A couple of days ago Toronto Sun columnist George Gross reported that an NHL GM had told him that Darcy Tucker was washed up and not even worth trading for his last draft pick.

I posted about it here noting that JFJ had said Tucker was one of players that rival GMs inquired about when they called him to pitch trades.

Tucker, for those who have been watching (obviously Gross isn’t one of them) has been on fire of late scoring 6 goals over the last 5 games including last nights 2 goal 1 assist performance to lead the Leafs over the Bruins.

After the game Tucker was interviewed by CBC and when asked about his stellar night mentioned how “some old man who writes for the Toronto Sun said I was finished”. So I guess Gross will be patting himself on the back for motivating Tucker. Which will leave Leafs fans asking: Why didn’t you write this column at the beginning of the year?

More interesting was Paul Maurice’s press conference post game where he responded to the question about the “anonymous quotes” about him being washed up:

Theres a lot of NHL executives talking to reporters dumping on other teams players. It happens everyday”

Which pretty much mirrors what I was saying earlier this week when I posted about this article. To reiterate I think that any smart GM if he is going to improve his advantage over other teams will happily supply anonymous quotes to reporters to sow a little dissension in the ranks or to affect a players trade worth. I don’t believe every reporter falls for it though and I don’t believe it is effective in all locations. Effective or not I think that Toronto reporters are especially guilty of it.

Now I don’t read a lot of the other sports media reporting on other NHL teams but I would be interested in hearing from other hockey bloggers if this occurs in your city. Namely anonymous quotes from other NHL executives dumping on your team, the team’s management, or specific players.

Oh and don’t point out that the Leafs are horrible this year so any anonymous quotes attributed to GM’s are pretty much true anyway because this shit was happening when they were having 100 point seasons under Pat Quinn as well.

Back to Tucker’s performance: Don Cherry pointed out what I also said earlier this week. Tucker’s performance suffered once he was taken of the top power play unit and had his ice time reduced. Since his ice time has been increased (to 18 minutes a game) his production has gone back up.

More: Here, here (the only major news media outlet I can find that actually mentions the “tucker is washed up” article - Toronto papers seem strangely silent about it.) , here, and here

Update: Cox Bloc weighs in with this helpful guideline from the Canadian Press:

Also, anonymity might encourage the source to make irresponsible statements.

and….

We will not allow anonymous sources to take cheap shots at individuals or organizations. We will independently corroborate facts, if we get them from a source we do not name.

Emphasis mine. One would like to think that these words are hanging in every newsroom for every reporter to see, but……

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