The Toronto Maple Leafs are a day away from opening their first-round series against the Boston Bruins and we brought some help to get you all set. Former Leaf player and TSN Hockey Analyst Jeff O’Neill joins the show to give his thoughts on the series, some of his X-Factors and his prediction. Mike and Dave do a deep dive into the matchup between the Leafs and Bruins to see how Toronto stacks up against their Original Six rival and if we can expect some changes from what we saw from them during the regular season. To end the show, Mike gives his compelling storylines to follow in the series and Dave looks at five people on the Leafs who have the most pressure on them going into the playoffs.
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7 Comments
So great to see Jeff O’Neill on the show!
Great to see Odog on
here are my takes
the team has much more grits players willing to go to the net from Burt, Domi, McMann, Dewar, Reavo, better Knies, even Tavares, etc
It is up to the coaching styles and last the reps
Leafs in 6 I agree f those bruins
I look at the defensive pairings and all I can think of is how did it come to this. Lyubushkin was a third pair guy on the Ducks.
Leafs WILL win this series 🎉. 6 games
I have trouble seeing Leafs in seven. They pretty much have to do it in six.
Plekanec in the 2018 playoffs. 2G 2A +1. Nylander in 2018 1G 3A -3. Matthews in 2018 1G 1A -4. Marner in 2018 2G 7A +2. I don't think Plekanec was the problem.
On paper the Leafs should have a much better offense but Keefe has a history of panicking and scrambling the lines and f*cking everything up in the playoffs. How many periods pass before Keefe has Marner, Matthews and Tavares playing together and the Bruins getting Lindholm and McAvoy out against them every single shift? Maybe he has learned, but it is hard to have any faith that he has.
Assuming Keefe has the mental fortitude to stick with the lines you have put up, a huge assumption, since 2018 the Bruins have focused on Marner. i would love to see Matthews torch them for it but… Everyone talks about Marner not getting it done in the playoffs, Matthews numbers are worse.
Will the big boys get it done? They have all, in their turn, in different years, gotten it done. Can they all do it together?
Will the toughness get it done. Teams can't staple on toughness. If a scrum starts and Matthews is giggling like a schoolgirl and looking around for someone to take his man, then no it won't work. If a scrum starts and Matthews looks like an angry six foot three, two hundred and fifteen pound man, then yes it will work.
The success of the blue line will depend on the two way play of the forwards, especially the wingers. If they backcheck hard, always pick up their man and defend in there own end, the blue line will look great. If they make slow lazy line changes, slowly wander back to their own end letting their man go and camp out on the blue line doing nothing till they get a chance to blow the zone. They blue line will get exposed a lot.
PP and PK. PP, people other than Matthews are allowed to score. PK, stop trying to play guys who can't defend on the PK.
Playoffs points. Marner 47 points in 50 games +9. Matthews 44 points in 50 games +0. Nylander 40 points in 50 games -1. Of the three Marner has faced the toughest opposition for the longest period of time.
Keefe job seems to be bulletproof. He should have been fired after the Blue Jacket debacle, certainly after Montreal. It is hard to imagine him being fired for anything at this point. Shanahan, I mean, he is another guy who should have been long gone. As long as people aren't throwing sweaters on the ice it is hard to see him going anywhere.
IMHO, most pressure. Matthews, he is well on his way to defining himself as a regular season player who can't get it done in the playoffs. The players votes are already showing that other players see him that way. If he doesn't have a dominant playoff soon, everyone will see him that way.
Boston is not that good. They have two good goalies and that is it. LEAFS IN 5. GAMES.