This is simply my opinion. I do feel strong enough about it to write it out however.
Over the last month or two a bunch of things concerning the leafs play have really stood out to me. We all know that this team does have talent, however on most nights it really looks like they are not playing like a team and any type of required continuity is absent. Why? Why are they not playing like a team? Well, teams who have the "Brotherhood" mentality tend to do very well. What we have with the Leafs are a bunch of guys who are just work colleagues.
In your brotherhood atmosphere which is essentially family, NOBODY messes with anyone on your team. As an opposing player if you choose to take liberties with a player you will absolutely be dealt with ASAP. This kind of behavior is not tolerated.
What we have in the Leafs case is our captain being dumped after the whistle on the west coast trip and not a single soul even attempted to chirp the opposing player let alone getting physical. No face wash or anything. Not a soul even asked the captain getting up if he was alright. They just went about their business.
Taking it back to last night our captain delivered a pretty nice clean hit on Staal. Dion got 10 feet before he was harassed and eventually had to drop the gloves himself. Nobody came before hand to defend their captain.
Then the worst part of the night was when Staal intentionally wired a slap shot into that empty net. It was a win/win for Staal as he was either going to hit Dion with the puck HARD or get a goal. The stare down after absolutely shows what Staal had intended to do as he wound up fully for the shot. Once again not a damn soul had any spine to go defend their captain. A player from an opposing team disrespects your captain and could have possibly injured him and the best you have is smacking your stick against the post.
As I said, this team is no brotherhood. There is no such thing as family. We have co-workers and that's it.
I would venture to guess that although players do like and respect each other, there are small little clique's that dominate this dressing room which leads to exclusion rather then that family atmosphere. The personalities of our captain and most skilled player are also questionable in regards to building chemistry.
Now even if I am correct about this I can't really blame the players. They are who they are. Some are anti social, some are always in trouble, some are born leaders and some are followers. The key with all of these personalities is to put them into your line up in a harmonious way. A social player nudging an anti social player to come out of his shell. A leader having a come to Jesus meeting with a player who is not taking his role seriously. This will create a really positive playing and dressing room atmosphere and will encourage bonding and team building. This is where MLSE has failed.
In my opinion
Over the last month or two a bunch of things concerning the leafs play have really stood out to me. We all know that this team does have talent, however on most nights it really looks like they are not playing like a team and any type of required continuity is absent. Why? Why are they not playing like a team? Well, teams who have the "Brotherhood" mentality tend to do very well. What we have with the Leafs are a bunch of guys who are just work colleagues.
In your brotherhood atmosphere which is essentially family, NOBODY messes with anyone on your team. As an opposing player if you choose to take liberties with a player you will absolutely be dealt with ASAP. This kind of behavior is not tolerated.
What we have in the Leafs case is our captain being dumped after the whistle on the west coast trip and not a single soul even attempted to chirp the opposing player let alone getting physical. No face wash or anything. Not a soul even asked the captain getting up if he was alright. They just went about their business.
Taking it back to last night our captain delivered a pretty nice clean hit on Staal. Dion got 10 feet before he was harassed and eventually had to drop the gloves himself. Nobody came before hand to defend their captain.
Then the worst part of the night was when Staal intentionally wired a slap shot into that empty net. It was a win/win for Staal as he was either going to hit Dion with the puck HARD or get a goal. The stare down after absolutely shows what Staal had intended to do as he wound up fully for the shot. Once again not a damn soul had any spine to go defend their captain. A player from an opposing team disrespects your captain and could have possibly injured him and the best you have is smacking your stick against the post.
As I said, this team is no brotherhood. There is no such thing as family. We have co-workers and that's it.
I would venture to guess that although players do like and respect each other, there are small little clique's that dominate this dressing room which leads to exclusion rather then that family atmosphere. The personalities of our captain and most skilled player are also questionable in regards to building chemistry.
Now even if I am correct about this I can't really blame the players. They are who they are. Some are anti social, some are always in trouble, some are born leaders and some are followers. The key with all of these personalities is to put them into your line up in a harmonious way. A social player nudging an anti social player to come out of his shell. A leader having a come to Jesus meeting with a player who is not taking his role seriously. This will create a really positive playing and dressing room atmosphere and will encourage bonding and team building. This is where MLSE has failed.
In my opinion
