Here With My Two Cents ...

Sorry to be pushing the Standings down the page already, but I really couldn't help give a "rebuttle" to what Dave had said in the the previous post.

Cheering for losses is fucking difficult.

Common sense (brain) says this is what we need, this will help us in the future. It "should" give us stability for years to come. Even if we don't finish 1st and get the best shot at Stamkos, we should still be losing so that we can get a top pick; something we've been desperately lacking for years now.

Emotion (heart) says the complete opposite. The Heart wants the Leafs to win. The Heart is secretly hiding deep down, waiting to jump out and cheer the Leafs on to another 9th place finish. I'll be damned if it isn't doing it again this year.

How Dave was feeling during that Detroit game ... exactly how I felt too. Before the game I tell everyone how we need to lose, and that because we are playing a top flight team we WILL lose. Moments later the game starts and I find myself rooting for the Leafs to win ... and I feel dirty.

I know what's best for the franchise (and so do you) but does that stop us from cheering these god-forsaken pieces of shit on to victory? Of course it doesn't. Why? Because we're fans ... and true fans never give up, regardless of how dire the situation is. Out front we may suggest that we want the Leafs to lose, but deep down we want them to win, we want them to make the playoffs.

It's like watching TV, finding nothing, and finally settling on a movie that you've seen hundreds of times. For some reason you watch it anyway. You still get excited, you still yell for your favourite character to escape the situation ... even though all along you know what will happen. All that yelling and excitement didn't change anything did it?

Nope the character made an honourable effort, but still fell short of 8th in the East by a single point. You sit there feeling cheated, wondering whether that mad dash to the finish was worth it. You look back on the wins that slipped away, if only something would have changed along the way to gain that final point.

Now you look forward to next year, disheartened, lonely, and upset. Upset that management cheated you yet again. They didn't trade away Sundin. They didn't dump terrible contracts to someone willing to accept them. No, they, like you, saw the light in those meager wins in February, and decided that - just maybe - this team could do it. Just maybe they could make the playoffs, you know, where anything could happen.

But they never do. And year after year you're sitting right where you are now. "Cheering" for loses because that will signal a change, a rebuild. But secretly we all want wins, and the excitement of that race for 8th.

We are Leafs fans. Disappointment is what we are made of. Why would we settle for anything less?