LeafOfFaith
Well-known member
It's crazy how those last few trades colored everything.I mean, yeah....
But....
If this isn't a crisis, when does it become one? Do we have to be 2 games down in a playoff series before we can call it a crisis? Because this is starting to turn into a decent sized sample.
-14th in xG% since January 1st
-18th in xG% since Feb 1st
-29th in xG% since March 1st
For those who prefer their goals to be real rather than expectedc
- 12th in GF% since Jan 1st
- 9th since Feb 1st
- 19th since March 1st
and if your rebuttal to that is "special teams matter too!"
- 15th in all situations xG% since Jan 1, 16th since Feb 1
- 10th in all situations GF% since Jan 1, 10th since Feb 1
This might be a relative short ~10 game stretch of bad, but it's a longer sample of meh overall. Sure as fuck doesn't look like the obvious contender it was in the 1st half.
On the surface, sure, I loved Engvall and Sandin, but their subtraction after Acciari and McCabe were added shouldn't have made such a difference on paper. But somehow, despite that, it was so obvious from that first moment that we were going to be worse. Granted, ROR has been out for a bit now, but even so, the new depth just looked really subpar. Instead of Engvall leaving, Kampf and ZAR should've been sent packing probably for a couple of late picks, and McMann and Holmberg added to replace them. Instead of Sandin dumped, and certainly instead of Schenn and Gus added, Holl could've been dumped, or just leave those 7 guys there and rotate one out here and there.
To think that the essence of the team suddenly looked clearly and transparently fucked after that three trade day to me, and Dubie was just ho hum gonna just dump a couple of these guys, it mystifies me. I just don't get it. The only thing that will ever explain it is the next planned trade falling through. But what we've been seeing from the Leafs since those last deals is extremely and undeniably concerning. They have been mostly trash, and Matthews is not the same guy anymore, which is most concerning of all.