The Toronto Maple Leafs are the center of the hockey universe.
As such, it behooves us to figure out how the Toronto Maple Leafs figure into every hockey news story that occurs.
I don’t want to say the very fate of the world itself hangs in the balance, but it probably does.
The Leafs figure into every story there is, and it’s my job to figure out how.
And, since we are going on day 48 since our last Leafs Breaking News whether or not this proves to be a good idea, I’m running with it.
Toronto Maple Leafs and the Rest of the NHL
Today’s Top Story: The Winnipeg Jets stripped Blake Wheeler of his captaincy.
The Toronto Maple Leafs captain is John Tavares. They won’t be stripping him of the captaincy anytime soon, because to do so is idiotic.
This would never happen in Toronto because the Leafs wouldn’t hire Rick Bowness, a guy whose coaching career shouldn’t have extended past Y2K. Winnipeg gets what it deserves for this backward and ridiculous coaching hire.
If you aren’t going to trade Blake Wheeler, stripping him of the captaincy creates a needless distraction, upsets one of your best players and creates divisions in the locker room. Embarrassing a guy who has been your captain for six or seven years is a petty, classless, dirtbag move.
The Leafs are the class of the NHL and you’d never see these shenanigans here. Shame on the Jets and their bad GM and their desperate choice of coach.
Today’s Top Story the Second: Nick Suzuki named Captain.
Damn, two straight stories about captains? Ugh. OK this one is much more positive.
Still, I don’t know. The Habs have always seemed so dead-set on selling everyone on Suzuki – they signed him for eight years and made him the captain, and he’s not much more than a prospect at this point. He’s got a career high 21 goals and 60 points. That’s not bad for 23, but we still don’t really know what Suzuki is.
How does this relate to the Toronto Maple Leafs? Well just for fun let’s list the players on the Leafs who are better than Montreal’s Captain: Matthews, Marner, Buting, Nylander, Tavares and maybe Kerfoot.
The Canadiens have named a guy who so far looks to have the career potential of Alex Kerfoot as their captain. That amuses my bouche.
The final NHL news story from today is that Rangers defenseman Nils Lundkvist is holding out and demanding a trade. He’s a first round pick. So is Rasmus Sandin.
You can expect people to float this trade, but let me be the first to tell you it’s a loser for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Nils Lundkvist ain’t making this team. Rasmus Sandin might still be a #1 defenseman. Laugh at anyone who suggests this trade.
And now you know how all NHL news relates to the Toronto Maple Leafs.