Month: April 2011

2010, 2011, Hockey, Sports, The Campaign to Fire Brian Burke

The Campaign to Fire Brian Burke: 2010-2011 Leafs Season

There has been a recent upswell of support – from fans, from the media, and from hockey fans not normally partial to the Maple Leafs – for Burke’s “plan” in recent weeks, following the team’s remarkable post-all-star-break performance this season. Despite missing the playoffs, the majority opinion seems to be that the Leafs are very …

Hockey, Sports

“Real” Per Game Hockey Stats

Hockey has been very slow to pay attention to per game numbers as a means of evaluating players compared to, say, a sport like basketball, where they are virtually everything. This has been especially true with the Hall of Fame, where longevity and championships (i.e. luck) are favoured above a player’s ability to perform (with …

2011, Hockey, Sports, The Campaign to Fire Brian Burke

The Campaign to Fire Brian Burke: End of the 2010-11 Season

Maybe I’m overly cynical. Maybe the Dryden / Quinn / Ferguson years so soured me that I lost all hope – that I cannot even begin to believe that a Leafs team could really contend for the cup. Maybe I’ve lost all perspective. Maybe my claims to big picture thinking are really just rationalizing disguises for …

2011, Hockey, Sports, The Campaign to Fire Brian Burke

The Campaign to Fire Brian Burke: Tyler Bozak

The case of Bozak is a really interesting one. It illustrates, for me, both what works and what doesn’t work about Burke’s “plan”. (Sometimes I think calling this a plan or a rebuild is a discredit to these otherwise noble words).

2011, Hall of Fame, Hockey, Sports

It’s time to start calling Iggy future hall of famer Jarome Iginla

Last night Iginla reached 1000 points for his career. This might not seem like all that much, especially given the large number of people who have achieved this mark since the 1980s. It puts him 77th all-time. He achieved this in more than 1103 games, making him slightly less than a point-a-game player, 103rd best …

Basketball, Sports

Point Forwards and Shooting Forwards

The concept of the point forward was introduced some time ago – in the ’80s I think – but it is still resisted in many quarters. There are a few people on the TSN boards who constantly get upset when anyone uses the term “point forward,” especially back when Turkoglu was on the Raptors. The …