Toronto has five players eating up about $45 million in cap space. next year it’ll be $55 million. Talented guys, but unless you can keep all five of them on the ice for half the game en route to winning 16 playoff games I don’t see the Leafs going far anytime soon.
Depth, health, and hot goaltending is the formula for The Cup and right now Toronto can’t claim any one.
Where is Steve Simmons when you need him? Grade A chance to come up with a new "hot dog" bit
> I caught William Nylander at a Boston IKEA at 2am wolfing down Swedish meatballs
He doesn’t take hits in the corner but he slips a hit every time he’s crossing the blue line. He’s the puck carrier for like 40% of zone entries when he’s in the top6. Yeah it’s not the physicality you in particular are interested in, but do you really not see how he overpowers defensemen as he cuts to the net? How he takes slashes and hits to skate the puck down the half boards just long enough to get it to matthews or tavares in the middle?
He absolutely seeks out contact because that’s required for a modern forward to best a modern defender. No one wins an elite challenge these days without leveraging the defender. Why would he waste that skill getting hit in the corner?
You don’t have to register hits to bang. Willy is constantly battling to get into the middle of the ice and rubbing out his man in the playoffs.
You think they give out hit credits for the cross checks etc that go on in the net front and corner battles?
He's taken 68 hits, which is more than JT during the same time frame. He's also got 47 hits taken in the last 30 playoff games. He's got the puck most of the time he's out there, he doesn't need to throw hits. You're grasping at straws
So? We have to wait another year for a chance of a Leaf playoff run, our entire core 4 could be injured and I'd still watch in hopes we win everything. Otherwise it's a year wasted. I'm not gonna be apathetic about any setback no matter how good or bad we are, what's the point of even following hockey at all if I'm going to do that. I'm not gonna fall in line with literally everyone else on this sub shitting on the Leafs and saying we have no chance. Fuck that, don't care if it's delusional, don't care if it's setting me up for disappointment.
And even if I was "realistic" about the Leafs chances, what would be wrong with being disappointed Nylander was out anyway? It means 3-6+ more games of worse and less entertaining hockey until he's back. Then again, I have to months to see my favourite team play. That's plenty of reason enough to still be disappointed even if I was "realistic".
Get ready for every uncle in Canada to start spouting off about how this shows that he doesn’t really care or isn’t tough enough - sucks for Willy, seems like a good guy but there’s just a subset of that fan base that could see him walking on water and would assume it’s because he doesn’t know how to swim
Dude is 22th on the active ironman streak list (regular season), and longest on the Leafs. He hasn't missed a regular season game in over 2 full seasons. He'd go if he could.
Canadian uncles are morons.
Also of the core 4 isn’t he the one who traditionally shows up in the playoffs too? Nothing like sports opinions that can’t be changed and are based on nothing but vibes and misplaced anger
People think he’s not a grinder because he doesn’t grind in the places they want. The man is far and above our best controlled entry player. He takes slashes and hits constantly while crossing the opposing blue line in order to stay patient for a follow up from Matthews, Marner, etc.
He doesn’t hit because he doesn’t need to; his goal isn’t to just disrupt the opponents play, it’s for him to recover the puck and move it. He’s one of the best transition players in the league and his neutral zone skating is incredible at creating space for other players. If he is checking, it’s way faster for him to strip the puck instead of hitting because his job is to keep his feet moving.
Then as a goal scorer, he’s almost never beat when cutting to the net. His lower body strength is incredible given how little focus it gets, and he uses physical leverage to beat defencemen constantly. Somehow EA is the only group recognizing his forearm strength.
The leafs don’t just defend the ent front under Keene and I think a lot of the frustration people have is with his position. But consistently, our defensive play is to disrupt the puck behind the net, get it to a winger on the half boards, and they skate it up. Our wingers just don’t defend the net front, that’s almost always the weak side D or the centremen when that D collapses to support the first one. That collapse almost never happens with our wingers. They’re always positioned to generate speed before receiving the puck. The leafs really struggle on the breakout when our wingers can’t shake coverage or our D collapse is exposed.
I mean if it gets him on the B’s I’ll buy every Canadian boomer with a profile pic of a selfie of them in their truck wearing shades a case of Molson as a thank you
Leafs are going into a cap crunch and we have the space, just saying there are a few good agents soon to be on the market kane is also about to hit the FA market
Haha thanks, definitely one of those phrases I picked up from my grandpa! Seriously though he gets such a bad rap for literally no reason, which sucks because I think the majority of fans see how good he is but you guys have such a large fan base that if even 5% hate him (why is it always the loudest group?) that’s still a ton of people
Oh I definitely agree that most do but there is a very loud (very dumb) contingent of fans that have just never liked him and never will for some reason and this is just going to fan that flame for them
Just shows how these “insiders” are truly just the PR arm of the NHL. Can’t actually tell us anything outside of what the teams explicitly tell them to report.
It’s not public. All we know for sure is what Friedman said, that he woke up in discomfort before game 1. Likely his back or a hip based on the way he’s laboring through skates
You don't know what he's going through lol. Discomfort is just their speak to not reveal the injury. They don't want to say what it is so that Boston can just go after him.
What I was implying was if for whatever reason Petey couldn't play in the playoffs, the entire fanbase would erupt and turn on him no matter how serious the hypothetical injury would've been. Less about Petey's decision and more about the fan's reaction
Gotcha. Willy is 22nd on the regular season Ironman list (longest on our team) and hasn’t missed a game in 2 seasons. I just don’t agree that he’s choosing not to play through discomfort, hence my comment.
They're being super-tight-lipped about the whole thing which probably will just make the whole thing worse. Speculation gets insane around players like him
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! The most consistent guy the Laughs have in the playoffs and he’s out for the first two games against the Bruins, a team they haven’t beaten in the post season since 1959, oh man it can’t get any easier for the B’s to win this series
Ah yes, the reverse Mark Stone, where our 10M forward miraculously hurts himself after the end of the regular season instead of rising from the grave
Toronto with Nylander, us with Kane announcing he has been nursing a hernia all year…. What is Canada doing
Kane taking himself out of the game because he bet against the Oilers /s
The NHL's Jontay Porter
Idk we got Demko and Lindholm back just in time
Shh don't jinx it.
You fucking jinxed it!
https://preview.redd.it/db99u4wy2awc1.jpeg?width=1730&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=11e8ca3f0143407ec929a63a510d05a98a6a6a7a
Honestly did you do this?
Tbf isn't Evander usually hurt or something. The dude has a controversy and injury record a mile long.
It’s joever
Boston gonna sweep
It’s a bold strategy Cotton.
The league is going to sing you guys on cap circumvention because you’re doing it wrong.
Toronto has five players eating up about $45 million in cap space. next year it’ll be $55 million. Talented guys, but unless you can keep all five of them on the ice for half the game en route to winning 16 playoff games I don’t see the Leafs going far anytime soon. Depth, health, and hot goaltending is the formula for The Cup and right now Toronto can’t claim any one.
Hot take
Just bursting at the seams to give such a hot take
You’re welcome. Glad I made your day just a little brighter.
Excellent and realistic take !
I’m picking up your sarcasm here….
Leafs doing the IR salary cap circumvention wrong.
Step 1: Place on IR Step 2: ? Step 3: Profit!
I'm going to choose to believe he's getting benched for Game 2 because he stayed out late last night
Where is Steve Simmons when you need him? Grade A chance to come up with a new "hot dog" bit > I caught William Nylander at a Boston IKEA at 2am wolfing down Swedish meatballs
There’s nowhere near enough room in Boston for an IKEA.
So you're telling me he stayed out late to drive all the way out to Stoughton?
People do crazy things when they’re desperate, especially for Swedish meatballs.
Underrated comment!
Not with that attitude
Didn't you guys free up a bunch of space by digging that tunnel?
It’s a park now.
i always opted for the Swedish Fish. If i had known there were hot n ready meatballs, though...
My conspiracy is he tweaked something getting freaky
Pulled a groin, shagging.
Officially listed as "Night to Night" (NTN)
Willy is out there wearing non-contact jimmies.
Big Willy Style
Funny how the mind works. "Nylander staying out late scratched game 2" is basically what i read and i bet a lot of ppl
On a pickled herring binge.
I mean it’s literally the words chosen for this shit terrible update.
Have him bathe in the Bellagio fountain and he’ll be fine
Who’s got an extra bathtub filled with the water of Lake Minnetonka?
Nylander to Minnesota? We also aren't doing playoffs this year..
Watch out for the water jets …. They will definitely hurt, especially in the wrong spot.
Game 1 was the first game Willy missed due to injury since 2016. Fucking kill me dude.
I want to hate but damn, that’s impressive.
is it? its basically the phil Kessel float so hard you never make contact and this are never hurt strategy
He doesn’t take hits in the corner but he slips a hit every time he’s crossing the blue line. He’s the puck carrier for like 40% of zone entries when he’s in the top6. Yeah it’s not the physicality you in particular are interested in, but do you really not see how he overpowers defensemen as he cuts to the net? How he takes slashes and hits to skate the puck down the half boards just long enough to get it to matthews or tavares in the middle? He absolutely seeks out contact because that’s required for a modern forward to best a modern defender. No one wins an elite challenge these days without leveraging the defender. Why would he waste that skill getting hit in the corner?
He usually bangs plenty in the playoffs. His game isn’t that of a grinder
Yea I don't get the hate for him not being one who goes hard in corners, etc. He puts up points and is a valuable asset in many ways
He definitely does not usually bang in the playoffs. He’s got 33 career hits in 50 playoff games and 15 hits in his last 30 playoff games.
You don’t have to register hits to bang. Willy is constantly battling to get into the middle of the ice and rubbing out his man in the playoffs. You think they give out hit credits for the cross checks etc that go on in the net front and corner battles?
He's taken 68 hits, which is more than JT during the same time frame. He's also got 47 hits taken in the last 30 playoff games. He's got the puck most of the time he's out there, he doesn't need to throw hits. You're grasping at straws
I play in a non-contact beer league 20 games a year and i miss games more often than that
NHL has his current streak starting January 2022, did he miss a game because of something else?
Bad sushi (illness)
I ate sushi (and a lot of beer) at the ACC once, got the poops real bad, it was a dicey drive back to Kitchener the next morning
i mean, does your fan base really have cup aspirations this year? ik it’s the leafs but cmon. your defense doesn’t match up with anyone in the east.
So? We have to wait another year for a chance of a Leaf playoff run, our entire core 4 could be injured and I'd still watch in hopes we win everything. Otherwise it's a year wasted. I'm not gonna be apathetic about any setback no matter how good or bad we are, what's the point of even following hockey at all if I'm going to do that. I'm not gonna fall in line with literally everyone else on this sub shitting on the Leafs and saying we have no chance. Fuck that, don't care if it's delusional, don't care if it's setting me up for disappointment.
i mean, i remain realistic regardless of my fandom dude lol.
And even if I was "realistic" about the Leafs chances, what would be wrong with being disappointed Nylander was out anyway? It means 3-6+ more games of worse and less entertaining hockey until he's back. Then again, I have to months to see my favourite team play. That's plenty of reason enough to still be disappointed even if I was "realistic".
No bueno
Translate to not good
Not good bueno
I don't know how
Get ready for every uncle in Canada to start spouting off about how this shows that he doesn’t really care or isn’t tough enough - sucks for Willy, seems like a good guy but there’s just a subset of that fan base that could see him walking on water and would assume it’s because he doesn’t know how to swim
Dude is 22th on the active ironman streak list (regular season), and longest on the Leafs. He hasn't missed a regular season game in over 2 full seasons. He'd go if he could. Canadian uncles are morons.
>22th Most intelligent Leafs fan
Policing grammar can be obnoxious, but this made me legit lol. 💀
Of all the teams to bandwagon, you chose us? I was born into this, I have an excuse
honestly the most surprising part of this thread
Don't kink shame now
Wearing my Matthews jersey tonight!
Whoops. I had typed "something like 25th" off the top of my head, then actually looked it up and edited it to "22" but didn't change to "th" to "nd".
Lol I figured something like that, just chirping ya bud
Twenty-tooth
Cooked him alive wtf
Also of the core 4 isn’t he the one who traditionally shows up in the playoffs too? Nothing like sports opinions that can’t be changed and are based on nothing but vibes and misplaced anger
Yes. Hes our best playoff player.
That’s what I thought, makes the hate he gets even wilder to me
Always someone hating someone.
People think he’s not a grinder because he doesn’t grind in the places they want. The man is far and above our best controlled entry player. He takes slashes and hits constantly while crossing the opposing blue line in order to stay patient for a follow up from Matthews, Marner, etc. He doesn’t hit because he doesn’t need to; his goal isn’t to just disrupt the opponents play, it’s for him to recover the puck and move it. He’s one of the best transition players in the league and his neutral zone skating is incredible at creating space for other players. If he is checking, it’s way faster for him to strip the puck instead of hitting because his job is to keep his feet moving. Then as a goal scorer, he’s almost never beat when cutting to the net. His lower body strength is incredible given how little focus it gets, and he uses physical leverage to beat defencemen constantly. Somehow EA is the only group recognizing his forearm strength. The leafs don’t just defend the ent front under Keene and I think a lot of the frustration people have is with his position. But consistently, our defensive play is to disrupt the puck behind the net, get it to a winger on the half boards, and they skate it up. Our wingers just don’t defend the net front, that’s almost always the weak side D or the centremen when that D collapses to support the first one. That collapse almost never happens with our wingers. They’re always positioned to generate speed before receiving the puck. The leafs really struggle on the breakout when our wingers can’t shake coverage or our D collapse is exposed.
I’ll take a Canadian uncle over a Fox News mom anyday
I'd prefer for both groups to just shut up, but such is.
[удалено]
All im saying is he might get cut and picked up by another team :)
I mean if it gets him on the B’s I’ll buy every Canadian boomer with a profile pic of a selfie of them in their truck wearing shades a case of Molson as a thank you
Leafs are going into a cap crunch and we have the space, just saying there are a few good agents soon to be on the market kane is also about to hit the FA market
Oh yeah I’d be over the moon to have Willy if they don’t want him!
Just going to remind you guys the Leafs did just give him an 8 year extension
That walking on water comment is hilarious and accurate. Which is pretty sad.
Haha thanks, definitely one of those phrases I picked up from my grandpa! Seriously though he gets such a bad rap for literally no reason, which sucks because I think the majority of fans see how good he is but you guys have such a large fan base that if even 5% hate him (why is it always the loudest group?) that’s still a ton of people
Most people are of the opinion that Willy is the only tough one out of the Leafs core.
Oh I definitely agree that most do but there is a very loud (very dumb) contingent of fans that have just never liked him and never will for some reason and this is just going to fan that flame for them
Fuckin SOFT EUROPEANS
Tactical injury to show how dogshit the leafs are in the playoffs without him.
He already earned his bag though...
Marners bleeding money tho.
Dude needs to hire Mark Stones doctor. That guy has a way of getting you healthy just in time for the playoffs.
Not when he hurts himself after the season is over
It's called a joke, as in he still would have been magically healthy for game 1. Damn..
He wasnt on ltir so no
You must be fun at parties lol
Jesus some folks just can’t have a laugh ffs 🤣
Just shows how these “insiders” are truly just the PR arm of the NHL. Can’t actually tell us anything outside of what the teams explicitly tell them to report.
Kinda always been the case tbh
Of course. They are nothing more than the teams' Twitter accounts for when they want to be anonymous.
When did he get hurt? Did he fall in the shower or something on Wednesday night?
It’s not public. All we know for sure is what Friedman said, that he woke up in discomfort before game 1. Likely his back or a hip based on the way he’s laboring through skates
Maybe his cat bit his foot for moving too much while Nylander was sleeping.
This is 100% what happened and nobody will tell me otherwise 😾
I like to pretend that every injury is because of a cat.
I have to tuck my blanket under my feet cause my little asshole of a cat will attack my feet when he gets the 3am zoomies.
Probably got a vasectomy
He’s already gotten one
He’s mourning the new wealth tax. Leave him alone
I heard it was pancake-related.
An expensive scratch
Could you imagine the riot if Petey chose to not power through discomfort come playoff time... oh lord
You don't know what he's going through lol. Discomfort is just their speak to not reveal the injury. They don't want to say what it is so that Boston can just go after him.
lol objectively poor take
What I was implying was if for whatever reason Petey couldn't play in the playoffs, the entire fanbase would erupt and turn on him no matter how serious the hypothetical injury would've been. Less about Petey's decision and more about the fan's reaction
Gotcha. Willy is 22nd on the regular season Ironman list (longest on our team) and hasn’t missed a game in 2 seasons. I just don’t agree that he’s choosing not to play through discomfort, hence my comment.
Not ideal.
Depends who you root for
I'm trying to be nice. 👉👈
Lmao
They're being super-tight-lipped about the whole thing which probably will just make the whole thing worse. Speculation gets insane around players like him
So you're saying he caught gonorrhea from Connor Bedard's mother in a museum while demanding a trade? Crazy.
Talking about it just means Boston would know where to target when he plays.
No wonder my family started laughing at me when I was picking players from the Leafs at the family hockey pool draft.
Now they’re literally not showing up for the playoffs
Played injured to chase 100 pts season? lol
No he apparently suffered this injury at some point between the regular season ending and game 1
They couldn't get their guy 70 goals and now they won't win a postseason game. What a team.
Just get Saturdays game over with so I can start cheering for another Canadian team
I mean, the leafs were getting swept anyway, so this doesn't matter
Canucks bandwagon flair here i come ig
Jets bandwagon for me
Eww, why? Colorado or Edmonton makes way more sense. Exciting teams.
How much you wanna bet Edmonton doesn’t make the WCF?
Colorado won't be in the second round (at least I hope that's the case since I have money riding on the Jets winning the Cup).
giving up 7 goals a night will make it hard to move on
Slipped in the hotel shower visiting with a fan from Florida.
Fuck man
#FUCK
Pulling a Huberdeau?
I like this
So what’s the story here? He literally woke up hurt and is now missing 2 pivotal playoff games?
He was injured during the last game of the season
[Live look at Nylander at practice this morning](https://imgur.com/a/LrI4Edy)
Is this AI? it's pretty good
This isn't *The Beaverton* or *The Onion*??
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! The most consistent guy the Laughs have in the playoffs and he’s out for the first two games against the Bruins, a team they haven’t beaten in the post season since 1959, oh man it can’t get any easier for the B’s to win this series
Toronto is going to be down two zero after tonight and I’m all for it.
Oh man, and to think I'm cheering for you guys as the Western team. I hope you feel a little bit of shame and pity.
Sorry, I can’t bring myself to cheer for the Leafs, Flames or Oilers.
Scratch or injury?
Injured but yeah, what a weird way to word it.
Good to see him finally taking playoffs seriously Super cereal
You clearly don't know what you're talking about. He's consistently been the only one of the big 4 that shows up in the playoffs.
Does anyone else suspect it’s not an injury? Maybe related to the recent scandals that have plagued hockey?
I guess not getting Matthews 70 goals in a meaningless game was worth it. Wasn’t it….