Mixer prototype v.0.1

The 2008-2009 edition of the Leafs (and their fans) will face a number of battles. Jeff Finger will fight his contract to earn fair coverage from the media. Steen, Stajan, Antropov, and the rest of the young group will face the pressure of increased expectations and the need to continue developing. Kulemin and Tlusty will face the pressure of being looked at as the future of the Leafs' offence. Meanwhile, Leaf fans will battle to their desire to enjoy hockey with their love of watching the Leafs.
But who will lead our motley crew of kids, in-betweeners, possible trade fodder, and call-ups from the Marlies once the inevitable injury crisis hits? A week or so ago I posted a poll with some simple options looking at the usual suspects (Steen, Stajan, Sundin, Kubina, and Kaberle). The results were not terribly shocking as Kaberle pulled in 17 votes, Kubina 14, and the enigmatic Mats Sundin picked up 8 votes. General Borschevsky has been taking a look at the Leafs' past captains and the legacy that comes with the 'C' (The Blood of My Chief Part One Part Two). Those are some pretty big shoes to fill.
Here's a look at the top three candidates:
Tomas Kaberle
Steve presented a good case for a Kaberle captaincy. As a 204th overall pick in the 1996 draft pick Kaberle has spent his entire career in the blue and white. He has quickly progressed from a lonely teenager on a veteran laden team to the lynchpin of the Leafs' defence and powerplay. He is by no means...

"C" no evilThis burning question in the Barilkosphere for the last week or so, other than "is it actually possible to screw up a no-trade scenario any worse than Bryan McCabe did?" has been around the identity of the next Leafs captain. Who should get the honor, assuming Sundin isn't back? (And don't worry, eyebeleaf -- even I wouldn't suggest we strip Sundin of his 'C' if he re-signs1.)The Leafs have recently made a habit of bringing their old captains back to the fold: Wendel twice, and Dougie once. It says here that they should do it again.They should award this year's captaincy to the same player who had it from 1986-89.Nobody.Back then, the Leafs didn't have any especially good candidates for the captain's job. The team wasn't very good, their few decent players were too young to carry a leadership role, and they didn't have much in the way of veteran presence. Stop me if any of this sounds familiar.Faced with that scenario, and for perhaps the only time during the Ballard years, the Leafs did the right thing. They played without a captain for three years.They should do it again. The current Leafs roster doesn't have a single player who deserves to wear the "C". And since there's no rule that says you need to have a captain, and no real disadvantage to going without one, the Leafs should declare the captaincy vacant for at least one season.Let's look at the candidates on the current roster:An established veteran like Tomas Kaberle, Pavel Kubina or Nik Antropov - Kaber...

Canadians are, on average, far too humble about our country and its institutions. Part of that is an ingrained aspect of our national character.  Our national motto could be "live and let live". Unfortunately, part of that is the effect of having the US next door. We are constantly bombarded with their pronouncements of superiority and it's bound to have an effect on how we view our own country.
The sad thing is that we do so many things much better than the US. For one, our elections are run about a million times better. The Republicans would never be able to steal an election as they did in 2000 and 2004. Our health care system is superior, our social programs are better, and most importantly, our hockey is better. Even if you disagree that any of those are better at a minimum they are better for Canada and there's no shame in being different than the US if it works for us.
Which brings me to football. The NFL is a lot of fun. I spend all day Sunday watching it. But I also enjoy the CFL. I don't watch it as much as the NFL but I certainly don't want to see it die and that would be the result of the NFL coming to Canada. The NFL might not kill the entire league if it comes to Toronto but it will certainly kill of the Argos as corporate Toronto falls all over itself to get into the NFL business. They represent 135 years of Canadian history so it was nice to wake up and see this kind of story about last night's game. The odd regular season game is fine but ther...

Well, you can't say that Canadian athletes are playing with some fire in their belly. The water polo team had their coach suspended and three players ejected during a rough and tumble game against Australia. Mike Brown's fourth place finish is heartbreaking but impressive if you think that he is the fourth best person in the world. Apparently rain is delaying the rowing events today and women's softball where Canada has gone 3-0 and is facing the US. Matt takes a look at the Sports Illustrated medal predictions and wonders how many Canada was meant to have by now. Take a guess and check the first comment for the answer.
Anyway, it'll be another long day (why can't all of the international sporting events be in my time zone?) but here are some links to help pass the time:
Torontosportsmedia is listening to sports radio so that we don't have to. I think we can all like what he heard.
Kukla's Korner finds an interesting nugget about a possible McCabe trade. Apparently we have to wait until the first of September so that the Leafs can cover the $2M bonus.
Did Sundin paint himself into a corner?
Someone call Lou Dobbs! There's a war on the NHL's middle class. Is it ridiculous to call millionaires middle class? Probably just a little bit.
MD Milner has a good article on the Olympics and everyone's favourite swimmer.

As the Mats Sundin saga drags on, it's getting harder and harder to imagine a happy ending. Every one of Sundin's options is looking worse by the day.If he signs in Vancouver, he'll look like he took a big paycheque over a chance to win. If he goes to Montreal, his legacy in Toronto will be damaged if not destroyed. If he comes back to the Leafs, he'll be joining a rebuilding team that doesn't even seem to be sure it wants him. If he retires, he'll have lead several teams on all summer and then quit because he couldn't motivate himself to come back and chase a championship.None of those scenarios may be fair, and much of the negativity will fade over time as it always does. But right now, virtually anything Sundin decides will be met with significant derision. That's his fault. He's simply let this drag on too long for it to work any other way.There's one other option, and its one that could be a perfect fit. It's pretty clear that the best choice for Sundin right now is to make no choice at all. Sundin should follow the Neidermayer Plan -- take some time off, rest up, and then consider a mid-season return.The move would give Sundin extra time to consider his future. When (and if) he did decide to return, he'd be 100% healthy and rested. He'd be able to consult the standings to ensure he was headed to a legitimate contender, and might even have more suitors since his cap hit would be lower. Sure, it would cost him a half season's salary. But it sure seems like money isn't...

"I don't understand why so many people like X. Here are some reasons why I think people like X. I'm not sure if they're true, because again, I don't understand it, but I'm using them because they're the easiest reasons to mock and rebut. Although 'easy' is a relative term; I still have to cherry-pick my anecdotes, facts, and statistics to make my argument. Which I'm not really sure why I'm making, because as a purported conservative, I ought not to rail against what harmless things people enjoy in their spare time, and did I mention I don't understand it. Anyway, X sucks!"

Matt, from the Battle of Alberta, in picking apart one particularly terrible piece on the Olympics pegs down the template for the anti-Leaf crowd.

This is another Olympics-inspired off-topic rant. If you just want the links they are after the jump.
The Olympics are in full swing and of course that means that Canada's getting going in their favourite sport: hand-wringing. Read the comments to any article about an athlete posting a Canadian record or a personal best and you're likely to find that most lament the fact that Canada is sending over a bunch of losers to represent the country. Bob McCown and his asinine side-kick Jim Kelley tossed in the "government money is wasted" red herring while denigrating the efforts of our athletes in qualifying for the Olympics.
Yesterday Matt from the Battle of Alberta had a link to a great rundown of Canada's medal  chances by Jeff Little. One of the reasons that Canada has been skunked thus far is that the events where we stand the best chance of earning a medal come in the second week of the games. Using Athletics Canada as an example, they have a well defined and difficult qualification process that uses the IOC qualifying standards as a base. There is a clear qualification process that involves meeting the standard multiple times including posting A+ times (better than the IOC's A standard) or being in the top 12 at the previous year's world championships. Despite what McCown the Clown would have his listener's believe, making the A standard once does not get you to the Olympics.
The main irony of people arguing about the qualifying standard is that ...

Thanks to the wonderful world of self-publishing we might someday be subjected to a book by Mr. Howard Berger. It'll take the place of honour in bargain bins and as part of the $1 hardcovers sale at bookstores across the GTA. What the book would contain is pointless to consider...I mean, considering the subject it would be pointless to read what the book contains. It would be infinitely easier to hit up any member of the Barilkosphere and do a search on the hairy-lipped hot air-spewing putz.
To put the proper perspective on his latest column choices Berger has been so bad in the past couple of weeks that people are actually suggesting that he might be worse than Damien Cox. DAMIEN COX! THE FREAKING OMEN! Did any of you think that you would see the day?!?!
His latest piece is a tour de force. I won't go into the Berger Bingo aspects of the article and do not click over. It starts out by suggesting that the Leafs are doing something wrong by trying to trade McCabe and that Fletcher is acting out of character and ruining his reputation around the league (sure) as if they were doing something unique. There are the obligatory potshots at the fans (if I see you at the Cup parade in 2012 Berger I will actually punch you in the mustache. Write that down four eyes) and a stunning display of Berger Logic. Here is all you need to read:
Last summer, I was inundated with a particular ilk of e-mail, informing me that the Leafs’ only problem in 2006-07 was the sub-par g...

The latest in a long line of bloggers v. Howard Berger missives took me a long time so read it again (or finish it, I know it was long). Here are some links to get you through the morning. Toss any others in the comments
Mike Ulmer has Six Things He Knows making six more than the combined totals of Mssrs. Cox, Berger, and Simmons.
The next coach of the Leafs is getting groomed on the farm.
Who will be the next captain of the Leafs? Vote in the poll below.
This is a random link to someone that thinks that players get more credit for playing in Toronto than less...
Time for history lessons! First, why Conn Smythe is awesome and Stafford had to have been spawned from a defective egg. Part I of a history of the Leafs and part II is here.
DJ points out that The Fraud is lying once again.
Joe has some fun with the Bleacher Report.
Fan Fiction gone terribly terribly wrong.





Poll
Who will be the Leafs' Captain this season?





Duh, Mats Sundin

Tomas Kaberle - The longest serving Leaf left if Mats leaves

Pavel Kubina - He's got a cup ring and he's got a rough edge

Alex Steen - Let's get him the 'C' that journalists were calling for 3 years ago

Matt Stajan - Look out socks!

  47 votes | Results

By now I would imagine that everyone has read the ultimate Howard Berger takedown penned by CoxBloc commenter Varry Galk. While it is certainly difficult to follow up perfection people did not stop playing hockey after Wendel retired so why should bloggers stop calling attention to Howard's horrible writing?
The answer of course is that we should not because who knows maybe one day an editor will read one of these pieces and realize what a crap writer he's been employing. Then again, odds are, based on The Omen, Garrioch, Brennan et al, that Berger would end up getting a promotion instead of the punch in the mustache he deserves. Memo to Howard: in the world of facial hair there is suave and debonair at one end of the scale and "oh dear God please don't open your trenchcoat" at the other end. Guess where yours lies?
I know, I know, we all promise ourselves that we are not going to go to that site or read any of Berger's columns ever again. However, we're already visiting blogs so we are inherently a sports addicted group so naturally once in a while we'll sneak over to that site to partially sate our unquenchable thirst for rumours and innuendo or to see what is the latest insane barb being launched at our fellow fans. Plus, rebutting them is too easy. It's like fishing with dynamite.
Today, via Howard Berger, Leaf fan's greatest sin: Having hope that some of the young players in the Leafs' system might turn out pretty good.
Does not sound like a morta...

A few quick notes...First of all, thanks to all Down Goes Brown readers for making July our best month ever. We cleared 5,000 visits for the first time -- a few of which weren't even disappointed porn surfers following a link from the NY Times. Special thanks to Pension Plan Puppets and Puck Daddy, who accounted for a big chunk of that traffic with their generous linking.I'd like to say a special hello to my lone visitor from Qatar, which I'd previously thought was a fictional country invented by the makes of FIFA '96, as well as the person who found the blog by running a Google search for "bruce garrioch fat".A reminder that if you enjoy the blog, you could consider subscribing to the RSS feed. And if you're still on the fence, be sure to check out the greatest hits page.And on that note, for the next few days I'm going to make like Dany Heatley during an important playoff series and completely disappear. I'm heading to picturesque Saskatchewan for a week. And while I'm told that they did recently figure out electricity out there, I'm pretty sure they don't yet have enough tubes to support the internet. So I'll be offline from right now until the middle of next week.And you know that means: Mats Sundin will be announcing his decision any minute now. Just to screw with me.

I was originally going to write this just as a FanPost on Mile High Hockey but I figured that you would all want to enjoy in the hilarity of Andrew Raycroft being seen as an NHL-calibre goalie. It also inspired me to put down as an idea a series of posts that may (or may not) ever get off the ground Profiles in Awfulness which will take similar looks at other (and there are probably too many to ever do the series justice) terrible Maple Leafs. Without further ado, the first installment:
Joe @ MHH brought up this Adrian Dater blog post last week and I meant to post this then but real-life intervened so bear with me as I proceed to create the same sense of dread in Avs fans as my fellow Leaf fans felt all last season knowing that Mr. Raycroft could go in net at any moment. All that they need to know to make them pucker up at the thought of seeing "Starting Goalie - A. Raycroft" on a game sheet can be found in the archives here.
Adrian Dater:Basically, the former Calder Trophy winner is excited to be coming to the Avs and glad to be out of Toronto. Raycroft ripped the Toronto media some, for taking comments he made about not watching much hockey away from the rink and branding him as a guy who isn’t dedicated to the game. "I made it to the NHL and have spent the last 20 years of my life dedicated to hockey. I think that shows some commitment," Raycroft said.
Koopa Kid:To be fair to Raycroft in regards to what’s being quoted, ...

Welcome to the third and final installment of the Leafs all-time nightmare squad. We've covered the forwards and the goalies and defence. Now let's meet the men who helped turn those guys into the hopeless losers they were.What was that note I wrote on my hand?B-e-n-c-h-m-c-c-a... ah, I'm sure itwasn't important.CoachPaul Maurice (2006-08)Why we hate him: This was a tough category. The Leafs have had exactly two good coaches since the early 80s: Pat Burns and Pat Quinn. The rest ranged from overmatched to completely hopeless.So why pick Maurice? Because unlike the other failures, Maurice was supposed to be good. When he was hired, most agreed that the Leafs had made a wise choice. After all, Maurice was young and had already been to the finals with a surprising Hurricanes team in 2002. Unfortunately, nobody bothered to check any of the other seasons on his resume. If Paul Maurice was a singer, he'd be Nena and the 2002 Cup run would be "99 Luftballoons".Under Maurice, the Leafs were a miserable team that missed the playoffs twice. They were the only team in the league that played a man defensive system, a scheme that Maurice insisted on sticking with even as the Leafs got shelled every night. What's worse, Maurice apparently didn't believe in concepts like accountability, as he allowed the Leafs dressing room to become a country club where whiny veterans like Bryan McCabe and Jason Blake could feel cosy and comfortable even as the losses piled up.Redeeming qualities: Was r...