Good article in the T.O Sun the other day.Highlights Burke's mismanagement.Keep in mind,this article was wrote by Steve Simmons,who is barred from interviewing the Leafs by Burke because of past articles.Nonetheless I think he hits the nail on the head.
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/02/29/no ... nder+Burke
If on Nov. 29, 2008, anyone had suggested the Maple Leafs would continue on a path to nowhere, they would have been laughed at on the day Brian Burke was hired to change everything.
There was so much optimism then. There was so much to believe in. It wasn’t just Burke taking over a franchise in need of vision and destination, it was everything he promised. It was how he spoke with such confidence, coming off a Stanley Cup in Anaheim and a strong, contending team in Vancouver. It was how the Maple Leafs, after years of doing things wrong, were finally going to build an organization around Burke, the right way, just as the Red Wings did.
And when Ken Holland showed no interest in leaving Detroit for Toronto after being quietly and unofficially approached, Leafs ownership was thrilled to have Burke, expensive as he might have been, to turn the keys and full control over to.
Burke made it clear from his first day on the job that he was too impatient to rebuild. There would be no five-year plans. He would be aggressive in the trade market, aggressive in free agency. He wasn’t one to sit around and wait.
So here we are: After 288 games with Burke as president and general manager, in a dubious place once again, with not one of those games being in the post-season. The past four seasons have been entertaining, mostly because the general manager is always one rant, one speech, one verbal assault, one press conference away from being the lead item on the news on any given day. Never has a team or its general manager made more news for having less success. It is forever loud around the Leafs: But what’s startling and troubling and head-scratching after four seasons of Burke in Toronto is how much he sold, and how little he has actually delivered on his promises. Were he a politician and standing for re-election, Burke would have great difficulty defending his record.
He said on Day 1 — and has reiterated numerous times — that he builds his teams from the “back end out.” That, if you read the standings, is the key to success for most NHL teams.
But that hasn’t been the Leafs way in four seasons of Burke. Cumulatively, the Leafs have allowed more goals against in his time in Toronto than any other team in the Eastern Conference. The Leafs are last in goals against in the East this season. They were last in Burke’s first two years on the job and vaulted to 13th in the conference last season.
For half a season in Burke’s time here — the first run of James Reimer — the Leafs have had competent goaltending. The rest of the time? Spotty. For a team looking to build from the “back end out” they had yet to identify a dependable goaltender, which has been a constant of sorts in Burke’s career. And all that has happened with Burke’s chosen goaltender guru, Francois Allaire, in charge of the netminders.
Just as he did in Anaheim, Burke replaced almost an entire defence in a short time with the Leafs, bringing in Dion Phaneuf, Mike Komisarek, Francois Beauchemin (for a short time), John-Michael Liles, Jake Gardiner, Cody Franson, Keith Aulie and elevating Carl Gunnarrson to join holdover Luke Schenn on the blueline. He would brashly tell anyone he had as deep a defence as anyone in hockey. Deep, yes. Successful, no. Burke won a Stanley Cup with Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer playing the majority of minutes in Anaheim. What he has discovered in Toronto is he has no one close to those all-timers here.
When he was first hired, Burke was adamant he had no time for a rebuild or a five-year plan. His impatience led to the controversial trading for Phil Kessel, which has been an excellent short-term addition for the Leafs. Kessel is clearly the Maple Leafs’ best forward and has made his way into the top 10 in league scoring this season. That was the gain. The loss was the draft picks that turned out to be young centre, Tyler Seguin, Team Canada defenceman Dougie Hamilton and prospect Jared Knight. The Leafs have 94 goals from Kessel in three seasons, this one not yet complete. The Bruins have 31 goals, a Stanley Cup and some future to show for the deal.
But as for not having time for a five-year rebuild, next year will be Burke’s fifth season in Toronto. He has yet to deliver a playoff game, even in this season where it appeared so easily attainable, and there is no certainty one will come next year.
Burke himself would have scoffed at any thought that it would take this long to not contend, to just be an eighth-place team. But the reality is, it has taken this long. And next season is Year 5 of the five-year plan he had no patience for.
Burke vowed from his first day on the job that the Leafs would become a tough team, his favourite word being truculence. His teams, as he likes to say, were always difficult to play against. And after signing free agent Colton Orr, he would often say how much harder it was to play against his team now that Orr was here. That was his belief.
It wasn’t lasting. The Leafs are almost the opposite in nature of the type of team Burke wanted. Orr, who ran out of time and place with the Leafs, was dispatched to the minors and emotionally that was hard on the general manager. It was a defeat of philosophy and loyalty. The signing of Colby Armstrong was supposed to bring a certain tenacity with it. But between injuries and ineffectiveness, Armstrong has proven to be just another poor free-agent signing, one of many poor free-agent signings by Burke.
When successful this season, the team that coach Ron Wilson iced got by on speed, finesse and offensive bursts from Kessel, Joffrey Lupul, Gardiner and Mikhail Grabovski, those who can change a game.
The Leafs can’t out-tough anyone. They don’t have the people to play Burke’s game, if that game still exists. It isn’t their nature.
Before coming to Toronto, Burke’s teams in Vancouver, Anaheim and Hartford had won 76 more games than they’d lost. His record, except in Hartford, where he wasn’t there long enough, was that he made teams better. His work on the Sedin twins set up the Canucks for years of success. His manipulations to get Pronger and Niedermayer to Anaheim brought a Cup to the Ducks. But the fine additions of Kessel, Lupul, Phaneuf and Gardiner have not accomplished the same in Toronto.
The Leafs played their 288th game under Burke in Chicago on Wednesday night: Entering that game, they had won 123. In the new three-point world of the NHL, the Leafs have managed 287 points in Burke’s first 287 games. That’ s an 82-point pace — good enough most years to contend for a 10th pick in the draft, but not much else.
In his early years on the job, Burke spoke often about Blue and White disease, about a sense of entitlement that failed the franchise, about ridding the team of that troubled entity. But what’s happened? He has become something of a poster boy for Blue and White disease, louder than he should be considering how little success he’s attained. The undeserved contract extension granted to coach Wilson was as much about entitlement as anything else. It was pure Blue and White.
And his recent barb about the trade deadline pressure sending his club to oblivion was little more than protecting the same kind of players he scorned privately and publicly upon being hired here.
It is clear now the coach will be changed going forward and maybe with it the team and the culture will change also. But for Brian Burke and his “time is now” approach, his time has yet to come. Four years are gone. How many more before Toronto plays a post-season game?
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Winnipeg have a shit road record and most of their games are away from home so I think they are out of it. Outside of the current top 8 in the east, I reckon Buffalo have the best chance of making it, but truth be told I think the top 8 will stay the same until the end of the season. I hope so anyway for Florida's sake!
