Peter Horachek Compares Coaching Toronto Maple Leafs To His Battle With Cancer

Pete Horachek, on coaching the Leafs: “I’ve gone through tougher things. I’ve had cancer…and that’s a lot tougher than going through this."

— Mark Spector (@SportsnetSpec) March 16, 2015

It's an important way to view life. Things aren't always as bad as they seem. No matter what hardships you face, or what trials and tribulations you have to endure, someone is always worse off than you. It may take seeing the guy that cleans the toilets after being let go from your finance job. It may be walking past a homeless person after your basement flooded. It may take seeing someone paralyzed from the waist down after breaking your ankle. The peaks and valleys of life are very relative in that way.

However, you know when things are bad as they can possibly be for a professional sports organization? When the only thing that the coach can measure his job against is that time he survived the most fatal and debilitating disease on the planet. While in comparison there are obviously worse situations in the world, in terms of hockey I am pretty sure the Toronto Maple Leafs only parallel is rock bottom. Talk about 0 to 100. This interview just got serious real quick. First we were all in this together feeling bad for how pathetic the Leafs have become, and now I like I should call everyone I know that has, or has had, cancer and apologize for every single thing I have ever complained about. Cancer fucking sucks. Nothing can measure the pain it causes those who contract it and their loved ones. However, if, IF, there was a sports equivalent of a crippling disease, I guess being associated with the Maple Leafs in any way would have to be it.