Congrats to Ted and the Caps
On my list for this season:
* Qualify for the playoffs – check.
* Garner 100 points or more in the regular season – check.
* Win Division title – check.
* Break all-time attendance record – check.
* Sellout all games for future season – check
* Cross 12,000 full season tickets barrier – check.
There are many items on the list still to check off but it feels good to get a jump start on the list to date.
via Teds Take » Blog Archive » Cross Another One Off the List.
I just wanted to say “Congrats” to the Caps and Ted Leonsis. They’ve been one of the great stories this season, and it’s been a lot of fun watching that team play this year, not just because they’re good, but because it’s a team that seems to like being a team and enjoy playing the game. They’ve been one of my favorites to follow out east all season, and it’s awesome that the work and time put in to build the team is being rewarded, both by success on the ice and by the fans.
What’s wrong with the Sharks?
It’s that time of the year when fans start worrying. I’ve gotten a number of emails and IM’s asking me what I thought was wrong with the Sharks.
I knew the hot start wasn’t sustainable. Well, we’re into that “not sustainable” part. Teams that play “too well” can get into bad habits, and those can make life difficult when the wins stop. The Sharks got into some bad habits, but nothing too serious. The big problem I see with them is a tendency to play to the level of the other team — and they’ve pulled a lot of games out in the third period. right now, the bounces aren’t going their way, and they’re losing some of those.
When it works, we call it “pacing ourselves for the playoffs”, and it’s a mild annoyance. When it doesn’t, it’s called a lot of things, most of them unprintable, but “not being ready for the game” is a common one. Soft starts and digging holes early, and right now, they’re not digging out of them well enough.
the injuries on the third and fourth lines are tough; add in injuries to Blake (broken jaw), Lukowich (sports hernia) and Boyle (wrist) — which have all ben played through to some degree or another, but still affect their games — and the team’s depth has been tested. it’s held up quite well, actually (I am still seriously impressed by Semenov in his fole), but there’s little margin of error in the western conference.
All in all, though, this is the “mid season” blahs, accentuated by some injuries. It’s not like the team’s sucked, it’s merely moved to pretty good. They’ve lost a few, but I see that as a good thing, in that it’ll hopefully help the refocus on the details of the system that have slipped by — and even with the recent struggle, they’ve still taken 11 points in the last ten games. This “slump” is still better than many sharks seasons I’ve watched.
And if you look around the league, similar complaints are being lodged at the Red Wings (two 8 goal allowed losses!, Dallas , Chicago, Boston, Washington and Montreal. At the same time, teams that struggled early, like Toronto and Pittsburgh, vanvouver and Nashville, have come on and are making it a playoff fight.
This kind of adversity can help the sharks; it’s bad for a team to decide winning is “easy”, because in the playoffs, it won’t e, no matter who you play. They’ll figure it out; assuming they get healthy, they’ll be fine. I don’t want to see this go on for another two weeks (if it does, I’ll start worrying), but so far, this is about what you should expect over a season. Rough patches happen. you play well the other times, and it balances out. Playinb well going into the playoffs is huge, though, so I’m a lot happier with a team than finishes well than one that plays well in November, so it’s time to see the Sharks start that solid finish.
but the biggest issue with the Sharks is lack of scoring on the third and fourth line. the secondary contributions have dried up. Where are the injuries? On the third and fourth line. Will the injuries impact us in the playoffs? I sure hope not, and the additions at the trade deadline definitely help.
So I’m not worried. Well, not yet.
Gauthier gets two games — and some cheechoo chat
This just hitting the wires — Gauthier gets two games for his hit on Patrick Marleau. Jamie Baker covered the hit well, and I agree with him. Fair suspension for a cheap hit, the kind we want removed from the game.
We really enjoyed the Sharks/Kings game. The Kings played well — and hard — and clearly felt they needed to rattle the Sharks cage to have a chance to beat them. Emotions got strong, but the Sharks didn’t back down, which was a great response and encouraging to see.
In a bit, we’ll head to the tank where the Thrashers come into town. It’ll be interesting to see what plays down, but the Sharks are seeing some of the hurt players coming back; Marcel Goc and Torrey Mitchell continue to be out, but the rest are coming back. Perhaps this “slump” is starting to end, the team’s gameplay is getting back towards what we saw early in the season.
Mark Emmon’s did a nice piece on Cheechoo and his struggles today. My feeling on Cheechoo, pretty much the only player not living up to expectations this year, is that he really needs to be both healthy and confident to play well — his skating is marginal enough that if he isn’t working at it every shift he struggles to play at the NHL level, so when he’s banged up, or when he’s not confident about his health, his production fades.
He’s trying, working hard. I have no complaints with his work this year, but we have to remember that his talent level is a lot closer to Jeff Odgers than it is Joe Thornton — and Jeff Odgers stayed in the league as long as he did not through raw talent, but by skating his butt off every night and getting his nose dirty, not by scoring lots of goals. Cheechoo has hands Odgers could only dream of, but the core of his game has to be the same: skate hard, work hard, play in the hard areas, and find the seams where his shot can get through.
As long as he keeps working at it, you’ll get no complaints from me. The Sharks have enough depth there’s no need to worry about this much.
We were talking at the last game about trade deadline deals, and Cheechoo’s name came up. He’s basically the only roster player I could see moving from the Sharks, and it’s not a priority to me that it happen (but I wouldn’t be shocked if it did). There was some feeling that Cheechoo would be perfect on the wing with Sydney Crosby. If that happens, I’d love it for Cheechoo’s sake, and it’d probably be fun to watch, because ultimately Cheechoo is Brett Hull’s hands on Jeff Odger’s baby brother’s body. I’m not convinced he’d return to his Rocket production in that situation, but having a setup guy like Crosby couldn’t hurt.
Me, I think I’d just leave this team alone. Hard to argue it needs much fixing.
Does anyone still wonder why no free agents want to play in Montreal?
Last night during the Sharks/Kings game I was checking headlines during a break in action, and ran across James Mirtle’s piece on the (at that time) breaking crisis in Montreal.
It got my attention, because it seemed to be a lot more than “gee, this kid likes to party”. Looking at the quotes from the French press, like Jaques Demers ” I swear to you, I thought about Mr. Beliveau tonight … and I just hope I’m dreaming.” or Michel Bergeron’s “it looks like the foundation is going to be shaken. Not just for the Quebecois but for anyone who wears the Canadiens sweater around the country” had me wondering just what was going down. (if you haven’t seen the details, Mirtle’s got a good overview, including how the information flowed out into the public eye, so you can get a sense of how this evolved over time).
My first speculation, honestly, was some kind of legal problem involving claims of non-consensual activities between the players and some “friends”. Maybe it’s unfair of me, but honestly, with the rumors of the partying and the history of complaints against pro athletes about unwanted companionship — whether it’s the players from Duke or Kobe Bryant or any number of quietly handled incidenents — it’s always something I worry is going to end up in the press.
Then word started to come out that a mobster was involved and the police were meeting the team at the airport. Invovled with drugs? Were the players playing mule with their gear bags? Oh, the mind wanders after a couple of coffee-and-Bailey’s… But I was expecting the worst here.
Silly me. I should have remembered that this was the Montreal French Press and stopped worrying. For all Quebec professes to love it’s Canadiens, there are far too many there who aren’t afraid to use them to grandstand and use as a target for their public rants (thereby making sure the journalists get plenty of attention, which they seem to crave). The press isn’t alone here — the police have been known to grandstand and time things to maximize the pain of the team, and let’s not forget the politicians that have been happy to jump on the Canadiens and hockey players when people aren’t paying enough attention to them (just ask Shane Doan).
So I guess I should have really expected that the real problem, the one that caused Bob Hartley to claim he was going back to Atlanta (he was kidding, but that’s the level of rhetoric here, folks) was that a couple of the Canadiens players liked to party and liked girls.
Oh, and one of their party pals happens to have organized crime connections, but there are no connections known by the police beyond partying, girls, and some bootleg vodka the guy brought in for them.
Oh, the horrors.
Yes, the French Press is at it again. We can all stand down and stop paying attention for now. Next time, we should maybe be smart enough to not pay attention to begin with.
Does anyone still wonder why the Canadiens have so much trouble keeping free agents or attracting them to the team? Who other than Saku Koivu is insane enough to want to play in a city with newspapers this hostile? And better, they’re hostile because they love the team. Ah, the irony. the bullshit, the insanity.
Now, am I saying that this is not an issue at all? No — there are some significant issues here. The players are associating with someone they should know better than be around. This kind of “not thinking clearly” seems endemic in Montreal — remember Jose Theodore? There’s a problem with players enjoying the joys of the city of Montreal a bit too much there.
That’s a tough nut to crack; you can only talk and lecture so much. Ultimately it comes down to knowing the personality of the players and only bringing in those that know how to handle the situation appropriately. Montreal has to find a way to help players learn to avoid these problems, but ultimately, this is up to the individual players themselves.
Especially in a town like Montreal, where the players not only live in a fishbowl, but one wher ethe fishbowl has a 24×7 webcam and paparazzi waiting for an unprotected moment, and writers and broadcasters who seem to want to make their names by putting these people up on pedestals and then using them for target practice.
In reality? There’s a whole lot of “nothing to see here”, other than a bunch of press and broadcasters taking a molehill and turning it into a ski resort. Here’s hoping that it stays a molehill and there aren’t more and dirtier details to be found out at the investigation continues, but right now, it seems like this whole “foundation is going to be shaken” disaster scenario is a figment of the overactive imaginations of the French Press (again) insisting on proving there’s nothing they can’t turn into front page headlines.
No wonder nobody wants to play in Montreal. With “friends” like these, would you want to?
So I guess the sharks are slumping…
I guess it’s official, the sharks are in a slump.
Of course, when we talk about slump, we’re talking about 5-1-4 in their last ten, or a mere (ahem) 14 points out of a possible 20.
Okay, in the playoffs, there are no shootouts, so should we really count those four shoot-out-loss points? Well, is it better or worse for the Sharks to continue overtime until someone scores? I’m betting that the Sharks are a better team if they go to sudden-death overtime, look at the third period onslaught tonight against buffalo. Sharks clearly would have momentum going in, last-minute goal by Buffalo or no.
So the worst possible case for the Sharks? 5-5. Best case? 9-1. split the difference? 7-3. heck, if 5-5 is a slump, I’ll be thrilled.
this is with Blake with the sore jaw, Boyle with his “upper body” injury (a wrist, I think, because he’s had little strength behind his shot, although it’s coming around). Tonight, both Boyle and Clowe were playing with the flu, also. And lukowich is out, Goc is out…
And a little glitch in the schedule is good, because it’l force them to focus and bear down on their play. If they continue with this into mid-March? I might worry. For now? this is just the dog days…
The Curious Case of Ray Whitney
Ray Whitney.
Okay, I knew that he still played in the league, so it wasn’t a surprise to see him score a goal, but every time he lights the lamp, I’m reminded of this talented player, who has been around the league since, well, it seems time immortal.
In reality, Whitney has been in the NHL since the San Jose Sharks took him in the second round of the 1991 Entry Draft. Their first selection had been Pat Falloon, and the two young guns were held up as the future of the young Sharks.
via XM204 » Blog Archive » The Curious Case of Ray Whitney.
Pat Falloon — great prospect, tore up his shoulder and was never quite the same after. Part of that was that the development environment within the Sharks wasn’t the best early on, part of it was that Falloon rode his talent instead of worked to improve it.
Whitney always had to work his butt off to succeed and never stopped. Even after the Sharks dumped him into the IHL after Al Sims declared him not an NHL player (and we all know how Al Sims was the key to the Sharks success!), he kept at it. After the NHL changed the rules to make smaller skill players more effective in the league, Whitney didn’t just survive in the NHL, he thrived.
Whitney was always one of my favorite early Sharks. And he has one quet thing he can be proud of: he is the last first-year Shark to still be playing in the NHL Long after everyone else who started out in San Jose and played in the Cow Palace years, he’s still proving himself a key cog in the NHL. congrats, Ray.
Who was the second to last first-year Shark to play in the NHL? it was Sandis Ozolinsh, which when he was drafted probably wouldn’t have surprised anyone, but he had his struggles as his career went on and some off-ice challenges, but he ended up with a long, successful career. We got to meet Sandis a couple of times, and he is an amazingly nice, shy, intelligent person.
But here’s a bit of trivia I doubt anyone will get. After Ray Whitney and Sandis, who was the next first-season Shark to be left standing in the NHL? you could possibly guess Whitney, and maybe ozolinsh, but #3 is off the charts and will be hard to figure out. it’s not an obvious one on the face of it.
It’s — Wade Flaherty — former Sharks goalie and a guy who made a long and successful career as a team’s 3rd goalie and usually found a way to be brought up for a few games every year. Flaherty finally hung them up and in 2008 worked with the Sharks on their Shanghai china sharks team, and this year was named by the Blackhawks ot be their goaltending coach. Well done, and it shows you that longevity in the league isn’t necessarily about talent, but about attitude and work ethic. (jeff jilson, take note. Oh, wait. sorry, too late).
Hockey takes backseat to tragedy in Buffalo
Several Sabres players live in Clarence Center, the suburban-rural area where the commuter flight from Newark crashed and they talked about the experience. Defenseman Teppo Numminen heard both the sound of the plane coming down and the noise from the impact. He and his wife opened the shade on the bedroom window and could see the flames and the red sky. Goalie Patrick Lalime lived even closer. Former Shark Craig Rivet lived nearby, but far enough away that he and his family weren’t aware of the 10:20 p.m. crash until they woke up this morning.
Some of the Sharks, too, reflected on their own flight difficulties in getting out of Pittsburgh, but they expressed confidence in their charter pilot, stating that the plane would not have taken off if conditions were a serious threat. The landing in Buffalo, while buffeted a little bit by high winds and with limited visibility, wasn’t that rough — though it came less than five hours ahead of the plane that crashed.
There’s a subset of fans that like to think that NHL players should be robots, simply because they get paid a lot of money. You know the time: “With the money they make, they better show up every night!” — which is nice in theory, but given these are humans (well paid or no) with human limitations and frailties, it’s going to happen.
and then once in a while something happens that reminds you how human they are. My thoughts go out to all of the Sabres players and staff and the communities they live in for what they’re going through now. The show does go on, and should — but I’ll bet it’s going to be a tough night for some of them.
If you lived close enough t the crash to realize than 10 seconds difference in how the plane came down could have landed it on your house, how would YOU feel at work the next few days?
Remember that the next time some thoughtless fan rips a player for not playing 82 “A” games because they don’t care that the guy is playing through a case of flu that’d have most of us in the hospital for a week….
Sharks looking at tampa’s Jeff Halpern?
According to Tampa Tribune beat writer Erik Erlendsson, San Jose’s John Ferguson has been scouting the Lightning for a few games and there is a rumored Sharks interest in center Jeff Halpern. The 9-year veteran and former Washington Capitals captain has 3 goals and 5 assists in 25 games played for Tampa Bay this season.
If this is true, and in ways it makes sense, it probably means that Torrey Mitchell’s setback is more serious than the sharks have admitted. Given that Mitchell hasn’t been skating since he tweaked things during his stint in Worcester, I’ve been expecting to hear he’s done for the year. this might be the indication that’s true.
Was the Sharks/Bruins game a statement game?
So was the Sharks/Bruins game last night a statement game?
I think it was, sort of. But not as much as some are making it out to be. I think San Jose made a statement because both teams brought their “A” game, and as the game went along it was clear San Jose took the upper hand and ran with it. They won and deserved to win. What means more to me in some ways, though, is that they did it on the road. I’d be a lot less impressed with the Sharks game if that game had been played in San Jose — note that San Jose and Detroit have won their home games, but are yet to “break serve” in the other’s building.
But a second look at the Bruins game showed the two teams to be pretty close in skills and capabilities. I certainly don’t think that the win last night means that San Jose would win a series against the Bruins — in fact I think that’d be a pretty darn good and close series if (or when) it happens. I’d choose San Jose to win it today, but heck, that could well change.
But in reality, any combination of San Jose, Detroit and Boston would be some pretty great hockey, and honestly, San Jose would likely have to get through Detroit to get to Boston, and I think it’s a lot harder for whatever team comes out of the West to win that final round than it will be for the eastern team. If (as I expect/hope) the western Final is Detroit/San Jose, I expect that may be the best series in the playoffs — and good luck to the survivor.
Right now, it really looks like the Cup runs through these three teams. The team I’d put in fourth would be Washington, and I’d expect one of those four to win the Cup this year, at least based on the season so far. Below them? In the west, I still like Dallas and Chicago, with Minnesota up there as well. In the east, Montreal, Philly and New Jersey.
For the west, I’m rooting for 6-7-8 to include Calgary, Columbus and Nashville. I’m still unconvinced about Vancouver (but Sundin is waking up, so I can finally end my “no-sundin” embargo here) and Los Angeles are in the mix. I expect Edmonton to fade, Colorado is packing it in, and St. Louis is working their butt off, but simply had too many injuries to overcome. Damn shame, too. My christmas gift to hockey for 2009: that the Blues stay healthy next season.
For the west, honestly, I don’t think 6-7-8 matter. Where there are 10 teams that have a chance to make noise in the west, I’m just not enthused by more than the top five in the east. Good teams, but first round outs. The west is such that there can (and probably will be) significant upsets along the way; I just hope they don’t happen to Detroit or San Jose.
And so on to Pittsburgh, which just hasn’t gotten back in the groove after last year. Sharks better watch out, I expect the pens to see this as a chance to fix things.
Lombardi on the Gauthier suspension
Here’s general manager Dean Lombardi on the suspension:
“We didn’t believe he deserved a penalty, let alone a suspension. When you stop the tape, his elbow is clearly down and at the point of contact, his feet are on the ice. They both ended up halfway up the boards, so it’s not a charge.
I understand when you see it at full speed and the way they end up on top of each other it looks more criminal than it is. When you slowed it down, was his elbow down? Yes. Were his feet on the ice at the point of impact? Yes.”
I have a lot of respect for Dean Lombardi, he did a lot of really good things with the Sharks, and he’s a great guy and I think he’s a good, solid GM.
But — you know? — sometimes he says things that make you stand back and remember that he’s a lawyer. This, here, is a lawyer speaking.
“Well, your honor, technically speaking, my client held the knife out and the deceased basically fell on it. you can’t blame my client for that”
Well, Dean, not exactly. But nice try on backing your guy. Sort of.
Chicago 4, San Jose 2. Ouch
Chicago nicely beat the Sharks last night. Good game for the Hawks, one of the teams that’s is always impressing me. The Sharks looked sluggish, but in reality, the Hawks outplayed them, I give more credit to Chicago than I take away from San Jose. I think the Sharks really missed Boyle’s ability to carry the puck last night, but the real issue was the Hawks aggressively pursuing the puck and aggressive breakout. the Sharks fought to deal with it all game.
Weird game; Hawks lost a goal to a double-minor high stick called by a linesman in the first. Since Linesmen can’t stop play for that, play continued until a whistle, that whistle happened to be after a goal. Confused the heck out of the Sharks broadcasters, but they finally sorted it out. The refs actually hauled Cheechoo back out of the locker room to examine the damage — they were lucky he didn’t have a needle and thread in his face being stitched.
So the refs got it right. Well, mostly. They were supposed to announce what was going on to the crowd and didn’t. It is also unclear if they adjusted the clock; Laurie and I watched the game from home (I caught her cold, we both kept our sniffles to ourselves) and Drew mentioned the clock at one point as not being fixed, but I don’t know whether or not they caught it. The clock definitely should have been returned to the time of infraction.
Amusingly enough, the Sharks announcered talked a lot about how they didn’t know the rules and and never seen something like this before. Kind of marvelled at the refs ability to know things to this level (well, that’s their JOB). I knew the rule (because I have no life and I spend it reading rulebooks, I guess) although I couldn’t have quoted number and page out of the book.
Then, later on NHL network Larry Murphy talked about this and did the “maybe the NHL needs to fix this” because of the play going on and then the goal being called back.
Um, Larry? the system worked. It’s a situation that pretty much everyone agrees is quite rare; I’ve probably seen it once before over the years, maybe twice (maybe). The refs got it right (except for the “explain it to the crowd” part). So what’s to fix? And why is the first reaction to anything that “something has to be done”?
Seriously — if it’s a situation that nobody can remember the last time it happened, a situation where the refs got it right, and the end result was appropriate, and nobody died, what’s to fix? And why the kneejerk reaction that it has to be?
I don’t get it. And in general, I think Murphy does a good job on NHL network, but this is a classic symptom of an attitude in the hockey media I think the media needs to step back and think hard about. Edge cases and weird things happen. When they do, if the system worked, it’s not a reason to change the system.
One more home game and on to the big sharks road trip.
Avs have another donut : All Things Avs Colorado
And, make no mistake, our fair-haired boys were the victims of a horrible call tonight by Don “Have another donut, you fat pig” Koharski.
Okay, how many years ago was this? And how many years has Koharski reffed since then? And yet Dater pulls this out and tosses it around like the cheap shot it was? Sorry, Adrian, you’re a better writer than this. You really want folks to remind you of something you did 20 years ago every time you get a name wrong in a column?
This is, frankly, pretty lame, and something I’d expect from someone like Al Strachan, not a real journalist.
San Jose Sharks – News: Nabokov Sets Shutout Mark – 01/30/2009
San Jose netminder Evgeni Nabokov shut out the Phoenix Coyotes 2-0 on Thursday night and in the process set a new Sharks regular season shutout record of 170:10. The streak began before the NHL’s All-Star break in the first period against Vancouver on January 20.
via San Jose Sharks – News: Nabokov Sets Shutout Mark – 01/30/2009.
It clearly wasn’t San Jose vs. Detroit — an enjoyable game, good energy, but definitely more trench warefare. I went to the game with a friend, and we talked about it on the way and I said that Phoenix was the kind of team who’s work ethic can give teams fits — and they did. The Sharks had the best of the play, but serious trouble penetrating for good scoring chances, and Bryzgalov was quite good.
Nabby, however, was better — he’s on a real roll right now, and hwne he does that, watch out. One aspect is that no matter what, there’s a Shark there grabbing and clearing rebounds, so Nabby can focus on taht first save and not have to think about being in position for a second. That allows Nabby to take more chances on the first — and it’s working. He’s had some just shutdown saves, ones that just leave the other team deflated and wondering.
It seems that the Sharks are a bit bored with merely winning everything at home and almost everything on the road. They seem to be gearing up the 2nd have planning to simply not allow anyone to score. Let’s see how far they can take it. Saturday should be fun!
One Shark I think deserves some recognition right now is Alexei Semenov. He was a marginal player last season, but worked his butt off in the offseason to improve his game. I’ve been told by folks in the locker room he put on 20 pounds and dropped his body fat — if you see him close up, it’s hard to dispute those numbers, even given everyone’s propensity in the league to lie about height, weight and how much they can bench press. He’s RIPPED. and what I find amazing is that he did that knowing he was slotted in as the 7th D and a part time player.
What he’s done is earn his way to a regular spot and significant minutes. And he’s still basically a depth player, so that kind of committment just isn’t noticed by most fans, but I’ve been watching him the last few games, and he’s really turned his game around. The early season decision by McLellan to show confidence in him and skate him at forward has done wonders. The coaches trust him, he believes in himself, and the team trusts him, too. He’s being more aggressive offensively, more physical defensively, and he’s been a non-trivial part of why, despite injuries to the defense, the Sharks haven’t missed a beat.
Derek Joslin, the new kid, is improving every game. He’s solid, and starting to show he’s feeling more comfortable.
And finally, the Claude Lemieux watch. He’s still playing limited minutes, he’s still doing nothing to suggest he SHOULDN’T be here on a fourth line, and that alone impresses me. I didn’t notice him much against Phoenix, but that’s not a criticsm. A lot of his job is to not be noticed, because when the fourht line is noticed, a lot of the time it’s because someone’s fishing the puck out of their own net. That’s not happening.
The Sharks seem to be getting back on a roll. If this was their slump, watch out.
Dead athletes’ brains show damage from concussions – CNN.com
using tissue from retired NFL athletes culled posthumously, the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) is shedding light on what concussions look like in the brain. The findings are stunning. Far from innocuous, invisible injuries, concussions confer tremendous brain damage. That damage has a name: chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
CTE has thus far been found in the brains of five out of five former NFL players. On Tuesday afternoon, researchers at the CSTE will release study results from the sixth NFL player exhibiting the same kind of damage.
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“What’s been surprising is that it’s so extensive,” said Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts, and co-director of the CSTE. “It’s throughout the brain, not just on the superficial aspects of the brain, but it’s deep inside.”
CSTE studies reveal brown tangles flecked throughout the brain tissue of former NFL players who died young — some as early as their 30s or 40s.
McKee, who also studies Alzheimer’s disease, says the tangles closely resemble what might be found in the brain of an 80-year-old with dementia.
“I knew what traumatic brain disease looked like in the very end stages, in the most severe cases,” said McKee. “To see the kind of changes we’re seeing in 45-year-olds is basically unheard of.”
via Dead athletes’ brains show damage from concussions – CNN.com.
Okay, we’re getting proof this is pretty serious crap. Can we PLEASE get beyond the “heh heh, bell rung. shake it off and get out there” mentality and do something? Bluntly, if there’s an argument against fighting in hockey, THIS is it. As I’ve said before, I really want to see the league get serious about attacks to the head — but it’s hard to rationalize that position with fighting in the league. You can’t hit someone in the head, unless you take your gloves off first?
At the same time, it has to be done in a way that preserves the physicality of the sport. And the tradeoffs there are tough ones, it’s not as simple as outlawing hits to the head or trying to do away with fighting.
But because it’s tough doesn’t imply it shouldn’t be tackled. Just that the answers aren’t as simple as many fans and media types want to portray it to be.
Something I just realized about All-Star Weekend
I’m listening to XM radio, and they just led in with Paul kelly opening his press conference where they announced they weren’t re-opening the CBA (good move!). With him were six players, including Joe Thornton and Vincent Lecevallier. Also with him were some other NHLPA officials including Glen Healy.
And listening to it, I suddenly realized there was a big name missing.
Where’s Eric Lindros, NHLPA Ombudsman? There were rumors of friction between Kelly and Lindros a couple of months ago, but they quieted down, and since then, not much.
But — now that I think about it — I can’t think of any reference or sighting of Lindros at the All-Star Weekend. Anyone know if he was there?
Because it sure looks, given that he wasn’t included in a very important set of meetings at THE in-season get-together for the NHL and the NHLPA, that he’s been purged or exiled.
Anyone seen Eric Lindros recently?
The only reference I can find of him is his speaking at the Concussion symposium. Lindros simply isn’t talking about it. Kelly is merely saying “Lindros continues to work for the NHLPA”. But clearly, something is going on here, because Lindros really should have been at that press conference, and not only wasn’t, doesn’t seem to have been mentioned.
Hmm.
Politically incorrect as usual: I enjoyed the All-Star Game
There. I said it. I know that’s an unpopular opinion in some places, where it seems it’s better to say nothing at all than actually compliment the National Hockey League, but what the hell.
I have gotten really, really tired of the hyper-serious criticism of the All-Star game. It’s far from perfect, but from listening to some of the pundits, it needs to be taken as seriously as the Cup Final, and the fact that it isn’t is some kind of felony that folks should go to jail over. Or something.
Honestly, here’s how these folks sound to me: It’s just a meaningless exhibition, but if the NHL doesn’t fix it and make it relevant and force players to treat it like a real NHL game then they all suck and the league should just fail and be done with it. And this game is really for the fans, but the fans are too stupid to be trusted with the voting; god forbid, tehy’re actually voting for who they want in the game and not the players we, the media, say should be there. So we need to prevent the fans from actually getting involved in this.
Yeah, right. Really, a lot of the media griping about the game and the action surrounding it are both taking this stuff WAY too seriously, and taking themselves way too seriously as well. I suggest the best way to improve the All-Star game is for a bunch of these people to just chill out. Not that they will.
I think it’s important to put the game in its proper context. What IS the All-Star game, or what is it supposed to be? Here’s what I think the key aspects of the game are:
- It is a chance to give most of the players in the league a much needed break and some rest in the middle of a six-month grueling marathon.
- It is a chance for the league to throw one hell of a party, celebrating itself and throwing a party for the fans and for the people involved with the league: media and sponsors especially. They are the people who paid a good chunk of the bills, so if nothing else, creating a place to bring them in and let them have a good time once a year is a good thing to do.
- It is a chance to humanize and promote the players, and to show off aspects of the league you don’t necessarily see on a daily basis in games — it’s a real showcase for the skill within the game and the people who make the game special.
- It is a chance for a city and a team to promote itself and bring a fun and exciting event to its fans.
- It is a chance for some of the players to get together in a non-competitive situation and get to know each other and have some fun — and learn from each other and share the experience of the game away from the “must win” competitive pressures.
It is a chance to showcase the game to non-fans, both within the host city, and secondarily to the rest of the continent.
Notice that “showcase to non-fans” comes WAY down my list of priorities here; dead last, in fact. Having fun is part of the intent of the game on many levels, for the players (especially), for the sponsors and media that are involved in marketing and covering it, for the fans, especially fans in the hosting city. Montreal packed 21,000 screaming, happy fans in that arena two nights in a row, and the number of fans involved in various activities for the weekend was well over 100,000 — and they seemed to be loving it. The building both night seems buzzing with energy. The players were having a lot of fun, and a good time was had by most. Most excluding, from what I can tell, mostly media types who were taking this all so seriously and seem unable to allow folks to have a good time.
That’s the big hint here: this is a freaking party. And that’s how much of this criticism strikes me — we’re at a beach at the party, and some folks pull out a net and a volleyball and get a game going, and everyone has a good time. Except for the two guys standing on the side complaining that, like, these players aren’t even TRYING to spike the ball or block a shot, and that sucks.
It’s not the party or the game that’s the problem, it’s those two guys who have a problem. They’re taking it way too seriously. Unfortunately, those two guys have a newspaper column or a TV spot, and so people don’t hear about all the fun everyone’s having there, they mostly hear the whining about things. Put it back in perspective, folks.
Now, that doesn’t mean the All-star weekend can’t be improved. Anything can be improved. Except maybe my writing, which is of course prefect. Given that, what would I do?
One of the big gripes about the All-Star is the voting. Personally, I don’t see a problem, if this came is truly “about the fans”, with the fans getting excited and involved in choosing players. it seems silly to say “we want the people in the game that the fans want to see” and then complain about who they choose, but what the heck. I’ve been hearing and reading people trying to “fix” this problem coming up with “solutions” that so complicate things you need a lawyer and an actuary to sort out the answers, but they all boil down to letting fans vote without really counting those votes. Yeah, that’s a great solution.
I think we can defuse this with a couple of simple changes:
- First, change the voting slightly. Instead of voting for the starters in the East and West, have them vote for one forward, one defenseman, and one goalie in both the east and the west. Call them the fan favorites or something, and they are sent to the All-Star game. After that, the coaches, GMs, league officials and players get together and choose the rest of the rosters. Fans can go crazy voting, but they send fewer players to the game and those players aren’t necessarily starters. I doubt the fans will mind — I KNOW they’ll mind a lot less than some of these suggestions where fan voting is diluted and only counted 40% and whatever other convolutions we get in the way.
- Second, change the skills competition. Right now, the skills competition is populated by players who are also All-Stars. I want to see the fastest skaters there, not the skaters who are the fastest All-stars. So as part of the selection process, include players who may not play in an All-Star game, but deserve to be there to compete in the competitions.
- Third, include the requirement that all teams be represented, but that this representation is spread out across all events on the weekend — Skills competitions, Young Stars, and the All-Star game. By the time we’re done, we’ll be roughly doubling the size of the rosters, and between that and reducing the number of players chosen by fans to start the All-Star game, it shouldn’t be hard to get the worthy players into the games and the best competitors for the different events and have all of the teams have representatives to root for.
Those changes will increase participation and remove most of the points people complain about in putting together All-Star rosters, without creating new complications or exclusions. All fans have team members to root for during the weekend, the fan choices cna be there, and wee can still make sure the best players and the players that most deserve the recognition get to the weekend and get that recognition.
As to the format, I wouldn’t change it too much. I like the two day, multi-event format. I do miss the Legends game, which has been replaced by the Young Stars. I like the Young Stars, also, so here’s my suggestion:
- Day 1: Skills Competitions and Young Stars. This year’s format for day one seemed pretty good, so I wouldn’t change it.
- Day 2: start the day with a return to the Legends game in some form: say, two 15 minutes periods. I also think you could have some fun and do a 15 minute period between the media and the coaches — there are enough ex-NHLers in both camps to make it interesting to fans, and I, for one, would love to see the reaction of the crowd when a coach skates down Pierre McGuire and puts an elbow into him in the corner. Just for fun, you know.Just think of it, we could have Glen Healy and Darren Pang as starting goalies, with Kelly Hrudey and Wayne Thomas cleaning up. If they want, they can sit in chairs and wave their sticks at stuff — I won’t mind.
End result: four events, two each days, two events showcasing today, one each showcasing the future and honoring the past. A good time will be had by all, except, as usual, the goalies. And even Luongo seemed to enjoy getting his jock repeatedly stolen tonight, so perhaps the goalies are figuring it out, too.
Do you really feel this game should “mean something”? Even though it’s an exhibition and a party? Cool. For each event, the league and the players association put up $50,000 each, to be donated to the charities chosen by the winning team members. That’s $400,000 going to charity based on how well the teams play. That’s more than enough to get the players motivated to win, but not something that will make them do things that might get them hurt or piss off their coaches when they get back home after this. And the charities win, and the league and PA win because they’re contributing to help people in need. The good PR and goodwill this could generate would be huge, yet it still keeps the game in perspective for what it is: part of a big party where the league is celebrating itself and doing away with the competitive pressures and stress of the long season for a few days.
Everyone wins. Everyone has a good time. Nobody gets hurt. And then the players go back to work and start trying to kick each other’s butts for another few months. But for a few days, everyone lets their hair down, forgets the stress and grind, and has a good time.
Well, except for those two guys whining that the players aren’t even TRYING, and that SUCKs.
Of course they aren’t. That’s the point. What part of having fun don’t these guys understand? And why does everything in the universe have to have some reason to it, or some “winner”, or some purpose? Isn’t having fun enough?
To me, it is. Hell, I was sitting five rows up, right on the goal line when Owen Nolan pointed. You think I’m ever going to forget that?
And do you think Nolan would have done that if the game had really mattered? Of course not. And that’s the point. The most important thing we can do to “fix” the All-Star game isn’t fixing the All-Star game, it’s for us to stop paying so much attention to the people who can’t see the All-Star game for what it is (a fun party) and insist on trying to turn it into something serious, something that “counts” or “matters”. Hell with that, toss me that volleyball and get me a beer, ya know? If you don’t know how to have fun, don’t come to the party and try to ruin it for the rest of us.
‘High hits’ rule could help stem NHL concussion tide
The reason why the NHL and its players are resisting a simple ban on all hits to the head is this: Bodychecking is part of hockey, and it isn’t just for show or intimidation. Defending in hockey depends on playing the body. Playing the puck is too risky, because skilled players can move it around and leave you chasing air. You defend by stopping the puck-carrier with body contact as far from your net as possible.
To successfully do this, you must keep yourself positioned between the attacker and your net. This requires a specific angle of approach and perfect timing or the player will get past you. So what happens if his head is in front of his body in your line of approach? There is no way to avoid hitting it. Or what if he falls at the last second? There is no time to stop or change your trajectory.
However, I believe there are ways to eliminate the problem of hits to the head. Here is my proposal, fully explained:
1. Create a rule banning “high hits” the way we ban high sticks. A high hit could be defined as:
a) Any time a player leaves his feet to make a check;
b) Any part of the checker’s arm being extended above his own shoulder prior to or at the moment of impact;
c) All contact with another player’s head by anything other than a shoulder.
via TheStar.com | Sports | `High hits’ rule could help stem NHL concussion tide.
There are some really good ideas on dealing with the problems of hits to the head here, from a former player who ended his career with a concussion.
I’ve been thinking down similar lines, but I think you can define it in simpler terms — Extend the ban on high sticking to include the arm from the hand to the elbow. Any hit to the head by a hand, forearm or elbow is a penalty. (personally, I’d love to see this penalty, and high sticking, upgraded to be a minimum double-minor, with five minutes for blood drawn or injury, and match for intent to injure, but that’s a secondary argument).
Force players to learn to keep their arms down, the way high sticking forces them to keep their sticks down. encourage hitting, but make it clear hits are done body to body using the shoulder. By outlawing the”forearm shivver” and the guys who lead with high elbows, you’ll solve the worst of the injury-causing hits. That these hits are generally seen as dirty, and I doubt anyone wants to argue that an elbow to the jaw is a “hockey play”, makes this a reasonable path to pursue, without markedly changing the game or reducing the physical aspects.
In many ways it IS simply an extension of high sticking; the forearm and elbox are as dangerous as sticks, and really have no purpose being in that position for a hit, other than a guy trying to hurt or injure a player.
I also like his idea of tightening up late hits by making it clear what the parameters are. In hockey terms, one second is a long time, more than enough to recognize the puck has left and pull up on the hit. I’m all for it.
A game of glorified shinny
So what to do about the NHL All-Star Game, which started as a nice idea (as a fund-raiser for the injured Ace Bailey in February, 1934) and once upon a time, actually bore a reasonable facsimile to the way the game of hockey is played: With passion, intensity and in a hard-edged physical manner.
Now of course it’s an entirely different animal – a game of glorified shinny that some players choose to skip if at all possible. It’s seen by them as one more obligation in a season that stretches endlessly for the very best teams – from the September start up to the June celebrations, if you’re lucky enough to be the last team standing.
the NHL network, which is the background noise here in my office when I’m working at the computer and there’s nothing else on, has been showing the 1980 All-Star game from Detroit this evening. That’s the one that was Howe’s last and Wayne’s first, with Phil and Tony Esposito, Larry Robinson, Marcel Dionne (my guy!) and Bossy and Gainey and Shoenfeld and a bunch of others, most of whom you’ve probably heard of and many of whom are significant players in today’s hockey management on various teams.
Funny thing is, watching this game, what do I see? A bunch of players skating at 3/4 speed, maybe stick-checking, effectively no physical play, no body checks, no significant forechecking, and lackluster defense.
Sound familiar? Yeah, it sounds a lot like the modern-day All-Star games everyone is whining about and complaining that they aren’t like they used to be in the old days. The only difference I see is the score: there is, in fact, a bit more of an attempt at defending the slot — but mostly what I see different about that game from recent All-Star games is that modern All-Stars are a lot faster skaters, and when you’re skating at 3/4 speed, it’s a lot easier for a faster skater to go around you, so there’s more undefended high-percentage shots. No wonder there’s more scoring now.
But it sure doesn’t look to me like the players then were playing anything close to a “real” NHL game, and it sure isn’t the kind of physical fest you’d expect with guys like Bill Barber in the game. it looks like — gasp — an All-Star game.
you don’t suppose that, just maybe, the problem is over time people have come to remember the All-Star games as better than they really were? The big difference I’m seeing is that players then played at 3/4 speed on both offense and defense, while today’s players are ramping it up on offense in the game — and honestly, unless you want Craig Ludwig to come out of retirement, is there any player in Montreal that’s going to go down in front of a shot to block it this weekend?
It really looks to me taht the only significant difference between this year and 30 years ago is that the players today are faster and better shooters, not that the players in the earlier games cared more or worked harder…
Well, not exactly…. (Gary Bettman has put a black eye onto the All Star Weekend)
Gary Bettman has put a black eye onto the All Star Weekend. Friday afternoon, he announced that players chosen to the All Star Game who are chosen to play in the All Star Game and cite an injury as a reason to not play in the All Star Game must either attend the non-game schmooze fest part of the weekend or miss at least one game either before or after the All Star break. Effectively, this suspends players for the first game after the break who decided not to attend the event.
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There are several reasons why these suspensions are unfair. The first is that they apply only to players chosen to the All Star roster and not the Young Stars roster.
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Second, there is significant precedent for players opting out of the All Star Game. It has been happening for years. Some fans and the league complained, but nothing had been done to punish those players.
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This is all problematic because it is an example of Gary Bettman trying to expand the power of the commissioner. There is no precedent for suspending players who miss a league event.
via KuklasKorner : The Puck Stops Here : All Star Game Suspensions.
The only problem with this commentary is that it’s not true.
The rule isn’t new. It is, in fact, a clause in the standard player contract, which means it was part of the negotiation of the CBA with the Player’s Association. Paul Kelly confirmed that in Montreal today, in fact. And this wasn’t exactly a surprise, Gary Bettman noted today that GMs were warned before the season started that the league was tired of players taking advantage of the league cutting them slack and that they were looking at clamping down on this. So the teams really have no excuse to be surprised. Some of the players that have taken advantage of not going to the All-Star game (Brodeur, for instance) did, in fact, not play in the first game after the break, although it wasn’t portrayed as a suspension. I’m not sure if Luongo did the same without doing the research.
This is a rule that’s been in existance for a number of years. The league has shown some discretion in enforcing it — and as a result, more and more players abused the situation, and now the league is cracking down. This is Gary Bettman’s problem how? oh, right. all problems are caused by Gary Bettman.
And in fact, Bettman also said today that the current rules don’t include the young stars in the requirement to attend, and that he will discuss this with the board of governors and that will likely change for next season. So the reason Mason and some of the Young Stars aren’t in Montreal is because Bettman wasn’t being arbitrary about the rules and wouldn’t change them without going through the formal processes — exactly the opposite of what he’s being accused of here. Gee. A little research does wonders some days…
The players want a partnership with the teams in working together to make the league better and more successful (and richer?). Well, you can’t cherry pick WHEN you want to be partners. And part of marketing the game is, well, marketing the game, and that includes showing up at the All Star weekend and doing the press thing and the sponsor thing and making the fans happy. Because isn’t that what both sides are supposed to be about?
Well, I guess not when it’s inconvenient.
By the way, there’s a more subtle, secondary issue here: replacing one of the Red Wings was San Jose’s Patrick Marleau, who went willingly and happily (and last-minute-ly. oh, never mind..) as a replacement. With San Jose and Detroit in a tight, really tight battle for the Presidents Cup and first seed in the west, one could make an argument that the Wings are impacting the Cup race by holding back their players without a good reason and instead causing a Shark to go in the place of one of them — thereby resting their player, and causing a Shark to miss out on his days off.
So what if Marleau pulls a groin two weeks from now? What if the Wings end up winning the President’s Cup by a cople of points? An argument could be made — these two teams are THAT closely matched — that if the Wings had held to their obligation and Marleau had stayed home and rested as originally decided, maybe it would have been different.
So it may seem like a trivial issue, but the fact is these players are in violation of their contracts — AND it has some interesting wrinkles in the way it could potentially impact how the teams finish down the stretch. Of course, people who write about hockey don’t need to worry about those kinds of details — but Gary Bettman does.
Fixing the All-star game (well, not really)
I can’t take credit for this idea, but I dig it and I’m going to tell you all about it anyway. I read this suggestion somewhere yesterday as I was browsing the various blogs where Wing haters were sobbing about this and this. I’ll try to track down who mentioned it yesterday and give credit where it’s due. Also, it’s been done before…back when hockey was hockey and Gary wasn’t in the picture.
Here’s the idea: Next year, when the Wings are defending their twelfth Stanley Cup title? Select an All Star team who will play the Cup Champs.
via KuklasKorner.
I have a couple of problems with this.
First, yes, the league did this before. Yes, All-star games back then were more intensely played games. The problem I have is that nobody can actually show that going back to this old format will actually bring back the old intensity. It just seems there’s this big “and magically, everything is fixed” box in the flowchart here. I don’t buy it, I don’t believe it. We shouldn’t make changes just because.
More important to me, though, is how a change like this can and will affect the real games. What was one of the major speculation points going into this season? Yes — how the Detroit Red Wings would cope with and overcome the “Stanely Cup Hangover” and how most of the recent teams have struggled with it (look at Pittsburgh this year; that hangover is at least part of their problem).
So what’s the plan here? Take the team what’s played the most hockey, the hardest hockey, and when the entire league gets a few days off to rest and get ready for the 2nd half of the season, make the entire team play a hockey game against the league all-stars. Of course, even though it’s an exhibition, we’re expecting them to play hard and physical, make it a “real” game, even though it’s an exhibition, because that’s the point of this change.
In other words, take the team likely most in need of rest across the break, and instead of having a couple of their players (well, this year, NONE, but I don’t blame the Wings for pulling that stunt) involved, have the entire team involved.
How is this good for the game of hockey? How is this remotely good for the team involved? Why do we even want to consider making it HARDER for a champion to repeat a second time — and that’s exactly what this idea would do. Heck, we get back to back cup winners so often, let’s throw another obstacle in their way.
This is simply a bad idea. It’s a “I remember the good parts of the 70′s, if we just do that, everything will be great” concept. The problem is, when you start looking at what the idea means in the larger context of the game today, it has a lot of negatives, and it’s a bad deal for the team and for the league. Fixing an exhibition by messing up the real season seems like a bad tradeoff to me. The players need this time off to rest up and heal; taking a player or two from each team to play in the All-Star is one thing. Taking the entire team and throwing away their downtime? I can’t see any team seriously going with that idea without a fight.
Especially since there’s no real reason to believe that it’d fix the problem people seem to be trying to fix, which is that this is an exhibition, and the players play like it is. Just swapping the players around won’t change that basic reality — just as moving to the North America vs. the World format didn’t a few years back. Honestly, does this really need fixing in the first place?
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