All-purpose hockey thread...

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

And in Leafland, things are not going well. The media are ripping (rightly so) the organization apart.
William Houston in today's Globe:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the other end of the line, Larry Tanenbaum sounded irritable, but that was hardly a surprise.

After all, his organization, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, is under siege. For days now, it has been ridiculed, attacked and battered by the Toronto media.

And why wouldn't it be? The company's star asset -- at least, that's how the Toronto Maple Leafs used to be viewed -- is in a shambles.

The Leafs have gone 38 years without a berth in the Stanley Cup final, the longest of any of the National Hockey League's six pre-expansion clubs. And this year, short of a miracle, they won't even make the playoffs.

The media, including those affiliated with MLSE, are rightly blaming the snafu on Tanenbaum, who owns 13 per cent of the company and is its chairman; on Richard Peddie, MLSE's president and chief executive officer; on Peddie's hire, John Ferguson Jr., the Leafs' general manager; and on the head coach, Pat Quinn, who most believe will be fired at the end of the season.

All of the above are responsible for the mess.

Still, it must be galling for the MLSE executives to watch on their own TV channel, Leafs TV, as reporters regularly beat up on the organization.

Last Sunday, a panel of writers not only knocked the team, but also the club's restrictive policy regarding media access.

But the coup de grâce came the next day when former Leafs executive Bill Watters, now a radio commentator working for Leafs rights holder AM640 Toronto, called for the removal of Tanenbaum as the chairman and the dismissal of Peddie. Watters described them as "stiffs." He said they were a disgrace. He categorized Tanenbaum as a dilettante backed by family money.

"He's a PhD," Watters roared. "Poppa has dough."

Tanenbaum's response?

"A good friend of mine once said you don't get into a pissing match with a skunk."

Tanenbaum said he didn't complain to the radio station about Watters's putdowns, but he's clearly feeling the heat.

Not that feeling the heat is a new experience for Leafs owners. During almost 40 years of, if not complete futility, a large amount of it, dealing with media and fan animus has been part of the job.

But former owner Harold Ballard and his bungling front office never experienced this level of media scrutiny or fury. Nor did management in 1997 and 1998, when the Leafs last missed the playoffs.

That was before the ratings war between TSN and Rogers Sportsnet; before the fight for Leafs listeners between the The Fan 590 and AM640; and before Leafs TV, The Score and digital television.

And it was before a new group of commentators emerged, people such as Watters and Glenn Healy of TSN, who are passionate and opinionated, don't care whose feathers they ruffle and are uncompromisingly hostile toward those they view as not getting the job done.

On Tuesday night, during the Leafs' surprising win over the Philadelphia Flyers, Healy characterized Ferguson as a small-timer (despite his so-called grand plan) and a micromanager. No imagination, no creativity.

Last week, TSN's Bob McKenzie, who competes with Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos for scoops, did the math on Ferguson's most appalling boondoggle -- forking over, from the summer of 2004 to the anticipated buyout this coming summer, $11-million (U.S.) to 40-year-old, injury-plagued Ed Belfour. In return, the Leafs received one mediocre season from the goaltender.

Healy and others are speculating that Ferguson, in addition to Quinn, could be fired at the end of the season.

It's hard to think of one smart move the bright young executive has made, aside from beefing up the amateur scouting staff. He squandered a first-round and a second-round draft choice on a 36-year-old defenceman, Brian Leetch (whom he didn't re-sign), despite supposedly telling the MLSE board two months earlier that the Leafs needed to rebuild with youth.

In addition to the Belfour fiasco, he made all the wrong free-agency deals last summer. And he failed to sign the club's two most important veterans, Gary Roberts and Joe Nieuwendyk.

The media are not second-guessing Ferguson. He was knocked by people such as Watters, Healy, McKenzie and Kypreos at the time those decisions were made.

What's worse, Healy says, the Leafs will end up paying the salaries of Roberts and Nieuwendyk, both of whom signed with the Florida Panthers, because of the new revenue-sharing agreement between the NHL's have and have-not clubs.

Still, Tanenbaum says the jobs of Peddie and Ferguson are safe. They will continue to function in their current roles as part of his long-term vision for MLSE, and Quinn will stay in the organization.

There you have it. Things are going so well, there are no reasons to make front-office changes.

Watters and Healy will say thanks for the material.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

Watters' rants are pretty disingenuous considering what a shill he was for the Leafs when he worked for them, and even for a fair amount of time after they let him go.

JR, do you have any more details about the writers panel that criticized the team's restrictive media policy, ie. who the media participants were and what they specifically were complaining about? The reason I ask is I'm just honestly surprised that a Leafs beat reporter would have trouble gaining access to players.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

Rangers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Herrmann
SPORTS COLUMNIST

Towering Jagr gives Islanders glimpse of what they'll need for future

March 30, 2006

So the Islanders caught a glimpse of that 60-story tower Charles Wang wanted to build, after all. That had to be just what Jaromir Jagr looked like to them. Again, he was the biggest thing on Long Island.

And he remained the reason the Rangers are head and shoulders above the Islanders.

Jagr is the Most Valuable Player in the National Hockey League. "Without question," Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro said, after having seen the right winger set up four goals last night. Jagr also is everything the Islanders don't have: Presence, star power, unstoppable offense, a ticket to the playoffs and - dare we say it? - an argument to dream of the Cup.

Why not? At this rate, anything seems possible. By the time the first-place Rangers left Nassau Coliseum with a 5-1 win, Jagr had a Rangers record for points in a season and his team had the Islanders' rink in the palm of its hand. Along with the derisive chants ("We Want Fish Sticks!"), there was this consensus from the stands about Jagr: "M-V-P!"

That is what he has done to this rivalry. It used to be that no matter which team was good and which team was lousy, the games were close. But Jagr is such a towering figure that he made the Islanders all but irrelevant, as he had done on his previous two visits to Long Island.

"He just seems to kill us every time we play against him," DiPietro said. "I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what to do."

Jagr has points in 20 consecutive games against the Islanders, and has 122 in 73 career games against them. The biggest have come lately, as a Ranger, because an Islander game still qualifies as a big game for the Rangers. Jagr has a sense of the occasion, a flair for the moment.

He knew he needed one point last night to beat Jean Ratelle's record of 109, and he collected four. Easily. It seemed that he also had the goal to beat Adam Graves' single season record of 52 - Rangers fans were really loud when the red light went on at 12:14 of the second - but his buddy Martin Straka actually tipped it in.

"Marty never goes to the net, then finally, the first time," Jagr said, in mock exasperation.

That is the only kind of exasperation he has had this season, one that almost surely will end with him winning the Hart Trophy as the MVP. He is pretty much the Rangers' VIP, CEO and BMOC.

Anything with capital letters.

Not only does he get a lot of points, he gets vital ones. He scored the tying goal in a huge win against the Sabres Monday.

He had the winning goal against the Capitals to end a six-game losing streak March 16. "He doesn't surprise me anymore," linemate Michael Nylander said. "He can dominate game after game. He's always got players on him, but he still finds a way. He just has presence on the ice," Nylander said. "He's a demanding guy. He wants to play good, he wants his teammates to play good."

That's just what the Islanders need. That is what the next general manager has to find. Long before they move into a refurbished Coliseum (part of Wang's development plan that no longer includes the eyesore of a tower).

Curiously, the Islanders have had only one Hart Trophy winner, Bryan Trottier in 1978-79. So they went through their entire Cup run without a regular season MVP. But that wasn't because they didn't have anybody good enough, it was because they had too many stars from whom to choose.

Granted, the current Islanders can't go out and get the best player in the world because the Rangers already have him. And a lot of elite players (Jarome Iginla, for instance) have signed new contracts. But the Islanders need someone with oomph, someone whose bearing says he is going to do something to win a game and raise his whole team.

Wang and Mike Milbury tried, they just chose the wrong stars in Alexei Yashin and Michael Peca. The next general manager has to do better - maybe he can draft a Trottier or a Mike Bossy late in the first round.

What the Islanders need is someone who can make it seem as if the ice always tilts toward him, the way Jagr does. They need someone whom they can trust when the Rangers come to town. They need someone to stand tall at the Coliseum, and make it feel like home again.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

I'm not a big fan of Watters. There are times when I think Kypreos is going to jersey him

I think one of the biggest complaints from Toronto beat writers is in fact lack of access. That attitude begins with Quinn. Oh, after a win, everyone will want to talk but after a loss (like in Montreal) Sundin seems to be the only one who has the guts to face the hordes. If Mr. Miler's around he may be able to provide some insight and I think there's another Canuck around here who may follow the Leafs on a regular basis.

No, I don't know who was on the panel.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

Kypreos is a better reporter than I ever thought he would be, but he really should jersey Watters if only to redeem himself in the eyes of those who saw Ryan Vandenbussche one-punch him into a forced retirement.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

Yeah, Kypreos seems to have surprised everyone since he retired and joined Sportsnet.

It appears that he's taken seriously amongst fellow electronic media types. Apparently he's got a lot of solid contacts in the league and has managed to scoop TSN a few times. He's on the FAN from time to time and the guy never resorts to cheap shots (at least from what I can remember)

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

I know when Kipper was on the Rangers, the beat writers ran to him to get insight. He was/is smart, funny and filled up notebooks.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

Kypreos had a really bad Stephen A. Smith-type shtick when he first started with Sportsnet, but he's calmed down a lot since then and developed into a really good analyst.

But hell, even Joe Sakic could look like John Davidson next to Watters.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

I liked Mark Herrmann's column, but that's nothing new. What a shock that Hockeybeat posted it!!! That said, I'll act less like a fanboy, because I'm not, and say Jagr is the easy MVP.

Yes, you could make a case for the goaltender, but Jagr gave him room to breathe by scoring practically every night. That's nice when you feel like you're up at the start of a game, 1-0.

I'd dare say Jagr is acting more like an elder statesman, which I never thought I'd see.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

Anybody see the Sergi Samsonov assist tonight on Jaroslav Spacek's goal for Edmonton tonight? Soccer fans would have to appreciate it. Oil finally played to their potential tonight. Great game. Also have to tip my hat to the Sens tonight with everybody with any experience on the blue line out due to injuries or personal reasons they still came out and dominated the Rangers 4-1.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

March 31, 2006

Senators 4, Rangers 1

Rangers' Road Show Sputters and Falls Flat in Canada

By JASON DIAMOS

KANATA, Ontario, March 30 — Jaromir Jagr looked a little haggard Thursday night as he arrived at Scotiabank Place, the home of the Ottawa Senators. With three of the Senators' top four defensemen out of the lineup, Jagr could not have picked a more inopportune time to feel ill.

Needing one more goal for his 53rd, to break a tie with Adam Graves for the most goals scored in a season in the 80-year history of the Rangers, Jagr, who said he felt sick before the game, could muster only an assist.

The assist pushed Jagr's league-leading point total to 114, extending the single-season franchise record he set on Wednesday night. It also extended Jagr's streak of recording at least 1 point to 11 consecutive games (9 goals, 13 assists, 22 points).

But it was not nearly enough to prevent the Rangers from suffering a 4-1 defeat to the undermanned Senators, who scored their first two goals on two-man advantages, and their first three goals on the power play.

"I had a cold," said Jagr, who still leads the league in goals. "I don't think I would have played if we would have to play tomorrow. But I've got nothing to lose because we've got four days off. So I tried to help the team and somehow survive. It didn't happen."

Ottawa was without its top defensive twosome of Wade Redden, who left the team Thursday to be with his mother, who is battling cancer, and Zdeno Chara, who missed his fourth consecutive game with a hand injury. The Senators were also without defenseman Chris Phillips , who is out for the rest of the regular season with a knee injury.

But the Senators (49-16-7) won behind 24 saves from Ray Emery, who is 12-2-2 since Dominik Hasek was injured at last month's Turin Olympics in Italy. They pushed their point total to 105, best in the Eastern Conference, mainly because they were able to contain Jagr, if not stop him completely.

With his 12th victory this month, Emery equaled the N.H.L. record set by Bernie Parent, with Philadelphia in March 1974, for most victories by a goalie in a single month.

Thursday's game ended a string in which the Rangers (41-21-12) played five games in seven days, and 12 games in 20 days.

Jagr was not the only Ranger who looked tired Thursday night.

"I don't like to make excuses, but I think it's time for a break," Rangers Coach Tom Renney said afterward.

Jagr's 11 games with at least a point is one off his season-best streak of 12 consecutive games with a point, from Oct. 10 to Nov. 5.

Not only has Jagr, the 34-year-old right wing, played in all 74 of the Rangers' games this season, but he played a full slate of games at the Olympics for the Czech Republic, while much of the N.H.L. was on a lengthy break.

And that, Renney said, makes what Jagr has been doing lately more impressive.

"I would think so," Renney said. "And you add in the eight Olympic games, of which three for sure are pretty high-level hockey games, or of significant magnitude to a European player at the very least. So, yeah, it's very impressive."

On Monday night at Madison Square Garden, in a 5-4 shootout victory over the Buffalo Sabres, Jagr engineered a third-period comeback from a 4-2 deficit with a goal and an assist. But Jagr was unable to help the Rangers erase a 3-1 deficit after two periods here.

He still has eight games left in the regular season to break the franchise goal-scoring mark set by Graves in 1993-94.

SLAP SHOTS

Despite Thursday's defeat, the Rangers inched closer to their first playoff berth since 1996-97 because ninth-place Atlanta lost, 4-3, at Tampa Bay. The top eight teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs. The Rangers, who have not qualified for the playoffs a franchise-record seven consecutive seasons, need any combination of 3 points gained in their final eight games, or 3 points squandered by the Thrashers in their final 10 games, to clinch a playoff berth. "We're going to go to the playoffs," Rangers Coach Tom Renney said. "And I have a pretty good idea of what people picked us to do at the beginning of the year, and we're going to beat that. And we're going to make some noise in the playoffs, too." ... Rangers defenseman Darius Kasparaitis (groin) sat out for the fifth time in the last six games. The rookie defenseman Fedor Tyutin returned from a one-game benching to take Kasparaitis's place in the lineup. Tyutin scored the Rangers' lone goal Thursday night.

 

Re: All-purpose hockey (NHL and Olympics) thread...

And Steve Simmons, who is one of my least favourite hockey columnists is pretty much bang-on in his column today on John Ferguson and MLSE.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Isiah Thomas first arrived in Toronto, peddling his big smile and his charming line of bull, he always talked about building a "championship team with a championship vision."

He left the Raptors in his customary state of chaos but somehow his catchphrases remained.

They are now the embarrassing and baseless words being spoken by anyone of importance at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd. They are words attributed to corporate voices who immediately identify themselves as sporting frauds the minute they try and rationalize the sorry state of the Maple Leafs.

We've come to expect this kind of inane babble from CEO Richard Peddie, who can't help himself. He trips all over himself every time he tries to speak sports.

But you don't expect that kind of unsupportable verbiage from Larry Tanenbaum, the normally optimistic, but brutally honest chairman of the MLSEL board. You don't expect him to have sporting vision, but at the same time, don't expect him to be blind either.


REALITY

Let's deal with some reality here for a moment: There is no vision for the Toronto Maple Leafs. There is no plan. There is nothing that general manager John Ferguson has done in three years on the job to demonstrate he has any of the capabilities necessary to build a winning team, let alone a championship team.

He inherited a top-third NHL team when he was hired as a compromise and inexpensive candidate in 2003. He has built the club into a bottom-third team in less than two seasons.

It isn't necessarily his fault.

This is what happens when you hire on the cheap, when you hire Rob Babcock instead of Bryan Colangelo, when you think you're smarter than the rest of the world but standings never lie.

You get what you pay for and in hiring Ferguson the Leafs have gotten what they paid for.

Ferguson has traded for Drake Berehowsky and Brian Leetch and Ron Francis and Luke Richardson and Jeff O'Neill and Alex Suglobov as general manager of the Leafs. That's it. That's all.

By comparison, Cliff Fletcher, a proven general manager, was hired by the Leafs in 1991-92 and in his first season on the job, all he did was deal for Grant Fuhr, Glenn Anderson, Doug Gilmour, Jamie Macoun and 10 other players. At the end of his first season, Fletcher hired Pat Burns to coach.

At the end of his first season, Ferguson signed Ed Belfour to a long-term contract without having the goalie's back checked out.

Like we said, you get what you pay for when you go the inexperienced route.

The very notion that Ferguson has a plan, that Peddie has a plan (other than to find new revenue sources for MLSEL) that anyone around this ill-conceived lineup has a plan is laughable to anyone who has a clue.

The Leafs' best player, Mats Sundin, will be 36 years old next season. Only one defenceman of consequence, Tomas Kaberle is signed beyond this season. Bryan McCabe is a free agent and almost certain to leave. There is no apparent starting goaltender for the coming season.

So to recap briefly: There isn't much offence, there isn't much defence and there isn't much goaltending for next year. If Ferguson's vision is to take a 100-point team and turn it into a 60-point team, then it's working out swimmingly.

And don't for a minute try and sell that we're building through the draft guff. You can't build through the draft anymore: Brad Boyes, a Leaf pick, is having his first decent NHL season. He was picked in 2000. Alexei Ponikarovsky is having his first decent NHL season. He was a 1998 pick.

The supposed kids who have come up to play defence, Jay Harrison being the best of them, were selected in 2001.

You can build through the draft if you're building for 2012. Otherwise, you paddle in circles, going nowhere.

The only tangible additions Ferguson has made to the roster come in goaltending depth for the future with picks from 2004 and 2005, Justin Pogge and Tuukka Rask, appearing promising.

But consider this: In 2001, Pascal Leclaire, Dan Blackburn and Jason Bacashihua were the first picks among goalies. The year before, it was Rick DiPietro and Brent Krahn. In '99, it was Brian Finley, Maxime Ouellet and Ari Ahonen. In '98, try Patrick DesRochers and Mathieu Chouinard.

They were all part of somebody's plan. At least, that was the story