Post-Game Talk: End of the Shanascam? | Leafs Blown Out at Home Again

[Al14]

Its naive to believe a team in a Salary Cap World can be a serious Cup contender when you have 4 players among the top 12 highest paid players in the game.

The minute the Leafs signed Tavares to his bloated overpaid contract 7 years ago, I said this team would be screwed as that set the mark for internal salaries and player greed would see other contracts rise up to it.

I'm glad the foolish experiment is finally coming to end.

But, is it really coming to an end ??? I will consider it coming to an end when Marner, Tavares, and Rielly are all gone, with Matthews and Nylander up for sale to the highest bidder.

 

[Mess]

That 2nd period performance by the Leafs might have been their worst performance of the year.

Total domination by Florida and it looked like an NHL team vs a CHL Junior team in skill comparison.

The Panthers went Harlem Globetrotters on the Leafs It was hard to watch and even tougher to take when your team is the one getting dunked on.

 

[ruaware41]

To me it is also part of the "system". The Leafs are so passive in their own zone and they collapse the forwards down so strongly that the area above the circle to the blueline was just owned by Florida.

But yeah, our D was mostly solid (although Carlo was awful on two goals in game 7). There were plenty of times the Leafs made super weak clearing efforts and got hemmed in..

Brendan Carlo thinks he's Bobby Orrlo with all his stupid pinches in an even game or when the Leafs had a lead. I had a feeling it would come back to bite him at some point.

 

[rumman]

Would you trade AM and Reilly for Petey and Hughes?

Hughes will end up in Jersey with his brothers, Petey I wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole…….

 

[Al14]

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out Shanahan.

I would slam the door right into his fraud face !!!

 

[Anthrax442]

 

[TheGreenTBer]

Hughes will end up in Jersey with his brothers, Petey I wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole…….

Agreed entirely.

Hughes is a freaking gem among gems but he already has his destination in mind and that desination isn't Toronto. Pettersson is mentally SAWWWWWWFFFTTT times infinity, honestly probably even more so than Matthews or Marner.

 

[shaner8989]

How about Barkov and Thachuk? They were both dog shit. Are they injured?

 

[TheGreenTBer]

View attachment 1038890

The Bruins board would love this lol

 

[sunstersun]

No surprise our D scoring falls apart like a deck of a cards against a good team.

 

[rumman]

It's sad to see it.

Young Knies playing hurt, great production throughout the playoff run.

Inconsistent Nylander scoring in bunches and getting his breakaway looks.

Old JT finding his scoring touch at times in the series, almost won us Game 3 by himself.

Pacioretty digging deep and scoring a series winner for us, sealing the deal in Game 6 in Florida.

Benoit with an OT winner.

Domi with an OT winner and more goals than the captain himself.

OEL with a couple of big goals earlier in the run.

Playoff Rielly chipping in with a few clutch goals when he wasn't coughing up goodies for the opposition.

Scratch and score Nicky Bobby.

Tanev with 1 goal.

If all these guys were passengers, maybe the stage was just set for Auston to do something truly special. Nope.

Patches and Benny win my votes for the players who did the most with the least talent. Hard work bets talent when talent doesn’t work hard……..

 

[rumman]

Agreed entirely.

Hughes is a freaking gem among gems but he already has his destination in mind and that desination isn't Toronto. Pettersson is mentally SAWWWWWWFFFTTT times infinity, honestly probably even more so than Matthews or Marner.

How about convincing Vancouver into taking Styles to form their Swedish line 2.0?

 

[TheGreenTBer]

Patches and Benny win my votes for the players who did the most with the least talent. Hard work bets talent when talent doesn’t work hard……..

Kind of a mini-redemption for Patches because of his "Patio-ready" nickname in Montreal tbh. He exceeded expectations.

 

[TMLeafer]

How about Barkov and Thachuk? They were both dog shit. Are they injured?

They were not producing and are definitely not getting called out. But the thing is when these guys don't score, other parts of the team picked it up (their depth, D, and goaltending). Our team loves to shit the bed all at once.

 

[Drytoast]

I'm glad hockey popularity is falling off in Canada.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/youth-hockey-canada-declining-participation-1.7231607

f*** this sport.

 

[Fogelhund]

Its naive to believe a team in a Salary Cap World can be a serious Cup contender when you have 4 players among the top 12 highest paid players in the game.

The minute the Leafs signed Tavares to his bloated overpaid contract 7 years ago, I said this team would be screwed as that set the mark for internal salaries and player greed would see other contracts rise up to it.

I still don't think that is the issue, it's a complete false premise to draw this conclusion. If those four players then go out and are the best players on the ice, there shouldn't be anything wrong with that. It's when those four players underperform so badly when it counts, that is the problem.

Marner six games sevens.... -7, two points
four points in nine games sixes
five points in eleven games fives

Matthews, 3 assists, no goals, in six games sevens
six goals, no assists in eight game sixes
six points in ten game fives (none in the last three years)

Particularly in games sevens, your highest paid players, need to be dominating games. They are paid to be elite players, and they needed to be elite when it counts. five points, in twelve games sevens played, between these two. It doesn't matter how much we paid them, or anyone else, if your best players are complete no shows, it isn't going to matter at all.

If it was proven, that the four highest players on the team, performed to expectations, based on these salaries, and the rest of the team let them down.. and the team lost because the rest of the team didn't score... while these guys were absolute forces... I would agree... but that's not what has happened here. This team isn't losing because they can't afford depth, this team is losing because those guys who are paid to perform, don't when it counts. It isn't the salary structure, it's that they've bet that on players who don't perform when it counts.

These guys aren't winners... that's all there is to it.

 

[Al14]

Ah well, we probably all thought they would lose, but this badly? absolute no show.

See ya Shanny, see ya Marner, see ya JT. time to do something new in the top 6.

Matthews and Nylander should be up for sale too. Rielly as well.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

How about convincing Vancouver into taking Styles to form their Swedish line 2.0?

How would we convince Nylander to go to freaking Vancouver though?

They are honestly in one of the worst positions in the league.

 

[Fogelhund]

How about Barkov and Thachuk? They were both dog shit. Are they injured?

Tkachuk is injured yes... Barkov was busy shutting our guys down....

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

View attachment 1038538

Just another game eh Mitch?

 

[ruaware41]

Understand the pitchforks coming out for Shanahan, but I do have some sympathy for him. He came in and burned it to the ground and started over with a build-from-the-ground-up approach that this franchise needed and had avoided for years in favour of quick fixes.

And he remained patient to stick with the vision of his belief in this core group.

His mistake was hitching his wagon to this particular core.

Shanny and co rushed the rebuild. The fans are as bipolar as management. They all begged for a rebuild and as soon as they looked like they were going to the playoffs they went all in - every single year. They even admitted to rushing it at the time and justified "accelerating" it. There were some of us here who said no it's not right, we need to be patient and keep building but the fans once again bought all the hype and forgot the principles they cried for, as did management.

Should have traded jvr and Bozak on expiring deals at the deadline.
Shouldn't have traded two seconds for Boyle.
Shouldn't have signed Tavares.
Shouldn't have signed a player like Marleau that early.

I personally was against each of these moves on my old account. So were some others on this forum but they were a small minority.

But the Leafs can't delay gratification. Greed. This fanbase doesn't ever deserve another rebuild because they can't handle it.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

I still don't think that is the issue, it's a complete false premise to draw this conclusion. If those four players then go out and are the best players on the ice, there shouldn't be anything wrong with that. It's when those four players underperform so badly when it counts, that is the problem.

Marner six games sevens.... -7, two points
four points in nine games sixes
five points in eleven games fives

Matthews, 3 assists, no goals, in six games sevens
six goals, no assists in eight game sixes
six points in ten game fives (none in the last three years)

Particularly in games sevens, your highest paid players, need to be dominating games. They are paid to be elite players, and they needed to be elite when it counters. five points, in twelve games sevens played, between these two. It doesn't matter how much we paid them, or anyone else, if your best players are complete no shows, it isn't going to matter at all.

If it was proven, that the four highest players on the team, performed to expectations, based on these salaries, and the rest of the team let them down.. and the team lost because the rest of the team didn't score... while these guys were absolute forces... I would agree... but that's not what has happened here. This team isn't losing because they can't afford depth, this team is losing because those guys who are paid to perform, don't when it counts. It isn't the salary structure, it's that they've bet that on players who don't perform when it counts.

These guys aren't winners... that's all there is to it.

As per usual, you hit the nail on the head.

It's not that the star players take up so much of the cap. It's that they take so much of the cap AND they don't take over and lead in the playoffs consistently.

 

[rumman]

How would we convince Nylander to go to freaking Vancouver though?

They are honestly in one of the worst positions in the league.

No idea, but nothings impossible…….

 

[Punch Drunk Loov]

No first round pick for the next 3 drafts.

 

[Ianturnedbull]

You've got to get your shit together.

This team did ok. I don't think they underachieved this playoffs. This is who they are. Perhaps things might have been different if Stolarz was healthy and same goes for Matthews.

I’m not sure what TOR will look like next season, but they still have a lot of players under contact.