Are we turning into the Leafs?

Ah the Toronto Maple Leafs. The only other team that has been around almost as long the Montreal Canadiens. Love hate 'em or really hate 'em, we can't seem to live without them. They've played a big role in the Canadiens' history and for a long time they've a big part of making our mental well being ("yeah, so we're not doing well but at least we're not the Leafs!"). So obviously it's a major insult to suggest that we're even remotely anything like them, but after suffering through this season - never mind just last night's epic fail against the very same Leafs - I have to say I'm dead serious when I ask that question. And in this case I'm not even talking about the players or the coaches or even the general managers. I'm talk about us, the fans, who watch the Montreal Canadiens.

Last year, Macleans magazine ran an article about why the Leafs stink. It was interesting in that it shed light on how utterly messed up the management is in Toronto. It cited the problems of a huge corporation owning the team and how there's no incentive to make the team good. But while the article tried to pin it solely on the management and all the infighting that has gone on over there, it did concede at the end (in a roundabout fashion) that maybe it's the fans' fault. It's well known that the Leafs' fans fill the Air Canada Center every night regardless of how their team does. Forty-years of crap playing by the Leafs hasn't driven away their fans. They may be bitter beyond belief, but they still follow their team. They still go every night, sit in their seats, watch their team lose, leave with a minute or so to go and repeat the same thing at the next game.

I've said before that I believe that this city's love for its hockey has hurt the team. We're obsessed over our team. When I first said that, I meant that it was bad for the players that we scrutinize everything they've done, are doing and will do here. Now, I think it's bad for the team in a whole different way - and it's much worse than talking about Carey Price's mental state for ten hours at a time. By filling the Bell Center every night, we're hurting our team. Why? Well, look at the Leafs. Regardless of performance, the Leafs' fans still fill that building. There's no incentive to change the team. The more I look at it, the more I think that it's looking a lot like the same situation here in Montreal. While it's been a long-standing joke in this city that the Leafs suck, I think it's time we looked at ourselves and how our actions could be turning our team into the Montreal version of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

As their website reminds us, the Montreal Canadiens have been continually sold out since 2006. After the dark '90s it would seem as though the team is finally getting back on track, no? Well, let's see, the Habs missed the playoffs in 2007 when it came down to one game at the end of the season and they lost it (to the Leafs too!). After a slow start in 2008 they finished the season on top of the conference before flopping majorly in the playoffs. And this year? After a fairly good first half of the season, they are now fighting for that eighth spot in the playoffs.

I don't think I need to mention just how many godawful games have been played this season, but what I'm trying to get my head around is why the Bell Center is still full every night? Okay, so, most people probably bought those tickets earlier this year when they had no clue that their team would be going down faster than the Titanic, but what about last year? or the year before? or the year before that? If we can actually trust ESPN for a second, then we can see that Canadiens have been in the top two in attendance since at least 2001. This is quite amazing when you think that the Canadiens have missed the playoffs three times since 2001 and their best result since 1993 has been extending the Carolina Hurricanes to six games back in 2002. Attendance is usually linked to the success of the team but that's not the case in Toronto and it's not the case in Montreal either.

While we could all point out how bad the management has been over the last fifteen or so years, the problem, I think, does go deeper than that. Yes, management has made some very bad decisions with regards to their players and their coaching staff. But those higher up - above the general managers - haven't really been made to pay for their bad choices. And by this I mean that when the Canadiens lead the entire league in attendance and sellout for three years in a row, they're still making money regardless of how many bad general managers have been hired and fired. And when you're making a lot of money off of the franchise, is there really an incentive to make it better? Why change something when it's working already? Sure the fans and the media scream about and the players moan about how tough it is to play here, but do those higher up really care?

Consciously or not, they're safe in the knowledge that they won't be losing revenue any time soon. They're safe in the knowledge that they won't have to worry about being relocated like Phoenix or Nashville. They don't have to worry about attendance problems like Atlanta From their point of view, they have the perfect franchise right now. They have a huge fan base that is willing to pay up a lot of money to go see the games (over the last eight years the Canadiens have gone from 27th to 2nd in ticket prices. We're second only to... guess who! The Maple Leafs!). They have fans who buy the overpriced merchandise that they sell. Win or lose, they have fans who will still come back the next game. If Bob Gainey is fired after this year, will it really matter if they bring in Joe the Plumber to take his job? I doubt it. We may complain or agree with the choice but either way we'd still fill the Bell Center.

And that puts us in the same sinking ship boat as the Toronto Maple Leafs.

So what to do we about it? Short of pretending that this team doesn't exist anymore - which is an impossible task - I don't know. I wouldn't say that these guys are exploiting the fact that this city is crazed about its hockey. At the end of the day they're just doing their jobs - and they're making money off of it. The Leafs may have forty plus years of futility to their name, but the Montreal Canadiens now have fifteen years and counting of epic fails to their name as well. If we dont' want to sit here having this same discussion in forty-years about how bad our team is, we need to figure out a way to change this. And the sooner the better.