Brian Burke longs for Vancouver, while Tyler Bozak is proving us right.
A week ago, when fans booed Dion Phaneuf, Brian Burke opined, "Frankly, I think it’s a disgrace."
Now fans and media are beginning to call for coach Ron Wilson’s head after losing eight of nine games, and Burke — ever the traffic cop — is instructing Leafs Nation to divert their angst to the roster. This week it’s the players’ fault.
"It’s a very bizarre twist to this market place that when players play poorly, the coach gets hollered at. This is new for me," the GM said. "In Vancouver when the players played poorly, the players got blasted, so I’m perplexed by this."
Ah, Vancouver. Everything was better in Vancouver, where they NEVER wanted to fire a coach during a disappointing season (right Alain?); where fans ALWAYS have patience for $6.5 million defencemen with a tendency for lethal giveaways in their own zone.
You want irony? Here is the most pertinent comparison between Burke’s work in Vancouver and his work in Toronto: In good ol’ Vancouver, Burke used his prodigious wheeling and dealing skills to draft both of the Sedin twins, who have developed into the core of a Stanley Cup contender. He also drafted Ryan Kesler and Kevin Bieksa, and a month after he was fired his scouts selected Alex Edler and Cory Schneider.
In Toronto, however, he’s trading away most of his prime picks.
Burke was the one who promised a rebuild on fast forward. He was the one who said he wasn’t going to wait around and do it the traditional way.
Now, we’re into Year 3 and Leafs fans are looking at Toronto, then looking at Chicago. Looking at Toronto, then looking at Los Angeles. Looking at Toronto, then looking at Edmonton…
Of course, fans in Vancouver would never do that.
Jesse Glumsden
Under the category of, "Sometimes Life Just Isn’t Fair," Jesse Lumsden tore his ACL in the final, meaningless game of the Calgary Stampeders’ season.
That’s three games and out in his latest comeback attempt, after blowing out his shoulder in the first quarter of his first game as an Edmonton Eskimo the season before. It’s hard to believe that this hard-luck soul will come back to the game that he appeared so likely to dominate coming out of university.
Talk hockey Tuesday: Spec stops by Tuesday at 1pm ET to talk Burke, perplexity, Raffi Torres and all things hockey. | Submit a questionHow can such a physical specimen on the outside be so fragile on the inside? If we knew anything about science, we would say Lumsden’s body defies it.
Let’s just hope he can rehab that knee and be allowed to enjoy the remainder of what could be a successful bobsleigh career. He at least deserves that.
Losing Pretty
In Edmonton they’re calling it, "Exciting Last Place Hockey." The theory being that the Oilers have given their fans their money’s worth almost every night this season, yet the fact they’re losing a lot of close games means they’re lining up nicely for another Top 5 draft pick.
The problem? With the way this club can come back on teams in the second and third period, once they learn to play the first 20, they might just lose that lottery pick.
And down on the farm, Linus Omark just had a five-goal night on the weekend. He’s the Youtube guy from Sweden who has incredible offensive skills. Oh, he scored in the shootout as well.
"On my 10th birthday I got 18 (goals)," he said to reporters in Oklahoma City after the game.
Omark has 10-7-17 in 15 games this season. The last five-goal effort in the AHL? Jiri Tlusty, then a Leafs prospect, had five in February of ’09.
Dying On The Line
We took a lot of heat a month ago from Leafs fans when we mentioned that Tyler Bozak simply did not have the resume to qualify as a first-line centre in the National Hockey League.
"He is a good player — a nice free agent find by the Leafs — who is absolutely unprepared to deliver as a No. 1 centre on a below average team in the National Hockey League," we wrote. "Talk about setting a youngster up to fail."
So far, the line of Bozak between Phil Kessel and Kris Versteeg has 10 even-strength points in 13 games thus far. Bozak, graced with the Maple Leafs’ best two wingers, has three assists on the season, and the Leafs are tied for 29th in per-game average scoring.
Bozak doesn’t have an assist in nine games. We’re betting his confidence is taking a beating, not the way to break in a kid who is supposed to be part of your team’s future.
Talk hockey Tuesday: Spec stops by Tuesday at 1pm ET to talk Burke, perplexity, Raffi Torres and all things hockey. | Submit a question