Quote:
Originally Posted by jg13
being highly truculent is not a bad way to go for sure, LA Kings and Bruins would be the model I imagine Burke is after.
The other way you could go is Chicago, Pittsburgh route extremely fast & high skilled but definitely harder to put a team of that caliber together.
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Those seem to be the two most popular models out there right now but i think that's almost too black and white of a definition (not that you're making it.. it's more so what out there in the media these days).
I was lucky enough to see Burke speak a few times when he was the GM of the Leafs and the one thing he always reiterated that while the media always latches onto the soundbites, 'Truculence.. Belligerence etc), he felt that a GM's goal was to build a team that could win playoff series in numerous different manners. They had to be able to win in a bruising series, but they had to also be able to win in a skill series (and that winning in the latter type of situation was actually the hardest). Each time i saw him speak he always mentioned this mantra and that acquiring the right type of skill was actually the hardest and most important part.
It's still definitely up in the air whether he was able to accomplish to do this in Toronto... hopefully he can find a way to make it happen here. He definitely is starting from a better base than he did with the leafs.