its funny how people say if leafs go to the final 4 they will get destroyed.

People seem to forget this team was able to go toe to toe against Washington and Boston.

Against Washington they went with a Dcore of

Rielly-Hunwick
Gardiner-Zaitsev
Carrick-Polak

and push them to 6 games in which they lost in OT

and then against Boston

Rielly-Hainsey
Gardiner-Zaitsev
Dermott-Polak
7 game series (2018)

then

Rielly-Hainsey
Muzzin-Zaitsev
Gardiner-Dermott (2019)

we dont talk about 2020 as that Dcore beside Muzzin-Holl was god awful.

and rn they will be fielding

Rielly-Brodie
Muzzin-Holl
Sandin-Bogosian

factor that with the big 4 being warmed up from their 2 other series and I have a feeling its not gonna be as one sided as people think it is.

the ironic thing is the 4 years they were in the playoffs that Dcore was terrible and yet they pushed everyone to a best of 7 (or equivalent series)

this year they actually are fielding a proper Dcore lul and people are doubting them

its pretty funny if you think about it

I think the system is pretty defensively structured now. Keefe’s gotten most of the forwards committed but there are still a lot of low level mistakes from Rielly cuz he doesn’t fit it.

That is a good defence for sure. I think it should make a difference to get them through the first 2 rounds but I don’t know if the team has enough talent to win round 3. They will struggle against teams are big, fast & skilled.

Lou left Matthews, Marner, Nylander, C. Brown, Johnsson, Kapanen, Dermott, Liljegren, Reilly, Gardiner, Kadri, Zaitsev, Marleau and F. Anderson....Oh yes, it's true Dubas had nothing to start with.....on top of all that, Dubas steals NYI's francise player away from Lou's new team....year 1, NYI better regular and playoff seasons, year 2, NYI better regular season and Final 4 appearance as the Leafs miss the playoffs, this season Toronto finally had a better regular season; with an asterisk beside it, the all Canadian Division was League wide believed to be the weakest (which I don't believe, all 7 Canadian teams earn 20 plus wins, all other 3 American Divisions had 1 or 2 teams who failed to get 20 wins).

Dubas inherited 10 million of unwanted contracts, than spent 11 million on JT (a NHL playoff career loser). 3 out of 4 1st Rd picks have been traded away by Dubas since Lou left. Face it, you lose this battle.

I think they are in better shape this year than the past, but once they are out of the North they are going to be in trouble. There are 5 or 6 teams they won’t match up well against.

Well...two things. 1.) No, I don't have confidence in Jack Campbell. Teams are now going to focus better on his liabilities. COULD he make an amazing run, YES of course. That's different than am I confident with him in net. The 2nd thing is...I'm going off the top of my head, but I believe there was 17 "rookie" goalies this year with 15 games or more played. What I do have confidence in is that there will always be a churn of young goalies getting their shot...and most of them will NOT turn into true #1 Starters even with one year of good stats. Given enough time, the opposition will figure out their weaknesses and exploit them. That's why it's so hard to be a TRUE #1 goalie

I didn't watch a lot of them this year, but I think they are. The whole notion of a team being built "for playoff hockey" isn't something I fall into. Good teams can match up against other styles. Great teams play a way so demanding that it forces other teams to match their style. I think the Leafs play a certain way that no one in the North can match and I fully expect them to make it to the Cup Semifinal.

The question of whether they're built for the playoffs or not is on paper a valid question. But on the ice the only thing that matters is if they can figure out how to match or at least endure other teams physical intensity. The talent on the leafs roster is undeniable and so far the core is unproven in the playoffs. People criticized the Caps for years and Ovechkin in particular that they could only win in the regular season.
Both him and the organization proved critics wrong. So just because the Leafs haven't done it yet is no reason to panic about this year's team, especially before they've even stepped on the ice yet.
Are the Habs going to be physical? Of course. The Leafs proved early in the season that being out-hit didn't matter at all when it came to wins.

Whatever the criticism is, I for one am very excited to see this roster get on the ice for playoffs and I expect it to be a fun series to watch.

Toronto is a very deep team. Not sure what you are talking about. The only non-playoff team argument for them that is legit is softness. Because they are soft.

That is not something the Leafs can do anything about. You can only play the teams in front of you.

The team has played better defensively this season so it gives hope that they can compete against good teams but I guess they just got to prove it.

I mean yes and no. Toronto is still in the building blocks stage of building a semi-useful defense. Playoffs is a different beast when it comes to any sort of arrangement of a team assembly. You need defense just as much as offense. They go hand and hand with each other. It isn't exactly the bright spot of the Toronto team, but it's in working order for the regular season. Problem is that offense doesn't hold up in playoffs like it does during the regular season. So I do believe Toronto is at a curb stop when it comes to Defense this upcoming offseason. If Toronto can get a Ryan Murray, or acquire a Nikita Zadorov, or even a David Savard. They might be moving in the right direction in the defensive core. Until they can really develop the prospects in the defensive farm i'm not really sure they can be built for playoffs. They need a guy like Brett Pesce is what they really need, and it's not really seeming like they are willing to move any of their main offensive core pieces to get a defensive player who is one of the better ones in the league. So it's safe to say Toronto has their hands full for the time being until some defenseman can develop into something that Toronto can build a defense around. Looking at the roster, and the spec pool I just don't see it. So as a hockey enthusiast I'm interested in seeing if Toronto will go with a Defensive Defenseman early in next year's draft. (Meaning their only early round pick which is the 2nd Round). Can they draft a Logan Mailloux or a Roman Schmidt maybe even a Cameron Whynot? It's solely dependent upon how they do in the Entry Draft. Depending on how Toronto plays its cards for the next year or so they might be able to spend big in 2022-23 Offseason where some big names are in the pot Seth Jones, Colton Parayko, Mattias Ekholm, John Klingberg, Will Butcher, Josh Manson, Hampus Lindholm, or maybe even just a settle move Robert Bortuzzo.

To be honest, I think Muzzin and Brodie are better than current Murray, Savard and Zadarov. They aren't even a huge upgrade on Holl. If they were going to change things up on defense, it would probably be in the form of a blockbuster (Rielly gone, and either a good second pairing guy like the guys you mentioned, or an elite shut down d like Payanko or Jones), they don't really need depth pieces (they are quite deep on defense to be honest).