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How to fix the Leafs: Fan Edition

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HamiltonNHL said:
He realizes now that this team won't change.

That quote was from March 2020
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You'll find the same quotes form fans in 2019, 2013, 1999, 1983.... Toronto is a meat grinder, even the most hard nosed player gets burnout eventually.

Marner is not a fighter but if he was smart he'd take the smallest weakest guy on the other team and pummel the crap out of him. Fighting actually use to calm my nerves, if I was thinking too much, I was in my own head, I would grab ahold of someone, didn't care who, exercise my demons, pummel the guy or get pummeled and after that I could focus on my game. It's the way I got rid of my nervous energy. Do I suggest any kids reading this do that? absolutely not, hands are for hugging?
 
Racer88 said:
Building the team this way with this core is a failing project. We need to get rid of at least 1 of them to try and balance the team with motivated hard working skilled player. We are stuck with Tavares, they will not trade Matthews just yet and Nylander is worth his money the odd man out is money Mitch
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I don’t know how we can conclude that it’s failed when Matthews and Marner are both still 24 years old.

Lots of problems right now yes. But the problems this team faces are absolutely still going to be there with or without Marner.
 
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54 Years of Futility said:
So he can't be traded to anywhere he doesn't want to go to in the last year of his deal. That's why he has to be dealt the year before.
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Even it they trade you to the team you want, you can, in the case of a Matthews level player, probably save your new team a couple of first round picks, plus more. So your new team is stronger, and they're even in a better state of mind. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.
 
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Leaf Army said:
I don’t know how we can conclude that it’s failed when Matthews and Marner are both still 24 years old.

Lots of problems right now yes. But the problems this team faces are absolutely still going to be there with or without Marner.
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They are 24 years old however Tavares is not 24 and they have shown no progress.
All you have to do is listen to them and watch their effort.
Marner for sure is not the type of attitude to bet your future success on and Matthews attitude isn’t much better.
Every off season we hear all the same cliches about how they are going to be better……..expect for Marner we all know he said he wasn’t going to do anything different and he was true to his word.
Dubas tried this fancy new business model and it’s showing it’s not working
 
Carltons Cup said:
I agree that passing has been an issue.

I may get slammed for this, but why not sit Simmonds or Ritchie and give Ho-Sang a shot? The kid is hungry to prove himself and he looked good in preseason. He would add speed to the lineup, playmaking ability and a willingness to play hard to stick in the lineup. God knows Ritchie isn't doing much especially given his size.
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Agree, but why not Marner? Ritchie is 4th or 3rd line guy and we want to imagine 1st line. Not his fault. Simmons is a neutral.
 
Bluelines said:
Curious if you have picked up on some structural on ice things the Leaf can do to improve their play? I'm more interested in your X and O thoughts vs , fire Dubas, fire Keefe, trade every one.

A couple of things I've casually noticed:

  • They can't pass for s#it, pucks in feet, pucks behind intended player they are passing too, pass to a ghost player, receiving the puck like they are playing with whiffle sticks, can't receive a pass for s#it.
  • Possession, last year I remember a team that would die before they gave up the puck, this year I see a lot of just dump and curl away, it's like they are not interested in puck possession, which is odd because in the Cans game they had a 3 minute advantage at one point, 19min for Leafs, around 16 min for the Canes, but it sure didn't seem like the Leafs had the puck more.
  • They look like a team that is living last years playoff demons today. If those guys grip their sticks any harder, the sticks will instantly combust into fire. I hate to say it but they need to forget about last years debacle and press the reset button. Thinking about past events wont change it. Yep they choked in epic fashion. Get over it. you can't change it.
  • They have been out worked in every game, you cant tell me they have faced 6 harder working teams. Fr example last night I watched two Leafs go in to forecheck two Canes, wonderful I love a heavy forecheck, , Canes broke out and it was a 4 on 2 against the Leafs, how does that happen? Where was our 3rd guy? and how did one of the Canes who was in his own zone beat one of our forecheckers back into our zone? How does that happen?
Curious on your thoughts from a X and O perspective on what is wrong and how to fix it.
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I agree with most of what you said, however I find the possession stats very misleading. If you think about it, your 4th statement that the team was outworked in the canes game, however posession says we had a great game. I remember when that 3 min posession stat came on the screen, and I was like, really? We've sucked this game, we've been out shot, and I dunno how the leafs count chances, but in my book we were out chanced.

I think a big problem is, if we're measuring our success on posession, than we're playing really well...
 
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Racer88 said:
They are 24 years old however Tavares is not 24 and they have shown no progress.
All you have to do is listen to them and watch their effort.
Marner for sure is not the type of attitude to bet your future success on and Matthews attitude isn’t much better.
Every off season we hear all the same cliches about how they are going to be better……..expect for Marner we all know he said he wasn’t going to do anything different and he was true to his word.
Dubas tried this fancy new business model and it’s showing it’s not working
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Everything you are saying here is the exact thing Leaf fans have been saying for like the last 40 years. Just change the names. History keeps repeating.

Absolutely nothing is going to change with this franchise until someone realizes that the culture that surrounds this team is the problem… not the players.

You can change the players and the same thing will happen. It’s a meat grinder.

People said the exact same things about Kessel and then he left us and immediately went on and won consecutive Cups and was the Penguin’s leading scorer during the playoffs. People in Toronto have short memories.
 
This team has operated at, over, or close to the cap limit since 2005 and was one of the biggest spending teams before that.

Try operating like the Sens. Get this team to the cap floor, ship everyone with a large contract, trade anyone who is about to get a big pay day, take back as much as you can in picks and prospects. Reward the players after they earn a contract. Stop operating at the cap ceiling until the team has at least sniffed a playoff finals.
 
I remember this guy named Scotty Bowman snd he said you have to build a team from the Netminder out to the defence and then the Offence.
I don't see a Vesina goaltender or solid championship type defenseman here. I think Dubas has not addressed the problems that has dogged this team for 4yrs.
 
If I’m the team trainer I swap out Marner’s morning orange juice with a big honkin’ glass of Metamucil.

Get that $#it out pronto…..
 
Strip Tavares of the C and have him wave his NTC. We need cap relief bad. He's the oldest of the big four and seems slow.

Field offers for Matthews, Marner and Nylander. See what you could possibly get.
 
The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime. - Babe Ruth

Proof positive that Babe could see into the future... he had to be talking about the Leafs .. :)
 
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