Toronto Maple Leafs: A Series of Thoughts On Rage and Negativity
The Toronto Maple Leafs started the season off strong, but got goalied in two of their first four games.
No matter, they said, and played the San Jose Sharks last Friday. It wasn’t the Toronto Maple Leafs best game, but it was a game where they were definitely the better team, and which they easily could have won, if third string goalie Michael Hutchinson wasn’t playing.
2-3 to start the season must have been pretty frustrating for the team, especially in light of the fact that they lost to the Montreal Canadiens in seven games to end last season, despite only losing 4 games out of 17 to them in regulation all year long, and being the better team in pretty much every game of the series.
That frustration culminated in Pittsburgh on Saturday, when the Leafs, with the game tied 1-1, outshot the Penguins 12-1, only to have the Penguins score on their next two shots. The Leafs basically quit the game after that, and while you certainly have the right to rip them for it, what’s the point?
Right now, I’m more frustrated with the constant negativity from the media and the fan base than I am with the team. The Leafs are 31st in the NHL in shooting percentage after six games, but are 3rd in the NHL in shooting percentage over the last 208 games.
It does not take anything beyond fourth grade math to understand that the results of a six game sample tell you nothing, while the results of a 208 game sample tell you everything.
It is a 100% percent certainty that the Toronto Maple Leafs are the team we thought they were heading into game five of the playoffs last season. Teams go on bad streaks all the time. Those streaks end, and the players who had them (assuming they are still in their primes, as all the Leafs best players are) revert to their former selves eventually.
If the team plays like crap for a period of time, and gives little effort, and is bad at defense, or doesn’t try, then be mad.
But this team has a .630 winning percentage under their coach for parts of three seasons, and he’s one of the fastest coaches to ever get to 100 wins. They are team that won their division last season and almost won the President’s Trophy. They were the best team in the NHL last year for much of the season.
They have an incredibly talented roster that features some of the youngest and best players in the NHL. The present is bright, the future is bright……..and it seems like all anyone does is complain about it.
Hockey Can Be Fun – It Just Takes Effort
If the Toronto Maple Leafs play poorly, boo all you want. But the Leafs have not played poorly by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t want to tell anyone what to do, but my own person view is that it’s confusing to me why people love a team so much they spend every waking hour talking about and watching them, and yet this experience is pretty much constantly negative.
What is honestly so bad about finding the positives and sticking by your team when the going gets tough? I am still in my thirties, but the way hockey is experienced and consumed today seems so crazy to me that I might as well be 100 yelling “kids these days”…….except, ironically, most of what I’m talking about isn’t from kids, but from people in the 40-60 range.
Maybe they’re just channeling the fact that life didn’t work out for them through their hatred of their favorite team, I don’t know. I just know it can’t be healthy to get so mad about a hobby all the time.
Why is it anathema to feel bad for the team you cheer for when they fail? Why can’t anyone seem to look at a bunch of 25 year old kids who are struggling and feel a little bit of empathy? Where’s the Let’s Get ‘Em Next Time Gang mentality? Mitch Marner is about the world’s nicest kid. He’s paid a lot of money because he’s one of the best at what he does, and just because he has one bad series then goes pointless for a few games, suddenly the guy is on the phone with Jake Gardiner and Larry Murphy discussing real estate in Michigan.
All he did last year was come in second in 5v5 scoring while playing elite defense, which more or less made him the 3rd best player in the NHL last year. In the playoffs he put up the kinds of stats which lead to 100 points seasons but the puck didn’t go in.
Suddenly he’s ice cold and does anyone think “Oh hey maybe this is why literally every great player from Toronto the NHL has seen in 50 years has played for a different team?” No, all they want to do is figure out how they can eviscerate a 23 year old under the kind of pressure to perform most of us will never know.
Personally, if I wrote my true thoughts on what I think about people ripping one of the best players in franchise history, who is also only 23 and also a hometown hero who, by all accounts is absolutely great for the community, they would be profanity filled nonsense. I would lose my composure, and I won’t do that. So on to the next thing…
Rage and Empathy and the Toronto Maple Leafs
Why is the first reaction always rage and never empathy?
Yeah they’re pros, but they’re also people. Ultimately, they’re millionaires who play a game for a living, so I don’t really expect people to hold hands and sing kumbaya, but personally, I don’t see the point of being so negative all the time.
A goal is scored, instantly it’s “who do we blame.”
After a loss, it’s all about awarding the goat horns.
I don’t even go on twitter anymore during games, because if I wanted to listen to people bicker with each other, I’d re-watch that garbage Fast and Furious spin off with the Rock and Jason Statham.
It seems to me that every single thing about hockey is negative these days. If it’s not who sucks, and how much they suck, and who deserves how much blame, it’s all about who said something stupid and how stupid it was and how much an idiot that person is.
It’s honestly exhausting.
Making it worse is that any kind of effort to explain things rationally is met with insane rage. A player was injured. Who cares? Real Men get it done! A lucky bounce cost the team a win. Who cares? Only losers mention luck. And on and on in the most toxically masculine way imaginable. I shudder to think what the kind of abuse I take on the internet would do to someone who actually had feelings.
I personally watch the Toronto Maple Leafs to be entertained, and because it gives me something unimportant and fun to engage in. Somewhere along the line the internet ruined this. Instant publication of your thoughts isn’t good for anyone. People have become so used to getting what they want when they want it, and so used to complaining about it when they don’t get it, that we’ve all just mostly tuned out anyone or anything that stands in the way of our instant gratification….and god help anyone who doesn’t agree with us.
And what happens when you tune out anyone who questions your beliefs? You start to think anyone who does must be crazy. You become insanely confident in your own ideas and insult anyone who doesn’t agree with you, which you don’t feel bad about because you barely consider them human, and it’s usually done anonymously and poorly, like you’re not very good at it because you’ve never tried it in real life. Think it won’t happen to you? If you’ve ever responded to an opinion you disagree with by trying to come up with a hypothetical motivation for why the person said what they said, it’s already happened.
The Internet is fun, But….
Myself, I stay off the internet most of the time, and I still have a lot of real life friends who I disagree with. I make it a point to keep them. For most people though, what’s the one place where people who disagree on things still come together? Sports – And it’s a nightmare. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON”T AGREE WITH EVERY SINGLE THOUGHT I HAVE HOW DARE YOU?”
A TYPO? DOES YOUR MOTHER KNOW ABOUT THIS?
And on and on.
Blame the players, hate the fans, yell at everyone. and fight.
Who needs it?
There’s got to be a better way. I love to have a good natured argument, and I’m not above ripping on players or management I don’t like. I have been a massive part of everything I’m complaining about, by the way, so don’t think I don’t know that.
For the last couple of years, however, I have made a concerted effort to be as positive as possible when it comes to hockey. The results have been hilarious, but they’ve also been enlightening and entertaining, and illuminating and it’s been a lot of fun. I get insulted way more, but perversely, I’m enjoying myself more than I was in the last full Mike Babcock season.
The Toronto Maple Leafs will likely recover from Saturday’s game and ride the talent on their roster all the way to glory. Or they won’t, and life will go on. It’s not that big of a deal either way. I just think when it comes to being a fan of the sport, it doesn’t make any sense to assume they won’t do it. I mean, I like to be realistic, I just try to make sure I take a positive viewpoint when I can.
Several years ago I realized that I was pretty unhappy in certain aspects. I worked in a dingy basement office (not at my Mom’s thankyouvery much ahhahaha) and I spent way too much time arguing politics with people on social media. I recognized this as extremely unhealthy and decided to make a change.
I deleted all my accounts, and I did my best to make 100% of my online activities about hockey.
Additionally I tried to be more positive about the team I cover and to be less mean to people who didn’t like what I had to say. I haven’t always succeeded in this, but I can tell you I am way happier and less filled with rage. You should try it. Maybe it’s just that I have a way better office now (top floor!) and that I realized that arguing politics on the internet was literally choosing to engage with crazy people, but I like to think it’s because I chose to take a more positive approach to my hobby as well.
It worked for me, and maybe it won’t work for you, but tell me, is raging out about every thing that a hockey team does working out all that great for you? Do you enjoy games more now than back when there was no internet? Because for me, I didn’t, but now I do.
And this isn’t self-help positive thinking nonsense – I don’t expect that just being more positive about things will change anything in the real world. But hockey is a hobby, and how you view it really does matter. I tried to go in a positive direction and it made hockey fun again.
Next. Top 10 Prospects. dark
So hate the Leafs it it makes you feel better, I know most of you will. I don’t expect to change anyone’s mind, I just felt like writing about how I felt, and, if for some reason you actually made it this far, I hope it was as good for you as it was for me. It’s fun to talk about hockey and we’re lucky to be able to do it.