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Columnist implores Leafs fans to stop being so mean to Ron Wilson

Ron Wilson

Toronto Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson reacts as he watches his team trail the Carolina Hurricanes 4-0 late in the second period of an NHL game in Toronto on Tuesday, March 2, 2010. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young)

AP

Yesterday wasn’t fun for Ron Wilson. The Leafs’ head coach had to watch his team lose its ninth in 10 games and drop even further out a playoff spot. And when the crowd at the ACC wasn’t busy giving the Bronx cheer to goalie James Reimer, it was chanting “Fire Wilson” as Toronto fell, 5-3, to Florida.

“It’s frustrating and understandable,” Wilson said when asked about the chant.

“Everyone is frustrated right now. We didn’t do anything at the trade deadline and we came out tentative to say the least. ... we talked ad nauseam about the next 20 games (and the playoff push), and we came out like that. We didn’t help ourselves at all.”

But at least one newspaper columnist has Wilson’s back – the Toronto Star’s Cathal Kelly.

The mob is fickle, here and everywhere else. But there is nothing to be celebrated about the increasing certainty that another man is about to lose his job.

A job is a purpose. We all have a few really low points in life. If you’ve ever been terminated or made redundant or whatever the jargon is this week, that’s one of them.

… Those panting for the firing squad are saying more about themselves than about the team’s troubles. One gets the impression that in a different time and place, the same people chanting, “Fire Wilson,” would’ve been pulling harder for the lions than the Christians.

Maybe – but only if the Christians hadn’t made the playoffs in a long time.

Besides, Leafs general manager Brian Burke said back in December that “if the Toronto Maple Leafs fired Ron Wilson, he’d be working again in about two weeks.”

So no worries there.