Leafs Regular Season Predictions

[Leafspoison*]

Ahhh, it is always nice to see the forever faithful fans at the beginning of a new season, then the January 500's fans, then the free fall leaf fans that don't understand what happened.

What is funny and sad at the same time, its the same guys year after year and the same leafs year after year.

Drinking the blue koolaid seems fashionable this time of the year.

3rd from bottom. Book it. We replaced the bottom 6 yet somehow we are a playoff team and no other teams improved....? haha

Rinse and repeat.

I would love to be wrong this year, but I won't be. I was right 9 of the last 10 years.

Am I a pessimist? Not at all. I have other favourite sports teams that win. I am not a pessimist, I generally have a very upbeat life. Very adventurous and been around the world on a workaday salary. But unfortunately I can clearly see what the leafs have and what the other teams have. They are better than us.

You won't have to wait until March to see this teams true colours, I guarantee it.

On a positive note (told you), Carlyle will be gone by game 15 when we are 6 and 9.

 

[-DeMo-]

Leafs are better than the Sens, Sabres, Islanders, Hurricanes, Panthers and the Devils. I'm pretty much certain of that. Leafs are close to or not far behind a few other teams in the East.

No idea how the 'Canes are loaded up. They were a bad team last season that did nothing in the off season. Only team out of those that I listed that got significantly better is the Islanders.

Call me overly optimistic but I think the Leafs could realistically end up in a wild car spot. A lot of things would have to go right but I do believe the Leafs have a better team than they did last season. A lot more defensively responsible players will make for less shots against. A legit fourth line and improved third line will make for more scoring depth and a more rested top line. I think that the standings could look like this:

Atlantic:
Tampa Bay
Boston
Montreal

Metro:
Pittsburgh
NY Rangers
Columbus

Wild Card
Detroit
Toronto

Islanders, Caps and Flyers each have a legit shot at grabbing a wild card spot too. It'll be a close race.

I think both Philly and Carolina will be better, Staal had a down year by his standards coming off Knee Surgery wasn't able to train properly, and Giroux was also injuried during the summer and took him till December to get back into shape, with those 2 players playing much better and at the top of there game I would expect both those teams to be better, even if they didn't make a lot of moves in the off-season.

 

[slozo]

as a matter of fact, they have been exceptionally easy to read and predict and very consistence

cellar dwellers.

maybe you find is so difficult to see , form of denial?

your love for team and hope, won't let you see the ugly fact since the first lockout.

As another poster also pointed out in a much nicer way . . . sure, both of you can now AFTER THE FACT state how stupid I have been and how smart you both obviously were. With no proof, no prediction for this year even . . . sure, I can also talk smack about others here who are deluded.

Honestly though, not sure why you are attacking myself, and not the guy who is predicting we beat the bruins in points.

Listen, it's a very tenuous prediction at best, trying to judge a team like the Leafs in the Eastern Conference. If in the West, I could lay down big money on them not making the playoffs, the West looks that strong. And yet, the teams to compare to the Leafs, those that will likely finish #5 - 11 . . . they are either barely above the Leafs are very even, I would say. Even so-called "great teams" like Boston could be ripe for a great fall if the right conditions exist (ie - goalie injury).

My prediction DOES tend towards positivity, yes. The Leafs ARE a team that falls in that 5-11 category, once again. Yes, we've come up on the short end of the stick most times that has happened in the past 10 years, sure.

But one thing is different for me, and it started last year - an A goalie is our starter. And he has a good deal more experience now, and this year will truly be his first as the bonified starter (remember, last year, despite appearances, was sold as a "competition"). It starts in goal, and with more starts for Bernier . . . I think that's a good 6-8 point swing upwards. Reilly and Kadri maturing will be a positive influence as well, I feel.

But if the Leafs miss again . . . it's not like I will feel I mispredicted badly or anything. It's the Eastern Conference, baby . . . anything can happen, and probably will.

 

[sommervr]

I don't like what I am hearing from Carlyle. He says he will add a third scoring line. I will believe it when I see it.

Other than that it appears that Carlyle thinks he needs to be more of a hard ass. Like that is going to scare anyone on this team throwing sticks and yelling.

He doesn't have any new ideas he is just recycling ideas he thinks worked for him in the past.

They didn't work for him then he just had the horses to overcome his crap systems. By game 15 he is going to be flummoxed again yelling COMPETE

Why is this guy still here?

 

[Faltorvo]

I've heard the same thing every year. A top 5 pick would help every team every year. Sadly, at some point you need to stop focusing on getting a top pick for next year and decide this is the year we make the playoffs.

We can easily make the playoffs with our roster if we stay healthy. The east is wide open, and after Boston, every team can finish from last to 2nd.

Sadly at some point you need to stop pretending this is a playoff team and face the hard facts shown over that last 8 years.

 

[Suntouchable13]

I don't like what I am hearing from Carlyle. He says he will add a third scoring line. I will believe it when I see it.

Other than that it appears that Carlyle thinks he needs to be more of a hard ass. Like that is going to scare anyone on this team throwing sticks and yelling.

He doesn't have any new ideas he is just recycling ideas he thinks worked for him in the past.

They didn't work for him then he just had the horses to overcome his crap systems. By game 15 he is going to be flummoxed again yelling COMPETE

Why is this guy still here?

He is going to get canned by Christmas. He has no clue anymore. The first game of the pre-season when you'll see Franson and Dion on the first PP unit, you'll see that nothing has changed with him.

 

[Faltorvo]

As another poster also pointed out in a much nicer way . . . sure, both of you can now AFTER THE FACT state how stupid I have been and how smart you both obviously were. With no proof, no prediction for this year even . . . sure, I can also talk smack about others here who are deluded.

Honestly though, not sure why you are attacking myself, and not the guy who is predicting we beat the bruins in points.

Listen, it's a very tenuous prediction at best, trying to judge a team like the Leafs in the Eastern Conference. If in the West, I could lay down big money on them not making the playoffs, the West looks that strong. And yet, the teams to compare to the Leafs, those that will likely finish #5 - 11 . . . they are either barely above the Leafs are very even, I would say. Even so-called "great teams" like Boston could be ripe for a great fall if the right conditions exist (ie - goalie injury).

My prediction DOES tend towards positivity, yes. The Leafs ARE a team that falls in that 5-11 category, once again. Yes, we've come up on the short end of the stick most times that has happened in the past 10 years, sure.

But one thing is different for me, and it started last year - an A goalie is our starter. And he has a good deal more experience now, and this year will truly be his first as the bonified starter (remember, last year, despite appearances, was sold as a "competition"). It starts in goal, and with more starts for Bernier . . . I think that's a good 6-8 point swing upwards. Reilly and Kadri maturing will be a positive influence as well, I feel.

But if the Leafs miss again . . . it's not like I will feel I mispredicted badly or anything. It's the Eastern Conference, baby . . . anything can happen, and probably will.

Well for starters I make a prediction every year.

For the record , I was not trying to bash on you, I was merely trying to point out what could be the reason why you think this team is hard to predict, when they in fact have shown , not to be hard at all.

Your emotional ties to the team may make it hard for you to predict a disappointing season ahead.

 

[Faltorvo]

Well for starters I make a prediction every year.

For the record , I was not trying to bash on you, I was merely trying to point out what could be the reason why you think this team is hard to predict, when they in fact have shown , not to be hard at all.

Your emotional ties to the team may make it hard for you to predict a disappointing season ahead.

I have been calling this squad a cellar dweller for a very long time now and predicted so every year.

Save for the lockout year, I have been pretty much bang on, BEFORE THE FACT.

 

[realgoodleafs]

Bottom 10.

 

[Mess]

I think both Philly and Carolina will be better, Staal had a down year by his standards coming off Knee Surgery wasn't able to train properly, and Giroux was also injuried during the summer and took him till December to get back into shape, with those 2 players playing much better and at the top of there game I would expect both those teams to be better, even if they didn't make a lot of moves in the off-season.

I think Washington is the team to watch this year in the East as potentially the biggest mover and shaker.

They have a new coach in Barry Trapp who knows how to play defense as his teams often in Nashville make the playoffs with limited offensive talent and playing at the cap floor. When his has a 50 goal automatic scorer in OV look out.

They also added both Matti Niskanen and Brooks Orpik to a defense that has Alzner, Green, Orlov and John Clarson on it to have a pretty established D-core.

Also rookie Evgeny Kuznetsov is likely a Calder finalist potentially this year.

Big offseason in Washington could lead to competing for the Conference title not just a wild card spot. I don't like Leafs beating them out for a playoff spot next year. IMO

 

[Faltorvo]

I think Washington is the team to watch this year in the East as potentially the biggest mover and shaker.

They have a new coach in Barry Trapp who knows how to play defense as his teams often in Nashville make the playoffs with limited offensive talent and playing at the cap floor. When his has a 50 goal automatic scorer in OV look out.

They also added both Matti Niskanen and Brooks Orpik to a defense that has Alzner, Green, Orlov and John Clarson on it to have a pretty established D-core.

Also rookie Evgeny Kuznetsov is likely a Calder finalist potentially this year.

Big offseason in Washington could lead to competing for the Conference title not just a wild card spot. I don't like Leafs beating them out for a playoff spot next year. IMO

Watch out for

Pitt
Det
Tbay
Isles

4 east teams that had serious injury issues worth talking about last year.

 

[hockeyfanz*]

I have been calling this squad a cellar dweller for a very long time now and predicted so every year.

Save for the lockout year, I have been pretty much bang on, BEFORE THE FACT.

Dude..even when they took the Bruins to 7 games, I wasn't convinced that it wasn't a fluke...more likely, they woke the sleeping giants. The B's went on to smash every other team on there way to the finals. The Leafs? Went back to the toilet.

No offense sir, but predicting this team is junk isn't exactly being Kreskin or some prophet or somebody with supernatural sense. Its called being honest and unbiased.

This team is built to fail. The coach will fail. The GM will fail and the team will fail.

Shanny just wants to give the perception that he gave them all another chance before tearing it down.

Thats my bold predicition. Even in the very weak Eastern Conference, the Leafs will have a difficult time being one of the top 8 teams. More likely to be drafting high next year. More likely to be sellers at the deadline.

 

[Faltorvo]

Dude..even when they took the Bruins to 7 games, I wasn't convinced that it wasn't a fluke...more likely, they woke the sleeping giants. The B's went on to smash every other team on there way to the finals. The Leafs? Went back to the toilet.

No offense sir, but predicting this team is junk isn't exactly being Kreskin or some prophet or somebody with supernatural sense. Its called being honest and unbiased.

This team is built to fail. The coach will fail. The GM will fail and the team will fail.

Shanny just wants to give the perception that he gave them all another chance before tearing it down.

Thats my bold predicition. Even in the very weak Eastern Conference, the Leafs will have a difficult time being one of the top 8 teams. More likely to be drafting high next year. More likely to be sellers at the deadline.

I have never claimed to be any of the sort

I was rebutting someone claiming that I have not made predictions and only do so after the fact.

if anything if you follow the chain of debate between me and slozo, all I said was that maybe his emotional attachment was clouding his vision.

my only claim is to be able to detach from that and call it like I see it.

 

[Daisy Jane]

Ahhh, it is always nice to see the forever faithful fans at the beginning of a new season, then the January 500's fans, then the free fall leaf fans that don't understand what happened.

What is funny and sad at the same time, its the same guys year after year and the same leafs year after year.

Drinking the blue koolaid seems fashionable this time of the year.

3rd from bottom. Book it. We replaced the bottom 6 yet somehow we are a playoff team and no other teams improved....? haha

Rinse and repeat.

I would love to be wrong this year, but I won't be. I was right 9 of the last 10 years.

Am I a pessimist? Not at all. I have other favourite sports teams that win. I am not a pessimist, I generally have a very upbeat life. Very adventurous and been around the world on a workaday salary. But unfortunately I can clearly see what the leafs have and what the other teams have. They are better than us.

You won't have to wait until March to see this teams true colours, I guarantee it.

On a positive note (told you), Carlyle will be gone by game 15 when we are 6 and 9.

you sound like this





there's no way we're going to be third from the bottom. even taking into the fact that we're not going to score as many goals and Reimer/Bernier may not stop as many as they did - how did: Edmonton, Calgary, New York Islanders, Carolina and Vancouver all do better than us that we slide worse than they did, in your Amazing Swame predictions? Does Kessel just forget how to play hockey for 1/2 the year? Did someone Tonya Harding, Bernier?

I love how having an optimistic view on the beginning of the season is seen as drinking Blue Kool-Aid (because you know, it's not like anything can happen, see Colorado Avalanche, being in the bottom three to being an 100 point team, whilst having... wait for it.... the same guys! ).

I'm not saying that's going to be our fate, and if you want to be all "well we're gonna suck" that's your prerogative, but if the choice is to be pessmistic whatever you want to call yourself vs. seeing what's going to happen with an open mind, i choose my side of the fence. it's a lot more fun, rather than being "oh, they just gonna suck."

 

[slozo]

Well for starters I make a prediction every year.

For the record , I was not trying to bash on you, I was merely trying to point out what could be the reason why you think this team is hard to predict, when they in fact have shown , not to be hard at all.

Your emotional ties to the team may make it hard for you to predict a disappointing season ahead.

Fair enough. And this topic aside . . . it's impossible to totally detach one's love for a team and be able to analyse properly. I'd assume that it happens to every single fan of every single team in hockey (and other sports) to wildly varying degrees. And I get that, so it's a fair point that I've been at the very least mildly deluded while trying to figure out what my team will do.

That being said, for the shortened season, I was bang on, and I correctly predicted a playoff miss on the two seasons prior to that. I was badly incorrect last year (thought they'd repeat their shortened season standings and as we all remember it sure looked like it was going to happen, then an epic collapse happened). I mention this only to say . . . you're never as good as your best or worst efforts; usually, it's somewhere in between.

For me, there are 2 sort of "unseen" changes that will really affect the team in a positive direction . . . the maturation of Rielly, Kadri and Gardiner, and the maturation and greater amount of starts for Bernier. Coupled with a couple of more defensive defencemen . . . I've thought it over and re-thought it now, and . . . I still think that the Leafs are in like a dirty shirt, in some part due to a very weak Eastern Conference.

Anyways,

 

[Northernguy10]

I don't see it this year. 10-11 in the conference and another lottery pic. Just keep building.

...Yep. I have bets with other Leafs fans that they will finish 9-12th. Out of the playoffs but not bad enough for a top 2 pick... It's just what they do. I think trading Gunnarsson will prove to be a mistake and I don't see the upgrade in the bottom six (as a group, I do like a few additions) and I'm not sure the goa ltending can do as well as last year. Finally, Carlyle is still the coach. As you say, keep drafting and building and hope for a few years down the road.

 

[AustonMitchWilly]

I say we scrape into the playoffs and lose first round. Injury plagued year.

 

[Faltorvo]

you sound like this





there's no way we're going to be third from the bottom. even taking into the fact that we're not going to score as many goals and Reimer/Bernier may not stop as many as they did - how did: Edmonton, Calgary, New York Islanders, Carolina and Vancouver all do better than us that we slide worse than they did, in your Amazing Swame predictions? Does Kessel just forget how to play hockey for 1/2 the year? Did someone Tonya Harding, Bernier?

I love how having an optimistic view on the beginning of the season is seen as drinking Blue Kool-Aid (because you know, it's not like anything can happen, see Colorado Avalanche, being in the bottom three to being an 100 point team, whilst having... wait for it.... the same guys! ).

I'm not saying that's going to be our fate, and if you want to be all "well we're gonna suck" that's your prerogative, but if the choice is to be pessmistic whatever you want to call yourself vs. seeing what's going to happen with an open mind, i choose my side of the fence. it's a lot more fun, rather than being "oh, they just gonna suck."

You mention Colorado as an example of (you never know).

First off, I'd like to point out that you are measuring them off a 48 game anomalous season, as we have seen, it would be wise to not use years like that as any kind of comparison device. If one looks closely Col had some key % amount of games lost to the likes of ROR,Land,Johnson and Barrie, toss in a brutal .903 sv% from Varlamov and well.

Their last 82 game season did post a ok 88 points , this was a team that had already climbed out of the cellar.

A new coach, a tender posting a stellar .927 sv%, growth and maturing from the likes of ROR,Land,Duch,Barrie and the addition of MacKinnon and you see the results of them building off a 88 point season.

We just got our stellar .923 sv% performance from berny and it went to waste, the best it could manage was 8th last.

 

[Mess]

I say we scrape into the playoffs and lose first round. Injury plagued year.

I say the opposite is true.. If the Leafs have a fairly injury free year they could scrape into the playoffs.

This team doesn't have the depth to survive injuries particularly to key players. Last year injuries to players like Bolland (3rd line) and Bozak (20 games) and Bernier (10 games) resulted in a bottom 10 finish and that was minimal compared to teams like Detroit or TB etc. who lost stars for 1/2 the season.

To make the playoffs Kessel has to be a PPG player scoring near 40 goals.. Phaneuf needs to play a full season .. JVR needs another 30 goal year and Bernier needs to repeat his top 10 sv%.

 

[Teeder9]

It becomes fairly obvious to everyone, except Nonis, that this team just isn't as good as the parts, he gets fired for refusing to address it, and the new guy makes a big splash. We rid ourselves of high priced players and do a Leaf rebuild, aka re-tool.

 

[Faltorvo]

I say the opposite is true.. If the Leafs have a fairly injury free year they could scrape into the playoffs.

This team doesn't have the depth to survive injuries particularly to key players. Last year injuries to players like Bolland (3rd line) and Bozak (20 games) and Bernier (10 games) resulted in a bottom 10 finish and that was minimal compared to teams like Detroit or TB etc. who lost stars for 1/2 the season.

To make the playoffs Kessel has to be a PPG player scoring near 40 goals.. Phaneuf needs to play a full season .. JVR needs another 30 goal year and Bernier needs to repeat his top 10 sv%.

To the bolded

I'd argue what you listed HAS TO HAPPEN just to give them the foundation to stand on and build from to possibly make the POs. It will take a mix of, growth from younger players, bounce backs from the likes of Kad,Lups,Frans,Clark to get them into the POs.

Maybe not all but at least some of those other things will have to happen.

 

[CanadasTeam]

It'll be a slow start due to new players and system, but very optimistic.

Prediction: 97 pts!

Counted one too many games for Oct, but we're on track.

 

[Al14]

If we continue to hover around .500, we'll have a very difficult time making the playoffs!

We need to win at a better clip in November and beyond!

 

[Wafflewhipper]

A playoffs team. Not going to be the same lineup after the trade deadline. Will be better defensively on the whole. Best depth team we have had in years. Franson will be moved and Percy will be a full time NHL'er replacing him.

Jake Gardiner is possibly traded if the return is right. Defenseman for defenseman deal. The right moves early enough in the season could give us a team deep enough both sides of the puck to make some noise.

 

[BrannigansLaw]

31-42-9

Bernier's godlike performances from last year become less frequent and we end up with 71 points.

Looks like I'm on track here.

Sucks to be right so often about this team. Also, lol at all the optimists in this thread. It's funny to see how drastically their opinions have changed ahaha.