Alex Just Being A-Rod

You know, it's not 1965 anymore.

Most of us have more than two or three TV channels at home, more than one or two media outlets, more than enough time to scan the web for any and all information we want on pretty much anything at any hour of the day we find convenient.

So for Major League Baseball to cry foul and suggest the announcement by Alex Rodriguez that he was opting out of the final portion of his contract with the New York Yankees somehow detracted from the final game of the 2007 World Series is rather an empty complaint.

A-Rod didn't take away from the Red Sox winning it all. He, either by accident or by virtue of his massive ego, added content and context, kept the chatter of the sport electric and alive for an extra few days and plunged baseball right into the intrigue of the off-season.

The world doesn't have to stop for the World Series to be appreciated or acknowledged or critiqued or ignored, for that matter. Most sports fans have their eye on more than one sport at once anyway and are more than capable of ingesting the excellence of one team while pondering the future of another superstar athlete.

To me, having the Red Sox win and A-Rod bolt on the same day just added to the depth and richness of commentary on the sport. It didn't detract from anything. People didn't hear the Rodriguez announcement partway through the game, immediately turn Joe Buck and Tim McCarver off and go running into the street in a state of delirium. They went, "Hmm, hey, that's interesting," and kept watching the game, if they were inclined to do so in the first place.

It wasn't like A-Rod had a plane fly over the stadium with an "I Quit!" message while Lou Gehrig was making his famous speech about being the luckiest man on earth.

This is the world of sport we live in. It doesn't proceed in an orderly manner, with each sport and each athlete politely taking a turn at the podium. Should Tom Brady and the Patriots not have been quite so excellent on Sunday so the Bosox could have had the spotlight all to themselves?

Everybody in every sport is out there screaming for attention, and baseball, with all the negatives of Barry Bonds and the upcoming Mitchell report to deal with, probably should be happy to have as many other types of big stories going on as possible.

Should A-Rod have waited a day or two? Sure, I suppose, if he wanted to be a nice guy about it. But in not doing so, he again showed his Darth Vader side, again showed he's one of the more complicated characters in sport, and certainly made the choice of his next team a major talking point.

It gave baseball at little more attention. And it sure didn't take any attention from a World Series that was, quite frankly, forgettable all on its own.

The Not-So-New Boss

The early guess is that Paul Kelly is about honesty, not about change.

Indeed, the new NHL Players Association boss probably just needs not to open other people's emails and he'll do fine.

A progressive thinker, however, he apparently is not.

In fact, with respect to the game itself, it turns out Kelly is a bit of closet Neanderthal, something he revealed Saturday night in an intriguing interview with Ron MacLean on Hockey Night in Canada.

Kelly said that not only does he believe fighting is part of hockey, he strongly believes in the necessity of enforcers to "self-police" the game.

So the new boy likes the goons. How refreshing. Lets make sure there's jobs on every team for people who can't actually play the game itself.

Kelly even invoked Marty McSorley's name as he explained himself, referring to his role as McSorley's lawyer after the big fella took his stick to Donald Brashear's melon a few years back.

Yes, by all means, with fighting already up more than 50 per cent over last year, the NHL needs more McSorleys. Here I was thinking more Crosbys would actually be helpful.

And this Kelly fellow is going to not only turn this messed up union around, he's going to help the NHL sell the sport?

This is a league that's been trying unsuccessfully to sell fighting on skates to the great unwashed for four decades, and the new NHLPA head is telling the world he believes the game can't do without cementheads.

So much for the breath of fresh air. Eddie Shore would be proud.

Quick aside here. Saturday night's HNIC broadcast also contained a priceless Coach's Corner moment when a Bruin and a Flyer were shown pounding each other's brains in as an example of something the fans just love.

In the background of the two pugilists, however, were about a dozen fans, one of whom was clapping and the rest of whom were sitting impassively, as engaged as if they were watching somebody execute a three-point turn.

Yeah, can't do without this stuff.

Back to Kelly. We'll see how he pans out. But changes in the league and the union now means four crucial roles - NHL commissioner, NHL deputy commissioner, chairman of the NHL board of governors and NHLPA executive director - are all held by Americans.

Last year, Calgary owner Harley Hotchkiss was still chairman of the board and Ted Saskin was running the union. Now, there's not a Canuck with a speck of real power to be seen.

Anybody still think Hamilton's getting a team anytime soon?

Tlusty for Crosby?

On the basis of some emails this morning, you'd think the Leafs would turn down the deal if Pittsburgh came a-calling this morning and offered Sidney Crosby straight up for Jiri Tlusty.

One shot off the rump and a good wrister a few seconds later, it seems, has Tlusty poised for immediate induction into the Hall of Fame. You know, waive the mandatory waiting period and all that.

Sort of reminds me how, after a few weeks as a Blue Jay one year, over-enthused fans had Jose Cruz Jr. headed straight for Cooperstown.

But that's okay, really. It's a fan's right to get excited about the potential of a young player, and in the case of Tlusty, there's no shame in finding hope in a former first round draft pick who picked up a pair of goals in his first NHL start.

Tlusty, if he can stick around, represents a tangible future asset that GM John Ferguson can point to as reason to believe his blueprint will yield concrete results. If Tlusty and Justin Pogge and Nikolai Kulemin turn out to be bona fide NHLers, JFJ's plan will start to make a lot more sense.

But, quite frankly, there were two other equally intriguing plot lines in Thursday's Leaf victory over the Penguins.

First, the Leafs played their finest game of the season by far. Specifically, they looked a lot more like a team, and used their size more effectively than they had all season and spent a great deal less time in their own zone.

Whether they can do it two games in a row, of course, is the trick.

Second, it's interesting to watch the Penguins struggle with expectations in the early part of the season, and to see coach Michel Therrien continue to search for just the right combination of linemates for Crosby.

Sid the Kid's numbers have picked up of late, and as of this morning he's up to 16th in league scoring - with a bullet.

Therrien tried to play Jordan Staal with Crosby earlier this season, but Staal seems, well, stalled in his second NHL season with only a goal and an assist so far. Against the Leafs, Crosby and Evgeni Malkin played together - with veteran Mark Recchi on the other wing - and created the Pens' two goals on the night.

Perhaps Crosby and Malkin will work out together, although it defeats the notion that having two dominant players on two separate lines is what will make Pittsburgh an NHL powerhouse over time.

Right now, it's fair to say that Crosby is still looking for his on-ice soulmate, waiting for somebody to be the Kurri to his Gretzky.

Mail Bag

First, Anton Stralman was supposed to make a difference for the Maple Leafs. Now Jiri Tlusty, to date the 10th leading scorer this season with the Toronto Marlies, gets the nod in Pittsburgh tonight after being summoned from the Ricoh Centre.

And not a checker or experienced, stay-at-home defenceman in sight. All in all, it's an intriguing approach to improving team defence, clearly the Achilles heel of the Leafs so far.

Now, on to this week’s mail bag (click here to sumbit a question):

Q: Damien,

I enjoyed reading your article 'Boo these guys, not Leafs'. Obviously the Leafs are run by profit driven and seemingly faceless corporations, void of responsibility and accountability. I wasn't aware of just how many though so thank you for opening my eyes.

With that being said what will it take to break up this apathetic empire? Is there a multi-millionaire or billionaire out there with unabashed love for the Maple Leafs who identifies with the plight of long suffering Leaf fans? Someone waiting in the wings to buy current ownership out with an offer they could not refuse? Just how rich is Mike Myers anyway?

James N., Courtice, Ont.

A: From time to time, James, there are rumours floating about that the teachers pension fund is playing to sell its share in MLSE, or that heirs to the Thomson fortune are plotting to move in, or that Ted Rogers has his eyes on the Leafs. Nothing, however, has materialized since the last ownership shift in 2003.

Is there anything the public could do, if it wanted, to effect a change in MLSE ownership? Not really, particularly since this isn’t a publicly traded company any longer. It’s the great conundrum for Leafs fans, feeling as though they want to support their team and buy tickets, but all the while knowing the more tickets that are sold, the least urgency the organization will feel towards trying to build a champion.

Finally, I don’t know how rich Mike Myers is. We’ll have to see how his movie The Love Guru, with a budget in excess of $70 million, does at the box office, I guess.

Q: Hi Damien,

As we've all read countless times, the Leafs are having a tough time holding a lead. What's frustrating as a fan is hearing the same "solution" from the coaches, GM, and reporters. Everyone is saying the Leafs need to play better defensively. It's just a bit vague for my liking. Since it doesn't seem like there are any personnel changes coming any time soon, what exactly can they change to get a better outcome in the games that they're leading? Is there a defensive pairing that you think might work better? Maybe a line combination that would help keep the intensity level up without taking dump penalties? Any ideas?

Varun Chakravorty, Brampton

A: Well, I’m like everybody out there. I have an opinion. What I find strange is that there isn’t much structure in the Leaf defensive approach, or at least, there seems to be an awful lot of leeway for on-ice decision making, whether its defencemen stepping up to pinch in the neutral zone or teammates switching off in the defensive zone. It all breaks down into three separate but related areas; personnel, scheme and effort.

The Leafs are stuck with the personnel they have for the time being, and there isn’t a Selke Trophy award candidate up front nor a Harry Howell, reliable sort on the back end, and this isn’t a particularly quick or fast team.

Scheme-wise, this is a team always looking to attack and one that wants to be a puck possession club, but doesn’t necessarily have the skill.

In terms of effort, any fan can see all the effort that goes into a Leaf rush, and all the drifting and standing around that goes on in the defensive zone.

A combination of more effective defensive personnel, a more conservative game plan and rewarding those who hustle defensively while penalizing those players who won’t is how this problem gets fixed, but it would take time.

Q: Damien,

It seems the more talented teams are no longer cycling the puck (or are doing so rarely) but using their skill to attack the net at every opportunity. This is giving the Leafs defence fits, and it draws more penalties.

Is this a valid observation? If so, do the Leafs have the skill to adopt this strategy? Have you noticed other impacts that the "new" rules have had on the game?

Paul Flannigan, Charlottetown

A: Paul, that’s a great point, and I hope you’re right. Frankly, the cycling game bores the hell out of me. But you’ll still see different teams cycle at certain times. I think teams attack the Leaf net because they know its not that hard to do, and that quite often there won’t even be a single defenceman keeping the crease area clear. I think the Leafs want to do this – you saw Jason Blake go hard to the next on Tuesday to set up Nik Antropov’s goal – but sometimes get caught up in peripheral style game, taking lots of long shots. The “new” rules clearly benefit players with speed and a nose for the net.

Q: Hi Damien,

My question concerns Mark Bell. I know of his problems etc, etc. He has been placed in stage 1 of re-hab to start and then is put in stage 2. When this happened he was suspended for 15 games!

I would think by moving to stage 2 he is improving in his re-hab but he is punished further! Is moving then to the second stage like a demotion because he did not do well in stage 1?

Curtis Sleeman, Thunder Bay, Ont.

A: That’s not the way I understand it. The league says that the suspension has nothing to do with what stage of the program he was at, but rather the severity of the plea deal (a felony) and the sentence (six months in jail). I find it hard to take offence with any organization that wants to take a hard stand against drinking and driving. I just don’t see the NHL’s consistency here, and I think that if this is a new policy for off-ice infractions, it’s going to be awfully tough to apply in a meaningful way.

Q: Hi Damien,

If all the talk about GM JFJ's job security being tied to the Leafs performance is true, then the axe may be just about to fall. Does JFJ have any last cards to play (trades that could make a big impact,etc)? Or is he just left to hope that the Leafs as they are get it turned around?

Bradley Meldrew, Toronto

A: Well, Bradley, as you’ll see in Kevin McGran’s story today on thestar.com, chasing John Tavares is one card JFJ may be willing to play.

There are any number of moves Ferguson could make to re-orient the path of this club by starting to move expensive veterans and other assets ASAP, but I doubt he has the green light to do so. Moroever, he hasn’t thus far shown a penchant to be bold and aggressive during the course of an NHL season, preferring to be patient and believe in the roster he put together.

Q: Damien,

If you look at the statistics, Toronto has scored more goals than any team in the league,including Ottawa (yes I had to double check too).

Does this mean if they can just tighten up the defence,say cut back a goal against per game that they are or can be a better team than their record to date shows. (The eternal optimist)

Bill Smith, Toronto

A: It’s a good thing to be an optimist, Bill. In this case, however, its not just a switch the Leafs can pull. One of the reasons they are successful offensively, you see, is that they’re willing to take shortcuts and be undisciplined defensively as a means of create more attack. They like to exit their own zone with sharp outlet plays, for example, but sometimes those fail more than simple, off-the-glass type plays. Moreover, the play athletes like Darcy Tucker who has shown an ability to score but can’t check his hat. Ditto for Bryan McCabe. If they want to improve defensively, you have to believe it will almost certainly involve a reduction in offensive production.

Every Thursday, Damien Cox answers your questions in The Spin, only at thestar.com.

Click here to submit a question.

Scrappy Winger Down

It's been widely reported as a tragic development, a terrible, terrible loss for the Maple Leafs to have to bear in the early part of the 2007-08 season.

Winger Darcy Tucker won't play for the immediate future, and until his sore knee calms down a bit, it's not at all clear when he will play again.

But isn't the impact of this loss being just a litte exaggerated?

If we were talking about the Tucker who tore out of the gate last season with 19 goals in his first 34 games, ultimately forcing the club to sign him to a new contract through the quality of his play, that would be one thing.

But that Tucker hasn't been seen for a while. Whether it's been an accumulation of injuries or other factors, the Alberta native wasn't an impact player for the Leafs down the stretch last season when they were desperately trying to win what now substitutes for a championship in Toronto, namely the eighth and final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

And he sure hasn't been an impact player this season, with one goal in nine games while showing very little of the noteworthy toughness, jump and fire that made him a fan favorite.

In all, Tucker has three goals in his last 22 games as a Leaf, and in 20 of those games he hasn't scored at all. After he signed a new four-year, $12 million extension late last February, he managed five goals in his final 17 games. In the final seven games of the season he failed to score as the Leafs were beaten out for a playoff spot by the Islanders. In the critical final three games, he managed only three shots on goal.

Today, this is a player who ranks 117th in NHL scoring. To be fair, Tucker brings more than just points and numbers to the table, but to be accurate, those added qualities haven't been on full display this season.

His penalty totals, meanwhile, seem to reflect a changing style of play. In his first 683 regular season games as an NHL, he registered 1,115 PIMs and came to be regarded as, pound-for-pound, one of the scrappiest characters in the game.

Interestingly, in nine games this season, he has picked up only eight penalty minutes, and in six of those games he wasn't penalized at all. In 20 of his last 28 games, he hasn't reported to the penalty box.

You can't really criticize him for these penalty stats given that many - including this writer - slammed him for being out-of-control Sideshow Bob in earlier years.

But it is evidence of a change in style of play, or perhaps, a maturation.

This season, it's possible Tucker has been banged up. Maybe he hasn't had a chance to play on the top lines enough. Whatever the reasons, to now project his deletion from a lineup as catastrophic is misleading. At best, he's been the team's seventh or eighth best forward, and good teams are able to replace those types of athletes when injuries strike.

It doesn't compare at all, for example, with the news tonight's opponent, Atlanta, has had to absorb in recent days. Starting goalie Kari Lehtonen is expected to be out six weeks with a groin strain, an enormous injury for the Thrashers to overcome.

Like the Bryan McCabe situation, meanwhile, the Tucker situation makes you wonder about the opportunity missed when the Leafs chose to retain him last winter instead of moving him before the trade deadline.

To be sure, since Tucker had been injured for January and February, his value might have been reduced. But look at the deals made right around the time the Leafs chose to ink him to a new deal.

Montreal traded stay-at-home defenceman Craig Rivet to San Jose for young blueliner Josh Gorges and a first round pick. Philly dealt defenceman Alexei Zhitnik to Atlanta for promising defenceman Braydon Coburn.

Most interestingly, St. Louis dealt forward Keith Tkachuk to the Thrashers for first and third round picks at the '07 draft, a second round next summer and winger Glen Metropolit.

Then the Blues turned around and re-signed Tkachuk as an unrestricted free agent. Not a bad use of resources for a team that wasn't going to make the playoffs anyway but has rebounded with a strong start to this season.

Its all hindsight now, but could the Leafs have worked a similar leave-but-come-back-later deal with Tucker, particularly with his frequently professed affection for the city?

Now, as with McCabe in the winter of '06, you must wonder whether Tucker will ever be worth as much as he might have been on the trade market last March. Injuries are mounting - he hasn't played a full NHL season in six years - and its unclear whether he'll ever be able to again consistently play the rambunctious, hardhitting style that made his offensive contributions icing on the cake, rather than the other way around.

Barrelling Headlong into History

It's as though they are stride-for-stride, each pushing the other in what has to be the most spectacular city to be in a sports fan in North America right now.

And,. interestingly, one of the nastiest media towns, as well.

That, of course, would be Boston, which is cheering on the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox to glory these days. The Patriots are just incredibly good, looking for a fourth title and simply shrugging off all the negative chatter that came with accusations of videotaped cheating earlier this season.

Bill Belichick and his squad are looking at that undefeated season possibility, playing with that type of dominance excuse-makers in sports with salary caps argue just isn't done anymore.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, have to be considered arguably the greatest comeback organization of our time, having charged back from 0-3 and 1-3 deficits in the ALCS over the past four autumns to move into the World Series.

Sure the Colorado Rockies are on a roll. But would you really bet against Terry Francona's group right now?

And here's the final badge of honour for both of these teams.

Boston is a tough, tough media town, and these two teams get most of the attention, the same type of attention that goes to high-profile teams in other markets - say, Toronto and the Maple Leafs - and is used as an excuse as to why those teams aren't successful.

The Boston media, or more specifically, the newspaper writers, hounded Ted Williams for years and years. It's an unrelenting media pressure that Boston applies, yet the Pats and Bosox seem to flourish within it.

So the next time you hear a Leaf player talk about how tough it is to play hockey in a city like Toronto, remember how Boston's baseball and football clubs deal with it and recognize such baloney for what it is.

Friday Incompletions

Two things to like about the way Bryan McCabe responded to a tricky situation Thursday night at the ACC. First, he played a solid game, which is what his team needed. Second, he didn't try to pretend he hadn't heard any boos, or wasn't expecting them, and therefore wasn't a little relieved when louder ones weren't heard. It never hurts to let the fans know you're human ... Good for Joe Torre. Methinks all of New York, particularly the players and the media, will find how good they had it with this gentle, gracious man. And I'll say it again - the Blue Jays should be seeing if there's a way Torre could fit into their organization, pronto ... Don't believe the spin - the NFL would kill the CFL in Toronto. Period. They can't co-exist. The only question is whether the CFL could exist without Toronto, and that's an interesting one. From a Buffalo perspective, this notion that getting in bed with Toronto will help save the team in western New York seems a stretch, perhaps an enormous one ... Woke up this morning to see Sidney Crosby 59th in NHL scoring, with a minus-four to boot. Heavy wears the crown, indeed. . .Everyone likes to hammer John Ferguson for the McCabe and Pavel Kubina deals, and I get that. Where, however, is the praise these days for having Nik Antropov playing for the very affordable price of $1.95 million per season?

Alexei Kovalev continues to confound. He says something incendiary in a broadcast interview, then claims his thoughts were twisted beyond recognition. Huh? ... The Devils are giving up a lot of goals, playing an unusually wide-open style of game this season under new head coach Brent Sutter. Still, 3-4 while not yet having played a single home game isn't quite a disaster, is it ... Having failed to make a lot of hay out of playing six of their first eight on home ice, the Leafs probably need to get three points out of the next two games against the Hawks and Thrashers to start feeling at all good about their start to the season ... By the way, when did Darcy Tucker get appointed ombudsman of the media that covers the Leafs? Here's the deal; the players play, the media writes and says what it wants and the fans, readers, viewers and listeners sort it all out. It's not up to Tucker to upbraid people in the media for calling it like they see it. Perhaps he needs to start putting the puck in the net again before he starts doing other people's jobs ... Nathan Horton is an impressive young player, but he's got a lot of learning and growing up to do. Getting in a fight with Hal Gill on Thursday was just stupid.

Speaking of stupid fights, its really too bad Sheldon Souray felt he had to scrap with Vancouver forward Byron Ritchie this week. Souray injured his shoulder and is out three weeks, with the Oilers still feeling the impact of a fight-related injury to Ethan Moreau last season that proved costly to the team. . .Of course the Lakers should trade Kobe Bryant. It's pointless having one guy, surrounding him with average players and hoping you can still be San Antonio, Phoenix and the other NBA western powers. But if Kobe goes up for sale, the Raptors shouldn't get involved. Going with a team concept and an international flavour just doesn't fit with what this guy would bring to the table. . .At least the Bosox and Indians are waging a competitive series. Otherwise, easy romps have been the nature of every other MLB post-season series. . .If Ohio State doesn't go undefeated, this could turn out to be the most complicated, controversial year ever to pick a national champion in U.S. college football.The latest top team to go down? South Florida to Rutgers on Thursday night. . .By the way, if you want to understand why the rest of Canada's CFL fans despise Toronto, look at the way in which a Grey Cup in the city this fall is being overshadowed by all this NFL talk.

Good to see CFL commish Mark Cohon out front on the NFL-to-Toronto issue and the extra penalties handed down to Saskatchewan players this week. Hopefully this means he's getting comfortable in the job and will start becoming more visible. . .It's still early, but the Casey Printers experiment in Hamilton is starting to look an awful lot like the Jason Maas experiment. . .With Bob Hartley gone, San Jose's Ron Wilson now moves to the front of the next-to-be-fired line. The Sharks missed an early season chance to take advantage of Anaheim's sluggish start and did not look impressive in a home ice loss to Detroit on Thursday night. . .Eight games into the season, no one's wondering whether John Paddock was the right choice to coach Ottawa any more. . .The Leafs have faced four straight backup goalies - Wade Dubieleiwicz, Dany Sabourin, Jocelyn Thibault and Craig Anderson - and beaten two of them. Now comes word Tuesday's opponent, Atlanta, had its No. 1 goalie Kari Lehtonen leave Thursday's win over New York with a re-occurance of his groin problem. If the Blackhawks start longtime Leaf patsy Patrick Lalime Saturday night instead of Nikolai Khabibulin, we can officially call this a conspiracy, yes?

Mail Bag

Well, folks, it’s been a crazy week, particulary so given that there’s only been one Leaf game played.

And what a game that was, huh? It was interesting to hear Darcy Tucker and other Leafs sound completely mystified this week as to why anyone in the world could possibly find fault with anything Bryan McCabe has done lately or has ever done. I find it fascinating how people like Tucker can one day talk about how Leaf fans are the greatest fans in the league and in the next breath treat them like complete idiots.

But hey, maybe that’s just. Now on to this week’s mail bag:

Q: Let's keep this simple: What the hell is wrong with Bryan McCabe?

Ken Schultz, Toronto

A: And isn’t that the question of the week, eh Ken? Well, for starters you’re looking at a hockey player with shattered confidence right now. How that came to be the case is a bit of a mystery, but part of the answer lies in who and what McCabe was during his Leaf heyday, which was, really, the 2005-06 season. He had a swagger, he wore a blonde Mohawk at one point, he had a big shot and because of all those things, people tended not to mention the obvious shortcomings in his game, chiefly an inability to intelligently read the play and a surprisingly high panic point with the puck. That became a bigger problem after the lockout when many of the techniques he had used to defend were taken away, forcing him to rely on skating, smarts and positioning, none of which were his forte. As those weaknesses became a focal point for criticism, his point shot on the power play was simply taken away by other teams, and gradually his confidence in all areas of his game has eroded. The guy has all kinds of physical ability, but he can’t stand the heat and hasn’t been able to adjust his game.

Q: Hi Damien,

Thanks for the blog/mail bag - gives us fans a great chance to bounce some ideas off a real insider. My question has to do with the feasability of trading McCabe to a team in financial trouble. Here's my thinking... I believe McCabe's cap number is around 6 million, but I believe most of the money was paid out early in the contract (ie: he makes less and less every year). Given that, and the fact that a strong Canadian dollar may increase league revenues again (and thus the salary cap/floor). Would a team in financial trouble (Atlanta, Nashville, etc) that has trouble even spending to the floor be interested in McCabe as a way to count 6 mil of cap but at a cost out of their pocket of only 4 million (I think that's his salary next year)?

Bradley Meldrew, Toronto

A: Okay, for starters, I don’t believe McCabe or Pavel Kubina, for that matter, are as untradeable as many claim. You just have to find a match and really have to know you potential trading partners. I’m not sure how good a read the Leafs are getting on other teams through their own pro scouting staff.

Re the contract, it counts the same amount, about $5.7 million, for each year of the contract, regardless of how much is actually being paid in salary. This season, interestingly, is the only year a team with McCabe on the roster gets a cap break, paying him more ($7.15 million) than his cap amount.

Would a team with lots of cap room be inclined to add that cap amount because the actually salary was smaller? Sure. It really depends on how teams view McCabe, but there’s always a GM or a coach out there who believes they can make gold out of the other guy’s lump of coal.

Q: Damien,

Simple question: Do the Leafs have a number one line? Answer: No! (Emphatically No!) Defence, coaching, goaltending - all are secondary excuses to the obvious fact that the Leafs can't put together a consistent number one line. I don't believe this group of forwards could win an AHL championship. But, dammit, I'll keep cheering them on.

Paul Flannigan, Charlottetown

A: Well, thanks for doing my job for me, Paul. And I agree with you.

Q: Hey Damien,

Regarding Jesse Boulerice's 25 game suspension: Sure, he loses out on his pay for that period, but what happens to the money? Do the Flyers simply get to pocket the cash they would normally be sending his way? Personally, I feel that anytime a player is suspended by the NHL, that his lost salary should be given to a charitable organization, or at least the NHLPA. That being said, I think that the offending player's team should be penalized an additional 50% over and above the player's lost income as a (non-tax deductible) donation - that might inspire a few teams to look harder at the actions of their players.

Brian Cormier, Moncton

A: Brian, the salary of any suspended player does go to one of two emergency relief funds that have been established by the league in conjunction with the players union. The team doesn’t just get to stuff the dough in its jeans.

Re your suggestion for extra fines, the problem is such a system would affect poor teams much more than rich teams, which could simply write the cheque.

Q: Hi Damien - after watching the Leafs struggle last year and up to the blowout they had against the 'Canes, I just wonder if the team is responding to Paul Maurice. Do they like him? Under Pat Quinn we made the playoffs on a regular basis and always came up short because clearly the best of the best can only emerge victorious. Yet, under Maurice, it has been a struggle for the players and us fans. I was never truly confident with Paul Maurice.

Glenn Devlin, Phoenix

A: First, I want to comment on your Quinn-related remarks. He was most resourceful in his first year of coaching, but after that benefited by having Mats Sundin in his prime, excellent goaltending (particularly in the regular season) from Curtis Joseph and Ed Belfour and the ability to spend and spend to whatever level the team wanted.

All those three advantages are clearly not there for Maurice. That said, Maurice’s record suggests he either hasn’t yet been able to get this group to follow his instructions or they just aren’t interested in listening.

Q: Damien, you (and others in the media) constantly mention JFJ's contract status and lack of an extension. The implication is that he's somehow limited in his ability to do his job because of his contract situation, but I've never seen an explanation of why this would be.

Let's face facts, if the Leafs miss the playoffs this year then Ferguson is going to be fired, whether he an extension of not. This mythical extension wouldn't offer him any additional job security. It would offer him financial protection since he'd get a nice fat cheque along with his pink slip, but surely that alone can't be impacting his job performance... can it?

Sean McIndoe, Ottawa

A: I don’t think it’s about the money, Sean. Its about the message. If you put a GM in the last year of his contract and basically tell him he must make post-season play to make his job, then all decisions he makes will be oriented to that short-term goal. So you trade your first round pick to get a goalie and a question mark because goaltending help is required and ownership has, in effect, told you not to worry about the future. I’m not saying JFJ deserves to stay if the Leafs miss the playoffs. He doesn’t. But by putting him in this situation to start last season and this season, ownership has forced him to put getting to eighth place in the conference ahead of trying to carefully build a team that could actually win a championship.

Q: Hey Damien,

Who's the best player drafted by the Leafs in the last 20 years? Felix Potvin or Tomas Kaberle?

Nathan Irving, Vancouver

A: Kaberle, for sure. The team’s genius for drafting him, however, is slightly undercut by the fact the Leaf braintrust believed 12 other players – Marek Posmyk, Francis Larivee, Mike Lankshear, Konstantin Kalmikov, Jason Sessa, Vladimir Antipov, Peter Cava, Brandon Sugden, Dmitri Yakushin, Chris Bogas, Lucio DeMartinis and Reggie Berg – were all better players than Kaberle and drafted them before him in the 1996 draft.

By the way, I also believe Freddie Modin (64th overall, 1994) was a better draft pick than Potvin (31st, 1990), as was Danny Markov (223rd, 1995).

Click here to send Damien a question and he'll answer a selection in his mail bag every Thursday in this space.

Where to Go From Here

Alexander Karpovtsev is 37, probably still out of shape, undoubtedly still fond of a good time and skating for Novosibirsk Siber of the Russian league.

Karpovtsev was the player, you might remember, who the Leafs peddled to Chicago seven years ago to acquire Bryan McCabe, a trade that actually paid very good dividends.

But Karpovtsev as he is now is about the quality of asset the Leafs can expect to get in return if they try to move McCabe this very minute.

It's something Leaf fans should probably take into consideration as they consider whether to give McCabe the old raspberry - and loud - each and every time he skates for the club on home ice from this moment forward after his disastrous own goal in Buffalo Monday night.

Far be it for me to tell Leaf fans how to cheer or how to respond to their favourite hockey team. The mere fact they continue to support this franchise in sellout fashion despite years of mediocrity is enough to make it obvious nobody, but nobody, can reason with these folks or tell them what to do.

And that's probably the way it should be. Fans should be fans, its about passion, not logic, and its not necessarily supposed to make sense.

But it's at least worth pointing out that making McCabe the focal point for all that is wrong with this franchise and this team, and all that has been wrong from the day Jim Pappin was traded for Pierre Pilote, isn't going to benefit the team - and therefore the fans - very much.

Now is probably the least productive time to move McCabe. The best time was March, 2006, when he was finishing up a big offensive season with the club but had also, to anybody that was really watching, identified himself as a deeply flawed defenceman who was nonetheless headed for a rich payday as a free agent.

The Leafs weren't going to make the playoffs, although they kept trying to convince themselves that they were, and McCabe would have been an appealing asset to be moved at the March trade deadline.

Instead, as the Leafs almost always do, they dithered and chose not to make such a bold move, instead retaining McCabe and ultimately awarding him - and overpaying him - with a five-year, $29 million contract that is turning out, as expected, to be a major burden on the club's salary cap situation.

McCabe, now 32, was never going to be worth more than he was in March, 2006. And he's probably never going to be worth less than he is now because the team he plays for is losing and he's not performing up to his considerable ability.

Other clubs aren't in the business of helping the Leafs, nor are they likely to be interested in adding a $5.7 million cap hit for a player who may or may not help them, at least right now as opposed to much later in the season.

The optimum solution right now for the Leafs, McCabe and Leaf fans, then, is to stabilize the situation, not make it worse.

The Leafs, destined to possibly be in the battle for the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff berth at best this season, need McCabe to once again become the type of player that other teams would consider an asset even at his inflated salary.

For that to happen, they need him to start playing better, and probably to regain his spot on the right point of the team's power play where he can start racking up some points to overshadow his chronic defensive positioning problem and decision-making weaknesses.

If that happens, and if the Leafs use their heads this time around, he might be able to be moved for cap relief and possibly an asset in return sometime before the March trade deadline. Then you move forward from there.

Drenching him in boos and catcalls likely won't make him play better - Andrew Raycroft and Nik Antropov fought through similar treatment, but McCabe just doesn't look like the type - and thus won't help the team now or later, and thus won't help the fans feel better about their favorite team.

It will only humiliate him and, by connection, GM John Ferguson. If that's the objective, then by all means go for it.

Boise State, the Browns and Other Notes

Nice to see they can play playoff baseball in the rain, one supposes. But between the downpour Sunday night in Denver and the bugs earlier in the post-season, it sure seems like baseball has made it clear it will meet its TV obligations no matter what nature of plague or weather system comes around.

Not sure if that produces good baseball. But it does mean we all have to know who Yorvit Torrealba is, and that's good to be a good thing, right?

Other Monday morning notes:

-- It's not clear whether the long NHL suspensions being handed down these days by Colin Campbell are really acting as a deterrent. But this much is true; there may have been a sea change in the way in which teams responds when one of their own is sat down, and the way in which players across the league are viewing violent incidents.

After the idiocy of Jesse Boulerice last week, there wasn't a Philly Flyer who rose to his defence. The coaching staff took him to task, the GM accepted the 25-game ban and you couldn't find a hockey player in the league willing to say "it's part of the game" or "these things happen sometimes" or "it's just an isolated incident."

Remember all the excuse makers for Todd Bertuzzi when he ended Steve Moore's career? If that mentality is changing, that will indeed mark progress. Then again, it's easier when it's Boulerice as opposed to say, Chris Pronger, so we'll see the next time a bigger name gets in hot water.

-- Made a huge mistake Sunday night when I turned off the Boise State-Nevada game - which was played on a very weird looking blue field, by the way - as it was tied 41-41 late in the second half thinking there would be no more scoring.

Oops. The game ended up 69-67 for Boise St. after four overtimes. Throw in Kentucky's OT upset of No. 1 ranked LSU on Saturday and it was a wacky weekend - again - in U.S. college football.

-- I said I would report back on a weekend road trip to Cleveland and the Dawg Pound to see the Browns and Dolphins. Having never been to Cleveland, I wasn't sure what to expect. Well, the downtown core was surprisingly lively and interesting, particularly the warehouse district, and there's certainly a sense that the city has intelligently rebuilt itself over the past decade. Cleveland Browns Stadium is terrific - you've gotta love the non-corporate name - and the atmosphere wasn't hostile or filled with drunken morons. In fact, where I was sitting, you could easily take your kids without fear of it turning ugly.

It helped, of course, that it was a gorgeous day. But the tailgating around the stadium is fun, the Browns play on grass - always preferable - and in Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow they have two fabulous offensive weapons. Derek Anderson, meanwhile, might keep Brady Quinn on the bench for a while, although there are more Quinn No. 10 jerseys in that stadium on a game day than for all the NFL backup quarterbacks in history combined.

The Browns are a team steeped in history, good and bad, that is worth watching, and Cleveland is a place worth visiting to watch them.

-- Is there a better place to be a sports fan these days than Boston? The Patriots are fabulous, the Red Sox may be going to the World Series again and the Celtics, after acquiring Kevin Garnett, are the talk of the NBA.

The Bruins, meanwhile, aren't a showcase team for the NHL. But at 3-2 after a western road trip, even the B's are doing alright.

-- The next time somebody sings the praises of an NHL player by giving you their assist totals, remember last week and the phantom assist the official scorer at the ACC was initially determined to give Mats Sundin against the Islanders to break Darryl Sittler's team record for career points.

Sundin never touched the puck on the play but was given a second assist. The official scorer, Peter Smeaton, only took away the point after being quizzed and questioned by the media, which under normal circumstances wouldn't have been paying the slightest attention to the veracity of a second assist.

This is not to denigrate the work of Mr. Smeaton. But they give away second assists in the NHL like candy at Hallowe'en, and the fact such a play is worth exactly as much as a goal is a total joke. The sooner the NHL goes to one assist per scoring play, the better.

-- Laugh if you want. But the goaltending of the L.A. Kings is a nightmare, and Andrew Raycroft would be better than anything they have. In Scott Clemmensen, the Leafs have a suitable NHL backup at a much more affordable price playing with the Marlies. If the Leafs can trade Raycroft west and get something useful for him - more than they got for Mikael Tellqvist, that is - then it'll be a feather in JFJ's hat.

Remember when the Leafs thought they could get Bryan Berard for Felix Potvin and knowledgable hockey people scoffed at the notion? Well, that deal happened, and if the Kings get desperate, the Leafs might be able to swing a helpful deal.

-- Here's an interesting idea from a senior, influential hockey voice. Instead of sending two teams to Europe to start the NHL regular season, what about sending 12 teams to six different cities for a week and thus making a bigger splash? It would certainly be much fairer than asking two teams to bear the burden on their own. You can bet Anaheim and L.A. won't be volunteering to go again any time soon.

-- Its good for the Argos and the Grey Cup if they can actually catch Winnipeg for first in the East and host the Eastern Final. But it sure doesn't say much for the league.

And can the Tiger-Cats end their season immediately? Please?