The Stanley Cup Playoffs 2023: Second Round GDT.

[French Collection]

56 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

This is maybe stating the obvious, but Tkachuk was the best player on the ice last night IMHO.

Also, Bobrovsky has been up and down the past couple of seasons but is playing very well right now.

Rhino is not gritty by any measure but his assist was outstanding. He is tough enough to hold up and his IQ is shining through.

Bob has been fantastic, stoning some good scorers on high quality chances.

Tkachuk is made for playoff hockey, that is such a good tradeoff for Huberdeau.

 

Sweep the leaves, get it over with.

[Night Train]

Samsonov is handling the situation well.  

https://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/2023/05/05/how-does-leafs-goalie-ilya-samsonov-feel-about-how-his-panthers-counterpart-is-playing-i-dont-give-a-f--.html

 

 

[Eleven]

28 minutes ago, Night Train said:

Samsonov is handling the situation well.  

https://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/2023/05/05/how-does-leafs-goalie-ilya-samsonov-feel-about-how-his-panthers-counterpart-is-playing-i-dont-give-a-f--.html

 

 

"It’s hard to solely pin Thursday’s loss on Samsanov — he did stop 26 shots"

 

WOW.  TWENTY-SIX?!  Gotta be a new record.

[Sabel79]

11 minutes ago, Eleven said:

"It’s hard to solely pin Thursday’s loss on Samsanov — he did stop 26 shots"

 

WOW.  TWENTY-SIX?!  Gotta be a new record.

I mean, imagine if he didn't, though...

[Randall Flagg]

1 hour ago, French Collection said:

Rhino is not gritty by any measure but his assist was outstanding. He is tough enough to hold up and his IQ is shining through.

Bob has been fantastic, stoning some good scorers on high quality chances.

Tkachuk is made for playoff hockey, that is such a good tradeoff for Huberdeau.

 

Sweep the leaves, get it over with.

Reinhart doesn't plow people through the boards, but for 5 years he was the only Sabre that would stand in front and deflect pucks while getting sticks to the kidneys over and over again, and he did it a lot. That's pretty gritty

[nfreeman]

1 hour ago, French Collection said:

Rhino is not gritty by any measure but his assist was outstanding. He is tough enough to hold up and his IQ is shining through.

Bob has been fantastic, stoning some good scorers on high quality chances.

Tkachuk is made for playoff hockey, that is such a good tradeoff for Huberdeau.

 

Sweep the leaves, get it over with.

Reino has been very good in these playoffs.  I thought he was pretty quiet last night, other than that very sweet assist, but still effective.  He has his limitations but It seems like he never makes a flat-out bad play, he pretty consistently gets the puck to the right spot and he wins most of the contested pucks.  I'll even say that his skating is improved as well.  He's just a very good top-6 NHL forward.

 

[PerreaultForever]

45 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Reinhart doesn't plow people through the boards, but for 5 years he was the only Sabre that would stand in front and deflect pucks while getting sticks to the kidneys over and over again, and he did it a lot. That's pretty gritty

"Pretty gritty" that's a good description of Reinhart. Gritty enough to stand around the net front and deflect some shots or grab some rebounds, but too pretty to really get down and dirty and get those scars and broken noses the Tkachuk's of the league get over their careers. Pretty gritty. 

[Wyldnwoody44]

I'm sad seeing the likes of Florida, Carolina and etc in the playoffs. Poor hockey markets. At least Seattle and Vegas appear to have a rabid fan base. 

[Randall Flagg]

6 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

"Pretty gritty" that's a good description of Reinhart. Gritty enough to stand around the net front and deflect some shots or grab some rebounds, but too pretty to really get down and dirty and get those scars and broken noses the Tkachuk's of the league get over their careers. Pretty gritty. 

Yeah, I guess you're right that he's not as gritty as literally the consensus most-gritty player in the league over the last 5+ years. Good post

[Gatorman0519]

2 hours ago, French Collection said:

Rhino is not gritty by any measure but his assist was outstanding. He is tough enough to hold up and his IQ is shining through.

Bob has been fantastic, stoning some good scorers on high quality chances.

Tkachuk is made for playoff hockey, that is such a good tradeoff for Huberdeau.

 

Sweep the leaves, get it over with.

It really shows you what you need to win in the playoffs.  The regular season and the playoffs are much different.  You have to have an element of toughness and nastiness.  

[DarthEbriate]

I don't know if it counts as gritty, but I can think of 2 instances when Eichel was run and the first (and sometimes only) player who went barreling in to address the hit/roughing was Reino. Now, he had the advantage of being on the ice both times. He also was in the end-game line scrum at Arizona and then was laughing down the tunnel with Eichel and Bogo when I (foolishly) thought the team was coming together, getting scrappy, and the future was bright. They also had several comeback wins that first Bylsma season.

[HoosierDaddy]

When did Sabres fans start hating the Leafs so much? I left Buffalo in 1997 and I have no great feelings about them one way or the other. Is it the arena takeovers? I hate the Bruins and I hated the Nordique as a kid. The Leafs were just some team that played in the other conference. But then again, I’m unique amongst Buffalo fans in my sports hatred in that I am only mildly annoyed by the Pats but hate the Fins with the force of a thousand suns. I guess my sports hatred is firmly rooted in the mid 80’s.

[Crusader1969]

2 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

Reinhart doesn't plow people through the boards, but for 5 years he was the only Sabre that would stand in front and deflect pucks while getting sticks to the kidneys over and over again, and he did it a lot. That's pretty gritty

Thank you for saying this.  Absolutely right!  

10 minutes ago, HoosierDaddy said:

When did Sabres fans start hating the Leafs so much? I left Buffalo in 1997 and I have no great feelings about them one way or the other. Is it the arena takeovers? I hate the Bruins and I hated the Nordique as a kid. The Leafs were just some team that played in the other conference. But then again, I’m unique amongst Buffalo fans in my sports hatred in that I am only mildly annoyed by the Pats but hate the Fins with the force of a thousand suns. I guess my sports hatred is firmly rooted in the mid 80’s.

You haven’t experienced their obnoxious fans that come to Buffalo? 

[Eleven]

3 minutes ago, Crusader1969 said:

You haven’t experienced their obnoxious fans that come to Buffalo? 

This is the only reason I care about that harmless franchise.

[Taro T]

2 minutes ago, Eleven said:

This is the only reason I care about that harmless franchise.

True.  Minus their fans, they're essentially Minnesota on the wgaf scale.  But their fans bring them into Boston/Filly range.  The short bus riders that wear helmets to sit in the stands do lend new meaning to the term "special."

[Crusader1969]

19 minutes ago, Taro T said:

True.  Minus their fans, they're essentially Minnesota on the wgaf scale.  But their fans bring them into Boston/Filly range.  The short bus riders that wear helmets to sit in the stands do lend new meaning to the term "special."

For us in Canada it’s also the media. 
it used to be the players back in the day…Domi, Tucker    Can’t say I hate any of there current leafs I hate. - maybe Matthews and the moustache 

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, Crusader1969 said:

For us in Canada it’s also the media. 
it used to be the players back in the day…Domi, Tucker    Can’t say I hate any of there current leafs I hate. - maybe Matthews and the moustache 

Well, the Canadian media are some of their biggest fans.  HNIC has become a fluffing fest for them and here stateside TNT gives us Bissonnette for our viewing displeasure.

[TheAud]

2 hours ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

I'm sad seeing the likes of Florida, Carolina and etc in the playoffs. Poor hockey markets. At least Seattle and Vegas appear to have a rabid fan base. 

Carolina was second in the league in home attendance during the regular season, trailing only Montreal. 99.6% of seats filled. 
Florida filled 86.7% of their capacity this year.

By comparison, Buffalo was at 81.6% of capacity. 
 

I love the Sabres, but I’m not seeing the case for casting aspersions on the quality of other teams fan bases these days in comparison to Buffalo. 

(And I do believe it will build back in Buffalo over the next couple years…)

Edited May 5, 2023 by TheAud

[thewookie1]

20 minutes ago, TheAud said:

Carolina was second in the league in home attendance during the regular season, trailing only Montreal. 99.6% of seats filled. 
Florida filled 86.7% of their capacity this year.

By comparison, Buffalo was at 81.6% of capacity. 
 

I love the Sabres, but I’m not seeing the case for casting aspersions on the quality of other teams fan bases these days in comparison to Buffalo. 

(And I do believe it will build back in Buffalo over the next couple years…)

Carolina in Buffalo’s situation would be a ghost town. Though honestly their fan base has certainly grown over the years. Most of us Sabres fans however only see Sabres games with the Canes in which Buffalo transplants take over a good portion of the crowd.

 

1 hour ago, HoosierDaddy said:

When did Sabres fans start hating the Leafs so much? I left Buffalo in 1997 and I have no great feelings about them one way or the other. Is it the arena takeovers? I hate the Bruins and I hated the Nordique as a kid. The Leafs were just some team that played in the other conference. But then again, I’m unique amongst Buffalo fans in my sports hatred in that I am only mildly annoyed by the Pats but hate the Fins with the force of a thousand suns. I guess my sports hatred is firmly rooted in the mid 80’s.

Their fans are the primary reason for most. Media bias also furthers the issues. I always look at the Leafs as having fans that think they are the Patriots but their team is usually the Lions and yet they still get mass coverage by the hockey media and their fans continue their obnoxious behavior 

Edited May 5, 2023 by thewookie1

[HoosierDaddy]

The Leafs are like the Knicks of the NHL. Because New York is a center of the basketball universe, they get lots of coverage regardless of how good the team is. Same thing with Toronto and Montreal in hockey.

[JustOutsideChicago]

2 hours ago, TheAud said:

Carolina was second in the league in home attendance during the regular season, trailing only Montreal. 99.6% of seats filled. 
Florida filled 86.7% of their capacity this year.

By comparison, Buffalo was at 81.6% of capacity. 
 

I love the Sabres, but I’m not seeing the case for casting aspersions on the quality of other teams fan bases these days in comparison to Buffalo. 

(And I do believe it will build back in Buffalo over the next couple years…)

How embarrassing to be called the “Caniacs.” 

[Carmel Corn]

Horrible anthem singer in Raleigh....makes me want to strangle him while he's singing.

[TheAud]

3 hours ago, thewookie1 said:

Carolina in Buffalo’s situation would be a ghost town. Though honestly their fan base has certainly grown over the years. Most of us Sabres fans however only see Sabres games with the Canes in which Buffalo transplants take over a good portion of the crowd.

Buffalo is in Buffalo’s situation whereas Carolina consistently puts a competitive team on the ice. 

I can only imagine that Toronto, Boston, and Montreal fans think the same thing about the games they see televised from Buffalo.

[French Collection]

Carolina taking it to the Devils tonight, 4-0 after two periods.

[...]

NJ is in over their heads.