Lou Lamoriello has done this before.
Started over.
Inherited a team that wasn’t his.
With a coaching staff he didn’t hire.
This is nothing new to him — the challenge that is the Maple Leafs. Only the scope is larger. The staff is bigger. The demands are greater.
And the interest in him and his team is more than he’s ever known before as he tries to explain, sitting in a board room on Tuesday afternoon at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, on the eve of his 28th National Hockey League season.
“The difference here is, I know all the principals involved,” said Lamoriello, the 72-year-old general manager.