Toronto Maple Leafs: EIL Content Roundup – June 17th

The season is officially over for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

But that doesn’t mean the content must stop. Yes, although the Maple Leafs may not be playing actual hockey games anymore, the Editor in Leaf staff have been working around the clock to ensure that every angle from every offseason topic has been covered.

With so many pieces hitting the wall all at once, it’s natural that a few may have fallen through the cracks. So, let’s take a look at some of the past week’s most intriguing pieces.

Toronto Maple Leafs Can’t Take Any Lessons From Blues Cup Win

The St. Louis Blues are Stanley Cup Champions. That’s great! Good for them.

Usually, after a first-time team captures Lord Stanley’s mug, the rest of the NHL dissects their blueprint in search of aspects to mimic. When the Boston Bruins won the Cup back in 2011, every single hockey man developed a life-long love for “grit” and “pugnacity” and “not good hockey players”. It’s natural. Find what works and adapt it to yourself.

These Blues, however? Yeah, I wouldn’t look too deeply into them.

As James explains in his latest piece, the 2018-19 St. Louis Blues don’t offer much for the Maple Leafs to use.

“For instance, the Lightning were much better, for way longer. They didn’t win a Cup (yet) but if you were going to copy someone’s style, you’d be smarter to copy Tampa rather than St. Louis.

My point is that winning doesn’t automatically make you the best, and if you’re not the best, other teams shouldn’t be copying you.  Ergo, just because the Blues won by doing X, doesn’t mean the Leafs should.

For example, Jason Bouwmeester is as bad or worse than Ron Hainsey, who is pretty damn bad.  Bouwmeester’s goalie had a .940 save percentage when he was on the ice in the playoffs this year.  That’s not just insane, it’s practically unheard of.

So no, the Toronto Maple Leafs don’t need their own Bouwmeester (who is sub-Ozhiganov) and the fact that he happens to play for the Blues means nothing.”

Toronto Maple Leafs: Lessons Learned From Raptors Playoff Run

Speaking of champions, the Toronto Raptors captured their first NBA title on Thursday and the entire city is still hungover from it. Boy, what a night. These Raptors were special, a team comprised entirely of non-lottery picks who banded together to form something greater than the sum of their parts.

Also, they have Kawhi Leonard.

There are a lot of lessons for the Maple Leafs to learn from the Raptors. Lessons in risk-taking, asset management, and “going for it”. After another disappointing playoff exit, Kyle Dubas & Co. should be scraping every surface for a competitive advantage.

Michael has a few ideas about what those could look like. Give it a read.

“Very rarely do teams know what it takes to win it all on their first try; sports are simply too difficult and competitive for that to become the case. To learn how to win, a team needs to experience heartbreak and digest tough losses on the big stage.

Experience in these moments is critical because eventually the lessons learned will be put to good use and a team can go on a run that fans will never forget.

For the Toronto Maple Leafs, they are only entering their fourth year with this new nucleus intact and have experienced a few lessons in that span. They took a President Trophy winners as far as they could while playing in five overtimes in year 1.”

The Answer to the Toronto Maple Leafs Backup Goalie Problem

Garret Sparks didn’t work out, did he?

The 25-year-old had a putrid first full season as an NHL goaltender, putting forth a .902 save percentage and just 9 wins in 20 games. Sparks’ struggles actively withheld the Maple Leafs from reaching their full potential last season. His inability to provide a solid presence in net forced Frederik Andersen into the starter’s crease for another 60 games and, effectively, was responsible for the latter’s burnout during the playoffs.

Sparks was so bad that, mere months after signing him to a one-year extension, the Maple Leafs are reportedly shopping their embattled backup to anyone who will listen. Will Sparks be back next year? It’s beginning to look unlikely.

In his latest piece, James dives into how this problem can be fixed, and who might be the one to fix it.

“So as great as Curtis McElhinney was last year, the Leafs did make the correct decision.  The results just weren’t there.

So this year, it appears they are going in a different direction.  Personally, I don’t have strong feelings one way or the other.  Sparks could turn it around, but given the Leafs contender status and the fact that he was demoted before the playoffs, I suppose it’s time to go in a new direction.

I wouldn’t hate it if they kept Sparks around (an NHL capable goalie paid near the league minimum is fine with me), but if they are going to get a new back-up, I’ve got a great idea.”

Thanks for reading!