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Riceburner
Well-known member
Amazed? Surprised? Really?
TO is a huge market + Only one team to support + Most ppl root for the home team = No surprise. ...disappointment, but no surprise.
TO is a huge market + Only one team to support + Most ppl root for the home team = No surprise. ...disappointment, but no surprise.
Slim Jim
Well-known member
Dan Bylsma
They should of got rid of Nonnis , Shannohan and all the other upper management pupets who have done nothing to improve the team. The coach can only work with the crappy players they gave him... Until they fire everyone nothing will ever change. Even with Rogers and Bell as owners there is no incentive to put a winning product on the ice when they are already selling out every game. The Leafs are the only concept I know where the product is a constant failure yet the business model is a huge success. It defies logic...
BigEvilDoer
Well-known member
Shannohan is another puppet hired by MLS to put a known face on their Management structure. In the end he has no real decision making powers. The only hope the leafs had for success was before they hired Burke. Scotty Bowmen was approached to be Coach. But Bowman wanted total control because he knew it was the only way he had any hope on improving the Leafs. He wanted the GM's job as well as Coach. But the MLS wasn't interested in getting someone with any chance of succeeding. I recall years ago an interview with Scotty where he noted that Leafs have no real interest in making the playoffs because there is no real financial incentive for them going a few games in the first round. The amount of salary money + bonus didn't make any sense to them. They already sell out all regular seasons games, TV rights are increasing. So why pay more money out to the players for a just a few games more. If this was any other team in the NHL, making the playoffs would make a difference to how many people would be interested in the regular season. But in Toronto making the playoffs is of no concern to MLS. Until people stop going to the games, we will never have a good team here....
suzuki2000
Well-known member
great idea in theory, but they have so much money invested in contracts for under performers nobody wants what they need to cast off. Hell of a pickle they got themselves in to
I82l8
Well-known member
Absolutely...never said it would be easy...but Shanahan has to figure out a way.
Shanny might want to dig & shuffle into & out of the Marlies now that Carlyle is gone. RC didn't like giving anyone a 2nd chance.
They have quite a bit of talent there. Maybe they'll be able to make use of it now.
There's one I'm hoping makes another appearance.
suzuki2000
Well-known member
The way I understand it this is challenged by the cap issues? Don't they need cap room to bring up Marlies? If they have enough people on 2 way deals then they can trade back and forth, but i don't think the big money guys have contracts that allow them to be assigned down.
You can put them upstairs as healthy scratches, but that still hits the cap
Slim Jim
Well-known member
that has to be the dumbest post ever. The players are paid a salary whether they make the playoffs or not. , if the leafs make the playoffs, that is where they make the money, no extra salary to be paid, they double even triple the cost of tickets, it's a cash grab for them.
Wut
If Scotty said that it was before the salary cap era. There is huge financial incentive for both the organization and the players to go deep into the playoffs.
The Bowman story I remember. I was pretty disappointed with them blowing off the guy who is arguably the best coach in all of North American pro sports (he has the best record anyway - good enough to demand full control). Anyway, that's in the past.
But overall, I don't buy that angle anymore. Maybe it was valid before the ownership change but playoff TV is HUGE money for Bell/Rogers and even if they only care about profits, they do want the Leafs to make the playoffs, very much so. The whole reason telecom and media companies are buying sports teams is exclusive, regular, live content and the playoffs are worth way more than the regular season. If the team's out of the playoffs, all that potential money flies outta their pockets. Make no mistake: The Leafs stinking is absolutely something that the owners are angry about.
There's still a management problem with the Leafs (good lord why didn't they can Nonis after what he did on the last offseason, holy crap), but I think Shanny might do okay given enough time. Mayyyybe. Far worse mistake was to give Phaneuf the C. I don't hate the guy, but he IS overpaid and the guy has all the leadership skills of a roadkill. Of course people forget that when Phaneuf first showed up it was right after the worst time in decades for the Leafs, the wasteland after JFJ had wrecked the team (luckily Burkie remembered an old Leafs standard: You can always rob the Flames in a trade!) and Phaneuf was the closest thing the Leafs even had legitimate top-tier player. Not great, but he was the best they had at the time.
In any case I've mostly given up on waiting for the Leafs to get their act together. Used to be that I was split pretty evenly between rooting for the Habs and the Leafs with the other Canadian teams thrown in there once in a while. But I've mostly become a Habs bandwagoner these days, because I can actually LIKE them.
But overall, I don't buy that angle anymore. Maybe it was valid before the ownership change but playoff TV is HUGE money for Bell/Rogers and even if they only care about profits, they do want the Leafs to make the playoffs, very much so. The whole reason telecom and media companies are buying sports teams is exclusive, regular, live content and the playoffs are worth way more than the regular season. If the team's out of the playoffs, all that potential money flies outta their pockets. Make no mistake: The Leafs stinking is absolutely something that the owners are angry about.
There's still a management problem with the Leafs (good lord why didn't they can Nonis after what he did on the last offseason, holy crap), but I think Shanny might do okay given enough time. Mayyyybe. Far worse mistake was to give Phaneuf the C. I don't hate the guy, but he IS overpaid and the guy has all the leadership skills of a roadkill. Of course people forget that when Phaneuf first showed up it was right after the worst time in decades for the Leafs, the wasteland after JFJ had wrecked the team (luckily Burkie remembered an old Leafs standard: You can always rob the Flames in a trade!) and Phaneuf was the closest thing the Leafs even had legitimate top-tier player. Not great, but he was the best they had at the time.
In any case I've mostly given up on waiting for the Leafs to get their act together. Used to be that I was split pretty evenly between rooting for the Habs and the Leafs with the other Canadian teams thrown in there once in a while. But I've mostly become a Habs bandwagoner these days, because I can actually LIKE them.
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Agree.
Shannahan will be pushing for mike Babcock whose contract is up with Detroit at end of this season. I think they're moving in the right direction.
Babcock would be a good move. A lot of people are making noises about how the team is acting like a bunch of spoiled kids right now and that might be true, but how much of that is the coach having lost the room and how much of that is on the players themselves, well, who knows. A good coach can - in theory - get even loafers to buy in and listen up.
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