Tavares or Bust?

Shortly after the NHL entry draft lottery was held 10 days ago. Brian Burke went on record as saying that the Leafs #1 mission was to acquire Tavares. On Wednesday following the Bruins sweep of the Canadiens Bob Gainey spoke of the team falling apart mid season about the time that reports emerged of attempts to acquire Vinny Lecavalier. I am not going to suggest that either Vinny Lecavalier or John Tavares are singlehandedly capable of carrying a team to a Stanley Cup Championship, we only have to look at players like Joe Thornton, Alexander Ovechkin to see that a team needs more than just an offensive superstar, but I am of the opinion the two most fanatical fan bases in the NHL require legitimate superstars to be leaders and faces of their franchises and their respective GMs should if need be trade away current popular and or talented players and give up future draft picks in order to acquire a Superstar for their teams.

The term superstar is thrown around pretty freely and I am of the opinion when you are talking about forwards you fall into the Superstar category if you average more than a point per game or can average more than half a goal per game over the course of your career. I think Tavares will by his 3rd season in the NHL be in this category. I have over the past 10 days tried to imagine what it would take for the the Islanders to deal the #1 pick. The answer is likely no chance but
any good General Manager has to have in their own mind a market value for a player and should listen to all offers. Even Brian Burke who has called Luke Schenn 'untouchable' has to have some combination of active players draft picks in his head that he'd actually deal Schenn. I've been bandying about a sort of thought experiment as to what I think it might take the Leafs to get the #1 pick from the Islanders. If Burke is actively trying to put together a package to trade with the Islanders, I think the Islanders would be silly not to at least listen to offers. I think if the Islanders are at all receptive to a deal what they'd likely ask of Burke is: the Leafs 1st overall pick this year and 1st overall pick next year, Luke Schenn and a conditional pick based on what spot next years pick is. I think Burke would probably counter offer with 1st and 2nd round picks this year and Tomas Kaberle probably with a finalized deal of the Leafs 1st round picks the next 2 years, Kaberle and a lesser Leafs NCAA prospect. Again I have no idea whether the Islanders are even entertaining any offers. If they could get 3 younger cheaper players to play in their organization long term it might be the best thing for them and for the Leafs long term this type of trade could be disatrous. Tavares could turn out to be the next Alexander Daigle or Eric Lindros. If not for a series of injuries and a few unfortunate decisions that alienated teammates and management in Philadelphia, Lindros could have gone on to have a hall of fame career but overall he was a disappointment to the Flyers. The best example of a trade making one organization and setting back another that I can think of is the Herschel Walker trade when the Vikings sent multiple first round picks to the Cowboys for Walker back in 1989 thinking it was the 1 player they needed to put them over the edge. Unfortunately for the Vikings it did not, for the Cowboys they were able to use the picks they got from the Vikings along with their own to draft the 'triplets', Troy Aikman, Emmit Smith and Michael Irvin.

As far as the Canadiens go and their quest for Lecavalier, I think it's definitely done for at least a couple years, but much like the Leafs and Lindros the idea isn't going to go away and I think someday he will be a Hab. Montreal needs a real Superstar someone who can handle the pressure and ideally for Montreal fans someone who is French Canadian.

Personally, as a Leafs fan I would like to see a deal for Tavares. I don't think we really have all that much and honestly Schenn could be a great talent for many years but I would be OK with dealing him if it brought Tavares to Toronto. I'm under no illusions that Tavares would lead to a Stanley Cup but it'd be nice to have one of the leagues young elite players, something we really have never had. Even in his prime Sundin was never a top 5 scorer. Burke has said he won't deal him but I get the feeling that maybe what it takes to get the deal done.

Opening Jays

It's been awhile since I've posted to be honest hockey, the NBA the WBC and spring training bores me quite a bit. During the week I'm often out 3 or 4 nights so don't have much chance to keep up with that stuff. I was looking forward to an exciting March Madness and there were some upsets, but somehow I just couldn't get into it.

So when Jays opening day came around, I was really hoping this would be the event that got me out of the winter doldrums. Going to opening day on Monday was a bit of a strange experience. Outside the brutal winds and rain reminded me of why we got a dome. Inside the ridiculous mismanagement of the Rogers Centre: long beer and ATM line ups, shady concession stands (some Orthodox Jewish kid jumped in front of me at the Kosher hot dog stand and the server said nothing so I went to another concession stand where they charged me $5 for a Stadium dog although the cash register was showing 4.72, how exactly are they going to account for 28 cent disparity on the cash register tape) reminded me of why I only pay to see 1 game per year. On rare occasions the Rogers Centre will get more than 30,000 fans, unfortunately they don't bother to staff above the level required to deal with the average crowd. Even though I complain about the beer line ups I don't think I could bare to sit through a 3 hr game without at least a couple. An additional aggravating factor was Rogers instituted a new policy that every transaction required identification. This is in response to the 3 day suspension of alcohol sales at the Rogers Centre due to licensing infractions. ICE COLD BEER reportedly got fired for not IDing a 22 year old fan buying beer. If this is really the reason he got fired that is ridiculous in that serving beer to someone of age is not a LLBO infraction. The LLBOs over reaction to people underage being served alcohol is aVictorian and Paternalistic morality. Judgement and discretion should be used by servers, occasionally that judgement will be incorrect. I think lengthy suspensions of alcohol sales is a bit of an over reaction. To me the greater problem is the overserving and unruly behaviour of a few people. It is a ball game so you should be able to get a little tipsy and heckle the opposing team and their supporters. Monday in section 130 the 3rd base line/left field I saw quite a number of overwhelmingly drunk fans. There were a couple fights and some berating of Tiger fans by drunken Jays fans, which I fully support provided it doesn't get personal or violent. What was somewhat frustrating was the late inning delays caused by some fans throwing baseballs, paper airplanes and water bottles onto the field leading to a 10 minute delay. The guys behind me were appalled, personally while not approving the behaviour I was actually pleased to see that a Toronto crowd could get a bit worked up and into the game. I personally feel that the blame has to go as much onto the Rogers Centre security for not intervening earlier. The garbage was coming from the 200 level left field which is apparently one of the rowdier sections of the stadium although I've never really seen any evidence of rowdiness at a Jays game.

The Jays hammered the Tigers in a very entertaining game so definitely worth it. Looking at the schedule the obvious games people want to see are the Red Sox and Yankees, yet they've been labelled premium and super premium games. Also any weekend game is labelled Premium. Sorry but I'm not going to pay a premium to see Gil Meche and the Kansas City Royals play even if it is Rance Mulliniks Bobblehead day. Really if they want to charge premium prices when Jesse Litsch is pitching instead of Roy Halladay they should be handing out coupons for free hotdogs or something to compensate fans who get the crappy games. My hopes for this season would be to see the Jays finish 3rd in the Division. It'd be really nice to see the Yankees underachieve and have the Jays finish ahead of them in the standings. A .500 record and 50 wins at home would be amazing. The Jays look pretty solid defensively and so far they have hit very well. It seems their biggest weakness is a big bat at DH and the lack of switch hitters make them vulnerable to situational pitching changes. It is really sort of comforting to have Cito back on the bench, I think he brings a certain calmness to the clubhouse. Jays fans should be content with mediocrity, I mean being in a division with Boston and NY the only way they can earn a playoff spot would be developing prospects, especially young arms and hope things come together for you the way they did for Tampa Bay last season.

Man's Last Best Hope

So the obvious news story that emerged out of this past weekend is that 3 of the 4 remaining teams are birds. What makes this story somewhat shocking is nobody had the Arizona Cardinals beating the Carolina Panthers who were 8-0 at home in the 2008 season, Arizona was perhaps the least respected team in the playoffs, having the 2nd worst record even the 8-8 Chargers were given more respect than the Cardinals who had the 2nd weakest division in football and much was made of their poor record in 1 PM Eastern time zone starts. Lucky for Arizona this was an 8 PM Eastern start so the bodyclock issue was not going to be as much of a factor. When the Panthers rushed out to a 7-0 lead on the opening drive of the game I certainly thought this was the beginning of a Carolina rout. Remarkably though Carolina abandoned the run and put the ball in the hands of Jake Delhomme, who showed why he was Kurt Warner's backup in NFL Europe. Del Homme was Favresque and threw 4 picks seemingly not ever noticing the defender. The Eagles upset the Giants at home who seemed to be having troubles getting big back Brandon Jacobs moving up field or connecting on many big plays, honestly the extra stride length a 6'5 WR versus a 6 foot WR might have made a huge difference in that game, John Carney has certainly played his last game as a giant. 2 crucial missed field goals in the game, they were not easy kicks but Giants fans will certainly be screaming for his head (remember Carney is the guy who missed the extra point with no time left that would have tied the game on the after the Saints made that miracle Cal-Stanford band play in 2003). The Ravens beat the #1 seed Tenessee Titans in what some may refer to as an upset but in reality no one was really that surprised given the way the Ravens defence has been playing.

In the final playoff game of the weekend, the Steelers beat a "surging" Chargers team leaving them as the only "non bird" team remaining. Looking at team mascots, there has only been 1 bird team to actually win a Superbowl and that was the 2000 Ravens. If you look at the 42 year history if one were to consider the "Giants" to be human 32 of the 42 Superbowls have been won by "humans". The overwhelming majority of multiple superbowl winners are human or : The Giants, Colts, Steelers, Patriots, Broncos, Packers, Cowboys, 49ers, Redskins, Raiders,Dolphins 8 of those 11 are "human". In the late 1990's Animals seemed to rule with 4 straight Superbowls since that time only the Colts have interrupted an impressive reign for humans.

What will happen this year? The possibilites are there for an all bird, all Pennsylvania or former Steeler assistant vs. his old team. Personally as someone who primarily watching the AFC the defences there are impressive. The Eagles and Cardinals are so inconsistent, I could forsee the Cardinals upsetting the low scoring Eagles although I think the Eagles would be more competitive in the Superbowl than I think the Cardinals would be. The Ravens and Steelers are pretty evenly matched so I don't know, I'd give a slight edge to Pittsburgh being at home and having a slightly more experienced QB and just slightly better defence. As much as it hurts me to say this being a United Steelworker I think I have to cheer for the Steelers.