Imagine if you will that Vesa Toskala pitched a no hitter, and the Maple Leafs rolled over the Montreal Canadiens 6 love. Bear with me for a second here. Every story tomorrow would have said the same thing, Leafs Nation is already planning the parade route, well here’s the cold water on that good feeling, it’s only one game and besides the Habs suck, wait till they play a real opponent. You know I am right. So you can easily bet on what we are going to get from the press today: Same old Maple Leafs; We told you they will be killing penalties all night; If this continues they will rue trading the number one draft pick; Another OT loss…do I need to continue? They are a predictable bunch aren’t they?

Look, it’s one game. No more no less. It’s no more meaningful than a 6-0 shutout would have been. The teams played their last exhibition game only a few nights ago and suddenly we are in life and death? Sorry I am not buying it. Now, if this goes on for weeks and weeks, well then we will have something to talk about. One game? Yawn. So brace yourself for it Leafs fans, the sharks will be circling tomorrow.

On the positive side, Bruce Arthur continues to show why he is one of the best writers in town:

“Last night, Toronto opened its season against a team built another way – the Montreal Canadiens, whose three skilled free-agent signings, if laid end to end, would be about as long as Chris Pronger’s stick. Toronto, meanwhile, added sizeable glass-mashers like Mike Komisarek, Francois Beauchemin, Exelby, and pugilist Colton Orr.

“It’s a little out of character as to where the NHL’s going,” Montreal general manager Bob Gainey said of Toronto’s path the other day.

Indeed, it’s not quite in keeping with the National Hockey League’s migration towards speed and skill – see Pittsburgh, Detroit, Washington, Chicago, etc. – but it’s in keeping with Burke’s world view, antediluvian or not. And as he did with Anaheim in 2007, he will seek to prove that a big-bodied, physical, crash-bang team can also win a Stanley Cup in the new NHL.

“Time’s going to tell what helps more,” says Toronto defenceman Luke Schenn. “Size or speed.”

Look, team Burke isn’t going to be a bunch of thugs like, as Arthur alludes to, Slapshot. The reality is, at least in my world, it’s much harder to find tough guys who can play than it is the Poni’s of the world. It’s even harder to find the superstars. Burke started somewhere, as we all must when we take on a project. Burke truly believes that in hockey anyways, size matters.

“But it’s not as if Toronto was crack-the-glass physical – they were outhit on the night, and as Montreal’s Glen Metropolit put it, the physicality was “nothing out of the norm.”

“I think that everyone’s getting confused that we’re just going to rumble our way through the league,” said Leafs coach Ron Wilson, an avowed opponent of staged fights. “I want [Komisarek and Beauchemin] on the ice, not sitting in the penalty box.”

Well, that was a bit of a problem. Komisarek was positively Burkean, for good and bad. He chirped with Laraque after a scrum; he added an elbow or a cross-check after every close encounter. And in a telling moment, Komisarek wrestled with Scott Gomez after he ran over Leafs goaltender Vesa Toskala, and jumped in and pounded Moen after the latter did the same. As the new team slogan goes, No Leaf Left Behind”

Hell at least he went after Gomez! These games, especially the early ones are about setting tones,learning teammates tendencies etc. Relax people, it’s one game…breath deeply.

“Sure, this Toronto team isn’t going to the Broad Street Bullies, or the Charlestown Chiefs. As Exelby says with a grin, “There could be a few inner Ogie Ogilthorpes in this room that are waiting to be unleashed at some point, [but] right now we’re just going to try to stick together as a team, and crack everybody when we can as far as finishing checks.”

But this team will have to find a balance between physicality and common sense, and it’ll have to kill penalties, as Anaheim did three Stanley Cups ago.”

Exactly Bruce. You can’t tell whether or not this has happened in the first game, week or even month.

“”I know Burke has said they’re going to come out and play on the edge and play hard, and that’s great,” says Canadiens defenceman Hal Gill, one of the lumbering giants of the old NHL. “Who doesn’t want to do that? But you have to be in control, and in check.

“I remember last year, it was a similar situation where Tampa Bay was really in your face, hitting you. [But] if you moved the puck well, if you executed well, it was ineffective … everyone wants to be physical, but it’s a fine line between going one way too much. You need to make plays.”

Of course, Burke believes in that, too; he just hasn’t had time to properly address it. But in the meantime, the tone has been set. One way or the other, there will be a price to pay.”

Exactly!! How refreshing to get that point of view from a scribe the day after the first game. I mean come on folks- shouldn’t the sky be falling??? Wait till you read Berger’s blog….

Couple of thoughts on the game:

I thought the anthem was the best ever for the ACC
Viktor Stalberg was AWESOME
Passing on the powerplay was awesome
Luke Schenn earning the least ice time of all the D (18 minutes) is quite a difference from last year
Wayne Primeau’s 4 minutes is pretty low; Roshill’s 2 minutes is low but Colton Orr’s 1 minute plus- ouch!
Defense looked lost on faceoffs, have to believe that will be worked in the next practice.

In case you didn’t catch Ron Wilson’s post game presser here is what he had to say:

§ Pleased with the effort
§ Some of the Defencemen had a tough night, poor decisions
§ Forwards played well, lots of shots
§ Need to take fewer penalties and have a better pk
§ Komisarek answered the bell, other defencemen need to do the same, happy with komi’s play…setting a tone…rings a bell for rest of the guys
§ Vesa was fine, nothing he could do on the goals
§ Stajan had a very good game
§ Stalberg was the best forward, smart decisions, consistent play, made some nice plays
§ Grabovsky= good game…getting back etc…
§ Forwards did a great job

read Arthur here

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

11,598

11,598

11,598

That’s the attendance at last night Toronto Blue Jays game. 11,598- think about all the events held at the dome, and try to come up with a smaller crowd. Seriously.

Rib fests, Wiggles, Tractor pulls, fishing shows, ARGO games, all have had more than that. The only team to draw worse than that is the Phoenix Coyotes in the exhibition game the other night!

What’s worse, baring a total and I mean total PR campaign, it isn’t going to get better any time soon.

The baseball guru’s are all writing about it now, and it’s good reading. Consider:

“If an observer had wanted to count the actual number of people in the seats at this game, it would have taken two or three innings, but only if you really, really took your time. When they opened the roof in the second inning, one press-box wit noted that it was probably so they could count people watching from the nearby condominium towers. To get a foul ball, you generally had to walk, not run. It was, in a word, depressing.

And that’s the season, in a nutshell. Or, in manager Cito Gaston’s words, “I mean, our pitching went down, and then our hitting went down, and then our whole team went down.”

The building holds 50. A number we will never see again. From 50 to 11. From the most respected franchise in baseball to this….. The Leafs have sucked for years….The Jays have caught up quick. The difference, Leaf fans like me are delusional. We still go. We still care. Jays fans….crickets….

“Or maybe it was just the end of hope, illusory as the hope peddled around here has been. Maybe it was a realization that this team has no clearly defined plan, no credible long-term leadership, and a largely absentee owner whose CEO, Nadir Mohamed, was quoted last week as saying Ricciardi “has been a great leader … He is somebody who has helped us and will continue to help us.”

Not everyone will agree. Ricciardi is identified with everything bad about this team, and it is just wrong to suggest otherwise. Meanwhile, Rogers Communications seems to be indicating that payroll could decrease – there are whispers that it will drop from US$80-million, though who knows how far – as revenues fall. Which would be a hell of a way to try to turn around the attendance.

“If you win, they’ll come back,” says Cito, the walking reminder of the long-gone golden years. “And that’s just the way it is. If you win, they come back. And if you don’t, they don’t.”

No, Cito- it’s not that simple. As many have pointed out, when they were winning earlier, they weren’t coming back. The mistrust runs deep. We families of four aren’t going to shell out the dough. This will be the first time since year 1 that I haven’t been to a game. Not one. I just couldn’t do it.

“And nobody is buying it. It’s amazing, really – this team operates in the fourth-largest market in North America, and it owns the building, and it feels like the Jays are closer to the Kansas City Royals than they are to L.A. or Anaheim, to Boston or New York. And at some point, doesn’t this franchise risk losing a generation of fans who only know the Jays as an also-ran? As Cito puts it, “You know, people forget.” That, or all they know is hopeless baseball. Rogers Communications has proclaimed its commitment to the team, but it sounds like empty corporate talk. What is this team selling? What, exactly, is there to believe in?”

Not just the franchise- the sport Bruce. My kids could care less. Not once did they ask to go to game. Adam Lind was at little TSM’s summer camp. He signed an autograph. He took photos. My son got a hat. He’s never thought of wearing it. He’s never asked about the Jays. Not once. He’s asked about TFC. He’s asked about the Argos. Not once about the Jays. They are dead to him. I take him to school in the morning. Not one Blue Jays hat, not one Blue Jays jersey.. He goes to a big school. All potential attendees. Not one sign of baseball.

“The Toronto Blue Jays must be sold this winter. Not in terms of changing ownership – the recent words of Nadir Mohamed and Paul Beeston ought to have eradicated that concern in all but the grassiest of knolls – but rather in the sense of selling the public on a pursuit that too often seems pointless: chasing the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Impossibility. Catch The Fever!”

Actually Jeff, I will settle for a pulse. It used to be a plan. Now I just want proof of life!

“The intriguing question, frankly, isn’t general manager J.P. Ricciardi. It’s Gaston. Ricciardi can be dealt with easily enough. Beeston has his replacement as president and CEO, it seems (Beeston is out of town on vacation until the middle of next week), and it’s pretty clear the new president could give the fan base its pound of flesh by simply firing Ricciardi before the expiration of his contract next fall. I’m concerned about any plan that would get rid of Ricciardi just to bring in somebody new and have that person’s first responsibility be trading Halladay. (“Congratulations on the new job! Now go trade the best pitcher in franchise history! Don’t worry that everybody in baseball knows you have to do it!”) But it is a quick and easy way to mollify the masses.”

Stand in front of a microphone, look your fans and the media eye to eye and say, in fan speak, not business talk that you actually care. Don’t talk about it being a sound business. Don’t talk about bottom lines. Try, and I do mean TRY to be passionate. Show a friggin PULSE. If you want my money, make an effort, hell fake it!

“If the Blue Jays want a plan to follow, they might look to the Toronto Maple Leafs. True, the fan bases are different: One is deeply skeptical, the other … oh hell, we don’t have enough time or space. Just work with me on this, okay? At any rate, the Maple Leafs made it pretty clear to anyone last year that they were going to stink. That was especially the case when Brian Burke was finally extricated from the Anaheim Ducks to become president and GM of the Leafs. And while that was being finalized, Leafs senior adviser Cliff Fletcher helped carry out some of the trash. It was a plan: tough love, to be sure. But a plan nonetheless, and one of the key tenets of that plan was the knowledge that, whatever the fallout, the guy who was going to be head coach when it was all settled was Ron Wilson. This is what the Blue Jays must now do. It’s not enough to have interim CEO Beeston saying that ownership is prepared to raise payroll to $120-million (U.S.) when the time is right. Off-the-record nudges and winks and corporate-speak are no good any more. ”

Exactly! Don’t stand in a nice corporate suit and speak nice talk about commitment. I say it again. I won’t buy a single ticket. I won’t buy a hat. I won’t buy a beer. I won’t go. By the looks of the stands of late, neither will too many others. Don’t sell me on the kids. Don’t feed me stats. I don’t want to hear it. I want to know what your going to do to earn my business back. In Florida the Panthers offer parking, food and all sorts of goodies. In Arizona, it was Vodka. What are you going to do????????? Free blackberries and iphones???? Something. Get up infront of the 11,000 on the last game and say, “we are really sorry. This is our mess, we screwed it up. We will make it up to you.”

“Change must be complete. It can’t be half-assed. The Flashback Fridays stuff? A generation doesn’t care any more. Sorry, that’s just the way it is. ”

No, the good old day chips have been spent. We are way beyond that. With the price of gas down, I would sooner drive to Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee to see a game then go down the street from my office. Baltimore, Boston and New York are nice spring, summer and fall destinations. You want my money, you are going to earn it.

“The Jays aren’t the Leafs, but they need to show their fan base that the imminent change will be properly managed. The road map is available just down the street.”

First there should be signs of imminent change. Right now there are no signs of anything.

So, all you out there, resist the urge to go. Let’s see how low we can go. Show the suits at Rogers that we actually care and we aren’t going to spend any more money.

We couldn’t make this up- it’s just so pathetic:

How many people do you think are there? More importantly why the HELL is anyone sitting upstairs??????? What’s the old addage about what do to when there are more people on the stage then in the audience????? The NHL has to be proud of this….

Thanks to @bmswpg for pointing this out

With the Phoenix Coyotes case still sitting with Judge Baum, Jim Balsillie is hoping that an interview Eugene Melnyk did with Bob McCown on Prime Time Sports will help prove a material point that is in dispute with the NHL. According to the Canadian Press, on September 17th, “he noted that he’s not allowed to schedule an exhibition game for the Senators at his OHL team’s arena in Mississauga, Ont., because it falls in Toronto’s territory.”

Now,if there is no territorial rights why would Melnyk say that on national radio here in Toronto? I am not making the argument however the Judge will evaluate it.

Fascinating to say the least……

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Very cool shot of an exhibition game by Ulrichhellinger, thanks to Flickr.