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Tom Thompson: Merry Christmas to the hockey community
'Tis the season.

Tom Thompson, The Hockey News, 2011-12-24

To a number of people, Christmas is a religious holy day. To many others, it’s a family holiday. To virtually everyone in North America, the Christmas season is a special time of the year. There is excitement in the air and people exchange sincere greetings to each other. As a Jewish friend of mine put it, the true spirit of the Christmas season, "peace on earth and good will to all men" is fundamental to all loving people regardless of religious belief.

In this spirit, I would like to extend Christmas greetings to all members of the hockey community, but especially to:

All of the equipment managers and dressing room staffs in hockey.

You people continually amaze me with your ability to show "grace under pressure" in your daily routines. Is there more tension in hockey than when a star player loses an edge on his skate in the third period? Perhaps the only situation that can match it is when the visiting team's bus is scheduled to leave the arena 45 minutes after the final buzzer. All of you deserve a relaxing holiday with your families.

All of the people involved with team travel.

No people in the game take more abuse than team travel coordinators when buses do not arrive at the airports of strange cities at the scheduled time in the middle of the night. Staff on the charter flights work efficiently when losing team members grumpily place immediate demands on you. Hotel workers find extra rooms in sold out hotels at 3:00 a.m. when arriving teams suddenly want to change their registrations. All of you deserve a festive holiday with loved ones who present no last minute demands.

To my fellow scouts on all teams.

You are the true road warriors of hockey. You make your own travel arrangements, you simply grit your teeth and persevere through inclement conditions and you become the representatives of your respective teams to large parts of the hockey world. All of you merit some quiet time at home at Christmas to recharge your batteries before the holiday tournaments.

To the medical staffs on all of the teams.

Many of you place yourselves in positions of pressure for far less compensation than you receive in your normal practice. The demands of players and teams to get players back into big games collide with requirements from the league concerning injuries and your own professional judgment. You are often in impossible situations and deserve the Christmas season to get away from the pressure.

To members of the office staffs, overwhelmingly females or young males.

You work long and often irregular hours without executive-level pay. You are the people who provide the oil that keeps the business of hockey lubricated. Whenever last minute crises develop, you are often called to extinguish the fires, quickly and with no questions asked. They say that no man is a hero to his butler. You are all fully aware of the warts of all hockey executives, but you are their most loyal supporters. Enjoy the fellowship of your loved ones during this Christmas season.

To the members of the Boogaard, Rypien, Belak and McCrimmon families.

May you find peace and tranquility with your loved ones and gain solace in the fellowship of the hockey community that grieves with you.

Finally, to all hockey fans and all those who earn their living from our great sport.

Take time to celebrate Christmas with loved ones. Enjoy the time that may be limited to appreciate our relationships with those people who often make it possible for us to pursue our passion for the game. At the same time, take time to appreciate and respect the game and the role it plays in our lives. Many of us owe personal relationships, our livelihoods and many hours of happiness to hockey. The game has become part of our personal culture and, certainly in the case of Canada, our national identity.

Our aggressive and rugged sport has created a tight-knit community that can look for help from each other when times get tough. Let us celebrate our place in the community this week and all year round in the true spirit of Christmas – peace on earth and good will towards all men. Let me conclude with the words of one of the most important symbols of the season: "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night."

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Jim Matheson's Hockey World: Dec. 24

Jim Matheson, edmontonjournal.com December 23, 2011

EDMONTON – Who’s Hot: Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler had a slow start with the Jets, but has 16 points in his last 16 games

Who’s Not: Carolina captain Eric Staal only has four even strength goals all year for the Hurricanes and is minus-21

Marquee Matchups:

Wednesday: The Vancouver Canucks are in San Joseto face the Sharks, two heavyweight Western Conference foes

Friday: The Detroit Red Wings take on the Blackhawks in Chicago in another big matchup

Hemsky on the move?

Here’s what we know about Edmonton Oilers winger Ales Hemsky. Teams have started asking questions.

“How are his shoulders?” an NHL executive asked.

“Where are the points? Is it just because he’s not on the first power play anymore? I saw him on TV the other night and he didn’t look good,” said another NHL team official.

With his contract running out on July 1, Hemsky isn’t doing himself, or the Edmonton Oilers, any favours with a mystifying lack of offence one day before Christmas. He doesn’t help himself by almost always being the first guy off the ice at practice either, although the club says he’s undergoing treatment for something, but that’s another story for another day. He’s done that for a long time.

Forget the fact he has three goals; he’s never been a big scorer. He only has 117 career goals in over 500 games, but he’s always been able to set up other people. Not this year. He has eight assists. Apart from three weeks on the sidelines to get his repaired shoulder stronger, he’s stayed in one piece, well enough to play about 16-1/2 minutes a night. But there’s little flash. He’s only had three games where he’s had more than one point. Against the Bruins in Boston, against the Predators in Nashville and against the Columbus Blue Jackets here. He has points in eight games this season.

I’ve watched Hemsky for nine years now — I’ve always talked him up to visiting reporters and other management types who don’t see him that often about his terrific skill-set which can be off-the-charts on some nights — but I can’t remember seeing him this ordinary. He’s trying but, it pains me to say it, there’s not nearly enough conviction to his game, not for somebody with an A on his jersey.

His body language hasn’t been good. He should be burning inside to show the Oilers he’s every bit as good as second-year man Jordan Eberle (36 points), but he’s not. If his repaired shoulders simply aren’t strong enough (he played games last year with a bad shoulder before agreeing to surgery), we’ll give him marks for playing the games. But I don’t see the Oilers signing him again.

I think it’s time to turn the page. He needs a change of scenery.

He’s been the most creative player on the team for 500 games or so, but he’s got company now.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is a Hemsky-like passer. Eberle is the No. 1 right-winger today.

What could Hemsky bring in a trade, with his injury history (two shoulder operations and several other problems)? He’s definitely not going to bring a top-three defencemen, preferably a puck-mover like the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Kris Letang.

So you can forget getting a high-end NHLer. The only way the Oilers are getting one of those guys is to trade one of their kids, somebody like Magnus Paajarvi, and they aren’t doing that. They may have to sign a free-agent D-man this summer.

Lest you think there is no market for Hemsky, guess again. He’s only 28, not 33.

The Oilers got a first-round draft pick from the Los Angeles Kings for the fans’ pinata Dustin Penner last February. They turned that into high-end Swedish prospect defenceman Oscar Klefbom (19th overall choice), who will be a huge part of his club’s world junior squad, and another blue-liner, Colten Teubert, who has played 10 Oilers games (14 minutes a night). He looks like somebody who could be a solid No. 5 or 6 defender down the road, somebody with some bite.

There is a market for just about everybody. Did you think anybody would take Tomas Kaberle off the hands of Carolina Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford?

If Hemsky is traded to any team, it’ll definitely be to a contender or a team that has to make the playoffs, even for only one round to make some money for the owner.

The Red Wings, for sure, are in the picture (Hemsky has 17 points in 27 games and some sterling work against Detroit in the 2006 playoffs). I suspect the Predators, dying for some offence (19 points in 25 career games), the Penguins, always looking for a top-six winger, and New York Rangers are in the mix, too.

I can’t imagine the Oilers would make another deal with the Kings, but stranger things have happened. Nashville was in the running for Ladislav Smid last year, so it’s not like Oilers GM Steve Tambellini and his Predators counterpart, David Poile, haven’t talked about other things in the past.

The difference between Hemsky and Penner, apart from body-type, is this: Penner had another year left on his contract. Hemsky will be a rental. You don’t give up as much for guys you might only have for two or three months.

The Oilers have gone the other way, grabbing Sergei Samsonov from the Boston Bruins in March of 2006. They gave up Marty ­Reasoner, Yan Stastny and a second-round pick that continues to haunt them. With that pick, the Bruins took Milan Lucic. Samsonov helped them get to the Cup final with 15 points in 24 playoff games, after 16 in 19 league games, but they lost out on the chance at Lucic.

Rentals don’t usually bring a whole lot. They bring quantity, but quality?

In February of 2008, Marian Hossa, then 29, was traded from the Atlanta Thrashers to Pittsburgh Penguins for Colby Armstrong, Eric Christensen, Angelo Esposito and a first-round draft pick. But Hossa was a more durable player than Hemsky, also a guy who had a 100 and 92-point seasons with the Thrashers. Only Armstrong is an NHL regular, and the first-rounder, Daulton Leveille, is still playing college at Michigan State. But he’s not a star.

The question with all unrestricted free agents is whether you wait until trade deadline day (Feb. 27, 2012), when there’s e’s former associate coach Brent Peterson has a slice of his life back after his long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Peterson had a remore of a bidding war, or you grab them earlier so can assimilate with the new team and you have a better read on whether you want to keep them past the playoffs. Plus teams like to wait until a player’s contract is dwindling. In Hemsky’s case, he has a cap hit of $4.1 million.

Western Conference:

Nashville’s former associate coach Brent Peterson has a slice of his life back after his long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Peterson has recent surgery to implant a neuro-stimulator in his chest to fix some of his problems with walking and a right hand that simply wouldn’t work. Doctors drilled six holes in his skull and ran some wires from his ear down his neck to a Pacemaker-type battery pack.

“This is a medical miracle. It doesn’t work for everybody, but I can’t ask for anymore than I just got,” Peterson said on his cellphone this week.

Prior to the operation he was shuffling when he made his way down corridors at the hockey rink and his right hand was completely closed. He’s never going to be back on skates because his balance isn’t good enough, but “I think I’ll be back playing golf. I shuffled in (for the surgery) and I walked out (hospital). I was walking on the treadmill the other day for half an hour and hope to get running in a couple of weeks.”

Peterson can even go dancing now? Or does he have two left feet?

“No, no. I’m good. I can’t do the two-step on the ice, but I can on the dance floor,” he said.

He knows the procedure isn’t the magic elixir — it’s going to take several months for the doctors to regulate the stimulator so he’s not too hyper — but his Parkinson’s symptoms will be controlled considerably better than they were taking pills.

“I haven’t taken any medication in three days,” said Peterson, who lived on pills before the deep brain stimulation procedure. He’s still not sleeping great, he was getting by with a couple of hours a night, but that will come with time.

The doctors shaved his skull and he says he doesn’t mind the look, except that “I’ve got stitches everywhere. My head was fine, but it really hurt when they ran the wires down my neck. I’ve got big lumps there, but that’s the least of my worries.”

The neuro-stimulator will have to be replaced every three to five years.

“They’ll open me up and put another one in the pocket.”

Poker face

Former Swiss national team coach Ralph Krueger got a kick out of the wild story back home about longtime Davos coach Arno del Curto leaving a recent league game to play poker at a tournament.

“Arno’s like my neighbour, he’s a good guy. But he does eccentric things. He’s coached in Davos for 13 years and runs that team with an iron-fist. To keep things fresh, Arno would do something like that (leave to play cards),” said the Oilers associate coach Krueger. “He was the best Swiss-born coach when I was there, the only one who was able to hold on to a job. As a Swiss-born coach, I think he could get away with this (poker). I don’t think a foreigner could.”

“I had to be there (poker tournament). It was my table’s turn. I was lucky, my team was leading 3-0 and the players kept it that way,” del Curto said.

This ’n’ that

Andy Sutton, who played with Teemu Selanne in Anaheim says he’s “a freak of nature. He’s got this stutter step, a sixth gear that he uses on defencemen.” Don’t be surprised if Ducks GM Bob Murray’s phone is ringing off the hook at the trade deadline, but the only place I’d see Selanne agreeing to play is back in Winnipeg if the Jets are in a playoff hunt.

• Hall of Famer and now Toyota car dealership owner Paul Coffey says he saw Ryan Smyth with the smelling salts on the Oilers bench during a recent game. “During a game? I can’t remember taking any big hits, but I do use the salts before games. Wakes up my brain,” Smyth said.

• The Blue Jackets could be faced with a major predicament at the draft next June if they get the No. 1 pick. Do they take Russian forward Nail Yakupov after missing the boat on Nikolai Zherdev and Nikita Filatov? Ken Hitchcock had it bang-on about Filatov, who is back in Russia. He didn’t think he had the stomach to go into the areas where you have to score goals in the NHL. Zherdev? He was too much of a freelance. Jimmy Howard, a garrulous goalie (not a whole lot of those), was talking up the world juniors this week when he was here. He got to play for Team USA in the 2003 championship in Halifax. “What do I remember about that tournament? I remember the Russians lit me up in the first game,” said Howard. Alex Ovechkin had three goals. Patrick O’Sullivan scored for the Yanks from Ryan Whitney in the 5-1 loss.

• Rob Brown isn’t sure if there’s any formula to ending concussions; all he knows is he had way too many. “I probably had 10, three real bad ones. After the last one when I was playing for the Chicago Wolves, I couldn’t remember my children’s names. That’s not a good thing,” said Brown.

• When asked who the best Russian-born player in today’s NHL was Nikolai Khabibulin, cut right to the chase. “(Pavel) Datsyuk. Not even close,” said the Oilers goalie, who loves the 200-foot game Datsyuk plays, also his ability to make so many tough plays look easy.

• “If he cheated like a lot of offensive guys (more intent on playing with the puck than without it), he’d win the scoring title every year,” said Brown.

Edmonton Oil Kings GM Bob Green absolutely loves Montreal Canadiens draft pick Brendan Gallagher (Vancouver Giants), who figures to be a solid third-line NHLer with his hands and his never-say-die attitude. He was terrific at Montreal’s camp this fall. “It still bugs me to this day that I didn’t take him in the bantam draft. He had heart, always had the puck on his stick and always was involved in the play, but … He was really little. He went in the ninth round,” said Green, who feels Gallagher will be a going concern on Canada’s world junior team.

• The Ducks’ penalty-killing has gone south under new coach Bruce Boudreau, giving up 10 goals in 32 tries. “It’s kind of deteriorated hasn’t it?” said Boudreau.

• Milan Hejduk, the longest-serving Colorado Avalanche player and now their captain at 35, is now playing with former Kitchener Rangers captain Gabriel Landeskog (18) and Ryan O’Reilly (20). Landeskog was eight and O’Reilly 10 when Hejduk won a Cup in Colorado in 2001. “We all had our BlackBerrys and iPhones at camp and Hejdy pulls out this big rock from his back-pocket. I don’t even know what it was,” said Landeskog. Hejduk swears he’s had an iPhone for a year but people are skeptical.

Eastern Conference

It would be a marvellous story if Detroit Red Wings veteran D-man Nick Lidstrom tied Bobby Orr’s record for Norris trophies (eight) this year, but at 41 he might only be a Norris finalist (top three), not the winner. It’ll likely go to Nashville’s Shea Weber or Boston’s Zdeno Chara; both horses with devastating shots. Weber has more offence, but Chara is impossible to navigate around. Chara’s is the best player on the NHL’s best team. What sways it for former Montreal Canadiens assistant coach Perry Pearn is Chara’s under-the-surface nasty demeanour. “I’d say it’s Chara (as No. 1 D-man) because he’s got something nobody else has. Guys are legitimately afraid of him,” said Pearn, who was in Ottawa when Chara was making his way as a raw-boned kid for the Senators.

“I remember one night Chara grabbed Bryan McCabe, shook him two or three times, then he threw him down and one-punched him. McCabe was scrambling on the ice, and when he finally got back to his feet, he just hugged Chara as tightly as he could. I’m sure if you’d have asked McCabe was he was thinking after that fight he’d have said ‘holy, man.’ ”

Another time, an Atlanta tough guy Francis Lessard was running around and Chara stepped up for Ottawa.

“He hit Lessard so hard on the helmet, he split his forehead wide open. He was bleeding so badly as he skated by our bench, he might have been thinking ‘it’s all over for me,’ ” said Pearn.

The Queen is out in the ’Peg

If you’re into nostalgia, you might want to know that the old picture of the dour Queen Elizabeth that used to hang from one end at the now torn-down Winnipeg Arena, is in a warehouse in Whitby, Ont. these days. The custodians plan on selling it, but True North, the current Jets owners, don’t want to relive the past. They bowed to the wishes of the Winnipeg citizenry and went back to the Jets name when they probably had other names in mind, but the Queen’s mug doesn’t fit.

Jets fans can probably live with that; they’re more interested in commemorative licence plates. As we said last week, they sold 20,000 at $70 a plate, in about two days and plan another production run. Proceeds go to the Jets and the Manitoba Public Insurance folks, who look after licence plates in that province.

This ’n’ that

• Tampa Bay Lightning assistant GM Julien Brisebois will definitely be on the short list if Habs GM Pierre Gauthier gets fired after this year, but several people look at Steve Yzerman’s right-hand man as “more of a numbers guy (contracts) than a hockey guy.” Maybe, but he is a sharp guy. There’s other candidates who speak French — Claude Loiselle, who worked for seven years in the NHL’s hockey operations department and is part of Brian Burke’s Maple Leafs inner-circle in Toronto, and the colourful Marc Bergevin, the assistant GM of the Chicago Blackhawks. Bergevin would keep everybody loose with his dry wit. I agree with Elliotte Friedman that the Habs might just try to twist Bob Gainey’s arm to come back.

• They keep saying Capitals defenceman Mike Green is only out with a groin strain in Washington? Nineteen games with a right groin strain? This has all the makings of a sports hernia to me, but then I’m not a doctor. Caps defenceman Tom Poti only played 21 games last year and failed a camp medical this fall and is on long-term injury status with groin problems. He may never play again. You can catch a cold from somebody else. But this?

• Funny tweet from Brad Ziemer, the crack Canucks scribe from the Vancouver Sun. “Maybe #Habs and Tampa Bay could solve their problems by swapping coaches.” Guy Boucher, who used coach the Habs farm squad, for Randy Cunneyworth, who wouldn’t have to worry about saying bonjour mon ami. Boucher could use some saves from his netminders in Tampa, and badly misses the guidance of assistant coach Wayne Fleming, ill with cancer, too. The Tampa Bay players last week sent the former Oilers assistant coach Wayne Fleming a card with personal messages of support and a reclining medical chair so he’d be more comfortable watching their games on TV.

• Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson kept his Movember moustache through Christmas so he and his brother Henric could have a family photo with their dad Hasse, who’s long sported a ’stache. The family is visiting Daniel in Ottawa over Christmas. Alfredsson is still a point-a-game player at 39, but isn’t sure if he wants to play out the final year of his contract ($1-million salary). The Sens could trade him to a contender for sure, but his cap hit is $4.875 million.

• Lightning winger Martin St. Louis is back wearing a full cage mask, just two weeks after breaking several bones in his face when a puck smashed into him in practice. “I was hoping some scouts would be in the stands so I might get drafted,” said St. Louis, who last wore the full facial protection at U of Vermont. He lit it up there, but no NHL team drafted him because they felt he was too small.

• They’re unveiling a Phil Esposito bronze statue outside the newly named Tampa Bay Times rink on New Year’s Eve. Esposito brought hockey to Tampa Bay 20 years ago. “This is a big deal, like having your number retired. It’ll be there forever,” said Esposito.

He Said It:

“We all love him in here so far. He’s very demanding, very honest with us too. He’s so different from Terry. More vocal, just different.”

Lon Angeles Kings defenceman Drew Doughty on Darryl Sutter taking over from Terry Murray as their coach

By the numbers:

13 Rick Nash’s plus/minus in 16 Columbus road games

13 straight road games lost by the Anaheim Ducks

3 Blue Jackets power-play goals on the major penalty to the Nashville Predators Brian McGrattan Thursday was the first by an NHL team since Philadelphia did it Feb. 21, 2004

Matty’s Short Shifts

• Is it possible the Oilers come to Ryan Smyth in late February and tell him there’s half-dozen contenders looking to trade for him because he’s an unrestricted free-agent? Absolutely, and, if the Oilers frame it right, they can assure No. 94, who should probably have his number retired here one day, that they’ll re-sign him after July 1 so he’ll have the best of both worlds.

• Maybe I’m off-base, but would Columbus GM Scott Howson actually bring in somebody who might replace him, Craig Patrick, or did the ownership talk to the NHL head office and ask who might be available to help advise on a messy situation? This is like Jay Feaster, a good smart man, coming into Calgary as assistant GM before Darryl Sutter left the Flames, isn’t it? I’m a big Howson fan, there isn’t a more honest guy in the game, but can he survive this? Heck, maybe the Jackets ownership goes to Ken Holland’s right-hand man Jim Nill after the season and offers him the moon to be their GM.

• How many times do you trade a guy who winds up scoring 500-plus goals and the kid you get back also does the same? Not a bad deal: former Calgary Flame Joe Nieuwendyk and his 564 goals were sent to the Dallas Stars for Jarome Iglina, who’s closing in on 500. Iginla had exactly 250 goals before the lockout when the NHL allowed clutch ’n’ grab and about the same since. “You’d see big men draped all over him and he’d fight through two checks to score,” said former Flames centre Craig Conroy.

• Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard, who incredibly isn’t on the all-star ballot, is on pace to break Martin Brodeur’s record for wins in a season (48), with 20 already. He could play 70 games this year. Detroit doesn’t seem to have a ton of faith in its backup goalie Ty Conklin (1-4, 3.23 avg., .889 save percentage) so Howard is out there pretty much morning, noon and night. The problem with that is possibly burning him out before the playoffs. I suspect Howard will be in the all-star game in Ottawa somehow.

• I like Terry Murray. I hope he gets another NHL job, but at his age (61) and with the NHL trending younger with the odd Ken Hitchcock or Darryl Sutter blip on the screen, I’m not so sure he won’t hook up with another team as an NHL associate coach.

• People who have watched Scott Gomez closely for the last couple years say his problem is finding the conviction to be the same player that won two Cups in New Jersey. He can keep up with today’s racehorse game, but at 32 he’s not willing to put the work in to be as good as he can be. That’s a shame.

• Why has Vincent Lecavalier’s offence fallen off so much? “It’s his skating,” said one NHL GM. Lecavalier is only 31, but he’s had a roller-coaster career. Highs (108 points one year, 92 another) and lows (37 points in his fourth NHL season and what looks like two straight 50-plus seasons). He’ll hit 1,000 NHL games this year if he plays 66.

• It doesn’t look good that Avalanche coach Joe Sacco is going with 35-year-old J.S. Giguere, who is now moving better in net after hip surgery last year, and sitting Semyon Varlamov after giving up their first-and second-round draft picks next June to the Capitals for the young goalie. That was a pretty steep price for Varlamov.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Cue the over-the-top nationalism

Jeff Blair, Globe and Mail, Dec. 23, 2011

The Christmas period is a difficult time of the year for people who become uncomfortable when Canadians start acting like Americans.

Yes, the World junior hockey tournament is upon us. Cue the over-the-top nationalism, the hefty weight of expectations placed on young hockey players. Will members of the team have to sign a “pledge” this year, as was the case in the past, where they agree to abide by the principles of Canadian hockey? Considering what is known about junior hockey, it’s a safer hazing ritual than forcing players to drag water bottles around with their genitals. Or walking down a hallway nude with a marshmallow in the butt, careful not to drop it for fear of what might come next.

Twitter is not always where you’d go for deep philosophy, but somebody made a point last week that the World junior tournament, which will be held in Alberta beginning Boxing Day, is Canada’s version of the NCAA Final Four. Another wit responded that was true – if only one of the schools competing in the Final Four cared about winning. Truth is none of the other countries will follow their kids the way Canada will but there’s nothing to apologize about that. It’s hockey. For many Canadians, it defines who they are.

But it wasn’t hard to detect a nasty change in tone in last year’s event in Buffalo when a surprising number of Canadians turned on the junior team after it choked in the Gold Medal game against Russia. Perhaps it was representative of a new, emboldened Canadian sports psyche resulting from success at the Vancouver Olympic Games or perhaps it was simply a matter of the World Junior tournament being so tilted towards Canadian success that hockey fans really do see it as little more than a parade towards a championship. It’s OK if a couple of the games are close, as long as the kids win out in the end.

The World Junior tournament is a strange event in that for it to be successful financially it must out of necessity be played either in Canada or in an American border city easily accessible to hordes of face-painted invaders from the north. Most world championships would want to spread themselves out around the world – you’d think a junior tournament would focus on growing the game outside of Canada – but the financial drop-off going to Europe is so pronounced that even when the tournament does shift to Europe it quickly returns to Canada the next year to repair the financial damage wrought in the previous year.

Look: at its core, the junior tournament matters to us because at this stage of their careers the players are still defined by hometown as opposed to NHL team. Sure, they play for junior teams and junior hockey is a money-making business, but because they have not yet become full-fledged professionals – the demands placed on members of the World junior team are such that NHL teams are now reluctant to send eligible players to the tournament because the players tend to miss too much NHL playing time – it is still easy to picture them taking a spin on a frozen pond, wearing a toque and scoring on goals marked out by boots or chunks of frozen snow. Hot chocolate all around.

There is nothing wrong with the fact that during the holiday period, the members of the Canadian junior team all become part of our family. But here’s a word to the wise: beware investing all your emotional capital in teenage boys and if you must, prepare yourself for the consequences. If you invite them into your house and are ready to celebrate their achievements, be prepared for the defeats, too. Be there for them when they’re down as well as when they’re up. That’s the Canadian thing to do, isn’t it?

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Senators’ Zibanejad not your typical Swede

ALLAN MAKI, Globe and Mail, Dec. 26, 2011

He’s as homespun as Ikea and meatballs but his surname tells you he’s not your average Swedish hockey player. In fact, there’s nothing typical about Mika Zibanejad – not his name, not his game and certainly not his background.

How could you be run-of-the-norm when your dad’s an Iranian-born IT engineer for the Swedish government? When your mom’s from Finland? When you speak four languages and one of them is Farsi? And if that isn’t enough, there’s more: The 18-year-old Zibanejad has played in more NHL games (nine) than he has at the world junior championship (one).

He made his 2012 world junior debut Monday in a round-robin game against Latvia and was much like the rest of his countrymen, a little ragged but clearly ahead on skill. As the Ottawa Senators’ first-round draft pick from this past summer, Zibanejad scored twice in Sweden’s 9-4 victory here at the Scotiabank Saddledome. On both goals, on the power play, the puck was on his stick and in the back of the Latvian net before you could say Kristers Gudlevskis.

Sweden has long been a world junior contender with a knack for winning medals and its entry this year features an array of NHL draft picks (Anaheim Ducks prospect Max Friberg scored four times versus Latvia), an emerging star in Filip Forsberg and the curious mix that is Zibanejad.

Known for his ability to play beyond his years – he’s been skating against men in the Swedish Elite League – Zibanejad likes it best on North American-sized rinks because there’s more contact, more hitting. It’s how he prefers his hockey, as he has said many times.

After the Latvia game, though, he wasn’t saying a word. His coach, Roger Ronnberg, refused to make Zibanejad available to the media. Was he injured? Was there mystery afoot?

“He’s unavailable,” was all one stone-faced Swedish official said of Zibanejad. The coach offered a little more.

“It’s nice to see him shooting the puck,” Ronnberg said. “I think we saw some glimpses of his offensive skills with his skating, too. He’s also a player that works hard on defence and finishes hits. He was really good backchecking today.”

Zibanejad became a focal point story at the 2011 NHL entry draft. His father, Mehrdad, was born in Iran and lived through the country’s 1970s revolution that precipitated Ayatollah Khomeini’s rise to power. Mehrdad did military duty in the Iran-Iraq war and, after securing his passport, chose to relocate to Sweden in 1983. It was there he met his Finnish wife Ritva.

Ten years later, Mika was born in Stockholm and instead of taking to tennis, his father’s sport, he fell in love with hockey. Since then, he’s been on a fast track to success, all dash and crash while under contract with Djurgadens of the SEL.

While he’s said he doesn’t model himself after any NHLer, Zibanejad has kept a close watch on Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, two players who capture the force and finesse the 6-foot-2, 196-pound Swede could one day showcase as a pro.

“He’s a really good player,” the admiring four-goal Friberg said. “Good shots, good hits.”

Zibanejad was thought to be a long shot to crack the Senators’ lineup as a rookie. But his preseason work (three goals in six games) earned him a spot for the regular-season opener. He responded with an assist, his lone point in nine games before Ottawa decided to send him back to Djurgadens. So far, it’s been a good move for both parties.

“I think [playing for Sweden at the world juniors] will benefit me on the ice,” Zibanejad has said. “To get help from the Swedes will be good.”

And getting help from Zibanejad will be good for his homeland, too. In their final pretournament game against an unbeaten Canadian team, the Swedes took a 5-3 decision with Zibanejad scoring twice, including the clincher into an empty net.

No doubt he’ll have more to say as the tournament moves along. Perhaps he may even be allowed to talk about it. He should because he’s that good.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Kennedy: Wild, Panthers own world juniors wealth

Ryan Kennedy, The Hockey News, 2011-12-27

Of all the proud papas at the World Junior Championship this year, I’d have to think Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher and his Florida Panthers counterpart Dale Tallon have the most to brag about.

After all, Florida is a surprising division leader as the calendar nears flip-over to 2012 and Minnesota is only one point back of Vancouver – and one look at the WJC rosters indicates the good times are only getting better for two franchises that haven’t had many highlights in their histories.

At the top of the list in Minnesota is center Mikael Granlund, who has been the best player in Finland regardless of age this season. He has already played in a World Championship (where he produced the highlight of the tourney with a lacrosse-style goal) and the Karjala Cup, a European club team showdown that precedes the regular season.

“It’s almost funny seeing him play against juniors now,” Fletcher said. “His hockey sense and talent is elite. He has an impact on nearly every game he plays.”

Over on rival Sweden, the Wild hold claim on center Johan Larsson, once a Sammy Pahlsson-type of shutdown player who has evolved to develop a nice dollop of offense to his game.

“I think he has a pretty good chance of making our team next year,” Fletcher said. “He’s a hard-nosed kid who can match up against any line. We see him as more than just a defensive forward.”

And then there’s Team USA’s Charlie Coyle. The soon-to-be Saint John Sea Dog (and Boston U. Terrier before that) was a key ingredient in the draft day trade that saw Brent Burns head out to San Jose. Coyle boasts size and scoring and will be a big part of Team USA’s attack in Alberta.

“It’s hard to find those big, strong kids with talent,” Fletcher said. “He’s a real top two-way player. You could argue that those three kids are near the top of all the prospects outside the NHL in two-way play.”

Oh, but wait – there’s more, Minnesota fans. Team USA captain Jason Zucker is also on board, bringing speed and leadership, while Team Sweden goaltender Johan Gustafsson gives the franchise an embarrassment of riches between the pipes. And the team’s first pick in the 2011 draft was Sweden defenseman Jonas Brodin, a pretty good blueliner in his own right.

Pencil Granlund and maybe Larsson into the Minnesota lineup next season. One of the reasons Fletcher hired coach Mike Yeo was the bench boss’ ability to communicate with young players in particular, so blending at least a couple kids into the fold won’t be too hard.

Over in Florida, the Cats are already reaping recent draft benefits with Dmitry Kulikov and Erik Gudbranson on the blueline, while a group of prospects similar to Minnesota’s waits in the wings. From Team Canada’s WJC entry, the Panthers have top scoring threat Jonathan Huberdeau and heady two-way forward Quentin Howden. Florida’s version of Coyle is Team USA teammate Nick Bjugstad, who has laid waste to the competition this year as a member of the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Along with Bjugstad on the American team, Florida also drafted the University of Vermont’s Connor Brickley, who will put anyone through the boards that he sees fit.

(And of course the Panthers have their goalie of the future in Jacob Markstrom, currently seasoning himself in the American League, but likely ready for regular duty next season.)

The Cats didn’t build from the ground up this summer – Tallon simply bulldozed the shanty town he inherited and put together an intriguing community of savvy veterans and free agents with something to prove. So far, they’ve quieted all their doubters and with more blue-chip talent on the way, there’s going to be a lot more sunshine for Florida fans in the coming years.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
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[hockeygod]

Johnny Wilson, four-time Stanley Cup winner, dead at 82

The Canadian Press, Dec. 27, 2011

Johnny Wilson, a four-time Stanley Cup champion with the Detroit Red Wings, has died after a battle with lung disease. He was 82.

Toronto Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson announced his uncle's death on Twitter.

“My uncle, Johnny Wilson, passed away this morning at 82 yrs.He was a warrior thru & thru, right to the end.Our family will miss him dearly,” Ron Wilson tweeted on Tuesday.

A native of Kincardine, Ont., Johnny Wilson scored 161 goals and added 171 assists in 688 games with Detroit, Toronto, Chicago and the New York Rangers.

He added 14 goals and 13 assists in 66 playoff games.

Wilson won the Stanley Cup with Detroit in 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955. He was also honoured by the NHL in 1960 for a then-record ironman streak that totalled 580 consecutive regular-season games.

Following his playing career, Wilson coached seven seasons in the NHL with Los Angeles, Detroit, Colorado and Pittsburgh. He also coached with Cleveland, Michigan and Baltimore of the WHA.

Dean
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Game Intelligence Training
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[hockeygod]

Ron Wilson’s contract extension a hollow gesture

JEFF BLAIR, Globe and Mail, Dec. 26, 2011

Climb down off the ledge, Maple Leafs fans.

If, as has been reported, coach Ron Wilson’s contract extension is for one year, it makes it just as easy to get rid of him at the end of this season if the club doesn’t make the NHL playoffs.

This extension sends a message to the Maple Leafs’ dressing room, a reminder that the Eastern Conference is going to be so tight that teams will likely be jockeying in and out of playoff spots the rest of the way. There will be big crises and little crises ahead for the Leafs, and all general manager Brian Burke has done is remove the lame-duck angle to any story. No wonder they let Wilson tweet it it on Christmas Day and use an unfortunate movie analogy.

Darren Dreger of TSN reported the extension is for one year and can be changed at the end of the season. Burke would not confirm Dreger’s report about terms, and in an e-mail message had a simple explanation for the timing: “He earned an extension, no reason to wait.”

Wilson has done nothing as head coach with the Maple Leafs that would earn him an extension from most general managers. Longevity does not equate with greatness. He hasn’t made the playoffs and his teams have been among the league’s bottom-feeders in special-teams play. The power play has improved this season, but the penalty-kill is a joke; the club is a hoot to watch offensively, and entertaining, but defensively it is often a mess.

Seriously, if it were up to me, Wilson wouldn’t have had the chance to have the third best record since the all-star break, or whatever it is; he’d have been fired. And I surely wouldn’t give him an extension. Frankly, looking at the mess in Montreal, I’m more worried long-term about keeping Toronto Marlies head coach Dallas Eakins in the fold. Yet do you think Burke cares what you or I or anybody else in the media thinks? In terms of public perception, this doesn’t make the Leafs or Burke any more likeable to fans or detestable to detractors.

Burke isn’t like most general managers. He revealed Monday that he and Wilson, who negotiates his own contract without an agent, had come to an agreement “three or four weeks ago.” The guess here is they also have their exit strategy figured out, because this was an affirmation of the Burke-Wilson relationship aimed solely at the dressing room. It was, as Burke said, about giving Wilson both the whip and the chair to wield on the Leafs down the stretch. That’s why it was the head coach himself who made the announcement.

Still, you’d like to think Wilson could have chosen better than the Red Ryder BB gun analogy from The Christmas Story in announcing his extension. In that classic, Peter Billingsley’s character Ralphie – and if that isn’t a puckhead nickname, what is? – gets his wish for Christmas. He’s warned by everyone that he’ll shoot his eye out with the BB gun and almost does that on Christmas morning, saved only by his glasses.

Burke says this announcement means “the burden has shifted to the coach,” after saying the Leafs’ record up until last year’s all-star break was on him more than Wilson. Some will say Burke and Wilson are now both in position to be taken out by the ricochet, as was Ralphie, but the optics have changed more than the reality. Without a playoff berth, Wilson will now be gone by mutual consent as opposed to being fired – with a nicer gold watch.

Dean
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[hockeygod]

The biggest sports stories of 2011

BRUCE DOWBIGGIN, Globe and Mail, Dec. 25, 2011

The most significant sports media stories in 2011 as seen by Usual Suspects:

Bell/Rogers buy majority interest in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment

The result? We now have programmers owning the programming, plus the systems to deliver that programming. In this case, it’s the most valuable single media property in the country – the Toronto Maple Leafs on TV and mobile sources. The deal also included rights to the Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC and the Toronto Marlies.

This massive concentration of influence (we have yet to hear from the competition commissars) was a defensive move to prevent potential new buyers from creating a new system to deliver the Maple Leafs broadcasts outside Rogers’s and Bell’s existing model. The new owners are now only beginning to deal with the ramifications from this marriage.

Despite the high fives, the sides still don’t like each other. The suits assured us that it’s competition as usual. Knowing the corporate rivalry between Bell and Rogers, this is believable. But having agreed to partner on this, what will Bell/Rogers do when the national NHL TV rights (currently owned by CBC) come up for tender in the next couple of years? Why blow your brains out on a bid if you can partner again in a cozy deal?

Finally, what does it mean for editorial impartiality? Again, the early noises were “hands off,” but Leafs general manager Brian Burke now gets a cheque from the same bosses who employ his critics. What happens when he gets in high dudgeon? Whom do the bosses placate? The situation is ripe for conflict. No doubt Chinese walls will be erected, but until they’re tested the public has a right to remain skeptical.

Crosby Concussed

Concussions in hockey were already a problem, but when Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby was concussed on the first day of 2011 at the Winter Classic, it precipitated a year dedicated to media scrutiny of head traumas. Combined with the deaths of three NHL players, Crosby’s serious injury (he’s played just a handful of games since) thrust the issue in the public’s face and removed the NHL’s wiggle room on concussions.

Newspapers and TV networks dedicated significant resources to a condition called CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). A frustrated Don Cherry melted down in his first Coach’s Corner of 2011-12 over ex-players suggesting concussions might be fight-related. And a New York Times feature on deceased fighter Derek Boogaard exposed hockey’s dirty little secrets to the American market.

Grantland/Sportsnet Magazine

While traditional sports media lost ground on many fronts, long-form sports journalism had a great year. ESPN spun Bill Simmons off into his own site, Grantland (after Grantland Rice), which commissions top writers to indulge the 2,500-word format. A mixture of insight, humour and gambling advice, Grantland raised the bar across the business.

Likewise, Sportsnet introduced a glossy new bi-weekly publication to extend the Rogers brand. A synthesis of glossy photos and articles from noted Canadian writers, it’s a bold experiment that gambles that the company’s high profile in sports can be extended to the magazine rack in a challenging era for print media.

TSN 1050 Radio starts in April

TSN’s challenge to Sportsnet 590 The Fan’s supremacy in Toronto sports radio seemed more significant before the MLSE machinations (see above). But with TSN Radio and The Fan splitting the Maple Leafs’ 2012-13 radio rights equally between the stations, TSN lost the chance to distinguish itself from the established heavyweight. Hard to see where TSN goes with this until Bob McCown leaves The Fan, not that that’s imminent.

CFL TV ratings plummet

There were good reasons the league’s average TV ratings on TSN/RDS went from 876,000 in 2010 down to 700,000 in 2011. The collapse of the Toronto Argonauts and Saskatchewan Roughriders led the way. But with the 100th Grey Cup celebrations set for Toronto next November, and CFL commissioner Mark Cohon angling for a new contract, the league needs to create some momentum fast.

CBC loses FIFA World Cup soccer to CTV after 2015

Tough blow for CBC, losing soccer’s greatest TV property after carrying the last few men’s and women’s tournaments. It’s almost accepted the network will lose the NHL national rights eventually; soccer was the likely substitute. Not that CBC was bitter; Kirstine Stewart, executive vice-president, CBC English Services, blew a public kiss to Bell, which owns CTV Inc., on its purchase of the shares of the Leafs. After all, the two networks are partners in bidding for the next Olympics TV rights package.

NBC/Comcast merger/HBO’s 24/7

The merger of NBC and Comcast was important for the NHL’s profile in the United States, which benefited from the cross-platform opportunities afforded by NBC’s array of channels. NBC also boosted Golf Channel’s profile, too, as it added its network logo to the title. If NBC Universal decides to use NBC Sports Channel (formerly Versus) to challenge ESPN, it could do even more for hockey’s profile. 24/7’s second year also boosted hockey in the U.S., with Philadelphia Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov becoming a crossover star.

Twitter

Usual Suspects discovered the tweet possibilities of the social network this year. Apparently so did many others. By year’s end, Twitter had become an accepted, even vital part of doing business in sports journalism. Follow your favourite journos, comedians, philosophers and Metta World Peace. The world in 140 characters. What’s not to like?

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
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[hockeygod]

Canes goalie Cam Ward scores bizarre empty-net goal

Joedy McCreary, The Associated Press, Dec. 27, 2011

The Carolina Hurricanes weren't going to let the minor details tarnish Cam Ward's first career goal — such as the fact that their all-star goalie never even really took a shot.

Ward made 23 saves and was credited with a bizarre empty-net goal that capped off the Hurricanes' 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils on Monday night.

“It would have been a lot cooler if I had shot the puck or did something like that,” Ward said with a smile.

Brandon Sutter had a short-handed goal, Tuomo Ruutu and Anthony Stewart scored in the second period, and Tim Gleason and Tim Brent each had two assists for the Hurricanes.

They had as many goals in the second (two) as New Jersey had shots while building a 3-0 lead, then withstood the Devils' late charge to claim their second straight win.

But the play that had everyone buzzing afterward ended up as the first goal by a goalie in club history, and what the Hurricanes said was the first by any NHL goaltender since Nashville's Chris Mason in 2006.

The Devils were scrambling near Ward and trying to tie the game, but Ilya Kovalchuk's errant pass for Adam Henrique from the end line wound up going the length of the ice and into an empty net with 29.4 seconds left.

“I don't know how to explain it. I should make better decisions that that, definitely,” Kovalchuk said. “We find a way to make the game interesting and we were working hard, but a bad decision by me cost us the game.”

Officials initially awarded the goal to Sutter before a postgame review determined he never touched the puck.

“It was Wardo's. As soon as it went in, I think we all knew it was his,” Sutter said. “And then the ref kind of came up to me and asked what happened. He asked who touched it last, and it was (Ward).”

David Clarkson had a goal and an assist for New Jersey. He and Henrique scored in the third period and Johan Hedberg made 30 saves for the Devils, who had won seven of nine.

“No one's going to feel sorry for us,” Hedberg said. “We've just got to keep plugging away. Tonight, they probably deserved it more than we did.”

Clarkson broke up the shutout when he scored with 7:22 left. Henrique then pulled the Devils to 3-2 when he scored with 2:20 remaining before the odd sequence in the final minute.

Anton Volchenkov finished with two assists for New Jersey, which lost Ryan Carter to a game misconduct late in the first period for drilling Jaroslav Spacek hard into the end boards.

Carolina, in last place in the Southeast Division, has earned points in six of eight games.

“What I really like in the last six, seven games is that we're a little bit more consistent,” new coach Kirk Muller said. “We're not beating ourselves, for the most part, and the points that we have given away are things that we've done. So the last couple games, we've done a better job of that and we've been doing a lot of good things. We're not quite there yet, but I think our confidence level's starting to kick in, everyone's starting to play a higher-tempo game and I think we're skating better to play this type of tempo.”

Two of the best players in Devils history were behind Carolina's bench. Muller and assistant John MacLean combined for 532 goals during their time on the ice in New Jersey.

The Devils sure could have used their offensive punch early in this one. Instead, for most of the way, it was the Hurricanes who showed off their firepower.

Ruutu pushed Carolina's lead to 2-0 by scoring his team-leading 13th goal just over 7 minutes into the second. He chipped in a rebound past a sprawled-out Hedberg and into an open net. Stewart then made it a three-goal game 10 minutes later when his wrist shot from the circle got past Hedberg's stick.

That came after Sutter scored the Hurricanes' first goal midway through the first and 23 seconds into a tripping penalty on Ruutu.

Sutter chased down the puck near centre ice and skated in on Hedberg before uncorking a wrist shot from the circle that clipped the left pipe on its way in. That gave the Hurricanes their seventh short-handed goal — tying them with the Devils for most in the NHL — and marked the league-worst 11th allowed by New Jersey.

“A bounce happens, a break happens,” Sutter said. “When you get a chance to go, you've got to go.”

It could have been worse for the Devils, who held Carolina scoreless during a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:19, a sequence that included the misconduct and 5-minute boarding major on Carter. Drayson Bowman rang the left post moments after Stewart's goal.

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=35&id=144983

Dean
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Game Intelligence Training
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[hockeygod]

Panthers have some real bite

Mike Zeisberger, QMI Agency, Dec 26 2011

Prior to the arrival of former Maple Leaf Kris Versteeg and friends, this was hockey’s version of The Island of Misfit Toys.

Indeed, the world of the Florida Panthers pretty much was a depressing place in the decade leading up to the 2011-12 NHL season. Losing was a way of life. South Florida fans seemed disinterested. Stories of potential financial ruin were plentiful.

Remember the old adage about selling you some swampland in Florida? With Florida’s beautiful arena situated just a slapshot away from the Everglades, it seems the Panthers actually purchased that very thing.

But, thanks to additions like Versteeg and Brian Campbell, the willingness of owner Cliff Viner to finally spend money, and a winning formula between GM Dale Tallon and first-year coach Kevin Dineen, these are not your father’s Florida Panthers.

Sure, it will take time to entrench this franchise on the south Florida sporting radar. And after the injury-ravaged team, missing seven regulars from its lineup, suffered an 8-0 thumping to the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins on Friday, the odd widecrack of “Same ol’ Panthers” could be heard.

Having said that, such drubbings have been few and far between for these Panthers, who found themselves coming off the Christmas break atop the Southeast Division standings.

When is the last time they could make that claim heading into the new year?

Versteeg is a prime example of how a kid unwanted or deemed expendable by so many others, has found a home here.

In the past 18 months Versteeg has played for four teams. After winning the Stanley Cup in Chicago, the Blackhawks shipped him to the Leafs. Toronto eventually sent him to the Philadelphia Flyers for a cache of draft picks. And when the cap-stressed Flyers opted not to retain him at the end of last season, Tallon, part of the Hawks management team when Versteeg was there, snapped him up.

Why the lucrative early-season success in Florida for Versteeg, whose 16 goals entering the Christmas break put him among the league leaders?

“First off I think he’s healthy,” Tallon explained. “He had off-season sports hernia surgery. Secondly we have a good relationship. Thirdly, he’s playing with (Steven) Weiss and (Tomas) Fleischmann and they developed chemistry from training camp on. And I like his spunk, his personality. He’s fun to be around.

“In Chicago they had success and he won a Cup. They had cap issues so it was not so much his play. It was a matter of the business side. Expectations were high in Toronto and Philly had cap issues. That probably had a role in if he was going to re-sign or not.

“I wanted to bring back to Florida someone who wanted to win and who I had a relationship with. I wanted it to be a fun environment here with people who enjoy the process and not have guys not enjoying where they were.”

Tallon, whose Panthers host the Leafs on Tuesday, knows “changing the culture,” as he calls it, won’t happen overnight. There will still be empty seats and game stories buried pages deep inside the local sports sections. But there has been progress, however minor.

‘Good place’

“I’m surprised a little bit at how the success has come so early,” he said. “ All the credit goes to Kevin and his staff, and the players for working so hard since training camp.

“It’s changing, slowly but surely, I think we are getting into a good place. We’re starting to feel the energy. It’s a good positive upbeat feel right now. A lot more buzz. More media coverage, more walk-up … All those things are starting to come.

“It just takes time.”

There are still gimmicky ticket promotions. For example, if you spend $25 or more at a local Hair Cuttery on any Tuesday that the Panthers play, you receive two “complimentary” tickets to a Panthers home game.

Mohawk anyone?

If you believe the league’s figures (and many skeptics don’t), the Panthers finished 22nd in attendance last season with an average gate of 15,685. This season, they are 21st at 15,765.

Baby steps? Sure.

But any steps in these parts, however small, must be construed as positive.

WILL TICKET SALES HEAD NORTH

SUNRISE, Fla. — More games against the Leafs, Sens, Habs = more snowbirds = more $$$.

When it comes to the NHL’s proposed realignment that would see the Florida Panthers join Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Boston, Buffalo and Tampa in the same conference, that is the key formula. With so many Canadians and folks from the northern U.S. now living or visiting south Florida, the Panthers are hoping that the new format will result in increased ticket sales.

“I think it’ll be good for us from a business side,” Panthers GM Dale Tallon said.

“We’re going to get three Original 6 teams who come to our building three times each. It’s a little more travel, sure, but it is what it is.

“Overall it’s what’s best for the league and it’s what’s best for hockey, not just what’s best for Florida.”

Dean
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Game Intelligence Training
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[hockeygod]

Russians still trying to cope with tragedy

By SCOTT MITCHELL, QMI Agency, Dec 26 2011

Nikita Kvartalnov’s face said it all.

The slick Russian Severstal/Lokomotiv forward answered questions with the care-free nature expected from a 17-year-old playing in an elite hockey tournament in a foreign country.

Even though the Russians had just blown a third-period lead to settle for a 3-3 tie with the Red Deer Optimist Rebels, it’s just hockey.

When the questions turn to the September plane crash that claimed the lives of 43 players and coaches from the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl KHL team, it’s no longer about hockey and the mood changes.

“Somebody told me and I was shocked,” Kvartalnov recalled Monday at Max Bell Arena, shortly after taking off his jersey with a crest honouring those killed in the crash. “For a few weeks, I was like … it’s very, very bad.”

Team captain Artyom Vorobyov didn’t even want to talk about it.

“No words to describe it,” Vorobyov said through a translator.

For the Russian team, hockey is the easiest part of an international tournament.

The travel is something they don’t look forward to.

“After that, yes, I was nervous,” Kvartalnov said of the flight to Calgary.

Kvartalnov is no stranger to flying or North America. His father, Dmitri, was a Boston Bruins first-round pick back in 1992, scoring 30 goals and 42 assists during his rookie season in 1992-93 before heading back to Europe.

Nikita was born in the U.S., and he was familiar with a number of the players killed in the crash.

“I think it was one of the best teams in the KHL,” Kvartalnov said.

Former NHLers Brad McCrimmon, who was coaching the KHL team, Pavol Demitra, Ruslan Salei, Josef Vasicek, Karel Rachunek, Alex Karpovtsev and Igor Korolev were all killed.

The crash of the 120-seat Yak-42 after leaving an airport near the city of Yaroslavl was blamed on aging infrastructure, something everyone knows as a reality, Kvartalnov said.

“In Russia, it’s not so good planes. Everything is old in the planes,” he said.

GM Vladimir Sokolov made a comparison that will hit home with Albertans trying to grasp the significance for a group of 17-year-old kids from the city of Tcherepovetz, where the Russian squad playing at the Mac’s is based out of.

“Yaroslavl is pretty close to our city — it’s within 250 kilometres — so it’s between Calgary and Edmonton,” Sokolov said. “We played many times — junior team, kids team, adult team.

“For example, we played an exhibition game Sept. 1 in Yaroslavl, and Sept. 7 was the crash.

“It was unbelievable.”

But the tragedy has affected the veteran Russian coach Igor Petrov.

“I knew some of those players and coaches,” Petrov said. “In every city people went to the ice arenas with candles as a sign of respect and in memory of the people that were killed in that crash.

“It has affected (Petrov) a lot.”

Petrov’s junior team was playing its season-opener when the tragedy was announced in the arena.

The game was stopped and it hasn’t been finished.

It makes the questions about giving up a third-period lead insignificant.

Dean
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Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Women’s hockey league searches for recognition

Rachel Brady, Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011

Late on a Saturday night in the narrow back hallways of Toronto’s Varsity Arena, Canadian hockey Olympian Caroline Ouellette jogged and stretched alongside her Montreal Stars teammates. There were no corners cut in the elite players’ postgame routine, even though they would spend 12 hours on a bus that weekend and play two games before a few hundred people.

A few blocks east of the rink, holiday shoppers and bar-goers packed Toronto’s Bloor Street, few if any realizing some of the world’s best female hockey players were on display minutes away for $8 a ticket. The Stars earned a 4-3 comeback win over the Brampton Hockey Club in a game full of the same women who won gold in Vancouver before the eyes of millions.

That’s life in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, the premier post-university playing ground for the sport’s elite women, including Olympic and world champions like Canadians Gillian Apps, Tessa Bonhomme and Jayna Hefford, and American star Angela Ruggiero. Progress is slow for the league that started five years ago, and the NHL has yet to respond to the CWHL’s requests for sponsorship. But these women aren’t sitting around waiting for others to determine the fate of their league.

“My dream is to have our team introduced at the Bell Centre before a Habs game with the Clarkson Cup that we won, just to have that exposure,” Ouellette said. “People appreciate the differences between men’s and women’s tennis, so why not hockey? I believe they could appreciate our finesse game if we could just get our league known.”

The NHL hired former WNBA president Val Ackerman to observe women’s hockey globally. The CWHL says Ackerman has visited its games and focused on information gathering rather than feedback to the CWHL. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly would only say: “It’s still a work in progress. Val’s perspective has been enormously helpful.” Ackerman did not reply to interview requests.

“Whether the NHL sponsors our league or they sponsor another female hockey group, we’ll be proud that the CWHL sat at that table and pushed the envelope and got them thinking about it,” CWHL commissioner Brenda Andress said. “The NHL has been very nice to us and continues to say they support women’s hockey, so in what way they will support it is what everyone is waiting to see.”

The CWHL has teams in Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Brampton, Ont., Burlington, Ont., and a new one in Alberta, all league-owned. To limit travel costs, Alberta is playing only 15 games at four points this season, compared to 30 for everyone else. A lack of resources limits the league in such ways and prevents it from being a truly professional operation.

The entire six-team operation runs on $500,000 a year, its players don’t make a dime, and its game attendance rarely cracks a few hundred. The CWHL has few paid employees. Andress gets a part-time wage, and coaches will be paid for the first time, a modest $15,000 to help curb the high turnover rate behind the benches.

Players have to pay for sticks, skates and meals on the road, so they need jobs. They work as teachers, police officers, personal trainers and hockey coaches, often getting home from a weekend of games in the wee hours of a Monday, just before work.

“If players have to work, we have to give them that time and respect, because they need to make a living,” Chris Brennan, coach of the Toronto Furies, said. “The balance is quite a challenge because it’s rare that we have a full roster at practice, and that’s common throughout the league.”

A professional women’s league in Switzerland has often tempted many CWHL players, offering a small monthly salary to play there along with some living expenses.

“For me, there has always been a temptation to play in Switzerland and make a little pocket money and travel, but knowing how competitive the hockey is here, this is the environment I want to be in,” said U.S. Olympian Julie Chu, who coaches hockey at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., and travels to play with the Stars in Montreal. “I’m passionate about improving as much as I can and the CWHL now is my avenue to hopefully make the 2014 U.S. Olympic team.”

The league that once had no one but family in the stands has enjoyed progress. It now has a draft, albeit one in which players specify if they want to play outside the Greater Toronto Area. The league has paired with charities to play outreach games, sometimes pulling in 1,000 fans. Bauer now provides pants, gloves and helmets, while Scotiabank and Winsport are key sponsors. There is now a players’ association. The CWHL is pitching European businesses on sponsoring Olympians from Sweden, Finland and others to join the league.

The league vows to bring more attention to its national championship tournament this year, the Clarkson Cup. The Stanley Cup of women’s hockey, donated by former governor-general Adrienne Clarkson, is awarded every March before a sparse crowd, so the CWHL will do a media launch in advance so people anticipate this year’s event in Niagara Falls, Ont. The league also anticipates streaming games online soon.

“I see this growing as a professional women’s league and I think we’ll accomplish that in the next five years,” said league co-founder Sami Jo Small, Toronto Furies goalie and Canadian Olympian. “Not necessarily big salaries, but there will be salaries for all players, I believe that.”

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

MARINARO: HABS COME THROUGH TO SAVE COACH FROM INFAMY

TONY MARINARO, TSN, Dec 28 2011

Going into the game versus the Ottawa Senators, Randy Cunneyworth had lost his first four games as Habs Head Coach. No coach in Montreal Canadiens history has ever lost his first five games behind the bench. It's a record Randy Cunneyworth didn't want. Well, he doesn't have to worry. The Canadiens rewarded the coach with a 6-2 win against his former team on Tuesday night.

Many positives coming out of the game. It starts with goaltender Carey Price, who made 33 saves. It was another great performance by Erik Cole. He scored his team-leading sixth powerplay goal and 14th goal of the season. The Canadiens winger has been stellar the past two months. He gives 100 percent every shift. His work ethic is commendable. The third star on the night was Habs defenceman Raphael Diaz. He picked up three assists in the first period alone. It was the first time a Montreal Canadiens rookie defenceman picked up three assists in a game, since Mathieu Schneider did it back in 1990.

Honorable mention also goes out too: Lars Eller. He was a healthy scratch in Winnipeg and responded to the coach's message. He scored a shorthanded goal, had three shots, two hits and was 56 percent in the faceoff circle. PK Subban, also a healthy scratch in Winnipeg, bounced back as well. He scored a goal, picked up an assist, and was a plus-2. Great contributions also came courtesy of Michael Cammalleri, Tomas Plekanec, Mathieu Darche and Louis Leblanc. They had two points apiece.

The Canadiens finished strong. They entered the third period with a 5-2 lead and didn't sit back. They outshot Ottawa 7-6 in the final frame. They outchanced them and scored the only goal of the third. They weren't passive, they were aggressive. Slowly but surely, Cunneyworth is putting his stamp on this team.

The road trip continues as the Canadiens face the Lightning in Tampa Bay on Thursday night. Guy Boucher's squad is coming off a huge 5-1 win over Philadelphia. However, they will be without defenceman Victor Hedman. He was injured on Tuesday and is day to day. Two points separate the two teams. Montreal has 35, Tampa 33. It will be the first of four meetings between the two clubs. The teams split their matchups last season.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Proteau: 2011 Top 5 NHLers, issues, interviews…

Adam Proteau, The Hockey News, 2011-12-28

The end of the calendar year always brings with it the temptation to write best-of type lists and this year I’m offering no defense when facing that temptation. Here are a few top-five-in-2011 rankings, some with explanations and others just straight-ahead lists:

Five NHLers I've most enjoyed watching in the calendar year:

Tim Thomas. Unpredictable to the point his style can’t be taught. In a sport filled with giant goalies with robotic form, Thomas is a thrill unto himself – and still the biggest driver of Boston’s success.

Jonathan Toews. With Sidney Crosby sidelined indefinitely, the Hawks captain is the most complete player in the game. His personality is much more Sphinx than Shaq, but his on-ice dominance is so thorough – he’s on pace for new career highs in goals and points – it’s hard to believe he’s just 23 and continuing to improve.

Nicklas Lidstrom. With his 42nd birthday looming in April, he’s still the defenseman most NHL people would want on the ice for them in the last minute of a game. And if he continues his current standard of play the rest of the year he’ll have my vote for the Norris Trophy, just as he got it last season.

Dwayne Roloson. Now, I haven’t enjoyed him during the 2011-12 campaign (in which he’s been abysmal), but during Tampa’s improbable playoff run last spring, Roloson was a force to behold. Here’s hoping he can recapture the magic one more time.

Sheldon Souray. There’s not much that’s better than a good comeback story and nobody had a better one than the Stars blueliner. The confidence on his face night in and night out was created out of American League bus rides last season – and it’s been a pleasure watching him enjoying the fruits of fighting his way back.

Five biggest issues facing the NHL in 2012:

1. Headshots/Concussions.
2. New collective bargaining agreement.
3. Downward trajectory of overall goals-per-game average.
4. Hard-shell player equipment.
5. Speed of the game.

Favorite Five Hockey-Related Interviews:

1. Ron Wilson. He gives some local media members conniption fits, but I’ve found the Leafs head coach to be nothing but engaging, humorous and insightful since he’s been in Toronto. His new contract extension and the team’s drastically improved talent base will give him a chance to show what he can really do.

2. David Perron. I’ve talked to the young Blues star a couple times in 2011 and he’s always been one of the smartest, most outspoken NHLers when it comes to player safety. Like Mike Bossy, Serge Savard, Ken Dryden, Mario Lemieux and others before him, Perron thinks the game can be better in many regards and has bravely used his platform to question establishment dogma. That’s something clingers-to-the-status-quo and hockey exceptionalists should consider before attempting to shout down and arrogantly dismiss those who don’t share their views on the game.

3. Jaromir Jagr. When I had 20 minutes with the Czech legend in Buffalo in December, he was as contemplative with each question as anyone I’ve ever interviewed. Part of that was because he was searching for the words in his second tongue, but also he gave me the impression he wanted to give me a considerate answer. And he did. Small wonder he’s become the Flyers’ most requested interview in short order.

4. Aaron Ward/Bobby Holik (tie). These two former NHLers, multiple-time Stanley Cup winners and TV analysts aren’t beholden to either the league or NHLPA and care deeply about the sport and those who play it. The jury isn’t out on either guy – they’re both going to be important voices in the hockey world for a long time to come.

5. Jay Baruchel. The Montreal native and actor/writer was a blast to chat with in December regarding his new hockey movie “Goon.” Many movie stars before him have used the sport to boost their own fortunes, but it’s clear Baruchel wanted to make his film as a tribute to the sport he adores. And you needn’t be a media person to talk to him – he’s one of the most personable celebrities on Twitter.

Five teams that still need a serious shakeup:

1. Calgary
2. Columbus
3. Islanders
4. Anaheim
5. Montreal

Five most inexplicable happenings of the year:

1. Virtually Anything Pierre Gauthier Did. Whether it was firing assistant coach Perry Pearn and then head coach Jacques Martin or trading an expiring contract in Jaroslav Spacek for Tomas Kaberle, nothing the Canadiens GM did seemed like part of a bigger blueprint for success. He most likely will be dismissed in the off-season, after which time he can pursue his dream of a career in the media. (Just seeing if you’re paying attention.)

2. Darryl Sutter, new Kings coach. The optics of Sutter’s sullen demeanor in sunny Los Angeles were odd enough, but the idea his coaching chops are what a young team like the Kings needs is even odder. Let’s see how modern and “good” he is with the players after a five-game losing skid.

3. Tomas Kaberle’s contract with the Hurricanes. How many times has an NHL GM ever publicly stated he made a huge mistake on a free agent signing the way Jim Rutherford did after he found a sucker…er, I mean, willing trade partner for Kaberle? I can’t think of any, but nobody was arguing with the Hurricanes GM when he said it. More evidence a team just can’t help itself, internal budget constraints or no internal budget constraints.

4. The Wild’s move up the Western Conference standings (well, at least for a while there). Few people I spoke with thought the Wild would be a playoff contender, let alone literally in the West’s top position as they were for a short stretch. They’ve been in a tailspin with seven straight losses since mid-December, but maybe Minnesota isn’t as far away from being a post-season franchise as we/I thought.

5. Brian Elliott, world-beater. He appeared destined for lifelong backup status after bouncing between Ottawa and Colorado the past two seasons, but Elliott’s fortunes have completely reversed this season: He’s first among all goalies in shutouts (four) and goals-against average (1.55) and is tied for first in save percentage (.943). Best of all for him, he’s an unrestricted free agent this summer. If he continues to play well, watch for either (a) Philly to sign him to a nine-year, $51-million contract; or (b) Columbus to sign him by giving him half-ownership in the franchise.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Don Cherry's Piano Desk

Don's piano desk helps emphasize his arguments!

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[Author]

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