Results tagged “brianburke”

One game, one blown third period lead. And while Leaf fans can take a lot of positives from tonight's season-opening, 4-3 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens, it’s a game Toronto really should’ve won. The Leafs were all over Carey Price’s net the entire game (final shot tally: 46–27). They were also leading with under five minutes left to play—then squandered a weak tying goal (thanks in part to Mike Komisarek, who spent just under a quarter of his Maple Leafs debut in the penalty box) and a totally preventable game-winner (the usually reliable Luke Schenn will want to forget his role in that one). Of course, it’s only one game, and all the work Brian Burke put into shoring up the team’s defense should eventually pay off…but these late collapses will have to stop. Last year, the Leafs’ eight blown third period leads resulting in losses cost them a shot at the postseason. If this year’s team is going to compete, improvement in this one category would be a pretty good place to start.

When Brian Burke arrived in Toronto last November, he promised a Maple Leaf team full of "pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence.” He wasn’t kidding: barely seven months into his tenure as the Leafs’ thirteenth general manager, Burke has begun creating exactly that.

The Montreal Canadiens' 4–1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks yesterday night mathematically eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs from postseason contention, thus assuring the Buds of a fourth consecutive playoff-less year. The Leafs haven’t been in a playoff game since Jeremy Roenick eliminated them in the 2004 Eastern Conference semi-finals. Not to belabour the point, but this is the longest such streak in franchise history.

Trade deadline has become an odd sort of ritual for Canadian sports fans. It’s frankly tedious, yet it’s also undeniably gripping—because trade deadline, in one way or another, symbolizes hope for almost every NHL team.

The Brian Burke saga, or at least the first part of it, is over. We’re as surprised as anyone—Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment tends to struggle with straightforward tasks—but today, Burke was officially unveiled as the new President and General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Never a dull moment in Leafland: with the team in the midst of its first western Canadian road trip in almost three years, the Brian Burke saga resurfaced once again. Last Wednesday, Burke resigned as general manager of the Anaheim Ducks; a day later he was given permission to avail himself to other teams. In theory, there’re twenty-nine places he could end up. Realistically, there’s probably only one.