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The Maple Leafs now have the longest Stanley Cup drought in NHL history

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The key really is goaltending. You simply can't win without franchise goalie. Yes there have been handful times where medicore goalies win here and there but you have to have a franchise goalie. Something we shy away from drafting. And that one time we did we traded him away

Leafs rarely drafted top end goal tending in probably decades. One we did and I'll come back to this (Rask)

Montreal does one thing right once every 20 years. They somehow draft a franchise goalie and if not generational like Roy and Price. That's the key

When you have a franchise goalie, you can build your team around him. You get lucky, you go on a hot streak like LA in 2013, or Bennington few years ago

Last goalies who we drafted and played for us Potvin, Telvkist and Reimer. Oh yeah and Garreth Sparks. Not a good track record


But you have to draft that goalie. Check out our luck

We draft 2005 Tukka Rask. We trade him for a goalie who wasn't good. A goalie who was supposed to be good in Pogge didn't pan out and we lose out in a franchise goalie

So many things had to go wrong in that scenario and all did for us. Goalie we got sucked, goalie that was supposed to be a star in this league didn't even become a NHL backup and goalie who we traded away becomes a star and franchise goalie

Like wtf ?
 
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usernamezrhardtodo said:
The other major difference is that Tampa is smart enough to see when they made a mistake. When they tried the whole 'Skilled but Small' thing and it didn't work because CBJ checked them out of the playoffs...they got bigger and they didn't get useless players like Simmonds to do it. They got players we thought were useless like Schenn and Bogo. They learned from their mistakes and didn't make either half hearted attempts at fixing it or double down on a failed experiment.

If you listen to Cooper...he sounds like a guy who figured out the formula. We have no such person in our management team.
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They also added Blake Coleman who competes every shift. Patrick Maroon a vet who has been proven with St.Louis cup run
This year they added David Savard. They didn't get any prone players from Columbus

You know who they didn't add? players with low compete level
 
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For me the clock reset when the cap was implemented. Guess that makes it 17 years?
 
TheScandal89 said:
People like to Blame Ballard for the 70s/80s and as much as he really did curse us, you can't blame him for the teams Sundin had around him. There was no cap. When you look back in those days and compare us to the Devils, Avalanche and Red Wings, its unbelievable how bad it was mismanaged.

When it comes down to it the team's problem is, was and always will be, its inability to draft outside of round 1, and round 1 has been a coin flip for us aswell. I mean we have made some picks for guys who have been servicable like Kaberle, Gunnarson, Stralman, etc but the point remains. When you go threw our 2nd and 3rd round picks its fairly upsetting.
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Yes, Ballard had no influence (direct) on this era. However...... a lot of players didn't want to come to Toronto then as FA because of ownership meddling in hockey operations. Also, I do agree drafting was pretty bad, but Quinn was like Fletcher - draft schmaft..... It also goes to show how hard it is to win.

Back to the '80s Ballard teams (he was owner, but had influence over his GMs)...... they actually had some really good players at times, but boy was he a crazy owner - probably nobody like him in any other major NA sport franchise.

Funny seeing people overreacting to this last season and then seeing their posts on here saying they've been following this team since Sundin. Go live the late 70s and 80s teams and then come back and tell me how embarrassing this last season was. Look at Dubas' drafts and then go back and look at drafts like the Belleville 3, or picking guys like Luca Cereda, Brandon Convery, etc with 1st round picks. The '96 draft got Kaberle (984 pg in the 8th rd) and a whole 3 pts and 21 GP from the rest of that draft. Then have a look at the 99 draft.....3 gp, 1 A (from the 8th rd pick).
 
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ACC1224 said:
For me the clock reset when the cap was implemented. Guess that makes it 17 years?
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10 X Missed Playoffs & 6 X Lost in round #1.

Never mind longest Cup drought our Leafs haven't won a single playoff round in those past 16 years and counting since the Salary Cap was instituted.

Just goes to show how crucial Salary cap usage, allocation and management of that resource is tied when tied to team success, and a team really has to spend smarter not harder to be successful.
 
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hockeywiz542 said:
By re-signing Wayne Simmonds and Jason Spezza, and signalling they’re open to talks with pending free agents Frederik Andersen and Zach Hyman, Dubas is showing faith in everything that has taken them this far. Of course, five opening-round playoff losses in a row is not far enough, but Dubas isn’t taking advice from his naysayers. Significant change doesn’t appear to be in the cards.
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This is really sickening
Someone who will not abandon his philosophy no matter how long they lose. And Shanny with his head in the sand too.
Well done MLSE.
 
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What's even sadder is the bar is so low. We'd be happy with a series win at this point, forget a cup :laugh: 3-1 lead vs the 18th overall team and still can't get it done. This core can't win a cup. Not enough money to go around. Being a leaf fan is the most hopeless thing in the world.

Even if the Habs get swept, their fans can be proud of their team. Proud of the effort, not quitting, winning against all odds and making the finals when everyone had them being swept or losing in 5 in the 1st round. I don't know what to be proud of with this team anymore. Rocket Richard winner ? nice, but 1 goal in 7 games ? All of a sudden I understand why the Winter Soldier went rogue and became the biggest leafs hater on these boards. Not that I'd do it..but I understand the man.
 
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SedintoHorvat said:
Canucks fan saying we'd be happy with a drought long as we'd have actually won once. :) You guys at least have a rich history !!
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At least you've seen a them play for a chance at the Cup.
Only a small portion of fans here have seen that.

To put things into an even bigger show of failure, EVERY Canadian team besides Winnipeg (they've only been back for 10 years) has had the chance to play in the Stanley Cup Finals since the Leafs last made it out of the first round.....
 
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Dubas and Shanny do it to themselves. It's so hard to believe, but they would have kept the pressure off them if they had only won 1 more game vs. MTL.

Now the pressure is on. Many hockey analysts believe this season is Duabs and Shinny's last opportunity. I can't imagine that using duck tape is going to make it hold well keep it together.
 
janesy12 said:
At least you've seen a them play of a chance at the Cup.
Only a small portion of fans here have seen that.

To put things into an even bigger show of failure, EVERY Canadian team besides Winnipeg (they've only been back for 10 years) has had the chance to play in the Stanley Cup Finals since the Leafs last made it out of the first round.....
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Reading this I have to agree on the Leafs and their fans have had a rough 50 plus years. Good luck to you guys next season !!
 
Garthinater said:
Were the leafs not a rich team back then? There was no salary cap so they should've had an amazing team. Why were they so bad?

I didn't watch any hockey in the 80s so I honestly have no clue.
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Harold Ballard was a mizer who wouldn't spent a cent on the team if it killed him. The Leafs MADE money, but Ballard preferred sinking it into the Hamilton Tiger Cats.
 
Lightsol said:
Harold Ballard was a mizer who wouldn't spent a cent on the team if it killed him. The Leafs MADE money, but Ballard preferred sinking it into the Hamilton Tiger Cats.
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He was a caricature capitalist villain, like Old Man Potter from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, or an unreformed Ebenezer Scrooge, from the money stuff, right down to his sneering contempt for others.
I remember the Leafs wearing black armbands after he died and how strange I found that as a kid, since no one was really sad to see him gone.
 
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AvroArrow said:
What's even sadder is the bar is so low. We'd be happy with a series win at this point, forget a cup :laugh: 3-1 lead vs the 18th overall team and still can't get it done. This core can't win a cup. Not enough money to go around. Being a leaf fan is the most hopeless thing in the world.

Even if the Habs get swept, their fans can be proud of their team. Proud of the effort, not quitting, winning against all odds and making the finals when everyone had them being swept or losing in 5 in the 1st round. I don't know what to be proud of with this team anymore. Rocket Richard winner ? nice, but 1 goal in 7 games ? All of a sudden I understand why the Winter Soldier went rogue and became the biggest leafs hater on these boards. Not that I'd do it..but I understand the man.
Click to expand...
Half of this board has gone TWS and I don't blame them :laugh:

 
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