[Matthew Tkachuk] Leafs would be unbelievable if the team wasn't in Toronto

[The Gr8 Dane]

Love the trolling hahahaha

Toronto is a piss easy city to play in , they've been together for like 9 years and get to run it back non stop with no repercussions. Fans are just now shitting on AM34 and it took 10 years of him being Phil Danault in the playoffs

Am34 and Mitch wouldn't last that long in a place like Montréal. A city that actually loves to destroy our players publicly , Toronto media is soft they love the players, easy city to play in.

 

[POVERTY]

If this franchise was anywhere else it would have folded by now lmao

 

[Daximus]

He is 100% right. Toxic media and fans affect every Canadian team. Takes McJesus to overcome that.

Then hockey players are weak minded as f***. You think it's hard to play hockey in a Canadian market? They would cower in the corner if they played in most of the association football leagues. Heck they would have a mental breakdown if they played in quite a few markets in the MLB, NBA or NFL.

So either hockey players are bigger wussies than football, baseball, american football and basketball players. Or it's an excuse for being failures.

 

[Frank Drebin]

“Someone yelled at me while i was walking my dog just because i was trying to extract an extra 20m out of the leafs, hampering their ability to ice a competitive team in the process “

Guy just wants to be overpaid in peace

 

[Frank Drebin]

He is 100% right. Toxic media and fans affect every Canadian team. Takes McJesus to overcome that.

Call me crazy but there should be some accountability when you’re making 9 figure career earnings.

Im almost positive there wouldn’t have been this amount of backlash if there wasn’t hardball contract negotiations from the players here. You want to extract the most amount of money possible while underperforming when it matters.

It doesn’t work that way. It shouldn’t work that way

 

[CzarDemidov]

Toronto fans are too soft and easy, if anything

Have you seen Canadian ticket prices? Playoff ticket prices?

 

[matt trick]

I do see some parallels to my football team, Man United. United is on a 10 year run of failure in which they’ve had 8 managers and spent like ~1.5B on transfers. Unfortunately, the only way they can get players is by paying them above market wages. The most elite players won’t touch them, so they end up paying elite wages to second or third tier talents. With poor ownership, they also have struggled to set a direction meaning whichever new hotshot European manager or former star they bring in installs a new system, often requiring entirely new players. This obviously takes time, and the media is waiting to pounce on the previous players, the new signings, or the new manager. They seem to take pride in it. I think there were several instances where United could have gotten it right, but it takes probably 3-5 years of patience and investment in things other than second tier players (development, improving the player experience).

The big difference is Toronto has had Matthews and Marner, both top 5 at their position (along with Nylander and Tavares who are/have been top 10 during their contract) in the regular season, while United hasn’t had a world class player in his prime since Rooney (10+ years ago).

Toronto is in a rough spot. Marner must go, but they’ll regret it soon enough. They’ll be a lesser regular season team without him, and there’s no other player in FA who comes close to replacing him (will Ehlers, Boeser, or Granny even consider Toronto). Matthews may also need to go, but they’ll regret it. They can’t rebuild because they’ve traded their next three firsts. If they were to trade him, his NMC, injuries, cap, 3 year term, and playoff performance, mean he’ll have relatively few viable destinations.

The fastest path to relevancy is probably trading Matthews, but without him and Marner I don’t think it’s completely out of the realm of possibility that Philly or Boston end up enjoying a very high pick from Toronto. They more or less gave the Sharks Couture and gave vanishing Seguin/Hamilton for Kessel. You can’t give up McKenna/Dupont to a rival for f***ing Carlo or Laughton. With Knies, Tavares, Nylander, solid defense and good goaltending that shouldn’t happen, but the Islanders had Barzal, Nelson, Lee, Horvat, and better defense and goaltending and they’re picking #1. If you’re Toronto, you sure you want to tempt fate? Injuries can sink any team.

If he hadn’t been booed by the fans whenever touching the puck, it might be the lesser evil to resign Marnrt, but given his second round performance, I don’t think you can sell the fans on that.

 

[izlez]

It sure is funny to me that a comment of "honestly, its hard to deal with the pressure of the media and fanbase in that city" is met with an avalanche of "NO IT'S NOT YOU JUST SUCK, YOU p***y" from the media and fanbase in that city

 

[Idiot Stick]

What a ridiculous load of shite.

Players in other sports in other North American cities have more pressure and handle it just fine (Yankees players, guys who play football and baseball in Philly, etc.). Then there are soccer players in Europe and South America where it is far, far more intense than North American sports will ever be.

If Leafs players cannot handle playing in Toronto then they are mentally weak. Ignore social and mainstream media and the pressure is gone.

i present to you the Dallas Cowboys
The maple leafs of the nfl

I honestly understand leaf fans a lot by being a fan of that joke football team

 

[BKIslandersFan]

feels like a player from a sunbelt no fan team gaslighting passionate fanbases
tkachuk is a next level troll

This is why we laugh at Leafs fans. Incredible arrogance right here.

 

[wgknestrick]

TOR's fanbase and media gets everything it deserves. Matthew Tkachuk is so right about this comment. I wouldn't want to sacrifice anything for them either as there is only overreaction after you are just 1 of the 31 teams to end their season in pain every year.

 

[Frank Drebin]

It sure is funny to me that a comment of "honestly, its hard to deal with the pressure of the media and fanbase in that city" is met with an avalanche of "NO IT'S NOT YOU JUST SUCK, YOU p***y" from the media and fanbase in that city

Again, maybe there wouldn’t be the backlash if there wasn’t the hardball contract negotiations.

 

[Frank Drebin]

TOR's fanbase and media gets everything it deserves. Matthew Tkachuk is so right about this comment. I wouldn't want to sacrifice anything for them either as there is only overreaction after you are just 1 of the 31 teams to end their season in pain every year.

You can lose. Losing is disappointing but it’s part of hockey.

Losing like assholes like the leafs did in game 5 and 7 is unacceptable

 

[snag]

None of those teams have a storied history and culture of losing that has created a fanbase that has massive resentment towards their own team.

Lack of storied history? No culture of losing? Red Sox rank higher than the Leafs in both.

Curse of the Bambino?

 

[Summer Rose]

Lack of storied history? No culture of losing? Red Socks rank higher than the Leafs in both.

Curse of the Bambino?

Definitely was that way for a while with the Red Sox, but they eventually got over it (helped quite a lot along the way by becoming the first team in major league baseball to complete a reverse sweep). Same story with the Chicago Cubs. It's just that it took 86 years for the Red Sox and over 100 years for the Cubs. I definitely enjoyed the hell out of both while they lasted.

 

[wgknestrick]

You can lose. Losing is disappointing but it’s part of hockey.

Losing like assholes like the leafs did in game 5 and 7 is unacceptable

This post is just "exhibit ZZ" of proving my point. Throwing jerseys on the ice, beers at players, booing in the 1st period, etc. You would've thought they were playing in Philly after that loss, but nope home stadium. They lost in the same "asshole" fashion as their fans are.

Its just a game and entertainment. Treat it as such and you will be much happier .

 

[Jwads]

People don't want to acknowledge it, but there's a lot of truth to this. Chris Johnston just talked about today how Mitch Marner has been harassed multiple times throughout the years and he was harassed last night after the game by fans as well. There were Leaf fans making threats against his newborn son on Twitter.



This is not normal behavior. There are other fanbases with passionate fanbases that are hard on their players, but you're never going to see them throw beer at their own players and try to do stuff to them off ice. Toronto is different because their fanbase has a pretty deep resentment for their own team due to the repeated failures of the franchise. It's a more toxic and negative passion than say a Montreal where they mostly have high standards due to their pride. There's a harshness and brutality to Toronto due to the self-loathing fanbase and media.

The first time he was yelled at was in 2019 at the age of 23? No wonder he wilts under pressure.

I was yelled at by practically every adult I knew as a child. And as a teenager/young adult the yelling just got more intense. Now I hardly even register when someone is yelling or being insulting.

Hopefully the guy can find some peace outside Toronto.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

People don't want to acknowledge it, but there's a lot of truth to this. Chris Johnston just talked about today how Mitch Marner has been harassed multiple times throughout the years and he was harassed last night after the game by fans as well. There were Leaf fans making threats against his newborn son on Twitter.



This is not normal behavior. There are other fanbases with passionate fanbases that are hard on their players, but you're never going to see them throw beer at their own players and try to do stuff to them off ice. Toronto is different because their fanbase has a pretty deep resentment for their own team due to the repeated failures of the franchise. It's a more toxic and negative passion than say a Montreal where they mostly have high standards due to their pride. There's a harshness and brutality to Toronto due to the self-loathing fanbase and media.

This is normal behavior for a die hard sports city , I'm sorry but that's just the reality of being a Leaf Cowboy Yankee Red Sox Canadiens or a soccer city. It's just more shocking in hockey because there's only maybe 3-4 fanbases in the league that have nutjobs like this

 

[thebeernerd]

Matt’s off base here. When you’ve gone as long without winning anything as the Leafs have, it gets into the heads of the decision makers, who decide to keep making win-now moves. The one moment of clarity this teams has had in the last 20 years was well and truly ruined by Shanahan in this regard. But you can see this play out in Buffalo and Vancouver as well.

I hate to play the “mental toughness” card but I think that’s a role here too. When the lights are brightest, they wilt. My Devils have been in the playoffs only three times since the Core Four Leafs era and they still won a playoff Game 7 against a heated rival. The Leafs have lost all seven winner-take-all games in this stretch. I don’t know whether they’re entitled, nervy, lazy, or what. But they’ve never had anyone who can give them that extra kick in the ass that they sorely need, and it isn’t in the core.

 

[snag]

Definitely was that way for a while with the Red Sox, but they eventually got over it (helped quite a lot along the way by becoming the first team in major league baseball to complete a reverse sweep). Same story with the Chicago Cubs. It's just that it took 86 years for the Red Sox and over 100 years for the Cubs. I definitely enjoyed the hell out of both while they m

damn I didn't even notice i spelled SOCKS instead of Sox lol. DoH!

 

[Greatzsky 99]

its a double edged sword if leafs had won 3 cups in 4 years?
even the great great great great grandchildren could probably live
comfortble of beeing a distant relative to them, signing jerseys for 100
bucks a piece and free lunch everywhere,

now matthhews and marner
have to pay double at local cafe( if they let them in) cause people
think those rich bastards can pay that, purge hate feeling, kind
of a low budget theraphy,

when thinking about it, if i was
a psycholog in toronto i would specialyse in trauma and wounds
centering arund maple leafs, big bucks and big pool of people.

 

[Summer Rose]

damn I didn't even notice i spelled SOCKS instead of Sox lol. DoH!

Eh, it happens. I make spelling mistakes and typos too. Everyone does. I can usually understand what someone means anyway, and if I can't I'll just ask for clarification without being rude.

 

[KnightofBoston]

With all due respect. f*** off with this.

I’m a Bruins fan, so I have no problem laughing at torontos pain here. This is entirely on the players, as it always is

only a sith deals in absolutes


seriously tho, it's mostly on the players, GM, coach

but the high pressure definitely plays a factor, even if it's not the most significant factor

 

[izlez]

Plenty of teams in other sports in major markets with high media scrunity and with a passionate fanbase win and don’t always crumble under pressure (Real Madrid, Barcelona, LA Lakers, Celtics, Red Sox, etc.).

Poor excuse for underperforming.

Real Madrid plays in a league with 20 teams. Their payroll is 10X half of those teams. Their payroll is almost 5X the 4th highest paid team.

The Leafs killed it when there were only 5 other teams they were competing with, too

 

[BiolaRunner]

This is why teams like the New York Yankees
and Philadelphia Eagles never win anything. It’s simply impossible for big market teams with rabid and demanding fanbases to perform!

Leafs fans should be grateful for getting to witness their team constantly mentally checking out of the biggest games and politely clap from the leagues most expensive seats.

Maybe not the best year to use this analogy