Confirmed with Link: Matthews confirms he hates the Bruins

[thewave]

My confidence in this team keeps dropping off a cliff.

 

[PromisedLand]

In that video: around 11:08

Matthews (paraphrasing): "For myself, I'd love to see myself on the ice a little bit more, especially in different situations when may be we are down a goal or two or we need a goal"

Babcock: Matthews should be around 19 minutes mark

I am going to blow a gasket if the season is on the line and that dinosaur of a coach is f***ing looking at Matthews' minutes. Fire him mid-game if he pulls that BS in the playoffs

 

[PromisedLand]

If he had led by example and taken a "discount" as Shanny suggested during the Nylander negotiations and as McDavid did (as per rumours go) sure make him captain yesterday. However at this point until he gets us over the hump in the playoffs, the captain is JT IMO.

Captain Morgan!

 

[PromisedLand]

Why not Mitch? Just curious b/c when the C conversation comes up, he's never mentioned and yet some here think he's the most important player on the team.

Is Patty Kane the most important player on the hawks? is he C?

When the Kings won the cups; I wonder if the most important player on their team was the "C"

Boston went to cup finals last year; who was their most important player? Chara?

 

[m1ker]

I guess any of Rielly, Matthews or Tavares (in no specific order of preference, for clarity) would be logical candidates as captain.

If we won the cup last year who’s picking it up first? Seems to me like management doesn’t believe we can win a cup yet or we’d have a captain

 

[The Beyonder]

You must be fun at parties. I laughed.

If I seem overly cynical and jaded, it's due to being a life-long leafs fan.

But whatever, man, we all have our pet peeves. Stating the obvious is one of mine pet peeves. If you know hockey well enough, you know all the obvious questions and answers. And the "Confirmed With Link" is getting overused or misused. Just write the title and show the video; no need to treat everything like it's some big scoop.

 

[fahad203]

It's hard to really hate any team now that players grow up and going to same camps with each other

Nylander and Pasta are really good friends. Auston and Charlie are good friends. Tavares and Bergy are good friends. Too many good friends to go around

 

[Funk21]

If he had led by example and taken a "discount" as Shanny suggested during the Nylander negotiations and as McDavid did (as per rumours go) sure make him captain yesterday. However at this point until he gets us over the hump in the playoffs, the captain is JT IMO.

Last summer after Tavares was signed, Dubas and Shanny should have sat all three down and said this. We have 28 Million allotted for the three of you. We don’t want each and every one of you become a Free Agent on the same year so we will stager the deals. We will also make each of these contracts Lockout proof and offer each 25 million in bonus money within the first 12 months. We will make it 90% plus in bonus money. Lastly we are ready to name a new captain, Matthews by committing to Toronto this deal comes with a C. This is why we are going to an 8 year max with you. Morgan is an alternate and so will Marner.

This is what we believe you should each make based on league com-parables plus inflation:
Matthews 11x8
Marner 9x7
Nylander 8x7

Understand this is all the money we are going to spend on these contracts. We will not give 90%+ signing bonus contracts and upfront 25 million dollar loaded deals like after this stage. Each of you want to ask for more look to the person on your left, look to the person on your right, you will be taking from them. The question is do you want this to be part of something special and compromise a little (like JT did) to play for the greatest hockey town in the world, play prime time on HOC, make millions in endorsements and be loved by millions or do you want to squabble over what will likely be a few hundred thousand each? Walk out...

 

[Dayjobdave]

He's a really really good Robin, but he's never going to be Batman no matter how much better he gets. Same way Kane, Kucherov, Gaudreau likely won't ever be captain.

Love this. I'm thinking i may get a #16 Robin sweater

 

[Thread The Needle]

Yet another thing Auston and I have in common, along with our striking looks and lethal NHL-level goal scoring ability.

 

[Damisoph]

In other news, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

 

[WTFMAN99]

If we won the cup last year who’s picking it up first? Seems to me like management doesn’t believe we can win a cup yet or we’d have a captain

I don't even know where to begin on this lol.

 

[93LEAFS]

I just don't get the captain vibe for whatever reason. That's just me personally, others might get that off him. I think he'd be a quality assistant captain and he's a leader in the dressing room. The C also isn't the end all and be all either, there is more of a leadership core.

I'd guess the core consists of - Matthews, Marner, JT, Rielly, Andersen. Kadri probably was apart of it but he's left. I guess it's more about *who* do you *want* to be the C or the face of the franchise?

Even when Marner shared the C in London, the real leader of that team was Dvorak. Marner's awesome and one of my favorite players, but he's a bit of a goofy guy with a good heart. I'd personally give it to Rielly. From everything I've heard Rielly is by far the most approachable Leaf from teammates to just background staff (people I know who worked at MLSE in non-Hockey capacity rave about the kid), just an easy-going guy who works extremely hard. JT and Matthews are the likely front-runners though. I think it will likely go to JT, due to Matthews age and the fact he doesn't always see eye to eye with Babs. I hope they sort it out soon. I get not having a captain when we were terrible, but we've made the playoffs 3 years in a row, it is time to name one.

 

[93LEAFS]

He's a really really good Robin, but he's never going to be Batman no matter how much better he gets. Same way Kane, Kucherov, Gaudreau likely won't ever be captain.

While I agree Marner isn't likely to be captain, I think the major reasons neither Gaudreau or Kane don't really apply to Mitch. Gaudreau by all accounts doesn't really have great off-ice habits in regards to diet and working out (he apparently or at least used to eat pretty unhealthy by pro-athlete standards), so he's not really the guy to set an example. Kane was a pretty known partier his early years in the league, something that doesn't apply to Mitch. I don't know about Kucherov, but teams rarely make Russians captains, mainly because of the media responsibilities that come with the job, and unlike most NHLers they generally learned English much later in life. Considering how many star players were Russian, the only ones I can think of who were captains are Ovi, Yashin, Zhamanov, Bure (for one season), Mogilny (brief stint when Lafontaine was injured for significant periods of time) and Kovalchuk. Of those guys, only Ovi was a captain for a significant period of time, followed by Yashin who had 3 years, one in Ottawa and two years in NYI.

 

[Stamkos4life]

If he had led by example and taken a "discount" as Shanny suggested during the Nylander negotiations and as McDavid did (as per rumours go) sure make him captain yesterday. However at this point until he gets us over the hump in the playoffs, the captain is JT IMO.

I will honestly be disappointed if they give auston the "C".

Proven very little, took as much money as possible on a short term, seems to butt heads with the coach, not the best with the media, etc.

Morgan and john are much better candidates.

I'm still curious as to who is the one responsible for choosing said captain.

 

[Rogie]

Who does get handed the cup the first if there is no captain? Curious?

 

[LeafsOHLRangers98]

Captain material

His moustache alone is captain material. Just needs to keep the flow going and break out the jean jacket when walking down the streets of TO.

 

[nobody]

Who does get handed the cup the first if there is no captain? Curious?

assistant/alternate captains

View media item 5915

 

[LeafsOHLRangers98]

I will honestly be disappointed if they give auston the "C".

Proven very little, took as much money as possible on a short term, seems to butt heads with the coach, not the best with the media, etc.

Morgan and john are much better candidates.

I'm still curious as to who is the one responsible for choosing said captain.

What more could he have done on his ELC to prove himself?

111 goals in 3 seasons (43 goals per 82 game pace), led the team in scoring with 5 goals in 7 games the last playoff run despite playing with an ice cold Kapanen.

We're going to say the best player we've maybe ever had isn't ready for the captaincy because:

A) he deservedly got paid a lot of money for scoring at a generational level during his elc.

B) called out Babcock specifically for not getting enough ice time when down by a goal or two as mentioned in this interview

and C) being bad with the media is objective, I think he's fine.

A and B seem fine to me because he is that elite? and we all were pissed at Babcock for not playing him enough, C is a pretty small thing, guys get used to it.

 

[meefer]

The most comfortable I've seen Matthews in an interview to date. He's now jumped into the C conversation for me. Luv JT, respect all that he is, but I now see it as a two horse race as both Mo and AM were drafted into the organization. I suspect the choice will be made by their respective influence in the dressing room, something we're not privy to. I'd lean towards Morgan due to his years with the team, but Auston wouldn't be a bad choice. I'm guessing we'll see by the 1st game of the season who it will be.

 

[PromisedLand]

Who does get handed the cup the first if there is no captain? Curious?

Morgan Rielly

Longest serving Leaf; having been through the carlyle and horacheck era and still come out to be one of the best D and a leader on ice

Rises from adversity and leads by example = Captain

 

[ErnieLeafs]

If he had led by example and taken a "discount" as Shanny suggested during the Nylander negotiations and as McDavid did (as per rumours go) sure make him captain yesterday. However at this point until he gets us over the hump in the playoffs, the captain is JT IMO.

You wouldn’t take a penny less than you could, if you had the choice. Pipe down.

 

[Nithoniniel]

You wouldn’t take a penny less than you could, if you had the choice. Pipe down.

Yeah. People always talk about not needing all the money. Faced with the opportunity, very few think that way. They think "imagine what I could do with this," and not necessarily in a selfish way.

I know a couple of people who have become dollar millionaires. They've maximized their earnings so they can buy houses where they want to live, invest in their children's future, help out family members in need, make a difference for causes they believe in etc. Wealth opens up doors, and the more you get the more doors you can open. It might shock people, but some of those are more important than forcing the management of a hockey team to be smarter about their business.

 

[mallory67]

If he had led by example and taken a "discount" as Shanny suggested during the Nylander negotiations and as McDavid did (as per rumours go) sure make him captain yesterday. However at this point until he gets us over the hump in the playoffs, the captain is JT IMO.

Yes. Right on. JT has clearly gotten over the hump in the playoffs ... guy can barely lift his arm because of all those heavy Stanley Cup rings.

 

[Martin Skoula]

Yeah. People always talk about not needing all the money. Faced with the opportunity, very few think that way. They think "imagine what I could do with this," and not necessarily in a selfish way.

I know a couple of people who have become dollar millionaires. They've maximized their earnings so they can buy houses where they want to live, invest in their children's future, help out family members in need, make a difference for causes they believe in etc. Wealth opens up doors, and the more you get the more doors you can open. It might shock people, but some of those are more important than forcing the management of a hockey team to be smarter about their business.

I would normally agree in a non-competitive non-important market, but if I was in Toronto/Montreal and the team was competitive, taking a discount would be more of an investment. Being the face of a cup win in those towns would open doors an extra million couldn't.