• For users coming over from tmlfans.ca your username will remain the same but you will need to use the password reset feature (check your spam folder) on the login page in order to set your password. If you encounter issues, email Rick couchmanrick@gmail.com

2025-26 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion

Maybe I'm alone on this, but I think Matthews's absence will help this squad gel. There have been way too many players taking a back seat so far this year. With Austin out, these guys MUST step it up and drive the bus for a while. They're either capable of doing so or they're not.

Either way, while Matthews is away we'll get a peak through the window of how far this squad can go when this team is fully healthy.

Time to find out what this core group is made of !
 
Last edited:
Redleaf said:
Maybe I'm alone on this, but I think Matthews's absence will help this squad gel. There have been way too many players taking a back seat so far this year. With Auston out, these guys MUST step it up and drive the bus for a while. They're either capable of doing so or they're not.

Either way, while Matthews is away we'll get a peak through the window of how far this squad can go when this team is fully healthy.

Time to find out what this core group is made of !
Click to expand...

Kind of like when Sundin went down in that playoff run and Gary Roberts and Alyn McCauley went off. Just need Knies/McMann to go a bit unhinged, and Scott Laughton, when he returns, to start driving a fast checking/energy line to set the tone.
 
Just thinking about how fro 2019/20 to 2024-25, the Leafs had the 4th best record in the league. The three teams better were Colorado, Carolina and Boston. The next 5 teams were Vegas, Florida, Tampa, Edmonton and Dallas. All of these teams have been some of the most successful teams in the playoffs. So what’s the difference, why are the Leafs the outlier here? It seems logical that the best predictor for playoff success would be strong regular season success. And it has been for literally every single other team with similar regular season success.
 
GhostofPotvin29 said:
Just thinking about how fro 2019/20 to 2024-25, the Leafs had the 4th best record in the league. The three teams better were Colorado, Carolina and Boston. The next 5 teams were Vegas, Florida, Tampa, Edmonton and Dallas. All of these teams have been some of the most successful teams in the playoffs. So what’s the difference, why are the Leafs the outlier here? It seems logical that the best predictor for playoff success would be strong regular season success. And it has been for literally every single other team with similar regular season success.
Click to expand...

I would say it's a combination of the Atlantic division hurdle, and the playstyle that regular season success was built on. The Leafs have a similar make up, but those other teams on the list are up-tempo and play through obstacles, rather than play around them. Toronto also arguably has one of the weaker two-way defense groups in that time span.
 
herman said:
I would say it's a combination of the Atlantic division hurdle, and the playstyle that regular season success was built on. The Leafs have a similar make up, but those other teams on the list are up-tempo and play through obstacles, rather than play around them. Toronto also arguably has one of the weaker two-way defense groups in that time span.
Click to expand...

After seeing a defence with Cody Ceci and Darnell Nurse make it to Game 7 of the Cup Finals, I no longer accept the defensive group arguments ;)
 
GhostofPotvin29 said:
Just thinking about how fro 2019/20 to 2024-25, the Leafs had the 4th best record in the league. The three teams better were Colorado, Carolina and Boston. The next 5 teams were Vegas, Florida, Tampa, Edmonton and Dallas. All of these teams have been some of the most successful teams in the playoffs. So what’s the difference, why are the Leafs the outlier here? It seems logical that the best predictor for playoff success would be strong regular season success. And it has been for literally every single other team with similar regular season success.
Click to expand...

I believe the current playoff system obscures things a bit. I'm not sure how successful I think Carolina has been, they are 1-12 in the conference finals (against Atlantic division teams). Like Herman said, there's been an Atlantic division hurdle.
 
herman said:
McDrai going off on the PP covers a lot of ills. Leafs special teams in the playoffs are a special type of disaster.
Click to expand...

Which is why to me this whole era’s failures can be summed up by the stars not being stars in the playoffs the same way as stars in other teams routinely are. And tbh I cannot blame management for believing that they would break through, since I have a hard time thinking of other stars who haven’t eventually stepped up in the playoffs.
 
GhostofPotvin29 said:
Which is why to me this whole era’s failures can be summed up by the stars not being stars in the playoffs the same way as stars in other teams routinely are. And tbh I cannot blame management for believing that they would break through, since I have a hard time thinking of other stars who haven’t eventually stepped up in the playoffs.
Click to expand...

Which leads me to my conclusion that these stars were cultivated in an environment/playstyle that fostered the type of play that doesn't break through. Their top two stars at the time were overplayed during the regular season (seemingly for vanity, in my opinion) and they defaulted to safe and conservative Phillip Danault hockey but ate up 24M of scoring potential and sucked up a lot of opportunity for depth contributors to get reps.
 
herman said:
Which leads me to my conclusion that these stars were cultivated in an environment/playstyle that fostered the type of play that doesn't break through. Their top two stars at the time were overplayed during the regular season (seemingly for vanity, in my opinion) and they defaulted to safe and conservative Phillip Danault hockey but ate up 24M of scoring potential and sucked up a lot of opportunity for depth contributors to get reps.
Click to expand...

When MacKinnon plays that much is it for vanity? When McDrai do? Rantanen? Etc. All of these players have played similar or more ice time per game to the Leafs stars and they came through in the playoffs.

Cultivated in an environment that fostered a environment/playstyle that doesn’t break through? What does that mean? I don’t see how their environment was markedly different from any number of other successful teams.
 
GhostofPotvin29 said:
When MacKinnon plays that much is it for vanity? When McDrai do? Rantanen? Etc. All of these players have played similar or more ice time per game to the Leafs stars and they came through in the playoffs.
Click to expand...

Fair question. I'm referring primarily to PK time.

Starting 2023-now, the top 3 forwards in 4v5 ice time for the Leafs: Marner (301), Kampf (297), Matthews (191)
They have 4 SHG between the three of them in this time span btw. What is the point of spending their valuable offensive creation energy here? After the marathon of a whole regular season, how often did we see these two exert their will on a playoff game? Because that's what teams pay stars to do.

Edmonton: Draisaitl is 8th and McDavid is 10th on their team in PK TOI.

Colorado: MacKinnon has played about 11 min, which is basically just coming on at the tail end of a PK to try to catch a tired PP2. They save his energy to be an absolute maniac in other phases of the game.

The closest star deployment on the PK is Florida (who takes more penalties), but they lean heavily on Luostarinen (403) and Lundell (279). Reinhart (314) and Barkov (237) round out their top 2 PK units, and I feel this is more justified because Reinhart himself has 10 SHG in these 2.25 seasons.

GhostofPotvin29 said:
Cultivated in an environment that fostered a environment/playstyle that doesn’t break through? What does that mean? I don’t see how their environment was markedly different from any number of other successful teams.
Click to expand...

Edmonton and Colorado are quickstrike rush offenses. Florida is heavy forecheck + counter rush. Both are about getting behind defenses or forcing defenses to make mistakes. The Leafs under Keefe played to hold it until everyone is set up in the OZ and then pass it around until a seam opens up. In the playoffs, they just got boxed out until the only shot was Joel Edmunson or an errant pass across the top of the OZ that turned into a counter rush against.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top