Around the NHL - Episode XLI

[Beville]

Jack Eichel telling all of the Leaf Fan Boys to sit the @#@# down in Buffalo tonight was glorious - I could watch that on repeat for hours. My dream is to have Brady do it here, hopefully as soon as the end of March.

Related, I can't decide if I want the Leafs to miss the playoffs by a point, or squeak in and get blasted in four straight...

I’d rather they miss the playoffs...

I wouldn’t be able to bear their fans if they somehow won a round... way too much risk

 

[TheDebater]

This stacked Leafs team missing the playoffs would definitely be way more entertaining than a 1st round exit in the playoffs, which some of their fans probably expect. But to miss the playoffs entirely??

That would basically mean their season was as much as a failure as ours was except worse because they have no 1st round pick this summer

 

[DueDiligence]

The average age of Leafs posters has got to be 14. The Leafs are losing 2-0 to the Penguins and they are melting down over there!

 

[GCK]

The average age of Leafs posters has got to be 14. The Leafs are losing 2-0 to the Penguins and they are melting down over there!

 

[InTkachukWeTrust]

Sid lighting up the leafs, ahhh life is good.

 

[JD1]

This stacked Leafs team missing the playoffs would definitely be way more entertaining than a 1st round exit in the playoffs, which some of their fans probably expect. But to miss the playoffs entirely??

That would basically mean their season was as much as a failure as ours was except worse because they have no 1st round pick this summer

Our season was planned and imo has been pretty successful

If the Leafs miss the playoffs....i figure that might be the biggest Leafs season failure i can remember.....they were supposed to be a lock for the playoffs...challenging for the division....cup contender

 

[Silencio]

#FireDubas trending on Twitter

 

[Beville]

Why have the Laffs lost?

I thought Keefe was the prodigal son?! Why isn’t Campbell playing?! #CampbellForVezina #CeciForNorris

 

[Dingle]

given the injuries to Western teams, and the poor play of eastern teams. It is possible that no Canadian team gets in the playoffs this year!!!

then all GMs will get extensions and all coaches will be fired.

 

[Qward]

The average age of Leafs posters has got to be 14. The Leafs are losing 2-0 to the Penguins and they are melting down over there!

12. They are the same ones that harass Melnyk.

 

[Dingle]

12. They are the same ones that harass Melnyk.

go 52 years without a sniff. Find yourself in a precarious situation, where there is a real danger of missing the playoffs, even though your top guys are scoring at a pretty good clip.

Know that the clock is ticking on Tavaris. Knowing that your goaltending is at best average. That your defense is at best average.

The 12 year old in you will surface.

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

I hope they make the playoffs. The chances of them missing and winning the lottery is higher than them winning a round in the playoffs.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

The Leafs fans were told by everybody that they would be a dynasty.

They have yet to win a playoff round during this era of their team. They are possibly going to miss the playoffs. They don't have their first round pick. There is also now a very real expiration date on their current core because of how short the Matthews contract was. That date is June 30th 2023 because that is the day before Matthews NMC kicks in and he becomes an untradeable player who will be 1 year away from free agency.

So they realistically have 3 more seasons to win something, and they have to hope that the cap goes up enough that on July 1st 2023 they can extend Matthews while still having enough room to extend Marner the next year and add whatever other pieces they need.

So, it's not surprising that they are bitter. They were built up so high only to see their team consistently fail. This is despite the Leafs getting to play NHL on easy mode with more resources than every other team.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

The Leafs fans were told by everybody that they would be a dynasty.

They have yet to win a playoff round during this era of their team. They are possibly going to miss the playoffs. They don't have their first round pick. There is also now a very real expiration date on their current core because of how short the Matthews contract was. That date is June 30th 2023 because that is the day before Matthews NMC kicks in and he becomes an untradeable player who will be 1 year away from free agency.

So they realistically have 3 more seasons to win something, and they have to hope that the cap goes up enough that on July 1st 2023 they can extend Matthews while still having enough room to extend Marner the next year and add whatever other pieces they need.

So, it's not surprising that they are bitter. They were built up so high only to see their team consistently fail. This is despite the Leafs getting to play NHL on easy mode with more resources than every other team.

Ha ha

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

go 52 years without a sniff. Find yourself in a precarious situation, where there is a real danger of missing the playoffs, even though your top guys are scoring at a pretty good clip.

Know that the clock is ticking on Tavaris. Knowing that your goaltending is at best average. That your defense is at best average.

The 12 year old in you will surface.

It was incredibly stupid of them to go after Tavares. I know he was UFA and essentially "free," but in reality, it cost them the opportunity under the salary cap to get a good defenseman to fix their blueline. And I absolutely guarantee it ruffled the feathers of the dynasty kiddie trio for the leafs to bring in a "savior" like that when they were supposed to be the focus of the club. There is too much ego, and not enough blue collar on that team.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

It was incredibly stupid of them to go after Tavares. I know he was UFA and essentially "free," but in reality, it cost them the opportunity under the salary cap to get a good defenseman to fix their blueline. And I absolutely guarantee it ruffled the feathers of the dynasty kiddie trio for the leafs to bring in a "savior" like that when they were supposed to be the focus of the club. There is too much ego, and not enough blue collar on that team.

I don't agree with this logic, because going after Tavares gave them an elite C for nothing but cap space. They could have turned around and traded Marner or Matthews for a top young defenseman and still been ahead. It also theoretically should have set an internal cap ceiling. If Tavares came over as a UFA for 11 and he and Matthews are in the same tier, Matthews should have been in a more difficult position to bargain for more than 11 on a 7 year term.

The biggest mistake they made was mishandling the Matthews extension. They made a franchise altering mistake with how they handled it. They apparently could have had him for 8 years at around 12 million or so in the summer of 2018. While I understand them saying no, saying no made absolutely no sense if they were just going to cave and end up signing him to a million or so less without the full term.

The consequences to the 5 year deal are huge. It set a much higher ceiling for Marner. It also means that their RFAs are not signed long enough to have the cap deflate their hits. By the time the cap ceiling goes up enough to give the Leafs room to build around those contracts more effectively, they will be almost done. The Leafs won't benefit from the second half deflation of the contracts the same way a team like Edmonton is going to with Draisaitl and McDavid making 21 million combined.

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

It was incredibly stupid of them to go after Tavares. I know he was UFA and essentially "free," but in reality, it cost them the opportunity under the salary cap to get a good defenseman to fix their blueline. And I absolutely guarantee it ruffled the feathers of the dynasty kiddie trio for the leafs to bring in a "savior" like that when they were supposed to be the focus of the club. There is too much ego, and not enough blue collar on that team.

Connor Brown is the definition of the blue collar

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I don't agree with this logic, because going after Tavares gave them an elite C for nothing but cap space. They could have turned around and traded Marner or Matthews for a top young defenseman and still been ahead. It also theoretically should have set an internal cap ceiling. If Tavares came over as a UFA for 11 and he and Matthews are in the same tier, Matthews should have been in a more difficult position to bargain for more than 11 on a 7 year term.

The biggest mistake they made was mishandling the Matthews extension. They made a franchise altering mistake with how they handled it. They apparently could have had him for 8 years at around 12 million or so in the summer of 2018. While I understand them saying no, saying no made absolutely no sense if they were just going to cave and end up signing him to a million or so less without the full term.

The consequences to the 5 year deal are huge. It set a much higher ceiling for Marner. It also means that their RFAs are not signed long enough to have the cap deflate their hits. By the time the cap ceiling goes up enough to give the Leafs room to build around those contracts more effectively, they will be almost done. The Leafs won't benefit from the second half deflation of the contracts the same way a team like Edmonton is going to with Draisaitl and McDavid making 21 million combined.

Good post.

Take the free elite asset and compensate for it, they just didn't do that.

Nylander seemed like the obvious chip to use to shuffle cap to the D.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

I don't agree with this logic, because going after Tavares gave them an elite C for nothing but cap space. They could have turned around and traded Marner or Matthews for a top young defenseman and still been ahead. It also theoretically should have set an internal cap ceiling. If Tavares came over as a UFA for 11 and he and Matthews are in the same tier, Matthews should have been in a more difficult position to bargain for more than 11 on a 7 year term.

The biggest mistake they made was mishandling the Matthews extension. They made a franchise altering mistake with how they handled it. They apparently could have had him for 8 years at around 12 million or so in the summer of 2018. While I understand them saying no, saying no made absolutely no sense if they were just going to cave and end up signing him to a million or so less without the full term.

The consequences to the 5 year deal are huge. It set a much higher ceiling for Marner. It also means that their RFAs are not signed long enough to have the cap deflate their hits. By the time the cap ceiling goes up enough to give the Leafs room to build around those contracts more effectively, they will be almost done. The Leafs won't benefit from the second half deflation of the contracts the same way a team like Edmonton is going to with Draisaitl and McDavid making 21 million combined.

But they also built the team and marketing around their Big 3, so they couldn't move any of them (from a marketing standpoint). And those are really the only pieces they have that could've brought in a good enough piece on defense.

 

[JD1]

The Leafs fans were told by everybody that they would be a dynasty.

They have yet to win a playoff round during this era of their team. They are possibly going to miss the playoffs. They don't have their first round pick. There is also now a very real expiration date on their current core because of how short the Matthews contract was. That date is June 30th 2023 because that is the day before Matthews NMC kicks in and he becomes an untradeable player who will be 1 year away from free agency.

So they realistically have 3 more seasons to win something, and they have to hope that the cap goes up enough that on July 1st 2023 they can extend Matthews while still having enough room to extend Marner the next year and add whatever other pieces they need.

So, it's not surprising that they are bitter. They were built up so high only to see their team consistently fail. This is despite the Leafs getting to play NHL on easy mode with more resources than every other team.

You know, it's hard not to move on from a guy that is 75 years old but handing that GM job to Dubas has imo caused all sorts of issues. They didn't need Tavares. He overpaid on the contracts for the "big 3" and what's worse is that he appears not to have learned his lesson if you believe the muzzin rumours

 

[JungleBeat]

Playing like Chabot.

 

[maclean]

Ha ha

CAN'T SPELL URGENCY

That was juicy like a nice steak. Had to pause a few times and just savour it

 

[maclean]

Good post.

Take the free elite asset and compensate for it, they just didn't do that.

Nylander seemed like the obvious chip to use to shuffle cap to the D.

Agreed, I also thought that at that point they were going to need to move one of the "exciting prospect kids" to balance things out. But it's the price of living in the Toronto hype bubble, plus the rich bubble that says, sure, those are the rules everyone else plays by, but why couldn't we have it all?

 

[Lundmark17]

Anyone else watching this 4 point game between the Devils and Sharks over every other game on right now?

 

[DueDiligence]

Great win by Devils!