Playoff Race Thread

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Mess

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The games tend to tighten up and things get more defensive so Leafs are going to be in a battle down the stretch.

Leafs alkalies heel is their defensive play, which injuries are not helping.
 
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Fogelhund

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The games tend to tighten up and things get more defensive so Leafs are going to be in a battle down the stretch.

Leafs alkalies heel is their defensive play, which injuries are not helping.

achilles

Though, really Alkali isn't bad either.. An alkali also can be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0
 
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Mess

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This is a recording.

If you're in bottom 5 in most goals against I have a hard time seeing sustain success, when you can't keep the puck out of your own net.. Even if you have a top 5 offense and your goal is to win games 5-4 and outscore your mistakes, relying on pure offensive talent.

To me a strong offense but weak defense offset each other and averaging out makes you an average team and wildly inconsistent. IMO

Leafs are essentially built for a Cinderella season, where everything would have to go your way and your offense is on fire at the right time and your lack of defensive doesn't take you out. Your offense can lead you to a Cup and your defense can result in non playoff season where both outcomes are plausible.

Leafs results actually match their team building personnel and Keefe system where you beat Carolina 8-6 and then lose to Florida 8-4 and rebound to beat NJ 7-4 followed by a 6-2 loss again to the Hawks.

You would expect these wild pendulum swings where every game you're not sure if its the opposition net or your own net that will be filled with pucks.
 
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TheProspector

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If you're in bottom 5 in most goals against I have a hard time seeing sustain success, when you can't keep the puck out of your own net.. Even if you have a top 5 offense and your goal is to win games 5-4 and outscore your mistakes, relying on pure offensive talent.

To me a strong offense but weak defense offset each other and averaging out makes you an average team and wildly inconsistent. IMO

Leafs are essentially built for a Cinderella season, where everything would have to go your way and your offense is on fire at the right time and your lack of defensive doesn't take you out.

Leafs results actually match their team building personnel and Keefe system where you beat Carolina 8-6 and then lose to Florida 8-4 and rebound to beat NJ 7-4 followed by a 6-2 loss again to the Hawks.

You would expect these wild pendulum swings where every game you're not sure if its the opposition net or your own net that will be filled with pucks.
Yeah. Embrace it. This is the new NHL, and this is the new model. It's exciting hockey, and at the moment, the more you're into this mindset, the better you're going to do against other teams who will find it alien.
 
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ACC1224

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If you're in bottom 5 in most goals against I have a hard time seeing sustain success, when you can't keep the puck out of your own net.. Even if you have a top 5 offense and your goal is to win games 5-4 and outscore your mistakes, relying on pure offensive talent.

To me a strong offense but weak defense offset each other and averaging out makes you an average team and wildly inconsistent. IMO

Leafs are essentially built for a Cinderella season, where everything would have to go your way and your offense is on fire at the right time and your lack of defensive doesn't take you out. Your offense can lead you to a Cup and your defense can result in non playoff season where both outcomes are plausible.

Leafs results actually match their team building personnel and Keefe system where you beat Carolina 8-6 and then lose to Florida 8-4 and rebound to beat NJ 7-4 followed by a 6-2 loss again to the Hawks.

You would expect these wild pendulum swings where every game you're not sure if its the opposition net or your own net that will be filled with pucks.
It's never seemed like a recipe for success to me.
As hard as it is to believe some here have gauranteed it to be successful.
Hope they're right.
 

JT AM da real deal

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If you're in bottom 5 in most goals against I have a hard time seeing sustain success, when you can't keep the puck out of your own net.. Even if you have a top 5 offense and your goal is to win games 5-4 and outscore your mistakes, relying on pure offensive talent.

To me a strong offense but weak defense offset each other and averaging out makes you an average team and wildly inconsistent. IMO

Leafs are essentially built for a Cinderella season, where everything would have to go your way and your offense is on fire at the right time and your lack of defensive doesn't take you out. Your offense can lead you to a Cup and your defense can result in non playoff season where both outcomes are plausible.

Leafs results actually match their team building personnel and Keefe system where you beat Carolina 8-6 and then lose to Florida 8-4 and rebound to beat NJ 7-4 followed by a 6-2 loss again to the Hawks.

You would expect these wild pendulum swings where every game you're not sure if its the opposition net or your own net that will be filled with pucks.
The great equalizer is Freddy. When he is all star freddy we win most of these type of games. When he is lost Freddy we lose them. Our defense the way it is constructed now will never be great. There is too much AAV in the forwards. So we have to be a highly offensive team with great goaltending. That is the ticket to playoffs. and it is very exciting hockey to watch.
 

Mess

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:laugh:

Care to cite an example of a bottom-5 GA team winning anything of consequence in this "new NHL" you speak of?

That's easy and a trick question ...

The answer is the the entry draft lottery is winning a thing of consequence and drafting 1-3. :wg:

You can sort the NHL standings by GA in lowest to highest order and you will find that the bottom 1/3 of the NHL teams (ie bottom 10) all are non playoff teams, with very few exceptions over the years.

In fact if you take the last 5 years standings combined the bottom 10 teams in worst goals against all missed the playoffs with 1 single exception of those 50 teams and that was our Leafs in 2016-17 (who went from last in 2015 to sneak into the playoffs the next year despite finishing in the bottom 10 in goals against).

1 in 50 teams is not good odds of just making the playoffs (past 5 seasons), never mind winning anything of consequence that season.
 

Dekes For Days

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Leafs are essentially built for a Cinderella season, where everything would have to go your way and your offense is on fire at the right time and your lack of defensive doesn't take you out.
No, the Leafs are built as a dominant overall team as long as the goaltender doesn't suddenly fall off the face of the earth, completely removed from the defense in front, and literally everything possible doesn't go wrong.
 

Northernguy10

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Basically we have to go 20-13 (approx .600 hockey)...Freddy needs to get his confidence back and they have to,magically, play better in their own end especially in what is now called the home plate area...Too much standing around when a little effort in tying up opponents that are a few feet away from you can 'surprising' help in cutting the goals against down. I don't get the multitude of goals scored on this team when we have players so close to the goal scorer. It's a mindset they need to discover...somehow. They seem to be collapsing more in front of Freddy. If you are going to do this you better block a hell of a lot of shots and battle for pucks in the high danger areas.
 
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egd27

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:laugh:

Care to cite an example of a bottom-5 GA team winning anything of consequence in this "new NHL" you speak of?
I tried to predict the outcomes of playoff series a couple of years ago just by by picking the team with the lowest GA during the season. Got 10 out of 13.

Not sure how much "newer" the NHL is in the past couple of years.
 

ACC1224

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I tried to predict the outcomes of playoff series a couple of years ago just by by picking the team with the lowest GA during the season. Got 10 out of 13.

Not sure how much "newer" the NHL is in the past couple of years.
In fairness though, none of those teams were led by Dubas or coached by Keefe.
 
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