It appears that there’s more trouble in Leafs paradise again. Though it would seem to be a long shot to call the city of Toronto a paradise for the Maple Leafs team given what has occurred with Joffrey Lupul tweets on TSN, David Clarkson who was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets, Dion Phaneuf being on his way out, Phil Kessel‘s remarks towards Phaneuf and the media, and now with Nazem Kadri and his attitude and being a healthy scratch for a few games.
https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/575668149141508097
Originally it was reported that Kadri was scratched on Monday’s game against the New York Islanders because he was late to a meeting by 10 to 15 minutes and the reason that came for that was the switch on behalf of daylight saving time that caused Kadri to sleep in. Brendan Shanahan, president and alternate governor for the Leafs, basically dismissed this as he had this to say on Wednesday’s morning skate when he announced the news of Nazem being a healthy scratch for two more games.
Brendan Shanahan – “There’s more to this, obviously. If this was a case of Nazem being 15 minutes late for a meeting one time, yes, then you could probably sweep this under the rug and handle this internally. Naz is an important part of our future. We like Nazem Kadri. His teammates like him. We expect a certain level of professionalism. It’s time for him to start making better decisions. There’s a history here.”
Now with the Kadri’s teammates knowing about the decision of him being scratched for tonight’s home game against the Buffalo Sabres and Friday’s game in Calgary versus the Flames, Phaneuf had said that he and the team are behind him and anything said in the locker room personally will remain in the locker room. There was no explanation on why the change of the one game ban turned into three.
Nazem, the 24 year old from London, Ontario, currently sits fourth best on the team in scoring points with 16 goals 20 assists in 64 games played. Kadri was drafted by the Maple Leafs in the 2009 NHL entry draft in the first round, seventh overall.