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Misc 2018 Playoff News Thread

CarolinaPen said:
Cue up the firing of Tortorella....... He can't really survive another disappointing season, can he? C-Bus was a preseason Cup favorite and just blew a 2-0 series lead with both wins on the road.

Bobrovsky would at least get the Canes to the playoffs and then suck, which would be an improvement over the current situation in goal.

The NHL is a weird league at times. Remember last year and over the off-season, everyone wrote Washington off and said their Cup window had closed? In theory, they are not as good on paper as years past but they probably have their best shot in a long time at beating Pittsburgh.

Toronto has some large roster holes on defense and overall team depth, but damn they are fast. Speed never slumps and is the reason they have managed to push Boston to a game 7. Game 7 would be a great game for Austin Matthews to finally break out in the playoffs?
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Great point on Matthews...the kid has been almost invisible all series long and boy would a Game 7 be a chance for him to wake up from his slumber. I agree on the speed, when the Leafs turn on the speed the Bruins defense is having fits with that long stretch pass...guys like Chara, McQuaid and Miller are not built to handle that kind of speed.
 
Watching all of that series, I still won't put in all on Bob. That team took numerous stupid penalties and had major breakdowns. Bob made lots of big saves with very few softies.

Look at Game 2 where he had 50+ saves.

He clearly did not step up last night....But I'd take him here in a heartbeat.
 
The Craps are still not going anywhere...that team is weaker than the past few they have taken to the playoffs, no way does a team like Washington get past the likes of Tampa...and I'm not convinced the Caps even beat the Pens...Caps are 1-9 all time in playoff series vs Pittsburgh...ouch!
 
Washington will be a HEAVY underdog against the Pens. I don't think much of anyone will give them a shot in that series.

That said ... if Pittsburgh can't figure out their mess in the defensive zone, it could be one of the more high scoring series in recent memory. But no ... Washington is not in that same class as Tampa, Pittsburgh and Boston. They just have a lot of post season experience and enough top end offensive skill to make less experienced teams suffer.
 
Boardwork said:
Watching all of that series, I still won't put in all on Bob. That team took numerous stupid penalties and had major breakdowns. Bob made lots of big saves with very few softies.

Look at Game 2 where he had 50+ saves.

He clearly did not step up last night....But I'd take him here in a heartbeat.
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I didn't see much of it, but statistically, Bob is much worse in the playoffs than in the regular season.

He's played 395 regular season games and has a 2.44 GAA and .920 Save %.

He's played 24 playoff games (7 with the Flyers in 2010-11 and 2011-12). He has a 3.49 GAA and .891 Save %. In 17 games with Columbus, he's 3.36 GAA and .898 Save %. He won the Vezina last year with 2.06/.931 but was 3.88/.882 in the playoffs. The Jackets didn't make the playoffs the other year he won the Vezina, in 2012-13.
 
Hmmm, if we could somehow get Bob and he could get us to the playoffs, just maybe, Cam could show his abilities then.
 
Boston put Toronto out last night in a wild one. The Bruins stormed back from a 4-3 deficit to start the third with an equalizer within roughly a minute and then added the winner and an insurance goal before adding an empty netter for a 7-4 final score. That would have been pure fun to watch if I didn't loathe both teams. As it was it was still entertaining.

So ... second round matchups are set:

Boston vs Tampa

Pittsburgh vs Washington

San Jose vs Las Vegas

Nashville vs Winnipeg

Honestly, two of those series could easily be (and might should be) Conference Finals. I don't like this version of the playoff bracket at ALL.
 
jeffbear said:
Boston put Toronto out last night in a wild one. The Bruins stormed back from a 4-3 deficit to start the third with an equalizer within roughly a minute and then added the winner and an insurance goal before adding an empty netter for a 7-4 final score. That would have been pure fun to watch if I didn't loathe both teams. As it was it was still entertaining.

So ... second round matchups are set:

Boston vs Tampa

Pittsburgh vs Washington

San Jose vs Las Vegas

Nashville vs Winnipeg

Honestly, two of those series could easily be (and might should be) Conference Finals. I don't like this version of the playoff bracket at ALL.
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Once Seattle is in the league and there are 16 teams in each conference, they can eliminate the divisions and just seed the conferences 1-8. If they want to keep the divisions, give the division winners the 1 and 2 seeds and seed the other 6 by record.

If they seeded 1-8, the East would have been Tampa/NJ, Boston/Columbus, Washington/Philly, Toronto/Pittsburgh. The West would have been Nashville/Avs, Winnipeg/LA, Vegas/SJ, Minnesota/Anaheim.
 
andyt said:
Once Seattle is in the league and there are 16 teams in each conference, they can eliminate the divisions and just seed the conferences 1-8. If they want to keep the divisions, give the division winners the 1 and 2 seeds and seed the other 6 by record.

If they seeded 1-8, the East would have been Tampa/NJ, Boston/Columbus, Washington/Philly, Toronto/Pittsburgh. The West would have been Nashville/Avs, Winnipeg/LA, Vegas/SJ, Minnesota/Anaheim.
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I think they HAVE to move to that model. The last two playoff seasons have been dumber than dumb in terms of the 2nd round matchups.
 
It will be interesting to see how Leafs management evaluates that playoff result and what adjustments they make. Clearly they need some blue line help. They also need better performances from Auston Matthews and Frederick Andersen in the playoffs.

I've heard the rumblings already. The Leafs will sign John Carlson. The Leafs will sign John Taveres. Not sure how that would be possible given what comes down the road with Nylander, Mathews and Marner (Nylander this offseason). I expect there to be a bunch of crazy rumors involving the Canes trading Hanifin to the Leafs, or Slavin or Pesce to the Leafs, or both Slavin and Pesce to the Leafs..... There are bound to be Skinner to the Leafs rumors (no clue why they would want him, he is not what they need) but someone will float that as a landing spot for SKinner. And of course there will be the chatter about how the Canes are in on JVR as a UFA, both because of TVR and because JVR is willing to play around the net (although he is somewhat limited to just that and will be looking for a lot of money).

Anyhow, I expect the Leafs to be looking to make moves and there to be a whole lot of talk about lopsided trades between the Canes and Leafs that Leafs fan would love to have happen.

As for what is left in the playoffs to root for....UGH!!!!

I can't root for any of the Eastern conference teams, I just can't. I guess Tampa would be my go to just because I don't dislike them as much as the other 3 teams.

In the West though, all 4 of those teams meet my 'never won the Cup' requirement. Really SJ is probably the team I like the least out of those 4. I'm all for any of Vegas, Winnipeg, or Nashville winning the Cup.
 
I'd love to see a Preds-Tampa final and would be happy with either winning.

My daughter is very much anti-Vegas---her reason: those fans need to feel the pain and suffering of not winning
 
cmaleski2 said:
It will be interesting to see how Leafs management evaluates that playoff result and what adjustments they make. Clearly they need some blue line help. They also need better performances from Auston Matthews and Frederick Andersen in the playoffs.

I've heard the rumblings already. The Leafs will sign John Carlson. The Leafs will sign John Taveres. Not sure how that would be possible given what comes down the road with Nylander, Mathews and Marner (Nylander this offseason). I expect there to be a bunch of crazy rumors involving the Canes trading Hanifin to the Leafs, or Slavin or Pesce to the Leafs, or both Slavin and Pesce to the Leafs..... There are bound to be Skinner to the Leafs rumors (no clue why they would want him, he is not what they need) but someone will float that as a landing spot for SKinner. And of course there will be the chatter about how the Canes are in on JVR as a UFA, both because of TVR and because JVR is willing to play around the net (although he is somewhat limited to just that and will be looking for a lot of money).

Anyhow, I expect the Leafs to be looking to make moves and there to be a whole lot of talk about lopsided trades between the Canes and Leafs that Leafs fan would love to have happen.

As for what is left in the playoffs to root for....UGH!!!!

I can't root for any of the Eastern conference teams, I just can't. I guess Tampa would be my go to just because I don't dislike them as much as the other 3 teams.

In the West though, all 4 of those teams meet my 'never won the Cup' requirement. Really SJ is probably the team I like the least out of those 4. I'm all for any of Vegas, Winnipeg, or Nashville winning the Cup.
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If you listen to Toronto fans/media they are ready to overreact and chase Matthews out of town. If you want a good laugh start browsing the cesspool that is Twitter for Leafs and Matthews. I am sure they are not dumb enough to trade him, but maybe they take the approach of signing Tavares and trading Matthews for D. If so the Canes should be all over that conversation and parading Justin Faulk and someone else for Matthews.

Regardless of which way Toronto goes this offseason, they are going to have to move some of the young forwards to improve the D and provide cap flexibility. The Canes non-existent GM needs to put Toronto on speed dial and work something out.
 
cmaleski2 said:
It will be interesting to see how Leafs management evaluates that playoff result and what adjustments they make. Clearly they need some blue line help. They also need better performances from Auston Matthews and Frederick Andersen in the playoffs.

.
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I think the Leafs' issues aren't the kind to be solved with the big free agent signing so their fans are going to have to chill for a bit. Lamoriello isn't an idiot, so they'll make the kinds of changes that move them closer to what their coach wants to do on the ice. That means upgrading with mobile do-it-all defenders while continuing to shed the bangers that their prior regime installed. Polak is probably done along with his contract, for example. As game as Hainsey was for them they need to replace him with someone who does the same stuff but is younger and more mobile. Up from I think they need more balance. They found a mix that worked in the short term when they added Plekanec at center but I think they probably need a permanent solution ... and that's not a Tavares shaped hole.

I just looked at their cap situation ... they're still paying buyout money to freaking Gleason! And Cowan. And taking LTIR cap hits for Lupul and Horton. And retained salary for Kessel. Holy crap that's a lot of wasted cap space. But they lose some of that baggage this summer and have a million guys heading to free agency (JVR, Bozak, Plekanic, Komarov, Dom Moore) so they should have some room to move. They have to get Nylander signed, thus the speculation about moving him. He's high quality trade bait who isn't a great fit on the wing for them. He needs to play center to reach full value IMO.

Good thing they have an experience GM. That's going to be an interesting summer.
 
CarolinaPen said:
If you listen to Toronto fans/media they are ready to overreact and chase Matthews out of town. If you want a good laugh start browsing the cesspool that is Twitter for Leafs and Matthews. I am sure they are not dumb enough to trade him, but maybe they take the approach of signing Tavares and trading Matthews for D. If so the Canes should be all over that conversation and parading Justin Faulk and someone else for Matthews.

Regardless of which way Toronto goes this offseason, they are going to have to move some of the young forwards to improve the D and provide cap flexibility. The Canes non-existent GM needs to put Toronto on speed dial and work something out.
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I've lived Leaf hockey since I had poo in my diaper and trust me, Gardiner is public enemy number 1 by a country mile over Auston Matthews after that series. When you are that passionate about your team and go through that kinda Cup drought, the fanbase goes out on the ledge an awful lot. Matthews to me looked like his injured shoulder never was the same after that injury mid-season, I would not be shocked if news comes out that he played hurt all series long.

Gardiner was the goat last night for the Leafs...-5 and a ton of brain farts in a Game 7 is inexcusable. If Shanahan does not fix that defense, the Leafs are going nowhere fast. We bitch and moan here about guys being over slotted, but the Leafs D is the definition of over slotted...Hainsey should be nowhere near a top 4 role, Polak is too slow for today's NHL, Reilly is a fine D but not a top pairing guy...the list goes on and on. They need a horse back there like Drew Doughty.
 
CanadaCanes said:
I've lived Leaf hockey since I had poo in my diaper and trust me, Gardiner is public enemy number 1 by a country mile over Auston Matthews after that series. When you are that passionate about your team and go through that kinda Cup drought, the fanbase goes out on the ledge an awful lot. Matthews to me looked like his injured shoulder never was the same after that injury mid-season, I would not be shocked if news comes out that he played hurt all series long.

Gardiner was the goat last night for the Leafs...-5 and a ton of brain farts in a Game 7 is inexcusable. If Shanahan does not fix that defense, the Leafs are going nowhere fast. We bitch and moan here about guys being over slotted, but the Leafs D is the definition of over slotted...Hainsey should be nowhere near a top 4 role, Polak is too slow for today's NHL, Reilly is a fine D but not a top pairing guy...the list goes on and on. They need a horse back there like Drew Doughty.
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Yeah ... I meant to mention Gardiner. He's fine but he's not well suited to what they're trying to do and he ends up trying to do more than he's capable of. I think they shed him and Polak and shift Hainsey to more of a support/depth/mentoring role next year. I don't know that they need a big gun like Karlsson or Doughty back there so much as they just need a couple of guys who fit the job description better.
 
Last night ...

Vegas 7 San Jose 0
Pens 3 Caps 2

Didn't watch any of that, as I was out watching my kid do standup.

Tonight
Preds vs Jets game one, and both coaches have predicted pretty much instantaneous animosity. I gotta admit, I'm looking forward to this one.
 
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