Barret wrote:Zeus wrote:Barret wrote:Half of my bet is right!
Out of curiosity Barret: how happy are you that Pronger (@ 31 minutes a game) is doing very, very well over in Edmonton after the continuous failers in St. Louis and calls of him not being a big-game performer?
I think it was because of all of his wrist injuries that have held him back in St. Louis. Now he's healthy, on a team with very good chemistry. I wish our front office wasn't run by the money hungry wal-mart heirs and penny pinching Mark Sauer.
I think it's more than just injuries. St. Louis built up a team in the mid-90's, but since the heirs took over, you can see the lack-of-caring mentality in the team. Kinda like Chicago and completely opposite of teams like Edmonton now. You can't succeed on your own and you can't care if you don't see anyone else caring, which I think was part of it too.
See, there's a similar problem here in Toronto. For years, they had Harold Ballard (from the 70's), who was a cheap bastard. Then there was Steve Stavro, who wasn't much better. They still sold out all the games even when they were perennial basement dwellers in the 80's, so there was no reason to change. Now, they're actually owned by the Teacher's Pension Fund, who's sole purpose it is to make, rather than spend, money for the teacher's retirement. Since there's always 10 people lined up to buy a ticket should a fan go away, all they have to do is stay competitive to keep the merchandise sales up and make extra coin during the playoffs. They never really showed that they cared to spend the extra coin to put the Leafs over the top. Every single penny spent is for the purpose of making another in the short term. There's no passion in winning for them.
When Quinn came in, they FINALLY upped the payroll (hit $60 million in 2004, I believe), but it was too late. This is the main reason why the Leafs haven't won in 40 years.
If only all of the teams had an Illitch-like owner.....