TonsofPuppies
Pack your shit, Shanny!
I've been screaming for ages that the only way forward for the organization is a complete gutting from top to bottom. As someone mentioned in the GDT, this goes far beyond any individual players or off ice personnel. There is a cultural rot within this organization that has been allowed to fester away for more than a decade and until it is removed, we will continue to spin our tires fruitlessly.
1. The management is a joke. The "Shanaplan" has been an obvious abject failure for literally years, yet this clown still has a job. This ties into the cultural rot I spoke of in my opening statement. There is no accountability or standards / expectations in this organization. It starts from the top and trickles all the way down to the players on the ice. Year after year after year, Shanahan continues to roll it back with the same core that has proven endlessly that they cannot get the job done. Shanahan can't make tough decisions for the betterment of the team and must be the first domino to fall.
2. Sheldon Keefe is a terrible coach. I don't even need to dig too far into this one, so I'll just list a few obvious points:
- The team is rarely prepared to "start on time" as Babs used to say and often gives up goals in the first minute / on the first shot of the game. This has been an issue for literally years.
- The special teams always fall to shit around 3/4 of the way through the season and few, if any changes are made to rectify the issues before the playoffs. Making adjustments in general, seems to be his kryptonite.
- The Leafs, in the playoffs, have an abysmal home record under Keefe, largely due to his galaxy brained line matching.
- He routinely retracts perfectly valid criticisms of his team in order to protect the feelings of his "stars".
- He got outcoached by DOMINIQUE DUCHARME in a playoff series. 'nuff said.
3. The star forwards suck. Matthews and Marner especially stand out here. Yes, they can put up some crazy numbers during the regular season, but these guys are not playoff performers. Time and time again they have proven to be incapable of rising to the challenge and delivering in big moments, the way pretty much all other "superstar" caliber players do. This lack of drive and ability to rise the occasion is made all the worse by the fact that these guys are paid higher than all of their comparables, lessoning the team's ability to surround them with a good supporting cast, thus taking some of the pressure off.
4. The depth forwards suck. This ties into my previous point regarding our star players being overpaid. With less money to go around, the Leafs are forced to settle for bargain bin solutions to fill out their roster. While there are a few decent depth pieces like Nick Robertson and Max Demi, the roster is littered with players that are not NHL caliber on any serious NHL roster - Pontus Holmberg, David Kampf, Ryan Reaves, Connor Dewar, Noah Gregor, etc.
5. The defence is atrocious. While Simon Benoit has been an overall nice surprise this year and Jake McCabe has his moments, the defence, by and large, is nowhere close to cup contending status. It's old, it's slow and the lack of right shots forces us to play players in positions they are not suited to. Brodie is a train wreck, Gio is 300 years old, Rielly is decent, but nowhere near an "elite" #1, as he would need to be to prop up the rest of the group. At least he shows up in the playoffs, but his lack of a threatening point shot really renders the power play predictable and easy to neutralize. Timmins is not NHL caliber and I'm losing my patience with the soft play of Liljegren.
6. The goaltending is a nonstarter. Ilya Samsonov is a mental midget that even the Caps gave up on ages ago. If Samsonov is your #1 for the playoffs, you might as well forfeit before Game 1. Joseph Woll has shown flashes of being competent, but his troubling injury history leave me doubtful that he could ever be a longterm solution in net. Martin Jones and Matt Murray are not NHL goalies.
TL;DR: This team has so many holes and glaring issues. This isn't going to be as simple a fix as trading a member of the core or firing the coach. This entire roster needs to be gutted and rebuilt from the ground up. I'm sick and tired of watching the same old song and dance every single year. Blow this shit up already.
1. The management is a joke. The "Shanaplan" has been an obvious abject failure for literally years, yet this clown still has a job. This ties into the cultural rot I spoke of in my opening statement. There is no accountability or standards / expectations in this organization. It starts from the top and trickles all the way down to the players on the ice. Year after year after year, Shanahan continues to roll it back with the same core that has proven endlessly that they cannot get the job done. Shanahan can't make tough decisions for the betterment of the team and must be the first domino to fall.
2. Sheldon Keefe is a terrible coach. I don't even need to dig too far into this one, so I'll just list a few obvious points:
- The team is rarely prepared to "start on time" as Babs used to say and often gives up goals in the first minute / on the first shot of the game. This has been an issue for literally years.
- The special teams always fall to shit around 3/4 of the way through the season and few, if any changes are made to rectify the issues before the playoffs. Making adjustments in general, seems to be his kryptonite.
- The Leafs, in the playoffs, have an abysmal home record under Keefe, largely due to his galaxy brained line matching.
- He routinely retracts perfectly valid criticisms of his team in order to protect the feelings of his "stars".
- He got outcoached by DOMINIQUE DUCHARME in a playoff series. 'nuff said.
3. The star forwards suck. Matthews and Marner especially stand out here. Yes, they can put up some crazy numbers during the regular season, but these guys are not playoff performers. Time and time again they have proven to be incapable of rising to the challenge and delivering in big moments, the way pretty much all other "superstar" caliber players do. This lack of drive and ability to rise the occasion is made all the worse by the fact that these guys are paid higher than all of their comparables, lessoning the team's ability to surround them with a good supporting cast, thus taking some of the pressure off.
4. The depth forwards suck. This ties into my previous point regarding our star players being overpaid. With less money to go around, the Leafs are forced to settle for bargain bin solutions to fill out their roster. While there are a few decent depth pieces like Nick Robertson and Max Demi, the roster is littered with players that are not NHL caliber on any serious NHL roster - Pontus Holmberg, David Kampf, Ryan Reaves, Connor Dewar, Noah Gregor, etc.
5. The defence is atrocious. While Simon Benoit has been an overall nice surprise this year and Jake McCabe has his moments, the defence, by and large, is nowhere close to cup contending status. It's old, it's slow and the lack of right shots forces us to play players in positions they are not suited to. Brodie is a train wreck, Gio is 300 years old, Rielly is decent, but nowhere near an "elite" #1, as he would need to be to prop up the rest of the group. At least he shows up in the playoffs, but his lack of a threatening point shot really renders the power play predictable and easy to neutralize. Timmins is not NHL caliber and I'm losing my patience with the soft play of Liljegren.
6. The goaltending is a nonstarter. Ilya Samsonov is a mental midget that even the Caps gave up on ages ago. If Samsonov is your #1 for the playoffs, you might as well forfeit before Game 1. Joseph Woll has shown flashes of being competent, but his troubling injury history leave me doubtful that he could ever be a longterm solution in net. Martin Jones and Matt Murray are not NHL goalies.
TL;DR: This team has so many holes and glaring issues. This isn't going to be as simple a fix as trading a member of the core or firing the coach. This entire roster needs to be gutted and rebuilt from the ground up. I'm sick and tired of watching the same old song and dance every single year. Blow this shit up already.
