I was and saw them win two cups but it’s such a distant memory it almost seems like a different franchise anyway. I can honestly say that the failure of this group of players and of this management team to do the things needed with them is the most disappointing nine years out of the 60+ that I’ve been a Leafs fan. My wife who’s from Detroit (who incidentally invited me to their training cap in 1979) thinks I am a real sucker to still follow the team and I’m beginning to think she’s right. Not sure if there is a cure for the disease though.
Post-Game Talk: Leafs Lose 4-2
- Thread starter Jimmy Firecracker
- Start date
I wouldn’t get too picky. They’ll need to play Florida in round two in any case.
He wouldn’t be afraid to bench players that’s for sure. He benches Kucherov and Point when they’re not working hard enough FFS.
It won’t be $7.5M though because the Leafs will have to eat at least $2M of it but I’d still do it.
When he bought into Dubas’ team building approach he showed that he doesn’t know how to win in today’s game. He was on the committee with the NHL that changed the rules to speed up the game and he believed he and Dubas had the cheat code for how the game should be played. Boy was he wrong.
Reluctantly, yes. I'd extend him another two years as long as we keep making the playoffs and then at the end of Matthews' contract begin a retool. His replacement will probably wait a year before making any big changes.
With Marner at the blueline other teams don't have to respect the shot, so they collapse more, forcing Matthews and Nylander farther out. This makes cross ice passes more likely to be cut off, and one timers harder.
I think that's true but should be qualified as a departure without the knowledge of cap changes on the near horizon (i.e. Covid) that unequivocally changed our future capability to sign the depth we needed. But this to say, the timing was ill-considered given the opportunism of Matthews and Marner and to a smaller extent, Nylander. I think he was genuinely taken aback by the new NHL.
Yep. I think the bold is a much-needed under-emphasized point that should be repeated. I think Colorado's profound interest in Dubas (or the leveraged appearance of it) was the primary factor for Shanahan hedging against Lamoriello. A cautionary tale not to allow fearful thinking enter the equation. A lesson from Sir Alex Ferguson would have been useful then and there. And by then and there, how painful is it to realize that we were right there, and didn't need to move out our bargain gritty 2C. We just needed to make small changes, sign support players, stock draft picks, maximize our 1sts and where possible, pounce on promising RHDs with the excess.
Maybe we could coax Sir Alex out of retirement to serve as our organization's invincible Jiminy Cricket?
My ego loves the idea of Shanahan being the guy that brought the Cup to Toronto.
Make no mistake, I want the Cup if it means outspending the other competition or outsmarting the league's parameters.
Apart from being a Leafs fan, consider the size of Toronto's market in this sport. Consider our history. When we win -- and I've said this repeatedly -- any successive Cups won't matter as much as the first. Why? Well, the obvious reason:
You can only end the drought in the largest hockey market in the world ONCE. If Shanahan left, came back and won the second, third and fourth after another President won the first, it wouldn't mean as much.
You would think that there would be a sports psychologist who would impress upon the room that salient fact. For some reason it's not apprehended in the way it should be. It's no more properly apprehended than is the idea of building slowly and carefully until we have maximized our considerable resources to a point that would make our acquisition endeavors almost inevitable.
If only every person involved in bringing the Cup back to Toronto had the kind of ego you believe Shanahan to have, we might have had a fanbase, a media center and whatever shadow cabinet moves our management, on board with those interconnected elements and serious about that singularly momentous opportunity that once it happens changes everyone's lives to unthinkable levels.
Shanahan could run for PM and win. Nylander could probably do the same eventually in Sweden. Time would be divided for everyone involved by that championship date. I don't think the scale of the feat has been properly considered or cultivated in the least.
With all due respect to every other club, while meaningful in an absolute sense to those involved, a Cup win in Toronto is worth more. So of course he's holding on for dear life. And he will continue to if realizes what follows IF we win.
Yes they brought in that Dallas scout for
His role in doing exactly that
