Who here is a Toronto Maple Leafs fan?

[Shap]

Hey guys. I know it can be embarrassing but seriously who is a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. I know DH and Evil Chris are. Any others?

[troncarver]

buffalo sabres

[kristin]

Originally Posted by troncarver

buffalo sabres

[Bryan G]

I'm a fan but get pissed off more and more each year. People keep saying that they dont spend the money to win, well they do. They are pretty much at the salary cap. They just always have shit management and players, waste the money instead of spending it wisely.

[Evil Chris]

After last night, I'm not so sure anymore!

[fris]

used to be, they should be called the make belives, cause they are starting to make belive they are an actual hockey time.

[PR_Glen]

always, but painful for the most part...

[Dwreck]

Its hard to be a fan when ticket prices are insane... I used to love going to calgary flames games because we could get 40$ tickets...im not down with paying 200$..

[GTS Mark]

Yep hardcore fan but yeah it's tough when they are playing this badly.

[Jman]

Oui Oui

[Get2PayJared]

used to be, very hard to be one these days...

BUT still a big Raptors fan.

[Mutt]

grew up a rabid Leaf fan - i preferred the torture under Harold Ballard, I despise MLSE and haven't cared about the Leafs since Gilmour and Burns left.
Brian Burke has made some huge gambles and lost - I don't see how the Leafs can ever be serious Cup contenders with the young players Burke has chosen as his nucleus.

I am a Sabres fan and am crossing my fingers that this billionaire rumored to have made an offer buys the team - right now they suck bad and need a major shakeup.

[JFK]

Hell NO they SUCK

[quiet]

Originally Posted by Jean-Francois

Oui Oui

exactly.

[FUCK J0EL]

Why would anyone do that !?!

[Jai]

toronto maple leafs suck now... yet have a strong following still...

the last good ol days were when dougie, felix, and roberts and cujo were on board

[InfinityOscar]

i'm a fan

[scuba steve]

i thought burke was supposed to be your guys savior?

[Varius]

As an Anaheim fan, give Burke time - he'll get the right pieces in place eventually. It's not like he took over an organization filled with quality players and prospects.

I do think they need a new coach though - show Wilson the door.

[fuzebox]

[djroof]

New Jersey Devils hereeeeeeeeeeee

[scuba steve]

Originally Posted by Varius

As an Anaheim fan, give Burke time - he'll get the right pieces in place eventually. It's not like he took over an organization filled with quality players and prospects.

I do think they need a new coach though - show Wilson the door.

i'll give you that, he does need some time to draft and make the right moves.

wilson is a good coach, his problem is when it matters. i'm surprised he isn't doing better in the regular season. he was able to get the sharks no problem to post season every year. maybe he needs some more exciting players?

[facialfreak]

[magicmike]

I am but i'm more and more disillusioned with them and they way they run the team. I hope they sell the team, because you can't really do any worse.

[Hazlewood]

Im a huge leafs fan. Burke will figure it out soon enough! It's our way as leafs fans to have patience

[Varius]

Originally Posted by scuba steve

i'll give you that, he does need some time to draft and make the right moves.

wilson is a good coach, his problem is when it matters. i'm surprised he isn't doing better in the regular season. he was able to get the sharks no problem to post season every year. maybe he needs some more exciting players?

Burke has never really been a great drafter, but he is good at forming a team identity and bringing in free agents. I'm sure he'll ship out the pieces not working and bring in some more new faces by next season.

It seems like at this point the team isn't responding to Wilson's system and coaching; when that happens, it's easier to change the coach and try to motivate the team with fresh blood instead of continuing to spiral downward.

Burke is very loyal to "his guys" (to a fault at times) though, so I don't expect that to happen anytime soon.

[PR_Glen]

Originally Posted by Varius

Burke has never really been a great drafter, but he is good at forming a team identity and bringing in free agents. I'm sure he'll ship out the pieces not working and bring in some more new faces by next season.

It seems like at this point the team isn't responding to Wilson's system and coaching; when that happens, it's easier to change the coach and try to motivate the team with fresh blood instead of continuing to spiral downward.

Burke is very loyal to "his guys" (to a fault at times) though, so I don't expect that to happen anytime soon.

thats the problem... wilson is burkes buddy and they are both too proud to admit that what they are doing isn't working... wilson should be fired already.. and if burke doesn't make the move soon, he should be replaced.. right now those two are the ones who brought all these new guys together, so its on them if it doesn't work.. sure they are stuck with kaberle.. but they aren't the only teams stuck with someone either..

They put everything riding on Kessel and Phaneuf... are either of those guys proven leaders? Can they be? haven't seen it yet...

[Raja]

I used to be a Leafs and Raptors fan. Decided to adopt the Kings and Lakers this year and haven't looked back. The Kings are a young team with a great nucleus who will contend in a few years. We'll send you Kopitar when he's 35 though!

[stever]

[Kenny B!]

I was at a sports bar with Evil Chris for the last Habs/Leafs game and he wasn't cheering so loud when the Leafs beat us. I guess with a bar full of drunk patrons waiting for the UFC fight to start he's better off clapping quietly;-)

Being at the same table I was happy he left his blue and white jersey at home.

[CamJack]

I am unless they are playing the Sabres

[CamJack]

Stever great pic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PR_Glen]

Originally Posted by Raja

I used to be a Leafs and Raptors fan. Decided to adopt the Kings and Lakers this year and haven't looked back. The Kings are a young team with a great nucleus who will contend in a few years. We'll send you Kopitar when he's 35 though!

kings are a great team, lots of good young players that are fun to watch, chicago too.

I was hoping for the same type of team put together with the leafs this year, but i don't see it...

[TheStout]

All of the people denouncing their loyalty to the Leafs in the rough times will be the same ones cheering when the Leafs are a good team again. Times have been tough but they will get through this and become a successful team again.

GO LEAFS GO!!!

[WebairGerard]

Let's Go Rangers!

[digi]

I'm a Leafs fan!

People who stop being fans or switch teams when things are bad were never real fans anyway.

[Mark_E4A]

Originally Posted by digi

I'm a Leafs fan!

People who stop being fans or switch teams when things are bad were never real fans anyway.

bingo

i always have been and ALWAYS will be a die hard leaf fan

[fris]

insert random pic of ariel rebel naked in canadians tshirt ;)

[CarlosTheGaucho]

There's a man that used to wear the leafs dress that I always greatly admired:



One of my all time ice hockey heroes.

Used to be a huge Canucks fan since the 93 / 94 finals, first finals I could watch on TV as a kid, Canucks played some of the most exciting hockey of the 90's.

Mogilnyj, Bure, the Courtnall brothers, Brett Hedican I could go on and on - great times!

[Mutt]

ha Wendel, if not for the bad back he'd have been one of the all time greats, he was too small to play the way he did and that cost him his back health, he was a shadow of his former self after his first few years.

a Wendel Clark shift when he was young and healthy was way more entertaining than watching a Gretzky shift, Wendel was a bat out of hell, crashing into bigger players with thunderous body checks, dropping the gloves and throwing punches before the other guy knew what was hitting him, Wendel was a great fighter but he was pretty shady in how fights started. Then the Wendel Clark wrist shot, not a snap shot which most players use today which is really a mini slap shot, Wendel had an old fashioned wrist shot that was as heavy as any i've seen.

I gave up on the NHL for a long time, 15 years where i maybe watched 10 games in total, I turned my attention to the NBA. the sport was ruined by the neutral zone trap and the hooking and holding and with the instigator rule which took fighting out of the game for the most part, and the refusal to do anything about the size of goalie equipment or the size of the Net - the NFL is the greatest sports league on the planet because they are always changing the rules to keep the game compelling and entertaining for the people who matter most, the fans. The NHL refused to. Until the lockout season.

The changes made after the lost lockout season improved things, skill players could actually use their skills, slow skating blockheads were weeded out of the game, younger faster players increased in numbers because of the salary cap, young players are cheaper under the rules of the salary cap. I regained some interest in hockey and watch again. It's bogged down again, coaches are smart. They need to alter the rules further - make me commissioner of the NHL for a year and I'll fix it up.

Get rid of the friggin' instigator rule, players should be held accountable for their actions and mouths on the ice, more fights - fans love fights. It would be controversial as hell but I'd also take out the 'third man in' penalty, any of you who grew up in the 70's and 80's remember what an NHL donnybrook looked like when both entire teams jumped off the bench and mass carnage ensued. The reason the NHL ended bench clearing brawls was that in the US
non-hockey fans including major sportswriters and even comedians would treat hockey like a junk trash sport always citing the violence and fighting and the NHL came to the conclusion that that image was hurting the potential of the NHL from a marketing and business standpoint. Well guess what - none of those people were hockey fans and none or few of them became hockey fans. Fuck them. That was 20 years ago, the world has changed, UFC had and still has the same image problems the NHL had but the young generation loves it and the UFC is cashing in. Kids between 19-34 have never seen what a bench clearing brawl in the NHL looked like - makes UFC look tame.

And my biggest problem with the NHL is the goaltenders - the size of the net has never changed and the size of the goaltenders and their equipment has dramatically. You only have to go back to the 80's to see the obvious -
just look at the Leafs goaltenders from that era - Mike Palmateer and Alan Bester. Tiny guys, 5'6" though they were probably listed at 5'8". There were many other like them. Go to YouTube and see some classic games from the 60's - half the goalies looked like lawn gnomes - their heads barely over the crossbar. And the goalie equipment, the pads and gloves were half the size of today's. Combined with better more scientific coaching methods of goaltenders plus oversized equipment and physically taller and bigger goalies - they are almost unbeatable. Watch hockey today and the only way to put a goal past them is with dazzling finesse like an Ovechkin, a great goalmouth passing play OR how the majority of NHL goals are scored - the goalie simply can't see or react to the puck, deflections - which results in way too much of the scoring that there is in the NHL really being just 'accidents'.
Go back to the 70's and 80's and see what's missing today - players with great slapshots and wrist shots every game blasting pucks by goaltenders who knew the shot was coming, had full view of it but were powerless to stop it. Guy Lafleur speeding down the right hand side of the Forum ice, everybody in the building and watching on TV and the goaltender facing him knew what was about to unfold, Lafleur would cross the blue line at full speed and wire a slap shot or wrist shot picking a corner cleanly. Wendel Clark with his wrist shot could and often did score from deep in the faceoff circles - that just doesn't happen today and it's a part of the game I know fans miss.

Time to make the nets bigger or the NHL with the goalie equipment manufacturers make each goaltender's equipment for him and issue it out direct from the NHL - here's your equipment for the year, deal with it - doctor it and you're suspended the rest of the year.

Never has the NHL had better skilled players, the worst player on every team today is more skilled and better conditioned and bigger than the top few players on each team from the 80's. I think the best pure hockey game I've ever seen and that includes Canada Cups, Stanley Cups was last year's gold medal game at the World Junior Championships between the US and Canada. Every player was highly skilled and played like he was playing for his survival.
The pipeline of great young hockey players from Canada, US, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia has never been as full. With HD TV and 3D HD TV coming now is the time for the NHL to make a big push and that starts with rules changes that will make the game better for existing hockey fans and win over new fans.

I'm not a Gary Bettman hater, he's very smart and has overall done a good job leading the NHL but he's very stubborn and arrogant - when he came in the world and technology was very different, the holy grail for a pro sports league back then was a huge NFL type national broadcast network TV deal in the US. To get that Bettman needed a bigger TV footprint in the US in non traditional hockey areas. Two teams in Florida, two new teams in California, Atlanta, Nashville, Phoenix, Colorado - most have been complete flops.
The truth is that today with the entire world wired, every game broadcast and available to the entire planet it doesn't matter that much anymore if the US South cares about hockey or if the NHL has a big US network deal, it's all about niche and regional/global marketing these days in business. Put the NHL where it does matter, two of those Southern US teams need to come back to Winnipeg and Quebec City and that will happen. Fans who are watching want to see games played in arenas filled with rabid hockey fans. It's really hard to get excited watching any game when there's nobody in the stands - games from Atlanta look like exhibition games or practices.

NHL should be the first North American pro sports league to really go global -
establish a European division - put NHL franchises in Moscow, St Petersburg, Prague, Stockholm, Helsinki, Munich and possibly London. 4 divisions - Europe, an all Canadian division and US East and US West. The players are making millions, let them deal with the travel, the same way music stars travel on world tours. If the NHL did this it would put itself on a whole new level.

The darkest spot on the NHL horizon is Donald Fehr being hired by the players as the head of their union. He pretty much destroyed baseball for millions of fans when he was the baseball players union head man.

[cwd]

speaking of Burke, there is a great article with him talking about his son who passed away in a car crash shortly after coming out as gay. I may not be a Leafs fan, but I sure do view Burke in a new light.

http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/20...ayers-athletes

[Angry Jew Cat - Banned for Life]

I'm not quite that sad. I cheer for the Oilers, which is still sad, but not quite that sad.

[fatfoo]

Sure. Go, Leafs, go!

[Bex]

I am. But these days it is tough for me to watch games. They are a long way from being good!

[JayDeeZee]

I used to be a fan. I started a personal boycott 2 years ago not to watch a game until they made the playoffs.

Call me a "fair weather fan" all you want. I'm still a fan of the game, but I can't be loyal to a team that charges so much, yet produces so little.

Imagine you owned a company that produced an inferior product, yet your customers were still loyal?

[O MARINA]

Originally Posted by digi

I'm a Leafs fan!

People who stop being fans or switch teams when things are bad were never real fans anyway.

awwwwwwww you Canadian guys are great.. well everyone but RAJA!!
so passionate and such loyal fans of your teams and hockey.

[magicmike]

Yeah, its one thing being a fair weather fan, and another to blindly follow the team.

I'm glad people are thowing waffles on the ice at leafs games. Tell the ownership and management that enough is enough.

How much longer do they deserve to sell out games are insane prices before they field a team capable of making the playoffs?

Toronto area needs a second NHL team, that would maybe wake the leafs up.

[Imortyl Pussycat]

i am a fan of maple whisky, anyone from Canada, please bring to Vegas the special kind i sampled in Phoenix. thank you

[Martin]

Yes Im a Leafs fan.

[JamesChoopa]

Die hard NY RANGERS fan here!

As mentioned above, Burke is VERY good at his job, he'll find a way to make this team legitimate/relevant again. Might not be this year or next but he'll get them there. They have some good young talent that just need to develop. They need to dump a few of these bad deals they have, open some cap space and get YOUNG talented guys in there.