Leafs bloggers have a long and illustrious history of tearing apart the terribly written arguments by journalists covering the Toronto Maple Leafs. There is Cox Bloc, the Negative Nancy Notebook, and a multitude of posts, comments, and tweets filled with disdain for lazy articles written by paid "professionals". Here is yet another such post about another such article.

Leafs Fans Now Chant 'Fire Burke' - Jeff Blair at the usually fantastic Globe and Mail

Now, I read the whole article and it's pretty much crap full of baseless opinion, hearsay, and guess work. I don't have the time nor the inclination to tear it apart line by line, but the first paragraph is just too awful to let slide.

He has no goaltender,....

He's got the first part right, this team has no 'starting' goaltender. It's got an average-ish backup in James Reimer and an AHL scrub in Jonas Gustavsson. Throughout his many tenures, Burke has shown time and again that he is near incompetent when it comes to assessing his teams' goaltending and the Leafs are merely the latest example of that.

More after the jump.

his leading scorer is a milquetoast, Tom Thumb guy who shrinks even further in front of the cameras....

This is a problem why? Because Phil Kessel feels uncomfortable surrounding by cameras and journalists shoving microphones in his face asking for lip service? Phil Kessel isn't on this team to give good sound bites, be a leader in the locker room, or be the face of the franchise. Phil Kessel, much like Adam Banks, just wants to play hockey and he's pretty damn good at. And really, picking on a guy for his social anxiety? From Wiki:

According to the US National Comorbidity Survey, social anxiety is the number one most common anxiety disorder and is also the third most common mental disorder in the U.S. An estimated 19.2 million Americans suffer from social anxiety disorder....

I bet more than a few of those 19.2 million Americans play hockey and I bet at least 1 of them plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'm so sorry Kessel's anxiety hinders your ability to get good interviews with him Jeff Blair you ass....and you too Bruce Dowbiggen you hack.

and nobody knows for certain whether his team captain has credibility in the dressing room.

But you gotta ask the question right Blair? A little bitter that the Maple Leafs don't like answering baited questions regarding the leadership of Captain Dion Phaneuf? As with most stories that only come out after someone has left an organization or during times of trouble, it's odd these questions weren't being asked when the team was doing well earlier in the season. Surely Phaneuf's leadership must have been bad back then too right?

Since when did journalism become more about creating stories out of thin air than simply reporting the stories available?

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