The Toronto Maple Leafs

Hi Everyone, well I was going to write something on Mr. Betman today but my frustrations on my team, the Toronto Maple Leafs ( I know hold the snickers, you can’t say I ‘m a band wagon jumper) have put a burr in my saddle so to speak. You talk about a Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hide as far team play is concerned. Last Saturday they play the 1st place Ottawa Senators at home and take the game 4-2, then just a mire 48 hours later they come out and get their butts kicked by the lowly Florida Panthers to the tune of 8-0. Last night again 48 hours later they go into Montreal where the Canadians have been playing great lately and right on Ottawa’s back for 1st place in the East and hand them a 4-2 loss on home ice. Who would have thought that would happen. These guys have more ups and downs than the “Top Gun “ride at Canada’s wonderland. I feel sorry for Paul Maurice, the guy must be beside himself and I am surprised he still has his hair and has not pulled it all out. The leafs have the Detroit Red Wings (the best team record wise in the league) in Toronto on Saturday. It will be interesting to see which team shows up. Based on their up and down play all season long, the red wings will hand them their butt’s in a basket. The leafs have shown flashes of being a very good team but in the end a couple of bone head mistakes that a midget hockey player would get benched for happen and the game is lost. They are the epitome of what happens when you play 55 minutes of hockey when the game is 60 minutes long.
Toronto’s problems go much deeper than the on ice product. John Ferguson Jr. had no idea how to manage the salary cap for one and signed guys that were ok players but not worth near what he paid them (are you listening Pavel Kabina). So he had no cap room to improve the team and could not bring in anyone even if he wanted too. The board hired Ferguson because he came cheap and would be a yes man for Petty. Then when things get dicey, Petty jumps ship and stabs him in the back, saying maybe he should not have hired him. Wow what a stand up guy you are Richard. No real hockey man will work under Petty without total autonomy on all hockey decisions. That won’t happen with Petty as the CEO. Hopefully Cliff Fletcher can sort things out but here again he does not have much wiggle room. The front office is a mess; you have a board of directors headed by Richard Petty that think they are hockey men. I have news for you guys, just stick to being a fan and let the real hockey guy’s like Cliff Fletcher run the hockey end of things. The first thing petty talks about when asked is what a great job he has done for the share holders (read the teachers union) well big deal there Rick anyone could make money with the leafs, it is right up there with taxes as a sure thing. It would be nice if the teachers union got out of the sports business because their #1 objective is to make the pension money, putting a product on the ice is secondary.
The bottom line here is that Cliff needs to clean house even if it means that he has to pay part of some of the player’s salaries to play somewhere else.
Well that’s enough venting for now and the opinion’s expressed here are just my own.
Walter Webb
http://sportingnews.ning.com/