Trade Rumour A Source of Hilarity

As I was driving around Port Coquitlam, B.C. today, I found myself in absolute hysterics, laughing so hard that I am sure the people in the cars beside me thought I was crazy.

What made me laugh so hard? 

Are you ready for this?

The newest trade rumour has the Vancouver Canucks trading Ryan Kesler, Luc Bourdon, Cory Schneider and a first-round pick in this year’s NHL Entry Draft to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Mats Sundin.

I’ll pause until you finish laughing…

Okay time is up.

The most ridiculous thing is, according to the poll question on the Team 1040 this afternoon, is that 13 per cent of people out there believe the Canucks should actually throw away four prospects to the Leafs for a 36-year-old center. 

It looks good on paper but paper does not do reality any justice.  If we were to look at the difference between how good a team is on paper compared to reality, lets look at the 1997 Vancouver Canucks roster, which included the likes of Trevor Linden, Pavel Bure, Mark Messier, Alex Mogilny and Kirk McLean, just to name a few.  That team fell apart half way through the season and the Canucks failed to make the playoffs. 

Difference between paper and reality.

Reality.  As much as Luc Bourdon has failed to impress those in Canuck land despite having played well for a kid in his position, you need him right now.  Why?  Well, incase you haven’t noticed, the Canucks defence corps can’t seem to stay healthy.  If and when the Canucks defence gets healthy is the grossly overused phrase in the city today.  Even if they did all (Kevin Bieksa, Willie Mitchell, Aaron Miller and Lukas Krajicek) come back, Sami Salo is almost a sure bet to go down, and that’s not a knock him, that’s just the reality of it.

And why on earth would you want to rid yourself of Kesler?  Okay, so he doesn’t have the offensive numbers that everyone expects out of him, but he does a whole helluva lot for this hockey club.  Next to Daniel and Henrik Sedin, he is the most reliable forward on the Canucks. 

Now, Sundin is a good center for the Maple Leafs.  But this guy has never won anything in the Stanley Cup playoffs, in fact, since he came to Toronto, the Buds haven’t made it to the Stanley Cup finals.  He won gold with Sweden at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, but no team in the NHL could be as good as Team Sweden was.  That team could’ve run the show on the Anaheim Ducks from last year with the talent they had.  The Canucks, or any other team in the NHL, isn’t Team Sweden from 2006, so we can throw out the Olympics.  The Olympics aren’t the NHL, and you don’t need a maximum of 16 wins in a maximum 28 games to win in the Olympics, you need three wins in a maximum of eight games.

These big deals aren’t always the answer.

If the two big trades of last year (Peter Forsberg to Nashville and Keith Tkachuk to Atlanta, both for role players and draft picks) taught us anything, it is that the big, sexy trade isn’t all it is cracked up to be.  Nashville went out in six games, Atlanta in four.  Gamble the future away for a first-round exit.  Yep.

The future for the Canucks is now.  You can’t disagree with that.  But to throw away three good, young players for a 36-year-old unrestricted free agent who may not resign here in the summer … come on people, get with it.  There is no guarantee that Sundin would be able to make a difference for the Canucks, and if he is traded here, there is nothing that says he will come back or not.  And if he doesn’t come back?  Well, then you’ve lost a second-line center, two prospects and a first-round pick and all for nothing.

You may as well go to the casino and throw down roughly $2 million on the number 13 at the roulette table.  Good luck!

The Focus on Leafs Nation

It finally happened. 

John Ferguson Jr. took the walk off the plank as the Toronto Maple Leafs’ ownership relieved the former Leafs general manager of his duties.

The worst kept secret in the world of sports finally came out, and of course, no one was surprised.  Today, TSN’s Off The Record focused their entire show on the former general manager and the hiring of Cliff Fletcher as the interim general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

Just more proof that Toronto really does think they are the center of the hockey universe.  The Leafs are 14th in the Eastern Conference and sit seven points out of eighth and final playoff spot in the east.  The Leafs have been a joke, from the way they went public with the entire saga of JFJ, to the constant media coverage and nauseatingly similar stories of their woes and the fact they can’t buy a win, to the personnel they have on the ice.   Plain and simple, the Leafs are a bad hockey team.  There’s no other way around it.  They have no speed, no chemistry, lackluster goaltending, an inconsistent defence, and with the teams in the east, they have no chance of making the playoffs.

I am writing them off.  That being said, let’s talk about something else that doesn’t have to do with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

You have to feel bad for the Atlanta Thrashers right now.  The Thrashers organization will be hosting the 2008 NHL All-Star game this weekend, but unfortunately, some of the game’s biggest stars like Sidney Crosby and Roberto Luongo will not make the big game.

Crosby, the poster boy for the NHL’s new era, will be out six to eight weeks with a high ankle sprain.  As much of a blow as it is to the All-Star game, just think of how this is going to impact the Pittsburgh Penguins as they head into the stretch.  Last year’s leading scorer in the NHL will be back in time for the Pen’s march to the playoffs, and you can bet that he will come back with even more fire due to missing so much time to injury.  If anything, this injury will help rest the phenom as the Penguins go into the playoffs and he will definitely be ready to go come the middle of April.

Luongo, who has been average the last six games for the Vancouver Canucks, is flying home to Florida after tonight’s game against the St. Louis Blues to be with his wife, who is expecting the couple’s first child.  You have to give Luongo some credit here.  His play of late has not been spectacular compared to what we are used to from the man who was traded here for Todd Bertuzzi in the summer of 2006.  The man wants to be with his family during what is a trying time for the young family.  It just goes to show that no matter how big of a star some people rise up to be in professional sports, some of them still have their priorities in order.

However, in accordance with Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault and his challenge that he offered to Luongo yesterday, the Canucks franchise goalie has to be better.  It’s no secret that he has to carry this team if it has any chance to win the Stanley Cup.

Are the Leafs still in 14th? 

What We All Expected to Happen

The Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t quite there yet, but they are very close to hitting rock bottom.

Canada’s most beloved sports team sits in 14th spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference and just four points ahead of the NHL’s worst team, the Los Angeles Kings.  On top of that, the Leafs are on a five-game losing skid and have re-called former Team Canada goalie sensation Justin Pogge from the Leafs’ AHL affiliate, which has all but prompted the demotion of former Calder Trophy winner Andrew Raycroft to the farm.

Now, according to TSN and other media outlets that cover NHL hockey, Leafs general manager John Ferguson Jr. is on his way out and that the hunt for an interim GM has begun.

Even though the Leafs have not officially given Ferguson his walking papers, eventually something like this would happen in the hockey hotbed of Toronto.  The Leafs have failed to make the playoffs since coming back from the NHL lockout in 2005, and this year the club has had not one, but two crippling losing streaks that have exemplified the problems that this team really has and that it does not have anything of what it takes to make the playoffs.

The problems that stem from JFJ’s time in Toronto can be based upon the fact that he has tried to buy his team’s way into the playoffs by signing free-agents who have done absolutely nothing for the team.  Such names include: Eric Lindros, Jason Blake, the aforementioned Raycroft, Pavel Kubina and Hal Gil to name a few.  Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing and nothing.  That is what each of those five guys has done for the Maple Leafs.

Am I being overly critical?  No.  Just telling it like it is.  Ferguson’s ingredients for success have fallen along buying players to try and fit into a team, not building a team from the ground on up with youth and young talent.

Did anyone not learn their lesson from the New York Rangers pre-lockout problems with signing a bunch of guys and just throwing them all into a mix and hoping that something spectacular would come of it?

With a team that seems destined to finish in the bottom five of the NHL’s regular season standings, it should be pointed out that maybe the next person to take over Maple Leafs hockey operations will now have a better drafting spot for the entry draft this summer and therefore, they should be able to start to rebuild this team into a proud, winning hockey team like it used to be.

Are The Leafs Mathematically Eliminated From Playoff Contention Yet?

Like sand through the hour glass, so are the days of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Okay, maybe that didn’t make a whole lot of sense from one perspective, but if you read more into the lead than just the words, you’ll understand what it means.  If you don’t, I’ll help you out. 

The Toronto Maple Leafs are a modern day sporting soap opera.  There are problems up and down this organization, from the ownership group – which is about as torn apart as a t-shirt found in an 18-pack of beer, to the general manager and coaching staff and then the team itself.

This team is a joke.  Plain and simple, the Toronto Maple Leafs are the laughing stock of the NHL because there just isn’t any hockey sense within the organization.  John Ferguson Jr., the general manager of the most despised sports team in Canada, doesn’t know how to run a winning hockey club.  He uses more money than he does brains by signing players that just aren’t good enough to win.  The Leafs haven’t drafted well in the past few years and then they go out and sign guys that are tier two NHL players.

Next to Mats Sundin, who has been the only consistent contributor to a dismal hockey club, the Leafs biggest offensive threat is Nik Antropov.  You expect to make the playoffs or win in the playoffs with Antropov as your second or third go-to-guy. 

The defence isn’t worth dragging through the dirt, which we have done enough on this website, but they’re not a good enough defensive corps to be successful.

This team is simply horrible.  They are dysfunctional, they look more for a quick-fix solution rather than a substantial decision that will change the team for the better.  It is impossible to just sign a whole bunch of players with no real purpose or reason other than ’they produced at a slightly above average rate during other parts of their career,’ and expect them to win.  The New York Rangers did that and they were the laughing stock of the NHL in the late 90′s and early part of this decade.

The worst part of the ridiculous problems with the Toronto Maple Leafs?  We, meaning the majority of the Canadian populace that, despite what CBC believes, hate the Maple Leafs and yet every Saturday at 4 p.m. we are subjected to watching the most boring and pointless brand of NHL hockey. 

Does the CBC not realize that there are at least 10 other better hockey games being played in the NHL at 4 p.m. on Saturday that they could fill the schedule with? 

To sum up this whole rant, I’ll just say this:  The Leafs are a horrible example of a hockey team, yet there they are on Saturday night, Hockey Night in Canada, for our entertainment because someone at the CBC thinks that they are worth watching despite what a horrible hockey team they are right now.

Having said that, I beg the question.  Are the Leafs mathematically eliminated from playoff contention yet?

Sean Avery At It Again

It seems like at least once a year there is a complaint, a scuffle, a fight or a disciplinary act involving New York Rangers agitator, Sean Avery.

Once again, on Saturday, Avery was the focal point of attention during the warm-up between the Rangers and the much-hated-themselves Toronto Maple Leafs as he and Darcy Tucker (the Leafs you-know-what disturber) got involved in a pre-game scuffle after Avery had allegedly made obscene comments towards Jason Blake and his fight with cancer.

Now, while the league can’t really prove that Avery said something to that affect, one has to think that he said something downright low for Tucker to take such exception to it.

The last time allegations were made against Avery, they were for alleged racial remarks towards then Oilers enforcer, Georges Laraque.  Avery denied ever making racist comments to the now Pittsburgh Penguin.

Okay, seems fair to be let off the hook, after all it was a one-off.  But now this has come up.  It is hard to believe Avery when he denied not having said anything derogatory towards Blake’s fight with cancer.  How could two totally separate accusations be pinned against this guy?  Come on, everyone hates him but not to the point where people are going to make up stuff to make Avery look like the world’s biggest you-know-what.

Does Avery fight?  Yeah he does and when he decides to drop the mitts, he’s quite good at it.  The big question is: Does Avery back his talk up?  Not all the time and there’s where the problem lies.

Being a former junior hockey player myself, I have heard some of the best slams on other players, definitely had some thrown my way and even tried to dish some out myself, but they didn’t quite turn out the way I imagined.  The only difference is, when guys ran their mouth in junior, they backed it up as best as they could.  It can be universally agreed that we have all seen Avery turtle from guys who have simply had enough of his BS.

When someone runs their mouth then turtles, there’s a problem and that problem can be resolved by either shutting their mouth or being held accountable.

Trash talk will always be a part of the game, in fact, it’s probably one of the more entertaining aspects of the game of hockey and in all sports.  But there is a line between trash talk, and talk that holds no place on the ice.  If a player feels the need to get his competition of their game by bringing race or personal issues into the mix then that player doing the talking simply isn’t good enough to play in the NHL.  The Rangers went to arbitration with Avery this summer because the organization believed he is a detriment to a team. 

As tough as Darcy Tucker can be, in Avery’s case, he’s just lucky it was Tucker he was dealing with and not a guy like Tie Domi or Wendel Clark.

Brian Burke Hockey

The only game that was on TV today during day one of the ’07-’08 NHL season was the battle of Ontario: Toronto vs. Ottawa. These games are always heated and packed with emotion, especially in the last two seasons where the Leafs and Senators have had to face each other 16 times a year.

But there was something different about tonight’s game. The two teams have had four months to let bygones be bygones, but that wasn’t the case. The game was packed with huge hits, facewash-filled scrums, and a few good tilts. Even Wade Redden, who has been in three fights in the last two seasons, dropped the gloves twice, the second time leaving him bloody.

And these weren’t those little hugging matches that we’ve seen so often. These were full on scraps with some bombs landed from both sides.

Judging by tonight’s match, it seems that Brian Burke left an impression on the game of hockey last season where his Ducks won the cup, while mounting the most fighting majors in the league.

If tonight’s game is any kind of a preview as to what we’re going to see from the rest of the league this season, the flash and dash hockey that the league’s executives aimed to create with the new NHL could be evolving into rough, fight-filled, old time hockey. Brian Burke hockey.

What does this mean for advertising the league? It means that the die-hard Canadian fans, who already love the game, are going to get what they’ve wanted since the early nineties, but it also means the Americans, who don’t like the fighting, are going to keep changing the channel to an NBA or NFL game.

Who knows, maybe this will help Pierre Lebrun’s cause for an NHL Europe when teams start to stack up on gritty Canadians as Burke did, meaning less spots for Europeans over here.

It’s already happening, as only one Russian player was drafted in the first round of the 2007 NHL entry draft, and that’s the lowest number in a long, long time.