[News] Brian Burke stepping back from Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation

[curves2000]

Originally Posted by Flashpoint

He was tired of the commute, and felt he was redundant under Tre. Can't say it's a surprise. Article in Athletic (paywall) by Eric Duhatschek.

Eric D. talks Brian B.

I certainty believe that the commute has something to do with it, that is a very taxing schedule. Burke has been flying to Toronto during his time as Flames POHO and also during his time as GM in Anaheim, it was one of the reasons why he stepped down DURING a season and than took the GM role in Toronto. That doesn't happen very often in the NHL.

I do think that when the Flames did their end of year analysis they figured that a bunch of the mistakes that have happened on the hockey side the last few years, perhaps shouldn't of happened.

I don't think Burke was FIRED in a traditional sense but in all the interviews I have ever seen Burke give, especially when hes on national media in Toronto, he's always raved about his Calgary job. He would go into detail that this was his last job in hockey, Alberta is great, I want to be there 10 more years etc. Here is a TSN video clip from September about wanting to stay 10 years etc. Starts at the 7:55 mark

https://www.tsn.ca/jay-and-dan/video...-burke~1208189

I do think the quote in the Eric D piece at the end where he said they approached him about making a change and he agreed, is accurate. He said something similar in a Sportsnet Q&A the other day and the other media reported something similar in other publications.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/...v-analyst-gig/

SN: What’s the reaction been like the past few days? The news of you leaving the Flames kind of came out of nowhere for a lot of people.

Burke: The reaction’s been good. When I started talking to these guys about doing this, it was in conjunction with the team and [the Flames] wanted to make a change and as I told them, I’m about ready to make a change too if that’s what you want to do. So, it worked out fine and Sportsnet had asked for permission to use me in the second and third round, so it’s worked out perfectly.

I do think that it was a mutual decision to go their own ways but I also think the Flames approached the subject first. There has been some performance based issues with the hockey club and this is a cap team and the owners are going to want answers for things like

Extending Bob Hartley, firing him and staff with term, hiring Gully and staff, firing staff with term, Troy Brouwer contract, Bouma contract and buyout, missed playoff in '14,16,18, swept in 17 and giving away picks and other items for players that haven't shown value.

Collectively a body of work is developed and costs are calculated and there may be $50 million in Canadian dollars in costs and expenses the owners felt wasn't warranted. The top hockey guy might need to answer for a few of them cause in his meetings with ownership, I doubt the weather is being brought up.

I liked Burke and he did some good things here, lots within the community and he is a bright hockey mind. I also do think some of his status as a hockey executive has been overly exaggerated in a lot of ways based on bravado in the media.


Sorry about the long post!!

[Strange Brew]

Well when they say it is mutual, it is never mutual. Guess he was asked to leave first so doesn’t seem like staying was an option for BB.


That is a lot of cake to be spending on a sounding board for your GM. I wonder how different this team would look if Shanahan had been hired instead.

[Flashpoint]

Well, there's a thought!

Heir to Cherry?

Short term, he will surface on your Hockey Night in Canada broadcast Saturday night to offer commentary for the first three rounds of the NHL playoffs and possibly the entry draft. From there, it’s not certain.

If Burke decides to work on the dark side – what he lovingly describes as a media position – as the final act of his working career, he could probably do so for as long as he wants. At some point when Don Cherry steps aside, Burke would be the logical replacement — because he has the same larger than life persona necessary to fill that role. With Cherry, it’s his suits. With Burke, it’s his untied ties. On TV, you need a schtick and Burke has been developing his for quite some time.

Of course, stepping into Cherry’s shoes would be the broadcasting equivalent of being the general manager replacing Sam Pollock in Montreal. Ideally, you want to position yourself to be the replacement for the replacement.

[Erick Estrada]

Good interview on 960 this afternoon. He summed up Gulutzan just like a lot of us here. Said if you can separate the person from the coach that he's a great person but it was time for a change behind the bench. It really does sound like a pretty amicable split.

[Toonage]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Good interview on 960 this afternoon. He summed up Gulutzan just like a lot of us here. Said if you can separate the person from the coach that he's a great person but it was time for a change behind the bench. It really does sound like a pretty amicable split.

I got called away before I could hear the bit about coaching. Did he give his thoughts on Peters?

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Toonage

I got called away before I could hear the bit about coaching. Did he give his thoughts on Peters?

Not that I heard.

[Enoch Root]

I've really enjoyed Burke's commentary the last few nights.

[spuzzum]

My gosh is he red faced today on tim and sid. He looks burnt. Burke is a really skilled individual but he must look after his health.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by spuzzum

My gosh is he red faced today on tim and sid. He looks burnt. Burke is a really skilled individual but he must look after his health.

Must use Millions' makeup guy.

[mikeecho]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Good interview on 960 this afternoon. He summed up Gulutzan just like a lot of us here. Said if you can separate the person from the coach that he's a great person but it was time for a change behind the bench. It really does sound like a pretty amicable split.

I'm going from memory here, but his comments didn't really leave any ambiguity about the coaching situation.

Treliving took the more diplomatic approach talking about how it was a hard decision and he weighed a lot of factors. In the end, everyone shares in the failure and it wasn't all about the coaches.

Paraphrasing but, Burke said that if the position was based on quality of human, Gulutzan would have a lifetime contract, but they HAD to change the coach.

I thought that was very interesting.

[Erick Estrada]

It does sound like Gulutzan was getting let go regardless and it was simply accelerated by the Peters situation. The assistants were let go at the same time rather than letting Peters have the option of retaining them which means management wanted them all gone. It seems Treliving’s approach is to take his time rather than fire a head coach immediately following a season. It certainly sounds like Burke was not a fan of the job done by the outgoing coaching staff.

[Mike F]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

It does sound like Gulutzan was getting let go regardless and it was simply accelerated by the Peters situation. The assistants were let go at the same time rather than letting Peters have the option of retaining them which means management wanted them all gone. It seems Treliving’s approach is to take his time rather than fire a head coach immediately following a season. It certainly sounds like Burke was not a fan of the job done by the outgoing coaching staff.

Did anyone catch BB's discussion about powerplays in a Sportsnet panel earlier this week? He was criticising teams that never open up seam passes and just continually throw the puck around the perimeter. He said they were killing their own powerplay. Couldn't have been a more apt description of the Flames last season under Gulutzan.

[I_H8_Crawford]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Good interview on 960 this afternoon. He summed up Gulutzan just like a lot of us here. Said if you can separate the person from the coach that he's a great person but it was time for a change behind the bench. It really does sound like a pretty amicable split.

anywhere we can listen to this?

[Toonage]

Originally Posted by I_H8_Crawford

anywhere we can listen to this?

https://www.sportsnet.ca/960/the-big...roster-future/

Starts around 12:25

[Jordan!]

Originally Posted by bax

It's amusing to me that you feel the need to call a stranger an idiot (in all caps no less) behind a wall of anonymity because of what he did with his tie.

It's blatantly obvious that the tie is a show piece. He wears it like that to rattle people. The NHL is in the entertainment industry. The fact that this small prop has gotten under your skin is just proof that it worked.

That's all you need to know.

Jesus Christ, settle down

[browna]

Originally Posted by Hackey

Feaster running the team into the ground helped start the rebuild so for that I thank him.

Yes and also, it got the notions of the non hockey people thinking they wanted to be more part of the decision making process, out of their systems, realizing how complex the role is.

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

It does sound like Gulutzan was getting let go regardless and it was simply accelerated by the Peters situation. The assistants were let go at the same time rather than letting Peters have the option of retaining them which means management wanted them all gone. It seems Treliving’s approach is to take his time rather than fire a head coach immediately following a season. It certainly sounds like Burke was not a fan of the job done by the outgoing coaching staff.

I think it would be naive to think that the Peters thing came up in the last few weeks. He always had the option expiring at the end of the year. I wouldn't be surprised if BT almost reached out at Christmas to gauge Peters potential, or Peters even reached out if he had made a decision. If Peters was interested, BT would hold out. If Peters wasn't, maybe a coaching change was done earlier.

My guess is too that the ownership situation in Carolina was known well before it was actually made official, which helped make Peters mind up for him.

BT did his cleaning up of the Jagr and Hamilton situations, at Christmas, while reading the riot act to GG which prompted the stick throw. BT may have known then that he was going to stick with GG for the year, and Peters was going to be the guy, barring a longish playoff run.

When the Carolina ownership situation was official, the Flames were in the middle of the terrible sinking of the ship the talks probably intensified... off the record of course. But his knowledge of Flames players in the opening presser and subsequent interviews, isn't the work of a man who just found out he was getting the job days prior.

Also, only reason Imo that BT didn't fire GG right away was the Humboldt tragedy I don't think he analyzed it too hard, but optics meant he had to wait the week or so.

Burke will be great on TV. Should be some choice Flames content at some point, as I see today they of course wanted the soundbites from his spat with Lowe and tribulations with all things Leafs.

[MrMike]

Originally Posted by browna

But his knowledge of Flames players in the opening presser and subsequent interviews, isn't the work of a man who just found out he was getting the job days prior.
s.

Never thought about that. Good call. Unless the guy was a huge closer flames fan that makes complete sense

[Flaming Choy]

Burke was on the lastest 31 Thoughts Podcast (May 3), starts around 34 minutes in.

Lots for interesting stories, reiterated he's done being a hockey exec and want to change career to the media side.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/590/31-thoughts-podcast/

[Racki]

I think that sometimes there's a tendency to discredit the opinions and insights of fans because we watch the game as observers and are not professionally involved. There's a perception that the pro sports executives that run our favorite teams are operating with some kind of superior intellect and they see what we cannot.

I'm sure that this is true in an awful lot of cases. Sometimes though, what we as fans see is pretty much spot on. Many fans, myself included came to the belief that Glen Gulutzan was an excellent man and a smart hockey person that was in over his head as a head coach. I said a couple times that I felt like he was the Norv Turner/Wade Philips of hockey - a great assistant but not a lead dog.

I think Brian Burke confirmed what so many of us saw long ago. Gulutzan is a fantastic human being but he just doesn't have the chops (at least not yet) to lead an NHL hockey team.

[dustygoon]

Originally Posted by Flaming Choy

Burke was on the lastest 31 Thoughts Podcast (May 3), starts around 34 minutes in.

Lots for interesting stories, reiterated he's done being a hockey exec and want to change career to the media side.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/590/31-thoughts-podcast/

It's a good listen, but does Marek ever need to zip it. Friedman is so good....but Marek jumping in makes it almost unlistenable.

Burke talking about the Lowe fight proposal in a barn, funny, mentions how Bettman stepped in, Irish grudge joke, then gets serious about how his late son Brendan told him the grudge isn't worth it and after his death Burke calls Tambo to mend the fence.....and Marek immediately follows with "Where did the barn part come from?". Dude can't do interviews.