Updated: On Architects - 2024 Edition
Detroit/Tampa vs. Toronto. Leaves vs. Wing Nuts vs. Bolts. Shanahan vs. Yzerman. Public vs. Private vs. Hybrid Healthcare.
As Canada begins to thaw, it is time to look forward to spring, tax season, daylight savings and the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs.
Last year, the Toronto Maple Leafs were able to get the gorilla off their back by winning their first playoff series since 2006. They did this against one of the most successful teams in recent times, the Tampa Lightning.
I am still in awe of what the Lightning was been able to accomplish. Two Cups and runner-up in three years was a significant accomplishment.
Steve Yzerman was the architect of Tampa’s success. With all due respect to current GM Julian BriseBois and coach Jon Cooper, it was Stevie Y’s plan that put Tampa in a position not only to succeed but to achieve sustained success over the past decade.
In health care, as in hockey, systems are perfectly designed to get the results they do.
As a physician, I care for a caseload of patients. As a medical director, I was responsible for our roster of patients in the community as well as our patients living in our hospice residences. As a Cancer Care Ontario regional lead, I was kind of responsible for the palliative-care cancer patients received in the Erie St. Clair LHIN.
For all intents and purposes, Windsor-Essex has a strong palliative care program, a source of pride for local residents and a model for the rest of Ontario and even Canada. I did not build the program alone but I certainly was proud to help lead and promote a system that put patients and families at the center of healthcare.
Systems are designed by people. As such, they come to reflect them, including their biases, prejudices and blindspots. Systems can also be designed to defend the status quo and resist change, even if that change can lead to a better system.
Yzerman is a winner. He has won at every level of hockey from junior to the National Hockey League to the Olympics. And not only is he a winner, he is also a decent human being.
Early in my career, I came to care for a young man dying of cancer. A teenage hockey player, he was a huge Yzerman fan. Knowing this, I reached out to the Lightning through a colleague to see what could be done. Within 48 hours, I had a signed, personalized jersey from Yzerman to present to this young man and his family.
Yzerman didn’t know me and didn’t know my patient. But this simple gesture will always resonate with me.
He left the Lightning just before they began their Stanley Cup runs. This must have been a tough decision. But the opportunity to return home to the only team he ever played for was one he simply could not pass up.
Yzerman retired from the Wings in 2006, the year I moved to Windsor. He retired during the Red Wings 25 year playoff streak which began in 1987. It brought Detroit 4 Stanley Cups and an additional two Finals appearances (I was at Game 7 in 2009 when Sid the Kid hoisted his first Cup in Joe Louis Arena). Despite the highs and lows, Detroit was always a perennial playoff contender and reached the summit of their sport on multiple occasions.
He inherits a team that has not made the playoffs since 2017. The Red Wings made a valiant effort to qualify for the 2024 playoffs. Two nail-biting end of season home and away wins vs. the Montreal Canadians tied the Wings with the Washington Capitals for the final wild card playoff spot. The Wings missed out on postseason hockey by virtue of a tiebreaker (Regulation/Overtime Wins)
Contrast this with the Toronto Maple Leafs. While Toronto has experienced regular season success and individual success when one considers Auston Matthews’ magical 69 goal season. Unfortunately, Toronto continues to falter when it matters most. The Toronto Maple Leafs have won ONE playoff series since 2004 (2023 vs Tampa ironically).
I have never met Brendan Shanahan. I know he was a very good hockey player. He has drafted well and crafted a competitive team. Yet one cannot ignore the simple fact that the Maple Leafs have only one playoff series win since 2004 despite having arguably three of the top forwards in NHL today and a Core Five that is second to none.
I was still in my family medicine residency in 2004.
Tampa and Detroit are a shining example of how one man, one person can change the culture of a team and inspire them to greatness.
Toronto is an example of complacency and comfort with mediocrity. Status quo.
Waiting for change.
Applied to the Canadian health-care system, which system would you rather have?
I was particularly pleased to see what Nazem Kadri, former Maple Leaf and now 2022 Stanley Cup champion (the first Muslim to lift Lord Stanley’s Mug) had to say in a post-game interview. “For everyone who thought I was a liability in the playoffs, you can kiss my ass.”
Traded away in 2019, Kadri represents the type of judgment mistake and short-sighted decision that plagues the Maple Leafs. Now Kadri is a Stanley Cup champ.
The decision to let Zach Hyman walk also looks like a huge mistake in retrospect. Hyman scored 54 goals after signing as a free agent with the Edmonton Oilers, who are poised to make a deep run this year.
Our systems have come to represent the people who design them and keep them calcified in their current state. We continue to make decisions to maintain a system that is struggling. We continue to “run it back” with the same approach yet we expect different results with minor tweaks and polish.
Despite getting thrashed by the Florida Panthers in the second round of the 2023 NHL Playoffs, the Leafs choose to “run it back” with the same players, same coach, a few journeyman additions and a different GM.
Even prior to the pandemic, our health care system has lurched from one “crisis” to another. I remember discussing the “crisis” in Canadian health care as part of medical school admission interview back in 1999 and these conversations have continued to occur on a regular and frequent basis ever since.
The Japanese symbol for crisis “Kiki” is actually made up of two distinct characters. One represents “danger” while the other means “opportunity.”
Every day, there are newspaper articles outlining the challenges in our hospitals and our emergency departments across the country.
Do Canadians have the will to change and demand the system they want or are they comfortable with the results they continue to get? Do we have the right architects in place to put together the team we need for success in Canadian health care?
There is danger in the status quo.
There is opportunity in taking bold action.
The Leafs made me happy for once last year, advancing past Tampa in the first round of the 2023 playoffs.
Then the brazen chants of “We want Florida” started. Ugh.
This year, the Leafs face their nemesis, the Boston Bruins while the Tampa Lightning will face their heated in-state rival and Stanley Cup favourite Florida Panthers. Detroit sits on the sidelines, albeit with a bright future ahead of them.
Sadly, based on Game 1, the Leafs appear destined to continue their status quo as underachievers. The Ghost of 1967 looms as always.
An off-season of questions is likely to follow. New MLSE CEO Keith Pelley and GM Brad Treliving have a lot of thinking to do.
Will they fire coach Sheldon Keefe to protect their architect for one more year? Will the Leafs move on from their Big Three/Core Four/Fab Five, who collectively eat up over half of the team’s salary cap.
Is it time to revisit the “Shanaplan?”
Well, I guess it could be worse, I could be a Habs fan.
great article Darren--as you mention we continue "run it back" with same approach and expect different results. it really takes a culture change like Stevie Y being drafted by the Red Wings in 1983 (who were called the "Dead Things" at the time due to 2 decades of miserable play), as long as mediocrity is tolerated, poor performance will continue; Another sports analogy are the Detroit Lions cleaning house in 2022 and getting a new GM and coach in Dan Campbell that wouldn't tolerate the status quo of losing (not winning a playoff game in over 30 years!), 2 years later they were only a field goal away from the Superbowl. it can be done!