Jimmy Firecracker
Backcheck, Forecheck, Paycheque.
Lou Lamoriello early in his career as GM for the Devils, made it all the way to game 7 of the Conference Finals. A good accomplishment and feat our franchise hasn’t reached since 1993. If the Leafs did that expectations would be through the roof and anything less than at least a repeat performance would be seen as a failure, and really most people would expect a Finals appearance.
What transpired over the next 5 seasons was anything but. The Devils misses the playoffs the very next season, then were booted out of the first round in each of the next four seasons.
If this happened in Toronto Lou would’ve been fired after the second straight first round exit, let alone seeing two more afterwards before the Devils finally returned to the Conference Finals, 6 seasons later. If Devils ownership had been as trigger happy and itching for a firing as Leafs fans are right now Lou would never have gotten the opportunity to become the legend he is now, nor would he become the favoured stick with which contrarians on here use to beat on Dubas and Leafs management.
If the argument is “well he made the Conference Finals his first year, of course if that happened we would want him to stay and work through it” you are bull shitting. Cliff Fletcher made back to back Conference Finals, one of which went to game 7, and ended up fired just three seasons later after getting booted out in the first round twice and missing the playoffs once.
I’m not trying to say Dubas is going to lead the Leafs to three Cups over the next decade, or that he’s the only one who can turn this franchise into a Cup contender, he’s made some errors that have hopefully been rectified now. My main point is that everyone’s favourite GM, who is worshipped and constantly used to insult and criticize Dubas, would likely have not survived in this market if he had endured the failures he had early in his career.
What transpired over the next 5 seasons was anything but. The Devils misses the playoffs the very next season, then were booted out of the first round in each of the next four seasons.
If this happened in Toronto Lou would’ve been fired after the second straight first round exit, let alone seeing two more afterwards before the Devils finally returned to the Conference Finals, 6 seasons later. If Devils ownership had been as trigger happy and itching for a firing as Leafs fans are right now Lou would never have gotten the opportunity to become the legend he is now, nor would he become the favoured stick with which contrarians on here use to beat on Dubas and Leafs management.
If the argument is “well he made the Conference Finals his first year, of course if that happened we would want him to stay and work through it” you are bull shitting. Cliff Fletcher made back to back Conference Finals, one of which went to game 7, and ended up fired just three seasons later after getting booted out in the first round twice and missing the playoffs once.
I’m not trying to say Dubas is going to lead the Leafs to three Cups over the next decade, or that he’s the only one who can turn this franchise into a Cup contender, he’s made some errors that have hopefully been rectified now. My main point is that everyone’s favourite GM, who is worshipped and constantly used to insult and criticize Dubas, would likely have not survived in this market if he had endured the failures he had early in his career.
