OK, Leaf Nation, I get it. Brian Burke is the answer to your prayers. He can’t play, but boy he can manage and that’s all you need, right?
He’s experienced and tough and no-nonsense and my gawd, the Toronto media seems to love him and heaven knows, if the Toronto media loves him, he must be near-perfect. Because, well, as everyone in Canada knows, if the always-right, never-wrong Toronto media loves you, you have to be good.
Burke, who was allowed to leave the Anaheim Ducks because, well, because he wasn’t doing anything there, was unveiled to the precious Toronto media yesterday and was immediately proclaimed to be “The Saviour.”
Make that Saviour No. 9 or 10, but yes, the man who turned the Vancouver Canucks from Stanley Cup contender to average hockey team (remember Dave Nonis traded for Roberto Luongo) and won a Stanley Cup with somebody else’s team in Anaheim (remember Bryan Murray and Al Coates built the Ducks’ Stanley Cup winner), is now the man who will give Toronto its first Stanley Cup since 1967.
There is something definitely wrong with this picture.
Burke is the new president and general manager of the Leafs, a team that is, well, downright lousy. It was a burgeoning contender before John Ferguson Jr. was fired, but when Junior was let go and Cliff Fletcher took over as interim GM, he quickly made it one of the worst teams ever assembled. In fact, two of its best young players are now with the St. Louis Blues.
In fact, this team is so bad, that at $18 million over five years, Brian Burke is the fifth highest paid Leaf, behind Jason Blake, Tomas Kaberle, Pavel Kubina and Vesa Toskala.
Huh? If you were a struggling team in the NHL today, is there any one of those players you’d try to acquire in a trade? Not likely.
“This is like a dream come true for me,” Burke said at his news conference. “Coming to Toronto is like coming to the Vatican (ed. note: are you freakin’ kidding me?) if you’re a Catholic, it’s one of the most prestigious jobs on the planet. It’s a dream job, the crown jewel of the NHL. The Leafs are a brand known world wide (so are the Winnipeg Jets, still), so it is a dream come true.
“This is an opportunity of a lifetime to work for a team in a world-class city with passionate fans, solid ownership and a rich history,” Burke continued. “I can’t wait to get started.”
Good, get started. It will be at least another 40 years before Toronto wins a Cup. And Brian Burke, who is little more than a bully, will take a lousy team and make it, at best, mediocre.
And the truly gifted Toronto media will scratch its collective pointed head and wonder what the heck happened.
After they lose confidence in him, gang up on the guy and run him out of town.
Related posts:
- NHL free agency 2008: Perhaps this will end all the talk about Winnipeg and Quebec City. Of course, it might also ring the death knell for South Florida, Atlanta, Nashville and Phoenix.
- The Grey Cup is over. Canadian teams about average at quarter pole, Steen goes to St. Louis and the Bruins a pleasant surprise.
- Don’t believe stories based on “un-named sources”