Pre-Game Talk: Leafs @ Islanders, Feb 27 7 PM

[Warden of the North]

Moulson is expected to play. So you can count on it not being a shutout since he'll obviously score.

Its a good thing we're not playing the Sabres then!

 

[RaskY]

Moulson is expected to play. So you can count on it not being a shutout since he'll obviously score.

Hello, welcome to 2014. A lot has happened over the last few months. Canada won their 2nd straight gold at the Olympic games, Justin Bieber self destructed, Jimmy Fallon is the new host of the tonight show, and Matt Moulson no longer plays for the Islanders. PM me if you want to be updated on anything else.

 

[CanadasTeam]

Hello, welcome to 2014. A lot has happened over the last few months. Canada won their 2nd straight gold at the Olympic games, Justin Bieber self destructed, Jimmy Fallon is the new host of the tonight show, and Matt Moulson no longer plays for the Islanders. PM me if you want to be updated on anything else.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

The Bozak effect will take effect when JvR-Kessel hit the ice.

Watch out NHL!

Let's hope he does a better than Pavelski did.

 

[iceblue]

Hello, welcome to 2014. A lot has happened over the last few months. Canada won their 2nd straight gold at the Olympic games, Justin Bieber self destructed, Jimmy Fallon is the new host of the tonight show, and Matt Moulson no longer plays for the Islanders. PM me if you want to be updated on anything else.

priceless

 

[Leafs Life Hockey*]

Back to watching my Leafs now.

 

[Cor]

Hello, welcome to 2014. A lot has happened over the last few months. Canada won their 2nd straight gold at the Olympic games, Justin Bieber self destructed, Jimmy Fallon is the new host of the tonight show, and Matt Moulson no longer plays for the Islanders. PM me if you want to be updated on anything else.

Awesome

 

[ThrillinPhil]

Hello, welcome to 2014. A lot has happened over the last few months. Canada won their 2nd straight gold at the Olympic games, Justin Bieber self destructed, Jimmy Fallon is the new host of the tonight show, and Matt Moulson no longer plays for the Islanders. PM me if you want to be updated on anything else.

Golden

 

[mikebel111*]

Hello, welcome to 2014. A lot has happened over the last few months. Canada won their 2nd straight gold at the Olympic games, Justin Bieber self destructed, Jimmy Fallon is the new host of the tonight show, and Matt Moulson no longer plays for the Islanders. PM me if you want to be updated on anything else.

Not thats awesome!

 

[Ratboy]

man, now that's what i call a burn.

 

[BertCorbeau]

So we go from watching that stellar Canadian defense and amazingly skilled possessive Canadian offense back to watching the Leafs...

Hoboy... Might need a few games to transition my expectations - not that the Leafs were playing bad hockey by any means, but it's just not going to be at that level I've seen in the last week and a half

 

[legendinblue]

Two points. Tavares is out, no excuses.

Can't wait for the NHL to resume after the super boring Olympic tournament. Thanks god for small ice.

 

[Stats01]

Two points. Tavares is out, no excuses.

Can't wait for the NHL to resume after the super boring Olympic tournament. Thanks god for small ice.

Not sure if serious? The medal round was amazing hockey

 

[yakfish]

I enjoyed the Olympics but I am having Leafs withdrawal. Can't wait to see them back on the ice. GO LEAFS GO!!

 

[Liferleafer]

Ah...NHL talk again, bout time!! GO LEAFS GO!

 

[Warden of the North]

Not sure if serious? The medal round was amazing hockey

Medal round was OK, but the round robin was almost entirely duds. Too many trap teams.

 

[Warden of the North]

Back to watching my Leafs now.

Welcome to the boards

 

[Drew311]

Should be an easy win now that Tavares isn't there. He always kills the Leafs.

The Leafs usually lose the easy ones.

Plus you never know what kind of effort will be there after such a long break for the majority of the team.

 

[BonMorrison]

Gotta take advantage of JT being out.

Nice being able to talk about the Leafs again, I've missed ya'll.

 

[Stats01]

Medal round was OK, but the round robin was almost entirely duds. Too many trap teams.

Do you blame them for trapping though. A team like Norway or Austria would get destroyed if they played our style. They can't play an open game with us. So I agree the round robin were mostly duds but coming in I knew the real tournament started in the medal round. I actually didn't watch the games against Norway, Austria, Finland and Latvia.

 

[Daisy Jane]

Do you blame them for trapping though. A team like Norway or Austria would get destroyed if they played our style. They can't play an open game with us. So I agree the round robin were mostly duds but coming in I knew the real tournament started in the medal round. I actually didn't watch the games against Norway, Austria, Finland and Latvia.

in all honesty - this is on the IIHF. I'd rather them put the teams that aren't as strong together and then put all the powerhouses together. this way the powerhouse teams can just play, and the less-strong teams can do its thing

 

[Mess]

Do you blame them for trapping though. A team like Norway or Austria would get destroyed if they played our style. They can't play an open game with us. So I agree the round robin were mostly duds but coming in I knew the real tournament started in the medal round.

Our Leafs play many games like Latvia or Norway by getting outworked, outshot and outplayed by many opponents. It felt like Canada verses Leafs in those games where only the goalie saved the day.

However, what our Leaf do not do as well as those teams is defend. When you are getting bombarded by shots then tightening up defensively would be a good idea.

I expect the NYI without JT to try and Latvian\Norway trap their way the rest of the season and as we saw strong defense can lead to success. So Leafs better not think they're Team Canada here and going to win this without effort.

 

[Warden of the North]

Do you blame them for trapping though. A team like Norway or Austria would get destroyed if they played our style. They can't play an open game with us. So I agree the round robin were mostly duds but coming in I knew the real tournament started in the medal round. I actually didn't watch the games against Norway, Austria, Finland and Latvia.

Not at all. But that doesnt mean they werent crap.

 

[LeafsTFC]

in all honesty - this is on the IIHF. I'd rather them put the teams that aren't as strong together and then put all the powerhouses together. this way the powerhouse teams can just play, and the less-strong teams can do its thing

Are you suggesting putting a group together of Norway, Austria (etc.) and a group of Canada, US, Sweden? Wouldn't that just push the unbalanced matchups to the knockout rounds? I'd rather have balanced groups like we currently have and see the best teams move on to the knockout rounds. In my lifetime, we've seen a lot of countries start producing NHL players that traditionally haven't really had any (e.g. Norway, Austria, Switzerland). I'm hoping that continues and we get some more parity.

 

[Mess]

Not at all. But that doesnt mean they werent crap.

The Boston Bruins win and trap their way to NHL success.

"Defense wins Championships".

So it comes down to wanting success or wanting entertainment. To me a 1-0 win is far better than a 5-4 loss.

When the Leafs were once most successful they defended their way towards the Cup in 1993-94, behind Pat Burns defense first system.