I wrote yesterday’s post, about the now almost certainly imminent demise of Maple Leaf head coach Paul Maurice, sometime in the afternoon.
Later that same night, the Leafs went out and watched the Coyotes beat them 5-1. They offered approximately the same amount of resistance to the Coyotes as drifts of snow offer to howling gusts of wind in the middle of January. The players, aside from a few spirited (but ultimately pointless) circles around the ice skated by Boyd Devereux, looked largely disinterested in the result. I had a feeling the game might go that way.
Cue the local citizenry, torches in hand:
The situation can’t become much more dire before the ownership group stands up and makes a statement that it can’t take the lack of progress any longer and finally shakes up the beleaguered front office.
Unless the board of directors of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment haven’t been reading the sports section they certainly have noticed that moves in Atlanta, Dallas and Washington have made a swift difference this season.
–Tim Wharnsby, Globe and Mail
That wasn’t a pre-recorded howl of a Coyote after five goals on the Maple Leafs last night, but the sound of fans all the way from Toronto, howling for someone’s blue and white scalp.
Whether it’s general manager John Ferguson, coach Paul Maurice, goaltender Andrew Raycroft or any number of error-prone defencemen or unproductive forwards, some kind of change is needed after six losses in seven games.
-Lance Hornby, Toronto Sun
And perhaps the most chilling words you could read, if you’re waking up in Paul Maurice’s shoes today:
Leafs GM John Ferguson emerged from an hour-long, post-game meeting with coach Paul Maurice last night to announce that the club will stay the course with its coaching staff and roster.
–Mark Zwolinski, Toronto Star
Every fan who’s ever followed a losing franchise (and let’s face it, there’s no shortage of folk fitting that description clad in blue and white littered across this great country of ours) knows that when a general manager re-affirms his confidence in and commitment to a coach, the coach should polish up his resume NOW, while he still has access to company computers and the photocopier. Ferguson publicly stating his confidence in Maurice only serves to reinforce the notion that the team is underachieving (rather than poorly constituted in the first place), and that the level of that underachievement is significant enough for Ferguson to need to express a view on the security of his coach’s job. In short, he is attempting to spread the blame around because he knows the guys with the torches are coming for him too.
There’s one more element to add in to the equation. Over and above all the media clamour, there was an interesting tidbit from Scott Morriosn on Hockey Night in Canada’s hot stove lounge last night. He said he had spoken to the C.E.O. of MLSE, the Leafs’ parent company and that Peddie, although expressly disclaiming any intention to speak directly to the security of anyone’s job, apparently said something to the effect that he and the board were monitoring and evaluating the situation consistently and thinking about what “might have to be done.”
But they’re not talking about firing anyone. Heaven forfend!