Star columnist sticks up for Burke
October 16, 2009 · 7 Comments
Well, it took just a few hours for Damien Cox to rush, full speed, to the defense of Brian Burke.
In the wake of my column yesterday, titled “Toronto media soft on Burke,” here’s Cox’s piece in today’s Toronto Star.
It’s a somewhat shrill and, I would suggest, flawed rebuttal to the points I made yesterday.
Still, when you’ve spent the past six months praising the Leaf general manager and even picking his mediocre team (winless this season, last in the NHL) to make the playoffs, you either offer up a mea culpa, take a radical change in direction, or defend the indefensible.
In his passionate support of Burke, Cox says it’s too early to judge the Leaf general manager. After all, he has stockpiled talented young players. And by doing this, he has mitigated the damage done by giving away three high draft choices to the Boston Bruins for Phil Kessel, whom I suggested could be a star or could be Jason Blake (soft, a perimeter player, defensively weak).
Burke does have a few good prospects in the system, but not many. Forward Nazem Kadri looked terrific in the pre-season. He’s back in junior hockey and could be a star in the NHL someday. We just don’t know.
Forward Viktor Stalberg (drafted by the previous regime) also had a good training camp, but has yet to score a goal. He’s been out with a concussion, but is expected back tomorrow. The big goalie from Sweden, Jonas Gustavsson, could be the real deal. Time will tell.
But none of this excuses Burke squandering the team’s first round selection in 2010, likely to be a lottery pick, its second in 2010 and its first in 2011 for Kessel.
Given that the Leafs have been a non-playoff team for four years, Burke’s move was impetuous, irresponsible and just plain dumb. Non-playoff teams don’t trade first rounders. Or if they do, they protect themselves by excluding lottery picks from the agreement.
Cox, ever the optimist, is hoping the trade works out for the Leafs and Burke. He writes, “Kessel may indeed be a star. Boston may flub the picks. And the Leafs actually are set up reasonably well for the future.”
Sure, and the Leafs might win the Stanley Cup next spring, too.
The point is, most hockey commentators in Toronto have rolled over for Burke. They blame goaltending, the defense, the coach and the forwards for the team’s awful start, but give Burke a pass.
Hockey blogger Stu Hackel alludes to the issue with this in today’s New York Times website under the headline, “Burke’s cult of personality.”
Hackel wonders why the Toronto media spend so much air time and newsprint on Burke, and notes that coverage is uncritical.
He asks: “So what’s with Toronto’s obsession with Brian Burke?
“O.K., we understand that the Maple Leafs don’t have much to cheer about on the ice and haven’t for a while. We get that fans of the team have turned their teary eyes toward this blustery native New Englander with a Stanley Cup ring on his finger in the hope that he can restore their long, long, long, long-lost glory (that’s one “long” for every decade of Maple Leaf futility). We’ve long known that a) Burke never saw a microphone he didn’t like and b) the Toronto news media is malnourished when it comes to good hockey news so this was a perfect marriage. . . .
“But making Burke appear omnipotent, while fun, can have a downside. TSN’s That’s Hockey show had a critical look at the Leafs last night and the players seem to be getting most of the heat for the team’s bad showing.”
Will the spell cast by Burke ever disappear? He’s an intimidating figure — blustery, bombastic and tough. We’ll see.
Notes:
Sun Media is advertising for a national hockey columnist, the position vacated two years ago when Al Strachan’s contract was not renewed. The job opening is tied to Sun Media discontinuing the Canadian Press wire service sometime next year.
– Hockey writer Tim Wharnsby is leaving The Globe and Mail for CBC.ca. He’ll report on hockey, cover the Leafs and eventually do some work for Hockey Night In Canada.
– Calgary Sun column Eric Francis was interviewed by the CBC’s Fifth Estate for the Theoren Fleury story, which airs tonight. Using information from the Fleury book, which had not been released, Francis broke the story of Fleury’s acknowledging sexual abuse by his junior coach Graham James. That was last Friday. The CBC and Fleury had hoped to keep a lid on the story until this week.
– The Gemini for best sportscaster of the year will be awarded Monday. The nominees are Darren Dutchyshen and James Duthie of TSN, and Steve Kouleas of the Score.
Duthie is favoured.
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I agree it is too early in the season to evaluate the Leafs completely, but I am wonder when Burke “rolled the dice” in Anaheim? The only instance I can really think is that he drafted Bobby Ryan when it seemed better player were available. As far as his Stanley Cup, he kept a roster of young players together, signed a goalie out of Europe when he already had a Conne Smythe winning goalie on his roster so the new keeper had time to develop, traded a young established forward, young d-man and a pick for one of the top defenseman in the game(who had to be moved due to a trade demand or they would have had to give up a ton more), signed a puck-moving d-man with cup rings to a top dollar contract, and moved an underachieving centreman to a desperate Doug MacLean for a young d-man and a 3rd-4th line centre.
All solid moves that resulted in a Cup.
The moves he made after winning the cup are very suspect and could maybe be considered “rolling the dice”, but they certainly did not pay off. Trading MacDonald for Weight, giving Bryzgalov away, walking away from a team he put into payroll disorder, allowing Neidermayer to hum-and-haw then signing Schneider to a multi-year deal before recieving an answer.
Ugh.
Bob Murray has done a great job with the mess Burke left him, and the core of good young players Bryan Murray left him.
Mark my words.
The Phil kessel deal will be a disaster for the Leafs and will set back the franchise for many years (well its business as usual since 1967).
The bruins never wanted to keep Kessel around and was constantly rumoured to be trade on the trading block since early part of the 2007 season.
Here are the facts: great skater and burst of speed and a decent scorer (25 goals per year)
But was also known for;
Being soft in the corners and around the net, a defence liability, lack of character and maturity, a medical background with question marks, a selfish and a loner individual and not a team player (was not well liked around the dressing room)
Playing with Marc Savard who is among the elite (top 3) set up center man in the league for the past 5 years for assist may have artificially overestimate his real and intrinsic value.
Furthermore ,he already shown to have a Diva character (after only 3 years in the league and no proven track record beside 1 season of 60 points) along with very bad working habits and tendency to be lazy (several conflicts with coach Julien because he did want to put the extra work and training).
When the trade was made the Boston media was very pleasantly surprised with what the Bruins got in the trade (considered a steal reminiscing the Sinden Era of the 70’s)
Kessel will be at best a decent -good player (25-30 goals and 60 pts tops) but will be considered as a significant disappointment for a fifth overall draft pick (2005 which was a weak draft year) and for a trade for 3 premiums picks.
My guess is that Phil Kessel will not finished his 4 year contract with the Leafs and will be traded or dumped even before the end.
I think Burke screwed up on this one, big time and the way the Leafs have started the season the Bruins could end with a top 3 draft picks in both the first and second round next spring.
The only way to build successfully a sports franchise is to be patient and through the draft and develop and groom the players in a system.
Taking shortcuts for quick results seldom pays off even in this rapid pace world .
John
It’s been six games, far too early to evaluate a GM’s moves. Burke has cap space to remodel the team and simply getting Toskala out of the net improves them considerably.
If the picks he surrendered are 7th overall and 12th overall picks in 2010 and 2011 and Kessel continues to score goals as he has to this point, the deal is fine. If Toronto’s a bottom feeder in April, it’s a horrible one.
Burke rolled the dice a lot in building the Ducks and it paid off — and it wasn’t due to having high draft picks.
Great article, and good to have you back!
Well, Houston certainly knows there is a problem!
I am one of the few who negatively reacted to Burke’s hiring as the GM however the lone bright spot to his hiring (I believed at the time) was that he would have full autonomy to re-build this team, without shortcuts, given his 5 year contract. The drafting of Kadri in late June was brilliant; he will be a better NHL player than the slow, media-hyped Tavares. I was at my highest peak of joy after draft day but apprehensive that Burke would try to speed things up. Oh Lord, that he most certainly and foolishly did.
The signings of ANY major free agents over the summer were premature. The Leafs needed this last year to add another major building block (hopefully a lottery pick) to Kadri, Schenn and the rest of the young college guys. Instead, a year too early, Burke signs Komisarek and Beauchemin long-term whose better days were realized on teams who had better defenseman in front of them. These are not 1st and 2nd d-men, however this is what is expected of them in Toronto. The other minor moves Burke made, in the name of “truculence” (Exelby, Orr, Primeau) have been disastrous. Stralman is now even quarterbacking the Jackets power play.
Then, the wheels completely fell off when Burke decided to throw a potential lottery pick out the window.
I, personally, would have only dealt one 1st round draft pick for Kessel, definitely not two of them. However, even if you support Burke and all components of the Kessel deal, you CANNOT under any circumstances defend the prematurity in which it took place. When your first line center is Matt Stajan, you do not sacrifice your 1st round pick next June before your team has played one game. You cannot for the life of me tell me that Burke would now make that Kessel deal knowing his team is 0-6. It is so difficult to make up ground in a league of 3 pt. games…if not impossible. But, Burke’s ego and stubborness would not get the best of him as he proclaimed that he would still make that Kessel deal today. Bonehead.
If not to make matters even worse, to kickstart the year, Burke basically held a sign up and told every other team in the league that the Leafs will be the most difficult team to play against this year so you’d better bring your “A” games. Um, the defending Stanley Cup Champs wouldn’t even do this but it’s highly likely that after Burke’s “beliggerence” speech, other teams would take more joy in beating the Leafs than the Penguins. Great, just great. Burke clearly has not heard the phrase, “let sleeping dogs lie”.
Burke could actually be more impetuous than JFJ given his refusal to admit defeat and clear intention to win now. JFJ’s actions could actually be understood based on the fact he had a gun to his head (and no, I’m not defending JFJ). Burke has no excuses. He obviously has not had to endure 40 years of incompetent management because if he had, he would surely be acting with a lot more patience.
Phil, I concur completely. Damn him.
Firstly, great insight you have Bill. Love your articles.
I have to say, Bobcat is such a tool. He has no problem not holding back and attacking people elsewhere who he isn’t chummy with, yet as soon as it comes time to question someone he knows and is friends with his attitude changes.
This is what he said about him and Burke on his blog:
“On the day he was named President and General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, I sent him an e-mail, offering both congratulations and an invitation to get together once he settled in.”
Later he says:
“Brian responded immediately that he’d enjoy hooking up. That it took nearly six months to make it happen was nothing more than a function of how dedicated the guy is to hockey and his job.”
Right, so because Burke has lunch with you Bobcat, it shows how dedicated to hockey he is?
Bobcat is certainly one who has drunk the Burke Kool-Aid, since he gets a supply every week straight from Burke personally. Its all a joke. Burke must go. And his only defendants are his close pals.
Thank heavens, finally someone else who speaks the truth! Bill welcome back. Not a moment too soon.
The entire summer, while Burke was signing defencemen who couldn’t score to outrageously high salaries and then destroying the future of the franchise by trading soon to be #1 picks, I wondered why no one from the mainstream media OR from the new media blogosphere were taking Burke to task. If Quinn or JFjr had done this, they would have been ripped mercilessly.
But either because they’re scared of Burke (most print media it seems) or because they are buddies with him and socialize with him (That’s you I’m pointing at McCown), or because they have just drank too much blue Kool-Aid and were desperate for a competitive team even if it was just a fantasy (blogosphere) , barely a dissenting voice spoke out against Burke’s franchise crippling moves.
There were however (ahem…cough cough) SOME who realized the egregious error of Burke’s ways.
I don’t blame the players or coach one little bit for what is going on. The players simply are not talented enough. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
This is all on Burke. HIs arrogance and impatience have ruined us for years to come.
Damn him.