(Randy Carlyle has inherited one huge mess)
By Kris Harrison
Let me preface the coming argument with a short disclaimer. I am a HUGE Toronto Maple Leafs fan. I will be the first in line to buy high priced, low quality merchandise from the street side vendors lining the Stanley Cup parade route on Yonge Street. Before I am chased down the 401 and out of town, let me explain why the Maple Leafs will never win the Stanley Cup.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are not a team, they are a business. The majority of teams in the NHL are owned and operated by hockey fans. Terry Pegula, Mike Ilitch, Ted Leonsis and Mario Lemieux (to name a few) love the game and want to win. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment values profitability over the quality of the product. As long as team revenue outweighs the cost of doing business, MLSE has won the only game they wish to play. Before we enter the clichéd tirade about heartless owners let me tell you why this is. We, the fans are the real problem.
The suits in the owner’s suite over at the Air Canada Centre (when they deign to view their investment) have been trained by decades of sold-out tickets and merchandising revenues that the on-ice product is irrelevant. Like Pavlov’s dogs, they salivate at the sound of the puck drop, knowing that their bank accounts are soon to be fed once more. It does not matter that the lower bowl seats are empty at the start of each period as the corporate season ticket holders compare business cards as if they were characters in a Bret Easton Ellis novel. MLSE knows that regardless of the quality they supply, they still hold the hottest ticket in town.
But the Pavlovian response runs both ways in the Center of the Hockey Universe. The loyal fans of the team have spent those same decades being conditioned to accept failure. You hear it in every voice as you discuss the previous night’s game. In the pre-season, optimism runs high. As the season drags on, hopes falter, but rather than disgust and anger, the disappointed fans in Toronto simply shrug their shoulders and repeat the team’s unofficial mantra. “We look good for next year.” There is no passion. There are no tears. There is no public outcry for change and improvement, and the players see this.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are the hockey equivalent of Peter Pan. They coast through each season, never growing up, taking their supporters for granted and living life as if there are no consequences to their actions. The fans are the children sitting at home, plugging the Disney DVD into the player and watching it ad nauseum, knowing that the outcome will never change. Finally, the hopes and dreams of Stanley Cup glory are Tinkerbell, poisoned by Captain Hook and dying in the forest of Neverland. All Tinkerbell needs is for the children to believe in her and she will live. Clap your hands children and shout “I believe in fairies!” and she will live. But we don’t believe, not deep down in our hearts.
The fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs expect failure and MLSE is more than happy to give us what we expect. Say it to yourselves fans, clap your hands and shout “I believe in the Stanley Cup!” and truly mean it. Until we stop accepting mediocrity, we will never rise above it.
Kris Harrison is a guest columnist at TMLfans.ca
How about that they have terrible management, scouts who don’t seem to be able to assess talent nor a GM or coach for that matter (both Burke and Wilson calling Phaneuf the best defenceman in the league….realllllly?) How about that the GM changes his tune in terms of future direction of the team as often as the wind changes direction? How about a GM that doesn’t know whether draft picks are a good thing or not, doesn’t understand you can’t go the whole season with two unproven goalies, doesn’t even try to help Kulemin (a potential 30 goal man, again) out of his slump by putting him on the top line. I’m so disgusted by it all….it’s so sickening.
I live in Australia however I have followed the Leafs for nearly 40 years and have watched in wonder to there demise
When the team which I watched in Canada with the Tiger and Sitler as we as Solming and Mc Donald playing at the Gardens the Hockey was brilliant now it is sad to see this great team this low
I keep saying there is always next year but it is the same we need that spirit back and the drive which we now seem to lack
The fans are being taken for granted by both the management and the players it is time for change
Why the Leafs won’t win the cup, very negative outlook but the fans, true fans…. want the team to do well. When you want to have a good hockey team you want to hire the best that’s available to run the Team. It’s maybe partly the fans fault but not all that’s for damn sure. Fans who actually pay to see a lousy product on the ice are partly to blame, all I have to do is change the channel which even I have a hard time doing until the score is 5-0. But seriously the NHL has so many teams it’s hard now to get some talent with actual desire to win. I think the NHL is watered down with too many teams and is hard to get mature hard working players hense TML’s lack of veterans, talented veterans indeed. You have to be a lot more patient these days with young players still Toronto hasn’t drafted a rookie that can play right out of Juniors in years and stick with the team for the season, that should tell you something. Might be partly the fans fault for showing up but gutless management and ownership are the main reason, say what you want, I’ve been a fan since 1963 and watched Punch Imlach dismantle the Leafs player by player.
I grant you that the Leafs are a depressing embarrassment, but what are their fans supposed to do? I suppose those who purchase outrageously overpriced tickets could stop. I suppose we could all stop buying Leafs merchandise, I suppose people like me who fork over money to purchase NHL Center Ice so we could watch them could stop, but would any of this make any difference?
As I said yes they are as awful as they have ever been and there’s little hope, but what do the fans do to change it? I submit there’s very little we can really do.
All of the above arguments are valid, however; the fact that the fans will support the team regardless of how well they do is simply sending a message to MLSE that they do not even need to try to win.
Small market US teams know that if they are going to be profitable, they must be successful. Toronto has no such problem.
Until the fans give them a reason to think otherwise, the management will continue to operate as they have done for decades.
I enjoyed the article Kris but I disagree on a couple points. First off, supposedly, the fans did have a say in the firing of coach Wilson… if you believe Burke that is.
Second, the Leafs spend a ton of money on the team, if it’s just a nuts and bolts ‘bottom line’ situation they wouldn’t do that to the extent that they have over the years.
From an outside view it sure seems to me that what’s happening now is a result of a confluence of completely misreading two things ( intentional or not ), a change to the ‘new’ NHL game in terms of rule application and a handcuffing, if you will, of the Leafs spending might with the hard cap. The modus operandi of team building falls in there as well, that the Leafs would eschew developing talent, keeping picks etc., to ‘buy’ their way into contention. Part of the ‘hope’ in this case was a return to the 65 mil player contract budget they had in 2004.
With no farm system to speak of, a look at the 03/04 versus 05/06 roster is pretty startling.
Anywho, if the crux of the argument is ‘the fans are at fault’, well I disagree it’s that one sided, the bean counters may have a heartless pov but the current management group sure seem like hockey men to me.
Where I would agree some is that the ‘competitive’ edge that might keep a fan in line, being sold as a re tool, was wrong headed given the state of the team and maybe that has to do with the impression of the fans being at fault, ie, reading the fans as too impatient to wait.
The leaf fans need to leave the arena empty for about 10 games next season and watch the leafs business men start to panic. Dont buy tickets and they will wake up
All of the above is correct. However, I agree with whoever said not to buy tickets.
Yes, we really need a boycott. Don’t buy tickets, don’t watch games on TV, and don’t buy merchandise. (The later is easy, I wouldn’t be caught dead with a Leafs logo in public). MLSE may not care about their fans, but they do care about their profits.
Honestly, I’m not sure that will ever happen, unless… we get another NHL team in GTA. Sure, it may be hard to root for a new team, but not so hard if they’re decent.
As a long suffering Leafs fan, it’s hard to say, but the Leafs logo is synonymous with Loss.
I have been a fan for most of my life, have seen the leafs play many times and for all of my adult life have dreamed of glory. I was born in 1967 so MLSE I have never seen them win. The worst day in history was when they took control.
I agree that boycotts may be the only way to make the bean counters take notice.
The thing is greed is not good and they have too much control. If the were not winning in the pocket book like the team has not been winning on the ice they would understand.
The team also needs to continue to fight for the fans as do the managers staff and the whole organization. Things can turn around and should. I am 45 years old now, I would like to see a CUP before I die come back to Toronto.
I was brought up on TML. Watched them at the gardens at 5 years old. I believe that they were destroyed when Betman wouldn’t allow 2 Canadian teams to play for the cup. Watch and c if there r ever 2 Canadian teams at the end again. I am True Blue 4ever. And what is an URL?