Well the Leafs won a game last night and that game permits them to take another exam. If they pass that exam it allows them to take another. If they fail the exam, it is Summer School.
I was looking through some old notes I came across a line that really intrigued me. Pressure vs Urgency, what is the difference? Last night were the Leafs feeling the pressure or was it an urgent situation. Pressure is defined as, “the feeling of stressful urgency caused by the necessity of doing or achieving something, especially with limited time.” That made sense to me because the limited time was game five. Pressure makes you do something, often when you don’t want to. The urgency of the moment was win now or your seasons over. The definitions are very close, but the differences dictate your emotional state.
Situations leave clues, like how do you prevent a lack of success get to your players and erode the team culture. What are the indicators? Are things up to date within the organisation. Are the players paying attention to details of the game and their preparation. Accepting mediocrity instead of pushing for excellence .Finally, are they tuning out the drama, which distracts them from being focused. Heading into last night’s game the team definitely lacked success because of the off ice drama, relying on their core four, and poor without the puck play which results because of poor attention to detail. I am not a person who believes in coincidences but the Leafs play better and win more when one of the core four is out. Last night AM34 is out with the season on the line and they win. Earlier in the season, Reilly out for five games they win eight in a row. Marner out for 12 games they win nine of twelve. That has to tell you something.
This team has to be trained to be Coached. When a core four is out, they respond to the Coaching and play well, but when that player returns they become mediocre. That is their DNA this year and has been for several years. Mediocrity has a million fans and that is why people support the Leafs, it is the same crap over and over. They create their own reality of mediocrity.
Tomorrow night will be interesting. Home game, home crowd, huge opportunity to take to the series to game seven. If they win do they wake up Boston’s demons from last year when they had a three games to one series lead over Florida and eventually lost the series.
The Leafs have skill and talent and people think they should succeed, but it does not mean they will. Athletes, Coaches, Media types and fans get married to these and think they will have success. It is a trap!
Let’s see what happens tomorrow night and see if can they avoid another trap.
Until next time.
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Opinions are my own
Trust builds confidence.
Between The Ears 