I know that some of my fellow Leaf fans consider my conspiracy theories regarding Shanahan being an NHL plant to be worthy of me needing to be wearing a tin foil hat. I maintain that his role, on behalf of the NHL, is to make our Leafs competitive, but NOT good enough to win a Stanley Cup.
However, consider these points on Shanahan....
1) To my knowledge, and to this day, he has NEVER moved his family from the NY area to Toronto. That by itself screams his commitment to the City of Toronto IS NOT what it should be.
2) He brought in Dubas as a rookie G.M. and stayed with him through many of his egregious mistakes. If it wasn't for the Dubas power-play to take his job, he would still be our Leafs G.M. despite the lack of any worthy achievements. 1 appearance in the 2nd round of the playoffs in 7 years is not good enough for the investment in cap dollars to the core 4.
3) He continues to NEVER speak against the NHL when it comes to the obvious refereeing, and especially the NHL department of player safety, biases against our Leafs. I am quite sure that if a Leaf had done what Marchand did last night, that player would have received a 5 minute major and game misconduct for intent to injure. Further to this, the NHL DofPS would have given our Leaf player a 3 or 4 game suspension.
4) He seems to have prevented his new G.M. from hiring his own coach. Keefe's contract was extended, despite that he has not brought much playoff success since being hired. Keefe was a friend that was hired by our rookie G.M. Any other NHL team would have moved on from this coach that can't motivate and train his players to achieve progressive success.
5) This actually bothers me the most. He has not overseen the building of a Leaf team that can play tough skillful hockey the way he played to much success. Why Shanahan, why?
Oh well, it is what it is. All I know, that as a life long Leaf fan, I had more hope during and shortly after the Ballard years. Our Leafs under MLSE is simply treading water and not bringing what all Leaf fans should want... a Stanley Cup championship.
At least I'm old enough to still remmeber the enjoyment I felt in 1967 !!! Too bad it looks like I'll never feel that way again !!!