Reading the Play: Cracking the Ice Ceiling
Posted: July 14, 2012 Filed under: Reading the Play (Commentary) Comments Off on Reading the Play: Cracking the Ice CeilingJuly 14, 2012
The Chilliwack Progress reported yesterday on a “headache” facing the Chilliwack Minor Hockey Association (CMHA).
The Progress, of course, is Chilliwack’s 120-year-old “newspaper of record,” and Chilliwack, for the uninitiated, is a city of 80,000 located east of Vancouver which prominently features a large ear of corn on its official website.
Two parents whose children play in the CMHA have filed a formal complaint against the association with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, alleging gender discrimination. At issue is the CMHA’s recently instituted policy of levying a surcharge against players on girls’ teams. Members of boys’ or coed teams are not charged the extra fee.
The CMHA — whose league fees are structured on a per-player, not per-team, basis — has presented the policy as a simple business decision, citing the smaller rosters on girls’ teams which bring in less revenue per team. Its response to the lower rates of participation by girls is to increase the cost of participating.
The legal complaint will be decided via mediation or a hearing; resulting orders are enforceable in the B.C. Supreme Court. Whatever the outcome, the case has drawn attention to the place of women in hockey.
The state of women’s hockey last made news in 2010 when IOC president Jacques Rogge threatened to cut the sport from the Winter Olympics, setting a festive tone just hours before the gold medal game. Underdeveloped programs in every country except Canada and the U.S. result in lopsided games and a two-horse race in every international tournament.
Even within the two nations that dominate women’s hockey, participation by female players lags far behind their male counterparts. Despite what Hockey Canada describes as “exponential growth” in women’s hockey since the first World Women’s Championship in 1990, male players registered with the organization outnumbered females almost 6 to 1 in 2008-2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available. In the nation’s capital, male registration in the Ottawa District Hockey Association outnumbered female registration nearly 24 to 1.
With 2012 marking the 40th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark and controversial U.S. federal law best known for mandating gender equality in college sports participation, celebration of progress achieved must be tempered with awareness of work yet to be done.
This March The Gazette, native to hockey hotbed Montreal, examined the hockey lives of the Clarkson Cup-winning Montreal Stars, this year’s champions of the five-year-old, five-team Canadian Women’s Hockey League. The NHL recently raised its salary cap to $70.2 million for the upcoming season; meanwhile, players’ salaries in the CWHL jumped from negative $1000 to $0 minus the cost of food and sticks:
If you ask an NHL player about his love for the game, he might tell you that he loves it so much he would play for free.
The women love it so much they pay for the right to play.
“Things are getting better,” said Lisa-Marie Breton-Lebreux, the Stars’ captain and a driving force behind the creation of the league in 2007. “Last year, everyone on the team had to pay $1,000 to play. We have some sponsors and the crowds are a little better, so we don’t have to pay this season.”
But it’s still not free. While Bauer has supplied equipment to the players, they still pay for their sticks and they’re on the hook for their meals on the team’s seven road trips.
At least the Stars’ championship season was rewarded with a free meal and a suite at the Bell Centre when they were later honored at a Canadiens home game (though the food probably came at the price of witnessing Scott Gomez’s painfully futile efforts on the ice).
It’s been 20 years since groundbreaking goalie Manon Rheaume, the Geraldine Ferraro of hockey, signed a professional contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1992.
Hockey’s Hillary Rodham Clinton has yet to emerge: no woman has repeated Rheaume’s feat. But the next one may be lacing up her skates at a rink near you.
Loose Pucks: Breaking Boundaries
Posted: July 13, 2012 Filed under: Loose Pucks (Miscellaneous) Comments Off on Loose Pucks: Breaking BoundariesJuly 13, 2012
NBC Washington yesterday profiled two aspiring NHLers with unconventional national backgrounds who are attending the Capitals’ Prospect Development Camp this week. The longer shot of the two is undrafted free agent Nathan Walker, who hopes to become “the first-ever Australian in the NHL” despite being passed over in the 2012 entry draft last month.
Europeans are well represented in North American pro hockey — 2012 Calder Trophy winner Gabriel Landeskog was the first European-born captain of a Canadian major junior team and newly retired Nicklas Lidstrom became the first European-born captain of a Stanley Cup champion team — but players from other continents remain out in the cold (or in this case, the dry heat). Mites and squirts hitting the ice at Australian hockey rinks — all 20 of them — can look to Walker to blaze the trail.
Not a hockey powerhouse, Australia does have some things in common with the game’s birthplace. No less an authority than the Toronto Star — “Canada’s largest daily newspaper”— declared in a 2010 column that
Australia and Canada have been linked in the world’s minds for a century. Both are geographically sprawling, resource-based, former British colonies that share language, history and guilt-laden problems with their native people and have become two of the richest nations in the world.
Regardless of whether Australia and Canada have ever been uppermost in the world’s minds — separately or together — the Star acknowledges that “the surface similarities mask fundamental differences” — none more fundamental than the state of hockey in each nation. There are six professional hockey leagues playing in Canada (NHL, AHL, ECHL, WHL, OHL, and QMJHL). There are nine teams playing in the “completely amateur” Australian Ice Hockey League, not only the country’s top league but “the biggest ice hockey league in the Southern Hemisphere.” Only in the Southern Hemisphere do leagues feel the need to insert the word “ice” before “hockey.”
But with all due respect to Walker — who according to NBC Washington has been called “the Wayne Gretzky of Australia” — he’s not the first Aussie to break into North American hockey.
The original Willie O’Ree of Australia?
None other than the Geico gecko, who during game broadcasts displays flashy stick skills and the impressive ability to maintain his balance on the ice with no skates and a tail.
True, some observers believe the gecko is actually a Brit with a Cockney accent, but consensus has not been reached on the matter of the lizard’s nationality. The Huffington Post columnist Stephen Schlesinger, who despises the gecko, identifies him as “[t]he little green lizard from Australia” who speaks with an “Australian twang.” The gecko himself is coy on the subject; The Inspiration Room blog quotes the lizard’s own (now defunct) blog as saying, “I’m not concerned with geography or nationality.”
Either way, Walker’s Aussie credentials are as suspect as the gecko’s. Though described as Australian, Walker was born in Wales before growing up in Sydney and signing with a hockey team in the Czech Republic. His nation of origin is identified by Elite Prospects as “Australia / U.K.”
For those who are interested, The Sidney Morning Herald noted in yesterday’s “Australian Ice Hockey League wrap” that Walker fans can view the prospect camp’s final scrimmage webcast on WashingtonCaps.com this coming Sunday (Saturday in D.C.’s time zone). Capitals Voice, the team’s official blog, reports that the scrimmage is part of Capitals FanFest.
Curiously, the Capitals make no mention of this intriguing connection, revealed under closer inspection of the team’s official website: “Washington Capitals FanFest Summer 2012 presented by Geico” (emphasis added).
Sydney synergy in action
As a final note, while Walker hopes to make the leap from Down Under to North America, there are players who go the other way. According to the Herald, each of the nine AIHL teams “is allowed four imports, usually professionals from European or lesser North American leagues.” Although the league is amateur, “imports are allowed to receive assistance to help with accommodation etc.” Suddenly the KHL doesn’t seem so bad.
Loose Pucks: Pucks Meet Paddles
Posted: July 12, 2012 Filed under: Loose Pucks (Miscellaneous) Comments Off on Loose Pucks: Pucks Meet PaddlesJuly 12, 2012
Although no goalies were among the 11 players who attended collective bargaining negotiations in Toronto on Tuesday, The Washington Times yesterday asked the Capitals’ former starter and current associate goaltending coach Olaf Kolzig to weigh in on the CBA talks and the likelihood of another labor dispute. Kolzig was still an active player when the 2004-2005 season was wiped out by a lockout after the last CBA expired. Reflecting on the NHLPA’s role in the failed negotiations that year, Kolzig said, “I don’t think our union was prepared for how tough a stance the owners had. I think we were waiting to call their bluff, and they didn’t blink. We didn’t really have a Plan B.”
The NHL of 2012 is much different from the cash-strapped, clutch-and-grab NHL of 2004, and the mood around the bargaining table seems lighter. Commissioner Gary Bettman characterized the proceedings as “constructive” and “cordial.” Still, the Players’ Association, led by its new post-lockout executive director Donald Fehr, is fully aware that the union came out the loser in the last CBA. As Fehr bluntly told The Globe and Mail in June, “The players made what can only be characterized as enormous concessions.” He took a slightly cooler tone than Bettman in describing the current negotiations, saying only, “The parties are approaching this in an appropriate and business-like manner.”
How will the players approach the bargaining table this summer — will they be tougher, more business-like, slower to blink? Do they have a Plan B?
Not only is there a Plan B, but the NHLPA sets a new tone on the homepage of its website, where the lead headline announces: “NHLPA Members to Compete in Charity Ping-Pong Tournament at Smashfest!”
Foremost on the minds of NHLPA members: Smashfest!
The union may be reticent on the matter of collective bargaining, but its members are overflowing with enthusiasm for Smashfest. Hosted by journeyman center Dominic Moore (currently a San Jose Shark), this “inaugural bash” promises to do nothing less than “crown hockey’s ping-pong champion.” For $200 a ticket, fans of hockey and of table tennis can come together to witness the drama as, “For The First Time Ever, A True Champion Will Be Crowned.” As if ping-pong isn’t enough to draw crowds, the event also offers “NHL stars, free-flowing beer, and plenty of food.”
Not to be mistaken for a frivolous lark, Smashfest will raise money for concussion research. Career-ending-concussion poster boy Eric Lindros — who last month was passed over for the third time by the selection committee of the Hockey Hall of Fame — leads the roster of players trading their sticks for paddles.
Ping-pong junkies who just can’t wait for the excitement to begin can monitor the website’s countdown clock until the first player opens serve today at 7 p.m. The site also provides interesting facts about little-known NHL players participating in the table tennis tournament. For example, the event says of its host, “Dominic’s tenacity and work ethic make him a hot commodity” — presumably on the ping-pong circuit.
Reading the Play: Engineering A Better Goalie
Posted: July 11, 2012 Filed under: Reading the Play (Commentary) Comments Off on Reading the Play: Engineering A Better GoalieJuly 11, 2012
As NHL fans and GMs wait for Shane Doan and Shane Doan waits for Coyotes ownership, Phoenix is receiving attention for signing a member of its off-ice team — goalie coach Sean Burke — to a contract extension yesterday.
The Coyotes promoted Burke, who had served three seasons as Goaltending Coach/Director of Prospect Development, to the new title of Director of Player Development/Goaltending Coach. Burke’s coaching resume features impressive results from his students in the Phoenix net: Mike Smith, Ilya Bryzgalov, and Jason LaBarbera all achieved career years during Burke’s tenure as goalie coach. He has been called a “mastermind,” a “goalie guru,” and, by Smith himself, “the best guy in the league at what he does.”
In Toronto, another Burke — Leafs GM Brian — has been fending off criticism of his own goalie coach, Francois Allaire — the original goalie guru. Allaire built his reputation by building the careers of goaltending luminaries including Patrick Roy and Jean-Sebastien Giguere. But recent critics accuse him of being “too dogmatic” and imposing a “rigid and outdated” style of goaltending that’s “more about solely playing the percentages and being hit, as opposed to making athletic saves.”
The playing-the-percentages approach to goaltending seems to have fallen out of favor lately. Critics argue that an overemphasis on technique and positional blocking produces goalies with subpar reflexes and athleticism. The Leafs GM tacitly conceded the point, noting, “We’ve encouraged Allaire to be open to more acrobatic styles.”
But not so long ago goalies were taking criticism for relying on acrobatics at the expense of sound technical play. During the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals, the second consecutive Finals showdown between Chris Osgood and Marc-Andre Fleury, The Globe & Mail said of Fleury, “[H]e relies on his athleticism a little too much to get out of jams.” Retired NHL goalie Phil Myre, in a 2010 post on his website laying out “5 Commandments of Goaltending,” warned aspiring netminders, “Overactive goalies often get out of position and have to rely on reflexes too much.”
Joining the debate yesterday was an unusual source of goaltending wisdom: EA Sports, maker of the NHL 13 video game and its predecessors. On the NHL 13 website and in a newly published promotional video, EA Sports touts the upgraded goaltending in this year’s edition of the game. What do hockey fans want from their goaltenders? If the marketing department at EA Sports is right, most fans want goaltenders who shun technique for “the drama of the desperation save.” For these fans, “NHL®13 now features the most athletic goalies ever seen in a video game. In the first period or with the game on the line, your favorite netminders scramble with more versatility and anticipate like never before.”
So what is the best formula for better goaltending?
The experts at Hockey Canada, the organization charged with developing amateur hockey in the game’s native land, think they’ve perfected it. Here is Hockey Canada’s official formula for the ideal beginner goalie:
• 75% movement and positional skills
• 20% save movement
• 5% tactics
For advanced goalies, the formula becomes more complex:
• 35% movement and positional skills
• 10% post-save consequences
• 40% tactics and transition
• 15% advanced positioning
Not satisfied with a simple percentage breakdown, Hockey Canada thoughtfully provides coaches with a downloadable spreadsheet for conducting “Goaltender Evaluations.” The 65-point checklist measures goalies’ strength on criteria as basic as “Skating ability” and as offbeat as “Size of heart,” “Controls temper,” and (naturally) “Coachability.”
But for all the competing and complicated attempts to define the ideal goaltender — whether by programming video game algorithms or charting percentages on a spreadsheet — the true measure of a goalie comes down to two simple questions, which happen to be the final items on Hockey Canada’s list:
“Can this player play? Would you want this player on your team?”
Covering the Puck 
Reading the Play: Will Weber “Play On” in Music City?
Posted: July 20, 2012 | Author: Covering the Puck | Filed under: Reading the Play (Commentary) | Comments Off on Reading the Play: Will Weber “Play On” in Music City?July 20, 2012
TSN reported yesterday that Shea Weber has signed a 14-year, $110 million offer sheet from the Philadelphia Flyers. The Nashville Predators, already jilted by Weber’s former defensive partner and newly minted Minnesota Wild Ryan Suter, have seven days to match the offer or accept draft picks in compensation for losing their captain.
Weber, who annually plays a forgotten Alydar to Zdeno Chara’s Affirmed in the NHL SuperSkills hardest shot competition, now gets his moment in the limelight: the contract vaults him to the top of the league’s best paid defensemen. According to CapGeek, Weber’s annual cap hit with this offer sheet places him above elite defenders Suter, Brian Campbell, Drew Doughty, and his hardest-shot nemesis Chara.
For the Predators, Suter’s signing with the Wild has triggered a nightmarish domino effect that could cost them their top defensive pair and biggest stars. Suter’s 13-year, $98 million contract with Minnesota not only “reset the market,” in the words of Weber’s agent, Jarrett Bousquet; it also reset the fate of Nashville’s roster. In an interview with TSN Radio 1050 Toronto, Bousquet alluded to Suter’s departure as a key factor in Weber’s desire to leave: “When things changed in Nashville, we felt that everything was set back a year or two and it looked to be more of a rebuilding situation.”
Asked whether Weber hopes the Predators decline to match the offer, Bousquet hesitated only briefly before stating plainly: “To answer your question, … he’d like to play with the Philadelphia Flyers. He doesn’t want to go through a rebuilding process again.”
If Bousquet is correct and the Predators captain wants to play elsewhere, signing a multiyear offer sheet is a risky move; if the Predators choose to match the offer, Weber would be effectively locked into the “rebuilding situation” in Nashville for the remainder of his career. Pressed about the potential for “hard feelings” if Nashville were to retain Weber’s services, Bousquet expressed little enthusiasm for the prospect but downplayed the possibility of lingering conflict: “I don’t foresee there being a problem in that regard.”
Predators president and general manager David Poile — who earlier in the month lamented, “We did not get a chance to make a counter-offer or anything like that” with Suter — reiterated his intention to “match and retain Shea” but noted it would take time to evaluate “the complexity of the offer sheet” — an implied reference to the front-loaded structure of the contract, which according to USA Today pays $28 million in the first 11 months.
Bousquet’s comments suggest Weber, if he does want to play in Philadelphia, is betting the Predators won’t be able or willing to come up with the money. While praising the team as “a great organization,” Bousquet added, “They’re under different constraints than other organizations are.”
Should the Predators fail to retain Weber only weeks after losing Suter to unrestricted free agency, the loss would usher in dark times for a franchise that has achieved consistent success despite playing in a small expansion market where hockey is overshadowed by country music. The Nashville Predators — according to the Nashville Predators — have earned a “reputation as one of the most stable, well-built teams in the NHL.” Sporting News concurs, saying the team is
While Poile in the front office has steered the franchise on a steady course, Trotz has managed the bench with the shrewdness of the James Bond villain he resembles.
Two masterminds, with and without a cat
Defying expectations for a roster that boasts few marquee names with a payroll currently “more than $13 million below the salary floor,” the Predators have proven themselves a likable, feisty team succeeding not with flashy talent but through character and work. This postseason they eliminated perennial powerhouse Detroit, avenging two previous playoff series losses to the Red Wings.
But for a team that has always been short on elite talent, sustaining success will be a challenge without the two stars that have headlined their blue line. Aside from Weber, Suter, and the towering (6’5″), top-tier (league-leading 43 wins), underrated goalie Pekka Rinne, the most high-profile Predator is Mike Fisher, probably better known in Music City as country singer Carrie Underwood’s husband. Fisher, a forward, tallied only two more points (51) than defenseman Weber (49) during the 2011-2012 regular season; Suter contributed another 46 points. Weber led the team in plus-minus at +21; Suter was next at +15. No wonder Sporting News predicted that “[i]f Nashville lets Weber go after losing Suter, it will take years to recover.”
Now that Suter’s gone and captain Weber has one skate out the door, the future of the Nashville Predators rests solely on the thin shoulders of Pekka Rinne. His net could feel very lonely next season.
For Rinne, here are a few words of encouragement from Predators wife Underwood, taken from the title song of her third album: