Paring down goalie equipment seems to be the continuing story this season. We came into the season with the usual suspects whining about the goalies having an unfair advantage, and the GM's meeting seems to have done nothing else but discuss the state of the gear.
Even former members in good standing of the "Goaltenders Union", Darryl Rheaugh and Brian Hayward, have said the goalie equipment needs to be cut down to size. Bet that makes them popular in the goalie's corner of the locker room!
But before all those people who want to turn the tables and go after the guy *in* the mask with a chain saw, some things to think about:
1. The NHL doesn't live in a vaccuum: I know this may come as a surprise to the GMs and various NHL columnists, but there's a whole bunch of hockey out there that isn't NHL. If the NHL cuts back on the gear to the point where a number of goalies decide that playing in Europe beats taking multiple bone bruises, the game *will* suffer. Oh, Europe will fall in line, just like university hockey and all the other ways to the NHL not in the system? Really? How about the World Junior champsionships, the World Hockey Championships, heck the Olympics? Do the NHL GMs still think the rest of the hockey world rolls over and pees for them? There's peeing going on, that's for sure, but I'm not seeing a lot of rolling over these days.
2. Who's paying for this party? Okay, so you cut the pads down to 10 inches or some clever boy comes up with a way to wrap the leg pads around the shins, and they cut the glove size and the blocker size, etc. If the NHL does get their way and it somehow magically ripples through the hockey system, there's a bunch of hockey equipment that suddenly is of no use. I guess the NHL GMs, and those ex-goalie color analysts all make enough money that if they have to swap out their kid's equipment, hey no hassle. Maybe after changing the rules, they'll switch their little goalies to center or something! But for real people, goalie gear is a serious expense, and even if the local league is helping to foot the bill, someone is going to have to pay for all that new equipment. Better get your PR people on this in advance, because the first tearful hockey mom on HNIC, and you all look like throughtless creeps.
3. "But it looked good in the photos": If you skate too close to the edge of biometric data (you're doing biometric data, right? right?) someone at either end of the spectrum is going to get hurt, maybe because the pretection wasn't big enough, maybe because someone forgot that as they cut the width and the height of the pads, maybe the ability to absorb shock goes down in a non-linear fashion (oops!). And since no one was thinking about sizing the equipment down, it works fine for adults, but the kids start getting linear fractures of their tibia. All I'm seeing are a bunch of people who are running like mad towards "we must make it harder for the goalies to tend goal", and not thinking about the consequences.
And that's the thing--the GMs are running towards a "solution", not to original problem ("fans want more scoring--how do we get more scoring?), but to one of the contributing factors. Why aren't we seeing any evidence that someone actually thought about this?
The Washington Capitals have relieved Glen Hanlon of his coaching duties and named Bruce Boudreau the team’s interim head coach, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today.
Congrats to Boudreau! In the word of hockey trivia you didn't know you didn't know, Boudreau is another of the San Francisco Spiders alumni to actually have a career after working with the team. He was originally hired as an assistant coach under Jean "that's now how we do it in the NHL" Perron. There was some kind of falling out early, and he was "re-assigned" into a role as a roving scout. What that entailed I was never sure of, other than it seemed to require that he never actually be in the same city as the team for the entire season.
Lucky him, he missed most of the fun watching the team implode...
Yes, the coach of the Spiders for its one year of existence was Jean Perron, former coach of the Montreal Canadiens, and as far as I can tell, the only coach of an NHL hockey team to win a Stanley Cup and get fired before the next season started. His favorite phrase around the Spiders offices seemed to be "that's now how we do it in the NHL"; to which the general response was "Jean, you're not in the freaking NHL, or hadn't you noticed?"
Actually, it was mostly said behind his back. He was a bit.... touchy... to work around based on our discussions with everyone who were in the offices all of the time.
Seeing Boudreau pop up into the NHL again got me thinking about the Spiders and some of the people involved with the team. I found the roster here on hockeydb.com.
The roster is this fascinating mixture of ex-sharks (trying to capitalize on the fans name recognition), career IHLers looking for one last shot, a few youngsters seeing this as a way to push their careers and some projects from the Montreal Canadiens organization that Perron convinced them to let him have.
Link Gaetz (mentioned the other day) was well on his way past his ability to play hockey at a high level, he only suited up for three games. His fight with alcohol in his life is well-known, unfortunately, alcohol kept winning. When he was with the Sharks, he as almost a prototype of the kind of player you now see in the league with Brashear or Laraque -- big, bruising, tough and could actually play some pretty decent hockey. When the knuckles weren't swollen and bleeding, he had pretty decent hands, and could have had a pretty good career. Unfortunately, off-ice he was pretty much a basket case, and when he had the car accident, that pretty much defined his life and ended any serious NHL career change; it happened around 10AM when the car he was in exited the freeway at way too high a speed and lost control. Gaetz was ejected (no seatbelt) and tried to pulp his brain on the asphalt -- and almost succeeded. The accident was alcohol-related (yes, that early in the morning), but the alcohol may also have helped Gaetz survive by keeping him limp during the ejection and landing. He was passenger, not driver, by the way. There were questions at the time, given the severity of the brain damage, whether he'd walk again. He did, but his skating was never the same; by the time he was with the Spiders, he simply didn't have the mobility any more, he was basically a "stand up and swing" type of guy like Dave Brown.
I normally don't link to fight videos but this one *is* the Linkster; a classic bout between him and Probert at the Cow Palace. Look very closely as Link exits the arena at the end of the clip, and you'll see Laurie and myself -- our seats were right next to the team tunnel.
The stories about Link in San Jose are legion -- no other player was such a fan favorite in the early days, or so legendary, and while much of what you hear through the fan grapevine on most players is bullshit, with the Linkster, you could see it happening. It's not unusual for some players to get a rep for howling at the moon a bit, but Link had the reputation for climbing trees to try to beat the moon up because it was staring at him... The only other player with the Sharks that had that kind of "did you hear what he did this time?" rep among the fan rumor mill was Brent Myhres...
Linkster only played 3 games for the Spiders -- and had 38 PIM. That pretty much sums it up.
Sandis Ozolinsh also played for the Spiders; it was the year after the lockout that the Spiders came into existence, and Sandis was holding out for a new contract. He played two games for the team, and scored the first goal in franchise history -- then signed a contract with the Sharks, drove south 90 minutes, and suited up in teal again, and scored the Sharks first goal of that season. That's probably a record that won't be matched soon...
Other ex-sharks? Dale Craigwell, who was a really promising center for the team early on, until he broke his ankle badly; his major asset was speed, it never fully recovered, and he ended up with the Spiders and played admirably, but he's another player that injuries hurt a promising career.
Also on the team -- Robin Bawa, who also played for the Ducks, and was one of my favorite early Sharks. Not the most talented guy, but was willing to do whatever it took, including fight, although he wasn't particularly good at it. The kind of lunchbox/character guy teams need. David Maley, who played for the team primarily because he was trying to start up a hockey business in San Jose and wanted the publicity. He's now a Shark part-time broadcaster when Jamie Baker isn't in town, and his Rollin' Ice is doing just fine.
Ed Courtenay was most notable for his lack of speed. One of the most infamous calls in hockey was by Dennis Hull (who did color for the Sharks early on...) when a puck kicked free and Randy Hahn called out "It's a breakaway!" and Hull responded "No, it's Courtenay!" -- and he was right. He got caught. But Courtenay had a good minor league career, and was closing it out with the Spiders.
Mike Lalor was another guy who wandered through San Jose for a bit, then came back with the Spiders until the Dallas Stars took him on. And Jeff Madill was a Sharks cup of coffee and minor leaguer who came and played for the Spiders. He was one of the team's clothes-hounds (along with Ian Boyce), and would have given Drew a run for "best dressed" most of the time. He was also the one player who not only was very aware of the photographers around the rink, but would smooth the wrinkles out of his jersey before a faceoff if he thought someone was going to take photos. Seriously. Martha Jenkins (SF Chronicle, SF Giants) was the official team photographer (and hockey seriously scared the crap out of her, I'm not sure she ever got comfortable being inside the glass shooting -- don't blame her, either), but Laurie and I had full press passes, and she did a lot of photography as well -- so she got very familiar with Madill's ability to get in a picture and get out the wrinkles...
Madill finally retired, and last we heard, was selling cars somewhere in the midwest. Good, solid minor league hockey player, and I'll bet his suits still have no wrinkles....
And that's probably enough for now, but since I mentioned Laurie's photography, it means I probably need to write about how she ended up scouting goalies for Ian Boyce, and the night Dan Shank tried to pick her up -- while the game was going on.
Boyle was injured in the Lightning locker room when distracted while hanging up his skates. A skate slipped off of the hook and hit him in his left wrist, cutting a tendon.
He was to have surgery on Sunday and will be out of action for several weeks.
been a lot of weird injuries and freak accidents this pre-season. Is this about the time Tampa management calls in a priest?
What next, a player blinded by an overflying seagull?
Sources tell TSN Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mark Bell has been suspended indefinitely without pay after being placed into stage two of the NHL's substance abuse program.
In order to be reinstated, Bell will require the recommendation of program doctors along with the approval of both the National Hockey League and the NHLPA.
OH, MY.
Doesn't stage two imply this is his second time into the abuse program? I'm also unclear on whether this is tied to the conviction, or if some other event has cropped up. It seems -- unlikely -- that Bell would have gone to the work to schedule his jail time around the season if there was some understanding that the league was going to suspend him for this, no?
Life gets more complicated for Bell -- and for the Leafs. Sharks fans appreciate this isn't their problem any more, but -- no, no joy at other people's problems.
I've been exploring Facebook a fair amount recently. Laurie and I have been involved with and managing online communities since (it seems) forever, and it's fascinating to see how the new technologies make this possible and easy (well, easier). Facebook is the big "new puppy" in this space, for good reason (and for those looking to build their own, check out Ning)
With hockey season getting ready to gear up (DROP THE DAMN PUCK ALREADY), there's been some recent interest in hockey over on facebook -- they've created a group for NHL fans and it has pointers to groups for each of the NHL teams. The one for the San Jose Sharks is here.
What caught my eye is the relative sizes. The Sharks group has 1700 members, while the Coyotes only as 200 and the Capitals 300 (at the time of writing this). The Canadian groups, on the other hand, are exploding: Toronto 15,800, Ottawa 15,500, Calgary 11,100, Edmonton 12,400, Montreal a measly 8,450. The only US team taht comes close to these numbers is -- no, not detroit, definitely not Philly, and certainly not the Rangers: It's Buffalo, with 11,100. Obviously has something to do with the proximity to the border -- and maybe a lack of anything else to do during those lake effect snows...
If you're not on Facebook, maybe you should give it a try -- it's amazing how far we've come from the days when Laurie and I ran mailing lists for most of the NHL teams off of a Linux server in the back room, and how much more you can do within the community. If you are on Facebook, consider getting involved (and if you are, and read this blog, feel free to connect to me as a friend if you want)
Fun stuff.
Way back when, our Sharks mailing list peaked at between 500-600 members, and the membership either owned or shared season tickets for about 11% of the Shark Tank, and I think at our peak we ran lists for about 25 NHL teams and 31 or 32 lists total (including minor league stuff -- anyone else remember Roller Hockey International any more? (go rhinos!)); as the net grew up, more options showed up and we saw that as a good thing and encouraged it and over time, started slowing down and then finally handed off the Sharks list to the next generation of owners a couple of years ago -- today, we only have two lists, our women-in-hockey list, and the south-bay-birds list, and I'm going to be moving both of those to yahoo groups soon and shutting down my personal list server for the last time.
Today, it's a lot easier to create these communities and you can do more within them, but sometimes I think that makes them a little more superficial or casual -- but perhaps that's just because I'm not running them and in the middle of everything.
They're still fun, though. If you aren't involved, you should check it out...
There goes Nils Ekman, joining a growing list of NHL free agents who are following their noses to Russia this season.
So far, this is a big non-issue. Someone wake me up when a player goes to Russia that might be picked in someone's fantasy draft earlier than, oh, round five..
Every year the NCWHL sponsors “Give Hockey a Try Day.”This year’s event is coming up fast on August 18th at the Belmont Iceland. This is an opportunity for women aged 13+ to experience hockey. No equipment is necessary; it will be provided.
If you're in the bay area, curious about hockey, and female -- I've heard nothing but great things about this event, and it's coming up soon. And while it may be very un-hockey-like here right now, it's NOT too early to get going about getting into a league for teh fall once the rains start again...
Kuklas Korner: Canucks and Beyond:
Wade Flaherty, largely a career AHLer and a reliable fixture on the Manitoba Moose in recent seasons, has elected not to retire this summer, but instead has signed with a new team. He joined the Chicago Blackhawks organization today.
Wow. Wade Flaherty has again found a way to avoid getting on the cart.
Think about this -- if I asked you to name the two players who were on the Sharks first season roster still playing in the NHL, could you?
Flaherty, assuming he gets some time with Chicago, is one; last year was the first year he missed seeing ANY NHL games because of the waiver rules and his salary with Vancouver. The other is -- Ray Whitney.
Not exactly the two you'd think of, right?
But congrats to Wade. he's found a niche, and he's flourished in it, long after high profile guys like Faloon and Irbe have retired.
New York Post blogger wants to eliminate ten NHL teams,
Proof, I think, not that the league needs fewer teams, but that the blogosphere needs better bloggers.
I swear, I'm tired of listening to bloggers telling folks that OTHER people should give up their teams. if you really think the league needs to contract -- start with your own team, or else stay quiet.
Oh, okay. we'll kill the blackhawks first (mercy killing), and then the second team to go should be the blogger's home team.
Bad news: Calgary, CBC, TSN, and the rest are going to have to put up with Keenan's foibles for the next 18 months (his approximate shelf-life these days).
Good News: For players and fans not in Calgary--hey, we don't have to worry about Keenan showing up as a mid-season replacement.
Question--is Keenan the answer to the question that the Flames management is asking? Or should be asking? Granted, Keenan might bully and push the Flames into the playoffs, and maybe they'll get a little further in. But given Keenan's habit of leaving a mess behind when he's no longer welcome, can Calgary afford to have another 3-5 seasons rebuilding? They've finally recovered their goaltending from the "we don't need Mike Vernon" screw-up, and they did that with one of the Sharks extra goalies.
Kiprusoff doesn't strike me as the sort of goalie who will put up with Keenan's guff--does he get traded in the patented "I'm in charge here, and don't you forget it" Keenan first moves, or does he gut and filet Keenan on HNIC, ala Arturs Irbe and the Vancouver Canucks? Or will he decide that Finland is darned nice this time of year, and just not come back?
And somewhere in Quebec, Stephane Matteau is at a Bell Canada kiosk, changing the number on his cell phone.....
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