Reaves’ Irrelevance

I have been trying desperately to coast into 2024. Work, and life, have had other plans for my “disposable” time. I have been absolutely slammed at work, and personally I have been really buried as well. Which translated means I just discovered Letterkenny (Thanks, Ref). Basically, I feel like Jake at the end of The Blues Brothers explaining himself to Carrie Fisher on why he ran out on her.

Long way to say, I have been thinking about fights, and fighting and I miss you guys.

Be-Reave-Ment

As I was watching the Leafs and Bruins two weeks ago, I was awaiting some kind of action from Ryan Reaves. After the first tilt in Boston, where Brad Marchand took a Leaf defenseman into the boards awkwardly, and the verbal jousting both sides did after the fact, I thought for sure there would be something from the Buds resembling jam on white toast.

Reaves and Marchand were jawing at each other in the press leading up to the game. It seemed like it would be a good time for Reavo to go mental. Maybe he would challenge Trent Frederic? Maybe he’d get on the ice and face wash someone. Maybe (at least) a cross word?

Two Fights and 7 Scratches

Nope. Ryan Reaves got around 8 minutes of ice and took an absolutely terrible boarding penalty that probably limited his ice time further. It’s not gone well for Reavo in TO, like, at all. Signed to a $4.05 million dollar deal for three years he’s been a scratch from 7 of the teams 20 games. He’s got one assist, and more shockingly, he’s had only 2 fights. He fought Arber Xhekaj on opening night, and 3 days later, he fought Marcus Foligno. That’s the extent of his fight card.

It begs the question. Is Ryan Reaves totally irrelevant? I’m not trying to bash the guy. He is the type of player we love here at Goonblog. And to top it off, he’s going to be out long term after an awkward fall into the boards last night. I’m wondering if they don’t try and deal this guy or demote him upon his return.

It’s not like there’s no fighting in the league. I have a whole post coming on the subject, but spoiler alert: fighting is up this season, league-wide. Leafs fans are complaining they don’t have enough jam, yet Reaves is in the lineup. It’s baffling to me why a guy like Ryan Reaves doesn’t have more fights this season, and I fear Mike Rupp’s chirp about irrelevancy is coming true before our very eyes.