from Adam Proteau of the Leafs' website,

MapleLeafs.com: You’ve been in Toronto for almost a year now. What have you learned about the market that you may not have known before?

Lou Lamoriello: Well, I don't know if it's what I didn't know about it, it was more reaffirming what I thought it was all about: the passion of the fans for the Maple Leafs, and the amount of people who are aware of the sport. I always thought there was a lot, but it's like everywhere, and anyone. And also, the coverage is what I expected, which is similar to Stanley Cup coverage.

MapleLeafs.com: When you look back at the 2015-16 season, the general consensus in the press box was that, whether it was affected by injuries, trades or other roster movements, you really didn't see any change in effort from the team from game-to-game. Is that a credit to the work we saw from Leafs head coach Mike Babcock and Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe?

Lou Lamoriello: Without question. Right from the first day of training camp, Mike established what would be happening, Sheldon spent plenty of time with Mike at that time, he was very open with all coaches (in the organization). And the culture was set with what was going to happen on that ice. The players followed, bought into it, and consistently did that throughout the year.

There was never a question for me that that would happen. And what it allowed us to do certainly was to see how many embraced it, and how many improved on it, because the word is accountability: their accountability to what's asked, their accountability to themselves, and certainly, to the organization.

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