The use of shame as a motivating tool is an old tactic usually called upon after all else fails.
I’m not at all bothered or surprised by the fact that Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke and coach Ron Wilson recently called out Vesa Toskala.
Same goes for Burke’s most recent shot across the chin of Nik Antropov.
Let’s deal with Toskala first.
I’ll point to a column posted on this site back on Dec. 2. In that piece I pointed out that on most nights Toskala was the best player on the ice, but on too many other occasions, he’s a far cry from that and if the Leafs are ever to be good at anything besides talking a good game, goaltending has to be Burke’s No.1 issue.
Now to be fair, Burke couldn’t have known that at the time. He had pretty much just showed up as the team’s newest GM and still hadn’t learned how to dial the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment phones, let alone find the need to start working them for a goaltender.
But in the weeks and now months that have passed, Burke has seen first-hand what he has in net and he knows, as does his coach, that if the Leafs are to ever get better they basically have two options: find a better goalie than Toskala (tough task even in the best of times) or at least try to get him to play to his considerable ability on a more consistent basis.
The recent call-out by Burke (first on Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown and me just prior to the Conn Smythe Dinner in Toronto and then at the dinner itself), was simply the first step. And if somehow the goalie doesn’t listen to the radio or read media reports, his coach, Wilson, did the appropriate and predictable follow-up.
Plenty of people seem bothered by that, pointing out that among the many indefensible "codes" in hockey, those things are supposed to be done behind closed doors. Others argue that it deflates a player’s trade value.
Reality check No.1: The behind-closed-doors thing has been done: done to death.
Reality check No. 2: Hey, get with the new world of hockey. Players have long-term contracts, they can’t be sent to the minors without a note from their agent and the old trick of withholding playing time, and especially when there is nothing on the bench or even in the organization that represents a threat to Toskala clearly wasn’t an option.
And No.3: Do you think there’s an NHL GM worth a doughnut hole who doesn’t have an up-to-date book on every goalie in and out of the NHL?
Thus, Burke and Wilson did the one thing they could do: they used the one technique many of the more enlightened coaches around the league have been using for several seasons now: they called the player out in public.
If you think this is news, you’ve been watching too much Saturday night TV. Coaches now do this all the time. Take a look at Lindy Ruff in Buffalo, who on different occasions this season has called out No. 1 centre Derek Roy, No. 1 goalie Ryan Miller and veteran forward Jochen Hecht.
Ruff, in only slightly tempered words this season, pretty much told media Miller needed to get his head out of an area generally referred to as a three-letter word for mule. He threatened Roy and Hecht, by name, with benching and followed through on similar threats to Daniel Paille, Max Afinogenov (before he was injured) and seemingly half his defence. Last season he repeatedly benched Tomas Vanek (then, as now, his leading goal scorer) and at the end of last season he publicly stated that Vanek’s "blame me" statement regarding missing the playoffs was "self serving."
Ruff is not alone.
All across the league, coaches are using embarrassment as a form of motivation. Benching or outright banishing to the press box is usually the first step. If that’s been done or is not an option (as in the case of Toskala or in another case, half the Edmonton Oilers roster) public chastising is your typical Plan B.
Edmonton’s Craig MacTavish has done it countless times. Mike Keenan could lay claim to inventing it had he not learned if from Scott Bowman. Montreal’s Guy Carbonneau has done it repeatedly this season. John Tortorella was famous for it back in Tampa and would surely be doing it again if a general manger with a losing team had the courage to hire him.
In truth what Burke and Wilson have done here is give Toskala everything he deserves.
You can argue, because of his sometimes excellent play, that he deserved at least a warning that if he can’t or won’t play better he is officially on notice as being expendable. He’s had those warnings before, but you can’t deny he’s been more consistent since the public blast.
Great goaltending is hard to find and even harder to obtain. In calling out Toskala, the general manager and the coach have let him know, in no uncertain terms, that if he’s that kind of goaltender, prove it. Prove it and stay a Leaf for as long as he’s capable of playing at a high level.
They’ve also made it abundantly clear that if they continue to lose they can do it with anyone and no amount of money or wasted draft picks is going to guarantee that they lose with Toskala in net. They will accept a loss if the goalie plays his best and it just doesn’t happen, but they will not accept a goalie who gives something less.
In our interview with Burke last week on Prime Time, he made a point of singling out Toskala’s save percentage. Burke detested it in February and Burke and Wilson made a point of noting they believe it’s not because of the way the team in front of Toskala is playing, but the way Toskala’s seemingly poor practice habits are leaching into the way he plays.
They aren’t wrong. The numbers bear that out and now they’ve put the pressure squarely on the one person who can do something about it.
What Burke and Wilson want to see is if Toskala’s improved play since is just a short-term reaction to the public embarrassment and whether their goalie of the present has the dedication to also be their goalie of the future.
On Monday, Antropov got put to the same test.
Everyone knows what kind of talents these men have. From this point forward they either show them on a consistent basis or they move on.
The decision is theirs.
Burke and Wilson are just letting the rest of us know it.
They are not alone in the way they’ve gone about it.