Toronto Maple Leafs: The Offseason Isn’t Long Enough

While the end of the summer may feel on the horizon, there is still another full month until the Toronto Maple Leafs play a real hockey game.

The NHL offseason, despite officially stretching from July-October, feels like it lasts an entire decade. Think about it. The Maple Leafs took on the Boston Bruins for Game Seven of their first-round playoff series at TD Garden on April 23rd, 2019. That was only a little over four months ago. If you have kids, their summer vacation wasn’t set to start for another two months.

And yet, upon thinking back to that game and everything which has happened since, doesn’t that terrible April night feel like it took place in another century? But don’t worry. We still have another month to go!

Honestly, I’m kind of happy about that.

Last season was so stressful and so toxic for anyone who paid attention to the Maple Leafs, that four months of breather may not be enough to cut it. Keep in mind, this summer has not exactly been a clean break for the weary, either. Between the cap shenanigans and Mitch Marner‘s nonsense constantly plaguing everyone throughout, the typical May-September rest period has instead been hijacked foremostly by the ridiculous father and insecure agent of a player who is asking for far more money than every single reasonable comparable suggests he’s worth.

Personally, as someone who writes about this team literally every single day, this Marner rollercoaster has been the opposite of a break. It’s drained me, frankly, from summer’s beginning right down to its slowly-approaching end.

I’m sick of it, and arguably just as tired right now as I was when the horn blew to end game seven.

It hasn’t just been Marner that is responsible for this, though.

You see, the Toronto Maple Leafs are not allowed to enjoy things. Misery is their only reward. The team will build themselves perhaps the most talented young core in all of hockey, and only be met by the jeers of grown men who hold no concept of what the CBA means screaming at them about how the salary cap won’t allow them to keep it together.

It doesn’t stop there.

While literally half of the league’s young players sit without contracts in late-August, it’s only the one who plays for the Maple Leafs who happens to make constant headlines and gets roped into the distinction of being a cause for disaster, despite how at least two of his peers in this exact situation are actually better than him.

Heck, a Maple Leaf can’t even change his freaking number without your Uncle Doug accusing him of disrespecting a guy who played 33 games for the team almost 15 years ago.

Are you ready for this to kick into high gear when the puck drops on not even the regular season, but the preseason? I know I’m not. Not in the slightest.

As of today, we have another month until the preseason kicks off and 44 days until the games begin to matter. Cherish it, my friends. Please. You’ll miss this relative peace when it’s gone.