FRASER: THE CALL ON BOURQUE'S EMPTY NET GOAL

Kerry Fraser, TSN.CA, Oct 20 2011


Hi Kerry, I have something of a technical question for you.

During the Colorado-Calgary game on Wednesday night, Calgary had a 3-2 lead, and with the clock ticking down, Colorado goalie J. S. Giguere headed to the bench for an extra attacker. Calgary's Rene Bourque found himself on a clear-cut breakaway with an empty net in front of him, but before he could shoot the puck into the gaping cage, he was tripped from behind by a Colorado player.

The referee signaled a penalty but the play continued. Calgary's Olli Jokinen then collected the puck and put it in the net. However, it was ruled that because Bourque had been on an empty-net breakaway, he was automatically awarded the goal - his second of the night.

My question is: if that's the rule, then why was the play allowed to continue after the ref had already decided it was a trip, and therefore an automatically-awarded goal? Shouldn't the ref have immediately blown his whistle, stopped play, and awarded the goal? This situation is unlike any other delayed penalty, where allowing the fouled team to continue play could be to their benefit. All this did was confuse the fans, who clearly saw Jokinen score a goal that wound up being credited to Bourque.

What's the rationale behind this?

Joey Lindstrom
Calgary, AB

Joey:

'Technically Speaking,' play should have been immediately stopped by referee Don Van Massenhoven under rule 57.4 and a goal awarded to Rene Bourque. Let me give you a "play-by-play" possibility from within the referee's helmet as to perhaps why the whistle didn't immediately blow.

All aspects of this play directly applied to the language of the rule. Bourque, who was 'in control of the puck, in the neutral or attacking zone with no opposition between him and the opposing goal and when goalkeeper J.S. Giguere had been removed from the ice, was tripped or otherwise fouled by Colorado defenceman, Kyle Quincey thus preventing a reasonable scoring opportunity.'

Referee Van Massenhoven immediately raised his arm to identify the infraction and I fully believe was prepared to kill the play and award the goal but instead allowed Bourque to push the puck from his knees toward the gaping cage. Once the puck hit the side of the goal frame and prior to Olli Jokinen depositing the puck in the net, Van Massenhoven is clearly visible blowing his whistle and motioning into the net to award a goal to Rene Bourque. With the 'award,' Bourque (who hails from Lac La Biche, Alberta) notched his second goal of the contest and fifth of the season. (I just love the name of that town and had to share it with you!)

So why would referee Van Massenhoven delay the call to allow Rene Bourque the unnecessary courtesy of sliding the puck over the goal line? I've been in the same situation and did exactly the same thing that Van Mass did last night.

While my rational might appear as 'creative finance' to you, my thought process in that moment was to allow an extra second or two for the fouled player to finish the play on his own. He fought hard to put himself in that position and the thrill of "denting the twine" and the celebration that follows the scoring a goal is part of our hockey culture and history of the game. While the end result will be the same (a goal) I wanted let the player to have his moment to shine in front of the fans and not impose myself in that instant. Perhaps even subconsciously, I hoped to avoid any need to explain why a goal was going up on the clock when the puck never entered the net since this type of play doesn't happen very often. Put the puck in the net and any questions are eliminated.

While offering you my honest account of this thought process I am prepared to get blasted in your blog comments for not just following the letter of the rule. After all, the rule is the rule isn't it? You're right - I'm wrong.

But since you asked, let me share with you a goal that I was about to award in 1979 in an American Hockey League game in Binghamton but instead allowed the player to put the puck in biscuit in the basket.

With a minute remaining in the game and the visiting team up by one goal the Binghamton Dusters had removed their goalkeeper for an extra skater. Binghamton turned the puck over and an attacking player had a clear breakaway on the open net. There wasn't a Duster within 60 feet and a sure goal was imminent. As the attacking player was about to cross the Binghamton blue line the Duster enforcer, who was sitting on the end of the bench and hadn't taken a shift throughout the entire game, came flying off the bench without his stick and gloves. (I was surprised the guy even had his skates laced up at that point in the game) I thought, oh-oh, this "nut-bar" is going to jump the attacking player and start a brawl.

Just as the enforcer got within punching range of the puck handler he threw his hands in the hand and screamed - "HAAAAH"! It surprised and likely scared the hell out of the poor guy enough to cause him to mishandle the puck. I was shocked but pleasantly surprised that a physical attack hadn't ensued. At this point I should have awarded a goal but instead I allowed the player to slide the puck into the empty cage followed by his goal scoring celebration.

Having just completed a tour of Western Canada in September with my friends the Hanson Brothers you might think the play I just described was right out of their movie, Slap Shot. I can assure you it happened just the way I described it and is consistent with the crazy things that occurred in minor professional hockey during that era of the game.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention who that "nut bar-enforcer" from the Binghamton Dusters was. It was none other than my former colleague and friend Paul Stewart who eventually saw the error in his ways and crossed over to our other side. Stewy worked over 1,000 games as an NHL referee and is now the Referee-in-Chief for both the men and women officials of the ECAC Division 1 hockey. The Stew-Cat is not near as frightening in this position as he was that night in Binghamton.

And the player he tried to scare? None other than 1980 Olympic gold medal winner Dave Silk.

'Proud' Pearn responds to firing

BY RYAN DIXON, SPORTSNET STAFF, October 28, 2011


Perry Pearn holds no bitterness toward the Montreal Canadiens organization, but as a proud hockey man, the disappointment in his voice is obvious while discussing Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier’s decision to dismiss him on Wednesday.

Pearn had just begun his third season as an assistant on the Habs’ bench when Gauthier axed him only a couple hours before Montreal’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers that night.

"To be let go this early is tough to take," says Pearn when reached by Sportsnet magazine on Friday morning. "I understand, but there’s always going to be… I’m a proud person, I think I’m good at what I do, so I can’t help but be disappointed that what’s happened has happened."

Pearn was in charge of Montreal’s struggling special teams, just one of the deficiencies of a banged-up club that had a 1-5-2 record the day he was fired.

"Do I think it’s my fault the Montreal Canadiens had a bad start?" Pearn asks. "I’ll take my share of the responsibility. Our power play wasn’t as good as it should be; our penalty-killing wasn’t as good as we wanted it to be. But to say I’m the only reason we had a bad start, no, I don’t accept that.

"And I’m sure that’s not the point of me being let go, is that it was all my fault. It was a way of sending a wake-up call to everybody that things had to change."

The message, for the time being anyway, seems to have worked, as the Canadiens have won twice since Gauthier’s startling decision, which initially drew heat for its abruptness.

"I guess if you’re sitting today from the general manager’s standpoint, he would have an argument it worked," Pearn says of his dismissal. "They won the last two games."

Pearn says he learned of his firing in a one-on-one meeting with Gauthier.

"At 3 o’clock on Wednesday we were all focused on trying to win a hockey game," he explains. "By 5 o’clock, all the circumstances had changed."

Gauthier’s public statements in terms of his rationale for the move have been vague, leading most to conclude that Pearn was the sacrificial lamb for a club that was off to its worst start since 1941-42. Pearn, who might stay with the organization in another capacity, declines to give specific insight into to the conversation he had with Gauthier.

"Those are private things within the organization," Pearn says. "The organization has been really good with me. It’s a disappointing circumstance for everybody, but I’ll take my responsibility for the way the team started. If you ask me, ‘Do I think we could have gotten things straightened out with me being part of it?’ Yes, I do, but I understand that’s not my decision."

Pearn, who is good friends with Habs coach Jacques Martin and previously worked with him in Ottawa, points out signs that the Canadiens may not have been as bad as their record indicated on the day he was fired. Montreal was stonewalled by two separate 40-save performances, first by Buffalo’s Ryan Miller on Oct. 18, then again on Monday by Florida’s Jacob Markstrom.

Pearn also has a history of working on winning staffs: he and Martin made the playoffs each of the eight years they were in Ottawa, the New York Rangers clubs he was a part of from 2005-06 to 2008-09 all qualified for the postseason, as has Montreal in the past two seasons. It’s difficult for Pearn not to contemplate how things might have been different had he been granted a bit more time.

"That always becomes the question," Pearn says. "Would the Montreal Canadiens have beaten Boston (Thursday) night and Philadelphia on Wednesday if I’d have been there? You don’t know. We were sort of poised to make that move… because we hadn’t played terrible."

With the Canadiens playing the past two nights, Pearn says he hasn’t had a chance to chat with Martin, but he assumes his old buddy had his back on this one.

"I’m sure he was (in my corner)," Pearn says. "We’ll get our chance to talk about it."

Pearn plans to sit down with Gauthier to discuss what kind of role he might be able to perform for the Canadiens for the duration of the season. He says he holds no ill will toward the franchise and is proud of his work in helping the club reach the Eastern Conference final in 2010 and nearly knock out the eventual Stanley Cup champion Bruins last spring in a tight seven-game first-round loss.

"I had two good years here," he says, "successful years given the competitive nature of our team in the playoffs.

"I’m not hanging my head in shame by any stretch of the imagination. I do think I’ve had a positive impact in lots of areas in terms of helping the team become a little bit better than it was the day we arrived."

Ovechkin is both class clown and head of the class

MATTHEW SEKERES, Globe and Mail, Oct. 28, 2011


Alexander Ovechkin is not only one of the best players in hockey, he’s also the greatest showman in the NHL.

Take the Washington Capitals practice at Rogers Arena on Friday, in advance of a Saturday game against the Vancouver Canucks, where Ovechkin spent most of his downtime heckling injured teammate Mike Green, who was in the stands beside general manager George McPhee.

Ovechkin wouldn’t let it go as the two men spoke. He wouldn’t reveal what the inside joke was about, but it’s a good guess he was ribbing Green about sucking up to the boss.

“Mike Green!” he bellowed for all to hear, drawing so much attention to Green and McPhee that the latter put his arm around the former, and everybody had a good laugh.

Of course, the Capitals have been doing nothing but laughing – and offering gap-toothed smiles – these days, after a spectacular start to the 2011-12 season. Washington won seven consecutive games before falling 2-1 Thursday to the upstart Edmonton Oilers, the Capitals’ first loss of the season.

But while Ovechkin and the Caps are off to a flying start, Vancouver has not been kind to No. 8.

Two years ago, in just his second regular-season game at the Canucks’ home arena, Ovechkin was held off the scoresheet, not registering a shot on goal until late in the third period. A few months later, playing for Russia at the 2010 Olympics, Ovechkin recorded four points in four games, and delivered a hellacious hit on Jaromir Jagr of the Czech Republic, but his country went meekly into the night, embarrassed 7-3 by Canada in an elimination game.

“My job is to play hockey,” Ovechkin said when asked if Vancouver hockey fans had seen the best of him. “I’m not a clown who makes jokes and [does] funny things. But if I can [entertain] than I’m going to do it, so we’ll see what happens.”

Neither head coach is anxious is to see what happens in this contest between the defending Western Conference champions and an Eastern Conference heavyweight.

Vancouver’s Alain Vigneault spent his news briefing talking about how balanced the Capitals have been this season, using four lines and six defencemen far more than they have in years past.

He said one way of beating Washington previously was to catch one of its lines – read Ovechkin’s – on an extra-long shift and take advantage of tired skaters. Now, Vigneault said, the Capitals are able to play at a frenetic pace that challenges defencemen because they have fresher skaters jumping over the boards.

Vigneault said the marquee value of Saturday’s game “got our attention” and predicted that the Canucks would have to play their best game of the season in order to win. The Canucks have had a blasé start to the season, and seemed disinterested in losses to the Oilers and St. Louis Blues this week.

“I think it’s good,” captain Henrik Sedin said of facing Washington. “It’s going to bring everyone up to the level where we need to be. Otherwise, it’s going to be embarrassing.”

Washington’s Bruce Boudreau was equally skittish about facing a team he likened to a wounded animal.

“I hate it when you’re playing a great team that has lost two in a row, and that’s what we’re doing,” Boudreau said. “We’re nervous, because they’re mad. It’s going to be a tremendous test.”

Trading places an eye-opener for Paul Romanuk:
Canadian sports broadcaster enjoying life and work in London

By Matthew Black, Special to The Vancouver Sun, October 28, 2011


LONDON — It’s a bright, sunny day but instead of being wired into an NHL press box somewhere, one of Canada’s most famous hockey voices is half a world away from the action.

Across from the crowds emerging out of the Covent Garden tube station, Paul Romanuk stood outside a pub and basked in the heat of a rare cloudless day in London.

Staking out a space in the sun to down a cold pint on a warm day isn’t the only small English tradition he’s taken to.

Inside, he spoke of ‘football’ not soccer and ‘punters’ instead of fans without the awkward cadence typical of a North American. And, his familiar Ontario twang remained unblemished by any trace of an English accent as he griped about the tube service and dreary weather.

But fitting in with a new culture and city wasn’t always as effortless as it now appears.

“You know you’re in trouble when you arrive in a country and the sport you’ve worked on all your life is referred to as ‘ice’ hockey,” he said. “It’s not on the radar … any more than rugby or cricket are in Canada.”

Six years ago, Romanuk and his wife Kari re-located from Ontario after her job as an executive with Coca-Cola transferred her across the Atlantic.

The couple had frequently vacationed in the British capital, and enjoyed the city’s culture and history, but had never seriously considered moving there.

He left behind a reputation as one of the country’s most popular sports broadcasters as well as his job as the radio play-by-play voice of the Toronto Raptors.

“It was a tough decision because I loved that job. It was very enjoyable. But … [it was a] once in a lifetime opportunity, a great opportunity for my wife and her career. So, we decided to go for it.”

Despite establishing himself after working 11 World Junior Hockey Championships and a dozen seasons broadcasting the National Hockey League for TSN, he had to rely on hard work more than his reputation to get started in his new hometown.

“I felt that 20 years of working the Canadian market would have more traction than it did over here. I wasn’t naive enough to think that I was going to have the same amount of success here that I did in Canada,” he said. “It definitely was tough to sort of get going.”

Today, he can most frequently be heard calling hockey as well as basketball, baseball and other North American-style sports for the Eurosport TV network.

He’s also produced video and online content for the International Ice Hockey Federation and written for various North American newspapers and magazines.

The 25th edition of his Hockey Superstars series of children’s books was also published earlier this summer.

“It’s been very different working in a different sports culture, different business culture, different media culture … I wouldn’t trade it. It’s been a real eye-opener. Everyone should do it,” he said.

In Canada, he’s now best known as the voice of the holiday-season Spengler Cup tournament. This year will mark the 10th time that Romanuk has called the Swiss-based event.

“The thing I really love about that tournament and the players is, it’s by and large a bunch of guys who wouldn’t otherwise get to wear the [national] jersey,” he said. “And I get a little slice of Canadiana every Christmas.”

The south London resident still follows the North American sports scene and checks in on his old NHL beat through his Twitter account.

Away from sports, he revels in the music and entertainment possibilities London affords.

He recalled a 2009 weekend when Blur played before 55,000 fans in Hyde Park on Friday, Madonna performed across town the next evening and the Wimbledon tennis tournament wrapped up on the following Sunday afternoon.

“With the exception of New York City, we don’t get that in North America,” he said.

He and his wife are also frequent patrons of London’s theatre scene, taking in shows as often as three times a month.

“The best theatre in the English-speaking world,” he said after listing productions like Jerusalem and Enron as some of his favourites.

Despite enjoying his time abroad, Romanuk said he plans on eventually returning to the sunny skies and hot summers that he misses most from his native Ontario.

“We will go back to Canada, without question, because there’s no place like home,” he said.

“Whether we’re here another couple of years, another five years … I don’t know. We don’t really have an exit plan at this point, but we’ll look back on it as a good experience.”

NHL brain trust juggling player gear debates

By ERIC FRANCIS, QMI Agency, Oct 30 2011



CALGARY - The age-old visor debate was re-ignited last week when Chris Pronger took a stick in his unprotected eye.

And while many wondered aloud if they should even feel sorry for a player who suffers such an injury without wearing a visor, team, league and NHLPA officials are debating equipment issues of their own.

Governors have seen the prototype shoulder pads designed by Rob Blake, Mathieu Schneider and Brendan Shanahan and are happy with the smaller, form-fitting pads, which feature high-density foam instead of hard-cap plastic.

“Both sides want this,” said Blake, who is helping Shanahan oversee player safety.

The league is also working on pushing neck guards, cut-proof underwear, Kevlar socks, longer gloves and wrist guards on the players in an effort to try stopping preventable injuries.

“Our objectives are the same because injured players are not good for anybody,” one governor said.

As for the visors, the NHLPA has educated players to let them know it’s safer to wear them.

Yet an NHLPA representative said the “majority” still want the option.

The belief is that all of the above will eventually be used and largely mandated.

It’s all just part of the evolution of the game.

SERVE AND PROTECT

The latest trend amongst players has an increasing number of them wearing clear plastic skate protectors.

Trainers in almost every city are urging all players — but mostly defencemen and penalty killers — to wear the custom-fit protectors that slide over the skate and strap on.

Some teams are buying in (10 Leafs wear them) while only a handful in cities like Pittsburgh, Minnesota and Calgary sport them.

Penguins forward Craig Adams said he started wearing them after teammate Jordan Staal’s foot was cut after being stepped on more than a year ago.

He got his custom-fit in Montreal, but Blake says the league is looking at streamlining the skate protectors, too.

Players who wear them say they don’t notice them at all until they help cushion the blow of a blocked shot.

REALIGN SIGNS

One governor referred to the realignment voting as a very “selfish process” that revolved almost entirely on teams’ travel schedules. Word is commissioner Gary Bettman may very well have to push for a more complicated divisional realignment than simply moving Winnipeg to the West and bringing Detroit back east.

Instead, the movement now revolves around having teams in four divisions with the playoff playdowns in each division first. Each team would play home and home games against each team outside its division.

Flames president Ken King said the possibility of an All-Canadian division was “romantic but not practical.”

The goal is to have this resolved at the governors’ meetings in Pebble Beach in December, and 20 of the 30 governors need to buy in to whatever the league decides.

KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

Eighteen-year-olds Brett Connolly, Eric Gudbranson, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Gabriel Landeskog all survived their “nine-game tryouts” to stay in the NHL. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Wild opted to sit Kelowna Rockets winger Brett Bulmer last night instead of having him play his 10th game.

Wild GM Chuck Fletcher told the Calgary Sun Saturday the 10-game mark “doesn’t mean anything” to him as it simply means the first year of a player’s three-year entry-level deal starts.

He said the 40-game mark is more significant as it then means a player can be unrestricted at age 26 instead of 27.

Fact is, keeping a player as an 18-year-old can actually save a team money in the long run because his stats could be weaker his first year, hurting his case on his second contract. As long as Bulmer is contributing and remaining confident he’ll stay.

Before I made it: Joel Ward

With Kevin Kennedy, The Hockey News, 2011-10-29


I started playing hockey because I wanted to follow my two older brothers. They were friends with Kevin Weekes and I would try and join the local road hockey game. They followed him into ice hockey and I just kind of tagged along to the rink. I made most of my friends playing road hockey. That’s where it all starts.

I played my house league hockey at Oriole Arena in Toronto back in the day, but probably spent more time on the outdoor rink beside Pleasentview Arena. Both rinks were close to my house and I still go back to the area once in a while for some summer hockey.

My most memorable experience was making the select team in my house league and I also remember the first time I was cut from that team. I remember one year when I was in Atom ‘AA’ playing for the Hillcrest Summits we won the city championship and that was the first time I’d ever won any big thing. I played there for two years and honestly I have a lot of great memories of playing with that team. I played with a lot of great guys back then. The whole year was fun. We had a lot of team parties and we won a lot of games. It’s one of the few years I have a clear memory of.

Growing up I loved going to a rink called Chesswood Arena. My brothers would play there on Friday nights against the Toronto Red Wings and I’d try and tag along even if they were kind of late. The rink had all the best video games and bubble hockey. They also had great chicken wings at a restaurant called “The Penalty Box.”

When I was in peewee, I played for the North York Canadians and I had a coach from the Czech Republic. He was very intense, but that was the first time I realized that I could actually do something with this game. He taught me discipline.

Realignment plus 30 Thoughts

Elliotte Friedman, CBC Sports, October 31, 2011


Spent some time on Sunday reading my Twitter feed, the Puck Daddy comments section and LetsGoPens.com. The stuff you guys are saying publicly about significant realignment is pretty similar to what teams are saying privately. You either really love it, passionately hate it or just decide, "I can deal with it."

In this discussion on Hot Stove on Saturday night you can see a chart with the new divisions. It's the last group, the one that says "I can deal with it" that is going to decide what happens.

(Think of them as "conferences" instead of divisions. You play home-and-home against every team in the other three; the rest inside your group. The first two rounds of playoffs stay inside your "conference" as well. I do believe Detroit will stay with Chicago and not move to Toronto's side, but I'm not 100 per cent positive.)

If Commissioner Bettman wants to push this through, he needs 20 votes when the Board of Governors convenes December 5 at Pebble Beach. (Easy place to get work done, I know.) Weeks ago this proposal was going nowhere. "Dead," one executive described it.

But things have changed. Understand that the vast majority of Western clubs want this to happen. They are tired of watching their Eastern brethren get all those extra days at home, spend so little time on planes and never leave their time zones after January.

And it's not just about the regular season. They want fewer cross-country flights in the playoffs, too.

So let's work backwards. Bettman needs 20 votes. There are 15 teams in the West. I can't say with certainty that he has all of them in his pocket, but if he doesn't, it's close. So, how many Eastern teams does he need? Five? Six? Maybe eight?

Can he get those votes? If he needs eight, it's barely half the conference. One team confirmed it has changed its mind (although, in return, said it did not want to be identified). "The next month is all about arm-twisting," one source said. And, it will happen at the ownership level.

Now, a couple of good questions people raised:

Q: What about Detroit's proposal to go west only once?

A: Well, here are the questions: How many teams will make only one trip instead of two? And, who do you play those extra games against? Because if, say, 10 teams are affected, and they play two extra times against everyone in their division, aren't you pretty much going Bettman's way anyway?

Q: Why not just switch Detroit and Winnipeg?

A: Well, we all know how everyone wants a piece of the Red Wings. Too valuable a visitor. And you're not helping Columbus and Nashville (same issues, especially when it comes to late-night TV viewing).

Q: OK, genius, how about...(some combination of Winnipeg, Nashville, Minnesota, Detroit, Dallas)

A: Guarantee, in whatever combination you put together, you have either one American team with four Canadians (not happening) or Dallas still in the Pacific. And the Stars are a very big part of this. Their travel is really bad as a member of the Pacific Division. Bettman listens to owners. For the last couple of years, the Stars really haven't had one. Now, it looks like they will (Tom Gagliardi).

The team looks good, but still needs momentum off the ice. Moving it into a more centralized time zone would really help. (So would moving them back into Reunion Arena, one of the great places to watch an NHL game.) The league is well aware of that.

Q: What about Phoenix?

A: You got me there... no one can answer that yet.

Q: Don't you want to see the Penguins play the Flyers six times a year?

A: Absolutely. And I understand why the Penguins are against this. The Washington Capitals felt their move out of the old Patrick Division was incredibly damaging to them. Some Penguins fans suggested moving the Florida teams or Carolina around instead. Maybe there will be some changes, who knows? But, not everyone is guaranteed to be a winner in this.

Back when I used to cover baseball, one Blue Jays executive explained how Bud Selig got what he wanted. He would build consensus behind the scenes, feel out who was on his side and try to sway the teams in the middle. He never brought anything to a vote until he knew he was going to win. And when he knew he was going to win, he would phone dissenting owners and say, "Look, I've got the votes. Are you willing to work with us on making this a best-case scenario for you?"

If the answer was yes, Selig would help those teams as much as possible. If the answer was no, he rammed it through anyway. I'm not sure if Bettman's going to pull this off. But he's closer than he was three weeks ago.

30 THOUGHTS

1. Another possibility: Next season starts one week later, so some of the U.S.-based teams spend a little less time battling for eyeballs with football and baseball.

2. Free PR tip for Gagliardi: get Jamie Benn signed. Joe Nieuwendyk was honoured before the game Saturday (for his upcoming Hall of Fame induction) and got a loud cheer when he said his son's goal "is to be on a line with Jamie Benn someday."

3. When you're a little thin on the blueline, two things can save you: great goaltending and players who stick to the system. We can all see what Nikolai Khabibulin's doing, but Edmonton is really getting that second thing. It doesn't hurt, one scout said, that this is also a team committed to working hard.

4. Want proof? Blocked shots. Last season, the Oilers were 21st with 571. So far, they are third with 184. That's a difference of nine per game. When you allow 30 shots a night, like Edmonton does, that really helps.

5. What was David Booth wearing during his After Hours appearance with Scott Oake and Craig Simpson? A sleep watch, of course. Vancouver indoctrinates these guys quickly.

6. I'm not the kind of person who really likes being told what to do, so if I was an NHL player and someone ordered me to wear a visor, I'd probably resist. As a non-partisan third party, though, I can't help but side with the GMs who want to eliminate "preventable injuries." There is so much at stake. Philadelphia won't win the Cup without Chris Pronger. Then there's the money. Not only salary, but also playoff revenues and how performance at that time of year determines next season's ticket sales.

7. We're talking Kevlar socks and long-wristed gloves, too. If Jason Pominville is wearing a sturdier stocking in Game 5 of Buffalo's first-round series against Philly, do the Sabres beat the Flyers? Teams pay for the equipment and don't get final say on what gets used. There's something wrong with that picture.

8. Pronger was asked about his stance on visors and said, "You don't want to know my stance. That's for another day." Translation: I don't want to wear one, partially because of the things I do on the ice.

9. Last summer, the Montreal Canadiens hired two new assistant coaches, Randy Ladouceur and Randy Cunneyworth. They were given two-year contracts. The holdover, Perry Pearn, had one year remaining on his deal. GM Pierre Gauthier decided to extend Pearn by another season so everyone was in the same situation. If they thought he was a bad coach, they wouldn't have done that.

10. The one thing Gauthier deserves credit for was not making a panic deal that hurt the franchise long-term. He was trying to get a forward (in addition to Petteri Nokelainen) and a defenceman. Unable to do so, it looks like he felt he needed to show he was doing something. Coaches around the league were furious. ("No respect...We're sacrificial lambs.") I was surprised by the number who were disappointed because the Canadiens are considered the NHL's "class" franchise - even if the move worked in the short term.

11. Here's a good question a couple of people asked: let's say, for argument's sake, the Canadiens did decide to fire Jacques Martin. Who is the replacement? It's not so clear-cut. They've had several chances to hire Bob Hartley (now in Europe). There's Marc Crawford, who dabbles "en francais." Their AHL coach is Clement Jodoin, although there's some question as to whether or not he's ready for the firestorm. Would they ask Bob Gainey?

12. Saw Columbus in Buffalo last week, and the toughest challenge with that team is it expects the worst to happen. They played pretty well and got a good break to tie it 2-2. Three minutes later Patrick Kaleta bounces one off Rick Nash for the winner. The Blue Jackets collectively sagged after that. (Nash buried his face in the ice, as if defeated.) "Fear freezes you," head coach Scott Arniel said. Maybe the win over Anaheim will change that.

13. Mentioned the Ken Hitchcock rumours last week, but they continue even though the principals keep denying them. Is this some kind of weird attempt from ownership to motivate the team?

14. Hotstove traitor Pierre LeBrun quoted Wayne Gretzky last week as saying he was unlikely to play in the Winter Classic alumni game. Don't be surprised if the Rangers (Glen Sather, Mark Messier, etc.) at least try to persuade him otherwise.

15. Peter Chiarelli is one of those GMs who constantly checks the market, seeing who is available or who might be. But the sense is he wasn't looking to make a move, primarily out of loyalty to the players who ended Boston's 38-year Stanley Cup drought. Will back-to-back losses to Montreal change that?

16. One thing definitely happening with the Bruins? Opposing coaches are ordering their players not to engage them after the whistle. No team feeds off those scrums/battles/fights more than Boston (and its fans).

17. Brandon Worley, a really good Dallas Stars blogger, was the first to report that the team's biggest creditor (owed almost $52 million US) is a "listed affiliate of the NHL." I understand the league didn't want anyone knowing it was helping the Stars when it was running the Coyotes, so it used legalese to deny it in an interview with Ron MacLean two years ago. But when the truth comes out, people remember.

18. One more note about Dallas: there were rumblings the team was thinking of trading Brenden Morrow. I'd be shocked, but looked into it. He has a no-trade, and, unless things have changed in the last few days, he hasn't been asked to waive it.

19. Matt Stajan, healthy scratch the last two games. Even though the Flames are thin at centre. Wow.

20. Sam Carchidi of The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Monday morning that, from now on, Ilya Bryzgalov will only be talking after games in which he plays. Of course, his magnificent "I'm lost in the woods" proclamation came after a game, but let's not get in the way of a good narrative. Bryzgalov is no stranger to wild comments and his former teammates wondered how that would go down in Philly, where things wouldn't go under the radar like they did in Phoenix.

21. It should be pointed out, though, that if the Coyotes complained about one thing, it was Bryzgalov's tendency to blame defencemen for bad goals. This time, he blamed himself and no one else. That scores points on a new team.

22. A former teammate of James Neal's said that once Neal learned to "use his body to score," he'd become lethal. Neal is big and strong and is now dictating to defenders where he can go with that power.

23. That fits in Pittsburgh, where Dan Bylsma wants his top-line wingers putting themselves in positions where they can be dangerous. You don't need to carry the puck much because Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby (when he returns) will do that. Mike Colligan of The Hockey Writers points out that Neal is constantly going for the top of the left circle/bottom of the right circle in the offensive zones.

24. It's important to make sure guys who need to carry the puck are partnered with those who don't mind playing without it. Look at Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik. Both love to carry it, and that doesn't necessarily work.

25. Will John Tortorella stick with Richards/Ryan Callahan/Brandon Dubinsky? That line is similar to Richards/Loui Eriksson/James Neal in Dallas, and the centreman was very productive in that setup.

26. One GM on Tortorella: "Say what you want, but the Rangers play hard for him."

27. Thought Wojtek Wolski got away with one. That elbow was sneaky dirty.

28. The reason Toronto put James Reimer on injured reserve: the CBA allows you only two 48-hour emergency goaltender recalls per season. The Maple Leafs used their first last Monday because of Reimer's injury. If they didn't formally put him on IR, they were out of that option for the rest of the season.

29. You'll remember that, a few weeks ago, Eric Francis reported on Bob Nicholson's proposal to raise the draft age to 19. NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr went through Alberta on his fall tour last week and asked to meet with Nicholson in Calgary. Still doubt the players would back something like this, but thought it was interesting they chatted about it.

30. Met a teenage Leafs fan last weekend, Lucy Rogers, who travelled from River John, NS to see her favourite team face the Penguins. (She also loves Pittsburgh, because everyone in Nova Scotia is a Sidney Crosby fan.) Lucy was born with Down Syndrome, and her love of the Leafs helped her overcome some serious shyness. Angie Andreou and Kelley Rosset at the NHL, Toronto's Pat Park and Catherine Grey and Pittsburgh's Frank Buonomo (plus players on both teams) deserve a lot of credit for allowing her to attend practice and go into the dressing rooms. You can't quantify what that means to someone.

Hockey guru takes stats to the masses

ALLAN MAKI, Globe and Mail, Nov. 01, 2011



He admits it: He’s not the computer who wore hockey skates. Off the top of his head, he doesn’t know every game-related fact and can’t spit out a gigabyte of statistical data at the speed of a Zdeno Chara slap shot.

The truth is Ralph Slate never even played hockey. He’s a data-base specialist from Springfield, Mass., who used to catalogue songs and record albums on an Atari 800 back in the day. Just for fun.

So why is it that some people started an on-line petition calling for Slate’s induction in the Hockey Hall of Fame? Because they can, and because Slate helped modernize how fans, media and even NHL team officials access their hockey information.

That’s not to say Slate’s Internet Hockey Data Base (hockeydb.com) is the be-all for everything hockey. But after 13 years of relentless service, it is regarded as a standard bearer for a generation of hockey zealots who now have multiple computer stops for everything from salary-cap dealings to hockey fights, even statistical breakdowns that show how a player has performed by month, against certain teams, you name it.

That site, hockey-reference.com, “has gone to the next generation,” said Joe Pelletier, founder of greatesthockeylegends.com and the author of eBook Pucks on the ’Net. “Users can do more with it.”

Hockeydb’s role in the cyber arena is to list past and present players and their scoring totals from the NHL to the minors and Europe. That allows NHL teams to follow prospects abroad. (Asked if he uses hockeydb.com, Detroit Red Wings assistant general manager Jim Nill replied, “Yeah, it’s a great website.”)

“There are probably four or five big websites – Eurohockey.com, hockey-reference.com,” which Slate describes as “all NHL stuff, more in-depth with arcane statistics. I’m more interested in the historical aspect.”

Slate’s interest in hockey began in his youth when he followed the Springfield Americans of the AHL. When he attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., Slate took to the Engineers hockey team and watched star player Joe Juneau. It was around 1991 when Slate began wondering what had happened to all the other RPI players, especially those who didn’t make it to the NHL.

Slate also thought about his grandfather, a former minor-league baseball player whose exploits couldn’t be found in the game’s bible, Total Baseball. Combining his passion for hockey with a growing knowledge in computers, Slate took a Total Baseball approach to hockey and expanded on it.

It was “the next logical step,” according to Slate, to what Ken McKenzie had done with The Hockey News and Jim Hendy with The Hockey Guide – a way to get hockey info to the masses.

“My original intent was to do a book but it would have been too big, too expensive,” said Slate, who works for ISO New England overseeing electrical grids. “Then the Internet came along and that was it.”

Slate has gotten more efficient at updating data to his site and that has allowed him to broaden its base.

“The neat thing is the old newspapers are coming online so I can look at the box scores,” he said. “I’ve been trying to compile attendance data [for different decades and leagues].”

While both Slate and Pelletier continually update their sites – putting in more hours than they care to admit – they aren’t sure what’s next for hockey and the Internet, and that has them wondering.

“The real craze now is the moneypuck statistical revolution,” admitted Pelletier, who got hooked on data as a kid after finding an old hockey card (Los Angeles Kings defenceman Barry Gibbs) at a dump in Terrace, B.C. “I’ve heard of one guy who recorded what part of the net where every single goal was scored last season [in the NHL] … I don’t know how they do that.”

Boudreau sends a message

By DAN DI SCIULLO, SPORTS NETWORK, Nov 2 2011



PHILADELPHIA - Bruce Boudreau has a reputation as a player's coach, albeit a foul-mouthed one for those of us who watched him chew up the scenery last year in HBO's acclaimed 24/7 series.

But, Boudreau played against type in Washington's latest game and by doing so he sent a powerful message to his team.

It happened late in the third period of Tuesday's game against the visiting Anaheim Ducks. The Capitals were trailing Anaheim by a goal with just over a minute remaining in regulation and as Boudreau prepared his team for the ensuing faceoff, superstar Alex Ovechkin stood on the ice and listened to his coach set up the play.

But, when it came time for Boudreau to send his six skaters on the ice, Ovechkin was not one of them.

It may not seem like a big deal, but it was.

Ovechkin is a two-time league MVP and possibly the most dangerous offensive player in the world. When your goalie is out for an extra attacker it's hard to fathom finding a better potential scorer to put on the ice over Ovechkin.

Instead, Boudreau went with a gut feeling, sending forwards Nicklas Backstrom, Brooks Laich, Joel Ward and Jason Chimera to the ice with defencemen Dennis Wideman and John Carlson. Boudreau's premonition came true as Backstrom tied the game with 42 seconds left in regulation.

"I was playing a hunch," Boudreau told the media on Wednesday. "That line was going so good and I thought that every time they were on the ice they had the puck in their zone. I just thought they were going to score."

Backstrom would score again to win the game in overtime. Ovechkin picked up an assist on that one, but after the game all anybody wanted to talk about was No. 8 not being on the ice at the end of regulation.

Much of the hubbub surrounded Ovechkin's reaction to being left on the bench, as he was caught by TV cameras hurling an expletive or two in his coach's direction. But Boudreau, who said he didn't hear what Ovechkin said, was glad that his captain responded the way that he did.

"I don't want him to be complacent and say 'Oh, that's nice.' So, I think that's what the idea was, not the plan, but knowing him, he's going to be upset."

For the most part, Boudreau did his best to play down Tuesday's events, taking the stance that the benching of Ovechkin was more about playing a hunch and going with hot players than proving a point. That may be true to an extent, but Boudreau also revealed that getting under Ovechkin's skin is a great way to motivate his star player and that knowledge had to play a role in the coach's controversial decision.

"Alex understands and gets it," Boudreau said. "He's a great captain that way. He gets mad because he wants to play and he wants to compete."

In the end, all of this comes back to Boudreau feeling the heat in Washington. He has brought tons of regular-season success to D.C. since taking the job in 2007, but the Capitals have not performed well in the postseason, losing in the first or second round in the four previous campaigns. Another 121-point season like Washington had in 2009-10 -- when the Capitals lost in the first round to eighth-seeded Montreal -- may not even be enough to save Boudreau's job if his team falters in the postseason yet again.

The coach has tried before to fix the club's postseason problems during the regular season and he must know that he is running out of chances to do so. Boudreau put a stronger emphasis on team defence last year, but the Caps still wound up getting swept in the second round by Tampa Bay.

That's why this year has been all about accountability and taking nothing for granted. If Boudreau can't fix his club's bad habits and make a deep playoff run then he could be looking for a job this summer.

It doesn't matter that Washington won its first seven games of this year and is currently boasting an 8-2-0 record, Boudreau knows that if he doesn't raise the stakes for his players then it could be the same old story this spring. The head coach wants all his players, including his superstar, to be on the same page at all times and he knows that sometimes actions speak louder than words.

"There's nothing to talk about," Boudreau said Wednesday when asked if he had spoken to Ovechkin about the benching. "We've all understood it, it's from day one ... I hope the message has gotten clear from July to now and I'm hoping we don't change that message. We're going to try and stay strong with it and that's the only way we're going to be successful."

Ovechkin isn't the only player to feel Boudreau's wrath this year, but his benching had to carry the most weight with his teammates. There was no better way for Boudreau to send a message to the entire team than sitting his captain and franchise player in a key situation.

That message was received by everyone, including Ovechkin.

"It's one team and it doesn't matter who you are," Ovechkin said on Wednesday. "If you want to win you have to be on the same page. Everybody."

The next time Washington is down a goal late and has pulled the goalie for an extra attacker, expect Ovie to be out on the ice. It's not good strategy to leave such a dangerous weapon on the bench when your team needs a goal, but the benching did serve a valuable one-time purpose.

Whether that purpose pays off in end is a question that won't be answered until the playoffs, but Boudreau has taught his club a valuable lesson for now.

An immigrant's tale:
Bad luck is partly to blame for the end of Chad Starling's career; so is an ECHL policy that caused him to be sent back to Canada

J.P. Hoornstra, Staff Writer, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin,11/01/2011


The story of Chad Starling's hockey career already had been written when his pickup truck pulled into the U.S.-Canadian border station at Sweetgrass, Montana early in the afternoon of Sept. 29.

Starling played 503 games in the ECHL between 2000 and 2009, more than any ECHL defenseman during the decade. Last year, his third with the Reign, Starling was one of 12 players named to the league's all-decade team.

At 6-foot-6 and 205 pounds, the 31-year-old Starling looks like a typical hockey player, although his career trajectory was unusual.

While his peers from the 1999 draft class either established themselves in the NHL or moved on to their post-playing careers, Starling slugged through one of the least glamorous jobs in professional sports: A low-scoring, defensive-minded defenseman in a league known for long bus rides, three-game weekend series and sub-$20,000 annual salaries.

This was supposed to be Starling's 11th season of professional hockey. It began just like any other, with a 400-mile drive south to the border from his home in Delisle, Saskatchewan.

There, in Sweetgrass, a routine encounter threatened to re-write his legacy.

When he was greeted by Customs and Border Protection Officer Andrew Hoggan, Starling had a truck full of hockey gear, some personal belongings and a printed letter with the official Ontario Reign logo on top.

The letter was titled "RE: Application for B-1, Visitor for Business
Classification, On behalf of Chad Starling."

It began: "This letter is submitted in support of the admission of Chad Starling to the United States in B-1 Status. We have invited Chad to participate in training session with the Ontario Reign that will be held from September 27, 2011 to October 10, 2011 in Ontario, California."

Hoggan read the brief note, which was signed by head coach Jason Christie. He went to a computer to verify the information by performing a Google search on Starling's name.

Hoggan was not made available for comment but Lynn Hurst, the public affairs liaison for the station, said this is a common practice.

"If someone is claiming to be coming into the U.S. because of trying to get a visa for a sports visa or a work visa, and in order to substantiate their claim, they may Google that person's name, or Google the team, or the business that they're planning to work for," Hurst said.

What Hoggan found was a blog entry on this newspaper's website, dated July 25, 2011, indicating Starling already had re-signed with the Reign for the 2011-12 season. (Google "Chad Starling" and the blog entry still is among the top results.)

This presented a contradiction. The letter stated Starling was invited to participate in training camp, during which he "may engage in contract negotiations." However, as a simple internet search revealed, a contract already had been negotiated and signed.

To the government, that makes a big difference.

"When an athlete comes in to try out for a team, they're issued a B-1 visa, which for Canadians, there isn't any fee associated with that," Hurst said. "They come in temporarily to try out for the team. Then if they make the team, they have to adjust status to either an H-2 or a P-1."

Since Starling already "made" the team in the eyes of the government (in this case, a border guard), the B-1 visa wasn't sufficient. Hoggan filled out the U.S. Department of Homeland Security form for Withdrawal of Application for Admission.

He took Starling's photo and fingerprint and noted the explanation: "Application withdrawn in order to return back to Canada to either have a P-1 petition or proof that a contract has not been signed."

It was the first time in 11 seasons Starling had been turned around at the border.

"I called (Christie) right after and he said, 'We'll get right on that,' " he said. "I asked him how long it would take. He said no more than 10 days."

That sounded simple enough. Ten days and Starling would be back in business. Camp was two weeks long, so this wasn't a major setback. Starling was familiar with the organization, the city and the coach; even though Christie was hired by the Reign in August, Starling played for him for five seasons in Peoria and Utah from 2001-06.

Dollars and sense

But why make it difficult? Why would the letter from the Reign request a B-1 visa when Starling needed a P-1?

The answer is simple, but the logic is complicated.

To petition the U.S. government for a P-1 visa costs money - $325 to be exact, although that $325 won't get you very far.

Bob Hoffman, director of communications for the Central Hockey League, said each P-1 petition "ends up in a stack of papers. We've heard stories before of people waiting two months (to get their P-1 approved). None of our teams take that risk. Premium processing is more but it puts the paper at the top of the stack."

That's why hockey teams at every level - the NHL, ECHL and CHL - pay an additional $1,225 Premium Processing Service fee. The P-1 then gets processed within 15 calendar days; if not, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services guarantees a refund.

The Premium Processing Service can be applied to multiple P-1 petitions. So, for example, if a team has 10 players who need P-1 visas, the team can put all 10 names on a list and pay the $1,225 fee once. In the cost-conscious world of minor league sports, that means a lot.

Hoffman said the Central Hockey League has a policy of filing the petitions, and paying the extra fee, for all its P-1 eligible players 15 days before training camp begins - typically on Sept. 15 - so that each P-1 is processed in time for camp. The league also keeps an immigration attorney, Christi Hufford, on retainer to monitor the immigration status of every player.

"Once we caught an issue 10 minutes before game time with an emergency backup goaltender," Hoffman recalled. "He had work authorization in a field other than hockey. If he had taken the ice to play hockey, he would have been technically breaking the law, so he didn't play."

The ECHL has a different policy.

"It's standard procedure for players crossing the border for camp to ask for a B-1," said Joe Babik, the league's Director of Communications. The Reign apparently were abiding when Starling handed over the letter in Sweetgrass.

This policy allows ECHL teams to save money, in case a non-tryout player who needs a P-1 visa is deemed expendable during training camp and is released before playing in a game.

The policy produced a letter stating "the purpose of the tryout is to introduce Chad to the team and to learn more about him while providing him with the opportunity to get to know the Ontario Reign organization."

The blog entry on insidesocal.com Hoggan read while Starling waited in his pickup truck showed that, three months earlier, the defenseman had "re-signed for an unprecedented fourth season in Ontario."

It was this apparent contradiction of facts that got Starling turned around at the border. But this isn't the reason he never made it to California.

Bad luck

Sure enough, within 15 days after Starling was turned around at Sweetgrass, his P-1 visa petition was approved. But a lot can happen in 15 days.

Four more defensemen whom the Reign signed in the offseason were unable to play. Adrian van de Mosselaer contracted mononucleosis. Jason Fredricks and Pat Bowen went down with knee injuries. Jordan Hill got a tryout with the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League and earned a contract in training camp.

Starling called Christie on the evening of Thursday, Oct. 13, one day before the Reign's first regular-season game.

"He said, 'We got your papers done.' He said, 'We need you to leave first thing tomorrow,' " Starling recalled. "I told him, 'Well, I might not be able to leave until Saturday morning because I had a full day of work planned Friday.' "

Starling said he would call Christie back once he knew he could get the day off. He did. Christie didn't answer. Starling left a message.

The season began as scheduled as the Reign lost their first game and won their second. Starling was added to the opening-day roster and officially went on 7-day injured reserve.

A classic game of phone tag played out behind the scenes.

"I got up Friday morning, called, but (Christie) didn't answer, so I left another message," Starling said. "I went to work. He didn't call back Friday. He called back Tuesday at 11 o'clock in the morning."

Out of necessity, Christie had been working the phones to find defensemen to replace Hill, van de Mosselaer, Fredricks and Bowen. By the time he did, one week into the season, Starling was eligible to come off injured reserve.

Then another roadblock emerged: There was no more room for Starling in Ontario.

"We kind of have (limited) cap room there and there's apartments," Christie said on Oct. 20. "We're only allowed so many apartments and it's hurting us because we've got so many guys injured. That's the way the ball rolls sometimes with these injuries. We've got to make sure we're going to be on top of it."

The next day, Starling was released.

Christie said it wasn't easy.

"At the end of the day it comes down to money, the cap, not being able to have space," he said. "We have to make sure we have the right budget. Coming in late like this, missing last season (Starling missed the final four months with groin injuries), it was something where a decision had to be made. For me it was a hard one because I know him. You never like to see that, especially when you have a relationship."

The feeling was mutual.

"They never did send me any papers so I could leave," Starling said. "To have it end like this, sour grapes, that sucks. But that's the way it goes."

Hard lesson learned

Starling still is in Delisle working for his family-owned business, "cleaning out septic tanks, car washes, any kind of waste basically," in a rural nook of Saskatchewan.

He is an unsigned free agent and is comfortable calling it a career.

"You never say never, if somebody needs a D-man," he said. "My plan was to take over my parents' business. Now I just speed the plan up six months."

Starling said he has no hard feelings toward his teammates. He's convinced the discrepancy between the letter he was given by the team, and the letter of the law, is the reason he's still at home.

Christie acknowledged if Starling hadn't gotten turned around at the border, "this probably never would have happened."

So something needs to change.

The ECHL can adopt an airtight immigration policy, maybe one similar to the CHL's. Maybe the Department of Homeland Security can relax P-1 fees for minor-league sports teams who must pay the same amount as their major-league brethren.

Last week, Starling sent the following text message: "Well hopefully if u [sic] get this story done it will stop players in the future to have to go through what I did."

For now, his legacy remains only partially re-written.

Marketing business as usual for NHL?

DAVID SHOALTS, Globe and Mail, Nov. 04, 2011


In the New York-New Jersey corridor – the heart of NBA territory – the league may be dark due to the player lockout, but there is no sign of the NHL stepping in to shine its light on disaffected basketball fans.

The New Jersey Devils, who share the Prudential Center with the New Jersey Nets, have an advertising campaign under way through their social media outlets, as well as the traditional broadcast and print ads, but there is no mention of the NBA’s labour troubles. The pitch is: come watch the Devils play because it’s a great evening’s entertainment, not because your basketball team is shut down.

As for the New York Rangers, they’re not saying anything (just like a lot of team and league executives contacted for this story). A Rangers spokesman, citing that The Madison Square Garden Company owns both the Rangers and Knicks, said they could not comment on anything to do with the NBA lockout.

John Collins, the NHL’s chief operating officer and marketing boss, declined to comment. A request for comment from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman went unanswered.

Across the continent, the Los Angeles Kings once again plastered downtown building billboards with pictures of their players. But the message is: the Kings are a good team worth watching, not that they are playing and the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers are not.

“We certainly don’t want to jump on labour issues, mainly because we’re friendly with all the professional sports teams in Los Angeles and we know what it’s like to go through that stuff,” said Chris McGowan, the Kings chief operating officer. “I also think it’s bad business strategy to plan for something that’s uncertain [like a lockout].

“An NBA lockout or another league’s lockout could last a year, or it could be over on Monday.”

Other NHL executives say while the topic was never formally discussed by owners, a conscious decision was made by the league and the teams not to capitalize on the problems of its corporate colleague.

Since the NHL has had its own lockout troubles in the past, and more could be ahead when the collective agreement expires in September of 2012, league executives say it wouldn’t be cricket to launch a marketing campaign trying to win over basketball fans. Besides, NHL teams like the Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Kings and Washington Capitals are owned or partly owned by the same people who own NBA teams.

“We wouldn’t want them to do that to us and they didn’t do that to us when we were out a year [in 2004-05],” said Jim Devellano, the senior vice-president of the Detroit Red Wings.

However, with 14 NHL teams in the same city as an NBA team and 10 of them sharing an arena, some marketing experts think the hockey league is missing a great chance to attract new fans.

“I think it’s a golden opportunity for hockey,” said Mike Sprouse, chief marketing officer of Internet marketing company Epic Media Group in Chicago. “I love basketball but as a sports fan I love to go to live events. The NBA lockout has been on for four to five months and I haven’t seen one piece of marketing from the NHL trying to leverage it.”

It isn’t necessary to hammer away at the fact the NBA is shut down, Devellano says.

“Everybody in Detroit knows it’s just the Lions [of the NFL] and Red Wings playing right now,” he said. “It helps us because there’s only two teams selling tickets instead of three.”

David Carter, the executive director of the University of Southern California’s Sports Business Institute, says the NHL is still capitalizing on the NBA lockout. But it’s been done in a more subtle way than telling fans to come watch because the other guy’s theatre is closed.

For example, teams are targeting the casual fans and their families who may budget for attending three or four sports events a year. If NHL teams can land those fans for a game and show them a quality evening of entertainment, maybe they will stick to hockey in the future.

“There are also things like group events held by corporations,” Carter said. “Companies take their clients or employees to an arena for a night. They can’t trust that the NBA is operating so the NHL can go after those group outings and it’s a more subtle thing.”

Benching Ovechkin: The Caps get tough

By Katie Baker, Grantland. com, NOVEMBER 2, 2011


For the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night, the third line was the charm. With the Caps down 3-0 midway through the second period against the Anaheim Ducks, right wing Joel Ward netted a wrister that was set up by his linemates Brooks Laich and Jason Chimera to cut the Ducks' lead to 3-1. Three minutes later, Laich and Ward were credited with assists on a slap shot goal by defenseman Dennis Wideman. On the other end of the ice, Washington coach Bruce Boudreau took every opportunity to match up his third threesome against Anaheim's top line of Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, and Bobby Ryan, and it worked: The Ducks' stars were held to just one power play goal by Perry halfway through the third.

And it was the grinding third line that helped set up Nicklas Backstrom's game-tying goal, with Chimera and Laich earning assists on Backstrom's wrist shot with 42 seconds to play. The Swede would score his second in overtime to give Washington the stirring 5-4 comeback win.

Still, for all the third line's contributions, the Capitals' biggest headlines were made by their first line winger's play — or, as it were, his lack thereof. With just over a minute remaining in regulation and the Caps down 4-3, Washington head coach Bruce Boudreau called a timeout to diagram what to do. He pulled goalie Tomas Vokoun and sent six Washington skaters out onto the ice — none of whom were named Alex Ovechkin.1 Replays later showed an incredulous Ovi glaring at Boudreau, plunking himself down on the bench, and muttering in disgust what a legion of lip-readers determined were the words "fat *censormode*." He was sent back out on the ice in overtime, and played a strong shift that resulted in the primary assist on Backstrom's game-winning goal.

http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=fbmRKVJWEB8&feature=player_embedded

"I thought the other guys were better than him and I thought there was just a chance that other guys might score the goal," Boudreau said after the game when asked about Ovi's absence on the game-tying play. "I've got to put out the guys that I think are going to score the goal and 99 percent of the time Alex is the guy I think is going to score the goal. I just didn't think Alex was going to score the goal at that time tonight. You go with your gut feeling, thinking that line is going pretty good, and I got lucky."

In the same way a basketball player or coach can be vilified for a last-second shot that rims out but praised as a clutch player or genius if the ball bounces in, Boudreau risked widespread wrath had his decision not yielded a goal. It was a bold coaching move that spoke volumes about the kind of team he and the Capitals are trying to become this season: one whose role players don't just stand aside and watch Ovi take over. One with a locker room that is not lackadaisical and a coaching staff that is not blinded by stars. One where grinders like Joel Ward, who was acquired this offseason specifically to enhance the team's checking line, and Brooks Laich, who was re-signed this summer for the same reason, are considered as integral to the team as someone like Ovechkin. Because when it comes to the all-important postseason, they almost certainly will be.

Boudreau, long questioned for a permissive attitude toward his team's better players that, many complained, resulted in too much coasting and too many costs, has wielded his power more heavily throughout this young season. He's done so with some measure of success. In the very first game of the year he sat Vokoun in favor of goaltender Michal Neuvirth, saying simply that Neuvirth had "earned it" with strong preseason play. Whether that particular move was the reason or not, Vokoun has been one of the league's finest goalies since then. Boudreau scratched Marcus Johansson on opening night, and in the next game the young center responded with a goal and an assist. (He has recorded four more goals since, three of them game-winners.)2

Last night Boudreau effectively sent two important messages to the Capitals: that he's willing to bench even the team's biggest player, and, perhaps more importantly, that he's got faith in everyone else when he does.

To his credit, Ovi handled it all as well as he could have — he got (rightly) furious, he got back on the ice, he got an assist, and, in a development that ought to soothe worried Caps fans, he seems to have gotten "it," telling reporters on Wednesday that he understood what had happened. "Of course," he said. "[The third line] play[ed] unbelievable last night, they shut down Getzlaf line and score goals. No doubt about it."

The Beginning of the End for the NCAA
Compensating players was just the start — the entire system is about to collapse

Charles P. Pierce, Grantland.com, NOVEMBER 1, 2011

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Interesting to see what happens in the hockey world if this occurs... NCAA (amateur) vs Major Junior Hockey (professional). Now, the lines will be removed. Both leagues will be considered professional. Kids could move from one league to the other (unless the leagues put in rules restricting it)...wow!
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In June of 1970, Bill Veeck, a renegade baseball owner, took the stand for the plaintiff in the case of Flood v. Kuhn, in which St. Louis Cardinal outfielder Curt Flood essentially sued major league baseball to break the power of the "reserve system," a pernicious practice that bound a player to one team for as long as that one team wanted to keep him. It was this system of, at best, involuntary servitude on which the business of baseball had remained a rigged game in favor of management for over a century.

Veeck thought the system doomed. Sooner or later, he believed, a judge, or somebody else in authority that didn't give a damn about sitting in the owner's box for Opening Day, was going to get a good look at the system. That person probably then would spend four or five minutes laughing so hard that they nearly fainted, and then that person would throw out the whole system for the fraud that it was. Better to eliminate the reserve system gradually, Veeck testified. (He recommended a system of seven-year contracts, much like the system that had prevailed at one time in Hollywood.) That way, he thought, the owners could control the transition between the reserve system and whatever came next. Veeck also pointed out that the reserve system, as it was practiced at the time, ran counter to some cherished American beliefs about the country's values.

"I think it would certainly help the players and the game itself to no longer be one of the few places in which there is human bondage," Veeck testified, according to the account in Brad Snyder's A Well-Paid Slave, an exemplary book on the Flood case. "I think it would be to the benefit of the reputation of the game of baseball … At least, it would be fair."

The owners didn't listen. Veeck was not one of them. He had a predilection for putting midgets on the field. And black people. And, as far as the authoritarian exercise of whiteness went, baseball management made the Politburo look like the O'Jays. They ignored Veeck. They even beat the Flood case in the Supreme Court. Then, in 1975, an arbitrator named Peter Seitz threw out the reserve clause and free agency fell onto baseball all at once and everywhere. The system utterly collapsed and, just as Veeck had predicted, it was not a soft landing.

Something like that has happened over the last 20 or 30 years in regard to college athletics. Every few years, some angry, stick-waving prophet would come wandering into the cozy system of unpaid (or barely paid) labor and start bellowing about how the essential corruption in the system wasn't that some players got money under the table, but that none of them were allowed to get any over it. Sooner or later, these people said, the system would collapse from its own internal contradictions — yes, some of these people summoned up enough Marx through the bong resin in their brains from their college days to make a point — and the people running college sports had best figure out how to control the chaos before it overwhelmed them. Nobody listened. Very little changed, except that college sports became bigger and more lucrative, an enterprise of sports spectacle balanced precariously on the fragile principle that everybody should get to make money except the people doing the actual work.

Now, though, the indications are that the reckoning is finally here. In its role as the protector of the lucrative status quo, the NCAA is under assault from a number of different directions, and the organization seems to be cracking from the pressure. Just in the past two years, we have seen the lawsuit brought by former UCLA star Ed O'Bannon in which O'Bannon and several other former NCAA athletes challenged the NCAA's right to profit from their "likenesses" in perpetuity. Earlier this month, legendary center Bill Russell joined that suit. In the October issue of the Atlantic, historian Taylor Branch took a mighty whack at the entire system and made a case for paying college athletes on the grounds of simple fairness. Branch's credentials as a chronicler of the civil rights movement gave his critique a profound resonance in places where nobody much cares if Alabama beats LSU this weekend. Yesterday, Congressman Bobby Rush of Illinois, a former Black Panther who once escaped being murdered by the Chicago Police Department through the expedient of not being at home to get shot, and still the only man to defeat Barack Obama head-to-head in an election, likened the NCAA to Al Capone, which is not a compliment, not even in Chicago. And, perhaps most significant of all, a petition is being circulated by current football and basketball players requesting (politely) a cut of the vast ancillary revenues that the colleges and the NCAA are raking in.

On October 27, undoubtedly in response to all of this, and in an obvious attempt to keep order within the help, the NCAA voted to allow its member conferences to decide whether to pay their athletes an annual stipend of $2,000 to cover the "incidental costs" of a college education. NCAA president Mark Emmert was firm in his denial that this constituted "pay for play."

Nonsense.

Of course, it is.

And that's the ballgame right there. As soon as you pay someone $2,000, you cannot make the argument that it is unethical to pay that person $5,000, or $10,000, or a million bucks a year, for all that. Amateurism is one of those rigid things that cannot bend, only shatter. Amateurism is an unsustainable concept. It could not last in golf. It could not last in tennis. It couldn't even last in the Olympics, where it was supposed to have been ordained by Zeus or someone. It is the rancid legacy of a stultified British class system in which athletes were supposed to be "gentlemen" and not "tradesmen." Which is to say that sports are supposed to be for Us and not Them, old sport.

It was particularly badly suited for transplantation to this country, where we — theoretically, anyway, and against a preponderance of available evidence today — believe that we are a classless society based on upward mobility and the essential fairness of our system.

(Yeah, yeah, I know, but play along for the moment, OK?)

Sports have always played an important role in the construction of that part of our national self-image. Sports as a "way out of poverty" is one of our more cherished national myths, and it always ran headlong into the British concept of amateurism, which was based on a class system that didn't believe in ways out of poverty for the lower orders, or the Irish. But I repeat myself. Basically, amateurism offends against this country's image of itself and, therefore, its support here always has been tenuous.

Give Americans a chance to be greedy and noble at the same time, and the cultural momentum becomes unstoppable.

Which is part of the reason why every major "scandal" in college sports begins with the crash of a cymbal and ends with a stifled yawn. What we have in college sports at the moment is a perfect example of a functioning underground economy. People tolerate that economy because, fundamentally, we believe that, if you work a 40-hour-a-week job that requires travel all over the country, you ought to get paid for it. We also love the games. Hence, out of both selfishness and a kind of innate sense of fairness, most people are more satisfied with the sausage than they are horrified at how it's made. Give Americans a chance to be greedy and noble at the same time, and the cultural momentum becomes unstoppable.

The counterargument, of course, is that athletes are "compensated" by the scholarships they are granted to the universities they attend. In a time in which the middle class is being squeezed, and a college education is pricing itself out of the reach of thousands of families, this argument gains a certain amount of power. However, let's accept it on its face for the moment. You can say that the university is entitled to the gate receipts from its games based on the value of the scholarships it grants to its players, and I might even grant you that, at which point I will lie down until this feeling passes.

But the ancillary income — television revenues, the sale of jerseys and other gear, the use of a player's "likeness" in video games, and on and on — completely overwhelms the equation and makes the relationship inequitable. The Southeastern Conference made over a billion dollars last year. The Big 10 made $905 million. These people may have a moral right to their ticket sales based on the scholarships they provide, but they don't have a moral right to every last nickel they can squeeze out of their labor force. That's absurd. It's un-American. And it cannot last.

The NCAA is floundering now, proposing a cheap pay-for-play scheme while denying it is doing so, and hoping to buy a little more time against the looming inevitable. Eventually, one night, they'll throw up the ball at an NCAA tournament game and none of the players will jump. Or, a judge will rule on one or another of the lawsuits. Let's look at the history of one of the plaintiffs.

In 1963, Bill Russell went to Jackson, Mississippi, and, in the face of the worst America had to offer, conducted integrated basketball clinics. In his way he helped redeem the distance between this country's promise and this country's reality. Bill Russell's been threatened by experts, boys, and now he's suing you. If I were you, I wouldn't screw with Bill Russell.

Getting To Know: Joe Mullen

Mark Malinowski, The Hockey News, 2011-11-06


Status: NHL right winger from 1980-1997 with St. Louis, Calgary, Pittsburgh and Boston. Currently serves as an assistant coach for the Philadelphia Flyers. Joe Mullen scored 502 goals in his NHL career.

Ht: 5-foot-9 Wt: 180 pounds

DOB: Feb. 26, 1957 In: New York

First Hockey Memory: "Roller hockey, playing with my brothers in the schoolyard across the street from where we lived in New York - 49th Street between Ninth and Tenth."

Hockey Inspirations: "Well, New York Rangers. Watching them all those years, living up the street from Madison Square Garden. My dad worked there. My dad and my brothers playing roller hockey were inspirations."

Last Book Read: "I just read one Mr. Snider gave me. About a guy from Hell's Kitchen - a friend of his who started out in the mafia, became a producer and a pilot. Pretty cool book, it was called Mafia Summer.”

Nicknames: "Oh, you don't want to know that (laughs). I don't want to put them out there either."

First Car: "Oldsmobile Omega (blue)."

First Job: "Sweeping the streets in New York City."

Current Car: "I got a Toyota Venza (charcoal)."

Greatest Sports Moment: "Winning the Stanley Cup with Calgary. And two with Pittsburgh."

Most Painful Moment: "Probably the first time I tore up my knee. Not so much it hurt, but I knew I was done for the season. And that was painful to take. (How did it happen?) It was freaky. Just skating on, actually it was Bernie Nicholls, I was backchecking on him and I was going to go rub him out. And I just kind of fell. When I went to get up I could tell the knee was done. (Where?) It was in St. Louis."

Favorite Uniforms: "Probably the Calgary Flames."

Favorite Arena: "Edmonton's ice surface was always my favorite ice surface. Was it my favorite rink, probably not (laughs). But that was the best ice surface. I always enjoyed Minnesota. (Why?) I guess because I did pretty well there."

Closest Hockey Friends: "Probably my brother Brian."

Funniest Players Encountered: "Oh, Marc Bergevin. (A lot of people say him.) Did you catch his act? (No.) OK. Well, he'd bring a bag of props with him. When he got traded, he had two bags - his equipment bag and his bag of props. And just...he had wigs, he had everything. He's a character. And he'd come in and blast the music, he'd dance for the guys when we won. He was just a funny guy. Not because of that, but he's funny all the time. Pulling pranks. We had Krzysztof Oliwa and he pulled pranks on the guy like every 10 minutes. I mean, he was an easy target. Marc just wanted to prank the guy all the time."

Toughest Competitors Encountered: "Messier's gotta be in there for sure. I thought Ray Bourque was a pretty fierce competitor. Those two stick out in my mind."

Most Memorable Goal: "That's probably the first time I got 50 in Calgary against Winnipeg (1989). (Goalie?) I'm not exactly sure."

Strangest Game: "We had a snowstorm in New Jersey one year. Maybe 500 people in the building. And we had to play the game that night. The Devils team was late for the game. Of course, they were driving. And we had the bus and were there early. So we beat it and got there early. They just got stuck. It turned out to be really late. To play with 500 people in the stands is like practice. Plus, our goaltender (Doug Dadswell) - he was a rookie. It was his first game in the National Hockey League. And he had to play that game."

Last Vacation: "We probably went to Disney World. That was a few years back. With the kids."

Favorite Players To Watch: "Well, growing up, guys like Brad Park and Rod Gilbert and Vic Hadfield, that were obviously New York Rangers. Growing up right next to Madison Square Garden, I was definitely a Rangers fan. Then when I was playing, Rick Middleton was always one of my favorites. Mike Bossy. Current guys, right now, Sidney Crosby I really like to watch. Mostly the team I'm coaching. I really enjoy coaching, so, to watch our team every night and seeing improvement and seeing the guys do what you tell them is pretty cool."

Favorite Sport Outside Hockey: "I like playing golf, that's what I do during the summer."

Personality Qualities Most Admired: "Just happy-go-lucky people. Just love life, don't really have a bad thing to say about other people."

Career Accomplishment: Winner of three Stanley Cups, played in three All-Star Games (1989, 1990, 1994); Led NHL in playoff goals in 1986 (12) and 1989 (16); In 1,062 regular season NHL games, scored 502 goals, totaled 561 assists for 1,063 total points; In 143 NHL playoff games, scored 60 goals, 46 assists for 106 points; Signed as a free agent in 1979 by St. Louis out of Boston College.

BLUES RELIEVE PAYNE AS HEAD COACH, HIRE HITCHCOCK

THE CANADIAN PRESS, 11/6/2011


ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues have changed coaches after a disappointing 6-7 start, firing Davis Payne and hiring Ken Hitchcock to a contract through next season.

The 40-year-old Payne was the second-youngest coach in the NHL but got only one full season with St. Louis after being hired in January 2010.

The 59-year-old Hitchcock is 534-350-88-70, winning a Stanley Cup with Dallas in 1999-2000 and also coaching at Philadelphia and Columbus. Hitchcock was also an assistant coach for Canada's men's hockey team when it won gold in the 2002 and 2010 Winter Olympics.

He had been under contract with the Blue Jackets through the end of this season for US$1.3 million

The team called a news conference for Monday with Hitchcock and general manager Doug Armstrong, and said there would be no comment until then. Hitchcock will be on the bench for practice that afternoon.

The Blues begin a five-game homestand Tuesday night against Chicago.

Hitchcock and team president John Davidson didn't return telephone messages from The Associated Press.

The Blues were 67-55-15 under Payne. He was interim coach the remainder of the 2010-11 season after replacing Andy Murray and the interim tag was removed after the Blues finished 23-15-4.

Payne coached two seasons for the Blues' affiliate in the AHL before getting promoted.

The Blues were optimistic about making the playoffs for only the second time in seven seasons after adding veterans Jason Arnott, Jamie Langenbrunner and Scott Nichol to a base of young talent.

Goalie Jaroslav Halak in particular has struggled with a 1-6 record, while backup Brian Elliott is 5-1. Forward Chris Stewart is off to a slow start with three points.

St. Louis lost four of its first six, then seemed to right itself with a three-game winning streak that included victories at Vancouver and Philadelphia but has dropped three of the last four.

Hitchcock's teams have won six division titles and topped 100 points eight times. He inherits a team expected to contend for a playoff spot after missing the post-season five of the previous six seasons.

Since being fired by the Blue Jackets in February 2010, Hitchcock coached Canada at the IIHF World Hockey Championship earlier this year. Hitchcock has worked with seven national teams for Canada, including the 2008 world championship squad that won the silver medal in Quebec City.

Hitchcock and Armstrong also have plenty of history together. Armstrong was GM with Dallas when Hitchcock coached there, was an assistant GM with Canada at the 2010 Olympics and also worked with Hitchcock at the 2008 world championship.