Series Talk: Leafs vs Jackets- Series Preview and Discussion - II

[MapleLeafs9]

Anyone have any info on training camp plans? Practices?

I believe camps start on the 13th, players then travel to the hub cities on the 26th

What's the latest on Matthews?

Nadda.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Couple things to remember for this series:

-Our defense will be healthy for the first time this season and is better than last years.

-Our offense will be ridiculous with Mikheyev back.

-Andersen will hopefully be better than he played most of the year.

-We have a coach that will actually make adjustments or use players in their proper roles.

-Aside from an 8 game heater from Elvis the Jackets were an average team this year that can't score at all.

-Panarin/Duchene/Dzingel/Bobrovsky are all gone from that Columbus team that upset Tampa last year. It is NOT the same team.

As long as we stay healthy and nobody opts out we should win this pretty easily unless Jones and Werenski are going to play 40 minutes a night.

Panarin and all those guys are gone, sure. But they had even more injury troubles than we did and yet, somehow managed 81 points in 70 games (exactly the same as us). Dismissing these guys as "not the same team" and expecting us to win easily seems overly optimistic and frankly, naive.

 

[MapleLeafs9]

Does anyone else think it's possible if things are better in September, fans may be allowed in with spread out seating? Being optimistic here but I just can't fathom watching the Stanley Cup final, let alone the playoffs, without fans

 

[Golden_Jet]

Does anyone else think it's possible if things are better in September, fans may be allowed in with spread out seating? Being optimistic here but I just can't fathom watching the Stanley Cup final, let alone the playoffs, without fans

I don’t think so.

 

[BertCorbeau]

This is going to be a crapshoot of whoever comes in hot to start with .. They've basically had an off-season off now between the stoppage and play resuming.

 

[Metroid]

This is going to be a crapshoot of whoever comes in hot to start with .. They've basically had an off-season off now between the stoppage and play resuming.

It's a shame buffalo is not in it. Lol they would have started off with their usual 10 game winning streak and probably wild have won it
Hahahha

 

[stickty111]

Full lineup

 

[mikeyz]

Does anyone else think it's possible if things are better in September, fans may be allowed in with spread out seating? Being optimistic here but I just can't fathom watching the Stanley Cup final, let alone the playoffs, without fans

No chance man.

 

[weems]

Columbus is a solid team but we really should win this series.
At our current timeline with our young players, having dealt away assets to be good now, it would be extremely dissapointing to not even be able to win a "play in" and would make me question if we can win with our current roster setup.

The one thing that makes me like this matchup is that they dont have 1 star forward or even a great forward group that can consistently expose our weaker spot (defence).

Boston could always throw out that one line and basically exploit our team weakness. Columbus dont have that and thus if we show up willing to work hard and come close to matching their intensity, this should end with us winning because we have the more talented roster. The problem with this group is you dont really know what team is going to show up work ethic wise and if they're willing to do the small things to win games.

 

[francis246]

This may be our best chance to get a cup. I’m hoping we see nic Robertson in action as well

 

[Clark4Ever]

Hoping for an update regarding Matthews soon. It's been a few weeks now.

 

[LeafsNation75]

I was just looking at a reply on the Blue Jackets board about the series and one of their fans think Leafs will still have an advantage playing at Scotiabank Arena even without the fans because they know the ice, boards, sightlines, and being comfortable with the locker room/layout.

 

[ACC1224]

I was just looking at a reply on the Blue Jackets board about the series and one of their fans think Leafs will still have an advantage playing at Scotiabank Arena even without the fans because they know the ice, boards, sightlines, and being comfortable with the locker room/layout.

Reasonable thought but IMO it’s a minor advantage if any.

 

[Menzinger]

Columbus is a solid team but we really should win this series.
At our current timeline with our young players, having dealt away assets to be good now, it would be extremely dissapointing to not even be able to win a "play in" and would make me question if we can win with our current roster setup.

The one thing that makes me like this matchup is that they dont have 1 star forward or even a great forward group that can consistently expose our weaker spot (defence).

Boston could always throw out that one line and basically exploit our team weakness. Columbus dont have that and thus if we show up willing to work hard and come close to matching their intensity, this should end with us winning. The problem with this group is you dont really know what team is going to show up work ethic wise and if they're willing to do the small things to win games.

Exactly. I just don't see them having anything remotely close to that Bruins first line. Imo the Leafs showed last playoffs they have the potential to meet these teams at 5v5, but they will still need to mentally get it together: Matthews, Marner, Nylander especially will need to lesd the team like they are paid to do.

The only potential thing I see sinking the Leafs is if Andersen is off his game. But at least Campbell could potentially be a bit of a safeguard there

 

[Golden_Jet]

I was just looking at a reply on the Blue Jackets board about the series and one of their fans think Leafs will still have an advantage playing at Scotiabank Arena even without the fans because they know the ice, boards, sightlines, and being comfortable with the locker room/layout.

That’s fair there is a small advantage.
Leafs will only get their locker room on home games it looks like.

 

[LeafsNation75]

This tweet from the NHL PR Twitter account confirms the Maple Leafs have officially made the playoffs in 2020.

 

[Golden_Jet]

This tweet from the NHL PR Twitter account confirms the Maple Leafs have officially made the playoffs in 2020.

Ya that was stupid of NHL, with the draft, now a playoff team can get first.
Even though they say playoffs, most fans will only consider the final 16 as real playoffs.

 

[NinjaKick]

I gotta give mad props to Tortorella... that said I don't think anyone can honestly say that the Leafs are not the favorites...
it wont be a cake walk... but we got this shit boys

 

[ACC1224]

This tweet from the NHL PR Twitter account confirms the Maple Leafs have officially made the playoffs in 2020.

That doesn’t make any sense.

 

[LeafsNation75]

That doesn’t make any sense.

Did you not see this paragraph which said the following.

"Teams participating in a best-of-five series during the Stanley Cup Qualifiers are considered to have made the postseason and participated in a postseason series."

So no one can say the Maple Leafs missed the playoffs in 2020 and that means their streak of making them is up to 4 years in a row.

 

[ACC1224]

Did you not see this paragraph which said the following.

"Teams participating in a best-of-five series during the Stanley Cup Qualifiers are considered to have made the postseason and participated in a postseason series."

So no one can say the Maple Leafs missed the playoffs in 2020 and that means their streak of making them is up to 4 years in a row.

They were going to make the playoffs anyway, IMO but I doubt the Habs would have for one. What’s there streak at now?

 

[Mess]

Did you not see this paragraph which said the following.

"Teams participating in a best-of-five series during the Stanley Cup Qualifiers are considered to have made the postseason and participated in a postseason series."

So no one can say the Maple Leafs missed the playoffs in 2020 and that means their streak of making them is up to 4 years in a row.

So then 24 of the 31 teams made the playoff qualifying round by that or 77% of the league.

Only 7 teams officially missed the playoffs this year, although the losers of the qualifying round this year would be more like normal years where normally 15 teams miss the playoff each year.

Sounds like the NHL is handing out participation ribbons this year.

 

[Kamiccolo]

Panarin and all those guys are gone, sure. But they had even more injury troubles than we did and yet, somehow managed 81 points in 70 games (exactly the same as us). Dismissing these guys as "not the same team" and expecting us to win easily seems overly optimistic and frankly, naive.

Are you forgetting our season? We were the most injured out of the entire "Rebuild" era. We were missing Muzzin and Rielly for significant parts of the season, and they were playing hurt during other times. We lost 2 top 9 forwards for significant time (Soup and Johnsson) We lost Tavares and Marner for stretches.

And to top it off, Freddy has his worst season as a Leaf. Oh, and the whole Babcock thing to start the year. I am pretty confident in saying this year is an outlier more than anything. Let's see what happens when the puck drops. I'll take talent over grit every time.

 

[Kiwi]

Exactly. I just don't see them having anything remotely close to that Bruins first line. Imo the Leafs showed last playoffs they have the potential to meet these teams at 5v5, but they will still need to mentally get it together: Matthews, Marner, Nylander especially will need to lesd the team like they are paid to do.

The only potential thing I see sinking the Leafs is if Andersen is off his game. But at least Campbell could potentially be a bit of a safeguard there

Andersen isn't renowned for his hot starts coming into a new season

I hope Keefe doesn't screw around, if he can't stop a beachball Keefe needs to get the hook out, all I want is a win and Andersen's feelings shouldn't come into it

 

[Suntouchable13]

Leafs should dominate this talent light Columbus team. Yes, they did sweep TB last year but they had Panarin and Bob. Realistically, we should expect a quick series. The problem is that with our team can they work hard? Will they think that they can just outskill Columbus?