Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Andrei Markov is back with the Montreal Canadiens, almost two months ahead of schedule, after suffering a serious injury on the opening night of the season.

Which is great news for me, as I picked him up off waivers about a week ago in my fantasy league.

Injuries are part of the territory when one is a professional athlete.  Whether they are career threatening injuries, or just a nagging niggling day-to-day ailment, sports fans often forget that these guys aren’t video game characters, they are flesh-and-blood.

The human body, even a well-tuned body, still requires proper rest and care in order to recuperate from a physical set-back.

The time-table for an athlete to return-to-action varies by person, but suffice-to-say there is no magic sponge that is waved over the player, and he miraculously climbs out-of-bed and gets back on the ice or field, despite evidence to the contrary every four years in the World Cup.

The body is a complicated machine.  It requires proper maintenance, and, if necessary, repairs, like any other finely tuned machine.

Yet most of us gloss over those blood-and-guts details when scanning the IR list of our favourite team.  How long until Player X is back from that anterior ligament exterior alleviated pulled muscle thingy?

I’m no different, possibly in part due to the luck of never having broken or sprained anything during my brief athletic career.  There was that one time during high school football that my brand new cleats caused two huge red raw popped blisters on both of my heels, which meant much pain when doing something as simple as walking, but that only lasted about half-a-week.

Sports injuries remained, for me, a mere nuisance, particularly when managing my fantasy teams…until this past Christmas Night at 10:30 pm.

That was the exact moment when all the adults up in the living room at our house heard a series of high-pitched screams emanating from the basement.

The boys said they were just playing Xbox, but for some reason, my five-year-old decided it was a good time to launch a body slam at the visiting 10-year-old, who responded with evasive action that led to my boy tumbling head-over-heels into the thinly-carpeted, unforgiving concrete floor, and landing square on his right arm.

Which caused both bones to snap, between the wrist and the elbow.

Which led to those screams of pain, and Mommy running down the stairs in record time.

Which led to a premature end to the Christmas Day festivities, and a hasty visit to the Emergency Room at Toronto East General Hospital.

We got lucky here, as when the three of us strolled in, the three admitting nurses were sitting around chatting, maybe exchanging Christmas war stories.  A scant twenty minutes later, the place began to fill up with the walking wounded.

My son was attended to right away, and after being weighed, he was prepped for the doctor.

Canada comes under criticism, including here at home, about the inadequacies of our public health system, but I’ve always maintained that while we may indeed have long waiting lines at hospitals in this country, as least we have lines.  A quick glance at the sheet of fees posted in the admitting room indicated that a mere visit would set one back in excess of four hundred dollars, if not for OHIP (our public health plan in the province of Ontario), wonky and imperfect as it may be.

My son was in a lot of pain as the nurses prepared a sling for his injured wing.  The three of us waited for about an hour as the doctors dealt with much more urgent matters.

A room came open around 2:00 am.  The boy was wheeled in, and was prepped for the procedure to realign the two broken bones, as Dr. Isaac Moss wanted to avoid surgery if at all possible.

The calculation for how much drugs had to be administered was off , which led to my son being unfortunately awake for the first part of the procedure, which meant he was in a heck of a lot of pain, until they rectified the situation, after no doubt feeling the hot darts emanating from my wife’s eyes

My boy didn’t do himself any favours, thanks to a stubbornness inherited from his mother; he fought the effects of the drug, all the while imploring Mommy to take him home.

Eventually, a cast was applied to his right arm, and we now begin at least a six-week journey of doctor appointments, and therapy, hopefully ending with my kid’s right arm as good as new.

There will be no rushing of this process.

Which only leads me to shake my head when I think of pro athletes who suffer similar and often far worse, injuries, yet are back playing well before initially projected.

Once upon a time, and no doubt even now, players were purposely rushed back, as the old-school mentality (that should be NO-school mentality) believed that one should play through pain, and injuries, and such things as having one’s bell rung.

That outdated thinking is slowly becoming exactly that in the sports world, outdated, though there are still holdouts hiding in the caves of ignorance, the same caves that are full of folk who blame the victim for incidents such as hits-from-behind.

Even with the best medical care that money can buy, I’m still amazed that someone such as Markov is back-on-the-ice way ahead of schedule, and except for the extra pounds he gained from shoving back those great hot dogs they make in Montreal, he’s back to his usual All-Star form.

The good Doctor told us that a kid my son’s age stands a much better chance of having his bones repair themselves fully without surgery, as opposed to adults.  He will still have to put up with the major inconvenience of that cast until around Valentine’s Day, yet Markov is back out there, playing hockey at the highest level, almost two months ahead of schedule.  Sure, medicine is an inexact science, but two months early?

No, he didn’t break a bone, but the injury he incurred opening night against the Maple Leafs, a lacerated ankle injury, after a collision with goaltender Carey Price’s skate, could have ended Markov’s career.

Instead, he returns early, scoring two goals that first game back.

I don’t care how tough these guys are, that injury had to hurt.

My son has had a difficult time falling asleep the first few nights since the accident.  His cast gets in the way of sleeping, and his arm has to be elevated in order to reduce swelling.  It’s not a lot of fun.  Injuries hurt.

Something to keep in mind the next time you’re apt to complain about a player on your team taking his good ole’ time returning to action after suffering an injury.

Life ain’t a video game.

- Mick Kern

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Wilco, without a doubt the best band in the world at this moment, released their latest album last week.  Titled Wilco (The Album), it was eagerly anticipated by a legion of fans and music media who, for the most part, have shared a similar sentiment about the new release…

While the album’s good, it’s not necessarily up to the high standards of past Wilco offerings.

Which is unfair, and probably inaccurate, to already have decided the fate of a release a scant seven days into its public life (yes, it was available earlier on the band’s website).  Still, take your pick of some of their earlier work…Being There, Summerteeth, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost Is Born, Sky Blue Sky.  All fine albums, with each one setting up massive expectations for the next release.  And so far, Jeff Tweedy and crew have managed to scale those self-inflicted peaks, though in each case, it’s taken some time for fans and critics to have their eyes opened to the gems contained within.

In an earlier life, I reviewed new releases by a wide spectrum of bands.  What always bothered me was the need, due to the magazine deadline, to pass judgement on an album after only, at the most, a half-dozen listens.  Some records/CD’s require time to reveal all their hidden beauty; a cursory listen may turn up the radio-friendly hits, but not the real gold underneath.  If anything, a music reviewer/magazine should be required to revisit a reviewed album six months later.

While listening to Wilco’s latest offering on the way to work today, the immediate lukewarm reaction to it reminded me of much of the hockey world’s reaction to what GM Bob Gainey has done with the Montreal Canadiens in the past two weeks.

After watching his team take a nosedive after the All-Star break, firing head coach Guy Carbonneau, taking over behind the bench himself, and getting swept by the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs (all this during the overblown 100th anniversary celebrations), Gainey is understandably under considerable pressure to improve the lot of the Canadiens for the 2009-10 campaign.

He’s cast his lot with underachieving goaltender Carey Price, which might, in part, explain why Jacques Martin was brought aboard as head coach.  Gainey was facing a summer of significant roster turnover, as a number of players were set to become unrestricted free agents on July 1st.

While many in the media, and fans as well, were curious as to how Gainey would manage this off-season, most pointed to the fact that the Habs would benefit from having a lot of cap room to play around with.  Surely they’d be able to land the big stud centre the team has lacked since…since…Pete Mahovlich???

What about the Vinnie rumours?  How about Gaborik or Hossa?  Should they keep Komisarek or go a different direction?  And what about Kovalev and Kaptain Koivu?

So many questions, and Gainey began to answer them by engineering a pre-July 1st trade with the similarly underachieving New York Rangers.  Suddenly, Scott Gomez was a Hab.  That deal seemed to knock over a series of dominoes, which ended up revealing the names of Hal Gill, Mike Cammalleri,  Brian Gionta and Jaroslav Spacek, not to mention Perry Pearn.

Almost immediately, the reviews on Montreal Canadiens (The Album) were mixed, at best.  Were the Habs a better team now than they were in April?  Did they address any of the myriad of issues that faced this team going into the summer?  Are all these players too small?  Okay, Hal Gill excepted, but in his case, is he too slow?  Where’s that stud centre we’re all been clamouring for?  Why allow Kovalev to leave…and for Ottawa of all places?  Has he ever spent any real time there?  (To butcher Sinatra…I wanna sleep in the city that never wakes up).

Some have noted that Gainey and his Canadiens have moved neither forwards nor backwards with all these free agent signings and trades, but rather they have moved sideways.  As in, yes, things have changed, the team sports a new face today, but to what end?

This past weekend, a few of us from NHL Home Ice made the 10-hour car trip from Toronto, down over to Chicago (the home of Wilco), to catch the Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley on July 4th.  Being baseball season, there are White Sox and Cubs stuff everywhere in that town.  The NFL Bears were well represented, as were the Bulls.  Even noticed a couple of guys wearing Blackhawk caps, and more than a few shop windows displaying Blackhawk jerseys.

Regardless, for all the justified hype about the re-emergence of the Chicago Blackhawks, the Windy City is first-and-foremost an NFL town, then a baseball town, then the Bulls, and then the Hawks, make no mistake about it.

While we were there, the scandal involving possible contract errors by the Blackhawks were all the buzz back in hockey country, meaning Canada.  It was on the general sportscasts, as each and every hockey-related story is.

Nary a peep in Chicago, and I was monitoring the local television stations, and had my AM radio with me to listen to 670 The Score.  They had a brief mention of it, before going back to discussing the pennant chances of the Cubbies, and what Jay Cutler meant to the Bears.

Yet in Montreal, a hundred or so fans of the Canadiens held a rally to demand that GM Bob Gainey re-sign Alex Kovalev.  Have they seen Kovalev actually play these past few seasons?  Madness, I tell you.

Blackhawks’ GM Dale Tallon can screw up by signing over-priced over-rated free agents Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet, and the hardcore fan base in that city will pillorize him for it, but he doesn’t have to face the same degree of pressure as a Bob Gainey, or a Brian Burke, or a Ken Holland.  While it’s on the radar, hockey gets lost in cities such as Chicago.  Let’s face it, hockey gets lost in almost every American city.  Make no mistake about it.

Yet in Canada, where apparently we have nothing better to do, every story is magnified, often far beyond its relative importance.  But that’s the way it is up here in Hockeyland.  Which helps to explain the overwhelming number of thumbs down reviews about Gainey and his moves so far this off-season.  We all think we know better up here.  There’s no allowance to actually see what these new acquisitions might do come October, we’ve already passed judgement.

50,000,000 critics can’t be wrong, but like all those stellar Wilco albums, this one will take some time to see if Gainey has engineered a masterpiece, or if all those signings were just the thrashings of a desperate man.

- Mick Kern

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

It’s not like the Baseball Hall of Fame, where fans and media engage in debates as to which cap the likes of catcher Gary Carter should don when he was finally enshrined in Cooperstown.  The Kid came to fame with the Montreal Expos, but reached the pinnacle of his career with the 1986 New York Mets, combining clutch hitting and some fortuitous bounces in downing the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox as New York’s 2nd team became the toast of the town after winning the World Series.

Even though the player has a say in the decision, the tall foreheads at Cooperstown have the final word, and they went with the tricolour of the now defunct Expos, which did not sit well with Mr. 7-Up, who no doubt envisioned a healthy amount of appearance money flying away, thanks to the prospect of having to sign his John Hancock on BHOF memorabilia bearing the logo of a dead franchise, instead of the mighty Mets.

Carter himself publicly showed his disdain for that choice, when he was recently introduced at the Baseball All-Star Game.  Festooned in the distinctive Expos cap, he also made a point of holding up a Mets cap.  There was no sign of a Dodgers, or Giants cap, even though he also suited up briefly for those franchises.

William Scott Bowman didn’t have to make that choice when he was handed the gold key to the Hockey Hall of Fame back in 1991.  At that point in his storied career, Scotty Bowman had won five Stanley Cups as the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, in addition to three Cup Final appearances with the expansion St. Louis Blues.  Bowman’s tenure in Buffalo did not end in the manner he would have liked, and after a few years in TV, he returned to the league with the emerging Pittsburgh Penguins.

At the time of his departure from the Sabres, Bowman was already one of the greatest NHL coaches of all-time.  If he had never again stepped behind an NHL bench, his legend was sealed.  As life would have it, Penguins’ head coach Bob Johnson was struck with brain cancer, and tragically passed away in November of 1991.

The defending Stanley Cup Champions mourned for their beloved coach, and got back to the business of defending their title…with Bowman as their new head coach.

The Penguins were a juggernaut, and swept aside Bowman wannabe Mike Keenan and his Chicago Blackhawks in the Cup Final.  Bowman won likely his most unexpected Cup, which just added to his legend.

Except there was a considerable backlash building against the Master.  There were many who clung to the faulted belief that anyone could have coached the late 70’s Canadiens to victory, that all Bowman had to do was open the door on the bench.  The same surface criticism was levelled at Bowman about these talented Penguins, and it only intensified the following spring when the heavily-favoured Pens fell in Game Seven overtime to David Volek and the New York Islanders.

Bowman moved on to the eternally under-achieving Detroit Red Wings, and initially experienced a bumpy ride with the Wings, including a sweep in the 1995 Final at the hands of the New Jersey Devils, coached by former Bowman disciple Jacques Lemaire.  Suddenly, the naysayers were emboldened with fresh evidence that Bowman was overrated.

Undaunted, the Red Wings did what any champion does.  They refused to panic.  They didn’t blow things up and start again.  They stayed the course, made the changes they deemed logical, and were rewarded with back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998.

The 1997 celebration remains, for me, the most joyous post-game celebration I have ever watched on television.  The pent-up frustrations and expectations of Red Wing fans finally had a platform for release, and Bowman took part in the festivities, donning skates and hoisting the Cup.

The Master would put an appropriate exclaimation point on his stellar career, capturing the Cup one final time in 2002, his final year behind the bench.  In total, William Scott Bowman won nine Stanley Cups, and led a team to the Final on an additional four occasions.

He set seemingly unassailable records for games and Cups won.  Along the way, he alienated players and fans alike with his style, but both parties understood one plain fact about Bowman.  He was a winner.

So when Bowman decided to jump ship and join the resurgent Chicago Blackhawks as an advisor (joining his son Stan in the Chicago front office), he once again exhibited a perfect sense of timing.  The Master tested the wind, and knew which way it was blowing.

During a recent game against the Red Wings, the TV cameras found Bowman in the crowd, surveying the game unfolding in front of him.  Which got me to thinking.

If Bowman was not yet in the Hockey Hall-of-Fame, and someone had to choose which NHL sweater or cap his plaque would display, which team would he represent, particularly if one was only to consider his record as an NHL head coach?

Statistics don’t always present the entire picture, but they’re a pretty good starting point.   Let’s agree that his days with the Blues and Sabres are not in the discussion, despite his early success with St. Louis.  His six plus years in Buffalo are without doubt the most disappointing of Bowman’s NHL career.  His time with Pittsburgh wasn’t long enough to warrant inclusion either.

Which means, rather obviously, it comes down to his legendary stint with the 1970’s Montreal Canadiens vs. his more recent success with the one modern dynasty still operating in the National Hockey League, the Detroit Red Wings.

In Montreal, Bowman returned to the organization he got his start in, including a Memorial Cup win in 1958.  After a power struggle in St. Louis, Bowman left and took over the reins of the Canadiens, who the season before, had won the Stanley Cup with an underrated team that featured rookie Ken Dryden in net, and was captain Jean Beliveau’s final year in the league.  The trouble was, head coach Al MacNeil was called out by Habs’ icon Henri Richard concerning ice-time during the playoffs, which the French media ate up, and even though the Pocket Rocket tried his best to calm the waters after the season was over, the damage was done.

Bowman got the job, though that 71-72 team lost in the first round in six games to New York Rangers, who made it all the way to the Cup Final, only to lose to the Bruins.

The next season, Bowman steered the Habs to first place in the East Division. in the process losing only 10 games, as Montreal regained the Stanley Cup.  But the best was yet-to-come.

After losing Dryden to a contract dispute, Montreal came up short in ‘74 and ‘75, the years of Bernie Parent, Bobby Clarke, and the Broad Street Bullies.  The emergence of superstar sniper Guy Lafleur, the maturing of the Big Three on defence, the addition of effective role players such as Bob Gainey and Doug Jarvis, and the return of Dryden all added up to a dynasty, one that won four straight Stanley Cups between 1976 and 1979.

It was on the strength of these magnificent teams that the legend of Bowman was forged.  By the time he left for Buffalo, Bowman had won five Stanley Cups in five Final appearances during his eight years with Montreal, and compiled a gaudy 419 wins in only 634 regular seasons games, as well as posting a .714 winning percentage in the post-season.  These were truly Hall-of-Fame numbers.

Fast forward to the late 1990’s, and Bowman behind the bench of the Detroit Red Wings.  During his nine-year head coaching tenure in Michigan, Bowman won three Stanley Cups in four appearances.  He won 414 regular-season games in only 706 games, and his playoff winning percentage was an impressive .642.  Along the way, in part thanks to an additional two games added on to the regular season NHL schedule, Bowman’s 95-96 Wings set a league record by winning 62 times that season, two better than the 76-77 Canadiens, coached by Bowman.

The overall numbers are similar.  The Montreal numbers are slightly more impressive, though one has to factor in the circumstances under which these two franchises operated.  The late 70’s Canadiens were the most powerful team in a league that still featured a number of weak sisters.  The Habs were challenged by the young Islanders, and the very talented Boston Bruins, but managed to overcome all obstacles during that four-year run.  Montreal and Boston were among the powerful teams that fattened their averages against the likes of the Cleveland Barons, Washington Capitals and Minnesota North Stars.

By the time Bowman was hoisting the Cup with the late 90’s Red Wings, the landscape of the NHL had changed considerably.  Thanks to better training techniques, better coaching, better goaltending, and a resulting tighter style of play, there was more parity in the league than when Bowman was with Montreal.  There were less opportunities to feast on the unfortunate, which meant less inflated numbers.  Taking all that into account, Bowman’s final stats with the Red Wings compare very favourably with his halcyon days in Montreal.

In the end, both incarnations of Bowman are deserving of accolades.  And despite what the great unwashed may rant about on internet billboards, not just anyone could have coached these teams.  It takes a special kind of coach to be able to juggle all the demands of a talented group of athletes, each of whom believes they have what it takes to be on the first line, or start in net.

A large number of books have been written about Bowman and his coaching style.  Suffice to say, Bowman is arguably the greatest head coach in NHL history.  His two greatest stretches of accomplishements happened in Montreal, and Detroit.  Each incarnation was impressive to behold.  My heart says Scotty Bowman is first-and-foremost identified with the Montreal Canadiens, but my head says that his most impressive coaching job was with the Red Wings.

The better question might be, who would win in a best-of-seven battle between the 1977 Montreal Canadiens and the 1997 Detroit Red Wings?

- Mick Kern

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Goodnight Montreal.  The Party is Over.

In truth, it ended sometime in January, but people were having too good of a time to notice it.

So much for the overblown 100th Anniversary Season.  Starting Monday morning, half price on all memorabilia.  Everything must go, including a large number of free agents.

I think I finally get what GM Bob Gainey was trying to do with goaltender Carey Price.  Unlike a lot of Montreal fans, Gainey no doubt knew that this team wasn’t deep enough to make a long run in this year’s playoffs.  His man in net is, without a doubt, young Mr. Price.  Why not throw him right in and get his feet wet, toughen him up using live ammo.

Trouble is, that strategy can backfire horribly if the goaltender’s confidence is shaken to the point he doubts the very things that carried him this far.  That has always been my worry with how Montreal has handled Carey Price.  He’s now played in three playoff series over two straight seasons, and he hasn’t looked good in any of them.

Mind you, this year’s edition of Les Canadiens were nothing to write home about, and my mother actually asked me to stop with the emails.  The real test for Montreal will be this summer:

- which unrestricted free agents do they attempt to keep?
- can they coax any key unrestricted free agents from other teams to sign here?
- is Gainey preparing to clear cap room in order to try to trade for Vincent Lecavalier?
- will this team finally get physically bigger, now that they’re been pushed around for two straight playoff years?
- who will be the head coach of this team?
- will GM Bob Gainey keep his job?  Does he still want the job?
- is this team for sale, or not?
- entering his third NHL season, it’s time for Carey Price to begin to
realize the immense potential he has.

That’s a lot of stuff for one off-season.  The best news?

It’s the 101st season for the Canadiens.  Time to forget the distractions and get down to business.

Go Bruins.  You guys look good.

- Mick Kern

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Not sick-in-the-head, though many would advance that theory.  Sick as in “Man, I can’t get outta bed, it hurts so bad” sick.   One wicked case of sinus infection, which seems to happen this time every year.

Stuck at home, feeling like I blocked an Al MacInnis slapshot with my forehead, until the drugs kicked in.  Dragged myself to the basement TV room couch.  Thankfully, there were a lot of NHL games on this particular Tuesday evening.

Started with Pittsburgh in Montreal.  Talk about a game both teams wanted to win.  The Penguins trying to claw their way back into an Eastern Conference playoff spot; the Habs trying to hang onto theirs.

Don’t know what Canadiens’ head coach Guy Carbonneau said to Alex Kovalev, but the enigmatic Russian sniper played with some jump in his step.  Carey Price still makes me nervous as I watch him tend net.  His positioning is top-notch, but get the dude to move, and you’ve got a good chance of burying the puck.  Price will excel with a defensive core dedicated to clearing the puck.  Sounds simple, but not all defenceman master that basic skill.  Even so, Price appears to give up one questionable goal a game.  And he’s gotta stop doing that annoying shrug of his shoulders whenever he is scored upon.  It’s like he’s saying, “wasn’t my fault”.

Switched over to the resurgent Florida Panthers at the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Had intended to attend this game, but no such luck.  The Leafs staked themselves to a 3-1 lead, but watching it from the couch, I just knew that the Cats were gonna tie this thing up.  Toronto’s Alexei Ponikarovsky got caught for boarding with less than two minutes remaining in the game, and of course, Florida tied it up.

What cracked me up about that sequence of events was how Leafs’ uber-GM Brian Burke reacted, high up in the pressbox.  His face indicated he probably thought the penalty was horse-bleep.  Funny how that is.  It was clearly a boarding call.  It was also the only situation all night where a Leaf went to the penalty box alone.  Why can’t a team, or a homer TV/Radio play-by-play guy, or for that matter, most homer fans, admit when a penalty is a penalty?  Show some class.  Shuddup, and skate to the penalty box and feel shame for two minutes.  Or less.

And to complete the evening, ex-pat Bryan McCabe scored the overtime winner for Florida on a two-on-one slapshot.  Nice shot, but really, Vesa Toskala should have had it.  He’s a starting goaltender in the National Hockey League.  They’re supposed to get those ones, not allow them to squirt past him for the game-winning tally.

Hey, every so often one of those gets through.  Grant Fuhr was with the Maple Leafs when Trevor Linden unloaded a similar shot on him during a game at Maple Leaf Gardens during the autumn of 1991.  No doubt you could hear me scream with joy miles away, even though I was ensconced way up in the corner greys.

That goal stood up as the winner in a 2-1 victory for the Canucks.  After the game, Fuhr admitted one or two of those find their way through him every year.  He played the shot correctly, but sometimes, that little vulcanized rubber projectile has eyes of its own.

Same thing could be said for Toskula, but the trouble is, like Price, he tends to give up one bad goal a game.  A team cannot constantly win knowing they’re effectively one goal down to start.  Not that the Leafs’ brass probably minds; wasn’t this Year One of the constant rebuilding phase?

Switched games and caught the tail-end of the Capitals putting down the Devils 5-2.  Jose Theodore in net still makes me nervous.  Come to think of it, most goaltenders make me nervous.  So much so, I forgot about the sinuses for a while.  What will the Devils do when the Best Goaltender Of All-Time (C) returns?

A couple of late games that I was able to catch.  The mighty Marty Turco and his band of Merry Dallas Stars were at home and dropped the Calgary Flames 3-1.  Turco is back to playing like, well, Marty Turco, and the Stars are the force most of us expected them to be.

Which is why everyone has to keep their cool when it comes to watching this grand game of ours.  It’s a long, long season.  82 regular-season games.  All that matters is where you stand once your 82nd game is played.  Most teams will experience highs and lows during the course of the season.  Don’t allow either to convince you it’s a trend.

Having said that, Dallas moved to erase the cancer in their dressing room, and slowly, this team has rediscovered its confidence, even with key injuries.  Let the 2008-09 Dallas Stars stand as an example why a team should not automatically fire its head coach when things aren’t going as planned.  Often, the fault lines run deeper than that.

(Now watch, of course, as the Stars lose every game for the rest of the season).

Dallas were able to pull themselves out of a troubling nosedive, yet the Ottawa Senators seem keen on continuing their descent.  They get rid of the perceived malcontents, design some horrid third sweaters, the owner tells reporters to go blow themselves up, and then they fire head coach Craig Hartburg affter only 48 games.

48 games?  That’s not even as long as most people get to try out their fancy new widescreen HDTV before realizing they can’t pay for it, and return it to the store.

Whatever.  It looks good on the Senators that they lost tonight 1-0 to the rebuilding Los Angeles Kings.

Are we to expect a 11 am press conference on Wednesday morning announcing the firing of head coach Cory Clouston?  That’s the way things are tracking in Ottawa.

Flipped the channel.  Saw video of Adam Graves getting his number 9 retired by the New York Rangers.  With all due respect to Larry Brooks of the New York Post, who I enjoy reading, but is the whole world going crazy???

Okay, I get it.  Graves was a great guy off-the-ice, did great things for his community and was a key cog in the 1994 Stanley Cup winning Rangers team.  But c’mon.  This isn’t Rod Gilbert, or Jean Ratelle, or Ed Giacomin, or Brad Park, or Brian Leetch, or Mark Messier, or even Andy Bathgate, or Harry Howell, or Bill Gadsby, Vic Hadfield or the Cooks we’re talking about.

This is Adam Graves.

Messier commented that the night was not about honouring Graves’s stats.  Fair enough.  Raw numbers don’t always tell the whole tale.  But retiring his uniform number?   It should be first-and-foremost about what happens on the ice that determines sweater retirements, and Hall-of-Fame inductions, etc.

The standards have been lowered.  Ranger fans, take your best shot.  And don’t try and feed me the line, “ya had to be in New York to truly appreciate Graves”.

What about Bathgate, and Bernie Nicholls, and Rick Middleton, if the Rangers hadn’t been so stupid, stupid, stupid and traded away Nifty.  These guys also served as Number Nine.

Wow, win one Cup, one stinkin’ Cup after fifty-four years of nothing, and I guess you truly do walk together forever.

Then again, hey, it’s your team.  Do what you want.  The way things are going, each and every member of that ‘94 team will eventually have their number raised.  I can hardly wait for Jay Wells night.

And I thought the 1967 Maple Leafs were honoured to death.

Stop the presses!  As I type, the Vancouver Canucks actually win a game, 4-3, at home against the Hurricanes.  Alex Burrows pots the shorthanded winner with under two minutes to play.  Mats Sundin stays out of the penalty box and contributes a goal and an assist.

Stay tuned.

Time to take some more drugs.  All is well in the NHL.  Goodnight.

- Mick Kern

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Folks, calm down.

Take a deep breath, and look around you.  The world is not falling apart.  Okay, maybe it is financially, which, of course, influences everything we do, but try to forget that apocalypse for the moment.

Focus.

On the fan voting for the upcoming NHL All-Star Game in Montreal.  And take that deep breath again.

Folks, it’s the All-Star Game.  A mid-season exhibition of shinny.  None of it means anything in the long run.  None of it means anything the next morning.  It’s a mid-term schmooze fest for hockey industry types, a chance to take a breather before they go back to beating each other’s brains in.  Probably from behind.

Outside of the programme salespeople, the only ones in the entire building working up a sweat that day will be the goaltenders.  They’re sitting ducks.  They don’t have a prayer.  People pay their money in order to see the NHL gunners fill the net with rubber.  No one really wants to see a goaltender steal the show.  Save that for the real games.  This is the All-Star Game; as close as the NHL will ever get to being the razzle-dazzle, all sizzle NBA.   What’s the over-under on the final total goal count. anyhow?

So does it really matter that some computer-literate fans in Montreal have been stuffing the electronic ballot box?  Sure, it runs counter to the spirit of the entire affair; fans voting for their favourite players, over and and over and over and over again.  Yup, how dare those hackers in Montreal monkey around with true democracy.  Do they think this is the state of Florida?  Hopefully their mom will ground them for at least a week.

If anything, outside of the honour of hanging out with your peers, and the really cool gift bag, it’s understandable if a player logged onto the internet, took a quick survey of the latest all-star voting results, and then proceeded to click onto the name of his nearest rival in the voting…and made sure that it’s that dude who will be going to the All-Star Game, not him.

Hey, who couldn’t use a mid-season break?

In the name of restoring some sanity to the choices for the 2008-09 NHL All-Star Game, I’ve cut through all the hype and hysteria, and come up with the six goaltenders who’ll be making the trip to Montreal.  No need to thank me.  Now you can go back to using the internet for what it was initially intended for, watching people make total fools of themselves on YouTube.

NHL EASTERN ALL-STAR GOALTENDERS:

No controvery here, as there are three men who are heads-and-shoulders above every other netminders in the East.  One of them is now a perennial All-Star, and Vezina contender, the second is a journeyman who’s surprised many by making his mark permanent, and the third is keeping himself afloat on a team that is well below the waterline.

- Henrik Lundqvist – New York Rangers
- Tim Thomas – Boston Bruins
- Mike Smith – Tampa Bay Lightning

Not sure how anyone can argue with these choices.  No doubt many will, but most of those arguments will be tainted by their own prejudices as they shill for their guy.  One would imagine Carey Price will actually be named to the team, as it’s in Montreal, and young Price has shined at times this season, but he has not outplayed any of these three picks.  If one of these gentlemen are injured, then Price’s inclusion could be justified.

Personally, I think Joey MacDonald of the Islanders should be the fourth choice.  He’s had a fine first two months, considering the team he’s playing on.  Sorry Alex Auld, a fine performance, but not all-star worthy.  Stats are important, but they don’t always paint the whole picture.  This isn’t fantasy hockey, this is the real thing.

NHL WESTERN ALL-STAR GOALTENDERS:

These three gentlemen are obvious choices; there’s no way anyone can construct a rational argument against them.

- Roberto Luongo – Vancouver Canucks
- Niklas Backstrom – Minnesota Wild
- Marty Turco – Dallas Stars

I know what you’re saying, what the heck is Turco doing on this list?  Have you seen this guy play recently?  Yes, indeed I have.  Turco has been a top notch goaltender over the past few seasons, and his fall-from-grace this fall has been stunning.  If anything, he’d be perfect for the All-Star Game, since everyone wants to see goals, goals, and more goals.

Okay, let’s give Marty a well-needed break.  Instead, how about the goaltender not wanted by his own team, the ultimate orphan, Nikolai Khabibulin of the Chicago Blackhawks?  Let’s see, the media darlings of this past off-season, the “Back Hawks”, foolishly throw a load of money at Christobal Huet, only to watch in horror as the incumbent, Khabibulin, plays like it’s 2004.  Now the rumour mill has it that Blackhawk players would mutiny if the suits decide to trade the Bulin Wall.  What is this, Tampa Bay north?

San Jose Sharks and Calgary Flames fans will no doubt lobby for their guy, and for good reasons, but my mind is made up.

And keep this in mind, the only real All-Stars that matter are the guys named to the post-season First and Second All-Star Teams.  Now that’s an accomplishment.

- Mick Kern

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

I guess I was still in shock after what I just saw. And, no, I’m not talking about the first period of play. (And that was impressive, I must say.  Montreal is gonna run the table, or at least it felt that way after about 10 minutes.)

No, I was and am still just blown away by the fifteen minute video presentation prior to last night’s game. The Canadiens are celebrating one hundred years of hockey. And what a celebration it figures to be.

As I sat in the press box and watched, my mind took me back to being a Montreal fanatic when I was a kid.. Suddenly, it was as if I was sorting out my hockey cards for the umpteenth time, making sure Ken Dryden was the FIRST in the shoebox. (The Flyers were always last.)

Or, there I was, laying in bed, holding my clock radio, listening to Jacques Lemaire beat the Boston Bruins in game six to win the Cup. OT. May 14, 1977. The game wasn’t on TV. No matter, it was on in my head. Didn’t sleep that night.

The crowd was transfixed on the HD screen. Nobody wanted this thing to end. Every single time Maurice Richard’s image came up, the crowd went to another decibel level. It was a wonderful mix of past and present day. There is such reverence for the game there. It was a thrill to see current players pay homage
to this team’s glorious past. And they did it with respect. That is what separates this game from all others…..trust me.

I hope somebody posts this thing on youtube. I should have recorded it.  (That’s the red button on the tape deck I am told). But I needed a free hand. I was using it to dab the tears away.

And I wasn’t alone.

See you on Fox Sports Arizona on Thursday night from Jobing.com Arena as Washington rolls into town.
Our first “Coyotes Live” pregame show starts it off at 6:30pm.

- Todd

A fascinating press conference here in Montreal just moments ago.  Wayne met the press, with a variety of topics on the table. Team Canada and his role this time around, the upcoming ceremony to honor Patrick here in Montreal as they celebrate 100 years of Canadien’s hockey, and some interesting reflections on previous Olympic experiences.

I apologize that you cannot clearly hear the line of questioning, but the answers are pretty self explanatory.

Wayne was holding court, without a podium, microphone in hand.  Hear both parts below:

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Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

- Todd

Tonight, they looked like kids, at times. And, at other times, they looked like they really didn’t have any fear or shame and that the score just didn’t matter. They were going to work to get back into a game that seemingly was decided much earlier. I give the Coyotes credit for grinding away in what started out to be a meaningless third period. But then again, it made those early turnovers loom even larger.

Wayne had some pointed comments about what happened last night…..and most of those comments were directed at a certain goaltender, who by the way, gets the start here tonight in Montreal. Will he bounce back? He and the Coyotes had better, or it’s gonna be a loooooong flight back to Phoenix.

Listen:

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- Todd