From what we’ve witnessed throughout the years regarding the Toronto Maple Leafs and social media, it might be in their best interest to stay off of it for the rest of the season.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs don’t make the playoffs, some people, who have no heart or soul at all will leave terrible comments on players’ social media accounts.
Even if they make the playoffs, get to the second round and then get boasted out, there will unfortunately still be some rude commenters.
It won’t go away, and I doubt it ever will. The Toronto Maple Leafs know that it would probably be best to stay off Instagram and Twitter until their season ends.
Auston Matthews on avoiding social media during tough times: “If you're not feeling too good about your game or you maybe had a couple turnovers, probably don't check your Twitter mentions after, and see all the profiles with no pictures actually shredding your life in half.”
— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) March 9, 2020
Mitch Marner said the same thing a few days ago. This is the life of every professional athlete and they most likely get comments that are hurtful everyday.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs’ players were to stay on social media, read all the hate comments they get after “a bad game”, it’ll get into their head and hurt their play.
It could also hurt them mentally too.
But it’s all about finding that balance — to know when to get off because of the comments, or to block someone because of what they say.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs want to become a championship team, they might have to stay off social media.
We are in a new generation, with new players and new hobbies. Some players have grown a lot on social media and have generated a big following.
I always remember the times when during the playoffs, I’d look up Patrick Kane for example. He hadn’t sent out a tweet since before the playoffs started.
Who knows if he still looked on Twitter every so often — he probably did.
At this point though, you can block people — on Twitter you can only receive mentions or notifications from people you follow, so some players could have that.
I’m not sure about Instagram though, which is likely the app players use the most.
At the end of the day, it’s all about the players. If they want to read the hateful comments, by all means do so.
But if they’re the type of people who read comments which then get into their head and start affecting their game, then there’s a problem.
With this new generation of hockey players though, they could be fine just reading it, who knows.
As long as they’re happy and in good spirits, that’s all that matters.