Still small and soft, the Panthers and Lightning will be shaking their left leg seeing Simmonds out of the lineup. Forward group has no physicality, making the rest of the players vulnerable. You can't have 5'9" Blackwell and 5'10" Kerfoot at the same time, one of them needs to sit out

wayne simmonds isnt good, theyd be happier if he was in the lineup, they didnt lose last year or the year before because they were too small and soft, that narrative is dumb

No one is scared of Blackwell, Simmonds is someone that takes exception when a star player gets hit. With less Simmonds on the bench, the more runs teams will take at the Leafs

The narrative is 100% justified with who the Leafs have, other than Simmonds, no one will drop the gloves if they have to. I don't like the narrative either but the Leafs got smaller and softer if they replace Simmonds and Spezza with 5'9" Blackwell. If Blackwell wants to play, Kerfoot will have to sit out. Also, Chiarot rag dolled Matthews around while he stood there and smiled (embarrassing)

its a cop out for the players nor performing well, they lost because they didnt play well enough, plain and simple, chiarot sucks and got saved by carey price

They didn't play well, I agree, but when the Habs noticed that after the Chiarot incident, when no one did anything after Chiarot started rag dolling Matthews, the Habs knew they can take runs at Leafs without repercussions. I'm tired of being called a soft and small team, but by adding someone like Blackwell and possibly replacing Simmonds with him, it supports the narrative rather than going against it

physical toughness had nothing to do with it, mental yes, they lost because their top players didnt play well enough, they ran into carey price, and 2 brutal turnovers in overtime lets not forget that, blackwell is way better than simmonds, simmonds is useless and doesnt scare anyone

Simmonds fights and hits. Panthers are licking their chops by replacing a physical power forward over a 5'9" small skilled winger who is as soft as William Nylander

nobody is scared of simmonds, nobody, theyd be likcing their chops having to be matched agaisnt him cause hes slow and bad

You know, you could always stop being a Leafs fan. I'm sure you'd be much happier. Everything you post is negative, maybe it's time to just focus on NYI.

I'm not a NYI fan, I just miss Lou

which explains your old school way of thinking, LOus the most overrated GM in the NHL, look where his tough team is right now!

You can say that, I prefer a team with physicality and skill mixed together. I'm really jealous of how the Florida Panthers are built in terms of their offense, but I'm happy with the Leafs defense

The panthers are built that way cause even in their top 6 they have physicality. At least the Leafs have a bigger D unit than last year.

For the Leafs, they cannot play that game, even with Simmonds in the lineup it doesn't change a thing, he plays 9 minutes a night. He was there last playoff with the incident with Chiarot and I don't remember him doing anything. He finishes his hits but that doesn't make him an enforcer.

Keefe doesn't have a physical coaching style, Dubas doesn't believe it is needed to win, so might as well go all in for it. They need to play their game. If they don't do through again this year I think it's safe to say front management will have a big change.

Big change was supposed to happen last season, but Shananhan doesn't have a pair to make the change