Wow the playoffs are intense. Can we compete

[Gary Nylund]

I get pessimism in Leafland can be a common thing, but imo folks need to stop fixating so much on some of those past playoff series so much (I mean, aside from the fact that the Leafs lost to the cup champs in one, and took a better Bruins team to game 7 each series) there's been a ton of roster turnover and internal player development (ie compare Matthews now to what he was as a rookie...).

The Leafs just had a regular season where they absolutely dominated. It's okay to have a bit of confidence.....

A bit of confidence is absolutely called for, arrogant bragging when we haven't won anything yet on the other hand ...

 

[Menzinger]

A bit of confidence is absolutely called for, arrogant bragging when we haven't won anything yet on the other hand ...

The way I see it arrogance and over-confidence will always be a part of fandom.

I just don't see why Leafs fans have to act more reserved than any other team.s supporters

 

[weems]

This core is never going to be a overly physical group so yes in a way we'll always be somewhat potentially exploitable to a super physical opponent.

The question if it will be a minor or major issue will come down to our willingness to not take shortcuts. That means we need to match the other teams work ethic, consistently win 50/50 puck battles and take a hit to make a play. You actually dont have to be big or strong to accomplish those things and it mostly comes down to mindset and how badly you want it.

I think we saw some really good signs especially early in the year where this team showed an uptick in willingness to do alot of the greasy things needed to win 4 rounds of playoff hockey.

The additions of Simmonds, Thornton, Bogosian, Foligno were always going to matter most in the playoffs where their experience would play a vital role in being able to show and voice how you need to play to win. We should find out alot about this team after the Montreal series as they will most likely gameplan around trying to make it a rough and dirty series and make it as hard as possible on our star players.

 

[Gary Nylund]

The way I see it arrogance and over-confidence will always be a part of fandom.

I just don't see why Leafs fans have to act more reserved than any other team.s supporters

Leaf fans don't "have to" do anything. We're like every other fan base which means we have some people who arrogantly brag for no reason and others who try to be objective. I find the ones who try to be objective much more interesting to discuss things with but that's of course JMHO, everyone is of course free to do what they like. It's the internet after all, everyone's free to be an idiot and say dumb things they might not say if people knew who was saying them.

 

[Superstar]

A bit of confidence is absolutely called for, arrogant bragging when we haven't won anything yet on the other hand ...

You mean we're not going to sweep the Habs?

 

[Superstar]

This core is never going to be a overly physical group so yes in a way we'll always be somewhat potentially exploitable to a super physical opponent.

The question if it will be a minor or major issue will come down to our willingness to not take shortcuts. That means we need to match the other teams work ethic, consistently win 50/50 puck battles and take a hit to make a play. You actually dont have to be big or strong to accomplish those things and it mostly comes down to mindset and how badly you want it.

I think we saw some really good signs especially early in the year where this team showed an uptick in willingness to do alot of the greasy things needed to win 4 rounds of playoff hockey.

The additions of Simmonds, Thornton, Bogosian, Foligno were always going to matter most in the playoffs where their experience would play a vital role in being able to show and voice how you need to play to win. We should find out alot about this team after the Montreal series as they will most likely gameplan around trying to make it a rough and dirty series and make it as hard as possible on our star players.

The biggest exploit are the refs not calling anything even when the core 4 gets abused by the opposition.

 

[Captain14]

The hit on Krejci? He was finishing his hit. Welcome to the playoffs

It didn’t appear that he ever touched the puck is all I am saying, that puck was dumped out of the zone by the d man

 

[egd27]

The way I see it arrogance and over-confidence will always be a part of fandom.

I just don't see why Leafs fans have to act more reserved than any other team.s supporters

They don't have to be, but if they are going to display arrogance and over confidence without the receipts, then don't come back whining about the mean old main board people calling them on it.

 

[Captain14]

I thought that as well but when you look at the replay the Bruin player got rid of the hit just before OV laid him out. No idea the time between getting rid of the puck and the hit but it was not outrageous IMO.

Yeah, the angle on TV replay was tough to see, I thought the puck was dumped off the boards and out.

 

[Gary Nylund]

You mean we're not going to sweep the Habs?

We might sweep them (not likely). We might get swept ourselves (less likely). Anything's possible.

 

[Doublerum1975]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw that. Sheesh. What a game to watch as a neutral.

So many non calls it was embarrassing if they want the games to be played like that call the games the same in the regular season

 

[Captain14]

Yes they are .. great mix of speed, skill and grit ... but I still don't want to play a team like caps or bruins who hit to injure .. that was an old fashioned train wreck almost every shift in GAME 1 .. even Pasta went into hiding .. he wanted no part of that game

Good. I’m glad someone saw it that way.
It’s up to the officials to call the obvious cheap hits, but it appears that the rules have changed again.

 

[weems]

The biggest exploit are the refs not calling anything even when the core 4 gets abused by the opposition.

Yep playoff reffing can be frustrating but it is what it is at this point and I dont see it changing anytime soon.

Need to find a way past that. No more excuses.

 

[Mess]

The answer to the thread question is .. We don't know yet or TBD. .

That is because last year when the season ended we were #8th ranked in the East and #13th overall and this year due to the crazy Div play only, the Leafs never played any of these goods teams we're currently watching in this years playoffs & that were already better than the Leafs last year.

The only team we did play this year was Edmonton, who finished just ahead of us last year but only marginally because they played 1 more game and recorded 1 more win, and just marginally behind us this year. So other then the 9 games we played against the Oilers the other 47 games were against teams weaker than us.

There is no accurate current way to measure our improvement or how competitive we will be until we start playing some of these top teams and see for ourselves. IMO

2019-20 Final Standings
National Hockey League	GP	W	L	OT	PTS	P%
1 Boston	70	44	14	12	100	0.714
2 St Louis	71	42	19	10	94	0.662
3 Colorado	70	42	20	8	92	0.657
4 Tampa Bay	70	43	21	6	92	0.657
5 Washington	69	41	20	8	90	0.652
6 Philadelphia	69	41	21	7	89	0.645
7 Pittsburgh	69	40	23	6	86	0.623
8 Vegas	71	39	24	8	86	0.606
9 Carolina	68	38	25	5	81	0.596
10 Dallas	69	37	24	8	82	0.594
11 NY Islanders	68	35	23	10	80	0.588
12 Edmonton	71	37	25	9	83	0.585
13 Toronto	70	36	25	9	81	0.579
Eastern	GP	W	L	OT	PTS	P%
1 Boston	70	44	14	12	100	0.714
2 Tampa Bay	70	43	21	6	92	0.657
3 Washington	69	41	20	8	90	0.652
4 Philadelphia	69	41	21	7	89	0.645
5 Pittsburgh	69	40	23	6	86	0.623
6 Carolina	68	38	25	5	81	0.596
7 NY Islanders	68	35	23	10	80	0.588
8 Toronto	70	36	25	9	81	0.579

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[budzz]

Hopefully we have bit of an extra edge in that department this year. 4 former team Captains. I am not in the room obviously but I think that just adds a calmer demeanor to the group, a bit of a quieter confidence. Having Simmonds and to a lesser extent Foligno and Bogo adds some meat that we never really had either, and these guys can play. Add in some legitimate depth that can step in with some hunger, and I like this group better than any recently.

 

[zeke]

You were saying Andersen was mediocre when he was putting up solid vezna performances every year.

Andersen was never remotely close to vezina caliber.

And the voters agreed.

 

[therealkoho]

Am I the only who finds it strange someone made a semi official looking Twitter profile and posts about hits they should be reviewed?

It's kinda like people calling themselves insiders! Lawls

 

[therealkoho]

I'm 92.7% sure I was first on that. Gimme credit, dammit!


As to the original question, I'm confident we will compete. And if I'm wrong, HF's server will explode from all the traffic.

I remember when you "alone" did say that, this was at the same time I was trying to point out that Buster was not an offensive black hole and was actually an excellent offensive player because of his ability to retrieve pucks and also due to his ability to create turnovers, but no, he was Babcocks son!

 

[Sypher04]

Its hilarious that people still think we lost to the Bruins because of physicality and not our historically bad penalty killing

 

[zeke]

You were saying Andersen was mediocre when he was putting up solid vezna performances every year.
Babcock was the right coach at that time. That time ended we have moved on. Your takes were wrong then. Time passes and things change, that's normal, to say you were right then because it is that way now is flawed logic.
Using recent situations to validate past assumptions is silly.

My takes on Andersen and Babcock were perfect then and perfect now, and you homers with no objectivity just couldn't see it.

 

[Menzinger]

Its hilarious that people still think we lost to the Bruins because of physicality and not our historically bad penalty killing

Yep, the super skilled Bruins 1st line (arguably the best line in the NHL that season) won't the series for them on their hot pp.

 

[Cotton]

From the games I have watched so far, the intensity and physicality of these first games is staggering. I am unsure if the Leafs can play that style. Now I don't think any of the Canadian teams can as well, but if we are lucky enough to get to the semi's its going to very interesting to see how we compete against some of those ultra competitive and physical teams. Even the Tampa Florida game was crazy hard and competitive. Do you think we will have what it takes??

We had much softer teams that played two series against Boston in recent times, guess what happened? When the games got chippier so did the Leafs.

 

[Nylander88]

Playoffs have been a blast so far! Can't wait to see our boys in the heat of battle. We're much better set up this year to answer the bell physically.

 

[moon111]

I think the 1993 Cup was awarded to the team that had the easiest way to the finals. Literately the league ate itself up and in the end only Montreal was looking like they had just come out of training camp. Of course we need Toronto to play tough... if needed. But let them fight among themselves if they want.

 

[Stephen]

Let's hope indeed. Tampa is scary as hell, only two points behind us in the standings which is impressive considering first of all there is a natural tendency to take the regular season with less urgency after winning the cup and of course they also played without Kucherov all season. The team is stacked with talent, they not only know what it takes to win but they've proved they can do what it takes. Add the fact that they have one of the best goalies in the league and yeah, that's a scary team!

What's impressive about them is their forward group does a good job of fighting to make high skill plays and they have two higher end pieces to lead them on defense and in goal. Hoping that series goes the distance and whatever team is left standing is worse for wear, though if Florida gains momentum they'll be a tough team as well, which will likely be Carolina's problem. What this all means is even if the Leafs advance out of Canada they will need to be at a higher gear than we've ever seen them.