BRIAN BURKE NIGHT IN CANADA

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Battle Game Day: LIVE Edition - The Enemy of My Enemy is Still My Enemy...

Thanks to Scarlett Ice's Dany Heatley Speedwagon for setting up a live blog for tonight's Battle. It's like a hyper-responsive version of Haloscan, so we hope our BoO regulars will get into the action:



Sens 6, Leafs 2 (Heatley with a pair, Alfie, Ruutu, Kelly, and Schubert scores in his return). A pizza stimulus package is delivered, the leafs fall below the Sens in the standings and we all get up in the morning and go back to hating on the habs.

Music for the pre-game skate: It's gotta be LIVE - Live Wire LIVE.

GAMEDAY: LEAFS AT BRIAN BURKE

Poor Ottawa.
They only play Toronto six times a year and instead of getting to bath in the vast coverage and brilliant spotlight that only playing against God's team brings, Brian Burke goes ahead and agrees to become the next president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs hours before game time.

The Sens go from riding shotgun to sitting on the hump in the middle of the back seat. Sorry about that. Hope this helps you sell out those last 500 tickets though!

Burke, with all the reins. Welcome aboard buddy. Win a cup and we'll rename the CN tower after you. Do it by beating the Sens along the way, and we'll name all of Jason Spezza's hometown after you. Burkeville. Nice huh?

Just in

Toronto Maple Leafs
Nov 27, 2008, 8:40 AM EST
The Toronto Maple Leafs announced Thursday that they have asked the NHL that the team be allowed to forfeit their games until 'The Saviour' arrives.
They instead propose an around the clock circle jerk while chanting His name until that time. The team believes that since their fans no longer care whether or not they win hockey games, and that clearing cap space before He arrives is the most important objective for the franchise in 2008-09, the league should agree to this proposal.

The next GNR album will come before the Leafs win a cup

The post title is unrelated (or is it?) to this bit of trivia:

Pat Quinn has the best winning percentage of any Leaf GM. Who has the 2nd best?

Cue the Burke T-shirt vendors!

Today's stories about Burke in Toronto:
The Star: 3 articles
The Sun: 3 articles
The Globe: 3 articles

Anything to distract the fans from the mess on the ice. The team has the worst GA in the league with it's entire backend under contract for next year.

Flashback to September:
For a team that ranked 26th among the 30 NHL teams last season in goals allowed (3.2 per game), learning how to prevent goals could take longer than three weeks.
"It's going to be the running theme throughout the year," Wilson said. "Guys probably won't like it, because it's the thing that no one wants to practice. But it needs to be done."
Toronto also ranked second-last on the penalty kill with a 78.1% success rate. But Wilson said he would be preaching a defence-first strategy even if he were coaching the current Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings.
"Everyone in Toronto - from the fans to the media to the players - seems to be concerned with who is going to score," Wilson said. "I'm more concerned with preventing goals."

Not Fletcher. He's brought in another career minus player in Stempiak.
Maybe Burke can sign a sibling of Jay Bouwmeester or Mike Komisarek?

UPDATE: He's everywhere! 'Burke crowned 'Dancing with the Stars' queen'

Screw the Habs

I just went and voted for the top players not Habs. I suggest we all vote for the following to punish them.

Crosby
Malkin
Ovechin

Chara
Gonchar

Fleury

Vote here.

Messianic Age is coming

Bigger head than Jesus.

Canadian Blog Awards

A big thank you to whoever nominated this corner of the intertubes for the Best Sports Blog in the Canadian Blog Awards. You can vote for your favourite site here. I would bet that it comes down to Joy of Sox, Mirtle, and the BoA and it's an honour to be nominated in such a select group, blah, blah, blah, go stuff the ballot boxed.

Early Game Day: Rangers @ SNES

Morning, all. I've not much to add on the Sens latest on-ice misfortunes, so I'll keep it brief on this "Third Jersey Saturday" and offer up a mildly Gladwellian observation: how cool a new sports jersey looks depends entirely on the performance of the team wearing it and has little or nothing to do with the color selection, historical references, lettering and other insignia (recall the Mighty Ducks / Ducks jersey transformation also accompanied a major ripening of talent in time for 06-07). If you swapped the Oilers and Jets jerseys back in the 80's which one would now look unironically cooler and which one would be just hideous?

So here's to a successful debut in the black, may it give us the illusion of size and speed. While "Back In Black" is sure to be in heavy rotation, I decided to go with the blackest of black: Chuck and Flava dropping a more appropriately titled "Black Steel In the Hour of Chaos".

Sens 2, Rangers 0 (Spezza, Alfie), while watching Redden fall down in his own end, we are reminded that although our blue line is thin, it's not scarfing up 6 million in cap space.

Game Day: Chin up, we're not at the 20 game mark yet!

"How far can they fall" was the sports section headline above the usual Toronto Sun crime scene / sunshine girl front page spread. It caught my eye while shuffling from security gauntlet to security gauntlet deep in the bowels of Pearson International. Our foes in TO were certainly loving the second straight defeat to the lowly Islanders although the lack of a professional hockey franchise anywhere in the province might be one more reason for a younger generation to consider moving west (if McGimpy's new driving restrictions don't force the issue). Take it from painful experience though, the first 20 games is an awfully crude indicator of how the rest of the regular season will unfold. If you don't believe me, I've got a 1976-77 Canadiens yearbook to sell you.

Drawing into the lineup tonight are the Super Bass-O-Matic 76, Brendan Bell (possibly working the PP) and Ilya Zubov. On the outs are Fisher and Neil (who have been largely unnoticeable with the exception of the Dumb Penalty Face(TM)), as well as Christoph Schubert (appropriately enough on Kick a Ginger Day).

Look out Habs! The lads are almost ready to play some real hockey. OTT's goal diff only puts us at 10th in the east after 20 (still much improved from how the last quarter ended). You'll note a certain first round opponent and eventual EC champ started off in Ottawa's position last year. Once the offence starts clicking again (i.e. the issue of how to move the puck smoothly out of our own end is resolved), we may be back on our way up.

Sens 5, Habs 1 (Bass, Bell, Heatley 2, Spezza), Scotiabank's second most irritating visitors save their applause for the post game strip at Pigale's.

Let's see it!

To make up for the loss of grit, the Senators recalled Cody Bass from Binghamton of the AHL. In 16 games with the Baby Sens this season, Bass has one goal and one assist while adding 37 minutes in penalties.

The expectations are huge!

When It Rains It Pours

Well, I guess there were just too many jokes attached to the Zero logo to stick with it. Glove tap to Icethetics for the find and I Can Haz Cheezburger for the captioning help.

And thanks to Donny Brennan for piling on:

Senators centre Mike Fisher is expected to miss two weeks with strained right knee ligaments, it was announced after practice this morning.The news is worse on Chris Neil. The rugged right winger will have arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee. It's not yet known how long Neil will be out of the lineup.

Hey Ottawa, here's a flashlight and the key for the fuse box.

Where are the car flags now?

Sens at Rangers 7:00pm - Sportsnet East
Bruins at Leafs 7:30pm - Sportsnet Ontario

It's almost as if our two Ontario teams are fulfilling each others destiny. Late September if you showed me records that read 7-7-4 and 6-9-2, I would have put money down the second one belonged to the Leafs.

A loss tonight will inch Toronto closer to where they are expected to be. Can't say the same for the Sens.

Enjoy this one responsibly.

How The Mighty Have Fallen

Remember that run to the Stanley Cup Final two seasons ago? Remember how it was nothing like the Edmonton or Calgary runs because everyone in ottawa is so frigging boring? Well, hold on to those memories because there is one big warning sign showing that it will never happen again. In fact, it's one that just a short while ago fans around the league were using to show that the Leafs sucked. Courtesy of Senators Lost Cojones:

Not sure about you guys, but I'd be getting mighty offended: Joe ("Joe"? Really? "JOE?") MacDonald. Michael Leighton. Mike Smith. Jonas Hiller. Craig Anderson. Brent Johnson. Patrick Lalime (Jesus wept...). What do these names have in common? They're all backup goaltenders. They're all backup goaltenders who have started against the Senators this year. Sixteen games played; seven backups have started against us. And the first five listed herein? Totally kicked our ass. Make of this information what you will.

Ouch.

Good Morning!

It's 9:53am on a sunny warm Friday in Toronto and Matt Stajan is the leading scorer on the Leafs. And the Sens.

Jason Blake comes back after his 2nd benching and sets up two goals and gets under the oppositions skin.

The Leafs outwork another NHL team last night and find themselves in 8th place for their troubles.

We have the leading rookie goal scorer in the NHL and we didn't draft him.

Somebody carve Ron Wilson out of bronze and raise his statue on York street. Right beside one of Cliff Fletcher.

It's Friday morning, mid November, 2008.

We have a hockey team again.

Time to take out the anger?

After yesterday's feisty practice, the Sens will face the Islanders tonight. Shannon has been called up and will be on the top line with Spezza and Heatley according to James Gordon. Will we see the shannon shootout spin shot if it goes the distance?

The Leafs are in Edmonton and Lowetide understates the issue when your team faces the blue team:

Should be a good game tonight, with the only real negative being the number of Leafs fans in the house.

First Sundin sells his house. Now this!

Brian Burke is on his way to a news conference where the Ducks will announce that Bob Murray is taking over immediately as Anaheim's GM.

Thank God the Leafs are on the west coast this week.

Let the carnival begin...

Game Day: Spit-take edition

Yeah, I saw that, too:

Let's safely assume, though that tonight's victory over the habs will depend less on goaltending and more on some Heatley-Spezza firepower, particularly on the power play. As both have have racked up over 30 points against Montreal in their last three seasons as a couple, a public ass-paddling from the coach couldn't have come at a better time.

Following up on Saturday's observations, is anyone else shifting (Sens fans or not) their hatred from Toronto to Montreal this year? Is it the "entitlement" vibe emanating from the Bell centre? The disappearance of old favourites like Sundin, Tucker, McCabe? No more Neale and Bob homerism from the Hockey Night booth? Was a town near you overrun with noisy, red-white-and-blue clad pests during last year's finals?

Let tonight stand as a reminder to the potential Eastern Conference champs - we may be waiting for you in that eighth seed. The Bruins gave you a good scare last year, and surely you wouldn't want a longstanding foe ruining the storybook season?

Sens 4, Habs 1 (Heatley 2, Spezza 2), Youpie covers his eyes and shakes his furry head before cuing up the Habs Riot Song.

THREE GAMES

Kostopolous gets what must be considered the minimum.

Here's the full story via TSN.
Here's video of the hit.

Although Van Ryn was facing the boards from about the blue line, Kostopolous' consistent with his excuse that "Van Ryn turned his back at the last minute".

Tough one to take.

Secondary Scoring?

OTTAWA FORWARDS
Heatley, Spezza, Afraidsson: 42 pts
The rest of the forwards: 39 pts

Hard to accept

1. The Sens aren't playing till Tuesday.
2. I'm sober and cheering for the Leafs as they play the habs.

Thanks for nothing, Saturday night!

Game Day: From Pizza to Boxed Lunches

Marty tha G., Corvo, Eaves renew acquaintances in an untelevised Friday night affair. As the Atlanta matchups in previous seasons brought forth the Heatley versus Hossa trade hindsight, so too must tonight's game remind us of the shakeup that sent Joe Corvo and Patrick Eaves to the southeast in exchange for pics of Mike Commodore making it rain in his undies.

Thru 36 games with the Canes, Corvo is 9-17-26, +3 while thru 24, Eaves is 1-6-7, -1. Although Stillman put up comparable numbers while here and Commodore was never brought in to provide offense, it worth contemplating how much worse the 2008 playoffs might have gone had these two not led the team in scoring (as impossible as that may have seemed). In retrospect, given the way the Sens season played out, the trade was not quite the equivalent of shuffling the decks on the Titanic, maybe more like stopping to pick up a couple of strong swimmers just before hitting the iceberg.

Now, in case you're wondering if the pizza days are truly done, who would've thought around February of last year that the Sens could pull off a pair of sub five-goal victories with the big three averaging barely 20 minutes a game?

Sens 4, Canes 2 (Vermette, Schubert, Alfie, Kelly), members of the Joe Corvo fan club silently weep.

Game Day: We get results

Following Tuesday's evisceration on the front page of Ontario's most respected sports journal, Mike Fisher's pride as a professional athlete was clearly wounded. He responded with a classic performance: 2 points, 6 shots, 2 blocked shots and holding Ovechkin and Co. to S.F.A. through three and a quarter periods (no hits?!). Where will the razor sharp glare of the establishment be focussed next? Hard to go after the Big Rig, as he entertainingly dumped Number 8 aside on his way into the zone. The other Chris commited an atrocious giveaway, but continues to play his shit disturbing role as well as can be expected. With that I turn to mine and Dan Savage's special francophone heartthrob. Vermette continues to remind me of the dearly departed Magnus Arvedson, whose speed-generated scoring opportunities far exceeded his actual output. This is your call-out, Antoine: start bulging the twine or it's the Swedish elite league and argyle sweaters for you.

Sens 3, Flyers 2 (Alfie, Spezza, Smith!), Auld continues to battle in heroic Tugnuttian fashion.

MUPPET VS MUPPET

Man, it sure is tough seeing Kyle Wellwood with 7 points in 8 games with the Canucks. Kind of makes you wonder if we let one get away doesn't it?

It sure does. We had a lot riding on this portly wee dangler last season and it blew up in our faces.

It did. Then again, at least this proves we weren't completely out of our minds.

And it saves MLSE a bit of money on team dinners.

That too.

Speaking of underachieving players, what the hell is going on with Vesa Toskala?

You mean him letting in a billion goals a game?

Yes. That.

Not sure. I don't think anybody's looking for superstar numbers from this guy, but he's pretty far below his career averages right now. He started last year slow too.

Ah yes, last year. Right about now we were comparing him and Emery on BoO weren't we?

Indeed. Of course this time last year America also had a white red-neck president, Heath Ledger was making movies and the Sens were 9-1.

So what you're saying is that things change?

They sure do you handsome devil. They sure do.

Game Day: This is gonna hurt a little

No team did more to expose the state of the 2007-08 Senators team defense than the Washington Capitals. In four humiliating defeats last year, the Caps outscored the Sens by a total of 10 goals. Alfie was a machine, playing his usual 25 minutes, but barely came out even on the season series in spite of his 6 points.

The six million dollar pointless wonder, Mike Fisher was a -3 against the Caps last year and it's anyone's guess whether he'll pick tonight to have a breakout game. I'd say its unlikely seeing as That Guy is back in action and could well go head to head with him. Even at almost 18 minutes a game, it's hard to notice Fisher out there. The trademark head down net drive is gone and he's been flopped around more than a 213 pounder should.

Sadly, I think November kicks off on a bad vibe. They're going with the dreaded backup goalie, and Ovie is itching to get his stats back up to pace. Caps 5, Sens 2 (Alfie, Neil), the Southeast owns us again.

In honour of tonight's battle between national capitals, and the occasion of our friends to south picking their latest preznit, we pump you up with a little Tenacious D. Feel free to give us your election picks, but try and keep the flamethrowers on safety.

Kovulchuk Rumours.

I read this morning that some media types saw Fletcher and Atlanta GM Don Waddell having conversations at the recent GM meetings. Rumours of course begin that they are discussing Kovulchuk who wants out of Atlanta.

Fletcher denies it flat out, and if the Leafs did want Kovulchuk it would be costly. Some might argue such a move also flies in the face of the Leafs "rebuild strategy".

But hold on.

Ilya is 25 years old. This isn't some washed up vet. Add that this guy leads the NHL in goals scored since 2002/2003, and the Leafs would have their franchise forward for years to come.

I'll guess that if Fletcher really wanted him, it would cost the Leafs their 1st and 2nd round pick and a cluster of our better prospects (maybe Kulemin and Tlusty?). Ouch.

An evening with the Sens. A Weekend with the Leafs.

A rare Saturday and Sunday night schedule has Toskala and the Leafs facing the Rangers back-up tonight, while Joseph gets the start tomorrow in Carolina.

I imagine on a Hurricanes blog some guy named Tampa fan in Dirty Rutherford is making a point that Toronto are saving their back-up for the Canes. Or something like that.

The Sens will face the suddenly rolling Lightning, sending their back-up Auld who has been anything but a #2 this week.

By tomorrow the Sens could be tied with the Leafs. Maybe we'll start seeing some posting around here? Me and Duff can't keep the hate up ourselves y'all.