Brian Burke has had some success in the past with his building from the back-end out philosophy, winning a Stanley Cup with the Anaheim Ducks in 2006-07 on the mighty shoulders of goaltenders Jean Sebastien Giguere and Ilya Bryzgalov, along with Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger and young stars Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Dustin Penner.
He believed in solidifying your goaltending and your back-end first and then going from there. Now while I do appreciate the concept, trying to carry over that belief to the Leafs has pretty much flopped, due to poor free agent signings to help shore up the back end.
Goatenders
I have the utmost respect right now for Toronto's goaltenders, and feel they are not the problem, however, Brian Burke has surrounded the goalies with defensemen with very low hockey IQ and overall play.
Jonas Gustavsson and Jean Sebastien Giguere have been nothing short of consistent, and really have kept the Leafs in many games they did not deserve to be in.Giguere, who is keeping the starting goaltending spot warm for Gustavsson, expires at the end of the year and carries a $6.0 million cap hit along with it.
The ...
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Article written by Brad LeClair
Brian Burke’s Toronto Maple Leafs Are Failing Quickly, Is There Time To Fix It?
December 5th, 2010 by Brad LeClair Leave a reply »
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