Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Unrest In Leafs Nation

Simpson MobIt’s been several hours since the Toronto Maple Leafs lost a “must win” game against the Florida Panthers 5-3 and I’m still more steamed than the last cup of coffee I made on my Keurig.

The unofficial start of the Leafs’ “Fail For Nail” campaign for the first overall draft pick occurred within seconds of the opening faceoff when defenseman/whipping boy Luke Schenn whiffed on a clearing attempt in his own zone. Florida’s Marcel Goc slammed home a one-timer from Wojtek Wolski a few seconds later and the rout was on.

And so were the “Fire Wilson!” chants throughout the Air Canada Centre.

My Twitter timeline has been blowing up with calls for the ouster of both head coach Ron Wilson and general manager Brian Burke and rightfully so. The Leafs are unwatchable. They can’t score. They can’t play defense. The goalies can’t make an easy save. The bottom six forwards won’t hit and hardly anyone drops the gloves anymore.

Fire Wilson!

It will now be eight years since the last time the Leafs made the playoffs and the team is no closer to playing meaningful games in April than they were when Paul Maurice was behind the bench, John Ferguson Jr. sent Tukka Rask to Boston for Andrew Raycroft, and Bryan McCabe and Tomas Kaberle impersonated synchronized traffic cones on the blue line.

Fire Wilson!

What really makes me angry is this is the second season Burke set the playoffs as a goal and the team will fall woefully short. At least under Maurice the Leafs waited until the last weekend of the season to break my heart.

Fire Wilson!

Luke Schenn, once a hope for the future, is now another former first round pick broken by the pressures of playing hockey in Toronto. He has clearly lost his confidence and needs a change of scenery to get his head straight before he becomes another Jim Benning or Gary Nylund.

Fire Wilson!

The Leafs were supposed to be full of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence upon Burke’s arrival but lately I’ve seen a lot of timidity, stupidity, cowardice and indifference out of this team. On some nights every Leaf not named Mike Brown could skate out there with a carton of eggs and not break any.

Fire Wilson!

The Leafs special teams have been anything but special under Wilson. They are routinely among the worst in the NHL and have cost the Leafs numerous wins along the way. If only they were halfway decent, they would likely make the playoffs.

Fire Wilson!

The players have changed but the results are the same year after year and there is only one solution to this mess

Fire Wilson!

4 comments:

Zebster said...

GREAT POST, RJ. Even if I'm not a Leafs fan nor have the info to have an opinion, that's a very entertaining read. Well done.
Look at how the Bruins have been night and day this year...there's still time for the early season Leafs to show up.

Brent said...

The thing is that if you do fire Wilson and Burke, you have another change in philosophy for the overall hockey operations in Toronto. And if you don't get the correct Gm/coach combo to work together flawlessly right from the beginning, you have a couple of more years of missing the playoffs to get the players to fit the scheme.

Fire Ron Wilson. I can agree with that. However, I think that you keep Brian Burke and hope that you can find a Goalie and a veteran defenseman that can withstand the pressure that comes with playing in Toronto.

Shel said...

I know very little about this team but after reading your post I say... FIRE WILSON!!!

A great read! Thanks for posting.

Brent said...

And so it shall be! Mr. Wilson has been fiored being relaced with Randy Carlyle.