Are the Leafs legit contenders? Carlyle comments on play.

[SoulOnIce]

Saturday and Tuesday (Chicago/Anaheim) should be a good early test of where this team is. The talent and depth seem to be there for a solid playoff run.

http://www.tsn.ca/toronto/blogs/jonas_siegel/?id=434312

"6-1 is only a stat," he declared following an instructive Wednesday practice that lingered for upwards of an hour. "We really know the body of work has to improve. And yet we're happy to take 6-1, but there's a but."

...

"It's a fine line," Jay McClement told the Leaf Report, with the Carolina Hurricanes set to visit the ACC on Thursday. "You don't want to reign on our record, but at the same time there's quite a few games that could've gone the other way and we have to look at that and judge our game accordingly, not just on the result."

...

"I just think overall we're too loose in the three zones," Carlyle said Tuesday morning before the game against the Wild. "I think it's the ability to step inside and be first on pucks; talk about team toughness and all those things, it's willing to take a check to make a play; stop on pucks instead of circling away; win your share of 1-on-1 battles; start with the puck more on face-offs. All those things are factors that go into improving your team play."

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[EdBelfour20]

hoping to win 1 of 2 out of these games.. I think it will prove we are contenders but we must keep in mind we are injured right now!

 

[ponder]

I definitely don't think we'll be one of the handful of cup favourites, but I can see us as a solid playoff team. At that point you do have a shot at the cup. Not that we have a particularly good chance (what team does? It's damn hard to win), but while I can see us being the underdogs against certain teams in the playoffs, I don't think we'd be close to an "auto-loss" against anyone.

 

[bonjovi0308]

As I said, I think this year could be our best chance going for the cup. Next year with all those salary cap issues, I don't think we can keep the same team and depth, even if the cap does go up.

 

[TheKrebsCycle]

contenders for the cup no. Playoff team, yes. Anything can happen so long as you get in the dance. Hot goaltender can do wonders as well. Need to see more consistency from the team.

 

[SoulOnIce]

As I said, I think this year could be our best chance going for the cup. Next year with all those salary cap issues, I don't think we can keep the same team and depth, even if the cap does go up.

No major prospects left for the Leafs to call up. Cap will cause the Leafs to lose a player, maybe two.

On the bright side Nonis has made some great trades. Could easily make another. Younger players should get better with more experience (Reilly and Gardiner can make big strides still).

Not sure if this carries over to hockey but in basketball usually when a young team pushes an experienced team to 7 games in a playoff series and loses, they beat them the next year. Wouldn't be worried about Boston. Pittsburgh will be a huge problem.

 

[legendinblue]

No, not with that defense. We can score with the best of them, might have one of the best goalies in the league, our special teams are excellent, but we're not going anywhere until our defense improves 5 on 5.

 

[The Hockey Life]

Realistically, we haven't faced a real cup-contending team yet. And if we play like we have for the last 7 games, we will be crushed. Can't rely on Bernier/Reimer all the time.

 

[Durrr]

IF the team plays to it's potential, and that's a huge if, then it's experience that the team is missing. That and maybe center depth.

 

[Phion Keneuf]

If we learn how to play a full 60 minute game then I don't see why not.

Bruins, Pens and maybe Wings are the only eastern teams I think are clear cut better than us, and in the playoffs anything can happen. We can hang with the best in the east.

 

[binop7]

No major prospects left for the Leafs to call up. Cap will cause the Leafs to lose a player, maybe two.

On the bright side Nonis has made some great trades. Could easily make another. Younger players should get better with more experience (Reilly and Gardiner can make big strides still).

Not sure if this carries over to hockey but in basketball usually when a young team pushes an experienced team to 7 games in a playoff series and loses, they beat them the next year. Wouldn't be worried about Boston. Pittsburgh will be a huge problem.

The boys always have played well vs pitt, with their shoddy goaltending I don't fear them much. Malkin is also usually very silent vs us, but obviously the playoffs are a different beast. I think Carlyle can outcoach Bylsma too and our speed would give them fits. I think Detroit is a bad matchup for us

 

[JackJ]

Not cup contenders but a good chance to go much deeper.

 

[ConnorTO]

well it brings good heart to think about being contenders

 

[Punch Drunk Loov]

Can't see us beating the Bruins or Pens

 

[Patty Lee]

just played game 7

 

[SprDaVE]

Not if they keep playing this super high risk hockey.

 

[Ruski]

6-1 start and already contender talk?

Common...we are missing 3 key players, noone knows how we will perform with a full roster over 30+ games, its just way too early to talk about contending.

Lets try and make the playoffs with home ice advantage and go from there

 

[Bad News Bears]

I think they're a good team. I just think they'll still lose to the Bruins or the Pens. I think they're still the best teams in the conference.

 

[Daisy Jane]

I personally feel that we are. If we make the playoffs, we're a contender. the end.
i mean I'll go deeper into it.

almost every year there's a cinderella team. that team that has goaltending clicking, everything happening for them at once. (they don't always win - but they get pretty darn close) heck there are sometimes you could say that they DO win. (see, Carolina. Tampa).

I think it's obvious that if we add pieces to the team we'll be a very scary team. but I think something that we're discounting a lot is this team's will to not roll over and die. Inexperience was a main part of what hurt them in Game seven. You can point to faceoff wins etc etc etc. but - if we had a Bolland out there, a Clarkson, guys who know how to dig down deep and just eek it out? We're playing the Rangers. (I don't look past that we don't know what would have happened after that).

You can ask me this seven days of the week and I will answer the same way:
Until we are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs - we are a playoff team. until the buzzer sounds of the last elimination game, the Leafs are stanley cup contenders. the end. No qualifiers, no if we hads, or we needs, or anything like that. Regarding this team, I run fully on wings and a prayer, lots of faith and optimism.

regardless of the outcome Saturday/Tuesday - it won't really determine anything. (because if we win - everyone will scream we're lucky some more. if we lose people will scream omg, see! they were lucky!)

 

[veedubn1]

The Leafs are not contenders at this time.

 

[IBeL34f]

The fact that people can't name more than 2 teams from our conference that they're afraid of in the post-season leads me to believe we're pretty much legitimate contenders. Especially since one of those 2 teams is the very Bruins club we took to Game 7 last year. Frankly, nobody scares me in the East, not when we've got a full line-up.

It's a shame that people are so afraid of being confident that we have a really good team just because of the past, but at the same time, I suppose it is nice to be 6-and-1 underdogs...

 

[Joey Hoser]

Even if we finish the regular season in first, win the conference and go to the finals with home ice, people still won't consider us contenders. We are the Leafs.

 

[Jerkini]

We haven't yet played any of the powerhouse teams in the league. Way too early to tell.

 

[MildlyAwesome]

We haven't yet played any of the powerhouse teams in the league. Way too early to tell.

Yep. We've had a decently easy schedule and everyone watching the wins can tell you that a lot of our wins are puck luck and ridiculous goaltending performances.

Let's not worry about the playoffs as this team still has 75 games to go.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Of course we're contenders. Doesn't mean we're among the favorites, but we have a shot.

Agree with several points made earlier by others - everyone has a shot that makes the playoffs, there are often cinderella teams, we have added experience which should prevent a collapse like last year etc. ... all this is true.

The most important thing in the playoffs is goaltending and it seems that our goaltending is now potentially right up there with the best of them. The second most important thing IMO is special teams and so far we're looking very good indeed - wasn't that an awesome first goal last night? We also have enough talent up front that we can score enough goals. The only issue is defence which still has a long way to go. A lot of improvement could come from Gardiner and perhaps Rielly so we'll see but defence is a team game and against Boston last year we showed we are capable of playing very well and this year we should be even better.

When the playoffs started last year, I gave us about a 2% shot at winning it all. Now, I would go maybe as high as 5%. We'll see where we are at the end of the year. Hopefully we're healthy, Gardiner has emerged into a top tier rushing d-man, the goalies have kept up their awesome play, Lupul has been healthy and productive all year, Kadri has had an awesome season etc. The biggest question mark is where will the defence be at? Franson, Ranger, Fraser, Gardiner, Rielly, Gunnarson ... they're all question marks to some degree IMO. If those guys put it together, then we got as good a shot at making the final as anyone and once you get there, with top notch goaltending yeah, we can win it all.

As it is though, 5% shot and we're definitely a tough out for anyone! Now if we could find a way to clone Phaneuf ...