Comedy Platinum out of Toronto - "Canada's Team" quest for the Cup

[Bloody Brian Burke]

I mentioned players other than Bozak, I simply used Bozak as the example in my follow up because he was the first one I mentioned. If you'd prefer you can read my last post with Lupul's name and info instead of Bozak's, it really doesn't change the point.

What you seemingly keep forgetting in your Bozak/Grabovski comparison is that keeping Grabovski also would have kept an amnesty buyout. This buyout for instance could have been used on Liles. Instead the team traded Liles for a player on an even worse contract, and then bought out that contract using a regular buyout. Which they're gonna be paying for all through this rebuild.

And how did Liles get here lol

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

I mentioned players other than Bozak, I simply used Bozak as the example in my follow up because he was the first one I mentioned. If you'd prefer you can read my last post with Lupul's name and info instead of Bozak's, it really doesn't change the point.

Once again, why would Burke just give up on a key member of his core? It's fantasy. Fuck, the second he got to Calgary he re-upped Matt Stajan for 4 years lol. He makes $1 mil less than Bozak and he's scored as many points in 2 seasons combined as Bozak did this year.

The stupidity is strong in these people. I'd think that would be rather obvious by now.

 

[esls79]

I heard he won't leave SoCal. Familial stuff.

He doesn't want to leave solely for the fact he can go surfing pretty much every morning he wants here.

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

He doesn't want to leave solely for the fact he can go surfing pretty much every morning he wants here.

Fine by me. Of course being GM of the Leafs pretty much guarantees you a tripled salary, but money isn't everything I suppose.

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

I heard he won't leave SoCal. Familial stuff.

That should allow him to do just as well at the job as the last few guys, so I fail to see the issue there.

 

[dash]

He doesn't want to leave solely for the fact he can go surfing pretty much every morning he wants here.

If Torts can coach the Canucks from Point Roberts, Blake should be able to GM the Leafs from SoCal.

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

That should allow him to do just as well at the job as the last few guys, so I fail to see the issue there.

New direction, embracing fancy stats, etc etc.

Ah hell who am I kidding by the time the Leafs are in contention again I'll be in an old folks home.

 

[dash]

New direction, embracing fancy stats, etc etc.

Ah hell who am I kidding by the time the Leafs are in contention again I'll be in an old folks home.

An Argos bounce of a ping-pong ball could help turn things around on Saturday...

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

An Argos bounce of a ping-pong ball could help turn things around on Saturday...

I read the process. It's 4 ping pong balls that come out and form a pin code essentially, and the Leafs will have 93 pin codes assigned to them, Buffalo 200, Arizona 135 etc.

There's no fucking way we're winning this thing lol

 

[DragonfromTO]

That's awesome. How about all the terrible, god-awful, no fucking good moves Burke made prior to that? How about Mike Komisarek? Tim Connolly? Francois Beauchemin? Four years for Colton Orr? $5.5 million a year for Grabovski? How about trading Alex Steen (AND Carlo Colaiacovo) for fucking Stempniak? Trading Ponikarovsky for two nobodies? Trading Stralman for Wayne Primeau? $3 mil for Colby Armstrong, please! HE DRAFTED TYLER BIGGS IN THE FIRST ROUND! And that's all without mentioning the stupidity that was the Kessel trade.

Attack Nonis' tenure all you want, he's earned it, but if you're going to even think about defending Brian Burke's reign I can't take you seriously.

I was thinking this earlier and just got a chance to look it up and confirm... the bolded were Cliff Fletcher trades

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

I was thinking this earlier and just got a chance to look it up and confirm... the bolded were Cliff Fletcher trades

Anton Stralman was traded in the 2009 offseason. How was that a Fletcher trade when Burke had been there for almost a full year?

He gets a pass on Steen, but it happened five days before he was hired and for all we know he told Fletcher to pull the trigger. Even if not, can I substitute in picking up Martin Gerber for no effin reason other than to climb the draft board in a year that John Tavares, Victor Hedman and Matt Duchene headed the class? How about Tlusty for plug who never played a game here? Pavel Kubina (40 pts previous season) for Garnet Exelby (7 pts)? How about giving Ron Wilson a contract extension and firing him 3 months later?! HOW ABOUT HIRING RANDY CARLYLE?!

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

I could honestly write volumes about the dumb decisions made by Brian Burke's five years here. The subject material is endless.

 

[DragonfromTO]

Anton Stralman was traded in the 2009 offseason. How was that a Fletcher trade when Burke had been there for almost a full year?

He gets a pass on Steen, but it happened five days before he was hired and for all we know he told Fletcher to pull the trigger. Even if not, can I substitute in picking up Martin Gerber for no effin reason other than to climb the draft board in a year that John Tavares, Victor Hedman and Matt Duchene headed the class? How about Tlusty for plug who never played a game here? Pavel Kubina (40 pts previous season) for Garnet Exelby (7 pts)? How about giving Ron Wilson a contract extension and firing him 3 months later?! HOW ABOUT HIRING RANDY CARLYLE?!

Ah I see what happened... when I googled the Stempniak trade the first story that came up named Fletcher as the GM but was dated September 14, 2009 for some weird reason, so when I looked and saw that the Stralman trade was even earlier I assumed that was Fletcher too, rather than recognizing the date as being wrong on the first one. Hell I still can't figure out a reason why the date would be wrong, but it sure is. So sorry about that.

That being said the point being made was that Burke left this team in better shape (both capwise and teamwise) than Nonis did, not that Burke never made a mistake while here. And why bring up signing a coach to an extension and then firing him when they've both got that on their resumes? Cancels out nicely. I'm also not very clear on why a trade that happened while Fletcher was the GM and Burke wasn't with the organization would be blamed on Burke, while in the next post moves that happened while Nonis actually was the GM are blamed on Leiweke?

The Gerber thing is interesting, because while I was probably as pissed about it as you were it actually might have turned out not so badly in hindsight. Even if they'd lost every game that Gerber won they still wouldn't have picked higher than 4th, which means they probably would have ended up with Brayden Schenn instead of Kadri, not Tavares or Hedman. It's not smart to slide down in the draft obviously, but in hindsight it was probably a good thing. I wouldn't trade Kadri for Schenn, plus while we can't know for sure it seems like there's a decent chance that his brother would have been kept on the blue line too.

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

Ah I see what happened... when I googled the Stempniak trade the first story that came up named Fletcher as the GM but was dated September 14, 2009 for some weird reason, so when I looked and saw that the Stralman trade was even earlier I assumed that was Fletcher too, rather than recognizing the date as being wrong on the first one. Hell I still can't figure out a reason why the date would be wrong, but it sure is. So sorry about that.

It's cool. Even 5 years ago things weren't as cryptically documented as we do today thanks to Twitter etc.

That being said the point being made was that Burke left this team in better shape (both capwise and teamwise) than Nonis did, not that Burke never made a mistake while here. And why bring up signing a coach to an extension and then firing him when they've both got that on their resumes? Cancels out nicely. I'm also not very clear on why a trade that happened while Fletcher was the GM and Burke wasn't with the organization would be blamed on Burke, while in the next post moves that happened while Nonis actually was the GM are blamed on Leiweke?

I'm not arguing that the Leafs didn't fuck up the cap under Nonis, only that this team was in just as shitty a position in June 2013 as it is today even if they did make the playoffs. All the advanced stats pointed to regression and, while Nonis may have exacerbated it by letting certain guys go and signing dead weight for large amounts of currency, the fall was always inevitable even with the roster Burke left. As nice as making the playoffs was at the time, I was always a little cynical because the draft was deep and the roster was thin regardless. It was lipstick on a pig, and that pig was reared by Burke. If Burke had left even a remotely solid core behind it would've taken much more than signing David Clarkson and letting go of 2 third liners to plunge this team into the oblivion they currently find themselves in.

The Gerber thing is interesting, because while I was probably as pissed about it as you were it actually might have turned out not so badly in hindsight. Even if they'd lost every game that Gerber won they still wouldn't have picked higher than 4th, which means they probably would have ended up with Brayden Schenn instead of Kadri, not Tavares or Hedman. It's not smart to slide down in the draft obviously, but in hindsight it was probably a good thing. I wouldn't trade Kadri for Schenn, plus while we can't know for sure it seems like there's a decent chance that his brother would have been kept on the blue line too.

While Burke probably would've slugged from his flask of Screech and drafted Schenn like you said, he also could've taken OEL and the Leafs would have one of the best top pairings in the league.

 

[BGDave]

While Burke probably would've slugged from his flask of Screech and drafted Schenn like you said, he also could've taken OEL and the Leafs would have one of the best top pairings in the league.

OEL + Celine???

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

OEL + Celine???

Celine would've been on the second pair and hidden and he probably wouldn't start to cry when his wife tries to be intimate.

 

[BGDave]

Its not often I agree with anything written in the Toronto Star, but this one makes total sense

Kessel needs to be pushed, not pushed out: Feschuk | Toronto Star

 

[jstewismybastardson]

Toronto media NEED playoff hockey ... or Rob Ford ... or something

 

[BGDave]

Toronto media NEED playoff hockey ... or Rob Ford ... or something

Waiting for someone to superimpose Phil's head on Rocky Raccoon's picture. In 5, 4, 3, ...

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

Toronto media NEED playoff hockey ... or Rob Ford ... or something

This is like the tenth raccoon story this week. Earlier it was the city buying raccoon-proof green bins. Next week, we will announce that our new police chief is this guy: