Can the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup?
The Toronto Maple Leafs can win the Stanley Cup if they improve their defence and are lucky enough not to suffer any major injuries. The Leaf offence is among the best in the NHL, especially down the middle. Few teams can match Toronto’s top three centres, Matthews, Tavares and Kadri. They have skilled wingers in Marner, Marleau and Nylander(when he re-signs) and tenacious checkers in Hyman, Brown and Kapanen. They should finish the regular season at or near the top of the standings.However, the playoffs are much harder than the regular season. This is when the rather porous Leaf defence will become rather suspect. It may be necessary to trade for a more responsible stay at home defenceman. Rielly and Gardiner are both great on offence but neither is a great defender. The rest of the Leaf defence is ordinary at best although Dermott is starting to show some promise. The Leafs do have a number of promising young defencemen on the farm team but they are at least a year away from helping the big club.If Nylander holds out much longer the temptation to trade him for a good young defenceman may be too much for the Leafs to resist.Andersen is a very capable Goaltender although he can become inconsistent if over-used. Hopefully, Sparks proves to be an adequate backup goalie and can play enough to keep Andersen well rested entering the playoffs.The Stanley Cup is probably the hardest championship trophy to win, what with four gruelling best of seven rounds of extremely competitive hockey and often the favourite team does not win the Cup. Skill, tenacity and more than a little luck all go into winning the Stanley Cup. The Leafs are closer to being able to win than they have been in the last fifty years. Time will tell. Go Leafs Go!
Which male professional sport in the US (NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL) is the most difficult for a GM to be successful in the long run?
Well, in the NBA, you have the least amount of control over the fate of your team. So its extremely difficult or impossible for a GM by himself to build a winner if he has a crappy team in a crappy market, and he can’t win the draft lottery.In the MLB, the GM has a lot of control over the fate of the team, probably even moreso than the manager. While the job is grueling and technically difficult, a savvy GM can turn around a bad team, or keep a top team competing. A GM is involved in managing the farm system, call ups/call downs, draft selections/scouting, signing free agents/re-signing current players, and some other stuff too.The job of the NFL GM is probably at a commensurate level of a MLB GM, maybe a little harder. But the Head Coach generally does exert more control over the team than the GM. The NFL GM is in charge of the draft, scouting, signing free agents/re-signing current players, and managing the cap. But in the NFL, the roster is often run by committee, and sometimes the HC gets the GM role too.So philosophically, if you wonder who works the hardest and has the most important job, I guess go with the MLB or NFL GM. If you’re asking which job would be the most impossible to exert control over, go with the NBA.Note: I don’t follow the NHL much so I left it out. I’d imagine that a GM’s role would be somewhere between the NHL and MLB/NFL, as the roster is very small, but there is a farm system too.
What's your favorite NHL team?
I was ten years old when the NHL expanded. Before that my team was the Maple Leafs. Loved that team - Tim Horton, George Armstrong, Red Kelly, Johnny Bower, Davy Keon - even though I'm from Saskatoon and Gordie Howe was playing with Detroit. But along came expansion, and worse the ownership of Harold Ballard and the Maple Leafs lost me. For a while I didn't have a team I really followed.When I was in high school one of my buddies was drafted by the Houston Aeros of the WHA. He got to play with Gordie Howe and his sons. Houston became my team, and when Houston folded and my friend went to Winnipeg I became a fan of the Winnipeg Jets.When my friend left Winnipeg though I stuck with the Jets. Early on they were lovable lists, screwed by the NHL after the merger between the WHA and the NHL. Then they struggled because they'd always lose in the playoffs against Gretzky and the Oilers. Great players played in Winnipeg but never got the recognition or the success they deserved. And then they were sold off to the Arizona desert as the Phoenix Coyotes.Well I couldn't support the new ownership who style my team from the city that loved them. So I went between lovable losers, eventually settling on the Ottawa Senators for a while. And then the NHL finally decided to move a failing team to a market that would support it. The Atlanta Thrashers became the new Winnipeg Jets and they immediately became my team again. I like the new Vegas Golden Knights ad a second team but my heart is with the Jets…Unless of course we get a team in Saskatoon that is.