Toronto Maple Leafs: Avoiding Rooting For Losing
By Matt Young
How we can avoid rooting for losing in Toronto Maple Leafs Nation
Tanking in all sports has become somewhat accepted (and even embraced) by many teams and even fanbases. Right now for everyone following the Toronto Maple Leafs the easiest thing to do is root for a loss, and rooting for losing is no fun. It’s the quickest way to turn around a franchise, and theoretically receive your franchise savior in the draft. The problem with that is it goes against the absolute core of what we love about sports. Competition and the desire to win.
Rewarding the worst teams with the best players is supposed to achieve parity in any league and any sport. It’s a simple concept that if you give the worst teams the best players, they will inherently become better, and every team has an equal shot at challenging for a title. For this reason, it’s hard for a team that may not be competitive to not embrace tanking for a year or two.
For the fans paying huge money to watch their teams, either in person or on television it’s an absolute insult to the intelligence of any true fan. Even to purchase the gear to show your team colours becomes not only embarrassing, but financially ridiculous.
As any Toronto Maple Leaf fan has experienced recently, cheering for your team is an internal battle. Every game the thought goes through your mind while cheering for every positive Leaf play that it’s actually better for the franchise if they lose this game… at least for the future of the team. Kind of takes away the joy in cheering them on.
What can we do though? This is how sports have been for so long, and it’s the best solution we can come up with apparently. Let’s go over a couple of options that might not work perfectly, but they need to be considered. Remember, the system that is helping the Toronto Maple Leafs right now will be the same system that is hurting their hopes of staying on top if and when they get there.
A True Lottery
Right now the bottom 14 teams are put into a weighted lottery with the top teams being given the greatest opportunity to win, obviously supporting the tanking philosophy. Why not have a true lottery? 30 teams, one ball each, no weighted odds.
Pros – This 100% eliminates the reason to tank. The Stanley Cup winner has as much chance at the number one spot as the last place team does. It supports team building through scouting, training, and free agency without rewarding the poorly managed teams. Plus, the Oilers probably wouldn’t win every single year.
Cons – The best could get better and the weak could get weaker. This doesn’t promote parity in the league and could help create more dynasties(although not everyone would say that’s a bad thing).
The Gold Plan
This was outlined in depth yesterday on Sportsnet by Sean McIndoe and although slightly confusing for casual hockey fans, has some great benefits and can create even more excitement in the last month of the season for fan bases that aren’t lucky enough to be in the playoff hunt. Basically, as soon as a team is eliminated from playoff contention they begin accumulating points towards the number one draft position. The team with the most points at the end of the year wins.
Pros – Hockey stays exciting and wins mean something for every team until the last day of the regular season. Teams can actually feel like they “earned” that high draft choice, rather than being anointed the best at losing. Even better, the Oilers wouldn’t win every single year.
Cons – It could just incentivize teams to tank earlier in January or February in order to get a head start on the points race after elimination. It also will punish teams in weaker divisions because they won’t be eliminated until later in the season, thereby giving teams in stronger divisions a head start.
A Mini-Tournament
This is without a doubt the most exciting possibility, but also the most far-fetched. You take the 14 teams out of the playoffs and seed them in a single elimination tournament. The top two seeds get a bye in the first round, and seeds 3-14 play in round one. Winners move on and so on until we have a champion.
Pros – The thrill of a single-elimination tournament for all those moribund franchises would inject life into all teams, if only temporarily. The winner has actually earned the reward of having the top selection in the entry draft. The NHL would also benefit from the television rights of April Madness(ok we can work on the name later). And best of all, the Oilers would definitely not win.
Cons – The logistics of setting up the tournament(when, where, etc) is a nightmare. Without a doubt the biggest hurdle would be getting the NHLPA to agree to even more games added on to the schedule. The risk of injury is high and the motivation for the players may not be there like we would hope. Winning a Stanley Cup is great. Winning the chance for your franchise to draft your replacement may not invoke the same passion we are used to in the playoffs.
In the end there is no right answer and the vast majority will never be happy. I feel like the Gold Plan and the Mini-Tournament help the problem of tanking, but still retain enough aspects of rewarding losing that doesn’t solve the problems at hand. It just improves it a little bit. Both are viable options, but at the end of the day we want to improve the system, not adjust it.
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A True Lottery, although not helpful for the Toronto Maple Leafs this year, will be the only solution that can help them build in the future(when they’re not occupying the NHL basement). It’s the option that doesn’t reward losing in any way. It’s the option that would create the greatest intrigue in the draft lottery league-wide. And finally, it’s the only option that doesn’t give Edmonton a realistic shot at stealing another lottery.