Comments on: Eastern Conference Outlook

By: 92-93

92-93 — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 10:58:49 +0000

yikes.

am i reading this right?

there are leaf fans who are picking the team to finish 5th or higher - even a divisional leader?!?! well, we had at least one year where the predictions from some of the leaf fans around here were reasonable. now it looks like its back to the way it used to be, lol. the leafs will not finish above 6th and will be in a dogfight to make the playoffs. simple as that.

By: 92-93

92-93 — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 10:43:17 +0000

i was one of the few people on this site who did not write them off and predicted their 8th place finish.

that being said, this year they will NOT make the playoffs, the signings they made were really a drop in the bucket.

By: Glucker

Glucker — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 21:00:39 +0000

Leafs=overrated by idiot fans and underrated by idiot haters…

By: GoLeafs13

GoLeafs13 — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 18:44:56 +0000

they probably will cuz montreal is a light team to face. they're soo much worse now. they could never really score 5 0n 5 and now that they lost pretty much their only powerplay scorer in souray they got nothing going for them. the only reason they were doing soo good at the beggining on last season cuz they would get at least 8-12 powerplays per game.

By: Glucker

Glucker — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 16:59:04 +0000

LEAFS seriously though, it's gonna be in the west again… the East is made up of a bunch of mediocre teams at this point…. I wouldn't be suprised if 1st and 15th are seperated by 10 points, lol, well, 14th… 15th belongs to Boston, and they are gonna bomb … Tavares to wear the spoked B !

By: Glucker

Glucker — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 16:54:09 +0000

no, ottawa is definately a better team then TO, Buffalo, maybe, MTL, not likely... Leafs will be a 5th, 6th seed

Kubina and Gill are kinda slow, but they are excelent positionally, and really big, making up for their lack of speed... TO had one of the best defensemen last year, and the stats prove it

By: Glucker

Glucker — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 16:38:18 +0000

yea it was c ocky... y that was bleeped i dont know...

imo between the rangers, leafs and habs the rangers have the best single goal tender, toronto has a 1a and a 1b and mtl has a 1 and a 2. Raycroft shouldn't be traded, he was actually excited that Toskala was brought in... I don't know why.. but both goal tenders seem to think they will be the #1 with the other as a back-up, so leafs have good compitition between the pipes. Raycroft was shit last year because he is a 50-game MAX guy who played 72... if he plays 36 games this year with Toskala covering another 36, and with Pogge brought up from time to time to fill in the remaining 10... all 3 will put up good numbers. personally i'd rather have Lundquvist then either Toskala or Raycroft. IMO goaltending is Rangers>Leafs>Habs.

Hartnell seems overpaid, but you never know, he's only 25, by the time his contract expires he may be up for a 3 mill raise, he's got plenty of potential. Timmonnen and Smith are very good defensemen and very good leaders. Lupul is full of goal scoring potential from what i hear, and lets face it, Miller is an awesome goal tender...Biron is slightly less skilled, Buffalo had an amazing goal tender tandem... only reason Biron was a backup.

Leafs will make the playoffs, unless they get another season of killer injuries, they'd have to be worse then this year's, they are a lock for the playoffs. 2nd seed, hell no. 5th-8th, 5th if there are no injuries, 8th with last year's type of injuries, just because their goaltending has gotten much better.

I have to agree about there being no elite team this year... other then the Sens unfortunately... Rangers would be an elite team if not for the lack of chemistry at the beginning of the year.

Ottawa will be the East's top team IMO...
Sabers won't be anywhere near the top...6th at best... yes i am saying the leafs potentially have a better team then the sabres right now.

Leafs are a much-improved team this year, better goal tending, better offense, not that they needed any more offense... and more physicallity up front. Kubina will come in better then last year, he finally got into Maurice's system near the end of the year... and we will start having Colaiacovo... remember last year the Leafs had no Colaiacovo for the first half(a bit less) and Kubina dealt with a suspension, having a child born in europe, which he left for, and 1 or 2 injuries... he even played injured down the strech, when he was most impressive. there was not 1 single game last year that had every single player that was penciled in at the beginning of the year... they where never a 100% team... if they find a way to bring back Peca... i will be extremely happy... and it won't take much either, move Woz for a conditional pick and waive Belak to the minors, and we have enough to resign Peca... simple as that.

Wellwood Sundin Blake
Tucker Peca Bell
Antropov Stajan Ponikarovsky
Steen Pohl Deveraux

Kaberle Kubina
McCabe Colaiacovo
Gill White

Toskala
Raycroft

thats a great team... remember looking back at last year's stats, toronto's d, which is oft-critisized, and rarely complete, turned out to be one of the top in the league... imagine now that Colaiacovo is going to be on from the beginning, Kubina knows the team(finally), McCabe MAY be better, last year's shittiness may have just been pressure from the big contract, he to showed some of the previous year's form near the end of the year. I honestly believe that Toronto will suprise this year, with or without Peca(W/O Peca, our forward lines will be like this:

Steen Sundin Blake
Tucker Wellwood Stajan
Bell Antropov Ponikarovsky
Kilger Pohl Deveraux)

By: flyersfan10897

flyersfan10897 — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 15:29:08 +0000

I didn't say the Islanders were a terrible team, I fully expect them to play hard every night and be tough to battle against. But they lost their top goal/point scorer in Blake, their best overall center in Kozlov, a player that didn't really fit in but still had 50 points in 58 games in Yashin, and their highest scoring defenseman, until Bergeron arrived, and leading assister, in Poti. Those might not be the character players of the team, but they won't be easily replaced.

Thats 83 goals lost among forwards, and Yashin only played 58 games. Comrie and Guerin will help make up for that, but they are unpredicable. And losing Poti and Hill, 62 assists from the blueline, will be tough to take as well.

As for Boston, Fernandez has never proven to be that great. He performed well in the playoffs once, but other than that has battled with Roloson and now Backstrom. He is a good goalie, and better than what Boston had, but he's not going to single-handedly turn them around. And for Ward, he was not exactly the defenseman that brought in those Cups. He helped, but Detroit could have easily won with someone else, and Carolina probably could have too. He's never been a scorer, and has been a minus player almost every season, even with Detroit.

And Chara is quick for a 6'9, 255 lb. monster. But he isn't going to win any speed contests or be able to catch a Heatley, a Blake, or a Vanek.

And trades or free agency can solve a lot of teams problems, but they haven't happened yet, so I can't say anything about them.

By: flyersfan10897

flyersfan10897 — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 15:13:45 +0000

Marleau would be, but he's a second line center by circumstance, that would not be his intended role on a hockey team. Before Thornton showed up, Marleau was the first line center, and just got bumped. Drury is the guy thats a perfect mix of first line center and third line center. He can rack up the points, still play a sound defensive game, and performs when it counts. But he's not a dominant scorer, or a dominant checker, he just gets his job done.

By: HyPnOtiK

HyPnOtiK — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 15:05:16 +0000

Hilarious..... judging by the rosters it would be.....

1)Pittsburgh
2)Ottawa
3)Atlanta
4)Flyers
5)Rangers
6)Jersey
7)Buffalo
8)Tampa

..... i love how you have toronto at 5, and philly at 11 "judging by rosters" philly is clearly a much better team on paper than the laughs. IT makes sense when you just look at your user name "have2beleaf