How bad is the morale of the fanbase right now?

[Eye Test]

My hope and morale is at an all-time low as a 15 year-old leaf fan... just want to see my team win a playoff round at least.

yeah I feel bad for you, you haven’t even seen a playoff win ever. I’m 29 but I at least have seen the Sundin era, even though I missed out for most of the Wendel era.

Go watch 5 minutes of tucker/domi or the leafs highlights from that time and you’ll see why we want a team that gives it their all. Maybe we didn’t have a rocket winner or a 90 point winger but we loved those teams.

 

[kevsh]

I'm about excited watching them as they seem to be about playing.

 

[Not My Tempo]

Legit haven’t watched a single full game this year. During the course of the pandemic I’ve found there are better ways for me to spend 3 hours every other night than being disappointed in the Leafs.

 

[Eternal Leaf]

My hope and morale is at an all-time low as a 15 year-old leaf fan... just want to see my team win a playoff round at least.

Geez, all you've seen is pain.

The past 15 years truly have been a joke when it comes to the playoffs.

 

[Cpt Maple Leaf]

Oddly enough, my morale for the fanbase itself has never been lower.

I mean, It's like watching the Leafs trying to sort out some roster turnover (I think the Ritchie on the first line experiment is probably over for example) and not playing too poorly and watching a collective baby tantrum from a large portion of the fanbase.

Yea, they lost badly last night on the 2nd end of a back to back on a travel-heavy road trip to a team that had beat Tampa 6-2 (in a statically much more one-sided game, an actual overall beat down). It not the end of the world. I'm big on the Pens this year myself.

Toronto is not gonna be a top ten team for shot/scoring chance differential and a .956 PDO team forever. Useless collective freakout but maybe we'll get lucky and some of the more toxic fans will actually stop watching before Toronto picks up the winning again.

Respectfully, who gives a feck What you think of the fans. The team has failed over and over for so long they have a right to be pissed and not anyone’s place to say how to be a proper fan. This team needs to get itself together from top to bottom and that is the problem, it appears there is no chance of that happening anytime soon.

 

[MapleLeafsMats]

Most dislikeable team we've had since I've been a fan (~20 yrs), so I'm filled with apathy. After the Montreal series, I vowed not to watch again until Dubas, Keefe and Shanahan are gone. Obviously, I find myself back but I can't help but laugh when I watch the same mistakes and woes now.

 

[Zybalto]

It's definitely a period when an awful lot of people are venting on social media. The fact this has happened so early in the season after the disappointing playoffs certainly didn't help things

But rationally speaking, it's only a matter of time for that PDO to snap back to the norm for the team. It'll be curious to see what the mood is when they go on the seasons first winning streak

Just looking at the recent past, threads will be super short and fewer of them and most of the posters won't be active for that period. Many are truly invested in losing and will almost cheer it on in a way despite claiming to be fans.

I don't think it's exclusive to the Leafs really as most social media has become a cesspool of negativity but just the size of the fanbase and their record of futility.

The Leafs have been better than all 4 playoff semifinalist and the president trophy winners so far though as all the teams are sorting out their teams right now but, outside of the Habs, I don't see those teams remaining mediocre for long. It's just really silly to make any huge judgements right now.

 

[Zybalto]

Respectfully, who gives a feck What you think of the fans. The team has failed over and over for so long they have a right to be pissed and not anyone’s place to say how to be a proper fan. This team needs to get itself together from top to bottom and that is the problem, it appears there is no chance of that happening anytime soon.

Or there could be the possibility a bunch of cranks around here are overreacting?

History is on my side on the one. Let's get closer to Halloween before we write off the season no?

 

[Cpt Maple Leaf]

Or there could be the possibility a bunch of cranks around here are overreacting?

History is on my side on the one. Let's get closer to Halloween before we write off the season no?

Ah, the voice of reason. Thank gawd you made it, I was getting worried here with all the different opinions and such. Seriously though, small sample size this season, yes but not much good to take away from it. Expand the sample size to current regime and the team is declining rather than improving. Pan au out and it has been 17 years with no success. Really look at big picture, and well… 67. I think that might lead to some skepticism and critiquing of the team, no? Not sure how history is on your side with this one…

 

[Bomber0104]

Or there could be the possibility a bunch of cranks around here are overreacting?

History is on my side on the one. Let's get closer to Halloween before we write off the season no?

This management team and core has failed miserably for several years now.

"History is on my side" he says..

 

[hamzarocks]

My morale has gone up greatly, sadly not for the leafs.

Watching the Cricket T20 WorldCup, and my team won badly today. Good day for me and my family/friends on that front lol. Believing they can win the whole tournament now.

Hopefully, leafs follow through and get their act together. I got the patience for 20-25 more games. If they aren't chugging on all cylinders by then, I will definitely consider myself a casual leaf fan until we rebuild this team

 

[Ambassador Bridge]

How will this apathy/anger affect Sportsnet and TSN?

 

[123offtheglass]

Just take a look at the thread titles going right now...

 

[Throw More Waffles]

This management team and core has failed miserably for several years now.

"History is on my side" he says..

I honestly couldn't tell if that was satire when he said that.

 

[Northernguy10]

I'm not in the mood to expand on this right now, but to me, we have a blue collar fanbase (for the most part) having to support a white collar organization.

 

[Anthrax442]

How are you feeling?

 

[WilliamInLondon]

I still believe in this team - I think they'll make the playoffs and depending on matchups, win the first round series.

But make no mistake about it - whatever lustre or allure this team has left is definitely gone. This team has peaked. What you see is what you get, an Shanahan/Dubas/Keefe need to be evaluated through this prism. A second round loss and survival of the management/coaching staff means ownership is happy with treadmilling until Matthews walks. Let's not kid ourselves, there's no more upside left in this organization (roster + cap space + prospects).

 

[saffronleaf]

My morale has gone up greatly, sadly not for the leafs.

Watching the Cricket T20 WorldCup, and my team won badly today. Good day for me and my family/friends on that front lol. Believing they can win the whole tournament now.

Hopefully, leafs follow through and get their act together. I got the patience for 20-25 more games. If they aren't chugging on all cylinders by then, I will definitely consider myself a casual leaf fan until we rebuild this team

my team lost in that same T20 match, so it's a double whammy!

 

[hamzarocks]

my team lost in that same T20 match, so it's a double whammy!

ah damn, well as a console, your team usually beats mine in these tourney's lol. Tourney is still young, expect both of our teams to play again in Semi's/Finals

 

[TheBeastCoast]

Every crushing playoff loss crushes me less then the preceding one. 2013 hit me like a f***ing mac truck. I was devastated for quite some time after that one. Last year? I already knew we lost game 7 after game 6 was over. I have never seen so much apathy about a team leading into a season as this one as a fanbase though. It is quite interesting to watch.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

The deeply flawed team constructed by Dubas is what it is: a failure.

Accelerated rebuild with Tavares: dumb move.

Signing Marner to that contract was dumb, even I knew Marner's season before the contract was unsustainable.

Spending so much money on Forwards is stupid.

Seeing quality people go because they aren't affordable is a sign of bad cap management.

Dubas needs to go.

Marner needs a full season of LTIR confidence therapy and he can come back to the playoffs when Kucherov does.

 

[34]

It is bad, at this point you are going to start seeing a lot of empty seats at the Scotia Bank Arena. The fans in Toronto have had enough of this fraud of a hockey team.
They are going to miss the playoffs this season and Matthews is going to ask for a trade out of this dumpster fire.

Signing Tavares was the beginning of the end, and the Marner contract was it! Done. $10.9M for a 165 lbs winger who is softer than butter.

Dubas and Shanahan will be fired.

 

[7even]

I watched ~75 games a year from 2006 to last year. I've watched a cumulative 13 minutes this season. Never been better, would recommend.

2013 was brutal but that team wasn't any good to begin with. 2018 was unfortunate. 2019 started to feel like a pattern. 2020 was a joke. Last year jumped the f***ing shark. I can't really get it up for another regular season when they mean literally nothing. Marner's playing bad? Matthews isn't scoring? Oh no, how ever will we recapture last year's resounding successes

 

[613Leafer]

Anecdotally, based on my friends/family, as well as what I keep reading from people on here and on reddit, I get the impression that a significant portion of the fanbase has either substantially reduced how much they're watching Leafs games, or even stopped altogether.

I'd be really curious to hear what their ratings have been like. My guess is pretty bad.

 

[Brown Dog]

All-time low.