San Jose Mercury News – ROSTER RUNDOWN:

Player 2007-08 salary

(linked to: list of player’s under contract next year and free agents, plus salary…)

Okay, let me say this right up front. Watching the Wings/Ducks game last night where the Wings beat the Ducks — it made me feel somewhat less irritated at the Sharks going down to Detroit. frankly, if the Wings somehow take down the Ducks in this series, we’ll have to stand back and ask how much of the Sharks loss was Detroit forcing the issue.

But now, having said that…

It’s a few days past the disaster of the second round, and it’s time to take a look at what the Sharks need and how to get there. Unlike last year, I don’t think we can look at it as a learning experience and give the kids a year to grow up. While I think we have some kids who can still grow up and take bigger roles — there’s more here than just a season’s experience.

I think there are two weaknesses to the Sharks team:

1) Until they brought in Bill Guerin, nobody (not one player) had a Stanley Cup ring. No Vinnie Damhousse, no Bob Errey, no veteran to help the players understand what it takes to go deep into the playoffs and make a run. And when we went deep into the playoffs and made a run, I think the team hit the pressure from the other team, backed up and played tentative, especially on the blueline. Detroit turned the knob to 11; San Jose could only find 10. That was really the difference in the series.

2) Our blueline isn’t offensive enough, and when we got on the power play, we simply went into the peripheral and passed it around. No pressure on the slot, no shots from the point. People can point to the Sharks regular season power play as being 2nd in the league, but we have to remember that Wilson had to tinker with it a lot, it was always going hot and cold, and we spent a LOT of time with forwards at the points to compensate.

That second issue leads to a more general question: for all the Sharks ability to develop goaltenders (and we need to see whether that continues now that Strelow has passed on), when was the last time the Sharks developed and offensive defenseman? Sandis Ozolinsh? Andrei Zyuzin? And was Sandis developed so much as a team taught to keep an eye on his back as he randomly did things? (Sandis is a classic example of the kind of player that will generate scoring chances on the ice, you just don’t know which goal they’ll be on in any given shift… and you hope you end up with more offensive than defensive). We’ve had a number of defensemen come up with offensive potential, from Brad Stuart to Mark-Andre Fleury, and they all seem to somehow turn into conservative, stay at home, offensively-passive Dmen.

I find this strange given that the Sharks GM is — Doug Wilson — except that as GM, he’s not strapping on skates and coaching and teaching the kids, Maybe he should.

Instead, at the NHL level, our defensemen are under the care of Rob Zettler. And no offense to Rob, but his forte in the NHL wasn’t shots from the point on the power play.

A huge start at fixing this problem is Craig Rivet; he is my #1 off-season priority, and he needs to be re-signed and kept in San Jose. But I also think we need to consider adding, or replacing, coaching at the AHL and NHL level with some coaching talent that can help develop blueliners offensively — especially given we have Matt Carle and Vlasic needing this tutelage. Rivet can be part of that, but maybe it’s time for Doug to strap them on and coach, too. Or bring in someone new instead of Zettler.

Beyond that, I don’t support changes to coaching or management. I frankly think most of the criticism of Ron Wilson is from fans and media looking for a story to talk about; I don’t buy into it, especially after watching game 1 of Ducks/Wings.

On the other hand, I think we need to make some changes to the team chemistry; It’s just not what we need to take the next step.

So here are my thoughts:

Untouchables:

F:

Thornton/Cheechoo/Michalek

Pavelski/(Marleau)/TBD

Clowe/Grier/Goc

Brown/Bernier/(Rissmiller)

D:

McLaren/Vlasic

Carle/Errhoff

(Rivet)/TBD

G

Nabokov

Bench:

(Murray), TBD, TBD

For the right price:

Marleau

Murray

Rissmuller

Needs to be traded:

Toskala

Needs to be signed:

Rivet (unrestricted)

Needs to be bought out:

Mark Bell

If you look at the untouchables, this is a team that’s not far from “done” — I show two roster spots (both 2nd line) up front, two defensive spots, two “black aces” and the backup goalie being question marks. One of those D spots is reserved for Craig Rivet.

On top of that, while I’ve placed Marleau in the “right price” category, my preference is to keep him, and I don’t expect him to be traded. But I think at this point you have to at least ask the question and see what the value is. but in reality, he’ll be the center of the second line.

Griess will step in as backup goalie. That leaves — the 6th defenseman, the third player on Marleau’s line as unknowns, and two pressbox guys. One of those will likely be Setoguchi.

Of the free agents — Rivet, Guerin, Hannan, Davison, et all: love Hannan, but he’s too much like McLaren and will demand too much money. Davison and Murray are variations of the same player: stay at home, physical, really slow, but fi they catch you, you know it. We need to rethink our defense more towards offense and speed, and we don’t need both (or perhaps either, but Murray’s under contract). Ditto Mark Smith — love his grit, but I think it’s time to move on.

Rivet is the only free agent I feel we need to sign, assuming we can. Guerin? If he wants to stay, and if someone can convince me that next season will be more effective for him, sure.

But — look at the roster. See the big, hulking, smoking hole that screwed over the Sharks plans? No? Think back a year; what did the Sharks do? Sign Mark Bell. And they thought, and I’ll be the first to note I agreed with them, that this was a wonderful idea and fixed our needs on the 2nd line.

Then Bell got the DUI, which is still ongoing, came into camp with a bad groin, and the BEST one could say was that towards the end of the season when he finally seemed to get healthy, he improved enough (but — mostly as a third/fourth line banger! not 2nd liner) to turn his season into merely an unmitigated disaster instead of painfully embarassing. I don’t want to hear how he’ll turn it around next year, I don’t want to hear how badly he feels about this. I don’t want to hear how next year will be different. I want to hear that his contract’s been bought out and he won’t be allowed in the locker room in san jose, ever again. The Mark Bell era is so over.

But much of what the Sharks tried to “fix” all season was that hole in the roster where Mark Bell was supposed to be; let’s not blow off the fact that both Wilson’s fought this disaster all season, and never quite sealed it; even bringing in Guerin (and I think Guerin deserves more credit than he’s gotten here, for helping guys like Bernier and Rissmuller take their game to a more consistent and physical level, if not for his scoresheet performance) didn’t quite do it.

So we need to go out into the market and look for a 2nd liner, preferably impact, VERY preferably with a cup ring or three. Proven leadership. Scoring. I’m thinking Briere or Drury or Ryan Smith. It’s why I’m willing to consider trading Marleau and/or Rissmuller if we can bring back the right player as part of a package. Hint: Jeff Friesen is NOT what I consider the right player, not any more. So don’t go there, folks.

It’s also time to trade Toskala; one year left on the contract, Nabokov (love him or hate him, or it seems, simply not quite trust him) is the #1, and deserves to be. I can’t see going into another season with the rotation in goal, and I think we need to free up that asset and turn it into other things. We have holes we need to fill, and Toskala’s got a good value to trade with.

Overall — not much broken. But we’re far from “stay the course”. We still need to solve the “mark bell” problem, we need to sign Rivet, and we have one other defenseman position to deal with — and I think we need to seriously consider bringing in one or more folks who’ve “been there” and can wear their Stanley Cup rings into the locker room every day

And that’s probably enough for Doug Wilson to think about this offseason…

Tom Benjamin’s NHL Weblog: Soon to be the Former:

Rick Westhead apparently has a copy of the report lawyer Chris Paliare completed on the Ted Saskin email scandal. He figures the players will have to pay Saskin about a million bucks to fire him for cause. Since that’s basically his accrued vacation pay, a pension contribution and something called a “surplus fund share”, Paliare seems to be saying the players do have cause to terminate Saskin.

Why?

# For conducting a “wholly improper” email surveillance over an extended period of time. “The surveillance was not aimed at protecting the interests of the players. It was not in the interests of the PA. Rather, in purpose and execution the surveillance was principally in aid of Mr. Saskin’s personal interests.”

Saskin got fired today, for cause. The compensation package he’s being given is for things like accrued vacation and his pension plan — not a going away “bonus”. Those are things taht you basically can’t not give him, they’re things earned but not issued before termination.

Interesting.

I have to admit that I felt for a long time that this would blow over, and that it was a small buy noisy group of users that wouldn’t let it die and get over it.

that latter part was true — but it also turns out they were justified, and correct, in not letting it go.

I did want to add one comment on the email surveillance. If you go back to way earlier in all of this, you’ll find some comments from Arturs Irbe (at that time part of the NHLPA group and involved in all of this) saying he was convinced someone was watching the emails, that people on the other side of the NHLPA power struggle were acting on information they had no legitimate way to have access to.

Turns out that Archie was right. And now the NHLPA has to pick up the pieces and rebuild itself (again). I wonder if it makes sense for them to reach outside of hockey for a new leader, perhaps from major league baseball’s union; someone with a strong labor background in sports, and then use the player reps adn management committee to help them understand the issues that are unique to hockey and the NHL. The history of the NHLPA grabbing people from within itself and within the hockey world is, well, a bit spotty.

Time for Conference final predictions.

I was 6 of 8 in the first round.

In the second round, I picked:

I picked San Jose in 6. sigh. whine. moan. grump.

Actually, I said:

Detroit/San Jose: San Jose in 6.

Going to be a fun series, but I think San jose is better. but Detroit worries me if the Sharks falter a bit, and Hasek is, well, Hasek.

Which hit it on the head wonderfully, except for the fun part. the Sharks DID falter, the Red Wings didn’t, and Hasek was, well, very Hasek-like. Damn him, anyway.

Anaheim in 7: thanks to Luongo, it was almost that close.

Buffalo in 6: but congrats to the rangers for a great run.

Ottawa in 6: and New Jersey found it was just not like the good old days, Lou behind the bench or no. Ran out of pixie dust, Lou.

So I ended up 3-4, missing the one series I really wanted to get right. Of course.

So, I’m 9 for 12 for the playoffs, my best run in years.

The two conference finals:

Anaheim/Detroit: Anaheim in 5. Hasek can’t be hasek-like enough to beat the Ducks, and with Schneider out — I don’t know about you, but Chelios playing 25 minutes a game doesn’t worry me, but after seeing him in game 6 against the sharks, Chelios on the power play does. I don’t think this’ll be as close as some people do.

I heard on XM today that one of the ways Chelios stays in shape is that he spends a lot of time on the exercise bike — in a sauna. Holy hyperbaric chambers, Batman, I get heatstroke thinking of watching him…. Kids, do NOT try that at home.

Ottawa/Buffalo: I have very good friends who are senators fans. I very much want to see the Senators move on. The Sabres haven’t shown their best hockey yet (but win). This one can go either way. My heart says Ottawa, my head says buffalo. I’d call it a coin flip, but I can’t, so I’ll pick Buffalo in 7. (now, watch Ottawa sweep…)

News – City Council Approves Upgrades For HP Pavilion – San Jose Sharks:

In a meeting earlier this afternoon, the San Jose City Council voted in favor of the sixteen-and-a-half million dollars worth of proposed improvements to be made at HP Pavilion. The upgrades include a larger scoreboard and sound system that will enhance the experience of the nearly 1.75 million people who attend sporting events, concerts, family shows and other events at HP Pavilion annually.

An artist rendering of the new scoreboard set for installation this summer.Under the agreement, signage around the interior of the Pavilion will be upgraded with LED displays, a new and state-of-the-art center scoreboard will be installed, the sound system and acoustics would be enhanced and the video system will be upgraded to support high-definition.

They’re finally going to fix the sound system and acoustics. Maybe now game announcements will stop sounding like Charlie Brown’s teacher….

Seriously, these are going to be welcome improvements, and I know the Sharks have been planning this for a while, since Greg Jamison and I talked about it prior to the lockout. Part of it came down to this cost being shared with the city since this IS a city building and to date the Sharks have funded almost all capital improvements since opening. And getting the city to share in the improvements had to wait for a mayor with a clue…

The new mayor, Chuck Reed, is clearly going to be more open to working with San Jose and the sports community of the city; he’s grabbed Dean Munro, who was president of the San Jose Sports Authority (the people who work to bring in key sporting events like the NCAA regionals to the city) as one of his key staff guys; Dean’s taken a leave from SJSA for the duration to avoid conflict of interest issues.

(in a side note, since San Jose State nixed the upgrade of the stadium for soccer (STUPID!), the word is now filtering out that they’re looking at the old FMC manufacturing plant land as a possible site for a soccer stadium. that land is at the 880 and Coleman at the end of the runway, so that would be an interesting and practical use of that property…

As of today — there are six teams playing hockey, out of 30.

The Sabres are playing the Rangers in a couple of hours, and may send the rangers packing (or not).

Monday, there’s a very good chance the Sharks will play their last game of the season — Detroit is simply outworking the Sharks, and deserves to win this series. In a series that’s gone 3-2, the team with 3 wins moves on 80% of the time, and to be onest, I’m surprised that statistic isn’t higher.

If the Sharks do go out Monday, or even if they make it to Wednesday, fans will consider this a disappointing end to the season. It will be, too; this team has the capability to go further, but they’ve also shown some weaknesses that fans and team both will be able to spend a lot of time and energy analyzing….

But frankly? I think what we’re seeing has more to do with what Detroit IS doing, and less to do with what San Jose is NOT. That will get lost in the post-series griping, but I wanted to call that out and give the Red Wings some deserved props.

Going into the season, most of us, I think, looked at the Sharks as one of the top 3 teams in the league, along with Buffalo and Anaheim. In reality, they’re part of a group of six that also includes Detroit (no surprise), Ottawa (only a tiny suprise), and New York (very much a surprise).

That’s not bad. It’s not good enough — but it’s not bad. And I figured I’d note just how well they did this year now, because I know (myself included), once they DO lose this series, we’ll be spending too much time griping and pondering to notice the successes much.

Honestly, though, watching the Sharks and Ducks in this playoffs, I don’t think the Sharks would have gotten past them anyway. Anaheim still seems to be coasting a bit. almost scary, but that’s one heck of a team.

And heck, you know? If the Sharks surprise me? I’d love to find out. But right now, Detroit’s clearly playing a better game of hockey than San Jose is. But as we know, in the grand scheme of things, Sharks fans will have to blame either the refs or the Sharks for the loss, and ignore the Wing’s success as a factor… (grin)

Mike Chen’s Hockey Blog: Wavering on OT:

Apparently, the tide is turning on keeping overtime the way it is. I see the logic of going to 4-on-4 — I mean, you keep things in the hands of the teams while freeing up the ice for more plays and more scoring chances which means less nights of crazy game times. And it’s not like players are going all out during their sixth period of hockey; hell, some guys can barely skate at that time. As a West Coaster, I love East Coast insane overtime games because they finish up in the late evening and I can get to bed at a sane time. Going to Sharks home playoff games, there have been many times I specifically thought, “God, I hope this doesn’t go into triple overtime — I have to work tomorrow.” At the same time, though, I’ve never experienced the delirious exhiliration that comes with a home-team triple overtime win (or, thankfully, the sheer depths of hell that comes with a home-team triple overtime loss).

Frankly, I’ve come to think that moving to 4 on 4 starting with the 2nd overtime is a good idea, and Mike sums it up well. Game 4 was a great example — Laurie and I set a curfew as soon as we realized we were going to overtime, because the alarm goes off at 6AM no matter what. I don’t want to go so far as to say we were happy that Detroit won it rather than see the Sharks win in the 2nd or 3rd overtime — but there is some aspect of that.

Now, I love watching overtime games, but they do become more of a test of endurance (for fans as well) than a game of skill. I remember even staying up until some ungodly hour during a trip to Victoria when a Memorial Cup game went five overtimes. Laurie, being the rational one, went to sleep and told me to tell her who won in the morning.

If there’s an argument for NOT doing this, it’s that these long overtime games impact a team’s performance down the road; they tire a team out, suck life out of legs, build up the lactic acid. It’s a part of the fabric that makes the NHL playoff such a touch thing to get through alive for a team. But, honestly, the more I think about it, the more I think that this comes down to “to win the cup, we have to avoid these long overtimes” is not a good reason for having them (and honestly, I think that’s true. If you look at the playoffs, teams that play a lot of OT, and play multi-OT games, struggle to get deeper into the playoffs and win the cup).

Frankly, anything that shuts the door on shoot-outs I’m for, too. Even in the regular season. I’d much rather seem them play 10 minutes of 4-4 in the regular season, just because that’ll reduce the number of shoot-outs significantly. But that won’t happen.

It’s time for players to decide games, not refs:

The difference between referee pairings is what gets you,” says Ducks coach Randy Carlyle. “Some guys call everything to the letter, other guys will let them play a little bit. The little touches are often called as restraint and we as hockey people know they have no effect on the game, no effect on your ability to keep skating. But I don’t want to go back to the way the game used to be played either, because I’m telling you, the speed on the bench is greater than it’s ever been.”

Herein lies the disconnect between the players and coaches in the NHL and at least the more traditional spectators who watch their games.

The speed Carlyle describes is certainly not producing any more goals and often not a helluva lot more entertainment either, particularly if you happen to be watching in the West.

How you can get the kind of talent both San Jose and Detroit have in their lineups on the same ice and produce games with so little happening is nothing short of astounding, although that’s more the coaches’ fault than anything else

There’s a basic fallacy to this complaint. That is this: nobody should claim, at least with a straight face, that in the “good old days”, different referees all called things in a league-wide consistent way.

Think back to the days of the one referee system. Remember the time when in three consecutive games, Andy VanHellemond, Paul Stewart and Kerry Fraser came to town and called a game in your building.

Yeah, they all called the games the same way, right? Yeah, right.

No, this is a strawman argument. There IS inconsistency between referees and among referee pairs. There is, IMHO, a lot less than there was in the Good Old Days. But there’s a lot less of that than their used to be.

In fact, what this is is a two-fold complaint: dislike for the emphasis on obstruction fouls, and a fond memory of the “let the boys play” days, when the referees weren’t in fact allowed to referee the game, but were there merely to keep the players from killing each other. Mostly.

The reality is, the league is transitioning from being a league where rules were optional to one where the rules define the game, moving from the “pond hockey” mentality where two teams are fighting over who pays for the keg and it’s all okay unless an ambulance needs to be called, to a real, professional league like the NFL, where something that’s a penalty in the first period is a penalty in the last.

“let the boys play” is code for the good old days, and there’s an old-school group that remembers it fondly, and a new-school group that is seeing how once this transition is done, the game will be better, faster and more interesting.

The difference, by the way, isn’t THAT significant. It’s the difference between “do what it takes to win”, and “do what it takes to win — within the rules”. And one only needs to look at a guy like Chris Chelios to see how players can adapt — and adapt successfully — to the new reality. The high talent players will thrive in it, because they’ll be allowed to.

The new rules are about this league being a first-second line league, not a third-fourth line league.

Do the rules and interpretation need tweaking? yes. Does that mean going back to the Good Old Days to do it? no.

But for the league to succeed, the FIRST thing that needs to happen is for us to all get over the “let the boys play” mentality, because that’s the exact mentality that led to the days of the goon and the agitator, and the 1996 Panthers, which to me was the ultimate form of the monster created by “let the boys play”.

I’m working on some longer essays on this (I had to take a side-trip into doing some research to understand some things better; I realize that’s against the blogger’s rules where opinions matter, not informed ones, but nevermind).

But this is the key message: when “let the boys play” appears, the folks yearning for the Good Old Days are saying they want to go back to the days of the 1985 Oilers or the 1981 Islanders. And that’s a laudible goal (and it’s not coincidental that most of the folks calling for this were in the league at the time).

The problem is — that era died, and was replaced by the late 80′s and 90s — and ultimately the 1996 Panthers. It was killed by guys like Ryan Holliweg and Essa Tikkanen and Darius Kasparitis, and coaches like Scotty Bowman and Roger Neilsen and Lou Lamoriello, who understood that “let the boys play” gave them options that let them not have to out-skate Wayne and Mario, but merely grab on and pull those guys back to the pack.

The new rules are designed to force teams to get better, not merely prevent the other team from being better. And it’s working.

The problem (or perhaps “problem” is more appropriate) with scoring in the playoffs this year isn’t the new rules or the refereeing. It’s that the goaltending is do damn good. No offense to Grant Fuhr or Bernie Parent, but how would the 1981 islanders have fared against Roberto Luongo last night? AND HE LOST that series.

More on this, hopefully soon. But for now, realize this for what it is: a war for control of the game between two philosophical factions, those who want to go back to the “pond hockey” mentality (but refuse to understand that this is what lead to the 1996 Panthers), and those who are trying to move the game forward. The funny thing is, what the “let the boys play” group wants is not incompatible with where the league is trying to go. But they’re too involved with their fond remembrance of the Good Old Days to remember all of the bad stuff that went along with the parts they want to remember….

(*hat tip: kukla)

Two for Elbowing: Playoff Predictions:

Here in the west, there are no underdogs, there can be no cinderella, no upsets. the teams are too closely matched. Of course, having said that, we’re going to lose at least two teams in the first round that will consider that a season failure. that’s how strong the west is.

My cut on the matchups:

First, a look at how I did in the first round…

Detroit/Calgary: I chose Calgary in 7.

I’m a little surprised Calgary didn’t do better. Veteran motivation beat out younger legs; Calgary just didn’t seem able to compete; too defensive, not enough offense. Too much of the Sutter thing, perhaps, without Sutter behind the bench forcing it to work through force of will. Not that I’m blaming Playfair — this team merely didn’t over-achieve like a Sutter coached team does.

Anaheim/Minnesota: Anaheim in 5

Minnesota simply couldn’t trap Anaheim to death.

Vancouver/Dallas: Vancouver in 5

We can stop wondering if Turco can get it done in the playoffs. Even in a loss, he was the only thing between Dallas and disaster. The only way he could have helped the team more was skating up to Luogo and breaking his arm… It’s time for Modano and Lindros to ride into the sunset — to standing ovations.

Nashville/San Jose:

Nashville was a better team than last year. the Sharks were a MUCH better team, once the kids got their playoff sea-legs. I think the big risk for sna jose going into the playoffs was whether the younger players could handle the pressure. They exit this series bloodied and battle hardened, and the rest of the west is not going to send the Preds flowers for doing this. It makes the Sharks scary tough, as long as they stay focussed and healthy. Nashville’s main fault was a lack of discipline — or perhaps it wasn’t doing a good enough job of making sure the players they whacked stayed whacked. Either way, the team needs some tweaking, but not major retooling. they’re ALMOSt there.

3-4. Not bad.

East:

Buffalo/NY Islanders, Buffalo in 5.

The Islanders played much better than expected to me, and turned themselves into a team that we didn’t expect to serously compete into one that looked like it snatched defeat from the hands of victory. And for once, that’s a compliment.

New Jersey/Tampa: Devils in 5

Tampa simply doesn’t have the depth, and gassed out. can’t win a 500 mile race by driving real fast for 490 miles. Tampa needs to re-think how it pays players so it can add depth. New Jersey was beatable, and then Brodeur realized it was the playoffs and woke up, and it was all over.

Atlanta/Rangers: Atlanta in 76

And Atlanta proves that it’s different in the playoffs, and the pressure can get to people who aren’t used to it. They’ll be back, but I’m not sure they have the right mix of players.

Ottawa/Pittsburgh. Ottawa in 6.

The penguins pushed the senators harder than I expected, but the better team won. But pittsburgh is close.

3-4

so I’m 6 of 8 in the first round. Not bad at all.

2nd round:

Detroit/San Jose: San Jose in 6.

Going to be a fun series, but I think San jose is better. but Detroit worries me if the Sharks falter a bit, and Hasek is, well, Hasek.

Anaheim/Vancouver: Anaheim in 7.

I’m tempted to pick Vancouver; I think Luongo is the better goaltender — but I also think Anaheim has enough to overtake that different. But I think it’ll be close.

Buffalo/Rangers: Buffalo in 6.

honestly? the rangers are playing better than I expected. but I don’t think it’ll be enough, but it’ll be a series, and one worth watching.

New Jersey/Ottawa: Ottawa in 6

well, Brodeur is awake and making folks crazy. But Ottawa should win out. I won’t be surprised if they don’t, though, not much. Probably the closest series in the 2nd round.

We got together tonight with a friend to watch the game.

In a move that will put a grin on the faces of members of our former San Jose Sharks mailing list, earlier in the week I was up in the city visiting a client I’ve been working with, and had the opportunity to pop by the Ferry Building. If you haven’t been there since the re-did it, you must: it is a wonderful place of small restaurants and high-end foodie shops now, as well as the ferries coming in from Alameda and the North Bay. One of those shops is Cowgirl Creamery. I came home with a nice selection of artisanal cheeses.

To the cheeses, we added a selection of crackers, and we opened up a bottle of 2000 Argyle Willamette Valley sparkling (A pinot an Chardonnay blend), which was perfect with the cheeses and quite tasty on its own. AFter, when the Sharks had won out, I pulled out of my special cache a 2005 Paradise Ranch (Okanagan Valley) Ice Wine made from Pinot Noir grapes, and there was much rejoicing. I’m starting to run a bit short of B.C. Ice Wine, so I’m going to have to finagle a trip north so I can sneak over the border… (fortunately, I now have a reliable supplier that has Oregon and Washington Ice Wines, and that’s not bad, either).

A good time was had by all. Among the cheeses sampled tonight — the Cowgirl triple creme and red hawk, an young italian Peccorino that had been washed in balsamic with infused juniper berries, a Point Reyes real blue cheese, a pug’s leap (Healdsburg) soft and rinded goat’s cheese and one other triple creme who’s attribution was unreadable, but was from the north bay somewhere.

Of them, my favorites by far were the Cowgirl triple creme, the Point Reyes Blue (very tangy, very sharp, truly awesome) and the Pugs Leap. The Cowgirl Red Hawk, which had an interesting red rind caused by bring washed in a brine that changed the bacteria on the surface, was very complex and nutty, but just didn’t hold up to the others. The Pecorino was also a lot of fun and interesting.

Damn, I wish Cow Girl had a closer outlet…. Although not inexpensive, it’s nice having access to what the local and regional cheese makers are doing now, and there’s some amazing stuff.

Oh, yeah. Hockey. This pretty much summed it up:

From Behind the Mask: Put a fork in the Preds – I heard Mark Smith and the Fat Lady singing Pura Vida:

Is Scott Nichol retarded? If you are the Preds, how can you bring this guy back next season? What a selfish bonehead move in an elimination game.

That, in a summary, was the series. The Predators were undisciplined and it cost them penalties, players and games. The Sharks avoided falling into the retribution trap, and while the power play wasn’t exceptional, the Preds kept digging holes and the Sharks kept saying thank you. The two teams otherwise were exceptionally close in talent and execution, although Kariya as a key guy simply didn’t get the job done well, and the Sharks key guys did. And Mike Grier to me is an early candidate for the Conn Smythe, if the Sharks make it that far and he keeps it up. Amazing play.

To me, the Predators started the game in “I don’t want to get hurt going into the summer mode” — the absolute sell-out intensity of play was missing. That turned after a really good scoring chance by Kariya that didn’t go in, and they started to play with more urgency — but then they started doing stupid things and taking stupid penalties. And that (again) included Peter Forsberg, who (again) took really obvious penalties, and complained to the refs about them being called all the way to the box. (“hey, do you know who I am? That rule doesn’t count for me!” Rob Shick: “tonight it does, dude!”)

I’m not sure who to blame for the lack of discipline. The coach? The players? everyone? What’s should be disconcerting to Predator brass is that after they got it under control after the first two games, it leaked out again tonight and pretty much sealed their fate, after they woke up and fought to a lead.

So, the Sharks get a few days off, and onward, to… well, someone. My guess: Detroit, while Anaheim gets Vancouver. Anything that helps beat the crap out fo Anaheim before the Sharks have to play them, I’m for. Detroit is very beatable. In fact, with back to back games saturday and sunday, it’s not a foregone conclusion it’ll BE detroit. Now, as long as they don’t start early enough for game 3 to happen next week, I’m good.

And now, back to Peterborough Pete, for your enjoyment…

I feel bad for Peter Forsberg, I hope that was not his last game in the NHL.

You know? I don’t. Talent or no, he was part of the problem, taking bad penalties, whining about them, and playing fairly dirty at times and at other times diving. Sorry, if nothign else, he set a bad example that this team followed into stupidity and suspensions and game misconducts…

Sean Hill was caught using a performance enhancing substance. Have any of you seen Sean Hill play? Somebody whisper to him, whatever he was taking wasn’t working. He and Bryan Berard are free agents…they would be perfect d partners for each other. I’m thinking Chicago or Columbus is dumb enough to take them as a package.

(line of the night. Wish I’d thought of it…)

Is the NHL retarded? Who the hell schedules back to back home and away playoff games between Calgary and Detroit? Obviously someone who has never flown before. What’s up with that?

Why? Because Detroit hosed the series with other committments in the building. Don’t blame the league here, blame the teams for stuffing things into the building knowing they might need them for hockey.

How about the NHL not committing to a game time for Tampa’s home game on Sunday due to TV schedules (wanting the Pens on in prime time if they had won) until after the Ottawa – Pens game last night? But Tampa was forced to sell tickets to the game earlier this week with a day set but no time slot? What kind of mickey mouse league does that and rude is that to the hockey fans in Tampa?

That’s normal. The Sharks game 7 this round was the same way.

There are two reasons to do this. One is because TV might want to change the teim. The other is that there’s another event going on that you might need to change the time of, and you don’t want to have to change that time until you have to. In San Jose, for instance, that’d be the Lacrosse team, the Stealth, that might have an evening slot, but if the Sharks need it, get moved to a day game at the last minute. But you don’t want to announce that kind of schedule change until you have to….

Again, not the league. It’s the team…

Two for elbowing went through a bit of a dry spell where I wasn’t doing much posting. Part of it was because of outside factors, things that were sucking up my time and energy and not leaving me much in spare to blog with.

But to be blunt about it, I got really pissed at hockey for a while, and I just didn’t feel like spewing about it on the blog. Or talking about hockey — or watching it very much.

Now that I’m back and a hockey fan again, I think I understand the core reason why hockey has struggled to catch on in the U.S. and why, if things don’t change, hockey is going to continue to be a marginalized sport south of the border.

Hint: it’s not fighting. At least, not directly.

I was already thinking my way through this before I hit the wall — it’s been a rough year for the league in terms of injuries, and more importantly, injuries caused by non-hockey action and action that is generally detrimental to the game. I even brought up the phrase “stop the stretchers”, which I realize now was an early indication that the league was heading in a direction that I was very uncomfortable with, very quickly.

But what finally put me off hockey were two situations — the Chris Simon/Ryan Hollweg problem, and the Mike Modano/Jordan Tootoo/Stephane Robidas problem.

But probably not for the reasons you expect.

Let’s revisit the Hollweg/Simon hits. If you watch the video (and it’s easily available on Youtube), Hollweg has Simon lined up early, and is aimed straight at the numbers. He had plenty of opportunity to pull up, to avoid the hit. He never intended to, and his hit was always clearly lined up as a hit from behind. That’s illegal, it’s dangerous, and it shouldn’t ever be an acceptable hit. Simon went into the glass head first and went down, then got back up and went after Hollweg — and took his stick to him.

That is clearly ALSO never acceptable. But lost in the call for Simon’s blood is this fact: Hollweg’s hit severely concussed Simon. A number of pundits noted that the stickwork by Simon wasn’t characteristic of the player, that it wasn’t how he normally played or acted. In fact, that’s literally true — being concussed, he wasn’t thinking clearly.

Hollweg wasn’t penalized, much less suspended.

The hit by Hollweg was, in fact, very similar to the hit that Radulov put on Bernier earlier this week, with a few minor differences. One, Radulov left his feet, while Hollweg didn’t. But Hollweg is a much bigger, stronger player. Oh, and Bernier didn’t get up for a while, but both players ended up with concussions. Radulov gets one game off, where Hollweg got — nothing.

In other words, the league condoned Hollweg’s hit, both at the time by the refs, and later by league review. Simon got 25 games, despite there being strong evidence that he was significantly concussed at the time (he wasn’t allowed to fly home with the team, and Ted Nolan has come out afterwards to note that Simon was showing significant concussion effects weeks later).

In fact, the league suspension on Simon was merely for show — in reality, Hollweg’s hit put Simon out for the rest of the season, and probably ended his career, since he’ll be a free agent with a heavy suspension waiting for any team looking to pick him up.

And then, when Simon tried to contact Hollweg to apologize — Hollweg declined.

Eric @ Offwing commented on this with a quick “Can you blame the guy?’

My answer: hell yes.

Me? I call bullshit on Hollweg and the league. Hollweg is they type of player that is significantly hurting the league; he’s a low-talent player who’s primary role is creating chaos and trying to hurt people. Worse, he’s one of those players that doesn’t particularly care what the side effects of what he does is. He caused a significant injury to Simon, and when Simon went to apologize for his part in this disaster, Hollweg claimed a moral high ground.

I say, the hell with that. Hollweg should have been given a match penalty for that hit, he deserved a suspension, and he should have been apologizing to Simon for attempting to turn his head into a squashed watermelon. The league was so busy trying to look proactive about the obvious act of violence that they suspended the INJURED PLAYER, took no consideration into the injury and how it might have affected his reaction (or his ability to think through his action, for that matter), and then went off and congratulated itself on being tough on unacceptable play. The initiator — the player who effectively MUGGED Simon from behind, not only got off without even a warning, he got to stand up in the press and play martyr. And everyone buys it.

That’s bullshit. It was a cheap shot from a marginal player who knew what he was doing was dirty and dangerous, and plain old didn’t care. And the league stood up and told the world that was okay.

Then there’s the Tootoo hit on Robidas.

Tootoo, who like Hollweg is a marginal talent player who’s primary role is creating chaos and hitting people, put a hit on Mike Modano. Unlike the Hollweg hit on Simon, the Tootoo hit on Modano was clean and legal.

Unfortunately, it’s not good enough to be clean and legal any more — Stephane Robidas took exception to the hit, pulled himself out of the action as the game continued, and skated over to Tootoo to, well, given he’s not a big fighter, I’m not sure what he intended to do against someone like Tootoo, but he clearly intended to enact some frontier justice of some sort.

Jordin Tootoo saw someone coming at him, and defended himself. He caught Robidas on the chin, putting him down like a sack of flour. Modano, who was not hurt by the hit, then got up and among other things, whacked Tootoo with a two-handed stick. Other stars players, hockey forgotten, converged on Tootoo, including Marty Turco, who had to be restrained by the refs.

Tootoo got five games. Modano was later called “a saint” (quote unquote) by Bill Clement (of XM and Versus, on XM Home Ice) and wasn’t penalized for that stick, or any of the stickwork he gave to Tootoo earlier in the game. Robidas got his bell rung because he was stupid enough to lead with his chin.

Once again, I call bullshit on the league. Tootoo’s hit was legal. It actually wasn’t all that hard, things considered. he put Modano down to the ice, but that was about it. The referees correctly made no call and let the play continue.

That was unacceptable to Robidas. He tried to take justice into his own hands — and he got clocked for it. And the result: the league, and many fans decided to rip Tootoo a new orifice. Why? Because he defended himself, and did so more successfully than they liked.

Lots of folks have said that Tootoo shouldn’t have gone for the rabbit punch. There seems to be an implied belief that he should have just taken the punishment. Others claim he should have dropped the gloves and “done the manly thing”. Nobody seems to have bothered to think that he was defending himself from an unprovoked attack, and that Robidas, the aggressor, had no intention of dropping gloves or “doing the manly thing”, but that’s evidently okay.

Complicating this is the reality that Tootoo has a less than stellar reputation in the league. He’s one of those guys who gets in people’s faces, and isn’t always clean about it. Just like Hollweg. He is, in some ways, a mini-Marchment, and we all know that Marchment rarely caught a break from a ref, the league, the fans, and players on any team other than his own. And, to put it bluntly — didn’t deserve to catch one most nights.

But in this case, Tootoo was innocent of anything but defending himself. Most of the criticisms of him are biased and unfair; no, he didn’t drop his gloves and “follow the code” (whatever that is) — but neither did Robidas. Yes, he rabbit punched Robidas, but Robidas had every intention of, basically, mugging Tootoo. He wasn’t planning on tapping the kid on the shoulder and saying “let’s go”, he was attempting to jump him from behind. The expectations that Tootoo should have caught movement of someone coming up behind him and figured out some way to avoid being mugged, while not doing anything “unmanly” — is ludicrous.

Robidas actually left an active play to chase down and attack Tootoo and Tootoo defended himself (and Robidas lost, big time). This has somehow been spun into the idea that Tootoo did something bad. What about the bad things Robidas did? Oh, he was defending his teammate, that’s different (and okay). The fact that was Tootoo did was clean and legal is irrelevant.

This is bullshit. Once again, the league condones a number of actions that are illegal — and severely penalizes the REACTION, which might have been aggressive, but it was a person defending himself. The instigator, who, among other things, showed up the refs by acting on his own to judge to his own tastes a perfectly legal play, who came up behind a player with intent to wreak havoc, who didn’t, and had no intention to, “do the manly thing” of dropping his gloves and challenging Tootoo, but instead catch him from behind and mug him, and who was stupid enough to not stop to think that Tootoo might just decide not to stand there and take it (which seems to be the REAL reason behind most of the Tootoo criticism; there seems to be a strong belief that what Robidas was doing was somehow the right thing, and that Tootoo should have allowed it to happen. bah). Modano had spent the evening being pested by Tootoo, and responded more than once with stickwork; later on, he tried to lumberjack Tootoo — and not only wasn’t penalized for this (although a number of media types at least talked about whether he should have been…. ), guys like Clement declare him to be a saint?

You want a more perfect example of the screwed up priorities of the league and the double standard on enforcement that exists between “our favorite players” (like Modano) and the rest of the spearcarriers?

this is bullshit. Robidas attempted to circumvent league rules and initiate some frontier justice — and got his clock cleaned. Because of this, Tootoo gets suspended.

And what finally pissed me off beyond my limit and made me walk away from hockey for a while was that nobody in the league hierarchy seemed to see just how screwed up this all is. The league condones players that show up and disrespect the referees and the rules, they don’t protect players from serious, injury causing, illegal hits — but suspend players for hits that make the ESPN highlight role where idiots with an attitude expound on how chump hockey is.

the core problems with hockey are not only accepted — but lauded — and the victims of those dangerous and illegal acts, if they happen to be of the “our league can live without this guy” type, get the book thrown at them so the can claim they’re doing something about the violence in the game.

This is bullshit, adn it’s bullshit that goes to the core values of the game, which means it won’t change until something really serious and nasty happens, just like the league didn’t get serious about stick fights until AFTER Wayne Maki attempted to remove a significant part of Ted Green’s skull. Will someone have to die before the league gets serious about this?

It sure seems so. And that’s why I stopped being a hockey fan for a while, because I have great problems supporting a league that is so unwilling to address some key, core problems in how the game is being played. Worse, it’s a league were significant people not only condone it, they applaud it as the way the game OUGHT to be played.

We can start with Don Cherry on Coaches Corner, one of the most influential people in the game, coming onto the TV during a playoff game this year, and one of the first things he says, in that patented voice that’s a combination coaching baritone and 5 year old whiny bleat, “Common, refs, let the boys play!”

And that concept is why this league is so screwed up. it is also a core value among the elite that run and comment on the league, to the point that I don’t think they see how much it’s f–king up this league, and why this attitude, and the attitudes that spread out from it, are the core reason this league isn’t taken more seriously here in the united states.

It’s not — because it doesn’t deserve to.

I’m not the only person who seems to understand that things are spinning out of control:

Moose droppings: Fightin’ words – Featured Writer – Bellowing Moose – NBCSports.com:

Things have changed in the NHL, but not that much. Last year, Edmonton’s Raffi Torres unloaded a brutal elbow on San Jose’s Milan Michalek, knocking him out of two games.

Incredibly, Torres was not suspended.

There is a genuine fear among players that with the stakes so high, the risk of severe injury has never been greater. And the only way to curb it is to make sure that the players understand that serious offences will carry serious consequences.

The players have the guts to do what it takes in the playoffs.

Does the NHL?

My answer is, unfortunately, no. And that likely won’t change until someone dies on the ice from one of these hits, or ends up in a wheelchair for the rest of his life after his spine gets snapped. And by then, it’ll be too late.

As to why “let the boys play” is the core of the league’s problems, I’ll leave that for another post and another time.

And while I’ve gotten over the worst of my “I don’t want to be here any more”, I still have issues with the game and how it’s played, and I’m not sure I want to be around if, and when that player finally dies and everyone stands around wondering how we got to this point. “I told you so” won’t bring him back to life…

And we’re much closer to that point than people want to admit, and that really, really bothers me. Just look at the serious injuries that have already happened in the playoffs this year — two for the Sharks, another for the Senators today, and I’m sure I’m missing one in one of the series I’m not watching quite as closely… This is what we love the game for?

God, I hope not.

TheFeeder.com – Inside Sharks Hockey:

I am hesitant to advise that the Sharks start running Predators players (not that they’d listen to me anyway). Who knows which Sharks we might lose if the league suddenly decides to tighten up on this sort of thing and throws around serious suspensions?

The genie is out of the bottle. The league won’t be able to put it in, just do damage control.

The Predators aren’t going to suddenly go back to playing hard, clean hockey. That bridge is crossed, and burnt.

The Sharks have two choices. They can step up and push back, refuse to be intimidated, and yes, that means return the favor in kind, in an eye for an eye kind of way, or they can let the Predators push them around and lose the series.

The league won’t like it, but we’re now at the point I know they don’t like to be, but it’s an inevitable side effect of the “let the boys play” mentality.

All I can say to the Sharks is this:

NO PRISONERS.

I don’t particularly enjoy this kind of hockey — this isn’t the hard hitting of Scott Stevens or Cam Neely, This is Broad Street Bully crap. But now that we’re in it, either finish it or go home.

I suggest the Sharks finish it. Let Barry Trotz whine and posture, let’s play hockey and make the Predators stop us, if they can.

To be honest? if I were Ron Wilson, I’d dress Doug Murray as a forward, and I’d put two pictures up on the board — Vokoun and Forsberg. And I wouldn’t say a word to the team before the game, let the pictures talk.

And personally, for as good a player as Forsberg is, I’m already very tired of his dirty play and stickwork, and his incessant whining every time the refs call him on the blatant penalties he’s been taking…

james mirtle: No-touch icing’s eternal advocate – A hockey journalist’s blog:

“That’s what I’d like to know. Because to me it just makes sense that they would put no-touch icing in.”

Kehl, the Caps’ communications VP, and I offer a few words in agreement.

“They’ll put it in,” I say. “It’s already in junior hockey.”

I’ve long been a supporter of the no-touch icing rule.

Over the last few months, however, I’ve talked to a lot of people about it, listened to a large number of the “hockey experts” out there discuss it, and I have to admit, I’ve changed my mind.

Part of the reason I’ve changed my mind is that the situation where a player chases down and breaks an icing IS a very exciting one in hockey, and has the potential to generate a significant scoring chance. I don’t like to see that taken out of the game if there are alternatives.

Injuries in this situation are rare — but generally very serious. It seems all or nothing here. From my study of this, it seems that almost all of this injuries occur when the contending player fouls the player that ends up getting injured — a push causing a loss of balance, a stick into the feet, a trip, a hook. In other words, actions that, once it’s clear the icing isn’t going to be broken up, are unnecessary and avoidable.

In my mind, then, injuries during the icing chase-down occur because of this “lack of respect” issue that’s cropping up all over the game — a player who intentionally puts the other player at risk, because he’s basically doesn’t care what happens to the other player, and there’s nothing in the game (other than a player scrum) to force them to care. The vast majority of situations that I looked at where an injury happened in this situation there was also a callable-penalty, and at best a careless (or openly hostile) act by a player on the other team.

So, rather than take away this play from the game, I would suggest another tactic: give players a reason to worry about injuring someone in that situation. To me, the answer is fairly simple: take a very strict enforcement here, and set up the rules so that any penalty taken during an icing situation behind the goal line is an automatic 5 minute major and a game misconduct. It doesn’t matter if the icing is washed out or not — if a player does something that is a legal penalty, and most of these sitautions seem to occur when a stick gets in the feet of the player skating to make the icing, thereby it being a trip or a hook, the player who does it is gone for the game. That will cause players to be more cautious about their play in the risk zone.

It won’t prevent fights for the puck — if a player can get into a situation where they can wash out icing safely, they can still compete. What it will reduce is the likelihood of a guy who realizes he’s beaten, so he stuffs his stick into the other guy’s feet, just because he knows there’s really no risk in doing so.

That allows us to keep this play and the excitement it can generate, but still work to improve player safety in a situation where, ultimately, a selfish or uncaring or hostile play puts them at risk. Shift the risk back onto the chasing player; put his team at risk if they try such a dangerous play, and you’ll see players get more careful, and coaches MAKE their players get more careful, without taking another step towards making hockey a no-hit game.