Should be our last thread of the regular season, can't believe it's nearly time to get heartbroken again

I know this is weird... But I'd much rather play Florida than Boston in RD 1...

Oddly enough this could be the group that makes the most noise

But at the same time special teams going cold right about now is not good

PP is 4 for their last 39 since Feb 27. You have Matthews, Nylander, Tavares, Bertuzzi, Rielly, etc. and playoffs start next month unacceptable

Marner's also been on that PP...

Special teams suck

And their top guys have got to lead them into the fight... They did that in RD 1 last year and beat Tampa and forced Bob to play .942 save%... But they didn't vs MTL and lost in 7

Marner's been hurt the majority of the month. The last time he played he scored one of the 4 PP goals. Yes he's on the PP but he has not been around since March 7 in which Leafs have had 29 opportunities and only converted 3 times afterwards

Leafs PP was running at 19.3% before his injury. After he got hurt 13.8%

And dont be looking at last year look at the now. Last year Leafs had ROR on unit 1 of the PP. This year they dont. Last year in the final 5 games before playoffs their PP was 31.1%. You got BOS or FLA in the 1st round and if your special teams be cold RIP. And after what happened the last FLA series the big boyz didnt really lead them into much as they didnt even show up till game 4.


His absence has been most notable PK wise, 79.7 before injury and now 64.3%

I'm saying there's no excuse because of all the players the Leafs have on PP

And I'm saying last year, their superstars (the 5) were the ones bringing the fight to Tampa/Florida, that's why they won/got Bobrovskied instead of outplayed, to have a chance to win... Their top guys have to lead the Leafs into the fight and not their supporting cast

Superstars really did not bring the fight to FLA I dont know where your getting that. They didnt show up till they were down 3-0 in the series. Assists dont count as showing up

Bunting and Knies scored game 1
ROR and Kerfoot scored game 2
Lafferty and Gustafson scored game 3


Marner and Nylander scored game 4
Nylander and Rielly scored game 5

Matthews led all players in round 2 in shot attempts... Assuming Marner gave Matthews the puck in those scenarios

Fun fact: With the exception of Game 3;
- Matthews and Nylander had at least 6 shots on net each game... Including 8 from Matthews and 7 from Nylander in the deciding Game 5
- Tavares had at least 5 shots in each game including 7 shots in the deciding Game 5
- Marner played with Matthews all the time so must have contributed in some way

They got Uncle Bobed

Matthews 0 goals 2 assists and a -1 in 5gp
Tavares 0 goals 1 assists and a -2 in 5gp
Nylander 2 goals 1 assist and a -2 in 5 gp
Marner 1 goal 2 assists and a -2 in 5gp

+/- dont mean much but in this case it shows they were on for more against then for in that series

Dont matter if you got lots of shots on net when you dont score or show up till game 3. This team goes no where if those guys do not show up and till game 4 they didnt. The Leafs have put 53% of their cap into these guys if they doing this stuff were going no where

Even if Bob was good look at the firepower TOR has yet nah we cant score again. And this has been a consistent issue

Been eyeing VGK's cap situation and honestly if Brad plays his cards right Nick Roy and Zach Whitecloud can be Leafs next season

Wont be cheap but if VGK wants to keep Hanifin and Marchessault they gonna have to shed some money and it works for us as Roy would make for an excellent 3C and Whitecloud would be interesting

This is how I feel. I think I am preparing way too much for disappointment

The PP will even out though lots of chances still

You are looking at only results and nothing else. By many many metrics, the stars showed up vs florida but got goalied. Matthews had 5 posts in the 2nd round alone. He'd be hard pressed to do that if he wanted to.

And out coached. Keefe should have employed a super tight defensive game plan to give them literally nothing because their usual game plan resulted in Florida getting just enough quick strike offence that it killed the Leafs. Keefe didn't make any adjustments until they were down 3-0. Also Samsonov cost them 2 games in that round by allowing some awful goals.

I mean results are what matters. Did TOR beat FLA in round 2 no. Did the stars show up... not till Game 4. What more is there to analyze. Oh Bob got hot or Keefe got out coached. In the FLA series this one is firmly on the 4 you are not winning a series with results like we saw there. Compare the TBL to FLA series and see the difference

We have Matthews, Tavares, Marner, Nylander what we paying those 4 if they dont score in big playoff moments.

Teams been getting goalied to often and yet we still kept these guys so when they dont show up or have a good series its not gonna be pretty

Doubtful as being 4 for 39 rn its gonna take a lot to even it out. Was hot at the start and middle of the season but since March has cooled off more than an iceberg and this has been a tradition going into the playoffs since the Matthews era started.

Since 2017 Leafs have had 145 playoff powerplay opportunities

Of those 145 opportunities they have scored on 27 of them

2016-2017 = 16.7%
2017-2018 = 26.7%
2018-2019 = 18.8%
2019-2020 = 15.4%
2020-2021 = 13%
2021-2022 = 14.3%
2022-2023 = 25%

Or 18.6% in the Matthews Era

Auston Matthews has scored 5 power-play goals in the playoffs in his career

For further notion here be the leaders


https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/leaf-with-most-playoff-powerplay-goals-since-2017


To often PP cools off at the wrong time year after year and these guys need to wake up as its getting to predictable. We can blame the coach but he's a small part. The players especially the big 4 are what make this PP go and when they ice cold we go no where.

.943 goaltending is beyond ridiculous... It's historic

Bob was unbeatable... While I do agree 2 things can be true...

You can't say it was a lack of effort from the Leafs end...

Game 1: 36 shots
Game 2: 37 shots
Game 3: 24 shots
Game 4: 25 shots
Game 5: 52 shots

Total: 8 goals on 174 shots or 166/174 which is insane and probably won't happen for a long time

As said before even if Bob was good look at the firepower TOR has yet nah we cant score again. And this has been a consistent issue

Rask
Korpisalo
Price
and Bob


We have seen it time and time again this team gets to easily goalied and we can blame dumb luck but also how bout the big 4 all show up for once and put on a proper playoff performance rather than 1 or 2 games then bye. Willy's the only one who has put on good playoff performances.


Again its not a good look considering how much each guy is making or soon gonna be making. Were putting after this year 53% of the cap into them so time to start performing in not just the regular season. And not just for a single round for multiple rounds right to the finals

I firmly believe Keefe was the problem in that series. And Samsonov as well but to a lesser extent. Florida did exactly what always costs the Leafs with this system Keefe employs. Pressure them in the neutral zone and even though you'll give up a lot of chances against you are going to catch them on a quick strike chance and florida did that. Keefe didn't adjust

He wasnt. When your stars dont show up till game 4 what more can a HC do lul

If Matthews and the boyz were playing like the TBL series we can say that but they just disappeared for the start of that series and only when they went down 3-0 did they finally show up

Keefe was a factor but the 4 not showing up was the bigger one. Were paying these guys big for a reason and they are the catalyst for any playoff run. They dont perform we see the end results.

Honestly some people surprise you on this site

The amount of time I wasted explaining to someone Zadorov is not a top 4 Dman on a SC contending team felt like an eternity lul

And the guy wanted to give him 4m to. When that guy is playing less mins than Edmundson and you want to give him that much **** no. If you want a big 3rd pair LD so bad just bring back Edmundson whose gonna cost way less.

Rask was okay but Korpi was mid...

The only two goalies that goalies the Leafs was Bob and Price...

And you're the one who wants to keep the core 4 together, not me

The Leafs were all over Florida for the most part but the few mistakes they made cost them dearly while Bob was unreal. Instead of changing some things to make sure we didn't keep giving up quick strike offence, Keefe did nothing until game 4. By then it was too late.

If Matthews hit the post as many times in the 1st round as he did in the 2nd, the Leafs wouldn't have got out of the 1st round.