All blogged up and nothing to write about it. Thus is the curse of the annual sports dead zone which starts when the Stanley Cup finals conclude and ends on opening Sunday of the NFL season, when or if that occurs.
In the interim we get NHL hot stove talk mixed in with baseball; lots and lots of baseball. If you happen to live in a city where baseball thrives, that’s a palatable situation. If you happen to live in Chicago after growing up in Pittsburgh, well let’s just say I’m praying for a timely end to the NFL’s ludicrous work stoppage.
You think it’s a coincidence this blog has gone from a weekly to a monthly publication since Memorial Day?
Thankfully all hope is not lost; not with specter of Jaromir Jagr’s return to Pittsburgh. That would be 39 year old Jaromir Jagr who has spent the last three years plying his trade in Russia. That’s the same Jagr who for the better part of a decade has been treated with Hossa like disdain by most Penguin fans.
Of course that’s also the Jaromir Jagr who for 15 years was one of the greatest offensive players in NHL history. The same Jagr who was an integral part of two Stanley Cup champions in Pittsburgh; the same Jagr who dominated the NHL in the 90s and kept the Pens afloat as their talent was gradually siphoned off. This is the Jaromir Jagr whose virtuoso brilliance motived me to pen the attached blog entry below two years ago.
http://ahaberman35.livejournal.com/6810.html
And yes that’s the same Jagr who could be moody, pouty, and selfish almost on a whim. The Jagr who was a disaster as captain (though generally ok before that) and alienated most of the Penguin fans base on the way out of the Burgh. The same player who is indirectly responsible for Kris Beech wearing a Penguin uniform.
All of which is to admit that the circumstances of Jagr’s potential return are a fair bit complex.
So let’s simplify it.
First off, forget the past; the good, the bad, and the ugly. For my money Jagr is second only to Mario Lemieux in the annals of Penguin history but that is irrelevant today. The Pens are hoping he can contribute 25 goals or so and breathe life in to their morbid power play. The only relevant question is whether he can do that now; not what he could do in 1995 or did do in 2001.
Which also means forgetting Jagr’s acrimonious departure. It means forgetting the pouting, the dying alive and hardest of all, the carnage that was left behind. It’s water under the bridge now. The Penguins have moved well beyond it as has Jagr. The rest of us should join them.
For the record, I maintain that the treatment of Jagr since he left the Burgh has been disgraceful; a rare blight on an otherwise terrific fan base. Jagr is not a candidate for sainthood but he’s not Barry Bonds either. His departure from Pittsburgh, with little tangible return was inevitable; a point that was reinforced by the Alexie Kovalev deja vu deal two years later. The entire situation could have been handled with more grace on both ends but Jagr has been wrongly cast as the man who torched the Pens franchise. In truth, that ship had already sailed.
Jagr is an all time great Penguin who should be celebrated as such. If returning to Pittsburgh helps bring this about while burying what I consider a shameful part of Penguin history, that’s a nice ancillary benefit.
Second, the Penguins need Jagr; or at least someone with his current skill set. In a painfully thin free agent year where Tyler Kenney is highly sought after; old number 68 is likely their best hope.
Assuming (and praying) for the return to full health of Crosby and Malkin, this is a team with two brilliant centers and nary an elite offensive winger. If that evaluation sounds familiar, it’s because I’ve been regurgitating some variation it for the better part of three years.
Do you ever dream about what Sid the Kid could do with a legitimate 40 goal scorer on his wing. Notwithstanding my well documented issues with Marian Hossa, think back to the results when he and Sid played together in 2008. I’m not saying Jagr can be that good at his age; but he can be a lot better than Pascal Dupuis, Tyler Kennedy or Eric Tangradi. This assumes of course that Jagr does not sign a one year deal with Detroit because “it gives him the best chance to win the Stanley Cup” (oh the humanity).
We have lived through three years where Chris Kunitz was FAR AND AWAY the Penguins’ best offensive winger. Let me repeat that…Chris Kunitz. The guy who went from April to November 2009 without scoring (or at least it seemed that way). And while I applauded and fully endorsed the acquisition of James Neal; it’s hard to be too excited about a guy who scored three goals in his last 50 or so games last season. I’m expecting better this year (worse is hard to comprehend) but l admit my Neal optimism has been tarnished a bit.
Beyond that it’s an eclectic combination of checking line caliber wingers and hopeful but uncertain prospects. For a team that has legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations, that situation is not acceptable. The Pens are too good and have too much upside to be so reliant on the two headed monster.
And I have devoted barely a sentence to discussing the power play; a unit that is disturbingly bad with Malkin and Crosby and flat out unwatchable without them. I have to believe on some level that Jagr could benefit the man advantage. It seems inconceivable he could hurt it. The Pens will not win the Cup if Kris Letang spends another year reprising Mike Eurozione’s role during the early training days of Herb Brooks’ miracle team. AGAIN !!!
To reiterate, the Pens need Jagr and they need him bad.
I’m talking about the Jagr of today, not the Jagr of ten years ago. They need a talented winger with legitimate 25 goal ability regardless of who his center is. They need somebody other than 87 or 71 who can change the game offensively. Even if Neal or Tangradi is the real deal, neither has that ability. And unlike his last few years in the Burgh, Jagr will not be asked to carry the team on the ice or the burden of leadership off it.
Yes there are risks involved but consider that over the last three years Ray Shero out of necessity has played musical chairs with his wingers. If we as Penguin fans were willing to accept and endorse the risks implicit in signing Miro Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko, and for the love of all that’s good and holy Alex Ponikarovsky, why not a clearly superior player in the same role? I’m willing to wager that Jagr right now is better than any of those players in their prime. And he’s certainly as good as Bill Guerin was when he arrived in the Burgh.
Please resist comparisons to Kovalev version 2011. That was a desperation acquisition by Shero hoping to catch short-term lightning in a bottle. The Pens would NEVER have made that move with 87 and 71 healthy. Kovy was clearly washed up before he arrived in the Burgh and let’s be honest; even in his prime was not exactly touted for his work ethic. Kovalev at his best was an elite talent; Jagr an elite player.
Obviously the money has to work. If the Dead Wings or Habs wants to offer Jagr $5 Million per there is not much the Pens can do about that. Jagr once said he would take the league minimum to play for Mario Lemieux. That’s more than charitable but I’ll settle for getting him in at $3.5 Million or less. Then we can leave the other roster decisions, including Kennedy and Max Talbot in Shero’s capable hands.
The ball is now in Jaromir’s court; all we can do is wait and hope. Thankfully or sadly, at this time of year there is not much else for sports fans to do.
Showing posts with label eric tangradi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eric tangradi. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
My Post Mortem on the Long Island Brawl
I’ve spent the last week trying, and for the most part failing, to get over my anger about what happened on Long Island a week ago Friday.
The entire spectacle was an embarrassment to the National Hockey League, not that the league is intelligent enough to understand that. My position on this incident has not changed over eight days, it’s just been clarified. What happened was a 60 minute premeditated and cowardly assault with intent to injure. It was based not on some noble if misplaced desire to protect the Islanders’ top players; rather on some flimsy vendetta that the Islanders conjured out of mid air. It was, to paraphrase Mario Lemieux, a travesty of sport. A travesty made worse by the NHL’s impotent reaction 24 hours later.
If you think I’m overreacting to all this ask yourself two questions. What would have been the reaction if Matt Martin had landed his cowardly sucker punch from behind and fractured Max Talbot’s jaw or even broken his neck as Todd Bertuzzi did to Steve Moore. And how will you feel if Eric Tangradi is unable to play for a year or more because of his second concussion.
The NHL is doing what it always does, punish the result rather than the action. That would be bad enough if the punishments were proportionate to the crime which they rarely are. It’s a sad truth that if Talbot suffered a career ending injury, Martin likely would have received a 25 to 40 game ban. That would have been woefully inadequate given Martin’s action but certainly more than he got.
Instead the NHL’s lack of action will simply encourage and enable more of this behavior. Consider that the Pens/Islanders game was the third brawl filled game in ten days and little action was taken on the first two. Consider some unknown Colorado hack took a cheap run at Olli Jokinen the next night after he put up four points on the fading Avalanche. It’s a systematic and endemic problem that the NHL does not acknowledge, let alone attempt to fix.
For too long the league has relied on its archaic code of justice to mediate justice. Besides the obvious flaw in having the inmates run the asylum, the simple fact is its not working anymore. Players seem to be losing respect for the so called “code”. What the Islanders did Friday night was a three hour case study in this. As former Penguin Rick Tocchet said last week, players seem more willing to hurt each other today. And Tocchet knows a thing or two about hockey fights.
I might excuse the Islander’s conduct on some level if any member of their organization, player or coach had acknowledged in the slightest that things got out of hand. They steadfastly refused to do so. Instead, they bragged about protecting their players, sending a message and in the most asinine comment I’ve heard this season showing restraint. I guess my memory is foggy. I’m sure I remember Garth Snow wearing a mask when he played goal for the Pens yet he seems like he took one too many slap shots to the cranium.
The NHL should have come out and sent a strong message that this behavior will not be tolerated. When you use the term “DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO INJURE” in doling out punishment, you are saying that the player committed a crime against the game. They should have suspended both Martin and Trevor Gillies for the remainder of the season for their assaults on Talbot and Tangradi. They should have suspended Jack Capuano five games for complete failure to control his players. They should have suspended Matt Hailey for spending the entire night starting brawls. And yes, Dan Bylsma should have been suspended as required by rule for Eric Godard leaving the bench.
Instead they suspended only three players. Two of the suspensions, for Gillies and Martin, were frighteningly inadequate to the crime. And the Godard suspension, which I agree with, was only by rule and would not have been necessary if the officials had put a stop to the insanity in the second period. None of the other brawlers were suspended.
The obvious message here…fighting is acceptable no matter how badly it gets out of hand. And if you go as far over the line as Gillies and Martin did, the league will talk tough and then give them a slap on the wrist suspension. Compare that to the NBA, hardly a bastion of purity or responsibility which suspended players involved in the Indiana/Detroit brawl for the remainder of the season, about 60 games and the playoffs.
The NBA’s message to its players, that kind of brawling will not be tolerated. The NHL’s message, as long as you don’t cheap shot a guy in the head, you’ll be back the next night. And even if you do, you’ll only sit a few days. Somehow I don’t see that as quite the detriment that the all knowing former goon Colin Campbell does.
Those who continue to profess that the players police themselves will call this an isolated incident. I say that this incident proved how ineffective and counter productive that idea is. The NHL claims that fighting protects the game. I take the opposite view point, I think fighting enables the kind of ugly incident we saw last Friday night. As I said last week, if you believe fighting is necessary to police the game I ask you this…did it work last Friday? Keep in mind that before he tried to end Tangradi’s career for no apparent reason, Gillies fought Eric Godard.
I personally would not mind if they eliminated fighting from the game. Unfortunately, the only way that’s going to happen is if somebody dies on the ice during a fight. I truly believe that. And as much as I would prefer hockey to be fight free, I’m not willing to pay the price of a human life to get there. So I would suggest that the league add a mandatory ten minute misconduct on top of every fight. If fighting is that necessary to police the game then a player should be wiling to pay a 15 minute price. And for those who believe it necessary, I remind you that it all but disappears when the playoffs start.
What is worse is what has happened since. Mario Lemieux, arguably the greatest player in NHL history rightfully called out what happened as a travesty of sport. He criticized both the events itself and the NHL’s pathetic response. His message was right on point and had to be delivered. As a fan, I would want my owner to do exactly that.
Not only was his message ignored, it was summarily dismissed by the NHL and Lemieux was ripped for it by fans and media alike. I found it fascinating that in all the talk of Lemieux being a hypocrite because of the sinful act of employing Matt Cooke, not one person actually contradicted his point. To me that is even more convincing evidence that he was 100% correct.
That said, the universal effort to shoot the messenger was telling. It tells me that there are too many people in the NHL that are more concerned with protecting its archaic code of brutal violence than doing what’s best for the sport. Even as the game’s best player and poster child sits on the sideline with a concussion induced by an unpunished cheap shot to the head, the NHL continues to ignore an obvious problem.
Lemieux has been ripped for not calling out Cooke for his shots on Marc Savard and Fedor Tyutin. The implication is that Lemieux supports Cooke’s actions. Beyond the fact that Lemieux and the Pens never once complained about Cooke’s suspension this argument is blatantly stupid. Ask Andrew Ference what happens when you call out a teammate. Do you think free agents would be lining up to come to Pittsburgh if Mario was calling out his own players?
And for the record, I think the NHL should have suspended Cooke for the hit on Savard and more for the hit on Tyutin. It’s all part of an overall trend of the league not taking these issues seriously enough. And each time that happens, the repercussions are worse. Sadly the NHL just does not get this.
Instead they let a career goon like Campbell dole out obviously inadequate punishments. They continue to rally around small minding thinking and an archaic and useless code. They continue to cheapen their product through unnecessary fights that lead to brawls and worse. They continue to make their stars take a back seat to fourth line goons.
As a lifetime hockey fan, I am grudgingly able to look beyond this. Far too many are not. Hockey is one of the greatest games on earth. Sadly, the NHL is hell bent on making sure many people never find out. We learned that the hard way last weekend.
The entire spectacle was an embarrassment to the National Hockey League, not that the league is intelligent enough to understand that. My position on this incident has not changed over eight days, it’s just been clarified. What happened was a 60 minute premeditated and cowardly assault with intent to injure. It was based not on some noble if misplaced desire to protect the Islanders’ top players; rather on some flimsy vendetta that the Islanders conjured out of mid air. It was, to paraphrase Mario Lemieux, a travesty of sport. A travesty made worse by the NHL’s impotent reaction 24 hours later.
If you think I’m overreacting to all this ask yourself two questions. What would have been the reaction if Matt Martin had landed his cowardly sucker punch from behind and fractured Max Talbot’s jaw or even broken his neck as Todd Bertuzzi did to Steve Moore. And how will you feel if Eric Tangradi is unable to play for a year or more because of his second concussion.
The NHL is doing what it always does, punish the result rather than the action. That would be bad enough if the punishments were proportionate to the crime which they rarely are. It’s a sad truth that if Talbot suffered a career ending injury, Martin likely would have received a 25 to 40 game ban. That would have been woefully inadequate given Martin’s action but certainly more than he got.
Instead the NHL’s lack of action will simply encourage and enable more of this behavior. Consider that the Pens/Islanders game was the third brawl filled game in ten days and little action was taken on the first two. Consider some unknown Colorado hack took a cheap run at Olli Jokinen the next night after he put up four points on the fading Avalanche. It’s a systematic and endemic problem that the NHL does not acknowledge, let alone attempt to fix.
For too long the league has relied on its archaic code of justice to mediate justice. Besides the obvious flaw in having the inmates run the asylum, the simple fact is its not working anymore. Players seem to be losing respect for the so called “code”. What the Islanders did Friday night was a three hour case study in this. As former Penguin Rick Tocchet said last week, players seem more willing to hurt each other today. And Tocchet knows a thing or two about hockey fights.
I might excuse the Islander’s conduct on some level if any member of their organization, player or coach had acknowledged in the slightest that things got out of hand. They steadfastly refused to do so. Instead, they bragged about protecting their players, sending a message and in the most asinine comment I’ve heard this season showing restraint. I guess my memory is foggy. I’m sure I remember Garth Snow wearing a mask when he played goal for the Pens yet he seems like he took one too many slap shots to the cranium.
The NHL should have come out and sent a strong message that this behavior will not be tolerated. When you use the term “DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO INJURE” in doling out punishment, you are saying that the player committed a crime against the game. They should have suspended both Martin and Trevor Gillies for the remainder of the season for their assaults on Talbot and Tangradi. They should have suspended Jack Capuano five games for complete failure to control his players. They should have suspended Matt Hailey for spending the entire night starting brawls. And yes, Dan Bylsma should have been suspended as required by rule for Eric Godard leaving the bench.
Instead they suspended only three players. Two of the suspensions, for Gillies and Martin, were frighteningly inadequate to the crime. And the Godard suspension, which I agree with, was only by rule and would not have been necessary if the officials had put a stop to the insanity in the second period. None of the other brawlers were suspended.
The obvious message here…fighting is acceptable no matter how badly it gets out of hand. And if you go as far over the line as Gillies and Martin did, the league will talk tough and then give them a slap on the wrist suspension. Compare that to the NBA, hardly a bastion of purity or responsibility which suspended players involved in the Indiana/Detroit brawl for the remainder of the season, about 60 games and the playoffs.
The NBA’s message to its players, that kind of brawling will not be tolerated. The NHL’s message, as long as you don’t cheap shot a guy in the head, you’ll be back the next night. And even if you do, you’ll only sit a few days. Somehow I don’t see that as quite the detriment that the all knowing former goon Colin Campbell does.
Those who continue to profess that the players police themselves will call this an isolated incident. I say that this incident proved how ineffective and counter productive that idea is. The NHL claims that fighting protects the game. I take the opposite view point, I think fighting enables the kind of ugly incident we saw last Friday night. As I said last week, if you believe fighting is necessary to police the game I ask you this…did it work last Friday? Keep in mind that before he tried to end Tangradi’s career for no apparent reason, Gillies fought Eric Godard.
I personally would not mind if they eliminated fighting from the game. Unfortunately, the only way that’s going to happen is if somebody dies on the ice during a fight. I truly believe that. And as much as I would prefer hockey to be fight free, I’m not willing to pay the price of a human life to get there. So I would suggest that the league add a mandatory ten minute misconduct on top of every fight. If fighting is that necessary to police the game then a player should be wiling to pay a 15 minute price. And for those who believe it necessary, I remind you that it all but disappears when the playoffs start.
What is worse is what has happened since. Mario Lemieux, arguably the greatest player in NHL history rightfully called out what happened as a travesty of sport. He criticized both the events itself and the NHL’s pathetic response. His message was right on point and had to be delivered. As a fan, I would want my owner to do exactly that.
Not only was his message ignored, it was summarily dismissed by the NHL and Lemieux was ripped for it by fans and media alike. I found it fascinating that in all the talk of Lemieux being a hypocrite because of the sinful act of employing Matt Cooke, not one person actually contradicted his point. To me that is even more convincing evidence that he was 100% correct.
That said, the universal effort to shoot the messenger was telling. It tells me that there are too many people in the NHL that are more concerned with protecting its archaic code of brutal violence than doing what’s best for the sport. Even as the game’s best player and poster child sits on the sideline with a concussion induced by an unpunished cheap shot to the head, the NHL continues to ignore an obvious problem.
Lemieux has been ripped for not calling out Cooke for his shots on Marc Savard and Fedor Tyutin. The implication is that Lemieux supports Cooke’s actions. Beyond the fact that Lemieux and the Pens never once complained about Cooke’s suspension this argument is blatantly stupid. Ask Andrew Ference what happens when you call out a teammate. Do you think free agents would be lining up to come to Pittsburgh if Mario was calling out his own players?
And for the record, I think the NHL should have suspended Cooke for the hit on Savard and more for the hit on Tyutin. It’s all part of an overall trend of the league not taking these issues seriously enough. And each time that happens, the repercussions are worse. Sadly the NHL just does not get this.
Instead they let a career goon like Campbell dole out obviously inadequate punishments. They continue to rally around small minding thinking and an archaic and useless code. They continue to cheapen their product through unnecessary fights that lead to brawls and worse. They continue to make their stars take a back seat to fourth line goons.
As a lifetime hockey fan, I am grudgingly able to look beyond this. Far too many are not. Hockey is one of the greatest games on earth. Sadly, the NHL is hell bent on making sure many people never find out. We learned that the hard way last weekend.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
A Sickening Display of “Sport”
I love hockey. So please understand how serious I take what I'm about to write.
My love for the sports parallels the Penguins’ rise to prominence, lead by a quiet (usually) French Canadian simply known as “Le Magnifique.” And yet, I clearly remember watching Michelle Dion and the Pens nearly pull one of the greatest playoff upsets in sports history against the Islander dynasty in 1982.
Those Islander teams were amongst the greatest of all time. They were blessed with a roster full of hall of fame players. They were not saints, but for the most part played the game the right way. Three decades later, their successors put on one of the most shameful displays in NHL history.
I’m not sure what was worse; the beer league goonism and thugery the Islanders perpetrated under the guise of “settling a score,” or the pathetic see no evil response from their coach and general manager. To hear Jack Capuano and Garth Snow tell it, their team of choir boys was simply defending themselves from the likes of the evil Eric Tangradi.
I guess that explains why the legendary Matt Martin felt the need to give Max Talbot the Todd Bertuzzi treatment. I guess that’s why Trevor Gillies skated half the rink to drive his elbow through Tangradi’s cranium, punch him while he was clearly injured and then taunt him while he was laying face first on the ice. So much for getting tough on head injuries.
Let me be as clear as possible on this so there is no misunderstanding where I stand on this. Gillies' actions in that sequence were possibly the most sickening display I’ve seen in over 30 years of watching sports. It was the single most disgraceful act of a game that was a complete disgrace to the sport.
Seriously, what does it say for the Islanders that Martin tried to end Talbot’s season with a cheap sucker punch from behind and it was only the second worst display of the night? And there was an ample supply of other candidates.
All of this occurred because the Islanders apparently felt the need to avenge a questionable hit by Talbot in the last meeting and Brent Johnson’s one punch TKO of Rick DiPietro. Frankly I would think the Islanders would pin a metal on Johnson for taking DiPietro out of the line-up but that’s an argument for a different day. I guess I’m struggling to understand how fighting is an accepted part of the game unless your guy loses. Then its justification to run Johnson and his teammates all night long.
The NHL was apparently incensed in word though not in deed. They admonished both players for “deliberate attempt to injure” and then gave them slap on the wrist suspensions. I’m sorry but when you acknowledge that somebody “deliberately attempted to injure an opponent,” that player’s season should be over. It goes against every principle of organized team sports to purposefully injure an opponent. Even James Harrison acknowledged that. When there are multiple acts as such over 60 minutes, the offending organization and coach should be severely punished.
Apparently the fact that Talbot was lucky enough to duck and avoid a fractured jaw makes the act less egregious, at least in the eyes of the all knowing and all powerful Colin Campbell.
I recognize that the NHL fined the Islanders $100,000 and in doing so sent a bit of a message. That said, whether the Islanders are cheap or not, that’s chump change for a professional sports franchise. What absolutely should have happened is additional fines and a suspension for Islanders coach Jack Capuano who at best turned a blind eye to his team’s obvious intentions, at worse encouraged it.
I commented after the game were that anything less than 20 game suspensions for both Martin and Gilles would leave me outraged. Well guess what…I’m outraged. If I thought my voice carried any weight, I would publicly admonish the league for this tragic miscarriage of sports justice. Thankfully, Mario Lemieux took care of it for me.
Let’s take a step back though. Any non Pittsburgh fan who reads this is going to interpret it as a one sided rant by an angry Penguin fan. I do not deny my anger; my impression is that the Islanders caused most of this; but there is a bigger issue here. In short, what happened Friday night was inevitable.
I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m not a fan of fighting in the NHL. I believe it’s unnecessary and that it cheapens and demeans what is otherwise a great sport. It’s amazing to me that something deemed so necessary all but disappears in the playoffs. It’s even more amazing that people feel that two 4th line goons fighting has more effect on the game than Brooks Orpik crushing a guy with a clean, legal check. The only thing I hate worse than fighting is the pathetic attempts to justify it as a necessary act of “policing the game.”
Did the Islanders look like they were “policing the game” on Friday night?
That said, I have reluctantly accepted fighting for years as part of the game’s culture. I grudgingly gave the league credit for eliminating bench clearing brawls and for gradually siphoning fighting from the game. If fighting was limited to the occasional Eric Godard versus Colton Orr scrap to fire up the crowd, I could live with it. If it was occasionally used to avenge say Adam Grave’s criminal slash on Lemieux in 1992 or Matt Cooke’s hit on Marc Savard last year, I could deal with it.
After seeing three brawl filled games this week, and the NHL’s meager response I fear that’s no longer the case. It’s even worse that the league tries to depict its response as aggressive. The impotent punishments from the league in response to Friday night’s horrific actions are nothing less than a tacit endorsement of what went on. For all of Campbell’s tough talk, only three players left the arena with anything more than additional PIMs.
If the NHL wants to protect fighting’s limited role in the game, I guess that’s their right. If the players truly believe that a limited amount of fighting is necessary, I can continue to accept it in extreme moderation. That said, the travesty of sport that occurred Friday night on Long Island can not be allowed under any circumstances. It is indefensible on any level for a civilized sport. It’s the latest example of a league that continually sabotages any chance for mainstream acceptance.
The movie Slapshot was supposed to be a parody of a bygone era or minor league hockey. It was not supposed to be replayed in earnest by “supposed” NHL players.
The Penguins are not innocent bystanders in this. It does not help their cause that they lead the league in fighting majors. Nor does it help them that Matt Cooke is forcefully growing his reputation as one of the dirtiest players in the game. That does not excuse what went on Friday night in Long Island but it’s clear that the Pens are earning an ugly reputation around the NHL.
A year ago I praised the Pens for becoming a genuinely tough and physical team to play against. This year they seem to be morphing in to their neighbors to the east.
That said, this is bigger than the Penguins and bigger than what happened on Friday night. The simple act of allowing fighting in the sport opens up the doors to that kind of breakdown. The refusal of the league to take truly aggressive action against such an embarrassing display emboldens every other franchise. What’s to stop any other team from bringing up a few minor league hacks to rough up any player who dares throw a body check? I realize the Islanders are not a playoff team (or an NHL team in my opinion) but do you really think losing Matt Martin for four games is going to affect them?
Again, I love hockey and I was thoroughly disgusted by what happened Friday night. The game had the same effect on me that it had on Lemieux; it made me question whether I want to continue to be a part of the sport I love. The NHL remains a niche sport in the United States. When it starts offending its most die hard fans, it’s in serious trouble. The league can not continue to let a minority of backward minded Canadians determine its destiny. It must stop catering to the barbaric Don Cherry and Mike Milbury mentality, or risk destroying itself.
What happened Friday night was a sickening and disgraceful display. Kris Letang and Dan Bylsma said it was not hockey, I saw it was not even sport. It served only to embarrass the National Hockey League and the teams involved, regardless of who was ultimately at fault.
The league had to send a strong message that this was unacceptable on any level. As Lemieux clearly stated today, they failed.
My love for the sports parallels the Penguins’ rise to prominence, lead by a quiet (usually) French Canadian simply known as “Le Magnifique.” And yet, I clearly remember watching Michelle Dion and the Pens nearly pull one of the greatest playoff upsets in sports history against the Islander dynasty in 1982.
Those Islander teams were amongst the greatest of all time. They were blessed with a roster full of hall of fame players. They were not saints, but for the most part played the game the right way. Three decades later, their successors put on one of the most shameful displays in NHL history.
I’m not sure what was worse; the beer league goonism and thugery the Islanders perpetrated under the guise of “settling a score,” or the pathetic see no evil response from their coach and general manager. To hear Jack Capuano and Garth Snow tell it, their team of choir boys was simply defending themselves from the likes of the evil Eric Tangradi.
I guess that explains why the legendary Matt Martin felt the need to give Max Talbot the Todd Bertuzzi treatment. I guess that’s why Trevor Gillies skated half the rink to drive his elbow through Tangradi’s cranium, punch him while he was clearly injured and then taunt him while he was laying face first on the ice. So much for getting tough on head injuries.
Let me be as clear as possible on this so there is no misunderstanding where I stand on this. Gillies' actions in that sequence were possibly the most sickening display I’ve seen in over 30 years of watching sports. It was the single most disgraceful act of a game that was a complete disgrace to the sport.
Seriously, what does it say for the Islanders that Martin tried to end Talbot’s season with a cheap sucker punch from behind and it was only the second worst display of the night? And there was an ample supply of other candidates.
All of this occurred because the Islanders apparently felt the need to avenge a questionable hit by Talbot in the last meeting and Brent Johnson’s one punch TKO of Rick DiPietro. Frankly I would think the Islanders would pin a metal on Johnson for taking DiPietro out of the line-up but that’s an argument for a different day. I guess I’m struggling to understand how fighting is an accepted part of the game unless your guy loses. Then its justification to run Johnson and his teammates all night long.
The NHL was apparently incensed in word though not in deed. They admonished both players for “deliberate attempt to injure” and then gave them slap on the wrist suspensions. I’m sorry but when you acknowledge that somebody “deliberately attempted to injure an opponent,” that player’s season should be over. It goes against every principle of organized team sports to purposefully injure an opponent. Even James Harrison acknowledged that. When there are multiple acts as such over 60 minutes, the offending organization and coach should be severely punished.
Apparently the fact that Talbot was lucky enough to duck and avoid a fractured jaw makes the act less egregious, at least in the eyes of the all knowing and all powerful Colin Campbell.
I recognize that the NHL fined the Islanders $100,000 and in doing so sent a bit of a message. That said, whether the Islanders are cheap or not, that’s chump change for a professional sports franchise. What absolutely should have happened is additional fines and a suspension for Islanders coach Jack Capuano who at best turned a blind eye to his team’s obvious intentions, at worse encouraged it.
I commented after the game were that anything less than 20 game suspensions for both Martin and Gilles would leave me outraged. Well guess what…I’m outraged. If I thought my voice carried any weight, I would publicly admonish the league for this tragic miscarriage of sports justice. Thankfully, Mario Lemieux took care of it for me.
Let’s take a step back though. Any non Pittsburgh fan who reads this is going to interpret it as a one sided rant by an angry Penguin fan. I do not deny my anger; my impression is that the Islanders caused most of this; but there is a bigger issue here. In short, what happened Friday night was inevitable.
I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m not a fan of fighting in the NHL. I believe it’s unnecessary and that it cheapens and demeans what is otherwise a great sport. It’s amazing to me that something deemed so necessary all but disappears in the playoffs. It’s even more amazing that people feel that two 4th line goons fighting has more effect on the game than Brooks Orpik crushing a guy with a clean, legal check. The only thing I hate worse than fighting is the pathetic attempts to justify it as a necessary act of “policing the game.”
Did the Islanders look like they were “policing the game” on Friday night?
That said, I have reluctantly accepted fighting for years as part of the game’s culture. I grudgingly gave the league credit for eliminating bench clearing brawls and for gradually siphoning fighting from the game. If fighting was limited to the occasional Eric Godard versus Colton Orr scrap to fire up the crowd, I could live with it. If it was occasionally used to avenge say Adam Grave’s criminal slash on Lemieux in 1992 or Matt Cooke’s hit on Marc Savard last year, I could deal with it.
After seeing three brawl filled games this week, and the NHL’s meager response I fear that’s no longer the case. It’s even worse that the league tries to depict its response as aggressive. The impotent punishments from the league in response to Friday night’s horrific actions are nothing less than a tacit endorsement of what went on. For all of Campbell’s tough talk, only three players left the arena with anything more than additional PIMs.
If the NHL wants to protect fighting’s limited role in the game, I guess that’s their right. If the players truly believe that a limited amount of fighting is necessary, I can continue to accept it in extreme moderation. That said, the travesty of sport that occurred Friday night on Long Island can not be allowed under any circumstances. It is indefensible on any level for a civilized sport. It’s the latest example of a league that continually sabotages any chance for mainstream acceptance.
The movie Slapshot was supposed to be a parody of a bygone era or minor league hockey. It was not supposed to be replayed in earnest by “supposed” NHL players.
The Penguins are not innocent bystanders in this. It does not help their cause that they lead the league in fighting majors. Nor does it help them that Matt Cooke is forcefully growing his reputation as one of the dirtiest players in the game. That does not excuse what went on Friday night in Long Island but it’s clear that the Pens are earning an ugly reputation around the NHL.
A year ago I praised the Pens for becoming a genuinely tough and physical team to play against. This year they seem to be morphing in to their neighbors to the east.
That said, this is bigger than the Penguins and bigger than what happened on Friday night. The simple act of allowing fighting in the sport opens up the doors to that kind of breakdown. The refusal of the league to take truly aggressive action against such an embarrassing display emboldens every other franchise. What’s to stop any other team from bringing up a few minor league hacks to rough up any player who dares throw a body check? I realize the Islanders are not a playoff team (or an NHL team in my opinion) but do you really think losing Matt Martin for four games is going to affect them?
Again, I love hockey and I was thoroughly disgusted by what happened Friday night. The game had the same effect on me that it had on Lemieux; it made me question whether I want to continue to be a part of the sport I love. The NHL remains a niche sport in the United States. When it starts offending its most die hard fans, it’s in serious trouble. The league can not continue to let a minority of backward minded Canadians determine its destiny. It must stop catering to the barbaric Don Cherry and Mike Milbury mentality, or risk destroying itself.
What happened Friday night was a sickening and disgraceful display. Kris Letang and Dan Bylsma said it was not hockey, I saw it was not even sport. It served only to embarrass the National Hockey League and the teams involved, regardless of who was ultimately at fault.
The league had to send a strong message that this was unacceptable on any level. As Lemieux clearly stated today, they failed.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Penguins Living on a Wing and a Prayer
With the World Cup completed, Lebron “decided” and football season still two months away, we are officially, knee deep in the sports dead zone. There probably is no worse time in sports than the MLB all star break, the only three days of the year that I question my high def television purchase.
The dead zone is thus a wonderful time for forward looking contemplation.
It was about this time last year that I debated what I called the Jordan Staal dilemma. There was nothing new or exciting going on with Staal but idle minds have time to think. I contemplated whether the Pens could continue to win with three great centers, making a combined $21 Million per year and deteriorating stable of mediocre wingers. My ultimate conclusion was that it was risky but you could not bail on the model, or Staal right after a Stanley Cup parade.
Alas, the Staal dilemma is no more. The Penguins are clearly not trading him and I can’t say I blame them. How do you part with a 22 year old, 6’4” center who has 25 to 30 goal ability and a Selke Trophy nomination for his defensive work? The answer is you don’t, at least not if you are Ray Shero and he’s signed for three more years.
I went out of my way last year to clarify that all things being equal, I was not in favor of trading Staal. My concern was that the Pens center driven model was not sustainable. As the salary caps noose constricts year by year, the Penguin wingers get progressively worse. We’ve gone from Sykora, Malone, and some guy who used to play for Detroit, to Guerin and Fedotenko (on his last legs), to quite literally a wing and a prayer. And I just don’t think that is working anymore.
I truly believe the model worked in 2008-09 for two reasons. First, the Penguins got miraculous post season performances from Guerin, Talbot, and Feds. All three played well above their offensive abilities. Second, and more important, Sid and Geno flat out carried the team with non stop brilliant performances. As great as they both are, it’s just not feasible to expect that year after year without help.
The lack of quality wings is why the Pens struggle against strong defensive teams. It’s easy to shut down Sid when you’re not concerned about Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz beating you. Maybe you noticed the Pens went 0 and 6 against New Jersey last year? How about the disappearance of Sid and Geno for most of the Detroit and Montreal series’ over the last three years?
That’s why I think the Pens have come to the inevitable conclusion that Geno has to move to the wing. Yes there are risks and arguments against it but simply stated, they don’t have a choice.
It’s a risky move switching an all world center to the wing. You would think that if somebody can play center they can play wing but it’s not always that easy. Staal was a disaster on the wing; go figure since it minimizes his most important asset, his two way ability. As for Geno, he always seems a bit less engaged on the flanks and far less sure of himself defensively. I’ve made the comment before that I think Sid and Geno have zero chemistry at even strength. They just make up for it with superior talent.
That being said, it’s just as risky to trot out Geno with Max and Tangradi for an entire season. And that assumes Tangradi is even ready for the NHL, an assumption of which I’m highly skeptical. We are all hoping he’s ready. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things but as Cleveland fans will attest, hopes do not always come true.
Let’s be clear about this as well, there is no other solution available short of a trade. The Pens have no cap room left. According to my new best friends at Capgeek.com, they have $2.2 Million to sign 3 players. Shero is not going to spend right to the cap limit, nor should he. He should leave room for at least one minimum wage player. That means the most he can spend is $1.7 Million on 3 players. The league minimum is $500,000 per player, so do the math. There will be no low priced miracle in 2010…unless there is a trade.
I am wholeheartedly against trading Geno. Just seeing how much Sid struggles when Malkin is not in the line-up convinces me that he’s every bit as critical to the Pens success as our captain and savior. I’m more willing to deal Staal, in the same way I’m more willing to have a root canal than I am to watch The View. Both are risky trades. Remember how the Pens never quite recovered from breaking up the 90 to 93 core (and breaking up Kevin Stevens’ face)?
I would love to see Chris Kunitz sent packing. In my mind he continues to be a major cap liability at $3.75 Million per. As an aside, I remain stupefied as to how an injury plagued “power forward” who scores 15 goals with the best playmaker in the NHL can make the same money as a certain Slovakian goaltender who personally stole two playoff series. Alas, that’s a blog for another day.
Kunitz gives the Penguins a tad less than Pascal Dupuis at three times the cap hit. That does not work in the salary cap world. Alas as Filoni reminds us, other teams are not lining up to take his contract. Remember, the Pens took him to rid themselves of Ryan Whitney. Making matters worse, the remaining wingers in free agency are a hodge podge of mediocrity, unless Ilya Kovalchuk lowers his salary demands by about $6 Million per year (and if he get’s $10 Million per I promise projectile vomiting).
So that really only leaves one choice, move Geno to wing and hope for the best. Honestly, I always felt Geno was better suited there anyway. He’s not great on faceoffs (understatement), and certainly not the greatest defensive center we’ve ever seen. And we have a decade of Jaromir Jagr clips that prove a winger can be a dominant puck carrier. That works great with Staal since his strength is more the dirty work in the corners anyway.
Even with that change, the Pens may struggle a bit to find another top 6 winger. In that scenario, the Superstar becomes your best choice for third line center duty with Cooke Monster and likely Kennedy. Unless Bill Guerin decides to donate another season to the Pens at league minimum the team has a problem. Again, That assumes Tangradi is not ready and I don’t see how the Pens can make any other assumption. It’s a HUGE bonus if he proves me wrong.
Still, I’ll take those concerns over another year of Geno centering the grind line. The Penguins just don’t have the wingers to make three top centers work. And that’s under the best case scenario, assuming no injuries and the Dupuis repeats what was a miracle season for him last year. I guess we could also hope that Kunitz actually stays healthy and scores 30 goals while playing with Sid. Just as we could hope that ESPN sells its NBA contract to the ‘E’ network and rekindles its relationship with the NHL. In short, don’t count on it.
The good news of course is that any move with Geno is not set in stone. If the move is truly a debacAL, the Pens can always move him back to center. That being said, I think if the Pens are going to do this, they need to show a commitment to it. Geno needs to know that this is his role and learn to maximize his performance in it. I don’t buy the ridiculous arguments that he will sulk and be unhappy. How can playing wing with Staal, be worse than centering for Fedotenko and Poni-k?
In the end, it’s not ideal but that’s life in the salary cap world. Teams have to make tough decisions to fill gaps. The Pens did a great job shoring up their blue line; they are strong down the middle and solid in the nets (no matter what the moronic Fleury bashing minority might think). The wing situation however has become untenable. For better or for worse, Geno is by far the best answer.
The dead zone is thus a wonderful time for forward looking contemplation.
It was about this time last year that I debated what I called the Jordan Staal dilemma. There was nothing new or exciting going on with Staal but idle minds have time to think. I contemplated whether the Pens could continue to win with three great centers, making a combined $21 Million per year and deteriorating stable of mediocre wingers. My ultimate conclusion was that it was risky but you could not bail on the model, or Staal right after a Stanley Cup parade.
Alas, the Staal dilemma is no more. The Penguins are clearly not trading him and I can’t say I blame them. How do you part with a 22 year old, 6’4” center who has 25 to 30 goal ability and a Selke Trophy nomination for his defensive work? The answer is you don’t, at least not if you are Ray Shero and he’s signed for three more years.
I went out of my way last year to clarify that all things being equal, I was not in favor of trading Staal. My concern was that the Pens center driven model was not sustainable. As the salary caps noose constricts year by year, the Penguin wingers get progressively worse. We’ve gone from Sykora, Malone, and some guy who used to play for Detroit, to Guerin and Fedotenko (on his last legs), to quite literally a wing and a prayer. And I just don’t think that is working anymore.
I truly believe the model worked in 2008-09 for two reasons. First, the Penguins got miraculous post season performances from Guerin, Talbot, and Feds. All three played well above their offensive abilities. Second, and more important, Sid and Geno flat out carried the team with non stop brilliant performances. As great as they both are, it’s just not feasible to expect that year after year without help.
The lack of quality wings is why the Pens struggle against strong defensive teams. It’s easy to shut down Sid when you’re not concerned about Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz beating you. Maybe you noticed the Pens went 0 and 6 against New Jersey last year? How about the disappearance of Sid and Geno for most of the Detroit and Montreal series’ over the last three years?
That’s why I think the Pens have come to the inevitable conclusion that Geno has to move to the wing. Yes there are risks and arguments against it but simply stated, they don’t have a choice.
It’s a risky move switching an all world center to the wing. You would think that if somebody can play center they can play wing but it’s not always that easy. Staal was a disaster on the wing; go figure since it minimizes his most important asset, his two way ability. As for Geno, he always seems a bit less engaged on the flanks and far less sure of himself defensively. I’ve made the comment before that I think Sid and Geno have zero chemistry at even strength. They just make up for it with superior talent.
That being said, it’s just as risky to trot out Geno with Max and Tangradi for an entire season. And that assumes Tangradi is even ready for the NHL, an assumption of which I’m highly skeptical. We are all hoping he’s ready. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things but as Cleveland fans will attest, hopes do not always come true.
Let’s be clear about this as well, there is no other solution available short of a trade. The Pens have no cap room left. According to my new best friends at Capgeek.com, they have $2.2 Million to sign 3 players. Shero is not going to spend right to the cap limit, nor should he. He should leave room for at least one minimum wage player. That means the most he can spend is $1.7 Million on 3 players. The league minimum is $500,000 per player, so do the math. There will be no low priced miracle in 2010…unless there is a trade.
I am wholeheartedly against trading Geno. Just seeing how much Sid struggles when Malkin is not in the line-up convinces me that he’s every bit as critical to the Pens success as our captain and savior. I’m more willing to deal Staal, in the same way I’m more willing to have a root canal than I am to watch The View. Both are risky trades. Remember how the Pens never quite recovered from breaking up the 90 to 93 core (and breaking up Kevin Stevens’ face)?
I would love to see Chris Kunitz sent packing. In my mind he continues to be a major cap liability at $3.75 Million per. As an aside, I remain stupefied as to how an injury plagued “power forward” who scores 15 goals with the best playmaker in the NHL can make the same money as a certain Slovakian goaltender who personally stole two playoff series. Alas, that’s a blog for another day.
Kunitz gives the Penguins a tad less than Pascal Dupuis at three times the cap hit. That does not work in the salary cap world. Alas as Filoni reminds us, other teams are not lining up to take his contract. Remember, the Pens took him to rid themselves of Ryan Whitney. Making matters worse, the remaining wingers in free agency are a hodge podge of mediocrity, unless Ilya Kovalchuk lowers his salary demands by about $6 Million per year (and if he get’s $10 Million per I promise projectile vomiting).
So that really only leaves one choice, move Geno to wing and hope for the best. Honestly, I always felt Geno was better suited there anyway. He’s not great on faceoffs (understatement), and certainly not the greatest defensive center we’ve ever seen. And we have a decade of Jaromir Jagr clips that prove a winger can be a dominant puck carrier. That works great with Staal since his strength is more the dirty work in the corners anyway.
Even with that change, the Pens may struggle a bit to find another top 6 winger. In that scenario, the Superstar becomes your best choice for third line center duty with Cooke Monster and likely Kennedy. Unless Bill Guerin decides to donate another season to the Pens at league minimum the team has a problem. Again, That assumes Tangradi is not ready and I don’t see how the Pens can make any other assumption. It’s a HUGE bonus if he proves me wrong.
Still, I’ll take those concerns over another year of Geno centering the grind line. The Penguins just don’t have the wingers to make three top centers work. And that’s under the best case scenario, assuming no injuries and the Dupuis repeats what was a miracle season for him last year. I guess we could also hope that Kunitz actually stays healthy and scores 30 goals while playing with Sid. Just as we could hope that ESPN sells its NBA contract to the ‘E’ network and rekindles its relationship with the NHL. In short, don’t count on it.
The good news of course is that any move with Geno is not set in stone. If the move is truly a debacAL, the Pens can always move him back to center. That being said, I think if the Pens are going to do this, they need to show a commitment to it. Geno needs to know that this is his role and learn to maximize his performance in it. I don’t buy the ridiculous arguments that he will sulk and be unhappy. How can playing wing with Staal, be worse than centering for Fedotenko and Poni-k?
In the end, it’s not ideal but that’s life in the salary cap world. Teams have to make tough decisions to fill gaps. The Pens did a great job shoring up their blue line; they are strong down the middle and solid in the nets (no matter what the moronic Fleury bashing minority might think). The wing situation however has become untenable. For better or for worse, Geno is by far the best answer.
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