Part of the pain that comes with being a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs is the overwhelming sense that MLSE is completely dysfunctional. There's a GM, a coach who was GM, a president, a chairman, board members, Bell Globemedia, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and more. It's a complete mess with no singular ruling presence to make the final call.
There's a story in the Star today about a power struggle taking place between John Ferguson and Pat Quinn. Quinn apparently has the support of Kenneth Thomson while Ferguson has the support of Larry Tanenbaum and Richard Peddie.
The sensible move, in my humble opinion, is to replace Quinn with Paul Maurice as soon as possible. Ferguson deserves at least one more year to let this all play out. Thomson, who seems to not only want Quinn to remain as head coach but possibly gain more power, has controlling interest in Bell Globemedia who might buy the 13 per cent owned by Tanenbaum.
With this kind of political strife ocurring upstairs, is it any wonder the on ice product is so mediocre? With the salary cap, it's a level playing field. Your best advantage is having the right GM and coach with well defined responsibilities and power for both. At MLSE, that's not gonna happen any time soon.
The life of a Leafs fan is a painful one indeed.
