Toronto Maple Leafs: Stick Salute Still Leaving Bad Impression
The aftermath of the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ stick salute fiasco is to be expected
Keep Calm and… no, could both sides please calm down?
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In shocking news, the Toronto Maple Leafs went on a two-game win streak. In not-so-shocking news, the team managed to make a boneheaded move — now dubbed the stick-salute-gate — and now everyone has forgotten that the 15-4 two-game disaster of days past might have actually been the fluke.
As with anything controversial in the NHL, former player and coach Don Cherry — now the radical suit-flaunting commentator for CBC — put in his two cents about it, criticizing the players and the fans alike for the drama they’ve caused.
Not to sound like I’m siding with the Canadian Skip Bayless… but he’s right.
The actual play of the team is what ultimately matters more than anything else, but it’s hard to ignore a franchise surrounded by more drama than a gaggle of high school girls. The players and the fans alike have been acting out all season, and it’s honestly taking away from when the team actually plays well.
Many are suggesting that fans and the media alike ignore Phil Kessel’s ‘get away from me’ comment, or Dion Phaneuf’s ‘chilly’ interaction with the Toronto Media following the stick salute situation, or the lack of a stick salute itself — but it’s a direct reaction to the mistreatment of the team by the media, the mishandling of the roster by the front office, and the abuse of a historically significant franchise by a select group of the fan base who care more about stirring the pot than how the team is truly doing.
The Maple Leafs may claim it wasn’t done towards the fans, but that doesn’t take away from the poor leadership it displayed on Phaneuf’s part — just like a couple of seriously horrendous games to start off the season don’t warrant jersey-tossing or booing the home team.
As expected — and warranted — as the reaction was, though, there’s always hope it can turn into something good; it doesn’t seem like the Leafs are willing to slack off at the Air Canada Centre for a good long while now.
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