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Are the Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup contenders?

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strattonius

strattonius

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Jul 4, 2011
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Surrey, BC
Divine is right guys. I mean look at this astutely accurate prediction of the Canadian teams goaltending back in October.

www.sportsnet.ca

Ranking each Canadian team’s goaltending ahead of the 2023-24 season

Look across the seven Canadian markets, and we pretty much saw it all last season: crease carousels, unexpected heroes, contract-year success, and glimpses of greatness that set the stage for perhaps a few steps forward this year.
www.sportsnet.ca www.sportsnet.ca

As you can see, this horrible goaltending you are witnessing is only from bad luck as many had predicted Samsonov was arguably the best goaltender in Canada.

Okay kidding aside the Leafs have bad goaltending, bad defense and need a coaching change. They might grab a wildcard but this isn't the same regular season Leafs team of the last 5 years. Also, Brad Treliving is going to absolutely sewer this organization.
 
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Miller Time

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Sep 16, 2004
23,124
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Egghead1999 said:
Did you see their AAV number? Of course, they figure it out. The issue is do MLSE and Shanny figure it out? Maybe, we are the ones not figuring it out.
Click to expand...

Stats are one thing... But they still fall far short in both the eye test & in their public demeanor whenever the pressure ramps up.

As much as I dislike the Leafs, I'd actually like to see them show up as leaders when it counts... Great players elevating their game when the stakes are high is fun to watch regardless of the jersey
 
Egghead1999

Egghead1999

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Nov 9, 2007
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Miller Time said:
Stats are one thing... But they still fall far short in both the eye test & in their public demeanor whenever the pressure ramps up.

As much as I dislike the Leafs, I'd actually like to see them show up as leaders when it counts... Great players elevating their game when the stakes are high is fun to watch regardless of the jersey
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I guess you miss my sarcasm, c'mom AAV ;)
To be fair, they did show up this season a lot, but the Leafs are like the Oilers at the start of this season. Their def system sucks. If AM34 does not score, they have close to zero chance to win a game.

Mad Dog Tannen said:
Oilers have 3 players that make what Nylander currently does or more. (6.9)

Mac Jesus - 12.5
Leon - 8.5
Nurse - 9.25

They have good depth in def and have an actual middle 6.

I know leafs fans like to drag oilers into their mess of a top heavy cap world but the 2 just aren’t comparable. No matter how much you want it to be true.

Matthews 11.9 (13.25)
Tavares 11
Marner 10.9
Reilly 7.5
Nylander 6.9 (11.5)
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I am not a Leafs fan. I just want to point out that a good system can put the Leafs in a better position.
 
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bringbacktheskate604

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Jul 20, 2022
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Mad Dog Tannen said:
Ummm that’s not true

If you have blossoming ELC talent and your developed or FA players you can definitely be more stacked in elite talent than other teams.
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Very few like almost none especially on defense and in goal are truly elite on their elc's and is why I value prospects for currency as much as being on the actual team I cheer for.

Look around the league, Vancouver and Dallas are the only two teams who have the 3 tent poles of a 1C, 1D and a 1G that are not in their prime drafted within a couple of years of each other that I can think of and none were truly elite on their ELC's. Sure they can be blossoming but then you end up like the sens, sabres and quite possibly the devils where you sign all these kids to 8 year 8 million+ deals and end up with a team full of players knowing nothing but losing with no cap to sign vets. I mean the average age of cup teams are 29 years old so at some point you need to decide on 3-5 guys of various positions, hopefully you get lucky like Vancouver did and get the holy Trinity and build around them by trading picks and good prospects to get those older vets or guys around 25 that teams will move due to their window not lining up like the Hronek deal.

The leafs did it wrong by going forward heavy, I think that's evident.

The sabres wasted a widow when they had Jack, Sam, Ullmark and Dahlin now it's like a re-build on a re-build.

The sens locked up everyone long-term and have no cap, not enough good vets and not much in the pipeline to trade.
Blubbering Benning somehow managed to get the exact pieces you need all at an elite level along with JT and JR and Alvin stocked the cuboards while making shrewd moves and are now in a position where they are #1 in the league with a bunch of assets to move to go all in, with guys in Abby performing really well almost ready to replace the depth pieces that likely have earned bigger roles and paydays.
We likely lose Dakota, Blueger, CDS maybe Zadorov but guys like podz, Raty, Bains, Silovs can be useful cheap replacements with arguably higher upside.

Just my opinion but trying to keep all the blue chippers is not the way to success.
Sorry for getting off topic a bit
 

Faceboner

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Jan 6, 2022
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Core is great but to expensive to build a balanced team they need to sacrifice depth scoring and allocate that money into better defense while having a bottom six that is good defensively and hits while they rely on the big four for a majority of scoring and a goalie would help
 

Miller Time

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Sep 16, 2004
23,124
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Egghead1999 said:
I guess you miss my sarcasm, c'mom AAV ;)
To be fair, they did show up this season a lot, but the Leafs are like the Oilers at the start of this season. Their def system sucks. If AM34 does not score, they have close to zero chance to win a game.
Click to expand...

Lol my bad.

Will be interesting to see who the next coach is & wether they go with another "player's coach" or with someone that will demand more accountability top to bottom
 
GirardSpinorama

GirardSpinorama

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Aug 20, 2004
21,293
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The leafs are actually even worse than their record shows they are considering their easy schedule to date and lack of injuries to their best skaters.

Divine said:
Vancouver won solely because their best goaltender isn’t injured.

Demko could have been injured instead of Woll, that has nothing to do with cap space.
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Woll isn't gonna stay healthy this season so you're pretty much screwed then. High ankle sprains are terribly hard to recover from for goalies in season.
 

BCNate

Registered User
Apr 3, 2016
3,170
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nbwingsfan said:
If the Canucks are just “not a good team”… then what does that make the team who jaust lost 6-4 to them? Horrible?
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Dude gets pissed off after taking a bad penalty and blowing a 3 goal lead. Comes back and sets up 2 3rd period goals. Canucks win.

Leafs lose game after game, Mitch Marner: “i tbink we are playing awesome”

I know which guy i want leading my team.
 
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Number8

Number8

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Oct 31, 2007
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Bocephus86 said:
Seems pretty obvious to me that there is a leadership problem in the Leafs locker room, and I'm not sure how that will change with the three highest paid players (Matthews, Nylander, Marner) likely driving that culture.
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Absolutely. The other day Marner was saying Leafs playing some “great hockey” despite losing. Today after losing to Canucks??? He says ”I liked our response”. Can’t make this shit up. Teams don’t win much with that kind of ”leadership”.
 
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Kerberos

Kerberos

Hound of Hades
Nov 4, 2021
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Matthews got his goal, the only thing he cares about. Time to take the rest of the night off.

Him and Marner were pinned in their own zone for a 90 second shift and they stay out near the blueline hoping for an offensive break lol.
 
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authentic

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Jan 28, 2015
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Hunter368 said:
Agreed

I never understood the argument of “yeh but if it wasn’t for your goalie being better or standing on his head we would have won”.

Goalies are perhaps the most critical position on a hockey team, so if a team drafts poorly or doesn’t prioritize finding a quality goalie you get what you get. It’s like saying, “yeh if it wasn’t for your centre who scores 50-60 goals you wouldn’t be as good”…….yeh no kidding. If a team spends a disproportionate amount of their cap space on too few players of course they’re likely going to be weak in other positions. Thank god for the cap system, forces good teams to think, prioritize and plan……those who don’t suffer.
Click to expand...

That’s a cool theory until you realize there are good goalies the Leafs could afford under their cap structure
 
Enga Olly

Enga Olly

Registered User
May 26, 2021
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The obsession and jealousy continues. And the haters get even angrier at themselves, they think "Why am I jealous of a team with a .600% and haven't won the cup in 57 years and not even a cup final appearance in that time, yet I'm obsessed and jealous. WHY?!?!"

I'm enjoying the flip flopping too. One day the regular season matters and then the next reverts back to regular season doesn't matter and my favorite obsession will fold in the PO.


 
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