Jumbo Joe

There was talk of bringing Big Joe to the Leafs for years and I didn't like the idea...

Every time they talked of trying to bring Joe Thornton to the Leafs in the past I thought to myself "please don't do that"... I had memories of bringing many players who were stars in their day to the team at the end of their careers and it being a total bust and a waste of money and cap space...

This year was a little different... An opportunity to bring him here for league minimum and the fact he really wanted to come here made it feel different to me...

The fact that Spezza wanted to come here and did so for minimum pay had an influence on my thoughts with Joe... And the fact that Spezza worked out OK on ice although nothing spectacular but seemed to make a difference in the locker room and team atmosphere was certainly encouraging...

The talk of Joe being a 3rd or 4th line center seemed to make sense and again I figured he would be OK on the ice but a larger help in the locker room...

When Keefe talked about trying him on the first line with Matthews and Marner my first thought was he is much too old and slow for that but it is an experiment and may not even last more than a few games... The more I though about it I thought "why not" they can take a majority of faceoffs in the offensive zone and Matthews always have the power to dangle the puck until big old slow moving Joe catches up... When they are in the O zone Joe can be deadly with his passes and he's a big guy that is hard to move...

I wasn't expecting his on ice performance to be anywhere near what we are seeing... The game a few nights ago he played almost 19 minutes of ice time... Last night he came out and looked better than fine... A goal and 2 assists in the first period... Plus the team this year is playing more like a team and group of guys that love each other than they have for a long long time... Matthews and Marner look like they are loving the game again... How much of that can be attributed to Joe I can't say but I think between Keefe, Joe, Spezza, Tavares and the other vets in the room it is having a huge effect...

Having those guys here because they really want to be here in Toronto is huge in my opinion and the fact they are no risk at league minimum is icing on the cake...