Do we intimidate anyone?

[Bluelines]

Watching sports show yesterday the commentators were bemoaning that in the playoffs we will have to face either Montreal or Boston in the first round and probably Tampa Bay in the second round and the comment was, "The way Montreal and Boston are playing, not sure you want to face Montreal or Boston."

It was a real woe is me comment, I interpreted that comment as Toronto has no chance in the playoffs unless we face weak teams. I took it as a lack of respect towards Toronto.

The thought popped in my head, do any other fan bases / teams want to avoid Toronto in the playoffs, the same way the TV personalities say we want to avoid Montreal, Boston and TB?

I thought our skill and speed was our intimidation?

Click to read more...

 

[Loosie]

Our offence is intimidating to many teams. Intimidation comes in many forms. Our is not size , it's speed and skill.

Also what TV personalities are saying we want to avoid Tampa Bay, Montreal or Boston? That will literally be impossible unless we drop down to WC1.

 

[tom leafers]

Whenever i read other teams GDT's, a lot of opposing fans seem pretty scared to be facing us and expect the worst.

But then again, who the hell cares what fans and reporters say.

 

[ACC1224]

No one knows how the other teams view the Leafs.
Some would feel they would stack up well, while others would feel they stack up well against another team.
I imagine any team entering the playoffs would feel they could beat any opponent if they stuck to the right game plan.

What other fans or the media think is meaningless.

 

[ImpartialNHLfan]

They fear our power play according to Babcock

 

[kb]

 

[Nineteen67]

I’d want to face them or Montreal in th playoffs.

 

[Nineteen67]

Watching sports show yesterday the commentators were bemoaning that in the playoffs we will have to face either Montreal or Boston in the first round and probably Tampa Bay in the second round and the comment was, "The way Montreal and Boston are playing, not sure you want to face Montreal or Boston."

It was a real woe is me comment, I interpreted that comment as Toronto has no chance in the playoffs unless we face weak teams. I took it as a lack of respect towards Toronto.

The thought popped in my head, do any other fan bases / teams want to avoid Toronto in the playoffs, the same way the TV personalities say we want to avoid Montreal, Boston and TB?

I thought our skill and speed was our intimidation?

The other teams have speed and skill, too.

 

[Nithoniniel]

I don't really care whether or not players are afraid of playing us, I care about giving us the best possible to win. If that means teams think they can take advantage of us being soft then so be it, as long as we stand as winners at the end.

People always talk about the Boston series when this subject comes up, which I find very interesting. Boston didn't neutralize us, we scored a ton in that series. They didn't own us at even strength, in fact we were the better ES team. They absolutely killed us on their PP though. That's what proved the difference, the high-end skill and creativity of guys like Pastrnak, Bergeron, and Marchand with the man advantage. Yet somehow the talk is all about toughness afterwards, not the value of having a great PP. I imagine it might be if the team we faced had any other name than Boston, the team more than any others connected with toughness.

In fact, I'd say that one of our biggest problems in that series was trying to be something we were not. We took dumb, undisciplined penalties in an attempt to be tough. Kadri got suspended trying to play tough. The backbreaking goal in game seven came after Gardiner stopped doing what makes him effective and tried to play physical.

With all that said, I regularly watch games with local announcers and the impression I've got is that we most definitely scare others. They are afraid of our gamebreaking ability, that even if they got everything going the way they want, we can break a game open in 5 minutes. Being scared of what a mistake could bring is another form of intimidation.

 

[LeafFever]

It's 2019. We don't need physicality or goons. Game has changed.

 

[hoglund]

They fear our power play according to Babcock

When did Babcock say that?

 

[GodEmperor]

Tampa, not because they are scared of us but because I think we matchup very well with them like Boston does v us at least in the past.

 

[I am Canadian]

We are still a bit of a laughing stock with our early exits and history - however everyone can see the talent this team has

 

[Pookie]

It's 2019. We don't need physicality or goons. Game has changed.

Uh... VGK vs WSH?

 

[Pookie]

When you get down to 8,4,2 teams remaining.... no one scares anyone.

Remaining teams have skill. Remaining teams have special team success. Remaining teams have good goaltending.

Comes down to outworking the talent on the other side.

Here we fall short. Hopefully Muzzin is an improvement.

 

[Al14]

At the rate our Leafs are losing games to bottom feeders, I wonder if there really are any teams scared to play them.

Until Matthews, Nylander, Kadri, and others, including our power play, start showing up regularly on game days, our opponents may not fear our Leafs at all.

 

[RLF]

Watching sports show yesterday the commentators were bemoaning that in the playoffs we will have to face either Montreal or Boston in the first round and probably Tampa Bay in the second round and the comment was, "The way Montreal and Boston are playing, not sure you want to face Montreal or Boston."

It was a real woe is me comment, I interpreted that comment as Toronto has no chance in the playoffs unless we face weak teams. I took it as a lack of respect towards Toronto.

The thought popped in my head, do any other fan bases / teams want to avoid Toronto in the playoffs, the same way the TV personalities say we want to avoid Montreal, Boston and TB?

I thought our skill and speed was our intimidation?

It is.

I think people question our teams ability to handle the tighter checking and ramped up physicality of the playoffs. It was mentioned above that 5V5 we were the better producing team against Boston in last years playoffs and we got beat by their PP, which would show we can handle it.
The other side of that is...why were we taking penalties? They took the play to us on many nights. We won when Freddie was great. We had times we carried the play, but we had trouble handling their size and getting to the net. We had trouble defending their size and couldn't stop their top line. When we tried to match them physically, it didn't go well as that is not our game.
We haven't proven we can handle anything yet. Bruins have and the Habs play with more intensity than we do...so people wonder if our team's personel has the ability to rise to the occasion and play with the intensity needed.

 

[LeafsOHLRangers98]

Muzzin talked about it when he was traded here. you fear the speed and skill of this group, and in a league thats trending more and more that way, to stick out from the group is pretty special.

Montreal would not want to play us, and honestly if we get a RD or LW, I think we take Boston to the cleaners.

 

[Bluelines]

It's 2019. We don't need physicality or goons. Game has changed.

Smith Pelly and Wilson brought that intimidation to their game, it allowed their star players to play taller. Not to mention they also had an influence on the score sheet too.

Kadri, Johnsson, Kapanen, Marleau, JT, Muzzin all have the ability to play a physical game (maybe not as physical as Wilson or Smith Pelly) and contribute on the score sheet too. There is no reason why any of them should be showing up to a playoff game without the thought that every opportunity they have they are going to run any one they meet through the boards.

Intimidation comes in all forms, you can intimidate through physical play, dirty play, speed, talent, more than one way to play the game.

 

[Buds17]

Shouldn't feel intimidated by any one team. Shouldn't overlook any one team either. Have to defeat the four teams that are in your way to win the Cup and you find out who they are as the games/series go on.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

With Boston the issue is they don't play their small ice forecheck game for 60 minutes. They play it for as long as it takes them to win the game no more. When Boston lets off the forecheck accelerator then Toronto starts to look good again and we can play our game. Babs has to make some changes to his system, stack 2 lines and play Muzzy/Rielly 30 minutes/night to give us a chance to win. It will be close. I hope with Tavares leadership we pull through it.

With Montreal they play 60 minutes of speed. But we can outskill them when it counts to win. Our best bet to win 1st round.

With Tampa it will be a fast up down game full ice and goaltending will decide the winner. Not much between the teams. Our forwards are a little better and their defense is better than ours. So it will come down to goaltending to decide it.

But either way getting out of the Atlantic is like winning the Cup. It will take everything this team has and more.

 

[Trapper]

It's 2019. We don't need physicality or goons. Game has changed.

Goons no. Physical yes.
There are no skills competition. You want to stay on the perimeter and get beat for every puck battle, you lose. Plain and simple, you lose.

 

[justafan22]

Goons no. Physical yes.
There are no skills competition. You want to stay on the perimeter and get beat for every puck battle, you lose. Plain and simple, you lose.

Matt Martin was a scratch every playoff game last year

 

[SHANNYPLAN]

Teams are afraid in the sense that we are probably faster and more skilled. What worries me is that teams have/will figure out that if they play us hard (use the body) over the course of a playoff series, they will have a pretty big advantage.

We just need a guy or two to hold other teams accountable. No, i don't mean one dimensional face puncher, but someone that can PLAY HARD.

 

[ImpartialNHLfan]

When did Babcock say that?

Im not sure when, but it was when the media was asking Babcock if he has enough toughness on the team. He said our toughness is the power play.