Toronto Maple Leafs: 2 Prevalent Ideas So Bad It Shocks the Brain

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins last night.

Only a goal post and several ten-bell save by the Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry prevented the narrative from being “Determined Toronto Maple Leafs Storm Back”  with four or five late second period goals.

But rules are rules, so since the Leafs didn’t pull off the miraculous comeback, I’ve got to pretend they didn’t try or something. (Sometimes it’s confusing to try and follow the logic of this fanbase).

Since they were down 5-0, I probably shouldn’t point out that at 5v5 the score was 2-2 (with both of those goals being extremely fluky) and that their goalie played amazing while ours was probably Michael Hutchinson wearing Freddie Andersen’s jersey.

And I definitely shouldn’t point out that of the three penalties that led to the three power-play goals, at least two of them were soft and stupid calls.

I won’t point out that the Leafs had one elite, and two top line players missing from their lineup yet again, and I definitely won’t mention the fact that outside allowing three power-play goals, the Leafs were the better team for the majority of the game at even strength.

Yeah they didn’t score on a 5-3 (and btw Brian Burke’s analysis about that was ridiculous) but guess what? They have the best power-play in the NHL and sometimes goalies make saves.

And one thing I promised not to bring up was that the Toronto Maple Leafs are an ELITE team being sandbagged by injuries and terrible, terrible goaltending.  Or that they’re one of the best teams in hockey since changing their coach, or that they are one of the youngest teams in hockey only halfway through their learning curve.

I won’t bring up these things because in SPORTS the only acceptable analysis is to tell people what they want to hear.

So here goes: The Leafs suck, (insert player name here) sucks.  They are going nowhere because they don’t play the way I was trained to expect teams to play.  They are dumb, (insert embarrassing pun on the GM’s name here) and like anyone who disagrees with me is a stupid-head.

I do that right?  Sorry, I’m used to crazy things like evidence and logic, so the ID portion of my sports brain doesn’t work right.

Which brings me to the title of this article.

Two of the Worst Takes in Sports History

Two terrible ideas so dumb it’s hard to believe I have to bring them up, let alone argue against them.

Here goes.

1.  The Leafs are not sellers at the trade deadline.   They  are a team built on the foundation of analytics.  That means pushing aside emotions and looking logically at the numbers.

The numbers quite irrefutably say if this team gets even league average goaltending it’s going to be a powerhouse.  They still maintain a playoff spot, and it’s reasonable to think they will perform better than they have in the near future.

Not sellers.

2.  The Leafs don’t need to fire their GM.  The people saying this are obviously still mad the team isn’t interested in grinding, checking and fighting their way to 54th season without a Stanley Cup.  This is honestly just a take so juvenile and ridiculous it’s hard to believe anyone actually said this.

To recap: Dubas kept his core together, signed John Tavares, made brilliant trades for Muzzin, Barrie and Campbell, locked up Kapanen and Johnsson, discovered Sheldon Keefe, and drafted Dermott, Liljegren, Sandin and Robertson.

And his team would be doing a lot better if he got the green light to fire Mike Babcock in the summer like he clearly wanted to.

But just because he hasn’t gotten instant results doesn’t mean he’s done a bad job. In fact, this is arguably the worst idea I’ve ever heard in my entire life – and I watch a lot of cable news.

Basically wanting to fire Dubas comes down to one thing: He’s trying something new and it seems scary and weird to people set in their ways.  People don’t like change.  Telling someone that teams don’t need Roman Polaks or Matt Martins to win is apparently sacrilegious.

Regardless, Dubas has done a great job.  A look at his transactions and draft picks shows that he is easily the league’s best GM since getting his job.

The Toronto Maple Leafs won’t be selling.

This team is built to win the Stanley Cup and it will.  If not this year, next year.  But soon. This is a young team with more talent than any other team in the NHL.

When things start to go right – and they will – look the ___ out.

And hey, if you didn’t like what I had to say in this piece I have some very bad news for you: Kyle Dubas is going to be in charge of the Toronto Maple Leafs for a long, long time.