The Toronto Maple Leafs have to make the Conference Finals or Brad Treliving and Brendan Shanahan will be fired.
That's not a fact. I don't have inside information. But, that is the most educated guess about the Toronto Maple Leafs anyone can give you. I highly doubt there is one single analyst in the entire NHL blogosphere or mainstream media that would disagree.
The clock is ticking on the worst management group the NHL has ever seen that didn't feature at least one of Dave Nonis, John Ferguson Jr. or Peter Chiarelli.
And it's ticking in more than one way.
The clock is ticking loudly for the Toronto Maple Leafs front office
Clearly there is a clock ticking for the team to be successful, but that's not the only metaphorical temporal instrument click-clacking in Brad's ear:
The Mitch Marner situation is almost spinning out of control. Like a kid who left his essay until the last minute, the Leafs have about two weeks to get this contract done or enter the season with the biggest distraction this team has ever experienced.
Not only will an unsigned Marner dominate the conversation all season long, but like Nylander before him, he'll just make himself more expensive with every game he dominates.
This situation is getting more intense by the day, and what once seemed impossible (that the Leafs would be so stupid as to walk Marner to free-agency and risk losing the second-best player to ever wear their uniform for nothing) now seems highly likely.
And that's not all that all!
Besides the team's success and the need to sign Marner, Brad Treliving is also facing the ticking clock of fear. People are now counting the days since he was hired and wondering how long it will take until he makes his first significant trade as the team's GM.
If I was the GM of the Leafs, I'd be addicted to making huge blockbusters. This guy has gone 16 months without swinging a big trade. That's got to be some kind of record, since most GMs want to put their stamp on their new team right away.
Treliving hasn't made a big trade since he sent Matt Tkachuk to Florida and helped them make the Stanley Cup Finals twice in a row, and win it this year.
So that sound you hear? That's three clocks all ticking at once. Somebody call Jack Bauer.