Randy Carlyle fired by Maple Leafs

Boom!

Blowed up REAL good!

The Leafs don't really care, the stadium is always full.

The most common saying among Leaf fans....."There's always next year".

It won't help.

The Leafs are a Cult.

And when they do get a new head coach they'll do the same thing they always do. Play really well for about a half-dozen games and then it'll be back to the standard suckage.

It's obviously not the coaching that's the problem. Pat Quinn was an excellent coach. Paul Maurice is an excellent coach. Carlyle is an excellent coach. The Leaf team? Plenty of potential but the work ethic is just not there most of the time.

He lost the room.

Not his fault when the big boys on the team don't buy into his system and are too selfish to think beyond their own stats.

The core of the team is rotten. They need a real #1. A real Captain. Phaneuf isn't the guy.

I know guys that played for him and he could be quite arrogant and pig headed which is fine. One of his favorite lines when trying to talk to him would be: "And how many Norris Trophies have you won?"
I met him often when he was coaching the Manitoba Moose and thought he was nice enough. But then I wasn't playing for him.

The players have less problems getting the coach fired than winning games.

MLSE's trophy case has been empty for so long they could care less if any of their teams win a championship, as long as they make money. Why else would you fire a coach and have no replacement plan other than to shift people in the organization up a spot (or several people up to the same spot apparently)? It's because MLSE doesn't want to spend money on support staff anymore. They fired Burke and Carlyle, both of whom have won Stanley Cups as GM and coach respectively, and replaced them with cheap placeholders. They did the same thing with Toronto FC (fired Nelsen and made the academy team coach head coach). Same shit, different team.

To be fair though, the Toronto sports media are bloody relentless. When the Leafs string some wins together it's "Stanley Cup time" but the moment they lose more than 1 in a row the sports media starts asking the stupidest damn questions. Then again, I haven't heard an intelligent question from those idiots in some years so...

Like asking Kessel if he's un-coachable. Maybe he is and maybe he isn't but Jebus man, he's the exact wrong person to pose that question to.
I'm beginning to suspect that many in the Toronto sports media have taken one too many pucks to the head.

While I agree the Toronto sports media is relentless, the question posed to Phil was fair and on point.

Phil is making $10,000,000 this year. 2 Million more than the next guy. If the best player on the team and the highest paid isn't doing what the coach wants, it's a huge problem...

Heard a story that a guy showed up to the first game of the season one year with a sign:

"Maybe Next Year."

While I agree the Toronto sports media is relentless, the question posed to Phil was fair and on point.

Phil is making $10,000,000 this year. 2 Million more than the next guy. If the best player on the team and the highest paid isn't doing what the coach wants, it's a huge problem...
It was fair and on point but it was still the wrong person to ask. How objective do you think Phil is going to be when he's hauling in $10 million this year? What's he going to say, "No I'm not" and watch his value on the hockey market plummet?
Kessel is still 10th in total points in the NHL and he's well known by now to be a streaky player. He's far from the first and he likely won't be the last.
Besides, there's a whole damn team behind him. We've seen them able to put points up so why is Phil responsible for carrying the team? Where the hell have JVR, Khadri, Bozak, Clarkson been? Where the hell is the friggin' defense?
Even during Calgary's 7 game losing skid the team was never out of most of those games, losing by 1 or 2 goals.

Maybe the media should be haranguing the team management and asking why they'd shell out $10 million to a player who is known to be streaky.

Of course a defense core with an overall +/- rating of -9 isn't the problem.