Does Toronto make it out of the 1st round next year?

[Hunter368]

You just used a whole lot of buzzwords to explain nothing. Toronto's only problem so far has been that they are far ahead of schedule. They weren't even supposed to be making the playoffs this soon.

Most of these cup winners with great players like Crosby, Ovechkin, Bergeron, Doughty, Kopitar etc accomplished absolutely nothing in the post season for two to four years.

They play in the a very tough division. Three juggernauts who will likely get over 105-110 points each. It's a dog fight to get out of the Atlantic.

Schedule to a rebuilding? No such thing, the greatest minds in nhl history wouldnt be able to predict such a thing B.C. there are far too many variables. Dude your not going to get much sympathy from anyone in the central about how tough your division is.....nhl is a tough place to win and even harder to win in the playoffs. Whatever you do one year doesn’t make it any easier the next year either.

You will also note in my original post I didn’t criticize the Leafs, I stated what they need to do or do better to be successful. Big difference

 

[LeafFever]

Well, that's true. The replacement players Leafs get aren't taken into account and should be a clear upgrade. Although, I believe Komarov leaving does give Leafs a bit of a plus there(Komarov is a below replacement level player).

And will Marner/Matthews/Nylander produce the same or less? Doubt it.

 

[Pi]

A lot of people seem to be creating the narrative that the Leafs were somehow the favourites to win each playoff series and they failed twice. Both of the last two years, the Leafs have faced incredibly strong teams and made a good series of it.

Yeah I don’t get it. Leafs played extremely well against Washington and made a series against Boston down 3-1 without Kadri for 3 games and now they just got rid of most of their weaknesses and added a franchise superstar centre.

It still doesn’t guanratee jackshit as Boston and Tampa are both extremely well built teams that the Leafs need to get past.

It’s the toughest top 3 divisional teams in the entire league right now.

 

[Doyoulikeapples*]

Tampa, Boston and Toronto look to be on a collision course for the foreseeable future. Things can change of course but most of us would probably guess those will be the top 3 teams for the next 3 years or so.
You'd think Toronto closed the gap on the other two after signing Tavares and the kids having another year but it should just be a dog-fight. Whichever team comes in third in that division definitely has its work cut out for them.

If Tampa gets Karlsson that just brings another mess to the table.

There was no gap to close with boson. We dominated them in tbe the season and it took Boston a comeback in game 7 to win in the playoffs. Leafs just added a franchise center to that team. There is definetly a gap now.

 

[rent free]

There was no gap to close with boson. We dominated them in tbe the season and it took Boston a comeback in game 7 to win in the playoffs. Leafs just added a franchise center to that team. There is definetly a gap now.

the leafs did not dominate boston in the regular season. boston outplayed the leafs in every game and the leafs got timely goals and spectacular goaltending from andersen and mcelhinney.

 

[Walt22]

The first one was by experts.

The first one was written by a writer and at no place did he say who was asked to provide their input. Maybe he asked his cat. That is likely the same expert that said Las Vegas was 500-1 odds of winning the cup last year. Also the article said most improved....not best but i like the way you interpret articles to be the gospel.

 

[LeafFever]

The first one was written by a writer and at no place did he say who was asked to provide their input. Maybe he asked his cat. That is likely the same expert that said Las Vegas was 500-1 odds of winning the cup last year. Also the article said most improved....not best but i like the way you interpret articles to be the gospel.

Oh come on, you're going to blame someone for that when 100% of the people would have agreed with him?

 

[Doyoulikeapples*]

the leafs did not dominate boston in the regular season. boston outplayed the leafs in every game and the leafs got timely goals and spectacular goaltending from andersen and mcelhinney.

3/4 games ? Right. Also you make it sound like the leafs goalies aren’t part of the tram. Boston was dominated , and the goalies certainly contributed.

 

[Walt22]

There was no gap to close with boson. We dominated them in tbe the season and it took Boston a comeback in game 7 to win in the playoffs. Leafs just added a franchise center to that team. There is definetly a gap now.

Full of excuses. Jets dominated the blackhawks in every game in the year the hawks won the cup...does that mean jets get to raise a banner and have a parade? Stop with the excuses already.

 

[Walt22]

Oh come on, you're going to blame someone for that when 100% of the people would have agreed with him?

So you think it is truth of what one writer says? You state thinks as facts all the time in here when they are only one person's opinion. Then when you don't like the opinion...you downplay their credibility. I see a pattern and it is all the same excuses.

 

[rent free]

3/4 games ? Right. Also you make it sound like the leafs goalies aren’t part of the tram. Boston was dominated , and the goalies certainly contributed.

a goalie saving your team doesn't mean you're team is dominating. it means they are being dominated and the reason you are in the game in because of your goalie. boston wasn't dominated at all. they outplayed the leafs in all 4 of the regular season matches and like i previously said, the leafs good stellar goaltenings and timely goals.

 

[Doyoulikeapples*]

Full of excuses. Jets dominated the blackhawks in every game in the year the hawks won the cup...does that mean jets get to raise a banner and have a parade? Stop with the excuses already.

What is incorrect here ? Boston has to comeback in game 7 to win ? No. The leafs adding a franchise center ? No.

 

[LeafFever]

So you think it is truth of what one writer says? You state thinks as facts all the time in here when they are only one person's opinion. Then when you don't like the opinion...you downplay their credibility. I see a pattern and it is all the same excuses.

You really think Toronto won't have a lot of cup predictions with their roster?

 

[BostonBruins11]

Leaf's have the worse defensive group of all the top teams.... so yeah... fix that first...(pretending otherwise is blind homer-ism)

 

[Apotheosis]

To summarize...

Got rid of JVR, Bozak, Polak and Komarov. The former three were absolute defensive liabilities and odds on the biggest contributors to the Leafs putrid team defence, not the back end like people try to persist with. Komarov, while not horrible defensively, was arguably the biggest black hole on offence in the entire league. Replace this with Tavares, a superior two way player and far superior offensive player than Polak, two wingers that have spent the better part of YEARS learning a two way game (Kapanen and Johnsson), one being last Calder Cup's MVP (well over PPG) and the other having a prior season of PPG in the AHL. I'm really not worried.

 

[Apotheosis]

You haven't exactly given any explanation for the shot totals being so bad, so it's hard to take you seriously when you either default to "look at their GA" or "everyone hates the Leafs".

CantLoseWithMatthews already hit it on the head, but I wouldn't mind expanding. Shot totals don't determine offence or defensive acumen. The quality of those shots do. The Leafs system in particular, if you cared to watch any game, specifically tries to limit high danger opportunities, forgoing overextending to the point or outside and letting those shots through, while trying to limit how much the opponent sees high danger opportunities. Contrast this to a team like the Oilers, who had amazing "Corsi" but it was the reverse of the system in that they took a lot of shots, but the bulk were low danger, perimeter shots. Leafs were middle of the pack in HDCA and ended up above average in GA (12th in the league). Correlation is not always with causation.

 

[jboknows]

Leaf's have the worse defensive group of all the top teams.... so yeah... fix that first...(pretending otherwise is blind homer-ism)

I expect that the defence, even without any adjustment, will be better next year. Hopefully Zaitsev is healthy all season so he can get back to his level of play from the previous year and I believe that Dermott will continue to grow. Add to that the additions we made to our forward group of guys with strong two-way play (and the removal of Komorov/JVR) and the Leafs are primed to be much stronger in their zone this year. Certainly not a great defensive team, but teams have won the cup with mediocre D.

 

[Michel Beauchamp]

I am aware. Should I find rankings of the 2018-19 season yet?

If you were, why did you not have the decency to state it rather than try to fool people ?

 

[LeafFever]

If you were, why did you not have the decency to state it rather than try to fool people ?

Why don't you explain how I was trying to fool people? I delivered on exactly what I stated.

 

[Michel Beauchamp]

There was no gap to close with boson. We dominated them in tbe the season and it took Boston a comeback in game 7 to win in the playoffs. Leafs just added a franchise center to that team. There is definetly a gap now.

What a wonderful jinx post.

You're a brave person.

 

[Michel Beauchamp]

Oh come on, you're going to blame someone for that when 100% of the people would have agreed with him?

Great example of trying to have people lose sight of the forest for the tree.

 

[Michel Beauchamp]

Why don't you explain how I was trying to fool people? I delivered on exactly what I stated.

You posted these sources after posting "Toronto seems to be ranked #1 in the NHl by a lot of experts." and asked to provide sources.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Too hard to predict. Their blueline could let them down. Injuries could happen. They could slump and have to go against a top seed. I'll say no because there are too many variables, but won't be shocked if they do.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

CantLoseWithMatthews already hit it on the head, but I wouldn't mind expanding. Shot totals don't determine offence or defensive acumen. The quality of those shots do. The Leafs system in particular, if you cared to watch any game, specifically tries to limit high danger opportunities, forgoing overextending to the point or outside and letting those shots through, while trying to limit how much the opponent sees high danger opportunities. Contrast this to a team like the Oilers, who had amazing "Corsi" but it was the reverse of the system in that they took a lot of shots, but the bulk were low danger, perimeter shots. Leafs were middle of the pack in HDCA and ended up above average in GA (12th in the league). Correlation is not always with causation.

Leaf ranking league-wide in the various "shots against metrics":

All strengths:
CA - 9th worst
FA- 3rd worst
SA - 4th worst
SCA - 9th worst
HDCA - 11th worst

Even strength:
CA - 5th worst
FA - 4th worst
SA - 3rd worst
SCA - 9th worst
HDCA - 11th worst

"Middle of the pack" is stretching things when there's only 8 teams worse than them in SCA and only 10 teams worse than them in HDCA.

They bleed total shots against, and don't exactly make up for it by "limiting dangerous shots" like you claim they do, since they're still in the bottom third of the league in SCA and HDCA.

 

[LeafFever]

You posted these sources after posting "Toronto seems to be ranked #1 in the NHl by a lot of experts." and asked to provide sources.

And I did.