With Carlyle in place, questions remain—about the present and the future

If you weren't able to post a comment on yesterday's Kessel/playoff column because of the technical difficulties here, I invite you to scroll down just below this story to my "apology" post to enter any observations you'd like to make.  Sorry again for the confusion.

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The Wilson firing is not exactly a shock.  I had discussed the possibility  here even before the deadline.  I guess my immediate reaction to the dismissal Friday night was simply this:  interesting timing.  Was Burke saving Wilson by doing it while the Leafs were on the road, so Wilson could just remove himself from the situation quietly and, if he chose, not have to deal with endless (and, by definition, meaningless, since he is no longer the Leaf coach) questions.  That makes sense, I suppose.

But as to the move itself, I wondered if, for example, Wilson inadvertently expedited things by saying, in answer to a question about booing the other night, that fans were disappointed that the Leafs didn’t do anything at the deadline?  Did I hear that comment correctly?  If so, we know that  Burke would be very unhappy if one of his own people—even indirectly—questioned, or even appeared to question, his decisions.

Regardless, the writing was on the wall in the summertime, when Burke ordered Wilson to fire two of his assistant coaches, including someone who had been with him for years and years—the capable Tim Hunter.

Whenever management starts clipping a coach’s wings by removing his hand-picked assistants, then you start thinking only a huge reversal in the team’s fortunes will save the head coach’s job.  And that kind of turnaround did not fully come to pass this season in Toronto, though there were clearly times that it looked as though the Leafs had turned at least a “minor” corner in their development.

I’ve posted my views about Wilson for the past two and a half years here, I have little interest in adding much now that he is gone.  I’ll simply say that while I wish he had handled the public aspect of his job with more grace—particularly his relationship with the press—I never doubted he tried his best to turn this team into a winner, just as every Leaf coach in my memory has.  He has been a very good NHL coach, and may well be working again somewhere next season.

Clearly, something made Burke decide to do make the change when he did not really want to do—at least not just yet.  The recent skid certainly was the major factor, but if I had to guess, Burke has been thinking for some time about his options. Remember,  Burke himself ended up exactly where hockey people forecast he would end up long before he arrived here in Toronto.  The guy plans ahead.

I will say one more thing about the decision and it ties into the above point.  I’ve never liked when a GM in any sport fires the coach and already has his replacement waiting in the room next door, ready to take over. And Burke clearly already had decided to hire Carlyle—and only fired Wilson Friday night.  (Otherwise, how do you work out contractual realities, what with Carlyle still being owed for two more seasons in Anaheim?  Someone was talking with Anaheim ownership before tonight...)

I’m sure people will say you have to be prepared, and thus should have a new coach in place.  I just don't like it.  Never have.  I think if you're going to preach loyalty, you don’t even talk to a new coach until you have fired the old guy. That's just how I believe you conduct yourself with people.

In any event, I am relieved, for the record, that Marc Crawford is not the next coach here.  That would have re-united Burke and Crawford from their days in Vancouver.  They were in charge when the Bertuzzi incident occurred, and the optics of that for me (and maybe not just for me) would be terrible.  I won't go on about it but that was such a blot on the NHL, the Canucks and that particular management team, because to me, they were responsible for the behavior of that team.  I’m not interested in seeing them together again.  Nor would I be happy if Brad May was named an assistant coach here, at any point.

Carlyle, though, was the slam-duck candidate.  Hockey folks started talking about his re-uniting with Burke from the day he was let go earlier this season in Anaheim.  Like Wilson, Carlyle has a Leaf pedigree (Wilson played for the Leafs, as did his uncle, Johnny), having been drafted by and playing for the Leafs early in his NHL career in the late 1970s, before being traded to the Penguins (where he won a Norris Trophy).

Carlyle built a solid reputation as a minor-league coach, and of course won the Stanley Cup under Burke for the Ducks in 2007.  So the guy has “won”, he is a demanding taskmaster and would, in theory, impose a stricter defensive approach which would presumably help with the Leafs defensive zone/goaltending woes.

One other side note:  quite often, a GM will move from a "demanding" coach, like Wilson (at least that was his reputation) and replace that person with more of a "player's coach".  However, in this case, Carlyle and Wilson are similar, it seems to me.  Again, Carlyle may be more "defensively-oriented" in terms of systems, but both are seen as disciplinarians.

(Interestingly, I noted that a mainstream media person had reported on Twitter that Carlyle had already "blow off" media requests, implying that was a bad start to the new coach's media relations in the Toronto market.  Perhaps Carlyle was simply respecting that Wilson had just been let go and therefore did not want to conduct interviews until Saturday.  Regardless, Carlyle will be under a microscope like he has not been before, to be sure.)

I would expect the Leafs to come out with a lot of jump against the Habs on Saturday night.  New coaches almost always provide that kind of initial inspiration.  Players want to impress their new coach, and let’s face it, a new voice will be welcome.  Four years, for many coaches, is about all some players can deal with.  Even though the Leaf roster has been turned over many times over these past four seasons, you have to believe that, as things grew increasingly tense over the past three weeks, the room was not a great environment no matter how much the players tried- or how hard Wilson looked for solutions.

So, welcome to Randy Carlyle.  His honeymoon, in this market, will be the next 18 games.  And that’s it.  Why? Leaf fans will expect a nice run the rest of this season, and maybe even a playoff berth.  But they won’t blame Carlyle, obviously, if  that doesn't happen.

But beyond that?  Well, by early next season (after four years with Burke at the helm behind us at that point) fans will want to see a very strong team a year from now.  No more promises of “next year”, or how the team is “improving”.  It better be improved.  It will be about results, about winning.  Plain and simple.

Burke is now the one on the line, as is his self-promoted reputation.  Can’t blame the coach now.  Can’t blame the players—he chose them, after all.

With a new coach and "his roster" four years in at that point,  2012-’13 will have to be about winning—and nothing short of that will, in my mind, be good enough.