Tuesday, June 26, 2007

 

Muckler is shown the door - draft day talk

Muckler is shown the door- Patrick Kane is welcomed by Chicago and MCN sports lights up the draft proceedings in Columbus

There are those who claim Cassius Clay never really landed that ‘phantom’ shot to Sonny Liston’s melon during their rematch in 1964. “We never saw it,” claim many boxing fans. Well I never saw John Muckler being shown the door by Mr. Melnyk and the Ottawa Senators just a few short weeks ago. That came out of nowhere in my opinion, just like Clay’s (soon to be Muhammad Ali) shot all those years ago.

As mentioned in my last blog I was going to talk to team President Roy Mlakar about playoff injuries during the airing of Tony House’s Big Bad Sports Show on Rogers Cable 22 here in Ottawa. Given that the Muckler firing transpired a mere 72 hours prior to the show it was not that big a surprise when Mr. Mlakar chose not to make the live TV appearance. Unfortunate but not surprising. Senator radio colour voice Gord Wilson was on the show however and his words were most enlightening to those of us who do not follow the team day-to-day.

I admonish myself actually for not picking up on this sooner but here are the nuts and bolts of it; Bryan Murray was set to become a free agent on June 30th. Despite leading the Sens to the finals for the first time, posting one of the best records ever from Christmas on and looking to most as a sure lock to continue coaching the team, despite all of that Bryan Murray still had no contract offer on the table to coach or otherwise several days after the season had ended. Unacceptable. It appears at this time Mr. Melnyk interceded and although I am not privy as to how the conversation went I think it’s safe to assume that Mr. Muckler was less than thrilled about keeping Mr. Murray on board and in fact Mr. Murray was less than thrilled to be a part of any organization that included Mr. Muckler. Faced with that Mr. Melnyk made the only decision he could – and he let go Mr. Muckler. This was not an amicable pair of hockey personnel. Most unfortunate but that’s the way she goes. We can debate Mr. Muckler’s tenure as a GM and for the most part my own opinion is it was satisfactory. Not anywhere near exceptional but certainly satisfactory. According to Mr. Melnyk at the press conference one of the deciding ‘last straw’ events was the trade deadline when Mr. Muckler was unable to acquire Gary Roberts. As Gord Wilson correctly stated on the show a week ago Monday, (June 18th) there are only a couple of people who really know for sure what transpired in the Roberts negotiations and whether Jacques Martin would have actually moved Roberts to Ottawa. Maybe that will come out down the road. At this point what is obvious is Mr. Muckler did not want to part with much to make the Roberts deal happen and it appears as if that was a huge detriment to his continuing as GM through the final year of his contract.

So, JM is gone. The search for a coach continues and my pick is Randy Cunneyworth. We’ll see how that goes in the next few days. I believe all of the writers and media types have it bang on, John Paddock will get a long look, Cunneyworth obviously is on this short list and we’ll see if somebody emerges as a dark horse. Peter DeBoer from Kitchener of the OHL is an interesting name that has also been mentioned.

Columbus, Ohio hosts the world’s biggest hockey convention

I had the good fortune to attend the NHL draft this past weekend, (June 21, 22) in Columbus, Ohio, home of the Columbus Blue Jackets. I was there working for MCNsports.com Feel free to check their site out and if you have audio and a high speed enough operation for a computer you’ll be able to see some of the interviews I did for this site. They should be up in the next week or two, certainly I would think by early July. Ton of fun. Among them were Steve Yzerman, Randy Carlyle, Rick Nash, Peter Mahovlich and numerous others. Hanging with the various hockey personnel was the best part of the whole thing frankly. Columbus’s strength and conditioning Coach Barry Brennan, is an Ottawa guy originally so he acted as our tour guide – to make sure we hit the best bars. Great job there Barry!! One of Barry’s closest friends and mine is a scout for the Boston Bruins, Wayne Smith. Smitty introduced my self and Marc Brunet, president of MCN sports, to numerous hockey personnel and we had a fantastic time attending some of the other scheduled events in and around draft weekend. Our conversation with Guy Lapointe was a classic, I'll have stories on that in the next blog.

All the talk about the Americans going as high and as often as they did is somewhat comical. The lack of Russians being taken because of no transfer agreement plus the weaker than normal crop of Europeans meant more Americans were taken than normal but overall there still was 102 Canadians drafted out of the 211 picks so once again, almost 50% of all drafted have a passport from north of the 49th parallel. If you are able to see those interviews check out the one with Montreal’s pick in the second round out of Belleville, PK Subban. Is this kid ready to go or what? It was quite something. In fact while we were dining and having a few pops with Brian Kilrea and the 67’s staff including owner Jeff Hunt on Saturday night they spoke very highly of this young man brimming with confidence. We’ll see how it goes at camp for him but he is very, very confident of one day playing for Montreal – sooner rather than later it would appear.
Later on Saturday evening I had the good fortune to have a few pops with Cam Neely. Neely is beginning to explore some off ice work with his alma mater, the Bruins and as such he was with their crew for the draft and for the social night that followed Saturday evening. Let’s just say this- Ulf Samuelsson will not be getting any dinner invitations anytime soon from Mr. Neely. That was a total treat talking hockey with him.

Next blog we’ll talk a bit about the upcoming Team Canada- Russia eight game exhibition junior series that is being held to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Summit Series. I had a discussion with Brent Sutter at the airport leaving Columbus and we’ll have his thoughts for you here.

Trivia time. Last blog I talked about the first American to have his name engraved on the Cup as a player. NHL.com claims this to be a player named Johnny Sherf with Detroit in 1937. Only one problem with that, Clarence ‘Taffy’ Abel did it with the Rangers in 1928. To my knowledge he is the first in the NHL to have his name engraved as a player who was born in the States. Problem with birth locations is there is many errors with these the further back in hockey history you go. Abel I know for sure, that is documented in many sources but there could be another. As I said though, not to my knowledge. So Abel is number one in my book.
This blogs question pertains to the draft. Being selected twice is not an anomaly anymore in draft history. In fact it might surprise some of you just how far back you have to go to find this particular player who was the first in NHL history to be drafted twice. Any ideas? Let me know who you think it is. Keep your stick on the ice!!

Liam Maguire

Monday, June 11, 2007

 

All hail the new Stanley Cup Champions!

For the sixth season in a row the NHL has a new Stanley Cup champion. Colorado 2001, Detroit 2002, New Jersey 2003, Tampa Bay 2004, Carolina 2006 and now Anaheim in 2007. Gary Bettman wanted a salary cap and parity; I think that’s been achieved.

The table was set early in game six thanks to the usual array of ridiculous penalty calls. If there’s one thing that the league somehow has to get a grasp on it’s the BS marginal calls that actually can have an impact on a game. Case in point the hooking penalty called on Anton Volchenkov. That was a brutal, brutal call. It put Ottawa down two men, Anaheim scored just as the first penalty expired, which was a fair call to Tom Preissing for interference and the Ducks were off to the races. Corey Perry set up Rob Niedermayer to make it 2-0 ten seconds after Perry got out of the box. That goal came with less than three minutes to play in the first period and our next image on TV was that of the Stanley Cup arriving in the building. Can you say foreshadowing?

I think Anaheim were destined to win the Cup regardless especially after how game four unfolded in Ottawa however, it should be noted that Daniel Alfredsson did all he could in the second period to erase the Ducks advantages he just could not stop the puck as well so the Sens are out of luck this year. The trick now is hoping there’s enough gas left in the tank to take another run at this next season. Here in lies the rub. Of those six teams, including Anaheim on the above list, the Hurricanes and the Devils are the only other teams that made the finals additionally in that same time period. That’s it of those past twelve entries. 25%, those are not good odds. Ottawa will have to guard against that and hope a few off season changes will be enough to whet the appetite of those wishing to imbibe out of Lord Stanley’s mug.

Speaking of which, for the record it takes seventeen 12oz pints of Molson Export Ale to fill up the bowl of the Stanley Cup. I know this because I did it at Chris Vickers house in Manotick on July 1, 1993. Undoubtedly some of the Ducks will discover this during their respective day with the classic Cup. Although Ex might not be the beverage of choice it will I’m quite certain see at least that many pints of beer especially Canadian beer with so many passports from north of the 49th on the Duck roster. By coincidence this was the best year the Senators ever had in the post season also with a record setting number of Canadian born players – since they made their first playoffs in 1997. How did Alanis put that? Isn’t it ironic? Yes, I guess it is.

Anthem singer’s aside changes for next year for the Senators should include a couple of tough calls. I think it’s time to give Wade Redden another lease on life as I mentioned in an earlier post. Granted there are elements of what goes on behind the scenes that many of us including most in the media know nothing about. I would still deal him. I think he still has the potential to have one heck of a career I just feel his service to the Senators has outlived his ability to deliver solidly enough for them. Rumours abound about Edmonton. It is a possible scenario given Redden’s western Canadian roots, regardless; I would look at options of giving him his ‘Larry Murphy’ lease on life.

The aforementioned Tom Preissing appears to be done for sure, Dean McAmmond may want to come back and finish a job that he was handed as a member of the Senators or he may want to take his cleared head and shuffle off to greener pastures in the south. Ottawa missed his 10+ minutes of ice time after the Pronger hit no question about it. Speaking of which the NHL could certainly have given Chris Pronger maybe an extra game given the severity of the McAmmond injury however if you have a huge issue with Colin Campbell’s call of this you need to debate whether the finals are worth more or if they should just be treated like another hockey game. Myself I feel they are worth more and at the end of the day although I thought two games were more deserving I was okay with the one.

Bottom line, Ottawa were beat by a hungrier, better hockey club. We now know that Dany Heatley was quite banged up as were other players and numerous Ducks including Chris Pronger who was popping his shoulder back in place several times in game five after being nailed big time by Antoine Vermette and Chris Neil. My question that I will pose to Senator President Roy Mlakar on TV next Monday night June 18th (Big Bad Sports Show- Rogers cable 22 – 7pm) is at what point does a coach consider pulling an injured player and dressing a healthy reserve? Granted its Bryan Murray’s decision as the coach but I’ll be interested to see what Mr. Mlakar’s response will be. I’ll print it for you here next week after the show.

Speaking of Bryan Murray, I believe he will be back to coach this team again. John Muckler has one year left on his contract. He’ll be 74 next year. Regardless of how Ottawa does next season Muckler will be off to the land of consultants and the stage will be set perfectly for Murray to ascend to the position he relishes more than any. I don’t believe that these guys are going to be dinner guests at each others house anytime soon, just my opinion but I don’t think they are really tight. Still, this is too good a situation for Murray to pass up. Coach one more year and he should be set for a solid 3+ year run as GM of this franchise and frankly after his work in Florida and Anaheim in that position Ottawa will be well served.

Congrats to the Ducks for a well deserved win. It will be interesting to see how they play next year and if they can shake off the bad karma that has followed the previous winners.

Trivia time

The answer to last weeks question, the youngest captain in NHL history is not the newly named Sydney Crosby with the Penguins but Brian Bellows with the Minnesota North Stars who was a full six months younger than Crosby when he was named interim captain in January of 1984. Why the NHL does not acknowledge this is beyond me. Here’s another one for you hardcore researchers out there. Andrew Miller and Todd Marchant join a long line of American born players to have their name engraved on the Cup. Who was the first? Answer in next week’s blog. Have a great week.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

 

Champagne at the ready - Can Anaheim close the deal?

Hard to imagine a team playing better in the finals than Anaheim has so far against Ottawa. If you take the last ten Cup winners, Carolina, Tampa Bay, New Jersey, Detroit, Colorado, Jersey again, Dallas, Detroit twice in a row and Colorado again, there have been a lot of great teams but this Duck team at this point is as solid a hockey club as I’ve seen in the past 10-15 years. None of this means any automatic repeat to the finals as we well know but the facts are that this organization were in the final in 2003 and they made the semi’s last year before losing to Edmonton in their roller coaster ride to the final. Many of us are guilty of underestimating Anaheim and to date, after twelve periods against a pretty good Ottawa club, they have been dominating. We’ll see if they can close the deal tonight.

Observations on the series to date. Daniel Alfredsson made a believer out of me with his play through the first three rounds. He and the rest of the crew have struggled through four games in the final albeit they did explode for five goals in game three. Alfredsson’s bone head play at the end of the second period of game four when he shot the puck at Scott Niedermayer was absolutely ridiculous and uncalled for. I don’t feel it takes much away from his fantastic playoff year I just feel it was a very, very stupid thing to do. Players are accustomed to taking a lot of crap on the ice. Some of it leads to suspensions and obviously Anaheim has been dealing with two of them to Chris Pronger. (Incidentally there is no rule that a second suspension in the playoffs sees an increase in the number of games missed. It’s still at the discretion of the leagues disciplinarian) Mark Messier gets a free ride in NHL history and he ran guys or threw cheap shots that rank right up there as have many captains in the past however shooting the puck at somebody is in my view one of the worst things you can do. I don’t know what it is – I’ve been on the receiving end of many a head shot but I only had the puck fired at me once and I wanted to decapitate the guy. It’s an incendiary move akin to spitting in my books. Compounding the problem is I also believe Anaheim used this as a rallying cry for the third period of a 2-2 game in Ottawa’s barn after a period of hockey that was ironically one of Ottawa’s worst versus one of their best in period number one. Go figure.

Alfredsson answered a lot of critics with his play through three rounds especially those who feel perhaps he should step aside as captain or have the C removed for him. With that one shot I feel he has opened up that debate again. We’ll revisit this after the series is over, maybe the Senators are poised for a ’42 Leafs type comeback. You never know.

Certainly the play of other members of the Senators will be examined closely depending on the final outcome of this series. Wade Redden has largely struggled and others on Ottawa have had their problems. If it’s revealed that some of these guys were playing with injuries at the conclusion of the playoffs then people should back off with their fire and brimstone comments. Joe Thornton was not supported by the GM of the Boston Bruins Mike O’Connell, in 2004. O’Connell and many Bruin faithful were livid after Boston blew a 3-1 lead against Montreal and lost in a preliminary round match. It was revealed that Thornton had been playing with a flak jacket to protect badly bruised ribs. The guy could hardly breathe and yet he suited up and gave it his best which placated the fans just not O’Connell for some reason. San Jose has been thankful ever since . Boom-Boom Geoffrion cut a cast off his arm in 1961 to try and help Montreal against Chicago in the semi-finals, Bobby Baun had a broken ankle frozen in game six of the 1964 finals and came back to score the winner forcing a game seven which his Toronto Maple Leafs won. Players will do anything to be in the lineup and this could be the case with a couple of the Ottawa guys. If not, if there are no health issues then perhaps it’s time to take a long look at Mr. Redden and his six million dollar plus salary. Call it the Larry Murphy syndrome or whatever you want but sometimes, after a period of time it’s just the right move to look elsewhere and Reddens play has been anything but up to par for a front line D-man. Again, as with Alfredsson, let’s see how the series end.

If the Cup is awarded tonight my pick for the Conn Smythe is Scott Niedermayer. He is remarkable. Man how we could have used him in last years Olympics. He has won a Memorial Cup, a World Junior championship, a World Championship, three Stanley Cups and an Olympic gold medal. He took less money and went to a team off the beaten NHL path to have a chance to play with his brother. You have to love that kind of stuff. Some might be surprised to learn this would be his first Conn Smythe if he was to win it. Claude Lemieux copped the award during the Devils first Cup win in 1995. Scott Stevens for the second in 2000 and a member of the losing team won it against the Devils in 2003. The team, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the players name, Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Hockey always comes full circle.

I attended game four at Scotiabank Place. 20500 people, that’s a big crowd. And they were loud. According to various sources, friends and media types, the crowd for game three on the Saturday night were louder and that makes sense with it being on a Saturday as opposed to a Monday but I can tell you this much. Nothing, absolutely nothing I have ever witnessed including the raucous Ottawa crowd which in itself is an oxymoron, nothing compares to the Montreal Forum on May 10, 1979, game seven semi-finals, Montreal-Boston and Guy Lafleur tying that game at 4-4 with a little more than a minute to play. That my friend is still and always will be the loudest I have ever, ever heard a crowd in a hockey rink. Yes I’m biased but given the circumstances and what Lafleur meant to that team at that time, the type of goal it was, slap shot from his favourite position, top of the right circle, man that was something. Boston goalie Gilles Gilbert still has not seen that puck and as God is my witness, the railing shook that night when Lafleur scored. Great moment in hockey. Next week I’ll have a full recap of the finals and more corrections for the NHL media relations department. IE Sydney Crosby is not the youngest captain of all-time? Do you know who is? Drop back in next week to find out.

Liam Maguire

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?