Land of the Leaf

A playoff atmosphere might be a little bit of an exaggeration.  Although there should be a frantic crowd on hand to cheer the Leafs on against their Provincial rival the Ottawa Senators.  Well, the crowd should be frantic for most of the game, minus the start of the second and third periods while the Platinum seaters are eating sushi and drinking imported beer.

The Senators are putting the cap on a disappointing season while the Leafs finish a season in which they were neither good enough for the playoffs or bad enough to have a good shot at John Tavares.  This season marks the first time in 11 years that the Sens will play spectators to the playoffs, while the Leafs continue their post-lockout playoff drought.

Martin Gerber is expected to get the start against his former club.  He’ll be looking for redemption after never really accomplishing much in parts of 3 seasons with the club before being waived (a couple of times) earlier this season.  Tonight’s game will have no impact on the Northeast Division standings, the Leafs will finish in the basement.

Damien Cox Strokes Burke’s Ego… Maybe Something Else Too

I really believe that Brian Burke can build a winner in Toronto, but I think want to see him ice a decent team before I start singing his praises.  Not Cox though, he dropped to his knees and tickled Burke’s gear-bag in this morning’s Toronto Star. This makes me want to puke in my hockey gloves:

Nobody builds a sense of momentum quite like Brian Burke.

Perhaps it’s the way he expertly handles the media, or the way in which he aggressively pursues players he covets like a college recruiter and has them all but singing the team fight song by the time they agree to come.

This season, he has on more than a few occasions told opposing GMs that they should enjoy the fact their teams are pushing the Maple Leafs around now, because soon the skate will be on the other foot.

I couldn’t come up with anything insightful or even entertaining to say about last night’s 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.  It’s not so much a Leafs’ loss that’s got my tongue, the Lightning do have a lot more skill than Toronto, but it’s more like their season is getting much more difficult to care about at this point.  What did catch my attention this morning was a Dave Feschuk piece from the Toronto Star, that hints at a possible defection in the Leafs’ season ticket base.  Say what?

Could it be that one of North America’s most loyal fan bases is fed up with their under-performing team’s lousy 4-year skid?  With a 3.5% increase in ticket prices scheduled for next season the front office is looking to entice the suits to re-up on their season ticket packages by offering ‘face-time’ with Brian Burke.  The Toronto Blue Jays already offer a similar perk to ticket holders with their annual state-of-the-union address (which by most accounts was an ambush on fans this past winter).

Most teams in any sport that go 4-years without a playoff appearance run into some sort of a dip in ticket sales (usually referred to as “growing pains”), and it appears that the Leafs’ front office is preparing for the worst by not even offering refunds on season ticket package deposits.  As Feschuk managed to nail the buyer-beware cognitive hesitance with this bit:

“Maybe the newly imposed terms on incumbent season-ticket holders – this year, for the first time ever, the initial 20 per cent deposit on season seats is non-refundable – is prompting at least a little hesitation.”

Perhaps a drop in ticket prices would be in order, it would be by any other team that has been this bad over a period of 4 seasons.  Imagine that, an ACC filled with hockey fans that would actually look up from their Blackberry during the play, or be in their Platinum seat when a period starts rather than stuffing their corporate faces with sushi.