RIP Brendan Burke

Tragedy strikes "The Brotherhood"

Oxford, Ohio (Feb. 9) - As you probably know by now, Miami student hockey manager, Brendan Burke, son of Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke, died Friday afternoon when the 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee he was driving slid into an oncoming truck. The 21-year old Burke and another man, 18-year old Mark Reedy, were killed at the scene. Brendan's much publicized story of coming out was broken by John Buccigross of espn.com back in late November making the news of his death all the more ironic.

Today, the entire Miami RedHawks team traveled to Brendan's funeral in Canton, Mass. where they were joined by members of hockey's elite including most, if not all, current members of the Toronto Maple Leafs, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, former NHL'ers Mark Messier and Brendan Shanahan and current NHL GM's and coaches Pat Quinn, Darryl Sutter, John Tortorella, Peter Chiarelli and Glen Sather, among others.

Wearing their red away Miami sweaters freshly adorned with a black shamrock and the letters "BB," the team comprised 25 of over 600 people who came to support the entire Burke family in their time of need and pay their respects to a remarkable young man. Head coach Enrico Blasi served as one of the pall bearers.

Brendan was a 4.0 student at Miami who would have graduated this spring. Before the accident occurred, he was returning from a visit to Michigan State University Law School where he was considering applying upon completing his work in Oxford. It's clear by the outpouring of support that Brendan would have gone on to greatness. He will be missed.

Here are links to a very detailed story from the Toronto Star and one by the Toronto Sun which has several moving photographs.

Four Lines Deep - 11/28/09

Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Calgary Flames - Nationwide Arena

Fox Sports Ohio and CBC; 7 p.m. (EST)

Though this image is from last season, both Olli Jokinen and Jamie Lundmark played a significant role last night as the Flames did the Jackets a favor and shut out the Wings in Detroit 3-0. In fact, both Jokinen and recent call-up Lundmark dented the scoresheet as Mikka Kiprusoff stopped all 40 shots he faced to notch his second shutout of the season and 32nd of his stellar career. It was the first time the Red Wings were shutout in back-to-back games since 2001.

What's worse for the CBJ is that the Flames are hot going 3-0-1 in their past four while the Jackets are 0-3-1 in that stretch taking just one point, a shootout loss in Nashville, during this stretch of poor play.

Captain Canada, Jarome Iginla leads the Flames with 25 points in 24 games on 16 goals including 13 goals in his past 14 games. While he did not score a goal last night in Detroit, he did register two helpers and his chemistry with Olli Jokinen seems to be improving each night.

The Flames are +12 in goal differential having allowed just 61 tallies while the Jackets are a dismal -13 having already surrendered 86 goals. As we mentioned the other day, the CBJ are moving toward allowing an incomprehensible 300 goals this season and the Flames pose yet another test with a deep team that can throw physicality, scoring prowess, speed and team defense at the Jackets. Remember, the Flames have had little trouble scoring over the past few years. Their problem has been keeping the puck out of their net, even with Mikka Kiprusoff between the pipes most nights. But, with the offseason change at head coach that brought yet another Sutter brother to the Flames organization in former Devils head man Brent Sutter, and the addition of all-world defenseman Jay Bouwmeester from the Panthers, the Flames have improved their defensive play and have become much more responsible in their own end.

The attention to defensive detail has paid off for the Flames as they are 7th overall in team defense surrendering just 2.54 goals per game, yet they have not sacrificed scoring as they are 6th at 3.04 goals-for per game. Whereas the Jackets have been struggling to find that sort of consistency. We can score this year (9th, 2.96 goals-for per game) but we are awful defensively surrendering 3.46 goals per game which is 28th overall. Clearly the CBJ must find a way to keep the Flames off the scoreboard while capitalizing on any opportunities or powerplays that come their way.

First Line
Control Calgary's first line - While the Flames have formidable secondary scoring from the likes of Daymond Langkow (15 points), Rene Bourque (21 points - who may miss tonight's game) and former Jacket Curtis Glencross (10 points), the Iginla-Jokinen-Lundmark line was difficult to control for the Red Wings last night with Iginla assisting on goals by each of his linemates. If the Jackets can recapture their defensive intensity, and keep this line in check, they will dramatically increase their chances to win by forcing the secondary scoring from other sources. However, both Bouwmeester and Dion Phaneuf can put the puck in the net and are dangerous on the powerplay.

Second Line
Squeeze the Juice - Kristian Huselius has been incredibly hot for the Jackets with five goals in his last seven games. One thing that seems to have helped is that he is now skating more aggressively and shooting the puck more. Calgary's defense is susceptible to allowing a good number of odd-man rushes. Huselius should look for an opportunity to gamble and take a shot at a breakaway. The key will be whether our defense can control the puck in the zone and make good, smart multi-line passes out of our end.

Third Line
Drive the net - Whether it's Mikka Kiprusoff playing again tonight, or more likely, his ward Curtis McElhinney, the Jackets should drive the net with vigor. The last time the Flames came to Nationwide, they did so as part of the second game in two nights and the Jackets simply outworked the clearly tired Flames. Now, that game was the infamous 6-5 OT loss to the Blackhawks when they led 5-0 and let it get away. I'm guessing they expended much more energy that night than last night in Detroit. However, Kipper and his defense do not like guys in his face. Phaneuf and Regehr, in particular, are prone to taking dumb penalties. If the Jackets can get in front and make trouble for either a perhaps-less-than-100% Kiprusoff (he made 40 stops last night), or his young back-up, we might have a chance to draw some penalties or score some goals that might not otherwise be there.

Fourth Line
Can anyone stop the puck? Steve Mason has been abysmal this season and Mathieu Garon has been inconsistent. Like baseball, good pitching beats good hitting and good goaltending can make the difference any night. Will one of these guys step up and take the #1 job? Whomever plays tonight, if they're bad, forget it - the Flames roll.

Red Wings tear up Jackets in 9-1 Romp

A battle-worn "blue jacket" from the Civil War era seemed an appropriate metaphor to sum up tonight's game.

Quite simply, the Jackets were overrun by the Red Wings who outworked and outhustled the younger Jackets in nearly every phase of the game. Final from Nationwide...9-1.

Really, there's not much analysis that needs to be done on a game like this. Jan Hejda was -4 on the evening which really says it all. Hopefully the team will put it behind them right away and move on. However, there were a couple things that stuck out to me about this game, aside from the lopsided score.

Specifically, the Jackets seemed flat and I am growing more and more concerned about Steve Mason.

First, let's consider Mason.

I understand sophomore slumps, but he has been a shell of what he was last season and we moved Pascal Leclaire at the trading deadline betting the house on the youngster. It may be time for him to have a seat and let's see what we have in Mathieu Garon. Frankly, there were more than one or two weak goals and he just doesn't look sharp. If the idea was to bring in someone who could legitimately challenge Mason for the #1 job, then it's time to demonstrate it. And, I do not understand why Hitchcock didn't pull him for good. What's the point putting him back in? See how he responds? Punish him? Humiliate him? The jeers that rained down upon him in the third, when he actually made a save, were justified, but maybe not what we should subject him to. It will be interesting to see if Hitch gives the start to Garon against the Ducks on Friday or if he decides to see how Mason responds. But, I'd like to see Garon get more time.

Regarding the Jackets psyche, if it was fragile coming into a game against the Wings, then it's smashed now. Apparently, there were lingering doubts about whether they could compete against Detroit based on last year's playoff exit, but they really didn't even show up tonight. The Wings controlled nearly every facet of the game. Puck possession, the neutral zone, the game along the boards, the speed game. All of it came crashing down tonight.

Take a look at our Four Lines Deep game preview. The keys to the game?

• Neutralize the points. Kronwall with two goals = fail
• Remember the playoffs. Well, they did and they almost seemed afraid of the Wings = fail
• Rule the neutral zone. From what I saw, the Wings were running roughshod over the Jackets taking away space in the neutral zone, gaining puck possession and moving into the Jackets zone at will = fail

The Wings simply did what they wanted all night and the Jackets supplied little to no resistance. Very shocking really.

Let's call it a night. Here are your Three Stars of the Game. You might be surprised to learn they are all Red Wings.

• Danny Cleary - 1 goal, 1 assist
• Niklas Kronwall - 2 goals, 1 assist
• Henrik Zetterberg - 2 assists

Former Michigan State Spartan Justin Abdelkader also had his first career two-goal game.

Let's just turn the page and move on together. We'll have a Friday preview up shortly. I would suggest we'll see a better effort from the boys on Friday. In the meantime, Carry the Flag!