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Who surprised you from your opponent's team in round 1?

99ovr

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Apr 15, 2021
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I'll start with who surprised me from the Leafs as a Sens fan.

Impressed:

Matthew Knies - Didn't know how skilled, strong and fast this kid was. Very flashy but does it in a smart way, I can see him being a perennial 80 point player and even flirt with 100 points some seasons if he continues to play with Matthews and Marner/Nylander. I'm not joking.

Max Domi: Underrated skill and play-driving while also being a pain in the ass to play against. He actually has some really good ideas when making plays but can't always execute them as he doesn't have elite skill.

Disappointed:

Morgan Rielly and Brandon Carlo - Both were complete non-factors IMO in the series and turned the puck over a ton.
 
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99ovr said:
I'll start with who surprised me from the Leafs as a Sens fan.

Impressed:

Matthew Knies - Didn't know how skilled, strong and fast this kid was. Very flashy but does it in a smart way, I can see him being a perennial 80 point player and even flirt with 100 points some seasons if he continues to play with Matthews and Marner/Nylander. I'm not joking.

Max Domi: Underrated skill and play-driving while also being a pain in the ass to play against. He actually has some really good ideas when making plays but can't always execute them as he doesn't have elite skill.

Disappointed:

Morgan Rielly and Brandon Carlo - Both were complete non-factors IMO in the series and turned the puck over a ton.
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As a Bruins fan I hear you on Knies. He was tough to play against in last year's playoffs, and took a step forward this season

And there's a reason I was saying get rid of Carlo all season this year :laugh:
 
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Positive: Byfield is gonna be a superstar. You can see his size, speed and skill coming together. Scariest king in the offensive zone after Kempe, and is impossible to handle down low.

Negative: Time comes for everyone, and Doughty is no different. He’s nowhere near a top pair level, and was badly outmatched trying to stop Mcdrai. There is no reason he should be playing 28 minutes against Mcdrai every night. LA needs to cut back his minutes next year.
 
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Svech possibly shedding the playoff choker label for Carolina with his big series v NJ

Not really much negative, Carolina just owns us as a team from first to last guy. Maybe if I had one negative, maybe not playing Nikishin for Burns?
 
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I really never thought I'd see Makar have a genuinely bad playoff series

He could not score, and it wasn't like he was unlucky he was straight up missing the net most of the time. Shocking to watch really. Got to the point where I didn't fear him shooting which is very odd to say

Didnt leave impressed with Necas or Nelson either. Really thought Nelson's goal scoring ability would show up at some point but he was never a threat

I thought Landeskog looked good for a guy who hadn't played in 3 years
 
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Jake Sanderson - Legitimate 1D and still room to grow, he defends well, reads plays well and good offensively

Zub - A solid defender, he was probably the most annoying Senators player of the series. Protects the net front well and plays physical

Stutzle - He stepped up big time and was the most dangerous Senators player all series long, tons of chances offensively, skates great. Only flaw was he didn't do well on faceoffs, but he's young

Disappointed

Batherson - I think he legitimately cost Ottawa the series. Took tons of dumb penalties, played horrible defensively and a lot of turnovers. He probably cost the Sens 2 games.
 
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Markstrom on NJD. He came back from that knee injury and looked to be in top form. I knew he was good, but I wasn't familiar with his game. I can see why he wanted to take Nemec out with his stick lol..

Not really disappointed with anyone I can think of other than just general Injuries the team had that made this series less interesting that it should've been.

O'Connor felt like he was all over the ice against the stars this series. Such a thorn in the side honestly.

Disappointed in a few of the new members, Necas as a canes fan, as I thought to would be primed to be a sniper on the top line, but I think it has to be Makar. He was just invisible this series. There was a photo of him with a taped up hand, which is understandable, but he just wasn't able to use his skating to create looks either.
 
Definitely been a Suzuki skeptic before but he's legit. At the other end Laine has fully transitioned into a Victor Oloffson type and Newhook barely seemed like an NHLer.
 
Positive:
- Suzuki stepped up big time, he definitely has the clutch gene.
- Carrier is underrated and still has room to grow as a two-way D.
- Demidov has the skill but also the confidence.

Negative:
- Laine is completely washed. It won’t be long before he’s out of the NHL at this rate.
 
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I was surprised that Guentzel was such a force. I know he’s a great player but to me he had always seemed like a guy who would benefit greatly from the play of Crosby.

That is no longer the case. He impressed me a lot.
 
Klevin for Ott. Guy seemed like a complete pain in the ass to play against

Disappointment? Hard to say anyone really. I think Ottawa got what they were expecting this year.
 
Positive: McMichael and to a lesser extent Beauvillier

Negative: I thought that Dubois would have been much better. I barely noticed him all series long.
 
For the Jets, I was most impressed with Pionk. More of a defensive d-man that I hadn’t really paid much attention to previously but from a defensive standpoint, he was outstanding. Constantly breaking up plays and transitioning the puck up the ice.

I wasn’t “surprised” by how good Connor was as I’ve been a fan of his game since I first saw him in the USHL as a 17 yr old but he was even better than I expected. He was the most offensively dangerous player on the ice for either team and it wasn’t very close IMO. He’s what us Blues fans hoped Kyrou could be. Take away Connor’s heart and compete level and you have Kyrou.

On the other end, L. Schenn was horrible. He’s cooked. Nice career but he needs to call it a day. Just looked up his stats to see if they matched what I saw and I see he was -8 in this series. -8! And I’d assume he got the 5th or 6th most icetime on their blue line too. The Blues simply feasted whenever he was on the ice. The Jets have a very nice top-4 but I think their 3rd pairing is going to be a problem for them going forward as Stanley wasn’t very good either. Maybe Fleury can be better for them going forward? He looked fine in limited minutes.
 
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Face Of Bear said:
I was surprised how much Stutzle dives and gets away with it
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IMG_8856.jpeg
 
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Canes fan picking New Jersey.

Jacob Markstrom has a couple bad goals but was overall exceptional. Felt like every other period he was playing out of his mind keeping the Devils in it.

Brett Pesce and Brian Dumoulin were the other best players. So effective in the D zone. Warriors. Put their bodies on the line constantly.

At forward I thought Bratt was at times the best player on the ice, but at other times he wasn't as effective. He didn't have a ton of support, however.
 
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McMichael had a great series. Mixing skill and confidence with a willingness to go to the dirty areas and be involved in the battle really stood out for a young player.

Strome and Dubois didn't impress me for being the top centers on the best team in the East. Pretty pedestrian and often overmatched by a very shallow, inexperienced group of Habs forwards. Probably speaks to the strength that WSH has on the wings.
 
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