Thoughts at the end of the Toronto Maple Leafs Training Camp
The Toronto Maple Leafs have finished Training Camp
The Toronto Maple Leafs won their last four pre-season games to finish up with a 4-2 record, although no one reallly cares how you do when the games don't count - it's all about how had a good camp, who is fitting in, whose not, whose challanging for a job, whose not?
And most of all, with a new coach, everything about the Toronto Maple Leafs Training Camp has been about the new coach with the unfortunate nickname.
How does Craig Berube turn this team into a contender? Which players will thrive and which players won't under the new leadership?
None of these questions were answered yet. All we really learned is that Berube doesn't like music at practice. Other than that, we've heard a lot of cliche-bordering talk about a north-south game and players giving it their all every shift. What else did you expect?
Thoughts at the end of the Toronto Maple Leafs Training Camp
The only real thing we learned at Training Camp was that a lot of the things that Sheldon Keefe had to learn the hard way are things that Berube is insisting on learning for himself.
Don't pair up Matthews and Marner. Don't play Max Domi at centre. Don't play Ryan Reaves at all.
These are things all Leafs fans know, Sheldon Keefe now knows, and Craig Berube is yet to learn. It's annoying, but I guess its understandable.
As for player decisions, they are likely to come out after I write this but before it's published, so if anything that follows is already out of date, please trust that I'll correct it as soon as I can.
What we assume, writing before any cuts or players have been put on waivers, is that the Leafs will start the season with Hakanpaa and Dewar on the LTIR. They won't cut Ryan Reaves and will cut Easton Cowan.
They will continue with Kampf and Jarnkrok on the roster, while failing to understand what Timothy Liljegren brings to the team. I also assume they will cement the mistake of inviting Max Pacioretty to camp by signing him to a contract that bizarrely pays him more than the league minimum.
The Leafs only dressed their most NHL ready defensive prospect in one pre-season game. They are going to send their best prospect back to junior and they have a new and ill-advised obsession with size.
Oh, and their GM is afraid to make a trade, and hasn't made one in nearly 18 months in charge of the Toronto Maple Leafs (minor trades for bad defenseman don't count).
feed
The Leafs Training Camp looked a lot like their summer: confusing and poorly thought out. Here's hoping the season is better.