Turtling?

Well Damien Cox has returned from vacation and no surprise here, he's bashing anything Leaf-related. While Chris Young over at JABS provided a similar reaction to myself War decided to go the anticipated route: bash Quinn. He does it in his patented no-regard for the facts, bash Leafs first kind of way.

Cox thinks that it is funny that Quinn is upset at the media for twisting his words and then goes out and twists Quinn's motives for clarifying his comments:

Naturally, Quinn has been careful to avoid saying bad things about his former employer in hopes of roping in another NHL team to pay him an exorbitant salary as a coach or consultant.

Of course! If a 40 year veteran of the hockey world clarifies that his far-reaching comments were not, in fact, a dig at the Maple Leafs but rather a comment on the state of affairs in professional sports then he is clearly angling for a job. No one would hire a man with Quinn's pedigree unless he backpedalled like crazy from a comment that is probably one of the most innoccuous to ever light a fire under Cox.

God forbid that Quinn has not badmouthed his former team because he is a decent human being. He's 'turtling' (see: Lemieux, Claude and Neil, Chris) which I guess is Cox's way of calling him a coward. This is on top of calling him a 'double-dipper' and saying that he speaks with a 'forked tongue'.

Then Cox goes about showing that he might not follow the Leafs as closely as being a hockey columnist is Toronto might require:

Just once it would be nice to hear him take some of the responsibility for the Leafs' inability to get anywhere near a Cup during his tenure.

Hmmm, maybe I dreamt the trip to the conference final in '02 with a injury addled squad? That was pretty close and a lot closer than most coaches have gotten their teams. While he was the GM Quinn could never be accused of not having ambition as his deadline deals will attest. They were not spectacular successes but he made the effort. That is something that Cox would probably be loathe to admit.

Maybe while Cox is sucking up to poor embattled MLSE and Richard Peddie he could note that for the past two seasons he has had to deal with JFJ's brilliant personnel moves. Failing that, he could slam Quinn to his face. I doubt he'd do that though. He'd probably turtle.

Bonus
Here is a great clip of straight-talking Bill Watters taking on Nick Kypreos after the firing of Quinn.

Update (September 5, 2006)
The comments section has, of course, degenerated into a Pat Quinn and Tie Domi bashing session. I tried to reply to a post from a sens fan trying to make fun of Domi by posting the YouTube link to Domi's pummelling of Chris "I only fight when we are losing" Neil. Unfortunately, that goes against what Cox wants so it was 'moderated' despite being a perfectly acceptable comment.