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Monday, February 14, 2000
Send in the clowns
Brian Burke is ringmaster of this Messier circus
VANCOUVER -- The definition of the ultimate contortionist is one who could die in his own arms.
By March 14, Brian Burke may have to make the guy look as stiff as a Brit's upper lip.
It is taken as a given in Vancouver that unless the Canucks are still in the hunt for a playoff spot, Mark Messier will be traded prior to the deadline. But, as predicted, Thursday's celebrated closed-door meeting between GM and player only served to further confuse the issue.
Burke came out of it testily reiterating that he has not and will not shop Messier around the NHL, nor will he ask him to waive his no-trade clause.
"If I got offered the right deal, would I go to Mark?" he snapped. "The answer's an unequivocal no. I am not going to ask Mark Messier to waive his no-trade clause. I don't know how many times I have to say it. If you want me to say it louder, I will."
Messier, on the other hand, says he's happy in Vancouver, but that the important thing is that the team do what's right for the team. And Burke adds that what happens from here on is nobody's business, that he and Messier will hold more meetings before the deadline and determine a course of action.
But if Messier's happy where he is, the GM isn't shopping him and wouldn't take the right deal to Messier even if he got one, how the hell can anything get done?
That's where the contortionist act comes in.
Burke says he won't present any offered deal to Messier. But if someone offers him a package that he really wants to take, what's to stop the team making the offer from calling Messier's agent and saying "If we were to offer X to the Canucks for him, how would he feel about that?"
If the Moose liked the idea of going to, say, the Maple Leafs, he could then go back behind those closed doors with Burke and say, "Brian, I hereby revoke the no-trade clause in my contract."
That would clear the way for Burke to do what he wanted to do anyway.
Imagine the press conference: All parties with tears in their eyes. Messier thanking John McCaw (played by the empty chair, stage left), Brian, the Vancouver fans, the NHL and Team X for having faith that he can help them in a drive for the Stanley Cup.
And Brian Burke, praising Messier as the ultimate leader taking one for the team because the deal was one that could help the Canucks long-term, saying how proud he was to have been associated with a player and a man of Messier's character.
ALL TRUE, OF COURSE.
Messier hasn't had the on-ice impact expected of him when McCaw - perhaps in a fit of pique at having missed on Wayne Gretzky - poured millions over him in 1997.
Part of it was the increasing fragility - despite his coltish look in that 4-1 win Friday night in Toronto - that comes with two decades of initiating contact rather than avoiding it. Part was because this magnificent Cadillac engine has consistently been asked to power junkers built of chop-shop throwaways.
He has been a leader, never question that. But the results haven't been there, and logic insists that for both team and player it's time to make the move.
The way it's been handled has turned the mere possibility of such an event into a circus, for which Burke blames media coverage starting with what Messier did or didn't say during All-Star week.
But it wasn't the media who announced that Burke would be meeting with Messier last Thursday. Such meetings between players and general managers are routine and pass unknown. Burke chose to go public.
If the Messier show is a circus, there's little doubt who raised the tent.
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