First and foremost a lot of credit has to be given to Mike Babcock and his coaching staff. What an absolutely brilliant job they did with the young roster they have. A heavy spotlight has been on the young Leafs this season with Matthews, Nylander and Marner all breaking into the National Hockey League with such domination and creativity. But the other story is how big of a season the Leafs vets had; JVR, Kadri and Bozak all had huge seasons.
JVR: Career best 62 points Kadri: Career best 61 points (95 PIM) Bozak: Career best 55 points
Each of these players had a huge impact for the Leafs this season and it was almost unnoticed due to Matthews winning the hearts of all Leafs fans. And if somehow Auston didn’t tickle your fancy, without question one of Nylander or Marner did. What a glorious young crop of ‘top salad’ studs. The future is brighter than it ever has been. Props to the Leafs scouting department snagging Nylander when they did (8th overall) and Marner when they did as they both could have been scooped up earlier than they were.
It will be quite interesting to see how a number of other prospects turn out that the Leafs have selected. With the successful history in Hunter’s drafting there just may be another gem or two brewing in the farm system.
Now let’s get down to business here: Playoffs.
Well, we’re in and that’s what counts, right?
That’s what counted a week ago, and now that we are in it’s time to cash in and show the hockey world and most importantly the Washington Capitals what playoff hockey is all about in Leafs Nation.
The Leafs are the underdogs? Good, great, grand. I like cheering for the underdog and I will never in my lifetime cheer for Ovechkin. Things are looking up already.
There are still a few Leafs players who want redemption after the game seven meltdown against the Boston Bruins. But there are also a number of young Buds who haven’t even played an NHL playoff game. But they have won, and won at every level of hockey growing up. Look at Marner for example, the kid won every damned trophy the OHL has to offer, all in one season, and then he broke the Leafs rookie assist record. What’s next? I’ll tell you what’s next; an electrifying playoff performance by the Markham Machine Mitch Marner. The seeds have been planted all season for “the Orchard… and he will be dishing off some silky smooth passes for his teammates to bury, because that’s what Marner does.
Every team should be dealing with injuries at this point of the season, that’s just how it is after an 82 game grueling season, especially for those teams that squeaked in.
The key to this series is the play of Frederik Andersen and the Leafs staying out of the penalty box.
The way I see it, if the Leafs can cash in on the power play as they have all season they will be in each and every game. The Capitals have very high end forwards and a quality fourth line, but what they don’t have is three scoring lines like the Leafs do.
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie is who the Leafs need to shut down and the last thing we want to see is Ovechkin sitting for 40 seconds in one spot on the power play waiting for the one-timer. That’s exactly where he will be, sitting at the top of the circle waiting to cash in with that banana curved stick.
The defense of Washington is very solid, Toronto needs to use their speed and dig hard to create turn overs and give themselves a few extra chances up front as it may be hard to penetrate their defense like they have a number of other teams.
Holtby? Yeah whatever, we already chased you from the net twice this year and forced the Capitals to start their backup last game because Holbty is shaking in his boots. It was an ugly game for the Leafs who had won four straight at the time and were playing in Buffalo the night before. Not a big deal as we all know the Leafs are well rested now and ready to come out of the gates flying.
This Leafs team has come a long way this season and they don’t want to go down without a fight I can assure you that. They need to lay some body, use their speed and play to win. No time to sit back and see what kind of game Washington wants to play, just stick to the game plan and work hard every shift.
Babcock will have a lot of insight as he knows what it takes to win a playoff game just like he knew what it would take for this team to make the post-season. It’s playoffs, the Leafs are in and taking one of these first two games on the road would be huge.
The boys are going to take care of business, have faith in them, they have impressed and improved all season long and now is not the time to count them out.
My predictions: Leafs win game 1. Leafs lose game 2. Leafs win game 3. Leafs win game 4. Leafs lose game 5. Leafs win game 6.
Ovechkin is sent back to Russia with a Kleanex sponsorship and Babsocks flood the ice in Toronto!
One sleep to go, enjoy the playoffs action tonight and get ready for tomorrow it’s going to be a day of nerves, beers and pure enjoyment.
Congratulations once again to our young Leafs team making the playoffs, enjoy the ride; we deserve it!
Leafs Nation!
Thanks for reading.