#brianburke

   If you are a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, you can not disagree with the fact that last season was the final straw for Leafs GM Brian Burke. The team has not reached the playoffs since 2004 and since the 2005-2006, their record is 253-208-78, averaging 36 wins a season and finishing no higher than third in the Northeast Division. Sure, you have to compete with teams like Boston, Buffalo, New York, Ottawa and Montreal, but Leafs fans have just felt that Brian Burke, a once proud General Manager of the 2006 Stanley Cup Champions Anaheim Ducks, has not lost control of the franchise but his confidence to rebuild the team.

   Reports circled Wednesday morning that Brian Burke was fired as general manager of the Maple Leafs and replaced by interim GM Dave Nonis (which Leaf fans seem excited about having a Canadian finally calling the shots again). So what happend? The Leafs front office came to a conclusion last week on agreeing to signing free agent and former Vancouver Canuck goaltender Roberto Luongo. Everyone had agreed on the deal except Burke and after that, they had enough. Goaltending has been a HORRENDOUS challenge for Toronto the past few seasons, calling up and sending down guys like Ben Scrivens and James Reimer. This past season, Scrivens played most of last year with Toronto's AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, but in his twelve apperances, Scrivens recorded a 4-5-2 record, 3.12 Goals  Allowed Average (GAA) and a .902 Save Percentage (SV), while Reimer posted a 14-14-2 record in 34 appearances with a 3.10 GAA and a .900 SV. However, Toronto can not solely plan the goaltending as the key factor for their demise. The Leafs scored 231 goals during the course of the 2011-12 season. How many did they allow? 264. The last time that they scored more goals than goals allowed was also the last time they made the playoffs (2003-04 season with 242-204).

   The funny thing is that Toronto has pretty damn good forwards though and Burke had a voice in bringing them to Ontario. I mean take Phil Kessel for example, who was brought over from Boston in exchange for a first round draft pick, which turned out to be a kid by the named of Tyler Seguin. Kessel finished sixth overall in point leaders last season with 37 goals and 45 assists. They only guys in front of him are names like Evengi Malkin, Steven Stamkos, Claude Giroux, Jason Spezza and Ilya Kovalchuck. Two other players who had a big impact in the points department last season were Joffrey Lupul and Mikhail Grabovski. Also, the Marlies, who were last season's Calder Cup runner-ups, have a handful of solid players on their roster, such as Matt Frattin, Joe Colbourne, Ryan Hamilton, Nazem Kadri, and Jesse Blacker just to name a few.