Early Predictions: Eastern Conference

[Daisy Jane]

How many of those teams were coached by Babcock?

One of the World's best coaches will have an impact.

Kadri and Rielly have breakout years and things start looking up.

i think you missed the part where i said we have babcock. he's a good coach and will get the most out of this group. i highly doubt we will tank like buffalo did last year with a coach like babcock and the current line-up. especially with phaneuf and bernier still on the roster, i can't see us finishing at the bottom of the league or below the devils.

one more time.

New Jersey's biggest problem was that they could not score one of the main reasons why they've been so low in the standings. they have other issues. but that was the main thing. but they always were able to keep shots against, and goals against relatively low.


our main issue was that we couldn't defend to save our lives. there are a lot of "Babcock can fix it." well maybe, maybe not, but we also lost our most prolific scorer.

So if we can 'defend' relatively well but can't score, and New Jersey can't score but can defend really well, why do you think NJD can beat us? they've done it THREE YEARS in a row. with our current line-up.

again.if Babcock can do it, then yay for him, but I honestly think y'all are pumping his balloon a little too full too.

 

[Joey Hoser]

Is it just me or does the East still seem extraordinarily weak? I'm not sure I'm convinced any of these teams could be counted on to make the playoffs if they were in the West.

I mean, LA didn't make the playoffs. How do you think a 7 game series would go LA vs. Tampa? I'm betting LA.

 

[GhettoHockey]

3 Thoughts come to my head

The leafs are planning to fail so they finish 2nd last in the East

or

The leafs will finish exactly as they did last year, since its basically the same team as last year (Kessel gives up as much as he gets)

or

The leafs pull an Ottawa Senators, (Like Kessel, they traded Spezza, a ppg player, the season before) and make the playoffs (8th place) on good goaltending, coaching, and opportunistic scoring chances

 

[IAmBobo]

If Reimer is our starter, we will make the playoffs.

If Bernier is our starter, we will miss the playoffs for the 3 straight year.

 

[The List Of Jericho]

If Reimer is our starter, we will make the playoffs.

If Bernier is our starter, we will miss the playoffs for the 3 straight year.

What's that based on? That great run Reimer had two years ago after Bernier got hurt, he couldn't win us a game, we even had to start McIntyre, Reimer was god awful and it cost us a playoff berth.

 

[J1S]

Schneider is a great goalie but he's not top 5. Rinne, Price, Lundqvist, Luongo, Dubnyk, Bishop, Rask, Anderson all > Schneider.

 

[Eb]

Schneider put up some amazing numbers last year playing on a terrible Devils team; they would've been the worst team in the league if it wasn't for Schneider.

I'm sure if Schneider had a Weber, Subban, McDonagh, Suter, Hedman, Chara, Karlsson, etc., his numbers would be even better. His best defenceman in front of him is Greene?..

This would be a great comment if one player made up a team.

You do know that the Devils mastered the trap right for many years now?

 

[Jyrki Lumme]

13th or 14th in the conference. 25th or 26th in the league.

 

[deletethis]

Really when I review the Leafs' forward group, they are all NHL level talent. There won't be many nights early in this season where Babcock will be forced to shorten his bench to stay competitive in a game because the 4th line is very marginal. The goaltending is probably a little below league average. The defense is where the struggle is going to be. I see 4 NHL defensemen I trust in Phaneuf, Rielly, Gardiner and Polak. Polak should be 3rd pairing. It's doubtful that Marincin and Hunwick are top 4 quality. Robidas is running on fumes. Unless there's a trade or a young defender from the Marlies steps up, this is going to be the biggest area of struggle for the team.

 

[exporta]

I don't think this team makes the playoffs, but I am anticipating a higher finish than last year.

Kessel won't be missed, and was pretty invisible the second half of last year. I am expecting Kadri, Rielly, Bernier and Holland to bring another gear. Babcock is a HUGE upgrade on Horacek. A lot of players on 1 yr deals or in contract years looking to prove themselves.

I don't think it will be enough to get us to the post season, but I think out of the bottom five. This team will work hard.

 

[CabanaBoy5]

A bunch of negative Nancy's in this thread, which is good....lower the expectations and you won't be disappointed. However, the Babcock factor, the fact we only really lost Kessel of any consequence (as someone mentioned, his offence and defence are a wash), and one more year of maturity for Rielly means we will win more games than last year. As a result, bottom two would be a massive fail and would be disastrous for our rebuild. So how many more wins will a hard working more defensively oriented Babcock coached team get? I'd wager 5 games, and that puts us in about 11th or 12th.

 

[hobarth]

I think its still too early to make predictions as we don't know if Bozak, Lupul and Dion will be on the team or not yet.

I'm not sure what the question here is, will TO be better with/without these players?

 

[PuckMagi]

I think we make the playoffs.

I think we're lacking some higher end talent right now... but we've got a lot of NHL ready players that we should have no problems filling our line-up with quality players.

We've got Bernier and Babcock. Those two alone should get us pretty far. All we need is for a few players to surprise and we can have a pretty good team.

 

[Leafs at Knight]

This would be a great comment if one player made up a team.

You do know that the Devils mastered the trap right for many years now?

Yea except my point was that Schneider unlike the other goalies mentioned didn't have a top defenceman to play behind, he didn't have anyone, and still put up really good numbers.

Plus he's better than Dubnyk, Anderson, and Luongo.

 

[Mats13]

Atlantic:
Tampa
Carey Price
Detroit

Metro:
Rangers
Washington
Columbus

Wildcard 1: Pittsburgh
Wildcard 2: Islanders

then everything slots down to like so:
Ottawa
Philadelphia
Boston
Florida
Carolina
Buffalo
New Jersey
Toronto

If Reimer is our starter, we will make the playoffs.

If Bernier is our starter, we will miss the playoffs for the 3 straight year.

Anyway, we're pretty much guaranteed bottom 2 in the conference and are the favorites for last. This team without Kessel is going to be hilariously bad.

 

[Gabriel426]

People kept saying the Leafs only lost Kessel.... But the thing is Franson is not with the Leafs and as much as I think he is overrated, he is a decent Dman with some good PP. Babcock will most likely have a better system in place and players would naturally want to impress the new coach but this is not a good team and even if you put in the fact that players tend to have career yr during contract yr(8-9 of them), they still not good enough unless the whole team over achieve and Bernier or Reimer pulls a Hammond or Dybnek.
I am predicting players being dealt after Xmas.

 

[MJ65]

13th or 14th

 

[SprDaVE]

On paper the Leafs look like a pretty bad team. All though before, on paper, we looked like a good team that stunk up the joint and finished really badly.

Maybe we'll have a reversal in that aspect? Probably not but not imposible.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

My predictions on the Leafs next year. Said this months ago before scorched earth, tank and draft, slow rebuild that was sold.

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=99406737&postcount=13

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=102795897&postcount=433

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=104426817&postcount=764

 

[diceman934]

We are a better team than last year at this point....much better in fact.
We deleted a person who was a negative affect on the team. Franson will be replaced by Harrington who is better defensively.

We added a coach who has the full support of management meaning if you take short cuts you are not playing at all, no matter your contract status. This has not been true.....hell last year Carlyle was walking the plank all year long. He did not even have his own assistants!

Next we signed a lot of players who will work their tail off.....so unless we trade Dion,JVR, Lupul, Bozak and company we will be a better team. We will be putting players into their roles that they earned and not simply given.

We will surprise a lot of people this year if we keep the team as is for the most part. I do see us making a couple of more deals which could change my opinion but I see us at 7 to 10 as of now.

 

[TimeZone]

He mentions those two but doesn't even mention Quick. I guess one mediocre season and he sucks now..

 

[J1S]

Atlantic
1. Lightning
2. Canadiens
3. Red Wings

Metro
1. Rangers
2. Penguins
3. Capitals

Wild Card
7. Blue Jackets
8. Panthers

9. Islanders
10. Bruins
11. Sabres
12. Senators
13. Flyers
14. Leafs
15. Hurricanes
16. Devils

 

[J1S]

He mentions those two but doesn't even mention Quick. I guess one mediocre season and he sucks now..

IMO

1. Price
2. Rinne
3. Lundqvist
4. Quick
5. Rask
6. Schneider

 

[Pyrophorus]

What's that based on? That great run Reimer had two years ago after Bernier got hurt, he couldn't win us a game, we even had to start McIntyre, Reimer was god awful and it cost us a playoff berth.

Was he concussed by Stoll?