I promised myself when I finished exams that I would try to get better as this blog posting thing. But then the Leafs kept on losing, and I didn't want this to turn into an angry or passive aggressive outlet for a frustrated Leafs fan (yet, anyway) and couldn't bring myself to comment when the Leafs managed to go down to Atlanta by a margin of four goals heading into the third period. I just couldn't.
But then I realized, why do I have a blog if not to rant about the team that is slowly driving me to the brink of insanity? So brace yourself. I didn't get a chance to air my grievances on Festivus, but as a Jew, Christmas will do just as well.
I've been on the Fire Ron Wilson train for quite a while now. Let's call it all season. I understand that the roster he's working with is lacking depth and, you know, goal-scorers (Grabovski obviously excluded, as he has been in beast mode for the last month). However, the team does seem to have the capacity to play well, and have shown in many a third period last-ditch effort that they're not completely hopeless. They just consistently forget to show up for the first forty minutes of every game, digging holes too deep to recover from in those last ten minutes when they suddenly realize - Hey! We're in the middle of a hockey game!
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| If you look closely, his opponent's fear is reflected in his visor. |
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And this is why I have issue with Wilson. I'm not a hockey player, so I don't really understand what goes on in a locker room, or how different coaching techniques and personalities impact a team. All I know is that the current team is young, inexperienced, and (hopefully) only going to get better. The team has potential, if not to make the playoffs then to at least get out of lottery-pick territory, but Wilson doesn't seem to be able to get them there.
Burke completely revamped the roster last year in an effort to build a team around the notions of truculence and speed. This is that team, for better or for worse, and it's highly unlikely he has many more roster moves up his sleeve for the near future. So now the onus is on Wilson to work with these players and somehow make a competitive team out of them. Unfortunately, his key move seems to be to shuffle the lines and hope that players step up and gel. It's gotten to the point where he took Lebda off the blue line (which would have been tremendous news had he moved him directly to the press box, or better yet, the AHL) and stuck him on a line with Kessel and Mitchell. I mean, come on. If that move wasn't Wilson's way of saying "fuck you" to the fans... well, then to be honest I have no idea what the hell he was doing, which is even more disconcerting. Like an irritating child, he is testing his boundaries and rapidly discovering that there are none.
It comes down to one thing: as coached by Ron Wilson, the Leafs are thirteenth in the Eastern Conference. They are in lottery position. There is no risk in getting a new coach - either they finish in a lottery position anyway, or somehow manage to claw their way up to twelfth. Maybe even eleventh!
Brian Burke needs to do his job and makes the moves that are necessary to get the Leafs out of the gutter, even if that means firing his bestest buddy and ex-roommate. If he doesn't, we're all going to have to listen to the Toronto media whine about the Phil Kessel trade for another excruciating year while the Bruins get another top draft pick. Quite frankly, I don't know if I can take it.
But I suppose it could always be worse. Times like this I love to imagine how much fun the Sutter family Christmas dinner must be. Nothing says Merry Christmas like shipping your nephew to another team, while his father struggles as the coach of your franchise. Must be a blast.
