What has four thumbs and just bet their entire career on Joseph Woll?

People talk about how hard it is to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs because of the market, but after seeing how soft everyone was on Brad Treliving, even though he sat out the Trade Deadline then saw his underdog team lose by a single goal in game-seven, I have come to think that that stuff about the "market" is an exaggeration.

The Toronto Maple Leafs GM put his starting goalie on waivers in January then did not bother to upgrade the position, then that exact same goalie was the main reason his team lost. No one really cared.

The fans are tough, don't get me wrong, they're just illogical. Brad Treliving made one of the worst decisions in franchise history - sitting out the trade deadline during Auston Matthews prime - and barely anyone said anything about it. Additionally, Auston Matthews has one goal in his last ten playoff games.

But who are the Leafs fans blaming? Mitch Marner. Go figure. Matthews is untouchable, but for some reason Marner is fair game. In a market that demands all-around play and a commitment to toughness, Marner's elite defensive game is ignored while hardly anyone brought up the fact that he played last year's playoffs on one leg after coming back a month earlier from a notoriously hard injury to come back from.

Underwhelming Summer has Toronto Maple Leafs Management on the ropes

Despite the fact this is all illogical, it's not that difficult to guess what's happening: Matthews gets a pass because he's special among other special players. He's one-of-a-kind and that makes Marner sort of like his Whipping Boy (shout out to Grade Six!). As for Trelving, he stinks, but it's an unwritten rule that if you replace an unpopular GM no one cares what you actually do. At first.

Also adding to Treliving's aura of invincibility is that he isn't the man in charge - that's clearly Shanahan. Brendan Shanahan was shown to be the boss when Dubas tried for his job and failed. It's hard to get worked up about the generic Treliving when he's so clearly not the one calling the shots.

But this season, it doesn't matter. Anything short of the conference finals and Shanahan is 100% gone. If he goes, Brad goes. Therefore, it's worth asking if these two guys are delusional (i,e they don't know their jobs are on the line) crazy (they don't care that they are) or just bad at their jobs (who bets their entire career on Joseph Woll?).

The Leafs came into the summer needing to address their depth scoring, their third line centre, their goaltending and their blue-line. Instead they switched coaches and captains.

I don't really know what that means. For two guys who's jobs are clearly on the line, they made some weird bets. They must really, really believe in the core. Or they are just out of ideas.

What I do know is that under Dubas the Leafs had a clear plan and you could parse the logic behind every move even if you disagreed. Under Treliving they have reverted to being run like 95% of all other NHL teams.

Now, against all logic and known information, the Toronto Maple Leafs Dream Team (i,e Brad and Brendan) have bet their entire careers on Joseph Woll and his ability to win in the NHL despite having no experience, never playing more than 40 games in a season, and his unique ability to make former Leafs forwards Joffry Lupul look like an Iron Man.

For a team at such an obvious inflection point, the Leafs summer was very underwhelming. It seems crazy to me that in a league where the easiest path to winning is pairing an elite goalie with a top player, the Leafs weren't more aggressive in getting one. Now, everything depends on a the Leafs developing a star goalie from within when they havne't done so in 30+ years.