04 July, 2008

Category Archives: Gary Bettman

It’s Time To Realign and Bring Back the Heat Among Hated Rivals

By pucksandbooks
Monday, June 9, 2008

I have six principles guiding a much-needed, rigorous realignment of NHL teams for the 2009-10 season. They are:

(1) There is widespread support among general managers, owners, players, media, the presidential candidates, and hockey fans to have the Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby rivalry, such as it is, coronated formally in a largely reconstituted Patrick division. In so doing, one of the league’s fiercest set of division rivals would be getting back to hating one another nightly as they should. April’s Washington-Philadelphia seven-gamer offered a powerful reminder of the Patrick’s lasting legacy. This would also right the grievous wrong the league perpetrated on the Capitals a decade ago in removing them from one of sports’ best divisions.

(2) Expansion — to 32 teams — is inevitable. The revenues the league has enjoyed in three successive post-lockout seasons indicate it. My new-look league, initially unbalanced by 16 teams in one conference and 14 in the other, is perfectly structured to accommodate the new arrivals. This inevitable expansion is virtually certain to be located out West, be it in Houston, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Seattle, Portland, or Winnipeg.

(3) Geographic region names for divisions and conferences are for sucks. They are characterless. The NHL had it right pre-Bettman, honoring the game’s builders by affiliating their names with individual divisions, and just as importantly, the league’s gained nothing by vanilla-ing their identity away from it. So Norris, Patrick and Smythe are returned. But in a tip of the hat to the new, the two conferences aren’t rigidly structured by East and West and instead are designated under perhaps the two greatest player names in hockey history: Howe and Orr.

(4) There is something unrivaled in all of professional sports with the cache of the NHL’s Original Six teams, and so those six clubs, housed together for the first time since pre-’67, become the centerpiece of my alignment overhaul.

(5) Forever has Detroit wanted to move to an Eastern time zone conference affiliation, and with this overhaul the Wings will.

(6) A largely balanced schedule is in the best interest of the sport. There would be home and aways with every team in the league, every season. That would mean about 50 games out of your division and about 30 within. The majority of games within conference. This seems about right. Everybody sees Sidney, everybody sees Alex, everybody gets to see every star every season. Out of principle. What has been in place under Bettman has bred numbing repetition and indifference, and indefensible geographic isolation.

Other Benefits. Mercifully, the NASCAR division — since it can’t be uniformly euthanized — is coherently structured with Washington’s removal and Nashville’s addition. A half dozen genuinely hate-based rivalries of today, in a 30-team league, would be doubled or even tripled in this new configuration. The Patrick and Original Six divisions would likely play their division foes to near 100 percent attendance capacity each night, every season. The addition of a team in Las Vegas — a Sin City locale for a league full of sin on every shift — would create instant buzz generally and especially pizzaz within a West-configurated division named after Foster Hewitt.

This realignment would be executed in time for the 2009-10 season, with the Orr and Howe conferences unbalanced in number of teams for a year or two to allow time to expand in two more markets, both of which would join the Howe conference.

We can quibble on the reorienting of one or three specific franchises, but the heart of this matter is getting Sid and Alex and the Atlantic region reconfigured together, Detroit appropriately accommodated to a largely Eastern schedule, inevitable expansion seamlessly slotted in, and the Original Six ascending to a perch known by no other division in the entirety of the professional sports landscape.

Orr Conference
Patrick Division Original Six Norris Division
Washington Boston Atlanta
New Jersey Chicago Carolina
NY Islanders Detroit Florida
Philadelphia Montreal Nashville
Pittsburgh NY Rangers Tampa
Toronto
Howe Conference
Adams Division Smythe Division Hewitt Division
Buffalo Calgary Anaheim
Columbus Colorado (Las Vegas)
Minnesota Dallas Los Angeles
Ottawa Edmonton Phoenix
St. Louis (Houston) San Jose
Vancouver
Filed in Conferences, Eastern Conference, Gary Bettman, Hockey Legends, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, The Great Old Patrick Division, Washington Capitals, Western Conference| Permalink| Comments (31)

The NHL in Kansas City This Autumn

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)
Friday, May 30, 2008

A pre-sale is occurring right now (through 10:00 p.m. Central) for the first NHL game at Kansas City’s Sprint Center arena.

Of course, it’s a pre-season game on September 22 between the Los Angeles Kings and the St. Louis Blues, so it’s not like KC is getting its own hockey team . . . yet.

Whether via relocation or expansion, Kansas City, Missouri, remains near the top of the NHL’s short list for franchise consideration. Back in October we discussed the feasibility of an NHL team in Kansas City, in the context of a possible new home for the Predators. This exhibition game seems to be the NHL’s way of dipping their big toe in the KC water once again, to see if the temperature is right for hockey there.

Filed in Gary Bettman, Hockey Towns, Nashville Predators, National Hockey League| Permalink| Comments (8)

Missing a Mismatch in May

By pucksandbooks
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
  • Bettman made us wait a week for this mismatch? How is it that so broad a spectrum of press had so difficult a time recognizing the glaring discrepancies between these two teams? “Fooled by youth” is one explanation. In the pressure cooker of a Cup Finals, the Penguins look their age. Meaning, it’s one thing to take down the Rags and Flyers in high-stakes series, but quite another when the brightest lights are shining on the biggest stage.
  • Too little press attention was directed at the benches. Mike Babcock has the look of becoming a great coach, if he already isn’t one. And how astoundingly fortunate is it for the Wings to have a great coach follow fast on the heels of a departed legend? Meanwhile, Michel Terrien has the look of a decent coach managing young world-class talent. He has no answers for what Babcock has concocted.
  • Meet Mr. Invisible, Evgeni Malkin. Zero shots on goal in game 2. Zero.
  • How does that Marian Hossa deal look now in Pittsburgh? Gone is Eric Christensen, Colby Armstrong, and no. 1 pick Angelo Esposito. Hossa almost certainly isn’t returning to the Pens — and neither are some other free agents, including, perhaps, Ryan Malone. Pens’ beat reporter Dave Molinari was a guest of Mike Vogel’s on last week’s CapsReport, and when he was asked how difficult it would be for Pens’ management to keep this current roster of high achievers together, he replied, “It won’t be difficult at all. It will be impossible.”
  • The Penguins have 13 unrestricted free agents for next season. Among them Gary Roberts, Malone, Hossa, Georges Laraque, Jarkko Ruutu, Pascal Dupuis, and Ty Conklin. It’s obvious they have a contending core in Crosby, Malkin, Fleury, Staal, Gonchar, and Orpik — they’re virtual playoff fixtures for the next half decade. But for Shero there may well be a significant rebuild required of a surrounding, supporting cast. Landing and signing stars for the long haul isn’t easy, but neither is assembling a cohesive cast without which no team can win a Cup.
  • How often do really big-name, big-salaried hockey stars in their expensive prime get dealt at the dealine and go on to lead their new teams to Lord Stanley’s glory? Far more often, isn’t it the case that contenders address vulnerable voids with battle-tested grit guys, have them join an already strong room, and then remake already strong clubs into something special?
  • It is staggering to consider how perennially strong the Wings are given where they’ve drafted in each round for the better part of the past two decades. Their scouts just get it done.
  • Another mismatch missed by the press, again related more to experience than talent: Chris Osgood vs. Marc-Andre Fleury.
  • The Wings are a great transition team, but not by luck or whim. Notice the prevalence of short passes they use in breakouts. Shorter passes, rather obviously, carry a higher rate of accuracy. In Babcock’s system players are consistently placed in positions to execute them. They reduce the incidence of turnovers, and they perpetuate poise, possession, and flow. What a great system most especially in high-pressure hockey situations. No team in the league makes anywhere near as widespread and effective a use of the short breakout pass.
  • The NHL could have ended its season — to considerable admiration — in May. (It still might, Saturday night). It chose not to. There’s virtue in scheduling integrity. Winning hockey teams don’t benefit from sitting around idle, and neither do their fans. I loved the reporter’s rejoinder to the commish last week: “You need a hobby.”
Filed in Detroit Red Wings, Gary Bettman, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, Pittsburgh Penguins, Stanley Cup, Stanley Cup Playoffs| Permalink| Comments (9)

Bettman’s State of the Hockey Union

By The OFB Team
Sunday, May 25, 2008

As is tradition, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman addressed the media late yesterday afternoon in  the lead-up to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. The commissioner has used this forum in the past to offer a quasi state of the game assessment, and yesterday was no different. James Mirtle has the entire transcript of the session up on his blog, but we thought we’d highlight some standout aspects and quote in full eyebrow-raising realms that are staple thinking of this commissioner.

The commish, from his vantage, identified highlights of the 2007-08 season:

  • The Kings and Ducks opening the regular season in Europe. (To yawns, from our vatange.)
  • The Winter Classic, between the Pens and Sabres, from Buffalo. Without committing to a followup game outdoors yesterday, he did say that the league will make a decision “shortly” on Winter Classic II “in terms of venue and the teams involved.” (He, far moreso than we, would like to see a Pens-Flyers matchup outdoors, “in Happy Valley,” and hinted that such a matchup is on the short list of likelys.) 
  • The U.S. debut of the NHL Network.
  • The opening of the NHL Store in New York City, “powered by Reebok,” he quipped. (No mention of Reebok’s powering a high-tailed race away from its uniform system, by all 30 teams, and a return to the good old fabric of the past.
  • 21 million in attendance for the past regular season for the first time ever. Revenues exceeded $2.5 billion — also a first.

We particularly enjoyed this opening to the Q&A portion of the session:

Q. At this point in time, often times television ratings come up in this session. I understand they’re positive this year. But how does the League measure kind of the unprecedented access that hockey fans have across the world through all the new technology?

COMMISSIONER GARY BETTMAN: That’s an interesting and intriguing question. Obviously with respect to ratings we look for continued growth in traditional media. I think all sports, particularly us, tend to get measured too much solely by that metric and not the other things, including access to new media . . . What it means is our fans, and probably the fans of all sports, are seeking to get content of what they want on their own terms. And, therefore, we need to make sure that there’s access to our game the way our fans want it when they want it, how they want it.

On the league’s newly instituted intolerance for flying octopi:

COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: . . .The issue is the swinging of it. And Colin Campbell has had numerous conversations. The problem is the ice. I don’t know what the technical name is for stuff that comes off an octopus. I assume it’s some sort of gunk. When it sticks on the ice it’s a problem, and when it gets on things - it’s actually in one game got on a goaltender as it was being swung. They were going out the Zamboni entrance. It’s really more about making sure that no player hits something on the ice and blows out his knee.

[OFB note: octopi gunk impairing ice quality is an issue for the league, but just regular old rotten ice -- like for a Game 7 of the playoff series -- isn't.]

It’s about the conditions that we’re playing under. So I have no illusions. The octupi will fly, but they just can’t be swung because we’ve got to limit the gunk. Not a very artful way of describing it, but I think you get the point.”

Q. I just noticed that the League kind of missed a chance to end this, by this, I mean the playoffs, they had a shot at ending it before June. And I just wondered if there was any effort being made to squeeze the playoff schedule a bit so it’s a little less interminable.

COMMISSIONER GARY BETTMAN: I don’t think it’s interminable. And I’m sorry if you do. I like being here. I like going to games. And I feel a void in my life when the season is over. And I don’t even get to go on vacation.

Q. You need a hobby.

COMMISSIONER GARY BETTMAN: That may be. Squeezing it is an issue. It is the most grueling march to the championship of any sport. We’re very mindful of the wear and tear on our players.

[OFB note: For a specific instance illustrative of the league's concern with wear and tear on its players, look back on Anaheim's opening seven days of the 2007-08 regular season, with five games contested all on the road, two in the United Kingdom and three in fast succession back in North America.] 

Filed in Gary Bettman, Hockey, Hockey Rinks, Ice, National Hockey League, Stanley Cup Playoffs, The Winter Classic, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (3)

Buzz Trades, a Big Game, a Big-Buzz Atmosphere Stream of Consciousness

By pucksandbooks
Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Was in the then MCI Center the night of March 13, 2001 — also deadline day — when earlier in the day GMGM dealt Zednik and Bulis and a pick to Montreal for Zubrus and Linden, and the mood in last night’s rink felt larger and more significant . . . that dealmaking carried a component of risk; this was pure aggression with minimal assets heading out . . . the better comparison may be with March 1997, carried out not in a single day but over the course of a couple of weeks, when McPhee, in his first season on the job, added Brian Belllows and Esa Tikkanen . . . Enjoyed most of all throughout the late Tuesday afternoon and evening messages from friends and strangers who were busy with business throughout the day and wholly unaware of the deadline day madness that enveloped the Caps, who arrived at the news late and lavished it (in my email inbox) with happy obscenities and exclamation points . . . Mike Vogel, looking terrifically telegenic, rinkside on Comcast in the 5:00 hour to help analyze the breaking big news, me comparing his polished appearance before TV DC with his pre-sunrise, blogging-through-the-Moscow-night, comrade shagginess with me during last year’s Worlds . . . big bonus: dinner with Ron Weber in the press room on such a big day . . . look at all the media big wigs who show up when hockey creates the day’s sports buzz: George Solomon of the Post, three Times’ reporters, the one-time Queen of OFB even, I think I may have even seen Arch Campbell in Bruce Boudreau’s post-game presser . . . Ted’s box is filled as I hadn’t seen it since perhaps opening night . . . Commissioner Bettman, in his pre-game presser: “This is a team that has been built on prospects and for the future” . . . He’s in town for some chit-chat on the Hill about drugs and athletes, and he mentions “players as role models” and a clear concern that his sport not be painted with a broad brush of they-all-do-it cynicism: “What goes on in one sport doesn’t [necessarily] go on in others” . . . “We’ve had one player in two-and-a-half years caught [for performance enhancing drugs],” and he references the tough remedies that face the offenders — a quarter-of-a-season suspension, three-quarter-of-a-season, three strikes and you’re out . . . and I think, Bud Selig he ain’t, but it’s also true that this sport has a much different relationship with its players union than all the rest . . . He is also asked about the prevalence of players exercising the “No” in their no-trade clauses: “Nobody makes a club give a player a no-trade clause” . . . I ask the commissioner about Ted’s expressed wish to take the team on a goodwill tour of Russia, “sooner rather than later,” and he expresses cautious support. When he references what a “big deal” it’s going to be for Jagr to return to Prague next season, I think I have my answer about the likelihood of Ovechkin’s returning to Moscow . . . He also acknowledges that the league today doesn’t have the relationship with the Russian Hockey Federation it once did . . . Even the arena’s game night personnel working in catering and as ushers seem buoyed by the day’s big news — they are all chipper and wide smiling in every encounter. . . On a day like today I appreciate the professionalism and the quasi-renaissance of renewed hockey coverage by our town’s two print beat reporters, both of whom blogged and filed on Tuesday until their fingers were sore, giving Washington hockey fans timely and superb breaking news; following Corey’s blog a bit during the game, I chuckled at his reflection “at some point I’ll eat” . . . Midway through the game I have a minimial amount of notes and reactions recorded, as friendly folks keep bending my ear for reaction and basic “Can you believe all this?” empathy, vanquishing my between-periods composition, and I relish it . . . Peter Bondra is back in the press box tonight, and on the ice sheet below the young prospect he was traded for, Brooks Laich, is having a career night, and I just sorta like the symmetry of that . . . in the second row of the press box, where the Caps’ communications staff works each game, I see each and every one of them, no one missing, and I think there’s so much work for them to do on a day like this they all have to be here, but it’s probably also the case that such a day makes a Caps’ staffer proud to have the careers they do, and they want to be in the rink, well dressed, helpful, and full of good cheer . . . very loud rock music typically greets bloggers and press in the post-game locker room after victories, but tonight it’s quiet, and I infer that the day’s drama has drained the entire team, that they want as efficient an encounter with media as possible, hot showers, and a race home to crash in bed . . . the circle of cameras and microphones and scribes around Kolzig is unlike anything I have seen in two years — it’s five-deep at turns, and Tarik has to make like a gymnast to get his recorder squeezed into some open space around Kolzig’s locker . . . no one much asks Olie the Goalie about the game, instead, The Trade . . . question after question on the trade: was he shocked? was he upset? how can it possibly work with three netminders? did the team approach him about a trade? . . . he says, among other things, “The thing that surprises me is that there’s three goalies here” . . . Coach Boudreau acknowledges the challenge of managing three netminders, but he dismisses a contention that the day’s developments insult the greatest goalie in Caps’ history; he maintains that the consumate professional will rise to meet the new challenge . . . Here’s hoping Fedorov this spring is Bellows of ‘98, Matt Cooke that year’s Esa Tikkanen, Olie Kolzig . . . Olie Kolzig.

Filed in Brooks Laich, Bruce Boudreau, Corey Masisak, Dainius Zubrus, Gary Bettman, George McPhee, Lindsay Czarniak, Mike Vogel, Morning cup-a-joe, NHL Trades, Olaf Kolzig, Peter Bondra, Print, Tarik El-Bashir, WRC, Washington Capitals, Washington Post, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (8)

The NBA’s Revenge

By The OFB Team
Friday, February 1, 2008

Today marks the 15th anniversary of Gary Bettman’s hiring as NHL Commissioner.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman

Bettman is the longest serving commissioner for the league, as he’s the first. The position was previously designated as NHL President, where Clarence Campbell held the title the longest from 1946 - 1977.

Filed in Gary Bettman, National Hockey League| Permalink| Comments (4)

So Hockey Got Asked Out on a Date This Week

By pucksandbooks
Friday, January 4, 2008

Morning Cup-A-Joe
Morning Cup-A-Joe
Something momentous and stupendous happened to hockey on Tuesday. By late Wednesday afternoon I was aware of an unusual mainstream media preoccupation forming a phenomenon: they were, rather uniformly, rather nationally, saying nice things about our sport. Really nice things.

Then came Wednesday’s 5:00 hour on ESPN.

I was New-Years-resolution fitnessing at a big health club then, flat screen TVs hanging overhead, the pearls of wisdom from the talking heads captioned for the sweating. At the top of hour there there’s some hip and chic and therefore unendurable split-screen of sports columnists blathering for 30 minutes. A guy named Woody from Denver, Jay from Chicago, somebody else I didn’t know, and some smarmy host red-meating the proceedings. I figured they’d quick-hit hockey ’cause of Tuesday’s novelty and move on to the important stuff, like what Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson will do together during the Cowboys’ bye week.

Instead, everyone took turns praising not just the Winter Classic but the fundamental appeals of hockey, which, they claimed, were showcased in Buffalo on Tuesday. And they couldn’t stop talking about it. They interrupted one another with accolades. They debated when and where the next outdoor game should take place. Soldier Field was mentioned, where the “revitalized Chicago Blackhawks” would skate perhaps against another Original Six club. One fella admitted that he couldn’t stick with a single college bowl game Tuesday afternoon (imagine shunning all those three- and four-loss dynamos!) because he kept getting drawn back to the Lakeside fun in a winter wonderland.

Understand that in the wallets of these Worldwide Leader in Sports personalties are laminated cards that read, “If I even know that hockey exists, I seriously hate it.”

In the middle of the hour Kornheiser and Wilbon followed, on PTI. These two of course last did coverage favors for our sport pre-expansion. But they, too, joined in the broadcast swooning over our sport. It was no gag, either. Gym exercisers to my right and left seemed to be following the dialogue like I was, but only I kept falling off equipment pedals.

At times the MoJo that moves the media in a hungry pack around a new food source is vague and intangible. It formed and fomented around hockey late Tuesday and throughout Wednesday. I don’t think as recently as 12:45 p.m. Tuesday anyone even in the NHL’s Communications or Marketing offices could have imagined the media’s love-at-first-sight sweet nothings for our game soon to ensue.

Early Thursday I Googled “Winter Classic” as a subject search, and from little more than one full page of listings spotted these headlines:

Winter Classic is a step in the right direction

Winter Classic: Outdoor Game Scores

The Perfect Snowstorm: The Winter Classic Scores

NBC Shoots, Scores with NHL Winter Classic Ratings

Winter Classic a Huge Success

NHL Winter Classic proves league can get it right (” . . . nothing short of an overwhelming success . . . “)

In truth, hockey got lucky Tuesday, on at least two fronts. The first was a slate of yawner college pigskin bowl games, the byproduct of BCS madness rendering New Years Day — once the sport’s Christmas morning — now needless, the nutritional equivalent of television Twinkies. The second front, obviously, was the weather one: raucus and Rockwellian. The Ralph on Tuesday had everything but the Budweiser Clydesdales.

Best of all, few among the millions who watched likely thought, “Ah-hah, the spoiled millionaires are discomforted for a few hours.” No, millions saw highly skilled, smiling skaters persevering through rhythm-robbing interruptions and a rapidly deteriorating playing surface, and 71,000 supporters screaming through sideways snow and sleet and gashing Great Lake winds.

I became aware that hockey had created a crush, that in this week it was being asked out on a date by the four-sport letterman who never noticed us in class; a date perhaps only for this Saturday night, but a date nonetheless.

Here’s a loser-has-to-get-a-Mike-Green-haircut wager I direct at those who think Tuesday was a lone flicker of lucky lust directed at the league: there’s a new Yankee Stadium today under construction, and it won’t be open 5 years before the Rangers skate a regular season game in it.

Why would the Yankees and BigMedia care about us again?

Because in our natural state we’re very pretty.

Filed in Buffalo Sabres, ESPN, Gary Bettman, Media, Michael Wilbon, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, Old Time Hockey, Pittsburgh Penguins, Pond Hockey, TV, The Winter Classic, Tony Kornheiser, Washington Post| Permalink| Comments (4)

Knee-jerks & Notes: New Years Fun Indoors and Out

By The OFB Team
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

We followed two big games on Tuesday.

Outdoors:

  • NBC opened its broadcast with Peter Gabriel’s instrumental “It Is Accomplished” from the Passion soundtrack—an excellent choice on many levels. Then the network returned to predictable form with Foreigner’s “Cold As Ice.” At least the network didn’t play “Ice Ice Baby.”
  • There was an awful lot of smiling players’ faces on the benches in camera close-ups immediately before the game. Of course all of them were going to be diplomatic and supportive of the event in the lead-up, but in the moment, this display of enthusiasm sure seemed authentic and organic and evocative of the heart of the matter.
  • The snowballing of the Pittsburgh team bus arriving at the Ralph — executed by hordes of Sabres’ fans — argued well for continuing this event in the future.
  • Outdoor Game
    Outdoor Game
    It would be easy to pan the event on the basis of the inclimate conditions — visibility was generally poor for players, spectators, and home viewers; trainers and players dealt with a litany of equipment challenges; Zambonis were on the ice as frequently as fourth-liners; and league Ice Tech Dan Craig may as well have been in the game program as often as he was on the ice. But our sense is that the event’s overall atmosphere earned the game’s first star, and that the league scored an overtime game-winner with this idea and its general execution. The overall effect was one of a compelling Season’s Greeting showcasing sports’ most under appreciated athletes in their embrace of winter’s elements.
  • In a very real sense this was a maiden run in terms of the league establishing outdoor ice quality. Buffalo’s football field is pitched at nine degrees! There was never going to be an issue with ice quality in Edmonton for the Heritage Classic in 2003 — Alberta skies were clear that night, and temps were below that of Cryogenics. The league will learn a lot from Tuesday afternoon in Buffalo, and apply lessons learned to any future outdoor engagements.
  • You’re a liar if you thought in the third period, while he skated on a sheet of snow, sleet, and patched-up makeshift ice, Sergei Give-it-away-when-and-where-it-hurts-most Gonchar would escape the tied game unscathed. By Divine Intervention he did, but no sane human being would have predicted it.
  • Some fantastic hitting, in corners and in open ice, and NBC cameras captured it superbly. Hockey played outdoors in snow with hatred and heavy hitting between the teams, in high definition: four unfiltered Marlboros for the OFB team, please.
  • There is something special to Kris Letang and shootouts. He actually lost control of the puck twice while bearing down on Ryan Miller and still managed to beat him.
  • Fitting that Sidney Crosby ended the game. He was its best player.
  • The NHL’s All-Star Game continues to suffer from both an identity crisis and any sense of relevance/importance. What about taking it outdoors, and perhaps even marrying it to a regular season game between a rotation of two teams each year? Make a Winter Weekend of it all.
  • The Commish, afterward: “This obviously is something we’re going to look at doing again. This is the type of event we certainly will be looking at doing in the future.” Think the league might be pleased with the results? A color photo of celebrating Pens appears on A1 of today’s New York Times.

Indoors:

  • Question for the New York Post’s Larry Brooks and the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch, both of whom recently have opined that Alexander Ovechkin shouldn’t bother negotiating a new deal with the Caps and instead move on via restricted free agency to a “real” hockey market: one such market can’t be Ottawa, right, seeing as how the Sens are futile in all attempts to defeat the Caps?
  • Ovechkin on the Faceoff - Photo by G. Kriebel
    Ovechkin on the Faceoff - Photo by G. Kriebel
    Speaking of MSM, WUSA’s Brett Haber has the title of Sports Director. He labors in Washington, D.C. It would be charitable to say that he is seldom seen in the press lounge of Verizon Center. It would be understandable by Washington MSM standards were he to have ignored hockey on his New Years Day evening sportscast and instead directed all his energy at the playoff-bound Redskins. That’s par for the course in these parts. Instead he man-loved Sir Sidney to no end, calling him the best player in hockey. We won’t call this an egregious offense but rather one of breathtaking tone deafness; in legitimate sports towns in which there is a lead athlete credibly creating dispute about such a point, the hometown athlete typically earns the decision.
  • Ottawa played a shockingly undisciplined game fueled by out-of-control emotion in the determinative first period. A novice fan making his or her first-ever visit to an NHL game at Verizon Center yesterday, pressed to identify what team had spent the entirety of this decade in the NHL postseason, and winning about 70 percent of its games the past eight years, and what one hung up the gear more or less every April, would have guessed Ottawa the golfers and the Caps the savvy vets.
  • Martin Gerber may not be the Sens’ solution to confidence-inspiring, trustworthy, big-stop-when-you-most-need-it postseason netminding.
  • The Mike Green Express — an Amtrak Acela toward what should be an All Star selection. He’s still remarkably young, still prone to the occasional error borne of limited big-league experience, but he’s a jewel of his draft class and a lynchpin of Caps’ playoff teams for years to come.
  • Little noted but imperative: Ovechkin had to execute some magical footwork to remain onside on Mike Green’s end-to-end virtuoso tally.
  • Serious sigh of relief: the Caps got off the O-fer collar with 5-on-3 man-advantages.
  • Think about how formidable the five-game stretch that began in Pittsburgh on December 27 looked and consider where the Caps are now: 5 of a possible 6 points earned, with beatable Boston up next.
  • It’s frigid outside in Washington, D.C., early in 2008 and the city’s hockey team is hot. Expect your other-sports loving friends this week — even a few donned in burgundy and gold — to begin leaning against AO’s @ss-Kicking Express, eying empty seats within. Welcome their interest. We don’t know yet if the proverbial corner has been turned for this hockey team, but right now it feels very hockey healthy in Washington, and it feels wonderful.

Must reading:

** “Best in Snow,” Ross McKeon, Yahoo!Sports **

** “A Thrilling Snowball Effect,” Kevin Paul Dupont, Boston Globe

** “Ice Bowl Is One for the Ages, with NHL Record Crowd,” John Bonfatti and Gene Warner, Buffalo News

** “Want the ultimate outdoor rink? Dan Craig makes it so,” Scott Burnside, ESPN.com

Filed in Alexander Semin, Brooks Laich, Buffalo Sabres, Gary Bettman, Hockey Rinks, Hockey Weather, Ice, Knee-Jerk, Mike Green, National Hockey League, Old Time Hockey, Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins, Pond Hockey, Sidney Crosby, TV, Tom Poti, Viktor Kozlov, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (22)

The Great Outdoors: On Ice-Covered Buffalo Wings and Frostbitten Big Lips

By pucksandbooks
Monday, December 31, 2007

Morning Cup-A-Joe
Morning Cup-A-Joe
My New Year’s wish: that 64,000 of the expected 74,000 fans packing Buffalo’s football stadium tomorrow afternoon for the Winter Classic are Maple Leaf fans donning blue and white Leafs’ sweaters.

Give the NHL credit when credit is due: the marketing for tomorrow’s game has been — most particularly by NHL standards — superb. Last Friday’s USA Today had lavish coverage of the game and of outdoor hockey in general. The league has fed superb images of the construction of the rink to scores of electronic media, making the Winter Classic a staple of Web sports navigating for at least the past week. And the league is wisely using its broadcast outlet, the NHL Network, as a lead coverage catalyst. Take a look at the broadcast schedule there today, for instance:

1:30 - 4:00 p.m.: Winter Classic Preview

4:00 - 6:00 p.m.: Heritage Classic (Montreal vs. Edmonton)

6:30 p.m.: Sidney Crosby Revealed (skip that) (as if he hasn’t been revealed already enough)

7:00 - 9:30 p.m.: Replay of the Winter Classic Preview

Buffalo of course is nobody’s idea of a holiday destination, but it is in New York, and that has a lot to do with the league getting the coverage it is for this gig. Clearly, it learned a lesson from the Heritage Classic. That was a magnificent event, including as it did the Old Timer’s Game featuring Wayne and his old Oiler teammates and some greats from the Habs’ past. The feature game itself was competitive and well played. But the whole event took place in frozen-over Alberta. It was broadcast on Hockey Night in Canada, but there was zero U.S. television coverage.

There is no longer much in the way of compelling college pigskin on New Years Day anymore, larded as it is with three- and four-loss, third- and fifth-place-in-their-conference teams about the networks. A national champion is never crowned on New Years Day anymore. That’s a travesty.

Scores of NHLers in recent days have expressed support for the league’s staging an outdoor game every year. They speak of games like this with uniform enthusiasm. New Years is the perfect occasion for it.

The NHL has something fantastically distinctive with outdoor hockey. There’s nothing the other sports can do to match it for intrigue. Better: it’s anything but forced, schlocky fabrication — it’s a return to hockey’s roots. And fans, in Canada and the U.S., are responding, in droves. Sabres’ officials last week claimed that they could have sold 150,000 tickets for tomorrow’s game. I don’t dount it.

One hundred thousand of them likely would have come from Toronto.

Filed in Buffalo Sabres, Gary Bettman, Hockey Night in Canada, Hockey Rinks, Internet, Media, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, Old Time Hockey, Pittsburgh Penguins, Pond Hockey, Sidney Crosby, TV| Permalink| Comments (3)

Sarcasm, Thy Name Is Onion

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)
Monday, November 26, 2007

A wonderful blurb from The Onion regarding the National Hockey League’s savior, Mr. Crosby:

PITTSBURGH—After a decades-long decline in fan interest that reached its nadir with the loss of an entire season to labor strife, the National Hockey League was rescued by the efforts of reigning MVP Sidney Crosby, whose goal and two assists against the New Jersey Devils restored the league to the heights of its former glory.

“What a truly momentous day for the rejuvenation of the great sport of ice hockey,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said of Crosby’s transcendent performance in a point-grabbing overtime that brought the Penguins within striking distance of fourth place. “That second assist was a shining example of what this game can truly be—Crosby recognized the screen, found the open man with the angle, and displayed the awe-inspiring talent one associates with a Muhammad Ali or a Michael Jordan. Hockey is surely saved now.” 

Bettman also acknowledged single-goal, two-assist performances from 13 other NHL players including Chris Chelios, Dany Heatley, and Todd White, but emphasized that, unlike Crosby, they had not saved the NHL. 

Filed in Gary Bettman, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby| Permalink| Comments (2)

Reebok Feelin’ the Heat

By pucksandbooks
Friday, November 2, 2007

I was a bit young to recall the Chinese water torture-like progress made by the media against the Nixon administration during Watergate, but Redford and Hoffman in ‘All the President’s Men’ suggested a painstakingly patient approach to building the Post’s evidence-based claims against Nixon’s henchmen. North American water torture might be an apt description of what many NHLers are enduring these days dressed in Reebok’s equipment-ruining uniform systems. And like Watergate, it may be many, many months before justice is utlimately served. This from yesterday’s Globe and Mail:

“Just weeks after introducing its much-vaunted, sleek new NHL uniforms, Reebok is making modifications to try to mollify a growing number of players who have complained about the discomfort they’re experiencing from the scientifically-designed fabric.”

Some who are coming forward to the press with damning evidence (in dark garages?) are demanding their identities be protected:

“Obviously, the uniforms don’t get rid of the sweat,” said one U.S. hockey equipment distributor who has been hearing complaints from players and trainers. “It just goes right down into the gloves, the pants, the shin pads and the skates.”

And:

“Industry sources say the company did not do enough testing under game conditions.

“The material itself is not performing the way they originally designed,” one industry insider said. “There was not enough due diligence performed on this material prior to putting these uniforms on the entire league.”

Both Reebok and the NHL this week dispatched PR apologists to try and stem the mounting damage: “Both the league and Reebok insist the new jerseys are here to stay,” the Globe and Mail claimed. Hockey fans across the continent have got to know that the league’s administrator and corporate partners are not crooks.

The Globe continues: “Besides excess sweating, other complaints have focused on the fact they appear to rip more easily. And some players don’t like the tighter fit, which they find more restrictive.”

Capitals’ forwards in particular appear restricted in their shooting motions.

Filed in Gary Bettman, Media, National Hockey League, Print, Reebok, Sweaters, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (1)

Update: Reebok’s Designer Duds Are Donesy

By pucksandbooks
Friday, October 26, 2007

A tip of the hat to Mr. Eric McErlain, he of Off Wing Opinion, who just excitedly rushed into my office to inform me that the Boston Bruins have returned the entirety of their uniform systems to Reebok, because Bs’ players are drowning and suffering heat stroke in them, and Reebok is agreeing to replacing the entirety of the uniforms, made . . . of the old material.

(Eric and I actually man-hugged over the news.)

Well done, Commissioner Bettman, well done indeed. That experiment sure lasted a long time. NHL Commissioners don’t quite get libraries like U.S. Presidents do, but Bettman needs an Area 51-type hanger into which can be stored scores of Glo-pucks and now Reebok uniform systems.

The Bruins, friends, will be skating soon in those good old fashioned, lovely loose hockey sweaters. Bank on it.

The news broke buried in a story in yesterday’s Boston Herald. Take a lookey:

“According to sources in the B’s dressing room, Reebok has been unable to correct problems with the new jerseys introduced this season across the NHL and will replace them at the company’s expense with new uniforms made of the old materials.

“Players have complained since training camp that the new jerseys, which are supposed to be lighter and allow sweat to evaporate out through the shirts, have instead trapped water inside and gotten heavier. . . “

Now then. The Bruins most assuredly will not be the only team returning its players to comfort. But what will Reebok do for replacement uniforms for teams — such as the Caps — who performed wholesale redesigns predicated on the Reebok uniform system at least making it to Halloween? You may have noticed: The Caps’ new crest and nameplates are sized for smaller, tighter sweaters. This is going to get real interesting.

As is Reebok’s next shareholders’ meeting.

Update: After tonight’s game I had a chance to listen in on the opinions of three very prominent Washington Capitals about the conditions they’re enduring because of Reebok’s uniform system. You will find them interesting, I promise. Will be publishing them later this weekend.

Filed in Boston Bruins, Gary Bettman, National Hockey League, Reebok, Sweaters, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (6)

Co-Habitating with Hockey

By pucksandbooks
Saturday, October 13, 2007

Television
Television
Hockey yesterday fell to one knee and offered me its hand. The NHL Network, you see, debuted some time yesterday afternoon on my cable television provider, Comcast. It would have been a same-sex marriage between us, and I’m not real big on those. So we’ll live together.

Twenty four hours a day of the league, in high definition. Lover, hold me.

I’m genuinely composure-challenged at this writing, so indulge me. We’re in the infatuation stage, you see.

Even the station’s commercials are hockey-related, for goodness sake. “Call me back during a commercial,” a friend or family member will instruct me at various points this winter. Ain’t happening.

Some of the commercials promo team-specific DVDs highlighting great seasons of the past, and while I have zero interest in purchasing any Blueshirts vids, for instance, I commend the league for the resources its using in these spots. A rich and resonant voiceover talent reminds us that “It’s a ferocious ballet of speed and skill . . . refined over the years but unchanged in its simplicity . . . less than a religion — but not by much . . . players whose hearts pump beneath a crest . . .” and then my mind trailed off in a dash to compose a love sonnet for my game.

It’s stunning to me that this affair of the broadcast heart is taking place, widely, in the greater Washington region. We’re not supposed to be much interested in hockey in these parts, remember? Other cable providers, including Cox, as well as DirecTV, will be getting the NHL Network up and running for locals at month’s end. But this weekend I can’t be bothered fretting for those of you without it; I’m that AWOL from the rink rat pack, the fella who forsakes beers and ballgames with his mates to spend all his time with a pretty girl. Except now I’m pretty sure I’ll be drinking even more beer.

I confess I don’t know much about what the league has in store in terms of programming for the NHL Network. It’s in its infancy still, so there’s a decent bit of repetition on air. It’s clear that there will be a steady diet of vintage games. There was a Caps-Devils postseason tilt from 1990 on late yesterday afternoon. I especially enjoyed highlights from a Hartford Whalers-Bs playoff showdown from the same time period. There’s something enduringly satisfying about seeing the Whale in their great old green garb. It’s a widely held nostalgia I think for a small market club ravaged by the lure of bigger dollars in some faraway newcomer cul de sac of cash. That playoff series, incidentally, featured a number of players with Caps’ ties: Bobby Carpenter, Dave Poulin, Randy Burridge, Todd Krygier. The Whale had one of the most difficult names to spell in all of hockey history in net, Peter Sidorkiewicz. (I had to keyword search “Hartford Whalers goalie Peter with a weird name who played in the ’90s” to find it.)

I have some suggestions for programming, if the league would like to solicit them. The Caps last season practiced outdoors one winter weekday morning at the Chevy Chase Country Club. Ottawa among other clubs has also skated practices outdoors (a number of AHL clubs, too, including the then-affiliated-with-the-Caps Portland Pirates). That sort of novel event would be perfect broadcast live and replayed in the evening on the NHL Network. It reminds us of the sport’s roots and why it’s so distinctive in the sporting landscape. When the league goes outdoors again for an actual game, in Buffalo on New Years Day for the Ice Bowl, the behind-the-scenes logistics for it ought to be lavishly chronicled.

Over the years the sport has produced some memorable television commercial spots, in individual markets and especially while ESPN broadcast the league. Remember ESPN’s “Hockey Falls” series? I’d like to see those worked in somehow.

It’s too early in this relationship for me to tell if it will be polyamorous: will perched-by-the-plexiglass talents such as Erin Anderson be recruited? There will be a need for talking head talent in the studio; why not bring some aesthetics to our savage sport? The Golf Channel lured a lot of middle-aged, potbellied 30-handicappers as devoted viewers by hiring Kelly Tilghman early on. I’m told that sidelinehotties.com can be a resource here. To be sure the NHL Network will attract a loyal following north of the 49th, but remember, there’s an awful lot of quality live puck broadcast up there too. If the NHL Network wants to strive for Sopranos buzz, Al Trautwig under the hot lights won’t cut it.

Filed in Gary Bettman, Hartford Whalers, Media, NHL Network, National Hockey League, TV, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (9)

Just Hand Us the Cup

By pucksandbooks
Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Cup'pa Joe
Cup'pa Joe
Hockey luminaries Gary Bettman and 2007-08 Jack Adams Award winner Glen Hanlon loom large these days. Knowing the commissioner as I do, it’s virtually certain he’ll insist on senseless redundancy, and not cancel the remainder of the NHL season and instead mandate that the Caps complete the remaining 79 games on their schedule. Insanity is famously defined as the repetition of the same act while expecting a different outcome. At least in the absence of competitive drama this hockey season the Caps can showcase their impressive new threads in arenas across the continent.

How am I supposed to work up any hatred of the Caps’ opposition when they can’t even score?

Here’s one directive I do expect out of the league office, perhaps as early as today: the Caps will be required to wear thermal versions of Reebok’s uniform systems, ones made of Northern Ireland sheep wool, for they are unable to work up a sweat in their current garb. Especially the goalies. I am an admirer of the team’s first television ad of the new season, one featuring a sultry brunette being tattooed with the new logo. But I’d modify the ad’s slogan to: “Perimeter kicksaves by yawning netminders, in True Colors.”

Hanlon, few would have guessed a month ago, is today on the short list for Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year Award — at least if it’s bestowed for exemplary acts of good sportsmanship. Knowing he had all the weakspots from recent years filled on his roster coming into this season, he’s chosen to sit Alexander Semin in two of the season’s opening three games, affording the appearance of competitiveness in the games. I know Semin’s ankle is sore, but I also know that he’d be playing were we in April instead of October. Or if there was any doubt as to the outcomes.

Approximately two-thirds of the Caps’ top line is in synch, the power play isn’t, and a stud is missing from the lineup, and so far no one in the East can compete. Speaking of tattoos, long ago I made a promise to my hockey chums that when Lord Stanley is hoisted here by my guys I’d permanently etch the occasion on my hind quarters. Herewith, I’m accepting estimates from the region’s parlors, with quivering buttocks.

Imagine the disquiet that must be settling in on the team’s general manager and scouts, knowing that soon, by virtue of a hostile NHL Board of Governors decree, they will be restricted to drafting hockey players only from Maryland and Virginia. You don’t really think the league is going to give Ross Mahoney et al a crack at another Mathieu Perreault — (he’s not allowed to play as many games as other forwards in the QMJHL, to keep the scoring race competitive) — do you?

Lindsay Czarniak sure didn’t pick the right hockey season to go to the dark (Burgundy) side, did she?

We have a Roll Call of the Rocks-in-Their-Heads to conduct. First up, ESPN’s John Buccigross, who pegged the Caps for 14th in the Eastern Conference this season. That was with Alexander Semin in the lineup he prognosticated so. Another last-place-in-the-Southeast forecast came from Sports Illustrated’s Sarah Kwak. “Their offseason moves failed to address the defensive shortcomings that led to their surrendering 3.35 goals a game,” she opined. The Caps have defensive “shortcomings” only if the barometer was holding all 82 opponents scoreless for the entire season. Let’s see if we can get Eric Staal and Erik Cole and Ryan Whitney to get the shot counter above 5 midway through a game against the Caps before we wring our hands over “defensive shortcomings.”

Here’s what Kwak should have written: “Ditched in D.C. this summer: Kris Beech. Standings value? Five slots, minimum.”

This dynasty-audition by the Caps is breeding in me rational but nonetheless exuberant sentiments. Check out the exchange I had tonight with the shepherd of both lonely and swelling hearts on radio each evening, Delilah, on FM WASH:

Delilah: “On the love line, pucksandbooks . . . that’s a distinctive name. So you want to dedicate Paul McCartney’s ‘Silly Love Songs.’ Tell me Pucks, who’s stolen your heart this Monday night?”

Me: “Don Koharski.”

Filed in ESPN, Gary Bettman, John Buccigross, Lindsay Czarniak, Media, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, Print, Stanley Cup, TV, WRC, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (4)

Reebok’s New Uniform System: Drowning in Disaster

By The OFB Team
Monday, September 24, 2007

An ocean of perspiration
An ocean of perspiration
NHL players and equipment managers might have tolerated their new unforms being unsightly relative to their predecessors, but what if they not only don’t work as marketed (repelling moisture, making players more comfortable) but actually make player performance worse? That would appear to be precisely the case. Last week’s Pittsburgh Post Gazette alerted its readers to the disconcerting development that some Penguins have nearly drowned while dressed in Reebok’s new threads.

“They do what they were designed to do, as far as repelling the water,” defenseman Mark Eaton said. “But we’ve found, the last three or four days of wearing them, that, when the water’s repelled, it has nowhere to go but into your skates and gloves.”

Water that is repelled has to go somewhere. Apparently it’s all going from uniform tops into players gloves, and from the form-fitting socks directly down into players’ boots. “By the end of the second [period] or the start of the third, your skates are sloshing around and you have to change your gloves because they’re [soaked],” Eaton added.

Here’s Gary Roberts’ take:

“My hands are soaked, my feet are soaked,” he said. “I feel like it’s May, in the playoffs, I’m sweating so much. That seems to be a complaint with a lot of guys.”

Mark Recchi also isn’t being quiet about the new mess. He noted that the remarkable amount of moisture now inundating players’ skates is likely to lead to their breaking down sooner, requiring replacement. Elite boots commonly worn by NHLers cost more than $500 a pair.

“Recchi suggested that, although some complications caused by the new sweaters will be evident immediately — like how some players will have to alter their in-game routines to deal with unduly wet equipment — others might not be apparent for a while.

“My gloves never got soaked like [they do now],” he said. “They’re literally drenched by the end of an hour[-long] practice.

“I’m going to have to have two pairs of gloves ready [for games]. I’ve never done that. I’ve always used one pair a game. Some guys are used to that, but that’s going to be different. Maybe I’ll have to change my socks between periods, which I don’t like doing. You start sloshing.

“I think you’ll see skates break down quicker because of it; they’ll absorb more [perspiration], because it’s all going down into your skate and your socks.”

Back in the good ‘ole days of tradition, hockey equipment managers had heavy lifting to do at games’ end each night loading and hauling wet gear from arena to bus to airport back to arenas in new cities — in the middle of the night. So from the sounds of things this fall, Reebok has actually managed to make the jobs of some of the hardest working men in hockey harder. If Mark Recchi’s right, equipment guys could soon be faced with a doubling of their gear packing gigs each night. Additionally, the increase in moisture about gear and rooms is an increased health risk to the players, especially in winter.

Filed in Gary Bettman, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, Prospects, Reebok, Sweaters, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (9)

Business Is Brisk for the New Threads

By The OFB Team
Saturday, September 15, 2007

Between 8:00 and 11:00 a.m. Friday the Kettler Capitals pro shop sold $8,000 worth of merchandise.

Filed in Gary Bettman, National Hockey League, Sweaters, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (0)

I’m Taking a Television Mistress

By pucksandbooks
Friday, September 14, 2007

Cup'pa Joe
Cup'pa Joe
It’s Siberia-far from their best work, but the Cure have a song titled ‘Friday I’m in Love.’ I awoke and logged on this morning to news from my bloggermate Gus that beginning in just another couple of weeks cable and satellite television providers all across North America would be offering the puck-crazed their long longed-for NHL Network. Twenty four hours of televised hockey seven days a week three hundred and sixty five days a year.

It’s Friday and I’m in television lust.

Heaven I imagine to offer fellas like me non-stop broadcasts of hockey on enlarged screens in high definition, with a few tab-free beers. Wait, that’s now my new home in Montgomery County in three weeks’ time. (I’m not in a mood to be trifled with particulars such as whether or not Comcast will offer the outlet locally; if it doesn’t, I’ll move. Nobody likes Friday joy-buzz-killers.)

In this region where Steve Czabins and their print ilk would have you believe hardly anyone is truly interested in consuming hockey media, I personally know of 61 individuals who will some time next month order the NHL Network.

If this news is dour in any regard, it is from the vantage of my mother, who’d really like to see me married and laboring toward grandchildren for her. How am I to schedule a date in this new broadcast environs? I have to work, bathe, and blog as it is, and now with this news, bid adieu to all future family and social functions.

pucksandbooks in pjs
pucksandbooks in pjs
This morning I’m actually conceiving bloggers’ pajama parties centered around weekends seated before the NHL Network. The Washington Times’ Corey Masisak debuted his very promising looking blog this week; he’d look funny in a set of those footie pajamas. Imagine if we arranged such an event for some February Saturday and a life-stopping Nor’easter settled in on D.C. right as Grapes was in full fury during Coach’s Corner. Even if we had a few laptops among us I doubt you’d hear from us again.

Here’s one strategem for liberating me from my home this autumn and winter: have that marvel of modern multimedia, the Verizon Center’s new assault-all-of-your senses center ice scoreboard, offer two-hour evening feeds of the NHL Network. It’d be like going to the movies. It’d be my best, last chance at socializing again.

Filed in Coach's Corner, Corey Masisak, Don Cherry, Gary Bettman, Hockey Night in Canada, Media, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, TV, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (2)

The Silent Indictment

By pucksandbooks
Monday, July 23, 2007

Cup'pa Joe
Cup'pa Joe
I read no new Harry Potter this past weekend and instead familiarized myself with details about likely indictments in baseball (Barry Bonds) and basketball (NBA referee Tom Donaghy). In Saturday’s Washington Post, Dave Sheinen had a fascinating account of Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig’s startling indifference to Bonds’ inevitable home run record. The commissioner — the chief executive officer of the sport — is apparently uncertain if he’ll be in the ballpark this week or next when Bonds passes Hank Aaron’s home run record.

Necessarily, and instantly, I drew a parallel between Bonds’ record pursuit and Wayne Gretzky’s with Gordie Howe’s most goals scored one more than a decade ago. This summer, neither Selig nor Hank Aaron have much stomach to be seated near home plate when Bonds rounds the bases for the 756th time. I call it The Silent Indictment.

In March 1994, as Gretzky honed in on his 802nd goal, both Commissioner Bettman and Gordie himself followed #99 in the L.A. Kings’ games. Gretzky being Gretzky, he didn’t have them travel all that long, scoring the record goal precisely where he should have, in Edmonton. It was the among the mightiest of individual records that was about to fall, much as Aaron’s is in baseball, and Bettman and hockey royalty accorded it its full weight in commemoration.

It’s a staggering juxtaposition. The most significant testimonial to the record-breaking moment on the diamond this summer will likely be offered by the game’s TV play-by-play voice. And even there, you wonder what manner of reaction he’ll offer. Elation? Relief? Contempt?

There’s a queer and almost perverse juxtaposition, too, in place when comparing the physical makeup of the athletes who pursued these hallowed records in different sports. Wayne, who likely never lifted a weight in his life, let alone entertained thoughts of injecting horse hormones into his bloodstream, surpassed the brawny shouldered, iron-elbowed, and menacing demeanor and determination of hockey’s greatest power forward, Mr. Hockey. There could be no second-guessing about the legitimacy of Wayne’s virtuosity or his rightful claim to the record. Aaron was the Wayne of his era, diminutive in physical stature but a world-altering presence with his talent. Today he’s pursued by a fraud, a freak, a pariah, an emblem of our judgement-free sports culture.

The cage into which Gretzky scored his record-breaking goal today resides at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Perhaps Bud Selig will follow hockey’s practice and establish a commemorate display of Bonds’ record at Cooperstown one day: an encased syringe.

Filed in Baseball, Gary Bettman, Hockey Hall of Fame, Hockey Heroes, MLB, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, Other Sports, Washington Post| Permalink| Comments (1)

Jilted GM out West Gets Desperate

By The OFB Team
Friday, July 6, 2007

Thomas Vanek
Thomas Vanek
TSN is reporting that the Edmonton Oilers this week offered a lucrative multi-year pact to restricted free agent winger Thomas Vanek of the Buffalo Sabres. Lucrative as in 7 years and $50 million. Edmonton would have had to pony up four first-round draft picks as compensation for Vanek (43 goals in his sophomore NHL campaign).  

However, in just the past few moments Sabres’ management convened a presser to announce its decision to match the Oilers’ offer sheet.

Yesterday we suggested that there appeared to be fissures in the solvency of Gary Bettman’s revamped fiscal landscape for the league. Today’s news out of Edmonton and Buffalo suggests that the dam has broken.  

Update: How dirty are Kevin Lowe’s hands in this? Kukla links to an answer:

“GM Darcy Regier said he contacted Kevin Lowe last night and tried to persuade him not to make the offer, that they were always going to match whatever offer the Oilers might make.  Larry Quinn’s statement: “We were never not going to match an offer on Thomas.â€?

Filed in Buffalo Sabres, Edmonton Oilers, Gary Bettman, NHL Salary Cap, National Hockey League| Permalink| Comments (9)

Must-See TV

By pucksandbooks
Monday, June 18, 2007

Cup'pa Joe
Cup'pa Joe
This summer I’m shopping for a new cable/satellite provider, and my search is governed by a single overriding objective: maximizing my television’s access to puck (outside of moving to Canada). NHL TV should be one such option. Of course, it’s not, but it’s the logical followup to NHL CenterIce. And it’s an idea whose origins date back at least to 2002, and which certainly gained some steam as the most recent NHL lockout wound down and the league got up and running again.

At various times during my travel with and immersion among hockey communications professionals this spring the topic of a devoted cable television channel to the NHL, and hockey more generally, would arise during our intermission and post-game chit-chats. Surely we’ll have it in place for the ‘07-’08 season, the consensus seemed. But this morning I’m not holding my breath. This is, after all, the NHL we’re talking about. As magnificent a marketing tool as such a station would be — and one made all the more imperative by the MSM’s sneering indifference