The Goaltending Universe in Chaos

About six weeks ago, I contemplated the cataclysmic consequences to the hockey universe if Michael Leighton and Brian Boucher combined to lead Philly to the Stanley Cup.

The idea of a championship team, built around rotating third string goaltenders was contradictory to everything I believe in as a hockey fan and a human being. I think I was NEARLY as concerned about Leighton’s lack of pedigree as I was about the Orange and Black uniform he was wearing.

When Leighton responded by giving up two horrendous goals in game 6 of the finals; along with being pulled from two other starts; I felt my beliefs vindicated and my fears vanquished. My goaltender centric view of the universe was blissfully in tact and all was well.

At least I thought it was.

I’ve spent the better part of a month watching NHL clubs systematically destroy the notion of goaltending relevance. Teams desperately in need of goaltending have refused to address it. Teams with goaltending won’t pay to keep it. And those teams that have bitten the bullet to sign goaltenders have done so at blue light special prices.

All this while New Jersey blows up the salary cap and threatens collective bargaining armageddon to sign Sammy Sosa on skates, aka, Ilya Kovalchuk. Please explain to me why a one dimensionAL winger with one playoff victory in 8 years (that’s one GAME, not one SERIES), is worth $100 Million but a goaltender who drags an entire franchise kicking and screaming into the 3rd round is worth Chris Kunitz?

Just one man’s opinion but I think there would be a lot less offseason angst in Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh South (aka, Washington D.C.), if Montreal had stuck with Carey Price during last year’s playoffs.

Seriously, what the heck is going on out there? So much goaltending lunacy, I don’t know where to start…but I’ll try.

· In case I was being too subtle above; Jaroslav Halak carries Montreal to the conference finals, and then gets traded for a bag of pucks, six rolls of tape and a case of Molson. Montreal said it was too expensive to sign him. This from the team that TRADED FOR Scott Gomez at $7 Million per year or more properly stated, at $500,000 per goal. Who do you think had more influence on Montreal pulling two of the biggest playoff upsets in NHL history? How many playoff games, let alone series, do you think Gomez has won in his career? I’ll start the bidding at one…anyone?

· Cary Price is handed back the starting job after Halak ripped it away from him. That’s the same Price who famously explained why he shot the puck at celebrating Craps players in the playoffs by saying “you’ve gotta let them know you’re out there.” As a Montreal writer said later, (paraphrasing), “how about letting them know you are out there by stopping the darn puck!” If I were a Canadian season ticket holder, I’d vomit on the order form and send it back without a check. On the bright side, the only way the Pens see Michael Cammalleri in the 2011 playoffs is if he’s between the benches for TSN.

· The Orange and Black Goon Squad, after once again providing an internationally televised documentary on how bad goaltending can stop an otherwise cup worthy team, refused to spend $1 to upgrade the position. Welcome back for year two, Michael Leighton and Brian Boucher (assuming the immortal Ray Emery does not get healthy). Do you think Bernie Parent ever breaks down into sobbing fits watching his old team? Apparently losing the Stanley Cup on a wrist shot through the five hole…from an 8 degree angle, was still not enough to convince the Goons to pony up for a decent netminder. Of course there was plenty of money available for more defensemen. Maybe Andrej Meszaros can play goal?

· Jose Theodore and Marty Turco remain unemployed. Ok, forget I mentioned that.

· The San Jose Sharks cut ties with the NHL’s overall wins leader for the last four years and replace him with Antero Nittymaki. I’ll concede that Nabokov was shaky enough in the playoffs to move on without him, especially given his salary demands. That being said… ANTERO NITTYMAKI? The sushi goalie? The guy who was not good enough for Philly? The guy who could not beat out Martin Biron and Mike Smith? What, Jarmo Myllys was not available? In the meantime, the Sharks continue to pay over $7 Million per season to habitual playoff choker Joe Thornton.

· Sweaty Teddy and the Craps are set to hit the season with Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth in goal. Apparently three straight first round flameouts are not enough to get Ovie and his minions a reliable number one. To their credit, the Craps did finally rid themselves of Theodore. And with Nittymaki off the market, there were no more second rate veterans for Leonsis to overpay and Bruce Boudreau to pull after one playoff start.

· The Boston Bruins are doing everything short of a yard sale to give away the Vezina Trophy winner from two years ago…and nobody wants him. I guess that means more creepy Tim Thomas commercials on the NHL network…in a Bruin’s uniform.

· The Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup and two months later have not offered more than cheese wiz to the goaltender who took them to the title. Yes I admit to a distinct Emily influence here and yes the Hawks salary cap situation is an apocalyptic debacAL. Still, you can rest assured that Antti Niemi was a huge reason the Hawks won the Cup last year. Since the Hawks plan to banish Cristobal Huet back to France, not signing Niemi would likely signal the start of the Corey Crawford/Hannu Toivonen era. If that happens, rest assured Mayor Daley will not have to pony up for another parade in 2011.

· Chris Mason, who may have been the best goaltender on the market, signed a two year deal for $3.7 Million, with Atlanta. I guess Philly could not risk losing Matt Walker to take a chance on a better goalie? Mason dragged St. Louis kicking and screaming into the playoffs two years ago and for that got paid one half Kunitz. How many playoff games, let alone series do you think Kunitz has won in his career? Keep in mind that Mason was unemployed because St’ Louis traded two ECHL prospects to Montreal for the goalie who carried the Habs kicking and screaming into the conference finals so the Habs could start Cary Price who…oh never mind.

· The Ottawa Senators are going to start another year with Brian Elliott and Pascal Leclaire in goal. Seriously, I would take Big Mike and Disque over that pair. Somewhere out there Tim Chevaldae is contemplating a comeback.

· An admittedly minor contingent of moronic Penguin fans continue to blast Marc-Andre Fleury as overrated and overpaid. I guess it’s because Fleury has only lead the Pens to the finals twice in the last three years; or perhaps because he’s crossed the mythical Chris Kunitz salary barrier. I guess stopping two future hall of famers from point blank range, on the road, in game 7’s is not worth what is used to be.

· Nikolai Khabibulin continues to draw a seven figure NHL paycheck…for three more years while Niemi does not have a contract. And eventually, somebody will sign Theodore as well.

I guess this is reason number 137 that I will never be an NHL general manager. Almost every year I see how critical goaltending is to playoff success and yet the current GM’s continue to devalue it. It used to be just the Goons, Craps, and Dead Wings. Now it’s spreading like as if Filoni was the GM of every NHL team!

Yes, there is price to pay for Chris Osgood winning two Stanley Cups. It’s just enough justification for the Bob Clarkes and Paul Holmgrens of the world to keep pushing their theories about how you don’t really need goaltending to win. As if I really needed another reason to hate the Dead Wings and the Goons? Throw in spend crazy GMs looking to save a few bucks against the cap and here we are.

Maybe I need to make a pilgrimage to Quebec and worship at the alter of Francois Allaire (praying of course from the butterfly stance). Or maybe the NHL just needs to get a grip on reality, hopefully after Fleury wins the next Conn Smyth trophy. Either way, the goaltending universe is upside down, and I’m not happy about it.

The NHL’s New Funny Money

Remember a few years back when the National Hockey League cancelled an entire season because of their critical need for "cost certainty"?

The cash strapped owners insisted they had to have a salary cap and revenue sharing. The system was so bad and salaries were so out of control that they gambled the league’s survival on a season long lockout. And it appeared to work. The owners got their salary cap at a very manageable $39 Million and a 24 percent reduction of existing salaries. It took a few years but the viewing public came back as well.

Think they can pull it off twice?

I’m hoping so because that’s where the NHL is headed. For years the owners claimed they needed a hard salary cap to save them from themselves. Now they have it and apparently it’s still not enough.

For exhibit A, I give you Ilya Kovalchuk and the New Jersey Devils.

Kovalchuk is possibly the most overrated player in sports today. In hockey terms, he’s on the Robbie Brown level of overrated. Don’t get me wrong, he’s incredibly talented, maybe the most dangerous pure scorer in the NHL. In order to access that ability, you just have to put up with never seeing him on the defensive side of center ice. Word on the street is he’s more than a bit selfish as well although dealing in speculation is always risky.

Here is what I do know, that is not speculation. In eight NHL seasons Kovalchuk has won a grand total of…drum roll please…one playoff game. Not one playoff series, one playoff game. His teams have appeared in the playoffs twice, though it’s fair to say that the Devils would have been there without him. Even his Russian Olympic teams have bombed out.

And for that, rumor has it that the Devils are paying Kovalchuk more than $100 Million over 17 years. And in reality, they are probably going to pay him about $90 Million (or more) over 10 years and the remainder over the last seven. You know, about the time he's retiring to Moscow to buy a KHL franchise with his new fortune. That’s assuming our Russian friend is still toiling in the NHL and dominating offensively at age 37.

Lou Lamoriello must have been awfully impressed with those 12 goals Kovalchuk banged in during his 32 game stint with New Jersey last year. Otherwise, I’m truly at a loss for words. And there but for the grace of Rick Dipietro go I.

Is this guy really worth more than Crosby and Malkin combined? Those two guys carried the Pens to back to back Stanley Cup finals. Is he worth more than Ovechkin?

And before you remind me how bad Atlanta has been, I will remind you that after the lockout they had quite a bit of talent including Marc Savard and some Slovakian forward that shows up in the Stanley Cup finals every year. In the pre Ovie days, one would think a player worth $100 Million could drag the Thrash to the top of the pathetic Southeast division.

I’m not buying it folks. Kovalchuk (I won’t call him Kovy in deference to Alexie Kovalev) is Sammy Sosa on skates. Great stats and a guy you simply can not win with. I’m betting Atlanta is better without him (and with half of the Blackhawks cup team from last year) and the Devils are worse.

Is this is why the NHL owners fought so hard for a salary cap…so Lou Lamoriello could make a mockery of it? For the love of Garth Snow, can Gary Bettman gets some stone and void this deal? And for the record, I’m not a guy who blames Bettman for every bad thing that happens in the NHL as so many others do.

It’s easy (and fun) to blame Lamoriello who has shown that he will do anything and throw anyone under the bus to win (with the notable exception of Melanie Brodeur’s ex-husband). Alas, he and the Devils are not alone in this mockery that will eventually lead to another damaging work stoppage.

I mentioned Garth Snow above. Since it was apparently not enough for him to torture Penguin fans with his lack of goaltending acumen, Snow decided to start this whole traveshamockery by giving a 15 year deal to Rick Dipietro. The deal has been a miserable failure, in part because of Dipietro’s two year knee injury that might ruin his career and also because he is just not that good. That did not stop others from hopping on the bandwagon.

The Blackhawks participated in this farce as well when they dropped a 12 year deal on that Slovakian guy who used to play for Detroit. The contract is for about $65 Million. The Hawks pay his about $60 Million over seven years and then pay him what amounts to a pension plan honorarium for the last five years. The assumption is that after the seven years are up, Hossa will retire and then go sign a one year deal in Russia with whatever team gives him the best chance to win the KHL Cup.

And one shutters to think of what Glenn Sather would be spending if he had not completely capped out the Rangers on Wade Reddan and Mikey Roszival.

Remember, this was not a bidding war to land Crosby or Ovie; this is over the likes of Kovalchuk, Dipietro and Mike Richards. Are those guys worth trashing the league's hard earned "cost certainty" to sign?

For the most part, I don’t blame the players when the owners spend like drunken sailors. It’s not Dipietro’s fault that Snow took one too many slapshots to the cranium, just as it’s not Cristobal Huet’s fault that Dale Tallon went on an all night drinking binge before working up his contract. I’ll make an exception for Kovalchuk who was clearly willing to game the system until somebody was stupid enough to pony up all that money for him. There’s a sucker born every minute and in Lou Lamoriello’s case, there is one with a full time job.

I just wonder how this possibly ends well for the NHL. Especially when you consider how unlikely the NLHPA is to happily agree to another wage concession or salary cap reduction. Oh and that’s before considering whether they hire Donald Fehr as their next executive director. Chew on that during the next lockout.

I’m not naïve enough to think that wealthier owners would not spend every dime up to the top of the salary cap but I thought they would at least stop there. I just did not think they would go out of their way to circumvent the safe guards they created. It’s bad enough that the cap has risen from $39 Million to $59 Million in five years. Remember when teams said they could not make it work with a $35 Million payroll?

The 10 plus year contracts are for the most part a joke. I’ll give the Hawks Duncan Keith who might be around that long but for the most part, it’s flat out cap shenanigans. Good luck finding one forward since Gordie Howe who was scoring goals at a $9 Million per year pace into his 40s. And I'm just guessing that Mr. Hockey worked a bit harder at his craft and conditioning then Kovalchuk does.

I don’t wish injury on anybody so my fervent hope is that Ilya performs a Craig Patrick like on the job retirement. Please get fat, dumb, and happy. Show up out of shape, reduce your effort level, milk minor injuries all while buying a new Porsche once a week. There is nothing I would like better than to see Lamoriello stuck with a $100 Million bust that turns the Devils into the NY Rangers of Newark.

Even better, here’s hoping Zac Parise takes the reasonable deal that Los Angeles offered Kovalchuk and runs. Then LA gets the better player and for less money.

By the way, kudos to the Kings for bringing some sanity to this process. Kudos to all the teams that were smart enough to walk away from this insanity. Unfortunately, it only takes one idiot to blow up the whole system.

Sadly, the NHL has more than one with the title of general manager. I hope we are not lamenting that fact as another season gets canceled. I’m not sure that trick will work twice.

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.

Long Live the King…of Hype

I have never hidden my dislike for the National Basketball Association.

I could devote an entire blog to all of the issues I have with the NBA (rest assured I will not). At the end my biggest issue is that the NBA to me is all about hype and glitz and very little about basketball. I think that’s intentional. How do you market basketball when the quality of play is so poor league wide? How do you market basketball in a league where two franchises have won more than 50% of the titles and only seven have won a title in the last 30 years?

The basketball world may marvel at the supreme athletic talents of the NBA players but they also scoff at the brutal lack of fundamentals. There are many great players in the NBA but few true winners. It seems that the only way you win in that league is to find one of the few superstars who truly cares more about winning then about money and fame. Say what you want about Kobe Bryant but the fact is the man is a winner. So is/was Jordan, Shaq, Tim Duncan, and Dwayne Wade. Sadly, there are far too few others in that category.

Which brings us to the NBA’s self proclaimed King…Lebron James. The King represents everything I have come to hate about the NBA, never more so then during his one hour, look at me, feed my ego, buy my products melodrama on the ENTERTAINMENT and sports network last night (which for the record, I refused to watch).

I used to refer to Terrell Owens as the Paris Hilton of sports. That’s because the ENTERTAINMENT and sports networks chronicled his every word and deed…for no particular reason. It was always pointless, self indulgent garbage that had little or nothing to do with sports. It was train wreck journalism based on a troubled, overrated, overhyped case study in insecurity who was best known for ripping his own teammates?

I will not insult James to that level because unlike T.O., I do think he’s one of the most supremely gifted athletes on the planet. He is unquestionably a great player. At the same time, I often wonder why a player who has never won a championship and in fact has never come close garners this much fame and attention? What it comes down to is that much like T.O. and Paris Hilton, Lebron is famous because everyone tells us Lebron is famous.

The NBA along with it’s willing co-conspirator at the ENTERTAINMENT and sports network has spent the last 8 years convincing us that Lebron is the next all time great player in the history of sports. They have forced the Lebron hype machine on us since his senior year of high school. In the meantime, his Cleveland teams have underachieved the last few years and he’s been accused of quitting in key playoff games.

Seriously, why is Lebron so much more famous than Dwayne Wade? Both are gifted players but Wade has won and NBA title and nearly dragged Marquette to an NCAA title (plundering Pitt along the way). Why is everybody so worried and focused about Lebron but Wade is an afterthought? Maybe Wade should have gotten the one hour special. For that matter, why is Lebron so much more famous than Kobe; a signature star who plays in Los Angeles…AND WINS.

I truly believe it’s because the NBA hype machine, along with the ENTERTAINMENT and sports network, wish it to be so. And the sporting public eats it up. Adding to the frenzy is that Lebron seems more than willing to soak in the glory, even without benefit of a championship.

For the last few years, I have complained about the NHL’s overhyping of Sidney Crosby. I think it has done more harm than good for Sid because it goes a long way towards why he is so hated in other NHL cities. If you watch any nationally televised game (assuming you count Versus as national television), especially on NBC or TSN (in Canada), you will hear announcers fawning over every pass Crosby makes like it’s the greatest in NHL history. They will wax poetic about his leadership and how he is the driving spirit of the Penguins, etc, etc.

After watching the Lebron-athon, I will never again complain about Sid. Even the ritualistic summer Brett Favre watch, including the obligatory Rachel Nichols live story from Favre’s driveway, pales in comparison to this debacAL.

There are two differences between Sid (and to a lesser degree Favre) and Lebron. First, Sid goes along with this because he’s forced to, not because he wants to. He is will aware of the constant need to market and push the NHL, a league which does not have Stuart Scott belting out over the top promos 24/7. I honestly believe if given the choice, Sid would just assume avoid all of this and just play hockey. He probably envies Geno for his silent Bob mime routine that has worked for 4 years.

In contrast, Lebron seems to love and accentuate every minute of it.

The other difference is that Sid actually has earned the praise. He’s won the Stanley Cup, been to the finals twice, and scored the gold medal winning goal while captaining the Canadian Olympic team. And he works his rear end off every day, and truly is a fantastic, team oriented leader.

I’ll go a step further and remind people that Brett Favre did win a Super Bowl and played in two. And the man has started 8,000 straight games and is still starring at age 40 in the most gruelingly physical sport on earth.

In contrast, Lebron has sold shoes and soft drinks and been dunked on by a high school player.

I will not hide from my growing bitterness towards the NBA. It never ceases to amaze me that people prefer that game to hockey. Hockey players, especially in the playoffs, play every shift like its life and death. They fight through injuries that would keep most of us in bed for weeks. They support their teammates and throw everything they have into winning a championship. They get paid for their efforts but with the notable exception of Ilya Kovalchuk, appear to be far more interested in winning then they do in money.

In contrast, the NBA is a paycheck league. It is populated with me first superstars who care only about getting their “respect” (read, dollars). If you ever want to be truly enlightened about the NBA, I highly suggest reading Sam Smith’s famous book, The Jordan Rules, written about the 1991 Bulls. It chronicles a season of greed, selfishness, pettiness, and any number of other dysfunctional behaviors. And that was before the internet era and the me first aura of today’s NBA…on a team that was winning its first of six championships in 8 years. That was back when ESPN actually cared about sports. One can only imagine what goes on today with the Knicks.

It’s spurred on by a television network that once cared about sports but now cares only about sensationalism and hype. The ENTERTAINMENT and sports network devoted months of coverage, across its many media, to speculating on the end destination of a player who has never come close to a championship. It’s par for the course in a league where the games are the least important thing. And this gets shoved down our throats while hockey is flat out ignored.

In the end, that’s the main reason I can’t stomach the NBA anymore. I can not stand the fact that so many people pay attention to the crap, solely because ESPN tells them to. How can you not get interested when every Sports Center includes 30 minutes of interviews with so called “EXPERTS” all mindlessly speculating on Lebron’s end destination. How about the standard live cut-away to Shelly Smith in Cleveland explaining to us that Lebron did in fact meet with the Knicks and they even had lunch delivered?

And of course not a single relevant piece of information is delivered. Which ironically enough is irrelevant.

Imagine if ESPN devoted 10% of that effort to promoting hockey, instead of the garbage that is the NBA. And before you say that they are simply responding to the needs of the public, I remind you that they have been endlessly promoting the World Cup all summer. This to a country where probably 80% of the population could care less.

When Emily and I were sitting at dinner last night talking about where Lebron would sign, I realized just how powerful the ESPN brainwashing is. We don’t like the NBA, we could care less about Lebron, and we were talking about it. Somewhere, a program director was smiling.

I used to be amazed when Skip Bayless would rip James on a daily basis. I can’t stand Bayless, another ego maniacal idiot who never lets the facts get in the way of a good story, but with each passing day, he looks more and more correct on the King. Until James wins something, he’s nothing more than great talent and spectacular marketing. Of course, Bayless is one of 200 ESPN talking heads who are debating amongst other things, whether James is overhyped. And there for the grace of Mike and Mike go I.

The comparisons of James to Jordan are insulting. Jordan, for all his personal flaws, was maybe the most determined athlete of all time. The man had a single minded focus to win. I watched him carry an aging Bulls team to its 6th championship by the sheer force of his will and his uncanny ability to step-up in the highest pressure moments. James is what Vince Carter would be if he could stay healthy.

You may notice that I never mentioned where James actually signed. Why should I since that does not matter anyway. It was never about where James would sign; it was about speculating on where he MIGHT sign.

In the end, there really never was a story here, just manufactured sensationalism to fill dead summer air. This was about the so called King and his marketing crown. It was about the Lebron brand, not winning championships. It never was and never will be about basketball.

Saying Goodbye to the Sarge

Every once in awhile in sports, a free agent defection or trade really gets to me. Even when I know it’s inevitable.

I was pretty sure Sergei Gonchar’s days in the Burgh were numbered when the Pens announced a contract extension for Kris Letang last spring. My belief strengthened each time Ray Shero commented about impasse between the two sides and I was all but certain after the Pens ill fated, but harmless acquisition of Dan Hamhuis last week. And yet with all that in mind, I still felt a tug in my heart this afternoon when I read that Sergei was officially a Senator.

I can’t really explain this but over the last five years, Gonchar has become one of my favorite Penguins of all time. There is a quiet, simple professionalism about how he does his job that I really admire. Excepting one truly out of character moment in Minnesota last year, I truly can not remember an on or off ice outburst from him, even after absorbing a grossly negligent cheap shot from the Great 8 that nearly knocked him out of the 2009 playoffs.

What I do remember is a remarkable two way defensemen who never got enough credit for what he did at either end of the ice. I remember a guy who was known for his offense but was every bit as critical for his defense. I remember how Pittsburgh, in a fit of hockey naiveté and impatience almost ran out of town during the waning dark days of Patrick and Edzo in 2005. There in lies another bit of gratitude we owe the world’s angriest French Canadian who saved Gonchar’ career in the Burgh by installing of all things…a system.

I said this before and I’ll say it again. No Gonchar, no cup. It’s that simple.

To be clear, I fully endorsed signing Letang, who at a very young age has become a terrific two way defenseman. Moreover, I don’t think the Pens directly prioritized Letang over Gonchar. I think Sergei dictated the situation. At 36 years of age, he was not going to tank a year of guaranteed money or give a home town discount; no matter how much he enjoys playing with Sid and Geno.

I devoted two separate blogs last year to the Gonchar dilemma. I suggested that it might be the most difficult decision Ray Shero has faced as general manager of the Pens. I’ll take it a step further and say the next few days could go a long way towards determining whether the Penguins continue to compete for Stanley Cups during this four year window.

And I stand by this comment that I’ve written in multiple blog entries. Over the last four years, Sergei Gonchar was the most underrated player in the national hockey league.

The Pens were quite literally a different team without Gonchar in the line-up. Their overall record, goals for, goals against, and power play percentage were remarkably better with Gonchar in the line-up. We’re not talking about small margins here either, the numbers were astounding. The Pens were basically a 500 team without Gonchar and a Stanley Cup champion and two time finalist with him.

None of which erases the fact that Gonchar is 36 years old and showing initial signs of decline in his game. He’s had significant injury issues the last two years and his performance against Montreal in the playoffs was, to say the least, underwhelming (which leaves him in good company with about 18 other players). Gonchar could have a fabulous season this year in Ottawa but if he starts to decline the following year it’s a problem. The Senators either have enough cap space or are desperate enough to take that risk. The Penguins do not and are not.

Offensive defensemen tend to fade when they get above 35. Niklas Lidstrom is a freak of nature but most others simply can not maintain their game that long. Look no further than Scott Neidermyer who retired this year at 36 (robbing the NHL of perhaps its single greatest playoff beard). I can argue with conviction that Gonchar is critical to the Pens success and they will struggle to replace him. Alas the Gonchar they need may not exist anymore. Time waits for nobody in professional sports.

So I will concede that from a logical, intelligent, numbers driven position, the Penguins probably made the right move. Emphasis on probably. Still, I can’t help but think that a little bit of their heart and sole, not too mention a good bit of their transition game just skated north of the boarder.

Give Ray Shero credit for not getting left at the alter. He made an aggressive move first with Hamhuis and then to sign Zbynek Michalek. Even as I'm set to publish this, rumors are floating around about the Pens signing Paul Martin. Martin is a solid player and I’ll be writing a full blog on Michalek just as soon as Filoni tells me who he is. That being said, neither is likely to replace Gonchar’s offense.

That task will fall to Letang and/or Alex Whitneygoski. I continue to marvel at Letang’s offensive potential but I also question whether he will ever fully realize it. It’s not a crime if he continues to improve defensively but never becomes a Gonchar style power play QB, but the potential is clearly there. For better or for worse, the same is true for Gogo but as you may have guessed, he is already giving me intensely painful Ryan Whitney flashbacks. We need to see some significant improvement to buy off on him in Gonchar’s role.

That being said, it’s time for both players to sit at the grown-ups table. Gonchar’s presence in the line-up allowed each to dip their feet in the pool without diving in. Letang could get away with being a second point man and Goligoski could get away with turning the puck over 20 feet in front of MAF. Those days are now over. If the Pens want to get reacquainted with Lord Stanley’s Cup in the near future, one or both has to take a major step forward in their development. It should surprise nobody that my money is on Letang, or neither, over Gogo.

Taking the realities of the salary cap world out of the equation, the one and only good thing about losing Gonchar is that it's forcing the Pens to reshape their roster a bit. You do not overhaul a team that’s 12 months removed from back to back Stanley Cup finals but you also can’t stand pat forever. The defense clearly needed a rebuild after last year's mediocre performance and Shero seems fully intent on providing it. Good for him. As we learned in 1992, even championship teams have to keep evolving.

Alas, that's a discussion for another day.

For now, let's just take time to give the Sarge his due for five brilliant season's in a Penguin uniform. The Gonchar signing truly is the best move Craig Patrick made during his ten year, Penguin sponsored, on the job retirement (unless you count not tripping Sidney Crosby on the podium at the 2005 draft). For my money, his name belongs in the pantheon of Penguin greats, albeit one step below the legends (Lemieux, Jagr, Crosby, Malkin, Barrasso, etc).

Gonchar was this generation’s Larry Murphy. A guy who did so many things right on an off the ice and rarely got the credit he deserved. He was every bit as critical to this team’s success as Crosby, Malkin, Fleury, and Staal, maybe more so in some cases. I truly hope Penguin fans understand and respect that and give Gonchar a standing ovation when he makes his first trip to new energy barn. I beg of my fellow Penguin supporters, no Hossa treatment for the Sarge.

So for now, let’s take time out to say thanks to the Sarge. Thanks for being the one Penguin defenseman who could break a forecheck in the 2007 playoffs. Thanks for being Geno’s translator and NHL mentor. Thanks for logging 25 minutes a night, often against the other team’s top forwards, and yet always taking second fiddle to 87 and 71. Thanks for playing through injury in both the 2008 and 2009 playoffs including Ovie’s cheap shot. Thanks for staying calm and delivering key power play goals when we needed them.

To paraphrase the immortal Don Corleone, we wish you the best of luck in Ottawa Gonch, so long as your interests do not conflict with ours. The Penguins must now start the difficult task of replacing you in the line-up. The rest of us can focus on learning how to pronounce Zbynek.

Winners Win, Losers Blame the Ref

I have made no secret of my disdain for former Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, at least since February of 2006.

To be honest, I had little or no opinion of Holmgren before Super Bowl XL. Admittedly I found his reputation as a so called offensive genius more than a bit overstated. And I noted his striking resemblance to either a walrus or my high school soccer coach (make of that what you will). Beyond that, I truly could care less about him before that game was played.

So why do I despise him so much today? Let’s recap. That day, the black and gold finally broke their 26 year championship drought beating Seattle 21 to 10. It was one of the ugliest Super Bowls every played, unless you were from Pittsburgh. Then it was just “misunderstood.” In the end, a win is a win and a loss is a loss, except for Mike Holmgren.

The Steelers were the better team on that day. They outplayed the Seahawks, although certainly not by a wide margin. More important, Holmgren was badly outcoached by Cowher, Wisenhunt, Lebeau and company.

The Steelers completely changed their defense to a bend but don’t break strategy against the pass while shutting down Seattle’s running game. It was the perfect counter to Holmgren’s quick delivery, west coast passing system; a system ideally suited to short-circuiting the Steeler blitz. The Walrus never adapted. The Steeler coaches found a way to win on a day their QB struggled and pulled out one of the great trick plays in SB history.

Moreover on two separate occasions, Seattle looked confused and out of sorts in the two minute drill; at the end of the first half and late in the game. I amazed at how often this is overlooked, especially given Holmgren’s supposed offensive genius.

So how did Coach Walrus react to being soundly outcoached and his team being outplayed? By blaming the refs, directly, twice. It was embarrassing and pathetic for a supposed leader of men. He did it first while running off the field at halftime (even though the actual question was why did your team choke in the two minute drill). He did it a second time a few days later with his famous “I didn’t know we’d have to play against the guys in the striped shirts too” comment at the Seahawks “runners up” parade.

In that period of approximately 48 hours I lost all respect for Holmgren. In my eyes, at least as a football coach, he will NEVER get it back. Crying about the refs is a loser’s lament. I hate it when fans do it and it’s completely beneath a coach at the highest level of his profession.

Compounding my disdain was the ENTERTAINMENT and sports network in Bristol, an organization that never lets the facts get in the way of a good story. They ran with Holmgren’s crying for days, parallel to their own distorted story about the refs stealing the game from the woebegone Seahawks. Really, why worry about the facts if you can give Mike and Mike a non-story to yapp about for two weeks?

If you want to see how a real leader of men deals with outside adversity; watch the Steeler highlight video from that year. In all the complaining about a few boarder line calls against the Seahawks, everybody seemed to forget that the refs nearly kept the Steelers out of the game to begin with. Remember how they overturned Polamalu’s clear cut interception against Indy a few weeks earlier; after seeing indisputable proof that it was the correct call?

Watch the highlight video and listen to what Cowher tells his defense. He gathers them around and says (paraphrasing), “if they overturn this, we go out and play hard. We don’t worry about things we can’t control. We play.” After the game, which would have been a blowout if not for the phantom reversal, Cowher told the media (paraphrasing again), the refs are the refs. We control what we can control. He did not cry about the inequities of officiating.

I always respected Bill Cowher but my respect for him increased 1000 times that day. I’m still angry about that call in Indy four + years later and I’m just a fan. Imagine how angry Cowher must have been. That call could have cost him one of the great (and well deserved) upsets in NFL history. It could have cost him his long awaited Super Bowl win. And yet he kept his composure, accepted the situation and remained a leader of men. He did not let the officials decide the game, nor did his team. That’s what winners do.

Under far less egregious circumstances, Mike Holmgren cried and whined like a spoiled five year old.

I rehash this tail of woe today in tribute to the USA World Cup soccer team. They could easily have succumbed to the adversity of having two goals taken away from them by officials over two games. This in a sport where games are frequently won 1-0. They could have accepted a draw against Algeria and then blamed the refs, as every fan and media member is already doing. Rest assured, the ENTERTAINMENT and sports network would have been right there with them, bringing in scores of experts to bash FIFA and the refs.

Much to their credit, they did not and I could not be more proud of them as a result. Instead, they did what champions do; they overcame the officiating and found a way to win. They generated scoring chance after scoring chance and finally won on Landon Donovan’s injury time goal in the second half. It was one of the truly great moments in the history of a national team that generated far too many negative headlines at the last World Cup.

Keep this in mind as well. The USA came from 2-0 down against Slovenia which is almost unheard of in World Cup soccer. Not only were they robbed of a victory in that game, they were robbed of one of the great comebacks in soccer history. You can argue, and I won’t disagree, that they dug themselves a huge hole. That being said, give them credit for a never say die comeback for the ages. While the supposed power teams from England, Germany and Italy are underachieving and the French team embarrassed an entire nation, the USA pulled together brilliantly.

Let me clear up a few potential misconceptions before I go any further.

First, I said the USA played like champions and I meant it. Champions overcome adversity and find a way to win. That being said, I’m still not expecting our boys to win this thing. I get frustrated with the “we are happy to be here” attitude I so often hear from American soccer but I can live with the reality of it, especially given their play today.

Second, I’m not suggesting they were not angry at being robbed of two goals, nor that they should not be. The call today was boarder line; the call last Friday was a Polamalu caliber abomination of sport. Even worse was FIFA’s decision to never identify what the call actually was or admit a mistake was made. Far be it for anybody to have accountability in the most visible sporting event on the planet.

That being said, they kept their composure and played through the adversity. History suggests that’s not always the case, whether it’s bad officiating or other outside factors beyond the players’ control.

I lost a ton of respect for Dusty Baker, Moises Alou, and all of the Chicago Cubs for collapsing in the 2003 league championship, ostensibly because a fan tipped a foul ball in the stands. Alou had a temper tantrum on national TV, the Cubs imploded, and then the robotic Baker happily pinned the blame on the fan, rather than himself or his choking players.

Beyond the fact that this contributed to a criminally irresponsible media frenzy that nearly ruined the young man’s life, it also showed a total lack of character, accountability, or self respect on the part of the Cubs. No wonder they collapsed so completely in the end. Just a thought but maybe the best professional athletes on earth should be able to shake off a tipped foul ball, especially with a three run lead in the 8th inning and a 3-2 lead in the series.

So its not a given that a team will overcome outside factors. These players work their entire lives to get to this level, play their guts out and then have their efforts nullified by bad officiating. This in the biggest sporting event on the planet and the one with the smallest margin of error. If ever there was a chance for them to succumb to excuses or come unglued this was it. There is little doubt in my mind that previous USA teams would have fallen apart, even the successful teams from 94 and 06. This one did not.

Kudos to coach Bob Bradley for his leadership. I’m thrilled that the USA stayed in house rather than hiring an international ringer as coach and Bradley justified their faith. He basically told everyone to accept the situation, move on and play to win. He never lost site of the big picture.

Kudos to Landon Donovan for finally playing like the superstar he is. The best players, the Lemieux, Crosby, Malkin and the Talbots of the world come through when their team needs them the most. Donovan has been brilliant in this tournament and you get the feeling that he was not going to let his team lose today.

Kudos to Tim Howard because as we all know, the goalkeeper is a superior form of life.

And kudos to the entire team for not giving up, for overcoming adversity, and fighting to the finish. They may not win this World Cup, but during their last game and a half they played like true champions.

Much Ado About Nothing

I pondered the following question on Facebook the other day. Is anybody else concerned that as of today the Big 10 has 12 teams and the Big 12 has 10 teams? Or do I have too much time on my hands?

I’m guessing the answer is the latter. You can thank the end of hockey season for that.

Anyway, after several weeks of rampant speculation and theories about the end of the college football universe as we know it, there is surprisingly little change. Reports of the Big 12’s demise were, to say the least, greatly exaggerated as were reports that the Big 10 was prepared to add half the eastern seaboard to its membership. In fact, when it’s all said and done, we could literally end up with nothing more than two BCS teams changing conferences and perhaps one new BCS school in Utah (you may recall them trampling Tyler Palko in the Fiesta Bowl a few years back).

The initial over reaction is hardly shocking considering the flimsy amount of evidence that most sports media need these days to run with a story. If Andy Katz or Adam Schefter hears a rumor from Jim Tressel’s (aka Mr. Rodgers’) sophomore year roommate, that’s good enough for the ENTERTAINMENT and sports network in Bristol to create a half hour special.

And of course we are no closer to that illusive college football playoff. We are also no closer to Ben Roethlisberger being Time Magazine’s person of the year but that’s an issue for a different day.

At least we finally have the long awaited answer to why they never renamed the eleven team Big 10. I’m guessing it took about 20 minutes after Penn State accepted its Big 10 bid for the other members to determine they wanted a 12th school. Sadly, it then took 20 years to accept that Notre Dame was not interested. It seems possible that at long last, The Big Whatever Conference finally told the Fighting Irish to go pound sand.

Seriously, can the entire college football world please stop sucking up to this second tier program that is still living off accomplishments from the Eisenhower administration? There is little doubt in my mind that the Big Whatever held that spot open so long because they continued to hope ND would change its mind. That’s not going to happen and good riddance.

In lieu of the Irish, The Big Whatever choose the only other football program I can muster up comparable hatred for; the Nebraska Thug Huskers. I joked (sort of) during the Stanley Cup finals that I would root for a team of ex-convicts in a seven game series against the Eastern Pennsylvania Orange and Black Goon Squad. Perhaps I should have chosen my words more carefully since the last time this happened, the ex-cons stole a national championship from Penn State (yes I’m still very much bitter about that).

We will postpone railing on Nebraska for another day. Believe it or not, I’m actually happy they are joining the Big 10. Penn State fans do not typically charge the field or turn over cars on Atherton Street after beating Minnesota. Conversely, a bi-annual grudge match with Thug Huskers should have the goal posts in fear of their safety in Happy Valley. Given the rampant mediocrity of every Big 10 school west of Columbus, adding another power program is probably a good thing, even if it is one that sold out its integrity to win a national championship.

This is hardly the conference armageddon we were told was coming. The Big 12 was deemed to be dead conference walking. The Pac 10 was going to steal 6 teams, which would in theory mitigate the short-term collapse of Los Angeles’ only professional football team, the USC Trojans. The Big 10 was supposedly going to grab four Big East Schools, while the ACC grabbed the leftovers.

The net result was expected to be four super conferences who could, in theory, have lucrative conference championship games and then send their champions to a 4 team national playoff. Or even better, four super conferences who could in theory have lucrative conference championship games and then have 8 computers and 1,500 sports writers arbitrarily determine who the best two teams are.

Maybe that will all still happen. Maybe the Big Whatever is so determined to get the Flubbing Irish in their conference that they will blow up the Big East. Maybe $25 Million per year will not be enough to make Texas happy.

My guess however is that in the end there will be minimal change. Here are a few things to consider in regards to the Big 10, the conference that got the ball rolling on this:

1) Nobody from the Big 10 ever officially stated that the conference wanted to expand to 16 teams. That was a media creation. Their primary goal was to get to 12 so they could have the all important, conference championship game. That way somebody else can ruin Ohio State’s national championship hopes before the entire country has to endure it on New Year’s Day.

2) The teams that were being thrown around as potential candidates were ridiculous. Why on earth would the Big 10 want to add Rutgers or Syracuse? The Big 10 already has a highbrow academic institution with lousy sports teams in Northwestern. They don’t need a junior varsity version from New Jersey. Syracuse has not fielded a decent team since before Philly fans were hazing Donovan McNabb. And for those financial cynics out there, I just don’t see cable subscribers in the New York market forking over $3 extra per month to watch the Scarlet Nights battle Purdue.

3) No matter how much anybody wants to believe otherwise, I don’t think Pitt was ever a viable candidate. The Big 10 wanted one of two things; either a school that would advance its football profile or a school that would add a significant new television market. For better or for worse, Nebraska provides the former (and to a very small extent the latter). Pitt provides neither (although the Wannstedt offense is eerily similar to Big 10 offenses of the mid 70s). Besides, as much as I would like to see the Pitt/Penn State football renewal, the Big 10 would be terrible for Pitt’s basketball team.

4) No matter how arrogant or stupid it may seem to the rest of us, Notre Dame is not coming. Good for them. Let them value their football independence right into irrelevancy. It might take 20 more years but eventually NBC will find something that generates higher ratings on Saturday than a 5 win team with an overrated QB (see, Powlus, Mirer, Quinn, Clausen, etc). I for one will not lose a minute of sleep when that occurs.

What this means is that the Big 10 might officially be the Big 12 (not to be confused with the existing 10 team Big 12) and that might be it. The Big East may survive, completely unchanged from a football perspective. The PAC 10 will settle for Utah and continued conference mediocrity and The Big 12 (10) will probably survive as a 10 team league. That’s unless The Big 12 (10) goes after TCU and one other school to be determined (although there is apparently some huge cat fight between TCU in Baylor, ripped straight from the truly strange stories of the who on earth could possibly give a damn department).

So much for the seismic changes in college football. So much for the potential playoff. Bring on five more years of John Saunders and Kirk Herbstreit explaining to us why you really can use a computer to pick the best team in the country and yet we are decades away from having the capabilities to stage an 8 team playoff.

The masochist in me would like to see more changes. I would like to see exactly what everybody thought was going to happen. It would add a desperately needed boost to college football which is far too reliant on the same, tired 100 year old conference match-ups. It might even force the BCS schools to play quality opponents in their non conference games, rather than battling for Buffalo and Coastal Carolina. Most important, the new conference set-up would rid us of any more mediocre Big East teams stealing BCS bowl bids through the NCAA’s charitable giving program for disadvantaged eastern conferences.

Conversely there is a side of me that hopes this does not happen. That’s the side that values integrity, loyalty and the notion, however quaint, that college athletics are supposed to be about interscholastic competition rather than billion dollar television deals. Watching all these schools ditch their conference tie ins in a desperate grab for more money is a bit sickening. It’s also a bit hypocritical given that they just admonished USC for failing to promote a proper amateur environment at their institution, around the same time the Pac 10 was consulting an intoxicated Eddie Belfour on how much to bribe Texas.

Of course there could be another round of changes and more jockeying for position. Anything is possible. That being said, in the end this story appears to be far more bark than bite. That’s fine, I can go back to ripping the moronic BCS system without all this other distraction.

Is it finally Time to Forgive Marian Hossa?

The Chicago Blackhawks are the 2010 Stanley Cup Champions. The Hawks are a great team and they deserve the cup. They combined talent and depth with a champion’s determination to win. Quite frankly, they remind me a lot of the Penguins from last year.

The Hawks win also means that the three year Marian Hossa odyssey has finally ended. Three years, three teams, three Stanley Cup finals; that’s quite a run for anybody. In Chicago and nationally the story was one of Hossa triumphing over personal adversity to finally win the Cup. That’s one perspective of it.

The perspective from the Burgh is quite a bit different. Hossa remains reviled by Pittsburgh fans. It’s somewhat amazing that a player who spent barely 4 months in the Burgh and quite honestly did everything asked of him while he was there is so hated. And yet there is no doubt that’s the case. I was reminded of that when I saw people seriously posing the question, what is worse, the Goons winning the cup or Hossa?

For the record, any Penguin fan who even has to think about this question should be required to attend extensive sports rehab. Do you want to live in a world where the Orange and Black Goon squad is carrying the Stanley Cup? DO YOU ??? I can think of nothing that engenders more hatred in Pittsburgh sports fans than that team, with the possible exception of a certain loud mouthed, ugly Russian and his merry band of soft, one dimensional cronies in our nation’s capital.

Anyway, back to Maid Marian.

This is a guy who by all accounts is a great teammate, works hard at both ends of the ice, is incredibly skilled and seems to genuinely care about winning. The fact that he’s been on three straight teams that went to the finals can not be a complete coincidence. I still say that without Hossa, the Pens are lucky to get out of the second round in 2008.

So how does a guy like that end up getting booed every time he touches the puck…in THREE cities? For those who missed it, Hossa did what was previously considered impossible and actually angered Nashville fans earlier in the playoffs. He took some nameless, faceless Predator out with a hit from behind but somehow did not get a game misconduct.

The situation was classic Hossa, at least of the last few years. He took a horrible penalty that nearly derailed his team’s championship hopes. In one of the truly amazing moments of this year’s playoffs, the Hawks tied the game up while shorthanded in the final 15 seconds. And then he scores the winning goal in overtime which by the way was the only time he made an appearance of significance in the goal column this entire post season.

So now he’s regularly booed in three cities, one of which does not even like hockey.

On top of that we can add:

· Losing the Stanley Cup finals two straight years. Losing the second year to the team you bolted after the first year for the team you lost to the first year (if you followed that).
· Losing the semi-final game at the Olympics after just missing out on a last second, goal mouth scramble.
· Blowing out his knee during the world junior championships.
· Nearly blinding Bryan Berard on an innocent follow through play with his stick.
· Playing three years in Atlanta.

I realize it’s hard to engender too much sympathy for a guy making $60 Million but if it was possible, Hossa would seem a reasonable candidate.

On top of that, and scoring just three goals in the playoffs, Hossa nearly torpedoed that Hawks again Wednesday night. His second period give away resulted in a breakaway that Antti Niemi thwarted. And did you happen to notice who was standing right in front of the net when the Goons tied the game at 3? Is Hossa morphing in to Ryan Whitney?

Actually, he seems to be morphing into John Madden. I heard Doc and Edzo talk at length during game 6 about Hossa’s defensive play and hustle. Maybe the Hawks could have saved $6 Million and just signed another hard working checking line forward. I think Madden and Hossa had the same number of goals in the post season.

See the point? Maybe as Pens fans we should stop hating this guy and feel sorry for him. Until he finally lifted that Cup Wednesday night, he’d had a rough run.

There are also a couple of interesting ironies about the whole hating Hossa agenda we have in the Burgh:

--In the long run, the Pens were better off without him. There is no way they could support three forwards making a combined $24 Million per year. If Hossa signs, say goodbye to Orpik, Staal, and maybe even Fleury.

--I still think that Hossa’s primary reason for bolting the Burgh was that he did not want to play for Michel Therrien anymore. In his mind, he probably thought he was being diplomatic by saying; I want to go to Detroit to win the Stanley Cup which sounds a lot better than, “I don’t want that crazy French guy screaming at me anymore.”

--The Pens won the Stanley cup…without him…and beat him in the process.

Again, these are all reasons we probably should be thanking him for leaving, rather than turning him into the microwavable Barry Bonds. I mean it took us just 4 months of Hossa to build up the same level of hatred we had for Bonds after 8 years. And Hossa is a nice guy whose head has not mysteriously grown 3 sizes in the last decade.

Honestly, I was fine with Hossa leaving for most of last season; compelled by the logical positions I’ve taken above. And then I saw him in that gruesome red uniform standing between the Pens and the cup and logic went out the window. It hit home right there what was happening and that he could have just as easily taken one year, $7 Million in the Burgh. I succumbed to the same irrational hatred that had engulfed the rest of Penguin nation. And I celebrated his loss as much as I did Detroit’s.

As a result, throughout his maiden voyage with the Hawks, Hossa and I had an uneasy coexistence. I rooted for the Hawks and simply tried to ignore him in the process. Honestly, it was not that difficult. He missed two months with a shoulder injury and was never really a huge offensive presence.

There was one potentially awkward moment at a home game against Dallas. Hossa had a chance to win the game in a shoot out which I admit put me in a truly precarious position. Emily notes that I had a look of intense fear on my face. Alas in keeping with the season long theme he missed the net and somebody else bailed out the Hawks.

Other than that, I barely noticed him for 8 months.

So what changed in the last two weeks? Maybe I’m a new man since my wedding. Or maybe, I just wanted the Hawks to win and was not ready for a Stanley Cup parade down Broad Street (especially after a hugely disappointing Penguin flame out). Either way, somewhere in that time I went from aggressively promoting my disdain for Hossa to rooting for the guy (at least in the team context). Somewhere I went from being angry that he shunned the Penguins to being angry that he had 200 scoring chances and never finished.

I guess you could say we bonded through adversity. He was struggling to score; I was struggling to deal with the image of Chris Pronger carrying the Stanley Cup. We had a common goal. I’m not saying I learned to love the guy but at least I was no longer subconsciously hoping he would fail.

For the record, I stand by my criticism of his performance. It’s ok for Max Talbot to work hard at both ends of the rink and not score. That’s his role. When Hossa scores 3 goals in 22 playoff games, that’s not right. Truth be told, had Hossa played to his full ability last year, the Dead Wings might have beaten the Pens two straight years. That’s another reason we probably should not hate him so much, he helped the Pens win.

So in the end, I’m grudgingly willing to forgive Hossa for his sins against the Penguins. Mind you I’m not starting the Hossa fan club in Chicago and you will never see me wearing his jersey but I think I can now peacefully coexist with him in the windy city. That’s quite a bit of progress from last summer when I went from gloating over his loss to the Pens to uncontrolled angst over his signing with the Hawks. Besides, he’s only here 11 more years.

As for other Penguin fans, I can’t really tell you what to do. I suggest letting go of your Hossa hatred. There are much better targets including Ovechkin and pretty much every player in the eastern part of the state. Be like me. I’ve moved on and I am no longer angry about Hossa bailing on the Pens and/or slapping the organization and the entire city of Pittsburgh in the face with his insulting, I want to go somewhere I can win the cup comments.

Yes, I’ve completely moved on.

Goaltending Wins Championships…Right?

“In life, as in hockey, you are only as good as your goaltender” (Adam Haberman…frequently).

I have two nightmares that pop into my brain from time to time. The first is that it’s the end of a semester in graduate school and I have not gone to glass or studied a lick. Finals are coming and I do not have the faintest clue about the course material. The second is that Michael Leighton is a starting goaltender in the Stanley Cup finals.

When I wake from the first nightmare, I feel an immediate and overwhelming sense of “it’s only a dream” relief. As to the second…apparently I still have not woken up.

There are few things in life I believe in more definitively than the importance of goaltending in hockey. I’ve said for years that it is one of the few absolutes in sports…you just can not win a Stanley Cup without great goaltending.

I’ve used this unwavering belief in my staunch defense of Marc-Andre Fleury from his persistent legion of moronic critics. Somehow, in their minds, Fleury managed to lead his team to back to back Stanley Cup finals while being the worst Penguin goaltender since Peter Skudra.

I’ve pointed out that teams do not win 30 playoff games in two years in spite of their goaltending. I’ve noted that I have decades of history on my side. That includes what I’ve frequently referred to as a quarter century case study on how goaltending can torpedo a franchise, commissioned by the Eastern Pennsylvania Orange and Black Goon Squad. In algebraic terms, goaltending is the constant in my hockey equation.

So if it’s not bad enough that the Penguins missed out on this year’s finals; here comes the Goon Squad to make it worse. I’ve been mocking them all year for somehow managing to deal down their goaltending from the immortal Martin Biron and Antero Nittymaki combination. For reference, that’s the same Biron who could not land a starting job anywhere in the NHL after leaving Philly and the same Nittymaki who can’t beat out Mike Smith in Tampa. That’s comparable to having a worse haircut than Scott Hartnell.

And yet the Goons somehow managed to do it. First they put their faith in Ray Emery who is as bad as Biron but less reliable. Then they trotted out Brian Boucher whose career reminds me of those fluke golfers that win the masters once and get a lifetime exemption to play into their 90s. And if all that was not enough, they turned their net over to the great Leighton. Yes, that’s the same Leighton who Carolina deemed inadequate as their third string goaltender. Apparently they were not overly impressed by his 103 NHL appearances since 2003-04.

So now I wake to the continuing nightmare; to a world where a team can get to the Stanley Cup finals while rotating third string goaltenders. Suddenly I don’t know what to make of things. It’s like the bizarro world on Seinfeld. Up is down, black is white, Feldman is Kramer. Everything I believed about life and sports is suddenly in turmoil.

Think about Fleury’s brilliant, game saving robbery of Lidstrom at the end of game 7 last year. Are we really ready to replace that picture in our minds…with Michael Leighton?

For the record, a person of non Chicago perspective might feel compelled to include Hawks goaltender Antti Niemi in the above complaint. I will not do so for two reasons. First, I would like to be able to sleep in my own bed in the near future and that’s unlikely to occur if I formally criticize Niemi in this blog. My wife is without question his biggest fan and to be quite clear, she was championing his play back in the dark days of the Huet in Chicago. If that seems like a conflict of interest to you than feel free to have the NHL revoke my press pass.

Second, it would be inaccurate. If you go back to his first start in October, a shutout in his native Finland, Niemi has been strong all season for the Hawks. Niemi is inexperienced but so was Cam Ward a few years back and we know how that ended. There is a big difference between inexperienced and having a decade long track record of mediocrity as is the case with Leighton and Brian Boucher.

If you fall back on the tired, lazy idea that the Blackhawks carry Niemi please contact the San Jose Sharks or Vancouver Canucks and ask why their supposedly superior goaltenders are golfing right now. Or call Stan Bowman and ask why Huet and his $6 Billion contract are glued to the end of the Hawks bench.

That being said, even I will admit that this is not exactly Roy and Brodeur matching up in the 2001 finals.

Which brings up the question, am I wrong? Have I been living a lie my entire life? Is goaltending not really that important? Can great teams just carry pedestrian goaltenders along for the ride (as the Fleury bashers would have us believe?). Will Michael Leighton be the end of my goaltender centric view of the universe?

The answer is emphatically no !

Here is a summary of the starting goaltenders who have won the Stanly Cup over the last 35 NHL seasons (from left to right):

Ken Dryden (4); Billy Smith (4); Grant Fuhr (4) Patrick Roy (4); Martin Brodeur (3); Bernie Parent (2);

Tom Barrasso (2); Mike Vernon (2); Chris Osgood (2); Ed Belfour (1); Dominik Hasek (1); Mike Richter (1); Nikolai Khabibulin (1) J.S. Giguere (1);

Marc-Andre Fleury (1) Cam Ward (1); Bill Ranford (1);

The first six goaltenders on that list are either in the hall of fame or sure fire first ballot inductees (Brodeur). These six gentlemen are responsible for 21 of those 35 cups (70%).

The next eight from Barrasso to Giguere have all produced elite numbers during their 10 plus year careers (even Osgood, much as it pains me to admit it). Hasek and Belfour are hall of fame gimmes and any of Barrasso, Richter, Vernon and Osgood could one day join them (for better or for worse on the last two). Regardless, this group adds 11 cups to the list.

The remaining three cups were won by two elite young goaltenders (Fleury and Ward) and a solid veteran goaltender (Ranford).

Think about that. Over the last 35 years the worst goaltender to win the Stanley Cup is Bill Ranford. And Ranford won 240 games in the NHL so let’s be clear he’s not Sebastian Caron.

It gets better. The 18 goaltenders above also lost in the Stanley Cup finals 12 times during that period. That means these elite goaltenders have taken 47 of the 70 slots in the finals over 35 years (just over 2/3rd of the total). In fact, if you go back to the start of the Islander dynasty in 1979-80, the only Leighton like goaltenders to even make the finals were…

Don Beaupre/Gilles Meloche Richard Brodeur, Jon Casey
Ray Emery Kelly Hurdey Arturs Irbe

I might even throw in the Hextall/Snow combo for Philly in 1997, only because Hextall was clearly past his goonish, cheap shot, stick swinging, cross checking prime by that point. Still, Hextall was once considered an elite goaltender back in the days when he was chasing Rob Brown around the rink (acknowledging this makes my stomach churn). He did win the Conn Smythe as the losing goalie against Edmonton in 1987.

Truth be told, in a fascinating bit of coincidental irony, the only goaltender on the list above who truly compares with Leighton is Emery; the guy Philly started the season with. You could also argue that Casey was closer to being a back-up than a starter as well (although he was fairly decent until Mario Lemieux single handedly destroyed his career). The others were all solid NHL goaltenders, just not superstars.

So take a deep breath folks and relax. Leighton does not represent a sign of the apocalypse nor a colossAL shifting of the sports universe. He is what sports experts refer to as, a fluke. We all remember that Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson won Super Bowls. Let’s not forget that Rex Grossman and David Woodley lost Super Bowls. That’s probably closer to what we are dealing with here.

Keep in mind that Leighton and Boucher have split the work. Keep in mind that they played three low scoring teams in NJ, Boston, and Montreal in the first three rounds. Now that they are facing a team with some serious firepower, they’ve allowed 21 goals in 5 games and Leighton has been hooked twice. I don’t think Roy, Brodeur or Hasek are losing sleep over their place in history.

Since the end of game 4, I’ve been wresting with the possibilities of both a Stanley Cup parade on Broad Street and the end to my cult like beliefs regarding goaltending. I’ll rely on the Blackhaws to solve issue number one, hopefully on Wednesday night.

As for issue number 2, regardless of how things turn out I’ll sleep well knowing I have 35 years of precedents to back my beliefs. One way or another my nightmare will end with my convictions undaunted that in life as in hockey you really are only as good as your goaltender.

Bruins the Cure for My Penguin Depression

I’ve never been a person who treads on the misfortunate of others to make myself feel better in bad times. Sadness is sadness and it should not be relative to other people.

And yet...

Even as I continue to deal with the shock and disappointment resulting from the Penguins season ending meltdown against Montreal, even as I try and come to grips with my Penguin sadness, I find myself falling back on this disturbingly comforting thought; at least I’m not a Boston Bruin’s fan today.

I’ve been watching sports for the better part of three decades and I’m fairly certain that I’ve never seen a choke to rival what the Bruins did over the last week. Seriously, not once in 30 years. This one stands on its own.

It was not sufficient for Boston to blow a 3 games to none lead; making them just the 4th team in North American sports history to do so. Such and accomplishment is cause for more than sufficient infamy in and of itself. No, the Bruins had to take it one giant step further. They somehow gathered themselves in the face of the monumental pressure of said choke and stormed out to a 3 to 0 lead…AT HOME…in game 7. And then, faster than you can say James Van Riemsdyk, they blew that lead as well.

I wonder if Boston coach Claude Julien is already sending out resumes. At the very least, I hope he’s hired a good head hunter. I will be shocked beyond shocked if he’s still employed by this time next week.

Just to be clear here, I’m not ignoring the accomplishments of the Eastern Pennsylvania Orange and Black Goon Squad, while I bash Boston. I may hate anything and everything related to that hockey team but even I have to tip my cap to this. Yes the Bruins choked but you have to give the Goons credit for making it happen with incredible resiliency. I do not know if they will win the Stanley Cup, but I’ll give them credit for displaying the heart of a champion. That’s something that could not often be said about the Goons going back to the start of the Lindros era.

Never in a million years did I think I would write something like this but it is sadly true. If the Penguins had shown half as much resiliency in their series as the Goons did in theirs, I would be writing about a second all Pennsylvania conference finals in three years. Remember, they won in spite of rotating third string goalies and playing parts of the series without Jeff Carter and Simone (American Cheese) Gagne.

See how bad the Penguins’ loss really is? It puts me in the awkward position of praising Philadelphia and thanking Boston. Thanking the Bruins for making me realize that in sports, no matter how bad things look, it can be worse.

I know the Penguins let us down against Montreal. I know that to a man, they underachieved and played poorly. And yet as a fan, I find that loss far less agonizing than what occurred in Bean Town. For better or for worse, we could see the signs of it coming all through the series. The lack of consistent offense, especially at even strength, the defensive zone breakdowns, the MIA status of Sid and Geno, and the struggles of MAF made it abundantly clear. At least to me.

In contrast, imagine if the Pens had gone up 3 games to none on Montreal and then lost the series. Imagine if they had jumped out to a 3 to 0 lead in game 7…ON HOME ICE…and lost. I’m sorry but that would have been about a million times worse.

So thank you Boston from the bottom of my heart. You took a genuinely lousy week in my hockey life made it just a tiny bit easier to accept.

With that, my completely meaningless third round playoff predictions. I mean I’m 5 and 7 through two rounds which means a reasonably trained monkey, or Liverant, could probably do just as well or better. Since said monkey was not available in time for this column…

Montreal Canadiens (8) vs the Eastern Pennsylvania Orange and Black Goon Squad (7)

I’ll just come out and say it…I have no clue. I’ve never been as sure of anything in sports as I was that these two teams would not get out of the first round of the playoffs and here they are in the conference finals. So how to I pick a winner?

My natural bias is to predict Montreal for two good reasons.

First, I just watched the Habs take out the Pens (every darn stinking moment of it) and before that the Craps and look darn impressive doing so.

Second, and perhaps more important, they are playing Philadelphia.

Just so nobody thinks I’m going soft here; the Goons are still the Goons. I may have devoted 200 or so words to praising them above but it’s a long way from that to predicting them to go to the Stanley Cup finals.

Beyond that, Jaroslav Halak has gone Giggy on the eastern conference and there is little reason to believe it will stop here. In deference to Rosie, I will stop knocking the Goons goaltending. I figured Brian Boucher and now Michael Leighton would be no match for either Tuukka Rask or the ghost of Marty Brodeur and I was wrong both times. So I will not even mention my belief that Leighton does not match up with Halak (oops).

Besides, it was not just a one man effort for the Habs. Michael Cammalleri was brilliant offensively and the entire Montreal blue line should take a bow for their performance. I will also credit the Montreal coaching for some exceptional strategy.

Finally, I do think Montreal has this team of destiny thing going for them. The ghosts of Les Habitants have awoken north of the boarder…Habs in 6.

San Jose Sharks (1) vs Chicago Blackhawks (2)

Ok, a few off ice thoughts on this series.

First, we’ve avoided the DOOM scenario. For those of you who do not know, my lovely fiancé and rabid Blackhawks fan Emily has been predicting DOOM since last summer. DOOM in this case was defined as a Penguin/Blackhawk Stanley Cup final starting 48 hours after our wedding. Two weeks ago she announced…”ALL ROADS LEAD TO DOOM.”

To be crystal clear, I’m not happy about the way we avoided doom. I’m just saying that for better or for worse, we did avoid it. Again, give me lemons and I’ll squeeze out some drop of lemonade.

Second, I’m not unbiased here either. I’ve lived in Chicago for 15 years and I genuinely like the Hawks. They’ve put together a team that is very easy to like. I will not say that a Hawks Stanley Cup victory will make me feel better about the Pens losing. That being said, with our boys out of it and my conflicts reluctantly resolved, I’ll be with my fiancé rooting hard for the Hawks. Quite honestly, I think it’s their year, just as I did the Pens last year.

The Hawks remind me quite a bit of last year’s Penguins. They are a deep, talented, and versatile team, with a lot of guys that quite frankly are easy to like. They play an up tempo, entertaining brand of hockey. No trap in the windy city, coach Q will not allow it. And I thoroughly enjoyed watching them slice up those slash and run pansies from Vancouver.

Indeed, if the Scotty Bowman’s kid had not thrown a 12 year, big money contract at some Slovakian guy who used to play for Detroit I would have nary a beef with the current team. Well with the caveat that I do not lose any sleep over Dale Tallon’s hangover induced signing of Cristobal Huet two years ago.

Even the Huet move has been overcome thanks to the strong play of Antti Niemi. Here is something Pittsburgh fans should appreciate. Many in the “never let the facts get in the way of a good story” national media and many uninformed fans try to play the Hawks goaltending as a weakness. Much like Fleury bashing, it’s a lazy and convenient story. And it’s just not true.

Huet was terrible the second half of the year and I’ll give you that Niemi is inexperienced. That being said, Niemi has been solid between the pipes all year. He ripped the starting job from Huet, played far better than the washed up Nikoli Khabibuhlin did last season, and convinced the Hawks not to trade for another netminder. Suggesting he was a better than Luongo last series is on par with stating that Disque has thicker hair than I do.

The Hawks road will not be easy. You’ll note that I’m no longer referring to San Jose as the Chokes. They were brilliant against Detroit and that includes the usual fold up like a cheap suit trio of Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Johnny Nabokov. They are getting great play from Eric Pavelski (or is it Joe Lewbart?). From top to bottom, they’ve showed a post season character that was not evident in prior years.

That being said, I like what I see from the Hawks. I believe that Rocky’s boys are on the road to ending a half century Stanley Cup drought, and even the new and improved Sharks will not stand in their way. In spite of getting zero goals from their prized offseason acquisition…Hawks in 6.

And if I’m wrong…well at least I’m not a Bruin fan.

In the End, Penguins Got What They Deserved

“This is a Pain that is going to linger…” (Brain Mouse…Pinky and the Brain)

Wednesday May 12, 2010 will always be remembered as the night the Montreal Canadiens closed down the Igloo. And to some degree, it was fitting.

We’ve seen some absolutely amazing hockey from our beloved Penguins over the last 25 years. I’ve said before, we are truly spoiled. Ask our friends in Philly what they would give for 3 Stanley Cups, 4 finals, and four all world superstars over a quarter century (or at least one comeback from a 3-0 deficit). We have no right to complain.

And yet the night they turned the lights off at the Igloo the Penguins suffered no less then their 5th agonizing game 7 defeat on home ice. We are all too young to remember the brutal loss to the Islanders in 1975. And yet we can now add this loss to the Goons in 1989, the horrible, awful loss that should never be spoken of against the Islanders and 93 and from what I’m told, to Florida in 1996 (although I still say if the Pens had lost the conference finals to a clutch and grab expansion team from the deep south I would remember that).

The funny thing about the Igloo is that the Pens have never really had much of a home ice advantage there. As sad as I am to see it go, this is not like shutting down the Boston Garden or Chicago Stadium. The Penguins throughout their history have had most of their biggest wins on the road and their worst defeats at home. And tonight was no exception. As has so often happened in the past, the Penguins saved their worst effort for a 7th game at the aged barn.

There will be all kinds of attempts to analyze what happened tonight and in this series but it’s frankly not necessary. The Pens got beat, plain and simple. The naive of the naïve will put all the blame on Fleury, while conveniently ignoring a complete disappearing act by our media appointed savior, Sid the Kid. They will correctly point out two less than stellar goals tonight while ignoring the constant breakdowns in the defensive zone. They will overlook that a team supposedly built to dominate offensively, scored 9 even strength goals in 7 games.

That being said, I do not want to turn this blog into a defense of Fleury. There is more to it than that and frankly he did not earn it. The bigger picture question is what did we really see tonight. Did Montreal expose the Penguins flaws and end a short lived era of immense glory? Or was this a team that after two long playoff runs and an Olympic year finally ran out of gas?

I like to think the answer lies somewhat in the middle although closer to the latter. I said back in October that this team was going to have to overcome both physical and mental fatigue this year. Frankly, I do not think they ever did. They were talented enough to finish respectably in the standings and win a playoff series against an inferior team. And yet they struggled all year against better teams and especially against strong defensive teams. Let’s not forget they were 0 and 6 against New Jersey, the team last seen skating off the ice against Philly with their head’s in their hands after a five game rout.

Truth be told, the Pens are a flawed team though no more than last year. Crosby, Malkin, and Fleury carried them past those flaws last season (with assists from Staal, Gonchar, and Talbot). Take a look at last season’s stats (regular season and playoffs) and you’ll be amazed how disproportionate they are to 87 and 71. This year for whatever reason, Sid and Geno could not perform the same miracles. The question is, were they just out of gas or is it not reasonable for two players, no matter how talented, to carry a team every year?

So if we are going to make lemons out of lemonade, maybe this is it. The Penguins have stuck with a flawed structure for three seasons because Sid and Geno carried them past those flaws to a well earned championship. Maybe now Ray Shero will realize he has to make some genuinely tough decisions to improve his wingers and blue line; even if that means trading somebody like Jordan Staal (a move that while potentially necessary would cause me great angst). I just don’t think the Penguins can continue to play with Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz as their top wingers or Alex Goligoski and Mark Eaton as a top four defensemen.

In any event, such questions are irrelevant tonight. Tonight we deal with our sadness towards the end of the season and the end of a truly brilliant three year run. We can deal with the what ifs or maybes come July.

The reality of today is the Penguins got flat out beat. Not just tonight but for an entire series. I’m sad to say that I’ve expected this loss since game 2 and I’ve been vocal in my concerns. It’s not rest assured because I am a pessimist and certainly not about the Pens. I never lost faith when they were down 3-2 to Detroit last year, even after the game 5 blowout (see my year old blog that I reposted yesterday). I never lost faith when they were trailing 3-0 to Ottawa in the second period of game 6.

Quite honestly, I’m usually quite the optimist when it comes to the Pens.

Alas there were just too many signs in this series that it was not to be. Throw out game 1 when the Pens overmatched a physically and mentally exhausted Habs team and the reality is that Montreal was just better. Truth be told, the Pens were lucky to even get to a game 7. They played Montreal’s game. They struggled to score at even strength and in fact most of their goals came on long shots from the point. There were not tough goals or dirty goals score from in front. No rebounds, no deflections…and no Sid and Geno.

With each passing game I waited for some sign that the Pens were coming out of this funk and finding their game but it never happened. And thus with each passing game I became more and more convinced that we were feeding the underdog monster in Montreal. If indeed the Penguins really did lose to the Florida Panthers in 1996 (and I still deny this), this series had a frightening similarity (sans 20,000 plastic rats).

Let’s be honest, the problems started long before this series. I’ve been saying since the Olympics that something was not quite right about this team. It was never anything specific or quantifiable but it was always there. Remember how the Pens just dominated the month of March the last two years? Well this year it never happened. Remember how the Penguins got up for big games against key conference rivals the last two years? Contrast that with 0 and 10 against Jersey and the Craps.

This team just did not have that aura of dominance that last year’s team had. Last year you just waited for Sid, Geno, or even a Max Talbot type to do something miraculous. This year they tried but just could not make it happen.

The magic was just not there. Geno and Fleury did not elevate their game like last year. We did not get big goals from grinders like Talbot, Cooke, Dupuis, and Kennedy; at least against the Habs. There was no Bylsma magic behind the bench. And I’m sorry but Sid the Kid just disappeared. He stopped scoring, he stopped winning face offs and frankly stopped being a special player in this series.

As much as I’ve lamented the Penguins playing Montreal’s game for two weeks, the reality is there is no game plan that can overcome such malaise. Last year I described the heart of a champion; as something that goes beyond skill or talent to an unstoppable will to overcome all obstacles. It’s a truly rare thing and quite simply, this year’s team did not have it. Even if they had somehow managed to win tonight, I’m not sure they would have gone any further. I guess the bright side is we don’t have to face the horrifying thought of them losing to the Goons in the conference finals (another bright side, we are not Boston Bruin fans right now).

Let’s at least lose with grace and dignity. Resist the urge to complain about the officiating. It was shaky but we overcame similar issues to win the cup last year. Do not restart the Scuderi love fest. That’s the same guy that gave up 13 points to Ovechkin in the second round last year. Do not myopically scapegoat Fleury; he was one of many that disappointed. Do not blame Ray Shero because Feds and Poni-K did not work out. You roll the dice and sometimes you get seven or eleven. Most important, let’s not make more of Jaroslav Halak than he is. He played great but he was just one part of a superior team effort.

No, let’s just face the reality that for whatever reason, this was just not the year for our Pens. We look forward to a new season next year in a new arena that we’ve been waiting a decade to see. Let’s be proud of a young team that matured long before most of us expected to win the cup and go to two straight finals. Let’s remember that as much as this hurt, there have been far more painful moments than tonight. This is not the one of the greatest teams in NHL history losing to a decidedly inferior opponent in 1993. This was not a solid Penguin team losing to a beer league expansion club in 1996.

This is what it is. A team that was not good enough and probably finished exactly where it deserved. Let’s deal with the sadness and start up again at the new barn in October.

In good times and in bad…All Hail the Mighty Penguin, Blessed be the Penguin, for it is Good (even tonight).

A Frighteningly Passionate Defense of Marc-Andre Fleury

Everybody has a weak spot and mine is goaltending.

I can keep my emotions and passions in check on just about every other topic. Trust me on this one. If I had any doubt about my ability to stay calm in the face of enemy fire, Ben Roethlisberger is forcing me prove it on a daily basis.

I’ve stood up to numerous out of town assaults on Ben’s character, decisions, and generally scum-baggedness (it’s my blog; I can make up words if I want). Frankly, Ben deserves it for the way he’s acted.

I’m not sure I deserve it; after all I’m not hitting on 20 year old drunk college girls. That being said, when you wear your sports passions on your sleeve as I do (and on your shirt, your shorts, and your hat), you have to be tough. If I’m going to walk around Chicago carrying my terrible towel trumpeting the glory of the Steelers all the time, I have to be prepared for a response when things go south.

I can handle the shots at Big Ben and Santonio Holmes. I can handle the weekend at Bernie’s jokes directed at Joe Paterno. I can even take all the grief that comes from being a Cub fan. Oh and I’m perfectly willing to listen to legitimate criticism about the entire NHL world fawning over Sid the Kid to the point of Favre like nausea.

Seriously, I can handle all of that with a proportionate degree of class and dignity.

Alas, when you attack my goaltender, I become like a mother bear when one of her cubs (not Cubs) is under attack. I grimace and growl; the fur (hair) stands up on the back of my neck. I become 100% ready to attack.

To some degree I’ve always known this but tried to overlook it as a minor character flaw. Alas it came flying back to the forefront this week because once again a segment of the Penguin fan base has taken to ripping up Marc-Andre Fleury.

Yes that’s the same Marc-Andre Fleury who you last saw robbing future hall of famer Nicklas Lidstrom at point blank range to win game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals…on the road. The same MAF who took the Pens to game 6 of the finals the year before that. The same Flower who robbed Alex Ovechkin on a breakaway in game 7 against Washington last season (again on the road). And also the guy who shut out Montreal on the road last night.

A normal person would not care about this criticism. They would just brush it off. It would be enough for them to say, Stanley Cup Champions and move forward. Of course when it comes to goaltenders, I am hardly a normal person. That’s why I wrote an entire blog on the subject last year after the Stanley Cup finals. I called it, Stanley Cup Championship should put an end to Fleury bashing. Apparently, I was wrong.

http://ahaberman35.livejournal.com/tag/fleury#post-ahaberman35-5374

Is it any wonder that Emily gets so worked up when people criticize her favorite player, Hawks goaltender Antti Niemi? It’s almost like we are the bear couple (not to be confused with Chicago Bears) and we have two sons, Marc-Andre and Antti. Cleary I’m not setting a good example for grace under fire.

Here is the thing about Fleury, he is never going to have great numbers, at least not playing for this version of the Penguins. And to be clear, that’s the way it should be. The Penguins have two of the best offensive players in the league in Crosby and Malkin. They play Dan Bylsma’s aggressive forechecking system which generates a lot of scoring chances in the offensive zone. They allow their talented offensive defensemen to pinch and go in deep to create chances.

This is exactly the way a team with this much talent should play. Do we really want to see them playing the NJ Devils trap? We don’t and neither does their owners, a fellow who knew a thing or two about scoring goals as well. The Penguins fired the worlds angriest French Canadian as coach last season about 48 hours after he unveiled the Crosby and Malkin version of the neutral zone trap.

So in came Bylsma who totally revamped the way the Penguins played. He developed a style that plays to their strengths and covers up their biggest weakness, their defensive defensemen. It’s a classic example of a coach brilliantly tailoring a team’s game plan to its talents.

The down side to Bylsma’s strategy is it exposes the Penguins to a lot of quality chances against them. To be clear, that’s not the same as a lot of shots on goal. When Kris Letang goes in deep and throws a diagonal centering pass to the slot, sometimes it results in a brilliant goal. Sometimes it results in a 2 on 1 break the other way.

Fortunately, the Penguins have a goaltender who can be counted on to make the big save when that happens. More important, they have a goaltender who gets that this style is going to leave him exposed sometimes. He makes as many big saves as possible and when one gets buy him, he fishes it out of the net and moves on.

When they are on their game, the Penguins dominate with the forecheck and do not give up a high number of shots. And while I can not prove this statistically, I would guess that the number of quality shots they give up as a percentage of total shots is as high as any team in the league. The result, you will not find Marc-Andre Fleury at the top of the list in save percentage in the NHL. Compare this to Jaroslav Halak who faces 45 shots a game but probably faces fewer quality chances than the Flower.

There is a stat that he is frequently on the leader board for…wins. Especially playoff wins. I guess we as Penguin fans can grudgingly settle for that?

I went through this with Tom Barrasso in the early 90s. Lemieux, Jagr, Coffey and company were playing run and gun hockey and winning games 6 to 4. I would hear all kinds of comments about Barrasso and how his GAA and save percentage were mediocre so he obviously was not good. To say I did not always handle such criticism well was a grotesque understatement.

I would get into arguments with people at school, in bars, anywhere to defend Barrasso. I turned my home into a billboard for him. I ran into Jeff Webster a few years back after not seeing him since high school and the first thing we did was argue about Barrasso! It was soccer practice 1990 all over again.

And yes, I admit this is emblematic of some degree of psychosis. It’s disturbing that I could not be above such arguments, especially after two Stanley Cups. Alas, I was 17 years old when that started. Clearly I’ve matured and moved on from such issues after two decades of personal growth.

WRONG.

Last week I found myself defending Barrasso on Bob Smizik’s blog. I was defending him for that awful, never should be spoken of playoff loss to the Islanders in 1993. I was pointing out in intricate detail how poorly the Penguins played in that series and two awful turnovers by Ulf Samuelson that lead to goals in game 7 (a nightmare I relived thanks to the NHL network and the miracle of YouTube). I was doing this with vigor, anger, and passion…17 YEARS LATER. Honestly, this is not normal behavior.

And over the last 48 hours I’ve been fighting it out with Fleury bashers as if they insulted by family.

I admit that Smizik’s blog has become kind of a guilty pleasure for me. It helps me deal with being completely isolated from the inside Pittsburgh sports scene. I enjoy reading it and commenting on it. I do this knowing full well that internet blogs attract a motley mix of folks, some of whom do not have the most educated or enlightened perspective on sports.

I found myself pleasantly amused by the belief that Bruce Arians is responsible for everything that went wrong with the Steelers the last two years, right down to Ben’s bathroom escapades. I enjoyed arguing my minority view point on Ben which I espoused twice in recent blog entries. I argued these points with thought, passion, and sensibility.

As for the Fleury bashing…yikes. I did not bring my computer home last night. So I found myself counting the minutes until I got to work so I could lay into these morons who are attacking one of the best goaltenders in the NHL. I could feel the anger and venom building up inside me as my fingers cracked the keys. Honestly, it’s frightening…to me!

So I have two suggestions for Penguins fans.

First, be proud that you have one of the best young goaltenders in the league on your team. Understand that he’s not perfect; that he will let in a soft goal once in awhile, or give up a bad rebound. Understand that his statistics will never be amongst the league leaders except for wins. And understand that in spite of that, the guy is perfect for this Penguin team and the way they play. He’s an elite goaltender in the NHL no matter how much some fans and media members refuse to believe it.

And second…if you disagree with the above, don’t mess with me on this topic. This old bear still gets mighty angry when you attack his goalie!

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY PENGUIN, BLESSED BE THE PENGUIN, FOR IT IS GOOD !