Bob McCown
With the boats now foolishly burnt and the season 31 games old, the Toronto Maple Leafs sure look like they’re reeling into form. Since starting the season with a record of 15 – 9 – 0, the Leafs have gone 1 – 3 – 3 in the past seven games, collecting only five points in the standings and now sitting precariously in sixth place in the Eastern Conference.
Through the good graces of the Hockey gods and the incompetence of their direct competition (the Jets, Hurricanes and Rangers all lost in regulation last night), the Leafs are just barely keeping their head above water. [more…]
This latest edition of Stick Work with Fab&Kats, features the co-hosts, expanding on the winning means nothing blog in an expanded forum.
Fab and I pick our Torontosaurus Rex. Fab goes the conventional route, while I pick a defenseman ... It's an abreviated, yet content-rich edition.
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I'll be posting at FAN590 and Prime Time Sports personality, Bob McCown's site Fadoo.ca moving forward in addition to MLHS.
My first post consisted of more point system analysis, looking at how post-expansion increases in tied games precipitated the implementation of overtime in the early 1980's. It needed tweaking once again and then once again in the late 1990's, and then fully eliminated with the final implementation of the shootout.
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The infamous Brian Burke "stamp" that has become his signature since his times in Hartford, Vancouver and Anaheim arrived in Toronto yesterday in the form of Phil Kessel and at the expense of the club's next two first round draft picks and this year's second round pick. Any time a general manager moves not one but two first round draft picks, it constitutes a major future-shaping decision and one that will ultimately play a major part in defining the legacy of his regime. Yesterday we were reaffirmed of one increasingly apparent fact about Brian Burke's rebuild - it's not your traditional model. We've seen over the course of the last three months - from June to September - Burke aggressively pursue all available avenues to try to position his club as a contender in the short and long term. Certainly, the 2009-10 campaign just got a whole lot more interesting.
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Brian Burke was on Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown on Wednesday afternoon to discuss a variety of Leaf topics. An audio link to the interview can be found on the FAN 590's website here. Although none of the news was of the earth-shattering variety, there were a couple interesting tidbits dropped as it pertains to the Leafs' plans over the next few weeks and going into the regular season. [more…]
The interview between league Commissioner, Gary Bettman, on Toronto radio station, FAN590 segment "The Game Plan" featuring Doug Maclean and Jack Armstrong, was a first hand look at the battle the relocation to Hamilton has become. Stating that after Jim Balsillie's attempts at hijacking the Nashville Predators to Hamilton, the commish indicated he sat down with the billionaire outlining what it would take to become an NHL owner.
I feel that the NHL has paradoxically lost a lot of it's appeal to the casual hockey observer by ushering in a salary cap and establishing the presence of relative parity. The prospect of competitive balance within the sport of hockey was long viewed as the ideal scenario, assuring the opportunity to succeed in any given season for even the least moneyed franchises and as a direct result providing these franchises with the means to draw new fans out of their tepid markets. It all sounded good on paper. But the league has lost a valuable dynamic that in my estimation plays a large part in the success of other major sports leagues and associations within North America.
