Time Flies

Too much time has passed. So much time gone. So little accomplished. 

I remember when Paul Maurice was hired. Young, smart guy. Honoured by the gig. Oh, the optimism. Since, he's been fired, almost guided a rival to the cup final, then split for Russia. Back then it was like, huh? What just happened? It was only yesterday he...

We should have known.

The Burke hiring was a great moment. So much promise (or promises) accompanied him to a place where people were so starving for something decent. We could feel it then. It was going to be worth it. Our patience would finally be rewarded. Yeah, ah... wishful thinking. It's over already, and we can't feel a thing. He's stunned. We're stunned. What the **** happened to the grit and greatness sold on us? Looking back, yes, there were many chances for Burke to make good on his plan. Several of them, moments, seasons. There was plenty of opportunity to resurrect the sleeping giant. None of it however was enough. It's hard to believe, man. After all of that, the fact Burke's tenure concludes without anything of substance produced is simply surreal. Again. Nothing.

When does this end?

And when does it begin?

So here we go, again. Another start to what most just have to expect will be a lacklustre finish to follow. And again it's Burke's understudy tasked with mopping up his mentor's mess, in addition to at last breaking the Leafs' perpetual, comical succession of failure. Good luck! But give Dave Nonis credit. He's done it before, like Burke had done it before. Just not here. See, that's where just about everyone who comes and then goes from this organization is linked.

Elsewhere.

Other places. That's where things happen for these hockey people. They come in with cred. Then start re-building it minutes after lift-off from a runway at Pearson. So what about us? What about here? When does success grace this place? The one that clamours for it most, yet continues to go without?

Well, I will say it like I've said before: It is our time, again.

It's always been our time.

So, until the next... we hope.

Mo decisions Mo problems

Man, I'm torn on Paul Maurice.

Do I want this guy to go "all the way" or do I want him to go flat somewhere South of the promised land? Its a tough call tonight.

Vindictive or supportive?

At this stage of the Leafs' lengthy exile from meaningful hockey you'd think I'd no longer have ill will towards those good enough to still be playing? Under other circumstances I probably wouldn't, but with a guy like Maurice who for two years got it wrong in Toronto, its hard not to be a wee bit...bitter. He seemed to be in the right place at the right time when he was called upon by his pal Jim Rutherford to run the Hurricanes, a team most of us didn't think would even make the playoffs. Lucky bastard.

Or is he?

Again, Maurice took over a team stuck in a serious funk. At the time of his hiring just keeping the Canes in contention appeared to be a stretch.

Skip ahead

Here we just a few short months later and the team Maurice fronts finds itself among the NHL's Final-Four AGAIN. It's an amazing accomplishment helped along by a reinvigorated head coach who's re-discovered success in the only place he's ever tasted it before. It seems a simple theory to a complicated journey and one that has Maurice edging closer to the pinnacle with the Canes while moving further from that fruitless chapter in his career with the Leafs.

Is the grass really that greener? Or is timing everything?

In the case of Paul Maurice you'd have to believe its a bit of both, kind of like my feelings towards the ex-Leafs bench boss. Deep down it wouldn't kill me to see him win the ultimate prize. Hey, who am I to wish ill will on someone so usually classy? Then again, he's no longer a member of the team I've devoted my support to...which tonight may or may not be a good thing?