Why are Leaf fans so hard on Defencemen? Is Dion next?

[robdicks]

if the team is winning, that stuff wont happen... its basically the team is garbage we are going to get a whipping boy...

its not always defencemen... blake, stempniak, antropov, poni, reichel, hoglund, toskala, raycroft, and others have been whipping boys... i just dont get mccabe, berg and others, because they weren't bad on purpose.. you shouldnt blame them for sucking at hockey

if the leafs offered me a 5 mil contract i likely don't say "im not worth that sorry" ild take it, but that would be management's fault

[tinfoilcup]

McCabe should have kept his mouth shut during the lockout. It didn't help his cause. I think it was pretty easy to dislike and point the finger at him after that.

[Leaf Shaker]

Originally Posted by AlMo

Superstar dmen? What world are you living in?

In a world where I saw the aforementioned players win a Stanley Cup; play in All-Star games and who represent Team Canada on the international stage.

Larry Murphy in fact led the tourny with 6 assists in the famous 87 Canada Cup, one of them to Mario Lemieux's OT goal against Russia.

Which begs the question: Which world have you been living in?

[Leaf Shaker]

Originally Posted by Northern Dancer

I think it started way before Larry Murphy, remember Jim "Howie" McKenny? The bood-birds were even on Todd Gill for awhile which I never understood. Anyone who would take on Bob Probert and hold his own in Probert's prime is OK with me.

I sense a change in Leaf Nation these days the 'in' thing to do these days is rail on young forwards. The stuff thrown at Mitchell on these boards is absolutely ridiculous. The same group are now on to Hanson and even were even ripping Irwin after just one period of play with the Buds.

It baffles me as well why we take our frustration out on just one particular player usually at the bottom of the food chain and let the multi-millionaires prima donnas on the first line off the hook, all the time !!!

Never understood the Todd Gill one either. If it wasn't Wendel on the ice to go after those guys who took liberties with our players, you knew Gill was right there, toe to toe.

[Persuasion]

I think it will take a few seasons before Phaneuf gets turned on, if he doesn't produce statistically.

He is the darling boy, Leafs nation loves him, Burke/Wilson talk him up, media loves him, and he will be protected with the C on his chest next season.

[AlMo]

Originally Posted by Leaf Shaker

In a world where I saw the aforementioned players win a Stanley Cup; play in All-Star games and who represent Team Canada on the international stage.

Larry Murphy in fact led the tourny with 6 assists in the famous 87 Canada Cup, one of them to Mario Lemieux's OT goal against Russia.

Which begs the question: Which world have you been living in?

Pronger, Lidstrom = superstars

Murphy, McCabe, and any other Leafs dman = not a superstar.

Winning a Cup doesn't make you a superstar
Going to an All Star game doesn't make you a superstar
6 assists playing with the likes of Mario, Gretz and the best hockey players in Canada doesn't make you a superstar

Murphy was a good player in his day, he was a very good PP QB and racked up points throughout the years (especially with the Pens) but he was never a Norris type dman and he was never a superstar.

I know the general point you are making but you shouldn't call any Leafs dman over the past couple of decades a superstar.

[BudMaster17]

Originally Posted by Leaf Shaker

First there was Larry Murphy.

Then Dave Ellett

Then Bryan McCabe.

I mean, these were superstar defencemen.

There were many more in between these guys.

Is Dion next?

None of these where superstars when the leafs traded them and never became superstars after

Murphy couldn't skate and wasn't a top pair dman on that leaf team, we exposed him way too much. He was a specialist at that point in his career and if he gets traded to any other team he wouldn't even be mentioned.

Ellett was at the end of his career and Toronto was a team in transition. Gilmour was involved in that transaction and if he's getting traded then the fact we traded ellett is just a side note. I don't remeber us booing him like the other two.

And McCabe was just plan sucking it defensivelynthe last 2 years. He was tripping over his own net, giving the puck away a retarted amount of times, was getting bet 1 on 1 way too many times and was even scoring on his own net.

We do decrease the value of players when we boo them. But it's still up to the GM to get value out of our players and on all the trades we got 0 to negitive value

[YearsintheWilderness]

Phaneuf is mediocre. But he's a big talker. A player in Burke's image.

[RogerRoeper*]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Flavour

Yeah that has nothing to do with him playing for the Panthers.

Really?

[Leaf Shaker]

Originally Posted by AlMo

Pronger, Lidstrom = superstars

Murphy, McCabe, and any other Leafs dman = not a superstar.

Winning a Cup doesn't make you a superstar
Going to an All Star game doesn't make you a superstar
6 assists playing with the likes of Mario, Gretz and the best hockey players in Canada doesn't make you a superstar

Murphy was a good player in his day, he was a very good PP QB and racked up points throughout the years (especially with the Pens) but he was never a Norris type dman and he was never a superstar.

I know the general point you are making but you shouldn't call any Leafs dman over the past couple of decades a superstar.

You can deny all you want, if you don't want to call them a superstar, that's fine.

What is important is these aforementioned players got paid like superstars, it's what really matters in the end.