Following the big announcement earlier in the week, it’s been quiet in Leafs Nation over the past few days.
Things should pick up drastically once the Stanley Cup Final gets underway in just over a week.
Speaking of which, we kicked off the Friday edition of Leafs Morning Take by breaking down Game 1 of the Western Conference Final. Of course, Connor McDavid potted the double OT winner as the Oilers drew first blood against the Dallas Stars. It’s always refreshing to see big stars seize the moment when it matters the most, especially in these parts. Unfortunately, that rarely seems to happen for the Maple Leafs. Furthermore, the goaltending was another big story from Thursday night. Both Jake Oettinger and Stuart Skinner were fantastic. Once again, watching those two performances just reinforces the fact that the Leafs need to find a way to solidify their crease this summer. Plain and simple.
Presented by Greta Bar YYZ, we got into a lengthy conversation about entitlement in the NHL these days. Suffice it is to say, there were some interesting exit interviews in Vancouver. In many respects, Elias Pettersson is a lot like Mitch Marner. Both are exceptional players, but at this time, they’ve had their bouts with consistency in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. On top of that, both can get testy with the media when the going gets tough. They’re so quick to demand and request this and that, but when things don’t go their way, they tend to get very defensive. To be fair, it’s today’s mould. There’s a lot of players like that around the league right now. Unfortunately, there’s a systemic issue these days where guys get paid more for potential and less for what they’ve done. Where are we headed is the big question?
Meantime, thanks to Wendy’s, we discussed Frank Seravalli’s latest piece over at Daily Faceoff. In conjunction with AFP Analytics, for each of Frank’s top-75 unrestricted free agents, there’s a contract projection that accompanies it. It was a though provoking segment —that’s for sure.
That’s it for another week of Leafs Morning Take. Talk on Monday at 11 AM ET!
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