The Ice Sheet: Burke Can't Get to Toronto Fast Enough

Every Monday morning The Ice Sheet will take a close look at everything that's happened in the NHL since Friday night at 5:00 p.m. -- or if need be, anything else the author wants to bleat about. To read them all, click here.

I'm not usually big on diving into the bestseller list to read a self-help book, but at the suggestion of a friend I recently picked up a copy of The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris. In essence, it's a guide that's out to teach you how to reclaim your life from your job by leveraging the power of globalization.

Now, I'd like to assure all of you -- most of all my boss who does regularly read my entries here at FanHouse -- that I don't think the path that Ferris lays out can work for everybody. Then again, there are more than a few useful suggestions, and one in particular struck me as having particular application to the NHL, especially now that it seems like we're sure to endure a period of severely contracted consumer spending.

The following comes from Chapter 2 of the book, entitled, The Rules that Change the Rules under the entry, Emphasize Strengths, Don't Fix Weaknesses:

Most people are good at a handful of things and miserable at most ... It is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths instead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor. The choice is between the multiplication of results using strengths or incremental improvement fixing weaknesses that will at best, become mediocre. Focus on the better use of your best weapons instead of constant repair.

What if I told you that there was a way that the league could fix a weakness in such a way that could better leverage its greatest strength? Better yet, what if I told you that the league was already part of the way down that path?


The league took the first step down that road, inadvertently perhaps, but a step nonetheless when Brian Burke announced that he was stepping down as general manager of the Anaheim Ducks to look for a job closer to home in Toronto where his current wife and two young children live. And as bad as I might feel for fans of the Ducks, who are losing the general manager who put the final pieces in place to help that team win its only Stanley Cup, its nothing but good news for the rest of the league.

Just about everyone concedes that there's really only one ultimate destination for Burke, and that's as head of the hockey operation at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. Like it or not, the Leafs are the most popular team in Canada and make their home in the largest city in the most hockey-mad nation on earth.

And like it or not, just as is the case in the U.S. when the New York Yankees qualify for the postseason, when the Leafs make the playoffs and ice a team that even has just an outside chance to win a Stanley Cup, the entire nation of Canada takes notice as half rise in hopes that this is finally the year to end the drought, and the other half of the nation spits bile from its mouth in hopes the Leafs go down in flames. That's the sort of passion that sells tickets and gets folks to sacrifice a Saturday night to sit down in front of the television.

While importing Burke to Toronto is no guarantee of success, I think most observers of the game would agree that it would be tough to find a better choice right now if your team was looking for a new GM.

But we ought to be excited about Burke's impending arrival not only because he's just the sort of guy who can turn the Maple Leafs into a winner, it's the sort of winner that Burke promises to turn the Leafs into and how he'll go about doing it. For more on what I'm talking about, here's Damien Cox of the Toronto Star:

For starters, Burke doesn't despise small players, but he doesn't want many of 'em ... The Ducks led the NHL in fighting majors two years ago when they won the Stanley Cup and are second this season with 18 scraps already. Nine Ducks have been in at least one scrap.

[...]

Financially, the Ducks have been at or over the NHL salary cap for two years, causing Burke to dump various players to comply with NHL salary limits.

The Leafs, meanwhile, are operating cautiously about $8 million (U.S.) below the league's salary cap.

The Leafs have for years preferred to act judiciously and only after careful consideration, terrified to make a mistake. They would rather hang on to a player for too long than make a risky swap.

Burke, by contrast, acts impulsively and sometimes emotionally. He knows the enormous value of high picks, having swung deals to select Pronger one year and both Sedins in another draft with Vancouver.

He'll love Luke Schenn. But he'll want something high again next June, even if he has to trade to get it.

With all due respect to Cliff Fletcher, who has done a more than respectable job cobbling together a young and fast lineup that new head coach Ron Wilson can get to compete, is there any other GM in the league who is better matched to life in Toronto than Burke? A master at playing the media, Toronto will ultimately prove to be Burke's largest and greatest stage. And when he gets there, he'll get to work right away constructing a team that plays aggressive hockey -- think Maple Thugs Version 2.0 -- just the sort of team that the rest of Canada and the rest of the league can hate with a vengeance.

Mr. Burke, you cannot get to Toronto fast enough. In fact, I'd be surprised if NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman didn't book your flight himself.