Who is your shutdown centre? As in who would you send against Matthews? And who would you send against Tavares?

Wennberg or Jenner, both are soild Defensive centers but you could also put PLDs line against either as that’s a solid defensive line too.

Honestly don’t worry about that it’ll be the offensive style of Toronto vs the defensive style of Columbus. It should actually be a very good series and is probably the closest 1st round series. I think Columbus was a bad draw for Toronto because of the teams style of play.

I’d make a few line up changes. Nash and Gerbe in, Foudy and Stenlund out. Move Jenner up to the 3rd line with Bremstrom and Folingo then you have Nash centering Robinson and Gerbe. Gerbe is a Coaches favorite in his style of play and how hard he works each shift.

I am not so sure about that. TO had so much adversity to go through this season. Babs needed to go and then they had to learn a new system and then had terrible injuries to their defence and a terrible backup. A lot of factors led to the Leafs troubles this year but they had shown marked improvement defensively by the time the shutdown happened.

The Leafs puck control style can be so smothering, against Florida a while back they held them to 2 shots (both from outside the Blueline) for 2 periods. That is what they are capable of when they are on their game and being healthy now should mean less of the mistakes that often hurt them. I think it'll be a good series but I just don't see how Columbus is going to matchup depth wise.

Columbus is a defense fist and counter attack team. They’re just fine little Toronto play with the puck on the outside of the offensive zone waiting for the perfect shot. You and many other leaf fans are truly underestimating Columbus.

Also if you don’t think Columbus played through adversity you’ve got to be joking. Most man games lost and injuries to important players too. Matthews, Tavares, Marner, and Nylander never missed a game for Toronto and if I remember correctly it was only like 3 games without both Muzzins and Rielly. I could be wrong on that. Jones, Murray, Nuttivaara, Kukan, Anderson, Bjorkstrand, Texier, Atkinson, Wennberg, and Korpisalo We’re all out of the Columbus line up at one time and all have missed significant portions of the season. So yeah, Toronto had a coaching change and some injuries, but Columbus shouldn’t even be in a playoff position let alone in the closest seeding match up. We had Nathen Gerbe in a top 6 role this year because we had so many injuries. Oh and with all the injuries we still found ways to win and be a competitive team and even before the injuries we were projected to finish last in the metro at the start of the season. I’d say our depth is just fine, we just don’t have to superstars that Toronto has.

Again, this will be a much closer series then Toronto fans want to admit.

Also I couldn’t find the game you’re talking about but I did find a 5-3 Florida win where Toronto was up 3-1 in the 3rd and gave up 4 goals on 10 shots. I also saw that Toronto beat Columbus in the 1st game of the season 4-1 but the shots were even at 29 each and Columbus bear Toronto 4-3 in overtime a few weeks later and out shot the leafs 38-31. But both teams have changed so much since then those games really are much to go on.

Tavares missed 7 games and Marner missed a month. Rielly missed extended time as did Muzzin at the same time. Look what happened when Jones got hurt, had the season not ended early Columbus was sunk without him. It's been well documented that the Leafs had the 3rd most impactful man games lost behind Pittsburgh who was one and I think Arizona was 2nd.

Columbus can hardly call themselves a transition game when they score less than all but 1 playoff team.

I know you want Columbus to be a giant killer and they may do it but the way people like you make it sound is TO plays like Chicago. They don't, they sort of did under Babs but the team has changed. You reference that Florida game that they did indeed lose, but also that was Hutchinson in net and he let in softies as usual. Hutch isn't an NHL goalie unfortunately, I really was pulling for him but in his 8 or 9 starts he allowed 3 or more goals in all but 2 I think and 4+ goals in 5 of them. Campbell came in and I don't think he allowed 3 goals in a game. Andersen was back to himself at the shutdown as well.

I think the Columbus style of defence works against rush teams which TO is good at but it's not their game. Their game is movement within the offensive zone and puck control. Their speed and skill make it hard to get the puck away and when on defence under Keefe they just plug up the middle and let teams fire from afar. Babs they played a strict man defence where they pressured everyone and it was a disaster.

Taking on a healthy TO team with an unproven goalie tandem isn't optimal but I don't think TO is going to run away with it. They certainly could but I think Columbus will give them a fight for sure.

Trust me.... if I had to (and I probably will end up) putting money down I’d say Toronto in 6. Most other Toronto fans say Toronto in 4 easy sweep so.... I have a feeling Columbus can surprise Toronto early and sneak a game at home. If it’s a 7 game series.

Game 1- Toronto
Game 2- Columbus
Game 3- Toronto
Game 4- Columbus
Game 5- Toronto
Game 6- Toronto

Overall Toronto is a much better team but also remember Columbus was supposed to be a lottery team that was crushed with injuries. They’ve been in the underdog role all year.

Definitely could see Gerbe making it in. I'd love to see Foudy though instead of Nash. Torts loved him when he was here and was sad to see him go. But I get that it's tough when we're jumping right into the playoffs

Honestly we don't really have a shutdown line. I could see Torts throwing any of the Dubois, Wennberg, Foudy, or Jenner lines against any of the Leafs lines as we've always been a 4 line defensively-responsible team. Even all 3 of our d pairs are responsible defensively, but Gavrikov-Savard are the best as a shutdown pair for sure. Torts will probably throw something at the wall until it sticks like he always does. It worked against shutting down Tampa's big 3 in round 1 and Boston's big 3 for the first half of round 2 last year.