This isn't even the biggest collapse in Toronto sports history. The Jays in 87' take that one.
The Leafs were only 6th, and a few points out of 9th. It isn't that big of a collapse in terms of being in a playoff spot and missing them. The East is so jam-packed with teams contending for a spot.
Is the greatest collapse in nhl history?I remember the tank nation versus Leafs are the hottest team after the all star break clowns,but no one saw this coming ..Comments:
I beg to differ as some Leaf fans saw and expected this Leafs team to implode and believed it was only a matter of time..
It was pointed out many times the flaws even while they were winning, but they were doing it ugly, by simply outscoring their mistakes and defensive breakdowns.
A league worst PK%, soft goaltending, and poor coaching from the start with a faulty run and gun flawed system would never last the year. While Leafs were in a playoff spot they sported a negative goals differential and that is a sign of pending collapse for the most part. A league leading red hot Phil Kessel & Joffrey Lupul simply keeping a rather average team on talent, that got the team out to a jackrabbit early lead in the standings, before inevitably it was all going to come crashing down..
If anything it wasn't the collapse, but rather the surprise from how long this team that is not very good, stayed afloat. A coaching change that should have happened far earlier also something easily able to seen coming sooner than later.. "The cream always rises to the top" and as the season wore on the house of cards that the GM built all came crashing down.
The silver lining of this disaster, is that it brought change, will spur on even more change, as its exposed numerous shortcomings.. The end result of a team adamant about a quick fix re-tooling plan has fallen backasswards into a draft rebuild, by earning a high draft pick on merit of failure, of a team naively believing it was a playoff assembled one. So its not all bad and good can come from what was another painful and embarrassing season for Leaf Nation fans.
Not even close. It may have been the greatest illusion ever to think this team is a playoff team. Have a look at Minnesota -- there were in 1st overall for a time.
Their fall was mainly due to injuries to key players in key positions. ie Koivu, Bouchard, and Backstrom.
I beg to differ as some Leaf fans saw and expected this Leafs team to implode and believed it was only a matter of time..
It was pointed out many times the flaws even while they were winning, but they were doing it ugly, by simply outscoring their mistakes and defensive breakdowns.
A league worst PK%, soft goaltending, and poor coaching from the start with a faulty run and gun flawed system would never last the year. While Leafs were in a playoff spot they sported a negative goals differential and that is a sign of pending collapse for the most part. A league leading red hot Phil Kessel & Joffrey Lupul simply keeping a rather average team on talent, that got the team out to a jackrabbit early lead in the standings, before inevitably it was all going to come crashing down..
If anything it wasn't the collapse, but rather the surprise from how long this team that is not very good, stayed afloat. A coaching change that should have happened far earlier also something easily able to seen coming sooner than later.. "The cream always rises to the top" and as the season wore on the house of cards that the GM built all came crashing down.
The silver lining of this disaster, is that it brought change, will spur on even more change, as its exposed numerous shortcomings.. The end result of a team adamant about a quick fix re-tooling plan has fallen backasswards into a draft rebuild, by earning a high draft pick on merit of failure, of a team naively believing it was a playoff assembled one. So its not all bad and good can come from what was another painful and embarrassing season for Leaf Nation fans.
They were a +9. You keep sticking to this yet praise teams like Florida.
Just a comment on fans angrily littering the ice with debris in the 1980's. I want to talk about the occasion:
I remember it being the playoffs of 1988. The Leafs had qualified for the playoffs by default with a measly 21 wins (52 points) because Minnesota was even more awful with 51 points. Anti-tankers should note that Minnesota drafted franchise player Mike Modano first overall while the Leafs drafted Scott Pearson 6th overall. Because the Leafs really were so awful, season ticket holders didn't bother to buy the playoff tickets because a 1st round loss was a foregone conclusion. But a strange thing happened, the Leafs won the first game of the playoff series against Detroit in Detroit. They had split the games on the road. Fans who otherwise would never have been sitting in the expensive seats snapped up unsold playoff tickets for Games 3 and 4. The Game 3 was competitive although Detroit easily triumphed. So came Game 4. The Leafs had somewhat competed against the better Detroit team in the first 3 games, winning one of the games. It was expected that Game 4 would be no different and there was a chance they could even up the series. Well when Game 4 went completely south (final score 8-0), the ice was littered with Leafs' sweaters and other junk from the suckers, er, fans who had been dumb enough to believe that their team who finished 1 point from dead last should beat the team with 5th best record in the NHL. The strangest thing happened after that night. The team went to Detroit and won again in OT with Daniel Marois scoring a spectacular goal in his NHL debut. This again boosted expectations for game 6 which was lost with less drama as the delusional band wagon jumpers had abandoned the team by then.
I'd say that the point at which season ticket holders skipped taking playoff tickets was a lower point than anything in the past 7 years.
They were a +9. You keep sticking to this yet praise teams like Florida.
So who was right, you or I that predicted the Leafs demise as a result of their poor PK% and negative goal differential and faulty system?.
Even in hindsight now you can see with your own eyes what has happened and you're still in denial believing you were correct that it was no big concern to worry about.
Take a look at the standings, only 3 of the 16 teams that sit in a negative goal differential currently hold playoff spots, with SJ the only team currently on the outside looking in, but that might not last. The odds were always stacked in my favour from the start based on goal differential, simply by understanding what the numbers were suggesting.
Florida is also easily explainable, because all teams in the SE are in a negative position at present and someone has to win the division and guaranteed to make the playoffs.. That reason is also because of their goaltending or lack there of.. However in an uneven schedule for divisional play the Leafs play in the NE where Tim Thomas, Ryan Miller, Carey Price among the top goalies in the conference reside..Even veteran Craig Anderson in Ottawa is better than anything the Leafs have to offer up.. The Leafs have given up 249 goals against the 3rd most and worst mark in the NHL this year, surely you should be able to understand how that is/was going to be there eventual downfall.
There is no great secret or wisdom here on my part to forecast doom and gloom, for all the signs were there, all it took is for fans like yourself to take the time and acknowledge them.
You want the ACC to be a better environment? Then stop giving corporations free tickets to hand out to their suits and clients. These guys take up the best seats in the house and aren't even interested in the game, often missing the first 10 minutes of a period following an intermission. That's on ownership and on who they are giving the tickets to. Leave it to the public, let the die hard fans who WANT to be there have a chance to buy those tickets.
BS. this has nothing to do with the suits.
Its not the suits that chant to fire every member of this organization. The fans come to games expecting so much and sit still till something good happens and then they cheer for a second.
Toronto needs to learn something from Winnipeg. Their team almost made the playoffs cause the fans willed them to win at home. They are atrocious on the road.
This is sports. It is all about hope and blind faith. Its suppose to be fun.
Somewhere along the line, it stopped being fun and this city became as serious as a heart attack. There are all these expectations and fans feel like they deserve something more than any other sports fan.
It makes no sense. Toronto fans are so full of themselves and **** it is not even funny.
Its not the suits that chant to fire every member of this organization. The fans come to games expecting so much and sit still till something good happens and then they cheer for a second.
Toronto needs to learn something from Winnipeg. Their team almost made the playoffs cause the fans willed them to win at home. They are atrocious on the road.
This is sports. It is all about hope and blind faith. Its suppose to be fun.
Somewhere along the line, it stopped being fun and this city became as serious as a heart attack. There are all these expectations and fans feel like they deserve something more than any other sports fan.
It makes no sense. Toronto fans are so full of themselves and **** it is not even funny.
Quit this "blame the quiet fans" or "blame the vocal malcontents" hogwash! The atmosphere has nothing, zero, nada to do with the state of the team.
I call this the Peter Pan argument: If everyone would just show how much they believe in Tinker Bell, everything would be alright. It's remarkably naive.
BTW, there were no quieter crowds in the NHL than Edmonton and Calgary in the 1980's and they managed to have great dynastic franchises there. Players block out the crowds mostly. Heck, if crowds had any substantial impact on the outcome of games, most teams wouldn't be able to get 40 to 50 % of their wins on the road in hostile buildings.
While Leafs were in a playoff spot they sported a negative goals differential and that is a sign of pending collapse for the most part.
Wrong. For a lot of the season and the time we were in the playoffs, we were one of just 5-6 teams in the eastern conference with a positive goal differential.
So who was right, you or I that predicted the Leafs demise as a result of their poor PK% and negative goal differential and faulty system?.
Even in hindsight now you can see with your own eyes what has happened and you're still in denial believing you were correct that it was no big concern to worry about.
Take a look at the standings, only 3 of the 16 teams that sit in a negative goal differential currently hold playoff spots, with SJ the only team currently on the outside looking in, but that might not last. The odds were always stacked in my favour from the start based on goal differential, simply by understanding what the numbers were suggesting.
Florida is also easily explainable, because all teams in the SE are in a negative position at present and someone has to win the division and guaranteed to make the playoffs.. That reason is also because of their goaltending or lack there of.. However in an uneven schedule for divisional play the Leafs play in the NE where Tim Thomas, Ryan Miller, Carey Price among the top goalies in the conference reside..Even veteran Craig Anderson in Ottawa is better than anything the Leafs have to offer up.. The Leafs have given up 249 goals against the 3rd most and worst mark in the NHL this year, surely you should be able to understand how that is/was going to be there eventual downfall.
There is no great secret or wisdom here on my part to forecast doom and gloom, for all the signs were there, all it took is for fans like yourself to take the time and acknowledge them.
Mess you would be spouting doom and gloom if the Leafs won 4 Stanley Cups in a row because (insert one of, age of the team, coach, scouts, GM, President, ownership) failed to build a dynasty in the mold of Sammy Pollack and the Habs.
Last edited by Northern Dancer: 03-31-2012 at 09:24 PM.
Wrong. For a lot of the season and the time we were in the playoffs, we were one of just 5-6 teams in the eastern conference with a positive goal differential.
So I guess you are one of those surprised and shocked by the outcome.
Lets look at Leafs past two seasons.
2010-11 - 218 goals for, 251 goals against & -33 goal differential.
2011-12 - 218 goals for, 249 goals against & -31 goal differential. (with 4 games remaining).
Hey look no hands and virtually no improvement.. What a shocker also no playoffs !!!.
Who could possibly have foreseen this considering this team is no better than last year stats wise and about to finish bottom 10 again. If only one could have looked at the numbers and drawn this conclusion.
__________________
Signature: There is no greater demonstration of Fan patience then to suggest to "Play the Kids " and be willing to accept the consequences of those actions..
So who was right, you or I that predicted the Leafs demise as a result of their poor PK% and negative goal differential and faulty system?.
Actually, if you look back I wrote a rather lengthy post showing all their positives and negatives and included in the negatives are the very things you are trying to claim "right versus wrong" on Mess.
You aren't being called out on whether it is better to score more than the opposition. That's obvious stuff. You are being called out on lying or if you prefer Bushisms, misremembering.
On February the 6th the Leafs sat 2 points out of 4th in the conference and 12th overall. They also sat at +12, good for 10th in the league.
For you to state that the Leafs were running minus goal differentials while in the playoff race is a flat out lie (did they at times...sure but not the way you are trying to portray it), plain and simple. It's also a stat you refused to discuss at the time and we all know why.
The 80's were worse. I can remember the last few years before Ballard's died hoping that this would be the year he kicked the bucket. That's all you had to look forward to back then because he wouldn't sell the team.
At least Burke can be replaced with someone else. There wasn't that hope with Ballard.
The 80's were way worse. Anyone whom thinks differntly is too young to remember. The Leafs were consistenly bad, and occasionally made the playoffs because 4 of the 5 teams in the division did so every year. The only saving grace was that through most of the 80's the Red Wings were just as bad or worse than the Leafs were.
So I guess you are one of those surprised and shocked by the outcome.
Lets look at Leafs past two seasons.
2010-11 - 218 goals for, 251 goals against & -33 goal differential.
2011-12 - 218 goals for, 249 goals against & -31 goal differential. (with 4 games remaining).
Hey look no hands and virtually no improvement.. What a shocker also no playoffs !!!.
Who could possibly have foreseen this considering this team is no better than last year stats wise and about to finish bottom 10 again. If only one could have looked at the numbers and drawn this conclusion.
Nice. Flat out lie and twist things, and then ignore it when you get told.
I was surprised by the outcome, but I realized that playoffs weren't a guarantee. If it ends up that we are in the same spot as last year, oh well. We had growth. We had good points, we had bad points. We had injuries and struggles. Sometimes in a rebuild, you have stagnation in the standings for a year.
Or if you're Edmonton, doing things the so-called "right way" by sucking a lot, sometimes you stagnate for 3 years.
I wasn't around or watching in the 80s, but this can't be the lowest point for the leafs since things were worse in the previous years.
Yeah, our point total may be lower this year than the last couple, however our prospect pool and outlook for the future has gradually been improving. It's better this year than it was last year.
I don't know, or care, which year or era was 'the worst' for the leafs. We've got a decent ways to go, but things aren't terribly bleak.
Actually, if you look back I wrote a rather lengthy post showing all their positives and negatives and included in the negatives are the very things you are trying to claim "right versus wrong" on Mess.
You aren't being called out on whether it is better to score more than the opposition. That's obvious stuff. You are being called out on lying or if you prefer Bushisms, misremembering.
On February the 6th the Leafs sat 2 points out of 4th in the conference and 12th overall. They also sat at +12, good for 10th in the league.
For you to state that the Leafs were running minus goal differentials while in the playoff race is a flat out lie (did they at times...sure but not the way you are trying to portray it), plain and simple. It's also a stat you refused to discuss at the time and we all know why.
I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
I think it's impressive that it took an epic collapse for this team to have numbers similar to last year, especially considering that a) the goaltending was, overall, worse than expected and b) the second line was invisible. Perhaps more impressive is that it's still not the worst collapse of the season in the NHL.
this should be considered worse than the ballard years for one reason: ballard handcuffed the team in the 80s.
nobody's handcuffing this team now except incompetence from management, coaching, and players.
It's like your two sentences contradict each other.
Ballard (management incompetence) directly lead to the acquisition of incompetent coaching (after getting rid of any good ones because of his herp derp ego) and player incompetence (after ditching good ones and picks in trades far worse than the Kessel deal for lesser players, with probably two exceptions).
Ballard's 'tenure' also ran from '72 to '90. By your rationale, how is this era worse?
