OT: Leafs/NHL Thread

[NBJ13]

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starts at 3:23

I bet this is a rod black thing. Those guys are real life best friends. Their families go on holiday together and chuck stayed with rod whenever he came to Toronto. In anycase....that's probably why it's on chuck's radar.

that could well be....but it could also be a cheap plug by barkley because TBS showed the leafs game last night.

He actually brings up the hockey play-offs a lot. At the end of last night, he said he's excited to watch the 2 game 7's today... Shaq said he's the only one interested in that

[ItsDanger]

Barkley's been a hockey fan for a while now, knows former & current players/coaches. Especially when you play golf in southern US in summer, you're going to bump into them often.

[GQStylin]

I would say the Leafs also outplayed Tampa in their least series and lost due to some unfavourable calls, so we'll take it.

The two teams were pretty close last year and it very well could've been the Leafs heading to the 2nd round one season earlier if not for a few bad calls and not so good puck luck. This year against Tampa they were better able to weather the Lightning pressure and while they bent they didn't break and were able to keep fighting and plugging away until they got the win.

The deadline additions that Dubas made really helped the team with the amount of toughness, grit and leadership he added to give the Leafs some good backbone.

[GQStylin]

So I've seen people say that the fact that a "worse" team can beat a "better" team in a play-off series with a reasonable probability to actually be a point against the game. What do you think about that?

Personally I like things being close. I like knowing that the skill gap between different teams is smaller than a record may imply.

I don't know why it would be a negative to have unpredictability and upsets? Its what makes sports so exciting when you don't know what's going to happen next.

[Raps in 4]

Barkley's been a hockey fan for a while now, knows former & current players/coaches. Especially when you play golf in southern US in summer, you're going to bump into them often.

Yeah. He's even been on the TBS hockey panels as a guest before.

[GQStylin]

Leafs are winning the cup folks, best team remaining, even if Boston wins. The team that wins the president trophy hasn't won the cup in like 20yrs

On paper it certainly looks like the Leafs are capable of winning the Cup, but that's why you play the games because everything is decided on the ice. I want to believe that the Leafs can go far, but having been burned by them so often they have to prove it to me by actually doing it.

[ItsDanger]

It's wide open this year, but I think Dallas has the best all-around team.

[Lord_Zedd]

It's wide open this year, but I think Dallas has the best all-around team.

Yep, that goalie alone can easily take them all the way. The Otter is going to be a league wide problem for many years to come

[Clay Davis]

The Raptors equivalent of this would have been DeRozan and Lowry eliminating Lebron James from the playoffs after failing so many times. You can see how much it meant to these guys when you see the different camera celebrations, even though it was just the first round.

I wouldn't say that. Beating Boston after the bruins regular season would be moreso the equivalent of beating lebron's cavs.

But beating Tampa is more than a typical first round victory.

It's still kinda crazy. I'm watching the tsn panel and they probably don't wanna be debbie-downers....but it's not like the leafs actually looked promising in this series lol. I guess the bar is low at this point.

Maybe Samsonite (I refuse to fight with the spell corrector) can steal a couple games.

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[Dr Positivity]

We did it boiiiz. In previous series Game 6 was the one that got away where they were one shot away. The odds went their way this time with weak Tavares goal to close it out before ultra nervous game 7 in Toronto and Vasi having a shutout in him.

Word to the refs who swallowed whistle on blatant high stick to the face and didn't give make up call when Schenn pushed a guy down.

Other than having a good goalie performance key is Matthews and Marner outplayed Kucherov and Point who looked ready for golf course. Stamkos at least showed up in the last game. Leafs forward have committed to trying on defense and it showed. Cooper's insistence in stacking his top line the whole series and then when he finally broke it up messing with the Hagel Killorn line, was weird. Basically Tampa's best line the whole series was not as dangerous finishing as the top guys so it worked out.

Keefe adjusting game 7 lineup was good as Bunting looked better and he continued to play Knies. Gustaffson had a mistake but otherwise made some plays.

Most disappointing players was Nylander, I forgot he had star stats this year.

[LoveMyRaps]

So it was real eh? I wasn't just dreaming?

All sunk in for me this morning. The amount of times I've watched the Golden Goal since last night, have legit lost count.
All we did was make it out the first round, but I screamed just as loud as I did when Kawhi hit that game winner.

Unreal feeling. I'm so proud of this team. Stuck with this team every single year despite all those disappointments. Bleed blue till I die.
Been saying this for the last couple of years, if the Leafs make it out the first round they'll go deep!
Now that the monkey is finally off the shoulders, we can look forward to bigger things - i.e., hoisting the STANLEY CUP BABY!

THIS IS OUR YEAR. THIS IS OUR TEAM. LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LEAFSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

[bballsparkin]

It's wide open this year, but I think Dallas has the best all-around team.

The Canucks beat the Stars all three games they played i believe. Definitely the last 3. So nah, I'm not buying the Stars.

[6ixset]

Stanley Cup would obviously be incredible but I think right now I would be ecstatic with them facing Boston and actually beating them in the next round.

[Ganjamayne]

Hoping for Florida otherwise the media is gonna be brutal with Bruins/Leafs again

[Tha Cynic]

I would say the Leafs also outplayed Tampa in their least series and lost due to some unfavourable calls, so we'll take it.

The two teams were pretty close last year and it very well could've been the Leafs heading to the 2nd round one season earlier if not for a few bad calls and not so good puck luck. This year against Tampa they were better able to weather the Lightning pressure and while they bent they didn't break and were able to keep fighting and plugging away until they got the win.

The deadline additions that Dubas made really helped the team with the amount of toughness, grit and leadership he added to give the Leafs some good backbone.

Yeah and 3 overtime wins on the road against the Lightening isn't an easy feat either. Whatever they did, they came out on top and Samsonov made the big saves to keep the team within striking range for the majority of the series.

The additions at the deadline were huge so kudos to Dubas for killing it there. Without them, the Leafs don't win this series and probably lose worse than they did last season.

[WaltFrazier]

If the Bruins lose will there be talk about how they went too hard after the regular season record?

[Brinbe]

LOL BRUINS

come on, panthers

[Raps in 4]

Looks like the Bruins are the new Leafs.

[Brinbe]

damn bruins

[dafan590]

Knew it was too good to be true, let's hope the leafs will have a different outcome this time around vs the bruins in the conference semi final