The Dream Team (Part 3): Major Fan Related Misgivings

Greetings once more, Sports Fans, and welcome, yet again, to the 3rd edition of our completely miscalculated 2-part series, The Dream Team. Credibility is as good as random chance around here and so we forge ahead ignoring our lack of fresh ideas, frustrated that nothing else at all has happened.

The Final Roster

There are a few management additions, and one line-up change. Plus, we've listed the first 3 lines together as 5-man units.

Wendel Clark (Captain) - Doug Gilmour - Dave Andreychuk

Borje Salming - Sylvain Lefebvre

Salming and Lefebvre move up to the first line to provide stability and consistency. This group will see a lot of ice time and will be on the ice at the beginning and end of every period.

Alexnder Mogilny - Mats Sundin (Assistant) - Nikolai Borschevsky

Tomas Kaberle - Danny Markov

Markov takes Mironov's spot beside Kaberle and this tandem then becomes the perfect fit for the second unit. A distinctly European blend of poise, intelligence, and creativity, this line will be constantly on the attack, and always exciting to watch.

Darcy Tucker - Darryl Sittler (Assistant) - Rick Vaive

Bill Berg - Alyn McCauley - Gary Roberts

Todd Gill - Al Iafrate

Felix Potvin - Curtis Joseph

Mironov is the odd man out (for now), and coming in to replace him is fan favorite, Al Iafrate. He'll play with Gill as the Leafs try to win every game, 6-5. Sittler's line will probably rotate through the 3 defensive pairs based on game-situations and special assingments. Gill and Iafrate, meanwhile, will likely see a lot of time backing up the checking line, especially when the coach needs 5 guys who can stir things up.

extras - (F)Owen Nolan, (D)Dimitri Mironov, (G)Damien Rhodes

coaches - Pat Burns, Kirk Muller, Mike Foligno

GM - Pat Quinn, Special Assistant to the GM - Joe Nieuwendyk

President - Cliff Fletcher

Executive Vice-President, Corporate and Community Partnerships - Chemmy

Kirk Muller and Mike Foligno join Pat Burns behind the bench and Joe Nieuwendyk joins the management team as a special assistant to the GM. (weird, eh?)

All games will be held at Maple Leaf Gardens, but I'm not giving back my seat, they'll have to get new ones. There will be a corporate VIP lounge, however it will be super-exclusive, astronomically expensive, and buried 30kms below the surface of the earth and won't have anything to do with hockey.

Leaf fans (as opposed to soft-drink addicts) will be rewarded with Fan Appreciation Nights every Saturday. Each fan will receive a souvenir Leafs cap that they can throw on the ice after a Leafs' hat-trick or at the end of the game when the Leafs lose. Also, Leaf-legend, Ken Baumgartner will be on hand to greet each and every fan into the building with a handshake. Any fan wearing a Maple Leafs jersey will be given a gift certificate for another one, and anyone wearing a tie will be asked to remove it.

All pre-season home games and practices will be free and open to the public. And, because we care deeply about penny-less children, 500 seats for every home game will be dedicated to youth-at-risk, and low-income families, available through our Corporate and Community Partnerships program (MLSE VP CEO, Chemmy). Contact us to see if you qualify, and we'll send a soda-pop representative to shake you upside-down and make sure you really haven't got any money.

The Dream Team (Part 2): Defence, Goalies, Management

Hello Sports Fans, and welcome back to the second half of our 2-part mini-series, looking at some of my favorite players to wear a Maple Leafs uniform, and imagining what it would be like to have them all on the same team at the same time. If you missed Part 1: The Forward Lines, check it out, here. And now, let's look at the rest of the line up. Defence, the goalies, and Management.

I'm expecting some disagreement here, and to be honest, I found picking the 6 defencemen way harder then choosing 12 forwards. A lot of very good defencemen have come to Toronto but were not very good Maple Leaf defencemen. Indeed, something about Toronto seems to repeatedly eat up decent defencemen and spit them back. Mathieu Schneider, Jeff Brown, Larry Murphy. Those are the worst of the best. But there's also Phil Housley, Jason Smith, and Kenny Johnson; fairly good defencemen whose impact was minimal. Then there's also popular Leaf defenders, Al Iafrate, Brad Marsh, and Luke Richardson, who never got to enjoy the Leafs' better days. And then finally, there's Bryan McCabe.

Tomas Kaberle-Dimitri Mironov. Kaberle is an obvious choice and doesn't need to be explained. Mironov, on the other hand, is actually my sixth defenceman, I just like the way he pairs up with Tomas. He's like a McCabe that girls don't laugh at. Mironov was called "Tree" because you needed an axe to take him down. His career statistics are not all that impressive, and he had his shortcomings, but in the '94 playoffs he put it all together. In 18 games, Mironov scored 6 goals and added 9 assists for 15 points. The choice was really between Dimitri and McCabe, and it was hard, but I just couldn't have a guy who shot the puck into his own net, and got rag-dolled by Zdeno Chara on my Dream Team.

Borje Salming-Sylvain Lefebvre. Borje is the King. One of the all-time greats, and one of my earliest favorite players. He has a map of the Don Valley Parkway on his face. That's devotion. Salming's conditioning and skill puts him in control of the play whenever he's on the ice. Lefebvre meanwhile, will be looking for anyone with their head down in the trolley tracks. Sylvain's a stay-at-home defenceman who cooks and takes care of the kids. If it wasn't for Lefebvre, and Joe Bowen's call of one magical moment, would DownGoesBrown still exist? Maybe then this blog wouldn't exist either, and you wouldn't be reading this post right now. Heavy, eh? In a weird way, we owe our thanks for this moment to Sylvain Lefebvre.

Todd Gill-Danny Markov. I'm expecting disagreement with this pairing, but I'm open to it. If you don't know why Todd Gill is on the team, you should read this. As for Markov, I just kinda like him. His stats don't do his performance credit. He was a poor man's Darius Kasparaitus. Tough, edgy, and combative, he was also an ambitious risk-taker. This pair is going to give up a lot of scoring chances, but they'll also be entertaining as hell. If Don Cherry wants Rock'em Sock'em hockey, these 2 will provide it. What they lack in common sense they make up for with their hustle and effort. With Gill and Markov's spirit and sacrifice, this Dream Team of millionaires will stay honest and won't go soft, or run from a fight.

Felix Potvin-Curtis Joseph. This was another tough one. I'm going to right a wrong done long ago by bringin' in Cujo, but I'm keeping the Cat as my starting goalie. Felix will start 60% of the games up to the trade deadline, and then we'll take Zigmund Palffy for whichever goalie the NYIslanders want. Honorable mention in this category goes to Mike Palmateer and Grant Fuhr. After the trade for Palffy, an 8th round pick should bring back Damien Rhodes. If you're looking for a "purely back-up" goaltender, he seemed like a really, really nice guy. I always liked him, and he liked us. Seriously, when has a back-up goalie ever cried after he got traded? In a bizarre 3-way deal with the NYIslanders and Senators, Rhodes and Wade Redden went to Ottawa while the Leafs landed Kirk Muller. Rhodes held a press conference to thank the city and to wish his teammates luck and softly wept for the cameras. C'mon back, kid. We didn't mean it.

The Coach: Pat Burns. The GM: Pat Quinn. The President: Cliff Fletcher. Serious hockey for serious minds only. If we stay within our system, the rest will take care of itself. Winning and losing is everyone's responsibility. We win as a team, and if we go down, we go down together. We back each other up and we don't get pushed around. Our goal is only to win the Stanley Cup.

The Owner: Me. Inherited form Harold Ballard due to a clerical error that no one ever noticed. Hey, it's my Dream Team!

The Dream Team (Part 1): The Forward Lines

Hello, and welcome to a special edition of just your usual general borschevsky! Today we take a look at some of my favorite Leaf players from my generation, and introduce the modern Maple Leafs Dream Team. First up, the forwards, and a look at possible line combinations (if all these players were in their prime and on the team at the same time).














Dave Andreychuk-Doug Gilmour-Wendel Clark. This is not a fantasy-line. This was reality. The default line for the Leafs on Sega '95, there was maybe never a more dangerous combination of players in the Blue and White. If we're in the third period, and down by a goal, you can bet these 3 will be on the ice.

Alexander Mogilny-Mats Sundin-Nikolai Borschevsky. Mogilny is considered by some to have been Sundin's best linemate, and the only player with enough skill and intelligence to equal the captain's. Now add a healthy, youthful Borschevsky to this combo and you have a very cunning 2nd line and powerplay unit. With speed, creativity, and poise, the opposing D will be turned inside out as this line scores one highlight reel goal after the other.














Rick Vaive-Darryl Sittler-Darcy Tucker. This is my blue-collar line. These guys know hustle, know how to dig deep, and they aren't going to get run over by anybody. Sittler quarterbacks this line with his cool presence and ability to control the play. Tucker will grind the puck out of the corners and bang the front of the net, while Vaive is the trigger happy man in the slot, ready to snap home anything that comes his way.

Bill Berg-Alyn McCauley-Gary Roberts. The checking line. Who can forget the way Alyn McCauley raised his game in the 2002 playoffs? With Sundin injured, McCauley and Roberts led the Leafs to the Final Four in heroic fashion over the Sens in the second round. That performance raised McCauley's trade value immensely, and as a result, the Leafs were able to land Owen Nolan in the summer. Added to this tenacious pair is Bill Berg. His name was synonymous with "pest". Indeed, after Esa Tikkanen, Berg may be the league's second biggest "Super-Pest". He made a career out of irritating and frustrating the likes of Brutt Hull, Jeremy Roenick, and Mario Lemiuex, and he did it without the childish antics and trash talking that Avery is known for. Berg frustrated the opposition with subtlety and always had a "who me?" look on his face. These 3 players on their own could send the entire Ottawa Valley to anger-management classes for 12 weeks every summer.

Hope you all enjoyed and thanks for looking. Leave me a comment if there's a Leaf you think deserves mentioning. As long as nothing major happens this weekend (Sundin signs!), my next post will be The Dream Team (Part 2): Defencemen and Goalies. Cheers!