Leafs Defensive Personalities: The Kid, The Creep and the Komi

It's been 16 games already this season, and Leafs Nation is starting to see some of the players' personalities come through in interviews and off-ice escapades. Of course, the Leafs don't have a player like Ovechkin who will drive through the arena on a golf cart or drive a zamboni through the streets of NYC, but personalities of Schenn, Exelby and Komisarek have been shining through lately in recent weeks.

First of all, earlier this week TSN showed a clip of Trish Stratus teaching yoga to Exelby and Schenn. Randomly, Garnet Exelby seemed to be as close to a yoga pro as you're going to find on the Leafs, while Schenn struggled standing on one foot without falling over. It was a fluff piece of news, but it was still a nice way for Leafs Nation to look into the dressing and to see the Leafs are in good spirits.

Schenn seems to be "The Kid" of the team, still getting accustomed to the media frenzy that is the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was thrown into the Leafs line-up last year and averaged over 20 minutes a game. It was like Michael Jackson skipping his childhood and always being under the spotlight. Schenn had to play like a veteran during his rookie season and now, during his sophomore year is finally playing like a rookie should. He's making bad mistakes every once and a while but can still play well day-in-and-day-out while getting used to Toronto media. After the yoga lesson, he joked around about Exelby trying to get Trish to push his butt back into position.

As I've stated in a previous post, even the name Garnet Exelby strikes fear in my heart being one of the hard hitting defensemen brought onto the team during the off-season. He may not play positional hockey but he does what he was hired to do - hit. After the yoga lesson with Trish Stratus, he gave the media one of the creepier interviews I've seen by an NHL hockey player about trying getting Trish to correct his butt's positioning. Of course it was a joke, but instead of laughing during the interview, he simply had a smirk on his face earning the nickname "The Creep".

Komisarek, or for this piece "The Komi", showed his personality during a post-game interview after playing the Montreal Canadiens. He was speaking in regards to all the booing that rained down on him during his second game in the Bell Centre this season. The Habs fans were relentless, letting him have it for leaving them for their rivaling team. His response was to say something along the lines of "If they're booing me after I left, I must have been doing something right while I was here". Yea Komi, that'll shut 'em up. This kind of comment is what the Leafs need. Komisarek's arrogant personality is one of competition and the love for winning. Although the Leafs are struggling, this kind of talk from Komisarek shows that his competitive spirit is going strong.

Too bad he's out for 3 weeks. Let's see what kind of personality Carl Gunnarsson will bring to the team while Komi's injured.
Go Leafs Go!