Sixsmith, a native of Alexandria, Va., recently graduated from Holy Cross College and captained the hockey team there the past two seasons. He was also a Hobey Baker finalist this past season.
Dave Fay may not be the only local hockey beat reporter fated for Hall of Fame enshrinement as a hockey media standout.
Pucksandbooks will appear on VoiceAmerica Sports, a newly formed daily Internet radio sports program, today at 12:30 EST to discuss the Miracle on Ice as one of the ”Five biggest upsets in sports history.” You can listen to the exchange here.
VoiceAmerica Sports debuted on May 3. Â Â
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As first heard on the May 30th edition of Capitals Report with Mike Vogel, John Walton announced that the Bears will be heard on XM Sattelite Radio Channel 204 as well as XM Canada. From the Bears website:
The American Hockey League announced today that XM Satellite Radio and XM Canada will be carrying Games 1, 5, 6 and 7 of the 2007 Calder Cup Final on their all-hockey Home Ice channel 204.
The BEARS Radio Network will provide the feed for all four games, with John Walton calling the action. Grady Whittenburg, voice of the Binghamton Senators, will join John for Game 1 of the series, with ABC-27 Sports Director Gregg Mace joining Walton on the call in Game 5 should the game be necessary.
XM contractual obligations with the National Hockey League and their coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals precludes them from airing games 2, 3, and 4 of the AHL Finals.
For those that do not have XM, you can always listen to John Walton’s excellent call of the Bears online at PennLive.com.
Can there be anything more exhilarating than postponing spring home repairs — sanding, painting, minor roof repairs, all performed on high scaffolding — by virtue of snow and frost that confine one indoors to the leisure of world-class beer and televised postseason hockey? Such was the Memorial week marvel that confronted my buddy Michael up at his vacation getaway in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
Deep into May each year Michael makes a 21-hour pilgrimage from Capitol Hill to Belle Cote, Nova Scotia, population approximately 340, to inventory winter’s wear on his magnificent property there. He reminds me of his mission each March, reiterating his open invitation for me to join him. I had my own arduous roadtrip to navigate this month, but am I sorry I couldn’t have been a sweatered witness to the spectacle that touque-wearing Mother Nature, eh?, treated Michael to all of the past 10 days. In previous springs, he’d always been greeted there by spring. Not this year.
You know how we in D.C. had a soundtrack of revving lawnmowers in our neighborhoods this past holiday weekend? Michael would press his coffee each morning in Cape Breton and listen to the revving of snowmobiles belonging to his neighbors. Lucky b******. Michael and I suffer debilitating bouts of hayfever symptoms from the pollen-saturated Mid-Atlantic, and as I listened on the phone to his chronicle of wood-gathering for home warming fires during broadcasts of the Memorial Cup I thought immediately of all that prescription medicine that never stirred in his travel bag.
The most difficult adjustment for me on my return home from Eastern Europe this month had nothing to do with eight time zones’ disorientation and everything to do with my lungs departing Moscow’s crisp air and being submerged in the height of hayfever mayhem here.
Nothing in the Cape Breton weather of the past few years could have forecast the deep freeze of May 2007. Michael and his wife Marleen and I have on a couple of occasions enjoyed February vacations in Cape Breton characterized by the smell of cords of burning wood in their two fireplaces and single-digit mercury, but recent winters there have been bone-dry in terms of snow. Snowmobiling enthusiasts, we’ve passed on mid-winter visits there the past two winters because the ground has remained brown throughout Decembers and Januarys. And so on the phone Monday night I sat rapturously as Michael detailed five inches of fresh powder outside his house and the regular chiseling of ice off of his truck’s windshield.
May 2007, the locals informed Michael, ranks as the coldest in Cape Breton since 1937. In the Cape Breton Highlands, a mere 30-minutes’ ride up a steep ascent from Michael’s house, there’ll apparently be snowmobiling solidly into June.
Many Americans by late May are heartily ready for the opening of swimming pools and the lighting of deck and patio grills, but with the Memorial Cup in full bloom last week, the news of one last blast of winter within which to watch it struck me as refreshingly novel. Michael is returned home this morning, meaning, necessarily, that he’ll know his share of 90-degree days in the three months ahead. Incidentally, he, too, grilled out back of his home last week; he just did it in a turtleneck.
An American arriving in Belle Cote after two full days’ journey is big news in town, and with each arrival Michael is feted with daily deliveries of freshly caught cod, trout, salmon, and lobster from his neighbors. The really thoughtful ones offer up a few bottles of the planet’s finest pale ale, Alexander Keiths. Some hardship, Michael’s missing out on our mosquitos and Bay Bridge gridlock.
At a time when newspaper editors across the country are demanding that reporters compromise their commitment to their beats with additional and time-consuming assignments, today Mike Vogel discovered the news that the Washington Times’ Dave Fay will receive the highest honor his profession can bestow, for his singular commitment to the Washington Capitals’ beat: he’s headed into the Hockey Writer’s Hall of Fame.
He’ll be inducted this November.
At OFB, we’ve had our share of disagreements with Dave about his assessments of the team in recent years, but we are also aware of his unrivaled commitment to covering our game in this region. Dave has been on the Caps’ beat at the Times since the early 1980s. Disagreements aside, if we had more of Dave’s ilk on the beat hockey wouldn’t be mired in its crazy-Uncle-kept-in-the-attic status it is in the common D.C. newsroom.
May 30 Washinton Times coverage: Corey Masisak; Dan Daly
Yesterday rumor maven Spector presented the following in his mailbag section:
My thanks to “John” for the following: Glen Macnow, a former sports reporter for the Phila Inquirer (hockey)and a current talk show host on WIP radio, said that he hears that the concept of not pursuing restricted free-agents, as was the case last year, may be changing. Macnow said what he hears is that the Flyers may make a significant offer to Thomas Vanek, thus forcing the Sabres to match. If they do not, the Flyers get themselves a young scorer. If they do, it makes it all the more unlikely that the Sabres can keep Drury or Briere, or even both.
An interesting rumor, sure, but does it have anything to do with the Caps?
It may.
In our continuing series of Moscow bonus coverage: photos from the 2007 Gazprom Cup, an old-timers’ benefit game that boasted an impressive roster for both teams.
The Gazprom team (in blue) was captained by Gazprom’s Alexander Medvedev, a die-hard hockey fan and good player in his own right. The Gazprom coach was the great former goaltender Vladislav Tretiak. The World Team saw Scotty Bowman’s return to coaching duties.
Click the group photo for a larger version
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So as you may have read, Steve Yzerman was slated to play in this game. He did not attend, however, though he was in Moscow and later appeared at the post-game press conference when Canada won the gold medal.Since the World Stars team already had an Yzerman jersey ready, a Greek player (whose name was unannounced) decided to take the ice in Yzerman’s place and in his jersey as well, since Yzerman was slated to wear #91 (the reverse of his traditional #19).
The Greek skater taped over Yzerman’s nameplate, and played the whole game in a black baseball cap and Stevie Y’s sweater. Clearly this event was more for fun than for intense competition. In the photo on the right, Phoenix Coyotes’ pro scout Christian Ruuttu and his countryman Hannu Virta skate for the World team. Ruuttu was staying at the same hotel as we were; he shared some entertaining stories late-night in the hotel lobby, including the revelation of Joe Reekie’s nickname in his early Buffalo days: Pokecheck Joe |
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Former Detroit Red Wing Doug Brown (left, in orange) controls the puck
Mike Vogel, Igor Larionov, and Mike Rucki
For the past nine years I’ve watched the Stanley Cup Finals with dispassionate interest, not having a proverbial dog in the fights. That streak ends later today, with the arrival of Game 1 tonight in Anaheim. Twice during the regular season I noticed an unusual interest among the Washington hockey press (its old guard, anyway) associated with the arrival of the Ottawa Senators at Verizon Center. Quickly I realized that nearly 20 years after he’d last coached a game behind the Washington Capitals’ bench Bryan Murray retained a sizable segment of friends here.
Initially I thought it a bit ironic that much of the Washington media would regard Murray so warmly, for it treated him with little warmth and affection as he became inextricably linked with the Capitals’ ’80s playoff shortcomings. But over the past three decades Murray’s career has migrated into one of genuine distinction and accomplishment in the game — from south Florida to Hockeytown to now in Canada’s capital, Murray has earned deserved acclaim; he’s a hockey man of the first order.
Time has a way of affording not merely perspective but also a healthy healing of hockey hurts, and today I think I am joined by hundreds, perhaps thousands of Washington hockey fans who, whatever our disappointment with and criticism of Bryan Murray two decades ago, this morning want nothing so much as to see him prevail in his ultimate postseason challenge.
It’s worth remembering how significant Murray’s tenure in D.C. was. There was a veritable carousel of Caps’ head coaches preceding Murray’s hiring in November 1981: six different coaches in the Capitals’ first seven years, among them Jim Anderson, Milt Schmidt, Tommie McVie, Danny Belisle, Gary Green. Bryan Murray’s first accomplishment with the Caps was bringing stability to a position that had never known it. He also guided the team to its first-ever postseason appearance, in 1983. The following season, 1983-84, Murray won the Jack Adams award. He remains the only Caps’ coach so honored.
He won only one Patrick Division title, ironically in his last season here, in 1989, but consider that his Caps’ clubs ever were competing against Al Arbour’s dynastic New York Islanders (beginning in 1980, Stanley Cup champs consecutively through 1983) as well as perenially strong Flyers’ and Rangers’ teams. In a lot of those seasons there was a great deal of truth to the adage that the second-best club in the Patrick division was also the league’s second-best (the 1980 Cup finals featured the Isles against the Flyers). Beginning with his 1983-84 Caps Bryan Murray would guide the club to three consecutive 100-pt. seasons, including 107 points in ‘85-86, and earn not one division title.
Looking back on the 1980s Caps with the advantage of hindsight, it appears quasi miraculous that Murray’s clubs were as competitive as they were with Arbour’s Isles, one of the great dynasties in NHL history, particularly in the postseason. Murray had Langway, while Arbour had Denis Potvin. Arbour had Billy Smith, and later Kelly Hrudey, while Murray went into postseasons with the likes of Al Jensen, Pat Riggin, Bob Mason, Pete Peeters, Clint Malarchuk, and Don Beaupre. Nice goalies, but obviously, not a Hall of Famer among them. We old timers have spent the past 10 or 15 years perpetually playing the great what-if: What if Bryan Murray had had Olaf Kolzig behind those terrific ’80s bluelines?
Of course, for Washington’s columnists and very part-time hockey observers, Murray was ultimately judged a regular season hero and a postseason goat. But this morning, look who’s persevered. Entering the 2006-07 season Murray ranked sixth in the NHL in all-time games coached (1,057) and seventh for wins (513).
Almost wherever he’s coached pedestrian netminding has often been believed to be Bryan Murray’s postseason undoing, and heading into this postseason, while I liked the look of the Ottawa Senators through all four forward lines and three defensive pairings, Ray Emery seemed to invite the same sense of trepidation for Murray’s admirers. Maybe, just maybe, we’re seeing the maturation of Emery into one of the league’s elite. Of his coach, that accomplishment occurred many years and hundreds of wins ago.
DJ Gallo, writer at ESPN, The Sports Pickle, and others, posted a fun Stanley Cup Finals Q & A on ESPN’s Page 2 I thought you’d enjoy. Here’s an excerpt:
If during this series anyone says “Getting Jiggy with it” in relation to Jean-Sebastien Giguere, am I allowed to punch that person in the throat?
Most definitely. In fact, I encourage it. And then once this person falls to the ground, follow up with a kick to the throat, too.
His discussion of the Finals’ likely television viewership is classic. Bathe in the sarcasm!
Yes Hershey is white hot, but I’m not sure they’re the favorite in the Calder Cup Finals. A big reason they may be underdogs against Hamilton is netminder Carey Price, drafted 5th overall by Montreal in 2005. The same Carey Price that went 6-0 at the most recent World Juniors, posting a .961 save percentage, turning aside the Americans in penalty shot after penalty shot in the semifinals.
His first American League game took place on April 13. He was named the game’s no.1 star that night. In 17 postseason games with the Bulldogs this spring he’s gone 11-5 with a 2.12 goals-against. Know this, too: he arrived in Hamilton after a WHL apprenticeship at Tri Cities, partly owned by Olie Kolzig. The owner has played the role of mentor for the promising young netminder as well.
2007 Calder Cup Final Series (best-of-7)
Hershey Bears vs. Hamilton Bulldogs
Game 1 – Fri., June 1 – Hamilton at Hershey, 7:00
Game 2 – Sat., June 2 – Hamilton at Hershey, 7:00
Game 3 – Mon., June 4 – Hershey at Hamilton, 7:30
Game 4 – Wed., June 6 – Hershey at Hamilton, 7:30
*Game 5 – Thu., June 7 – Hershey at Hamilton, 7:30
*Game 6 – Tue., June 12 – Hamilton at Hershey, 7:00
*Game 7 – Fri., June 15 – Hamilton at Hershey, 7:00
*If necessary
Tim Leone coverage here.
Manchester Union Leader coverage here.
Mike Vogel coverage here.
On the intrigue front: San Jose Sharks’ management, we learned from TSN this week, is looking for a playoff failure scapegoat. According to the Associated Press account, Sharks’ GM Doug Wilson needed “two weeks to calm down” after his team’s second-round ouster by the Red Wings. Ron Wilson may get the boot, or a high-profile player or two may get moved. Or both.
The intrigue, for me, arrived with this AP observation:
“Though he has built a sturdy, young team with no obvious weaknesses, Doug Wilson said he is determined to re-examine the Sharks’ structure. Any player seems available in a trade discussion — except Joe Thornton, last season’s MVP, who’s already had informal discussions about a long-term contract.”
Anyone but Thornton would bring into play Captain Patrick Marleau, who will enter the final year of his contract prior to UFA eligibility in 2008-09. In addition to his captain’s pedigree, he’s a first-line center — in his prime. He’ll be 28 this September, and he’s posted more than 30 goals in each of his past two seasons.
Why would GM Wilson potentially move his in-his-prime-and-peaking captain? For starters, Wilson appears to be in scapegoat mode, but Marleau also had a lousy playoffs. In 11 postseason games this spring Marleau tallied just 3 goals and 3 assists, and skated a -5. He went pointless in seven of those games.
Without question any club interested in prying Marleau away from the only NHL club he’s ever dressed for would have to pony up some serious assets. He scores goals, piles up assists, skates brilliantly, punishes opponents with his 6′2, 220-lb. frame, and this postseason notwithstanding, has a reputation for coming up large in crunch time. Perhaps the only thing average about his game is in the faceoff department — he won about 50 percent of his draws this past season, and he’s never been reknown for that skill.
He’s also distinctly durable: in his nine NHL seasons in San Jose, he’s skated 80 or more games in the regular season six times. In his three other campaigns he skated well over 70 games; the low tally came in his rookie season, when he dressed for 74 games.
You have to think that were he a UFA this summer he’d be more popular a pivot pick than his contemporaries Chris Drury and Daniel Briere. And in 2007-08 he will earn considerably less than those guys — $4.5 million.
(Incidentally, TSN has a useful Marleau stats page. With respect to imagining him as AO’s man in the middle, I really liked reading this synopsis of Marleau: “blessed with great speed and can catch defenders off guard by blazing right by them. Has natural goal-scoring ability . . .”)
Why would the Caps potentially be interested in addressing their conspicuous need for a first-line center via a trade, such as one perhaps for Marleau? For starters, the entire ‘A’ list of free agent pivots is regularly pegged as landing in the usual suspect cities. It’s a bit of Catch-22 dilemma for the Caps: until Washington can establish itself as a year-in, year-out playoff contender, most if not all the elite free agents are likely to bypass the rebuilding Caps. Problem is, they need a couple of high-profile horses like Marleau to get them there.
Marleau’s pricetag is also appealing — in his contract year, a good $3 million shy of what the elite UFA centers are likely to fetch this summer. Admittedly it’d be a risk moving significant assets for a guy who might dress for you just one year and walk, but remember the salary cap flexibility George McPhee will need next summer, when a certain set of Russian left wings will need new deals, as will the captain and potentially the no.1 netminder.
I have no idea if the Sharks will move Marleau. I just recall that after a string of 100-point seasons, and a few 90-pt. ones in between, each followed by early playoff exits, then Caps’ GM David Poile did the unthinkable and moved Mike Gartner to try and shake things up. What would it likely cost the Caps to land Marleau? You have to think this year’s no. 5 pick, and a prime asset, like say Fleischmann or Mike Green. And even that might not get it done.
Quality costs quality, you know.
Thanks to you, the reader, our daily traffic has steadily increased since starting On Frozen Blog. Also, you may recall we had some server disruptions last month. These were two factors in the decision to move to a new hosting company and server. In doing so, there may be a lag between our readers finding us on our old server and on the new as the change propagates throughout the Internet.
Since EmptyMaybe and pucksandbooks will be deeply buried into all things entry draft this holiday weekend, we felt that now would be the perfect time to make the switch. In preparation, we have turned off comments on the old server and placed a brief moratorium on posts. After making the necessary change to point to the new server, it will take up to 48 hours to fully implement. After that time, we should be up and running on the new server. If the hockey and Internet gods smile on us, the move will be as smooth as a fresh sheet of ice.
You will know when the switch is complete when you see a new post above this one.
Until then, enjoy your weekend. Fire up your BBQ. Quaff your favourite flavour of puck soda responsibly. And don’t forget about those who came before us enabling the freedoms we enjoy today.
We’ll see you again on the new server — with the Hershey Bears crowned AHL Eastern Conference champions — if not before.
Cheers!
[admin note: The new server is up and running. Please let us know of any problems.]
One of my biggest gripes with contemporary hockey journalism is the vanilla prose the mainstream press characteristically deploys to convey hockey’s most exciting moments — its goals. This is hardly unique to our big papers in town — it’s an industry-wide shortcoming, excepting only a handful of colorful, scene-recreating scribes.
Note the prose of Mike Vogel today in describing two of last night’s Bears’ goals:
“Covering the point after Mike Green pinched into the corner, Tomas Fleischmann ripped a hard, low shot on net. Manchester’s Jason LaBarbera made a pad save, but kicked the rebound directly to Kyle Wilson. Wilson fired it home for his seventh goal of the playoffs.”
And:
“Wilson and Fleischmann combined to push the Bears’ lead to 2-0 late in the period. Monarchs defenseman T.J. Kemp partially fanned on a pass attempt in his own end. Wilson slid the puck to Fleischmann, who curled down the wall and patiently waited for a trailer. Rather than trying to force a pass, he fired a wicked wrist shot into a teacup-sized gap between the near post and LaBarbera’s left shoulder . . .”
Flash has a sniper’s hands, and Vogel’s use of “teacup-sized gap” not only reminds us of that but makes us as readers 500 miles away from the action last night appreciate the young Czech’s virtuosity against the league’s best netminder. Vogel regularly paints us a picture of the entire zone as the scoring play develops and is ultimately achieved. He includes the circumstances integral to the development of scoring plays. In the case of Flash’s goal, we are informed that Monarchs’ defender T.J. Kemp fanned on a clearing pass that kept the Bears’ attack alive. That attention to lead-up detail is characteristic of Vogel’s prose.
The very reason to have print press at hockey games is to have them convey to their readers a sense of what transpired out on the ice, as sort-of surrogates for us, and yet, how often are we readers left with little more than the most basic who-scored, who-assisted, and-at-what-time-of-the-period numbing narratives? That’s sub-intern caliber stuff, as a lot of interns cut their teeth richly describing scoring plays for their college papers while covering NCAA hockey.
Goal scoring in hockey, off of brilliantly executed odd-man rushes, from super-speed snipery, or a frenzy of mauling mayhem in the slot, most often merits a journalistic reckoning rising to the arts, and not brochure phrasing.
Here the Hemingway Code applies: Show Don’t Tell.
In a very real sense the successful hockey print reporter’s prose should generate the same spirit of excitement found from the color or play-by-play accounts in the broadcast booth. We do not appreciate Gary Thorne or Mike Emerick or Joe Beninati’s oral brilliance for their announcing the correct time at which goals are scored. To their enthusiastic inflection they often also bring a keen analytic eye that sagely discerns the subtlety and design of an attack.
Craving, like I am, nuggets of news related to women’s fast-pitch pro softball? Today’s WaPost has got you covered.
Check out these can’t-miss quotes from Washington’s new sports drama protagonists, the Washington Glory:
“We have a he/she mascot; it’s a man dressed as a female dog, and it winks,” summarized shortstop Amber Jackson, “I can’t stop laughing.”
“She needs some eyeliner and mascara . . . ”
“We thought it’d be cute . . . so she could flirt with the umpires.”
Can skyrocketing subscription rates be far behind?
Ah, Memorial Day weekend — sun, surf, libations, and the official unofficial start of DraftGeek season. As the tropical gateway to June, Memorial weekend is an excellent opportunity to delve into the sixth month’s true splendor: the NHL Draft.
A few years back pucksandbooks and I began a tradition of devoting the holiday weekend to our favorite leisure activity: pouring over the newly released NHL Entry Draft guides. They’ve grown in number and quality in recent years, making ours a true labor of love in the early summer sun.
Beginning next week, we’ll return from holiday with our initial thoughts about the quality of the draft overall and what looks viable among prospects from the perches from which the Caps will be picking.
Along with cold draughts and warm company, may we re-suggest as starting reading the NHL 2007 Draft Guide and it’s 224 pages of geek-glory, as well as The Hockey News’ glossy NHL Draft coverage (check your local newsstand, or order the electronic copy at THN.com). This will keep the juices flowing for the weekend, so when Red Line Report, International Scouting Service, and McKeen’s Hockey release their forays into the prospect news buffet (expected in early June), you will have a solid appetizer for the main course. Well worth the time for any armchair GM wishing for the latest and greatest updates and scouting reports on the 2007 draft class. The granddaddy of them all, Bob McKenzie’s amazingly accurate Top 30 prospects rankings, has not been released yet, but is the crowning umbrella on your beach-side drink of choice. (It can make drinking the beer hard, but appearances count sometimes.)
We’ll have more on the draft as it approaches, but until then, happy Draftgeekdom, a pleasant weekend, and please take a moment to hoist a glass to those to whom Memorial Day is dedicated.
Through the first three games of the American Hockey League’s Eastern Conference Finals, the Hershey Bears have potted 14 goals past the league’s netminder of the year, Jason LaBarbera. Tomas Fleischmann continued his torrid pace tonight — a goal and two assists.
Look for the Bears to close out this series Saturday night.
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