Brian Burke is screwed. He brought in Phil Kessel to be an addition to what he believed a playoff team, which obviously hasn't worked out. Oh, Kessel's doing his part, but it's a team game. And that team he belongs to...dreadful. So now what? Kessel languishes in a debilitating situation while Boston licks its chops at the prospect of walking the stage first courtesy of Burke?
It just never ends, does it?
Had Burke not over valued this team, had his ambitions not over shot reality, all of this losing wouldn't sting so much. We'd know the end result would at least net something to make another dreadful season worthwhile. Well, forget that. I guess the goal for Burke over the next 62 games is to do whatever possible to move the Leafs out of 30th place. Even someone of Burke's tough and gruff demeanor won't be able to fully repel what's about to be unleashed on him, and he's going to get his fill between now and draft time.
Damage control?
To spare himself further ridicule and the ultimate embarrassment next June he has got to hoist his hapless crew from the bottom of the pit. The Bruins picking 5th thanks to the Leafs won't hurt nearly as much. If Peter Chiarelli gets first dibs, well...it's difficult to even think about it. On contrary, Burke's got a lot of thinking to do RIGHT NOW. He's compounded this mess with his naive and short-sighted moves, so he needs to do something, anything, a bunch of things to halt this high velocity venture into the abyss. Because it's painfully clear the guys he's got out there now aren't capable.
Why bother?
Why does Ron Wilson continually use Lee Stempniak in the shootout? Actually, why does Wilson even fill out a shootout line-up? Hey, Ron...why do you even show up? It's a no win, man. Well, a 3 win...in 20 games. That's something, I guess?
There's one Positive out of the Trade: Phil Kessel has more NHL goals than Taylor Hall or Seguin does.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, it's gonna be hard to find optimism around Leafs nation these days
The timing or necessity of the Kessel trade makes so little sense right now. I'd think certain alarm bells would start to ring in my mind if I were GM when the best performers during pre-season were a line consisting of college rooks and a player just drafted in the first round. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteI know that pre-season is shrugged off as an exercise in getting in game shape and staying healthy while engaging in a few matches of bonhommie against fellow teams, but a GM has to have a sense of what exactly he has and what those players can do.
That Burke didn't see the situation for what it may be and still traded for Kessel is almost unfathomable. It is a 'misunderestimation' of George W. Bush proportions, both profound in its stupidity and akin to bad hockey grammar - you don't trade away the future if your present has the potential to be dismal.
He wanted a challenge. At least we think he did?
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