Dubas just has to sign the right ones (i.e. Perry over Simmonds/Jumbo/Vesey/Boyd). He will be up to bat later this month with two strikes and no balls and needs to hit at least a double.
I’d say Tampa’s had the puck luck in the games so far, must have been a real bummer dominating the 2nd and go into the dressing room down a goal scored in the dying seconds. Harkens to the Isle’s game 7 pp snafu, you just can’t give a ream like Tampa those chances.
People would rather believe what they can’t see (bad luck) vs. what you actually can see (how the playoffs are played).
One annoying thing this team does, over and over again, is play down to their opponents. I'd argue THAT, more than anything, is what cost them against both Columbus and Montreal; they didn't come out with everything because they played down to their weaker opponents. Look back on how they played Boston vs. how they played Columbus and Montreal. Team looked 100% better, and I don't think it's a coincidence that it's because Boston was a stronger opponent. We even saw it in this division; why were the last place Ottawa Senators the team the Leafs had the most trouble with? Because they didn't play Ottawa as hard as they played someone like Edmonton...
And then we have to hear all about such nonsense as expected goals like it’s a legit excuse for not getting actual real goals
If that’s the case then this team needs a definite do-over, meaning doing another rebuild. To take any team lightly in the playoffs (yes, I know Tampa did), especially after *4 straight years of going out in the 1st round (*I’m really not counting last year as having made the playoffs), then heads need to roll.
Exactly what should be done by new GM if and when ownership wake up from their collective coma.
Actually, I believe players don’t want to play here as much as we might want to think. I’m now wondering why Thornton never had to sit out, and got to be on PP1? And why Simmonds never had to sit out? I believe it’s because, in order to get them, Thornton especially, Dubas promised them lots of extras, ie. playing time and PP.Players want to play here for free.
Also, I believe Nylander will go 1st chance he gets (not that it really matters because he’s so soft), because Marner and Matthews are running the show (they play the majority of the PP minutes as one example), and Nylander gets their scraps.
It kind of makes you wonder how badly ownership wants to build a winner. Aren’t the Leafs one of the highest money generating teams in hockey, if not all sports, regardless of their inability to do anything in the playoffs?
Or they have no idea how to and will not break up the core
Except for the part where this has been an ongoing problem since 1993. This problem is older than the current owners, forget about the current management. A rebuild would almost definitely lead to the next team doing the same shit. They need to figure out WHY the team has played like this for three decades before they do anything.
When Matthews takes off on the team in free agency a year after that, then what? Pray the new management managed to pull a couple more franchise players out of those picks because the Leafs will then be back to where they were after JFJ was fired? It took them what, a decade to recover from that?
, it will be years next year ...)
