from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,
Shanahan used to urge patience, as did his former GM Dubas, but the time for patience has passed. This Leafs team has proved to be more frustrating for Leafs Nation than the Maple Leafs teams that missed the playoffs 10 of 11 years after the lost season to lockout of 2005.
Back then, the Leafs were just pathetic. That we much understood. You are not pathetic when you have Matthews, Marner and Nylander up front, which is not that far off from the Red Wings once having Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov and Shanahan up front.
That Detroit team played in three Cup finals, with three different goalies, won their three championships winning 12 of 13 Stanley Cup final games.
That team, in performance, with Nicklas Lidstrom on defence, with the legendary Scotty Bowman coaching, had an all-time feel about them and still does.
The Maple Leafs are known now as the team that almost won in Round 1. That came so close.
Not in Round 2. Not in any round beyond that. Not losing in the final or any final....
There aren’t any teams like the Leafs out there. They have been the third-best team in hockey in an Shanahan era that began with gifts named Matthews, Marner and Nylander. Gifts that were covered in riches before they had earned them. And now what?
You are not pathetic when you have Matthews, Marner and Nylander up front, which is not that far off from the Red Wings once having Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov and Shanahan up front.
Problem here is this same logic is one of the biggest problems with the Leafs. We all know Matthews, Marner, and Nylander are incredible hockey players. Comparing them to Yzerman, Federov, and Shanahan is fine...it's not worth arguing the intricacies there. However...
The problem though is in disregarding the Toronto D. Simmons briefly mentions the Wings having Lidstrom; well, the Wings also had some other pretty darn good Dmen, too. The Leafs have Morgan Reilly. He is really their only "premier" dman.
Maybe he goes into detail in the article (I can't view it), but until their management figures out how to spread the talent wealth on the roster, they aren't going to see an Eastern Conf. final game.
Also didn't mention goalie enough in the equation. The Wings during their run typically had one or two very reliable goalies. When a team has a goalie they can depend on, offense tends to open up.
Let's not forget the coach as well. Keefe is not even close to Bowman.
Fortunately for Leaf fans, they only mention the Wings cup winning years. They also had plenty of years where the made it further than round 1.
It must be maddening to be a Leafs fan. Everyone can see the team isn't built to win in playoffs except for management. On the surface one might say their forwards are comparable to Yzerman, Federov and Shanahan but look a little deeper and one can see why the later succeeded. Yzerman and Federov were excellent defensive forwards. Yzerman was the definition of perfect captain and Shanahan played with an edge to his game that made him a good fit for the playoffs. I don't think the same can be said for the Toronto 3. I'm still waiting to hear what malady kept Matthews out of the games. Does anyone think it was worse than the knee injury Yzerman played with?
Excellent analysis, TK. But the Leafs don't have any money left to add quality defensmen. They've spent it all on four highly paid forwards ($46.65M next year for Matthews, Tavares, Marner & Nylander) plus $7.5M for Reilly. That's over $54M for five players (equal to nearly 62% of next year's cap). That leaves them about $37.7M for the remaining 17 or 18 players. Good luck fitting high-end defensemen into that number.
And thus, Mitch will be the sacrifical lamb moved out, because your can't move Matthews, Willie, or Tavares
The smartest move might be to let it play out another season (fans will be outraged) and try to move Marner & Tavarres at the trade deadline. They simply aren't going to get good value for those big contracts over the summer (although simply freeing the cap space might be good enough). What's going to be hysterical is if those two refuse to move. I never understood why teams give out NMC/NTC clauses so easily. You want one, you should be willing to come down on salary or at the very least earned one through playoff success.
The first/ worst decision was the Tavares contract.
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