Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Accountability

The Leafs have yanked John Ferguson Jr out of his position as GM. It's a sad day in Toronto. Cliff Fletcher takes over on an interim basis as the Leafs enter a make or break period of their season that will determine whether they will be buying or selling in and around the trade deadline. If they can string together a few wins, they may hang on to Mats Sundin and try to make a run. If they continue to lose, they will try and move Sundin and many other overpriced members of their underachieving team.

The thing is, it will be hard to find takers for the likes of Pavel Kubina, Andrew Raycroft, Bryan McCabe et al.

It comes back to the fact that the Leafs brass, the Richard Peddies of the world think they know hockey. MLSE owns the Raptors, who brought in a top executive in Bryan Colangelo and gave him complete control of the team, no questions asked. Their problem is they're not capable of doing the same with their hockey team. If they were, Scotty Bowman would already be the one calling the shots.

Cliff Fletcher will be the guy in charge but make no mistake about it, MLSE will be looking over his shoulder every step of the way.

I'm starting to tire of the Leafs trials and tribulations. The amount of media attention they receive is nauseating. I feel for their fans, who deserve better. I can't wait for them to go on a winning streak so the tin-foil Stanley Cups start showing up again at the Air Canada Center.

It makes me glad I'm not a fan of the Leafs.

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