Last night’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes was yet another microcosm of what is wrong with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
As I watched William Nylander and Auston Matthews coast through the neutral zone on the backcheck with straight legs, as they watched a 4-on-3 develop and turn into a goal against (goal #2 of 5 for Carolina), all I could think was “that’s $24.75M worth of skill and $0 worth of effort and grit.”
Yes, we’re talking about the same two players that combined for 3 goals, 4pts and a -3 rating. If you add Matthew Knies, their running mate, into the mix, that jumps to 3 goals, 6pts and a -5 rating. Knies, at the moment, generally provides more effort than the teams two highest paid and most skilled forwards, but I’m at the point where I worry that they’ll spoil him and he’ll lose that grinders mindset.
But I digress. 3 of the teams 4 goals were scored by Matthews or Nylander, while one or both were on the ice for all 5 goals against. In other words, they showed their offensive talent once again, but the spotlight shone brightly on their lackluster defensive effort on this night.
We’ve seen the dazzling plays, high skill moves and resulting highlight reel goals. Congratulations, I guess, that’s earned you a paycheque that will see you make more in a single year than most of us will make in an entire lifetime. Everybody is happy for you. Now, where are we on that grit grinding, two-way play that earns the rest of the team, the organization and most importantly, the fans, a Stanley Cup to boast about? You’ve been paid. Isn’t it time to pay everybody else back?
Or are they just incapable? That’s an honest question.
A mindset doesn’t change in an instant. In fact, it’s often the case that a person has to change everything about their life in order to escape the things they do and/or know. An addict that wants to get clean, for example, may have to abandon lifelong friends or family, move to a new neighbourhood and start all over again and even then, it’s a slippery slope back to where they once were. With the same ease of an alcoholic putting a drink to their lips, it’s easy to not backcheck. Most (probably all) of you reading this play, or have played the game at some point. You know it’s true. It’s harder to try than not, that stands true in every aspect of your life.
The question is, where does that mindset stem from? We’ve all discussed, ad nauseum, that Kyle Dubas and Brendan Shanahan made life as a Maple Leaf as easy and non-stressful as possible. GM’s that demanded more of their players were allowed to move on (Lou Lamoriello), coach’s that made them feel uncomfortable were fired (I’m not defending Babcock, the guy was crazy, but it’s true) and veterans that made them feel like they were enough just the way they are (Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton) were brought in with similar messages that I often convey to my 5 and 3 year old daughters. “I love you just the way you are.” “You’re doing great, just keep going.” “It’s okay if you don’t get it the first time, you’ll get there and I can help.”
All true statements and great sentiments from a father. However, they’re 5 and 3 years old. Just as my parents changed their tune as I aged, so will I. “I love you, I’m here for you, but get your shit figured out” is in their future in some form or another, I’m sure. We all stray from the straight and narrow at times and it’s a parents job to direct a child back onto the path. For many of us we were directed with a swift kick in butt, whether literally or figuratively. At some point the parents job is done, you’ve done all that you can and you have to send the little tykes out into the world. From there society takes over and does much the same job. Want a wife and kids? That costs money, go get a job. Fucked up at work? You get fired. Treat your friends poorly? The result is sitting at home alone on a Friday night. All are examples of a swift kick in the butt, figuratively speaking.
What has happened here is the “parents” (aka, GMs, Coachs etc) didn’t kick anybody in the ass.
You see, the more stern GM and head coach were replaced by the aforementioned Dubas and Sheldon Keefe, who is now best remembered for rallying the team before a game 7 with a speech that included “let’s just have some fun with it.”
That’s what I told my 5 year old on her first day of hockey practice.
Just like your kids eventually have to go out into the world and society takes over raising them, so it was that the Leafs’ kids grew and were pushed into the world. One of those kids didn’t like that the world (Leafs Nation) told him he wasn’t enough just the way he was, the poor little guy, and he skipped town in search of a place where anonymity could shield him from the bad feelings. Maybe the big bad coach of years past was onto something. Maybe he picked on this one star a little more than the rest because he saw that he needed to be pushed more than the rest. His tactics weren’t appropriate, but did he see what we missed early into the process?
I’ll stop that analogy here, because I’m really just rehashing a history that we all want to forget about. We know that they ousted Lamoriello and Babcock. We know that they were from an era of hard asses as well. We know they were replaced with softer, gentler people and the end result was the title of this post; Pure Talent, No Grit.
This level of passivity can’t be boiled down so simply, however. What we are witnessing is a culmination of many things. It has to be. It can’t just be that they were allowed to be soft so they were.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times.”
– G. Michael Hopf
Brendan Shanahan was, ultimately, the “weak” man that pushed Lou and Babs out the door and replaced them with more weak men. Those weak men have now created hard times. However, those hard times have never been hard enough to create hard men. What I mean by that is Auston Matthews and William Nylander have never played a full season in the NHL in which they missed the playoffs. While we view losing to a zamboni driver, being kicked out of the first round over and over again, watching our team get the stuffing beat out of them on the ice and every massive failure in between as hard times, all they know is that they’ve been leading their team to the post season every single year. In their eyes they’re enough. Their “parents” told them so and for the most part so did Leafs Nation.
I’d argue that these men don’t know hard times in the NHL. They know what it’s like to kick themselves for not pushing through a game 7, but they also know what it is to play in a game 7, instead of sitting at home from the outset to watch it all on TV without having any chance at all to win the Stanley Cup.
Sidney Crosby scored over 100pts in his rookie season and his team finished in the basement in the NHL. He has 3 Stanley Cup rings.
Connor McDavid has missed the playoffs with the Edmonton Oilers on numerous occasions and has lead his team to the Cup Finals two years in a row. His determination can’t be questioned.
Nikita Kucherov and the Tampa Bay Lightning missed the playoffs in 2016/17, he has 2 Stanley Cup rings.
Jonathan Toews and the Blackhawks missed the playoffs early in his career as well. He has 3 Stanley Cup rings.
We’re just 16 games into an 82 game season. The Leafs sit outside of a playoff spot but there’s a massive amount of hockey to play before things wrap up.
My honest question right now is this. Would sitting out the post season entirely make them look in the mirror and ask if they’re actually enough? Would the Leafs, in the long run, be better served by missing the playoffs if that meant their stars’ effort level and determination could be bumped up? Or would they simply shrug and tell themselves that management didn’t build a team around them that was good enough to compete?
If it’s the latter then we’re already doomed to failure.
If it’s the former then maybe there’s hope within that failure. Within those hard times.
If these hard times could create hard men and those men could succeed in winning the Stanley Cup, then we all know what that would mean. Years of good times that would be well earned.