Soon after that and a few other personal defeats, Joseph decides he would rather go somewhere where he has a realistic chance at a Cup, instead of sticking with a team whose fans have never given up on him.
He gives up on the Maple Leafs, signing with Detroit in 2003. Toronto has never recovered from this loss, wasting Calder winner Andrew Raycroft, and now rotating Vesa Toskala with a rookie.
Bryan McCabe was another man who was part of the Leafs late '90s revival. He and Kaberle were the team on D that the Leafs had lacked, and Toronto hit 100 points for the first time ever while he was doing his thing at the back end.
Still, once the playoffs arrived, Toronto couldn’t keep the momentum going. Again, the losses to New Jersey and Carolina hit hard on Leaf Nation…and their sole superstars. McCabe was considered one, until his personal play turned him into a goat.
Don’t kid yourself, when he decided to move to retirement town, otherwise known as Florida, he did it partly to get away from Toronto, as opposed to moving somewhere where he could win a championship.
And so it goes, Toronto’s most unheralded position, the reason so many sportswriters say they can’t hang with the big boys like San Jose, Detroit and Pittsburgh: defense.
Now, here in 2009, the final nail hit Mats Sundin square in the head. He had had enough as Captain of a team that couldn’t shine when it counted, were a victim of poor business decisions such as the hiring of JF Jr.
The team who could never win the big one, but survived mostly on the strength of their diehards and commonplace sellouts, no matter how good or bad the team was on the ice.
True, he seemed to be less frustrated with the team than the others and more with his role on a franchise going through a youth movement. But in the end, even Sundin’s resolve had ebbed away. He’s still in Canada; in another time zone.
I’ve always felt the firings of Paul Maurice in Carolina and Jacques Martin in Ottawa were at best a quick fix and at worst a huge mistake, a result of a knee-jerk reaction. A brain fart, if you will.
With all three teams suffering, maybe some fans feel the same way. Some wonder if anything can be done to save hockey in Canada, most notably in Ottawa and Toronto.
All I have to say is this: Did anyone recognize that guy behind the bench for Team Canada in the WJC?
Yeah the white hair, the tie, the suit, the emotion-filled face. That guy.
Well, his name is Pat Quinn, and he once led a team to a 35-game winning streak, another to a handful of seasons where they exceeded expectations. He won a Gold Medal, you know. Did it in 2002 with pros too.
Hmmm. I wonder if he’s still got it.
'Til next time,
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