Sabres vs. Maple Leafs - Feb. 21st, 7:30pm - TSN4, TSN 1050

[herman]

https://twitter.com/TicTacTOmar/status/1628214409796386819

[L K]

Tampa Bay showing how you play against the dregs.

And I remember seeing their record against the top 24 teams is just over .500

They have 3 regulation wins (and 6 overall) against the current Eastern playoff teams in 12 games (6-5-1). The Leafs, meanwhile, have 5 regulation wins (8 overall) in 14 (8-3-3).

It's great that they beat up on the bottom feeders, but their record against the top teams doesn't inspire much confidence. The Leafs, on the other hand, are the opposite.

I'm not going to read too much into Tampa's regular season performances though.  They have still played 12 playoff series in the last three years and are 11-1 over that stretch.  I think Tampa is beatable by this Toronto team (I felt that way last year too) but I think there is still a gear that Tampa holds back because of the age and miles on their bodies over the last three years.  Both the Leafs and Lightning would rather have home ice in the first round but I think they are doing the same thing the Leafs are where they are pretty much locked into 2/3 in the Atlantic so I take basically nothing away from them.

Missed the game for a really cool reason but watching the Game in 60 version I think the Leafs looked fine after going up by so much.  It's mid-February, they had a massive lead and even some of the goals had some questionable odor to them so it wasn't like they were just giving up a bunch of breakaways.  Getting two nights off now to reset they should hopefully have a more complete game against Minnesota.