"Fire Wilson, Fire Wilson"

The Leafs fans got what they wanted as the Toronto Maple Leafs fired Ron Wilson on March 3nd, 2012. Brian Burke went to Montreal to tell Wilson in person that he was being fired. Leaf fans have been asking for this after the recent nuclear meltdown (1-8-1) and even chanted it in games: https://vr.shapeservices.com/listen.php?hash=725bb8678f41693097c9a09399a74f7e5cc535cee9754797a

Ron Wilson was hired on June 10th, 2008 by interim general manager at the time; Cliff Fletcher. He was fired by the Sharks in May of 2008 so he was not out of employment for very long. The Leafs hopped on the opportunity to hire a experience with a coach who has been in the business since 1993-94.

In Ron Wilson's first season as coach he led the Leafs to a 34-35-13 record which was last in the Northeast division, so they obviously missed playoffs. The second year under Wilson the Leafs did worse with a record of 30-38-14, and again missing playoffs. In his third year behind the bench in Toronto the Leafs improved to a 37-34-11 record but still missed the playoffs.

This year the Leafs had a great first half of the season, and everything was looking bright. Burke had even signed Wilson to a contract for next season. The Leafs were as high as 5th place and were around the 7th-9th place for most of the first half. A recent meltdown has dropped the Leafs into 12th place in the Eastern Conference. The Leafs were in 8th before this horrendous stretch. The Leafs have only won one of their last eleven games. Management finally decided it was time for a change in the coaching staff to try to salvage the rest of the season.

A big reason for this decision could be because of Wilson's harmful work in the media. Lately Wilson could be heard in the media passing blame to the players and his goaltending. Destroying the confidence of the duo of Reimer and Gustavsson and in turn hurting the faith of the players in their goaltending.

So with the firing of Wilson, Burke hired Randy Carlyle who himself was fired earlier this year in Anaheim. He was fired after a 7-13-4 start in his 7th season as a coach with the Ducks. Burke knows Carlyle well, because they were both part of the Anaheim's Stanley Cup title in 2006-07. It was a surprise when the Ducks fired Carlyle even though they had a bad start. He was a great coach in Anaheim and they had made it to the playoffs five out of the six full seasons he was there.

The names of Crawford and Eakins were tossed around in the short time before Carlyle was named the 28th coach in Leafs history. Burke still has strong ties with his days in the Anaheim organization. Most analysts thought if Wilson got fired it would be in the off-season but they didn't expect that a great coach like Carlyle would be available. Burke took the opportunity to hire a new coach that has had great success.

Carlyle has 18 more games to try to prove to Leafs nation he is the right man for the job. He is in a tough situation right now but looking forward into the upcoming years, Leafs fans should be confident in the coaching staff.