No matter what promises are made in Toronto, nobody produces a winner.
Brian Burke's got it all wrong.
The booing isn't really for Dion Phaneuf; it's for him. And not just him.
It's for 43 years of not winning and the failed promise of a high-priced GM who was supposed to swoop in and save the day.
It's for another big-bucks GM of a basketball team, Bryan Colangelo, who has not only failed to deliver, but has his team positioned to be among the worst teams in the National Basketball Association this season.
It's for Adam Rita, the Argos' boss, providing local football fans with a Lemon for a quarterback in yet another frustrating season.
It's for a soccer team, owned by the same culprits who run the Leafs and Raps, that can't find its way to the playoffs.
Alex Anthopoulos, the general manager of the Blue Jays gets a pass because he's new to the position, but trust me, if his team doesn't take a step forward next season, he too will feel the heat.
All in all, the boos are the consequence of years and years of frustration over unfulfilled promises.
Dion Phaneuf may be the current target, but really, he's just the poster child for all that's wrong with professional sports in Toronto. Burke says it is disgraceful that frustrated Leafs fans have made the new captain the target of their dissatisfaction, but he should not be shocked. Did Burke think slapping the 'C' on the jersey of an underachieving defenceman would be the time capsule that transported Phaneuf back to the days when he was blowing one-timers past defenseless goaltenders to the tune of 54 goals in his first three years in the NHL? It doesn't work that way.
It's not as though Phaneuf has been hopeless. Not great, perhaps, but not hopeless.
It's just the culmination of years and years of an organization spinning its wheels - and charging a premium to watch them lose - that has Maple Leafs fans voicing their bitterness. Toronto may be the self-proclaimed centre of the hockey universe, but when it comes to winning, it's much closer to hockey hell.
The funny thing is, the Leafs struggles this season were not exactly unanticipated. Most picked the Leafs to be in a dog-fight to make the playoffs, but when they got off to a great start, winning their first four games and picking up nine out of a possible 10 points in their first five games, expectations (once again) rocketed through the roof. Now that the Leafs have won just one of their last eight games, a little reality has set in.
Burke captured the fancy of gullible Leafs fans when he burst onto the scene proclaiming things would be different under his watch with the following: "We require, as a team, proper levels of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence. That's how our teams play."
Sounded good, but it hasn't exactly been that way, has it? Those were the traits his team displayed in Anaheim, when the Ducks won the Stanley Cup in 2006-07, but there isn't any Chris Prongers, Scott Niedermayers or Teemu Selannes on the current Leafs roster. J-S Giguere is there, but he's not exactly the great goaltender he was in Anaheim anymore.
Chances are we haven't heard the last of the boo-birds at the ACC, although it was interesting to note there were plenty of, "Go Leafs, Go," cheers after Clarke MacArthur scored his seventh goal of the year at 19:09 of the third period to pull the Leafs to within one of the visiting Ottawa Senators. Can you say fickle fans?
Burke shouldn't take it so personally. Some of the boos are definitely for him because the Leafs really aren't any better under him than they were under his predecessor, John Ferguson. That said, they will likely still compete for a spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The Leafs currently sit in ninth place in the East, but there isn't much separating them from first - just four points. Granted, the top place Tampa Bay Lightning has more bona fide stars than the Leafs, but when you look at the teams Toronto will compete with for eighth - Boston, the Rangers, Ottawa, Buffalo, Carolina and possibly the Islanders - are they that much better? Not really.
In the meantime, Burke had better get used to fans expressing their frustration.
