You guys can't have it both ways though. Either they're "just not that good", or they're underachieving.
Still too early to put them on the same level of underachievement as the Sharks since they're so young but they're getting there. They've choked harder though.
This was probably the first series where the Leafs have actually been favored to win. And I guess Columbus last year... might change my vote.
Disagree, the bigger problem is that their core is so badly overpaid that they don't have room to build around quality secondary players. They're going to have to find a way to move one of their forwards and add some legit quality defensive and 2nd line depth in the process.Trick question, because their core isn't elite.
Better question: Are buzzwords like 'elite' and 'core' overused in hockey discussions?
Deep teams win championships. Pretty tough to be deep when you spend more than half of your payroll on your top four players.
He was a good pick-up. I honestly wouldn't mind him on the Oilers.Bogosian?
Yes their collection of forwards is seriously impressive but when it's both overpaid and an imbalanced roster, that creates two pretty big strikes. Strike three is if they don't have the mental fortitude to step up in the postseason and overcome tough situations, they're young enough that I won't say that definitively yet...Disagree, the bigger problem is that their core is so badly overpaid that they don't have room to build around quality secondary players. They're going to have to find a way to move one of their forwards and add some legit quality defensive and 2nd line depth in the process.
Nah, they just ran into better teams.WCE Era of the Vancouver Canucks. Multiple chokejobs every year with the Bertuzzi incident tossed in. That core was ultimately dismantled and built around the Sedins.
This was thier first upset and they still have Marner and Matthews for 3 years don't they? I think the Sharks were still worse since in basically all of their losses they were considered the favorite.
Specifically just 2010 itself they were the top seed, got swept in the WCF.Since when? The "2010s Sharks" only choked in 13/14 (3-0 lead, but Cup Winners). Every other season they lost to teams higher in the standings. If you're reaching and counting 08-09, then that's still only 2 post-seasons in over a decade.
Specifically just 2010 itself they were the top seed, got swept in the WCF.
Toronto among the NHL elite...nope.
If you did a poll:
Who's the best centre on the planet. Eichel comes up... what? 5th? 7th? 10th?
When does Reino come up? 50th? 70th?
Now do D, when does Dahlin come up? 50th/60th?
Risto? 100th?
Now, if you did Toronto:
Matthews according to HF is like the second best centre in the world.
Tavares is another top 10 centre on the planet.
Marner? Top 5 RW without a question.
Nylander? Another top 20 RW right?
Rielly? Well, he's clearly top 10.
Brodie? He's an underrated #1 guy in the league.
Freddie Andersen? He's a top 10 goalie in the league most years.
Just because guys are picked early, doesn't make them elite. I think Toronto's biggest issue is they're not as great of a team as everyone keeps making them out to be. They beat up on teams that are, and were really bad. The second best team in the division had a sub500 record against playoff teams for Christ's sake. I honestly think under regular circumstances that they'd be a wildcard in 2021.
I mean, late 2000's Sharks; the '08-'17 Caps would also get my vote as well. They had multiple 115+ point seasons. During that time frame they missed the playoffs once, never made it to a conference final, and were bounced out in the first round 3 times. Those are those years where Ovi's scoring 50 goals, Mike Green's a PPG defender, Backstrom is going ppg+, Alex Semin is tearing it up with these ppg+ seasons, you got the young Varlamov seasons in there, you have the massive Holtby years.
Yeah...I put in the effort not to think delusions.Like you would ever think otherwise