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[PLAY-IN] (8) Toronto Maple Leafs vs. (9) Columbus Blue Jackets

Who will win the series?  

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Sunday, Aug. 2: Blue Jackets vs. Maple Leafs, 8 p.m. ET – NBCSN
Tuesday, Aug. 4: Blue Jackets vs. Maple Leafs, 4 p.m. ET – NBCSN
Thursday, Aug. 6: Maple Leafs vs. Blue Jackets, TBD
Friday, Aug. 7: Maple Leafs vs. Blue Jackets*, TBD
Sunday, Aug. 9: Blue Jackets vs. Maple Leafs*, TBD

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Blue Jackets win if they work hard, grind, forecheck, and have at least one game stolen by their no-name goalies. Basically, if Tortorella out-coaches Keefe.

Also, if Frederik Andersen plays October/Game 7 hockey.

Otherwise, Leafs win as long as either of the top two lines break out. I think Keefe being willing to mix things up, unlike his predecessor, can help.

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Agree with you, I see the Blue Jackets win if they play as you say.

Take full advantage when that top 30mil line isn't on.

Edited by Giltis

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The Blue Jackets play so hard that I think if they can stifle the Leafs early they'll never recover. My biases against Toronto aside I really do think they're cooked if they don't come out hot.

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On 7/26/2020 at 11:09 AM, Jamarquan said:

The Blue Jackets play so hard that I think if they can stifle the Leafs early they'll never recover. My biases against Toronto aside I really do think they're cooked if they don't come out hot.

Good point. The Leafs never came off as a time that "grind it out" if any form of adversity came their way. At least from my POV...

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11 hours ago, 215BroadStBullies610 said:

Good point. The Leafs never came off as a time that "grind it out" if any form of adversity came their way. At least from my POV...

They play better when behind than with a lead, where they sit back and try to hang onto it despite having terrible defence, which means blown leads are common. There’s zero killer instinct. And they definitely fold easily.

Down by one goal, you’ll see them playing their best. Down by two goals, the game is over.

Toronto should absolutely win this series, but Columbus has proven they can stifle high flying teams (before getting pummeled by hard working teams). That’s really the only thing about them that scares me, yet it’s more than enough to win. 

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9 hours ago, IPv6Freely said:

Down by one goal, you’ll see them playing their best. Down by two goals, the game is over.

👌 Perfect assessment.

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Humiliating loss. Team brought absolutely nothing. Tavares and Marner completely invisible. I give up on Freddy. I’ve been saying for two years that anyone who skates down the right wing side and fires a wrist shot is almost guaranteed a goal. Almost every OT loss this season was on a goal just like that. He just can’t get it done.

I revise my prediction: Columbus in 4.

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Is this even the same team?

It was getting pretty tense there for a bit. Seriously thought Columbus was going to go up 2-0 having their goalie absolutely steal game 2.

Hope Muzzin is okay - that was one of the best games he's played for them. 

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Good god. Saw that coming a mile away. The 3-2 goal goes in and the bottom lips start dragging on the ice. Zero pressure and just kept flipping the puck back to center like teams that have defensive ability do. 

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They are certainly feeling the loss of Muzzin. I hope he's ok.

Even the Leafs win the series. What do you do if you're the Leafs management to strengthen the D-core in the off season? I mean it seems like that's one of their main issue. But I don't think anyone could manage a decent backend-only rebuild.

Edited by Giltis

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Yeah their feeble attempt to play shut down defense without their only shut down defenseman was bound to fail. They needed to keep pressing. We got game 2 Leafs for 40 mins and game 1 leafs for the last 20. They did play better in OT, but the momentum was gone.

They play again tonight, but knowing the way this team sulks when something doesn’t go their way, I think it’s over.

On the bright side, at least for once it’s not a lack of the stars showing up. Matthews has been a beast all series, so has Reilly. Marner and Tavares showed up in game 2. The only one who hasn’t been all that effective is Nylander. He looks so lazy out there.

To answer your question, obviously the priority should be signing Pieterangelo. Unlikely, but you have to try. Call me crazy but I’d love to see them try to find a way to pry Doughty away from the Kings. He’s still got plenty left and he’s wasted in an LA rebuild. Maybe float Nylander or Kapanen and some picks?

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This team is just absolute trash. Shanahan promised to make this team respectable again. I don’t expect a cup every year or anything but at least a team that isn’t the butt of jokes across the league. A team that makes fans of other teams say “I hate them, but man they’re good” instead of “LOL Leafs”.

I’ve completely lost faith in Nylander and Anderson. Tavares was going to cost a fortune to whoever got him and while I don’t think they should regret the signing by any means, he’s so often invisible.

Muzzin being out was a huge part of yesterday’s embarrassing collapse, no question. But his absence has absolutely nothing to do with the dogshit they produced tonight.

Losing this series is the ultimate embarrassment and basically sums up the season. 

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Well... that was unexpected. Everything i say still stands, though. LOL.

Now they’ll do the most Leafs thing ever and win in OT just so they can get pounded 6-0 in game 5 where Andersen will just crumble.

  • Haha 2

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I’ll admit it was kind of funny watching Foligno bitching after his dumb penalty cost his team the game. Not sure what he was complaining about... pretty much textbook dirty play sticking his stick into somebody’s feet like that.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team score three goals with the goalie out before. 

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