{"id":353,"date":"2008-11-26T18:07:23","date_gmt":"2008-11-26T22:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/?p=353"},"modified":"2008-11-26T18:23:40","modified_gmt":"2008-11-26T22:23:40","slug":"brian-burke-as-next-maple-leafs-general-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/2008\/11\/26\/brian-burke-as-next-maple-leafs-general-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Burke: Is You Is Or Is You Isn’t?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As much as I hate the suits at MLSE with the white hot burning heat of a thousand suns, I can’t quarrel too much with their deliberate pace on this hiring decision to date.\u00a0 It’s a tough decision, and one that will have far-reaching consequences for the future of the organization.\u00a0 The reason that I despise the current board is, of course, its abject failure to avoid meddling with the affairs of the hockey team over the last few years, coupled with its failure to install a chief executive \"Brian<\/a>with sufficient vision and experience to plan for success in the post-lockout environment.\u00a0 That having been said, it would appear that the board has, since the firing of John Ferguson Jr., made the right decision: to correct its mistake in that regard and hire a top-quality chief executive to whom control over the hockey operations will be ceded.\u00a0 In other words, MLSE has decided that maybe they ought not to do this job themselves.\u00a0 I congratulate them for making the right call at this critical first step of the decision-making process;\u00a0 it is so obviously the right decision, it’s kind of like congratulating your kid for deciding (for the third day this week!) not to eat a jar of paste while at school, but it’s important to celebrate even modest successes with those who have intellectual challenges and to positively re-inforce behaviour we want to encourage.\u00a0 So yay, MLSE!<\/p>\n

Step two of the hiring process was to find the right person to replace John Ferguson Jr.\u00a0 Apparently unable to locate a person with the right credentials on a permanent basis last spring, the club turned to Cliff Fletcher and asked him to act as steward of the club’s fortunes during the initial stages of the rebuilding process. In doing so, the Leafs successfully managed to put one foot in front of the other. (Again, yay!)\u00a0 Fletcher has, it must be said, acquitted himself quite well since his appointment: he made a deal on draft day that got the Leafs into position to pick up Luke Schenn<\/a>;\u00a0 he signed Niklas Hagman<\/a> and Jeff Finger<\/a>; for every questionable acquisition (Ryan Hollweg<\/a>), there has been a great pickup (I’m looking at you, Mikhail Grabovski<\/a>); for every Jamal Mayers<\/a>, a Mike Van Ryn<\/a>. It is too early to say whether these players, and others (such as recently acquired Lee Stempniak<\/a> ) constitute the necessary pieces of the puzzle, though it is unlikely that they form the core of a Cup winning team.\u00a0 To get there, some of these assets will have to be moved elsewhere, and fresh talent added to the basic building blocks at a later date.\u00a0 At this stage, as we’ve been told by team officials, it’s not about wins and losses:\u00a0 it’s about changing a culture of entitlement that had settled over the dressing room – a debilitating malaise that somehow begun interfering with the players’ performance.\u00a0 At step two, Cliff Fletcher earns the MLSE another passing grade.<\/p>\n

So much for sticking a warm body in the chair to answer the phones for the short term.\u00a0 What of step three, making the decision to hire the person who will be general manager of this team in the long term?\u00a0\u00a0 It would appear that the organization’s focus has been on Brian Burke in that regard for some time;\u00a0 reports emerged yesterday that it’s essentially a done deal.<\/p>\n

So what of Brian Burke?\u00a0\u00a0 Assuming the reports to be true, how did MLSE do at this final stage of the decision-making process?\u00a0 It seems to me that the answer to that question is inextricably linked to one’s assessment of the other candidates that were available for the job.<\/p>\n

The case for Burke<\/a>, as ably put by Sean from Down Goes Brown<\/a>, is basically as follows:<\/p>\n