The Leafs are the Rangers, and the Rangers are the Leafs.
I think I may have made that argument in this weekend’s Slap Shots. Mika Zibanejad is Auston Matthews, and Artemi Panarin is Mitch Marner.
You know what? The Maple Leafs haven’t had the benefit of having a goalie like Igor Shesterkin, nor someone akin to Henrik Lundqvist. Not even close. In that respect, the Maple Leafs remind me a lot of the Flyers from the late ’90s and early ’00s. Back then, Philadelphia often didn’t feature the strongest goaltending in the important games that led to their series losses. The name Roman Čechmánek might come to mind.
Who can say for sure? This year, they might have found themselves at least on par with Sergei Bobrovsky, who keeps demonstrating that a team can succeed with a goalie at the high end of its pay scale — provided that Anthony Stolarz hadn’t been sidelined in the series after Game 1.
