Ah yes, I knew Les Habitants would not let me down last evening. Another win for our
Pick of the Day and another loss for the hapless Leafs, their 8th in a row. Now they just need to go for their team record, which if you didn't know occured back in 1967 and was a losing streak of 10 straight.
Actually, it astounds me that during the 70's and 80's they somehow did not eclipse this total. As any long suffering Leaf fan could tell you, those were not exactly the boom years.
So what to do with this sad collection of mismanaged players. Here with, one astute man's prescription.
First a pointed note though: Unlike the Lemming like followers content to march in step with this team's downward descent right over the cliff, we will be looking to the long term, toward building to WIN THE CUP. Not simply a first round series. Celebrating along Young Street for winning a round or making the playoffs and the accompanying management realization that this is all that is required to fill the building and sell the jerseys are what has kept this once proud franchise mired in mediocrity for so long.
1 - Mats Sundin elevates his level of play and dominates at the Olympics, as he has done before. His trade value thus increased, JFjr immediately starts the bidding. You think perhaps, oohhhh...i don't know say CALGARY might be interested in a #1 centerman for the playoffs. So we flip him for good young players and at least one 1st round pick, if not two.
2 - McCabe is a UFA this off season. The Lemmings that inhabit the ACC seem to forget this. You think he'll give us a hometown discount. THINK AGAIN YOU CLUELESS FOOLS! He'll want at the very least 6 million per year, if not more. He still is not good enough defensively to justify this kind of outlay. We therefore start the bidding on him as well. Once again, good YOUNG prospects and draft picks are the required compensation. Preferablly some young, BIG, defensively minded blueliners among the players.
3 - Dump Alison for WHATEVER you can get. Even if it's just a bag of pucks. At all costs we want to avoid paying him his 4 million or so next year.
4 - The one thing Ferguson has done well is have a ton of cash available for next year and not lock himself into any long term deals. The cap going up hurts this strategy, as it reduces our large available payroll's marginal utility and helps out capped out clubs like the Wings and the Devils, but we still are in very good shape cap wise going forward.
5 - Once Sundin has been traded we immediately elevate to our number one line the only youth we have. And we play them 22 minutes per game each. STAJAN - WELLWOOD - STEEN. Period. This is the future. We let them play and let them learn. Lindros is our 2nd line center with Tucker and O'Neill. They play a ton as well. We want to see if 88 still has it in himself to be an elite level player. Same with O'Neill. 3rd and 4th line ice time and who gets it is basically irrelevant . We're focused on the future for once, not the present.
6 - Belfour is dealt, if possible, as well. Probably at this point there's no one who wants him....but you never know. someone like Kevin Lowe might just be stupid enough to think Ed has something left (he doesn't) and might just part with some youth to find out. Edmonton afterall do have a rather dire need for someone to tend their twine. Telqvist plays 90% of the rest of the season, once again as with Lindros, to find out once and for all if he can be a true #1 goalie. If not, we've got both Pogge and Rusk just waiting to get a shot.
7 - We tank, as much as possible, the rest of the season to finish with as high a draft position as possible. It seems unlikely that even the Leafs could be so bad from here on out as to finish amongst the bottom 3 (to gain the lottery for the #1 pick) but given how many points they have accumulated their last 8 games with Sundin, perhaps such a goal is not unreachable. Kessel (not that I desire this over-rated clown but he'd fetch a ridiculous amount in any trade), Johnson, Toews...we're coming for you.
8 - With the draft picks and youth acquired in trades, we completely overhaul the team, basically dispensing with all the dead wood (that means you Nik) and keep just that which is productive. And we outright CUT Domi. I don't care if he does have pictures of Tanenbaum sleeping with goats (he must!), he's gone.
9 - We do resign Kaberle. But only if we hold him to less than 5 million per season. If some other team wants to pony up 6 million per year for a soft, yet smooth skating dman, well let them. After the Olympic break Colaiacovo starts playing 27 minutes per game anyway to finally allow him to adapt to the speed of the NHL without always having to look over his shoulder and worry about making one mistake and getting benched.
10 - Quinn is kept on until the end of the season. But is told in no uncertain terms by JFjr during the break that he will be playing the kids ALL THE TIME. Otherwise he will be fired immediately. Thus chastened, we keep him around till April (there will be no May or June for this team sorry to burst your bubble Lemmings) and then immediately elevate the brightest and most sought after young coach in hockey, Paul Maurice, to the big club from the Marlies. Having had a year to get back into the coaching game, and already having proven his infinite ability with Carolina (you do remember 2002 don't you Lemmings?), we let him become the firm hand that guides our youth to eventual victory.
Sadly for those few Leaf fans who are not blinded by the present (and past) and who are indeed mindful of the future, the above will never occur given present attitudes. Because to do so would mean MLSE was truly committed to winning the Stanley Cup, not just pretending to contend and raking in the accompanying cash. Indeed they may very well be worried that if they finally do go and win the thing, that would satisfy the pent up desire all too well of the Lemmings and that thus placated, the Lemmings would no longer care quite so passionately or financially fervently, about their Blue and White.
So basically the only way to affect meaningful change in the course of this franchise is for, quite simply, the cash to run out. NOW. To force MLSE to re-think their assumptions and to realize that they cannot take for granted forever the allegiance and loyalty of Leaf fans. And how does this occur? Quite simply.
Two things need occur. First you as a Leaf fan must give up all hope that there is any chance of competing for a Stanley Cup at any point in the near future. As Daredevil will tell you, a man without hope is a man without fear. And a lack of fear of the future is what is needed here. This is why the Leafs actually scraping into the playoffs as the 8th seed (even though it would hurt us draft position wise) and then proceeding to get absolutely and utterly humilated by Ottawa in 4, if not fewer, games (as they so surely would and oh how enjoyable that would be to watch...nothing like seeing The Lemmings crying in their beers) would infact be EXACTLY the cold, hard SLAP IN THE FACE that is required to jolt fans out of their delirium induced stupors and thus force into part two. Which is:
The Lemmings must then, having awoken to the pathetic reality of their team, FINALLY, COMPLETELY, and EMPHATICALLY refuse to spend one more red cent on any ticket, jersey, hat, or product in any way associated with MLSE. Fans have it in their power to force the high and mighty boys of MLSE to change course and actually commit to winning. But fans themselves must change course and commit to winning first.
In other words and to paraphrase Jeremy Roenick:
Wake Up Lemmings! Wake Up!
For Wagering Enthusiasts
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