Pre-Game Talk: It's official: Leafs vs Bruins [Game 1 on Wed]

[Bruinswillwin77]

Holy **** you gotta be ****tin me. I'll flip my lid if Kostus is picked over ROB.

Agreed, I don't get it.

What's going on?

 

[Crispy Crust]

What's going on?

Our coach has an odd fetish for everything Kostka.

 

[Habsoil]

What?

Remove Chara from the Bruins, what happens?

They lose 7 of 9 to end the season! Chara hasnt been the same guy since the Emelin fight humpding weeks ago!

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Tbh I think losing Bergy really is more of a hit then Chara/Lucic.

Bergeron and Chara are the Bruins in my opinion, Thomas was also before he left.

If I have a strategy to beat the Bruins, it would be to wear these 2 down in games 1-4, the longer the series goes I think we can gain an advantage over the Bruins.

I respect you guys, but this is war, and we have to hit Chara and Bergy every chance we get to win. No mercy in the NHL playoffs, you ain't playing the smurfy backstabbers of Quebeqois.

 

[Mr Knies Guy]

Bergeron and Chara are the Bruins in my opinion, Thomas was also before he left.

If I have a strategy to beat the Bruins, it would be to wear these 2 down in games 1-4, the longer the series goes I think we can gain an advantage over the Bruins.

I respect you guys, but this is war, and we have to hit Chara and Bergy every chance we get to win. No mercy in the NHL playoffs, you ain't playing the smurfy backstabbers of Quebeqois.

Agreed, but those two are nearly impossible to wear down

 

[Mr Knies Guy]

Our coach has an odd fetish for everything Kostka.

Nice.

 

[Crispy Crust]

Agreed, but those two are nearly impossible to wear down

Bergeron is a legit superstar. I'd feel a little bit better about our chances if he decided to quit hockey by tomorrow night.

 

[Bruinswillwin77]

Bergeron and Chara are the Bruins in my opinion, Thomas was also before he left.

If I have a strategy to beat the Bruins, it would be to wear these 2 down in games 1-4, the longer the series goes I think we can gain an advantage over the Bruins.

I respect you guys, but this is war, and we have to hit Chara and Bergy every chance we get to win. No mercy in the NHL playoffs, you ain't playing the smurfy backstabbers of Quebeqois.

Yup, if I was an NHL player playing for the Leafs, that's what I would think would be the best option. And make sure to go glove-high on Tuukka.

 

[legendinblue]

Woohoo, Kostka! Please don't screw up.

 

[Mr Knies Guy]

Yup, if I was an NHL player playing for the Leafs, that's what I would think would be the best option. And make sure to go glove-high on Tuukka.

Oh, so the shot charts for both teams will be high-right?

 

[Tak7]

I'd much rather see O'Byrne. I don't really understand his infatuation with him myself.

You aren't the only one. I'm not really sure what, if anything, Kostka offers over the guys that he's in the lineup in place of.

 

[Mr Knies Guy]

You aren't the only one. I'm not really sure what, if anything, Kostka offers over the guys that he's in the lineup in place of.

He's more charitable to Randy and the opposition. That's the only thing I can think of.

 

[The Missing Piece]

Costco can't start.

I figured the reason he was getting so much ice time was so that we could try and dish him for a prospect at the trade deadline. Now everytime he dresses it just baffles me.

ROB or Gardiner...

 

[Crispy Crust]

He's more charitable to Randy and the opposition. That's the only thing I can think of.

Watching Kostka is equivalent to checking the "replay" of a play in an NHL game. It's like quicksand on the PP.

 

[TmlHockeyFan]

Sounds like the top line JVR-Kadri-Kessel are going to be our top line.

 

[Bruinswillwin77]

Oh, so the shot charts for both teams will be high-right?

Reimer too eh? Tuuka's awesome but it bugs me when he's always on his knees against goal scorers and they just shoot high and its in the net. AH.

 

[ACC1224]

I wouldn't expect Kostka to dress, O'Bryne will play with Liles.

 

[realgoodleafs]

Kostka is terrible...why he gets time on the powerplay just boggles my ***** mind. The best you can hope for from him is a chip off the boards which is just going to feed into Boston's puck possession even more.

 

[Pi]

Randy Carlyle was singing praises of Kostka before the Habs game...

It would not surprise me if he plays. It's going to SUCK seeing him on the ice.

We're already the underdog...why not ice a better lineup when it's in our power to do so?

 

[Lebanese Leaf]

I can't wait 2 more days, I just can't.

 

[Crispy Crust]

Randy Carlyle was singing praises of Kostka before the Habs game...

It would not surprise me if he plays. It's going to SUCK seeing him on the ice.

We're already the underdog...why not ice a better lineup when it's in our power to do so?

I don't really get some of these coaching decisions. This is completely egregious that Kostka is going to start over Gardiner or O'Byrne. Just play the better players.

 

[Pi]

Agreed, but those two are nearly impossible to wear down

Chara is hardly impossible to wear down.

The man is 36 years old.

The problem is that only one or two players on our team have the balls to hit Chara every time he has the puck:

Komarov and Kulemin.

 

[dimi78]

No I'm not. Yeah this matchup with the Bruins is not ideal but it is what it is. The Leafs did play better than the Bruins in that March 7th game, and probably deserved a better outcome in their shootout loss on the 25th of March. The Bruins outplayed the Leafs in the only game the Leafs won, and probably deserved a better outcome there as well. I'm not saying the Leafs are going to win this series but I sure as heck don't think this team is just going to roll over and die in front of our eyes.

Neither do I... Ultimately with all this talk that some are saying about toughness being a factor. I don't see that at all. It's Between the Leafs opportunistic offense and Boston's cycle game and who's goalie holds the fort better to what they face.

Rask is a good goalie he wont be easy to beat that means the Leafs have to improve big time with there offensive game and spend more time in the offensive zone then they have through out the year and force Boston to play D more. If they do that they got a chance but that wont happen if the D doesn't have the green light to be part of the cycle.

Rope & dope plays right into Boston's strengths. There D while many think the D zone structure of the Leafs is bad that's not true Boston is worst then the Leafs at this but there cycle game is so good they spend more time in the offensive zone wearing teams down then they do playing D. The Leafs need to flip the script on them other wise it comes down to Reimer stealing the series and Rask tanks.

 

[Warden of the North]

Chill people. We still have two more full practices before our first game. Line combos on a non-game day mean squat.

 

[Mr Knies Guy]

Chara is hardly impossible to wear down.

The man is 36 years old.

The problem is that only one or two players on our team have the balls to hit Chara every time he has the puck:

Komarov and Kulemin.

The man is the biggest player in NHL history and rarely gets injured, he is NEARLY (note that's the word preceeding impossible) impossible to wear down.

And while I admire Komarov's guts more than anyone on this team, he bounces off Chara like pinball, despite his efforts