Toronto Maple Leafs

Stralman Takes A Step Forward

In what was easily Canada’s biggest test thus far at the IIHF World Hockey Championships, Sweden may have found another young star.

In a tightly fought contest, between the world’s top ranked team and the host nation (yes that’s right Sweden is the top ranked hockey nation in the World by the IIHF), Anton Stralman stepped forward as one of the most important contributors for the team in blue, in a losing cause. Considering the fact that the only star power Sweden could rightfully claim, came in the form of Henrik Lundqvist, and Nicklas Backstrom, and neither of those players dominated… it was nice to see a Leaf prospect step up and grab the ring.

Lundqvist was pulled after 2 periods for allowing 5 goals on 27 shots, giving way to another former Leaf in backup net minder Mikael Tellqvist. Backstrom had 0 points and didn’t register a shot until the 3rd period. Anton Stralman on the other hand, contributed 2 goals. The first was scored with less than a minute left in the 1st period, to tie the score at 1-1. His second goal was equally important, knotting the score at 2-2 halfway through the 2nd period.

Though the Swedes lost, Stralman and the Leafs should consider this game a large step in the right direction. He led the team with 2 goals, a +2 rating, and was second on the team in overall ice-time, playing 21:41 against a very strong Canadian line-up. Unfortunately he took 2 minor penalties, which contributed to the 1st and 2nd Canadian markers respectively, but considering the players he was defending against, he frankly fared relatively well.

Between Stralman, Kaberle, Colaiacovo, White, Kubina, and McCabe, the Leafs now have what could easily be termed a plethora of offensive defense men. Kaberle and Stralman are leading their respective defensive units in scoring at the WHC with 9 and 7 points respectively. Colaiacovo, White, Kubina, and McCabe are also all capable of scoring at a high rate. The real problem the Leafs face in the future is DEFENSIVE ability and positional play. They lack a “shut down” defensive pairing in the mold of Phillips and Volchenkov. Not to say that’s entirely necessary. Personally I think if the right coach is brought in and puts a solid defensive system in place, and gets the forwards to buy into it, the D on the Leafs will improve drastically. If their PK can step up, and they collapse in front of the net more, their goals against should drop. But that’s just me looking in my crystal ball.

Another idea would be for the Leafs to consider trading one of their younger offensive D men (i.e. White or Colaiacovo) and see what they could get in exchange on the front end. Considering the way Jay Harrison is playing for the Marlies, he should certainly get a look next season. Perhaps the Leafs cupboard isn’t as bare as the mass media would have us think?

Leaf Prospects Front And Centre

Tonight is a big night for some of the young guns of the Toronto Maple Leafs. First up, at 5:00 pm, the Swedish national team will be facing team Canada in the IIHF World Hockey Championship Semi Finals. Anton Stralman will be patrolling the blue line for the Swedes, and his play has been steadily improving. He has the 2nd highest +/- on the Swedish Defense, at +5, and the 2nd highest point total with 2 goals and 3 assists for 5 points. This despite being 5th in ice-time per game amongst the team’s defenders. On the negative side, he is tied for 2nd on the team in penalty minutes with 27. Overall though, Stralman is putting forth a solid performance for a top 4 team at the World Hockey Championships. This should bode well for his future in the NHL.

At 8:30 the Marlies will be facing off against the Wolves in Chicago in game 1 of their Calder Cup Semi Final. Thus far the Marlies have won 2 series in a row, both in 7 games. Chicago is less defensively stalwart than Syracuse or San Antonio. They gave up more goals (226) than any of the 4 Semi-Finalists during the regular season. The strength of the Wolves is scoring goals, and during the regular season they did it a lot, potting 300 pucks in enemy nets. They also play with a physical edge, with over 400 more penalty minutes in the regular season than their closest remaining rivals in that area, the Marlies. The Wolves boast one of the strongest Power Plays in the AHL, mainly due to their dynamic duo, league leading scorer and MVP, Jason Krog, and Darren Haydar. They also get offensive output from Brett Stirling, Joe Motzko, and Jesse Schultz. In net they are also relatively strong, with Ondrej Pavelec posting a .925 SV% and 2.28 GAA thus far in the Calder Cup playoffs.

If the Marlies are going to win this series, their league leading PK needs to shut down the powerful Chicago PP. They also need to score on the less than stellar Chicago D, as well as continue to get production from more than 1 line. If everyone shows up, and the team skates well, forechecks hard, and plays solid positionally, they can do well in the series.

The season series was split with 1 win for each team, and was relatively high scoring. The Marlies won the most recent match up on April 9th, 8-3. Scott Clemmensen was in net for both games, so I’m going to stifle my arguments on behalf of Justin Pogge. Should Clemmensen get lit up early in the series, don’t be surprised if Pogge gets another chance. Clemmensen has faced more rubber than any goalie in these playoffs, but he and the rest of his teammates claim to be more than ready for the next round. Tonight we’ll find out if they were telling the truth.

Draft Discrepancy

According to some numbers from the Hockey News (helpfully provided by Lowetide), over the course of the 90’s 32% of successful NHL players taken in the entry draft were selected in the first round. For the Leafs, that should mean that roughly 1/3rd of all the players they’ve drafted who have had decent careers in the NHL should be first rounders. Luckily for Leafs fans, that looks to be the case.

This past season there were 20 Leaf draft picks that played games in the NHL. All but 3 of those played at least 20 games. Looking at the 17 players who played over 20 games, 6 of those were first rounders. Brad Boyes, Alex Steen, Nik Antropov, Jiri Tlusty, Scott Thornton, Carlo Colaiacovo, and Luke Richardson.

The strange thing with the Leafs when it comes to drafting is where the hell are their 2nd and 3rd round draft picks? Of the 17 players mentioned previously, only 2 were selected in the 2nd round, and only 3 were picked in the 3rd round. That means an astounding 5 of the Leafs draft picks currently playing regularly in the NHL were taken after the 3rd round. That’s over 25%.

Just by way of comparison, lets examine the players drafted by the team everyone touts as superior to everyone else: Detroit. The Red Wings currently have exactly the same number of draft picks as the Leafs playing in the NHL - 20 (surprised anyone?), and every single one of those played over 20 games in the league this season. 4 of the Red Wings 1st rounders are currently seeing ice time in the NHL: Mike Sillinger, Niklas Kronwall, Martin Lapointe, and Anders Eriksson. That’s only a success rate of 20% but that’s within 2 players of normal, and the Red Wings probably don’t always have a first round pick (but then again neither did the Leafs). The Red Wings have five 2nd rounders playing in the NHL: Jiri Hudler, Niklas Lidstrom, Slava Kozlov, Mathieu Dandenault, and Tomas Kopecky. Like Toronto they only have three 3rd rounders seeing ice time in the NHL. Beyond that they have a strong 8 players they’ve taken in the 4th round or later playing currently in the NHL. That’s actually 40% which far outstrips the Leafs results, but in such a small sample I’m not really sure it warrants all the attention the Red Wings staff gets. The main reason the Red Wings drafting is so lauded is its ability to find STAR calibre players. But lets be honest here… how many of those has the franchise landed? 3? 4? more?

Niklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, and Henrik Zetterberg are obviously All-Stars, and Sergei Federov was once an MVP. In the next tier you could include Johan Franzen, Tomas Holmstrom, Mike Knuble, and Niklas Kronwall. Jiri Hudler, and Valteri Filppula might turn into stars, but they aren’t there yet. The Leafs drafted Tomas Kaberle and Brad Boyes, who are both legit stars at this point in the NHL. In their next tier you’d have to include Fredrik Modin, Nik Antropov, and Yanic Perreault (this is not based on current results only so anyone that thinks Yanic the Manic is past his prime, save yourself the time of informing me - I realize this). In the ranks of might become, but are not yet, stars would have to be Alex Steen, Anton Stralman, Carlo Colaiacovo, Alex Ponikarovsky, and perhaps Stajan or Tlusty. Yes the Wings picks have won more, but the Leafs haven’t drafted an MVP or a Norris Trophy Winner, so we’ll have to cut them some slack for not picking Lidstrom or Fedorov.

My point here is, while the Leafs ARE weak in their drafting abilities, I think their main weakness actually lies in picking mid round players. They need to improve on who they select in the 2nd and 3rd round. They could also improve on their selections of 1st rounders by taking players who might become stars, but as shown by the Red Wings… All Stars aren’t necessarily 1st rounders.

The next time someone trots out the “facts” about Detroit’s wonderful drafting, you can just remind yourself that they have the same number of drafted players as the Leafs do playing in the NHL, and most of the high quality ones were taken well after the 3rd round anyway… so why the hell would that impact on who the Leafs should take 7th overall??? Detroit is just as likely to botch a 7th overall pick as the Leafs are.  Are the Red Wings seriously that proud of Martin Lapointe and Mike Sillinger?  Would you be?

Kaberle Proving A Point

Leadership by example often drives players to succeed at the highest level. Leafs fans have witnessed it for years from Captain Mats Sundin. Fans of the Czech National Team are getting a good view of what Kaberle has learned from playing alongside the dominant Swede, at this year’s World Hockey Championships. As the Captain of the squad, Kaberle is the team’s leading scorer with 10 points. That places him ahead of snipers such as Patrik Elias, Martin Erat, and Radim Vrbata.

Not only does he lead the Czech team in scoring, he is the highest scoring D man in the entire IIHF tournament, and also has the highest assist total of any player, with 9. He’s tied for 2nd in tournament scoring overall with Patrick Kane, Rick Nash, and Mattias Weinhandl of Sweden.

Most of this is attributable to his wonderful work on the Czech power play (his +/- rating of zero would show that he isn’t doing a stellar job at even strength). Quarterbacking it, alongside Nashville’s Marek Zidlicky, he has led the Czechs to the 2nd best PP in the tournament, behind only the United States. Kaberle says he’s pleased with his teams play, but knows they will have to improve if they hope to get into the Semi Finals. While he does speak up at times, Kaberle intends to put maximum effort out on the ice and lead his team into the next round.

The Czechs and Kaberle face team Sweden, and fellow Leaf Anton Stralman (who has played in 5 of 6 games thus far, and has 3 points to go with a +4 rating) on Wednesday afternoon in a Quarter Final matchup of significance.

Here’s hoping both Leaf blue liners play well, and that Tomas Kaberle continues to lead by example.

*Update* - The Swedes just beat the Czechs 3-2 in OT.  Kaberle did not fare particularly well in this game scoring zero points.  Anton Stralman on the other hand had a huge part to play in the Swedish victory, with 2 assists, including firing the shot that Milan Hnilicka, the Czech goaltender, couldn’t handle - giving up the OT winner to Mattias Weinhandl. Good showing by Stralman and the Swedes, who have advanced to the IIHF WHC Semi Finals for the 8th consecutive year.  Kaberle and the Czechs will continue to play games to decide there final placement.

Long Term or Short Term?

Signing players to long term deals is a risky proposition. Even more so when the contract is guaranteed. Since the onset of the cap era in the NHL, a number of franchises have quickly moved to “lock up” their core assets for the forseeable future by signing them to deals over 5 years in length. While it is admittedly unlikely that a player will suffer from a severe decline in skill over that period in time, nothing prevents the player from suffering chronic injury or not developing in the way the club predicts.

The New York Islanders, and Garth Snow in particular, may have started the trend by signing Rick DiPietro to a 15 year deal, and signing Trent Hunter to a long term contract late this past season. Over the course of the off season the NY Rangers went big in signing Chris Drury and Scott Gomez to huge contracts for 8 years, and then signed Lundqvist and Tyutin to lengthy deals during the regular season. Philadelphia followed suit with Mike Richards, Kimmo Timonen, Scott Hartnell, and Daniel Briere, while Washington made Alexander Ovechkin a rich man that is going to get richer for a while yet. Ottawa is happy to have Dany Heatley, and Jason Spezza going forward, along with Mike Fisher. Pittsburgh has tried to prevent the hydra they’ve got growing in their locker room from getting out of control by signing Sidney Crosby, and Ryan Whitney to long term contracts.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference: Buffalo has signed Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, and Jochen Hecht for the long term; Florida has signed Nathan Horton, Stephen Weiss, and Bryan Allen; New Jersey is going to hold on to Patrik Elias, Marty Brodeur, Dainius Zubrus, and Colin White, representing a solid veteran core they can build young production around;

Out West we can see: Anaheim has locked up Chris Kunitz and Ryan Getzlaf to long term deals; Calgary has Iginla, Sarich, Kiprusoff, Regher, and Phaneuf locked in; Chicago has Patrick Sharp signed to a lengthy deal; Dallas has signed Morrow and Ribiero long term; Detroit is going to hold on to Datsyuk, Kronwall, and Rafalski; Edmonton is looking to keep Hemsky, Penner, and Souray (ouch… injury prone anyone?); LA has signed Visnovsky, and Dustin Brown for a good long time; Minnesota has keyed in their blue line of the future with Nick Schultz and Brent Burns signed up; Nashville has gone with a core group of forwards, signing JP Dumont, David Legwand, and (almost?) Martin Erat; Phoenix is only locked in with Shane Doan; San Jose will be holding on to Matt Carle and Milan Michalek for a while; St. Louis will be seeing a lot more of Barret Jackman and Brad Boyes; Tampa Bay can count on more and more and more of Dan Boyle.

Last on my list is Toronto. The Leafs have been painted as the class buffoons for handing out lengthy contracts like candy, to players who have yet to perform up to their price tags. Ironically, the Leafs are one of the few teams in the NHL that have 1 player or fewer locked in through the 2011-2012 season. Jason Blake was probably not the man to warrant such a contract. Especially if you compare him to the other players around the league who have been handed that kind of security.

A couple of points I find most interesting are the following:

1) If goalies are so important to a team’s ability to win, why are there only 4 goalies with contracts extending into 2012 or beyond in the NHL? Yes, Brodeur, Kiprusoff, DiPietro, and Lundqvist are all top net minders, for both their teams, and their countries (being the best goalie a national program has seems to correlate here), but should we expect Roberto Luongo, Tomas Vokoun, Marty Turco, J.S. Giguere etc. to garner such long term deals in the future? I don’t know if that will be the case. Considering how valuable goalies are considered to be, one would think they would disproportionately be the players being locked into long term deals. 4 of the 56 long term deals amounts to 7% of the total. Considering there were almost 900 players to see ice time in the NHL this past season, roughly 50 of which were goaltenders, or 5.6%. That means the proportion of the long term deals signed by goalies is VERY slightly higher than the total number of goalies in the league.

2) The West and the East are going in different directions with the plan of signing players long term. Both conferences have over 25 players signed to longer deals. The distinction is in the positions that appear to have value. 3 goalies are locked in in the East, while only 1 is locked up in the West. Only 5 D men are locked up in the East, but in the West there are 12 cemented in, and 5 of those are split between 2 teams (Calgary and Minnesota). The East is mainly focused on their forwards, with 19 of them tied in for the long haul, as opposed to the 16 locked up in the West.

Obviously the East is preoccupied with Offense and Goaltending, without any sign of efforts to sign up solid D men. The West is more balanced, though given the number of D men in the league, there is obviously a disproportionate focus on Defenders in the Western Conference. This likely has a lot to do with the discrepancy observed in the quality of play in each conference. Superior leagues are typically superior defensively. If you add to this the fact that Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger, Mathieu Schneider, and Niklas Lidstrom aren’t included in this list… it becomes abundantly clear why the West is dominating. The East is compensating for it’s weak D by signing top notch goalies… and it may not be working very well.

This brings me to my final point - mistakes. Some of the players listed above are obviously going to be sinkholes of the first order. Sheldon Souray is alarmingly injury prone, and horrible from a defensive standpoint. How Edmonton can justify paying him for the next 4+ seasons is beyond me. If the increased number of these deals pushes more teams to follow suit, there will certainly be more of them. Fortunately for Toronto fans, their worst mistakes are going to be a thing of the past in the relatively near future. The mistaken forays of JFJ into the world of contract negotiation, where he locked in Bryan McCabe, Jason Blake, and Darcy Tucker for lengthy terms, and over paying in the process - should be done away with by the incoming GM.

Players should only be signed long term if they display future upside, or have been consistently performing at a high level for a lengthy period of time already. Most of the players signed to such deals exhibit such characteristics. The fact that Jason Blake had 1 season of 40 goals; Bryan McCabe had been shown to be a defensive liability ever since losing his “can-opener” maneuver; and Darcy Tucker has consistently proven he lacks defensive polish to go with his inability to produce more than 5 to 10 goals at even strength in a season, all should have rang alarm bells in the minds of management and outside observers. Basing these long term deals on short term results is obviously going to leave GMs open to criticism.

JFJ followed a decent formula in his allocation of resources towards the Defensive Ranks, he just miscalculated in the players he devoted his energies to. Pavel Kubina, Tomas Kaberle, Hal Gill, and Bryan McCabe looks good on paper, but McCabe eats up a disproportionate amount given his defensive miscues, and he and Kubina basically fill the same role on the squad. Too many cooks in the kitchen comes to mind as an analogy. The Leafs next GM needs to maintain salary cap flexibility while structuring a solid core the future team can build around. Currently the team lacks a true top line of the future. 2 top line forwards, and 2 top D, should be enough to keep the fans happy in Leaf land down the line. Now to start looking for the key pieces of this puzzle.

Marlies Move On

Game 7 Victors… again. For the 2nd time in this year’s Calder Cup playoffs, the Toronto Marlies have moved on to the next round after winning game 7 of a 7 game series. Whether you want to consider these guys the latest edition of Cardiac Kids, or Jerry’s Kids, they deserve lots of credit for fighting back from being 3-1 down in their series with Syracuse. The Marlies are now 4-0 this year when facing elimination. And yes, it should be noted that any team that is still alive must have a 1.000 winning percentage when facing elimination so I do realize this is a bit of a bogus stat - but 4 trips to the mat and 4 victories should mean something… and at least they’ve FACED elimination and have something to show for it.

The Crunch finished the regular season on a 15 game winning streak. They closed out the season series with Toronto by beating the Marlies the last 4 times they saw them. Their late season infusion of talent from Columbus after the trade deadline included luminaries such as Derrick Brassard, and Gilbert Brule. All 4 of their victories in the first round against the Manitoba Moose came in OT. They were far from the “under dogs” in this series, despite having a lower point total and thus playing as the 2nd ranked franchise.

Toronto’s top line forwards for the playoffs thus far have been Bates Battaglia, David Ling, Kris Newbury, and John Mitchell. The first 3 have seen a lot of action at the NHL level, but Mitchell is staking his claim to deserving a look with the big club next season, leading the Marlies in playoff goal scoring with 8 goals; 5 coming in his last 5 games. Brent Aubin also deserves kudos for scoring 2 goals in the 7th game victory, to add to his important goal in game 5. He played in the Memorial Cup for the Quebec Remparts in 2005-06 alongside Alex Radulov, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, and Angelo Esposito, and he produced 27 points in 24 games (4th in team scoring behind Radulov, Melanson, and Vlasic, and 3rd in goals in that year’s playoff run). He’s now tied with Newbury for 3rd on the team in goals with 4… but one hopes he might add an assist at some point to that total.

Jiri Tlusty has been a bit of a disappointment, scoring less than expected and showing a lack of polish in his offensive game. The D will improve with experience, but part of his failure to produce on the score sheet may have more to do with a need to adjust his style of play to playoff hockey in North America. Luckily he is still seeing 2nd line minutes, and Gilbert has kept him in a regular rotation, so he isn’t embarrassing himself (or the Leafs) out there.

As for Justin Pogge… no change on that front. Clemmensen played decently, and held the team in it when needed. Perhaps something will happen in the 2nd round but I’m not crossing my fingers anymore… they were developing carpal tunnel, so I stopped out of health considerations (a blogger that can’t type isn’t much of a blogger).

Next up for the Marlies will be a team from Illinois. One of either the Chicago Wolves or Rockford Ice Hogs will face off with Toronto in the Western Conference Finals. Game 7 for those local rivals will take place tomorrow night. Stay tuned for more action Leafs (and/or Marlies) fans, I now know there’s at least 4,753 of you (looks like the over won PPP).

Marlies Push Opponent To 7 Again

The Toronto Marlies are surprisingly playing a game 7 at Ricoh Coliseum for the second time in this year’s Calder Cup playoffs. After a hard fought come from behind 4-3 OT victory over the Syracuse Crunch in game 5, the team eked out another win by scoring 3 goals in the 3rd period on Friday night to force the 7th and deciding match up with Syracuse on home ice Monday night. The Marlies have shown a fairly high level of fortitude, going 3-0 so far in games where they are facing elimination this post season. Unfortunately it’s a bit scary that they have already played 3 elimination games and they aren’t out of the 2nd round yet.

On the prospects front, Justin Pogge hasn’t seen any game action since coming on in relief of Scott Clemmensen in a 6-3 first round loss to San Antonio. Jiri Tlusty has contributed 7 points in 13 games, with only 2 goals to show for his work. The worst stat line for Tlusty has to be his far from stellar +/- ratings and it’s reflection of his sizable defensive short comings at this stage of his career. On a team where the other top 8 scorers are all plus players, with Bates Battaglia leading the charge at +9, and another 6 players at +4 or +6, Tlusty’s ZERO rating, while not alarmingly bad, shows he might not be doing enough to keep the puck out of his end when he’s on the ice.

David Ling and Kris Newbury are leading the offensive attack, with Ling having picked up 9 points in the 6 game series with Syracuse. John Mitchell is leading the team in goals with 7. I think it should be noted that while Clemmensen’s play has not been alarmingly bad, it has also not been as stellar as some corners might suggest. He is currently 16th in the AHL playoffs for GAA at 2.79, and 12th in SV% at .911 - In fact his numbers are quite similar to his regular season stats. The main reason the Marlies have improved of late is their ability to score has returned, with 19 goals in their past 4 games getting them back into the series as they went 3-0-1 over that stretch and the lone OT loss being 5-4. Figuring out Syracuse’s goaltending was a major hurdle, but now that it has been accomplished, the Marlies have seriously disrupted the solid stretch of play the Crunch were on.

Game 7 goes tonight at the old horse barn (Ricoh Coliseum), and I expect it might also end up going to OT considering how often Syracuse seems to go there. While game 7’s typically favour the home team, if only 2,500 people show up on a Monday night to see Calder Cup hockey, the home crowd may not be a factor.

Based on everything that has transpired thus far, I’m pretty sure if there’s any hope of Pogge seeing action in net, it would be for Clemmensen to get injured, while in the process of helping the Marlies win this game. I’m not wishing injury on the guy, but I really would like to see Pogge play some meaningful games. If you’re interested tune in on Leafs TV at 7:30 pm to catch the action (that is if you get the channel, since most bars refuse to pay the ridiculous fees that MLSE are charging for them to pick it up)… this might be your last chance to see pro hockey relating to the Leafs until next season. I’m still undecided on whether or not that’s a good or bad thing.

Nonis Gets An Interview - Joel Quenneville Available

Strike while it’s hot. The Leafs need to speed their search up a tad on the GM front if they have any hope of landing what is one of the best available coaching candidates in Joel Quenneville. Quenneville is a former Leaf draft pick, and also came up through their minor league coaching ranks alongside Marc Crawford before moving on to Colorado as Crawford’s assistant. He then coached St. Louis through many solid seasons, and returned to Colorado to lead them to a number of winning seasons also. The knock on Joel is his failure to take a team past the 3rd round of the playoffs. Luckily Richard Peddie didn’t make any statements regarding the COACH having to have won a Stanley Cup.

On the note of potential GM’s Dave Nonis is going to be interviewed in the near future (next week apparently) and while he represents a warm body, he’s definitely NOT a championship winner. He did make the Luongo deal, and he stuck to the program rather than selling the farm for Brad Richards, both of which look good from where I sit. The latter was also the reason ownership in Vancouver ditched him, so who knows where this will go.

Getting back to the coaching vacancy for a second, Damien Cox is playing revisionist historian again. To wit:

“Now, with the coaching job open, a Star poll tells us the top choice for Leaf head coach is. . .ta da!. . . Pat Burns, with 29 per cent of respondents saying Burns is the man for the job.

No. 3 on the list? Pat Quinn, with 14 per cent.

Failure, it’s fair to say, never taints anyone with the Leafs. It seems to make them more attractive over time.

It’s not just Star readers. Bob McCown of the Fan 590, a former colleague and a pal, went public this week with his choice for Leaf coach, and it was also Burns.

Now I like Bob. Smart guy. Understands the city and knows the teams. Wrote a book on hockey and everything.

But another person who thinks turning back the page to an era when winning didn’t happen is going to make it happen now.”

These statements basically prove that Damien is about as capable of recognizing skill as he is writing a decent article of hockey analysis. Pat Burns led the Montreal Canadiens to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1988-89. He then led the Leafs to the conference finals in consecutive seasons in 92-93, and 93-94 with current GM Cliff Fletcher manning the controls. When the team took a nosedive, due to a youth movement that Fletcher objected to, Burns took the fall for an uncompetitive season in 95-96. He then moved on to Boston, whom he led into the playoffs in both of his first 2 seasons, before ending up in New Jersey and leading them to a Stanley Cup victory.

Pat Burns is NOT a bad coach. In fact he’s an excellent coach. He’s been recognized as such on multiple occasions, winning the NHL coach of the year award 3 times, with 3 separate teams. But like Ken Hitchcock or Mike Keenan, he has a very short shelf life. His hard nosed style wears thin with players after 2 or 3 seasons. To argue that he is a poor selection for coach is basically equivalent to arguing that Jim Leyland is a crappy baseball manager… it’s idiotic in the extreme.

Similarly, arguing that Pat Quinn is a bad selection is again, amazingly silly. Since taking over the Vancouver Canucks in 1990, Pat Quinn’s teams have missed the playoffs ONCE. He’s made the Stanley Cup Finals once, and the Conference Finals another 2 times. He did not have a single losing season as head coach of the Maple Leafs. In fact, the main reason for his departure was political. The power struggle at the top of MLSE required his ouster. He has yet to coach a team since the lock out, and arguing that he is incapable of doing so might have some legs. Unfortunately, this makes no real sense. Every other coach that was good before the lockout seems to be a perfectly decent coach after the lockout. Why Pat Quinn would be the ONE coach that everything has “past by” is beyond me, and I have yet to hear a single explanation from the media as to why they think this would be the case. Oh, and he too has won the Jack Adams award as NHL coach of the year, TWICE.

Basically the Toronto media dread the idea of dealing with something they’ve dealt with in the past. They wouldn’t be able to invent new “problems”, so much as have to regurgitate the same old “problems” they complained about in the past.

Perhaps one day Damien’s revisions of history will translate to a solid future for the Leafs, but I sincerely doubt they’ll have anything approaching the impact of Pat Quinn or Pat Burns. Oh and just in case Damien was wondering, they’ve both won more Stanley Cups than he has. Maybe the fans in Toronto deserve more credit than the media seem to give them. The irony here is, the Toronto media constantly hold themselves up as defenders of the Leafs fan, protecting their interests against the evil money grubbing MLSE. Meanwhile, they happily fight over ad revenue, secured by the rumour mongering, creative journalism, and outright fantasy they peddle on a daily basis. Who should you really bother to listen to? Probably not Damien Cox.

I Am Sick Of The Management Comparisons

Howard Berger couldn’t resist taking a swipe at the MLSE pursuit of an English Footballing side the other day when he typed up this gem:

“Of course, Detroit, Dallas and Montreal offer Brunnstrom what the Leafs cannot: The opportunity to join organizations with a demonstrated committment to winning. It might take him a bit longer to break into the front ranks of players on the Red Wings, Stars or Canadiens, but he’ll never have to question the motives of his employer. Condominuims and soccer teams will not be essential topics of development. The other teams have full-time general managers, and coaches that Brunnstrom is assured of playing for next season. They have combined to win 14 Stanley Cups since the Leafs last made an appearance in the championship round.”

Ok, I have more than a few problems with this completely asinine statement. First off, Detroit has won 3 cups since Toronto last hoisted it, and Dallas has won a single time… ever. Montreal has won the other 10 times he’s mentioning in the paragraph I loathe. UNFORTUNATELY, The current ownership of Montreal, George N. Gillett Jr. and family, were NOT in charge for any of Montreal’s championships. Does that make his ownership incompetent? Probably not… but maybe if he spent less time arguing with Dallas Stars owner Tom Hicks about their split on who should really be in charge of the Liverpool Reds Premiership football side, or following his NASCAR team as it drove around making nothing but left hand turns, Le Bleu-Blanc-Rouge could get the lead out and actually WIN something meaningful.

Tom Hicks is also the owner of that awesome powerhouse of a MLB franchise, the Texas Rangers. The team most noted for never winning a World Series, and signing Alex Rodriguez to the 2nd most ridiculous contract in baseball history - at the time he signed it, his contract was worth more than the value of 13 other major league franchises. To be fair, he bought this sinkhole of a team from President George W. Bush before he moved on to bigger things like wrecking the US Economy and making the states one of the most despised nations on the planet. Nothing says “winner” like making a team worse than it was under the most despised U.S. president in history. I guess if he paid more attention to hockey he wouldn’t have fired that genius Doug Armstrong, who I’m pretty sure is every media type’s favourite choice for GM after the Brian Burke soap opera ended (to be continued in a year if anyone wants to pay him $6 million a year).

Mike Illitch did turn the Red Wings around after he bought the team in 1982, FOR $8 MILLION DOLLARS!!! It only took him 15 years to get them to the Cup. He also turned around the Detroit Tigers MLB franchise after he watched the team crap its pants to losing records in 12 of the first 13 seasons he owned it. Eventually they won a World Series, but not before he had also taken an interest in the wonderfully exciting world of ARENA FOOTBALL! The Detroit Drive is probably the worst name I’ve ever heard of for a sports team (you might as well call them the Detroit Scenic Route or something).

The guys that currently own MLSE took over soon after Larry Tanenbaum joined up in 1996 alongside Steve “The Grocery Guy” Stavro. That was what? 12 years ago? The Leafs made the conference finals in 1999, then only qualified for the 2nd round in 2000, and 2001! OH MY GOD THEY WERE HORRIBLE! I mean seriously… they even won the division in 2000, what a bunch of morons! Then they made the conference finals again in 2002 before losing to Paul Maurice and those crazy ass Carolina Hurricanes. Then they went out and hired the guy that beat them, only to fire him 2 years later after he lost more games than he won! How backwards of them.

I’m not saying the Leafs are paragons of management virtue or anything. They’re basically one giant rolling miasma of crap in many ways. But the idea that because the ownership group has multiple sporting interests, not to mention ventures outside of sports, is somehow responsible for why this club can’t win the Stanley Cup is BEYOND RETARDED. If you’re basing your assessments of these owners on their skill in building a winner, then you’d better assess EVERYTHING they’ve done, not cherry pick info thus leaving yourself open to total journalistic annihilation.

Fabian Brunnstrom IS gone to Dallas now, but Howard Berger, Damien Cox, Steve Simmons, and the other uninformed media we’re forced to put up with on a daily basis are here to stay. Doesn’t it make you proud to be a Leafs fan?

Nonis, Clarke, Armstrong, Gretzky - Your Uncle Bob - Am I Forgetting Anyone?

The Leafs GM search has apparently been kicked into high gear. Multiple sources are now saying all 4 of the men mentioned above have interest in the Leafs vacancy. The problem is, none of them are clear cut solutions.

TSN is suggesting Nonis would be brought in as a caretaker until Brian Burke could be hired following next season… somehow the idea of a SECOND caretaker does not inspire me with visions of glory.

Sportsnet and the FAN 590 are spreading the word that Bobby Clarke is now making his interest in the Leafs position public. They also continue to make the case for Doug Armstrong, who says he has not been called by the Leafs yet regarding their GM opening.

Our own rumour mill is sharing info that Wayne Gretzky is considering the Leafs position due to concerns over his father, Walter’s, health. Of course it doesn’t hurt that he would be moving from a not so prime-time hockey market, to one of the Meccas of the NHL.

Also in the news, the Toronto Sun is reporting that Fabian Brunnstrom will inform Leafs management of his decision regarding his chosen destination as soon as tomorrow.

Looks like this could be a big week in Leaf land, that we will all be able to reflect upon for years. Who says this time of year can’t be memorable without the playoffs!?

Oh and according to the Canadian Press, MLSE is interested in purchasing Sheffield Wednesday in the English League Championship Football division. Yet another thing to distract management from Hockey! Maybe we can convince Richard and Larry to go run things in the UK while the new GM and President rights the ship in T.O. - seriously.