Home Forums Toronto Maple Leafs Game 7 – Will these Leafs be heros or zeros?

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  • #6024
    Aaron
    Participant

    I’ll add something additional. Considering Carolina and Florida both are “built the right way” and one of them has to lose this series like, you can build “tough” but it doesn’t matter because 31 teams a year lose. Colorado and the Blues and Kings all built the same way. Fuck the Oilers aren’t and they are in conference finals back to back years.

    #6026
    Cush29
    Participant

    Florida is now the ‘template’ teams will build around and they used the Tampa template, who used the Boston template.

    Nobody is mimicking what the Leafs have done for nearly a decade now & quite honestly to some degree Toronto was stupid and arrogant to think it would work and as much as we want to blame Shanny or Dubas specifically for trying to be creative and do something never done before that’s not entirely accurate. Toronto followed the old Oilers template just with more success but not enough.

    Oilers drafted in the top 3 for several years landing Hall, RNH, Yakapov etc. and sure they made some terrible picks but they kept drafting high skill and no real grit guys and failed. Dubas had some quote about drafting for skill and trading for grit – that is 100% the old Oilers and they failed. The Leafs had better options and drafted better but they are what most organizations who are looking to re-build now or soon are looking at and saying “Jesus boys lets make sure we draft to try and balance our roster not like what the Leafs did”.

    Boston, Tampa, Florida – all highly successful for years – all more successful than Toronto.

    Time to stop trying to guess what the answer on the test is and copy someone else’s work (or in this case move stuff around to try and get it as close as you can to their work).

    #6027
    Cush29
    Participant

    I’ll add something additional. Considering Carolina and Florida both are “built the right way” and one of them has to lose this series like, you can build “tough” but it doesn’t matter because 31 teams a year lose. Colorado and the Blues and Kings all built the same way. Fuck the Oilers aren’t and they are in conference finals back to back years. -Aaron

    Is Carolina built ‘the right way’ though? They struggled to score a lot all season and it may come to bite them in the ass now we will see.
    I also feel like the Canes were riding super hot goaltending in Freddy that might be coming down to earth (Where have we see that before?) and Florida just has more scoring power than they do.

    It’s game 1 so it’s early and Canes have one of if not the best motivating coaches in the NHL so I expect them to come out alot differently in game 2. Flordia was riding the game 7 win high and Canes were rested but cold. I think game 2 is a lot closer and different but Florida is so unpredictable who knows – they looked dead in the water vs the Leafs until the 3rd period really of game 3 and then they were the Florida team from last year.

    #6028
    WHIPPER
    Participant

    Cush, that’s a positively phenomenal avatar!

    #6031
    Fakepartofme
    Participant

    Aaron
    Participant
    I’ll add something additional. Considering Carolina and Florida both are “built the right way” and one of them has to lose this series like, you can build “tough” but it doesn’t matter because 31 teams a year lose. Colorado and the Blues and Kings all built the same way. Fuck the Oilers aren’t and they are in conference finals back to back years.

    Not sure carolina is built the right way….I havent heard anyone say that.
    But the leafs template hasnt worked in 9 years. You need top end scoring, depth scoring, big quality D, good goaltending and a willingness to consistently fight for every inch of the ice. The leafs have improved big quality D (although they are older) and good goaltending.

    #6033
    WHIPPER
    Participant

    Like let’s try to be positive? Leafs have 9 consecutive years in the playoffs, including years they weren’t expected to make it. They also have shit the bed a bunch too.
    ~Aaron

    Interesting to note, in those 9 years, 5 of the teams that eliminated the Leafs (assuming Florida does this year), went on to the Cup Finals. That’s not nothing.

    Yes, the Leafs need some drastic changes up front, but holy shit this team is close. If they hadn’t shit the bed in game 7 at home, I think they’re in the Cup Finals. Tre came in to a bit of a shit show, and in just two years he’s shored up our D and tendies. Give him another year, maybe two, to get the forwards figured out, and I think we’ll see more success. Winning in professional sports is hard as fuck. The Wild have been eliminated in the first round 8 straight years, but nobody talks about that because they’re not the center of the hockey universe.

    #6036
    Fakepartofme
    Participant

    Cush.

    Not sure marner needs a sniper to get points. Every playmaker needs a finisher and goal scorers need playmakers to get them the puck.
    Everybody Marner has played has improved their scoring. I dont think Matthews gets to 69 without him and Marner doesnt get to 100pts without Matthews. But I think both could get close to those numbers if they didnt always play with eachother. They work great together. But youre a bit onsided against marner.

    What I find funny, is that Marner scores more without Matthews and Matthews has more assist withour Marner.

    Here is an excerpt from a sportsnet article.
    “What stands out to me most are the goals-to-assist rates.

    When Matthews is with Marner, he scores at nearly a 2:1 ratio of goals to assists, which is insane. In an admittedly small but relevant sample, Matthews has had more assists than goals without Marner. His points-per-game go up as well, and Matthews still scores at a 53-goal pace.

    Marner also gets more points without Matthews in this limited sample, and it seems like he takes on more scoring responsibility without him. With more total points, Marner goes from scoring at a 0.3:1 goals-to-assist rate, to a scoring pace that would net him a 50-goal-season, as unsustainable as that may be.”

    In the article they have a comparison chart. I couldnt paste the chart in here.
    I hope the link works. Its from Feb 2025

    https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/why-separating-matthews-and-marner-may-work-better-for-the-maple-leafs/

    And yes, more skilled bottom 6 depth could have changed the tide in the leafs favour….had Lorentz scored on his breakaway it may have altered the game a bit. Panthers bottom 6 got to the leafs. Again no one said its the only reason, but it is part of the reason.

    • This reply was modified 1 week, 1 day ago by Fakepartofme.
    #6038
    Aaron
    Participant

    Not sure carolina is built the right way….I havent heard anyone say that.
    But the leafs template hasnt worked in 9 years. You need top end scoring, depth scoring, big quality D, good goaltending and a willingness to consistently fight for every inch of the ice. The leafs have improved big quality D (although they are older) and good goaltending. – Fakesie

    The talking heads and pundits who talk about them at all, cause let’s face it it’s Carolina and nobody gives a fuck, talk about how they run 4 lines, they are all hard working, north/south guys and they play an “even better” team defense than Florida does. On paper they should be a better shut down team than Florida.

    #6040
    WHIPPER
    Participant

    Forget about goals and assists for a minute, I’m shocked that Berube didn’t separate AM and MM for DEFENSIVE purposes. The JT line was getting their faces caved in for most of the playoffs, why not switch MM and WN to get a little more defensive prowess on the second line?!? Mitch is a superior defender to Willy, I figure the switch was worth a look.

    #6041
    Cush29
    Participant

    Fake – I think the problem (or the why to what you find funny) is these 2 guys just default to Marner to set up Matthews when they play together for the most part, if they were more of a 2 headed threat to score then teams would have a much harder time to defend them but they simply aren’t and IMO never will be.

    Teams play Marner to pass to Matthews and Matthews to shoot when fed by Marner but when you separate them both appear more willing or able to do what they don’t do often enough when they play together (Matthews set up someone else / Marner to finish). This is one of the reasons why I have always preferred them on separate lines.

    As far as me being too one sided towards one guy over the other ok fair but I’ll always be one sided towards a 2 way #1 centre who can score 50 + goals almost every year in his prime when healthy over a talented winger – most people would regardless of the names on the jerseys no?

    #6042
    WHIPPER
    Participant

    The talking heads and pundits who talk about them at all, cause let’s face it it’s Carolina and nobody gives a fuck, talk about how they run 4 lines, they are all hard working, north/south guys and they play an “even better” team defense than Florida does. On paper they should be a better shut down team than Florida.
    ~Aaron

    Carolina is going to get steamrolled worse than the Leafs did. Florida is simply on another level above every team in the league. Back-to-back Champs, book it.

    #6043
    Cush29
    Participant

    Whipper Snapper – Agreed seperating 34 and 16 should have been explored more by Berube.

    #6044
    Cush29
    Participant

    Whipper – re: avatar.

    Thanks – assuming you mean the current one vs the Colton Orr after just KO’ing Paros I had up for a hot minute it’s from an ODR on the Severn River. Little slice of winter heaven.

    Here are a couple more pics.

    ODR Severn River

    #6045
    WHIPPER
    Participant

    As far as me being too one sided towards one guy over the other ok fair but I’ll always be one sided towards a 2 way #1 centre who can score 50 + goals almost every year in his prime when healthy over a talented winger – most people would regardless of the names on the jerseys no?
    ~Cush29

    I think it’s a big factor that Matthews was battling injury all year, literally from training camp. It sometimes takes years for players to learn how to win. Sid didn’t win shit until he did. Ovi didn’t win shit until he did. MacKinnon didn’t win shit until he did. It’s a shame that Matthews was nowhere near 100%, because this really could have been the year that things finally clicked.

    #6046
    WHIPPER
    Participant

    Cush, I was partial to the Colton Orr one, lol.

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