Comments on: Toronto, Boston, Buffalo

By: orlandomac

orlandomac — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:50:03 +0000

Sens101 I applaud you for your constructive opinion… I am 50/50 with you both… I think it was a bit of both.. Raycroft could not trust the new D around him.. and they couldn't trust him… it made for bad performances on both sides… I believe this year that will change once Toskala acclimatizes to the new D around him… and I believe the early results so far have shown that.. even though we faced a very difficult Sens Team… I would say we out performed them in both games although their star players shown on the scoreboard..I would also like to applaud the excellent report and believe the writer is pretty close to the mark… although I don't think Montreal is as bad as everyone thinks.. they will be close but will still sit right behind the Leafs and think with Buffaloes small team injuries over the long haul might have an affect in terms of their depth now that they lost a few key players…. I too believe it will be close between Buffalo & Toronto.. although as well as the writer I don't forsee them contending for the Cup although an upset in the first round might be on the cards..

By: Bruinsfan91

Bruinsfan91 — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 08:49:29 +0000

i have to disagree, boston will be a competitive team this year for sure

By: habs_punk

habs_punk — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:52:51 +0000

You can look at replacing Souray with Hamrlik as a PP downgrade, or you could look at it as a drastic even strength upgrade. There was, what, a +50 differential between the two? Hamrlik was one of the top +/- guys on a solid defensive team, while Souray was the worst +/- guy on a bad defensive team. The Habs definitely improved on last season based on that alone. When you add in the fact that the core of the team is pretty much all in their mid-20's and improving every year, Montreal is going to surprise some people this season. The "experts" broadcast out of Toronto, they enjoy saying that Montreal will be a basement dwelling team. You have to take what they say with a grain of salt when it comes to the Habs and the Leafs.

By: senators101

senators101 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:52:39 +0000

I take it you don't want to take the "agree to disagree" stance. However, I will take it as fighting this is a losing battle.

By: leafy

leafy — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:31:45 +0000

You're a very foolish person if you dismiss the opinion of the majority of fans in Toronto, arguably the most knowledgeable fans anywhere.

Nevertheless, since you value the opinion of hockey analysts, here are 2 ESPN analysts who state clearly that the Leafs have a good defence. What's going on?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/preview2007/columns/story?columnist=buccigross_john&id=3046276

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/preview2007/team?page=nhlpre07/tor

By: leafy

leafy — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:27:05 +0000

Interesting that you don't like Gill, even though Howard Berger, one of those critics who criticizes the Leaf defence, says that Gill has been one of their best defenders and that they need more defencemen like him. Hmmm....

Furthermore, you imply that the Leaf defence is slow. Apart from Gill, who on their defence is slow?

By: senators101

senators101 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:10:53 +0000

It's clear neither of us are going to persuade each other in this debate… Let's just agree to disagree.

By: Hoondog2

Hoondog2 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:09:29 +0000

How many times do people need to be told. Yes Sundin had 1 goal, but he was 2nd only to Crosby in points in the last 20 games. Sounds like he was still contributing to me.

By: senators101

senators101 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:09:23 +0000

I'll take the opinion of hockey analys opinion over random people of toronto. Like previously stated, they believe the achilles heel of the team was their defense and not Raycroft.

Once again, try to understand, that you cannot compare the old nhl to the new one. Slow teams don't work anymore and Toronto is living in the pre-lockout era with guys like Hal Gill. There's a reason why teams like Nashville, Buffalo, Anaheim now and couldn't before. They've adapted while the Leafs haven't. I don't care how big Gill is, he's too slow. It's all about defensive positioning, and that's something the Leafs D doesn't have.

By: leafy

leafy — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:46:09 +0000

You're either too young or you have a bad memory, because there are many Leaf teams in past years that were highly successful with a far more inferior defence and far more inferior players than Bryan McCabe. Nobody is saying that other position players are unimportant. But last year, their goaltending (Raycroft) was the primary reason they were out. Not the only reason, but definitely the primary reason. Most people would agree, as yesterday's online poll in thestar.com showed.