Has Dubas failed at his job?

[Captain Crunch]

We won three games despite JT going down because we are a much better team than them. If he did t go down we probably would have swept them

We agree to disagree. We were the better team last year and this year.
The pattern seems to be with this team they can’t win the big one. But who knows, maybe the 3rd time’s a charm. But if not, what then? Hopefully not more excuses.

 

[All Mod Cons]

Yes is the correct answer. Hasn't had the guts to trade Marner (for cap structure reasons) or Rielly (because we will not be able to afford his extension), and it's about time this "own-rental" bs ends with him.

The most tragic flaw of Dubas is not even realizing his biggest strength by far, which is drafting. A lot of the guys that we have kept as own-rentals are not true impact players, so really there's no excuse. So many picks wasted on pointless trades.

The "own rental" phrase is something I've only heard from our fanbase. I believed we coined the phrase.

 

[Byron Bitz]

I somewhat agree. We are a much better team than them until the winning really counts.
Two consecutive playoffs of being the better team with jack shit to show for it.
At what point do we stop blaming it on bad luck, and put the blame on either Dubas, the core, or both?

I think Dubas, Keefe, Marner, Galchenyuk, Andersen and bad luck all deserve varying amounts of blame for us losing in game 7 of the first round every year. I believe we would have won the MTL series if JT did t go down but I also believe we should have been able to close it out without him, those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.

 

[All Mod Cons]

This is a make or break season for the GM, and the Coach and even the President perhaps.

If playoff success doesn't change this season then management will. IMO

Sports is a results oriented business.

We heard the exact same thing after the defeat to Columbus. No doubt, we'll hear it again after this upcoming season.

 

[egd27]

OK but then they also would have been favourites against Winnipeg and who knows, maybe they could have beaten Vegas. The point remains, a timely goal (the first goal in Game 7 would have definitely made a difference) in any of those three games and we could all be celebrating a decent run and no one would be calling for Dubas' head right now.

Yes, it would have.

Which begs the question, why does this group struggle to "be ready" at the start of crucial games? I can understand Game 5 when they were coming off 3 straight wins and Montreal was desperate, but other than that, I just don't get it.

2019 Game 7 - poor start
2020 Games 1, 4, 5 - poor starts
2021 Games 5,6,7 - poor starts

6 losses and a miracle win in those 7 games.

One more win and they advance.

Is it the coaching, or is it just the wrong personnel? Either way, the GM had better figure it out.

 

[Captain Crunch]

Why not let the season play out before you just assume the worse and make up imaginary voices in your head?

And you continue to let your imaginary voices tell you Dubas can do no wrong, and that this season will be the one. But if not, hey, there’s always the season after, or the next one, or …
And let them tell you this group can get it done when it matters the most.

 

[noo]

I think Dubas has been fine overall.. he overpaid Marner for sure, but otherwise he's been pretty good.. some savvy trades and signings no doubt

I personally liked almost everything he did to this team - at the time that it was done.. besides maybe the Kadri trade, but I really liked Kadri

Wasn't a big fan of Thorton when he signed either, but I think the bigger problem was how Keefe was using him.. had he just played on the 4th line & no PP all season it would have been fine.

The way I see it is Dubas every year is trying to surround the core with the right players .. for a couple years it was veteran leadership .. and now it's toughness/grit.. Every year we go into the season and the Leafs are at the top of all predictions, IMO that's the GMs job right there. Where they go from there is on the players and coach.

Leafs went into 2021 playoffs as the unanimous favourites. Don't think a anyone picked Montreal to win. The players ghosted and Keefe got out coached second year in a row. I don't see how that's the GMs fault really..

I wouldn't be surprised that if they fail again this year (i mother f***ing hope not......), Dubas will be the one who handles the "retool"...

 

[leaffaninvancouver]

And you continue to let your imaginary voices tell you Dubas can do no wrong, and that this season will be the one. But if not, hey, there’s always the season after, or the next one, or …
And let them tell you this group can get it done when it matters the most.

I don't have imaginary voices in my head pretending what people will say. I just think maybe let the season play out before you judge the season. You're ready to write the team off this season despite the fact they haven't played any hockey.

 

[Captain Crunch]

I think Dubas, Keefe, Marner, Galchenyuk, Andersen and bad luck all deserve varying amounts of blame for us losing in game 7 of the first round every year. I believe we would have won the MTL series if JT did t go down but I also believe we should have been able to close it out without him, those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.

Bottom line is, I believe the same as you, I desperately want the Leafs to win. These last playoffs totally drained me. And for sure, Keefe deserves his fair share of the blame.
But if this season doesn’t bring different results, aka winning at least a few rounds, then I hope significant changes are made.

 

[Mess]

Because you said it messed up our line chemistry when JT went down. My point was how come they could win 3 games without him?
At some point, people need to realize this core cannot get it done when it matters most.

We lost to Columbus the year prior in the play-in round and we couldn't even win 3 games in that series and we had all of the core 4 for all the games, the only problem was that they kept getting shutout.

We never even made it to the final 16 when we faced the full NHL during the regular season and took on CBJ in a best of 5 series with all core 4 forwards. We also lost to Boston the previous year in round #1 when we had all of Matthews, Tavares, Marner and Nylander on hand and they all played all 7 games in the series.

Some people forget this last year was already strike 3 with this core 4 when it comes to playoff results under this current GM . If this were baseball we would already be out. Perhaps the JT injury allowed the organization to count last year's strike out as a foul tip which now makes this upcoming playoff potential strike 3 instead, unless the core 4 and this team start knocking off some playoff round wins.

I believe this organization is now at a crossroads for this GM/Coach and this Core 4 and it all comes down to this year's playoff results to determine the fate of all involved. IMO

 

[TheGreatOne11]

We lost to Columbus the year prior in the play-in round and we couldn't even win 3 games in that series and we had all of the core 4 for all the games, the only problem was that they kept getting shutout.

We never even made it to the final 16 when we faced the full NHL during the regular season and took on CBJ in a best of 5 series with all core 4 forwards. We also lost to Boston the previous year in round #1 when we had all of Matthews, Tavares, Marner and Nylander on hand and they all played all 7 games in the series.

Some people forget this last year was already strike 3 with this core 4 when it comes to playoff results under this current GM . If this were baseball we would already be out. Perhaps the JT injury allowed the organization to count last year's strike out as a foul tip which now makes this upcoming playoff potential strike 3 instead, unless the core 4 and this team start knocking off some playoff round wins.

I believe this organization is now at a crossroads for this GM/Coach and this Core 4 and it all comes down to this year's playoff results to determine the fate of all involved. IMO

Yep, 100% make or break for this rendition of the Leafs. Winning two rounds is the bare minimum for saving a lot of jobs this year.

Can't be happy with winning one round, not with our expectations, not with this teams talent on paper.

If we lose or win one round I'd expect a massive shift from top to bottom.

 

[Captain Crunch]

I don't have imaginary voices in my head pretending what people will say. I just think maybe let the season play out before you judge the season. You're ready to write the team off this season despite the fact they haven't played any hockey.

I didn’t say I was ready to write this season off. The regular season results will not matter to me. Making the playoffs and winning a few rounds are what matters.
And since management abandoned the rebuild and paid their “core”, this team must start having success in the playoffs. If the 3rd time’s not a charm, hopefully significant changes will occur.

 

[Fogelhund]

Dubas has done just about everything possible, except buy this team luck. He's brought in goalies, improved the D, veteran leadership, physicality (maybe not quite enough), change assistant coaches, signed Euro free agents... what he hasn't done, is found a way to stop Tavares from getting injured, or found a way to stop Matthews from being unlucky with unsustainably low shooting percentage, and hitting posts and cross bars, and he hasn't found a way to stop Marner from underperforming when it counts the most. What he is responsible for, is finding the right coaching to fix the PP issues. He is responsible for finding the right people, to get into Marner's head, and bring his playoff potential, to what it can be. I'm not a Dubas fan boy, and really don't care who is the GM... but he's done a ton for the team, and the failure lies with the stars not performing when needed most. We failed this past playoffs, because Tavares got injured, Matthews shooting percentage dropped, and Marner didn't play as good as his regular season potential suggests... this is on the players..... They are young, and they get multiple chances... if they can't figure it out, eventually the team needs to get changed, but it's too soon for that, these players are too young.

The blame so far.. is the players, and the PP...

 

[Captain Crunch]

We lost to Columbus the year prior in the play-in round and we couldn't even win 3 games in that series and we had all of the core 4 for all the games, the only problem was that they kept getting shutout.

We never even made it to the final 16 when we faced the full NHL during the regular season and took on CBJ in a best of 5 series with all core 4 forwards. We also lost to Boston the previous year in round #1 when we had all of Matthews, Tavares, Marner and Nylander on hand and they all played all 7 games in the series.

Some people forget this last year was already strike 3 with this core 4 when it comes to playoff results under this current GM . If this were baseball we would already be out. Perhaps the JT injury allowed the organization to count last year's strike out as a foul tip which now makes this upcoming playoff potential strike 3 instead, unless the core 4 and this team start knocking off some playoff round wins.

I believe this organization is now at a crossroads for this GM/Coach and this Core 4 and it all comes down to this year's playoff results to determine the fate of all involved. IMO

Could not agree with you more! It’s put up or shut up time for both management and the core.

 

[tmlfan98]

The "own rental" phrase is something I've only heard from our fanbase. I believed we coined the phrase.

Exactly, some made it up to cope with the fact that we were letting all these high level assets walk for nothing when the only years we have been true contenders on paper under the Shanaplan were 2019 and 2021.

Anyone who says we were contenders in 2018 as justification for letting a lot of our top assets on expiring deals stay after that seasons trade deadline are disregarding that true contenders do not pay Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev a combined 11.5% of the cap (was 75M that season) to take up huge defensive minutes.

 

[Byron Bitz]

Also, Although the Tavares injury isn’t Dubas fault. Dubas is at fault for us not having a third line center that can jump into a 2C role when needed due to injury. Kerfoot is not that guy, despite the fact that he’s paying him like he is. Keefe had no confidence in Kerfoot at 2C he was juggling the lines all series trying out Foligno and Engvel in Tavares role. Dubas and Keefe should have been more prepared for the possibility of one of our top 2 centres going down.

 

[A1LeafNation]

I think the shine has worn off. I think he made a bad signing with Marner and the rest of his deals are fine. I think his drafting hasn't been great.

All GMs have warts and one bad deal. Fortunately ours is a 90 point player.

He's been pretty good, but the players have let him down. It doesn't matter anymore, this is his team and his team hasn't made it past one playoff round and that lies on him.

 

[TOGuy14]

We agree to disagree. We were the better team last year and this year.
The pattern seems to be with this team they can’t win the big one. But who knows, maybe the 3rd time’s a charm. But if not, what then? Hopefully not more excuses.

3rd times the charm?

At this point we are looking at 6th times the charm

 

[Blowfish]

Improving Ottawa, Boston, Tampa, Florida, and Montreal will be a challenge for all teams in the Atlantic. Has Dubas improved the team? I believe most will say the team has regressed.

Going to be a real interesting season in the Atlantic.

BTW Dubas failed to improve the team by not trading one of his top 3 contracts early on. Good luck doing that going forward.

 

[acrobaticgoalie]

Are we sure he's an excellent drafter? There are some players that look promising but they haven't performed at the NHL level yet, except Sandin, even that is limited

Have a look at the conversation in the Gabriel thread

 

[acrobaticgoalie]

Improving Ottawa, Boston, Tampa, Florida, and Montreal will be a challenge for all teams in the Atlantic. Has Dubas improved the team? I believe most will say the team has regressed.

Going to be a real interesting season in the Atlantic.

BTW Dubas failed to improve the team by not trading one of his top 3 contracts early on. Good luck doing that going forward.

I'm not ready to say we've regressed. I don’t think we got better though. The only area we might have gotten better is adding some speed back to the lineup with Jumbo gone

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Also, Although the Tavares injury isn’t Dubas fault. Dubas is at fault for us not having a third line center that can jump into a 2C role when needed due to injury. Kerfoot is not that guy, despite the fact that he’s paying him like he is. Keefe had no confidence in Kerfoot at 2C he was juggling the lines all series trying out Foligno and Engvel in Tavares role. Dubas and Keefe should have been more prepared for the possibility of one of our top 2 centres going down.

I hate to say this, but I really have to question if you even watched the series. Kerfoot had no trouble stepping up, and was 2nd on the team in scoring. Not to mention that it's impossible for a team to have every bottom of the lineup player ready to fill in for a top player going down in the event of an injury. This isn't the Olympics

 

[Captain Crunch]

3rd times the charm?

At this point we are looking at 6th times the charm

True. Lol

 

[ottomaddox]

I didn't even watch game 7 vs. MTL. I already knew what was going to happen based on games 5 and 6.

Out of all the years watching TOR, I've never tuned them out early like that.

I know teams lose in the playoffs, but why was the series against MTL so damn predictable? Why did TOR all of a sudden roll over 2 games straight?

I still can't freaking believe that happened and the falls on Keefe and Dubas.

Sure. Throw Shanny in there too.

 

[Pookie]

hasn't succeeded yet doesn't mean failed. Once he's fired and out of the league then sure, call him a failure. All NHL teams are a work in progress and change every year

he’s failed so far.