Well, that was a pretty good game. Was a refreshing change from the ridiculous pond hockey we've been playing lately and not enough to wash away the stink of the embarrassing losses to Chicago but at least it's a start. Definitely a step in the right direction so I'll say good work guys. I'm sure most people prefer games like the Marner 5 assist game but me, I'll take a good 60 minute team effort every time, especially as the playoffs get closer.
Some people love to brag about how much talent we have, how spoiled we are to have all these guys, how Mitch is the smartest player in history, how Matthews might score 70 goals this season (those posts were a while back of course) and how Willie's reached a new level this season and so on and so forth. I however can't for the life of me understand how anyone can feel "spoiled", I just don't get it. Sure it's nice to have good players but it's still a team game and until we make some noise in the playoffs, all talk of being "spoiled" is just insane.
This team has been the same story for years. Good in the regular season. Not the most consistent of teams, but overall, still consistently among the top 6 or so teams. But then the playoffs come and we're always 2nd best no matter who we play and we're setting some sort of records for playoff futility.
Crest on the front >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Name on the back. I care about all our players, but I care a thousand times more about the team. Maybe we win the cup this year, not likely but the eternal optimist in me is still hoping, and even insisting that it's possible. If we lose to TB again though and this core gets broken up, I wonder if some of the braggarts here will look back on the last 7 years and say "yeah those were good times, we may never be spoiled like that again"? Me I just want the team to win. I don't care if we don't have a single star player, if the team wins, I'm happy and as it stands now, the 93 Leafs accomplished more in that one season than this core has done during their entire careers to this point and this might be their last chance.
That doesn't mean I can't say great game Willie! I'm afraid of the upcoming contract negotiations though. People are talking about Matthews wanting 14 or even 15 million a year, if we pay him even say 14, then isn't Willie worth at least 11-12? And Marner will then say he's worth what, 16?
I'm excited about the upcoming playoffs because as I'm fond of saying, this could be the year. But the other side of the coin is that I've been saying that for 5 years now and so far I look dumb for saying it. And if this year is another failure, then we're facing players who are setting records for playoff futility who might be asking to be rewarded for failure by being paid record sums of money. It's kind of surreal when I think about it, Kafkaesque even.