Some thoughts on the Leafs loss and the Senators new head coach.

The Leafs never fail to disappoint -- other than disappointing their fans.? Even then, are they really disappointed after all of these years of losing?

Misery loves company they say so once the regular season carousel?finishes and Montreal and Ottawa are making golf plans their rabid fan bases turn their attention to the impending first round exit by the Leafs.? Once the inevitable happens?most rest easy and the plans to open the cottage can begin.?

For Toronto, what to do, what to do.? This was by far the best Leaf team in the Auston Matthews era.? So many of the non big-four were integral to how they played in this playoff year yet they were down 3-1 after four games.? Only to lose Matthews to illness for two games which they promptly won!? Go figure.?

If you had to point your finger at one key element it was obviously?the power play. Running at 24% during the regular season, good for seventh in the league, their man-advantage sputtered during their seven games versus Boston going 1/21,? 4.8%. .? Brutal.? ?Credit to Boston's PK but when you consider last year's playoff run by Toronto which included a first round win over Tampa, Toronto ran at a tidy 25%.? They would have killed to be at or near that mark for this series..?

You could make the case that the bizarre injuries- alleged migraines for Nylander, unknown illness for Matthews, may have hurt their PP, undoubtedly it did but in the postseason you have to overcome?and year in, year out the Leafs do not.? ?

The first guy who should go is Brendan Shanahan. The ten year Shanaplan has failed.? It failed when he kept Kyle Dubas over Mark Hunter in 2018.? Ultimately the buck has to stop with him, now it stops with Keith Pelley, the former TV exec who has been hired as the President and?CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and it should bring about an immediate change at the top of hockey opps but it's not going to.? They ( Pelley, Shanahan, Treliving) are doing a joint press conference on Friday.? They will undoubtedly announce that Sheldon Keefe has been let go.? They may even use the presser to announce Craig Berube as the new coach- but the real miss is not letting Shanahan go.

Their next order of business should be to ask Marner if he will waive his no move and see if they can trade him.? Here's the bottom line; they are not winning a Stanley Cup with this quartet at the helm.? You can make the case that with Tavares a UFA and his 11M coming off the books in one more season their roster can make some big changes then.? Great! So write off another year cause this group even with some cosmetic changes on the bottom half of the roster or on D - ( I think the goaltending is satisfactory to good)? is not anywhere near close to being a Cup threat and you've got one of the best players in the game just spinning his wheels as these years fly by.? ?

I'll finish on this note and I talked about this recently in an interview on CBC; Stevie Y and Alex Ovechkin were in the league fourteen seasons before their Cup wins.? Maybe in a few years Auston and Willy will still be hanging and a brand new Leaf team will have the right stuff to go deep, make a final, and maybe win a Stanley Cup.? Until then..........fore!!!? ?

Sens hire Travis Green - fan base yawns?

He isn't the sexy hire Craig Berube would have been or say Patrick Roy last season but at least he's got NHL experience.? Green has had some of the required success as a coach, a Memorial Cup finalist in 2013 with Portland, a Calder Cup finalist in 2015 with Utica before his NHL tenure began in Vancouver. If I had been making the final call I would have waited and once Carolina lost to NYR, if Brind'Amour was let go I would have offered him the moon to come to Ottawa.? If he had said no I would have waited till Boston gets beat, which they will and then gone after assistant coach Chris Kelly.? But, that's just me.? Instead, Ottawa gets a head coach who apparently runs a training camp that makes players puke....okay then.... I know there's a bit of synergy in that he played a bit with Keith Tkachuk in Phoenix, father of Sens captain Brady Tkachuk but other than that - I guess it's a wait and see how the Sens get through October-November next season.? ?

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