STACKHOUSE SOAPBOX (Yorkton This Week March 14)

The Melville Millionaires not only beat the Yorkton Terriers on the ice, they beat them in spirit.  The Mils, with two home dates in the series with the Terriers, averaged 1307 per game.  Yorkton averaged 1202.  Melville’s population is about 5000, Yorkton’s is close to 20000.  I would like to challenge the people of Yorkton to determine what their hockey team means to them.  North Battleford, comparable in size to Yorkton, has averaged 2110 in three home dates during the playoffs.  I often hear people complain there is nothing to do around here.  That rings hollow to me.  Recently, I’ve heard rumblings of a new arena for Yorkton.  I can’t support it with those less than acceptable attendance figures for the marquee tenant.

Bullish Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke, who recently overpaid Mikhail Grabovski to the tune of $27 million over five years is suggesting teams be allowed to ‘eat salary’ in an effort to stimulate trades in a salary cap world.  The salary cap was put in place to protect dummies like Burke from themselves.  Hopefully his request falls on deaf ears.  Some have said allowing teams to ‘eat salary’ would be a way to save careers, such as Saskatchewan resident Wade Redden (currently making $6 million a season in the minors because nobody wants to take on the contract).  I liked Wade as a guy from my days in Brandon, but I will also tell you if there is any doubt in a player’s mind that he may not live up to the salary and/or contract offered to him then he should decline to sign it.  It’s nice to have confidence in your ability, but you also have to be honest with yourself.  I remember when Redden signed that contract, there wasn’t a hockey person outside New York who felt it was a good deal.  Contracts should be fair partnerships between an employee and employer.  In sports, they are heavily weighted in favor of the employee.  So I have no sympathy and no support for Burke’s attempt at circumventing the cap.

Burke has been nothing short of a disaster hire in Toronto.  He’s the highest paid General Manager in the league and can’t even deliver a playoff spot.  Burke claimed he didn’t believe in the five year rebuilding plan when the Leafs hired him.  Well, he’s in about the same place right now as he was when the Leafs hired him in 2008.  Four years and not a playoff appearance.  Rebuilds, by the way, don’t mean a playoff spot.  They mean contending for a Stanley Cup.  Burke’s trade for Phil Kessel was a bomb.  His claim that he could’ve had John Tavares for Nazem Kadri and Luke Schenn is also embarrassing when you consider he turned it down upon bragging he was going to make a huge push for the Tavares pick on draft day.  First round picks Kadri and Schenn have been big swing and misses.  This year, Burke said h e could’ve traded between four and six of his roster players for first round draft picks.  He chose not to.  So is he stupid or a liar?  And, I’m not sure the replacing of Ron Wilson with Randy Carlyle is going to do anything.  Usually when you change a coach, you also change the personality.  But, both Wilson and Carlyle have a reputation of being surly with the media.  Carlyle is already 1-and-4 as of this writing and it’s just a matter of time before he makes them as mad as Wilson did.  Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t like the Leafs.  I’m happy.  I hope Burke gets an extension.

I hate to dedicate my whole article to Burke, but his crusade to oust Don Cherry from Hockey Night In Canada, while pathetic, is likely going to be the legacy he leaves in Toronto.  In today’s day and age, unbiased journalism really doesn’t exist.  The parent companies of TSN and Sportsnet have bought the major sports teams in Toronto (Argonauts notwithstanding) so it’s hard to believe that those two networks will be too critical of the ownership situation with the Maple Leafs.  CBC, love them or hate them, have been the one voice that has contradicted a lot of what the NHL has done with its game in recent years.  Because they have given this opinion, Burke has gone to the head honchos at CBC as well as the NHL and now the NHL can hold a renewed TV contract over their head if they don’t remove Cherry and/or Ron MacLean from the mix.  I am betting while, morally wrong, the NHL and Burke will get their way.  Not that it matters, but Hockey Night In Canada is really the only time I even flip on the tv to watch the NHL anymore and if that goes by the wayside, I guess it’s TLC for me.

Nice person mentions this week to Tammy Stevenson, Barry Butler, Marlin Murray, and Allan Mitchell.