Why the Leafs can't win

Because they're not a team.  They're a collection of superstars who can't play together.  By contrast, the best hockey player (probably)ever, Connor McDavid, is a team player.  The evidence for this is that Connor has 52 goals so far this season, but 69 assists.  Sixty-nine!  That's how many goals he forfeits so the team can win.  Sadly, they're a sh-tty team, but that has nothing to do with McDavid.  Ya gotta feel sorry for McDavid, who, in spite of his greatness, will probably never win a Stanley Cup with the Oilers, who will never trade him.  

But back to the Leafs, a losing team worth $2 billion.  Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares and Matthews are each paid gargantuan bags of money, but a team they do not make.  And wasn't Tavares a superstar when he played on the Junior Olympic team?  Yes, but once these guys sign a megabucks professional contract, they quit trying.  Everyone settles into mediocrity and cashes cheques -- McDavid excepted.  B's formula for creating dynamic NHL teams is to pay every player $100 K when they enter the league.  After that, salaries rise for the number of goals, the reverse for goalies.

I ran that scenario by an old journalism colleague from my Maclean Hunter days, who has just retired from 'The Globe and Mail' sports desk, and he wholeheartedly agreed.  "But it'll never happen because they all have agents."  Ah yes, money.  Again.

I'm not a hockey fan, but some stuff I glean through osmosis; B is a big fan and gives me a running narration when games are on and I cannot escape their din.  I am also a devoted fan of Globe sports columnist Cathal Kelly, one of the best writers you'll ever have the pleasure of reading.  That's why I read sports, because Kelly writes about them.  

So, like the Raptors, the Leafs remain mired in defeat and their devoted -- for some reason? -- fans continue to take it on the chin season after miserable season.  The last time they won the Cup?  1967, a 56-season drought that is the longest in the NHL ever.  Me?  I am a Habs fan, but rarely watch because they're sh-tty too.  Can't even find a colour photo of the Leafs winning he Cup, that's how long ago it was:

I grew up watching the original six, so one is spoiled forever.  Those were the glory days of Belliveau, Hull, Esposito, Howe, Horton, Armstong, The Rocket, The Pocket Rocket...I could go on, but you get the drift.  Money has ruined hockey and you can lay that directly at the feet of Gary Bettman -- a New York money boy who probably can't even skate.  

I'm only writing about hockey because Kelly wrote about it this morning and the trade deadline has passed.  The big takeaway for me is that the mulligans afforded the front office guys who run the Leafs remain limitless.