The Toronto Sun has been running, and re-running the “Maple Leafs suck, have always sucked, will always suck, it’s the fans fault” ticket for several weeks now. Bill Lankhoff has been leading the way, each article less intriguing then the next. Today’s 2 pager is no real exception.

Let me start my review by asking a series of questions:

What was it that everyone knew and wanted in a new GM?
What was it that everyone wanted the new GM to do?
Didn’t we all say that we had patience for the rebuild?

“Brian Burke promised there would be changes when he took over as general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

And, there have been.

It’s just that nobody expected it would be a change for the bad.”

We all wanted a GM who would come to Toronto, without blue and white colored lenses and would have the conviction to do the things that many of his predecessors didn’t. Yes, the goal is to win a stanley cup. However, we all knew that the goal ahead was to blow this team. We had seen the quick fixes. None of them fixed anything. What was needed was, as Steve Kee referred to as throwing the proverbial bomb in. Yet this time the bomb needed to be nuclear.

As Howard Berger wrote in his blog last week, of the thirty something players who wore the blue and white in 2007-2008 one remains, Tomas Kaberle. Next in line in terms of seniority is Kulemin only to be followed by the cagy old veteran, Luke Schenn.

“Toronto is now the only city in North America with two teams that have American Hockey League rosters.

In rebuilding the Leafs, Burke has left this team naked of much of its recent history.

Maybe, that isn’t such a bad thing.

Maybe this was a dirty job that someone had to do.”

Maybe?????

I’m told that the vast majority if not all of the candidates considered for the GM job when Burke was hired all said the same thing. The franchise had to be totally blown up. From the bottom up. Everyone acknowledges that this has been done.

“There is no denying that today’s roster is weaker than the one — flawed as it was — that Burke has blown up.

People want to believe in Burke.

They want to believe he can rebuild the Maple Leafs as he did the Anaheim Ducks.

They want to believe he is constructing an Iron Curtain defence like he did in Vancouver. ”

Isn’t the notion that it’s weaker redundant? Look at the guys he has jettisoned. Their has to be 2 steps to this, knocking down and then building up. The vast majority of Burke’s work so far has been in the blowing up. For those, like Lankhoff bitching, consider all the crap that was leveled at the teams in the past. Look at the guys Burke has thrown over board in order to start again. He hasn’t lost or given up 1 player that you really wish he had kept(we’ll talk draft picks in a second).

The mere fact that he was able to get anything, let alone a guy like Phaneuf for the guys he got rid of remains nothing short of remarkable. You have to knock it down before you build it up. No matter what anyone, Lankhoff included thought, Burke wasn’t going to turn every piece of chicken bleep into a stud young player. As the guys on TSN said on deadline day, the Calgary Flames now contain a strong nucleus that was the Toronto Maple Leafs. The same Toronto Maple Leafs that owned the non-playoff track record. Burke can’t really be on the hook for last years miss. So his clock starts at 1 this year. Gone are, what really amount to, as the old saying goes, a bunch of over paid bums.

What’s left really is a bunch of maybes. At least these maybes are young. As with the Blue Jays, I am much happier watching a bunch of hungry kids losing yet trying then a “bunch of over paid bums”. I too am going to have to bite my tongue the rest of the way this season and most likely next as the losing mounts. Games like the one this past week against Carolina can’t be tolerated. Losing is okay, not showing up isn’t.

“But when looking at a roster of mostly college kids, untested rookies and a sprinkling of second-hand veterans that faith is being severely tested. People look at what Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment is selling and who can blame them for wondering about what they’re buying.”

Sorry, if your faith is being tested, your a tad clueless and your expectations aren’t realistic. The team was full of crap and this is part of the process. I will say this once again about prices, tickets etc. If you don’t like the prices, stop paying them. MLSE, the New York Yankees, Morton’s Steak House, the Four Seasons hotel will ONLY CHARGE WHAT THE MARKET WILL ALLOW. This constant chatter about shame on MLSE for doing what their doing is crap. They are a business. My company runs the same way. I am sure everyone who is reading that works, works for a company that is the same too. Private schools, restaurants, do it as well. No one is holding a gun to anyones head saying you must keep paying. If you are questioning anyone, question yourself. If you aren’t happy, stop buying.

“Plus, I personally share a pair of greens and they’re $180 a pair and my wife is a hockey nut too, so we’re there all the time. And, I’m looking at the roster. We have maybe seven bona fide NHLers and one top-six forward. If we’re an American Hockey league team and you can get top of the line tickets for twenty-five to fifty bucks why should I be paying this kind of money for a team when only 30% of the roster is NHL calibre.”

That’s crap. Go to a retailer in Toronto pick up most items, look at their price and then go home and see what you can pay for it in buffalo. My family is going to Las Vegas this summer. I need 4 plane tickets. The cheapest flight in Toronto is $504 roundtrip. They are flying from Detroit for $219! Don’t give me this crap about gas….4 people in one car, driving 4 hours each way will be in total an extra $120 TOTAL, not per person. Take a look at Buffalo Sabres tickets. Drive to Pittsburgh and see a game. “why should I be paying this kind of money for a team when only 30% of the roster is NHL calibre.”? Becuase your a fan, you want to go and that’s the price of tickets. IF you don’t like it, don’t pay it! I guarantee you there’s a ton of others out there who will.

“Fans expected that Burke would have to gut the place before rebuilding but few expected that the hole could get this dark and this deep.”

Then we (and me included) were idiots. You can’t get uperstars by trading collective crap. Answer me this. If Burke hadn’t traded our picks to Boston for Kessel, would Leaf Nation be elated? Would these articles be written? What were we expecting?

Now- the Kessel issue. Im not sure there’s been a more polarizing issue for Leaf fans since the whole Mats Sundin saga. The hard part to swallow with the Burke era so far is that Kessel appears to contradict what he is preaching. Trading picks for a player doesn’t flow the right way. Yes he got a kid back, but man he gave up a lot. The biggest problem is, is that Kessel has yet to capture the imagination of the Leafs fans. The biggest question is will he ever? Those who watch junior hockey are drooling over the the guys who could be drafted at the top of this year. On paper they appear to have much greater star value than Kessel. Burke argues that he likes the kid he has. A bird in the hand…..as the saying goes. What if Burke is right? What if the Kessel produces at a clip of 20-30 + goals a year and the guy Boston picks becomes the next Alexandre Daigle? I am not suggesting it will happen- but what if?

The point is we all have to (and most of all me) take a deep breath and relax. Let’s enjoy the ride and watch this unfold. More bodies are going to go overboard this summer. No one saw or predicted the Phaneuf move. Right now the prospects of a gaining any forwards of any significance are slim given the UFA list. Let’s see what happens.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

This is pretty funny stuff- Toronto Maple Leaf GM Brian Burke on the Dion Phaneuf trade:

god bless youtube users

TSM
@yyzsportsmedia

Mike Toth taught us all that he knows more than any woman employed as a sports broadcaster, and well look where that landed him. So, pardon the expression in the title. No offense intended.

So, if your at all like me, you listen to your fair share of sports radio, you read the dailies and if you are reading this then I can assume you are reading the blogs too. Additionally, you pile on a few hours of television nightly, a game here or there a highlight/news show etc. You are, as they say, tuned in.

As I have written here lately, the problem with the current status of the Toronto Maple Leafs is that no man’s land isn’t a great place to be if you are covering the team or looking for a story/topic to report on. Take today for example, the big news of the day was that Ron Wilson was unhappy with the stupid penalties the Leafs took against Tampa Bay. No shit Dick Tracy. Jolly Jonas had it in an article of his, on the air and his twitter, Happy Howie Berger had it on the Fan, hell next to charity events for Haiti it was the new of the day.

My question for you is this. In the absence of anything meaningful to discuss, what do you want your scribes to cover? Should they be covering other teams? other leagues, other sports or taking on different angles. If we are willing to accept that the Maple Leafs aren’t newsworthy by virtue of them not being the least bit of interest, what should those who cover them talk about?

For me, I have lots of questions. First and foremost, and this isn’t a knock on the guy, but I am curious what a GM does in the NHL from training camp till the trade deadline. I mean o NHL GM’s have a message board like hfboards.com where they post rumours etc? What have there been so far this year, 4 trades, of which, what, 1 was of any significance? How many times can you call fellow GM’s and say, you trading anyone? Everytime there is a rumor at all the first thing a GM says is “I haven’t even talked to that team in a over a month”. There are only 30 teams in the damn league, if you aren’t talking to each 1 at least 1x a month, then what the hell are you doing?

Second question is for the coaching staff, how do you prepare your team for a meaningless battle? The whole world knows the season is meaningless, each game is becoming more irrelevant with the passing of every day, so how do you keep guy motivated. What the hell are you doing in practices at this stage of the season? Is it preparing for next season already?

Personally, I would like to see some technical information that we don’t usually get to see. What is a GM watching for when they are in press box, what is a coach thinking as his team takes another too many men on the ice penalty…you know the inside stuff that we don’t get ot hear or read about. I think the MSM should be trying to find the nuisances that we don’t get anywhere else. There are no more scoops. There are no traders, so there are no more rumors. Why not get us some real stories that are actually interesting.

What, do you want to read/listen about?

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Item- Kevin Allen’s blog post today:

” Here’s what I believe is happening, or will happen, as we move close to the March 3 trade deadline.

3. Although Tomas Kaberle has a no-trade clause, he probably will, around the trade deadline, give GM Brian Burke a list of trade destinations he would accept, just like he did last season. Why wouldn’t he want to play with a team with a chance to win the Stanley Cup?

8, Toronto will move potential free agents Matt Stajan and Alexei Ponikarovsky, and maybe a couple of others at the deadline.”

Ah yes, the annual who will be willing to wave or not wave their no trade clause as the deadline approaches. To be followed by semantics Burke who will say yet again that he won’t ask a player who has a no trade clause to wave theirs. Leaf fans will call the shows with their huge overestimates of what Kaberle would land in a deal.

Burke is in a real catch 22 with Kaberle. He isn’t arguably the best player on the team, he is hands down the best player on the team. Kessel may be come it, but he isn’t right now. I don’t care what Kaberle makes, it’s, for this argument totally irrelevant. If you are going to deal Kaberle the return has to be remarkably better than what you are giving up. Forget the first round talk. If you are dealing Kaberle it’s going to be a team he wants to go to. Those are going to be teams with a legitimate shot at the cup. So a late first rounder for TK? I think not. Prospects? Well, again, unless they are quality A+ why take the risk? I have said this before, and will say it again, Burke can’t let Kaberle go for nothing when his deal is up. However, before he trades him he has to be 100 % sure that either he can’t resign him or he is hitting a grand slam.

Now, as for Stajan and Poni or anyone else on the team not named Kessel- I have full faith that Burke and co can exchange these spare parts for some degree of upgrade. If they are resignable at below market prices, then don’t let their asses hit the door.

Item: From Kevin Paul DuPont :

“It’s the first public tickle the 22-year-old Kessel has received since his departure from the Hub of Hockey. His very public scratch from the first round of the 2008 playoffs, issued by Julien, got him going. Now we’ll see whether he responds to the same kind of goose north of the border.”

Kessel getting singled out by a coach who can’t seem to get any type of performance out of his team for the season and a half that he has been here and being benched during a playoff series, are two entirely different things. i highly doubt that Kessel was remotely bothered let alone similarly embarrassed by Wilson’s antics. Kessel is squeezing his stick way too tight right now. He needs a puck to go in off his head, his ass or some other appendage and he will be fine.

Item- From Steve Simmons weekly column:

“A quick Brian Burke report card. His team stinks. His friend, the coach, can’t get the Maple Leafs to kill penalties or play anything resembling team defence. His big acquisition, Phil Kessel, has gone soft and sour. He won’t be drafting Taylor Hall in June or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins the year after. And his college free-agent signings are nowhere to be found while David McNab, who signed Andy McDonald and Dustin Penner for Anaheim, has come up with another good one for his former team in Dan Sexton. Outside of goalie Jonas Gustavsson, who has had two heart procedures and a groin injury in his rookie season, little has gone right in Burke’s world and, knowing him, that has to driving him to absolute frustration ”

Hard to disagree with what Simmons writes. knowing and hearing Burke lately however his ego is fully intact. He is just over 1 season into his tenure. Let’s talk at this time next season. If we are still on par for an 11 point decrease from the previous season (as we are now) then Burke has a major problem.

Item- From Larry Brooks weekly column:

“Here’s what we get to find out about Brian Burke as he runs the Maple Leafs: Can he succeed taking over as GM of a club that doesn’t have a brother of a pending Hall of Fame free agent defenseman on it?”

Here’s the question, is it the Maple Leafs, that Toronto seems to be the focal point of the NHL media or Brian Burke that Larry Brooks loathes? There was a time I actually rooted for the Rangers, now given Larry Brooks, I hope they never win another game. I wonder if Burke were to take over the NHLPA if Brooks would change his tune?

Item: From Damien Cox’s article in today’s Toronto Star:

“There’s no question Gustavsson is agile and quick and aggressive. But a No. 1 goalie? That’s unclear, and there’s just no way the Leafs can go into next season just wishing they have quality netminding.

They hoped Vesa Toskala would bounce back strongly from off-season surgery, and Burke was as wrong on that as John Ferguson was on banking that Andrew Raycroft could replace Ed Belfour.

They can’t just hope Gustavsson can do it next fall. They have to know. That means the final 36 games have to include at least 25 Gustavsson starts, assuming he’s healthy enough, and then a cold, realistic assessment has to be done over whether he’s ready.

If he’s not ready now, it doesn’t mean he won’t be eventually. But a serious contingency plan, like the Islanders had with Rick DiPietro’s status unclear last summer, would be necessary if Gustavsson still has too much to learn.”

This is a serious dilemma for Burke. After all the moves Burke made this off-season, the critics who claimed the Leafs would make the playoffs all did so on the strong belief that the goaltending this year would be improved this year. Hell, given the year in net last year it HAD to be better. Ooops. I don’t care what the numbers say. The reality is, barring a miraculous turn around, the same questions about goaltending will remain after this season. Few teams have been successful with questionable goaltending. Burke has to solve this problem as Cox writes and fast.

Item- Curtis Joseph set to announce his retirement

My memories of Cujo are very strong. I remember him being one of the leagues elite goalies when he played in St. Louis when Doug Gilmour did his round and round in that playoff game where the Buds finally knocked the blues off. I then remember the return to glory on Cujo’s back when he signed with the Leafs. It was the start of one hell of a run with the Leafs. Dare I say the Maple Leafs were respectable when he played in nets here. Then I remember the stab in the heart when Cujo jumped ship to sign with the Detroit Red Wings, claiming to think he had a better chance at a cup. Of course I remember cheering as hard as I could against Cujo and the Wings while he played for them.

In all, it’s fitting that Curtis ends his career here in Toronto. He had a tremendously successful career with stints in multiple cities. Few who get to wear the Blue and White capture the hearts of the fans like Cujo did. Hats off to a great career Cujo. Here’s hoping you find something that will keep you happy and occupied in the future.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Kevin Allen is here

Kevin Paul DuPont is here

Steve Simmons is here

Brooks is here

Cox is here

Greetings and Salutations… Back in Toronto after driving home from Florida over the last two days. I arrived in Niagara Falls in time for the third period and the post game on the radio and was left with a few thoughts and questions for you all.

I have said this a million times, but god bless the guys who do the post game call in shows, some of the comments, calls and questions are just plain moronic. I am stunned that people will sit on hold for as long as they do and still have absolutley nothing to say. Tonight was no different than any other night. However, one caller got me thinking. This guy went off the handle, he sounded like many of us do after yet another loss…totally frustrated. The callers prior to him, he suggested were all out to lunch (in his opinion) in pointing the fingers at the players like Poni, Stajan etc. when the blame should be placed on the GM.

Andy Frost’s response was basically, that whom the finger is being pointed at is a tad immaterial, there will always be blame to go around.

That got me to thinking. First, Burke has been here long enough to make his own changes, it is almost fair to say this is his team. Now he has some “dead weight” that he can’t be blamed for, however he has had time to make changes (and he has). So the question is, and let me ask this very clearly, ASSUMING there is something to blame for with respect to the Leafs perfromance to date- then who is to blame? Does it fall on the shoulders of the players, the coaches, management?

It’s not that easy an answer I don’t think. Ultimately, the buck stops on Brian Burke’s desk. It’s pretty simple if a guy he traded for or signed isn’t up to snuff- that is a mistake he made (and I know that it is too early to judge). Is it fair to say that a guy Burke inherited is also under Burke’s purview simply because Burke decided to keep that player as opposed to any of the alternatives available to him (and yes there are options on every player)? There are several guys who aren’t performing up to expectations who pre-dated Brian Burke’s arrival. Is it fair to say, well Burke made lots of changes, he chose to keep these guys there for he is on the hook for them?

The easy answer is, when you make the type of money Burke is making and are given the term Burke is, Yes- he is on the hook. It is however a little bit like the chicken and the egg.

Similarly, earlier in that same segment Andy Frost said, and this is a direct quote “Matt Stajan is an excellent player”- Frost went on to say that Stajan would be a great 3rd line center however he is being thrust into a 1st line center role and therefore having to assume 1st line center duties. This also got me thinking… Is this the main reason for the success former Maple Leaf players have upon their departure from Toronto? Is the problem not the player, but rather the role that player is being asked to play? If so- and I suspect to a large degree that it is, who’s fault is that? Is it the players? Should a player be blamed for not being able to produce over his capabilities? Is it the coach who is unable to get more from the player than he has shown before? Is it the GM who erred in thinking that because a player can do it elswhere in a reduced role that they can do it in a more prominent role here?

Ron Wilson commented last year about Grabovsky, that we all had to take his success in stride because he was getting top line minutes, the question would be how would he perform when he wasn’t getting top line minutes. The proof is in the Luke Schenn pudding wouldn’t you say? Is it the responsibility of the coach to best use his assets in their most effective way? If Matt Stajan is the an awesome third line center isnt Wilson doing everyone involved a huge disservice by playing him as a first? Doesn’t Burke have to find someone better equipped to play that role if Stajan isn’t?(easier said than done I grant you).

It seems to me that the reason trades and free agent signing go awry in hockey is that guys perform at a certain level in city A and they are brought in to a new city to play a much different role that they simply can’t do. If Tie Domi had been signed by the Red Wings to replace a retired Bob Probert (you know what I mean) then the role expected of Domi would be similar to that which he had previously played. Where teams go offside is taking a defenceman who played exceptionally well as a number 3 or 4, and thrust them into the first or 2nd slot and expect that player to be able to handle the responsibility just because they played so well the year before. It seems the responsibility is in the scout and ultimately the GM for misjudging the capabilities of the player ….

Food for thought…

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

“We wanted to trade Roy and Roy wanted to be traded (in the summer), as he does now. I think there’s no secret that he would like to be traded,”

I don’t care if it’s true or not, but can someone please tell Montgomery. Burns’s boy Smithers to crawl back into this little hole and shut the hell up. If we want to hear from JP Ricciardi, we will let you know.

I have little respect for the guy as a GM and even less for him now that he is out of the game.

Wins and losses right? In the end that is how coaches and mangers in the sports world are judged. There is no good effort, or nice tries, in the end they get judged and perhaps fired for their in ability to win. Seems pretty simple right? What about coaches who are in the most impossible situations, burdened with untalented talent, no real way to win, is it fair to judge those coaches on wins and losses?

Not easy questions in a results oriented game. Look at our beloved Maple Leafs, last year, Ron Wilson’s first, no one was going to judge him based upon wins and loses. The score at the end of a game, certainly at the beginning of the season was almost immaterial right? What about this season? Should it be any different because the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs said that he expects his team to compete for a playoff spot? Is the fact that the GM made lots of changes to a lineup badly in need of changes enough to change the expectations on that same coach?

Let’s look at the cards dealt Wilson. The goalie who couldn’t stop a puck shaped like a 747 last season has been no better this year. The rookie goalie has played just like one. The savior defencemen brought in to shore up a very weak blueilne haven’t faired anywhere near expectation and the rookie sensation who was the apple of everyone’s eye last year is struggling as many 2nd year NHLers do. His only bright spot so far has been that the guy he benched early last season, Ian White has been his most consistent player and the guy that his GM thought he had traded to Boston to get Phil Kessel is a scoring machine.

Upfront, the team can’t find proverbial water even when falling out of a boat in the ocean. They simply can’t score. Only 7 teams in the NHL have fewer goals for than the Maple Leafs thus far. Only 2 or 3 players are scoring at a pace that will take them close to the 20 goal marker. Kaberle has 2 goals and 19 assists! How incredible is that. Of the goals he hasn’t scored (44) Kaberle has assisted on 19 of them, a whopping 43%. On the powerplay it’s even more all about Kaberle. Of the power play goals that he didn’t score (18) Kaberle has assisted on 12 of them over 66%! Talk about a one man scoring machine.

The powerplay is the only thing that the Leafs can actually feel good about these days. They are tied for 3rd in that department (thank you Tomas Kaberle). I would like to say that we should credit the coaching staff with a successful powerplay, however that same coaching staff is dead last when it comes to penalty kill. That’s as close as we will come to a wash.

Damien points out that under Ron Wilson, the Leafs are a horrid 37-63, certainly not a record that Wilson can be proud of. However, what the hell did anyone expect? As cocky, condescending, or whatever other label we want to slap on Wilson, can anyone really look the guy in the face and say, you should be doing more? From my perspective, Wilson’s job still is not about wins and loses. He is supposed to have a younger team and his job is to ensure that his younger guys are learning to win. His job is to change the culture of a team that has been too comfortable losing for a LONG time. Where Wilson is responsible is those games where his team doesn’t appear to be prepared for the task at hand. What does that mean? To me, it’s when his team looks eerily like the team that used to be coached by Paul Maurice. One game early in Maurice’s last campaign the Buds played Carolina at home in Toronto and got absolutely shelled. That was the look of the team that wasn’t ready to compete. When Wilson and Burke came to power here in Toronto, those were the nights we weren’t supposed to see anymore. Unfortunately, this season we have seen the return of that team on more than one occasion.

In response to Damien, hell yes the honeymoon is over. It’ been over a long time. No, Burke won’t fire his coach until he makes several roster moves. Burke is too loyal to gun WIlson down. He also doesn’t appear too proud to admit that moves he made were mistakes. Unfortunately, as painful and yes uninteresting as the Leafs are so far this season, its probably not going to get any better any time soon. Brian Burke is going to have to pull numerous rabbits out of lots of hats to get this team righted any time soon. I’m betting that Wilson will be around for at least a good part of the ride. The alternative, at least this early stage just wouldn’t be right.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

There are 47 shopping days for NHL GM’s not named Brian Burke. We all know that Burke’s own holiday Christmas trade freeze kicks in early, so if the Toronto Maple Leaf GM is going to make a deal, the window to do pre-freeze is just over a month away. I’m certain if he were asked he would say something along the lines of he is always looking to improve the team, that other teams are offering up nothing but bad contracts etc. etc. etc.

One area most of us agree that Burke should go looking for some help is in net. Vesa Toskala is simply not the answer. He hasn’t even shown to a be a capable backup to Jonas Gustavsson. I think Toskala is still waiting for the shootout to begin in Montreal.

Lots of folks talk trade in the MSM of the NHL. There aren’t too many worth listening to when they do. Too many of them are just simply off the post when it comes to rumors. I can list on one hand the number of guys who discuss potential trades that are the least bit reliable. Pierre LeBrun is one of the guys who is actually pretty good at it.

Now LeBrun, in his latest column isn’t talking rumor per se, rather speculation on a deal that he believes should be made:

“In my opinion, if there’s a trade that just makes too much sense, it’s Jean-Sebastien Giguere to Toronto. Clearly, it makes sense for Anaheim, which wants to cut itself from the goaltender’s contract ($6 million this season and $7 million next season). But I also think the Maple Leafs should give this some serious thought (I think they have, at least a little bit).”

We’ve had this debate before already the main question in my opinion is what are we giving up to get him? Can’t give up picks. If we are taking a huge salary back, I hope we are either dumping a huge salary or getting prospects or picks back.

“The Leafs are one of the few teams on Giguere’s short list (he has a no-movement clause), he would be reunited with goalie coach Francois Allaire and he could mentor rookie Jonas Gustavsson, much like he did Jonas Hiller in Anaheim. Let’s face it: Vesa Toskala (UFA July 1) is probably beyond repair in Toronto, where the fans have turned on him. The Leafs, meanwhile, could rid themselves of some excess baggage in the Giguere deal, perhaps sending a forward or two the other way, a guy like Alexei Ponikarovsky, for example.”

Excess baggage I agree with. Is Ponikarovsky the excess baggage though? I am not saying I am in love with Poni but there are others I would sooner throw over board as “excess baggage”. I would have to assume that Toskala would have to go the other way too no?

“The Leafs will have some extra bodies up front when Phil Kessel makes his much-anticipated return. And, by the way, Giguere might help the Leafs win a few games over the next year and a half, which isn’t a bad thing considering Boston holds both of Toronto’s first-round picks. It’s just my own speculation, but I just think it makes too much sense.”

Winning games would be a refreshing change around here. Leaf loses are becoming as accepted as NHLPA leadership changes. I am not a fan of change for change sake, however I do think with that if things don’t get MUCH better as we approach and surpass the 15 game mark Burke has to do something.

LeBrun is here

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Forge the whole “proper levels of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence” thing….Is it possible that our GM may suffer from a case of being to proud, stubborn and pigheaded?

Case #1:

“We shut down Vesa last year so he could get the medical attention he needed and come back fresh,” Burke said. “Obviously, things didn’t go like that. We know Vesa has not been great. But we also believe he is capable of being better. ”

Really? What is this belief in him being “capable” based upon? Is it possible that the adding of a new goalie guru who is of the belief that he can fix everything has led Burke to think that Toskala is “capable”? Would it mean that the guru isn’t a guru if Toskala remains a bust? I mean if Toskala is no better this year than he was last, why did get this goalie guru? We certainly could see certain people asking the question right? Will Burke be proud to admit it’s time to cut bait in net????

Case #2:

“We know Komisarek and Beauchemin aren’t playing up to expectations,” Burke said. “But does anyone really think it’s going to stay that way? We don’t. In fact, if July 1 came all over again, we’d do the exact same things.”

Hate to play devils advocate BUT- what if it only improves marginally? What if neither guy achieves up to expectations?? Then what??? I know, I know, I know, it’s only 7 games – but hey there isn’t anything else going on is there???!! I also know that Burke has provided the answer he has to- BUT- the he would do it all over again the same way does have to raise some eyebrows doesn’t it? Does this suggest a GM who is simply to stubborn to admit he made a mistake????? The good GM is the one who realizes he has made a mistake and moves on.

Case #3:

“Well, if I had known we’d be 0-6, I still would have done that trade,”

That one maybe the one that hurts the most. Again, we know what he has to say. The question is, is Burke too pigheaded to see the follies of his ways? If this move was a mistake (and I am not suggesting it was) can he admit it and undo it at all to the benefit of the team? Kessel hasn’t even played a game yet. The problem isn’t this years first round pick. I mean, Kessel for a first would be a fair deal. Kessel for a lottery pick may even be fair. The problem is next years first too. What if we are a non playoff team next year? What if we are a lottery team next year? Hello big problem. The question is the bravado. Is it a show, or is it genuine? Is he saying that which we know he has to or does he believe it too a fault??

By the way, is it me or is the pressure on Mr. Kessel going to be totally off the chart for him both to come back AND once he does come back???

As I said, I’m just asking questions on a night when I haven’t had Maple Leafs hockey to watch in what feels like eons.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

quotes from here and here

Ron Wilson was on with Bill Watters and Greg Brady today here is a synopsis:

Darren Dregger emails, texts me all the time and I never answer him. He asks me about EVERYTHING, what I am eating, whether I wear thongs or boxers and I don’t respond to him-
Getting away won’t be the big relief that everyone thinks. Going to Vancouver not so different than Toronto or Montreal, Burke and Nonis were GM’s there so it will still be pretty intense. The rest of the trip will be better for lots of our guys.
Was looking at clothes asked the tailor if they had something nice when he is buried in his coffin in a few weeks. Need to have a sense of humor. Been through this before, when you are in a bad streak you feel like you will never win another game. One night you get a little bit lucky and then you win a game and then four or five in a row and you feel that you will never lose again. You can’t panic. As Brian says everyone is throwing you anchors when you need life jackets. It’s not wise to make moves because the strong will pray on the weak. We just simply have to play better. It’s amazing that everything has fallen apart. Won’t be surprised if we win tomorrow night. If we do everyone will say Joey McDonald should be our starting goaltender. We try to avoid the press because it’s hysterical. We haven’t contemplated taking Luke Schenn out of the lineup. We need to lessen his workload when he is struggling. The guys we signed need to simplify their games until we feel good about themselves. I could have sat down any number of guys, the numbers I know, Matt Stajan hasn’t been on the ice for one goal for. We tried to shock the team a little bit. Some times it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Every time we did it last year it worked. We need these guys to know how much we count on them. We could have sat Jason Blake. We as a group decided we had to do something and we really wanted to get Tyler Bozak in a game, so it could have been anyone. Lee Stempniak has been our best player. He didn’t finish very well last year. I don’t know how but he turned his whole life around, at least in terms of how he is playing. He was a bubble guy and he is outperforming every forward we have.