Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Back in those (mostly) innocent days when I was a kid, one sports story that worked its way through my Grade Four classroom was the sordid tale of a couple of New York Yankees pitchers that swapped their entire families.  Not just their wives, but also their kids and their dogs.  No word if the furniture was thrown in, or if there was a set-of-dishes to be named later.

Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson were solid pitchers for the Yankees, but to a bunch of nine-year-old growing up in suburban Edmonton, these guys were as famous as Reggie Jackson or Catfish Hunter.

It was just plain weird what the southpaws did, never mind what your personal morals may be.  Sure, it was the early 70’s, and the hangover from the technicolour Sixties was upon us, but this went beyond wife swapping.  To this day, I still scratch my head at the notion.

Hockey, being a mostly conservative sport in almost every aspect of that definition, has never publicly had the same arrangement, though you hear stuff sometimes you can’t repeat, though no doubt someone is squirreling it all away for a future tell-all book.

So it comes as a complete shock to me that former Edmonton Oilers’ owner Peter Pocklington reveals in, what else, his new book, that at one point during the early 1980’s, two National Hockey League teams almost went all Kekich/Peterson, and pulled off the most outrageous trade in the history of sports.

Having obviously squirreled away a ton of inside stories over the years, along with a map of where all the bodies are buried, Peter Puck has grabbed the attention for his new book he hoped he would by revealing that he worked out a deal with Toronto Maple Leafs’ legendary owner Harold Ballard that would have seen the two men swap teams.

Swap teams.  Completely.  Which means the fine folk of Edmonton would have been saddled with the complete roster of the early 80’s Maple Leafs, just in time to watch the young guns of the Oilers emege as one of the greatest teams in NHL history.  The trouble is, those young bucks would have been hoisting all those Stanley Cups dressed in Maple Leaf blue.  Worse, the city of Edmonton would have had Ballard within their city borders.

Apparently, for whatever reason, Ballard changed his mind and the entire thing was scuttled.

The mind is boggled at the implications of such a wholesale trade, if it had been allowed to proceed.  Since such a possibility reads like science fiction, let’s put on the Spock ears and follow the changes that would have occurred to our timeline, if that deal had actually gone forward.

It should be noted that the pebble in the pond, check that, the giant boulder in the pond that the Oilers-Leafs swap would have been to the rest of the NHL would have had far-reaching implications, that would still be felt to this day.

The Edmonton Oilers would have moved years ago, if that deal had materialized.  Most likely, the Houston Oilers would have had to wait until the death of Ballard, and the battle over his diminished estate had been settled, before they could finally concentrate on the business of hockey, and during the 1995-96 season, Houston would win the Stanley Cup.

The Quebec Nordiques would still be in the league, though they never would have ended up with goaltender Patrick Roy, and thus, to this day, the Nordiques still would not have won the Stanley Cup, and there are still concerns about building a new arena.  There are whispers the team may move to Kansas City.

Roy would remain with the Montreal Canadiens, though head coach Mario Tremblay would have lost his job as a result.  The Canadiens would make the Cup Final in 1998, losing to the Detroit Red Wings.

The Nordiques would not have been in position to draft Eric Lindros first overall in 1991; that honour went to the Edmonton Oilers, who had earlier traded the rights to the New Jersey Devils for Tom Kurvers, and it was the Devils who took Lindros first that year.

Lindros would thrive in the Swamp, and he never suffered a concussion from that devastating Scott Stevens open-ice hit, as they were on the same team.  Lindros would retire as a member of the Devils, having won three Stanley Cups, in 2000, 2001 and 2003.

A young Peter Forsberg would captain the Philadelphia Flyers to the 1995 Cup.

If Pocklington had ended up with his young team in Toronto, he would have most likely made a ton of cash over what he realized in Northern Alberta.  Even with his business problems that existed in other industries he ran (Gainers Foods), Peter Puck would have not needed to cash in his depreciating asset known as Wayne Gretzky.  Even if he later broke up the Boys On The Bus, odds are Bruce McNall would have been exposed as a charlatan by then, which means the Great One doesn’t end up in L.A, after winning five Cups with Toronto.

Let’s say, instead, Gretzky is traded by the Leafs to the Rangers.  It is he, in 1994, that hoists the Stanley Cup over his head, as the Broadway Blueshirts end their 54-year drought.

As for the Kings, they continue to flounder, though the NHL props them up financially.  As a result, there isn’t a mad rush to pan fool’s gold in the U.S. south, meaning that the likes of the Anaheim Ducks and Florida Panthers never come-to-be.

The NHL still would expand to Ottawa and Tampa, though the Lightning are moved to Minnesota, and that’s where they win the Stanley Cup in 2004 over the Flyers.

The Thrashers and Predators never see the light-of-day, though Penguins’ owner Mario Lemieux threatens to move his team to Nashville if he doesn’t get a sweetheart arena deal from the city of Pittsburgh.

The league is impressed with the Nashville bid, and promises to consider expansion to Tennessee, and Kansas City, in the near future.  Canadian billionaire businessman Jim Balsillie, by now a personal friend of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, is often mentioned as the owner of a Nashville NHL franchise.

No-one ever hears about William Boots Del Biaggio.

The Islanders still need a new arena, and threaten to move to Hamilton, which Pocklington blocks.

The Winnipeg Jets still move to Phoenix, as the NHL is emboldened by the relative success of the Houston Oilers and Dallas Stars, though even in this alternative timeline, the Coyotes still lose a ton of money.

The North Stars have moved to Dallas, setting up a great rivalry with Houston, but overall, the NHL have dipped a tentative toe into the expansion waters, instead of diving in headfirst, and ending up with the fractured neck they have now.

Which only goes to prove that in every scenario, no matter how bleak, no matter how wacky, there is always a sliver of hope.

Makes me wish Ballard didn’t get cold feet.

- Mick Kern

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Instead of coming up with a semi-accurate, half-hearted definition of what constitutes a superstar, let’s consult a dictionary.  Since it’s 2009, let’s thumb through an on-line edition.

Superstar, according to Merriam-Webster Online:

• Function: noun
• Date: 1924

1 : a star (as in sports or the movies) who is considered extremely talented, has great public appeal, and can usually command a high salary
2 : one that is very prominent or is a prime attraction <a diplomatic superstar>

When the Dany Heatley trade to San Jose was finally completed over the weekend, a number of sports news services identified Heatley as being a superstar.

A superstar?  Really?  Sure, only two other NHL players have scored more goals since the lockout than Heatley, but does he meet all the qualifications required in order to wear the superstar crown?

From my vantage point, a superstar in any milieu transcends their surroundings.  In other words, even your dear Aunt Gertie that doesn’t like sports knows who, say, Alexander Ovechkin is, and probably has an opinion about him.  Don’t get her going on the hot stick celebration.

Following that line of thinking, I propose that there are currently only two NHL players that are bigger than the sport.

Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby.  The ying and the yang.  The Beatles and the Stones.  Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky.

Evgeni Malkin should be considered, if only because his on-ice talents are so immense, and only getting stronger, but I haven’t seen any tangible evidence that supports his inclusion into the select club of superstars.  If on-ice talent were the only yardstick being applied, then Pavel Datsyuk or Ilya Kovalchuk, and maybe Dany Heatley, would have to be included.

Where these gentlemen fall short for serious consideration of being called a superstar is this section of the definition:

has great public appeal

Keep-in-mind every individual franchise has a player or two that is held very close to the bosom of the local fanbase, and as such, their respective values are usually inflated.  For instance, Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets can be one of the most exciting players in the league today.  His YouTube-ready goals, where he dekes through half the team, and some of the guys up in the press box, are a beauty to behold, and understandably, the faithful in Ohio would clamour that Nash is a superstar.

The argument is all context.  Within the world of the Blue Jackets, Nash is the face of the franchise, thus he is a superstar.  Within the expanded world of the National Hockey League, Nash is one of the young stars that make the game so exciting to watch.  You could make a credible argument that Nash is an NHL superstar.

You would have to work awfully hard to convince me that Nash, or Heatley or Datsyuk or Roberto Luongo, are true superstars.  They do not transcend the game of hockey.  Within the hockey world, they are larger-than-life.  Outside of those cozy borders, they would be lost, unrecognizable to the average person walking down the street of any American city.  For that matter, the majority of non-hockey fans in Canada wouldn’t recognize them either.

Put Ovechkin or Crosby in downtown Manhattan (without the Zamboni in Ovechkin’s case), or on Manhattan Beach in Southern California, or in surburban St. Louis or at the Steak ‘n Shake in Battle Creek, Michigan, and most likely both of these dudes would be recognized.

For a variety of reasons, Ovechkin and Crosby are currently bigger than the game of hockey.

That doesn’t mean they’re better or smarter.  That doesn’t mean we should all bow down and praise them (though maybe we should for all the attention they bring to the game).  That doesn’t mean that their opinons are sacrosanct.  So before the mouthbreathing bloggers of the cyberworld get their shorts all in a knot, keep this sobering thought in mind.  Most likely your favourite player is a nobody outside of the world of hockey.  That’s not the case with Ovechkin and Crosby.

Why these two?  Well, we’ve already listed awesome on-ice talent as one major factor, but they have to have more than that.  Both young men have been marketed very successfully, in particular Crosby, who became the face of the NHL as it emerged from the 2004-05 lockout.

Ovechkin basically elbowed his way onto the marquee, and his fun-loving flair that he paints everything he touches with cannot be denied.

The camera likes both of these guys, for different reasons.  The media likes both of these guys, for different reasons.  Hockey fans are drawn to these two guys, for different reasons.  Love them or hate them, you’re talking about them.

Thus it comes as no real surprise that the sports media sought out Crosby and Ovechkin to get their opinions on the recent firing of NHLPA head Paul Kelly.  Some hockey fans ridiculed the need to ask these two particular players their personal opinions.  Where did they get off thinking they were bigger and better than the game?

Well, they don’t think that.  Neither player put out a press release saying “come and talk to me about Paul Kelly”.  It was only natural for the media to beat a path to their doors, because when these two young men speak, people listen.

Much like when a young Wayne Gretzky, after another blowout win over the woeful New Jersey Devils, called the Devils a Mickey Mouse organization.  No truth to the rumour that’s what got Michael Eisner interested in hockey.

Much like when a younger Mario Lemieux, tired of carrying a couple of clutching-and-grabbing defencemen on his back almost every time he broke into the offensive zone, openly questioned the NHL about their lack of enforcement of their own rule book.

The hockey, and sports world, listened.  And yes, some people complained then that Gretzky and Lemieux should just shut up and play the game.  What makes these whippersnappers think they’re bigger than the game?

(There are reactionaries everywhere).

Both players were right. Bang on.  And both were right to speak out.

So when Ovechkin tells espn.com that even if the NHL decides not to participate in the 2014 Winter Olympics, he still plans to go…well folks, that’s news.  Washington Capitals’ owner Ted Leonsis, one of the more progressive owners in the league, did his best to downplay the comments, but the desired effect was already achieved.  It got people, and no doubt the players, thinking about the issue.

Once again, Ovechkin elbowed his way in.

With all due respect, Dany Heatley does not have that same ability.  Nor has he asked for it; if anything, he seems rather happy not to be in the spotlight.  Ovechkin craves it, while Crosby understands he’s been thrust into it since an early age.  Both men handle the spotlight differently, and they handle it well.

Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby are the only two true superstars in the league today.  Now what remains to be seen is if they can transcend North American popular culture.  Arguably, only two NHL players have ever reached those lofty heights.

Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky.

Particularly Wayne Gretzky.  The Great One is still the face of hockey for most of the world.

We tend to throw around words carelessly.  The word great has been mostly stripped of its power.  Anyone that is in the public eye is a star.  In the sports media, we have also devalued the word superstar.  I am trying to reclaim it for those few worthy enough to wear the crown.

Ovechkin and Crosby.

If you don’t like it, deal with it.  You might want to start by shunning all popular media in North America.  No doubt you’ll be seeing the faces of these two men plastered all over television, and magazines, and posters, and websites for the better part of the next decade.

- Mick Kern

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Tuesday night, after attending to some family business, the wife, five-year-old son and I made the trek down to the waterfront here in Toronto to attend the 2009 edition of the Canadian National Exhibition, better known as the CNE, or the Ex, or the grand rip-off, or the sad summer fair that used to mean so much to a city but has been surpassed by year-round theme parks, the internet and twitter.

Regardless, we usually attend the CNE every year.  My wife is a lifelong Toronto girl, and remembers when the place used to matter.  Then again, stop any 16-year-old and they’ll probably tell you what a bitchin’ place it is.  Do they still say bitchin?

Once we navigated our way through the two dollar games, and the fast food stands, and the haunted houses that aren’t scary in-the-least, and the kids’ rides that look like they’ve been in service since 1957, we found our way to the Queen Elizabeth Building, which really does look like it was built in 1957.

The place was jam packed with a dog’s breakfast of booths offering a cornucopia of stuff you really don’t want, unless you’re hungry, tired, and confused at the CNE.  Booths full of scarves, wooden boards with your family name on it, clothes for your dog, overpriced fudge, boring BBC movies, wooden shoes, cheesy t-shirts with YOUR FACE HERE, and hockey cards.

Ahh, an oasis in a sea of suffering, and like a seasoned traveller, I knew where to find this watering hole, because every year they put the same tired old booths in the same tired old places.  Why not change things up a bit?  Then again, consider the type of people who pay good money for the pleasure of dragging their tired feet around the CNE grounds.  Most of these folk probably do not want to have to think, particularly after carrying around an oversized stuffed banana or SpongeBob doll they won at the baseball toss booth, after shelling out over 27 dollars for it.

My wife wandered off to look at the jewelry, while my son and I made a beeline for this great looking plaque of Gerry Cheevers making a kick save.  The dude at the booth only wanted about 50 bucks for it, and no, it wasn’t signed, but man it looked fine.

Couldn’t justify the cost, not after snaring a signed Bernie Parent photo at an auction at the Air Canada Centre last season that now hangs proudly in my home office.  So, we turned our attention to the forgotten stepchild of the collectable industry…hockey cards.

Or in this case, a wonderful, jumbled assortment of hockey and baseball cards from the past thirty-five years.  Most were from the Glut Years; 1990 through to about 2000.  The years that almost killed my interest in the hobby, when everyone and their Mom thought that they’d get rich by purchasing a room full of Eric Lindros rookie cards and then stashing them away.

Didn’t work that way.  The vast majority of people who got into the sports card industy at that point were buying high..and later selling low.  Or just plain dumping them.

For once in my life, I was on the right end of a trend, having started collecting in 1973.  By the mid-90’s, I bought the odd hockey and baseball card set, and particular singles of players I followed, but that was the extent of my interest.  Now that my kid is at the age where he’s noticed sports cards, it’s reinvigorated my interest, and appreciation, for those colourful pieces of cardboard.

Yes, I’ve kept all of my cards from my childhood, and most of them are in fine shape.  I could probably get a good amount of cash for them, IF I chose to sell, and IF someone wanted to purchase them (always the big if in the equation), but I have no intention of doing that.  Those cards are a wonderful time tunnel back to simpler days, when all I cared about was what teams would do on the ice, not in late-night bars, or in the back of taxi cabs, or in courtrooms in Phoenix.

Plus, my kid has no idea that these things have any worth.  What does he know about economics, he thinks I’m a human money machine.  He’s interested in sports cards because they look cool, as he says.

We waded through the box of commons, looking for the Magnificent Seven, because the CNE special offered seven cards for five bucks.   That sounded like fun, though in truth, seven cards in this commons box added up would be lucky to break the two dollar mark in overall value.

Right away my son found a Pavel Bure card, in the beautiful away blue Rangers uniform, that he didn’t already have.  That was card number one, for after all, he thinks Bure still plays and the Russian Rocket is his favourite player.  The truth can wait for later.

Then he got all excited about a Tom Draper card.  Tom Draper?  Sorry, it’s not about the money, but dammit if I was going to spend more than five cents on a Draper card, especially when I have about a half-dozen at home.  We moved on.

Next, he stumbled upon a legends card with Milt Schmidt on it.  Seeing the Bruins logo, my kid’s face broke into a wide grin and he recited the words I whispered to him when he was still in his crib.  “Number Four, Bobby Orr”.

I dropped the Murray Bannerman card I was looking at (and already had), and took a look.  Could it be?

Naw.  It was Uncle Milty.  A nice find, but since it was a modern card, it wasn’t special enough to make our Magnificent Seven.

Next to that card was a Reg Leach from my favourite O-Pee-Chee/Topps set of all-time, the very colourful 71-72 set.  What a find!   No way the guy in the booth would cast aside a card from that set into his commons box.

And he didn’t.  It was a fine looking reprint that was part of the 2002 Topps Archive set.  Nonetheless, I don’t have all of the original 71-72 set, and seeing that the price for those babies has risen considerably, I never will.  This copy will suffice.  Also found a Peter McNab reprint (75-76) and a Mike Milbury reprint (78-79) that I already had as originals, but they looked so good just sitting there atop a motley collection of worthless computer-perfect modern cards, that I had to have them.

We now had four of our Magnificent Seven.

By now, my son had lost interest, and having located his Mom walking by, implored her to buy him ice cream.  Undaunted, I soldiered on.

Entry number five took me away from hockey; it was a simple, yet tasty Bill Gullickson card (1985) in his beautiful white Montreal Expos uniform.  Anything Expos I’d buy, heck, I’d buy the team if they’d let me.  Thought I already had this card, but just in case, I had to take this puppy home.

Card number six was also baseball.  Tom McCraw of the Cleveland Indians (1976), the Topps set the year before I started collecting baseball cards.  And this was no reprint.  This was the real deal.  Which doesn’t really mean anything, for who remembers Tom McCraw except the McCraw family, and die-hard White Sox fans?

Card number seven is where I genuinely got excited.  When I found it, I looked around in order to find someone to share my joy with.  Alas, I was surrounded by Philistines.  Where was Scott Laughlin when you needed him?  He would have understood.

For there in my hands, framed by an ungodly mix of purple and pink borders, looking sharp in his yellow-and-green Athletics uniform, was Herb Washington.

This is the guy that wacky old Charlie O. Finley signed to a contract to be a pinch runner.  A pinch runner.  Washington was a track star at Michigan State, and Finley signed him in 1974 only to pinch run.  Nothing else.  Just run.

Which he did.  During his brief two-year MLB career, Washington got into 105 games, stole 31 bases, and got caught stealing 17 times.  He scored 33 runs, which means to me this guy wasn’t able to take full advantage of his speed out there.  More to base stealing that running fast.  Worse, he got picked off second during a World Series game.

Still, this card was the only time Topps ever released a pinch runner card.  Had to have it.  I now have it.

Which got me to thinking, will we ever see a day when an NHL team carries a designated shooter?  Someone who’s awesome at the shootout, but would be a liability during the normal course of a game.  You’d only carry him on the bench to be that big stick come the skills competition.

One name leapt to mind – Jason Allison.  That dude was a pure goal scorer.  That dude also made me look good on skates.  He might be a perfect candidate for the role.  Does it specify anywhere in the NHL rulebook that a player has to wear skates on ice?  What about gumboots?  Maybe Allison could take the deciding shot in boots, or broomball shoes.

Maybe that’s why the Maple Leafs invited Allison to training camp.

It turns out Herb Washington has, or had, a hockey connection.  He was the owner of the Youngstown Steelhawks of the CHL, from 2005 to 2008.  The team folded after that, and Herb nows owns a number of McDonald’s franchises in Youngstown and Greenville, Pennsylvania.  Fast food for a fast guy.

Please say hi to him for me if you’re in the area.  Tell him I finally found his card.  Can’t wait for the Jason Allison DS card.

- Mick Kern

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

So the overhyped 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver may be the last Winter Games that feature the players of the National Hockey League.

Well, life, and the Winter Olympics, will go on.

I understand the reasons why it’s a good thing to have NHL players at the Winter Olympics.  I also appreciate the fact that the Games will go on without them.

Count me among the camp that just can’t get all that excited about pro hockey players at the Olympics.  A big deal is made about how strong the teams will be for 2010, and a cursory glance at the rosters confirms that contention.

But so what?  I find it very hard to get excited about a ringer team (pick your country of choice) that are thrown together for a scant couple of days at the tail end of August, and then don’t congregate together until a scant couple of days before the Big Event.

Outside of blind nationalism, which has never been my cup-of-tea, I have been unable to find the motivation to emotionally bond with any of these teams, be it 1998, 2002 or 2006.

Canada broke its (shameful, so we were often told) decades long Gold Medal drought at the 2002 Salt Lake City games, and it was one of the most watched TV sporting events in Canadian history.  Hey, everyone loves a winner.

But outside of Wayne Gretzky popping a few blood vessels trying to circle the Canadian hockey wagons, I found it all a grand bore.  Yes, these were the best players in the world playing hockey, but it came off a touch sterile, devoid of real emotion.

Sure, if I was on that team, I would have been caught up in the drama.  But I wasn’t.  Like most, I watched from the comfort of my couch.

And from that perch, the entire thing was over just as it got started.  I had no time to identity with the team, as in the collection of individual talents and egos that make up any team in any sport.  How does that disparate group of athletes jell as a team?  What are the stories and subtexts of such a development?  Such a narrative usually takes time to unfold; two weeks is not sufficient.

Still, the sport of hockey belongs in the Winter Olympics, because, well, because it’s a winter sport, despite the effort of the NHL to push the Stanley Cup Final into July.

So when Toronto Maple Leafs’ GM and all-around blustery guy Brian Burke mentions that he’d like to see hockey moved to the Summer Olympics, it makes me take off my weathered Kansas City Royals cap and scratch my head.

Why?

The men’s gold medal game is arguably the centrepoint of the entire two-week sporting orgy.  At the very least, it is the winter equivalent of the men’s marathon; it’s the big bang that ends the Games.  To rip it from its rightful place, and plunk it down in the midst of the Summer Games would be almost as stupid as signing Colton Orr to a contract.

First, as previously mentioned, it is a winter sport, thus it belongs beside its brethren; skating, skiing, skiing and shooting, skiing and shooting and racing, luge.

Second, in the Summer Games, Ice Hockey would get lost.  Correction…it would get swamped.  By the 100 metres, by basketball, by the marathon, by the swimmer-of-the-moment, and by women’s beach volleyball, just to name a few.

Third, do NHL stars really want to forgo a large part of their summer so that they can play competitive hockey?  I agree with Burke’s point that it’s foolhardly (my words) to shut down the National Hockey League in the middle of the season, and troop off to a country and have the best players play while everyone else sits at home playing Rock Band for two weeks.

But that’s not enough motivation to remove hockey from the Winter Games.  Why should the Olympic Games bow to the demands of the NHL?

Don’t get me wrong on that last point.  The tall foreheads in the NHL often make frustratingly short-sighted decisions, but they look like humanitarian futurists compared to the Lords of the Rings.  The Olympic Games continue to be a cesspool of graft and corruption, and stupid, stupid, stupid squandering of public funds.

Fellow Canucks, prepare yourself for the onslaught of propaganda insisting that the gold medal’s Canadian athletes take home this February far outweigh the public cash poured into someone’s pocket in the private sector.  And remember this, Chicago, when you bid for the Summer Games.  Almost without exception, every Olympic Games goes well over budget, and guess who get’s left with the bill.  That’s already happening in Vancouver.  Yet we abandon all reason and quiver at the knees at the prospect of holding the Games in our own city.

Ahh, but the Games will go on.  Bread and Circuses persist to this day, so one might as well belly up to the bar and partake in the feeding frenzy.

And to that end, I’d prefer to see a return to a national hockey team playing in the Winter Olympics.  Maybe, like soccer, they should set an age limit for participation.  If a return to that system is unworkable, how about having the world junior’s forgo the Boxing Day tournament every four years, and play for Olympic Gold.  Really, only Canadians care, on a large scale, about that fine tournament.  Attach the allure of an Olympic Gold Medal to that event, and you’d probably broaden its appeal.

But whatever you do, leave the sport of hockey in the Winter Olympics.  If the NHL teams and players wanna take their puck and go home, let them.  We don’t need any more manufactured drama, nor does the league need to shut down its product during two weeks of the worst month of the year.

Then again, having NHL stars play in the Olympics means there’s no NHL All-Star Game that season.

Hmm, let me reconsider this.

- Mick Kern

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Rod Black and Craig Button man the helm this week, as they talk with The Golden Jet, Bobby Hull.  Other guests include Randy Jones of the Philadelphia Flyers, Rich Peverley of the Atlanta Thrashers and Mike Ribeiro of the Dallas Stars. Listen now.

Live From Wayne Gretzky’s is 2-hours of interactive radio from Wayne Gretzky’s Restaurant in Toronto. Listen every Saturday afternoon on NHL Home Ice, your local radio station or by podcast.

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Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Thursday night at the Shark Tank, the mighty Sharks were holding on to a 3-2 lead against the Hurricanes halfway through the third period, when Matt Cullen made a beauty of a backhand pass across the slot to Ray Whitney, who buried it.  It was Whitney’s 17th goal this season.

Carolina would go on to win the game 4-3 in the shootout, but what caught my eye was The Little Engine That Could…and Still Does.

Ray Whitney.

Okay, I knew that he still played in the league, so it wasn’t a surprise to see him score a goal, but every time he lights the lamp, I’m reminded of this talented player, who has been around the league since, well, it seems time immortal.

In reality, Whitney has been in the NHL since the San Jose Sharks took him in the second round of the 1991 Entry Draft.  Their first selection had been Pat Falloon, and the two young guns were held up as the future of the young Sharks.

It didn’t exactly play out that way.  Falloon, who was the second overall player chosen, after phenom Eric Lindros, played 575 career NHL games, suiting up for the Sharks, Flyers, Senators, Oilers and Penguins.  His high-water mark was his rookie season, when he scored 25 goals and added 34 assists.  For a number of reasons, Falloon only had one more 20-goal season in his nine-year NHL career.  He ended up with 143 goals and 322 points in those 575 games, a far cry from what had been expected of him.

But there I go…an article about Ray Whitney, and it detours into an examination of the career of Pat Falloon.

Both players were teammates with the WHL Spokane Chiefs for three seasons, and each one led the team in scoring for a year.  It seemed a perfect fit that both would be drafted by the Sharks, though to many, Falloon was considered the better prospect.

Whitney was chosen 23rd overall that year, the first player taken in the second round.  Players chosen before him include Scott Lachance (4th overall by the Islanders), Alek Stojanov (6th by Vancouver), Brent Bilodeau (17th overall by Montreal), and Trevor Halverson (21st overall by Washington).  Halverson got into 17 career NHL games while Bilodeau never made the big leagues.

1991 was considered a pretty strong draft class, yet a number of teams decided to pass on Whitney.  While any draft is a crapshoot, Whitney put up strong offensive numbers with the Chiefs.   He led Spokane with a whopping 185 points ( 67 goals-118 assists) in 72 games in his final year of junior, while Falloon put up 138 points in only 61 games.   Whitney’s efforts garnered him the MVP for the WHL.

Both players had amazing years, and Spokane went on to win the Memorial Cup that season.  Whitney still holds the club record for assists and points in one season.

So why was Falloon favoured over Whitney?  They’re both small men in a big man’s game; Whitney standing 5 feet 10 inches, while Falloon towered over him at 5 feet 11 inches.

Whitney had to play 10 games in a German league before spending most of his rookie pro season with the San Diego Gulls of the IHL.

The former stick boy for the Edmonton Oilers obviously had some of that offensive magic rub off on him.  After Thurday night’s win in San Jose, Whitney has played in 962 regular season NHL games, and has scored 295 goals and added 481 assists for 776 points.

In addition, Whitney has 32 points in 65 NHL playoff games, and was a member of the 2005-06 Stanley Cup Chamption Carolina Hurricanes.  During that run, Whitney played in 24 games and scored 9 goals and 6 assists.

While these numbers are not Hall-of-Fame calibre, they speak of a long and productive career.  Seven times he’s cracked the 20-goal plateau, and is well on pace to do it again this year.  Whitney’s career high was 32 goals with the 97-98 Florida Panthers; he also had one with Edmonton that season, for a career season high of 33 goals.

And that was during the dead puck era.  If anything, the hockey played since the lost season of 04-05 should favour a player of Whitney’s size and abilities, and it appeares it has.  Since the lockout, Whitney has put up 55 points in 63 games, 83 points in 81 games, 61 points in 66 games, and, so far, 42 points in 52 games.

The gentleman is a point producer.  No, he will never challenge for the Art Ross Trophy, but talk about secondary scoring.  Whitney is a reliable offensive player.  Ask the Sharks.  His goal on Thursday ran his total to 10 goals and 10 assists in 20 career games against his former team.

Whitney is currently in his 17th NHL season, though he only got into two games during the 1991-92 campaign in San Jose (and still had 3 assists).  He’s played for six teams (San Jose, Edmonton, Florida, Columbus, Detroit and Carolina), though the bulk of his playing time has been divided between the Sharks, Blue Jackets and Hurricanes.

The Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta native got to wear the colours of his beloved Edmonton Oilers for only 9 games during the 97-98 season (1 goal-3 assists), but hockey fans further south in Wild Rose Country no doubt remember Whitney.

May 19th, 1995.  It was his goal in double-overtime in Game Seven that enabled the Sharks to upend the Calgary Flames 5-4.  That was the year where the league experienced another work stoppage, and teams played a 48-game regular season sked.  The fourth-year Sharks had 42 points, while the Flames took first place in the Pacific Division with 55 points, and were expected to go far that spring.

Whitney and the Sharks saw to it that the Flames playoff woes continued.  Calgary lost in the first-round the next season as well, and then missed the playoffs for seven straight years before their run to the Cup Final in 2003-04 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

As for Whitney, after that big goal, he played 60 games the next season in Northern California before splitting the 1996-97 season between the big club and Utah in the IHL and Kentucky in the AHL.  It was time for him to move on.

After that brief cup-of-coffee in Edmonton, Whitney’s career really took off when he was claimed on waivers by the Florida Panthers, where he scored those 32 goals in 97-98.  I recall that many of us at the time were surprised that Whitney reached such numbers; we had basically written him off.

Yet eleven years later, he continues to roll on, putting up the numbers, and finally getting his name on the Stanley Cup.

- Mick Kern

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Host Rod Black is joined by former NHL’er Tim Taylor, as they talk with Toronto Maple Leafs hero, Doug Gilmour.  Doug joins the radio show right before his jersey retirement held at the Air Canada Centre. Other guests include Bob Errey, Dustin Penner and Phil Esposito. Listen now.

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Hosts Rod Black and Rick Vaive check in with Montreal on Saturday, the site of this year’s NHL All-Star Game.  They’ll speak with San Jose Sharks Head Scout, John Ferguson Jr., and hockey legends Willie O’Ree and Phil Esposito.

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Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

The first NBC Game-of-the-Week this season featured the Penguins and the Rangers.  During the second period, Sidney Crosby was hooked from behind, negating a good scoring opportunity.  The referee gestures towards centre ice.  There’s gonna be a showdown in Steel City.

Sidney Crosby one-on-one against Henrik Lundqvist.  Two marquee players face-to-face.  And on U.S. network television.  This is what you want.

Or do you?

If one looks at it from a marketing angle, the answer is a resounding yes.  Crosby is one of the young superstars of the National Hockey League.  Lundqvist is one of the top goaltenders.

Often called “The Most Exciting Play In Hockey”, the penalty shot has lost some of its lustre with the implementation of the shootout.  Even so, it’s still a relatively rare moment when a penalty shot is called.

In all the NHL games I’ve attended, it has only occurred twice.  The first one was at Madison Square Garden, as the Rangers hosted the Detroit Red Wings in February 1987.  Petr Klima took the shot against John Vanbiesbrouck.  The joint was rocking as Klima lined up all alone at centre ice.  It was hockey theatre at its finest.  The decibel level rose even higher when The Beezer stoned Klima.

Second penalty shot I witnessed live was at Maple Leaf Gardens in the mid 90’s during a Leafs-Canadiens exhibition game.  Joe Sacco took the shot, and I can’t recall who was in net for the Habs.  Hey, it was an exhibition game.  From what I do remember of that sleepy affair, the penalty shot was the highlight of the evening.  Oh, Sacco didn’t score.

Last season, there were 64 penalty shots.  Only 19 of them found the back of the net.  Valterri Filppula of Detroit scored twice in a week; the first goal on Nashville’s Dan Ellis, the second against Florida’s Tomas Vokoun.  Vincent Lecavalier also converted two penalty shots last season, albeit four-and-a-half months apart.  Eric Staal also scored twice.

Lundqvist faced three penalty shots in the 2007-08 campaign, stopping Jordan Staal, but yielding goals to Lecavalier and Sergei Kostitsyn.  He got the better of Crosby on this day, getting Sid the Kid to shoot the puck into his chest.

The Rangers were trailing 2-0 at the time of the penalty shot; could this have been a turning point?  Not this time.  The Penguins would score the next goal, and won the game 3-0.

Regardless, a penalty shot featuring two marquee players is notable.  If Crosby had scored, the clip may even have made a few sports shows that don’t usually linger on hockey.  The penalty shot is one of the signature events of the game of hockey.  Unlike soccer, the goaltender has a reasonable shot at stopping the shot.

So it was intriguing when Pierre McGuire, working on the NBC telecast, suggested that coaches should have the option to decline the penalty shot, and take a two-minute powerplay instead.  The reasoning was something to the effect that the penalty shot is only one chance, and as earlier discussed, arguably the odds favour the goaltender.  If a team were to decline the shot, and take the powerplay, odds are that they would get more than one chance at a quality shot.

Then again, the argument the other way is also convincing.  Many times, a team fails to generate a quality scoring opportunity on the powerplay.  Sometimes it looks at though the team with the man advantage is trying too harder to set up the perfect tic-tac-toe goal.  Why surrender the clear cut scoring opportunity that a penalty shot provides?  Like they say in football, never take points off the board.  The equivalent in hockey being, never deny yourself a scoring chance.

McGuire maintains that the option to choose should be there; let the head coach make that decision.  While I see this point, I still think the penalty shot as it is now should stand.

If Michel Therrien had elected to decline the penalty shot, and went instead with the two-minute powerplay, a number of things would have changed.

First and foremost, hockey fans would have been denied the Crosby-Lundqvist matchup.  Depending on which team you’re pulling for, the result was either wonderful, or a disappointment.  But that’s not how to judge the moment.  The anticipation was wonderful, something a two-minute powerplay rarely generates.  It was perfect for television.

Second, the fact the penalty shot featured one of the young guns of the league allows sports media outlets to isolate this moment, as opposed to just another powerplay.

Third, the Penguns were pretty much guaranteed a good scoring chance, unless the player taking the shot loses control of the puck, or falls.  (Even then, that play would have lived in infamy for years).  If the Pens had taken the two-minute powerplay, they may have never generated a similar scoring opportunity.  Sure, you take your chances; Pittsburgh might have manufactured a half-dozen good chances.

Or, they could have had their power-play time cut by being called for their own penalty.  So many variables, some good, many not so good.  By taking the penalty shot, you’re pretty much guaranteed one stellar scoring opportunity, which is what it’s all about.  Giving back to the player the scoring chance the defence illegally took away.

Keep the penalty shot the way it is.

- Mick Kern

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

The best hockey talk in the business returns for 2009.  Listen now as Rod Black talks with star centres; Marc Savard from the Bruins and Andrew Cogliano from the Oilers.  Also hear from the Islanders, Bill Guerin, Team Canada star, Jordan Eberle and Devils GM, Lou Lamoriello.

Be sure to listen each week on NHL Home Ice, your local radio station or podcast.  Live From Wayne Gretzky’s is brought to you by Diet Pepsi Max and KFC.