Don Cherry Blasts Brian Burke and American Hockey Players

Published: 4^th Mar 12 3:02 am

by Steve Palumbo
NJ Devils & Five Hole Dive Featured Writer

RANT It!

Don Cherry Blasts Brian Burke and American Hockey Players

PHOTO: CBC HNIC

I’ve never been one to put much stock into anything Don Cherry says in his weekly Coaches Corner rant on Saturday nights Hockey Night in Canada broadcast.

However, this week the boisterous talking head went a bit too far when he blasted Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke for having too many American born players on the roster. Grapes went into a half-cocked diatribe about the success of a team in relation to the number of Ontario born players on the bench.

He was basically insinuating that Toronto’s inadequacies can be attributed to the number of American players wearing a Leafs sweater. Sounds a bit biased coming from Canada’s biggest homer.

Cherry pointed out that Vancouver, Boston and Chicago were loaded with half-a-dozen or more players from the Canadian province on the roster. He equated the number of Ontarian’s with the success of the club – for the Hawks and Bruins it meant a Stanley Cup championship.

I guess he overlooked that it takes a WHOLE TEAM to win a Cup.

I don’t pretend to understand the method to his madness but there comes a time when somebody has to step back and ask “Are you serious Grapes?”

Winning and losing has nothing to do with a players birth place. Toronto has eight American-born players but I can tell you for a fact – that is the least of that teams worries.

Ironically the two best teams in the NHL, the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks, both have more American players than Ontario born players. Ooops, so much for that line of thinking Mr. Cherry.

I wonder what garbage you’ll spew next week. I guess it really won’t matter…I won’t be listening anyway.

Watch the insanity below…What do you think is Cherry accurate in his assessment or is he off his rocker?