Series Talk: Why I love the leafs and management with their rebuild

pulfordfan

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Sep 28, 2017
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Rjukan Norway
Relocated Canadian originally from St. Catharines now in Norway for 20 years, When I first moved to Norway NHL was only available on net radio 590 live, listen to live game a t 1:00 am cause of the time difference. Slowly game became available because of cable, but still tough to stay up late and most game did not include the leafs. Last 3 years Viasat took on NHL coverage and I can record games and watch them the next morning with coffee. No spoilers from the Internet. Just watched game 6. Pumped now for game 7. Longer this series goes better the leafs look and the Bruins look tired. Freddy outstanding, speed and youth on our side.

Shanny has put together a great team with great management, rebuild has constantly improved every year, we have more wins then last year, freddy set records, home win record. Lou has added players we needed and are effective. We matched our first round playoff record from last year. I feel confident that we will make it to the second round. Babs in my eyes has done a great job. Excited, can't contain myself. Had to start this thread. Go Leafs Go!!!
 

MR4

Registered User
Oct 20, 2014
6,270
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Always cool to hear how Leafs Nation is international

But if this is a mgmt thread then even with the win IMO it was a terrible year by Lou and a meh year/playoff performance by Babs (some good some bad moments)

Someone will probably reply 'oh but we just set a franchise record' but IMO that was on the backs of Andy/Rielly/the forward trio/Kadri, not as much Babs
 

KIWILEAFFAN

Registered User
Dec 28, 2011
1,285
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New Zealand
I am a relocated Ontario boy as well. 38 yrs ago tho.
Have been a Leafs fan as long as I can remember. When I first got to NZ there were only 2 TV channels and we had to go thru an operator to make a phone call on a shared line LOL.
Only way I could get info on the Leafs was from people I left behind and that tapered off as time went on.
There was the odd snippet in one of the larger newspapers that would have in the tiniest type imaginable, some NHL results.

Hi speed Internet has been great as I can catch quite a few regular season games. Amazingly the whole 2018 Leafs v Boston series has been televised here. No other games yet that I know of.

Pumped for game 7 and when down 3-1 I was still pretty relaxed.
Whatever happens, this team is going to be a force for quite a while. I am actually confident they will win game 7
Whatever happens after that is a bonus.
As the coach says, just enjoy it for what it is.
Hopefully all the negative and whingeing fans can enjoy the game as well for once.
 
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pulfordfan

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Sep 28, 2017
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Rjukan Norway
NZ is on my bucket list, want to fly fish rainbows on the south island, great fishing here, no rainbows though, but some nice brown trout fishing in the rivers, but miss rainbow fishing, did alot in the Niagara river and rivers that ran into Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario.
 

KIWILEAFFAN

Registered User
Dec 28, 2011
1,285
574
New Zealand
NZ is on my bucket list, want to fly fish rainbows on the south island, great fishing here, no rainbows though, but some nice brown trout fishing in the rivers, but miss rainbow fishing, did alot in the Niagara river and rivers that ran into Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario.

Look me up if you ever do get here. I guide hunters among other things for a living, but I am also a keen fisherman. Mostly saltwater as the fish just taste better. :sarcasm:
We do have excellent brown trout and King/Quinnet salmon fishing where I live. A few rivers near to me have good rainbows.
But honestly the North Island would be better for the BIG Rainbows.
An average brown where I live is 4lbs or 2kgs.
Average Rainbow in the NI is bigger again with double figured fish being quite common.
I can fish a couple lakes and numerous rivers and creeks in an afternoon all within a few minutes drive from my house.
 
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Zizzzzy

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Dec 6, 2017
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NZ is on my bucket list, want to fly fish rainbows on the south island, great fishing here, no rainbows though, but some nice brown trout fishing in the rivers, but miss rainbow fishing, did alot in the Niagara river and rivers that ran into Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario.

Beautiful sunny day here in St. Catharines today. Daughter and I were fishing last weekend down at Port, and hoping to head to Niagara Whirlpool soon if the weather keeps the ice at bay.

oh, and yes I like our management too.... :D
 
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pulfordfan

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Sep 28, 2017
234
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Rjukan Norway
Had my first beer at the Port hotel back in 1970. Grew up on a farm at lake and lake port, house was where the 7/11 is now, put a sub division where the farm was between lake and scott street, if you know Bula drive that's my family name that street runs through the old farm. Moved out of St Kitts in 1998 lived with my wife and 2 daughters on Chelsea street. Great city back then, My Grand dad, dad and all my uncles worked at McKinnons now GM. Watched the black hawks in the old barn when Macel Dioone was the Captain, was at the games for the jr. cup against the ramparts Laflure was the captain, riots and buss burnings, Good ol time hockey.
 

ponder

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Jul 11, 2007
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Vancouver
I’d say we’ve fully exited “rebuild” mode, and are in “win now” mode.

The rebuild was terrible for years, basically from the 04/05 lockout to the end of 2011/12 we drafted horribly, made mostly terrible trades and signings, and just had no clear vision/plan. We did draft Rask and Stralman in 2005, but of course dealt them for nothing before they fully developed. Really the only positives from this entire period were drafting Kadri, signing Bozak and the trade that brought us Gards.

I’d say things have been going well since before Shanny arrived, though - Burke did well in his late Leafs days, and Nonis was patient with the rebuild, even if he didn’t do much in terms of trades/signings.

In the 2012 offseason Burke traded Schenn for JvR, and drafted Rielly and Brown, which really started laying some foundations for success, vs. earlier in his tenure where he had a really harmful win now approach despite a terrible core. Nonis was never gonna be a winner, too cautious, but at that time we mostly needed to be bad, patient and draft well, which he did. He was in charge for the 2013 and 2014 drafts, and it was his team making the 2015 picks (Nonis had been fired before the draft, but Lou wasn’t hired until after), and those 3 drafts brought us Marner, Nylander, Dermott, Johnsson, and some other guys who may one day make the NHL (Nielsen, Bracco, etc.). Then obviously the whole Shanny era has been great - brought in a top notch GM in Lou, a very good coach in Babs, and it’s just been a period of good moves and player development in general.

So yeah, the rebuild went really well from the 2012 offseason onwards, but “late Burke” and Nonis deserve some credit, as well the obvious management choices (Shanny, Lou, Babs, Hunter, Dubas, Bergman, etc.). Late Burke and Nonis laid some nice foundations, so the current management team could come in and kill it. I’m sure having a promising young core of Nylander, Marner, Kadri, JvR, Bozak, Dermott, etc. was part of Lou signing here - he saw a core that he could build on.
 

HamiltonNHL

Parity era hockey is just puck luck + draft luck
Jan 4, 2012
20,124
10,634
I’d say we’ve fully exited “rebuild” mode, and are in “win now” mode.
Still building.
Especially at right D.

I’m sure having a promising young core of Nylander, Marner, Kadri, JvR, Bozak, Dermott, etc. was part of Lou signing here - he saw a core that he could build on.
bozak and JVR are young ?
 

Critical13

Fear is the mind-killer.
Feb 25, 2017
12,617
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Sitting at a desk.
I’d say we’ve fully exited “rebuild” mode, and are in “win now” mode.

The rebuild was terrible for years, basically from the 04/05 lockout to the end of 2011/12 we drafted horribly, made mostly terrible trades and signings, and just had no clear vision/plan. We did draft Rask and Stralman in 2005, but of course dealt them for nothing before they fully developed. Really the only positives from this entire period were drafting Kadri, signing Bozak and the trade that brought us Gards.

I’d say things have been going well since before Shanny arrived, though - Burke did well in his late Leafs days, and Nonis was patient with the rebuild, even if he didn’t do much in terms of trades/signings.

In the 2012 offseason Burke traded Schenn for JvR, and drafted Rielly and Brown, which really started laying some foundations for success, vs. earlier in his tenure where he had a really harmful win now approach despite a terrible core. Nonis was never gonna be a winner, too cautious, but at that time we mostly needed to be bad, patient and draft well, which he did. He was in charge for the 2013 and 2014 drafts, and it was his team making the 2015 picks (Nonis had been fired before the draft, but Lou wasn’t hired until after), and those 3 drafts brought us Marner, Nylander, Dermott, Johnsson, and some other guys who may one day make the NHL (Nielsen, Bracco, etc.). Then obviously the whole Shanny era has been great - brought in a top notch GM in Lou, a very good coach in Babs, and it’s just been a period of good moves and player development in general.

So yeah, the rebuild went really well from the 2012 offseason onwards, but “late Burke” and Nonis deserve some credit, as well the obvious management choices (Shanny, Lou, Babs, Hunter, Dubas, Bergman, etc.). Late Burke and Nonis laid some nice foundations, so the current management team could come in and kill it. I’m sure having a promising young core of Nylander, Marner, Kadri, JvR, Bozak, Dermott, etc. was part of Lou signing here - he saw a core that he could build on.

Disagree. Full win now mode means selling on prospects and picks. I think we need to stay the course for another year or two before we go for a McDonagh type trade.
 

ponder

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Jul 11, 2007
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Vancouver
Disagree. Full win now mode means selling on prospects and picks. I think we need to stay the course for another year or two before we go for a McDonagh type trade.
Still building.
Especially at right D.


bozak and JVR are young ?
Obviously there’s no clear definitions of these terms, but we’re a good team (3rd in the east), not looking to make significant changes to our core, just looking for the right players to complement them, and dealing with UFA churn. I’d say that’s past the rebuilding phase, which I view as teams that are still in the process of building out their core, and almost always trying to deal vets for picks, prospects and young NHLers.

We’re not looking to mortgage the future, our core is real young, we want to ensure they have a long window. Still, I’d say we’re at the point where we’d prefer a 30 year old, established top-4 RHD over an 18 year old pick/prospect with top-4 RHD potential, but who’s years away. For me, that change in outlook (along with being quite a good team today) means we’ve left rebuild, and entered win-now mode, just a careful win-now mode where we aren’t screwing ourselves a few years down the line.

Re: Bozak and JvR, I was referring to them as part of the young core when Shanny was recruiting Lou, back in 2015. JvR was mid 20s, Bozie late 20s, not “prospect” young, but guys you could count on to be goood for quite awhile in terms of the core we had at the time.
 
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BM14

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Dec 7, 2012
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GTA
Beautiful sunny day here in St. Catharines today. Daughter and I were fishing last weekend down at Port, and hoping to head to Niagara Whirlpool soon if the weather keeps the ice at bay.

oh, and yes I like our management too.... :D
Beaverdamns, dude. Beaverdamns.
 
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Wafflewhipper

Registered User
Jan 18, 2014
14,114
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Relocated Canadian originally from St. Catharines now in Norway for 20 years, When I first moved to Norway NHL was only available on net radio 590 live, listen to live game a t 1:00 am cause of the time difference. Slowly game became available because of cable, but still tough to stay up late and most game did not include the leafs. Last 3 years Viasat took on NHL coverage and I can record games and watch them the next morning with coffee. No spoilers from the Internet. Just watched game 6. Pumped now for game 7. Longer this series goes better the leafs look and the Bruins look tired. Freddy outstanding, speed and youth on our side.

Shanny has put together a great team with great management, rebuild has constantly improved every year, we have more wins then last year, freddy set records, home win record. Lou has added players we needed and are effective. We matched our first round playoff record from last year. I feel confident that we will make it to the second round. Babs in my eyes has done a great job. Excited, can't contain myself. Had to start this thread. Go Leafs Go!!!

Awesome bud. I think the same thing. Young, skilled and fast ;)
 

pulfordfan

Registered User
Sep 28, 2017
234
257
Rjukan Norway
new guasta.jpg
I think it rivals Sweden as the best country in the world.
Sweden is a beautiful country of coarse a hockey powerhouse, big rivalry when it some to cross country skiing. AS far as hockey here Norway coming up, our best now is Zuccerrello in NYR. One thing good here is the offshore oil, drives the country, and the government banks it all, call the oil fund, not sure how much there but close to a trillion USD. No deficient, fordable health care cheap loans for education, good place This is looking out back from my mountain cottage last winter. Ice fish trout and artic char from the lake bellow, bomb around on my skandic
 
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Halla

Registered User
Jan 28, 2016
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Always cool to hear how Leafs Nation is international

But if this is a mgmt thread then even with the win IMO it was a terrible year by Lou and a meh year/playoff performance by Babs (some good some bad moments)

Someone will probably reply 'oh but we just set a franchise record' but IMO that was on the backs of Andy/Rielly/the forward trio/Kadri, not as much Babs

69 pts less than 2 years ago. worst team in the league. 105pts this year. team record for wins and pts

"management is terrible. babs sucks". never change leaf nation!
 
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Myopic

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Feb 26, 2017
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View attachment 116701
Sweden is a beautiful country of coarse a hockey powerhouse, big rivalry when it some to cross country skiing. AS far as hockey here Norway coming up, our best now is Zuccerrello in NYR. One thing good here is the offshore oil, drives the country, and the government banks it all, call the oil fund, not sure how much there but close to a trillion USD. No deficient, fordable health care cheap loans for education, good place This is looking out back from my mountain cottage last winter. Ice fish trout and artic char from the lake bellow, bomb around on my skandic
Sweden is becoming an outpost for middle eastern immigrants. Lots of crime where even the police won't venture into some quadrants. They say the native Swedes will be outnumbered in the not too distant future. They are slowly losing their country, unfortunately.
 

Halla

Registered User
Jan 28, 2016
14,727
3,779
I'm sure if the Leafs win 5-4 in game seven, there plenty of Leafs fans and non Leafs fans saying the Leafs can never win with THAT defence.

yeah they look at the names and think
a) leafs dont have a #1
b) leafs only have two top 4 dmen
c) leafs have 4 bottom pairing guys in their top 6


yet somehow this team managed to be 12th in GA, while being a top 5 offense?
 

taurine330

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Nov 28, 2015
4,295
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Stockholm
Leafs fan hailing from Helsinki. I've been a leafs fan for 20+ years now. Going to watch game 7 today. Puck drop 2.30 am. Probably going to go straight to work afterwards.
 
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Ciao

Registered User
Jul 15, 2010
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Toronto
View attachment 116701
Sweden is a beautiful country of coarse a hockey powerhouse, big rivalry when it some to cross country skiing. AS far as hockey here Norway coming up, our best now is Zuccerrello in NYR. One thing good here is the offshore oil, drives the country, and the government banks it all, call the oil fund, not sure how much there but close to a trillion USD. No deficient, fordable health care cheap loans for education, good place This is looking out back from my mountain cottage last winter. Ice fish trout and artic char from the lake bellow, bomb around on my skandic
It looks beautiful!

So, do you drive a Fjord?
 
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Ciao

Registered User
Jul 15, 2010
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Toronto
yeah they look at the names and think
a) leafs dont have a #1
b) leafs only have two top 4 dmen
c) leafs have 4 bottom pairing guys in their top 6


yet somehow this team managed to be 12th in GA, while being a top 5 offense?
And they win so many one-goal games, including 2-1 the other night!
 

pulfordfan

Registered User
Sep 28, 2017
234
257
Rjukan Norway
Sweden is becoming an outpost for middle eastern immigrants. Lots of crime where even the police won't venture into some quadrants. They say the native Swedes will be outnumbered in the not too distant future. They are slowly losing their country, unfortunately.
Maybe a slight over exaggeration, I have traveled though Sweden many times, although the presence of immigration is obvious all over Scandinavia including Norway the crime committed by immigrants no so. I'm more worried about the nationalist movement that is now growing. Worst mass shooting here was committed by a white nationalist, killed over 60 kids camping on a island that was set up by the labour party that accepts immigrants as a part of a growing society. Before he shot the children he set off a bomb down town Oslo. This man who killed children belong to knight of templar, a kind of extreme right wing organization some what like Britian first in the UK. A man who blamed his sad life on immigration and to make a point killed kids, one of them a daughter of a friend of mine. I see more white supremacist burning down place that house asylum seekers. I can't think of a terrorist attack that happened here, could be wrong. Funny my grandfathers came from the Ukraine and Norway. Still a big Ukrainian community in my home town in Canada which have their own church and community hall that celebrate their heritage. Funny no fuss over that. Just saying.

Still love the progression the team has shown since Shanny took over, looking forward to put out the Bruins in Boston in game 7. Go Leafs go!!
 
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DowntownConnorBrown

Registered User
Apr 28, 2018
81
14
finally have good management no more throwing money at free agents and hoping they work out no more trading draft picks for players who can play now and no more lee stempniak for alexander steen trades
 

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