You can make that argument for sure, but I'd personally say no. With the margin they have to make up and the timeframe they have to do it, taking the chance is well worth it, imo. Like even if, starting last night, Minny won all of their remaining 10 games, they'd still miss out if LA won only 6 of theirs.

Can't afford to settle for the loser point right now so might as well give yourself any advantage you can in securing the extra point in OT rather than going to a shootout where you don't have that opportunity.

Where does Kucherov sit in terms of Russian players. And where will he end up. He had a slow start, didn't have the draft pedigree of some others but he has the two most productive seasons by a Russian player, instrumental in two cups. I'm too close to it and we are firmly in recency bias.

He's half decent. Where's he sit?

Without taking the deep dive; I'd say he is right there with Pavel Datsyuk and Pavel Bure (and probably Kovalchuk); a half-tier behind the legends of the past that didn't get the NHL opportunity (Tretiak, Fetisov, etc) or partial NHL (Larionov) and the current era greats: Fedorov, Ovechkin and Malkin.

The knock that he and Panarin will face is the lack of international opportunity that the legends all have and that chance at Triple Crown Club membership; adding Stanley Cups and breaking NHL records is the best chance for him to get into that upper tier.

Honestly Sammy's rebound story might be one of the craziest seen in the NHL in a while

Struggles to start the year, loses 9-3 to Buffalo (Jones was there to but u get it)

Gets waived and people think its the end of him with TOR or NHL

Does not play a single game with the Marlies

Comes back up a week later and was a changed goalie

Since than 20-6-7 2 shutouts

Still rocking that 3.03 GAA and .893 SV%.

In fairness, that's only because he had above 4GAA before being waive.

His Sv% after coming back up is well above .900. He's been legit good.

It seems the total reset approach worked

His SV% has been .900 or worse in 4 of his last 10. It's been .910% or worse in 7 of his last 14. Neither of those give me confidence in him.

Thats cause of the **** start he had from Oct - Dec where he was tied for the worst in the NHL. But since coming back from waivers he's been climbing as of late

Would not surprise me if hes above a 0.910 by the end of the season

As in his last 10 7-2-1 2.67 GAA and a 0.915SV not bad for a guy who couldnt catch a beachball months ago lul

I wonder how many teams called and were like whats your secret

As literally didnt even play a game was down for just 1 week and completely turned it around

My guess answer: Family

Always amazing to me that so think Leafs Dmen are poor, goaltenders are poor, the whole team besides Marner, Matthews and Nylander are poor.
Somehow with all these poor players the Leafs are 5th in the East and 10th overall.

Opposite can be said. With 2 1C's, 1RW, 1LW, and a 1D, they're barely hanging onto a division spot.

I'm amazed that core hasn't at least made the ECF.

Actually I don't think it has been the Dmen so much, but lack of scoring, especially at key team. Despite the lack of respect for Leafs defensive play, they were 7th in GAA last season....not so much this season due to a poor four weeks in November and December. Yeah, it goes against "logic" or even mathematics that the Leafs haven't advanced further, especially losing so many games sevens.

You mean a season where they usually had 3/6 defensemen playing every night and Sammy being on the worst stretch of his career to begin the season and the other tandem goalie being out for a majority of the season?

The Leafs might be top 5 in games lost to injury

Are the Leafs actually cursed?

They luck into a lottery win and get the greatest player the franchise has ever seen, draft an elite play making winger to ride shotgun and the Norse god of Charm and handsomeness. Only for it to line up with the peaking of a modern day dynasty, the best years of the greatest defensive forward ever to take the ice and the birth of "well they can't call everything" hockey a state where anything is legal.

Then once/if they get out of their division/conference it's Vegas' core of T800 "Jack-Reacher is loosely based on my life" death machines, Connor McJesus or they get lucky and it's "only" Nathan MacKinnon and his band of merry men.

Side note. Has this sport ever been better than it is now?

I wouldn't because they are the ones to screw themselves... I know Covid hurt them the most out of all 32 teams, but you can't be handing out 33.2 mill to 3 guys, and 14.4 mill to 2 other guys and then not sell when your team could use a restock of picks and prospects (Tyler Bozak, JVR and not going after prospect with Kadri on top of others, Holl; Kerfoot; Mikeheyev), meaning they were hamstrung on cap space, and only had the prospects and picks they gave themselves pre-Matthews...

Look at Philly for example, they are currently in a playoff spot and sold a couple guys to get those few more assets that will help them 3 and 4 years from now...

And finally, they kept spending 1st+ on guys who are old and won't resign with the team instead of attacking players that would fit their window for multiple years and resign... McCabe was a good trade bc it did that... If only Dubas/Lou didn't keep going out and trading 1sts for rentals...

In total, while yes, this could be looked at as the Leafs being 'cursed', everything that happened to them was a direct result of how they spent their assets multiple years ago... Their way of winning a cup will be through their top guys scoring 4 goals combined a game and the supporting cast locking it down in their zone bc that's how they allocated their assets to do so

Goaltending is so random lmao

I don't think many people had Daccord becoming a top 10 goalie in 23-24 on their bingo card

I had a sneaking feeling it was gonna come as it seems when OTT lets a young goalie go or trades em they just explode one year

Gustavsson last year and now Daccord

Well at least Dorion's gone now but he left them with 4m Korpisalo.....

The Leafs aren't cursed, they just made a string of poor decisions from 2018 onwards.

In 17-18, they likely should've moved guys like Komarov and JVR instead of losing them for nothing a few months later

This is the single most unpopular take I have, but they shouldn't have signed Tavares in July 2018. Guy didn't/doesn't fit the Leafs's window. He's 33, gonna be 34 in not even 6 months, and anyway, what the Leafs badly needed in 2018 was to build their defense around Rielly. Signing Tavares made it so that they didn't have the money to do it.

I'd even argue the Muzzin trade was bad. He didn't fit their window either, they gave up Durzi which was dumb, as a young, mobile RD-man was/is exactly what the Leafs needed and still need, in fact. I believe one of the main issues of their defense is that apart from Mo(who's one of my favorite players in the league), they don't have many offensive weapons. Durzi could've been a perfect 2nd RD-man in TOR.

I know Covid screwed their cap, but let's fact it, even in 2019, they were still in a massive cap hell. And it wasn't normal. A team should NOT be in a cap hell when it hasn't even won a round or two yet.


In short, I'd say they (Shanahan, Dubas, MLSE) rushed the Leafs's rebuilding process. In 2018, they should've resigned Bozak because he was a great fit in TOR and signed either Ian Cole or Calvin De Haan. Either one would've bought them some time to build their defense. They should've signed Nylander to an 8 years deal and showed up in 18-19 with a lineup like this:
Hyman-Matthews-Nylander
Marleau-Kadri-Marner
Johnsson-Bozak-Kapanen
Martin/Leivo/Ennis/Moore-Defensive 4C-Brown

Rielly-Cole/De Haan
Gardiner-Hainsey
Dermott-Zaitsev

Andersen
McLehinney

In 18-19, Nylander was playing in his 3rd full NHL season and Marner and Matthews were playing in their third one as well. They weren't ready to compete right away. And the Leafs's prospect pool still lacked depth. For the 2018, 19 and I'd even argue 2020 drafts, they should've continued to build a superb organizational depth and gone all in starting in 2020-2021 instead of 18-19.

You could kind of argue it yes

There be other factors but lady luck seems to also have not smiled on them at times.

Muzzin trade was fine. Who could have within 2 years a predicted PLD cross check to his back would lead to an early career exit. That one play started his spiral to permeant LTIR. He was one of the better Dman in the NHL and we still wish we could have him back over the cap relief. Durzi is an offensive minded Dman, The guy LA drafted with the pick = bust, and Grundstrom's a in and out bottom 6 guy.

And why trade a 40 goal scoring JVR when you were having a competitive season?.

A lot is just conjecture.

TOR had Matthews, Marner, Kadri, Nylander, Rielly, Bozak, JVR, Anderson, etc. What mainly ****ed them was Lou and Babcock being to conservative that was the year to go aggressive at the TDL in the time the boys were on their ELC's and Babcock never made adjustments

Rangsey aint wrong as lady luck has not been kind to them in many playoff series making em look cursed.

Notables: Muzzin and JT injuries, Kadri getting suspended b2b, refs ignoring a call leading to a game winner, etc.

Like this was Muzzin when he was traded

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EenGw7oWAAMIyVQ.png:large

Would not hesitate to do that kind of pkg again but this time give him more support

TOR is a team that seems to get a bit to comfortable with leads

Wow what was that third period lul

Reaves out on a 6 on 5 had me joking Keefe u trying to get fired lul

The Leafs are the winners of the Jacob Quillan sweepstakes, a guy out of Quinnipiac who has been overshadowed by Graf. I absolutely love this pickup for the Leafs, high energy center for free. If he doesn't suit up for the Leafs evenutally, I will be extremely disappointed. He's got all the tools

Huge get. And took him right from under the noses of a rival too.