries/phantom calls.

If the Leafs benefitted from Covid, the Lightning did 10 fold. The Lightning also got to go 17M over the cap because the season was 56 games instead of 82 (Kucherov wouldn't stay on LTIR for 82 games as he was healthy for Game 1 of the playoffs), that's way, way, way bigger of an advantage than the North division - as it's a playoff based advantage as a direct result of the Covid shortened season.
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Yep, then they went on to win the following three games, going up 3-1 in the best-of-seven first round series against a team that was initially seen as a pushover against the mighty Leafs.

What happened after that?
 
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NorthernFlicker said:
Sens will sneak into the playoffs, taking our spot, and will proudly fill 72% capacity of the arena during the playoffs.
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72% is about how many games the Leafs typically win in the first round.

The intellectual acrobatics to justify six years straight of choking in the first round astounds me.

I actually think getting out to a poor start is good for the Leafs, because maybe they'll have some urgency in the second half of the season if they're battling for a playoff spot.

Another 115 point season does nothing for them.
 
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NyQuil said:
72% is about how many games the Leafs typically win in the first round.

The intellectual acrobatics to justify six years straight of choking in the first round astounds me.

I actually think getting out to a poor start is good for the Leafs, because maybe they'll have some urgency in the second half of the season if they're battling for a playoff spot.
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Cringey post.
 
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NyQuil said:
72% is about how many games the Leafs typically win in the first round.

The intellectual acrobatics to justify six years straight of choking in the first round astounds me.

I actually think getting out to a poor start is good for the Leafs, because maybe they'll have some urgency in the second half of the season if they're battling for a playoff spot.

Another 115 point season does nothing for them.
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Who is justifying, and where? I want Dubas and Keefe fired, I think they did a poor job and are squandering Matthews' prime.
 
NorthernFlicker said:
Who is justifying, and where?
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Read the thread again and get back to me.

Keefe should have been fired last season. Dubas this season if nothing changes.

But again, I get that it's fun to dunk on the Leafs but getting off to a poor start says nothing really unless they actually miss the post-season.

That doesn't change the fact that "bringing teams to an elimination game" in the first round is a pretty dubious accomplishment.
 
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