Series Talk: Your Top 5 Under the Gun Leafs this Playoffs

[Its not your fault]

Make the list like 2 or 3 long anything else is just shooting on your own goalie why?

 

[CreeksideStrangler]

1. Defense
2. PK
3. Marner
4. Bottom 6 contributions

 

[CreeksideStrangler]

dont worry Jake Gardiner is gone

 

[Funk21]

1. Andersen
2. Nylander
3. JT
4. AM
5. Rielly

Andersen has been average at best in the playoffs, yes the team has played poor defensively but he needs a few stand on his head games.

Nylander redemption can be complete if he comes out as a man possessed.

JT and AM are interchangeable IMO. JT needs to prove he can lead a team past the first round. AM needs to prove he can hang with the McJesus, McKinnon and Crosby’s of the league.

Rielly, well while the points are great he needs to prove once and for all he can play D and chip in. I was hoping she would have been named captain and I think he can be a top D man in the the NHL.

 

[Antropovsky]

How can some lists have Nylander but not Marner as well? Nylander exceeded his 6.9 contract, while Marner was a bit underwhelming for a player making 10.9 or whatever it is.

Marner was paid big money he absolutely is expected to perform more so than Nylander.

I think if Nylander is on a list, then the same list should include Marner.

 

[Nylander88]

This teams will to compete and show push back will ultimately be the decider. If we get past the first round we probably get Boston next. CBJ followed by Boston is a lot of physical abuse. Our stars have to be willing to shove or give a hack to the ankles or it might be some hard TV to watch. Can't have people taking liberties and Clifford is only one man

 

[kb]

This teams will to compete and show push back will ultimately be the decider. If we get past the first round we probably get Boston next. CBJ followed by Boston is a lot of physical abuse. Our stars have to be willing to shove or give a hack to the ankles or it might be some hard TV to watch. Can't have people taking liberties and Clifford is only one man

That isn't why they lost to Boston - a 56% PK was why they lost. And taking retaliatory penalties is exactly what Boston wants the Leafs to do.....

 

[Nylander88]

That isn't why they lost to Boston - a 56% PK was why they lost. And taking retaliatory penalties is exactly what Boston wants the Leafs to do.....

I don't disagree. But we saw what happened that game 2 that Boston took it to us. Other than a one big Muzzin hit, it was Kadri running around. Then he crossed the line. Rewatch that game, it's hard to look at. Knowing a teammate has your back goes a long way. Id just like to see more of that "team" mentality this year. Our young guns are another year older and hopefully know what it takes. I'm not saying it's soley why we lost. But two back to back physical rounds will take it's toll if we aren't ready to answer that bell imo

 

[hotpaws]

1 - Tavares - a repeat of last years mediocre playoff performance is unacceptable

2 - Barrie - the trade to bring him here has so far been a disaster so he needs to step up and have a great playoff so we can recoup some value from dealing Kadri

3 - Andersen - while i believe he's played much better than he's being given credit for this season he needs to have a big playoffs to compensate for the piss poor defensive play in front of him

4 - Rielly - we need him to be healthy and productive

5 - Mathews - he's our best player and leader , we need him to dominate and lead us to the promised land

 

[X66]

1 - Tavares - a repeat of last years mediocre playoff performance is unacceptable

2 - Barrie - the trade to bring him here has so far been a disaster so he needs to step up and have a great playoff so we can recoup some value from dealing Kadri

3 - Andersen - while i believe he's played much better than he's being given credit for this season he needs to have a big playoffs to compensate for the piss poor defensive play in front of him

4 - Rielly - we need him to be healthy and productive

5 - Mathews - he's our best player and leader , we need him to dominate and lead us to the promised land

Tavares was very good last playoffs in my opinion, the bruins actually broke up their top line going head to head vs his.

I agree with the rest.

 

[Notsince67]

How can some lists have Nylander but not Marner as well? Nylander exceeded his 6.9 contract, while Marner was a bit underwhelming for a player making 10.9 or whatever it is.

Marner was paid big money he absolutely is expected to perform more so than Nylander.

I think if Nylander is on a list, then the same list should include Marner.

How does an annualized adjusted average performance of 53 points have nylander already exceeding his contract? Please explain.

 

[moon111]

1. Kerfoot. He might be unfairly asked to take on a role which he might not be suited for. In last year's playoffs, Tavares and Matthews lines were responsible for a lot of defensive zone starts. It sure would be nice to have a line that the Leafs could trust in their own zone rather then the top two.
2. Ceci. On the Leafs, maybe he's not being asked to do as much? He had 4 points in his first 7 games ...and ended up with 8 overall. You don't need or expect big numbers, but you can tell as a player he's lost his moxy. He's scared of his own shadow out there and doesn't want to make a mistake. Maybe some of that is due to the Leaf's overall flawed defensive scheme.
3. Gauthier. Despite fans usually being overly hard on fourth liners and 6th defenseman. It would be nice to see something inspirational from him.
4. Marner. Last year's playoffs, Connor Brown was on the offensive side for 61% of his face-offs compared to Marner who was on the face-off for only 36.7% of the time. Hopefully Keefe won't be so stupid, but still, 0.57 points per game, -4... Marner has got to learn both sides of the game in a hurry... you want the $, we want the return on that investment without excuse.
5. Rielly. His defensive game needs awareness. His defensive partners can't trust him. He doesn't know where the opponent is in his own zone, often too busy watching the puck.

As a sidenote, think Barrie will be Barrie. Which will be better then Babcock's expectations for him to be something he's not.

 

[Hogan86]

Marner and Andersen need to be at the top of their games to give us a chance to run deep into the playoffs. Andersen cant give up softies, and Marner cant only show up for a game or two in a 7 game series.

On defense, we desperately need Justin Holl to find some his early season magic. He was playing so great there for a stretch. Would be such a boost if he elevated his game on the D side.

 

[Antropovsky]

How does an annualized adjusted average performance of 53 points have nylander already exceeding his contract? Please explain.

Confused are you asking me what i ment by exceeded his contract? I mean I didnt say that in 2 years of a 6 year contract he has exceeded both. Which it appears you have assumed. i did say exceeded his contract...which one would assume means he has exceeded his completed contract (which is 6 years and not 2). Which makes no sense..... so if id expect someone who wants to criticize may want to clarify a confusinf statement first to ensure they understand.

Or else the person may just want to be difficult or play devils advocate.

When i said exceeded his contract... i ment this year he has exceeded expectations. Also i am sure most woulf agree...this year Nylander was probably the better overall player between he and Marner. Or it was at the very least extremely close. Marner had more points but Nylander had twice as many goals and goals are typically favored over assists in a player assessment.

my statement i stand behind. If Nylander is on peoples list... then Marner surely should be on the very same lists too. Marner makes nearly 40% more than Nylander... so expectations need to be much higher than Nylanders. Based on season performance and contracts... Marner should be feeling the heat much more than Nylander.

Now if you disagree with my actual statement, which is that Marner belongs on lists that already have Nylander.... i would very much enjoy for your explanation on why. I have admittedly been wrong in the past and enjoy others angles that i may have missed. But my preference is for people to respond to my actual statements and not ones they have taken out of context

 

[Dekes For Days]

going forward throughout the playoffs after we qualify for them.

Leafs have already qualified for the playoffs.

 

[Gabriel426]

I would say pretty much any of the core(except Hyman) are under the gun this year.
AM, Willie, MM and Kap need to show they are big game players.
JT was signed to lead the Leafs to the promise land.
Reilly needs to step up and cement his place as a No. 1 Dman in the league like Hedman did a few years back or Keith 10 yrs ago.
Andersen needs to show up when the game a save or two might be the difference between winning and losing.

 

[Gabriel426]

Confused are you asking me what i ment by exceeded his contract? I mean I didnt say that in 2 years of a 6 year contract he has exceeded both. Which it appears you have assumed. i did say exceeded his contract...which one would assume means he has exceeded his completed contract (which is 6 years and not 2). Which makes no sense..... so if id expect someone who wants to criticize may want to clarify a confusinf statement first to ensure they understand.

Or else the person may just want to be difficult or play devils advocate.

When i said exceeded his contract... i ment this year he has exceeded expectations. Also i am sure most woulf agree...this year Nylander was probably the better overall player between he and Marner. Or it was at the very least extremely close. Marner had more points but Nylander had twice as many goals and goals are typically favored over assists in a player assessment.

my statement i stand behind. If Nylander is on peoples list... then Marner surely should be on the very same lists too. Marner makes nearly 40% more than Nylander... so expectations need to be much higher than Nylanders. Based on season performance and contracts... Marner should be feeling the heat much more than Nylander.

Now if you disagree with my actual statement, which is that Marner belongs on lists that already have Nylander.... i would very much enjoy for your explanation on why. I have admittedly been wrong in the past and enjoy others angles that i may have missed. But my preference is for people to respond to my actual statements and not ones they have taken out of context

There are Marner fans on this board who believe Marner is a top 5 player in the league behind McDavid, Mackinnon, Drai and Sid. No point getting into a debate with them.
I give credits to the person who started this thread as it is a very good question. Since I think everyone in the core needs to step up as(beside JT), they never made it past the first round and the excuse of being young and inexperienced is no longer a valid reason. Time for them to step up.

 

[Dekes For Days]

There are Marner fans on this board who believe Marner is a top 5 player in the league behind McDavid, Mackinnon, Drai and Sid.

No there aren't.

 

[mikeyz]

Freddie is 100% #1 on this list. No question about it.

If he shits the bed against Columbus and we lose that series, I think we need to move on from him.

 

[Joey Hoser]

This is a false narrative that continues to rot these forums.

Facts are he has been more then competent in the playoffs, it's the skaters in front of him that keep choking up series. Apparently there are two metrics one called Quality Starts and the other called Really Bad Starts.

Quality Starts
2016 -17 - 4 quality starts in 6 games. (about 35 shots per game)
2017-18 - 3 quality starts in 7 games. (about 32 shots per game)
2018-19 - 4 quality starts in 7 games. (about 35 shots per game)

Really Bad Starts
2016 -17 - 1 really bad start in 6 games.
2017-18 - 2 really bad start in 7 games.
2018-19 - 1 really bad start in 7 games.

In 20 games with the Leafs he has had 11 Quality starts, 4 really bad starts and 5 not bad and not qualty starts, lets call them average starts.

He averages about one bad game for a 7 games series. If you knew that your goalie would play great for 4 games, OK for 2 and really bad for 1 in a 7 games series, I think most reasonable people would take that.

Frederik Andersen Stats | Hockey-Reference.com

Will you at least acknowledge that his 2018 was bad? He was a .896 for god sakes.

Or is that fine and I'm just feeding the "false narrative"?

 

[TheGroceryStick]

This teams will to compete and show push back will ultimately be the decider. If we get past the first round we probably get Boston next. CBJ followed by Boston is a lot of physical abuse. Our stars have to be willing to shove or give a hack to the ankles or it might be some hard TV to watch. Can't have people taking liberties and Clifford is only one man

Zero probability to that.
Literally 2 moving parts in deciding the next round....
Top4 reseeding and potential for a upset in a best of 5 makes it a complete toss up.

 

[Bluelines]

Will you at least acknowledge that his 2018 was bad? He was a .896 for god sakes.

Or is that fine and I'm just feeding the "false narrative"?

Yeah he had 2 really shitty games , the 2nd and 7th,

• 1st game Boston scored 3 PP goals, Toronto had 23 min in PIM to Bostons 6 PIM, clearly any goalie should have a good game when over 1/3 of the time your team in on the PK. I think Leafs lost 5-3?
• 2nd game that game was shit from the get go, Boston had a 4-0 lead after the 1st. Andy was horrid, so was the team.
• 7th game that was pure garbage too.

 

[ACC1224]

1. Andersen
2. Defence

The two most important components of any playoff series. They need to be good in both these areas against Columbus and the following playoff series should they qualify.

 

[X66]

Go back to the last two series against the bruins and compare the bad goals against for both Rask and Andersen.

I love Andersen, but he’s let us sink twice now.

 

[Morgs]

1. Fred - He was ok against Washington, horrible against Boston the first time, and good the second time while having some massive brain cramps that maybe cost us. After that putrid season and two average or worse of his last three playoffs, we need to see a bounce back quickly or I wouldn't hesitate to run with Campbell.

2. Mitch - Good season, but arguably was the worst of the big 4. After signing that contract we need the guy to come up big in the playoffs, most likely facing the 2nd lines if playing with Tavares.

3. Tavares - Pretty much identical to what I just said about Mitch except let's say "got the C" instead of "After signing that contract".

4. Rielly - Fully healthy, no excuses to not be his ridiculously good 5v5 self that we saw in 18-19.

5. Kapanen - The guy can make such a difference in a series if we get the involved, "I'm gonna give as much of a shit as Hyman" Kappy. Unfortunately if he doesn't show that side as consistently as we saw before covid hit he might be one of the casualties we see this offseason.