Is It Okay to Question Now?

Funny how some sports execs in this city are given a long rope, others not so much.

J.P. Ricciardi, for example, was the boy genius when he arrived in 2001, and only now, with so much mediocrity behind him, is he being seriously questioned as the proper man to lead the Blue Jays.

John Ferguson Jr., on the other hand, was widely branded a dope from Day One of his brief tenure.

Which brings us once more to the sainted Bryan Colangelo, a sports suit so accomplished that MLSE simply believes it has to locate a "Colangelo of hockey" to turn around the tarnished Maple Leafs and all will be well.

Well, you sure about that?

Colangelo comes from a famous sports family, yes, and he is a stylish, athletic young man who speaks well.

Last season, his Raptors came up with 47 wins, followed by a mildly disappointing first round loss to the New Jersey Nets. Every move he made seemed to pay off.

Last night, the Raps bowed out meekly to Orlando in five games, ending a season that mirrored, in some ways, the season of the Ottawa Senators; strong start, lousy second half, early exit. This year, every move Colangelo made seemed to fizzle.

When I questioned Colangelo's supposed infallibility in mid-March - never suggested he should be fired, mind you, just wondered what the fuss was all about - the comments from readers poured in, many wondering how I had the nerve to even wonder aloud about the great man.

Well, is it okay to question now?

There are a variety of problems with the Raptors, of course. Some say its all Sam Mitchell's fault, others lament the decline of Andrea Bargnani and the disintegration of the point guard tag team, all about T.J. Ford's apparent determination to be designation the starter surely had something to do with it.

Last night's loss was like a replay of so many in the second half, with the Magic making the shots down the stretch and the Raptors not only missing theirs, but either making bad decisions or having players on the floor unwilling to take charge. When you look at how Atlanta is competing against mightly Boston, with that series tied 2-2, the lack of true competitiveness on the part of the Raps in the mediocre Eastern Conference really is brought into vivid relief.

So surely, even to his greatest supporters, the bloom is off the rose now for Colangelo. What matters now is how he fixes this team, how he makes it better.

He's never won an NBA championship or managed this Raptor team into the second round, yet MLSE has tried to dress him up as the genius of basketball and the model for a modern executive in any sport.

Maybe he is. Now would be a good time to show it.

A Tradition of, Um, Something

The Maple Leafs are gone. Long gone. The Rock is now out, and we all say farewell to Jim Veltman. The Battalion and Majors were long ago eliminated in the OHL playdowns.

Tonight, the Raptors face elimination from the first round of the NBA playoffs for the second year in a row. The Marlies, meanwhile, have followed up a first place regular season finish with troubles in the first round of the AHL playoffs, with Game 7 against the San Antonio Rampage at Ricoh Coliseum tonight.

By tomorrow, then, the Raptors and Marlies could both be gone from post-season play. Ah yes, just another week in the City of Champions.

Geez, with the Blue Jays struggling, all we have to look towards for a message of success would be Toronto FC, and isn't that a change of pace?

With the Raptors — this is a team that has clearly gone backwards, or at best sideways — the fallout from this season will be intriguing to watch. If MLSE applies the same approach to the basketball team as it does to hockey, the most unaggressive path will be taken, particularly with Raptors fans having responded very favourably at the gate this season.

If tickets are being bought, you know the MLSE suits won't feel any compunction to chase a championship.

The Marlies, meanwhile, are an unusual story in that they are supposed to be the feeder team to the Leafs, but their strong regular season tells a deceiving story about the talent on that club. Strangely, one of the few bona fide prospects they do have, goalie Justin Pogge, has been shut down in the playoffs, with Scott Clemmensen getting all the starts.

So let's get this straight. They're playing a San Antonio team that they finished 15 points ahead of during the regular season, but are now life-and-death to beat after losing on home ice Sunday.

They've given up 18 goals in six games — not good, not terrible. Head coach Greg Gilbert says he doesn't believe Pogge is "ready" for playoff action, but it seems this would have been the perfect time to see what the kid can do given that the Marlies, as a team and with Clemmensen in net, are struggling just to get out of the first round anyways.

Oh, what's that? Right. This is another MLSE enterprise. It's not supposed to make sense.

Just another week in the City of Champions ...

Friday Incompletions

Now that's television! There hasn't been anything quite so funny on the CBC in a while than watching Ron MacLean and Don Cherry on Thursday night lecture the hockey world on goalie pads and how they should work properly, even producing a pair on set to illustrate their point. Of course, the fact they were holding the pads upside down might detract from their expertise. Hey kids, don't do it that way at home. . . One other Cherry-related point. I agree Carey Price should have been a finalist for the Calder Trophy as top rookie. But it was kinda pointless for Grapes to start railing on the issue long after the voting had been closed. The writers had to vote on the Calder before the playoffs started, but Cherry is using Price's playoff performance as evidence he should win the trophy. Neither he nor MacLean seem to understand when the voting is done. . . The CBC is taking a lot of shots for its coverage of the Canadiens. But what these playoffs are consistently showing is how Elliotte Friedman consistently rises about the Hockey Night in Canada orthodoxy to produce top-notch hockey reporting.

Hard to see how John Gibbons lasts the season, or how J.P. Ricciardi lasts beyond this year, unless Scott Rolen returns to have a career year at the plate and get this team's offence moving. . . The daily debate, back and forth, on Raps coach Sam Mitchell seems misplaced. He did a terrific job a year ago, the team's development has stalled this year for a variety of reasons, and next year there should be another step forward. This team needs stability at the coaching position, not change. It's intriguing that people seem far more patient with Bryan Colangelo than Mitchell . . Just can't shake the feeling that watching Chris Bosh fire up a mid-range jumper in the dying seconds of Game 2 wasn't the best shot for the Raptors. That said, there's not another Toronto player on the floor that seems to inspire confidence they should make that game-winning shot. . . Watching the Denver Nuggets play basketball is watching an exhibition in all-individual, non-team play. Can't imagine how anybody could cheer for this "team."

What's amazing is how blithely MLSE seems to go about its business while making the Maple Leafs a smaller piece of its pie, day-by-day. On the same day Brian Burke became the impossible dream, The Star's Rick Westhead breaks the news that MLSE is nosing around European soccer. Then comes word that it might be July or August until the Leafs get around to hiring a new hockey boss. They've just got other priorities, folks. . . Love the new Team Canada jerseys, especially the white ones with the red shoulders. Very sharp. . . Wonder how easy it'll get NHL players to play in the world championships after the NHL pulls out of the Olympic movement after 2010 in Vancouver. . . Watching Philly play in these playoffs just brings the same thought to my mind game after game; the Flyers absolutely stole Braydon Coburn from Atlanta, and he may well will a Norris Trophy one day.

More Spygate and the NFL. More wondering, at least from here, why this all possibly matters. . . Nice to see the Cowboys are turning into the new Raiders. First, Tank Johnson, now Pacman Jones. Guess we all know where Michael Vick's comeback will begin. . . Okay, this is the definition of persistence. A British pro tennis player, Robert Dee, has finally won a match after 54 straight defeats . So much for the spoiled baby stereotype in that particular sport. . . I'm sure somebody does, but I just don't care who wins the Lady Byng Trophy. In fact, the Masterton Trophy resonates more. . . Incredible how Mike Gillis supposedly just decided to move to Vancouver to help his daughter pursue her burgeoning field hockey career, and then the Canucks GM job just landed in his lap out of the clear blue sky. Almost too incredible to be true. . . Then there's the Bruce Boudreau story. Apparently, nice guys don't always finish last. This is a beautiful story of a man who waited and waited and never complained. He's the patron saint for all those who say they coulda be somebody if only they'd been given a fair shot.

Thursday Mail Bag

There would surely have been pros and cons to the potential hiring of Brian Burke to run the Maple Leafs.

As there would be for any candidate. But people should really stick to meaningful, realistic arguments, and one of the truly goofy ones is that which removes credit from a hockey executive for constructive work accomplished before he arrived.

In Burke’s case, you heard the lament – always anonymous, of course – that he deserves no kudos for the quality of the Anaheim Ducks because the brilliant Bryan Murray laid all the groundwork for him and all he had to do was show up in the office once in a while, sip his latte and do TV interviews.

Well, if that’s going to be the standard, there aren’t many NHL general managers who deserve credit for the successes of their teams.

Take the San Jose Sharks. Before Doug Wilson arrived as GM, the Sharks already had Christian Erhoff, Marcel Goc, Patrick Marleau, Jonathan Cheechoo, Ryan Clowe and Doug Murray, as well as Marco Sturm and Brad Stuart, who were parlayed into Joe Thornton.

So Wilson gets no credit for the success of the Sharks. Dean Lombardi, his predecessor, gets it all. In Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury were all drafted before Ray Shero was hired as GM.

So Shero shares no credit in the growth of the Penguins.

In Colorado, GM Francois Giguere arrived to find a team that already owned Joe Sakic and top prospects Paul Stastny and Wojtek Wolski, so this year’s Avs aren’t his team. In Philly, Paul Holmgren didn’t draft Jeff Carter, Mike Richards or R.J. Umberger, and captain Simon Gagne was already in place, so Holmgren doesn’t deserve any credit for that team.

In Montreal, Bob Gainey arrived on the scene to find Chris Higgins, Mike Komisarek, Andrei Markov and Tomas Plekanec already in the prospect cupboard. So Gainey isn’t the architect of this year’s team.

On and on it goes in virtually every town. In Detroit, there are some who would try to argue Scotty Bowman and Jimmy Devellano deserve all the credit for the Red Wings, not GM Ken Holland.

So of the eight teams left in post-season play, but the standard some are applying to Burke and his years in Anaheim, only New York Rangers GM Glen Sather deserves credit for the team that’s on the ice these days since he’s been there since 2000.

Sather’s a genius, the rest of ‘em didn’t do a thing. And this style of argument makes sense to somebody?

Now on to this week’s mail bag:

Q: Hey Damien:

After watching Dallas finish off Anaheim last night, I'm really wondering if MLSE is on the right track regarding Brian Burke, if indeed he is their man.

Wouldn't you rather have Doug Armstrong as a GM? Look at the quality of play of Dallas (fast, smart, finesse hockey) as opposed to Anaheim grinding, goon hockey).

Armstrong must have hired a quality scouting staff to put this team together as well. Burke had to beg Niedermayer and Selanne to come back to save his bacon, though that didn't work.

Drafting and smart free agent pickups are dependent upon quality scouting, and it's hard to argue against Armstrong's track record.

What do you think?

Todd Buttenham, Guelph, Ont.

The Ugly Side of Winning

MONTREAL--If it was a riot, it was a strange one.

Yes, police cars were burned in downtown Montreal last night in the hours after the Canadiens disposed of the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of their opening round Stanley Cup playoffs.

On Ste. Catharine St., there was glass everywhere, some of it from police cars, some from storefront windows, some from civilian cars.

Yet a large city block away, on Boulevard Rene Levesque, there was no such damage. An hour after the game was over, about two blocks were clogged with cars and celebrating fans high-fiving each other and waving flags, but the celebration was, essentially, fun.

On Ste. Catharine, it was very different. Just after 1 a.m., after all the damage had been done and miles of video had been shot by police of various perpetrators, about 50 riot police emerged to march down the major street, but by then, the trouble had mostly dissipated, replaced by young people taking pictures of damaged police vehicles.

It was more a spasm of opportunistic vandalism than a hockey-related riot, yet it will leave an ugly mark on the city today.

From a sports point of view, no longer will Montrealers be able to mock Torontonians for the way in which they take to the streets with honking car horns after the Maple Leafs win a playoff round, if anyone in the GTA can actually remember back that far.

The Habs-Bruins series was a first rounder, yet the honking was there in the streets of Montreal, evidence, some would say, of the very different demographic that makes up the Montreal fan base these days.

When I started covering games in Montreal in the late 1980s and early 1990s, fans were largely like those at the ACC, mostly sitting on their hands and applauding only the style of hockey they felt was appropriate to Montreal's tradition. As well, they booed the English words to O Canada, leaving everyone feeling a little uncomfortable.

These days, the fans are loud and passionate, as loud and passionate as any hockey fans in the world. They sing every word of O Canada, English or French, and they have created a fabulous hockey atmosphere at the Bell Centre.

But they honk horns after winning a playoff round, perhaps because this team hasn't done a ton of winning since capturing the Stanley Cup back in 1993.

This is a fan base separated by 15 years from its last championship in a city that has changed very much over that time. They're now excited just to eliminate the eighth-place Bruins, with a possible Stanley Cup still three rounds away.

No doubt today in the Montreal media there will be intense debate over all of this, and over the nature of the damage done last night to police vehicles and private property which was, really, more ugly and unfortunate than scary or dangerous.

Punks and vandals did the damage, not hockey fans. Some would say the same was the case with the Richard Riots in 1955.

But while the Habs are still alive in these Stanley Cup playoffs, the fact remains that Montreal cannot be proud of the face it will show the rest of the country today.

Too Much of A Good Thing?

MONTREAL--On fourteen occasions this season, the Habs and Bruins have hooked up.

Eight times in the regular season and six in the playoffs. Montreal owns an 11-3 record, but the two teams have split the last six.

Which brings us to No. 15 tonight.

Do you hear anyone, by the way, complaining that there are two many games between these teams? Do you hear any suggestions that it's boring to have two clubs meet over and over and over?

BILL SIKES/AP

This scene from Game 6 pretty much sums up a Bruins-Canadiens playoff series.

Didn't think so.

Funny, really, that in a year in which the NHL felt compelled to change its schedule to produce more Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference games, a matchup between two longtime rivals that have played each other more than any other two clubs this season has managed to contain such excitement.

We'll see if the same is produced when Boston faces Nashville next season. Or Montreal entertains Phoenix.

Quite obviously, the City of Montreal is hyped to the max for tonight's game, albeit with as much nervousness as excitement as their heroes try to compose themselves after blowing a 3-1 series lead.

Montreal head coach Guy Carbonneau was asked this morning how long it will take the nervousness to go away tonight.

"About sixty minutes," he said with a smile.

Neither of these clubs is particularly experienced in such scenarios. Boston blueliner Aaron Ward was with Carolina in 2006 when they beat Edmonton in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final Montreal defenceman Mathieu Dandenault is one of the few in the Habs room with experience in a Game 7.

"The one I was in was a lot of fun," laughed Dandenault, a member of the Detroit Red Wings when they faced Patrick Roy and the Colorado Avalanche in Game 7 of the 2002 Western Conference final.

"We won 7-0 to go on to the Stanley Cup final, so it was pretty good."

The reoccuring theme in the Canadiens dressing room this morning was the need to get back to the team's skating and puck movement game.

"We've been back on our heels," said Dandenault. "We need to come out with the same attitude we had in Game 1. We didn't care who the other team was, and we just came out flying."

The key, said Dandenault, is to find that balance between being intense and relaxed.

"Everybody wants to be a Game 7 hero," he said. "But you don't go out there trying to be the Game 7 hero."

One Serious Feud

Brian Burke and Kevin Lowe, step aside.

We've got us a new top feud in the NHL, and it's a doozy.

In fact, the mischievous among us - okay, I'm one of 'em - have to be hoping these days that the Montreal Canadiens make it to the Stanley Cup final and play the Dallas Stars.

Now that would be fun.

Why? Well, if you're not an English football (soccer) fan, it's possible you might not know that a while ago George Gillett, the owner of the Habs, struck a co-ownership deal to purchase the world famous Liverpool soccer club with Tom Hicks, owner of the Stars.

Well, it hasn't worked out.

In fact, they want to kill each other. Or, at least, Hicks wants to buy out Gillett, but Georgie Boy says thanks but no thanks.

This is good stuff. Honest stuff.

These guys don't agree on anything. Gillett seems determined to use his willing media contacts to be painted as the good guy, Hicks seems not to care what anybody, Liverpool fans or otherwise, says about him.

Hicks wants a divorce, Gillett won't go along. Talk about fun times.

So if the Habs and Stars were to work their way through their respective conference playoffs and meet in the Stanley Cup final sometime in June, you can bet all of this ugly stuff would bubble to the surface.

Gary Bettman wouldn't like it. But it sure would be interesting, and when's the last time two NHL owners detested each other quite like this, and quite so openly?

Uh, never, probably.

So if you like mischief, root for the Habs and root for the Stars.

Thursday Mailbag

A good set of Stanley Cup playoffs unfolds like a good novel, with compelling characters and teams slowly revealing their strengths and weaknesses over time, some touching on old battles won and lost, with the precise ending of the competition anything but clear in the opening rounds.

This, quite possibly, already looks like a very good set of playoffs. The defending champion Ducks are bloodied but certainly not yet beaten, while their opponents in last year’s final, the Senators, have been obliterated in four quick games by the rising stars from Pittsburgh.

Presumptive league MVP Alex Ovechkin is finding the going rather more difficult in the post-season, Montreal rookie goalie Carey Price is channeling Ken Dryden and the Sharks and Flames are playing one hell of a series, with a winner not yet evident.

Then there’s the best story of the post-season so far, the Nashville Predators.

Nine months ago they were destitute and in disarray, with Jim Balsillie’s failed bid having highlighted the franchise’s chronic problems. One by one, regulars Tomas Vokoun, Paul Kariya, Kimmo Timmonen and Scott Hartnell left town without being convincingly replaced, and it looked like hard times lay in the immediate future for the Tennesseans.

But GM David Poile did what he always has done, sticking to his draft-and-develop principles and ideas of slow, gradual growth, and the Preds found their way into post-season play at the expense of Vancouver and Edmonton.

Last night, they hung on by their fingernails to beat the No. 1 seeded Detroit Red Wings on home ice to deadlock their Western Conference series at 2-2 after the Wings had won the first two games.

Suddenly, the Wings appear to be in trouble, as much or more so than the Ducks, and the Preds are penning a potentially extraordinary hockey story.

Now on to this week’s mail bag:

Q: I'm sure I'm not the only asking this, but I was wondering if you have any insight in to who the Leafs have their eye on with the #7 pick in the upcoming draft? I don't know much about many of the players available, except for Stamkos and Drew Doughty (both of whom they obviously will not get).

Any opinions as to who of those outside of the top 5 would be a good fit for Toronto? I keep looking at the mid-season rankings and stats for the potential picks and I really don't see anyone great available at #7.

Mike Crough, Milton, Ont.

Uncertainty in Vancouver

The Canucks have scheduled an 11 a.m. (PST) press conference for today, and maybe that's good news for the Maple Leafs.

If chairman Francesco Aquilini is going to name a GM to replace the fired Dave Nonis, after all, it won't be Burke. Just not possible, with Anaheim still in a playoff series.

But if that's not what the presser is about, then speculation over Burke's future, given that most believe he's the Leafs' No. 1 choice for president/GM, is about to heat up.

First, a word on Dave Nonis.

Classy guy. Apprenticed in the game over a number of years. Respected around the league. Young man with a great future.

Is it unfair he was canned? Yes. Nonis turned the Canucks into a 105-point team and swung one of the most lopsided trades in hockey history to land goaltender Roberto Luongo.

He missed the playoffs two of three years, but this team still has lots of potential. Just not enough goal-scoring.

But at the same time, while unfair, his firing was the right thing for the Aquilini family to do if they had decided, for whatever reason, Nonis wasn't the hockey executive of their choice.

He had a year left on his contract, and theoretically, they could have done what the Leafs did with John Ferguson, string him out as a lame duck GM into his final year and turn his status into the No. 1 issue facing the team on a daily basis.

We all know how that turned out. We all know what a distraction it was.

Key members of the MLSE board wanted Ferguson out last summer. When they didn't extend his contract, they should have fired him.

Instead they just wasted more time.

Similarly, if the Aquilinis didn't have confidence in Nonis to spend all the cap money the Canucks have available this summer and didn't want to extend his contract, better to fire him now.

Nonis was Burke's protege in Vancouver, and back when JFJ was hired, the Leafs actually sought permission to talk to Nonis but were rebuffed.

Now Nonis is available, but he isn't the mega-star candidate MLSE has been promising. If Burke and others fall by the wayside, he could quickly move into the picture, however.

Could Burke go back to Vancouver now? Anything's possible, and Burke's wife, Jennifer, is a TV talk show host in the area who commutes back and forth to their Anaheim-area home.

That's gotta be tough on a family.

But Burke, to some degree, sided with the non-Aquilini group when the Canuck sale was in dispute. Moreover, there are suggestions he would like to improve his family's life by working in the east and spending much less time travelling.

Going back to Vancouver doesn't solve that.

Moreover, for any progressive franchise, going backwards just doesn't make sense, just as it made no sense for the Leafs to turn back to Cliff Fletcher. If the Canucks bring back Burke, are they going to bring back Todd Bertuzzi and the target of his legal actions, Marc Crawford, as well? How about Harry Neale as coach?

This much seems true: Burke's holding a lot of cards at the moment, and he's smart enough to make that pay off in one way or another.

Bruised Senators

OTTAWA--It appears Jason Spezza is going to give it a go.

And he might even have surprising company among Ottawa's walking wounded.

Senators head coach Bryan Murray confirmed this morning that Spezza, pointless in the first two games against the Pittsburgh Penguins, is feeling sufficiently better from a leg injury that he'll play in Game 3 tonight, with the Pens leading the series 2-0.

CHRIS WATTIE/REUTERS

Jason Spezza, right, and Daniel Alfredsson combined to score 74 goals for the Ottawa Senators during the 2007-08 regular season.

That wasn't exactly a shocker. What was, however, was Murray's suggestion that captain Daniel Alfredsson might be available after being on the sidelines every since suffering knee and concussion problems after a late season bodycheck from Maple Leaf forward Mark Bell.

"I don't know," said Murray about Alfredsson after a morning meeting between the two. "I'm not shutting the door on anything."

Maybe it's just a smokescreen. In fact, little is known about the precise nature of Alfredsson's injuries, or whether he's even been skating, although apparently he did go for a twirl Monday night.

"I think he has (skated). . .once," said Murray, being deliberately vague on the matter, other than to say he'll meet with Alfredsson before the game.

If Alfredsson were to appear tonight before a raucous if worried home crowd, it would obviously be an inspirational charge for the Senators. Then again, if he is suffering from concussion related symptoms, it would be awfully risky to throw him out there in the middle of a playoff game without a proper regimen of workouts and practices beforehand.

Spezza, meanwhile, needs to not only play, but get the Sens offence rolling, as is also the case for winger Dany Heatley.

"I'm really happy with their play but you're not," said Murray. "I'd like to see them get some points."

Both Mike Fisher and Chris Kelly, meanwhile, are expected to miss their third straight playoff games.