Do you ever get sick of being a TML Fan?

[VaughanBender72]

Been a leafs fan since I was born. I'll be reppin the blue and white till the day I die.

 

[Blufreezy]

Nope

 

[bobber]

Been a leafs fan since I was born. I'll be reppin the blue and white till the day I die.

So you are saying you were blue and white when you were born? Kidding. Leaf fans are the most loyal hockey fans in the world. Despite their set backs the still love the team.

 

[LaPlante94]

The most I've been pissed off at management was back in 03 when we traded our pick for Owen Nolan I believe. I watched Corey Perry when he was on the Knights so much he became my favourite player and still is to this day. Then when I saw him drop to the 28th pick and realized we would have had a shot at drafting him pissed me off.

Then when Burke took over and said we were gonna have to rebuild and it'd be a 5 year plan or whatever and then traded 2 1st round picks and a 2nd round pick kind of annoyed me.

It sucks not getting to watch playoff hockey now but I still remember the good times during the early 2000's listening to the games on the radio in the car while coming home from hockey.

 

[Rielly4Captain]

Never give up, Never surrender

 

[SprDaVE]

It's tough man. You're completely lying if you didn't give a real or figurative finger to the TV when the Leafs screwed up one way or another and cursed them until you went to bed. After the last 10 years of this, I think I can say that I've been pretty sick of the losing, not watching certain games because of being out of the playoffs again, or the inevitable billioneth collapse of the season. The joke of the league indeed.

But like everyone else, I'll keep on watching and cheering. One day it's bound to pay off I guess.

 

[Kelly]

Every April I have a slip up, I wonder why the hell do I cheer for a team that regularly misses the playoffs, sets high expectations in the summer/fall only to fall short, every. single. time... I remember the breaking of my heart, the shattering of my dreams and hopes COUNTLESS times... The circus of media, the stubborn old boys club up top.. Why should I waste 3 hours almost every other night to watch and witness such a incompetent club...?

But then I remember snuggling up with my dad, watching the exciting blue and white in the post season, the Roberts, Domi, Gilmours... and playing road hockey with my leafs jersey pretending to dish passes like Sundin.. The gums I've took from toilet fans and sens fans, and simply the priceless history this team has, and the past greats to bear the blue and white colors, and I remember why it's worth it, I remember why I put up with the suffering... and why I love this team so much.....

Think about the ****ing party once the leafs win the cup.

 

[TheGroceryStick]

what sucks more than missing the playoffs is lack of direction and willing to stick with it. We have been pretenders for years and mortgaging the future has hurt us in that regard. am i fed up, no.

 

[613Leafer]

what sucks more than missing the playoffs is lack of direction and willing to stick with it. We have been pretenders for years and mortgaging the future has hurt us in that regard. am i fed up, no.

Agreed. I wouldn't mind missing the playoffs for five years if it meant getting a young core aged ~18-23ish of high calibre players.

Unfortunately we've missed the playoffs for 8/9 years, with a core largely aged ~23-30. Nylander/Rielly are really our only stud young pieces with tons of potential to grow. Kadri/Gardiner are nice, but every team in the league has pieces like those. And while Kessel/Phaneuf/JVR/Bozak/etc are all good players, they've also all more or less reached their potential, and as a core are worse than the vast majority of cores around the league.

It's hard to look at this NHL team, look at the capspace, look at the farm system, look at the organizational needs, look at the absolute lack of defensive ability in our top 6 forwards, etc. and project how we can become as good or better than teams like Chicago/LA/Boston/etc in the next few years.

It's frustrating to literally get the worst "bang for your buck" in terms of cap expenditures vs on-ice results in the entire league since the salary cap has been implemented. We've spent pretty close to the cap almost every season, and missed the playoffs 8/9 times. That's simply inept management and poor direction, no other way to describe it.

We'll see how the next 12 months go. Shanny is new and still in evaluation mode. Ultimately we've just done a lot of shuffling of chairs so far, with secondary/tertiary guys sent out for other secondary/tertiary guys (Bolland/Kulemin/McClement/Gunnarsson/Raymond/etc out, Robidas/Polak/Komarov/Santorelli/etc in) without having made any changes to the actual core of this team. So we'll see what happens at the deadline and going into next years draft/free agency. That should give us a better idea as to what direction Shanny wants to go in.

 

[JackJ]

Outside of a few eras (Fletcher Part 1 - 93 & 94 and Quinn 98-04) over the last 35yrs, constantly.

 

[MajorityRules*]

I've never been sick of being a Leaf fan and I never will be.

Do I get annoyed and angry? Sure do but my days of throwing temper tantrums and tossing things around the room are long gone. Tends to happen once you grow up.

As for not going to games anymore, well I live in Halifax so it's rather hard to do but I can promise you, if I still lived in Toronto and people started giving up their season tickets, I'd be there to snatch them up. The team won't be bad forever (see the Ballard years) and I want to be there when they rebound. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels that way which is why a tactic like what Chicago pulled will never happen in Toronto. I don't know why people keep pushing for it. The demand for tickets is too high.

 

[Ratboy]

Yes, it seems like some cruel joke being played on me.

But I'll still watch every game, and all that crap.

 

[Kelly]

Do I get annoyed and angry? Sure do but my days of throwing temper tantrums and tossing things around the room are long gone. Tends to happen once you grow up.

Not for me.

Game 7 in OT I ended up chucking my remote at the tv, luckily missed the TV, but broke my remote.

But for normal regular season games I usually just end up cursing at the players.

 

[hoglund]

It's been tough lately since the 05 lockout where every team missed the playoffs because there was no season, but in the 70's, 90's and even the 80's the Leafs made the playoffs more often than not and in the late 70's, 87, 93, 94, 99 and 02 they not only made the playoffs, but went deep into them. Contrary to popular belief the Leafs haven't been as bad as many make them out to be, it's true that they haven't won the cup in 47 years, but many fans have similar issues eg Canucks have never won the cup and they've been in the league for 44 years, Sabres same thing. It does get tiring, but if you're a true fan you don't jump off and on the band wagon, you stay through thick and thin.

 

[Bullseye]

There have been many moments when I want to switch but simply can't. It started with the Lanny and Sittler trades - continued with the Clark trade - was never a Sundin fan as a result.

All I want is for there to be a patient player development plan from scouting to drafting to slow introduction to the NHL level and makes trades based on opportunity to gain a proven talent from another organization not based upon media/ fan frustration and management capitulation. That cycle drives to watch other more stable teams.

 

[leafsfan5]

like someone who said it before it's a love hate relationship.Game 7 and our 8 game losing streak were examples. When we were up 4-1 I was in love with the team and had tears of joy. When we lost 8 straight games I hated the teams and loved seeing them lose. Through everything I will always be a leaf fan.Obviously had thoughts about switching teams (everyone does you'd be lying if you never) but quickly shot those ideas down. It will be that more rewarding winning the cup if you're here through the tough times (which have been many) than switching teams. I was born a leaf fan and will never change teams.

 

[hoglund]

It's tough man. You're completely lying if you didn't give a real or figurative finger to the TV when the Leafs screwed up one way or another and cursed them until you went to bed. After the last 10 years of this, I think I can say that I've been pretty sick of the losing, not watching certain games because of being out of the playoffs again, or the inevitable billioneth collapse of the season. The joke of the league indeed.

But like everyone else, I'll keep on watching and cheering. One day it's bound to pay off I guess.

I NEVER gave a real or figurative finger to the tv when they screwed up. I admit I've been upset and asked myself "how could they do this", but most fans of any team could say that.

 

[cookie]

The most I've been pissed off at management was back in 03 when we traded our pick for Owen Nolan I believe. I watched Corey Perry when he was on the Knights so much he became my favourite player and still is to this day. Then when I saw him drop to the 28th pick and realized we would have had a shot at drafting him pissed me off.

Then when Burke took over and said we were gonna have to rebuild and it'd be a 5 year plan or whatever and then traded 2 1st round picks and a 2nd round pick kind of annoyed me.

It sucks not getting to watch playoff hockey now but I still remember the good times during the early 2000's listening to the games on the radio in the car while coming home from hockey.

Seems like to me that the management and the executives have a stick up their arse and want to prove that the can run a team successfully in ways other than the normal drafting and development model.

I could understand the Nolan signing as the team wanted to become "over the top" and not just compete in but go far into the playoffs. Could you imagine a prime Sundin, McCabe, Nieuwendyk, Roberts, Nolan, Leetch, Mogilny, Francis in the team? It's a shame how many of these guys underperformed, but also quite understandable: they were freaking old.

The thing I don't understand is what was the point of the accelerated rebuild and sticking your nose in who to draft? The Leafs have had generally above average drafting so wouldn't a smart thing be to wait out a couple of years and get an above average team and then make your UFA moves to take the team over the top? Sure this may be simplifying contracts and their lengths, but we can see the quality of players selected near the top of the draft when we look at Rielly and Kadri. I wonder how much better the top overall selection would have been in comparison.

 

[Urbanskog]

So you are saying you were blue and white when you were born? Kidding. Leaf fans are the most loyal hockey fans in the NHL. Despite their set backs the still love the team.

Fixed it for you.

 

[666]

Over the last decade or so, I have PVR'ed all the games and find myself watching less and less. It takes me less than 45 minutes to watch the games now. Often I don't even bother. That being said, I would never switch teams. I stop watching hockey once the Leafs are out so needless to say I haven't seen a lot of playoff hockey in the last decade. I don't purchase Leafs "stuff" and my kid rarely watches. If things don't improve we might lose a generation.

 

[Erdinger]

While the endless losing is frustrating I could never cheer for another team (well I have some attachment to the Flames). Considering how loyal a fan you have to be to continually support a franchise like this over decades I've never understood how Leafs fans can be called bandwagoners. Bandwagoners to me are the people who support the Wings then the Pens then the Kings.

 

[Mess]

The only time I didn't watch the Leafs was the lockout year of 2004-05.

 

[I Believe]

One thing that keeps me smiling is thinking of the party that will ensue when we finally do win.

It'll be a celebration most cities can only dream of

 

[GordieHoweHatTrick]

Watch the Leafs during the season and watch another team come playoff time

 

[Tyler Biggs*]

Funny how all the haters show their loyalty only based on cups. I'm a strong believer that you don't choose your team, it should be based only on teams representing your home land.

Hell, most my friends that are Habs fans are only because they won the cup back when we were young and easy to manipulate. Most have zero ties to that franchise.

The Leafs will win again, sooner then most of you think. Nothing will feel better than standing with them when they hoist it, knowing we, the true fans stood by them during the struggle to regain supremacy.