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MacKinnon was reeling so badly from hitting the post that he got stripped by Willy and then hustled back down for a front row view of Nylander ripping the puck through Miner to break the home winning streak.
Not gonna lie I thought playoffs were a pipe dream 3 weeks ago. An 8-0-2 stretch since then capped off with a win against the almost-literally-unbeatable Avs. All while still battling all kinds of injuries. What a run.
There was an error getting the Leafs data through their automated data pull (nhl site blocked it for too many requests lol)
But going by memory and NST data, this was a bit of a Star Wars night. Colorado’s star shone and struck. Toronto’s stars were more diversified throughout the lineup but weathered the attacks and responded with counter punches and opportunistic strikes when game state opened up more space. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen the Leafs win when the other teams’ elite talents repeatedly hit the scoresheet.
Only reading through the thread now so just catching up and having had a chance to watch the full highlights.
I actually was kind of hoping this was what the Keefe iteration of the Leafs might end up looking like. I don't think they got there really, but it was kind of the right track.
It will be interesting to see if this Avs style works in the playoffs when the NHL decide to just change the rules away from this amazing entertaining high quality style of hockey to... well, anti-hockey. I suspect it might as I think the big difference they have is Makar on their D who transcends anything the Leafs ever had on the back end and I think that gives them a shade more balance than any Leafs team has had.
On another note, the Nordiques outfits are beautiful also.
It will be interesting to see if this Avs style works in the playoffs when the NHL decide to just change the rules away from this amazing entertaining high quality style of hockey to... well, anti-hockey.
The Oilers play a similar style: top-heavy, fast paced, rush-oriented offensive blitz. It's hard to keep up with an attack like that, but it's also hard for the attacking team to maintain that pace for 60 minutes. Colorado is weak on their depth forwards and defense groups and if you can weather the MacKinnon/Makar combo just enough, their bottom 6 and 3-6 pairs are exploitable. It's just in the regular season, especially on high altitude home ice, they can bumrush the first period or two and then take a break for the rest of the game to mop up a 3-goal lead. And a lot of their standings points are naturally against the western conference, which is mostly ass-butt.
The Leafs are a hybrid of Florida and Tampa (or at least they are aspiring to be that). Heavy cycle off the forecheck + counter rushes from the slot shell. It's a successful playoff recipe because scouting one opponent takes away a lot of standard plays through structural adjustments, but no team can fully adjust to having to constantly turn around because the puck behind them all the time, and the NHL playoff refereeing favours the physicality it entails.
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