NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. (July 14) – The passion that is said to unite fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs was fully evident in the messages you sent me over the weekend. On Friday, I requested that you e-mail your realistic hopes and expectations for the Leafs in 2008-09, based on the current roster. Or any other Leaf-related item you wished to get off your chest. Not surprisingly, I was inundated with all manner of opinion and emotion. After a spectacular few days with my family here in the “honeymoon capital” of the world, I’ve had a chance to look over your submissions.
Here’s a few of them. I’ll post some more later…
DOUG from Toronto writes: “Thank you Howard for all of the work you do on behalf of us long suffering Leaf fans. I am torn on the [Mats] Sundin issue. He's my favorite Leaf player and I understand that bringing him back will improve the team next year, but at the same time harm our chances of landing a really good prospect. On the other hand, isn't it about time a Leafs’ captain finished his career in a blue and white jersey? There’s a long list of captains that finished elsewhere – Dave Keon, Darryl Sittler, Rick Vaive, and now possibly Mats. And not just captains, but other Leaf greats such as Borje Salming, Lanny McDonald and Mike Palmateer. Do you remember how you felt seeing Sittler in the uniform of the hated Flyers? Or, watching Salming in a Red Wings’ jersey? At least it worked out with Lanny winning a Stanley Cup in Calgary. And I did root for Sweden at the [2006] Winter Olympics because I knew Sundin would never win here.”
Doug, I understand exactly where you’re coming from. And, I think many fans of the Leafs would enjoy seeing Sundin retire as a member of the hockey club. But, there is one element that dominated the tenure of every Toronto player you mentioned in your e-mail: Losing. Only Keon won a Cup with the Leafs, but the team was a joke by the time Harold Ballard callously unloaded him in 1975. Sittler, Vaive, Salming, McDonald and Palmateer all performed wonderfully for the Blue & White, and the clubs they skated for had some memorable moments. In each case, however, the Leafs were not good enough to play for the Stanley Cup, and they ultimately fell into disrepair. It was circumstance, rather than lack of performance, that led to the demise of these hockey heroes in Toronto. As it will be for Sundin. Poor Mats has the distinction of being the only Leafs’ captain to miss the playoffs three years in succession. Obviously, most NHLers do not spend their entire careers with the same team, regardless of circumstance. The long-time captains that remain in place almost always have Stanley Cup rings. There’s no chance Steve Yzerman would have gone the route in Detroit had the Red Wings been as horrid as they were early in his playing days. Nick Lidstrom just became the first European-born captain to accept the Cup, and has won four championships in Motown. Joe Sakic has stayed with the Quebec/Colorado franchise all these years, and has twice lifted the Cup since 1996. Scott Stevens skated for middling teams in Washington then won three titles with New Jersey. Going back, Denis Potvin spent his entire career with the New York Islanders and raised the Cup four times. Jean Beliveau, Henri Richard , Yvan Cournoyer and Bob Gainey were Montreal captains that lifted the Cup between 1971 and 1986. All spent their entire playing days with the Canadiens. The last Leafs’ captain to raise the Cup – George Armstrong – did it four times in Toronto between 1962 and 1967. He never played elsewhere. So, winning is the prime factor behind mutual loyalty. Occasionally, the financial status of an owner plays a role in a future hall of famer switching teams, and that’s why neither Wayne Gretzky nor Mark Messier finished their careers in Edmonton after earning a combined nine Stanley Cups with the Oilers. If the Maple Leafs can develop a long-term, winning environment, the club’s best players will become mainstays in our city. Otherwise, the revolving-door will continue.
BRAD from Fredericton, N.B. writes: “All in all, I’m quite happy with the Leafs’ roster going into the ’08-09 season. This is a team that will have to massively overachieve to be in playoff contention and, in my opinion, that’s exactly what the franchise needs right now. The way I see it: If you are not going to be great, you might as well be terrible. I also like that we’ll be able to see the young guys play and it will be a good chance to assess how long the rebuilding process will take. My hope for this season is that the team will be much harder to play against; the younger players will improve during the year, and with any luck the team will lose games to get the first pick in the draft.”
You are typical, Brad, of the numerous Leaf fans hoping for the club to play well – and fail often – next season. That may sound like a contradiction, but it could be prophetic. If Ron Wilson inspires the Leafs to perform competitively most nights, I think it will appease a large segment of the fan base, even when the club falls short. I’m sure every Leafs’ supporter is sick and tired of the embarrassing romps by opposition teams at the Air Canada Centre in recent years. Last season, alone, the Leafs were beaten by four goals or more on eight occasions. That’s one-fifth of the home schedule. Included, was an 8-0 loss to Florida; 7-1 pastings by Washington and Carolina, and an 8-2 spanking by a very average Ottawa team at the end of the season. On another night, the Leafs were outscored 5-1 by Chicago in the third period of a 6-4 loss. Away from the ACC, who can forget the back-to-back humiliations at Anaheim and Los Angeles in January that spelled the end for GM John Ferguson? In 2006-07, the Leafs lost home games 7-3 to Florida; 6-1 to Vancouver; 6-1 to Buffalo, and 6-2 to Ottawa. In my opinion, this was Paul Maurice’s biggest failing. He did not have anything close to a championship roster, but neither could he prevent the Leafs from essentially quitting in front of their die-hard supporters. Wilson must find a way to eliminate this from happening, even when the club is fairing poorly in the standings. And, that could be often next season. One other item, Brad: If you’ve listened to me on the radio, and/or read my blogs, you’ll know that I will not use the term “rebuild” when referring to the Leafs. Such a word gives the club way too much credit, as it suggests something was actually “built” in recent years. The current form of structuring bares many similarities to that of an expansion team. And, it indicates just how awful the Leafs have frequently been since 1967.
CHRIS from Toronto writes: “I've been on the Leafs’ season ticket wait-list since the late-1990s. A group of us decided to see if we could get tickets when the Leafs announced their merger with the Raptors. We figured with the extra seats coming available at the ACC, we might just have a shot. Well, we didn’t make it, and I’ve been on the list ever since. Last fall, I received an e-mail from MLSE asking if I would confirm my interest in remaining on the list, which I did. A month or so later, they sent me a message saying I'm still on, and somewhere around the low 300s [in priority]. Not bad, I suppose, for a 10-year wait. LOL!”
You can likely predict where I’m going with this response, Chris. At its most basic, the people that have owned and operated the Maple Leafs in the past 40 years have done so without concerns about supply and demand. Businesses are contingent on these two variables. When the latter far outweighs the former, accepted practices no longer apply. To wit: If the Leafs operated a grocery store in the same manner as the hockey club all of these years, that store would have gone belly-up within a few months. But, given that many more people wish to attend games than there are tickets available, the Leafs’ owners can perpetrate any sort of misdeed with immunity. They can raise ticket prices at will across the board; gouge long-time subscribers with seat licenses, and provide a lousy on-ice product. All of which have become common in recent years. Interest in the Blue & White often exceeds all bounds of reason. The acquisition of Ryan Hollweg from the New York Rangers is a timely, classic example. There are few players in the NHL quite as marginal as Hollweg, who can fight but do little else. As we speak, though, he is the subject of intense scrutiny and analysis on numerous hockey Internet sites. Rabid debating of the Hollweg deal will continue for days. It’s the kind of ravenous overkill that Leafs Nation is known for. I had an off-the-cuff discussion last season with a person that works for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. We started talking about the number of Leaf supporters in the Toronto area, and this person estimated that roughly 400,000 fans would attend every NHL game if the Air Canada Centre were big enough. That’s the sort of ticket demand there is in our city. Given that 381,000 of these folks can’t get into the arena each night, it’s easy to understand [if not appreciate] why the Leafs have long gotten away with murder. Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. There are numerous recent examples of professional sports teams that have rewarded their sold-out audiences with a winning product. The New England Patriots, Green Bay Packers, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Detroit Red Wings immediately come to mind. So, stay on the Maple Leafs’ wait-list, if you so desire, Chris. Just know that as soon as you drop your name, it will be filled, within seconds, by another season-ticket hopeful willing to hang on for as long as you have.
GAGAN from Brampton, Ont. writes: “Hey, Mr. Berger, this piece isn't directed at you but I want everyone to know how I feel. I've started to get quite annoyed with the Toronto hockey media the past few weeks because I continue to read the same things – printed in the paper and posted online – every day and every week. Okay, so Niklas Hagman, Jeff Finger and Curtis Joseph are not going to get the Leafs into the playoffs next season. But, what’s the big deal if the club tries to ice a competitive product? I'm no expert on this matter, but I'm pretty sure when you've been a professional hockey player for a number of years, it’s not in you to lose. Athletes are natural competitors. The same can be said about team management. There’s no way Cliff Fletcher is 'tanking' next season, to the dismay of some in the Toronto media. As much as they try to hide it, it's clearly evident that these writers have their own agendas. Who knows, maybe they are all Leaf fans at heart and want their chance to be GM for a day. Pretty much any media person that disagrees with the Hagman, Finger and Joseph signings wants the Leafs to re-build for 3-5 seasons, and to tank the 2008-09 campaign for a chance to draft John Tavares. Meanwhile there are others that think they know it all but they evidently do not. I'm talking about you, Sean McCormick. Your latest blog on Sportsnet.ca suggests the Leafs should have gone after talents such as Marian Hossa, Jaromir Jagr, Brian Campbell or Corey Perry. I hope you know the team you cheer for [Edmonton] put together a monstrous package for Hossa, only to be turned down. Is this the Jagr of 1991-92? I would doubt that McCormick has ever seen Hagman play. He has it all wrong. These signings show that the Leafs want to be competitive in the years ahead and are not even considering the ‘tank’ word. The losing mentality that has plagued Toronto for the past few seasons is finally being kicked to the curb. It's the fans of the Maple Leafs that get criticized – deservedly so sometimes – for not giving the players enough of a chance in this NHL-crazed market. So, now I'm firing back. How about some of you in the media letting this situation play itself out? Let’s see how the Leafs fare in the first 20 games. Yeah, I'm pointing at you.”
Wow, Gagan, that’s an impressive rant. There has long been a feeling among the most passionate supporters of the Maple Leafs that the hockey media in Toronto somehow affects performance. It’s a classic, popular method for disappointed fans to divert frustration from the source – in this case, an entertainment/sports monolith that is characteristically incompetent. You have no power to influence the people that actually make decisions about the Leafs, for you continue to not only accept a bad team, but to thoroughly embrace it in ways that gorge the bottom line. Every jersey you buy; every ticket that is printed; every time you turn on the TV to watch the Leafs play, is another endorsement of the product – no matter how inept it is, or to what degree it torments you. This routine acquiescence allows the money moguls at MLSE to laugh, uproariously, all the way to the bank. So, why not turn to the media? It’s the closest you can get to the root of the problem. But, remember, the sports medium in a particular city is only as influential as it’s allowed to be. In New York, the media capital of the world, every paper could put three reporters on the Red Bull soccer beat, and it wouldn’t cause a ripple. Sports fans in the Big Apple want to read about the Yankees and Giants. The Miami and Fort Lauderdale papers could load up on columnists and reporters covering the NHL Panthers, and the people would yawn. It is Dolphins news they want, no matter how lousy the football team. Similarly, in Toronto, there is no limit to the scope of hockey coverage – electronic or print. Every word that is spoken or written about the Leafs is voraciously perused, analyzed… and taken to heart. A story or blog isn’t public domain for two minutes before it is posted somewhere and debated. More importantly, the status of a particular media figure increases with the critical tone of reporting. Leaf fanatics constantly bitch about the likes of Damien Cox and Steve Simmons, only to make them the most widely-read columnists in the city. My FAN-590 colleague, Bob McCown, isn’t the host of the No. 1-ranked sports-radio show in the country because he ignores the Maple Leafs. No person on the air so blatantly reminds listeners how abysmal the hockey club is, or how “stupid” its fans are. You folks hate his guts for bearing the truth, but you can’t get enough of him – he so adroitly pushes your buttons. The same Leaf zealots that call me a rotten bastard in e-mails are the first to wonder where my blog is if I skip a day. So, if it’s true that the consistently lousy performance of the Leafs is partly due to “negative” media coverage, it is that way solely because of the demand for such material. A demand that is insatiable and endless.
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