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The Official Post-Bitch 2025-26 Regular Season Thread

MindzEye said:
C'mon dude. There's a huge difference between a frosty reception from the media and "he's a fraud and a liar" at his opening presser and then pretty much zero questions regarding his approach to fixing the situation here being asked by the media to suss out what he might actually be thinking of doing while in the role they don't think he deserves.

That last part would be way too much like journalism for our media in Toronto.
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Frosty. Good one
 
CH1 said:
It was one ambushee and really why was Simmons even given one of the 8 questions?
There must be over a hundred reporters who wanted a question
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Steve was the only one that had the balls to be direct about it, but every "question" was basically a statement on why the media member thinks John sucks, rather than an actual question where they were looking to get information and insight into the guy they hired. Like 101 said, bad journalism and just trying to manufacture gotchas rather than collect information and insight from the people.

Even the questions directed to Sundin had underlying negativity to them. "Why are you risking your legacy on John fucking Chayka?" It was just all opinions and statements.
 
My wife is currently doing your executive MBA at Ivey School of business . This morning I sent Chayka’s profile on the Ivey website to her.

Hey babe, look alumni from Ivey next GM of the Leafs. Smart dude

Her : oh wow cool. So glad I chose Western / Ivey.

So she emails her eMBA program director later in the day about a alumni from the HBA program becoming GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs

HIM : Yeah I know him. Smart guy. Hope you didn’t see the press conference

Lol.
 
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Preston said:
Steve was the only one that had the balls to be direct about it, but every "question" was basically a statement on why the media member thinks John sucks, rather than an actual question where they were looking to get information and insight into the guy they hired. Like 101 said, bad journalism and just trying to manufacture gotchas rather than collect information and insight from the people.

Even the questions directed to Sundin had underlying negativity to them. "Why are you risking your legacy on John fucking Chayka?" It was just all opinions and statements.
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The media was awful but all those non Simmons questions could easily have been answered by ignoring the question and saying what you wanted to say. It’s media training 101. I should give MLSE a call
 
CH1 said:
The media was awful but all those non Simmons questions could easily have been answered by ignoring the question and saying what you wanted to say. It’s media training 101. I should give MLSE a call
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Honestly my approach would be to laugh and be dismissive rather than over-explain and come off looking even worse. There was no winning in an environment like that. So we'll agree to disagree on that.
 
leafman101 said:
Rosie Dimano also had a great one “I’m confused. Who is in charge the GM you said is in charge or the assistant to the GM? I don’t get it.”
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Again, a competent Pelley spells that out in his opening statement instead of congratulating the Raptors
 
LeafGm said:
When have I ever defended the Toronto media love-in for Pizza boy? Every single one of them that supported that hire is an idiot, clearly.

Doesn’t mean that a lot of the criticisms being thrown Chayka’s way and the incredulity at him being the pick aren’t completely valid.

Though I won’t specifically defend Steve Simmons, of course. He sounded completely unhinged.
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I have literally never seen any new GM treated like this, anywhere. And that includes all sorts of career clowns and criminals.

are you saying that this is the worst GM resume in history?
 
Preston said:
Honestly my approach would be to laugh and be dismissive rather than over-explain and come off looking even worse. There was no winning in an environment like that. So we'll agree to disagree on that.
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I never said they need to over explain — I said ignore the question and answer the one you wanted to be asked on your terms. It’s a simple technique that we see 1000x a day on tv
 
Feyd said:
Yeah the hate-first bias on display by the media there today was pretty disgraceful. Simmons laying into Chayka like that using his own likely fabricated "stories" as a basis is Toronto Sun hack tabloid "reporting"
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and that was the right answer for that question - "hey steve are these sources of yours that same hot dog stand guy?"
 
CH1 said:
It was one ambushee and really why was Simmons even given one of the 8 questions?
There must be over a hundred reporters who wanted a question
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Rosie was SOOO CONFUSED tho.

"you hired a GM and a senior advisor......i am SO CONFUSED how that can even work I HAVE NEVER heard of anything like that before - why didn't you hire a guy in charge of hockey ops because GMs aren't in charge of hockey ops right?"
 
CH1 said:
I never said they need to over explain — I said ignore the question and answer the one you wanted to be asked on your terms. It’s a simple technique that we 1000x a day on tv
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I guess my point is that I'm not sure how that would have changed anything
 
Like I'm not the biggest Pelley fan, I think he's not great in these pressers and comes off as cringy as fuck. But today was a no-win situation and my preferred way of dealing with those questions was exactly what he did: Laugh and be dismissive. It's not worth responding to.
 
Preston said:
I guess my point is that I'm not sure how that would have changed anything
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Chayka gets his fave optimistic talking points out there — fans get to chew on that instead of chewing on all that awkwardness

obviously it doesn’t change how many games the Leafs are gonna win next year but it’s a chance to make a decent first impression. That’s what that half hour was all about.
 
Disaster.

I think Pelley is the problem. They’ll can him in a couples years and a new guy will come in and get it right.

Why would you want so much negativity around your team with a new hire? The league was already investigating the Leafs about potential Chayka hires? Bettman has an axe to grind with him. The media hates him, fine. Majority of fans seem to be disappointed.
 
I wouldn't want the decision to be guided in any way by worries about what the media thinks. That's exactly what leads to hopping back on the old boys railroad to nowhere.
 
CH1 said:
Chayka gets his fave optimistic talking points out there — fans get to chew on that instead of chewing on all that awkwardness

obviously it doesn’t change how many games the Leafs are gonna win next year but it’s a chance to make a decent first impression. That’s what that half hour was all about.
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So let's say he responds to those questions with something random about roster construction (which no one in the media even hinted at wanting to talk about today) --> "He's dodging the questions." "He sounds overly rehearsed." Etc etc. The criticism and negativity was coming either way. I would rather he just shuts that shit down. Not worth giving them any sound byte at all when they ask those questions.
 
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