To me, the question isn't "does he deserve to be booed?" or "do the fans have a right to ride a player like that?". The question is, what do people hope to accomplish by it?
McCabe hasn't played his best hockey in the opening weeks of the season, that much is certainly true. It's also true that the fans at the ACC pay a lot of money for their tickets and they have every right to heckle and jeer if they want to. But why?
The truth is that if Leaf fans actually want to see him play better hockey, this is not going to help matters. Booing a player (be it McCabe, Raycroft... or the team as a whole on a bad night) isn't going to accomplish anything other than frustrating and distracting the player in question.
You sometimes hear players refer to the home fans as being the 7th man that gives them that extra boost (often it's an empty comment made for PR purposes, but nevertheless...). Sadly, the fans at the ACC often turn themselves into a 7th man for the opposition by turning against their own.
|