Ferguson fired, Fletcher fills in...

Out with the old, in with the older!

"After full consideration of the Leafs' situation, it has become clear that change and a new direction is needed. The decision has been made that John will not be receiving a new contract at the end of this year, and it's in the best interests of the Leafs and of John to begin the transition immediately," ---Richard Peddie, president and chief executive officer of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd.

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The last Margarita apparently consumed and the new boss tanned, rested and ready to work the latest era of Maple Leaf transition has begun.

John Ferguson Jr. was relieved of his duties this morning and Cliff Fletcher, who is set to head back to his Phoenix home on Wednesday is apparently making his plans to return to the Maple Leafs to try and bring some stability to rather dysfunctional Maple Leaf situation.

The long anticipated (and drawn out) melodrama played its final scene of the Ferguson sessions on Tuesday as Richard Peddie made his announcement and perhaps gave Ferguson some sense of relief that the shabby handling of his bosses was now finally over.

In their parting comments the Leafs summed up the Ferguson years in a paragraph; John has been given the opportunity and the resources he requested to deliver results from the strategic plans that he put in place when he was named general manager in 2003, and while the new collective bargaining agreement required some re-shaping of those plans, the results have fallen short of what our organization, including John, and our fans expect.

No mention of the stumbling, fumbling nature of the upper offices, where apparently accountability is not a requirement, nor humility a trait.

The Leafs and their byzantine layer of management left Ferguson to twist in the wind far too long, playing out the torture for weeks at a time and degrading their own brand in the process.

With Ferguson now out, the process to rebuild is said to be underway, Fletcher upon his arrival from the sunbelt destinations will take over the day to day running for the rest of the season and will be tasked with the duty of as Peddie puts it, establishing a foundation from which the next general manager can build.

While Fletcher patches up the cracks and holes in the foundation and wheels and deals the leafs through the final stages of the 2007-08 season, Peddie and his board will begin the search for the next great hope.

To that end, Peddie announced that sports attorney Gordon Kirke will be added to the search team to consult with Peddie in the quest for the next Leaf President and General Manager, Kirke and Peddie will put their heads together and provide the name of all names to the MLSE board.

Kirke appears from time to time on the radio program Prime Time Live with Bob McCown, who has been rather critical of the Maple Leaf soap opera this year. Perhaps Kirke will take some of his research from the various contributors to Toronto's radio talk show wars, where there's never a shortage of options offered.

Ferguson's Maple Leaf obituary had been written for weeks if not months now, sabotaged in a way by the Leafs dithering of the off season, the search for a mentor for Ferguson fell flat leaving him as a lame duck since the start of the season. As the Leafs began to slide down the standings, the calls for the Leafs to make some decisions became louder and louder.

Ferguson broke his uncomfortable silence yesterday in an interview with the Toronto Sun, in which he seemed more or less resigned to his fate and said that he was sure that he still had more to contribute to hockey and fully expected to be part of the sport in the future. It was a sentiment shared by more than a few hockey people interviewed by the National Post.

As things have evolved in the last 48 hours he'll be able to put those thoughts to the test, and he most likely will get another chance, hopefully with a more focused ownership group that has an idea as to where they want to go and how they want to get there. Interestingly enough in a Globe and Mail story on Tuesday, comparisons of Ferguson's winning percentages compared to other Leaf GM's stacked up fairly decently, in fact by comparison his .559 is better than his replacements number of .502.

Ferguson's headaches are now Fletcher's, no wonder the new boss wanted to get in that Mexican siesta while he had the chance. That pounding in his head will no longer be from those beach side beverages, but rather from the never ending problems that seem to go hand in hand with running the show at MLSE.

Globe and Mail--Leafs turn to Fletcher
Toronto Sun--Fletcher's in, Ferguson's out
Toronto Star--Leafs fire GM Ferguson
Toronto Star--Slow and Easy or Fast and Furious?
National Post--Maple Leafs: This is the end of JFJ

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The above post first appeared on my HockeyNation blog, for more items about hockey check it out!

Hey, does anyone have Punch Imlach’s phone number?

They plowed through the B’s to no avail, apparently rebuffed by Scotty Bowman. Bud Poile never got the chance to say yea or nay. A confidential session was held with John Muckler, so secret that we suspect snipers were ordered to stand guard atop the roof of the Air Canada Centre on the off chance somebody got too close to the inquisition.

And now if the latest report is true, they have now turned their attention to Harry Sinden who did such a fine job with the B’s over the last twenty years or so.

In one of the more bizarre headhunter searches in recent times, the executives of MLSE have talked to anyone with a pulse and an old age pension in regard to the “mentoring” position for John Ferguson Jr.

The Leafs seem determined to undercut any value their current GM may have, by trotting out the elder statesmen of the last century. And while we no doubt suspect that all those considered thus far have a fair amount of hockey knowledge and have probably forgotten more than we’ll ever learn, most of it was forged back when the players could be sent to Siberia or Springfield at the whim of the manager.

The long running saga which first got its legs before the playoffs had even finished, has carried on to comedic lengths, with the only message that doesn’t seem to be getting through is that there aren’t that many people really in a hurry to work for the crazy rich guys guarding the Teachers fund at the Air Canada Centre.

How this whole bizarre scenario is impacting on his ability to run the Leafs is a very valid question. How many other GM’s will phone him up and try to talk trade, how many agents will call him up with their free agent players if there’s some doubt that he’ll actually be the guy making the decisions. It’s the most foolish thing we’ve seen in a long time from the franchise that used to make Foolish its corporate mantra.

You have to feel a fair degree of sympathy for Ferguson, who may be wondering just what it is that his bureaucratic masters at MLSE really want from him. More importantly perhaps he should be looking to find his parachute and go to a franchise a little less loony in their approach to upper management. He could only pray that Hamilton somehow snares their cats from Nashville and might need an extra hand, now that would be a delicious bit of turn about, taking his battered frame down the QEW to help launch the next great threat to the Leaf Nation.

The unseemly manner of the Leafs machinations of late, took a rather dark turn today with the news of the passing of John Ferguson Sr., the hard nosed former left winger of the Habs and one of the great characters and most knowledgeable executives of the game. His son will take time out now to bury his father, a job that every son dreads but one which must be taken to complete life’s cycle.

Once he has taken care of that most sacred of our social rites, he can get back to wondering about his bosses. He was particularly close to his father from all accounts, one would hope that some final fatherly advice might have been to take his lumps from the Toronto experience and move on to a more promising opportunity. There are 29 other teams in the NHL, most of them in need of some upper office guidance, surely a few of them are a run a little bit more sanity than his current employer.

He may truly want to stay on with the Leafs, they are the face of hockey in the NHL. One of its most storied, but apparently most dysfunctional of franchises.

John Ferguson Jr. may or may not become the next great General Manager in pro hockey. He may or may not have what it takes to lead a team to the Stanley Cup, but in order to make that step you have to have the faith of your employer and faith in your employer.

Judging by the last six weeks in Toronto, Ferguson must wonder at nights if this job is worth all the levels of Dante’s circles that seem to be playing out for him as part of the Maple Leaf Nation.

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The above post first appeared on my HockeyNation blog, for more items about hockey check it out!

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Note: item was revised July 15/07, to correct an error in text, correcting the position of Mr. Ferguson with the Canadiens.

Was it Professor Lamoriello, in the dressing room, with a line up card?

If you’re looking for a suspect in the game of Clue that became the end of the Leafs season on Sunday, perhaps look no further than that listed above!

My oh my, you could hear the wails of despair as far as Hamilton on Sunday night, as the Mighty Maple Leafs were denied a trip to Lord Stanley’s post season dance this year.

After a remarkable tension filled third period of hockey between the New Jersey Devils and the New York Islanders, the Leafs found themselves on the outside, suddenly free to spend more time with the kids, the clubs and their outside business interests.

In the end, the Islanders would rely on a little known goaltender from Invermere, British Columbia to put them into the play offs. Wade Dubielewicz made two key Overtime shoot out saves, securing a place for the Islanders in this years playoff season and sending the Leafs to join the Habs on the sidelines, to serve as testimonies to chances missed.

But, before we rehash an amazing last ten minutes of hockey we rewind to a pre game decision by head coach, GM, and Presidente for Life Lou Lamoriello. It was Lamoriello who chose to sit out perennial all star goaltender Martin Brodeur in favour of seldom used back up, Scott Clemmensen.

It was a move that no doubt has more than one member of the Maple Leaf Nation screaming conspiracy at the top of their soon to be silent lungs.

To be fair to the back up, he played a fairly solid game for the Devils, and while a little sloppy on puck control he none the less held the Islanders to account for a good portion of the game, Despite numerous scoring opportunities the Islanders could only tally two goals, both of which were scored by Richard Park, who ironically played a fair amount of his formative hockey in the Toronto area. (Go ahead blame his minor hockey coaches if a scapegoat is needed) an interesting bit of irony for Leaf fans to ponder on a most remarkable day.

The Islanders held the Leafs fate heading into the third period, when they began to falter, allowing the Devils to get back into the game, including a wild last .9 second of a goal that sent the Leaf’s misery into extra time. With a bit of a momentum shift taking place, Leaf fans would be forgiven if they perhaps thought they had been offered a stay of execution, with the Devils to provide deliverance in short order.

However, five minutes of Overtime settled nothing, despite a last minute of play that featured an Islander power play with a 4-3 advantage. With neither team scoring it was off to a shoot which saw the Islanders take a 2-1 lead into the final shooter, an effort from Sergei Brylin that was poke checked away by Dubielewicz bringing an end to the roller coaster of emotions on Long Island and setting a whole new wave of tears loose in Southern Ontario.

While the Leaf fans may not like their fate, they should remember that their heroes had more than enough chances in the last two weeks to avoid all the drama and secure a playoff spot, in the end as the Leafs and Habs stumbled through the last week of the season it was the Islanders that ran the four game winning streak into the final playoff spot.

The remarkable Islander win now provides the Metro New York City area with three different options for Stanley Cup cheering, a situation that will most likely bring a smile to the face of Gary Bettman while the CBC wonders whatever will become of their ratings now that Toronto can get Raptor crazy.

In fact, don’t be surprised if we soon hear conspiracy tales from depressed and angry leaf fans on how the Leafs hopes were not just dashed, but murdered on the last day of the season.

If this were a game of Clue, cynical Leaf fans might suggest that if not Lou, then perhaps the following as their prime suspect in the crime: The name of Colonel Bettman, in the office, with the telephone.

The above post first appeared on my HockeyNation blog, for more items about hockey check it out!