It’s no secret Burke likes tough guys, and likes physical team philosophies. So it come as no surprise that he went out and signed the toughest guy, pound for pound, in the NHL today. Colton Orr inked a 4 year $4mm deal yesterday. At 6′ 3″ and 220lbs, Orr will bring a presence to the ice that has been missing for several years. The guy is a heavyweight, and considering he has but 11 points in his 245 game NHL career, easy to see what his role will be.
Meanwhile, 27 year old Mike Komisarek bailed on the Habs and signed on with the Leafs, making Pavel Kubina expendable. Both were 6′ 4″ and 240lbs. Komisarek is 5 years younger than Kubina, who got shipped off to Thrashers with Tim Stapleton in exchange for Garnet Exelbry and Colin Stuart. Exelby is a 28 year old defenceman who at 6′ 1″ and 210 lbs makes Toronto a little bigger on the D should Kaberle wind up getting shipped out.
All in all, the Leafs are getting bigger and meaner.
Go Burke-sie Go!!!
Don Cherry really let fly on Leafs management last night. Both barrels aimed right at Wilson and Burke for the mixed messages about next year. Wilson saying next year’s team will be worse that this one, and Burke saying that making the playoffs next year is a realistic goal. Myself, I’m in a camp somewhere in between. I don’t think the team will be worse – I think it’ll be better – but I don’t think we’ll make the playoffs next year. year after that, yeah. next year, not so much.
I think Kaberle and Kubina will both be on the market – you might see one or both go on draft day. Jason Blake did ok this year but the feisty forward is small – not the way Burke like’s em, and very streaky. Toskala may start the season a Leaf but he’ll likely finish it somewher else.
So that’s it then. Golfing it is.
Some terrific playoff matchups coming down the pipe. I think we’ll see some surprises.
Adios. Catch up with you on the flip side.
Mike
Well, Vesa Toskala doesn’t have to worry about being challenged for the #1 spot next year by anyone currently warming the pine in Toronto. The goaltending has been horrendous. ==SIGH==
HORRENDOUS ==SIGH==
We’re 10th in the league in scoring, and 30th, DEAD LAST, for goals against. ==SIGH==
Mercifully, golf season starts this Saturday after the Leafs finish up against the Sens, with bouts against the Devils and Sabres between now and then. Then, another long summer. ==SIGH==
Some exciting playoff hockey coming down the pipes though, looking forward to that. It’ll be interesting to see what Burke does over the summer as well.
In any event, it’s been a real struggle keeping up with the blog this year. Tough getting motivated when your team does poorly. Ah. What it is to be a Leaf fan these days. No playoffs in 4 years. Noteworthy games few and far between. ==SIGH==
GO LEAFS ==SIGH== GO.
It could have happened last night had Montreal taken the extra point, but the Leafs are poised to be officially eliminated when Montreal next does anything but lose in regulation. The Leafs have 6 games left, the Habs 7. Not that there was any doubt they would be eliminated early this year – which is why this season was so much more entertaining than last season when expectations were different.
We knew going in this year that we weren’t playoff bound. No delusions of gandeur. Parade route planning put on the shelf. Leafs brass said it out loud. With Brian Burke and Ron Wilson poised to enter draft season looking to rebuild from the ground up – even golatending – next year promises to be just as entertaining. Perhaps it’ll come down to the last couple of games next year instead of being eliminated in March.
Cujo, on the other hand, has delusions of grandeur. Bless’im, it was nice to see him come back to the Leafs, but if he has designs on playing again next year, for us or anyone else, well, good luck with that. It’s over Cuj. Thanks Pal.
GOLFING LEAFS GOLFING!!!
Aside from mind-boggling tear these guys have been on in thelast 14 or so games, love what they did to the Montreal crowd last night. Montreal is mired just above the cutoff line for the playoffs with Florida hot on their trail. had the Panthers won last night Montreal would have fallen off the playoff radar. You have to wonder what Bob Gainey was thinking about , moving behind the bench himself like that. Highly respected, yes. Emotional and driven? Nah-uh.
Gerber has been holding his own. Guess he’s starting to get that European League feeling – you know, when the NHL has had enough of your losing ways and shuffles you off to some ==cough== elite league across the pond.
Jason Blake in the mean time is reborn. You can tell he’s fighting for a job. Burke does not like the little guys, so he’ll have to either produce big time, all the time, or move on. I’d be surprised, as much as he’s improved, if he’s here come next September. Go Blakey Go.
9 games left and we just hit the .500 mark. Ah me. Another long summer.
GO LEAFS GO.
There’s just no quit in this guy. I’d love to see the look on his face if someone suggested the team throw the rest of the season to get a better chance at Tavares. Lots of people hinting they should do just that, but no-one coming out and actually saying the words. Ican’t imagine Wilson being a violent man, but I could see him hauling off and giving someone a smack for saying something along those lines out loud.
MLSE have never been happy with Mik Antropov so it’s no wonder he’s gone. The guy has been in and out of the team infirmary since day 1. Both knees reconstructed. Hurt this injured that. Pretty tough waiting 6 years for a flower to bloom. Best pull it up and replant. And its also no shock Dominic Moore is gone. While he does play the fireplug role well Burke is well known for not particularly caring for the little guys. The league only has so much room for Doug Gilmour sized players. Burke likes’em big and likes’em mean.
Meanwhile, the goalie kerfuffle is in full swing in Toronto. Curious to see what they’re going to do with all these veteran goalies come July. I can’t imagine them resigning Gerber unless he’s willing to take a major pay cut. The Kolzig deal looks like, well, I don’t know what. A favour to Tampa? The guy is out for the season. Why? Also doesn’t look like Cujo will play next year. Classy guy that he is, more likely that he’ll take on a coaching or advisory position. His puck-stopping days are over. Pogge isn’t ready. Not for prime time anyway.
GO LEAFS GO
Well, we moved up to 8th place overall, which takes us out of the Tavares sweeps and pretty much below the cutoff for depth in this year’s draft, so unless Burke pulls some moves that’ll grab a higher place in the draft order, 2009 will not figure prominently in the Leafs’ new configuration plans.
Kinda cool they gave Cujo the start last night, though the first thing out of my mouth when I saw they were playing him was how we were going to be tossed for 2 points in Ottawa. Four wins in a row, 6 consecutive OT games, who the hell are these guys?
Never let the Toronto maple Leafs be accused of throwing games to sweetne their draft order. These boys are playing for pride because nobody thinks they can win.
Burke is as cagey as they get at trade deadlines. He’s been playing down Kaberle as a movable asset. Smart. Pump up his price and be happy if he stays because his contract makes sense. Not too many reasonably priced, puck moving stay at home defencemen out there. They’re the kind of asset you covet, not shead. That said, if they can get something for him that’ll pan out in the future and something that’ll help right now, Burke will probably deal him. I’m thinking Boston, who look cup bound. Of course, the more logical move would be to hang onto him and deal him on the draft floor. Kaberle has 5 or 6 more years of great hockey left in him and his price likely won’t go up by much in the back end of those years.
It’ll be interesting to see what Burke does this week.
GO LEAFS GO
Now there’s a headline.
Quivering lower lip. Standing ovation. A triumpant, classy return. At the other end of the spectrum, a Leaf squad that gave no quarter and played well for 65 minutes and in the end faltered as the big swede swooped in and scored a goal like so many others he netted while a Leaf. A fitting end then to a brilliant career that was hobbled only by the team placed around him. No cup. No trophies. No individual awards. Records and star player could have achieved on just about any team. A 6 month absence. Then a return to a ho-hum team that may or may not do much from now until May.
I said in an article that Sundin needed to leave and not let the door hit his ass on the way out.
He heard the first part.
The second part surely hurt.
Just when you thought the Leafs were sinking fast, you have a look at the stats and see that they’ve gotten points in 7 of their last 10 games. 11 points out of 20. A shade better than 500 hockey technically. The most telling sign of the woes in Leaf Nation is the 206 goals against, versus 171 for.
We have a goaltender problem.
Even Burke weighed in over the last week, calling Toskala out to be better. Join the chorus. It looks like the only way Toskala is going to be better is if he’s wearing a different coloured jersey. Don Cherry pointed out that its not hard for a good goaltender to look bad when he gets hung out to dry. he even showed a couple of replays that showed Toskala virtually alone, with no defenders anywhere close enough to help him out.
==SIGH==
And they say things will get worse before they get better.
So what’s up with Pittsburgh? Only half the team showed up against the Leafs. They looked totally indifferent to what was going on in the game. You have to think there’s going to be changes going on in that camp soon enough. Their coach is in grave danger. The pulled the trigger in Ottawa and are starting to see some results. How long befre that happens in “The Other Steeltown”.
GO LEAFS GO!!!
It’s ON!
There’s a serious lack of respect between Montreal and Toronto these days, and I would think it was sparked by the equally plummeting positions in the hockey standing of both teams – Montreal a juggernaut fallen on hard times and Toronto a team whose struggles in the short term have leafs fans on the brink of suicide. With the team on the verge of being blown up at the foundation to make room for the next latest and greatest incarnation, the Leafs look like a desperate team day in and day out. Slagged by fans and creamed by the press. day in. day out.
Montreal in the mean time has a string of L’s in their wake worthy of the freefallin’ Leafs – just 3 wins in their last 10 games. Florida and Pittsburgh can both catch them in the standings. Toronto – well, not so much.
So as long as the Leafs are looking back at last night as a redemption game, so too can they look forward to taking some solace in Florida on Tuesday. maybe give that pesky Bryan McCabe a ding or two. And with the Lightning and Penguins on deck, a nudge up the standings couldn’t hurt unless you still really think Tavares has a chance of becoming a Maple leaf any time soon.
GO LEAFS GO!!!
The Leafs | Mike Robinson | 
July 2, 2009 11:02 am | 
Comments (0) 
fave this site!