Who needs spring when you have playoffs?
April is best known for playoffs and spring. Seeing as how spring has failed to make an appearance so far, we shall content ourselves with the playoffs, National Hockey League and National Basketball Association variety.
1) Under Brendan Shanahan, the Toronto Maple Leafs have done most everything right. Tank. Draft well. Hire the best managers and coaches. Emphasize skill. Fill the Air Canada Centre.
There’s something that normally follows all this. Winning. But as Shanny’s young Buds have discovered, winning is the hardest part. The Leafs are getting a weapons-grade thrashing from the grizzled Boston Bruins on the art of turning tanking into triumph. Anything that could wrong has gone wrong – including the three-game suspension to Nazem Kadri. It all proves that Wishin’ and Hopin’ was a great Dusty Springfield song but it will take more than that to get Toronto its first Stanley Cup since 1967.
2) This is bad news for Rogers Communications, which looks upon the Leafs the way Wile E. Coyote looks upon the Road Runner: a tantalizing prize just out of sight. A Stanley Cup to Toronto would produce dividends galore for stockholders and save the Brobdingnagian deal it signed with the NHL for Canadian national TV rights.