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roysmyboy31

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Very entertaining game to end a close series.  As I said, Toronto needs to address their defense going forward.  They have the goaltender and a strong group of forwards already (and the best coach in the business).  Feel this is well deserved for Boston.

Tampa/Boston has a chance to be the best series this postseason.  Have Tampa winning it (and the whole thing) and going to face Pittsburgh in the ECF.  Have Nashville and San Jose advancing out West.

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13 minutes ago, roysmyboy31 said:

Very entertaining game to end a close series.  As I said, Toronto needs to address their defense going forward.  They have the goaltender and a strong group of forwards already (and the best coach in the business).  Feel this is well deserved for Boston.

Tampa/Boston has a chance to be the best series this postseason.  Have Tampa winning it (and the whole thing) and going to face Pittsburgh in the ECF.  Have Nashville and San Jose advancing out West.

I like Rielly and Dermott a lot going forward. The others, not so much. Liljegren is looking like he will be pretty damn good though, 

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Really entertaining series. Couple things:

1) Jake Gardiner was a -5 last night. -5. That’s horrendous. And it was so obvious that his mistakes directly led to at least 3 or 4 of those. Honestly might have been the worst playoff performance from any individual player I’ve ever seen. 

He’s really talented as a puck moving defenseman and can look great at times but just like in Game 7 from 2013, he picks the worst times to have lapses in judgment. 

He has to go. Honestly, can’t see how the locker room would react to seeing someone walk back in next season who might have single handedly cost your team the series. Leafs should be able to get some significant assets for Jake. They have plenty of LD in the pipeline. Yeah, they’d be getting rid of someone who overall plays pretty well but the problem is that for a team with growing Cup aspirations, you can’t have undependable guys like Gardiner getting a lot of minutes on your blue line.

2) Andersen stole a couple but his performance this series was by no means what you hope to get from a starting goalie in the playoffs. 

Save percentage was .896 in a 7 game series. That’s frankly unacceptable. Yeah, he stole a game but he was letting some easy stuff through at times. The defensive issues hurt and made things tougher for him but he has to help out a bit.

3) Marner grew up this series. What a series from him. Even being one of the smallest guys and youngest guys on the ice, he was going wherever he wanted. He could honestly end up being the best of the Leafs big 3.

Matthews, as I mentioned earlier, must still be hurting from his shoulder injury. At least, I hope this wasn’t Matthews at 100%. Then again, credit to the Bergeron line. That’s maybe one of the best defensive centers to have to play against. 

Nylander played scared most of the series. At least early on. He started to look a lot better later in the series. He needs to get more comfortable taking contact. If the Leafs are able to sign Tavares, Nylander is gone.

 

 

Interesting season. Year 2 of contending for the Leafs with their young forwards and they reached 100+ points. And the consolation prize was getting pushed around for 4 games against a better and more physical Bruins team and learning to push back and compete with a very physical team. 

This offseason should mark the end of the old Leafs. All the players from the old regime will most likely be gone. Good bye JVR (wants way too much for as little as he contributes against the best teams and in big moments), Bozak, and for better or worse, Gardiner.

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I think you’re over estimating Gardiners value. The issues you’ve pointed out are there for everyone to see.

I disagree about Anderson. Save percentage isn’t a number you can accept without analysis. Boston had an amazing amount of high quality scoring chances. 

Edited by diehardlionfan
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