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Cherry drops another bomb on Burke: Battle over Ontario gets heated

Joe Warmington, QMI Agency, March 3 2012

Forget the Battle of Ontario. This is the battle for Ontario.

And it’s a barn burner.

An old fashioned donnybrook, in fact.

“You want to get me off? You want to take me on?” Don Cherry said of Leafs General Manager Brian Burke on Coach’s Corner Saturday night. “Two years ago you said you were going to do something to me in the playoffs. Remember that? And I said, ‘Oh Brian Burke I’m shaking in my boots. I’m shaking right now. Do your best.’”

Another Cherry bomb.

For Grapes, the battle stems from the fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs do not have one player from Ontario currently on the roster.

For GM Burke, a loud and bombastic failure so far in his first three years at the helm despite tens of millions spent, it may end up being a battle to keep his job.

It’s a heavyweight prize fight.

Perhaps Burke can “rent a barn” at Riverdale Farms, like he suggested he wanted to do to settle a heated grudge match he had a few years back with Edmonton Oilers GM Kevin Lowe?

The problem is — as fighting goes — Cherry had 1,343 professional penalty minutes over 16 years in the minor leagues where Burke had 60 penalty minutes in just one season.

Their first two rounds were hot. The third round is steaming.

In January, Burke admitted he had “quietly and professionally” gone to Cherry’s CBC superiors to complain about what he called “vicious and cutting” attacks during Coach’s Corner against his coach and players.

Cherry took exception to him going “behind my back” — saying it’s “quite obvious” Brian is “trying to deflect from his team’s performance missing the playoffs three years running at my expense and to be a hero to his players at my expense.”

The temperature rose a few more degrees Saturday when Cherry called out Burke for both his lack of Ontario players and his going after his job.

“Here is what kills me,” Cherry said. “Burke goes to my bosses and says I am a bad guy because I said something vicious about his coach; two weeks later he fires him? Figure that one out folks!”

But it was the surprising fact that there are currently no Ontario players being iced that was one right to the kisser of American-born, dual-citizen Burke.

“Every team in the National Hockey League has a guy from Ontario except one. Guess who it is? It’s Ontario’s Toronto Maple Leafs,” said Grapes. “Now if you want American college guys; if you want Americans you got the team.”

As a Maple Leafs season ticket holder, Cherry said “we pay his salary from Ontario” and to “not make the playoffs for three years in a row, probably not four and not have one guy from Ontario is a crime as far as I am concerned.”

Forget the barn. To the woodshed.

Self described “vindictive” but other times big-hearted Burke did not seem to respond Sunday — fresh off his first win in a month with his new, Ontario-born, coach Randy Carlyle. He eventually patched up the feud with Lowe without any barn rental and will likely have no choice but to do the same with Cherry since going behind a guy’s back for his job in hockey is not honourable.

Even though Burke’s defenders say he has drafted, and his developing many Ontario players, his detractors say Ontario players like Nazem Kadri and Mike Zigomanis should be in the lineup now instead of overpaid and under-achieving team members who are not from these parts.

The bench-clearing brawl that ensued has gone viral.

“I thought Don was superb,” said former Toronto Sun hockey columnist and Hockey Night in Canada commentator Al Strachan. “For the most part, the Toronto media corps, that is supposed to be so demanding, has given Burke — or “Burkie” as they almost universally call him — a free ride. His inconsistencies are ignored; his gaffes are written off; his arrogance is forgiven and his general ill temper is accepted as a somehow acceptable personality trait.”

Strachan added Burke “has had great success browbeating the superiors of those who disagree with him and (allegedly) getting them fired but he tried it once too often when he went after Cherry. Unfortunately, very few in the Toronto media have had the fortitude to examine what Burke really is and to stand up to him. Don did that on Saturday night and it was great to watch.”

And every hockey fan certainly loves to watch a good tussle between two heavyweights.

There’s enough material develop a third CBC life and times movie where Jared Keeso does have excellent job of playing Grapes. But who is going to play Burke.

—–

CBC about to pay for Don Cherry’s criticism of NHL?

BRUCE DOWBIGGIN, Globe and Mail, Mar. 04, 2012

Journalism makes strange bedfellows. Don Cherry’s polemic Saturday on Coach’s Corner about Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke allegedly attempting to have him fired is one of those moments.

Cherry has the right to expect editorial freedom from the league that he covers. As much as we’ve disagreed with him, we support Cherry if a team executive tries to have him fired for taking positions contrary to the party line at the Air Canada Centre. Yes, strange bedfellows.

So long as he’s accurate, Cherry’s entitled to make a public show of his opinions, no matter how he’s dressed, no matter how over the top his delivery. (It’s up to CBC, not Cherry, to provide balance in its coverage.)

Trying to intimidate the press is nothing new for Burke. He has attempted, successfully at times, to silence his critics in media positions by going to their bosses with his complaints. We’re waiting for the moment when his new employers at Rogers and Bell must choose between Burke and one of their radio, TV or print employees who’ve irritated the Maple Leafs’ GM. For now, the friction point is between Burke and CBC, partners in the NHL national broadcast rights in Canada.

Which leads us to the other issue raised by Cherry’s bombast: What’s an acceptable level of criticism from a host broadcaster?

Cherry tailored the facts on Saturday about Burke trying to have him fired. It’s not simply the Maple Leafs who are carrying a grudge over his flamboyant and persistent criticisms of the NHL and its product. When CBC executives made a pilgrimage to the NHL board of governors, they were rudely greeted by criticism of Cherry and MacLean from the Ottawa Senators and Vancouver Canucks, whose complaints about biased coverage and editorial failings have been voiced on other occasions.

The league, too, has been less than enthusiastic about Cherry’s demeaning of the new rules, discipline czar Brendan Shanahan, and the refereeing. Commissioner Gary Bettman appears to be boycotting Hockey Night in Canada after several contentious interviews with MacLean. Some of this is predictable, of course. As the expression goes, journalism’s goal is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

But it is becoming clear that CBC may pay a price for countenancing the Ron ’n’ Don agenda of old-time values. NHL officials would not comment publicly on whether the pair would be an impediment to CBC retaining all or some of the next national TV rights package in Canada, which begin in 2014. But the sentiment in the league office seems to be, can anyone imagine the NFL’s broadcast partners being as constantly critical of the game, its officials, clubs, league and, particularly, the commissioner as Cherry/MacLean have been?

This became toxic this year when Cherry mocked the league’s disciplinary department and referees. While it doesn’t want to censor its broadcaster, the league does feel it could stand a little love once in a while from the stars of its Canadian partner.

Jeffrey Orridge, CBC vice-president of sports properties, told Usual Suspects that CBC would not publicly discuss the issue of whether Cherry/MacLean could cost them HNIC. But we have learned that HNIC and CBC employees are concerned that the personal agenda of the Coach’s Corner pair is jeopardizing the future of the show on CBC.

There is a feeling that Cherry/MacLean dominate editorial content on the show, and the content is no longer acceptable to a league that wants to emphasize speed and skill at the expense of grittiness and fighting. Some feel that Cherry, facing retirement, is looking to go out on his shield by picking a fight with the suits of the league for the soul of the sport.

The 77-year-old Cherry says he is on an annual contract with CBC. MacLean has two more years on his deal. Some think it’s time they moved on. Removing either or both this summer from HNIC would be a tricky public relations move for CBC, which is already under fire from both political and broadcast critics. For a corporation facing financial challenges in the next year, the advertising revenues from HNIC are crucial. Losing them, a disaster.

Can CBC retain both HNIC’s revenues and Cherry/MacLean? We may be about to find out.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
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