It is incomprehensible that such veteran hockey people as [Brendan] Shanahan, Brad Treliving and Craig Berube actually felt that stitching a letter on clothing could alter a person’s DNA.
— Between The Posts, May 19

TORONTO (May 29) — Finally, Brad Treliving and the Toronto Maple Leafs are talking my language.

In fact, my precise language from a blog, ten days ago, entitled LEAFS AND AUSTON HAVE TO SEPARATE. And though he’d never be permitted to state so publicly, Treliving, without a doubt, implicated the club’s new captain and “leader” during his end–of–season media conference when insinuating what the rest of us have known for ages: Auston Matthews couldn’t lead a starving man to the buffet table. That his club was in search of “new DNA.”

This mattered not, of course, to the crafty bean–counters at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. There was money to be made, last summer, and a capital ‘C’ had to quickly be stitched to those thousands of No. 34 jerseys. The result? MLSE got exactly what it deserved: another humiliating exit from the Stanley Cup tournament — the vaunted “face of the franchise” folding and withering amid playoff pressure for a ninth consecutive year.

I’d like you to count the number of local reporters and columnists in the next couple of days who actually believe that Treliving’s DNA remark was a veiled reference to Mitch Marner, the club’s other regular–season superstar; poised to test unrestricted free agency this summer. Trust me when I tell you that Treliving isn’t that stupid. In fact, he probably isn’t stupid at all. Even a novice observer of the sport — which the Toronto general manager is not — can see that Matthews is the club’s DNA… and that nothing about the Leafs can change until his DNA is removed.

Problem is, Treliving has no control over the matter.

Nobody in Maple Leafs management actually manages. They cede authority to players that founder and disintegrate before our very eyes at roughly the same juncture each spring. And, no one more–so than the irresolute figure gobbling up $13.25 million a year to score goals (as per the terms of all standard player contracts) between mid–October and mid–April. A player so thoroughly devoid of the disposition necessary for traction beyond that cutoff. So, if you really think GM Brad had No. 16 in his mind’s eye while talking DNA on Thursday, check on that swampland in Arizona. Chances are, it’s still up for grabs. Otherwise, stop apologizing for the tiniest big–game player in the history of the Maple Leafs franchise. Only the departure of Auston Matthews can truly modify the culture and genetic composition of the Toronto roster. Everyone else, Marner included, is peripheral and secondary.

Somewhere down the road, Treliving will tell of the minor role he enacted when the Leafs signed Matthews, in 2023, to a four–year contract extenstion. Brad was still in his third month on the job when Brendan Shanahan orchestrated and signed off on the deal. This, too, was glaring stubbornness, as Shanahan had been around the game long enough to spot a playoff phony. But, no way was he about to deviate from the cratered ruins of his now–departed “Shanaplan.” Credit the guy, I suppose, for falling on his sword, rather than pulling an artificial U–turn to preserve employment. And, here’s hoping, for Toronto hockey fans, that Treliving has a sharper eye; unblurred by obstinacy and false hope. Which I believe is true. And, which I contend would never have resulted in such an ironclad extension for Matthews. This, for anyone who bothered to notice, was quite evident during his media conference. Treliving dedicated a small portion of his preamble to the team captain; kind of half–spewing words about this season’s playoff injury and offering a justifiably weak endorsement of Matthews’ first year with the ‘C’. “I thought he was terrific,” said the GM, most underwhelmingly, and while looking down at his notepad.

But, more pointedly is a heartfelt question to fans of the Maple Leafs: What can Auston Matthews possibly do that would electrify and arouse during another 82–game season… and somehow convince you, after all this time, that his exploits will carry into the spring? If not in a fantasy world, irrefutable evidence over the span of nearly a decade would leave you entirely devoid of expectation; with fingers crossed and prayers sent. Nothing more.

Are you sincerely going to become euphoric when Auston erupts for seven goals in four games next November? The team–owned media surely will, with Sportsnet leading the discusssion of a “stern, more–decicated” Matthews. Which will spawn repetitive accounts from Justin Bourne on why “this team is different from the others” (credit to Kyper’s TV/radio sidekick for managing his impulse; I believe Justin is down to four–such articles per season). 😛

Come on. You know there isn’t anything latent in Matthews. He’s been exposed in the playoffs so often that a nude statue of the Leafs captain should one day adorn Nathan Phillips Square. There’s just no cachet left in this town for No. 34, beyond the always–fertile imagination of reporters and pundits. And, undeniably, beyond the regular schedule. The media refuses to adopt this angle for three reasons: a) most have been brainwashed by the Leafs; b) many cannot, for fear of reprisal on club–owned outlets; c) nearly all are scared stiff to venture outside the lines… just in case Auston pulls a Connor and makes them look bad (sigh). After nine fu**ing years?!

Matthews sorely needs a change of locale to rebuild credibility as a star player in the National Hockey League. He has to become what Phil Kessel was to Pittsburgh: a third wheel in support of such–legitimate Stanley Cup warriors as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. It will never work for Matthews as the central figure around which everything in Leafdom revolves. We’ve known that, undeniably, since at least 2021. It seems, too, that the player is getting old. Fast. For the sake of the Toronto franchise, Leafs management and Matthews must form a departure plan. Not by the club humiliating the player, as per the residents of “Robidas Island.” But, by convincing Auston that his hockey future, whatever it may be, lies well beyond this city and its perennial Stanley Cup malaise.

Only then will Keith Pelley and Treliving begin to maneuver the club forward. With legitimately new DNA.

THE MISSING LEAFS LINK…

I had searched for ages to find the lone “missing link” among Maple Leafs media guides in my collection. Finally, on ebay, I was able to locate and negotiate for the coveted item: a 1964–65 edition of the annual press book (middle of top row, above, in a photo of my ten oldest Leaf guides: 1962–63 to 1971–72). A closer look, below, at the media publication that followed a third consecutive Stanley Cup for Punch Imlach and the Maple Leafs:

 
FRONT AND REAR COVERS, INCLUDING A RARE PHOTO OF FOSTER HEWITT’S FAMOUS GONDOLA AT MAPLE LEAF GARDENS, WITH ESSO HOCKEY BROADCAST ON THE FAÇADE. THE CAGE–LIKE STRUCTURE WAS SUSPENDED FROM THE GIRDERS ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE ARENA. HEWITT OCCUPIED THE FAR–RIGHT BOOTH IN THE PHOTO. FOSTER’S SON, BILL HEWITT, CALLED TELEVISION PLAY BY PLAY (WITH BRIAN MacFARLANE) IN THE BOOTH THIRD FROM RIGHT. THE GONDOLA EXISTED FROM THE BUILDING’S 1931 INCEPTION TO THE END OF THE 1978–79 SEASON, WHEN HAROLD BALLARD ORDERED IT DESTROYED AND THE WOOD INCINERATED FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF PRIVATE BOXES.

OPENING THE FRONT COVER UNVEILED FAMILIAR NAMES AND FACES AT THE TIME ON HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA.

 
THE LEAFS EXECUTIVE (ABOVE). SELECTED PLAYER BIOGRAPHY PAGES (BELOW).

 
 


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