Phaneuf is in the media room verbally sparring Canada Goose

Is he the best leader for the Leafs

buy canada goose jacket Two days after Canada Goose Outlet the Toronto Maple Leafs stunned the Boston Bruins with a 6 1 victory, captain Dion Phaneuf made his way off the ice and toward the dressing passing a horde of reporters and camera operators standing in the corridor. buy canada goose jacket

canada goose uk black friday ya doin fellas? a chipper Phaneuf says with a smile. canada goose uk black friday

canada goose Flash forward five days and the Maple Leafs have just been embarrassed 9 2 by the Nashville Predators. Phaneuf is in the media room verbally sparring Canada Goose Parka with a reporter who has questioned his defensive play in a few recent defeats. canada goose

Canada Goose Online No smiles from the captain on this night. No friendly banter. Canada Goose Online

Canada Goose Jackets Fans don often get to see the charming side of the Toronto Maple Leafs captain. When he is in front of the camera, he is usually all business. And when it comes to spewing clich he give Bull Durham Nuke Laloosh a run for his money. Canada Goose Jackets

canada goose clearance While the Maple Leafs most talented offensive weapon, Phil Kessel, rarely grants the media an audience, the captain of the team is expected to be available daily. Last season Phaneuf ducked the media after a particularly bad game and was roasted. He has not made that mistake again. canada goose clearance

Canada Goose Outlet If you have only seen Phaneuf in media scrums, you may believe he is a sourpuss. Nothing could be further from the truth, Phaneuf insists. Canada Goose Outlet

is a misconception when people say I don smile much or I don seem to joke around or have much of a personality, Phaneuf says. is extremely false because I do love to joke around. I enjoy my time with my teammates and we have a great group of guys here. The thing is, when the cameras are on after canada goose coats a game and the emotions of the game are still flowing, I tend to be caught in the moment in terms of still having that intense side of me.

Canada Goose online can fake it when I come off the ice and I am still feeling the intensity of having just played in a game, Phaneuf adds. Canada Goose online

Being the captain of the most visible team in the NHL comes with inherent responsibilities. No team receives the coverage the Maple Leafs get, and it doesn take much for fans to fall off the bandwagon.

you are winning the fans and the media see you as a great leader, says Maple Leafs legend Darryl Sittler, the team captain from 1975 to 1980. you are losing and things are not going well, they look at you as the fall guy. I was fortunate to have a strong supporting canada goose black friday sale cast of leaders like Lanny McDonald, Tiger Williams and Borje Salming to help me in terms of leadership. Gilmour, who was the Maple Leafs captain for two and a half seasons, says filling that role is more difficult nowadays.

think times have changed with social media and everything else that goes on, Gilmour said. first three years here Wendel (Clark) was the captain and then when I was captain you just had to address the media and do the little things expected from a captain. The role is more intense today. fans question Phaneuf leadership, his teammates do not.

canada goose coats on sale a leader on and off the ice, says David Clarkson. was very fortunate coming into the league to have great captains like Jamie Langenbrunner and Brian Gionta who really showed you what a leader meant to a team. It teaches you the rest of the career what a leader is and what a leader is supposed to be. Phaneuf defensive partner Cody Franson: a guy that people respond to in the room. When he speaks people listen. He knows when to try to keep the mood light and when to try to snap guys back into attention. He manages the room well. A few months later the Edmonton Oilers won their second Cup in a row and would win three more in the next five years. While Phaneuf was too young to absorb exactly how great and dynamic those Oilers teams were, he was certainly influenced by their rise to prominence. canada goose coats on sale

Oilers were my favorite team and Wayne Gretzky was my favorite player, Phaneuf says.

So it could have been devastating when on June 21, 2003, the rival Calgary Flames made him the ninth overall selection in the NHL Entry Draft.

canada goose coats first all my friends gave me a hard time, but they changed allegiances pretty quickly, Phaneuf says. be completely honest as Canada Goose sale soon as I was drafted by the Flames my allegiance changed, too. I was proud to be a Flame. was an instant success in the NHL, scoring 20 goals and 49 points in 82 games in 2005 05. He was named to the NHL all rookie team and canada goose outlet was a finalist for the Calder Trophy as the league top rookie along with Sidney Crosby and the winner Alexander Ovechkin. canada goose coats

cheap Canada Goose In the next two seasons the hard hitting, free wheeling Phaneuf put up back to back seasons of 17 goals with 50 and 60 points respectively. There was plenty of talk about Phaneuf one day being a buy canada goose jacket Norris Trophy winner as the canada goose coats on sale NHL best defenceman. cheap Canada Goose

Canada Goose sale Based on 54 goals in three seasons, that seemed inevitable. Canada Goose sale

canada goose uk outlet In his fourth year with Calgary, Phaneuf numbers took a dip. He scored 11 goals and 47 points, which are decent numbers, but he was trending in the wrong direction. Then in his fifth season, when he had 10 goals and 22 points in the Flames first 55 games, he was traded to canadian goose jacket Toronto. canada goose uk outlet

In that 2009 10 season, the Leafs traded away two first round and a second round pick to the Boston Bruins for Kessel on Sept. 18, 2009, and then made buy canada goose jacket cheap the deal for Phaneuf on Jan. 31, 2010. These two young and gifted players, who their original teams gave up on in their early 20s, were now the centerpieces for a struggling franchise that had not gone to the playoffs since the 2003 04 season.

Phaneuf says there were no hints cheap Canada Goose leading up to the trade canada goose that he be on the move. Calgary GM Darryl Canada Goose Jackets Sutter was travelling when the deal was made and left a voicemail on Phaneuf phone.

was extremely shocked at canada goose clearance sale the time, Phaneuf says. wasn much talk about me possibly being moved at the time, but that the business. I was traded to Toronto and as soon as I talked to Burkie, I was Canada Goose online extremely excited about coming to Toronto. long afterward, GM Brian Burke made a bold move naming the 25 year old Phaneuf the Maple Leafs captain.

Phaneuf says he never thought about turning down the opportunity even though he knew he be right in the sights of angry fans if things didn go well for the team.

was completely honoured to be named captain and it still is a huge honour to be the captain of this franchise, Phaneuf says. is a lot of responsibility and a lot of pressure, but I enjoy that. When starting goalie Jonathan Bernier was hurt and backup James Reimer https://www.getcanadagooseoutlet.com took over between the pipes, the Maple Leafs won just two and lost 14 of their final 16 games. It was not all Reimer fault.

uk canada goose outlet Phaneuf had been cruising along nicely at plus 21, but was minus 19 in the team final 20 games. Kessel, who has yet to produce a 40 goal season, had just four goals in the last 20 games. uk canada goose outlet

didn have a good year last year; we had three quarters of a good year and that not good enough, Phaneuf says. know with the group that we have, the guys who have returned, it is not acceptable. The bottom line is it is a new year and I like the canada goose clearance way our team is playing. Sometimes you have to go through the hard times to learn from them. We have had our struggles, but we have also done some good things, too in our game. is early, but so far the 2014 15 season has had its share of ups and downs. Through 18 games Toronto was clinging to the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference at 9 7 2 and on four occasions they dropped back to back games.

Canada Goose Parka Three times this season fans have tossed Maple Leafs jerseys onto the ice at Air Canada Centre to protest a losing effort by the team and booing is commonplace Canada Goose Parka.

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