Monday Mailbag: Jeffy Veyman’s Day Off

I don’t know why I bother with lead-in descriptions for these mailbags anymore, but I’m really happy that I’m not doing this on my lunch break this week. 

To submit your Leafs & Marlies questions, leave a comment on this post. Alternatively, send a tweet to us (@tlndc) or myself (@Jeffler).

They’re the longest established sports team in the city other than the Argos – as far as the ones in top-flight leagues, they’re at least sixty years older. They play the most popular sport in the country. These things combined give a huge target audience, and it’s easier to dip into the target audience than try to create a new one.

Not to mention that they’re owned by two media megacorps. That probably helps things.

Probably capable of being a #3 on most NHL teams. I don’t know if he’ll be a top pairing guy, just because he doesn’t put up the offensive numbers, but what we’ve seen of him so far shows him to be at least somewhat in control of the flow of play, which is impressive for someone on his age playing on a team that isn’t often in control. He shows a lot of patience and confidence on the ice and he’ll be rewarded for that in the long term.

I don’t see it. Even if they’re high on him still, I could only see it happening as a replacement to Carlyle. The assistants are too new to scrap, particularly when the team is doing marginally better than last year. The Marlies coaching staff is largely unchanged – heck, there’s barely any differences from when he was there. I doubt they want to point fingers at Gord Dineen for what’s going on – at least not for a while yet.

I’m starting to get weary of all the goaltender arguments that torment this fanbase. People are starting to get really volatile, and it’s feeling more personal than in the best interest of the team. People would rather be right about “their guy” than see pucks be stopped.

I know this doesn’t answer your question but when terms like “respect he deserves” get thrown around it reminds me of that. I think Carlyle should be giving James Reimer a bit more opportunity before writing him off for the season, but ultimately, Jonathan Bernier is playing above the league average right now so the need isn’t drastically pressing.

I’d say a little bit of weariness towards Mahovlich’s mental strength (he was reported to be going through depression and anxiety towards the end of his time in Toronto), an inkling that a bolstering of depth could keep the Leafs from tapering off after expansion (didn’t happen), and maybe a bit of foresight that Leafs fans would want to brag about Paul Henderson for the next several decades.

Either way, it did the Leafs no good, but man, Paul Henderson did that thing for Team Canada.