I am a big fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club.... when they lose; which is much of the time.Imagine my happiness, today, when I saw the headline in the Toronto Sun's sports page which read, "Crowning Insult - Leafs again put on another pitiful display as they fall to the lowly Kings". The story's writer, a guy by the name of Lance Hornby, caught my attention in the fourth paragraph when he said:
In addition to Earthquake, Towering Inferno and every other disaster movie set here, you can add film of last night's 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
But the big laugh came from me mere seconds later when I read this:
Andrew Raycroft was burned for four goals in the first period, his defence pushed around like ragdolls. As for coach Paul Maurice changing lines, re-uniting Mats Sundin, Nik Antropov and Alexei Ponikarovsky had all the effect of re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
For me to laugh out loud (and with such force) when I am by myself, it must be funny. Being a Titanic nut makes this even funnier.
I should add that the Toronto Maple Leafs organization is staffed from top to bottom with incompetents. (In all fairness, the Leafs are one of the most profitable team sports franchises in the world. I am really speaking of making a winning team. The Leafs have not won a 'Stanley Cup' -- the National Hockey League's ultimate prize -- since 1967! And in the years since, they have come relatively close only a couple of times. This organization does not care about the fans, and every year they prove it by raising the gate ticket prices. The cynics say the fans are really the ones to blame as they "keep on paying". If a major film studio could get such dedicated fans they could release a lot of bad movies on a regular basis, and their fans would keep on lining up at the movie theatres.)
Some guy in Toronto is offering to buy the Leafs from Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), the current owners of the team. I understand that some people are excited at the prospect.
One small correction to Hornby's article: The Towering Inferno is set in San Francisco, not Los Angeles. Whatever... Hornby is an entertaining Sports writer.
2 comments:
By far the most entertaining Leafs game I ever saw was in 1990, the night after Harold Ballard died. They played even worse than usual-- probably because they were up all night partying.
That is funny you mention that game. I was on the Leaf's case even back then and I remember saying, "the Leafs are such losers, they can't even win after Ballard dies!"
(They probably were partying. Those were oppressive times; although how are things any different now?)
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