Courtesy of Faceoff.com:
...a couple of very unhappy mofo's.
Gainey, Burke watch fortunes erode
"As this tale of two cities unfolds (and it's important to remember that the season is still so young it has to be burped after every game) the rapidly eroding fortunes of the Leafs and Habs are a big part of the early-season story line.
If Carey Price has been a little porous, Toronto's goaltending has been so bad that they counted it as a stroke of luck when Vesa Toskala went down. If the Canadiens are a little disappointed with only two wins in six games, the Leafs are in a state of shock with a single point, good for dead last in a 30-team league.
And if Montreal general manager Bob Gainey is finding the water a tad warm, Burke must feel like a lobster 15 minutes before mealtime.
Gainey's tenure in Montreal could best be described as up and down, although lately it's been more down than up. At least it took him several years to bring the Canadiens down to this level.
Burke's work in Toronna has been more of a crash landing. After several years during which the Toronto media beat the big Burke drum without mercy and the lobotomized faithful of Leafs Nation actually believed the big galoot could lead them to the promised land, it appears that he has put together a truly awful team. Harold Ballard awful. Comedy skit awful. Big, bad and - well, just plain bad."
...Couldn't happen to two nicer guys, on two nicer teams, in two nicer cities.
Their misfortunes make for really great comedy, for the rest of us.
