Confirmed with Link: Joe Thornton to Leafs [1yr/700k]

[Spargon]

Hint. It has nothing to do with the player.

heck Joey crabb could come out of retirement and get more threads than Vegas signing Petro. People here are obsessed with the leafs.

fans of other teams more than anyone

Oh I know why it happens which is why it's sad. People hate the Leafs more than they like any team. I never see Leaf fans changing their avatars/names to insult other teams players or make burner accounts to pretend to be fans of other teams to shit talk on that teams forum. Yet this place is rampant with people who do that to the Leafs, hell some of them even get made moderators.

 

[Leaftors]

Pretty surreal how we couldn’t get anyone to sign here and now guys are choosing to sign here for less than they’d likely get anywhere else. This is before we’ve even won anything.
Joe at the league min is a steal. I’m getting a reverse retro Thornton jersey for sure

 

[hotpaws]

Oh I know why it happens which is why it's sad. People hate the Leafs more than they like any team. I never see Leaf fans changing their avatars/names to insult other teams players or make burner accounts to pretend to be fans of other teams to shit talk on that teams forum. Yet this place is rampant with people who do that to the Leafs, hell some of them even get made moderators.

the majority of people don't hate the Leafs , they hate our huge fan base on here who constantly run to the main boards telling everyone we're the bestest team every off season then spinning excuses why we aren't during the season so they love baiting and f***ing with us

and our fans are no different than the rest of the posters on here for the most part

 

[Hclass47]

Pretty surreal how we couldn’t get anyone to sign here and now guys are choosing to sign here for less than they’d likely get anywhere else. This is before we’ve even won anything.
Joe at the league min is a steal. I’m getting a reverse retro Thornton jersey for sure

It’s a good competitive team. for some it’s a chance to fulfill life long childhood or family dreams. And Now they are considered contenders. Really isn’t a surprise...

 

[Notsince67]

the majority of people don't hate the Leafs , they hate our huge fan base on here who constantly run to the main boards telling everyone we're the bestest team every off season then spinning excuses why we aren't during the season so they love baiting and f***ing with us

and our fans are no different than the rest of the posters on here for the most part

I love the leafs but I have to admit it isnt hard to hate much of the fanbase

 

[Leaf Fans]

the majority of people don't hate the Leafs , they hate our huge fan base on here who constantly run to the main boards telling everyone we're the bestest team every off season then spinning excuses why we aren't during the season so they love baiting and f***ing with us

and our fans are no different than the rest of the posters on here for the most part

No, they hate the Leafs. No one is so narrow minded to hate a fan base based on the actions of a minority.

 

[Leaf Fans]

I love the leafs but I have to admit it isnt hard to hate much of the fanbase

True, there are some had fans whining about contracts, capitulating to baseless criticism, and never happy with anything, but the fans who think the team is good? They are far from the problem.

 

[Confucius]

Man, I read this type of whining, quite often around here, boohoo everybody hates us. Hey I don't care. If a Habs or Sabres or any team's fans hate us, "yeah so what" for all I care. But I do care the way our fanbase generally react to the criticism, which is why I decided to comment.

 

[ACC1224]

True, there are some had fans whining about contracts, capitulating to baseless criticism, and never happy with anything, but the fans who think the team is good? They are far from the problem.

The realists aren’t the problem. It’s the arrogant group that perceive their opinion as fact and jump to defend any thought that this middle of the pack team isn’t perfect.

 

[Morbo]

"realists"

 

[al secord]

The fact this signing has generated a 34 pages thread here and PART 2 on the main boards is just really sad. He's our Paul Coffey or Paul Kariya, cheap 1 year deals with teams they think have the best chance to win and give it one last kick at the can.

Why anyone has delusions or trying to spin that we think we are getting prime 90+ pts Joe Thornton who will play in the top of the lineup I don't know. The Leafs have a looong history of signing big names at the ends of the careers.

Man. Would love to see Paul Kariya in this lineup. Make it happen Dubas!

 

[egd27]

He is a future HOFer. It doesn't matter what money he makes. His body of work speaks volumes.
Legendary status

They didn't listen to a future HOF coach or a HOF GM. Let's hope some of the promised maturity starts kicking in.

 

[Leaf Fans]

The realists aren’t the problem. It’s the arrogant group that perceive their opinion as fact and jump to defend any thought that this middle of the pack team isn’t perfect.

Yes, but those aren't exclusively Leaf fans.

 

[Dekes For Days]

The realists aren’t the problem. It’s the arrogant group that perceive their opinion as fact and jump to defend any thought that this middle of the pack team isn’t perfect.

Nobody says the team is perfect. No team is perfect. But this is a good team, and overwhelming fact doesn't suddenly become opinion just because it doesn't support your unsubstantiated views about the team. Thinking the team is worse than it is isn't being a "realist".

 

[egd27]

The realists aren’t the problem. It’s the arrogant group that perceive their opinion as fact and jump to defend any thought that this middle of the pack team isn’t perfect.

Nobody says the team is perfect. No team is perfect. But this is a good team, and overwhelming fact doesn't suddenly become opinion just because it doesn't support your unsubstantiated views about the team. Thinking the team is worse than it is isn't being a "realist".

@ACC1224 didn't mention anyone specifically, why did you feel the need to jump in to defend the "arrogant group" ?

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

@ACC1224 didn't mention anyone specifically, why did you feel the need to jump in to defend the "arrogant group" ?

because if you're going to describe yourself as a realist, you shouldn't invent the idea of an arrogant group of people who constantly insist the team is perfect. Those people don't exist

 

[hotpaws]

They definitely hate the Leafs, you're way off the plot here.

some hate the Leafs but the majority don't and why would they ? we haven't even won a round in forever and we didn't even make the playoffs in a full season in over a decade so where would the hate come from ?

also while i could see Habs fans or western Canadian fans hate us or more like hate Toronto in general from the west but what possible reason could Hawk/Carolina/Colorado/Vegas fans etc hate the Leafs ? since like i said we haven't been successful in forever ?

and as i also said our fan base isn't any different than the rest but there's just a lot more of us

 

[Gabriel426]

In general, people hate the Leafs for being in Toronto and the fan base.
The hating on Toronto part is quite weird, as they tend to only hate the Leafs, a little bit on Jays and TFC but always love the Raptors.
When it comes to hating the fan base, it has more to do with the sheer volume of Leafsnation than the small portion of WE ARE #1, All our prospects will become Superstars....
To put it simply, the chances of non Leafs fans hearing someone from anywhere saying stuff like-Did you see the Leafs game last night, JT was awesome....is a lot higher than-Did you see the game last night, Barkov/Mack/Kuch was awesome. Thats something I understand since I live in Vancouver, and it is non-stop Canucks, Canucks, Canucks...

 

[egd27]

Only thing I defended was the truth. He described himself as a realist, and then turned around and rudely labelled a group of fans with opposing views as "arrogant", seemingly because he doesn't like that they actually substantiate their positions with facts, and then he misrepresented the quality of the team, while making up a strawman argument that nobody else has said.

Actually he said he felt the problem were those that perceive their opinion as fact not those that actually use facts.
Do you think those that merely perceive their opinions to be factual should not be challenged?

 

[saltming]

They didn't listen to a future HOF coach or a HOF GM. Let's hope some of the promised maturity starts kicking in.

How many kids grow up idolize a coach or a GM versus a star player?
I still feel the player wins there

 

[egd27]

How many kids grow up idolize a coach or a GM versus a star player?
I still feel the player wins there

I hope you're correct, but I have my concerns that they don't much care for being "told" things.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

I hope you're correct, but I have my concerns that they don't much care for being "told" things.

Why? They are professionals who made it to the highest level in their field. Is it based on anything besides them being young?

 

[saltming]

I hope you're correct, but I have my concerns that they don't much care for being "told" things.

That's fair. I certainly don't have a window into the dressing room.
On the plus side I think the way Joe talks will be well recieved, thinking of his comments on hertl's 4 goal game

 

[Stephen]

In general, people hate the Leafs for being in Toronto and the fan base.
The hating on Toronto part is quite weird, as they tend to only hate the Leafs, a little bit on Jays and TFC but always love the Raptors.
When it comes to hating the fan base, it has more to do with the sheer volume of Leafsnation than the small portion of WE ARE #1, All our prospects will become Superstars....
To put it simply, the chances of non Leafs fans hearing someone from anywhere saying stuff like-Did you see the Leafs game last night, JT was awesome....is a lot higher than-Did you see the game last night, Barkov/Mack/Kuch was awesome. Thats something I understand since I live in Vancouver, and it is non-stop Canucks, Canucks, Canucks...

I always laugh whenever I read other teams boards and out of the blue a fan of the San Jose Shark or something will express extreme vitriol towards the Toronto Maple Leafs or the fanbase. Like it's cute they're mimicking other fanbases that might have some kind of reason to dislike Toronto, but how on earth can 2 regular season games a year generate that kind of heat?

 

[Gabriel426]

I always laugh whenever I read other teams boards and out of the blue a fan of the San Jose Shark or something will express extreme vitriol towards the Toronto Maple Leafs or the fanbase. Like it's cute they're mimicking other fanbases that might have some kind of reason to dislike Toronto, but how on earth can 2 regular season games a year generate that kind of heat?

Could be signing JT from Sharks fans, lol.