Articles

[hockeygod]

Ottawa: The little team that could. And did

Roy MacGregor, Globe and Mail, Jan. 20, 2012

“Maybe Rome Was Built in a Day!”

Twenty years on, Ottawa Senators president Cyril Leeder is still chuckling over that legendary Ottawa Citizen headline that greeted his team’s first game back in the NHL – a 5-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens, who went on to win the 1992-93 Stanley Cup.

“Then we go off to Quebec City and get bombed 9-2.”

It took the reborn Senators to the end of the month to earn their next point, and to the end of the next month to get their next win, eventually ending up with 24 points and an all-time NHL record for futility on the road: a single victory in 42 attempts.

Leeder was there from the very beginning, was one of the original three – Bruce Firestone and Randy Sexton the others – popping a few beer in the dressing room after a game of shinny and deciding they could somehow convince the NHL to grant a franchise to Ottawa.

Their scheme seemed preposterous. Firestone had this notion that there is “a natural relationship between hockey and real estate,” Leeder put together their leather-bound, 600-page application, Sexton did the contacts and much of the selling. Not only would they build a new rink, they would establish a new town of close to 10,000 people.

The Canadian franchise should likely have gone to Hamilton, but the Hamilton people balked at paying the $50-million expansion fee at once while the Ottawa pitch offered cash on the barrel, even though they didn’t have it. Same with Tampa Bay, which also got a franchise that should have gone to deeper pockets. But no matter, both were in and both, miraculously, are still in 20 years later.

Leeder was there through all the madness – the Alexandre Daigle and Alexei Yashin years, the change of ownership as financier Rod Bryden became majority owner, the bankruptcy that eventually put the franchise in the hands of multimillionaire Eugene Melnyk.

Leeder was there for the battles to build a rink in a distant corn field on the western fringes. They dug a hole and couldn’t finish. The Coast Guard came in to determine if the trickling Carp River was going to be affected. Workers found bones that some thought were evidence of a sacrificial lamb. They even had to build their own exit off Highway 417 when the Ontario government refused.

But 16 years have passed since that new rink finally opened on a cold January day in 1996 and this week the NHL’s all-star game will be played in that rink that took so long to get built. And while no one would ever mistake Kanata for Rome, the changes are remarkably as Firestone first envisioned.

“Bruce was right on the money,” Leeder says. “He’s always been about 10 years ahead of the curve.”

Where once there were only fields and scrub bush, there is housing as far as the eye can see. The rink is surrounded by office buildings and car dealerships, with a massive outlet mall tagged to go in across the highway.

“When we first moved to Kanata in 1992,” Leeder says, “you had to go elsewhere to shop or go to a restaurant.” No longer, though. As for those NHL people arriving in 2012 not having seen the rink in years, they’d be “shocked – the growth has been phenomenal.”

The team also changed dramatically over those years, reaching the Stanley Cup final in 2007 before going into a tailspin a year ago in which multiple veterans and its coaching staff were dumped. Much to the surprise of everyone from management to local media to the players themselves, the Senators of today are a playoff contender again under new coach Paul MacLean. Four players – captain Daniel Alfredsson, Erik Karlsson, Milan Michalek and Jason Spezza – were voted to the all-star team, rather more than should be the team’s due but an example of what this team that never should have been has come to mean to Ottawa.

For years the Senators fought to get the all-star game to this facility, but the hitch was always lack of enough convention space to hold the other events of the weekend. That was solved this past year with the opening of the new Ottawa Convention Centre on the banks of the Rideau Canal.

The one unavoidable complaint that has stuck fast since the rink first opened on another January night in 1996 is traffic. But even that is going to change, with two new lanes to open over the next couple of years.

It may hurt the ratings for the postgame radio shows, but Ottawa fans will cheer the changes as loudly as, these days, they cheer the team itself.

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

[hockeygod]

Fetisov steps down: Soviet legend’s announcement to leave hockey prompts questions

ANDY POTTS, IIHF.COM, 22-01-12

RIGA/MOSCOW – Russian hockey was handed a shock at the weekend when Vyacheslav Fetisov – one of the great legends of the game – told a press conference in Riga that he was quitting CSKA Moscow, the KHL board, and hockey altogether.

The news came amid the glitz and glamour of the KHL’s All-Star Game in Riga, and just hours after Fetisov had captained a veterans side to victory in the warm-up event in the Latvian capital. Speaking at a press conference Fetisov, who has served as chairman of the board of directors since the league was formed in 2008, stunned journalists by saying it was time to quit.

“I would like to make a statement – I’m leaving hockey,” he said. “For me, this is my last weekend in hockey. I wish [KHL president] Alexander Medvedev all the best, and I’m sure he will succeed. For me, the situation at CSKA is disgusting. I’ve worked too long to earn a good name, and God knows I’ve done nothing to damage the sport. I see no sense in remaining. I am decided.”

Sitting next to him, Medvedev could say little, and responded: “I cannot comment on this. I can hardly imagine our hockey without Fetisov.”

After that press conference, Fetisov was faced with a barrage of questions and expanded on his reasons for leaving CSKA, web portal championat.ru reported. And he launched a stinging claim of management malpractice at one of the game’s most famous names.

“The whole team, which recently exploited CSKA, was willing to do anything, not just on the hockey side. I’m talking about deals which were done, and which might be done in future,” he told the website. “At one time I was asked to help CSKA and we initiated a letter to the Prime Minister. Now the club is state owned [by Rosneft]. This company needs to strengthen the management because CSKA needs to take care of every ruble – this is taxpayers’ money now. With the current management I do not see any prospect of this happening.”

On the face of it, Fetisov was the ideal figurehead for both club and league: as a player he enjoyed universal respect as a ruthless defenceman who won two Olympic golds, back-to-back Stanley Cups and a host of Soviet titles after making his CSKA debut as a 16-year-old. He was also instrumental in enabling Soviet players to play in North America, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001. He was also well regarded in Moscow after sticking with CSKA as crisis threatened the club once again in 2009 following the departure of head coach Vyacheslav Bykov and widely-reported claims of poor financial health.

But at the weekend he also hinted that Bykov might have had the right idea all along, following a long conversation with the World Championship winning coach. “I spent a long time sitting with Bykov, discussing the situation at CSKA,” Fetisov told championat.ru. “Perhaps before I was biased, but Bykov also left for a reason – the situation at the club was slowing its growth.”

Fetisov’s announcement in Riga came as a huge surprise, but there were warning signs on the morning of the All-Star press conference. Comments reported by Russian website Sports.ru on Saturday morning hint at a battle behind the scenes at the famous Moscow club, which was recently bought by oil giant Rosneft with plans to see the Army Men dining at the officers’ table once again after years of meagre rations (see this story).

Asked why the club had not made greater efforts to strengthen its roster ahead of the Jan. 15 deadline (the return of Nikita Filatov in December was the only significant change as the club looks to confirm a play-off spot), Fetisov attacked the internal politics of the organization, speaking of a “war for money” which had seen the team become a political football among rival factions of the club management.

“I’m already no longer the president – other people are in control of these things,” Fetisov added. “I am unable to play a formal role. Either I am in the process, or I am outside of it. Other people have come in, let them take charge of the process.”

Meanwhile, at a time when the KHL was keen to show off its progress to the world during the All-Star weekend, and with league president Medvedev confidently announcing that he saw no good reason for any Russian player to leave for North America before the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Fetisov concluded his comments with an apparent swipe at the competition he has helped to establish. Asked why there had been no formal announcement, as might have been expected in the NHL, he replied: “In the NHL there are normal structures, where people respect each other. In our league things are very different: at the moment the KHL cannot be compared with the NHL. Not yet.”

After his announcement in Riga, though, Fetisov explained that he had always maintained a “normal working relationship” with Medvedev and added that the KHL’s story, in general, was a successful one. He was leaving the KHL because it would be wrong to quit CSKA and remain with the league, he explained.

There was surprise and dismay among the CSKA people assembled in Riga for the weekend extravaganza. Forward Sergei Shirokov, a key player on his return this season after two years on the fringes of the NHL, told RIA Novosti: “For me it’s a shock that Vyacheslav has left. It’s not my business to discuss the club’s leadership but apparently there is some reason behind it. We must respect his decision and what he has said about it… As for the future of the club, it is difficult to say. I am not a director, and this situation will be addressed by those who have now come to the club.”

On his personal Twitter account, however, Shirokov appeared rather more critical of whatever situation had prompted Fetisov to step down. “Apparently our hockey is now at such a stratospheric level that we no longer need professionals like Fetisov and Larionov!!!!!!” he wrote.

CSKA coach Julius Supler, who also played in the veterans game in Riga on Friday night, noted Fetisov’s departure with regret. “It’s a big blow. Slava has done a lot for Russian hockey and for CSKA, and it was he who invited me to work with CSKA. This is a big loss for Russian hockey.”

But there were mixed reactions among supporters commenting on the news via online message boards and blogs. Many were saddened to see a great name leave the sport, and a number of CSKA fans were quick to pay tribute to a man whose commitment to the cause even saw him suit up for a KHL game – at the age of 49 – to help solve a defensive injury crisis. But others were critical of his work as CSKA President, and in particular his reluctance to remove Sergei Nemchinov, who was head coach as CSKA failed to reach last season’s play-offs, and remains at the club as General Manager.

However, Nemchinov also felt the lash of Fetisov’s anger on Saturday. “He is a weak coach, a weak manager and even weaker as a person. I am sure he has no future prospects,” the departing CSKA president told the media.

Fetisov may have left Russian hockey – at least for the time being – but the fall-out from his dramatic departure is likely to be felt for some time to come.

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

[hockeygod]

Oilers front office under rebuild?

Terry Jones, QMI Agency, Jan 22 2012

EDMONTON – If you’re waiting for Steve Tambellini to be served up as some sort of sacrifice for the way the Edmonton Oilers season has toileted for the third year in a row, forget about it.

While he’s in the final year of his current contract, your correspondent has learned that Tambellini will not be a lame-duck general manager going forward to the trade deadline or the draft.

Tambellini will be given the opportunity with a contract extension to carry on through additional years of the massive rebuild.

Indeed, sometime between the all-star break and the trade deadline, it is expected Oilers’ owner Daryl Katz and president of hockey operations Kevin Lowe will sit down and work out the arrangements of a new deal going forward.

The only real hang-up might be the term.

When the deal will actually be announced may depend on timing. The Oilers, who currently have a fan base losing patience with the team which has only won five of their last 25 games, will likely prefer to find a positive stretch somewhere ahead to make an announcement which is guaranteed to be controversial in many quarters.

While you can find considerable fault, as this columnist has, with the pro player acquisition part of what Tambellini has done so far, there’s no questioning the job he’s done in promoting Stu MacGregor to head scout, the acquisition of extra draft picks so far and the drafting itself.

And there’s also the so-far successful steering of the new organizational development plan featuring the AHL-leading Oklahoma City Barons.

On the other hand there’s a significant percentage of the paying public who don’t believe Tambellini has achieved a status in the GM community much higher than his team sits in the standings.

And the current view of his team is that it has has no guts, still isn’t tough to play against, that his veterans haven’t performed, nor have the holdovers from Lowe’s veterans from his time in the GM chair. The group has shown no try in three of the last five games.

But apparently the decision is big picture, to stay the course with Tambellini, a first time general manager who is being developed, too.

So if there’s anybody who is going to be served up to the fans as a sacrifice it’ll be have to be head coach Tom Renney. And with him, there are no assurances he’ll survive the end of the season the way it’s been going lately.

Like Tambellini, Renney is also on the final year of his contract.

Ideally, I believe the Oilers want to wait the entire season, judge the job Renney has done on its entirety and make a decision if he’s the right guy to go forward.

The belief here is that Lowe and Tambellini, in fairness to Renney and staff, aren’t even close to pulling the trigger right now because of the circumstances with losing their three top forwards and three of their top defencemen due to injury.

But after the team gets to hit the refresh button with the all-star break and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (the Oilers have won one game of eight with RNH out of the lineup), Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle are all back and finding their form again …

And when Tom Gilbert, Ryan Whitney and Cam Barker are back playing on defence …

Well, if the Oilers don’t climb up several spots from 29th where they’ve dropped since an 8-2-2 start to the season, the kids will likely get the second head coach of their NHL careers.

Renney might not be coaching from the edge of a cliff right now. But he very soon could be.

Sunday I asked Renney if there was any concern of players sensing a guy was coaching from a precarious position going forward.

“Yah, I know where you’re going,” he said. “If I wasn’t as confident going about my job and our coaching staff as I am, I guess I would be concerned about that.

“I can’t control at the end of the day in the deepest parts of their hearts how they feel about their situation and us and all of that sort of stuff.

“All I can do is exhibit perseverance, commitment, work habits and the right attitude, accepting the challenge and all those types of things. The coaching staff, to a man, do that every day. We really do.

“As you try to grow something, boy, there’s times when it’s tough. You don’t pee on your garden to try grow stuff, you fertilize it. We’re doing our best to do that.”

Renney put the Oilers to the closest thing to a bag skate we’ve seen from him. And there was almost no dialog involved out there Sunday.

“All I can tell you is that I’m pissed off,” said Renney.

Pissed off?

“ ‘Renney’s pissed off.’ You can write that.”

Mad as hell and he’s not going to take it any more?

“Mad as hell and there’s not much I can do about it right now.”

Not much he can do about it?

Was there a plea for better and more committed veteran players in there?

When it’s the 16th loss in 17 games to the Calgary Flames, the fans aren’t going to find any patience. It’s Calgary. It can be about the rebuild and the injuries and whatever against the other 28 teams with the fan base. But not when it comes to Calgary and these guys clearly don’t get that.

“I’ve had enough of this stuff. It’s like Minnesota,” said Renney of the other team the Oilers have a similarly rancid record against in recent years.

“Be a hockey team. Be a player. Take the job on and go do it,” said the head coach.

“I like the Battle of Alberta from when I was away from this scene. I want to get it going. I want to get it going again.”

There was no battle in the Oilers much beyond Taylor Hall brought to the Battle of Alberta yet again.

“There were some fly-bys (Saturday) night. Definitely. To me, that game was there for the taking,” Renney said of a team looking for all the world like they’ve quit on the season and themselves, accented by the one guy who had try, Hall, second guessing his coach on Hockey Night In Canada for pulling his goalie with the score 5-2 in the 6-2 empty-net goal loss to the Flames.

Renney says he believes he and his staff are busting their butts on the job.

“I’d like to think we are. We’re putting in the time. There’s no question about that. And we believe strongly in our philosophy as a coaching staff and we believe in each other. We have to measure up, too, though. Yah, the players have to perform better and they have to respect the effort that’s going in on their behalf.

“We’ve got to stay with it, too. We can’t fall into the trap of being frustrated or selfish or anything that might be disruptive that will get in the way of us doing our job.

“These are tough times, but you embrace them. They force you to coach. They force you to find answers. And they force you to even come outside your box a little bit, from inside your own comfort zone, and grow. It’s not exclusive to the young guys here this growing part.”

The aforementioned Hall may have questioned his coach on HNIC with the pull-the-goalie call Saturday night, but he isn’t questioning his coach.

He doesn’t want his first NHL coach to get fired.

“I don’t think that would change anything around here. We enjoy playing for him.”

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

[hockeygod]

Hockey World: Jan. 22 2012

Jim Matheson, edmontonjournal.com, January 22, 2012

Who’s Hot: Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne, who has given up 17 goals in his last 10 games.

Who’s Not: Claude Giroux is challenging for the scoring race, but has just one goal in his last 13 games for the Flyers.

When the gap-toothed Bobby Clarke won those back-to-back Hart Trophies in the mid-1970s with the Broad Street Bullies, he wasn’t the incandescent star.

You had Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito, Guy Lafleur, Marcel Dionne and Gilbert Perreault.

Clarke put up plenty of points (116 in 1974-75 and 119 the following season) but he never won a scoring title and he made the Philadelphia Flyers go. He won faceoffs, played late in games protecting leads, was on the first power-play unit, hated to lose, and wielded a wicked stick if you got in his way.

It’s the same story with Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews.

To me, Toews is the NHL’s MVP this season, with a large helping of apology to Evgeni Malkin, who’s carrying the Pittsburgh Penguins on his back with star Sidney Crosby out of the lineup. Malkin has 30 points in his last 18 games.

Then you can’t forget Henrik Lundqvist in New York, the main reason the Rangers are challenging for No. 1 overall in 2011-12.

However, nobody is as well-rounded as Toews, who quietly is second in goals with 27, and in the top 10 in points with 50 (only 12 power-play points, 36 even-strength points, two short-handed points). But that’s just a snippet of his game.

He’s the NHL’s premier faceoff man by lots (61.4 per cent in a whopping 938 draws; the next closest player who’s as busy is Boston Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron, 57.3 over 852 draws). If you want one guy to absolutely win a draw in the last 10 seconds of a one-goal game, Toews is your man. He also leads the league in take-aways, not the perennial thief Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Wings.

Toews plays on the power play, he kills penalties. If you need a riot act read, tap him on the shoulder. He wears his game face the minute he walks into the rink. He really is Captain Serious.

He’s only 23, but he has captained a Stanley Cup winner. He was one of Canada’s top-five players in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

It’s also time to give him the MVP trophy.

“In my mind, Toews is the best two-way player I’ve seen since Mark Messier,” said former Nashville Predators associate coach Brent Peterson.

“Messier was the best ever. There isn’t anything Toews can’t do. So good offensively, so good on faceoffs (a staggering 120-63 on the power play so the Blackhawks almost always start with the puck), so good when he doesn’t have the puck.”

OK, he doesn’t have Messier’s glower. Or his mean streak.

But Toews’s engine is always blowing hot. Just take a look at his face some time.

Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma, as good a judge of character as you’ll find, is a Malkin Man.

“He’s been maybe the best player in the league, most dominant players in the league,” Bylsma said of Malkin.

No argument there. He might win the scoring title. He’s a machine.

As for Lundqvist, he’s simply a terrific goalie. But goalies almost never win the Hart, however, because they’ve got their own trophy (the Vezina). Jose Theodore beat Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames in a countback in 2002 and Dominik Hasek did it back-to-back for the Buffalo Sabres in 1997 and ’98. But you would have to go back to Jacques Plante in ’62 to find another goalie with a Hart.

The league saves it for the Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded to the most valuable player in the Stanley Cup playoffs, when everybody knows you’re only going as far as your netminder takes you in the post-season.

In Clarke’s two winning years, New York Islanders defenceman Denis Potvin and Los Angeles Kings goalie Rogie Vachon were actually runners-up. Not Orr, not Espo, not Lafleur. Lafleur won is first of two straight in ’77, with Clarke taking second.

You need a good team to win an MVP, of course. The Blackhawks are challenging the Bruins, Rangers and Red Wings for the President’s trophy this season. So Toews has that part covered. But, really, it comes down to overall excellence and calm under fire. You watch Toews on the ice. First minute, last minute.

He leads. He’s an energy giver, not an energy taker.

Flames coach Brent Sutter could be president of the Toews fan club.

“What do I like about Jonathan? Everything. Every night he comes to play, takes no nights off. That’s why his leadership is so highly regarded,” said Sutter. “He plays all three zones and he’s highly, highly competitive.

“Leadership comes natural to Jonathan. His wanting to win is huge. Everybody follows him. He also knows how to play the game.

“He’s smart and he does it at an intense level. That’s a really tough combination.”

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Hemsky for a puck mover?

Edmonton Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini is in the catbird seat as he takes calls on veteran winger Ales Hemsky.

Half the league’s looking for a top-six forward — remember 2006, when the Oilers beat out other teams to get Sergei Samsonov because they needed a second-liner?

NHL teams are loathe to surrender much for rentals because you get quantity, but not quality, in most cases.

The Oilers absolutely need a puck-moving defenceman more than they need a draft pick. And if the prospect being dangled is more than a year away from being ready for the NHL, I don’t know why they would be interested in more down-the-road stuff.

Renney and company need an NHL player right now to get the puck to Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

Would the Nashville Predators give the Oilers defenceman Ryan Ellis for Hemsky? Unlikely, because Hemsky would only be a two to three-month rental. And if the Preds lose unrestricted free agent Ryan Suter in a trade, they have to keep blue-liners, don’t they?

“I think the Predators would rather have Ryan Smyth if he was available than Hemsky,” said one NHL scout, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

However, Smyth likely won’t waive his no-trade clause to go to another team at the Feb. 27 trade deadline. The Ottawa Senators might be a wild card for Hemsky. They’re buyers now that Paul MacLean is doing such a bang-up job as a first-year NHL coach.

In lieu of an offensive defenceman to move, tell them you want Brandon winger Mark Stone, the Canadian junior star. See if they bite?

This ’n’ that

If the Los Angeles Kings pitched goalie Jonathan Bernier, essentially a cheerleader for Jonathan Quick, for Oilers winger Magnus Paajarvi this summer, should the Oilers listen? Bernier’s withering on the vine in L. A. behind Quick, but he was a first-round draft pick in 2006 (11th overall). The Kings needs quicker forwards. Paajarvi looks like a top-nine guy, but top six? Not sure.

It’s no secret the Oilers have long liked Buffalo’s struggling right-winger Drew Stafford. While he could be a second-line fit if the Oilers deal Hemsky at the trade deadline, what could Edmonton give them that would definitely be a top six forward? That’s what the Sabres want. Stafford has five goals in his last 42 games (one of those against the Oilers, of course). Nugent-Hopkins, Eberle and Hall are off-limits. Stafford has had some family issues on his plate this season, which hasn’t helped things.

The Chicago Blackhawks still need a No. 4 or No. 5 defenceman. Don’t be surprised if they revisit Montreal Canadiens’ Chris Campoli, who did a nice job for them after he came over from the Ottawa Senators at the 2011 February deadline. They couldn’t afford him last summer, but he’d be a very good unrestricted free-agent rental, plus there would be no breaking-in period for Campoli, like most guys traded at the deadline. Campoli has been a healthy scratch in Montreal.

Not to rain on the parade of St. Louis Blues goalie Jaroslav Halak, but in the three shutouts he’s earned in the last four games he has faced a total of just 56 shots. He’s getting the job done, but nobody will ever say he’s overworked. Halak and Brian Elliott have nine shutouts this year, however, which is only four back of the team’s single-season record held by Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante — two of the six best goalies n history.

The Predators will likely be taking offers for Swedish goalie Anders Lindback this summer with Pekka Rinne locked up for seven years at $7 million US per season. The six-foot-six Lindback, who turns 24 in May, has the game to be an NHL starter somewhere else if you polled most scouts. “He doesn’t get a chance to play, but he can be a very good one,” said one NHL team executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Nashville’s not giving him away. They need forwards who can play now, not prospects.

The Oilers are clamouring for an offensive defenceman in a deal for Hemsky, but the Pittsburgh Penguins emphatically say Sherwood Park’s Joe Morrow, who plays for the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League is not available. He was the Penguins top pick last June who almost made their team out of training camp. Blue-liner Simon Despres, Pittsburgh’s first draft pick in 2009, is also not up for grabs.

Most people believe centre Henrik Samuelsson’s draft stock will shoot up now that he’s playing major junior for the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings after he was spinning his wheels playing for his dad in MoDo, in Sweden. The six-foot-two, 190-pound kid strangely didn’t get a late invite to the NHL prospects game, but he’ll still get more scouting looks over here, especially with the Oil Kings being a Memorial Cup threat under the excellent tutelage of head coach Derek Laxdal and GM Bob Green. Samuelsson looks like a definite first-round draft now.

If Sami Salo’s healthy, the Vancouver Canucks don’t need a top-four defenceman for the playoffs. But Salo is always hurt, although this latest mishap wasn’t his fault. He was concussed by a low-bridge hit by present-day rat Brad Marchand. Alex Edler, Kevin Bieksa and Dan Hamhuis are 1, 2, 3, but Keith Ballard is on the fence as a No. 4. He’s really a 15-minute, No. 5, player who’s over-priced at $4 million. Would Tim Gleason of the Carolina Hurricanes be a rental be better than Ballard?

The San Jose Sharks have Antero Niittymaki playing with their AHL affiliate in a rehab assignment after his hip surgery, to get him some games. They’ve got two backups (Thomas Greiss is the other) and they’re looking to trade one of them.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Brodeur’s son fan of Rinne

Anthony Brodeur, son of NHL goalie Martin Brodeur, who is starring at Shattuck St. Mary’s, the prep hockey factory outside of Minneapolis, is eligible for the Ontario Hockey League draft in May, and the USHL draft.

He loves his dad, but his second favourite goalie is Predators starter Pekka Rinne.

“I had to get an autographed stick for him,” laughed Martin, who says he’d like to play another NHL season.

Would he do it in New Jersey if he only played 40 games or was the backup if they went and traded for Josh Harding or another young goalie this summer?

Capital gains?

The Washington Capitals would rather keep defenceman Jeff Schultz, who was plus-87 in his NHL career, than deal him, knowing you can never have too many of these guys at playoff time.

But new head coach Dale Hunter doesn’t like him after he was a top-four guy under former bench boss Bruce Boudreau. The feeling is that Schultz’s feet are slow and he’s not aggressive enough.

Wouldn’t be surprised if Boudreau, now head coach of the Anaheim Ducks, bends the ear of Ducks general manager Bob Murray about the six-foot-six blue-liner who has two years left on his contract at $3 million per season.

How about a second-round draft pick or a forward prospect? The Ducks may be getting another Schultz, Justin, in March if his Wisconsin Badgers don’t make the NCAA playoffs. The second-round 2008 pick is the best blue-liner in college hockey, a right-handed shooting points machine.

This ’n’ that

Mike Comrie, a father-to-be in March, who’s married to actress/singer Hilary Duff, will undergo surgery in the next 30 to 60 days to try to fix his troublesome hip. He’ll decide then if he’s going to give playing another shot. Doctors have done one procedure on the hip, but it didn’t work. Comrie has spent time this winter watching his brother, Eric, playing goal for the WHL’s powerhouse Tri-City Americans. Eric, only 16, is having a banner season.

Tampa Bay Lightning GM Steve Yzerman totally dismisses any talk of coach Guy Boucher’s job being in jeopardy, 18 months into his four-year deal. “The coach’s message is far from the problem here. He’s a great coach, same coach as last year. His message is work hard and be structured. The team is. It’s a non-issue,” said Yzerman. The problem in Tampa is they over-achieved last year and this year they’ve had two of their top three defencemen — Mattias Ohlund and Victor Hedman — out for long stretches. Ohlund (knee problems) may never play again. Hedman has a concussion. Moreover, some guys like Ryan Malone, Teddy Purcell and Steve Downie haven’t been anywhere near as productive as last season.

Danny Briere became the sixth Philadelphia Flyers player — Chris Pronger, Claude Giroux, Brayden Schenn, James van Riemsdyk and rookie Matt Read — to get knocked out of the lineup with a concussion when Anton Volchenkov drilled him Saturday in the Flyers easy win over the Devils. Pronger’s wife, Lauren, was interviewed this week and didn’t sound very optimistic about her husband’s situation. Jaromir Jagr also re-aggravated a groin injury against the Devils with Ilya Bryzgalov stoning the Devils. Sources say Flyers GM Paul Holmgren and his bosses aren’t anywhere near as antsy about Bryzgalov’s play in 2011-12 than the fans are.

The New York Rangers will be looking to unload winger Wojtek Wolski at the deadline if anybody needs a top-nine forward who has the tools, but doesn’t look in the tool box nearly enough. He’s got talent, nice shot, long reach, but doesn’t work hard enough. Plus, he has a cap hit of $3.8 million.

The Hurricanes off-loaded one of their unrestricted free agents, winger Alexei Ponikarovsky, to the Devils and saved $632,000 in the process. Players likely still to be dealt include Tuomo Ruutu, Tim Gleason, Jaro Spacek and Bryan Allen. Ponikarovsky is a big player, but his history suggests he leaves coaches wanting more. Since the Devils are in major financial trouble, with unconfirmed reports the NHL may lend them money to meet payroll, did they run this deal thorough the league first to add some salary?

It might be an idea to include Rangers head coach John Tortorella in any coach-of-the-year discussion. I’ve become a believer in the Rangers. They have a heck of a goalie in Henrik Lundqvist, an iron-tight defence led by the hugely underrated Dan Girardi and just enough scoring to win games. They’re looking for one more offensive piece in the bottom six. Don’t be surprised if they deal for Columbus Blue Jackets forward Vinny Prospal at the deadline.

By the numbers

17: Avalanche lead the NHL with that many one-goal wins.

0: The Bruins are the only team in the league that hasn’t given up a short-handed goal this season.

12: The Senators have a dozen players with at least one game-winning goal. Zack Smith and Bobby Butler lead with three.

He Said It

“I always tell the story that when two guys would be jumping on Mario’s back, I followed up and put in a couple of his rebounds.”

Montreal Canadiens head coach Randy Cunneyworth, on his four years playing for the Penguins and Mario Lemieux

Matty’s Short Shifts

Defenceman Shea Weber is on everybody’s top-five Norris Trophy list of candidates, but there are some who think the Predators captain needs Ryan Suter a shade more than the other way around. It’s personal preference; blue suit vs. black suit. Weber is more physical and has that bomb for a shot. Suter, who’s out with an upper-body (possibly a shoulder) injury makes every play out of his end look pretty easy. To me, Suter is the most underrated player in the game. He won’t sign a new deal in Nashville unless they show him they’re adding pieces at the deadline, and that might not be enough.

Forget any talk of the Detroit Red Wings being interested in Buffalo Sabres struggling goalie Ryan Miller, even if he went to Michigan State. Jimmy Howard is better. The Wings might not be totally sold on backup Ty Conklin, but Conklin has been sharper the last little while.

Sean Couturier is proving what everybody thought at last June’s draft: He never should have fallen to No. 8 to the Flyers. He’s going to be Philadelphia’s No. 2 centre behind Giroux when Briere’s $6.5-million-a-year salary-cap hit deal ends in 2014-15). When it comes to getting centres, you can only draft them. Most teams (OK, the Boston Bruins moved Jumbo Joe to the San Jose Sharks) don’t trade you a centre. I keep hearing the Flyers refuse to include their other young centre Schenn in any deals for Ryan Suter. If so, why? I also hear the Predators aren’t falling all over themselves to get van Riemsdyk, even if he was healthy, in any Suter trade if they can’t sign him. They would rather have winger Wayne Simmonds.

The Buffalo Sabres don’t seem to have learned their lesson when one of their own gets drilled. They were ripped when they didn’t come to Miller’s aid after Milan Lucic ran him over. And next time they met Paul Gaustad, who’s big, but not much of a fighter, got tuned in by Lucic. So what happens in Chicago on Wednesday? Blackhawks winger Jamal Mayers plows into Gaustad, who looks like he hurts his shoulder, and I didn’t see anybody coming to his defence. This is a Sabres team that’s hurting, but also playing on autopilot. Nobody scores unless it’s Jason Pominville or Thomas Vanek.

If Hal Gill’s on the outs in Montreal — when he plays it’s often under 10 minutes — there will be plenty of contenders who’ll take a run at him at the deadline. There’s already lots of talk of Gill going to Nashville, along with Andrei Kostitsyn, so A.K. can play with his brother, Sergei. Andrei is one of those players who drives coaches nuts — you never know when he feels like playing. The other night he had a half-hearted backchecking play against the Capitals that resulted in a Washington goal. The Preds have prospects — Zac Budish at the University of Minnesota or Austin Watson — playing junior in the OHL.

Every time I see second-line centre Ryan O’Reilly on TV or playing the Oilers, he’s doing something right. That was a great second-round draft pick by the Colorado Avalanche in 2009. To me, he’s their best player, game in and game out. He has captain written all over him, in short order.

What do you think teams will be offering unrestricted free agent Dustin Penner this summer? Twenty-five cents on the dollar off this year’s $4.25 million? He’s got the same three goals as Matt Greene, the ultimate defensive defender. Word is coach Darryl Sutter is taking the kinder, gentler approach with the big guy — at least so far.

Nice to see Gilbert Brule scoring goals in Phoenix. He’s a good kid who just has to figure where he fits in on a hockey team. There’s never been any questions about his work habits. He could play on my team ahead of a lot of players in this league — as long as he starts to think the game a shade better.

Funny how people’s perceptions change. P.A. Parenteau kicked around the NHL fringes for years. He’s not aggressive and possesses average speed, scouts have said But then the New York Islanders signed him in 2012 and suddenly he’s a hot item at the deadline because he’s unrestricted, soon to be 29-year-old free-agent winger. He played 442 minor-league games before really catching on with the Islanders. Anybody getting him has to know one thing: He’s a passer, not a shooter.

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

[hockeygod]

Boston Bruins visit White House

WASHINGTON— The Associated Press, Jan. 23, 2012

U.S. President Barack Obama saluted the Boston Bruins for their 2011 Stanley Cup championship Monday, citing the city's run of pro team championships in recent years.

The Bruins won their first Stanley Cup title in 39 years last June after a bruising seven-game final series with the Vancouver Canucks.

President Barack Obama honors the 2010-2011 Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins hockey team, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Team owner Jeremy Jacobs is at left.
Video
Boston Bruins visit the White House

It was the latest in a string of Boston sports championships, including the Celtics in 2008, the Red Sox in 2007 and the New England Patriots in 2005. The Patriots play in next month's Super Bowl.

“The Bruins, the Sox, the Celtics, now the Patriots. Enough already, Boston,” Obama said during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. “What's going on, huh?”

Obama also jokingly invoked some New England slang in welcoming the Bruins, along with the Stanley Cup, to the White House.

“I know you are all wicked happy to be here,” he said.

Obama said there was no better image of the Bruins' dominance than when Zdeno Chara, the team's 6-foot-9 defenceman and captain, hoisted the Stanley Cup above his head in Vancouver in celebration last spring.

“Which is, I'm sure, the highest that the Stanley Cup had ever been,” he said.

Obama drew laughter from the crowd when he cited the scrappy play of Bruins forward Brad Marchand, who emerged as a star with five goals in the last five games of the finals against Vancouver.

“‘The ‘Little Ball of Hate' shrugged off the rookie jitters,” said Obama, adding “What's up with that nickname, man?”

There was a notable no-show. Goalie Tim Thomas, who was the playoff MVP last year, chose not to attend the event, a team spokesman said.

Obama praised the teamwork of the six-time champions.

“Together, these players proved that teamwork is everything,” he said. “It can overcome injuries, it can overcome long odds.”

Obama praised the team for its work off the ice as well, noting the Boston Bruins Foundation has donated more than $7-million to charities in New England.

—–

Thomas takes a pass on White House trip

David Shoalts, Globe and Mail, January 23, 2012

Tim Thomas had a lot of people shaking their heads Monday when he refused to attend the Boston Bruins’ visit with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House.

The Bruins goaltender did not give a reason for skipping the traditional visit awarded to the Stanley Cup champions. He gave word through the Bruins that he will explain his reasons later Monday on Facebook.

However, in the absence of any evidence of compelling family business, it appears political reasons are behind Thomas’s snub. He is known to be a Republican and is an admirer of right-wing blowhard Glenn Beck.

It appears Thomas’s move, which quickly became a big topic on Twitter, left the Bruins as surprised as everyone else. He is known as an easy-going fellow and not someone who would insult an American institution for bipartisan reasons.

“Everybody has their own opinions and political beliefs. He chose not to join us,” Bruins president Cam Neely told Joe Haggerty of Comcast Sportsnet New England. “We certainly would have liked to have him come and join us. But it’s his choice. It’s obviously not a choice most of the guys . . . well all of the guys came except for Tim.”

Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said the visit was not mandatory and Thomas will not be punished for his absence.

—–

Tim Thomas skips White House trip due to 'out of control' government

Eric Duhatschek, Globe and Mail, Jan. 23, 2012

Leave it to the Boston Bruins’ eclectic goaltender Tim Thomas to turn a routine meet-and-greet into a polarizing national incident.

On Monday, the Bruins were feted en masse at the White House by U.S. president Barack Obama for winning the 2011 Stanley Cup, which is standard fare in the 21st century, where politics and sports constantly overlap. They all showed up, all except for goaltender Tim Thomas, who happened to win the playoff MVP award and was the single biggest reason they defeated the Vancouver Canucks in seven games.

Thomas was a mysterious no-show and Twitter ran rampant all of Monday afternoon, speculating about why he gave it a pass. Politically, Thomas is known to lean toward the right and even finds some merits in the rants of commentator Glenn Beck. However, when Thomas finally explained his absence on his Facebook page, he took care not to make it a statement about Obama’s presidency, but at his dissatisfaction with American politics on the whole.

Thomas wrote: “I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People. This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government.

“Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL.”

Thomas concluded by saying “This is the only public statement I will be making on this topic.”

If Obama had any issues with Thomas’s absence, he didn’t let on, making the usual quips that one would expect about Boston’s sporting supremacy from a diehard Chicago fan.

“The Bruins, the Sox, the Celtics, now the Patriots. Enough already, Boston,” Obama said. “What’s going on, huh?”

Obama didn’t mention Thomas’s absence, but did refer to his two shutouts and the fact that he was just the second American to win the Conn Smythe after New York Rangers defenceman Brian Leetch in 1994.

However, he did note there was no better image of the Bruins’ dominance than when Slovakia’s Zdeno Chara, the team’s 6-foot-9 defenceman, hoisted the Stanley Cup above his head in Vancouver in celebration last spring.

“Which is, I’m sure, the highest that the Stanley Cup had ever been,” he said.

Obama drew laughter from the crowd when he cited the scrappy play of Bruins forward Brad Marchand, who emerged as a star with five goals in the last five games of the finals against Vancouver.

“The `Little Ball of Hate’ shrugged off the rookie jitters,” said Obama, adding “What’s up with that nickname, man?”

Peter Chiarelli, the team’s general manager, tried to convince Thomas to attend the ceremony, but did not succeed.

“We’re like a family. We have our issues,” Chiarelli told the Boston Globe when asked if Thomas’s decision overshadowed the visit. “You deal with them, move on, and try and support everyone."

Thomas is one of only two American-born players on the Bruins’ roster (the other is Steven Kampfer).

“I can require someone to attend a team event. If they don’t, I can suspend him,” added Chiarelli. “I’m not suspending Tim. Whatever his position is, it isn’t reflective of the Boston Bruins nor my own. But I’m not suspending him.”

Three members of last year’s Bruins team who no longer play for Boston also attended the event, including Montreal Canadiens defenceman Tomas Kaberle, Mark Recchi, who retired after the Bruins’ Stanley Cup win, and spare defenceman Shane Hnidy. The event took place in the East Room of the White House.

Thomas is not the first athlete to cause a stir when his team was honoured at the White House, according to the Associated Press. Following the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Super Bowl victory over the Seattle Seahawks in 2006, linebacker Joey Porter announced that he had “something to tell” President George W. Bush, although the Steelers’ visit to the White House went without incident. A year earlier, the Northwestern University women’s lacrosse team sparked a controversy when several players chose to wear flip-flops to a White House ceremony honouring the year’s NCAA championship teams. The team eventually auctioned off the offending footwear to raise money for a 10-year-old girl battling brain cancer.

Thomas will rejoin the rest of his teammates at the Verizon Center on Tuesday night, when the Bruins face the Washington Capitals, and then leave for Ottawa, where all-star festivities begin Thursday.

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

John Tavares comes of age to give Islanders hope

James Mirtle, Globe and Mail, Jan. 23, 2012

The one statistic, in a nutshell, explains the evolution of John Tavares as an NHL player.

In Year 1 he finished tied for 76th in league scoring as a 19-year-old. Then, as a sophomore last season, he jumped up into a tie for 28th.

This year, however, is Tavares’s coming-out party. He is on another level, with a recent hot streak putting him all the way up in 12th in scoring and on pace for 86 points entering Monday’s meeting with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

It may have taken him all of 208 NHL games to get here, but it’s safe to say that Tavares has entered superstar territory, at 21.

And not one person in the New York Islanders’ organization is surprised.

“He’s put his team on his back, similar to what’s happening in Pittsburgh right now with [Evgeni] Malkin,” Isles coach Jack Capuano said. “Those guys are doing a lot for their teams right now. Hopefully Johnny can continue that and other guys can feed off him.”

“You can tell that he’s getting better every year,” captain Mark Streit added. “His dedication is huge, and his work ethic is great as well. So he got stronger. He got faster. It’s all paying off.”

That’s the case in more ways than one, with Tavares landing a spot in his first all-star game this weekend in Ottawa just one sign of what’s likely to come.

More significantly, back in September before training camp opened, Tavares signed a six-year, $33-million (all currency U.S.) contract extension that runs until 2018 and eats into one year of unrestricted free agency.

The move surprised some in the hockey world, given he had locked in for so long with an organization that has had its fair share of off-ice turmoil, but it was the sort of commitment the team’s battered fan base had been longing for.

After years of losing seasons, low attendance and watching stars leave town or refuse to come at all, Tavares had made it clear he wanted to help.

Even without a new arena development to replace outdated Nassau Coliseum and uncertainty over the franchise’s long-term future, Islanders fans now point to the youngster from Oakville, Ont., and his loyalty to the organization as their main source of hope.

“As a diehard Isles fan, that contract extension was like years of sorrow being swept away,” Michael Brady wrote on Twitter this week. “A tremendous relief and a new beginning.”

Tavares further endears himself to the Isles’ faithful when he talks about the franchise in a positive light, something he did several times Monday during 20 minutes of taking questions in Toronto.

“It’s pretty special for me to be there and represent the Islanders,” he said of the all-star game nod at one point. “I’m really proud of that.”

His teammates talk about a player who has grown up, going from a boy to a man in two-and-a-half seasons while playing in circumstances where wins have been hard to come by.

“At first when he came in, he was really quiet,” Streit said. “Pretty shy. He was just, you know, 18. A young kid. He came in and didn’t say a lot. You couldn’t really joke around with him.

“Now, it’s a whole different story. He grew as a player; he grew as a person. He’s joking around, and he’s got a great personality.”

Not that everything is ever sunshine with the Islanders. Even after a run of respectability since Christmas, they remain near the Eastern Conference basement, a spot they’ve occupied often in missing the postseason the past four consecutive years.

Beyond Tavares, Streit and a few successful reclamation projects like Matt Moulson and P.A. Parenteau, New York lacks depth more than anything, in part due to their league-low $49.8-million payroll.

Now that they have their main attraction and that face of the franchise has grown up, the only question remains: Can they surround him with enough talent to win?

Or is the wait simply on until the team’s lease expires in 2015 and the arena discussion comes to a head?

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

Campbell: Admiring Thomas' stance

Ken Campbell, The Hockey News, 2012-01-23

Tim Thomas will undoubtedly be drawn and quartered by many in the court of public opinion for not pumping U.S. president Barack Obama’s tires by refusing to attend the Boston Bruins Stanley Cup celebration at the White House.

Not in this corner, however. In fact, I believe you have to admire and respect Thomas for taking a stance so bold and passing up the opportunity of a lifetime to support his rather, ahem, unique political beliefs.

Yes, Thomas is a staunch conservative and apostle of Glenn Beck, which is curious since he is originally from Flint, Mich., an area that is one of the most depressed in the country and a place that capitalism and big business most definitely forgot. And it’s not as though this kid was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His parents had to hawk their wedding rings to pay for hockey camp when he was a youngster and Thomas helped out by selling apples door-to-door every fall.

But Thomas’s politics don’t even matter here. What does is that Thomas exercised his right to be a conscientious dissenter and the Bruins showed a lot of maturity by accepting his decision and not using strong-arm tactics to force him to go by threatening to suspend him.

As sports fans and members of the media, all we ever ask is that the people who play the games have a mind of their own and don’t conduct themselves like mindless automatons. Too often we are disappointed. So when one of them uses his position of celebrity to express his opinion, we should be celebrating it. This is not Michael Moore saying “Shame on you, George Bush,” at the Academy Awards or the Dixie Chicks calling Bush a moron – which are both entirely acceptable as well, but far more controversial. This was a very thoughtful, articulate and pensive athlete respectfully declining an invitation.

Now if Martin Brodeur or Scott Stevens had snubbed the White House in 2004 to protest the Bush-led U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, my guess is they both would have had all kinds of unwavering support in the media for taking such a courageous stance. To vilify Thomas for taking a similar stance just because he leans far to the right would be unfair. And to be fair to Thomas, he insisted he would have done the same thing had a Republican been holding the highest office in the land.

You may think Thomas is being a little extreme when he explains his actions by saying, “I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties and Property of People,” (capital letters were his) but who can possibly argue with him when he says, “Because I believe this, I exercised my right as a Free Citizen and did not visit the White House.”?

Thomas is sure to hear a chorus of boos in every opposing U.S. rink he plays in over the next couple of months, but he’ll be fine with that. What is more intriguing is how will his stance play with his teammates and the 30 GMs in the NHL who vote for the Vezina Trophy? GMs are members of the hockey establishment and as such, would likely take a dim view of what Thomas did. But let’s hope that if they don’t vote for Thomas for the Vezina this season it’s because they think Henrik Lundqvist was better and not because Thomas put the NHL in an unfavorable light for a couple of days.

His teammates? My guess is that as long as Thomas continues to play well and helps to keep the Bruins at the top of the NHL standings, they’ll stand by him on the ice even if he calls for a return of Prohibition and higher taxes for the rich. Teammates have managed to coexist and even be successful despite having a hate-on for teammates for things far more egregious than this. Those who occupy the executive offices in Boston have already made their feelings known and consider the matter to be closed.

And that’s as it should be. There will likely be a firestorm for a short time and then this will blow over as all things do. And if Thomas continues to spit in the eye of convention, both with his unorthodox goaltending style and his political stances, good on him.

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

[hockeygod]

Zednik survives collapsing roof: The former NHLer was on the ice in Námestovo, Slovakia moments before the roof collapsed.

Sportsnet Staff, January 24, 2012

It was a close call for Richard Zednik.

In a report Monday, the former NHLer was on the ice in Námestovo, Slovakia training with some young hockey players moments before the roof of the arena collapsed. The ice rink couldn't support the weight of snow, causing the roof to cave in.

The video shows Zednik taking shots on the goaltender and a few seconds later the roof of the building begins to collapse as the players are just getting off the ice.

Zednik played 745 games, amassing 379 points over 13 seasons with the Washington Capitals, Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders and Florida Panthers.

He is most notable for sustaining and surviving a life-threatening injury during a February 2008 game between the Panthers and the Sabres in which Olli Jokinen's skate sliced his external carotid artery.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2012/01/24/zednik_report/

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

[hockeygod]

Boylen: Roy Sommer's long journey to 500 wins

Rory Boylen, The Hockey News, 2012-01-24

“Anyone thinking about getting into coaching, you better think about moving.”
– Worcester Sharks head coach, Roy Sommer

My favorite part of being a hockey journalist is talking to the fascinating figures who have lived the game on so many different angles. You never know what they’re going to say and you never know what stories they have to share. Often they catch you completely off guard.

I had one such interview with Worcester Sharks coach Roy Sommer last week as he crept closer to the 500-career-wins mark behind an American League bench. Now sitting at 498, Sommer will become just the fourth coach in league history to hit the milestone, with John Paddock (589), Frank Mathers (610) and Fred ‘Bun’ Cook (636) the only bench bosses ahead of him.

His road to this point was nothing short of stupendous. Born in Oakland, Calif., Sommer got into hockey after his parents divorced when he was six or seven years old. His mom wanted him to be involved in a sport and he loved skating when he first tried it.

He advanced and played a couple years in the Western League before being drafted into the NHL by the Toronto Maple Leafs, 101st overall in the 1977 draft. He only saw three games in the league and spent most of his playing days in the International and Central Leagues.

“When I was playing in Wichita, Kan., in the Central League, John Muckler was our coach,” Sommer said. “I’d always screw around with guys after practice. Muckler asked me one day, ‘Have you ever thought about going into coaching?’ No man. I always rode in the back of the bus. That was the last thing I was thinking.”

A few years later, Sommer took a job as an electrician’s apprentice in the summer and his mindset began to shift.

“I said, ‘This isn’t going to work,’ ” Sommer recalled. “Watching all those guys walk around with bad backs in their mid-40s from carrying tools and stuff. I didn’t want that.”

Sommer’s last season as a player was with the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the IHL in 1986-87. After the season coach Rick Ley extended an invitation for him to become an assistant, so Sommer took the leap.

As any sports fan knows, the coaching profession isn’t the most stable. Sommer was in Muskegon for only one year before the entire staff lost their jobs and he found himself back in California working in the vineyards. In the meantime, with hockey season fast approaching, he sent resumes all over the country until an opportunity to coach under Peter Anholt with Prince Albert of the WHL opened up.

At the time, Sommer was going through a divorce and “everything was kind of going downhill.” All his possessions were in the back of his truck, but before he left for Canada again, his brother wanted to celebrate at an Oakland A’s baseball game.

“I was too cheap to park in the parking lot, so I went to another place,” he said. “I came back and the back of my truck was open and everything was gone. So I got to Prince Albert with my truck and that was about it. The insurance check got sent to Indianapolis where my ex-wife was and she cashed it. And that was the start of my coaching career.”

At the end of that season, Sommer learned the Minot hockey club in the Saskatchewan League had fired its coach so he looked there for his first head job. While he was on his way to a piece of land he owned in Montana (“I used to spend the summers there and lived in a teepee,” he said nonchalantly) he stopped in Minot for an interview and ended up with the job.

Inevitably, Sommer was fired two years later, but he was only out of a job for about a week before he was offered another gig in Albany. Not surprisingly, that one didn’t last very long, either.

“My girlfriend, now wife, we just had a baby with Down syndrome and we drove out there just after we had him,” he said. “We get out to Albany and I was there a month and a half before the team folded. There you ran to the bank when you cashed your check.”

With Albany behind them, the young family trekked back across the country. It mustn’t have been easy, as their son Marley would struggle with seizures from time to time. When they got back to the West Coast, he sent out resumes again until he got a call from the owner of the Durham Bulls and went in for an interview.

Though Sommer didn’t get the job, the owner liked him and took him to a league meeting where he met Henry Brabham, founder of the ECHL and owner of the Roanoke Valley team. Sommer had an interview with Brabham over breakfast before he had to leave to catch a plane. But as Sommer was waiting for his cab in the lobby, Brabham quickly caught up to him.

“He tells me to hold my hands above my head,” Sommer recalled of the confusing moment. “He starts punching me in the stomach and goes, ‘You tough boy? I’ll tell you what, you bring a team in here. We can’t have no wussies – that don’t sell in Roanoke. If you want the job, it’s yours, ’cause I like you son.’ ”

Sommer lasted one year in Roanoke before taking a job in Richmond, a position he held for four years. It was at that point fate started to turn him towards the big leagues in an unlikely way: He received a call from Doug Wilson, who offered him a job as coach of the roller hockey team in San Jose during the summer of 1996.

The NHL Sharks hired Al Sims to coach the team that coming season and brought in Wayne Cashman as his assistant, but were looking for a second guy. Sommer interviewed for the position and, as he was coaching in the world championship of roller hockey, got the call from Sims informing him he’d gotten the job.

After two years as an assistant in the NHL, the head coaching position of San Jose’s AHL affiliate in Kentucky became available and Sommer asked if he could make that move.

“Fourteen years later and I’m still here,” said Sommer, who has been through moves with the affiliate to Cleveland and now Worcester.

And now he sits on the precipice of AHL history. He says he’d still explore the idea of becoming a head coach in the NHL, though he recognizes his lack of a Calder Cup championship is likely holding him back.

Ultimately, he has a good thing in Worcester. He’s an ingrained part of the Sharks organization and his son Marley, now 21, helps out with the team. And as you can see in this video, he and everybody else loves it.

“My success is the success that the San Jose Sharks have,” Sommer said. “I’d love to win a Stanley Cup. It’s been 16 years so I could ride off into the sunset if that happened.”

They say our lessons come from the journey, not the destination and listening to Roy Sommer talk really drives that point home.

Because, as he said about his tale, “that’s the short version.”

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

Future with Oilers doesn't obsess Renney

ROBERT TYCHKOWSKI, QMI Agency, Jan 24 2012

EDMONTON – With five wins in 25 games and just a few months left on his contract, it’s been obvious for weeks that Tom Renney is on the hot seat.

But not so obvious that it enters into his daily thinking.

“I’m not worried about that,” said the Oilers coach. “I can’t be. I’m not one of those guys to dwell on my own circumstances or put it in the forefront or worry about it so it gets in the way of my job. I think that’s counterproductive.

“I’m going to do my job, I’m grateful for the opportunity. I’ll just keep going until somebody says OK, hand in the keys.”

The record is pretty grim, but on a rebuilding team decimated by injury, he says his performance shouldn’t be judged entirely on wins and losses.

“You always hope that the commitment you give your players is reciprocated,” said Renney. “Day in and day out as a coaching staff we lay it on the line, we work our butts off and all you can ask them for is to reciprocate that. And I think this team does that. It might not look like it in the results, but in terms of effort, outside of a handful of games, they’ve done that.

“You have to measure anybody’s coaching success through that as much as anything, especially when you’re having tough times.”

YOU CALL THAT A SLUMP?

One team’s slump is another team’s streak.

The Edmonton Oilers would kill for San Jose’s record over the last six games (3-3), but it’s cause for alarm in San Jose.

“It’s funny how things get spun around,” said defenceman Dan Boyle. “Five games ago we had one of the best records in the league.”

They still do, but losing three of four games before arriving in Edmonton has everyone asking “What’s wrong?”

There’s no panic, though. Having gone deep in the playoffs — just not deep enough — several years in a row, the Sharks have come to realize that championships are not won in January.

“What’s important is that we don’t open up the newspaper and look at where we stand,” said head coach Todd McClellan. “But that we open up our play book and look at how we’re playing. That’s the most important thing.”

HELP WANTED

When a team is struggling badly and small up front, like the Oilers, the door is wide open for a 215-pound winger with half-decent hands … if he wants it badly enough.

And Teemu Hartikainen says he does.

“Yeah, of course,” he said. “If you can shine over here, show good things and help the team win the games, that’s a plus for you. You can take a spot. It’s an opportunity for me

“I want to bring more physical stuff, go hard to the net, simple things. The kind of things I did last year when I played here.”

It might make sense to keep him here for the rest of the season, give him a chance to grow now that the season is lost, but Renney says the team will play it by ear.

“We’re going to give him an opportunity to play a couple of games here,” said the coach. “He’s certainly one of those guys who’s symbolic of our future, the type of people we have to have in our lineup to establish any type of presence.”

ANALYZE THIS

Lennart Petrell, part of the Oklahoma City Airlift, is back for his second tour with the Oilers. He admits going from a first-place team in the AHL to a last-place team in the NHL is a shock on a lot of different levels.

“I’m happy to be back here, but the team is struggling a bit, so kind of mixed feelings,” he said, adding he wants to make the most of this stretch. “I need to work harder … obviously the whole team needs to work harder to get the points we need.”

EAGER OUT

Renney made Ben Eager a healthy scratch against his old team, a humbling decision for any player.

“There are just some parts of his game that he has to improve on,” said Renney.

Eager has five goals this season, as many or more than several players playing ahead of him in the lineup, but he still takes too many shifts, and games, off. He’s a guy who needs to be finishing every check, regardless of how many minutes he’s getting a night.

RYANS NOPE

Remember at the start of the year, when guys named Ryan seemed to be scoring every single Oilers goal? Well, Smyth has one in 10 games, Jones has none in 12 and Nugent-Hopkins and Whitney are out with injuries. With two assists in 12 games heading into Monday night, Jones is bone dry right now. He’s trying, but not accomplishing much.

“Good intentions? There’s not a player on the ice who doesn’t have those,” said Renney. “But there is a point where execution is critical. And engaging yourself physically is important. Ryan has to look for consistency in those two areas.”

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

[hockeygod]

Pittsburgh Penguins will unveil statue honouring Mario Lemieux on March 7

The Canadian Press, 2012-01-24

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Pittsburgh Penguins will unveil a statue honouring former star and current team co-owner Mario Lemieux on March 7.

The noontime unveiling of the statue, called "Le Magnifique" outside the northwest gate at Consol Energy Center will be open to the public. The Penguins will host the Toronto Maple Leafs later that night.

Lemieux scored 690 goals and assisted on 1,033 others during his Hall of Fame career, all with Pittsburgh. He led the Penguins to consecutive Stanley Cups in 1991-92. He became part of the ownership group that saved the franchise from relocation.

The bronze statue is designed by sculptor Bruce Wolfe.

The statue was funded privately by the Penguins' ownership group, local labour organizations and members of the Pittsburgh business community.

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

[hockeygod]

Passing on preps to skate in Canada

DAVID La VAQUE, Minn. Star Tribune, January 23, 2012

Marie Corbett expected to spend this winter watching her son, Cody, captain the Stillwater High School hockey team.

Instead, she brings her laptop to a nearby McDonald's or her mother's house to get Internet access and watch webcasts of Cody's games from Canadian cities such as Edmonton, Calgary or Red Deer.

Cody Corbett is one of three Minnesota high school players who left school this year to play for Canadian major junior hockey leagues and what they believe is a better ticket to a professional hockey career.

Ben Walker passed on captaining Edina's team as a senior. Travis Wood left Hill- Murray after his freshman season.

They are adjusting to a faster, more skilled brand of hockey, playing with and against others who have signed NHL contracts. Back home they would be competing against many players whose hockey careers will not exceed the varsity level.

Such departures have been rare in Minnesota, where most top hockey stars head to Division I colleges after high school, the U.S. Hockey League or the National Team Development Program. Even Holy Angels defenseman Erik Johnson, the No. 1 pick in the 2006 NHL draft, postponed joining the pro ranks to play one season with the Gophers.

Cody Corbett's interest in major junior hockey left his mother "upset for at least three days because I had it in my mind like every other parent, you go to college," she said.

In part because they are being paid, however, the three playing this year in Canada have lost their NCAA eligibility.

But they also know that of the 211 players selected in the 2011 NHL draft, 101 came from teams in major junior leagues.

"It's time to let players know there are other options beyond Division I hockey at Minnesota," said Tyler Boldt, manager of player development and recruitment for the Western Hockey League.

His league promotes its on-ice development of players as well as a scholarship program for those who do not sign a professional contract.

Putting college on hold

Marie Corbett thought her son would lead the Ponies as a senior defenseman under the tutelage of Ponies coach and former NHL standout defenseman Phil Housley. Wisconsin and Minnesota State Mankato were showing interest.

But Cody weighed other factors. Draft-eligible in 2012, Corbett wanted to elevate his profile. As for playing college hockey, Corbett admitted his "grades weren't exactly top-notch."

Parents and the former high school coaches of all three players agree, as Marie Corbett said, "not everybody wants to go to college right out of high school."

Should the players' professional hockey dreams fall short, they can access college scholarships funds through the leagues. For every year of service, players receive a one-year scholarship, including tuition, textbooks and related fees, to a post-secondary institution of their choice. Players who sign professional contracts forfeit their scholarship.

Since 1993, the Western Hockey League, where Corbett and Walker play, has awarded more than 4,300 scholarships to graduate players, funded by a contribution of more than $13.5 million from the league's clubs.

"The scholarship program cancels the education argument," Boldt said. "Now we can talk hockey."

'Day and night hockey'

Corbett plays for Edmonton, Walker for Victoria. One of three major junior leagues making up the Canadian Hockey League, the WHL is where all Minnesota residents are geographically obligated to play. Wood, from Hudson, Wis., plays forward/defense for the Pennsylvania-based Erie Otters in the Ontario Hockey League. The third league is the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Players receive a monthly stipend from about $180 to $600 depending on their age.

The arrangement is different for Mario Lucia, son of Gophers coach Don Lucia, who plays for Penticton of the British Columbia Hockey League. Players there maintain NCAA eligibility because they do not receive cash allowances above room and board.

Walker, who gave up playing with his younger brother, Jack, said, "Up here, everybody can skate and everyone has some size to them."

Teams play more than 70 regular-season games, roughly three per week, from late September to mid-March. Games are 60 minutes. And players typically train before and after school during the week.

"It's not the easy way out," Marie Corbett said. "The easy way out is to be the headliner here at your high school and play 25 games and not have to work out so hard."

Corbett, Walker and Wood joined their teams at different points of the season, but all are earning consistent ice time. Through last week, Wood has played in all 45 games for Erie.

Different lifestyles brings challenges, such as getting to know new teammates and enduring long bus rides. The teenagers live with billet families; Walker did his own laundry for the first time.

Their focus remains on the rink.

"Day and night it's just hockey," Wood said.

Local concerns

Local high school coaches question the need to invest in major junior hockey, especially at the price of one's NCAA eligibility.

In conversations with Corbett, Housley said he "tried to sell him on being a captain and being the guy everyone is leaning on. At the next level, you're one of many players and you might not get that opportunity."

Edina coach Curt Giles and Hill-Murray coach Bill Lechner said they never had the opportunity to offer their players any input.

"We believe we have a program that will support a kid with a dream anywhere from playing high school hockey to going to the NHL," Lechner said.

Giles, who grew up in Manitoba and later played college hockey at Minnesota Duluth and professionally for the North Stars, does not worry about high school hockey diminishing but noted: "Major junior teams are starting to recognize some of the quality players in high school."

Defections to Canada likely hit Duluth East coach Mike Randolph hardest of all. He lost four players in six seasons from 1996 to 2002. But he downplayed any talk of high school hockey's date with the wrecking ball, saying "I don't think anything will kill high school hockey."

"It's the reality of where sports are at and where parents are at," Randolph said. "The more you try to fight it, the more frustrated you get. You worry about the kids you have and wish those who leave the best."

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

[hockeygod]

Campbell: The impact of back-to-back games

Ken Campbell, The Hockey News, 2012-01-23

Perhaps he was trying to justify his team’s uninspired performance Saturday night, but Toronto Maple Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf bucked the conventional wisdom about games that are supposed to be easy wins.

The Maple Leafs had just lost 3-1 to the Montreal Canadiens, a team that by all accounts should have been easy pickings for the home side. That’s because while the Canadiens were having their energy sapped with a 5-4 shootout loss in Pittsburgh on Friday, the Maple Leafs were cooling their heels and waiting in their own beds.

“I don’t think back-to-back games have any effect on the team playing the second game in a row,” Phaneuf said after the loss. “I don’t buy into that.”

Perhaps Phaneuf would be able to explain, then, why the Maple Leafs have a 2-4-1 record in the second of back-to-back games compared to a 21-15-4 mark in stand-alone games. But when you examine the numbers more closely, Phaneuf actually might have a point. Yes, teams playing the second game in consecutive nights don’t fare as well statistically as those who don’t, but the difference isn’t as stark as you might think.

So far this season, teams playing the back end of back-to-back games have an overall record of 96-105-28 for a .480 points percentage. That compares to a 618-452-129 mark for teams playing games in non-consecutive nights for a .569 points percentage. Of the 30 teams in the NHL, 10 actually have a better record in the second of back-to-back games than they have in the remainder of their games. Here’s the breakdown (PP DIFF represents points percentage differential):

(see article for stats…) http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/44348-Campbell-The-impact-of-backtoback-games.html

As you can see, a good number of teams are not much better or worse in back-to-back games than they are in other games, with 14 of the league’s 30 teams having points percentages that vary by .100 or less either way. Some of them, though, are brutal in back-to-back games. In fact, if either the Winnipeg Jets or the Dallas Stars don’t make the playoffs this season, they will be able to point to their record in games on the back end of consecutive nights as the main reason.

But when you think about it, having games on consecutive nights shouldn’t really represent that much of a hardship for players. If you’ve ever been on an NHL charter it’s difficult to feel too much sympathy for these guys and in reality, most of the trips they make under these circumstances are short-hop flights, such as Calgary to Edmonton when they’re on a Western Canada swing. Even the Jets, whose travel in these kinds of games you’d think would be the most brutal and might explain their record, isn’t all that bad.

Only one of Winnipeg’s back-to-backs could be considered onerous. That one occurred Dec. 9-10 when the Jets played at home and jetted to Detroit for a game the next night. Aside from that, one of their back-to-backs was played at home, while the others consisted of flights from Toronto to Ottawa, Carolina to Boston, Montreal to Toronto and Ottawa to New Jersey. They also had one New Jersey to New York trip, which consisted of a bus ride.

The players are in such good physical shape and are so well taken care of that playing and travelling on back-to-back nights is less of a challenge than it’s been in the history of the game. Yes, players often arrive at their destinations in the wee hours of the morning, but they also usually don’t have a morning skate the next day and have pretty much the entire day of the game to rest and decompress. One team video meeting, along with meetings for the power play and penalty kill units, are usually about all they have to do on those game days.

It’s also interesting to note that the two best teams in the NHL this season – the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings, are a combined 13-4-1 in the second of back-to-back games and both are slightly better in those games than the others.

Which, generally speaking, basically means that the teams that are good and doing well are going to be almost as good in games when they’ve played and travelled the night before. So to expect a guaranteed win or to use it as an excuse for coming up short is based more on perception than reality.

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

[hockeygod]

On a day for team, Thomas left them shorthanded

Kevin Paul Dupont, Boston.com, January 24, 2012

Tim Thomas separated himself from his Bruins’ teammates yesterday afternoon when he refused to join them at the White House, a day meant to celebrate their 2011 Stanley Cup championship.

The two-time Vezina Trophy winner later in the day issued a statement, released by nhl.com and on Thomas’s Facebook page just after 6 p.m., noting his disillusionment with the United States government and offering that as his reason not to stand with his team.

“I believe the federal government has grown out of control,’’ he stated, “threatening the rights, liberties, and property of the people.’’

We must all celebrate that Thomas, born in Flint, Mich., nearly 38 years ago, has the right to say all of that and more, and we’ve grown accustomed to hearing near-identical dogma from the right wing/conservative/Tea Party end of our political spectrum for the last 2-3 years. He is a free man, living in a free country, and he can sing that blatherall from his hotel room, his crease, and the corner of Causeway and Staniford if he so chooses.

As a country, we’re not yet so deep in the handbasket that any of us has been denied that right. Thankfully.

But yesterday was not about politics and government until Thomas made it about politics and government. The day, long set on the calendar, was a day when the Boston Bruins were asked to visit Pennsylvania Avenue to celebrate what they did as a team last season. It was their day in the national spotlight, until Thomas didn’t show, and then the focal point became, much the way it would be in a hockey game, on the guy who was no longer standing in goal.

Shabby. Immature. Unprofessional. Self-centered. Bush league. Need I go on? All that and more applies to what Thomas did, on a day when Cup teammates Mark Recchi (now retired), Shane Hnidy (a radio guy these days in Winnipeg), and Tomas Kaberle (a member of some Original Six team in Canada), all gladly joined the red-white-blue-black-and-gold hugfest at the White House.

Thomas needed to be there in solidarity, and celebration, with his team. It was the same government yesterday, and will be today, that protected his country, his security, his family, and his right to make $5 million a year, all last season. In his absence, he stole his teammates’ spotlight. Win as a team. Lose as a team. And when asked to stand up and take a bow, then stand up there and suffer if need be, even if you don’t like the setting, the host, or any of the political trappings and tenets that come with it.

Team guys don’t opt out of team meetings or celebrations. Tyler Seguin goofed up earlier this season, missed a team breakfast and X-and-O session in Winnipeg, and found himself sitting in the press box that night. The importance of being on time, being present, was made clear to the 19-year-old winger. There’s no way for coach Claude Julien or GM Peter Chiarelli to do it, but their 37-year-old goalie is in need of the same kind of reminder.

Not a lot has changed in the US over the last two years, although it appears the economic picture is brightening at least a little bit, despite those in charge of our various governmental nuthouses. Unemployment has eased some and the Dow Jones industrial average has improved considerably. Politically, our nation is a mess, but the material Property of the People at least seems to be getting better. Not every house in the Lower 48 is up for short sale.

If Thomas is feeling the way he is today, it could not have happened overnight. He must have felt much the same just shy of 24 months ago when he sounded so proud to wear that Team USA sweater at the 2010 Olympics, and so proudly dipped his head to accept that silver medal. Or was he doing all of that under governmental duress, the pain of knowing our leaders were acting, as he wrote yesterday, “in direct opposition of the Constitution and the Founding Fathers’ vision of the Federal government.’’

Someone so disgusted with our government ought to turn in the sweater and the medal. It must be a horrible burden, if not a pox, to have them in his house.

Thomas didn’t need to issue a written statement yesterday, not when he could have made one by showing up at the White House and quietly picking his moment to utter a few simple words of disappointment to President Obama.

How easy, how far more courageous and honorable, it would have been to say, “Hi, I’m Tim Thomas, and I appreciate the fact my team was invited here today. I don’t like what’s going on in this country. I’m not the least bit impressed with your leadership. But I am proud of what we did, I’m proud to be an American, proud to be a Boston Bruin, and I’d like to see everyone in the government do a better job of adhering to the Constitution. Oh, and I’ve got a question for you about power plays … ’’

There isn’t a lot of that kind of honesty or directness in our country anymore. Rather than walk up to people in charge, most of whom don’t make themselves available anyway, we settle for silly ways to convey our point. We e-mail. We tweet. We drop a dime to a local newspaper reporter. We talk to the fifth in command, who we hope has the brass to talk to the fourth in command, who … well, it just seems we rarely get the chance to say what we really want to say, and say it directly to someone who counts.

Tim Thomas yesterday had a chance to tell the leader of the free world what he thinks it means to be an American today. Not just any American, mind you, but an Olympian, a multimillionaire, a hero in the city where he works, and a member of a championship team that has been a source of joy (and sorrow, too) to millions of Bostonians for nearly a century.

Instead, Thomas took his pads and blocker to another end of town and issued his statement. He could have talked to the president. Instead, he mailed one in from the pizza stand. I think he missed his chance. I think he missed the point of the day. I think he mistreated teammates.

And if I’m right, I think in the days ahead he’ll hear a voice of America representative of a people, many who are equally fed up with government today, who believe he simply should have showed up for his team, respectfully said what he had to say, and gone back to living a pretty good life. In America.

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

[hockeygod]

Did Dave Hodge go too far with Tim Thomas tweet?

BRUCE DOWBIGGIN, Globe and Mail, Jan. 25, 2012

Boston goalie Tim Thomas' political decision to take a pass on the Bruins’ Stanley Cup ceremony at the White House has been all the talk in the NHL and the media since the news broke Monday afternoon. Social media buzzed with Thomas’s Facebook explanation that he’s mad as hell at everyone in politics and isn’t going to take it any more.

People as widely divergent as film maker Michael Moore and TV host Keith Olbermann weighed in. A controversial reaction came from TSN veteran host Dave Hodge who tweeted: “Don't know if it's fair to point this out, but Tim Thomas has three children named Kiley, Kelsey and Keegan.”

KKK, get it? By Thomas espousing a libertarian view, Hodge seemed to imply the goalie sympathizes with a racist organization. And he used the names of Thomas’s kids to make the point. The tweet quickly spread across social media. For his part, Hodge told us in an e-mail, “My words speak for themselves. The words of others do not speak for me. As you are aware, my tweets are almost always satirical, sometimes provocative and admittedly designed to elicit reaction. This tweet was no different.”

TSN had trepidations about Hodge using the names of Thomas’s children to connect him to a racist organization known for lynching and burning crosses. “Just to be clear, yesterday we corroborated Dave’s follow-up tweets that clarified his intention was not to offend, and be humorous,” TSN president Stewart Johnston told us in an e-mail. “While I believe 100 % in the sincerity of Dave’s intent, I also believe the tweet was in poor taste. We have discussed the matter at length with Dave. Beyond that, this is an internal matter and will be dealt with as such.”

Hodge has a reputation for being cutting edge. His legendary pencil-flipping indignation at the end of a segment on Hockey Night In Canada led to his departure — and Ron Maclean’s arrival — from the show in 1987. We often find Hodge’s tweets a voice of wit in a storm of pap. But on this one he should be glad he works for such an understanding network. Other organizations might not have been as understanding.

More Comment: Thomas was pilloried by other media sources, if not quite being equated as a racist. Here in Canada, Sportsnet’s Michael Grange wrote, “The Bruins shook hands with the Canucks, but Tim Thomas couldn't meet his president?” CBC’s Tim Wharnsby asked, “Just wondering if down the road Thomas still will believe standing up for his political convictions in this manner was worth it.”

“Shabby. Immature. Unprofessional. Self-centered. Bush league. Need I go on?” wrote Boston Globe hockey writer Kevin Paul Dupont. All that and more applies to what Thomas did, on a day when Cup teammates Mark Recchi (now retired), Shane Hnidy (a radio guy these days in Winnipeg), and Tomas Kaberle (a member of some Original Six team in Canada), all gladly joined the red-white-blue-black-and-gold hugfest at the White House.”

Agitprop artist Michael Moore weighed in. “Tim Thomas & I went to the same high school. I can tell u this: People in Flint LOVE Obama, desperately need Obama, & DETEST Thomas' actions”. Former ESPN host Keith Olbermann piped up, too. “What a fool this Tim Thomas is. When I was invited to the White House to meet a president, the thrill was BEING INVITED TO THE WHITE HOUSE”.

But others defended Thomas’s right to make a statement. Blogger Greg Wyshynski noted, “Again, I find what Thomas did to be bold. I don't see it as an act of cowardice, seeing all the relationships and good will he risked.” Wyshynski then added that the Bruins themselves were to blame for mismanaging the PR situation. He got agreement from Joe Haggerty of Pro Hockey Talk who added, “Thomas’s world beliefs are pretty far off-centre in most cases, but he genuinely stands behind them. There is something to be admired about all of that.”

Finally, political writer/ broadcaster Luke Russert (son of the late Tim Russert) reminded everyone that Michael Jordan skipped a White House ceremony in 1991 — this time with a republican president George W.H. Bush. “Tim Thomas getting a lot of support for snubbing Obama at WH today, '91 Michael Jordan took heat for snubbing Bush” Of course, Jordan simply wanted a day off to golf.

The largely negative reception from many media to Thomas’ decision seems counterintuitive. On one hand members of the press moan about cookie-cutter athletes who dispense anodyne comments when approached. But when an athlete such as Thomas takes a provocative stance, there is almost universal condemnation from reporters and analysts for stepping out of the “team game”. Shouldn’t he be welcomed as a breath of fresh air?

Or maybe there are “approved” opinions as far as the media in concerned. For example, while Thomas’ libertarian take was jumped on immediately as “crackpot”, very few in the press have any problem with Boston player Andrew Ference’s proselytizing with his hero, climate prophet David Suzuki. And the furore over Thomas is far greater than when another Boston hero, Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, snubbed President George W. Bush twice when his team was honoured at the White House after World Series titles.

Criticism of a different opinion is the public’s right, but the media cannot get in the habit of choosing sides. As we like to say here at Usual Suspects, “Root for the story, not the player or team”.

NFL playoffs score big: Huge ratings for NFL Conference championships last Sunday. Here in Canada CTV did an average of 2.05 M for the Baltimore/New England game and 2.4 million for the later New York Giants/ San Francisco game. Down south, The Giants/49ers earned a 33.4 overnight rating on FOX Sunday, up 7 per cent from last year’s comparable game. The Ravens/Patriots drew a 29.1 overnight rating on CBS Sunday afternoon, down 3 per cent from last year’s comparable game.

Two interesting points here. In Canada, the two CFL Conference finals in November drew 1.8 M for and 1.2 M on TSN, undermining the CFL’s claim that it competes or surpasses NFL telecasts in Canada (thanks to reader Jeff H. for pointing that out). Second point: 96 per cent of people watching the NFL Conference Finals watched them live. Why is this important? Because it reinforces sports’ claim as the last vestige of appointment viewing in the world of PVRs and Blu-ray. As long as networks and cable/ satellite carriers can tie up live sports events they can preserve the traditional delivery models and keep people from cutting the cable

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

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