This has been such a weird ass season. I hope the weirdness is ending, but who knows?

Have you figured out why Darryl Sutter got fired? Neither have I. I thought I did, but I was wrong. it was clear (from the one year contract) that not everyone within the Sharks wanted Darryl back — and I assumed it was Lombardi, partly because I simply couldn’t see the franchise firing the coach that just won the division (“marketing will kill you, if the fans don’t get you first”) and partly because of what he said at the time of the firing.

Silly me. After Lombardi was fired, jamison came out and said that bringing Sutter back was a hockey decision (i.e. lombardi). The strong (strong) implication being that the business side of the team didn’t want him back, and all Lombardi could get him was the one year deal. And if that’s true, then the pressure to fire Sutter came from the business side, and Lombardi played good soldier to the press in saying it was his idea.

Why does that make sense? Think about it. When Lombardi was fired, who was the first person to call him? Darryl Sutter, according to various reports. If Lombardi was the guy trying to fire your butt, as well as the guy who got you fired — are you going to call him when he gets fired? I just can’t see Darryl calling him up and saying “neener neener!”. It just doesn’t fly.

Firing Darryl Sutter sure didn’t solve the problem. Ron Wilson seems to be, but it took bloody forever.

Have you figured out why they fired Dean Lombardi? Neither have I. but I have some guesses.

First: we won the division last year. But in the history of Dean Lombardi, only once have we finished above .500. Whatever else you might think, however screwed up it was when he as given full control, ultimately, this is a franchise that hasn’t won a winning tradition. Building one? I’d like to hope so. Has one? Not really. So since the bottom line is winning, you have to feel that Lombardi was always one crisis of faith by his bosses away from being unemployed. Even if it’s not his fault.

Second: Dean Lombardi eats, sleeps, and dreams hockey. Some folks wonder if he’s really a hockey guy, they don’t know Dean Lombardi. The guy ate his stomach over the team. If it ever won a cup, his first thought would be how hard it is to defend the damn thing. He’s like that. Dean Lombardi is also honest, sometimes too honest, about what he says.
For instance. talking about the “cancer in the locker room”, a statement Jamison later came out publicly and said he wished Dean hadn’t said. Dean probably regretted it, too. Later, Lombardi came out and said he was looking at a three year plan, which I’m sure went over with marketing and the owners like a lead balloon (“yeah, let’s sell season tickets next year by having a team that we’re saying will be good in three! that’ll sell tickets!”). Jamison was upset enough at the first to comment on it, and has since come out himself and said he feels the team will be competitive next year (aside: “who’s right? depends on how you define the term. Look at the wing’s game. Next year’s team should be fun, win a bunch of games, and could well be a playoff team. Dean Lombardi’s idea of competitive is “deep into the playoffs”. so at some level, both, depending on how you set expectations).

Third: off more into speculation-land here. it’s no secret Lombardi was told to cut salary. Numbers differ. the number I heard was $15 million. He didn’t. Nolan went off to toronto, a deal that I think everyone wins: Nolan needed a change of scenery, even if he hated leaving San Jose. Toronto and Quinn can make the most out of him, Nolan is clearly revitalized and playing better with the “C” off his shoulder, and San jose is away from his contract. But beyond that, Lombardi didn’t do much. The Damphousse deal failed because of a million dollars Lombardi wouldn’t subsidize, even though it would save money. Ultimately, he couldn’t pull the trigger, I think, because the deal didn’t make sense as a hockey deal. Ditto, I think, Selanne. They wanted a player and prospects for him, not just salary dump. they didn’t get that kind of offer, they sat on him. I think Lombardi wouldn’t make bad deals for the team just to cut salary, and went back to the ownership and told them they’d cut the salaries at the draft when better deals would be available.

And I think ownership sacked him for it — for being given marching orders to get the salary down, and refusing to do so in a way that screwed over the team. He tried to make it a situation that worked from a hockey view, and ownership just wanted that number smaller, now. that — and his tendency to say things he believed, even if they weren’t politic, and his support of a coach out of favor with his bosses, and the new ownership wanting to put a new face on the organization, as new ownership is wont to do. but Lombardi made it easy, at the end. He tried to do what was best for the team, and that might have worked under Uncle George, but with the new owners, budgets are budgets. he busted his, and got busted. that’s business in silicon valley.

You see signs of that all through the organization right now. I’ve heard multiple rumors of employees having their salaries frozen, and even paycuts. Last year, they had a big fight with the usher union, squeezing every nickel they could (the ushers, selfish fools, were trying to get a pay scale based on the Living Wage. they failed). This year, the nickel squeezing was ARA on foodservice and the food unions. That fight was pretty brutal, and I’m not convinced it’s completely finished (note of possible conflict: my sister currently works for a union in southern california in various capacities, and prior to her current gig, worked for the union that handled the food service employees at Disneyland, the hotels, anaheim stadium and the Pond. So she was directly involved in dealing with Disney and the Ducks.).

I know lots of folks, going back to the North Star days, wanted to bitch about the Gunds as cheapskates. I never saw it that way. Instead, I always felt that “Uncle George” was the relative who showed up at christmas and handed $10 bills to all of the kids. And some of the kids griped, because their friends in (ahem) New York and Detroit got $20′s. Well, I think we’ll all miss George before too long, when it becomes clear what the new ownership has set as an agenda. Because I feel, at least right now, that the current ownership setup is seriously undercapitalized for running a hockey franchise.

At least in the short term. This valley is in a nasty recession. Stock prices are dead. It’s affected lots of us (working for apple, I haven’t had a raise in over two years; my bills weren’t frozen, though, and I have a job, so I’m not bitching). The owners may have a higher net worth, but they aren’t isolated from all of that. In some ways, it’s nastier, because more of their income is non-salary and results based: stock options, for instance, or under-market grants. Or bonuses. If you stock is down 70%, like Brocade’s was last time I looked your options are under water, your bonuses are zero, and you’re riding it out with the rest of us (just with a larger mortgage). These guys got into the ownership group just BEFORE the bubble really burst. I hope they expect things to cool off — I doubt anyone expected it to fall off a cliff. So I think they’re pushing to get the budget in line, because while George wasn’t super-super rich, merely pretty damn rich, this new ownership group is well off, but right now, their deep pockets are under water along with all of our options and investments, too. So I think this ownership group is digging a foxhole to survive until the valley turns around and the new CBA is in place — and at some level, I can’t blame them. Still, it’s frustrating. It’s also worrisome if this is the best ownership group Jamison could round up, because down that road lies — the Seals. the death spiral of losing your original owner who lost money because he believed, and then never having enough money to be competitive to drive attendance to make money, until you hear the little flush at the end….

Laurie somewhat thinks the death spiral is there. I’m not so convinced, but I’m not sure there’s much margin of error. and to be more positive — the rumored budget next year is $33-35 million, down from $48. Still a quite respectable number, and you can put a pretty good team together for it. just not a team with Nolan and (ahem) Selanne on it.

So what I’m seeing right now is very much the Canuck’s model: good, young competitive team, expectation to make the playoffs and raise havoc. Don’t expect really expensive stars, but we’re not Buffalo, either. Or the Cubs. At least, not yet. Cut losses until we see the new CBA, and hope it makes us financially competitive. If not, don’t be too surprised to see the team sold again and everyone cut their losses. Paul Allen, white courtesy phone?

FWIW, the number I’ve heard is $10 million, cash operating loss. that’s money that went out of the organization above adn beyond what came in, ignoring how accountants define and manipulate things. It could end up at $15. That’s about a million dollars out of pocket for each owner in the ownershp group, ABOVE what was originally planned. not total, extra. Words you might keep an ear out for in the press: “cash call”.

Perhaps the cleaning house was inevitable. Sutter was Lombardi’s guy, Lombardi was, I guess, Gund’s guy more than jamison’s guy (and if rumors are right, at least one, and possibly two, of Lombardi’s staff of hockey guys and advisors actually worked for Jamison, and were there to watch Lombardi as much as advise him; I knew that, I guess I never really thought about what it meant in terms of the sometimes machiavellian politics of the sharks as a business.

Because when you get down to brass tacks, the fight that tanked this season wasn’t between players, or between players and sutter, or between players and lombardi. it was between the hockey organization, and team management. The final line in the sand was between Lombardi and Jamison, and it really looks like Lombardi was trying to maintain what’d been built, and Jamison (and the owners) were trying to get costs under control. Lombardi hardballed Stuart, and hardballed Nabokov, and he did it because he was told to. That (and other comments and rumors) pissed off the players, and they went sour, and nobody could fix it. Ultimately push came to shove, the players soured on the situation, and then Sutter was shot behind the shed, because they want more fan-friendly hockey and someone who doesn’t scowl at reporters, and then Lombardi was shot, because he was told to do something and couldn’t. So now Jamison gets to build his new organization, with people who see things Jamison’s way.

Which may not be all that bad, really. I’ll go out on a limb and say our new GM is likely Steve Tambellini from Vancouver, which is a great choice. the big risk is we can’t afford him, or he won’t touch the problem. So Wayne Thomas is on the great altar of “you’re our second candidate” — if he was going to be GM, they’d have hired him already. He’ll get hired only if the candidates they really want turn them down. Until then, he’ll put on a happy face and pretend he doesn’t know he’s the bridesmaid, because that’s what good soldiers do. And when they hire a new GM, he’ll turn in his resignation, tell the press it was voluntary, and hopefully nobody with a brain will believe him. But he won’t stay unhired long. Wilson? I don’t have a read on doug, other than “he’s not the next GM, either”.

And changes are already starting. People are leaving the organization in the wake of Dean’s firing. And those that haven’t quit: more than a few expect to be let go. The restructuring has just begun. Ron wilson is coach next year, because Jamison said so. Expect lots of other things to be different, on the ice and inside the bunker…

Which, in some ways, may not be bad. It’s definitely not the end of the world, it’s definitely not ALL bad. I can’t even argue with firing Lombardi much. And I do respect and trust Jamison, “hockey man” or not, he’s smart enough to make sure he has people he can trust to advise him who are.

But it’ll be different. Some might like it better, some will hate it. Maybe it was time (I keep thinking back to “only one season > .500″). I just hope I’m wrong about the owners pockets. $35 million is a good salary structure, but if they struggle a bit and still lose money, what’s next? 28? 23?

whatever it turns into, we won’t know what it is for a while. I just hope the journey is more fun than this year’s trip….

“And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

Paul McCartney

I want to send out a hearty “congratulations, you idiot!” to Paul Stewart, in honor of his 1000th game as a referee in the NHL. He reffed today’s game in Boston, his home town, against the Panthers. The other referee was Wes McCauley, son of John, who was the man who hired Stewart and gave him his shot in the NHL. It was McCauley’s third NHL game.

For a number of years, Stewart was the referee I most wanted to see handling Sharks games. Best referee? No, not really — but he wasn’t afraid to show a personality, he has a strong rapport with the players, and as an ex-player himself, he understands the game from that point of view of the players and knows how the flow of the game is affected by his actions. He was very much a “let the boys play” referee, but also knew when to crack down to keep games under control. There are advantages and disadvantages to that kind of game, but it’s one the players generally prefer, and one that leads to a good energy that keeps the fans entertained.

My nickname for him was “no blood, no foul”. not quite true, but close enough.

This is his last season in stripes, and while I think it’s the right time for him to retire, the NHL is going to lose a distinctive personality and a good referee. Here’s hoping he stays in the game somewhere.

Stewart is the kind of referee the NHL ought to be recruiting: ex-players who understand the game and know how to manage it, with a distintive personality for fans to get to know and, of course, to hate. In a loving way, of course.

I’m unhappy with the way the leagues are trying to program the personality of the ref out of the game, because the style of the referee affects the style of game played; some people feel referees ought to be automatons who all act exactly alike and have no real presence in the game itself — I feel strongly that’s a stupid thing to try for, because a referee’s style adds one more variable for coaches and players to deal with, and that adds to the interest of a game. Let them be human — just competent ones.

So here’s to you, Paulie: you suck! and we love you for it. Dinner’s on us, anytime you’re in San Jose. And enjoy the rest of your life. you’ve earned it.

(originally published in 2002, updated a little as I move it to my blog…)

> I know my buddies that work basketball think hockey has too many strange
> rules to understand. So I guess it’s just what sport you work. Most of my
> friends that do basketball, just work varsity bb and no other sports. I
> don’t work basketball.

I reffed to JV highschool in basketball, JV in football and varsity
baseball, plus I judged diving for the swim team. I also did a little
exhibition wrestling, all back when I was in high school and considering
reffing as a career.

Football is pretty easy. You have a limited sphere of control, and the big
issue is staying out of the way (you do NOT want to get run down) and
keeping angles on the action. The interpretation was, for me, pretty
straightforward.

Baseball is concentration and consistency. A consistent strike zone is
harder than it looks. Otherwise, it’s angles and timing. I always found
baseball moderately easy.

Basketball requires you to be in good shape, keep up with the action, be
consistent, and keep your angles so you see what’s going on.

Diving is *all* consistency. I found it really tough, actually. Worse than
plate on baseball. Perhaps that’s because I didn’t do it as much, but it’s
one of those classic situations where an athlete lives or dies on the
quality of the judging (like gymnastics or ice skating — and both are great
examples of how sports are ruined by the politics of judging), and that
stress is tough. Even in baseball, a blown strike call rarely destroys a
game, a blown diving call can kill the entire tourney. Ugh.

I sit and watch hockey refs, whether it’s down in the rec leagues, wandering
off into the BCJHL on one of my road trips, or in the NHL, with awe. I don’t
know how you folks do it, folks. The action is so fast, there are so many
bodies, things change and are so fluid, and the angles you need to keep open
change so rapidly I’m amazed how well it generally gets done.

To me, the big difference between basketball and hockey is the
behind-the-play action. In basketball, if you take a good angle and keep
your eye on the ball, you’ll catch most of the action you need to catch. In
hockey, if you can SEE the puck through four guys screening you, you stll
miss the two guys behind you scrumming against the boards (the “Claude
Lemieux technique — wait for the ref to turn his back, and then slash
him…). You literally need eyes in the back of your head, and THEY’LL be
screened. Also, basketball’s goal is hanging in air, the hockey goal is on
ice and players can skate around and behind it. That really adds to the
issues of screening and vision. And hockey players are on skates, which are
much faster than basketball players, so stuff happens so quickly. Like
trying to referee a demolition derby in a pinto….

Much as I enjoy hockey and like watching NHL games — there are places where the NHL is plain old broken or braindamaged.

For instance, in the last couple of days, Mattias Ohlund gets hit in the face again with a puck and suffers an injury just below the eye he almost lost, and Pavol Demitra suffers a bruised retina and is out AT LEAST a month.

But if you listen to the league, and more stridently the union, wearing visors isn’t a safety issue, it’s an issue of personal choice. Players complain it hinders their eyesight (true, but if everyone wears visors, they’re equally hindered) — and if you take a look at the list of top scorers in the league, you’ll see guys like Theo Fleury, Jaro Jagr, Luc Robataille, Ziggy Palffy — it sure seems the GOOD players aren’t hindered by wearing visors.

The league and the union needs to get real here. The union, especially, is, as Laurie likes to put it, thinking with the wrong part of their body, and dealing with this in terms of the macho image issues, not the safety issues. And while the players are posturing and the league is turtling on this issue, the fans get to watch elite players like Demitra and Ohlund not play due to eye injuries, and players like Brian Berard are permanently maimed, lose their career and will have their lives changed — all for our entertainment.

Eyes are irreplaceable — they affect a player’s career, and more importantly, their life. The attitude that it’s a personal choice is a false one, or else the NHL ought to remove their rules requiring helmets, pads and cups (although, speaking of thinking with the wrong part of their body, if you think any hockey player is stupid enough to play without a cup… — but these same players are more than willing to risk their eyes?). As fans, eye injuries cost us the ability to watch these players — is the league really better because Demitra’s out for a few weeks?

Visors aren’t a complete solution, and we can’t prevent injuries just by wearing visors, but they are an easy way to reduce these injuries, and the only thing standing between a player and the loss of an eye is the macho attitude of canadian hockey players (thank you, Don Cherry) — European players seem to have no problem wearing visors and succeeding in the NHL using them. It’s time for the NHL to stop thinking with its testosterone and make visors mandatory for players in the league. Either that, or OUTLAW cups unless you also wear a visor. It’s a lot easier to go through life minus a testicle or two than it is going through life without an eye or two — but you wouldn’t know it the way the league acts.

(update)

Darren Eliot chimes in:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/darren_eliot/news/2001/02/12/eliot_insider/

Here’s a piece I’ve been meaning to write for a while…

While he was in San Jose, we got to know Jay More a little bit. A very nice, quiet, somewhat shy person who happens to work in front of a crowd of 20,000 people every night. Nice wife, nice kids.

Or more correctly, USED to work in front of a crowd of 20,000 people. Jay took a hit to the head, went down, and never got back up. Concussion. Long-term post-concussion syndrome — the same problem that’s cost the league Brett Lindros, Pat LaFontaine, Nick Kypreos, and has now made Eric Lindros basically unhireable in the NHL, because one more hit to the head and he’s a 50 year old boxer leaking lime jello out his ears.

The NHL has to get serious about hits to the head. Period. Exclamation point. How many more guys need to be sitting in a dark room three years after a forced retirement to keep the migraines at bay, before the NHL fixes the damn problem?

Here’s the problem, as well documented by writer Jeff Shultz:

(document no longer available)

We have a coach (Ron Wilson) yelling at his players (Brendan Witt) to “get” someone, quote-unquote. That someone was Andrew Brunette. End result? A fist to the head, a concussion, multiple games missed (so far) by Brunette, and a $1000 fine to Witt, which his teammates likely passed the hat around to help pay off. No fine or suspension to wilson for overtly ordering the hit. No suspension to Witt. Witt wasn’t even issued a minor penalty, tahnks to the NHL’s “what’s a penalty in the first period isn’t a penalty in the 3rd, because we have dinner reservations to keep” mentality of referees (but — that’s another rant, later)

Earlier this year, Louie Debrusk skated up behind Todd Harvey, and put him down with a brutal elbow to the head, which left him with a concussion, pinched nerves, and whiplash. Game misconduct — no suspension. harvey is STILL not playing. Harvey never saw him coming, because Harvey made the mistake of trying to play hockey, not realizing he was about to be attacked from behind for no reason.

To be fair, the NHL has gotten better at dealing with blows to the head. They’ve gone from completely oblivious to merely horrible. Players and the union make small talk about taking responsibility — but nobody does it. Even though the players are doing it to themselves, there’s no leadership in the union to stand up and say “dammit! enough!” and take the issue to the league and to its membership to do something.

It’s time for the NHL to do something about this, before we lose more players, before we end up with a breathing vegetable on the ice that makes yet another PR travesty for the NHL to try to live down its (not completely undeserved, but overblown) reputation as a goon sport.

And the answer is simple — you have to give players, and teams, motivation to change their behavior. All the talk in the universe means nothing without some teeth to make them think about it.

Here’s how you make them change.

Any blow to the head, for any reason, by intent or by accident, is an immediate major penalty and game misconduct — unless the two players are in a fight and both players have their gloves off. If they’re fighting, let them fight. If ONE guy is beating the crap out of another guy, you stop it. A player gives his approval to fight by dropping his gloves. Until he does — you don’t touch his head.

I don’t care why a guy gets hit in the head. I don’t care who hits who. I don’t care what body part gets hit. You don’t touch a player’s head. I don’t care if you knee him while he’s n the ice. I don’t care if you elbow him in the ear. I don’t care if you highstick him. YOU DON’T DO IT. PERIOD.

You’ll be amazed how fast players will learn to keep their damn sticks down when they realize the league is serious about this. right now, they don’t have to. what’s a two minute penalty? Nothing. So make it a major anda game. Make it hurt. Make it stick.

How do you make it stick? simple:

The league adopts a rule allowing video replay for hits to the head. Every NHL game is reviewed by the league office. Any blow to the head that is caught on tape but not penalized during the game is called for a one-game suspension of the player — and a two game suspension of the referees that missed the call.

Does a player have to die or turn into a vegetable to do something about it? If we do, how many more do we need before they’ll get serious about this?

the league office is horribly irresponsible in their dealings with blows to the head, but so are the teams, the board of governors, and the union. it’s union members attacking each other here — where is the union? Other than making excuses?

There’s no reason — NONE — for this behavior. And in any sport but hockey, that kind of behavior isn’t tolerated. In real life, it has it’s own term: criminal.

but in hockey — it’s just gritty physical play. Unless you’re the grittee, and not the gritter. And you can be gritty and physical and not attempt to scramble someone’s brains and ruin their life — at least, if you have a modicum of talent. And if you don’t, the NHL doesn’t need you.

time for the league to get serious about head hits, before someone dies. We’ve already lost too many good players for them to be sitting around whining about players needing to be responsible — force responsibility on them. Now.