Again, I think you’re just straight up being dishonest, or ignorant, about what those Leafs teams were like. Did Leafs teams have enforcers? Sure, but all teams did. Do you not remember Georges Laraques? Chris Nilan? John Ferguson? You’re wildly exaggerating the extent to which those Leafs teams had fighters. They…

+ 1 Sports

Ever since Sportsnet won the rights to HNIC the CBC has no say in which games they broadcast on Saturday nights. So you’re not poorly served as a taxpayer and Habs fans have RDS so I don’t really see how they’re in a position to complain about anything.

So you’re mad at the Leafs because giant media conglomerates are interested in the biggest audiences they can get? 

The thing that always gets me about that argument is how it just sort of seems to gloss over one of the reasons so many people connect the Leafs to players, mainly because they’re from here. Stamkos, Subban, Tavares, McDavid, Seguin, Marner, Monahan...and that’s not even really counting Southern Ontario as whole. I…

No, I agree to some extent. Pittsburgh was terrible because they were owner-less and bankrupt. Chicago was terrible because they were run by one of the worst owners in sports. So on and so forth.

‘96 is a bad one. ‘92 is another good contender. Chara-Kaberle(or Chara-Briere) is a pretty bad 1-2 punch for the best players to come out of a draft but ‘92 is Yashin-Gonchar or Yashin-Jere Lehtinen. At least Chara is going to the HOF. 

Well, I think top hockey players in the draft(who tend to be a year or two away from playing) are easier to predict than Baseball players who tend to be further away. So you’re right that there’s less draft hype in baseball for prospects but I think teams still angle themselves towards the bottom because, just…

I think Daigle was pre-lottery(Yashin too) but it’s still always funny to see his name. 

There was always a contingent of Leafs fans who complained about Sundin, sure, but I do genuinely think that group was mainly the sort of sub-human trolls who call into radio shows and the like. In the city itself Mats was always pretty popular.

Not that it matters a ton but Ottawa won the 1996 draft lottery and took Chris Phillips.

Every fanbase has its cranks but to say that the majority, or even significant minority, of attitudes towards Sundin was that of loathing just isn’t true. What Islanders fans falsely say happened with Tavares actually did happen with Sundin(he refused to let the team trade him at the deadline) and this is still how he…

I think one of the weirder things about the Sens, and this is true for the post-lockout Maple Leafs that wasted the end of Sundin’s career, is that generally people’s biggest complaints about them amounts to them doing what we say we’d like Baseball teams to do. They weren’t content to sink to the bottom and try to…

Yeah, again, I’d be with you if it didn’t indicate that Islanders fans don’t exactly know what pyjamas are.

James Mirtle, the guy who was a Leafs beat reporter for 15 years for a Toronto newspaper? He talks about the Leafs?

This is literally 100% in the heads of Islanders fans. I don't think the Islanders would crack a top 10 of teams Leafs fans think about.

Sanity friend.

Aren’t the biggest “league water carriers” who say that it’s not a league worthy arena the people who own the Islanders? 

I think there are gaps between being super happy about it and not acting like a little kid who didn’t get the toy he wanted on Christmas.