As I read Howard Berger's blog today on 'Leafs and Their Fans Must Think Big', I started thinking big. ENORMOUS.
He talks about how Brian Burke is the #1 guy for the Leafs GM spot. Burke is the perfect guy for it, he would supply a quick fix and also long term prospering for the Leafs.
Of course Brian Burke says he doesn't want to leave Anaheim, they are an incredible team, they are Stanley Cup Champions, he is bringing back Neidermayer and Selanne and he is heading for another cup run. So what next? He stoops under the radar once again after the baseball season starts again in California.
If he comes to the Leafs and does this, he will be forever remembered as the GM who resurrected the best franchise in the NHL.
So if Burke doesn't want to leave Anaheim, that doesn't mean he won't come to Toronto. I say they throw incentives at him, give him the big bucks, and let him run the show. MLSE is too much of a fairy organization to do this, so we as the fans have to DEMAND that this happens. I'm thinking on the same page as Howard Berger is, Leaf FANS have to come into action.
I say we at the Blue and White create a campaign to get everyone to come to our site to vote for Brian Burke to come to the Leafs. It will be a Toronto epidemic like the websites that featured Fire John Ferguson and Fire Richard Peddie. This one will be even better. I am going to email Eklund and Howard Berger and TSN, whoever I can get a hold of. We will start up a thing on the site where you can vote to bring in Burke, write your name and comment on a link on the page, and the Blue and White will be remembered by everyone!
The fans didn't have a say in the firing of John Ferguson Jr., nor could they influence it.
If Howard Berger believes that the fans can do something to influence MLSE to bring the greatest hockey executive in the world to Toronto. Nobody else will make a stand, they will go to their trailer parks and local pub and debate with their loser friends that the Leafs need a guy like Burke in Toronto. Rather than debating, soon you will be able to come here and vote. We will tell our friends, then their friends tell their friends, and their friends tell their friends, until we have hundreds of thousands of votes, and The Blue and White will be talked about on the intermission of the Leafs game just like the Fire Richard Peddie site, and ultimately we will bring Brian Burke to be the Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager. So lets start it right here. Let's start the campaign.
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5 comments:
Ok. I'll get the ball rolling!
Dear MLSE,
We, the passionate members of Leaf Nation, understand business. We, the passionate members of Leaf Nation understand your business. We even understand that it may be a business you believe in, heart and soul, so much so that you have dedicated your professional lives to watch it thrive and grow as a business. You are Canadian, and you believe in the city of Toronto and we as Leaf Nation can understand and appreciate that.
Our team has been struggling--no doubt about that. We have mixed feelings about the firing of JFJ; from all reports he was an honorable, stand-up guy. Terminating his contract is sad, understood, but as I said: we understand business.
However, I want to bring to your attention something greater. We as Leaf Nation also understand something that goes far beyond business--we understand glory. We understand glory, not because our team has been covered with it over the past many years. No, we do not understand glory by having it in our newspapers, or televisions or point production or tearful, jubilant parades down main intersections. No, we understand glory because we thirst for it. We understand glory because it is so apparently missing in the culture of this hockey team.
Whatever is divisive in the board--put it aside. Whatever is too much of a risk--laugh it off. Whatever is bad for PR--confidently stride forward anyway. You are in a unique position both professionally and as men. You have the ability to be immortal and to cover yourselves with glory in a town that thirsts for it. There is a legacy to be forged.
Whatever it takes, gentlemen.
signed
G.B. Donaldson
Hey, that's pretty catchy! Go me!
That was really good G.B. Donaldson, I can't believe we're already getting support and the post has only been up for about an hour.
Thanks, and those were some great words.
I wish we could just get Peddie to read that.
Interesting post, Danno. While I've been mostly absent from posting lately, you are running with a big idea.
Now, I like your idea - I think the best thing for the franchise is to hire the best possible GM beginning with the 2008/09 season. I just don't think that Brian Burke is necessarily that guy. Don't get me wrong - he is as good as any in the business - but is he far and away the best? I'm not convinced.
He brought a Stanley Cup to Anaheim , sure, but he inherited some incredible talent (Getzlaf, Perry & Giguere come to mind). He brought in Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer, sure, but had some help there too. See, Niedermayer signed with Anaheim because his brother plays there. Burke just threw the same cash at him that every other GM did. He traded a lot for Pronger (Lupul, Smid, 2 1st round picks, a 2nd round pick) but looks great for that deal b/c he recovered a likely top 5 pick by losing Dustin Penner. He could have easily looked average on that deal. Take away those players and Burke is still a good GM, but he is no franchise-changer.
My point is that there are other candidates just as deserving of this type of attention. Ken Holland in Detroit is my personal favourite. No team has been as dominant as Detroit over the last several years, and it's Ken Holland's doing.
I think we need to start a 'bring in a top five general manager' campaign instead of just targeting Brian Burke (who, incidentally, is probably a drunk).
Bring Burkey home. Or give Fletcher the fountain of youth
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