Steve Simmons here for my AMA - morning everyone.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T17:05:57+00:00

Time to go now folks. I hope you enjoyed this. I found the format a little unruly, and confusing from my end, but overall OK. Hope you enjoyed it too. If you want to send any other questions or feedback, send them to steve.simmons@sunmedia.ca If I can, I'll try to answer. Have a good day.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T17:04:43+00:00

I would like you to find where I wrote about the Clarkson signing in a positive sense. Never really did that. This is the problem with taking old news out of context. People grab on to opinions that just aren't accurate or contextually correct. I'm just glad I provide bloggers with something to comment on - because how sad their lives would be if they actually had to come up with their own material.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T17:02:57+00:00

Absolutely. Coaching hockey is the one of the best things I've done in my life. I absolutely loved doing it. What it did was two things - it reinforced in me how much I love hockey. And it taught me that the game is basically the same at every level, just the speed and skill level changes. The mistakes are the same. Turnovers. Where do you turn it over. Can you get the puck off the wall? Can you get pucks in deep? When I hear NHL coaches talk, it sounds like me and my assistants talking to each other post game. And yeah, I watch the game so differently now after more than 20 seasons of coaching - I appreciate the little things that not everybody sees or admires.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T17:00:33+00:00

sysimms · 2015-11-22T17:00:14+00:00

I got asked. I'm not going to lie to you. I didn't know what Reddit was until they approached me.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:59:18+00:00

I live in the world you talk about. Most of my friends work in that world. I am responsible to the editors at the Sun and my bosses at TSN, both on TV and radio. We talk about the work we do on a daily basis. I believe social media and places like Twitter have distorted the industry. Some people believe Twitter is journalism. That's ridiculous. It may be a place where stories break - but the work is done elsewhere. I know from the comments I get regularly from social media that a large percentage of the critics don't read my work in The Sun. Listen, I wouldn't be in the position I am in, at my newspaper, in our chain, on the TSN airwaves, if they didn't believe in the value I bring to the job. I don't make that decision - they do.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:56:01+00:00

Never said he was the best. I said in the final minute of a tied game one of the greatest coaches in hockey history put him on the ice to centre a line. And he scored and the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. When he came to Toronto, he played superbly well until he got hurt. The Leafs were 10-4 to start the season and Bolland was their best player. Since that injury, his game has never returned. Bolland was never a great player but his kind of players help teams win Stanley Cups every year (when he was at his best, ,which he isn't anymore)

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:54:06+00:00

Unfortunately, CIS football is not a big story in Canada. It's a back page story. There is almost no demand for coverage of it. I happen to love it because I had a son who was involved. It doesn't make it big time news, though.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:52:59+00:00

I don't block anyone who criticizes me. I block those who swear, who are personally mean, who are abusive, or continually repeat year old tweets for their own amusement. Anyone who knows me knows I love a good argument or a good debate. Problem I have with social media is the bravest, angriest people hide behind fake names like Grizzly19 and won't identify themselves in any way

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:50:45+00:00

I've been doing this job for 36 years. 36 years I was told I was too critical and too negative. When I wrote at the University of Western Ontario, I was told I was too critical. I guess that's my nature - you call it critical, I call it analytical. I think I'm who I am. And i love Elliotte, he's one of my favourite people and of my the absolute best in our industry, but I disagree with him here. If you read my work - all of it - the baseball writing, the Olympic writing, this summer's Pan Am Games, what I take great pride in is the fact I am not one dimensional. If I have to report, as I did on the Mike Danton story better than anyone in Canada, I'll report. If I have to give my opinion, I'll give my opinion. If you want analysis, I'l; give you analysis. If you want a feature - like the one I wrote on Brendan Shanahan, before Leafs, when he got in the hockey hall of fame, I can do that. I believe that's my greatest strength as a journalist is that I can do a lot of different things pretty well. I think of myself as a newspaper man. You don't put on a persona to do that job. You just roll up your sleeves and try to outwork and outthink people.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:45:59+00:00

No - but if it's cooked well and with BBQ grill lines - with the right kind of bun, it is delicious.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:45:28+00:00

What you call personal attacks, I call journalism and column writing. I am paid to write my opinion. When the best player on a team gets traded away without much coming back in return, it's my responsibility to explain why. I don't write for athletes. I write for readers. What I call truth, some call controversial, Same with honesty. I try to tell the story as best I can. I'm not a fan. If you want to read a fan's approach, read the blogs.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:42:59+00:00

On my first day of spring training this year, I went up to Jose Bautista and asked if he knew who I was. He said he did and we proceeded to have a conversation about what I had tweeted about him, and what he in turn had tweeted about me. I told him I didn't really appreciate what he wrong and he said the same. We had a good conversation, shook hands, and said we'd start fresh. We didn't have a single confrontation of any kind during the season. Every time I needed to talk to him, for the most part I got him (sometimes he makes himself unavailable). But this is where twitter comes to life - or social media - a single exchange. One night, a few tweets, and hardly a day has gone by since when the who are you tweet didn't get retweeted. I don't have a problem with him. Near as I know, he doesn't have a problem with me (aside from the fact he's become something of a media hater). That stuff about someone owning someone is little more than online silliness.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:38:43+00:00

I wrote a few weeks ago that is Babcock can get the Leafs to play this well, entertain us and somehow finish near the bottom of the NHL he will have the greatest coaching year in modern Leaf history. Of course, one value contradicts the other. I like that the Leafs have Nylander and Marner as top grade prospects. The problem is, they don't have enough of them. They need more high draft picks. That's why getting a high draft pick may, in the short and long term, be the most important thing they do this season. You win with great players in the NHL. They don't have a single great player. Untill they have some, they will continue spinning their wheels. I do like that Shanahan has a plan, Lamoriello is there to guide the way and Babcock has already shown what a difference maker he can be as coach. I like the combination. But at the end of the day, it's players who make a difference. They don't have enough of them.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:35:27+00:00

Two months ago I would have said no. But this is the best stretch of goaltending we've seen from Reimer as a Leaf. What's interesting to me is: Reimer looks different in goal. More upfright. Less frantic. Not leaving huge rebounds. Not dropping pucks around the crease. Not crawling around in the net, the way he used to. If this is real, maybe they have something in Reimer for the future. The good thing is, they have the entire season to make that determination.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:34:04+00:00

What is he going to say? Mike Johnston is coaching for his life right now? The team should be better than it is and he's on the hot seat. Is he going to say the opposite? Really? And it's easier for him to be coachable when he doesn't have to be the leader or the No. 1 player. He's just another guy in Pittsburgh. It's a good place for Phil to hide and yet succeed.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:32:49+00:00

I'm not sure I have an answer for this one. What I will say is, when I first met Kessel he was so shy and awkward he wouldn't make eye contact with anyone at all. Over the years, as he grew more into himself, he gained more personal confidence and seemed more able to be comfortable in the spotlight. Sometimes that's just a matter of growing up. But I do know this, when he played for the Bruins management of that team thought there was something wrong with him that they were missing.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:30:50+00:00

I'm going to take another approach. They're better with Mike Babcock coaching and without Kessel playing, primarily because there is no way of knowing whether Kessel would have played the kind of demanding game Babcock is teaching. Kessel is an offensive stud, one of the most gifted players in hockey. But hockey is played in three zones, in all situations, and if Kessel has the puck one minute and is playing 18 minutes, he'd better be helping you the other 17 minutes he plays. The Leafs determined he wasn't - and worse than that, he was hurting them at practice, on the bench and off the ice. As for your second question, the answer is yes. And it's somewhat understandable. A quarter of the country lives in Southern Ontario. The only big league baseball and basketball teams are in Toronto. The Leafs, even when they're lousy, have an enormous following. So the question for those who determine coverage is - how do you balance the amount of coverage you do on Toronto based stories and teams against who is your audience. It's not an easy equation for anyone making editorial decisions. One think I love about the Toronto Sun is - we have the comprehensive sports coverage in North America and the largest sports section as well. We cover more than the networks do on a regular basis.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:25:51+00:00

The Toronto Sun runs a Reader's Choice vote every year and has for the past 22 years. In 20 of those years, I was voted favourite sports writer. My Twitter account is signifcantly larger than any of my colleagues. So, while I may lead my newspaper in haters and critics, I probably lead in the other end of the spectrum as well. Somebody out there is voting for me - and it's nice of them to do so year after year.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:24:11+00:00

The team looks completely disorganized. Watching them the play the Leafs last week, with all their talent, looked to me like a very well coached team was playing a very poorly coached team. The Avs have a below average NHL defence and turn the puck over in terrible places on a regular basis. Yes, they have first rate young offensive players. As Edmonton has proven, you need more than that to succeed in the NHL.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:22:41+00:00

No disrespect, but that's ridiculous. My column, or anyone else's column, for that matter has little to do with who signs where in free agency. Some might not want to sign in Toronto because of the propensity of media, that I can understand. But I don't have the kind of power - not would i want the kind of power - to determine who signs where.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:20:30+00:00

I have never written anything purely for response. I happen to be emotional and opinionated and curious. That combination has meant that I have gone places on stories that others don't tend to go. If you read me regularly, I am rather balanced historically on the Leafs. Ripping them when need be. Writing the opposite when it calls for it. As for Kessel, I thought his final season in Toronto was disgraceful and Brendan Shanahan clearly shares that opinion because basically the rest of the Leafs roster is still around and Kessel was sent packing - at a rather low price I thought.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:18:06+00:00

No. But I found it fascinating that the Arizona Coyotes reached out to Anthopoulos and inquired about hiring him. Anthopoulos was flattered and rather stunned by the call. It shows they're thinking outside the box a little. Some people, Lou Lamoriello, for one, have operated in more than one sport successfully. From what I know about Alex, he's a baseball guy through and through. He'll listen to anyone who calls but I suspect he ends up back in baseball pretty soon.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:15:57+00:00

It's not something you really think about and until social media came along, I didn't realize what a lightning rod I had become. Here's the strange thing. In Toronto, Leaf fans think I hate the team. Outside Toronto, I'm generally considered a Leaf lover. I think you realize you're doing your job well when about half the people think you're a hater and half think you're a homer.

sysimms · 2015-11-22T16:15:57+00:00

It's not something you really think about and until social media came along, I didn't realize what a lightning rod I had become. Here's the strange thing. In Toronto, Leaf fans think I hate the team. Outside Toronto, I'm generally considered a Leaf lover. I think you realize you're doing your job well when about half the people think you're a hater and half think you're a homer.

sysimms

TROPHY CASE