The Good Old Hockey Game

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2009-09-20T23:58:00.001-04:00

The Good Old Hockey Game is now being played in a new rink! Come check it out!

Chiming In on Phil Kessel

2009-09-18T23:56:00.000-04:00

As everyone's already told you, Philip Joseph Kessel, Jr. is now a Toronto Maple Leaf, with the Boston Bruins receiving the Leafs' first- and second-round draft picks in 2010 and their first-rounder in 2011 as a fee. And there are a whole lot of people out there who believe that Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli made off like a bandit, while Leafs GM Brian Burke got hosed. Well, I don't think that's true, and here's why.

On Maple Leafs Hot Stove, Alex Tran wrote a well-thought-out piece on the value of a high first-round draft pick, and why Kessel is more valuable than two of them. Now, I do disagree with parts of his logic - he reasons that there is roughly a 5% chance of taking two players better than Kessel with two top-ten draft picks, but I don't think you would necessarily need two better players, as long as you get two very good players (ie. top-6 forwards) to make it worthwhile. But his point is well taken, and I was impressed by the time he spent devising his formula.

The key thing to remember, though, is that the picks Alex uses as examples are top-ten draft picks. In the last two years, Toronto has made two such selections: Luke Schenn (#5 in 2008) and Nazem Kadri (#7 in 2009). But what are the chances that Toronto selects in the top ten this year? If they make the playoffs, they won't even go in the top 14. Now, serviceable players are certainly still selected that late in the first round, but other than late-round diamonds in the rough, the game-breakers are gone by that point. And Phil Kessel - a #5 pick himself - is a game breaker. Leafs fans can look at it this way: if Toronto had owned 14th and 16th picks in the 2008 draft, and had the opportunity to deal them (along with your second-rounder) and get Luke Schenn at #5 in return, would you do it? I'm sure you would. That's essentially what happened here, although the draft picks are spread across two years.

Does that mean I think that Chiarelli lost this deal? Not at all. As has been well-documented, there was no way Kessel was returning to Boston, and the Bruins GM was already in a tough position, with salary cap issues to think about; matching an offer sheet would have been nothing but trouble, and he couldn't have traded Kessel for a year afterwards (as per the CBA). Instead, Chiarelli translated a player who wasn't coming back into three very high draft picks, which also allowed him to avoid any cap headaches.

I think this trade was good for both teams involved. And sure, there's nothing hip or edgy about being agreeable on the Internet; as everyone knows, the Internet was invented by ARPA in the 1960s to allow people to ignore common decency and verbally bludgeon each other on a daily basis. But come on, can't we just all be winners? Because the Bruins, the Leafs and Phil Kessel all are.

Making a Comeback: Theoren Fleury

2009-09-18T23:03:00.000-04:00

While Jason Allison is known for being a slow-as-molasses-running-uphill-in-January skater, at the other end of the spectrum is diminutive Flames right-winger Theoren Fleury. At least, he was at the other end of the spectrum in his first NHL go-around.

Like Allison, Fleury has spent a few years away from the NHL game. Unlike Allison, Fleury stayed away at the league's insistence. In 2003, after struggling with alcohol abuse issues, the then-Blackhawk found himself on the outside looking in - a shocking development, considering his hero status in Calgary, where he helped the Flames win the 1989 Stanley Cup.

After his fall from grace, Fleury spent a season playing senior league hockey in Alberta, and another playing pro for the Belfast Giants. For a player of his stature (no pun intended), neither one would be worth including on a resume. Sure, his stats with Belfast were great - 74 points in 34 games (along with 270 minutes in the box) - but let's face it, despite the fact that the Giants play in the Elite Ice Hockey League, there is nothing "elite" about it. Any NHLer who should be capable of holding down a job as a top-nine forward should not be playing in a league where they need to specify that their brand of hockey is played on ice.

Theo Fleury, however, says he has been clean and sober for four years now, and he's been devoting his time to working out and getting back into game shape. The NHL reinstated him into the league, and the Flames deemed him worthy of a training camp invitation. Looks like things have turned around, right?

Well, maybe not. At age 41, Fleury is no spring chicken, and he doesn't have the legs he used to. Do the fans in Calgary still love him? You'd better believe it. In his first exhibition game last night, he scored the shootout winner in front of a euphoric Saddledome crowd, and every fan's voice was certainly hoarse this morning. The rest of his 11 minutes of icetime, however, left something to be desired; his lightning speed wasn't there, his feistiness was lacking, and he took a lazy hooking penalty that led to the Islanders' fourth goal. Coach Brent Sutter's assessment: "I thought he played OK." Not exactly a glowing review, is it?

Now, after the game, Fleury told the media, "It's been a long road. I'm extremely proud of myself." And you know what? He should be. So maybe that's what fans should focus on, whether he makes it back to the NHL or not. He beat his alcoholism, he earned himself a tryout in the best hockey league in the world, and while he may not be the Theo Fleury of 1989, he's still got some game.

Calgary's brass will want to see more of him before they make a final decision on whether to keep him around, but if he does stick, it's hard to know who will be happier: Fleury, or his legions of fans.

Making a Comeback: Jason Allison

2009-09-17T22:07:00.000-04:00

I'm not the only one getting back to business: Jason Allison, in case you haven't heard, was invited to training camp by the Toronto Maple Leafs. This was a bit of a surprising move on Brian Burke's part, given how deadset he is on acquiring players with heart. Allison has taken the last three years off from the game; when John Ferguson, Jr. opted not to re-sign him, the slow-footed-but-smooth-passing centre decided to spend some time with his family. Now, while there is of course nothing wrong with wanting to spend time with one's wife and kids - especially when your job keeps you on the road so much - it does raise the question of whether his commitment to hockey has waned a little too far.

In 2005-06, Allison's lone year with the Leafs, he chipped in 60 points in an injury-shortened 66-game season, so there's solid evidence that he can help out in the offensive zone. At the same time, however, his plus/minus rating was an abysmal -18. With many players, one could simply hope that Leafs coach Ron Wilson would work on the guy's defence, but Allison might be a lost cause. Why? Well, in order to play defence, a forward has to skate back to his own zone. When Jason Allison takes it upon himself to high-tail it back to his own zone, though, you just hope that he gets there by next Tuesday.

Okay, maybe that was a little harsh. But here's a fact: in the Leafs' first pre-season game of 2009, a 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night, Jason Allison was dropped to last-line duty midway through the game. The word "ineffective" doesn't describe the game he had; Allison was a defensive liability in the offensive zone, coughing up the puck multiple times - much as he did everywhere else on the ice. His trademark passing just wasn't there, and he certainly didn't try to overcome his lack of footspeed with a swell of effort - often he would simply take a stride or two and then coast, seemingly stuck in neutral. Simply put, he's not showing the giddyup or the skill that Ron Wilson and Brian Burke want to see in their top 6 forwards.

Jason Allison, if you really do want to make the most of this try-out opportunity and make the Leafs - or even the Marlies - it's time to put some heart in it.

Making a Comeback

2009-09-17T20:36:00.000-04:00

Maybe you've seen this blog before. Perhaps you're reading it for the first time. Either way, I have to apologize: I've been taking some time off. Almost three years, in fact. Oh, it wasn't the stress of the workload, or the lack of things to post about; it was simply that other things were happening, and it's hard to stay up-to-date on hockey when you're in Australia. But I did what I could.

Either way, welcome! What you'll read at The Good Old Hockey Game is exactly what the name implies: commentary on hockey, hockey and more hockey. If you agree with my thoughts, let me know. If you think I've been wearing my helmet too tight, tell me about that too. Either way, I'll try to be as entertaining and insightful as I possibly can.

Enjoy. Again.

2006-06-25T22:58:00.000-04:00

The 2006 NHL Entry Draft held no real surprises for anyone. The consensus top five players were taken with the top five picks, and things continued in a rather ho-hum fashion. At least, it did if you don't count the big deals that went down...

The day before the draft, the Panthers dealt Roberto Luongo, Lukas Krajicek and a pick to Vancouver for Todd Bertuzzi, Alex Auld and Bryan Allen. Now, obviously this trade didn't make headlines because Krajicek was involved, as both Bertuzzi and Luongo have been expected to move for some time now. Luongo could make the Canucks a legitimate contender - more so than since 1994 - and Bertuzzi goes to a new city where he can possibly leave the Steve Moore issue behind him. The one thing that was unexpected about the deal was that Roberto Luongo was under the impression that the Panthers were ready to sign him to a long-term contract that he liked, and he was ready to accept. Needless to say, that won't help Florida's PR, but Luongo should thrive in an actual hockey market.

Calgary picked up Alex Tanguay from Colorado for defenceman Jordan Leopold and a couple picks - an amazing deal for them. They're deep on defence, so no worries in giving up Leopold, and a line with Tanguay and Iginla could be centred by an orangutan - they're still going to score. (I'm not going to lie to you; those two guys are my first-line wingers in NHL 06 - and if that doesn't seal the deal, I don't know what does.)

Toronto grabbed former Rookie of the Year Andrew Raycroft from the Boston Bruins for goaltending prospect Tuukka Rask, who was expendable because of Justin Pogge's presence. In Raycroft, Toronto gets a player coming off an atrocious year, but he's young, and will bounce back. He's also cheap at $1.35M this season, especially compared to the salaries other number-one netminders would have commanded. This essentially ensures that Ed Belfour will be leaving town either through a buy-out or a trade, and either Mikael Tellqvist or J.S. Aubin will follow (probably the former). In Rask, Toronto gave up a great prospect, but did themselves a favour in not surrendering anyone off their roster. The most unfortunate part: "Tuukka Rask" is really fun to say, and that just won't be happening as often in Toronto now.

2006-06-25T15:46:00.000-04:00

After the Hurricanes took a 4-0 pounding in Game 6, there were really only two possibilities for Game 7: either they were completely out of gas, or they were going to roar back and avenge their wounded egos by putting their names on the Cup. Turns out it was the latter, as Edmonton couldn't get anything going. Fernando Pisani's goal in the opening minutes of the third period brought with it a glimmer of hope, but Carolina shut Edmonton down the rest of the way, as Cam Ward polished off a Conn Smythe-winning playoff performance with just the one goal allowed.

If you're an Edmonton fan, the loss stings even more now that Chris Pronger wants a trade (for personal reasons, is the word on the street), and Mike Peca and Dwayne Roloson are by no means locks to return. Just when it looked like the Oilers could be contenders for a while, this uncertainty has been heaped upon them, and the tragedy is that their fans - the best in the league - don't deserve it. GM Kevin Lowe is very skilled at his trade, however, and will get back some value in whatever deal he makes for Pronger (and make no mistake, teams are lining up for the defenceman, who is a steal at $6.25 million per season).

As horrible as the Cup loss was for the Oilers, though, any hockey fan couldn't help but feel happy for Rod Brind'Amour, the gritty 'Canes captain who finally got a chance to raise Lord Stanley's mug. He deserved that victory, and the team around him deserved the recognition that they'll now get as a legitimate NHL power.

2006-06-10T21:08:00.000-04:00

The Oilers lead Game 3 1-0, after the first period has drawn to a close. If Jussi Markkanen can pull out some big saves for Edmonton, they can still win this series, but it's going to be much tougher without Dwayne Roloson around.

As much as I like the Oilers, I think I might love their fans even more. Again tonight, they cheered "The Star Spangled Banner" (though there was a slight smattering of boos to be heard just before the cheering drowned it out), and then sang "O Canada" as loudly as I've ever heard it. Singer Paul Lorieau actually stopped singing into the microphone halfway through, holding it above his head instead so that the crowd would take over. And they did. I got chills, and many of the Oiler players have said they experience the same when their hometown crowd does that. Just a great bunch of hockey fans out there in Edmonton, loyal, spirited, and deserving of a Stanley Cup. Here's hoping.

To be giving away contracts like this, we must be craaaaazy!!

2006-06-04T03:35:00.000-04:00

Hoo boy. The Tampa Bay Lightning are doing their damndest to ruin the NHL's pay structure. Again.

Brad Richards' new deal - $7.8M/year for 5 years - makes him the league's second-highest-paid player. And he's definitely not the second-best player in the NHL. Sure, Richards is consistent, can put up points, and is a natural leader, but an elite scorer he is not, and he doesn't deserve close to this amount of money, especially when there's a salary cap around. This is going to really mess things up elsewhere around the NHL; Bryan McCabe was signed to a 5-year, $29 million deal (apparently the Leafs' brass got a hold of whatever Tampa GM Jay Feaster had been smoking), which is more money than he deserves as well. That's $5.8M per season, kids - his defensive partner Tomas Kaberle, who is arguably a better D-man, will earn almost $1.6 million less per year. Wade Redden and Zdeno Chara are also reportedly looking for $7.8M per season, making it impossible for the Senators to sign both; it's possible that even signing one of the two could be out of reach. So Ottawa fans, thank the Lightning for that.

Back to the playoffs, how 'bout those Oilers? And those 'Canes? Should be an entertaining Cup Final...at least, for the people who care. The bulk of North Carolina (outside Raleigh, anyway) will be watching basketball, baseball or soccer, but you can bet that everyone in Edmonton will be paying close attention. So here's my prediction:

STANLEY CUP FINAL

Edmonton vs Carolina - Edmonton in 6
-The long layoff might hurt the Oilers at first, but I'm confident they'll bounce back. In all likelihood, it will come down to special teams, which will pit Carolina's juggernaut of a power play against Edmonton's masterful penalty killing. As much as I like Edmonton, though, I wouldn't mind seeing Rod Brind'Amour win himself a Cup...we'll see what happens.

Also, not to gloat, but just let me point out that I've had some pretty damn good predictions so far...I hope somebody's winning money on these; it'd be a shame not to. I'm particularly proud of myself for beating all of TSN's analysts - even their monkey.

This isn't me getting cocky; I realize that I could easily lose this round, but I'm still 10-4 going into the finals. By the way, I've just read your future in the stars...opportunity will knock tomorrow, but don't let old feelings get in the way of your goals; also, watch out for your death, which will be caused by - sorry, an airplane's in the way of the rest. It's probably not important.

2006-05-22T21:10:00.000-04:00

Just some assorted ruminations:

Now that the NHL playoffs are down to two series, Jim Hughson is no longer calling the games, and that's too bad. In Canada, CBC is using their usual team of Bob Cole and Harry Neale, and TSN has moved back to Gord Miller and Pierre McGuire, as Chris Cuthbert's services will no longer be necessary for The Sports Network this season. Now, I do enjoy listening to Gord Miller, but Pierre McGuire makes me want to beat my head off things; on the CBC side, I used to love hearing Bob Cole every Saturday night, but bless his heart, he just doesn't have it anymore. Miller and Neale would be a decent tandem, but that just won't happen. This is rather inconsequential in terms of the game of hockey itself; it just irks me that I need to tune out half of the commentary in order to keep my sanity.

Update (2006-05-24): It turns out that CBC is indeed carrying some of the Eastern Conference Final, so the duo of Hughson and Greg Millen is still getting some work.

At the World Championships in Riga, Latvia, Canada skated to another fourth-place finish. Is it just me, or are Canadian men just not fans of bronze-medal games? They were slaughtered 5-0 by the Finns, and if you'll remember all the way back to 1998 in Nagano, they put in another lacklustre performance - again, against Finland. Now, maybe these seem like very separate occurrences, or maybe you could even say that Team Finland really shows up to battle for that third spot, but it seems like after the Canadians are out of gold medal contention, they always roll over and die. Just my two cents.

Back to the NHL, it's really been a strange second season so far, one made possible by the salary cap. Rather than the usual formula of at least one top team in the Cup finals, it's entirely possible that there could be two Cinderellas at the ball. Sure, the Hurricanes played a very good season and finished second in the Eastern Conference, but I'm not sure anyone's ever seen them as a juggernaut. Maybe that's because not many people have ever taken the 'Canes seriously anyway, or because they played 32 of their 82 games against the East's weakest division, but
the bottom line is that none of the remaining four teams were on anybody's list as a surefire Cup bet at the season's beginning. But of those four, my money's on Edmonton. The Oil is on fire, and I'm not sure anyone's going to be able to put it out.

2006-05-19T22:24:00.000-04:00

First off, congratulations to the fans in Edmonton for the super-classy way they conducted themselves during the anthems of Game 6. If you haven't already heard, not only did they loudly cheer the American anthem, but everyone sang "O Canada," and I'm fairly sure I saw tears in the eyes of a couple Oilers on the bench.

Now then. Predictions. (And quickly, before I turn on the Western Conference Final.)

WEST

(6) Anaheim vs (8) Edmonton - Edmonton in 6
-The Oilers have the strong defence to counter Anaheim's hard forecheck, and will go to the net with more gusto than Calgary or Colorado did. Plus, they win every series in six. What's left to tell?

EAST

(2) Carolina vs (4) Buffalo - Carolina in 7
-Two teams who can score and play defence, with hot goalies at either end of the ice. Buffalo will fight to the death, but the 'Canes will ultimately prevail.

So last round my predictions were 2 for 4 in terms of who would win the series...and the only one I got on the number of games was the Sharks/Oilers series. So I'm not sure if that counts. Overall, that puts me up to 8 for 12, so you've gotta like that.

By the way, that series between Edmonton and San Jose was some of the best hockey I've ever seen, if you ignore some of the refs' decisions. The players were all in for that one, so a salute to them. Hopefully the Conference Finals bring more of the same.

2006-05-15T02:51:00.000-04:00

At the beginning of Game 5 between San Jose and Edmonton, which was played in California, the Sharks' fans loudly booed the Canadian national anthem. Sure, before it ended, they toned it down a bit, and some even sang along, but come on. It may not be the first time such a thing has happened, and it won't be the last, but where are these people's heads? I'm not sure there's such a huge difference between booing an anthem and burning a flag, and while flag-burning may be seen by many as a perfectly legitimate form of free speech, it's still completely disrespectful, unsportsmanlike, and generally in extremely poor taste...not to mention stupid, if half of your team (and particularly its best players) are from the country that you're booing.

So if you're a San Jose fan who either booed "O Canada" tonight or cheered the fact that it happened, just think: do Joe Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo really think they're playing a "home" game if they hear their country being disrespected by the people who are supposed to support them? Did Scott Hannan and Patrick Marleau smile inside and think, "I'm so proud of our fans"?

Congratulations! You're idiots.

Oh, and if Oiler fans decide to reciprocate on Wednesday night, or if any team's fans ever do it again at any point, just read this message again. The parts that apply, anyway. For a sport that's lauded for it's encouragement of sportsmanship - see, for example, the handshakes that follow a hard-fought playoff series - this kind of crap is just an embarrassment.

2006-05-15T02:39:00.000-04:00

There's nothing I could say about yet another early postseason exit by the Ottawa Senators that hasn't already been said by one of the talking heads on television, but TSN's Bob McKenzie might have put it best with the quote, "Let's call this what it is: epic failure." Many Ottawa fans (the ones left on the bandwagon, anyway) will be quick to blame Ray Emery, who wasn't anywhere near as good as Ryan Miller was in the Buffalo nets. Put it in perspective, though - Miller was amazing, and it wasn't Emery's fault that Sens captain (and perennial playoff phantom) Daniel Alfredsson scored only two goals in the postseason - an empty-netter against the lightning, and a powerplay goal to tie Game 5 at 1-1. Not only that, but it was Alfredsson who Sabres grinder Jason Pominville walked around to score the shorthanded game-winning OT goal (his fifth marker of the playoffs).

Alfredsson wasn't the only Senator playing shoddy defence, though; witness Chris Drury's powerplay goal in the second period of Game 5. After getting the puck between the right faceoff dot and the bottom of the circle, he walked right in on goal as all four Ottawa penalty killers watched, dumbfounded. This was the story of the series to be sure, as many of the goal scored against Ray Emery were garnered off odd-man rushes, surrendered by sloppy pinching and worsened by the remaining defenseman's inability to decide whether to take away the passing or the shooting lane.

Would things have been better for Ottawa if they'd had Dominik Hasek between the pipes? Maybe, but who are you going to blame for that one? Management for signing a 40-year-old goalie with groin problems who'd played a handful of games over the last three years? Or the team, for becoming so dependent on that ticking time-bomb?

One thing's for sure: heads will roll in Ottawa before the next training camp begins. Let's see if the bandwagon-jumpers will hop back on board.

2006-05-11T02:34:00.000-04:00

I'm sure everyone's heard by now about the wonderful jobs that the NHL's referees are doing of maintaining their high standards on what constitutes clean play; for the most part, the parade to the penalty box has continued straight on from the regular season. But every so often, you'll see refs let some glaring penalties go, and what do the commentators tell you? "Oh, they're letting them play! It's good old-fashioned hockey!"

Well, that's good old-fashioned BS.

I'm not saying that I like seeing 57 penalties each game, but I would like to see a little more consistency out of the refs. If they want to let a few more hits go, whatever, but let them go for everyone, not jsut when you feel like taking a night off. And there are some disgusting examples of penalties that should be called no matter what the situation - take tonight's San Jose / Edmonton tilt. Late in the second overtime, Shark defenceman Scott Hannan put Oiler forward Shawn Horcoff in a headlock from behind and put him down to his knees, then practically sat on Horcoff's head. The ref was standing fifteen feet away, looking straight at them, with no call. I don't care if it's the second overtime of Game 7 in the Finals, you call that penalty. Granted, the Oilers got away with a few bad ones too, but that's no excuse; all the glaring ones should have been called. Now, a penalty was assessed to Jarret Stoll in the dying minutes of that period after he took down Jonathan Cheechoo (robbing him of a gimme of a scoring chance), but one has to wonder if the referees weren't just showing Gary Bettman that they still know how to blow a whistle; after all, the commish did say that if they didn't call the penalties, they wouldn't be reffing any more of these playoffs.

It all makes you wonder: what's the use of a two-referee system if the only guys blowing the whistles are the linesmen?

2006-05-06T00:17:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, I said "before the games start" for my predictions, but things happen. Really, if you have a chance to hear Romeo Dallaire speak, you're not going to go home and blog instead. Anyway, here they are:

EASTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Ottawa vs (4) Buffalo - Buffalo in 6
-It'll be a high-scoring series, and I don't think the Senators will be able to keep up with the Sabres' speed either. The Ottawa papers have been singing Ray Emery's praises and gushing about how he can take the Senators all the way, but he hasn't seen nearly as much puck as he will in this series.

(2) Carolina vs (3) New Jersey - New Jersey in 6
-Both teams can score, and they have good goaltending on both ends of the rink, but the Devils are on fire right now. Their more stable defence should win out.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(5) San Jose vs (8) Edmonton - San Jose in 6
-Edmonton did an amazing thing in upsetting Detroit, but the Sharks should be ready for them. The Oilers need to beware of San Jose's depth up the middle; unless they're planning on cloning Mike Peca, they'll be in tough.

(6) Anaheim vs (7) Colorado - Anaheim in 6
-What? Another series in six games? Well, yeah. The Ducks forechecked very aggressively against the Flames and got the job done; if they can rattle Theodore a bit by making him lose confidence in his defence's ability to clear the zone, he could slip back into the poor form that he displayed earlier in the season.

2006-05-04T22:42:00.000-04:00

The updated series listings will be up shortly; I'm having some issues with my Internet access, but hopefully they're resolved soon.

As for my first round predictions, I didn't do too badly, if I do say so myself. Six for eight in terms of the winning team, and for two of those I was right on the money with the number of games...and let's face it, I resisted the urge to change my prediction to Devils in 4 after Jagr got hurt, so come on folks; just give me that one.

The second-round predictions will go up tomorrow afternoon, before the games start.

Shot Down in Flames

2006-05-04T22:31:00.000-04:00

If you watched Game 7 between Calgary and Anaheim, you probably didn't see what you expected...great if you're a Ducks fan, but not so much if you cheer for the Flames. Anaheim played an amazing series, and were even tougher and grittier than Calgary was; Jarome Iginla tried to wake his team up by fighting Francois Beauchemin, but Beauchemin was pretty much the clear winner of that bout.

Why did Calgary lose? Well, it was a combination of things. Their defence that was so, so good during the regular season just wasn't that great in the seventh game, and at times they looked a little bit lost. They also had trouble with their outlet passing - which isn't to say that anyone on the team could complete a pass, because their puck control and movement was brutal. But to give the Ducks credit, they forechecked hard, and stayed with their men on defence; Anaheim was all over the ice, breaking up passes and winning puck races while Calgary's players seemed to be skating with the weight of the title "Favourite" heavy on their shoulders. Simply put, Anaheim played a solid game, while the Flames, as they say, "crapped the bed."

If there's any consolation for their fans, it's that none of the top four seeds in the West made it to the second round...and then, straight to the mantra of Leafs fans: "There's always next year."

2006-04-26T02:15:00.000-04:00

Wow...what a game between the Edmonton Oilers and the Detroit Red Wings tonight; the fourth playoff game to go to double overtime thus far. Edmonton won it 4-3 (or, if you were to believe CBS Sportsline's web ticker, 5-3 in OT...not sure how that happens) on an insane goalmouth scramble after a back-and-forth game that saw the Oilers relinquish a 3-1 lead, and also featured Detroit seemingly scoring the winner in the first OT period, though review showed that the puck squeaked underneath the net when Dwayne Roloson bumped into it, causing it to jump on its pegs. As I said before, the longer this series goes, the better it is for the Oilers, the West's 8th seed with lots of young legs...and nothing makes a series go longer like tacking on a few overtime periods.

You wouldn't know how exciting the game was, however, from the CBC play-by-play announcer; I never caught his full name, but his colour commentator kept calling him "Mark." Mark seemed to have a little trouble figuring out what was going on at times, and the only times he got particularly excited were bonafide scoring opportunities; as soon as the threat passed, he dropped back down to a low tone that I can only guess was valium-induced. He was absolutely terrible at capturing the emotion of the game and the energy of the crowd, and I found myself hoping that at least one Canadian team would be ousted so that I wouldn't have to listen to him again - give me Bob Cole, Jim Hughson or Don Wittman over ol' Mark any day...at least listening to them isn't the equivalent of ingesting a roofie.

2006-04-22T20:22:00.000-04:00

Tell you what: I feel a little goofy posting my first-round playoff predictions after 12 of the teams have already played game #1, but better late than never.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Ottawa vs (8) Tampa Bay - Ottawa in 5
-The Senators' defence is just too strong, and their offence shouldn't have too much trouble with the Lightning's goaltending tandem of John Grahame and Sean Burke. Even without Hasek, Ottawa shouldn't have too much trouble.

(2) Carolina vs (7) Montreal - Carolina in 7
-Montreal had solid goaltending from Cristobal Huet in the regular season, but the Hurricanes have so many weapons that they should ultimately prevail. And nobody on either team wants a Stanley Cup more than 'Canes captain Rod Brind'Amour.

(3) New Jersey vs (6) NY Rangers - New Jersey in 6
-In making this prediction, I'm pretending I didn't see Jaromir Jagr leave Game #1 with an apparent shoulder injury; that could ultimately mean this series is over in 4 or 5 games, especially if the Rangers continue their undisciplined play that saw them give the Devils 13 power plays, on which they allowed 5 power play goals, plus one that Ken Klee tallied just one second after a man advantage had expired.

(4) Buffalo vs (5) Philadelphia - Buffalo in 6
-Philly is a very hostile environment for opposing teams, but that should be the only real problem for the Sabres, who are worlds faster than the big-and-strong Flyers.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Detroit vs (8) Edmonton - Detroit in 6
-Edmonton definitely has the advantage of young legs, but you wouldn't have known it in Game 1, when Detroit won in double overtime. The Wings are the league's oldest team, but they've got lots of experience, and should go deep; however, the goaltending duo of Chris Osgood and Manny Legace might not be up to the task. The longer this series goes, the better for Edmonton, who will have energy to burn; if they can play smart defence and keep the puck moving, they could wear the Red Wings out.

(2) Dallas vs (7) Colorado - Colorado in 7
-The Avalanche definitely deserves more respect than it's getting; many people seem to have counted them out because José Theodore has had such a shaky season, but Colorado still has a well-built team, not to mention a top line of Alex Tanguay, Milan Hedjuk, and the ever-clutch Joe Sakic. Dallas has quite a few offensive weapons too, plus better defence and arguably a better goaltender, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Colorado advance.

(3) Calgary vs (6) Anaheim - Calgary in 5
-Solid defence, solid offence, a brilliant goalie, a captain who would do anything to win, and so much heart throughout...I just can't see Anaheim overcoming them.

(4) Nashville vs (5) San Jose - San Jose in 7
-Kariya had a huge first game, and the Predators did a good job of holding up Cheechoo and Thornton, but the Sharks still have another big scorer in Patrick Marleau, not to mention 2004 Selke finalist Alyn McCauley and Calgary's pugilist from that year's Cup run, Ville Nieminen. With Tomas Vokoun out, can 30-year-old Chris Mason, with a total of 44 games' NHL experience going into the playoffs, help Nashville hold onto the series? My guess is no.

2006-04-21T00:42:00.001-04:00

Toronto GM John Ferguson Jr. fired head coach Pat Quinn and his assistant Rick Ley this morning, and at his 1:00pm press conference, that was about the only thing JFJ seemed sure of. Reporters were ripping into him left, right and center, demanding an explanation of his plan for the future, and reminding him of the many acquisitions he made last summer that didn't pan out. Ferguson often looked quite taken aback by the barrage, and stammered his way to many vague answers; perhaps he wouldn't have seemed quite so unsure of himself if he wasn't aware that his performance is under careful review as well. He might not survive at the post until next season begins.

Notice that I said nothing along the lines of, "Wow! I saw this one coming! I totally called this weeks ago!" I've read posts like that so many times today that I want to scream, and even the talking heads on TSN and Sportsnet felt it necessary to tell us that they'd seen this coming, having the inside connections that they do. Well, I've got news for you, kids: everyone saw this one coming. Toronto wasn't going to miss their first playoffs in 8 years without at least one head rolling, and coaches are hired to be fired. Ferguson's hiring of Paul Maurice as the coach of the AHL's Toronto Marlies was an obvious precursor to bringing him up with the big club; seeing the positive impact Maurice has had on the kids down in the 'A', that just might translate into a big season for the Maple Leafs next year. Notice, however, that JFJ didn't announce Maurice as the new head coach today; that may seem strange, but they shouldn't rule out other candidates, and Maurice still has to coach the Marlies through their own playoff run.

So please, people, no more pointing out that you predicted the obvious. If you'd predicted the Joe Thornton trade last fall, I would have been impressed...but keep this up, and I'm going to start relentlessly predicting that here in southern Ontario, the sun will rise between midnight and 11:59am, and set between noon and 11:59pm. Year 'round, too! You could set your watch to it.

Still singing the Blues

2006-04-21T00:42:00.000-04:00

I was ready to get on St. Louis GM Larry Pleau's case for deciding to exercise their option on underachieving left winger Keith Tkachuk, but now that I think about it, it's really not such a bad idea after all. Tkachuk will make $3.8 million next year, but because the CBA states that the average of his contract will count against the cap, that's $5.7 million accounted for. Why is it not a bad idea? Well, this past year, St. Louis ended up with about $27M in salary, with a $21.5M floor. Next year, the league minimum could jump as high as $29 million, which would leave the Blues a good two million below the limit. Now, this extra $1.9M that will count against the cap with the Tkachuk signing should give them a little more of a cushion to make sure they are in compliance with the cap. Clever, no?

Of course, they could have always gone out and spent that money on some free agents who would have earned it...

Good thing the Jays are better this year...

2006-04-17T02:54:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't noticed, Toronto was eliminated from playoff contention for the first time since Pat Quinn arrived, and the questions are swirling as they head to the golf course. Will Quinn stay, or will GM John Ferguson Jr. bring Paul Maurice to fill his spot? Will JFJ even be back next year? And which players will be re-signed? Which ones will be let go? Will the Leafs stick with Tellqvist and Aubin in goal? Will there be any big trades or free-agent signings?

After the way Aubin has played in his 10 games with the big club (8-0-2, 2.14 GAA, .926 SV%), he was awarded a one-year, one-way contract for next year. On one hand, it would be good to give him a shot at the full-time starter's job, but on the other, Toronto might be safer to pick up a free agent goaltender like Curtis Joseph. One strategy would be to try Aubin and Tellqvist in net for the start of the year, and if it doesn't work out, a swap could be made; this would mean giving up a pick or a player, but there would also be more goalies available for this type of transaction.

As for skaters, Toronto looked solid to end the year, but a few upgrades could stand to be made. A winger for Sundin should be at the top of the shopping list; Patrick Elias would be a viable-but-expensive option (though Toronto should have plenty of cap room), and Sergei Samsonov or Maxim Afinogenov would work nicely as well. If Brad Richards decides to test the waters of free agency, Toronto could also make a play for him. The rest of the forwards are more-or-less in place, with a few tweaks to be made. Tie Domi, love him though Leafs fans might, has very little impact at this stage of his career, and should step away from the game gracefully this summer. Jeff O'Neill is still under contract for another year, and should be given a chance to turn things around next season; 19 goals and 38 points isn't a bad year, but he has to be much more effective - if not, he's trade bait. Nik Antropov also finished the season strong; Toronto should re-sign him, but should also be prepared to jettison him if he doesn't meet expectations. Clarke Wilm, a capable penalty killer and defensive forward, could be re-signed for the league minimum, but kept as a spare. Eric Lindros - get ready, because you might not hear this a lot - should be re-signed if the price is right. His injury was not concussion-related, which means he should be good to go next year, and if Toronto can get him for around $1 million, they would be wise to seriously consider it. The rest of the forwards should stay status quo; the kids are all right, and they're ready to keep on impressing - Stajan, Wellwood and Steen all had impressive years, Ben Ondrus was a sparkplug, and several other youngsters could be ready to make the jump including Alex Foster, Aleksander Suglobov, Robbie Earl, Jeremy Williams and Johnny Pohl.

Back on defence, things look bright for the future. A slew of capable youngsters have all been impressive this season, with 6 - count 'em, 6 - suiting up for the big boys at some point. Kaberle has signed a 4-year deal, which was a smart move on the Leafs' part. McCabe might be determined to try out free agency, and if he asks for too much, Toronto should let him do it and turn their focus elsewhere - loads of defencemen could be available, including Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Ed Jovanovski, Pavel Kubina and Filip Kuba. Richardson played well too, much better than Ken Klee, and should be rewarded with a contract (for somewhat less than the $2.09 million he makes now). When all is said and done, Toronto should use two or three of their youngsters, plus Kaberle and Richardson, with the remaining spot or two filled by McCabe and/or free agents; they should also think about dealing one of their surplus sophomores-to-be to get some return, instead of letting that talent stagnate within the organization. ...What? I didn't mention Berg or Belak? Whoops! Well, Belak is under contract next season, and actually wasn't awful on his own; he works as a seventh defenceman. Berg, on the other hand, should have been traded after his silver medal at the Olympics, when his return value could have been higher; now, Toronto should just stay away from re-signing him. He never lived up to his potential in Toronto, and has just become a running joke among Leafs fans.

Now, if John Ferguson Jr. just reads this and is convinced, then we're set...or best-case scenario, the MLSE could read it, like what they see, and I'm the new GM, which would work out just fine; I always wondered what the ACC offices were like.

2006-04-17T02:15:00.000-04:00

Things have started settling a little more in the playoff race, although there are still a lot of things to determine. The only playoff team in the East whose position is solidified is Buffalo, in fourth. The Western Conference, however, is just about ready to roll. So far, the playoff matchups will be first-place Detroit versus Edmonton, and fourth-seeded Nashville against number-five San Jose. #2 Dallas and #3 Calgary need to wait and see what happens with the Ducks and the Avs in each team's last game, as Colorado is just a point behind Anaheim.

Stay tuned.

2006-04-14T03:44:00.000-04:00

A few things have been resolved after a busy night in the NHL, so briefly:

-Calgary and Ottawa clinch the titles of their respective divisions
-Vancouver's loss solidifies the Western Conference playoff picture, but first-round matchups have yet to be determined
-Toronto and Atlanta both win while Tampa Bay sits idle; the Thrashers and Leafs are now 2 and 3 points back of the Lightning, respectively.

Check out TSN.ca's complete standings here.

2006-04-13T16:14:00.000-04:00

With every NHL team having between two and four games remaining, the playoff picture still isn't cleared up, as some are hanging on for dear life. Here's the 411.

EAST:

-Montreal still hasn't clinched a spot. 9th place Atlanta sits 6 points behind them with four games left, and could catch up; this, however, is unlikely considering the roll the Canadiens have been on since the Olympic break. Three points either way - either through Montreal gaining them, Atlanta losing them, or a combination - would seal the deal for the Habs.
-If anybody should be scared right now, it's the Lightning. Atlanta is just four back of them, and has a game in hand; one misstep by the Bolts could kill them. Toronto is also six points back of the last playoff spot, and have been lighting things up with no regulation losses in their last eight games. It will still take a big miracle, as four points either way with Tampa will send the Leafs golfing, but after Mats Sundin's 4-goal, 6-point night on Tuesday, it looks like they're not ready to give up yet.

WEST:

-The Kings have one point to give between themselves and the 8th-place Oilers, who are cold in their last few games and must snap out of it. Chances of the Kings making it are slim-to-none.
-Vancouver sits one point out of 8th, and both they and Edmonton have two games left. The Canucks play San Jose and Colorado, and will need to rebound after a costly loss to the Sharks on Wednesday night (though they managed to take a point from overtime). The Oil battle the Avalanche as well, with their other game coming against Anaheim. For both these teams, the last two matches will be crucial, and it looks like at least one of the Western Conference's Canadian teams won't be making it to the big dance.

2006-04-13T16:10:00.000-04:00

Well, as awful as the Mighty Ducks' announcers may be - and who'da thunk that they wouldn't have amazing announcers for a fantastic hockey market like that? - the Los Angeles Kings have gotten sick of Sean Avery's antics anyway, and are ditching him. And I don't mean at the season's end; I mean right now. Avery was asked to participate in a drill in Wednesday's team practice, and he refused; he was then told to leave the ice. He then met with GM Dave Taylor and interim coach John Torchetti, and subsequently did not accompany the team on a road trip to Phoenix.

Kings fans rejoice! He's somebody else's problem now...so fans of the other 29 teams, start cringing in fear. He could be yours.

Sean Avery: Back to Business

2006-04-08T15:38:00.000-04:00

Boy, it's been a while since Sean Avery made a fool of himself, hasn't it? He's been fairly quiet over the last few months; the one notable thing he had to say to the media was to talk about the pink sticks he and several other players are playing with, to promote breast cancer awareness.

But wait!

Mighty Ducks broadcaster Brian Hayward was visiting the Kings' dressing room on Friday, when Sean Avery confronted him about comments he had made accusing Avery of running away from a fight with Anaheim pugilist Todd Fedoruk. The full TSN.ca report can be seen here, but here are some of the highlights (as reported by the L.A. Times):

Avery: "You're an embarrassment."
Hayward: "You want to see an embarrassment? Look in the mirror, Sean."

Avery: "You're the reason the league doesn't have a national television deal. You're a (terrible) announcer and you were a (terrible) player."
Hayward: "How would you know? When I played, you were in your third year of eighth grade."

Oh boy. That's good times. From what I understand, Hayward is indeed a mediocre broadcaster, and was a career backup goaltender - he shared the Jennings Trophy (for goalies of the team with the least goals against) with Patrick Roy in three consecutive years (1986-87 to 1988-89), but many would argue that a trained monkey could share the Jennings if your number one is Patrick Roy. On the other hand, he seems to have a quick wit, and if he's going to trade verbal blows with Sean Avery, that makes him my hero for the day.

It wouldn't have been the first time that Avery ran from a fight, and certainly will not be the last - he's not big on backing up that mouth of his - but apparently he felt the need to defend himself. I'm not sure why, because by now his reputation is so far down the toilet that the only people who like him are the ones who like everybody that "speaks their mind," which the monkey doesn't even need to be trained to do, he just needs the power of speech (although I guess flinging feces is a form of expression).

Race to the Playoffs

2006-04-08T00:39:00.000-04:00

In the NHL's Eastern Conference, the top eight teams are all but written in stone, with the biggest uncertainty being which place each will finish in. After Friday night's games, Atlanta and Toronto are 6 and 7 points back of 8th-place Tampa Bay, respectively; both have six games to play. All hope is not lost for these two teams, however. Although the Lightning play bottom-feeders Washington and Pittsburgh one more time each, these are teams with nothing to lose, and could prove to be a challenge. Besides that, Tampa faces off against division leader Carolina twice more. Atlanta can look forward to playing the Lightning one more time next Tuesday, in a four-point matchup that they absolutely must win.

The Leafs, meanwhile, must play three challenging teams in Philadelphia, Ottawa, and Buffalo; they will not face any of the teams they are chasing again, and can only control their own fates to a certain degree. Even to win all their remaining games would give them only 92 points on the year, a mark that Tampa should not have trouble passing. That being said, stranger things have happened.

With a 5-1 loss against the Penguins tonight, Florida was eliminated from the race; they will look to get Roberto Luongo under contract now, and with captain Olli Jokinen having signed at the trade deadline, have a decent core to build around. And they should do it fast, because their fans must be losing patience.

Though the playoff race in the Eastern Conference seems to be winding down, in the West, things are still up in the air. Anaheim (92 pts), Edmonton (91), Colorado (90), and San Jose (89) sit in spots five through eight, and the Canucks (87) and Kings (85) are still within striking distance. Of these six teams, the Ducks, Avalanche and Sharks are in the best shape, with 6 games remaining for each. Los Angeles has only four left with which to scrape into contention, with two of those coming against Anaheim and San Jose. Vancouver is in a slightly better position, and will play San Jose twice, along with Anaheim and Colorado once each, in four of their final five matches. The Canucks' playoff drive would be helped greatly by the return of stud defenceman Ed Jovanovski, who is rumoured to be looking at a return to the lineup on Saturday night.

When the fifth seed could still be knocked out of the playoffs, you know the competition is fierce. Anaheim should have their sights set on taking fourth place (and home ice) from Nashville, which sits four points ahead, but the Ducks should be wary of all the teams trying to catch them; they do not have any easy games left, and will be hard-pressed to fend off those which sit below them in the standings.

Should be an interesting last couple of weeks.

2006-03-22T13:14:00.000-05:00

You won't hear me arguing against the fact that Alex Ovechkin is a great hockey player, who has exceptional offensive skills and brings a physical edge. But if you're in the "Alexander can do no wrong" camp with Daniel Alfredsson, take a look at this and see if that changes your opinion.

Basically, Ovechkin has been disobeying the coaches, taking shifts that are too long and not covering up defensively, so they gave him some time on the pine to think about it. That's a ballsy move, taking a firm hand with a young star with so much self-confidence; it's also smart, trying to rein him in early. Hopefully it works, and he remains professional about it. The lesson might lose a little bit of its power when it's given by a cellar-dwelling team who ended up losing the game, but it's a lesson Ovechkin needs to learn all the same.

The Trouble With Trades

2006-03-14T00:30:00.000-05:00

The Vancouver Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers made a flurry of deals on March 9 in an effort to solidify their respective lineups for a long post-season run. Vancouver went out and got defencemen Eric Weinrich, Keith Carney, and Sean Brown, as well as goalie Mika Noronen to back up Alex Auld. In the short term, the three blueliners were supposed to fill in for injured rearguards Ed Jovanovski, Sami Salo and Mattias Ohlund. And guess what? Since the deadline, the Canucks are 0-2, and winless in their last four games.

The Oilers, picked up Dwayne Roloson to be their number one netminder, as well as sniper Sergei Samsonov. The Oil also have four losses in as many games, with Roloson taking the loss in three of them.

Calgary, meanwhile, only picked up centre Jamie Lundmark - much to the chagrin of the "experts" on TSN and Sportsnet - yet stormed back into first place in the Northwest Division, while the Canucks and Oilers slid down to seventh and eighth.

Am I suggesting that these trends are going to continue? Of course not; I still expect (and hope) that all three teams will make the playoffs. But I do find a little bit of irony in the fact that two of the teams thought to have done the best at the deadline are winless since then.

Also last Thursday, Carolina made one more slick move to prepare for a run at the Cup by acquiring Mark Recchi from the Pittsburgh Penguins. They're looking more and more formidable by the day, and have a good mix of youth and experience that could take them all the way to the top; add the fact that they're one of the league's fastest teams, and you've got yourself a juggernaut.

Of course, if you're one of those people who listens to what Al Strachan says - you're in my prayers, by the way - then you'll be interested to learn that he believes the Hurricanes have absolutely no shot whatsoever at winning the Stanley Cup. He told the Sportsnet panel that they simply don't have the experience necessary to win it; it's not that they're unlikely to win, it's that they absolutely won't. Now, I'm not going to be so stupid as to guarantee that they win it, but how can you count out this team? That's right, you can't. Sure, his arguments might hold water - there's a lot of pressure on the 1st-overall team, Gerber isn't really playoff-tested, blah blah blah. But do these things completely guarantee that they won't win it all? Of course not. This claim of Strachan's might have been a little easier to take if he hadn't presented it as though anyone who disagreed was a complete moron - the same way he makes most of his claims on Hockey Night in Canada's "Satellite Hot Stove" discussions. Any time the other men on the panel would approach the subject of Carolina's playoff chances, he would sneeringly refer to them as "your beloved Hurricanes." Maybe he's getting ready for a career in politics.

Finally, Daniel Alfredsson on the rookie race:

"I just think (Ovechkin has) everything you could want. He's a great skater, he's a great stickhandler, good one-on-one and he's got a really good work ethic. He doesn't get frustrated if he gets hit, either. He gets up and keeps playing. Not like the other rookie (Crosby), who starts crying. I think there's a big difference in the attitude."

I guess ol' Daniel didn't watch the World Juniors last year, when Alex Ovechkin was in tears after getting thumped around by Team Canada (including Crosby, who even laid a hit on the Russian) en route to a 6-1 Canadian victory. Let's also keep in mind that Ovechkin is playing for a team that wasn't supposed to do anything this year; they were expected to come across the line dead last, so there isn't much pressure on the big Russian. Meanwhile, Crosby's Penguins were expected to be a playoff team - they were predicted to come sixth by The Hockey News prior to the season - and they've done nothing more than stink out the Mellon Arena. His friend, mentor and landlord, Mario Lemieux, also retired mid-season, putting even more pressure on the kid from Cole Harbour, who was given an "A" on his sweater by new head coach Michel Therrien. And really, who can blame Crosby for getting frustrated? He's a target every game, he's taunted both in the media and on the ice, and he's only 18 years old; on the other hand, the 20-year-old Ovechkin played in the Russian SuperLeague before coming over to the Capitals, so he's got much more experience playing against grown men.

I'm not slighting Ovechkin's accomplishments, because he's an excellent hockey player, but all these people who criticized all the hype heaped on Crosby also seem to have bought into it, since they apparently expect him to not just live up to it, but surpass it; the second he doesn't, he becomes a "crybaby" and a "whiner," and never mind his 74 points in 64 games (good for 10th place in league scoring) - that's just an inconvenient statistic.

2006-03-08T22:09:00.000-05:00

Looks like the NHL's general managers have really kicked things into high gear the day before the trade deadline. There have been many moves - some major and some minor, depending on who you're talking to - already today, and there are still more than 16 hours until the deadline.

The major moves:

Montreal trades Jose Theodore to Colorado for David Aebischer. These two teams have dealt in goaltenders in the past (remember Patrick Roy?), and they're both hoping that these goalies will find new life in new environments. Aebischer has never really instilled much confidence in Avs fans, while Theodore has had an awful season so far. Theodore is still out with a broken heel, but should be back by the start of April.

The Islanders trade forward Mark Parrish and defenceman Brent Sopel to Los Angeles for forward Jeff Tambellini, D-man Denis Grebeshkov, and a conditional draft pick. With this, the Islanders send over $2 million in salary California's way, when all price tags in this deal are accounted for; meanwhile the Kings, 6th in the West, have some big-time help for their playoff run.

The minor:

Toronto dealt defenceman Ken Klee to the Devils for prospect Aleksander Suglobov, while picking up another blueliner, Luke Richardson, from Columbus for a conditional draft pick. The difference between the two defencemen isn't huge; they both play the same style of game, but Richardson's price tag is $190,000 higher. This, of course, is helped by the waiving of Mariusz Czerkawski. Consider the trades in these terms: Richardson for Klee, and a prospect for a conditional pick. I would have to say that the Leafs win out here, and though Richardson is 36 years old and will be a free agent this summer, either his departure or his eventual retirement will leave a roster spot open for one of the Leafs' young defencemen. Toronto also signed Bowling Green University's star forward Alex Foster.

The Senators signed utility skater Brad Norton, who has been playing this season with HIFK Helsinki in Finland. He's just another body to add to the roster, whether at the pro level or in the AHL, as he's signed a two-way contract. Probably won't add much to a potential Stanley Cup contender; if they're looking for a player with sandpaper, they can do better than this.

The San Jose Sharks acquired scrappy forward Ville Nieminen from the Rangers for a 3rd-rounder in 2006. This is who the Senators should have gotten, a gritty team player who's not afraid to mix it up, and has decidedly more skill than somebody like part-time goon, part-time thug Brian McGrattan. Instead, the Rangers are gambling that they won't need Ville's skills during the playoffs - judging from how well he played for the Flames on the way to the 2004 Finals, I would think that every team would want a Ville Nieminen.

Finally, Anaheim signed prospect Bobby Ryan to a three-year deal; the young American star is expected to be a big part of their future. Also, the Washington Capitals kept defenceman Brendan Witt off the ice as a healthy scratch tonight, which makes it fairly obvious that he will be traded before 3:00 tomorrow.

Until demain...

2006-03-08T13:30:00.000-05:00

As of precisely 13 minutes ago, TSN.ca is reporting that the Edmonton Oilers have acquired Dwayne Roloson from the Wild for a first-rounder and a conditional pick. The Oilers waived goalie Mike Morrison this morning. Roloson is 6-17-1 this season, with a 3.00 GAA and a .910 save percentage. This gives Edmonton the number-one goalie they've been needing for a while, and it also ends the speculation on which goaltender will end up with the Oil - Ed Belfour, Curtis Joseph, Martin Biron and Mika Noronen were also rumoured to be headed their way. Joseph or Biron would have been prime acquisitions if the deal had been just right, whereas Belfour would weigh down their pocketbooks, and Noronen is not a proven starting goalie, adding another noggin to the three-headed monster they had in nets with Ty Conklin, Mike Morrison and Jussi Markkanen.

The Bruins have also picked up Mariusz Czerkawski off waivers from Toronto, looking to fill some roster holes that have been opened up by injuries. There are a few guys in Hogtown who will look awfully silly if he starts scoring in bunches.

2006-03-07T22:40:00.000-05:00

The stage lights come on, revealing an apartment in downtown Toronto. The phone rings. A six-foot-one, 205-pound 22-year-old man named Brendan crosses the room to answer it.

Brendan: "Hello?"

Mysterious Caller: "Hi, am I speaking with Marlies defenceman Brendan Bell?"

Brendan: "Yes, you are...who is this?"

Caller: "This is John Ferguson. We're going to need you to hop in a cab and come down to the ACC, Brendan. You're playing tonight!"

Brendan: "Oh, wow! Really?"

Caller: "Yes, Andy Wozniewski got hurt the other night and we really need your bodychecking...and your puckhandling skills...and your shot...and your, uh, awesomeness...and bring some beer."

Brendan: "Wait a second...Ben Ondrus?"

Caller: "Hahahaha...yeah man, it's me. I was just kidding; I got the call-up, you're already sent back down. Tough break, dude...but at least you get the night off, right? See you later."

I guess my new drama, The Trials and Tribulations of the Exquisitely Fluctuational Life of Brendan Bell and His Faithful Dog Chowderhead won't ever show on Broadway...in fact, I'm still trying to think of ways to work the Chowderhead character into the script. Really, he's just a dog, so what can you do with that? It's a hard life.

If, however, I decide to have one of those epilogue-type deals, where it tells what happened to all the characters after the fact, I would have to mention Ben Ondrus' game with the Leafs tonight, and he was tremendous. The kid's all hustle. He got a lot of ice time in the first period, and threw checks all over the place, playing a fast, gritty game. He even managed to draw a cross-checking penalty from a frustrated Saku Koivu. The contribution the Maple Leafs got from Ondrus was fairly consistent with what all their minor-leaguers have done this year when called up, playing with lots of heart and energy, and this team needs a ton more of those two attributes. The rookie's play sparked Toronto, as many guys stepped up and had their best games in a while; Jason Allison even outraced a few Canadiens to loose pucks, and if you need to read that twice to make sure your eyes are working right, I don't blame you. Allison skated faster in the first period than I've ever seen him skate before.

Ed Belfour also played his best game in a long time, and had the fans chanting "Eddie, Eddie" after he robbed Saku Koivu from point-blank range - twice - during a Montreal power play. Will that be the last time they chant "Eddie" in Toronto? We'll know by Thursday...

To close things out for the night, some precious Pierre McGuire Moments:

Gord Miller: "[The question on everyone's mind is] could Alexander Ovechkin be the MVP?"
Pierre McGuire: "No!"
Miller: "Why not?"
McGuire: "........" (no response)

Pierre McGuire, on an Andrei Markov hooking penalty: "[This penalty is] tough for Markov, because in the old NHL, it's not a penalty." Um...how many games have they played now, Pierre? Sixty-one? I would think that he could get used to the new rules in three-quarters of a season.

P.S. This hasn't suddenly become a blog just about the Leafs, but I find myself mainly concerned with their fortunes lately. Come draft day, it'll be back to basics for everybody.

P.P.S. Yes, I realize that "fluctuational" is not a word. It's called "artistic license." Leave me alone.

2006-03-07T18:07:00.000-05:00

As mentioned today on Raking Leafs, Mariusz Czerkawski has been waived by the Maple Leafs. I can't help but think that he could have been put to better use this season. Sure, he scored a paltry 4 goals in 19 games, but he also never really got a chance to play several games in a row, to try and find his stride (if, indeed, it was to be found). Quinn "experimented" with him on Sundin's wing - notice the quotation marks, since said experiment never lasted very long. If the two had been able to drum up some chemistry together they could have been a force, a la Sundin and Mogilny, while Chad Kilger or Darcy Tucker could have played Gary Roberts' old role on left wing; Wellwood could have even played the left side for some more creative playmaking.

What's done is done, though, and the Leafs have finally shaken free of the overwhelming burden of Czerkawski's $500,000 salary (note the sarcasm). There are three reasons he could have been waived:
-John Ferguson Jr. is trying to honour Czerkawski's wish to play where he is wanted, hoping another team will pick him up; after Thursday he still will not have a place in the lineup, so there was no point in delaying the inevitable
-Ferguson has already tried including him in potential trades as a deal-sweetener, and it didn't work, so he was therefore totally useless
-the Leafs GM is shaving the payroll a bit, clearing the deck for a couple of deadline moves

Apparently Toronto is not cleaning house, because the relatively cheap Pole could have filled a hole at forward in the event that the team was just riding out the rest of 2005-06. All the best to Czerkawski, for whom the lockout never really ended. I'm sure he'd rather forget that this season ever happened.

Whether the Leafs make the playoffs or not, their future does not look bad at all, now that Ferguson has beefed up their scouting again. Brendan Bell will make his first NHL appearance against Montreal tonight, giving the Buds five rookie defencemen who have all seen icetime with the big boys this season. Add the eventual arrival of Justin Pogge and/or Tuukka Rask, and things look good on the back end, while Alex Steen and Kyle Wellwood will need some more help up front in order for this team to become a scoring threat again.

2006-03-05T03:44:00.000-05:00

As Thursday draws ever nearer, Saturday night's eleven NHL games saw a few teams getting closer to a decision on whether to buy or sell at the trade deadline, depending on their abilities to make the playoffs.

In the Eastern Conference, the Canadiens won again, keeping their distance from the pack of hungry clubs looking for their spot in eighth. 10th place Boston and 11th place Toronto both lost, putting them six and seven points behind Montreal, respectively. The Thrashers, however, defeated the Capitals to keep pace with the Habs, and it looks like GM Don Waddell might still be able to keep his promise that Atlanta will make it to the dance. The latest rumour here is that playmaking centre Marc Savard will be shipped to Calgary for young defenceman Jordan Leopold, a deal that would likely benefit both teams.

Toronto has been at the centre of many trade rumours, with just about every player being named by some talking head, no matter how far-fetched the claim. The latest is that Ed Belfour might waive his no-trade clause for a move to any contender who would pick up his option for next year, paying him more than $4M in salary. Things could look very different in Hogtown by the time the 2006-07 season rolls around, and that might not be a bad thing. John Ferguson was looking ahead a little bit last summer by mostly signing players to one-year deals, so he could evaluate how things worked out under the cap system, and what changes have to be made. The Leafs should look to make changes at every position - four rookie defencemen got NHL experience this season (Wozniewski, Colaiacovo, Kronwall, and Harrison), and didn't look bad. The forward lines don't look terrible on paper, but the on-ice product is something else, especially when Pat Quinn insists on keeping potential big lines apart (Sundin only sees Jason Allison in the locker room and on the power play, and just played half a game with Eric Lindros on his wing before Lindros' wrist injury; Mats has also gushed about how much he loved playing with Wellwood after one game, and they were promptly separated). Not to flog a dead horse, but the Leafs need to acquire someone who can play wing with Sundin and bury the puck when he gets his chances. Meanwhile, Tellqvist is likely to take the reins in the nets, unless JFJ goes after another goalie; Ed Belfour probably won't come back - and rightly so, as he just doesn't play like Ed Belfour any more.

In the West, the Ducks trail the Oilers by just three points for the last playoff spot, while the Sharks missed a great opportunity to move four points back when they were shut out by the Calgary Flames on Hockey Night In Canada. The race here is a bit closer than the one in the Eastern Conference, but not much; it does, however, fly a bit under the radar as the team rankings between second and eighth seem to change hourly. Neither Anaheim or San Jose have been connected to many trade murmurings (the biggest news from the Pond is that centre Tyler Wright cleared waivers and is considering retirement). This could be because they plan on sticking with the players who got them this far, or simply due to Californians' hockey apathy keeping reporters away - there can't be any trade rumours if nobody hears them, can there? Besides, everyone with a voice recorder in California is too busy working out at the gym to prepare for the media scrum on Oscar night.

2006-03-02T16:23:00.000-05:00

The Toronto Star is reporting that the Leafs are having trouble getting defenceman Bryan McCabe signed to a new contract, which is of some concern. He is rumoured to be looking for $5M a season, for five years. Considering that partner Tomas Kaberle just got a new $4.25M, 5-year deal, this doesn't sound too unreasonable - although McCabe might be wrong in his assumption that he's worth $750,000 more per year than the smooth-skating Kaberle. Just for argument's sake, however, take a look at what eight of the league's other top defencemen - the ones McCabe played with on Team Canada, plus the two who got hurt - are making per year:

Rob Blake: $6,364,111
Jay Bouwmeester: $946,000
Adam Foote: $4.6 million
Ed Jovanovski: $3.99 million
Scott Niedermayer: $6.75 million
Chris Pronger: $6.25 million
Wade Redden: $3.724 million
Robyn Regehr: $1.672 million

Illuminating, no? Now, obviously McCabe is going to try for as much money as he can, but if he's actually planning on testing the waters of free agency this summer and getting more than $5 million per season, he'll have another thing coming. If one looks at this list of players and figures with the assumption that dollar amounts directly reflect skill level, that would mean that McCabe would be the fourth-best defenceman on the list, ahead of Foote, Redden, Jovanovski, Regehr, and Bouwmeester. Foote was the big free agent signing of this past summer, by the Columbus Blue Jackets, and they only paid $4.6M for his services - a figure that the Leafs, who were rumoured to be a possible destination for the big veteran, couldn't match. McCabe is reportedly looking for a Sergei Gonchar-style contract (also $5M/5 years), but looking at how the Penguins are doing after that acquisition, you won't see many teams looking to make the same mistake by overpaying as they might have last summer.

McCabe's agent, Jeff Soloman, insists that Bryan loves playing and living in Toronto; hopefully he loves it enough to bring his price down closer to the $4.75M price tag that the Leafs are said to be looking for. If this doesn't happen, and it looks to management before next Thursday afternoon at 3:00 that their star defenceman will bail come July 1, he could very well be dealt. It's that simple. And with Toronto likely set to completely rebuild the team if they miss the playoffs, that would free up some big-time cap space for the summertime to sign a player like Brad Richards, or another couple of defencemen.

He's got one week left to decide...

2006-03-01T20:27:00.000-05:00

A quick look over at the "Other Blogs" column will tell you that I've added two to the roll:

"Virginia's For Lovers" is by a tall drink of water named Dan Gilbert, and features audio, video, essays, and some of his trains of thought - both sensical and nonsensical.

"Raking Leafs" is by a guy known both as Mike and "Ninja," and follows everyone's favourite Toronto-based hockey team.

Check them out.

Cox and his Crystal Ball

2006-03-01T15:00:00.000-05:00

Apparently Toronto Star columnist Damien Cox is running for the presidency of the local clairvoyant society, because in one of his recent columns, he's predicted what Canada's men's hockey team in 2010 will look like. Follow the link to see the complete list, which contains a couple of eyebrow-raisers, but the one that jumped out most at me was Maple Leaf prospect Justin Pogge's inclusion.

"Eh?" says I.

I'm not saying it couldn't happen*, but how does one make this prediction, exactly? The kid's 19 years old right now, and the tournament isn't for another four years; to expect that in that time he'll grow into one of the top three Canadian goalies in the game seems like a bit of a stretch. Granted, youth will be served, but there are other young keepers with a better chance of making it. Marc-Andre Fleury, for example, if he lives up to his potential. José Theodore and Andrew Raycroft could always find their forms again. And what about Cam Ward, the 22-year-old kid (well, 4 years old, according to the calendar - damn those February 29th birthdays) sharing duties with Martin Gerber in Carolina? And if the team doesn't mind getting a little older, Marty Turco and Marty Biron will be 34 and 32 years old, respectively, in 2010.

Sure, predicting that Pogge will be the cream of the crop doesn't hurt newspaper sales, since he's writing in a Toronto paper, but come on, Damien. Don't be silly.

Meanwhile, on the trade front...

The first deal of March went down between the Thrashers and the Ducks today...are you ready?

Anaheim acquired G Jani Hurme, while Atlanta got forward Joel Stepp, and immediately sent him to their ECHL affiliate.

Not exactly a blockbuster, but there's 8 days till the deadline, don't forget. This move was just a salary dump, make no mistake; Hurme pulls in nearly a million bucks per season, and was just an expensive spare part in Atlanta, with Mike Dunham and Kari Lehtonen in the fold. Stepp, on the other hand, is likely to spend the bulk of his career in the minors, as he has already. This won't greatly improve either team; they're just taking care of business.

*See that? I didn't say it couldn't happen. So now if Pogge makes the team, I was "skeptical," not "wrong." That's how they teach things at my clairvoyant society meetings.

Back to Business

2006-02-28T20:34:00.000-05:00

The NHL is back in action tonight, but first, a quick round-up of the rest of the men's Olympic tournament:

-Gold for Sweden, and good for them. Seriously. The #2-ranked hockey nation in 2005, they'd endured an awful lot of disappointment since Lillehammer. As for whether they threw the game against the Slovaks, a coach telling the media that he might like his team to lose, doesn't mean that his players are going to go out and lose. They have their pride to consider, and on an international stage like the Olympics, is a group of professionals really going to pull a stunt like that? You can bet head coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson is breathing a little easier now, too; that gold medal might just have saved his job. It should also help a few of the NHLers - especially Mats Sundin, who was suffering a crisis of confidence - in playing hard down the stretch.

-The Finns are about as bitter a silver-medal-winning squad as you're ever likely to see. And that's okay. Not everybody comes to the Olympics just to do well; these guys play to win. Too bad that mindset would be lost on Jaromir Jagr, who told reporters that this would likely be the last Olympics of many of the Czech Republic players, including himself. "We're not going to play for our country. It's so much pressure. We lose, and they blame us. They blame the old guys again." Makes you wonder what he's doing in professional sports at all, really.

Back to the NHL, though, there's only about a third of the season left to play, and the races for the last playoff spots are wide open. The trade deadline also hits on March 9, just over a week away, so look for quite a bit of swapping to be going on, as big names rumoured to be available are Olli Jokinen, Keith Tkachuk, Mark Recchi, and Brendan Witt; many goalies are also expected to move, a list that includes Sabre Martin Biron, Panther Roberto Luongo, and one of the Wild's Dwayne Roloson or Manny Fernandez.

Teams on the playoff bubble will be waiting until the last minute to decide whether to buy or sell, and one of those teams will be the Toronto Maple Leafs. In truth - and it pains me to say this - it wouldn't be the worst thing for the club if they were to miss the playoffs. A lot of salary would move in an attempt to rebuild, as players like Ed Belfour and Nik Antropov would likely be bidden farewell. Though it might not be the free agent-rich summer that GM John Ferguson Jr. was hoping for prior to Vincent Lecavalier and Joe Thornton signing new contracts in the fall, there will still be some big names available, and with smart spending, the Leafs could be serious contenders again next year.

Also, in one of the more bizarre things I've heard recently, CBS Sportsline is reporting that the Penguins are apparently trying to start a league-wide bidding war for young Russian Evgeni Malkin, who is expected to move to the NHL next season. I'm not sure what the sense in this would be, if the rumour is even true (CBS tends to find trade rumours in their Alpha-Bits, and similarly, in Sun Media newspapers); they would be selling off their potentially lethal one-two punch in Crosby and Malkin, and for what? There is nothing that would be more valuable to Pittsburgh than two young franchise players-to-be. Scoring or defence right now wouldn't help them, they have a young goalie in Marc-Andre Fleury that they're trying to develop, and they certainly don't need high draft picks - they've got the market cornered there. (Never mind that the idea of trading a can't-miss prospect for draft picks makes no sense whatsoever.) Even from the ownership's standpoint, there'd be no upside to any such deal; it makes the team more likely to be moved, as fans lose interest even more, and it makes the selling price much lower. Granted, if Malkin was somehow dealt in a multi-team trade for several young stars-to-be, the Penguins wouldn't be terribly off; since they have so many high draft picks, however, it would be much more advisable to focus on scouting and developing other prospects, to build a team that would be a powerhouse in a few years' time.

2006-02-23T14:54:00.000-05:00

I would feel left out if I didn't do a little second-guessing of my own, but I strongly believe that this version of Team Canada had more than enough skill to win the gold, if they wanted it badly enough. And though it's been said dozens of times already, it bears repeating that claiming Wayne Gretzky & Co. picked the wrong players just lets the guys who were on the ice off the hook.

The point has been made by one of the talking heads - I forget which one - that Canada has more than enough scoring talent in the NHL; 12 of the 25 top scorers are Canadian, but some didn't even make the team. Let's look at those players, shall we?

2. Joe Thornton: 55 GP, 21 G - 60 A- 81 PTS
-Scored a goal and two assists in Italy, with a -1 rating. Looked lost on the larger ice surface.

3. Eric Staal: 57 GP, 36-39-75
-Made the taxi squad; his youth and speed would have been appreciated. Many believe he should have made the club ahead of Todd Bertuzzi, and I'm inclined to agree.

6. Marc Savard: 58 GP, 24-48-72
-Plays with some stellar talent in Atlanta, including Ilya Kovalchuk, Marian Hossa and Peter Bondra. One can't help but rack up points with that crew. Has solid playmaking skills, but the guys who made the national team were supposed to be better.

7. Dany Heatley: 56 GP, 34-37-71
-Was supposed to be one of Team Canada's major point producers, but scored only two goals and one assist. Another big disappointment.

10. Alex Tanguay: 58 GP, 24-42-68
-Might have worked well on a line with Joe Sakic, his teammate with the Avalanche. Never really seemed to be considered seriously.

12. Sidney Crosby: 58 GP, 28-37-65
-The brightest light by far on a dismal Pittsburgh team, his playmaking skills and raw hunger could have been a boon to Team Canada. More importantly, he would have gained valuable experience, looking ahead to 2010, a squad that he should make easily, barring the unforeseen.

13. Patrick Marleau: 56 GP, 25-39-64
-Plays in San Jose with Joe Thornton; is big, fast, and a natural scorer. Wouldn't a Nash-Thornton-Marleau line have been something, if all three played like they can?

14. Simon Gagne: 51 GP, 37-26-63
-One goal and two assists in Torino; a big letdown from a player who was supposed to be one of the team's leaders. His conscientious play in the back end helped a lot, but when he was hurt in the game against Russia, it really seemed to take the wind out of everyone's sails.

20. Brad Richards: 58 GP, 18-42-60
-Led Team Canada in scoring with two goals and two assists. When four points in six games leads the team, that hurts. Still, he played well, at both ends of the ice.

23. Jason Spezza: 43 GP, 14-45-59
-Made the taxi squad in Italy. Solid playmaker, but not great on defence. With a little more work and experience, should be a lock in 2010.

24. Paul Kariya: 58 GP, 19-39-58
-Notched the opening goal in the gold medal game in Salt Lake City (remember, when Mario let the Pronger pass go between his feet?), and is blessed with speed and scoring ability. Still only 31 years old, though it seems like he's been around forever, and his experience at the Olympic level - as well as his wheels - would have come in handy.

25. Shawn Horcoff: 56 GP, 16-42-58
-Can make plays or hold his own in front of the net, and is good on defence. Comes to play with his heart on his sleeve every game, and it's a big heart. He has some World Championship experience which would have served him well, and while Horcoff was far from a lock to make this team, the role he would have played would have been comparable with Kris Draper's. But should he have made the team? Probably not.

No matter whether these guys were in Italy or not, everyone had to produce a much better effort than they did. In reality, the big issue wasn't who didn't make the team, but what went wrong with the ones who did.

Heartbreaker

2006-02-22T22:48:00.000-05:00

On a day when Canada's Olympians had already won four medals, one loss overshadowed the rest. Many of Canada's favourites in Torino had already fallen, and the men's hockey team became another casualty, losing 2-0 in the quarter-finals to a fast, skilled Russian squad.

The second-guessing, if it hadn't started already with two straight 2-0 losses in the preliminaries, is surely rolling along now. Were the right players chosen? Was the coaching to blame? Were injuries to Scott Niedermayer and Ed Jovanovski the downfall of the defence? Was the gambling scandal that clouded Wayne Gretzky's aura a distraction? Was the lawsuit filed by Steve Moore against Todd Bertuzzi enough to throw him off his game?

Wayne Gretzky, for his part, has heaped all the blame upon himself, though anyone with a clear head can see that, for the most part, it's not his blame to accept. For whatever reason, Canada's players failed to perform; they didn't work as a team, and they didn't raise their games to that higher echelon that is so vital to success at this level of play. Despite that, an emotional Gretzky told reporters in a post-game news conference, "I feel tremendously responsible that we didn't win. And quite honestly, I'm going to re-assess where I fit and what I'm going to do in the future...Hockey Canada is wonderful, my country is great, and I love it dearly. But I'm also human, too. It's tough and it's nerve-wracking. It's not fun when you don't win." The Great One had even stopped watching the game before the third period had drawn to a close; when asked why, he said he had "wanted to change our luck."

It didn't work.

Those who believe that Wayne Gretzky was a distraction over the last week - I'm looking at you, Brian Williams - may have had trouble on their own part looking past the gambling scandal surrounding the Phoenix Coyotes, but you can be sure that when Team Canada's skaters had trouble setting up on the power play, or keeping their defensive assignments, it wasn't because they were thinking "Gee, that sure is something about that gambling ring." Wayne Gretzky has earned these players' respect, and allegations against Gretzky's wife and friends aren't going to shake that respect.

The lawsuit filed by Steve Moore, on the other hand, may have shaken Todd Bertuzzi just a little bit, as at times he appeared very tentative, unsure of what he could do. While Brian Williams suggested that if Moore was trying to get back at Bertuzzi with the suit's timing, it was perfectly fair, I would argue that "two wrongs don't make a right." Maybe Williams skipped that day in kindergarten; it's an honour thing. But if that was indeed Moore's intention, I hope he feels good about being one of the many pieces of the puzzle in Canada's loss.

One would have trouble arguing that Canada's offence even approached the level of "adequate" in this tournament, as they scored an average of 2.5 goals per game (compare with the Pittsburgh Penguins at 2.80 GFPG), with 12 of their 15 markers coming against Italy and Germany. Veteran forwards that the team was counting on didn't deliver, and the young guys didn't step up either - I won't name names, because it's a long list. On the back end, the team only allowed 1.83 goals per game, but when you're getting shut out in half of your games, defence can only do so much. None of the goals could ever really be chalked up to spectacular efforts by the opposing squads, but they were in the right places at the right times, while the Canadian defencemen weren't.

On the bright side, Shane Doan, Kris Draper, and Brad Richards all acquitted themselves well, albeit largely in their own end of the rink. If the NHL returns to the Olympics in 2010, Canada will still be in tough, but they will also be able to challenge a plethora of young stars to step up. Look for a kid named Crosby, at least one Staal brother, Jason Spezza, Dion Phaneuf, and possibly even GM Wayne Gretzky, who closed out his press conference with this:

"This country will be back in 2010 and we'll hold our heads high. I'll be there to answer all your questions, I'm not going anywhere, I'll take the responsibility no problem."

Meanwhile, in the American camp...

Though Team U.S.A. made a game of it in the end, Finnish forward Teemu Selanne remarked after the game that "We know we can beat anybody when we play on our level, and we didn't even didn't have to play that well tonight." Unfortunately for the U.S. team, that's a fairly accurate assessment, and while no one has heard of any trashed hotel rooms yet, there was still some drama from them after the final buzzer, as Mike Modano sounded off on what he thinks is a broken system. "You'd think USA Hockey would be a well-oiled machine, but it's not," said the Dallas captain. "Basically we were on our own for hotels, tickets, flights, stuff like that. Normally we wouldn't have to worry about stuff like that."

The comments from Modano, who spent most of the game's latter stages warming the pine, were at odds with GM Don Waddell, who maintains that "the people at USA Hockey do a tremendous job." Waddell was in tears at the post-game press conference, but truth be told, this team was the weakest on paper of the Big Seven, finishing the preliminaries with a 1-3-1 record, and never really hitting their stride, if they had one to hit (as opposed to Team Canada, who had a stride to hit, but never even approached it).

One thing is for sure: Modano, who will be 39 years old by the 2010 Olympics, doesn't feel like he's closing any doors by badmouthing his country's hockey program; at worst, he's lashing out after feeling that he was unfairly benched, but at best, his comments will lead to an overhaul of the system that could see them successful again. They have a load of young talent that will be developing in the NHL over the next couple years, but will that translate into a medal in Vancouver? Time will tell.

...By the way, Harry Neale couldn't help but compliment Bryan McCabe on his quickness in the third period, after the Leaf charged back to strip a Russian player of the puck on a dangerous-looking rush. Well, that salvaged the game for me...Not.

Sigh...

2006-02-22T00:38:00.000-05:00

A day after Swedish head coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson suggested that his team might throw their game against Slovakia, claiming he was "still debating what would be best for the team," those same Swedes were shut out 3-0 by the Group B leaders. The idea was to play the club from Switzerland in the quarter-finals, which according to Gustafsson, "on paper, is the weakest team...I stand behind that. That's a fact."

The players showed up to play, and forward Daniel Sedin got angry with reporters when asked about the coach's comments, but it bears mentioning that backup goaltender Mikael Tellqvist got the start, stopping 28 of 31 shots on goal.

There are no official rules against intentionally tanking a game, but this doesn't look good on the Olympics, on Swedish hockey, or on hockey in general. Either Gustafsson was out of his head when he made those comments, or he's just dumb; whatever the reason, it is sure to enrage everyone involved, and I wouldn't look for him to be coaching the Swedes in 2010.

Sweden and Switzerland face off in the first quarterfinal game at 10:30am ET. It wouldn't be the Swiss' first upset...

Squeaking By

2006-02-21T12:45:00.000-05:00

With the pressure applied by the Czechs in the third period, Canada was lucky to get out of the Palasport Olimpico with a 3-2 victory. The Canadians appeared to be working on team defence rather than trying to score, but they still gave up a lot of opportunities that required Martin Brodeur to bail them out, and bail them out huge. Though he made some scintillating saves, Brodeur looked frantic for much of the game, scrambling to get back into position and nearly tripping over his own feet a few times, not to mention being handcuffed on the bad-angle Cajanek goal that brought the Czechs within one. Hopefully playing two games in a row - something he has not done yet in these Olympics - will cause him to settle down a little.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't see Rick Nash step on the ice once in the third period, and his minutes in the first two frames were anything but abundant. This is either Pat Quinn sending a message to the young left-winger, or Quinn is trying to simplify things as 13 forwards makes for lots of line juggling, and thereby presents a challenge to team chemistry. Shane Doan (remember what a good game he had on Sunday?) took Nash's place on Joe Thornton's line, playing on Big Joe's left flank with Todd Bertuzzi on the right-hand side.

Of Bryan McCabe's two penalties in this game, one was not smart (grabbed his man around the shoulder, but McCabe's hand slid up and got him in the face), and the other was unmerited (called for tripping when Rostislav Olesz tried to leap over him and couldn't clear the hurdle). Referee Don Marouelli is off the hook for both; the first was merited, while his view on the second was obstructed by McCabe's backside, and all he saw was McCabe reaching for the puck as Olesz fell down. Again, however, one could take issue with Harry Neale's interpretations, as he rambled about how foolish the first one was (yes, it was, but how many penalties are smart? You didn't hear him ragging on Rob Blake for his blatant hook that put Canada down two men), and after the video replay showed that the second call was suspect, Neale stopped yammering, simply finished his sentence with a feeble "as McCabe hauls him down," and left it at that. The only reason I can come up with for Harry Neale's apparent love of maligning the Leafs defenceman is that he sees McCabe play almost every NHL game, as Neale also does play-by-play for Molson Leafs Hockey on TSN. Perhaps he feels more comfortable criticizing McCabe than he does guys like Adam Foote or Chris Pronger, whom he seldom watches.

Finally, an addition to my last post: Canadian defenceman Jay Bouwmeester is also sporting a visor for this tournament, something he doesn't usually do in the NHL for the Florida Panthers. It is possible that some of these players have upped their protection under orders from their employers, who want to be sure that their assets will come back safe and sound to help down the stretch.

Back to Basics

2006-02-21T11:57:00.000-05:00

At the end of the second period, Canada leads the Czech Republic 3-1. Some quick thoughts:

-Martin Brodeur was bowled over in the second frame by Petr Cajanek, who backed into the goalie and fell on his left leg. No penalty was called on the play. Brodeur appeared to be in a good deal of pain for some time afterwards, though he made a spectacular glove save on a Jaromir Jagr one-timer. This bit of adversity fired up the Canadians for the next couple minutes, as Simon Gagne dug hard to clear the zone past two Czechs; Jarome Iginla then followed the puck into the Czech zone and, after a brief hesitation at the top of the faceoff circle, charged in to take out backup goalie Milan Hnilicka. Unfortunately, this earned Iginla the Canucks' first penalty of the game, and Rob Blake gave the referee an easy hooking call just 1:01 later, leading to the Czech goal on a 2-man advantage. Though it's not a bad thing for the Canadians to get geared up like that, they have to have a little more self-control, lest they find themselves in penalty trouble again.

-After a first period that saw Bob Cole and Harry Neale sounding a little more upbeat as Canada scored three, Neale seemed to derive some satisfaction from telling viewers that in the second, the Canadians "dodged a bullet...having been badly outshot, outchanced, and outscored." (Note that being "badly outscored" means having one goal scored against, during a 5-on-3.)

-If you pay attention to players' equipment, you might have noticed that Bryan McCabe and Jaromir Jagr are both sporting new looks in this tournament. McCabe is wearing a visor, which is out of the ordinary for him. Jagr, meanwhile, has switched helmets again; for the start of the Olympics, he was sporting the old-school, Gretzky-style Jofa, but has switched back to his usual Rbk bucket. The latter change was likely spurred by the hit from behind that he received from Jarkko Ruutu of the Finns, when he remembered just how much protection that helmet provides (try on a cardboard box, and you'll have some idea).

2006-02-20T17:07:00.000-05:00

A Swedish forward said before the gold-medal game today that, in her opinion, Canada's defence was its weak point. Apparently she underestimated them. So did I, but hey, a 4-2 prediction and a 4-1 result? Close.

The Canadian women were dominant throughout, though they found themselves in some penalty trouble at the game's end, which actually should have been worse than it was. I'm starting to feel like a broken record, but the referee's work was sloppy in the third period, as she seemed to just want to get the rest of the game over with. A few Swedes were mugged with no call in the final few minutes (save a penalty against Hayley Wickenheiser with just under 2 minutes left), and with about 15 seconds to go, the ref raised her arm, signalling a penalty against the eventual champs. The Canadians touched the puck twice before the play was blown dead with two seconds left, but the clock ticked twice more, and the celebration was on.

Why won't I just let sleeping dogs lie? Because it meant my prediction was wrong, that's why! In all seriousness, though, the officials' gaffes have been nonstop, and it should be cause for concern that those mistakes haven't yet been corrected. The calls have been inconsistent at best, and just plain wrong at worst.

Also, WADA president Dick Pound received a fairly warm ovation when he stepped on the ice to present Team Canada with their gold medals. If the Canadian men win some hardware, don't expect such a welcome for him; the players won't have forgotten his accusations that 1/3 of NHLers are on steroids, and the fans might not have either.

Going for Gold

2006-02-19T18:19:00.000-05:00

As the Swedish and Canadian women's teams get ready to do battle for the gold medal at 2:30pm ET on Monday, I'm going to make my prediction: a 4-2 win for Canada. Yes, Canada defeated the Swedes 8-1 in the preliminaries, but they didn't have to face goalie Kim Martin, who only allowed two goals against a skilled American team. She did, however, catch a few breaks, as the U.S. had several open-net opportunities in the semi-final game, and failed to cash in; the Canadian women are better on offence, and should be able to take advantage of those kinds of opportunities. At the other end of the ice, Sweden should get more chances than they did the last time around, as fewer goals against will lead to more opportunities to clear the puck out of danger, and likely to a few more scoring chances.

We'll find out for sure when the puck drops in 20 hours.

Canada vs. Switzerland, take 2

2006-02-19T17:18:00.000-05:00

Just in case you were thinking that the 2-0 loss to the Swiss yesterday would wake Team Canada up, think again. Another game featuring sloppy passing and poor defensive coverage has seen the world's #1 team drop to fourth place in the Group A standings.

The Finns, much more skilled than the Swiss, played an uptempo game with lots of physical play; they jumped out to a two-goal lead in the first period, and held it the rest of the way home. The Canadians did not do themselves any favours, as their lack of teamwork allowed for few scoring chances - when they did get an opportunity, goalie Antero Niittymaki was there to stymie the shooters. Having been shut out for the last two games in a row, Canada's offence is no less than snakebitten, as evidenced by Rick Nash's breakaway attempt being stopped, and several glorious opportunities fizzling as the puck slid away from the goal mouth, oh-so-close.

Part of the Canadians' woes with regards to teamwork could be blamed on coach Pat Quinn, whose penchant for line-juggling can't be helping the team's chemistry. The forwards need to learn their linemates' habits, which will make playmaking easier. They also need to trust their teammates more, both on offence and defence; that trust will lead to everyone being in the right position, making set plays more effective. At this point, the Canadians all seem to be looking for that glorious pass, or that spectacular one-man effort, and it just hasn't happened. The defencemen need to look for the quick, easy passes out of the zone instead of waiting for the long-bomb feed to become available, as they are now; the forwards need to pass it to their linemates with the intention of creating chances, not just to keep the play alive when the puck carrier is under pressure.

While good moments for the Canadians were few and far between in this game, a few players aquitted themselves well. Shane Doan showed great hustle on the penalty kill, throwing his weight around and landing some big hits. Rob Blake played a mistake-free game. Rick Nash, before he left in the third after being hit with a shot, also played fast and gritty, which is when he is at his best; he did, however, shoot right into Niittymaki's pads on his breakaway.

One of the quarterfinal matchups has already been determined: Finland (A1) will play the U.S. (B4) in the first game on Wednesday, at 10:30am ET (2:30pm in Torino). The rest of the seedings will be decided after Tuesday's games are finished, with the top spot in Group B still up for grabs, and the Swiss, Czechs and Canadians jostling for second place. All the teams have Monday off as the women play for the gold, and some of them - Canada especially - will need that day of rest to find the antidote to whatever is poisoning them.

"Swiss Cheese": not a great goalie analogy anymore?

2006-02-18T12:11:00.000-05:00

Did I suggest that the Germans were a tougher team than the Swiss?

Whoops.

With two hot goaltenders in David Aebischer and Martin Gerber, and two big wins against Canada and the Czech Republic, Team Switzerland is letting it be known that they're for real. They play a tight, well-disciplined trapping style, with an extremely aggressive penalty kill that gave the Canadians fits. For their part, Team Canada had an absolutely awful game on offence, undoubtedly partly due to the clingy Swiss defenders; but this is a team that has yet to gel, and needs to do it quickly. Canadian passes missed the mark continuously, making the Swiss look better when they corralled the errant pucks and cleared them out of the zone, and any time there was a good scoring chance on Gerber, he came up big. Two disallowed goals - one called back because winger Todd Bertuzzi was in the crease, and a Rick Nash offering denied because of inconclusive evidence that the puck crossed the line - should have taken the wind out of Canada's sails, but they kept coming hard; unfortunately, they did not get any good quality opportunities again. The near-goal by Nash absolutely looked like it was over the line from every available camera angle, but it wasn't certain because the overhead goal camera in that rink is positioned over the crease, not the crossbar (the one intelligent statement that colour commentator Greg Millen offered up all game).

Team Canada's next job will be to prepare for the Finns, whom they play tomorrow, and a much better effort will be expected; after all, in the past, nothing has brought the Canadians together like a little adversity. And this should be enough adversity for everybody.

A few other observations on the Olympics thus far:

-The hockey refereeing has been awful, with no exceptions. Both the women's and men's tournaments have been marred at times by terrible calls, either from overzealous officials looking for penalties where there are none, or from negligent refs who seem like they'd rather be someplace else.

-I had almost forgotten how negative CBC commentators Bob Cole and Harry Neale can be when they expect great things from a team; during the Canada/Germany game, they were so down on the Canadians that it seemed as though they wanted the Germans to pull off an upset. Even when the score was 4-1 for Canada, the pair spoke like it was only a matter of time before Team Germany scored four quick goals to win it. Hopefully that doesn't keep up, because few things are more irritating.

-Stemming from Cole and Neale's turn as Negative Nancies, the lone goal in the Germany game was blamed entirely on the shoulders of Bryan McCabe - an accusation that just was not true. Just like their work on Hockey Night in Canada, there are times during games where it seems like the two are watching an entirely different match. This was one of those times. So let's use some diagrams!

In the second period, with two Canadians in the box, and one German serving his own penalty, Germany enjoys a 4-on-3 powerplay, moving the puck around the Canada zone. Cole says that it is a 5-on-3.

McCabe's holding penalty expires at 8:59 of the frame, evening the squads up at 4 skaters apiece. Two defencemen are already on the ice for his squad, so he assumes the role of the winger in the four-man grouping, taking the far defenceman on the side boards. Sakic inches closer to the German puck carrier below the goal line, flattening out the defensive triangle. Cole believes the Germans still have the man advantage.

As Sakic cheats lower, the German forward passes to his defenceman (Sakic's man), now in the high slot, who scores far side on Luongo. McCabe's man is well-covered.

Am I sticking up for McCabe because he's a Maple Leaf? Maybe. But there have been too many posts on various sports websites by people who don't know what they're talking about, saying that McCabe doesn't deserve to be a part of this team, and that's just not true. I'm not desperately trying to shift blame, either; Sakic is such a great player that he's allowed to make one mistake, and it didn't exactly cost them the game. The anti-McCabe bandwagon, however, has filled up even faster since the start of the NHL season than the pro-McCabe one, and to hear Neale and Cole hop on board the former irritated me greatly.

-Unfortunately, I will not be able to fulfill Justin's request that I liveblog the hockey games during this tournament. Not only would that require a lot of running (the television and the computer are in two different rooms), but I will be out of town for the semi-finals and the Gold and Bronze medal games. Sorry, Pippy.

-Finally, the three sports commentators I could definitely live without:
3. Greg Millen: Talk, talk, talk, and he doesn't say anything. It's like he's watching a different game.
2. Pierre McGuire: Can this guy get any more excited about absolutely nothing? It's MCGUIRE TO THE MAX! It's MCGUIRE'S MONSTER! It's SOME PRETENTIOUS MORON WHO NO ONE TAKES SERIOUSLY, THINKING THAT BEING LOUDER WILL MAKE HIM CREDIBLE! An actual quote from the World Juniors, after a Russian player took a dive: "That is just the personification of embellishment." (Five second pause) "That is just embellishment personified."
1. Brian Williams: Please, yap some more about how Wayne Gretzky shouldn't be at the Olympics. And when you're on with Don Cherry, roll your eyes constantly; it makes you seem clever. Hopefully for the closing ceremonies, this idiot shuts up and lets Peter Mansbridge do the whole thing...at least Peter can pronounce the countries' names. Who knew Ku-ZAK-uh-stan had a hockey team?

The Italian Job

2006-02-15T10:43:00.000-05:00

Canada began their defense of a gold medal today with a convincing-but-sloppy 7-2 win over the host Italians, and amazingly, there's been no word yet from CBC commentator Brian Williams about how it's all Wayne Gretzky's fault. It's all uphill for the Canadians from here, but their play will also improve drastically from this point as the tournament progresses. They have perhaps the best schedule of any of the twelve teams, as they play the rest of their pool in the following order: Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, and the Czech Republic. With the possible exception of the German and Swiss games, each match will be more difficult than the last, giving the Canadians ample motivation to improve; starting with three of the five weakest teams at the Olympics will also give them a chance to gel and build up confidence.

Indeed, all the teams with mostly NHLers on their rosters will improve dramatically within the next few days, for three reasons. The first is simply overcoming jetlag; the rest of the teams are based in Europe and have had no such troubles, and that advantage will disappear. Likewise, second advantage belonging to the weaker five clubs - team chemistry - will quickly evaporate as the other countries' players grow accustomed to playing with their teammates. The third reason relates back to the jetlag, in the category of adequate rest - with the wonky NHL schedule this year seeing teams often playing three games in four days, the Olympic schedule will not fatigue them as it may have in the past, with as many as eight games taking place over a 12-day period, or two games to three days.

All teams will need to become accustomed to the refereeing, as the IIHF has instructed the officials to call games as the NHL does. Well, perhaps some of the European refs should have watched an NHL game beforehand, because the differences in the style of play immediately leap out at any observer. During the Canada/Italy game, there were many hits and holds on players pursuing the puck which would have been an easy interference call for any referee in North America's biggest pro league. The clutching and grabbing seems to still prevail here, and it will be interesting to watch the differences between the European referees and those from the NHL. Another area that needs vast improvement is the naming of the various penalties - whether it is the fault of the officials on the ice, or the scorekeepers upstairs (which isn't out of the question, since they seem to have an awful time not only doling out a secondary assist, but figuring out which players wears which number), calls often appear questionable because they are deemed something which they clearly are not. For example, a scrum in front of the net that might result in a Roughing penalty gets a Charging call, and a player who blatantly trips an opponent gets sent to the box for Holding. Two minutes is two minutes, and this is more a frustration than a real issue, but officiating can't be half-assed.

Before the men's hockey began, IIHF president Rene Fasel complained publicly about NHL players who pulled out of the Games with injuries, but continued playing for their club teams. Fasel would rather see all the world's best players in Torino, in order to showcase the sport's best talent and build a wider fan base. He should just consider himself lucky that he's not a part of basketball's governing body, which would surely give him fits - some American ballers have griped about not being paid to play for their country, and would rather see a monetary compensation than a piece of metal hanging from a ribbon. Now that's patriotism.

Finally, U.S. defender Angela Ruggiero lashed out at Canada's women's team for demolishing Italy and Russia by a combined score of 28-0, saying, "I'm upset that Canada has been running up the score, especially against the host nation...there was no need for that." She also accused the Canadians of "trying to pad their stats . . . Canada is running up the score for whatever reasons - personal, short-term." Perhaps no one's filled her in on the tie-breaker for home ice advantage in the elimination round: the team with the best goal differential gets home-ice advantage, meaning choice of jersey colour and the final line change. To leave something that crucial to chance, knowing that the rival Americans are essentially the only team with a chance of beating the Canadian women, would be downright stupid. The trash-talking between Team Canada and Team U.S.A. has been ongoing for some time now, but Ruggiero's two cents just come across as bitterness. To paraphrase one of the Canadian players, there would be less class involved in not taking advantage of scoring opportunities; better to give every team your best effort than to be condescending and play like they aren't worth your time.

Ladies' (hockey) man

2006-02-11T15:09:00.000-05:00

The Olympic sporting events in Torino got started today, with Women's Hockey among the first. This is a sport that's often criticized by the casual fan, usually because it's not men's hockey. Because open-ice hits aren't allowed, it's seen as softer, and the skill level is admittedly lower than on the male side of the sport. But it's still fun hockey to watch, especially on the big ice surface, where skilled teams like Canada's entry get a chance to shine. They currently lead the Italians 5-0 after the first period of play, with the versatile Caroline Ouellette, who plays both defence and forward, already notching a hat trick. Team Italy is clearly outmatched, and as the CBC commentators said, rank 17th in the world; if they were not hosting, they would not be in this tournament. They are playing their hearts out, however, and it should be remembered that they are a small and inexperienced team - one of their defensive pairings features two 15-year-olds.

If there is one facet of the sport worthy of criticism at this early stage in the tournament, it would be the officiating. The referee seems to be trying to help out the Italians, letting a great deal of interference and hooking go on their end, while Canadian forward Danielle Goyette has already been penalized twice on phantom calls. Yes, Italy needs some help in this sport, but was it not just 24 hours ago that one of the Italian judges took an oath on behalf of all officials to be completely fair and impartial? By the way, this referee is an American, and as everyone knows, the U.S. team is really the only other entry in this tournament that can compete at Team Canada's level; the two are bitter rivals. No, that's not a conspiracy theory, just an observation...

And just a quick FYI: Gillian Apps, the granddaughter of former Maple Leaf and Hockey Hall-of-Famer Syl Apps (and daughter of the Leaf's son of the same name), is one of Team Canada's forwards. But one burning question that I know is on everyone's minds as they watch these Olympic Games:

Why didn't her parents name her Sylvia?

Updated (a couple minutes later): As Canada goes up 6-0, CBC's colour commentator is gushing about how smart goaltender Kim St-Pierre was to recognize a delayed penalty call and go to the bench in favour of an extra attacker. Maybe the women's game would be met with more respect if the commentators - and this particular one is a woman - didn't sell them short.

7-0 Canada. Rollin', rollin', rollin'.

Another Rough Day

2006-02-09T16:23:00.000-05:00

If you didn't think the Rick Tocchet business was bad enough, a report in a New Jersey newspaper is now saying that police wiretaps intercepted phone calls between Tocchet and Wayne Gretzky, and seem to confirm that Gretzky knew about the gambling ring. This should come as no surprise, really - what were the chances that both his wife and one of his close friends would be involved in something of this magnitude, and he wouldn't have known about it? There is still nothing to suggest that Gretzky placed any bets, and it is downright foolish to think that he would have reported it to the authorities, given that his loved ones are involved. This still will not look good on Gretzky or on the NHL, however, and there's just no way around that.

If the unveiling of Bryan Berard's positive steroid test a few weeks ago surprised you, raise your eyebrows a little higher. According to a recent report, an unnamed Canadian player has now tested positive, but is currently appealing the results, and thus will remain unnamed for a little while longer. The only clue is that he was named to the Canadian Olympic team's 81-man long list, but did not make the final cut. This narrows it down to a possible 53 guys, with nearly twenty of those having represented Canada at a past Olympics or World Cup, and nearly all being past participants of a World Championship team, be it Men's or Junior. Here are the possibilities:

Goaltenders - Ed Belfour, Dan Cloutier, Curtis Joseph, Andrew Raycroft, Jose Theodore, Cam Ward.

Defencemen - Adrian Aucoin, Nick Boynton, Eric Brewer, Eric Desjardins, Scott Hannan, Barret Jackman, Kyle McLaren, Derek Morris, Dion Phaneuf, Chris Phillips, Sheldon Souray, Steve Staios, Brad Stuart.

Forwards - Jason Allison, Jason Arnott, Patrice Bergeron, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Daniel Briere, Jeff Carter, Marc Chouinard, Sidney Crosby, Shawn Horcoff, Paul Kariya, Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros, Joffrey Lupul, John Madden, Kirk Maltby, Patrick Marleau, Brendan Morrison, Brenden Morrow, Glen Murray, Rob Niedermayer, Joe Nieuwendyk, Jeff O'Neill, Michael Peca, Keith Primeau, Mark Recchi, Michael Richards, Michael Ryder, Marc Savard, Brendan Shanahan, Steve Sullivan, Alex Tanguay, Scott Walker, Wes Walz, Steve Yzerman.

It is fairly safe to say that no matter which one of these players produced the offending test sample, Hockey Canada is feeling some pain right now. It seems like Dick Pound's warnings about steroids in hockey, though obviously exaggerated (a third of all players, he said, were on performance-enhancers), contain a few seeds of truth.

17:49 - The Montreal Canadiens have scheduled a press conference for this evening, presumably to discuss the positive test. Sources have told TSN that the test did not pick up an anabolic steroid, but a masking agent, one that is commonly found in hair-restoration drugs like Rogaine. If, as was previously reported, the player is one from the aforementioned 81-man list, but a non-participant in Torino, then the possibilities are Jose Theodore, Mike Ryder, or Sheldon Souray.

18:03 - Canadiens physician Dr. David Mulder has announced that Jose Theodore was the player who tested positive for the banned substance, which was Propecia, a drug used to grow hair. He has been taking it for eight to nine years, according to Dr. Mulder, and was unaware until recently that it was a banned substance. Read TSN's coverage here.

2006-02-08T23:21:00.000-05:00

I've been slacking off again...it's been far too long since my last post. Let's see...what's new...what is new...

Former NHLer and Coyotes assistant coach Rick Tocchet has been accused of running a sports betting operation out of New Jersey; charges against him include money laundering and conspiracy, as the operation had strong ties to the mob in New Jersey and Philadelphia. According to many sources, including Tocchet himself, the betting had nothing to do with hockey, and had only to do with other sports. Wayne Gretzky's wife Janet Jones is also under investigation for placing bets, but Gretzky insists that she did not place any on his behalf, and he is not involved in any way. Several other individuals (the number ranges from three to a dozen, depending on what report you're reading) are apparently being investigated as well, and that number may include current NHL players. As long as the betting was indeed not related to hockey, the NHL will survive; otherwise, it will be another black eye to a league that has had more than its share of troubles over the last few years.

If you're looking for a good game review, and over-politicization has a tendency to make you ill, stay clear of Sun newspapers, if you're not doing so already. In the two weeks since the Conservatives' victory at the polls, it is nearly impossible to read an editorial about the Leafs in the Toronto Sun that doesn't allude to the election ("Toronto has lost more defencemen than the Liberals lost seats to the Tories," etc). Of course, looking to the Sun for an unbiased political opinion is like looking to Exxon executives for advice on whether to buy a hybrid car or a Hummer, but when the politics start leaking into the hockey coverage, I think it's time to stop reading. Fortunately, the work of Al Strachan and Steve Simmons is downright stupid at times, so you won't miss much.

As for the upcoming Olympic hockey: are you excited? You should be. I am. Of course, many big names will be missing due to injury - Kiprusoff, Niedermayer, Jovanovski, Lidstrom, Khabibulin, and Zhitnik, to name a few - and some players just weren't asked to the show, and it doesn't sit well with them. Take Jeremy Roenick. He was furious when the U.S. team didn't select him, and has decided that they are harbouring some kind of grudge against him. But really, what reason would anyone have to dislike Jeremy Roenick? Hmmm...

Back to Scott Niedermayer and Ed Jovanovski, they have pulled out of Turin (or Torino, depending on who you're talking to) due to a knee injury and abdominal surgery, respectively. Bryan McCabe and Jay Bouwmeester will replace them on the squad, while Dan Boyle will take McCabe's place on the taxi squad. Many chesterfield GMs will complain that Dion Phaneuf was not selected as a replacement, and even more are up in arms that Bryan McCabe was picked to go at all. It's not hard to tell who's not a Leafs fan in the latter debate, but the fact is that McCabe has been having a career year, and has improved dramatically at both ends of the ice. Granted, until he hits the ice in Italy his skill set on the bigger ice surface can't be fairly judged, but in case anyone is interested in the opinion of Scotty Bowman, the greatest hockey coach of all time, he simply said, "He's having a breakout season and I think he deserved to be on the team." Case closed.

Finally, a classic quote from Thrashers coach Bob Hartley:
"Ilya's goal was a big goal as well as an important goal."
Either he just said two things that mean the same thing, or the goal was actually physically larger than average. Of course, I've never heard anyone accuse Bob Hartley of being a genius. A headhunter, yes...genius, no.

2006-01-08T13:49:00.000-05:00

Boy, it's been a while, and I've let a lot of solid stories fall by the wayside. I'll try to address, in brief, as many of them as I can:

-At the World Juniors, many felt that the fans' booing of Team USA went over the top (myself included), specifically when the crowd began chanting, "U.S. sucks." The booing of Jack Johnson, who tried to feed Canadian forward Steve Downie his elbow after a goal was scored, was totally justified; the rest, however, was over the top. Yes, Johnson became a symbol for his whole team, who had been expected to dominate the tournament, but these fans made it about an entire country, which is akin to booing a national anthem. It's a good thing that Vancouver has already been chosen to host the 2010 Olympics, because if the IOC had seen this before they made their selection, Vancouver would have been out of the running. (Congratulations to Brent Sutter and Team Canada, by the way.)

-Don Cherry has begun to support Sidney Crosby in the face of Ilya Kovalchuk's taunting the other day, with the Coach's Corner host claiming that he admires Crosby's no-quit attitude: "I'm starting to like Crosby more and more because he doesn't back down." It didn't get any better on Saturday night for Sid, however, as he took many more penalties, including a diving call and an Unsportsmanlike for gesturing to the referee from the penalty box. What Sidney Crosby needs to keep in mind is that though there are many people out there who want to see him fail - Kovalchuk apparently included - there are scores more who want him to succeed, and to be the player they have been in awe of for months now. His reported maturity is a big part of that; he conducts himself well in interviews and in the dressing room, but his on-ice antics of the last few days have laid a severe beating on that reputation (he also needs to learn that it's very easy to read someone's lips when they're saying "F*** You"). Sidney needs to relax out there on the ice and stay focused, both to help his team and to give the fans - the ones who support him - what they came to see.

-Speaking of Crosby, does anyone else find it ridiculous that Crosby-bashing has become the coolest thing since pre-faded jeans? As I write this, he's tied for 12th in league scoring, and is tops in rookie scoring, with 48 points to Ovechkin's 47, yet some people manage to convince themselves that he is an average hockey player at best. The kid scores, makes insane plays look easy, hits, stands up for himself, and wears an "A" on his sweater, and he's only 18 years old. If this was the average NHLer, there would be 20 more teams in the league, tickets would sell themselves, hockey would become more popular than soccer, and people in California and Florida would move to Canada just to soak in the pure hockey atmosphere.

-The Ottawa Senators are playing .500 hockey since the beginning of December, going 9-9-0. Many fans are quick to blame this on injuries, as Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, and Martin Havlat are all currently hurt. Havlat will be out for the remainder of the season, but Alfredsson and Spezza will return shortly; more importantly, they haven't all been injured since December 1. Perhaps GM John Muckler should be looking at the Leafs team his fans all despise so much for inspiration - missing many key components at different points during the season (think Sundin's injury in game one, and the recent injuries to Allison, Lindros, Steen, Colaiacovo and Antropov, which saw the lineup occupied by players like Belak, Wilm, Czerkawski, and Pohl), they have still put together a record that is good enough for sixth place in the East, and have seven wins in their last eight games.

-Elisha Cuthbert, former star of 24, The Girl Next Door and Popular Mechanics for Kids (don't act like you didn't watch it), would seem to be dating that brainless mouthpiece Sean Avery. Apparently she has no respect - no respect, I tell ya - for her legions of fans who prefer not to spend their time making others wish they were mute, unlike her new boyfriend. Elisha? We're through. And stop sending me chocolate; I mean it this time.

2005-11-23T16:14:00.000-05:00

Ever heard someone deny that there's a stigma in the NHL about visors being the signature of sissies? If so, did you swallow that line, or recognize it for the bunk that is?

Anaheim enforcer Todd Fedoruk has joined Sean "The NHL Is Out To Get Me" Avery on the front lines of the anti-visor battalion of morons. After Coyote Denis Gauthier doled out two high hits to Ducks Joffrey Lupul and Todd Marchant in a game Tuesday night, Fedoruk landed a cheap one of his own on Petr Nedved. Fedoruk even told the media afterwards that it was retaliatory (see his new comprehensive guide, "How To Get Suspended," soon to appear in bookstores everywhere), and followed up by stating that Gauthier is "out there with a visor on running around like he's King Kong. He's not going to back it up."

It's questionable whether guys like Fedoruk and Avery are against visors because they prefer the "good old days" of less protection, because they're insecure in their masculinity and have to point out that, as manly men, they don't need to protect themselves, or because they're actually just morons. It should certainly be noted however, by players and fans alike, that the guys making these comments are not quality players by any stretch of the imagination - essentially, they're big mouths with fists attached.

Meanwhile, more and more players around the league have experimented with visors; some like the change, some don't, but they've stopped listening to the NHL's Foundation for Finding Work For Ocular Surgeons and tried their luck. Tie Domi, in particular, attempted playing with a visor for a couple games in the 2003-04 season at the behest of his children - he even fought in one game, removing his helmet beforehand - and although he found the adjustment too difficult, the point that Avery and Fedoruk's posse should notice is that he tried it, and his testicles didn't fall off.

Let's try to list, though, just a few of the players who are incapable of "backing things up":

-Jarome Iginla
-Dany Heatley
-Dion Phaneuf
-Mike Richards
-Rick Nash
-Owen Nolan

Get the idea?

Toss in some more of the less-physical, but squeaky-clean elite players in the NHL who wear visors - Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin, and Steve Yzerman come to mind - and it becomes even more clear that those anti-visor airheads are very wrong to paint everyone with the same brush.

Maybe the issue of making visors mandatory isn't just about protection anymore; it would certainly solve this problem quickly...or else they'd just have to find a new way to decide who's a wimp or not.

"Hey! His jersey's tucked in on the right side! What a sissy!"

Canadian Blog Awards

2005-11-10T23:19:00.000-05:00

As it appears that The Good Old Hockey Game has been nominated for the Canadian Blog Awards, it's time for some shameless self-promotion. If you like what you see, then by all means, cast me a vote! If you're new here, then check out a few posts, and I'll just cross my fingers and hope that you pick the good ones.

Also don't be shy in voting for Justin's Flash Point Canada, in the Best Political-Left Blog category. Read a few of his posts, and you'll see that it's quite deserving of the title.

Enjoy.

2005-11-10T23:03:00.000-05:00

Who is that guy who sits in the front row behind the glass at hockey games and stands up, facing the camera, when the puck gets near enough? And how does he get tickets to every single game?

Granted, he wears clever disguises...always has a different jersey on, sometimes with a sign, sometimes with a cellphone ("Dude! Is your TV on? See the jackass waving at the camera? That's me!!!"), sometimes dressed as a group of drunken frat boys. But regardless of what he looks like, I don't think I've ever seen this moron and actually chuckled at his antics. Never even cracked a smile. I just feel genuine sympathy for the people in the second row, who don't know whether to yell "down in front" or dump their drinks on his head.

So buddy, if you're reading this right now: stop it. Nobody's impressed.

...And stop slapping the glass to get the players' attention, while you're at it. We get pissed when you do that at the aquarium, too.

2005-10-18T18:03:00.000-04:00

Martin Havlat has been suspended by the NHL for kicking Boston defenceman Hal Gill in the groin during a game last Saturday night. Anyone with a good head on their shoulders can understand why he's been punished, and why five games was necessary. In the 2003-04 season, he also kicked Eric Cairns (then of the Islanders) in the crotch - with the blade of his skate, no less - and he delivered a vicious cross-check to the face of Mark Recchi in a game against the Flyers. Simply put, Havlat is quite the cheap-shot artist, and NHL disciplinarian and director of hockey operations Colin Campbell has recognized this and acted accordingly.

Now, the qualifier for comprehending the suspension - namely, having a good head on one's shoulders - would appear to include many in the Senators' organization, namely captain Daniel Alfredsson and GM John Muckler, both of whom indicated that they agreed with the league's decision to suspend Havlat, and that five games was an appropriate length. Head coach Bryan Murray, however, seems to be having trouble with it: "I thought he might get maybe as much as three games. Hal Gill, to me, got off scot-free; I have no problem with a suspension of some sort, but to me, you couldn't have taken it more than (Havlat) did, and that's a really extreme penalty."

The "it" that Havlat apparently couldn't have taken more of was presumably the hit from Gill that landed him on the back of the net in the first place, which spurred the kick. Gill, understandably upset, then roughed Havlat up with two hard shoves before Chris Neil came in to fight him; it was certainly nothing grievous, and nothing that Havlat didn't immediately deserve. For the NHL to have shortened the suspension due to the fact that Gill retaliated - albeit in a much more acceptable manner - would be ridiculous; it does not change the fact that Havlat has a habit of kicking players in the groin when he has blades attached to his feet. For his own sake, Havlat had better learn his lesson from this suspension; he is quickly elongating a résumé of cowardly cheap shots that is going to make him a target in the NHL if he isn't careful.

"Hi, I'm Sean Avery, and I still haven't shut my trap."

2005-10-14T16:41:00.000-04:00

Edmonton Oilers forward Georges Laraque has alleged that Kings forward Sean Avery (remember him? 05-09-27; 05-02-12) called him a "monkey" during a scrum in an Edmonton-Los Angeles game last week. Laraque, who is black, said afterwards, "I knew the league wouldn't be able to do anything because there were no witnesses, but you want to tell them in case it ever happens in the future. I'm not deaf. I heard it or I wouldn't have (reported it). This is pretty serious stuff, something you don't play around with." Avery has denied that he said anything, and other Kings players claim that they heard no such comment; the NHL, with a lack of evidence, will take no action.

I'm not going to suggest that Avery should be reprimanded when there is absolutely nothing incriminating against him save Laraque's word - and Laraque is no angel himself - but is it really that difficult to believe that Avery, who is infamous by this point for the ridiculous stupid bile that he spews, would make such a comment? Of course not. The Oiler winger has stated that he will not pursue any on-ice vengeance (smart of him, given the whole Bertuzzi-Moore incident), and a shouting match between the two teams in the Staples Center parking garage amounted to nothing. But I'm sure that there would be a few smiling faces around the NHL if Laraque managed to catch Avery traversing the neutral zone with his head down sometime soon...nothing says "shut your face" like a big, clean check. Delicious.

The Shootout Post

2005-10-14T16:12:00.000-04:00

I've been putting this one off for as long as possible, but it's finally time.

By now, many of you have seen at least one NHL shootout, even though the season's still young. I actually had the dubious privilege of seeing one in person, at the Senators' 6-5 defeat of the Leafs on October 10. Was it exciting? Maybe. Nerve-wracking? Absolutely. A vulgar gimmick introduced to titillate people who previously didn't care about hockey in the least? You bet your ass.

I'm not sure how ties became such a faux pas; many people seem to detest the lack of resolution. If a draw is so horrible, why not just keep overtime going? Leave the extra point for an overtime loss, because no one wants to watch 4 extra periods of pure defence in the regular season, but just keep the periods coming until somebody scores. No one ever decided a baseball game on a home run derby, did they? What about a basketball game on a dunk competition?

The other obvious upside about keeping overtime rolling is that it's still a team sport. Fans still get to see huge hits, great playmaking, stunning defensive plays (and breakdowns), and it's all in search of just one massive goal. Instead, look at the kinds of players who would likely be excluded in a shootout (unless, of course, it were to go several rounds without a resolution); say goodbye to power forwards and hulking defencemen. So long, Brendan Shanahan and Keith Primeau. See ya, Scott Stevens and Dion Phaneuf. If you can't dangle the puck on a string, the coach likely isn't going to look at you; a 100 mph slapshot loses a lot of its worth if the goalie can square to the shooter without worrying about a pass.

Shootouts have received a fair bit of interest so far; it's probably just as well, since they're here to stay anyway. In a poll commissioned by the NHL Fans' Association, 60% of random respondents approved of the switch, compared to 54% of those who consider themselves "hardcore fans." Obviously, with both of those numbers being above the halfway point, the league isn't about to repeal the rule, but it should be noted that NHL brass was expecting a much higher approval rating, particularly in the random respondents' category. It also bears mentioning that this polling data comes 5 games into the new season; 41 games in, let's see how fans feel. That would give them a reasonable amount of time to become acclimatized to the new rules, and would eliminate any responses that were positive just for curiosity's sake (it's easy to imagine that many people who answered the poll confused the notions of "approval" and "intrigue.")

At any rate, no amount of bellyaching on my part is going to convince Gary Bettman and the NHL Competition Committee to give shootouts the boot, so I suppose I'd better get used to them.

But you still can't make me like them.

2005-09-27T19:46:00.000-04:00

Some guys make this gig so easy.

Unless you've been paying attention to the NHL preseason where the Los Angeles Kings are concerned - allow yourself a chuckle at the prospect - you might not have heard that the other night, Jeremy Roenick was concussed for the 11th time in his career by a hit from Coyotes' defenceman Denis Gauthier. By all accounts, it was a clean hit, and a hard one. But according to JR, it was unwarranted, indicated that "there is no respect for people in this league."

What?

Roenick isn't a small player, and isn't a player who's shied away from physical contact in the past; Gauthier wasn't hitting a Wayne Gretzky or a Paul Kariya. He's a defenceman entering his prime, playing with a new team - coached by Gretzky himself, no less - and is trying to make an impact, and one of the best ways to do that is throw the body cleanly. If Roenick thinks that veteran status is enough to make him untouchable by someone younger than himself, he should think again...maybe all those concussions have scrambled his brain.

But wait, it gets better.

Sean Avery, another Kings forward famous for running his mouth, told a TSN reporter today that the hit "was typical of most French guys in our league with a visor on, running around and playing tough and not back anything up." Good thing there are no French-Canadian players who wear visors on Avery's own team who might be offended by his comments. What? Luc who? "Robitaille?" Never heard of him. (And no, saying "most French guys" instead of "all French guys" doesn't absolve him of being both a bigot and a moron; sorry to close that loophole.)

Avery continued, "I'd think if a guy like Brett Hull was coming up the middle, somebody probably wouldn't have stepped up and hit him, but like I said, a typical move from a guy wearing a visor that certainly doesn't like to get scratched at all." Does anyone remember Scott Stevens positively ruining Paul Kariya with a massive hit in the 2003 playoffs? Being a superstar doesn't make you untouchable.

On the other hand, let's look at Sean Avery's scouting report, shall we? TSN.ca has his career potential listed as a "fourth line agitator." He has played 163 NHL games, totalling 47 points including 17 goals, and 482 penalty minutes...and I'm willing to bet that all those PIMs aren't for Delay Of Game. He's also still young - 25 years old - and there are two reasons to take note of that: 1) we're probably going to have to listen to this crap for another ten years or so, and 2) he's more than likely done his share of roughing up veterans himself, being that the vast majority of NHLers are older than he is. But for Denis Gauthier, if you're reading this, there's an upside: he's three years younger than you are. You've got his permission to let him have it. And apparently not playing dirty means you don't "like to get scratched at all," so throw a couple elbows while you're at it...for Québec. And for this Robitaille fellow.

2005-09-20T18:15:00.000-04:00

"Names don't score goals. Just because somebody gets paid a lot of money, that doesn't make them really great. Has everybody lost their hockey mind? Some of the GMs have a short attention span."--Carolina owner Peter Karmonos (on the offseason spending frenzy)

Yeah, you read that right. Now, I'm not going to argue with Mr. Karmonos' implication that a lot of players are overpaid, but let's look at that statement. "Just because somebody gets paid a lot of money, that doesn't make someone really great." Well, no, but a lot of players who are really great end up earning the big bucks. After the few teams who overspent on players they could suddenly afford this summer realize what a mistake they've made and how little cap room they have left, the days of insanely overpriced mediocre hockey players will be just about at an end. Perhaps if Peter Karmonos stopped to think "Hey, this guy can really score, so let's tailor his salary accordingly," they'd end up with some quality skaters. Past Erik Cole and Eric Staal, the 'Canes have a huge drop-off on their depth chart, with Rod Brind'Amour, Ray Whitney, and Cory Stillman - basically utility men, at this stage of their careers - expected to pick up the slack. Same story on defence, where the signing of Oleg Tverdovsky shored things up a little, but not much...and don't even look at their goaltending situation. It hurts.

In short, Mr. Karmonos might want to stop being jealous that the other teams signed players before he did, get out his wallet, and start throwing some money. Does anyone wonder why not even Carolina likes the Carolina Hurricanes?

Meanwhile, on Long Island...

Alexei Yashin has been named the Isles' captain. According to GM Mike Milbury, "At that kind of money ($7.6M per season), he's got to be the go-to guy." Now, there aren't a lot of players on the Islanders who I would give a C to, but Yashin certainly isn't one, either. They're really lacking quality leadership at this point, and Alexei Yashin isn't going to supply any - just look at what a jerk he was in Ottawa. Held out on the team, donated a million dollars to the local arts, then took it back...and was a dressing room cancer. Now, New York is in a tight spot here, because with the loss of Mike Peca and Adrian Aucoin - both born leaders - they have virtually no other holdovers who are anywhere near ready for that big letter on the jersey. Janne Niinimaa would be a better candidate, but he's also been threatening to go to Europe and stay there, so he's a liability. All in all, Yashin was the best of a bad choice, and it will be interesting to see how that affects things in an already-tense situation on the Island.

Hi, I'm Brian Boucher, and I hate shootouts.

2005-09-18T13:12:00.000-04:00

For the exhibition season, which began two days ago, the NHL has elected to feature a shootout after each and every game, just to show the fans what's in store. In some games, that has been extremely unnecessary, such as the Wild's 7-0 win over the Coyotes last night. However, the score of that game might not have been so outlandish if it hadn't been for the shootout played between those two teams the night before, where goalie Brian Boucher, a contestant for the starter's job, injured his groin.

It is the same reason that GMs have always been anxious when their players participate in things like the Olympics and the World Championships - to an NHL executive, those are extracurricular activities where one's players are risking injury. Wayne Gretzky, the 'Yotes newly-crowned head coach, has taken Boucher's fairly well, possibly because he couldn't find words to describe the ridiculous situation: "I don't even know what to say. I've never seen anything like that...to take an injury in that kind of scenario is just not good."

Phoenix's off-season signing of Curtis Joseph likely was a huge factor in Gretzky not tearing his hair out and marching off to New York to strangle Gary Bettman for the stupid rule that has put Boucher out for at least two weeks. But many people, such as Ed Belfour, who felt that the NHL was ignoring players' safety in shrinking goalie equipment in favour of drawing the interest of potential fans in the sun belt, will see this as just another affront. And in this case, it's hard to disagree.

2005-09-10T19:36:00.000-04:00

Now that training camps are ready to start, it's time for the NHL's teams to round out their rosters. Many are doing this by welcoming their young stars-to-be into the fold - think Dion Phaneuf in Calgary, or Jeff Carter and Mike Richards in Philadelphia.

What's John Ferguson Jr. doing in Toronto? Signing bargain-basement washups. Ugh.

In the last two days, the Leafs have landed 33-year-old forward Mariusz Czerkawski and a former Minnesota captain (albeit for just a 2-month period), defenceman Brad Brown. Pat Quinn is even toying with the idea of putting Czerkawski on Mats Sundin's right wing, and TSN.ca lists Brown as 6th on the defensive depth chart. Mike Keane and Bryan Marchment have been invited to training camp, and Steve Thomas is practically begging to play for the Leafs, claiming he'll accept the league minimum salary or a two-way contract.

But what about the youngsters that have a legitimate chance at cracking the lineup this year? Carlo Colaiacovo and Staffan Kronwall could both have a solid rookie year on the blueline, with Ian White probably just one more AHL season away. Alex Steen and Kyle Wellwood could fit in at forward as well. Those two will have a better chance at cracking the lineup than the young defencemen, considering that they're vying for two open spots, with the contenders being Wade Belak, Chad Kilger, Clarke Wilm, and Nathan Perrott. Belak and Perrott are somewhat redundant when you consider that Tie Domi will be a regular, and there are other players in the lineup capable of being very nasty, such as Darcy Tucker, Jeff O'Neill, and Eric Lindros. On defence, however, the presence of Brad Brown blows my mind. He could simply be there to provide a little bit of experience for Colaiacovo and Kronwall, or even as a spare part like other forgettable acquisitions in the past, such as Greg Andrusak. When you consider that Marchment could very well return, or Belak may be moved to defence, it likely adds up to another disappointing year for Carlo Colaiacovo, who has more than paid his dues on the farm, and is being held hostage by Pat Quinn's apparent disdain for rookies.

With the losses of Joe Nieuwendyk, Gary Roberts, and Brian Leetch, the average age of the Maple Leafs plummeted dramatically, and was virtually unaffected by the other additions of this off-season. The rookies that have a chance to make the lineup, and therefore further help Toronto shake its reputation as the NHL's retirement destination, have been pushed aside, however, to make room for more experienced players. There could be tough breaks ahead for all those youngsters...but then, if they step up in training camp, the Leafs could once again experience a youth movement, the likes of which haven't been seen in close to ten years.

2005-09-04T16:16:00.000-04:00

In just a month, the NHL will resume play. And in not too long, I'll resume blogging. It's been a long summer, and unless I posted several times a day, there's no way I could have ever covered all the crazy deals that went down; the face of the league has changed in a big way. Here are the most major of those acquisitions for all 30 teams, and only the most major - to list them all would take an enormous amount of space. (I'm not touching the signing of draft picks; let's assume that they've been with the team all along...most notably, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin.) See you in a couple weeks.

MIGHTY DUCKS OF ANAHEIM
-D Scott Niedermayer
-F Teemu Selanne

ATLANTA THRASHERS
-F Bobby Holik
-F Marian Hossa

BOSTON BRUINS
-D Brian Leetch
-F Alexei Zhamnov

BUFFALO SABRES
-D Teppo Numminen

CALGARY FLAMES
-F Tony Amonte
-D Roman Hamrlik

CAROLINA HURRICANES
-D Oleg Tverdovsky

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS
-D Adrian Aucoin
-G Nikolai Khabibulin

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS
-D Bryan Berard
-D Adam Foote

DETROIT RED WINGS
-G Chris Osgood

EDMONTON OILERS
-F Mike Peca
-D Chris Pronger

FLORIDA PANTHERS
-F Joe Nieuwendyk
-F Gary Roberts

LOS ANGELES KINGS
-F Pavol Demitra
-F Jeremy Roenick

NASHVILLE PREDATORS
-F Paul Kariya

NEW JERSEY DEVILS
-F Alex Mogilny

NY ISLANDERS
-F Miroslav Satan
-D Alexei Zhitnik

OTTAWA SENATORS
-F Dany Heatley

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS
-F Peter Forsberg
-D Derian Hatcher

PHOENIX COYOTES
-G Curtis Joseph

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
-D Sergei Gonchar
-F John Leclair
-F Zigmund Palffy
-G Jocelyn Thibault

ST. LOUIS BLUES
-D Eric Brewer

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
-G Sean Burke

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
-F Jason Allison
-F Eric Lindros
-F Jeff O'Neill

If you aren't interested in watching the NHL now, even just for the new rules and player changes, stop smoking crack. Holy Moses!

2005-06-01T14:01:00.000-04:00

Swedish NHLers Andreas Lilja, Henrik Tallinder and Kristian Huselius have been banned from playing in the 2006 Turin Olympics because of a rape charge hanging over their heads. The accusation came from a 22-year-old woman who accused them of the deed on February 9 of this year; the trio claims that the sex was consensual. The investigation was dropped on February 11 due to a lack of evidence, police stated, but the case has been reopened by a special prosecutor who does not yet know if charges will be pressed. The players were also dropped from the Swedish national team prior to the World Championships. While I'm not going to make a Guilty or Not Guilty call on their behalf - anyone who comes from a town with junior hockey knows that the relations between players and puck bunnies can get pretty messed-up - I still find it ridiculous that the mere accusation was enough to get these players booted from next year's Olympics, especially considering that police dropped the case two days later because of a lack of evidence. (Admittedly, Sweden is a huge hockey nation, and the possibility exists that the police didn't want to punish three national stars, but while that is grounds for further investigation in itself, it shouldn't be enough to get these guys dropped from a tournament to take place next year.)

In less disturbing news, it looks like a rival league - the International Hockey Association - could be ready to spring to life. Players are apparently deciding on whether to work with Canadian diplomat Maurice Strong and former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani on the project, which would need something in the neighbourhood of $5 billion US to get off the ground. Several rival leagues have been proposed - the most noticeable to this date being a reincarnated WHA - but the players appear to be taking the IHA at least somewhat seriously. We'll see what happens.

Update: The charges of rape against Huselius, Lilja, and Tallinder have been dropped, but investigations into suspicion of sexual exploitation - a more minor sex crime in Sweden - have been pursued, as of June 10. There was no evidence to support the rape claim whatsoever, and another contributing factor was undoubtedly when the woman, who claimed to have been drugged, was proven to have had no unusual substances in her system at the time of the supposed rape.

The three players' one-year ban by the Swedish Hockey Federation - which became effective on June 1 - has not been dropped.

When religion, politics and hockey collide!

2005-05-31T23:29:00.000-04:00

Craig Stanley, a State Assemblyman from New Jersey - and a Baptist deacon - has declared that the Devils' name is wildly inappropriate, and is lobbying to have it changed. The moniker comes from the mythical Jersey Devil, a legend in the 18th century which saw a family's 13th child turn into a bat-like monster, rather than being Satanic; Stanley, however, sees things differently.

Besides fighting the team owner, he'll have to contend with thousands of fans as well as the state governor, but it seems fairly clear that this is not a man picking a battle he thinks he can win. Or a battle he particularly cares about winning, for that matter. What better way to get noticed by other staunch Christians than by throwing yourself into an apparent David vs. Goliath battle for your religion's beliefs? There is absolutely no suggesting that this isn't politically motivated, at least in part, and is just another news item that gave me a laugh today.

2005-05-29T00:13:00.000-04:00

The NHL's predicament got a little more dire on Saturday, with ESPN announcing that they would not pick up their $60-million US option to televise games next season (if, indeed, there is a next season). The league can now negotiate with any network, including ESPN, who would probably be willing to negotiate a new deal, but for much less money. The headline of the article, "NHL left with deals with NBC, CBC and TSN," seems fairly cocky ("left" being suggestive of inadequacy amongst the remaining networks), but is still accurate: without a big American contract, Gary Bettman's dream (read: pipe dream) of getting the entire U.S. of A. excited about hockey is headed down the tubes. Pass the Draino!

Holy plumbing allusions, Batman.

Finally, if my previous post didn't make you watch the Memorial Cup semi-final tonight, which saw 11 goals - 3 coming from the phenomenon that is Sidney Crosby - then do yourself a huge favour: WATCH THE FINAL. It comes Sunday at 4 pm ET on Rogers Sportsnet, and will definitely be worth your while, if you are any kind of a hockey fan. Enjoy.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

2005-05-25T22:16:00.000-04:00

Looks like the NHL and NHLPA have been making some solid progress in CBA talks...they aren't about to sign a new agreement at this juncture, but the fact that they're talking, and making any progress at all, is promising. Bill Daly has expressed a lot of optimism from his side of the table, and that's the best news to come out of those negotiations since "Well, we might be able to save the 2004-05 season if we get a deal done in the next two hours." (Not that that was such spectacular news to begin with.) Stay updated by clicking the NHL CBA News link on the right side of this page. (Or, you know, you could go directly to that site. But then you'd miss what I had to say.)

As for hockey action going on right now, there are better things to do than watch re-runs on the NHL Network...me, I'm saving that for July and August. No, now is the time of year to watch the Memorial Cup! This is fantastic hockey, folks; it's going to make you wonder why you wasted your time with the World Championships...makes them look like a Grass-Growing competition. (Or, since those are seldom televised, a NASCAR race.) There's a lot more to the Rimouski Océanic than Sidney Crosby, and the London Knights are a virtual who's-who of world-class players from the World Junior Championships, with Corey Perry, Dan Fritsche, Danny Syvret, and Robbie Schremp. The Ottawa 67's (sic) aren't playing like underdogs either, making the Océanic earn their 4-3 victory on Tuesday night, fighting for the "W" until the final buzzer. And the defending two-time champion Kelowna Rockets...well, they're eliminated, so that's that. There's just four more days remaining in the tournament, though, so whether you're a casual hockey fan or a die-hard who's desperate for some action, give it a look! You won't be disappointed.

The Top 10 Things to Do While Watching Canada Lose the Gold

2005-05-15T18:55:00.000-04:00

10. Marvel at how much Patrick Marleau looks like actor Matthew Fox ("Jack" from Lost)

9. Put in the 2005 World Cup DVD and watch that instead.

8. Put in the 2002 Olympic Hockey Gold Medal DVD and watch that instead.

7. Try using the Force to help Canada score a goal (if it doesn't work, it's only because they're too far away. Honest.)

6. Check on the score of the Jays game.

5. Drink a shot every time Pierre McGuire begins to yell during his commentary (caution: you will get drunk)

4. Drink a shot every time a pass misses its target by more than three feet (caution: you will get even drunker)

3. For more of a mental challenge: given the teams represented by the players in that game, and assuming there was currently an NHL season, which teams would still be in the playoffs? (To raise the difficulty factor, do this after having performed numbers 4 and 5)

2. Watch the highlights from the Russia/Sweden bronze medal game.

1. Think up a "Top 10" list to post on your blog.

Got suggestions for more? Post a comment!

2005-05-15T16:49:00.000-04:00

Martin Brodeur certainly showed up to play for the last two games of the IIHF World Championship.

He should have invited some of his friends.

Brodeur bailed out his side in a 4-3 semifinal win over Russia, stopping 39 of 42 shots, with around 30 of those coming in the last two periods. Canada sat on a 4-0 lead, and while the Russians battled hard, the Canadians resumed their defensive strategy of panicked puck-chasing, leaving men open for tap-ins. But as captain Ryan Smyth said before today's final against the Czech Republic, "You can't critique a win."

Maybe they should have. Sloppy all-around play was the story of the game for Canada. They kept their composure until the third period, when stupid penalties started to pile up, but right from the get-go their efforts were marred by piss-poor passing and defence that, to quote Bart Simpson, folded "faster than Superman on laundry day." On the first goal, Vaclav Prospal was left wide open by Canadian defenders, and potted an easy rebound that Brodeur just couldn't corral. The second score was an absolute rocket off the stick of Martin Rucinsky, during a 1-on-2 where he was given way too much respect by the Canuck defence. At the other end, meanwhile, the Czechs sat on their lead right after the first goal, collapsing back to the blueline and implementing an aggressive trap, swarming any Canadian who attempted to carry the puck over the line. Tomas Vokoun was stellar in goal as well for his side, but didn't need to make as many spectacular saves as Marty Brodeur, who kept his team alive.

A scrum with ten seconds remaining - sparked when Vokoun began shoving Smyth, who was chopping away at Jiri Fischer's skates in front of the Czech net - allowed the Canadians to finally vent their frustrations. International referees are quick to call roughing penalties after the whistle, but largely ignore the hooks, holds and wild stickwork that the Czechs in particular are known for; ref Thomas Andersson didn't even call a penalty when Ales Hemsky grabbed the puck and threw it into the stands - it should have been an easy two for Delay of Game, but instead, Andersen just shook his head and smirked when Canada's bench became understandably incensed. (Not according to the IIHF website, however; Andersson did a "masterful job." No surprise that they didn't repremand their own referee, but "masterful"?) At any rate, Canada's emotional physical outburst said loud and clear that they won't forget this painful defeat...though that probably seems like small consolation for all those Canadian players who imagined being able to sink their teeth into gold medals right now. It just isn't the same with silver...although there may be a few dentists north of the 49th who are hoping they'll try it anyway.

2005-05-14T00:02:00.000-04:00

Al Strachan's Toronto Sun column of Friday bore the headline "Brodeur saviour again." I find it mildly disappointing that I'm going to write a post about the inaccuracy of the headline and not the article itself (much as I often disagree with Strachan's point of view, he still managed to stay away from saying anything revelatory, as he largely recapped Ziggy Palffy's penalty shot in Canada's 5-4 defeat of the Slovaks).

As I've stated previously, neither Brodeur nor Luongo has been at anywhere near his best. Both are still great goalies, but hockey fans are used to seeing something several steps above "great" from them...such as "sensational," "spectacular," and "scintillating," to name a few adjectives. But to paint Brodeur as a saviour in this game is well beyond misleading. Yes, he made an amazing save on that penalty shot. But he wasn't chalking it up to his usual upper-echelon skills; he knew that was a product of the horseshoes that he's got tucked away somewhere. "I was just hoping," he said. "I threw my arm back and I was able to get the puck with it....I didn't know."

Make no mistake, Brodeur will have to have improved some more in the last two days if Canada is to beat the Russians Saturday. Strachan's point about that big save building confidence for the Canadians is well-taken, but they're going to need a much better all-around performance this time, and bloated kudos from "newspapers" aren't going to help. (Yes, I added quotation marks there. Referring to a publication that needs to include pictures of scantily-clad men and women to ring up decent sales figures as a Newspaper hurts my head a little bit.)

To serve and protect...when he gets around to it

2005-05-09T20:37:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't noticed, the spot on Team Canada's roster that was left open for Todd Bertuzzi was filled by Scott Walker of the Nashville Predators a couple weeks ago. This, of course, is due to good ol' GB dragging his feet over making up his mind on that suspension. Personally, although I agree that Bettman should start thinking about making a decision on this, I really couldn't care less about what that decision is.

At this point, Bertuzzi has effectively been suspended from hockey for over a year. His detractors might exclaim, "but there was no NHL for him to miss!" Well, no there wasn't, but that's not his fault. (No more than it was the fault of the other NHLPA members, anyway.) He was prevented from playing hockey in Europe at the same time, so one could argue that he's been missing out.

Let's analogize, shall we?

Billy loves eating at McDonald's. But being a bit of a rebel, he also loves throwing twisted-up ketchup packets around the inside of the restaurant so they splatter on the windows. He's kicked out of McDick's for a 365-day period. Now, about four months after that suspension begins, the restaurant is closed for the next 8 months due to oh, say, a lockout of the employees. Billy has been suspended from walking into all McDonald'seses, not just this one; however, this particular joint is the one he frequented. After his suspension is scheduled to end, should it be elongated another 8 months? Of course not. Ketchup on the windows didn't close it down; the lockout did.

Admittedly, the main problem with this metaphor is that it appears to assume that Bertuzzi's suspension was only to be a year long; yet I am merely suggesting that he shouldn't be punished extra because the NHL suspended operations. (You also may be offended that I light-heartedly likened Steve Moore's injury to the misuse of condiments. If that's the case, lighten up, because I also compared the National Hockey League to a poorly-run fast food joint...although that, I suppose, isn't far off the mark.) This analogy is aimed purely at those who are looking at T-Bert's suspension in the context of the current professional hockey landscape in North America.

As far as what the total length of Todd's exile should be, I have no idea. There are some who believe he should only be allowed back if and when Steve Moore returns to the NHL; of course, at the moment it's up in the air whether Moore will play again - let's face it, he didn't knock anybody's socks off with his skill, and he now has a major roadblock to deal with. Thus, these people basically believe that Bertuzzi should never play again. I call this the "Capital Punishment" school of thought, an eye for an eye. But many people - myself included - believe that the goal of a criminal justice system should be to rehabilitate one to the point where they can function as a productive member of society, and accept responsibility and feel remorse for their crimes. Well, Bertuzzi was remorseful from the get-go, and has certainly accepted responsibility for what he did...at this point, you need to ask yourself if it's really such a good thing for the game to keep one of its premier players out of the rink.

This being said, I also don't think that Bertuzzi's suspension should be over just yet, purely because of the catch-22 inherent in my earlier analogy. Though it would be unfair to punish Todd more severely due to the NHL lockout, his sentence still has to act as a deterrent for other potential thugs on the ice. If it doesn't appear to them that Bertuzzi lost any ice time, then they won't see his suspension as particularly serious, and might not think twice about continuing the trend of senseless violence that has escalated since the appearance of the instigator penalty. A two- or three-year debarment might be in order; assuming that the NHL resumes play next year, perhaps the last year of the sentence (in either case) could be slackened so that the power forward could play in any league but the NHL and its immediate affiliates (the AHL, par exemple).

All told, I will at least agree with everyone else that Gary Bettman needs to make a decision, and soon, just because it's one more story I'm tired of hearing about; the sooner the NHL can put this one behind them, the better. I don't know if that many people are even that concerned about just what GB's decision is, as long as he makes one. I'd hate to be in line behind him at McDonald's when he's deciding what he wants for lunch.

Giving 'er in Innsbruck

2005-05-08T18:51:00.000-04:00

This post marks my return from a relatively lengthy - and unintended - hiatus. Having survived incredibly death-defying trials and tribulations (five exams, a skateboarding injury, strep throat, and a haircut), I'm ready to get back to the hockey-talk, and it should be a busy few days.

To start off, I'll deal with the World Hockey Championships, namely to discuss Canada's disappointing performance so far. A tie against Finland today, coupled with a 5-4 loss to the Swedes less than 24 hours beforehand, gives one some cause for concern. Defensive breakdowns have embarassed the squad constantly, and neither Brodeur or Luongo is playing at his usual (read: superhuman) level. This is undoubtedly a result of not having been on the ice much this year, but I don't think anyone is interested in excuses, least of all those two goalies. They might appreciate a little more help from their skaters, though; it hasn't been uncommon to see three Canadian defenders chasing the puck along the boards in their own end, only to watch an opposition player scoop it up and begin to cycle it around a suddenly-spacious offensive zone.

Though the defence has struggled, Canada's scoring has been decent, thanks to the high-octane Nash-Thornton-Gagne line. Thornton and Nash are currently tied for the tournament lead with 10 points, and the latter is no.1 with 8 goals so far. Rick Nash's production is a very bright spot for Hockey Canada, and the line's play takes some of the sting away from the playmaking attempts of the other 15 skaters on the bench, which gets fairly awkward and ugly at times. The defence seems to have trouble advancing the puck to the forwards, and in today's game, Chris Phillips was forced to take it into the zone by himself a number of times. In the offensive zone, at least, missed passes can be made up for by tenacious puck pursuit, which has been displayed best by the Grind Line of Ryan Smyth, Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby.

Don't think that I'm turning into the anti-homer, à la Damien Cox; on the contrary, I - along with any other fan of Canadian hockey - expect a lot out of this team, and one would be hard-pressed to convince me that they're operating at 100% right now. They were out-hustled by a Swedish team that is missing its four biggest guns, including regular captain Mats Sundin, a player who some consider to be the world's best when he's healthy, Peter Forsberg, and Nicklas Lidstrom, who is easily one of the world's five best active defencemen. And of course the Canadians were tired for the match against the Finns, but it was also an effort marred by a lack of disciplined play, though the squad showed some great determination for a few minutes in the third period to overcome their two-goal deficit and tie things up at 3.

For many other hockey-playing nations, this would have been a satisfactory performance thus far, but not for the team who entered this tournament as the clear favourite. It's time for these guys to start playing the way they can play - ferocious forechecking, conscientious defence, simple-yet-elegant passing, blistering quickness, thunderous contact, and shooting reminiscient of a firing squad. It's a tough task to achieve the usual lofty goals when many of these guys came into the tournament cold, compared to many of the European players who have been suited up for teams in their home countries, but these 23 guys are among the world's elite, so if anyone can accomplish that task, it may well be these men that do it.

Go Canada.

2005-04-13T11:54:00.000-04:00

Looks like Gary Bettman has Toronto Star writer Damien Cox flummoxed. The journalist can't figure out for the life of him why the league's commissioner is dragging his feet on making a ruling on Todd Bertuzzi's case. Cox writes that besides the fact that Steve Moore's health has not changed, the problem is compounded by "the NHL's curious behaviour in this matter, doubly odd given the strong and immediate manner in which the suspension was handed down three days after the incident."

Is it really that odd? The suspension was a no-brainer. One player sucker-punches another from behind, then lands on him, breaking his neck. The clip is played endlessly, even on networks like CNN that wouldn't care about hockey otherwise. Oh, what to do, what to do? Let the perpetrator go free without punishment, or try and convince the world that hockey isn't really made up of this type of goonery? Suspend him, of course. Make an example of him, and show that you won't tolerate that kind of crap. But then, one year later, you come to the point where it's time to do something about it again. And Gary Bettman might not know all that much about hockey, but he's not a complete idiot - he knows that fewer people are going to complain if the suspension continues than if it is lifted, and procrastinating on holding a hearing is definitely an easy way of doing the former, while seeming like you're progressing towards the latter.

Cox is right about it being a "gut-wrenching decision," which is exactly why Bettman's tactics are obvious. He's a chicken, and the last thing he needs is more bad P.R., being that he's the man who locked out the NHL for the 2004-05 season. There's all kinds of pressure on him to do it before the World Championship rosters are finalized, though; Team Canada GM (and Vancouver assistant GM) Steve Tambellini has left a spot open for Bertuzzi, and if the power forward becomes available he'll be on the team for sure, to avoid a row within the Canucks organization if nothing else. Of course Bettman will leave it for the last minute, though...come on, we're talking about a guy who didn't cancel the hockey season until February 16 (just to torture the more hopeful of us, I suppose).

I'm actually kind of surprised that Cox didn't pick some ridiculous explanation for GB's behaviour, and run with it; he seems to have a penchant for making statements that will make people sit up and take notice, if only to say "what the hell is he talking about?" During this year's World Juniors, he was asked on TSN which player would have the brighter NHL career, Russian Alexander Ovechkin, or Nova Scotian Sidney Crosby. Long story short, Cox initially answered "Ovechkin," then went on a long rant that culminated in "Crosby will be the better player." He didn't believe that Ovechkin would be better, but he just needed to say it anyway to make Canadian hockey fans pay attention to the intermission programming. I understand, though...it must be hard to entertain yourself when usually at this time of year you'd be writing about how much the hometown team sucks.

Choosing the troops

2005-04-11T14:43:00.000-04:00

Team Canada has named the squad that will try for the three-peat at the IIHF World Championship in Innsbruck, Austria. Check out the roster, posted on Hockey Canada's website. They haven't named captains yet, but expect Ryan Smyth to get the "C" (he isn't nicknamed "Captain Canada" for nothing, folks). The "A"s could be a little bit tricker, since 19 of the 22 players have played for the nats in the past. Dany Heatley was the tournament MVP last year, but can't match the level of experience some of these guys have in leading a winning team from the dressing room out, most notably Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby. Joe Thornton and Ed Jovanovski will be prime candidates as well, on a team where leadership shouldn't be an issue at all. In short, they're well-prepared for a 2005 gold medal.

Shrinkage

2005-04-08T15:01:00.000-04:00

Goalies will likely be using smaller pads when the NHL resumes play.

That was the big news out of the General Manager meetings in Detroit yesterday. The GMs also met with a select group of players, including goaltenders Martin Brodeur and Marty Turco. Brodeur also criticized the idea of bigger nets, saying "I hope they're not really serious about [them]. They are kind of ridiculous when you see them." Defenceman Rob Blake chimed in with the hopes that the net idea would be used as a "last, last resort," and it looks like he'll get that wish. THANK GOD. The new designs looked nothing short of absurd - see one of them here - and seemed way too gimmicky to be taken seriously. If Rodney Dangerfield was still with us, I'm sure he would have been amending his stand-up routine: "I went to a fight the other day, and a hockey game broke out. And what about those wacky new nets? They get no respect, I tell ya!"

The meetings also included a presentation on new, smaller goalie equipment by CCM, which obviously won the approval of players and managers alike. Brodeur's only problem was that the goalie's level of protection might be compromised, but I don't think there's much to worry about there - I think we crossed the line from "protective equipment" to "it's like having another goalie in there with you" a long time ago. There was also the now-obligatory "crackdown on obstruction" talk...you know, the one that'll make referees call all the hooks and holds in the first two-and-a-half periods, just to take the third period - and all of May and June - off.

Hopefully these developments see some more goal production in the league, just to keep Colin Campbell, the mastermind behind the bigger net idea, happy. If he's not, I'm sure he could bring his big nets along with that blue ice over to ESPN 8 ("The Ocho") so they could start airing XHL games, right after Dodgeball coverage every night.

2005-04-03T16:40:00.000-04:00

Well, due to the fact that I've been so busy lately, I just haven't been able to get around to writing about all the stuff that's happened in hockey over the last week or so. It has, however, occurred to me that it might be time to be a little more selective about my topics; I never thought that would be a problem in a year without hockey - especially come April - but here we are. Eric Cairns went ballistic in England, chasing a ref around the rink; Steve Yzerman, Vincent Lecavalier, Jose Theodore, and Daniel Briere won't appear at the Worlds; after the outdoor charity game last night in Hamilton, Martin Brodeur said that he might take his family to see a game with replacement players (I'm sure the NHLPA loved that); and the draft has been postponed indefinitely. Most ridiculous of all, NHL senior VP Colin Campbell is pursuing the idea of making the nets bigger; something that has met with a lot of skepticism already, and is sure to meet more.

The notion's most outspoken critic so far, Canadiens goalie Theodore, has been quoted as saying "Excuse my French, but this is bull****." (What a sense of humour...I like this guy more already.) He also called it "crap," "junk," "ridiculous," and "stupid." And I tend to agree. We're not talking about enlarging the net to a lacrosse-sized goal (not that that would be a good idea; this is just for comparison's sake), but moving the posts a couple inches. So until goalies adapt and find their new crease size - which they will - you might see one or two embarassing goals, likely on dump-ins that the 'tenders think are going wide. Another net design calls for a convex net design; the posts would still be six feet apart, but there would be a larger area for shooters to fire at. That just seems like something you'd see in a bad futuristic sci-fi movie, along with center-fielders with rocket boots and a defensive line of eleven Reggie White clones.

Reducing the size of goalie equipment instead? Go ahead; do it. As the Hockey News writes, "Today's goalies have made a mockery of protective equipment, which has ballooned to the piont where even lanky Miikka Kiprusoff appears freakishly large." And they're absolutely right. Remember a few years ago, with Flyer Garth Snow donned a chest protector with outlandishly huge shoulder pads? He had extra protection for his ears. No one stood for that (not for very long, anyway), yet the leg padding has gotten out of control. There's so little room to see mesh at the bottom of the net, you might as well nail a few two-by-fours to the posts along the bottom, and make the net size 6x3 feet. That's where the answer lies: in bringing back some of the skill in goaltending, so that monstrous equipment can't pick up the slack when reflexes fail.

Many goalies don't agree with this, true - Leaf goalie Ed Belfour, after hearing that the league wanted to reduce pads to 10 inches, measured defenseman Bryan Marchment's shin guards for comparison; upon finding that they were 8 inches wide, he threw a fit because 8 inches is close to 10 inches. But if the league's GMs don't want to do away with huge equipment over the principle that it makes mediocre goalies into good ones, and good ones into great ones, then they might prefer this mathematical representation: SMALLER PADS = MORE GOALS. Nobody's going to be talking about bigger nets after that.

And finally, why did I say that a lacrosse-sized net would be a bad idea? Because it's hockey, not lacrosse. Would you triple the size of a basketball net to open up scoring? Would you move the outfield wall in a hundred feet? Would you widen the uprights? Of course not. Sports are supposed to be about athletes excelling inside the parameters they've been given, not about changing the parameters so athletes can excel. Start doing that, and you foster the creation of a society where individuals can't reach their goals without being given a ladder...and with that, we're now out of the scope of this blog, so I'll digress.

2005-03-30T21:12:00.000-05:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

2005-03-23T21:24:00.000-05:00

Just a couple of updates to the posts I made earlier today:

Peter Forsberg has officially declined the opportunity to represent Sweden at the Worlds. This is no surprise to anybody, as the oft-injured superstar as been suffering from a concussion and a sore wrist that just hasn't been the same since he broke it earlier this season. (Add Tomas Holmstrom to the list of guys who won't be there, too; I forgot to mention his name earlier.)

Wayne Gretzky has weighed in on the steroid issue, saying that he doesn't think it's a big problem...he seems to be downplaying it a little too much, though. "It's like drugs in life, people who do drugs don't hang with people who don't do drugs...People who do steroids don't hang with people who don't do steroids," he said, all but admitting that even if guys on his teams had used performance enhancers, they wouldn't have talked to him about it. "It's something that I never saw, it's something that I don't think is part of our game. But is it totally invisible? Probably not," Greztky continued.

I'd like to think that he's taking this approach in an attempt to put the issue aside while things like the CBA get solved; the other possibility is that he's naïve, and I find that hard to believe about one of the greatest players ever to play the game, as well as one of the sharpest minds ever to preside over it. True, sometimes he does appear to idealize hockey, but I'm not going to psychoanalyze him over this...as long as he is willing to say that if there's a problem, something should be done about it, then I'm happy.

Countdown to the Worlds (because really, what else do you have to do?)

2005-03-23T12:39:00.000-05:00

Well, it won't be the tournament of superstars that everyone was hoping for, but Canada at least should have a good chance at their third straight gold medal. Wayne Gretzky has stepped out of the GM's role to be with his mother, who is being treated for lung cancer; Canucks' assistant GM Steve Tambellini has filled the void there. Instead of Pat Quinn, Mark Habscheid will coach the Canadian contingent; he's a capable guy who has international experience, so this is a good time to give him a shot.

The players are a bit more of a mystery; several have refused the call already, because they're not ready to go. Mario Lemieux said he doubts he'll be ready, so take that as a "no." Joe Sakic and Jarome Iginla are reportedly on the fence; the latter has indicated that he will announce his decision today. Roberto Luongo and Robyn Regehr got invitations from Tambellini already, and Todd Bertuzzi might even be considered if his suspension is ended by Gary Bettman (given the Vancouver ties there, Tambellini will be loath to incite trouble by omitting Big Bert if he's able to go). TSN.ca is also reporting that Red Wings' forward Kris Draper has just accepted an invitation to training camp, along with three defencemen: San Jose Shark Scott Hannan, Ottawa Senator Wade Redden, and another Canuck, Ed Jovanovski. Martin Brodeur has been contacted as well, presumably to be the #1 to Luongo's #2, as it was in the World Cup last fall.

Many players who haven't played this season may be passed over, since there is a bevy of talented players who have been hard at work in Europe. Ryan Smyth, however, is one of those who will probably be contacted; they don't call him "Captain Canada" for nothing. He's represented the country at many international tournaments, including the last several World Championships (since his Oilers have such a propensity for getting knocked out of the playoffs early, if they evey make it). As for guys playing overseas:

Look for Shawn Horcoff to get a phone call; he's been playing for Mora in the Swedish Elite League, and has been spending most of his time at the top of the scoring chart.
Jose Theodore's name has been bandied about for a possible #3 goalie -he's been playing for Djurgarden in Sweden - but if he wants to sit it out, Andrew Raycroft also starred for Djurgarden, and most recently has been playing for Tappara in Finland; he's another solid young goalie that Hockey Canada should try and develop.
Mark Recchi has been playing in Finland as well, for Turku; he hasn't been involved internationally since the Nagano Olympics in '98 (he was a sub for the concussed Paul Kariya), but he would be a good fit for the speedy European-style game.
Wild defenceman Nick Schultz has been playing in Germany this season, and is another great young player that will be brought into the fold sooner or later - preferably sooner.
This is the part where you'll get chills: besides Kris Draper, the list of Canadians playing in Switzerland this year includes Joe Thornton, Rick Nash, Martin St.Louis, Daniel Briere, and Alex Tanguay - Marty Gelinas has been hanging out in the magical land of Neutrality too, and his playoff performance last year was nothing short of impressive.
More goosebumps: in Russia, Dany Heatley, Vinny Lecavalier, and Brad Richards all played on the same team, AK Bars Kazan. (Nicknamed the "New York Rangers East," they boasted a whole heap of firepower; fittingly, they also got knocked out of the playoffs early-on.) Granted, Richards is still recovering from surgery, but don't count him out.

The learning curve should be a lot shorter this year, too: with so many players having spent the season on international rinks, they're used to the wide ice surface and the two-line passes by now, and can help their teammates adapt as well. Bottom line, as long as enough of these guys are interested in playing some more hockey before their seasons are over, Team Canada should boast their best lineup this side of the World Cup and Olympic tournaments. Earlier in the year, thoughts were that some of the non-NHLers from the Men's National Team would be included, but that was before so many guys decided to go to Europe. Don't be surprised if Hockey Canada decides those guys can't cut the mustard - sure, they could include a few and still be better than most other entries in the tournament, but they shouldn't be going for a 3-2 victory in the final; fans should be given no less than another juggernaut of a team, and that's what's available at this juncture.

Elsewhere, Sweden, who lost the gold to the Canadians for the last two years in a row, probably won't be back in the final. Mats Sundin, Markus Naslund, and Nicklas Lidstrom have all opted out, citing rust as the problem; they know they won't be in peak condition by the end of April. This isn't like Alexander Mogilny and Nikolai Khabibulin refusing to play for Team Russia because of disagreements with the government officials who control it; Sweden is a country of hockey fanatics who expect the best of their players, much like we do in Canada, and the players know it. These three guys aren't turning Swedish hockey down because they just don't feel like it; don't think for a second that they wouldn't love the opportunity to get revenge for their last two defeats. But they know they won't be ready to play the best they can, so they're unselfishly stepping aside for other guys who have been playing all year, and are ready for more.

Stephane Quintal's 'Roid Rage

2005-03-23T12:13:00.000-05:00

Stephane Quintal spoke out yesterday about performance-enhancing drugs in the NHL, saying that up to 40% of its players take some kind of stimulant, and some have actually taken anabolic steroids - a statement that shouldn't have surprised many people. To suggest that no one in hockey is on steroids is nothing short of stupid; the league has a policy of random drug tests in place, but that policy is by no means foolproof, so it is apparently quite easy for some players to slip through the snare.

If you're worried that your favourite all-star is taken performance enhancers, then not to fear: if a player has played in a World Championship, a World Junior Championship, the Olympics, or last year's World Cup, then he's been tested for steroids, and they test extremely thoroughly, as everyone knows. Some of those drugs can remain in the body for some time, and although there are steps that users can take to flush the remnants out of their systems, it's unlikely that any honourable (and intelligent) player who knew he would get the chance to represent his country would take the risk...of course, we're all aware how uncommon common sense can be.

Most of the players who are likely using performance-enhancers are the lower-end guys who have less to lose: enforcers, fourth-liners, number-seven defencemen. Career minor-leaguer and tough guy Dennis Bonvie says that he's positive he has fought players who were taking some kind of growth-enhancement substance, which is no surprise; this calibre of player makes his money by getting in as many big-league fights as he can before he gets sent back down to the farm, so anything to give that guy an edge will be considered, if his morals allow it.

With regards to the question of stimulants, this concerns things like Sudafed and caffeine. The World Anti-Doping Agency has taken these both off the banned substance list, saying there's no proof that any amount of Sudafed enhances performance (Silken Laumann would have loved to hear that about ten years ago, I'm sure). With a few exceptions (such as marijuana), the NHL uses WADA's list of banned substances; it's encouraging that they're staying on the same page as the world's major governing bodies with regards to this kind of issue. Hopefully the NHL and NHLPA are proactive enough to include an even tougher drug policy in the new CBA, with regular testing for all players, as well as random tests throughout the year, even in the summer months...because the last thing hockey needs is to go through what baseball is right now, congressionally-issued subpoenas and all.

2005-03-19T14:33:00.000-05:00

Chris Cuthbert and the CBC aren't done quite yet.

Cuthbert is preparing to sue the network over an alleged breach of contract when he was fired; one of the sticking points is reportedly a guarantee that he would take the torch from Bob Cole as Hockey Night in Canada's number one play-by-play announcer, upon the latter's retirement (which is arguably overdue). "What a preposterous way of doing business," Cuthbert said about the whole fiasco.

One thing is for sure: he won't be back on HNIC. "There's going to be too many other opportunities to work someplace where people treat you like they appreciate you," said Cuthbert. Without a doubt this time, it looks as though CBC's loss will be someone else's gain.

2005-03-16T20:43:00.000-05:00

In yet another news item that seems a little bit too strange to be true, the AHL's Rochester Americans - the Buffalo Sabres' farm team - will be playing on some differently-coloured ice this weekend at the HSBC Arena. Blue ice, to be exact. "Electric Powder Blue" ice, to be even more exact; the word's still out on whether Crayola has copyrighted that phrase yet. The lines formerly known as blue - and perhaps headed for reference as unpronounceable symbols, or "The Lines" (Come on...Prince? Anybody?) - will now be fluorescent orange, and the red line will be dark blue.

It's just a publicity stunt, to be sure; I can't imagine that any pro league would seriously consider adopting this format on a permanent basis. You might have all kinds of people saying "Gee, it sure looks neat," but I'm sure they said that for the first few seconds of looking at Nashville's third jersey - immediately preceding the line, "Good Lord, that's ugly." Rochester goalie Ryan Miller had trouble seeing the puck, but selflessly said that he would support the switch if it helped sell hockey back to its increasingly disenchanted fans. Call me crazy, but I don't think that watching a goaltender searching for the puck is the kind of entertainment fans are looking for when they buy tickets to a hockey game. And honestly, what would be easier to see than a black puck against white ice? A lot of fans south of the border have trouble picking up the biscuit in the first place (remember that "FoxTrax" glowing puck experiment?), so by reducing the severity of that contrast, no one is being done any favours.

Plus, you get those kids who want to draw pictures of hockey players in art class...they're going to be wearing those Electric Powder Blue crayons right down to nubs. I'm going to go invest in any and all crayon manufacturers.

Check the story out at TSN.ca, or at the Toronto Star's site.

2005-03-14T14:19:00.000-05:00

If the WHA was a person, he'd have had ample opportunities by this point to quip, "The reports of my resurrection are greatly exaggerated," Mark Twain-style. Nevertheless, the rumours have resurfaced. Investors Ricky Smith and Mark McKelvie are optimistic that a minimum of 10 teams could be scrambled by the time they started a season, which probably wouldn't be until 2006. The two have stated that starting this October would be their goal, but that seems extremely unrealistic, given that more investors must be found to begin their own clubs, players must be scouted, the identities of the teams themselves - and not to mention the league - must be established, and more...all in a matter of months.

They are also outlining plans for an invitational tournament held in the late spring of this year, which will see games played in Vancouver and Hamilton; the ever-vocal Jeremy Roenick has already started recruiting players to put together his own team, and it will be interesting to see if any other NHLers start phoning up their buddies. The money involved is not to be forgotten - each player will receive $20 000 for the tournament, which probably looks pretty good to a lot of those guys right now.

Am I going soft? Have I forgotten that the players' greed is a major part of what is facilitating the continuation of the lockout? Do my English professors tell me that asking rhetorical questions in essays is a compelling writing tactic? Maybe, No, and You Betcha. While I would love to see some NHL-calibre hockey right now, I always find it quite easy to grimace at pictures of Trevor Linden, who I admire as a player, but despise as the union president. If I could hop a bus to the Corel Centre and see the likes of Mats Sundin, Tie Domi, Vincent Lecavalier and - oh, please - Doug Gilmour, as long as I didn't have to pay an arm and a leg, I'd be happy. I don't care if they're playing for the Stanley Cup or the "If Today Was A Fish, I'd Throw It Back" Mug, but some top-quality hockey would be spectacular.

I suppose that at this point, I'm becoming numb to this whole lockout; it could be a phase, or it could be that I'm just too tired of this seemingly permanent impasse. I'm sure that people who accidentally stumble into meetings between the union and the league have to struggle with a healthy dose of confusion and mistaken identity at first: "Look! Over at the debating table! Is it Israel and Palestine? Is it India and Pakistan? No! It's the NHL and the NHLPA!" Would I pay to watch replacement players? No, unless the price was right - say, the same as a minor-league game. I believe it was Jerry Seinfeld who commented on the fact that people only cheer for the laundry and not the players, and I would have a hard time arguing that, were I to attend a game with replacements. There's something to be said for team loyalty, but if your team is essentially dismantled and repopulated by unrecognizables and nobodies, it's not "your team" anymore, anyway...but that's an issue for a whole other post.

Would you watch the WHA? Or is the NHL the way to go for you? Can you cheer for your favourite player in a new North American league, or are you going to hate him unless he plays for an NHL team? Don't forget that the last time the WHA saw some actual business before folding, it gave the NHL three more Canadian clubs, along with a certain "Great One"...so can it be seen as a potential usurper? Or is this the natural evolution of hockey on this continent?

Picking at Scabs

2005-03-13T13:02:00.000-05:00

I'm sure that all are aware by now that the deeper into 2005 the NHL goes without a new CBA, the taller the prospect looms of using replacement players. It's a notion that fits absolutely no one's ideals, but it's been thrown out there anyway, and the league has the gall to publicly consider it a possible solution, or at least the means to achieving one. I call this "gall" because they must know that fans are at best going to be split on whether to attend games played by minor-leaguers and lower-end players, so it isn't going to solve any monetary difficulties. This is especially true in places like Raleigh, where the Hurricanes have been losing less money by not opening the RBC Center for games at all, than if the season had been taking place right now. In addition, I can't even fathom the animosity that will develop between the players who cross the picket line and the locked-out NHLers - not to mention the sense of ultimate betrayal the NHLPA will feel towards the league.

Detroit goalie Manny Legace has said that he won't blame minor-leaguers who cross the picket line, and that's big of him to say. He acknowledged that there will be some resentment, but he knows that for a lot of those guys, it will be as close as they ever get to dreams of playing in the NHL, not to mention that a lot of them could probably use the money. He kept himself free and clear of 'PA reprimands, however, by adding that regular NHLers would be morally remiss in crossing the line: "We're all supposed to stick together as one big family." Well done, Manny.

Right back to the darker side of replacements, if that's the way the 2005-06 season will be played, then the Stanley Cup is going to be awarded to a bunch of guys who probably aren't even playing AHL-calibre hockey. Does this bother anyone else? I hope so. The league wouldn't free up the Cup this year to give to a national champion, or a North American champion, or what have you...the NHL could have been at the fore of organizing a massive - and potentially massively successful - tournament that pitted teams from any league against each other in order to find a continental Grand Champion. Hell, the NHL, as organizers, could have even invited teams from European elite leagues and made it a worldwide event, giving themselves invaluable exposure as the tournament organizers and advertising themselves to all four corners of the world. But no...there'll be no award ceremony this year, and without a new CBA, next year's award ceremony will be a complete and utter joke.

This is the state of our game. Depressed yet?

$3.5 billion, I've got $3.5 billion! Do I hear $4.9?

2005-03-04T18:14:00.000-05:00

...I certainly hope not. But it looks like something that was little more than an interesting news story a couple days ago is about to get even more interesting...

Tuesday, a Wall Street consortium made an offer to the NHL's Board of Governors to take the league and all its teams off their hands, at a price tag to the tune of $3.5 billion. While the league took the time to hear the half-hour presentation put together by the corporations' representatives, the whole thing was largely regarded as far-fetched. On average, teams would have received just over $110 million, which might sound good to some - the Mighty Ducks sold for $75 million last week - but richer teams like those in Toronto and Boston won't be eager to sell any time soon.

The consortium currently consists of Bain Capital Partners and Game Plan International, and spokespeople indicated that they plan to bring a large Canadian buyer into the mix, which should assuage Canadian fans' fears that the game is becoming even more Americanized. The companies also stated that under their plan, Gary Bettman would remain in his current capacity - which means that either they like what he's doing, or they don't want to scare anyone off just yet. According to Forbes, the NHL's teams are worth a combined $4.9 billion at this point in time, so Wall Street has a ways to go before it can truly be taken seriously. That figure, however, reflects a study done in November, before the season was cancelled, so most teams - especially those in the United States that already have waning fan bases - will see a drop in their worth.

The deal is bad news for players perhaps most of all; the consortium's offer came with a warning that the longer the lockout continued, the worse off they will be. Although this is something the NHLPA has heard before, they are certainly intimidated by the prospect of a single entity holding central ownership over all 30 clubs - that ownership will strive for parity across the league, which means that the days of teams battling over their services and throwing huge dollar signs at them would be a thing of the past. If the lockout drags on too long, it bring this possibility closer to a reality, since the values of franchises will continue to decline, and many more owners will be interested in unloading. As I previously mentioned, teams with more wealth and richer traditions - the Leafs and the Bruins, for example - are uninterested in selling at this point, according to president/CEO of MLSE Richard Peddie, and Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs. But if these teams were somehow allowed to participate in the buyout from a purchasing perspective - not necessarily investing in other teams, but retaining their own, and dealing with Game Plan and Bain Capital as equal partners - they might be much more amenable to the deal.

These potential owners might be looking to trim the fat, meaning that teams like the Hurricanes would disappear, incrementally raising the NHL's talent level. This is just one of the probable changes they would be looking to make, both from a marketing standpoint and from changes in gameplay. Overall, though, I'm not a big fan of the idea...while I can't deny that a competitive team generates more revenue than a cellar-dweller, I also think that if these teams were in the right markets, they would sell tickets anyway. The Leafs' rough years from 1995-1997 didn't see a heavy decline in net worth, and the New York Rangers certainly still manage to sell tickets (and don't tell me that it's to see superstars; I'm not going to pay $70 to watch Jaromir Jagr pretend to care). The Boston Bruins have had trouble selling tickets for a few years now, but their position in the standings hasn't had much of an effect on that.

In general, I think that the idea of having 30 equally-talented teams overrated. The number of star players on a team doesn't necessarily mean that they'll go farther in the playoffs; just look at last year's Cup Final. Having a few powerhouses and a few punching bags in the league just seems like the natural order of things, and the teams at the top and the bottom don't stay the same forever; that's why the top draft pick goes to the worst team, after all. If this buyout idea continues for a little while longer, however, I wouldn't mind, and I doubt the owners would, either. Anything that puts more pressure on the NHLPA to strike a deal is fine by me.

2005-03-01T19:41:00.000-05:00

Lots of stuff to write about right now, and most of it stems from the NHL and NHLPA meetings that took place this afternoon. Unfortunately, there's been nothing to report along the lines of getting a deal done; if anything, an agreement is further away now than it was yesterday. Each group claims that they've got a newfound solidarity, and that they should take a step back from the bargaining table took take a better look at the big picture (read: "our demands are back to what they originally were, so there's no point in talking").

There's also been plenty of feather-ruffling, along with the usual BS. Bobby Clarke reamed out Bob Goodenow just a couple days ago, saying that BG has no respect for the game in Canada, if he has respect for the game at all. Now, it's great that Clarke's going to stick up for the teams north of the border - "...personally, I was sick when Quebec and Winnipeg moved," he said - and I'm certainly not one to stick up for Goodenow. But oh, Bobby. Want to see someone with a profound lack of concern for Canadian teams? Check out the guy who's running things on your end. Gary Bettman had no problem with helping bail Pittsburgh and Buffalo out of trouble recently, but the Jets and the Nordiques both flew south (in both the figurative and literal senses) faster than you can say "southern expansion." He undoubtedly saw two opportunities to take established and respected franchises and move them to untapped markets - like hockey-hungry Arizona (because really, who watches hockey in Manitoba) - and that's just what he did.

This being said, Clarke commented further on Goodenow, saying, "He's done nothing but take from the game...and now he's fighting for power. He doesn't want to lose power, he doesn't want to lose his control over the players. And he doesn't want to lose as much of the control he's had over the game over the last 10-12 years. But when he had that power, he ruined it." Well, that's absolutely true. Though after the 'PA meeting, BG stated that "I don't think (union) solidarity was ever gone," there were clearly several points where it looked like player support for their Executive Director was waning precipitously, beginning way back in the fall when Canadien fourth-liner Pierre Dagenais said that he'd accept a salary cap if it got him back on the ice. Goodenow has surely had a few sleepless nights since this whole mess started, and he hasn't done himself any favours by refusing to play ball with the league; he apparently thinks his bargaining position is better than it is, although his job is probably the least safe out of anybody involved in the CBA process, especially when the players start getting disgruntled again.

Moving right along in the "I Can't Believe You Just Said That" department, Blues defenceman Chris Pronger was approached by reporters after the meeting, and this is what he had to say: "The so-called splinter faction in the union that was supposedly going a different direction has been drummed up by a lot of media members and people hoping a deal gets done....Coming out of the meeting I can unequivocally say everyone is on board and understands the issues better." What? "The so-called splinter faction"??? Who called it that? I even ran a Google search for any pages containing that phrase along with "NHLPA"...nada. But way to make those players who broke ranks sound sinister and conniving! There's a headline for you: "Chris Pronger, Drama Queen." And shame on those "people hoping a deal gets done" who fostered the whole notion of evil anti-union rebels in the first place...I guess they were way out to lunch with that little hope, eh Chris?

...But I digress. All I have left to say right now is that the two people you can trust to know what they're talking about and maintain an objective viewpoint in all this mess are Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky. They're well-respected as two of the most intelligent hockey minds on the planet, and Lemieux is involved with the NHL as both a player and an owner, and while Gretzky doesn't serve simultaneously in those capacities, he still knows how to get things done down on the ice and up in the boardroom. Both the league and the Players' Association have realized this by now, too: to bring some sanity to these proceedings, it's essential that those two be present at as many bargaining sessions as possible. Maybe they can help find a solution to this whole debacle before it gets much worse.

2005-02-27T15:56:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder about some other blogs:

Looking for some insight about recent political events? Check out Justin's Flash Point Canada.

If music is more your thing, and you're looking for some succinct reviews, head to Dane's page, "You Could Sing, I Swear."

The profile links don't look like much right now, as Blogger is apparently still trying to work out the kinks. But they'll be up-and-running someday soon, I'm sure. Enjoy!

...also, as long as I'm plugging others' opinion pieces, check out James Duthie and Jay Onrait's rants at TSN.ca...these guys just slay me.

2005-02-27T14:28:00.000-05:00

Man, the UHL just can't buy a break.

Those three letters were in the news again last week when Chad Wagner of the Danbury Trashers was banned for life, after attacking Adirondack Frostbite coach Marc Potvin. Wagner was being escorted to the penalty box at the time, when he shrugged off the referees and lunged over the bench at the opposing coach. Three other players, as well as the Danbury coach, have been suspended. Earlier in the year, the team's owner was also charged by police after punching a linesman after a game.

Before this season, I'd never even heard of the United Hockey League, and I'm sure that many other hockey fans were in the same boat. They didn't start making major headlines until NHLers began migrating in that direction, and now you hear something negative about that league at least once a week, it seems. The UHL's top brass must be wondering at this point whether a few big names were even worth the bother.

All this negative press is making the organization into something of an anathema in hockey circles. The game itself has taken such a beating in the North American market over the past year, starting with the whole Bertuzzi incident and culminating with the lockout; the last thing needed right now is a league that generates nothing but bad publicity, where people only pay attention long enough to cluck their tongues and shake their heads. Although not such a big deal here in Canada, it's terrible for the NHL's business in the United States, where attempts to sell hockey in non-traditional markets are going less-than-swimmingly. American interest is supposed to skyrocket in a few years when the first generation of southern expansion-inspired players arrives at the Entry Draft, but how many of those players are we going to see when American parents forbid their children to play a sport that is seen as vicious and dangerous?

Chris Cuthbert: the Lockout's latest casualty

2005-02-23T14:46:00.000-05:00

As if things weren't hard enough without hockey, CBC Sports commentator and Hockey Night in Canada play-by-play man Chris Cuthbert has been fired by the CBC. The station's executive director for sports programming, Nancy Lee, has been quoted as saying "It's a regrettable decision...Chris has an extremely good reputation and he's a consummate professional. But it's important to remember that 30 people have been affected by hockey." Cuthbert has apparently been let go because there wasn't enough work for him to do, but I'm sure that a rival network will happily take him in. Read CBC's explanation of the situation here.

Chris Cuthbert appeared to be Bob Cole's successor, and indeed should probably have taken over the #1 play-by-play job on HNIC some years ago, as Cole seems to be getting rustier with age. Cuthbert gave the game an excited, enthusiastic voice that I would have loved to hear during Leafs broadcasts (the network's main event every Saturday night during hockey seasons), but he was often paired with Greg Millen or Glenn Healy, whose irritatingly rambling and bumbling colour commentary really brought down the quality of the show. (That being said, if TSN picks up Cuthbert, I hope they don't stick him with Pierre McGuire.) CBC's judgement has been getting progressively poorer over recent years; first they almost didn't renew the contracts of HNIC's lifeblood in the persons of Ron MacLean and Don Cherry, and now this. Make no mistake, any other sports network would be lucky to have him. If TSN decided to offer him a contract for the 2005-06 NHL season, they would have a dynamite pair of play-by-play men in Cuthbert and Gord Miller, which would give Hockey Night in Canada a serious run for its money as the nation's favourite hockey broadcast. At any rate, Chris Cuthbert will surely land on his feet. Best of luck to him.

2005-02-22T16:41:00.000-05:00

As a welcome change of pace, there has been a rash of stupidity in hockey that has surfaced in the news over the last few days, and it didn't have anything to do with the lockout. To answer Justin's prayers, I'll tackle Markus Naslund's comments on Steve Moore's lawsuit first.

Long story short, Naslund has been ripping into Moore because he's launching a lawsuit in the first place. "This isn't about the hit," Naslund said about the suit. Of course it is, Markus. If there was NHL hockey to be played right now, Steve Moore wouldn't be able to participate in it because he was hit with a vicious sucker-punch, and at some time during the scrum that followed - likely when Todd Bertuzzi fell on top of him - his neck was broken. "Hockey players take hits and give hits," Naslund continued. Well, sure they do. I bet that's the first thing that Donald Brashear thought of when amateur lumberjack Marty McSorley took a swing at his head during a Canucks/Bruins game a few years ago: "Gee, that sure did hurt, and it was cheap (I should know); but getting my head taken off in a particularly brutal manner is just part of the game." Moore has lost his ability to partake in his livelihood - at least for the moment - and both Canadian and American law give him the right to seek financial restitution, whether or not his teammates indicate to Mr. Naslund that Moore "doesn't have a lot of support in hockey." This just reminds me of when Naslund whined that the seven-second delay on Coach's Corner should have been longer, because Don Cherry's comments offended him so deeply (when fellow Swede Daniel Alfredsson was asked his opinion about Grapes, he responded that he really didn't care, and that he found Cherry's quotes humourous and entertaining, if memory serves).

Meanwhile, the coach of the UHL's Motor City Mechanics has been suspended for putting a $200 bounty on the head of Flint General Kevin Kerr. Kerr expressed his displeasure with NHL "hypocrites" who came to play in the United Hockey League just a day before the incident allegedly took place, and it isn't a long leap in logic to speculate that Mechanics coach Steve Shannon wanted to get back at Kerr for badmouthing the team's new acquisitions. Shannon reportedly offered the money to his players in the hopes that one of them would take Kerr out. I find this absolutely disgusting, not just as a hockey fan or a sports fan, but as a human being. It's not the first time a coach has told his players to go headhunting, and it certainly won't be the last, but that doesn't make it any less despicable of a manoeuvre. At any rate, Shannon has been suspended for the remainder of the regular season as well as the playoffs, with assistant coach John Blum being suspended for the next 10 games. It's good to see that the league's brass are taking a no-nonsense approach, but they have to be disappointed that after the Mechanics first announced the signings of Chris Chelios and Derian Hatcher, sending a ripple of interest throughout the North American hockey community, Motor City's team has lately become a magnet for bad press (also see Feb.12 post, "Hi, I'm Sean Avery, and I can't shut my yap"). On top of all this, the team currently occupies last place in the league. I'll bet that's a fun dressing room to sit in!

Now where are we?

2005-02-20T02:33:00.000-05:00

"Where are you?
And where am I?
We've been slipping slowly south..."--Saves The Day

Indeed.

The on-again, off-again talks between the league and the union are off again. Saturday's talks produced, in a word, nothing. At this juncture, even if they scheduled more talks for early next week, they would not be intended to save this season; stick a fork in 2004-05, folks.

The lines of communication, however, remain relatively open. There has been a lot of progress made in the last few weeks; I think both parties realize that, and hopefully don't want it to go for naught. If they can keep talking before they find themselves galvanized again, there's a chance that we'll see a full sked next season.

There is no concrete deadline for an agreement now, but you'll know it has passed when GB and BG start tossing around the rhetoric-laden barbs again. Language is a fragile thing - William Shakespeare knew it, Emily Dickinson knew it, and these guys know it. They can drone on for fifteen, twenty minutes, and by the time they're done you know they've been talking the whole time, but all you heard was "the other guy is a jerk." Whereas the two aforementioned authors managed to say a lot with a little, Gary and Bob have turned it around completely; they must have teams working on speechwriting, with other teams memorizing thesauri, and are basically just saying "write me a ten-page essay that says nothing."

Personally, as such an employee I think I'd find it hard not to write out the word "blah" as many times as it took to fill those ten pages. In as small a font as I could, so they thought I had actually worked harder. I'd get fired or get a raise, but you have to figure that working for those guys it's a wash either way, because no amount of money would be enough to put up with this kind of ridiculousness. (But I'd be willing to find out what my price was if they offered it to me, I suppose.)

Regardless, despite all their bravado and posturing, it won't be one of these two who Saves The Day <ahem>...Bill Daly and Ted Saskin are the ones whose elbow grease is covering everything that's been done to this point. Also count on outside sources like Wayne Gretzky and former NHLPA head Mike Gartner to do everything they can to help.

And just a brief beef: NBA Commissioner David Stern ripped into the NHLPA on Friday, which certainly didn't help anything. While the league and union are getting ready to conduct last-ditch talks, Stern waltzes in at the second-most inopportune time to tell the players and their executive director that they're all incompetent. Thank you, sir! Rather than tick them off and get them to stand firmer, I'm sure that comment had the desired effect of making all NHLers stare sheepishly at their toes, and Bob Goodenow hang his head and say "Gee whiz...I guess I'm just a big weiner." Gary Bettman used to work for the NBA as a deputy, and he doubtlessly has some ties to Stern, so this just looked like Daddy scolding little Bobby for being such a bully to little Gary...this is just conjecture, but I'm guessing that nobody in the NHLPA appreciated the scolding at all. Please, Mr. Stern, unless you've got something helpful to say, don't say anything at all. Tend to your own CBA, because I've gotta tell you, nobody likes it when those things expire.

2005-02-19T14:28:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you're all familiar with the tickers at the bottom of the screen on most sports stations....the ones that show you a few words at a time instead of scrolling them across, and drive you insane waiting for the next part of the sentence? Well, I'm out at the bar last night, and one of said stations are showing on the big-screen TV. So I look up and see:

The Hockey News reports that...

Which keeps me paying attention. Then, I start to get excited when it says:

...the NHL and NHLPA have agreed to a deal...

At this point I've thrown up my arms and am staring triumphantly at the television.

...that would see hockey played in the 2004-05 season.

By now, my friends - and several other people who think I'm either drunk or insane - are looking at the TV as well, to try and figure out what I'm so ecstatic about. Then up pops:

The NHLPA denies the report.

I know, I know; I'm a sucker for repeatedly getting my hopes up. But the fact remains that at this moment, the NHL and NHLPA are at a meeting in New York City to try and hammer out a deal. That's worth raising my hopes just a little bit, I think, and I've crossed every appendage I can in a bid for a little more luck. You should too!

Also, on the "Talk About Timing!" front, it looks like that quote from The Tragically Hip (see Feb.16 post) was a lot more topical than I intended. Frontman Gord Downie is auditioning to play goalie Ken Dryden in a television miniseries about the 1972 Summit Series, where Dryden of course played for Team Canada, sharing the goaltending duties with fellow future Hall-of-Famer Tony Esposito. Tryouts are being conducted in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and whether Downie makes the cut or not, looks like it should be an interesting production.

"How to Torment Yourself by Not Letting It Go," a comprehensive guide.

2005-02-18T00:56:00.000-05:00

Apparently the fat lady hasn't hit that high C yet, because there are reports that the NHL season might not be kaput after all. TSN is reporting that several of hockey's most notable men are doing their best to uncancel the season, a problem that NHL VP Bill Daly says he'd "love to have". The list thus far includes Steve Yzerman, Mario Lemieux (relatively uninvolved so far, but I'm sure wild horses couldn't keep him away), and - ta-dah! - Wayne Gretzky...however, keep in mind that this story was taken in turn from The Hockey News, and neither Lemieux or Gretzky have said that they are involved in these kinds of talks. (Just in case you were getting your hopes up...I know I was.)

I've also heard rumblings that a small group of players, including Brendan Shanahan, is calling for Bob Goodenow to get the axe; there's no way he keeps his job after this, if the players know what's good for them. Last time the players lost this much faith in the Executive Director of the players' union, I think his name was Alan Eagleson...

"The more money we come across..."

2005-02-16T22:21:00.000-05:00

About to pour myself some hot apple cider before I sat down to write this, I reached for my Maple Leafs mug out of habit. Then I thought twice, put it back, and grabbed the one that reads, "If today was a fish, I'd throw it back."

Oh, buddy. It's over.

To address Justin's comment on the economic viability of the National Hockey League...well, it wasn't very financially strong to begin with, and has been on a steady downward spiral ever since Gary Bettman became commissioner. You could search forever and have a hard time finding one person - besides his mother, I'm sure - who thinks he's done a good job. This is why I've joined the masses in screaming for the occupational heads of both GB and BG, because their constant squabbling has cost all of hockey's fans an entire season, and has put a huge scar on the face of the game.

That being said, the NHL will be back, and probably in 2005-06. They might not play a full schedule, but there will be hockey played. The league will likely have a very different look, however:

The expansion class of 1993 (Florida Panthers, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim) is in big trouble. The only reason these teams - along with the Hurricanes and the Predators - are still here is because Gary Bettman seems to have an obsession with the number 30, no matter what it does to the league's talent level. These two teams were in danger of folding before, and the longer we go without a CBA, the worse it gets; the Ducks don't even own their arena, so they have absolutely no revenue coming in, and they're up for sale right now. Would you invest in an airplane that's currently airborne, but has lost all its engines?
Rule changes will abound. Goalie pads will shrink, no-touch icing and tag-up offsides (bring them back!) might finally be accepted...and just to suck up to the fans, the owners will push the shootout idea like it's going out of style. Gross.
Look for a new NHL logo. It's an idea they toyed with several months ago, but when you change your appearance, you risk alienating your fans. Guess what? Those fans have been alienated, so change away! But don't think that it'll make anyone forget about 2004-05.

As for the fans, they'll be back, it'll just take a while. Places like Toronto and Detroit won't even notice there was a lockout in terms of ticket sales; Nashville and Carolina, however, will be in big trouble (if they're even still around when play resumes). I'd be surprised if Tampa Bay can fill their building for the raising of the Stanley Cup banner; expect a full house in Calgary, though. Make no mistake, it will take years for the NHL to rebuild to the level they were at before - as paltry as it was - but it shouldn't suffer like baseball, which is still recuperating from 1994. Let's face it, in the right markets, the NHL is still a big-time sport, and it's easier to find 16 000 fans than it is to find the 45 000-ish it takes to fill a Major League Baseball stadium, especially since hockey ticket prices should drop substantially if the "N" knows what's good for 'em.

But should time prove me wrong, well, I hear they're trying to start up the WHA again for next year...

"Fireworks exploding in the distance..."

2005-02-16T13:17:00.000-05:00

Well, that's it. Just a few minutes ago, Gary Bettman announced the cancellation of the 2004-05 NHL season. Nothing fancy, just a prepared statement with the obligatory "it is my sad duty to announce" stuff, and then a question period that spiraled into the same old rhetoric. That's when I turned off the TV.

The saddest part is how much progress was made in the last couple days...the NHLPA accepted a salary cap, and the NHL dropped linkage from the agreement. Expect those concessions to disappear when negotiations start back up. I could start in with the "if only" business, but I think you'll agree that there's no point, because who hasn't heard it already? In the next few days, I imagine there's going to be a fair bit of mudslinging, but hopefully they get past that quickly enough to start negotiations in time to have a deal done for 2005-06.

I'd also be surprised if this whole debacle doesn't cost Bettman, Goodenow, or both of them their jobs; maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of their lives. (What I mean to say is, it might take a few years, but they're both going to lose a lot of credibility over this, and personally I'd rather see Bill Daly and Ted Saskin at the heads of their respective organizations...but the Casablanca quote was just too hard to resist.)

To conclude, I'd like to leave you with a quote from a song I've listened to a lot today:

"You said you didn't give a f*** about hockey,
And I never saw someone say that before."--The Tragically Hip, 'Fireworks'

Well, there are certainly going to be a lot more people saying that very same thing about hockey after this, that's for sure.

2005-02-15T19:10:00.000-05:00

Well, the NHLPA finally caved on the salary cap issue, and the NHL gave ground on the linkage between revenues and player costs, so now it's purely a numbers game. The Players' Association made an offer of a $52 million cap on player salaries, which the league has countered with a $42.5 M offer. GB also gave BG (confused? See Jan.19 post) until 11 AM Eastern Time Wednesday morning to agree, in a letter which was also leaked to the media. The league insists that there will be no more bargaining at this point; we're looking at a take-it-or-leave-it offer here, so let's hope that the players can swallow their collective pride.

Maybe in a few years, if someone wants to make a movie about the CBA meetings presided over by league VP Bill Daly and Senior NHLPA director Ted Saskin, they can call it Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, or perhaps Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey...you know, depending on how this whole thing plays out.

"Hi, I'm Sean Avery, and I can't shut my yap."

2005-02-12T20:59:00.000-05:00

In the last couple weeks, a lot of NHL players have been joining teams in the United Hockey League, a North American minor league that employs a salary cap. How hypocritical is this? Those NHLers claim that they just want to get some ice time playing some actual competitive hockey, but they're playing under the same system that they won't accept from the NHL. Besides this, UHLers make a few hundred dollars a week, so the ones who are losing ice time are understandably ticked off. No matter what your opinion is about players joining so-called "elite leagues" in Europe and bumping other professional players off the roster, I think everyone can see how these guys, who are playing minor hockey and making just enough money to get through the season so they can go home and work regular jobs in the summer, would be angry that professionals are climbing way down the rungs of the competition ladder because they were bored of playing shinny with each other.

One of the NHLers who has joined the UHL's Motor City Mechanics, Sean Avery, also recently revealed himself as a callous hypocrite for his comments regarding the UHL and the state of the NHL. Any angry UHLer should "work harder until he's good enough to make the NHL then I won't be able to take his job," Avery stated. Funny thing is, he must have figured out that this is the highest level of hockey most of these guys will ever attain, and they have families to support off their $500-per-week paycheques. If you're going to play with these guys, fine, but don't say stupid things like that to justify your decision. Instead, follow their example and find the most competitive hockey you can play; we know the money doesn't matter at this point (why else would you play under a salary cap?), so step aside for the people to whom the money does matter. Avery went on to say that the NHL "can eliminate a lot of Europeans who are mediocre and are taking a lot of jobs." Huh? Seems to me that if they're good enough to make the NHL - like these UHLers should apparently be trying to do - then they've earned the right to stay, haven't they? Whose jobs are they taking? Maybe the players who aren't quite good enough to make the cut? I mean, at this point I'm just blogging about this for the sheer joy of it; this guy writes articles all by himself. I wonder who does his material?

Moving on, a sports writer by the name of Jim Kernaghan stated in a recent column that UHL players should be more than happy to play alongside NHLers. Well, that's the impression you get from the headline, anyway; he mostly goes on about how neat-o it is that these big-leaguers came down to play with the little people, and this one goalie is glad because his team has NHL defensemen, so obviously it's a great idea! "The UHL has never seen as much media attention and full houses for a last place visiting team is a clear bonus. It's players ought to enjoy it while it lasts," Kernaghan writes. Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure that a big crowd isn't going to make sitting on the bench feel any better. As for the home team when the Mechanics come to town, well, they're no longer going to think they're the home team when everyone's cheering for Chris Chelios and pals, are they? Now, you could understand why the owners might appreciate the business the Motor City Mechanics bring with them. But Mr.Kernaghan, when you inform a player that he should be glad to either sit on the bench if he's a teammate, or to be made to look like a fool when one of the world's top hockey players stickhandles effortlessly past him, you're kind of reaching. And I'm pretty sure there are a lot of players in the United Hockey League who would agree with me.

The countdown is on...

2005-02-10T10:03:00.000-05:00

...and it started yesterday afternoon, when Gary Bettman informed the NHLPA that if there were no meaningful discussions going on by the weekend, the season would be cancelled. This came on the heels of a new proposal by the NHL, one that was almost immediately rejected by the Players' Association (which I might as well refer to simply as "Bob Goodenow," since there is a lot of evidence that he speaks for a very small - but rich - minority of players).

The gist of the newest proposal is that the league would start out with a luxury tax-style system, modeled after a plan that came from the players. This new proposal would turn into a salary cap system if one of four triggers was met, with those triggers being:

55% of league revenue is paid out as player salaries
three or more teams have payrolls above $42 M (USD)
the average of three highest payrolls is 33% higher than the average of the three lowest
average team compensation exceeds $36.5 M

You can read TSN's full outline of the NHL's latest proposal here.

Now, Bob might have been a little hasty in flat-out rejecting this. And by "might have been a little hasty," I mean "good Lord, what was he thinking?" They could easily have spent the next few days negotiating on the finer points of the triggers, instead of scrapping the proposal and starting again at ground level. Goodenow had trouble with the fact that three teams already have payrolls above $42 mil. Well geez, Bob, negotiate it higher! What kind of a lawyer are you? The reality is - and Gary Bettman laid this out for the union, too - that when they start negotiating again in September, the deals aren't going to look anywhere near this good. Plus, by that point all the players have lost a year's salary. When it takes another four months to get a deal, some of them are going to be in rough shape financially; maybe not the Jagrs or the Forsbergs, but definitely the Dagenaises and the Bouchards.

At any rate, the union's unwillingness to even look for a compromise on this latest deal is disheartening at best. But on the upside, they only have to pretend to care for a couple more days...

2005-02-09T16:45:00.000-05:00

Well, I realized today that I haven't posted here in some time...I really was hoping that my next post would read, "Well, they've got a CBA agreement, so let's play some hockey and give me something to write about!" Alas, the NHL keeps on getting my hopes up by holding talks and making proposals, but then you hear that the 'PA stormed out of those talks because the proposals were nowhere near acceptable. Unfortunately for me, I'm one of a dwindling number of fans who actually seem to miss the NHL-level game, and not one of the people who say "just cancel it, already." I don't care if they play a period and a half of hockey before the playoffs start, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, GIVE ME SOME HOCKEY.

...Okay, a period and a half might not be enough to have what one might call a "meaningful season," which leads me to ask: exactly how many games do they need to make it meaningful? Some consider that number to be around 40; however, after the last lockout, they had a 48-game season, and I've heard people call that pointless/unmeaningful/tasty. (Okay, the "tasty" thing never came up.)

---NOTE---As I'm writing this, TSN is reporting that the NHL came up with a new proposal to the Union, and it's already been rejected. Quel surprise! Now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging...

At the moment, the NHL is rumoured to have scenarios planned out for seasons that could see between 25 and 35 games played, in the event that the lockout ended today. Some players see this as pointless; according to TSN, Brett Hull has already called it "ridiculous." Then again, Brett Hull likes to complain about things to get his name in the paper, so let's not pay him too much attention. Personally, I wouldn't mind if the season saw as few as 18-22 games: each team plays every other team in its conference once, except for teams in its division, which it would play twice or thrice. Of course, then the playoffs seem ridiculously long by comparison, so you run into a problem there. That could be solved by including only the top 4 teams in each conference - which once again creates another problem for those people who would like to see the hockey playoffs interfere with the baseball playoffs (or at least the baseball All-Star Game).

Another possible scenario is to hold a tournament for the Stanley Cup (I know, tournaments are all we've seen over the past year, but Lord help me, I like 'em). One game against each team in the conference, and the best eight records on each side advance to a single-game (or best-of-three, to make it a little less drastic) elimination round. Sure, there's lots of room for upsets in a format that's not as forgiving as the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Playoffs, but what's wrong with an upset? All it does is show us the fallibility of those teams that thought they were such hot stuff to begin with (see: 2002 Detroit Red Wings).

Readers, got any suggestions for what a possible season should look like if it started today? Either of you? That's what the Comments box is for, so go to town!