TSN: Craig Button says the Leafs should rather want to play Tampa and not Boston in the playoffs

[rent free]

zeke says the Bruins and bolts would rather play anyone other than the leafs.

Not each other

 

[moon111]

Being in construction, I've had to work out of town. It can be a real downer being away from your family. When I had to do two weeks on, one week off, I was honestly getting very depressed and ended up quitting a lucrative job. I can feel for Tomas Plekanec with this trade. Some people have just lived with being away from family so much, they're use to it. But when you've been able to be home as much as Plekanec, being away from that will take your heart out of it. Now more back on topic, I really think if the Leafs face Boston... which is highly likely, you might just see a whole new Plekanec who's not just going through the motions because he has to. Of course he might 'bump' up his spirit against Tampa Bay as well, but with Boston, he'll go from being an outsider to a part of the team.

 

[Mess]

I'm not sure which poison is worse to tell the truth.

 

[TootooTrain]

Pick your poison.

 

[TakeTheBody]

Let the poison pick us. I'm not afraid. Or smart...lol

 

[justafan22]

The leafs goal should be getting 2nd place in the division and home ice.

It's not impossible, boston has 12 games left and tampa 11. They play each other twice down the stretch so that's good for the leafs. Leafs have to win in regulation tuesday though to have any chance of winning the division.

 

[thewave]

Being in construction, I've had to work out of town. It can be a real downer being away from your family. When I had to do two weeks on, one week off, I was honestly getting very depressed and ended up quitting a lucrative job. I can feel for Tomas Plekanec with this trade. Some people have just lived with being away from family so much, they're use to it. But when you've been able to be home as much as Plekanec, being away from that will take your heart out of it. Now more back on topic, I really think if the Leafs face Boston... which is highly likely, you might just see a whole new Plekanec who's not just going through the motions because he has to. Of course he might 'bump' up his spirit against Tampa Bay as well, but with Boston, he'll go from being an outsider to a part of the team.

Pleks has been great. He doesn't score but he also doesn't do stupid crap. Its like having two legit shutdown lines now. We're way better now. This is a 2nd I don't really mind paying compared to Boyle one that did little tbh.

 

[egd27]

Craig Button knows nothing about hockey. Everything he says is like 90% wrong. The 10% that he is correct is luck and based on probability that sometimes he'll just have to be right by chance. Don't listen to anything he says. He's got know hockey IQ.

Well when you put it like that.........

 

[Mess]

"Defense wins Championships"

Boston is #2 in the league in best goals against with 179 GA ( 1 more than Nashville) with a +56 goal differential.
&
Tampa Bay is #11 in GA with 201 GA with a goal differential also of +56 on the season.

Leafs are 12th in GA and have a goal differential of +39.

Both teams are better than the Leafs but "defensively" Leafs are closer to TB than Boston.

 

[crump]

Personally I would prefer Tampa, but I hope the Leafs don't care because if you start thinking about who you'd rather face, you are in trouble. Let your scouts scout, coaches come up with a plan against any opponent, be a gud pro, do things the right way, and execute the plan and you will come out on top.

 

[ImpartialNHLfan]

Boston can't handle the Leafs speed.

 

[Eb]

This is what happens when you screw around with the playoff matchups in the name of "rivalries"

What a balls up that idea is turning out to be

Who would we be facing in the old format

 

[LeafFever]

"Defense wins Championships"

Boston is #2 in the league in best goals against with 179 GA ( 1 more than Nashville) with a +56 goal differential.
&
Tampa Bay is #11 in GA with 201 GA with a goal differential also of +56 on the season.

Leafs are 12th in GA and have a goal differential of +39.

Both teams are better than the Leafs but "defensively" Leafs are closer to TB than Boston.

Defense wins championships except the past 2 years.

 

[LeafFever]

Boston can't handle the Leafs speed.

Yup. And them being better ddfensively won't matter. The Leafs roll 4 fast, skilled lines. The Bruins do not have that.

 

[JEI]

Going into the playoffs, I really don't 'fear' any team - even though this team has warts I can see them hanging with anyone on any given night (if they play to their potential). The consistency will be key which is a different psychological challenge in the playoffs so I'm interested in seeing that.

 

[Mess]

Defense wins championships except the past 2 years.

Except if you look at the stats ..

Playoff GOALS AGAINST AVG ... #1 Matt Murray - Pittsburgh ... 1.70 GAA
Playoff SAVE PERCENTAGE ...... #1 Matt Murray - Pittsburgh ... 9.37 SV%

NHL Hockey Statistics and League Leaders - National Hockey League - ESPN

How is the best goals against average and best save percentage that leads to a Stanley Cup not qualify as "Defense wins Championships" ?

Pens were on average giving up less than 2 goals against a game with a 1.70 GAA.

PS. Nashville the runner up with Rinne 1.96 GAA and 2.30 SV% also top 5 in both categories and also less than 2.0 GA/g average.

 

[ottomaddox]

At this point no one will be surprised if TBL fall to 2nd.

Who cares about who we face and when? We have to be our best and beat the best in order to finally be a championship team.

 

[LeafFever]

Except if you look at the stats ..

Playoff GOALS AGAINST AVG ... #1 Matt Murray - Pittsburgh ... 1.70 GAA
Playoff SAVE PERCENTAGE ...... #1 Matt Murray - Pittsburgh ... 9.37 SV%

NHL Hockey Statistics and League Leaders - National Hockey League - ESPN

That doesn't explain the team's defensive play at all. They had two #1 goalies the past two years. That defense was the worst in history for any cup winning team. Not to mention, their overall stats defensiveky were very pooor.

 

[zeke]

Not each other

eh.

 

[Mats13]

I see it differently.

Tampa and Boston are desperately trying to get the 1 seed so they can avoid the Leafs in round 1.

 

[Mess]

The reason Craig Button believes this is because Boston is #2 in GA and have given up 25 less goals against than the Leafs and that is because they have Rask, Chara and Bergeron and their goal differential of +56 is #1 in the NHL tied with TB.

Leafs goal differential is +39 which is -17 less than both Boston and TB.

Both Boston and TB on paper are favourites over the Leafs but Boston > TB statistically and as such Leafs would be better matched against TB.

Boston is also bigger, stronger and more physical than the Leafs whereas TB is similarly built on smaller fast skilled players.

 

[ponder]

We’ll be underdogs in either matchup, they’re both top 3 teams in the league. We have a chance against either one though, not too concerned with who we play, it’ll be similarly tough either way.

 

[egd27]

That doesn't explain the team's defensive play at all. They had two #1 goalies the past two years. That defense was the worst in history for any cup winning team. Not to mention, their overall stats defensiveky were very pooor.

Which ones?

If the team had the lowest GAA what were the ones that were very poor?

 

[Nooodles]

Stopped reading after "Craig Button says.."

 

[Stephen]

If healthy, like the Leafs could actually beat them both. We've basically dominated Boston in the regular season over the past 2 years. The matchup isn't as daunting as everyone seems to believe.

Tampa Bay seems to be running out of steam a little bit. Their goaltending is falling apart, they need to work McDonagh into the lineup and their big gun Stamkos isn't a particularly big game performer.

Once we get Matthews, Andersen, Komarov and Zaitsev back it'll be fun cheering for the Leafs to ride into the storm kind of thing.