We need to talk about Tampa

[JoVel]

That isnt relevant to the current season

That is pretty damn relevant. The roster has seen very few chances and you're saying they have shown no ability to be better than a bubble team.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Except win a **** ton of regular season games the last few years with basically the same roster and is the same core group of players. I mean have you just not paid attention to the story of the Tampa bay lightning the last few years? I thought you were an avid user on here. I feel like people who are on here a lot and frequent main boards could probably sum up at least a little bit about each team. Most likely would be able to with the best teams in the league. Either you just dont pay attention or this is a hopeful post coming from a Leafs fan with a touch of insecurity.

The fact they have won a ton of games the past few years is fantastic but isn't really relevant to this season.

 

[IceNeophyte]

The fact they have won a ton of games the past few years is fantastic but isn't really relevant to this season.

I have faith in the bolts to end up ahead of Toronto in the final standings. I fully understand your grasping any straw that puts the leafs in a hopeful light, though.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

That is pretty damn relevant. The roster has seen very few chances and you're saying they have shown no ability to be better than a bubble team.

And so far this season that is an accurate statement

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

Reminds me of the 97 wings

Tear up the league in 96 but get swept in the finals. Yeah obviously Tampa got swept in the first round so it's not the same, but I think there are parallels

Tampa is currently sleepwalking thru this season. They just want another shot at the playoffs. Nobody expects them to do **** anymore, so of course this will be the year they go to the finals and win the cup

They got swept in the finals in 95. 96 they lost in the WCF to the Avs.

But yea i thought of the 97 wings as well. 131 points in 95-96 but then struggled quite a bit in 96-97 and finished with 94 points. Went on to win the cup. The difference however, is Detroit made sweeping changes after 96 - they traded Primeau and Coffey for Shanahan, traded away Ciccarelli. Tampa is pretty much the same.

 

[Dache]

That isnt relevant to the current season

why?

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

why?

Because that's the past I live here in the present their record in past isn't relevant to today

 

[Dache]

Because that's the past I live here in the present their record in past isn't relevant to today

but every game is in the past. Do their games last week count?

 

[golffuul]

They’ve lost a lot of their role players, as well as there “young” secondary players being no longer young. They lost Erne, Thompson, Miller, and Stralman. Goaltending hasn’t been as good as it has in the past few years, with their defense not nearly as deep, quality-wise, in past years. Also, despite Detroit’s record, the Atlantic is a lot more competitive than the previous years. For every divisional win that teams win that they didn’t the year before other teams, within the division, are losing games/points that they did win the year before. Tampa also had a near record year for wins in the modern era, last year.

TL;DR: Tampa isn’t as good as last year and several divisional teams are better.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

but every game is in the past. Do their games last week count?

Sure because they are part of this current season but when nextseason comes the results of those games won't be able to be used to suggest future play.

You can't just say they won 62 games last season so they will turn it around this season.

Last season's record is not relevant to the current season.

 

[Dache]

Sure because they are part of this current season but when nextseason comes the results of those games won't be able to be used to suggest future play.

You can't just say they won 62 games last season so they will turn it around this season.

Last season's record is not relevant to the current season.

i agree it means nothing in the standings, and obviously last season means less than this one, the previous one meaning less than last year. But to say they mean nothing at all and are no indication of what the team is capable of is silly. That’s basically saying that every season for every team is complete luck

 

[Hockeyholic]

They learned that going all out in the regular season is a useless exercise. It doesn't matter. It's irrelevant. Postseason is a different beast all together. I personally think they pull a Washington this year. For years that franchise underachieved with heightened expectations. Then the 2017-2018 season rolled around. And they go out and win a cup when they aren't favorites.

 

[Sadekuuro]

They got swept in the finals in 95. 96 they lost in the WCF to the Avs.

But yea i thought of the 97 wings as well. 131 points in 95-96 but then struggled quite a bit in 96-97 and finished with 94 points. Went on to win the cup. The difference however, is Detroit made sweeping changes after 96 - they traded Primeau and Coffey for Shanahan, traded away Ciccarelli. Tampa is pretty much the same.

Yep, and picked up a Hall of Fame defenseman off the scrap heap in the spring of '97. Seeking to make the team more hard-nosed, they also deliberately expanded the roles of guys like McCarty and Lapointe, and plucked Kocur out of a beer league for a second stint.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Yep, and picked up a Hall of Fame defenseman off the scrap heap in the spring of '97. Seeking to make the team more hard-nosed, they also deliberately expanded the roles of guys like McCarty and Lapointe, and plucked Kocur out of a beer league for a second stint.

Not as easy to do that with a salary cap

 

[Dooble08]

They'll be fine. They've played 2 or 3 less games than the teams in front of them in the standings. Once all teams have played an equal number of games, they'll be in a playoff spot.

 

[God King Fudge]

They're garbage. They have an awful coach, the goalie they just committed 9+ million to for the rest of linear time has no confidence or consistency, our goalie coach is a position killer, they traded the wrong guy this past offseason because he wasn't a coaches favorite.

Things are great.

 

[ShelbyZ]

Yep, and picked up a Hall of Fame defenseman off the scrap heap in the spring of '97. Seeking to make the team more hard-nosed, they also deliberately expanded the roles of guys like McCarty and Lapointe, and plucked Kocur out of a beer league for a second stint.

Yea, the Wings were kind of a work in progress all year that suddenly came together after the addition of Murphy and the infamous war against the Avs late in March. Along the way you had:

-Injecting some youth into the blueline by dropping Bergevin, Ramsey and Coffey and giving Ward, Pusher and (at least to start the year) Eriksson regular spots on the NHL roster
-Goaltending was all over the map... Osgood had a hot 1st half and then is bad most of the rest of the year... Vernon goes from #2 to then a barely playing #3 in December before reclaiming the #1 job at the end of the season
-As @Sadekuuro mentioned they started to whittle down to the best forwards out of the guys that had been rotating around in the middle and bottom of the line up the past couple years like McCarty, Brown, Draper, LaPointe, Maltby, Errey, Johnson, Taylor and Grimson, and then eventually supplemented them with Kocur and Sandstrom

While you could draw some parallels from Murphy and Shattenkirk where they went from being seen as washed up and re-discover their game on a team coming off 62 wins that got them for nearly nothing... that's about it.

 

[Mick Riddleton]

Last year they were unreal, this year teams are on them way harder

 

[North Country]

Last year they were unreal, this year teams are on them way harder

Bingo. They dominated in the soft pond hockey style the past couple regular seasons. Then Washington changed their series abruptly a couple playoffs ago with physicality and the same dismantling happened in last year’s playoffs. Some teams are realizing they’re too small and are now taking it to them in the regular season.

 

[Sadekuuro]

Not as easy to do that with a salary cap

Wasn't all that much of a factor yet in '97, whereas in just a few more years it had exploded. Better invoked as something that allowed them to maintain their position in later years (there's plenty of truth to that) than got them there in the first place.

 

[Krewe]

Bingo. They dominated in the soft pond hockey style the past couple regular seasons. Then Washington changed their series abruptly a couple playoffs ago with physicality and the same dismantling happened in last year’s playoffs. Some teams are realizing they’re too small and are now taking it to them in the regular season.

We have one of if not the largest D corps in the league

 

[Sky04]

They forgot they have to work hard.

Who knows, maybe they’re trying to get Coop fired.

This is it, effort is not there.

Not some dumb take about "physicality."

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

The battle for that 3rd spot in thee Atlantic is a tight one Tampa could be tied for it in about 18 hours, all they have to is beat Montreal in regulation and hope Florida loses to Detroit.

If that happens Tampa is tied for 3rd.

If it doesn't Tampa is in a hole.

The Atlantic is tight

 

[Xerloris]

Hey Tampa, if you guys implode trade the Blues Patty Maroon at the TDL k thanks.

 

[CupsOverCash]

The battle for that 3rd spot in thee Atlantic is a tight one Tampa could be tied for it in about 18 hours, all they have to is beat Montreal in regulation and hope Florida loses to Detroit.

If that happens Tampa is tied for 3rd.

If it doesn't Tampa is in a hole.

The Atlantic is tight

Good thing Toronto is safe in that second spot amirite?!?