The Maple Leafs: A Pessimistic View (Part II) - Vintage Leaf Memories

Burke is a sharp guy, but his reputation was highly overblown when the Leafs hired him (and obviously had their eye on him long before he arrived). He won a Cup, yes, in Anaheim. But just as he and Nonis receive credit for what Vancouver has now built, the Anaheim Cup-winner was largely build by Bryan Murray. Burke added some important pieces, for sure.

But in Vancouver, he never dealt with the goaltending issue, which is supposed to be the key element of his building from the back-end formula.

He enjoys his celebrity and rarely misses an opportunity to be quoted. He tries to use the local media to get messages out to other GM’s (how often do we hear him forecast where the trade market is going, and when teams will start making better offers for Leaf players…). While a good hockey guy, for sure, in a team-oriented sport there seems to be a lot of focus on him as in his way, his method, "my" teams, as he often says, etc.

Ouch. More Leafs links after the jump.

Leafs Links

HNIC: Career Back-ups Make Bad

mf37 says what we've always known, the Leafs get horrible color commentary.

On the Think Line Between Awesome and Repulsive

Lambert with a writeup of the difference between the Habs-Bruins and Isles-Pens fight filled games.

Why Trade Versteeg?

A follow at MLHS to rumors he's linked to the Flyers (yeah right) and the Pens (no).

From Russia From Love

Puckin' Eh finds a tribute video for Nikolai Kulemin

And lastly.....

Hey, Joffrey....S-H-U-T-U-P!

This one is not being linked for it's merit, I just wanted to point out what a terrible story on hockey looks like. Seriously, a veteran of 7 NHL seasons makes a point about fighting etiquette towards an overly cocky rookie who has already shown that he won't "fight by the rules" on more than one occasion, and now the Lupul fight, and Steve Lansky wants Lupul to shut up? Also, yeah Steve, because Lupul hasn't scored more than 30 goals or 60 points he obviously hasn't earned the right to talk about how he feels the game should be played. As Steve would more than likely attest, only guys of Mario Lemieux's skill set should be able to critique the game and other players. Hey Steve, nobodies listening to your off base rants so you should probably just shut up.

From The Branches