At the start of the season I predicted that despite the fact that Ron Wilson is an excellent coach the media and fans would eventually turn on him. That’s just the nature of the beast – the hyper-inflated Toronto sports market. Well it appears that the negative vibes are happening already.
Don Cherry who many Canadian hockey fans revere has been calling Wilson “Napoleon” for criticizing his players. Others in media have joined in this debate on whether Wilson has been too harsh. Fans on radio call –in shows have also jumped on the bandwagon. They are suggested that the recent slump is directly related to Wilson’s harsh approach and that players have become de-motivated. This is a bunch of hogwash!
There are 4 newspaper dailies, two cable sports networks and the CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada all focused on the Leafs. The coverage is relentless. In this environment there is constant pressure to find something new or contentious to feed the equally insatiable Leaf fans. During a 15 minute media scrum, if a reporter can coax a Leaf player or official to make a controversial remark, the media horde will run with it. It doesn’t matter that the comment was taken out of context. It’s today’s story. Maybe for the next couple of days if you can analyze it to death and get someone else noteworthy to comment on it. So after the game, the coach is asked to comment about a player who was on the ice for 3 opposition goals. Never mind the fact that the player was going to be trashed anyway in the post-game reports. If they coach says something negative then the story is written from the perspective of the coach’s remarks. That is more interesting than another report on a bad team.
The media works from a double standard. They can run negative after negative column without being called out. For example, shortly after the Jason Blake signing last season the chirping began and pick up steam as the season progressed. By the summer there were long extensive opinions on how Blake had to be either demoted to the minors or bought out. His contract was such a liability that he was considered untradeable. However, when Blake was sent to the press box for a couple games because of poor play then all hell broke loose. A few weeks ago the coach suggested that Blake had turned around his game and was one of the Leaf's best players. Now that comment was virtually ignored by the media.
