Salute-Gazi: The Action, the Impact and The Vast Ignorance of Fan in Terms of Player’s Salaries.

Hey do you follow hockey with any regularity? Then surely by now you must have heard the BFD that was the Maple Leafs refusal to salute their fans after dropping the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Thursday night. If you are not familiar with this latest crisis in Leafs land please read This or this or this or this for background information on why the Maple Leafs either Don’t owe their fans a goddamn thing or why they are just meanest bunch of prima donnas to every lace up skates and play in the city of Toronto.

Now does any of this matter? Of course not, this salute to the fans stuff likely started by Marek Malik of the Rangers a few years after the lockout. (source) but still there are fans that feel mighty slighted that this garbage team doesn’t do enough to appreciate their long suffering fan base.

But let’s break this down shall we. The Leafs are actually 7-4-1 over their last 12, now mind you 2 of those losses came in spectacular fashion over the last week to League garbage-fire the Buffalo Sabres (whose recent winning ways has officially made it a race for McDavid rather than a foregone conclusion) and giving up a touchdown and a safety to the Nashville Predators in the worst game the Leafs have played in terms of Goals against since what, 1991 or 1992. (Note: the last time the Leafs were shelled this bad Mario Lemieux was in his prime and the Leafs traded for Doug Gilmour the following week). All things told those are ugly stat lines, but the Leafs are arguably in better shape this year than they were last year. The goaltending has slipped (which is to be expected as last year they got superhuman efforts out of both goalies for stretches) but overall the Leafs are getting balanced scoring, possessing the puck more, and no longer depending on off the charts shooting and save percentages to win games. On balance their play is sustainable in terms of winning. So no, these Leafs aren’t cup contenders, it’s insane to think a team with Bozak as 1C and Clarkson in the Top 6 is anything but a tweener in the East, but the devastating free fall is a lot less likely this season because this year the Leafs are actually outplaying teams rather than out-scoring them early and hanging on for dear life (Mirtle Knows Best).

As for the appreciation aspect, I’m unsure if there’s a single team League wide that mandates their players do more for the community. From charity events, box purchases for a variety of different charity groups (Loops Troops, Sick Kids Hospital, Variety Village et al) not to mention even after all this stuff broke out, Dion Phaneuf, Brendan Shanahan and Peter Holland attending a charity fundraiser for the Special Olympics. Leafs fans are incredibly active in the Toronto Community and to deny that is willful ignorance. No Joe Somebody, they aren’t coming to your house to clean your gutters, but too expect that is a level of insanity that might be too much even for this fan base.

So what is the big deal here? Why are fans feeling so slighted? It’s possible they didn’t like Dion’s obviously PR coached “we’re changing up the routine” response to why they didn’t salute. To be honest I disliked it as well. I would have preferred he was honest. Here’s how he should have responded.

“Fuck these fans who shit on us at every turn, demand we get dealt wholesale and kick up a stink if we don’t bend to their will. Maybe if this place wasn’t a tomb 2 out of 3 games a week, we could get some energy in here sooner and it wouldn’t be the easiest barn in the league to play in for opposing clubs”

Of course that would have landed him in even more trouble so maybe the canned response was best.

The thing about Salute-gazi is that it seems almost entirely media generated. Which is problem, Media is supposed to report the news, not actively generate it. I’m not sure if the salute matters ever, but hey it is what it is. I guess my question is, do you care if the wait staff says goodbye after you’ve paid for your meal? I don’t. Does it matter that you’re greeted as you leave whatever store in whatever mall you frequent? Does your local barkeep high five and salute you on the way out of the door? None of those things matter to me, but maybe they matter to you. So let’s frame it in a different context.

Should the cast of your favourite TV show bid you goodnight? Should the director of the movie include a heartfelt thank you for choosing his movie over others? Should every CD you buy have a Codec where the bands thanks you personally for purchasing their music? Sports in the end are entertainment, and after the game is over the Players really don’t owe you anything. I don’t remember Wendel and Dougie skating around with sticks high after home wins; no one seemed to give a shit then. These guys are in essence paid (well) to play a children’s game at a high level. But when the clock strikes zero, their obligation to the audience is pretty much over. Its why shit like Kessel being mean to reporters isn’t news either. Why ask Phil things about the loss, dude might be the most camera shy player on the team, he won’t be providing anything other than canned insight anyway.

But arguing about his stuff on Twitter and reading comments sections (always a bad decision!), the thing I see the most is “these guys would be nothing without the fans there paying their salaries” and the “team belongs to the city and the community, they need to respect us”

Both of which are patently untrue.

First off, when you buy tickets or merchandise or tune in on TV you aren’t funneling money into the player’s pockets. This isn’t concert tickets where the players’ livelihoods are directly affected by your purchasing choice. You know who pays the Players? MLSE, that gigantic multi-conglomerate owned by Canada’s 2 biggest telecommunications companies, those guys pay the players. They’ve got a lot of money in fact to do so. Now do you as a fan contribute to the revenue that allows them to continue operating? Sure you do, but in the GTA you are one of 5 million people who do so. The ACC seats just south of 20,000 souls, basic supply and demand says you don’t have to watch, because others will. The 'we pay the salaries' thing doesn’t hold water, the second you stop someone else will plug their money in to keep revenue high (not to mention all that tele-comm and real estate money) and really you don’t do anything to contribute to player salaries. You know how I know this? Because you can see Florida, they still pay their players, and no one’s attending those games. And if they can’t they’ll sell the team to someone who will. Or they’ll move that team to an area where someone will, like Denver for example. You can ask the poor fans of the Nordiques about that. They're pro athletes not politicians. Your influence on their pay grade is slim to none, and thinking otherwise is really really uninformed.

And my next point follows nicely from there, unless you’re the City of Green Bay, you don’t own the team either. It’s good to love your hometown team, and to follow and support them. But its still just a sport. You aren’t owed anything because you’re a fan or a citizen of the place where that team plays. I’ve highlighted that the Leafs already do a ton of community service in the GTA, but that doesn’t mean your owed a half-hearted stick wave after a win. You paid to watch the hockey game, that's it, anything else is a bonus

All I can think of is imagining the perspective of a current Leafs player and a potential Free agent. As a current player you’ve watched your fans at 3 or 4 separate games this year toss their jerseys on the ice as some form of protest to the team, ignoring the fact that the team does in fact have a winning record this year. These same fans you Bronx cheer your goalies, boo their team’s players as they touch the puck and just in general show contempt for the players on the ice when the team gets behind. And somehow this same group of fans expects a salute after a win like they’ve done something to deserve it, like it’s a right they’ve earned by purchasing a ticket.

As a Free Agent could you imagine your agent coming to you in the summer saying the Leafs had interest in you after watching this circus this past week? Not talking to reporters is news, not saluting after games is news, your wife or girlfriend will no doubt be harassed by douche bags on social media after a loss. What player would ever want to play in this type of circus atmosphere? Nothing you do is good enough and we want more.

I’m not saying the Leafs are perfect. There are tons of problems with this team, the Coaching systems are still meh, Tyler Bozak still isn’t a 1C, David Clarkson is still being paid way too much to be bad at hockey, and the D goes from being airtight to a sieve from one game to the next. But acknowledging there are issues, as fans let’s focus on the ones that actually matter. A bullshit post game ritual doesn’t. Period.