Toronto Maple Leafs and NHL Playoff Series Analysis and Predictions
The Toronto Maple Leafs don’t begin their playoff run until Thursday.
Even thought the Toronto Maple Leafs have to wait to begin their journey, the NHL does have five series beginning tomorrow.
I think the Leafs had some late season injury woes, and faced an inordinate amount of heroic goalies down the stretch, and so their recent record does not reflect their play.
People focus so much on their having a .500 record since Christmas that they seem to be forgetting that only six teams finished with more points than they did, and only three teams finished with more non-shoot-out wins.
The fact is the Toronto Maple Leafs played excellent hockey at times this year, and when they are on they are nearly unbeatable. Their down periods coincided with major injuries, and their record with just a little luck in one-goal games or on the power-play would have have been much better.
They’re probably the least respected 100 team I’ve ever seen, and so I think they’ll probably surprise a lot of people.
I’m calling the Toronto Maple Leafs to win in five. Here’s the rest of our picks.
Tampa vs Columbus
The Lightning finished a absolutely crazy 21 points ahead of the second place team. It obviously takes a lot of luck to finish that high, but the Lightning are still the NHL’s best team.
I thought for a long time the Toronto Maple Leafs could catch and overtake them, but it just never happened. That said, a lot of things have to go right to get that many points, and I think the Leafs are a lot closer to Tampa than the record would indicate.
As for Columbus, they went all-in at the deadline and acquired both Ryan Dzingle and Matt Duchene, to go along with what was already a very good roster.
Sergei Bobrvosky is just too good a goalie to never win a playoff series, and Artemi Panarin is one of the best players in the NHL.
As I mentioned earlier, I am predicting an upset here.
I will say Tampa loses in seven games, which will make the Toronto Maple Leafs path to the Stanley Cup Final much easier.
Islanders and Penguins
The Toronto Maple Leafs stole their franchise player and they promptly came out and finished ahead of them in the standings.
It’s a nice story, but one no one will remember once the Leafs beat the Bruins and the Islanders go out in the first round.
This is probably the worst 100 point team in NHL history, and they owe it entirely to the improbable career seasons from Thomas Greiss and Robin Lehner.
Someone these two previously unspectacular borderline NHL starters turned in what should be a combined Vezina Trophy season. The Islanders don’t control the play, they have limited offense and are always outplayed.
And yet they won game after game. It’s a nice story, but the ending is a four game sweep by the massively superior Penguins.
Lou Lamoriello hired a coach, traded for two fourth liners and a bottom pairing defenseman, then signed a goalie for a bargain because he was terrible the season before.
If that sounds like a recipe for success, then I guess Lou should win GM of the year award, which he probably will because THE REST OF THIS SENTENCE HAS BEEN REDACTED.
Penguins in Four.
Capitals vs Hurricanes
The Washington Capitals won the Cup last year, but people tend to forget that because they were considered such a good team for such a long time (and they really were) that they weren’t that good when they actually won it all.
The Capitals were a middling team that finished atop a weak division then rode an incredible all-time run from their goalie to glory. That isn’t to say that there team wasn’t good, just that it wasn’t the powerhouse it had previously been.
It was a bit of a victory of irony as much as it was for the Capitals.
As for the Hurricanes, they’d easily have won the division if they’d not started the season as the team who dominated every game but couldn’t score.
Once they started getting some goals, they made a run at the division and finished two wins behind the Capitals.
This will be an upset that isn’t really an upset.
The Hurricanes will defeat the Capitals in six games.
Flames vs Avalanche
Some people are sadly misinformed and believe that Mark Giordano should beat out Morgan Rielly for the Norris Trophy. That isn’t true. Rielly should win it hands down.
But I digress.
The Flames tied for the second best record in the NHL, and that just makes you say ‘I wonder what they’d do if they had a goalie?’
Sadly, since we never got to find out, they are going to be victims of an upset. The Avalanche, who hopefully won’t win the draft lottery tonight, will defeat the Flames in seven games.
It will predictably be a series in which Calgary dominates, but their terrible goaltending allows the Avalanche just enough room to stay in the series, until that one game where the Flames play like garbage, get slaughtered, and then can’t muster much of an effort in the final game.
It’s probably really bad form to say “predictably” in an article making predictions. Oh well!! Nathan MacKinnon is going to dominate this series and it will be an extremely fun series to watch.
It appears that this series will follow the Toronto Maple Leafs and Bruins series double-header style for the next couple of weeks, so that should be amazing.
As I’ve already mentioned, Avs in seven.
Nashville vs Dallas
It seems like Dallas is a bit of a trendy pick, but like most trends, this one sucks!
The Predators are sort of like the Leafs in that their regular season featured a successful 100 points, and yet people aren’t exactly as high on them as maybe they should be/ were.
Much like the Leafs the Predators have the kind of roster that will make the regular season moot.
They’ve got the goalie, they’ve got the best blueline in the NHL and they’ve got more scoring and talent upfront that most people think.
If you just follow the Toronto Maple Leafs, the player to watch here is secret NHL superstar Viktor Arvidsson. He is insanely good, he scored 34 goals in just 58 games, which is roughly a 50 goal pace.
The Stars feature that guy who called his best players crappy even though his team features very little depth and relies heavily on their goalie to be successful.
I like the Predators for an absolute crushing here, but Bishop will keep it closer than it appears, and it will take six games for Nashville to emerge victorious.
Sharks vs Knights
The San Jose Sharks are a great team.
With Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns on the blueline, they’re not only one of the most fun teams in the league to watch, they also happen to be completely dominant…….if both guys are healthy.
It appears that Karlsson will play, and if he’s anything close to 100% then lookout. He remains, by a nearly incomprehensible distance, the best defenseman in the NHL.
The Sharks also have a bunch of players that you might not know if you don’t watch a ton of out of market games or aren’t a Sharks fan.
Tomas Hertl, Timo Meir, Kevin LeBlanc, Marcus Sorensen, the list goes on. These are guys every hockey fan should know, however, because, like the team they play for, they are awesome.
The Sharks had four guys with over 30 goals, and nine players with 15.
They had eight players hit 50 points and would have had nine easily if Karlsson wasn’t injured down the stretch.
Do I even wanna talk about the Knights?
Nah, no point. They had their fun last year, and unless Marc Andre Fleury is Batman, then it’s San Jose in five games.
Jets vs Blues
The Jets, like the Leafs and Predators seemed to disappoint everyone and yet they still finished with an impressive 99 points.
After scoring 21 and 20 5v5 goals in his first two years, Patrick Laine scored just 13 this year, but he shot 15% for two years and this year shot under 10%.
In total, he scored just 30 goals, but he normally shoots 17% and this year shot 12% overall. Just bad luck. However, if he gets hot, which he probably will, he is still one of the best goal scorers in the NHL. Like, probably the third best after Matthews and Ovechkin. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
And the Jets are just too deep to be as bad as they’ve been. Like the Toronto Maple Leafs, I think you can bet they’ll be a lot better than they have been.
The Blues comeback has been remarkable, but I still like the Jets here. Patrik Laine is due to score some goals, and he’ll help the Jets beat the Blues in seven games.
Recap
To recap, the Toronto Maple Leafs will be beating the Bruins in five games. I also predict, with absolutely no bias at all, and complete and utter sincerity, that they will also win the Stanley Cup.
I will predict that Auston Matthews wins the Conn Smythe Trophy as the NHL’s Playoff MVP.
Also:
Blue Jackets beat the Lightning in 7.
Penguins beat the Islanders in 4.
Hurricanes beat the Capitals in 6.
Avalanche upset the Flames in 7.
Predators beat the Stars in 6.
Sharks beat the Knights in 5.
Jets beat the Blues in 7.
dark. Next. Leafs Top Ten Prospects
My last and final prediction (until next time) is that I go a perfect 8-0 with my predictions. Predictions on predictions? Top that, Ron McLean!!!