Pole Position

With the emerging success of a few former bottom-feeding franchises which become homes to some of the hottest young talents in the game, there seems to be a disturbing new trend on the rise, which threatens to erode, or at the very least distort the time-honored traditions that make this game we love, so very special. I grew up in an era of hockey that prided itself not on it's marketability, but on it's fierce loyalty to honoring the conventions and traditions established by those legends of the game who played for pride, not just a paycheck. My dad used to tell me about the days when bruised and battered NHL players would come back to his hometown of Sudbury in the off-season and pick up a summer job until training camp started.
Imagine...Joe Thornton a roofer, or Luongo stocking shelves at your local grocery...
In no way is this treatise of mine a criticism of today's crop of hockey stars, who are as entitled to riches and accolades as the franchises who employ them, but it certainly shows us the mindset of those toothless, helmet-less athletes of yesteryear, who played solely for the crest on their jersey, and a shot at glory. The paycheck was a bonus, not the driving force that compelled names like Mahovlich and Richard to play like they were on their way to the electric chair, night after night.
Living here in Toronto, it is expected that if a new trade acquisition, free agent or young rookie doesn't light it up the day don the sacred jersey, said player will face the wrath of a legion of acid-tongued scribes, as well the most petulant of sports fans, who will most assuredly raise their fists in righteous indignation for having the good name of their proud hockey heritage besmerched. In a weird and amusing parodox, Toronto fans don't willingly accept mediocrity, however cursed with it we have been since the glory days of Gilmour, Clark, and co. Puzzling...
The very nano-second the cyber-analysts and armchair afficionados in Toronto get that all too familiar late-season twitch, sensing the playoffs may be out of reach, the call goes out across Leaf Nation to abandon ship, and to start competing for the prize at the other end of the rainbow- the chance to draft a pimple-faced, puck-shooting prodigy, who would be charged with the task of salvaging the hopes and aspirations of not just a team, but a veritable nation of playoff-deprived hockey fans. These reluctant heroes become merchandising juggernauts, poster-children and spokesmen for inumerable equipment manufacturers, magazines and sports shows, before they are legally allowed to celebrate their success with a cold beer... talk about a pressure-cooker...

And this leads me to believe that the new mentality of playing for a more favourable pole-position could be the undoing of the greatest game ever played. Since when is a draft pick the coveted prize, and not Lord Stanley's mug? It occurs to this old-school hockey enthusiast that we may have it bass-ackwards here, sportsfans...
The day Leaf fans shake their heads in disgust after the pride of Toronto laid waste their rivals to the east, was a sad day for hockey. If you want a winner in your city, the mantra simply has to be: win or die trying. Or perhaps something like: "Kill 'em all, let Burkey sort it out". He has something like five million reasons annually to deal with the nuts and bolts of how the team is engineered. The day he, or any hockey manager walks in the dressing room and tells the boys who have played the game one way and one way only, since childhood, to leave their pride and winning attitude in the locker room is the day many of us find another team to believe in. fortunately, Burke upholds the inalienable truth that winning starts with a winner's attitude. No leaf team under his watch will ever play for pole position. They'll take on all comers, and chip away until they have the makings of a contender, achieved through honest, hard earned success, they way the heroes of the days of yore did it.
Point: hockey players are required to do one thing and one thing only, and that is play to win. Manipulating the draft is not their problem. These fine young men who bring us both enormous pride and frustration toil endlessly in the minors for a shot at earning their keep. To expect a roster full of battered and scarred veteran ice-warriors to capitulate in favour of an 18 year old potential saviour is as insulting as it is laughable.
I'm hoping this notion of 'tanking' is nothing more than a collective fan hallucination, a vain imagining which no true blue (and white) NHL'er would ever ponder. for the sake of this great game of ours, let's all hope that the 700 or so athletes that make up the National Hockey League forever quench their thirst for glory by drinking only from Lord stanley's mug, and never the koolaid of cowardice and mediocrity...

The draft lottery was meant to create equity across the league, not to foster a welfare-state mentality where the talent-poor clubs rely on the governing body to sustain them, while the more lucrative clubs shoulder the load and never get a sniff at a top 5 pick.
Surely, there IS a better way. The NHL must re-engineer its strategy in a way which awards the conference finalists with a few extra lottery balls, thus dispelling the notion that all you have to do is suck for five years and you're Stanley-cup-bound...if the bottom-feeders weren't necessarily guaranteed a grand prize in the form of a future hall of famer, perhaps the focus in the playoffs will come back to where it belongs-winning the championship.

I'm sure many of you disagree. Please take the time to explain your position...I'd love to hear from you...

Rome wasn't built in a day....

Little by little our man BB is assembling the kind of squad that will make playing in Toronto a bit of a nightmare for even the most physical, and skilled of NHL opponents. While we haven't any inkling to date as to which of our young bucks will stick and stay beyond pre-season exhibition play, our stables are looking pretty healthy these days, thanks to some shrewd off-the-radar maneuvering to acquire some top undrafted talent in Bozak and Hanson, as well as a few projects in the system that are marinating quite nicely. Regarding goaltending, if we have learned anything about Vesa Toskala, it is that he answers the bell when pressed to do so. In spite of some serious nagging injuries which affected his game last season, when called out, he played like a Vezina candidate in his remaining games. He needs that pressure to hit his top gear, and frankly neither our beloved Cujo or Pogge challenged him for a single minute of icetime last year. This is a contract year, and he can't be immune to all the 'Monster tales' circulating throughout Leafland. I predict he plays like the second coming of Patrick Roy this season, as long as he's ready to go in October, which he should very well be.

BB's biggest asset may not be his media-darling status, or his all too evident swagger. It may very well be the restraint he shows by avoiding foolhardy trade propositions in order to placate a rabid and petulant hockey market. it may be the fact that he always appears ready with a contingency plan. When we missed out on a top-rated undrafted North American goalie prospect, he rolled out his plan B-- Jonas Gustavsson, better known as the 'Monster', who is poised to challenge for the distinguished title of 'future franchise' goalie, and by all accounts, he's got the goods...
Suffice to say, the wily Irishman presiding over our beloved Blue and white is assembling a rough and tumble, highly skilled group that will be ready to do battle on all fronts, and in every zone in a few short months, thanks to the arrival of a few sides of beef like Komisarek, Orr, and Exelby. Whats next? Will he flip Kaberle for a big gun forward? will he entice LA, who have recently cleared out two spots on the blueline, into coughing up Schenn the younger, plus a roster player? Will he and his pal Chiarelli finally pull the trigger on the much-talked about Kaberle-for-Kessel rumour?
It's fun to speculate, and online hockey boards are teeming with every kind kind of mock-trade imaginable, but it's absolutely euphoric to realize that the age of mediocrity is officially OVER in Toronto... Like Rome, it wont be built in a day, but get used to the notion of playoff hockey returning to Toronto, folks...it's coming our way!