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Fans to blame for the Maple Leafs free fall?

Many Leaf fans, as many do when in their shoes; have blamed Maple Leafs General Manager, John Ferguson Jr. for the awful play from the members of the blue & white. Some have even extended an extra finger at Paul Maurice, Richard Peddie and part owner, Larry Tanenbaum. So much finger pointing has been going on lately it’s hard to remember who we’re blaming for what and why. But thus is the life of a Maple Leaf fan. Leaf fans are the only fans in pro sports who each think that they are the actual GM, and in some ways, they’re right.

Let’s look at JFJ as a regular employee at Tim Hortons. At his interview he states that he wants to come in and take the time to make sure every coffee he serves is what the customer wants. Customers are getting fed up with quick service of wrong coffees and he thinks the only way to solve this is to take the time of each one and make sure it’s done the right way. Sure it is going to slow things down a bit but every customer’s desire is to get their coffee the way they want it and only time re-training everyone to do it the right way will ensure that all customers are happy. So he starts his first shift with his vision and dream but as he’s trying to implement his plans, every customer is yelling and screaming that they want their coffee now. Our little timbit try’s to compose himself and ensure customers of their plans but caffeine hungry Canadians aren’t the easiest people to talk to. Soon enough they start complaining and asking he get fired. JFJ gets a little scared so starts listening to customers to make them happy. But as he speeds up he starts making mistakes. He tells himself that maybe he can sacrifice some time in making the prefect cup of coffee by speeding things up to keep his customers happy, besides, even writers for the Toronto Sun have started to write pages about his terrible service which makes him fear for his job. But as he cuts corners to give the customers what they want while still trying to do things his way, he notices that they are still complaining about how long it’s taking to get their coffee so he cuts more corners. Pretty soon the pressure gets to be too much from the customers and journalist (who publicly state how he’s a moron) that he decides to scrap his plan and give the customers what they want (after all, what’s the point of a plan if you have no job). But by this point it’s too late, poor JFJ just starts handing out black coffee to everyone who enters the door because nobody wanted to let him do things his way but now customers are really upset. You see, as a Tim Horton’s customer, they expect that their coffee will be off a little bit (too much sugar or not enough cream) if it means they have fast service but getting a black coffee when you order a double-double just isn’t acceptable. So as any good loyal customer to Tim Horton’s would do, they start to demand that he start taking the time to ensure each coffee is made right, because that’s all they really want. In order to make a good cup of coffee you have to be patient, and develop your coffee making skills before you can even dream of making a prefect cup, and that’s all we want. But now JFJ is in a heap of fritters. He’s used up all his sugar, gave away all his cream and all the employees he works with (who were great when they worked at other Tim Horton’s) are just now only working for a pay cheque (they learnt long ago you can’t make Tim Horton’s customer happy). So what does he do now? His boss admits his hiring was a mistake; Customers want his head, fellow employees just laugh and count their money and the next shipment of sugar and cream is next week and they all want coffee today.

Now I’m not suggesting that JFJ is innocent in this but lets at least admit that Toronto fans are the hardest fans to please. We often say we want 1 thing but then scream when we pay the consequences for those actions. If we want the Leafs to rebuild then we have to support our team, our coach and our general Manager as they rebuild. If we want them to make a push for the cup now, then we have to stop complaining about lost draft picks, traded prospects and failed attempts. This is our team, so lets start supporting them and help do what has to be done to ensure that in a few years, maybe will be close to our desired prefect coffee.

Daniel Chapman

http://danielsnhlnews.blogspot.com/