The Toronto Maple Leafs got some good news yesterday, although most of their players are probably unhappy about it.
As expected, the NHL officially cancelled their participation in the Olympics due to Covid, and while this is bad for players and fans, it is unbelievably good news for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Leafs are at the top of the NHL, they have the best roster their team has seen in decades, and several of the best players in franchise history are right smack in the middle of their primes.
The last thing this team needed was to have most of its roster play for someone else on the eve of the playoffs.
Toronto Maple leafs, At Least, Get Good News
Jack Campbell is on track to win a Vezina trophy, but he seems a bit fragile for a starting goalie. Auston Matthews has an surgically repaired wrist. Not only would both players benefit from not playing extra games, but as a Canadian Leafs fan, my perspective is that they’d essentially be ditching us to play for the enemy.
Marner has an injured shoulder. Tavares missed last year’s playoffs. Etc.
And even if these players aren’t more injury prone then their peers, the fact is, the Leafs would be sending more players than most other teams and hockey is a game where injuries happen frequently.
Does anyone really think that a key member of the Toronto Maple Leafs wouldn’t suffer a season ending injury at the Olympics, and blow their best chance at the Stanley Cup in years? This is the Leafs we are talking about.
Personally, I would rather see the Leafs win the Stanley Cup than Canada win the Olympics. If I had to rate how much I care, I’d say it’s 100/100 for the Leafs and maybe 10/100 for Canada.
I just don’t get that patriotic, I guess – I really find it hard to care that much about if Canada beats America or whoever. I don’t find it interesting, and I don’t get the point of cheering for people in sports I don’t watch, or care about, just because we share a birth place.
Winning is nice, but it’s not close to the same thing as the Stanley Cup and so since the Leafs Cup chances drastically improve with no Olympic participation, I, for one, am happy it worked out this way.
Also, since the games would be played in the middle of the night, and since the NHL takes all the risk and none of the reward, I don’t even see why they agreed to go in the first place. Fact is, you can have the exact same tournament here and make all the money and put it on TV when people could actually watch it. The only difference is it wouldn’t be called the “Olympics” which is just an arbitrary distinction that has no effect on the actual product on the ice.
I’ll let you in on a little secret: the only Olympic sport I’d even watch is hockey because who cares about skiing or bobsledding? I hate the Olympics! There, I said it. Go Leafs Go!