So Many Possibilities

THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO

Leafs could make a double-splash tomorrow if the Sedin twins are on the market.

Having been absurdly slammed in some quarters for being too vocal prior to the draft - yes, by all means let us not encourage newsmakers to speak freely - Brian Burke has gone quiet the past two days.

Don't worry. He'll reappear tomorrow. In fact, if there are still a pair of Swedish identical twins available named Henrik and Daniel on the first day of free agency, there's a chance for Burke to make the biggest splash of his short tenure in Toronto.

The Sedins are target No. 1, and the Leafs are unlikely to do too much, or anything that would eliminate them from bidding for Rick Nash next summer if he gets to unrestricted free agency. Otherwise, precisely how Burke will spring into action is unclear, and for several reasons.

First, he's still waiting to hear from Swedish free agent goalie Jonas Gustavsson, which is why he had to cover himself by giving Justin Pogge a qualifying offer. Gustavsson won't be making his decision by tomorrow, it appears, and is back in Sweden overwhelmed by the decision and still grieving over the death of his mother two several weeks ago. With no parents left and no siblings, he's finding it understandably difficult to grapple with this very complex choice.

But the Leafs aren't going away on this one.

AP FILE PHOTO

If Toronto can't land the Sedins, look for them to take a run at Mike Cammalleri, a 39 goal scorer last year.

You can assume that if Gustavsson does eventually sign with Toronto, Burke has promised Pogge he'll find him a new home somewhere. That's Burke's style.

Second, It's not entirely clear which players will actually be available - hey, 44-year-old Ed Belfour wants to make a comeback - with many clubs going down to the final hours still trying to sign key athletes. Bill Guerin signed with Pittsburgh yesterday, and Rob Blake re-signed in San Jose today. So the situation is fluid.

Third, it's one thing to have a wish list and quite another to be willing to confront the financial demands of top players.

In general, Burke isn't keen on bidding wars or setting a price that other teams can top. Instead, his usual strategy is to huddle with his key advisers, set a target salary and then a number he won't go beyond. Last summer with the Ducks, for example, he ballparked $2 million a year for defenceman Jeff Finger and decided he would go no higher than $2.5 million per. The Leafs, of course, got Finger for the astronomical number of $3.5 million a season.

Dave Nonis, Burke's right hand man, is the governor on the engine here. He's determined not to let the Leafs get into a salary cap jackpot or to overpay for individual players.

That said, there is help for the Leafs out there in four areas:

1. DEFENCE.

The Leafs would love to think Jay Bouwmeester, if still unsigned, would consider them, but no one believes that to be likely. Moreover, the Leafs probably don't want to get into the $7 million a year range for a player who has really accomplished little in his NHL career because of his situation.

Their fall back positions included Anaheim's Francois Beauchemin, underrated and tough, and Montreal's Mike Komisarek, if he doesn't re-sign with the Habs. Those two players, however, could turn out to be this year's Finger, meaning the bidding could get goofy.

Vancouver's Mattias Ohlund, a long-time Burke favourite, is very much on the radar screen.

2. SKILL FORWARDS

The Sedins twins will get an offer from the Leafs if Canucks GM Mike Gillis can't get them to agree to new contracts. The Leafs are probably willing to hit the salary target unless it goes over $7 million per, but they would be likely unwilling to do anything longer than six years per twin.

Understand, the Leafs would love to rip these twins out of the hands of the Canucks, for hockey reasons first and foremost. But you can bet Nonis hasn't forgot having Gillis do an end-around to get his job in Vancouver.

The fall back position would be Calgary's Mike Cammalleri, a 39-goal scorer. Diminutive New Jersey winger Brian Gionta is another possibility here.

3. CHECKERS/GRINDERS

The Leafs want to become harder to play against, but that doesn't mean just muscle. Burke likes edgy, fast third and four liners like two players he had in Anaheim, Sami Pahlsson and Todd Marchant. Both interestingly, are available.

Local lad Manny Malhotra would be a good fit, a player who was drafted originally as a skill forward but has redefined himself in Columbus as a hard-nosed checking centre who can still score a little bit. He was skilled enough to play with Nash and Kristian Huselius for chunks of last year.

AP FILE PHOTO

Rangers tough guy Colton Orr could be high on Leafs' wish list.

Marchant could fit. while Pahlsson might not because Burke is well aware of his injury history. Domenic Moore might be another option.

4. MUSCLE

You've got to believe Burke is going to make a pitch for tough guy Colton Orr of the Rangers, the only bonafide enforcer out there who can play. He's 27 and made only $550,000 last season, and the Rangers rejected a three-year, $1 million per season offer from Orr's camp. He can play a regular shift, and in fact was used extensively by ex-Rangers coach Tom Renney in a checking role against top-end opposing forwards.

The fall back position here would be Buffalo's Andrew Peters or ex-Senator Brian McGrattan. There's also Ottawa's Chris Neil, although he's more of a middleweight compared to Orr, one of the toughest fighters in the league, and would be more secondary toughness.

Watching History Unfold

ALASTAIR GRANT/AP

LONDON

It's all about being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

Since first coming to Wimbledon in 2003, it's remarkable how many firsts I've seen, particularly for a tournament that's been around since 1878.

Those include:

-- Roger Federer's first Grand Slam victory in '03.

-- Also in '03, Martina Navratilova became the oldest player to win a Wimbledon title when she and partner Leander Paes of India captured the mixed doubles.

-- The longest match in Wimbledon history, a six-hour, 9 minute affair doubles match stretched over two days featuring Daniel Nestor of Canada and his partner Mark Knowles of the Bahamas against Todd Perry and Simon Aspelin. The final set alone took three hours and went to 23-21 before Nestor and Knowles prevailed.

--What is believed by most tennis experts to have been the greatest match ever played, the men's final here last year between Federer and Rafael Nadal, won by Nadal.

-- Nestor's doubles win here last year with new partner Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia that made him the first Canadian to ever win a Wimbledon title.

-- The first indoors match at Wimbledon. Technically, it was a women's singles match yesterday between Dinara Safina of Russia and France's Amelie Mauresmo in which the roof over Centre Court was closed for the first time partway through the contest.

-- The latest match ever played at Wimbledon. It was because of the roof and new lights, of course, that Andy Murray of Scotland and Stanislaus Wawrinka of Switzerland were able to play until 10:39 London time last night. The previous record was 9:39 p.m. London time in a match that also featured Wawrinka. The hard-luck Swiss lost that one too against Mario Ancic of Croatia.

Not bad for seven trips across the pond, huh? And to think there's still a chance if Federer makes it to the final on Sunday and wins it will be his 15th Grand Slam title, a new record. Or, if Murray makes it and wins, he would be the first Brit to take the men's crown in 73 years.

Lucky to be in the right place, indeed, and to watch history unfold.

Wimbledon CanCon update

LONDON

And then there was one Canadian left. As usual, it's Daniel Nestor.

But while Canucks juniors Eugenie Bouchard and Katerina Paliivets were both swept off the grass courts of Wimbledon today, the 15-year-old Bouchard narrowly missed recording what would have been an enormous upset.

Facing the No. 1 junior in the world, France's 17-year-old Kristina Mladenovic, Bouchard led 5-4 in the third set only to lose 7-5 in a terrific showing. Playing on Court 7, which is sort of like playing on a street corner with cries of "Paddington Station, Platform One" coming from the nearby road, Bouchard lost the first set, won the second and then fought from behind in the third before finally succumbing to an opponent who, to be generous, behaving like a teenager who had been told by her parents not to text any more.

Paliivets, meanwhile, was beaten in two sets by Britain's Laura Robson, the second seed in the junior tourney.

Nestor and partner Nenad Zimonjic defeated the British tandem of Jamie Delgado and Jonathan Marray to move into the quarter-finals. Nestor and Zimonjic are the defending Wimbledon doubles champs.

NHL Draft Q&A

A New Era

LONDON

Wimbledon has gone indoors.

Partway through a women's singles match between world No. 1 Dinara Safina and former Wimbledon champion Amelie Mauresmo today, rain forced the 141--year-old All-England Club to close the roof over Centre Court for the first time since it was installed and made operational this year.

With the crowd cheering, the two pieces of the retractable, translucent roof started moving together, stopped three times, then finally joined at about 4:45 p.m. London time today. It will take another 20-30 minutes for the stadium to become "acclimatized" again and for play to resume.

Oddly enough, almost as soon as the roof was fully closed, it stopped raining. Once the roof is closed during a match, however, it must stay closed. It's expected British hero Andy Murray will now play his much-anticipated Round of 16 match against Radek Stepanek  Stanislaw Wawrinka with the roof closed.

A Slippery Path

LONDON

The slide into ANA-nymity continues.

Just a year ago, Ana Ivanovic was on top of the world, the No. 1 ranked female tennis player on the planet and a stylish beauty to boot. No Anna Kournikova this one, went the talk, 'cause she had game, and she also had a story having grown up learning to play in a swimming pool during the years NATO warplanes were dropping bombs on her country.

Well, Ivanovic's game as deteriorated terribly since those lofty heights of a year ago, plunging to No. 13 in the world, and today was no fun at all for the Serb, beaten in the Round of 16 by five-time champion Venus Williams after being forced to withdraw with a thigh injury in the second set after being thumped 6-1 in the first.

Given how the match was proceeding, it could be Ivanovic got off lightly.

"That's the most disappointing thing because I felt I wasn't given a fair chance, you know, to fight," said Ivanovic, who was in tears on court.

Ivanovic said he felt a sharp pain in her thigh after a second set serve and soon couldn't continue.

"I felt I was playing better each match," said Ivanovic. "I just thought . . . it was a great challenge for me to play against someone like Venus. It's just disappointing I didn't get the chance to finish the match."

Williams, meanwhile, looks on form to become the first woman to win the Venus Rosewater Dish for a sixth time.

"I felt really sad for (Ivanovic), actually. She was really upset," said Williams. "This is Wimbledon. It's the last place you want to have an injury that you can't overcome."

Antropov Likely On the Move Again

It appears that Nik Antropov's stay with the New York Rangers after a March trade from the Leafs could end after 25 regular season and playoff games.

On the weekend, Rangers GM Glen Sather labelled Antropov's contract demands as "ridiculous," with speculation that the big Kazakh is looking for four or five years at upwards of $5 million per season.

"There's a snowball's chance in hell of that happening," Sather told the New York Post.

The Leafs probably wouldn't be interested in bringing back Antropov at all, and certainly not at that price. There's still a possibility, however, that Domenic Moore could get an offer from the Leafs as an unrestricted free agent. 

CanCon at Wimbledon

LONDON

It's the second week of competition at the All-England Club, and as usual, there aren't many Canadians left.

Daniel Nestor and his doubles partner, Nenad Zimonjic, are the second seeded team in men's doubles and have a match coming up later today against Brits Jonathan Murray and Jamie Delgado. Nestor and Zimonjic are the defending champions.

Aleksandra Wozniak, despite being seeded 23rd in women's singles, lost on the first day, and then was beaten in women's doubles by the Williams sisters.

Otherwise, all that's left are two intriguing Canadian girls in the junior singles, and they're in tough today. Eugenie Bouchard, 15, of Westmount, Quebec must play top-seeded Kristina Mladenovic of France, while Richmound Hill's Katarena Paliivets, 17, faces the tournament's second seed, Britain's Laura Robson.

Welcome to Wimbledon

Looking back at first round of 2009 NHL draft