The Universal Cynic

(Ed. Note: I love Google Images - some of the most amusing photos you see on the blog were pulled from a 13-page deep search that started with something as simple as entering "Mats Sundin". Long story short, that's where this latest image came from. I did a Google Image search of Pat Quinn, and lo and behold...a goat. A goat named Rosasharn's Patrick Quinn. I couldn't make this up if I tried. Patrick is a Senior Champion and Grand Champion Buck. It's good to know someone is.)

Say what you will about Pat Quinn -- actually, for the most part, you, the fan haven't been saying it -- you've been regurgitating six-hour-old TSN/Sportsnet/The Score/Fan 590 vitriol. And they can say that he wasn't a good communicator -- that it was previously the responsibility of current-Panther Gary Roberts to carry information from the coach to the team. And now that Roberts is gone, a major flaw in the team's chemistry has been exposed. Well, couldn't someone else step into that role? Like a Mats Sundin, perhaps? Oh, but he isn't that type of captain. Remind me again what "type" he is? Apparently, the type that made $6.333 million US this year, but can't step up to play an grownup's version of Telephone.

"Hey Sundin -- even money says that Paul Maurice has the head coaching job...purple monkey dishwasher. Pass it on."

And speaking of Paul "Buster" Maurice, I found some comments from JFJ's press conference this aft to be quite interesting. The press kept pushing for a legitimate answer to speculation that Maurice (the current coach of the Toronto Marlies) would step into Quinn's Ermenegildo Zegnas, behind the Leafs' bench. JFJ at one point said that Maurice has been involved in an "8 or 9 month interview" for the job.

A curious choice of words. Are we to interpret this to mean that Pat Quinn was a lame duck coach for the entire 2005-06 NHL season? If that was the case, what was truly accomplished in this experiment gone horribly wrong?

(Aside -- I gave Paul Maurice the above moniker because he looks like a one-off character from Sex and The City named "Buster" -- he was a shoe salesman and a foot fetishist on the show.)

Most of the arguments against Quinn stem back to his days when he held both posts as GM -- that he let players like Jason Smith, Brad Boyes and Steve Sullivan go (or be traded).

But who brought in Gary Roberts? Who brought in Alexander Mogilny? Both came in as UFAs and affected the team in a remarkable way -- just ask any Sens fan.

Quinn never should have held the GM post as a head coach to begin with. It was a major conflict of interest, and in respect to his firing, the point is moot.

Quinn is still a very capable and experienced coach -- some may claim that he's stuck in his ways, and lacks the ability to adapt. Those are the people that haven't faced him as a coaching opponent in the playoffs. He's more than able to change on the fly -- to anticipate and alter when necessary (and given the proper tools).

Hopefully once his bitterness subsides, Quinn will be grateful to be free of the stranglehold that the Toronto media presents, and to no longer be associated with a franchise that's obviously on the downswing. In the meantime, JFJ will eventually have to be held accountable for the questionable free agent signings that he made as GM. After witnessing his horrific news conference this aft, it's plainly obvious that the only thing slick about John is his hair.