Even though I complained a lot in the off season, I saw a least bits of almost ever Leafs game up until the new year. The Leafs were actually doing surprisingly well so there was nothing to really complain about – although if you looked at advanced stats (or non-advanced stats like being outshot), you could tell that the Leafs were just lucky.

But the Leafs have finally started to “regress to the mean” in a big way. They are playing like their true self, and they suck. If you don’t watch the games, or don’t believe me. You could read this article in the Globe & Mail (i.e., not a hacky newspaper or a sports blog). Every paragraph is gold and every paragraph is true. I like this the most:

And useful player after useful player has been ostracized, pushed out or limited under Carlyle’s watch, with former Leafs like Mikhail Grabovski and Clarke MacArthur speaking publicly against the coach’s methods and current players like Gardiner and Nazem Kadri now being spun through the trade rumour mill due to their incompatibility with the system.

(Grabovski and MacArthur, by the way, are having terrific seasons elsewhere, with the first on pace for more than 60 points and the second on course for a career high 28 goals.)

Instead of Grabovski, we have Clarkson who this season has a stat line of 3G 5A for 8 points. And we have him signed for another 6 years! It would have been a lot more useful to have Grabovski considering we went through a stretch when all our centerman were injured/suspended. Luckily we were able to trade for Peter Holland. That trade turned out pretty well until:

This week, the Leafs demoted skilled 22-year-old centre Peter Holland because the coach couldn’t find a hole for him in a lineup that sorely needs his offence.

I’m just counting the days until Caryle is fired as well. Hopefully it’ll be soon. I’m also hoping we’re going to fully collapse this season and have a high first round pick!

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: hockey