It's Thanksgiving and the fare is turkey, football and a glop of a columns pointing out all the things we have to be thankful for, even if it is a bit of a tough go out there -- and we're not talking about gnawing on grandpa's attempt to deep fry a bird without burning the house down, or that the indigestion-inducing Oakland Raiders and Detroit Lions are on the pigskin TV menu.
In this era of instant access and gratification, how much time is enough when it comes to coaches taking over a team and getting results?
The current State of Hockey is suspended animation.
The NHL schedule officially hits the quarter-pole when the Sabres tangle with the Bruins on Nov. 20, and that milestone that has us itching to rank the season's top performers.
I don't put a great deal of stock in the fact that Brendan Shanahan chose to announce his retirement through the NHL offices rather than what's left of the NHL Players Association. But I don't dismiss it, either.
With Brett Hull, Brian Leetch, Luc Robitaille and Steve Yzerman inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame last week, it's time to talk about next year.
Like the proverbial husband, On the Fly freely admits it often doesn't see things coming.
With almost a quarter of the regular-season schedule in the books, I would go as far to say that the Buffalo Sabres' sizzling 12-4-1 start isn't really out of the ordinary. They were well on their way to being a playoff team last season prior to goaltender Ryan Miller getting hurt down the stretch. Miller (12-2-1, leading-leading 1.77 goals-against average, .939 save percentage, two shutouts) has been a difference-maker again thus far, with no signs of slowing down. Given his fine play -- he was the league's Third Star for last week -- and the slippage of the Boston Bruins to date, the Sabres sitting atop the Northeast Division is at least explainable, if not entirely predictable coming out of training camp.
It's possible and, one would hope, perhaps probable that when they reconvene in March, NHL general managers will take concrete action on head shots, hits from behind, and other issues that could grow up to be true rules infractions.
This is On the Fly's third (perhaps annual) Stealth List: a group of five people -- or in this case, three people and two pairs -- you hardly know but who make their teams or the game better.
It's Thanksgiving and the fare is turkey, football and a glop of a columns pointing out all the things we have to be thankful for, even if it is a bit of a tough go out there -- and we're not talking about gnawing on grandpa's attempt to deep fry a bird without burning the house down, or that the indigestion-inducing Oakland Raiders and Detroit Lions are on the pigskin TV menu.
In this era of instant access and gratification, how much time is enough when it comes to coaches taking over a team and getting results?
The current State of Hockey is suspended animation.
The NHL schedule officially hits the quarter-pole when the Sabres tangle with the Bruins on Nov. 20, and that milestone that has us itching to rank the season's top performers.
I don't put a great deal of stock in the fact that Brendan Shanahan chose to announce his retirement through the NHL offices rather than what's left of the NHL Players Association. But I don't dismiss it, either.
With Brett Hull, Brian Leetch, Luc Robitaille and Steve Yzerman inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame last week, it's time to talk about next year.
Like the proverbial husband, On the Fly freely admits it often doesn't see things coming.
With almost a quarter of the regular-season schedule in the books, I would go as far to say that the Buffalo Sabres' sizzling 12-4-1 start isn't really out of the ordinary. They were well on their way to being a playoff team last season prior to goaltender Ryan Miller getting hurt down the stretch. Miller (12-2-1, leading-leading 1.77 goals-against average, .939 save percentage, two shutouts) has been a difference-maker again thus far, with no signs of slowing down. Given his fine play -- he was the league's Third Star for last week -- and the slippage of the Boston Bruins to date, the Sabres sitting atop the Northeast Division is at least explainable, if not entirely predictable coming out of training camp.
It's possible and, one would hope, perhaps probable that when they reconvene in March, NHL general managers will take concrete action on head shots, hits from behind, and other issues that could grow up to be true rules infractions.
This is On the Fly's third (perhaps annual) Stealth List: a group of five people -- or in this case, three people and two pairs -- you hardly know but who make their teams or the game better.
Last week, I had the honor of traveling to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to play for our troops and their families stationed in America's oldest continuously functioning overseas base.
They came to call him "Lucky", but Luc Robitaille was only so in a happy-go-lucky sort of way. Seemingly always smiling and in a good mood, Robitaille's demeanor belied a serious sense of purpose when it came to improving as a hockey player.
Of all teams, the Carolina Hurricanes should know: When it rains, it pours.
The Toronto Maple Leafs scored five power play goals last week in Anaheim and part of the credit, according to coach Ron Wilson, should go to someone who wasn't even in uniform.
These are heady times for the NHL, unfortunately not of the halcyon days variety. No, the start to this season is all about headshots and what to do. So far, there's been only head-scratching over the ongoing NHLPA mess and head-shaking about officiating that seems to be okay with much more contact away from the puck than has been the case during the past four seasons.
I don't remember an awful lot from my first year statistics class, but the professor managed to burn one truism into my head: sample size matters. So I understand that, when considered in the grand 82-game scheme of the NHL's regular season, a 10- or 12-game segment is relatively small.
Sometime today or maybe on the plane ride home from New Jersey, Buffalo Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier had a chat with rookie defenseman Tyler Myers.
Glendale, Arizona, is a lot of things. This sprawling Phoenix suburb is home to the Arrowhead Towne Center mall, the Thunderbird School of Global Management and The Bead Museum. It's Arizona's Antique Capital, the Los Angeles Dodgers' and Chicago White Sox' spring training headquarters, and the site of an annual chocolate festival.
On a sunny October day in Arizona, temperatures are reaching 90 degrees while in a frigid arena 18 miles west of Phoenix the Coyotes are taking the ice. Glendale may be an unlikely place for hockey to take hold, but if there's one man who knows this team, this market, it's their captain, Shane Doan.
Coming off an impressive 4-1 win at Philadelphia that concluded a 4-2 Eastern road trip, one has to wonder just how good is this year's edition of the San Jose Sharks? Certainly, the great expectations are there -- both within and outside the organization. But once again the question is: can they live up to them?
At first glance it sounds like something out of a Vince Vaughn movie: "Crease Crashers -- the sequel to Wedding Crashers and every bit as outrageous!" Except we're talking hockey here and running goaltenders in the crease isn't funny and it can be dangerous.
The Phoenix Coyotes are wards of the NHL, suspended like a bug in amber as the league seeks a remedy that is to the satisfaction of bankruptcy court judge Redfield T. Baum, a truly first ballot Hall of Fame name. (Redfield T. Baum ... hmm, Rufus T. Firefly, J. Cheever Loophole . . . I like to think Groucho Marx would have appropriated His Honor's name for one of his characters.)
After just four years on the job, it's a bit early to compare Boston GM Peter Chiarelli to Sam Pollock, the legendary architect of nine Stanley Cup-winning teams in Montreal. But there just might have been a bit of Pollockian inspiration behind Chiarelli's decision to ship winger Chuck Kobasew to the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.
If you're willing to take Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville at face value, the decision to go with backup Antti Niemi against Edmonton on Wednesday night was all about getting the rookie a start in front of the home crowd. After backstopping the team to a franchise-record five-goal comeback win over the Flames in relief, the kid had earned his shot.
Vladislav Tretiak might be the Olympic hockey general manager who is coming in from the cold.
There is a buzz surrounding Russian hockey like never before, at least not since pre-Glasnost days. Much of the anticipation has to do with Russia winning the World Championships in successive seasons heading into an Olympic campaign. So much of their promise comes from the talent level of their young core, many of whom have little if any knowledge of how it used to be.
Coming into the season, the message of coach Todd McLellan to the San Jose Sharks was clear. Drop the sense of entitlement. If they wanted to get beyond their reputation as hockey's poster children for underachievement, his players were going to have to earn their ice time.
Just a week or so before the start of the season, I had the occasion to speak to Sean Burke, the newly appointed goalie coach of the Phoenix Coyotes. It was during the chaotic days when the future of the franchise was at the mercy of a bankruptcy judge, Wayne Gretzky was being replaced as coach by Dave Tippett, and Burke himself was taking over for Grant Fuhr, a friend and former teammate of Gretzky who was carefully being eased into the role of roving consultant. With a relatively short time to fully assess the situation, Burke made a simple declarative statement:
If it seems like the average NHL player is getting younger, that may be because it's true. At 27.4, the league's average age last season was the lowest it's been since 2000-01, according to quanthockey.com, an independent website that offers statistical analysis by age and nationality. The average age of forwards, when weighted to account for their number of games played, dropped by more than a year after the 2004-05 lockout, a sign that younger players were being given more opportunities.
The NHL alphabet used to begin with the letter C.
The first weekend of the regular season had plenty of action and a few surprises. The Avalanche going 2-0 and the Red Wings 0-2 surely fall into the surprise category. So, what did we learn, exactly, as everyone got busy with all 30 teams in action on Saturday in four countries?
With the ol' crystal ball warmed up and finely calibrated after Thursday's round of playoff and hardware revelations, it's time to gaze even deeper into the mystical smoke-filled orb for my annual list of predictions you can take to the bank: the players, personalities and events that will shape the 2009-10 season.
Here's who our NHL writers predict will make the playoffs, win conference titles, the Stanley Cup and major awards, plus their picks in other categories including breakout player and biggest disappointment.
The irony, lost on no one, is that there never would have been a Phoenix Coyotes without Wayne Gretzky.
A new season is dawning and life for the NHL can't get any worse ... or could it?
Veteran forward Brendan Shanahan left the New Jersey Devils after being told he would not be a part of their top three lines this season.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- The San Jose Sharks announced that Rob Blake will be the team's captain this season, with Joe Thornton and Dan Boyle as the alternates.
Everyone knows the importance of role players to a team's overall success. We don't talk about them much -- especially at this time of year as we load up our fantasy teams with offensive talent. But after the great response to the piece here a few weeks ago that focused on Pittsburgh's Max Talbot, I dug a little deeper to see who were the five most productive players in limited minutes.
The Carolina Hurricanes have locked up goaltender Cam Ward for six more years.
Not to go all Godfather and Michael Corleone on you, but really, after a summer of reporting and commenting on a lengthy list of off-ice issues, I was looking forward to addressing a few promising or at least interesting things that are going on in NHL training camps when the following struck the media fan:
UNRESTRICTED: F Eric Boguniecki, F Josh Green, D Bret Hedican, D Brad Larsen, F Rob Niedermayer
Long ago, late one evening in 1966, I was in a suite at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto with some folks from the National Hockey League. They were all feeling pretty heady. The league was about to double in size, with an incursion into the United States that would take Canada's game as far south as Los Angeles. Since the NHL had long been a huge success in its six franchise cities, all of which were all clustered pretty close to both sides of the Canadian border, everybody was certain that great times lay ahead in the expansion outposts. Also, optomism was fueled by a bottle of good Canadian whiskey.
As training camps grind on toward opening night next week, it's time to grab the old mailbag and address some of your questions and concerns.
This year's Toronto International Film Festival wrapped up Saturday and Hollywood evacuated, leaving the city to turn its attention to ice hockey team, the Maple Leafs' fall calendar.
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- The Phoenix Coyotes hired Dave King as assistant coach on Monday, raising questions about Wayne Gretzky's future behind the bench.
UNRESTRICTED: F Mike Hoffman, F Joe Motzko, D Nathan Oystrick, F Eric Perrin, F Grant Stevenson
Time was that a Boston fan's second-favorite team was whoever happened to be playing the Montreal Canadiens that night.
Despite the 16,000 empty seats at Jobing.com Arena, the most conspicuous absence from Tuesday night's preseason opener in Phoenix was not fan support for the Coyotes.
In his first statements designed to put the animosity of the Dany Heatley mess behind him, Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray engaged in a little game of "what-if." Speaking to reporters at the team's training camp in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with the newly-acquired Jonathan Cheechoo and Milan Michalek standing behind him, Murray waxed about the patent unfairness of Heatley's forced trade and noted that once a player with a long-term contract -- the best deal he'll ever get in his playing life -- decides that he wants to take the money and run, he should surrender his right to pick and choose his destination.
When you attend an NHL training camp, you see a team's entire staff -- from the GM right through the scouts. They spend hour upon hour watching the very players they spent hours and hours watching before drafting and signing them. All of which begs the question: what are they looking for?
Tampa Bay general manager Brian Lawton has to be feeling pretty good about his summer. He authored a compelling revision of the league's worst defense by drafting a Lidstrom/Pronger hybrid in Victor Hedman second overall and signing steady veterans Mattias Ohlund, Kurtis Foster and Matt Walker.
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The St. Louis Blues exercised their option to keep coach Andy Murray through the 2010-11 season.
Anaheim Ducks: Anaheim ICE, Anaheim -- Sept. 13
I don't want to make assumptions, but I think the quote from Nashville coach Barry Trotz was meant to be flattering.
Sometimes, dreams do come true.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- The Minnesota Wild's transformation into a more aggressive, faster-paced team has begun.
PHOENIX (AP) -- The auction of the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes enters its second and final day Friday and, after four months, the judge is offering few hints on his decision.
Between the ownership struggles playing out in Phoenix and Tampa and the Machiavellian scheming that brought down NHLPA executive director Paul Kelly, the offseason hasn't lacked for drama. But what hockey fans could really use right about now is a little action.
Once again there will be no quick decision as to whether Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie obtains the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes and moves them to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. As of this writing, there are only two bids on the table and one of them -- Balsillie's -- far outdistances the NHL's, but the judge presiding over this matter is indicating that he may boot both of them.
I sat in on a presentation this past weekend in Nashville by Tampa Bay Lightning Assistant General Manager Claude Loiselle that was very interesting. He was part of a program that addresses the entire Thunder Hockey AAA organization: coaches, parents and players aged 11-18 on teams comprised of some of the best youth in the southeast region.
PHOENIX (AP) -- Ice Edge Holdings has formally pulled out of the bidding for the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes but hinted it may try to buy the team later.
DALLAS (AP) -- The Dallas Stars are expanding the notion of charging fans more for games against better opponents.
PHOENIX (AP) -- Canadian billionaire James Balsillie has offered the city of Glendale $50 million to quiet its objections to his bid to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and move the franchise to Hamilton, Ontario.
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