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(We now have to look at and worry about) The Standings.

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Ianturnedbull

Ianturnedbull

Registered User
Jun 11, 2022
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Currently at 50 points, and 3rd in the Atlantic, but slipping (3 losses and 1 loser point recently). 4-4-2 in their last 10. What bothers me is the +12 goal differential.

Detroit are absolutely on their heels now. (49 points and +11 goal differential). 6-3-1 in their last 10.

Most grounded people felt that TOR were not going to be as good this Regular season, but they would make the playoffs.

We are halfway through the season and it's gut check time.

I do not believe for a second that Treliving made those offseason acquisitions to be a below average team.

Toronto only has 1 key injured player now in Woll. Gio is back. Liljegren is back. Samsonov is not injured, but he is losing the confidence in his ability battle.

Let's forget about Klingberg and Reaves because they have been non factors for a while now.

What about Bertuzzi and Domi. Domi has had a pretty inconsistent career, but Bertuzzi should be a lot better. 1 goal in 22 games is not going to get him a retirement contract any time soon. He has to be a lot better.

Nylander & Tavares need to be better too.

Is this Leaf team going to make the playoffs?

How will this play out? Wait and see & then re-tool next season?
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Valid points.

This team will 'outlast' most of those other team, as long as one of the 'big 5' (Matthews, Tavares, Nylander, Marner, Reilly) don't get hurt. They simply need too many teams below them to pass them. Those teams behind them are going to play each other, for every one of those games that one wins, one will lose.

With that said, the leafs had had their share of injuries, but its actually pretty remarkable that they haven't lost any of their big 4/5 for a long time. Reilly for a bit last year, but this year I don't think there is a team they are competing against that has had the top of their roster as healthy as the Leafs.

-McAvoy missed a couple weeks in Boston
-Buffalo isn't even competing because their entire first line has missed time (Skinner, Tuch, and Thompson) this year
-Svechnikov has missed about 1/4 of the season in Carolina so far
-Larkin missed a week or two in Detroit so far
-Florida's top 2 D-men missed almost half the season so far (Ekblad and Montour) and Bennet missed time too.
-Hughes, Hischier, and Hamilton have missed major time in Jersey.
-Adam Fox missed a few weeks in NY

All of those guys are top 4-5 guys on those teams and have missed significant games for many of them. The leafs top guys this year? Pretty much 100% healthy. If that changes or the balance of games missed swings back to not being in Toronto's favor, then there might be big trouble as far as making the playoffs.

Your top 3 guys haven't missed any games and have accounted for someplace between 55-60% of your goals. They also have gotten points in the standings 18 TIMES (43% of games, almost every other game) where they either won by a single goal or they got an overtime point. If one of those top 4 guys misses ANY time, you likely would have lost of good number of those points.
 
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I’d rather the Leafs go through the Metro bracket than the Atlantic. It’s always been the easiest path. There’s always an Atlantic team in the finals.. except that one year where there was 2.
 
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mjd1001 said:
Valid points.

This team will 'outlast' most of those other team, as long as one of the 'big 5' (Matthews, Tavares, Nylander, Marner, Reilly) don't get hurt. They simply need too many teams below them to pass them. Those teams behind them are going to play each other, for every one of those games that one wins, one will lose.

With that said, the leafs had had their share of injuries, but its actually pretty remarkable that they haven't lost any of their big 4/5 for a long time. Reilly for a bit last year, but this year I don't think there is a team they are competing against that has had the top of their roster as healthy as the Leafs.

-McAvoy missed a couple weeks in Boston
-Buffalo isn't even competing because their entire first line has missed time (Skinner, Tuch, and Thompson) this year
-Svechnikov has missed about 1/4 of the season in Carolina so far
-Larkin missed a week or two in Detroit so far
-Florida's top 2 D-men missed almost half the season so far (Ekblad and Montour) and Bennet missed time too.
-Hughes, Hischier, and Hamilton have missed major time in Jersey.
-Adam Fox missed a few weeks in NY

All of those guys are top 4-5 guys on those teams and have missed significant games for many of them. The leafs top guys this year? Pretty much 100% healthy. If that changes or the balance of games missed swings back to not being in Toronto's favor, then there might be big trouble as far as making the playoffs.

Your top 3 guys haven't missed any games and have accounted for someplace between 55-60% of your goals. They also have gotten points in the standings 18 TIMES (43% of games, almost every other game) where they either won by a single goal or they got an overtime point. If one of those top 4 guys misses ANY time, you likely would have lost of good number of those points.
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The Leafs have been incredibly lucky with injuries. Other than Woll, who probably shouldn't be as important as he has become, the guys who have been injured have been mostly second or third tier players.
 
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Woll out 6 weeks and counting
Liligren missed half the season
Samsonov was lost for year due to mental issues

That’s your number 1 and 2 starting goalies gone
Your number 3 D

All for significant time periods. Take away any teams top 2 goalies I guarantee they would not hold their own for long
 
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shaner8989 said:
Woll out 6 weeks and counting
Liligren missed half the season
Samsonov was lost for year due to mental issues

That’s your number 1 and 2 starting goalies gone
Your number 3 D

All for significant time periods. Take away any teams top 2 goalies I guarantee they would not hold their own for long
Click to expand...

If Jones buckles it's over.
 
Evilhomer said:
The Leafs have been incredibly lucky with injuries. Other than Woll, who probably shouldn't be as important as he has become, the guys who have been injured have been mostly second or third tier players.
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Incredibly unlucky with injuries I’d say,

Woll is probably the worst person to be injured and he’s the one who’s injured.

Let’s not forget we had 3D out at once for like a month.

Woll’s injury wouldn’t be as important if Samsonov played like last season but he has completely buckled forcing the Leafs to win game with their third string goalie who’s been struggling of late.
 
Divine said:
Incredibly unlucky with injuries I’d say,

Woll is probably the worst person to be injured and he’s the one who’s injured.

Let’s not forget we had 3D out at once for like a month.

Woll’s injury wouldn’t be as important if Samsonov played like last season but he has completely buckled forcing the Leafs to win game with their third string goalie who’s been struggling of late.
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I would suggest that the quality of the defensemen who were injured was not exactly earth-shattering.
 
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Evilhomer said:
I would suggest that the quality of the defensemen who were injured was not exactly earth-shattering.
Click to expand...

It doesn’t have to be when your defense sucks.

Liljegren is clearly our #2 or you could even argue our #1. The Leafs have a weak defense already so any injuries makes it that much weaker.
 
shaner8989 said:
Woll out 6 weeks and counting
Liligren missed half the season
Samsonov was lost for year due to mental issues

That’s your number 1 and 2 starting goalies gone
Your number 3 D

All for significant time periods. Take away any teams top 2 goalies I guarantee they would not hold their own for long
Click to expand...
The goaltending you are getting from your replacement is arguably as good as if not better than what your projected starters give you. Its not a matter of losing your 'top 2 goalies', or your 3rd D-man...its a matter of losing your top players.

Jersey and Buffalo have been devasted by the quality of players that have missed time and what they have gotten from their replacments. Toronto? The guys that have missed time...not nearly as big of a drop from those guys to who is replacing them. My point was Toronto has been very luck and, if they lose any of their top 4-5 guys like other teams have, THAT is when you are going to see major problems.
 
GoonieFace said:
This team isn’t bad enough to miss the playoffs. We have 4 of the 11 best players in all of hockey..right?
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I think this team could very well miss. They will have downs and then ups but I see them being like the 2006 and 2007 Sundin teams that needed everything to fall last minute and it won’t. Poor team construction, catastrophic individual meltdowns from Samsonov and Klingberg. Not enough resources to patch the team up. Up and down star performance.
 
Divine said:
Incredibly unlucky with injuries I’d say,

Woll is probably the worst person to be injured and he’s the one who’s injured.

Let’s not forget we had 3D out at once for like a month.

Woll’s injury wouldn’t be as important if Samsonov played like last season but he has completely buckled forcing the Leafs to win game with their third string goalie who’s been struggling of late.
Click to expand...
Better get used to Woll being injured, he gets injured A LOT
 
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Are any of you happy with going out again before the 3rd round? Do the standings matter when this team clearly can't achieve the only objective that matters? If they want to salvage this season, Keefe needs to f*** off very quickly. Otherwise, sell at the deadline and target improvement when Keefe's contract ends, which is another wasted year.

If the option is keeping Keefe, Shanny needs to go. We shall see when this roadtrip ends, as Keefe will not be fired until the end of it. Unfortunately, they probably win a few games a commit to mediocrity.
 
shaner8989 said:
Samsonov was lost for year due to mental issues
Click to expand...

Huh?

thewave said:
If Jones buckles it's over.
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And yet a lot of people here don't think they should bring in another goalie as insurance.

shaner8989 said:
Hasn’t been good the last 2. The buckle is starting. He’s not a good goalie by any means.
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He has played very well for them, very well.

Some of the goals recently were not his fault (team gives up and stops playing on delayed penalty, a knuckleballer goes in, etc.).
 
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