Better be sarcasm

I understand that you are not a believer and suspect you have no idea of his coaching abilities. I can guarantee that all the players on the current Leafs have heard stories about Keefe from the players who played under him on the Marlies. He has personally helped alot of these players actually make the NHL and you better believe they are going to go to war for him. He is a players coach unlike Babcock who is a control freak. He has won everywhere he has coached and he will be getting the injured Marner, Kerfott and Moore back but also a pipeline of quality young players like Sandin, Liljegren. Korshkov, Bracco, Woll, Robertson and a potential game changer in Brazeau if he can develope in the future. Keefe is a master in developing and coaching young players which should be a great fit for the young Leafs. He is equally great at coaching older players.

Dallas Eakins first run......

The wrong guy got fired. Dubas built this team.

In all seriousness, Keefe is a great fit for the leafs. He’s been coaching AHL defenseman for 5 years now.

Lol

HAHAHAHAHA

I have to disagree there, Dubas built the team but Babcock was the guy no having Barrie on PP 1, he was the guy putting the 4th line on in do or die situations, he was the guy who is deploying his players in positions they shouldnt be. Dubas is next if this doesnt turn around by next season but he gave babcock everything he wanted to make it work to the best of his abilities. he has his 3 rhd he has the center depth he wanted there was no reason he couldnt make it work so its on him right now.

You're just mad that Babs won't be there in the playoffs to get out coached by Cassidy again.

Kessell era......

I’m not sure anyone from the leafs will be there in the playoffs.

If you think Babcock wanted ceci you’re nuts. I doubt he wanted Barrie. He wants guys that can play 200 feet on the back end, and he wasn’t given that.

I love how no one liked Babs a week ago and now that he's fired everyone and there dog are out there defending him and are now piling on Dubas, Matthews and Marner like they are all hacks who can't do anything right and poor Babs was thrown under the bus. Lol

Not much has to change for the team to be better. They'll turn it around.

He wants old vets who know where to stand. He's said it many times. Unfortunately for Babs he stopped growing with the game. When he arrived the players did everything he said without question. After 3 years though, I get the impression that guys like Matthews, Marner, Rielly and others wanted to suggest some ideas but Babs does not listen to anyone and that is why he lost the room.

I never defended Babcock. I just think Dubas has done a worse job than him.

Just following the pack, now Dubas is the target of troll nation. I wonder who you guys will point to next when things start going good again. I bet it'll be toughness or something, because some goon from some other team will run someone and no Leaf will drop the gloves and you guys will say, "still going to lose in the first round" or some nonsense like that. Just tired, lazy trolling.

i was genuinely sad that they fired babcuck and that this might actually be a series if keefe can coach nhl players.

There are very few coaches who win the championship in the AHL and then don't do great in the NHL. I am sure Keefe will be fine. I think more than anything he's going to let the players be part of the solution more so than Babs. In Bab's mind the process is everything and any deviation of that is not allowed. I think his process is flawed and too rigid for today's NHL and that undid him. Keefe is going to make minor adjustments and really let the players be creative in finding solutions. I also think since he was able to make guys like Marincin, Holl and others become top shelf defenders in the AHL, I think he'll help Rielly, and the other guys here become much better players as well.

I mean im not really as optimistic as you. When the bruins fired claude and brought up cassidy I was pumped because we were in a bridge/rebuild period where management wanted playoffs and the team wasnt really built for that. He also had seen all of the prospects at the time and new how the young guys played which i thought was fantastic for not only their development but also incorporating young guys into the core thats already established. Bergeron, chara, etc have a good locker room there. Tons of leadership. I dont know if you can really say the same thing in Toronto. Theres a bunch of skilled guys that obviously want to win, but i dont really think they have any player leadership. I also dont really see a need to incorporate ahl talent/young players not yet in the nhl into this core group. At this point it comes down to coaching philosophy and player buy-in as well as genuine player chemistry. will be interesting to see if keefe can reign this team in, or if its a wasted year.

I don't think that is entirely correct, I think the leadership group will be able to open up more with Keefe than with Babs. Babs made everything about his process and had no interest in hearing any suggestions from the players. I think that would be real hard as a leader to see things going as bad as they have and being told to shut up whenever you had a suggestion to change something. Think back to last year when Matthews said the powerplay was too predictable. Babs has allowed one minor change to that in the last calendar year and after a quick start in the preseason and first few games of the season, teams adjusted and its been the same every game since. That sort of crap is why Babs is now sitting on the sidelines. Keefe is known as an expert listener and a players coach, I think with the talent TO has, that will work better for them. If the players know they have a coach who is going to listen to them, they'll be more likely to listen back and I think its going to lead to a collective refreshing breath and this team will losen up.

guess we will see wont we?

Yes we will

You’re being really sensitive about this and i don’t quite understand why. It’s a legitimate criticism of the team. When a team has three of the highest paid players in the league, and have yet to win a playoff series, it’s going to be a talking point. Right now no other team has a two headed monster at center like Toronto, and Toronto has paid for it...but they can’t get over the hump and find success. I think it’s reasonable to question what things the team are lacking that are preventing them from having post season success. Personally, I think the general has built a flawed team that is predicated on a high powered offense, at the expense of being able to keep the puck out of their net. I don’t think that’s a winning formula. How is that trolling?

As opposed to Jon Cooper, Jared Bednar and Rod Brind'Amour? The advantage of Keefe is he's not being thrown into a completely different organization, he's helped developed nearly half of the team.



90% of the team didn't lose faith in Dubas.

Maybe they should have. Fire both.