Cherry was upset about how the Leafs handled the firing of their coach Ron Wilson. Although he was not completely sold on the idea of having Wilson as a coach, Cherry could not believe Brian Burke. The Leafs GM had recently attacked Cherry by going to his bosses at CBC in an attempt to remove him from the air for comments he made about Wilson.
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| Don Cherry |
"Burke goes to my bosses and says I'm a bad guy because I said something vicious about his coach; two weeks later he fires him, figure that one out folks!"
Cherry unloaded his thoughts of the GM on Saturday and basically blamed poor management for leading to another dismal season. He blames the Leafs poor season on a lack of Ontario born players. Cherry argues that the Leafs consist of mostly American college kids and American born players.
"Vancouver has 4, Pittsburgh has six from Ontario. St. Louis, beautiful team, has 9. Last year Boston had seven guys from Ontario, this year they have nine." These winning teams have more Ontario born players than the Leafs, who have none.
The Greater Toronto Hockey League is home to 40,000 players and Cherry guarantees not one of them will play for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Out of market players are what Burke wants and he gets for the Leafs.
"Seguin, Skinner and Spezza you go down the list and they all come from the GTHL!"
Cherry is outraged that Toronto is an Ontario team that has no Ontario players because of what he feels to be faulty management. He accuses the Leafs to be the only Canadian team that cheers when Canada loses because of the lack of home grown players.
"I mean they don't make the playoffs in three years, probably not four to sit with it and to not have one guy from Ontario, that's a crime! I'm out with them every night and when I see these kids busting their tails and everything; I think they will never make Toronto even though they would love to make Toronto." Cherry said in frustration with the Leafs organization not taking players from their own city where he feels there is a lot of talent.
"Its a great advantage, not making the playoffs four years in a row, wonderful advantage." Cherry replied to co-host Ron Maclean who argued that Detroit found a wealth of Swedish players and along those lines that Toronto has been accumulating talented Americans.
Cherry concludes that portion of the segment by challenging Brian Burke to do his worst and try and get him fired like he did two weeks ago. He adds that he calls things as he sees them and is not afraid to put his opinion out there.
Currently there has not been a response from Burke, but one is definately expected.
and one other thing... the 1967 Stanley Cup team had 16 key players and a head coach from Ontario. Definately something to think about.
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