That Toronto Play
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
-Macbeth, Act V
Kind of sums it all up, doesn't it? Except "idiot" should probably be pluralized in our case. Of course, Macbeth is one of the English language's greatest tragedies. Someone once said that tragedy the second time is farce; seeing as this is about the seventh franchise meltdown over the last forty years (the amount of time it's been since the Leafs won the Cup - I think maybe Damien Cox has mentioned it?) it's comforting to know that yep, it's still farce. The sound and fury is cranked to 11 today, but absolutely nothing of substance is happening.
The most embarrassing moment of the young week was provided by Richard Peddie. The Teacher's Pet popped his head up to admit that hiring Brylcreem Jr was a "mistake." So he's getting fired then? Oh, you're stepping down for failing at the fundamental hockey task that was your charge? Oh, neither. Thanks for coming out!
The board will apparently attend tonight's game en masse, for some reason. I hope they sit with JFJ. The inevitable 50 000 gondola shots will be more entertaining then the game.
In other news, someone has started a "Fire JFJ" site. I'm torn on this one. While it's nice to see Larry Tanenbaum using technology to reach out to the fans, it's troubling that he can't spell "cheering" properly. I'm sure he's got no problems with "boo," however.
What of the mittenstringers? At least most have got the central illness diagnosed - that the structure is fucked from top to bottom. Hell, even Simmons wrote a column I mostly agreed with today. That Simmons can mostly figure it out is a sign of just how obviously dysfunctional this structure is, coming from a man who would probably pin the OJ murders on Marcus Allen.
What most writers, especially LeBrun and Shoalts get wrong, however, is their assertion that if the very best isn't available, they need to keep Fergie around till year-end. What point does that serve? The Leafs need picks, prospects, and cap room yesterday. Brylcreem has no motivation to do this - in fact, he's in just the opposite postion. Furthermore, if he does try to make a deal, what motivation do other GMs have to offer him anything half-decent? JFJ has about as much juice around the league right now as Corey Haim does in Hollywood. Would you let Corey Haim try to get value from a Sundin trade? Varry Galk noted yesterday that the Leafs need to bring in an Embry to calm things down and mastermind the search for the next guy. I really think that's the way it needs to go. Or hell, they could just fire Fergie and bring in a four-headed committee of dynamos consisting of Messier, Healy, Kurvers, and Cox. I feel like Jon Stewart on the eve of the 04 election: either I'll get what I want, or it's gonna be real easy to make jokes for the next few years. Right now, that's as good as it gets for Leafs fans. A tragedy, indeed.
Before I go, I wanted to highlight a couple things:
PPP has a great take on the MLSE clusterfuck, which I agree with almost totally (we're a bit split on where to go from here). He'll have a game thread up for tonight's completely counterproductive Leafs win. Let's stop by for tonight's game and enjoy some gondola Kremlinology together!
And Bitter Leaf has taken the opposite approach to the current madness - the sweet embrace of Leafs madness of years past! He has a wonderful trip down memory lane with the help of old programs, John Anderson Burger, and Cliff Fletcher's muttonchops. Both are must-reads.
Be careful out there.
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
-Macbeth, Act V
Kind of sums it all up, doesn't it? Except "idiot" should probably be pluralized in our case. Of course, Macbeth is one of the English language's greatest tragedies. Someone once said that tragedy the second time is farce; seeing as this is about the seventh franchise meltdown over the last forty years (the amount of time it's been since the Leafs won the Cup - I think maybe Damien Cox has mentioned it?) it's comforting to know that yep, it's still farce. The sound and fury is cranked to 11 today, but absolutely nothing of substance is happening.
The most embarrassing moment of the young week was provided by Richard Peddie. The Teacher's Pet popped his head up to admit that hiring Brylcreem Jr was a "mistake." So he's getting fired then? Oh, you're stepping down for failing at the fundamental hockey task that was your charge? Oh, neither. Thanks for coming out!
The board will apparently attend tonight's game en masse, for some reason. I hope they sit with JFJ. The inevitable 50 000 gondola shots will be more entertaining then the game.
In other news, someone has started a "Fire JFJ" site. I'm torn on this one. While it's nice to see Larry Tanenbaum using technology to reach out to the fans, it's troubling that he can't spell "cheering" properly. I'm sure he's got no problems with "boo," however.
What of the mittenstringers? At least most have got the central illness diagnosed - that the structure is fucked from top to bottom. Hell, even Simmons wrote a column I mostly agreed with today. That Simmons can mostly figure it out is a sign of just how obviously dysfunctional this structure is, coming from a man who would probably pin the OJ murders on Marcus Allen.
What most writers, especially LeBrun and Shoalts get wrong, however, is their assertion that if the very best isn't available, they need to keep Fergie around till year-end. What point does that serve? The Leafs need picks, prospects, and cap room yesterday. Brylcreem has no motivation to do this - in fact, he's in just the opposite postion. Furthermore, if he does try to make a deal, what motivation do other GMs have to offer him anything half-decent? JFJ has about as much juice around the league right now as Corey Haim does in Hollywood. Would you let Corey Haim try to get value from a Sundin trade? Varry Galk noted yesterday that the Leafs need to bring in an Embry to calm things down and mastermind the search for the next guy. I really think that's the way it needs to go. Or hell, they could just fire Fergie and bring in a four-headed committee of dynamos consisting of Messier, Healy, Kurvers, and Cox. I feel like Jon Stewart on the eve of the 04 election: either I'll get what I want, or it's gonna be real easy to make jokes for the next few years. Right now, that's as good as it gets for Leafs fans. A tragedy, indeed.
Before I go, I wanted to highlight a couple things:
PPP has a great take on the MLSE clusterfuck, which I agree with almost totally (we're a bit split on where to go from here). He'll have a game thread up for tonight's completely counterproductive Leafs win. Let's stop by for tonight's game and enjoy some gondola Kremlinology together!
And Bitter Leaf has taken the opposite approach to the current madness - the sweet embrace of Leafs madness of years past! He has a wonderful trip down memory lane with the help of old programs, John Anderson Burger, and Cliff Fletcher's muttonchops. Both are must-reads.
Be careful out there.
Going forward I haven't really been able to settle on how I want to do it. I am bandwagon Raptors fan so I didn't realize that they brought in Embry to run things while they picked up Colangelo.
What you say about JFJ being in charge any longer is absolutely true. If they can find someone in the Embry mold that is willing to be an interim caretaker then I would advocate that role since it solves the major issue I have with firing JFJ now as opposed to when more candidates are available. Not that I didn't want him fired last April but that's a whole other story.