[Alter] Leafs détenant un entraînement facultatif au Scotiabank Saddledome. Sheldon Keefe est sur la glace avec son équipe d’entraîneurs et le seul joueur sur la glace qui a patiné hier soir est Simon Benoit Joseph Woll, Ilya Samsonov, William Lagesson, Nick Robertson et Ryan Reaves, les autres.
#Leafs holding an optional practice at Scotiabank Saddledome. Sheldon Keefe is on the ice with his coaching staff and the only player on the ice who skated last night is Simon Benoit
Joseph Woll, Ilya Samsonov, William Lagesson, Nick Robertson and Ryan Reaves the others.
— David Alter (@dalter) January 17, 2024
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DevOpsMakesMeDrink
26 Comments
That’s insane. This is such a bad look for both the players and the coaching.
I’ll be so disappointed if we don’t keep Benoit. If he gets a good term, I’m gonna grab a sweater.
FIRE KEEFE, STOP LETTING THIS FUCKIN LOSER COACH. Literally no players respect this moron, dont let him come back from AB.
I suspect there might be more context to this but just from reading this it’s not a great look at all
What would a usual turnout be for something like this? Assuming players didn’t get in too late from Edmonton.
Guys, they literally all said they have no problem with their performance last night lol.. why would you expect them to bag skate themselves in the middle of a 6 in 9 stretch?
Not a big deal to me. We all know the issues stem from not being able to give 60 minutes worth of effort. I judge them by how they play games (which lately has been bad), not if they show up to optional practice.
To be fair, the boys have played a LOT of hockey the past week or so with multiple road trips and flying across the country back and forth.
This could be a nothing burger and just tired players trying to conserve themselves.
1 out of 18 players playing last night take the optional practice?? Doesn’t look very good
Anyone reading anything into this is a fucking clown who never played a competitive sport and should be treated as such lol.
No more falling leafs in Alberta!!!
It’s an OPTIONAL skate. Holy Christ, this fan base is absolutely pathetic. If you’re upset about this, you simply need to turn your brain on.
This fucking team. I get it’s optional but these guys think they’re playing fine, even great hockey, despite blowing leads and losing. No accountability. Ever.
Take time off in the summer and work through your defensive deficiencies at practice. How about conditioning? So you can finish games. No of course not. That requires showing up everyday like a professional.
This is going to be overanalyzed by people here. This is as big a mental issue with the team as it is anything else, at least in terms of individual performance. Nylander isn’t going to play better because he went to an optional practice. Does it look bad? Yeah I’d argue it does, but I don’t think in actuality this matters much
Having said that, I like that Robertson opts into it. I really think he should be playing, though I’d be very surprised if he doesn’t now. I think Holmberg should remain in the lineup (though not on the first line IMO), but Gregor or McMann should come out
I get why this looks bad but the reality is the things going wrong with this team lately can’t really be fixed in practice. How do you practice not blowing 3rd period leads? It’s mental shit. These guys should honestly be meditating or seeking spiritual guidance or some shit.
Something like this shows how little some of these guys care, skaters and coaches. You’ve lost 4 in a row, all blown leads, and yet there’s an optional skate where no one shows up. Why isn’t there a mandatory practice where you let everyone know this is unacceptable and you work on any and all drills for a few hours. There’s just no urgency or heart.
lol this is pretty standard but people will spin it to fit the current narrative.
You have to fire keefe, but clearly shanahan isnt big on firing coaches just because of hard times.
The problem is not only does keefe actually suck at his job comparatively, but hes a players coach that the top players have seemingly checked out on. Its not going to get any better from here if you pull a « youre not leaving the table until you eat your supper » theyre just going to sit there all night and not eat.
The only thing you can do with this cap construction and the mindset these players have is get a coach that actually holds the entire lineup accountable regardless of salary. Torts is seemingly the only guy who fits that bill, because sure you can coast if you want with your 11 million dollar salaries but he’ll bury you on the 4th line.
You have to show them that while theyre already paid, life can get worse.
There’s talent on this team. What they are lacking is tenacity, grit and any semblance of caring. They need to be pissed off and respond. Watching Foegle pick Tavares up by the back of his jersey and dragging and dropping him out of the crease last night (after it was Tavares who was pushed into the crease) and nobody took any offence to that shows me they don’t really care or have any fire in them.
The video room is where they need to work out most of their issues, bunch of reactionaries.
It’s their one and only off day in nine days where every day is either a game or a travel day.
It likely wasn’t an optional, just a scratch skate, and Benoit being there likely means he’s out tomorrow, not that he’s the only guy willing to go the extra mile.
Is it a message?
Over react is all most of you do. This means nothing.
To all the people saying that this means nothing, you’re wilfully ignoring context. Normally would players show up for an optional skate during a packed schedule, no definitely not. However if you’re on an absolutely embarrassing losing skid and you want to show even the slightest bit of initiative it would probably be a good idea to go. Good on Benoit, that’s a player who doesn’t take his opportunity for granted.
Stop getting mad at this lmao