Quoting: pharrow
a lot of talk about Matthews and Marner and those big contracts. Same with JT.
But I honestly didn't see the drive in them to win that series. There has to be an unmatched level of determination. You could see it in the younger penguins squad when they won their 1st cup together.
I just don't see that out of Toronto. This was their best shot and they didn't get out the 1st round.
They can't just sit around waiting for the older teams to age out. If you want to be great you have to beat those who you think you are worthy of replacing. I have yet to see it in this group.
yeah, I dunno pharrow. I mean, I agree with your last three sentences almost completely, with only a little quibble on not seeing it all with this leafs team.
I think we saw it often over the year, its just wasn't been sustained. The leafs were right there with Boston again this year and outplayed them for long stretches throughout the series.. but I think they did that mostly on skill.
I really think that alot of them have tuned Babcock out... That his double standards, rhetoric, decisions and inability to adapt when things weren't working took a toll on their buy-in. Now, that's no excuse and Dubas and company will need to decide if the roster needs a shakeup or if the coaching staff does in order to get the collective, full team buy-in and committed drive required to win.
For my money I hope this group is given a shot to be fully assessed under a different coaching regime before the roster is blown up. The group is too young and talented not to take that gamble, imo - and alot of energy, time, effort and mula has gone into developing them... Cause once you trade them, you don't usually get them back. And if the coaching, in fact, partly holds the blame, then where are we left 2 to 3 years from now?
I think the leafs are set-up really well, with a good pipeline of prospects on the way. Too early to start taking it apart now. Keep the offense in tact. Be patient with D development, even if it means a step back. I think it'd do the leafs well to let them develop as a group, and to stop looking outside for quick short term fixes. We need to be real - we have a ways to go..