Top of the am folks, last day in the office this am for a week as I am headed over seas Sunday night for a week. (if someone can help out with the radio posts please email, LT isn’t always available).

I was able to catch the bulk of the morning show on the Fan 590 this am. What a difference when Elliotte Friedman sits in for Dan Landry! No, really, forget listentable, forget entertaining, the show was GOOD. If I’m the new guy at the fan I would try to get Elliotte back on the fan as much as possible. I know he is at CBC, but in other cities guys hold 2 jobs and he’s better than many of the guys who do it in those places. He makes Stellick so much better too. I don’t care if Friedman had his cell phone off or not- he’s good to listen too.

The real highlight of the am was their interview with Brian Burke. Burke was ON this am. He answered questions directly, had a little fun with the Devils getting Kovalchuk just in time for tonight’s game (“really nice of Lou to pay back his old pupil”).

Interviews like that, and the entire morning show this am are the reason I am a sucker for sports radio. By the way, for those quick to bash Mike Komisarek, give the interview a listen. The guy dolled out more than 75k of his own money to buy tickets for kids with cancer to attend Leaf games. Quite amazing to hear Bruke tell it. Like a proud papa!

Here’s Burke with the revised morning show:

Hockey

Now listen here kids, right now, ya see, listen here:

don cherry

THAT’S A BEAUTY!!!

Here’s my 2 cents, and I am sure I am in the minority. What Dr. Tator said is entirely accurate. Don Cherry’s segments and his rock em sock em hockey has played a role in the number of shots to the head in hockey. Like it or not, Grapes preaches it. He may also preach not hitting from behind and stop signs and other safety things as well, however, having spend too much time in youth arenas listening to parents and coaches talk about the game the night before, 9 times out of 8 they are talking about the fight, or the hit as opposed to the goal or the pass. I hear more references to Grapes with respect to fighting and hitting then anything else, next comes his dislike for most european players.

To be fair, Don Cherry is a sales guy, he is all about selling his side show. No one would give a rats ass about him if he didn’t have a shtick and we all know what his is. So he likes rough and tumble hockey so what- take the good with the bad.

Having said that, I can’t wait to hear Grapes response to this clip telling a reporter to !@#@!#! off and saying he doesn’t give a @!#!@#!@ about a fairly well respected neurosurgeon…All Class that Grapes- In case anyone was the least bit confused about who Don Cherry is, he has shown his true colours with this clip…Nice Canadian boy….

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Thanks to the Globe for the clip.

The good folks at the Fan 590 summed this one up pretty good today, with respect to the Maple Leafs, there’s nothing left to say. 20 games in and we all know the score. We all know where they stand. We all know what they face ahead. The reality is, this team with 62 games to go are in SALVATION MODE. Yes, it has already come to that. The season is now about small moral victories and good god, positive signs. It’s still only November!!!

Not sure if you heard Barry Melrose on the Fan this morning, but the most recent coaching success of your, Tampa Bay Lightning, forecasted a long, hard, cold winter in Leafs land. He talked about how hard it is to manage and coach teams in February when they are out of the hunt that early…STOP LAUGHING! He basically said that Wilson and Burke are going to want to off themselves.

Meanwhile, Damien checks in with his own commentary on the newless Leafs:

“Two things seem abundantly clear this morning.

One, this notion that sending big-money Leafs to the minors — Jason Blake is the most obvious target — will somehow fix what ails the club is just wrong. Blake may not be much use this season, but unless he is clearly a detrimental figure in the dressing room, just getting rid of him is essentially pointless and probably just symbolic.

Unless you have a replacement, dumping a player isn’t much of an answer.

Two, whatever is wrong with this team, Ron Wilson seems powerless to fix it.

The Leafs were the worst defensive team in the NHL last season and the worst penalty killing team. Today, they are the NHL’s worst defensive team and worst penalty killing team.

Faces have changed. Bodies have left town, others have been brought in. The blueline was rebuilt.”

Them’s fighting words, but true nonetheless. Now, in fairness, new faces doesn’t necessarily mean better faces does it. I mean look at the guys brought it. None have exactly been, ummm, effective save for Phil Kessel. Maybe the problem is Wilson’s assistants. I can think of one for example who has been around along time, and never seen a winning moment as an assistant coach…

“The off-season is when important change is made. Not November.

So Leaf fans can scream all they want, and they have good reason to scream.

But that won’t change much. In terms of the playing roster, the options are almost non-existent.”

Well, in that case, let’s go cancel our subscription to the Toronto Star. If the season’s as over as he alludes to, and there is nothing left to do until the off-season, then why bother reading the paper?

While on the topic of not reading or buying, check out this load of utter crap that Berger has, in all places, the National Post. No really, it’s the Seinfeld sports column, the one about nothing! As Steve Martin says to John Candy in Planes Trains and Automobiles, next time you tell a story, here’s an idea- HAVE A POINT! It makes it so much more interesting for the listener. What they hell kind of crap is this? Hell, it’s more readable when you call Leafs fans morons for listening to the Fan 590 and supporting their advertisers. This isn’t even fluff, it’s total and utter crap. Here’s what the guys at the post don’t get, for every great Bruce Arthur piece, there is utter crap from one Stay At Home Berger.

What a night, 2 paper subscriptions canceled. We are a Gary Loewen column away from a weekend of big savings. If I lower my Rogers bill to the point where I don’t have to get Leafs TV I may be able to afford Directv and get some good old US television. As a recent road warrior, I have to tell you that the US verison of the History Channel kicks the Canadian’s ass.

Tomorrow (today now) is the littlest TSM’s 5th birthday. Hard to believe but 5 years ago my little one was born in Royal Oak Michigan and my family was complete. Almost more amazing is the fact that it has been a little less than 5 years since I relocated the clan to Toronto.

Time flies….

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

here is Melrosebarrymelrose-ms-20091120

Well this certainly came out of left field didn’t it? Take a listen to this interview of Gary Roberts (from 640 Toronto) and listen to him take a shot at the Leafs off season workout regimen. Raises lots of questions about what Robert’s intentions are, the guys is apparently smart, to take a shot like this has to be pre-meditated, he had to know what he was doing and saying and that it would likely show up everywhere…

Take a listen here:

gary roberts

I was out most of the day today so I didn’t get a chance to listen to much radio. Thankfully, Bruce Arthur was listening when Brian Burke was on the Fan 590. Contrary to what some have written recently about Brian Burke, the guy gets it. He knows what he has to do. The question is does he know how to do it or is he able to do it again?

“”It corrodes your confidence,” Burke told The Fan590 yesterday. “I think your forwards won’t gamble at all on the offensive end, and they won’t hang around and take a chance on a loose puck because they figure they’ve got to get back. Your [defencemen] give up the blue lines, both blue lines, way too quickly, way too easily.”

The “IT” is shitty goaltending. As you have read here and other places, bad goaltending effects the entire psyche of the team. It’s not just the bad goals, its the total effect on the entire team.

“Right now, we’re playing with our third and fourth goaltender in the organization. No one else in the NHL is doing that, and it’s hurting us, it’s showing up.”

Well, at least we agree on the problem. The question is does anyone really have any faith in #’s 1 and 2? Someone who’s opinion I kind of respect has told me privately that they are convinced that the Burke/Wilson plan involved getting the entire town turned on Vesa to get him out of here. Now the comment was partially in jest, however the sentiment was pretty clear. There is no way they wanted to start O for….. but……

“He told The Fan yesterday that he learned his goaltending lesson in Vancouver, where Dan Cloutier sabotaged some pretty good teams, whether due to injuries or otherwise. “So I got to Anaheim and I said, ‘Never again will I be short on goaltending,” Burke said. “‘Never again.’

Ummmmmmmmmmm….my never seems to have come around pretty quickly no?

“Goaltending is like pitching,” he told the radio station. “It doesn’t matter how good the rest of your team is … It doesn’t matter what other positions you solve, it doesn’t matter if you’re GM of the year for the other positions – if you don’t have goaltending, you’re going home.”

You see, I agree with everything the guy says. No I don’t think you rush to judgement after 6 or 7 games. But….As Kenny Rogers said, or sang, you got to know when to hold em….. Forget the Monster for now. He is too young and too raw. The question is very simple. Can Vesa Toskala be a number one goalie here? It’s not whether he is a number one goalie. Lots of players have left the big smoke and gone on to play well elsewhere. Is Vesa done here? That is the question Burke needs to answer. Right now he is a team without an ace, a number 2 or number three pitcher. His players are playing like every pitch is going to end up over the fence. He is saying all the right things. The question is what does he do about it???? I wonder what his new goalie guru thinks of Vesa. Both Burke and Wilson were pretty tough on Toskala last year. His play so far can not have endured them any more. One can wonder why if he is saying all these things right now why he entered the season with a questionable number one, a rookie number two and well, Joey.

It seems pretty obvious that, as he said above, all the moves he made over the summer are pretty irrelevant until he finds a goalie. A guy who will relax the players in Toronto and carry the load until Jonas is ready and seasoned. His front office staff have to find that guy who can come in and, oh, I don’t know, make a big save right out of the gate. Burke knows it, question is can he get it. Time will tell.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Bruce Arthur is here

Brian Burke Is brianburke-hc-20091019

So Tie Domi was on Hockey Central At Noon the other day. Here is a recap (the interview is below). it’s pretty funny and for the Sundin Lover in You, you will love it. Tie rips Bill Watters and takes lots of jabs at John Ferguson Jr. and even one at Howard Berger…

Tie Domi: wow does that guy still have the city fooled (Bill Watters)

Was very very close to Mats Sundin- Sundin used to buy dinner for Domi for taking care of him on the ice. Domi last speaker at the wedding. Took the high road, he made everyone feel comfortable from top to bottom, treated everyone the same, wanted to have family atmosphere like Messier did in New York. Sundin’s stats speak for themselves. We had good teams but we didn’t have the luck. Mats is going to live in Sweden so retiring in Toronto not as important to him. Thinks have to change here with the whole culture, Burke is going to do that. Why was it Mat’s job to fix the disaster that John Ferguson Jr. did here? People could have protected Mats better and I think Burke would have done it better. Mats Sundin’s wedding was the best wedding I have ever been to. It was UNBELIEVABLE. Sundin “crushed” that Kaberle didn’t come to the wedding.(likely kidding).. No head table at the wedding, his parents and his wife’s parents sitting together with him and the bride. 140 people at a golf course. When Roberts and Nieuendyk came to Toronto they changed his career, how they prepared and acted, when they left he was crushed. If there was ever a day he wanted to run over John Ferguson that was the day. New guys they brought in are all character guys. It’s been tough watching this team for a long time. Having guys being accountable. Colton Orr had dinner with Tie Domi, they have become friends, he is a good kid. “Berger couldn’t scoop ice cream berger”

Kypreos thinks Sundin is bitter on how things ended here. “wait till maclean is on in the 2nd hour…that guy doesn’t shut up” Colton Orr loooooves to fight..he reminds me of Tie- a little koo-koo.

tiedomi-hc-20090930

I am pretty sure this hasn’t been covered much up here. Ask yourselves this sports fans, name the last time an athlete called in a sports radio station to defend himself? I don’t know the last time it has ever happened in this marketplace. I know that Paul Godrey called Mccown’s show a few times to defend the Blue Jays, and I do remember Damien Cox calling Greg Brady after Brady took exception with the headline in Cox’s article. What happens in this clip just doesn’t happen all that often:

Here is some background on the call:

“Former Kansas University basketball standout Nick Collison is embroiled in a silly, head-scratching controversy in Oklahoma City — home of Collison’s Oklahoma City Thunder NBA team.

OKC “Sports Animal” radio talk show host Jim Traber recently took exception to a handful of Collison’s “tweets” on the Internet Web site Twitter.

In 140 characters or less, Nick the past month or so has commented on how hot the weather is in Oklahoma City … and how cool it is in Seattle.

Power forward Collison played for the Seattle SuperSonics for five seasons before the team moved to Red Clay Country last year. He still lives in Seattle in the offseason with his wife, Robbie, and daughter, Emma.

Anyhow … former Baltimore Orioles first baseman Traber of station WWLS last week admitted he has been trying to run Collison out of town because of his “tweets,” which were first brought to light by Daily Oklahoman columnist Jenny Carlson.

Collison — who happens to be one of the nicest, nonconfrontational guys you’d ever want to meet — made an unsolicited call to the Oklahoma talk show last week.”

Took long enough, but former Toronto Raptors coach Sam Mitchell was finally back on the Toronto airwaves this am. Well worth the listen too. If nothing else he was always fantastic with the media in this town. Not sure if you ever heard it but his shtick about not being able to get good cake in Toronto was priceless.

Anyway here is Sam Mitchell on the Fan 590 this am.

SamMitchell-MS-20090811

Dreger broke the news and then Fleury was on the air with the Watters show. Here is the word from the folks at 640:

“Darren Dreger of TSN and Host of Leafs Lunch on AM 640 broke the story Today on Theo Fleury attempting a comeback to the NHL.
On March 13th 2009 on AM 640 Toronto, Theo Fluery was interviewed on the Bill Watters Show w/ Greg Brady about if he had any interest in making a comeback after good friend Claude Lemieux attempted one. Watters informs Theo that he should give it a try!! Theo responds with “It has crossed his mind, and You never know!”

Well, know this. There is only one thing that would cause Fleury to consider a comeback, MONEY. You can bet Theo is in need of it if he is thinking of coming back.

TSM

theoren fleury – march 13 – bill watters show