[ADSF] Toronto Maple Leafs (A2) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (A3) | Maple Leafs win series 4-2

[McBackup]

Just now, WHL rocks said:

Wooooo!!!

Yes !!!

What a great series. So fun to watch. Both teams big heavy fast and playing at the top of their game..

 

On to VGK

 

Let's go Oilers !!

 

I think you're lost mate. But you're cheering for the Oilers so that goes without saying.

[Wise Guy]

Half of Toronto is planning the Stanley Cup parade for Monday, apparently they never knew there was a second round.

[drdeath]

Just now, Wise Guy said:

Half of Toronto is planning the Stanley Cup parade for Monday, apparently they never knew there was a second round.

Jokes aside the Toronto Maple Leafs have honestly never played in the fourth round of the playoffs 

[Kevin Biestra]

2 hours ago, drdeath said:

Jokes aside the Toronto Maple Leafs have honestly never played in the fourth round of the playoffs 

 

[Fan since 82]

I mean they were bound to win a round sooner or later. 

 

My hope is that Toronto and Edmonton meet in the final, but the Stanley Cup isn't awarded because of some sort of controversy.

[Quint]

4 hours ago, RUPERTKBD said:

Sorry....that's "entitled"?

Hey @RUPERTKBD I get that you are the voice of reason. Do you remember when Babcock was hired as coach and called the Leafs “Canada’s Team”? If you are ok with that, well, you do you.  As a Canucks fan and citizen of Vancouver that makes me barf in my mouth. Maybe you think the Leafs are “Canada’s team”?

 

https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/sports/mike-babcock-irks-hockey-fans-by-calling-maple-leafs-canada-s-team-1.2384231

 

 

[Kevin Biestra]

3 hours ago, Quint said:

Hey @RUPERTKBD I get that you are the voice of reason. Do you remember when Babcock was hired as coach and called the Leafs “Canada’s Team”? If you are ok with that, well, you do you.  As a Canucks fan and citizen of Vancouver that makes me barf in my mouth. Maybe you think the Leafs are “Canada’s team”?

 

https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/sports/mike-babcock-irks-hockey-fans-by-calling-maple-leafs-canada-s-team-1.2384231

 

It might have been fair to call the Maple Leafs Canada's team before 1970.  All of Canada had a choice between Toronto and Montreal.  Even the first expansion in 1967 didn't add any Canadian teams.

 

But since the 1970s and 1980s the rest of Canada has actually had some option to cheer for their own team and back when CBC was the only option for most games I remember them doing stupid crap like bumping Canucks games broadcasts IN VANCOUVER to show the Maple Leafs game instead.  If the games overlapped somewhat you might have to watch the entire Leafs third period (in the broadcast for Vancouver) and then get to start watching the Canucks from the second period on.  Or sometimes they wouldn't even broadcast the Canucks game at all (in Vancouver) if the Leafs played at the same time.  Stuff like that did not endear the Leafs to me as Canada's team at all.

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Kevin Biestra

[Quint]

I cannot overemphasize my disdain for Mike Babcock and the fan base he represents with his “Canada’s Team” comment. This is a coach who was blessed to actually WIN with Canada’s Team- a Gold Medal on Canadian soil in 2010. Then he refers to the Toronto Maple Leafs as “Canada’s Team”?? And @RUPERTKBD says he doesn’t see anything “entitled” coming from that fan base? Willfully blind maybe? The national media is in the same camp as Babcock, TO homers who troll the rest of the country gleefully despite the fact that the franchise has been obviously woefully inept for more than 50 years. Canada’s team is comprised of proud Canadians playing for all of us. The Leafs suck. 

[canuckwings]

Not gonna go on tsn or Sportsnet for the next few days...as if I don't see enough of leafs articles already. 

 

[BMorrison 7]

4 minutes ago, Quint said:

I cannot overemphasize my disdain for Mike Babcock and the fan base he represents with his “Canada’s Team” comment. This is a coach who was blessed to actually WIN with Canada’s Team- a Gold Medal on Canadian soil in 2010. Then he refers to the Toronto Maple Leafs as “Canada’s Team”?? And @RUPERTKBD says he doesn’t see anything “entitled” coming from that fan base? Willfully blind maybe? The national media is in the same camp as Babcock, TO homers who troll the rest of the country gleefully despite the fact that the franchise has been obviously woefully inept for more than 50 years. Canada’s team is comprised of proud Canadians playing for all of us. The Leafs suck. 

you have the best name and picture iv ever seen on this website hahaha

[Pears]

4 hours ago, WHL rocks said:

Good to see Leafs win.

 

2 Canadian teams in the 2nd round. 

Love it. 

 

Let's go Oilers vs Leafs in the SCF. 

 

 

 

[250Integra]

4 hours ago, WHL rocks said:

Good to see Leafs win.

 

2 Canadian teams in the 2nd round. 

Love it. 

 

Let's go Oilers vs Leafs in the SCF. 

 

 

 

[shiznak]

7 hours ago, CBH1926 said:

Original six team, largest city from the most populous province……
Yeah, I don’t know either why they get more attention than a team from Winnipeg for example.

Not to mention……they’re listed by Forbes as the 2nd most valuable team in the league. 

[Diamonds]

Congratulations to Toronto for finally winning a round. This next round though will tell us if they're actually contenders or if it was that that Tampa's fatigue from 3 straight finals appearances finally caught up to them.

 

To be honest, I won't be surprised if Tampa fades into mediocrity for a couple years now before going rebuild. They still have some good younger roster players like Sergachev plus Kucherov, Point, and Vasilevskiy are still young enough they could carry the team for a couple years. However, Stamkos and Hedman are starting to show signs of age and may now lose some fire after winning 2 cups recently, plus they basically traded all their drafy picks.

[sims]

I'm actually surprised that the Leafs won haha, can't congratulate this Leafs team at all, they didn't, imo, out play TB, who lost 3 games at home in OT. Stupid trade they made with Nashville, not who they needed. Oh well, gonna be a bigger hurt for the Leaf fan base once they lose in the next round. They should enjoy it as it will be another decade before they will experience a 2nd round.

[IBatch]

8 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said:

You wouldn’t understand it unless you’ve lived in Vancouver for 40+ years.  The hatred of the Leafs in Vancouver goes back a long time.  2011 is too recent for a lot of people.  You have posters that have been following the Canucks since the 70’s and 80’s, so those people have a different perspective on things.

 

Boston actually used to be my 2nd favourite team.  Ray Bourque and Cam Neely were two of my favourites.  Same with Edmonton. Gretzky is my all time favourite player.  I was also a big LA fan when Gretzky was traded there.  I stopped cheering for Edmonton after Gretzky left and also LA after Gretzky left.  I stopped cheering for Boston after Bourque left.  

 

But I still don’t hate Boston.  Too many memories for me to really hate them.  Same with LA.  Edmonton I’m neutral on, but I am not really much of a McDavid fan, so I don’t really cheer for them.  I do hate Toronto though, this goes back 30+ years.  Too many Leafs fans in Vancouver who have pissed me off over the years and the extreme bias of Toronto in Canada has turned me off to them.  But that has also faded.  If they won the cup this year with Schenn I wouldn’t be upset really.  But I’d have to deal with the Leafs fans in Vancouver chirping about it for the next decade so it would be somewhat painful.  That pain could only go away if the Canucks win the cup…

Well said.   Had my first taste of the "go Leafs go!" chants in the early 90's - in our building (don't remember that happening in the 80's ... maybe because they were more polite or well their teams were pretty bad lol) - and they used to play in our conference, so we saw them a lot more often.    

 

As for Boston, same thing, Borque and Neely, and any kid who's now in their late 40's to mid 50's were affected by Gretzky.   We were blessed to have been able to watch the hockey from that era.    He took the league by storm, and still is the most dominant athlete in any major pro sports.    Same thing with LA, cheered for them in 93 (albiet quietly, friends house who I lived at, Dad grew up a Habs fan)...and Wendel Clark/Gilmour's led TO club was pretty easy to like too.   Was actually worried in 94, that team was pretty good.   Beating them felt like we deserved to be in the final, proving CAL was no fluke.   

 

 

  93 was a great playoff with many storylines.   Gretzky's last otherworldly playoff performance, although he did have one good one with the Rangers against PHI, it was his last one.   Game 7 against TO, he feels was his greatest game (his book).    Was something.   Clark and McSorely battling in game six.   What a hit.   And what a shiner (still remember McSorleys face, half of it was black from Clark's first punch), tough tough players. 

 

It's a huge disappointment Gretzky didn't come to Vancouver.    Would have loved that, and he wouldn't have taken the C, a key caveat was that Linden would still be the Captain.    Bure lol... he'd have been off to the races ... Mogilny.   Yikes.    What could have been.    LA team that beat us in 2012, was nothing like the ones Gretzky played on, not affable for me anyways.    As long as Doughty plays with them,  won't be picking them to beat a Canadian team. 

 

As for TO, i'm not  jealous of their media darlings.   Or the size of their fanbase.    Pretty indifferent.    Growing up with elders who had to pick either the Habs or the Leafs as their team before the Canucks joined the league,  the Habs and Oilers dynasty ... CAL up the rare times EDM slipped ... It just seemed normal that the cup would stay in Canada.   Plus the media was behind it too, Cherry was a huge fan and promoter of Canadian hockey.    And the league expanding like crazy ... used to be a pretty even split.   Now it's lopsided.    Even still it's very bad odds it's been 30 years since the cup was won and paraded in a Canadian city.   There is no recent history versus the Canucks not to want to watch that, maybe it's a generational thing to a degree, but it used to be some consolation  if the cup stayed in the country that the world of hockey owes the most too.    At least we've won some Olympics. 

 

Edit:  Even then battle of Alberta, in the 2000's took a backseat when EDM was up against CAR, and CAL was up against TB.    Those cites showed each other some support and some respect.    Ottawa and Montreal sure did it for Vancouver in 2011, despite whatever media stuff individuals want to believe,  and the Habs saw a ton of support in Ottawa during the bubble too.     

Edited April 30, 2023 by IBatch

[Kevin Biestra]

20 minutes ago, IBatch said:

It's a huge disappointment Gretzky didn't come to Vancouver.    Would have loved that, and he wouldn't have taken the C, a key caveat was that Linden would still be the Captain.    Bure lol... he'd have been off to the races ... Mogilny.   Yikes.    What could have been.    LA team that beat us in 2012, was nothing like the ones Gretzky played on, not affable for me anyways.    As long as Doughty plays with them,  won't be picking them to beat a Canadian team.

 

He didn't take the C from Dave Taylor in LA, at least not for the first season.  The complete opposite of Messier walking into Vancouver like he owned the joint.

[IBatch]

Just now, Kevin Biestra said:

 

He didn't take the C from Dave Taylor in LA, at least not for the first season.  The complete opposite of Messier walking into Vancouver like he owned the joint.

Yes.   If Messier fell in line, took the second line center role (we opened a spot for Gretzky but never filled it) and instead used his "leadership magic mojo" to get Bure to stick around...and got McLean a solid vet back-up (think Furh/Moog tandem), that team could have truly been something.    Bure had a ton of great hockey left in him, did his best work in Florida.    Was a monster on the international stage too.   Ohlund was drafted in 94 and cooking,  Hedican was getting better, Aucion was getting his feet wet.     We had a D transition.   Babych had he stayed would have been a good third pairing vet  (PHI actually got sued for what they made him do on the run to their final)...Naslund for Stajonov...

 

Walker.   We had some good young pieces too.  Gelinas.   Good prime vet wingers too.   Ugh.   Truly too bad.  Yes I know that Linden trade tree ended up being something..:but we were only a few short years away from the final, and those teams didn't get bounced from the playoffs, were built for the second season.  Brashear and Gino, we had toughness is spades too, as well as good size to deal with that era.    On paper anyways,  don't think you can find a better Canucks team.   Messier on the second line would have been a lot more effective.  Mogilny, Bure, Gelinas, Naslund, Walker ... we had the parts for two great scoring lines.   

[Canucks Curse]

schenn played as the 4th D man the whole series, happy for him 

[alucard]

Congrats to leafs, go north go.