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| McDonald as captain of the Rockies |
RE: The NHL lockout. The are enough reasons for any Maple Leafs fan, even the most optimistic, to be upset over the entire state of NHL hockey in Toronto. The Maple Leafs haven't iced a quality team since before the lockout and have had a handful of decent teams (notably the early 2000s two final four appearances and a division title), and obviously the Dougie years which featured two straight final four appearances, but basically the team has been terrible since the they shipped star and fan favourite Lanny McDonald to the hapless Colorado Rockies in December 1979, also my birth year and month so I feel at least cosmically responsible (the deal also made Darryl Sittler turn in his captaincy and want out of T.O). But with the team failing to reach the playoffs between lockouts, I don't think the team has ever been in worse shape. No real identity and no direction. I stopped getting Leaf tickets two years ago since I was sick and tired of paying a couple thousand dollars for two seats 10-12 games in the upper bowl and then leave disappointed every time. Last year was the first season in years where I just said no to the prices, not that I'm being a cheap screw but if you aren't going to ice a decent team (or a downright embarrassing team sometimes) I don't know how you can justify raising the prices at the ACC that 1% every single season, especially when you easily lead the league in team revenue. Last year I got my puck fix at a handful of AHL games and not once did I come away feeling cheated. And that all I ask… you can lose, just don't be pathetic. Some Leaf analysts are insisting that the lockout may be a great thing for the team giving their core of younger talent another year of maturation. Well the lockout isn't good for anyone involved. The players, the fans, the workers at rinks all around the NHL, hell the parking lot guy. Oh and the perception that both the owners and players are greedy pigs isn't helping. The NHL has made great strides in the US market since the last lockout and all that good work could become undone since a lot of Americans are much more casual fan (speaking in generalities of course - check out the fans in Boston and Philly to name a couple hockey crazy cities) they will simply just tune into something else. It is the opposite to the baseball lockout in Canada, where casual fans turned away (two years removed from winning a World Series in Toronto no less) and haven't ever come back. The difference is baseball can survive without Canadian support, I'm just not sure that the NHL can survive without that of the United States... SO JUST PLAY HOCKEY
-Disgruntled NHL/Maple Leafs fan
Remember that time two shorts years ago when hockey was about perfect:
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