BE-LEAF-ABLE

Some sort of conspiracy... well, I can't rule that out, but that brings up another point: Their committment to winning.

I don't know how much this team really wants to win. Many fans don't know how much this team really wants to win, be it Leaf fans, or fans of the teams on the outside looking into the mess that is the Toronto Maple Leafs organisation who them chuckle to themselves with every bizarre trade or bit of news that comes from this team - which comes often. I think there's a problem there if that's the case.

I mean, maybe some of them do want to win, maybe not. I'll say that they wouldn't mind winning... I mean, who minds winning? But do they care enough? We'll look at New Jersey, then the New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, or even Edmonton Oilers. Whatever the case be, whether they stink or not, you can tell they're trying to get somewhere - the League's elite.

Do we ever get that same vibe with the Toronto Maple Leafs? I mean, we look at Washington, and even a team as lowly as them, or Atlanta... you just get the feeling that they're trying, and I mean with full effort, to ice a respectable team despite the markets that some of them are in.

And the Leafs... well, they just don't make sense. Trying to see the picture in a way that portrays them as a team trying to end a looooong Stanley Cup drought, but their moves are unthinkably ridiculous. For the most part, they are as bad as they look.

And then one wonders... why are the people who are doing this still there, and how much does it matter to the fanbase as a whole that the team is just absolutely messed up from top to bottom? I mean, this is the Toronto Maple Leafs.



It's not okay, or at least to me it's not. We gotta' step back, look at this team and remember what this team is. This franchise/storybook/symbol... "do they do it justice".

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"It's not the way it's going to be. We have to be very, very patient and build this the right way. We have to go through a process. It may be painful. I hope it isn't. But we're prepared for all the bumps and pratfalls and potholes in the road ahead. I'm prepared for it anyway, or I wouldn't have come." - Ron Wilson, Head Coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.