That's the Spirit

They were, quite clearly, the kind of splashy moves many Blue Jays fans were hoping to see from Alex Anthopoulos this winter.  That it was the division rival Yankees that made the moves after a snoozy winter only deepens the perception that the Jays have been less than aggressive in bolstering their lineup.

On the weekend, the Yankees dispatched young catcher Jesus Montero, impressive in a September audition last season, and pitcher Hector Noesi to the offence-hungry Seattle Mariners in exchange for 23-year-old, 6-foot-7 righthanded starter Michael Pineda and 19-year-old pitcher Jose Campos. In a nearly simultaneous move, New York also signed another starting pitcher, 37-year-old veteran Hiroki Kuroda, to a one-year, $10 million deal.

Just like that, the Yanks augmented a rotation that was viewed by many as suspect. The belief is that Pineda - strong in the first half last year for the light-hitting M's, not so strong in the second half - will move into the No. 2 slot in the rotation behind C.C. Sabathia. The futures of Freddy Garcia and A.J. Burnett are unclear, but the Yankees are now dealing from pitching depth.

Neither move was cheap. Montero, even though his defence was suspect, was the big bat of the future, and it's worth wondering if the Jays would have been inclined to make that kind of move if it involved catching prospect Travis d'Arnaud, scheduled to play in AAA Las Vegas this season with possiblity of being a September callup. The Jays GM, to be fair, has shown a willingness in the past to trade valuable piece for valuable piece (Shaun Marcum for Brett Lawrie).

The money spent on Kuroda, meanwhile, probably takes the Yankees out of the bidding for Prince Fielder if they were ever really in it.

Certainly, it's fair to say the Jays and the Yankees are in very different situations, both financially and with the age of their respective lineups. At the same time, they're in the same division fighting for the same playoff berths, and Toronto's off-season additions of three arms to the bullpen and a couple of bench bats certainly don't measure up in terms of headline grabbing significance as those of the Yankees.

The biggest news of the Blue Jays off-season was the swing-and-a-miss on Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish, although Anthopoulos might argue it really was the addition of closer Sergio Santos from the White Sox. Many, however, believed the Jays needed to do something significant with their rotation and make the kind of improvements the Yankees appeared to have made with Pineda and Kuroda.

We'll see if New York has made the right additions. Certainly, new Boston manager Bobby Valentine made it clear on the weekend he wasn't impressed.  Anthopoulos last week said he believes Brett Cecil, Henderson Alvarez and Dustin McGowan - question mark, unproven and question mark - will make up Toronto's rotation behind ace Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow, and maybe he didn't have the pieces to put together a deal to land a young pitcher like Pineda. Maybe a vet like Kuroda would have no interest in pitching in Toronto.

But for those unhappy with what the Jays haven't done this off-season, with the moves they haven't made, it was another weekend to wonder if and when the Jays will spend and add game-changing talent.

 

 

Choosing Directions

 

Guess that disgraceful 9-0 loss in Boston last week didn't change Jay Feaster's mind at all.

Just the opposite, in fact.

Instead of deciding to drop out of the playoff chase, on Thursday night the Calgary GM sacrificed a second-round pick, a prospect and a big chunk of salary cap space to the Montreal Canadiens to bring in slumping scorer Mike Cammalleri.

That's futures and flexibility for help right now. Interesting.

In fact, Cammalleri's first job is to replace the goals lost by including winger Rene Bourque in the deal with Montreal, a player who has been as good a scorer as Cammalleri in recent times.

If Cammalleri can do that, the Flames can be even in the deal, for now. Feaster is banking on the fireplug winger to add energy and enthusiasm, as well, with Bourque's laconic nature one of the reasons Calgary cooled on him.

But giving up a pick, a prospect and cap flexibility to exchange Bourque for Cammalleri, who will be 30 soon?

It's aggressive, for sure. Some might suggest it's the most recent evidence that Calgary is in self-denial over the state of their roster. We already know Jarome Iginla isn't going to be traded for the assets that might generate, and we know the Calgary prospect chart, while it has some prospects, lacks true blue chippers. Certainly there's no heir apparent to Iginla.

Again, this seems so remiscent of what the Maple Leafs were doing in the final years of the Mats Sundin era it's eerie. As of today, the Flames are sitting in 12th in the Western Conference, three points out of eighth, so sure, they could conceivably make the playoffs. But to do what? Beat Chicago or Detroit in the first round?

But Feaster has set his course and isn't deviating. Getting defenceman Mark Giordano back soon will certainly help. But adding salary has complicated the crush on the Flames payroll, with long term injuries supplying the necessary relief to keep Calgary cap compliant.

From a Montreal standpoint, at first blush it's more nonsense from a franchise once known for doing things the right way. Pulling a player off the ice during a game for the purposes of trading him one day after a very public outburst that really wasn't particularly negative?

That's bad business all around. Having the Molson family back in charge was supposed to bring back the glory, not start a new descent.

Acquiring Bourque, by the way, wasn't a bid to address the linguistic issues created by the ham-handed hiring of head coach Randy Cunneyworth. Bourque's from Alberta and only speaks a few words of French.

But he does give the Habs size and some edge - he's been suspended twice this season, and still has one-game left on his current suspension - and Cammalleri wasn't producing.

Bourque is locked up for four more seasons at a reasonable $3.33 million annual cap hit.

Really, despite the outcry for the way in which the Habs are doing business, this wasn't a bad deal at all. Maybe a very good one. All that new cap room means that if the Canadiens wanted to, they could add upwards of $8 million in salaries before the trade deadline.

What's unclear is whether they'd want to do that, or in general, where the Habs are headed. Cammalleri and Jaroslav Halak were the heroes of the run to the conference final three years ago, and neither is in Montreal any more. Montreal is 24th overall, and with their playoff chances dimmer than Calgary, this wouldn't be a bad year to take the hit, sink further and draft high in June.

This is, most believe, a very good draft. 

But dumping out of the playoff race isn't what the club is publicly saying, so we'll watch and guess for a while longer.

 

Double Trouble

You'd figure Mats Sundin would come up here somewhere. All he did was lead in the Leafs in scoring for a decade or so.

But one of the oddities of Sundin's career in Toronto is that he never found a regular linemate to collaborate with on a constant basis. The closest might have been the eminently forgettable Jonas Hoglund. Otherwise, Gary Roberts was there occasionally, Alexander Mogilny for a bit. . .but nobody ever found a permanent home with No. 13.

Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul, meanwhile, are an oddity to themselves, a pair that has meshed brilliantly this season, launching both players into the top 5 of NHL scorers.

Yet neither is a centre. It's a partnership between two wingers, with the identity of the pivot in between them almost an afterthought, whether it's been Tim Connolly or Tyler Bozak or whoever.

Strange, that.

Nonetheless, it surely has worked, both in the latter half of last season after Lupul came over from Anaheim, and in the first half of this season. 

We know that when the Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1967, it was, surprisingly, the playoff combination of Jim Pappin and Pete Stemkowski that made a huge difference. But what about since then? Where does the Lupul-Kessel combo rank among dynamic duos of the post-expansion era for the Leafs? 

There was Norm Ullman and Paul Henderson. Darryl Sittler and Lanny McDonald, of course. Then 50-goal shooter Rick Vaive with Bill Derlago. Vincent Damphousse and Daniel Marois had success together, as did Ed Olczyk and Gary Leeman, particularly in that year Leeman cracked the 50-goal plateau.

Then there was that twosome of Doug Gilmour and Dave Andreychuk. They did pretty well.

Which was the best of these combinations? Give us your vote and we'll publish the results in Friday's paper, along with a more extensive analysis of why Kessel and Lupul have worked well together and our opinion on where they rank.

For more Leafs coverage:

Cox: Leafs' goalies battle for playing time

Feschuk: Best Leafs' start to a year in half a century

Dion Phaneuf voted most overrated player in SI poll

Disciplined Leafs learning to stay out of the penalty box

 

 

Rebirth of The Battle

Don't look now, but there's a bona fide Battle of Ontario brewing.

Been a while, right? Several seasons have passed since games between the Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators inspired a whole lot of interest, let alone the spite and tension that was in the air a decade ago when playoff competition took the Ontario rivalry to a new level.

Now, with the Sens shocking the NHL with their strong first half performance, and with the Leafs in the Eastern Conference playoff fight but still trailing their provincial cousins, the two clubs meet at the ACC next Tuesday with a little more than two points on the line.

The Leafs have to deal first with the Sabres in Buffalo and the first place New York Rangers, while Ottawa has to visit the Rangers and Montreal Canadiens, and also meet the Winnipeg Jets in the nation's capital on Monday 24 hours before taking on the Leafs.

So sure, we're getting a little ahead of ourselves.

But after the Senators pounded weakening Pittsburgh last night and the Leafs shut out Buffalo for their fourth straight win, the scenario of a big game between the two clubs next week shifted into focus. Ottawa, after finishing 11 points behind the Leafs last season, now leads Toronto by three points, having played two more games so far.

The Sens, along with Florida in the east and St. Louis in the west, are the surprise of the league. The difference is that while the Panthers spent their brains out to bring in established veterans to get to the salary cap floor, while the Blues were supposed to be a team capable of fighting for a post-season berth, almost all prognosticators inside and outside of Ottawa saw this season as one long, miserable ride for a hockey club that seemed likely to be the worst in Canada.

Instead, only the Vancouver Canucks are better than Ottawa so far, and Paul MacLean has to be there neck-and-neck with Ken Hitchcock of the Blues and Florida's Kevin Dineen as a coach-of-the-year favourite. Not only are the Sens doing well in the standings, but MacLean has coaxed a comeback season out of Jason Spezza and seen players like Milan Michalek and Erik Karlsson enjoy breakout campaigns. The play of youngster Mika Zibanejad for the gold medal-winning Swedes at the recent world junior hockey championships has Ottawa fans excited that a new star may be on the way.

In Toronto, improved depth at every position suddenly has impressive youngsters like goalie James Reimer, defenceman Jake Gardiner and winger Matt Frattin unable to get playing time or even in the lineup as injured players file back. Nik Kulemin may finally be coming to life, Jonas Gustavsson is on a roll in net and the combination of Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul has been lethal all season.

There's a lot of hockey to go, and quite frankly, it's hard to imagine the Eastern Conference playoffs without Pittsburgh and Washington. Tampa Bay seems to have fallen right out, maybe Buffalo and Montreal, too, opening up room for young, resurgent teams like Ottawa and Toronto that weren't in the post-season picture a year ago.

The Leafs and Sens have met three times this season, with the Sens winning twice. Neither game was particularly spicy. Maybe that will change next week.

 

 

 

The Next Question

So we know at least four Senators (ahem) will be there. And we know Dion Phaneuf will be there.

And we know Sidney Crosby won't be there.

So what about Alexander (The Great) Ovechkin? Will the Washington "superstar" be among the next group of 36 veterans named on Thursday to play in this month's all-star game in Ottawa?

Great question. No easy answer.

If the game, as Sens fans apparently believe, is all about what the fans want and has nothing whatsoever to do with stats or actual all-star quality, then surely Ovechkin is one of the most prominent players in hockey and should be there.

He's not as charismatic, mind you, as he once was, and it's doubtful he'll lead the league in fun and smiles as he did when the all-star game was held in Montreal.

But he's one of the game's most recognizeable faces, and certainly he's on the marquee whenever he's in the game. NBC has already announced that Pittsburgh and Washington will be its first regular season contest of the season later this month, in no small measure to the fact Ovechkin is still a very watchable player.

Leaf fans, of course, watched him gently torture Phil Kessel in the player draft a year ago, and would like to see Ovechkin sit around in Ottawa to wait and be picked this year.

But does he deserve an invitation for his actual play?

That's where the debate gets interesting.

After recently scoring seven goals in seven games, the GR8 went scoreless in California, minus-4 in two games against San Jose and Los Angeles as the Caps' road woes continued. He's 39th in NHL scoring with 17 goals and 16 assists, and after a down season last year will need to really kick it into gear just to match the 85 points he registered in Bruce Boudreau's last full year.

So this isn't an off-year for Ovechkin. This is a step back statistically from the off-year he had last year. That said, opponents still seem to accord him the same level of respect.

"The media and fans always look at goals and assists," Sharks defenceman Dan Boyle told the San Jose Mercury News. "But players know that sometimes someone can dominate on the ice and have nothing to show for it. He could come in here with five points, and I wouldn't treat him any different than if he had 45. I just know how he plays."

Under new head coach Dale Hunter, Ovechkin has been slightly more productive (9 goals, 7 assists, minus-1) in 18 games than he was in the first 22 games of the season under Boudreau (8 goals, 9 assists, minus-7), although still nowhere near as prolific where he once was. As a team, however, the Caps have been slightly less successful under Hunter (9-8-1) than they were under Boudreau (12-9-1) and currently sit in 10th place in the Eastern Conference.

Hunter played Ovechkin 22:27 in the loss to the Kings on Monday night, the second most ice time he's given the winger since arriving. The Caps went back to their old ways in California, giving up 10 goals combined to the Sharks and Kings after seeing their goals-against numbers reduced sharply under Hunter. As a team, Washington is nowhere near the offensive force it once was, with eight NHL clubs having scored more goals this season than the D.C. bunch.

So it's an interesting debate. Is Ovechkin getting back to the level that once made him the world's best player prior to the Vancouver Olympics? Or is he permanently stalled and unlikely to be that explosive scorer again?

And, of course, is he an all-star? 

The answer right now probably is no to being a bona fide all-star, but most would want to see him in the all-star contest in Ottawa. It'd be a big surprise if he wasn't.

 

 

 

 

Two To Watch

The verdict on in-season NHL coaching changes this season, at least so far, is split.

Six coaches fired, three of those teams now in a playoff position, three not so much. Of the three hired that had NHL coaching experience - Ken Hitchcock, Darryl Sutter, Bruce Boudreau - the news has been good for Hitchcock's Blues and Sutter's Kings, less so for the Anaheim Ducks under Boudreau.

Of the three that didn't have head coaching experience, Dale Hunter has maneuvered Washington into eighth in the east, while the results for Montreal under Randy Cunneyworth and Carolina with Kirk Muller behind the bench have been less positive.

We'll see how those six situations develop over the final half of the season - and see if more coaching changes result.

With the coaching moves so far, and with a number of teams well down in the standings possibly looking at alterations behind the bench for next season, the question is always out there: who are the hot coaching candidates not in the NHL?

Often, it's names who have been there before. Marc Crawford. Randy Carlyle. Pat Quinn. Michel Therrien.

Two who haven't, but are gaining lots of attention these days for their work in the AHL, lock horns tonight with at Ricoh Coliseum.

Dallas Eakins, with his Marlies in first place in their division, has been attracting lots of kudos for his work, particularly with the readiness of the players he has supplied to the parent club when they've been promoted. Nazem Kadri, Keith Aulie and Darryl Boyce would be the three most recent examples.

Eakins' squad, with Colton Orr and Phillipe Dupuis down from the Leafs and Jussi Rynnas having allowed one goal in his last two games, tonight takes on the Oklahoma City Barons, the AHL's top team with a sparkling 23-8-1 record this season. The Barons are the farm team of the Edmonton Oilers and are coaching by Todd Nelson, a one-time Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick who has the farm club doing much better than the Oilers are at the NHL level these days.

It's tough for guys like Eakins and Nelson to be recognized and to get a chance at the NHL level even if it's deserved. Eakins, at least, is benefitting to some degree by being in a large media market. It's more difficult in Sooner country for Nelson, who actually worked on the same bench as Cunneyworth under John Anderson in Atlanta and will coach the Western Conference squad in the AHL all-star game Jan. 30.

It's hard to see Eakins getting his NHL chance in Toronto where Ron Wilson just netted a contract extension. For Nelson, it's unclear what will happen in Edmonton if Tom Renney can't coax better results out of a team that many hoped would challenge for a playoff berth but has already all but fallen out of the race.

Regardless, Eakins are Nelson are two to watch, and they'll bash brains tonight down at the Ricoh.

 

 

 

 

 

The Inevitable End

What I heard was a requiem for a heavyweight.

Nothing wrong with that.

What I also heard was a dedicated, long-time hockey guy lamenting the way the business used to be, the way the game used to be.

Nothing wrong with that.

That's what I heard behind all the words Brian Burke uttered today while announcing the team's decision to send enforcer Colton Orr to the minors after he had cleared waivers.

Let me repeat that. After the Leafs CHOSE to send Orr down. Nobody made Burke do it. It wasn't about a cap consideration. If Orr was so beloved and his role so important, the Leafs could have kept him.

It was Burke and Ron Wilson who decided not to use Orr this season and, more to the point, he and Wilson who decided another, younger tough guy, Jay Rosehill, was more valuable to the team. Burke will have to explain this to team ownership, why a $1 million player will be getting that money to skate in the AHL, although my guess is that is a small part about what pained Burke about this decision.

He likes Orr. Most people who played with him have liked Orr. In Toronto, he chose not to talk a whole lot, so we didn't get to know him much, about how he got a late start in hockey but still made the big time, about how he designed his own tattoos. Heck, after he was concussed badly last season, we never really heard from him again.

Burke likes Orr, and he likes fighters, and he likes fighting. He and I have been up and down this subject for years. He loves to call me a "Greenpeace puke," and I laugh, mostly because he knows I'm not changing my anti-fighting views and he's not changing his.

In fact, the way in which enforcers like Orr are discarded when they aren't needed, either because they can't fight any more or play well enough to justify their presence in the lineup, is one of the many reason I despise the presence of fighting in the game. That, plus the damage it does to these gladiators, and they are gladiators, albeit well-paid ones. We know a lot more about the damage after the de-mystifying process of last summer, and after Bob Probert, and after John Kordic. But those who love fighting choose either to look the other way to the huge toll it takes or say that simply adds courage and honour to a tough job.

When the Leafs signed Orr away as a free agent from the Rangers, it wasn't a bad decision. He was a legitimate heavyweight, Burke's championship experience in Anaheim had taught him such players were an invaluable component to team success and he wanted to forge a new personality for the Leafs.

But less than five years after the Ducks won it all, the game has indeed changed, changed to a remarkable degree considering the relatively short period of time. Speed, or lack of it, and a concussion (or more than one) rendered Orr unable to keep his job. That said, he has this year and next year on his deal and if he goes to the Marlies and works on his game and his skating, well, who knows what might happen? This is a sport that handsomely rewards those who can re-invent themselves.

The other stuff in Burke's presser today, about rats in the game and concern about accountability, well, he believes it but I'm not buying. Such players have always been in the game, probably always will be. They existed before the instigator rule, and after. They were there in the 1960s and every decade since, arguably in larger numbers than now. The Leafs have had their share of these agitators. Bill Berg. Darcy Tucker. The great Bobby Clarke was surely one. The list is long.

They've existed because they can be effective. They've never been scared of heavyweights like Orr because they never had to fight them. Indeed, players like Clarke and Ken "The Rat" Linesman were able to poke and prod and needle largely because the beefier fellows on their own teams were more than happy to do the fighting, to be enablers, as it were, so they could continue to do the rat-work.

Dan Carcillo might be the worst rat in the game today. Well, when he hit Tom Gilbert the other night, Gilbert's Edmonton teammate, enforcer Ben Eager, was on the ice. Sure didn't stop Carcillo did it? The only retribution he faced was from the league, which suspended him seven games. Which is the way it's supposed to work. Next time it will be 10 games. Soon he'll be unemployable.

Burke lamented a time when players fought their own battles. Well, had Dion Phaneuf wanted to, he could have dropped them with Steve Downie of the Lightning the other night just like the "good old days," but wisely Phaneuf thought better of it, knowing it would be a total waste of his talent and energy. But Downie wasn't running away from fighting. He challenged just about every Leaf out there to fight. He's a rat, but he's accountable for his own rat-ness.

So to me, today's Burke presser was about feeling bad for Orr, missing the way the game used to be played and regretting sending an NHL salary to the minors for no pressing reason other than he needed to open a roster spot and Orr was the least valuable guy on the team.

Nothing wrong with any of that.

 

 

 

 

 

Ducks Could Be Set To Move Getzlaf

We've seen this head fake from Anaheim GM Bob Murray before. So Leaf fans need not get too excited.

One moment earlier this season, you may remember, scoring winger Bobby Ryan was made available around the league for a possible trade, the next minute he wasn't available and Murray had instead fired head coach Randy Carlyle and quickly replaced him with the Bruce Boudreau.

But before, not after, the Ducks loss to San Jose on Wednesday night, a frustrated Murray appeared to make it clear in an interview with Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times that not only Ryan, but also Hart Trophy winner Corey Perry and centre Ryan Getzlaf are all now available to the highest bidder.

And it's Getzlaf, you have to believe, that would be a target for Maple Leafs' GM Brian Burke.

While slumping badly this season, the 26-year-old Getzlaf is precisely the big, tough centre that Burke has coveted but been unable to land since taking over in Toronto. Burke knows the player well from Anaheim's 2007 Stanley Cup championship, the timing now would fit the Leaf GM's preference of making big deals well in advance of the winter trade deadline and Getzlaf would certainly also fit the pattern of players who appeared to run out of steam in other cities coming to Toronto and finding the atmosphere reinvigorating.

It worked for Phil Kessel, Dion Phaneuf and Joffrey Lupul, all of whom may be in the NHL all-star game later this month. Could it work for Getzlaf? What would be the price?

But is the Anaheim captain really available? Early rumblings this morning suggest Getzlaf isn't the player Murray wants to move, and that Ryan is again the likeliest candidate for a trade. That would kill the notion of a trade to Toronto, as the Leafs don't see a fit with Ryan either positionally or in terms of cap strategy.

That said, Murray told the L.A. Times on Wednesday night that with his team locked into 29th place, only veterans Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu are untouchable.

"And the rest of the players in that locker room, I thought they'd figure out when we changed coaches that time was running, the clock was running quickly here. And I don't care who you talked about," Murray told the L.A. Times.

"We're going to get ready for next year," he said. "I think this team can be turned around to make the playoffs next year. I think it's going to be hard to do it this year but I do want them to make a run. But it's got to happen quick. Everybody knows that."

Maybe it was intended to be a pep talk, but after a 3-1 loss to the Sharks, it clearly hadn't had that effect.

Murray and Burke, former Anaheim associates, have done much business in recent years. They got together on the deal in Jan, 2010 that sent Jason Blake and goalie Vesa Toskala to the Ducks for $7 million netminder J.S. Giguere. Blake still plays for the Ducks, while Giguere never really panned out and was let go after last season.

Last winter, Burke traded defenceman Francois Beauchemin to Anaheim for Lupul, defence prospect Jake Gardiner and a fourth round draft pick. The Ducks used Beauchemin to finish fourth in the Western Conference while the Leafs missed the playoffs. This year, however, Lupul has blossomed and is the NHL's sixth leading scorer, while the 21-year-old Gardiner cracked the Leaf lineup out of training camp and has played very well.

Just this week, Burke and Murray did a minor league deal that sent winger Luca Caputi, picked up from Pittsburgh several years ago for Alexei Ponikarovsky, to the Ducks for minor-league forward Nicolas Deschamps.

As well, Burke seems to be positioning the roster for a move, having sent unproductive centre Phillipe Dupuis to the minors and put little-used enforcer Colton Orr, owed a $1 million salary for this year and next, on waivers.That may be designed to make room for returning injured players like Tyler Bozak and Mike Komisarek, while John Michael Liles, Colby Armstrong and Mike Brown are all still out.

The Leafs could handle Getzlaf's contract, which comes with a $5.325 million cap hit this season and next. Perry is under the same deal, but Burke is likely to much more interested in a playmaking centre than another scoring winger.

Despite his team's position, Murray told the L.A. Times he's not looking to dump veterans and rebuild.

"We will not go to draft picks. It's not my intention," he said.

Which, taken at face value, means roster players, or at the very least young players ready to step in.

When the Leafs were talking to Philly last summer about Mike Richards before he was moved to the Kings, it's believed the demands centred around a package involving Luke Schenn and Nazem Kadri. The Leafs don't have a No. 1 centre to send to the Ducks, so the fit would have to be Bozak, or theoretically, minor-leaguer Joe Colborne.

But it seems unlikely the Leafs would surrender both Kadri and Colborne, particularly with Kadri looking like he's in the NHL to stay. Defenceman Carl Gunnarson could also be a fit.

Getzlaf's numbers this season, by the way, are terrible. After being a key member of Canada's gold-medal winning team at the Vancouver Olympics, Getzlaf has only six goals and 19 assists this season while carrying a horrific minus-19 rating.

He and Boudreau haven't exactly hit it off. Getzlaf doesn't have a point in the last six games and has scored once since Boudreau took over.

Last week, Andrew Cogliano replaced Getzlaf at a key moment on the power play in an Anaheim game, which certainly caught Getzlaf's attention.

"(Boudreau) wants results," Getzlaf told reporters. "He expects better things out of me, as I do. It's one of those things (where) he's not telling me anything I don't know already. I need to get going and I need to make plays."

Clearly, Murray has all kinds of options here, and he could also trade goalie Jonas Hiller or defenceman Lubomir Visnovsky, as well. He doesn't necessarily have to move one of his big three forwards.

But he's also facing the clock with Getzlaf. If Murray doesn't move him now, he's facing a scenario next season in which Getzlaf would be in the final year of his contract and heading towards unrestricted free agency.

He might like to make that Burke's problem. Burke, on the other hand, must dream of having a player like the 6-foot-4, 240 pound Getzlaf to throw at divisional rival Boston and 6-foot-9 defenceman Zdeno Chara. Getzlaf would also put more snarl into the Leafs, particularly if he could find his game again and fit with Kessel and Lupul.

 

 

 

 

Not Just About The Goalies

Let's start with the facts.

For two straight years, Russia has been better than Canada in the big junior game that mattered.

And the Russians have done it far from home. Give them credit. Big dollops of it.

But not all losses are created equally.

And before we go too far down that path, let's remember the Canadian national junior team still has a chance to WIN a bronze medal.

Yes, yes, I know, only gold glitters in Canada when it comes to hockey. Blah, blah, blah.

This is not to say critical analysis of Canada's wild 6-5 loss - that score! again! - to the Russians on Tuesday night is somehow unfair because these are teenagers playing for their country and don't deserve anything but praise for being lovely Canadian boys as some would suggest.

But any suggestion from the other extreme, that Canada was outclassed and embarrassed by Russia, would be equally misleading.

That's the difference the final 20 minutes made.

If not for that, we'd be looking at this Don Hay-coached group as one that behaved petulantly and all but ran itself out of the sudden death semifinal contest.

But fighting back almost all the way from a five-goal, third period deficit while firing 56 shots as the opposing net is no reason for disgrace.

It's a helluva try.

Still, that's three straight years of no gold. Do we have a crisis on our hands similar to 1998?

Don't make me laugh. A hockey system that has produced in rapid succession gifts to the game like Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, Taylor Hall, Jeff Skinner and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has nothing to apologize for.

What was wrong back in '98, so wrong that Canada called a national forum on the matter, was largely fixed by a re-emphasis on skill development. Go watch minor hockey today. You'll see amazing stuff.

Back then, we weren't playing for bronze. We were losing to Kazakhstan and letting the rest of the world do skill while we supplied goons, goalies and grinders.

That has changed dramatically. So no crisis. No national inquiry.

What happened on Tuesday was that a good Canadian junior national team - not a great one - had it's vulnerabilities exposed by a Russian team that did the opposite of Canada.

Canada started terribly and ended strongly. Russia started brilliantly and finished barely hanging on, needing a goalpost and a huge save by a relief goalkeeper to avoid a bigger collapse than Canada's the year before in Buffalo.

Some years Team Canada's juniors will be excellent. Some years they'll just be good, and just good generally won't win this event. Ask Sweden, still hoping for its first gold since 1981.

Teenage talent is cyclical, even in talent-packed Canada, and the absence of high-end talent on this Canadian team - or its presence on NHL rosters - left this group a little short.

Russia, meanwhile, may be at the peak of a cycle. It had enough to win gold at the world juniors last year, and this year has come with a team armed with two dynamic teenagers, Nail Yakupov and Mikhail Grigorenko, who could go 1-2 in next June's NHL entry draft like Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Malkin once did.

So next year in Ufa we may be talking about how good the Russians might be if Yakupov and Grigorenko weren't playing in Columbus and Anaheim, or something like that.

Many Canadians, of course, will want to pin this one on the goalies, and certainly 17 goals allowed by our masked men in three decisive games over the past three world juniors is deserving of scrutiny.

You can't hide the fact that when it mattered in 2010, 2011 and this year, Canada's goalkeeping wasn't good enough, or more accurately, not spectacular enough.

But a country that won gold in the past decade with the likes of Jeff Glass, Justin Pogge and Dustin Tokarski in net can't say that it has only recently hit a lull in the goaltending department.

We've been covering up this vulnerable area for a little while now, usually with sturdy, reliable team play, which is the way you're supposed to do it.

This year, Scott Wedgewood and Mark Visentin were powerless to halt the collapsing team around them, just as Visentin, with Olivier Roy helplessly looking on, couldn't do it on his own in the final 20 minutes last year against the Russians.

In Saskatoon against the Americans, Jake Allen and Martin Jones combined to give up six. Of these five goalies - Wedgewood, Visentin, Roy, Allen and Jones - it's unlikely, although not impossible, that any will be NHL all-stars.

They were top-end junior goalies thrust into a boiling cauldron of national expectations.

That said, Canada did win gold with Tokarski and Chet Pickard, and before that with Jonathan Bernier and Steve Mason. Indeed, Carey Price was the last truly world-class goalie to lead Canada to gold.

Before him, it was Pogge, and before him, Glass.

That's eight years of Canadian junior goalies and one legitimate star. Amidst a huge assortment of brilliant offensive and defensive talent, plus some very good forwards and blueliners who didn't even make the team, the parade of goalies hasn't been quite at the same level.

That said, understand this; the U.S. pulled it's starter to win overtime gold in 2010. Russia, lest we forget, pulled its starting goalie in the gold medal game last year and in last night's semifinals.

So its not like the countries beating Canada of late have had all the answers in goal, either.

EVERYBODY in hockey is guessing with goalies these days, whether it's Owen Sound winning the OHL last year rotating three goalies or Philly starting sophomore Sergei Bobrovsky ahead of $51 million man Ilya Bryzgalov in the Winter Classic or the Maple Leafs suddenly finding more success with Jonas Gustavsson between the pipes than James Reimer.

It's one-year-and-do-we-have-anyone-else?

Maybe it's a commentary on the current state of the position. With 99 per cent of goalies playing the same style, none seem able to establish excellence for long period of time or at multiple levels.

For Canada, the same quality of goalies as it had this year has been good enough before. What wasn't good enough this year was team play - too many penalties, poor defensive coverage, inconsistent forecheck - and the absence of anything equivalent to Yakupov and Evgeny Kuznetsov to dominate up front.

Perhaps if Tyler Seguin wasn't in Boston and Jeff Skinner wasn't in Carolina, that equation would be different.

Coaches - Hay this year, Dave Cameron last year - have to shoulder some of the weight for being unable to get panicking teenagers to re-focus in the middle of an important international game.

Last night, if Boone Jenner hadn't got himself tossed for a silly spear and Jonathan Huberdeau hadn't removed himself from the game for 12 critical minutes, the big comeback might have started earlier. We haven't seen that absence of discipline from a Canadian junior team for a long time.

Two other factors come into play. Canada cruised into the semifinals without really being tested, while Russia had tough jousts against Sweden and then the Czechs.

In a short tournament, Russia seemed more ready for battle last night. It was the same last year.

Second, this tourney ended a long run of world junior tourneys that had Canada mostly enjoying home ice advantage. That includes gatherings in Grand Forks and Buffalo that saw the stands filled with Canadians.

That comes with expectations. The Canadian-based events have also come with skyrocketing profits, maybe $20 million this year.

The stakes are being raised in Canada in a way they aren't being raised in other countries. Bigger crowds and bigger profits make the days of holding the tourney in Red Deer seem quaint.

So maybe going on the road to Russia next winter isn't a bad thing. Imagine the drama starting to build already for that.

Which is why Tuesday's result was, in a larger sense, good for the world juniors. It certainly adds texture to an event that needed it, perhaps, after 10 straight years of seeing Team Canada in the gold medal game.

 

 

 

 

Toronto's Time To Host The (Profitable) Holiday Party

The stars, you have to believe, are perfectly aligned.

Hockey Canada will be hosting the world junior hockey championships in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021 as part of a new agreement with the IIHF. It may not be good for the event to be in Canada so regularly, but it's a big money maker and will keep coming to the Great White North until some other country wants it as much and can put on as good a show.

So with those four Canadian hosting dates set over the next nine years, you have to believe one of them will be the perfect occasion for Hockey Canada to take the big leap of faith.

Let Toronto host the WJC for the first time.

For starters, a fairly successful Mastercard Memorial Cup in Mississauga last spring - good crowds, mediocre profits - certainly addressed the notion that the GTA won't buy junior hockey at all. Many of the games were sold out despite doomsayers who said it would all be a disaster, suggesting a well-organized, well-promoted junior event could be successful here.

Second, by next summer, TSN (Bell) will own half the controlling interest in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment in a joint venture with Sportsnet (Rogers). When that deal was announced, it was clear both TSN and Rogers viewed it primarily as a content arrangement.

But an MLSE bid to host the world juniors could do that and more.

TSN's broadcast deal for the WJC expires in 2014. Sportsnet, you can bet, has big-time interest in gaining at least some of the rights to the event. Hockey Canada now has two legitimate bidders, and given the corporate behavior of both TSN and Sportsnet with MLSE - rather than risk being cut out, they cut a deal with each other - it certainly would make sense that a deal to bring the world juniors to Toronto would fit both their interests.

And both do so love money. This year's WJC, shared between Edmonton and Calgary, will reportedly reap a profit in the neighborhood of $15 million. Maybe closer to $20 million.

For a successful MLSE bid, that would be on top of the content play, plus it would mean lucrative dates for the Air Canada Centre, a building Bell and Rogers will jointly own almost 80 per cent of next summer.

Toronto could partner with area OHL cities like Barrie, Oshawa, Kitchener and London if it wanted, or use Copps Coliseum in Hamilton if, as it seems, two NHL-sized rinks may soon be necessary for this event. That said, with perfect junior sized rinks in Brampton and Mississauga and the Ricoh Coliseum (also controlled by MLSE), there may be no logistical need to go outside of the GTA.

Vancouver, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Buffalo and now Calgary/Edmonton has demonstrated clearly this tournament works beautifully in NHL-sized communities. 

Toronto will host the Pan-American Games in 2015. Hosting the world juniors that year would give the city a head start on organizing volunteers and other logistical hurdles.

It just makes so much sense, if not in '15, then in '17, '19 or '21. Montreal, which hosted back in '78, will be in the game, as well. The formal process of bidding won't be begin until this spring or summer, but informal conversations involving Toronto have certainly begun. You can bet IIHF boss Rene Fasel would love to be belle of the ball at a WJC in the Centre of the Universe.

It's hard to believe that sometime in the next decade, Toronto won't be the host of the world junior championships. Might as well start selling tickets now.