Topic: The 2010 Toronto Maple Leafs

[MEAT]

I've got this game on atdhe.net and Biggest Loser on tv. 

Sounds to me like you're watching the same thing twice. 

[Jasonf6]

Sounds to me like you're watching the same thing twice. 

[Special J]

The best player on the Leafs payroll last night was Darcy Tucker.

Here's a stat someone passed on to me:  Mike Komisarek has been in the box alone six times in six games.  Opposition has scored on 5 of those chances.  Beauchemin was on the ice for all five.  Ouch.

[FV]

The best player on the Leafs payroll last night was Darcy Tucker.

 

[playertobenamedlater]

Wilson has to be worried about his job.

I thought that he was a horrible choice for coach when they announced the hiring, but I think he was brought in more to lure Burke there than anything. The team is clearly in a rebuilding stage, and he is absolutely not the right coach to guide a team through a rebuild. He is constantly calling his players out in the media for every little thing, which is not what a team with already shakey confidence needs. I think they should get rid of him, and bring in a Jacques Martin type, who is a great player development coach, and can introduce a system that will help the team win games that their talent level says they shouldn't win.

[Bytown_Brawler]

Don’t worry Leaf fans, this is just a piece of the puzzle in Gasbag Burke's master plan: don’t peak too early!!!

Gasbag Burke doesn’t have a clue! He signed 2 marginal defensemen as free agents, grossly overpaying for one (Komisarek) while another (Beauchemin) would be easier to find on a milk carton than on the ice. And how about the Kubina for Exelby trade? Exelby can’t even get in the lineup! A quarter of your forwards can’t contribute anything but fisticuffs. Worst of all, Gasbag Burke has gambled away your future (3 premium draft picks), plus grossly overpaid again, for a moody and selfish player who won’t put up anywhere near the numbers he did in Boston. Gasbag Burke has to be the most over-rated G.M. in the NHL. What did he really accomplish in Vancouver? The Canucks were and remained a middle of the league kind of team who could and would goon it up (Booootuzzi, May, etc) when Burke was G.M. there. Blowhard Burke them moves to Anahiem and inherits an up and coming team built by Bryan Murray (Getzlaf, Penner, Perry). As for Neidermayer, he took a $1M paycut from NJ to play with his brother – windbag Burke had nothing to do with that acquisition. And Pronger - he (his wife) wanted out of Edmonton and the Ducks were one of the teams on his (wife’s) short list – again any G.M. could make that deal. So, that Anaheim team goes on to win the Cup when he happened to be G.M. there.

Gasbag Burke has absolutely no history of building a winner. It’s obvious that Jurke has no clue on how to build a team from the ground up. Essentially, the Leafs are an expansion team - a collection of cast-offs, overpaid free agents, a few decent kids being overplayed or in the minors, and absolutely no depth. Most G.M.s would take the draft route to build an expansion team. But not Burke, he decides that he can add a few pieces (mostly goons) and trades away the most prized assets of an expansion team for a player better suited to a high powered offensive team. Windbag Burke is nothing more than a loud mouthed egomaniac who can (in his humble opinion) do no wrong and whose vision of a modern NHL contender is seriously out of date.

[moxie]

Speaking of gasbags...

[Special J]

Sorry. It was cruel. But true.

[FBK]

I feel bad for the leafs . They can't get things striaght. It has been this way since the lockout. Bad coach bad genrel manager. Bad trades. Now they even don't even have a captain!!!! How can a team play good without a captain. Espically when the coach and GM are shit. Who do they turn to?

[FV]

I think the lack of a captain is the least of their problems.  Lack of leadership maybe, but you shouldn't have to have a C on your jersey to be a leader.

[sensfan1984]

While I agree with some of those points, one thing Burke has done is make the most of the Maple Leafs name. He was able to sign many highly regarded college free agents, and also Gustavsson. His ability to sign them has allowed him to trade some picks.

He overpaid for Komisarek and brought in too many of the same types of players. His Kubina trade was just plain stupid. But, we can't really evaluate that Kessel trade at this point. We can't even evaluate that trade next year or the year after.

[moxie]

While I agree with some of those points, one thing Burke has done is make the most of the Maple Leafs name. He was able to sign many highly regarded college free agents, and also Gustavsson. His ability to sign them has allowed him to trade some picks.

He overpaid for Komisarek and brought in too many of the same types of players. His Kubina trade was just plain stupid. But, we can't really evaluate that Kessel trade at this point. We can't even evaluate that trade next year or the year after.

Yeah, that is the only consolation for me in the Kessel deal. He was able to supplement some picks for next year with a list of College FAs that should be able to produce at a relatively high level now. I still think I would have held onto my picks and kept expectations low for this season. The Kessel trade has got everyone thinking that he is trying to win the Cup this year. The expectations are not weighing on his roster very well thus far.

[moxie]

Rosehill finds a buyer for what he's selling

Son of auctioneer uses grit and determination to catch on with Leafs after long journey through minors.

TIM WHARNSBY HOCKEY REPORTER

Toronto Maple Leafs tough guy Jay Rosehill had two career paths to choose from when he was growing up in the small Central Alberta town of Olds, population 7,500.

He could have taken the easier route and gone into his father's auctioneer business, or he could have toughed it out and tried to become a pro hockey player.

"I thought about following my father [Dan] and becoming an auctioneer," said Rosehill, whose Leafs lost to the New York Rangers 7-2 at Madison Square Garden last night to remain winless this season.

"I was hoping my brother [Tyler] would take it over because it's a business that has been in our family since the early 1950s. My passion always has been hockey."

Rosehill Auction Service mainly deals with livestock, land and machinery public sales. If he was needed to fill in for his father or brother, Jay isn't confident he could step in.

"I don't think so," he said. "I know the basics. That's about it.

"Playing hockey is all I wanted to do growing up. It's been my No. 1 goal. I just thought if I would keep playing the game to my strengths, there would be a spot for me some place and I never let anything get in my way."

His patience and determination paid dividends this season, when six years after the Tampa Bay Lightning selected Rosehill in the seventh round (227th overall), he cracked his first NHL lineup. He phoned home to tell his father, who jumped on a plane and made it to his son's first game, against the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 1.

In Rosehill's third game of the season, the fourth-line left winger scored his first NHL goal for the Leafs in a 5-2 loss to the Stanley Cup champion Penguins at the Air Canada Centre last Saturday.

"You always want to win the game, first and foremost," the 24-year-old Rosehill said. "It was an important goal [to cut Pittsburgh's lead to 2-1 early in the second period]."

Toronto coach Ron Wilson likes the "fearlessness" that the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Rosehill exhibits on the ice. Rosehill also is quick to drop his gloves and fight, the type of player both Wilson and Leafs general manager Brian Burke want on their fourth line.

So far Rosehill has fought Canadiens forward Travis Moen and Pittsburgh's Mike Rupp.

This is the way Rosehill always has played the game, even when he was a defenceman lining up for the Olds Grizzlys of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. He was patrolling the blueline for the Grizzlys - his brother, Tyler, was a teammate - when the Lightning drafted him in 2003.

"I knew a few teams were interested in me, but I didn't know that Tampa was one of them," said Rosehill, who decided not to attend the draft in Nashville that summer. "I thought it was something for the studs who get taken in the first three rounds. I didn't want to sit around and wait until the end of the day."

Rosehill received a hockey scholarship to play at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, but left school after one season in 2005 at the suggestion of the Lightning and he wanted "to get on with his pro career."

But he toiled in the ECHL and the AHL for four seasons, until he received a break late last year. Leafs assistant general manager Jeff Jackson picked up Rosehill from the Norfolk Admirals for future considerations last March to fortify the Toronto Marlies' lineup for a run at a playoff spot.

Seven months later, the kid who grew up in the railway and agriculture town of Olds proved he chose the right career path after all.

[sensfan1984]

Interesting blog up on hockeybuzz

Is there a player revolt developing inside the Toronto dressing room against their Head Coach?
Very credible sources point towards this definitely being the case.
Say what you want about the players but when they stop playing for their coach it rarely ever works out well in the end.
GM Brian Burke finds himself in a very unenvious predicament.
I can’t imagine Burke dropping the bomb and firing his Head Coach less than ten games into the season. Not when you consider the two are a joined at the hip heading into the Olympics as the GM/Head Coach tandem for team USA.

Ron Wilson has a reputation of looking for revenge and hoping his former club fails when he’s relieved of his duties from a particular organization. If Wilson is let go, how will this affect his ability to work with Burke heading into the Olympic games?

The bottom line is Burke’s loyalty is and should be to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Everything involving USA hockey should come secondary at this time. Burke didn’t necessarily do his coach any big favors heading into the season. He did a nice job of taking care of his third and fourth lines but outside of adding Phil Kessel he did little to improve the club offensively. Even adding Kessel and handing him a long term deal worth $5 million per is considered very questionable by many around the league.
If the Leafs finish the season with the NHL’s worst record he’s going to have a whole lot of explaining to do considering Boston owns Toronto’s first round pick.

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Andy-Strickland/Players-Revolt-In-TorontoPerron-Off-PP/5/23663

[FV]

They are playing like Wilson has lost the room (if he ever had it).  Burke is giving him a vote of confidence now but we'll see how long that lasts.  Remember, Burke didn't hire Wilson.  He never has (except for Team USA maybe).

Fact is they played well against the Habs and should have won but didn't due to goaltending.  Against the Sens, it was a crappy game for both teams but the Leafs had a reasonable chance of winning, they just didn't.  The next 3 games against the Pens, Caps and suddenly hot Rangers I expected them to lose.  But man oh man I at least expected them to play like professionals and be competitive.  The killer was losing like that to Colorado.

I think right now a major issue is also Toskala.  I don't think he can take the pressure of playing in Toronto.  He looks scared poopless out there and in interviews seems freaked out.

OS hit the nail on the head a couple of weeks ago.  Not a direct quote but you can see the sphinters (sp?) get tighter as soon as the first easy goal goes in and then they're done.

[Special J]

Mike Van Ryn is done for the season. Knee surgery.

Man that guy just can't catch a break.

[FV]

Poor guy. 

[sensfan1984]

Mike Van Ryn is done for the season. Knee surgery.

Man that guy just can't catch a break.

Sources say Van Ryn is having an osteotomy, a procedure by which the bone is cut and the knee is realigned. That means Van Ryn is done for at least this season - the recovery time is a minimum of six months. This type of surgery is usually performed on the elderly.

Poor guy... Now they are saying it is a career threatening surgery.

[PHJ314]

Remember, Burke didn't hire Wilson.  He never has (except for Team USA maybe).

Ummm...I was under the impression....and maybe I'm the only person...that the whole Wilson hiring had everything to do with Burke being the GM(eventually).

I mean seriously....we all knew 6-8-12 months before hand who was going to replace Fletcher as GM. You don't think there was a little bit of 'tampering' going on?

[FV]

It looks that way but it's really speculation.

As for Van Ryn.  Leafs didn't end up with much for McCabe at the end of the day.