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I don't care.

KGB

KGB

New member
Even when they were doing decently this season I just couldn't muster up any passion, and now I'm totally checked out. The franchise has been in the doldrums for so long that they've finally lost me.  If we showed signs of a real turnaround (as in 1993 and 1999) I'd be on board, but even when the team was in the top 8 this year, there were no signs that they were actually improved over years past.  As a result, I stopped making it a priority to watch games, to listen to games, to check in here each and every day.  I was completely uninterested in the trade deadline.  The firing of Ron Wilson, which would have pleased me to no end last year, just seemed an inevitable matter-of-fact.  When they lose, it doesn't bother me.  When they win, it doesn't excite me. 

The 8 years of mediocrity has finally gotten to me.  It's frightening to look back at all the changes in my life that have happened since the last time the Leafs made the playoffs.  It reminds me that there are far more important things in this world than living vicariously through a hockey team.  Even a year or two ago I could fantasize about what it would be like for the Leafs to win a Cup and how the tears would fall, but now I'm not sure it matters to me any more.

Am I the only one? 
 
KGB said:
Even when they were doing decently this season I just couldn't muster up any passion, and now I'm totally checked out. The franchise has been in the doldrums for so long that they've finally lost me.  If we showed signs of a real turnaround (as in 1993 and 1999) I'd be on board, but even when the team was in the top 8 this year, there were no signs that they were actually improved over years past.  As a result, I stopped making it a priority to watch games, to listen to games, to check in here each and every day.  I was completely uninterested in the trade deadline.  The firing of Ron Wilson, which would have pleased me to no end last year, just seemed an inevitable matter-of-fact.  When they lose, it doesn't bother me.  When they win, it doesn't excite me. 

The 8 years of mediocrity has finally gotten to me.  It's frightening to look back at all the changes in my life that have happened since the last time the Leafs made the playoffs.  It reminds me that there are far more important things in this world than living vicariously through a hockey team.  Even a year or two ago I could fantasize about what it would be like for the Leafs to win a Cup and how the tears would fall, but now I'm not sure it matters to me any more.

Am I the only one?
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I feel the same way about the Habs.  I saw them win cups when I was 5 and 12 but I was a bit young to really understand how special it was.  If the Habs could have won a few years back I think it would have felt like I won the lottery.  Now, the passion is not the same.  I'm in no way a bandwagoner and proudly proclaim myself as a Habs fan, wear the shirts, jersey etc., but I think it will take a properly constructed team to get my interest level back to where it is.  I think it's partly due to your life stage as well like you said, but I do feel pretty well exactly as you described due to the mediocrity or whatnot.  I think Leafs fans have been through worse over the last decade so you're probably more far gone than me.
 
I think every sports fan has hit rock-bottom at some point. I know what you're saying but at the same time I think you might care about it more than you want to believe.

My rock bottom was the Lalime meltdown, if it makes any of you feel better.
 
The Leafs run in 1993 was the magical moment for me, when I was 13 years old and Wendel Clark, Doug Gilmour and Felix Potvin were my heroes. And then they failed and failed again the next year and it was over. The trips back to the Conference Finals in 1999-2000 (was it, I can't even remember now?) was great and I was a huge fan of Mats Sundin, Darcy Tucker, Gary Roberts and Curtis Joseph, but the magic certainly wasn't the same as when I was a kid.

These days, and it certainly has something to do with the fact I'm now 32 and haven't seen a playoff game since I was 24, I'm glad to see them win when I get to watch them on Saturday night, but I can't even bring myself to get upset if they lose.

But another factor might be that there's nobody to really get excited about. Phil Kessel is a great player, the best on the team and one of the most dangerous scorers in the entire league, but he doesn't seem to have that extra level of compete. When the going gets tough, he tends to disappear. Simply put, he lacks heart. The player with the most heart on the team, and probably by default my favourite player, is Mikhail Grabovski, a 60-point second-liner who is about as streaky a scorer as they come.

I've always loved the goalies too - Potvin, Joseph, Eddie Belfour even, who I always hated before he came to Toronto. Now I cringe whenever the opposition gets a shot on whoever happens to be standing in the Leafs crease.

Tough times in Leafland.
 
Madferret said:
I think every sports fan has hit rock-bottom at some point. I know what you're saying but at the same time I think you might care about it more than you want to believe.

My rock bottom was the Lalime meltdown, if it makes any of you feel better.
Click to expand...

One fan's meltdown is another's peak... ;)

But I agree. BB's plan has back-fired as almost everyone thought it would
and this time we're trying something new. Too much arrogance to admit
defeat and we're back to a non-rebuilding 5 year plan. I'm going to
be collecting Old Age Security before these guys may have a team.
 
When Ballard died it was a time for optimism, and my Leaf passion rose to all time highs.

I certainly don't have the blind enthusiasm I did when I was a tyke and up to my mid 30s. My lack of excitement these days is mostly because I have never liked Burke and when he was hired my interest in the team waned.

I was also affected by that incident where Peddie was mouthing the words to Fletcher's presser. It made me realize that the franchise was being run by children.

I have to admit that the lack of homeboys on the current team doesn't help me get behind them. Maybe it's just coincidence, but it doesn't help.

I will probably get back into the Leaf groove a bit more when the Burke era has ended.

 
The Leafs are my team and I will follow them to the bitter end. If they're having an off year I just end up watching less hockey.

But even if they're down I still find the possibilities of moving forward interesting. Will they tank? Will they not tank? Who will they take in the draft? Who's going to be gone over the summer? I like watching the activities of the club as much as I like watching the games.

Although rock bottom was probably repeating the Rask mistake and bringing in Toskala and signing him to a long contract before playing a game. The second rock bottom was that 150ft shot that Toskala bungled.
 
I'm actually pretty pissed of at what's happened this year. This roster was good enough to make the playoffs. Not a Cup run by any stretch of the imagination, but without a playoff berth, development gets pretty stagnant. They're a really young team. Watching what's happened over the past month has been absolutely heartbreaking. I have little issue with Burke's roster, but the decisions on coaching and goaltending have been hard to defend.

Do I care? Yes. This one hurts more than the past few years because the drop off was so dramatic.
 
Ken said:
I'm actually pretty pissed of at what's happened this year. This roster was good enough to make the playoffs. Not a Cup run by any stretch of the imagination, but without a playoff berth, development gets pretty stagnant. They're a really young team. Watching what's happened over the past month has been absolutely heartbreaking. I have little issue with Burke's roster, but the decisions on coaching and goaltending have been hard to defend.

Do I care? Yes. This one hurts more than the past few years because the drop off was so dramatic.
Click to expand...

At the same time there's no bones about it, Burke can't say we went on a good stretch run, or that the beginning of the season we were "dominant" anymore because at the end of the day when the team needed to pull through, they didn't. I look forward to seeing some of the hard decisions that have to be made before the start of next year.
 
It's been my avatar for years.  I don't know why it says I only have 2 posts.  I know I've posted more than that since the message board changed platforms. 

But I'll tell you what.  A game of Activision hockey right now would get me more pumped up than any Leafs game.  I live in Western New York and am a hard core Sabre-hater.  This should have been one of those years where I stuffed it in everyone's face.  But even when we were a dozen points clear of the Sabres I wasn't into it.  I'm glad I held my tongue now, but I'm shocked that even the Sabres/Leafs rivalry meant nothing to me.  My point is that there seems to be such an inevitability of failure with this club that even when things were going well I didn't have to struggle to keep things in perspective. 
 
I couldn't agree more, this season I have taken a step back from hockey and not been as additcted to it as years past and it has changed my life for the better.
 
There's been precious little to cheer about for such a long time with the Leafs, so it's natural for the emotional attachment to the team to wane. I mean, I'd like to see something small but pleasurable like a win against the Canucks. I think Owen Nolan scored for the Leafs the last time that happened.

I'm still interested in the big picture of where the Leafs are going. That can be frustrating too though, when you don't agree with where the GM is taking the team. A case could be made that Burke has done no better with the Leafs than JFJ did. Right now, they both have a legacy of a failed retool, multiple 1st round picks traded and a too-big collection of overpaid boat anchor contract players.

But unlike JFJ, Burke didn't have much to work with coming in. He's done some good stuff. I'm sure he realizes that he's going to have to make a course correction, and I'm very interested to see what that will be before I start calling for his head.

I think I'll start getting excited again when the Leafs have a few young franchise players starting to come together as a team.
 
I feel like I'm in a serial abusive relationship with the Leafs. They promise to change for the better numerous times a year, give me hope, but ultimately let me down time and time again. All the while they they are stringing along and disappointing millions of others as well, who together have helped line their pockets and make them into one of the richest franchises in sports.
 
Maybe some aren't old enough to remember the 80's.  The Leafs of that era rushed allot of forwards into the NHL, never taught them the basics of two-way hockey, played run-and-gun, and never ever had any real success.  As painful as this might be, this, what you've recently witnessed...is the road to real success.  Start off with some Pat Burns defense and then slowly open the offensive flood gates.  Leafs won't be successful until at least Darcy Tucker's contract comes off the books.
 
skrackle said:
There's been precious little to cheer about for such a long time with the Leafs, so it's natural for the emotional attachment to the team to wane. I mean, I'd like to see something small but pleasurable like a win against the Canucks. I think Owen Nolan scored for the Leafs the last time that happened.

I'm still interested in the big picture of where the Leafs are going. That can be frustrating too though, when you don't agree with where the GM is taking the team. A case could be made that Burke has done no better with the Leafs than JFJ did. Right now, they both have a legacy of a failed retool, multiple 1st round picks traded and a too-big collection of overpaid boat anchor contract players.

But unlike JFJ, Burke didn't have much to work with coming in. He's done some good stuff. I'm sure he realizes that he's going to have to make a course correction, and I'm very interested to see what that will be before I start calling for his head.

I think I'll start getting excited again when the Leafs have a few young franchise players starting to come together as a team.
Click to expand...

Well put and it's pretty much how I feel. With a kid, a wife, and putting 50+ hours a week at the office, my leisure time has become so limited and valuable. Hard to make time for these guys when the result is usually the same. Even when things seemed to be going well earlier in the season, one look at the GA and PK told you all you needed to know about what would eventually happen. I've missed about 20 games this season, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it's the most I have ever missed in my life.

Not really a fan of Burke's body of work thus far. Compared to his predecessor he looks much better but literally anyone off the street would have fared better than him. I like Grabovski and have no problem with his contract but I am getting a little wary of how many "he's only overpaid by X dollars" guys he is accumulating. It's going to bite him in the ass if he doesn't find a way to move some of them.
 
I've gotten married and helped to produce 3 children all in the time since the Leafs last made the playoffs. That is pretty sad (for the Leafs not for me).

 
Good. Caring about a sports team is very mid-00's. These days it's all about ironic detachment.

I really care about how the Leafs are doing because sports are so important to me.
 
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