Maple Leafs Fan Therapy Vol. 9: Toronto is not a serious organization, and we don’t deserve it

The Toronto Maple Leafs don’t deserve the fans they have. Yesterday, my parents went to the Leafs game. Every year, my parents try to go, if possible, to a Leafs home game against the Edmonton Oilers. They do this because my parents like watching Connor McDavid, the undisputed best player in the world. Yesterday, Connor McDavid proved to my parents that they are correct, that when McDavid comes to town, it is appointment viewing.

As regular readers will be aware, I have been blessed to be able to attend more Leaf games than your average fan. I do not have the same feeling my parents do when knowing they’re going to watch Connor McDavid when it comes to Auston Matthews.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are not a serious sports organization. Now, this is not a hot take, given that the National Hockey League is not a serious sports league, but the Toronto Maple Leafs view themselves as a serious sports organization. They are wrong.

The good times are gone

Yesterday‘s game against the Edmonton Oilers demonstrated that. The previous game against the San Jose Sharks demonstrated that. The lack of injury clarity and the fact that a day-to-day player can mysteriously become month-to-month demonstrates that. The fact that our best player, the captain of this team, allegedly the best goal scorer in the world, has looked like a second-line centre on a playoff bubble team for the last two (2!!!!) years demonstrates that.

The Leafs are not a good team. No, Mitch Marner was not the straw that stirred the drink, but losing him, and having basically everyone who was brought in not pan out, might cause a little bit of a regression. However, the Leafs’ problem at this current moment in time, beyond injuries, is fundamentally that they do not try hard enough or for long enough.

Craig Berube, after the Oilers loss: “I talked to the team after the game. Our leaders got to take control of it a lot more than they are right now, It’s all mindset.”

Morgan Reilly: “You go to the third, you just have to play better than that, if you’re gonna win in this league.”

Scott Laughton: “We have to be better at managing games in certain situations. You see those guys, you know how good they are in moments. And then it can turn on you that quick. It’s a 60-minute game for a reason. You gotta wear the team down and go the other way, play north, make them come 200 feet. I don’t think we did enough of that.”

What about comments from the stars?

Notably absent from the postgame comments are the stars. Yes, Morgan Reilly and OEL were trotted out there, and they are leaders on this team, but neither has worn the C. Auston Matthews and John Tavares did not speak to reporters. 

Finding words to put on paper is sometimes challenging in moments like these. There really isn’t much ink to be spilled on analyses of the structure and strategies of this team. The last two games can basically be summed up by “they played decently for 40 minutes and didn’t realize the game was 60.” How is one supposed to analyze that?

Immediately, a problem of effort and motivation falls on the coach. If Craig Berube were to be fired, the new coach would be Auston Matthews’ fourth since he was drafted less than a decade ago.

The problem is the culture.

They don’t deserve us

Where is the silver lining? We’re waiting on players to become healthy, but quite literally nobody knows when that will be. Our defence is either old and healthy or inexperienced and injured, and our stars look like they’re already in the playoffs and counting the days till their feet hit a beach. If that sounds like a lining that is anything but silver, well… 

The Toronto Maple Leafs don’t deserve their fans. They don’t deserve the almost 20,000 of them who 41 times a year pack into their arena. They don’t deserve the season ticket holders and the multi-decade waitlist. They don’t deserve the grandparents who passed their fandom to their children and grandchildren. They don’t deserve you, who is reading about this team even after the last two games. 

Fortunately for the Leafs, we’ll continue to be here, and fortunately for us, so will you. Thus, we will remain, putting ink to paper and spending our evenings in this toxic relationship, waiting, hoping, praying, that they will love us back.