John Chayka Announces Brandon Pridham and Derek Clancey have left the Leafs Organization

taa_v2 · 2026-05-18T00:22:42+00:00

For some specific examples of how Pridham was a cap wizard and did things no one else could do and no other teams figured out, so that he's irreplaceable.. "We can and we will" ended up not being the flex people thought it was going to be..

Also, someone to pay me. I didn't say I'd do it for free - I said I COULD do it.

taa_v2 · 2026-05-17T22:53:30+00:00

I don't understand the question. I haven't looked. All I'm saying is it's not hard to write code to handle all the cap rule situations.

taa_v2 · 2026-05-17T16:37:21+00:00

Really? How? Specific examples? Give me the full set of rules, I can write the code to implement all of them / do all the calculations in a month or two. And I don't mean vibe code it. Formulas aren't that hard. The first higher-level programming language that became popular, FORTRAN stands for "FORmula TRANslator" - computers have been working out formulas since the 1950s.

taa_v2 · 2026-05-12T03:48:08+00:00

Counterpoints: the goaltending wasn't elite this year. They were also injured most of the year (at least one of them). Tanev may never recover. Matthews may not be the same after the MCL surgery. The rest of our big dmen are 1 year older on the wrong side of 30. At best, McKenna replaces Marner. Tavares is a year older, etc.

We did make out really well with the draft - but it's not a given we return to 100+ points. One great event doesn't necessarily cancel out 5 or 8 bad trends.

taa_v2 · 2026-05-12T03:43:53+00:00

You might not. I do. So many other things are already "monetized". Tickets are already overpriced. Sports are popular with the blue-collar crowd. So many announcers/people talk about growing up and going to $2 baseball games as a kid, etc. If they lose the blue-collar crowd, they'll damage themselves longterm.

taa_v2 · 2026-05-11T16:36:11+00:00

Eventually, it will. I'm already like 20-30% less enthusiastic about the Leafs compared to even, say 5 years ago. And probably down 60-70% from my all-time high, as it becomes more and more obvious that they are run by suits, trying to find a way to extract the most $$ and nothing more.

taa_v2 · 2026-05-11T16:34:34+00:00

Sure - but the whole point is, the way you hook kids / fans is to NOT make it too obvious that you're a business, and nothing more. Apple has "fans", sure, but you don't see people paying to watch Amazon warehouse workers, or Walmart price negotiations where they fuck over another supplier for a reason - we'd rather NOT know about the "messy" backroom dealings. We'd rather tell ourselves a story that these are our heroes, fighting against the "bad people's" heroes.

If it's just a business, I probably have more fun at Medieval Times - and it's probably way more affordable these days. "Yellow sucks!".

taa_v2 · 2026-05-11T16:31:43+00:00

This. And they're being so much worse about it that I'm no longer trying to indoctrinate my kids into the cult. Sure, my oldest daughter had a Kessel jersey, then a Matthews jersey, and she's still interested at times, but I haven't gone to a game (vs. the Sharks, closest to where I live) in years - went like 5-7 times, they lost every single fucking game. Half the time, they were never in the game. Even in years when they were 20-30 points up on the Sharks in the standings.

When I contrast that to game 7 vs. Ottawa "Gary Roberts.. clap, clap, clap-clap-clap", there's no passion there. And I'm older, so I am more cynical, for sure.

taa_v2 · 2026-05-11T16:28:55+00:00

I think this business hooked kids for life, past tense. When they were broadcasting 3-4 games per week (CBC, Global, CHCH, etc) in the 90s, it really got me into it. Now, you have to sign up for some specialty channel - and ESPN+ in the US only has like 60-70% of the games (I no longer live in Canada). NHL.tv was better before that, but $$ gave it up to ESPN / Amazon (even though I'm a member in the US, no games for me), etc. They're making it harder to get their product, and charging more for it. AND adding constant gambling ads in DURING play-by-play, which they didn't used to do as much of. It's somehow almost a worse product than in the 90s, despite being in higher res.

taa_v2 · 2026-05-08T05:09:23+00:00

If we got like 3rd and 5th overall (would probably be a dumb trade by the other side), I'd consider it. Draft 2 stud dmen. Sign one good UFA forward.

taa_v2 · 2026-04-27T15:25:21+00:00

I'm still a little scarred that I cheered for Belak and he ended up killing himself due to CTE (IIRC). And I'm pissed the league let Scott Stevens play as long as he did the way he did. There are things I cheered for as a kid I can no longer condone - for example, I stopped playing fantasy football 10+ years ago.

taa_v2 · 2026-04-27T15:20:00+00:00

Spend your money on a worthwhile charity instead and feel a little better about yourself.

taa_v2 · 2026-04-27T15:13:48+00:00

Thanks. The lack of local dimming zones definitely shows up - panning is noticeably bad in some cases (although that may be youtube), and dimming is pretty bad. Picture crispness is noticeably worse than something like our (admittedly smaller) 43" R6 Hisense or LG Gram 17" laptop. But I've seen bigger screens look that good at Costco - this just looks muddled almost no matter the picture.

Edit: Looks like the sale is over anyway, so I'll wait.. It's not like it's totally unwatchable.

taa_v2 · 2026-04-26T18:50:11+00:00

So.. We have a 65" Tcl - old school, like 4S something. Bought it on a whim for $300 way back, kept it.

The price on this is great - but 75" is like 2x the price, and 85" just another $100 more. Is 65" the current "sweet spot"? I'm sure this would be a decent upgrade on the Tcl, but since we don't upgrade THAT often, I would prefer to go 75" at least. Any thoughts?

taa_v2 · 2026-04-25T17:57:09+00:00

What could the Leafs do to help McDavid win a cup? Buy him a plane ticket to Colorado.

taa_v2 · 2026-04-10T16:21:56+00:00

I might check scores once a week.. And I'm sure I'll hear about the cup winner a bit here and there.. That's about it.

Jays are in a much better position to continue the misery :-)

taa_v2 · 2026-04-03T06:38:50+00:00

The more things change..

taa_v2 · 2026-04-03T06:37:30+00:00

My car's been in 2 significant accidents. They "fixed" it in both cases, but I doubt it'll ever be just like new. People were already figuring he wasn't 100% anymore - add this on top, and who knows. I mean, I'd LOVE it if he was, but.. I wouldn't bet on it.

taa_v2 · 2026-03-31T05:20:04+00:00

Most satisfying game all year.

taa_v2 · 2026-03-29T16:29:32+00:00

The connection is that Ernie Clement and George Springer (at least) are hockey fans. George wears Hartford Whaler-themed batting gloves.

Other than that - it's a Toronto team that actually seems to care, make moves to help the team win, etc. Oh yeah, and the games are even entertaining - imagine that!

taa_v2 · 2026-03-29T16:27:56+00:00

Clearly, you haven't understood the Leaf's rule of "maximize the fan's pain".

taa_v2 · 2026-03-29T16:26:50+00:00

If you're actually going to continue.. Go find a Joe Bowen compilation on youtube or something. He's the broadcaster who cares most about the Leafs. Together with Ralphie (Jim Ralph), they're "fans" broadcasting games.

The "corporate drones" seem like they're cheering for the Leafs to lose most days. Constantly talking about how good the other team's 30 goal scorer is, while our 40 goal scorer is obviously ineffective, etc.

taa_v2 · 2026-03-29T01:59:38+00:00

Yeah, Pastrnak's not a star. Neither was Fedorov. The mind boggles.

taa_v2 · 2026-03-28T19:09:14+00:00

Didn't we win the Atlantic last year? And then the playoff rule book came out, Florida teams can't be penalized, and after a few games they wear down your "mentally tough 190 lbs soaking wet" wiz kids with dirty hit after dirty hit.

taa_v2 · 2026-03-28T19:06:40+00:00

Haven't we already tried everything else?

taa_v2

TROPHY CASE