Why didn't the canadian have to rake his lawn last fall?

Apology not accepted.

As a punishment, the CBC will only feature them in 80 Hockey Night in Canada games next season.

Why?

They would not sell one less ticket if they told Leaf fans to fark off.

No other team in the world could miss the playoffs for seven/eight years in a row and still sell out, AND know they could do it for another ten years if they wanted.

Has it really been since '93 that the Cup hasn't been in a Canadian team's hands? Dang.

The problem is twofold here: you have a fanbase that keeps buying tickets no matter what kind of product is on the ice. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment should just go out and buy Moscow Dynamo from the KHL, fly 'em over and slap some Leaf jerseys on them in time for next season for a quick fix.

The second problem is the press that has this compulsion to report on every bowel movement that happens in the Air Canada Centre. Half of them cry when the latest Leaf prospect isn't brought up right away, and the other half start bawling when said prospects don't immediately turn into Martin Brodeur or Mario Lemieux within two games. Just ask Damian Rhodes, Scott Clemmensen, Brandon Convery, Nazem Khadri, Jiri Tlusty etc.

At least Burke was trying to build up the farm system, instead of trading every last prospect for yet another player expected to carry the entire franchise on his back.

Finally, a giant fark You to Rogers and Bell. Maybe the money you already suck from Canadian consumers like a hooker snorting a line off of Charlie Sheen's dick might help turn this franchise around, but I sincerely doubt it. It's not like you've opened your purse strings for the Jays there-- why would you do so for the Leafs (or the Raptors, or Toronto FC)?

Columbus will win a Stanley Cup before the Leafs will at this point. I just hope Buffalo has enough faith to keep Lindy Ruff and Darcy Regier. Look north Sabres fans... you may have missed the playoffs this season, but do you think you'll be any worse than the team an hour and a half north of you? Maybe owner Terry Pegula needs to make an "It Gets Better" video for Sabres fans.

Seacrest out.

Decillion: Why?

They would not sell one less ticket if they told Leaf fans to fark off.

No other team in the world could miss the playoffs for seven/eight years in a row and still sell out, AND know they could do it for another ten years if they wanted.

Cubs?

Why in the world would someone complain about the Leaf ownership? They spend to the cap every year, have by far the biggest and best paid management with SEVEN former GMs on the list, and have dumped money and manpower into their scouting in order to be the most informed franchise in terms of prospects in the league.

They've done everything they can. The cap precludes anything else.

The problem isn't management, nor is it fans, nor is it the media. The problem is THE PLAYERS SUCK. Entrusting the team's leadership to a neanderthal fraud like Phaneuf is idiocy. The guy could power a wind tunnel with the amount of hot air he is constantly blowing (especially at his teammates, he was hated in Calgary for never shutting up), but he is as dumb as a sack of very stupid hammers and couldn't make a good defensive decision on the ice if his life depended on it. Ron Wilson's stupid mind games screwed up Schenn, but he was never more than a 5th defenseman in skill level to begin with and never should have been drafted where he was. Kessel doesn't give a crap anywhere on his side of the red line and folds like a cheap suit to adversity. And that's the core of the team. The fringe players are barely NHL caliber at all.

Nice interview with Burke today. Great rebuttal by the way. Burke has to go. (new window)

The Leafs have many problems. They fixed the Wilson problem, so I'm not ready to join the dogpile until I see how Carlyle does with a full season and a full off-season under his belt, to work with his new assistants and whatnot.

The media is very ruthless with young guys and tears them apart when they don't perform the way the press thinks they should. Kadri is the perfect example of that this year. Joe Colborne and Carter Ashton will be those guys next year.

Burke and the owners think that Kessel is heart of the team. And he is a great player, but you can't expect a career .71 PPG player (.65 prior to this season) to be your best first-line player, unless you're surrounding him with an entire team full of guys who are scoring consistently like that - look at teams like Nashville, or better yet Detroit - in the last five seasons, Detroit has had three instances of guys scoring over a point a game - Datsyuk in 07/08 and 08/09, and Zetterberg in 07/08). Lupul was that guy this year, and then his shoulder disintegrated. Otherwise, guys like Grabovski and Macarthur just aren't up to snuff. So, as isn't exactly a surprise, there's zero depth.

Goaltending was actually the least of their worries going into this season, as James Reimer was fantastic, but he demonstrably hasn't been the same guy since getting his clock cleaned by Brian Gionta. So, they've had to turn more to Jonas Gustavsson. Now, I like the Monster, but he's like a worse version of Luongo. Half the time, he's making inexplicable saves and looking like the best talent out there. The other half, he's letting in softies from centre ice.

Finally, the fans. If you keep tuning in, and if the suits keep paying $30K/year for seasons' tickets, then there's not much of an incentive to change, is there? Regardless of performance, there's a reason that the waiting list for season' tickets is like 10 years long.

I hate the leafs with a passion. That said, the "the owners don't care they sell out every game anyway." and the mockery for them selling out every game every year are both wrong. The te hired one of the premiere gms at the time and are always one of the league's highest spenders. It's not like ownership doesn't want to win. As for the fans, it's easy to cheer for a good team, not so much a crap team. I understand the idea of not going to games when the team sucks, but it also harms your team when they want to improve the team but cant because they aren't generating enough revenue due to half empty or worse facilities. Eventually the team just leaves town even though there is a market for the team.....

I love the Leafs. From an opposing fans viewpoint, they're so enjoyable to watch fail, and the ridiculous optimism and overreaction to any success by their fans makes it even better.

octopied: I love the Leafs. From an opposing fans viewpoint, they're so enjoyable to watch fail, and the ridiculous optimism and overreaction to any success by their fans makes it even better.

You aren't wrong. I was at the Canucks/Leafs game this year and there was a large number of very vocal Leafs fans. Fortunately they shut up quite quickly when they started to get steamrolled.

fatalvenom: Old and busted: Making fun of the Maple Leafs

Making fun of the Leafs at this point is like pushing an 8 year old in a wheelchair into traffic and laughing when he gets nailed by a tractor trailer.

They are sadly quickly approaching Cleveland Brown's territory.

/YOU ARE A FACTORY OF SADNESS, EH !?!

UncleStumpy: I hate the leafs with a passion. That said, the "the owners don't care they sell out every game anyway." and the mockery for them selling out every game every year are both wrong. The te hired one of the premiere gms at the time and are always one of the league's highest spenders.

No, the mockery is rightly deserved and the Calgary Flames should be ridiculed for the exact same reason.

I made a few hundred off coworkers this year betting against the leafs.

Thank you kessel for not scoring 40 goals.

Thank you leafs for missing the playoffs yet again

now ... what to spend my winnings on ?

jicon: Nice interview with Burke today. Great rebuttal by the way. Burke has to go. (new window)

Actually it's a stupid rebuttal. Chicago and Pittsburgh were trash prior to and after the lockout. Hell the Pens were in bankruptcy court for the first half of that decade and everyone knew Bill Wirtz was never going to shell out any kind of real money. If Toronto, the most lucrative team in hockey, suddenly threw away all it's best players and iced a team that could barely compete in the ECHL like Pittsburgh did in '03 and '04 there would be howls of protest from every corner of the hockey world and demands of an investigation. That writer knows it too, not that he'll admit it.

Pontious Pilates: My dad went to UT in the late 50s and early 60s in the Original Six days and went to every Leaf game he could. Damn, they haven't been good in a long time.

Is there any other major North American sports team that is so bad, and yet is such a hard ticket to get?

UT? That's like a 3 day drive from Toronto.

U of T on the contrary, is in Toronto. Anyone who actually attended that institution refers to their alma mater as 'U of T'.

\Rippity Rappety, Rippity Rappety Ree, Toronto Toronto Toronto Varsity