Must be spring, the Leafs are out
The classic Toronto Sun headline, apt as ever.
April 8, 2007
4/08/2007
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41 Comments
From what I hear, the Leafs are giving their new prospects a shot: Summeroff and Teeoff.
I hate the Leafs.
Yesterday we got stolen...
Go Flames go!
Thank God the Islanders put a stake through the beast's heart.
By doing so, they spared the rest of us two full weeks of listenng to sports phone-in shows featuring 'Tony from Woodbridge' swearing on the Virgin Mary that "We're goin' all da way."
40 years and counting. Talk about an enviable business plan. Freedom to suck beyond belief, and still be a cash cow.
Hmmm... would I like to pay to watch the Leafs figure skate for an hour, or take my wife on a holiday for a few days? But I guess no one really makes that decision. No one actually digs into their own jeans for Laugh tickets.
No, it's mostly executives giving themselves perks under the pretense of doing business, leaving the burden of paying the tab to poor schmucks who never go to the games, via their taxes.
And would someone explain to me what's up with everyone kissing Sundin's backside in spite of him starting his spring suck-a-thon a month earlier than usual this year? He must be a better person than Ghandi because no one ever says a bad word about Captain Pants Load.
Hopefully, missing the playoffs yet again will cause some people to raise their expectations for this joke of an organization. But I won't hold my breath.
On the bright side, the heat is off Gord Stellick for being the worst GM in Laughs history.
All Canadians are expected to pledge their UNWAVERING support during the playoffs for Canada's New Hockey Team, the Ottawa Senators.
Canada's New Hockey Team:
Getting things done for all of us.
Cheering for the Leafs is like voting for Jack Layton. All you do is temporarily deal a setback to the Stanley Cup's natural governing team in Montreal and allow those pesky Neo Con Islanders into the playoffs.
does this mean that Bob Cole and Harry Neale are done like dinner as well?
For the best....better draft pick...and time to clean house.
If you trade Sundin see if they'll take McCabe with them...I like both players but Mats needs to be the second centre not the star or he needs a star winger with him
McCabe...good defenceman but heinous salary.....if yo can find someone who will ake him great
QS
surely not a "Canadiens" fan? I had you as hankering for the return of the Nordiques.
stephen,
When was the last time the Leafs did anything through the draft? Wendel Clark?
Trade Sundin? Who would take him? The third hightest salary in the league and he's 54th in goals and 34th in points. And maybe 150th in 'heart'?
You'd have to be as dumb as John Ferguson Jr. to trade for a figure skater like Sundin who has a contract for $7.6 million a year. And unfortunately for Leafs fans, there's only one JFJ.
And McCabe... he couldn't make a Tier 2 Swedish league team during the strike. Sure, that big slapshot is nice 15 times a year, but it doesn't begin to make up for his nightly Ed Mirvish impersonations.
Besides, he's in the middle of building a monster home in Leaside.
No one else would pay these guys what the Laughs are paying them. They're going to hold onto their contracts like grim death.
Yeah! Allez les Nordiques! Bring back the Jets! We need a real hard-hitting team in Canada again...
Thankfully the leafs are out, so now there will be more sens games on tv.
The leafs have consistently been run by one of the worst management teams in hockey. Some things never change.
If there were more competition for the support of fans in the Toronto area, the ownership and management of the Leafs would have to try harder to please. We can easily support 3 teams in Toronto and another in Hamilton. It is the economic structure and restrictive trade practices of the NHL that makes the Maple Laughs suck so badly - the lack of competition. Oh yeah, and Maple Laugh fans who support their LOSING team so unconditionally.
Go Nucks! 12 year itch... just a little delayed!
Ah, who am I kidding? They'll blast through games 1 and 2 with blowout wins, then choke so fast it'll make the city's collective heads spin.
gwgm,
Sad but true....how do you deal with high salaries in the cap age.
Your only option is to work them off like winter fat and let them become free agents that you get nothing for.
The huge percentage the leafs pay for their defence core is ridiculous.
As for the draft, you are correct very little has worked for them in the past. That has to change, there is no option. Until that changes they will continue to be mediocre at best.
Leafs right now are a 5 year project and the fans better get used to that idea. Want to back a winner.....focus on some other team, like Ottawa
stephen,
The Leafs don't have to do anything. They've proven that fact for decades.
It is a business that has maximized revenues. Therefore, the route to increasing profit is to minimize expenses. Hence the lousy GM and scouting system.
The beauty of the plan is that no matter how badly the team performs, there will never be an empty seat or box.
What we're seeing now is the diversion of resources from the Leafs to prop up the Raptors, who were going down the tubes in terms of fan and corporate support prior to this season. The Raptors don't have the luxury of sucking.
Fortunately, MLSE has the Leaf money to make sure the Raptors are good enough to draw crowds.
Bottom line, until companies stop buying Leaf tickets, there is absolutely no incentive to change a thing. And they won't.
Stick to commenting on politics GWGM. Hockey obviously ain't your thang. Your analysis is as deep as Coyne on the Cons. The last decade and a half didn't happen and sniveling equivalency is the order of the day.
Does Colangelo (Raptors GM) know anything about hockey?
Even if he doesn't I'm sure he could do a better job of building a team than Fergie's boy has.
Les canadiens de Montréal vont devenir ls québécois de Montréal.
T.O. is the hardest place to be a GM in Hockey. Edmonton and Montreal probably tie for second.
That Sundin wasn't moved early this year (or even last year) is a proof as is the slowness in putting Domi out to pasture and not firing Quinn two or three years ago. The GM gets heck from the media, the fans and the ownership if he tries to move a popular player - a piece of the marketing and merchandising plan.
The leafs are doomed to a future of mediocrity and missed opportunity not unlike the last 40 years, as the management paralysis caused by the above makes the team uncompetitive in salary cap world where the only uncapped part of the business is in the management ranks. They have the money to hire management superstars but regardless of who they employ they will be forced to act in an antiquated clutch and grab environment.
I pity them and those who are their fans. All across this country parents are trying to raise their sons and daughters to be fans of some other team so as to avoid them from having to suffer a life of cruel frustration.
If we're going to go all bitter-a** on the Leafs, it would be fair to note that they have started to build on younger talent, and rely less on the retirees who have been the basis of their team for so long. But such a major shift can't be made overnight, or over just one or two seasons. This is a multi-year project.
All criticism against the Leafs organization is warranted. The NHL simply MUST put another team in Toronto (forget Hamilton!). There would be an instant fan base (there's a big enough Leaf Haters Nation in T.O. proper), and frig, the GTA could support three NHL teams, let alone one underperforming one.
JFJ, don't take up the option on Sundin! And yes, we are stuck with McCabe and Kubina 'til the end.
But cheer for the Sens or the Canucks?!?!? I'd rather hammer nails into my eyes!!!
paul.odeba@: "...it would be fair to note that they have started to build on younger talent..."
The same could have been said when Keon and Sittler and MacDonald and Vaive and Clark were "younger talent".
The entire organization and fan base are hopeless romantics - they actually celebrated not having won a cup for 40 years this season! They will always pay too much and keep on far too long the older half of the roster. They are the Chicago Cubs of hockey.
Sure other teams have similar issues - that Detroit never retired or traded Yzerman earlier may have caused them to not go far in the playoffs the past few years and have done permanent long-term damage to their competitiveness - along with the huge 7 year deal they made with Datsyuk. - but the Leafs are the worst and most chronic case.
An interesting alternate scenario is the Oilers and what will happen to the current management of that team - all from the old glory days right down the stick boy it seems - if they do poorly in the next 20 games of the regular season. It is entirely possible that they could all be gone by Christmas if the team is significantly below .500 - a management group that went to the finals just last year.
The fan base in Edm. DEMANDS excellence from the team management especially in the "new" NHL. Leafs fans would and do tolerate sub-par management and as the customer they get a level of performance commensurate to that level of tolerance.
KRB,
Want another reason to hammer nails into your eyes?
How about the next time - and you know it's coming - that they sign on a 40-year-old future Hall of Famer with bad knees... and hold a press conference where the guy announces, "I grew up here and I always wanted to play for the Blue & White."
I hear TSN signed Roenick to work for them. I half expect JFJ to bump into him in the halls of the ACC and sign him to a three-year deal, although Roenick is probably still too insufficiently crippled to actually sign on with the Leafs. Might have to wait a few years, but it'll happen.
The real issue is that none of these guys want to play for the Blue & White when they're chasing Stanley Cups. But once they have a 'ring' and no knees/back left, then they ALL want to play for the Laughs.
Well ownership has an issue here. Why would you grant JFJ a one year contract extension....either give him the three year contract or they should have tossed him....the middle ground move meant that no major moves would happen this year.
he only thing the leafs have in abundance is defenceman....a good thing....but two of them are too high priced to move.....if you were trading the younger ones you darn wel better get something really good in return on the wing or centre....
The only other option is trading Aubin, raycroft or Pogey (Sp?) Teh guy wiht the marlies is supposedly brialliant and the kind of goalie ou can build a team around.....
Get a GM you can live with for 5 years, give him a 5 year contract...give your coach aong term contract tell the fans what you are doing and then start reshaping the team.
The longer you wait the longer it takes, if that means letting Sundin go for nothing and trading MccCabe and Kubina away for another overpriced veteran that has a shorter contract then so be it.
I remember the Sittler, Salming, Palmateer, Turnbull, McDonald team.....they were good. I forget what they were missing.....I also remeber that god awful leaf team with Rick Vaive as Captain......not his fault.....
Anyway, make the changes now start the process so maybe I'll see a consistent contender in my lifetime
"But such a major shift can't be made overnight, or over just one or two seasons. This is a multi-year project."
Are we still talking about the Leafs or have we gone back to discussing the Tory budget?
stephen,
The goal of MLSE is maximizing profits. They are doing an incredible job of it, so why would they change?
Sure, they would have liked to have padded the bank account with a few playoff games, but no one over there is crying today.
The salary cap cut their costs in half, and they threw a bone to ticket holders by cutting ticket prices by 5%. Santa Claus they ain't.
If the Leafs cared about winning, Tanenbaum would show up at Scotty Bowman's front door with a blank cheque and the keys to a Rosedale mansion.
But that's not going to happen. Bowman wouldn't lower himself and play the role of MLSE's GM puppet, pretending to the fans and media that the real goal is winning, when it's not. They've already got JFJ for that and he's a lot cheaper than Bowman.
gwgm:
Unless, of course, Bowman has no intention of coaching again. Period. If you don't think that Ilitch offered him the GDP of most developing nations to bring him back to Detroit after they got bounced early under Lewis, you don't know a damn thing about hockey. Bowman has accomplished all there is to accomplish, both as a coach and as a GM.
Furthermore, while MLSE certainly does run up a tidy profit, to say that they are solely motivated by the bottom line is ridiculous. When you say that the salary cap cut payroll in half, you implicitly recognize that Toronto was one of the highest spenders under the old rules. Closer to the truth is that they are are too sensitive to public opinion and, consequently, exercise exceptionally poor judgement in signing veteran players. Most recently, this has included a 5MM+ a year contract for a franchise defenseman incapable of pivoting to his left. Hopefully, the commitment to the few prospects we haven't squandered in trades will yield future results.
Ironically, the salary cap may make us a better team by virtue of forcing us to face tough decisions. Previously, we were able to buy our way into the second round. Now, bad decisions like that will get us tossed out of the playoffs altogether.
SensFan:
I'm not going to cheer for the Sens for the same two reasons that I didn't cheer for Edmonton or Calgary in the past two Playoffs:
1. You can count on one hand how many Flames and Oilers fans wanted Leaf fans to jump on the Canada's Team bandwagon in their respective runs to the Finals. We weren't there when they had to trade away Niewendyk, Fleury, Guerin and Weight (I wasn't even alive for the dismantling of the Gretzky dynasty), so there's no sense in claiming ownership of their Cinderella postseasons. We aren't as deserving of it, and I'm fine with that.
2. Furthermore, were I to support the Canadian team with the best chance of winning, I wouldn't be a Leafs' fan. I'd be a frontrunner. I'd be the guy who supports the team with the highest payroll only to the point of jumping ship when things got tough. I'm not a Leaf fan because of the money they spend; I'm a fan because I was born here.
And, in addition to the above two points:
3. The fact that the Senators watched their goalie get mauled by the Sabres' enforcer, further proving that they are collectively spineless. I can't cheer for that.
JFJ is in the news saying they are going to try to sign Sundin to a long term deal........beautiful.
PMSH once said the Atlantic Provinces had a "culture of defeat", as a Leaf fan he certainly would be familiar with the symptoms.
gwgm, I agree with you. I don't know what's in the water that Leafs management are drinking. I've shaken my head in disbelief more times than I've nodded in agreement, that's for sure. But as Sanford says, they're my team, and for all the crap moves they pull, I will still root for them.
If another team came to Toronto, then it could get interesting to see if loyalties are challenged.
Only 1 of 30 teams wins the Cup each year obviously, so it's stupid to expect it every year. Being Stanley Cup finalists or even conference finalists is all well and good, but as that great philosopher Ricky Bobby opined, "If you ain't first, you're last".
Buffalo still has 0 Cups, same with the Canucks. As do the Sens (do today's Sens even count those previous Cups, from a totally seperate franchise? Knowing them I'm sure they do). Frig, the Leafs don't include the two Cups won as the Arenas and St. Pat's in their total, even though it was the same franchise.
Sometimes fate deals you a crappy pro sports team to support. In my case, I got two: the Maple Leafs and England's National football team. Both haven't won a thing of note in my lifetime. Both frustrate me greatly, but the strong bonds remain.
"3. The fact that the Senators watched their goalie get mauled by the Sabres' enforcer, further proving that they are collectively spineless. I can't cheer for that."
But you cheer for the wimps who didn't do anything when Kaberle got run at and whose coach boasted about how winning the game was more important than settling scores. Yup, those Leafs sure are tough guys worth cheering for.
As a Leafs fan, I am pinning most of my hopes on Paul Maurice. Not solely on his ability to mould a team that is bigger than the sum of its parts (let's face it, some of the current Leafs would be better suited to the AHL than the NHL), though of course that is huge. Nope, it's more that Maurice is a winner. He will not subject himself to multiple dreadful seasons with no end purpose in sight. If he senses that it's just the same old, same old at MLSE, he'll be gone.
That's why I think the Leafs should just take the hit now, drop Sundin, and build the team properly. Let Maurice craft this team the way HE wants. He's still working with Quinn retreads.
When the Leafs last missed the playoffs for more than a season, they always did so with less than 70 pts. This year and last they racked up at least 90 pts. They're in that awful zone where they cannot possibly contend for the Cup, yet they fear the public's reaction if they were to miss the playoffs for another season. Making the playoffs is now "the Cup" for the Leafs, and that's pathetic. Better to take it apart now, and build towards a proper run in the playoffs.
Nobody cares now that the Raps were absolutely horrendous the last couple of years. What matters is that they're a solid team now. It'd be the same with the Leafs.
Why would they drop Sundin? He's one of the very few class players in the team, along with Kaberle and... who else?
Why drop Sundin? Simple cost-benefit analysis. The least the Leafs could get him for in a new contract is $5.3m a year. If they pick up the option, it takes up an extra $1m in cap room.
I say forget about him, and go for Briere or Smyth. Sure, this will affect the team at the start no doubt. You just don't get rid of your captain and not have it affect the day-to-day mood in the dressing room. But by Christmas I'd expect things to be on the up and up.
This is no time to be sentimental. Mats has his place in Leafs folklore, but it's time to look forward.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2236244639
Sorry to be off topic but I thought you'd like to see your fan club on facebook lol...
This is actually a good thing in disguise. Now all Ontarians who live southwest of (about) St. Thomas can cheer, without inhibition, for the Detroit Red Wings. Who they really like.
It was annual ritual for a while: before the Leafs got knocked out, about half the people in Windsor were Leafs fans, and half were Wings fans. Then the Leafs would do the standard thing (die), and the whole town turned out to be behind Yzerman and the boys. (As was Nepean, Ontario, but that's a different story.)
What other pro sports organization would go to all that trouble to celebrate 40 years of not winning the Cup?
QS the correct name is Club de hockey canadien ( hence CHC on the jersey)
Now is that the "classic" spring headline about the Leafs or the "traditional" spring headline?
Anonymous:
When you say that the Leafs "didn't do anything when Kaberle got run," do you mean to say that we should have done more than have Belak fight Janssen, face-to-face, in the teams' next meeting? Should we have contrived to take out one of their skilled players through similarly underhanded means? Should we have laid in wait for them in the parking lot? Would you have anything better to say about us if Maurice had decided to prioritize a grudge match over winning?
Losing our only true franchise defenseman sucked. It was a late hit. We were pissed about it, but you're never going to get equal value for a star player's loss through revenge. Janssen and Belak fought. Kaberle returned to the ice.
The Sens, on the other hand, touched off a brawl with the Sabres with a similarly cowardly blindsiding of Chris Drury by Chris Neil, and then weren't prepared to answer to the repercussions of their actions. Namely, they stood idly by as Andrew Peters (06-07: 56GP, 1G, 1A, 126PIM) from Buffalo filled the only Ottawa player with any grit, Emery.
Situation #1: Leafs respond to cheap shot through traditional means of face-to-face fisticuffs.
Situation #2: Senator player hits Sabres star from behind; team unwilling to finish what he started.
Next year, with global warming, expect the Leafs to be out by February, by 2009 it'll be Christmas.
"When you say that the Leafs "didn't do anything when Kaberle got run," do you mean to say that we should have done more than have Belak fight Janssen, face-to-face, in the teams' next meeting?"
Yes. The fight happens then and there. If I lay a cheapshot on your star player and the only thing I have to do is have an emotionless fight with Belak the next time our teams meets, I'd do it every time. It may be cheap, but it's smart. If I lay a cheapshot on your star player and a brawl ensues where one of my star players could get hurt, I'd think twice about it the next time.
This years Leafs are not the tough grinders of just a few years ago. And it's a big reason why they aren't in the playoffs.