It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

For some, Black Friday signals the start of the Christmas season.  For others, the signal is Hockey Canada releasing the World Junior Selection Camp roster.  That roster was released today.

This year the tournament is in Buffalo and the Selection Camp is in Toronto, starting in a couple weeks.

Just three players return from the 2010 squad that won silver in January.  All three are defensemen: Calvin de Haan (NYI) and Jared Cowen (OTT) are looking to play in their second tournament each, while Ryan Ellis (NSH) is back for his third chance.

And while the returning players will have the inside track, it’s hard to say any of them are guaranteed a spot.  By the end of the 2010 tournament, both de Haan and Cowen saw their ice time cut significantly, and they will be pushed in a very real way at camp by the likes of Eric Gudbrandson (FLA) and Brandon Gormley (PHX).  I’ve seen quite a bit of Western League players Tyson Barrie (COL), Brayden McNabb (BUF) and Mark Pysyk (BUF), and all three have a very good chance of making this team.

Barrie played with Tyler Myers in Kelowna and was a key player when they won the WHL in 2009.  Barrie drew plenty of four-letter words from my seat for his tough-as-nails two-way play.  I see no way he doesn’t make this team and he will be a household name by the end of the 2011 tournament. 

McNabb has led the Kootenay Ice to the CHL Top 10 this season.  Pysyk’s Edmonton Oil Kings are a struggling team, but he’s played big minutes in the WHL for the last three seasons and both of these guys got an extended look at the Buffalo Sabres training camp in September.

All told, 17 WHL players were invited to camp and I’m very familiar with most of them.  Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is one of the few undrafted players invited to camp and having just watched him Friday night, I can safely say he should make this team if only to run the power play.  He has great hockey sense and a wrist-shot that has scouts drawing comparisons to Joe Sakic.

Moose Jaw’s Quinton Howden (FLA) and Medicine Hat’s Linden Vey (LA) could fill roles as grinding types with lots of skill.  They usually leave me trying to pull my hair out when they visit the Hitmen.  Regina’s Carter Ashton (TB), Saskatoon’s Curtis Hamilton (EDM) and Swift Current’s Cody Eakin (WSH) also fit that description.  Any of these five players would make a strong core for a checking line but would also fit in on a second line.

Ryan Huska won’t spend any time on the ice, but is one of the assistant coaches this year.  Huska is highly regarded in WHL circles, and is one of the top coaches in the CHL.  He keeps the Kelowna Rockets near the top of the WHL standings at all times and has a knack for developing NHL-ready players.

No matter which players make it out of the selection camp, this year’s team will face a lot of pressure to get back to the top and there’s certainly enough talent here to do that.

Let Christmastime begin.

I may be watching again, but they're still idiots

Well how about that?  Just one day after I wrote to explain my recent dealings with the NHL, after I swore off the league, they go ahead and do the exact thing that sent me away last spring all over again.

I’m referring, of course, to Marc Staal’s hit on Matt Stajan Monday night.  The league announced Tuesday they will not suspend Staal for this hit, which is of course, the exact opposite stance they took when Joe Thornton hit David Perron with an almost identical hit.

Neither hit falls under the league’s new definition of blindside hits as neither is initiated from behind.  But both are delivered while the player is looking away, and both are hits to the head.

Yet Thornton got suspended and Staal did not. 

Once again the NHL proves they have no idea how to handle supplemental discipline.  I don’t even know what else to say on the matter. 

Until players are regularly suspended for this kind of hit, and until the league starts to discipline players with any kind of consistency, these hits will continue to happen and players will continue to be in danger. 

Here are the clips, have a look and have your say.

Thornton hits Perron

Staal hits Stajan

How the NHL won me back

Since I wrote pretty well exclusively about the NHL last week, it’s probably obvious I haven’t followed through on boycotting the league until Colin Campbell and/or Gary Bettman are no longer in charge. 

I really meant to stay away.  I didn’t watch the Canadiens play three-straight seven-game series in the spring.  I didn’t watch the Stanley Cup Final (after watching every Final since 1991).  I ignored free agency and put all my jerseys in way back part of my closet.

Then my roommate bought NHL 11.  And some friends asked me if I’d run a pool.  And I was offered tickets to the Heritage Classic.  And the Hitmen season started.  And a buzz built around the Calgary Flames.

I watched some games here and there.  I passed it off as “checking out PK Subban,” or “I want to see what Eberle and Hall can do,” and even “I’m just watching for the old school Kings and Canucks jerseys.”

Last week Steven Stamkos went on a scoring tear that had people talking about the very real possibility of a 50 in 50 season.  Stamkos officially made himself one great reason to watch.

Then Saturday night happened.  And Leafs-Habs happened.  I didn’t watch passively.  I watched with interest.  I cringed when Phil Kessel skated into the Habs’ zone.  I worried every time Mike Komisarek took a shot that a strange bounce would quiet the Bell Centre boo birds.  I inched closer and closer to the screen.

And today I rushed home to find the Boston-Tampa Bay game online.  There’s just no denying it anymore, I’m back in with the NHL.  The on-ice product is just too good to stay away from.

It seems like every team has at least three players worth the price of admission.  Whether it’s the usual Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin highlight reel goal, or Tyler Seguin or Jordan Eberle or another from the new guard, it seems something exciting happens every night.  This season, the NHL has put YouTube in my daily links and the clips never fail.

So that’s what happened.  That’s how despite all the league’s faults, the NHL pulled me back in.



Some flames burn brighter than others, Darryl Sutter is not one of them

Since it involves a former Maple Leaf, today’s Calgary Flames-Carolina Hurricanes trade must be big news.  But really, we’re talking about a third-line forward, third-pair defenseman, and two borderline NHLers, which is just one of the reasons this trade is bad.

Let’s start with the Flames.  First, we have a GM trading away his own son a week after his son got arrested, which demonstrates a lot of loyalty.  Then, we have the Flames trading away their lone remaining defenseman from last season’s big Dion Phaneuf trade.  A defenseman they made a big deal about re-signing this past summer.  Seriously, it was front-page news in Calgary when White signed his new deal.

In return, the Flames got a borderline NHL defenseman in Anton Babchuk and a great third line player in Tom Kostopolous.  TK won over every Habs fan on the planet during his stint with Montreal and is exactly the kind of player you need to have if you’re trying to win a championship (and it’s not exactly obvious that’s the goal in Calgary right now).  But the Flames already have too many third-line forwards (I don’t consider any of their guys other than Jarome Iginla or David Moss, or maybe Rene Bourque first or second-line players).

For Carolina, they’re stuck with Ian White now.  That’s bad enough, just ask any Leafs fan.  At best, this guy is a number-five defenseman in the NHL. 

So the Flames got a little cap relief (that they wouldn’t have needed if they’d just traded Phaneuf for draft picks instead of $9.5 million in third-rate players), and the Hurricanes, I dunno, got to the salary minimum?  Neither team will actually perform better this season as a result of this trade.

In the end, despite the fact Kostopolous is a really valuable player, this deal once again underscores the Flames’ inability to properly identify the moves and players that will make them a better team.  It also illustrates the strange idea of loyalty that exists in the Flames front office.

These two issues are prime reasons this trade keeps the Flames perfectly on course to be a middling team for all eternity. 

--Steve

NHL remains consistently inconsistent

Somehow this business about Colin Campbell calling Marc Savard a “little faker,” his ever present obsession about on-ice officials’ performance during games his son Gregory played in, and his outright dislike and distrust of on-ice officials revealed in emails yesterday got swept under the rug.

Hockey fans really should be calling much more loudly for Campbell’s head after reading these kinds of things.  And hockey writers, who’ve let this fall from the front page of major websites, need to get to the bottom of this story and need to get this put back into the front pages.

The NHL, predictably, is standing at Campbell’s side.  As they should.  Much the way an owner or GM will always give a struggling coach a vote of confidence.  It doesn’t change the fact the NHL should be exploring ways to either fire Campbell outright or to change his role.

The so-called discipline Campbell’s handed out during his tenure has been uneven at best, clueless at worse.  It’s been so bad, it’s hard to believe he has the NHL’s best interests in mind at all.  Watching Campbell take a gutless approach to the Mike Richards and Matt Cooke hits last season should have been the final straw for him with the NHL.  His league-endorsed explanation that the hits weren’t “illegal” ignored the very purpose of supplementary discipline.  His handlings of the James Wisniewski gesture and Niklas Hjalmarsson hit-from-behind, and deeming the two acts worthy of equal punishment, were downright embarrassing.

Campbell’s inability to use supplementary discipline to remove from the game, let alone even control players like Cooke, Sean Avery and others should also be a sign he is clearly not suited for the job.

Some folks say his hands are tied by the “old time hockey” mentality that apparently runs rampant among front offices around the league.  These same “old time hockey” types are the guys that allowed rule changes like allowing two-line passes and deciding games with shootouts.  I don’t think they’re rushing to revert to a league without forward passing.

So another day passes with Colin Campbell in charge of supplementary discipline for the National Hockey League, and another day passes where the inmates will very much continue to run the asylum.

Neither Campbell, nor the league will change their tune until a player like Alex Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby gets his leg stomped on by Chris Pronger or has his season ended by a Matt Cooke blindside hit.

And even when that day comes, I don’t have much faith in the league to finally change.

So progressive a week ago, and so regressive today.  Inconsistency is the NHL’s hallmark.

--Steve

Eaten raw...

Well friends, I can’t think of much else to talk about today aside from losing.

It’s so strange to me that losing is something we each experience almost daily as sports fans. Ultimately there is little difference between a big loss or a tight-scoring game that goes down to the wire. CFL fans were treated to a pair of tight games yesterday, with the Tiger-Cats losing despite a late rally, and the Lions losing in overtime. But in the end, fans in both Hamilton and BC, separated by nearly the entirety of this land, went home feeling sad and blue, and sick and green.

For the Tiger-Cats, it’s a disappointing end to a season that was supposed to have ended with at least a trip to the East Final. Through the fog of disappointment, it’s sometimes hard to remember some of the good things that happened this season. And with season ticket renewal letters coming shortly after Christmas, it’s going to be important for this club to remind their fans of the good things they saw on the field in 2010.

The best thing Ti-Cats fans saw this season? Anguish. Looking at Kevin Glenn and other Tiger-Cats after yesterday’s game, it was clear and easy to see this game meant more to the guys in black than to the people in the stands. In today’s sports world, that kind of emotion seems rare, and you certainly can’t fake it. The Tiger-Cats had it in spades.

Staying with Kevin Glenn, it’s hard to ignore the kind of season he had. He threw for more than 5,000 yards and 33 touchdowns, both numbers good for second in the league. No greater authority than Eastern nominee for Outstanding Player Anthony Calvillo suggests Glenn could have been the Eastern nominee. DeAndra’ Cobb quietly out-rushed the likes of Avon Cobourne and Wes Cates with nearly 1,200 yards, and he scored more touchdowns than the Argos’ heralded Cory Boyd. Hamilton was one of three teams with two 1,000-yard receivers and Marquay McDaniel was just 6 yards shy of making Hamilton one of two teams with three 1,000-yard receivers. So clearly, the offense was working.

For all the headlines generated by signing Stevie Baggs, the Ti-Cats had other strong contributions on defense. Jamall Johnson was second in the league in tackles and Garrett McIntyre finished fifth in sacks. Markeith Knowlton led perhaps the league’s best group of linebackers that helped cover up a rash of injuries that tore through the defensive backs.

Dave Stala, one of those 1,000-yard receivers is the Eastern nominee for Outstanding Canadian, Knowlton is up for Outstanding Defensive Player, Marwan Hage is up for Outstanding Lineman and Marcus Thigpen is not only up for Outstanding Rookie but was also Hamilton’s nominee for Outstanding Special Teams Player, although the Eastern nomination rightly went to Toronto’s Chad Owens. Having the nominees in four of six award categories is something to be proud of. No other team can boast such a feat.

This team even won a game in Montreal!

Sadly, all this praise and all these award nominations didn’t add up to a trip to Edmonton in two weeks. But the Tiger-Cats have a lot of the right pieces in the right places, and should enter the 2011 season as real Grey Cup contenders. And from a crushing loss against our most-hated rival, hope springs.

Thanks for the season boys. Until next June, Oskee Wee Wee.

--Steve