Ramblings: Everything is coming up Milhouse for the Leafs. Also – Matt Murray, Brooks Orpik and more

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Last call! Details on the DobberHockey Hockey Pool winners and prizes – find out here if you won, and how to claim your prize. Fourteen out of the 20 winners have reached out to me and claimed prizes – tell your friends to check this link if they finished near the Top 20! One jersey still unclaimed, among the six unclaimed prizes. Also unclaimed – one $50 credit with Draft Kings, two of my own Ultimate Fantasy Packs, and two Fantasy Hockey Geek subscriptions…I have a list of names, but nothing further in terms of user names or mailing addresses, etc. Contact me – Shayne, Mark, Barry, Jono, Peter or Brett!

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Screw the Sunday games, we’ll get to that later. Right now I want to discuss some Auston Matthews!

The Toronto Maple Leafs Game Plan is actually proceeding as they hoped. And entering the best free agent market I’ve ever seen (or ever will see), while in the best cap position in the entire league – everything is coming up Milhouse.

So much depends on who they sign in the summer. I have to think that Toronto will be mostly successful with any free agent they go after. Two of – Stamkos, Okposo, Yandle, Boedker, Ladd, Lucic, Hamhuis, Backes, Eriksson. Plus one of the lesser free agents, such as Hudler, Purcell, Perron, Goligoski, Nielsen. Toronto can outbid any other team, they just can’t get too stupid about it. Signing Eric Staal at the price he’ll require, is an example of “stupid”.

Success in that area and assuming a centerman is brought in would mean Matthews will start his career as a winger. They’ll call his line the second line but by Christmas it will be clear that it’s actually the first line. His offensive impact early on I liken to John Tavares. Remember – Tavares had just 54 points as a rookie and I actually had to defend him from Matt Duchene owners who actually felt that Duchene was the better fantasy own after just that one season. After 54 points Tavares had 67 and then 81. That’s the progress I see in Matthews. But realistically we shouldn’t even speculate on something like this until we have a better idea as to what the Leafs’ roster will look like.

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Brian Elliott is starting to show some chinks in his armour. Not that he’s playing poorly and is suddenly giving up a ton of goals. Not at all. No, I mean that when the game is on the line in the final minutes, he’s no longer money in the bank. It will make this series interesting, instead of the cakewalk that I thought it could be.

Elliott’s SV% is 0.930 in the postseason. In the regular season? It was also 0.930. But as great as that is for the season, in the playoffs that number generally increases. Here are the top SV% this postseason with goalies who have played at least five games:

This is why Dallas won’t win the Cup even if they do get by the Blues. And kudos to Greiss for posting the fourth best SV% in the league. My thoughts on Murray– I’ll circle back to him.

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Cody Eakin assisted on three goals Sunday. He has seven points in eight playoff games so far and in his career he has 12 in 14. I had him noted as a sleeper pick in my playoff draft list – if I adjust that list for Dallas playing eight games, the projection for Eakin was five points.

Robby Fabbri with two assists and he now has seven points in nine playoff games. He was hot going into the postseason with 11 in 14 games.

Alex Goligoski is on a four-game point streak. His career playoff numbers are impressive – 19 points in 29 games. After the overtime goal Sunday, Goligoski looked injured. Kind of limping as he left the ice with his team. We may hear more about that prior to Game 3…

Patrick Eaves is still out of the Dallas lineup (shocker!) with an LBI. Here were the line combinations without him:

#1 24.5% FAKSA,RADEK – HEMSKY,ALES – ROUSSEL,ANTOINE

#2 22.7% BENN,JAMIE – EAKIN,CODY – SHARP,PATRICK

#3 13.5% JANMARK,MATTIAS – NICHUSHKIN,VALERI – SPEZZA,JASON

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Marc-Edouard Vlasic seems to be back to his old self after a few games of getting his timing back. His ice time tops the Sharks and he’s shooting the puck more.

Joe Pavelski had three points in the San Jose win. He now has 10 in seven games. Meanwhile Joe Thornton has just five points, including two on Sunday.

The 39 shots that Martin Jones faced on Sunday were the most he’s seen since March 7^th.

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Mike Ribeiro has just one assist in the playoffs. He has just four points in his last 24 games. Clutch!

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Brooks Orpik has been suspended for three playoff games for this:

Olli Maatta is probably going to miss Game 3 and my guess is that he’ll be out for this series unless it goes to a Game 7.

So who would you put in to replace Maatta? Justin Schultz or Derrick Pouliot?

Here’s the latest on MA Fleury. He’s feeling better and I get the sense that he’ll be medically cleared to return soon. As in – if they need him I think he could play in Game 6. But it sounds like coach Mike Sullivan will do the right thing here and let Matt Murray take them to the third round. And if he does that, why take him out? Keep riding him! Murray is having a great postseason. As good as Fleury has been this year and even with the Stanley Cup ring that he wears, you ride the hot hand. If Murray puts out Washington and gets to keep playing, what if he wins a Cup? But alas, I think with the start of a new round, the Penguins will go back to Fleury.

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My quick two cents on Bruce Boudreau – he didn’t deserve to be fired. Game sevens are too random. Do you really think it’s because the coach is a little jittery and it rubs off on the players? Or that he’s panicking and making some panic moves during the big game? Really? If you honestly think that, then just have Boudreau coach your team all season and into the playoffs, and then send him home for Game 7 and have a coach step in for a one-off. Anyway. Ridiculous. Game sevens are random and you can just as easily win four in a row after losing four in a row. It was a bad move.

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With all due respect to Kevin Leblanc, who has been a great Saturday prospects writer for DobberHockey this past season and has really turned that column into a steady “must read” weekly piece – but I disagree with two of his buy-low player suggestions in Saturday’s article. My two cents – Oscar Lindberg is a checker with minimal upside. I stated here on a few October and November occasions that I was shocked at how well he was doing. When he cooled off and started getting scratched, all was right in my world. Things were back to normal.

And the other guy was Ben Hutton. I don’t think highly of his upside at all and if the Canucks can ever get a decent puck-mover for their blue line, Hutton will just be another Grant Clitsome. Fills in when needed. That being said, I do acknowledge that it’s possible that Leblanc is right. It’s certainly not laughable. After all – maybe the Canucks don’t get a defenseman this summer. And maybe Lindberg finds the magic he had last October. But I personally have little faith in it.

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Not only do the Leafs get Matthews (if they want him), but the highway robbery they pulled off at the deadline to get Connor Carrick is already paying dividends. He leads the AHL in playoff scoring with seven points in three games for the Marlies. He’s a defenseman, remember.

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The AHL second round matchups are set:

Hershey Bears (Washington) vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (Pittsburgh)

Toronto Marlies (Toronto) vs. Albany Devils (New Jersey)

Lake Erie Monsters (Columbus) vs. Grand Rapids Griffins (Detroit)

Ontario Reign (Los Angeles) vs. San Diego Gulls (Anaheim)

So the Caps and Penguins play each other in both the NHL and the AHL…

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Fifty seconds that changed the course of Maple Leafs’ history…