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Playoffs Round 2: Panthers vs. Maple Leafs

bustaheims said:
I think this will be a tighter series than most people are expecting. Florida is a tough opponent, for sure, and the Leafs are the underdogs - but only barely, I’d say. This is really another coin flip series for the Leafs. If a few things break right, they could absolutely win. They just really need to not have any nights like game 5.
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Before the playoffs started, a lot of the chatter or analysis around Florida and TB as opponents leaned toward a preference for TB, as many said, they are very similar to the leafs style and skill wise.

Well Florida pretty much wiped the floor with TB. So I’m not sure how we can say that the leafs line up any better to FL than TB did.

it’s hard to feel any kind of confidence for this round. For me anyway.
 
herman said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1918693890854359088
Their brain cells are all devoted to hockey

ICYMI
This is an accessory by the amulet brand that Tavares and Domi are hawking (a sticker for phones to align electromagnetic waves)
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My assistant who is a pro at health has been pushing me to get EMF protection for 2 years now, and I ended up getting the "amulet" about 90 days ago.

I can't say for sure it works..... definitely cutting out blue tooth headphones helped a lot.........but so long as Leafs keep winning... I support the Amulet!
 
Everyone counted them out leading into game six against Ottawa …

They proved us wrong and they WON.

I’m getting the same vibes for this series. The more fans and media that predict a loss in this series with Florida …the better!

All this does is takes away pressure from the Leafs and puts a chip on their shoulder to prove everybody wrong.

Go Leafs Go!!!!
 
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I'm trying to find positive aspects of this coming series.

The Panthers Leafs 2023 series were almost all 1 goal games.

This is the first season where Leafs have played with the discipline and system where they consistently find a way to win 1 goal games.
 
Joe S. said:
Before the playoffs started, a lot of the chatter or analysis around Florida and TB as opponents leaned toward a preference for TB, as many said, they are very similar to the leafs style and skill wise.

Well Florida pretty much wiped the floor with TB. So I’m not sure how we can say that the leafs line up any better to FL than TB did.

it’s hard to feel any kind of confidence for this round. For me anyway.
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I think Tampa was a bit of a paper tiger by playoff terms. Vasi has his third straight subpar 1st round and no one on their roster other than Guentzel performed particularly well. And, even with that, Florida didn’t generate a ton at even-strength. They feasted on the power play, but, as we know, power plays become harder to come by as the playoffs get deeper. Bobrovsky wasn’t particularly tested, and I suspect that won’t be the case against the Leafs.
 
The last time the two teams met the Panthers made the Leafs look like a beer league team, and that was without several key players in the lineup. Overall I think the Leafs are built much better this year to compete with Florida, especially defensively, but it's still a really tough matchup. We'll see how it plays out, but I don't think things will go too well if the Leafs play too much rope-a-dope. They got away with it against Ottawa but this is a whole different level. You can argue that the Leafs defend the slot and block a ton of shots, but give a good team large amounts of zone time and shot attempts and bad things can happen. Screens, tips, deflections off defenders.

That said, I'll be watching with great interest to see how the Leafs approach this. In particular, how do the (dreaded) "core" guys fare in what is probably going to be a hard-hitting, dirty series. Do they rise to the challenge or shrink to the edges of the rink.
 
Full schedule released:

Monday, May 5: 8 p.m. Florida at Toronto SN, CBC, TVAS, ESPN
Wednesday, May 7: 7 p.m. Florida at Toronto TVAS, ESPN
Friday, May 9: TBD Toronto at Florida TBD
Sunday, May 11: TBD Toronto at Florida TBD
* Wednesday, May 14: TBD Florida at Toronto TBD
* Friday, May 16: TBD Toronto at Florida TBD
* Sunday, May 18: TBD Florida at Toronto TBD
 
This is not the same team that faced the Panthers 2 years ago. I think we are better defensively and especially in goal. To me it comes down to the core and as always 34 and 16. I vividly recall them absent in game 3 of that series loss to the Panthers when we were down 2 games to none. If leafs win this series they have to show up and be noticeable each and every game.
 
I would direct attention to @LK 's post in the Tampa Florida series chat........



L K said:
Everyone's favourite time of year...the post series injury reveal:

Hagel - concussion
Kucherov - something bothering him since February
Hedman - broken foot
Bjorkstrand - compartment syndrome
Gourde - broken finger
Glendenning - AC separation
Cirelli - MCL sprain
Paul - wrist sprain
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Most of Tampa's injuries occurred over 5 games and at least one was because of dirty play by the Panthers. For Leafs to win in 7 games, there needs to be blood. And blood shedding.

Reaves seems to be an unrealistic option to skate but how can the bully Panthers be neutralized? And I've said many times before Reaves is a card that doesn't need to be played because the threat of playing the card is enough.

But one option is to put Reaves in for one game and let him pulverize one or two Panthers and let them always know in the back of their minds there are consequences for dirty and aggressive play. Like game 2.

The margin is:

Jarnkrok/Holmberg/Robertson vs Reaves. Their superior scoring and defensive and skating abilities above Reaves' ability to crush someone and make them think twice about targeting Marner and Matthews and Tavares....which they will do. Dirty aggressive play from the Panthers makes Marner and Matthews go milkcarton later in the series. That's pretty much a guarantee.

And Reaves doesn't need to go after Bennett or Marchand or Tkachuk....he can lay out Barkov or Verhaeghe. Just like when Wendel Clark told the Vancouver bench in 1994 if Gino Odjick keeps attacking Gilmour he was going to destroy Pavel Bure....and the attacks stopped (Leafs still lost).

Its going to be interesting to see what Berube does here because the physicality and the rotation of players in and out of the line up for the the Ottawa series was highly limited.
 
There is no chance that Reaves, or any player, can intimidate the Panthers into not playing hard or not playing dirty. This kind of thing has never actually worked.

Reaves could try to take out one of their top plalyers (eg Barkov) illegally via concussion or whatever. That could help. Of course, that will make the Panthers try even harder to do the same thing to Matthews or Tavares or whoever they think is the Leafs most valuable player.
 
Wow, I didn't see that post from LK RE: Tampa injuries.

That's one banged up team!

I wonder which Leafs are ailing, other than Matthews.
 
azzurri63 said:
This is not the same team that faced the Panthers 2 years ago. I think we are better defensively and especially in goal. To me it comes down to the core and as always 34 and 16. I vividly recall them absent in game 3 of that series loss to the Panthers when we were down 2 games to none. If leafs win this series they have to show up and be noticeable each and every game.
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D definitely improved, but Stolarz let in some real softies and if we're to have any chance that has to change.
 
4EVRLEAFAN said:
D definitely improved, but Stolarz let in some real softies and if we're to have any chance that has to change.
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Stolarz played the first round on par with Bobrovsky.... both with the exact same SV% of .901 and GAA of 2.21.

Kind of crazy they have the same key metrics.




But one stat difference I like a lot is that Stolarz has 2 PIMS.
 
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