Grange: Leafs don’t need distraction of 24/7
The last thing the Toronto Maple Leafs need is to play in the Winter Classic and thus be featured on HBO’s popular 24/7 documentary series.
The cameras made their first appearance at Leafland on Wednesday. Leafs coach Randy Carlyle is already unhappy about it – though he tries to hide it — and you can’t blame him.
Leafs fans don’t need to know exactly how much Carlyle likes to fish or that Nazem Kadri still secretly goes for late night double-cheeseburgers or that Dion Phaneuf has a soft spot for kids or puppies or the elderly.
Or that when James Reimer gets really, really mad – like, say, when he loses his job to that no-good Jonathan Bernier – he drops F-bombs like Bruce Boudreau.
Sure it’s good for hockey. The prospect of 50,000 or 60,000 Leaf fans filling up half or more of the 110,000 seats at The Big House in Ann Arbour, Michigan for their Jan. 1 date against the Detroit Red Wings for the Winter Classic can’t hurt NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s constant drive to grow the business of hockey.
