Things That Make Me Go Hmmmmmmm

Hey folks, why, do you think the good folks over at the Toronto Star Changed the headline of Damien’s article last night? When I went to bed last night, and woke up this am the Headline was “Burke Likely Would Have Sent Schenn Down”. An odd title given there was one line in the story where Damien actually only guessed that to be true. There was nothing in the story to suggest that was true…only a suggestion. Now, the headline reads “Schenn a ray of hope amid all the gloom” EXCUSE ME????????? Are you kidding me. How stupid do you think your readers are (and no this isn’t directed at Damien) This changes the entire tone of the article! What was the intent here and why are you trying to mislead or taint the opinions of your readers. The story last night was clearly a negative shot… That’s ok, Damien is entitled to his opinion. Now it has a positive spin to it?: Give me a break…..Why the sudden change?

I am really curious folks, if the All-Star Game weren’t played, would anyone care? No really, forget the folks in Montreal (just for a second, not to be cruel), if the game wasn’t happening, and instead there was just a weekend off, would you care? Would you miss the festivities? I for one wouldn’t. If you want to do away with it, I have no objection. Please don’t replace with a world cup of hockey as some have suggested. A break is a good idea. Why do we need a diversion. I for one like a pause. It’s good for everyone. It’s good for the trainers, the equipment guys, the officials, the media, the players, their families….and the fans. The game is quite bizarre when you think about it. Rather Seinfeldian, it’s a game about nothing. There is no real winner, no real loser, it’s not a real hockey game. It’s not for the benefit of the fans. It’s not for the benefit of the players. This whole, or the benefit of the sponsors is a little twisted. If I were a sponsor I would rather be wooed, wined and dined at the Stanley Cup finals. So the question is, would you miss it? If there was no hockey this weekend and things started up again on Monday, would that be a bad thing?

Pre-Airwaves Post

A happy Sunday morning to all of you. Here are some random thoughts before taking to the airwaves on The Sunday Showcase on 740 AM here in the GTA at 11:30:

Howie and I disagree on one more thing, fashion. I was yapping at LT at how ugly the Flyers jersey was, way too florescent for me. Howie said it was his favorite of all the third jerseys. I realize this is biased, the Leafs jersey that has the old style maple leaf is my favorite. Followed by the Pens blue one.

Nice move by Lou and the Devils to ink Brendan Shanahan. He is happy being the New York area and may still have something left in the tank. Time will tell if it was a good move.

Anyone have a tape of hockeycentral from last night. I hear there was another near dust-up between Nick Kypreos and Bill Watters. An emailer sent me this account:

Kypreos: Hartsburg has worst body language I’ve ever seen in a coach, calls out his star players, Eugene – do something!

Watters: Hold it, Nick, HOLD IT….You can say what u want about Hartsburg, but he is as fine a young man as I’ve known..

Kypreos: So what, Bill….

Watters: And he’s a better coach than you’ve ever had!

Kypreos: Really????? (getting right pissed)

Watters: Yes, that’s true!

Kypreos: He is a Junior A coach….He is a Junior A coach..

Watters: NO HE ISN’T! NO HE ISN’T! He is an NHL COACH!

Kypreos: He isn’t. He’s proven that.

Watters: Do you think he’d call you a Junior A Player (screaming)??? You couldn’t carry his jockstrap!!!!!

Kypreos: Well….(then just sits there steaming…)

Honestly — Kypreos just looked like he’d gotten kicked in the balls.”

Here’s hoping someone out there has it so I can post it.

You know- us leaf fans and the franchise itself just can’t win. When the team was winning, Cliff did a lousy job because the team was performing too well. When they are losing the sky is falling. It’s no wonder someone hasn’t started a site devoted to bashing the media in this town 🙂

“The Maple Leafs continue to rediscover their backbone, but victories, well, that’s a different matter.” That from Paul Hunter in today’s Star. The undertone is blatent. What happened to the leafs need to tank sentiment? I mean as an old boss loved to say, you can’t suck and blow at the same time. The media just can’t have it both ways. I didn’t see the game last night, but for the opening 5-7 minutes. From all accounts it was the game we as fans should hope for every night. The boys played hard, really hard. A strong effort especially in the physical department and they lost. Isn’t that what we want from this team this year? Compete hard yet not enough to advance in the standings. The best part is the players we want to move are all playing reasonably well, therefore hopefully raising their respective values. Let’s hope they don’t peak too early or get hurt.

Love the bit in Ottawa Sun today that Brian Burke won’t be afraid to trade with the Habs or Sens…Man would #55 look great in white, red and black!

Type at you after the show

New TSM Feature & Worst Article of the new year!

I once ran a poll asking people to rate the best of the Toronto dailies. In my opinion there is no contest. The Globe is eon’s ahead of the others. Next comes the Star, followed by the Post and the Sun.

The Globe has Eric Duhatschek, Jeff Blair, Stephen Brunt, Tim Wharnsby, David Shoalts, David Naylor, Michael Grange and William Houston (others too)
The Star has Damien Cox, Richard Griffin, Dave Feschuk, Doug Smith, Mark Zwolinski, Chris Zelkovich and Dave Perkins(others too)
The National Post has Bruce Arthur, Michael Traikos,Jeremy Sandler, Sean Fitz-Gerald, Joe O’Connor, Allen Panzeri and a host of Can West and other Writers.
The Sun has Steve Simmons, Mike Zeisberger, Lance Horby, Ken Fidlin, Terry Koshan, Rob Longley, Alison Korn, Bob Elliott, Bill Lankhoff, Gary Lowen, Steve Buffery, Bruce Garrioch(kind of)

Apologies to anyone I forgot. On the basis of quality of reporting I stand by rankings.

Having said that, I can’t say enough times how far the sun has slipped. Growing up there was no post and the Globe sports section sucked. The Sun was numero uno followed by the Star. Today, I enjoy reading most of the guys at the Globe. I think Blair has become numero uno (as a general columnist). At the Star, love him or hate him Damien is the man there. Griffin’s blog is better then his work on the paper. Smith is better on the radio then in print. Zelkovich was better when he covered the media. At the post it isn’t necessarily the names but the steady content. Arthur is good, and they get so many other guest columns that there is always something to read. In the sun, they have 2 guys who are readable, Simmons and Elliott. Terry Koshan and Lance are ok, and Garrioch is more entertaining and isn’t a Toronto writer. Longley was a better media writer too. The others?????

Today, we honor the worst of them all. I have been scratching my head for a long time wondering how this guy gets to write for a real paper. Today’s article is just a perfect example of how bad he is. Drum roll please…. Gary Lowen. Did anyone read the piece he wrote today? It is total, 100% crap (in my opinion of course).

“A big fuss has been made over the Maple Leafs acquiring Brad May, a 37-year-old winger from the Anaheim Ducks, in exchange for a draft pick.

But, let’s be honest, at this stage in his career he’s strictly Brad December.

And either way, the Leafs won’t play in May.”

Are you kidding me???? This is in a REAL newspaper, not a high school one right?

“Indianapolis Colts star Marvin Harrison’s gun was smoking, but who pulled the trigger?

Investigators have conflicting witness accounts of a shooting in Philadelphia in April, which left one man wounded.

Let’s go to our Clue game to solve this one: It was Plaxico Burress, with Marvin Harrison’s revolver, at the car wash.”

Is that supposed to be funny?

“You know that Jamario has to be over the Moon.

Moon has left the Raptors to be with his wife, Tamara, who has given birth to their first child, a daughter.

Wonder if they’ll give the baby a cool name, like, oh, maybe, Jamaria?

Guess the name Warren is out”

I am not making this up- this is in today’s Toronto Sun!!!!!

“The Philadelphia Phillies have agreed to terms with two pitchers, left-hander Antonio Bastardo and right-hander Yorman Bazardo.

Doesn’t sound like the kind of guys you want to meet in a dark bullpen.”

How does this guy have a job as a writer?????

This is the start of a new feature here on TSM where we will have a weekly (right LT?) Media power ratings- who was hot, cold, up and down in the media.

Tomorrow we feature Radio personalities- feel free to submit any thoughts ahead of time….

If you really want to read more of Lowen’s trash you can read it here….

Perspective on the Burke Era

That didn’t take long did it? Paul Hunter and the brains at the headline writing desk at the Star did some homework and actually spend some time researching Brian Burke’s draft history while at the helm of the Vancouver Canucks. As the old latin saying Res ipsa loquitur goes, his record speaks for itself:

“Burke’s ‘Nucks made 18 picks over two drafts in 2000 and 2002 and came up with exactly zero players who proved to be legitimate prospects. Those 18 players went on to combine for a mere 31 NHL games over their careers. Heck, Carlo Colaiacovo plays almost that many in one season.”

Let’s get a few things clear right from the get go. He owns that distinction. He was the GM, they were his picks and he takes the blame. Having said that we all know the difficulty in grading the NHL draft, unlike the NBA or NFL the NHL draft is a total crapshoot. Also, most GM’s don’t see much of the players being picked, they rely on their staffs. The one thing everyone has said about Burke is that he allows his people to do their jobs. Remember though the buck stops at the GM’s desk.

“Burke’s draft day work hasn’t been all terrible. While he hasn’t historically done well at mining the depths of the draft – those later rounds when some teams unearth gems – the new Leaf GM has shown himself to be a master of aggressively working the draft floor to get a prospect he covets. While with Hartford in 1993, he and his staff identified gangly defenceman Chris Pronger as that year’s must-have junior. With a sixth-round pick, however, Burke realized he didn’t have a chance at the impressive Peterborough Petes’ product. So Burke traded his top three picks along with future considerations (Sergei Makarov) to San Jose to move up into the two hole and grab Pronger. Despite not picking again until 72nd after that trade, Burke had perhaps his best draft, following the selection of Pronger by drafting Marek Malik, Nolan Pratt and Manny Legace.”

Funny how that type of analysis goes near the bottom of the story… Must be those damn headline writers at the Star again….

“Burke pulled off a similar coup in 1999 when, determined to keep the Swedish Sedin twins together with Vancouver, he worked the draft floor like he was playing a game of chess. He had the third pick overall but completed three separate deals – one that had him briefly holding the No. 1 pick – until he had the second and third selections, which he used to get the twins. Apparently spent by those machinations, they were the only two future NHLers the Canucks would draft that spring.”

The reality is there are but two ways of looking at the world The cup is either half empty or half full. As the Burke era begins, each of us will have to decide which way we go with respect to the Brian Burke era. I don’t think anyone should look at any one of his last positions as that much of an indicator of his future performance. Each job presents its own scenario, complete with their own challenges and goals. I would think that coming to the Leafs as Burke does know presents the artist with as clean a canvas as a GM could want. The current roster isn’t perfect or even very good (if it were would Burke be coming?) so I am sure the one thing that would make the job more ideal is there were a few more A level prospects. other then that what more could a GM want? All the resources he could ever want. He will be able to hire whom he wants, add scouts, coaches etc. Make whatever deals he wants. Buy out whichever Blakes he wants, I mean players. A starving fan base that will tread on every move, every step he takes. The guy has landed in hockey heaven. The only downside is having to deal with the dipsticks in the toronto media he will have to deal with on a regular basis.

Toronto Star Headline Pathetic

Anyone catch the headline in today’s Toronto Star????

Although it doesn’t show online, the headline reads:

Canada’s Version of Barack Obama?

Underneath is a picture of……

you ready for this????

Pinball Clemons!!!!!

What a joke, an insult, a total embarassment!  Besides being african american, they have nothing else in common.  Does the Star have no sense whatsoever???  I don’t care what the story says (http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/524815) or that Clemons himself has claimed to have no interest in politics, the headline says it all…STUPIDITY

The editors should be ashamed of themselves

Damien Cox – The Toronto Maple Leafs May Get It Right?

Wow…has hell really frozen over. Mister Toronto negative has written an article in which he actually suggests brighter days may be ahead.
Don’t be fooled fellow Torontonians it is not a rah rah article. Cox does however rightfully acknowledge that by cutting Darcy Tucker, Mats Sundin, Andrew Raycroft, Kyle Wellwood the world will not come to an end.
“But it really doesn’t matter what any of these players do in their post-Leaf career. None were going to help the team in the immediate future, with a very difficult 2008-09 season looming, and with their no question any longer this is a major rebuild.”

That as close to a compliment as Cox will ever give.

I for one wholehardedly agree with his last assertion: “Would the Leafs pitch for Marian Hossa to replace Sundin as the team’s franchise player?

Or will this club do the smart thing, suffered through a difficult season next year, pick very high in the ’09 draft and really try to build something that lasts?”

Lets hope it’s the latter.

The article can be found here http://thestar.blogs.com/thespin/2008/06/breaking-up-the.html