Wilson can empathize with Carlyle's plight

Former Toronto Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson paints a picture for ESPN.com of what Randy Carlyle must be going through given the team's current freefall.

“In Toronto, everything is always out of perspective; they’re either winning games and they’re planning the parade route,” began Wilson on Monday, “or you lose a couple of games and everything gets over-exaggerated.”

Wilson has been there.

“It’s pretty hard to coach there without allowing some of these things to kind of affect you,” said Wilson. “That goes for the coaches, but the players as well. You can’t go anywhere without hearing about what’s going wrong or all this kind of stuff.

“I really feel for the coaching staff and, above all, for Randy right now. He’s got the same thousand-yard stare that I had. But at the end, you almost feel like it’s completely out of your control, everything takes on a life of its own. It’s unbelievable.”

Quality interview. Wilson shares his thoughts on being fired by Brian Burke, his theory on why the Leafs have been losing and whether or not he wants to jump back into coaching again.

Source: Pierre LeBrun, ESPN.com