Tag Archives: brian burke

A Battle of Unheralded Goalies Highlights Stanley Cup Final

Posted on May 25, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Yes, indeed, I plead guilty. This year, all accepted knowledge of the National Hockey League playoffs is out the window. Gone! This year, the Stanley Cup playoffs are still about The Goalie. They’re just not about the “highly-regarded” Goalie.

Let me explain. I believe that the team with the best goaltender will win the Stanley Cup. As Brian Burke once said, “We call it the Stanley Cup playoffs because we can’t call it Goalie.” The two-month tournament that we know as the Stanley Cup playoffs is usually decided by the goaltender who gets red-hot just at the right time. He doesn’t necessarily have to be considered a “great” goalie. Just a hot one.

This year, however, the goaltender issue has been strange. It’s still about the hot goalie. It’s just kind of shocking who the hot goalies are. Roberto Luongo? Bust. Marty Brodeur? Long gone. Evgeni Nabokov? Taken out in four in  the Western Final. Marc-Andre Fleury? Out in the second round.

This year, the fast, skilled Chicago Blackhawks will face the gritty, defensively responsible Philadelphia Flyers in the Stanley Cup final. The Hawks goalie is Antti Niemi, a guy who was considered the anchor around the neck of a good hockey team. He was the reason the Hawks weren’t going to win. The Flyers goalie was the journeyman American, Brian Boucher, but he got hurt and now its the Canadian journeyman Michael Leighton, a guy who was originally drafted by the Blackhawks, played most of his career in the AHL and had played only 103 games in 10 NHL seasons when the playoffs started. Huh?

Heading into the final, Leighton — Philly’s No. 2 goaltender — leads all playoff goalies with a 1.45 goals against average and a .948 save percentage (Boucher is third: 2.33, .915). But Leighton has played only eight games in the post season. There is chance he’ll double that number by the time the playoffs end.

Meanwhile, Niemi is No. 2 on the stats sheet. He has a 2.33 goals against average and a .921 save percentage in 16 games.

Yes, the final two teams in the Stanley Cup tournament have the hottest goaltenders. It’s just hard to imagine both of them  will keep up the pace.

But then again, Canada’s Olympic hero Roberto Luongo has been a career playoff bust and Martin Brodeur hasn’t played well in the post-season since 2003.

Remember, it’s not about “great” goalies. It’s about “hot” goalies. It’s just that nobody expected the hot goalies to be Leighton, Niemi and Boucher.

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At 3 o’clock this afternoon, the Tampa Bay Lightning are expected to announce Steve Yzerman as the team’s new general manager.

Interesting choice because after the Red Wings re-signed Ken Holland and Jim Nill, Yzerman was No. 3 in Detroit.

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Thompson says, “…there will be some dramatic events this week.”

Posted on June 29, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

On Wednesday, the National Hockey League’s free agent season will begin and according to Tom Thompson, the assistant general manager of the Minnesota Wild, “I’m sure there will be some dramatic events this week.”

Assuming they aren’t signed between now and Wednesday morning, the Sedin Twins, Marian Gaborik, Mattias Ohlund, Dwayne Roloson, Ales Kotalik, Marian Hossa, Chris Neil, Mike Comrie, Mike Cammalleri, Todd Bertuzzi, Mike Komisarek, Mathieu Schneider, Alex Kovalev, Alex Tanguay, Saku Koivu, Mark Recchi, Maxim Afinogenov, Ryan Bayda, Erik Cole, Patrice Brisebois, Tom Kostopoulos, Brian Gionta, John Madden, Johnny Oduya, Brendan Shanahan, Derek Morris, Nik Antropov, Martin Biron, Antero Nittymaki, Viktor Kozlov, Miroslav Satan, Petr Sykora, Rob Scuderi, Hal Gill, Todd Marchant, Jay Bouwmeester, Martin Havlat, Sami Pahlsson, Ian Laperriere, Joe Sakic, Jere Lehtinen, Jordan Leopold, Mikael Samuelsson, Marc-Andre Bergeron, Martin Skoula, Vernon Fiddler, Greg de Vries, Stephane Veilleux, Rob Blake, Mike Grier, Claude Lemieux, Travis Moen, Nolan Baumgartner, Jason Jaffray, Jason Krog and Mats Sundin, along with more than a hundred others will be unrestricted free agents..

Even some of our old friends — Shane Hnidy, Teppo Numminen, Tyler Arnason, Nikolai Khabibulin, Colton Orr and Phillipe Boucher — will be free on Wednesday. It’s going to hit the fan this week and you can bet as many teams as possible will be involved.

In fact, during the draft, Brian Burke made it clear he’ll be a buyer: “We’ll be involved on July 1,” Burke told reporters in Montreal. “The door is open for business at noon and that’s when we will start to get involved.”

He’s not alone.

“There will be moves that will get a lot of people talking,” said Thompson. “There is going to be a lot of interest in the hockey world all over North America that’s for sure.”

But why? Why so many UFAs?

“It’s partly because of the cap,” said Thompson, via telephone from his office in St. Paul. “The thing about the salary cap system is that it forces people to make choices. Because you’re restricted by how much you can spend, if you decide to do one thing, you can’t do another. It’s what makes great organizations or not-so-great organizations. You can’t have everything anymore.

“If there is one thing the cap has done, it’s put every team on an equal playing field and the smartest hockey people will be successful.”

The other thing it does, is forces team’s into last-minute decisions. It forces them to meet deadlines. It allows players to know exactly how much they’re worth. And it makes people like the Sedin Twins, who want long term deals worth at least $62 million each, worry about their decisions just as long and hard as Shane Hnidy or Jason Krog, who just might be out there looking for work.

I’d hate to suggest anything specific will happen on Wednesday. Nobody knows. But here are five things that might happen…

1) The Sedins don’t get the money they’re after in Vancouver. Mike Gillis re-signs Mattias Ohlund and signs Marian Gaborik.

2) The Sedins end up in Toronto with Brian Burke, the man who drafted them in the first place, and who will dump a pile of dull, old contracts to make sure he has the dough to sign them.

3) The Flames will sign Bouwmeester, let Cammalleri ($3.6 million) and Bertuzzi ($1.95 million) go and have plenty of money to sign the roll players he needs (he’s already dumped Jim Vandermeer and his $2.3 million deal).

4) Bob Gainey will go on an unprecedented signing frenzy and get Komisarek, Brisebois, Kostopoulos, Schneider and Tanguay signed. Saku Koivu will end up with his brother, Mikko, in Minnesota.

5) At least 50 players will change teams.

Unlike the dull-as-dishwater trade deadline television snooze, TSN, Rogers SportsNet and the Score will have an actual reason to telecast Free Agent Frenzy Shows. This should be nuts.

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The NHL Draft Starts in less than an hour in Montreal: Here’s what we’re looking for…

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Will it be John Tavares of the OHL’s London Knights, Matt Duchene of the OHL’s Brampton Battalion or Victor Hedman of the Swedish Elite League’s Modo? That will be the biggest question on everyone’s mind as this year’s draft gets rolling in Montreal.

The 2009 NHL Entry Draft begins in less than half an hour and here the three things I’m expecting:

1) I just have to think that if the Islanders don’t trade their pick to Toronto, a team that really, really, really would like to draft Tavares, then the Isles will take Hedman simply because they’re an Eastern Conference team that needs to upgrade on defence and is a young guy who has already played against men with Modo in the Swedish Elite League.

However, if the Islanders are more concerned about image than winning next year, they’ll take Tavares and sell him as the next Sid the Kid.

2) Apparently this wild — and very, very stupid –  rumour that the Boston Bruins were going to give up Phil Kessel and a draft pick for Leafs Tomas Kaberle was as dumb as we thought.

Originally “broken” on TSN, we’re now told by the Toronto Sports Network: “It appears the potential trade involving the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs is at the very least on hold and quite possibly dead. It turns out there was apparently major miscommunication between the two teams.”

Really? Perhaps it was a miscommunication by the mainstream media. TSN originally reported it was Kessel for Kaberle and Toronto’s No. 7 pick. Terrible deal for Toronto, but Boston might like it. Then it became Kessel and a draft pick for Kaberle. Only someone smoking something would have thought was a bright move. In the end, it was none of the above. Somebody made this thing up over cognac in the hotel bar.

3) There will be trades. Somebody is going somewhere. After all, last year’s draft produced a frenzy of pretty big deals.

Toronto really wants a top pick (up from No. 7) to get either Tavares or Brandon’s Brayden Schenn and Brian Burke will do what’s necessary to get the people he wants in order to rebuild that mess in T.O.

Ottawa is going to try to move Dany Heatley but Bryan Murray won’t give him away. Murray’s way too smart to take that bait.

Florida will probably move Jay Bouwmeester — or anybody else with a pulse and a contract. After all, Randy Sexton is now the acting GM and if you remember him in Ottawa, you know he’ll try to make some kind of splash — stupid or otherwise.

The San Jose Sharks will move somebody. Expect it to be Jonathan Cheechoo.

Despite not falling for that dumb Toronto offer (or “made-up” Toronto offer), Boston might still try to move the disgruntled Phil Kessel.

And don’t be surprised if Tampa tries to get Tavares and then, if they do, they’ll have Stamkos and Tavares in the fold, so then Lightning GM Brian Lawton will trade Vinny Lecavalier to Montreal.

And finally, don’t be surprised to see Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger, J.S. Giguere and a bunch of “older” Calgary Flames change teams tonight.

OK, get out the sodas and chips and let’s go watch some kids get rich.

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Burke takes over. Leaf Nation Rejoices. But, ahh, what about the players?

Posted on November 29, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

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. 

 

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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.

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

It’s free agent time in the NHL and the money spent this week bordered on the obscene. On Day 1, Tuesday  — Canada Day in Canada — the NHL spent about $400 million. On Day 2, it was closer to $150 million, but then, some of the signings were downright crazy.  If anybody continues to believe that Winnipeg or even Quebec City can play in this game, I would think they’re delusional. Even marginal players are getting gigantic contracts now that teams have a $56.7 million salary cap (and a $40.1 million floor).

Let’s look at some highlights: 

Marian Hossa signed with the Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings. One year $7.4 million. And apparently, he turned down larger offers from other teams.

 

The Pittsburgh Penguins signed Evgeni Malkin to a five-year contract extension worth $43.5 million. The Pens also signed Brooks Orpik (Brooks freakin’ Orpik) to a six-year deal worth $22.5 million.

 

Dallas signed forward Sean Avery to a four-year, $15.5 million deal. Was that for the hockey skill or the comic relief.

 

Atlanta signed free agent defenceman Ron Hainsey — who!? — to a five year $22.5 million deal.

 

The Columbus Blue Jackets signed Kristian Huselius away from Calgary. Four years, $19 million.

 

Defenceman Brian Campbell signed an eight-year deal with the Chicago Blackhawks which will pay him $7.1 million per season.

 

Anaheim signed restricted free agent Corey Perry to a five-year, $26.625 million deal and the Brian Burke blamed Edmonton GM Kevin Lowe for making the Ducks pay Perry that much money.

 

Washington re-signed star defenceman Mike Green, four years, $21 million.

 

Colorado signed unrestricted free agent forward Darcy Tucker to a two-year $4.2 million contract;

 

The Leafs signed Colorado free-agent defenceman Jeff Finger, four years $14 million and Dallas Stars’ free-agent defenecman Niklas Hagman, four-years $12 million. 

 

The Boston Bruins signed Michael Ryder and his 12 goals to a three year, $12 million contract.

 

New Jersey got Brian Rolston, four-years, $20.25 million.

 

The New York Islanders paid Montreal Canadiens unrestricted free agent Mark Streit, $20.5 million for five years. Huh???

 

And the New York Rangers signed defenceman Wade Redden away from Ottawa, six years, $39 million.

 

It was also reported that the Vancouver Canucks have free agent, ex-Leafs captain, Mats Sundin, a two-year contract worth $20 million. He turned it down. If he did, he’s completely insane so that offer probably wasn’t really on the table.

 

Some of these guys deserve big money. Ron Hainsey? Jeff Finger? Michael Ryder? My goodness gracious.

 

Hockey’s true financial armageddon is right around the corner. We should start a pool as to when the next team slips into bankruptcy. It hasn’t been that long since Pittsburgh was in court in 1998. 

 

This week’s spending spree made the lockout season look like one giant lie. You have to hope that after the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the rising food and gas prices, the War in Iraq and the slow, ugly death — read: outsourcing — of the U.S. industrial and manufacturing sectors, there will be money left to buy hockey tickets.

 

Funny, but I wouldn’t necessarily count on it.  

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