Forget about a quick, conventional solution to filling the holes in the Maple Leafs' hierarchy.

On May 7, the day Paul Maurice was fired as coach, his departure took a back seat to news the Leafs had requested permission from the Vancouver Canucks to talk with their fired general manager, Dave Nonis.

That rekindled talk that Nonis's former boss, Brian Burke, could be on his way to Toronto next summer to front a hockey office that Nonis would set up while Burke serves the final year of his contract as the general manager of the Anaheim Ducks.

Burke insists he knows nothing about such a plan, though the Leafs were pursuing him in the shadows up until last month, when the Ducks ownership demanded Burke finish his term.

One win doesn't signal the Flyers' ultimate victory in the Eastern Conference finals. Historical probabilities detailed by a website shows the odds remain in Pittsburgh's favor.

Leafs            Coach Gilmour?  Coud be (Toronto Sun)                     Leafs' Stralman stars for Sweden with two goals (Toronto Star)   Marlies         Wolves, Krog feast on Marlies in series opener (CP)                     Hungry Wolves maul Marlies in series opener (Toronto Star)                    ... (...)

In what was easily Canada’s biggest test thus far at the IIHF World Hockey Championships, Sweden may have found another young star.

In a tightly fought contest, between the world’s top ranked team and the host nation (yes that’s right Sweden is the top ranked hockey nation in the World by the IIHF), Anton Stralman stepped forward as one of the most important contributors for the team in blue, in a losing cause. Considering the fact that the only star power Sweden could rightfully claim, came in the form of Henrik Lundqvist, and Nicklas Backstrom, and neither of those players dominated… it was nice to see a Leaf prospect step up and grab the ring.

Lundqvist was pulled after 2 periods for allowing 5 goals on 27 shots, giving way to another former Leaf in backup net minder Mikael Tellqvist. Backstrom had 0 points and didn’t register a shot until the 3rd period. Anton Stralman on the other hand, contributed 2 goals. The first was scored with less than a minute left in the 1st period, to tie the score at 1-1. His second goal was equally important, knotting the score at 2-2 halfway through the 2nd period.

Though the Swedes lost, Stralman and the Leafs should consider this game a large step in the right direction. He led the team with 2 goals, a +2 rating, and was second on the team in overall ice-time, playing 21:41 against a very strong Canadian line-up. Unfortunately he took 2 minor penalties, which contributed to the 1st and 2nd Canadian markers respectively, but considering the players he was defending against, he frankly fared relatively well.

Between Stralman, Kaberle, Colaiacovo, White, Kubina, and McCabe, the Leafs now have what could easily be termed a plethora of offensive defense men. Kaberle and Stralman are leading their respective defensive units in scoring at the WHC with 9 and 7 points respectively. Colaiacovo, White, Kubina, and McCabe are also all capable of scoring at a high rate. The real problem the Leafs face in the future is DEFENSIVE ability and positional play. They lack a “shut down” defensive pairing in the mold of Phillips and Volchenkov. Not to say that’s entirely necessary. Personally I think if the right coach is brought in and puts a solid defensive system in place, and gets the forwards to buy into it, the D on the Leafs will improve drastically. If their PK can step up, and they collapse in front of the net more, their goals against should drop. But that’s just me looking in my crystal ball.

Another idea would be for the Leafs to consider trading one of their younger offensive D men (i.e. White or Colaiacovo) and see what they could get in exchange on the front end. Considering the way Jay Harrison is playing for the Marlies, he should certainly get a look next season. Perhaps the Leafs cupboard isn’t as bare as the mass media would have us think?

The Toronto Marlies dropped the first game of the Western Conference Final on Friday night, losing 4-1 to the Chicago Wolves at AllState Arena.  Jason Krog, the 2007-08 AHL MVP, had a hat trick in the Wolves victory.The Marlies fell... (...)

TORONTO (May 16) -- The fact Anaheim Ducks' owner Henry Samueli has run afoul of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could determine how much longer Brian Burke remains GM of Samueli's club. As sports business columnist Rick Westhead pointed out in today's Toronto Star, the final year of Burke's deal in Anaheim could be nullified if his contract has an escape clause relating to the Ducks'

The Detroit Red Wings sound as if the Western Conference finals have lasted long enough. They're ready to eliminate the Dallas Stars on Saturday in Game 5 and earn a spot in the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since winning a title in 2002. "We want to finish them off as soon as we can," Detroit forward Tomas Holmstrom said Friday.

The other day I came across an amazing post over at The Legend of Cecilio Guante about athletes and teams that...

The Toronto Marlies won their second consecutive seven-game series of the 2008 Calder Cup playoffs, ousting the Syracuse Crunch in the North Division Final.  The Marlies now face the Chicago Wolves in the Western Conference Final, beginning Friday night at... (...)

Canada versus Sweden goes at 1:50 PM Pacific this aft (TSN, TSN.ca). Since it's a long weekend, most of you have already bailed for cottage country, but if your lonely or otherwise suffering through big game withdrawal, have at it in our comment section. Canada 6, ABBA 3 (Rick Heatzlaf with two natural hatties) I'm out of appropriate pump-up tunes, so you'll have to make do with this Skoda

The gentleman catching flies on the right is the hottest free agent currently on the market: Dave Nonis, former...

First off, let's give thanks to Queen Victoria for being born around this weekend and providing us with a holiday just as the warm weather is ramping into gear.

Secondly, let's give a hearty boo to the weather for not cooperating.

Furthermore, Canada faces Sweden at 4:50pm today in the IIHF semi-finals. The schedule could not be better although a lot of little cousins are going to be disappointed that they won't be watching Treehouse. Good thing I can take on 29 five year olds.

Most importantly, it's time for a special announcement. I've been hinting at it every time I mention that diaries will soon have a much less demeaning name but the day is soon upon us. On May 20th (freak Texas weather permitting) this site will be migrating over to the new SB Nation 2.0 platform. What does that mean for you guys? Tonnes. The brains behind the development will have a post up in the morning outlining the new features and trying to explain just how awesome this will make the site. To try to get an idea of the changes check out some of the sites that have already made the migration:

• Athletics Nation
  
  
• Pats Pulpit
  
  
• Bluebird Banter
  
  

The developers will also be around to help answer any questions and to fix any bugs. The platform has been rolled out slowly and each successive wave has helped hone the feature and tighten up the platform so we are getting a pretty refined version. I've been able to play with a beta version and I think you guys are going to love it.

One of the main benefits is that you will have one log-in across the network's blogs. They have worked out a way of deciding who gets to use a username if there are any conflicts and I've been checking some of your usernames and I have bad news for Junior but you're going to have to think up a new name!

Anyway, like I said, there will be a lot of help available in the first few days as we make the change but I hope you'll love the new platform as much as I think that you will. So don't be worried if you check out the site in the wee hours of May 20th and get an error message. It's just the magic happening.

And onto the links...

• Mirtle tosses a heads up about the IIHF Hall of Fame inductions. Who remembers Angela James being left off the 1998 Olympic team? If you didn't follow hockey or were too young to remember it was huuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggge and of course it probably cost Canada the first women's gold medal.
  
  
• Moose tries to lay out a game plan for the Leafs and Oilers. I am intrigued by some of his suggestions but still enraged that he'd dare to bring up 1993. Make sure to vote in their poll after you listen to the podcast and find out just when I cursed Moose's name out loud.
  
  
• Steve reminds us that even though the Leafs aren't playing it is still a pretty big day for the club. Stralman is playing Canada so hopefully he picks up 5 points in a 6-5 loss. Meanwhile, the Marlies' Conference Championship series begins tonight agaist the Chicago Wolves and our old friend Karel Pilar. Damn health troubles!
  
  

Leafs            It won't be a snap for Leafs search team (Toronto Sun)                     Could owner's woes land Burke in T.O.? (Toronto Star)   Marlies         Grapes' praise a big boost for Marlie (Toronto Star)                     Harrison happy to have Cherry in... (...)

Tonight is a big night for some of the young guns of the Toronto Maple Leafs. First up, at 5:00 pm, the Swedish national team will be facing team Canada in the IIHF World Hockey Championship Semi Finals. Anton Stralman will be patrolling the blue line for the Swedes, and his play has been steadily improving. He has the 2nd highest +/- on the Swedish Defense, at +5, and the 2nd highest point total with 2 goals and 3 assists for 5 points. This despite being 5th in ice-time per game amongst the team’s defenders. On the negative side, he is tied for 2nd on the team in penalty minutes with 27. Overall though, Stralman is putting forth a solid performance for a top 4 team at the World Hockey Championships. This should bode well for his future in the NHL.

At 8:30 the Marlies will be facing off against the Wolves in Chicago in game 1 of their Calder Cup Semi Final. Thus far the Marlies have won 2 series in a row, both in 7 games. Chicago is less defensively stalwart than Syracuse or San Antonio. They gave up more goals (226) than any of the 4 Semi-Finalists during the regular season. The strength of the Wolves is scoring goals, and during the regular season they did it a lot, potting 300 pucks in enemy nets. They also play with a physical edge, with over 400 more penalty minutes in the regular season than their closest remaining rivals in that area, the Marlies. The Wolves boast one of the strongest Power Plays in the AHL, mainly due to their dynamic duo, league leading scorer and MVP, Jason Krog, and Darren Haydar. They also get offensive output from Brett Stirling, Joe Motzko, and Jesse Schultz. In net they are also relatively strong, with Ondrej Pavelec posting a .925 SV% and 2.28 GAA thus far in the Calder Cup playoffs.

If the Marlies are going to win this series, their league leading PK needs to shut down the powerful Chicago PP. They also need to score on the less than stellar Chicago D, as well as continue to get production from more than 1 line. If everyone shows up, and the team skates well, forechecks hard, and plays solid positionally, they can do well in the series.

The season series was split with 1 win for each team, and was relatively high scoring. The Marlies won the most recent match up on April 9th, 8-3. Scott Clemmensen was in net for both games, so I’m going to stifle my arguments on behalf of Justin Pogge. Should Clemmensen get lit up early in the series, don’t be surprised if Pogge gets another chance. Clemmensen has faced more rubber than any goalie in these playoffs, but he and the rest of his teammates claim to be more than ready for the next round. Tonight we’ll find out if they were telling the truth.

Lots of news in the Carolina Hurricanes world today:

First off finally and as the head coach of the team. I don't know why this was an issue in the first place or why it took GM Jim Rutherford over a month to think it through. What I do know is that Laviolette is one of the better coaches in the league and it would be stupid to fire him, especially when a rival like Atlanta or Toronto would have hired him in a heartbeat. Given that the team lost 336 (something like that) man games to injury, Laviolette and the team should be rewarded for their effort (missed playoffs by 2 pts). It seemed like a no-brainer to bring him back.

Second, Rutherford announced that for next season's games. As a fan who goes to 10+ games every year (not a season ticket plan), I don't have a problem with this. I think a lot of people will, but look at it this way: the Canes lost almost 10 million dollars this year, and the owner Peter Karmanos can't be happy about that. Don't forget that he shocked the Hartford Whalers fans by relocating the team. If Karmanos isn't happy and he isn't making money, he's gonna move this team- he could care less about the fan base. So when you pay the extra cost think which would be worse: losing a little extra money or losing the Canes. To me, though I'm a college student who doesn't make much money, the choice is obvious. I guess it might vary from person to person.

On to the Offseason:

This is what I see in the Canes (a scouting report I guess):


They have one of the most skilled corps of forwards in the league.
The forwards lack size, too many small players in a league that is consistently getting bigger- all very short.
In other words, the forwards on this team are generally known for finesse and speed over power and force.
Only one true power forward on the team ().

is still the best two-way player on the team but is showing development as a solid two-way player...the first two lines are under contract for 08-09: Brindy-Williams-Whitney and Staal-Cole-Samsonov... are also under contract for 08-09... are while are ...Rutherford implied in his exit interview that and won't be back...they might be replaced with a big bruiser type player...Rutherford may buy 's contract out to get rid of him and save some money...Rutherford may have to trade a high profile forward in order to get another puck-moving defenseman, and he acknowledged that.


Only one offensive defenseman on the team ().
Only one solid defensive defensemen, also called a "stay-at-home" defenseman (). is another good defensive defenseman, but he struggles with injuries and may retire.
The rest of the defense is suspect, a very weak unit:
- struggles with his confidence, makes poor decisions and largely unreliable.
- is big and slow, has poor agility, can easily be undressed by finesse forwards.
- is old and while he still has the determination, his game is declining.
- is out indefinitely with a concussion, he still can't see straight
- is surprisingly the best on this "weak" list (IMO), he shows good agility and speed. However Laviolette has little faith in him and he is often a healthy scratch or injured (only played in 47 games this year, still, picked up 15 assists and was +6).

Rutherford implied in his exit interview that the defense would be "retooled"..., and are under contract for 08-09... and are while , and are ...re-signing is a priority...Rutherford will most likely try to trade and/or since both are under contract for 08-09 but subpar defenseman...'s contract is a useless waste of cap money, it would be useful to buy it out...it may be best for the team if and retire...if both retired Rutherford could shop for a puck-moving offensive defenseman...he has expressed interest (rumor) in , a free agent from Colorado...moving was wise...the defense is Carolina's weakest link, defensive errors/breakdowns hang the goalies out to dry and often make them look worse than they are.


shows improvement every year:
1st year- 3.68 GAA, .882 save %
2nd year- 2.93 GAA, .887 save %
3rd year- 2.75 GAA, .904 save %

I attribute 's generally poor numbers to the defense- if he played on the Detroit Red Wings, behind Lidstrom, Ralfalski, Kronvall and Chelios, he would have the best numbers in the league... is a free agent, no chance of coming back to the Canes...the AHL goalie under contract with the Canes, , won AHL best goalie award, he led all AHL goalies in GAA...expect to be the backup to next year... is a free agent, needs to be re-signed.


Sources used -http://www.nhlnumbers.com/overview.php?team=CAR, great website there, and also http://blogs.newsobserver.com/canes/, a great Canes blog. I'll probably write another blog about what I think Rutherford should do this offseason, stay tuned!

The Toronto Marlies announced they will open their Western Conference Finals series of the 2008 Calder Cup Playoffs in Chicago on Friday, May 16 at 8:30 p.m. against the Chicago Wolves at the Allstate Arena.

The rest of the game dates can be found on the Marlies official site:

Marlies Announce Dates For Western Conference Finals - The Official Site of the Toronto Marlies

The Philadelphia Flyers scored three goals in the first period and staved off elimination from the Eastern Conference finals with a 4-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night. The series goes back to Pittsburgh for Game 5 on Sunday. Only two NHL teams have recovered from an 0-3 deficit to win, the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and the 1975 New York Islanders.

Remember this post, in which I pointed out that Damien Cox only ever writes four different articles and just uses search-and-replace to change the names?

Column #3 was the one where Cox says something positive about a potential Leafs move, with the understanding that what he's suggesting won't actually happen because it's impossible.

Well, check out today's mailbag...

Q: Damien,

In order, who would be your top five choices to run the Leafs? Don't go all John-Ferguson-non-committal on me here, and I don't care about realistically available. 5 executives, no limitations, who would they be in order?

Johnny Bups, Brampton, Ont.

First, which one of you is sending Damien questions under that obviously fake name?

Second, this is a great question. J-Bup is calling Damien on his usual "criticize everything, but suggest nothing" approach. Longtime readers know that Cox will almost never write about what the Leafs should be doing, because they might actually do it and then he'd be stuck having to say something nice about them.

"Johnny" isn't going to stand for it, so he tries to pin Damien down on a real answer. Who does he think should be the Leafs next GM? Which choices would Mr. Crankypants actually find acceptable?

Gosh, I wonder where this one will go?

A: If I could get anybody? In order, it would be Lou Lamoriello, Ken Holland, Bob Gainey, Brian Burke and Doug Wilson.

Yes folks, it's five GMs who we already know are not available. What useful and timely analysis! I'm surprised he didn't mention Sam Pollock.

My favorite part of this non-answer is that he still lists Burke fourth. On the slim chance that the Leafs do work a miracle and land him, Cox can still say that there were better candidates.

You're a crafty one, Cox.

From Morris Della Costa at the London Free Press,

There’s no question the heat is on Peddie. He talked about the two websites dedicated to petitions to get him removed as CEO. One website, firerichardpeddie.ca, has close to 14,000 signatures.

He comes under constant criticism about his performance. Most people would say they don’t read the newspapers. Not Peddie.

“Presidents are people, too. We bleed. I read all of it,” he said. “Some people say they don’t (read) but I have to. There may be something there we have to correct or be mindful of. It’s tough some days. But this job is not for the fainthearted. You have to be comfortable that you are doing the right thing.”

continued...

*I’m not sure Peddie should be too concerned about FireRichardPeddie.ca—of the 14,000 “signatures”, it would appear that about 13,860 are advertisements for viagra and vicodin.

New Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold held his breath while coach Jacques Lemaire weighed his hunger to return...

According to some numbers from the Hockey News (helpfully provided by Lowetide), over the course of the 90’s 32% of successful NHL players taken in the entry draft were selected in the first round. For the Leafs, that should mean that roughly 1/3rd of all the players they’ve drafted who have had decent careers in the NHL should be first rounders. Luckily for Leafs fans, that looks to be the case.

This past season there were 20 Leaf draft picks that played games in the NHL. All but 3 of those played at least 20 games. Looking at the 17 players who played over 20 games, 6 of those were first rounders. Brad Boyes, Alex Steen, Nik Antropov, Jiri Tlusty, Scott Thornton, Carlo Colaiacovo, and Luke Richardson.

The strange thing with the Leafs when it comes to drafting is where the hell are their 2nd and 3rd round draft picks? Of the 17 players mentioned previously, only 2 were selected in the 2nd round, and only 3 were picked in the 3rd round. That means an astounding 5 of the Leafs draft picks currently playing regularly in the NHL were taken after the 3rd round. That’s over 25%.

Just by way of comparison, lets examine the players drafted by the team everyone touts as superior to everyone else: Detroit. The Red Wings currently have exactly the same number of draft picks as the Leafs playing in the NHL - 20 (surprised anyone?), and every single one of those played over 20 games in the league this season. 4 of the Red Wings 1st rounders are currently seeing ice time in the NHL: Mike Sillinger, Niklas Kronwall, Martin Lapointe, and Anders Eriksson. That’s only a success rate of 20% but that’s within 2 players of normal, and the Red Wings probably don’t always have a first round pick (but then again neither did the Leafs). The Red Wings have five 2nd rounders playing in the NHL: Jiri Hudler, Niklas Lidstrom, Slava Kozlov, Mathieu Dandenault, and Tomas Kopecky. Like Toronto they only have three 3rd rounders seeing ice time in the NHL. Beyond that they have a strong 8 players they’ve taken in the 4th round or later playing currently in the NHL. That’s actually 40% which far outstrips the Leafs results, but in such a small sample I’m not really sure it warrants all the attention the Red Wings staff gets. The main reason the Red Wings drafting is so lauded is its ability to find STAR calibre players. But lets be honest here… how many of those has the franchise landed? 3? 4? more?

Niklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, and Henrik Zetterberg are obviously All-Stars, and Sergei Federov was once an MVP. In the next tier you could include Johan Franzen, Tomas Holmstrom, Mike Knuble, and Niklas Kronwall. Jiri Hudler, and Valteri Filppula might turn into stars, but they aren’t there yet. The Leafs drafted Tomas Kaberle and Brad Boyes, who are both legit stars at this point in the NHL. In their next tier you’d have to include Fredrik Modin, Nik Antropov, and Yanic Perreault (this is not based on current results only so anyone that thinks Yanic the Manic is past his prime, save yourself the time of informing me - I realize this). In the ranks of might become, but are not yet, stars would have to be Alex Steen, Anton Stralman, Carlo Colaiacovo, Alex Ponikarovsky, and perhaps Stajan or Tlusty. Yes the Wings picks have won more, but the Leafs haven’t drafted an MVP or a Norris Trophy Winner, so we’ll have to cut them some slack for not picking Lidstrom or Fedorov.

My point here is, while the Leafs ARE weak in their drafting abilities, I think their main weakness actually lies in picking mid round players. They need to improve on who they select in the 2nd and 3rd round. They could also improve on their selections of 1st rounders by taking players who might become stars, but as shown by the Red Wings… All Stars aren’t necessarily 1st rounders.

The next time someone trots out the “facts” about Detroit’s wonderful drafting, you can just remind yourself that they have the same number of drafted players as the Leafs do playing in the NHL, and most of the high quality ones were taken well after the 3rd round anyway… so why the hell would that impact on who the Leafs should take 7th overall??? Detroit is just as likely to botch a 7th overall pick as the Leafs are.  Are the Red Wings seriously that proud of Martin Lapointe and Mike Sillinger?  Would you be?

Sean has gotten the ball rolling in terms of coming up with taglines for both the Montreal Canadiens and the ottawa senators. Make sure to add your ideas in yesterday's post.

In the hockey world last night the Stars won despite one of the most brutal no-goal calls since Kerry Fraser pulled one back as a personal favour to the Islanders two years ago and Canada crushed a bunch of part-timers to set up a semi-final meeting with Anton Stralman and Sweden. I don't have anything to add other than a little disappointment that Canada is done playing in Halifax. The Pepsi Colisee is bigger but I think that after Halifax's great support of the World Juniors they deserved to have the final. Ah well, c'est la vie.

Anyway, here are some interesting links. If you have any you've come across toss them in the comments:

• Bryan McCabe's barbecue ends with an interesting revelation. Some might call it a bribe but I'd call it the price of doing business.
  
  
• Lowetide references a study done on the draft. 2% end up being elite players. 55% end up being Leaf draftees.
  
  
• Barry Melrose Rocks hands out his playoff beard awards. Personally, if I could grow a beard, I'd show a little more creativity during the playoffs. The Wild Mountain Man has been done. Who remembers the QMJHL team that shaved their beards into weird shapes? That was hilarious.
  
  
• Sweepblog? I hope so. Screw the Flyers.
  
  
• MF37 unveils a new colour coded panic metre. Rather than being used as a propaganda tool this one will be used to fight tools like Adam Proteau who has consistently shown that he knows jack squat about the Leafs.
  
  
• Senators Lost Cojones should be a travel agent. He just sold me on the 2012 IIHF World Championships and Halifax. Sounds like a pretty good way to go.

Last week, Jason Blake was asked by the Toronto Star if he would mind being traded by the Toronto Maple Leafs .

Leafs            Blake would rather stay (Toronto Sun)                     No Nonis deal, talks to continue (Toronto Star)                     Leafs and Nonis: just friends, so far (The Globe And Mail)   Marlies         Anderson's local roots run deep (Toronto Sun)                     Marlies get ready to feast on Wolves (Toronto Star)                     Leafs goalie of the future... (...)