Hey! It’s been TOO long since we gazed at the Toronto Maple Loafs and their addled fans.
As I write, the Loafs hold a one goal lead over the Islanders, one of four teams in the thirty team NHL with a worse record than Toronto’s. Plan the Stanley Cup parade, girls ‘n’ boys!!!
There must be something in the water in these parts. Loaf fans have convinced themselves that their team is making a late season playoff run. Somehow the message escaped resident genius Brian Burke who traded away two starting defense men for prospects in the past few weeks.
From the ridiculous to good old hockey psychosis NHL style: everyone’s talkin’ ‘head shots’ and Sid the Kid’s concussion. Sports ‘journalists’ are wearing out their Blackberry digits wonderin’ jes wat the league is gonna do. Bottom line, oh dear humans: as long as the NHL and its broadcasting partners (almost exclusively in Canada – led in the first instance on Saturday nights, by what passes for a public broadcaster) promote fist fighting as part of the game, all talk about concussions and better protecting players is sheer hypocrisy and nonsense.
P.S. 25.02.11 Son-of-a-moose! The Loafs beat les Canadiens last night looking something like a legitimate team. Hmmmm… 4 points out of the playoffs. Are they preparing ‘the Leaf Nation’ for an extremely painful season ending, or will they prove me wrong, wrong, wrong? Stay tuned.