from Chris Johnston of Sportsnet,
Under Dubas, the Leafs have become a data-driven organization and they’ve also accumulated some playoff scars.
Intellectually, the general manager who celebrated his 35th birthday on Sunday is a patient, process-driven man. But after watching his team fail to win a playoff series in each of the last four years, he’s spent this unusual off-season reflecting on urgency.
He didn’t see nearly enough of that in the August return-to-play qualifier against Columbus where he felt the team’s talent should have allowed it to dictate terms. In Game 1 and the deciding Game 5 of that series, he thought the Leafs felt things out too much. It’s a trend he traced back to aspects of the consecutive first-round losses to Boston that came before it, too.
“We were on our heels and waiting to see what would happen in the game, rather than going out and attacking the opportunity,” said Dubas, speaking with Ron MacLean as part of the Leafs' annual coaches clinic.
“I think part of it is maturity, I think part of it is experience, but I think both of those things go into mindset and what the mindset of the group is,” he added. “We have to stop waiting. We’re waiting for our potential just to happen and we have to start going out and exercising that and making it happen and forcing the other teams to respond to us.”
This has already been communicated to players.
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