brian-burke Page index.xml - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Brian Burke is the biggest fraud in the NHL
Before we pivot later today to the NHL Playoffs, we can kick a little more dirt on the regular season, and specifically, the Pittsburgh Penguins. After missing the playoffs for the first time since before the Obama administration, the Penguins fired GM Ron Hextall — rumored to be an inside agent sen...
Carson Brière and James Reimer make it clear hockey is not for everyone
When millions watched a video of NCAA hockey player Carson Brière pushing a wheelchair down a flight of stairs, it revealed something. The same can be said for James Reimer’s overt decision to not wear a Pride jersey with his San Jose Sharks teammates. For decades, hockey’s toxic culture has been li...
It’s time for the yearly symposium on whether this is finally it for the Penguins
This is yet another distasteful side effect of the NHL’s salary cap. Fans and observers of a certain team, especially a successful one, have to start judging just how much sand is left in the hourglass. They have to weigh the age of the best players, salaries of those players, when contracts run out...
Brian Kelly broke up by text after the second date
If you’re a Notre Dame fan, and I assume you’re done trashing your underground hovel and listening to your entire Bob Seger collection, you can look forward to the fact that you’re only about 10 months away from watching Brian Kelly getting his brains beaten in by various SEC schools. It’s a cold wo...
The Penguins tried to game the system and lost big
One of the many catchphrases that Eddie Olczyk has been trying to “fetch” for more than a decade is “Goaltending: If you don’t have it, you got no chance.” Like most of the things Eddie O says, it probably sounds way cooler and more clever in his head. It’s not a play on words, it doesn’t rhyme, it’...
The Panthers got a finish lesson
It sounds stupid to almost everyone who loosely followed the Panthers-Lightning Game 4 yesterday, considering that the Cats gave up six goals and lost by four. But for most of the game, especially in the first period, Florida kicked the absolute shit out of the Lightning. They relentlessly attacked ...
Penguins’ pitiful pairing of Hextall & Burke shows NHL old useless boys network is alive as ever
Hiring practices in the major sports leagues have been under the microscope of late. Especially in the NFL, where overqualified Black candidates can’t seem to get jobs ahead of white ones that seemingly come from nowhere, or are retreads, or if you’re the Lions you find a guy who had spent the previ...
Brian Burke To Calgary: Nice Hockey Team You Got Here, Shame If Something Happened To It
It’s remarkable that one of the most blatant threats to leave a city somehow begins with the words “we’re not going to make the threat to leave”:...
The Blackhawks Use Advanced Analytics. Shouldn't Your Team?
Let's play a game. I like to call it "Guess Which NHL GM's Team is a Cup Contender and Which One is Golfing." Today's contestants are Chicago's Stan Bowman, from a fascinating piece in the Sun-Times, and Calgary's Brian Burke, from a radio interview a couple of days ago....
The Unlikely Gay Advocate
Another one, worth your time—Mary Rogan's 2010 GQ story, "Out on the Ice":...
Brian Burke Is Suing Internet Commenters
Brian Burke's time as general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs came to an end when he was fired in early January. Almost immediately after, rumors began circulating that his personal life played a major role in Toronto's decision. ...
After The Maple Leafs Fired Him, Brian Burke Had A Sad Afternoon
The Toronto Maple Leafs canned general manager Brian Burke on Wednesday. We're not sure what it took for Burke to get fired immediately after the end of a lockout. If team brass didn't like the direction he was taking Toronto, they should have fired him before free agency and the draft; otherwise, t...
Maple Leafs Ownership Apologizes To Fans For Yet Another Shitty Season
The Panthers, winners of the Southeast, released a video taking shots at all the critics who said they weren't going to be a good hockey team. (They're not a good hockey team, but whatever.) But Florida's playoff appearance means something in the bigger picture: the Toronto Maple Leafs are now the o...
Don't Ask Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke About His Job Security
That's what John Moore of Newstalk 1010 did yesterday, albeit by first noting that "a lot of people" think Burke ought to be fired. With even Don Cherry calling Burke out for, of all things, not stocking his roster with any Ontario natives, it was worth asking Burke about what kind of pressure he m...
Don Cherry Hates Americans, American Colleges And Brian Burke
On the most recent episode of Don Cherry's personal megaphone, Coach's Corner, the flamboyant Cherry addressed some concerns he had about Brian Burke's recent dismissal of Maple Leafs' coach Ron Wilson....
Once Upon A Time, Charles Wang And Mike Milbury Royally Fucked Brian Burke
In 2001, the Canucks broke camp with two goaltenders: lifetime backup Dan Cloutier, and some dude. (Martin Brochu is about as "some dude" as a pro hockey player can be. In three non-consecutive NHL seasons, he got nine starts and didn't win a single one.) It was a personnel mystery that's endured to...
Brian Burke Was Going To Rent A Barn To Fight Kevin Lowe Until Gary Bettman Intervened
Brian Burke has rapidly become one of the most stand-up guys in hockey, after his unqualified support for his out-of-the-closet son Brendan and his own anti-bullying campaign in Brendan's memory. He wasn't always so cuddly—in a great interview with The Score, Burke relates how he nearly came to blow...
Why Hockey Has Gone Totally Gay For The Latest Homophobia Debate
Hockey, for a sport that's nominally proactive in areas ranging from replay to concussions, has never been especially progressive. No one expects the openly gay pro athlete, the inevitable big story for the next decade, to come from the NHL. While other leagues have John Amaechi and Billy Bean and E...
Brian Burke Honors Late Son By Marching In Pride Parade
Eight months after his son came out publicly, and five months after his death, Brian Burke marched in yesterday's Toronto Pride Parade. Awesome....