A Tale of Three GMs; Part III: Brian Burke

This:

"I told the players you should care about winning as much as I do or you'll play somewhere else."

About the playoffs (!!1):

"That's our goal. It's our intention to reach that goal and we believe we have the talent to get there."

That. Those quotes. Above. That's why Brian Burke is the perfect man to be leading the Toronto Maple Leafs. The GM should want it just as bad as the fans do.

Burke's perfect. If he adds Phil Kessel without trading Tomas Kaberle, and/or a first round draft pick, I will seriously begin to - you guessed it - plan the parade.

Can you recall a training camp and pre-season in recent memory that you were so excited about?

I didn't think so.

The Maple Leafs Annual

Today, September 8th, is an auspicious day. Not only is it my brother's 30th birthday (dirty thirty!!1), it's also the release date of the 2009/2010 Maple Leafs Annual - a magazine chronicling your favourite team, written by some of the finest Maple Leafs bloggers out there.

For some reason Alec Brownscombe, editor of the annual and one of the writers at the heavily trafficked Maple Leafs Hot Stove, asked me to be involved in the project. I readily agreed, and typed an essay entitled: Infinite Hope.

Looking back upon the last 20 years of my life as a Leafs fan, I wrote about those players and those teams that best personified hope; and why the well of hope, even after many trying years of heartbreaking losing, never runs day.

It was an honour and a pleasure to be involved in a writing collaboration with some of the heavyweights of the Maple Leafs' blogosphere Barilkosphere. You can find the magazine on newsstands today; at your local Walmart, your local grocery store, your local drug store, and at all Chapters Indigo stores throughout Canada.

Pick up a copy. It's 128-pages of Toronto Maple Leafs content, penned by those who write only to feed their passion. You won't be disappointed.

Home Hardware

The Globe and Mail is calling it the "Miracle on Turf." SportsNet dubbed it the "Montreal Miracle." My headline of choice would have been: "Toronto FC Pulls Off Some Crazy Shit."

Needing to beat Montreal by four goals to be crowned Canadian champions, I gave TFC no chance. Zero. Actually, less than zero. Not a prayer.

Once again, I was wrong. Gloriously, wonderfully wrong. Somehow, they did it. By five.

Down 1-0, the Reds awoke. With aplomb. Six goals in a row, three from Dwayne De Rosario (one courtesy a sick bicycle kick). His big-game performance last night was why he was acquired. I have no idea what TFC gave up in return for DeRo, and refuse to ask Google (fuck off, Bing) because the answer is of no significance; Toronto won the trade.

Stop. Think about it for a minute. Six goals. By Toronto FC. In one game. They may never score again.

And of all the guys to bag the fifth and most important goal of the night, you knew it had to be the much-maligned Chad Barrett. On a night where nothing made sense, it was rather poetic.

TFC will be representing Canada in the CONCACAF Champions League, and I couldn't be happier for the squad. But what I'm wondering is: when's the parade? They did win a title. And a trophy. Their first one. And I'd like a parade. Even a low-key affair. It's Toronto; I'm sure someone's got a route already mapped (crayoned?) out.

UPDATE: Make sure to read Sporting Madness' take on the game, courtesy of Andrew Bucholtz. He even breaks down what TFC's win means for followers of the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps, whom I frankly don't give a shit about.