Less is more with Leafs' McCabe
Monday, October 15, 2007 | 11:08 AM ET
We have a lot in store on this afternoon’s edition of Hockey Night in Canada Radio (Sirius channel 122, 4 p.m. ET). Kelly Hrudey will be my co-host for the full show and we’ll speak with sports-business writer Rick Westhead of the Toronto Star, who over the weekend published e-mails between former NHL executive director Ted Saskin and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly outlining just how cozy a relationship the two sides had.
Always looking for your feedback about the show as well. Drop us a line at hnicradio@cbc.ca.
Around the league:
- If there is a more boring - yet successful - brand of hockey being played outside of Minnesota, please don’t tell me about it. Watching the Wild is about as exciting as sorting one’s sock drawer, and yesterday’s 2-0 shutout of the Anaheim Ducks was no different. Josh Harding picked up the shutout, the team's third of the season.
- The most excitement in the game came courtesy of Derek Boogaard. The Wild enforcer took on Brad May (who took Minnesota's Kim Johnsson out of last season's the playoffs with a punch to the back of the head) and then tangled with fellow tough guy George Parros after Boogaard rubbed Chris Pronger. Boogaard also took out Todd Bertuzzi with a big hit that forced the winger to leave the game with a concussion. This was a scrappy affair throughout, as Minnesota's Nick Schultz also duked it out with Ryan Getzlaf.
- Sticking with the Wild, prospect Roman Voloshenko has left the team's minor-league affiliate in Houston to go back and play hockey in Russia. He’s fed up with playing in the minors, especially after a very soft 2006-07, when he scored only 11 goals on the heels of a 33-goal season. Voloshenko will suit up for Ak Bars Kazan and will make substantially more money than he would playing in the AHL. I’m actually surprised this doesn’t happen more often, but maybe it has already started to with the number of Russians we’ve seen leave the NHL recently to go play at home (Stanislav Chistov, Oleg Tverdovsky, Alexander Svitov).
- It went from bad to worse this weekend for the Atlanta Thrashers, who dropped a 6-5 decision to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night. The team is off to an 0-5 start, managing only nine goals in the process. GM Don Waddell maintains publicly he’s not all that worried about the slow start, but there is huge concern in Georgia right now about the hockey team, and if this continues all of you who picked Bob Hartley as being the first coach to be dismissed may win your pools.
- Hockey fans in Toronto have been giving defenceman Bryan McCabe the Larry Murphy treatment, booing him just about every time he touches the puck. Though it’s not exactly fair, this is the burden of playing with a big contract and not living up to the terms of it. McCabe’s ticket is $5.75 million US a year, and although anyone else in his situation would have taken the deal, he's quickly found out that when you sign for that kind of money, fans expect you to play up to it.
- Problem is, McCabe is a good defenceman, but he’s not great. Further compounding the situation is McCabe's choosing not to play his own game. Instead, he's trying to play like a $6 million defenceman, and often times ends up overhandling the puck in his own zone because of that. McCabe's Leafs are in Buffalo tonight to face the Sabres.
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About the Author
Jeff Marek, one of sports talk radio's brightest stars, is the host of the all-new HNIC Radio on SIRIUS Satellite Radio. A twelve-year sports-talk radio veteran, the Toronto native provides intelligent hockey talk, insight and debate during the two-hour national daily drive-time hockey program.
Well known for his previous work on Leafs Lunch on AM 640 Toronto Radio, Marek is one of sports talk radio's most respected personalities. He joined AM 640 in 2000, hosting The Jeff Marek Show, a nightly open-line talk show, while working as the stations' morning news anchor. He quickly became the director of sports news and joined host Bill Watters on Leafs Lunch.
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Comments
travis
calgary
Bryan Mccabe is the reason I no longer watch the Leafs. It curdles my stomach watching him play and if I watch any more Leafs hockey, I'll get an ulcer.
Posted October 20, 2007 10:54 PM
Rick Evans
Mississauga
Some fans are suggesting to leave him alone.
I say if McCabe doesn't have the grit to listen to the negativity shown by the fans, then get rid of him, not later, right now.
He is only good for one thing, and that's his one-timer from the blue line.
I can't believe after all these years, that the Leafs have made no progress in their attempts to win a Stanely Cup.
I, like most Leaf fans are simply fed up.
It sure seems the club and it's management do not have the thirst for pursuing the Stanley Cup.
The heart to win is not there, and the fans want to see the game played with heart, like Dougy Gilmore or Wendal Clark used to play.
The Leafs is a place for washed-up, overpaid NHL players who can play the game as if it was a pre-season fun game.
I AM FED UP with the whole damn thing.
I say the club asks for donations, let's say 5 bucks each from the public, and raised enough money to get some real talent.
I know I would pay, in an instant.
TORONTO IS A HOCKEY TOWN, and raising money would prove that!!!
FED UP!!!!
Posted October 17, 2007 02:54 AM
Wes
Hey, I have an idea!! Let's bring up some of those 1st and 2nd round draft pics we've acquired over the years and see if some YOUTH can actually make a difference! Oh, wait ... we traded them all away for middle-aged, mediocre (at best) players that really haven't changed a thing about the team. It's the same team it was 3 or more seasons ago.
Posted October 16, 2007 12:42 AM
Mike
Toronto
The media didn't report on some of the worst player chants I've heard at the ACC. Fans were chanting "Bryan the Pylon" after he let Crosby get away to score the last goal; now I wonder what he'll hear after putting the puck in his own net tonight against Buffalo.
$7M a season? I hear Toronto pays their "top 3" defencemen the same amount that Anaheim does; which franchise is getting the best bang for their buck?
Posted October 15, 2007 11:45 PM
Leafs fan
Toronto
Bryan the Pylon
Make a bad play
Head to the bench
$7M a season? Are you kidding me! Own goal tonight clinches it. Bench Bryan!
Posted October 15, 2007 11:42 PM
Kevin
NWT
Brian McCabe is Todd Gill with a better slapshot. Get him and his asinine salary off the books and bring in some younger guys who can skate.
Posted October 15, 2007 02:20 PM
Andrew
Toronto
OK Bob. The Leafs missed the playoffs by 1 point the last couple of seasons. Getting beat is part of the game - so is winning. BUT McCabe's house-league defence play and the goals that are the result (just YouTube his name and watch his "Low Light reel") have single handedly lost games - Probably would have made the playoffs if he hadn't made those beer-can league mistakes. Forget the contract - just watch his play - is it even worth an NHL contract? AHL contract? I can watch a Junior D game and see better defensive play than he shows game in and game out. If you can't trade that contract away - BENCH HIM and let the eager minor league players show him how to pass and play in his own end. He deserves a little humiliation for his play. Most of us wish he gets injured so he is out of the line-up since we don't feel comfortable at all with him playing. We are just waiting to see how he screws it all up again this time.....
Posted October 15, 2007 01:59 PM
Bob
Burnaby,BC
I agree with the McCabe analysis. He's a decent defenceman but when he tries to overplay at his position, he gets caught out of position and then takes needless penalties that cost his team and that is part of the reason he's getting booed.
Yes, McCabe is overpaid badly but, hey, management has the right to mismanage and the Leafs are good at that. Unless the team as a whole starts playing as a team and supporting each other like they should, McCabe's struggles will continue to the point where he may be traded just to silence the critics.
Posted October 15, 2007 12:20 PM