Still, the press conference can’t win or lose the battle. Shanahan indicated he was open to the notion of exploring analytics — he told me and Dave Naylor on TSN 1050 that he spent the plane ride reading up on Corsi and Fenwick, two popular puck-possession metrics — and curiosity from a Hall of Famer is surely welcome. Shanahan didn’t reveal his vision of how the game should be played, but people who know him keep using that word: He had vision, they say. Always has.
The Leafs aren’t close to talented enough to win a Stanley Cup, so vision will be required. But all in all, this is Leiweke’s show now, though who knows for how long. Leiweke talks a lot about how dreadful the winter was, and there are whispers that wrestling with the competing telecommunication giants that own the place is not what you’d call a satisfying experience. Of course, nobody knows just how happy the giants are, either. The notion that Shanahan would be groomed as Leiweke’s successor was floated this week, even if Shanahan is a long way from being the same level of political, hyper-corporate figure. For what it’s worth, when flatly asked if he was searching for a successor, Leiweke laughed.
“No,” he said. “We don’t do that damn parade, I’ll never live it down.”
That’s a lot of winters away, more than likely. Better bundle up.
