43 Years of Maple Leaf Frustration: 1987-88 Season

During the 1987-88 season, the Maple Leafs come 20th out of 21 teams but still make the playoffs because the finished with 1 point ahead of the Minnesota North Stars who were also in the Norris Division. How the Leafs fall victim to the Detroit Red Wings in the first round of the playoffs. 

Harold Ballard and Gerry McNamara were more or less lost in the past.  Always out of step with the rest of the league.  When teams pursued Europeans, the Leafs stayed at home.  When they finally showed up, they were scouting the wrong players like Jir Crha or Slav Duris.They had nothing but contempt for player agents as if you could turn back the clock to the 1960s.


The Leafs has a chronic shortage of depth in their organization. They would lose good young players in the waiver draft like Kevin Maguire to Buffalo and Craig Muni to Edmonton, both would go on to have successful careers.  McNamara rarely signed free agents and when he did often they turned out to be players with little or nothing left in the tank like Marian Stastny and Dave Semenko. By the spring of 1988, John Brophy was at the peak of his influence in the Leaf organization dispite the fact that he was a lousy coach. As power shifted in the organization it partly led to the firing of McNamara.


Yolanda MacMillan legally changes her name to Ballard although she and Harold are not married. However, she insisted that the Gardens staff call her Mrs. Ballard.  Harold's children grew to resent and then dispise Yolanda. Harold was by now in poor health and began using a wheelchair.  He had diabetes which caused serious circulation problems in his legs and feet. He had suffered a heart attack while in Florida which left him in a weakened and, at times, confused state.

During the season Harold Ballard actually tried to orchestrate a friendly take over of the Leafs by a friend, Michael Gobuty.  Ballard had agreed to guarantee credit from the National Bank for $2.5 million. However, when Gardens director Don Crump learned of the loan guarantee, he killed it.  The bank later sued Gobuty and Ballard.

The next crisis came when Ballard declared he would leave his money to a charity and not his children. He indicated that he expected the charity to run the Gardens and the team. It was a tragic comedy every day at the Gardens.