Maple Leaf damage-control spin masters have been out doing their job

I was determined to pass on my inclination to detail further my consternation with how Brian Burke is still held in such high esteem in these parts as I don't want to spend an inordinate amount of time and space here knocking the Leaf brass.  It's just that, for me, there is evidence that suggests that, while we should indeed not be unfairly negative, neither should Leaf fans just accept at face value the "plan" and accompanying and oh-so-obvious public relations exercise that emanates from MLSE's hockey offices these days.

Having already written on this subject in recent weeks, I was going to "let it go", but then I thought back to a recent James Mirtle piece in the Globe which quoted Burke as saying he is "inclined" to keep his number-one pick this summer.

Whatever, I thought.  Keep it.  Trade it.  Just do what's best for the club.

But then I continued reading, and this set me off.  Burke claimed "we're already getting offers for the pick...".

C'mon.  I mean, really, c'mon.  As I just said, I don't necessarily care if the Leafs keep the pick or trade it, provided they make what turns out to be a good decision.  But are we supposed to believe that NHL GM's are "already" approaching Burke, when they don't have any idea where the Leafs will finish, and what they're actually trading for?  It's just unbelievable, and it's absurd that we fans listen to this stuff- and still believe it, at this point.

It's like all those draft choices Burke could have had - what is it, four "first-rounders"-  this past deadline?  Sure.  And oh yes, he has said before he could have traded Kadri for a high first-round lock in 2010 and didn't do it- just to prove he was right in selecting Kadri.

And people are still buying all this stuff?

In any event, this all leads me two comment on two articles I also came across of late that were noteworthy, at least for me.  (While I try not to read a lot of mainstream media stuff, lest readers think I am borrowing story ideas,  I do try to have a sense, at least, of what people are commenting about out there...)  One was published on NHL.com and the other was in the Toronto Sun.  Both pieces focused on how the Maple Leaf “build” is very much on track, and how fans should not let the last month or so (now closer to two months or more) deter them from appreciating all the great work Brian Burke has done to correct what was - and here's the spin again - an absolute mess that he inherited in November of 2008.

Now for me, the most interesting things about those articles is not that they said anything that we, as fans, don’t already know or understand, but that they were primarily made up of quotes from Dave Poulin and Dave Nonis—Burke’s most senior lieutenants. (Just a few days ago, Rick Dudley jumped into the game, telling the Fan 590 how great Joe Colborne will be next season as our second line centre...)

What is clear is that this is part of a well-orchestrated effort to “sell the plan” to an increasingly disenchanted fan base- and do so through the media.  And that’s fine, I suppose.  Political parties, of course, do this all the time.  They send out their “spin doctors” to weave a tale of success, good intentions and to deliver messages that will (they hope) obscure certain realities and nudge people to re-think their negative position.  We know that, for just as long, corporations have done much the same thing.  Stock price plummets?  Sell the media a better story.  Profits take a hit?  Craft a better message and push it out there.

Look, I've said said here many times before:  Burke went to great lengths to proclaim he had no patience for a five-year plan, yet that is what we are  (at minimum) in the midst of.  That's fine, but he has never admitted how misleading that statement was and how wrong he has been in that regard.

So when I see the Burke supporters (apologists?) over-reaching more than a bit to find the words to express that, hey, he has really done a good job, after all, well, it's all too rich for me.

What are these points that his supporters (either from the Maple Leaf inner sanctum, the media, or Leaf fans themselves) put out there?

• He’s only in “year three” of his re-build

• The players have let him down

• The schedule has been tough for the Leafs

• Wilson wasn’t a good coach

• Injuries have slowed progress

• Burke hasn’t had high-enough draft choices to work with

• The goaltending has awful

• The guy has built winners before; he has the "track record"

I can’t devote an entire chapter to this, but let’s briefly look at each of the above points

He’s only in year three

Actually, as I keep saying, he is well into year four.  He was hired In November, 2008.  I presume Burke has been paid the whole time, not just the last “three years”.  (Quick aside: it was obvious to every living, breathing hockey person in the world at the time that he was heading here well before that, but I’ll set that aside.  It’s not like he was telling Cliff Fletcher what to do in hiring Ron Wilson, or trading Steen, right?)  So far, Burke has had four trading “deadlines”, three free-agent classes to work with and three summer entry drafts.  Has this been enough time to build a Cup team?  No.  A contender?  Perhaps.  A playoff team?  Absolutely.

Remind me how it is, this far along the "re-build", that many fans are reduced to cheering for a high draft pick?

The players have let him down

Well, I guess every time a team does not win, the players are to blame and they’ve let someone (coach?) down.  But who signed the players?  Who traded for these players?  Who said (on several occasions, for each of the past two seasons) that this was/is a playoff team?  The GM’s job is to identify talent, sign it, acquire it, draft it and develop it.  It is premature to judge Burke in this regard?  Somewhat.  Much of his work is still in the relatively early stages, without question.  But to say that “the players have let him down”, for me, misses the point.  This is his team.  He got rid of virtually everybody who was here before—except Reimer, Grabbo, Kulemin and Schenn.

The schedule thing

This always makes me smile.  (I’m sure any player working for a Western Conference team must shake their head at this one…)  What is it that we believe we are hard done by as a result of  the NHL schedule?  Is it because, twice this season, we have played a late afternoon (5pm) road game (in Carolina and Washington) after a 7pm game in Toronto the night before?  Because when I go through the actual schedule, and see how few “back-to-back” games the Leafs have actually played in the past couple of months (and the frequent days off they have had between games in so many cases), it only adds up to one thing: just another excuse.

Wilson  

Well, we have discussed this one here for years.  We can debate whether Wilson was a "good" coach here or not.  What’s shocking to me was to find out that Burke kept a guy around for three and a half years, even though they evidently disagreed on the fundamental concept of how “rough” a team they should ice.  That’s shocking to me.  (As an aside, while I was not a fan of Wilson’s demeanor with the media, I have long given him credit for being a solid NHL coach.  He had fairly strong success in Anaheim, Washington and San Jose, and by Burke’s own publicly-stated views, Wilson was a top NHL coach who “would be employed next week if I fired him today…” as he said a while back.

Injuries

In fact, the Leafs have been remarkably lucky compared with many teams in the Eastern Conference both last season and this.  Yes, the Leafs are dealing with injuries now (Lupul and Kulemin), but the season was going south before they got hurt.  The defence has been amazingly healthy, and Kessel, Grabovski, etc. have played game in and game out, while other teams have seen top performers and key role-players down for extended periods of time.

Not able to get high picks

That Burke hasn’t had the opportunity to draft high in the first round is certainly not because the team has been so good.  He traded the rights to what turned out to be the second overall pick to Boston when obtaining Kessel.  (Was it the fans’ fault, or that of Don Cherry, or the media, that he completely mis-read the team he was building in his first few months on the job?)  We all know that "pick" turned out to be Seguin, Boston's leading scorer and top plus/minus player at the age of 20.  The 9^th overall in 2010 went  to Boston (Hamilton, the outstanding your defence prospect) as well.  Burke took Kadri with a high pick the other year.  Hey, I like Kessel as much as the next guy.  Kadri, too.  But it is what it is. Burke could have had more "high" draft picks. He chose to go in another direction.

Goaltending

I actually like both goalies. (I won't go through all the many points I've raised in previous posts about both goaltenders...) But  if that was the problem, who signed and kept both those goaltenders with no apparent safety valve?

On his track record

Well, here’s the short reality version.  He has none—not when it comes to building a “winning team”.  Hartford?  Too small a sample size.  But in Vancouver, he had six years, was given a great opportunity to do precisely what he wanted to do with the roster and won a grand total of one playoff series.  In Anaheim, he inherited a really good team already well on their way, added some pieces and yes, won a Cup.  Here in Toronto, this is his second big “build” project.  No playoffs in four seasons.  Between Vancouver and Toronto, he has had two chances to make the teams in his own image and the result (so far) is one playoff round won in 10 seasons.

I don't see the track record.

In case some may misconstrue what I am saying (and not saying):  Burke is a shrewd hockey guy, like many in the field.  But he didn't invent the position of General Manager, which you would think he did if you listen to him long enough.  He has done some really good things, brought in some fine players.  Unitl the last several weeks, the Leafs were definitely a more entertaining team than they had been.  He has built (I’ll say it yet again) a fast, young team- at least they played young and fast until Carlyle got ahold of them. There is more “depth” in the system than we had under Ferguson, for sure, though as I've posted here before, Ferguson left some good pieces too, like the aforementioned Reimer, Kulemin and Schenn, as well as Tlusty, who was traded by Burke for nothing.

Maybe Ashton will be great.  Colborne, Frattin and Kadri too (I like Frattin a lot).  If someone wants to nominate the Leaf brass for minor-league executives of the year, go ahead.  But words and promises of future performance don't matter to me anymore when it comes to this management group. I understand that  a good organization needs to build a good depth chart.  It is part of future success.  Still, I thought the priority was the big club, not a run to the AHL championship.

In any event, I just don’t feel the inclination, or the need, to pump Burke's tires.  Especially not when he's doing it himself-  and  has his own people out on the road doing that plenty these days.