SIMMONS: Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas remains silent amid crisis

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They stood along the railing of the Ford Performance Center – chairman Brendan Shanahan, next to general manager Kyle Dubas, next to special assistant Jason Spezza, next to assistant general manager and money man Brandon Pridham – all important eyes in the Maple Leafs front office, watching yet another practice on a Tuesday afternoon.

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But out of the thousands they’ve seen in the past, this one just felt a little different, looked a little different. Desperation can do it for you with more management and more media watching the Maple Leafs than you usually find here most Tuesdays.

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This is what happens in Toronto when the hockey club goes off the rails at the start of the season. This is normally the moment when a general manager, understanding the crisis, interpreting the pressure on his players and his chosen coach, grabs a microphone and relieves some of his expensive help and the rest of his underperforming squad.

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Dubas did not fully grasp this part of the job. Alex Anthopoulos, now one of the great general managers of sport in any sport, has a theory: be invisible when your team wins. Be front and center when it all comes crashing down.

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Dubas was ahead on the rails, but not center yesterday. He didn’t choose to take the pressure off his coach, Sheldon Keefe, who is clearly feeling the pressure. He didn’t choose to talk about his roster like a loving parent, as he usually likes to talk about his talent. He does not say anything.

Which was his choice. Even if it’s the wrong choice.

Say this for Keefe: he’s honest with the media and honest with his players. He’s gruff when the team isn’t playing well and isn’t afraid to tear players apart if need be. And he stands tall and faces the music, which not all coaches do under all circumstances, especially as his players are asked one after another about the coach’s future.

Keefe said – not facts – that the Leafs’ 4-4-2 record is better than how they’ve played so far. They got points in overtime in San Jose and Anaheim that they probably didn’t deserve. They haven’t won a game of any kind since Winnipeg two Saturdays ago. There’s so much talent here and so much doubt – and a huge disconnect between offense and defense – that it’s hard to know which direction the Leafs are headed.

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Dubas should have faced what Mitch Marner called “the piranhas” yesterday and the truth is most of us don’t bite. It could have taken up some space in the newspapers and some time on the radio and television. This is what Anthopoulos would have done. That’s what Cliff Fletcher would have done in his day. When you’ve been around long enough, you understand what running interference is for your team, no matter the sport. The process is the same. Even the questions and the answers are often the same.

Doug Armstrong understands this. He is the general manager of the St. Louis Blues, a team that had a terrible start to the season, playing worse hockey than the Leafs. Yesterday, Armstrong stepped in front of the crowd in St. Louis and answered questions about the rather deplorable state of the Blues. He spoke about his team’s lack of competition at both ends of the ice. He talked about how easily his team is frustrated. He’s talking about the players who don’t believe it’s happening to them.

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“Guys tell me how close the group is to the ice,” Armstrong said. “And that’s reassuring. But it must be much closer on the ice. They must want to play for each other.

Armstrong was talking about the Blues 3-5. He could have talked about the Leafs. An independent hockey voice, a keen NHL watcher, was asked about the Leafs the other day. He called their game selfish and selfless. He said instead of playing for the team, they are playing for themselves. He called the players’ individual performance terribly disappointing.

It’s the Dubas team. They are his players. He’s his trainer. It was his chosen style of play that went wrong. Not only should he answer for his coach right now, he should answer for himself and his roster. And publicly challenge players to be better.

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St. Louis won the Stanley Cup in 2019 and the Blues will always have that to celebrate. But before that win and after the celebration, they were pretty much the Leafs. In the past six seasons, excluding the Stanley Cup year, they’ve made six playoff rounds. Basically one a year.

The Leafs worked hard Tuesday afternoon on the fundamentals, with much of practice focusing on moving the puck from defense to offense. The concept seems pretty basic, but the execution was a struggle. The not-so-new NHL game is all about puck movement. The exit collar. The pass side by side. The widening of the game in the offensive zone.

Auston Matthews has three goals and five assists in 10 games. Sounds bad on paper until you look at him and see he had five goals and three assists in the first 10 games he played in his Hart Trophy season a year ago. There’s reason to still believe in him and this Leafs team — all they have to do is show it.

And listen to their general manager. Assuming he talks to them more than he talks to the rest of us.