LATEST | Toronto Journalist calls for Bruce Boudreau to take over from Sheldon Keefe

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Felip Gosselin
February 15, 2023 (3:49 PM)

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are a top seeding team and the league they have for a while now, though they had major issues with the Stanley Cup Playoff's first round.

A journalist from the Star now has called for the Leafs to replace the Leafs' current head coach Sheldon Keefe with the Canucks' former coach, Bruce Boudreau. Keefe has maintained quite the record (148-64-27) since he took over from Mike Babcock and it looks like the Leafs' are starting to feel impatient.

The Leafs have maintained a playoff spot for most of the campaign and currently hold the 3rd seed in the Atlantic Division. After 54 games they show a pretty decent 32-14-8 record.

To the author's beliefs, the Leafs need a more seasoned coach and Boudreau fits the profile perfectly. Especially since he's known to be quite the turn-around artist:

'' For a team that seems so stoic in the face of victory or defeat, a team that sometimes seems more driven by the nightly mood of its best players more than team excellence, bringing in the affable, quotable and often potty-mouthed Boudreau might inject some much-needed passion into a season that has so much of the time felt like an 82-game trudge to an inevitable first-round meeting with the Tampa Bay Lightning.''

He states that there is no evidence pointing out that the team improved statically speaking. He points out that the only thing Dubas hasn't done over the last 3 and a half years, is changing the core four (Nylander, Matthews, Marner, Tavares) or Keefe's coaching job. The team has failed to win a playoff round ever since but has constantly been a menace during the season.

''The beauty of the 68-year-old Boudreau is that he could be a short-term fix. If it works and the team gets by the Bolts, then you consider a longer contract. If the Leafs fall again in the first round, there's a decent chance Dubas gets pink-slipped and the new GM could then pick his own coach.''

Even though I believe he makes valid points, picking on a coach that shows a 148-64-27 record ever since he took the job is hard. Though at this point I think we may have found the harshest fan base in the league if they're truly asking for a coaching change when the team is having success.

SOURCE: The Star