SLOWLY...THAT'S OK... NOW WE'RE ROLLING

        Once Brendon Shanahan was hired,
I was pretty sure there would be a turn
around.
        
       The man has pride, and thank God
for it.
       
       Mike Babcock being hired - well, this
is Maple Leaf heaven!
          
           We the fans, and especially the media
have to stop creating disasters out of every little thing.  But not making the playoffs in nine
years - that's no little thing.
            Still, steady as we go. The public have to stop flipping out. Though recently, we've had every reason to go bananas and apeshit and  crazy as shithouse rats.
            No longer.  Someone somewhere in the Leaf organization stopped being cheap and parsimonious.
             I APPLAUD THIS DECISION!


              Play it one day at a time. Take it slow. We're building. But this time the re-build is not a con.
               Thank the holy God!
                It's happening!


                Hopeless decades have passed, but now I feel something positive...
                 Finally!  There is oxygen in the room...


             THE MAPLE LEAFS HAVE A
                   CHANCE!










(Looks like it's time to change the colour of this blog back to blue.)






                                  








 (C)2015 by W.G. Milne










                         


                  

AM I RIGHT OR AM I RIGHT? SEEING THE OBVIOUS WITH THE SPORTS PSYCHOLOGIST

            The L.A. Kings have just won 2 Stanley Cups.
They are a team it's almost acceptable to be pushed around by... except... it's never acceptable to be pushed around at every turn.  And this is what happened to the Leafs last night.
       Don't get me wrong, I love the Leafs!  And they played pretty well last night. It's just this -
you can't play well when you're intimidated.
I don't think our team was intimidated at all
at the start of the game. The Leafs likely
were intimidated by the end of the game.
       All you need is one real slugger
on the team - someone who's going to win
almost all of the fights. Had we had that one
guy on the ice last night, the entire feeling
of the game would have changed.
       The Leafs are a highly skilled team,
no question about that. But when you're being
pushed around, it's hard to show your skill.
To win games against physically strong
teams, you need more than skill.

        I'm merely stating the obvious. I don't
know much more about hockey than most of 
the people in this country. I just write
better.
        I'm just expressing what you all
know to be true. 

       
       Where is Fraser McLaren right now? 
Hey! He's playing for the Marlies!

SEEING THE OBVIOUS WITH THE SPORTS PSYCHOLOGIST.

                       OK, who beats the Leafs? It's usually
a team with good goal tending, and fairly
big guys playing an effective system of
defence. Of course, most teams are beaten by that very same combination.
          Now I don't want to rub it in too much, but more on the Dave Bolland trade. When the Leafs played the Panthers, Tyler Bozak, who is an excellent face-off man, he won 30% of the face-offs.  Bolland won 70% percent of the face offs.
          In addition to this, Bolland is a tougher guy
than most of the Leafs. He goes into the corners, etc., and for whatever reason, he is (was) an inspiration to the team.
          
         We need at least one tough guy on the Leafs.That way our captain will not have to fight so many battles. Fighting is not the job of a captain.
I truly think many of the problems the Leafs are facing is that they're too small or not intimidating enough. God knows, the team is fast enough. But the players get discouraged.
          Physical menace always helps solve
most business situations and sports situations.
If fear is a part of the equation, it's best to have it on your side. For example, if someone had gone
over and decked Ovechkin  after he ran
Komarov... well... if we had someone who could
deck Ovechkin, that would really help. I keep thinking of #38 Fraser McLaren, 6 foot 5, 
230 pounds with an effective punch.
         Where is he now?
         You don't have to play him much. The Leafs
could still have a forth line. But we need someone.
(Trading away Jay McClement  and Clarke MacArthur,these were also bad moves. But this is hindsight. With Dave Bolland I had foresight. I was telling you what would happen, and I can prove it!)
         One thing that Don Cherry is right about,
Physical intimidation will always be part of hockey,
and part of most games for that matter.  


              I must admit, someone in the Leafs organization is trying to put a decent
team on the ice. And the players are good guys
and they're trying hard.
       It's too bad such decent efforts will always
fail because ownership is too cheap or too stupid.
I'm not sure which it is, but maybe it's both.
       
       Larry Tanenbaum, I believe cares.  But maybe he cares about the wrong things. When he talked
about the fact that owning the Leafs is a trusteeship, that he's a 'trustee for the morale of the people of Toronto' (my words), he's absolutely correct.
        I was impressed when he said that.  Maybe
he doesn't know just how right he was!
        
         Toronto's big enough for two teams.
Leafs ownership every year is given a licence
to print money. That licence involves
a fiduciary duty to the people of Toronto.And I
think this duty should be put in writing.
        
         I don't want to see two teams, but  two teams would provide a competitive situation, which is maybe what is needed to get a Stanley Cup winning team in Toronto.
         Toronto can easily support two teams financially.
         Ownership needs a kick in the ass. No more
excuses. You have the most financially
successful franchise in sports. It's
time to ante up, boys. The people of Toronto
are no longer buying your scam.
         
          It's been 47 years folks and no cup.
And 8 years of not making the playoffs.
Smarten up or you're going to lose your
"licence."

        The one spot of light I see is the fact
that Brendan Shannahan is at least partly
running the show. He's never been a loser
in all his career, and he won't like being
a loser now.
          I have to think he has the brains
to pull this off. But he needs the financial support
of ownership.  
          Five million dollars is not much for Dave Bolland. Think of what the team would be
like if her were here now.






"Seeing The Obvious With The Sports Psychologist",  Title (C)2014 by W.G.Milne.