It is hockey’s sacred letter. And no other North American sport devotes as much attention and ceremony to handing out what amounts to a symbol.
The C now stitched on Auston Matthews’ chest stands for captain, sure. Given his long-established status as the Maple Leafs’ best player and driving force — and given the many testaments to Matthews’ character delivered at Wednesday’s handing over of the letter by its former possessor, John Tavares — in many ways it’s an honour long overdue.
“It’s not something he has worked on. It’s something he was born with,” Brendan Shanahan, the Leafs president, said this week. “People want to follow him and are drawn to him.”
That Matthews is a freakishly talented goal scorer has long been established; that he’s a natural-born leader less of a given. But a franchise can hope.
Given that the franchise is the Leafs, some might point out that hallowed C might as well stand for capitalism, forever a Toronto superpower. Astute observers will note we’re approaching the first season of the NHL’s new partnership with the apparel giant Fanatics, now the league’s official supplier of on-ice uniforms. Surely it can’t hurt to give fans a reason to covet that new No. 34 sweater in the team shop. At Keith Pelley’s first press conference as Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment CEO, he said: “We’re not here to sell jerseys.” Maybe Pelley’s not, but we didn’t get the press release about MLSE firing the people who do that.
No matter which way you look at the hullabaloo around Toronto’s captaincy, it’s hard to make a case that the C, now that it belongs to Matthews, actually represents change — at least not the kind of substantial, everything-is-on-the-table change this team’s brain trust publicly pondered in May and has so far failed to deliver.
Anyone paying attention knows why real, fundamental change is required. The Leafs’ perennial record of post-season failure is hardly some small-sample anomaly. Now 57 playoff games and nine playoff series into the Shanaplan era, the Leafs have registered precisely one series win. That this team, as constructed, is missing something essential seems a long way past debatable. It’s undeniable.
Legendary sports broadcaster Dave Hodge, formerly of TSN and Hockey Night in Canada
And as for the changes that have been made in the off-season — well, it’s possible they’ll help, but they’re the kinds of changes Leafs fans have seen before. The Leafs have beefed up their blueline with veterans Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, which is a positive. They’ve purchased a couple of lottery tickets by handing over the crease to goaltenders Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz. Nobody doubts they are intriguing talents, but Woll has never played more than 25 games in an NHL season and Stolarz has never played more than 28.
And even if changing the coach is the easiest move in pro sports — and it’s a pocket-lint transaction when you’ve got the bottomless reserve of cash that belongs to the Leafs — there’s a case to be made that the arrival of Craig Berube will bring a welcome makeover in tone. With his Stanley Cup ring and perma-frown countenance, Berube is being billed as the perfect coach to bring much-needed accountability to a player-run country club. Whether or not that approach will be sustainable, let alone momentarily effective, remains to be seen. But it’s worth a shot.
Beyond all that, changing the letter on Matthews’ uniform from A to C doesn’t seem likely to be the elusive missing link that transforms this team from perennial playoff failure to something more respectable. It’s not as though Matthews hasn’t been in the room and on the ice as season after season has gone kaput. Will he somehow now be more empowered to exert his will as a leader? Can a mere piece of embroidery alter a failing team’s chemistry, let alone its playoff winning percentage? Anything can happen, but it seems a stretch.
The changing letters at least distract from the changing numbers. Matthews will command the NHL’s highest salary-cap hit beginning this coming season. That along with a new contract for William Nylander explains why the Toronto Core Four that was earning roughly 48 per cent of the salary cap last season will be earning approximately 53 per cent of the cap this year — even as the NHL cap took a substantial jump from $83.5 million to $88 million. In other words, a team that’s only proven itself as a bankable playoff loser is only getting pricier.
Blame the players if you like, but Toronto’s best skaters didn’t demand their no-trade contracts at gunpoint. Toronto’s best skaters weren’t in charge of the team’s salary cap. And Toronto’s best skaters didn’t engineer Wednesday’s ceremonial passing of the C. That came from a management team that has every reason to create a distraction in lieu of real transformation.
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