Yakupov tries to prove he’s not a stereotypical Russian prospect
James Mirtle, Globe and Mail, June 1, 2012
He seemed to know the questions were coming.
But Nail Yakupov, the consensus No. 1 pick at the 2012 NHL draft next month, didn’t seem to mind that so many people wanted to know how being Russian played into his week at the league’s annual combine.
Teams have concerns, after all, about top players bolting to the KHL after using a high pick to take them, and several enquired in one-on-one interviews what Yakupov’s thoughts were on the subject.
When he met with the media on Friday after completing his physical testing, Yakupov was asked about players like Nikolai Zherdev (fourth overall in 2003) and Nikita Filatov (sixth overall in 2008) who flamed out in Columbus, and he tried to distance himself from those two.
The Blue Jackets own the No. 2 pick this year and are believed to be wary of drafting another Russian with the pick.
“You know, every player has his [own] way,” said Yakupov, an ethnic Tatar from the Tatarstan region in Russia. “I’m Muslim, I’m not Russian. If you [ask] what happens with the Russian factor, it’s [Zherdev’s] life and I have my life.
“I’ve got to work. It doesn’t matter what team is going to [take me] in the draft... My new team is my first favourite team in the NHL. I’m going to play and do everything for this.”
Yakupov burst onto the North American hockey scene in 2010-11 with a 101-point rookie season with the Sarnia Sting in the OHL and followed that up with 69 points in 42 games in an injury shortened campaign this past season.
While there’s a chance Everett Silvertips defenceman Ryan Murray becomes the top pick, it’s widely expected the Edmonton Oilers will select Yakupov with the first overall selection in Pittsburgh at the draft and add to their stable of elite offensive prospects.
“We’re not sure who this pick is now,” Oilers GM Steve Tambellini said. “That’s the way it’s been the last couple years... When we get to the draft, we’ll have our final meeting and we’ll decide a day or so before the draft. And that’ll be our pick.”
What they’d be getting is a player some have compared to Pavel Bure: A lightning quick, agile winger with good hands and an excellent shot who doesn’t shy away from playing in traffic.
What he lacks is size, as Central Scouting has him listed at just 5-foot-10 1/2 and 189 pounds.
Yakupov’s personality, meanwhile, doesn’t fit the stereotype of a typical Russian prospect, as far from standoffish, he comes across as passionate and very much interested mostly in making an impact in the NHL.
“You know what, it is the best moment of my life,” he said in response to a question about how he enjoyed the normally gruelling (and thoroughly unenjoyable) combine process. “It started like from here, from now. The combine, the draft. I’m excited to go to work. My parents, my friends [are too]. We’ll see what happens.”
Yakupov met with 18 teams during the interview process this week in Toronto, which is actually a lower number than many of the top prospects are subject to. He described the process as 20 minutes with everyone and a lot of the “same questions” over and over.
He said the oddest questions he faced were about his family and what he was doing this summer.
All of the questioning, testing and meetings with the media hardly seemed to bother him, however.
“It’s the best league in the world,” Yakupov said. “You’ve got to work harder... we’ll see what happens. It’s life. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. For me, I just want to work and do everything [to make] the NHL because it’s my dream. I want to show something.”
And all that KHL controversy?
“For me, I think about just NHL,” he said.
Business of hockey: How nimble executives from Los Angeles to Raleigh put their clubs on solid ice
KARL MOORE AND DEVIN BIGONESS, Globe and Mail, Jun 01, 2012
Thinking about traditional hockey-powerhouse cities bring to mind Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, New York, Detroit or Boston – the Original Six.
But what would it take to add the likes of Los Angeles, Nashville and Miami to this list? These teams represent areas better known for golf and surfing than hockey, yet there were three warm-weather city champions in consecutive years - Tampa Bay Lightning in 2005, Carolina Hurricanes in 2006, Anaheim Ducks in 2007. Now Los Angeles have an opportunity to make it four in the space of eight years, playing New Jersey in the Stanley Cup finals. Anaheim and Carolina were also finalists in 2003 and 2002.
How have these teams managed to become competitive while playing in non-traditional hockey markets?
While markets like Los Angeles and Miami do not possess the rich hockey tradition of Montreal and Boston, they have other advantages such as associations with global celebrities in entertainment and other sports. For free agents, these factors provide an attractive style of living to gravitate towards. Even the Raleigh market, while not an entertainment or lifestyle capital like Los Angeles or Miami, has proven to be successful. The local fan base has supported the team since it relocated in 1997, and was rewarded with a Stanley Cup championship in 2006.
Several of these teams have succeeded in non-traditional markets in three ways:
1. Show a commitment to winning – It is more fun to root for a winning team. This is the case in any sport, but for a hockey franchise struggling for fans’ attention against plenty of other sports and entertainment offerings, the imperative to win is even greater. The Carolina Hurricanes took only four years after relocating from Hartford to make it to the Stanley Cup finals. and less than 10 years to win Lord Stanley’s Cup. When the Los Angeles Kings were acquired by Bruce McNall in 1987, he wasted little time in being innovative and focused on a game-changing acquisition strategy. In 1988 he acquired Wayne Gretzky from the Edmonton Oilers. Gretzky quickly turned the team into a Stanley Cup contending team and it went to the finals in 1993. This year, the bold acquisitions of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, from the Philadelphia Flyers and the Columbus Blue Jackets, played a big role in getting the Kings to the Cup finals. Meantime, the Florida Panthers, founded in 1993, have only been to the playoffs four times in their 18-year history including this season. In 2011-12, Florida ranked 21st in the league in total fan attendance. The marketing professionals associated with the Florida franchise know that the more a team wins, the more positive stories are written in the media, the more people are talking about the team and so fan attendance increases dramatically.
2. Try some new things – If franchises are trying to grow market share in a competitive and mature market, they need to be willing to try new tactics in order to grow. They cannot be afraid of failure. The Kings launched a bold, controversial billboard campaign this season. Three years ago, Carolina filmed eight spots in a campaign called “It’s a Caniac Thing,” showing a player executing a signature move with a commentator describing the move dramatically. Tampa Bay gave away tickets through a Twitter campaign and gave registered hockey players between the ages of 9 and 13 a chance to line up with the team during the playing of the national anthem.
3. Make the event an experience – As Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore discuss in their book “The Experience Economy” today’s marketplace is increasingly rewarding those organizations that make their offering an experience for the consumer. The same is true in hockey where stadiums and teams are trying to make each night on the ice more than just a game. Many arenas have music or entertainment acts between periods to extend the action and this is just the start. The new trend is to offer amusement park-type rides or activities, deliver world-class restaurants or dining options, and also increase the availability of technology to broaden the game experience. All of these efforts are to deliver an enhanced experience for the fan to get them to come back for more games.
Karl Moore is an associate professor at the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University.
Devin Bigoness is a project director with Duke Corporate Education in the New York area.
BRUINS' THOMAS CONFIRMS HE WILL TAKE NEXT YEAR OFF
TSN, 6/3/2012
Boston, MA (Sports Network) - Boston Bruins star goaltender Tim Thomas confirmed on his Facebook page Sunday that he will be taking a year off from hockey.
Thomas confirmed the hiatus with the following statement.
"From the earliest age I can remember, I've wanted to be a hockey player. I've been blessed in my life to not only be able to live that dream, but to achieve more than I ever thought possible.
"The singleminded focus that is necessary to accomplish a dream of this magnitude entails (by necessity) sacrifice in other areas and relationships in life.
"At the age of 38, I believe it is time to put my time and energies into those areas and relationships that I have neglected. That is why at this time I feel the most important thing I can do in my life is to reconnect with the three F's.
"Friends, Family, and Faith.
"This is what I plan on doing over the course of the next year."
Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli confirmed reports on Friday that Thomas was seriously thinking about not playing in 2012-13.
Thomas has one year left on his current deal, which carries a $5 million cap hit for the 2012-13 season. The no-movement clause that is a part of the deal expires July 1.
The 38-year-old went 35-19-1 with a 2.36 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage this past season. In the playoffs, he had a 2.14 GAA and a .923 save percentage. Boston lost in seven games to Washington in the first round.
Thomas won the 2009 and 2011 Vezina Trophy, and has a 196-121-45 record and 2.48 GAA in 378 career games with the Bruins. In 50 postseason games, he holds a 29-21 mark with a 2.07 GAA.
Thomas won the 2011 Conn Smythe Trophy after leading Boston to its first Stanley Cup title since 1972.
Boston's backup goalie Tuukka Rask becomes a restricted free agent on July 1, but the Bruins intend on re-signing him. Rask went 11-8-3 with a 2.05 GAA and .929 save percentage this season.
Thomas' future in the NHL seems to be up in the air.
"What does this portend for the future? We'll see...God's will be done," Thomas said at the end of his statement.
Glendale opens valve on sewer and water accounts to fund Coyotes
David Shoalts, The Globe and Mail, Jun 03 2012
Like many of us faced with bills we can’t pay, the city officials in Glendale, Ariz., are poking around in all of their bank accounts looking here and there for the money they need to hand over to the NHL.
This account in the Arizona Republic is a sobering look at Glendale’s attempts to find the $25-million (all currency U.S.) it owes the NHL for the operations of the Phoenix Coyotes over the 2011-12 season. In the end, the money was taken from Glendale’s sewer and water account for the second consecutive year, which was not according to plan. That $50-million has to be paid back to that account, which Glendale plans to do over the next 40 years.
Just as sobering is that the Glendale politicians did not seem to have a grasp on just where that money was coming from.
The plan was that the money-losing Coyotes were to be sold before this season’s bill came due. Then the $25-million was supposed to be the responsibility of the new owner.
However, with council having conditionally committed to a payment of $17-million for next season, the latest prospective owner has yet to formally agree to a lease with Glendale for Jobing.com Arena. Greg Jamison’s purchase of the Coyotes from the NHL is conditional on a lease agreement.
There is a draft agreement in place and it is expected to be made public by Friday. Glendale council is supposed to vote on the lease at its regular meeting June 12 when it is also expected to formally approve a budget for the next fiscal year.
But nothing is ever certain when it comes to the Coyotes, as NHL commissioner Gary Bettman reluctantly admitted last week.
“I can’t say anything with one-hundred-per-cent certainty,” he said. “I think the likelihood is, based on everything we know today, the process should conclude successfully, but it’s not something I’m in a position to guarantee.”
Jamison, the commissioner said, “continues to put his equity together,” which is another way of saying he is trying to raise the money, if not through investors then through Glendale taxpayers with generous terms in the arena lease.
Martin Brodeur’s father passes along his legacy
Dave Stubbs, National Post, Jun 4, 2012
Martin Brodeur’s swollen trophy case grew by two items over the weekend, the night before the goaltender’s New Jersey Devils slipped into a King-sized hole in the Stanley Cup final.
Brodeur’s father, Denis, made the trip to New Jersey for Game 2 Saturday of the Devils’ championship series against Los Angeles, and he hit the road with some priceless cargo.
As he usually does, Martin Brodeur shone with typically unconventional style, performing at his mini-putt-windmill best. Brodeur made at least a half-dozen brilliant saves in regulation and overtime, his stops authored by stacked pads, a vacuum glove hand and a body that at times seemed to be the 6-foot width of his net.
But in the end, Brodeur could not stop Jeff Carter’s screened shot 13:42 into overtime. The Kings earned their second consecutive 2-1 overtime win and carry a 2-0 lead back to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Monday.
It was remarkable enough that Denis Brodeur, 81, made the trip for Game 2, driving Friday from his St-Léonard home to New Jersey with his best friend, Pierre Villeneuve, at the wheel.
On Feb. 17, Denis underwent a 10-hour operation for the removal of a brain tumour that was nearly the size of a baseball. Three and a half months later, feeling so good that he says he is surprising even himself, he was at the Prudential Centre on Saturday, a dozen or so rows up behind a net, wearing a Devils T-shirt “because they told me, ‘Everybody’s gotta wear red!’ ”
For some time, especially in recent weeks, Denis had been thinking of his two-part gift for Martin:
There was the maple leaf-emblazoned wool sweater that he had worn playing goal for the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen, Canada’s bronze-medal hockey entry at the 1956 Olympic Winter Games in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy.
And there was the fibreglass mask Denis wore the last few years of his amateur career, manufactured by the man who made the mask with which Canadiens legend Jacques Plante forever changed the face of goaltending.
“I was thinking, ‘This might be Martin’s last Stanley Cup run,’ and I’ve been feeling good so I decided to come down,” Denis said Sunday morning from the road home.
“I told [wife] Mireille that, for a long time, I’d wanted to give Martin my Olympic sweater and my mask. I’ve thought that he deserved to have them.
“I thought more about this after I recovered from my adventure in the hospital,” he added, laughing. “I had to give them to Martin. When I’m gone, I don’t know where they’d go. Now, I know that he has them.”
Denis, Villeneuve and another of Denis’s sons, Denis Jr., who will attend the Stanley Cup final games as long as they go, arrived at Martin’s New Jersey home Friday. There they were welcomed as the goalie’s house guests, and that evening the surprise was sprung.
“Martin was very happy,” Denis said with great understatement.
A photo was taken in Brodeur’s den, in front of a framed image of the 2002 Salt Lake City Canadian Olympic team on which he starred, of father and son with the sweater and mask.
Brodeur told his father he will frame together the 1956 Olympic jersey and his own from Salt Lake City.
Only “in a way,” Denis said, was Friday’s gift a thank-you for one his famous son had bestowed upon him back in February, on a visit Martin made to the family home the day after Denis’s brain cancer had been diagnosed.
Hours after Brodeur had learned Feb. 7 of his father’s condition, he blanked the Rangers 1-0 in New York. Then Martin flew home the following day and presented Denis with the game puck marking the 117th shutout of his regular-season career, 140th including playoffs.
Martin’s memorabilia now contains the puck from every one of his shutouts except this one.
“That was a wonderful gesture,” Denis said of the gift.
The 1956 sweater likely would have raised many thousands of dollars at auction, something Denis never considered doing.
The mask has a marvellous history of its own, with Denis being the first amateur goalie in Canada to regularly wear facial protection in competition.
Plante had worn his mask in Canadiens practices during the autumn of 1959, a hard, crude shell made by Fibreglass Canada marketing rep Bill Burchmore. But only that Nov. 1, when he was struck and badly bloodied by a backhander off the stick of Rangers’ Andy Bathgate in New York, did Plante wear it in a game.
He did so against coach Toe Blake’s wishes, though Blake could not say much when the masked Plante won that night, then won nine and tied one in the Canadiens’ next 10 games.
At the time, Denis Brodeur was a freelance photographer for Montréal-Matin and a senior-league goaltender for the Montréal Olympiques. He was growing weary of the sutures that were being sewn into his puck- and stick-slashed face, so he met Plante when the Canadiens returned to Montreal from New York.
“I asked Jacques for the address of the guy who’d made his mask,” Denis said. “I went to Bill’s office, he took a mould of my face and I had my mask maybe 10 days later.”
It was worth every penny of the $200 he paid for it, even if it offered only marginal protection. Denis’s eyes remained vulnerable and he would still bruise when struck in the face.
“I was braver with it,” he said, “but it was mostly good only if you were hit on the sides.”
Denis was once offered $10,000 for the mask by a collector.
“But the money’s not important,” he said. “I’ve had it for a long time in the basement and I had to give it to Martin.”
Brodeur, 40 but playing a decade younger, likely will place it near the replica of a mask designed for the late Terry Sawchuk, the NHL icon whose regular-season shutout record of 103 he toppled 2 1/2 years ago.
Denis said farewell to Martin on Sunday morning, hitting the road back to Montreal as the goalie headed for his team’s charter to Los Angeles.
He said his son was “angry” about Saturday’s loss, with the Devils in very deep against an opponent backstopped by the sensational Jonathan Quick.
“Martin wanted to win so badly, but that’s the way it is,” Denis said. “All a goalie can do is give his team a chance to win. After that, it’s up to his teammates. We just can’t score. Our best players aren’t producing.”
Denis says he’ll return to New Jersey only if the series goes the seven-game limit. And he is optimistic he will be at the Bell Centre come the fall, taking more photos of his son’s hockey journey that is headed directly to the Hall of Fame.
“I wouldn’t have said Martin would be back next year if you’d asked me last season,” Denis said of the Devils team that missed the playoffs for the first time since 1996.
“But the way I see him playing now? My God.”
Hextall believes in the will to win
Chris Stevenson ,QMI Agency, June 03 2012
LOS ANGELES - He slips out through the door of the Los Angeles Kings management suite at the Prudential Center between periods of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final and, looking at Ron Hextall, lanky and imposing, the thought occurs:
He could still run down Chris Chelios, no problem, and despite Chelios’ reputation as a fitness fanatic, I don’t know if you would want to give Chelios the edge.
Hextall, now 48, is the Kings vice-president and assistant general manager and looks like he could still play.
It’s a little different watching from up here, huh?
“You feel pretty helpless, that’s for sure,” he said.
The former Vezina and Conn Smythe Trophy winner has now helped the Kings get to within two wins of winning the Stanley Cup, something he didn’t do as a player despite his wonderful efforts with the Philadelphia Flyers in a 1987 season when he was the best goaltender in the game and led them to the final against the Edmonton Oilers.
His imprint, in so many different ways, is on this Stanley Cup final, which the Kings lead 2-0 going into Game 3 Monday night at Staples Center. You look at the way New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur handles the puck (and Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick, who is underrated in that department) and you have to remember Hextall revolutionized the position when it came to puckhandling.
In December 1987, he became the first goaltender in NHL history to score a goal by actually shooting the puck in the net. Two years later, he became the first to score a goal in the playoffs.
Brodeur and Quick aren’t doing what they’re doing without Hextall becoming the first goaltender to really become a third defenceman with the puck.
He was a fiery competitor, once charging out of the net to attack Chelios after the then-Montreal Canadiens defenceman had hammered the head of Flyers star Brian Propp into the glass at the Montreal Forum during the playoffs in 1989.
Hextall is having a different, but quite significant impact now. He is in his sixth season with the Kings, one of a half-dozen former members of the Flyers organization (general manager Dean Lombardi, assistant coach John Stevens, former head coach Terry Murray and players Mike Richards and Jeff Carter) who have helped the Kings get this far.
As Lombardi’s right-hand man, Hextall has had a huge influence on building this Kings team. He cut his teeth as a manager running the Kings’ American Hockey League franchise in Manchester, so he has had a direct hand in cultivating the prospects that are now helping the Kings enjoy their success.
Despite his star status as a player, Hextall was willing to start at the bottom and work his way up in the Flyers organization learning the management ropes.
As a former star player who has been here, he has been an important resource for the Kings players in this playoff run.
“It’s one of the reasons you hire a guy like him,” said Lombardi. “It’s not only his work ethic and his background. I mean, this is a former player that wasn’t afraid to go down on the scouting trails, drive five hours to learn the craft. He takes over the minor-league team and learns some management skills. You combine that with being a former player who was recognized as a winner, not just a player. When you have that type of presence, you’d be foolish not to expose it to your players as much as possible.”
“It’s always a different thing. You put almost 30 years into it, you’ve been through a lot things,” said Hextall. “There are a lot of things you can impart on the players.”
He’s had a key hand in the big moves the Kings made over the course of this season which transformed them from a struggling club to being on the cusp of winning the first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
Despite his intimate knowledge of the Kings, Hextall said he couldn’t pick one move or moment - the off-season trade for Richards, the firing of Murray and hiring of Darryl Sutter as coach, the trade for Carter in February - that turned this team around.
“There were a number of things that happened. I think the coaching change really woke everybody up to some degree. They understood that it wasn’t necessarily the coach’s fault. It’s everybody’s fault here,” he said.
“We brought up (Dwight) King and (Jordan) Nolan. We brought in Jeff Carter. I think it really helped us to bring another gun into our lineup. It didn’t have an immediate impact, but it definitely had an impact. We went from a good-sized team to a very big team. When we play our game, we’re very hard to play against.
“But I think down the stretch at some point - I couldn’t define exactly when - we won a lot of games. Everybody knew we were a good team on paper, including our players, but until it comes together and you start playing like it ... late in the year, our team started to realize we are a pretty good team here. There was no real, in my mind, defining moment.”
The development of defenceman Slava Voynov in Manchester under Hextall’s watch gave the Kings the flexibility to deal defenceman Jack Johnson to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Carter. Another concussion suffered by forward Simon Gagne, an injury to Scott Parse and the struggles suffered by Dustin Penner had the Kings stuck in 30th place in a 30-team league in offence.
“We knew we needed a scorer. When Gagne got hurt, Scott Parse got hurt and Dustin Penner wasn’t scoring like he’s capable of, it was kind of like, ‘we need to do something here.’ Knowing full well we had Voynov waiting in the wings in Manchester - but an NHL player and a pretty darn good one - that was the one piece that we felt we could move and not hurt ourselves and bring in a guy like Carter which we clearly needed. We knew we needed a scorer. It’s not why we played poorly for 60 games, but it was part of it.”
Around the same time, the Kings called up King and Nolan. They were miscast to start with on the second line because of the injuries and Penner’s lack of production, but the Kings didn’t have much choice.
“They seemed to give us a short-term injection of life. It helped us. We knew we were not talking second-line players here,” said Hextall. “We knew we needed to make a move. They fit in good. They added to our size. We formed the identity of a big team and a hard team to play against.”
Now Hextall should be right near the top of any team’s search list for their next general manager.
He was a winner as a player.
He’s helped build a Stanley Cup contender.
While his focus right now is helping the Kings get two more wins, it’s also clear Hextall is ready to have a chance to have his own team.
“I’d love to, yeah, absolutely,” he said.
“I’ve got my beliefs. Everybody has got their own beliefs, I’ve got my own set of beliefs. You learn from a lot of people as you come up. In Philadelphia, Bob Clarke and Paul Holmgren and now with Dean, you take a little bit of everybody and you form your own identity.
“I’m a big will-to-win guy. I believe in the end, as long as your teams are close, the team with the more will to win is going to win. That would be my identity. I think it was my identity as a player and it’s still what I believe in.”
Looks like a lot of that belief has rubbed off on the Kings.
Memorable captains from Stanley Cup lore
Sean McIndoe, National Post, Jun 5 2012
We still don’t know which team will win the Stanley Cup this year. But we can be sure of one thing: for only the second time in history, an American will be the captain of the winning team. And that means that either Dustin Brown of the Kings or Zach Parise of the Devils will get to take part in one of the best moments in all of sports.
Unlike other leagues, where the championship trophy is handed over to team owners and various corporate sponsors, the Stanley Cup is handed directly to the winning team’s captain. And whether that captain takes the Cup for a victory lap or immediately hands it off to a deserving teammate, the moment always seems to end up being a memorable one.
Here is a look back at some of the other NHL captains who have had a chance to accept the Stanley Cup.
• 1999 Dallas Stars captain Derian Hatcher accepts the Cup while standing in the wrong spot, but for some reason everyone involved just ignores that and pretends everything is fine.
• 2010 The moment Gary Bettman hands him the Stanley Cup is the happiest one of Jonathan Toews’ entire life, apparently, since his one eyebrow looks like it kind of twitched there for a second.
• 1992 As Mario Lemieux triumphantly lifts the Cup, the various NHL defencemen who have been clinging desperately to each of his limbs since the season opener sheepishly begin to realize that they can probably just let go now.
• 2008 The historic moment of the first European captain receiving the Cup is ruined when a confused Nicklas Lidstrom asks if the big silver thing is some sort of fancy ashtray for his unfiltered cigarettes, Don Cherry imagines.
• 2004 The Tampa Bay Lightning win their first ever championship, causing every fan of the early ’90s Maple Leafs to simultaneously wonder why the Cup is being presented to Dave Andreychuk’s great-grandfather.
• 2000 Devils captain Scott Stevens watches on as his teammates take turns handing the Cup to each other, then spends the rest of the celebration concussing anyone who admires their pass.
• 1993 Guy Carbonneau lifts what will turn out to be the last Stanley Cup ever won at the Montreal Forum in an emotional moment, although everyone will later agree that the way he immediately starts measuring the bowl’s curve while laughing hysterically and pointing at Marty McSorley was probably unnecessary.
• 2009 While he realizes that all Cup-winning captains are asked to pose for a photograph with Bettman before accepting the trophy, Sidney Crosby still finds it kind of weird that Bettman takes the photo of them himself using his mobile phone and then immediately uploads it to a Facebook album called “Super-BFFs 4ever”.
• 1994 Mark Messier famously breaks into a fit of giddy laughter as Bettman hands him the Cup, probably because he just realized how much the Canucks would now be willing to offer him in free agency in a few years.
• 2007 Scott Niedermayer accepts the Cup from Bettman, raises it triumphantly into the air, and then skates around the rink while using it to calmly deflect the various slapshots Daniel Alfredsson is still “accidentally” firing at him from center ice.
• 2001 Joe Sakic takes the Cup and hands it directly to Ray Bourque, after realizing that going door-to-door and kicking every Boston Bruins fan in the groin individually would take too long.
• 1997 After the Red Wings win their first title in over 40 years, Steve Yzerman hands the Cup to owner Mike Illitch instead of to a fellow veteran player like Brendan Shanahan, according to the weird prologue in the video explaining why Steven Stamkos was just suspended for the entire 2012-13 season for a tripping minor.
• 2005 Gary Bettman doesn’t hand any cups to anyone, unless you want to count a steaming hot cup of “give us your money and shut up,” in which case every hockey fan in North America personally receives one.
• 2011 Zdeno Chara accepts the Stanley Cup from Bettman in yet another example of foreigners having things handed to them by hard-working Americans, Tim Thomas secretly thinks.
Montreal Canadiens announce Michel Therrien as new head coach
Postmedia News, Jun 5 2012
MONTREAL — For Habs fans, it’s a case of back to the future.
The Montreal Canadiens confirmed on their website Tuesday morning that the club has rehired Michel Therrien as its head coach.
Therrien coached the Habs almost a decade ago, and was let go after a tenure that spanned less than three seasons.
The team has scheduled a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
The 48-year-old coached the Pittsburgh Penguins from 2005 to 2009.
He was fired in February 2009, and his replacement, Dan Bylsma, led the Penguins to the Stanley Cup that spring.
Therrien’s Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playing career began in the 1980-81 season with the Quebec Remparts. His ice time as a player ended 1986-87, with the Baltimore Skipjacks of the American Hockey League.
He never played in the National Hockey League.
Therrien had reportedly been in the running in a race to coach the Canadiens that had been narrowed to two candidates.
The other was apparently Marc Crawford, with former goaltending great Patrick Roy having slipped off the radar of new general manager Marc Bergevin during the past few days.
Tim Thomas can't be faulted for decision
Ryan Kennedy, The Hockey News, 2012-06-04
There are two reasons to become a professional athlete and they are not mutually exclusive: love and money. Tim Thomas has both covered, so if he has played his final NHL game, he can leave without regret.
Though posting on Facebook that he would be taking a year off is not the most media-friendly method of announcing something so major, Thomas doesn’t owe anybody anything. OK, yes, he has one year remaining on his contract with the Boston Bruins, but any number of things can be done to remedy the loss of such a talent and with a similarly elite netminder in Tuukka Rask available, it’s not like the Flames losing Miikka Kiprusoff.
What we have is a goaltender who was approaching the end of his career and becoming a lightning rod of controversy for his political views in a town that doesn’t mind talking about sports figures 24 hours a day.
But I’m not here to come down on Thomas. Like I said, if he’s done, he’s had a great run.
When it comes to the love side of the equation, there’s no question he put in his dues. Thomas suited up for teams in Finland, Sweden, the ECHL, the International League and the American League before he saw starters’ minutes with Boston at the age of 31. Since that 2005-06 campaign, he crammed in two Vezina Trophies, one Stanley Cup, one Conn Smythe Trophy, a Jennings Trophy and two first team all-star nods. For a guy who enjoys hunting, he certainly spent enough time in the metaphorical wilderness before bagging his rewards.
As for the money, he has already earned more than $20 million since the lockout, more than enough to keep his family on stable ground for the rest of their lives (and their kids and their kids, if they’re smart about it). I’m sure a lot of people will think Thomas is crazy for leaving potential future earnings on the table, but at some point a lot of money is simply that – a lot of money. The exact figure doesn’t matter in the long run.
And I am going off the assumption Thomas is finished. Maybe he’ll come back in a year and play a couple more seasons, but I doubt it. For a goaltender of his age (38) to take such a break and return at the same level is incredibly difficult – there’s Dominik Hasek and pretty much no one else in that category.
The love part of the game is not as important now to Thomas as his family is and there’s nothing wrong with that. Ken Dryden walked away after just eight seasons because he had won six Stanley Cups and really couldn’t accomplish anything else. If you wanted to be a jerk about it, you could say Dryden wasn’t a true competitor because he should have had the drive for even more titles, but it’s hard to forsake him for his choice.
Sean Avery’s retirement also brings to mind the decisions hockey players make. Sure, he could have stayed in the game, maybe even gone over to Europe if his act was too toxic for the NHL, but Avery has long had other interests in the world (fashion being the biggest) and with more than $12 million in salary earned as a pro, he can indulge his fancies for the rest of his life.
If Thomas is indeed finished, if this turns out to be a lifetime sabbatical, then it’s been a terrific ride. The Flint, Mich., native became an American hockey folk hero in just a few short years and with his politics, we haven’t heard the last from him. On the ice? I’m not so sure. But it was fun while it lasted.
Marsh's emotional ride
Don Brennan, QMI Agency, June 5 2012
OTTAWA - Halfway or so through his coast-to-coast bike ride across Canada, Brad Marsh says he feels strong and he’s getting stronger.
Fact is, the former Senators defenceman almost looks like he should consider a comeback.
“Just for one, two-week paycheque,” the 54-year-old Marsh joked Monday.
After starting his 90 Day Challenge in support of the Boys and Girls Clubs in a Vancouver rain that turned to snow on April 25, Marsh arrived at Scotiabank Place for a pitstop and warm welcome home from friends and supporters. He was presented two $5,000 cheques for his cause from the Senators Foundation and the Bell Capital Cup, while Mayor Jim Watson sent word that he was declaring it Brad Marsh Day in Ottawa. Never mind that the day was almost over. The thought was there.
“When you roll into a Boys and Girls Club, it’s just fun,” Marsh, who will visit about 30 of them over the course of his marathon, said through a voice that cracked slightly. “But when you come into an environment like this, it is emotional, when you see people come out to support you, people come out and get behind what you’re doing.”
Marsh has been accompanied by his 26-year-old son Erik for the whole journey. So far, Erik has biked about 2,000 km with his dad, as well as penned nightly Facebook updates (BradMarsh90DayChallenge). Brad’s wife Patty, his other son Patrick and his daughters Madeline and Victoria have been with him through various parts of the journey.
At every opportunity, he and Erik have played floor hockey at a Boys and Girls Club.
“Some of these kids don’t get to play organized sports simply because they can’t afford it, or unfortunately their parents just don’t give a darn about them,” said Marsh. “It’s great to see them play floor hockey.
“When you see a little kid score a goal for the first time, the celebration is just like you’d see on an NHL player. In some cases it’s the first time they’ve ever celebrated something, if you will. And that’s what keeps us going. The kids.”
Marsh has taken a day off here and there to visit with family, including his mother in London, Ont., but otherwise he has spent most of his time on the pedals. The longest he has travelled in one day was nine hours and 15 minutes, “but the wind was right in our face and we only covered 209 kilometres,” he said.
“The most I’ve ridden in a day was 264 km, but the wind was at my back so that was fun,” added Marsh. “(Riding through) the mountains was neat, it was fun. You knew it was going to be hard. I put a lot of training miles in, and so you just get comfortable on your bike and you know you’re climbing a hill for 70 km. It was neat to accomplish that, climbing Rogers Pass and Coquihalla Pass (in B.C.), but Northern Ontario was unbelievably beautiful and unbelievably challenging for a bike rider. That was just a fabulous bike ride going around Lake Superior.”
While his stopover in Ottawa wasn’t long, he has to jet back from Fredericton June 11 for Victoria’s graduation.
“We forgot about it when we put the trip together,” chuckled Marsh, who was forced out of the bar/restaurant business in 2011. “It’s no secret that the last couple of years have not been favourable or kind to the Marsh family. But we’ve stayed close, we’ve stayed tight and we’re doing this together. And it’s been a riot.”
Marsh isn’t aware of the exact money raised to date, nor does he think it’s the most important fact of his mission.
“Yes I wish I could raise a gazillion dollars, but the bottom line is, the focus is awareness, because the Boys and Girls Club flies under the radar,” he said. “We’re fortunate here in Ottawa that we have an unbelievable team that supports the Boys and Girls Club, but across Canada that’s not the norm.
“The word is getting out. People, in the future, may choose to donate to the Boys and Girls Club, or more importantly they may choose to get involved in the leadership or mentorship role.”
Krueger in the mix?
Terry Jones, QMI Agency, June 5 2012
EDMONTON - It would be easier to follow if it were an election.
At least there would be lawn signs.
To this point, the Edmonton Oilers haven’t offered a list of those who are being considered official candidates for the vacant head coaching job.
So far there has been the confirmation of two.
At the Memorial Cup, Kevin Lowe officially confirmed the obvious, that Brent Sutter is one.
“I don’t see why he wouldn’t want to coach the Edmonton Oilers. He’s a very worthwhile candidate. No question. Brent is obviously a good coach, he’s an Albertan, he’s more than familiar with the Battle of Alberta and I would think Brent would want to coach the Oilers.”
The other candidate hasn’t received the same attention as Sutter. But he’s getting it now.
He was Tom Renney’s associate coach Ralph Krueger.
“He is a candidate,” confirmed Lowe.
But to what extent?
An e-mail exchange between well-known long-time Swiss hockey writer Klaus Zaugg and Krueger, the former Swiss national team coach, indicated Krueger considers his candidacy to be serious.
Zaugg contacted Krueger, who spends his summers in Switzerland, about his interest in the Zurich Lions job vacated by Bob Hartley to go to the Calgary Flames.
The response was interesting.
“You know me. One job at a time. My contract with the Oilers runs until the end of June. I cannot say whether I have been contacted but my present focus is on the possible head coaching job in Edmonton.
“I feel well prepared for this challenge. The Oilers are my third organization in 22 years and I would prefer not to change. (I would only stay as the head coach). I am patient and will have no problem with however the cards may fall.”
Barely had that exchange been made when a quote from the winningest coach in all of hockey history, Scotty Bowman, appeared to endorse Krueger for the Oilers’ job.
Sunday, I reached Krueger at his home in Switzerland.
“A few years back Scotty started showing up at world championships and he was always open to a conversation,” said Krueger, the Winnipeg-native, from his home in Davos where his family has lived for two decades.
Krueger, who worked as a European consultant to Team Canada GM Kevin Lowe at the world championships this year, said he thinks all is positioned well with where he’s at in the process of the Oilers finding a new coach.
“The whole thing has developed at kind of a comfortable pace,” he said.
“I’m very comfortable in having had time away and I find the opportunity to be the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers to be very exciting.”
Krueger said he believes he’s a serious candidate but says there’s nothing there beyond that.
“Nothing has been offered. I haven’t had official contact. And I can’t speak of what kind of contact I’ve had.”
But now that he’s had time away from Edmonton, he knows where he wants to be and that’s not back in Europe, it’s in the National Hockey League and there’s no job he’d rather have than the one in Edmonton.
“I feel really ready. And 100% at the head coaching position,” said Krueger, who came to the Oilers after coaching Switzerland to a shootout loss against Canada at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
When Renney moved up from being Pat Quinn’s associate coach to the head job, Renney’s timing in asking him to take over as associate coach was perfect, said Krueger.
“After 20 years coaching in Europe, I was really looking for growth and something that would take me out of my comfort zone,” he said. “It was the perfect call to get from Tom at the right time.”
Krueger had put his toe into the NHL pond taking a consultant position with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006 in time to win a Stanley Cup ring sitting in the stands with his son for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final against the Oilers.
“The Carolina experience, which I continued with until I joined the Oilers, allowed me inside the walls of an NHL team and at their table at the draft. But I knew I needed to get away from Europe and get out of my box.
“I experienced more than I expected in Edmonton.”
Krueger was heavily rumoured in Europe to return to taking a national team job leading to the Sochi Olympics or a league team job in the right situation.
“I hadn’t made any statements. The only statement I made was that I was planning on going forward as a head coach. I wasn’t thinking of being a candidate for an NHL job until Tom’s press conference,” he said of watching Renney’s exit on the internet.
“I was pulling for Tom to be coming back. But watching that I started thinking of the potential reality.
“It was good to be so far from everything emotionally.”
In recent weeks, Krueger admits he’s had “multiple offers” in Europe.
“I’ve told everybody I will wait out the process. In the past few weeks I have come to realize my passion is to stay in the NHL. My heart is beating to be a head coach in the NHL.”
Krueger knows that he’s been labeled as a defensive-defensive coach and that there’s the idea he wouldn’t provide a dramatically different style than Renney.
“I’m not a defensive coach,” he said. “I’m a coach who looks at the skills of my players and coaches them accordingly.
“Switzerland is a country that has trouble scoring but has players who play good defence and play as a team. I coached the Swiss to be able to beat the teams we were supposed to beat and to compete with the top counties in the world.
“I had a team in Austria with Bengt-Ake Gustafsson where we won the European championship where we were offence, offence, offence with a good defensive base,” he said.
Gustafsson would later become Swedish national coach.
Krueger says any testimonial to his coaching a team with offence is there to see in what he did taking over the Oilers power play last year.
The Oilers ended up third at 20.6% after being 27th at 14.5% the year before.
“It was the first season I ran it by myself,” he said.
As for the concept of having a similar style to Renney, he said that’s likely a product of his role as an associate coach to Renney.
“There’s only one leader on the team,” he said. “But every leader is unique and has his own style. My cornerstones are respect and creating an honest environment with accountability being really high. I’m a big fan of discipline with simple priorities — hard work and accountability.
“I’m not interested in my own popularity. I don’t need anybody to like me. It’s about liking the results.
“I know how much potential I feel there is in Edmonton. I don’t think there’s any question there’s a big upside. It’s there. But it’s going to take a lot of hard work in the next while to get there.”
Goldwater Institute raises concerns over latest attempt to sell Coyotes
ALLAN MAKI, The Globe and Mail, Jun 07 2012
The latest in the on-going sale of the Phoenix Coyotes has drawn another stern look from the Goldwater Institute.
With city of Glendale officials prepared to vote on a tax payer funded, arena management deal that would help Greg Jamison purchase the NHL Coyotes, the Goldwater Institute issued a statement raising multiple concerns over the use of public money.
Glendale city council is looking to approve a 20-year deal that would pay out a total $300-million for someone to manage the city-owned Jobing.com arena. The Goldwater Institute, which scuttled a previous deal involving the Coyotes and Matthew Hulsizer, published its letter to Glendale mayor Elaine Scruggs and council members with an opening paragraph that noted the city was considering a deal that “will add substantially to its existing financial obligations, at a time when it is overloaded with debt and has had to cut city services and lay off city workers …”
The letter raises questions over actual cost minus capital expense, parking rights and the city’s decision to adopt the deal “as an emergency measure, which would deprive Glendale citizens of their right to refer the matter to a vote.”
Glendale council was slated to meet Thursday and Friday to examine the deal and will allow public input. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly will be in Glendale to talk to council members on Friday, when the matter is put to a vote.
In its letter, the Goldwater Institute does not threaten any legal action. Instead, there are directions as to what council should do.
“We hope that these inquiries will assist the Council in its deliberations over the proposed deal. We further urge you to not to rush to a vote,” states the letter. “The terms of the 100-page proposal were released to the public for the first time on Monday, and not all the exhibits and associated documents have been released yet. There should be an adequate public comment period …”
The Arizona Republic has reported that no other professional sports team in the area – the Arizona Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks or Phoenix Suns – receives tax-funded subsidies to operate its facility.
State of hockey: Here’s hoping general managers can rescue hockey
ROY MACGREGOR, The Globe and Mail, Jun 06 2012
It’s not often you hear someone choke on air.
On the ice, sure, but simply talking hockey rather than playing it?
Yet that’s what happened late last week in Ottawa when the hosts of Team 1200’s Healthy Scratches asked Jim Nill, assistant general manager of the Detroit Red Wings, how his team was going to replace Nicklas Lidstrom.
That would be defenceman Nick Lidstrom, 42, seven-time winner of the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best blueliner, four Stanley Cups, the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs, first European captain to raise the Cup – not to mention 20 consecutive playoff appearances for the Detroit franchise.
When the classy Lidstrom retired last week, he said he was aware that many in the organization felt he still had it, could still help the Wings win, but he said it was “painfully obvious” to him that he was slipping. As he so forcefully put it: “I can’t cheat myself.”
Nill, it turns out, was at the NHL combine in Toronto in search of the Wings’ next Nicklas Lidstrom among the gifted juniors gathered there for testing and interviews. Don’t laugh. Detroit has an uncanny knack for finding the jewels everyone else misses. The Wings took Pavel Datsyuk, the player players say is the best, 171st. They found Henrik Zetterberg at 210. Lidstrom? He was a “painfully obvious” selection at No. 53.
The Red Wings and the 29 other teams will gather June 22-23 in Pittsburgh for the entry draft. Detroit has no first-round selection, but the way the Wings have drafted in the past, that is relatively insignificant. What matters far more this time is not where they pick, but what they pick.
“Our heads are spinning,” Nill conceded.
The Detroit Red Wings are hardly alone, given the jaw-dropping gap between the way hockey was played in March and the way it was played in May.
Last weekend, Wings general manager Ken Holland, Nill and the Detroit scouts gathered to discuss what Nill called “The No. 1 topic:” What sort of game will the NHL be playing when the league starts again for the next season?
Puck-possession teams – you know, the ones everyone picked to be in the Stanley Cup final – seem distant history today. The Vancouver Canucks and the Pittsburgh Penguins, the two eye-candy teams for those fans who prefer speed and skill – fell in the first round. San Jose fell. Detroit fell.
What kind of team do we want to build on? Nill asked. And not only in the draft, but over the summer as Detroit, a team with enviable cap space, looks over the available players in free agency. Bigger? Stronger? And what style of play should we play? Skill? Shot-blocking?
No wonder heads are spinning.
The hockey gods were kind this spring when even they, with their well-known love of mischief, decided it was time to put the New York Rangers out of our misery. But even so, shot-blocking, collapsing around the goaltender, chip-out, dump-in hockey is all the rage in the NHL – and causing rage among fans who naively believe that if NHL hockey is to have a financial value, it should also have an entertainment value.
As well, recent playoffs have argued eloquently that there is one rulebook for the regular season, one for the playoffs, and even one that gets thinner as the playoffs grow longer.
The NHL might argue that penalties were actually up slightly in these playoffs, but that point holds little or no ground against empirical evidence that transgressions, both called and not called, go way up. Officials, to a baffling extent, pop their whistles in and out of pockets, as if they themselves are as confused as the rest of us.
It’s not just penalties, but even the definition of something as simple as icing has been lost. And as for what rights goaltenders and players have around and in the crease area, don’t even start.
For all the above reasons, it is heartening to know that it is not only executives like Nill and Holland who are concerned, but GMs as a whole. It took a year-long owners lockout in 2004-05 before the NHL decided it might be a good idea to tighten the nuts and bolts of this potentially magnificent game. This time, whether there is a lockout or a strike or labour harmony come fall, they will gather to tweak matters in August.
A magnificent game to play and behold came out of the last such gathering.
Let us all hope that that game can once again be found.
It’s there, buried by over-coaching and passive defence tactics, but it’s still there, desperately in need of help.
Kings are built to last
DAVID SHOALTS, The Globe and Mail, Jun 07 2012
The New Jersey Devils postponed the inevitable but when the Los Angeles Kings win the Stanley Cup Saturday night or a few nights later, their fans can at least look forward to another good run next year.
All but four of the players making a meaningful contribution to the Kings' Cup run are signed for next season. While all four - Dustin Penner, Colin Fraser, Dwight King and Jarret Stoll - are solid players, none of them are stars whose absence would hold back the team.
What might hold back this team, which is why I said a good run next season not another Stanley Cup, is the difficulty of winning a second consecutive NHL championship. Parity, thanks to the salary cap, and the rigours of an 82-game schedule followed by an even worse grind of four playoff rounds play havoc with a team's prospects.
In the 1980s and 1990s, it was almost routine for a team to appear in consecutive Stanley Cup finals thanks to dynasties like the Edmonton Oilers and Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Devils and Dallas Stars all appeared in at least two consecutive finals from 1991 through 2001.
Since then, however, only the Penguins and Red Wings managed the feat, with the Penguins losing to the Red Wings in 2008 before beating them for the Stanley Cup the following year.
A lot of this has to do with the salary cap, which was introduced in 2005. If you patiently assemble a deep, talented team, good luck keeping it together under the cap. See Blackhawks, Chicago, circa 2010.
Then there is still the grind of the schedule. Winning the Cup is as much about winning the war of attrition as it is about playing the best hockey. Champions need luck with injuries or they'll always fall short.
On the salary side, though, Kings GM Dean Lombardi is sitting about as pretty as you can these days, especially with the end of the collective agreement coming in September.
NHL general managers get few restful nights off but Lombardi can put his feet up, if only figuratively, for a while because the majority of his team will be around next season to take another run at the Cup. With $54.2-million committed to salaries so far for next season and only four players to sign, Lombardi even has his payroll in shape to weather the uncertainty of next season's salary cap. It is low enough to likely fit under whatever cap comes out of the next agreement (the current temporary 2012-13 cap of $70.3-million is unlikely to last).
The owners are looking for the players to reduce their share of the NHL's hockey-related revenue from 57 per cent to 50 or less. But with commissioner Gary Bettman boasting of record revenue and the available evidence backing him up, there is a good chance even a seven-per-cent cut in the players` share could mean the cap stays at this season`s $64.3-million or maybe even a bit higher.
In the meantime, while Devils GM Lou Lamoriello has to grapple with finding a way to keep pending free agent Zach Parise while Ilya Kovalchuk`s salary jumps from $6.7-million to $11-million and his owner is facing bankruptcy, the Kings` biggest concern is getting their payroll in shape for 2013-14, when 11 players on the current roster have their contracts expire.
For now, Lombardi can savour the idea of paying goaltender Jonathan Quick the bargain rate of $1.8-million next season (the last year of his deal) and just where he`ll trade highly-regarded backup Jonathan Bernier for assets to keep the vault brimming with talent.
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Kings GM Dean Lombardi's blueprint for success
Ryan Kennedy, The Hockey News, 2012-06-06
With the Los Angeles Kings on the precipice of glory, it seems as good a time as ever to evaluate how the team was built. Or, more precisely, rebuilt.
GM Dean Lombardi – who according to insiders would likely have been fired had the Kings missed the playoffs or even lost in the first round – crafted his masterpiece by the end of the season and he did so by breaking a few eggs to get that proverbial omelet.
A few years ago, I spoke with Lombardi for a cover story on then-emerging Kings star Anze Kopitar. The affable GM was philosophical when it came to rebuilding Los Angeles, a team that had missed the playoffs three straight seasons before he was hired and wouldn’t get back in until his fourth campaign at the helm. He noted that fans needed to realize a rebuild – like the one the Chicago Blackhawks were about to top off with a Stanley Cup – does not happen in three or four years; the roots go back seven or eight.
The most obvious part of a rebuild is stockpiling those spiffy high-end draft picks. For the Kings, that included building blocks such as Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Brayden Schenn. Jack Johnson was pried out of Carolina when the No. 3 pick behind Sidney Crosby and Bobby Ryan in 2005 didn’t jibe with the Canes’ short-term plans.
Doughty and Kopitar eventually became two of the pillars in Los Angeles’ stampede through the Western Conference this season, but the draft alone did not bring Lombardi to this point. Thomas Hickey (fourth overall in 2007) never panned out, while Jonathan Bernier (11th in ’06) has been a good backup, but nothing more for Conn Smythe frontrunner Jonathan Quick. Lombardi’s assemblage proves that old adage that you should never fall in love with your own players. Johnson was shipped to Columbus in exchange for an unhappy Jeff Carter, who helped bring the Kings’ offense back from the grave at the trade deadline.
Schenn, the future franchise stalwart and former THN Future Watch cover boy, was packaged to Philadelphia last summer for Mike Richards, who brought a second elite pivot to the depth chart and excellent penalty-killing skills. Even Colten Teubert, taken 11 spots behind Doughty in 2008, helped reap the Kings Dustin Penner, the big man who is finally paying dividends for the silver and black.
In sending off Johnson and Schenn in particular, Lombardi made a huge statement: There were no assets off-limits if he was going to pull together a Stanley Cup contender.
Which transitions nicely to the Edmonton Oilers, a franchise at the opposite end of the spectrum right now. With a third straight No. 1 overall draft pick coming up, the Oilers will bring in another tantalizing young talent, but who will it be? Nail Yakupov is the consensus top prize, but he’s a high-scoring forward, just like Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Edmonton needs defense for its rebuild.
So there are two ways to go if you’re Oilers GM Steve Tambellini.
First, you can take Yakupov and be top-heavy again in 2012-13, then move a big young chip (Sam Gagner and Magnus Paajarvi are also there, though neither would net as much as the other four) for a legitimate top-pairing blueliner. This is the route one NHL GM suggested to me.
“Take the best player available,” he said. “You can always rearrange the furniture later.”
The second option is to trade down or simply take a defenseman with the No. 1 pick, Ryan Murray being the most likely candidate. There may be some howls from fans and pundits in this scenario, but hey – when you’re trying to make an omelet, you also can’t worry if people think there’s egg on your face. It’s the final product that counts and Lombardi is about to have the proof.
Michel Therrien a stopgap solution for Canadiens
Adam Proteau, The Hockey News, 2012-06-05
The Montreal Canadiens have hired Michel Therrien for his second stint as coach of the storied Original Six team. But something tells me this go-around will be much the same for him as the first one: he’ll enjoy a moderate amount of success, but not enough to keep him around long enough to take the Habs to the elite level.
As is the case with Bob Hartley in Calgary, Therrien takes the reins of a squad that is far from the cream of the NHL’s crop and by most accounts is in a state of transition. Things aren’t quite as bad in Montreal as they are with the Flames – the Canadiens have two dynamic young players in Carey Price and P.K. Subban who have no equal in Calgary – but they aren’t exactly on the precipice of a dynasty, either.
Yes, Habs rookie GM Marc Bergevin has some $25 million in salary cap space to use – more if the new collective bargaining agreement includes a contract amnesty that will allow them to flush Scott Gomez’s deal – but it isn’t as if the free agent market is teeming with clear-cut solutions to their problems.
There are no forwards who have the right combination of size, sandpaper and skill the Canadiens require at the top end of the lineup. They also could use some defensive depth, but not so badly that they overcompensate a few veterans in terms of both salary and term of contract just for the sake of spending money (hi, Chris Campoli!). They’ve got enough young defensive prospects in their system who should be able to step in and contribute. Eventually.
They probably won’t do so while Therrien remains coach of the Canadiens. His hiring has the stench of a stopgap measure, a consolation choice that will suffice for a couple of years before an ideal candidate becomes available. Maybe that candidate is current Lightning bench boss Guy Boucher; maybe it’s Alain Vigneault, who signed a two-year contract extension in May to continue coaching the Vancouver Canucks; maybe it’s Patrick Roy, if NHL expansion or relocation to Quebec City doesn’t pan out as many expect; or perhaps it’s Hartley, a rumored favorite to take the Habs job before he accepted the same position in Calgary.
For now, though, the task of setting a new tone in Montreal falls to Therrien, known as a gruff taskmaster who will likely remove all the wattage from Subban’s luminous smile as he implements his defense-minded game plan. Unfortunately, the problem with the Canadiens isn’t their defense – Montreal was 11th overall in the league with a 2.61 goals-against average – but rather their offense (19th overall at an average of 2.52 goals-for per game). Unless Therrien has been spending his three years away from the league learning voodoo tricks and taser techniques to rejuvenate Gomez’s offense or simply invigorate an underachiever such as Rene Bourque, he’s not going to help them in the area they need it most.
Some people will point to Therrien’s success with Pittsburgh (after the Habs fired him in 2003) as an example of what he can bring to the table. I say unless he’s bringing Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to the Canadiens’ table, he’s unlikely to take this group of players to the Stanley Cup final as he did with the Penguins in 2007-08. More likely is the pattern Therrien established in his first three seasons as Habs coach: he missed the playoffs one year, won a single playoff round another year and was fired after the third year.
Sure, Therrien can converse in both of Canada’s official languages and that’s obviously a necessary part of the gig. And sure, he will be more demanding and active than the comparatively comatose Jacques Martin. But if it feels like he’s the equivalent of the person you ask to the prom after the rest of your high school is busy going with other people and/or washing their hair, it’s because he is.
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Michel Therrien did a ‘great job’ in first stint as Canadiens coach: Doug Gilmour
Dave Stubbs, Postmedia News, Jun 7, 2012
MONTREAL — Doug Gilmour couldn’t tell you how many coaches he’d had in the National Hockey League before he arrived on the Canadiens bench in front of Michel Therrien for the 2001-02 season.
So we’ve done the math for the Hall of Famer nicknamed Killer: Therrien was the 14th of 16 coaches for whom Gilmour played during his 20-season, 1,474-game career. And while there surely were coaches along the way whom Gilmour probably didn’t enjoy, Therrien wasn’t among them.
In fact, Gilmour thought a lot of the work of the man who on Tuesday was again named the Canadiens head coach.
Killer played 110 of his 143 Habs games for Therrien, the final 33 for Claude Julien when Therrien was sacked 43 games into the 2002-03 season, Gilmour’s last full NHL campaign.
“I liked Michel,” Gilmour said from Kingston, Ont., on Wednesday, his life these days divided between his hometown and Toronto.
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“He was coming to an Original Six team a little nervous, especially with the history of Montreal. But I thought he did a great job. Every day, he’d try to think of something to come up with as a motivational speech before games.
“Not everybody’s going to like their coach, but the majority of us on those teams liked Michel. And from what I saw as a bit of an elder statesman in the league (at age 38), he was a player’s coach.”
Gilmour had answered the phone Wednesday with a laugh, saying coyly, “So what’s going on down there?”
Of course, the Canadiens news was no mystery to him, and he had been as puzzled as anyone as he’d watched the 2011-12 club unravel like a wool sweater in a cat’s claws.
“The things that were happening down there, I was thinking, ‘Whoa, what’s going on?’ ” Gilmour said. “I watched the night (Mike) Cammalleri was traded between periods of a game and I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
It’s no surprise to Gilmour that Canadiens fans are divided about general manager Marc Bergevin’s hiring of Therrien as coach. But as a GM himself, contracted for two more seasons to run the Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs, he respects a precious hockey intangible.
“When a general manager takes over any team, he must trust whoever he’s going to hire,” Gilmour said. “Bergevin knows Therrien from Michel’s work coaching Pittsburgh and, of course, time will dictate how he does in Montreal. But the GM must trust his men right off the hop.”
Therrien had 62 NHL games to his credit, a little shy of Gilmour’s 1,280, when their paths crossed in Montreal. The coach would be but a brief interlude in the centreman’s career, but Gilmour has fond memories of a boss four months his junior.
“Sometimes, I’d offer Michel some advice. Not about playing, but about the dressing room,” Gilmour said. “That unit we had, everybody was friends. We had a great nucleus and you look at the little (12-game) playoff run we had (in 2002) and it was a great time.
“Michel would ask me things, even if it didn’t mean he had to use what I said. Still, it didn’t have to be too much in that room. We had some good people, some good character guys.”
The 2002 playoffs would be Gilmour’s last of 17 trips to the post-season, and he might cherish that more than anything about his time here.
He remembers the late-season return from cancer of captain Saku Koivu as “very uplifting” and knocking off Boston in the first round as “very emotional.”
Then there was his destruction of a Bell Centre penalty box — you’ll find it on YouTube — in the final semi-final game against Carolina, an explosion of broken glass showering his feet.
The shards and chunks were hauled off in a wheelbarrow, a few pounds of the remains finding their way into then-Canadiens owner George Gillett’s suit jacket pockets, courtesy of Gilmour, during the team’s farewell dinner.
Killer is certain he pranked Therrien at some point, though the details elude him.
He does recall early in his career getting into the office of Jacques Martin, his coach in St. Louis, stacking furniture in a pile and rearranging many carefully filed game videotapes into different boxes.
Gilmour remembers raiding Martin’s office fridge with goalie Greg Millen, emptying its soft-drink contents and sharing the cache with the boys in the dressing room.
“We only had water and Gatorade powder,” Gilmour said. “So Greg and I handed out Jacques’ stuff then headed to the sauna before he came into the room and saw the boys with his drinks.”
There was the time he broke Chicago coach Dirk Graham’s skate with a shot to prematurely end a hard practice, then dropped to the ice weak with laughter, faking pushups to avoid blame.
“Me doing pushups should have given me away,” Gilmour said, laughing.
But one of his finest pranks might have been pulled on Gillett, who loved his Canadiens players like family.
“George would bring his guests down the hallway outside the room shortly before a game, proud to show them around,” Gilmour recalled.
“So one day I pried the plug off the top of my (hollow composite) stick and filled it with water, then called George over and said, ‘What’s going on with these sticks you’re buying us? First off, they’re heavy. And second, they’re all warped.’ ”
Gillett took the stick and extended it upward to eyeball the shaft, promptly emptying half a litre of water into his face and his clothes.
“What does George do? He laughs,” Gilmour said. “He was such a gentleman, a first-class person. It was a pleasure working with him.”
The Canadiens, Gilmour says, “are always in my memory bank. I enjoyed every minute of my time there. Great ownership, great fans. The people there were just phenomenal.”
From the midpoint between Toronto and Montreal, two of his NHL ports of call, Gilmour will watch the new Canadiens with great interest.
A coach, he says, can indeed go home again.
“You’re obviously hired to be fired,” Gilmour said. “But sometimes you do learn, even if it might take some time to grow. Michel has some work to do down there, but he could be a great fit.”
HABS FIRE CUNNEYWORTH AND LADOUCEUR; LAPOINTE TO BE HIRED
TSN.ca, June 7 2012
MONTREAL -- The changes continue for the Montreal Canadiens.
The club fired assistant coaches Randy Cunneyworth and Randy Ladouceur on Wednesday.
The move comes one day after Michel Therrien was named the team's new head coach.
Cunneyworth took over as Montreal's interim head coach mid-season when the team axed Jacques Martin.
The injury-plagued Habs went on to finish last in the Eastern Conference, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2007.
Cunneyworth was moved back to assistant coach after new general manager Marc Bergevin was hired in May.
Bergevin said at the time that it would be up to the new head coach to decide if the assistants stayed on next season.
Therrien said he has decided to bring in a new staff and he felt it was only fair to let Cunneyworth and Ladouceur know right away so they would have time to look for new jobs.
"On behalf of the organization, I would like to thank both of them for their valuable contribution to the team and wish them the very best for the future," Therrien said in a release.
Cunneyworth was named interim coach after Martin was fired in December. The move provoked howls of protest among many fans in Quebec because he was the first coach in four decades unable to speak French.
Team president Geoff Molson apologized to fans and promised the next head coach would be bilingual. Therrien fit that bill.
Cunneyworth and Ladouceur were promoted to the NHL club last summer after coaching Montreal's AHL farm team in Hamilton in 2010-11.
The club is also expected to name Martin Lapointe as their new director of player development. Lapointe was also considering the position of assistant coach in Montreal, but opted for a role in management.
Lapointe, who played junior hockey for Michel Therrien with the Laval Titan, played almost 1,000 games in the NHL with Detroit, Boston, Chicago and Ottawa.
Colborne adds beef to try and become a Leaf
JAMES MIRTLE, The Globe and Mail, Jun 07 2012
Asked his weight, he says anywhere between 208 and 218 pounds, depending on the day.
Asked his height, he says it’s gone up another half inch, even though he turned 22 four months ago and was already 6-foot-5.
This is life as Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Joe Colborne, who with the help of team trainers and nutritionists has been trying to thwart Mother Nature’s attempts to keep him a lean beanpole in the hopes he can make the NHL full time in the near future.
It’s an ongoing battle.
“Trust me, they’re on me to keep getting bigger,” Colborne said on Wednesday, as the Toronto Marlies prepared for Game 3 of the Calder Cup finals. “It’s absurd right now. I probably eat about 4,000 or 5,000 calories. It just never ends. I’ll go out for food and everyone else is ready to leave and I’ve got to eat a whole new meal.
“That [metabolism] is a good thing I guess when I get older. I’ll be laughing at the other guys for being fat.”
While he’s obviously made progress on the weight gain front – adding 15 pounds since joining the Leafs organization – Colborne’s season has otherwise been all over the map.
After a dream start with 19 points in his first 11 games and the AHL player of the month award for October, he was called up to the Leafs for a 10-game stretch in which he netted five points and looked relatively comfortable in his first sustained NHL action.
From then on, however, Colborne struggled through injuries and inconsistency in the minors, posting no goals and only four points in his final 24 regular season games. By season’s end, he had just 16 goals and 39 points in 65 games, with much of that production coming in the season’s first 11 games.
His time in the playoffs hasn’t been overly productive either, as what’s believed to be a wrist injury is at least partially to blame for him only having two goals and five assists in 13 games.
“He just got off to an unbelievable start,” Marlies coach Dallas Eakins said. “And I always judge a player’s potential by their best game because that’s as good as you’ve seen them play.
“But to keep that pace up, that’s the problem... I think he kind of came back to reality in mid-season, to where we thought he would play, but when you get off to such a great start and then it’s not going for you, you start losing your confidence. [You think] ‘Hey why isn’t it working?’ He started going outside his game. Trying things we don’t want him to do.”
Part of the problem has also been expectations.
After all, Colborne has been saddled with some rather high ones in Toronto, beginning almost right from the day he was acquired in the Tomas Kaberle trade with Boston in February, 2011.
Because of his size and draft pedigree – the Bruins took him 16th overall in 2008, before Michael Del Zotto and Jordan Eberle – the raw youngster was touted by Leafs GM Brian Burke and others in the organization as a potential answer to a lack of depth up the middle.
Even outgoing executive Rick Dudley made a point to praise Colborne on the way out, telling colleague David Shoalts two weeks ago that “if his cardiovascular fitness is elite and he improves his quickness just a bit, he can become a top two centre in the NHL for sure.”
At the moment, however, being a solid top two centre in the AHL – nevermind making good on those NHL aspirations – has been enough of a challenge.
Not that that was entirely unexpected. For one, Colborne’s road as a teen through the Alberta Junior A league and two years of NCAA hockey is the classic path of a late bloomer, and with the Bruins affiliate in Providence, he spent a lot of time on the bench as a rookie.
When Colborne arrived in the trade, Eakins embraced his new project and loaded him up with ice time in his early days on the Marlies roster.
That has since fallen off as the coaching staff has been working with him on defensive play, something that has to improve in order for Colborne to potentially fill a checking line role at the next level.
And his coach made it clear he isn’t unhappy by a second pro campaign that has been so uneven.
“I’m not disheartened by Joe’s season,” Eakins said. “He’s played through an injury. We had to finally shut him down. I think he’s been much better over the last few games.
“The one thing he is is extremely motivated. It’s not a thing where I have to go to him and say you have to work harder on anything. It’s more of a detail thing.”
One of those details is his play in his own end. Several others listed by Eakins on Wednesday are hanging onto the puck longer, driving his legs to generate power and speed, having possession down low and beating teams wide using his size.
(Speaking of which, Colborne is likely to get plenty of sessions in with the Leafs new skating coach, Barb Underhill, in the off-season, as she’s worked wonders with other big bodies like the New York Rangers’ Brian Boyle.)
The final key is gaining even more weight, something that will require plenty of diligence in what will be a short summer given Colborne’s end goal is to enter training camp in the fall at 225 pounds.
“If I ate three meals in a day, I’d probably lose over five pounds,” he said of that push. “I get up immediately in the morning, and I’ll have one of these shakes. And then come to the rink, I have protein here at the rink. And then they have breakfast for us. Then we have lunch [after practice] and another shake. Then I go home for another meal at like three and I’ll usually go out for dinner after.”
As for the rest of his game and the necessary gains needed there, Colborne can feel it coming slowly, despite the lack of production, the injuries and all that eating.
His brief taste of life in the NHL, meanwhile, is still his biggest source of continued confidence, as those 10 games gave him an opportunity to show he belongs at the highest level.
The trick now is to get back there to stay.
“I felt much more powerful in my skating,” Colborne said of his season. “I think it was just overall kind of maturing into my body. I’m still growing. Everyone keeps saying I look a little bit bigger. It’s just a maturity thing, I think. And the coaches have been on me all year long about my D-zone and focusing on that. I’ve made big strides through that.
“To actually go up there [to the NHL] and get my 10 games this year and be able to produce some points, that was unbelievable for how I feel. I know I can go up against some of the top players in the world now. I got to play against a couple of my idols, guys I look up to, in Eric Staal and Vinny Lecavalier. It was a huge learning year for me. To be able to go on this playoff run is huge. And it certainly would be nicer to come out of it with a ring and with a Cup.
“So far it’s been a trying year at times, but it’s also been a huge learning experience for me.”
Sale of Phoenix Coyotes still not a done deal
Pat Hickey, Postmedia News, June 7 2012
The Glendale City Council meets Friday to give its approval on a deal that will give Greg Jamison, the prospective owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, $325 million US to operate and make improvements to the city-owned Jobing.com Arena over the next 20 years.
The deal is supposed to be the final step in transferring ownership of the team from the National Hockey League to Jamison, but fans in Quebec City, Las Vegas or Seattle shouldn't abandon their dreams of seeing the National Hockey League in their fair city next winter.
While the Glendale council is going through with what amounts to a terrible deal for the local taxpayers, there's now a question of whether Jamison, the former president of the San Jose Sharks, can raise the $170-million purchase price.
Potential investors are skittish because the Coyotes have been bleeding red ink since the franchise moved from Winnipeg in 1996. There was a warm and fuzzy feeling last month when the Coyotes reached the second round of the playoffs and attracted sellout crowds. While that showed there is room to grow the product - during the regular season the Coyotes averaged an NHL-low 12,240 fans in a 17,125-seat arena - Forbes magazine said investors didn't believe Jamison could boost attendance and attract enough non-NHL events to make the team profitable.
No matter what happens with the team, the city of Glendale will be a loser. For the past two years, the city has handed the NHL $25 million to help cover losses. By that standard, the $16 million a year they will pay Jamison to manage the building is a bargain.
The problem is that the city is in worse shape financially than Jamison. Propping up the Coyotes has put a strain on the proposed city budget that calls for tax hikes, layoffs and reduced services. A report commissioned by the city estimates that the deal will cost each resident an additional $45 a year over the term of the deal.
The city's analysis also shows that Glendale can expect to collect less than $8 million a year in ticket surcharges, rent and sales taxes. According to the Arizona Republic, the report shows that Glendale could lose $9 million a year even if the Coyotes went to the Stanley Cup final in each of the next 20 years and the arena booked 30 sold-out concerts.
The city held a public meeting Thursday night to discuss the deal, but that was strictly for show because a straw poll shows that the subsidy for Jamison will carry by a 4-3 majority. The most prominent dissenter is Mayor Elaine Scruggs, a one-time supporter of doing whatever it takes to keep the team in the desert. She has done an about-face in the past year, accusing the NHL or dragging its feet on finding a buyer.
Two earlier deals to sell the team fell through and that doesn't include Jim Balsillie's original offer to buy the team and move it to Hamilton. The NHL has stubbornly insisted on standing by Glendale despite all the evidence that the franchise is not viable. If Jamison doesn't come up with the cash, it's time to bring in the moving vans.
GOLDWATER INSTITUTE LOOKS TO HALT GLENDALE VOTE ON COYOTES
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 7 2012
PHOENIX - A conservative watchdog group plans to ask a judge for a temporary restraining order Friday to prevent a Glendale City Council vote on a lease agreement that would clear the way for the sale of the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes.
The Goldwater Institute said Thursday that its request will be filed at 8:30 a.m. Friday in Maricopa County Superior Court. The institute bases its request on its contention that the city violated the Arizona open meetings law by failing to make public all documents related to the lease.
The seven-member council is scheduled to convene at 10:15 a.m. Friday to vote on a lease that would pay prospective owner Craig Jamison $17 million a year for arena operation costs and other items. The NHL has owned the team for three seasons after buying it in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
Goldwater officials said they question the timing of the council's vote.
"The city of Glendale plans to consider what is estimated to be a $425 million arena management deal for Jobing.com Arena," Goldwater Institute president Darcy Olsen said in a statement. "Arizona's Open Meetings Law and multiple court orders require the city to make public all documents related to the proposed contract at least 24 hours before a council vote is taken, which it has not done.
"The 100-page deal released on Monday refers to a number of exhibits that are central to analyzing the impact of the deal on Glendale's finances, which the city must make public," Olsen added.
Messages left with officials with Glendale and the Coyotes for comment on the Goldwater Institute's planned action weren't immediately returned Thursday night.
A proposed sale of the Coyotes last year to Chicago businessman Matthew Hulsizer was derailed by the threat of a lawsuit by the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute.
The threat held up the city's sale of bonds necessary to fill the requirements of the lease agreement reached with Hulsizer. The watchdog group argued that Glendale's deal with Hulsizer violated the state's anti-subsidy law.
The NHL bought the Coyotes out of bankruptcy in September 2009 with the intention of finding a buyer to keep the team in Arizona. The franchise never has made a profit since moving from Winnipeg in 1996.
This year, the Coyotes won the final five games of the regular season to capture their first division title in 33 years as an NHL franchise. They got past the first round of the playoffs for the first time in 25 years by beating Chicago and then defeated Nashville before losing to Los Angeles in the Western Conference finals.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced before Game 5 of Phoenix's second-round series with Nashville that the league had reached a preliminary agreement to sell the team to a group headed by Jamison, a former San Jose Sharks CEO. But the deal hinged on working out a lease agreement with Glendale.
MONTREAL HOCKEY WRITER RED FISHER CALLS IT A CAREER
TSN.CA STAFF, June 8 2012
One of hockey's most well-known writers is calling it a career, as the Montreal Gazette announced Friday that columnist Red Fisher is retiring after six decades of covering the Canadiens.
Fisher started his career with The Montreal Star in March of 1954 and his very first assignment on the Canadiens beat was covering the Richard Riot the following season. He was The Star's hockey writer and columnist and its sports editor from 1969 to 1979.
He then joined The Gazette as sports editor and served in that capacity for several years.
Fisher, 85, won the National Newspaper Award for sportswriting in 1971 and 1991 and has been nominated for award on two other occasions. He was also the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Sports Media Canada in 1999.
Fisher covered the Canadiens for 17 of the club's 24 Stanley Cup victories.
LONGTIME NHL HEAD COACH MAURICE JOINS KHL'S MAGNITOGORSK
TSN.CA STAFF, June 8 2012
Magnitogorsk of the KHL has hired longtime NHL coach Paul Maurice as their next head coach.
Maurice joins Magnitogorsk after a 15-year head coaching career in the NHL with the Carolina Hurricanes, Toronto Maple Leafs and Hartford Whalers.
Former Hurricanes goalie coach Tom Barrasso will also join Maurice on the Magnitogorsk bench as an assistant coach.
Marlies attempt to move on after blown call controversy
JAMES MIRTLE, The Globe and Mail, Jun 08 2012
At first, the Toronto Marlies were outraged.
Now they’re going to simply try to put the controversy of a blown call in Game 3 behind them and attempt to get back in the Calder Cup finals.
“We have to hold our frustration in check here,” defenceman Matt Lashoff said. “But it’s obviously something that they would definitely like to have back.”
The play in question came midway through the first overtime period on Thursday in what had been a scoreless game to that point. With several teammates still in the offensive zone, Norfolk Admirals defenceman Mike Kostka’s dump-in from centre ice hit the stanchion along the glass and kicked out towards the net.
Marlies netminder Ben Scrivens, who had moved behind the net to play the puck, then watched on helplessly as it trickled over the goal line.
An officiating crew that was led by two NHL referees (Marcus Vinnerborg and Jean Hebert) missed the fact that the play occurred on a delayed offside, however, ruling it was a good goal.
The AHL released a statement on Friday morning confirming the call on the ice had been incorrect.
Toronto now trails 3-0 in the series against a Norfolk team that has lost just three times in its last 45 games.
Rather than express outrage at practice on Friday, however, Marlies coach Dallas Eakins was conciliatory as his team prepared for a must-win Game 4 the next day.
“Never forget that @TheAHL is a developmental league for the referees as well,” Eakins posted on Twitter. “Players and coaches have made mistakes. We all move on.”
Eakins and his players didn’t appear to protest the goal immediately after it went in, and no one with the Marlies pointed out the officials’ mistake in their postgame press conferences.
Lashoff, however, noted that he and his teammates began to figure it out quite quickly after the game once the shock of the bizarre play wore off.
“There was a little bit of murmur about it while we were walking off the ice,” he said. “When we got back into the locker room everyone kind of thought about it and said yeah it was definitely a call that was missed.
“Our initial reaction was hey let’s go run back out there and tell them. But they can’t obviously change that call. It’s one of those things that makes you want to rip your skin off and go knock some people out at the time. But you have to be able to keep your emotions in check because we have a game to play tomorrow.”
Toronto Maple Leafs vice-president of hockey operations Dave Poulin was one of several members of the parent club’s staff that was watching the game from the team’s suite.
He said he and others in the organization realized right away the call had been missed.
“We questioned it immediately,” Poulin said. “It was clear... it wasn’t a close play at all.”
The fact that Eakins and company did not put up much of an argument after the goal went in drew some criticism online from fans, but both he and Poulin pointed out the call had already been made by the four officials.
The AHL does not have video review available for its games, and even if it had, offside plays are not reviewable.
“After they’ve motioned that it’s a goal, they’re saying it’s over,” Eakins said. “I yelled and screamed about a number of calls and they didn’t change any of those others ones. I guess we could have put on more of a show and really went after them more, but it was the craziest of plays.”
“It wouldn’t have changed the outcome unfortunately,” Poulin said. “Dallas is a pretty straightforward guy. Had he know the exact situation then... honestly I don’t think it would have changed anything.”
Scrivens also recounted why he was helpless to stop the puck on the play.
“It’s a car accident type thing,” he said. “It was slow motion. My immediate thought when I saw it was ‘oh there it is, it’s going to go across the front of the net and that’ll be close.’ Then as it was travelling, I saw the angle and was like ‘oh no.’
“It’s a one-in-a-million bounce. You can’t really change your game or change what you’re doing because of it because it’s a freak occurrence.”
Several of the Marlies said they were trying to simply forget the play had happened and move on, hoping they can win Game 4 on Saturday to force Game 5 the next day at home.
“We’ve got to move on because if we dwell on it, we’ve got no chance in Game 4,” Scrivens said. “I don’t foresee us having too many people dwelling on it too much. We’re going to be ready.”
Stubbs: Legendary Red Fisher one great storyteller
By Dave Stubbs, Postmedia News June 8, 2012
MONTREAL - I have dined at Moishe's with Red Fisher twice in my life.
The first occasion was in the fall of 1980, as I quit The Montreal Gazette for a communications job in Ottawa with Canada's national swim team. Red, my sports editor, picked up the tab and claims to this day that he didn't expense it. I almost believe him.
The second time was in the early 1990s. I was back at the paper and both of us were nominated for sportswriting prizes by the Association de la presse sportive du Quebec. We would dine that evening, then walk down to the awards gala.
(Once in your life, I thought then, you must walk into Moishe's with this man. Moses didn't part the Red Sea as effortlessly as Red parts the wait staff.)
Frankie, Red's regular waiter, was hovering over us even before we had settled.
"I'll have a Chivas, Frankie," Red said slowly, an eyebrow arched. Then he paused.
"And put some scotch in it."
Frankie returned with my lager and Red's Chivas, in a tumbler with water seemingly added by eyedropper.
Two glorious sirloins and too much liquid refreshment later, Red putting this feast on his company card, we navigated a wobbly path down the street to the gala.
Incredibly, we both won that night. I bumbled through a bilingual acceptance speech I'd scrawled on a napkin. And then Red shuffled to the stage for his award and, after a merci, proceeded mostly in English to thank the 99-per-cent francophone crowd for recognizing brilliance when they saw it.
He brought the house down.
Everyone who's ever worked with or for Red Fisher, who retired Friday following a 58-year career covering the Canadiens and so much more, has their own stories.
If he had a dime for his every tale, Frankie would have retired a millionaire.
Red was a demanding sports editor who didn't tolerate my careless mistakes as a copy editor on the night sports desk; how I'd dread the proof of a page in my mailbox with a red grease-pencilled "Please see me - RF."
He wanted headlines on a page descending in alternating roman and italic type, an odd number of headlines and subheads cause for great anxiety.
But he was generous with his counsel and, when he shrugged off a sports jacket tailored by Curmudgeon of Cote St. Luc, he was a delightfully funny man with an encyclopedia of stories that he'd share in sometimes frustratingly small chapters.
I called Red on Friday morning, first to wish him a peaceful, healthy retirement, and then to ask if he'd like me to pass along the lengthy list of media outlets that wanted a word.
"None of this is necessary," he scoffed, as if his 58 years of reporting was wiped clean just like that. "I'm not going to give any interviews. There's no point. If they want to say nice going or congratulations or kiss my (behind) . . .
"I know what I've done, I know who my friends in the business are. And I also know who the not-so-friendly people are. I'll remember them in '(Blank) 'Em All,' my next book.
"I'm doing this on my own terms. My conscience is clear."
The newspaper business is changing by the hour, an increased emphasis on a digital product not what Red bought into more than six decades ago.
"I got the memo that we were going to make changes, and I couldn't imagine myself walking around with a video camera," he said. "Digital isn't for me."
I was laughing before he'd finished that thought, Red not equipped with a cellphone or an answering or fax machine. I didn't want to ask if his home phone is rotary dial.
This isn't to say that the man hasn't embraced technology. He's traded up from red and black typewriter ribbons to master laptop computers, changing models seamlessly with just a cheat-sheet of instructions.
I told Red that surely he was going to forget to return his latest company-issued laptop, having closed out his labour-folded Montreal Star career in 1979 with the souvenir of three typewriters.
"I'll buy the damn thing," he said. "It might be a piece of junk, but I have a ton of stories in it that I really want to keep. There's a lot of history in there."
The hard drive is overflowing.
I remember, during my late 1990s stint as Gazette sports editor, hearing Red in his adjacent office speaking on the phone with an NHL general manager about the selection of this team's coach.
"He's a bum. Next. (pause)
"You're joking. Next. (pause)
"Please, be serious. Next . . ."
In many long talks with Red, plumbing his reservoir of stories, I gained a great love of hockey history that I bring to many features about the game of yesterday.
And then one day he simply dropped his personalized three-volume encyclopedia set on my desk. The Trail of the Stanley Cup, written by Charles L. Coleman, covers hockey from 1893 to 1967 and is regarded as the definitive history of the pursuit of the Cup from its birth through NHL expansion.
As precious as it is rare, the set could have earned Red many hundreds of dollars had he sold it. He'd not hear of it.
"It's yours," he said. "Enjoy it."
I have, more than he can possibly know.
On Friday, I spent the day speaking to many people in the world of hockey, from the shiniest brass to the legends of the game, to gather reaction to Red's retirement. When your phone rings at 7:30 a.m. and it's NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on the line, you know you're dealing with someone special.
Everyone spoke uniformly of a journalist who had superb instincts, an uncommon work ethic, a swollen Rolodex and a fairness in his reporting that never left a subject critical of his column, even if he didn't agree with its message.
"I owe a hell of a lot more to a lot of hockey people, starting with many of the players, than they owe me," Red said.
On one call, I mentioned to Canadiens Hall of Famer Steve Shutt that Red's hockey-writing career had begun with an exploding tear-gas canister evacuating the Forum on March 17, 1955, touching off the infamous Richard Riot, and ended amid nightly student protests along what used to be the Canadiens' Stanley Cup parade route, smoke bombs occasionally filling the air.
"Well," Shutt said, "Red's career started with a bang and it ends with one."
Former Canadiens captain Yvan Cournoyer loved that remark.
"And now we have naked students protesting," the Roadrunner said. "Just watch Red come out of retirement to cover that."
Stars looking into moving associate coach Willie Desjardins to head coaching job with Texas Stars
Mike Heika, dallasnews.com, June 8, 2012
A couple of sources I have talked to have confirmed that the Stars are speaking with Willie Desjardins about taking the head coaching job with the Texas Stars.
Desjardins has one more year left on his contract as associate coach of the Dallas Stars, but this move makes sense for the organization. One, Desjardins has a history of being a very good head coach. He had a 333-182-61 record with Medicine Hat in the Western Hockey League, winning WHL championships in 2004 and 2007. Two, he’s used to coaching kids and helping them develop, and the Stars are entering a huge era in the development of youngsters in Cedar Park (one reason they fired Jeff Pyle after a disappointing season). And three, this would give the Stars a chance to hire a more veteran assistant coach to help out Glen Gulutzan and Paul Jerrard.
Desjardins came straight to the Stars from Major Junior, so he had only one year of NHL experience (his season with Marc Crawford) when Gulutzan and Jerrard were moved up from the AHL last season. That gave the Stars the most inexperienced bench in the NHL.
With a handful of veteran NHL assistant coaches on the market this summer, Dallas could make a push for a different dynamic and gain some bench experience in the process. Among the available assistants are Craig Hartsburg (recently fired in Calgary), Mike Haviland (let go in Chicago) and Randy Cunneyworth (replaced in Montreal).
The move could be good for Desjardins, 55. He has been a head coach most of his life, he seems comfortable being a head coach, and this would allow him to get on a pretty solid track in making a push to become an NHL head coach. If the Stars’ prospects are as talented as everyone thinks, Desjardins could have a team that could make a splash in the AHL next season.
That could definitely turn some heads, as we have seen coaches quickly climb the ladder after even brief AHL success. That said, it would mean a big move for Desjardins’ family, and it would also take him out of the NHL for the immediate future.
We’ll see what happens, but I believe that’s Plan No. 1 for Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk right now.
Here is last season’s Desjardins’ bio from the Stars’ website:
Willie Desjardins enters his second season as associate coach for the Dallas Stars. Desjardins, 54, spent eight seasons as head coach of the Medicine Hat Tigers (WHL) and also served as general manager of the club from 2005-2010. He won the WHL Championship with Medicine Hat in 2004 and 2007. Desjardins coached the Tigers at the Memorial Cup Tournament in those two seasons and was runner-up at the 2007 Tournament.
The native of Climax, Saskatchewan, won a gold medal as an assistant coach for Team Canada at the 2009 World Junior Championships. Desjardins was named head coach of the Canadian national team in the 2010 World Junior Championships and earned a silver medal. He has won National Championships in Asia, Europe and North America. During his time with the Medicine Hat Tigers, Desjardins posted a collective 333-182-61 regular season record and a 65-43 record in the playoffs, and each of his teams have qualified for the playoffs when he has started the season with the club.
Desjardins and his wife Rhonda have three children – two boys in Brayden (18) and Jayce (12), and a girl in Sheehan (16).
Sutter shows he can bring the funny too
DAVID SHOALTS, The Globe and Mail, Jun 09 2012
Darryl Sutter took a turn at a little stand-up comedy Saturday, a day after rival coach Pete DeBoer had everybody laughing. The Los Angeles Kings head coach is often portrayed as a taciturn grump, and he is at times, although Sutter has a dry sense of humour that shines on occasion.
Several hours before the Kings played DeBoer and the New Jersey Devils in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final, Sutter dished out a few laughs while parrying with the media. He was asked if he thought the post-season was flying by and Sutter agreed, saying a significant holiday in Canada was already upon us.
“Yeah, it does go fast. Darn right,” Sutter said after noting Father Time was looking at Kings executive Jack Ferreira, who turned 68 Saturday. “Series are two weeks, you’re going in those 10 to 14-day blocks, it does go fast.
“You’re into the middle of June already. In Canada this weekend, it’s Farmers’ Day.”
Even the Canadian reporters were scratching their heads at that one. What is Farmers’ Day?”
“It’s like a big picnic with coolers,” Sutter said to much laughter. “Don’t know if you know what that means.”
Sutter will stay with winger Simon Gagne, who returned in Game 3 from a lengthy absence due to a concussion, in his lineup. The Kings need Gagne’s scoring potential in a series where goals are scarce, although they hold a 3-1 lead and can win the Cup on Saturday night.
“I think he’s felt a little better as he’s gone along,” Sutter said. “In the last game he had a couple of good opportunities. I’d like to see him finish. That’s what he’s basically put in the lineup for.”
DeBoer will also keep the same lineup for Saturday’s game, which means veterans Petr Sykora and Henrik Tallinder will play again at forward and on defence, respectively.
L.A. Kings’ Stanley Cup win makes ‘20 million dreams’ come true
Los Angeles — Eric Duhatschek, The Globe and Mail, Jun. 12 2012
In the grand Hollywood tradition of the overnight sensation, the Los Angeles Kings spent the better part of two months playing the part of the ingenue, perched on the soda fountain stool at Schwab’s, waiting to be discovered.
The Kings are a hockey team, or, more precisely, an ice-hockey team, which is how they are still occasionally referred to in these parts.
Maybe that will change now.
Some 45 years after Jack Kent Cooke, a Canadian publishing scion, paid $2 million to place an NHL expansion team in the City of Angels, the Kings won the first Stanley Cup in franchise history on Monday night, defeating the New Jersey Devils 6-1 to win the best-of-seven series 4-2.
Los Angeles came close to winning a championship once before – in 1993, during the Wayne Gretzky era, with a team that oozed star power, and perfectly fit the local sensibilities.
The 2012 edition of the Kings was a different and far more anonymous group, led by the NHL’s one-and-only Slovenian star, Anze Kopitar; and coached by Darryl Sutter, who had previously led the Calgary Flames to the 2004 Stanley Cup final, but had been out of hockey for more than a year when he got the call as a mid-season replacement.
Twenty years earlier, Sutter had received his first head coaching job with the Chicago Blackhawks. Now, he was hoisting the Cup for the first time in his life, after just missing out with the Calgary Flames in 2004.
“It’s pretty awesome,” said Sutter. “Obviously when you have a three- or four-goal lead with five minutes left, you know what these guys are capable of doing. Then you start seeing it on the bench. It’s the feeling of seeing them so happy, the work that you go through.
“The first thing you think about as a coach, these guys are all young enough, they’ve got to try it again.”
Their goaltender and most valuable player was an American, Jonathan Quick, the latest in a long line of quirky personalities to play the position, a player so deliberately bland that he makes the Tim Robbins’ character in Bull Durham seem like a charismatic Magic Johnson. Quick sat at the podium, after winning the Conn Smythe Trophy, with his daughter Madison in his lap.
Quick kept the Kings in the playoff race with an exceptional regular season that earned him a nomination for the Vezina Trophy, as the NHL’s top goaltender. Without him, they might have missed the playoffs altogether. The Kings were 12th out of 15 teams in the Western Conference when Sutter took over from Terry Murray as the Kings’ coach.
However, Quick said there was no panic, even when the club was adrift earlier in the year.
“You know what, it was December,” said Quick. “There’s four months left in the season. I think everybody in the locker room knew what kind of players we had in there.
“At our lowest moments, I think the biggest thing is nobody ever turned on someone else. Everybody stuck with it. Go through five-, six-game losing streaks, whatever it was, and guys are still encouraging, still competing in practice.
“You just can’t say enough about resiliency that it took to get through those times during the season and still make the playoffs.”
No team lower than a fifth seed had ever won the Stanley Cup since the current playoff format was introduced in 1994. In October, Las Vegas oddsmakers actually thought highly of their chances that they were installed as a modest 14-medium shot, and the fourth choice in the Western Conference. But the Kings quickly fell into a win-one, lose-one pattern that in December, general manager Dean Lombardi replaced coach Terry Murray with Sutter, with whom he’d had a previous association when both worked for the San Jose Sharks.
It was 28 years between Stanley Cup championships for the Sutter family, or back to 1984 when his brother Duane won for the fourth time and Brent for the second with the New York Islanders.
“Dog and Brent got their name on it six times,” said Sutter. “I wish each one of my brothers could have been on there. Take a run at it again, that’s the next thing.”
Sutter, from one of Canada’s first families on hockey, installed a more aggressive fore-checking system which permitted the Kings, one of the most physically intimidating teams in the league, to take full advantage of their size. Eventually, Lombardi tweaked his roster to promote two more hulking wingers from the minors, Jordan Nolan and Dwight King, and then capped off his in-season remake with a major deal at the NHL trading deadline, adding Jeff Carter from the Columbus Blue Jackets. In the final month of the season, the Kings started to score, on average, about one more goal per game. Combined with their already stingy defence, they finished on a 9-2-3 run in the final 14 games and were seen as an intriguing dark horse heading into the playoffs.
The Kings raced out to 3-0 leads in all four of their best-of-seven series, something that had never happened before in NHL history. They also went 10-0 on the road in the playoffs, another record, before losing last Saturday night in Newark to the Devils. In doing so, they became the first team to win on home ice since the 2007 Anaheim Ducks, a team that included Kings’ forward Dustin Penner, who now has two championships to his credit.
“It’s one of those things you dream all your life for as a player,” said Kings team captain Dustin Brown. “The city of Los Angeles has been dreaming of this for 45 years.
“There were about 20 million dreams coming true tonight.”
SIEGEL: SWELL OF EMOTION AS KINGS CAPTURE FIRST CUP
JONAS SIEGEL, TSN.ca, June 12 2012
LOS ANGELES – Tears welled up in the eyes of Anze Kopitar, emotions pouring through the soul of the 24-year-old moments after capturing the elusive Stanley Cup.
"Everything came up," he told TSN 1050 of those indescribable feelings following a 6-1 series-clinching victory on Monday night. "It's hard to put it into words.
"Coming from Slovenia, every kid's dream is just to play somewhere else than back home. You go to Sweden, you get drafted it's a big thing and then you come and play in the league it's another big thing. To be on top of the league right now, I can't describe it really."
Eleven championship banners proudly hang in the rafters of Staples Center – all belonging to the Lakers – soon to be joined by another, the first Stanley Cup championship in the history of the Los Angeles Kings franchise, following a 4-2 series victory over the New Jersey Devils.
A season with a touch of turbulence and drama, uplifted by the December hiring of Darryl Sutter, concluded in the ultimate prize for the city of Los Angeles.
"This is it," a jubilant Mike Richards told TSN 1050, his second Finals trip ending with a win. "This is what you play for. The stuff that you win before is nice, but this is something special, this is something that you've always dreamed about. I'll never forget this."
The first number eight seed in NHL history to win sport's most luxurious trophy, the Kings scorched through the postseason with a 16-4 record – second-best ever – only recently challenged with serious adversity. They made no mistake with their third opportunity to capture the Cup, trouncing the Devils in decisive fashion, an electric L.A. crowd on their feet with the game no longer in doubt.
"It wasn't easy," Drew Doughty said of the Kings playoff march this spring. "We maybe won some series which appeared to look easy, but it wasn't. All those teams gave us a great battle and it was just huge to win it."
"We knew we had the guys in the room to do it," Jarret Stoll said, his second trip to the Final concluding in long-awaited victory. "We knew we had the group, we just had to find a way to get in. There's a couple of us that know better than anybody you just got to get into the playoffs to make some noise and have a chance to win. That's all it was for us. We all came together at the right time, peaked at the right time; great goaltending, timely goals, here we are."
Five Points
1. It was a collision that shook the landscape of game six and ultimately the result of the 2012 Stanley Cup Final. Charging thunderously into Rob Scuderi behind the Kings goal, Steve Bernier dramatically altered the fortunes of the New Jersey Devils, drawing a five-minute major and game misconduct midway through the opening frame. The Kings proceeded to score three times on the lengthy man advantage, all but eviscerating any hope the Devils may have had in maintaining a gutsy comeback. Bernier chose not to watch the proceedings in the dressing room. "I stay here and try to listen to the crowd," he explained, "but it was very hard for sure. I wish I could take that play back, but I [can't]." "I was thinking about him actually on the ice when they were scoring," Martin Brodeur said after a disappointing defeat in his fifth Cup Final. "I'm like 'I'm sure he's hearing this and it's got to kill him'. It's one of the parts about hockey that's not fun."
2. Jonathan Quick became the fifth goaltender to win the Conn Smythe Trophy and second straight American-born player after Tim Thomas took home the hardware last season. "He's been the backbone of our team," Dustin Brown said prior to Monday's game. "He's been great all year." A Vezina Trophy finalist, Quick compiled a sterling 1.41 goals against average and .946 save percentage in the postseason, also posting three shutouts along the way.
3. Brown arose with a mountain of a performance in the Kings clincher, potting a goal, two assists, and the relentless grit and passion always expected of the L.A. captain. The Ithaca, New York native had just a point (no goals) in the opening five games of the series, elevating his play with the Cup in the building yet again. "I feel that tonight's the night for this team," he said confidently before the game. "It's not about me or any other individual on this team, it's about the team coming ready to play. I think if we throw our A-game [at them] I like our chances."
4. A champion with the Anaheim Ducks in 2007, Dustin Penner captured his second Cup with a California-based team. "It feels pretty good," he grinned. "I'm sure San Jose will be interested, but that's not something I'll worry about. It's great to be able to do it again."
5. Pete Deboer appeared furious on the visitors' bench following the Bernier penalty, no doubt frustrated that Jarret Stoll drew no call for his dubious hit on Stephen Gionta moments prior along the wall at centre-ice. "You know what, tonight is about L.A. and letting them celebrate," DeBoer said respectfully following the game. "If you want to ask me about that in about a week, I'll give you my honest opinion on it." Bernier claimed to have no idea that the Gionta hit occurred. "No, I didn't see that at all," he said. "Against this team you want to have a strong forecheck and as the first guy you need to finish your hit and that's exactly what I did and I got five minutes for it." DeBoer spoke proudly of the Devils discipline prior to Monday's game, a fact which shifted in rapid fashion with the Bernier hit. "It's one of the things that has separated us from some of the teams we've played at different points," DeBoer said, "the ability to turn the other cheek and walk away. That has to continue. We can't change the formula that has worked for us from the drop of the puck the first game of the playoffs. We almost didn't make it past the first round because of penalties. We fixed that since then, but that can't change."
Kings were lost before Darryl Sutter stepped in
Chris Johnston, The Canadian Press Jun 12, 2012
LOS ANGEGLES, Calif. — The name “SUTTER” will be etched into the Stanley Cup once again.
After more than two decades in professional hockey, Darryl Sutter finally has a chance to bring the trophy back to Viking, Alta., just as brothers Duane and Brent did before him. He wisely answered a phone call from old friend Dean Lombardi while working in the barn back in December and the rest is history.
The veteran coach didn’t know much about the Los Angeles Kings when that job offer arrived beyond the fact he thought they had a collection of great players.
“I wasn’t wrong,” said Sutter.
That group passed the Stanley Cup around on the ice at Staples Center on Monday night after eliminating the New Jersey Devils in Game 6. Eventually it arrived to Sutter and he hoisted the trophy as well, something the second-oldest of six brothers to reach the NHL waited a lifetime to do.
There couldn’t have been a better antidote for an underperforming team.
The Kings were lost in the wilderness when the farmer arrived to the glitz and glamour of L.A., but Sutter soon showed his players the way. At times, he challenged them and intimidated them. And he led by example while preaching about the importance of preparation.
“His intensity is an intensity that I haven’t encountered yet,” said forward Dustin Penner, who left an awful regular season behind with a solid playoff performance. “He’s always on. When you get to the rink, he’s pacing. It’s game time for him all the time. It bleeds out to the rest of the team — the way he talks to us, the way he coaches the game, the way he teaches it, from practices to during the game to the intermissions.”
Playing in a sun-splashed, laid-back environment isn’t usually conducive to success. It’s probably not a coincidence that this was the first championship for the Kings organization in 45 years.
After taking Lombardi’s call, Sutter moved into the Manhattan Beach house that had been occupied by predecessor Terry Murray and set about getting his players to collectively raise their performance, a task much easier said than done.
His approach clearly worked.
“There’s games where I thought I didn’t play my best and he brought attention to it pretty quickly,” said Kings captain Dustin Brown. “That goes a long way, whether you’re a young player or older player. When you have a guy that’s pushing you to be better, not just you but everyone, it goes a long way. Maybe helping you look at yourself in the mirror.”
Perhaps the best testament to Sutter’s impact can be seen in the fact the Kings won the first three games of every series despite enduring long breaks between each one. For two months, there was no letdown or loss of focus.
Sutter is a straight shooter who is economical with his words and repeatedly brushed aside queries during the playoffs about what significance winning the Stanley Cup would carry for him. Without fail, he would note that the focus should be on the players.
But hockey is in the man’s blood and there had to be a great swell of pride inside after finally reaching the summit of the sport in his 24th season as either a NHL player or coach. As he was fond of telling the Kings, this is likely the “first time, last time, only time” many of them would have the chance to win the Stanley Cup.
After the Cup clinching game, however, he encouraged his team to try again next year.
“You know the first thing you think about as the coach? These guys are all young enough the’ve got to try it again,” he said.
Sutter had seen two previous opportunities pass him by — as an associate coach with the 1992 Chicago Blackhawks and head coach of the 2004 Calgary Flames — and there was every chance another wouldn’t arrive.
After stepping down as Flames general manager in December 2010, he returned to the farm and was quite content with his lot in life. But he never totally took his attention away from the NHL and he’d even watched the Kings play a few times on television this season prior to becoming their coach.
“When you’re in Canada, you watch hockey every night, right?” said Sutter. “It’s dark at 4:30 and you watch hockey. That’s what you do. It’s a good thing.”
What else would you expect from a Sutter? Duane and Brent each won three Stanley Cups while playing for the New York Islanders dynasty teams and Darryl remembers seeing the trophy sitting on his mom’s kitchen table.
And now after a painfully long wait, it’s his turn to bring the Stanley Cup back to Viking. Back where it belong
The humanity behind Stanley Cup celebrations
Rory Boylen, The Hockey News, 2012-06-12
The Stanley Cup. It’s what this is all about.
If you don’t get a shiver of goosebumps or a tiny lump in your throat when the greatest trophy in all of sport is escorted onto the ice, with its historical records of all who lifted glory before gleaming from top to bottom, you just don’t understand.
Whether it’s Drew Doughty, who grew up idolizing Wayne Gretzky and plastered his room full of No. 99 posters, dreaming of winning the Cup with Los Angeles, or Anze Kopitar, who left home and country at 16 to play competitively in Sweden, all the sacrifice and dedication put forth by these players in their lifetimes explodes into a wide-range of different emotions when the 35-pound Cup is lifted. It’s the culmination of everything they, their family members and everyone close to them have invested in their endeavor. When Hockey Night in Canada’s Scott Oake interviews the players on the ice after the win, he is always sure to be introduced to family and friends, because it’s about more than the player. Though the Cup is king, it’s about more than the artifact alone.
The same goes for the men behind the team. Darryl Sutter, who got his first NHL head coaching gig in 1992, is finally able to bring Lord Stanley to Viking, Alta., as two of his brothers, Duane and Brent, have already been able to do. GM Dean Lombardi, long lambasted for the gradual and focused way he built up this team, finally had it all come together, making the many hours he and his scouting staff - who are away from home more often than not - put in all worth the day-to-day and year-to-year grind.
Behind the sound bites, highlights and multimillion-dollar contracts, the rest of us can forget NHLers and their managers are human beings just like you or me. A Stanley Cup celebration reminds us of the humanity of NHLers and that even on that monumental stage, life is bigger than all of it.
San Jose’s Dominic Moore, one of the better checkers in the game, let it be known last week that he didn’t return to the Sharks’ lineup after Game 3 of their opening round series against St. Louis because he discovered his wife had a rare form of liver cancer. As the hockey world celebrates the ending of another season and the pinnacle of so many careers, the tight-knit community is also thinking of Moore and wishing the best for him and his wife so they can both get back on track.
And even though Tim Thomas is a year removed from a Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe performance, it looks as though he’s ready to ride off into the sunset from an abbreviated NHL career. The man has taken a lot of heat over his beliefs and the way he proclaims them to a free-speaking society, but if his decision is about family, getting away from it all and not a ploy to control a trade destination, how can any decent human being deny him that? After all the places he's played to stay in the game and keep his own Stanley Cup dreams alive, he's earned the right to make up his own mind.
Nicklas Lidstrom, a multiple Cup-winner who looked like he could play another five years, called it a career to go home to Sweden and spend time with his kids as they grow older.
And, of course, in a big moment like Monday night, the hockey world also remembered the players and coaches lost in the tragic Lokomotiv plane crash in September. Whether they were ever NHLers or not, everyone on that plane dreamt big and was hungry for hockey - a characteristic shared by the common pickup player in Toronto, the beer-leaguer in Los Angeles or any fanatic in between.
Fans and media alike expect the world from the best players in the game and with so much exposure to every team, every night, the appetite for immediate and consistent results often goes beyond what is humanly reasonable. We expect these players to behave and perform as robots, even though they bleed red, too.
While the Stanley Cup ceremony is a celebration of the champions and their families, it is also a reminder of everything good in this sport and that anyone with a pinch of luck and a load of desire can lift all his dreams over his head.
Why the Los Angeles Kings Are More Than Just a Hockey Team
Alan Bass, Hockeybuzz.com, May 28, 2012
Nothing against the New Jersey Devils, but we’ve been there before. The organization has won three Stanley Cups and has proven that they are capable of building a perennial contender in a city that is far from a hockey hotbed, according to the team’s attendance numbers in the last two decades. It’s old news. Enough already.
The Kings, though, man are they hot! They’re the next big thing! They’re…wait, weren’t we here before back in 1993? Just 19 years ago, we were talking about Wayne Gretzky, “The Great One,” playing alongside young gun Luc Robitaille, the kid with the 125-point season, and Rob Blake, the 22-year-old defenseman who is sure to have an illustrious and successful NHL career.
But now, instead of talking about the acquired Gretzky and the home grown Robitaille and Blake, we have the acquired Mike Richards and home grown Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty. Instead of the Kings sneaking into the playoffs and defeating a one, two, and three-seed in the 1993 playoffs, we’re talking about them doing the same thing in the 2012 playoffs.
Correlation? Yes. Causation? Perhaps not, but I’d argue it might be just that.
When hockey fans look at the history books, there is always one name there: Wayne Gretzky. And besides the fact that he failed to win a Stanley Cup with the Los Angeles Kings, the effect that he had on the Los Angeles hockey market is well documented, let alone his effect on all of American hockey as well. That trade is the major reason as to why the Kings are so important to the American scene at this moment.
Out of 27 players on the Kings current roster, all but two (Rob Scuderi and Willie Mitchell) were under 10 years old when Gretzky was traded from Edmonton to Los Angeles in 1988. And 19 of the 27 players were still under 10 when the Kings made their 1993 final run. Of those 19, six are Americans that surely felt some piece of the Gretzky trade as children – all still in their impressionable stage.
Before the Gretzky trade, hockey was so unpopular in Los Angeles, you couldn’t even call it a joke – a joke is known by at least a few people. In fact, a comedian once said at the time, “What time is the Kings game?”, “Depends, what time you can get there?” After Gretzky’s arrival, not only did attendance increase, it exploded. The team’s popularity was equal to that of the NBA’s Lakers, USC football, UCLA basketball, and more. The sport not only took hold in Los Angeles, but hockey became a national sport in the United States, something it hadn’t been since the NHL expanded to six American cities in 1967.
So why is this relevant to the Kings and their upcoming Stanley Cup final matchup against the Devils? Between 1988 and 1993, when the Kings became the rock stars of American sports, the younger generation began to take note. More American children began playing a game that most had never heard of just a few years prior. More and more NHL draftees are born and raised in California – a place where your first impression would be Hollywood, not professional hockey.
But just like that, as the children of that era reach the prime of their NHL careers, the Kings are right back where they once were, again as an underdog that shouldn’t be here. And this time, in a time of social media and widespread sports fanatics, their success, perhaps even culminating in a Stanley Cup championship, will have an even greater positive effect on the young American kids just tuning into hockey for the first time.
Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
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