They take a lot of abuse for their fanatical support for a team that has under delivered for the past many decades, but one has to pity the plight of those Leaf fans as they face yet another season of disappointment.
This appears to be the fourth consecutive season that the “18 wheeler has come off the highway” as Brian Burke assessed it in 2012. Not only are Leaf fans enduring this for a fourth consecutive occasion, but it is with a fourth different “leader” at the helm – Dave Nonis in 2013, Tim Leiweke in 2014 and Brendan Shanahan the current man in charge who might have to redo his truck drivers license.
Yet many fans I talk to are seriously buying into and believing the “tear it down” mantra that will buy yet more time for Shanahan and his staff. Please understand, tearing it down is the EASY party, building or rebuilding it back up PROPERLY is far more difficult.
Previous rebuilds allowed former first-round picks (the supposed jewels of any PROPER rebuild) to play well for opposing NHL teams with the Leafs showing nothing in return.
Witness Alexander Steen with St. Louis, Tuukka Rask with Boston and Jiri Tlusty with Carolina. At least the Leafs got decent value back in James van Riemsdyk when they traded Luke Schenn to Philadelphia and it can be argued the same for two first-round picks (though a little higher than initially anticipated) for Phil Kessel.
It’s also a mid-season change of philosophy that makes no sense for a team that appears to be neither fish nor fowl. Neither a Stanley Cup contender nor a serious contender for the Connor McDavid draft sweepstakes.
This is a team up hard against the salary cap. A team that is full of long term contracts – Kessel (7 1/2 years), Dion Phaneuf (6 1/2 years), David Clarkson (5 1/2 years), Jake Gardiner (4 1/2 years), Tyler Bozak (3 1/2 years), van Riemsdyk (3 1/2 years), Joffrey Lupul (3 1/2 years) and Leo Komarov (3 1/2 years).
These aren’t the ingredients for a team that is ripe for the complete “tear down and rebuild”.
While some of these contracts might be deemed assets to trade, just as many would be problematic.
Enter a new “problem”, the players the Leafs seemingly need back the most next year are on expiring contracts and have good leverage against a team hard pressed to the cap. Witness Cody Franson about to become an unrestricted free agent and Nazim Kadri and Jonathan Bernier about to become restricted free agents. A year later it will be Morgan Rielly who will hit restricted free agent status.
Not only have the Leafs fortunes reversed in the standings, how can the highest scoring team become one of the weakest, the attention to defence aside? With a new emphasis on data, how are the much talked about analytics being (or not being) implemented…and why?
Maple Leafs fans then have to endure being the only NHL fans to be snubbed in the post-game salute by their team because they had the audacity to express displeasure about two lopsided defeats to Buffalo and Nashville in their two previous games.
Then they are subjected to being criticized by former Leaf coach Ron Wilson (and his zero playoff games behind the Leaf bench) about how brutal they are.
Recent home losses focused more on the three or so fans that had created the equivalent of sports treason by throwing Leafs jerseys on the ice. The actions of these few fans gets more play than the over 18,000 fans who paid good money to be greatly disappointed by the effort and the result.
It is said about how difficult it is to play in Toronto but I feel it is actually the opposite. Witness Larry Tannenbaum in an interview with George Stroumboulopoulos explaining that he often visits the Leafs dressing room after games to “thank them because they work so hard”.
One playoff appearance in the last 11 seasons yet the boss quite often thanks you for working hard? Not exactly the kind of pressure that say the Boston Bruins have endured with their owner Jeremy Jacobs public tongue lashing a few weeks ago.
