Читать книгу Hope and Heartbreak in Toronto. Life as a Maple Leafs Fan онлайн

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“Wait,” you could almost imagine an alien saying, “how come the head coach and the GM from one of the NHL’s worst teams are in charge of one of the best national teams? And the same two guys also run a Canadian NHL team even though they are American and putting together the American team at the biggest hockey event to ever take place in Canada?”

Well, yes, of course, and those two men did a fabulous job for their country. If only they could have replicated that success with their day jobs in Toronto (Wilson, we now know, paid with his job for not even coming close). Wilson — the memory must still haunt him — showed why he is considered a good hockey coach everywhere else but Toronto by leading the Americans to within a hair’s breadth of the gold medal. But, thank God, Canada prevailed.

Two days after the overtime final won by Canada 3–2, Wilson was back behind the bench for a Leafs home game versus — no kidding — Carolina again. Even if you don’t like Ron Wilson, you couldn’t fault him if he’d thought he had been kidnapped and placed behind the Leafs bench. He wasn’t, of course, and his personal coaching nightmare resumed in a Tuesday night encounter that will not be remembered for the ages. In Vancouver, Wilson had Zach Parise, Patrick Kane, Ryan Kesler, Bobby Ryan, and Ryan Suter at his disposal, along with many others of the world’s elite, including the best goaltender on the planet at the time in Ryan Miller. Back at his regular gig, Wilson had the luxury of Colton Orr, Jamie Lundmark, Freddy Sjostrom, Christian Hanson, and Garnet Exelby. Wilson must have felt like he had driven home in a Ferrari and woken up with a Ford Pinto in the garage.