Tom Anselmi, the chief operating officer of the corporate entity that owns the Maple Leafs, ducked his head into Thursday night’s blowout loss to the Flyers.

Standing in the tunnel that leads to the Bay St. seats, Anselmi found himself surrounded by the quietest crowd on the Canadian side of the NHL, an announced gathering of 19,415 that sat through most of a 7-1 defeat in a depressed hush.

It was hard to argue with the decision. The Maple Leafs continued their abysmal slide with a gutless lambasting at the hands of the playoff-bound Flyers. Officially eliminated from playoff contention Tuesday night, the Leafs played with a institutional listlessness that suggested the organization had ordered the tank job that Brian Burke, the president and GM, has so sternly spoken against. Whatever the motivation, or lack thereof, the late-season no-shows suggested the club’s fan base has grown as apathetic as its on-ice employees.

On a night when the crowd broke into late-game chants of “Let’s Go Blue Jays!”, Anselmi said the mood is to be expected.

“Late in the season when you’re not in the playoffs — (the empty seats) are disappointing, obviously. I’m disappointed for our fans,” Anselmi said. “We’re seven years into it.”

It’s actually going on eight years since the Leafs last played a post-season game. If Leaf fans are patient by nature — one grey haired supporter wore a No. 67 home-team jersey emblazoned with the words “STILL WAITING” to Tuesday’s game — this season appears to have tried the collective patience of Leafs Nation more than the run-of-the-mill journey to nowhere.

“Right now the fans are upset, and the fans should be upset. Because everyone’s upset. We’re upset,” Anselmi said.

Still, Anselmi expressed faith in Burke.

“You’ve got to stick with the plan and assess things and figure out where you are. Obviously there’s some holes in the team. So you’ve got to plug those holes. But you stick with the plan, don’t do anything rash and hopefully get it turned around,” Anselmi said. “Brian’s got lots of credibility. His track record speaks for itself. He and his whole management — no one saw this coming, obviously. But now they’ve got to step back and take stock. We believe in the plan, but obviously some parts of it haven’t come together.”

The COO was asked to offer his interpretation of Burke’s plan.

“The plan is to build through the draft. They’ve had three drafts.”

It was pointed out that the idea to build through the draft must be a new one for a franchise that traded its first-round picks in 2010 and 2011 for sniper Phil Kessel, forfeiting to Boston the rights to current star Tyler Seguin and future star Dougie Hamilton in the process.

“You can pick apart any piece of it. You can debate the Kessel trade. It’s not my job to sit here and assess,” Anselmi said. “You look at where we were four years ago with prospects in the system versus where we are today, we’ve taken a step forward. The Marlies are a better team. There are people in the system now that these guys believe are NHL players. Have we taken a step back in the last five weeks? Absolutely. But I also think you have to look at things from 30,000 feet and say it’s not just about this year. It’s about accumulating assets and developing those assets. And development takes time.”

Tell that to Randy Carlyle. Fourteen games in as head coach, the Leafs have four wins. Team practices have been longer than they were under predecessor Ron Wilson, and Carlyle’s non-attacking style has made the hockey far duller, but the results, in the short term, have been ever more dismal.

Walking into the Air Canada Centre on Thursday night, it was easy to find a scalper hawking tickets for, as the saying goes, “cheaper than the box office.” Judging by the infrequency of cash changing hands, takers for this season’s dregs were apparently in short supply.

“If it’s as bad as people paying for tickets and not wanting to go to the game — it’s sad,” Carl Gunnarsson, the Leafs defenceman, said. “I like (the arena) louder, and I guess they like (the hockey) better.”

As Anselmi acknowledged, Leafs fans are entitled to expect better.

“This is Toronto ... the disappointment is about seven years,” Anselmi said.

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“We’ve got a management team that’s only been here 3½ years, so you can’t blame them for all of it.”

Who, exactly should take the blame? Burke has gone mute. Team captain Dion Phaneuf spreads it around. It was suggested Richard Peddie, the retired CEO who presided over the hiring of both Burke and Burke’s predecessors, would be an apt target.

“Well, (blaming Peddie) would be the easy thing to do, I guess,” Anselmi chuckled. “But at the same time, accountability in any team game — there is no one person to point fault at. It’s a group of people and it’s a whole bunch of things. Obviously things have gone a little haywire. They’ve got to get it fixed.”