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Game 62 - Toronto Maple Leafs @ Montreal Canadiens - SAT FEB 23RD 7:00 EST

I'm getting bored of this discussion. That's why I don't want to meet the Leafs in the playoffs, don't need to watch them beat us and don't need to see us beat them. Not worth the aggravation and the bragging rights. Habs were the superior team /organization by far in all the years I've been watching hockey. Nothing to prove here. Habs are the Yankees of the NHL, the Leafs are the Dodgers.
 
I'm getting bored of this discussion. That's why I don't want to meet the Leafs in the playoffs, don't need to watch them beat us and don't need to see us beat them. Not worth the aggravation and the bragging rights. Habs were the superior team /organization by far in all the years I've been watching hockey. Nothing to prove here. Habs are the Yankees of the NHL, the Leafs are the Dodgers.

The Yankees have won multiple championships since 1993. Habs today are more like the Seattle Mariners than the Yankees.
 
The Yankees have won multiple championships since 1993. Habs today are more like the Seattle Mariners than the Yankees.

We’re the Cincinnati Reds. Great in the 70s with some success around 1990. Butkus since.
 
Oh, I agree that it's harder than it seems at first. But I think if you guys fully committed to pulling the pin and traded Weber, Petry, Tatar, Shaw, etc for the best package of futures you could have gotten, you would have tanked just fine.



There is absolutely a luck quotient, but sometimes you make your own luck...like Columbus passing on the consensus #3 to take Dubois. Like the Leafs taking Marner at 4 despite all the media noise about him being lighter than a stick figure drawing (Lawson Crouse was ranked higher than Marner in a number of mocks ffs). Yeah, sometimes you just get unlucky with the year you suck during (though I'd argue that Edmonton ruined Yak moreso than he was a bad pick or even a bad #1...how the hell is your best season as a pro your 18 yr old rookie season?) and rebuilding shouldn't be looked at as a one and done. Did the Leafs get fortunate to pull Matthews-Marner-Nylander in 3 straight seasons? Absolutely, but all the bad teams from that period pulled good building blocks out of the top of the draft.

-Winnipeg got Laine-Ehlers-Trouba-Scheifele-Morissey-Connor out of being bad a bunch of years in a row (with Connor the only pick outside the top 13 of the bunch)
-CBJ got Dubois and Werenski (as well as RJ that they turned into Seth) and Ryan Murray (that easily could have been Morgan Rielly instead of Murray)
-I don't think I need to get into what Edmonton pulled from the top of the draft.
-Vancouver has pulled Pettersson, Hughes, Horvat, Juolevi (could have been Tkachuk or Keller) and Virtanen (could have been Nylander or Ehlers)

Basically every team that has done a bit of extended tanking (whether they were trying to or not) have pulled legitimate building blocks that a contending core can be built around. Those who drafted better, have pretty clearly done better in that process, but all of them have walked away with the type of pieces you need. Montreal really needs 3-4 years in that wilderness.



Yep, and praying for that kind of luck is a tough place to be. I know, I watched it for a decade in Toronto.

Excellent post

The Habs issue is we are missing the core pieces to contend for a cup for years to come .

Even with a flawless successful development of our next wave , we aren’t good enough .

We have the secondary support pieces but need those Sid , Malkin , Matthews horses.

Totally agreed we should of moved some vets and get more draft darts to hopefully stick.

By the time these kids emerge Price and Weber maybe too old to make a difference.

Maybe we can be have a competitive second tier run like St. Louis but that won’t be enough .
 
if we are the Mariners,are the Leafs the Padres?

I'm wondering how this makes sense to you.

To answer the question, probably the Red Sox circa 2002-2003. Historic franchise that hasn't won in a long time, hires young analytics wiz kid to run the show and builds a contender.

Whether our 2004 comes or not is still up in the air of course, but that's probably the closest similarity.
 
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