The Toronto Maple Leafs are to hockey what the New York Yankees are to baseball, but unfortunately for Leafs fans, the last few years have not been as kind towards the Blue and White as it has been for the guys wearing the pin stripes.
And the question on most hockey fans minds, regardless if they're Leafs fans or not is, when will it ever get better? Because the situation in Toronto is so bizarre and convoluted that it confounds most hockey experts, never mind the ordinary fan who just wants the team to start winning again.
In simple terms, the problem begins at the top. The team, whose value is tops in the NHL at $413 million, is owned by Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment. This sports conglomerate is owned by a consortium of four different groups, the biggest being a teacher's pension fund which controls nearly sixty per cent of the ownership pie. Another of the principal owners is a man named Larry Tanenbaum, who also happens to be on the eight member board of directors alongside the current President and CEO Richard Peddie.
And this is where the problem begins, as it is rumored that these two gentlemen have philosophical differences on how to run the hockey team, so that in effect, the executive is creating an atmosphere of confusion and infighting that ensures future instability for the club. Until this ownership situation is straightened out, the chances of the Leafs returning to respectability are very slim as the team is literally scaring any potential management types away. Just ask Scotty Bowman, who was cocked and ready to grab the reins and turn the ship around in December 2007, until he found out just how messed up the working conditions would be.
Or ask John Ferguson Jr., the recently fired GM who tried valiantly to right the ship the last few years despite having to deal with the messy situation where one guy says one thing, and then the other guy says another. It was rumored all summer that John's days were numbered, and even during the regular season Peddie was quoted in the Toronto media as saying he made a mistake hiring Ferguson in the first place. Ouch! That has to be a very uncomfortable situation to be working in for anybody, so it probably wasn't too disheartening for John when the axe fell in late January of this year. And to think Leafs fans thought the Harold Ballard years were bad!
As has been typical of the Leafs organization the last few years, it always seems like no matter how they try, there's always something or someone who jinxes them as if they have a dark cloud over their heads that prevents the team from returning to the glory days that the fans so desperately cry out for. Remember Gretzky's highstick on Doug Gilmour during the Conference Finals in 93? Leafs fans do, as it just reinforced their suspicions that the whole Universe was against them.
During the off season this year, the team signed free agent Jason Blake who had an impressive run with the Islanders and looked like he would be a great fit beside Mats Sundin. Sadly, just before the regular season began, he was diagnosed with a form of Leukemia that fortunately should not be life threatening, and allowed him to remain on the active roster. But to the fans, this was just another example of how this team seems to be suffering through a Cubs or Red Sox -like curse of some kind.
When it was obvious in February that the Leafs looked poised to miss their third consecutive year of playoff action, interim GM Cliff Fletcher let it be known that he intended to do whatever it took to turn the team around, including trading ANY player he felt he had too. Unfortunately for him and the team, most players have no trade clauses in their contracts, and all of them wanted to remain in Toronto, including the captain and best player of the last number of years, Mats Sundin.
This development caused an almost circus-like media show in the city with much speculation and innuendo going around, and even included daily polls questioning what the fans felt Mats should do for the sake of the team. Could this soap opera get any more silly or bizarre?
On the ice, the team played the way they have since the lockout, with adjectives such as inconsistent and promising being appropriate depending on what they were doing at that specific time. The goaltending situation could be described as somewhat strange as they had picked up Vesa Toskala during the off season, although Andrew Raycroft was thought to have already had that position locked up.
There's no question that the veteran players like Sundin, Kaberle, Tucker, and Blake all had a respectable year, and you couldn't ask for a better coach than Paul Maurice. But still, this wasn't enough as they fell a few points shy of making the playoffs.
About the only bright spot in the whole organization are the prospects. In fact, during the final couple of weeks it was the kids who literally carried this team to almost make the post-season. Guys like Anton Stralman, Alex Steen, Matt Stajan, Boyd Deveraux, and Kyle Wellwood played with an intensity that had the fans believing that just maybe this year would be different.
So looking forward, we know there's still much uncertainty in the top echelons of the ownership conglomerate, and the veteran players don't want to be traded, and the kids can play with a tenacity to match any team in the league on any given night.
So in other words, if you thought this year was interesting, just wait until the 2008-2009 Maple Leafs season is here. Even the Ringling Brothers couldn't come up with a circus this interesting, or scary.