I feel for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League.
Am I a Leaf fan ? Yeah, I guess at my roots, but in terms of being a zealot, no, I can’t hold a candle to the ” real ” Leaf fans.
Still, even as a moderate fan, it sickens me to see the daily abuse the club endures at every level from players to executives.
A perfect example was a the 2012 Trade Deadline when General Manager Brian Burke failed to make a splash, failed to make the blockbuster, and failed to acquire the franchise saviour.
Afterwards in a news conference, Burke stated trade deadlines are tough on any NHL player, but in Toronto, the pressure is multiplied many times over.
For that statement, Burke was the target of much derision.
But he was right, especially if you read between the lines.
Now I may miss the boat entirely here, but what I took from his remarks was this;
1) the Toronto Hockey media are morons who conjure any number of wild transactions and peddle them as factual pieces of information.
And 2) Leaf Nation, or the public in general, are suckers for accepting any thread of these reports as being accurate.
For example, I still await the much reported Mats Sundin to Philadelphia trade for Jeff Carter AND a first rounder……….Come on !!!
Someday, the Leafs will win the Stanley Cup. They will. Like Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin, I believe this.
But in the interim what we are left with is the annual trade deadline, wild fabrication and a Stanley Cup drought that continues to exist……1967 !!!
I’m Fred Wallace