The Big Homecoming Effect

[Stephen]

One thing that has consistently bugged me about the Toronto Maple Leafs over the years is the phenomenon of hometown Torontonian and Ontarian NHL stars, many of whom grew up as Leafs fans, returning to Toronto with their NHL clubs and just laying waste to the Leafs. Usually, they play in non-hockey hotbeds, toil in relative media obscurity, and when they return to play in front of family members, they relish their time in the spotlight and put in a show.

Perfect example was tonight with John Tavares and Matt Moulson. Other common examples from recent years include the Staal brothers, Jeff Skinner, Rick Nash, the ever hate-worthy Tyler Seguin, Steven Stamkos, Jason Spezza, and the list goes on. Perhaps the most nausea inducing example of this is Wayne Gretzky coming into Maple Leaf Gardens in Game Seven of the 1993 Conference Finals and you know the rest...

Point is, star players like coming here to put on a show, and quite often, the Leafs are willing to oblige as gracious hosts.

Anyway, as the Leafs are now consciously trying to restore the reputation of the franchise and earn the respect of the league, as noted by Carlyle and Kadri, as well as the real effort to become a difficult, tough team to play against, should the Leafs not also try to build a reputation as a difficult team to come home to, specifically against so many of those Ontarian superstars littered around the NHL? It comes down to "If You Can't Beat 'em In The Alley, You Can't Beat 'em On The Ice."

I mean if John Tavares wants to put on a show at the Air Canada Centre in front of family and friends, that's natural. But guy of his ilk has to pay a price. Hard heavy hits on every puck possession, facewashes, scrums, the full pest treatment above and beyond what's necessary. Not only to get him off his game, not only to satisfy frustrated fans like us who have to watch them torch us all night, but to really establish the reputation of Toronto and the Air Canada Centre as a place you don't really want to go home to. Make these guys come in the building and play like Phil Kessel going back to Boston, basically.

Anyway, there's my rant for the night. Stop letting these hometown kids come in here like they own the Air Canada Centre ice. Don't want to see these hometown heroes coming home and leaving the ice all smiles. I want to see them demoralized, a little banged up and ready to get the hell outta dodge.

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[Stephen]

I think we need a Carcillo/Rinaldo wildcard element instead of two honorable goons.

 

[HellasLEAF]

agreed. sick of these clowns taking it easy in random games and then bringing it in the ACC. good lord.

check them right through the boards!

 

[Stephen]

agreed. sick of these clowns taking it easy in random games and then bringing it in the ACC. good lord.

check them right through the boards!

Yep. Just take a page out of Chara and the Bruins on Kessel. Constant harassment and punishment on top of the usual containment. Really establish psychological games against some of the games' best players.

 

[The_Chosen_One]

I think Ashton, Biggs, D’Amigo, and Ross up front, and Black, Finn, and Percy on the back is going to make us a tougher team. Of course, it's going to take some time, but during the off-season, we can probably land a mobile defensive-oriented defenceman to pair with Dion as well.

 

[Mess]

Don Cherry has raised this point many times in the past about Canadian and Ontario content on the Leafs and the opposition coming to town.

Players play better when in front of friends and family as it brings out a additional level of compete and motivation to impress. Leafs should take advantage of this themselves to gain a competitive advantage by shopping local.

"If you can't beat them join them" and "fight fire with fire".

 

[TMLife*]

All the players you listed are stars and are stars in almost every game. You happen to probably watch mainly leaf games and the leafs have sucked for years so you just watch these stars run us. They run everyone that's bad. If you haven't noticed, we've done a lot better this year against star players because our team as a whole has been better.

 

[legendinblue]

I think we need a Carcillo/Rinaldo wildcard element instead of two honorable goons.

You propose jumping the stars?

We need a Chara.

 

[Mindrust]

Agreed with OP. I've noticed this every time a GTA player comes to town. It's one of the reasons why we've sucked for so long. It's not just GTA players, it's every player on every other team. They all want to stick it to the biggest hockey club, the hockey center of the universe, and its fans - us. It's their 60 minutes of fame.

The only way to counter the trend is to play extremely physical. Lay the big hits, lots of open ice hits, grind em along the boards... teach them a lesson. Make them dread playing in Toronto.

 

[HellasLEAF]

I think it's less the fact that they hate the leafs and more they know the game will be more watched live and on TV. They need to make a good showing of themselves here. A big game here gets notices by management and fans. We get most players A or B game. Well, except the Habs that is.

 

[Al14]

One thing that has consistently bugged me about the Toronto Maple Leafs over the years is the phenomenon of hometown Torontonian and Ontarian NHL stars, many of whom grew up as Leafs fans, returning to Toronto with their NHL clubs and just laying waste to the Leafs. Usually, they play in non-hockey hotbeds, toil in relative media obscurity, and when they return to play in front of family members, they relish their time in the spotlight and put in a show.

Perfect example was tonight with John Tavares and Matt Moulson. Other common examples from recent years include the Staal brothers, Jeff Skinner, Rick Nash, the ever hate-worthy Tyler Seguin, Steven Stamkos, Jason Spezza, and the list goes on. Perhaps the most nausea inducing example of this is Wayne Gretzky coming into Maple Leaf Gardens in Game Seven of the 1993 Conference Finals and you know the rest...

Point is, star players like coming here to put on a show, and quite often, the Leafs are willing to oblige as gracious hosts.

Anyway, as the Leafs are now consciously trying to restore the reputation of the franchise and earn the respect of the league, as noted by Carlyle and Kadri, as well as the real effort to become a difficult, tough team to play against, should the Leafs not also try to build a reputation as a difficult team to come home to, specifically against so many of those Ontarian superstars littered around the NHL? It comes down to "If You Can't Beat 'em In The Alley, You Can't Beat 'em On The Ice."

I mean if John Tavares wants to put on a show at the Air Canada Centre in front of family and friends, that's natural. But guy of his ilk has to pay a price. Hard heavy hits on every puck possession, facewashes, scrums, the full pest treatment above and beyond what's necessary. Not only to get him off his game, not only to satisfy frustrated fans like us who have to watch them torch us all night, but to really establish the reputation of Toronto and the Air Canada Centre as a place you don't really want to go home to. Make these guys come in the building and play like Phil Kessel going back to Boston, basically.

Anyway, there's my rant for the night. Stop letting these hometown kids come in here like they own the Air Canada Centre ice. Don't want to see these hometown heroes coming home and leaving the ice all smiles. I want to see them demoralized, a little banged up and ready to get the hell outta dodge.

And, their families, living in the Toronto area, should be made to feel unwelcome in the ACC too. They also should be forced to move to where their precious, hero, sons live and play hockey.

I've been saying for years that these Ontarian born and raised, who were also developed as hockey players here, should want to help their local Leafs hockey team, and us, their fans, win the Stanley Cup.

The Leafs better not give any of these traitors retirement contracts when they finally decide to come home to play hockey. I don't want any of these jerks past their prime!!!

 

[blue82]

agree with you Stephen, all though i do think Crosby took a bit of a beating in his 2 games in toronto this year but it does make me sick to my stomach when i see these guys scoring..its the not so great players like Clarkson that bother me the most though

 

[Mess]

If you want to defend your own turf when opposing players come home, then you yourself have to have players where it means something to your own team to stand up against it and take advantage of the same things that motivate your opponents.

 

[Warden of the North]

We've been a pretty awful team the past decade or so. Star players generally dont have issues scoring against awful teams.

 

[Al14]

agreed. sick of these clowns taking it easy in random games and then bringing it in the ACC. good lord.

check them right through the boards!

Sure thing. These hockey stars need to dread coming into the ACC. Their family and friends should see them getting pummeled every time they touch the puck!

I'm sick of all these GTA kids, playing for American based teams, making our Leafs pay every time they come home.

Damn it, make these guys want to fade to black and not be seen or heard from when playing our Leafs!

 

[Stephen]

All the players you listed are stars and are stars in almost every game. You happen to probably watch mainly leaf games and the leafs have sucked for years so you just watch these stars run us. They run everyone that's bad. If you haven't noticed, we've done a lot better this year against star players because our team as a whole has been better.

No I'm aware that's what star players do, I'd just like to see them have to pay a physical price to do whatever it is they do so that coming into the ACC is no longer necessarily a date on the calendar these guys are looking forward to.

 

[Mess]

No I'm aware that's what star players do, I'd just like to see them have to pay a physical price to do whatever it is they do so that coming into the ACC is no longer necessarily a date on the calendar these guys are looking forward to.

Which players do you suggest deal out this physicality making home grown Ontario kids pay the price ?

Kessel, JVR, Grabovski, Gardiner, Liles etc ?. None of those players are physical nor do they themselves have any connection to Ontario or Canada themselves other than earning a paycheck. Even Canadian born kids like Bozak or MacArthur don't put up any physical resistance even if National pride comes into play.

Nonis has installed Orr, McLaren and Fraser and gone are ice dancers Connolly and Lombardi etc and the Leafs are harder to play against as a team. However the problem being Leafs toughness is not found in its players that matter, only in those at the bottom of the depth chart that are not on the ice when the other teams stars are.

Leafs need more Wendel Clark and Dougie Gilmour type players to make returning players enjoy their return less.

Its Leafs team composition that is at the heart of your problem as much as incentive and motivation is for the visitors.

 

[Al14]

Which players do you suggest deal out this physicality making home grown Ontario kids pay the price ?

Kessel, JVR, Grabovski, Gardiner, Liles etc ?. None of those players are physical nor do they themselves have any connection to Ontario or Canada themselves other than earning a paycheck. Even Canadian born kids like Bozak or MacArthur don't put up any physical resistance if in National pride comes into play.

Nonis has installed Orr, McLaren and Fraser and gone are ice dancers Connolly and Lombardi etc and the Leafs are harder to play against as a team. However the problem being Leafs toughness is not found in its players that matter, only in those at the bottom of the depth chart that are not on the ice when the other teams stars are.

Leafs need more Wendel Clark and Dougie Gilmour type players to make returning players enjoy their return less.

Its Leafs team composition that is at the heart of your problem as much as incentive and motivation is for the visitors.

You know what, I'm really growing tired of Phaneuf waving his stick at the puck carrier along the boards. He needs to start pasting these opposing players against the boards hard, not treat them like fine china or a fricking mirror!

JVR is a big bodied player that should be using his size to assert himself physically, instead of standing around watching opposition players skate circles around him. I also think both Bozak and MacArthur can be physical if they wanted to.

Kessel avoids contact every single time. At one point last night, he could have easily won a race to a puck going up the boards. He backed off because he was afraid that the NYI player would lay a hit on him if he got to the puck first. It was just so obvious and is way too obvious a lot of the time that he is afraid to be hit! He needs to man up and win some races to get the puck!!!

 

[GordieHoweHatTrick]

Also, the opposing team's dressing room should be a dump instead of having a big welcome mat out front with all the amenities.

 

[Lebanese Leaf]

Be patient friends, he is on his way:

Brad Ross.

 

[Al14]

Be patient friends, he is on his way:

Brad Ross.

And what exactly will Brad Ross bring that can't be done by any of our existing players if they chose to?

 

[Stephen]

Which players do you suggest deal out this physicality making home grown Ontario kids pay the price ?

Kessel, JVR, Grabovski, Gardiner, Liles etc ?. None of those players are physical nor do they themselves have any connection to Ontario or Canada themselves other than earning a paycheck. Even Canadian born kids like Bozak or MacArthur don't put up any physical resistance even if National pride comes into play.

Nonis has installed Orr, McLaren and Fraser and gone are ice dancers Connolly and Lombardi etc and the Leafs are harder to play against as a team. However the problem being Leafs toughness is not found in its players that matter, only in those at the bottom of the depth chart that are not on the ice when the other teams stars are.

Leafs need more Wendel Clark and Dougie Gilmour type players to make returning players enjoy their return less.

Its Leafs team composition that is at the heart of your problem as much as incentive and motivation is for the visitors.

I'd call for something of a "layered" approach to harassment.

The directive should be to take the body whenever possible by anybody on the roster, it can be JVR, Kulemin, O'Bryne, even Grabovski, McClement, whomever. The point is just cumulative punishment. The goons should put extra harassment on the star talent, possibiliy stirring the hornets nest and forcing the opposition to send its non goons out to put out fires instead of lame antiseptic staged fights. Pests like Komarov should engage in maximum interference between whistles. Don't give them a second of peace out there.