Leaf Fans React To Paul Maurice’s Firing
Posted May 7, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It would be hard to blame the average Leafs fan for feeling little in the way of emotion following the team’s decision to can head coach Paul Maurice.
During a three-year stint away from the playoffs, the club’s undergone a litany of changes, and has almost nothing to show for it.
Still, Maurice was shown the Air Canada Centre door Wednesday and in a town where hockey is more religion, less sport, some people couldn’t help but offer an opinion.
Here’s what some of you had to say:
“I’m glad that the Leafs fired Paul Maurice. Every time he played Raycroft, I cursed his name. When he put Tucker on the 3rd line, I cursed his name. The lines he put together were ineffective. He’s not a good coach. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Paul.”
Joe DePalma
“One of another fan’s comments comes to mind when they said that underachievers don’t get fired. Well it’s high time they did. Hockey players are all prima donnas, with little to no appreciation of how the “REAL” world works and the salaries that the general public need to work so hard to get…
“I love the game, just hate the politics.”
Loyal and Frustrated Fan
Dennis Edwards
Patricia Hein
“Paul Maurice was not the Leafs problem, but as usual the coach and GM take the fall for the lack of effort by the players. John Ferguson made rookie GM mistakes and was given every opportunity to improve and he didn’t. Maurice on the other hand could only do the best with what he had to work with.
“Watching the Leafs this year was painful as a fan, I can only imagine what it was like for the coach! Maybe we should let the teachers pick our new coach and see if they can do better. Real hockey fans know what the real problem is!”
Jason Rapsey
“It is unfortunate that Maurice is gone. The Leafs organization, like, usual does things backwards! It is not the fault of Maurice; it is what they gave him to work with.”
Ralph Lastella
“Here is a unique idea! Seeing that hockey players are simply little boys who grew up to be big boys and think they should be able to play games for a living, let’s give all of them a year’s sabbatical, send them out to get real jobs and let them find out that in the “real world” if you can’t do your job YOU get fired, not your boss.
“I’m sure my comment won’t win me a popularity contest, but it would be a good shake-up for the boys.”
Patricia
“I thought they’d never listen to my advice! Thank God someone was thinking.”
Brenda Bavington
“I think we all knew it was coming but it is a sad day. He is very popular with many Leaf fans! “
Karen Ruddy
“He needed to go. We need a much more experienced coach who can stand up to the Leaf organization.”
AXB
“The Leafs need a Canadian born captain to win the Cup. Paul was good but Sundin is done and should go. Every Cup winning team had a Canadian born captain except one.”
Kevin Bakos
“The news that Paul Maurice was let go does not come as a surprise. In my opinion, there will always be a team that performs poorly during the season and ends up in last place, second last place, etc. In effect, it seems the majority of the time the head coach of the low-performing teams are more-often-than-not terminated, leaving the team with the task of adjusting to a new coaching staff.
“I believe that more emphasis should be on a new coaching strategy from the existing coach, innovative techniques, and the adjustment of lines and rosters, and various other aspects on the player level. Run some scrimmages and mix the lines up a bit, figure out the best possible combination of players for each scenario. How about mandatory and rigorous skills training camps during the summer? What about finding a consistent goaltender?
“A new coach might only put a band-aid on a problem that requires far more effort. Even the greatest coach in existence can not deliver a Stanley Cup to mediocre players.”
Darren Brown
“The Maple Leafs organization continues to miss the boat. Maurice is a great coach with true hockey sense. I have coached on and off for 30 years and know one cardinal rule … you have to have quality players to make a winning team. The Maple Leafs have been a team of underachievers and has-beens mixed with raw new talent. Maurice coached the Marlies and most of the younger Buds, they know he is a winner and given time and a few great players would have produced a championship team.
“Now another team will get a great coach and a true gentleman. ‘Tis a sad day in Leaf country … AGAIN.”
Peter Rae
“Well, I think they missed the mark by a little. They should get rid of the teachers, Peddie & Tanenbaum. Crap runs downhill.”
John Williams
“It is about time that the TML cleaned house. Paul Maurice was never capable of coaching in the big leagues. So happy to see JFJ go … what a menace. It is solely because of him that we haven’t made the playoffs in three consecutive years. As they say, three times and you’re out! Bring back Pat Quinn for the upcoming season or even better get Scotty Bowman! Go Leafs Go!”
Victor C. Lee
“The Leafs should have never fired Pat Quinn, he was making the playoffs until Ferguson arrived and he was working to develop a team. I also believe that the players respected him and played well for him.
“Paul Maurice is a nice guy and I am sorry to see him go, but I don’t think he was strong enough. Being a coach in Toronto with all the “stuff happening above” is just not good for anyone’s health so he should count his blessings.”
Christine Paluck
“Maurice had a shabby roster to work with. He’s a smart and articulate guy who knows the game and didn’t falter under the lights of all the media cameras after every game. I think the Leafs have lost a good man and I wish him well.”
CJ Beynon
“I have been a true Leaf fan my whole life, I attended that last Stanley Cup game, I probably know more about hockey than most men. This is the last straw for me. Paul Maurice was a real class act, you never heard him run down his players and I am sure at times that must have been very hard to do.
“The owners of the Leaf team are a bunch of idiots. They prove it over and over again, the management of the team sucks. Paul Maurice was handed a team from Pat Quinn (who sucked) who had not developed the young players, but played the older players. Paul Maurice is just the scape goat in all of this…
“Cliff Fletcher and all the other yahoos will continue on and unfortunately the Toronto fans will keep filling the Air Canada centre, which they rely on, so why do anything constructive, they still make their money and isn’t that what they are all about!
“I feel sorry for my grandson who is nine, he will never see the likes of Keon, Duff, The Big M, Bower, Sittler, Clark, because the Leaf management and owners really do not care. It is very sad. A city the size of Toronto is a laughing stock, not because of our players, they want to win as badly as the fans want them to. It is the jerks at the top.”
Mary Davidson
