Wednesday, May 07, 2008

PLENTY OF GOOD COACHES ARE STILL AVAILABLE

The news that the Toronto Maple Leafs have fired Paul Maurice as coach is on TSN.ca and it's been confirmed on The Fan 590.

The indefatigable Mirtle should have more throughout the day.

The Leafs probably should get a general manager first and then worry about a coach. (Peter DeBoer from the Kitchener Rangers? Bring back Pat Quinn?) Anything else I could offer would be superfluous and good for only comedy value.

2 comments:

Greg said...

This might be the biggest mistake yet the Leafs have made.

I know that MLSE and Fletcher are now apparently trying to rid the franchise of anything to do with the John Ferguson Jr. Era, but give me a break! Paul Maurice busted his ass here in Toronto and got nothing but crap in return. It wasn't his fault the team has no depth, no snipers, a near-endless string of injuries, terrible defense and Toskala being forced to fend for himself every night.

This just angers me. Paul Maurice deserves better - how about the team hire a general manager first that actually has strong, proven hockey instincts and then consider Maurice's future? Why now?

I hope he gets picked up by an organization and gets far better treatment than the Leafs ever gave him.

Best,
Greg

sager said...

Who knows, we've all seen instances where executives/administrators make moves on the way out so whoever's taking over for them doesn't have to. Maurice kind of knew something was up, and he'll survive. The timing sucks, though.

The Leafs have made much more worse moves through the annals ... Courtnall-for-Kordic ... bringing back Punch Imlach in 1979 (and running off Lanny McDonald and Darryl Sittler; hey, they were only future Hall of Famers) ... hiring John Brophy ... having George Armstrong as an interim coach ... losing Jason Smith ... cutting Steve Sullivan ... trading for Raycroft ...

oh, and how about 1989, when the Leafs drafted three guys from the same junior team in the first round? One of them, Steve Bancroft, played six games in the NHL (not for Toronto).

That same draft, the Red Wings got Nik Lidstrom in the third round -- arguably Sweden's greatest NHLer, who will be the first Euro captain to win the Cup -- and Sergei Federov in the fourth. (Or the fifth.)