So...hell yeah! Leafs come out flying and take down the Oilers 4-1 to even the season series. The big boys came to play in Edmonton with Kessel, Versteeg, Grabovski, and Phaneuf getting goals. If someone asked you who you'd like to score in a 4-1 win for the Leafs, you'd pick those names. This is good news, though not good news for the Oilers fans who somehow found my Leafs Nation game preview yesterday. If you want some good laughs, go through the comments. You'll be glad you did.
The long awaited Brian Burke quote collection:
"I'm not interested in a five-year rebuild here," Burke said in April. "You can say Pittsburgh -- well, Pittsburgh picked a ball out of a drum to get Sidney Crosby. Don't tell me there was any skill there. When you say, 'Gee, what a great rebuilding job they did,' they won a goddamned lottery."
"The plus-minus stat is like a lamp post to a drunk," Burke opined, "supportive but not really illuminating. You look at Beauchemin and defencemen like him who play all the time against the other team’s best players and they’re rarely plus players. Sidney Crosby jumps over the boards and, boom, there goes Beauchemin with him."
These gems and many, many, many more courtesy of Karina and Frivolous Ornamentation.
More links after the jump.
Goals from the big boys will do that for a team
Burke Would Do Phaneuf Deal All Over Again
Ok, why is this news? When has he ever said differently?
When In Doubt, Blame the Equipment
Apparently the new Lemieux brand skate are so bad, even the Senators who tried them have ditched them.
Burke Discusses State of the Leafs
5 minute video of the GM courtesy of Kukla's Korner
When It's Edmonton Time, It's Hard Not to Think About Gretzky
VLM recalls his first encounters with the Great One