When the season ends there will be a lot of chatter about who the Leafs are playing against as it seems they will be the so called “underdogs” in round one. Good, I’ve always been a fan of cheering for the underdog, even more so in this case when it will be my beloved Maple Leafs.

First and foremost, I can’t stand Boston. Marchand mostly, but that lanky dinosaur Chara always irritates me. So if the Leafs face the Bruins round one, please ensure we don’t have Marchand running around the ice, tossing water bottles and give little cheap shots.

The Leafs would be hungry for Boston. They lost in that meltdown of a game seven and even though a lot of the players were not on the team at the time, a few were and the memories will forever be with them. This is there time to seek revenge and knock Boston out of the playoffs and with style. The Leafs are a much better team all round and as a Leafs fan it would bring a lot of emotion out of me watching Toronto vs Boston round one.

If you take a look at Boston's roster it's much weaker than Toronto's depth in the overall. The addition of Rick Nash is barely going to help them, if at all. Pastrnak is of quality and Krecji can be dangerous when he's not nursing an injury (which seems to be more often than not). Marchand is by far the biggest threat on the Bruins, I'm still astonished this team is where they are in the standings.

Tampa on the other hand are exciting and have a boat load of talent. Stamkos, Kucherov, Hedman to start and there is more…Brayden Point, Yanni Gourde and Tyler Johnson are all playing big roles and putting up even bigger points.

I don’t hate Tampa, what is there to hate? Yzerman is a hockey god and has done wonders for Tampa Bay. Stamkos is Canadian and quite a stud and I’ve always been a fan, when healthy he’s easily one of the most dangerous shooters in the game.

Then you look at their defense who now has three x-Rangers (Girardi, Stalman and McDonagh). Sergachev is no slouch (thanks to Montreal) and Killorn is no slouch up front and they still have Palat on the injured reserve who’s also a serviceable forward.

Simply put, Tampa Bay is the team to beat. The Leafs in my opinion have a much better shot at taking the Bruins in a 7 game series than they do Tampa.

Polls show that there is a 2:1 ratio of Leafs fans who would rather face Boston round one over Tampa Bay and I think that is quite accurate.

What’s your take on this? Would you rather the Leafs play Boston or Tampa round one, and why?

The Leafs play Pittsburgh tomorrow night 7pm EST at the Air Canada Center.

Enjoy the game, thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

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