[lenaitch]

Give the defending Stanley Cup champions credit, too. The Panthers played extremely well in games 4, 5, and 7, and were the better team. Yes, it's disappointing that the Leafs couldn't elevate their game to game 6 levels again.

To say the Leafs are soft/crap/whatever fails to acknowledge that the Panthers were excellent

Fair enough, and the Panthers were; they were seemingly everywhere, but the scores of games 5 and 7 reflect badly on a playoff-level team. If you can't score, at least defend and lose by one or two.

 

[evandyk]

And even though it didn't come back to bite them in the moment, taking a too many men penalty in a game 7 is just amateur hour.

 

[junctionist]

Even though it seemed that the NHL wanted the Panthers to win through its disciplinary decisions and officiating, the Leafs didn't even make it close. With that said, Stolarz should have been in net. The team was far more confident with him backstopping them and achieved better results.

 

[Mihairokov]

Even though it seemed that the NHL wanted the Panthers to win through its disciplinary decisions and officiating

Why would they want this?

 

[Towered]

Why would they want this?

The league doesn't need the Leafs to win, because the mindless fans here will continue to fill the arena at any cost in perpetuity no matter how much the team sucks large, but it seems that hockey fans in non-traditional markets like the warm US south are far more discerning, and are able to turn their backs and withdraw their financial support on a dime if their team is mediocre, because there's a larger cultural motivator down there to not back a "loser". The NHL can't afford to lose those fickle markets if they want to keep and expand their reach and revenue. Also, in the US, the NHL has to compete with other sports leagues vying for the dollars of the potential consumer.

 

[junctionist]

The league doesn't need the Leafs to win, because the mindless fans here will continue to fill the arena at any cost in perpetuity no matter how much the team sucks large, but it seems that hockey fans in non-traditional markets like the warm US south are far more discerning, and are able to turn their backs and withdraw their financial support on a dime if their team is mediocre, because there's a larger cultural motivator down there to not back a "loser". The NHL can't afford to lose those fickle markets if they want to keep and expand their reach and revenue. Also, in the US, the NHL has to compete with other sports leagues vying for the dollars of the potential consumer.

There also isn't much interest in hockey in general in regions where you can't actually play it without booking time in an arena (e.g. the southern states of the US). The NHL wants its southern teams to be successful because that drives interest in the league there. They've seen two of their southern expansion teams fail in recent years, the Atlanta Thrashers and Phoenix Coyotes, and they don't want more failures to happen.

 

[Jonny5]

Shanahan is officially out.

Insiders saying he may not even be replaced, and is simply the first of many, not only on the Leafs. Apparently, Rogers has given a mandate to MLSE to "streamline" the entire organisation, and it will likely impact all the teams with many more staff layoffs and positions eliminated to come this summer.

 

[Jonny5]

Mitch Marner is now reported in the media to have told the Leafs he's leaving to sign elsewhere, though where is a question as literally half the teams in the league appear to be interested.

At the same time, that opens up a huge amount of salary cap space for the Leafs to use.

 

[Richard White]

Mitch Marner is now reported in the media to have told the Leafs he's leaving to sign elsewhere, though where is a question as literally half the teams in the league appear to be interested.

View attachment 658833

At the same time, that opens up a huge amount of salary cap space for the Leafs to use.

Good riddens.

Let the man pass and figure skate somewhere else. Marner only cares about money meanwhile he is a mediocre player.

 

[PL1]

Good riddens.

Let the man pass and figure skate somewhere else. Marner only cares about money meanwhile he is a mediocre player.

Mediocre?!? He's an excellent player. He likely will be playing elsewhere next year, whether random tweets "confirm" this or not.

The Leafs were likely the 2nd or 3rd best team this season. I think they would have beaten the Hurricanes, but not sure about the Oilers

 

[evandyk]

He is very good, during the regular season.

The secret to NHL playoff success is that the regular season doesn’t matter

It’s no coincidence that the Oilers and Panthers are once again the last two teams standing

www.theglobeandmail.com

Right now in Toronto, they’re wondering if they should bother bidding for free-agent Mitch Marner. The thinking goes something like this – how do you replace the 100 points he scores?

That is regular-season thinking.

Post-season thinking is how do you find the imaginary production that Marner could never come up with in the playoffs? When you think that way, the answer is obvious – the Leafs shouldn’t swing the door so hard that it hits Marner, but they should make sure to lock it after him. You don’t want him sneaking back in.

 

[lenaitch]

He is very good, during the regular season.

The secret to NHL playoff success is that the regular season doesn’t matter

It’s no coincidence that the Oilers and Panthers are once again the last two teams standing

www.theglobeandmail.com

That seems to be a perennial problem with the Leafs when they manage to make it to post season; their guns fall silent. How many star players have either worn out their welcome or got frustrated and left only to get Stanley Cup rings with the new team (or at least go further in the playoffs). I don't if it's a management thing or what.

 

[G.L.17]

Mediocre?!? He's an excellent player. He likely will be playing elsewhere next year, whether random tweets "confirm" this or not.

The Leafs were likely the 2nd or 3rd best team this season. I think they would have beaten the Hurricanes, but not sure about the Oilers

If the Leafs beat Bobrovsky 4 times in 7 games, I'm pretty sure they could have gotten past beach-ball Skinner

 

[junctionist]

If the Leafs beat Bobrovsky 4 times in 7 games, I'm pretty sure they could have gotten past beach-ball Skinner

Yes, but Edmonton would have been up against Woll, who has a lot of potential but still has some work to do in developing his skills.

I wish Stolarz a speedy recovery, but it can easily take a year or more to truly recover from a bad concussion even if he’s cleared to return to play.

 

[Towered]

I'm guessing by the silence in here that Edmonton lost lol