2008/09 NHL Thread

Completely true, in any sport, in any country.

A purple Australian could be named the new Lightning coach tomorrow, and if they broke off 12 straight wins, I'd be happy as Tommy Tuberville and his $6 million buyout.

 

Um ... correct me if I'm wrong but isn't there a Yank at the helm of the Leafs now?

Anti-American sentiment is drummed by some writer who lacks originality.

 

I think you're right, but I also think that Wilson has transcended his nationality to a certain degree, and is just seen as a good, verging on great, coach. BTW, does a coach need to win a cup to be great, or is Wilson close to that already without having won one?

And as always it gets back to JC's comment that as long as you win, no-one cares where you're from.

 

The column that I read in regards to Burke taking over in Toronto, I'll see if I can dig it up somewhere, talked about not just Burke coming in as an American GM, but also the fact that Ron Wilson was American as well. It was the one-two punch of American brain trust running the Maple Leafs, that it was something Leaf fans would have to warm up to that they aren't fond of the idea. And here I thought they had all but been campaigning for Burke to go to Toronto for the better part of two years.

 

Finally found it. Jim Kelley's column fomr Nov. 28/08 on Si.com

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/jim_kelley/11/28/brian.burke/index.html

 

Normally I like Jim Kelley's stuff and enjoy him on McCown's show but he is so wrong on tihis and should know better

I would bet that the majority of Leafs fans wouldn't know that neither Burke nor Wilson were Americans and couldn't give two hoots.

As they say, these two are hockey men. As Burke said "I don't care what colour their passports are".

Bettman, on the other hand, ....................

 

Here's a guy from the Dallas News on Tippett's comments:

http://starsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/12/tippett-scorches-some-avery-earth.html

``From a coach's standpoint, I try to build a team that has an atmosphere where players care about each other and play with each other and play with continuity, and I find it hard to believe that Sean could come back in that dressing room and we could find that continuity again,'' Tippett said.

But, according to Tippett, Avery thew him under the bus. He asked Sean if he were going to speak to the Calgary media before the game and Avery told him "No". Giving your employee the middle finger is no way to go through life.

``It's frustrating for me (Tippett) to go out and defend the guy. It's disappointing, because in the morning with all the stuff going on in the media, I approached Sean and asked him if he was going to talk to media, he told me, no. He talked to our PR people and he told them no, he wasn't going to talk to the media...and to have a calculated response like that...it was a calculated statement for what I feel was personal gain.''

 

And yet here's someone who should have just kept his mouth shut.

http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=1029133&p=2

At an event yesterday, hockey commentator Don Cherry told The Associated Press that Mr. Avery's actions had hurt the perception of the game.

"It's so sad and it's really a mark against hockey," Mr. Cherry said. "We are not like that.... And for him to come out like that, it's a sad, sad situation."

 

And who else but the National Post would bother?

What a rag. Worse than the Sun.

 

JR, for God's sakes, read the clip again.

Don Cherry told The Associated Press

You're being ridiculous.

 

Steve Simmons does a pretty good job of deconstructing the underlying thread of the whole situation.

http://calsun.canoe.ca/Sports/Hockey/2008/12/04/7627541-sun.html

The NHL, for the record, doesn't punish the kind of talk nobody hears. But now, it will throw the book at Avery this morning and it's hard to argue with its decision, even harder to understand what exactly it allows and what it doesn't.

"I said 10 times worse on the ice," Matthew Barnaby, a former NHL player turned broadcaster told Darren Dreger on a Toronto radio station yesterday.

By itself, the Avery case is symbolic of the worst side of hockey, the side nobody wants to talk about, which is why the NHL hopes this will go away as quickly as possible.

We heard it in the David Frost trial, as uncomfortable as that was. We've heard it before that. There has long been an underbelly of sexism, insensitivity, arrogance and a total lack of judgment in hockey at the highest and most competitive levels.

Just as Sean Avery needs to disappear from the NHL, so does that.

 

please.. the same could be said for football, baseball, soccer, auto racing.....hockey is no better, or worse in this regard.