Florida Panthers (A1) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (A3)

[Guilt Trip]

So, Tampa: pretty good

Yup..Florida scores 3 goals in 4 games....I guess the Leafs still suck though.

 

[herman]

Love this for us.

 

[L K]

What could have been.  We don't get to use that excuse after blowing it with Montreal but damn this team was so good.

I'm all aboard Tampa routing everyone.  Vasilevskiy is back to stopping everything (I think that's honestly still a credit to how good our team was)

 

[Guilt Trip]

What could have been.  We don't get to use that excuse after blowing it with Montreal but damn this team was so good.

I'm all aboard Tampa routing everyone.  Vasilevskiy is back to stopping everything (I think that's honestly still a credit to how good our team was)

Leafs were very good against Vasy and TBay.

 

[Heroic Shrimp]

https://twitter.com/dalter/status/1528917856645177345

Well, that?s weird.

 

[Bender]

Ah, I'm reveling in this!

 

[ZBBM]

I don't really get this reflected glory stuff.  We still lost to them when we had a 3-2 advantage and a G7 at home.  Losing is losing.

 

[Arn]

I don't really get this reflected glory stuff.  We still lost to them when we had a 3-2 advantage and a G7 at home.  Losing is losing.

I wouldn't say it's reflected glory, but it does put in context that the Leafs actually did pretty well to run this Tampa team closer than pretty much anyone else.

And that it should have been the conference final, not round 1. So the playoff system also sucks.

 

[Redleaf]

The highest scoring team in the reg. season scored 3 goals against Tampa in the entire series.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

I don't really get this reflected glory stuff.  We still lost to them when we had a 3-2 advantage and a G7 at home.  Losing is losing.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Coach of the year finalist decided to healthy scratch a 31-goal scorer and one of only 3 Panthers to have beaten Vasilevskiy in this series in an elimination game that the team ended up being shutout in in favour of a 58-year old Joe Thornton who was on the ice for the game/series winning goal.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

Coach of the year finalist decided to healthy scratch a 31-goal scorer and one of only 3 Panthers to have beaten Vasilevskiy in this series in an elimination game that the team ended up being shutout in in favour of a 58-year old Joe Thornton who was on the ice for the game/series winning goal.

It was a risk, sure, but with the way things were going, what did he have to lose?

The Panthers did put up 49 shots. By all rights, they should have won that game.

 

[4EVRLEAFAN]

I don't really get this reflected glory stuff.  We still lost to them when we had a 3-2 advantage and a G7 at home.  Losing is losing.

I wouldn't say it's reflected glory, but it does put in context that the Leafs actually did pretty well to run this Tampa team closer than pretty much anyone else.

And that it should have been the conference final, not round 1. So the playoff system also sucks.

Sorry but I disagree, it feels like a broken record but it's true, we have to toughen up, drive the net, make things happen, Tampa was very beatable and we folded, again. In Game 7 or top line didn't score, Bunting and Marner had no shots, none, our PP no goals, completely unacceptable.

 

[Deebo]

Sorry but I disagree, it feels like a broken record but it's true, we have to toughen up, drive the net, make things happen, Tampa was very beatable and we folded, again. In Game 7 or top line didn't score, Bunting and Marner had no shots, none, our PP no goals, completely unacceptable.

The panthers lost 4 games in row and scored 3 goals along the way, what the hell would you being saying about the leafs if they did that?

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Tampa was very beatable

Said about a team that just became the 3rd franchise in the history of the NHL to win at least 10 consecutive playoff series. Come on now.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Coach of the year finalist decided to healthy scratch a 31-goal scorer and one of only 3 Panthers to have beaten Vasilevskiy in this series in an elimination game that the team ended up being shutout in in favour of a 58-year old Joe Thornton who was on the ice for the game/series winning goal.

It was a risk, sure, but with the way things were going, what did he have to lose?

The Panthers did put up 49 shots. By all rights, they should have won that game.

Down 3-0 yeah this series was over regardless and putting Thornton in was probably more of a "let's let him play one more game before he likely retires" than anything else, but scratching your 3rd leading goal scorer as opposed to just another 4th liner is pretty perplexing.

 

[Joe S.]

Tampa was very beatable

Said about a team that just became the 3rd franchise in the history of the NHL to win at least 10 consecutive playoff series. Come on now.

Toronto made TB look beatable. That?s just how good Toronto is and for the 10th time just convinces me more that Toronto is at worst the 3rd best team that made the playoffs.

 

[herman]

Toronto made TB look beatable. That?s just how good Toronto is and for the 10th time just convinces me more that Toronto is at worst the 3rd best team that made the playoffs.

Tampa was gifted a 5-on-3 when they were about to be beaten in 6 games. Credit to Tampa for making good on those gifts and locking things down after.

There is no shame in taking the reigning champs (and their referee friends) to the limit, even if it's a first round exit in this playoff format. If it was a proper format and we scrubbed out as a 4th seed vs 12th seed matchup, then yeah, we can be embarrassed and blow stuff up.

 

[Guilt Trip]

Tampa was very beatable

Said about a team that just became the 3rd franchise in the history of the NHL to win at least 10 consecutive playoff series. Come on now.

Toronto made TB look beatable. That?s just how good Toronto is and for the 10th time just convinces me more that Toronto is at worst the 3rd best team that made the playoffs.

It's bad enough that non Leaf fans won't give the team credit, but some "real" Leaf fans won't either. Leafs are a top tier team. They didn't choke. They simply lost a close series with the defending champs. That's it.

 

[bustaheims]

Toronto made TB look beatable. That?s just how good Toronto is and for the 10th time just convinces me more that Toronto is at worst the 3rd best team that made the playoffs.

Yup. Some people just can't give the losing team credit for/put much value in making the winning work much harder than other opponents. The Leafs went toe to toe with the Bolts, and the series was so close that a bounce or a call going a different way could have swung it in Toronto's favour. Could they have been better? Sure, just about every team in basically every series can say that, regardless of the outcome. That doesn't change the fact they played very well against an exceptionally good team. They didn't get it done, but their performance against Tampa strongly suggests they're really not that far off.