Toronto Maple Leafs: Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures

On Sunday Brian Burke did something, and in usual Burke fashion it was big. The general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs pulled off a move with Daryl Sutter; or was it Brent? Isn't there a Dunae too? Sutter's club, the Calgary Flames, was heading in a similar direction as the Leafs, though under different circumstances. Both were struggling; Calgary was sliding down the standings and Toronto needed to make something of their nightmare season.

The two parties, despite today's salary cap restraints, pulled off what could be considered this year's first major trade.  Dion Phaneuf, once considered having Norris potential, was sent packing to the Leafs in an attempt at reversing the fortunes of his now former team. Here is a quick breakdown of the trade:

To Toronto	To Calgary
Keith Aullie	Niklas Hagman
Dion Phaneuf	Jamal Mayers
Fredrik Sjostrom	Matt Stajan
	Ian White

While there are many motivating factors behind trades, only the GM’s know truly why one decision is made over another. We can speculate the reasoning untill the sun goes down, but a sense of desperation fills the atmosphere of the situation. Both sides were stuck in unfortunate positions of their own. As previously mentioned in the intro, both teams were caught in losing streaks.

Conventional wisdom would suggest that teams go through rough patches, just like they enjoy periods of winning. Keeping that in mind, sometimes performance is taken into account more than results when deciding the direction of a team. As was the case with the pair, the GMs watched the situation unravel for a considerable amount of time before performing such a bold move.

From Sutter’s point of view here was a team that was trusted by management to achieve great things this season. Depending on who you talk to the Flames have not lived up to expectations. After a strong start to the season the Flames offense ran dry and wins suddenly became hard to come by. Sutter, excuse the pun, was feeling the heat and had to do something to stop the collapsing of his camp.

Meanwhile Burke needed to provide something to keep the hope alive in Toronto, a city where losing is sadly starting to become the norm. Burke’s Buds began the campaign with the ambition of marching forward, and maybe to the playoffs. The performance of the squad up to this point has left fans disgruntled, and rightfully so. Burke decided to pull the trigger because a message had to be sent to not just the fans but the team as well.

Only time will time how not just the players in blue and white, but the flames well, receive that message. Both Sutter and Burke are nervously crossing their fingers that the skaters react, and fast.