The Leafs: October 11, 1980

Until the Leafs send JFJ packing, I don’t know how much I’ll be writing about this team.

How bad is it? I have tickets for the Tuesday night game against the Habs and am seriously contemplating scalping them…I never thought I’d entertain that thought for a Leafs-Canadiens game, but do I really want to see a disinterested team get beaten by my most hated rival while Brylcream Junior scowls from the gondola? (And do I really want to pay $11 a beer while doing so?)

Less than 25 games into the season and it can be pretty much summed up by that great Seinfeld quote – if I continue to support this year’s Leafs club all I’m doing is cheering for laundry.

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I was digging out the Christmas decorations on the weekend and I found a box full of my childhood stuff. Amongst the Star Wars comics, Darth Vader Activity books and old school photos, I found a stack of Leaf programs from games my dad took me to way back in the day.

In the spirit of 10 Cent Freeze Pops I thought it would be far more interesting to dedicate a blog entry to those old programs and have a laugh about what was happening with the Leafs 25+ years ago than to comment on Raycroft’s latest gaffe, Blake’s lack of scoring or to ever have to type Wozniewski again (unless it’s followed by the word “waived”).

First up, Saturday September 11, 1980 – Leafs vs. New York Rangers. A stylish Darryl Sittler in Leaf road blues graces the cover.

Page 2 of the program yields the first gem, a letter to hockey fans from Harold Ballard. Upon first read, it’s hard to believe the letter is 27 years old - the content is as fresh (and delusional) as the key messages coming out of this year’s training camp:

I am particularly enthused with this year’s Maple Leafs because I sincerely believe they can achieve a goal I’ve dedicated myself to ever since taking over the ownership of the club – TO WIN THE STANLEY CUP.

My aim is to provide an entertaining first class hockey club and I think you’ll be proud of this team. I am not kidding when I say we can win our division and who knows what’ll happen in the Stanley Cup playoffs. We surprised a lot of people in the 1960s and I think we’re again capable of upsetting the big guys.

If it weren’t for the awkward typewriter font and measly 48 characters per line, Ballard’s take on the upcoming season could easily pass as a JFJ blog entry or a certain pre-season remark from Coach Maurice.

As for those 1980-81 Leafs that Ballard could foresee challenging for the Cup, they went on to a 28-37-15 record (good for 71 points). Miraculously that club made the playoffs thanks to the horrific play of the Detroit Red Wings and Hartford Whalers (60 and 56 points, respectively). The Leafs playoffs were short-lived as the club was eliminated in three straight games by the New York Islanders (in the playoffs anything can happen, but very rarely does it).

The first story in the program is a preview of the upcoming 1980-81 season, for some reason called “Like Ali, Habs Keep Popping Up.”

The author John Iaboni tells us that the Islanders may be first-time defending Stanley Cup Champs but the Habs are set to challenge for the cup and to win it back. Other notables for the 1980-81 season: Howe and Mikita have retired, former players Cheevers and Magnuson make the move to coaching, and Calgary embarks on its first season with an NHL hockey team (led by a mutton-chopped Cliff Fletcher, I really need a scanner for this choice photo of the Silver Fox).

As for the Leafs chances back in that 1980-81 season…well…the more things change the more things stay the same, Iaboni writes:

The Leafs know they can score the goals keeping the goals against down will be a top priority.

John Anderson and his burger empire are the next write up. I used to love the local John Anderson Burger joint when I was growing up in Scarborough (the bright orange fold-down benches in the waiting area were called the penalty box). By the time I was in high school it had been taken over by a Greek family and we’d go for late night souvlaki runs. Last time I drove by I think it had become a sushi joint…no word on those orange benches. The article ensures Leaf fans that no matter how succesful the burger empire becomes, John's main focus will remain the Leafs (and in an odd closing paragraph, maybe speedboats of which John had several.)

“New Rule Changes will hopefully eliminate mob scenes” – offers a look at how the NHL is trying to limit fighting to one-on-one situations. The 1980 season marked the debut of Rule 54 and the good old instigator penalty, a change that remains contentious nearly three decades later. Wonder if anyone things removing the instigator might bring back line brawls?

A slender Dom Deluise gets a three-page celebrity profile. He’s promoting a film called, “The Last Married Couple in America” with George Segal, Natalie Wood and Valerie Harper (I’m not making this up). What this has to do with the Leafs or hockey escapes me…Ballard must have had a stake in the film or owed someone a favour.

The middle of the magazine includes Tonight’s Starting Line-Up with the respective Leafs and Rangers rosters. Highlights for the Leafs include four goalies, none of them noteworthy – Vince Tremblay, Paul Harrison, Jiri Crha, and Curt Ridley (I remember the first three, but cannot for the life of me recall Curt Ridley). The only other name on the Leaf roster that left me scratching my head is Vitezslav Duris who it turns out played 58 games with the Leafs in 80-81. This version of the club didn’t last long - Turnbull (traded in ’81), Picard (’81), Sittler (’82), Boschman (’82), Paiment (’82), Saginuk (’83), Tremblay (’83)…

Next up, John Iaboni provides more filler on the relationship between Leaf coach Joe Crozier and GM Punch Imlach (who suffered a heart-attack in August, leaving Crozier as interim-GM). Not much here…Crozier would be replaced as coach by Mike Nykoluk mid-way through the 1980-81 season and Gerry McNamara would move into the GM role in 1982.

One of the oddest items in the program comes on page 55, it’s a full directory of the hotels the Leafs stay at in each NHL city, with the phone number conveniently listed. The program also list the hotels in Toronto where visiting teams stay (Habs and Bruins at the Sutton Place; Jets and Kings get the Harbour Castle Hilton; the rest of the league are evenly divided between the Hotel Toronto and Loews Westbury…). Not sure how the players’ wives felt about this addition, bit of an odd thing to tuck in the program between an ad for Nashua colour photocopiers and a Heineken spot.

We’re all the way up to page 63 in the program (with plenty of adverts for five-star rye, Export A cigarettes, and Reggie Jackson promoting a new Panasonic VHS portable recorder and playback system that’s about the size of a bathtub) when we hit an un-bylined article about Iron Man Streaks. Billy Harris of the New York Islanders had his streak end at 576 earlier in the 1980 season, so the article turns to the Sabres’ Craig Ramsay and Montreal’s Doug Jarvis as challengers to Gary Unger’s record of 914 games. [Jarvis would go on to break that record, setting the current mark of 964 games in the 1987-88 campaign.]

Here’s a shocker – hockey may not be a suitable subject matter for a Hollywood movie because Americans arent’ familiar with the game. This according to Ewy Yost, a Canadian film expert. The program has a short look at the role of hockey in the movies since 1937 (when John Wayne laced ‘em up in Idol of the Crowds) through to Paperback Hero and Ice Castles (can’t say I’ve heard of any of them…). Buzzy Deschamps, a former minor league hockey player and (in 1980) the Vice-President of Koho Sporting Goods does offer up this juicy quote on Slapshot: “The movie is degrading to hockey. Watching it, I feel embarrassed to have been a hockey player.” Wonder how Koho would feel about that quote now?

Following an advert for Hudson’s Bay Company Hooch (Treasure Island Rum, Moichev Vodka and HBC Gin – who knew?) there’s a two page profile on the “movie-star handsome” and “glamour boy of New York Hockey” Ron Dougay. Apparently, he’s a favourite at the Roxy Roller Disco and has signed a deal to promote “Oh-la-la” designer jeans…he likely lit up the Leafs that night too...(I have no memory of the game, I was 9). He does have really remarkable hair in the photo...I imagine there's more than a few kids in Dougay's hometown of Sudbury sporting that look right now.

The program closes out with three headshots of upcoming Leaf match-ups. The Penguins and Rick Kehoe (with his helmet of hair and one heckuva ‘stache), a surprisingly moustache-less Joel Quenville and the Colorado Rockies and a blurry Clark Gillies with the New York Islanders as the next teams to come to town to face the mighty Blue and White.

A Different Approach

I don't mean to harp on the media contingent that covers the Leafs, but coming off the biggest win of the season you'd think some of the post-game coverage would include a modicum of insight or analysis into what the Leafs did differently Saturday night.

To my eyes, it looked like Coach Maurice moved away from his 2 man forecheck system and used a more conservative 1-2-2 approach. The extra forwards would cycle in if the Leafs gained possession or could clog up the neutral zone to take away the Sens' speed while providing more support for the oft-criticized Leaf D.

Two other big changes - McCabe and Kaberle were reunited and Maurice dramatically shortened his bench. The top 4 D played the vast majority of the game. Woz was limited to a season low seven minutes of ice-time and Kronwall logged 12 while McCabe played a whopping 30 minutes (and turned in his best game of the season so far).

If any of the dozens of media folks that routinely cover the Blue and White did ask the coaches or players about the short bench or the modified forecheck, the answers certainly didn't make it into any of the post-game coverage I saw.

It's too bad as I love to know the thinking/strategy behind the Leafs' big win and, more importantly, if this is a sign of things to come from the club.

Speaking of Cox

I picked up a Toronto Star sports section that had been abandoned on the subway this morning. I probably should have stuck to my book.

I'm going to tread into CoxBloc territory here and I don't even know where to start. Cox assembles a rambling collection of "thoughts" on the Rangers-Leafs pre-game festivities; McCabe's gaffe; Tlusty's photos and comes to the strange conclusion that the Leafs have sold their soul.

Where to begin? Let's start with the pre-game shenanigans, in the print edition Cox writes:

Were [Stafford] Smythe around yesterday, the collective misbehaviour of today's Leaf millionaires would undoubtedly have made him throw up.

For starters, you had the team and one of the veterans it counts upon for mature leadership, Darcy Tucker, rapped on the knuckles and fined by the NHL for participating in a truly adolescent scene last Saturday night in the pre-game warm-up with the Rangers.

So in the print world of Mr. Cox, one would conclude that the skirmish must be a pretty big deal. It's the first page lead (or lede for your print-junkies) it includes an exhumation of poor Stafford Smythe, and it produces the usual smug indignation from Cox.

But over in the electronic world of the Star it's a bit of a different story.

In his on-line "blog" (which is just another 500 word column that the Star insists on calling a blog even thought it has all the intimacy and two-way communication of K-Fed and Britney's marriage with about half the intellect) Cox writes of the skirmish:

Everybody's up in arms about Sean Avery after Saturday night's Rangers-Leafs game, and to be sure this is a juicy story. But outrage? I don't think so. Peel away all the rhetoric and here's what you have: two guys pushed and shoved during the pre-game warm-up, said nasty things to each other and then fought during the first period. Big Deal.

I'd just like to know which one it is - blog=no big deal or front-page=lead item and big deal?

Flipping back to the print story, Cox concludes the Avery-Tucker skirmish with this odd thought:

Try as they might to make it all Sean Avery's fault, the Leafs were, essentially, found equally culpable in the idiotic episode.

The Rangers were fined $25,000 and the Leafs $10,000. Avery was fined $2,500 and Tucker was fined $1,000. The League said, "The unprofessional conduct of Avery in initiating this altercation...is the basis for this discipline....Tucker also bears some responsibility for his inappropriate response. "

So, the Rangers fines are 2.5x those of the Leafs. The League found that Avery was the initiator while Tucker only bears "some responsibility" and Cox concludes that the Leafs are "equally" culpable.

That's the strangest definition of "equal" I've ever encountered.

Next up: the McCabe give-away.

It was a bad pass. A horrific pass. A stupid play. Next...

Oh good, more moral indignation from Cox - just what we all needed - and this time it's poor Jiri Tlusty in the cross-hairs.

For those of you living under a rock, the kid took some naked photos of himself and emailed them to a woman, who promptly posted them all over the web. The fact that the Toronto media are only picking up on this today (it's the front page of the Toronto Sun) tells me these guys need to trade in their dial-up modems and check out this thing called the world-wide-web. Deadspin broke the Tlusty story on November 8 and it's been on Leaf discussion boards for days. That's a long time in this world of 24 hour news cycles and breaking stories, yet Cox only brings his faux-moral indignation to the table today, he writes:

...if this was a team of pride and tradition, Tlusty wouldn't have been in the lineup last night and Leaf ownership wouldn't have been hiding behind a press release.
The youngster would be back in the minors, having disgraced what was once a Canadian institution – a team that once had a member of Parliament in its lineup – with his amateur porn shots. Ownership, meanwhile, would be vowing to make certain such foolishness never reoccurred.

Really? A teenager sends a naked photo and he's disgraced a Canadian institution? For posing naked he should be sent to the minors? Is once having a member of Parliament in its lineup really the best indicator of quality? Has Cox ever watched question period? What's a bigger disgrace to the Leaf brand - a teenage prospect posing naked for a cell-phone photo or a paedophile ring being run out of Maple Leaf Gardens? Hmm...so many questions.

Sure Tlutsy was rather misguided in sending those photos, but to call for his demotion in order to protect the Leaf brand - a brand that is somewhat sullied after 40 years of losing, managerial incompetence, criminal behaviour and other assorted f*ck ups is a bit rich.

That said, I do look forward to future columns from Cox calling for the suspension of Garth Snow for encouraging hot (well, hottish) girl on girl action. Keeping Robbie Schremp buried in the AHL for his frightening photos in a bad thong. Shutting down the NBA for the way players interact with fans (some of those guys are married!). The elimination of NFL franchises in Cincinnati and Minnesota (surely Cox would call for Fred Smoot to be sent out to sea, alone on an ice floe) and the future of Isiah Thomas outside of sports, perhaps as a squeegee kid.

Look, I'm not saying that athletes shouldn't be held to the same standards as the rest of us. I'm not saying that Tlusty didn't make a mistake and I'm not saying there isn't a place for some sort of moral decency.

But I'm sick of Cox being all incensensed and sanctimonious over what are essentially mistakes. A teenager posed naked; McCabe blew a pass; Tucker and Avery had a little spat - is this really the right fodder for the front page of a sports section? Can one really tie these things together and conclude that a franchise has lost it's soul? Is this really the best that Cox can do?

As an aside, didn't the Leafs sell their soul back in the 70s? I'm pretty sure you can only sell your soul once. It's just like the "city losing it's innocence" trope that lazy media types love to trot out - once that innocence is gone, just like one's soul - there's no getting it back.

As for Cox, if this is the best he can do and he honestly believes that last night was some sort of tipping point or threshold for the Leafs, it's time he heeded his own advice to McCabe and considers a move to a new market to ply his trade.

Six Questions for the Coach

Questions for the Coach:

Question 1: Do you and JFJ discuss player personnel and what type of players you think this team needs to win?

Last season, it was explicitly clear that Maurice had no confidence whatsoever in Aubin and played the snot out of Raycroft (despite getting sub-par results from your 'tender of choice).

No alternate for Aubin was ever found, no competent back-up was brought in to spell Raycroft or even stop the bleeding during one of the teams' bigger losing streaks. Aubin stayed nailed to the bench while Raycroft laid down on the ice watching puck after puck sail over his left shoulder.

I'd suggest that the failure to address the back-up goaltending situation/ provide some relief for Raycroft was a huge factor in missing the playoffs by a single point.

Question 1A: Can you comment on that without using a punchline? No, I'm not kidding...I'd like a straight answer...

Question 2: When you and JFJ discuss player personnel and the type of players you think this team needs to win, is the answer ever Wozniewski?

I'd like to suggest that Wozniewski is the anti-Aubin.

He's clearly not a competent blue liner (a minus 1 tonight, on for two goals against; minus 4 in his last six games; leading the team in minor penalties by a wide margin and he's horrific on the PK with a SHGA/60 approaching -12) yet, unlike Aubin, Maurice plays the snot out of him (20 minutes tonight; 17 minutes a game on average this season).

Question 3: Why does Wozniewski continue to see time on the PK?

Question 4: You have six defencemen, why on earth was Wozniewski on the ice in a tie game with one minute to go?

Question 5: If you continue to get these results, don't you think it's time to take a different approach to player personnel?

Question 6: In a 3 on 3 in OT, what was the thinking behind icing two of your slower skating players (Antropov, McCabe) to start the extra frame?

Power of the 'stache

Couple of quick hits...love the McCabe 'stache; hate the shootout. I continue to be puzzled by Maurice's coaching decisions and I need someone far more clever than me to write the slug line for this great photo...

As for other entertainments, whatever drugs Al Strachan has been ingesting - please hook me up.

Did anyone else see the Hot Stove segment when Strachan claimed Glen Healy is up for GM of the Leafs? Does anyone else think somewhere out there a GM just won a bar bet for getting Strachan to repeat that rumour with a straight face on national TV? Unbelievable...

I haven't been posting much as there's really not much to post about with this club. I was at the Monday night loss to the Caps and the team was laughably bad. Horrible.

It should come as no surprise that this year's team stinks as it's pretty much same team that stunk it up last year.

Last year's team couldn't kill penalties, couldn't stay out of the penalty box, couldn't protect a lead and was 25th in goals against.*

Shockingly, the same group of players, coached by the same group of coaches, is still struggling on the PK, still taking way too many penalties, protects a lead like it's a live hand grenade and has a goals against more bloated than Jerry Lewis strung out on prednisone.

Who could have guessed?

But that's not the worst part. The part that's genuinely disturbing is that the vast majority of this team is under contract for next year too.

That's right. If you like this year's club and it's sub .500 record, you'll really love next year's team.

Of the 28 players that have dressed for the Leafs this season, JFJ has signed 24 to contracts that run until at least next year (including team-option RFAs).

Want to know something scary?

Sundin, arguably the Leafs' best, if not second best, player this season is not one of those 24.

Want to know something even scarier?

Six of the seven Leafs D are all under contract for next year too. Only Wozniewski (which I do believe is one of those German or Polish compound words that means "turnover leading to a minus") is not under contract for next season.

Master plan indeed.

*Anyone who thinks injuries were the big difference last year, Woz was nearly 20% of the Leafs' injuries total. I also refer you to the last dozen games of the season when the club had a full and healthy line-up. That group choked against the Isles and Caps, coughed up "safe" leads against the Sabres and Thrashers and was destroyed by the Rangers in a must-win game.