Coaching, goaltending and discipline carry the West

Rory Boylen, The Hockey News,2012-04-24


Look west and you’ll see a new crop of Stanley Cup challengers pushing through to the second round. You’ll see that three of the four higher seeds won, though they might have been regarded as underdogs by many for their lack of playoff pedigree.

Look west and you’ll also see four great coaches advancing to Round 2.

Sure, the four bench bosses who were defeated on the left coast have their own impressive track records, but Darryl Sutter, Ken Hitchcock, Dave Tippett and Barry Trotz have done wonders with underdogs – and it’s not the first time for any of them.

Remember when Sutter’s December arrival in Los Angeles was met with schoolyard quips from some corners? Well, he took that 15-14-4 team and went 25-13-11 the rest of the way. Sutter’s system flourishes with a strong goalie, which is how he took the Calgary Flames, with Miikka Kiprusoff, to the Stanley Cup final in 2003-04. It’s worth noting Sutter only coached one season between that run and this season.

Ken Hitchcock’s job in St. Louis has him as the favorite for the Jack Adams Award, but he also had monster success in Dallas – where he won a Cup – one good run in Philadelphia and turned a mediocre Columbus team into a playoff outfit for one season.

Dave Tippett, who won 50 games twice in Dallas, has done a miraculous job since coming to the owner-challenged Coyotes. While they’re often described as defensive, they allow a ton of shots, a figure that’s been climbing each year since Tippett arrived. A more apt description of the team is that they’re well-disciplined: the team’s PIM/G have dropped each year since Tippett’s arrival. The way the team stays committed to their coach’s system is another sign of discipline.

And then there’s Barry Trotz, the coach you can’t help but root for. His body of work is long and distinguished and we’ve all been waiting for his team to break through in the post-season. It really is a travesty he hasn’t won a Jack Adams yet.

Discipline, systems and goalies allow these teams to be successful. Detroit, and Vancouver averaged less than two goals per game in the first round, while Chicago averaged two on the nose.

So, the big picture here is, if you rely on goals to enjoy a hockey game and are one of the people calling for bigger nets or any other rule to spoon feed pucks into the net, you better be cheering for a team in the Eastern Conference. The NHL, like most sports leagues, is full of copycats. A certain type of team wins the Cup one year and other teams design themselves to matchup with that style the next.

If one of these four Western teams ends up as champion, especially after the early exits of the Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit and San Jose firepowers, it will be interesting to see how other teams react in the off-season.

With the surges from the Rangers, Blues and Devils in the regular season – based on stifling defensive systems – the groundwork has been laid for this design. If one of the remaining Western teams is crowned champion in June, watch out goal-lovers.

Spezza got message loud, clear

Don Brennan ,Ottawa Sun, April 24, 2012


OTTAWA - All is good within the Senators family — including the relationship between the coach and his best offensive player.

Paul MacLean had Jason Spezza stapled to the bench for part of the third period with Ottawa trying to come from behind against the Rangers Monday and, while it wasn’t the first time the two haven’t seen eye-to-eye, the disagreement was magnified by the situation.

“He felt the power play wasn’t going good, and it’s his prerogative to put who he wants on the ice,” Spezza, who met with MacLean Tuesday, said afterwards. “He’s just trying to make a change. We’re all trying to figure out how to win.”

Spezza added that he has no “issue” whatsoever with the coach.

“We have a great relationship, I really like the way he coaches the game,” said Spezza, who has three goals and two assists in the six games against the Rangers. “It’s not saying that I (don’t) disagree sometimes with the things he does. I want to be on the ice at all times in key moments of the game, so at times emotions can come out.

COACH OF THE YEAR

“But I really enjoy Paul as a coach. I think he’s done a phenomenal job with our team. I think that in our minds he should be the coach of the year. He’s turned our club around real quick and given us a chance to win the first round against the No. 1 seed in the east. He’s helped us get to a pretty good position and empowered us as players and given us a chance to play a lot.

“We didn’t agree,” Spezza added with a shrug. “That’s part of being a team. The best teams put that stuff behind them pretty quick.

“If there was a message sent, it’s received. We’re looking forward to playing Game 7, and playing real well.”

MacLean said he wants to see more “consistency” in Spezza’s game and that, as usually the case, he’d like him to play through the middle of the rink and shoot the puck more.

“But we’re not disappointed in any way in how Jason’s playing,” he said. “This is a playoff series where every night the other team makes it hard for you to do things. You have to stick to it. Those are the conversations we have, to remind him to stick to it and stick to it. You’ve got to keep pushing.”

Spezza said it’s not always easy to simply pull the trigger.

“They do such a good job blocking shots, it can be frustrating to keep shooting and they keep getting blocked,” he said. “Sometimes you veer off the page and try to make some plays that, when they work look great and when they don’t everybody gets upset about it.

“You can’t just shoot everything. It doesn’t help to just shoot, shoot, shoot. You have to try and make plays, and when they don’t work you pay the price for it.”

Moving forward, he doesn’t believe Monday’s frustrations will carry over to Game 7.

“It’s all water under the bridge,” said Spezza. “It’s one game. All this stuff, because we have two days in between (games), can made into a mountain from a mole hill. When really we’re just generally excited to be in a Game 7. We find ourselves in a really good position right now, going into (play) a team that has a lot of pressure on them.

“We have a chance to spoil their season, they finished in first place, and we have a chance to make ours a real successful one. We like our position.”

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Sens say internal conflict resolved

Allen Panzeri, Postmedia News, April 24, 2012




Daniel Alfredsson of the Ottawa Senators follows a flying puck during an afternoon practice session in Ottawa, April 22, 2012.

Daniel Alfredsson of the Ottawa Senators follows a flying puck during an afternoon practice session in Ottawa, April 22, 2012.
Photograph by: Jean Levac , Postmedia News

OTTAWA — Daniel Alfredsson once again on Tuesday apologized for his uncharacteristic water bottle-stomping, stick-slamming temper tantrum early in the third period of Monday’s 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers.

But Ottawa Senators coach Paul MacLean was not apologizing for causing Alfredsson’s meltdown by benching him and the rest of the first power-play unit to begin the third. It was by any standard a gutsy, perhaps risky, coaching move, because it could have alienated the team’s top players at the worst possible moment, with the series potentially heading to a deciding seventh game.

MacLean said it was a coaching decision made in the best interests of the team, and he’d do it all over again.

“I think I just coached the team,” MacLean said. “If you go back in the game to the power plays in the second period, we gave up scoring chances at our net with that unit on the ice. We took penalties with that unit on the ice.

“Kyle Turris’ power-play group scored the goal to make it 1-0 for us. So, in the third period, we felt we should give them the opportunity, since they were better.

“When we coach the team every night, we’ve said a lot of times that the best players play, and a lot of nights it’s Jason (Spezza) and (Alfredsson) and that group.

“(Monday night), it wasn’t, so it’s my job as coach to give the team the best opportunity to win, and the players that do that are the ones that should be on the ice at the right time.

“And that’s all it is to me.”

Nonetheless, there were multiple conversations on Tuesday to sooth the boiling frustrations that emerged from the 3-2 loss, which tied the series at 3-3 and sent it to a seventh game on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.

If Alfredsson has ever thrown a fit like Monday’s in his career, it is difficult to remember, which is why he still appeared deeply chagrined the day after. Just back after missing three games with a concussion, Alfredsson said he was frustrated to begin with and then “lost it” when Rangers centre John Mitchell gave him a “pretty good lick” while he was killing a penalty to Turris.

Alfredsson said he was annoyed with himself because he hadn’t seen Mitchell coming at him sooner. When he got to the bench, he erupted, nearly taking off Colin Greening’s leg when he slammed down his stick.

“I know I have to control myself,” Alfredsson said. “I don’t send a good message to the rest of the team by doing that. So I don’t think you’ll see that happen again.”

When his emotions settled, Alfredsson gave Greening a little tap as if to say, “Sorry about that.”

Spezza accepted that MacLean was sending a message by benching the No. 1 power-play unit.

“I think he just didn’t want us out there because he felt we weren’t going good on the power play,” he said. “That’s his prerogative.

“We didn’t agree. We were trying to score, but that’s part of being a team. The best teams put all that stuff behind them pretty quick.

“If there was a message sent, it was received, and we’re looking forward to playing Game 7 and playing real well.”

Asked the state of his relationship with MacLean, Spezza said the two have no issues at all.

“We have a good relationship and I really like the way he coaches the game,” he said. “It’s not saying I don’t disagree sometimes with things he does, and I want to be on the ice at all times in key moments of the game, and at times emotions can come out.

“But I really enjoy Paul as a coach. I think he has done a phenomenal job with our team, and in our mind he should be the coach of the year.”

I Hated the Idea of Spring Hockey, Then I enrolled my Kid:
Rob Klovance comes to a difficult decision

Rob Klovance, ActiveForLife.ca, April 2012


"If sport has a high point of the year, it must be the first week of spring. When I was growing up, I used to love this time of year. It was when I put my hockey equipment away and I was absolutely ecstatic to see the end of the hockey season."

– Wayne Gretzky, quoted by the National Post, March 2000

I always loved the Great One's take on spring hockey, on how baseball and lacrosse provided the balance – and the change of pace – to renew his love of sport each spring.

But after years of parroting Gretzky's comments to everyone who would listen, here I am, enrolling my kid in spring hockey. Hypocritical? Probably. A bad idea? Maybe. But here are some thoughts on how I got here, and why I think it might work.

At the top of the list of reasons is the fact that Olivier, just turning 8, can't get enough hockey. He and his friends play on the ice, in the park, on their knees inside the house, and on-screen with the PS3. Next on the list is that he's continuing to play other sports, including winter and spring soccer.

And then there's my experience – good and bad – with two years of winter hockey.

The problem with initiation hockey

Hockey Canada got it right when it decided that "Initiation" hockey – for ages 5 through 8 – should be all about fun, skill development, equal ice time and (with no scoreboard until age 8) a de-emphasis on winning. I've volunteered as an assistant coach in that program and have been wowed by how most kids have taken great strides in everything from skating to their understanding of the game.

But as the parent of a tall kid who has a knack for scoring goals, I've quickly learned that the fun-first, participatory nature of Initiation hockey has its limitations. The skill gap between kids can be enormous, and all the kids pay a bit of a price for that gap.

Bad habits can form when the better kids get accustomed to skating end-to-end to score their limit of three goals, the so-called Gretzky Rule. I really like the rule, as it reduces the incidence of one-sided games and helps kids learn to pass and be part of a team. But while some kids do just that, I've seen others – because of poor leadership from coaches and/or parents – have no idea what to do after they bag their three goals.

Meanwhile, the weakest players on the ice almost never touch the puck and have virtually no hope of scoring or checking. And in practices, their presence waters down the effectiveness – or at least the speed – of drills. We've sometimes split kids up by ability for skating drills, but with puck drills, the weaker kids benefit most from a partner who can make a good pass to them, or to offer some checking resistance while skating backward.

The result is that Olivier, thanks to several hat tricks, has a false sense of his progress. He has the hands to score, plus the size and strength to skate around many players. But because he's been successul, he feels he can sometimes cheat on skating drills or check opponents by stepping up, flat-footed, to steal pucks when he should be skating backwards and turning in pursuit of strong skaters.

Frankly, he's falling behind in his skating. And I feel he needs the challenge of playing and practising with, and against, better players. My son is naturally competitive, and I expect he'll rise to that challenge by working harder at the things he doesn't do that well.

Keeping kids excited about hockey

This isn't about developing a future pro hockey player, just about maintaining my son's enthusiasm for the game. In some games, Olivier has played on a line where his fellow forwards had no chance of keeping up to him, and he was left to try to weave – unsuccessfully – through three or four rivals without any option to pass. His enthusiasm often ebbs and flows, depending on the level of players he's on the ice with.

How important is enthusiasm? When you're getting your kid out of bed at 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning for a 6 a.m. practice, he'd better be having fun on the ice.

When the fun disappears, so does the commitment. Last year, his soccer experience – playing on a team riddled with kids who often would have preferred not to be there, especially in the Wet Coast rain – eroded his love of the game. This winter, it's a whole different story on a strong team with a great coach.

Asked which sport he likes best, Olivier says soccer and hockey are dead even. And I love that.

Finding the positives in spring hockey

Now, about spring hockey. Skating free of the fun-for-all encumbrances of winter hockey, these programs generally emphasize excellence through the formation of select teams. We were astonished by a few emails from high-powered spring-league teams with intense travel schedules and costs of $2,000 or more for the spring season.

In the end, we were sold on a lower-priced program that, in the experience of friends, offered good-quality development, some off-ice sessions including ball hockey and a nice social component in a schedule that should offer far more balance. The clincher is that a few of my son's close friends were joining the same program.

We're hoping that for now, hockey, soccer and school can coexist in the spring. It will be an experiment for all of us, but who knows? Perhaps by the time next spring rolls around, my son – like Gretzky – will choose to pick up a baseball bat or a lacrosse stick to step outside the arena for a five-month break.

That's what I did year-after-year as a kid, and I've played hockey 44 of the last 45 years.

Unti about 12-14, in the Golden Years of Development, before puberty the kid's should play as many sports as possible but after that they need to play as much hockey with good players and great coaching if they want to be elite. This isn't theory but my experience. Still play other sports but focus on hockey.

All of the players I know who are now playing pro played spring hockey. I can think of 2 NHL, one Hobey Baker winner and two minor leaguers all born in 85 who played spring hockey. An 81 NHLer and his 84 brother who is playing in Europe also.

These are ones I have coached. I encouraged them to play baseball, lacrosse, soccer as well and some did.

Just like learning the violin, you need to put in the hours with good coaching and sometimes the only good coaching they get is on spring teams. My grandson has one of my former university players who played in Europe and is a PE teacher coaching the spring group he is with and he runs a terrific program. Much better than the volunteer during the season who gave a lot of effort but didn't have the expertise.

So we should be careful how high and mighty we get looking back to the 'good old days'. Hockey is now an indoor game and kid's don't play it very much without coaches around. That is our 'New Reality' and if you want to become an elite your best chance is to play on teams with better coaching in the spring.

Hitchcock, MacLean, Tortorella nominated for Jack Adams Award

The Canadian Press, Apr. 30, 2012


Paul MacLean, Ken Hitchcock and John Tortorella are the nominees for the Jack Adams Award.

The award is handed out to the head coach who has “contributed most to his team's success.”

MacLean made a splash in his NHL debut as a head coach after spending six seasons as an assistant with Detroit.

MacLean's Ottawa Senators surprised the league with a playoff berth and an 18-point improvement over last season's 13th place finish. The Sens also jumped from 26th to fourth in the league in goals per game.

“He makes the hard work fun in a weird way,” said Senators forward Nick Foligno. “He's done a great job for us. He's just come in and gotten to know everybody really well and understand what makes you tick and that's what allowed everyone to play their best because he knows when to push buttons and when to let off and that's what I think makes him such a great coach.”

Hitchcock took over the St. Louis Blues in early November with the team at 6-7-0. Since then the Blues went 43-15-11 and broke or tied 13 franchise records, including a 21-game home points streak and 30 home wins overall.

It's the fourth time Hitchcock has been nominated for the award, but the first in 13 years.

Tortorella guided the Rangers to first place in the Eastern Conference with a 51-24-7 record, their best regular-season performance since capturing the Stanley Cup in 1994.

The club's goals-against figure (187) was tops in the East, and they also led all teams in hits (2,419).

“It's a great honour for him,” said Rangers star Brad Richards. “He has worked with this organization the past three years to build something, and 51 wins this year is just a testament to him and the organization and how the players have bought in.”

Tortorella is the only one of the nominees to have won the award, when he led the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup in 2004.

Dan Bylsma of the Pittsburgh Penguins won the award last year.

The NHL also announced the nominees for Foundation Player Award.

Nashville's Mike Fisher, Toronto's John-Michael Liles and Matt Moulson of the New York Islanders were given the nod for the league's community service award.

MCKENZIE: HUNTER NOT WORRIED ABOUT OVECHKIN'S ICE TIME

BOB MCKENZIE, The Hockey News, May 1 2012


I don't think Washington Capitals head coach Dale Hunter is going to worry about Alex Ovechkin's ice time in Game 2 Monday night, which was a low 13:36, because Hunter has one thing on his mind and that is to win hockey games and win a playoff series.

The fact of the matter is, the last four years in the playoffs Alex Ovechkin has averaged between 23-24 minutes per game. They lost in four straight games to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round of last year's playoffs, they lost in seven games to the Montreal Canadiens in the first round two years ago, they lost in seven games to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round three years ago, and they lost in seven games to the New York Rangers four years ago. This team has no playoff success.

Now, could Hunter minimize Ovechkin's ice time on an 82-game regular season? Not a chance in the world. Might it backfire on Hunter before this is over? It might, but if he comes out with a win and gets the Capitals to the third round of the playoffs and if Ovechkin's minutes are 13 minutes or 19 minutes - he's averaging better than 19 minutes going into Monday night's game - Hunter doesn't care. Hunter is so old school; he will do whatever it takes to win a hockey game and I don't think he's worried about his job. I don't know if he wants to come back next year, he just wants to win hockey games and he'll do it even if it ticks a lot of people off.

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Less Ovechkin leads to more success for Capitals; Kings offense shouldn't be a surprise

The Hockey News, 2012-04-30


The NHL Playoff Recap gives you THN's take of what happened in each game of the night and what the consequences will be for the rest of the series.

We also provide our Three Stars of the night, which will be tabulated after each round. First Star is three points, Second Star is two points and Third Star is one point. Be sure to vote on who you think the first star was as well.

Of course there's the other side of the coin: The Black Hole is a piece of the lineup that just couldn't get it going on a given night and contributed to a difficult evening for the team.


CAPITALS / RANGERS, GAME 2: CAPITALS 3, RANGERS 2 (SERIES TIED 1-1)

THN’s Take: All right, so let’s see if we’ve got this straight here. The Washington Capitals game plan is to play Jay Beagle more than Alex Ovechkin. And they hope to win doing that, right?

Well, whatever works for the Capitals, who have become a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma in this spring’s playoffs. Finally getting the playoff goaltending they’ve needed and treating their superstar and $10 million man like a third liner has them even with the best team in the Eastern Conference.

Of course, the Capitals were supposed to be the best team in the Eastern Conference themselves, which is a whole other matter to dissect.

There’s little doubt that after a limp and frustrating Game 1 of their second round series, they’re running with the New York Rangers just fine. But whither Ovechkin, who played periods with ice time of 3:33, 5:41 and 4:22, but provided the Capitals with the margin of victory with a patented Ovechkin goal midway through the third period in a 3-2 win.

There were a number of observers, this corner included, who thought the Dale Hunter experiment would not end well for the Capitals. And until the Capitals squeaked into the playoffs, there was little reason to believe Hunter would fare much better in the post-season than Bruce Boudreau did before him. But where Boudreau would try to play tough love with Ovechkin, Hunter has actually gone out and done it. Same with Alex Semin, who received even less ice time than Ovechkin in Game 2. Perhaps the biggest difference between Hunter and Boudreau, aside from the emphasis on playing team defense, is that Hunter is not beholden to Ovechkin the way Boudreau was.

And Hunter has some currency here. He knows Capitals management has watched the team try to do it Ovechkin’s way in the playoffs for a couple of years and they’ve failed miserably. If giving Ovechkin less ice time and less responsibility for singlehandedly delivering victories leads the Capitals to more success, you’re not going to find too many people outside Ovechkin’s inner circle who would have a problem with that. We’ll see if that continues to work, particularly if the Capitals start struggling, but Hunter clearly knows what it takes to win playoff games.

Aside from the winning, this has not exactly been a great playoff for Ovechkin from a personal standpoint. His ice time has been cut drastically, he was called out by teammate Troy Brouwer prior to Game 2 and had as poor an outing in Game 1 as he’s had in any playoff game in his career.

But when the game was on the line and when the Capitals were one the power play, Ovechkin had the puck on his stick and made the most of his opportunity to be a difference maker. And let’s not forget that for all his offensive struggles, he’s still leading the Capitals in scoring in this year’s playoffs. And he did manage to unleash seven shots in the game, which was more than any player on either roster.

But with a team that is getting it done with defense, goaltending and team commitment that renders its stars far less important, the Capitals have never relied on Ovechkin less than they are right now.

And as crazy as that sounds, it might be what leads them to more playoff success than they’ve experienced since he entered the league.

Three Stars

1. Michael Del Zotto - His team lost, but Del Zotto was a force offensively, assisting on both Ranger goals. He also hit two crossbars in the game.

2. Braden Holtby - He didn’t have to provide his customary spectacular play, but the rookie goal was very steady in outplaying all-world Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Holtby’s stop on a Chris Kreider breakaway directly led to the Capitals taking it back and scoring to make it 2-0.

3. Alex Ovechkin - It’s not as though Ovechkin has been playing badly in the playoffs, but he certainly made the most of his limited ice time, taking shots, playing physically and being engaged on the backcheck.

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Alex Ovechkin the role player?

James Mirtle, Globe and Mail, May 1, 2012


He sat on the bench for much of the game, drawing the attention of the CBC crew covering it and those watching at home mainly for just how little he was on the ice.

Alex Ovechkin played only 18 shifts on the night, with 3:33 minutes in the first period, 5:41 in the second and 4:22 in the third.

And his 10:36 at even strength was more than only three teammates: Mike Knuble, Alex Semin and Keith Aucoin.

This is a new way of deploying a $9.5-million four-time 50-goal scorer, but it ended up paying off, with Ovechkin scoring the winning goal in Monday's Game 2 on a late game power play.

"You have to suck it up and use time what Dale is giving to me," Ovechkin said of his coach, Dale Hunter, after the game.

Ovechkin's ice time on Monday was a career low for the playoffs, but it's part of a trend under Hunter where he's kept on the bench in favour of pluggers like Jay Beagle as the Caps play a far more defensive style than we've seen since the lockout.

"Ovi is a team guy and he is cheering his guys on," Hunter said. "He knows what these guys are going through at the end of the game. They've got to go out and slide and block shots. He appreciates that.

"The one thing is that he has been real fresh for the power play."

No kidding.

As a long-term strategy, this doesn't particularly seem like the most effective one, although Ovechkin has without question had a mediocre season by his standards.

At first, this all appeared to be a motivational move by Hunter. Now, it simply seems the coach feels he has a better chance to win in the playoffs with his shot blockers on the ice.

One interesting tidbit from all this? Game 3 will mark the second most postseason games Ovechkin has played in a season in his career, matching the nine the Caps had last year when they were swept in Round 2.

His average ice time over the five playoffs he's taken part in, meanwhile, has been very consistent until now: 24:03, 23:21, 23:06, 23:30 and 19:09.

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Ovechkin makes most of limited minutes

TERRY KOSHAN, QMI AGENCY, May 1 2012


Interesting how the captains contributed, or didn’t, as Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinal between the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals unfolded Monday night.

There was Rangers captain Ryan Callahan hitting everything in a Capitals sweater — in Callahan’s case, defenceman Mike Green was more or less everything — and trying to set the tone for the evening.

The Caps defencemen picked up on it as Roman Hamrlik and Karl Alzner, like Green, began hearing footsteps.

And there was Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin doing a whole lot of nothing as coach Dale Hunter used him for just 3:33 in the opening 20 minutes.

Sure, the Caps had some penalties to kill, thereby upending the flow off the bench, but it was only three, and two of those were in the final few minutes.

One of the simplest tenets in playoff hockey is that your best players have to be your best players. Hard for that to happen when your most prolific performer is spending most of the game standing at the bench or taking it one step further and dangling one leg over the boards.

But give Hunter credit — he pushed the right buttons for Ovechkin in Game 2.

If nothing else, Ovechkin has a flair for the dramatic, an ability to make a difference that most players are incapable of making.

Few of his NHL colleagues can score from 40 feet with a wrist shot, but Ovechkin did just that during a Capitals power play with less than eight minutes remaining in the third period.

Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist was screened by teammate Ryan McDonagh and Caps forward Troy Brouwer and was unable to pick up Ovechkin’s shot, which went into the net and stood up as the winner.

In the end, Ovechkin was on the ice for a total of just 13:36 in a 3-2 Capitals victory.

But as stars can do, he made the last of those minutes count.

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Alex the Villain wins it for Caps: Ovechkin doing all he can with few minutes he has

MIKE ZEISBERGER, QMI Agency, May 1 2012


NEW YORK - It was the favoured chant of the capacity crowd at Madison Square Garden Monday night.

Cue the coutdown.

“Five ... four ... three ... two ... one ... Ovie sucks! ... Ovie sucks! ...” they screamed in unison, mocking Washington Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin.

For the first two periods, it seemed to be working.

But anyone familiar with Alex Ovechkin knows he loves the spotlight. In the third period, he grabbed it, much to the chagrin of the New York Rangers and their fans.

In true Ovechkin form, The Great Eight ripped the winning goal at 12:33 of the third to give the visiting Capitals a 3-2 victory. This best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal is now tied at one game apiece.

Not bad for a guy who played six minutes less than Jay Beagle.

And five minutes less than Troy Brouwer.

And two minutes less than Matt Hendricks.

Those Capitals players have never been known as superstars.

Ovechkin has.

In the minds of some, he still is.

In the end, six Capital forwards received more ice time than the 13:36 given to Ovechkin. That list, by the way, doesn't include Washington's other star sniper, Alexander Semin.

While coach Dale Hunter insisted Ovechkin’s conservative minutes were due to the Caps “rolling four lines,” it’s easy to see the dilemma that Ovechkin finds himself in.

He wants to play gobs of minutes. And he wants to win in the playoffs. Hunter doesn’t necessarily see the two going hand in hand.

Monday night, Ovechkin put on a good game face. As the clock ticked down, he smiled and yelled support to his teammates, all while his butt was nailed to the bench in favour of more defensive-minded players.

“I feel good,” Ovechkin said. “You have to suck it up and use (the) time that Dale is giving to me.

“The most important thing right now, guys, is just to win the series and win the game. If you are going to talk about my game time and all that kind of stuff, it’s not (the) season -– it’s the playoffs. It’s what I said before, you have to suck it up and play for the team.”

Notice that Ovechkin is using the term “suck it up” a lot.

Does that seem like the phrase used by a happy camper?

Yet, when you saw the way he occupied the role as the team’s lead cheerleader down the stretch, well, there certainly are mixed messages coming from Ovechkin.

“Sometimes if you’re not (in) there you feel like you’re not in the game but if you have 10 second shift or 5 second shift you just have to go there and do something. It’s kind of hard but it is what it is,” Ovechkin said.

Maybe he’s not a fan of Hunter. At the same time, Hunter’s blueprint is working, and, at least for the time being, Ovechkin is putting any potential sulking on the back burner while this Hunter-guided ride continues to be successful.

“Ovie is a team guy and he’s cheering his guys on,” Hunter said. “He knows what these guys are going through at the end of the game. They’ve got to go out and slide and block shots. He appreciates that.”

But does Ovechkin appreciate playing 10 less shifts in a game than Jay Beagle (28-18)? We doubt it.

The Caps built an early 2-0 lead Monday on goals by Mike Knuble and Jason Chimera before the Rangers clawed their way back. A Brad Richards tally in the final minute of the first period was followed by a Ryan Callahan marker in the third, setting the stage for Ovechkin’s heroics.

As for the crowd’s mockery of him, Ovechkin took it in stride. He knows very well that fans don’t abuse you like that unless you are good.

“They pay their money, they see you play, they can do what they want,” he laughed.

On this night, the Garden faithful didn’t see much of Ovechkin, but it was enough to know he still has the makeup to be a hero on any given night, Dale Hunter or no Dale Hunter.

Ovechkin won't win clash of wills against Hunter: Captain rides pine while Caps win

By MIKE ZEISBERGER, QMI Agency, May 2 2012


NEW YORK - Five things we have learned through the first two games of the Washington Capitals-New York Rangers Eastern Conference semifinal, which is deadlocked at 1-1 heading into Game 3 Wednesday night at the Verizon Center in the U.S. capital.

1. Alex Ovechkin is not going to win any clash of wills with Caps coach Dale Hunter.

Ovechkin's 13:36 of ice time in Game 2 has become THE issue of contention in this series, especially since the likes of Jay Beagle received six minutes and 10 shifts more than the Great Eight.

When asked about how little he had played, Ovechkin, who scored the winning goal in the third period of the Caps 3-2 victory, twice used the term "suck it up" when referring to the good of the team.

Six forwards, including Beagle, played more than Ovechkin, which had some critics second-guessing Hunter.

Really, people, as long as the Caps are winning, do you really think Dale Hunter cares?

Not in the least.

It's obvious that Hunter views Ovechkin as a defensive liability. So, as long as the Caps have the lead, don't expect to see him get a lot of ice time.

Should Washington fall behind, well, that's a different story. In that case, Hunter will double-shift his top goal scorer whenever possible to generate offence.

2. Most Capitals are buying what Hunter is selling.

A year ago the Caps were swept in the second round by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Twelve months later, with Hunter at the helm, they've already won once in the second round.

And as long as they keep posting W's, the players will keep drinking Hunter's Kool-Aid.

"It's hard to argue when we're winning hockey games," forward Jason Chimera said. "A lot of guys, their ice time has gone down, but we're winning hockey games. You can't argue with that."

Added veteran forward Mike Knuble: "Anybody who's following our team, you see he's coaching the situations."

3. Braden Holtby continues to prove to doubters that he is The Real Deal.

We've seen one-round wonders before -- former Habs Cinderella story Steve Penney comes to mind -- so anointing the Capitals rookie as the "next great thing" after his performance in upsetting the defending Stanley Cup-champion Boston Bruins in the opening round might be, well, a bit premature.

But there is no doubt he continues to impress.

After a wobbly effort in the Caps' 3-1 loss in Game 1, Holtby was outstanding in Game 2, stopping both Chris Kreider and Michael Rupp on full or partial breakaways.

More important to Hunter is the fact that Holtby has not lost back-to-back outings in his past 25 games. If he extends that streak, the Caps will have a legitimate shot against the No. 1 seed in the east.

4. Chris Kreider has brought some spark to a Rangers offence that could use one.

"Moribund" is probably the best way to describe New York's pop-gun attack through the first two games. Sure, they won Game 1, but they did it with just 14 shots on goal.

As a result, Kreider, the big, smooth-skating rookie who was celebrating an NCAA hockey championship just three weeks ago with Boston College, had been bumped up to the Rangers top line by Game 2. Whether he stays there for Game 3 remains to be seen, but he has brought an infusion of energy to a New York lineup that badly needs it.

Kreider's wheels were on display in Game 2, when he sped to a breakaway before being stopped by Holtby. On a team full of fierce forecheckers, the addition of Kreider has certainly upped the skill level of the Rangers forward ranks.

5. Marian Gaborik must be a difference maker.

The way New Yorkers have embraced Brian Boyle now that he's back in the lineup, you would think he's Mark Messier. And that's fine. But with these games all threatening to be close, it's time for the highly-skilled Gaborik to take matters into his own hands.

Gaborik arguably has as much raw talent as any forward in the league, but can be invisible at times during the tight checking of the NHL playoffs. With a cap hit of $7.5 million, he should be one of the Rangers best players each and every night.

Thus far in this series, he has been anything but that.

CAPITALS FORWARDS ICE TIME

A look at the ice time of Washington Capitals forwards in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinal against the New York Rangers on Monday, a 3-2 Caps win.

1. Jay Beagle, 19:58

2. Troy Brouwer, 18:48

3. Brooks Laich, 17:46

4. Marcus Johansson, 16:55

5. Nicklas Backstrom, 16:18

6. Matt Hendricks, 15:26

7. Alex Ovechkin, 13:36

8. Jason Chimera, 13:05

9. Alex Semin, 12:27

10. Joel Ward, 12:06

11. Mike Knuble, 9:49

12. Keith Aucoin, 9:29

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Quality minutes matter to Ovie's teammates: Capitals D-man Alzner knows Ovechkin will come up big regardless of ice time

The Associated Press, May 2, 2012


Alex Ovechkin's ice time keeps shrinking in the Stanley Cup playoffs, all the way down to a career-low 13½ minutes in Game 2 of the Washington Capitals' NHL Eastern Conference semifinal against the New York Rangers.

Seems to be working so far.

With the teams tied at a game apiece and shifting to Washington for Game 3 on Wednesday (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7:30 p.m. ET), followed by Game 4 on Saturday, a major topic of conversation is how little two-time NHL MVP Ovechkin is playing.

Despite the reduced action, Washington's captain and leading scorer did manage to net the winning goal on a power play in Game 2.

"To be honest, it's not even something that we notice. We don't go down the sheet at the end of the game and say, 'How much did 'Ovie' play?' That's just not something that we do," Capitals defenceman Karl Alzner said Tuesday, a day off for Washington's players.

"You know he wants to play more, and he's frustrated by not playing 20 minutes. But he doesn't care — he wants to win that game. Playing 13 minutes, he goes out and scores the most important goal of the game. It doesn't really matter how much he plays; he's going to come up big."

No one on the Capitals has scored more goals this post-season than Ovechkin's three. And he leads the team with six points, too.
Languishing on bench

But head coach Dale Hunter is hiding Ovechkin on the bench for long stretches at a time, especially when the Capitals are trying to protect a lead.

During the regular season, the player known as Alex the Great topped Washington's forwards by averaging 19 minutes 48 seconds of total ice time, and 16:08 of even-strength ice time. In the playoffs, Ovechkin ranks only third, and his numbers are down to 19:08 and 15:23.

"If guys are getting upset about ice time, and that's all you're worrying about, then you're off. You're just not going to play good," Alzner said. "I've seen that happen to a lot of guys."

In Monday night's 3-2 victory at New York, Ovechkin's 10:36 of even-strength time ranked only eighth among Washington's 12 forwards - and was nearly six full minutes less than Jay Beagle, for example.

"We've got guys like Beagle, [Jason] Chimera and [Matt Hendricks] that are looked at when we're leading in a game to maintain that lead," forward Troy Brouwer said, "and Alex knows that, and he has to accept that."

Whether Ovechkin's diminished role is a result of an inability or unwillingness to play the sort of safe, possession-focused, defensive-minded hockey that Hunter seeks - or a result of something else - it's tough to argue with the results. After all, the seventh-seeded Capitals got past the second-seeded and reigning Cup champion Boston Bruins in a tight-as-can-be, each-game-decided-by-one-goal series.

And now Hunter's Capitals are even with the top-seeded Rangers.

"He's coaching the situations. He's playing certain guys. If we're down a goal, [Ovechkin is] going to be our main guy. He's going every other shift. If we're up a goal, then Dale tends to lean on other guys. That's the way it is," forward Mike Knuble said. "I guess they can talk about it this summer after the season and figure it out. For now it's working and we're going to run with it."
'Suck it up'

After Monday's game, Ovechkin said: "You have to suck it up and use [the] time … Dale is giving to me. … Sometimes, if you're not [out] there, you feel like you're not in [the] game, but if you have 10-second shift or 5-second shift, you just have to go there and do something. It's kind of hard."

And during the Bruins series, Ovechkin acknowledged: "Of course, sometimes you get angry you didn't play a lot [of] minutes. And sometimes you get angry you're not out there. But if it's good for the team, you have to eat it."

One direct consequence of his reduced role is less action for New York defenceman Dan Girardi, who had been averaging about 27 minutes in the playoffs before playing about 20½ minutes in Game 2.

"That's the matchup we're trying to get," Girardi said.

Asked whether he's surprised by Washington's strategy with Ovechkin, Girardi replied: "I don't know much about that. You'd have to ask Dale Hunter."

That wasn't possible Tuesday: Neither Ovechkin nor Hunter spoke to reporters at the team's practice facility in Virginia.

When Rangers coach John Tortorella met with the media in New York, things got a little testy, but not before he responded this way when asked about Ovechkin's paltry ice time: "I don't worry or comment about the other team."

Looking for more in-depth analysis?

Rangers defenceman Michael Del Zotto wasn't quite ready to credit the Capitals with doing much at the offensive end.

"We gave them all their goals. They're going to have to do a better job of earning them," he said. "As a whole team here, we can't just give them freebies like that."

Leafs on 24/7? Zzzzz

Bruce Dowbiggin, Globe and Mail, May. 02, 2012


HBO has selected the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings as the featured teams for its 24/7 documentary next season. A large reason for the appearance of a Canadian team on the U.S.-based show, says John Collins, chief operating officer of the NHL, is the ratings success of last year’s Stanley Cup Final between Boston and Vancouver.

“The historical view had been you need two big U.S. markets in any of these games to pop a number,” says Collins. “In this case the best hockey won out. It was so compelling people forgot about their own teams and joined in. It opens up an opportunity to do more with NBC and HBO to make them less reliant on U.S match-ups. It also allows us to go back to our Canadian partners and go ‘See? It can work’. It led directly to scheduling Toronto and Detroit for the Winter Classic in 2013.”

The appearance of the Maple Leafs on 24/7 is a no-brainer for ratings as Leaf Nation would tune in to see Brian Burke mow his lawn. But let’s be honest, the best Canadian team for TV purposes would be the Vancouver Canucks (the most hated team in the NHL for many) against Detroit or Chicago or Boston. Postseason fame is what fuels interest, and Toronto hasn’t seen a playoff game since Paul Martin was Prime Minister. Vancouver, meanwhile, has played a number of bitterly contested series since 2009.

Maybe the Leafs pick up Roberto Luongo or someone else vaguely interesting this summer. Maybe Brian Burke loses it (again). Otherwise it’s a snooze for all but the most hopelessly smitten Buds fans. What’s the headline? What Red Bull hat does Dion Phaneuf wear today? Imagine instead the bile when Alex Burrows, Maxim Lapierre or Ryan Kesler appear at the United Center in Chicago or the TD Centre in Boston. Better TV by a mile.

Honour Crimes: In his essay in last Friday's Globe and Mail, Ken Dryden talked about when respect governed NHL players’ treatment of each other on the ice. Dryden cited an incident in which Detroit legend Gordie Howe warned Johnny Bower of Toronto “Look out, John, I’m behind you” as he approached the future Hall of Fame goalie from behind.

Many have criticized Brendan Shanahan, the NHL vice-president of player safety, for allowing too much cavalier behaviour by unrepentant players this season. It might surprise some that Shanahan cites the same standard of civility when making his own judgments. In an interview with Usual Suspects, Shanahan described the “live and let live” standard he used as a player - and which he applies in his current post.

Talking about a controversial hit earlier this season when Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg hit Columbus’ Nikita Nikitin from behind (and was ejected from the game as a result), Shanahan relied on his own experience as a player going into the corner against a vulnerable defenceman.

“This is one of those things where you had to play it to feel it to get it,” Shanahan told us in his New York City office. “Those plays don’t happen all the time. To me, when I went in the corner (as a player) and put my hand on the guy’s back it was my way of saying ‘I’m here’. Sometimes with a guy who’d played with you you’d do that and yell ‘Heads Up! Coming through’.

“Because Nikitin got hurt there was an immediate uproar. But when I looked at the video I said I think (Zetterberg) has got his hand on his back, but Nikitin blows a wheel. It looks like he was pushed, but to their credit, the Columbus player and GM said (Nikitin) didn’t get pushed, he fell, So the major penalty (assessed to Zetterberg) was rescinded. That’s an example where what looks like a shove is a different thing.

“By the way, I asked Columbus after that if they’d have said the same thing in playoffs, and they said no. So I had an idea of what was ahead in this job (as the playoffs approached).”

Oake Follow Up: We received a lot of feedback from our interview with CBC’s Scott Oake and his family over the death of their son Bruce to a drug overdoes in March of 2011. Some wanted more information about the event in Winnipeg on June 14/15 in which Darcy Oake, Bruce’s brother, will perform his acclaimed illusionist show at the Manitoba Theatre Centre. Here’s more.

“Life’s not a Hollywood movie,” says Darcy. “What we’re hoping by opening a facility here is to make it into something positive. Be positive and spread the message. There’s such a stigma about drug abuse. Nobody wants to talk about it. People look at you with those sad pity eyes and no one knows what to say, and you’re at the point where you’re consoling other people when you’re trying to deal with it on your own. I don’t want his addiction to define Bruce.”

Scott Oake says the idea of the piece is to raise parents’ awareness of the signs. “To the families, be aware. Recognize the signs. Don’t kid yourself. If you have concerns, check them out. When Bruce started fooling around with crystal meth he’d come to the cottage and sleep the whole weekend. We’d wonder if that’s just being a young guy. Looking back, he was going hard on [the drug] and was catching upon his sleep when he came off it. When we came to the realization that he had a problem, we acted.

“We made a decision instantly that we weren’t going to hide behind his cause of death. Anne and I wrote the obit on the plane to Calgary and asked that everyone make donations to Simon House and they got a lot of money in Bruce’s name. And we heard from people after that they had someone in their life who thought enough about it to go to rehab, so there’s that immediate positive effect. We weren’t hiding behind it then and we won’t now.”

Life Of Brian: Everyone has justly celebrated the announce position between benches in the NHL popularized by Pierre McGuire. Intimacy and all that. How quickly they forget. Back in 1974, Brian McFarlane got very up close and personal during this Flyers/ Rangers playoff game. Our favourite part is when Mr. Peter Puck asks lineman Matt Pavlich to triage the cut on Barry Ashbee. Sadly, the injury ended Ashbee’s career.

Tip Line: Why the rich are not like the rest of us. Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen has money the way a beach has sand. The NFL tried this weekend to ensure that no one tipped off the draft picks on TV or social media before commissioner Roger Goodell announced the selections at the dais.

Allen must have missed the memo (cough, cough). Allen broke almost all of the early Round 1 picks and trades on Twitter before Goodell could start his hug-it-out session with players on the stage. Then, after the Seahawks made their pick, Allen went back to ironing the thousand-dollar bills in his wallet. Cold.

NHL legends talk playoffs, curfew

Luke Fox, Sportsnet.ca , May 4, 2012


Nashville Predators head coach Barry Trotz said that his decision to keep the team’s top playoff point-getter, Alexander Radulov, and the player tied for the team lead in goals, Andrei Kostitsyn, out of Friday’s Game 4 versus the Phoenix Coyotes was “pretty simple.”

The team won Game 3, the game for which the two offensive weapons were suspended, 2-0 in Nashville, bringing the Predators back in the conference semifinal and giving Nashville a chance to knot the series at two games apiece Friday.

As straightforward as Trotz says the call was, many fans and analysts question if keeping two of your greatest talents -- one-game suspension served and healthy, no less -- is the wisest course of action. But momentum is a funny beast, and one that must be harnessed in the NHL's second season.

“Usually when you win, you don’t change your lineup, so it’s up to them,” says 2011 Hall of Fame inductee Doug Gilmour, who “never, ever, ever” missed curfew come playoff time. “I think everybody’s gone through different times (of being late). The old saying is, it doesn’t matter if you’re two seconds or one minute late, you might as well be three hours late. Curfews are there for a reason, and you gotta follow them.”

Mike Krushelnyski, who won three Stanley Cups with Edmonton in the ’80s and a fourth in 1998 as an assistant coach on the Detroit Red Wings, agrees with Trotz’s if-it-ain’t-broke approach.

“As a coach, I would leave my lineup. I wouldn’t insert them back in. One, you’ve won the [previous] game. Two, you’ve gained momentum, and hopefully they can continue. If [Trotz] loses the next game, then he’s going to bring them in, and he can use it as a tool: We can strengthen our team with these two guys. We’re changing things,” Krushelnyski, 52, explains.

Wayne Gretzky’s frequent linemate points to the recent case of the New York Rangers. Centre Brian Boyle was playing brilliantly in the opening round, and then he suffered a concussion in Game 5 against the Ottawa Senators. Despite his absence, the Rangers won three straight games, closing out the Sens and getting the jump on Round 2’s Washington Capitals. A recovered Boyle was inserted back in Game 2 against Washington, which New York lost.

“So I guessed they learned something,” Krushelnyski says. “I’m a firm believer that if you win, you stick with the same lineup, because the guys have continuity, they know exactly what’s going on. You keep the momentum going.”

Krushelnyski vehemently denies that any of his teammates broke curfew in his 15-year NHL career. After pausing for effect, he breaks into laughter: “Of course, we did!

“Throughout the season guys would break curfew by half an hour, and it was nothing malicious or intended. It was just having a few sociables and talking. Most of the time you get into discussions about the game with your teammates. No, no, no. If we do this, this is how we can score or create a chance. We were usually talking about how to become more successful,” he says.

But once the clock struck playoffs, those 30-minute rule bends tightened.

“We had one incident in one playoff where the player had missed the plane. He had inadvertently slept in, but fortunately he was waiting for us in Philadelphia -- dressed, in the locker room, before we even got there. So that situation was nullified right there,” Krushelnyski says.

“You don’t come in at 4 a.m.,” quipped a smiling Curtis Joseph, who tended goal for 14 playoff squads. “You come in at 7 with a paper.”

Hall of Famer Bryan Trottier, 55, has seven Stanley Cup rings to his name. When he says he can’t recall anyone on his ’80s dynasty New York Islanders or his early-’90s Pittsburgh Penguins blowing curfew, it isn’t a setup to a punch line. The Isles’ were as serious about abiding rules as they were winning.

“Not on our team. Curfew was a high priority, something every player respected. Accountability in the locker room was a high priority. From the time I walked into the Islanders to the time I left the Penguins, it was always, ‘Hey, guys, let’s make sure we’re focused on all the things that are necessary,' and that was one of them,” Trottier says.

For coach Al Arbour’s Islanders, a team that reeled off a Stanley Cup four-peat from 1980 through 1983, curfew was 11 p.m. the night before a game and midnight on off nights.

“If you’re out with your family and you run into traffic, big deal, that’s one of those things. It’s common sense. Curfew was never an issue; it was never even brought up,” Trottier says. Occasionally on road trips, he adds, Arbour would mandate an early curfew when he was mad with the team’s performance. “After a game, there’s generally no curfew unless we had another game the next day. So he’d throw and early curfew and do a room-check. I loved that -- that was comical. He’d call the room: [mimics Arbour’s stern voice] Are you guys in? ‘I think so. You called and I’m talking on the phone.’ ”

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Radulov, Kostitsyn and the NHL's dwindling Russian influence

James Mirtle, Globe and Mail, May 4, 2012


Their numbers have been thinning out almost every year.

Since the so-called Russian invasion began in the late 1980s, fewer and fewer players are coming over from the former Soviet republics to play in the NHL every year.

The creation of the KHL, and the oil money that's been pumped into salaries there, certainly has played a role, but the reputation of Russian players is also under fire.

Not that that's entirely new.

The notion of "do they really care?" has been around almost from the beginning (and especially in the playoffs), as has the idea of Russian players as "enigmatic" and unknowable entities.

This latest curfew incident with Alex Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn, a Russian and a Belarusian, has merely brought out the criticisms and cynicism that have only grown in the NHL over the past 10 years.

"There is a reason NHL teams are scared of drafting and depending on Russians, and what happened last Saturday night in Phoenix is Exhibit A," Hockey Night in Canada's Elliotte Friedman wrote on Wednesday.

"It’s not only Russians," added Sportsnet's Mark Spector. "You’ve got to admit though, the stigma that has grown on players from that country now far outweighs anyone else’s baggage."

Those types of articles drove several Russian members of the media nuts, including Yahoo!'s Dmitry Chesnokov, who voiced his displeasure on Twitter over the articles lumping players from his homeland into one big group.

It's true. Russian players are not all the same. Here in Toronto, the two we in the media see every day are Nikolai Kulemin and Mikhail Grabovski (another Belarusian) and they work harder than anyone on the team.

Their Canadian and American teammates and coaches are the first to admit it.

First on the ice for practice, the last off and always hanging around the rink long after they have to.

What's undeniable, though, is that Russians (and by extension Ukranians, Belarusians, Latvians and the rest) have a perception problem in this league.

And it wouldn't surprise me in the least if that has played a role in their dwindling numbers in the NHL.

Look at the 16 teams that made the playoffs this year. Leaving out the two Philadelphia Flyers goaltenders, there were only 12 Russian skaters to play in at least one postseason game. (Last year there were six.)

Even when you add in the handful of players from the other post-Soviet states, we're still talking about only roughly 5 per cent of the league.

So when four of those players are making headlines for either missing curfew or having their ice time dropped dramatically (as with Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin in Washington) people in the hockey world are going to come to conclusions.

Russian players in the NHL playoffs

The number of Russian skaters in the postseason hit a high of 30 in 2000 but has averaged just 13 a season since the lockout

SOURCE: NHL.com

As I said above, that's not exactly new. There were similar things said and written about the first influx of Russian players.

The only difference seemed to be there were far more of them 20 years ago, before they were outnumbered by Americans, Finns and Swedes and become such a minority on every team.

Teams were willing to take a chance on Russian players and Russian players seemed more willing to take a chance on getting a fair shake in North America.

It does make one wonder where this trend will stop. This, after all, is a league with almost no Russian influence among decision makers and a natural bias toward Canadian junior and American college players given that's the route most GMs took to the top.

It's easy to blame these falling numbers on only the presence of the KHL, but there's more at work here.

Are we looking at an NHL that is down to only a dozen Russian players a few years from now?

And how much of that comes back to that perception of a group of players as being too much like Radulov and not enough like Kulemin?

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Why mess with winning group? Predators coach Trotz sits Radulov, Kostitsyn again vs Coyotes

The Canadian Press, 2012-05-04


NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Predators coach Barry Trotz is sitting forwards Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn for Game 4 against Phoenix on Friday night because he doesn't want to change a winning formula.

The Predators suspended Radulov and Kostitsyn for Wednesday night's 2-0 victory, which pulled Nashville within 2-1 in the Western Conference semifinal. Whether they returned to the lineup was left to Trotz, and the coach announced his decision Friday after a morning skate.

"The decision for me was pretty simple," Trotz said. "The group that went in there was very committed and got the job done plain and simple. Alex and Andrei are good players. They're top players. At the same time, I felt that the group responded really well, and I expect the group to respond again."

Trotz said Radulov and Kostitsyn clearly want to play and will be ready. Injuries or other circumstances Friday night could result in a lineup change.

"They're really good about being good pros, which got them in trouble in the first place. They understand," Trotz said. "They're ready to do whatever it takes to get back in. If it means having to sit this game or the next game or whatever, as long as we're winning we're OK. They're fine. We have to win. If someone doesn't play well or they're injured, they're ready to go."

Radulov is Nashville's top scorer in the post-season with six points despite missing the last game. Kostitsyn has three goals, tied for the team lead.

"As long as we're winning, it's fine," Radulov said. "It's long playoffs."

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MCKENZIE: TROTZ, POILE WILL FEEL PRESSURE FOR THEIR DECISION

Bob McKenzie, TSN.ca, May 4 2012

Some quick thoughts from the NHL on TSN panel on Friday night.

I think the Phoenix Coyotes played a great road game in Game 4, especially once they got the lead on the very fortuitous bounce. So often they took a little bit of time or space that just made the Nashville Predators adjust their shooting angle, made them hurry to get a shot off or the shot was outright blocked.

For the Predators, they got shut out and they're going to get killed for making the decision to sit forwards Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn because the team didn't score a goal. But what we don't know is maybe they would have lost the game 2-0 if Radulov and Kostitsyn where playing. They're turnover machines quit often.

While there will be a lot of pressure on head coach Barry Trotz and general manager David Poile for the decisions that they made, the guy behind the bench knows his team better than anybody else so I'll generally air on giving him the benefit of the doubt. But the Predators are in a deep hole and if they are in deep, I think it goes back to those two players that put them in the hole and put them in the position of doing that.

You can criticize the coach or general manager all you want, but this one falls back on the players. I do, however, believe both Radulov and Kostitsyn will be back in the lineup for Game 5.

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In defence of the Russians

ERIC DUHATSCHEK, Globe and Mail, May. 04, 2012


In the summer of 1997, eight years after he and Slava Fetisov helped usher in the NHL’s Russian evolution, Igor Larionov took the Stanley Cup home to Moscow’s Red Square for a postseason celebration unlike any other. It was a seminal moment on many levels; Larionov had won the Stanley Cup the previous spring under Scotty Bowman as part of the Detroit Red Wings’ five-man Russian unit. By bringing the celebrated trophy home, Larionov was demonstrating, on the one hand, a respect for his Russian roots, and on the other, how a player who grew up in the Soviet system could pine to win the Stanley Cup with the same fervour as any North American player.

The 51-year-old Larionov has been a pioneer his entire hockey-playing life, and this week he was disturbed by what seemed to be a backlash against the NHL’s shrinking Russian population. In one week, the headlines featured two stories, neither of them flattering. One centred on the limited ice time that the Washington Capitals were allotting to two-time MVP Alex Ovechkin in a playoff game against the New York Rangers; the other on the curfew violation that caused the Nashville Predators to suspend Alexander Radulov for a playoff game against the Phoenix Coyotes.

Lost in the shuffle: The Pittsburgh Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin was one of three finalists for the Ted Lindsay Award, which the National Hockey League Players’ Association hands out to its MVP, as selected by the players; and the Red Wings’ Pavel Datsyuk was a finalist for the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive player.

In the 1980s, Larionov worked aggressively to open the door to the NHL for himself and for a generation of players to follow. Now, in a year when he represents the top Russian prospect for the 2012 NHL entry draft, there is talk that some teams are leery about drafting Nail Yakupov of the Sarnia Sting, the top-rated player, in part because of his Russian heritage.

“Obviously, I’m concerned about that,” Larionov said. “To me, sometimes, before you judge a person, you have to do your homework, see the guy and talk to the kid and talk to the parents and follow him for quite a while to form an impression and make a decision. To me, it’s a lack of communication, and stereotyping. It’s like a bad stereotype of the Russians – doesn’t care about the Stanley Cup, doesn’t respect the fans, doesn’t respect the teammates, doesn’t respect the club. You can’t judge one or two Russian players and talk about everybody. Canadians, Americans, Swedes, Czechs, you can always find a bad apple in the bunch.”

One of the primary reasons for the NHL’s alienation of affection with Russian players was the emergence of the KHL in the fall of 2006. The KHL essentially replaced Russia’s Superleague and began to compete for homegrown players under the watch of Alexander Medvedev, a powerful oligarch who facilitated Radulov’s departure from the NHL in July of 2008 and also coaxed Czech star Jaromir Jagr to play in Russia for three seasons before he returned to join the Philadelphia Flyers this season.

“Obviously, the KHL has a big impact now,” Larionov said. “If you read the press in Russia, they want everybody to stay home. They say, ‘if you go to the NHL, it’s a hard way to make money. It’s hard to make the team. You have to learn the language.’

“In Russia, everything is given to you the first day, and I disagree with that. The way it has been in North America, I think it’s the right way. It’s easy to spoil the players and kill the desire to get to the next level. It is hard to be one of 700 players to play in the National Hockey League and to compete every night and compete in every game.

“To me, it’s a dilemma for the Russian guys. Are they willing to make a sacrifice and go to North America? And so, for the NHL, they kind of worry, should we take this Russian kid?”

Last month, Scott Howson, general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets, described the 2012 draft as “difficult at the top.” Without getting into specifics, Columbus, which has the No. 2 pick after the Edmonton Oilers, is one of the teams that may think twice about drafting a Russian after spending a fourth overall pick on Nikolai Zherdev in 2003 and a sixth overall pick on Nikita Filatov in 2008 and having little to show for both choices.

Under the collective agreement, salaries are capped for players in their first contract, meaning a player such as Washington’s first-rounder in 2010, Evgeny Kuznetsov, passed up a chance to go to the NHL next season in part because he can make a lot more money playing at home. Reports indicated that a contributing factor to Kuznetsov’s decision was his belief that his chances of playing in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, would be enhanced if he stayed home.

Larionov disputes this theory: “If the league is so good, the KHL, why do they wait for Malkin and Datsyuk, why do they leave some space for [Ilya] Kovalchuk and Ovechkin and [Alexander] Semin and some other guys playing now in the second round of the playoffs? So to me, that’s not the right explanation, that the chances will be better for you if you play hockey in Russia.

“With all respect to the KHL,” Larionov added, “the players in the NHL have got more of an everyday reality check. The competition is so high, so you have to compete every night. You are always in the public eye with the way you play. Like [Wednesday], they were showing Ovechkin all night long. They show everything – how you compete, how you’re doing – and that’s what makes the players realize, there is no easy way to make money. You have to compete every single day and when a new day starts, you have to prove again that you deserve to be here.

“That’s the highest level of competition. That’s why these [NHL] players are better. That’s why they’re maturing very quickly, because of that level of competition. That’s why Malkin and Datsyuk play here, and why they play key roles, and why they’re top players in the league.”

SUSPENDED PREDATORS

Dozens of Russian players have won the Stanley Cup since Alexei Kovalev, Sergei Zubov, Alexander Karpotsev and Sergei Nemchinov first did it with the New York Rangers in 1994. Of the 16 Stanley Cups awarded since then, 12 have included at least one Russian-born player (the exceptions: Boston Bruins, 2011; Chicago Blackhawks, 2010; Anaheim Ducks, 2007; and the Colorado Avalanche, 2001.) In 2009, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin became the first Russian player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs.

“It’s a global league now and I like that,” said Larionov, the Hall Of Famer and a member of three Detroit Red Wings championship teams. “I like what Dave Poulin [the Toronto Maple Leafs’ vice-president of hockey operation] says: ‘We’re not looking at the passport, we’re looking at the player. We are willing to work with any player who is the best.’ To me, that’s a really good statement. We cannot divide players into Swedes and Canadians and Americans. As long as the guy is putting his best effort and talent to work, that’s phenomenal. That’s why people come to watch the games and pay big money to do it. It’s all about making the game better.

“To me, it’s not pleasant to read the stuff about the Russians in Nashville. But at the same time, I would be 100 per cent with Barry Trotz and David Poile to do that kind of stuff. I spent some time with David Poile the last couple of years. He’s been asking me the last couple of years about how to get [Alexander] Radulov back, and now it seems like it’s happening, so it [the curfew violation] is not very nice.

“To me, it’s unacceptable the way they behaved and I hope it’s not going to happen again. The new generation of players, the foolish things they do, is going to be a lesson for everybody. But at the same time, the public, the fans in North America, should realize it can happen to anybody.”

RUSSIANS IN THE DRAFT:
LAST SEVEN YEARS PREVIOUS SEVEN YEARS

2011 6 2004 24
2010 4 2003 32
2009 6 2002 33
2008 9 2001 36
2007 7 2000 33
2006 16 1999 29
2005 11 1998 22
Total 59 Total 209

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Radulov, Kostitsyn have to play Game 5

TERRY KOSHAN, QMI Agency, May 5 2012


Perhaps Alexander Radulov or Andrei Kostitsyn — positively or negatively — would have made an impact for the Nashville Predators Friday night.

Suspended by the club for Game 3 of the club's Western Conference semifinal against the Phoenix Coyotes, the curfew-breaking pair didn’t play in Game 4 either, thanks to a Nashville victory on Wednesday.

So the Predators wind up without two of their top offensive players for a pivotal game Friday and don’t score a goal in a 1-0 loss. The Coyotes lead the best-of-seven series 3-1 and can wrap it up next Monday at home.

Nashville coach Barry Trotz and general manager David Poile can’t be blamed for benching the pair for Game 3. Nor can Trotz be blamed for sticking with the same lineup for Game 4, leaving Jordin Tootoo and Matt Halischuk in uniform for another night.

If Radulov and Kostitsyn weren’t overly popular with their teammates before, they certainly won't be now.

Trotz has no choice but to re-insert the pair for Game 5. Radulov leads the Predators in playoff scoring with six points. Kostitsyn is tied for the team lead with three goals.

We should find out what kind of heart the two have provided they play Game 5. If either of them takes so much as one shift off, Trotz and the rest of the Predators organization will have their answer.

POINT SHOTS

Try as they did, the Predators couldn’t score in the third period despite crashing the crease of Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith on just about every shift. With just over seven minutes remaining, Nashville thought it had tied the game, but referee Dan O’Halloran lost sight of the puck and blew his whistle. Predators forwards Mike Fisher, Patric Hornqvist and Martin Erat all jammed away at the puck until the play was blown dead ... Shane Doan doesn’t need to do anything at this point in his career to prove he is a good captain, but there he was knocking over the 6-foot-7 Hal Gill to take control of the puck and score the Coyotes’ goal. Gill managed to get back in the play, but not in time to stop Doan from releasing a backhand that eluded Predators netminder Pekka Rinne ... Nashville defenceman Ryan Suter, who will be an unrestricted free agent in July, had his bacon saved by Rinne when the game was 0-0. Bothered by Phoenix's Antoine Vermette, Suter lost control of the puck and it squirted out to Phoenix's Mikkel Boedker. Rinne coolly stood his ground and made a point-blank save ... Coyotes defenceman Rostislav Klesla had a brain cramp 6 1/2 minutes into the game when he drilled Halischuk into the boards from behind. Klesla was tagged with a boarding minor and was lucky that Halischuk was not hurt. NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan might want to give it a longer look, given that Klesla used his left hand to help guide Halischuk into the boards ... Nashville’s Paul Gaustad and Phoenix’s Kyle Chipchura seemed like odd fighting foes when they dropped the gloves in the first period, there is a history between the two. When Gaustad was with the Buffalo Sabres and Chipchura with the Anaheim Ducks, the two scrapped with each other in December 2010 ... Smith didn’t help himself with some shaky handling of the puck, but he was on point for a 25-save performance. Toward the end of the second, Smith had to be on his toes to stop a high backhand by Brandon Yip ... Tootoo put the Predators in a hole early when he was penalized for interference on Keith Yandle. The puck was gone, but Tootoo figured it was a good idea to shove Yandle from behind. A dumb penalty, but Nashville killed off the Phoenix power play.

FROM THE HASH MARKS

Hornqvist will have plenty to think about this summer if his club is eliminated by the Coyotes. It seemed that every time Nashville had a scoring chance in Game 4, Hornqvist was in the middle of it. Except he did not have an actual shot on goal until the third period, instead missing the net five times and having three other attempts blocked in the first 40 minutes. If it’s about bearing down in the playoffs, Hornqvist, who finished with three shots on goal, four shots blocked and five misses, failed miserably ... Nashville, it’s fair to say, will need more from stud defenceman Shea Weber in Game 5. Weber must have a bigger presence with his team’s season on the line next Monday ... Why is there always an argument for four-on-four hockey in overtime whenever there is a game not decided until double- or triple-overtime? The reason why people can remember Keith Primeau or Pat LaFontaine scoring in overtime after most of the continent was in bed is because it does not happen often. Let teams keep playing five-on-five until there is a goal. It’s bad enough that a skills competition decides games tied after overtime in the regular season. Don’t mess with sudden-death overtime in the playoffs as it stands now.

Ovechkin's ice time + 30 Thoughts

By Elliotte Friedman, CBC Sports, May 2, 2012


Sometime this summer, when Alexander Ovechkin runs into Alexander Radulov and/or Andrei Kostitsyn at Garage (look it up in your Moscow nightlife directory), the Washington captain should buy them a drink and say, "Thanks for taking the attention off me, guys." (Yes, Kostitsyn is from Belarus. Maybe he'll visit.)

More on the Predators later. We'll start with Ovechkin, who will be in the lineup Wednesday night in Washington. The question is: How much will he be on the ice?

Captain Capital is saying all the right things about his 13:36 of time on the ice Monday night. That's the lowest of any NHL game in which he wasn't hurt or ejected.

"I don't think we have to talk about it right now," he said on the HNIC postgame, when asked if he discusses the situation with Dale Hunter. "Right now, the most important thing [is] winning in playoffs ... I'm not a guy who is going to scream to everybody 'I want to play' ... Sometimes you just suck it up and play for your team."

Privately, Ovechkin is not bitching. Teammates and friends who know him well say he's dying to get more action, but realizes this is not the time to demand it.

He's right about that. This is an unexpectedly great stretch in Washington, after a borderline nightmarish regular season. And credit to him for rising to the occasion when a powerplay beckoned.

But here is the money quote from the Game 2 aftermath - critical passage in bold type:

"Dale, anybody who's following our team, you see he's coaching the situations. He's playing certain guys," Mike Knuble told The Washington Times' Stephen Whyno. "If we're down a goal, [Ovechkin's] going to be our main guy. He's going every other shift. If we're up a goal, then Dale tends to lean on other guys. That's the way it is. I guess they can talk about it this summer after the season and figure it out. For now it's working and we're going to run with it."

If the Capitals continue their success, odds are this trend continues. Knuble is absolutely right. This is going to be dealt with in the off-season. Hunter, or whoever is coach, will have a vote. GM George McPhee will have a vote. Ted Leonsis? He'll have 88 million votes.

Why? Because that's how much remains on Ovechkin's contract.

Leonsis is loving it right now. His fans are happy (and he listens to them), his team is guaranteed at least five home playoff dates and there is the possibility of many more. Plus, Ovechkin doesn't collect any of that salary now, so watching him play less than 14 minutes doesn't ache the pocketbook.

I'm a big believer that this could potentially be the best thing to happen to Ovechkin in a long time. The reason Bruce Boudreau didn't get away with telling him "No!" is that the team fell apart. Now that there's success, he must pay attention. The coach wants this, the other players want this and the GM wants this.

If the owner wants this too, Ovechkin will be forced to adapt for the better and become the player he should be. If not, then it's a blip on the radar and everything gained is lost.

Every regular-season game, Leonsis pays Ovechkin $109,756. This summer, he can make that an even more worthwhile investment.

Radulov, Kostitsyn and the Predators

Tuesday, I was chatting with an agent who represents several Russian players.

"They are easy targets," he said. "It's easy to pick on them."

There is some truth in that. Ovechkin, for example, has handled his demotion as well as we'd expect a good Canadian boy to handle it. Ilya Kovalchuk proved he was willing to be a positive part of a strong, structured organization.

But there is a reason NHL teams are scared of drafting and depending on Russians, and what happened last Saturday night in Phoenix is Exhibit A.

The Predators have not confirmed it, but several sources indicate Radulov and Kostitsyn didn't just stay out past curfew - they napalmed it. But, as of this writing, one thing was missing from both players: a sincere, forceful, public apology.

(Maybe it comes after this is published, but that's too late. It should've happened right away.) At least Radulov faced the media horde, albeit clumsily. Kostitsyn was nowhere to be found.

Here is what both should have apologized for:

Blowing curfew the night before a PLAYOFF game, especially after their team was already behind in the series;
Playing horribly after it occurred;
Embarrassing a GM who did everything you wanted and took a lot of heat for it (Radulov), traded for you (Kostitsyn) and a coach who sat out valued players to make room;
Finally, letting down teammates who've never had a better shot at winning the Stanley Cup.

Nashville's done some wonderful things with Jordin Tootoo (one of the guys forced to sit) and Brian McGrattan, both of whom battled addiction issues. To have two players spend the night before the game at a bar flies in the face of everything the organization believes in.

Tried to make contact Tuesday with some former players to ask if they'd come across anything like this. There were three common threads. First, was the apology heartfelt? Second, was this a first-time offence or repeat behaviour? Third, how important was the situation?

The answers are 1) Not publicly, 2) Don't know, and 3) Pretty Freaking Important.

Win or lose, can Barry Trotz afford to play them again?

30 Thoughts

1. Watched Pekka Rinne in Game 2. He is visibly furious, which is rare. Barry Trotz said he didn't know about the curfew violation before Game 2, but watching Rinne, wonder if the players sensed something was up and it affected them.

2. Guarantee Dave Tippett prepares the Coyotes for an absolute onslaught in Game 3. Predators will be at home, in trouble, and seriously angry. Guys who've been sitting will be given a chance to regain their spots.

3. Couple of years ago, we looked into doing a feature on whether or not more players would follow Ovechkin's lead and go without agents. Kelly Hrudey thought it was a poor precedent. Why? Exactly what's going on now. Hrudey believed a good agent could be a good mediator in these kinds of situations. After Game 2, both Craig Simpson and Glenn Healy made the same point.

4. Most hockey people don't believe Hunter will be back in Washington. Spoke to George McPhee about it last week, and all McPhee would say is he would like Hunter to stay. That's going to take a lot of work, and there's no guarantee the fiercest lobbying would be successful. Again, Leonsis could make the decision very hard, depending on what he's willing to pay.

5. The amazing thing about Hunter's coaching is that it's almost the exact opposite of what he does in London. He's brought out the whip before (benching Rob Schremp in a 2004 Game 7 defeat, sitting Nazem Kadri), but, generally, star players get lengthy shifts and a lot of preference.

6. The Ovechkin spotlight overshadows what's going on with Alexander Semin, who played just 12:27 in Game 2. The last three extensions he's signed (a two-year deal for 2008-09 and 2009-10; one-year contracts for 2010-11 and this season) were all inked well before free agency. (We're talking October 2007, December 2009 and January 2011.) Nothing yet this time around.

7. One NHL coach with a great line about the first two weeks of playoffs. He called it: "The Testosterone Round."

8. Convinced the edgier-than-ever John Tortorella media conferences have to do with his recent $20,000 fine. There were always things he wouldn't discuss, but this is a new level. You could always find something he'd have a (great) opinion about.

9. In the room, he's done a couple of things that have gone a long way with the Rangers. Players say he allows the group more leeway to handle things now that he knows them a little better. Also, his decision to dress Steve Eminger as a forward in Game 1 was really smart. Tortorella asked the team to trust the organization's decision to bring in Chris Kreider so late in the season, knowing it could upset chemistry. Putting Eminger in the lineup for that one game showed the Rangers that Tortorella would find opportunity for someone who'd been around most of the year (despite injury). Small thing, but a big thing.

10. Down 2-0 to Los Angeles will be the biggest challenge to the Blues' greatest strength of this season: maintaining patience. They've done it so well this season, with Ken Hitchcock preaching trust in the system no matter the score or the situation. But the Kings are shredding their tremendous positional play with power, strength and fire. Will St. Louis stick with it or try something new?

11. Apparently, after the Kings made it into the playoffs, Darryl Sutter told his players that the worst was over and it was time to relax and have fun. Good message. What probably helps is that he, Jarret Stoll, Mike Richards and Jeff Carter have all gone to the Final from low-seeded teams since 2004.

12. Watching Philadelphia lose a strong Ilya Bryzgalov start in Game 2 of its series with New Jersey was like watching Vancouver waste a great Roberto Luongo performance in Game 1 against LA. If you're Philly, you hope the ending is different.

13. Montreal sure went to the "hire the opposite of the guy you fired" theory in choosing Marc Bergevin to replace Pierre Gauthier. Bergevin will have a very different public persona than his predecessor, which is undoubtedly what the Canadiens want. It's hard, though, to be that guy all the time when you're the GM.

14. Bergevin's strength is in scouting and player development. He's got a good eye for talent and those he's worked with (Troy Brouwer, for example) praise his ability to draw it out. That will be very important. He's also been in several different roles (including assistant coach) which gives him a lot of different perspectives.

15. His lack of administrative experience is only a negative if he doesn't surround himself with (and listen to) people who can support him. Serge Savard will be there, sounds like Rick Dudley, too, and it would be smart to keep Larry Carriere. Curious to see if he brings his own capologist or stays with what was already on staff. Capologist can be your most important position and it's going to be critical with Carey Price and PK Subban negotiations upcoming.

16. Asked a couple of NHL executives what they thought was a fair number for Price. The average was about $5.5 million - but a couple pointed out the player has the leverage here. That will make the number go higher.

17. For those of you who are language-watchers in Quebec, was told that on a couple of occasions, English-only candidates were suggested to Geoff Molson/Savard. The response was that such individuals would only be considered if superstars were not available.

18. That said, wouldn't you love to see what would happen if Bergevin called Detroit and asked for permission to talk to Mike Babcock?

19. Chicago has lost two assistant GMs in two years (Kevin Cheveldayoff last spring), so Stan Bowman has another hole to fill. It's an important time for the Blackhawks. The 2010 Cup win is starting to fade and John McDonough is apparently demanding better than back-to-back first-round defeats. Sounds like everyone there is "on notice."

20. Other GMs aren't so certain Peter Chiarelli will hang on to Tim Thomas, but I can see why the Bruins boss would want to keep him. Neither the team nor the player has ever come clean about the spring of 2010. Tuukka Rask was the No. 1 guy at the time, and it's been reported Boston tried to trade Thomas. Whatever the case, ferociously motivated, Thomas won the Vezina, the Conn Smythe and the Stanley Cup. He'd be just as charged up somewhere else next season.

21. Would there be a market for him? Absolutely. A couple of interested GMs say the political issues surrounding Thomas would not prevent them from going after him.

22. It became very clear early this season that Daniel Alfredsson was going to treat this season like his last. Getting off the bus to shake hands with Ottawa fans after the Game 7 loss and joining Sweden for the worlds is part of that. It's a "Just in Case" philosophy. Before All-Star festivities, the belief was: this is it for sure. That changed, but his recent moves are consistent with his overall philosophy.

23. Wouldn't be surprised if Alfredsson's Game 6 outburst had as much to do with not playing a critical third-period powerplay as much as the hard hit from John Mitchell. You fight to come back from a concussion and don't get out there in that situation? Can be very frustrating.

24. Mike Gillis and Francesco Aquilini were originally supposed to meet Thursday, and it's expected the Canucks GM will tell his owner he does not want to change coaches. There's a lot of speculation that Alain Vigneault is a goner because he left town without talking to the media. It's more likely he didn't want to talk without knowing for sure and didn't want to wait almost two weeks for that discussion to happen.

25. For Canucks fans who want Vigneault fired, my question is this: Who is available that is better? Gillis will not make the change unless that person exists. It's not his way. Would also guess that the meeting between owner and GM was delayed because Aquilini would be very emotional after the first-round loss and that is not the time to make important decisions.

26. Cody Hodgson (and everyone around him) did themselves a great service by not saying anything after Gillis made it very clear why he traded the young forward. When you've played 1350 games (like Gary Roberts), you can say what you want. But, as we've said on Hotstove, the word on Hodgson was the people around him interfered too much. By keeping quiet this time, he comes off looking much better.

27. The annual "Trade Marleau" watch is underway after the Sharks fell in the first round. Here's the problem: The players San Jose got in the Heatley/Setoguchi deals came in 25 goals below the players they gave up. Whatever you think of Marleau's playoff performance, if you don't make up for the 30 he scores in the regular season, do you even get to the playoffs?

28. For those wondering: The self-help books Braden Holtby says had the best effect on him were Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence by Gary Mack and The Greatness Guide by Robin Sharma.

29. The Phoenix Coyotes will survive in Arizona if the "management fee" to run the arena gets through Glendale City Council and The Goldwater Institute. If not, there might be five guys who know what will happen: Gary Bettman, Bill Daly, John Collins and the NHL's top two financial guys, Craig Harnett and Joseph DeSousa. Cassie Campbell-Pascall mentioned the word "fold" in her blog this week. Nothing would surprise me here.

30. Finally, wanted to direct your attention to http://richardmorrisonfund.org/. Some friends of mine in Vancouver know Richard Morrison, who was seriously injured in a freak hockey accident. (He tripped over a goalie pad and fell into the boards.) The father of two young children will spend the next six months in hospital and eventually need an electronic wheelchair to get around. (Here's hoping he will regain the use of his hands.) Take a look, any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Darryl Sutter has Kings invested in winning

Cam Cole, National Post, May 5, 2012


“I’m still an honest guy, right?” said the 53-year-old Darryl Sutter, centre. “It’s what’s best for the team, not always what’s best for what the player thinks."

ELSEGUNDO, Calif. — The one game the Los Angeles Kings have lost so far in these Stanley Cup playoffs — Game 4 of the Vancouver series — Drew Doughty learned a lesson he’s unlikely to forget.

At least, as long as Darryl Sutter is coaching.

The 22-year-old defenceman went into the players’ lounge attached to the Kings’ dressing room at Staples Center to get a cold drink between periods, and his eye was caught by something on TV. He stood and watched for a few seconds.

Big mistake.

“He happened to catch me in there, and yelled at me,” Doughty said Friday. “He was serious. We were losing the game, and he wants our total focus on our next shift. So I make sure not to go in there any more.”

Good Darryl. Bad Darryl. There’s a lot of Darryls inside the frequently frosty, complicated guy Calgary Herald’s George Johnson brilliantly dubbed The Jolly Rancher.

But the Darryl Sutter who replaced Terry Murray and turned around a Kings team that was in a serious funk at mid-season — the Darryl who has L.A. up 3-0 on the St. Louis Blues, a win away from having knocked off the top two teams in the West — is a whole different cat than the one who grew increasingly aloof and snappish as general manager in Calgary while the Flames hockey operation he had built was crumbling on the ice and off.

And though he would never admit that his return to the bench this season was anything more than a favour to his old San Jose boss/now Kings GM Dean Lombardi, he has been in most observable ways reborn as a coach.

And with the Kings perhaps poised to dispose of the Blues here Sunday, he has also freshened up his resume, in a good way. Not that he cares.

He doesn’t believe he’s any different, but the change in his demeanour is evident to those who have seen him before, during and after his early successes and late failures with the Flames.

The Kings players say he rekindled their emotional investment in games. They say he is by turns scary and caring and brutally honest. They even laugh at what captain Dustin Brown calls “his so-called jokes” every now and then, though Doughty admits that there are moments when Sutter’s low and slow delivery — he is the Rocky Balboa of conversationalists — leaves them wondering if they’ve understood him correctly.

“He likes to have fun at the right times, but for the most part he’s serious,” said Doughty. “I sometimes catch myself, kind of waiting for him to smile after he says whatever he has to say, because I don’t want to be laughing when he’s serious.

“I couldn’t understand anything he was saying when he first came, so I always made sure when drills happened to be at the back of the line.”

This was a common problem among the Kings. The now-departed Jack Johnson said Sutter’s mutterings were so indecipherable that he just kept nodding, so that it looked like he was agreeing with him.

But Sutter is aware of all this. And he’s OK with a limited amount of give-and-take with a generation of players far removed from his own.

“I’m still an honest guy, right?” said the 53-year-old third of seven Sutter brothers from Viking, Alta. “It’s what’s best for the team, not always what’s best for what the player thinks. Very clearly that. That’s a good way to do it, and I wish that’s how everyone always approached me.”

The incident with Doughty, he explains away with: “Young guys, right? Drew’s a kid. I’ve got kids older than him. So I try to handle him like I would handle my children. Drew’s an awesome, awesome kid. But he’s no different than any kid that age. Look at last night. He didn’t need any help. But there’s nights, a moment, when maybe he does need help.”

A pat on the back, or a kick. Sutter is capable of either, but usually even the corrections are done quietly.

“You know, it’s a misconception that guys yell and holler — the only reason you holler is because the crowd’s loud,” he said. “I think that (ranting style) is a dinosaur. The best coaches that I’ve played for and worked with are straight up, straight shooters, and they’d look at you and tell you the truth.

“The biggest influences I had, because I was a young guy, were Joe Crozier, Bob Pulford, Roger Neilson, Keith Magnuson. Clearly more one-on-one guys. I prefer the one-on-one stuff, but I know that as a head coach you have to be at the centre of it all, too.”

The Kings are not like the Flames, who were not like the Sharks, who were not like the Blackhawks, whom Sutter coached after playing his entire NHL career in Chicago.

“Every team’s different that I’ve been associated with, but it always comes back to your leadership group,” he said. “I think it’s a big part of the game, the emotional part. They’re not machines. There’s a way to draw that, and a lot of it comes from the leaders. If they can find that in themselves, they can pull guys along with them.

“When teams have success, the biggest reason is that the top players do that.”

Sutter’s top players have all bought in: Mike Richards, Anze Kopitar, Doughty, Rob Scuderi, Jarret Stoll, Justin Williams and especially Brown, who has been both a physical, disturbing force and a contributor on the scoresheet — just about the perfect playoff leader.

“I mean, he pushes the right buttons,” Brown said. “You can do all the Xs and Os right, and if you’re not emotionally attached, it’s really hard to win in this league. He brought attention to that, pushing guys, patting guys on the back at the right times.

“Maybe it’s a little bit of a cliche, but everyone’s equal in that room. If you’re a superstar or a role player, you’re expected to do the right things. He plays no favourites.”

And now and then, he’ll throw in a joke.

For April Fool’s Day, he wrote out a whole itinerary of items for the players to do on what was supposed to be a day off, concluding with a meeting at his house — he’s renting Terry Murray’s old place in Manhattan Beach.

None of the players will admit to having fallen for it, and Sutter wasn’t telling.

“At least they know where I live,” he said Friday.

“You have to have those moments. Like we were in a meeting in our hotel, and someone said the New York-Washington game was going into overtime — the long one — and somebody asks: ‘Are they tied?’ Awesome,” he said, laughing.

“They’ve gotta have some fun. What’s the old saying: Make your work practice and make your practice work. Especially with a young team. It has to be firm and clear, but they also have to be allowed to use their abilities.”

Based on their 7-1 playoff record, it doesn’t appear to be a problem.

Your stories: Where were you in '72?

Chris Hannay, Globe and Mail, May 4, 2012


It was Sept. 28, 1972. Game 8 of the 1972 Summit Series between the Canadian and Russian hockey teams. 34 seconds left on the clock, and Paul Henderson scores the winning goal for Canada with the "shot heard 'round the world."

So where were you when Henderson's puck found the back of the net? For many Canadians, it was a remarkable moment - not just for sport, but for a sense of patriotism and global politics.

We've been collecting your stories and memories as we approach the 40th anniversary of the momentous series. We'll feature some of your stories in print and online.

Some of the stories you've shared so far have been fascinating:

- Newlyweds bumped from a honeymoon suite by celebrating hockey players.

- Watching the game in a packed, stifling high-school gymnasium, which erupted in roars with Henderson's goal.

- An editor for a certain newspaper won a bottle of liquor for writing the best front-page headline in the newsroom.

For more on Paul Henderson now, check out Patrick White's in-depth profile of the 69-year-old hockey legend.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/stricken-by-cancer-paul-henderson-flexes-in-the-face-of-mortality/article2373066/

Kings’ Dustin Brown, Blues’ David Backes are perfect playoff leaders

Cam Cole, National Post, May 5, 2012


“You gotta try to go after guys, get them off their game, and maybe I’ve done that a little bit,” said Kings captain Dustin Brown. “Guys don’t like me too much just from the way that I play, but I’ve been able to handle that."


EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — If hockey were only about will, and a team exactly mirrored its captain, there might be nothing left of the Los Angeles Kings or St. Louis Blues to go on from here.

By the end of their Western Conference semi-final series, which could come as early as Sunday, there would be Kings’ Dustin Brown on one side, Blues’ David Backes on the other, two goaltenders, and everybody else in the infirmary.

And the goalies would only be safe if they kept their heads up.

U.S. teammates two years ago in the Olympics, Brown and Backes are peas in a pod — skilled, fast, physical, edgy, capable of seek-and-destroy hits, and with an inclination to take the shortest route to the opposition’s most important players, and arrive in ill humour.

Pretty much perfect playoff leaders, in other words.

“It’s always better from a teammates standpoint, coaching standpoint, if (captains) have a strong identity, because that’s how you want your team to play,” Kings head coach Darryl Sutter sad Saturday, “and we’re fortunate that we have (former Philadelphia Flyers captain) Mike Richards and Brownie both that are so close in those areas, in terms of what they bring, in terms of leadership, we’re lucky like that.”

And on the other side?

“Well, (Backes) is clearly an identity player, no different than the last series where we talked about Kesler and Hamhuis, to be quite honest — we felt they were (Vancouver Canucks’) identity players.”

That didn’t stop Brown from singling out Henrik Sedin for a seismic hit in Game 3 that didn’t disable the Canucks’ captain but definitely sent a message — one of many Brown delivered in the series, on the scoresheet and off.

“I mean, you gotta try to go after guys, get them off their game, and maybe I’ve done that a little bit,” the Kings’ gritty captain said. “Guys don’t like me too much just from the way that I play, but I’ve been able to handle that.

“I try to be hard on their top guys, and I don’t think any team really likes that.”

He seems to be particularly obstreperous around captains, and has locked horns with the six-foot-three, 225-pound Backes more than once as the Kings have built their 3-0 stranglehold, with Game 4 Sunday at noon at Staples Center.

“Well, I think both (Sedin and Backes) are top guys, you have to try to push them out,” Brown said. “Backes is a big boy, he’s one of those guys you can hit 100 times, he’s going to be the same David Backes we saw in Games 1-2-3.

“Sometimes it’s an uphill battle with a guy like that. He’s always going to show up and play, and you have to keep after him just to have an effect over the course of a series. A big body like that, with the skill he has, if you’re not running into him every chance you get, he’s going to be running into you.”

“There’s no love lost in the battle of playoffs,” said Backes, “but you saw in the second period when he hits me, he goes down, he’s right back up and into it and he and (Willie) Mitchell almost send me into the bench . . . those are clean hits, they’re hard plays and you can respect the hell out of a guy across from you who’s playing clean but playing his butt off and playing hard.”

Sutter and Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, both old-school guys who insist on stubborn, responsible territorial play, and have no time for soft players, would love this captains’ contest of wills if they weren’t each hoping the other’s leader would go away.

“Well, they’re two big guys,” said Hitchcock. “Man, that hit against the bench — that hurt ME. Cripes, you saw both guys get squished. I’m surprised both of them got up. That was a big, big-time hit.”

Brown, the smaller of the two at six feet and 205 pounds, has been a major force for the Kings in the playoffs, but “it’s not really much different than the impact he has at any point in the regular season,” said Sutter. “I think he’s a strong, fast, straight-line, finish-checks player and when he does that he’s really effective.

“He’s probably no different than their captain. They have an identity, and if they’re doing it right then it’s easy to say, ‘Look, that’s how Dustin does it, that’s how you do it.’ Or ‘That’s how David does it, that’s how you do it.’ ”

From Backes’s point of view, there’s no choice but to man up against the Kings, who’ve been pushing the Blues around for long stretches in the series.

“We’ve got to find that energy and that stomach to stand up to their forwards, they’ve really taken it to us,” he said.

Whatever bond Backes and Brown may have shared en route to the silver medal in Vancouver is out the window.

“Not today. They want to hug, they can hug after the series,” said Hitchcock.

“I think there’s a lot of mutual respect there, but there comes a time when that friendship needs to go to the side, and you’ve got say, ‘It’s either you’re going home early or we’re going home early,’ ” Backes said.

“We’ll be friends later in the summer, but right now this is what we need to do.”

Canucks should hold on to Alain Vigneault

Iain MacIntyre, National Post, May 7 2012


VANCOUVER — This was going to begin “Dear Francesco” but a journalism instructor once told me personal letters were a lazy way to write columns and Francesco Aquilini is probably too busy to read correspondence.

The Vancouver Canucks’ managing owner is believed to be meeting his general manager Monday, 15 days after the end of the team’s National Hockey League season.

Don’t expect any announcements or even official confirmation the summit occurred. If Mike Gillis is still the general manager at the end of the week, we’ll know the meeting went pretty well and the Canucks are mobilizing with Alain Vigneault as coach for another run at the Stanley Cup next season.

And if not, well, you better assume the crash position and understand there will be personnel matters this spring and summer more weighty than what to do with Mason Raymond.

Unless every columnist, blogger, commentator, talk show host, NHL insider and hairdresser has it wrong, a key item on Monday’s agenda will be Vigneault.

But there may be an issue even bigger than the coach. The real question may be: Who is running the hockey team? Is it Gillis or the people who hired him?

The Canucks are the shiniest bobble in the billion-dollar empire built by developer Luigi Aquilini and his three sons, Francesco, Roberto and Paulo.

The Canucks have been fantastically successful, as a team and business. Purchased in 2006 along with Rogers Arena from Seattle’s John McCaw for a couple of instalments totalling $250-million, the value of Canucks Sports and Entertainment has probably doubled under the Aquilinis.

The strength of their ownership since they hired Gillis in 2008 to replace Dave Nonis, the general manager they had inherited from McCaw, is their absolute trust in their hand-picked man to make hockey decisions and the Aquilinis’ willingness to fund them.

The result is a team that has averaged 50 wins and 108 points the last four seasons while producing top-five NHL revenue and, likely, profits in excess of $100-million.

Given the consistency and excellence in on- and off-ice performance, two straight Presidents’ Trophies and the fact it was only 11 months ago that the Aquilini-Gillis-Vigneault Canucks came within a game of winning the Stanley Cup, its is natural to scoff at the idea that the coach or any other senior person in the organization is about to be fired.

As a rival NHL manager said recently: “Everyone out there should get a pat on the back and be told to go win the Stanley Cup next season.”

The problem is Francesco Aquilini got worked in 2008, counselled by friends to dump Nonis for Gillis. Gillis turned into a good general manager — the best in the NHL last season according to peers including Nonis’ blood big brother, Toronto Maple Leaf boss Brian Burke, who voted Gillis the GM of the year.

But if the Aquilinis can be successfully lobbied once, it can happen again. And one of the chief lobbyists four years ago has been writing since then that Francesco should get rid of Vigneault.

That media campaign gained some traction two weeks ago when the Canucks were knocked from the Stanley Cup tournament in five games by the Los Angeles Kings. It was Vancouver’s earliest playoff exit since 2004, although given the Kings’ steam-rolling of the St. Louis Blues in Round 2, perhaps it wasn’t as shameful a defeat for the Canucks as some made it seem.

In any case, the Aquilinis were strangely too busy to meet with Gillis after the season, and Vigneault ducked reporters.

Surely, the owners must be furious. Illogically, it’s all the coach’s fault.

There is no sober, statistical argument for firing Vigneault. He is easily the most successful coach in franchise history, a three-time finalist in nine NHL seasons for the Jack Adams Award — the coach-of-the-year trophy he won with the Canucks in 2007 and for which he was the runner-up only last year.

Without any sensible reason to change coaches, the anti-Vigneault campaign floats specious arguments such as:

• The Canucks need a fresh voice (because obviously players weren’t listening to Vigneault when the team finished the season 8-1 and topped the standings again).

• Vigneault can’t coach young players (like Alex Edler, Chris Tanev, Cory Schneider and Cody Hodgson, or the players he developed in Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows and Jannik Hansen).

• Vigneault is dull and defensive-minded (but the Canucks were fourth in scoring this season, first last year and second the season before).

• The Canucks can’t get over the hump (which is, what, Game 7 of the Stanley Cup)?

• Vigneault’s success is a charade because his team plays in the weak Northwest Division (although the Canucks still had the best head-to-head record among Western Conference playoff teams this season and their nine playoff rounds the last four years — none against those Northwest pushovers — are tied for the most in the NHL).

Really, the most cogent argument for dumping Vigneault is that the owners must be angry and “somebody has to pay.” At least vengeance is a natural emotion. But it’s probably neither a prudent nor healthy way to operate a business that is one of the standard-bearers in its field.

Gillis has made it clear that he thinks Vigneault is outstanding. Both GM and coach have a year remaining under contract and have earned extensions.

The manager has not a difficult case to make for retaining the coach if owners ask his opinion. But what if the Aquilinis tell Gillis what his opinion should be and demand he fire Vigneault?

That was not the deal when he became GM.

Gillis is no fool; he fully understood what he was doing two weeks ago when he spoke so strongly in favour of Vigneault. There is no wriggle room, no way for Gillis to call a news conference and say that on second thought the Canucks need a new coach.

If Vigneault’s head rolls, everyone knows it will have been the owners who sprung the guillotine. And then why would Gillis choose to stay? So they can tell him next fall which players should go to the minors and which to the power play?

The Aquilinis have a great thing going with Gillis and Vigneault. All they need to do is nothing.

NHL notes: Blues on verge of being sold

QMI Agency, May 8 2012


Another NHL team appears on the verge of being sold.

A day after the Phoenix Coyotes ownership issue was theoretically resolved, with Greg Jamison agreeing in principle of buy the team, word has come down that a group led by Tom Stillman will close his deal to purchase the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The group led by Stillman, the Blues' minority owner since 2007, will reportedly pay $130 million for the NHL franchise and its AHL affiliate, the Peoria Rivermen.

Absentee owner Dave Checketts has been trying to sell the team for the last two years, ever since private-equity firm TCP divested its 70% interest. The had a deal to sell the franchise to Matthew Hulsizer but the league ruled in January that the agreement had been terminated after a dealine to complete the deal was missed.

If Stillman gets approval from the NHL board of governors to buy the Blues, Hall of Famer Brett Hull is expected to be hired in a management role. Hull, who was general manager of the Dallas Stars for parts of two seasons, played 12 years for the Blues.