Interestingly, it seems to me that the mood around the Toronto Maple Leafs fanbase is one of acceptance and ambivalence.
I get the feeling that most Toronto Maple Leafs are sick of the constant losing, but not that interested in getting worked up about the current team's problems, outside of the odd guy who inexplicably blames everything on Marner. And so, despite an almost legendarily bad run as the Leafs GM, Brad Treliving still has some rope with fans.
There is some misplaced anger at Mitch Marner, there is some general frustration, but I feel like most people are overall pretty happy with an Auston Matthews led team that has a chance to win.
But with that said, there are cracks showing, and the fans only partially bought the non-sense management brought out to justify their disappointing summer that saw them fail to make any of the promised changes and amounted to basically just Betuzzi leaving and Tanev arriving.
This Toronto Maple Leafs season could be great, but....
The Leafs finished nearly last this summer in a survey by the Athletic to determine fan confidence in each NHL team's management group.
And despite that, the media seems to be going along quietly, waiting for just the right moment to spring the complaints I've been making all summer on the public at large.
Because, do not think the Toronto Media has gone soft. They just understand that they can't be all rage all the time, or no one will listen. The Leafs changed GMs and even though their GM sat out the trade deadline only to see his team lose by a single goal with their waiver-wire goalie, the media has been willing to give him some time.
But come the first five or six game losing streak, if this team hasn't already built up a solid body of work, this team is going to get its worst treatment ever. There are just too many mistakes that no one really is talking about.
- A blue-line that is too old and has no upside.
- A team that constantly blocks the paths of its young players with no-upside veterans.
- A team that is afraid to take risks.
- A team that spends too much money on the bottom of it's lineup.
- A team that betrayed the values it sold to the public for the first five or six years of the Shanahan Era (example, abandoning the Studs and Duds cap strategy but weirdly sticking with the Studs, prioritizing size and experience over skill and youth, employing an enforcer, going with an old-school coach again etc.).
And maybe this is fine. The Leafs have a nice mix of vets and youth. Knies, Robertson, Cowan and Woll represent a second wave of potential stars that the team has heretofore been unable to provide. The team might just have the right mix of skill and grit to get things done.
It could happen.
But, they could also block out all their exciting young players with the likes of Max Pacioretty, David Kampf and Calle Jarkrok. They could demote Easton Cowan, continue to dress Ryan Reaves, and the fact that they don't have a real number-one defenseman could haunt them.
The decision to not acquire one of the league's top goalies, and to enter the season with Mitch Marner unsigned could lead to complete disaster.
The Marner Situation is instructive. As dumb as it is, when you have large swaths of your fanbase hating a home-grown, home-town player who has been on pace for 100 points for four seasons in a row while earning Selke nominations and universally being known as an elite defensive forward, that should be seen as a red flag.
If fans are not loyal to Marner, of all people, I guarantee you that Shanahan and Treliving haven't seen anything yet. If it's mid-November and the Leafs are out of a playoff spot, having lost five in a row during an Atlantic Division homestand and an embarrassing game against Capitals, things are going to go absolutely crazy.
Just imagine (and if you're a Leafs fan, this shouldn't be a stretch): the team has lost five in a row, Marner is unsigned, Cowan has been injured in junior, Stolarz looks awful, Woll is hurt, and the league's best team and player are coming into town for a Saturday night game....
Of course, this is a worst-case scenario, and I'm hardly a psychic, but all I'm trying to illustrate here is how close to the razor's edge this team is currently operating.
Winning changes everything, and this is the last chance for the Toronto Maple Leafs current management group, but there is a lot of repressed anger in the fanbase right now and a meltdown the likes of which we have not seen since Ron Wilson could be on the horizon.