Are the Leafs a better TEAM without Matthews?

[Racer88]

Yeah I mean I don't want to criticize him for not being captain material, it's not his fault. He's a great player obviously, one of the best of his generation. But when I look at our playoff record and the way our core keeps disappointingly withering away when the stakes are highest, I can't help but feel like there's a leadership vacuum. I feel like none of these core guys have it, and that's why we're going to keep on losing. If we could trade one of these core guys for someone with that it factor, that could go a long way to solving our problems but now they're all locked in ... the time to do it was after we lost to MTL, could have gotten a massive return for 1st all-star Marner despite his pukey playoffs, imagine 2 lesser guys with leadership qualities, something like ROR and that type of Dman. But our management group has no balls to make that kind of move and now it's too late anyway. I expect Marner to be resigned for a small fortune and we'll likely watch many more scenes of the same movie.

I can't tell you how badly I hope I'm wrong about this, but that's what I see.

Ya I’m cheering for you to be wrong too but we haven’t seen anything out of any of this core group that say leadership.

 

[Stephen]

Yeah I mean I guess everyone has their moments when they don't look good, it happens to the best of them. That said, it's not even that he's supposed to be so good defensively (and he really is good defensively too), it's that what you ideally want out of your captain is to set a good example, and probably the most important part of that is to be seen giving 100% as close to 100% of the time as you possibly can. I remember Sittler and Gilmour were like that and that's one thing this team is really missing IMO - a leader!

From what I've seen so far, Matthews just doesn't have it in him. I guess they made him captain because he's the best player and they didn't see that they had any better choices and that's maybe my biggest concern for the playoffs. New coach, great. New system, people are raving about that OK great but if you don't have leadership, you're going nowhere.

I feel like what holds Matthews back in all aspects of his game is his inconsistent energy levels. When he's really on and healthy, he comes at you in waves, dog on a puck, scores in bunches and blows the roof off the building. That's kind of your gold standard, Hart winning version of Matthews, the one where you look at the pace he sets and it's undeniable the Leafs belong to him as a team, and he should be captain, etc. Granted it's hard to play this way, but if you're still staking claim to be the second best player in the game, it takes effort.

But when he doesn't bring that energy level, when he scores those nonchalant too cool for school goals, it seems like the team's energy level also stays flat. So if you're in a captain's role, I think part of that leadership has to do with leading by example, and letting your play energize the team.