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Leafs are second in the league in scoring. Problems are being able to get the puck out of their end and mistakes. It’s not a systems problem, it’s an execution problem.
This team is incapable of being 2nd in scoring and 2nd in defending. This Leafs team either doesn’t score and defends or it attacks and loses 5-4. It’s built upon core players that play one-dimensional hockey.
The difference between this team and the Phil Kessel team, is now we have more Phil Kessels.
Just a gut instinct to be honest. After they got eliminated last year, 16/34 and a couple guys were golfing together two days later. El Capitan said after 16 left that they would be friends forever or something along those lines. Matthews hasn’t seemed to be playing with the same passion so far, either.
The whole thing gives me Lowry/DeRozan vibes, minus the part about winning a championship.
Except, DeRozan got Kawhi and an immediate championship. Treliving got dick on a stick after he let Marner go like a retard.
I’ve liberated myself from this team for now. Not watching any of the games and not watching their advertisers. If they gave me free tickets, I’d sell them and plan a nice weekend getaway. This team is putrid and going nowhere. They haven’t had a heart and soul player on this roster since the days of Roberts, Tucker, Corson and Mogilney. It’s sad to say, but the last 23 years have been dismal. Sure, we’ve seen some great personal milestones for some of the elite players, but none of them have been able to elevate their game in the playoffs. Coach’s come, coach’s go. GM’s come, GM’s go and the song remains the same. Ticket prices up, broadcast revenues up, great for the shareholders. The fans just spinning their wheels and getting older. I won’t live long enough to see them do a rebuild and actually win the Stanley Cup. My fading memory will be watching them win the Cup as a 9 year old boy in glorious black and white. As I’ve said before, the last Cup victory was closer to the inception of the team, in 1917, than today. That’s the disgrace that we all must wear around our necks as Leafs fans. Might as well be cement cinder blocks.
The Stanley Cup is the hardest team trophy to win in all of sports. This is a fact. It’s incredibly difficult to assemble a team that can withstand the rigors of 82, soon to be 84, regular season games, qualify for the playoffs and then win not one but four seven game series against teams that are just as motivated. But the Leafs have way more resources than 100% of the NHL. Only Montreal, New York and to a lesser degree, Boston, Chicago have the financial resources and the fan base that could drive them to spend and care as much as the Leafs could. And the Leafs just seem to squander this advantage at every turn by simply hiring the wrong people to operate the team. Time and time again, they hire idiots like JFJ, Dubas, Burke, Shanahan, nepo-baby Treliving…management with no proven track record of success or merit. Closet they got was Lou and they kicked him to the curb.
It’s rather sad that expansion franchises like Nashville, Florida, Tampa Bay, Anaheim, Carolina, Las Vegas, San Jose and even the Ottawa Senators, have either won a Stanley Cup or gone to the Final with a fraction of the financial resources and a fraction of the fan support. Franchises that do more with less while the Leafs do less with more. And again, this points to the Leafs, as an organization, simply not being capable of putting the correct people in charge to assemble a team capable of achieving glory.
Looking at the Leafs the past 20-25 years, you see time and time again, the same pattern repeating. The way they waste 1st round picks, either by throwing them away in bad trades or making bad selections, is horrible. The few lottery picks they did manage to keep, they selected too many of the same type of player. Then, overextended themselves signing Tavares who did not bring what he was paid or expected to bring. Every “top prospect” found in the late 1st round or beyond has been overhyped and underdelivered except for perhaps Knies in recent years. And as good as Knies is, he’s still not Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Point, Kucherov etc. type of elite MVP found in the obscurity of the draft. He’s a solid top-six winger. Very good, but not great. Not elite. Not the absolute best when it matters.
The player this team has built itself around have never been the truly elite players of their era. I brought up Sundin days ago, not because I hate him but to illustrate that only the absolute best win Cups and the Leafs never seem to have the best of anything, especially in the playoffs. Sundin was a franchise record breaking player, but in his era he wasn’t Sakic. He wasn’t Yzerman. Or Hasek. Or Brodeur. Or Niedermayer. Or any other player that was truly an elite “winner” in his era. The same goes today with Tavares. Tavares is not Kane, Toews Crosby or Ovechkin of his era either. Matthews, has at least won MVP awards and the Richard. But when the moment arose for him to be that in the playoffs, it’s never materialized. Matthews is not MacKinnon, Kucherov, Barkov or even Eichel of his era. Notice the pattern? The Leafs have had very good players, but never one that has proven to be the absolute best. And only the absolute best, with the team that goes with them, can win a Stanley Cup because that’s how hard it is to win.
Ovechkin, as great as he was and still is, only has one Stanley Cup. But every year in the playoffs, he showed up. His team wasn’t built for the playoffs, but he still was. Similarly, McDavid has been dominant in the playoffs but his team hasn’t held up their end of the bargain. Unfortunately with the Leafs, it seems as though neither the team nor Matthews is suited for the playoffs. Maybe that will magically change but it seems less and less likely as the years go by. It only gets more difficult for a playoff underachiever to improve when his team around him disintegrates and removes elite players like Marner only to replace him with 3rd line plugs. But again, unlike McDavid, Matthews doesn’t even show dominance in a losing effort. He just plays down to the level of his own team.
The Leafs need to start planning their rebuild for 2028 now, which meanings firing Treliving and bringing in a President of Hockey Ops that truly understands what it means to draft, develop and build a winner from the ground up. It needs to be a total tear down and fire sale. The assets they currently hold are, luckily, still valuable to other teams. If the return is big enough, the Leafs can acquire elite prospects, a multitude of 1st round picks and if they tank properly in 2028 and 2029, could draft themselves a new crop of franchise players. If vetted out properly and surrounded by depth draft picks who are developed properly, the Leafs could find themselves back in the playoffs and contending again by 2030.
You mean, Tavares was on the ice for both the game tying goal AND the game winning goal against?
Damn…it’s almost as if one dimensional players score but still lose games.
I’m sure he’ll still beat contenders playing like that though with magic miracle powers and such. Like he did vs. Florida.
And yet you love 4th line Domi. Tavares makes $500k more than Max but has 24 points compared to 6 from Domi. Neither are Selke winners but it’s not hard to see who’s providing value and who’s going to be traded.
Don’t love Domi for how he is playing now because defensively this year he has been horrid. But that’s also because he’s being used as a center and in too many defensive situations.
In the playoffs last year, he played with fire and balls and in the correct role was not a negative asset like he has been this season. Domi is a winger and a fiesty sparkplug. That’s his role.
Hey Guys, Since my first attempt at the most idiotic post possible was such a resounding success, I wanted to see if I could follow it up with the second most stupid post possible.
How about if I were to blame the team’s net-minus on the two top scorers for only having the 2nd best, and 5th best +/- on the team. Is that too simple and too stupid? I don’t want to eclipse the stupidity from last night’s idiocy of blaming Tavares and Sundin.
Hey retard, who was on the ice for the most goals against in the playoffs last year?
Rielly, Carlo, Tavares and Nylander.
You don’t have to play dumb, you live it every day as you are.
You mean – Selke nominated and future Hall of Fame Johnny Toronto Tavares?
This guy has a huge problem with Hall of Fame players – first he’s chirping Mats now JT….so 3 things I take from it: he hates selke nominated centres, hates hall of famers, and the poster is an overweight virgin who can make a golden retriever depressed with his constant negative ‘life if the party’ disposition.
You’re fired. WRONG.
Next time you feel like spewing some dialog diarrhea, punch it into ChatGPT so it can translate this retard language into English.
23BigIQ
You mean, Tavares was on the ice for both the game tying goal AND the game winning goal against?
Damn…it’s almost as if one dimensional players score but still lose games.
I’m sure he’ll still beat contenders playing like that though with magic miracle powers and such. Like he did vs. Florida.
Guys, help me out here. I am trying to craft the most ridiculous a-hole post I can imagine.
So far, the post is all about how Tavares’ defensive play is the reason the Leafs are losing, and so I am comparing him directly to that other Leafs loser, Mats Sundin.
How am I doing so far? Could I make up something more ridiculous.
Did Tavares and Nylander get their points tonight?
Great.
Did the Leafs win?
Oh…
So Kampf is a UFA and gets to keep his bonus $$ paid to him.
Wonder who he’ll sign with?Van City.
Boston. Then he scores 20. 5 against the Leafs. In one game.
Let’s also keep in mind where Stecher is coming from; the Edmonton Oilers. If you can’t play D for Edmonton, you can’t play D for anybody anymore.
Leafs claim Stecher, holy shit, we are SO back.
Can’t be worse than some of the options we have.
A 5’10, 185 lbs defenseman is usually a very, very bad idea. Probably just as physical as Carlo or Myers though.
He hasn’t been useful or effective in over 5 years.
Like Ian White with none of the good qualities.
