OT: Leafs/NHL Thread

[WuTang_OG]

Cant comeback win like that vs Boston
they need to clean up their 1st periods

the confidence boost getting out of the first round will be major. can only imagine the mental block they have from years of choking

[Psubs]

I only watched games 3 and 4.

The leafs were outplayed in every period except the third in game 4.

Seeing as games 1 and 2 were both blowouts...i'd guess that means Tampa has outplayed them in 8 of 12 periods?

Leafs were SO lucky to win these 2 games in Tampa. Bruins are supposed to be one of the best teams in recent history from what I hear.

If there's one thing about basketball....teams don't often get lucky wins like they do in hockey, soccer and football.

This is like the 2019 Raptors facing Milwaukee. Kawhi lead the Raptors to a great comeback or else they'd be down 0-3. Boston is the GS Warriors, though have to face them in the 2nd round since in the same conference.

[Psubs]

Playoff hockey will always be significantly more entertaining than the NBA playoffs.

And, the world Cup win and move on more than Playoff hockey. Really because 1 goal means so much more.

[ruckus]

Is it safe to jump on the bandwagon?

[Green Backpack]

Is it safe to jump on the bandwagon?

Only if you have experience in heartbreak. Otherwise you may suffer irreversible emotional damage.

[Agimat]

Raptors and Blue Jays, I'm already emotionally invested in. All that is left is hockey.

Cmon Leafs help me make the trifecta complete!

[YogurtProducer]

Have watched more hockey this year than probably in my entire life (Connor Bedard here in Regina helps a lot). Playoff hockey is simply unmatched.

[ATLTimekeeper]

Looks like the Leafs finally got over their playoff jitters. Guess that playoff experience is a thing after all. They’re not playing scared or soft. There’s a grit to their play that they’ve lacked in previous years. They’re going to advance. Tampa will give them a great game 5 effort but they’ll run out of gas in the third. It’ll be interesting to see if the Leafs are jittery to start game 5 or if they come out with a killer instinct.

Nah, they've played one good game against an old, wounded team. If I'm Shanahan I'm firing Dubas unless they make it to the semi-finals. Tampa is playing 3 D-men that don't belong in the NHL at all, they're best defenseman is playing hurt, their best player is playing hurt, and their goalie has been horrid. The quality of this Leafs team is so much better than any other iteration, too.

The comebacks are nice examples of togetherness, though. If they win this and somehow find their game against Boston they have a shot, but if they play like this the next 3 games they're just as likely to be golfing.

[Vampirate]

They're either winning it all or they're setting up for another historic collapse.

For as big of a joke the Leafs have been in the playoffs, Austin Matthews is not the reason.

AM if I were to compare it to basketball, is Dwayne Wade while Conner McDavid is Lebron James.

Both are generational, but one is a tier above the other.

Also, I think AM is easily going to end up being the better Maple Lead than Mats Sundin barring injuries.

I still remember reading about the draft and people were saying they'd pick Patrick Laine because of his ability to score.

[mihaic]

Is it safe to jump on the bandwagon?

Only if you have experience in heartbreak. Otherwise you may suffer irreversible emotional damage.

On a positive side... irreversible emotional damage ~ = experience in heartbreak.

If he is a raptor fan it's safe to assume he already got that from the Raptors.

[Yallbecrazy]

Down 4-1 in the third to win it in overtime. What a wild game.

Hopefully they can exercise these first round demons now up 3-1 in the series.

I think their demons have gotten plenty of exercise in the past, they don't need to get any stronger or more fit.

[Brinbe]

Dubas is the last guy they should be firing. His moves have worked out perfectly, especially adding ROR/Acciari/Schenn and obviously Knies was his guy too. They've squeezed that cap to absolute limit.

If anything it'd be Keefe on the chopping block.

On paper this is a very good and deep Leaf team that isn't consistently playing to its level but you can somewhat get away with that in Hockey/Futbol just due to the games they are and the luck involved.

You just gotta hope they don't lay an egg at home like this core has done many times before.

Now will that inconsistent play cut it against the Bruins? Absolutely not. They need to be on their A-Game from the jump or they'll get caved in and scored on unlike an older tired Tampa team getting by on fumes. The Bruins are legit.

Anyway, as a Leaf fan stretching back to the early 90s and early 2000s teams, this team does have a bit of that edge to them that they've missed in past runs. Might not be Wendal/Dougie/Felix or Stumpy/Gary Roberts/Cujo but we've got some playoff heroes emerging in this group.

[ATLTimekeeper]

Dubas is the last guy they should be firing. His moves have worked out perfectly, especially adding ROR/Acciari/Schenn and obviously Knies was his guy too. They've squeezed that cap to absolute limit.

You have to look at the big picture for his term, not just the end of the line moves that may or may not work. He took over in 2017, so in 5 drafts he has one total drafted player on this current team, and that guy has played 6 NHL games.

He's had two other draft picks have consistent roles in the NHL, Rasmus Sandin, who he had to sell at the deadline because he was capped out, and Sean Durzi, who was packaged with a first for Jake Muzzin. Their cap is always sweaty. They're constantly looking for goaltenders, and scrounging the bargain bin for answers.

This team that he's finally assembled resembles the successful archetypes for playoff teams that he's resisted in his time, by biasing towards smaller players, everything off the rush offense that would get shut down in the first round every year. He wasted good years off their core, who are primed to get even more expensive. Most of his deadline deals in the past flopped. The hometown vets he brought in to babysit were all washed. The Kadri trade was a disaster. They need more than a first round win to re-up.

[TGM]

Both were amazing wins. Something we don’t see often with Toronto teams. Go leafs go!

[tecumseh18]

I only watched games 3 and 4.

The leafs were outplayed in every period except the third in game 4.

Seeing as games 1 and 2 were both blowouts...i'd guess that means Tampa has outplayed them in 8 of 12 periods?

Leafs were SO lucky to win these 2 games in Tampa. Bruins are supposed to be one of the best teams in recent history from what I hear.

If there's one thing about basketball....teams don't often get lucky wins like they do in hockey, soccer and football.

To be fair, by all rights the Leafs should have won Game 6 last year against the Lightning, which would have won them that series. Leaf outplayed them all game, and during the OT period.

So yeah, the bouncing puck can really determine the outcome of a hockey game. For those who say Kawhi's four bouncer against the Sixers was lucky, rewind the Game 7 tape 40 seconds. Kawhi took a mid-range shot that goes in and out. That would have been the dagger if it had counted. In each basketball game, there are usually enough shots (and bad calls both ways) to eliminate the variance and allow for regression to the mean. So the best team usually wins.

[CanadaB-Ball]

Looks like the Leafs finally got over their playoff jitters. Guess that playoff experience is a thing after all. They’re not playing scared or soft. There’s a grit to their play that they’ve lacked in previous years. They’re going to advance. Tampa will give them a great game 5 effort but they’ll run out of gas in the third. It’ll be interesting to see if the Leafs are jittery to start game 5 or if they come out with a killer instinct.

Nah, they've played one good game against an old, wounded team. If I'm Shanahan I'm firing Dubas unless they make it to the semi-finals. Tampa is playing 3 D-men that don't belong in the NHL at all, they're best defenseman is playing hurt, their best player is playing hurt, and their goalie has been horrid. The quality of this Leafs team is so much better than any other iteration, too.

The comebacks are nice examples of togetherness, though. If they win this and somehow find their game against Boston they have a shot, but if they play like this the next 3 games they're just as likely to be golfing.

They were the (albeit just slightly) better team last night, and lead the series in xG, but keep parroting the baseless narrative.

[Ado05]

Seems to me like the Leafs have been outplayed for the majority of the series. Wild how they're up 3-1.

[MoneyBall]

An unbelievable comeback. They didn't even start the comeback until halfway through the 3rd.

I'm not gonna lie, losing the next three games to lose the series would also be very entertaining.

[MoneyBall]

Seems to me like the Leafs have been outplayed for the majority of the series. Wild how they're up 3-1.

They definitely have. Especially in OT of game 3. Samsonov saved their butts.

[Brinbe]

Dubas is the last guy they should be firing. His moves have worked out perfectly, especially adding ROR/Acciari/Schenn and obviously Knies was his guy too. They've squeezed that cap to absolute limit.

You have to look at the big picture for his term, not just the end of the line moves that may or may not work. He took over in 2017, so in 5 drafts he has one total drafted player on this current team, and that guy has played 6 NHL games.

He's had two other draft picks have consistent roles in the NHL, Rasmus Sandin, who he had to sell at the deadline because he was capped out, and Sean Durzi, who was packaged with a first for Jake Muzzin. Their cap is always sweaty. They're constantly looking for goaltenders, and scrounging the bargain bin for answers.

This team that he's finally assembled resembles the successful archetypes for playoff teams that he's resisted in his time, by biasing towards smaller players, everything off the rush offense that would get shut down in the first round every year. He wasted good years off their core, who are primed to get even more expensive. Most of his deadline deals in the past flopped. The hometown vets he brought in to babysit were all washed. The Kadri trade was a disaster. They need more than a first round win to re-up.

1000% Agree to disagree. Dubas definitely is not perfect but if you're really looking at the bigger picture, which you're paradoxically not doing lol, there's way more good there.

I'm well aware of Kyles' foibles and none of what you've said has moved me at all. He's constantly built 100 pt teams, clearly learned from his mistakes in terms of roster building, and he can't be faulted for a league with an asinine playoff system and a cap that hasn't gone up in some time. Though the team certainly deserves lots of sht for the playoff failures, particularly against the Habs and Jackets.

You're right that he's constantly scrounging but he's good at it. And though he's lost some trades, he's won a sht-ton of them too.

It's not like the pipeline is bare either. There's Robertson, Niemala, Minten and you gotta hope Amirov recovers from his medical issues. The NHL draft is a crapshoot and though they don't have the strongest system, I think you'll see some of the guys from his past few drafts start to break through in the next few years.

Otherwise, he's built a damn good team and I think his ability to learn from his mistakes is a good trait. I think the majority of smart Leaf fans know he's a good GM.