Maple Leafs fans wake up to a Burkie Blast

Toronto Maple Leafs fans went to bed last night with a bitter taste in their mouths after watching their beloved Leafs blow a 3-0 lead against the Vancouver Canucks on Hockey Day in Canada. This morning many started their Sunday as they normally would but what most fans did not expect was to get hit all of a sudden by a Burkie Blast. Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke had seen enough and today many players got the "pink slip", when it was all said and done Burke has sent off six players on the current Leafs roster and taken back four in two separate trades completed today. 

Brian Burke's first move of 2010, sign Ian White

As the 2009 calender year comes to a close with the Maple Leafs three points behind a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Brian Burke will need to look at making some decisions in 2010 and the first one on his list needs to be the resigning of defensemen Ian White. The 25 year old on many nights this season has been the teams best rearguard and overall it's not much of a stretch to say that he has been the teams second best defensemen behind only Tomas Kaberle this season. White is set to become a restricted free agent and Burke would be wise to sign the versatile White, who can also play forward when asked by the Leafs coaching staff to a long term deal. White who started off his first season with Ron Wilson as the teams head coach in the pressbox has worked hard to get regular duty under Wilson and now is firmly planted in the Leafs Top 4 defense this season. White has eight goals (one behind league lead for defensemen) and thirteen assists this season with a plus nine rating. White is on pace to shatter his career high in points in a season of twenty six, which he achieved on two occasions and is slowly starting to live up to scouts comparing his play to that of Brian Rafalski. Burke needs to draw on his experience in negotiating contracts and hopefully be able to sign White to a long term deal of around 4 to 5 years at an average salary of anywhere from 2.5 to 3 million a season, in today's market for defensemen this looks to be the going rate. The Leafs will once again have a lot of money tied to big contracts on the backend with about $15 million against the cap next season already committed to Kaberle, Beauchemin, Komisarek and Schenn not including the White signing. The Leafs do have Exelby's and Van Ryn's contracts coming off the books after the season. The Leafs could also take a look at the bloated contract of Jeff Finger at $3.5 million a season over the next two years as a buyout would be a cap hit of just under $1.2 million over the next four years if the can not find any takers on the trade front. The team would not need to worry short term about all the high salary on the backend with alot of young forwards on the team over the next few years in Stalberg, Hanson, Bozak, Kulemin and Mitchell having all low salaries. Brian Burke needs to make some moves in 2010 and why not have the first of those moves being a long term contract to Ian White. I think most Leaf fans would agree that he has more then earned it.

Maple Leafs fortunes on the back of defense?

The Toronto Maple Leafs get a whole week off, so we know that when Saturday arrives we will still be sitting pretty in last spot. The Leafs are not as bad a team as it seems but far from how good we think they can be. The Maple Leafs fortunes could all come down to the back end, a back end that was suppose to be the teams strength and backbone and has been nothing but its achilles heel in the first seven games. Brian Burke has stated he wouldn't change a thing and as the season progresses he could be correct but Leaf Nation is an impatient bunch. The key to the Leafs turn around though lies in the back end, the goalie needs to make the first save but the defense need to clear the crease, get some key take aways and block some shots. The Toronto Maple Leafs defense have no one in the Top 30 in blocked shots for defensemen, the Maple Leafs leader is Mike Komisarek who sits tied in 38th place in the league with 13 blocks but the Maple Leafs defense does have two players in the Top 10 in the league in giveaways Ian White sits tied for 5th with nine and Francois Beauchemin is tied for 9th with eight. The Leafs can also add Luke Schenn tied for 14th with seven and Tomas Kaberle tied for 25th with six to the list. These two statistics don't work well together for our Buds as they give the puck away too often and yet don't block shots to assist their goalkeepers when this is done. The Maple Leafs do have the league leader in penalty minors in Mike Komisarek who has taken eight so far this season, when you throw in the Leafs pathetic PK who sit dead last chugging along at 60%, a good idea might be to stay out of the box. The Maple Leafs back end also have just one player who is positive on the plus/minus side. Ian White is a some how a +3, while the other six Maple Leaf defense are a combined -27. These statistics don't lie Leaf fans the team is playing lousy in many areas but the defense and not the goaltending may be the weakest point of all and until this area improves, Leafs Nation is in for a long season.