Toronto Maple Leaf Needs Matthew Knife to Lead Tonight’s Battle – Hockey Writer – Toronto Maple Leaf

If this is the last time I wrote before the game, this is really important with this iteration of Toronto Maple Leaf and I want to go out physically. Where will the struggle for maple leaves to win come from? It won’t come from veterans. It won’t come from the stars.

One last thought, before the last chance: Watch Matthew Knies

If someone is going to change the soul of this team-the emotional DNA that often contracts when it expands at that moment, it may be that kid plays like he’s already fed up. Not because he said the right thing, but because he Do The right thing, transfer after shifts, no matter the score. If something changes tonight, it starts with him.

Related: NHL Rumor: Maple Leaf, Stars, Capital

There is a time in every franchise story where the leadership you give you fails to deliver, and leaders you never met start revealing themselves. For maple leaves, that moment might be now. That leader will be Matthew Knies.

Because if anyone intends to include this team in the fight – tonight, next season or the next 10 years, it will not be a budget-minded scorer or a soft-spoken professional. It would be the 21-year-old who hits like he means, celebrates like he catches fire, stands in front of the opposition goalkeeper, targets his teammates and treats the effort like money that cannot be wasted.

Related: Maple Leafs’ gambling on Matthew Knies has paid off

Knife doesn’t wait for the game to come to him. He went through it. This is rare in this team. This is exactly what is missing.

What does a drive look like? This doesn’t always mean yelling. This does not mean drama. Driving means being angry about losing. This means digging while others glide. This means carrying like this is more important than anyone else in the building.

The tool plays exactly the same.

This should never be the team of the Knife Team – but it may be soon

He is still a kid, not two of his entire seasons yet. But you look at the cutter on pre-trial, or in the absence of any right shift, you see something that Maple Leaf fans have never seen in years: faith. This is not done. This is not talent. This is a rejection.

The tool does not require a score to be effective. He doesn’t need to get a perfect pass. He brought energy, purposefully hit, and worked hard where many maple leaves disappeared. That’s not just “competition”. That’s a playoff role. The role is what changed the locker room.

This is not to say that he is the finished product. He is not. But that makes it even more exciting – he’s just started. And, he looks like the only one who has the chance to change the emotional warmth of the franchise.

Tools are the changes needed by maple leaves

You can’t win by your skills alone. You can’t keep silent. And you can’t pretend that the same group will wake up on Friday and start caring for more. Someone has to delay the team – not to guide it gently, rather than inspire it theoretically – the game to win the championship.

That’s not on Auston Matthews, who fires with tricks rather than on fire. It’s not on Mitch Marner, his confidence seems fragile. It’s not on John Tavares, his voice is so quiet.

Related: Matthew Knies’ Body Game Is Powering Maple Leafs Offense

Who else besides the knife? He brought the tension that this team needs to feel. Neither he nor his own other team nor his own transformation was that comfortable.

Will Maple Leaf become a Knights team?

It’s still early now. But it’s not too early. What if the team evolved into a group that reflected the tool? What if the next 10 years weren’t about Matthews’ graceful score or Manner’s elite vision (if he stayed), but the engine of the knife?

That might be the way forward. Because maple leaves don’t need another star. They need a driver. Tone setting. fighter. And if anyone in this roster can play this role now, drag the team into the fire and ask them not to be burned, that is the knife.

Maybe not tomorrow, but tonight. Although it seems everyone is figuring out the maple leaves, maybe it’s just that with the birth of Matthew Knies’ team at night, this night will be remembered.