Former Leaf publicly calls out Lou Lamoriello's pointless, arbitrary rules
Former Toronto Maple Leafs forward, Brooks Laich, took to Twitter yesterday to express his disdain for former Maple Leaf and current New York Islanders general manager, Lou Lamoriello. Lamoriello is an old-school general manager, he ruffles a lot of feathers, and has specific team-related rules that have to be abided by. Some of these rules are not very popular among the players.
There was a lot of chatter after it was announced that Bo Horvat would not be wearing the number 53 that he wore during his time with the Vancouver Canucks. Casey Cizikas already adorns the number, but instead of being able to choose another number, Horvat will now be wearing number 14, since Lamoriello doesn't like player numbers above #40.
Gord Miller tweeted that among many of Lamoriello's rules, high jersey numbers aren't necessarily permitted. He likes uniformity in his numbers with 2 exceptions: Cizikas got to keep 53 because it pre-dated his arrival as a general manager and Jean-Gabriel Pageau's 44 was allowed because that was his number in Ottawa.
Gord Miller followed that up with some of the others rules which included: no facial hair, no long hair (past the collar), no jewelry, jackets and ties must be worn to games and on the team bus or plane, and no broadcasters or media are permitted on the team charter including their own broadcasters. Laich responded back by saying his "rules" are a joke.
Horvat chose the number 53 in honour of his late friend, Ian Jenkins. Jenkins wore 35 but after his passing, Horvat changed his number to the inverse in memory of his friend. It's unclear if he asked Cizikas for the number or if Cizikas offered it upon his arrival but that point is now moot as he will be wearing the number 14 until season's end.
| POLL | ||
FEVRIER 2 | 105 ANSWERS Former Leaf publicly calls out Lou Lamoriello's pointless, arbitrary rules Do you think GMs should be allowed to impose arbitrary rules upon the players who choose to sign with their respective teams? | ||
| No, there should be a blanket set of NHL rules | 26 | 24.8 % |
| Yeah, sure - why not? | 28 | 26.7 % |
| Don't care | 18 | 17.1 % |
| No - players should be allowed to express themselv | 33 | 31.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
