As the season kicks off “heat” is not really heat in Leafland

If you're interested in listening to a podcast taped this week on the Leafs and a preview of the upcoming season, here is a link from The Globe & Mail.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/leafs-beat/leafs-season-preview-podcast/article2191733/

I was invited to take part along with Julian from Pension Plan Puppets and James Mirtle from the Globe.  Globe editor Darren Yourk hosted the round-table chat.

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It was instructive, I suppose, to see another headline (the Globe this time, I think) about "the heat" being on Leaf management to produce a winner.

Now, we all understand this is not exactly a new headline (or big news) in this market, but it is, on one level, very accurate, of course.  There is an expectation right now that it’s time for this management team (and everyone recognizes that they are working hard at it…) to somehow, if they can’t do it through player acquisition, will this team into the playoffs one way or another.

We are now entering Year 4 of the Burke regime, and this is all taking longer than most people expected or hoped, including Burke.

But when we talk about the “heat” being turned up on management (and the players, too), my thought is:  sure, I suppose, but it’s all relative.

Yes, this is a market where we could talk about the Leafs 24 hours a day on the radio if we were allowed.  One season just leads into the next.  Host a show about the Leafs in July and people will scramble to listen for shreds of news. 

People love/hate the Leafs and, like Cub fans, (and the Red Sox until recent years) we live in hope that some day, we (or our children, at least) will taste the sweet smell of a championship and be there for the “parade” on Bay Street.

So yes, there is great interest, there is the usual media feeding-frenzy, there is pent-up fan base frustration.  There is also a lot of complaining, predicting, analysis and projecting.  It’s all part of being a sports fan, and yes, it tends to be amplified when it comes to hockey and this particular market.

All this said, how “hot” can it really be for management?  Yes, people/fans want more.  But we are so beaten down in Toronto that just making the playoffs would seem like some kind of high-water mark, when surely that is the very least the richest team in hockey should be striving for.

Sure, management may feel “pressure” but c’mon, how tough is it when fans are essentially just begging to make 8^th place in the East, or in other words, being the 16^th best team in a watered-down 30-team league?

Real pressure would be if, say, only 12 teams (6 in each conference) made the playoffs each season.  Pressure would be if the team’s actual attendance was in jeopardy, or the franchise were to face the possibility of leaving town because of lack of fan interest and support.   In reality, fans still fill the building every night, still follow the team, still care—even though the product has been less than stellar for too many of the past 45 years.

Indeed, fans fill the building (at least the tickets are all paid for)- every single seat from the high-cost corporate seats to the overly-priced duckets for the everyday fan higher up in the bowl that is the ACC.

The real pressure would be if management and the players faced a “reality” that if they didn’t perform well, at least in relative terms (i.e. make it to the playoffs every year and make real noise once there) people would actually stop talking about the team, and would stop paying attention to the team.  Or that few people would have any interest in reading about how the team is doing and even fewer people cared enough to call in to the talk shows, write blogs or chat Leaf hockey at the water cooler, in the bank line and on Twitter.

You wonder sometime if ownership really understands this.  That is, that it’s not just the corporations that pay the dough to sit in the private boxes that make MLSE profitable.  It is every kid who cares and listens to games on the radio (or online, nowadays).  It’s every parent who buys a pack of hockey cards (and the money goes back to the players association, the teams and players) because the youngster want a "Grabovski" card.  It is those who can’t afford to actually attend games because of the prohibitive prices but still follow the team earnestly and with never-ending loyalty.  It is also those who watch and build those huge TV viewing numbers that creates even more of a revenue windfall for the suits.  And it is those who buy the merchandise, year-round.

In short, the franchise's off-ice "success" is rooted in all those fans who enjoy supporting the Leafs.  And if anything, in the last decade, with the expansion of the internet, interest in the Leafs is, globally, stronger than ever- and that’s tremendous.

Now, does the team have to “win” at some point to maintain this interest?

Maybe, though that theory has been tested and proven false.  If Harold Ballard (as wonderful a promoter as he was in his own peculiar way) couldn’t kill fan interest, if Richard Peddie couldn’t, maybe nothing can.

My point?

Yes, there are expectations in this market and on this particular team.  But “heat”?

I don’t think things are even lukewarm.

On with the season.