lol

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TML certainly seemed to have turned things around and are on the cusp of true greatness for years to come! This very solid lineup also has some cap space for the future, not to mention they have dandies in the “A”!

Dont you think that maybe the Leafs should make it past the 1st round before talking about the cup? Playoff hockey is a lot different than regular season hockey

Toronto is going to either finish 1st or 2nd in their division and have home ice advantage and Tavares is a huge addition both for the regular season and the playoffs. An extra year of growing and this team isn't going to have a hard time destroying a wildcard team or Boston.

The toughest match up for them will come in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. 2nd round likely against Tampa and then likely Pittsburgh in the conference final. Those series will be fun to watch, the one thing TO has over Pittsburgh is speed which is the only thing that seems to give them trouble since they are a speed team themselves.

With all that said, I say the Leafs are cup favourites, nothing is a sure thing. I still think Pittsburgh is a powerhouse and Tampa is really good as well. But Matthews, Tavares and Kadri are the best top 3 centres in the league. Best top two would still be Pittsburgh, but that won't last for too much longer. Matthews will soon surpass both Crosby and Malkin who are moving through their early 30's.

The only area where Toronto might have Tampa beat is forwards. Tampa has the better all around team

I'd say in comparison to Tampa it would be the following in a very simple form.

Forwards TO>Tampa
Defence TO Tampa
Wingers TO > Tampa
Left Defence TO = Tampa (Hedman is the best player on either defence, however if we are talking the entire left side, Rielly, Gardiner and Dermott are comparable to their left side)
Right Side Defence Tampa > Toronto

Personally, I put a tonne of stock in centres and with Matthews, Tavares and Kadri, Toronto has far better depth at centre. Tampa is pretty good themselves but only if you consider Stamkos a centre when he generally plays wing.

To be clear, you're saying Reilly/Gardiner/Dermott are equal to Hedman/McDonagh/Sergachev?

Every leafs fan "tanev isn't good, we wont give up much"

Also every leafs fan. :: lists tanev as #1 RHD ::

Tampa has better forwards, defenders, prospects, goalies, it's not even close

Sergachev plays the right side in Tampa and yes I am saying that Reilly, Gardiner and Dermott are comparable to the left side. McDonagh is a tad overrated in my opinion. He's good but he's not fast and he's not going to gain any steps as he moves into his 30's.

I give the edge as a whole to Tampa's defence but its not a huge difference. TO's defence takes a lot of flak but if you look at a lot of underlying stats, they are very capable.

The stat that many use as the reason why they give the Leafs defence such a low rating is because they allowed the 3rd most shots in the NHL last season. However, a stat that is completely ignored is that teams shoot a lot more when they are behind and Toronto had the lead more than almost every team in the entire NHL last year. They also almost always had a huge lead in high danger scoring chances. Meaning TO allowed a lot of perimeter shots while they had the lead.

Another interesting stat, Toronto allowed less goals last year than Tampa.

Clear Cup favourite? It was Washington that beat Tampa to advance to the East finals. So let's say Washington, followed by a collection of teams in the East. Oh, then there Vegas, Jets, and Preds in the West.

The pens, bruins, caps, lightning, preds, jets, all have better shots at the cup than the leafs

He said LOL because Tampa is still miles better than the lafs and it's not even close

Toronto in no way shape or form is the cup favourite, not even top 3

The thing is, who cares who is the cup favorites right now? Cup favorites rarely win the cup anyway......once the playoffs start it has less to do about whose the cup favorite and more to do with who is getting hot at the right time and has the least injuries to key players.

Washington should of been a cup favorite for a decade and only once they were considered no longer a favorite, they won....go figure.

This "whose got a bigger ****" show is really just for the fans to feel good about them selves and nothing more so yeah sure maybe Toronto is the cup favorite right now.

I gave up a 1st and a 3rd as well as a decent prospect for Tanev. That's a good haul for him I'd say. Unless you're a Vancouver homer who thinks he's worth a 1st, 2nd, Liljegren and Nylander. Thats a Karlsson package not Tanev.

I'm implying that the Leafs would be fortunate indeed to get out of the East. And then whoever plays the Western team....it's only 50/50. I was kinda mocking the term..."Cup favourite"

best top 3? penguins do have a pretty good third center themselves, both do have insane depth there now and both do have a bit of a problem at defense so they are pretty similar actually. Which when you throw tampa and Washington in there is not a clear favorite in the east between those four teams. I do think those four as a whole are the prohibitive favorites.

From what I gather, Sergachev played about 76% of his even strength ice time with RHD named Stralman and Girardi.

I'm not too worried about the team stats, I was just talking about the six players you were comparing. No worries, I'll just add another name to the list of people that overrate the Leafs players on this site. As a non-biased fan, I would say that
Hedman > Rielly
McDonagh > Gardiner
Sergachev > Dermott

Or, according to the lines you have here and to the lines daily faceoff gives Tampa (it excludes any of their high end forward prospects that could make the team

Tampa 1st line > Toronto 1st line
Toronto 2nd line > Tampa 2nd line
Tampa 3rd line > Toronto 3rd line
Toronto 4th line > Tampa 4th line

Tampa 1st pair > Toronto 1st pair
Tampa 2nd pair > Toronto 2nd pair
Tampa 3rd pair > Toronto 3rd pair

Tampa goalie > Toronto goalie

Lets just talk Centres for a second (Since they are the most important forwards by a huge margin, you're a pens fan you have to agree with this)

Tampa last year had the following centres Stamkos (Also plays a lot of wing), Johnson, Point and whoever the 4th line guy is.

Lets say Stamkos is equal to Tavares and Matthews, but both are significantly better than Johnson, Point and whoever else you want to throw in there. Kadri is also better than any of those guys and he's the 3rd line centre. That gives Toronto the edge at forwards. Everything else is irrelevant. Better centres equals better forwards. Otherwise Montreal would be a playoff contender instead of a dumpster fire.

I'm gonna have to stop you there. Kadri is not better than Point, and at best he's equal to Johnson. And no, everything else is still relevant. Vasy>Andersen. Tampa D>Toronto D even with Tanev. No contest here

I'd say, the following in retort

Hedman > Reilly
Reilly > McDonagh
McDonagh = Gardiner (I think both are overrated to be honest but still quality players, different but quality)
Sergachev > Dermott Although this is pretty close, I think both are going to have long and successful careers ahead of them.

Its not as far off as everyone says.