The Toronto Maple Leafs are a bastion of stability in a crazy league.
The NHL has seen an almost unprecedented number of coach and managerial changes so far this year, one team appears to be bordering on insolvency, and three of the best teams are…….the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida and Carolina?
And that doesn’t even scratch the surface: record franchise values, the league on the verge of a new era, the non-sensical flat cap and the probable cancelation of the Olympics.
The NHL is having a pretty crazy season.
This is good news for the Toronto Maple Leafs because who better to win the Stanley Cup in the league’s craziest season than the team that has gone the longest without winning it?
Toronto Maple Leafs and the Craziest NHL Season on Record
The Chicago Blackhawks, Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks all recently fired both their coach and GM. The Panthers and Flyers also recently fired their coaches.
The Hawks did so in disgrace (well, their GM anyways. Their old coach was removed from his job in Florida), but Montreal was forced to act when their recent Cup Finals run was exposed as the fluke-ridden joke I have been saying it was since it happened. The Flyers have lost nine in a row and Vancouver, a team who consistently made obviously stupid moves that were instantly mocked by stats savvy writers across the league, was forced to fire their horrible GM several years after it became apparent they should.
All this and in addition, given the Hawks situation, you would have to think we’re nearly the end of the Gary Bettman era.
In other crazy news, it was reported yesterday that despite Covid and the ridiculous flat cap, NHL Franchise Values are going through the roof, likely due to legalized gambling. This should put an end to the ridiculous and unfair (to the players) flat cap (which is something that should help the Leafs).
Oh and the Coyotes are again a complete embarrassment to the league.
Meanwhile, all is quiet in Leafs land where Kyle Dubas has proven to be the genius some said he was all along, and where Sheldon Keefe quietly has accumulated one of the best all-time NHL coaching winning percentages.
The main NHL news affecting the Toronto Maple Leafs are the league’s embarrassing inability to enforce and police it’s own rules, but everyone has the same problem, and the probable cancelation of the Olympics as Covid seems to be getting back out of control.
Not only has the NHL had several teams cancel games in light of team-wide infections, but the new variant and a portion of the population proving to be incomprehensibly selfish is likely going to force the league to bail on the Olympics.
While this will be terrible for the fans, the Toronto Maple Leafs will likely celebrate in secret when the inevitable announcement comes down because Jack Campbell does not seem that durable at the best of times, and who wants him playing for another team?
To say nothing of the currently injured Marner, Matthews surgically repaired wrist, or the other four or five guys who’d go off to risk injury for teams that are not the Leafs.
The Olympics may not go off as planned, but in the craziest NHL season, who better to lift the Cup than the Toronto Maple Leafs?