Friedman reveals reason for Leafs' management media day change
When the Toronto Maple Leafs moved their management media day from Thursday to Friday, it caught everyone by surprise. Now, Elliotte Friedman has revealed the reason for the change.
The Leafs players, as well as head coach Sheldon Keefe, went on with their Monday media availability as scheduled, and the expectation was that Brad Treliving's media day would occur on Thursday. However, when the date was pushed back, and set to a Friday media session, it became very clear very quickly that something was going on behind the scenes.
Why hasn't Sheldon Keefe been fired yet?
Over the past couple of days, Leafs Nation has worked itself up into a frenzy, speculating about the reason as to why the management media day was moved. We now have our answer, thanks to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.
You know, the players and Sheldon Keefe had their availabilities on Monday. I think Wednesday is an important day in terms of meeting and planning in the organization. I don't know exactly who's all going to be in this, I don't know exactly when it's all going to happen, but I do think Wednesday is a day where they're really going to start to drill down on where things are going to go here over the next little while.
I think you have to get over the emotion of the situation. Everyone wanted to wait a couple of days but now it's time to start moving everything forward. One thing I believe is the NHL, Tuesday was draft lottery day, I don't think the league wanted a lot of news on that day... I don't think they wanted too much to interfere with the Celebrini celebration.
Also, Sheldon Keefe was inducted into the Brampton Sports Hall of Fame on Tuesday night and I think the Maple Leafs, also too, are very sensitive of that. But I think Wednesday is going to be the day where they really start to meet and go over what's coming and I think that's why the availability was pushed from Thursday to Friday, because you meet Wednesday, maybe you have to make some short-term decisions on Thursday, let everybody know and then meet the media on Friday. So I think that's where we kind of are with the Maple Leafs, and I think that, like I said, Wednesday's going to be a meeting day.
They're not talking until Friday for a reason, and I'm not ready to jump to any conclusions yet on what this all means, but they're not talking until Friday for a reason and I suspect one of those things is to make sure that they feel they're making the right decision at coach.
If the team is debating moving on from Sheldon Keefe, it made sense, at least from Friedman's perspective, to wait until after Keefe had his special moment, being inducted into the Brampton Sports Hall of Fame. However, if they're going to fire him anyway, I'm not so sure the timing really matters all that much. Losing your job sucks regardless of the circumstances.
Obviously, tensions will remain high over the next couple of days until an official announcement is made, but at least we now know why the Leafs opted to make the change, moving their Thursday press conference to Friday.
| POLL | ||
MAI 8 | 759 ANSWERS Friedman reveals reason for Leafs' management media day change Do you think Brendan Shanahan is getting fired even though he's scheduled to speak on Friday? | ||
| No, he's likely back next season | 359 | 47.3 % |
| Yes, he's done as President | 243 | 32 % |
| Maybe he'll be moved to another role | 157 | 20.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
