2017-18 Toronto Maple Leafs - Playoffs Edition

[herman]

What is his ceiling?  Can this guy get any better, or is he pretty much where he is going to be?  Someone I know said that they thought that he would end up being better than Rielly in a couple of years because Dermott is better in his own end.  I'm not sure I totally buy in to that, but I do think that Dermott skates incredibly well and seems to have good instincts.

This is merely how I see Dermott at this time:

Dermott is still growing his game. Transition is where he excels and is most noticeable. He's better at shot suppression than Rielly as a result of not letting plays develop in the NZ, but deep in the DZ with a cycle established, he is currently weaker than Rielly at breaking it. And Rielly is not that good at it. Polak is actually a really good complement to Dermott's game because they cover each others' weaknesses almost perfectly.

Offensive blue line and in, Rielly has the much higher ceiling. For the Leafs' purposes, Dermott is already more than fine as their strategy is basically bump the puck low to the forwards and occasionally pinch to bump the puck or wrist a tippable shot into the high slot. Rielly has better raw speed, but Dermott has better agility (see elusiveness on retrievals as well as recovery off slightly missed pinches/gap ups). Dermott can carry the puck low if he wants to (he did it frequently with the Marlies) but usually needs an offensive outlet to bag points. Rielly has more of a one-man-army capability to his offensive game (even more than Gardiner).

Dermott looks like a super solid #3D, who can play up in the first pair with a 1D partner.

 

[ZBBM]

My predictions were spot on, he said proudly.

 

[herman]

I spent like 45 min this morning pulling our numbers together for comparison to the Bruins and then noticed that Dom was gradually putting these together. Their first line had a bit of a power outage towards the end (Bergeron?s injury didn?t help).

https://twitter.com/domluszczyszyn/status/983488443303936001

 

[crazyperfectdevil]

The way the playoffs are structured either way we were going to be in tough.  That being said Boston doesn't scare me.  I think they're banged up.  I think they've piqued too early.  I think this leaf's team beats washington last year.  Sports are always about Hope, Doubt and wild speculation.  I know I am biased toward the blue and white but screw it I say leafs in five .....another way one may put that ...4-1

 

[disco]

Leafs in 3.

 

[rdowdall]

Leafs in 3.

I'd like to bid $1 Bob.

 

[AvroArrow]

I think this is gonna go 7 games.

 

[disco]

On a more serious note I'm seeing that the Doc Emmerich NBC team is covering leafs/bruins. Some of those Bowen/Emmerich calls going to be epic!

 

[Boston Leaf]

On a more serious note I'm seeing that the Doc Emmerich NBC team is covering leafs/bruins. Some of those Bowen/Emmerich calls going to be epic!

Wow I am shocked they are not doing the Penguins/Flyers. NBC loves those two teams

 

[hockeyfan1]

Leafs in 6.  Psst...I have the Leafs winning it all in the NHL Bracket Challenge.  ;D

 

[hockeyfan1]

GO LEAFS GO!

[tweet]983586645898334208[/tweet]

 

[CarltonTheBear]

On a more serious note I'm seeing that the Doc Emmerich NBC team is covering leafs/bruins. Some of those Bowen/Emmerich calls going to be epic!

He's doing them with Milbury AND McGuire though. Stick to the Canadian broadcast.

 

[herman]

It feels very odd to have next to no knowledge about the upcoming draft at this time of year.

 

[princedpw]

GO LEAFS GO!

[tweet]983586645898334208[/tweet]

There is way too much positivity surrounding this team.  We are setting ourselves up to fall from a very great height indeed.

 

[Zee]

GO LEAFS GO!

[tweet]983586645898334208[/tweet]

There is way too much positivity surrounding this team.  We are setting ourselves up to fall from a very great height indeed.

Don't they have a "why they will win" article for each team in the playoffs?  Basically making the case that if players X, Y & Z perform on whatever team, it's enough for that team to win the Cup.  I've seen articles like this for other teams (also the opposite "why your team won't win")

 

[Bullfrog]

Being so invested as a fan, it's hard for me to see things from a non-emotional perspective. What do fans of other teams think when they consider the Maple Leafs? I get nervous when strong teams like the Bruins or Lighting come to town. Is this what others are starting to feel when the Leafs come? I'm used to seeing our team play the back-up.

 

[cabber24]

GO LEAFS GO!

[tweet]983586645898334208[/tweet]

There is way too much positivity surrounding this team.  We are setting ourselves up to fall from a very great height indeed.

We're in uncharted territory. My grumpy die hard self is very confused. It's not just "homer" talk anymore. We're actually a pretty good franchise?

 

[herman]

Being so invested as a fan, it's hard for me to see things from a non-emotional perspective. What do fans of other teams think when they consider the Maple Leafs? I get nervous when strong teams like the Bruins or Lighting come to town. Is this what others are starting to feel when the Leafs come? I'm used to seeing our team play the back-up.

Boston fans on reddit are a bit afraid of our speed and Andersen getting hot at the right time.

One of the coaches we faced towards the end of the season remarked to reporters that he found it troubling to deal with our depth; I'm paraphrasing, but it was something like, 'They play Leo Komarov on the 4th line!'.

Cool thing is, I think the Leafs still have gains to be had on the wings (Johnsson over Komarov, Carrick over Polak if Zaitsev continues his stretch of surprisingly solid March play) and in loading minutes onto their stars. We can reminisce in horror about the 2013 meltdown, but our lineup had no business being in the playoffs, no business taking the Bruins to game 7, and they still needed injuries and a miracle to beat us.

 

[crazyperfectdevil]

Being so invested as a fan, it's hard for me to see things from a non-emotional perspective. What do fans of other teams think when they consider the Maple Leafs? I get nervous when strong teams like the Bruins or Lighting come to town. Is this what others are starting to feel when the Leafs come? I'm used to seeing our team play the back-up.

Boston fans on reddit are a bit afraid of our speed and Andersen getting hot at the right time.

One of the coaches we faced towards the end of the season remarked to reporters that he found it troubling to deal with our depth; I'm paraphrasing, but it was something like, 'They play Leo Komarov on the 4th line!'.

Cool thing is, I think the Leafs still have gains to be had on the wings (Johnsson over Komarov, Carrick over Polak if Zaitsev continues his stretch of surprisingly solid March play) and in loading minutes onto their stars. We can reminisce in horror about the 2013 meltdown, but our lineup had no business being in the playoffs, no business taking the Bruins to game 7, and they still needed injuries and a miracle to beat us.

Yeah everyone remembers the end of that series of course but nobody remembers that when the leafs came into that series nobody was picking them to win and definitely when the leafs went down 3-1 in the series no one was expecting a game 7 ..that loss has never really bothered me as much as it seems to most people.  leafs almost pulled off a bloody miracle that series.

 

[herman]

Yeah everyone remembers the end of that series of course but nobody remembers that when the leafs came into that series nobody was picking them to win and definitely when the leafs went down 3-1 in the series no one was expecting a game 7 ..that loss has never really bothered me as much as it seems to most people.  leafs almost pulled off a bloody miracle that series.

Management's response following that loss bothered me so much more, but seeing as how it brought us to this point, cool.