Mcbackup wasnt a leaf last year...and i think so little of hainsey that I forgot to add him, so 1 hainsey is all it took? 1 hainsey made this team 105 pts?
Was hainsey a norris calibre dman? Also Hainsey was not as good as you keep trying to make him sound last season and thats not fault of his own he was being grossly overplayed.
So just to reiterate you think that Hainsey is the reason the leafs are fighting for a playoff spot...
I don't think Hainsey specifically is what he meant. This team needs people who play the game the way it is being played in the NHL today. They don't have to be celebrated players or have full trophy cases, but they should need to know how to compete really hard. They need an understanding of even if you don't knock a guys teeth loose with a hit, if you lean on him tough he gets worn out quicker.
People keep saying Hainsey has no value, marleau has no value, kadri's production has been replaced, etc. There is more value in a player than just how they contribute to offense. If you can't see that then maybe you can't evaluate hockey properly?
Possibly a better way of presenting this thought:
All of the "dead weight" players from last year are gone, and you have a roster with a ton of 'valuable' players with tons of 'skill'. So why isn't it working?
Last year the problem was because stubborn Babcock over played the 'Real good pros' stifling ice time for all these young world beaters we have - so the 'real good pros' are gone, Babcock is gone. Now Keefe is saying the same things Babcock had been, for more than a year now the entire league and the former coach of this team has been saying this is not a winning roster. There is all this skill and value players here, so why are the results poor?
Because there is no heart on this team. No compete in the corners. No one is playing hard, no one is setting the right example and leading the way. Not one person seems like they are invested IN the Maple Leafs, they all look like employees at Lowes or Target, just getting through their workday to get home. You're seeing All-Star game/scrimmage effort from a team who needs to realize they might not be so talented that they can avoid hard work.
Does it look like everyone on the team is doing enough to win a championship?
This team wants to play Checkers at a Chess game.