, Sergei Fedorov, Sidney Crosby| Permalink| Comments (13)

We Could Use a Few Signings, Couldn’t We?

By pucksandbooks
Friday, June 27, 2008

These are salad days for salaries in the NHL. Yesterday came word that the salary cap for 2008-09 would rise to $56.7 million, with a salary floor ($40.7 million) higher than the league’s cap just back three seasons ago, in the first post-lockout regular season.  Stunning. As the salary cap is directly linked to the league’s revenues, which are directly linked to its gate receipts, it’s seems clear that a few folks other than Tiger Woods and Tony Kornheiser are interested in hockey.  

Meanwhile, there remain outstanding — unsigned — some necessarily expensive parts to 2008-09 for the Washington Capitals. The tally: Christobal Huet, Brooks Laich, Shaone Morrisonn, and Mike Green. Boyd Gordon and Eric Fehr need new deals, too, but I don’t imagine those will be that expensive. Right now both Matt Cooke and Sergei Fedorov look like salary cap casualties, luxuries likely unaffordable in ‘08. Since I last wrote about matters financial Capitals’ GM George McPhee has managed to sheer off about $2 million in payroll for next season by dealing Steve Eminger to Philadelphia and buying out Ben Clymer. (Ray Shero’s fruitless negotiations with Marian Hossa this month apparently have sheared off $7-8 million from the Penguins’ payroll for next season.)

However, it’s beginning to look like McPhee will need that $2 million to pay Mike Green just in the autumn portion of the calandar next season.

Ah yes, Mike Green. For the congenitally white-knuckled of Caps’ fans, his breakout season in 2007-08, combined with apparently every name New York Ranger leaving Broadway, portends his departure and the swift end of hockey’s renaissance in Washington. But count me among those who think it far from a certainty that Green’s gonna attract a bevy of offer sheets next Tuesday.

For one thing, as great as his game looks, Green’s had only one big-number season, and the price in first-round draft picks for signing him would be exorbitant (as many as five). Additionally, both the owner and the general manager are on record stating that the club will match whatever offer comes Green’s way. For another, offer sheets for restricted free agents (see Tomas Vanek) are in a very real sense one GM’s performing labor for a colleague. Lastly, Green, though a young and inexperienced great talent just as Dustin Penner was last summer, is a primary building block for a contending Caps’ club. Penner wasn’t last summer, nor is he today, one of the 50 best forwards in the NHL. Penner’s was a stupid contract conceived by a stupid GM. Brian Burke allowed stupidity to reign supreme for a moment, but his Ducks won’t soon be looking up at the Oil in the standings.

In Green the Caps know what they’ve got – an already impressive no. 1 rearguard whom they were awfully lucky to nab with a 29th pick in the ‘04 draft, one who has a great deal of progression and maturity ahead of him. Likely, too, Mike Green also knows what he’s got in D.C., and specifically in Bruce Boudreau’s system: the green light to pile up points for a really big deal around the time he’s in his prime. 

Mike Green will get signed alright. But it won’t come cheap. In fact, Team Green may be pointing to Alexander Semin’s 2009-10 salary ($5 million) and understandably if myopically bargaining that Green’s of greater value to the team than Semin. In an ideal world, Team Green would acknowledge the client’s youth and inexperience and appreciable development still ahead and ask to be made the team’s highest paid defenseman . . . but not like say Anaheim’s best defenseman.

Few however imagine ideal worlds with attorneys and player agents in them.  

Speaking of interesting contracts, remember that “home team discount” deal Sidney Crosby signed? It will pay him $7.5 million in 2013. The thinking here is that Sidney will be a pretty good hockey player in 2013, when he’s still not yet 30 years old. Do you know how many NHLers will be earning more than $7.5 million then? (Mike Green might well be one.) One of them will be Vinny Lecavalier, according to ESPN. Indeed, as early as 2009-10, Crosby may not even be the highest paid Penguin. The intrigue with the Penguins never ends.  

Given the number and prominence of Capitals’ restricted free agents, this wasn’t supposed to be an easy summer of negotiating for GMGM. It was made tougher by the breakout seasons by Laich and Green, as well as Morrisonn’s emergence as a top-pairing performer. And while last weekend was filled with the promise of securing hockey’s future, this one is about placating the present. It’s messy but necessary business.

It’s a time to be anxious but not a time to be pessimistic. 

Filed in Alexander Semin, Boyd Gordon, Brooks Laich, Cristobal Huet, Eric Fehr, Evgeni Malkin, Free Agents, Front Office, George McPhee, Matt Cooke, Mike Green, National Hockey League, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sergei Fedorov, Shaone Morrisonn, Sidney Crosby, Steve Eminger, Ted Leonsis, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (35)

Cut It Out

By DC Sports Chick
Thursday, June 12, 2008

Washington vs. Pittsburgh. Caps vs. Pens. Ovechkin vs. Crosby. And now, The Hair Cuttery vs. Supercuts.
As seen in State College, PA
It’s just another chapter in the Caps-Pens rivalry.

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby| Permalink| Comments (2)

Rushing to the Aid of a Foe’s Fanbase in Their Hour of Need

By pucksandbooks
Monday, June 2, 2008

Being the high-road breed of hockey fans we are, we are called in this hour of anguish for our rivals to the North and West to traffic in empathy, commiseration, and sportsmanship. The black and gold partisans may not return the courtesy when they’re playing the role of spectator to our Cup challenges years hence, but no matter. We will elevate ourselves above the urge to gloat and belittle whilst our foe’s fiendishly follicled followers sip stale-tasting Iron City and sulk on runner-up status.

We must resist any and all temptation to raise discussions of the Annointed One’s perhaps taking up residence in that ignominious realm of career-long Stanley-less Stud. He’s young of course, and the likelihood is strong I think that he’ll vie again deep in spring for his name’s engraving. Only a rat, then, would recite a roll call of legendary names knowing no raised arms, ever, at season’s end — names like Jean Ratelle, Marcel Dionne, Adam Oates, Darryl Sittler, Gilbert Perreault, Brad Park, Bernie Nichols, Dino Ciccarelli, Michel Goulet, Mike Gartner, Dale Hawerchuck, Jeremy Roenick, Dale Hunter, Peter Stastny, Pierre Turgeon, Trevor Linden, Peter Bondra, Rick Middleton, Cam Neely, Pat LaFontaine.

Not to be a Negative Nick, but it is certainly true that return Finals engagements are not guaranteed. Unforeseeable forces like ill-timed injuries and white-hot playoff goaltenders — who can forget the rookie Dryden shocking the dynasty-forming Bs in ‘71? — can wreak havoc with the best-laid roster assembly. But now is not the hour to reference this, while our counterparts stare blankly before domination’s path.

We ought to remind them of the lessons surely to be gained from so valiant a run through the spring season, and that with nearly 10 players inked for next season how Penguins’ management has merely a Herculean — and not necessarily impossible — task in reassembling a top-tier team to compete in the mighty Atlantic division.

What is to be gained at this hour from articulating, in shallow self-interest, mean-spirited metaphors — you know the type, commonly composed on message boards of bile, the sort that would liken the Penguins’ competitiveness in these Finals’ games to that of an arthritic, three-legged poodle at the Vicks’ Saturday night dog brawl. A seriously sick schadenfreuder — and these cretins do exist — might hasten to add, toy poodle, too.

Additionally, do Pens’ fans need to be reminded now of Evgeni Malkin’s missing-in-action meagerness in these Finals’ games, of how Harry Houdini himself never carried off so mystifying a disappearing act? I think not.

Marc-Andre Fleury can hold his head up high for injecting a fleeting sliver of hope late last week among the fanbase. That ultimately he failed as a young netminder in the Finals whereas Carolina’s Cam Ward shined as a rookie between the pipes on hockey’s biggest stage — and without a glut of superstars in front of him, it bears mentioning — is of little bearing.

There ought not now be any mention of how a team that spent nearly a decade drafting at or near the very top of successive drafts must seize glory’s opportunities in its early dawnings, as star contracts commonly become fiscal burdens and impossible renewals as free agency eligibility arrives earlier each year. Certainly it would aid the cause of this club were it on the receiving end of lavish luxury box revenues, and not instead a tenant in a rink that should be torn down. Fortunately on this front, the remedy rink is but a couple of years away. There is in Pittsburgh today a core that must suffer the shearing off only of two or three expensive, supremely talented parts very early this offseason.

Obviously, it does no good either to reference the mortgaging a hefty portion of the present and the future as required by acquiring the rental player Marian Hossa. Time — perhaps a decade’s worth — will soften the sting of young Shero’s shipping off two young and productive roster players and two no. 1 draft picks, in exchange for Hossa’s dozen goals. Many of them, however, were pretty.

Let it be said that with respect to Michel Therrien’s tactical adjustments — the in-game ones most particularly — that the Penguins’ bench boss has the look of good health about him, and that there are, indisputably, coaches in the league who dress worse than he does, and that there is every reason to believe he’d be a cheerful companion at a summer barbeque. How often have you read such commendation emanating from this keyboard, directed at this organization, during the young lifetime it has tormented?

I write wanting none of your in-box clogging admiration for my magnanimity in this moment. Place this file in the annals of sudden, heroic Glasnost if you must. But know that there are limits to such aid and comfort of the enemy. For instance, I still have one more Versus-NBC broadcast of a Pens’ game to endure.

Filed in Atlantic Division, Evgeni Malkin, Free Agents, Morning cup-a-joe, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby, Stanley Cup Playoffs| Permalink| Comments (17)

Hypocrisy Has a Home in Pittsburgh

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)
Thursday, May 29, 2008

Eric McErlain recently highlighted a bit of Penguin hypocrisy. After Penguins fans raised holy hell in 2001 when Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis restricted playoff ticket sales to the local DC fan base, the Penguins are now doing the same thing as per the Ticketmaster fine print:

Orders by residents outside of PA, OH, WV, MD, NY, NJ, DE, VA and the District of Columbia will be canceled without notice and refunds given.

Leonsis remembers the reaction to his strategy in 2001, and the irony of the most vocal complainers doing the same thing seven years later:

We were raked over the coals in the Pittsburgh media for our efforts. Furthermore, a Department of Justice attorney called me. He hailed from Pittsburgh and threatened a lawsuit against us for discriminatory business practices. We, of course, heeded the warnings and stopped this practice. This is situational ethics at is finest.”

The tactic is not inherently bad — though a local-area “pre-sale” would be better than an outright restriction on out-of-town purchasers. But the Penguins’ front office using the same tactic that they gnashed their teeth about in 2001 . . . well, that smacks of hypocrisy. They complained and threaten legal action back then, and now take the very same objectionable approach when it suits them.

This situation is reminiscent of Penguins head coach Michel Therrien blaming poor officiating for his team’s 0-2 deficit. Therrien apparently does not not see the irony of accusing Detroit’s netminder Chris Osgood of diving while defending Sidney Crosby from the same accusations in prior rounds and the regular season. “Situational ethics” seem part and parcel of the Penguins’ plan of late, though it isn’t serving them particularly well on the ice.

Filed in Detroit Red Wings, Hockey Rinks, NHL Rules, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby, Stanley Cup Playoffs, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (6)

Ted vs. Old Media

By DC Sports Chick
Friday, March 21, 2008

Duck-billed Platypus- courtesy of library.thinkquest.org

As a regular reader of many of the Washington Post’s discussions, I always take note when hockey is mentioned. It came up in Marc Fisher’s discussion yesterday:

Arlington, VA: It appears that you have angered Mr. Leonsis. Here are a few select quotes from his blog Ted’s Take about you and the newspaper business in general. I believe that this was in response to your comments last week about the Caps.

“I think the question to be asking Marc is this: “Is D.C. a newspaper town or a Washington Post town anymore?”

“Have you seen your numbers of late? Your circulation is down. Your revenues are down. Your profits are down. Your newsroom employee count is down. Your prospects are bleak. You don’t even publish your circulation numbers in your own paper. Why is that? Young adults don’t read your paper. You are a software company with a newspaper aside it now. If I were you, I would write about what you know and not throw out opinions as facts regarding other businesses.”

“If Marc would like to compare the Washington Post’s numbers alongside the Washington Capitals numbers, I would be glad to do so in a public forum.”

Any thoughts? It’s hard for me to take him too seriously since AOL didn’t exactly do a great job adapting to the evolving Internet.

Marc Fisher: Wow–I hadn’t seen or heard about that. (This is apparently picking up on our conversation here on the chat over the past few weeks about whether Washington is indeed a hockey town.) My conclusion so far in our discussion here has been that there are a good many diehard hockey lovers who support the Caps, plus a larger group of casual fans who can get engaged when the team is doing well or has a genuine star, as it does now. But there does not appear to be the same kind of broad, bedrock support for hockey that you find in more northerly and snowy places where the sport has been around for many decades.

I’d be more than happy to talk to Leonsis about the two businesses–indeed, both the Post and the Caps have been leaders in their fields in jumping into new media and embracing the technological changes that promise to redefine what we do. And both are also struggling institutions. I don’t remotely see that as a bashing comment, but rather as a good and important conversation to have, whether we’re talking about journalism or hockey.

Fisher is a noted crank who doesn’t like hockey, soccer, or puppies. Still, his response is a fair one. It would be interesting to read the result of a discussion between him and Ted.

Naturally, the mere mention of hockey brought out the haters:

Hockey: The question you should be asking is, “Is the U.S. a hockey country?” I think we got that answer when the players struck for a year and a half and hardly anyone noticed. Hockey’s a punchline. A joke. A peculiarity like the duck-billed platypus.

Marc Fisher: That’s a little too harsh, no? After all, the NHL is a highly profitable business with a large following. It’s not football or baseball, but it’s certainly a very popular sport regionally, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

It’s sad that people actually think this way, but that’s the stark reality of it. Is this a stupid, incorrect statement? Sure. But it’s unfortunately a common sentiment among those who don’t know the joys of hockey. Despite such idiotic comments, interest in the NHL seems to be on the rise because of events like the Winter Classic and superstars like Ovechkin and Crosby. It certainly helps the D.C. area to have one of the most exciting players and a thrilling team to watch. After a season of highs and lows like this one, no one can say that hockey is boring. And it certainly isn’t a “duck-billed platypus,” either.

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Hockey, Media, Sidney Crosby, Ted Leonsis, Washington Capitals, Washington Post| Permalink| Comments (4)

Misguided Mike Strikes Again

By DC Sports Chick
Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Another day, another post about who should win the Hart. Mike Brophy, THN columnist, treated us to his completely original ruminations that featured suggestions like this:

I will say, though, I have narrowed it down to four candidates – goalies Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils and Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks, left winger Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals and right winger Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames.

All fair choices. However, he follows up with this:

I firmly believe, had Sidney Crosby not missed so much action with that high ankle sprain, he would have repeated as the Hart winner. Oh well.

It’s the Sidney Crosby machine at its finest. Any shred of credibility that Brophy may have had went out the window with that statement. Does he understand the whole point of the Hart trophy? Yes, Crosby is an asset to his team. However, it’s not like the team fell apart in Crosby’s absence; if anything, they improved and now sit fourth in the Eastern Conference. Brophy does make this concession in regards to Ovechkin:Hart Trophy- NHL.com

And if the award were for the best player this season, he’d win it hands-down. Voters are supposed to reward “The player adjudged to be most valuable to his team.� Has anybody been more valuable to his team than Ovechkin?

No argument there. But that’s not good enough for Brophy. He proceeds to throw out Iginla’s statistics; while impressive, they don’t match Ovechkin’s. Then he puts down the Canucks and the Devils’ defense in order to make his point for Luongo and Brodeur. No one is suggesting that those players aren’t worthy of consideration, but shouldn’t the candidates be presented in a more positive fashion than “without them, the team would be gunning for a lottery draft pick and not a playoff spot?”

But that’s all right. Brophy is still looking for a winner:

With a few weeks to go, the Hart Trophy is still wide open from my perspective. So wide open, in fact, Daniel Alfredsson might sneak into the pack with a strong finish.

Alfie definitely is valuable to his team, but this suggestion goes against his logic for the other candidates (except for Brodeur and possibly Iginla). Ottawa is a team who went through much of the season in the number one spot in the conference, but they’re now in a bit of a decline. Yet, according to Brophy’s logic, because the Sens are going to the playoffs, a player like Alfredsson would be a good candidate.

I’m not the only one who feels this way about him- other bloggers don’t quite worship at the Church of Brophy. The Battle of Alberta said this about him last year:

Note to print, television and internet editors everywhere: hire about five to ten of us, give us some money and support, and we’ll put out a product a hundred times greater than the boring, illogical and demeaning junk being put out by Mike Brophy and others of his ilk.

DMG of Caps Blue Line felt similarly about Brophy:

Mike Brophy is becoming my favorite hockey writer. Because he’s so damn easy to mock.

The compliments go on and on. You also have to wonder about a guy who allegedly champions convicted child molesters, but that’s neither here nor there. That’s Mike Brophy, mental genius.

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Calgary Flames, Media, New Jersey Devils, Sidney Crosby, The Hockey News, Vancouver Canucks, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (15)

A Savior Ascends

By pucksandbooks
Sunday, February 3, 2008

Ovechkin - Caps @ Pens - 21 January, 2008We are likely to look back on this week and realize it as historically significant in the lifetime of the Washington Capitals.

The HockeyWashington hope in June 2004, when the Capitals then made Alexander Ovechkin the first selection in the NHL Entry Draft, was that he’d be not only a dominant performer around whom the team could be rebuilt, but that he’d be a transformational figure — outsized in his impact such that even Washington’s Redskin-centric big media would fall in love with him, and in turn, at long last give his sport its due.

He is, and the coverage is coming.

Beginning with his stage-stealing performance as a 16-year-old at the World Junior Championships in 2001 — he scored 18 points in eight games as a young midget in that tournament widely regarded as the world’s best — the hockey world waited for him to claim the mantle as the world’s best player.

He would do so this week.

Through his first two-and-a-half NHL seasons Ovechkin performed in high-octane, highlight-reel fashion, earning a well-deserved Calder Trophy in 2005, All-Star game selections, and most especially displaying on a nightly basis an unprecedented package of brutal power and dynamic offensive virtuosity. From his very first game he was recognized as ranking in the game’s elite, but last season he was merely terrific while the wunderkid Sid went Hart on him. A qualitative differentiation among elites appeared to have set in.

Then last weekend in Atlanta Ovechkin made the 2008 All Star Game his own. As an event it was a meagerly competitive showcase of oddly conceived skills drills, followed by shinny on Sunday; in hockey’s buffet, a mid-season pause for Pop Tarts and soda pop. But in the free-wheeling schlock of a shootout exercise AO made like Michael in his creativity and flair, and in an instant the sheet without Sidney didn’t seem so small.

The Caps were outclassed and blanked in Montreal in their first game back from the break, and on Thursday morning there was a palpable sense that a home-and-home sweep by the Habs might usher in the first slump of the Bruce Boudreau era. That was, it appears, a primal challenge for Ovie. That and Alex Kovalev’s high-stick hello in Thursday night’s opening seconds. Alex got mad, Alex’s team needed a victory, and so Alex decided the outcome — but in a manner that is now known as the Ovechkin hat trick: something broken (perhaps a nose), certainly some stitches, and goals in every period, including a game-winner in OT. Also, hit everything that moves. Hard. No surprise at this site: a talented hockey blogger — our good friend Peerless — coined it. A performance that saw Ovie pass Sidney in aura and Howe in bravado.

Not a bad night’s work.

Following came the Ray Ferraro video. The Washington Post getting engaged in the buzz. The fawning and head-shakings of his All Star peers published and broadcast. Canadian partisans a month ago singing Sidney’s anthem now are serenading Ovechkin’s supremacy — and doing so, befitting their heritage, with gratitude, for Alex’s ascension means that hockey has gotten better.

When in April 2004 the Entry Draft lottery results were made known at noontime that very sunny day I made a friend leave work and drive far and furiously to purchase Russian beer. That same friend rang my cell phone as I exited Verizon Center Thursday night.

“You were right then,” he told me. “He will will us to a Cup.”

On Friday morning my father rang my cell from a hotel in south Florida, where he was set to begin a sailboat vacation in the Caribbean. Traveling on Thursday night, he hadn’t been able to see the game. Early Friday morning, with his hotel cafe coffee, he glanced up at a flatscreen’s sports highlight segment of Thursday night.

“It was three minutes long,” he told me. “It led with Ovechkin. All of his goals. They showed all of them. Then they replayed all of them, in slow motion, as if the sportscaster anticipated that his viewers wouldn’t believe the results replayed in actual speed.”

This breaking news over-coverage was taking place in south Florida.

“We in Washington have our Gretzky,” my father concluded.

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, All-Star Game, Blogs, Hockey Heroes, Internet, Media, Montreal Canadiens, Sidney Crosby, Washington Capitals, Washington Post| Permalink| Comments (3)

All-Star Memories

By DC Sports Chick
Saturday, January 26, 2008

Here’s a trip down Memory Lane: a compilation of clips from 1990’s All-Star Weekend in Pittsburgh, the first time the All-Star ceremonies were expanded to a whole weekend. Watch in amazement as Al Iafrate wins the hardest shot contest! Check out Mike Gartner’s win in the fastest skater event! (Kevin Hatcher was the Capitals’ lone representative in the game.) Still, it’s fun to see all those fine mullets. And you can’t go wrong with any production that uses a star wipe.

Despite several token comments about other players in the first couple of minutes, the recap quickly turns into a Mario Lemieux love-fest (with a few nods to Wayne Gretzky). One can imagine that if Sidney Crosby was playing this weekend, some of the glowing comments (i.e. Pittsburgh’s “favorite son” and “prodigious Penguin”) spoken about Lemieux would have been applied to Crosby as well. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcloVGwI80Q

Filed in All-Star Game, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (2)

The NHL’s New Golden Boy

By DC Sports Chick
Wednesday, January 23, 2008

I know everyone’s as sick of hearing about Sidney Crosby and his league-debilitating injury as I am, but when I read Bob Duff’s MSNBC column this morning, I was entertained. It has everything- humor! Pathos! Despair!

Duff opens the column rather auspiciously:

Quick. Name the most important player in the National Hockey League right now.
Alexander Ovechkin?
Nope.
Ilya Kovalchuk?
Not a chance.
Roberto Luongo?
No sir.

As of Tuesday and the arriving news that Pittsburgh Penguins captain and all-around wunderkind Sidney Crosby would be done 6-8 weeks due to a high ankle sprain, the most essential hockey player known to humanity just became Penguins center Evgeni Malkin.

Not merely to the Penguins. To the entire league.

Evgeni Malkin- photo courtesy of Getty Images

Yup, the guy who couldn’t be bothered to pick up his Calder trophy in person is now the “It” boy of the NHL.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s obvious that Malkin’s continued success goes hand-in-hand with Pittsburgh’s playoff hopes. If Malkin fades, so do the Penguins. But Duff makes a bold statement:

If Malkin doesn’t get the job done, the NHL might as well pack up Lord Stanley’s mug and mothball the playoffs, because nobody other than hardcore hockey fanatics will be tuning in south of the border.

The cynic in me says that even if the Penguins make the playoffs, nobody other than hardcore hockey fanatics and the city of Pittsburgh would likely be tuning in. Granted, Duff has a point in that American TV viewing of the NHL playoffs ranks higher than schoolbus demolition derbies but less than golf; they’re not a must-watch for the U.S. like, say, the NFL playoffs. But the attitude behind Duff’s statement reeks of Canadian superiority (”No one watches hockey in the States”) when that’s not exactly the case. Canadian hockey viewing and U.S. hockey viewing are two very different things: it’s like comparing apples to tractors.

Regardless of whether or not anyone’s watching on television, I’m still wondering how Malkin has been christened the savior of the NHL. Yes, he’s an excellent player, one that any team would be fortunate to have. But he doesn’t have the excitement of Alex Ovechkin or the panache of Ilya Kovalchuk. He ranks 12th on the list for total points, and 9th on the goal-scorers list. That will likely change now that Crosby is out of the picture; the best thing Malkin could do for the league is turn the total goals race into a serious three-way competition with Ovechkin and Kovalchuk.

Since Crosby’s Canadian, the media above the border adores him. He’s an ideal poster boy for Canada- great player, non-threatening personality, good-looking (if you like that sort of thing), overall a safe choice to fall behind. That’s why it’s so interesting that the Canadian media would now choose a Russian savior, since they haven’t seen fit to do it before. Likely it would be seen as sacrilege that a rival like Ovechkin would be named by Canada as the next king of hockey; it’s much better to choose one of Crosby’s teammates to temporarily take over the title, even if he isn’t Canadian.

Duff leaves comforting words for Pittsburgh fans:

In this case, without Crosby, there’s no hope.

Only a road to ruin.

Yes, the Penguins have injuries (surprisingly, they’re not the only ones). Yes, they need Crosby. But does their situation really warrant such melodrama? You’d think Crosby died to elicit this type of a reaction.

Filed in Evgeni Malkin, National Hockey League, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby| Permalink| Comments (17)

Mission Possible: Trim the Dinged-Up Mullets, Move Above .500

By pucksandbooks
Monday, January 21, 2008

Mulletville Logo - image from TSN.caOnce again I’m couch-side on Capitol Hill with my Penguins’-hating partisans and season ticket holders Mike and Marleen. We had some choice reactions to the Caps’ last visit to Mellon Arena, so if something approaching a repeat performance ensues, I’ll keep a chronicle of it in a bit of an open file.

Actually, my party of the pithy started this morning, when Michael rang me and warned me about the treatment the Caps necessarily would receive from this evening’s officiating crew. It isn’t just that the Caps are on the road in Pittsburgh — it’s that Swan Dive Sidney is sidelined for the visit, and the game is being televised nationally.

“Will they guide him out on the ice in a wheelchair right before faceoff, for inspiration, much like the Wings did with Konstantinov in ‘98?” Michael asked me while I brewed holiday Monday morning coffee.

Elvis - High Sticking“I actually think the Caps will be penalized during warmups, for too many men on the ice,” I replied.

“It would be nice to know who’s officiating,” Michael returned, “although it’s certainly the case that Bettman has all their cell phone numbers.”

The Pennsylvania print press sure is bellyaching about the nicks and bruises the Pens have accumulated. Like 300-year-old Gary Roberts is supposed to last 70 or 80 games?

Although it’s a Monday and a school night, we went booze shopping at Costco this afternoon with the idea of making a drinking game out of tonight’s telecast and taking a sip of beer or wine at each Versus utterance of the name “Sidney” or “Crosby.” Meaning, necessarily, a cab ride home for me. Or, seriously sober up on a Metro platform.

(That ain’t happening.)

Over our pre-game dinner we discussed the drinking game rules. We will not libate to any visual or graphical representations of the Nova Scotian Deity. Instead, we will acknowledge only the utterances of the broadcast team as well as those of the Versus studio talking heads during intermission.

We expect to sleep deeply tonight.

So I’ll share our room’s reactions in something close to real time.

Who said the NHL’s games in the middle of the season were meaningless? Continue reading ›

Filed in Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby, TV, Versus, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (11)

Sidney Crosby Attempts Pat Peake Imitation

By The OFB Team
Saturday, January 19, 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgVgqQXr0Dg

Filed in Pittsburgh Penguins, Schadenfreude, Sidney Crosby, Video Clips| Permalink| Comments (3)

NFL Gurus Loved the Winter Classic

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)
Monday, January 7, 2008

Thought I’d share a couple blurbs with you as praise for the NHL’s Winter Classic continues to ripple through the sports pages. Monday Morning QB Peter King of SI.com had good things to say about it, after explaining that he couldn’t care less about this year’s less-than-compelling bowl games:

NHL Winter Classic 2008I did, however, care about the New Year’s Day hockey game in Buffalo. Fantastic visuals, fun event, tremendous game capped by the best player in hockey scoring the winning goal in the last round of a shootout, with 71,000 riveted fans in the stadium. This was the best new sports-event idea I’ve seen in years, and I don’t say that because I draw a paycheck from NBC.

Would love Canadiens-Bruins at Fenway next year. Or Canadiens-Maple Leafs somewhere up north. Or the Flyers-Penguins at Heinz Field or the Linc. Or the Wings-Penguins at Comerica. Or — what about this one — the Stanley Cup champ against Sidney Crosby and the Penguins, either in Pittsburgh or in the biggest outdoor stadium in Canada? Whatever, NBC’s got to keep this going.

Also see ESPN’s David Fleming, in his rant about the “Vote of Confidence” being a death knell for NFL coaches:

While the NHL works hard to think up new ways to expand and improve its game — like the spectacular outdoor match in Buffalo on New Year’s Day — the NFL has been busy inventing more and more twisted ways for the game’s leaders to go back on their word.

Filed in Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby, The Winter Classic, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (2)

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 GameIt 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. KriebelSpeaking 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-JoeMy 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)

Quarter Mark Report Card

By pucksandbooks
Wednesday, November 21, 2007

My three stars of the season’s first quarter are:

(3) Pascal Leclaire — the backstopper of the BlueJackets, disbelievingly into playoff contention, with a .940 save percentage, 1.59 goals-against (second-best in the league) and five shutouts. He’s my Vezina Trophy winner for the first quarter;

(2) Henrik Zetterberg — previously a terrific scoring forward, now a superstar, and clearly a more dynamic talent up front for the Wings than Pavel Datsyuk. Soon to be paid so?;

(1) Vincent Lecavalier — simply having his best season as a pro, the league’s leading scorer with 32 pts.; dominating his opposition and making what was believed to be a top-heavy corps of Bolts’ forwards into a first line that’s so good it matters little what contributions, if any, follow. He’s my Hart Trophy winner for the first quarter.

Honorable mention: Jarome Iginla (26 points in 19 games) is having an MVP quality season, but he’s laboring on a struggling Flames club. And Comcast, for coming through with NHL CenterIce, the NHL Network, and Lisa Hillary.

Cup'pa JoeFalling stars:

(3) the Washington Capitals

(2) Marc Andre Fleury

(1) Reebok

Midwest Mojo: Rebuilds in Chicago and St. Louis are ahead of pace and impressive. Patrick Kane is my Calder Trophy winner for the first quarter. Robert Lang, with 19 points in 20 games, and skating a +7, is giving the Hawks precisely the kind of productive, veteran leadership they’d hoped for on the top line. Still, the Hawks have issues — in their back end. They’ve surrendered 61 goals, and both Khabibulin and Lalime sport sub-.900 save percentages. But after a decade of dreariness, the Hawks are fun to watch again. The leading scorers for the Blues are greybeards Paul Kariya and Keith Tkachuk. After that, it’s a lunchpail outfit that’s outworking its opponents. There’s a lot of youth of that roster, so it may strengthen as the season progrsses. And what of Clumbus, the claimers of Jiri Novotny and Kris Beech? They are eighth in the West, and 6-2-1 at home.

In the East, Montreal and the Islanders have been stunning success stories. It’s a balanced attack in Montreal: the Habs already have eight players in double digits in scoring. And remember how everybody in hockey was pitying the Isles after the opening hours of free agency, when guys like Jason Blake, Tom Poti, and Viktor Kozlov bolted? Ted Nolan is working his second consecutive miracle on the Isle.

Might in the Michaels. Mike Richards and Mike Cammalleri have staked out take-it-to-the-bank All Star game selections. Richards (23 points in 19 games) is Philadelphia’s most consistent and dynamic performer, a point-per-game player who this season has transitioned from promising youngster to elite, captain-quality talent. His three shorthanded tallies lead the league. Cammalleri (12 goals, 7 assists) is beginning to look a lot like the Western conference’s version of Martin St. Louis.

Jolly Ole Productive St. Nik. Nik Antropov is healthy and playing virtually a point-a-game hockey for the Leafs, and skating a +9. Who knew he could? He had 33 points last season, and a high of 16 goals and 29 assists in 2002-03. Obviously he’s on pace for a career year. Alex Kovalev is on pace for 40 goals. Meanwhile, Jonathon Cheeechoo has just 3 goals in 21 games for the Sharks. Jaromir Jagr, I’m sad to report, is on pace for 16 goals this season, and Chris Drury (3 goals!) even less. Still, their Rangers have seriously heated up in the Atlantic.

Jeremy Roenick — remember him? — is outscoring Mike Modano, Brendan Shanahan, Thomas Vanek, Drury, Chris Higgins, Brian Gionta, and Patrick Marleau. One of the reasons Tampa was able to survive the loss of Dan Boyle for much of the season’s first quarter was the play of Paul Ranger: 4 goals, a +11, and an able distributor on the power play point.

It sure appears as if Peter Forsberg has played his last game in the NHL, and perhaps in pro hockey period. Next stop, the Hall of Fame. Less honorably sidelined, in my judgment, are Scott Niedermayer and Teamu Selanne, who appear to want to allow their Ducks teammates to shoulder the early regular season’s bumps and bruises before perhaps rejoining them for the stretch run and postseason. I’m sorry, but hockey players play hockey when hockey starts, not finishes. Without them, the defending champion Ducks are holding it together rather well.

Guy Carbonneau and Ted Nolan share the Jack Adams Trophy for the season’s first quarter, from my vantage. Honorable mention: Ken Hitchcock.

Filed in Calgary Flames, Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings, Eastern Conference, Lisa Hillary, Minnesota Wild, Montreal Canadiens, Morning cup-a-joe, Nashville Predators, National Hockey League, New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby, St. Louis Blues, Western Conference| Permalink| Comments (0)

Versus Goes Viral

By Gustafsson
Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Perhaps Versus is feeling the heat from recent rumours that the NHL wants to return to ESPN. Perhaps they’ve had some hockey specials planned since the lockout. In any case, Versus has a special airing tonight and they’re worried about their ratings.

In an effort to boost ratings, they’ve turned to Sinuate Media and a dose of viral marketing. Viral marketing is a “phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message.” Sinuate Media contacted us, and a number of other blogs, to help hype tonight’s special.

“We’ve just received word from Versus about some exclusive video content for the … special which is airing this Tuesday at 6:30 PM ET. The special is followed by the Rangers VS Penguins game at 7PM ET. Versus planned on holding this content for themselves, but has now decided to distribute this exclusive content to a selected few sites [and] feel as though it would be a great fit for your site.”

This special focuses on one current NHL player whose name I won’t even have to utter, you already know who it is. I understand the desire to market him as the face of the NHL. But why does it have to be ONE face. There are other bright young stars such as Phaneuf, Kessel, Toews, and Ovechkin. Would not marketing all five interest more people and be more effective than going to the well one to many times with one? The marketing gains the league and the network sees off the ice can quickly diminish by his conduct on the ice.

I wonder if the distribution of this “exclusive content” that I’ve already seen on numerous sites will have an appreciable effect. If you haven’t seen it, it’s right here:

Hopefully, this will be the first of a series where they focus on other players, too.

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, National Hockey League, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby, Versus, Video Clips, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (9)

Is Sidney Crosby the New E.F. Hutton?

By Gustafsson
Friday, October 5, 2007

“When E. F. Hutton talks, people listen.“

Sidney Crosby may have never heard that famous catch phrase since E.F. Hutton’s last commercials were right around the time of his birth. However, Sidney Crosby is talking, and Reebok is listening. Crosby is talking about the complaints of waterlogged equipment the new RBK Edge “uniform system” has caused. From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Reebok officials have tweaked the jerseys of their new Edge uniforms being used across the NHL this season, in part because Penguins captain Sidney Crosby spoke with company officials and expressed some concerns.

Crosby, who has endorsement deals with Reebok, conveyed his and his teammates’ problem with the water-resistant material, which traps perspiration and forces it to run down and pool in players’ gloves and skates.

Apparently, the two plus years Reebok had the “system” in development was not enough. Perhaps there was too much wind tunnel testing and not enough on ice game testing?

Darren Dreger at TSN is reporting that Reebok has developed a treatment to allow sweat to escape the “system” while keeping them reasonably dry. Well, that was quick. Were the Reebok engineers the same guys that fixed the air scrubbers on Apollo 13 some thirty-seven years ago?

It seems to us at OFB that Reebok and the league has 87 days or so to fix the problem. In 87 days, #87 will playing at an outdoor game in Buffalo where waterlogged gloves and skates in average temperatures of 24 degrees could lead to a serious case of pneumonia. Two teams unable to compete due to illness? New York/Toronto, we have a problem.

Thanks to Sean at PopJocks.com for the assist.

Filed in Reebok, Sidney Crosby, Sweaters| Permalink| Comments (5)

Ovechkin on Crosby’s New Deal

By The OFB Team
Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Alexander Ovechkin - Photo from WashingtonCaps.comOur good friend Dmitry Chesnokov of Sovetsky Sport (your Russian needs to be pretty polished to read it) was able to reach Alexander Ovechkin by telephone today and get his reaction to Sidney Crosby’s new contract with the Penguins. Here’s what he told Dmitry:

“What can I say? Good for Crosby! It is easier for any player to come out and play when he knows that his future is secure. I think Pittsburgh wasted no time offering Crosby the deal because of what Edmonton did trying to sign a restricted free agent. Any Canadian team (and not only Canadian) could have offered great terms to Crosby in the future. And who knows if the Penguins could have matched it. But now Sindey is staying in Pittsburgh, and will stay there beyond 2013, in my opinion.”

When asked about his contract, Ovechkin said:

“I will negotiate with the Capitals myself. To be precise, I will wait for their offer. If I like it, I will sign the contract. If I don’t, then I will get myself an agent (I don’t have one right now) to represent me in talks with the Capitals.”

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, NHL Salary Cap, National Hockey League, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby, Sovetsky Sport, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (3)
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