hipcheck wrote:
what happened to Armstrong? I know he took a beating from Seidenberg of all people last night.
Well, while we're at it, what happened to Lupul?
Armstrong benefited from being one of Crosby's first productive linemates before everyone realized Crosby could make a muskrat into a productive winger. From there he went to Atlanta where he manaed a 22-goal season with the likes of Ilya Kovalchuk and Bryan Little (who hit his career high 31 goals that same season) followed by a 15-goal season. So naturally Burke thought he could do this sort of thing without elite linemates or much in the way of scoring depth, so he signed the guy to a fairly pricey contract...whoops. Trying to play through a concussion this season only made matters worse.
As for Lupul, well, it could be a combination of finally recovering from a major back injury and the
humiliation he suffered on reality television that finally prompted him to get his act together. It's quite shocking actually that he managed to get this far into the season before finally getting injured.
But yeah...this is pretty much the end of the road for the Leafs this season. This will definitely be the most important offseason of Burke's career. If he doesn't make the playoffs NEXT year it'll be
his job in jeopardy. Duhatschek says the Leafs are close. Frankly I'm not sure of that at all.