Burke's Secret Gameplan:

Some of Burkie's early moves (and moves made immediately prior to his hiring) have been head scratchers, in order to properly understand them we need to fully understand where the motivation lies. Burke has continually assured doubters that it is all part of the plan but some still question how some acquisitions make any sense. Allow me to shed light.. and rest assured Jeff Finger, Jamal Mayers, Wayne Primeau and Garnet Exelby are all key acquisitions to the future success of the Burke's team building plan.

Goal: Inspire the U.S. Olympic team to play at the highest level possible. Bronze Medal's are still medals.. 

Step 1:

Sign as many top US hockey players/coaches to the Maple Leafs as possible (Kessel, Stempniak, Komisarek, Finger, Blake, Wilson). These guys will need to build chemistry if they want to have a chance against the world's elite and Kessel will need practice carrying a whole roster full of pluggers.

Step 2:

Assemble the worst possible Canadian hockey players (Beachemin, Stajan, Exelby, Mayers, Primeau). The more the U.S. Olympians outplay Canadians, the higher their confidence level. Ian White has been a huge dissapointment as he was penciled onto this list, as a precaution Finger and Komisarek will be kept away from sharing ice-time with White as much as possible (see: Benching finger at the start of this year and Komisarek's "injury"). Also slip Luke Schenn some Kryptonite**, being outplayed by a 20 year old could be detrimental to any confidence building.

Step 3:

Bury as many top prospects as possible, the future of the leafs should not be sacrificed unless completely necessary for Olympic success. Too bad San Jose is making a cup run, Pavelski for Tlusty and the rest of our picks would have really helped chemistry in febuary.

Step 4

Send Gameplan Memo to Wilson:

Reinforce confidence building for U.S. players when dealing with the media even in the face of logic ("Mike Komisarek played well tonight") 

Line combinations can be used as confidence builders as well, playing Matt Stajan with Blake/Kessel will work well as he foil's talent perfectly and plays defence much like an over the hill offensive talent

Step 5:

Send Joe Nieuwendyk to ensure that Mike Modano over the hill offensive talent gets as much ice time as possible in order to get into shape to play first line ice time.

Step 6:

Employ truculence in an attempt to injur as many foreign Olympic hopefuls as possible during the season. Garnet Exelby has been programmed to "Hollweg" at the sight of European and French Candian looking names, (note he will also attempt to give away as many pucks as possible to minimize interference penalties for said hits).

Step 7:

Do not create any kind of expectations or hype for the coming Olympic games,  with no expectations of success a bronze medal will look like gold.. they might even make a movie about it. 

Logical, Devious, Cunning, how could you expect less from the hockey genius Brian Burke. I can't wait for the Olympics to be over so Burke can start building THIS team.