Repressed Optimism

Jonas Hoglund, Igor Korolev, Jyrki Lumme, Aki Berg. What do these names have in common? Promises made and never achieved. Just the beginning in a long list. Players who, for reasons we never understood, continued night in and night out to step on the ice and shock the crowd with... well, nothing.

Cory Cross, Garry Valk, Dmitri Khristich, Alex Khavanov... If you listen closely, you can hear the collective tears of Leafs fans everywhere as they re-live the years when these players we're prominent forces for the home team. Ok, enough of that. It's enough to send some of us to therapy.

It's been hard to be a fan these past few years. But there has been a few redeeming qualities. A first round Senator exit provided us with some solace that we aren't alone. Sens fans, how does it feel to know that your window of opportunity is beginning to slip away? It's sucks. It leads to what I have right now; Repressed Optimism.

You see, I have a disease. It's one that prevents me from speaking ill will about my Leafs. When JFJ signed on, I looked at the positives. A young up and comer, looking to make his mark. This is good for us.

When he signed Jason Allison and Eric Lindros, extended McCabe, Belfour and Tucker, I applauded the moves. How could I do otherwise? I certainly can't agree with Cox, Simmons, or Berger.

Of course as time went on, it became painfully clear, to even myself, the eternal Leaf optimist, that JFJ was a colossal failure. Finally, he is fired and replaced by a ventriloquist puppet... I mean Cliff Fletcher. In all honestly, I was quite happy. Perhaps there will be a turn around.

As the summer worn on it became clear that the Fox was enacting his master plan and it would be a vastly different team.

This is the Repressed Optimism. I don't want my team to lose. There are a lot of unknowns. This team could surprise. Look at the Tampa Rays; A team with youngsters who all had breakout years. Ok, they don't have can't miss talent like Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria or BJ Upton.

We've been groomed by the pessimist media to expect the worst when it comes to the Leafs. As Down Goes Brown points out, Damien Cox thinks the Leafs are always wrong; Even when they do what he says they should. Howard Berger repeats the year 1967 so many times that I'm concerned that he may not know that other 4 digit numbers actually exist. In fact, has Berger ever had something good to say about the Leafs? I didn't pay attention to him much back in the early 2000' s when the Leafs we're actually good. But based on what I've read of his recently, you'd think the Leafs haven't had a single successful season since the Wright brothers mastered the art of flight.

So as we enter this season, my optimism stays repressed. It's much easier to accept winning when you expect less, than it is to accept failure when you expect more.