From The Rink

The Niedermayer stick fight

2009-11-20T19:40:54Z

This one's making the rounds, but just in case you missed it:

Pretty sad. I feel bad for Scotty here, actually, as his good deed turns into something real ugly. Would love to know who the parties here are and what they thought was happening.

Wyshynski has more.

2009-10 NHL man games lost to injury

2009-11-20T06:53:42Z

More photos » by Mark Avery - AP

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All right, all right, I cave. I've been asked for these figures so often that I pulled them together while watching the Leafs cough up a hairball against the 'Canes to gain the title of worst in the league.

These figures come from individual teams' game notes and are from prior to their latest game:

	Team	GP	MGLI	Proj.
1	Vancouver	20	109	447
2	Edmonton	21	105	410
3	Colorado	21	83	324
4	Chicago	18	66	301
5	Pittsburgh	20	73	299
6	New Jersey	18	63	287
7	Columbus	18	61	278
8	St. Louis	17	57	275
9	Montreal	20	64	262
10	Carolina	19	58	250
11	Washington	20	60	246
12	Detroit	18	52	237
13	San Jose	22	62	231
14	Atlanta	16	45	231
15	Minnesota	20	55	226
16	Nashville	18	48	219
17	NY Islanders	20	49	201
18	Dallas	19	46	199
19	Florida	18	42	191
20	Philadelphia	17	38	183
21	Phoenix	20	41	168
22	Boston	19	37	160
23	Ottawa	17	33	159
24	Buffalo	17	32	154
25	Toronto	18	33	150
26	Los Angeles	22	31	116
27	Anaheim	18	22	100
28	NY Rangers	20	21	86
29	Calgary	18	15	68
30	Tampa Bay	17	8	39
	Totals	566	1,509	6,497
	Per team	18.9	50.3	217

So, how do these figures compare so far?

Yes, 6,497 sure sounds high, but the average NHL team has lost about 230 man games to injury over the past three seasons. We're not there yet — but keep in mind that I'm comparing apples and oranges. Because most players begin the season healthy, projected injury totals are lower toward the start of the year and before many of the season-ending hurts start to kick in.

I think it's fair to say we'll surpass the postlockout record of about 7,000 man games lost this season, but we'll have to wait and see. Perhaps the Olympic break helps players recover and get back into action? Or maybe it hurts by condensing the schedule and keeping 120 or so NHLers playing over those two weeks (about 15 per cent of the league will be at the Games).

The worst injury totals recorded by a single team postlockout were last year's Islanders, who were in the 550 range by season's end and finished dead last with 61 points. The Canucks and Oilers have some work to do on that front.

The Kings, I believe, have the record, with 629 man games lost in 2003-04.

The healthiest five teams over the past four years have been the Sens, Rangers, Ducks, Devils and Canadiens, but the luck has run out for the latter two apparently. The Isles, Flyers and Blues have been the NHL's most injury prone teams over this stretch, averaging 350+ man games lost a season.

I'll make sure to have another look at these figures come midseason (and I'm sure someone will remind me).

"I don’t expect that publicly reported loss numbers will have any impact whatsoever on our ability t...

2009-11-20T06:15:45Z

"I don’t expect that publicly reported loss numbers will have any impact whatsoever on our ability to sell the club," Daly said in an e-mail yesterday. The "losses in the short term don’t seem to be factoring into the interest of potential buyers. They have much bigger, longer-term vision of the investment."

Daly added the league has fielded a number of inquiries about the club. "Lots of calls and discussions [i.e., more than six]. Not sure I would classify them all as interested bidders."

— Paul Waldie, The Globe and Mail

"In this particular case, what would happen is we (in the League's video replay room in Toronto)...

2009-11-19T20:13:01Z

"In this particular case, what would happen is we (in the League's video replay room in Toronto) would see the puck in the net and call the video goal judge and say, 'Please blow the horn and get the referee over here. We see a puck in the net that hasn't been ruled a goal.' At that point the referee would come over and we would have the discussion. Usually the referees know exactly what's happening and they would come to us and say, 'Listen, I blew the whistle or my intent to blow the whistle was there. I've got this play dead before the puck crosses the goal line.' No more need be said. Once we hear that, basically video review is now out of the process. We step aside and say it's a call made on the ice and it's a non-reviewable call. It's a whistle blown by the referee and it was blown or the intent to blow it was before the puck crossed the goal line."

— NHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations Mike Murphy

Babcock: 'It was as dumb as anything I've ever seen'

2009-11-19T17:17:18Z

"It was not blown dead. It was a goal. The guy never meant to blow the whistle; it was a shot. The puck went in on a shot. It was as dumb as anything I've ever seen."

— Red Wings coach Mike Babcock

Boy, it's hard to fathom just how something like that even happens. How can Toronto call down during the game, talk to the referee and let that bogus decision stand and help decide the outcome?

Anytime there's an injustice against the Red Wings, you better believe Bill at Abel To Yzerman is the man to seek for your outrage, and he doesn't disappoint on this one:

...it’s almost impossible to believe Toronto missed it. If they didn’t, if they overturned it, could LaRue have simply ignored them out of sheer embarrassment? Not likely, but something idiotic happened.

And nothing will be done. Nothing. LaRue, of course, is one of Gary’s best. A ref in last year’s Stanley Cup Final, so you know he has to be good, right?

There should be some fallout from this, or at the very least an official statement from the league. It's about as bad a bungling as I've ever seen.

A change in the SBN front office

2009-11-19T13:30:25Z

In cased you missed it, there's been a switch-up at SBN Hockey: We've got a new GM moving in as I'm stepping into a Silver Fox like advisory role to let Brandon Worley of Defending Big D take over.

Building up SB Nation's hockey wing the past 13 months has been a blast. We went from five or six blogs and a platform few NHL fans knew about to now having 33 sites and every team well represented. Some sites, like Japers' Rink, are huge communities, something that's a credit to the bloggers' hard work more than anything I ever did.

You look at the list of the top 30 hockey blogs over at BallHype and all but five are here at SB Nation.

I'm very proud of that, and very proud of all the progress we've made since last year. The network's on a steep curve upwards, and it's a bit disappointing that I'll be more of a passenger going forward. But the fact of the matter is that the NHL side of the network has grown so much and so fast that it really needs a caretaker who's plugged into everything SBN's working on, and as my responsibilities at The Globe have grown the past couple months, it became obvious I couldn't give Job No. 2 everything it needed.

Brandon, a rising star in the NHL blogging world, can — and he'll do great at it.

I'm still staying with SBN, though, and I'll be working behind the scenes with our bloggers to help them succeed. We'll again have bloggers credentialed for some of the league's marquee events (first up, Winter Classic) and will be adding more sites and contributers as we go.

This site, too, will be as active as it can be while I'm working at the paper and getting out to the rink once or twice a week. And you'll have to bear with me as I write a little more often about those poor ol' Maple Leafs.

Two weeks from now will mark five years since I started my original site, and it's been quite a journey. And, in a lot of ways, having only this season gotten credentialled for the local team, it feels like it's just getting started.

Thanks as always for your support.

It appears the on-ice futility is finally starting to catch up with the Toronto Maple Leafs,...

2009-11-19T08:02:31Z

It appears the on-ice futility is finally starting to catch up with the Toronto Maple Leafs, cashbox kings of the NHL.

For the first time since moving into the Air Canada Centre 10 years ago, the NHL’s richest franchise confirms that it has been unable to lease an unspecified number of the facility’s 152 luxury suites for Leafs games this season.

— Robert MacLeod, The Globe and Mail

"Corny as it is and clichéd as it is, I enjoy playing hockey, and they always say you never know ...

2009-11-18T19:03:50Z

"Corny as it is and clichéd as it is, I enjoy playing hockey, and they always say you never know when your last shift is going to be," Ortmeyer said. "I wanted to go out on my terms and not be forced out by some medical issues."

San Jose Sharks' Jed Ortmeyer battles blood-clotting disorder

Sharks owner endorses Balsillie

2009-11-18T06:48:16Z

More photos » by DAVE CHIDLEY - AP

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The Globe's David Shoalts has an update on the Phoenix situation, and tucked in at the end is a reference to a recent comment made by Sharks co-owner Kevin Compton, something that has as far as I know yet to make the rounds online.

Here's the full excerpt from SportsBusiness Daily:

Compton said Research-in-Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie should be an NHL owner and called the Coyotes fiasco a "joke." Compton said, "Jim loves hockey. Jim's got a lot of money. Jim's got a lot of passion." Compton said he was "100%" certain Balsillie will be an NHL owner in the future. When asked why the owners were locking out Balsillie, he said he did not know. He added, "Owners aren't."

Meanwhile, Compton said that the NHLPA turmoil reflected the distance between older players who are hardline labor advocates and younger players, who are paid well and don't always understand what the union does. He added, "They (the union) have to figure out a way to bring value to the young players." He added that they have not done a good enough job explaining what the union does for them. On the news that Don Fehr will be assisting the NHLPA, Compton said, "I've had better days than when I read that." He described Bettman negotiating with Don Fehr as something that would make "good television."

Yowza. Something tells me there needs to be more tape recorders on when this man speaks. And that perhaps Mr. Compton has a stern lecture on the way.

The Sharks, of course, were one of the 26 teams who voted against Balsillie's purchase of the Coyotes, likely because of all the nastiness surrounding how he was attempting to land a team. But it makes you wonder: Do other owners feel this way? Is Compton a loose cannon or offering a legitimate analysis of the situation when he says "owners aren't" the ones standing in the BlackBerry billionaire's way?

And, if so, does it matter?

Someone warn Ovechkin about this one...

2009-11-18T01:16:53Z

That's Henrik Andersen of Leksand in Sweden's second tier league with a celebration that doesn't go quite as planned.

The NHL's injury epidemic

2009-11-18T00:14:38Z

More photos » by Graham Hughes - AP

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There is approximately $180 million worth of players injured right now. (I’m talking either LTI or just out for a few games. That’s more than 10 per cent of each team’s available cap space.)

— Elliotte Friedman, HNIC

It's a long list, there's no doubt, and you can't help but wonder if the condensed schedule is to blame. The quarter-way mark in this season is coming up on Friday, and there are an awful lot of bodies banged up.

Don't be surprised if more than one team ends up in extreme cap trouble by April as a result.

A great example of just how big the injury ward is this season is in Pittsburgh, where the Penguins are without their top four defencemen. They somehow pulled out a 5-2 win against the Ducks on Monday with this top six (ranked by ice time):

Mark Eaton: 27:09
Martin Skoula: 18:39
Deryk Engelland: 18:33
Ben Lovejoy: 18:30
Jay McKee: 16:39
Nate Guenin: 14:42

Had to look up a couple first names there... and that ain't good.

Teams like Edmonton, Vancouver and Detroit are just as beat up, and I've gotten more emails the past two weeks asking for man-games lost to injury figures than I can ever remember.

It's getting to the point that health, more than any other factor, is going to determine a lot of the playoff seedings this year.

Shanahan hangs 'em up

2009-11-17T23:08:47Z

More photos » by RYAN REMIORZ - AP

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The numbers tell a story of one of the most effective power forwards of his era, but really, they only tell the beginning of the story.

When Brendan Shanahan made his retirement official Tuesday, he went into the NHL history books No. 11 in all-time goals (656) and No. 23 in all-time points (1,354) – credentials usually associated with a first ballot Hall Of Fame player.

— Eric Duhatschek, The Globe and Mail

"While I always dreamed of playing in the NHL, I can't honestly say that I would have ever imagined that I'd be this fortunate and blessed. I would like to sincerely thank everyone who has helped me fulfill this dream."

— Brendan Shanahan

There goes yet another player that makes you feel like its the end of an era, even if he never won the scoring race or a playoff MVP.

Heck, Shanny has won but one NHL trophy, the King Clancy six years ago, but that doesn't make a whit of difference in how big of an icon he became in the game — right up there with Brett Hull, Steve Yzerman and a whole bunch of other guys that played on those stacked Red Wings teams.

And if you ever find yourself in Mimico, Ontario, they whisper his name there like he's the holy one himself.

Even though he's left the ice, I'm sure we'll see plenty of Shanahan in NHL circles for years to come.

Coyotes bankruptcy proceedings: No, they're not over

2009-11-17T05:54:20Z

More photos » by Matt York - AP

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It was a fun summer, picking through bankruptcy documents, arguing with a few hockey fans from Phoenix and, in the end, watching as Jim Balsillie retreated yet again after failing to get an NHL hockey team by any means necessary.

In the interim, there's been news — mostly just attendance watches, really — but what we haven't heard is that the documents just keep rolling in and the arguments being heard. Judge Redfield T. Baum, at this point, is probably wishing he had never heard of this woebegone hockey team.

They're up to 1,109 filings now, with many of the latest surrounding the team's troubling lease agreement. Commissioner Gary Bettman went to Glendale on Monday to talk to the city about finding new ownership that can fix what ails the lease, something that won't be an easy task:

Glendale leaders have been open to talks, but maintained the city would not forfeit revenue it uses to pay off its $182 million arena investment.

The commissioner said he did not expect the NHL would be the one to re-negotiate the lease.

"I don’t envision it as necessary for us to be negotiating, but a new owner will have to be satisfied," he said.

Getting to that point is going to be interesting.

The city doesn't really receive all that much in terms of rent directly from the hockey team, so there's just not a lot for them to give up on that front. And it remains an impossibility for a new owner to assume this team, especially in its current state, without some sort of guarantee as to limiting the losses.

Jerry Moyes's camp recently filed a document calling for the rejection of the lease altogether, something that I believe is aimed at limiting the city's claim against him as to damages:

"... the Debtors respectfully request that the Court enter an Order: (a) estimating the City's claim against the Debtors to be zero dollars for purposes of distribution under a prospective Chapter 11 plan; and (b) granting any other relief that is just and proper."

Moyes's lawyers also argue that because the city didn't take Balsillie's guaranteed $25-million compensation, they aren't eligible for damages when it comes to breaking the lease.

Who knows how that all plays out — or even how much we'll hear about it. All the legal experts and bankruptcy analysts aren't anywhere to be found lately, as with the stars of these proceedings having moved on, there's no more glitz to be found.

At this point, they're just fighting over the table scraps.

Lamest bachelor party ever.

2009-11-16T20:06:14Z

Lamest bachelor party ever.

Mike Commodore, discussing Anton Stralman's rushed nuptials

Looking at what ails the Leafs

2009-11-16T07:19:50Z

More photos » by Nathan Denette - AP

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I had the chance to take in the Leafs-Flames game here in Toronto, a contest that was essentially over 10 minutes in after a couple iffy goals. Jonas Gustavsson had his first really tough night in the crease, allowing three goals on five shots before he was chased from the crease.

More on that here, for those that are interested in a two-day old game story.

The only positive on the Leafs side of things, at least according to Ron Wilson, was the play of newcomer Carl Gunnarsson — an apparently late-blooming seventh rounder who made his NHL debut. I didn't know anything about the kid, but he did play for Sweden at the worlds back in the spring and reportedly was very strong in training camp.

I don't think many seventh rounders get 21 minutes ice time in their first game, but so it was on Saturday. Given his stats over in Sweden, I can't fathom why he was on the power play for four-plus minutes, but Wilson's got something in mind with him I guess.

As for what's wrong with the rest of the team, well... a lot of things. Dave Shoalts outlines what's going on up front, where things haven't been pretty (aside from Phil Kessel):

Forget any theory that if the Leafs, who have been out scored 23-9 in the first period this season, could learn to start games better their problems would be over. The evidence is clear the forwards are just not good enough. ...

When Burke and Wilson started that playoff talk, part of their reasoning was that their key forwards would improve their modest numbers from last season. There was an argument that since the Leafs were 10th last season in the NHL in goals for that they would be better this season with a rebuilt defence.

All that has resulted so far is a strong argument the forwards were overachievers last season.

Pretty tough to argue with that, at least in the early going. And the problem is that the hole's just getting too deep for Toronto.

The blueline hasn't exactly been great, either, although Tomas Kaberle's impressed me (especially on the power play). If they move him closer to the deadline, a contending team would do well to add his puck-moving skills on the back end.

As a No. 1 defenceman, he's adequate, but if you drop him to second or third on the depth chart on a really good team, he could shine.

At the beginning of the year, I wasn't expecting great things out of this team — mostly just more of the same, a 10th to 12th place finish in a conference with a lot of poor teams and a seventh or eighth overall pick for the Bruins.

Now? Could be a lot uglier than that.

As someone now getting out to see this team up close, in practice, etc., a couple days a week, I'm really not all that concerned about how it shakes out. If anything, Wilson's been easier to deal with as the team has struggled. What's clear, however, is just how hard it is on the players in a media bubble like this, where they're asked each and every day to chronicle the hows and whys of how poorly they're playing. A young guy like Luke Schenn, for instance, is just frustrated beyond all belief (as seen in Chicago on Friday when he threw that mini-tantrum on the bench after he was the goat on the first goal).

We've seen a lot of teams over the years have brutal starts like this and slowly climb out of it, but given how the past four years have gone in Toronto, there's not a lot of optimism here. It seems all but certain now this team will miss the playoffs again, keeping their last postseason date way back in May of 2004, and the natives will get restless.

The building's still full every night, but there's seems to be less and less cheer as we go.

Unless you count all those Calgary fans at the ACC on Saturday...

"We're going to be there with them, we're going to be crying with them, we're going to be laughing...

2009-11-16T07:12:42Z

"We're going to be there with them, we're going to be crying with them, we're going to be laughing with them. We are the biggest Panthers fans.

"We're the only crazy ones who would do this."

— Stu Siegel, one of two owners now in charge of the Panthers

A quick look at shot differential

2009-11-15T07:52:52Z

More photos » by Charles Cherney - AP

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Shot differential's one of those stats that, for whatever reason, only seems to get any attention on the interwebs, but as smarter minds than mine have pointed out, it's often a good indicator of a team's talent level. Some bad teams do out shoot their opponents, but there are generally reasons for that (with awful goaltending at the top of the list).

Note the Blackhawks on this year's list:

	Team	GP	Pt%	S/G	SA/G	Diff
1	CHI	18	0.667	33.3	23.1	10.2
2	DET	18	0.639	33.9	28.5	5.4
3	PHI	16	0.656	33.7	28.8	4.9
4	PIT	20	0.650	32.0	27.4	4.6
5	BUF	17	0.735	33.7	29.8	3.9
6	DAL	19	0.579	32.2	29.4	2.8
7	TOR	18	0.306	33.3	30.6	2.7
8	LAK	21	0.619	28.4	26.0	2.4
9	NSH	18	0.528	30.8	28.5	2.3
10	OTT	17	0.559	30.0	27.8	2.2
11	BOS	19	0.526	31.1	29.0	2.1
12	NJD	18	0.778	29.4	27.7	1.7
13	VAN	21	0.524	30.6	29.0	1.6
14	WSH	20	0.700	32.2	30.7	1.5
15	PHX	19	0.579	28.7	27.4	1.3
16	SJS	21	0.738	30.9	30.0	0.9
17	CAR	18	0.222	30.1	29.4	0.7
18	MIN	19	0.395	28.7	28.6	0.1
19	NYR	20	0.575	29.2	29.6	-0.4
20	MTL	20	0.450	29.4	30.6	-1.2
21	STL	18	0.444	28.8	30.3	-1.5
22	NYI	20	0.525	31.0	33.6	-2.6
23	CBJ	18	0.611	28.8	31.6	-2.8
24	TBL	17	0.588	27.8	32.1	-4.3
25	ANA	18	0.417	28.8	34.1	-5.3
26	CGY	18	0.722	25.4	31.4	-6.0
27	ATL	16	0.594	28.1	34.8	-6.7
28	COL	20	0.675	26.2	33.0	-6.8
29	FLA	17	0.441	28.6	35.6	-7.0
30	EDM	19	0.474	26.3	33.5	-7.2

If you're sitting down to watch a game tonight (Sunday), tune into the Sharks-Hawks game and note what's there. Who's really the better team this season? San Jose's been getting the goaltending, definitely, so maybe that's the difference there, but there's something about this Chicago team that stands out every time I've seen them play (and I don't just mean Duncan Keith).

And after they've pummelled a couple teams this week, everyone's wondering if perhaps Detroit's demise isn't quite here yet.

Just a couple thoughts.

Hurricanes drop 14th straight

2009-11-14T06:59:15Z

More photos » by Gerry Broome - AP

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Ugliness in Carolina these days. The 'Canes have now lost more games in a row than any other team postlockout, and the most since a couple teams did worse in the 2003-04 season. Their marquee star, Eric Staal, is out with an injury. So is Cam Ward. They're tight against the salary cap.

And no one wants to see a white-helmeted Manny Legace starting all your games and Bryan Rodney, he of ECHL fame, taking a regular turn on the blueline in overtime.

More on long, long losing streaks at Globe on Hockey and Behind The Net.

How waiver exemption paved way for Backstrom's NHL career

2009-11-13T19:49:25Z

More photos » by Paul Battaglia - AP

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I have a few more details on how the Wild ended up landing Niklas Backstrom up at Globe on Hockey today, including the tidbit that Manny Fernandez was on the trade block long before he was ever salary dumped to Boston in 2007. It's hard to believe, too, that they thought they had their No. 1 in Josh Harding more than three years ago, and he's still muddling along as a backup.

Who is and isn't waiver eligible has become a big deal under this new CBA, and it's interesting how Minnesota seemingly found a bit of a workaround to the three goalie problem we've seen crop up over and over postlockout. I think we'd see this happen a lot more if European goalies were more willing to play in the minors in order to earn a shot at the NHL.

Talking to Backstrom earlier this week, you got the sense he had always wanted that NHL shot and just never got it. He also said he didn't feel he was a late bloomer, given he was one of the top netminders in Finland at junior age, but that 10 years ago, there just weren't as many opportunities for European goalies. (Although Kiprusoff, Toskala, etc. were drafted.)

Top goaltenders postlockout (by save percentage)

Rk	Player	GP	W	L	T/OT	SO	GAA	SV%
1	Niklas Backstrom	186	100	53	23	17	2.27	0.922
2	Jonas Hiller	83	39	28	3	5	2.37	0.921
3	Tomas Vokoun	246	123	90	26	22	2.58	0.921
4	Tim Thomas	228	111	78	29	15	2.58	0.919
5	Craig Anderson	100	41	30	14	8	2.70	0.918
6	Cristobal Huet	184	96	60	18	17	2.44	0.918
7	Martin Brodeur	274	165	86	23	27	2.31	0.917
8	Roberto Luongo	292	156	101	31	25	2.51	0.917
9	Henrik Lundqvist	281	150	89	35	21	2.33	0.916
10	Dominik Hasek	140	93	31	13	18	2.09	0.914
11	Chris Mason	183	85	64	21	17	2.54	0.914

Q: Back, briefly to Balsillie: given all the water that's under the bridge, is there any chance he...

2009-11-13T06:48:37Z

Q: Back, briefly to Balsillie: given all the water that's under the bridge, is there any chance he could become an NHL owner?

A: There's a lot of water under that bridge. There's so much water some could argue the bridge washed out. I'm a believer that it's a long life and I would never say never. But let's not get hysterical with the headline. It's not something that I foresee any time soon.

— Gary Bettman comments on all things Coyotes an interview with Macleans magazine this week