Guilt Trip said:
Significantly Insignificant said:
Bender said:
L K said:
No one was good in that period. Very few scoring chances when the Leafs pushed back. This core has been around too long to get the nervous excuse. It's just unacceptable effort at this point and of the team can't show up for a playoff game it keeps reaffirming that there is something wrong with the core.
The Leafs can't win if Samsonov is going to swim around the ice like this
The only thing I can say to that is Tampa got crushed in game 1 last year and it didn't matter.
Agreed. It's game one, and the Leafs don't have their best game going for sure. I'm trying to figure out if Tampa was ropin' a dopin' since February or if the Leafs are ropin' a dopin' since puck drop.
Not a chance. These guys don't play to lose.
Not playing to lose per se. I don't know how to articulate it, but it's like Tampa took its foot off the gas in February, and coasted into the playoffs. I wonder if they did that because they have played so much hockey over the last three years. The coaching staff would focus on the key elements that they would need to keep as habits, but they wouldn't really push it to win games here and there. Now Cooper just goes into the room and tells them to fire it up, and they are suddenly energized.
