« Nous avons eu beaucoup de joueurs clés absents des matchs en début de saison. Et puis, quand vous parcourez ces matchs, vous ne gagnez pas autant, puis vous récupérez ces joueurs et vous vous dites : ‘OK, nous devrions être bons.’ Mais parfois, l’équipe ne parvient pas à atteindre le résultat souhaité », a-t-il déclaré. « Ensuite, vous commencez à essayer de changer un peu les choses. Je pense que c’est là que vous commencez à rencontrer des problèmes, au lieu de faire confiance au système. »
À quoi ressemblaient ces problèmes ?
« Essayer de changer l’approche du jeu. Qu’il s’agisse de systèmes, de combinaisons de lignes, de gars essayant de faire des choses différentes sur la glace parce que nous ne réussissons pas individuellement, vous commencez à vous écarter du plan de match. Vous le voyez dans les matchs lorsque vous perdez ou dans tout match où vous avez remporté quelques victoires consécutives, vous êtes déconnecté », a déclaré McMann.
« Chaque équipe de cette ligue est si exceptionnellement bonne que lorsque vous ne travaillez pas tout le temps comme une unité cohérente et que vous êtes déconnecté, les choses peuvent commencer à mal tourner assez rapidement », a-t-il poursuivi. « Je pense que les gars réfléchissaient peut-être un peu trop aux choses, se demandant ‘OK, comment pouvons-nous récupérer ça ?’ plutôt que de faire confiance au processus du plan de jeu en place en début d’année. Restons fidèles aux systèmes et aux plans sur lesquels nous travaillons depuis assez longtemps. Nous avons travaillé avec ces lignes et combinaisons que nous avions, pour traverser ces situations.
….
« Est-ce que Toronto est un endroit difficile à jouer ?
Il hésita quelques longues secondes, réfléchissant à la question.
Ouais, ça peut être. Quand les choses ne vont pas bien, c’est d’autant plus difficile de jouer là-bas, je pense », a déclaré McMann. « Nous sommes tous humains et je pense que tous les joueurs de la LNH sont parfois mis sur un piédestal. Tout le monde se laisse influencer dans une certaine mesure, certains plus que d’autres.
« Quand les choses ne vont pas bien, beaucoup d’entre nous sont déjà si critiques envers nous-mêmes que lorsque vous commencez à l’entendre de la part de choses comme les médias, les gens de la ville, les gens avec lesquels vous n’êtes pas aussi connecté, vous essayez souvent de l’ignorer. Mais c’est difficile parce que vous êtes humain, et finalement cela vous arrive et cela commence à vous peser. Et vous comprenez également l’ampleur des Leafs dans cette ville et l’importance du hockey là-bas. Donc je pense que beaucoup de gars qui étaient de très grands compétiteurs portent cela. leurs épaules et portent beaucoup le poids de la ville sur leurs épaules en raison de l’importance du sport là-bas.
L’a-t-il fait ? McMann n’a pas marqué de but lors de ses 13 matchs éliminatoires la saison dernière.
« J’ai l’impression d’avoir essayé de ne pas le faire autant que possible. Mais inévitablement, je l’ai fait, surtout en séries éliminatoires. Je ressentais cela beaucoup. Lors de nos séries éliminatoires l’année dernière, j’ai vraiment senti encore plus que la ville me regardait », a-t-il déclaré. « Tant de gens participent à ces séries éliminatoires et veulent que nous réussissions et c’est génial et ça fait du bien d’être là. C’est pourquoi c’est un endroit si cool pour jouer et c’est pourquoi j’aime jouer dans cette ville, c’est parce que tout comptait. Les gens prêtaient attention à chaque petite chose. Mais il y a aussi l’autre côté où vous mettez beaucoup de pression sur vous-même pour essayer d’apporter le succès à cette ville. «
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cykl8
22 Comments
Thought this was an interesting article with some perspective from a player who’s stepped out of it now. On the point of the season going south – seems like the constant changes early in season led to confidence issues and lack of clarity and cohesion. The way he talks about guys deviating from the plan, overthinking, and trying to force solutions individually makes it sound like once results started slipping, they stopped fully trusting either the structure or their own ability to succeed within it.
Also thought his comments about playing in Toronto were interesting and fair. What he seems to be getting at is that the sheer amount of attention around the Leafs means players are constantly surrounded by discussion about how they’re performing, and because most of them are already hard on themselves, that naturally turns into pressure they internalize. That felt like a more nuanced perspective than the usual “Toronto media is unbearable” argument that gets thrown around. When a team matters this much, there’s no real escaping the noise. And from a player perspective they also appreciate that it means people care.
Sad to see him go because he really wanted to stay and there was a part in the article that described the goodbyes and anxiety when you know you’re about to be traded. Wishing him all the best in Seattle.
The weight of expectation is heavy and the team has been wearing it for 9 seasons.
Now that we expect them to suck, there’s not going to be much pressure for the rest of the season. We’ll see if they like this better, when nobody gives a fuck.
Maybe they’ll start to play better with the pressure off. Chances are they’ll keep losing though, because the reality is that they’re just not very good.
The scumbags at TSN are going to have a field day with this 🙄
In terms of pressure, imagine playing for the New York Yankees? Or Real Madrid?
He could be just being diplomatic because not many players will come out and say their coach’s system is shit, but I feel like hockey players in general are the most old school out of the major sports. To use a baseball analogy we have a coach asking players to hit more ground balls and when the results aren’t good the players think they must not be grinding hard enough.
Ever since I was reminded that the nhl has a lower attendance rate than soccer and football and we never hear shit about those athletes struggling to deal with the pressure of fans and media, i have grown to think it’s hilarious when anyone talks about how hard it is to have fans care lol
I can understand why guys try to deviate from the system, cause it sucks ass
Hardly pour ice cold water over the narrative that Toronto is a difficult place to play, is he… ?
A lot of what he said comes down to injuries, which I agree was a huge part of what’s happened to us and not working as a cohesive unit. Which boils down to a coaching problem. Berube hasn’t figured it out.
One other thing which stuck out to me was that he mentioned constantly changing the line combinations up which disrupted chemistry and players being on the same page. I saw and thought that as well was a big issue. Felt validating hearing that from a player too. Drives me even more insane that we stuck with Berube even after the advanced stats last year were telling.
People are going to pay a lot more attention to « it’s that much harder to play there » than to “So many people are riding on these playoffs and wanting us to do well and that’s great and it feels so good to be there. That’s why it’s such a cool place to play and that’s why I love playing in that city, is because everything mattered »
I think the Marner exit affected everything more than what McMann is sharing.
Marner leaves, announces on his way out on his revenge tour that Toronto is not a good place to play. Shaking up the leadership group and core when you lose a guy of that magnitude for nothing. Then now all the extra pressure to get off to a good start to show they are fine without him. They were disastrous to start the year, and this was before the injuries. Things started to slide and then I think that’s when Bobby’s comments come into play.
Somebody in Leafs PR needs to step in and tell everybody on this team and organization to stop fucking talking about the pressures of the media and the fans, full stop.
It helps absolutely nothing and nobody the more these guys continue to cry about how hard the media and the fans make it.
Just give a generic « we love the fans and we love how passionate the city is. »
The pressure narrative is so fucking exhausting. Year 58 without a cup. On our second tour in the last 20 years of giving our division rivals foundational building blocks to their playoff teams. Highest ticket prices by a country mile, yet we still fill the building. One of the worst drafting teams in the league.
But yeah no, the fans have created the pressure. Not all the losing. I guess we’re supposed to stfu, buy our $400 tickets, $30 beer and scream our asses off for the 1 goal, 18 shot performances.
The system is not the one for this team so hard to follow that
I will miss mcmann on the Leafs.
Reading between the lines, the way Bobby used words like ‘system’ and ‘line combo’ to describe the problem makes he thinks he’s talking about Berube and how he’s always shuffling the lines around when we’re losing.
I’ll always be a mcmannimal
This would explain Rielly. He has put so much into his team that his odometer has rolled over to complete zero. He makes Jake Gardner look like Scott Niedermayer.
Saying it’s harder to play in Toronto says a lot more about the player than the environment and the organization. To me it says « I’m not him » or « I’m not built that way ». Plenty of players have thrived there and loved every minute of it. Often on some really bad teams. None of those players ever said « Toronto is a difficult place to play » when they left and joined other teams. I like McMann, he’s just not ‘him’. Marner is not ‘him’. The leafs should be looking for more ‘hims’ than trying to change a narrative that is more an admission of a shortcoming of a player than an organizational problem.
What Bobby is saying here isn’t controversial and it shouldn’t surprise anyone. Of course Toronto is a tough place to play. That outside noise everyone talks about helps just as much if not more than it hurts. Feeling pressure is human, but feeling the extra boost from the passion of millions of ravenous fans is also human. That’s how I interpret what Bobby is saying, and that’s the opinion of someone who has lived it so it has validity.
We’ve all held hands and reflected on how toxic some fans and media can be, what drives me nuts is that these conversations go in circles with no real solution. More people = more problems = bigger magnifying glass. People can yell from the rooftops at how we should stop being so reactive or how the media should be better at their jobs but it won’t go anywhere because there’s too many of us.
If you want to categorize toxic fans and media as part of the problem, that’s fine and probably true. That reality is never going to change in Toronto. I’m not saying anyone in the comments is, but implying that it’s the main cause of our trouble is ridiculous. The changes need to be made on the ice and in the FO full stop.
Sounds to me like the leafs need a good therapist working with the team lol.
Insightful comments from Bobby.