Around the League - 2019/20 Season Edition #2

[stickty111]

I think the atmosphere is pretty solid, and has intensity. I will say the Rangers were awful in the 1st. Hank is the only reason it's only 1-0.

 

[Stephen]

The Canes look really good. I think this is an example of a skill team that plays a purposeful game at an urgent pace. They're not necessarily trying to score a highlight reel goal on every possession but are executing crisp plays well. Sort of imagine this is what the Leafs would look like if they simplified things a little bit, had a bit more of a fire under their butts and had one or two better transition defensemen. Aho reminds me of Doug Gilmour. A small skilled center who is just in on everything and will make hits to complete the play.

 

[Havoc]

Zib is so sick now.

He's another example of why I'd never trade Nylander.

Imagine how sens fans feel watching him today.

 

[Cleetus]

lots of penalties....

 

[SeaOfBlue]

lots of penalties....

That would work in the Leafs' favour.

 

[Menzinger]

The Canes look really good. I think this is an example of a skill team that plays a purposeful game at an urgent pace. They're not necessarily trying to score a highlight reel goal on every possession but are executing crisp plays well. Sort of imagine this is what the Leafs would look like if they simplified things a little bit, had a bit more of a fire under their butts and had one or two better transition defensemen. Aho reminds me of Doug Gilmour. A small skilled center who is just in on everything and will make hits to complete the play.

I like this Canes team a lot. Hoping they beat the Rags

 

[SeaOfBlue]

What are people's preferred order for teams who win Lafreniere (outside of Toronto)?

Tier 1: Don't think they will be super competitive even with Lafreniere
1) Arizona
2) Minnesota
---
Tier 2: Don't think they will be super competitive even with Lafreniere, but division rival.
3) Montreal
---
Tier 3: Could be pretty competitive for a few years before their aging core drops out or they mess up their cap even further.
4) Chicago
5) Calgary
6) Nashville
7) Vancouver
8) Islanders
9) Columbus
10) Winnipeg
11) Rangers
---
Tier 4: Same as Tier 3, but division rival
12) Florida
---
Tier 5: Teams with very promising futures and could be major Cup contenders.
13) Carolina
14) Pittsburgh
15) Edmonton

Based on that, I hope Edmonton beats Chicago, Pittsburgh beats Montreal, Vancouver beats Minnesota, Florida beats the Islanders, Winnipeg beats Calgary, Nashville beats Arizona and obviously Toronto beats Columbus. Carolina/Rangers will put an unfavourable team in the lottery no matter what, but I hope Carolina wins (both in terms of not being in the lottery, and the fact that they could realistically knock off a top 4 team or two but still be beatable by Toronto if we get far enough).

Honestly, as long as he goes out West (except Edmonton) or goes to Montreal, I think we will be fine. If Pittsburgh and Edmonton take care of business, there is a very good chance he goes to a team that won't be able to threaten the Leafs all that much.

 

[Nineteen67]

What are people's preferred order for teams who win Lafreniere (outside of Toronto)?

1) Arizona
2) Montreal
---
3) Minnesota
---
4) Chicago
5) Calgary
6) Nashville
7) Vancouver
---
8) Islanders
9) Columbus
10) Winnipeg
11) Florida
---
12) Rangers
13) Carolina
14) Pittsburgh
15) Edmonton

Based on that, I hope Edmonton beats Chicago, Pittsburgh beats Montreal, Vancouver beats Minnesota, Florida beats the Islanders, Winnipeg beats Calgary, Nashville beats Arizona and obviously Toronto beats Columbus. Carolina/Rangers will put an unfavourable team in the lottery no matter what, but I hope Carolina wins (both in terms of not being in the lottery, and the fact that they could realistically knock off a top 4 team or two but still be beatable by Toronto if we get far enough).

Honestly, as long as he goes out West (except Edmonton) or goes to Montreal, I think we will be fine. If Pittsburgh and Edmonton take care of business, there is a very good chance he goes to a team that won't be able to threaten the Leafs all that much.

Looks like Edmonton needs him the most

 

[Mats13]

Edmonton never gets better

 

[Mess]

Canes /Rangers game was interesting.. Great intensity and loved the physicality.

The last minute SH goal by NYR made for a more intense final few minutes.

 

[supermann_98]

So Edmonton is a Stanley Cup contender because of their offense right? Even tho their defense sucks? I keep hearing about the Oilers but their defense is no better than ours, seriously. Who do they have that compares to Reilly?

 

[weems]

It's unreal just how awful of a team the Oilers have outside of McDavid/Drai.

Slow, no depth and a big question mark in goal.

Leafs get such hate for being considered a "flawed" team but we're WAY better than the Oilers.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Oof, Edmonton is not taking care of business right now.

 

[Jozay]

What are people's preferred order for teams who win Lafreniere (outside of Toronto)?

1) Arizona
2) Montreal
---
3) Minnesota
---
4) Chicago
5) Calgary
6) Nashville
7) Vancouver
---
8) Islanders
9) Columbus
10) Winnipeg
11) Florida
---
12) Rangers
13) Carolina
14) Pittsburgh
15) Edmonton

Based on that, I hope Edmonton beats Chicago, Pittsburgh beats Montreal, Vancouver beats Minnesota, Florida beats the Islanders, Winnipeg beats Calgary, Nashville beats Arizona and obviously Toronto beats Columbus. Carolina/Rangers will put an unfavourable team in the lottery no matter what, but I hope Carolina wins (both in terms of not being in the lottery, and the fact that they could realistically knock off a top 4 team or two but still be beatable by Toronto if we get far enough).

Honestly, as long as he goes out West (except Edmonton) or goes to Montreal, I think we will be fine. If Pittsburgh and Edmonton take care of business, there is a very good chance he goes to a team that won't be able to threaten the Leafs all that much.

Montreal is way too high.

Any team not in the division is fine by me. Minnesota would be cool.

 

[Antropovsky]

It's unreal just how awful of a team the Oilers have outside of McDavid/Drai.

Slow, no depth and a big question mark in goal.

Leafs get such hate for being considered a "flawed" team but we're WAY better than the Oilers.

I would say we have better overall depth...sure, but im wondering what kind of struggles we may have against a "team" like Carolina. They have nearly a year plus last year of working on being a cohesive unit. Leafs are fantastic on paper...but they still have never showed any consistency of being a great cohesive team. If we play the hurricanes are we going to be outshot 35 to 25 every game?

Will be interesting to see...in the past it seemed the leafs tightened up alot come playoffs...however id say babs was a much more demanding coach defensively then Keefe is... didnt the leafs win a ton of 1 goal games a couple years back?

 

[weems]

I would say we have better overall depth...sure, but im wondering what kind of struggles we may have against a "team" like Carolina. They have nearly a year plus last year of working on being a cohesive unit. Leafs are fantastic on paper...but they still have never showed any consistency of being a great cohesive team. If we play the hurricanes are we going to be outshot 35 to 25 every game?

Will be interesting to see...in the past it seemed the leafs tightened up alot come playoffs...however id say babs was a much more demanding coach defensively then Keefe is... didnt the leafs win a ton of 1 goal games a couple years back?

How exactly did you come to that conclusion?

Keefe had like a 40 game sample and we were better defensively under him than under Babcock. This was also while missing Rielly and Muzzin for long stretchs.

 

[Antropovsky]

i feel like this playoff format will benefit chicago.... a team with older veteran superstars "winners" who are capable of carrying teams on their backs and challenging any team but may not be motivated enough to do it in an 82 game year. There are some players who disappear come playoffs.... I feel like Kane, Toews, Keith, Crawford are the players whose games get way better come playoffs.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Greene a healthy scratch for the Islanders. I guess Lou decided giving away a 2nd round pick for a 4th line center wasn't a big enough waste

 

[Menzinger]

The Hockey Gods clearly hate Edmonton

 

[Menzinger]

What are people's preferred order for teams who win Lafreniere (outside of Toronto)?

1) Arizona
2) Montreal
---
3) Minnesota
---
4) Chicago
5) Calgary
6) Nashville
7) Vancouver
---
8) Islanders
9) Columbus
10) Winnipeg
11) Florida
---
12) Rangers
13) Carolina
14) Pittsburgh
15) Edmonton

Based on that, I hope Edmonton beats Chicago, Pittsburgh beats Montreal, Vancouver beats Minnesota, Florida beats the Islanders, Winnipeg beats Calgary, Nashville beats Arizona and obviously Toronto beats Columbus. Carolina/Rangers will put an unfavourable team in the lottery no matter what, but I hope Carolina wins (both in terms of not being in the lottery, and the fact that they could realistically knock off a top 4 team or two but still be beatable by Toronto if we get far enough).

Honestly, as long as he goes out West (except Edmonton) or goes to Montreal, I think we will be fine. If Pittsburgh and Edmonton take care of business, there is a very good chance he goes to a team that won't be able to threaten the Leafs all that much.

Minnesota.

Partly, because I'm a casual fan of the team, but I'd like to see a team get him that didnt blatantly tank to get him. Nashville or Chicago other good choices

 

[stickty111]

How exactly did you come to that conclusion?

Keefe had like a 40 game sample and we were better defensively under him than under Babcock. This was also while missing Rielly and Muzzin for long stretchs.

People just like to live in fantasy buddy.

 

[garce]

Minnesota.

Partly, because I'm a casual fan of the team, but I'd like to see a team get him that didnt blatantly tank to get him. Nashville or Chicago other good choices

Having been at the Leaf game in Nashville Jan 26. (seems like a couple of years ago) I’d love to see the Preds get him. A kid like him with offensive flair would become a icon there, they friggin love that team. They’ve had their share of good ones, but mostly on d a legitimate offensive star would own the town.

 

[Antropovsky]

How exactly did you come to that conclusion?

Keefe had like a 40 game sample and we were better defensively under him than under Babcock. This was also while missing Rielly and Muzzin for long stretchs.

How did i come up with my conclusions? How did you come up with yours? Babs games were OVER 50% back to back before being fired.

Keefe coached 12 back to backs in 47 games.
Babs coached 12 back to backs in 23 games before being fired.

Babs lost 6 back to back games in the 23 games he coached. That is over half of his games being back to bavk situations. In those 6 games his teams allowed 36 goals. So babs teams allowed 44 goals in 17 games and 36 goals in back to back games or games where hutch played in thr back to back. So in games other than back to back babs team was on a 203 goals against pace. In back to backs or hutch played back to back situations.... his team was on pace for 492 goals against in 82 games. I did the math quick... so may have slight errors.

Based on his dtat players not liking him, and babs and dubas clearly having differing opinions on hockey should be played... think it was prob the right decision to move on from Babs...but it is really hard to blame Babs for the start to the year when his team was losing in back to backs and he wasnt supplied a capable backup goalie. Alot of teams are now going with 1A and 1B goalie tandems like boston has for a couple seasons now. Dubas went with a 1A and 1Z tandem.

 

[Jozay]

Nobody forced Babcock to only use Hutch on the second half of b2b's.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Montreal is way too high.

Any team not in the division is fine by me. Minnesota would be cool.

I swapped a few things around, but I don't think Lafreniere is going to move the needle enough for Montreal to compete with Toronto. By the time their young stars are good enough to compete with our young stars, they will have major holes on defense and in net. I am fine if he goes to any of the top 10, and the good news is that in the absolute worst case, we are looking at 50/50 odds of that happening. If Carolina can beat the Rangers (they already won Game 1), Florida can upset the Islanders (currently losing Game 1), Edmonton can beat Chicago (currently losing bad in Game 1) and Pittsburgh can beat Montreal (pretty much should be a given since Montreal is a basement team right now), then we have a 100% chance of him going Tier 1-3... If Florida loses, then he still has a 100% chance of ending up in Tier 1-4. As long as he doesn't go to Carolina, Pittsburgh or Edmonton, I am happy... Ideally, he does not go to Florida either, but it should not be a problem as long as the Leafs step up.