Quoting: Hurricanes73
How tf would I be buying into the Toronto media? I literally do not follow any leafs fans other than Steve dangle. Here’s what I have been saying over and over again. The leafs have no depth and a 5 man team isn’t winning a cup. Their poor bottom 6 got actively exploited when playing top 5 teams. They were sub 500 against the 4 division winners and the bolts. They went 9-10. That’s over 200 points lower than their regular season percentage. Being a deep team is how you win a cup. You may be better on the top end but as long as the other teams top lines produce the same, the bottom 6 is what claps your cheeks. There is a reason why a team with a player over the caphit of 10m hasn’t won a cup yet, because one player can’t single handedly carry a team to victory. Having three of those players means you are taking away from getting better players on the bottom end. Not to mention how much worse the goal tending got. You may say “the Avs won with mediocre goaltending” or “the canes won the Jennings after bringing in two new goalies”: my rebuttals- both teams have top 5 defenses. The leafs are far from it. Some of the leafs middle pair D men would be either extra D men, or bottom pair. Top pair D men would both be middle pair on those teams. The talent is there at the top but when you have a huge question mark as to who will be your final top 6 forward I see an issue. Carolina has 7/8 top 6 forwards. Colorado had 7/8 as well. 4 top line forwards and 5 top 6 forwards isn’t what wins cups, it’s what leads to disappointment. And the leafs getting worse this offseason, I honestly think they are lucky to get a wild card spot with how much better other teams got. Tampa and Florida obviously go 1-2. Ottawa Detroit and Boston all have cases for being better teams than Toronto right now, honest to god. I see it falling out TB,FLA,OTT,TOR,DET,BOS,BUF,MTL. And that’s being generous too as every team other than Buffalo and montreal has better goaltending. If the leafs kept campbell I see them being that third team, but they didn’t and they got worse. They also lost soup man too who was easily the best forward outside of of the top 5. Now you have to shake kerfoots contract to stay cap compliant. That’s the top 2 forwards from last year outside of the top 5 leaving. Kase leaving as well means that by PPG, the 6th, 7th and 8th best forwards on the leafs will all be gone. That’s atrocious. Essentially losing your entire third line which was already a team that wasn’t that deep. The defense didn’t get better, neither did the offense or goaltending. And the forward corps will be a whole lot worse. Every other team in the Atlantic got better other than Boston and Florida. Florida still clears Toronto easily. Ottawa and Detroit both getting that much better this off-season means there is a very strong case for Toronto missing the playoffs all together. So as an outsider, who does not even follow the Toronto media, who forms their own views based on moves, Toronto got much worse and is a wild card team at best. You may disagree as you are a leafs fan, but this is my opinion. If you are right I will eat my words but till then my view is this and unless the leafs make serious changes to be deeper, I will not be changing my viewpoint. Thank you.
You have made some good points but I expect Florida to fall back this year as they have lost some good players this offseason and last year they over-achieved.........I also think Boston is going to have a really tough time with all the players they currently have injured to start the season and their ageing core
You keep saying the Leafs are a worst team......but the season has not started yet and I expect some additional changes to the team.......but their young core is still improving.....and I think the Leafs are better than both Florida and Boston right now.
I also think Tampa is declining and its players are beat up after playing so many playoff games the last 3 years.......Tampa fans are going to realize the value of Ryan McDonagh this next year and I think this is a big blow to the leadership of their team.
Ottawa and Detroit are going to be much better and Montreal will be a bit better.
Leafs have been working on upgrading some of their bottom six players and I think some of the recent additions are under-rated and could surprise alot of people.....and also think Dubas has some more changes comming to the team.