Welcome to the Silent Era Leafs Fans!

[Nithoniniel]

I love it. Nothing made me happier than seeing the "insiders" try to figure out the move after the fact. I listened to Leafs Lunch when they found out and it seemed the first thing they wanted to do was rip Lou. I bet if they had an inside track they would be praising this early.

Good franchises keep this stuff under wraps until an announcement was made. I was a huge critic of Shanahan. I wrote posts about how he's "done nothing" and has "no experience", and now I'm left with nothing to criticize after they bring in Babcock and Lou.

This crow I'm eating is delicious!

Gotta respect someone who was critical about something and then admits to being wrong. This board could use more of that.

 

[Leaf Rocket]

I am loving this.

I gotta agree for sure that Shanny has been quite different at handling the media compared to what Burke did in the past. I enjoyed the approach in the past but with the media that is the Toronto Hockey Writers, I think this is much more suited and much better to shut up jackasses like simmons. I still love how Lou shut him down yesterday

 

[Bullseye]

Good, the entire idea of "insiders" is such a joke anyways. They pat themselves on the back for days because they tweet something 5 minutes before it's officially announced to the world.

Totally agree with this! It's ludicrous.

 

[therealkoho]

Good, the entire idea of "insiders" is such a joke anyways. They pat themselves on the back for days because they tweet something 5 minutes before it's officially announced to the world.

basically they've got 5 or 6 interns taking turns at watching the NHL wire and throwing it on twitter the moment any trade gets league approval..the only thing these insiders are inside is their own heads

I can guarantee however that Kypreos has deeper touches inside the Leafs because of his access to the Alumni lounge and box, but thats only for team scuttlebut, the guys in the know all reside in the front office and they do not have any reason to discuss trades to any of the alumni

This is the same for these fevered brains who actually think that somehow Dreger had inside info because Dave was his 2nd cousin. Had Nonis been discussing Leafs strategy with a reporter, he would not have lasted 2 weeks before being fired, nor would anybody in the league trust him to do business with!

I challenge anybody to go back through the 200 or so "rumours" fomented by any insider over the last year, I'm not talking post trade reports, but the "rumours" the ones that start with the old "I've heard or sources tell me" and find 4 that came to fruition?

If you can that is a 2 per cent success rate and mostly the product of good guess work

 

[diceman934]

basically they've got 5 or 6 interns taking turns at watching the NHL wire and throwing it on twitter the moment any trade gets league approval..the only thing these insiders are inside is their own heads

I can guarantee however that Kypreos has deeper touches inside the Leafs because of his access to the Alumni lounge and box, but thats only for team scuttlebut, the guys in the know all reside in the front office and they do not have any reason to discuss trades to any of the alumni

This is the same for these fevered brains who actually think that somehow Dreger had inside info because Dave was his 2nd cousin. Had Nonis been discussing Leafs strategy with a reporter, he would not have lasted 2 weeks before being fired, nor would anybody in the league trust him to do business with!

I challenge anybody to go back through the 200 or so "rumours" fomented by any insider over the last year, I'm not talking post trade reports, but the "rumours" the ones that start with the old "I've heard or sources tell me" and find 4 that came to fruition?

If you can that is a 2 per cent success rate and mostly the product of good guess work

I hated the damage control that was leaked to the media when something was reported....that has stopped when Nonis got fired...

I also love the fact that no one is leaking info about trades, signings etc as it should be. Brian Burke created the media circus as he could not help himself....he wanted to be on the news daily, he was the most self centered egotistical individual we ever had in Toronto.....he also was a piss poor excuse for a GM....bad drafting and bad decisions, horrible contracts etc, I will thank him for one thing....Shanny!

 

[Liferleafer]

Best news of the offseason....time to just go about the business of building a competetive hockey team.

 

[Menzinger]

I'm expecting Simmons and the other mainstream guys to become nastier now they've been completely cut out of the loop when it comes to Leafs news these days.

 

[ACC1224]

I'm expecting Simmons and the other mainstream guys to become nastier now they've been completely cut out of the loop when it comes to Leafs news these days.

Not sure if I`m in the minority or not but I`d have no idea what any of these guys write if it wasn`t posted here.

 

[Mess]

I'm expecting Simmons and the other mainstream guys to become nastier now they've been completely cut out of the loop when it comes to Leafs news these days.

I think failure breeds contempt, but success breeds a different positive tone. Everyone loves a winner !!!

The Leafs have been dragged along the bottom with endless failure during the last failed rebuild, with endless public boasting that was reported on by the Toronto media. "It doesn't take 5 years", "Leafs Nation wouldn't accept a draft rebuild because of impatience". "Our entry draft is July 1st" etc etc.

The silent era doesn't give the media anything to throw back on the team with, and once it becomes successful again the tone of the reporting will change as well from reporting on failure to reporting on success.

 

[Daisy Jane]

what is strange is that a lot of media outside of Toronto are all like, things are looking really good, and it's a huge portion of the media who are all like. NO BUT IT REALLY MIGHT NOT WORK!

I am now loving the new mantra
we're inexperienced and too old now, because of Lou.

 

[-DeMo-]

who cares really, there are times to use the media and leak info and there's times not to, like are you suggesting the Leafs never talked to or offered the GM job to Kelly McCrimmon? because that was all over the media so far, so if he accepted the job would this tight lipped thing be a complete myth? also the Babcock circus that went on all season saying the leafs really wanted Babcock as there coach is not really being tight lipped imo, there were also alot of rumours about the Leafs moving Kessel to Pittsburgh and that they were willing to retain salary, and that was true aswell.

 

[stakesishigh]

I much prefer it. The less they give the media the better.

 

[Gabriel426]

At the end, they will choose who to leak info to, probably those who write fair and good stuff instead of someone who asked Lou would he fires Babcock and hires a new coach.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

who cares really, there are times to use the media and leak info and there's times not to, like are you suggesting the Leafs never talked to or offered the GM job to Kelly McCrimmon? because that was all over the media so far, so if he accepted the job would this tight lipped thing be a complete myth? also the Babcock circus that went on all season saying the leafs really wanted Babcock as there coach is not really being tight lipped imo, there were also alot of rumours about the Leafs moving Kessel to Pittsburgh and that they were willing to retain salary, and that was true aswell.

Well, the cone of silence has only been tightening since the McCrimmon rumour back a few months ago. Many media members said the Leafs were out on Babcock when they weren't. There were rumours that Pittsburgh and Toronto were discussing Kessel, but no one knew how close they actually were. Hell Dreger and McKenzie were speculating that the Leafs were going to to a hybrid-rebuild one day before Kessel was traded. Not to mention those leaks could've come from the Penguins side of things. And lastly, not a single media member had a clue that the Leafs were close to hiring Lamoriello, let alone close to filling the GM position. They were blindsided like the rest of us.

People care because it's uncharted waters with regards to coverage of this team. In years past there was nary a hiring or signing or trade that we didn't know about and weren't discussing. Shanahan in his time here has set a precedent regarding Leafs news: we'll know when they want us to know. And given LouLam's reputation of keeping his managements activities quiet in New Jersey, the cone of silence that has settled around this franchise has only gotten stronger.

You're right in that teams use the media to their advantage for sure, and the Leafs probably will. But any rumours that come out from Toronto will be on the Leafs terms. The insiders here are going to have to take what they can get from the Leafs, or explore other avenues of getting any information on the Leafs activities (i.e. hearing trade rumours from teams on the other side of the equation, not the Leafs).

 

[therealkoho]

I hated the damage control that was leaked to the media when something was reported....that has stopped when Nonis got fired...

I also love the fact that no one is leaking info about trades, signings etc as it should be. Brian Burke created the media circus as he could not help himself....he wanted to be on the news daily, he was the most self centered egotistical individual we ever had in Toronto.....he also was a piss poor excuse for a GM....bad drafting and bad decisions, horrible contracts etc, I will thank him for one thing....Shanny!

dice I hate to break your bubble, but no one ever did leak stuff about trades, because almost none of them ever happened and the very few that did happen was great deductive work by anybody watching the team and knowing their needs

LeafLand wanted to believe, no just had to believe that Nonis was giving Dreger his daily dose of whispers and Dreger was more then happy to keep dishing out all the stuff he was getting from all the on-line GM's on the various websites(thats what his team of interns do), deals that had an air of authenticity, and the more he pumped out the more his hit count along with his salary kept going up

Years ago on the official Leafs site in the trade rumours section, 2008/09 as a matter of fact

I said that I had it on fairly good authority(I golf with a couple of ex NHLers and still have drinks with as well as a life long friend I played with back in the day who was a pro scout with the Devils who I would see when the Devils came to town to play the Senators)

I posted that Lou had a deal in place with the Leafs for Tomas Kaberle and Nik Kulemin, I wrote that Lou offered the Leafs Bryce Salvador, Mike Rupp and a 2nd in the 10 draft

why it made sense?

LeafLand was moaning that Kabs was soft and that generally the Leafs were soft overall and needed to toughen up if they wanted to compete and there was a new rumour about Kabs almost daily

but JFj was dithering because Peddie had demanded he get a 1st in any trade for Kaberle

everyone hated Peddie, everyone saw JFj as a weakling who didn't know what he was doing and had the Leafs swirling in a bowl of mediocrity

and so everybody wanted a change even those in LeafsNation who saw the writing on the wall, it ended up on someones blog caught a little fire and eventually it made Dreger's rumour mill about a week later even my old buddy Mike Augello put it on his fledgling hockeybuzz column

3 things you should know about rumours

Rumours is a great album by Fleetwood Mac

Rumours are also "a tall tale of explanations of events circulating from person to person and pertaining to an object, event, or issue"

it's fun to speculate, and I like doing it, but if you actually think an NHL GM, continually risks upsetting the balance in his dressing room not to mention possibly the other teams dressing room and losing the trust of his peers just so he can move forward his cousins career, then you my friend know very little about life in the big sandbox

 

[rojac]

Well, the cone of silence has only been tightening since the McCrimmon rumour back a few months ago. Many media members said the Leafs were out on Babcock when they weren't. There were rumours that Pittsburgh and Toronto were discussing Kessel, but no one knew how close they actually were. Hell Dreger and McKenzie were speculating that the Leafs were going to to a hybrid-rebuild one day before Kessel was traded. Not to mention those leaks could've come from the Penguins side of things. And lastly, not a single media member had a clue that the Leafs were close to hiring Lamoriello, let alone close to filling the GM position. They were blindsided like the rest of us.

People care because it's uncharted waters with regards to coverage of this team. In years past there was nary a hiring or signing or trade that we didn't know about and weren't discussing. Shanahan in his time here has set a precedent regarding Leafs news: we'll know when they want us to know. And given LouLam's reputation of keeping his managements activities quiet in New Jersey, the cone of silence that has settled around this franchise has only gotten stronger.

You're right in that teams use the media to their advantage for sure, and the Leafs probably will. But any rumours that come out from Toronto will be on the Leafs terms. The insiders here are going to have to take what they can get from the Leafs, or explore other avenues of getting any information on the Leafs activities (i.e. hearing trade rumours from teams on the other side of the equation, not the Leafs).

It's also a lot easier to keep things quiet in the summer when most NHL insiders are on vacation. That could explain why the cone of silence feels tighter since McCrimmon.

You also have to remember that a whole lot of Leafs people got fired. Some of those people were almost certainly sources for insiders. Insiders are likely currently having to cultivate new sources of Leafs' information.

Note, for example, that this board's Chuck Woods, who previously was considered to have access to inside information by the mods, has now stated that this no longer the case. I suspect it is far more likely that Chuck's source no longer works for the Leafs than a tightened security regime shutting up his source.

 

[LV*]

All the moves we've made have been a surprise recently except Babcock because it was on twitter that he decided on the Leafs

Every move they make I get a notification and go "wtf no way" I love it

 

[NikoPopp]

What bothers me about the TO media is that its one thing to be critical of the team or management but some members seem to take pride in that Toronto is a tough market to play in.

Like they enjoy giving players a hard time because its "Toronto" and perpetuating the myth about themselves.

Its almost like they think they have the same impact on the team as when a fan thinks they are affecting the game "because they score whenever I drink my beer".

 

[Faltorvo]

I hated the damage control that was leaked to the media when something was reported....that has stopped when Nonis got fired...

I also love the fact that no one is leaking info about trades, signings etc as it should be. Brian Burke created the media circus as he could not help himself....he wanted to be on the news daily, he was the most self centered egotistical individual we ever had in Toronto.....he also was a piss poor excuse for a GM....bad drafting and bad decisions, horrible contracts etc, I will thank him for one thing....Shanny!

there is only 1 possible good thing to come out of the Burke,Nonis era
that is by them screwing up so amazingly, so astronomically with their attempt to short cut or avoid a draft/rebuild cycle

that they gave shanny enough ammunition to approach the BOG/Ownership and do something that I never ever thought possible from any ownership group here

and that is "change the organisations, top mandate" , " JUST MAKE THE PLAYOFFS IS DEAD"

So Burkey you arrogant azzhat, you did indeed " set the dinner table for someone else to feast from"

BUT as per usual you idiot, you have no friggen clue what meal you cooked up.

 

[Faltorvo]

I'm expecting Simmons and the other mainstream guys to become nastier now they've been completely cut out of the loop when it comes to Leafs news these days.

oh menz, you can quote that as absolute fact.

it's the only leverage they have left, as in

"give us some tid bits and we back off a little"

and for the record

I absolutely love that they have slammed the door on these guys

 

[-DeMo-]

Well, the cone of silence has only been tightening since the McCrimmon rumour back a few months ago. Many media members said the Leafs were out on Babcock when they weren't. There were rumours that Pittsburgh and Toronto were discussing Kessel, but no one knew how close they actually were. Hell Dreger and McKenzie were speculating that the Leafs were going to to a hybrid-rebuild one day before Kessel was traded. Not to mention those leaks could've come from the Penguins side of things. And lastly, not a single media member had a clue that the Leafs were close to hiring Lamoriello, let alone close to filling the GM position. They were blindsided like the rest of us.

People care because it's uncharted waters with regards to coverage of this team. In years past there was nary a hiring or signing or trade that we didn't know about and weren't discussing. Shanahan in his time here has set a precedent regarding Leafs news: we'll know when they want us to know. And given LouLam's reputation of keeping his managements activities quiet in New Jersey, the cone of silence that has settled around this franchise has only gotten stronger.

You're right in that teams use the media to their advantage for sure, and the Leafs probably will. But any rumours that come out from Toronto will be on the Leafs terms. The insiders here are going to have to take what they can get from the Leafs, or explore other avenues of getting any information on the Leafs activities (i.e. hearing trade rumours from teams on the other side of the equation, not the Leafs).

couple of points I want to make, first about the Babcock situation, there was never a point where the Media was saying Toronto no longer had interest in Babcock or that they pulled there offer, when the media said/thought the Leafs were out of the running for Babcock it wasn't because the Leafs gave up interest it was because they thought Babcock wasn't interested. that has nothing to do with the information coming from within the Leafs Organization at the time. everyone knew they really wanted Babcock and had offered him a big contract, that's not being tight lipped.

also you can say w/e you want about the Kessel situation, we all knew they wanted to move Kessel, we all knew Pittsburgh was interested and were negotiating on a trade with Toronto and then in the week prior to the trade heard we were willing to retain salary, all these things came from within the Leafs organization, just because one or 2 guys were saying the opposite doesn't mean these didn't come from the Leafs organization it all clearly did, it was all correct and when the trade went down, it was hardly a surprise that Kessel got trade, and that it was to pittsburgh and that we retain salary. also just because the insiders were talking about a hybrid rebuild doesn't mean Kessel was no longer going to be traded.

thirdly you talk about Lou being a tight lipped type of guy and while he might be, it's not like he was dealing with the type of media we have here in Toronto, he might have talked to 1 or 2 people during his time in NJ because that's all that would have followed that team.

since Shanny has taken over the only 2 moves that were made that seemed to come out of no where were the Clarkson deal, and signing Lou. nothing else that's happened has been like this. and one signing like this doesn't show a new trend imo. this management team even leaked there plan to the media in that we were going into a rebuild like at the end of January before the trade deadline. that's not being tight lipped about what your doing, there exactly the same as the past regime, the only difference is there not coming out and making Bold statements like Burke use to do.

 

[bigdirty]

I really wish Pierre McGuire was back with TSN full time. I would've loved to have seen his reaction when we hired Lou. I can just picture him bouncing in his chair waiting for his turn to talk.

 

[ULF_55]

who cares really, there are times to use the media and leak info and there's times not to, like are you suggesting the Leafs never talked to or offered the GM job to Kelly McCrimmon? because that was all over the media so far, so if he accepted the job would this tight lipped thing be a complete myth? also the Babcock circus that went on all season saying the leafs really wanted Babcock as there coach is not really being tight lipped imo, there were also alot of rumours about the Leafs moving Kessel to Pittsburgh and that they were willing to retain salary, and that was true aswell.

Certainly, the Leafs cannot control the lips of 29 franchises.

Some franchises might actually appreciate leaks if it draws attention to the team.

"Did you hear our team is interested in Kessel?"
Phoenix resident, "We have a team?"

Leafs can't stop dealing with other teams for fear there might be a leak.

Remember the Phaneuf deal, where it was reported other teams didn't know he was being shopped, and some suggested they would have offered more? (be nice if there was a radio repository with search capabilities. Public Big Data can't come quick enough.)

What I will appreciate is honest communication, facts, and not a bunch of hot air chest thumping.

And as Mess says, (hopefully) it won't be silence from reporters, it will be focusing on (hopefully) a building success.

When the franchise is one of the bigger jokes on the ice, what exactly do you expect reporters to focus on?

What do we read here about the Oilers, that 22nd. overall pick, 1990 born Eberle is a .8 PPG player, that 23 year old Hall is a .88 PPG player, or that 22 year old Hopkins has never had less than 52 points (full season) since he was drafted?

No. Mostly it is about team failure. People love to throw dirt, and the population here is no exception.

It would be nice to read pieces about the positive growth of the Leafs franchise.

There might be some who don't want to read or hear anything about the team, but it is unlikely they'd be here on this board.

The silent era should be with regard to inane speculation, not a total lockdown of information.

First step is to bring respect back to the franchise, give media something other than failure to discuss.

I think Babcock has already set the tone, with the pain is coming comments.

How does the media twist that?

Almost a complete opposite of, "Maybe because of my age, maybe just because I know it doesn't have to be five years..."

/

 

[The Apologist]

oh menz, you can quote that as absolute fact.

it's the only leverage they have left, as in

"give us some tid bits and we back off a little"

and for the record

I absolutely love that they have slammed the door on these guys

Yup expect things to get a whole lot nastier...

 

[The Apologist]

Certainly, the Leafs cannot control the lips of 29 franchises.

Some franchises might actually appreciate leaks if it draws attention to the team.

"Did you hear our team is interested in Kessel?"
Phoenix resident, "We have a team?"

Leafs can't stop dealing with other teams for fear there might be a leak.

Remember the Phaneuf deal, where it was reported other teams didn't know he was being shopped, and some suggested they would have offered more? (be nice if there was a radio repository with search capabilities. Public Big Data can't come quick enough.)

What I will appreciate is honest communication, facts, and not a bunch of hot air chest thumping.

And as Mess says, (hopefully) it won't be silence from reporters, it will be focusing on (hopefully) a building success.

When the franchise is one of the bigger jokes on the ice, what exactly do you expect reporters to focus on?

What do we read here about the Oilers, that 22nd. overall pick, 1990 born Eberle is a .8 PPG player, that 23 year old Hall is a .88 PPG player, or that 22 year old Hopkins has never had less than 52 points (full season) since he was drafted?

No. Mostly it is about team failure. People love to throw dirt, and the population here is no exception.

It would be nice to read pieces about the positive growth of the Leafs franchise.

There might be some who don't want to read or hear anything about the team, but it is unlikely they'd be here on this board.

The silent era should be with regard to inane speculation, not a total lockdown of information.

First step is to bring respect back to the franchise, give media something other than failure to discuss.

I think Babcock has already set the tone, with the pain is coming comments.

How does the media twist that?

Almost a complete opposite of, "Maybe because of my age, maybe just because I know it doesn't have to be five years..."

/

Can we please stop the fictitious 'media will improve with success' lines? When this team was one of the top five teams in the NHL with Mats, Gary, AlMo, Cujo etc. they were terrible. When this team had Douggie, Felix, and the gang this media could not wait to tear them down. The Toronto media is a disease filled cockroach infestation.