Why the Leafs Suck and How They Can Be Fixed

by Al Strachan

Every year since 1968, Leafs fans have hoped the new season will be the one to break the Stanley Cup drought. Sadly, those hopes are usually dashed mid-season. In the biggest hockey market in North America, with such a huge and loyal fan base, how has the team missed it for so long? Al Strachan has been covering the NHL for decades and has the behind-thescenes access to know what’s gone wrong and why. spanning 40 years of fascinating Leafs personalities and stories, Al discusses • how the downfall started and Harold Ballard perpetuated it
• why fans were ill-served in the battle for club ownership after Ballard’s death
• the first and second Cliff Fletcher years
• the ineptitude of Ken Dryden, Mike Smith and Pat Quinn
• how other teams, such as Detroit, have had success and how Leafs management can thrive in the salary-cap era
• why Brian Burke may not be the saviour Leafs fans are hoping for and―most important―what can be done to make the Leafs suck less For fans who love the Leafs (and those who love to hate them), Why the Leafs Suck is a revealing and sometimes shocking inside look at professional hockey.

Genres: Sports, Hockey, Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Dave Cottenie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good analysis of the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs and their missteps. The chapter on how to fix the Leafs was a bit of a welcome change from all of the complaining. The importance on Ken Dryden dealing with the MLG sexual assault scandal was really downplayed and the importance of a president being focused on the business aspects of the organization was missed. Unfortunately, the book did not end well with the last three chapters being an analysis of the year to year performance, coaches and draft. I felt like an abrupt ending and the final 3 chapters were more like appendices.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Veteran hockey writer Al Strachan gives his take on the Leafs' woes with his trademark snark in his now five-year-old book about the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs since their last Stanley Cup win in 1967. (And yes, it will be fifty years next spring.) I grew up watching Al on the Satellite Hot Stove on Hockey Night in Canada, and I was interested not only to read his dissertation on the subject, considering his well-established connections in the hockey world, but also to compare it to the similarly timed Leafs Abomination, which aimed to accomplish the same task.

There was not much new information in Strachan's book, but I was entertained as I read through his versions of events in the Leafs' post-Cup era. Whether he is excoriating Harold Ballard, Punch Imlach, or Gerry McNamara, eviscerating 90s owner Steve Stavros, dismissing the effectiveness of Ken Dryden and Pat Quinn, or lamenting the then-recent tenure of Brian Burke, Strach has a quick and vicious wit, and he is certainly not afraid to mince words about any of these non-luminaries who have been charged with caring for the Leafs over the years.

The main appeal here, in addition to the complete lack of attempt at any kind of balance - which seems appropriate given the futility of the franchise - is that Strachan provides insightful commentary and little nuggets of information along the way. I did learn a few new things throughout the book, like the fact that Leafs would have signed Wayne Gretzky in 1996 except for Stavro's cheapness or that Ballard was a well-known anti-Semite.

But beneath all of Strachan's well-deserved vitriol is a sense of respect for the team that at one point was one of the most hallowed not only in hockey, but in all of sports, as well as a sense of hope for the future of the Leafs. Of course, in the past five years since the book was published, there has again been a meteoric rise and a more extreme crash - and I can only imagine what Strachan would write about the past few years - but we Leafs fans are still left with hope for the future.

I suppose there are a number of different audiences for the book: Leafs fans like me who are interested in the reasons behind the team's failures; hockey fans who are watching from a distance; or even fans who want to engage further in schaedenfreude as they observe the suffering of one of the NHL's most infuriatingly successful teams.

I would recommend Strachan's examination alongside Scott Feschuk and Dave Grange's Leafs Abomination as valid discussions of the team's woes, and I appreciated what both books accomplished, even if I don't really care for the fact that they had to be written in the first place. I can only hope that they are ruled obsolete in the next few years and that this current iteration of the Leafs - team and management - is not merely adding another chapter or two to Strachan's argument.

[Anthony Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a Leafs fan and I enjoyed Strachan's summary of the last 40 years of poor decision making and total calamity in most areas of management and on ice performance. Strachan manages to balance the fine line of informing the reader and offering opinion whilst making the book amusing and frequently very funny.

I guess fan's of the Senators and Habs really will get a kick out of the book and any aspiring general manager should pick up a copy so that he/she does not make the same mistakes.

[Susan]

I enjoyed this one more than "Leafs Abomination." It didn't go into as much business-oriented info like the other one did,so was easier and more interesting to read. I learned stuff I didn't know,like how bad Pat Quinn has become at coaching. A fun and quick read. Those poor Leafs' fans!( I've been a Habs fan all my life but can still sympatize with all those Leafs fanatics. I just don't understand how so many are so arrogant when their team has been a laughing-stock for DECADES!!)

[Brandon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I expected a lot more from this book. Not sure why. I am a pretty big Leafs fan, at least I consider myself to be. I know next to nothing about the history of the Maple Leafs. This book did fill me in on a lot that I did not know however, the last 100 pages or so were a disappointment. I do appreciate the stats and what not - but really had no interest in it.

[Gord · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read for any long-suffering fan who really wants to know why our favourite team is consistently at the bottom.

[Jonathan Mcleod · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strachan tells a few good stories. But I have the feeling that if he was given a chance as Leafs' GM, he'd also make a mess of the team.