Final Thoughts

 

Here I sit again with another article on the way because I thought after yesterday talking about Toronto’s round one loss, I would get to take a little break from writing but after some of the things I and I am sure most of the fan base has heard or read by now you can probably guess I have a few things to say.

Now in case you are not aware the Maple Leafs held their season ending media conferences today and I watched both the players availabilities and each one from the head coach and management. Now I am not going to go through each player and be like this player said this and this player said that because if you want those answers, they are easy to find but for the most part were the usual cliché answers, so the purpose of this article is I am only going to talk about a few things that stood out to me.

First off, the Head Coach. Sheldon Keefe has been behind the bench for basically a season and a half taking over in November of 2019 from Mike Babcock after the debacle that was what turned out to be Mike’s final 2 months as Leaf bench boss. Now today Sheldon would mention that he understood the frustration of the fans of the Leafs after a 5^th consecutive first round exit for this franchise but then when asked about the teams lack of a power play he answered saying that solving it is a big priority for him in the offseason and my question to that is….Why wasn’t it a priority for you and your coaching staff to try and fix the powerplay during the regular season? For the first twenty to twenty-five games the Maple Leaf powerplay was a lock it was almost a guaranteed goal but after that twenty-five-game mark the powerplay was the worst in the entire national hockey league why? Because the six other coaches in the North Division adjusted to Toronto’s set up. The six other teams new your zone entry would start with Reilly and then work through Matthews and Marner. Those other teams knew that once Toronto managed to enter the opponent’s zone that Marner was going to look for a pass to Matthews and were never going to work the puck down low to the net so your opponents always stayed high above the faceoff dots and blocked the passing lanes waiting to counterattack and a perfect example of this would be the short-handed goal given up to Montreal in game one to lose. Now for the people that read this article I don’t want you to think I want Sheldon out as coach because I don’t want a coaching change at all Sheldon has been successful coaching in the American League, the Ontario League with the Soo Greyhounds you can go all the way back his Jr A days as a head coach with the Pembrooke Lumber kings where from 2007 to 2011 Keefe coached Pembrooke to five straight CCHL titles. It is obvious that he is fully capable of winning and getting players to play to the best of their abilities but Sheldon If I someone who is sitting at home watching on TV can tell you what is wrong with your powerplay set up then surely you and your staff who watch every game from the bench and then review countless video every day should be able to see what is wrong.

Next, I am going to talk about Shanahan, Brandon would come on and open his media conference apologizing to the fans for the disappointing result he also understood the frustration but reiterated that he liked the roster the Leafs staff had put together he was impressed with how the team’s depth played this season. He then addressed the big four and simply said that he, Kyle, and Sheldon want them here because there are thirty other teams that would love to have either one of the four big ticket forwards on their roster. Then comes Steve Simmons who in my opinion is the dumbest member of the Toronto media but he would cut Brandon off saying “in all my years covering hockey I have never seen a team built like this lose 5 straight series then win the cup”. Brandon would then roll his eyes and then tell Steve that he remembered hearing media say teams will not win a cup with all Russians and then that team would win a cup. Shanahan believes in the core of this team and believes the Leafs will bring a Stanley Cup home to Toronto but understands changes to the roster are likely.  Brandon would finally remind Simmons that it took him 10 seasons to win his first championship. Which is along the lines of what I talked about in my article the other day. Success does not happen over night or whenever you want it too happen Success comes after years of pain and frustration because in those losses you learn what it takes to reach that next level or to reach that ultimate goal.

 

Lastly on the management side I am going to quickly talk about GM Kyle Dubas. He would also say he understands the frustration of the fans and puts the blame on him. Kyle would also mention that speaking to the players today after another early exit Kyle stated today was probably the most difficult final day, he has been a part of since being with the Leafs because he could sense the devastation and disappointment in the group. Kyle would then quickly talk about how there is interest in bringing Bogosian back to Toronto as well as Spezza and finally Hyman but when asked about Freddie Andersen Kyle answered saying the interest is there if the price is fair for both sides.

Now Finally I am going to talk quickly before I focus on one player in particular. Jason Spezza said he wants to return to the Leafs because there is a sense of unfinished business with this team. Honestly, I think it is a safe bet that Jason Spezza will return on another league minimum deal.

John Tavares spoke today where he updated everyone on his status since the injury that saw him leave game 1 of the series against Montreal. Tavares said he was feeling better day by day but also stated he does not remember the hit from Perry, and it was not until he was in the ambulance where John started to grasp what happened. He would then go on about how he and the team felt they have let the entire fanbase down, but he and the team are determined to do whatever it takes to bring success to the city and its fans. Personally, I just hope that John can return at 100% next year because concussions are nothing to fool around with and his injury is hands down one of the scariest things I have ever seen.

The last player I am going to talk about is Mitch Marner, Now I highly doubt Mitch will ever see this article but let’s pretend he does happen to read this. Mitch, I want to start off by saying I am a huge fan of you and the way you play the game your skill speaks for itself, and I am very happy that management seems to have said the core of this group is not changing. With that said with the way you caried yourself in your zoom call with the media today and how you have acted previously after tough losses I am beginning to see why you receive some criticism by fans on social media. I understand your frustration after losing in the playoffs and players don’t always want to answer questions from the media but guess what? That’s part of your job talking to the media comes with the territory when you play for the Maple Leafs. You need to take a step back and remember when you were a kid watching your favorite team, these same Leafs. Did you ever see how Mats Sundin or Darcey Tucker handled themselves with reporters after tough losses or playoff exits? Sure, there were frustrated at times but accepted that answering numerous questions came with being a member of the Leafs. Understand that wearing the Leafs crest is earned it is not handed to you, those players I named also wore a letter like you did. Those two players earned the right to wear their respective letters because of how they carried themselves both on and off the ice. Of course, they faced criticism at times during their Leaf tenure, but they faced it head on every single time. Now I get that fans on social media and fans in general of this team can be frustrating and a but much at times but you should really be thankful that you have a generation of fans that want to know what you and the team are doing because in Toronto you have fans that give a damn about you and this team just like you cared for the players wearing the Leafs jersey when you were growing up. Next season if they are fans in attendance at home games during a break if they show an alumni member like Wendel Clark, Darryl Sittler, or even Doug Gilmour, I want you to listen to the ovations those legends receive even after all these years, and I want you to understand those and other alumni members are worshiped by this fanbase because of how they handled themselves with the media and fans. The Leaf players you grew up watching and idolizing were able to block out the negative criticism.

 

Lastly, I want to talk about the fans of this team, again I get losing in round one is frustrating but let’s look at the positives from this season. We watched a team that won their division comfortably for the first time since 2001. We fans got to watch each goalie that started whether it was Freddie Andersen before the injury have a strong start, we got to see Michael Hutchinson perform well when called upon remember he and the Leafs shutout Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers, and we cannot forget Jack Campbell who like Andersen battled injury but was able to win eleven straight starts setting a new franchise record in the process. Finally, we saw Auston Matthews be named the leagues top goal scorer winning the Rocket Richard Trophy and this afternoon the league announced Matthews as a finalist for the Ted Lindsay award for MVP voted by the players. My point to all of this is we fans have the privilege of watching a special group of players that will be successful when the time is right and when it happens trust me it will be the best experience for the entire fanbase but for now all we need is just a little patience.