100 games a season: Gare Joyce's puck blog

2007-04-07T02:50:00.000-07:00

Martin St Louis Redux? Ryan Duncan / Hobey Baker

Undrafted mite wins the Hobey Baker.

http://fightingsioux.xosn.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=58684&SPID=6405&DB_OEM_ID=13500&ATCLID=850165

It's a heckuva pedigree. One story listed him at 5'6" and another at 5'8". Betting the former is closer. That's what they list on the team website. UND got off to a rocky start but got rolling later on in the season. In the old NHL I doubt he'd get a look--he didn't, in fact. An '85 birthday, he was eligible for the 2003 draft, when he would have been about 130 pounds soaking wet. Nowadays? Would seem like a worthwhile gamble. Look at that pic -- he's hardly bigger than the player on the trophy.

2007-04-05T06:14:00.000-07:00

Polling the OHL Coaches (with 100 Games footnotes)

2006-07 Ontario Hockey League Coaches Poll – Western Conference Results

Most Underrated Player
1. Trevor Kell, Sarnia Sting (22)
2. Mike McLean, Guelph Storm (18)
3. Scott Aarssen, London Knights (16)

Most Improved Player
1. Tom Sestito, Plymouth Whalers (30)
I wrote about Sesito in an earlier blog. A 2006 third-rounder by the Columbus Blue Jackets of a 10-goal, 10-assist season, he was a force when I saw him this year.
2. Josh Godfrey, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (27)
3. Steve Mason, London Knights (10)
Another Columbus third-rounder.

Smartest Player
1. Sam Gagner, London Knights (28)
No surprise.
2. Steven Stamkos, Sarnia Sting (18)
Ditto,
3. Evan Brophey, Plymouth Whalers (16)

Hardest Worker
1. Matt Halischuk, Kitchener Rangers (23)
2. Jared Boll, Plymouth Whalers (19)
3. Rafael Rotter, Guelph Storm (12)

Best Playmaker
1. Sam Gagner, London Knights (29)
2. Bobby Ryan, Owen Sound Attack (26)
Couldn't play for the US under-20 ... please!
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=2721405
3. Evan Brophey, Plymouth Whalers (15)

Most Dangerous in the Goal Area
1. Patrick Kane, London Knights (41)
Amazing instincts -- would like to see the league vote with him and Tavares.
2. Bobby Ryan, Owen Sound Attack (30)
3. Steve Downie, Kitchener Rangers (13)

Best Skater
1. Mark Katic, Sarnia Sting (23)
Noted in other posts his skating. A marvel. Truly like Brian Campbell.
2. Robbie Drummond, London Knights (20)
3. Trevor Lewis, Owen Sound Attack (16)
This kid is a jet. How did the NHL miss him (undrafted in 05, first rounder last year) in the USHL?

Best Shot
1. Sergei Kostitsyn, London Knights (23)
I have all kinds of time for Kostitsyn, Montreal got a prize late. Best shot, tho', was the one he dropped on Downie in Kitchener a few weeks back.
1. Dan Collins, Plymouth Whalers (23)
3. Josh Godfrey, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (20)

Hardest Shot
1. Josh Godfrey, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (45)
2. Nigel Williams, Saginaw Spirit (18)
3. Ryan Wilson, Sarnia Sting (7)

Best Stickhandler
1. Patrick Kane, London Knights (40)
2. Bobby Ryan, Owen Sound Attack (29)
3. Steven Stamkos, Sarnia Sting (14)
All three of these guys are magical. Ryan just owns the puck on the cycle. Stamkos is maybe a little better in open-ice, head-on.

Best on Face-Offs
1. Justin Azevedo, Kitchener Rangers (20)
2. Evan Brophey, Plymouth Whalers (18)
3. Marcus Carroll, Owen Sound Attack (12)Ryan O’Marra, Saginaw Spirit (12)

Best Body Checker
1. James Neal, Plymouth Whalers (35)
Again, I like Plymouth to go to the Mem Cup and this guy was just a force when I saw him this year.
2. Todd Perry, London Knights (18)
3. Ryan Wilson, Sarnia Sting (11)

Best Defensive Forward
1. Robbie Drummond, London Knights (21)
2. Cody Bass, Saginaw Spirit (19)
3. Scott Tregunna, Owen Sound Attack (14)

Best Penalty Killer
1. Tom Sestito, Plymouth Whalers (25)
See most improved.
2. Mike McLean, Guelph Storm (23)
3. Matt Halischuk, Kitchener Rangers (19)

Best Offensive Defenceman
1. Drew Doughty, Guelph Storm (33)
Would be a top 10 pick (at least) if eligible this year. Everybody has to wait. As a scout said to me the other day: "The late 89s are better than the 89s in the O."
2. Patrick McNeill, Saginaw Spirit (23)
3. Ryan Wilson, Sarnia Sting (16)

Best Defensive Defenceman
1. Ryan Parent, Guelph Storm (45)
The fruit of the Forsberg trade for Philly, this bodes well for Flyers. He would have been in a logjam in Nashville.
2. Scott Aarssen, London Knights (15)
3. Tyler Cuthbert, Sault. Ste. Marie (12)

2006-07 Ontario Hockey League Coaches Poll – Eastern Conference Results

Most Underrated Player
1. Jordan Owens, Mississauga IceDogs (37)
2. Nick Plastino, Barrie Colts (13)
3. Geoff Killing, Belleville Bulls (12)

Most Improved Player
1. Stefan Legein, Mississauga IceDogs (36)
Very fiesty but undersized. Going to be an interesting call.
2. Matt Caria, Toronto St. Michaels Majors (19)
3. Shawn Matthias, Belleville Bulls (11)Brett MacLean, Oshawa Generals (11)
MacLean never cheated on effort when I saw him.

Smartest Player
1. John Tavares, Oshawa Generals (24)
Natch.
2. Tyler Donati, Belleville Bulls (18)
3. Cory Emmerton, Kingston Frontenacs (14)

Hardest Worker
1. Bryan Little, Barrie Colts (40)
2. Marc Staal, Sudbury Wolves (16)
3. Matt Beleskey, Belleville Bulls (15)

Best Playmaker
1. Tyler Donati, Belleville Bulls (23)
2. Bryan Little, Barrie Colts (20)
3. John Tavares, Oshawa Generals (16)

Most Dangerous in the Goal Area
1. John Tavares, Oshawa Generals (39)
You might as well skate to centre. "Best pure finisher I've ever seen," was one coach's reaction off the u-18 summer camp.
2. Tyler Donati, Belleville Bulls (25)
3. Bryan Little, Barrie Colts (12)

Best Skater
1. Stefan Legein, Mississauga IceDogs (34)
Saw him a half dozen times and only in two tilts in playoff loss to Sudbury did he fail to impress -- that said, the Sudbury D, Staal et al, is stuff he'd see at the next level. Big enough? Sorta wish he'd been a u-18 invite.
2. Chris Stewart, Kingston Frontenacs (18)
3. Yves Bastien, Peterborough Petes (17)

Best Shot
1. Bryan Little, Barrie Colts (39)
2. Chris Lawrence, Mississauga IceDogs (20)
3. Jamie McGinn, Ottawa 67’s (11)
I thought he was going to be a pure force off his performance at Mem Cup in London as a 16-year-old. Maybe he still will.

Hardest Shot
1. P.K. Subban, Belleville Bulls (27)
2. Jonathan D’Aversa, Sudbury Wolves (22)
3. Bryan Little, Barrie Colts (20)

Best Stickhandler
1. John Tavares, Oshawa Generals (26)
Side to side, you have to hold on for dear life.
2. Vladimir Nikiforov, Barrie Colts (25)
3. Tyler Donati, Belleville Bulls (18)

Best on Face-Offs
1. Bryan Little, Barrie Colts (36)
2. Bobby Hughes, Kingston Frontenacs (16)
This guy's stock cratered at the draft. Carolina got him way late.
3. Matt Caria, Toronto St. Michaels Majors (11)

Best Body Checker
1. Chris Stewart, Kingston Frontenacs (23)
2. Marc Staal, Sudbury Wolves (21)
3. Cal Clutterbuck, Oshawa Generals (19)
A name you can't make up. This sort of explains the post I had before, when he was gooned off the opening faceoff at St Mikes. Payback.

Best Defensive Forward
1. Matthew Bragg, Barrie Colts (28)
2. Jordan Owens, Mississauga IceDogs (18)
3. Andrew Gibbons, Belleville Bulls (11)

Best Penalty Killer
1. Marc Staal, Sudbury Wolves (28)
2. Andrew Gibbons, Belleville Bulls (22)
3. Hunter Tremblay, Barrie Colts (15)

Best Offensive Defenceman
1. Michael Del Zotto, Oshawa Generals (34)
2. Jonathan D’Aversa, Sudbury Wolves (21)
3. Alex Pietrangelo, Mississauga IceDogs (14)

Best Defensive Defenceman
1. Nick Plastino, Barrie Colts (28)
2. Adam McQuaid, Sudbury Wolves (18)
3. John de Gray, Brampton Battalion (17)

2007-04-04T20:49:00.000-07:00

Who's back from the summer u-18s and what are the storylines:

G

BACK Cann, Trevor-Peterborough (OHL)-2007
consensus top NA goaltender but lacked support and didn't play meaningful games with the Petes being so weak this year

OUT Leclerc, Justin-Lethbridge (WHL)-2007

D

BACK - Doughty, Drew-Guelph (OHL)-2008
might be in the running for top 10 if not a late birthday

BACK - Grant, Alex-Saint John (QMJHL)-2007

BUSY - Hickey, Thomas-Seattle (WHL)-2007

BACK - Katic, Mark-Sarnia (OHL)-2007
he has Brian Campbell's feet ... didn't get to play in the summer u-18s very much at all ...

BACK - Negrin, John-Kootenay (WHL)-2007

BUSY - Ross, Nick-Regina (WHL)-2007
noted that he didn't show anything in Regina games I saw ... heard scouts say pretty much the same ... that said, they actually liked him the summer u-18s

BACK - Sauve, Yann-Saint John (QMJHL)-2008

BACK - Schenn, Luke-Kelowna (WHL)-2008

F

BACK - Bastien, Yves-Peterborough (OHL)-2007
started year with Kitchener

BACK - Boychuk, Zach-Lethbridge (WHL)-2008

BUSY - Cameron, Bryan-Belleville (OHL)-2007

BUSY - Ennis, Tyler-Medicine Hat (WHL)-2008

BACK - Esposito, Angelo-Quebec (QMJHL)-2007
lots to prove ... says he's all right after late-season concussion

BACK Fortier, Olivier-Rimouski (QMJHL)-2007
as stated before, I enjoy watching Fortier play

BACK - Gillies, Colton-Saskatoon (WHL)-2007

NOT BACK - King, Dwight-Lethbridge (WHL)-2007

NOT BACK - MacMillan, Logan-Halifax (QMJHL)-2007
lots to like here ... saw him in Halifax a few weeks back ... I don't know if he has the upside to be a first-rounder but he'll be a second-rounder at the very least ... talked to him, seems like a sharp kid ... surprised he did not get invited (maybe injured?)

BUSY - Sonne, Brett-Calgary (WHL)-2007
this guy was not big in the plans for the summer-18s and probably played the best hockey of his life over the course of the week

BACK - Sutter, Brandon-Red Deer (WHL)-2007
last player confirmed back ... Red Deer goes to seventh game in opening round before falling

BACK - Turris, Kyle-Burnaby (BCHL)-2007
the one many scouts will be watching most closely ... not that he has to prove himself per se ... simply that he's a bit of a mystery player because he's outside major junior ... bound for Wisconsin but many in the game wonder if he just wasted a year of development ... said NCAA was his decision, not a family decision ... guess he was jammed if he wanted to go that route ... too old for US preps, couldn't go to USHL because of an agreement between the leagues ... "offensive dynamo" is how one coach described him ... says Turris "I need a few years to put meat on my bones before moving up to the NHL" ... which might be true but not a reason alone to go NCAA rather than Dub

NOT BACK - Torquato, Zack-Saginaw (OHL)-2007

ADDED FOR FINLAND

G Braden Holtby ( Marshall , SK / Saskatoon , WHL)
D Eric Doyle (Calgary, AB/Swift Current, WHL)

F Keven Veilleux (St-Georges, QC/Victoriaville, QMJHL)
F Jamie Arniel (Kingston, ON/Guelph, OHL),
F Steven Stamkos (Unionville, ON/Sarnia, OHL)
F Dion Knelsen (Three Hills, AB/Alaska-Fairbanks, NCAA)
F Logan Couture (London, ON/Ottawa, OHL)

Interested to see how this shakes out. Stamkos as an underage is just a wonder to watch.

2007-04-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

Pietrangelo Unlikely for U-18s ... it seems

Know that I posted that Mississauga's Pietrangelo would be a desired add to the Canadian u-18s ... Hockey Canada hasn't sent the email with the roster just yet but word is the IceDogs talked to him about not dressing in playoff games--seems his knee was a lot more painful than he let on and coach Mike Kelly was concerned about doing any further damage. Sounds like it will be wiser if not easy to decline an invite.

2007-04-04T03:24:00.000-07:00

CSS's Final Rankings: Likely Two Americans in Top Three

If only NHL draftniks could fill out brackets like NCAA fans. Anyway, there should be a fairly dramatic shift in the final rankings submitted by the NHL Central Scouting Service in a little bit. Here's what the top of the mid-term rankings looked like:

1. ESPOSITO, ANGELO-QMJHL-QUEBEC-C
2. VAN RIEMSDYK, JAMES-USDP-USA U-18-LW
3. GAGNER, SAM-OHL-LONDON-C,W
4. KANE, PATRICK-OHL-LONDON-RW
5. TURRIS, KYLE-BCHL-BURNABY-C
6. ELLERBY, KEATON-WHL-KAMLOOPS-D
7. BLUM, JOHN-WHL-VANCOUVER-D
8. ALZNER, KARL-WHL-CALGARY-D
9. SUTTER, BRANDON-WHL-RED DEER-C,RW
10. CROSS, TOMMY-HIGH-CT-WESTMINSTER-D
11. COUTURE, LOGAN-OHL-OTTAWA-C
12. MCDONAGH, RYAN-HIGH-MN-CRETIN-DERHAM-D
13. SHATTENKIRK, KEVIN-USDP-USA U-18-D
14. SKOKAN, DAVID-QMJHL-RIMOUSKI-C
15. VORACEK, JAKUB-QMJHL-HALIFAX-RW
16. VEILLEUX, KEVEN-QMJHL-VICTORIAVILLE-C
17. ROSS, NICK-WHL-REGINA-D
18. PERRON, DAVID-QMJHL-LEWISTON-LW
19. DOYLE, ERIC-WHL-SWIFT CURRENT-D
20. O'BRIEN, JAMES-WCHA-U OF MINNESOTA-C
21. GILLIES, COLTON-WHL-SASKATOON-C
22. HAMILL, ZACH-WHL-EVERETT-C
23. PACIORETTY, MAX-USHL-SIOUX CITY-LW
24. HOEFFEL, MIKE-USDP-USA U-18-W
25. WHITE, PATRICK-USHL-TRI-CITY-C
26. HICKEY, THOMAS-WHL-SEATTLE-D
27. COHEN, COLBY-USHL-LINCOLN-D
28. ELLINGTON, TAYLOR-WHL-EVERETT-D
29. TANGUAY, MAXIME-QMJHL-RIMOUSKI-C
30. SPALING, NICK-OHL-KITCHENER-C

Okay, off the top, there is no way in the world that Esposito will be at No. 1. I can't speak for CSS's scouts--I haven't sounded them out--but those working for NHL clubs have been down on him with only occasional exceptions all season long. The consensus among them--and I've sounded them out all season--is that the final rankings will likely look like:

1. Kane
2. Van Riemsdyk
3. Voracek
with 4 and 5 and 6 going to Esposito, Gagner and Turris in any possible order.

Now, this isn't a pure reflection of talent--it's more like guessing the nominees for the Oscars. A lot of scouts for NHL teams wouldn't put Esposito in the top ten simply based on his play this season, but Central doesn't want to look like they were so off base in the mid-term, which they would if No. 1 fell to No. 6 or No. 8 or No. 10. It's a bit of political intrigue, a matter of impressions. Some movement down is okay, but a dramatic shift--which in Esposito's case might be deserved--calls undue attention to CSS's mid-term. If I had to guess (and I don't) I'd put him at four. A lot of scouts would put Voracek at No. 1 or No. 2 but same scenario--how would it look if No. 16 in the mid-term jumped to No. 1? Like CSS didn't get it right the first time. No. 3 is completely deserved for Voracek. (I caught Game 2 in Halifax the other day and spoke to him after practice, which I'll blog about down the line. The Q players I spoke to--outside of Halifax--say there's no contest between the dynamic Voracek and Esposito.)

Other notes:

I doubt that it will be reflected in CSS but I suspect on draft day that of the three Rimouski players, the Slovak Skokan at No. 12, Tanguay (Alex's brother) at No. 29 and Olivier Fortier at No. 45, Fortier might get the most love at the draft. I suspect that Fortier might be closer to 30 than 40 in the final CSS--he should be.

By my count I've seen 16 of the top 20 at some point or another and spoke to about half. Kane and Gagner already carry themselves like 10-year NHL veterans, while Voracek is just an ebullient kid and Esposito has the weight of the world on his shoulder.

Overvalued in CSS: Gillies (regarded by scouts as limited) Ross (couldn't find him the two views I had of him)
Undervalued: Voracek (as noted before but should be again) maybe Sutter (scouts say that he's the smartest player in the draft, even if he's the scrawniest, a doppelganger for his father, tho')
Wild cards: Akim Aliu-Sudbury-winger (won the fastest-honors at the Prospects game, suspended [but re-instated] by Sudbury late in the season, immense gifts, more to come on him in future) Turris (NCAA bound, playing against thin competition in BCHL, u-18s should be a better indicator of where his game is but some scouts would have him in the mix with the top 3)

2007-04-03T03:15:00.000-07:00

Canada's Spring Under-18s: Younger, Better

Been away on book assignment for a stretch, but also coming back with the inside dope on the world under-18s and the 2007 entry draft. So here goes:

As strange as it sounds, the Canadian team that goes to Finland this month for the world under18s might in fact be better than the squad that won the gold medal at the summer u-18 World Cup in Breclav, Czech Republic, and Piestany, Slovakia. That's what scouts are saying after the first round of the CHL playoffs have wrapped. On its face not earth-shaking news but understand that this is sort of a fluke, a strange alignment of the planets, because on every other occasion the spring unit is not quite up to the quality of the August team. It only makes sense. In August Hockey Canada has its pick of eligible players; in April, many of these players, often the best of the bunch, can't make it because their CHL teams have advanaced to the second round of the playoffs.

Okay, logic would tell you that if somehow the concentration of u-18 best (i.e. the bulk of the year's draft-class elite) finished out of the playoffs--which is like lining up 20 lottery numbers--then the Canadian team could be as good but how could it possibly be better?

Two reasons:

1. Underage: Hockey Canada decided early on that the team would go with the best players available/eligible and thus a few underagers were on the radar early. Four were clearly in the mix: John Tavares and Michael Del Zotto in Oshawa, Steven Stamkos in Sarnia and Alex Pietrangelo in Mississauga. Tavares--you know, the one who was busting up 99's records for 16-year-olds scoring, yadda, yadda--was the one under-ager who was invited to the under-18 evaluation/tryout in the summer but was injured before the selection. (He surely would have been on the team and would have been its go-to player.) Well, Oshawa's through to the second round, so Tavares and Del Zotto, a highly skilled defenceman, are out of the mix. But Sarnia and Mississauga both got knocked out quick (swept and five games respectively), so Stamkos (think young Steve Yzerman, a player that is confirmed and right now Hockey Canada is waiting on word from Pietrangelo. The complicating issue there is a hairline fracture above his knee. He didn't miss a game or even a shift in Mississauga's five playoff games--it seems to be the type of injury that can't much worsen. (I think Brad Richards played in the summer 18s with precisely the same thing.) He's probably a good shot. But Stamkos, first pick in last year's OHL draft, is the player that really intrigues me and scouts--saw him a couple of times live including vs Russian touring team, more times on the tube. The son of a guy I went to EastYork Collegiate with back when I used to wear my hair in a Roger Daltrey perm. More than one scout has told me that they'd take him ahead of Tavares right now if they were in the same draft class. Then again, I think they sometimes say these things to amuse themselves. Caught them going head to head in Oshawa early on in the season--what a tilt. Sarnia smoked the Gens, to Tavares's immense displeasure. The Gens weren't going well back then. One aspect of Stamkos's game that's way ahead of Tavares: skating. Stamkos is faster in a straight line and he's aesthetically more pleasing to watch. Tavares, though, well if he skated any better, they'd have to ban him. Bladewise he's better on side-to-side elusive stuff than with breakaway speed. And if he has the puck within ten feet of the goal, everyone might as well skate to centre. (As it stands right now, Stamkos is in the '08 draft, Tavares, a late birthday by the thinnest of margins, is draft eligible for '09. Could things change? John Tavares as Curt Flood? Stay tuned. I know a lot of people will resist the idea of mucking up the draft but going to the calendar year as the draft criterion was on the table and in discussion back in the NHL's lockout nuclear winter.) All this said, Stamkos will be a significant upgrade up front.

2. Injury. Logan Couture of the Ottawa 67s was killing the field at the summer u-18 camp but suffered a nasty, nasty skate cut around his knee with seconds (literally) to go in the final scrimmage before the selection. By accounts of some witnesses he might have been the best forward there. Couture could be on--Ottawa was knocked out on the weekend. As has been mentioned on the blog weeks back, though, Couture's season has been screwed up by mono early and knee injuries late. He played with pain in the second half--he might want to play just to shore up his draft stock but if his injuries linger he might not want to risk further injury. Scouts say he was on fire in the playoffs v Belleville.

The addition of Stamkos, Couture and Pietrangelo would more than fill the holes left by those at the summer-18s who'll be in the second round of the CHL playoffs.

Further: The summer team's captain, Angelo Esposito, the CSS mid-term No. 1, could/should be back--his Quebec team was knocked out. But Esposito missed some time with a concussion late in the regular season (I'm just going by what I was able to read in the Journal de Quebec ... my French is tres rusty ... if only Quebec had a Spanish-language daily I'd know the veridad). He played in the playoffs so he might be good to go. Frankly, he should be motivated to play--scouts are so down on him. There's no shot that he'll be CSS's No. 1 in final rankings. Lot of scouts think he's out of the top 5 at this year's draft.

Personal preference: I like the Fortier kid in Rimouski. He's confirmed for Finland. He wore the A in the summer and I saw him in Rimouski last weekend of the season. The Oceanic gassed their coach, Doris Lebonte, who took the team to the Memorial Cup final (with some help from 87). Whoever inherits this club has a lot to work with. Youngest team in Q last year--clearly loading up. They want to take a run at the Mem Cup (as host) down the line, so the GM told me. Even looking at arena reno to do it. Well, Fortier will play a role whatever this team does competively the next couple of seasons. Came over in trade from Drummondville. Great skater, great hockey sense, already a two-way player. "The perfect kid to work with," said Doris Lebonte, who has some experience with perfect. Could Fortier be Patrice Bergeron? He's not in the top five and I can't see him in the top 10. He will play in the NHL and if he goes 20 in the draft, he'll have a bigger impact than five players who go ahead of him, guaranteed.

Draft / u-18 oddity ... I still wonder how Sam Gagner got cut from the summer 18s but made the u-20s in December. If he didn't get invited to the summer and played in the world juniors that would be easier to explain--simple oversight, guy's game gets better from one season to the next. But no, they saw him, he was going well by his account in the summer and they gave him a handshake for his troubles. Does someone improve that much from August to November? He makes u-20s and the captain of the sumer 18s is a quick cut, Tavares too. Oh well, Gagner's occupied with London.

Fine print ... talked with Mark Guy of Newport Sports at the Sudbury-Miisissauga game the other day ... Newport has Stamkos, Pietrangelo and Del Zotto, who could comprise the top three in the 2008 draft ... I suggested that the NHL might as well hold the draft in Newport's offices

2007-03-07T13:41:00.000-08:00

Blowout Special: Sending a message ("I'm stupid" or, possibly, "Kick me!")

At St Mike's last night

http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=12914

Oshawa blew the doors of the Majors, who can thank Michael Haley for sending a message. Here it is:

1 - TOR Haley, 0:37 - Instigator , 2 min (PP)
1 - TOR Haley, 0:37 - Fighting , 5 min (3 PP)
1 - TOR Haley, 0:37 - 10-Minute Misconduct , 0 min

It only looks like it took Haley half a minute to act out. Fact is, Haley didn't wait for the opening faceoff. He tried to pick a fight with Gens winger Cal Clutterbuck (what a name!) as soon as the anthem finished. Clutterbuck shooed him away but could do nothing at the first stoppage in play when Haley jumped him from behind, tackled him and started to punch him in the back of the helmet. So there you go, Gens buzz the net and by the time Haley gets out of the box the rout is on: By the time he got out of the box it was 6-2 Oshawa. It would be good if an experienced player on the St Mike's roster could have a word with him -- except that Haley is the Majors' captain.

The game was thoroughly not worth watching by then -- the Majors just had nothing and Oshawa is rolling, as good a bet as any to come outta the Eastern Conference. Tavares was good, not quite great. MacLean, discussed here before, likewise. I can see what the Del Zotto kid will bring though in next year's draft. Very sound (fresh off Ontario's win at the Canada Winter Games). Good size. Probably will show a lot more offensively as he goes.

The fine print ... Ihink I mentioned at some pt that Del Zotto's family are the big developing clan--no, dad works at IBM (don't know if family is related). Majors have Mike Pelech (son of national basketball guy Bo Pelech, late of York U, brother of Matt, who was a first-rounder of Calgary and will sign shortly). The "ch" in Pelech is pronounced "k" ... so Mike Pelech = Mike Pelyk (phonetically).

2007-03-04T05:59:00.000-08:00

Cheechoo: Background on the ESPN The Mag story

Went up to Moose Factory before Christmas to do a story on Cheechoo. While it would seem like an interesting place to visit for a hunting or fishing trip in season (if you can give up having a beer for the duration), let me talk you out of the notion of heading up there in late December. No place to eat ... the hotel dining room was closed because I was the only guest they had booked for the month, the one greasy spoon in town was shut down for stretches. Saw an ad on local cable for a sale at a Radio Shack in Moosonee so I took a snowmobile ride across the (mostly-frozen) Moose River to Moosonee figuring I'd go to the mall where the store was -- and found that it was an outlet in the back of the town's gas station. Dire isn't the word for my time. That said, the people were very welcoming, got the daughter a pair of moose-skin gloves (that still reek).

Cheechoo is a fascinating case. I remember him very well from junior. Back in '99 I saw him going head to head with the 67's. He had a lot going for him as a prospect--except his skating, which was maybe not even average. Did anyone then ever think he'd lead the NHL in scoring? You could have found a lot of guys who thought he wouldn't be an NHLer. A credit to his work ethic and John Ferguson Sr for seeing something that others missed. Interesting draft year.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl1998e.html

Poor old Mathieu Chouinard, with the two career minutes he played for the Kings. Jeff Heerema we barely knew you. Michael Heinrich, later. Ten players from the O go ahead of him. Two dubious-character guys, Rico Fata and Mark Bell, went way ahead of him. David Legwand skated a lot better than most NHLers as an 18-year-old -- but,it turned out that everything else was a problem. Hard to imagine now that a few liked Legwand over Lecavalier (believe it, they did).

Granted, Cheechoo really took off after his draft year. But if you talked to Cheechoo, then or now, you'd bet he'd figure it out. San Jose drew laughs when Cheechoo was picked -- but then again Tampa Bay and Don Murdoch drew laughs when they took Lecavalier's team-mate in Rimouski in the third round.

2007-02-27T14:02:00.000-08:00

Trading Deadline Holiday: Quick Takes and My .02

There's a heckuva separation between the public's perceived value of draft picks and that of NHL GMs. First rounders were being passed over the counter like Canadian Tire money. As we said before, if you're looking at real first-rounders, you're looking at Top 10 picks, not No. 29, and maybe not even No. 15. After the top ten and certainly after the top 20, you're getting a lottery ticket.

The most fascinating trade is on the minds of many today though not for the reasons I'm thinking about it: Smyth to Isles for O'Marra, Nilsson and 2007 first.

O'Marra's a safe bet to play in the league, might even evoke a Smyth as a young player tho' bigger. There is absolutely no worry about him playing, size, skating and attitude--he could play on your fourth line without a stick. I don't know about what he'd project to at the high end (second-line on a winning team, maybe). What really stands out in scouts' minds -- there has never been a kid who has talked more at the combine interviews. They tried to ask him questions but it was like trying to get a word in edgewise with Robin Williams on his third Starbucks venti.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=76864

Nilsson's bloodlines suggest talent but he's underperformed for where he was drafted. I remember seeing him at world juniors whenever it was in Europe--Kent used to take his kid along on most trips, even when he would have been nine or ten. Word back then was that he was a chip off the old block--which sounds promising because Kent was certainly one of the five most gifted players of his time but is in fact less promising because Kent utilized a fraction of his talent.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00070767

O'Marra and Nilsson both picked at No. 15 in their years and the pick Edmonton gets might just fall on that very slot. Which is right where the talent starts to drop off.

Wouldn't surprise me if Logan Couture were there at No. 15 (especially if a goaltender or two moves up).

2007-02-27T06:19:00.000-08:00

100 Games Holiday Edition: Trading Deadline Advice

Okay, I'll keep it brief. Here's a few things you should keep in mind on deadline day.

This year's draft lacks star talent up top (no Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin). Fact is, the top pick in this year's draft (Kane, Esposito, Van Riemsdyk, whoever) would likely be no higher than fourth or fifth in last year's draft.
This year's draft is not deep, according to scouts in the field. What you get at the end of the first round is another year's second-round talent.
The difference is marginal between a second-round pick and a third-rounder. The chances of a player having an impact is about 15 percent.
There's a far greater difference between a top 20 pick and one between Nos. 21 and 40.
Next year's first-rounder is far more valuable than this year's. A far better draft on the high end (Stamkos, Del Zotto, Pietrangelo, etc) and scouts say it's like the 2003 for depth (didn't realize just how many have already made the show and arguably the best one goes in the second round).

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2003e.html

2007-02-26T09:37:00.000-08:00

Steve Downie: Canadian Hero (TM), 100 Games Zero

Count me among those who have no time for Steve Downie. Downie was the guy you couldn't take your eyes off at the world under-20s in Vancouver, the one who goaded crucial third-period penalties out of a US team at this year's global jr event in Sweden. Downie was the guy who basically willed the Windsor Spitfires out of a 0-3 hole vs the Soo and Jeff Carter.

http://hockeysfuture.com/prospect/steve_downie

The little-ball-of-hate thing evidently carries over off the ice as well--his contretemps with team-mate Akim Aliu preceded his selection to his first world jr team.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFMDWuepG7Y

Downie was dealt to Peterborough but was more of a passenger than a driver on a team that went to the Memorial Cup last spring. He was essentially invisible in the tournament. He didn't impress me much in OHL play this fall, back before the world juniors. He was all act--histrionics, mouth, slamming sticks--and no impact. Poor Vince Mallette, his first head coaching job after years with Brian Kilrea in Ottawa and he had a truly uncoachable player as his first-line talent, a guy on his own program. Happiest day of the season for Vince would have been the day Downie was traded to Kitchener.

For the Rangers it might now be a case of buyer's remorse. Downie was hardly impressive when I saw him the other day vs London. Not that he'll have much of a chance to show his goods in the near future. From the Guelph Mercury's write-up of the Storm's ass-kick of the Rangers:

The Highway 7 rivalry just got its nasty back.
After a couple of years of pretty mellow competition between the Guelph Storm and Kitchener Rangers, things returned to their former glory Saturday night in a rough-and-tumble contest at the Guelph Sports and Entertainment Centre.
Three fights, a boisterous crowd more involved in a home game than it has been all year and a meltdown by the Rangers' Steve Downie were all part of the lively contest between two possible first-round playoff opponents.
Oh yeah, the Storm won 5-0.
"Starting to feel like it," said the Storm's Ryan Parent when asked if the game reminded him of the old days. "Be good if we meet them in the playoffs."
The highlight -- or lowlight -- of the night came at 15:39 of the second period after Guelph had gone up 4-0.
On the ensuing faceoff at centre ice, Downie jumped Storm forward Mike McLean and landed several punches as McLean covered up on the ice. On his way to the dressing room Downie proceeded to drop-kick his helmet into the boards and toss a container holding a bunch of water bottles onto the ice.
For his efforts Downie received the Meltdown Five Pack -- two minutes for instigating, five minutes for fighting, 10-minute misconduct, game misconduct and gross misconduct. A suspension from the league is also likely.

Say good-bye to Downie for five games or so. The Flyers took Downie in the first round and, God bless them, they need help. But I have no time for him. All the Canadian Hero stuff aside, Downie does not skate well enough to make an impact at the next level. The fact that he picks his spots--effort is for other guys--suggests that unless he finds religion (cash incentive) he won't work hard enough to re-invent his game (and himself) as necessary.

2007-02-25T04:53:00.000-08:00

Back up the Pick-Up Truck: Gaming out Flyers' Pick

The other day I made the case for Patrick Kane being the favorite to be No. 1 on NHL scouts' lists. Here's one reason that he won't be the first called in June.

The Flyers.

The Flyers' scouting philosophy can be neatly summarized by an anecdote. A few years ago a Philly scout was greeted by a friend upon his return from a European excursion, probably one of those Four Nations tournaments or somesuch, no North American squads invited. The friend asked the Philly scout how it went ... if he saw anybody he liked. The Philly scout replied: "There were no Flyers over there." The friend asked him what the Philly scout looked for in a player. The scout said: "A Flyer has to be able to stand flat-footed and sh-t in the back of a pick-up truck."

The Flyers have traditionally been the most size-obsessed franchise in recent years. Look at the moves that left others scratching their heads--the post-lock-out pick-ups of Derian Hatcher and Mike Rathje. Traditionally Flyers teams have been among the biggest--if not the biggest--in the NHL. It wasn't just the Lindroses and Primeaus who were the fit--look at Zubrus who they took out of Tier II in Ontario (a 220-pounder 18-year-old who stepped right onto the first line of a team that went to the Stanley Cup finals).

Here are the Flyers' drafts.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/teams/dr000053.html

Firsts in 01, 02, 03 ... all six-foot-three.

Okay, two points that you might make that I'll pre-empt.

Hey, the Flyers drafted a few shrimps too, look at Justin Williams, Steve Downie, Mike Richards and Claude Giroux. Yup, all true. Look, in the latter three, the Flyers have three forward prospects at 5-10 ... can't see Kane being a fit with them. Now Kane is a superior prospect to those guys at the same stage in most people's eyes but he isn't as gritty as any of them. The Pick-Up Truck Values are not an absolute--there's just a threshold for exceptions

Hey, that was Bob Clarke doing the drafting. Though the Flyers changed the name plate on the GM's office when BC went through his burn-out episode, the culture of the club hasn't changed with the installation of Paul Holmgren, a guy whose career was built on Flyers Values. The acquisition of Braydon Coburn from Atlanta (in the head-scratcher that was the Zhitnik dump) is Pick-Up Truckworthy. And though Holmgren brought in a crew for coaching, the scouting staff of old stays in place.

The Flyers seem to be reaching a critical mass of young talent. Yeah, Richards and Carter have gone backwards but there's still a lot like. A lot of scouts were lining up for Giroux last June (he'd been in Top 10s on a couple of lists) and this was a kid who was completely passed over in the OHL draft. Coburn and Parent--two Canadian junior team D-men. Yeah, there's some dead wood still, but they'll be interesting to watch over the next couple of years as these guys are phased into the line-up. (Don Luce, late of Buffalo, will work with them in transition from junior to the pros.)

The fine print ... On the phone the other day with John Ferguson Sr ... He was heading in for his fifth round of chemo ... tough run last few years, major heart surgery five years ago and now C ... the idea that hockey's tough guys are among its smartest and most decent all started with JF Sr ... I was surprised to see that his NHL career was only 500 games ... if you looked it up I think you'd be surprised by the offence he generated over the course of his career ... 29 goals in 71 games back in '69 ... weight listed at 178 but that can't be right ... his hands weigh about 20 pounds a piece ... I remember back in the day a magazine story that had George Chuvalo rating the NHL's best fighters and Fergie was at the top of it ... a great illustration if you could ever find it ... has been a longtime San Jose guy, was talking to him about scouting Cheechoo for a story I was working on ... what would a ring mean to him at this point ... I know it's hard to find a place for him in the Hall of Fame but they should have a wing for guys who would go to war with you (before a lot of the guys in the main room) ... where's the justice, Bernie Federko and Joe Mullen in, and not John Ferguson ...

2007-02-24T19:41:00.000-08:00

Much Aliu About Something: Sudbury Draft Enigma

So what do you do with Akim Aliu?
Pass him by, do you?
A scouting report by Dr Seuss,
Wouldn't be of much use.
Few in his year match him for skating,
Yet so many avow Akim-hating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzrLzLMJeGA&mode=related&search=

Okay, I'll stop.

Caught Sudbury's shoot-out win over Mississauga yesterday.
http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=12900

My favorite IceDog Stefan Legein was scratched with a suspension from a misconduct, so the draft eligible of interest was Akim Aliu, who is on CSB's second page of North American skaters but would be in the top 5 of his class in pure talent and potential. Aliu scored his twentieth goal Saturday and he grabbed your eye whenever he was on the ice. He was the first miss in a shootout marathon. His boarding penalty in the second set off a small melee and spurred a rally from an IceDog team that was down 4-1 and without a pulse. You can watch him skate all day--not for nothing did he win the skating competition at the Prospects game. He's physical--as big as he is, he carries a lot of speed into every check he finishes. Size, skill, flair, hockey instincts (like crashing the goal on the goal he scored) ... and questions. Yeah, questions from the dust-up with then team-mate Steve Downie, the supposed Canadian Hero, in Windsor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFMDWuepG7Y

Questions why it's 20 goals and not 40 (which seems within his reach). Questions like his intensity when his man scores Mississauga's first goal and he's left waving at him. There's lots to like about him as a prospect. (You know, 6-3 and 210 has a way of getting scouts to overlook stains on the reputation.) What do you do with him? I suspect somebody will gamble on him in the first round. He's a matter for further examination. And I can't imagine for the life of me Team Canada having a look at him next summer--even though as a citizen I can't imagine that Steve Downie is any better (and probably not as good).

The fine print .... Marc Staal had yer usual future All-Star type of game ... two years ago when I first saw him prior to the 05 draft I though he looked pretty gawky, unsteady, unsure on his skates but I sat with scouts who said that I had my head up my ass ... well, it has all come together now and they were quite correct ... Marc Staal's high end is Rob Blake, nothing less, a couple of rinklong rushes, a savvy handle back on the point ... can't really say what youngest Staal's game is, really don't know, but far less dynamic at the same stage than his older brothers ... saw highlight on Buffalo news of John Tavares (the lacrosse uncle, not the hockey nephew) score a nice goal for the Bandits ... goofy thing that JT-hockey isn't at the Canada Winter Games for Ontario team (evidently because he was on Team Ontario at last year u-17s and a repeat show would upset other players' parents, even though it would assuredly make Ontario more competitive/prohibitive favorite) ... IceDogs were advertising an upcoming appearance of Jason Spezza (with Bobbleheads and all) ... interesting because Spezza's relationship with the team was certainly strained at various points in time (with previous management) and was eventually traded to Windsor (and then Belleville) ...

2007-02-24T07:23:00.000-08:00

On the Wounded Prospects: Uncertain, Hurtin'

Checked out the Ottawa-Missisauga game last night. Not a game you'll see every day.

http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=12893

Stefan Legein (a little draft-eligible player, in the 30s among North American skaters according to Central Scouting, and a guy who is growing on me) scores a 5-on-3 short-handed goal.
Mississauga's second goal is a conventional 5-on-4 shorthander.
Ottawa scores the backbreaking goal on a 6-on-3, a delayed penalty on a 5-on-3.
Logan Couture scored on IceDog G Loverock who evoked Tommy Salo vs Belarus -- a long shot that hit his shoulder, bounced 20 feet in the air and got lost in the lights before trickling into the net.

Re Couture, discussed here before. Talked to Killer and Bert before the game. Couture has skated three times in two weeks. Both knees have been banged up. Missed games, but couldn't miss last night with Ottawa life or death to make the playoffs. At the start of the game Kilrea had no idea what he could get out of Couture so he spotted him, limited ice time. (Look at Legein's goal plus-minus and notice that Couture wasn't on the ice.) As the game went on Couture played better and ended up with more ice time.

Maybe Couture is a (somewhat) comparable case to Alyn McCauley. Here are their hockeydb profiles.

McCauley

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=14101

Couture

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid%5B%5D=89766

I think Couture might have more offensive upside, certainly demonstrated in their respective draft years (though post-draft McCauley blows up to be a CHL player of the year, near goal a game). McCauley was a top OHL draft pick who was dragged down by a knee, certainly one of five best midgets in the province. Couture's status at the same juncture approximates that and LC's ailments/injuries are now too numerous to mention. New Jersey did well to gamble on an injured prospect who hadn't quite met standards expected of him. Could Couture break out and have a season like McC's 96-97 campaign? Or better? All too possible. (McCauley's world juniors in Geneva was one of the best performances in Canada's tournament history--and he did it with bronchitis.)

New Jersey did well with a gamble there but what of their most famous (or infamous) gamble on an injured player at the draft. We speak of Adrian Foster.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=50638

http://www2.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/players/Adrian_Foster/

Yup, a first-round pick who had played 12 games and scored one goal in the two seasons leading up to the draft. Missed practically the entire draft season with an abdominal tear--a weird one that defied diagnosis. I went to Jersey scout David Conte for backstory. It seemed much more of a gamble then than it does now (with his explanation).

Foster had been, like McCauley, one of the three or four best kids out west coming up through bantam and midget ages.
It was a very soft draft year--which is to say, the Devils weren't in love with any other names on their list when the 28th pick came up. Which is sorta up for debate. If you look at the draft in the rearview mirror Cammalleri was on the radar and so was Derek Roy. But Jersey thought they didn't have the high end that Foster might.
Jersey saw him as a far more affordable risk in the first round rather than the second or even third. Doesn't sound right, but it makes sense. If Foster doesn't come back after a first-round selection and Jersey doesn't sign him the Devils would haver received a compensation pick.

No happy ending here. Last seen in this wire story from October '06:

The Devils sent centers Adrian Foster and David Clarkson, right wing Barry Tallackson and defensemen Andy Greene, Olli Malmivaara and Johnny Oduya to Lowell of the AHL on Tuesday. Veteran right wing Grant Marshall, a member of their Stanley Cup championship team in 2003, cleared waivers on Tuesday and was assigned to Lowell.

Foster has struggled to stay healthy. One injury after another, not tied to the ab tear and including knees and concussion. Last time I checked he hadn't played an AHL game since December. Foster has lost whole seasons of development time and it looks like his attempt to play catch-up will fall short of the NHL. Somebody with a heart should let him get a game in the league before he packs it in.

Update on a previous post: Rumbles in the scouts' room last night about the LA scouting firings back after world juniors. Evidently at least a couple of the guys thrown over had two-year contracts signed back in the summer. Conventional wisdom: Dean Lombardi's nuts were in a vice and an accountant was tightening. That is, bean counters reign and hockey guys are at their mercy. One of the guys, Grant Sonnier, was picked up by Boston a week after the LA pink slip.

The fine print ... George Armstrong was out at the game last night, holding court in the scouts' room, talking about how in his first 10 seasons in pros he worked in the mines in Sudbury during the summer. Extremely spry, might supplement his pension and Leafs' wage by picking up some shifts this summer. The Leafs picked the right guy to come out last at the anniversary ceremony. I'm not sold on the Keon thing. A grudge is one thing but Keon has made it his lifestyle. Dumb, dumb, dumb ... Frank Bonnello was around, saying that he's pulling back on his CSB duties, concerned more with Mem Cupsite-selection committee ... Talked with Rob Zamuner, who is part-time coach with IceDogs, more on that to come ... I did mention that I like the Legein kid, right? ... goaltending tandem for Dogs is Loverock and Lobsinger, what freakin' great names, but I'm betting Lucas Lobsinger is kin of Tom Lobsinger, the second-best high school miler this country ever produced (behind Kevin Sullivan, who was arguably one of the three best Canada and the US turned out) ... Liked the McGinn kid last night, San Jose draft, I thought he'd be a first-rounder based on what he did as a kid at the Mem Cup in 05 but he's as game as they come, went barrelling/sprawling into the boards to try to kill an icing in the third, great effort ... jeezus, i'm starting to read like Larry King ENOUGH

2007-02-22T14:25:00.000-08:00

Ryan Parent: The High Price of Forsberg Rental

Count me as one who thought Philly maximized returns on the Peter Forsberg dump, uh, deal. Ryan Parent has been my favorite defenceman at the last two world U-20s. Quietly efficient, stay-at-home, just a young player who fills in your D on a winning team. I don't know about his high end--can he be a Top 2 guy if he's not a significant powerplay pt man? If you take that out of the mix, he's all you could ask for. His best moment was in the semi against the US this year. He was the d-man on the far side of the ice (from the Canadian bench) during a powerplay in OT--he was out there the whole freakin' shift, no chance to come off. Beyond clutch. That coulda been the tournament right there.

I talked with a Nashville scout the day after the tourney -- we had dinner in the Stockholm airport. I told him how much I liked Ryan ... and he made it sound like he saw no reason to rush him to the NHL. And you look at it (Hamhuis, Shea Weber, Ryan Suter), the Preds have no shortage of young D-boys. Dealt from strength. Picks are decent value (but Nashville's 1st, 25-30 let's say, is about the same as a lot of teams' second). But Parent is the prize in their not the picks and not Scottie Upshall who does his best work in the team photo and the hotel lobby.

Not surprised at the rumbles about Bob Clarke wanting Bobby Ryan from the Ducks. Written about it before, Clarke has known Ryan since he was a peewee and still helps out Ryan's father who had an ugly scrape with the law.

ADDED LATER The fine print ... Scout took me to task for lofty appraisal of Ryan Parent. "A rep on world juniors and nothing else," the scout told me. "He doesn't bring much to the table." I don't buy it. Of course, this is from a guy who didn't get a shot at him in the draft. Everyone has a vested interest and an agenda. My belief: There's only one time you can say with any certainty that somebody in the game is telling the truth--that would be when an agent says a nice thing about a player who isn't and will never be his client. I think that I've overheard that once in a couple of decades.

ADDED MUCH LATER ... I saw this in Damo's blog

Q: I am a huge Forsberg fan. Why didn't the Leafs try to get him, and do you think the trade was a good one for the Flyers? Warren Bardsley, Calgary
A: I think JFJ did kick the tires, but look at what Nashville surrendered. Scottie Upshall, Ryan Parent, a first round pick and a third.
For the Leafs to match that, they’d have to give up Matt Stajan, Andy Wozniewski and the picks, all for a player who may retire this summer. It was a deal Nashville could make because they had stockpiled young players and can live with the deal even if they get knocked out in the first round. The Leafs just don’t have the depth to make that kind of swap for a rental.

Well, maybe. Maybe Stajan is lookinbg better than Scottie Upshall but I think there's significant separation between Parent and Wozniewski. The latter might turn out to be a player but--outside of the GTA--Parent's stock is considerably higher.

2007-02-21T16:43:00.000-08:00

Patrick Kane: Likely No. 1 Central Scouting Be Damned

In the mid-term draft rankings NHL Central Scouting has forward Patrick Kane (London Knights) fourth among North American skaters. Hard to figure. The rumbles in the scouts' room in Kitchener last night where the Knights played the Rangers: Kane's the best draft-eligible player out there.

It stands to reason that CSB has him low. CSB has James Van Riemsdyk (the US u-18 program) ranked No.2 but he didn't get on the ice at the world juniors, while Kane played on the first line and didn't look out of place. Fact is, he and Kyle Okposo (U Minn and NYI 2006 draft) were easily the most impressive forwards on the US side. CSB has Kane's London team-mate Sam Gagner No. 3 and though Gagner was the draft eligible forward Canada brought to world jrs he didn't play. (He didn't play in Kitchener last night. He was up in press box with a concussion.) Kane's numbers with London are better than Gagner's and the scouts are not enthusiastic about the ex-NHLer's son.

And then there's the anointed No. 1, Angelo Esposito of the Quebec Remparts. Scouts are pretty lukewarm on Esposito and completely respect Kane's game. Esposito had a perfect showcase at world jrs* but didn't own it the way he should have. One scout I talked to told me that Espo wasn't half the player that Kyle Turris was at summer-18s. (Turris, who plays for Burnaby in Tier II, is CSB's fifth-ranked North American skater but again that might be low. He get marks off for playing Tier II, his commitment to Wisconsin might bug some who'd prefer him to play CHL.)

Kane's a curious case. Comes from that hockey hotbed down the QEW, Buffalo. Looks undersized on the eyeball-to-eyeball, could he be even smaller than his 5-9 and a half and 160? When I talked to him at the world jrs he seemed pretty low-key, soft-spoken off the ice. On the ice, well, he fit right in with the all-attitude American team.

He had a good game last night against Kitchener--couple of dazzling moves, a shoot-out goal. Scouts love his stick. His skating is good, but not great. That said, he never seems to get pushed off the puck, plays keepaway really artfully, and when you think you've got him tied up he can wheel and deal really neatly.

I saw that Pierre Maguire was laying it on about Kane the other day--hey, what the guy won't do to fill airtime. Did he just get the news that Kane led the US to the u-18 gold last spring and led the team in scoring? Or was there a press release noting that Kane broke the US development program's season-scoring record previously held by Phil Kessel? Kane's real. And if he plays in the NHL next season he'll be the youngest-looking kid in the league since Daniel Briere broke in.

* typo, should be "U-18s"

The fine print ... What a hit London's Sergei Kostitsyn put on Steve Downie last night. Absolutely clean. Downie, aka the Canadian Hero, had his head down and was going full blast when Kostitsyn came off the bench and caught him flush. Trainer was on the ice for three minutes. Montreal scored getting Kostitsyn in the 7th round in 05. A complete forward, he did a great job on a 5-on-3 PK that kept the game tied in third. That he was the guy tabbed for the job says you need to know about him. Belarus kid. I say he'll be a better NHLer than Downie--I'd put money on it but you'd have to give me odds.

2007-02-11T20:32:00.000-08:00

Three-Game Sunday: The Scouting Hat Trick

So much for the day of rest. The O neatly schedules three games in the Toronto 'burbs that are almost manageable--first in Brampton at 2, then in Mississauga at 4 and Oshawa in the evening. Thus NHL scouts can get two-and-a-half periods with the Battalion (today vs Soo), the game in Mississauga (on this occasion vs Colbert's Saginaw squad) and after an hour on the 401 Oshawa in evening (this time out vs Belleville).

Game 1: The Soo dropped the Bunker-busting bomb on Brampton. Watched Leaf 2006 first-rounder Jiri Tlusty with interest. He was the Soo's second best Czech, scoreless while David Kuchejda picked up the hat trick. Tlusty sorta plays at one speed, no great urgency. Some neat hand skills but seems used to playing with more room and time. Next year it's either the Leafs or back in Soo--Marlies not in the equation. A good thing. Even though he got three goals in six games with the Marlies early on, I'd bank on his ticket back in Soo.
http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=12845

Game 2: See-saw affair to a shoot-out, Mississauga winning. Always get a kick out of seeing Ryan O'Marra play. I wonder if Lucas Lobsinger (IceDog G) is related to Tom Lobsinger who was Canada's second best high school miler ever (behind only Kevin Sullivan).
http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=12848

Game 3: Oshawa is rolling even with Tavares being just a footnote on the scoresheet. Hey, maybe Brett MacLean read the post the other day about the inflationary effect of playing with a junior star.
http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=12849

In Games 2 and 3 a hint of what we're looking at in '08 ... a draft that will compare with the 85s. Two rock-solid defencemen, Mississauga's Pietrangelo and Oshawa's Del Zotto. Gonna be a helluva draft year in the O next year with these two, Stamkos and, ahem, the shadow of Tavares. Funny thing, two guys, one a coach, another a scout, put Stamkos neck and neck with JT, the scout actually giving Stamkos and edge. All four of these kids will be in the hunt for the spring 18s if their teams are out early. Count on underage on that Canadian squad.

2007-02-11T06:13:00.000-08:00

2006 CHL Import Draft: Taking Attendance

In a previous post we looked at an old CHL Euro draft; here's the latest.

Again, what I said about the inefficiency of the Euro draft stands--it's not the weakest teams getting the best available talent, but rather what deal can be cooked (and who has the gelt to land the prizes). There is a rich-get-richer aspect to something that is supposed to be a force to competitive balance. What is interesting, though, is how many more players are drafted and reporting, better than 90 percent at the top end. Which suggests that jr teams are doing their homework--and realize that getting a lesser player is better than rolling the dice on a high-end guy who brushes you off. Interestingly, though you see more guys report, you see a lot head home quickly and you see a lot of marginal guys--can't imagine that they're much of an improvement on what would be available with the domestic guys. In other words, an apparently higher batting percentage in getting them over here but perhaps even less bang for the buck.

1. Halifax Mooseheads (from Rimouski), Jakub Voracek, RW, Kladno Jrs. (Czech Republic)
clearly the best player available going to a team with deep pockets, early season top-ranked North American skater, No. 15 in the latest, better than a point a game player for Halifax

2. Chilliwack Bruins, Oscar Moller, RW, Djurgarden (Sweden);
reported, almost a point a game player, 35th ranked NA skater by Central

3. Toronto-St. Michael's Majors (from Sarnia), F, Kaspars Daugavins (Latvia);
reported, not a surprise since Melnyk-owned Senators drafted him in third round, Majors have noted spike in beer sales with Latvian influence

4. Saint John Sea Dogs, David Stich, D, Plzen (Czech Republic);
reported, 73rd NA skater by Central

5. Spokane Chiefs, Ondrej Roman, C, Vitkovice (Czech Republic).
reported, playmaker not scorer

6. Owen Sound Attack (from Ottawa), Tomas Kana, C, Vitkovice (Czech Republic);
did not report, St Louis second-rounder, 31st overall, late '87, so no more bites at the apple, have to believe that there was a breakdown in communication (or maybe a broken promise), hard to eat the sixth pick though maybe getting Trevor Lewis makes it easier to swallow

7. Victoriaville Tigres, Jan Kolarik, LW, Vitkovice (Czech Republic);
reported, late 88

8. Red Deer Rebels, Kirill Starkov, LW, Frolunda (Russia);
reported, point a game player, jumping from Sweden to CHL, sixth-rounder of Columbus in '05

9. Peterborough Petes (from Mississauga), Branislav Rehus, RW, Ostrava (Slovakia);
reported, saw him once, pretty good junior player, maybe a 30-goal guy in the league next year, early season sorta in the 20s as draft-eligible OHL skater, first PK guy, coach said he was easy to coach (which was probably a good thing when Downie and Ryder were there), 129th NA skater by Central

10. Victoriaville Tigres (from P.E.I.), Morten Madsen, LW, Frolunda (Sweden).
Minnesota's fourth-rounder in 05, reported, 26 goals-53 assists at this writing, Danish kid, Denmark being an area of increasing interest

11. Prince Albert Raiders, Lukas Zeliska, C, Trinec (Slovakia);
reported, Rangers' 7th-rounder last year, three goals at this writing, suppose he was all they could set up in advance, aiming pretty low

12. Erie Otters, Stanislav Polodna, C, Ceske Budejovica (Czech Republic);
reported, draft eligible this year, eight goals as of this writing

13. Gatineau Olympiques (from Val-d'Or via Quebec), David Kveton, C, Vsetin (Czech Republic); reported, another Rangers pick, fourth-rounder, better than point a game but has played in only 16 games as of this writing

14. Swift Current Broncos, David Stieler, C, Kladno Jrs. (Czech Republic);
reported, saw him, serviceable junior player but nothing special

15. Kitchener Rangers (from Sault Ste. Marie), Yannick Weber, D, Bern (Switzerland).
reported, NHL undrafted 88, offensive upside, 30 pts in 37 games at this writing, 58th-ranked North American skater by Central, made most of coming over

16. Baie-Comeau Drakkar, Radek Vlasanek, RW, Vitkovice (Czech Republic);
didn't report, whereabouts unknown at this point

17. Calgary Hitmen (from Lethbridge), Robin Figren, LW, Frolunda (Sweden);
reported, Isles third rounder last year, not making an impact so far

18. Windsor Spitfires, Marek Biro, D, Trnava (Slovakia);
reported, NHL undrafted 88

19. Chicoutimi Sagueneens (from St. John's), Kirill Tulupov, D, Alemetjevsk (Russia);
Jersey's third-rounder 2006, reported

20. Tri-City Americans, Juraj Valach, D, Zvolen Jrs. (Slovakia).
reported, 89 birthday

21. Ottawa 67's (from Windsor), Lukas Flueler, G, Kloten (Switzerland);
reported, back-up but numbers pretty good, 17th NA netminder by Central

22. Quebec Remparts (from Halifax via Rimouski), Ruslan Bashkirov, RW, Moscow Spartak (Russia);
reported, point a game player, 89 birthday, 48th ranked NA skater

23. Brandon Wheat Kings, Juraj Simek, RW, Kloten (Switzerland);
reported, Slovak Vancouver's sixth-rounder last year, point a game player

24. Oshawa Generals (from Owen Sound), RW, Ziga Pance, Olimpija (Slovenia);
reported, one goal in fifteen games at this writing, birthdate: Jan 1, 89

25. Shawinigan Cataractes, Patrik Prokop, D, Vitkovice (Czech Republic).
reported, won player of the week honours in Oct

26. Portland Winter Hawks, Viktor Sjodin, LW, Vasteras Jrs. (Sweden);
reported, late draft choice of Nashville, not every day you see a Guyanese-Swedish guy
http://www.winterhawks.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=799&Itemid=252

27. Plymouth Whalers (from Belleville), Michal Neuvirth, G, HC Sparta Prague (Czech Republic);
reported, playing nearly lights-out for Whalers, creates interesting situation for Caps' long-term cage plans, what with him being the 2006 second-rounder and, same draft, Caps landing with 15th pick overall G Semen Varlamov, the kid who starred for Russia at world juniors this year, I like Plymouth to make some noise in playoffs

28. Quebec Remparts (from Drummondville via Gatineau), Roman Bashkirov, W, Moscow Spartak (Russia);
reported, playing well, point-a-game 89 birthday

29. Kamloops Blazers, Juuso Puustinen, RW, Kalpa Jrs. (Finland);
reported, Calgary fifth-rounder, 28 goals in 51 games at this writing

30. Toronto-St. Michael's Majors, Kriss Grundmanis, D, Riga (Latvia).
reported, as previously noted about Latvians and beer sales

31. St. John's Fog Devils (from Lewiston), Mario Kempe, RW, Modo Jrs. (Sweden);
reported, 18 goals in almost 50 games, 65th NA skater

32. Seattle Thunderbirds, Radek Meidl, C, Extraliga (Czech Republic);
late 88, reported, not making much of a dent

33. Saginaw Spirit (from Sudbury), Jan Mursak, RW, Budejovice (Czech Republic);
reported, Detroit draft, saw him today pick up a couple in Mississauga, great hands (Ginsu knife style deflection on a goal, thought he had sent the puck into the net in two pieces)

34. Moncton Wildcats (from Cape Breton), Roopertti Martikainen, LW, IFK Helsinki (Finland);
reported, now with Acadie-Bathurst, 89 birthday

35. Prince George Cougars, Patrik Vrana, D, Sparta Praha (Czech Republic).
reported, moved over to Moose Jaw, no points, maybe toast

36. Saginaw Spirit, Tomas Zaborsky, LW, Trencin (Slovakia);
Rangers fifth-rounder last year, reported, decent player

37. P.E.I. Rocket (from Gatineau), Martin Latal, RW, Kladno (Czech Republic);
Phoenix fifth-rounder, reported, 36 points in 52 games

38. Everett Silvertips, Lukas Vartovnik, C, Zlin Jrs. (Czech Republic);
reported, on fringe, bit player, draft eligible

39. Plymouth Whalers, Jozef Sladok, D, Zvolen (Slovakia);
reported, non-entity

40. P.E.I. Rocket (from Rouyn-Noranda), Peter Cmorej, LW, Sante Fe (Slovakia).
reported, hanging on

41. Regina Pats, Niko Snellman, LW, Ilves Jrs. (Finland);
reported, Nashville fourth-rounder, fringe

42. Kingston Frontenacs, Robert Nyholm, RW, IFK Helsinkia Jrs. (Finland);
reported, Columbus fifth-rounder last year, 30 pts in 50 games

43. Acadie-Bathurst Titan, Dmitri Fedosenko, C, Moscow Dynamo (Russia);
don't see him

44. Saskatoon Blades, Rastislav Konecny, LW, Trnava Jrs. (Slovakia);
reported, 22 pts in 33 games, not NHL drafted

45. Guelph Storm, Arturs Ozolins, LW, Saga (Latvia).
reported, nine games, no pts, ticket home

46. Chicoutimi Sagueneens, Juraj Mikus, C, Skaliga Jrs. (Slovakia);
Montreal fourth rounder 05, reported, better than pt a game, Canadiens delivering talent for backyard

47. Kootenay Ice, Arnaud Jacquemet, RW, Biel (Switzerland);
reported, 13 goals in 49 games

48. Peterborough Petes (from Barrie), Arturs Kulda, D, Ceska (Latvia);
Thrasher seventh rounder last year, reported

49. Val-d'Or Foreurs (from Quebec), passed;

50. Moose Jaw Warriors, Richard Rapac, LW, Zlin (Czech Republic).
reported, MJ to PG, undrafted 87, six goals in 50 games, non-player

51. Sudbury Wolves (from Brampton), Patrik Lusnak, C, HK Skalica (Slovakia);
late 88, reported

52. Moncton Wildcats, Igor Voroshilov, LW, Moscow Dynamo (Russia);
reported, Aug 89 b-date, one goal in 11 games, ticket home

53, Kelowna Rockets, Robert Capcara, LW, Czech Jrs. (Czech Republic);
don't see him

54, Kitchener Rangers, passed;

55. Tri-City Americans (from Vancouver), Daniel Bartek, C, Olomouc Under-20 (Czech Republic);
Tri's imports booked, Bartek reported, in Brandon

56. Mississauga IceDogs (from Peterborough), Aleksander Ilyin, D, Tver (Russia);
don't see him

57. Prince Albert Raiders (from Calgary), Milan Jurik, LW, Banska Bysterica Jrs. (Slovakia);
reported, will not hit double digits for goals

58. London Knights, Adam Hasani, LW, Freibourg Jrs. (Switzerland);
reported, Knights to Otters as London goes to D man for Euro, 89 b-day

59. Medicine Hat Tigers, Jakub Rumpel, F, HC Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic).
reported, 87 b-day, undrafted, little guy, on fringe of good team

SECOND ROUND

60. Chilliwack Bruins, Aki Kangasmaki, C, Lukkorauma (Finland);
reported, big, mean-looking guy, go to team website 'cause this guy makes Ollie Jokinen look like Brad Pitt, 2007 NHL draft

61. Kelowna Rockets (from Spokane), Kaspars Saulietis, F, HK Riga (Latvia);
don't see him

62. Saskatoon Blades (from Red Deer), Bohdan Visnak, D, HC Slava Prague (Czech Republic);
reported, playing, 5-9

63. Portland Winter Hawks (from Prince Albert), Stefan Langwieder, D, Mannheim (Germany);
reported, great example of how it's done from website which notes his coach in Germany was a team-mate of Hawks assistant coach

64. Seattle Thunderbirds (from Swift Current), Jan Eberle, C, Kladno (Czech Republic);
reported, 14 goals as of this writing, 89, ranked 116th NA skater by Central

65. Kamloops Blazers (from Lethbridge), Ivan Rohac, LW, Ceske Budejovica Jrs. (Czech Republic).
reported, tiny

66. St. John's Fog Devils, Joonas Salmi, D, Liptovsky (Slovakia);
reported, not loved, mail being forwarded

67. Windsor Spitfires, passed;

68. Brandon Wheat Kings, Igor Musatov, LW, Spartak 2 (Russia);
Brandon's imports spoken for, hasn't left home

69. Belleville Bulls, Michal Gazur, D, Zvolen Jrs. (Slovakia);
don't see him

70. Sudbury Wolves, Jakub Korinek, D, HC Plzen (Czech Republic).
reported, Sudbury to London

71. Medicine Hat Tigers, Alexi Provkin, D, Himick Voskresensk (Russia).
reported, ticket home

2007-02-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

CHL Euro Draft: Hockey's Biggest Crapshoot

Jonathan Jackson, a dogged reporter with the award-winning Owen Sound paper, properly upbraided me about the CHL rights of Sergei Samsonov back when. (See comment on the previous post.) Did the quick search and indeed, Samsonov was claimed by Owen Sound (the Platers back then). My understanding, though, is that Samsonov wouldn't report to OS--that his agent put out feelers elsewhere to see if something could be worked out.

The CHL Euro draft is so broken I wonder why they bother. Although it's supposed to be a way to balancing leagues and fairly dispersing talent, it doesn't work. It's not remotely enough to draft the best available talent. Everything rides on signability and so it's the agents who hold the hammer--actually more like a nail gun. (The NHL teams that have drafted the players also have influence on the prospects' decisions, but really it's an agent-driven deal.) It's all backroom stuff--agents play one team against another, squeeze teams for cash. There's lots of lies, lots of broken promises.

I took a look at the CHL Euro draft in Samsonov's year. Pretty fascinating to look at what was, what is, and what was supposed to be.

1. Baie-Comeau, Edo Terglav, rw, Slovenia
did play for Baie-Comeau and Montreal Rocket, decent junior, maxed out at about 30 goals in the Q, drafted by Buffulo, last played in North America for Albuquerque Scorpions, in the French league at last report
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=35602

2. Edmonton, Patrik Stefan, c, Czech Republic
never reported, played in the I for Long Beach, I never got the buzz about him, pure crap as No. 1 although in retrospect not much of a draft
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid%5B%5D=30952

3. Toronto, Jan Sulc, Czech Republic, Tampa Bay, 5th 1997
did report and played for a good stretch in the O, Mr Jackson might have seen the best of him in Sulc's stay in OS, fifth-rounder with Tampa Bay but strictly a East Coast and I guy
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid%5B%5D=31715

4. Moncton, Alexei Tezikov, d, Russia, Buffalo, 5th 1996
did report, Buffalo was very high on him but though Brian Campbell and him were same player, Sabres kept the right one
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=35701

5. Portland, Marian Hossa, rw, Slovakia, Ottawa, 1st 1997
reported, obviously worked out, the Senators had a connection with Portland, that's where they wanted him to go, for sure the message to other teams was that he wasn't coming

6. Sarnia, Ivan Novoseltsev, rw, Russia, Florida, 4th 1997
Years back I saw an Ottawa game in Sarnia and the 67's won by--I guesstimate--8-1. But Novoseltsev's goal for the Sting was the best goal I saw at any level that season, I always thought he'd turn out to be a better play, a 57-goal junior but then so was Miguel Delisle
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=31810

7. Rouyn-Noranda, Martin Barcek, c, Slovakia
Listed as "Barcek" but I'm presuming that this is Martin Bartek, reported, played for three Q teams that season, late draft of Nashville, now in German league
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00035724

8. Spokane, Petr Sykora, c, Czech Republic, Detroit, 3rd 1997
the other Petr Sykora, never reported, 12 NHL games in two seasons, six years apart
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid%5B%5D=36953

9. North Bay, Jan Fadrny, c, Czech Republic
ended up in the Dub somehow, one AHL season, back in the old country
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=43602

10. Sherbrooke, Maxim Patapov, rw, Russia.
"Potapov" reported, 15 games with Johnstown, 1 with the Vipers
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00035757

11. Tri-City, Josef Melichar, Czech Republic, Pittsburgh, 3rd 1997
reported, played
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid%5B%5D=31171

12. Plymouth, Yuri Babenko, c, Russia, Colorado, 2nd 1996
reported, played one year, three NHL games
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00031824

13. Hull, Jiri Fischer, d, Czech Republic
reported, I saw him play a fair bit with 'ull, a great kid and a tremendous junior, I thought that he'd step in and star in the NHL, was still a significant and blooming player when he had his heart crisis, a real tragedy

14. Prince George, Petr Kubos, d, Czech Republic, Montreal, 8th 1997
reported, played a couple of seasons in PG, only two seasons in North America
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=31116

15. North Bay, Michal Krupa, lw, Slovakia
reported, played 12 games with NB and then four with Barrie and that was all she wrote, apparently undrafted by NHL

16. Rimouski, Adam Borzecki, d, Poland
now that's off the map, reported, NHL undrafted, bouncing around Germany

17. Red Deer, Franasek Mrazek, c, Czech Republic, Toronto, 5th 1997
reported, 30-goal guy in the Dub but didn't piss a drop in two seasons on the Rock, still playing in Czech

18. Sarnia, Marek Posmyk, d, Czech Republic, Toronto, 2nd 1996
remember how he was going to be a Leaf savior, played the one season in Sarnia, a handful of games in Tampa

19. Quebec, Petr Klouda, c, Slovakia
reported, evidently for three games

20. Seattle, Petr Vala, c, Czech Republic
squirtish guy, reported, played one season without distinction

21. Kingston, Marco Sturm, c, Germany, San Jose, 1st 1996
played in San Jose right away, never reported, obviously Kingston and SJ weren't on the same page

22. Drummondville, Zoltan Patovsky, c, Slovakia
reported, played three seasons, sort of a 20-goal junior with no NHL prospects, last North American stop, Kentucky Thoroughblades

23. Kelowna, Jan Dusanek, d, Czech Republic
reported, played one season, part of next, off the radar

24. Sault Ste. Marie, Peter Bohunicky, rw, Slovakia
played part of one season, one goal for the Soo, hope he kept the puck from his only North American goal, the teams on his career page look like some Scrabble hands I've had
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid%5B%5D=31805

25. Chicoutimi, Robin Bacul, lw, Czech Republic, Ottawa, 7th 1997
what would possess a kid to leave Prague for Chicoutimi, Bacul did for one season but decided against another
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=35637

26. Saskatoon, Petja Pietilianen, c/lw, Finland
reported, two seasons with Blades, third last player selected in the 1998 draft (Detroit), went back to Europe after jr

27. Plymouth, Steve Lyle, g, Wales
I thought this was a joke--a kid from Wales playing for the Whalers--but he reported and played four games for Whalers, 6.00 GAA, a fixture in British league, I'd love to know how they found this guy
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=31832

28. Halifax, Ladislav Nagy, c, Slovakia, St. Louis, 7th 1997
reported, scored 71 goals in 63 games and was off to the pros after that, the question is how he dropped behind a Welsh goaltender and countryman Bohunicky, Nagy was no secret at that stage but obviously Halifax bought him and had his agent tell teams he wasn't coming

29. Moose Jaw, Sergei Stakhovich, lw, Belarus
didn't report, played two seasons in North America, wonder if he kept his sweaters from the Port Huron Border Cats and the Mohawk Valley Prowlers

30. Windsor, Sergei Zimakov, d, Russia, Washington 3rd 1996
didn't report, never left Russia

31. Val-d'Or, Alexandre Byskovskih, c, Russia
if you can find him let me know, didn't report

32. Tri-City, Roman Sykora, rw, Slovakia
reported, played eight games

33. Barrie, Martin Skoula, d, Czech Republic
reported, first-rounder by Colorado next season, helluva junior, again a case of a much better player who had a pre-cooked deal in Barrie and told others he wouldn'y show
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=31764

34. Shawinigan, Jura Slovak, d, Slovakia
reported, two seasons, maxed out at East Coast league, undrafted by NHL

35. Seattle, Stanislav Gron, c, Slovakia, New Jersey, 2nd 1997
reported, played two seasons in Dub, one lonely NHL game
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid%5B%5D=36944

36. Guelph, Bohuslav Subr, lw, Czech Republic
reported, played three seasons with mixed results, maxed out in East Coast league

37. Victoriaville, Boris Majesky, d, Czech Republic
reported, played one season without distinction, great name, no game

38. Regina, Alexandre Fomitchev, g, Russia, Edmonton, 9th 1997
reported and played three years in Dub, Calgary's guy in Mem Cup run, looks like he did okay in a brief stint with Hamilton Bulldogs but didn't get a sniff
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=31047

39. Sault Ste. Marie, Martin Galik, lw, Slovakia
reported, played a couple of seasons, no NHL prospects, back to the old country

40. Sydney, Anton Mikhailov, d, Russia
reported, one season, six games, off the radar

41. Red Deer, Robert Schnabel, d, Czech Republic, N.Y. Islanders, 3rd 1997
reported, played one season and one game the next, a monstrously sized guy, maxed out at AHL

42. Hull, Miroslav Zalesak, rw, Slovakia
reported, played two seasons in Drummondville, tore it up with 50 in one, drafted by San Jose, made the show for a dozen games
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=37004

43. Prince Albert, Milan Kraft, rw, Czech Republic
took a year to report but he tore it up when he came over, first rounder of Pitt and was supposed to be a big deal, scored 19 with Pens less than three years back, could someone breathe life into him?
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid%5B%5D=45185

44. Brandon, Petr Havelka, lw, Czech Republic, Pittsburgh, 6th 1997
didn't report but so what, the guy played seven seasons in Czech league without scoring twenty goals--total
45. Owen Sound, Sergei Samsonov, lw, Russia, Boston, 1st 1997
obviously didn't have anything worked out but a gamble worth taking you suppose

46. Calgary, Andrei Korhov, c/rw, Latvia
off the radar

47. Oshawa, Boris Ivanov, lw, Russia
reported, played eight games one season, five with Windsor the next, off the radar

48. Regina, Pavel Beranek, rw, Czech Republic
reported, played one game, no points

49. Ottawa, Petr Mika, c, Czech Republic, NY Islanders, 4th 1997
reported, played one season without much of an impact, probably seemed to max at East Coast league but improbably made it for a week with maybe the only team that woulda had him, the Isles

Second Round
a heckuva drop-off here

50. Baie-Comeau, Tommy Hafnier, c, Slovenia
did not report, off the radar

51. Toronto, Ari Katavisto, rw, Finland
reported, played one season without distinction, off the radar

52. Victoriaville, Pavel Sasik, rw, Slovakia
reported, played one season split between a couple of teams, vanished without a trace

53. Kingston, Tomas Dolak, lw, Germany
played one season, a few games for Kingston before being fobbed off on North Bay, NHL undrafted

54. Chicoutimi, Rene Stussi, c, Switzerland, Anaheim, 8th 1997
did not report, never left Switzerland and can you blame him

55. Rimouski, Maxim Balmochnykh, lw, Russia, Anaheim, 2nd 1997
waited a year, reported (for a while) to les Remparts but then bolted back to the motherland, you woulda thought he maxes out at AHL (he never scored double digits there) but made into the Ducks line-up for six games, picking up an assist, do you keep the puck for your first point? he should have

56. Prince George, Alex Andreyev, d, Latvia, Phoenix, 8th 1997
reported, played one season in PG, another in Moose Jaw, maxes out at East Coast league

57. Belleville, Branislav Mezei, d, Czech Republic
a guy I remember, reported, very nice junior player, turns into a first-rounder 10th overall, has landed in bad situations (NYI, Florida), thought he'd be better at this point

58. Laval, Alex Ryazantsev, d, Russia
don't see him, Laval had their imports already booked

59. Prince Albert, Jaromir Smatrala, c, Slovakia
reported albeit to The Hat, career junior line 8 games, zeroes on goals, assists and PIMs

60. Ottawa, Markus Pottinger, d, Germany
reported, played one season

61. Halifax, Yuri Bicek, lw, Slovakia, New Jersey, 5th 1997
did not report apparently, went directly to Albany, fringe guy with Devils over four seasons (barely 60 games), in Sweden now

62. Val d'Or, Vladimir Konopka, ld
reported, played 17 games, no NHL draft, off the radar, I wouldn't be surprised if he was a distant relative to Zenon Konopka (who has to be the unlikeliest guy to make the NHL, another story that I'll address at another juncture)

63. Sydney, Arten Rybin, lw, Russia
reported, played three years, then played with the New Mexico Scorpions, what would his view of North America be based on time in Cape Breton and Albuquerque

64. Oshawa, Ilja Demidov, d, Russia, Calgary, 6th 1997.
reported, put in his time, East Coast guy

It's just not an effective system of dispersing talent. Take the best available player without something in place and you risk with nothing. The second pick in the draft is a no-show, meanwhile Halifax with all the dough get Nagy in the late going--how did that even the playing field? I'm sure that some of these teams that drafted players who didn't report thought they did have deals with players. And because of the restrictions on how many Euros you can draft and have on your roster, there's no margin for error--which puts teams in a bind. My suggestion: Have a draft that goes five rounds, first-come first-served when you go to negotiate with the agents and players--take the deal or I'll offer it to the next guy.

the fine print ... i'll do a work-up on last year's chl draft--who reported, who didn't, who's worth a look ... halifax took voracek first overall ... leading them in scoring, better than a point a game guy, he was a bit off a disappointment at summer-18s but he'll play

2007-02-09T09:20:00.000-08:00

Sergei Samsonov Waiving Bye with Habs: Retrospective

I wouldn't bet on Sergei Samsonov being done, waived or not. But I'm only saying that because I lost a bet the other night that SS won the Calder. (I thought Drury won his year. What do I know? Right. Precisely nothing.)

Anyway, I first saw him when he came over as an underage to world juniors. He seemed like a prodigy (but his skating got exposed at the next level). Interestingly, the first time I wrote up SS ties back to the imbroglio in Montreal. The late Igor Dmitriev, the classiest Russian coach, got the most out of SS by benching him. Who's to say it won't happen again? Don't ask me to bet on it.

MARLBOROUGH, Mass.
THE officials at the world junior hockey tournament asked Russian coach Igor Dmitriev to provide a team lineup before his team's qualifying contest against Finland on Monday afternoon. On the official stationery, spaces were left for the surnames of players. Dmitriev filled in numbers instead of names.
Those nostalgic for the Cold War and concerned about the Communist Party's showing in the last Russian election will say that Dmitriev's handling of the roster is a reflex developed in decades under totalitarian rule. Others less reactionary will point out that the officials' request was made impractical by the Cyrillic alphabet.
Still, the use of numbers rather than names is consistent with the character of Dmitriev. At practice yesterday, on the eve of the semi-final between Russia and Canada, he provided technical answers to questions that begged a different sort of reply. When Dmitriev was asked about the Russians' 8-5 loss to Canada at last year's tournament, he didn't respond emotionally. No expression of regret or anger. Instead, Dmitriev asked for a reporter's notebook and pen and then drew a diagram. "Game is tied 3-3," he said. "We say, 'Don't go to this point. Don't go.' He goes. Then a two- on-one. Canada goal. You can't forget such things."
Digits and diagrams were Dmitriev's domain as a young man. He earned a degree in engineering and had thoughts of studying architecture. "I studied building highways," he said through an interpreter. "I sat in class and thought, 'Why am I doing this?' " Before he could think of a good answer, Dmitriev moved on to the department of physical education, where he found his calling, first as an elite hockey player, then as a coach.
Though dedicated to a life in the rink, Dmitriev admits that he is still "a technician," that his character was shaped as much in physics classes as much as the rink. He describes himself as "analytical" and he uses his words only after consideration and measurement. "Common sense and decision making comes from education," he said. "My education developed the way I look at problems. And I learned that there's no one set way to solve a problem. There always has to be a new way to solve a problem."
The immediate problem for Dmitriev and his charges is a Canadian team undefeated through the first round. Dmitriev summed up in one word the strategy he expects from the Russians' opponent in the semis: "Canadian." To expand on this he took hold of a phantom stick and vigorously made a motion that resembled a cross-check. His pantomime was to the point. As ever, the Canadian team possesses a ferocity unmatched at this tourney.
The coach wasn't about to diminish the importance of the contest. "We didn't travel thousands of miles to play the United States," he said after his team beat Finland 6-2 to advance to the semi-finals. He added that if his young charges had lost to the Finns, the plane home "would not have landed in Moscow but in Siberia."
This dated joke aside, the game is significant for Dmitriev because of the Russian program's recent dearth of success at the world junior level. The Soviet Union's team in the late 1970s set the standard with four straight golds, but Russian teams have won but once in the nineties. "A mess," said Dmitriev, who coaches Wings of the Russian league. "There was a loss of structure in age-group leagues because of the (political) changes. That's why I've stayed in Russia."
To overhaul the national program from the grassroots up would require a visionary on the scale of Le Corbusier. Though Dmitriev might have that vision, like any architect he recognizes that grand designs require capital before the concrete is poured. The Russian program is strapped for cash. "It's bankrupt and development of players is made difficult," he said.
Nonetheless, players are a coach's building blocks and Mother Russia might have the foundation for a restored program in Sergei Samsonov, a 17- year-old who has been touted as the top choice in the 1997 National Hockey League entry draft. All of 5 feet 8, Samsonov rode the bench in the opening games. Only against Finland, only with the Russians down 2-0 and facing elimination, did Dmitriev play Samsonov on the team's first line with Dimitri Klevakin and Vadim Epantschintshev. The phenom responded with a goal, an assist and a dozen breathtaking moves.
Samsonov said that he had been sick before the tourney and was only now rounding into form. Many assumed that Dmitriev was undertaking a little social engineering, forcing Samsonov to buy into the team's program. The coach didn't do much to dispel the assumption. "Engineering and coaching are the same," he said. "To build a good highway or to build a good team is never easy."
Sometimes you have to carve through mountains, sometimes you have to cut a spritely teen down to size.

Fine print ... Ottawa 67's owned SS's junior rights. Woulda been nice to see him with Killer. Woulda made for some good stories, anyway ... Patrick Elias and Mattias Ohlund were the Calder finalists that year. Mike Johnson was in the running til late in the season ... That year Samsonov scored a hat trick in the game that clinched a playoff berth for B's ... it also clinched him a million-buck bonus .

2007-02-09T09:08:00.000-08:00

Anointed and Disappointed: Espo No. 1 But Unloved

I’m trying to remember when a player projected as the first overall pick in a NHL entry draft generates so little enthusiasm as Angelo Esposito. Over the years many, maybe even most, had knockers. Some didn’t like Vinny Lecavalier’s skating. Others worried about Ilya Kovalchuk’s attitude. But if some poked holes in the prospects or got stuck on one weakness in the phenom’s game, others raved. Taking the pulse of the scouts that I know, that doesn’t seem to be the case with Angelo Esposito. The scouts respect him, but they don’t get too worked up about him. Curious thing. I had the same conversation with several scouts who had made the trip to the Quebec league to check him out with the Remparts. Yup, they saw him, te said, and he was good but not great. And most of them said that they heard he was really good the week after they came home.

It’s business as usual. The longer a prospect hangs out there as the projected No. 1 the more folks pick him apart. It’s like buyer’s remorse before the purchase. Esposito has been projected as the top pick since he went to Shattuck. And fact is, scouts have been racking up views on him for three seasons, first seeing him when they were scouting the Minnesota high school for players eligible in earlier drafts. Thus Espo’s been in the pipeline three years. He was spotted years back. Now he’s being picked apart.

The closest thing to an objective viewpoint might be a scout he sees him cold this year. A Euro scout I know saw him for the first time at the summer 18s. He was emphatic. “He’ll be a player,” he said. “They have him [ranked] where he should be.”

That seemed fair. But another scout I know said that he was disappointed that Tavares and Couture couldn’t make the trip to the summer 18s because of injury—that he expected Couture to outplay him. Second-guessing festering as schadenfreude.

I did this story on Esposito from the summer 18s. I wrote it for the sports insert that used to run Maclean’s. (In the tradition of Canadian sports magazines, that insert ceased publication.)

Breclav, Czech Republic

Angelo Esposito’s task was a daunting one. He was wearing the C and the Maple Leaf. He was supposed to lead Canada to victory at the 2006 under-18 World Cup. And he was supposed to impress in twenty shifts or less.

Officially, the attendance for the championship game on Aug 12 was 839. If NHL scouts had counted towards the gate, that number would have neared four figures.

The 839 came to watch Canada and the U.S. skate for the first prize of the hockey season in mid-summer and Canada was the favored choice of most Czech fans. The NHL scouts in attendance were getting a first look at players who’ll be eligible for the 2007 entry draft and Angelo Esposito was the most closely watched player in the tournament.

Esposito is the top-ranked junior eligible for the NHL draft next June. A native of Montreal , son of the owner of a grocery chain, Esposito is a skilled forward who was a figure skater up until age 10. “It started with my mother taking my sister to the rink and I just went along,” he says. “When I was ten I decided to stick to hockey.”

Esposito has been compared to Sidney Crosby for the past two or three seasons and for good reason. Their young careers have followed parallel courses.

Like Crosby, Esposito left home at 14 to enroll at Shattuck-St Mary’s, a Minnesota high school with an elite hockey program. Like Crosby, Esposito entertained the notion of attending a U.S. college on scholarship before casting his lot with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. And like Crosby , Esposito posted huge numbers in his first season at “the Q”—inevitably his scoring pace was compared with those of Canadian hockey’s most promising talent two years earlier.

That said, Esposito’s career tracks a course unlike Crosby’s or almost any other junior superstar in recent memory.

At the start of every hockey season a teenager emerges as the projected top pick in the NHL draft nine months away. From year to year, the thumbnail biographies of these players are remarkably consistent. They come from all over the hockey world—from the Canadian junior leagues, the U.S. college ranks or Europe—yet they’ve all grown up in the spotlight, all been the stars on the teams they’ve played for, all known nothing but unremitting success. It was like that with Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin in their years, with Eric Lindros and Mario Lemieux before them.

Yet Esposito has had a significant setback: He was cut from the Canadian squad that won the world junior title in Vancouver in January. Even at the under-18 tournament nine months later he sounded unsettled by it. “That was the most disappointing moment for me,” Esposito says. “Looking back, I think may not have been strong enough [to compete with the under-20s]. That’s what they might have been thinking when they made the decision.”

And unlike those No. 1s in recent seasons, Esposito has had to share and even cede the spotlight to star players on his own teams. At Shattuck-St Mary’s he played beside Jonathon Toews, a forward who was the World Cup under-18s most valuable player last year and the Chicago Blackhawks’ draft pick, third overall, in June. With the Memorial Cup champion Quebec Remparts last season, Esposito was eclipsed by Alexander Radulov, a Russian expected to step into the Nashville Predators line-up this fall.

Even at this tournament Esposito wasn’t expected to be the focus of attention. That figured to be Oshawa Generals forward John Tavares, who was named the Canadian junior hockey leagues’ rookie of the year last season as a mere 15-year-old. But Tavares, who isn’t eligible for the draft until 2009, suffered a leg injury during the Canadian team’s tryouts and didn’t make the trip to the Czech Republic .

Also absent was a player who is challenging Esposito for the top spot in next year’s draft. At least a few scouts in Breclav liked Ottawa 67’s forward Logan Couture as much as Esposito if not more. But with five seconds to go in the final exhibition game at the tryout camp, Couture also suffered a leg injury, a fluke cut from a skate blade.

Thus did the sea part for Esposito.

“This is an opportunity for Angelo to step up,” the Canadian coach Cory Clausen said before the game. “That what were looking for. He was an easy pick to wear the C for us. We don’t have a really loud group but Angelo is a mature young man, well-spoken, respected by his team-mates. They listen when he speaks and they see that he works hard on the ice.”

As hard as Esposito worked in the tournament’s opening round, it was hard to impress the scouts in attendance. The Canadians were in the far weaker of the two four-team pools. Their wins over Switzerland and Sweden weren’t compelling. Only in their third game, a decisive victory over Slovakia , did they seem to be finding their game. And though Esposito led the team in scoring going into the final, he, like the team, hadn’t blown anyone away.

It was far easier to others, unburdened by expectations, to make an impression. Foremost among this number was forward Brett Sonne, who plays for the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League. “Brett didn’t have a good camp and he started out as a fourth liner,” Clausen said.

But against Sweden, with the game tied one-all late in the second period, with Canada killing a five-minute major penalty, and with a single loss eliminating a team from contention for the gold medal, Sonne scored what was likely the most important goal of the tournament. Forechecking aggressively, he forced a turnover in the neutral zone, over-powered a defenceman and crashed the Swedish net.

If it had been Esposito making the play, it would have helped validate his billing. The scouts, though, were left wanting. Esposito did lead the team in scoring in the opening round but he was a couple of big saves and deflected shots away from a breakthrough performance. The margin between glowing reviews and perceived failure was that slim.

The final wasn’t Esposito’s last shot at winning over the scouts. He has a whole season and likely a turn at the world juniors to do that. But it was his last chance beside and against the players who’ll be in the draft pool next June.

Midway through the first period, Canada opened the scoring on a play engineered by Esposito. With a two-man advantage, Esposito handled the puck with authority, setting up a couple of scoring chances right off the hop. Then the puck came over to Esposito on the right side, at the faceoff dot. He moved the puck smartly to Sonne on the edge of the crease who beat American goaltender Jeremy Smith.

It was the only goal Canada would need with Trevor Cann and a bunch of mobile defencemen holding the U.S. at bay. Sonne added another goal in the second period. Tyler Ennis scored a third (set up by Brandon Sutter, son of Brent, who coach Canada’s juniors to two world titles).

Said one scout exiting the arena: “[Esposito] was around the action a lot but didn’t make things happen the way you’d want to see.”

In the closing ceremonies, Angelo Esposito was called out as captain to accept the tournament trophy. After 19 shifts it was easier to raise the silverware over his head than satisfy scouts and compete with players who either couldn’t make it or went in years before him.

Fine print … One thing that impressed me about Esposito was how he handled himself off the ice. He seemed to take the role of team captain seriously (what I heard from those in the room, what I saw away from the rink). Maybe a little overly, but then again, maybe that’s the side you’d want to err on. At team meals, he tried to drive conversation. When I interviewed him he was completely engaged and engaging—too accomodating for his own good. Rather than cut me off, he left himself only three minutes to pack before the team bus was leaving. Something of a carry-over to the ice. If he was guilty of something on and off the ice it was trying to hard. He pressed to impress … When I asked Esposito about stepping into the spotlight role (after playing with Toews at Shattuck and Radulov in Quebec) he didn’t blink. He basically admitted that it was an open question about his game. Not at all defensive about it when a lot of players—maybe most of them—would bristle. Goes to two things. 1. If you’re looking for the good, you’d say that his reaction shows he sees things with clear eyes. 2. If you’re knocking, you’d say it suggests some self-doubt, pure poison in the draft game.

2007-02-05T14:37:00.000-08:00

Power Outage: No Heirs to Wendel, Cam Apparent

A notion floated by SI's Muir, the fast-disappearing power forward.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/allan_muir/02/05/canadian.talent/index.html?section=si_latest

One quibble: Am I the last guy who objects to the use of a basketball term in hockey? Never liked the "power forward" term in hoops (3s, 4s and 5s are fine, thanks), never mind hockey.

Some of the points here are dubious. I doubt that Muir ahs seen much of Okposo--he's not remotely a fit. Steve Ott is more terrier than Doberman. Still, there might be something there about the dearth of the wingers in the Clark-Neely mould. (There's certainly a hole to fill with the decline of Bertuzzi.) A quick look at the recent draft lists yields not to many candidates.

Some guys look the part. (Anthony and Chris Stewart fit the profile physically, but Wendel and Cam they're not.) I gotta believe that more is in play here--a values shift. Clark and Neely emerged from another era, a different hockey culture. In the NHL today your highest paid players rarely fight and the fact is teams and coaches don't fancy seeing it (taking the most skill off the ice and risking injury). There's probably some carry-over to junior. The best there are more likely to fight (like breaking your maiden) and in the Dub it's like getting a merit badge in Boy Scouts. Still everyone in junior knows his role. In the pros, stars are stars and others do the heavy lifting; in junior, it's not an absolute but something is in play. (A test: Can you name a European power forward? You'd think there'd be one.)

Canadian teams at the world juniors desperately need these types of players--the guys who physically punish on the forecheck--but some years they go dry. James Neal filled that role with the Canadian juniors this year. Does Ryan O'Marra project out to the (ugh) "power forward" role in the NHL? There's a lot more beef up there.

2007-02-05T06:25:00.000-08:00

Cold War: Freeze-out of the RMC-West Point Game

Interesting story in the Globe today by friend Mirtle about the possible end to one of hockey's richest traditions: Royal Military College vs West Point.

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070204.cis-rmc05/GSStory/GlobeSportsHockey/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20070204.cis-rmc05

I've had a chance to see a couple of these and they were spectacles unlike any other in hockey. I'll pass along a story I did a few years back for Maclean's ... at the time I never suspected that the series might grind to halt. In retrospect, though, I could sense some of the tensions that led to this year's cancellation. And the Maurice kid in this story--a cousin or nephew (can't recall) of Paul Maurice.

Replaying a Border War
GARE JOYCE finds little camaraderie at the 73rd West Point-RMC hockey game

ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON West Point sent its regrets: the cadets on the tae kwon do squad and the debating team would not be making the trip to Kingston, Ont., for their annual mid-winter exchange with the Royal Military College. You could have read too much into this. You could have put it down to the ever-frostier relations between the U.S. and Canada. As it turned out, the last-minute cancellation did have something to do with a chill -- an ice storm that made roads in upstate New York too treacherous for the six-hour bus ride from the U.S. military academy. Fortunately, the centrepiece of the weekend would go on as scheduled -- the 73rd instalment of the West Point-RMC hockey game. The Black Knights had made the trip Thursday and thus avoided the first cancellation of the event since RMC shut down during the Second World War. Army-RMC goes almost as far back as the Habs vs. the Maple Leafs, and lays claim to being the oldest continually contested sports event between the U.S. and Canada.

Even if it's not the oldest, it would rank among the most historic. And curious. In the beginning, RMC's commandant, Maj.-Gen. Sir Archibald Macdonnell, and West Point's superintendent, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, envisioned an exhibition alternating between the campuses at West Point, N.Y., and Kingston, one that promoted camaraderie and sportsmanship. The teams met for the first time, outdoors on natural ice, at West Point on Feb. 3, 1923, with RMC winning 3-0. The Canadians won the next 14 contests, but not a lot of weight was given to winning or losing. West Point-RMC remained a largely social and gentlemanly affair for a quarter-century -- as a point of honour, the teams played games without penalties being called until a raucous contest in 1954.

The rivalry ramped up thereafter. "For our team, the RMC game became the equivalent of the football program's game against Navy," said West Point's current hockey coach, Rob Riley. Going into the 2004 game, the series stood at 36 wins for West Point, 28 wins for RMC and six ties. Retired Maj. Bill Oliver, a recruiter for RMC's varsity sports programs and the hockey program's resident historian, offers a familiar metaphor for the rivalry between the military academies' hockey programs. "It's war," Oliver says. "Huge hits. Sometimes fights. The teams respect each other, but for those 60 minutes they really don't like each other."

On the surface, RMC seems overmatched. Its student body is about 1,000; the USMA's is five times that. RMC's overall athletic budget, including intramurals, is $750,000, which wouldn't even start to feed Army's football team. Oliver and the RMC Paladins' coach Kelly Nobes try to keep tabs on Tier II or Junior B players who might have the grades to get into RMC. Still, it's a tough sell, particularly with the minimum five years of required service after graduation. West Point's recruiters can point to a recent graduate, Dan Hinote, who was allowed to defer his required five-year hitch so he can play with the Colorado Avalanche. "If you went through the West Point roster, you'd see that all but one of the players are recruited," Oliver says. "West Point is a lot more like other top U.S. college programs than like us in that way."

This year the odds looked even longer for RMC. Going into the West Point game, the Paladins had won only two of their 20 games against Ontario university teams. "We're a defensive team that struggles to score," Nobes said. "The one thing is, I can count on our players being up for this game." That's true of any game these days pitting Canadian teams against Americans, from the Olympics right down to peewee tournaments.

Paladins' captain Matt Maurice, a fourth-year electrical engineering major from Burlington, Ont., suggested that something more was in play for RMC. "There is a difference between West Point cadets and us," said the 22-year-old Maurice. "I have friends who are just back from Afghanistan, but what's happening in politics isn't on our minds. We know we could be serving beside these guys in four or five years, but our roles are different. We're the peacekeepers."

On Saturday afternoon the RMC student body came to the rink in full dress and filed into their seats in orderly fashion. The seats behind the RMC bench were reserved for VIPs, square-jawed, spit-and-polish sorts from both sides of the border, stars and bars all around. The atmosphere was rowdier than you'd find at the oh-so-traditional Army-Navy football game. You'd never hear the midshipmen from Annapolis chanting: "West Point sucks." The college's band featured not just the usual brass and drums but also a guitarist who played selections by AC/DC, Pink Floyd and Nirvana.

The game itself was less a march in formation than a mosh pit, lots of contact and play that occasionally lapsed into anarchy. After a period the teams had a goal apiece and, although the visitors were on average a couple of inches taller and 15 lb. heavier, there was little to choose between the teams in the skill department.
In the second period West Point ran out to a 3-1 lead, but it could have been worse. Paladins' goaltender Blair Robertson, a first-year science and engineering major from Outlook, Sask., made a few spectacular saves in staving off an Army onslaught. "Robertson gave us a chance to win this game," coach Nobes said.

Three minutes into the third period, RMC pulled within a goal of Army when right winger Matt Reid, a masters student in mechanical engineering, tipped a point shot past West Point goaltender Brad Roberts. Though the Paladins dominated play the rest of the way, they couldn't beat Roberts for a tying goal. In the last few shifts, a couple of fights broke out and trash-talking ensued. Maurice might one day serve as a peacekeeper, but on Saturday afternoon the role fell to Greg Kimmerly, a referee on loan from the National Hockey League. It was all Kimmerly could do to control the game. Even after the final buzzer, he was breaking up skirmishes that threatened to dissolve into a battle royale. After the players had a chance to cool down and soak up some polite applause, the teams lined up for the ceremonial handshake. Though the game is billed as a friendly exhibition, the smiles were forced and teeth gritted.

Riley knows West Point and its cadets as well as any civilian can. He has coached the Army team for the last 17 seasons. Before that, his father, Jack, coached the team for more than two decades. Riley says his players, unlike Maurice, are giving a lot of thought to politics. "There is a different atmosphere around the team when there's a major conflict going on," Riley said. "I see a difference with our fourth-year players. They all have friends who have shipped out."

Army captain Mike McLean, a fourth-year defenceman, agrees. "Any player in his final year at West Point thinks about these being the last real games that he'll ever play," says McLean who, like Maurice, is planning on earning his pilot's wings. "We're getting e-mails from our old teammates who are in Iraq and Afghanistan. We know we might be called, and it makes us appreciate something like this game even more."

After the game, West Point again sent its regrets: the team wasn't sticking around for any social festivities. While the cadets boarded the bus in their dress grays, normal relations resumed as officials discussed when to reschedule the events cancelled by the ice storm. But after the afternoon's action in Kingston, where like-minded young men became mortal enemies for 60 minutes, an exhibition to promote camaraderie looked more like a once-a-year war game.

2007-02-05T02:39:00.000-08:00

Skating in the Shadow of Junior Phenoms: Brett MacLean

A busy travel week limited missives here. A little catching up is in order.

Caught Oshawa's win over Kingston yesterday.

http://www.chl.ca/CHLNews0607/0131.html

John Tavares's empty-netter was his 100th goal in the OHL and he had more than a few of his signature moments. It can't be any coincidence that his game has taken off since he was dropped from the Canadian under-20s roster. (Makings of a great future trivia question: Who were the 13 forwards kept ahead of him? Toews: Everyone will remember him. Downie's Sideshow Bob is pretty unforgettable. Players like Cogliano and Little looked like NHL front-liners in the making. O'Marra and Neal had roles that called attention to them. And Sam Gagner will be remembered as the draft eligible player kept ahead of Tavares and Angelo Esposito. But will Marc-Andre Cliche stick in memory? Or Kendal McArdle? Darren Helm and Brad Marchand? Bertran and Pyatt? If you go by the history of the team and tournament you have to figure at least a couple of these players won't stick at the next level.)

A draft-eligible kid named Brett MacLean

http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/stats/player.php?id=3982

is playing on Tavares's wing. Got me thinking about players who had a significant bounce from playing beside a junior phenom. The classic case for me is Gretzky's junior wingers. Any guesses? One of them was a first-rounder with Philly. The other was nicknamed after a composer. I'll get back to that.

Playing beside a phenom guarantees one thing: You will get seen. MacLean is a pretty big kid, a useful junior player, maybe even someone who can be more than a passenger on a winning team at this level. As a pro, harder to say. Central Scouting has him 40th among North American skaters, which suggests that he'll get drafted, maybe as high as the second round. And Tavares will create chances for him, no doubt. A lot of guys go through their hockey lives without having a chance to play beside a creative and dynamic player like Tavares or Crosby. MacLean gets it in his draft year--that's like winning the 50-50 draw. My guess is that playing beside Tavares might have a slightly inflationary effect on MacLean's stock. Here I'll offer 99 as evidence.

Gretzky's wingers in the Soo:

Dan Lucas

http://http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid%5B%5D=7358

and Paul Mancini

http://http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00006509

(also known as Henry)

The scouts seemed to realize the limits on Mancini's skills but thought there had to be more to Lucas's package. I talked with Lucas about twenty years ago, after he'd dropped out of the game and settled in Maine, working the real estate dodge. That one goal he scored with Philly came at the expense of his junior team-mate in the Soo, Greg Millen. It wasn't injury that cut short his career so much as will--he gave me the impression that he didn't want it that bad. And let's face it ... if you played with Gretzky as your centre, everybody else would be sort of a come down, particularly in the AHL. Lucas's eyes had seen the glory as a teenager.

The Lucas-Mancini tandem is up there with Blair (B.J.) McDonald

http://http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00003262

and Brett Callighen

http://http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00000782

Gretzky's original linemates with the Oilers. There wasn't much hockey life (of NHL quality) left for any of them after 99. It's inevitable, I guess, to see the work as a collective rather than having two others bask in the light of the star. But then again, they used to talk about les trois Denis

http://http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0013871979.html ...

when really there was only un worth dwelling on.

A classic case of the phenom inflationary effect is Dany Roussin, who played the wing for Sidney Crosby down in Rimouski. Remember how much fun it was to watch Marc-Antoine Pouliot, Roussin and 87 whiz around. Well, I don't doubt that Pouliot is legit--he was actually drafted in the first round by Edmonton in 2003, before Crosby arrived. Roussin was also drafted that year ... the seventh round by Florida. But he re-entered the draft in 2005--very few players move up when they re-enter but Roussin's floated up to the second round. His performance since suggests Florida had it right.

http://http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00062398

At this point he isn't even a AHL player. Maybe the Pens were a little too cute--after landing the big prize in the draft, they figured they might as well get a player who complemented him so well as Roussin. But the fact is almost anybody would have scored 50 beside 87 in Rimouski--and the way it looks now, the guy who passes for almost anybody did. He might not score another 50 goals the rest of his career.

The fine print ... had a terrible travel week ... sports scribes descend on Miami and bitch about rain at the Super Bowl ... try minus 25 nd gale-force winds in Regina ... I'm still thawing out ... took the occasion to take in a game in Saskatoon, Blades v Red Deer Rebels ... I could go on about the Blades sweaters (gruesome) but a thought or two about Brandon Sutter ... ranked 9 among North American skaters by Central ... I dunno about his skating ... he's hardly classic in that sense and he's pretty scrawny ... but he still gets the job done, more effective than aesthetically pleasing ... one scout ranked him the smartest player (on the ice as opposed to book smarts) in this year's draft, which probably doesn't surprise

2007-02-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

Where Legends Go to Get Out of the Cold: Sask SHoF

In frigid Regina today (at about minus-25 why keep counting). Got within 100 yards of the Hotel Saskatchewan when I thought my nose was dropping off. Ducked into a building to count my appendages. (Clean it up). The building just happened to be the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame.

http://www.sshfm.com/

Per capita Saskatchewan turns out more NHLers than any other province and presumably any other more exotic locale. (I know, anywhere else would be more exotic.) Headliner for hockey, of course, is Gordie Howe. Hard to top. Funny, hockey wing is only slightly larger than curling, which in turn is larger (I'd say) than football. They make really nice use of limited space--exhibits in pull-out drawers beneath displays.

Odd thing. The good folks in Saskatchewan seem not only to be world-wide leaders in hockey players but also in museums. (Visited the ones in Moose Jaw and Swift Current last month--that Swift would have a museum struck me as a stretch.) Like I say, if it boosts the number of places to get out of the cold, I'm for it.

2007-02-02T06:11:00.000-08:00

Da Commish: Bettman and the New (York) NHL

For various reasons Gary Bettman has been the subject of a lot of a media intro- and retrospection this week. Today The Hat takes a few cuts in the Globe and Mail

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070201.wspteric-col/GSStory/GlobeSportsHockey/home

citing the 14th anniversary of Bettman's installation as commissioner. Why is 14 so significant?Which anniversary is that? Rubber? No, in fact it is ivory.

1 year is a paper anniversary
2 years is a cotton anniversary
3 years is a leather anniversary
4 years is a linen anniversary
5 years is a wood anniversary
6 years is an iron anniversary
7 years is a wool anniversary
8 years is a bronze anniversary
9 years is a copper anniversary
10 years is a tin (or aluminium) anniversary
11 years is a steel anniversary
12 years is a silk anniversary
13 years is a lace anniversary
14 years is an ivory anniversary
15 years is a crystal anniversary

Maybe we should have held off until next year ... when the impact of the commisioner's infuence crystallizes. Then again, now might be an appropriate time to take him to tusk.

The media celebrates Bettman Day a couple of times a year--when the All-Star Game rolls around (in your non-Olympic and non-lock-out years) and when he has his media day during the Stanley Cup finals. These, of course, are the two most uncomfortable days in the sporting year.

First, the All-Star Game. The MacLean guy hectoring GB in intermission, well, it's like a sparring session between the high school class president and the captain of the glee club--with the football team looking on. You want to tell the two panty-waists to take it outside. The MacLean guy in his guise as journalist (as opposed to soup pitchman) plays a Canadian card or two and Bettman tries to let the air out of his accent while trying to talk the on-the-ice nuts and bolts of hockey like he played it. To what end, I dunno.

Then the Stanley Cup. When Gary Bettman walks into the room, imagine the 27 Yankees waiting to take batting practice and a pinata is hung at home plate. Never have so many been so anxious to vent gripes that have built up over a long hockey season. It's enough to make the scribes push aside a free meal. For a few minutes.

Whatever virtues Da Commish has (and I don't doubt there are a few) aplomb with media isn't one of them. Everyone knows the drill: He doesn't put out fires--he tells you that he doesn't smell smoke. Bill Daly is much more savvy (he should wear white and an earring and then he actually would pass for Mr Clean).

I think The Hat is right when he writes that you can't blame Bettman entirely for the misbegotten expansion (and franchise relocation) southward. Some moves don't have his fingerprints on them at all. Others were probably executed by him but not necessarily initiated by him.

One thing though ... and it's a matter that goes to appearances. Under Bettman's tenure the NHL has become perceived as a New York league. Maybe it was there to an extent before--at least a league that moved on an axis in NY and another in Canada, first Montreal, then Toronto. No longer. Now it's New York, first, foremost. I suspect he always thought this was a key to legitimacy. He never did get the view from up north--how hockey's Canadian base would feel alienated and abandoned. That's not to say that previous administrations were loved or admired--just that they didn't inspire the hostility that Bettman and Co. have in Canada. Is there nothing more telling than the post-lock-out draft being held on an invitation-only basis at the Westin in Ottawa. Such was Da Commish's fear and dread of booing when he was going to be introduced if the occasion was staged out at the arena in Kanata.

While public sympathies in the last labour dispute leaned heavily on management's side, it would be delusional for Bettman, Daly and the rest to think that they won the fans over. No, in fact, the fans sided against the players and with the teams in their market, rather than with Bettman and the rest. And lucky for Bettman management's foils in that go-round, Goodenow, Saskin and Pulver, (Howard, Fine, Howard) were even less likeable than he is.

The fine print ... and nothing to do with Larry Fine ... years back, in the first or second year of his tenure and before the '94 lockout, I asked Bettman about his wife ... he said that she was, I believe, a psychologist (please, no attitude from the NHL offices if she is a psychiatrist) ... anyways, I asked him what she thought of his work ... absolute lockdown and cold stare, automatic, like knee-jerk reflex ... family is off the table ... I thought that it might make him a little more human ... he didn't or didn't want to see it that way ... to find a colder fish you'd have to crack open a Captain Highliner box

2007-01-31T16:38:00.000-08:00

Very Short Takes / Ian White, Conroy-Lundmark

Travel day today. Have to keep things brief.

Saw Ian White back in the Leafs line-up the other night. Talked to some of his former junior team-mates. Ripped, right across the board. His recent problems in Toronto (a charge of driving while his license was under suspension, sneers when the media asked him about it) didn’t come as a surprise to those who knew him best. Nor did he get much in the way of sympathy or best wishes. The way they paint the picture, White was the epitome of entitlement culture that junior hockey too often fosters. Maybe a couple of cold doses of reality will knock him straight.

Craig Conroy scoring a couple of goals on his return to the Calgary Flames was the story of the day. Backstory: As noted a couple of places, Conroy wasn’t a favorite of Darryl Sutter but don’t read the wrong thing into that. Usually it’s a sour hard-ass or angry troublemaker or lazy malingerer or career malcontent who rubs a GM the wrong way. Conroy, though, is one of the sunniest characters in the league. He was a little chatty for Sutter who believes players should be seen and not heard and should hail from the WHL rather than Clarkson-NCAA. He was also the guy who Sutter’s predecessor Craig Button traded for (Corey Stillman going the other way). When Button traded for Conroy, the criticism was that the Flames had acquired a checking-line forward, an unnecessary part. Hardly. Sutter’s re-acquiring him is billed as a way to juice the offence (and get Jarome onside). I think that's a little shaky given the way his production curve is pointing. If nothing else, though, a great depth acquisition, especially when you saw Daymond Langkow limping the other night.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00001078

As for the other side of that deal … I gotta say that I always thought that Jamie Lundmark was going to be a player. I remember him getting drafted—the Lundmarks looked like the family in the Golden Grahams commercials. He was excellent at the world juniors in Moscow (better, I thought, than linemate Dany Heatley). Another prospect mangled when drafted by the New York Rangers. If it was gonna happen, Calgary I’m sure was his last best chance.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00040733

2007-01-29T10:14:00.000-08:00

They Honestly Believed He’d Still Be There: Draft Story

Caught the game at St Mike’s yesterday afternoon, Plymouth beating the Majors 5-3.

http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=12797

Went because I wanted to eyeball one player, Tommy Sestito. Why I wanted to catch him requires a little explaining. Humour me.

The backstory: Last spring I asked the Columbus Blue Jackets if I could sit in their war room prior to the NHL combine and draft. Nobody had ever been given that type of access over the long haul—Sportsnet shot in Columbus’ room for a bit a while back and Carolina had given a camera crew a glimpse years back, but on the print side … nothing. I asked politely. The Jackets’ GM and I had always gotten along. I explained that I wanted to show readers how a scouting operation made up its list. At an entry draft you see the guy with the microphone in front of him at every team’s table scoping out a working list of 100 names, maybe more. I always wondered what went behind that list—how a team put together something with that many moving pieces. And when I say “many moving pieces” I don’t just mean the 100+ names on the list. No, you have to factor in the dozens of names left off the list and the hundreds of conflicting and competing opinions in a roomful of scouts. The Jackets gave me the green light. And that’s how I ended up spending, well, a conservative estimate would be about 80 hours behind closed doors with the Jackets.

You can find the story that came out of it in ESPN The Magazine last July. The story focused on the Blue Jackets’ selection of Derick Brassard of Drummondville with the No. 6 pick. It also focused on the Jackets’ interviews with Phil Kessel, which were rocky, to say the least. Kessel would have gone No. 2 in the draft the year before but his stock had taken a dive because of some disappointing play and some bad buzz. Some of that buzz was deserved (caught up in a Minneapolis television station’s sting of a bar that was serving under-age students, including U Minn players) and some perhaps not.

It’s a tough story to write—like I say, there’s hundreds, even thousands of moving parts in that war room and I have to focus on just a small number of players just because I have limited space in the magazine. The story that I didn’t write was Tommy Sestito. Maybe in time it will turn out that his story was the one I should have wrote.

Columbus' draft last spring:

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/teams/dr002330.html

Sestito's lines:

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00080210
http://www.plymouthwhalers.com/tomsestito.html

(that's rich: Suspended 5 games for situation vs. Windsor (1/13) .)

Sestito wasn’t invited to the NHL combine, which is a way of saying that NHL Central Scouting didn’t have him in the top 100 prospects eligible for the 2006 draft. I can assure that he was in Columbus’ top 100—without giving away too much of the Jackets’ list I can tell you that they had him in their top 50. (Which only starts to hint at the disconnect between Central’s list and those of teams around the league.) More than that, though, Sestito had pockets of strong support in the room—they got excited every time his name came up. Some players in the top 30 were ho-hummed in the room … they were respected but nothing to get enthusiastic about. Sestito, though, another story. ‘Twas a puzzle to your embedded reporter. Especially when I saw his numbers for the 05-06 season, 10 goals & 10 assists in 57 games. What to get excited about? Especially when they clearly liked him more than guys who played in the OHL all-star game or CHL Prospects game.

Day of the draft: I’m sure that they’re going to find a way to take him. Columbus’ second pick comes ‘round, I write Sestito’s name and hand it to one of my cronies on press row. “This is the guy,” I say. Then Columbus passes over him. I uttered a profanity and was the butt of a joke. Until the Jackets took Sestito in the next round. You know how teams say: “We can’t believe our luck. We never thought he’d be there.” Well, flip that on its head. The Jackets got the player they wanted and got him a full round later: They were counting on him still being there.

I got to see what the fuss was about at St Mike’s yesterday. This kid Sestito is a load, a freakin’ giant. James Neal, Sestito’s Plymouth team-mate, was the muscle up front for the Canadian team at the world under-20s this year—the biggest forward, easily the biggest hitter. Neal (a goal, two assists and a decision over Rob Kwiet in the second period) was the best player on the ice for Plymouth yesterday, a team that might make some noise in the post-season. Well, when Sestito scored the insurance goal in the third period, Neal came over to slap him on the back … and had to reach up. Neal is a helmet shorter than Sestito and Neal is listed at six-three.

http://www.plymouthwhalers.com/jamesneal.html

The increased production notwithstanding (he's on pace for 40 goals) Hard to say where Sestito’s game is. Really it’s sort of shift-to-shift. A big guy who hasn’t figured out how to use his size—or at least not on every shift. He shows flashes out there. He’s not a great skater (he’s a bit bolt upright) but you can see that might come around a bit with some work. His read of play isn’t a strength either. But he’s massive and he’s plays hard. The fact that he was the Whalers’ first choice to be on the ice for a 5-on-3 PK probably says something about the coach’s confidence in him.

The doors of the NHL are now supposed to be open to the little man, thanks to the rules changes. But NHL guys love size—always have, always will. Okay, I’ll say it: Size matters. Classic story about the Flyers, famously the most size-obsessed franchise. One Flyer exec once said his definition of a prospect was “a guy who can stand flat-footed and shit in a pick-up truck.” And when you look at the breakthrough of a guy like Dustin Penner in Anaheim you have to presume that size is never going to be held against you. Fact is, with giants like Penner and Sestito size buys them time. A team will be more patient with the big player, presuming it takes him more time to get his act together.

Funny thing, the bygone days didn’t have the likes of Chara, Hal Gill, Penner and other contemporary giants of the game. Auriel Joliet wouldn’t have just put the puck between their skates, he’d have stick-handled through. I remember when Bob Dailey was a giant with the Marlies. Now at 6’4”, maybe 6’5”, he’d be a big guy but no giant, not out of the box. I’m going to have to find one of the scouting elders who can tell me what prevailing opinion was back in the day. I’m sure that in days of yore guys like Sestito and these others would have been considered too big to play the game—some sort of bunkum about bad backs, like the old NFL teams that thought weight-lifting made players muscle-bound.

Fine print … there was a considerable ruffling of feathers in the Kessel camp over the ESPN story … fact is, if Kessel had been available at No. 6 the Jackets would have taken and the execs with Columbus noted in the story that they weren’t sure all the negative buzz was deserved … Brassard’s season has been pretty well written off by an elbow injury … absolutely packed at StMike’s for Latvia Day … joint was jumping … St Mike’s has a Latvian kid in their line-up and his countrymen pour out (“pour” being the operative word) every game … the Majors have had a hard time making a go of it on operations … looks like nothing more Latvians wouldn’t cure … Latvian national team sweaters = Peterborugh Petes' marroon ... on giants, they always used to talk hoop guy Ron Crevier playing in Q junior at six-nine …

2007-01-28T07:50:00.000-08:00

When Do You Pull the Plug? A Question for JFJ and MLSE

David Shoalts poses this question in a voice as loud as one of his shirts.

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070126.wspt-shoalts-26/GSStory/GlobeSports

Right now, the Leafs (those being the GM and the guys who sign his cheques) are in No Man's Land. They don't know if they'll be in the post-season and they're not presuming they're out of the race. Buyers or sellers? Evidently too early to make the call. Two losses in a row--fold. A win over the Habs--all in. Options are limited down the line. Cap room? With big-ticket contracts like McCabe's and Kubina's it's like they're trying on a size 7 with a 7 and 3/4 noggin.

All you need to know about the state of the franchise: Expectations have been lowered to the point that the Leafs' season will be considered a success if the team makes the playoffs but doesn't win a game in the post-season. Anything that could be interpreted as a hint of the turn-around will be good enough, a mind-set that extends, one presumes, from sportbar to MLSE boardroom. That any team should be in this thing to win a Cup is a point lost on the brass. Keeping up appearances (and justifying another ticket-price increase) would be enough.

Re: Selling ... Back in the day, I asked Cliff Fletcher about the Leafs' "rebuilding." To this he replied that Leaf fans "would stand for rebuilding" in the classic tear-it-all-down, go-with-youth mode. Though he was talking about fans, I'm sure media was a significant part of the proposition, just unspoken. I had my doubts about that then, but the paradigms have shifted a lot in a decade. In the age of 24/7 news churn, Leaf TV, sports-network "insiders" and sports-radio bloviators, rhetoric is amped and insight doesn't necessarily keep pace. I think CF would be more right today than back then. It's a matter of self-preservation. JFJ didn't go wholesale into the market last spring when the dye was pretty well cast and I suppose part of this was political: You are going to be ripped as a failure if you admit to failures. Up to his lower lip in quagmire, Bush finally says that to the extent that "mistakes were made," he has to accept responsiblity. Selling hard (say moving Sundin and McCabe last year) would be like an admission that "mistakes were made" ... and the shouting heads would pin all the mistakes on JFJ though this wouldn't have been entirely fair or deserved.

Another thing Fletcher said does ring true. I once asked him who the most valuable player in the league was and his answer was sort of cryptic but entirely useful: "A player on your top two lines or top two D who's on his first contract." Which is to say that meaningful contributions from entry-level players allow teams to spend on roster upgrades and project costs (up to their arb eligibility)--it was true ten years ago and it was more true in the payroll-cap era. Hey, if Coliaicovo or White or Bell had emerged as real top 4 defencemen while on entry contracts would the Leafs have had to overpay on Kubina and/or McCabe? That's the unadvertised upside of the likes of Crosby, Ovechkin, Phaneuf, Malkin and other young stars: They're so good that we tend to forget they're so cheap. The Leaf puzzle is missing pieces--entry-level pieces, which traces back to the era before JFJ (though he didn't set the world on fire trying to acquire them).

The fine print ... I heard Bill Berg say on the Fan that Paul Maurice deserves an A as Leaf coach ... the rumbles I hear around the rink from veteran executives (who know) is that he's "average" or at best near the front of the second rank ... must be getting bonus marks for one-liners

2007-01-27T11:12:00.000-08:00

Catch a Falling Star: Logan Couture, Luckless Prospect

I saw that Patrick O’Sullivan scored for the Los Angeles Kings the other night. That got me thinking about the prospect whose stock crashes. Every NHL draft has one. The stories of these kids are often the most compelling stuff on draft day.

I wrote about Patrick O’Sullivan prior to the 2003 draft in ESPN The Magazine, a talented kid who was perceived to be a risk. Teams were scared off him, in part, because of a father who physically and emotionally abused him. A CHL Rookie of the Year, he might have had first-round talent but some scouts told me prior to the draft that their clubs wouldn’t take him with their sixth-round picks. Some teams didn’t have him on their lists at all. Minnesota ended up taking him in the middle of the second-round and that pick looks pretty good right now. Yeah, he’s in LA but he turned into an asset that the Wild converted into Pavol Demitra. The O’Sullivan pick looks pretty good when you see some of those tapped in the selections ahead of him. (Weird coincidence: I actually worked with his father at the Coca-Cola plant in Toronto when we were teenagers, didn’t realize it until the son showed me family photos.)

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid%5B%5D=59745

(If you go over to my story archive blog http://garejoyce.blogspot.com/ you can read the O'Sullivan story. It was the first time he talked about "the issues" and I think he's not going there anymore.)

Another guy whose stock was ticking down was Wojtek Wolski. He got into some tussle at a party on the eve of the draft and suddenly he was regarded as Mr Bad Attitude. That seemed a strange one to me. I’d talked to him a bunch of times. Wolski was no blockhead. He was pretty quick on the uptake, way smarter than your run-of-the-mill junior, a little more worldy. Hockey Canada soured on him and wrote him out of the world-junior plans. (Hard for me to figure after he played gamely for the summer 18s in 2003 even though he had a bum wheel that had him on crutches away from the rink.) I think Colorado did pretty well nabbing him late in the first round.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=71741

It’s an interesting draft phenomenon. I don’t think it’s unique to the NHL, not with stories like Aaron Rodgers plunge in the NFL draft a couple of years back. (Watching him fall from No. 2 or 3 or whatever to No. 24 was like watching LZ 129 Hindenburg.) So who’s falling and why? A quick look at the pre-season prospect previews and the mid-term NHL Central Scouting would tell you that no one has fallen harder than Logan Couture, a centre with the Ottawa 67’s. Not that he brought any of this on himself. This poor kid can’t catch a break.

How much has he fallen? Depends where you had him slotted originally. One scout told me last summer that he liked Couture for the top slot, No. 1 overall. That leaves a lot of room to drop. According to the NHL mid-terms, Logan is the 11th ranked North American skater. Project that out and you’d have a mid to late first-rounder. As the English Beat once asked: Wh’appen?

I’ve caught a couple of his games, one in Mississauga in late November, the other the OHL all-stars vs the Russian touring team last month. I asked him about the slide.

Couture was first knocked out of the summer 18s by injury. Freakish. He was a lock to be on the team, a shot to be the captain or at least a first-liner. Then on the last shift of the last game prior to the team selection, he suffered a cut around his knee from a skate blade. “I was playing the best hockey I think I ever played,” he told me. “Set up a goal and scored a goal on the two shifts before. Last shift, there was maybe five seconds left when I got cut. They sewed me up right on the bench. I was thinking that they might still take me but really there was no way they could. I was limping around for a few days.”

Couture showed me the cut. Not for the faint of heart—it had to go deep. Jeez, it still looked fresh four months later.

Missing the 18s was an opportunity lost but it wouldn’t have hurt Couture if he hadn’t contracted mono and missed a good chunk of the first half of Ottawa’s sked. I’m sure that he came back too soon and his performance suffered for it. I sat behind the Ottawa bench in Mississauga and Couture looked more than gassed—he looked nauseous on the ice. It was pretty plain that he couldn’t do the things he was used to doing. A situation like that doesn’t help a prospect—fact is, if the kid is really game he’ll likely expose himself to injury. A step behind where he’s used to being—that’s when a kid gets clocked.

The Ice Dogs smoked Ottawa that day ...

Ottawa 67's 1 vs. Mississauga IceDogs 6
The Mississauga IceDogs defeated the Ottawa 67's 6 - 1 in an OHL hockey game played on Sunday, November 19, 2006.
SHOTS Ottawa 67's - 20 Mississauga IceDogs - 47
SCORING
1. MISS Lawrence, (12) (Schiestel, Santini), 2:42
1. MISS Owens, (16) (Pietrangelo, Legein), 5:24
1. MISS Beljo, (11) (Lawrence, Swift), 15:06
1. MISS Lawrence, (13) (Beljo, Swift), 15:52
1. MISS Swift, (11) (Schiestel), 18:48
2. OTT Lindsay, (3) (Biduke, Lahey), 1:40 (PP)
3. MISS Swift, (12) (Beljo, Santini), 16:06

and would have with or without a healthy Couture. Brian Kilrea (the 67’s coach for those of you who haven’t toured the Hall of Fame) told me that he didn’t think Couture should have been playing. Nice sentiment, but then again, as coach, Killer filled out the line-up, right? And he was still sending Couture out in the death throes of the blow-out--when he came off the ice from his last shift in the last minute Couture looked like he was going to black out.

That was a 4 p.m. game at the Hershey Centre--the place was lousy with NHL scouts, at least 30, who doubled up, Brampton vs Petes at 2 pm, Ott vs Miss on the back half. From the deep corner seats they saw how Couture played--I doubt that they could tell how beat up he was.

Couture told me he was about 85 or 90 percent at the O vs Russia all-star game. Probably the over-optimism of youth. I can’t give you any useful dope on him—it’s hard to tell what type of player he is based on a couple of views, both of them with big asterisks beside them. Word is, though, he’s on the rebound. Season's numbers to date 15-30-45 in 34 games. I’m going to try to catch him in the next little stretch.

The fine print: The ten North American skaters ahead of Couture:

1
ESPOSITO, ANGELO -- QUEBEC --6' 1" 180 C
2
VAN RIEMSDYK, JAMES -- USDP USA U-18 --6' 3" 200 LW
3
GAGNER, SAM -- LONDON -- 5' 10.75" 191 C
4
KANE, PATRICK -- LONDON -- 5' 9.5" 160 RW
5
TURRIS, KYLE -- BCHL -- BURNABY -- 6' 0.5" 170 C
6
ELLERBY, KEATON -- KAMLOOPS -- 6' 4.25" 186 D
7
BLUM, JOHN -- VANCOUVER -- 6' 0.25" 160 D
8
ALZNER, KARL -- CALGARY -- 6' 2" 206 D
9
SUTTER, BRANDON -- RED DEER -- 6' 2.75" 170 C,RW
10
CROSS, TOMMY -- HIGH SCHOOL-CT WESTMINSTER -- 6' 3" 195 D

pithy observations: six-four-and-a-quarter and 186, pretty scrawny for ellerby ... should way something closer to Linda Ellerbie ... it's funny talking to scouts about Angelo Esposito ... it seems like everyone who has seen him wasn't blown away in Rempart games that they caught but heard he was good in the next game after they left ... saw the cross kid at summer 18s ... easily the best US defenceman at the tournament tho' he started the season below the radar somewhat, way behind another US d-man Nick Petrecki from USHL Omaha ... Petrecki is another guy who has seen the ass drop out of his stock based on NHL Central's mid-terms (preseason top 10 guy, now No. 31 among North American skaters) ... Brandon Sutter musta had lead socks on when they weighed him ... doesn't look 160 to me ... Kane is out there as a first liner with the US u-20s and Van Riemsdyk watches the whole freakin' tournament, dumb, dumb, dumb ...

On further review: Took a look at the 2003 draft and those who passed over O'Sullivan

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2003e.html

Some pretty good 2nd-rounders (Bergeron, Carle, Fritsche) but a lot who are a way behind O'Sullivan and several who don't look like they'll ever catch up. Just to pluck a few:

Ryan Stone http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00072677

Mike Egener seems as like to hit the ECHL as the NHL http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00055357

Cory Urquhart is hitting his third ECHL season http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00055112

Stefan Meyer isn't exactly lighting it up with Rochester http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00055397

Crombeen off the radar http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00059628\

Tunik = zero http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=00072677

2007-01-26T17:47:00.000-08:00

Vindication: I Know More than A Career Minor-Leaguer

How sweet. I appeared on Off The Record last year with some bulldog-faced goon who is a career AHL journeyman and, I guess, the toast of Hamilton. I was appearing, in part, to talk about Sidney Crosby, then in his rookie season. Eventually the topic of debate turned to, Crosby vs Ovechkin: Who'd you take? I said Crosby, whereupon the knuckledragger launched into a you-don't-play-the-game-you-can't-know-my-buddies-all-say-AO rant.

Results of espn.com's survey of NHLers:

"If you could pick on player to start a team ..."

TOP VOTE-GETTER: Sidney Crosby (45%).•
OTHER MENTIONS: Martin Brodeur, Devils (11%); Alexander Ovechkin, Capitals (10%); Joe Thornton, Sharks (9%); Nicklas Lidstrom, Red Wings (5%); Scott Niedermayer, Ducks (5%); Chris Pronger, Ducks (2%); Jarome Iginla, Flames (2%); Peter Forsberg, Flyers (2%); Joe Sakic, Avalanche (2%); Miikka Kiprusoff, Flames (2%); Roberto Luongo, Canucks (2%): Ryan Miller, Sabres (2%).

For more see:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?page=07playersurvey

2007-01-26T09:26:00.000-08:00

Literary Criticism of 100 Games: Joycean, Sez He ...

Many thanks to James Mirtle who gave this blog a nice little shout-out today.

http://mirtle.blogspot.com/

It's all rather stream-of-consciousness at this point, and not really at all like the at-a-distance sermonizing you often see when mainstream-media types take up the medium. One thing I can say for sure is that it doesn't quite read like any other hockey blog out there, as evidenced by this bit of wisdom from earlier this week:
European pro league games are like European art-house films. If you can say that you've seen them, you might get points for a broad world view--but you wonder if it was really worth it.

Stream of consciousness ... well I hope it's closer to Ulysses than Finnegans Wake. Personally, I've always thought that Dubliners was JJ's best and that what followed was his descent into madness or a cruel joke on the literary dilettanti ... I've never been able to get past 15 or 20 pages of FW.

I've always been more of a fan of Flann O'Brien than Joyce. And in tribute to F O'B (whose act has been shamelessly [Sheamusly?] stolen by John Doyle in the Globe), a regular entry on this blog will be set in a draughty den that I frequent.

2007-01-26T06:29:00.000-08:00

The Hopes of Leaf Nation Weighs Heavily On ...

... the shoulder pads of Justin Pogge.

Damo has a nice piece--yes, Mr Cox, to the surprise of all but his closest friends is capable of playing nice when not kicking hockey executives out to the curb and scaring children--about Justin Pogge.

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/175251

It should be a cold shower to the phone-in fans who badger talk-radio hosts with demands that Pogge be raced to the big club.

You'd think that grabbing the No. 1 slot on the world junior team would be an excellent predictor of NHL success. You'd think that, but it's a little less conclusive than you'd imagine. The best ever for Canada at the u-20s, Jimmy Waite, never made it as a No. 1 (his story is one of many in my book When the Lights Went Out).

http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385662741

Yeah, Jose Theodore and Roberto Luongo worked out but has Pascal Leclaire? I'd say the jury is still out. Mathieu Garon? No big whoop. Marc Denis hasn't made the impact expected of him (or even carved out a rep as large as Marty Biron who looked to be far behind him as a back-up on the Canadian team that won in Switzerland in '97). What can you say about Stephane Fiset, good enough to be the man in two tournaments? If Pogge turned out to be Fiset redux, that Stanley Cup parade is on hold indefinitely. Manny Legace and Jamie Storr were good enough for gold for Canada, just like Pogge, yet not good enough at the next level to be elite netminders. 2000 and 2001: Maxime Ouellet. Twice good enough for Canada, last sighted ...

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid%5B%5D=35723

I think that installing the Leafs' farm team in Toronto is just about the worst thing for Pogge. He has no chance to play under the radar. More like under the microscope. He had a great backstory--humble background, closer to hard-scrabble really--as Donna Spencer told back when:

Goaltender Justin Pogge living his dreams at world junior tournament 4 January 2006
VANCOUVER (CP) _ Justin Pogge was named to the Canadian junior men's hockey team, earned the starter's job, and signed a contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the span of two weeks.
``It's been a good Christmas,'' Pogge said with a grin.
The 19-year-old from Penticton, B.C., has a relaxed and confident temperament that serves him well in a high-pressure tournament like the world junior.
``I just like his mindset, his attitude,''' says head coach Brent Sutter. ``Nothing seems to bother him and he's a got a little strut that goes with it.''
Pogge (POH-gee) earned his second shutout of the tournament in Canada's 4-0 semifinal win over Finland on Tuesday as Canada advanced to the Thursday final (TSN, 7 p.m. ET) against Russia, which beat the United States 5-1 in the other semifinal contest.
Pogge made 19 saves, including a key stop in the second period when Canada led by only one goal, and assisted on Canada's fourth goal by Andrew Cogliano.
GM Place was chanting his name during the game and one spectator held up a sign, Pogge for Prime Minister.
Pogge was up against another Leafs prospect in Finland's Tuuka Rask, who was drafted in the first round this year. Rask saw far more shots at 43, but Pogge made the saves when it counted.
Pogge has a 1.20 goals-against average and a .933 save percentage so far in the tournament.
He wasn't invited to the team's summer development camp, but earned an invitation to December's selection camp based on the best major junior numbers in the country this season for the Calgary Hitmen, with a 22-5 record, 1.52 goals-against average, .929 save percentage and six shutouts.
``He's won some games for us,'' Hitmen coach Kelly Kisio said. ``He gives us a chance to win every night.''
The Hitmen acquired Pogge in a six-player deal from the Prince George Cougars on Jan. 10 of last year, which was the Western Hockey League's trade deadline.
It was a pivotal moment for Pogge. He hadn't been a clear-cut starter with the Cougars and it ate at the edges of his confidence.
The knock on him was that he as inconsistent and would let in the odd soft goal, but Kisio said Pogge was solid from the get-go in Calgary.
``What happened was, he knew he'd be in the next game,'' Kisio said. ``It probably had a bit of a calming effect.
``If he lost, he'd be back in the next game. He doesn't worry about a goal. It's water off a duck's back. He gets ready to stop the next shot.''
The six-foot-three, 205-pound netminder has excellent technique as he gets square to the puck and in the right position.
Pogge arrived in the Hitmen's locker-room at the same time forwards Ryan Getzlaf and Andrew Ladd returned from Grand Forks, N.D., after helping Canada win gold at the 2005 world junior championship.
``They were really pumped,'' Pogge recalled. ``I was starting to get to know all the guys so I was kind of shy at first.
``They were really excited to win and they didn't get too big-headed either. Knowing what they went through makes you want to be there a little bit more. I always wanted to be here. It's always been a big dream of mine to make it and it's actually coming true.'' Pogge didn't start playing hockey until he was 10.
``My mom couldn't afford it up until then and she finally had enough money to put me through,'' he explained.
Pogge started played baseball much younger and as an outfielder won a provincial baseball championship in 1997 with a team from Sundre, Alta. But he found he was having more fun in hockey and stuck with it.
The Leafs drafted him 90th overall in 2004 and signed him to a three-year entry-level contract the weekend after Canadian team roster was announced on Dec. 16.
Pogge had spent a week in August this summer training with Leafs goaltender Ed Belfour in London, Ont.
``You can't help but not learn from him,'' Pogge said. ``I was just like a sponge being there.
``He's got everything figured out. He's just so calm in net and I'd love to be that way.''
After signing their first contract, players are known to go out and buy the car of their dreams, but Pogge feels his mother Annet deserves some payback.
``I've got to go buy my mom a car first,'' he said. ``Our van died.''

Backstory notwithstanding, I wouldn't have given up Tukka Rask banking on Pogge. (Based mostly on catching Rask's 50-shot shutout of Sweden at the world juniors in Vancouver in the bronze-medal game.) That's not to say Rask will make it either. (He was somewhat less impressive at this year's under-20s in Sweden.) But having the pair of them seems a decent way to hedge your bet. Bottom line: With the No. 1 guy from a Canadian team at the world juniors you have (at best) a 50-50 prop on coming away with a significant player. Putting him in the mix with the guy who was the under-20 all-star from that tournament would reduce the gamble ... but it would still be a gamble.

2007-01-25T17:48:00.000-08:00

The Red-Headed Stepchild Gets Respect At Last

The one player who grabbed my attention at the All-Star Game was Brian Campbell. For those needing a primer, nhl.com has a nice one.

http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?articleid=287879&page=NewsPage&service=page

The hockeydb.com line:

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid%5B%5D=24075

I've taken an interest in Brian Campbell since first grabbing his act back in the fall of '98. That just happened to be the season when he went from the Ottawa 67's No. 2 defenceman (behind Nick Boynton, then a first-round pick of the Washington Capitals) to Canadian Hockey League Player of the Year and a world junior all-star.

I find him a fascinating player. I've seen defencemen with a higher gear in junior (Orr, obviously, and you'd put Coffey in there), but I had never seen any skate more than he did in the average game. He was absolutely all over the place in that final of year of junior. Brian Kilrea, Ottawa's venerable coach, never said that it was anything strategic--not that he told Campbell to freelance or take chances or dance when he heard the music. Kilrea said he was as surprised as the next guy that Campbell's game took off.

How many players have two big leaps in their level of play? I can't think of any. One breakthrough is rare enough. Campbell though paired up.

1. Going into his last year of junior he looked to have a limited pro future. Then he makes Canada's under-20 (after not being invited to the summer camp) and isn't on for a goal against (and scored maybe Canada's sweetest goal of the tournament).

2. Before the NHL lock-out, he struggled to catch on with the Buffalo Sabres. For his first three pro seasons he divided time between Rochester and the big club. He looked like he might end up a Red-Headed Stepchild. (The Sabres, to their credit, had drafted Campbell in the sixth round but ended up paying him second-round money, about a half-mil, when he was well-positioned to re-enter.) In season four, the last load of Ye Olde NHL, Campbell spent the whole season with the Sabres, but player and team struggled. He certainly looked like he wasn't big enough and strong enough to play in your father's NHL. (I call BS on the listed 5-foot-11 and I've stood next to him plenty over the years.) Less than two seasons later, he's the lead D on arguably the NHL's best team, an All-Star Game starter.

Kilrea spotted Campbell in Strathroy, Ont (Pat Stapleton's hometown) on a brief sabbatical from coaching. If nothing else, he desrved an all-star bid for the highlight hit of last year's playoffs, which I wrote about for Maclean's last spring (below).

The biggest hit in this year’s NHL playoffs was delivered by a defenceman widely considered too small and—let’s be frank—too soft to play regularly until this season, a guy who has heard that he doesn’t play “physical” enough. And that wasn’t hecklers or coaches getting on him, but his own father.

Buffalo Sabres defenceman Brian Campbell might be the most unlikely big hitter in the game—just think of Newfoundland starting an enriched-uranium program. Asked what it feels like to be up there with the league heavyweights, Campbell admits he’s “not even a middleweight.”

But in the first game of the first round, Campbell delivered an open-ice bodycheck for the ages, a hit on Philadelphia rookie R.J. Umberger. In their run up to the Eastern Conference final the Sabres frequently replayed the video of Campbell’s hit on the HSBC Arena jumbotron, and it inevitably gets a louder ovation than their overtime goals or goaltender Ryan Miller’s most spectacular saves. And it’s far from the only big hit of this year’s playoffs: recall the knock-out blow Ottawa’s Peter Schaefer delivered on Campbell’s team-mate Tim Connolly, and Edmonton’s Raffi Torres giving San Jose’s Milan Michalek a solid bell-ringing.

File it under that ever-expanding folder titled “Things we had all wrong about the new NHL.”

Many commentators and more than a few players have lamented the stringent enforcement of new rules all season long, claiming that the NHL was turning into a non-contact league. But the open-ice bodychecks in this year’s playoffs fly in the face of accepted wisdom. They aren’t just big hits—they are perfectly legal big hits, often delivered by diminutive guys who’ve never been mistaken for Scott Stevens.

The hits aren’t happening in spite of the new enforcement but — strange as it may sound — because of it. It’s simple first-year physics: the hits are bigger because players are moving at higher speeds.

“Players don’t have to skate through hooks and holds,” Campbell says. “They’re carrying more speed up the ice. And in the playoffs, with the intensity and shorter shifts, the pace is just that much faster.” He adds of his hit on Umberger: “It’s not like the guy throwing the check has to be skating faster—I wasn’t really moving at all.”

It sounds cruel to say — especially with the talented Connolly on the sidelines again after he lost a previous season to a concussion — but replays of this year’s big hits evoke video of what happens to crash-test dummies sans air bags. Without speed limits, players are at even greater danger when driving recklessly into the open ice.

Campbell caught Umberger reaching for a loose puck. Connolly was living more dangerously. Schaefer caught him cutting from the wing into middle of the ice at the Ottawa blueline, the no-man’s-land where Scott Stevens stamped Eric Lindros’s passport during the 2000 playoffs. “Players are more exposed to injury when they go low to the ice, which both Umberger and Connolly did when they got checked,” Buffalo general manager Darcy Regier says.

Regier believes players will make adjustments and learn about what they can do and where they can go on the ice—even if these lessons are learned through brutal, synapse-rattling experience. But he also believes the league must protect players. Because in the new NHL, speed might not kill, but it sure does hurt.

“Clean hits are dangerous in a faster game,” Regier says. “I think we might not see more injuries but more serious ones—what used to be bruises and sprains become breaks and tears with more force. What we have to ensure with the rules is any sort of head shots—elbows and the like. We have to see stiffer penalties in games, and for repeat offenders on dirty hits.”

But there was nothing dirty about Campbell’s hit on Umberger or Schaefer’s on Connolly. Neither was penalized and neither deserved to be. Those who gripe about the game turning into non-contact shinny shouldn’t skate too fast up the ice making those complaints—and they should keep their heads up.

2007-01-25T09:30:00.000-08:00

Sidney Crosby & the All-Star Game: Both Pointless

Add this to the many virtues of No. 87: He didn't try (too hard) to make the All-Star Game his personal showcase in his debut.

As bad as the game might be, let me say that it could worse. To borrow from other sports:

1. Crosby didn't register a point but at least he wasn't frozen out by his All-Star team-mates like MJ was in his NBA first all-star game back in '85. Just more proof of the character of the freeze-out's envy-drenched mastermind, Isiah Thomas.

2. Crosby didn't suffer a career-threatening injury like Robert Edwards did at the Pro Bowl years back.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1110/p11s03-alsp.html

Come to think of it, is the NHL all-star game no better than flag football? A good case to be made.

I was listening to Bill Berg on Sportsnet a few minutes ago talk about a fight at an All-Star game in days of yore--a scrap between Gordie Howe and Gus Mortson (playing for the Leafs when the game pitted the Stanley Cup champs vs the stars). Bill, a good friend, had it right when he said that a junior prospects game, might bring more intensity to the table than the Young Stars game (an unmitigated joke this year).

I've seen two intense moments at exhibitions like this. One of them was celebrated in junior hockey circles. The other, I've come to believe, was missed by practically everybody (and I've always wanted to ask the principals about.

The first was a fight, a great scrap, at the CHL All-Star Game in Kitchener back in the '94-95 season. Bryan Berard, then with the Detroit Jr Red Wings, and Terry Ryan of the Tri-City Americans. Terry Ryan is remembered for two things: being one of Montreal's least memorable first-round draft picks and instigating this scrap with the kid who was going to be selected first overall the next June. It was an absolute panic--and all the more so because Mike Barnett, then of IMG, was sitting between the fathers of the two combatants.

The second occurred at an oldtimers' exhibition. Yes, you've got it right. Old-timers. Back in the 80s. In fact, it was a game between an alumni team made up of Team Canada '72 players and a pick-up team of retired NHL players. God, this sticks in my mind. Rene Robert went into the corner carrying his stick a tad high. He ran into Serge Savard, who took exception. I saw a spear, but the ref called a high-stick on Savard (the charitable call, I guess, in a charity game). They both got minors but I sensed there was a backstory I was missing. Savard is not media-friendly, no hope of getting him on this. I once heard Robert was a beer rep--maybe he tells the story bar-side. I've never heard anything about any hard feelings between the two. If anyone has a clue, let me know.

This is the set up from the game.

Team Canada relives glory of 1972 tonight
Canadian Press
25 January 1985

Paul Henderson works for Christ, Stan Mikita is a golf pro, Ron Ellis is an insurance broker, Gary Bergman is a contractor and Dennis Hull is an athletic director.
Times change for everyone, including those who played for Team Canada during hockey's 1972 Summit Series.
The eight-game showdown was the one of the most memorable events in Canadian sports history.
Tonight, the 1972 team is being reunited for the first time in an exhibition contest at Maple Leaf Gardens against a team of former NHL stars, with proceeds going to the Phil Esposito Foundation, which aids former NHL players who have seen better times.
Henderson scored three game-winning goals in the 1972 series, including the winner in the decisive eighth game, which gave Canada the series, 4-3 with one game tied.
Yesterday, he and other 1972 team members worked out the kinks in a 60- minute scrimmage. Now he is an employee of Campus Crusade for Christ and recently resettled in Mississauga.
After finishing his hockey career in Birmingham, he entered a seminary and devoted his life to Christian pursuits.
''It didn't come easily,'' Henderson says of his commitment to Christ. ''The Lord has given me a platform."
In 1975, he says, ''I gave my life to the Lord and it changed everything.''
Henderson retired from pro hockey in 1975 after a 17-year career that included time with the National Hockey League's Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs and Atlanta Flames and the World Hockey Associaton's Birmingham Bulls.
With Campus Crusade for Christ, he now splits his time between Athletes in Action and Here's Life, working as a consultant to churches.
''The camaradarie we developed as a team will always stick in my mind,'' Henderson said. ''Just the opportunity to play with some of the best players in the world was a thrill.
''Getting it all together and coming from behind to win is something I'll never forget.''
Mikita, who retired in 1978 after a 20- year career with Chicago Black Hawks, is a golf pro at the Kemper Lakes course just outside Chicago.
''The guys that were asked to play on that team were all fighting against one another (in the NHL) to make a living but to get together for three or four weeks and to show the kind of emotion . . . we all felt, 'This is for our country,' that's what I remember,'' Mikita said.
Ellis retired in 1980 after 11 years with the Maple Leafs. Today, he's an insurance broker in Orangeville. In the 1972 series, he played on a line with Henderson and the Philadelphia Flyers' Bobby Clarke.
He recalls the dressing room scene prior to the third period in the decisive eighth game, with Team Canada trailing 5-3.
''You might think there would be a lot of panic,'' he said. ''But it was quiet in the dressing room.
''Nobody was berating anybody. It was very calm. There was a feeling in the room that we were going to go out and win the game.
''As soon as we got the first goal in the third period, we really felt as if we'd win.''
Canada scored three unanswered third- period goals to win the series.
''When it was all over, there was a subdued feeling,'' he said. ''We were an emotionally drained bunch.
''I remember sitting there at my cubicle for at least a half an hour. It was unbelievable.''
Bergman, who spent most of his NHL career with the Red Wings before retiring shortly after the 1972 triumph, showed up at the Maple Leaf Gardens workout without having seen most of his teammates in the 12-year interim.
''It's great to get back and reminisce with the guys,'' Bergman said. ''The whole experience was so big that you can't really pin it down to one particular thing.
''It was one of the greatest sporting events this country has ever seen. I'm glad I was a part of it.''
Dennis Hull retired in 1978. The former Chicago Black Hawk now is athletic director at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
''Like everyone else, my greatest remembrance from 1972 is the winning goal in the final game by Paul,'' Hull said. ''The team had been through a lot and had grown very close.
''We all wanted to win so badly. We didn't want to come back to Canada as losers. This game (tonight) wouldn't be happening if we hadn't won that final game.''
A sellout crowd of 16,182 will be in attendance tonight to provide a fitting tribute, 12 1/2 years after the fact, to Team Canada 1972. - CP

And this was one report that appeared.

GORDIE HOWE STILL knows how to win hockey games.
Howe, the National Hockey League's leading career goal scorer, showed some of the old magic last night at Maple Leaf Gardens when he scored with just 54 seconds remaining to lead Team All-Star to a 6-5 victory over Team Canada '72.
The game raised about $130,000 for the Phil Esposito Foundation - a charity organization that aids former NHL players in need.
However, there was nothing charitable about Howe's attitude last night toward his Team Canada '72 opponents - a group composed of members of the club that faced the Soviets in the famous 1972 series. Whenever he plays a game, Howe said, he wants to win.
"I was a little weary out there, but I work out with the (Hartford) Whalers once in a while," Howe said. "And I just finished a three- game swing out in Western Canada.
"I think I'm playing more hockey now than the year I quit."
Howe, who scored many winning goals during his professional career, converted a pass from Henri Richard for the clincher last night. He said he thought about holding onto the puck after getting it from Richard, but saw daylight and instead decided to put it in the net.
When he scored the winner, Howe may have received the biggest ovation of the night from the enthusiastic capacity Gardens crowd.
And that's really saying something, because it was a night full of cheering and, perhaps, a record number of standing ovations. All- Star coach Bobby Orr, whose team was composed of former NHL standouts, received the first standing reception of the night - then Howe, then Henri Richard. Eddie (The Entertainer) Shack, a former Toronto Maple Leaf who came onto the ice with a hop, skip and jump, got a huge ovation from the sellout crowd of 16,183 fans.
The standing ovations for Team Canada went to Frank Mahovlich, Paul Henderson and Esposito.
Orr said he enjoyed his time behind the All-Star bench, but added that he was glad it was a one-shot affair. He had hoped to play in the game, but the gimpy knees that ended his NHL career just wouldn't co-operate.
"It was great fun and I think the guys really put on a good show," Orr said. "It was a great night.
"Wasn't Gordie's goal great, wasn't it fantastic? I don't know how old Howe is - he won't tell us - but he still moves around pretty well."
Howe was just one of the All- Stars who showed he still had it. Sure, the old pros are a little older, showing a little more grey and moving a bit slower, but they still want to win and still know how to set up a goal and take a wrist shot.
Jim McKenny, Walt Tkaczuk, Dick Duff, John McKenzie and Bobby Lalonde scored the other All- Star goals.
Scoring for Team Canada were Dennis Hull, Paul Henderson, J.P. Parise, Ron Ellis and Stan Mikita.
However, the game was a lot more a goal-scoring exhibition for the fans. It was a night of fun and oddities. There were three Team All-Star players wearing No. 9 on their jerseys - Howe, Duff and Andy Bathgate. And the game featured two 15-minute periods along with a single typical 20- minute stanza.
However, other than that, the players still wanted to show what they had.
Team Canada goaltender Tony Esposito, who has only been out of pro hockey for one season, said he has always been a competitive person.
"When I go out there, I want to win," Esposito said. "I want to give a good effort. Naturally, the skating isn't as good as it once was, but I think it was entertaining.
"I thought it was exciting. I'm afraid I want to win and the few distractions at the start of the game bothered me. I don't know if that's a good trait or not, but when I get out there, man, I turn it on.
"I haven't skated since last year, but the adrenalin got flowing."

Sounds a lot better than the game in Dallas, that's for sure. Maybe a Prospects Game and an Old-timers Classic is the way to go.

Re: Old-timers.

1. The Pittsburgh Steelers can't consider an Old-Timers Game. Check out the Black Curtain.

BLACK CURTAIN OVER PITTSBURGH BIG SURGE IN DEATHS OF FORMER STEELERS SINCE 2000 HAS MANY IN CITY MOURNING, WONDERING.
By Sam Farmer Los Angeles Times
25 July 2006
One was lifting weights at home. Another was training for a triathlon. A third was watching a game at a friend's house.
Regular guys doing regular things.
Then there were the others.
One drank antifreeze. Another was in a high-speed chase.
Two things in common among them all: They were Pittsburgh Steelers; and they died in the past six years.
Fresh off their first Super Bowl victory in 26 years, the Steelers have experienced the emotional gamut. The franchise has lost 18 former players -- ages 35 to 58 -- since 2000, including seven in the past 16 months.
"There is no explanation," said Joe Gordon, a Steelers executive from 1969-98. "We just shake our heads and ask why."
The numbers are startling. Of the NFL players from the 1970s and '80s who have died since 2000, more than one in five -- 16 of 77 -- were Steelers.

2. In hoops, it's an orthopedic surgeon's delight: Who'll be the first to limp off with an Achilles tendon torn, like Rick Barry did years back?

Hockey works for Old-Timers--just think of the Oilers-Habs old-timers outdoors in Edmonton. It's a way the NHL should go for All-Star Weekend. Celebrate the former greats while they're still with us. Mine history for all its worth (especially when the present often looks bleak).

Baseball is the only other game where it might work. The all-time greatest old-timer moment:

July 19, 1982: In the first annual Cracker Jack Oldtimers Classic at Washington's Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, 75-year-old Luke Appling hits a 250-foot homer off Warren Spahn to help the AL to a 7–2 win over the NL in a 5-inning battle.

H ow can a 75-year-old man hit a home run in a major league stadium? And hit it 320 feet, over a fence, with Warren Spahn pitching?
The only one who has done it is Luke Appling, and he explains with flawless logic: ''It was a good pitch, it was right there, and I just swung away.''
It was a neat trick, though, and not just because of Appling's age. After all, Spahn is 61. But during his 20 years as a shortstop with the Chicago White Sox between 1930 and 1950, Appling was known as a singles hitter. He had 2,749 hits in his career, and only 45 were home runs. He also was known as a hypochondriac, or maybe a sly pretender. His nickname was ''Old Aches and Pains.''
But ''Old Luke'' made the Hall of Fame in 1964. And, 11 years later, so did Warren Spahn, who had won 363 games as one of the best left-handers in baseball history.
They were reunited Monday night in Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, once the home of the Washington Senators. Appling was the leadoff batter for the American League in the Cracker Jack Old-Timers Baseball Classic, and Spahn was the starting pitcher for the National League. In the stands, despite the rain, sat 29,196 sentimentalists who had paid as much as $12 each for the memory.
Nobody doubted that Appling knew more about the art of batting than most people. Even now, 32 years after he retired, he is working as the traveling minor league hitting instructor for the Atlanta Braves. His boss is Henry Aaron, vice president of the Braves, who hit 755 home runs. But, even for an old-timers' game, 75 years old is exceptional.
''I had a game plan,'' Spahn said. ''I was going to pitch around the young guys and work on the old guys. I could see guys like Al Kaline and Bobby Richardson hitting one out, but not an old man like Appling. I didn't figure he could even hit a ball that far.
''The first pitch of the game was a ball, outside. I was just trying to get the ball over the plate, no great stuff on it, you know. My second pitch was a hummer, but a low-keyed hummer, right across the plate.''
Appling, a right-handed batter, stood at the plate and waited. The stadium, which has not been used for major league baseball for 11 years, was laid out for football, with the left-field bleachers only 320 feet from the plate. Later in the five-inning game, Jim Fregosi and Bill Mazeroski hit authentic home runs, and Willie McCovey hit a 440-footer foul off the mezzanine. But this was ''Old Aches and Pains.''
''I think Spahn took pity on me,'' Appling said. ''I swung, and the ball happened to be there. I just took my Luke Appling swing. Most of my career, I hit to right field, but somehow I pulled this one to left. I hit it, but I didn't even look at it. I just started to run around the bases. Slowly.''
The ball kept rising, cleared the railing and fell into the bleachers. On the mound, Spahn rubbed his eyes. ''It just proves,'' he said, ''that I still throw hard. He's too weak to hit it out by himself. Luke will be talking about that one for years. Someday he'll be telling people he hit it 420 feet, and they'll mark the seat where it fell.''
''You know,'' Joe DiMaggio said, ''that guy's really remarkable.'' ''Baseball,'' Luke Appling said, ''is a game to keep old people young.''

There are a lot of Luke Applings for the NHL to tap for an old-timer classic. And if the NHLPA got its act together it could tap a lot of names who are still better known than most on the ice in Dallas. Sponsors? Cracker Jack might not do it. Cold FX? How about Viagra? Anybody but Steelhead or Cheetah.

2007-01-24T01:56:00.000-08:00

Djurgardens Prison Blues: Worst Game of the Season

The other day a friend asked me if I was going to the All-Star Game in Dallas. My reply: I didn't go to it when it was at the Air Canada Centre, a subway ride away, so why would I go to Dallas?

I have friends who are obliged to the game as beat writers. This, of course, is one of the more significant downsides to being a beat writer. Red Fisher is one friend who won't be attending. In typical Fisherian style he cuts to the heart of the matter.

It has no credibility now. What it’s become is nothing more than a schmooze between the NHL biggies and their corporate sponsors. The game no longer is what hockey is all about. No hitting. No shot-blocking. Not even a hard stare.

Pity the poor All-Star Game. Its charms are lost on the dean of beat writers, a guy who went to 30 purportedly All Stellar affairs. (Question: Did the NHL award the 2009 All-Star Game to Montreal as a gift to the Canadiens in their centennial year or as a shot across Mr Fisher's bow? He'd bail if they played it in his backyard.)

I'm going to try to watch a couple of minutes of the game on the tube just to test a theory. I suspect that the All-Star Game isn't the worst game in hockey. You might have to go far afield to find worse but they're out there.

So here is the worst game I saw this season.

January 6
Djurgardens 3 Frolunda 2 (shoot-out)
Stockholm

European pro league games are like European art-house films. If you can say that you've seen them, you might get points for a broad world view--but you wonder if it was really worth it. Strictly Starkist tune: Yeah, you took in an Elite League game, you have good taste but did it taste good?

What a freakin' downer this game was!

I sorta expected it but went nonetheless on what I considered a cultural-architectural excursion. Djurgarden usually plays at the Globen, a hockey arena that looks something like a beach-ball, the sort of geodesic puckhalle that Buckminster Fuller would have dreamed up. Saw a game there about ten years ago and sat in my seat, looking up, marvelling at the ceiling, enjoying the ice cream. I figured that if the game sucked, well, I could take in the atmospherics once more.

Get to the door. Bad news. The Globen is booked for an ice-ballet show. The hockey game was shuttled to Djurgarden's dark and cavernous practice rink (its old home prior to the construction of the Globen). Shoulda taken that as a sign. Architecturally, it reminded me of Kilmainham Gaol, where they shot In the Name of the Father. When I went with a couple of scouts through the revolving barred doors (which allowed you to enter but not exit) and when another door apparently lifted from a bank vault snapped shut behind us, it had all the feeling of a lock-up. At Folsom Prison, they got Johnny Cash--here, Frolunda and the home team.

After a short time I wondered if the Swedish elite league depended on captive audiences for its numbers--that it didn't need to paper the crowd but rather detain it. The game was awful. There was likely more hard hitting over at Stars on Ice than there was in this Swedish Elite League game. No forechecking whatsoever. In fact, when a defenceman would take the puck behind the net, the other team would leave the ice en masse and substitute five players, one of them actually skating as far forward as the opponents' blueline. A few times a defenceman wouldn't even bother to go behind the net to leave the puck for a forward circling back--he'd leave it in front of the net, about ten feet in front of the crease. Not like there was any danger that someone might chase it down--trap is not just the default mode, more like a matter of genetic coding. The build-up for plays was glacial.

Funny thing is, you can see guys who can play--or at least should be able to play. Tomi Kallio was playing for Frolunda. I always thought he'd turn out to be more of a player than he has--that he'd hang around the NHL for a good stretch. Saw him for the first time at the world juniors in Switzerland in 97. Was a mid-round pick of Colorado. I figured that at the very least he'd be a very serviceable role player--a fundamentally sound, defensively responsible winger and maybe something more. (That sounds like the soft prejudice of low expectations but I was looking at something that might just qualify him into the league. Not how he could be one of the top 100 players in the NHL, just how he might be better than the 100 worst ones. Anything above that is gravy.)

Here's the player he has turned out to be.

Tomi Kallio
Left Wing Born Jan 27 1977 Height 6.00 -- Weight 185 -- Shoots L

Selected by Colorado Avalanche round 4 #81 overall 1995 NHL Entry Draft

Games-goals-assists-points-PIM
2000-01 Atlanta Thrashers 56-14-13-27-22
2001-02 Atlanta 60-8-14-22-12
2002-03 Atlanta 5-0-2-2-4
2002-03 Columbus 12-1-2-3-8
2002-03 Philadelphia 7-1-0-2

Not a playoff game in his brief career. That first season indicated some promise (right around 20 goals if he hung around the whole year), but everything ground to a halt. Bottom line: 24 goals in 140 NHL games--two less than he racked up with Frolunda in 46 games last season.

Kallio scored the opening goal against Djurgardens and was one of the more dynamic players--which is to say that he had a pulse. That a player who struggled to hang in the NHL is the designated sniper on a Swedish elite league team--what do you need to know? Maybe he could still play in the NHL--just rattle off the names of a dozen lame-assed guys starting with Wade Belak (the NHL Mendoza line) who will never be a threat to score 20 NHL goals in a season--but the fact is that Kallio's in the top 10 percent of Swedish league players. All you need to know about the relative merits of the game. That, abd Tommy Salo is playing for Frolunda too. (I suppose Mudville would end being the only place Casey could play.)

Some aspects of the Swedish league I love--fans standing on the terraces, singing all game long, banging drums. But as I sat there nodding off I wondered if they just did that to stay awake.

Note to self: How many guys are only ever as good as their first season in the NHL, like Kallio?

2007-01-22T03:51:00.000-08:00

What Passes For A Scandal In The Invisible League

There is no Bad News if you're the NHL. It can only be Good News if you're in the US sports-news cycle at all. The NHL is now the Invisible League as far as the major US sports media goes. Submitted for your consideration, Rory Fitzpatrick, a blueline grunt of no special distinction who through no fault of his own became the favored all-star write-in candidate of NHL fans of every stripe.

The NHL All-Star voting might not be up there with Florida 2000 or Ohio 2004. To my mind, for screwball voting, it's not even up there with Marisa Tomei's Oscar for My Cousin Vinny. But there were irregularities in this year's voting. And didn't Slate.com get on the case.

http://www.slate.com/id/2157741/fr/flyout

Good News for the NHL. The All-Star candidacy of Rory Fitzpatrick gets another day in the news cycle--albeit with the high foreheads who read Slate.com. The league comes off looking pretty humourless in all this--the suits in Manhattan didn't take this to a focus group or else they'd have realized that playing along with the protest vote would have been a winning strategy (and garnered even more pub). But Good News. At least they're talking about a game that no one outside of hockey ever notices and no one inside the game cares about even remotely.

The Rory Fitzpatrick vote brings to mind this item.

Time Magazine's 'Person of the Century' Poll Dateline: 03/15/99

Jesus Christ holds a commanding lead over the Prophet Mohammed, Howard Stern, and Optimus Prime

Time Magazine should have thought twice before inviting the entire population of the Internet to vote in its online Person of the Century Poll.
Current stats (subject to change minutely) show Jesus Christ in the lead with 42% of the tally (almost 900,000 votes) and pro wrestler Ric Flair running a distant second with 15%. Battling Adolf Hitler for third place is the Prophet Mohammed. Also currently in the Top 20 are Howard Stern, Kurt Cobain, and Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Mormon Church.
Conspicuously further down the list are names like Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, and Gandhi.

Truly, to be the best you have to beat the best.

Anyway, those who love the NHL and want to see it prosper would be wise to write in Rory Fitzpatrick on their ballots--Norris, Conn Smythe, Lou Marsh, whatever. And in life, you could do worse than ask yourself: What would Rory do?

2007-01-22T03:01:00.000-08:00

Hockey's Big Men on Campus: Who stays in the NCAA

Yesterday I got an email from a guy who blogs on NCAA hockey, focusing on the Golden Gophers of Minnesota. (Hence, the blog's title, 10,000 Takes.) He took a small issue with a piece I have in ESPN The Magazine, a report from the world juniors. I suggested that Kyle Okposo, a Minnesota frosh, is NHL-ready and likely to sign with the Islanders rather than return for a second year of school. He said that he has it on good authority that Okposo will be back with the Gophers next season. Never say never: Negotiations might bog down and maybe Okposo will bide his time. But right now he's a dominant player at the NCAA level--at the same stage Phil Kessel was a third-liner for the Gophers. Things are better on the Island. KO'll make the jump.

Thing is, I wonder if Jack Johnson will. Talked to Mr Johnson, the father, at the world juniors. Rumours were JJ was ready to bail out of Michigan in mid-season--but that was all gas, nothing to it. Hard to imagine that JJ would stay another year in Ann Arbor, but the fact is, he was ready to play in the NHL this season and probably even last year (when he had a chance to jump on with a Carolina team that wins the Stanley Cup). JJ's trade to LA was a hard one to figure--but maybe less so if the Hurricanes figured that it was going to be a fight to get him on board for the 2007-08 season. School means a lot to Johnson pere, a collegiate hockey and football player in his day. (Videos of him dancing at games pop up on YouTube.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUBgU4Wsje0

Jack isn't the bad actor that the Canadian puck media might have you believe--a wild card, yes, a bad kid, no. That JJ might stick around in school next season ... well, he'd leave a lot of money on the table, but he has already done that once. And would they want his father to dance at Kings' games?

Other observations off the world juniors:

Two very different stories from the University of North Dakota. Jonathan Toews, Chicago's first-rounder in 2006, third overall, was Canada's and the tournament's best player, a small surprise given that he had been playing subpar and that his season was nothing special prior to the under-20s. If Chicago is in the hunt for a playoff spot, he might be useful to have around. On the flipside, UND defenceman Brian Lee, the Senators' first-rounder (9th overall) in 2005, did little to impress with the US team and, by a lot of scouts' reckoning, played scared against Canada in the semi-final. Hard to see how he cracks Ottawa's line-up anytime soon.

Also:

The US team was as good as any at the under-20s, but in a column for espn.com I made the case that it wasn't as good as it could have and should have been.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=2721405

I had a note from one former US u-20 player who said the criticisms were right on. He wrote that he hopes "changes will be made and the selections will be made fairer." USA Hockey got it right when Mike Eaves and some other first-rate folks were involved. But short of some major personnel and attitude changes, I just see more of the same.

2007-01-21T08:48:00.000-08:00

Pink-slipped scouts and their Whack-job owners

A few things fly under the NHL media radar. Things that are significant in the operation of the franchises but aren't as sexy as a trade rumour. Things that don't even show up under "Transactions" in the agate copy. So here's a bit of news that was either un- or under-reported this last few weeks.

Hours (or maybe an hour) before the world under-20 final between Canada and Russia most members of the LA Kings scouting staff (including those on-site in Sweden) were pink-slipped, effective immediately. Personnel changes in scouting departments aren't up there with solar eclipses--they happen pretty routinely and last off-season there was more movement than usual. But in-season--and particularly in-the-middle-of-the-season--personnel changes are out of the box. Granted, Dean Lombardi took over the GM's job prior to the season and every new GM likes to bring in his own crew for scouting. But changes are made usually in the first week in July. (Scouts sign contracts that go draft to draft, July 1 to June 30 the year following and few have terms longer than 52 weeks.) This move one came out of the blue. I was having breakfast with one of their scouts a couple of days before and there were no intimations that he was dancing on the edge of Lombardi's razor. It's not like the Anze Kopitar isn't working out. Far from it.

I keep wondering if the league is going to see an overhaul in the scouting operations of teams. One of the bigger and thoroughly under-reported stories of the season went down last summer. Even harder to figure than the Kings' purge. To the amazement of every scout in the biz the Buffalo Sabres gutted their scouting department last July. Out went Jim Benning, their head amateur guy. Out went Don Luce, who had drawn a paycheque from the Sabres for 30 plus years, just about the most loyal employee they had. Others were let go as well. Remarkable stuff because the Sabres' draft record has been arguably the best in the NHL and their amateur scouting has been a crucial--if not the crucial factor--in the team's climb to the league's top echelon. Remarkable because this team made it to within a game of the Stanley Cup final and provided the most entertaining brand of the game extant. No need to worry about the principals Benning landed in Boston and could have found work almost anywhere, such is his respect around the loop. Luce for his part landed with Philly. But what does it say about the management principals if these pros were axed--and, moreover, essentially not replaced.

Thje story gained almost no notice, not even in Buffalo. (It went down just as Briere's arb ruling was being handed down.)

Backstory: Tom Golisano, the supposed white knight who bailed the Sabres out of bankruptcy and pulled the franchise out of the shadow of an owner last seen doing the perp walk, ordered massive cuts in the scouting budget. Tough for Darcy Regier to pull off seeing as the Sabres' scouting department had been chipped away at for several years and, compared to other organizations, was already being run on a shoestring. Golisano decided that he'd like to save the cost of the Sabres' scouting department, 1-mil to 1.5-mil (the going price for a pretty mediocre journeyman these days, a decent fraction of a playoff gate). This from a guy who blew eight figures of his own wad financing two NY gubernatorial bids that didn't net a vote--he was working with a lousy candidate though, that being his own self.

The word from on high: Do everything you were doing before (finding good players, making shrewd picks) but now with no money. So the Sabres--who had already cut travel to the nubbins--are going to ride on a skeleton staff, scouting from video, NHL Central Scouting dope and the power of prayer. Can't imagine that Darcy Regier likes the idea (but there was probably no hope of taking a stand against Golisano). Telling line from one scout who talked to the other day: "We better hope that Buffalo [screws] up and fast or we're all gonna be out of jobs."

Late, incoming footnote: A few hours after I posted this, the Sabres announced a hike in ticket prices for next season, citing increased operating costs.

Sidebar:

I recently wrote a piece for espn.com about a famous old baseball scout who was pink-slipped late in life. I've had some nice feedback about it and it was probably the most soul-testing piece I ever had to report and write.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=lucadello

2007-01-20T11:01:00.000-08:00

Prisoner of Oshawa: Tavares's four-year sentence to junior

No sooner than I post this media-ignores-junior-hockey post than I see the Toronto Star with a sports-front-page story on John Tavares, the Oshawa Generals phenom.

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/173135

Interesting that the Star has JT up high on the day of the Leafs tripping in to Pittsburgh for a clash with Baby Jesus and the Fuzzy-Cheeked Acolytes. Praise be to The Star.

A couple of interesting points.

The Star's Dave Feschuk wrote: There are those who will tell you he's got the skating ability of Joe Schmoe, that he's average on his blades at best. ("If he's slow," scoffs [Oshawa coach Brad] Selwood, "I hate to see him when he's fast.")

The skating knock: It's a reasonable observation but with qualification. His skating is not a strength at this point--but at 16 he's not close to physical maturity. It will surely improve when he fills out and gets stronger. Right now, it's a little early for him to be hitting the weight room, working on plyometrics and doing stuff that will yield a more explosive first stride. A comparable case would be Jason Spezza, also an early entrant to junior, though more play-maker than finisher and much bigger than Tavares at 15. JS and his skating had knockers as his (long) junior career played out--Jacques Martin and the "men's league" come on down--but it's not an issue at the next level. No reason to think it will be with Tavares.

I spoke with one coach who worked with Tavares (not in the OHL). Said the coach: "Best natural, pure finisher I've seen." This coach, who has worked with a few guys who've gone to the NHL and who is used to working with 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds, was saying this about a guy who hadn't turned 16 yet.

I think that with Tavares and others in their brackets, you should look at "qualifiers" not "disqualifiers." Finishing is a skill that's hard to improve on, skating much less so. In fact, it's reasonable to presume that his skating will improve if nature just unfolds--that is, even if he has only an average work ethic (and by the testimony of those who know, he works pretty damn hard).

I saw Tavares and the Generals against Sarnia a few weeks back. Sarnia's rookie, Steven Stamkos, was the first pick in last spring's O entry draft (the draft Tavares would have been in had the league not offered him early entry). Sarnia smoked the Gens (probably the low point of their season). Stamkos had a great game with better support around him--you could see this bugged Tavares to no end. NHL scouts just light up when you mention Stamkos's name. They do for Tavares as well, don't get me wrong. Though Stamkos might be less of a pure scorer than Tavares (might, I repeat) he's a much more fluid skater. Stamkos breaks out of jail (i.e., is NHL draft eligible) a year ahead of Tavares, who has to wait until 2009, cruel and inhuman punishment.

2007-01-20T07:34:00.000-08:00

A year begins ... in the middle of the season

First, an apology. I fully intended to start this blog January 1. But hardware problems pushed back the launch. (On January 1 my old unit melted down and seeing I was in Tallberg, small-town Sweden, there was no hope of support beyond Divine Intervention, a program I opted out of years back.) So this calendar year starts not quite three weeks in but I've spent my time wisely, gathering thoughts and keeping my eyes and ears open.

I write about many things but mostly sports and of the sports I write I focus mainly on hockey. This blog will mainly be about hockey. I'll grant myself the license to branch out every now and then, but if you bookmark this, expect stuff from cold, dumpy arenas.

It's always been my belief that editors of magazines and newspapers and television producers concentrate on the NHL to the absolute exclusion of the feeder systems to the highest level of the game. Look at the arrival of Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin in the NHL--a majority of puck scribes had not laid an eye on either of them beyond, say, highlights of the world juniors during the NHL shut-down. That has nothing to do with public tastes--when Crosby was 17 I was on of about 15,000 watching him against the Remparts one night in Quebec City. And that certainly has nothing to do with what passes for a professional interest in the game--by the time Crosby and Ovechkin played (as under-agers) in IIHF under-18 tournaments every scout, general manager and agent knew exactly who they were and wanted to dope out their games.

The way the major media cover hockey reflects the taste of sportswriters of a certain vintage and certain tastes. They like the NHL because they can stay on the well-beaten track and collect Mariott Points and airmiles with maximum creature comforts. To me that's like covering the PM (or, for our American brothers, POTUS) and wilfully ignoring Parliament, the Supreme Court, provincial legislatures and regional governments (or, for our neighbours, both houses of Congress, SCOTUS, state houses and mayors and the like).

In politics and in the arts, in business and the sciences, the grass-roots get their due. Even in other sports the grass-roots get play. Fact is, maybe the grass-roots get more play than ever before in other sports. Look at high-school basketball in the US--it's blowing up in the media, getting feature treatment in major outlets, US national rankings, national preview issues, the take-off of scouts.com and other recruiting sites, the works. And yet in hockey--in Canada, the self-proclaimed heartland of the game--you're hard-pressed to find a hockey beat writer or columnist who has gone to to a junior game this season. Or in many seasons. And if you to the US you'll cross hockey writers who've never been to a junior game or a NCAA contest. (Fact is, in the US, you'll cross hockey writers who cover Joe Sakic yet couldn't tell you which province the Swift Current Broncos play in.)

By the time of my computer-glitchridden trip to Sweden I had taken in two dozen junior contests this winter, just as a work-up for the world juniors. Not a burden, mind you. Lots of them were entertainment that made the NHL version (especially down at the foot of Bay Street) pale by comparison. And in the space of 10 days at the under-20s I saw more high-entertainment games than a NHL beat guy would eyeball in a month (or likely more). So the best thing I can do for you the reader is to give you a heads-up on who's coming--you know, just so you know when another Crosby or Ovechkin is in the chute even if the media puck-arounds are completely clueless. You can be in the loop even if the experts are in the dark (with eye shades on and ear plugs in).

So in coming days, some observations on a few incoming, including Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Bobby Ryan, John Tavares and others. Of course, it won't be all sunshine. It's going to take me a couple of days to come up with something nice about some WHL games I caught last month ("dreary" doesn't start to cover it).