Jorn's Jottings V: Jorn Again
Quote of the Week
"Everybody says the Toronto media is tough. Well, there's a couple of jerks here. By and large, most of the people here are fair. The team plays well and they write that. The team plays poorly and they write that. That's their job."
- Leafs GM-in-waiting Brian Burke gets it half right. But, only a couple? We have our guesses, but we want names Brian!
All Cox, All the time
The surprise of the week was definitely Steve Simmons Tuesday column, when, unlike another local writer, he seemed to have an inkling that FJF's firing was imminent. Simmons' piece was an insightful look at JFJ's reign of error, examining pretty much every move that Fergie made over the past five years and how they resulted in both Fergie's demise, and the Leafs' current predicament. We've given Simmons the gears once or twice in the past, so it is only fair that we give him credit when it is due.
Damien Cox, on the other hand, made us wait until Friday for his final thoughts on the Brylcreem Regime. And true to form, his analysis dealt little with Ferg and mostly with criticism of the Fletcher hiring and nine paragraphs (of 12 total) trashing Darcy Tucker. This snippet sums up Cox's output for the week:
Give Ferguson the Fletcher treatment, and all you'd hear about is how cheap the Leafs got Tomas Kaberle for, or how wise it was to hang on to Nik Antropov, or how under his watch the Leafs have again become a team sporting significant numbers of drafted players.
I'll say this again, because I don't think Damien gets it. Cliff Fletcher is getting the "Cliff Fletcher treatment" because, regardless of his bad moves as Leafs GM, he pulled off the two greatest trades in the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs. If the Leafs are so fucked in ten years that they decide it would be a good idea to bring Fergie back for another run, the best that anyone could say about him is that he signed Kabs and Antro on the cheap, and let Andy Wosniewski on the ice. See a difference here? You must? You have to? Why don't you?
Who asked you anyway?
Ringless NHL coach and former TSN talking head Mike Babcock has identified the real villain in the horror-show that is the current Leaf's team:
"Everybody says the Toronto media is tough. Well, there's a couple of jerks here. By and large, most of the people here are fair. The team plays well and they write that. The team plays poorly and they write that. That's their job."
- Leafs GM-in-waiting Brian Burke gets it half right. But, only a couple? We have our guesses, but we want names Brian!
All Cox, All the time
The surprise of the week was definitely Steve Simmons Tuesday column, when, unlike another local writer, he seemed to have an inkling that FJF's firing was imminent. Simmons' piece was an insightful look at JFJ's reign of error, examining pretty much every move that Fergie made over the past five years and how they resulted in both Fergie's demise, and the Leafs' current predicament. We've given Simmons the gears once or twice in the past, so it is only fair that we give him credit when it is due.
Damien Cox, on the other hand, made us wait until Friday for his final thoughts on the Brylcreem Regime. And true to form, his analysis dealt little with Ferg and mostly with criticism of the Fletcher hiring and nine paragraphs (of 12 total) trashing Darcy Tucker. This snippet sums up Cox's output for the week:
Give Ferguson the Fletcher treatment, and all you'd hear about is how cheap the Leafs got Tomas Kaberle for, or how wise it was to hang on to Nik Antropov, or how under his watch the Leafs have again become a team sporting significant numbers of drafted players.
I'll say this again, because I don't think Damien gets it. Cliff Fletcher is getting the "Cliff Fletcher treatment" because, regardless of his bad moves as Leafs GM, he pulled off the two greatest trades in the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs. If the Leafs are so fucked in ten years that they decide it would be a good idea to bring Fergie back for another run, the best that anyone could say about him is that he signed Kabs and Antro on the cheap, and let Andy Wosniewski on the ice. See a difference here? You must? You have to? Why don't you?
Who asked you anyway?
Ringless NHL coach and former TSN talking head Mike Babcock has identified the real villain in the horror-show that is the current Leaf's team:
"When you go to a franchise and it's not a good one, I don't know if you have to blow it up, but you sure got to take every opportunity to do that," he said.
"What happens in Leafland is they won't allow you to do that. The reason ... is they have probably the most ravenous fans in the world ... and the fans want you to turn it around this year. They can't understand that ... you've got to rebuild it. That means drafting and that means trading away these players that you love and getting draft picks."
I hope he said this very slowly so that us dumb-shit Leafs can understand. We need to...rebuild? Draft picks? Trading away players? Thanks Mike, because I thought we were going to win the Stanley Cup this year. I guess I can take that $800 I was going to spend on playoff tickets and put it on the Red Wings losing to the 8th seed in the first round again this year.
"I guess I can take that $800 I was going to spend on playoff tickets and put it on the Red Wings losing to the 8th seed in the first round again this year."
I'll take 'having the chance to lose to the 8th seed every year' over 'scratching and clawing and praying that you just might be the 8th team' every damn time. Especially when it comes with extended playoff runs and the occasional championship.
Babcock's taken the Ducks to the finals and the Wings to the conference finals ... but he's not qualified to talk some hockey? Let's be real -- the very media morons you decry on this blog asked him the question. They ask anyone remotely connected to hockey how they'd "fix the Leafs" these days. He answered it, and you're hating on him. Stay classy.
Babcock's opinion went beyond how he would "fix the Leafs", as he parroted the tired Toronto Media Meme that Leafs fans just won't tolerate a rebuild. Actually, Babcock took it a bit further, asserting that we "can't understand" the need to rebuild. I didn't realize that a trip to the Stanley Cup finals would give someone insight into the thought-process of a Leafs fan...in fact, I think it would result in the opposite...
Kim's right, and the Toronto Media Meme is really ridiculous.
The franchise is in bad shape, yes. But it isn't because fans won't tolerate a rebuild. It isn't because fans keep coming out to support the team. It isn't because "arrogant Leaf fans" view themselves as part of the centre of Canada or of the hockey universe, and it isn't because HNIC puts its most popular team on every Saturday night. It isn't because of Ballard, the abuse scandal or the fact that MLSE sells condos or owns a soccer team. And it isn't because of 1967. (Honestly, how would things have been any different today if the Leafs won the '93 Cup? The only impact today would be one less arrow in the Mittenstringer Quiver O' Cheap Shots.)
It IS because Brylcreem Jr. inherited a veteran roster and didn't adapt it nearly enough to the inevitable salary cap. Most of his trades, most of his signings and most of his picks didn't pan out. He created a team that is uncompetitive, thin on prospects and short on cap flexibility. Period. Oh, but he's suddenly a saintly human being with a wife and kids, so let's keep him around to make a hash of yet another trade deadline.
Surely Babcock understands this, although there does appear to be a correlation between people with the name Babcock, Toronto sports and the sudden onset of idiocy.
Jimmy...Babcock? If Mike had decided to talk about how he would go about rebuilding the Leafs then he would be more than qualified to talk about what moves he would make.
Since he started talking about the fans and how they are to blame then Varry Galk has the situation pegged.
Blaming the fans is an easy cop-out. One that no one mentioned in the 80s when the team was absolute garbage. They could have taken that entire decade to rebuild and create a juggernaut since no one stopped going to Leaf games then. Doing it now, as a stated exercise, won't harm attendance either because Leaf fans aren't bandwagoners like the rest of the NHL (save Montreal).