[Cush29]

God I hope Shanny goes to the Islanders – would be a nice start to the changes that need to happen in TO.

[Cush29]

While I would keep both Marner and Nylander,

the Leafs would still be better off re-signing Marner

and trading Nylander in terms of asset management.

The Leafs can’t afford to lose their leading scorer, 100 point, two-way player, for nothing. They have no picks, no elite prospects and no reasonable or logical UFAs to replace him. If the Leafs lose Marner, Matthews will be worse and the entire team will be worse.

This is absolutely laughable you sound like AA now, again I ask who is the Marner of Florida? The soft skilled winger who shrinks in games 5-7 and will be paid like a top 3 or 4 player in the league?

The Leafs can afford to lose some of the offense that Marner brings (in the regular season and early games in playoff series) if they can get a more balanced roster with more grit and grind in them – Marner (nor Willy) is that player and neither ever will be.

Asset management?

11M for a pure goal scoring winger who you can try to develop into a better defensive player and outside of this year is a clutch playoff performer who is locked in at 11M for 8 years is a far greater asset than a UFA winger who wants 13 M + and again has year over year not been able to deliver come late series games. Do you actually think Marner can overcome his faults as a Leaf if he got signed to an even bigger salary than he has just got? What progress has he shown to make you think that’s possible?

Let’s not skip past Marner screaming at his bench to wake the fuck up with his dry hair while having a terrible game 5 and 7 himself – great leadership.

[Cush29]

Marner has more career playoff points than Nylander. 2nd to only Gilmour in playoff assists. Marner isn’t the problem. Wake the fuck up.

For starters I was talking about this years playoffs – a fact you just blasted by while moving your goalposts again but not surprising because it didn’t fit your narrative.

You also know I’m sure that Marner has a whopping 5 more playoff points than Nylander and has played 3 more career playoff games right? Now your talking about most playoff assists vs points and using that to say what that Marner is more valuable because he has 60 playoff assists? Nylander is 12th in all time playoff assists by the Leafs and tied for 5th (with Matthews) behind Clark, Sundin, Keon, Kennedy and Armstrong. What does any of this prove other than the fact both Marner and Nylander have had great careers as Leafs?

What the biggest issue for many is with Marner is were in a series he gets his points it’s no secret it’s not games 5-7.

Which one of those 2 wingers is going to be paid 11M next year and which one is going to want 13M or more? The Leafs can’t afford to keep both unless they are playing video games and in GM mode and paying 3.5M players 900 K.

Maybe you should wake the fuck up and follow the conversation.

[Cush29]

Willy has to improve his defensive game, too often standing frozen in own zone with stick in the air and watching the puck.
This is recipe for disaster in playoffs. ALEX TML

You won’t get an argument on that point from me!

I have NEVER defended Willy’s defensive game and you have to kinda’ wonder if perhaps Marner goes and Willy moves to L1 if the Captain can impart some more defensive accountability on him by showing him how to do it and actually stepping up as a captain and telling him to do it (along with Berube of course).

Marner’s defensive game is fantastic – sometimes elite (when he doesn’t try to get too fancy) but again in the late series games over the years Willy has been much more dependable and able to deliver offensively than Marner (yes this year being the exception).

Willy at 11M is better than Marner at 13 or more to me from the position of you can only keep one of those 2 – which I firmly believe is the way the Leafs need to proceed.

[Cush29]

UG – Just so we are all clear these players are all going to magically take huge pay cuts because YOU SAY SO and everyone who points out that a guy making 3.5M is unlikely to agree to a 900K to 1M salary next year is crazy and wrong and stupid because again YOU SAY SO.

lol

And where was Nylander in games 5 and 7 – classic deflection and whataboutism with a dash of your fav go to – goalpost moving.

I posted a pic of the playoff stats for the entire playoffs to illustrate that there was no more production from Marner (who you keep crying they can’t afford to let go) in this years playoffs than there is from Nylander – in fact there was less.

Nevermind the fact this is the first year that Nylander no-showed in those critical games unlike Marner who has unfortunately made it a yearly tradition in late series games. Don’t believe me? Go look it up yourself.

Nobody said Nylander was good in games 5 or 7 jesus christ stop making shit up.

[Cush29]

Thumbs up to this article, it’s a good overview of where the Leafs are and what they need to do moving forward. The only thing I’ll say is they need to build a team to beat a team LIKE the Panthers because even if the Panthers lose some key pieces and regress simply getting to the ECF is not a guarenteed cup win as Florida is the template most teams are now using to build their teams out. They will need to essentially build a team that can beat multiple teams that play and are built like this current Panthers team.

It’s doable but changes must be made to get there.

[Cush29]

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.

[Cush29]

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

[Cush29]

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?

[Cush29]

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.

[Author]

Posts