Here we go again, Leafs fans!
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008Where have we seen this before? In the summer of 1979, the Toronto Maple Leafs reached back for a saviour to turn things around after the club that featured Mcdonald, Thompson, Salming and Sittler had under-achieved in the playoffs. Imlach, the former coach and general manager, who stood behind-the-bench for four Stanley Cup titles in the 1960s, declared upon his re-hiring that the team had only five or six good players. Let the dismantling begin.
The Leafs went on to have not a SINGLE winning season during the entire decade of the 1980s.
And now, the Maple Leafs have fired John Ferguson Junior, replacing him on an interim basis with former Leafs’ G.M. Cliff Fletcher, who did an amazing job turning the Leafs’ fortunes around in the 1990s. The key to this move is the fact that Fletcher has been hired only as an interim general manager, brought in to offer stability to the organization and find the right man to take over on a permanent basis. This is a good decision. Expecting Fletcher to repeat his success of the nineties is unrealistic.
As for John Ferguson Junior, just watch him move on to bigger and better things.