2018-19 Toronto Maple Leafs - General Discussion

[Guilt Trip]

Let's blame everyone and everything other then the player himself. Stop with the excuses. Sparks has been horrible for the Leafs. From game 1 it hasn't been a good ride. As for Babs saying let's not read too much into this. Sparks is done as a Leaf for this year barring injury. Leafs only have 4 call ups and they used the last one here. Another factor is Hutch now has to pass through waivers to go back down so this also hurts the Marlies chances going forward. The Leafs don't make this move for a 10 day fix. Hutch is here to stay for the rest of the year. Sparks will need to get his crap together for next season. If he isn't lights out at training camp, he'll be sent down.

 

[Zee]

https://twitter.com/catmsilverman/status/1114216810163785728

Expand to the full thread, but this is a salient point.
(San Jose, by the way)

I don't recall the crowd jeering or mocking Sparks though?  There's always talking points in the press but that goes for any player in any city.

 

[herman]

https://twitter.com/catmsilverman/status/1114216810163785728

Expand to the full thread, but this is a salient point.
(San Jose, by the way)

I don't recall the crowd jeering or mocking Sparks though?  There's always talking points in the press but that goes for any player in any city.

You haven't seen his twitter mentions, eh?

 

[Guilt Trip]

https://twitter.com/catmsilverman/status/1114216810163785728

Expand to the full thread, but this is a salient point.
(San Jose, by the way)

I don't recall the crowd jeering or mocking Sparks though?  There's always talking points in the press but that goes for any player in any city.

Don't know who she is so I really don't care what she says. I don't recall the fans jeering him either. Here's another beauty quote from her that kills here credibility for me even more.
"But he's been handled atrociously and it's been ugly to watch." Seriously? Sparks needs to get it together or he's done, simple as that.

 

[herman]

Catherine Silverman is an NHL goaltending coach/consultant.

People seem to hold Sparks to a very high and rather angry standard that is more narrative driven than anything.

 

[Zee]

https://twitter.com/catmsilverman/status/1114216810163785728

Expand to the full thread, but this is a salient point.
(San Jose, by the way)

I don't recall the crowd jeering or mocking Sparks though?  There's always talking points in the press but that goes for any player in any city.

You haven't seen his twitter mentions, eh?

Twitter he can control, you can set your account to only accept tweets from people you follow so if you don't like something, change it.  There hasn't been any crowd booing of Sparks this year is what I was talking about.

 

[herman]

Twitter he can control, you can set your account to only accept tweets from people you follow so if you don't like something, change it.  There hasn't been any crowd booing of Sparks this year is what I was talking about.

Bronx cheers the last handful of games, which are all he gets to play, with next to zero goal-support. Yeah, he didn't play as well as he is capable of, but no one did in those games.

Crowd booing is also meaningless relative to what social media means to this generation of players.

 

[Zee]

Twitter he can control, you can set your account to only accept tweets from people you follow so if you don't like something, change it.  There hasn't been any crowd booing of Sparks this year is what I was talking about.

Bronx cheers the last handful of games, which are all he gets to play, with next to zero goal-support. Yeah, he didn't play as well as he is capable of, but no one did in those games.

Crowd booing is also meaningless relative to what social media means to this generation of players.

I don't remember any "bronx cheers" his last few games, if it happened it was from small minority, not like the crap that Gardiner got earlier in the season.    You're making it seem like Sparks is being run out of town by the fanbase and that's not the case at all.  Sparks still has his defenders out there.

These guys are professional athletes, they get paid well to perform and there's pressure involved with that.  Some people can succeed and some can't that's life.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Yeah I really never got the sense that fans at the games were hostile toward Sparks in any way. Although granted he's had a total of 2 home starts in 2019 so it's not like there's been many opportunities for that.

 

[herman]

Um Zee have you read any of the Sparks game threads here? Now multiply the vitriol by 57 for reddit, 83 for Twitter, and 127 for Facebook. Those are made up equivalence multipliers.

Name all the Sparks defenders you can. I can?t even get past one hand.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Um Zee have you read any of the Sparks game threads here? Now multiply the vitriol by 57 for reddit, 83 for Twitter, and 127 for Facebook. Those are made up equivalence multipliers.

Name all the Sparks defenders you can. I can?t even get past one hand.

You can say that about like half the Leafs. And yes, it sucks. Social media can be incredibly toxic, I don't think anyone is denying that. But the fans expected more from Sparks this season. The team expected more from Sparks this season. And I'd bet Sparks expected more from Sparks this season. The vitriol only started when his performance wasn't meeting those expectations, and yes got worse as that continued. But if there's an argument that it's what caused Sparks to not perform well then I'm either not buying it or it's something that Sparks needs to work on getting past because humanity isn't going to fix itself by next season.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I will also say that there's probably some recency bias going on with Sparks, especially since his last two games are viewed as games where his play particularly cost the team wins. But he had a decent start to the season going 6-1-1 with a .910 save percentage. Since then his record is 2-8 with a .895 save percentage. So I'm a little bit surprised at the extreme measure the Leafs are using here by removing him from the back-up position temporarily because it's not like he's been the worst goalie on the planet or anything this season.

edit: Well looking more closely at the first half of his season he did let in 5 or 6 goals in 3 of his 8 starts, so I think those stats are probably a little flattering.

 

[cabber24]

This is a hockey move. He's been bad. There's nothing else to say.

 

[cabber24]

https://twitter.com/markhmasters/status/1114202828124323845

Guess who...

A high Nylander shot made his Andersen's arm go num according to the FAN590. Apparently, regained feeling and finished practice.

 

[Bender]

Um Zee have you read any of the Sparks game threads here? Now multiply the vitriol by 57 for reddit, 83 for Twitter, and 127 for Facebook. Those are made up equivalence multipliers.

Name all the Sparks defenders you can. I can?t even get past one hand.

You can say that about like half the Leafs. And yes, it sucks. Social media can be incredibly toxic, I don't think anyone is denying that. But the fans expected more from Sparks this season. The team expected more from Sparks this season. And I'd bet Sparks expected more from Sparks this season. The vitriol only started when his performance wasn't meeting those expectations, and yes got worse as that continued. But if there's an argument that it's what caused Sparks to not perform well then I'm either not buying it or it's something that Sparks needs to work on getting past because humanity isn't going to fix itself by next season.

Once he talked to the media about how the team needed to be better I think people turned on him and I think rightfully so. You're not endearing yourself to the fanbase as a mediocre backup who goes on media to call out the team's shortcomings. You're just not.

 

[Zee]

Um Zee have you read any of the Sparks game threads here? Now multiply the vitriol by 57 for reddit, 83 for Twitter, and 127 for Facebook. Those are made up equivalence multipliers.

Name all the Sparks defenders you can. I can?t even get past one hand.

You can say that about like half the Leafs. And yes, it sucks. Social media can be incredibly toxic, I don't think anyone is denying that. But the fans expected more from Sparks this season. The team expected more from Sparks this season. And I'd bet Sparks expected more from Sparks this season. The vitriol only started when his performance wasn't meeting those expectations, and yes got worse as that continued. But if there's an argument that it's what caused Sparks to not perform well then I'm either not buying it or it's something that Sparks needs to work on getting past because humanity isn't going to fix itself by next season.

Once he talked to the media about how the team needed to be better I think people turned on him and I think rightfully so. You're not endearing yourself to the fanbase as a mediocre backup who goes on media to call out the team's shortcomings. You're just not.

Yeah I don't get the narrative that fans were extra hard on Sparks, Internet crap notwithstanding, but you can find that stuff for *any* players.  He did start to take heat in the media after those comments about showing more emotion when his own play wasn't up to snuff, but again that goes for anyone on the team.  Even Matthews has taken criticism from the media when he's gone through dry spells.  Hell look what Nylander went through in the fall and after he came back.

 

[Frank E]

I don't mean to amplify the drama, but sharing this here is a bit more like filing paperwork if we're being honest. I think (and hope) Sparks is simply being given some time off to get away from the Toronto grind (remember what Gardiner said after last season?) to rest and reset and prepare. Sparks has said plenty of times that he wears his heart on his sleeve and this fanbase is all about picking away at raw nerves.

I also wonder if maybe there's an injury or something more personal going on.

It's got to be something like those 2 things, or maybe even a fallout with a bunch of his teammates...this is very unusual to be switching up the team like this a week before the playoffs. 

 

[Guilt Trip]

I don't mean to amplify the drama, but sharing this here is a bit more like filing paperwork if we're being honest. I think (and hope) Sparks is simply being given some time off to get away from the Toronto grind (remember what Gardiner said after last season?) to rest and reset and prepare. Sparks has said plenty of times that he wears his heart on his sleeve and this fanbase is all about picking away at raw nerves.

I also wonder if maybe there's an injury or something more personal going on.

It's got to be something like those 2 things, or maybe even a fallout with a bunch of his teammates...this is very unusual to be switching up the team like this a week before the playoffs. 

I think this may be an issue. Maybe some took issue with him yapping about them in the media. For the Leafs to use their last call up, make the Marlies worse, move all of his equipment away from the team at this point of the season screams internal issues. It's more then he's just been bad because he doesn't have to be away from the team to work on things.

 

[hockeyfan1]

I?ve been saying over and over that what Sparks needs to do is work on his goaltending technique to better perfect his game.  Apparently the Leafs brass wants him to do that now rather than in the off-season.

The way Sparks performed in these last games in which he played left many wondering if the Leafs have a weak backup.  It leaves the team not just Sparks with a lack of confidence in more ways than one.

Whatever drama has unfolded, it?ll sort itself out.  Management had to do something with the playoffs looming.  A backup that?s having issues on the ice (and hopefully not off it) is no way to instill confidence in the playoffs when so much is at stake.  Still think Sparks, with enough tutoring and mentoring, can be a reliable if silightly inconsistent backup.  Just not for now.

[tweet]1114211378544427008[/tweet]

 

[lc9]

https://twitter.com/catmsilverman/status/1114216810163785728

Expand to the full thread, but this is a salient point.
(San Jose, by the way)

Seems like the author just doesn?t like the give and take of sports.  Cheering and jeering go hand in hand.  Sports needs both to be entertainment.  Sparks had plenty of rope.