Leafs or Habs who is the current favorite to win the North
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Rants Mulliniks
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- Jun 22, 2008
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Montreal is playing more complete hockey right now. Overall tough to call as Montreal also has quite a few players playing miles above their punching weight. Those things tend to even out over time (you'll get a few who overachieve, a few who underachieve). Toronto needs to sort their 5v5 scoring and PK though I suspect the scoring is linked in part to what seems to be more focus on defending (which is a good thing).
dukeofjive
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On paper this should easily be the leafs, but mtl has looked a whole lot better than the leafs this season, only 9 games in do. Still voted for habs.
ole ole
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I like a good "Got You" as much as any other person, but he was talking about Calgary...
ole ole
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TopChedder
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Habs have looked good for sure. It's nice to see a team coming together. Now I for sure think the Habs are in for a correction and many players are playing above career norms, but regardless they look good right now and that is what counts.
I think with guys like Petry, Price, and Weber being as old as they are the window is exactly right now. Even Toffoli will be 29 in April and statistics say this is an anomaly kind of start. Anderson looks good but is injury prone (but he is a beauty right now) and I am happy for him.
I am pretty confident of the young talent on the Leafs and what's coming in the pipeline. But right now this season Montreal looks VERY light.
Can't hate on that lol
ole ole
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TheBeastCoast
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Rants Mulliniks
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Will be interesting to see how games go against the tougher opponents. For me, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Calgary are the teams I expect to jockey for the playoff spots (and against whom I would more measure my results). To date Montreal is 1-1-1 against those teams, Toronto is 4-0. Toronto has a habit of playing to the level of their opponents. I wish they were consistent at beating those they should. To me if they can ever nail down consistency, that's when you'll know they are a contender.
Will be extra interesting if come the end of the season Toronto and Montreal are neck and neck at the top as they finish with 3 straight games against each other. That could be interesting. Almost like its own play-in.
Will be extra interesting if come the end of the season Toronto and Montreal are neck and neck at the top as they finish with 3 straight games against each other. That could be interesting. Almost like its own play-in.
The Podium
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Montreal is playing at their best right now, Toronto, despite their record, have room for improvement.
I think the Habs have been better, but Toronto has more room to grow this season.
I think the Habs have been better, but Toronto has more room to grow this season.
Critical13
Fear is the mind-killer.
I'm not sure that's true, they are playing at their absolute peak right now, the Leafs are not and there is ONE point between them
The Habs haven’t been great defensively, so there’s room for improvement there. I would agree the Leafs might have a bit more room for improvement, but Montreal holds a much stronger trump card in the goaltending department.
This can go either way IMO.
There's no indication Toronto's peak is naturally higher than Montreal's. Based on what? Last season started in October 2019, making most of those numbers almost meaningless now. Comparing rosters? Montreal's roster has shifted so substantially that even Habs fans have no idea what the 2021 team really is. I understand the temptation to use old data from outdated rosters to predict which team is better; after all, basing opinions on the current 10-game sample is pretty thin evidence. But the habit of looking backwards to make predictions doesn't work after so much time and so many changes.
That said, Montreal obviously isn't sustaining a 4+ GF/G pace. They don't have to -- they've won every game by 2 goals or more. And of course Toffoli is due to stop scoring at his current pace; at the same time, Danault is due to start scoring... period. Things will equalize, the Habs will regress somewhat (they're currently at an 89-point pace for 56 games) but wherever they finish won't be based on leftover impressions of what the Habs were last year.
As for the Leafs, the Habs can't touch their elite forward talent, but your four stars are already producing at more than a PPG pace -- what higher peak do you think they'll reach? Toronto's defence also looks stronger so far -- do you believe they're due to get even better? Andersen's been erratic, but so has Price for Montreal. Both goalies probably have room to improve. Toronto is currently on an 87-point pace for 56 games -- they'll probably regress, too.
The Podium
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The Leafs are struggling offensively 5v5. They have been a strong ES team in the past but as of now they are at 1.7 ES G/GP compared to 2.29 ES G/GP the 4 years prior which is 1st in the league during that timeframe.
Add to that the fact that Montreal has one of the highest PDOs in the league there is some room for regression while Toronto is more or less even.
Montreal has a lower xGF and higher xGA than Toronto despite being higher in real GF and lower in real GA so they are getting a bit of puck luck right now as well.
When you look at their records against current playoff teams Montreal is 1-1-1 while Toronto is 4-0. As the schedule normalizes a little bit you may see some regression as they start getting away from playing Vancouver (4-0-1) and Edmonton (2-0)
As of now the stats, which admittedly dont tell the whole story, show 1 team that is getting results better than their quality of play while the other is getting results below or at their quality of play.
koyvoo
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Last year Toronto was significantly better in the regular season accumulating 10 more pts in shortened season.
The year before over 82 games there was only 4 pts between them in the standings. We’re getting to a number of close to 175 games now where there hasn’t been a huge gap between the two teams in terms of success.
I don’t see one pulling away from the other to any huge degree.
The year before over 82 games there was only 4 pts between them in the standings. We’re getting to a number of close to 175 games now where there hasn’t been a huge gap between the two teams in terms of success.
I don’t see one pulling away from the other to any huge degree.
Pavel Buchnevich
Drury and Laviolette Must Go
Habs would need more than a four point advantage with a month to go or more than an eight point advantage with two months to go for me to take them over the Leafs. I don't really buy into the Habs core. I think it's weak. They'll make the playoffs this year because they started well, but thats clearly not a top 8 team in the league. Leafs are clearly a top 8 team in the league, on the other hand. I'm not picking them to win the Cup, but I think they have a much better team.
Connor McConnor
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- Nov 22, 2017
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Montreal is built very similarly to Vegas. This team is here to stay. Deepest roster in all of the North division, amazing D group with a top 3 goalie. Toronto has done this before and we already know the story.
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