Controversial Toronto sports writer calls for a Leafs coaching change
After splitting a home and home against Columbus on the weekend, the Leafs had their annual outdoor practice yesterday at Nathan Phillips Square that featured a 3-on-3 tournament. Apparently, the "practice" and 3-on-3 tournament was the last straw for controversial Toronto sports writer Damien Cox.
Cox went on a rant in his Toronto Star article this morning calling for the firing of Sheldon Keefe so that the Leafs can hire the recently fired Bruce Boudreau. Why you ask? Because Cox believes the Leafs need a "jolt" and some "passion injected into the season" because they have only won 5 of 13 games against teams like Arizona, Montreal and Ottawa this season.
Sure, just because the Bruins fired their coach and are sitting in first place and Boudreau was fired, let's just make a coaching change for the sake of making a coaching change. Let's fire the coach that has taken the team from one of the worst defensive teams in the league to a top-10 team, and that has improved year over year under him, currently sitting second in the Atlantic Division and fourth overall in the NHL. Not only has the team improved as a whole since Sheldon Keefe took over, but players have consistently had career years, season after season while buying into a more defensive system.
Cox goes on to say that Boudreau would be a short-term, cheap fix, instead of giving up prospects and picks to upgrade their roster citing the work he did with the Canucks last season after taking over for Travis Green. That was last season Damien - things didn't go so well for Bruce this year now did they?
To call for the firing of Keefe simply because Boudreau is available is ridiculous. Since he took over for Mike Babcock in November of 2019, Keefe has the second best points percentage in NHL history among coaches with more than 100 games behind the bench. On top of that, Keefe has a strong rapport with much of the Leafs' roster, since most of them played for him with the Marlies when they won a Calder Cup. He has the players' respect and to make a coaching change when the team is doing as well as the Leafs have been will not help the team. It will likely have the opposite effect and send the Leafs into a tailspin. With 28 games left in the regular season and just over 2 weeks until the trade deadline, bringing in a new coach now that will introduce new systems and tactics just does not make any sense.
| POLL | ||
13 FEVRIER | 485 ANSWERS Controversial Toronto sports writer calls for a Leafs coaching change Do you think the Leafs need to make a coaching change? | ||
| Yes | 113 | 23.3 % |
| No | 284 | 58.6 % |
| LOL | 88 | 18.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
