What does it take to fire a Leaf?

It seems everyone's getting a free ride

DAMIEN COX

When it comes to MLSE and its hockey and basketball divisions, the difference in operational standards is striking.

For the Raptors, a coach might get a year. A general manager has 18 months to make chicken soup out of, well, you know, chicken bleep. The star player is denigrated and hustled out of town when his personal stats sag. The awkward first-round pick is declared a bust in less than a season and sits nailed to the bench.

The Maple Leafs, by contrast, have the luxury of never having to win anything of substance, and more to the point, even a terrible losing string has absolutely no consequences for executives, coaches or players.

The coach gets as long as he likes, the youthful GM gets to take his time. The star player doesn't feel the heat when production goes down and the first-round pick never has to do much of anything but still gets to be a first-line player.

Different standards, indeed.

"We did a lot of good things tonight," suggested Pat Quinn last night. "We skated well."

After an 8-4 demolition at the hands of the shorthanded Buffalo Sabres that made it seven straight losses for Quinn's squad, those words show you how standards are plummeting in the Larry Tanenbaum era.

We know what it takes to get fired by the Raptors.

But what might it possibly take for the country club Leafs to take similarly bold action?

The hockey team, with 24 victories against 25 defeats (three by shootout) this season, is awash in excuses and clichés and a near-total absence of player accountability, not surprising since even multiple errors or giveaways rarely result in a benching.

Everything's a lucky bounce or a bad officiating call or just a tough break, and no matter how many goals Ed Belfour surrenders — 28 in his last six starts with an .820 save percentage — the veteran goalie never bears any responsibility.

It would appear, based on the fact the club is giving up more than five goals a game these days and is among the worst defensive teams in the NHL, that only a handful of players, if any, are listening to the instructions of the head coach.

But he's the Canadian Olympic boss, so that makes him untouchable.

So it's not the coach, according to the GM and owner, never the goalie, and everyone loves the irreplaceable captain, Mats Sundin, still stuck at 10 goals on the season with just one goal in his last 10 contests.

"Mats was terrific tonight," said Quinn of Sundin's two-assist outing in a blowout loss.

The rest of the players never have to bear any responsibility, either. A team like the New Jersey Devils might change coaches and dump underachieving veterans when the results aren't there, but not the Leafs.

The Edmonton Oilers, a club in nearly the same position in the West as the Leafs are in the East despite a superior record, pinpointed a need and picked up two puck-moving defencemen yesterday in Jaroslav Spacek and Dick Tarnstrom.

With the Leafs, however, everybody stays, nobody gets traded or bought out or banished to the minors, and nobody in a suit gets the short-leash treatment like Rob Babcock or, for that matter, Kevin O'Neill.

So a Leaf team with one playoff series win in its last two post-season appearances that has slipped into ninth place in late January just sort of blithely carries on.

A mere playoff berth makes you a winner in this hockey town, something Tanenbaum and his crew keenly understand. To them, the situation as it stands is still promising in terms of playoff receipts given the fact the Thrashers and Habs aren't going anywhere.

Even Wade Belak had it figured out, suggesting yesterday that it'll only take a win or two, and the town will love its Leafs again.

That's how you go 39 years without a Cup, a drought the current ownership appears content to extend indefinitely as another season wastes away.

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