All-purpose hockey thread...

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

Congrats to both Mo and the Leafs. Mo was a great, great guy in Carolina who was wrongly blamed for the collapse of the Hurricanes following the run to the '02 Stanley Cup finals. A combination of numerous injuries and Jim Rutherford breaking the team up pulled the rug from under him. Glad to see Toronto see that Mo gets another shot.

One of the best lines he ever had was following another close loss to Philly in which some calls could have brought to question: "It seems like we take one or two good f_ckings a week."

Realizing what he just said in front of hot mikes and cameras, he slowly looks up and goes "Ah, sh_t. I just bought my wife that new ring. It looks like I'll have to return it." Luckily, Mo wasn't fined by the league.

Another time, he came into a post-game presser with a bunch of stitches on one ear. Asked about it, he deadpanned "it's part of my modeling contract."

Again, enjoy, Leafs fans. FWIW, he coached Jeff O'Neill for quite a while in Raleigh. I'll be looking on a little bit more in my part of the world.

 

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

And in World Hockey Championship news, Canada beats Slovakia in the quarters and meets Sweden on Saturday in the semis. U.S. lost to Swedend 6-0 today.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060517.wworldsc17/BNStory/Sports/home

 

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

But the US already did us a huge favor and knocked off the Czechs for us, for which I am grateful.

 

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

Mike Bianchi on the sport:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/columnists/orl-bianchi1006may10,0,7392036.column?coll=orl-sports-col

"The NHL regular-season games on the Outdoor Life Network averaged an indiscernible 0.2 national rating (about 164,000 households). That's fewer viewers than one station in Orlando (WESH-Ch. 2) drew for the Kentucky Derby."

"Why is it then that the NHL still gets treated as a "major" sport by many media outlets and arena football, the WNBA and Major League Soccer are treated as "fringe" sports. Why is it that ESPN still runs hockey highlights on SportsCenter and most newspapers still run hockey roundups and box scores?"

"Now hockey is buried so far beneath the surface of mainstream sports, not even a Madagascan burrowing frog could find it."

 

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

I guess Mike was hung over and couldn't think of anything original to write about.

 

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

Amazing how a sport only 12 people care about, according to this clown, still somehow merits 598 words of his "wisdom." Spare me.

We should just say fuck it to a national TV deal in the States and stay with the current regional deals that get half-decent numbers. Even better, expand these deals to make it easier for the many Americans who want to see this great game. Urge satellite providers down there to make CBC and/or TSN available to subscribers.

As for the ones who don't want hockey and have proven it time and again, why are we still trying to force it down their throats? Piss on them, and piss on the know-nothing critics like Mike Bianchi who say the sport is dying because they see only the 0.9 TV ratings, not the full houses in the arenas.

 

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

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/23/nyregion/23clintons.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all

Several prominent New York Democrats, in interviews, volunteered that they became concerned last year over a tabloid photograph showing Mr. Clinton leaving B.L.T. Steak in Midtown Manhattan late one night after dining with a group that included Belinda Stronach, a Canadian politician. The two were among roughly a dozen people at a dinner, but it still was enough to fuel coverage in the gossip pages.

 

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

There's always been gossip about Bill and Belinda. It's handy having a multi-billionaire daddy who can make you CEO (or whatever she is) of his company AND get you elected to Parliament.

Money attracts power.

 

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

Patrick Roy, noted headcase, plays head games at the Memorial Cup.....


By Donna Spencer
MONCTON, N.B. (CP) — Patrick Roy wasn’t worried about fuelling the fire and was in fact throwing logs on it Tuesday.

The Quebec Remparts head coach fanned the flames for Wednesday’s game between his team and the Moncton Wildcats in the Memorial Cup by saying Moncton goaltender Josh Tordjman plays over his head and that it can’t last.

“He played better than I ever thought he’d be playing to be honest with you,” Roy said Tuesday. “But he’s due for a tougher game and yesterday I thought he gave up two soft goals. Hopefully he’ll repeat and we’ll take advantage of it.”

Memorial Cup host Moncton beat the Remparts in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League championship series, so the Remparts came into the MasterCard Memorial Cup as the runners-up.

Moncton is 2-0 and Quebec is 1-1 in the tournament and Wednesday’s game (Rogers Sportsnet, 7 p.m. ET) will determine which team earns the bye to Sunday’s final and which teams will square off in Friday’s semifinal.

Wildcats coach Ted Nolan called Roy’s comments “classless.”

“It’s tasteless and it’s classless,” Nolan said. “I think it’s a bad thing for a goaltender, a guy of his stature, to talk about a kid’s abilities to play the game. Patrick should just worry about coaching the hockey game versus who can play and who can’t.

“He’s always playing head games. As I told the guys, `There’s some good athletes out there. It doesn’t necessarily make them good people.”’

Roy is one of the best goaltenders to ever play in the NHL with four Stanley Cups and three Vezina Trophies as the league’s top goaltender.

He hasn’t limited his observations about opposition goaltenders to just Tordjman in the Memorial Cup. Roy did not have a high opinion of the work of Vancouver goalie Dustin Slade, either.

“My belief is that Vancouver would be on top 2-0 in the standings if they had great goaltending,” Roy said Tuesday.

Vancouver (0-2) was trying to avoid elimination Tuesday night against the Peterborough Petes (1-1).
Tordjman said his confidence wasn’t shaken because of his idol’s comments.

“It’s coming from a coach who is very competitive,” the Moncton goalie said. “It’s a guy who wants to win and I don’t blame him for wanting to put the comments out.

“He’s been an incredible role model for me my whole life with what he’s done in hockey. I don’t think it’s a real big factor that it’s coming from him or some guy, Joe Schmo in the stands.”

 

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

I agree with Ted Nolan.

Classless, Patrick.

 

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

Fred Shero's son to be the next Bruins GM.

Shero offered GM position by Bruins
By Kevin Paul Dupont, Globe Staff | May 23, 2006

The Bruins' search for a general manager ground toward an end yesterday when Ray Shero, an assistant GM for two clubs over the past 14 years, was offered the position, some two months after former GM Mike O'Connell was fired.

Shero, 43, was in town last week with his wife Karen, and met with team president Harry Sinden and executive vice president Charlie Jacobs, the son of club owner Jeremy Jacobs, before returning Friday to Nashville, where he has been the Predators' assistant GM the past eight NHL seasons.

According to two sources with close ties to the Boston front office, Shero was offered the position, either Sunday night or yesterday morning, and yesterday afternoon the sides remained in negotiations aimed at finalizing a deal for the son of former Flyers coach Fred Shero.

``They are in with Shero -- 100 percent," said one of the sources, corresponding via e-mail.

Reached via e-mail in mid-afternoon, the junior Jacobs wrote that he would not comment on the situation. Earlier in the day, he told two Globe reporters in separate e-mails that the club would have no news to report on the subject yesterday.

A former player agent who lived for a few years in the Boston area following his 1984 graduation from St. Lawrence, Shero entered team management with Ottawa in 1993 and spent six years as the Senators' assistant GM.

Shero then joined the Predators in November 1998, and for the past 2-3 years has widely been considered a GM-in-waiting around the league. Two sources last week said that his boss in Nashville, David Poile, contacted Sinden soon after O'Connell's dismissal, advancing Shero's name for the position.

Provided the sides tidy up a deal quickly, Shero could be announced as GM as early as today. However, with the Yankees at Fenway Park for a three-game set this week, the announcement might be held until Thursday, allowing the Bruins to capture a larger media contingent.

O'Connell, Sinden's handpicked successor who joined the club as assistant GM in the spring of '94, was fired as GM March 25, with the Bruins well on their way to missing the playoffs for the third time in the past six years.

``Shero will take the job, without question," said another source, one of the many who interviewed for the job in recent weeks. ``He interviewed in Boston and Pittsburgh, and he's wanted this chance for a very long time. Good for him. Good guy, and he'll do a great job."

If he accepts the offer, Shero will become the club's seventh general manager, dating back to the opening of the franchise in the autumn of 1924.

Shero would break the club's decades-long practice of hiring from within the Bruins ``family," since Art Ross was the club's GM and coach from its inception. Lynn Patrick, who succeeded Ross as GM in 1954, coached the club for four years before taking over the top front office position. Hap Emms, who followed Patrick, played briefly for the Bruins in the '30s prior to his two-year run (1965-67) as GM. Milt Schmidt was a legendary winger in Boston for years, and was later head coach, leading to his tour as GM at the end of the '60s and into the '70s when he cobbled together the squad that won two Stanley Cups.

Sinden coached the club to the '70 Cup prior to becoming GM in 1972. O'Connell played 5 1/2 seasons for the Bruins in the '80s, and later was assistant coach, before eventually being named GM in 2001 after some seven years as Sinden's right-hand man.

Shero, who never played in the NHL, has no prior to connection to the Bruins. His father coached the Flyers to back-to-back Cups in 1974 and 1975, the Broad Street Bullies clinching the first of those by rubbing out the Bruins in six games in the final round.

``A very good guy," reported one NHL GM, corresponding by e-mail. ``I like him, and respect him."

The junior Jacobs has stated that he hopes the new hire will aid in making the Bruins a far more transparent operation, in terms of the messages the club conveys to both the media and the public. Without question, the club needs an extreme image makeover. Along with the Celtics, their co-tenants on Causeway Street, they have nearly slipped off the radar in a city that now is decidely Red Sox- and Patriots-centric.

Jacobs, though, could have been far more forthcoming during the search for the new GM. The Bruins have steadfastly refused even to identify candidates, and as of yesterday, Jacobs would not confirm the offer to Shero, or so much as name him as a candidate.

 

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

One of these days, Bill Clinton is going to get so drunk that he actually sleeps with a good-looking woman.