Here is tonight’s projected lineup (from Sportsnet):
Forwards
Bertuzzi – Matthews – Marner
Domi – Tavares – Nylander
Knies – Minten – Järnkrok
Gregor – Kämpf - Reaves
Defence
Rielly – Brodie
McCabe - Klingberg
Giordano – Liljegren
Goalies
Samsonov starts
Woll
Isn’t that feeling just the default feeling of every Maple Leafs fan, no matter what year it is?
Yes but THIS year is different. Right? Honestly, I don’t know if I’m joking. I genuinely feel like we’re better but I always do.
Next year every year.
Don’t know what I’d ever do with myself if they actually won anything. Last time they made it to the conference finals I was like 11. I have friends that are Grandpas now, for real. I kind of equate it to how long it’s taking Grand Theft Auto 6 to release, like I might be retired by then. But shit, it’ll happen, I won’t be retired, and then I’ll have nothing to bitch about.
I was at a Coyotes v Kings pre-season game and happened to sit near another family of Leafs fans. We all seem to say exactly the same thing. It’s a shared trauma.
I have been going back and forth on this question. Initially I just had a bad feeling, but now I think we are marginally better.
Definitely got a bit grittier, we will see.
First 82 games don’t matter. It’s all about post-season performance
True, but do you think we are a better playoff team?
I don’t really know enough to know. Tbh, hockey’s my 4th spectator sport at the moment. By my eye test of last playoffs, the Leafs were more physical than the Bolts but nowhere near physical enough to compete with the Panthers. So, the off-season moves that I heard about make sense.
I think regular season performance against specific opponents they might see in the playoffs might be the best predictor of playoff performance. I think some of that is because regular season games have become so analytics-heavy that there isn’t much room to prepare better or differently in post-season games these days. But that’s more of a baseball-based take.
I’m intrigued by how active c/leaf_nation is!! I think I’ll probably watch more games this season and show up here for the discussion :)
Focus on making it, fuck the rest. Rules all change anyways, and most of the cup winning teams are playing cap games with their LTIR, while the NHL looks the other way.
Are they a better playoff team? I mean not really. Their latest contracts are really heavy on performance incentives though, so if these kids want to get paid, they’ll perform a little better. We will see. Fucking refs will be fixing the games anyways, but maybe they’ll let them have another round.
