Monday Mailbag: Apocalypse Edition

It’s the end of the world in Leaf land, and yet, the mailman still has to do his job. Let’s get right to it with this week’s  mailbag.

Looking back at the Bruins-Leafs series from 2013, the Bruins manhandled the Leafs in game 1 because the Leafs tried to beat the Bruins at their own game. The Leafs got away from that in game 2, played a faster game, beat them, and had a much more competitive series.

I look at it the same way this year. The Leafs are currently trying to beat the Bruins at their own game, when really they need to beat the Bruins with the Leafs game. Matt Martin is not a part of that game. Even Babcock has realized this, which is why we haven’t seen a lot of Martin these last few months. While putting him in would give the Leafs some more physicality, it wouldn’t help them. Johnsson gives the team more speed and skill, and the Leafs need that in their depth for when the Bergeron line isn’t on.

As for Carrick, I wholeheartedly agree he should be in the lineup, just in the place of Polak or Hainsey. Dermott has probably been the one defenseman this series that hasn’t made a play that has made me lose myself, so he definitely shouldn’t be the one that gets scratched.

BAH GAWD, THAT’S ROMAN POLAK’S MUSIC!

Who are we kidding, Polak would run at Pastrnak, but Pastrnak would dodge it and deke out Polak, breaking Polak’s legs.

Plekanec hasn’t been bad by any means since joining the Leafs, it just hasn’t really seemed like it since he hasn’t put up much offensively, and defensively he’s only been bad when he’s had Leo Komarov on his line. The Johnsson-Plekanec-Kapanen line was fantastic during the regular season, and who knows, maybe tonight he excels with Marner and Marleau on his wing.

I honestly don’t know at this point, cory.

Maybe, but Tavares has always struck me as more of a team-first guy. I’d imagine that he would probably rather have a chance for the cup while playing in a lesser role than play a ton of minutes on a worse team.

Both. The Bruins were the better team in the series, and they are playing at the capabilities of what we expected. However, it seems like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for the Leafs. The Bergeron line hasn’t been shut down, the special teams have been a no-show, the offense has dried up, Freddy has been awful, and the defense has been worse than normal.

Part of this is that the Leafs have been playing badly, and letting the Bruins get in their head, while Babcock’s responses to this have yet to work.

The other part is that the Bruins are smart, identified the Leafs flaws early on, and have been exposing these flaws for the first two games. And again, Babcock hasn’t done much about it.

Game 1 Zaitsev, maybe not.

Game 2 Zaitsev, absolutely.

Nope, because I’d rather they scratch Polak or Hainsey. Zaitsev’s been bad, but not the worst defenseman in this series.

Hey man, don’t complain, the Leafs power has been out for a week.

Idk.

Because it’s fun and completely normal to want to torture yourself day in and day out. Right? RIGHT?!

Nah, by Thursday Matthews will be a healthy scratch, and it will be Martin-Plekanec-Komarov on the top line.

Considering that out of the Leafs current top six, only Polak is a UFA, and the Leafs have Borgman, Rosen, Nielsen, and Liljegren all waiting in the works, Holl would have to REALLY impress in training camp to make the jump.

Although, his goal per game average might help his case.

Because you love this team Graeme!

Do you want Bozak or Moore shutting down the Bergeron line?

69.

Yeah, he kinda lucked out with getting an elite center and an elite defenseman for an elite winger in that trade. Except he never used any of those players, so I still wouldn’t call it a win by any means. I’d say it was more his Cup win that got him his reputation, because he was always really bad at making trades. Let’s not forget, he gave the Leafs Joe Colbourne and a 1st for a past-his-prime Tomas Kaberle. Chiarelli was always bad, we just needed a bad team to realize he was.

Neither, reverse sweep.

Well, you see, because we didn’t put Martin in the lineup, Nylander isn’t trying hard enough, Laine is better than Matthews, and Babcock needs to be fired.

Seriously though, why not the Buds? We’ve already lost the series apparently, but we still have a couple more games to play. Might as well win them!