There’s no doubting Toronto is the centre of the hockey universe when it comes to media coverage, but does all the attention contribute to losing teams?
Longtime NHL enforcer Rob Ray thinks so.
“It’s got to be the worst place in the world to play,” Ray told Sportsnet 960 The Fan Wednesday. “It’s got to be hell.”
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The Leafs, following a 6-1-1 stretch at the end of October into November, have lost three in a row, including a 6-2 blowout to the last-place Buffalo Sabres Saturday and a 9-2 shellacking at the hands of the Nashville Predators Tuesday.
“You saw these guys coming off the ice [in Buffalo] and they were like, ‘What the heck is going on here?’ And then the media started getting on them, and once the media started it’s been an explosion,” Ray said.
The Leafs have made the playoffs just once in the last 10 years, and Ray believes the media has played a big role in the team’s struggles.
“It can’t be the guys on the team every year, year after year after year,” Ray said. “Why don’t they leave these guys alone and let them play?”
Ray, who now works as an analyst for the Sabres, also said the media is particularly hard on the Leafs’ star winger.
“Phil Kessel is [a top scorer] in the league. The guy gets a goal [against Buffalo Saturday] and they still want to rip him after the game because he was frustrated and didn’t want to talk,” Ray added. “Well, I can understand why you’re not going to talk [after a blowout loss] because you’re probably going to say something stupid and you’re going to regret it. But if you don’t talk, you’re the biggest jerk in the world. How do you win? There’s no win-win in that situation.”
Ray played 900 NHL games in his career—889 with the Sabres and 11 with the Ottawa Senators, another Toronto rival—so sympathy for the Leafs is not something engrained in his psyche. However, that is starting to change.
“It’s a decent team; it’s not a bad team. Just get off their backs for a little while and let them play a little bit… I feel bad for some of those guys.”
