Articles

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Despite blowout, Detroit model built to last

Sean Gordon, Globe and Mail, Jan. 25, 2012

When the words tumble forth from Mike Babcock, it all sounds so easy, so obvious.

But if such is really the case, why is it when you look at the last 20 years in the NHL, on the one hand, you have the Detroit Red Wings and, on the other, you have the rest of the league?

“We have a good team, a good owner, a good manager, good players, we think we're organized and we play hard,” Babcock, the Wings head coach, said before his team's tilt with the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday.

What sounds simple is, of course, eye-wateringly complex and fiendishly difficult to reproduce.

Otherwise, the Canadiens, who have made little secret of their desire to emulate Detroit's approach and playing style, wouldn't be a bottom-feeding club playing against a team that had won seven in a row coming into the Bell Centre.

The Wings' biggest issue this season has been an iffy road record against weak teams. The Habs duly scored six goals on 13 shots en route to a 7-2 rout – proof that the wheels can fall off even the most slickly-built wagon.

But it's not advisable to draw conclusions from one outing. Part of what distinguishes the Wings, who last missed the playoffs in 1990, is they have discovered and developed a core of veterans that is the envy of the league – having two certified hockey geniuses in future Hall of Fame defenceman Nicklas Lidstrom and forward Pavel Datsyuk (widely considered the most-skilled player in the NHL) doesn't hurt.

Nor does having a coach of Babcock's stature – although the Stanley Cup and Olympic gold-winning bench boss said guiding the NHL's oldest team is a mixed blessing.

“There's two ways to look at it. Number one: kids you can still scare, and they're more likely to do what you tell them. Veterans have an opinion on everything, so if it makes no sense to them, they're not going to be in. It can be easier, it can be way harder,” he said. “But they're smart guys, they want to win, they're at the team time of their career, most of them, and they understand what success is all about.”

The Wings' average age is 30.4 – the New Jersey Devils are the only other team to top 30 years.

To put it in perspective, the Wings' youngest player on Wednesday was 23-year-old centre Cory Emmerton, a fourth-liner who plays an average eight minutes a night.

On the other side of the ice, the Habs had four players who are younger than Emmerton and play much-larger roles: P.K. Subban (their most oft-used defenceman), top-six forwards Max Pacioretty and Lars Eller, and defenceman Yannick Weber.

When 31-year-old winger Henrik Zetterberg, another of the Red Wings' elite players, was asked how it is that Detroit has managed to keep its veterans in the fold, he deadpanned: “We give them contracts.”

Babcock said the 41-year-old Lidstrom, who is out of contract next summer, remains the key to Detroit's success.

“He's one of the best players ever, period. He's an incredible human being, he's very humble, he provides unbelievable leadership, I think he's the best player/leader in the NHL,” he said. “Because of no ego, he doesn't allow the rest of the team to have an ego, and then you're just about winning and the team comes first.”

Lidstrom missed Wednesday's game with a touch of flu, and will skip this weekend's festivities to rest up.

Zetterberg jokingly lamented that decision, saying Lidstrom won't have a chance to be swayed by their countryman, Daniel Alfredsson, the Ottawa Senators 39-year-old captain. (“He looks 45,” Zetterberg quipped.)

Alfredsson has hinted he is not quite ready to retire – and the Wings fervently hope Lidstrom will follow suit.

“I think Gordie [Howe] played until he was 50, didn't he? So, hopefully, he can go for that,” Zetterberg said.

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

Russian to host 1972 rematch?

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, January 25, 2012

MOSCOW — Russia hopes to hold an exhibition hockey match in Moscow's Red Square to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Summit Series between the Soviet Union and Canada.

The 1972 series, which Canada won 4-3-1, was the first time Soviet and Canadian NHL players faced each other.

The state news agency RIA Novosti quoted sports minister Vitaly Mutko as saying Wednesday invitations have been issued to players for a Feb. 26 match.

The report said Paul Henderson, who scored the winning goals in three of the matches, has already accepted, while team captain Phil Esposito and Wayne Gretzky have also been invited.

A spokesman for Gretzky said they were aware the Russians were trying to put something together.

"But by no means have we been presented with an offer," Darren Blake said in an emailed response.

Andre Brin, the director of communications with Hockey Canada, also said they were aware the event and were looking into the possibility of attending, but nothing had been confirmed.

Also on Wednesday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he is inviting NHL officials to Moscow to push for adjusting the league's schedule to allow players to participate in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Earlier this month, the Prime Minister's Office denied a report that Stephen Harper and Putin were planning to play in a game to mark the Summit Series anniversary.

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

Kennedy: NHL needs Ovechkin at All-Star Game

Ryan Kennedy, The Hockey News, 2012-01-25

As the fourth sport in North America’s Big Four, hockey must rely a lot on momentum when it comes to exposure in the U.S. Basketball lockout? Great for NHL momentum. Lockout ends? Bad for momentum. The Winter Classic is always a great showcase event (even if ratings were down this year) and the All-Star Game should at least hold some cache, even if it’s not the most compelling of competitions.

Which is why the lack of Alex Ovechkin this year is such a black mark.

The biggest healthy name in the sport said his heart wasn’t in it after being handed a three-game suspension and for some reason the league’s OK with this.

Sidney Crosby’s on the shelf, as is Jonathan Toews. Ovechkin isn’t putting up his normal stellar rate of points this season, but he is ratings gold and without the Washington Capitals captain, the All-Star Game festivities will feel a little bit empty this year.

The Russian dynamo is not the only one who asked to be excused from a weekend in Ottawa: Anaheim’s Teemu Selanne and Detroit’s Nick Lidstrom also begged off. And while Selanne and Lidstrom are surefire Hall of Famers once they retire, neither would have been the stars of the show, particularly at the skills competition on the Saturday night. That’s Ovie time.

When Montreal hosted the event in 2009, Ovechkin was front and center in the headlines (along with Tampa’s Vincent Lecavalier, who Montreal fans were desperate to see in his home province’s uniform). The Capitals left winger was in the midst of a feud with countryman and Pittsburgh Penguins rival Evgeni Malkin and the chippiness of the burgeoning battle was well known. Unbeknownst to the public, mutual friend Ilya Kovalchuk had brokered a peace agreement between Ovie and ‘Geno’ just before Saturday’s skills night. So when Ovechkin skated over to Malkin during the shootout competition, it seemed as if anything could happen. What no one predicted was that Malkin would act as Ovechkin’s cornerman, squirting Gatorade into his mouth and putting shades on the affable superstar, who also donned a fisherman’s hat adorned with Canadian flags before his last fantastic breakaway shot. In person, it was an amazing bit of showmanship – a plot twist worthy of the best WWE writing. It made the weekend.

Folks in Ottawa won’t be so lucky, however.

And where is commissioner Gary Bettman on this? I recognize there’s a lot of sabre-rattling going on right now between head office and the Players’ Association, but I think having the biggest personality in the NHL at an event purely put together for corporate and ratings purposes would be worth any potential grief.

When Ovechkin went all Superman on Zbynek Michalek, he put himself in a position to be suspended for the head shot. But that doesn’t mean he should get the weekend off, too. The NHL needs Ovie and Washington pays him enough to hang out in Ottawa for a couple days instead of Cabo San Lucas or Las Vegas.

I know it’s not Ovechkin’s fault Crosby is injured and Selanne and Lidstrom had already been excused – heck, maybe Tim Thomas’ Don’t-Tread-on-Me stance will provide all the fodder needed for the weekend anyway – but with the hockey world’s eyes collectively tuned into Canada’s capital, Washington’s favorite hockey player needs to be in on the festivities. Ovechkin isn’t putting up MVP numbers right now, but his personality is more rare than his puck prowess and the NHL needs that on display right now.

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

Jury divided on dual roles in OHL:
For some teams, one person acting as coach and GM has been great. For others, not so much

By RYAN PYETTE, QMI Agency, Jan 25 2012

LONDON, ONT. – Look at the top of the Ontario Hockey League standings and what do you see?

A whole lot of men juggling the dual portfolio of GM and head coach.

All four division leaders — Ottawa, London, Brampton and Plymouth — have coaches who serve as their own bosses.

The top four teams in the Western Conference are that way. Same with the best three in the East.

Coincidence?

Steve Spott, the Kitchener Rangers' man in charge, thinks not.

"You look at the way Ottawa has always done it and the way we did it here with Pete (DeBoer) first and into today," said Spott, into his fourth year at the helm of the Aud-based squad. "When you're GM and coach and you see something that needs to be addressed, you're able to fix it without going through that extra layer.

"You look at the history of our league and that's the way it's worked." There are, as always, some asterisks involved.

The Owen Sound Attack won the OHL title last year with the talented Dale DeGray managing things and under-rated Mark Reeds, now helping the Ottawa Senators over-achieve, working the bench. But it does make a lot of sense the jobs are split up at the Bayshore, in Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury and Erie. It's hard to scout well when you're on a seven-hour bus ride with the team. But there's still little to suggest the one-man kingdom doesn't reign supreme.

Even Windsor, which won two straight Memorial Cup titles with Warren Rychel as GM and Bob Boughner on the bench, doesn't really enforce the two-man advantage. When you own the club, too, the chain of command is even shorter.

"Warren's on the ice with them all the time," Spott said.

If you want to take it further, three of the four teams out of the playoffs right now — Kingston, Sault Ste. Marie, Erie — have the two-man system in place. But if you're not top 16 in a 20-team league, you have a mountain of issues that need to be solved.

That's not Spott's concern.

The Rangers, third in the Western Conference, are trying to keep the OHL-leading London Knights in sight.

They are 10 points back but not about to roll over for their rivals.

"The first thing we want to do is make sure we secure home-ice advantage," he said, "and after that, we'll worry about winning the division. But absolutely, that's a goal. We have an outstanding group here. It starts at the back with tremendous goaltending (from John Gibson and Franky Palazzese). We play with a lot of structure." The Rangers didn't make a huge splash at the trade deadline like London, but they still felt like they got better.

"I don't like trading kids," Spott said. "There's no fun in that part of the job. But we were looking for another veteran forward and the Boston Bruins dropped it in our laps by sending us back (overager) Ty Randell. He's a big addition for us.

"We tried to get another forward, but we couldn't. We liked Austin Watson, we made a good offer, but they (Peterborough) went in another direction." Watson went to London.

But the Rangers still have Ryan Murphy, the most dangerous offensive blue-liner in the league and the inspirational Ben Fanelli, whose return from the devastating and much-publicized Mike Liambas hit gave Kitchener a major boost this season.

"It's gone past being a feel-good story," Spott said. "His play gave us the room to trade Julian Melchiori to Oshawa (which freed up the spot for the incoming Randell)."

It's created a belief this team can go deep into the OHL playoffs. The GM and head coach sure thinks so — even if he's just one guy.

AROUND THE O: It's hard to believe how the Soo Greyhounds have fallen over the past two-and-a- half months. Since their victory in London on Remembrance Day (which featured Knights forward Ryan Rupert's five-game slash on Hounds taunter Nick Cousins), they have lost 21 of 27 games. Front-running London has gone on to win 20 of 26, including pasting the Soo twice on home ice … The Erie Otters are closing in on securing the first-overall pick in the OHL draft this spring and the name to watch is forward Jared McCann, the Stratford native who now lives in Lambeth and plays minor midget for the London Junior Knights. He's a former Elgin-Middlesex Chief, which is interesting because the OHL Knights' star sniper at the moment is Greg McKegg, another ex-Chief acquired in a blockbuster trade three weeks ago from — who else — the Erie Otters.

Dean
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[hockeygod]

Bulldogs on way out of Hamilton

ELIZABETH RANCOURT, QMI Agency, Jan 25 2012

MONTREAL – The Montreal Canadiens' American Hockey League affiliate is set to move to the Montreal suburb of Laval, according to information obtained by TVA Sports from a source close to the story.

According to the source, the Hamilton Bulldogs could move to their new home by as early as summer 2013.

Just like the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Habs' farm team would end up playing a few kilometres from the home of the parent club, in this case the Bell Centre.

According to Canadiens vice-president of communications, Donald Beauchamp, the contract linking the team with its affiliate ends at the end of the 2012-2013 season, which coincides with the conclusion of the contract signed with Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, where the Bulldogs play now.

In Laval, the Bulldogs would play out of a yet-to-be-built complex, the construction of which was announced in 2009.

The City of Laval refused to comment on the story, while Jean-Maurice Duddin, spokesperson for Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt, declined an interview request but didn't deny the story.

Since 2002, the Bulldogs have been owned by businessman Michael Andlauer, a minority shareholder with the Habs. Andlauer, who owns a home and company in Laval, did not return calls for comment.

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

[hockeygod]

Ice hockey teens are in a league of their own

Amith Passela, The National, Jan 26, 2012

ABU DHABI // The first two teams have finally faced off in the Under 20 Emirates Hockey League and the wait was worth it for the teenagers in the Junior Dubai Mighty Camels side.

They opened their account in a league that had been scheduled to start in September with a convincing 12-1 victory over the Abu Dhabi Storms, a team in which half the players are Emiratis.

"The wait was worth it because the youngsters are getting to play in a competition that would eventually be producing players for the senior league and country's national team," Anthony Johnson, the coach of the Junior Dubai Mighty Camels, said.

"Many of the players in the Camels' team have been playing in our own league in Dubai for the last three years and a couple of them have graduated to the senior team as well."

The league, which got underway last week, was started on the recommendation of the sport's governing body, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), who stipulate an IIHF-sanctioned country must have an Under 20 league.

While the Storms had a strong Emirati presence in their team there was a large North American influence in the Camels side.

Matti Fagerstrom, the coach of both the Storms and the Abu Dhabi Shaheen, acknowledged the youngsters from North America had a better knowledge and understanding of the game.

"In is our first game but I wasn't expecting such high score defeat," said the Finn. "Of course the Camels were a good team and they had several players from North America where the sport is very popular and well established.

"This is a learning curve for my players and I am confident we will catch up with them as the league progresses. Indeed it has been a long wait for all he player but they are now excited and they can now look forward for something every week.

Fagerstrom's side began training from last September and a majority of the team are new to the sport.

"They now have the opportunity to play competitive matches every week until May and can only get better," he added.

Johnson said his players were eager to play after the long wait to take part in a competition that was first tabled in April, almost at the end of last season.

"I tried to fire them up in the dressing room before the start of the game but they were already fired up," said the Canadian.

"They have been waiting since September for this moment and the mindset was to get on the ice and play their game. It was teamwork with everyone contributing.

"However, it was the Abu Dhabi team that scored first before we ended the first period leading 3-1. I didn't know what to expect from the Storms. I knew they had these Scandinavian coaches and they get two days of training per week, which is more than we do.

"They were fast and well conditioned but they were tactical they were not matching us. Our team had much chemistry in their passing and better understanding. We had the momentum going for us in this game but I would expect the Abu Dhabi team to come back with a different game plan when we meet next time."

The competition has drawn four teams – the Camels, Storms, Shaheen and Al Ain Theebs – who will play in a round robin league with each side playing 18 matches.

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

[hockeygod]

Governor: Thomas's White House snub suggests lack of 'basic courtesy and grace'

The Canadian Press, 2012-01-26

BOSTON – The governor of Massachusetts says a Boston Bruins goalie's decision to skip a White House ceremony with American President Barack Obama honouring the Stanley Cup champions points to the United States' growing loss of "basic courtesy and grace."

Tim Thomas has said he skipped Monday's event because the federal government was "out of control," but he blamed both parties.

Gov. Deval Patrick was asked about the snub Thursday during his monthly program on WTKK-FM. He didn't directly criticize Thomas, but suggested the snub showed disrespect toward the presidency.

The Democratic governor says while he disagreed with many of former President George W. Bush's policies, he was always respectful when he met with the Republican president.

Patrick added Thomas is a "phenomenal" player and is entitled to his views.

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

[hockeygod]

Proteau: One-on-one with NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr

Adam Proteau, The Hockey News, 2012-01-25

After a year on the job as executive director of the NHL Players’ Association, Donald Fehr is as calm as he ever was during his 26 years running Major League Baseball’s players union. He’ll need that calm in the months ahead, as the NHL collective bargaining agreement expires Sept. 15 and the focus will turn increasingly to the 63-year-old and his efforts to negotiate with what many believe will be an aggressive group of owners.

The Hockey News spoke to Fehr regarding issues pertinent to a possible lockout, including what appeared to be the first salvo fired, when the NHLPA and league couldn’t agree to ratify proposed realignment.

The Hockey News: In regard to realignment, many have focused on your rejection of the league’s plans, but fewer have focused on the league’s insistence of a hard deadline, which is ultimately what caused your rejection. This isn’t the first instance the league has been aggressive with the PA during the current CBA, is it?

Donald Fehr: The league went into their owners meeting, they came out with a realignment plan, and obviously it required the players’ consent. We got into the details on it, we found out the background and information and there were two significant issues from the players’ standpoint: one was assurances as to what the travel would be, and unfortunately, we weren’t able to get those assurances. The league was not in the position even to give us a drafted schedule, which makes any analysis very difficult.

The second issue was access to the playoffs, where in the proposed seven-team divisions you’d have a permanent advantage in terms of access, because you’d only have to beat three teams to qualify, whereas in the eight team divisions you’d have to beat four. The players looked at it, but we weren’t in a position to consent. Whether the deadline was aggressive or not, I don’t really know. All I can say is that we offered – and if the league wants to, we’d be willing now – to meet with them to discuss these issues and see if a resolution could be found. So far, that’s not something they’ve indicated they’re prepared to do.

THN: Has the PA looked at making a counter-proposal for realignment, something that would address the concerns you have regarding travel and competitive advantage? Or do you sit back and wait for the league to drive the bus on that issue?

DF: When it comes to bargaining, we’ll take a hard look at playoffs and schedules and all that stuff and come up with our own ideas. Whether those will be related to the specific realignment proposals we got last December has yet to be determined.

THN: Is it unusual in your experience with baseball to look at hockey now – from what I understand is a $2.4 billion business prior to the 2004-05 lockout to a more than $3 billion business today, yet the owners still are rumored to be asking for concessions from players?

DF: Let me get into the numbers a little bit. The industry in terms of hockey-related revenue was at right about $2 billion before the lockout and the first year after the lockout. We expect it to be a little over $3 billion this year. I’ve heard rumors, of course, that the owners are going to be asking for significant concessions or major concessions or enormous concessions, and whether that will prove to be true remains to be seen. I’ve been in this business long enough to be satisfied that their positions will become clear when the time comes, and we don’t need to invent imaginary horribles until we get there.

THN: Each previous CBA has been held up as a victory for the owners, a so-called “idiot-proofed” system that can save the owners from themselves. Yet by the end of every CBA, it seems we have only more proof that market conditions – including any one owner’s willingness to throw lots of money around – is what actually sets salary levels. On some level, do you philosophically agree that owners have to take more ownership of their own choices and stop off-loading them on to the backs of players with increasingly rigid salary controls?

DF: There’s a lot of assumptions built into your question, and I don’t want to indicate I’m subscribing or not subscribing to any of them. With that said, let me respond this way: in my prior life (in baseball), we were in a world in which you didn’t have caps and management as a result of that had to manage its business on a team-by-team and an overall basis. There was fairly extensive revenue sharing negotiated with the union which went a long way toward alleviating some of the problems. That worked very, very well in baseball. There’s no doubt the last decade-and-a-half or a little more, baseball is far and away the most stable of the four sports. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. And I think there may be a lot that can be learned from that.

Everybody has responsibilities in an industry like this: if you’re on the players’ side, it’s to perform; if you’re on the management side, it’s to manage the various respects of the industry, either team-by-team or overall. And it goes without saying everybody has to do their job. But that should not suggest I’m indicating there are failures there. We don’t know that yet.

THN: When the NHL is in bad marketplaces losing upwards of tens of millions of dollars each season, that loss has to be reflected somewhere, and with the NHL it comes out of the hockey-related revenue pie and results in smaller paychecks for the players. Yet players essentially have no say in the location (or possible relocation) of teams. Is this something that players are interested in talking about in the next CBA – more of a voice in the business end and a true partnership with the owners?

DF: A so-called true partnership, if that connotes joint managerial control, joint ownership and all of those things, is a pretty tall order and so far as I know has not been adopted in any professional sport. If you take a step back from that and talk about whether you could develop vehicles in which you discuss a wide range of issues both in the abstract to the extent you can predict them, and then when they arise, in an effort to reach agreements, rather than having one side or the other make a decision, is that a good thing to do? I think it’s a good thing to try, yes.

I don’t mean to suggest that would necessarily be the case in every situation or that it would necessarily be successful when tried, but if you can get agreements and buy-in and consensus, I think it sets a good ground to move forward as other situations arise.

THN: All four major sports leagues are managed in labor negotiations by a single firm, Proskauer Rose. Is that correct?

DF: No. I would say that firm has acted as outside counsel at various times for the leagues. But they’re the lawyers, and decisions are made by clients, not by lawyers.

THN: Okay. I ask that because you see where the other sports have been trending toward the deals recently struck by the NFL and NBA, where revenue is split 50/50 by and large, and most other elements are ancillary to the deal being signed than that one main issue. Is that something you pay mind to specifically in terms of “the writing on the wall”, for lack of a better term, in the overall sports picture, do you think hockey is inherently different in the way the financial pie is split up?

DF: Let me give you a number of different responses to that. First of all, there’s a danger in extrapolating from too few data points. In this case, you have three: you have the concessionary bargaining that took place in the NFL and NBA that was accompanied by lockouts and a lot of conflict in both cases, and then you have the successful bargaining in major league baseball, where there was no cap, and no threat of a cap, no strike and no lockout, and no threat of a strike or lockout. So you can extrapolate whatever you want from three data points, but most statisticians will tell you that’s a dangerous thing to do, because you haven’t got enough.

The second thing is, I’ve always believed, and my experience since I’ve gotten to the NHLPA confirms, that the four sports are different. The ownership is different, the nature of the industry is different, the economics of the sports are different, and I think all the (labor) agreements are self-contained. And you should approach bargaining in that fashion. So that’s the way we’re going to do it, and it remains to be seen what positions various people are going to come in with. But I’m not going to pre-judge that.

THN: Another issue that is certain to get public attention is the issue of player safety and the level of its importance to the PA. How would you characterize that at this stage? Obviously, finances will likely be the driving issue, but how do you see the safety issue playing out.

DF: I don’t think there’s a single driving or most important issue. There may be a range of issues that have importance, and how those play out in the bargaining process in terms of what gets the most attention remains to be seen. That said, obviously, player safety issues are of really paramount importance to the players, whether it’s concussions, whether it’s other kinds of injuries we’ve seen, whether it’s the aspects of safety issues that result in disciplinary proceedings, whether it’s equipment, boards of glass, or whether it is rules.

My standpoint, from what I’ve gleaned in talking to players, obviously they’d like to make the game as safe as possible, but they still want it to be a hockey game. If you’re gathering from my comment those two may be a little bit in conflict with one another, I think that’s right. I don’t know anybody who wants to take the physical contact out of the game, and as long as you have it, especially as players get bigger, get stronger and move faster, you can’t avoid injuries altogether.

That said, I would expect the players will continue the internal discussions they’ve been having with each other and to an extent with union staff, about what can be done to take some of the risks out of the game or to minimize them, and I’d expect that to be discussed in bargaining. My hope is, and I think my expectation is, too, that when we get to the point of discussing that with the representatives of the NHL, there’s a common purpose in mind. Hopefully we’ll be able to do some good things.

THN: Equipment has continued to be an issue in regard to player safety, yet we haven’t seen a huge amount of change in some of the hard-shell shoulder and elbow pads. Is that something the league and PA have to push manufacturers harder on to respond more quickly? Or is that out of your hands and left to the business decisions made by equipment companies?

DF: No, I don’t think it’s out of our hands. Certainly, if they act together, the NHL and NHLPA can control the kinds of equipment that will be required, permitted or prohibited. You can’t say ‘do something completely different and have it here by 6 o’clock tomorrow night’ because that would be impossible. But if you factor in enough lead time and development time, I don’t think those are issues.

Player safety is a major issue. It’s a major issue for players for all the obvious reasons, it’s a major issue for owners, because I don’t think owners want players hurt any more than players want to be hurt. Hopefully we’ll figure out a way to make some meaningful strides in this regard.

THN: To follow up – do you as the executive director have to make the case to players and show them the financial correlation on some of these issues?

DF: The answer is it depends on what issue and what player. There are a whole lot of players, especially guys who’ve been around for a while, for whom the relevant considerations are obvious; they’ve lived with them day in and day out for years. There are others who, for one set of reasons or another, haven’t had that experience, or perhaps very young players haven’t had it. It varies by player and by issue.

Having said that, there’s nothing about this stuff that in any fashion is beyond that which you’d expect players to pick up on very readily and easily. Part of my job, and part of the union staff’s job, is to make sure they understand the issues and the relevant considerations. Because players in the end have to make decisions as to what positions they want to take, what agreements they want to make, what kinds of things they don’t want to do. Obviously, making those judgments on an informed basis is what you want.

THN: When you stepped into this role, was a priority for you to shake up a constituency used to having their business affairs taken care of for them and getting them to speak their minds to you? Was there a feeling out process where you had to encourage that voice, and maybe poke them with a stick to let them know you’re there to represent them?

DF: Not really. What there was, I think, was the necessity for me to spend some time introducing myself to players, making sure they understand my background and the limitations of my background. I’ll tell you what I mean by that. In terms of how I view what a union is, it is not something that’s distinct from the players. It is the players. And then there’s union staff. That’s what I am. The union is the players.

Sometimes, especially with a group of players who haven’t been through bargaining before – which is about half the players in the NHL now – you do need to take some time explaining to them how bargaining works, what their role is, the fact that not only are they welcome at negotiating meetings, that they should come to negotiating meetings, that there’s nothing that’s off-limits from them, and so on. But you get an awful lot of help from veteran players in that regard. My job is to make sure players make informed decisions and that there is a very solid consensus on what we should be doing.

THN: In regard to the supplemental discipline process, some have observed that punishments can’t really have the desired effect when a player’s union fights as much for the aggressor or alleged aggressor in any incident as the target of that aggression. Do you sense the players want fines and suspensions in the next CBA to have more teeth in that regard?

DF: You pose some interesting questions. Whenever you have somebody in the States and in Canada, and in any societal and quasi-judicial system which is modeled on the Anglo-American system, you have this notion that before you can be penalized, you have the right to have a hearing, there has to be evidence, somebody has to prove you did something and that the penalty meets the offense in some fashion or another. And that’s true even if everybody in the world thinks you’re guilty. The process matters. And the process in this case is something I think the players may well – we don’t know for sure yet – but may well want to pay serious attention to. And in that regard, everybody’s got a right to be defended, and that’s what the union’s obligation is.

You have to look at it in that regard. You’re defending the process, you’re not defending, per se, the individual or the specific set of circumstances. And I think virtually all players agree, that before somebody is told ‘you can’t play for a long time, and we’re going to take tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars away from you,’ that there ought to be a process in place that everybody thinks is fair – fair meaning, if it happened to me, I would be satisfied with the process. Not ‘I think it’s fair what happened to you’.

THN: What about repeat offenders? In my experience talking to players, they give me the sense the game is fast and things happen at a high rate of speed and you’re not going to rid the game of incidental collisions or borderline hits, but they don’t like repeat offenders – and I think of Daniel Carcillo, who recently had his 10th run-in with an NHL disciplinarian, and yet still wasn’t suspended even 10 percent of the season.

Contrast that with your old sport of baseball, where punishments for steroid abuse can run more than 100 games. Don’t league punishments have to carry more weight to be effective, especially for those repeat offenders who seem to be the biggest focal point of player frustration?

DF: All of those things and a lot of other considerations are what we talk about in the office and with players, and when we get to the point of discussing them with the NHL, it may be appropriate to have some conversations publicly about that. I’m not prepared to do that now.

THN: I’m certainly more skeptical regarding the NHL’s claims than I was in 2004. In terms of the public relations war, is that important to you on some level? It seems like it’s almost unwinnable, given the frustrations fans have and how easy a target players can be.

DF: You always want the media and fans to understand the issues. And in everybody’s idea of a perfect world, you want everybody to agree with you. I’m no different than you are or Gary Bettman is in that regard. And you do what you can to explain the issues, but if you or one of your readers came to me as a lawyer and said ‘I have this problem and I want you to represent me,’ and I said, ‘Great, let’s put out some very incomplete, sketchy notion of what this dispute is about, and then we’ll go take some opinion polls, and then I’ll do whatever the opinion polls tell me to do,’ you’d quickly find another lawyer.

To a large extent, that’s true here. You have to make decisions based on the facts, you have to make decisions based on what the players want to do. And you have to make decisions based on what the players want to do when they’ve made informed decisions. To the extent those decisions can be explained and understood, that’s great and wonderful, and you should try and keep at it. But that doesn’t mean you make a judgment based on what you think the public view is.

THN: I’m interested in sport as a microcosm of society as a whole, and I look at the overall labor movement worldwide as having been on the wane since I was a kid in the 70s. And yet through Occupy Wall Street or other groups, you see the social movements are starting to have a little more teeth to them. Do you think people are more cognizant in general of labor movements and maybe with particular mind to the sports labor movement, how have you seen the attitude toward unions play out?

DF: In North America, essentially what we saw was that in 1981, President Reagan broke the U.S. air traffic controllers in their strike, and that summer, there was another strike – the 50-day baseball strike. I was Marvin Miller’s general counsel at the time. That was sort of the signal that it was okay to go beat up on organized labor, and that began this long trend, which continues in large part today, of essentially saying, ‘I’m having trouble competing, so let’s move to Alabama or Mexico or Taiwan or Bangladesh, whichever’s cheaper at the moment to do this, and we’re going to blame organized labor for what our problems are.

You can’t really blame the workers, because you don’t want to look at them, so you say the union is something different than what the employees are. Which is not right. So you’ve seen that. I would like to believe that trend is beginning to change, that people are beginning to realize there was a reason unions were there, that there was a reason people joined them, that they served a great leveling force and that they were, far more often than not, something that served the public good. Whether that will turn out to be the case is not something I’m willing to hazard a guess on. I hope it will.

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

[hockeygod]

Maple Leaf Gardens time capsule offers peek at 1931:
Conn Smythe's son has theory of mysterious ivory elephant's origin

CBC News, Jan 26, 2012

Video Content:

A time capsule buried at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1931 contains an NHL rule book, a municipal code, financial information on the team and a tiny carved ivory elephant.

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/ID=2190508534

A time capsule buried at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1931 and revealed on Thursday contains an NHL rule book, a municipal code, financial information on the team and a tiny carved ivory elephant of mysterious origin.

The capsule, contained in a weathered copper box, was discovered last fall by workers as the building was being remodelled to house a Loblaws grocery store and an athletic centre for Ryerson University.

Maple Leaf Gardens, built by Conn Smythe in 1931, was home to the Toronto Maple Leafs until 1999 when the team moved to the Air Canada Centre.

Contents of the capsule include:

A four-page typewritten letter from the directors of Maple Leaf Gardens.
Four-page stock prospectus for Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd.
1930-31 NHL rule book.
1931 rule book for the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association.
1930 Ontario Hockey Association rule book.
1931 Toronto Municipal Handbook.
A red ensign flag.
A small ivory elephant with fragments of a blue ribbon.

There are also editions of four newspapers from Sept. 21, 1931, including:

The Globe.
The Mail and Empire.
The Toronto Daily Star.
The Evening Telegram.

The capsule was contained in a handmade copper box measuring 30 centimetres by 20 cm by 20 cm. The inner lid is hand-engraved: “M.B. Campbel 124 Lindsay Ave 9/21/31.”

Of all the objects in the box, it was the elephant pendant that spurred the most speculation. About the size of a loonie, the pendant did not appear to fit with the rest of the items.

CBC's John Lancaster, who broke the story about the time capsule's existence in October, interviewed Conn Smythe's son Hugh about the elephant pendant.

Now 84, Hugh said the elephant was likely a gift from a lifelong friend his father met during the First World War. The Russian man established an import-export business after the war and the two men stayed in touch.

“He sent a lot of beautiful ivory carvings to my father as gifts,” Hugh Smythe recalled on Thursday.

Lancaster said the existence of the capsule was not known to members of the family.

“[Conn Smythe] didn’t tell a soul that this time capsule existed," Lancaster reported. "It was only discovered by fluke when the workers pulled a stone from a wall at Maple Leaf Gardens.”

Team's finances revealed

While the time capsule's contents may be a bit of a letdown for hardcore Leafs fans, the documents inside illustrate how much the finances of professional hockey have changed since 1931.

The Maple Leaf Gardens stock prospectus revealed Thursday reports that hockey gate revenues for the 1929-30 season were just over $186,000 and expected to be "close to $200,000" for the following year. The Leafs now collect an estimated $2 million in gate revenue per game.

The contents of the time capsule are set to go on display at Ryerson University.

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

[hockeygod]

Coyotes have 3 interested buyers: Bettman

The Associated Press, Jan 26, 2012

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says there are three groups showing "serious" interest in buying the Phoenix Coyotes with the intention of keeping the team in Glendale, Ariz.

Without going into detail, Bettman revealed there was a third group during his weekly radio show broadcast from Ottawa, where the league's All-Star Game is being held this weekend.

"There are probably three different groups that are taking a serious look at buying the Coyotes to keep them where they're located," Bettman said in a broadcast that was also showed on the NHL Network. He added that Glendale is also "very much part of the equation," referring to the city, which has paid out $25 million US in each of the past two seasons to keep the Coyotes while the NHL operates the team and seeks an owner. The NHL purchased the team out of bankruptcy in 2009.

The two groups known to have expressed interest in the Coyotes are one led by former San Jose Sharks president and CEO Greg Jamison, and another by Chicago sports mogul Jerry Reinsdorf.

Bettman said the sales process remains a "work in progress," and he's hoping to prevent the Coyotes from relocating, but didn't rule out the team moving if a deal isn't reached.

"We're going to try to avoid a move of the Coyotes, but if we don't sell the club, I'm not sure that this won't be the last season here," he said.

Bettman made his comments in response to a fan's question.

The Coyotes' future is expected to be brought up during the NHL's Board of Governors meeting in Ottawa on Saturday. Bettman is scheduled to address the media following the meeting.

The NHL has already gone through relocation once last year, when the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg to become the Jets. As it turns out, it was the Jets who moved to Phoenix to become the Coyotes in 1996.

—–

"And I've got some nice Florida (swamp) land to sell to you too… along with the Coyotes", said Bettman.

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

[hockeygod]

The Great 51

Sportsnet Staff | January 26, 2012

Wayne Gretzky holds or shares 61 records listed in the National Hockey League's official record book: 40 of those records in the regular season, 15 in the Stanley Cup playoffs and six for the All-Star Game.

So to celebrate Gretzky's 51st birthday on Thursday, sportsnet.ca looks at 51 of The Great One's greatest records and asks you to vote on which record you think will be hardest to break.

Here's the "short" list of 51:

Regular season records

Goals

1 — MOST GOALS: 894 (1,485 games)

Second: 801 — Gordie Howe, 26 seasons, 1,767 games

2 — MOST GOALS, INCLUDING PLAYOFFS: 1,016

Second: 869 – Gordie Howe, 801 regular season and 68 playoff

3 — MOST GOALS, ONE SEASON: 92 (1981-82, 80-game schedule)

Second: 87 – Wayne Gretzky, 1983-84, 80-game schedule

4 — MOST GOALS, ONE SEASON, INCLUDING PLAYOFFS: 100 (1983-84, 87 goals in 74 regular season games 13 goals in 19 playoff games)

Second (tied): three players

5 — MOST GOALS, 50 GAMES FROM START OF SEASON: 61 – 1981-82 (Oct. 7, 1981 to Jan. 22, 1982, 80-game schedule); 1983-84 (Oct. 5, 1983 to Jan. 25,1984, 80-game schedule

Next (third): 54 – Mario Lemieux, 1988-89 (Oct. 7, 1988 – Jan. 31, 1989, 80-game schedule)

6 — MOST GOALS, ONE PERIOD: 4 (Tied with 10 other players) Feb. 18, 1981, at Edmonton, third period (Edmonton 9, St. Louis 2)

Assists

7 — MOST ASSISTS: 1,962 (1,485 games)

Second: 1,102 – Paul Coffey, 19 seasons, 1,320 games

8 — MOST ASSISTS, INCLUDING PLAYOFFS: 2,222

Second: 1,226 – Paul Coffey, 1,090 regular season and 136 playoff

9 — MOST ASSISTS, ONE SEASON: 163 (1985-86, 80-game schedule)

Next (eighth): 114 – Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky tied, 1988-89, 80-game schedule

10 — MOST ASSISTS, ONE SEASON, INCLUDING PLAYOFFS: 174 (1985-86, 163 assists in 80 regular season games and 11 assists in 10 playoff games)

Next (tied for 11th): 121 – Mario Lemieux 1988-89; 114 assists in 76 regular season games and seven assists in 11 playoff games

11 — MOST ASSISTS, ONE GAME: 7 (Tied with Billy Taylor) done three times – Feb. 15, 1980 at Edmonton (Edmonton 8, Washington 2); Dec. 11, 1985 at Chicago (Edmonton 12, Chicago 9); Feb. 14, 1986 at Edmonton (Edmonton 8, Quebec 2)

Second: 6 – 23 players

12 — MOST ASSISTS, ONE ROAD GAME: 7 (tied with Billy Taylor) – Dec. 11, 1985 at Chicago (Edmonton 12, Chicago 9)

Second: 6 – four players

Points

13 — MOST POINTS: 2,856 (1,485 games – 894 goals, 1,962 assists)

Second: 1,850 Gordie Howe, 1,767 games (801 goals, 1,049 assists)

14 — MOST POINTS, INCLUDING PLAYOFFS: 3,238

Second: 2,010 – Gordie Howe, 1,850 regular season and 160 playoff

15 — MOST POINTS, ONE SEASON: 215 (1985-86, 80-game schedule)

Next (fifth): 199 – Mario Lemieux, 1988-89, 80-game schedule

16 — MOST POINTS, ONE SEASON, INCLUDING PLAYOFFS: 255 (1984-85; 208 points in 80 regular season games and 47 points in 18 playoff games)

Next (sixth): 218 – Mario Lemieux, 1988-89; 199 points in 76 regular season games and 19 points in 11 playoff games

Per-game scoring averages

17 — HIGHEST GOALS-PER-GAME AVERAGE, ONE SEASON: 1.18 (1983-84, 87 goals in 74 games)

Second (tied): 1.15 – Mario Lemieux (1992-93, 69 goals in 60 games) and Wayne Gretzky (1981-82, 92 goals in 80 games)

18 — HIGHEST ASSISTS-PER-GAME AVERAGE, CAREER (300 MIN.): 1.321 (1,962 assists in 1,485 games)

Second: 1.183 – Mario Lemieux, 881 assists in 745 games

19 — HIGHEST ASSISTS-PER-GAME AVERAGE, ONE SEASON: 2.04 (1985-86, 163 assists in 80 games)

Next (eighth): 1.52 – Mario Lemieux, 1992-93, 91 assists in 60 games

20 — HIGHEST POINTS-PER-GAME AVERAGE, ONE SEASON (AMONG PLAYERS WITH 50-OR-MORE POINTS): 2.77 (1983-84, 205 points in 74 games)

Next (third): 2.67 – Mario Lemieux, 1992-93, 160 points in 60 games

Scoring plateaus

21 — MOST 40-OR-MORE GOAL SEASONS: 12 in 20 seasons

Second: 10 – Marcel Dionne in 18 seasons

22 — MOST CONSECUTIVE 40-OR-MORE GOAL SEASONS: 12 (1979-80 to 1990-91)

Second: 9 – Mike Bossy, 1977-78 to 1985-86

23 — MOST 50-OR-MORE GOAL SEASONS: 9 (tied with Mike Bossy) – Gretzky in 20 seasons and Bossy in 10 seasons

Second: 6 – Guy Lafleur in 17 seasons

24 — MOST 60-OR-MORE GOAL SEASONS: 5 (tied with Mike Bossy) – Gretzky in 20 seasons and Mike Bossy in 10 seasons

Second: 4 – Phil Esposito in 18 seasons

25 — MOST CONSECUTIVE 60-OR-MORE GOAL SEASONS: 4 (1981-82 to 1984-85)

Second: 3 – Mike Bossy, 1980-81 to 1982-83

26 — MOST 100-OR-MORE POINT SEASONS: 15

Second: 10 – Mario Lemieux in 12 seasons

27 — MOST CONSECUTIVE 100-OR-MORE POINT SEASONS: 13 (1979-80 to 1991-92)

Second: 6 – six players

28 — MOST THREE-OR-MORE GOAL GAMES, CAREER: 50 – 37 three-goal games; nine four-goal games; four five-goal games

Second: 39 – Mike Bossy in 10 seasons (30 three-goal games, nine four-goal games)

29 — MOST THREE-GOALGAMES, ONE SEASON: 10 (done twice) – 1981-82 (six three-goal games; three four-goal games; one five-goal game) and 1983-84 (six three-goal games, four four-goal games)

Next (third): 9 – Mike Bossy (1980-81, six three-goal games, three four-goal games) and Mario Lemieux (seven three-goal games, one four-goal game, one five-goal game)

30 — LONGEST CONSECUTIVE ASSIST-SCORING STREAK: 23 games (1990-91, 48 assists)

Second: 18 – Adam Oates, 1992-93, 28 assists

31 — LONGEST CONSECUTIVE POINT-SCORING STREAK: 51 Games – 1983-84 (Oct. 5, 1983 to Jan. 28, 1984, 61goals, 92 assists for 153 points)

Second: 46 – Mario Lemieux, 1989-90 (39 goals, 64 assists)

32 — LONGEST CONSECUTIVE POINT-SCORING STREAK FROM START OF SEASON: 51 – 1983-84; 61 goals, 92 assists for 153 points (Oct. 5, 1983 to Jan. 28, 1984)

Playoff records

33 — MOST PLAYOFF GOALS, CAREER: 122

Second: 109 – Mark Messier

34 — MOST ASSISTS IN PLAYOFFS, CAREER: 260

Second: 186 – Mark Messier

35 — MOST ASSISTS, ONE PLAYOFF YEAR: 31 – 1988 (19 games)

Next (fourth): 28 – Mario Lemieux, 1991 (23 games)

36 — MOST ASSISTS IN ONE SERIES (OTHER THAN FINAL): 14 – (tied with Rick Middleton) 1985 Conference Finals (six games vs. Chicago)

Second: 13 – Doug Gilmour, 1994 Conference Semifinals (seven games vs. San Jose) and Wayne Gretzky, 1987 Division Semifinal (five games vs. Los Angeles)

37 — MOST ASSISTS IN FINAL SERIES: 10 – 1988 (four games, plus suspended game vs. Boston)

Second: 9 – three players

38 — MOST ASSISTS, ONE PLAYOFF GAME: 6 – (tied with Mikko Leinonen) April 9, 1987 at Edmonton (Edmonton 13, Los Angeles 3)

Next: 5 – 11 players

39 — MOST POINTS, CAREER: 382 (122 goals and 260 assists)

Second: 295 – Mark Messier, 109 goals and 186 assists

40 — MOST POINTS, ONE PLAYOFF YEAR: 47 – 1985 (17 goals and 30 assists in 18 games)

Next: 44 – Mario Lemieux, 1991 (16 goals, 28 assists in 23 games)

41 — MOST POINTS IN FINAL SERIES: 13 – 1988 three goals and 10 assists (four games plus suspended game vs. Boston, three goals)

Second: 12 – four players

42 — MOST POINTS, ONE PLAYOFF PERIOD: 4 – (tied with nine other players) April 12, 1987 at Los Angeles, third period, one goal, three assists (Edmonton 6, Los Angeles 3)

43 — MOST SHORTHANDED GOALS, ONE PLAYOFF YEAR: 3 – (tied with five other players) 1983 (two vs. Winnipeg in Division Semi-Finals, won by Edmonton, 3-0; one vs. Calgary in Division Finals, won by Edmonton 4-1)

44 — MOST GAME-WINNING GOALS IN PLAYOFFS, CAREER: 24

Second: 19 – Claude Lemieux

45 — MOST THREE-OR-MORE GOAL GAMES IN PLAYOFFS: 10 (eight three-goal games, two four-goal games)

Second (tied): 7 – Maurice Richard (four three-goal games, two four-goal games, one five-goal game) and Jari Kurri (six three-goal games, one four-goal game)

NHL All-Star Game records

46 — MOST ALL-STAR GAME GOALS: 13 (in 18 games played)

Second: 11 – Mario Lemieux (in eight games played)

47 — MOST ALL-STAR GAME GOALS, ONE GAME: 4 (tied with three players) 1983 Campbell Conference)

48 — MOST ALL-STAR GAME GOALS, ONE PERIOD: 4 (1983 Campbell Conference, third period)

49 — MOST ALL-STAR GAME ASSISTS, CAREER: 12 (tied with four players)

Second: 10 – Paul Coffey (in 14 games played)

50 — MOST ALL-STAR GAME POINTS, CAREER: 25 (13 goals, 12 assists in 18 games)

Second: 22 – Mario Lemieux (11 goals, nine assists in eight games played)

51 — MOST ALL-STAR GAME POINTS, ONE PERIOD: 4 – (tied with Mike Gartner and Adam Oates) 1983 Campbell Conference, third period (four goals)

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

[hockeygod]

Send the NHL all-stars outdoors

BRUCE DOWBIGGIN, Globe and Mail, Jan. 26, 2012

Far be it from us to tell Gary Bettman how to run his all-star game, where interest peaks with the prospect that the celeb singer will forget the words to a national anthem.

Still, for the second (third?) consecutive year, let us suggest a solution to the All-Star Analgesic: Merge it with the Winter Classic. Have the all-stars frolic in the great outdoors before 50,000. And make Jan. 1 a real showcase game on real ice.

Hear us out. One of the growing concerns about the Winter Classic (at least among Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean’s book club) is the substandard condition of the ice. The reasoning goes that, if bona fide points in the NHL standings are at stake, it behooves the league to present a modicum of acceptable ice upon which the teams can perform when playing outdoors.

So far in the history of the WC, there have been rain storms, deep freezes, postponements and other acts of God that created a patchy skating surface. How patchy? Players say it reminds them of the ice at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla. Or a snow cone. Same thing.

But the all-star game is heaven-sent for patchy ice. Played at half-speed by players who saw last call the night before, fast ice conditions are not an imperative. Best of all, no one this side of Lady Byng cares who wins, so you remove the MacLean Integrity Factor caused by bad bounces.

The Winter Classic has become a huge corporate promotion – just like the all-star game. And let’s face it, the glassy-eyed suits are not even paying attention to the action. It could be in Kansas, as long as there’s a hospitality suite. New technologies are making games in warm climes like Los Angeles and Florida practical, so you can spread it among all teams.

Ah, but what to do about that lucrative Jan. 1 date NBC cherishes?

Why not make it a rematch of the previous year’s Stanley Cup final? You’re telling us watching Jaromir Jagr in a tuque is a better draw than the Boston/Vancouver grudge match was earlier this month?

Sure, NBC sportscaster Bob Costas would be forced to pay attention, but wouldn’t that sell the game more than swagged-out all-stars in a scrimmage?

Makes sense. Now, stand at ease.

BRUSH OFF

CBC has broken its silence over the cancellation of its Grand Slam of Curling broadcasts.

The CBC had aired the Grand Slam for the past four years, but on Jan. 18, it told iSport Media and Management, the circuit’s organizer, it was ending coverage immediately. That left the final two events this season with no TV broadcaster. Thus far, no replacement network has been announced.

At the time, iSport chief executive officer Kevin Albrecht told The Globe and Mail issues over quality of the broadcasts was a factor.

Not so, says Jeffrey Orridge, executive director of sports properties for CBC Sports.

“This is about ISport not fulfilling the terms of the contract,” Orridge told Usual Suspects. “We could not go on any further financially under the circumstances. It had nothing to do with quality of production.”

CBC carried the series past the point where it made financial sense, Orridge says. “Our concern was for the curlers and the fans who support the sport. We tried to give it every chance to succeed. This wasn’t a capricious decision. CBC has had some form of curling since 1962, and we didn’t take this lightly. But the time comes when, as a public broadcaster, we have to be prudent. There was no chance of recouping our costs, and we reluctantly made the decision.”

Orridge says there is no chance of a reconciliation with ISport, but that the network would seek to get curling back onto its airwaves.

One way would be to have the Olympic curling competition from Sochi in 2014. But talks between the CBC and partner BCE Inc. with the International Olympic Committee over TV rights have stalled.

“The good news is we’re still talking to the IOC,” Orridge says. “Negotiations have not collapsed. But I can’t say anything more than that.”

We contacted Mr. Albrecht but had not received a reply by publication.

BROWNS MAN DOWN

How much fun is Twitter? Just ask Cleveland Plain Dealer sportswriter Tony Grossi, who became the latest in our tribe to fall afoul of the social media site.

Grossi, the Browns beat guy for the CPD, inadvertently published a tweet about team owner Randy Lerner that was meant to be private. No big whoop, right?

“He’s a pathetic figure, the most irrelevant billionaire in the world.” Oh.

Grossi deleted the tweet and profusely apologized for having an opinion about the owner of the sad-sack Browns. But the newspaper felt he was tainted and replaced him on the prestigious beat with someone who’ll keep his/her opinions to themselves.

Because journalism is all about playing kissy-face with the big sports owner in town. Everyone knows that.

DRIPPING HONEY

You might say there aren’t many wordsmiths working TV these days. So let’s all bow down to GolTV’s Ray Hudson: “Well cut apart from the genius of Messi again, he draws the defence to him like a magnet. And once more, Casillas’s men are playing poker with a witch. They’re gonna lose. Messi magisterial. Pedro, that man I told ya about people, he’s a goal scorer and he’s a real talent. Holds up beautifully and what a dispatch. Fabulous by Messi, magic feet dripping honey on it with every touch and then he’s got the awareness, the dexterity, and that x-ray vision like Superman through steel to put it on an absolute scalding altar. Again from this angle, again, the gazelle running around cheetahs, but look at that pass people. It’s absolutely monumentally perfect.”

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

[hockeygod]

Sports TV monopolies put networks in the penalty box

Derek DeCloet, Globe and Mail, Jan. 26, 2012

For the CBC, conflict is a winning business. The public broadcaster’s biggest cash cow, Hockey Night in Canada, is based on conflict: war on the ice, fury during the first intermission, the epic two-month struggle of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

But when the battle moves from the rink to the boardroom, the People’s Network becomes the biggest loser. Rich, private media companies are paying big prices for sports television rights, and Ceeb officials are getting annoyed. Five years ago, the CBC held rights to the Olympic Games, the Grey Cup, Toronto Blue Jays baseball, Toronto Raptors basketball and soccer’s MLS Cup. Now it has none of those. But the biggest hit may be yet to come, when the Hockey Night deal expires in 2014. Many expect the CBC will lose its signature program to one of the twin giants of Canadian sports television, Bell Media or Rogers Media—the same companies that just snatched control of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd., owner of the Raptors and the Toronto Maple Leafs, in a $1.3-billion deal.

“Have we reached the point of irrational exuberance?” asked Jeffrey Orridge, the CBC’s executive director of sports properties, not long after the network was outbid by Bell on rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. His words were deliberately chosen. “Irrational exuberance” was the phrase coined by Alan Greenspan in 1996 to raise alarm about overvalued stock markets. Orridge, too, likes to suggest “bubble” when he describes the prices being paid to broadcast top events. “You can make a case why sports rights command such a premium. But at what point is that beachfront real estate overpriced?” he told The Globe and Mail. The not-so-subtle implication: Bell and Rogers are just like the suckers who bought condos in Miami.

But are they really? The market for TV sports might be exuberant—witness the NFL’s eye-popping nine-year, $28-billion (all currency in U.S. dollars) deal with CBS, NBC and Fox—yet to call it a bubble is to misunderstand both the nature of the sports business and the nature of bubbles.

In a weak economy, few expenses are easier to cut back than hockey or basketball tickets. Yet the Great Recession barely scratched the sports business. Globally, the market was worth about $119 billion in revenue in 2011, up from $112 billion in 2007, according to new estimates by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Combined ticket and merchandise revenues are down a bit—the unemployed don’t get out to many Yankees games—but people are still watching sports on TV, so media rights and sponsorships are strong. Nine of the Top 10 most-watched shows in the United States last year were football, according to Nielsen.

Meanwhile, team values keep rising. The average NHL team is now worth $240 million, up 47% since the start of the lockout that killed the 2004-’05 season, according to Forbes magazine. Manchester United, the world’s most valuable soccer club, is said to be worth 28% more than in 2007, the year before the financial crisis that wiped out big British banks and the U.K. economy. Baseball teams have never been worth more, even though attendance is down from pre-recession days. Ted Rogers was criticized for wasting money when he paid about $112 million for an 80% stake in the Toronto Blue Jays in 2000. Forbes valued the team at almost $340 million last year.

But doesn’t all that scream bubble? Not quite. Asset bubbles occur when the price of something rises too high, given the available supply. When tech stocks rose to absurd levels in the late ’90s, established technology companies took advantage by selling new shares, increasing the supply. During the real estate boom, U.S. home builders launched more projects until there were too many houses.

But the new model of professional sports isn’t to increase supply. It’s to limit it. The NFL hasn’t added a new team since 2002, Major League Baseball since 1998. Neither league has increased the number of games. Ambitious entrepreneurs who try to increase the supply of sports by starting rival leagues inevitably fail. The last serious attempt to create an alternative football league was in the 1980s. It lasted three seasons. Fans want to see the best players competing against each other; that means the best players must congregate in one league.

The fans demand monopolies, and monopolies are what they get. Professional sports leagues are permitted to negotiate TV deals on behalf of all teams—de facto collusion. Within the league monopolies, there are local monopolies, since it’s impossible to start a franchise without consent. Why isn’t there a second NHL team in Toronto? Why can’t Jim Balsillie buy the failing Phoenix Coyotes and move them to Hamilton? Because the league says so, that’s why.

Competition watchdogs don’t get too upset about sports monopolies—because, really, what does it matter? These aren’t gas stations or grocery stores. Nobody’s forcing you to watch Monday Night Football or buy tickets. It’s the broadcasters who feel the pinch. No wonder the suits at the CBC are so upset.

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

[hockeygod]

Americans consider ban on fighting in junior ranks, hope Canada follows suit

Allan Maki, Globe and Mail, Jan. 26, 2012

USA Hockey is looking to ban fighting from its junior ranks and is hoping Canadian hockey does the same.

At its recent winter meetings, USA Hockey recommended that fighting be eliminated at the Tier I, II and III levels. The proposal, which will go to a formal vote in June and could be implemented for the 2012-13 season, calls for National Collegiate Athletic Association-style sanctions to penalize fights. (In the NCAA, a player who fights receives a game misconduct and must sit out the next game, too. There are increased suspensions for every additional fight a player has.)

USA Hockey also asked that Canada work to ban fighting, too. The rationale is that player safety is paramount and that blows to the head from fighting could cause brain injuries in young players and result in lawsuits.

Jim Johannson, USA Hockey’s assistant executive director of hockey operations, said “everything that’s been going on in the game – player safety, the number of injuries and where fighting fits into that” was the impetus for taking a tougher stand on fighting.

“Whatever we do there’ll be a fight in junior hockey next season,” Johannson said. “But if kids are in this level of hockey and fighting x amount of times, then what’s going on? We have a responsibility to safeguard the game at the minor levels. This is not the NHL, and that’s not a criticism of the NHL. These are kids under 20 playing hockey.”

Canadian hockey officials are willing to discuss the fighting issue and do what’s best for the players. Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson participated in a meeting with USA Hockey during the 2012 world junior tournament in Edmonton and said Thursday: “We want to remove fighting from the game, but we don’t want to create other violent acts that may occur. We’ll work hand in hand with USA Hockey.”

Kirk Lamb, chairman of the Canadian Junior Hockey League, also took part in the world junior meeting with USA Hockey, and insisted it was important to make smart decisions, not ones with “unintended consequences.”

“Player safety involves more than just fighting,” Lamb said. “It’s about attitudes of players and coaches and making sure we adopt rules that encourage change in those attitudes. If, after considering all the information available it’s decided fighting needs to be removed, we just want to be sure that we do it in a way that doesn’t trade one type of violence for another, such as head shots or dangerous hits.”

The CJHL will soon formulate data collected from its leagues that allow a player to fight twice in the same game and compare it to leagues where only one fight is permitted. It’s that sort of hard-core analysis Canadian hockey officials are willing to share with their American counterparts.

“We’ve done some pretty good things in junior A in the last 18 months,” Lamb said of the CJHL’s disciplinary efforts to reduce fighting and violence. “We put the offer out to [USA Hockey], ‘Let’s work together.’”

Getting the Canadian Hockey League to follow USA Hockey’s no-fighting plan might not be easy. The Ontario, Quebec and Western major junior leagues are associate members of Hockey Canada and govern themselves. They’re prime feeders for the NHL and, as such, allow on-ice fights as part of a player’s professional development. Ron Robison, commissioner of the Western Hockey League, was at the world-junior meeting with USA Hockey, and Thursday he reiterated how the CHL is “partnered with the NHL and we have an understanding to mirror their rules.”

“From a WHL/CHL perspective, we feel strongly our role is to prepare players for the next level and as long as fighting is an element of that, we need to prepare the players so they can protect themselves,” Robison said, adding that fighting in the WHL is down 10 per cent compared to a year ago.

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So let me get this straight… "… our role is to prepare players for the next level and as long as fighting is an element of that, we need to prepare the players so they can protect themselves,"?

If you outlawed fighting, players wouldn't need to fight to protect themselves… right?
—–

“We monitor [fighting] very closely,” he added. “I think the game is evolving to a point where there are less one-dimensional players, if any. The focus today is on speed and skill.”

USA Hockey concurred with that, but is still hoping for a significant show of support from its northern neighbours.

“They’re important stakeholders,” Johannson said of Hockey Canada, the CHL and the CJHL. “The hope for them is that all of us agree about the need to look out for the good of the sport and the players in it.”

—–

Great job USA! Time for Hockey Canada (and other hockey nations) to pull their collective heads out and join the 21st century!!!

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

[hockeygod]

Hitting ban 'long overdue' — Hockey Winnipeg director

DOUG LUNNEY, QMI Agency, Jan 26 2012

WINNIPEG – Banning hitting at certain levels of amateur hockey has received more support — this time from the executive director of Hockey Winnipeg.

Peter Woods “sees some value” in adopting a ban and said he wasn’t surprised when the Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association voted 76% in favour of eliminating hitting in the “fun” levels of hockey from ages five to 19 on Monday.

Bodychecking will still be permitted at the “rep” level played by the most advanced young players.

“I don’t think it’s a big shock. It’s probably long overdue,” Woods said.

The move, which starts next season in B.C., has sparked a varied response. Some complain the game is being ruined by those who want to raise children in bubble wrap. Others believe it will keep a certain level of player from quitting hockey.

“I would like to see it personally,” Woods said. “If it’s going to advance the safety of the game and allow some kids to participate in the game a little bit longer, then I would say it would have to be a positive.

“Some of those (negative) comments are coming from traditionalists who don’t want to let the sport go. They feel it’s a man’s game. They grew up in that environment and they’re still holding on to that.”

Bodychecking in Manitoba begins at peewee (11 years old), which has four tiers in Winnipeg from AA to A3. If Winnipeg were to adopt a similar ban, it would likely only involve those players at the A3 level, said Woods, noting there is often “a huge discrepancy in the physical size of players and their abilities.”

A3 players are in the game for fun and may enjoy it more if they didn’t have “a burden and fear” of being hit, he said.

“I think we need to look at different ways to repackage our sport so that it can be attractive for all levels of players, not just the players who enjoy the physical component of the game,” he said.

So how soon could one expect others to follow the Pacific Coast association’s lead?

“Change is slow at times and then it gains a little bit of momentum,” Woods offered. “I was convinced probably three or four years ago that there would be no blind-side hits … that’s come on board, also no contact to the head, and that’s come on board.

“When we grew up, you were allowed to cross check kids from behind … that was successfully eliminated and that was a positive step for the game.”

The game of hockey has changed and it’s up to the caretakers of the game to keep it updated, Woods said.

“Just look at a Summit Series game from 1972 or any other (game from that era),” suggested Woods, a goaltender with the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League champion Prince Albert Raiders in 1978. “You look at that and say, ‘Holy cow, are these guys ever slow.’

“The speed of the game now is so much faster at all levels. The players are so much bigger.”

Woods is certain such a move would encourage certain players to stay in the game longer.

“You see a lot of kids come back and play when they’re 20 years old,” he said. “They’re playing in the rec league, so why wouldn’t they participate in a program like this?

“It just provides another opportunity for kids to play at a level where they can enjoy the game. I see some value to it.”

—–

More good news… Holy Cow, almost too much for one day!

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

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