The Leafs will select fifth in the NHL Draft on June 22-23rd in Pittsburgh. The Edmonton Oilers won the draft lottery and will have the number one pick for the third year in a row. Columbus, who had nearly a 50% chance to win the lottery will now select second, with Montreal third and the N.Y. Islanders fourth.
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Leafs Coach Randy Carlyle and GM Brian Burke held their end of the season press availabilities at the Air Canada Center this morning and clarified what they thought went wrong with the club, who has finished in the bottom five of the NHL standings for the second time in three seasons and has not had an over .500 record in the Burke era.
Carlyle, who replaced Ron Wilson on March 3rd indicated that the areas in most need of improvement next season are team defense, consistency, confidence and conditioning.
“The level of our work ethic has to go up”
Carlyle believes that Burke sees the same shortcomings with the club that he does and will address those during what is expected to be one of the busier off-seasons in recent memory. The head coach indicated that he is currently evaluating the coaching staff, which has holdovers Scott Gordon and Greg Cronin from Wilson’s staff and along with Dave Farrish, who was part of Carlyle’s staff in Anaheim.
While rumors of interest in bringing in former Columbus head coach Scott Arniel(who worked with Carlyle during his stint with the Manitoba Moose) or possibly Mike Foligno (who was fired along with Carlyle last November) continue to circulate, the Leafs bench boss stated that he does not foresee any changes.
Burke was contrite at first, echoing the sentiments of the open letter of apology released by MLSE Chairman Larry Tanenbaum Monday, but as the questions regarding what went wrong with the club in the last two months began to be asked, the Leafs GM cited that goaltending and inexperience were at the core of team’s slide into a non-playoff position and did not shy away from taking personal responsibility for the club’s current plight.
“We didn’t make the right personnel decisions…..we’ve played partial seasons since I’ve been here, and it’s time for this team to play a full season. Not to play thirty good games or forty good games, or talk about if you combine this half with that half, that’s not going to fly anymore.”
The Leafs GM indicated that there will be plenty of changes over the summer, including adding a veteran goaltender that gives the team options, but stated that the club still has faith that James Reimer can be a front line NHL goaltender. Burke also plans to re-tool the club to better fit Randy Carlyle’s more physical, more defensive minded style.
“My plan for building this team has not changed…..my view on how hockey teams are built and how hockey games are won has not changed. I still believe that big physical teams win hockey games.”
The most contentious moment of the press conference revolved around a reporter’s reference to the club not practicing patience and following the Pittsburgh model, struggled for years and got high draft picks, to which Burke responded “they got a lottery….they won a god damn lottery and got the best player in the game. Is that available to me??.....the Pittsburgh model, my ass.”
Here is Burke’s press conference:
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