Clearing Out the Clutter

A few post-vacation mind burps:

-- The Hockey News has listed its version of the top 50 players in the NHL. Not a single one is a Maple Leaf. Tomas Kaberle isn’t on it. Vesa Toskala was a year ago, but fell off it this year. Its just one publication’s opinion, and it has some peculiarities (Tim Thomas at No. 13) but it accurately suggests that if the Leafs are to have any success this season, it’s going to have to be a team thing.

-- Few sports work as hard at women’s tennis to promote themselves. In a span of three days, the WTA had Maria Sharapova at the top of the CN Tower, Serena Williams happily participating in a hit-and-giggle at Rexall Centre and Ana Ivanovic hitting a ball on Yonge Street. You cannot say these people don’t understand they have work to do.

-- So 21 years after a drug-fueled Ben Johnson ran 9.79 in Seoul, Usain Bolt is running 9.58 without even wearing one of those fancy new swimsuits. Humans are really getting faster? Nobody’s wondering whether this can all possibly be for real in a sport that needs major stars as badly as baseball did when Mark McGwire was smashing home runs?

-- No kidding Stephen Strasburg had the Washington Nationals up against the wall. Baseball’s draft, it seems, makes no sense to anyone, and seeing the No. 1 pick get about 50 per cent more than any draft pick in league history just confirms that. This is a sport that excludes Latin America and Asia from the draft for reasons that escape more sensible people.

-- So it seems pretty clear that Kerry Joseph’s days as the No. 1 quarterback of the Argonauts are unofficially over. Cody Pickett’s going to get a long look this time, and Joseph has run out of chances with his third head coach in Toronto. Looking back, the 2008 deal that sent Joseph to the Argos from Saskatchewan to Toronto – Pinball Clemons really wanted it, Adam Rita did not – certainly looks like an error. But how big? The key elements of the trade were Joseph going to the Argos in exchange for offensive lineman Glenn January, defensive lineman Ronald Flemons and the fourth overall pick in the ’08 Canadian college draft. January is now in Winnipeg and Flemons was dealt back to the Argos, while the Green Riders used the first rounder to select defensive lineman Keith Shologan of Spruce Grove, Alberta, a 6-foot-2, 290-pounder who played his college ball at Central Florida. Shologan has yet to make an impact on Roughriders – he did catch a touchdown pass against Hamilton last week – but his development will decide this trade. As it stands, Joseph’s contract probably makes him untradeable.

-- What a carry-on over the new Olympic hockey jerseys. They’re sure pretty and creative, but was this really a matter of national security?

-- Kaberle (Czech Republic) and Mike Komisarek (U.S.) are the Leafs likeliest to be Olympians in Vancouver. Goalie Jonas Gustavsson (Sweden) has a shot at making it, and defenceman Francois Beauchemin has been invited to Team Canada’s camp. Mikhail Grabovski could have a chance of playing for Belarus.

-- Boy, Alex Tanguay must be one rotten guy. Not one NHL team wants him? Among those free agents still unsigned, the most interesting names are Maxim Afinogenov, Manny Malhotra, Taylor Pyatt, Francis Bouillon and Dennis Seidenberg. Fellows of some credentials with nowhere to go include Mike Comrie, Radek Bonk, Mike Peca, Robert Lang, Dominic Moore, Rob Niedermayer, Martin Skoula and Mathieu Schneider and Todd Bertuzzi. (Ed note. Bertuzzi signed one-year deal with Detroit today). 

Looking for Leadership

STEVE RUSSELL/TORONTO STAR

"Big Blue" seeks leader. But there are no candidates on board right now.

Tomas Kaberle may be coming back to at least start the season with the Maple Leafs, but despite speculation in some corners, it won't be to become the next Leaf captain.

Ditto for newcomers Mike Komisarek and Francois Beauchemin. In fact, GM Brian Burke is setting the bar awfully high in terms of finding the player who will next wear the "C" in Toronto, making it a virtual certainty the club will again not have a captain this season.

"Look, we're Big Blue," he said yesterday. "We're not naming a captain until we have someone who can rank with the captains that have come before."

And we're not talking Rob Ramage quality players. Ramage ended the last captain-less period in Leaf history (1987-89) by succeeding Rick Vaive, but clearly Burke is looking for something more along the lines of Ted (Teeder) Kennedy, who was Leaf captain from 1948-55 and again in 1956-57 and passed away last week.

Its going to take a while to find such a player.

Interestingly, the search for leadership with Toronto is the same process Burke is beginning with the United States Olympic program today on the ice at the Seven Bridges Ice Arena in Woodbridge, Illinois. Burke is to the U.S. what Steve Yzerman is to Canada, but while the 2010 Canadian team is widely regarded as Sidney Crosby's team, these Olympics are a transition year for the Americans from the generation of stars that included Chris Chelios, Jeremy Roenick, Tony Amonte, Brian Leetch and Bill Guerin. Only Mike Modano - who coincidentally, ripped USA Hockey at the conclusion of the Torino Olympics, remains.

"We had some real warriors represent us for a generation," said Burke yesterday from the U.S. camp. "This is a new generation, and we'll have to see which guys emerge in the leadership role."

Zach Parise looks like an obvious candidate, as does L.A. Kings captain Dustin Brown.

Before that happens, the Americans will begin their 34-man orientation session today by dealing with a controversy, just as Team Canada will have to deal with the Dany Heatley issue next Monday in Calgary.

For the U.S., the status of Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane will obviously attract media inquiries after Kane and his cousin were charged with assaulting a cab driver in Buffalo last week. The plan is for Kane and Burke to address the issue today - they won't have much to say - and then ban all further questions.

Will Canada do the same with Heatley? The Ottawa forward has steadfastedly refused to shed much light on his situation after first demanding a trade earlier this summer, then using his trade veto to block a move to Edmonton.

Is it the job of Yzerman, Mike Babcock and Canadian Olympic organizers to protect Heatley at the team's camp next week, or should Heatley be forced to fend for himself given that he created the mess himself?

I say let the man explain himself. But no doubt it will be the story of the Canadian camp next week.