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Playoffs Round 2: Panthers vs. Maple Leafs

I want to see a better effort from the Leafs than the first round.

I think Florida is an amazing team, the cup favorite IMHO. Push them to 7 and hope that the odd/fluke goal in OT are from the guys in blue.
 
Kaberle15 said:
I want to see a better effort from the Leafs than the first round.

I think Florida is an amazing team, the cup favorite IMHO. Push them to 7 and hope that the odd/fluke goal in OT are from the guys in blue.
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It's hard to comprehend that they really only had one bad game. Overall, it was a great first round for the Leafs.
 
The Leafs played 5 solid games out of 6 against Ottawa. And Ottawa has a Captain that any other NHL franchise would love to have, and a Vezina winning goalie who won them at least one game in the series.

Panthers are the best team in the NHL. And they beat the Leafs this season, even when they had some of their top players sidelined. The Leafs do not match well with the Panthers because once the Panthers forecheck hard and get dirty, some of our best players disappear.

To be the man....you have to beat the man. This normally inspires the best players to elevate and be their best. Will the Core4 take this as an opportunity to show they are the best? If a 30 powerplay drought in clinching games can be broken, maybe Core4 past milkcarton history can be broken too.

The way i see Berube can counter the Panthers is to adjust to a "modified trap" game that he implemented against Boston when the Blues beat them as underdogs. Boston in 2019 was a similarly tough and bullying team as the Panthers in 2025 (and both teams w Marchand) and perhaps Boston was more talented than this Panthers team. Yet the Blues beat Boston by frustrating them with a trap game, getting them to take dumb penalities because of the frustration, and also add superb goaltending.

Stolarz/Woll need to be superb. And Berube needs to figure out how to adjust to Panthers style of play because the regular season performance between the two teams and 2023 playoff series necessitate adjustments. The adjustments need to find a way to frustrate the hell out of the bullies on the Panthers to lure them into bad penalties.

If I was Leafs ownership, I would have a meeting with the NHL right away to complain about how players need to be disciplined harder for dirty play ...like the Panthers committed against Tampa and sometimes got away with. Its been a poor round one for the NHL in that regard, and there have been some top talent injured including Tavares for a short but critical time of play. If the NHL can be pushed to call a tighter game it might benefit the Leafs.

For me.... i think Leafs are a major underdog. But anything can happen in 7 game series.

GLG!
 
cabber24 said:
It's hard to comprehend that they really only had one bad game. Overall, it was a great first round for the Leafs.
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The problem is that it also always felt like they had more to give, which is where the sentiment is coming from. A lot of that stems from the style Berube has them playing. There's less dominance with the puck, but more dominance without it. It doesn't look as good, but it can be very effective. Against Florida, they'll need a lot of both, though.
 
I think this will be a tighter series than most people are expecting. Florida is a tough opponent, for sure, and the Leafs are the underdogs - but only barely, I’d say. This is really another coin flip series for the Leafs. If a few things break right, they could absolutely win. They just really need to not have any nights like game 5.
 
Ozzie said:
Leafs....... please please win the Cup. Not for me. But for this guy:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1918129443505082434
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As most of the old Penalty box/TMLfans forums knows, I live in Brazil, for some reason game 6 was broadcasted by ESPN in portuguese.

I cannot stand the broadcast in portuguese, So I turned on the radio and synced the TV to listen to Joe and Jim.

That call at the end was a mix of tears of happiness and i was laughing so hard of Joe's singing. It is a shame they don't fly those 2 to road games anymore, especially in the playoffs.

I am with Ozzie, hearing Joe calling the GWG at SCF would be awesome. Go Leafs Go!!!
 
"Holy Mackinaw! The Leafs have won the Stanley Cup in Game 7 by a one-sided romp!!! What a team and what a time and what a town!!!!"


Said Joe Bowen, some day in the future.
 
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