It Is Getting Tense In Toronto
from Cathal Kelly of the Toronto Star,
It’s okay to lose a few. Just don’t lose badly. If you do lose badly, be gracious. Toronto fans are totally fine rooting for a loser, but they don’t like losers who lip back.
That doesn’t sound hard, but the Leafs couldn’t manage it for six games. Now we are into all confrontation, all the time.
The speed wobble started after Friday’s loss to San Jose. Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe was asked about the “lazy” effort of newcomer Nick Ritchie.
The right way to answer this question in Toronto is whatever way you can do that without creating pull quotes. Keefe couldn’t do it.
First, he took umbrage: “That’s not an appropriate question.”
Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize we were all sitting cross-legged in the circle of trust. You wouldn’t want to offend a guy who makes millions in the entertainment business by critiquing the quality of his entertaining.
That would have been fine, but Keefe’s red mist was coming up. He had to stick one in at the end: “You should be asking as many questions about Matthews and Marner today as you should be about Ritch.”
Oh dear.
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