BURKE IS ELATED, DOES BALKI DANCE OF JOY

Smiling, from earlobe to earlobe.

Toronto GM is doing the Balki dance of joy today after having acquired Dion Phaneuf for the hockey equivalent of the original XBOX console.

Don't start with the Gainey's asleep talk now folks, because Burkie just made a fool out of 28 other GMs (yup, the one in Calgary included).

A few years back, when asked who he prefered between Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, Burke replied: "Dion Phaneuf".

Amazing that in this league, a guy's value could plummet so easily. Phaneuf has ONE BAD HALF SEASON and he's trade bait for nothing in return. Fuck that, big tip of my hat to the Leafs who at the very least know how to make things interesting. Now if their players actually start playing to potential, Montreal's going to have some company soon. But it'll be the come and go type.

Who is Rejecting the Habs Today?

Lots of people may want to buy them, but apparently no one wants to work for them.

First Mats, then Pavel, most recently Alexei, now Francois. Which one of those names doesn't belong? Well, apparently it belongs in Toronto because Brian Burke just hired Francois Allaire to be Toronto's new goaltending coach. Guess Habs fans better get used to hearing that Allaire is going to turn Justin Pogge into a better tender than TFS(tm)...which we'll be hearing at least until Pogge gets into his first exhibition game.

I was only half joking when I said a couple of days ago that yEmelin's (I've seen it spelled both ways so this about covers it) rejection of the Habs cast a pale over Bob's anicipated UFA efforts come July 1st. Well I'm not joking anymore. This team is fucked if even hometown guys don't want to come back home.

p.s. Dave Stubbs: please don't steal our headlines again. It took us all of 15 seconds to come up with.

HF29 UPDATE - If anyone cares, I'll be on CBC Radio today at 3:35 PM. Here's a link to listen live. I'm sure, you know, that no one cares, you know, so carry on.