Most of Toronto’s hockey media have engaged in an embarrassing display of laughable “journalism” as they begin to trash the Maple Leafs’ new management team before they’ve even made a single move. To outdo each other, these media “hockey experts” are circling like vultures, waiting to pounce on the first hint of a mistake. Their reliance on the opinions of “league sources” and other team executives reeks of desperation. Why should Toronto’s decision-makers care about the opinions of executives struggling to keep their own ships afloat.
To no one’s surprise, the Toronto Sun’s Steve Simmons is leading the charge. Let’s just say this about Simmons and his reputation as an attention-seeker willing to smear anyone: Steve Simmons is a terrible human being.
Not only is Simmons a self-serving, “hey, look at me” troublemaker, he’s also a coward. Rather than call the new Toronto GM John Chayka “a con-man and liar” himself, Simmons opted to assign those opinions to some anonymous source. Uh-huh. Let’s go with that, then.
With Simmons now under attack from many Toronto fans (certainly not all), many of his media colleagues are racing to defend him. Of course, there’s nothing less credible than one media clown coming to the aid of another. These “journalists” love to spew their venom, but when they get a taste of their own medicine, they circle the wagons fast in feigned outrage at the very idea one of theirs may have crossed a line.
Meanwhile, Jonas Siegel of The Athletic—a one-trick pony who co-hosts the Maple Leaf Report podcast and is well known for his relentless negativity on each episode—appears to be in full meltdown mode over the Leafs new structure, one that doesn’t include a team president.
Granted, many teams do. But several successful franchises don’t, including the gold-standard Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes. After yesterday’s podcast, Siegel was still venting, posting that the Leafs failed to answer the question of the day. The kicker? It was his question.
It seems Toronto’s media prefer the tried-and-not-so-true approach: hire a put-out-to-pasture retread GM who’s flailed for years, won nothing, but—man, oh man—was part of the old boys’ network and happy to feed information to hockey’s “insiders.” But, but…he’s “experienced,” they cry. Experienced at what? Losing?
We say kudos to any franchise (including the current Maple Leafs) that tries it a different way. Or, as they say, “thinks outside the box.”
Toronto fans shouldn’t be worried about how new GM John Chayka fared as a 26-year-old GM in Arizona years ago. That entire Mickey Mouse operation—propped up for years by Gary Bettman—was an impossible situation for any management team, let alone one so youthful.
Nor should Toronto fans be concerned over media claims that Chayka is a ruthless operator. That’s a bad thing? Since when?
Leafs fans just endured multiple seasons watching the “experienced” retread GM Brad Treliving—the safe hire— sit on his hands, afraid to try anything.
Instead of more pack mentality from the Toronto media, here’s a novel concept: Why not let the new Chayka/Sundin operation do its thing—and then judge it? After all, we don’t usually jail bank robbers in this country until after they’ve robbed the bank.
We also find it a bit rich that anyone from the media side would pin the “con-man, liar” label on anyone else. Apparently mirrors in Toronto are in short supply.
