The Toronto Maple Leafs are celebrating the holidays like everyone else. To help make this time special, we have gotten every player a personalized gift.
It’s the holiday season and joy is being spread. That is why we here at editorinleaf.com have spared no expense and prepared a gift for every member of the Toronto Maple Leafs. We want them all to close out 2019 with something that they really need.
Last year at this time we sent some scented candles and for some reason, the players didn’t love them as much as we had hoped. We also sent a set of Boston Bruins voodoo dolls, which clearly didn’t work. We’ve decided to go a different direction this year. Instead, this time we have personalized each gift to suit individual players.
Jason Spezza
The gift of having lunch with Mike Commodore
Jason Spezza will be given the gift that many wish they could receive, the gift of enjoying some quality time with former NHLer, Mike Commodore.
Commodore has been hand-picked thanks to something both athletes have in common, a hatred for Mike Babcock. On the opening night of the Leafs season, their former coach benched the team’s newly acquired center. Spezza was sat despite having purchased a large block of tickets for his family and friends to attend the game and watch him play. It was also the first time in his career that he missed the season opener.
Babcock never provided an adequate explanation for placing Spezza in the press box. This wasn’t an isolated incident for the coach. Mike Modano was kept out of the 2010-11 Detroit Red Wings lineup, robbing him of reaching 1500 career NHL games. He ended with 1499.
Commodore has his own dissatisfaction with Babs. Just like he did to Spezza and Modano, Babcock made Commodore a healthy scratch. He did so for a large portion of the 2011-12 season.
Hey Mike Babcock....simply put your players quit on you. They quit on you because you are a terrible human being. You are an average coach with an extremely oversized ego. You finally got exactly what you deserve you selfish prick. The hockey world is ecstatic.
— Mike Commodore (@commie22) November 20, 2019
Spezza can enjoy a nice lunch and listen to the outspoken retired player riff on Babcock. They can share some deli (a favourite of Spezza’s) and few laughs at Bab’s expense.
Michael Hutchinson
The gift of a set of used pads
The gift that Michael Hutchinson really needs is wins. It’s something that has eluded the Barrie, Ontario native this season until just his past start. We’d love to get him more than one dub, but Hutchinson has proved that he can’t buy those this season. He’s 1-5-1 in seven games started. Barring that incredibly rare gift for Hutch, we would be happy to get him a set of used goaltender pads.
Perhaps the problem for the backup goalie is that his pads are too new and he has an aversion to getting them scuffed up. If Hutchinson has been doing his best to preserve the look of his current pads then we have the solution, get him ones that have already been beaten up by puck marks. That way he can stop trying to avoid getting hit by the puck.