Articles

[hockeygod]

Gretzky was model student
Former teacher Marilyn Smith of Cambridge with hockey’s Great One, Wayne Gretzky as a teenager.

Walter Gowing, Special to the Cambridge Times, Jan 11 2012

First of a two-part series on Wayne Gretzky’s kindergarten teacher, Cambridge’s Marilyn Smith

With a firm voice and soft sound, kindergarten teacher Marilyn Smith told Wayne Gretzky to pick up his building blocks and put them away. He acted immediately and replied, “Yes, Mrs. Smith.”

He was a model student.

“I taught all five of the Gretzky children while living in Brantford,” said Smith, now a resident of a high rise in Cambridge. Retirement brought Bob and Marilyn Smith to Cambridge after long working careers in Brantford.

“Leaving good neighbours like Phyllis and Walter Gretzky was hard,” said Bob, “but Cambridge was an attractive place to retire.”

The two families were close enough that the Smiths could look out their back door and into the Gretzky’s front door. Although Walter Gretzky worked for Bell Telephone in the daytime, every night during the winter months he was in his backyard flooding the ice for his family’s skating rink.

It was not only Wayne that had the benefit of being in Mrs. Smith’s kindergarten class, but as each of the younger Gretzky children started school they too had a great teacher according to Walter. There was Kim, Keith, Glen and Brent that all followed Wayne through Mrs. Smith’s classroom.

“All but Glen used that ice-pad in the backyard of Gretzky’s home,” said Bob, “as Glen had a bad foot and couldn’t skate.”

“Wayne was a very quiet student and didn’t participate originally in all activities,” recalls Marilyn.

She had to bring him along to be a team player in class. Wayne turned out to be one of the greatest team players on every hockey team he played on.

“Even in kindergarten, Wayne knew the names of most players in the National Hockey League and their statistics,” said the former teacher. “He was a walking encyclopedia on hockey, and he could have been anything he wanted to be, but all he wanted was to be a good hockey player.”

Marilyn could relate to Wayne’s desire to become a big league hockey player. Back in her school days, she was the goalkeeper on the school’s hockey team. “Unfortunately, in those days, there were no opportunities for girls to play hockey,” said Marilyn.

She expressed her delight knowing that today there are more girls and women playing Canada’s game.

At 82 years of age, Marilyn will drop the puck at the official opening ceremony at the Preston International Hockey Tournament on Jan. 20 at the Cambridge Centre’s ice rink.

——

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

[hockeygod]

Sutter's old grudge remains

ERIC FRANCIS, QMI Agency, Jan 15 2012

CALGARY – To say Darryl Sutter wasted little time reminding the Calgary media how miserable life in and around the Flames organization could be at times when he ran the joint would be wrong.

In fact, the recently-hired L.A. Kings coach seemed to delay his much-dreaded meeting with the media Saturday as long as possible by scheduling a 35–minute sit-down with his players after the morning skate.

After that, he skipped past the awaiting horde to casually visit with acquaintances before facing questions from inquisitors he despised long before they helped run him out of town.

Then again, after going more than a year since his ouster without speaking publicly or to his younger brother Brent, what’s another three quarters of an hour?

So, Darryl, any emotions upon your return to a city and arena you spent eight years in?

“Good to see my family,” said a curt Sutter, whose wife and youngest son stayed behind when he joined the Kings five weeks ago.

Your thoughts on coming back?

“Lot more good than bad,” he said. “Nice to come see all the nice people working in the building that you spent early mornings and late days with.”

Darryl, you didn’t speak after being asked to resign last Christmas …

“Didn’t know you had to … There you go,” he interrupted.

Any reason why?

“For what reason? I spoke to lots of people privately. I don’t have to do it in a public forum.”

And so it went. The contempt he held for anyone who ever questioned anything he ever did here clearly remains.

No one gasped when he was asked if he had any regrets or if he would change anything he did here.

“Nope,” he replied. “I came here in a tough situation in every area on and off the ice and (became) one of the most successful organizations on and off the ice for a long time, so that’s pretty good.”

Indeed, he deserves credit for turning the franchise around. He made being a Flames fan cool again, gave the team an identity and a winning record.

And he did it by himself.

His autonomous approach also led to his and the club’s downfall when trades and signings went sideways.

Things became so dysfunctional, he and head coach Brent essentially stopped talking.

Did the experience change his relationship with Brent?

“No,” said Darryl, clearly unwilling to share.

“Our family is not for public opinion. You think about how close we’ve been all our lives and to be all over as we’ve been is pretty unique. We probably have a lot closer relationship because of the size of our family than anybody standing here.”

Asked further about Brent, he interrupted.

“Everybody is entitled to their opinion. There’s just not necessarily much fact in it anymore,” he said.

He did raise eyebrows by admitting he wasn’t surprised when asked to resign last December. He said he had several opportunities last year to work with NHL teams but wanted the right fit. L.A. seems to be it.

Too stubborn to admit his first game back had any additional meaning, he did concede that his approach has changed somewhat.

“Every team, you have a different approach just because of personnel,” said Sutter, who had just one regulation loss in his first 10 outings in L.A.

“This group here has six or seven kids that are bordering on being elite players, so you kind of have to help them get there.”

So far, he has helped.

No one expected the cantankerous coach to change his stripes along with his address.

But surely he could have at least tried to play nice.

I know he hates questions, but would that have been too much to ask?

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

[hockeygod]

Johnson: Sutter as surly and abrasive as he ever was:
Familiar cut-with-a-knife tension surrounds Calgary media gathering

George Johnson, Calgary Herald January 15, 2012

The question tossed into the semicircle of humanity ringing the man they’d all come to see seemed a fairly innocuous groundbreaker; certainly hadn’t been intended as a live grenade launched into a foxhole.

“Darryl,’’ the query began, “you didn’t speak when you left in December of last ye . . .”

“Didn’t,’’ snapped Darryl Sutter, cutting in right between vowels, “know you had to.’’

No. He’s right there. You don’t.

That’s an individual call.

No law says.

Sutter finally did speak Friday, 13 months after his assisted “resignation” from the Flames, on the morning of his coaching return to Calgary, although the wait for him to make an appearance became so extended that everyone assembled simply assumed he’d blown it off.

Eventually, he emerged from the catacombs, which does count for something. Nothing, predictably, remotely forthcoming followed. Characteristically, the defiant defence shields were up, immediately, on red alert. And, as always, that undeniable undercurrent of adversarial tension lay thick on proceedings (During his time here, one wag remarked: “When Darryl’s on the charter, even the stewies get tense”).

The nine-minute availability session punctuated by silences that seemed to drone on as long as the Lord of the Rings extended editions run back-to-back-to-back, was, as ever, conducted strictly on one man’s terms.

Sutter is happy, by the way, to be back in the coaching dodge, which was always his true calling anyway. He said he’d entertained offers to return to the game before his old pal Dean Lombardi beckoned him south a few weeks ago, although whether those were actually in the on-ice end were left open to imagination.

“My biggest problem is staying out of the way in practice. You get back down there, you forget how good they are. Pretty fast. That’s what I told them after the first game: ‘You guys are all better’n I was.’

“I don’t think I have a different approach. I just think every team you have a different approach, because of personnel. This group here, they have six or seven kids that are bordering on being elite players. You’ve got to kind of help them get there.

“You have to try and emulate the best teams and the top three teams in the league are clearly Boston, New York and Vancouver. They come to play every night and their star players show up every night.

“If you get that, have those types of players, it’s gonna work.”

Given the blessing of hindsight, he remains convinced everything worked wonderfully well while he was in charge of the Flames.

“No,’’ was the instantaneous reply, when asked, in retrospect, if he’d change anything. Anything at all. He had the out, the chance to admit he too makes mistakes, and took a pass.

“I came here in a tough situation in every area, on and off the ice. And it (became) one of the most successful on-off ice teams in the NHL for a long time. So that’s pretty good.”

Actually, when Sutter arrived, the Flames were indeed languishing in 14th place in the West. When he exited, eight years later, they were again 14th.

“A lot more good than bad,’’ he said of the memories his competitive return to the Scotiabank Saddledome stirred. “Nice to come and see lots of people that work in the building, that I spent early mornings and late days with.

“For a guy from Alberta, to be in a Canadian city, especially in a market like Edmonton or Calgary, is a privilege. Anybody that gets that opportunity should relish it.

“It’s an awesome city. Great ownership. Great fans. What more could you want? Hockey’s just a wee little piece of it. To see the way the building’s been again, it gives me shivers. That’s what it’s all about. I’ve been lucky. Every city I’ve been in when you think about it. L.A., Chicago, San Jose and Calgary. Pretty fortunate that way.’’

The Sutter vs. Sutter sideshow, and the obvious rift that developed here during their tumultuous year and a half together, dominated the pre-game buildup. Darryl Sutter, ever the contrarian, insisted Saturday that there’d never been any strain between the brothers.

“You think about how close we’ve been our whole lives and be all over it the way we’ve been, it’s pretty unique. We probably have a lot closer relationship, because of the size of our family — guaranteed — than anyone standing here.’’

There were undoubtedly a few folks with blissful home lives actually standing there who might’ve taken umbrage at such a blanket remark, but there’s no use arguing with the man.

“You know what? They’re very, very similar coaches,’’ said L.A.’s Colin Fraser, uniquely qualified to know, having also played for Brent Sutter at Red Deer.

“It’s funny. Darryl, the first week he was there, just reminded me of junior, of how Brent coached, the tendencies, what they talk about. There’s really not much difference. They’re both crazy-intense guys. They run very similar practices even, they have the same type of style. It’s old memories.”

And the speculation that two brothers — both admittedly intense cusses — went virtually an entire calendar year without speaking?

“I don’t know anything about who’s talking to who,’’ Fraser replied, shrugging. “They grew up together, they probably beat each other up their whole lives, so who knows?”

Bottom line, Darryl Sutter is paid to win hockey games, not seduce the media. And in that, however off-putting abrasive he can undoubtedly be, he has succeeded so far in SoCal.

“It’s certainly not about me,’’ protested a public figure who has always squirmed in the spotlight’s gaze. “That’s the last thing anybody should be thinking about.’’

True enough, but comfortable or not with the fact, he was what people in this town were talking about the past few days.

The first time is always the worst time. But the novelty is now gone. The curiosity, evaporated. The intense scrutiny, at an end. With Saturday over, Darryl Sutter, and the Flames, can exhale and move on. Which is fine by both parties.

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

[hockeygod]

What did Mike Cammalleri say?

Eric Duhatschek, Globe and Mail, January 16, 2012

Michael Cammalleri’s debut for Calgary was one of those good news-bad news kind of nights. Good news: He scored a goal, on the power play, in the second period of Saturday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings, which is something that doesn’t happen much for Calgary at the Scotiabank Saddledome where the PP was grinding along at an ugly 11 per cent. The bad news: Cammalleri was just okay defensively, and at times, looked as if it might take a few days to absorb coach Brent Sutter’s system.

But mostly, Cammalleri was happy to get last week behind him – a week in which comments he made to a couple of reporters in Montreal about the Canadiens’ struggles turned him into a cause celebre and may or may not have expedited his get-him-on-the-next-rail-out-of-town exit.

Cammalleri played in Calgary for a full season (2008-09) and while he was usually good at truth telling, he rarely used words as charged as “losers” which is what he reportedly said and is different than talking about “losing.” To label someone a loser is strong stuff. To say that the team had a losing mentality just qualifies as hockey speak, nothing to get worked up about.

In an interview in which he was asked to clarify what was actually said, Cammalleri replied that to the best of his recollection, he talked about “losing” but did not utter the word “losers.”

“I’m not blaming anybody,” began Cammalleri. “It really doesn’t matter now. I’ve definitely moved on from it. But all I can say about it, and what I don’t like about it, is how things came out in the media.

“You guys have interviewed me for a long time. I don’t think I ever said anything, no matter how mad I was, along those lines (calling the Habs ‘losers’). It was a practice day, it wasn’t a game day. I wasn’t that emotional.

“I thought I was making more of a theoretical hockey point – about how a team feels when they’re tight and losing and you go into a game with that mentality and it’s hard to break. A winning team goes into it with a different mentality. I thought I was stating the obvious – we were sitting in 12th place; we had a losing record. So I didn’t think I was breaking any ground by making these comments.

“It was more an assessment of the psyche of a team. And I know I said ‘we’ so I was including myself in there.”

That sounds like pretty common hockey verbiage; that winning teams play with a confidence that doesn’t get shaken too easily.

“If they make a mistake, they’re not worried about it,” continued Cammalleri, “because they make a lot of good plays that end up winning them the game. When you’re losing, you feel like if you make one mistake, you’re going to lose the hockey game. That’s a hard thing to break out of.”

And losing teams, they always seem to be half a step behind because of tentativeness – too slow in on the fore check to make a difference; and then caught in some no man’s land on the back check. The difference between the NHL and other levels of hockey is that teams are usually adept at exploiting the small defensive openings that develop in a game.

“Like I said, I didn’t think this was ground-breaking stuff. It just happened.”

However it happened, Cammalleri is now a member of the Flames who head out on the road to San Jose, Los Angeles and Edmonton before returning for one final pre all-star break home game again the Sharks next Tuesday. Calgary’s loss to L.A. Saturday night snapped an eight-game home win streak.

The key to the playoff push that was behind the Cammalleri acquisition in the first place will be for the Flames to win more regularly on the road, where they are just 8-14-3 this season, the primary reason that they entered action Monday night tied with the Phoenix Coyotes for 11th place in the Western Conference, four points back of the eighth-place Minnesota Wild.

It’s just past the midpoint of the NHL season – the Boston Bruins were the last team to get to Game 41 on Saturday, but it looks as if five teams look safe in the Western Conference playoff race (Chicago, Vancouver, San Jose, St. Louis and Detroit) and three teams have fallen so far off the pace that they are effectively done (Edmonton, Anaheim, Columbus).

It leaves seven teams competing for three spots and on paper, none except maybe L.A. is appreciably better than the Flames. Nowadays, the teams that make playoffs seem to be able to rattle off one long winning streak somewhere along the line to build a cushion in the standings.

With 36 games to go, that is Mission No. 1 in Calgary, and if Cammalleri – with one goal in one game – can help that along, then, last week’s Montreal tempest may turn out to be a good thing for the Cowtowners.

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

[hockeygod]

Campbell: Yzerman must fix Lightning's goaltending woes

Ken Campbell, The Hockey News, 2012-01-16

Karma’s a bugger sometimes, isn’t it? Take the Tampa Bay Lightning, for example. Ever since the Philadelphia Flyers exposed and mocked them for playing their insidious trap, the Lightning have posted a 10-18-2 record and tumbled to the basement of the Eastern Conference.

Since then, 1-3-1 hasn’t only been the Lightning’s defensive scheme, it’s more like the win-loss record they post every five games.

On the one hand, you want to say, “Serves them right for playing that kind of hockey with all that offensive talent.” And hey, any team that employs that style of hockey and fails doing it isn’t about to get a lot of sympathy from this corner. After all, which team would you rather watch purely from an entertainment standpoint – the Washington Capitals from a few years back or last year’s Lightning?

But then you look at the Lightning’s defense corps and goaltending and you wonder why they don’t employ a 5-0-0 defensive scheme sometimes. And while it’s easy to point fingers at coach Guy Boucher for the Lightning’s problems, many of the team’s woes have to be pinned on GM Steve Yzerman.

My guess is that Yzerman, who learned at the foot of Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland and assistant GM Jim Nill, took the goaltending blueprint from Detroit and applied it to Tampa Bay. Not since the days when they had the three-headed monster of Dominik Hasek, Curtis Joseph and Manny Legace in 2003-04 have the Red Wings devoted a lot of financial resources to goaltending. But that’s clearly all right when you have Nicklas Lidstrom on defense and a bunch of forwards who always have the puck. It doesn’t work so well when your guys give up 30 shots a game.

Take Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins for example. The Lightning went down 2-0 on home ice on two very stoppable goals that got past Mathieu Garon. That put the Lightning, who have been outscored 54-30 in the first period, into comeback mode once again. Those two goals ended up being the margin of victory for the Penguins in a 6-3 win, a game in which Evgeni Malkin capped a hat trick with an empty-net goal.

Things have been similarly ugly for the Lightning all season. They’ve given up the most goals in the NHL this season and only the Columbus Blue Jackets have a greater disparity between goals for and goals against than the minus-35 sported by the Lightning. Garon and Dwayne Roloson are both near the bottom of the league in save percentage and goals-against average and the Lightning are the only team in the NHL where both the No. 1 man and backup have save percentages under .900. Bad goaltending has also contributed to a penalty kill that ranks 26th in the NHL (Although it doesn’t explain why a team that can throw Steven Stamkos, Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St-Louis over the boards for a power play is 26th in that department, too.)

The problem here is that Roloson is 42 years old. And while Yzerman and many others were seduced by the way Roloson played last year, there is one enduring truth when it comes to all hockey players. And that is, they lose it at some point in their careers and the older they are, the more precipitous and dramatic the decline. The key to managing players like that is being able to predict when that decline will happen.

That Yzerman read the tea leaves wrong isn’t really the problem. The way Roloson played last season, he deserved another year, though $3.5 million is a lot of guaranteed money for a guy who was born in the 1960s. But in acquiring Garon to back Roloson up, the Lightning GM simply did not get a good enough insurance package. And so far Yzerman has resisted the urge to recall prospect Dustin Tokarski from the farm team to see if he has what it takes to address the Lightning’s long-term goaltending issues.

The Lightning do give up a ton of shots, but you’d be surprised to learn teams such as the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs surrender more on a per-game basis. The only difference is those teams have goaltending that ranges between spectacular and adequate.

And although Boucher didn’t become a bad coach in less than one season, he doesn’t escape blame here, either. Special teams are generally regarded as the two areas of the game where the coach can have the most influence and the Lightning are bad at both. And Boucher’s insistence on continuing to show faith in Roloson by playing him and hoping he would play out of his woeful ways was a huge tactical error. There is nothing anyone can do to combat age and continuing to throw Roloson to the wolves isn’t going to make things any better.

It’s not as though Lightning’s defensive scheme is giving them a whole lot of success lately, either. And I can’t think guys like Martin St-Louis, whose success as a player has always been based on hustling down loose pucks and creating opportunities for himself, enjoys standing outside the offensive zone blueline. Can’t help but think Stamkos and Lecavalier are not big fans of it, either.

So a season that looked so promising for the Lightning is going down the sinkhole at a breakneck pace. There is rarely any in-between with this team. It’s almost always very good or very, very bad and this season looks like the latter.

And it’s going to stay that way until Yzerman finds a goaltender who can at least give the Lightning a chance to stay in games.

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

[hockeygod]

Report: Jackets looking at Ferguson

Sportsnet Staff, January 16, 2012

Could John Ferguson Jr. be the next general manager in Columbus?

The former Toronto Maple Leafs GM is being mentioned as a possible successor for Scott Howson, according to a report from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun.

Howson, who is still under contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets, is expected to be let go at the end of the season. The Blue Jackets already fired head coach Scott Arniel last week.

Ferguson, who was the Maple Leafs' general manager from 2003-2008, struggled during his tenure in Toronto. His teams did not make a playoff appearance after the lockout in 2005.

Some of his notable moves included signing Jason Blake, Pavel Kubina to long-term contracts and separate trades for goalies Andrew Raycroft and Vesa Toskala. Ferguson gave out several questionable contracts, including no-trade clauses and dealt away top goalie prospect Tuukka Rask in the deal for Raycroft.

Ferugson currently works as a scout in the San Jose Sharks organization.

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

[hockeygod]

Hall's tenacity contagious

Terry Jones, QMI Agency, Jan 16 2012

EDMONTON – Watching Taylor Hall playing through the five-game losing streak, Edmonton fans saw a player who stood out from all the others.

He was hungry. Night in and night out, he played a robust, charge-the-barricades game.

But after the 5-0 debacle against the Anaheim Ducks last Friday, you had to wonder how much longer he could keep playing like his hair was on fire without being affected by those around him who were pulling the parachutes.

“Just talk to him,” said head coach Tom Renney.

“You let him know, ‘This is where we are. This is our team dynamic. And you are going to be, ultimately, a huge part of this team being successful.’ And you tell him, ‘What you are going through now is a real good test of parking the frustration, and staying within the team concept.’

“As coaches, you need to know what this kid is capable of and not restrain him.”

With that in mind it was appropriate that it was Hall, at 3:06 of overtime, who scored the winner against the L.A. Kings last night — off a beautiful blindside backhand pass from Shawn Horcoff.

Totally different

The Oilers were a totally different team than they were Friday because instead of having one Taylor Hall they had several guys play the way he’s never stopped playing since Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle and Tom Gilbert went down with injuries.

One of them was Ales Hemsky, who probably played his most passionate game of the season.

“It’s an emotional game. It takes passion to play,” said Renney.

“If you look over the last few weeks, the one player who has answered the bell every night is Taylor Hall.

“If you want to know what passion looks like in a hockey player, watch Hall.

“I’m not sure you can teach it. It might be part of your DNA. But I’m glad he’s got it.”

Winning is also in Hall’s DNA.

He won back-to-back Memorial Cups and was MVP of both championship tournaments in his last two years of junior.

Imagine the transition involved in going from the top to the bottom to start your NHL career.

“It’s definitely much better when you have this feeling of winning. We really wanted to win this one, especially after what happened against Anaheim,” Hall said.

Keeping his competitive drive hasn’t been a problem, he added.

Indeed, Hall thinks he’s done a much better job at that this year than he did at the start of last season.

“I think there were games last year when if I wasn’t scoring, if it just wasn’t going for me, I’d shut it down,” he said.

“In the NHL, you’re not going to have the puck going in all the time. But you can’t shut it down.”

Hall said Renney has been great throughout these challenging times.

“Tom always makes the rink an enjoyable destination. I have yet to drive to the rink dreading it.”

Sunday night was Hall’s 101st NHL game. In his first 100, he had 36 goals and 36 assists.

“I think that’s pretty good,” he said.

It’s not like he’s been surrounded by a Stanley Cup championship lineup like Boston’s Tyler Seguin, who has 28 goals and 60 points to show for his first 113 games with the Bruins.

“I’m certain from last year to this year I’ve improved,” said Hall.

Renney said he looked up and saw Kings’ young defensive star Drew Doughty checking the sophomore winger on virtually every shift.

“I couldn’t help but think ‘Who is going to win this?’

“They’re two great players who are going to be entertaining fans for a long time.”

Animosity

Hall said he and Doughty have already put together a bit of history of competitive animosity.

“We actually laughed. I’m going down the ice and I can hear him jabbing at me,” he said.

Renney said it’s a real study watching Hall become more and more of a total pro.

But there’s still lots of room to coach him, he said.

“During the stretch we’ve been through, I’ve encouraged him to just work on the mental toughness of the game.”

The next lesson, said Renney, might be to work on another area.

“Maybe work on endearing yourself to the officials as opposed to being too antagonistic, because that’s a long career in front of him,” he said.

“So you might want to know their names. You might want to ask them about a call. You know, ‘Did you see it different than me?’ or whatever. And that goes for all our young guys coming into our league.”

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

[hockeygod]

Blow Oilers up some more

TERRY JONES, QMI Agency, Jan 16 2012

EDMONTON – Blow it up some more.

The Edmonton Oilers have returned to being the worst team in the NHL since their 8-2-2 start to the season. They’ve dropped to 28th overall, one point out of 29th. Off what we watched Friday, there’s every chance they’ll continue to fail and fall before they get Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle and an injured blue-liner back.

So bring it on. More boom. More kaboom.

Sitting up in the press box watching that embarrassing, humiliating, disgusting display in the 5-0 loss to the 29th place Anaheim Ducks was head scout Stu MacGregor. He’s the one executive in this organization who is getting his job done. MacGregor’s guys aren’t the problem here. It’s not the players he’s picked who are letting the side down. So provide him more picks. Sooner or later his guys will be in the majority with seniority. And that’s when this team starts to win.

Steve Tambellini is going to have to do as good a job at selling players for picks and prospects this year as he did last year when he managed to dump Dustin Penner off on the Los Angeles Kings for a first-round pick that turned into Oscar Klefbom, as well as acquiring Colten Teubert and a second-round pick to come.

Tambellini is going to have to be a sensational seller again primarily because he’s been such a brutal buyer.

Tambellini is the now-very-much-on-the-hot-seat general manager who gave you the now 39-year-old Nikolai Khabibulin for three (going on four) years of wasted goaltender development and tried to give you Dany Heatley, too. Other than a couple of minor successes (Ryan Jones and Corey Potter), he has largely failed at finding veteran pros dating back to Patrick O’Sullivan on his first trade deadline dealing.

The point right now is that he’s 0-for-5 with the guys he brought in to build a bridge to the future for Taylor Hall, Nugent-Hopkins, Eberle and the rest of the developing young talent recently selected in the draft.

When Tambellini acquired Ben Eager (one fight), Eric Belanger (one goal), Cam Barker (one point), Andy Sutton (one half season missed due to suspensions) and Darcy Hordichuk (one half season healthy scratch), they were supposed to build the bridge by making the Oilers a tougher, braver, harder to play against, much better defensive hockey team.

That bridge, which has been crumbling since the start of the season, completely came tumbling down against Anaheim. Not the time for Tambellini’s free agents to be missing in action. How can coach Tom Renney be anything but disappointed in them?

“I think that’s a fair question,” offered Renney.

“I’d like to have more from them.

“In fairness to them, maybe they’d like to have more from their coach. Maybe I’m asking too much. Maybe guys are playing too much. Maybe guys aren’t playing enough. In some cases, maybe they’re not getting done what we hoped they would.

“My hope is that in the games we have left, that all those guys show all of us that they were necessary and that they were good acquisitions. I think they have all that potential.”

Maybe somebody else will think that, too, and offer up a draft pick between now and the trade deadline.

It really showed when it was Sam Gagner stepping up to make a statement on behalf of the team against Anaheim that no one else would step up to make.

“At that point I’m less concerned about winning the hockey game and more concerned about winning respect and making sure we let teams know we’re ready, willing and able to step up any time we need to,” said Renney.

“My guess is that everybody in the lineup has a pretty good guess why they’re here. If you want to endear yourself to your teammates, first and foremost …

“We’re not just singling out one guy here. We’re talking about our team right now. I thought we had enough in the lineup to expect there to be more than just one guy standing up and making a statement on behalf of his team,” said Renney.

In addition to moving Ales Hemsky and Khabibulin for whatever draft picks they might bring, you can now add any of Tambellini’s failed five from July 1. Starting with Eager. That’s a pile of players to move to add bullets for MacGregor to use in this draft which features remarkable defensive depth.

Tambellini absolutely has to deliver more prime picks for MacGregor to use this draft to stockpile defencemen to develop for the future.

Blow it up some more.

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

[hockeygod]

OHL picking itself apart

DAVE POLLARD, QMI Agency, Jan 16 2012

TORONTO – Maybe I'm alone in my disgust, a singular voice of dissention shouting in the junior hockey wilderness.

Nobody else, it would appear, thinks it's inherently wrong that general managers in the Ontario Hockey League have the power to trade draft picks as far into the future as, well, whenever. The silence is deafening.

Here's the deal. In the OHL, there's no cutoff point for dealing draft picks, at least none that I'm aware of. So if you want to trade me your stud defenceman for a middling prospect and a pair of seconds, including one for 10 years from now, there's nothing from stopping me from making that deal.

Seriously.

If a GM is dumb enough to accept a pick that far in the future, he's well within his right. Can't trade his first-round pick, mind you — that's against the rules in the OHL, although the WHL and QMJHL allow it — but, hey, a 12th for the 2021 (I hear it's gonna be a monster draft; the crop of five-year-olds is out of this world) is perfectly acceptable.

In the 10 days leading up to the OHL's trade deadline this year, 65 picks changed hands, including 31 for the 2014-18 drafts. Oh, 49 players were traded, too, if you're counting.

It makes absolutely no sense to me that there isn't some sort of cap in place, say three years, for dealing draft picks. Apparently it's been discussed by the competition committee, which recommended the three-year window (which in this case would be 2012, '13 and '14), but it was nixed by the owners.

"We've discussed it, and we've discussed it recently actually," OHL commissioner David Branch said Monday. "The feeling was there was not a concern or a need to put a cap on it. The teams seem to be uncomfortable (with a cap). I'm not necessarily sure I'm comfortable with it but they don't feel it's cause for concern.

"They feel the possibility of trading draft picks diminishes the trading of players. There's no thought of changing it."

There's a good reason it's not going to change any time soon. One noble, theoretically anyway, and another that's in the GMs' best interest.

League brass doesn't exactly like the thought of GMs becoming a bunch of horse traders, dealing players with nary an afterthought as they chase that elusive Memorial Cup title. Branch has made it clear in the past that he isn't big on transactions that involve players, some as young as 16, being uprooted in mid-season.

Let's face it, that's bad for business. In a league that effectively recruits its best players — the high-end types have other options, like U.S. college — having a large group of players change teams two or three times during their career isn't something the OHL wants to brag about.

So, the next best thing is to swap draft picks.

A pick is essentially a piece of paper, not a warm body. No harm in paper changing hands as often as you'd like. And, let's face it, you can always get those picks back.

"I prefer to see draft picks moved rather than players," Niagara IceDogs coach/GM Marty Williamson said. "I think it's a good philosophy. If the league puts a limit of five years on it, who knows (how it affect trades)? It's not hurting anybody by trading draft picks. I don't see any damage being done by it."

No visible damage is being done but, trust me, trading draft picks can crush a franchise. Teams are built through the draft (some more than others, nudge, nudge, wink, wink) so the absence of picks means other avenues must be explored. That means trading players, those warm bodies the league doesn't want to talk about being moved.

Here's another example: Let's say a GM mortgages the future (say prospects and picks) for a couple of star players and, lo and behold, goes on to win the Memorial Cup. Said GM then gets an offer to move up to the NHL, which, natch, he accepts.

The OHL team then hires a new GM and, yikes, what's he got left to work with going forward? Zip. Nada. Nuthin'. Start scrambling son, because you've got work to do to get back to respectibility.

But what really stinks about trading picks for a draft that won't happen for five years is that it gives GMs that much time to get them back. All of a sudden, that big deadline deal that sent to six second-round picks out of town starts looking like a "future considerations" trade if they wind up back in the original owner's hands. And the league definitely doesn't want placeholder trades like the Steve Mason-Nazem Kadri deal between Kitchener and London a few years back.

All I can say is this: I don't like it. I think it's absurd that teams can get an impact player now for picks that won't even be used for five years. If that 2015 pick does get used to draft a player, his presence likely won't be felt until 2017 at the earliest.

And that helps a rebuilding team how, exactly?

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

[hockeygod]

Press-ing issues for new Edmonton arena:
The proposed downtown arena is exciting, but there are pitfalls to avoid in the design phase

TERRY JONES, QMI Agency, Jan 15 2012

EDMONTON – This is when it starts to get exciting.

All the angst, the screeching and screaming from the against-everything vocal minority and the political dog-and pony-shows are in the rear-view mirror. Or, at least, that will be the case after the next election when the province finally puts up the missing $100 million for the new $450-million 18,400-seat new arena for North Central Alberta with construction projected to start in April next year.

Now the dream starts to develop and the transformation of, not only downtown Edmonton, but the entire Deadmonton image earned in the last couple decades begins to unfold, with expectations of the Oilers moving in with a Stanley Cup contending team in 2015-16.

In many ways, Monday was the official kickoff, with the announcement that the City of Edmonton and Katz Group have entered into an agreement with the Denver-based stadium and arena development company, ICON Venue Group, to oversee the design and construction of the new building.

"We should have the No. 1 team doing it, from what I can gather," said Mayor Stephen Mandell.

ICON works in partnership with arena management company AEG, which would likely take over the facility once it's built. ICON recent credits include the Consol Energy Centre in Pittsburgh, the Prudential Centre in New Jersey, Jobing.com Arena Glendale and the Pepsi Centre in Denver.

The new Pittsburgh arena is the most likely model for the downtown rink and if ICON meets or beats that one, the next 40 years of sports and entertainment experiences in Edmonton will be excellent.

"This is probably the most experienced company in North America for this type of planning," said Mandel.

"We want to have a group of people that are the leading edge people in these areas and my understanding is ICON is, according to the people we've talked to.

Also expected to be lined up is 360 Architecture, the firm which designed the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, American Airlines Arena in Dallas and Safeco Field in Seattle.

While there's excitement in the naming of these firms to begin the design and development work on the new arena, the next year or so of building the blueprints and the footprint for the place should also be coupled with some concern.

You have no idea how many monumental mistakes have been made in the building of these places by so many highly touted firms in the past who, it seems, never take the trouble to let various user groups take a peek at the plans.

Like the new $563-million B.C. Place. They put a spectacular scoreboard in the place. But you can't see it from the second row of seats in the expensive suites.

Vancouver and Montreal, unbelievably, built new arenas with concourses way too tight to handle the traffic. In one spot on the 200 level in Montreal there are a couple of tight bottlenecks, where the concourse narrows down to about 15 feet.

The Saddledome in Calgary has so little space on the event level, the hosting of the world junior was severely compromised. And you know why Edmonton has been a concert capital? The Saddledome roof won't hold modern-day staging requirements. So Edmonton gets Ôem all.

The Metrodome in Minneapolis was a problem-plagued place. The roof collapsed in 2010. Roof collapsed in Hartford's arena, too.

Do you have any idea of how many arenas in North America forgot to build press boxes over the years?

It's in double figures!

Joe Louis in Detroit was one where the architects neglected to include a press box. It was built in the top row of seats where fans stand and block views. The HP Pavillion's press box in San Jose was an afterthought and was wedged in between the rafters. The so-called Fabulous Forum in Los Angeles had to carve a press box into the seats from about Row 10 to Row 20 at centre ice. Reunion Arena in Dallas was another. And about half the rinks in the World Hockey Association. Even Madison Square Garden counted in that category.

The Air Canada Centre in Toronto was originally supposed to be a basketball-only building with no press box planned. One had to be added to the blueprint.

"It's so narrow that you can be guaranteed to be bumped several times during a game by other beer-bellied or big-assed reporters," said Tim Wharnsby of cbc.ca.

A common mistake is a press box elevator that holds only six or eight, which makes for some crazy scenes with coaches and management from both teams and reporters on deadline, especially if there's also suite holders, etc..

In the Bell Centre in Montreal, of all places, they forgot about TV camera locations.

"They had to put them right in the middle of the lower bowl," said Brian Wilde of CTV. "They're in the seating area. They had to take out some of the seats to compensate. It's an odd design. Weird."

Edmonton currently has one of the most functional and well-positioned press boxes, if the most poorly appointed (and the 30th-place media work- and interview-room facilities) in the league. A lot of rinks have been built recently where the broadcast booths so far away from the ice that play-by-play guys can barely see the puck.

"There are a lot of poor vantage points. The Joe is a good vantage point but they forgot the press box. There's no room at all. There are poor vantage points in New Jersey, Dallas … and don't get me started on Long Island," said TSN's Chris Cuthbert.

"In the Staples Centre press box I feel like I'm on Mars," said Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times.

The biggest mistake is cutting corners and building big, but basically blah, buildings like St. Louis and Boston.

If you aren't attempting to build a state-of-the-art building from the get-go, the regrets will last for decades. When you build a new stadium, you're making a statement about your city. I worry about that with this project.

Decide to not put in hand railings, extra dressing rooms, concourse TVs, escalators, elevators, etc. and easy-to-scrap items like international size ice surface option for the future, and you will regret it.

The City and Katz Group need to commit to the community to have some transparency and user-group input at various stages here.

You don't want to build the place and go "D'oh! Forgot to build the press box! D'oh! Can't see the scoreboard from the suites! D'oh! Roof can't hold concert staging! D'oh! Concourse can't support the crowd flow!"

But in the meantime, go ahead. It's time to start to get excited now.

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

[hockeygod]

USA Hockey blocks league change for Wild
Team wants to join British Columbia Hockey League; evaluating appeal

Brent Stecker, Wenatchee World, January 16, 2012

WENATCHEE — USA Hockey has denied a bid by the Wenatchee Wild to leave the North American Hockey League and join the British Columbia Hockey League, Wild president Bill Stewart confirmed Monday.

Stewart and the Wild’s head scout, Rick Ellison, made the pitch to switch leagues during USA Hockey’s winter meeting Saturday in Orlando, Fla., Stewart said. But after considering the request in a closed session, the organization’s executive board declined the move without providing a reason.

“They don’t like a team based in the U.S. playing in a Canadian league, but (in Washington) there’s six teams and five of them play in Canadian hockey leagues,” Stewart said.

The Wild are pursuing the league change for travel reasons, Stewart said. In the NAHL, their closest opponents are the Fresno (Calif.) Monsters and Dawson Creek (British Columbia) Rage, both roughly 920 miles from Wenatchee. In the BCHL, each of the 16 current teams are based in British Columbia, and only the Prince George Spruce Kings, their farthest possible opponent at 635 miles from Wenatchee, are located in the northern half of the province.

“We’d save money, and the longest bus trip is about 12 hours (in the BCHL),” Stewart said. “The last 12 days, the team spent 96 hours on the bus to play five games. That could be (our) entire travel schedule for the BCHL. … The kids would miss a lot less school.”

Stewart said Wenatchee attempted to join the BCHL before its inaugural season in 2007. The Wild instead joined the NAHL for an agreed-upon three seasons, with the condition that the league and the Wild would work together to bring in “a couple” of travel partners into the NAHL within a six-hour bus ride of Wenatchee, Stewart said.

The 2011-12 season is Wenatchee’s fourth in the NAHL.

“We must have looked at 14 new markets, but with the way the economy is right now there are no new (arenas) being built,” Stewart said.

Stewart said the NAHL “does not endorse” the Wild’s application to the BCHL.

The BCHL and NAHL operate on the same level of play — Junior A hockey.

If the Wild were to appeal USA Hockey’s decision and the move to the BCHL was then accepted, Stewart said he does not know if it the team would start there next season.

“It may be a thing that takes another year to get done,” he said.

Stewart said the Wild’s application to the BCHL is not related to the shaky financial standing of the team’s home arena, Town Toyota Center.

A junior hockey website had speculated that the Wild may move to a city in British Columbia to ensure the switch to the BCHL, but Stewart said the Wild will play in Wenatchee as long as the Town Toyota Center is operating.

“If you can guarantee me a building here, we’ll be here,” Stewart said. “We’re just trying to get the right model that works. We’re trying to find a junior league with a business model that’s better for our organization and for the players in our organization regarding school and travel.”

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

[hockeygod]

Future is now, as Jackets' Johansen adjusts to NHL

Corey Masisak, NHL.com Staff Writer, Jan 16 2012

COLUMBUS — There is enough facial hair just below the bottom lip of Ryan Johansen to qualify as a solid effort growing a soul patch, but certainly not enough to mask his status as the youngest guy in Columbus Blue Jackets' dressing room.

He was 19 years old when his rookie season began, and he's got another six months to go as a teenager. Johansen represents hope in Columbus for a franchise that thought 2011-12 would be the big breakthrough. It hasn't worked out that way, but the broad-shouldered kid from British Columbia has done enough in his first NHL campaign to get people excited about what he should accomplish in the seasons to come.

"You can tell he's a talented player," Blue Jackets forward Antoine Vermette said. "He makes good plays. For a player of that age to show that composure the ways he shows at some points, it is pretty impressive in the League."

Johansen was the fourth pick in the 2010 Entry Draft. If that didn't bestow enough expectations on him, he was named to the all-star team at the 2011 World Junior Championship after collecting 3 goals and 9 points in the tournament.

He made the Columbus roster during training camp, and was among the preseason contenders for the Calder Memorial Trophy given to the League's top rookie. Johansen's freshman season in the NHL has been a mixed bag, but a few nights of brilliance have been sprinkled in and there are flashes of the franchise center he has the potential to become.

"He's 19 years old and he's playing against men," said Columbus interim coach Todd Richards, who was with the team all season as an assistant before replacing Scott Arniel earlier this month. "I think it is what you see a lot of times with young players. There's two games where he's really good and then maybe two games where he's not so good.

"Getting him to play with the urgency every shift is another thing. You find with kids coming out of college and coming out of junior that they tend to pace themselves because they are used to playing 30 minutes a night, and they spend two minutes out on the power play and they go hard when they need to go hard. You can't do that at this level. You watch guys and their shift lengths are 40 seconds, 45 seconds, sometimes less than that. It is because you're going hard all the time, and that's the way the game is now. Ryan's not alone with that — I've had other young players in other organizations, and you try to teach them those things. Usually you're doing that at the American League level, but he's going through those growing pains on the big stage at this level."

For the season, Johansen has 7 goals and 15 points in 38 games. He's had four multi-point games, including a pair of two-goal contests.

Johansen's role with the Blue Jackets has fluctuated throughout the season. He's spent time on all four lines and with just about every other forward on the roster. He's averaging a little more than 13 minutes of ice time per game, but he's at almost 16 minutes per night since Richards took over — though that was only three games ago.

"I feel like there have been some games where I played really good, but I wasn't getting rewarded with a goal or an assist," Johansen said. "I've had some games where I haven't been good and haven't competed at the level I need to. Then there's some games where I do good and I'm really helping the team on the first or second line and being a good impact on the ice. The main thing for me is just keeping my consistency and maintaining the same compete level and battle level so I can contribute as much as possible."

Added Richards: "It is all dependent on him. I challenged him a little bit after the Phoenix game [Friday], and I think he responded [Saturday] against San Jose. I thought it was one of his better games. He was more engaged and more committed physically. He's 19 years old, but he's built like a man. You look at his shoulders, and I [begin] to think what he's going to look like when he's 26 or 27. He's real big as a 19-year-old. It is getting that commitment on a consistent basis."

Johansen will represent Columbus at the 2012 Tim Hortons NHL All-Star Game weekend in Ottawa later this month. He's one of the 12 rookies selected to participate in the various skills events on the day before the game.

His mother and a couple of close friends — one from his hometown in Vancouver and another from much closer to Ottawa in Guelph, Ont., will be joining him for the festivities. Johansen said he'll know a couple guys there — he's skated during the offseason with Edmonton's Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and adorned the Canadian sweater at the WJC with Philadelphia's Sean Couturier.

There will also be at least a few older players there he's excited to spend some time with.

"You can go through the whole team," Johansen said. "I'll be looking around the room with my eyebrows to the ceiling the whole time. It will be pretty cool to walk in that room and see so many heroes basically from when I was growing up."

His big moment is likely to come in the shootout competition. Other young players in the past have tried to keep it simple to save face in front of the League's luminaries, but Johansen might have other ideas.

"I have been thinking about it a little bit," Johansen said. "They haven't told us what we're doing yet. My brother's been telling me a couple moves that he likes. I think I'll be trying something crazy for the fans. It should be a fun time."

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

[hockeygod]

YOUR CALL: SHOULD PLAYERS WEAR HELMETS AT ALL TIMES?

TSN.CA STAFF, Jan 18 2012

A freak accident that took Edmonton Oilers winger Taylor Hall out of Tuesday's game against the Columbus Blue Jackets has become a hot topic of discussion, as many questions are popping up as to whether players should wear helmets every time they step onto the ice.

While Hall wears a helmet with a visor during games, he doesn't wear one during warm-ups. It's habit for some players to not wear a helmet during warm-ups, which is their discretion as established by most NHL teams.

With flying pucks, primarily ones that deflect off the crossbar or post as players skate by, one might wonder why they wouldn't wear one. Players wear helmets in games and in morning skates, so why wouldn't they wear one in pre-game skates?

"Personally, I don't know why you wouldn't wear it," Vancouver Canucks forward Daniel Sedin said. "There's pucks flying and there's 20 guys on your half of the ice that are skating around.

"Then again, guys aren't wearing visors either so I don't think (things will change)."

The New York Rangers have a team rule mandating helmets for warm-ups and would seem to be the only NHL club with such a rule. But for players like Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, skating without a helmet is an opportunity to market themselves and allow fans to see them.

"For the fans, it's a chance for them to see us," said Alfredsson. "I remember guys that didn't wear helmets in games, so we've come a long way."

Senators forward Jason Spezza added that the only chance to be on the ice without a helmet on is in warm-ups.

"As a kid growing up, I always dreamt about skating with my helmet off and having fun in the warm-up," said Spezza. "There's no real rhyme or reason behind [why I do it]."

While the Hall incident was clearly an accident and may not happen again soon, should players be made to wear helmets during warm-up? As always, It's Your! Call.

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

[hockeygod]

Kennedy: Stellar goalies position Blues as early playoff dark horse
With a 2.08 GAA and .918 SP, Jaroslav Halak has been among the league leaders this season.

Ryan Kennedy, The Hockey News, 2012-01-18

Don’t look now, but the St. Louis Blues are making things very interesting at the top of the Western Conference. Technically the Notes are fourth, but St. Louis is one point behind Central Division rival Detroit and the Wings have played one more game. The team has gone 6-0-1 in 2012 and along with the genius of early-season replacement Ken Hitchcock behind the bench, it’s not hard to figure out why things are going so right: The Blues boast two of the hottest goaltenders in the league.

Jaroslav Halak was a known quantity when he came to town in a controversial trade with Montreal (are there any other kinds in La Belle Province?) and after figuring out how to bear the burden of great expectations, has become a fortress of late.

Not to be outshined, the once left-for-dead Brian Elliott has posted a 1.68 goals-against average and five shutouts, both good for second in the NHL.

Elliott in particular has been a revelation after unsuccessful stints in Ottawa and Colorado. He signed with the Blues as a free agent over the summer and St. Louis goalie coach Corey Hirsch liked what he saw immediately.

“My first impression was that he’s very focused,” Hirsch said. “He’s got a very good work ethic. His approach – he prepares for a game as well as any goalie I’ve seen. He’s juggling tennis balls, he soaks in a lot of info when watching video…the game for him, as the saying goes, is the easy part.”

The key to turning around Elliott’s game was reeling in his aggressive tendencies. Having the netminder deeper in the net was part of it, as was more structure. That’s something Halak already had down pat.

“Very structured, very consistent,” Hirsch said of the Slovak. “He’s been taught very well.”

Halak is currently experiencing his best run for the Blues since arriving in the summer of 2010. He’s on a 9-0-3 run, cleaving his GAA down to 2.08 in the process. The fact a Hitchcock team is almost always a defensive team certainly helps, but Hirsch maintains you still need a solid last line of defense.

“Give ‘Hitch’ a lot of credit,” he said. “His system is very friendly to goalies. But they’ve bailed us out when we’ve needed them.”

Other than being hot, the real intrigue revolving around the Blues comes in forecasting the playoffs. St. Louis is no fun to play against and with two netminders playing out of their skulls, Hitchcock can give Elliott and Halak plenty of rest in preparation for the post-season.

Boston GM Peter Chiarelli told me last week that his starter, Tim Thomas, functions best when held to approximately 55 starts in a season if the Bruins intend on making a Stanley Cup run. While Halak (or Elliott, for that matter) has way fewer miles on the odometer than the reigning Conn Smythe winner, it’s worth noting that the most regular season appearances by a Stanley Cup-winning goaltender since the lockout is 62, by Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury.

Are the Blues a Cup dark horse? Offense isn’t a huge strength right now, but it’s not a liability, either. The team sits firmly ensconced in the NHL middle when it comes to goals for. Special teams must improve, particularly the power play, but it’s nothing a deadline trade and some hard work can’t boost.

St. Louis has leadership, youthful vigor and two outta-sight netminders. I wouldn’t want the task of having to take four games out of seven from them come springtime.

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

[hockeygod]

Boylen: Nothing wrong with Feaster wanting Flames to make the playoffs

Rory Boylen, The Hockey News, 2012-01-17

“You play to win the game.”
– Former NFL football coach Herm Edwards

When Jay Feaster pulled off the Mike Cammalleri-Rene Bourque trade, it solidified his intent to make a push for the playoffs and ignore the outside calls for an all-out rebuild.

And for that, the Calgary GM deserves kudos.

In the ultra-competitive world of pro sports, I can’t for the life of me understand how a guy can be painted as incompetent when he doesn’t try to lose. Whether, as a fan or follower of the league, you think it’s time for the Flames to sell off all their NHL assets for futures is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is getting positive results from that type of philosophical change is easier said than done – and the option is often overrated.

The mythical return of “picks and prospects” is desired by the general public because of the loose idea that if you trade everything good you have now, the investment is a can’t-miss pay off down the road. But to point at the successes of the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins as a support for this reasoning is to completely ignore the pains of the Florida Panthers and Columbus Blue Jackets. A rebuild isn’t always a straight line; “picks and prospects” don’t always turn out as expected.

If you go down this route, you’re accepting the fact your team will be below average for a couple of years. Fine. But put yourself in the GM’s shoes for a moment: if Feaster set off on a rebuild today, do you think he’d be there to enjoy the fruits of any potential success on the other end? Heck no. If Feaster were given the mandate by ownership to forget the playoffs and set the franchise up for a push in 2015, he would have started toward the objective as soon as he arrived.

And it’s not as though the Flames are a horrible, unsalvageable, lottery-lock wreck. They’re in the top-half of the league in goals-against average, largely because of netminder Miikka Kiprusoff, who’s having one of the best seasons of his career. Goal scoring is Calgary’s main concern, but it’s not impossible to see them improving in that category with Jarome Iginla bouncing back from a slow start, Curtis Glencross finding chemistry with Olli Jokinen and now with Cammalleri eager to prove himself to Cowtown fans once more and primed for a resurgence.

Oh, and they’re only four points out at the midway mark of the season.

Now, this isn’t to say Calgary is a criminally underrated team, that making up four points in this system is simple or that Cammalleri suddenly makes the Flames a Stanley Cup contender. But he is certainly an improvement on the inconsistent Bourque despite the down season he was having in Montreal.

Related Links

Campbell: Cammalleri, Bourque seek fresh starts
POLL: Should the Flames rebuild?

Last time around, Cammalleri worked well with Iginla and burst through with a career year. You can’t assume the same results will happen this time, but the addition of a scorer like that gives the Flames options. Iginla can play with the surprising combo of Jokinen and Glencross, or coach Brent Sutter can spread it out and reunite the 2008-09 linemates, while letting Jokinen and Glencross continue unchanged.

The bottom line is the controversial deal improved Calgary’s chances immediately and that’s what the GM is there to do. It’s the GM’s job to improve his club and get to the playoffs where his owner can make some money and where the team has the opportunity to overachieve. No one expected the Oilers to make the final in 2005-06 and few thought the Flames would do it in 2003-04. So, when anyone asks me “why would a team with no hope for the Stanley Cup make a trade like this,” I shake my head. If you finish in the top eight of your conference, you have a hope. More simply, when you have a goalie like Kiprusoff, anything can happen.

Calgary has been fading ever since its appearance in the final, but the flame is still flickering. When it’s time for a rebuild, the team’s hand will be forced and it will occur naturally. Those pushing for a rebuild this year were already resigned to the fact the team had to be bad before it got really good again, so delaying it for a few years in lieu of another couple playoff pushes is gravy.

To question or crack at a GM’s ability because he doesn’t fold up shop and raise the white flag is way off base. Feaster knows better than anybody where his team stands, which is why he made the move for an upgrade in the first place. This bold move of integrity deserves to be commended.

After all, no one calling for an all-out rebuild at this juncture has an ounce of the accountability for trading the likes of Kiprusoff and Iginla that Feaster does.

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

[Author]

Posts