Maple Leafs: A Comprehensive Guide to an Insufferable Summer.

Can they get it done?

I already wrote once that they would get it done and was horribly incorrect.  But I will say this, I like the fact that Dubas will have a lot of open space to work with in terms of contracts.  Something is missing from this team.  It gives Dubas more bullets to fire at the problem, and maybe he finds the answer.

I have a feeling it could be like what Florida did this year.  They made sweeping changes to their supporting cast.  The Maple Leafs could do the same, especially at forward.  Something needs to change in the locker room to remove some of the comfort level, and they need more speed in the bottom 6.  I would like to see another player that has won a Stanley Cup.

The upgrades are out there and this management team is creative enough to find a way to go and get them.  They’ve done it before.  They’ll do it again.  Eventually, you have to think they will find the right combination…right?  Maybe they get lucky.

We’ll find out soon enough.  It’s time to put this failure of a season behind us and move on to the draft, free agency, trade rumors, and the eternal gossip that is the off-season.  It’s the time of year where you can dream of what your team is going to be like when they play again and argue about it with your friends.

The problem with Leaf fans is that we weren’t ready for all that to begin so soon.  We were eager for more games, more battles, and more hockey.

Shanahan, Dubas, Keefe, and the core group of this team, they all have a lot of work to do.  They have to earn our trust and show us they are worth our emotional investment again.  The only way to do that is to win 4 games in the playoffs.

Maybe I’m just an eternal optimist, but I’m hopeful that they get it right.  I still have belief in my heart for this team.  It will be sweet indeed if, this time, I’m actually right.

Go Leafs.