Continue reading »]]> Diamonds

New York Rangers Captain Ryan Callahan is the 26th team captain on the historic original six team.  Ottawa Senators fans might appreciate the diamond in the rough story that Callahan brings to New York.  This young New York Rangers captain was drafted 127th overall much like Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson was drafted 133rd overall.

I am a hug fan of players that are hidden gems in the NHL entry draft system.  The yearly rankings of all the top 10 picks in the NHL Entry draft from year to year have a possible superstar among them.  Who is looking at depth charts well into the fourth round of any professional sports draft?  That deep in the draft you could find a Callahan or an Alfredsson.

These two players make any NHL General Manager stay up late at night pouring over hundreds of junior player profiles.  Fearless and unprecedented team play just might be 130 picks from the top of the draft, who a team gets that dedication from could be playing a smaller role on any Junior hockey team in the world.  How important is scouting to an NHL team?  I think these two players are an example of what comes from great scouting reports and patience.

Ryan Callahan

I took real notice of Callahan and the way he dictates his presence this year during a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.  In an early January game against the Leafs at the Air Canada Center Ryan Callahan started against a gritty third line.  The Leafs coach wanted to send a message to the Callahan line, letting them know they are in for a tight checking game.  Callahan called the bluff and stayed out on the ice for 15 extra seconds  of his shift in order to meet up with the top line of the Leafs.  Off the Leaf bench skated Phil Kessel, across the blue line he receives the puck against the half boards and Ryan Callahan is there to meet him with a thunderous check.  Callahan just answered the proverbial bell.  You want to put the test on Ryan Callahan?  He puts the test right back to you as a coach on the other side of the ice.  That example isn’t something you see on the stat sheet outside of a “hit”, but it plays out in the course of a game, a season and a career that makes a player a great one.  He made an early impact on the opposing teams superstar and made his presence known.

Ryan Callahan is nothing less than a John Tortorella kind of player.  Battle ready, grit along the boards, fearless shot blocker and the type of player that can put 40 points on the board over a season.  Any General Manager in the NHL would want such a player.

Daniel Alfredsson

As the writer who follows the Blue and White Leafs and is sitting under his signed Mats Sundin 500th career goal plaque, these next two paragraphs will send some social media hate my way for sure.

I have said this on many occasions in the company of my Ottawa Senators friends; “If just a few more players on the Ottawa Senators played the way Daniel Alfredsson does night in and night out, the team would have been a dynasty.”  Alfredsson is a player who started out as the lone goal scorer that the Senators then managed to put some talent alongside.  His leadership skills blossomed early and like his New York Ranger competitor became a captain at 27 years old.

I made note of a Daniel Alfredsson play he made this year at a game I attended.  Alfredsson enters the offensive zone against the Boston Bruins on home ice already down 2-0.  He makes a backside pass to his offensive support crossing the blue line, the Senators are trying to open up the game in order to get back the three goals they trail.  Alfredsson has his pass intercepted and it develops into a two on one going the other way.  His forward teammate on the ice with him at the time Kyle Turris takes a long skate around the Bruins net to get up the ice while Alfredsson stops and starts back checking right from the moment the puck starts towards the Senators end of the ice.  Alfredsson reaches the Bruin player with the puck as he makes time for more offensive support.  After Alfredsson checks the puck from the Bruins player and disrupts the mistake he started, the captain then heads for the bench.

Again not the type of play you read about in the scoring summary, not the type of play that defines a period of hockey or even a game.  But the small hockey plays that put a player above those around him.  With his head down and catching his breath on the bench after a sprint back up ice, he sends a message down the bench to the player he was on the ice with.  If that message was to take responsibility for his mistake or give advice on the back check, it doesn’t matter because it was leadership being displayed.  Every team in the NHL needs one or two of those types of players.

Two Players

With my small comparison here we are looking at a player who is at the end of his NHL career that has stayed loyal to the NHL club that drafted him.  Daniel Alfredsson the fourth round pick that became the cornerstone that the Senators needed to build a team around.  Ryan Callahan the quiet, all-encompassing player that the Rangers need to complete this Stanley Cup run.  Two players that make an impact by example and with quiet resolve.  Reminds me of an old Toronto Maple Leafs captain that Leafs Nation misses dearly; Mats Sundin.

First round or fourth round, there are diamonds in the rough and sometimes when they shine they have a lasting impression.  They might start off as a mediocre scorer and then turn into a natural leader, they might just be a flash in the pan.  In my opinion that is what makes the NHL such a great game to watch.

As a fan of the NHL I plan on following Callahan and watching his progression.  Should be a long illustrious career in New York for Ryan Callahan and a possible championship ring, something he might be wearing in short order.

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Wayne Gretzky with yours truly, at Keyano College, Ft. McMurray, Alberta, May 11,2012. Number 99 exuded class the entire time. It was an honour to hang with him for a couple of days.

That’s too many numbers for a scoring play but indeed it was a major score for Keyano College in Fort McMurray, Alberta this past weekend (May 10-11) with a fund-raising effort the likes of which you don’t see every day.  I was honoured to be invited by Shawn Chaulk, chair of the organizing committee and under the guidance of Melane Leblanc I was part of an extremely well organized and exciting event fronted by Wayne Gretzky himself as the event was titled, ‘One on One Banquet, with Wayne Gretzky.’

Mr. Chaulk is a Keyano College Alumni and very proud of not only the college but the Wood-Buffalo corridor which includes Ft. McMurray. The place is experiencing a population boom, there is a ton of work and if you’re an aspiring young man or woman you may want to investigate this location which granted is not on the beaten path but if one’s life is about experiences and seeing your country you can do a lot worse than venturing a mere 440km’s north of Edmonton. I had three days and two nights there, had a great tour from a long time dear friend, Colin Reid and ended up spending the better part of the two days with none other than Mr. Gretzky himself. Folks, it does not get a whole lot better.

For the record the numbers above represent the other guests that participated in the Hot Stove portion of the evening on the grounds of this beautiful college. 19-Bryan Trottier,  33-Marty McSorley..27-Dave Semenko..39-host of the Hot Stove session Kelly Chase and last but certainly not least 15..Darren Langdon and believe me when I say this, you may be able to take the boy out of Newfoundland but you can’t take Newfoundland out of the boy. Great guy, tough as nails and he was continually responsible for many of the best lines over the course of the two days.  In what is still a predominant Deer Lake, Newfoundland accent Darren had this exchange with Wayne on the stage during the Hot Stove session- ‘Langer, are you texting or tweeting while we’re talking here?? Don’t let us get in your way pal!’   Darren Langdon,’ yeh by, I’m just lettin’ the Newf’s in the crowd know that as soon as you’re done talkin’ to meet me at the hotel bar!’   And he was not kidding… Classic, he played with Wayne in New York, just a fantastic guy and back in the day Darren and Marty McSorley had two bell ringing fights. You’d never know it today but if you want to see how it was then- check this video out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6O_UWOOMLQ

And here they are today at the reception last Thursday night with yours truly. I’ve worked with both of them before, two great character guys who have done a ton for various charities.

Darren Langdon and Marty McSorley with yours truly. 530 hockey fights between these two vibrant and engaging men who were both outstanding contributors to this great event.

Kelly Chase had two stints with St. Louis, one each with Hartford and Toronto and he was the host of the Hot Stove portion of the evening. His repertoire of jokes preceding each introduction hung right on the border of tasteful but he delivered them masterfully, he steered the session expertly, fittingly given he works on the radio broadcast for the St. Louis Blues. Chase played 458 games in the NHL accumulating 2017 pim’s.  Dave Semenko was the preeminent enforcer in the NHL right out of the merger with the WHA where his statistical claim to fame was he scored the final goal ever in WHA history in a 7-3 playoff loss to the AVCO Cup champs, the Winnipeg Jets. Semenko played 575 games in the NHL with Edmonton, Toronto and Hartford but will forever be remembered as Wayne Gretzky’s body-guard on the ice in those early days.

Marty  McSorley took over the Semenko role on Edmonton. Each of them won a pair of Stanley Cups and of course McSorley was part of the most impactful trade in NHL history on August 9, 1988 joining Gretzky in the move from Edmonton to LA. McSorley created his own hockey history with the illegal stick call in game two of the 1993 finals and later as a member of the Boston Bruins his suspension for a stick incident with Donald Brashear. I choose to remember a true warrior of the game when one was still needed who also could handle a puck as evident by his 359 regular season points and among his playoff successes a very solid ten points in twenty-four games with LA during their Cup run of 1993. McSorely is well spoken, gives thoughtful answers to every question and he like the rest of the guys lends his time to countless charitable events.

Bryan Trottier was a good fit on the dais for a couple of reasons. He’s a Western Canadian lad by birth, he has native blood and there is a strong native Canadian presence in Fort McMurray and he was arguably one of the fiercest competitors in hockey history as noted by his six Cup championships with the Islanders and the Penguins, his Conn Smythe Trophy in 1980, Calder Trophy in 1976, his play internationally and his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. I had the privilege to wrap up Friday evening at the hotel bar sitting between Trottier and Gretzky talking hockey for close to four hours. It does not get any better than that.

Speaking of number 99, although I had met him on two prior occasions and was part of the vast media scrum that interviewed him after his final game in Canada played in Ottawa on April 15, 1999, this was totally different for me. I had ample time and opportunity to talk hockey with the greatest offensive force in sports history and arguably the greatest hockey player of all time. Following are a number of quotes from this past weekend in conversation with Wayne Gretzky.

the instigator rule is the worst in hockey. When Semek ( Dave Semenko) and Marty played, they never went after Guy Lafleur, they never went after Mike Bossy or Marcel Dionne. There was a respect from that point of view, they kept the game honest yet it still was rough, it still could get crazy, you just didn’t have the stars getting run like you do today. I hate the rule. Did anybody hear Mark Howe’s comments during Hall of Fame weekend last November? I played with Mark in the WHA, I know the family real well. Mark Howe never fought, Mark Howe was never jumped by idiot players running around, it was an ill-timed rule that continues to plague the game today.

-I was playing with Sault Ste Marie and I had worn numbers 14 and 19, hated them both, just didn’t feel right. I couldn’t get number 9, a veteran named Brian Gulazzi had it and he wouldn’t give it up. Finally after our 7th or 8th game, Muzz MacPhearson who ran the Sault said,’ why don’t you wear two 9′s? Esposito ( Phil ) was doing it on the New York Rangers with 77, he got a couple of others doing it, so I tried it. Another Sault employee, Angelo Bumbacco said, ‘ I dunno kid, you’re gonna be a marked man,’ I said, I already am!  Seemed to work okay.

when Indianapolis traded me to Edmonton my first meeting with Glen Sather and he told me ‘we’re gonna protect ya kid, first thing we’re gonna do is take away the pressure of that number 99. So I wore number 20 for one game, my first game in Edmonton. I went to him after the game and said I don’t like it, I want to wear 99. He said okay.

we were sitting around the Oiler dressing room just at the start of training camp and Slats was checking if all of us had completed the summer training sessions. When he got to Semek he asked him how the running went cause ya know, Dave looked a little heavy and he said well Slats, I tried that running thing but it kept blowing my smoke out.

-Semek used to miss the odd practice or come late. It was a-love hate relationship between those two. Slats lost it one day, phoned Dave at home and was screaming at him how he was going to suspend him, trade him, do everything to him and Semek screams back, ‘ oh ya? you can’t do a thing to me cause I RETIRE!!’   Of course he came back, he was a big part of our two first Cup wins.

the most fear I had for any player was for Denis Potvin. He was the toughest defenseman for me to play against, extremely tough physically, great player. The Islanders really showed us how to win. People talk about that 83 finals and for sure, we did see the ice bags and the low-key celebration in the room after but they forget we played them in ’81. I remember a guy, ( at this time Wayne was talking directly to Trottier but he also directed this question at me) do you know who scored that key goal for you guys in game six when you knocked us out? Trottier shook his head no….Wayne turned to me, I also said no I don’t Wayne. ‘ Anders Kallur he stated emphatically, check it out Liam- then he turns to Trottier and says, what kind of guy was he, what was he like, he was a very good player as I remember.    ( post script, I did check it out and sure enough, game six, 1981 playoffs second round, NYI beat Edmonton 5-2. It was a tie game late in the second period when Kallur scored.)

we had a game in Philly, my second season, we only beat them for the first time the month before, first time ever beating them and first shift of this game Bobby Clarke carves me, cut me bad, stick right in the face and a couple of their guys skate over, start chirping me when Semek slid into the scrum and said ‘ boys, this is not going to happen-anymore, there’s a new sheriff in town. Next guy who touches Wayne I’ll be introducing myself to personally.’   I scored four goals that night, look it up Liam, four goals, the Flyers never touched me again. ( post script, I did look it up Wayne, and you were right again. March 7, 1981, in Philly, you scored four goals, 46,47,48,49 of the season and won 5-3)

There were several others that I was asked not to repeat and I won’t but watching and listening to Bryan Trottier and Wayne Gretzky discuss the minutia of their times playing against each other, the warmth of their handshake after and respect they have for each other as we signed off for the night is something I won’t forget for a long, long time.  Trottier’s last words to Wayne were, ‘ you are humble, totally professional, kind and passionate and a credit to our sport, our legacy and our country.’   And that’s coming from Bryan Trottier!!  Just incredible.  Thank you Mr. Shawn Chalk and Ms Melane Leblanc for allowing me to be part of such an epic event.

Continue reading »]]> When it comes to the National Hockey League. there have been a lot of great netminders.

From Terry Sawchuk, Johnny Bower, Jacques Plante to Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, and Dominik Hasek. These goaltenders won a lot of hockey games, made a lot of big saves at the right time and played their absolute best when it mattered most.

One goaltender, who may not yet have the resumes of the netminders mentioned above, that is getting the job done for his hockey club right now and has done so since joining the league in the 2005-06 season is New York Rangers’ masked man Henrik Lundqvist.

There is no doubt that the Blueshirts played a team game to get to the Eastern Conference Finals against the New Jersey Devils. The team blocked shots, played physical, got timely goal scoring and neutralized the likes of Jason Spezza, Erik Karlsson, Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, and others en route to their first Conference Final since 1997.

With that said, the main reason why the Rangers are where they are today is due to the play of Lundqvist. In this postseason alone, Lundqvist has posted a sparkling goals against average of 1.68 (2nd in the NHL…This was written on May 14), a great save percentage of .937 (3rd in the NHL…This was written on May 14), and 1 shutout.

For the Rangers and Lundqvist, however, this is nothing know. Lundqvist has consistently been one of the top netminders in the league since his rookie season in 2005-06.

For starters, Lundqvist has been up for the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goaltender four times (including this year) in his career. He was up for the award in 2006, 2007, 2008 and now, this season with is perhaps his best chance to win it.

Secondly, Lundqvist has won 30 or more games in each of his first seven seasons in the league. Lundqvist was the first goaltender to accomplish this and in his seven seasons, has recorded 30, 37, 37, 38, 35, 36 and 39 victories.

Lastly, it can be said that he is the face of the Rangers’ franchise. Sure, the Blueshirts may have the likes of Brad Richards, Marian Gaborik and team captain Ryan Callahan but when one talks about the Rangers, Lundqvist’s name is always in the conversation.

In the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in his career and just several wins away from winning his first Stanley Cup, the time has come for Lundqvist to shine and become king of the goaltending mountain in the National Hockey League.

Continue reading »]]> When I headed over to CapGeek.com in order to see the amount of money the Washington Capitals are paying for outstanding postseason goal tending my jaw dropped.  A $637,777 Cap hit for 2011-2012 to put 22-year-old Braden Holtby between the pipes for Washington.  I mean this kid will be a future millionaire no doubt when the time comes to sign him at the end of next year.  This playoff success will extend into more than just a few regular season starts for him in Washington next season no doubt as spots on the end of the bench open up.

Tomas Vokoun likely played his last game as a Washington Capital this season.  Vokoun after coming off a four-year deal worth 22 million dollars signed just a one year contract last season with Washington for 1.5 million.  A perennial favorite of mine in the pool season because of his ability to make a ton of starts when he was a Florida Panther; Vokoun actually suited up for 46 puck drops this year.  Washington was able to grind out 42 wins this season with Vokoun taking on 25 of those wins.

Where am I going with all this?  Moneyball.  I mean MoneyPuck.  I have decided to take a look into what Washington paid per win for their 3 goalies that allotted them those 42 games they won.

Here goes my best Billy Bean impression:

Tomas Vokoun

$457,300 for 25 wins

Michal Neuvirth

$182,312 for 13 Wins

Braden Holtby

$31, 108 for 4 Wins

The Washington Capitals spent an average of $15,302 on goaltending for each of those 42 wins.  Now I know what you are thinking, I was as well.  I now know why they charge $14 dollars a pint at a game!  But that is a blog for another day.

I find this stat very interesting because of the emergence of a young 22-year-old goaltender that has elevated his team out of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and into the second round.

The variables that any given GM looks at when scouting goalies must be a complete nightmare, because no matter what you look at, or how it looks on paper you might just be sitting on a Braden Holtby and not even know it.  It takes just one chance for a goalie to step up onto the NHL stage and make a story we will be talking about for years.  This year could be the year we will be talking about Braden Holtby for years to come.  Can anyone remember the phenomena of Cam Ward in Carolina or Ray Emery in Ottawa?  Those types of goalies that helped ride a team to the finals are often remembered for just that and sometimes nothing more.  Could this be the beginning of a Braden Holtby career that spans 10 years or will he just another flash in the pan?

Now for the Comparison in goaltending cost:

The New York Rangers finished the season with 51 wins.  The starting goaltenders that shared the season; Henrik Lundqvist (39 wins) and Martin Biron (12 wins)

Henrik Lundqvist

$3,269,799 39 Wins

Martin Biron

$128,040 12 Wins

That means the New York Rangers spent on goaltending for each win a total of $66,624.

With Roberto Luongo ready to leave Vancouver I am sure there is a statistician breaking down his average cost per win somewhere in a dark computer room and feeding the GM all the information he can.

To steal the lyrics from Dire Straits – “Now that ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it”

Pull out all your hair as a GM and just throw a dart at your goalie depth chart and see what happens.  That’s the way you do it.

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Montreal's new GM stands beside a painting of former Hab greats centered with an image of Guy Lafleur. No pressure.

Appropriately Marc Bergevin played defense in his 20 year NHL career. He’ll certainly have to call on his defensive capabilities several times during his tenure as Montreal’s GM what with public comments already vilifying the hire of the Habs 17th GM in their history since 1909.

Most of the call-to-arms have been made in the twitter-sphere, which may have never been so aptly named, for twits who are condemning his selection before he mouthed his first bonjour. That being said, let’s take a look at Mr. Bergevin and the GM position as a whole.

By my rough count there has been somewhere in the neighbourhood of 180 GM’s in the history of the NHL.  Of that number  eighty-four have sat in the cat-bird seat since 2000, a number of them simply switching deck chairs on their various titanic operations still those moves represent roughly 47% of all GM’s since 1917. For a position that should require minimum five years to assert ones game plan, remove pieces that are not part of yours and set up staff conducive to your thinking etc., that’s a tremendous amount of movement. We are used to it from the coaching ranks, we continue to hear the incredible number of moves by teams behind the bench since Lindy Ruff and Barry Trotz have assumed the helm in their respective cities, still, by GM standards that’s a massive amount of change and 100% reflective of the immediacy and the transparency of the world we live in today and imagine, that’s taking into account Darcy Regier, George McPhee, Glen Sather and David Poile’s longevity in the position with one team.  Can you imagine any fan of the Habs actually criticizing Mr. Bergevin for not having a ‘game plan’ re Scott Gomez during his opening press conference. Surely the sheer idiocy of that can’t just be lost on me.

Let’s delve into Mr. Bergevin’s back ground a bit; a twenty year pro, twenty-one actually if you include a handful of games with Springfield prior to his NHL debut where by the way he was with a Chicago Black Hawk team that made the semi-finals in his first season, albeit he was a spare part that playoff run. Back-to-back Calder Cup championships with the aforementioned Springfield Indians, coached by Jimmy Roberts, himself an eight time finalist and five time Cup winner who would end up coaching Marc Bergevin longer than anybody else in his pro hockey career. Mr. Bergevin also won gold for Canada at the 1994 World Hockey Championships, he was a two-time President Trophy winner, once with St. Louis and once with Detroit, the latter where he made another trip to the semi-finals and among the numerous men he played for in his career were the following names; Scotty Bowman, Al Arbour, Roger Neilson, Bob Pulford, Mike Keenan, Terry Crisp and Darryl Sutter. Nearly 1200 NHL games, eighty playoff games, fifty-four fights and by all accounts a very well liked teammates on his journey through the pro hockey landscape with twelve teams, eight of them in the NHL. He stayed in hockey after retiring as a player, hired as a scout by the Chicago Blackhawks ( you’ll notice historians always spell Blackhawks differently if you are referencing them prior to or since 1986. It was determined at that time through the original charter that the team name was not separate, however all references prior to have it as two words so we honour that).     And later promoted to assistant coach then Director of player personnel which was his role on their Stanley Cup championship team of 2010. He completed one season as assistant GM and obviously interviewed well enough for the powers-that-be to  hire him for the most difficult job in hockey and one of the toughest in all of sports.

Mr. Geoff Molson, CEO of the Canadiens started the procedure by announcing former GM and HHOF legend in Montreal, Serge Savard, would be involved in the interview stages with potential candidates. Rumours abound that Mr. Molson’s assistant Kevin Gilmour was also involved in the selection process, he was not. This was a two-man decision that they both unequivocally agreed on in the hiring of Mr. Bergevin. Mr. Savard told me today ( May 6) that the top candidates all interviewed well but that both he and Mr. Molson were fully united on their choice of Mr. Bergevin as the new GM. ” We couldn’t ignore his background,’  stated Mr. Savard. ‘ We felt that Mr BriseBois is still learning the job, he’s doing a great job in Norfolk this year obviously but the decision between he and Mr. Bergevin was a unanimous one.  Re Pierre McGuire, Mr. Savard said, ‘ he interviewed, very, very well but again, in our discussions as to who was best suited at this time, we feel we made the right choice.’   Our conversation quickly morphed into various Team Canada 72 Alumni preparations which are upcoming as the group continue to celebrate their 40th anniversary of the greatest series in the history of the sport of hockey but I digress.

GM of the Montreal Canadiens circa 2012 is certainly different from when Mr. Savard assumed the helm in 1983 although no less demanding. You have to surround yourself with good hockey minds. Trevor Timmins who runs Montreal’s player recruitment and development position is an excellent scout and assessor of talent.  I’m biased, I’ve known who he was since he played Bantam AA hockey for the Ottawa Valley Titans with several very good friends of mine and I met him formally seventeen years ago when he was first employed by the Ottawa Senators. That being said, you trust your scouts to point you to the right players that your team may be in a position to draft and you assess their relative talents. You need a cracker jack pro scouting operation and in this area as it’s been pointed out by many, Doug Gibson, Vaughn Karpan and Christer Rockstrom are about to get a major facelift and/or additions to their department.

The next biggest decision is player procurement. Find the pieces or attempt to acquire them to build a team that will compete. How in the name of Rocket Richard this team has steadfastly gone with a majority of smaller players up front for the past 6-8 years is mystifying. Obviously we’re in an era when they can compete, we’ve seen that but you need to have them insulated and that’s been both sorely missing and improperly coached and managed in Montreal for the past several years.

The third part of your resume is properly assessing contract length’s. Montreal is now faced with this situation with two of their potential corner-stone pieces, Carey Price and P.K. Subban. How Mr. Bergevin handles these first decisions and the aforementioned Gomez situation will stamp his GM card for life, as unfair or fairly that statement is, he has assumed the job at a tumultuous time in Montreal’s history with the only good news really being, there’s  no where but up from 15th in your conference.

The final piece of this jig saw puzzle in Montreal are your dealing with the media, which are a conduit to your fan base. Again, nowhere to go but up for Mr. Bergevin as the ghost, Mr. Gauthier, has thankfully been exorcised out of a city that he didn’t live in anyway, regardless, if Mr. Bergevin’s comic respite and frank responses are a harbinger for things to come this important element of the job will be handled with relative aplomb if steps 1-3 are conducted successfully.

My hopes for the selection of the coach in Montreal are with Marc Crawford. Although their pro hockey relationship was brief in Vancouver, that aside, he is I feel the best qualified candidate to shake up whatever the Montreal roster will look like next season. I don’t see the Crawford hiring as a long term solution but he’s got tremendous experience, he’s very aggressive, his french is passable, he’s in tune with today’s game and I don’t care about what happened more than eight years ago. I feel at this time right now Montreal needs an experienced NHL coach, with all due respect to Patrick Roy who it seems is waiting for the other skate to drop in Phoenix, well, that just might be with a Stanley Cup parade and new ownership scuttling the Quebec City plans. We’ll see, at any rate, I guessed incorrectly on Mr. BriseBois as the next GM, as Mr. Sarvard said, ‘ he’s a lawyer, super smart on the cap and getting his feet wet running pro teams, just wasn’t his time,’   well, perhaps I’ll be wrong on the potential Crawford hiring as well. Either way, never a dull moment in Montreal.

Continue reading »]]> When it comes to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, everyone knows that goaltending plays a crucial role in helping teams to win hockey’s Holy Grail.

Look at the performance of Boston Bruins’ netminder Tim Thomas last season and past playoff performances from the likes of Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Ed Belfour, Dominik Hasek and others. These netminders provided consistent goaltending through all four rounds that helped get their team to hockey’s promised land.

Then, you have the likes of Philadelphia Flyers’ goaltender Ilya Brzygalov in this postseason. While there is no doubting that Bryzgalov has a tremendous amount of talent and can make big saves, there is doubting his mentality and lack of consistency when it comes to stopping pucks in hockey’s second season.

Looking back at the first round against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Bryzgalov was extremely lucky that the team in front of him was able to put the puck in the net because he had certainly had trouble keeping the puck out of his net. In six games, Bryzgalov allowed 21 goals and posted a save percentage well below the .900 mark, in what was a pretty dreadful display of goaltending.

In that series, the Penguins were able to beat the Flyers’ netminder from all angles and were also able to take advantage of his rather large five hole. Yes, Brzygalov was able to come away the series winner but it was certainly not because of his goaltending.

In these playoffs, Brzygalov has not played with the confidence that goaltenders need to have come playoff time. Instead, he has looked shaky on many shots, has looked behind him more often that not after stopping the puck.

On the other hand, one can make an argument that mediocre goaltending can win Stanley Cups or get to the Final. In 2010, the Chicago Blackhawks had Antti Niemi between the pipes and the Philadelphia Flyers had Michael Leighton and Brian Boucher in their net when the two teams met in the Final that postseason. These two clubs showed that it can be done.

However, Bryzgalov’s mediocre goaltending will not be enough to help the Flyers win the Cup this year. If the Flyers were to get to the Final this season, he would have to go against  one of the following goaltenders in Jonathan Quick (Los Angeles Kings), Brian Elliott/ Jaroslav Halak (St. Louis Blues), Mike Smith (Phoenix Coyotes) , or Pekka Rinne (Nashville Predators. All these goaltenders have outperformed Brzygalov not only in this post season, but postseasons past as well.

The Flyers may be able to put the puck in the net with regularity but unfortunately, they also have a netminder who is known for allowing goals on a consistent basis in the postseason. This alone is why the Flyers will not win the Cup when all is said and done come June.

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In one of the most famous hockey photos ever-Ace Bailey ( left ) shakes hands with Eddie Shore in their first face to face meeting after Shore had hit Bailey from behind, badly injuring him and ending his career. I wonder....if Raffi Torres would have taken a run at Eddie Shore??

With the first round of the 2012 playoffs firmly in our rear view mirrors,  hockey fans can’t be faulted for sitting back and reflecting on one of the wilder opening round salvo’s in quite some time. With the number of fights, suspensions, upsets, overtime games, incredible goaltending and tremendously skilled plays, we witnessed a little bit of everything for all hockey fans to enjoy and it’s certainly been noted with the viewership on both sides of the border. The second round which is underway typically sees a drop off in the rough stuff. Although an early incident in the LA-STL series has picked up where the Raffi Torres of the world left off that being said, there usually is a noticeable drop in the on ice violence and it’s quite common that by the time the finals roll around there is almost a full cessation of the ugly incidents with very little fighting, case in point 1963 game five, between the eventual Cup champs the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings, as selected so eloquently by Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun as the bench mark of clean play in that particular era. Which as I showed in my last post was categorically false but a great final none the less.

For the record I finished 3/8, or was it 4/8, does it matter, I picked a Pittsburgh-Vancouver final. Frankly I don’t know what’s more shocking, the fact they are both out or the record for road teams through the first round. Simply astounding. People wonder why that is and no question, parity is the ultimate answer, if you’ll excuse the play on words for our great site, but a close secondary reason is the buildings. Back in the day they were intimidating as heck to go in to and several of them were not regular size, notably the Boston Garden, Chicago Stadium and the Buffalo Auditorium.  There all elephant size castles now, the noise is artificial especially in Washington which literally pumps up the volume and then pumps up the fans. Do fans even know that those noise meters asking for the decible level to increase are elevated regardless if all 18,000 fans sat on their hands like at the ACC? Just kidding folks, just kidding. Bottom line the streak continues, no repeat winner since the Wings in 1998. And for Hab fans the role is now fully reversed, the Bruins losing was their Stanley Cup. Later this week we’ll take an in depth look at the Phoenix Coyotes with some interesting anecdotes.

I’ve been working on an update of my last book, printed in 2001 by Random House and we’re going to include this following piece which I’ve printed for you here to read. Again, for those new to the game of hockey, say the last 10-15 years, what you’re about to read is pretty rough stuff but it should be noted that five of the six combatants in this story are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Excerpt printed from Liam Maguire’s upcoming book, Next Goal Wins!

Who holds the record for the most fights in one NHL game?

Eddie Shore. In his era there was no ‘three fights and you’re out’ rule, and Shore set a bloody bench mark during an era marked by rugged, turbulent play. On November 23, 1929 two days before his 27th birthday, Shore made hockey history with five separate fights in one game. The defending Cup champs were undefeated three games into the season when they travelled to Montreal to play the Maroons, the 1926 Cup winners and a team that sported a very strong and tough lineup.  ’Mayhem on ice,’ was the way one headline described the game that ended in a 4-3 Boston win. In those days, there were two referees, not one ref and two linesmen. George Malinson and Leo Heffernan had the misfortune of being assigned to this match. In the third period they actually had to call a halt to the game to have some of the blood scraped off the ice.

Shore’s first fight was with one of the famous Boucher brothers, George. George ‘Buck’ Boucher was the biggest and the toughest of the four Boucher brothers-as his 802 career penalty minutes attest. After Boucher Shore got into it with Dave Trottier, collapsing one of Trottier’s lungs in the battle and forcing him to make a trip to the hospital. At this point Shore became a marked man. Longtime sparring partner Hooley Smith decided he wanted in on the action, so he and Shore hooked up. It became apparent to fans that the Maroons were operating with a different mandate: to drive Shore from the game. Fight number four took place with Mervyn ‘Red’ Dutton ( a future president of the NHL) the previous season’s penalty leader and about equal in size to Shore.

But the best was left for last. There has never been a left winger in hockey history who could rival Albert ‘ Babe’ Siebert. He could hit, shoot, skate, score-and he could fight.  Many modern-day players have accumulated 1000+ pim’s, especially over a fourteen year career but Siebert played in an era of 44-and 48 games. Siebert had been knocked down behind the net and was in the process of getting up when Shore clocked him. Infuriated, Siebert got up and skated at Shore with his stick up. Sticks, gloves and then the two players were dropped in short order. It was at this point that play was halted while the blood that had accumulated on the ice was cleaned up.

The ambulances were busy that night. In all, Shore, Siebert and Trottier were admitted to hospital. Shore’s chart read as follows: broken nose, four teeth lost, two black eyes, gashed cheekbone, cuts over both eyes and a concussion. But before he was helped from the ice after that final fight with Siebert Shore contributed offensively with two assists, staking his Bruins to a 4-3 lead and one they would hang on to. Not only did the evening of November 23, 1929 result in one for the record books for Edward William Shore, but it goes down as one of the most brutally violent nights in NHL history.

As is the case with all good stories, the myth gets embellished as time passes. The story is told that Shore returned to play the next game, which coincidentally was against the Maroons three nights later at the Boston Garden. Such was not the case. Shore missed that game and did not return until a week later in Pittsburgh to play the Pittsburgh Pirates who were an NHL team at that time. For the record the rematch was tame-only 12 minor penalties called in a 6-1 Montreal win that ended that early season winning streak of the Bruins. However Bruins President Charles Adams caused a furor among those at the league office when he presented Shore with a 500$ cheque prior to the teams next home game against the Montreal Canadiens. He was quoted as saying that the money represented $100 for each facial scar that Shore received at the hands of the Maroons.

Continue reading »]]> An IIHF World Championship tournament could be just what the chemistry doctor called for when Luke Schenn and Dion Phaneuf ended up together representing Team Canada on the blue line.  Two players that according to some media sources are having issues in the Toronto Maple Leafs dressing room, not so much with players around them but with each other.  It could be possible when these two pull the red and white of their country over their equipment that some of the bad blood could be washed away.

The IIHF World Championship (Worlds) is what I like to call a “rag-tag” tournament that in my opinion doesn’t give us the best international hockey to watch but still provides entertainment.  With NHL players not always interested in leaving North America after a quick exit from the Stanley Cup Playoffs or even an early vacation if they didn’t make the post season, Team Canada often ends up with various levels of competitive players representing us.  This group of players although all highly skilled, never truly represent the competitive and skilled nature of our national hockey program.  The best of the best available to the Canadian program along with those who actually say “yes” to the trip across the Atlantic.  Glorified highly skilled early summer beer league tournament?  Some may agree with that assessment.

I tend to watch the tournament for pure entertainment purposes, enjoy the larger ice surface and speed of play.  TV ratings I am sure tell the tale of the tape when it comes to fan interest, however it appears to me more of a players tournament.  A player often comes back to Canada after playing and states the media friendly obvious. “Great to represent Canada on the world stage” etc.  With comments along those lines you can see it means something to those who represent their flag alongside fellow country men.   When you do see the winning country emerge at the end of the tournament they often look above elated to win.

Competition is fierce in most athletes and there is some positive aspect in learning how to play with newly formed teammates while chasing a few wins in a row.  If you are a Toronto Maple Leafs fan you want this kind of experience builder for two of your star defenseman so they can not only gel together but learn what it takes to adapt to a style of hockey and new teammates in short order.  This could be a year they have some new teammates if Burke does any major shuffling in the off-season, including shipping Luke Schenn out of Toronto.

International Experience

Dion Phaneuf

Silver 2004 IIHF World Juniors in Helsinki.  Hit with a shoulder to the helmet on Rostislav Olesz and was ejected from Semi-final and returned for gold medal game.

Gold 2005 IIHF World Juniors in Grand Forks USA.  Often referred to as the greatest Canadian Junior team assembled of all time, Phaneuf dominated the tournament defensively and won Tournament All-Star.

Gold 2007 IIHF World Championships in Moscow.  Recorded eight assists in seven games to help Canada defeat Finland in the Gold Medal Final.

Snubbed in 2010 by Team Canada and the Olympic team, I have often felt this was something that has driven Phaneuf to play this year on the Canadian team in Sweden.  It is his time to show Steve Yzerman what he can do on the international stage for our country and keep him top of mind for an invite to the Olympic camp.

Luke Schenn

Gold 2008 IIHF World Juniors Czech Republic.  He finished with a plus/minus of +5 and was considered one of the top defensemen in the tournament.

Silver 2009 IIHF World Championships Switzerland.  Although the young defensman made the trip with the squad overseas he played very little in the tournament.  Canada was defeated by Russia in the final.

Both Schenn and Phaneuf represented Canada last year at the Worlds with a team that didn’t make it to the medal round, finishing in fifth place.

Continue reading »]]> The Boston Bruins have remained up a game or even with the Washington Capitals throughout the series that now heads towards the climactic game seven.  All the line juggling and face-off match-ups will come down to 60 minutes of hockey that will either see the emergence of another eighth seeded team knock of a number one or the defending Stanley Cup Champions moving on.  The TD Boston Gardens will be a sea of Black and Yellow as they cheer on their team to start that long climb back to the Cup Final.  The atmosphere will be nothing less than electric.

“You expect your team to show the experience that they’ve gained in the past. I said that tonight before Game 6. When you go through those kinds of situations, you can handle those a lot better.”

—Coach Claude Julien on his team, still alive to play a Game 7 Wednesday night.

Special Teams

This is a series that has seen power-plays come and go without much in the way of exciting goals.  In fact these teams have not put on a goal clinic like the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia series did and have shown little in the way of creativity with a man advantage.

Stats:

The Bruins scored a power play goal Sunday and are 2-for-20 with the advantage in the series, They wasted a four-minute power play, getting only one shot on goal. The Caps were 0-for-4 Sunday and are 3-for-18 in the series.

With just 28 goals scored between the two teams leading up to game seven only five goals have been scored on the power play.  Both the Bruins and the Capitals had middle of the road power plays through the regular season; Bruins with 17.2 percent with the man advantage and the Capitals with 16.7.

The lackluster power-play could very well be the difference in-game seven with nerves tightened up in the early part of the match.  Tentative play sometimes leads to early penalties and this could be a chance for one of these teams to strike first and set the tempo with an early power-play goal.

The Video Room

Johnny Boychuk tees up the game-tying goal on the power play Saturday Afternoon

The above goal will be part of the video review both teams use to show their respective teams what is successful and not so productive on special teams.

If you are the Bruins you can see that putting the puck to the point and using the whole ice surface on the top of the blue line can be done.  The penalty kill by Washington not only doesn’t challenge the Bruins defence but you can see in the video that Marcu Johansson makes little effort to block the point shot.

Special Teams could be the deciding factor in a game nobody in the NHL panel of experts around the media horn thought would see game seven.

From my Series Preview

Washington in Seven Games.  I like the underdog in this series only because for the first time it seems there is no pressure on a Capitals team that seemed to be under the microscope.

Will the Capitals make me look like Genius?  Can’t wait to find out Wednesday night!

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Bobby Hull, the season before his first Lady Byng award, squares off with Detroit's John Miszuk on January 11, 1964. Just like today with Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux, the stars fought in the mid 1960's.

Recently an acquaintance of mine, Mr. Steve Simmons, waxed nostalgically about an old hockey game from the 1963 Stanley Cup finals he viewed on a classic TV channel.  I’m sure other historians like me had their interest piqued when a main stream reporter and columnist took his readers on a trip down memory lane. In the piece which was well written as his work always is, Mr. Simmons commented on how benign the game was, a Cup deciding game no less as the Toronto Maple Leafs went on to beat the Detroit Red Wings in this contest on April 18, 1963, game five of the finals, with the score being 3-1. There were a couple of reminders about how small the players were then,  Tim Horton being 5’10” and 180lbs, nearly a foot shorter and eighty pounds lighter than Zdeno Chara, quotes Mr. Simmons yet he overlooked to say that Horton was actually bigger than Erik Karlsson.  No question the average size of the player now compared to fifty years ago is significantly different yet it’s amazing how many of the stars today, notably Claude Giroux the current playoff scoring leader who stands 5’11”and is listed as 172 pounds are players whose size is more equitable with the super star Hall of Fame players from days gone by. I certainly get Mr. Simmons’s point but the increase in average size of the NHL player today who are playing on the same size ice surfaces is only one part of the reason for the proliferation of injuries from contact. There are many others but let’s revisit 1963 in a more proper manner for Mr. Simmons.

The 1963 finals were a relatively tame affair. One thing I’ve noticed on the Classic channels, be it ESPN or TSN, they are by and large not going to show say game one from the 1965 NHL playoffs between Montreal and Toronto which featured numerous fights and incidents including Frank Mahovlich, known as the Big M, knocking out Terry Harper with a cross check and Kent Douglas, who was the Calder Trophy winner as rookie-of-the-year in 1963, take out Montreal’s Dave Balon in a stick swinging fight. Douglas received a one game suspension. That was the first period. The second featured an all out brawl featuring John Ferguson, Ted Harris, Jimmy Roberts, and the Big M again, Eddie Shack and Pete Stemkowski. Unconfirmed reports are Brendan Shanahan’s father was the league disciplinarian. Is it Mr. Simmons’s contention that the year 1963 or that particular era, give or take a few years on either side were as benign as the fodder the Classic channel served up for his viewing pleasure? Here’s a breakdown of some of the more violent acts from the 1962-63 season.

-October 23, 1962. A vicious stick swinging fight, reporters of the day call it the worst since Bernie Geoffrion and Ron Murphy in 1953. This time it featured Gilles Tremblay of the Montreal Canadiens and Reggie Fleming of the Chicago Blackhawks. Each were fined one hundred dollars and suspended for three games. Of note, when Fleming was leaving the ice Montreal coach Toe Blake attempted to get at him and fight him.

December 26, 1962. Toronto’s Dick Duff runs Detroit Val Fonteyne, arguably the cleanest player to ever play the game of hockey.  Duff’s hit sends Fonteyne to the hospital immediately with a bad concussion. Duff is assessed a major penalty, no further fine or discipline.

January 24^th, 1963. Detroit’s Howie Young, who was on his way to a then NHL record 273 pim’s, attacks Montreal’s Henri Richard with his stick. Canadiens coach Toe Blake calls the attack, ‘bush league.’  A week later after another particularly violent game between Toronto and Montreal featuring a wild brawl led by Bernie Geoffrion and Carl Brewer, Coach Toe Blake accused some of the referee’s of officiating as if they were ‘on the take.’  The comments later were deemed worthy of a 200$ fine for Blake which did not sit well with the official of the game in question, Eddie Powers. He wanted a much larger fine or suspension for Coach Blake; he did not get it so he subsequently tendered his resignation and packed it in.

February 17, 1963. Detroit’s Howie Young snapped again, another incident in Montreal where in one play he picked up twenty-seven minutes in penalties, setting the all-time NHL single season record at that time. He subsequently was suspended for three games. 

March 5, 1963. The season’s longest suspension was handed down to Montreal’s Bernie Geoffrion. There was a wild outburst by the Montreal Canadien bench toward the refs in a game against Detroit due to a penalty administered to goalie Jacques Plante who had slashed the aforementioned Howie Young who had crashed his crease.  In the crazy scene in front the Montreal bench Geoffrion hurled his stick like a javelin toward referee Vern Buffey. He also threw both his gloves. For those actions he was suspended five games. 

March 9, 1963. One of the worst moments in NHL history took place on this night. Lou Fontinato the one time NHL record holder for penalty minutes in one season, was now a defenseman with the Montreal Canadiens when he attempted to hit New York Ranger forward Vic Hadfield. Hadfield rebuffed the attempted hit and Fontinato was ‘thrown head long into the boards by the Ranger player.’ Fontinato was rushed to hospital where he was diagnosed with a crushed cervical vertebra. After an operation he recovered from his paralyzed condition and was able to resume a normal life but he never played hockey again. Watch it for yourself. I’ve included a link to a documentary done by the National Film Board of Quebec ironically in 1963. Decide for yourself if you think it was a cheap shot. There probably are not ten people who will read this who even know the name Fontinato or anything about this incident. Vic Hadfield would go onto lead the NHL in pim’s the next season and later in his career play very effectively for the Rangers on their GAG line, (goal-a-game) with Jean Ratelle and Rod Gilbert. Hadfield would score fifty goals for NY in 1972.

http://www.habseyesontheprize.com/2010/2/1/1287113/amazing-habs-documentary-from

this is a long documentary, it’s in french but if you advance to 9:50 on the time and subsequently to the time code 23:23-26:40, you’ll see that hockey was in many ways, the same in 1963 as it was in 2010, 2011, 2012. Cheap shots, fights, broken necks. Fontinato’s injury can be seen after the 23:23 mark.

March 28, 1963. Only a few weeks before the game that Mr. Simmons’s viewed on TV, Detroit’s Bruce MacGregor knocked Bobby Hull out of their first round series with a vicious slash to the face, breaking his nose, fracturing other bones with Hull needing multiple stitches.  Macgregor was assessed a five minute major. There was no further discipline.

I submit to Mr. Simmons’s, that yes, what he witnessed last week on the Classic channel was a benign game in the Stanley Cup playoffs but if it’s his or anybody’s assertion that the NHL from 1963 was a kinder, gentler version of what we witness today, they are sadly mistaken. To suggest that perhaps game five of the 1963 Stanley Cup finals was a microcosm of the NHL at that time is categorically false.

I can quote incidents like the above from every single year that pro hockey has been played. Grown men, making their own decisions to earn a living of their choice, to play a collision sport where bad intentions hover in dressing rooms, wafting to the ice surface as the gladiators stride out confidently, weapons in hand, blades on their feet, pads on their bodies, instruction and knowledge to not only play with skill to score and win the games but fists and sticks at the ready to mete out retribution or initiate destruction all in the name of winning a game, a series or the Cup. It’s been that way since the inception of the Stanley Cup in 1893 and it will be that way long after Mr. Simmons’s and myself have finished putting fingers to key boards.

(All above quotes are courtesy of The Trail of The Stanley Cup-volume three)