Toronto Maple Leafs: Booing Is Bad for Business

The Toronto Maple Leafs have not been playing like Stanley Cup contenders lately. With plenty of costly turnovers, a poor power play and average goaltending at best, it’s no wonder that the Leafs have lost five of their last six games at home.

Given that the Maple Leafs  have a very good record (28-15-2), it’s understandable that fans are angry and restless.The other night’s performance against Colorado certainly was ugly, but it lead to something worse than just losing.

Booing and scapegoating Jake Gardiner.

For all his mystifying decisions with the puck and lack of physicality, Jake Gardiner is a good defenseman. Very good. Defensemen that skate, munch minutes and put up points like him (he’s notched 43 and 52 points the past couple of years) are a valuable commodity in this league. For the old school plus/minus loving fans, he’s also plus 18 this year while playing with Nikita Zaitsev.

That’s what makes booing Gardiner specifically an idiotic thing to do after the whole team played poorly pn Monday night. Yes, his play on Soderberg’s goal was terrible, but is Gardiner uniquely at fault for each goal? We all watched the same game and the whole team didn’t really show up, despite scoring a couple of quick goals for the lead early on.

For fans with short memories, I’d like to remind them what happened to Larry Murphy.

Larry Murphy

Smooth-skating, puck-moving, point-getting, Hall-of-Famer Larry Murphy was also scapegoated unjustly by Toronto fans when the team wasn’t having the success we desired. Fans booed him mercilessly until Toronto traded him to Detroit for nothing but future considerations. He’d go on to win two Stanley Cups with the Red Wings in ’97 and ’98, playing a key part in their success.

I’m not saying Gardiner is Murphy. I am saying that scapegoating a talented player when your whole team disappoints, and driving down that player’s trade value by doing so is bad for everyone.

Gardiner will be a UFA this summer. Leafs brass clearly values him and will keep him if they can afford the inevitable raise he’ll get (his current cap hit is just above $4M per year) after breaking the bank on Matthews and Marner. Still, it’s very likely he walks.

Booing him won’t help him stay.  If you want him gone though, then why boo him? Hypothetically, if the Leafs were trying to move him, what team is going to give you a good deal for a player that’s being run out of town? That would hurt any possible returns we could get.

Let’s knock off the scapegoating of a player that benefits this team more often than not. Save the ire for poor efforts by the team as a whole. Without Gardiner, our left side defense certainly becomes weaker. Dermott looks ready to carry the load, but may not be just yet. Whomever is called up to play on the bottom pair might not be either, and our right side defense is terrible.

If you think Gardiner needs to be launched into the sun, I suggest you watch other teams’ players for a while (like last year’s Cup winner John Carlsson). Puck-moving defencemen make ugly gaffes more than you think—but it’s only ugly when you get caught.

We don’t need another Murphy situation. We need Cup contender to play like they’re contenders.