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Play-in Round: Toronto Maple Leafs (8) vs Columbus Blue Jackets (9)

Artnes said:
Hoping Robertson can lock up his spot

Those wheels and release will be a nice added threat with Kapanen on that line
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It's game breaking shot that could turn a playoff game easily. Hard not to use it.
 
This is probably torts just going overboard to make sure they're ready of course...

 
some guys who need to show that they want to stay here:

Clifford
Kerfoot
Engvall
Andersen
Gauthier
Johnsson(if he plays)
 
Engvall shouldn’t be out of the line up long if he doesn’t play game 1. Have a feeling they will rotate that bottom line throughout our run. Keep them competing with each other and have more guys game ready in case of injuries or covid
 
zeke said:
This is probably torts just going overboard to make sure they're ready of course...

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Yep. There's no way it's about this hard working, gritty team of veterans.

Serious question...why does Columbus have this reputation as a physical, grinding bunch? Their fairly soft aside from Foligno, Jenner and one or two others. When I think of a core made up of PLD, Nyquist, Atkinson, Bjorkstrand, Jones, Werenski....why does anyone think that's physical?
 
MindzEye said:
Yep. There's no way it's about this hard working, gritty team of veterans.

Serious question...why does Columbus have this reputation as a physical, grinding bunch? Their fairly soft aside from Foligno, Jenner and one or two others. When I think of a core made up of PLD, Nyquist, Atkinson, Bjorkstrand, Jones, Werenski....why does anyone think that's physical?
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It's true that the Blue Jackets don't really have intimidating physical players like Tom Wilson or the Tkatchuks...

However the hard working quality you gave them really translated into them "physically" dominating their opponents in some aspects of the game, well at least last year. Against Tampa in the playoffs for example, they constantly forced the play on the boards where they would dominate the battles.

PLD is a good example of that. I would understand why he would be perceived as a soft player, which maybe he is on some level, but he is a beast on board battles. He's got great stamina, goes in there, win the battles and just speed out with the puck.

While Jones doesn't play the type of gritty physical game you would expect from someone his size, he uses his size to his advantage and is very difficult to play against.

Also worth noting is that soft Nyquist was not part of the team last year.
Players contributing to this style who are missing this year : Josh Anderson was having a dominant season, Dzingel who they traded for was amazing at doing the dirty work, and even young Texier was bringing the energy playing pedal to the metal.
 
A real mountain is being made of that Tampa sweep in relation to this series. I mean yeah it's impressive to a point, but does anybody think that was Tampa's best that the Jackets overcame? They were crap.
 
Volcanologist said:
A real mountain is being made of that Tampa sweep in relation to this series. I mean yeah it's impressive to a point, but does anybody think that was Tampa's best that the Jackets overcame? They were crap.
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also don't forget the BJs lost some prettttty key players from last year's team.

there's that Panarin guy too...
 
IMO they are tough in the way that is actually important in today's NHL, in that they are disciplined and compete hard consistently. They are tough to play against, and they forecheck hard, are good in neutral zone and don't give up much. They were 4th in xGA/60 this year. Their problem is skill.

They are a way worse team than last year.
 
The analysis that almost nobody is going to share in Toronto is that Columbus has been trash aside from two stretches that coincide with Korpisaalo and Merzlikins putting up a combined .940+ over 7-8 weeks.

That stretch: 135 point pace
Everything else: 71 point pace

So yeah, if we get goalied by Korpisaalo and Merzlikins it might be a much harder series than it should be.
 
Im not overly concerned about a counter attack from these guys in comparison to a series like Boston or Tampa

This should be more along the lines of playing a team like the Islanders
 
I think CBJ is tough. But they have relied on some hot goalie streaks and they'll need a hot goalie.

For me I just don't think we've come very close to seeing our death star fully operational. At no point this year have we witnessed the two dominant 1st lines that we rightly expected, and i'm pretty sure we will now with everyone healthy. It's a 1-2 punch that nobody in the league can really match, except maybe PIT. And then as well we have still never seen our defense play with Rielly not in the prime matchup role (with ceci or hainsey or zaitsev beside him). This is the first time we're going to see a legit matchup pair being used ahead of him. It's a massive re-jig on the backend that should make a huge difference.

I understand that CBJ has had tons of injuries too, but the difference is we know what their upside is- their injury replacements came in and actually scored just as well as their starters did, and the defensive system held up fine too. There's not really much upside left to see.

We did end up next to each other in the standings, but that was a huge pleasant surprise for them and a disaster season for us.
 
MindzEye said:
The analysis that almost nobody is going to share in Toronto is that Columbus has been trash aside from two stretches that coincide with Korpisaalo and Merzlikins putting up a combined .940+ over 7-8 weeks.

That stretch: 135 point pace
Everything else: 71 point pace

So yeah, if we get goalied by Korpisaalo and Merzlikins it might be a much harder series than it should be.
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I literrally have heard zero people point this out. Columbus was carried by elite goaltending. They need that again to win. I just listened to NHL network and they basically guaranteed it's 5 games and only negatives mentioned were from 1 team of course.
 
JackBurton said:
BJS are getting way too much respect.
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yeah, I think they're a pretty mediocre team especially without Panarin. Does one disappointing year make the Leafs that same grade of team? For many I guess what you did most recently becomes what you are. Ironically if they win, they'll receive minimal if any credit as won't be a "real" playoff round, and it will have been against a less talented opponent (this will suddenly become a thing).
 
I kinda feel like the rules of who should be better than whom kinda go out the window with this long layoff.

Feels like more than ever before, any team could just surprise the favorite based on inordinate rust and lack of synch that are long gone by the time we normally hit the playoffs.

So I'm not totally brimming with confidence, but I definitely think that on paper we should smash them to pieces.
 
I just heard Brian Burke's analysis on the radio of this series. Made my head spin. Apparently all everyone is talking about MIkeyev being back and no one is discussing the "5" players Blue Jackets are getting back. Sure Brian...
The entire anaysis, as you can guess was about Toronto's horrific D. Nothing about Columbus lack of scoring or the fact they would need once again elite level goaltending to win.
He also for some reason believes all 8 teams that are already in the playoffs aside from teams in qualifying round will all advance. Basically no chance of upsets. If there's upsets every year I am confidant there will be this year of all years.
 
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