nationalhockeyleague Archives

If only the NHL had a leader

March 23, 2023

It is yelling at the rain to lament that commissioners in any league aren’t stewards of the sport anymore. Look at Roger Goodell’s face and wonder if you’d trust that man to steer a fucking tricycle. But there comes a point where the commissioner is the only one who can steer a league out of a skid and away from a ditch. There has to be something where a commish has to say to his 30-32 bosses, “We have to do this and not this.”

But Gary Bettman is not that man. He doesn’t have to be, as the NHL rebounds from the pandemic with more record revenues while also managing to keep the salary cap flat. To him and his bosses, that’s job done.

The story yesterday isn’t much different than it’s been for weeks, ever since Ivan Provorov refused to wear the Flyers Pride jerseys. The latest to reveal themselves as cowards and liars were the Chicago Blackhawks. Admittedly, this one hits closer to home than the rest because of my history and location.

However, if ever there was a hockey team that needed to appear to be changing its ways and being transparent and open and welcoming, it’s this fucking team. To review, we’re barely a year removed from their owner, Rocky Wirtz, shouting down two reporters who had the gall to ask about what the team had done to prevent its next Kyle Beach scandal, which was only a few months before. A scandal that sickened and shocked the entire hockey world, and essentially poisoned the team to fans and observers alike for years to come. An organization that still clings to a logo — a logo they must change — for reasons they can’t clearly state other than “history.” An organization that still has a statue of Bobby Hull outside of its arena. Down a few levels, an organization that has been icing a garbage team for five years now and looks set to be icing a garbage one for a few years more. It has basically micturated on its fanbase for years on end.

So why not look like uncaring bigots on top of it?

Oh sure, the Hawks hid behind nebulous “threats” to Russian players due to that country’s new laws regarding LGBTQ+ “propaganda.” The way around that for the Hawks, or any team using that fig leaf to get out of “disrupting the room” (we’ll circle back to this), is simply to send those players home for the night. Especially for the Hawks, who are actively not trying to win games. So what the fuck do they care if they’re undermanned for a night? No statements, no comments, and no interviews. Make those who took the ice in the Pride jerseys the focus.

The Hawks aren’t the first to use the security concerns for their Russian players as an excuse to eschew their Pride night jerseys. That was the story the Wild were telling, which came with some validity when combined with the trouble that Kirill Kaprizov had over the summer trying to get back to the States from Russia. But there are other Russian players wearing them:

Evgeni Malkin wore one. Is he not an icon back in Russia?

Even if that were a thing, wouldn’t wearing jerseys supporting the US military go against the grain of Russia’s policies?

So what’s the truth here? What threat are Russian players actually facing? It could be there, and yet there’s clear evidence that there’s not. This is something being parroted by teams and hockey media alike without anyone really knowing what they’re actually facing.

Rudderless

Whatever the truth is, the Hawks’ actions make their president Danny Wirtz a liar. It puts Bettman in a light, once again, where it’s clear he has no idea what to do about anything that matters. When Provorov refused to wear the Pride jersey, it was about personal choice. When players on teams want to wear it but the team opts out, it’s about what’s good in the room. Which is it? The Hawks had a few players who expressed their excitement about being an ally and forwarding the cause of making hockey a more welcoming sport. And then they couldn’t. Why is their choice the one that can be shat upon?

If Bettman had a clue or a spine, he would have nipped this in the bud after Provorov. Told every team that any player that refuses to wear the Pride jerseys will be sent home without comment and the rest of the team will carry on. The message of those jerseys is more important than that night’s result or one or two players’ bigoted beliefs. Harmony in a dressing room should not be preserved over this. Bettman could have done that. He didn’t, and what he got was this putrid mess. A putrid mess that will define this season now. A noted BarfStool podcaster festers on the national broadcast of the league, further proving what the NHL really thinks about inclusion, and Bettman just watches. Again, when anything that truly matters comes up, Bettman has no answer.

Once again, hockey runs for the fake sanctuary of “team” and “room.” Its adherence to those things is why it barely has any personalities that it could market to new fans. It’s why traditions that are abhorrent continue. It’s why it is falling behind (soccer is the fourth sport now). But even being the fifth sport still makes billions, which seems to be more than enough for Bettman and his cronies. And it doesn’t matter who they make feel like they have no place in hockey as long as they get it.

Follow Sam on Twitter @Felsgate.

Let’s find a way the Boston Bruins might lose in the playoffs, if there is one

March 22, 2023

If they were going to lose, how might it happen?

While Gary Bettman might not think there’s anything wrong with the current playoff system (he’s wrong!), it is pretty clear that this set-up has robbed March and the first half of April of most of its drama. We’re basically down to seeing whether a wheezing Penguins team (whoops!) can keep their lunch down just long enough to hold off a thoroughly unimpressive Panthers team out of the wildcard spots, and some seeding issues between the Devils and Canes and the Pacific Division. To be fair, if the NHL were using a conference-based system it wouldn’t look too much different than it does now, it would just feel better and make more sense.

Whatever. Hockey has always been focused on its playoffs, and so shall we be. And the main question this spring will be can anyone derail the unholy force that the Boston Bruins have been? Some would like to focus on the wobble the Bs had at the end of February when they lost three of four, and since then they’ve gone… 15-3-0. So yeah, that wasn’t really a thing.

The Bruins would have to remain pretty scorching to match the record of 132 points in a season (1976-1977 Habs), and may turn off the jets for a rest to fall short of the Lighting’s 128 points from four years ago. But it remains that no team will enter the NHL playoffs as big of a favorite and feeling like Godzilla roaming the countryside since that Lightning team as the Bruins will in three weeks’ time.

That said, that Lightning team proceeded to perform one of the biggest full-body dry heaves in playoff history when they were swept out of the first round by Columbus. It’s hockey, nothing is ever certain and the end is always near. So what might take the Bruins down?

William Regal would say, “Man in the mask”

(I miss my weekly Regal-Excalibur exchanges)

When the Lightning spit up a planet-sized hairball to the Jackets in 2019, the biggest reason was Andrei Vasilevskiy putting up a .856 save percentage. Nothing sinks a great team quicker than a goalie who turns into Stop Making Sense-era David Byrne in net.

Linus Ullmark is probably going to take home the Vezina Trophy, and rightly so. He also has two games worth of experience in the playoffs, which came last year, and they didn’t go well. Ullmark wouldn’t be the first goalie to follow his first dominant season with something of a whiff in the playoffs. Especially if the Bruins draw the Islanders in the first round, who will sport a possible Vezina runner-up in Ilya Sorokin and the margins might be tight.

Even if Ullmark were to falter, the Bruins have Jeremy Swayman in reserve who has started 30 games and has a .920 save percentage. Swayman played five of the Bruins’ seven games in the first round last season against Carolina and was mostly fine with a .911. They’re about as buffered as can be against a goalie hiccup, but when things go wrong it’s always the first point of investigation in the post-mortem.

The thin small blue line

We’re already stretching here, which is an indication of just how solid the Bruins are built. The Bs’ success is built on the fleetness and dexterity of their blue-liners, given that they can sport four or five d-men who can really move and are good with the puck since the acquisition of Dmitry Orlov. Most teams might have two, but the Bruins can have a player on the ice for all 60 minutes that can skate themselves and the team out of trouble.

Still, it’s not the biggest crew around. So if the Bruins were to come up against, say, a pretty conservative team that was only too happy to continually dump the puck into the Bruins zone and then paste the Bruins defense up against the boards shift after shift for a whole series (hi there, Islanders), that could get wearisome after five or six games. If nothing else, that would keep the margins in games pretty tight, and when that happens HOCKEY! can turn games over to the underdog for no good reason at all.

Still, it’s hard to see this approach working against a team as deep at defense as the Bruins are. Maybe an opponent can make Charlie McAvoy annoyed or hesitant. Maybe even Hampus Lindholm. But the Bs still sport Matt Grzelcyk and Orlov. They almost always will be able to evade third and fourth liners they face and beat them back up the ice to open up things for the forwards. It’s a possibility that this could work for portions of games, but not all that likely for a whole series.

Statler and Waldorf are their #1 and #2 centers

Again, this is another real stretch, given how good Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci have been this season. Boston has backed Bergeron’s minutes off this season a touch, he’s averaging 11:35 of even-strength time as opposed to being over at least 12 minutes per game for the previous 12 seasons (he’s been around a bit!). Krejci’s use is also a touch down from most of his career, though he’s averaging more time at even-strength than Bergeron, but he doesn’t kill penalties anymore.

But hey, they’re 37 and 36 respectively, and four rounds and two months of playoff games can be a lot for players far younger. Both of these guys are proven playoff performers, Krejci has somehow managed to lead the playoffs in scoring twice in his career without winning a Conn Smythe Trophy. It was four years ago they were the top two centers for another Bruins team making it to Game 7 of the Final. But four years can be a long time in hockey, and these old bones will have to contend with some combination of Stamkos-Point, Matthews-Tavares/O’Reilly even to just get out of the division, and then Zibenajad-Trocheck of the Rangers, or Hughes-Hischier, or Aho-Staal of Carolina. One does not simply walk out of the Eastern Conference this year.

That doesn’t mean Bergeron and Krejci aren’t capable of managing it, and there is no better supporting cast. But you’d be hard-pressed to find another team with their top two centers with this much mileage on the odometers going all the way.

Even this weak case could be easily swatted aside when you consider that the Bs might just as well draw the Penguins or Panthers in the first round, each of whom they’d absolutely muller. That would leave whatever’s left of whoever crawls out of another death match between the Lightning and Leafs. They could be fresh as a daisy before whoever is left out of the Atlantic Division.

But should it go balls-up, there’s the roadmap, kinda.

For more inane hockey thoughts or just anti-Olczyk rants, follow Sam Fels on Twitter @Felsgate

NHL continues to coddle the bigots

March 21, 2023

Meet James Reimer, who will wear a sweater with a cartoon shark on it, but not a rainbow.

Yet another NHL team had to have an ado about their Pride Night and warmup jerseys this past weekend. This time it was the San Jose Sharks and goalie James Reimer. It was the same bullshit we’ve heard from others, though the Sharks put him on his own island to explain himself, which is half the battle, as they went ahead with the rest of their plans for Pride Night and every other player wore the jerseys. They still allowed Reimer to make his own statement, which made the night more about him than the gestures the Sharks organization were making. And they still let him off the hook with the tame and predictable, “Respecting everyone’s beliefs” cop-out that other teams have reached for. That’s only true when someone’s beliefs are worth respecting, when bigotry never is.

But it’s probably best to just let an openly gay hockey player say it best, as Luke Prokop, a player in the Predators system, did last night:

What needs to be amplified are hockey’s attempts, however ham-handed and halfway they may be, to try to be welcoming. Merely sending Reimer home without comment while the Sharks released a statement that his views do not reflect the organization’s would have done that. Players like Reimer don’t deserve a platform of any kind. That at least would put the focus where it needs to be.

But hockey’s fetish of putting the team over all would probably never allow for that, which is why some teams have eschewed wearing Pride jerseys at all, so as to cover for teammates who do not want to wear them (and it should be stated that some Russian players have declined fearing reprisal for them or their families back home in Russia). Even if Reimer was alone, he still got to try to save enough face to not feel ostracized by his team. Which is what he deserved.

Meaningless baseball continues to thrill millions

March 21, 2023

Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a 9th-inning double

I think maybe what I might take most out of the World Baseball Classic is its insistence on portraying the entire scope of the best moments, what makes baseball the most artful game.

Sure, there are plenty of shots like this during the MLB regular season, but they don’t get this dramatic until October, and it’s a nice reminder. In other sports, the biggest moments are focused on one point. The last shot, the big goal, the touchdown. The action all crescendos to one spot. In baseball, there’s so much happening everywhere at once in a spot like this. There’s the initial thunderous contact at the plate, and then following the ball in its arc toward the outfield wall. There’s the centerfielder chasing down the ball off the wall. There’s Ohtani and Ukyo Shuto rounding the bases, as Munetaka Murakami rounds first while Mexico sets up for the relay across the whole length of the field, even as futile as this one was. The entire Japanese roster spilling out of the dugout and all turning into third-base coaches. The Mexican players already slowly walking off who are separate from the failing relay throws. It’s a mural of the best of baseball, the inverse actions of each team and yet all in harmony and rhythm, spread across a wide tableau.

There’s also this still image:

Image for article titled Meaningless baseball continues to thrill millions

Before all that action, the frantic last moments that combine to form one last piece from a memorable game, there’s this. Giovanny Gallegos knows it’s over, which is why the feeling goes out of his knees. There’s still much to be done, and things that could go wrong on either side, and yet Gallegos knows none of that is coming. His fate was decided with that decisive crack off Murakami’s bat. Nothing can be more decisive than that sound, cutting through the brief pause of the raucous crowd as a pitch is delivered.

None of this is complete without the Japanese call:

Boy, that sure sounds like it matters.

With the final being Japan-USA tonight, there’s little question it will be the most-watched baseball game, worldwide, in history. It has the potential to include Ohtani marching out of the bullpen like the Reaper to face Mike Trout in the late innings, but even should it not include that the drama will be pretty high, at least one hopes.

As more people tune in there are more people beseeching MLB to do this every year. But the rarity and desperation of it are what makes it so fun. The players care more because they don’t know how many more shots they’ll get at this, whether it’s the semi-pros (if that) of the Czechia or the stars or Japan or the US. Three years can be a long time in baseball. Even for them, the stars have to align.

I’m no less guilty than most others who spend baseball seasons lamenting what’s wrong with baseball. It has been so much fun to remember what’s so right, especially with the bonus of the baseball season beginning right after this. There is good in the sport, Mr. Frodo. It’s worth fighting for.

Go to the source

Yet another NHL team had to have an ado about their Pride Night and warmup jerseys this past weekend. This time it was the San Jose Sharks and goalie James Reimer. It was the same bullshit we’ve heard from others, though the Sharks put him on his own island to explain himself. Which is half the battle as they went ahead with the rest of their plans for Pride Night and every other player wore the jerseys. They still allowed Reimer to make his own statement which made the night more about him than the gestures the Sharks organization was making. And they still let him off the hook with the tame and predictable, “Respecting everyone’s beliefs” cop-out that other teams have reached for. That’s only true when someone’s beliefs are worth respecting, when bigotry never is.

But it’s probably best to just let an openly gay hockey player say it best, as Luke Prokop, a player in the Predators system, did last night:

But hockey’s fetish of putting the team over all would probably never allow for that, which is why some teams have eschewed wearing Pride jerseys at all so as to cover for teammates who do not want to wear them (and it should be stated that some Russian players have declined fearing reprisal for them or their families back home in Russia). Even if Reimer was alone, he still got to try to save enough face to not feel ostracized by his team. Which is what he deserved.

Tony DeAngelo continues to be just awful

March 8, 2023

Update: DeAngelo was suspended two games by the NHL without pay on Wednesday for spearing Corey Perry. He’ll forfeit nearly $55,000 in salary for taking a shot at the Lightning forward’s manhood.

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How bad do you have to mess up for several hockey players to try to fight you at once? In the case of Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Tony DeAngelo, the 5-on-1 attack was warranted. During Tuesday night’s game against Tampa Bay, and the Lightning pretty much having the game wrapped up, DeAngelo decided to involve himself in the customary post-whistle jostling that takes place in hockey. After the usual couple of shoves and rounds of trash-talk, hockey players usually sing Kumbaya and move on with their lives. DeAngelo’s dumbass decided to ramp things up unnecessarily by ramming the blade-end of his stick into the manhood of Lightning forward Corey Perry.

After the dogpile of players was disassembled with under three minutes to go in the contest, DeAngelo was given a major penalty for spearing and was ejected from the game. Don’t feel sorry for him because he got tackled to the ice and got teed off on once prone. Don’t come to the aid of Perry either, who has been suspended three times in his NHL career for dirty plays, most recently in 2020 for elbowing then-Predator Ryan Ellis.

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Per the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Olivia Reiner, DeAngelo wasn’t aiming for the groin and it was in retaliation to Perry’s game-long trash talk. The NHL Department of Player Safety has a hearing with DeAngelo scheduled for Wednesday, with a multiple-game suspension likely looming for the Flyers’ defender. DeAngelo has been suspended once prior in his NHL career, for three games in 2017 after making physical contact with a referee. DeAngelo was also previously suspended three times in junior hockey, playing in the Ontario Hockey League. DeAngelo is also a proud MAGA shithead and apparent racist who was reportedly punched in the face by a Rangers teammate shortly before that team placed him on waivers.