Burke is NHL's top GM, Keenan's milestone, and more

Brian Burke made use of complicated cap rules while masterfully improving his team. Christian Petersen/Getty Images

In the wake of the hard-won Collective Bargaining Agreement there was a general consensus that it suddenly became a whole lot harder to be a good-to-great general manager in the National Hockey League.

With a nod to the declaration that no man is perfect, I offer up a candidate for master of the new agreement, the precursor to sainthood and greatness conferred upon the likes of hockey legends Sam Pollack, Bill Torrey and, in more recent times, Detroit's Ken Holland and New Jersey's Lou Lamoriello.

His name is Brian Burke and he manages the defending Stanley Cup champions in that somewhat under-the-radar hockey hotbed of Anaheim, CA.

Exhibit A: the re-signing of defenseman Scott Niedermayer after a 34-game pseudo-retirement.

Admittedly it's still early with regard to the net return, but in the three games the once-struggling Ducks have played since the swift-skating defenseman returned, they have won two and gained a point in that not-a-loss-but-not-a-win-netherworld the NHL has created via the shootout.

In those three games, the Ducks have given up all of two goals in regulation time while beating San Jose 2-0 (after losing 2-1 in a shootout two nights earlier) and Colorado 2-1 in overtime on Wednesday.

Big deal you say? Well, yes, it is a big deal.

Before the reigning Conn Smythe Trophy-winner (playoff MVP) returned, the Ducks were a hapless lot. There was the inevitable Stanley Cup hangover, but their problems went beyond that. They seemed to lack leadership. They were mistake prone, especially in their own end. They were unfocused at home and on the road, and they took penalties at an unreasonable rate. We're not talking about the kinds of physical penalties the Ducks are now famous for. We're talking about foolish, lazy and undisciplined penalties that cost games and points. In just three outings, Niedermayer has changed that.

"You kind of forget how good he was, for a second," goalie J-S Giguere said after Niedermayer, in his season debut, the Ducks to their shutout win over San Jose with team-highs of eight shots on goal and four hits plus three takeaways in 23 minutes 52 seconds of ice time. "He's just amazing."

So was Burke's effort to get him back in the lineup without going over the salary cap and destroying the talent base he had built since his arrival from Vancouver.

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