Ducks Gameday—The Avery Impact

Anaheim Ducks (14-9-3, 3rd in west) at Chicago Blackhawks (10-6-6, t-7th in west)
How much will this post cost me in karma dollars?

Instead of talking up this Chicago rematch, I'm going to throw my two rambly cents in on the Avery suspension. I don't like it.

Now don't get me wrong; there's a lot to dislike about Avery, including this recent set of inflammatory remarks, but you have to recognize Avery for what he is -- a sensationalist media creation. Over the years, reporters have glorified his personality and encouraged his bad boy behavior (which I can understand -- NHLers are generally too boring for newsstands). And that's the thing -- I do believe Avery's statements were intended more to feed the hungry media than they were to hurt Dion Phaneuf / Elisha Cuthbert's feelings. He was doing what he was expected to do -- agitate and entertain -- and more or less in the manner that he was trained to do.

It wasn't out of line with the media characterization that was built up over his career, nor with the persona that the Stars signed last summer. I dunno, it's like giving a dog a treat for coming inside six days a week but then beating it for doing so on Sunday -- maybe there was a vague line that was crossed, but I don't think Avery thought he was "detrimental to the League". If anything, he was promoting the league in the best way he knew how.

Sure, it's not normally acceptable behavior to be calling out players for their love lives, and we can debate the shock value of the words "sloppy seconds" compared to other word choices, but it's not as if this elephant wasn't already in the room -- Avery did manage to get himself in trouble without naming a single name. In a practical sense, Avery took a topic that dozens of hockey writers have already made crude jokes about and then shockingly made one himself.

In short, Avery was Avery, and the NHL suspended him for it without any strong precedent. As an isolated incident involving a rival team, I probably don't care about this that much, but I do worry about where it leads. We're already in a period where player interviews are purposefully bland and carefully measured, and while Avery is certainly not the model of ideal media interaction, he was different from the robotic mold and punished because of it. Going forward I think the NHL should probably publish a list of do-not-discuss guidelines -- it's a sham that they can't define a social barrier until after it's been crossed. Even so, as I point out in the cartoon, I suspect we'll see even less personality in front of a microphone from players in the future, and that general insincerity will probably be another barrier between the players and the fans, and that's sort of a shame.

Sean Avery is no hero, and I don't mean to present him as even a likeable figure, but it's really tough for me to see the rationale for the league's suspension. I think it's a dangerous path to discourage personality in front of the microphone without any specific guidelines, and we're probably in for a blander NHL as a result (though in fairness, we were probably in for that anyway). Anyways, I'm open to being convinced -- feel free to agree or disagree or add your own two cents in the comments.

And now to the part where Sleek gets suspended:

------------------------------------
Listen, I love Canada. It's just when it comes to Battle of Ontario teams hiring head coaches and general managers, they really seem to have fallen in love with Anaheim's sloppy seconds. I don't know what that's about.



Ron Wilson, Craig Hartsburg, Bryan Murray, and Brian Burke --
That pretty much spans the entirety of Anaheim's history right there.
Prediction: Last Friday the Ducks and Hawks skated to a 1-0 game in Anaheim, so I suspect Hiller might get the start tonight, but there's no real wrong answer in net right now. The Ducks do need to start scoring some goals, though, so let's say Ducks 5, Hawks 3. Goals by Getzlaf x2, S. Niedermayer, Pahlsson, and Perry.

Go Ducks.

Ducks Gameday—Burke Week #5: Finale

Colorado Avalanche (9-10-0, t-12th in west) at Anaheim Ducks (11-8-3, t-4th in west)


Ah, we finally arrive at the conclusary installment of Burke Week, a five-day gander back at the Anaheim legacy of Brian Burke.

Part I: Defending three "bad" Burke moves that I don't think were that bad.
Part II: Criticizing three Burke moves that I don't think get enough flak.
Part III: Nothing but shout-outs.
Part IV: What I like about Burke the roster-builder.

And now we arrive at Part V: Scattered final thoughts, where I squeeze everything I've missed into a final post for the series. We'll start with some counterpoint: Two things that I didn't like about Burke the roster-builder.

Regret One: Europe, Where Art Thou?

Since Brian Burke's second year in Anaheim, there has been a fairly rigid three-player maximum on players from Europe -- Teemu Selanne from Finland, Sammy Pahlsson from Sweden, and the back-up goalie (first Ilya Bryzgalov from Russia, now Jonas Hiller from Switzerland), but before Burke arrived, Anaheim used to be a melting pot. Burke rid the team of Vitaly Vishnevski (Russia), Ruslan Salei (Belarus), Niclas Havelid (Sweden), Sandis Ozolinsh (Latvia), Petr Sykora (Czech Republic), Sergei Fedorov (Russia), and Ladislav Smid (Czech Republic), among others. Think about this: in 2003 the Ducks went to the Stanley Cup Finals with zero Canadians on their blueline. In 2007 the Ducks won the Stanley Cup with zero non-Canadians on their blueline.

It became very clear over Burke's tenure what sort of player he was building around -- skilled or not, he wanted North American skaters in nearly every roster slot. Now I don't want to attack this mindset too badly -- you can still make an impressive team from mostly one continent. However, one only had to look at the success of Swedish forwards on Detroit or the Finnish forwards on Dallas (or really, the European contribution to any team's success) to see that Burke's one-continent focus was biased against plenty of world-class talent.

It's one reason that I'm not upset to see Brian Burke leave -- he certainly did very good work while he was here, but I don't think too many years of Europe-phobia is good for an NHL franchise. By artificially limiting the available talent pool, the Ducks seemingly ignored a source for creativity and puck control -- and I think that they would be well-served to reintroduce that intercontinental element into their post-Burke philosophy. I just hope that Bob Murray has an open mind to the contributions of overseas players; I think it's an element the Ducks have been missing.

Regret Two: How Bad is Burke at the Entry Draft?

I don't follow prospects that well, so I can't really tell you how much more barren Anaheim's prospect pool is compared to when Burke arrived, but I assume it's been rather depleted. One of the problems, I assume, is Brian Burke's draft record, which will have to be judged in future years, but based on reputation and what I have seen looks unimpressive thus far.

I guess the indicting argument against Burke's draft record is that I believe Bobby Ryan and Brett Festerling represent the only players that Burke has drafted that have tasted NHL ice, and Ryan was selected in a high-expectation slot (2nd overall, one spot behind Sidney Crosby). I'm definitely not an expert here, but I'd expect that a draft-savvier GM would have accumulated more NHL-ready players by now (though granted, a lot of Anaheim's top picks were sent to Edmonton in the Pronger deal). I think it's premature for any hard criticism here (and a lot may be based on Bobby Ryan alone), but so far, it's tough to spot where Burke's draft record has served the Ducks very much.

Of course, there is a flipside to this criticism, which is that Burke has demonstrated that it's possible to build teams almost entirely outside of the draft -- the 2007 cup squad had very few players who were actually drafted by Anaheim (I believe Getzlaf, Perry, and Bryzgalov). Also, with Dave McNab finding lots of talent outside the draft (Anaheim's undrafted talent includes Andy McDonald, Dustin Penner, Chris Kunitz, Ryan Shannon, Ryan Carter, and Jonas Hiller), perhaps the importance of the draft is overstated. Still, the entry draft is a definite source to replenish talent, and it may prove that Burke's draft mediocrity hampers the Ducks in the near future.

But let's not overlook the upside.

I don't want to end Burke Week on all sour notes, though. Even with his drawbacks, Burke did transform the team's image from a Disney sidestory into one of the west's top teams. Burke became a source for franchise legitimacy -- I don't know if the team lands a Scott Niedermayer or a Chris Pronger without the presence of Brian Burke, and I don't know if a Mathieu Schneider or a Brendan Morrison even seriously considers the franchise as a signing option. Burke had the clout to trade away a high-priced Sergei Fedorov and a high-priced Mathieu Schneider for spare parts, and the bravery to stand behind moves like the waiving of Ilya Bryzgalov.

Basically, no matter his flaws and strengths, Burke was a high-profile GM and hockey personality, and he added relevance to the Anaheim Ducks. His coming to SoCal legitimized the franchise and fixed its focus on winning, and without that, the team's fortunes could have gone in a very different direction -- probably one without a Stanley Cup. There's definitely been some baggage to Brian Burke, but the upside has been pretty spectacular.

What I'll miss most about Brian Burke:
What I'll miss least about Brian Burke:

The answer to both of these is his mouth, which has definitely been a regular source for amusement, but also has diverted many of my blogging man-hours to defending the guy's often-malicious quotes. For better or worse, there is no topic in hockey that Brian Burke is too timid to discuss, usually with the spirit of antagonism. There's no doubt that I'm going to miss that mouth -- it sure beats the usual media-timidness that most hockey personalities have, but I won't lie. It's also going to be nice to have a little less controversy coming from the GM's mouth, as well.

Entertaining quotes occasionally do come at a price, not only in terms of franchise perception but also with burnt bridges as well. Anyone want to put an over/under on the number of months before we see another Anaheim-Edmonton trade?

A classic example of Burke's mouth making headlines.
Bottom Line: Overall, I'm a huge Burke supporter, even though over Burke Week I've split my positives and negatives pretty evenly. The upsides to having a strong-willed GM far outweigh the drawbacks (though it's important to remember those, as well). As a Ducks blogger, I've never had much desire to interview Ducks players (though nobody's really given me any opportunity) -- generally, I am disgusted enough with bland cliches that I don't think I'd do very well in that setting. That said, I would have loved to have an opportunity to interview Brian Burke -- even though the interview would have been generally awful (I'd probably conduct it at a bar and wouldn't write or record anything), I imagine shooting the shit with Burke would be ten times as entertaining as doing the same with any player.

Ultimately, Burke built a Stanley Cup Champion team in Anaheim, and nothing should take away from that. We'll miss you, Burkie, and wish you limited success in Toronto/wherever.

--------------------------------------------
So that's the scattered last chapter of my Burke Week -- I definitely had a lot to say about the guy and what he did in Anaheim. For the comments, what's your final analysis? What grade would you give Brian Burke for his GM job in Anaheim, and how much do you think he will be missed? Any final thoughts are welcome in the comments.

Prediction: Ducks win 4-2. Goals by Ryan, Getzlaf, Pahlsson, and Pronger.

Go Ducks.

Getting to know Getzlaf

David Amber's Q & A sessions started gaining a lot of attention about a year ago for actually getting hockey players to say something interesting. (Keep in mind this was in a time before Russian journalists were quoting Alex Semin slamming Sidney Crosby)

Getzlaf was Amber's most recent guest and it's a pretty interesting interview. It highlights Todd Marchant not as a stone-handed center but a jokester, provides some interesting insight into the Dustin Penner situation and touches on Getzlaf's older brother, who plays in the CFL. Not bad for North American media.

Ducks keep on climbing, but Helene has her doubts

Well here's something I thought I'd never live long enough to see: an Anaheim Duck atop the league leaderboard?! Congratulations to Getzlaf, Perry, and Selanne for continuing their offensive surge, including a combined 4 goals and 2 assists against the injury-depleted Blues last night.

The Sharks should probably beat up the Blues again tonight, especially with Paul Kariya leaving last night's game in the second period with an ever-vague lower-body injury.

The Ducks' 8-0-1 record within their last nine games has pulled the team briefly, at least, within three points of the league-leading Sharks. While the Ducks have played at least two more games than 28 NHL teams, it's still brought them up to the third-highest point total in the league, which is the subject of today's PuckToon.

It's still difficult to tell you how good these Anaheim Ducks are or can be, but one thing is true: they are winning games in a lot of different ways, and are becoming awfully difficult to beat. Whether they can keep pace with the hard-charging Sharks remains to be seen, but at least the Pacific is no longer the one-team race it was two weeks ago.

* * *

Brian Kamenetzky of SportsHubLA (link added under L.A. Kings) contacted me yesterday to publicize his latest podcast interview with L.A. Times hockey journalist-legend Helene Elliott. How awesome is it, btw, that Brian's interview schedule moves directly from Rudy Kelly to Helene Elliott -- that's opposite ends of the spectrum of SoCal hockey coverage right there.

Anyways, I gave it a listen last night, and told Brian I'd publicize the interview here. Generally, I don't have very strong feelings about Helene Elliott, but it's nice to hear that she's an actual person. Most of the interview is centered around the Ducks' troubled start and subsequent turnaround (plus more Sundin nonsense), but they touch on the Kings and the Sharks as well. For the most part, she stays pretty realistic about each team's chances, and doesn't sound like a strong believer in any of them.

I can't really fault her for her frank approach; she's a journalist, after all, but Positivity, Helene! As we've seen on this blog in this early 08-09 season, sometimes that can make all the difference.

Go Ducks.

Pie Charts > Cartoons

I guess it was a result of reading USA Today too often, but I always wanted pie chart functionality on my blog. I will break down a few of the recent scoring trends for San Jose on Sharkspage soon. I was going to try to project the largest number of 20 goal scorers for the Sharks in a few years, but as has happened often when I delve into the numbers it usually disproves the point I am actually trying to make.

There is no live broadcast of Dan Boyle's return to Tampa Bay tonight on Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area. There will be a broadcast of the game on the NHL Network (as reported on the Sharks-Florida broadcast last night, my cable guide shows Northern Michigan at Michigan State tonight at 4PM), and Sharks radio play-by-play host Dan Rusanowski breaks down a plethora of radio options for tonights game here.

If you want to go off the board for your hockey viewing today try Yahoo Streaming (Pittsburgh vs New York Rangers), hockeywebcasts.com (Ottawa @ Toronto, Anaheim @ Montreal, Pittsburgh @ NY Rangers, Edmonton @ Vancouver), or channelsurfing.net. You could also subscribe to the NHL's official Game Center (I keep confusing this with ESPN's old GameCast), which has very good video quality and a number of bells and whistles to make it worthwhile. Boycott tsn.ca until they unblock American viewers.

How to kill a hockey fan

I have to run to meet up for the game tonight, but this absolutely sucks. The Oilers brass, in an effort to give their pressbox the charm of a low-security prison, have not only prevented CiO's Dave from not only liveblogging from that lofty perch (which he seemed willing enough to do when condescendingly lectured), but have basically ruined the will of one of the Oilogosphere's faithful to even root for the team.

I haven't thought this through very well, but basically, Goddamn it.

2008-09 NHL Season Preview previews

Last year in most of the book stores I visited there was only one magazine with hockey content on the shelves all season, the NHL's 2008 Yearbook. This year I posted a few notes from the Sporting News/Street and Smith's 2008-09 NHL Preview, the NHL's 2009 Yearbook, The Hockey News 2009 Yearbook, ESPN Magazine's NHL Preview complete with Ovechkin 09 campaign platforms, McKeens Hockey 2008-09 NHL preview, and of course the definitive Wave Magazine San Jose Sharks preview.

Bottom line according to the previews is that Detroit will advance past the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference Finals to drop the Montreal Canadiens in their 100th anniversary season. Any magazines I missed?

Craig Custance has my e-mail address?

Well, I'm too lazy to write my own post today, but thankfully the Sporting News has stepped in. This e-mail was sent to a few independent bloggers, myself included:

Just thought I'd share with you guys as we continue to try and build Sporting News Today. Thanks as usual!

- Craig

I'll ignore the "as usual" part (as I'm pretty sure this is the first correspondence), but it's sort of cool that the Sporting News pegged BoC as a distribution outlet for its pretty keen Brian Burke Q&A feature. Is it innovation? Desperation? Hard to say, but I'd recommend all readers to check out Puck Daddy's piece yesterday on the declining state of newspaper coverage.

Anyways, I thought I'd go ahead and post the Sporting News piece, in the hopes that someday I could ask a question or two of Mr. Burke. Enjoy!

Look Inside >> October 1, 2008

Ugh. The embed code they sent seems to suck. Try clicking here instead.

And while I'm in the spirit of link-happiness, you can click here to see Chris Pronger's blog reaction to the O'Donnell trade.

Go Ducks.

Guest Post: The Kings Don't Want Your Detritus

(Alexander Dubcek is a Kings fan and a filthy commie. Here's his take on rumor mongers and the shitty trade proposals they shit out. Shit.)


Dear Rest of the NHL Universe,

Hi. You've probably forgotten about us. I can't blame you. We haven't done anything to warrant your attention in a few years, except when you pause for a moment to ponder the lottery (which we always manage to screw up one way or another).

It's easy to make a joke of hockey in L.A. (Just look at our abysmal record over the past, oh, forty-one years.) Kevin Lowe takes a potshot at the Ducks, but no one notices the Kings. We're too pathetic to be called pathetic. You can't be arsed to expend the effort to belittle us, even though Kings fans might more fairly be called "pathetic" for shelling out big bucks to turn out in droves (more than 94 percent of capacity) for the train wreck known as the Brian Willsie Experience and the Kevin Dallman Project.

Not that I'm complaining. We're a sufficiently self-hating bunch that we can bemoan and belittle our own foibles without any outside help, thank you very much.

No, the bigger problem comes on those rare occasions when folks from hockey "hotbeds" and "traditional" markets actually try to say something about us.

Plenty of rumors get bandied about in the offseason, some of which even involve the Kings. It's about the only time we register on the radar of media types outside L.A. But Canadian writers, East Coast writers and commenters all around the league don't bother to do their homework on reporting these rumors. (Is it too much to ask to check out Rich Hammond's site to check your crackpot theory?)

So we get things like the New York Post speculating Sean Avery could re-sign with the Kings with Marc Crawford canned. (Never mind that Dean Lombardi, who put Avery on "double secret probation" at the beginning of Avery's last season in L.A., is still calling the shots as GM.) Or all the wild "Malkin to L.A." rumors before the draft (a great move for a team sorely in need of defense, rather than offense).

And now, the new one making the rounds, a threesome involving Ottawa, Chicago and the Kings, a rumor in which every Ottawa hack is indulging in their wettest dreams of prying away our best players for a pu pu platter of bad contracts. Here are some of the rumors Ottawa fans keep throwing around as if they're plausible deals that would send Martin Gerber (not good enough to start on three different Stanley Cup Finals squads) and some bags of pucks to the Kings:

"But I am hearing Kopitar and a prospect is from the Kings."

"If the Kings are giving up Kopitar and a prospect they better be getting something serious in return and if they aren't lets cut Chicago out of the mix and just get Kopitar..."

""I can't see them moving Kopitar either. Frolov maybe???"

""Spezza to the Kings from the Sens. Vermette and Neil plus a pick to the Hawks. Prospect plus pick to the Kings from the Hawks. Kopitar from the Kings to the Sens. Barker and Khabibulin from Chicago.

"Ottawa gets loaded somehow. Chicago unloads salary and gets some good player value in return. Spezza's 7 mil contract helps LA get closer to the cap and also gives them a potential superstar talent in return plus they get a prospect and pick out of it too."

"To LA: G Khabibulin D Barker

To Chi: C Vermette RW Neil

To Ott: C Anze Kopitar"

"I could see...

To LA: Meszaros Vermette 1st Round Pick (Ottawa)

To Chicago Neil Gerber

To Ottawa Khabibulin Kopitar Barker"

And, well, it just goes on from there. Supposedly Ottawa's a good hockey market (being the capital of Canadia and all), but clearly good hockey market does not equal fan base with a clue.

So, please, Ottawa, Edmonton, New York, and all other parts north and east of L.A. -- if you're just going to pull these rumors out of your ass, do us a favor and keep ignoring us.

To paraphrase an old axiom: If you don't have anything intelligent to say, you shouldn't say anything at all.

***

Why do we as fans hate bad trade proposals so much? It could be that we're just offended by the sheer stupidity of them, or we're upset at the lack of respect the player on our team receives, but I don't think that quite explains it. I think I get upset because I am presented with a world where the Kings don't have that player. That's okay when it's someone like Armstrong or Preissing, but when it's someone like Johnson I get scared. I'm scared because I'm confronted with the reality that someone like Kopitar or Brown or Robitaille or Hrudey will not be a King forever, that time will pass and that someday they'll be gone. I know Kopitar won't be on the Kings forever, but I don't want to think about it for the same reason I don't think about my parents' deaths. It's legitimately terrifying to me, and I cannot help but react violently to it. Rationally, I know these trade proposals are all bullshit and they wouldn't happen in a million years, but that irrational lizard part of my brain can't help but respond. I avoid sites like HockeyBuzz not because they're retarded (and they are), but because if I read them I'd probably suffer a stroke within the week. It's easier for me to just say, "Fuck you!" than actually consider the proposal and its consequences. So, fuck you, I guess.

Burke vs. Lowe: the true winner is the audience

When your GM is compared to Manny, you might be in for a long lame duck year

My best laugh of the night did not come from "Trailer Park Boys" (that show, along with hockey, funny pronunciation and maple syrup prove that Canada deserves a little respect). Instead, it came from Kevin Lowe's slap-fight response to Brian Burke dropping a-bomb quotes for a full year:

"Where do I begin?," started Lowe. "He's a moron, first of all. Secondly, he really believes that any news for the NHL is good news. Thirdly, he loves the limelight and I don't think anyone in hockey will dispute that. Lastly, he's in a pathetic hockey market where they can't get on any page of the newspaper let alone the front page of the sports, so any of this stuff carries on."

I know our peers are like, 'Well, that's Burkie.'

-TSN

Reading that made me think of Chuck Klosterman's great bit about "archrival versus nemesis." In the beginning of the feud, when "Burkie" had smoke coming out of his ears, people mentioned that the two were considered friends. But maybe they were just nemeses according to Klosterman's definition: everyone figured they were good buddies, but they secretly hated each other.

Either way, this feud is pretty hilarious. "Burkie being Burkie."

(Some people in Toronto are probably squirming right now)

Umm, What?

"Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan progressed almost despite Crawford, not because of him. Anze Kopitar was brilliant as a rookie and seemed to plateau this season when opponents realized how good he is and tried to pound him into submission. The defense was a mess and Crawford's relentless rebukes of Johnson, among others, only made things worse."

-Helene Elliot, LA Times


That seems a little harsh. Say what you want about Crawford, but there's no denying that our young players (including Frolov) have gotten much better the last two seasons. I don't really think Crawford played a big part in that, but he did play a part. O'Sullivan especially seems to have completely changed his game and blossomed into a legitimate NHL player thanks to Crawford. Kopitar added 10 points to his point total and changed his game to counter the scouting reports of other teams. And what "relentless rebukes of Johnson?" Crawford never said anything in the press about him. If he was brutal to him in the locker room then a source needs to be acknowledged.

That's one thing that bothers me about reporters. They'll always say shit like this after a coach gets fired or a player gets traded. If you knew that Crawford had yelled at Johnson, you should tell your readers. That's your Goddamn job. Don't keep it quiet because you're worried about your access being restricted (which Elliot shouldn't have to worry about since she's been writing about other sports all year) and then kill the coach with innuendo after he's gone. It's unfair to Crawford and to the public. And just implying something like that without even giving it a source seems cowardly to me. It's something I could do and I have no access whatsoever. Since Rich Hammond has not made any mention of an abuse of Johnson, and since I ultimately think this season was a very important one in Johnson's development, I'm inclined to not believe it. Crawford wasn't a good coach for the Kings, but to criticize him for the one thing he did well kind of sucks.

Bucci FM

I just heard John Buccigross on ESPN Radio as I was driving home tonight and I have to say, can we get this man on radio? Maybe it was just the fact that I rarely hear decent hockey conversation on the radio (even a deep playoff run doesn't really make a huge difference in Dallas sports radio), but hearing Bucci artfully pontificate about Sidney Crosby and the attendance issues in Detroit was truly a gift.

This makes me ask the blogosphere: what are the best non-traditional (aka Internet-based/streaming) hockey radio sources? I'd love to hear some silly banter about the NHL, especially from Pittsburgh, Detroit, Philly and (most of all) Canada. Reading is just oh so overrated...

Sports Blogs under fire

This clip is painful to watch (mainly because of Buzz Bissinger's absurd anger. This is a guy who absolutely never exploited athletes in "Friday Night Lights," by the way) but it's absolutely fascinating.

Coming from a journalism background, it's easy to understand some of the fears the old folks have regarding the blogosphere. The sad fact of life is that 90 percent of that fear comes from a combination of a) fear of what they don't understand and b) fear that they will be rendered obsolete.

That being said, it's not so simple as to just shout "Blogs are totally awesome!!!!!!11" when it's obvious that there are flaws to any process with few to no boundaries. There is, honestly, a value to having fact checkers, editors and accountability.

Of course, that also tends to filter out the fun and, most troubling, the courage from what you can write. Either way, the statement that the children blogging is the future is undeniable. God help us.

Check out that clip (thanks Pensblog for pointing it out) from the belly of the beast itself, Deadspin. It's a must-watch clip for anyone with even a passing interest in blogs.

The power of the internet compels you

In the 50th comment of last post, Scarlett Ice’s Sherry posed this question, in response to my comment that Pronger’s forthcoming suspension (expected tomorrow) was the result of “nice whining.”

So as fans of the game, why shouldn't we whine about it? Isn't that part of what blogging is about?

Sherry, believe me, I've been whining all day, just in my own cynical way. And frankly, I’m really impressed that the NHL could be this swayed by pretty much the internet alone (I don't think the Canucks did or said anything, did they?). Score one for the web opinionists, especially if the overnight swing goes from 0 to 10 games for Pronger's stomp. Because frankly, while there was a clearer YouTube offered today, I have to say that I didn't see anything particularly new. It was certainly focused and to a degree more compelling, but it still left me with the possibilities I saw yesterday. At best, he’s freeing his foot, and at worst, he hopes Kesler never skates on two legs again, and it’s tough for me to expertly decide. But I don’t want to get into that debate here—keep those Pronger-opinion comments in the post below.

This post is to marvel at the power of a united hockey internet. While the unveiled video may offer an official excuse for Colin Campbell to change his position, I’m not falling for that explanation. Instead, I’m going to associate every one of these new suspended games to the growing power of the internet outcry, and it’s a pretty special thing to see. Journalists, message-boarders, bloggers, and commenters all chimed in very strongly with a loud cry for justice, and wow it seems to be getting results. The league seems to be listening. Even if tonight’s decision goes against everything I’ve personally been preaching, I don’t know if I’ve ever been as proud of the hockey internet as I am tonight. It’s just fascinating to see a cumulative voice of the fan make change in an often-stubborn league.

Congratulations, hockey internet. You may have just become a force tonight, and I’m glad to be around to see it.

Still, I have to maintain a little smugness around the whole StompGate affair (it is after all my main character flaw):

• It's a good thing this sort of internet swaying power wasn't available last spring, else the Red Wings or the Senators could have extended a Pronger suspension and won that cup. That is, if they had shown any ability to win against a Prongerless Ducks team when given the chance.
• Losing Pronger will certainly hurt the team's short-term chance for good seeding, but it won't be the worst thing to get his jaw rested up for the playoffs. I'm surprised he rushed back from the cracked jaw so urgently, to tell the truth, especially with the team's acquisition of MA Bergeron. I suspect it has something to do his sense of obligation about wearing that "C", which seems oddly honorable.
• And hey, this may just give Pronger enough time to put a second post up on his blog, and maybe he can start a little internet squabble of his own.

Again, good work, hockey internet. Someday I hope we'll be whining our way to change on the same side of an issue.

Sharks vs Ottawa Senators photos

Here are a few photos from the Sharks 3-2 overtime win over the Ottawa Senators.

Patrick Marleau is starting to roll. His overtime game winner against Ottawa stretched the Sharks winning streak to 7 games, vaulted the Sharks over Anaheim for 4th place in the Western Conference, and brought the Sharks within 3 points of Pacific-leading Dallas with 3 games in hand. The Sharks captain and oft-lamented trade rumor magnet scored 3 goals and 3 assists in his last 5 games, registering a +4 in that span.

Sharks head coach Ron Wilson strongly noted Marleau's recent turnaround to the media after the game, and said that a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders after the trade deadline expired without him being moved. Wilson also cracked on unidentified hockey reporter (allegedly Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun), for floating a number of foolish Marleau trade rumors. Wilson said that unidentified hockey reporter (allegedly Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun) was too afraid to come to the Sharks side of the post-game press conference and face the music for being so off base.

More photos and notes from Ottawa vs San Jose here.

Sports Illustrated asked NHL players to rank hockey fans by city. Montreal was overwhelmingly named the city with the best fans garnering 35% of the votes. Minnesota was second with 13%, Calgary third with 11%. Only California team to make the top ten... also the second best U.S. based fans according to NHL players... the San Jose Sharks in a 6th placed tie with Toronto at 5%.

Make that Exhibit 1B. Take that Letgokings.com and Allducks.com. War Thefeeder.com and the Hammerhead Booster Club.

Kings Gameday: Bright Spot

Los Angeles Kings (eep) vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (16-19-8, 13th in East)

7:30 PST, no television^

Hey, Anze Kopitar made the All-Star team! Congratulations to Kopitar on the 1st of his many, many All-Star games. He is the only representative of the Kings which, let's face it, is entirely appropriate. I haven't written as much about Kopitar as I'd like* because I run the risk of making everyone sick, but he has been better than he was last year when you consider that every team is gunning for him. Good for him.


Also making the squad from California: Ryan Getzlaf, Chris Pronger, Evgeni Nabokov, and Joe Thornton. I encourage the All-Star coach (who the hell coaches these things again?) to put Getzlaf, Kopitar, and Stastny on a line. I guarantee three goals or your money back. (Give me money and I'll prove it.)

Not making the team: Pascal Leclaire. Instead, Manny Legace will join Nabokov and Luongo for the All-Star festivities. I know statistics like Goals Against Average and Save Percentage are flawed, but is better in both, plus he has played on a shittier team, plus he does all this with fake vampire teeth in his mouth. I'm not a Columbus blogger or anything, but that seems ridiculous to me.

***

The L.A. Times finally let Helene Elliot write about hockey again, and she came with guns blazing in this article about the state of the Kings. It's thesis is that it's time to bring up Purcell, Boyle, and Harrold and see what they can do since there's no way the Kings are making the playoffs. I agree with her because Purcell is 22, Boyle is 23 (although I'm not sure if he deserves a call-up), and Harrold is 24; they're all older than Anze Kopitar. If he can handle all this losing, I think they can as well.

I do take issue with one part of Elliot's article, however:


"...another broken promise from a club that vowed it would become a Stanley Cup contender under the salary-cap system but sabotaged itself with bad free-agent signings and timidity in the front office."

I don't understand why the Kings broke some "vow" because they have sucked the last two seasons. Were they supposed to say they would suck and wouldn't be competitive for a while? And how can you sabotage yourself with bad free-agent signings and timidity in the front office. It seems like a lack of timidity resulted in bad free-agent signings. And really, what free-agent signings have been bad? Brian Willsie was, but I'm not really ready to classify anyone else as such. Craig Conroy, Pavol Demitra, Tom Preissing, Ted Purcell, Joe Piskula... those all seem like pretty good signings to me. (I'm still withholding judgment on Michal Handzus.)

I don't know if I like this perception growing among Kings fans that we somehow deserve a competitive team because we've never won a championship. The team we're playing tonight has suffered as long and they're the capital of Ontario! I think we're in danger of becoming as insufferable as Red Sox fans if we're not careful, and I'd rather die than be a part of something like that.

Prediction: Kings win, 6-3. Kopitar celebrates his selection with a hat trick, while Frolov, Willsie, and Handzus also get in on the act.

^I thought we'd be able to access it through the Maple Leafs website, but I guess you have to be in Canada to use it. Looks like it's the radio tonight for us.



*If I had my way, every article would look like this:

Kopitar Kopitar Kopitar Kopitar Kopitar Kopitar Kopitar Kopitar Kopitar Kopitar Kopitar Kopitar

Drinky Linky Friday

It's Friday morning, and I'm on vacation (hung over) in pretty little South Bend, Indiana. So what is possessing me to post this lazy morning? I gotta link to two posts that impressed the hell out of me--lofty topics and dedicated research aren't things I tackle very much.

Andy Grabia at Battle of Alberta put in a lot of legwork and has put together a great post looking at the mainstream media blogs throughout the major cities of Canada. It's a fascinating take on what is being done well and maybe not so well in the MSM's attempt to latch onto blogfever, and what separates them from the non-MSM efforts.

Meanwhile, Christy Finn at Girl With a Puck has also put a lot of effort into her post on the role of hockey blogs in today's modern coverage. It's been a big undertaking--collecting reactions from independent bloggers, MSM members, and team representatives (including Brian Burke and Ted Leonsis -- wow!) on what credibility and relevance blogs bring into hockey coverage today.

Very impressive posts, both of them. If you're interested in the subject matter and have some time to kill, I recommend them both. If, on the other hand, you are interested in a powerful headache and a nice case of zombie's breath, I recommend a heavy dosage of Jack Daniels.

I can only speak for my own perspective here, but I hope none of you readers mistake me for a journalist; this is pretty much a fan's perspective blog. I've never really shown any interest in things like media credentials, or player or team access, or breaking news or rumors, or even reporting under my god-given name. As I've said before, "I know what side of the glass I sit on," and I'm not entirely sure that I have much more in terms of aspirations for this blog--I'm very happy with what we do and don't provide.

Anyway, anyone clear-headed enough to throw some thoughts on the subject? What is the role of blogs in hockey coverage today? What distinguishes a good blog from a bad one, or sites you read from sites you ignore? Where do you see this internet heading, two or five years down the road?

p.s. Per Kukla, crazy Russian Ilya Bryzgalov has been put on waivers, in an effort to find him a team that will play him more. Between this and Maxim Kondratiev fleeing to Russia, that means that Sammy Pahlsson is the only non-North-American-born Duck. Hooray for racism!

Earl Sleek: Audio Idiot

Well, the Ducks won their "home" game in England, 4-1, to put the Sharks squarely in the BoC basement, and also it prevented me from mass producing my "0-2 in the O2" t-shirts. All in all, it seems playing in England was a pretty good opening gesture for the NHL--no major head hits or stick swings, some decent back-and-forth hockey, and two rookies getting the season's first two NHL wins. It did take 15 minutes for the lights to turn on, 5 periods of hockey for an even-strength goal to be scored, and a bit longer to see find out that English fans love fights, but those glitches aside, it seems to have gone off rather well, or at least not badly.

In terms of the game, here's the key stat that caught my eye: in the first game, Coach Carlyle had Ryan Getzlaf out for 5 1/2 shorthanded minutes; he was on the ice for all three L.A. power play goals. In game 2, Carlyle dropped Getzlaf's PK time to 20 seconds while rookie Ryan Carter picked up more than 3 minutes, and the Kings' power play didn't score once.

Anyway, I didn't even get to see this game live--I figured the Ducks stood a better chance of winning if I went to church. But that didn't stop me from listening to the postgame show Duck Calls on my way home (not that rare), nor did it stop me from calling in (a first!). I was on with host Josh Brewster and L.A. Times writer Eric Stephens for what ended up being a 17-minute segment, talking about all the BoC teams. Most of that time I was pacing around a convenience store parking lot like a lunatic, but I guess I ended up sounding intelligible enough.

You can access the audio at the Duck Call site here -- my segment is labeled 'Sept 30 Part 4'. I can't say it's the most inspired piece of call-in-show dialogue, but I will direct your attention to about 55 seconds in, when Stephens throws in this gem: "Yeah, Earl. I have seen your site. It's well done, by the way."

I think I might have to see a doctor about my suddenly bloated head.

Season (P)Review: Mike Cammalleri & Lubomir Visnovsky

Last Season:

Cammalleri- 34 G, 46 A, +5,48 PIM

Visnovsky- 18 G, 40 A, +1, 26 PIM

Word That Best Describes Both Seasons: Spectacular.

I have no idea what's going on in this picture.

I’ve already written a lot about Cammy and Lubo this off-season, so you can check those out here and here. They were our two best players last year and we can only hope that they keep it up. One thing to note: Lubo had to switch defensive sides to accommodate Rob Blake last year and had a little trouble with it, at least in his estimation. That shouldn’t be a problem this year.

(Looking around for help): What the hell? This is hockey, right?

***

Darren Eliot wrote a piece for SI.com about all the young talent in the West and failed to mention a single King. Not one. In an article about young talent in the Western Conference. Darren Eliot, you were a better goalie than you are a writer.

(Update: I went to SI.com to link to the article and discovered Eliot has a new article about Bernier. I think someone warned him I was going to make fun of him. Whatever, the article is terribly written anyway. It's totally obvious that he just read a few articles and then put them into his own words.)

***

I’m not excited about Jonathan Bernier. Really, I’m not. Sure, he’s barely 19 and played extremely well at Frozen Fury. Sure, we haven’t a had real homegrown goaltender since… well, ever. But still, I’m not excited; he’s only 19 and will probably get sent down after his 9 games are up. Yes, I’m smiling, but it’s not about him.

I’m not excited.

OMG, this game is played by human beings?!

As a general rule, there are few things blander than your typical NHL player interview. I think everyone means well, but somehow the objective isn't about hearing about an individual perspective or personality anymore. For whatever reason (sensitivity, fear, team unity), most player interviews just turn into prompted clichés:

"Stick to the system, give a full sixty minutes, cut down on the mistakes, sure I like my linemates, blah blah blah."

So coming from that perspective, I gotta say that I was impressed to see that my favorite Swedish blogger, Ingmar Bergman, scored some chat time with an anonymous NHLer. And you know what? This interview is AWESOME.

The names are fake, but that probably allows the content (translated from Swedish) to remain so true. Ingmar, dude, you really kicked ass in this interview. Everyone, go read it!

Part I
Part II
Part III

Enjoy!