1 Vancouver Canucks vs 8 Los Angeles Kings

[Kin]

One of the 8th seeds this year has Vezina-calibre goaltending and a top-six that puts a lot of teams to shame. The other, the Senators, have received amazing goaltending and are playing with a brilliant mix of skill and heart.

All of these concepts are foreign to Leafs fans these days. I have little faith, had they squeezed into the eight-spot, they'd be having as much success against the Rangers. That's impossible to say for sure, of course, so just call it a hunch.

That's sort of a catch-22 though. They were bad, which is why they didn't make the playoffs but even if they did make the playoffs, they were bad, so they wouldn't be any good in the playoffs.

 

[Bonsixx]

One of the 8th seeds this year has Vezina-calibre goaltending and a top-six that puts a lot of teams to shame. The other, the Senators, have received amazing goaltending and are playing with a brilliant mix of skill and heart.

All of these concepts are foreign to Leafs fans these days. I have little faith, had they squeezed into the eight-spot, they'd be having as much success against the Rangers. That's impossible to say for sure, of course, so just call it a hunch.

That's sort of a catch-22 though. They were bad, which is why they didn't make the playoffs but even if they did make the playoffs, they were bad, so they wouldn't be any good in the playoffs.

Well there's been plenty of examples throughout the years of teams better equipped for regular season success than playoff success, even if they didn't realize it right away at the time. There seems to be a distinct lack of character or identity on the current team, as proven by the slump that ultimately slayed them, that doesn't exactly inspire me with hope of a solid playoff run.

Of course, this is also why I assume there'll be significant changes in the off-season.

 

[Corn Flake]

One of the 8th seeds this year has Vezina-calibre goaltending and a top-six that puts a lot of teams to shame. The other, the Senators, have received amazing goaltending and are playing with a brilliant mix of skill and heart.

All of these concepts are foreign to Leafs fans these days. I have little faith, had they squeezed into the eight-spot, they'd be having as much success against the Rangers. That's impossible to say for sure, of course, so just call it a hunch.

I've been trying to take a long look at how the Leafs season came unraveled so quickly after the All Star break I think around that time, teams ratcheted up the intensity and tight checking and it in part led to the Leafs demise.  Leafs had more of a "regular season" style of game and the stretch drive exploited the holes in it as other teams cranked up the desperation.  It didn't take many games to kill the confidence of the team and they couldn't get it back... nor did they have the right horses to keep up when the games got tighter and tougher. 

So I agree the Leafs would have been dismantled quickly by the Rangers and the evidence is that playoff hockey started early and it's what ran the Leafs right out of it.

 

[Kin]

Well there's been plenty of examples throughout the years of teams better equipped for regular season success than playoff success, even if they didn't realize it right away at the time. There seems to be a distinct lack of character or identity on the current team, as proven by the slump that ultimately slayed them, that doesn't exactly inspire me with hope of a solid playoff run.

But that's my point. They missed the playoffs because of the slump. If they hadn't slumped, it wouldn't be seen as a deficit of character or identity.

 

[Bonsixx]

Well there's been plenty of examples throughout the years of teams better equipped for regular season success than playoff success, even if they didn't realize it right away at the time. There seems to be a distinct lack of character or identity on the current team, as proven by the slump that ultimately slayed them, that doesn't exactly inspire me with hope of a solid playoff run.

But that's my point. They missed the playoffs because of the slump. If they hadn't slumped, it wouldn't be seen as a deficit of character or identity.

True. The closest they came to an identity was during the early months of the season they seemed to genuinely be one of the fastest teams in the NHL with an ability to compete in high-scoring games. That never worked well for the Edmonton Oilers about a decade ago and I doubt it would've worked well for the Leafs, even if they had avoided a slump the magnitude of the one they had and, thus, avoided questions about "character".

The goaltending was also never inspiring, especially once Reimer went down with only a handful of (sometimes iffy?) games to his credit in the new season. To me, that's the killer. They went back and forth all year, hoping one guy would get hot and outside of a brief run from Gustavsson, neither did and, again, likely wouldn't have in the playoffs either.

It's all hypothetical of course, but my guess is the Rangers or Bruins would have smoked the Leafs in the first round.

The Senators and Capitals deserve a lot of credit for matching up against those two dominant teams so well.

 

[seahawk]

Congrats Kings!  Suck it Canucks!

I want to see Jim Hughson's face right now.

EDIT: Wonder what LA's twitter feed has to say.

The twitter feed was fairly tame.  https://twitter.com/#!/LAKings

 

[Bender]

Do you even know what an idiom is?

A colloquial metaphor?

No...actually...yes.

I'm going to be a Pirate King.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

So, what exactly has Gillis done to the team Burke/Nonis assembled/drafted?

 

[CarltonTheBear]

So, what exactly has Gillis done to the team Burke/Nonis assembled/drafted?

He hired a sleep doctor.

 

[bustaheims]

So, what exactly has Gillis done to the team Burke/Nonis assembled/drafted?

Shiny new contracts!

 

[L K]

So, what exactly has Gillis done to the team Burke/Nonis assembled/drafted?

Shiny new contracts!

He acquired Christian Erhoff from the Sharks in a reasonable trade (Patrick White, the 1st round pick the Canucks gave up left college and played in Germany this year).  Signed Samuellsson who had a good 1st year with the Canucks and signed Dan Hanhuis.  He drafted Cody Hodgson too I guess but then threw him away for a 3rd, maybe 2nd liner.  The rest of that team is Burke/Nonis'.

 

[Deebo]

So, what exactly has Gillis done to the team Burke/Nonis assembled/drafted?

Shiny new contracts!

He acquired Christian Erhoff from the Sharks in a reasonable trade (Patrick White, the 1st round pick the Canucks gave up left college and played in Germany this year).  Signed Samuellsson who had a good 1st year with the Canucks and signed Dan Hanhuis.  He drafted Cody Hodgson too I guess but then threw him away for a 3rd, maybe 2nd liner.  The rest of that team is Burke/Nonis'.

He accquired Malhotra, Higgins, Ballard, Lapierre, Pahlsson, Booth and Hamhuis.