The Maple Leafs have abandoned, at least temporarily, the notion of being interesting and innovative.
Boring and predictable is the new mantra in MLSE’s hockey department. No more fancy algorithms and cutting edge philosophies. Back to fundamentals. Just get ‘er done.
Being fascinating hasn’t worked. Being different and embracing out-of-the-box thinking hasn’t worked. Maybe being mainstream will.
That’s what Craig Berube means. He was the most obvious, non-controversial choice to coach the Leafs, and he got the job. Last summer, Brad Treliving was the most obvious, non-controversial choice to replace the departed Kyle Dubas, and Treliving got the job. Neither was or is regarded as an outlier in the hockey culture, or a revolutionary thinker.
These are standard-issue hockey guys.
This is a rather significant departure from the wild and crazy early days of the Brendan Shanahan regime where it seemed every new hockey notion was welcomed. Shanahan himself was a newsy hiring, surprising to some degree, particularly since the name Tim Leiweke first targeted was Wayne Gretzky.
Shanahan then surprised some by doing what his predecessor as Leafs hockey boss, Brian Burke, believed could not be done in Toronto; he, or the people he hired, took the roster right down to the rivets to set the stage for the drafting of Auston Matthews.
Burke believed Toronto fans and media would not stand for such a process, and instead traded multiple first-round picks to bring in the player he believed would jump-start the Leafs into immediate contention, Phil Kessel.
Kessel was a bad fit, however, although he went on to greater success elsewhere, notably Pittsburgh. Shanahan brought in an intriguing three-headed management team led by Lou Lamoriello, with Dubas and Mark Hunter as his assistants. Nobody saw Lamoriello coming before he was hired, Dubas was viewed as a junior hockey nerd and most believed Hunter would never leave the very profitable and successful London Knights organization, which he co-owned.
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