you effectively are saying that they are, considering the leafs have the 4th best record(WITH the most man games lost in the NHL) and would be substantial underdogs...
nobody playing the leafs in the post season would be considered substantial favorites given the talent on the leafs regardless of the past playoff failures.
if the leafs play to their potential there as good as anyone else in the nhl, if you think they are some big underdog vs anyone, i would suggest you're the one dreaming.
Last I looked we were 5th best but whatever, that means nothing anyway. The gap between Boston and us is roughly the same as the gap between us and the team in 17th place, what does that tell you?
Potential and talent is nice but it doesn't mean you're going to win in the playoffs. If you think otherwise, you haven't been paying attention to this team over the last 5 years.
If the Leafs play Boston in round 2, barring something drastic happening (like Ullmark being unable to play due to injury), Boston will be favoured, I'd guess by at least a 3-2 margin. Feel free to bookmark this post and ridicule me when I'm proven to be wrong (and when pigs fly).
Nothing to do with what you just wrote.
But remember when we discussed about the ‘I got this’ look.
I have been watching the Physical 100 series and that Sung Bin guy got that ‘I got this’ look during his first challenge. Just wish our boys get that look this playoffs.
One can hope. I'm still optimistic, but I can't help but wonder if I'm just a fool for thinking this group will magically become something it hasn't been for the last 5 years. I'm still haunted by the way this group got run out of the rink in JT's return to the Island and the post I read here the next day that said this group will never win anything because they don't have the heart (paraphrasing). I remember it to this day because at the time, a part of me was thinking that that poster may well be 100% correct and so far, everything points to that being the case. But still, we looked pretty good against TB.
As the saying goes - hope it the last one to die.