Friday, December 9, 2016

The Maple Leafs are fun. Enjoy it while you can..

This is a weird time to start writing about the Maple Leafs again.

When I first started writing about hockey, almost nine years ago, I covered the Leafs pretty much exclusively. Let’s remember back to what things were like back then. John Ferguson Jr. had just been fired. Vesa Toskala was in net. The Leafs were about to miss the playoffs for a franchise-record third straight year, and interim GM Cliff Fletcher was trying (and failing) to kickstart a desperately needed rebuild by trading away Mats Sundin and the Muskoka Five. That summer, they’d hire Ron Wilson, sign Jeff Finger, and launch a GM search that dragged on for months. Eventually, Brian Burke would arrive, promising that he could turn the whole thing around quickly.

It was, to put it mildly, a miserable time to be a Maple Leafs fan. At one point, I set out to write a multi-part series to answer the question: Is this the worst it’s ever been? The answer: Yes it was. I’d lived through Harold Ballard, Kerry Fraser, “draft schmaft” and Rask-for-Raycroft, but there had never been a worse time to be a Leafs fan.

Fast-forward almost a decade later, and here we are. The Leafs still haven’t won a playoff round. They’ve only made it once, and that didn’t end well. Other teams have built and rebuilt and won it all and crashed and burned, and there’s Toronto, still nestled away in the bottom third of the standings, as always.

All of which makes it feel a little odd to get to write this: We’re in the middle of a damn fun year to be a Leafs fan.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic




5 comments:

  1. Hey Sean,I've been reading your site for at least 7 or 8 years. Clicked the athletic link on my computer, and it said I need to be a subscriber to read the article, on my phone it tells me to download the app. Wasn't sure if you're aware of that, but I was definitely looking forward to reading it, but not if I have to go through hoops. Not a slight on you at all Sean, I'll be reading everything else you post, I just wanted to share about the Athletic. Thanks.

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    1. Yeah, TheAthletic is a pay site. I believe that they allow a certain number of free views, and my understanding is that not all content will always be behind the paywall, but some will be. Subscriptions are something like $5/month; I bought one a while back and it's been well worth it.

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    2. Thanks for getting back to me. After reading about it, it seems like its definitely a great site for sports info. I don't read enough to justify that. But keep up the good work Sean!!

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  2. I'd rather just give you my $5 directly....DGB Premium?

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    1. Good call!.

      DGB - you need your own site (obviously, aside from this one) with direct advertising. Write your articles, find like minded contributors from other markets, continue with podcasts, etc.

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