Edited Nov. 3, 2019 at 7:06 p.m.
Interesting idea ...but this is not all THAT complicated.
Leafs mgmt & players have to get their heads around (imo, what Babcock & Hayley Wickenheiser clearly understand):
#1: until NHL rules change, hockey remains a 'contact sport' - not a 'controlled-contract' sport like basketball; at NHL level defense requires a consistent, full-team effort and not the paying of occasional lip service to defensive responsibilities)
#2: Leafs have to find players who can consistently move the puck through the neutral zone;
#3: for all Leafs' high skill level, winning requires both the individual and also collective 'gnawing need' to win. (This is what Ovi was referring to.) Winning coaches such as Lombardi & Belichick NEVER smile(d). There is reason for this. Too many Leafs, with their $$$contracts, view what they're doing 'as a game'...and not 'as a war'.
As with Ovi/Washington, we can only hope Leafs will find that 'gnawing need' - that true 'identity' to which Babs has alluded.