I’m pleased that today’s decision by Judge Baum resolves much of the uncertainty surrounding the Phoenix Coyotes.   This positive step will now allow the organization to focus all its energy on the current season.  I’m confident the team will build on their early successes and renew the loyalty of many hockey fans in the Phoenix area.  I know the NHL will now do its utmost to find an excellent owner for the franchise going forward.

I wish for nothing but the best for the Phoenix Coyotes, their fans and the City of Glendale.

- Wayne

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

The wonders that a little overcooked Ovechkin goal celebration will do.

Thanks to his too-hot-to-handle 50th goal celebration the other night, the likes of the esteemed Thomas Boswell have seen fit to wade into the fray and comment about the game of hockey.

Boswell is a well-respected sports journalist, and the author of one of my favourite tomes on the great game of baseball, “Why Time Begins On Opening Day”.

Apparently he has a new book in the works, “Why The NHL began with Alexander Ovechkin”.

And maybe it did.  Maybe the creative, hot-dogging talents of the Russian sniper are what the league has been sorely lacking.

Ovechkin’s antics in Tampa no doubt made a number of sports highlight shows across the United States, which may have been the first time some of these programs lowered themselves to talk about hockey, other than when they get atop their moral high horse and show the shocked masses a hockey fight.

American hockey fans are as passionate and as knowledgeable about the game of hockey as any Canadian fan is, and they’d be the first to tell you that the overall coverage of the game is spotty, at best, in the lower 48.

Up here in the Great White North, one gets a sense of that when listening in to ESPN All-Night, which delves into detailed breakdowns of everything pertaining to football, baseball, basketball, college football, and college basketball, but offers nary a word about hockey.  And since one can’t listen to the program all the time, if they have done a segment or two on hockey, it pales in comparison to the coverage of those other sports.

And that’s the way it should be.  ESPN would go out of business fast if they didn’t tailor-make their program to suit the tastes of their audience.  For that same reason, TSN up here in Canada doesn’t devote a large part of their updates to cricket, even though there’s a growing, passionate audience for the sport in this country.

The plight of the American hockey fan is further underscored by the patchwork of cable television access to the Centre Ice package and the NHL Network.  Having manned the phones for the call-in portion of the NHL Hour with Commissioner Gary Bettman here on the NHL Home Ice, I know first-hand the constant frustration that U.S. fans have with gaining access to these services they are eager to pay for.

Depending on the market, some have the services, while others are patiently waiting, even though that wait appears to have no end.

Maybe the theatrics of AO is enough to convince those broadcast barons still holding out that NHL hockey is enough of a money-maker for them to include it in their overpriced, watered-down cable bundle.  The NHL will never come close to equaling the other major U.S. pro sports, but so what.  It is a niche product, one that appears to still be growing, and if handled properly, there’s money in dem der hills.

So, as Thomas Boswell basically writes in his column today in the Washington Post, the fans of the NHL should be rejoicing in the rejoicing of Ovechkin.  Time to drop the conservatism that has shrouded this league for years, and get with the other big time sports.  Time to act like you haven’t been in the endzone before.

What irks me is not Ovechkin and his pretty slamdances into the glass after a goal, or his Jimi Hendrix impersonation the other night.  I can live with it, though I don’t believe that all his celebrations are unplanned.  I’m not a Washington fan, so while I appreciate the beauty of most of his goals, I’m not cheering for the guy.  Yes, he’s good for hockey, but he’s not hockey.  Bobby Orr wasn’t hockey, neither was Wayne Gretzky.

What does irk me is two-fold.

First off, is the defensive reaction of a large contingent of Washington Capitals fans who believe that Ovechkin is above criticism.  Now granted, having motor-mouth Don Cherry take on Ovechkin does make one want to circle the Ovechkin wagons as well, but one has to rise above such pettiness.

Ovechkin is one of the true superstars currently at work in the National Hockey League, one of the few players people will pay good money to watch, even if they’re marginal hockey fans.  Regardless, he is still a member of the Washington Capitals, not the Harlem Globetrotters.  The opposition is, well, it could be the Lightning, or the Thrashers or the Rangers, they’re not the Washington Generals.

It’s alright for opposing fans to boo the guy.  It doesn’t mean they’re bums, or have no class, or don’t understand the game of hockey, or don’t appreciate what a stud like Ovechkin brings to the sport.  Rather, it means that they are fans of their home team.

Don’t worry that Thomas Boswell, or Boomer Gordon, or Elliott Friedman, or even Mick Kern, tells you otherwise.  You are the fan.  You paid your money.  You decide how you should react.  Well, outside of acts of violence.  Oh, and please keep your shirts on, fat guys.  Someone might get hurt.

The world is not the same as it was in 1950, or 1960, or 1985, and thank goodness for that, and the culture of hockey reflects these mostly positive changes.  Still, within the very matrix of the game we all love so very much, there beats the heart of some simple truths, be they actual facts or dearly held on to beliefs.  At some point, the line blurs between the two distinctions.

Hockey is a sporting culture onto itself within North America sport.  Its true sporting cousin may be Australian rugby, more so than any pampered American past-time.  To equate how hockey players should behave in relation to players in the NFL or MLB or the MBA is to miss the point by a wide margin.

Sports, to a large degree, is an everyday, peacetime substitute for the tribalism that still pulls at every person’s heart.  Us against them.  We’re better than you.  You’re not one of us.  It’s in your DNA.

Hockey, in some part due to its marginal place at the table when it comes to media attention on this continent, has taken this outsider’s status and has made it a part of its identity.

We don’t need ESPN or USA Today or ABC or the Washington Times to acknowledge our greatness, or even our very existence.  The game of hockey, meaning all the players at every level, and the coaches, and fans, and hockey moms and dads, and all the support staff, we know who we are, and we’re more than alright with that.

Which may explain why fighting, despite all evidence to the contrary, remains near-and-dear to most hockey fans on both sides of the border.  The very fact that a game of hockey can be disrupted at any point by (at least) two men fighting is, on first, and second, and even third glance, highly anachronistic.

It can’t logically be defended, and even the most zealot supporters of fighting in hockey usually fall back on well-worn clilches to justify its continual existence in the game.

Yet, like so very much of this game, regardless of where you personally stand on fighting (and I, for one, wouldn’t miss it if it disappeared tomorrow), fighting is a key part of the mosaic that makes up hockey, a game that is so passionately loved by its fans for daring to swim against the tide in today’s streamlined, edges-sanded-down society we have molded for ourselves.

While it’s not the only dangerous sport out there (auto racing comes to mind, as does facing a heater at home plate, as does facing a blitzing linebacker), the very nature of this sanguine sport sets it apart from every other sport on this continent.

It’s played at a very high tempo, they wear blades, they carry sticks, they are encouraged to hit one another, they fire a virtual bullet around the unforgiving ice, and there’s boards to contain all this, no real out-of-bounds, unless the puck goes over those boards.

There is nowhere to hide out there.  Hockey exposes you.  Its very disposition is one of violation.  Hockey is inherently a violent game, and no amount of rule changes, and equipment tweaks, and philosophical discussions is going to alter that fact.

Which brings me back to Thomas Boswell, and the almost paternalistic tone his article takes regarding some of the negative reaction to Ovechkin’s on-ice antics, and the second thing that irks me about this whole affair.

The arguments in favour of Ovechkin celebrating goals in this fashion are persuasive.  The NHL does need to inject some colour into its players, who are its greatest asset, yet are often hidden behind helmets and visors and over-protective PR departments who act as though they’re pertrified that one of these guys might actually say something quotable.

When Ovechkin puts the celebratory cherry on top of the ice-cream sundae goal he just scored, he will garner attention, even in U.S. media outlets who couldn’t be bothered to throw the NHL a few scraps of bread at the best of times.

That’s all fine.

What irks me is the likes of Boswell scolding the hockey fans/media/establishment who either do not care for the antics of Ovechkin, or have no problem with them, but would rather he do it sparingly.

Such theatrics are not a part of the culture of hockey.  Oh sure, Tiger WIlliams rode his stick a couple of times, and Theo Fleury slid across the ice after that big goal, and others probably did the Funky Chicken, for all we know, but overall, the culture of hockey has always been about Team, not Player.

It’s part of why hockey fans, whether American or Canadian, bleed the sport when cut.

It’s about shared identity with the group, it’s about the others in the foxhole.  The NFL comes closest to matching that, but even then, the wide receivers, and running backs, and quarterbacks, and the odd superstar linebacker, pull against that collective.

Hockey is about Us, not Me.

And while Ovechkin is just as likely to do his happy dance when one of his teammates scores, he still manages to pull the spotlight towards his antics.  Nothing wrong with that, and after all, there are different unwritten rules for superstars, but I really doubt that new people, who have shunned the sport for years, are suddenly going to watch the NHL just because Ovechkin likes to jump around after a goal.

Most hockey fans, with the obvious exception of supporters of the Washington Capitals, understand that some players in the league will have a problem with Ovechkin’s theatrics.  These same hockey fans will also understand that such differences have a way of being settled, which doesn’t have to mean fisticuffs, but the on-ice frontier justice has always been a part of the game, even though it logically cannot be defended.

A hockey fan understands that reality, whether they approve of the goal celebrations or not.  An outsider does not.

The outsider is correct in questioning such archaic thinking, but then again, they haven’t been baptised yet.

Hockey fans shouldn’t worry about the arrogance of Thomas Boswell, attempting to shame us into grafting onto hockey the culture of the other big money sports in America, though I have a feeling the NHL head offices in New York would be all for that integration into the sporting mainstream.  After all, that can only mean more money.

Yet, if anything, over the years, NHL hockey has managed to survive the actual NHL.  The small-minded dictatorship of the Norris Family and Clarence Campbell.  The bumblings of the likes of Gil Stein.  The misguided notions of league grandeur and phantom network TV contracts of Gary Bettman.  The crimes of Alan Eagleson, and the scorched Earth policies of the likes of Bob Goodenow.

Somehow, the actual game continues to thrive, thankfully with rules changes now-and-again to correct its course.

Hockey is different from every other big sport in North America.

Mr. Boswell, stick to baseball.

What you write about that game connects me with a sport that is my favourite.  And as a Canadian, even though the game of baseball has deep roots in this country, I will always remain just outside the lines when it comes to truly being a part of that culture.  Your books, and articles, allow me a glimpse into that world, one I wish I had been born into.

While baseball is my favourite sport, hockey is my religion.  It’s in my blood, so much so that it continually calls me back, even when I try to deny its pull.

It’s all around me, on a constant basis.  Every month of the year.  There is no off-season for hockey in Canada.

Hockey is Canada, even though only about 3 million people may watch Hockey Night In Canada on any given Saturday night.  Even though, particularly with a changing demographic, less and less people have suited up and played it.

That may matter forty, fifty years from now, but not right now.  Hockey is Canada, and Hockey is also specific parts of the United States, just as much.  But only certain parts.

While it’s great that the game is in markets such as Washington, D.C., and Nashville, and Atlanta, and Phoenix, and Dallas, it’ll never, NEVER, have the same resonance that it has in Edmonton, or Winnipeg, or Montreal, or Halifax, or Saskatoon, or Moose Jaw, or Toronto, or Glace Bay.

Or in Detriot, or the state of Minnesota, or New Hampshire, or Vermont, etc.

So on behalf of the so-called “hockey purists” you dismiss in your article, I’m going to trump you, Mr. Boswell, and ask you to keep your professorial musings about the game of hockey to yourself.

Ryan Malone isn’t a moron, as your article claims.

Ryan Malone understands how hockey works.  You don’t.

Hockey ain’t baseball or football.  Somehow, someway, even in today’s video game society, hockey is purer.  Not by much, but by enough.

And that is something you’ll never understand.

Leave my game alone.

I appreciate it.

- Mick Kern

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

So I’m reading Sports Illustrated on the long subway ride home, when I come across this small article about the San Francisco Giants of the National League, and how they’re going to unveil something they’re calling “dynamic ticket pricing” for the upcoming baseball season.

Which basically means this…depending on some complex algorithm that was developed by a couple of eggheads from the University of Texas, 2,000 of the least-desirable tickets way up in the nosebleeds will be sold are varying prices, depending on what formula the computer spits out after considering 20 variables.

And those variables include what team the Giants are playing, the weather, who’s pitching that game, how fresh the hot dogs are, and whether-or-not Barry Bonds has been jailed.

According to SI, that means the cheapest 7 dollar ticket could suddenly be had for, say, 12 dollars, or, the most expensive cheapest ticket, normally yours for a mere 30 dollars, could rise as high as 80 bucks.  Well, not right away.  The tickets could only fluctuate 50 cents per day.

Meaning, the suddenly poverty-stricken Giants could reap an additional $810,000 in ticket revenue this upcoming season.

(Which they’ll probably squander on some burnt-out, steroid-laden pitcher who’s released at mid-season).

Good plan.  If, of course, anyone even wants these tickets in the first place.  The Giants didn’t exactly set the NL on fire last season, though they are expected to be much better in 2009.

Why this relates to hockey is obvious; anything pro sports teams can do to squeeze a few extra bucks out of sports-mad fans, well, the other teams will fall over themselves rushing to copy each other.

Remember personal seat licenses?  One of the most disgusting concepts in the long-rotten history of attempting to fleece the consumer.

Let’s see.  You pay us for the season tickets to watch the Amityville Horrors.  But…first…you have to pay us just for the right to buy those season tickets.

But get this…that seat, the one your oversized bum will settle in for 81 painful home games?  That seat is now YOURS!!!!

You can’t rip it up and take it with you after the season is over, or paint it your favourite colour, but you could sell the rights to putting your butt in that seat to someone else.

See, creative capitalism can be fun!

Here in Toronto, the Maple Leafs have rarely had a problem selling tickets in Maple Leaf Gardens or the Air Canada Centre, though the myth of every ticket being sold for decades is exactly that, a myth.  During some of the franchises darker days in the mid-80’s, larger-than-life owner Harold Ballard was known for buying up some of the unsold seats himself, in order to keep that myth alive.

Regardless, the Leafs are a tough ticket.  Even though the team recently alluded to the fact even they’ve been somewhat impacted by the tough economic times gripping the globe, the franchise is in no danger of having to hold a fire sale, and moving to Kitchener-Waterloo.

Their sporting neighbors across the way, the once-proud Toronto Blue Jays, cannot say the same thing.  During their heyday’s of the early 90’s, the Jays won back-to-back World Series Championships, scooped up most of the glitzy free agents, and were the first MLB team to draw over 4 million fans to their ballpark in one season.

It seemed like the good times would never end, and the franchise developed an arrogance that took them years to shed, even after the party had been over for a while.

Now, the team regularly papers the house, and they’re one of many MLB franchises that have gone the route of variable pricing for their home games.

For instance, everyone knows the New York Yankees, and the Boston Red Sox, always attract more fans, whether they be from out-of-town/out-of-country, or merely curious Torontonians who don’t really care about baseball, but wanna gawk at A-Rod and Jeter.

So, most of them folk won’t mind, or even notice, if their tickets are jacked up, say, 10 extra dollars for these “premium” games.

And why stop there?  Everyone knows that Opening Day is one of the time-honoured Rites of Spring; any team is practically guaranteed to pack the house.  Heck, the Montreal Expos even were able to coerce 40,000 souls to show up for Opening Day, only to see attendence settle back into the 5,000-7,500 range for the next two games of the same series.

So, a team raises the price for the Yanks, and the Bosox, and Opening Day, and, saaaaay, what about Saturday and Sunday afternoon games?

You know the ones that families can actually get to with their brood?  They’re probably good for the additional money, because most families won’t be attending weekdays games that might end at 10:20 pm, if they’re lucky.

Throw into that mix whatever team is the “hot” team that year (the Angels?  interleague games against the Philllies?), and presto, you have just created for your team additional revenue sources without doing a darn thing.

Brilliant.

If…people actually buy the tickets.

You see, that’s the thing.  Regardless of price, people still have to want to attend your event.  You could offer me Toronto Raptor tickets in the nosebleeds for 10 bucks a pop, and I might take my young son with me to see a game or two, but that’s the extend of my interest.  It would be a novelty.  I care not a bit for basketball, and affordable tickets will not change my mind.

It might work with those that have never been exposed to a game, say, like NHL hockey, in what we all call non-traditional markets, so it might be worth a try.

Cheap tickets, that is.  Just this week, the ever-amusing Tampa Bay Lightning announced really cheap, and I mean, REALLY CHEAP season ticket packages for the 2009-10 season.  And they were widely ridiculed for it, one pundit even comparing the Lighting to a WHA team, which is rather accurate, come to think of it.

I don’t think what the Lightning are doing concerning cheap tickets is a joke, but it contains an inherent risk.  If you greatly devalue your product, in an effort to attract more paying customers, unless you completely hook them, what you’ve effectively done is cheapen your own product, maybe permanently.

If a couple buys 2009-10 season tickets for the Bolts, and actually end up becoming fans of the team, well, unless they’ve got considerable disposable income (which it appears more and more of us don’t have), how will you convince them to upgrade their tickets to a pricing range that will be much more economically beneficial to your team?

You can’t very well turn around and say, okay, next season, these same tickets will have a price increase of 300%.  Or can you?  It all depends on how many people re-up, contrasted with how many give you the middle finger.  Churn, I believe we call it…as in, go sit on a butter churn and rotate.

The Lightning may not have a choice in the matter.  The NHL is very much a gate-driven league.  A couple of people attending a Tuesday night game on cheap tickets, who would have to pay for parking, and overpriced popcorn, and watered-down soft drinks, and maybe an ad-filled program, and if the kids are along, a stupid foam finger ((believe me, we have a couple of them littering our house), and maybe a souvenir puck…well, that’s better than not having those folks pass through your doors.

Other markets can afford not to dance with the discount devil.  In their cases, variable pricing may be exactly what the market can bear.  Because, after all, tickets to a pro sporting event is not a basic human right.  It is a luxury, even if it’s a reasonable price.  It’s the circuses part of Bread and Circuses.  If your local pro sports team prices itself out of the market, and have to leave town or fold, well, yes, it’s sad, because we’re all sports fans, but except for the employees of the team, it’s really not that big of a deal.  Your city will not fold up.  There are other things to do.  Read a book.  Heck, learn to read.

Yes, some would lose their jobs, yet most of the jobs lost would be of the low-paying, low skill set variety.  I’m not suggesting these jobs are not important, but people are not making a decent living off them, and often these jobs are seasonal anyhow.  These low-paying jobs are not reason enough to give public money to pro sports teams.

And here’s the thing pro sports swindlers try to trick you with every time a team threatens to move.  Yes, there are spinoff financial benefits that come with having a pro sports team in your town.  For example, the adjacent restaurants and bars are filled the nights the home team is home, and often when the home team is on the road, so they benefit from having that team remain in place.

But if that pro sports team backs in the Mayflower vans and leave, they’re not taking the community’s money with them.  In some cases, it has been argued, the community actually come out ahead financially, after not having to shell out for sweetheart deals to keep said team in town.

The money that Mom and Dad and kid and sister spent to see the Amnityville Horrors will be spent somewhere else.  Maybe at the movies, or at the hardware store, or at the local arcade, or at whatever other entertainment choices their city boasts.

The pro sports teams does not have a secret vacuum that will suck your money along with them.  Oh sure, some out-of-town visitors won’t drop by to cheer on their team, but when you do the math, more-often-than not, the money spent in order to keep a pro sports team happy, is not made up by this out-of-town revenue.

It’s the same thing when teams argue that public money should be used to fully or partially fund the building of a new arena, or ballpark, or football field.  “Think of all the concerts that’ll come to town and the money they’ll generate”.  That’s a common line.

Yeah, money for other people.  These carpetbaggers can convince me if they were to argue sports is part of the city’s culture, as important as the ballet, or the symphony, or even a museum, and I’m willing to swallow that.  But it’s always interesting to watch staunch capitalists turn into cultural socialists overnight if it means they can tap into public funds.  It’s so blatant, it’s shameful, yet it continues.

Did Springfield really need a Monorail?

Want a evocative sports read?  Then pick up a copy of Field of Schemes by Joanna Cagan and Neil deMause.  They throughly deconstruct the simple-minded arguments that a city gains financially by giving into the demands of a caterwauling sports team.  It’s worthy reading, particularly in these times when so many common folk (meaning you and me and most of us) are worried losing their jobs, and keeping their house.

With that in mind, it made for great reading last month when one of the bigwigs of the New York Yankees wrote a newspaper piece on why public money was not wasted when it was poured into the new playpen for the Bronx Bombers.  It read much like the propaganda from the mid-90’s that attempted to convince people that personal seat licenses were a liberating thing for sports fans, not a cash grab by greedy owners who know a cash cow when they see one.

Sure, the civic pride takes a bit of a hit when a big league team pulls up stakes.  Here in Toronto, only Canada’s largest city, and one of the major media markets in North America, the same cast of characters continually talk of “putting Toronto on the map” by chasing after big money dreams like the Olympics, or the NFL.  And, you’ll notice, most of these folk who dream these impossible dreams want to use your money to fund their dream…and then they’ll sell it back to you as “Our Dream”.

It’s called bribing you with your own money.  And sadly, it usually works.

(In that case, you’re damn right it’s a basic human right to get tickets to the Opening Ceremonies or the Gold Medal Game; after all, my tax money paid for it).

So now that we’ve established that attending pro sporting events is not a human right, why should any of us care what a particular team wants to charge for a ticket?  They can be shortsighted and price themselves out of the market, or they can be shortsighted and devalue their product in a desperate attempt to get you to go out with them.

But I have a suggestion to add to what the San Francisco Giants, and no doubt other teams, are going to do this year.

The variable pricing model?  Why stop at pre-game pricing?

How about in-game variable pricing?

Let’s take what I’m calling the Kern Kash (C) model and apply it to pro hockey.

Before the game starts, we’ll copy what the Giants are doing, and come up with some 20-point checklist to determine how much a ticket for a specific game should cost.  For example, here are some of the factors we’ll weight before determing how much you’ll have to fork over for a ticket:

- where is the seat located?

- how close is it to a washroom?

- how close is it to a clean washroom?

- will “Wally The Beer Guy” show up more than once-a-game?

- who’s the opponent that night?

- weekend or weeknight game?

- pleasant or terrible weather outside?

- who are the starting goaltenders?

- is Pierre McGuire between-the-benches that night?  (that’s good for an extra 5 bucks a ticket)

- who’s singing the National Anthem(s)?

- do fans promise not to do The Wave?

For argument’s sake, let’s say the Amnityville Ice Dogs are playing the visiting Hartford Jets.  The Jets are second in the division, and are starting hot-shot rookie goalie Scary Price in net.  Factor all that together, and your second-level blue-line ticket will cost your 85 dollars.

But wait!  Here’s where the Kern Kash (C) model gets interesting.  Depending on how the game unfolds, and how other in-game experiences go, you either will be refunded a portion of your initial ticket price, or will have your credit card charged for an additional fee, when you leave the arena that night.

But never more than 10 dollars either way.  Trust me, though, as the priniciple owner of the Ice Dogs, I’ll make sure we collect more than we refund; after all, this is a business.

After the first period, the Jets hold a 3-1 lead, thanks in part to a shorthanded goal by 58-year-old Claude Lemieux, attempting yet another comeback.

Since the home team is playing poorly, all ticket holders in the variable pricing areas of the arena are immediately credited with 5 dollars.

Halfway through the second period, some drunk in Section B spills his beer all over seats 1-5 in row 14.  These good folk are credited an additional 5 bucks, keeping in mind this part of the promotion might be swiftly discontinued when fans clue into the fact that spilling your beer, on purpose, on the good folk in front of you, will lower ticket prices.

Then again, REAL fans would never spill their beer.  Even our watered-down swill.

Third period is underway.  Goaltender Scary Price is sensational, stoning the home team, and the visiting Jets win 5-1.

Now, normally, the home team losing would be a bad thing, and everyone is attendence would receive a two-dollar credit, but tonight, the opposing goaltender is an emerging superstar, and you were lucky enough to see him turn in a virtuoso performance, and such artistry has a price, so everyone in attendence now owes an additional ten dollars on their ticket.

Which means your 85 dollar ticket that you bought to enter the Ice Dog House will now end up costing you 90 dollars, unless you were doused with beer.  Oh, and Pierrre McGuire was between-the-benches, so that’s 95 buckets, buddy, and be thankful it was only that much.  Don’t you know we have a ticket waiting list 25 years long?

Now that would truly be variable pricing.  Let the market bear what the market can afford, but on a period-by-period basis.

And, of course, every game will be on the club-owned pay-per-view cable station.

And, if you don’t like it, keep this in mind.

You don’t have to buy a ticket.

- Mick Kern

Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s

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

Parity is everywhere.  It has been in the NHL since the lockout of 2004-05.

So by now the players, coaches, media and fans are all very much aware of how difficult it is to make the playoffs.

There are roughly 30 games left.

In the Western Conference, as of the writing of this blog, there are six teams within six points of the eighth and final spot. The 14th-place team (Colorado) is six points away with Nashville and LA, while Vancouver is only one point back and Phoenix, Columbus, Edmonton, Minnesota and Dallas all have the same amount of points, 53. Only two games ago, the Coyotes were holding the fifth spot in the West, only to lose two consecutive games by 2-0 scores, and three overall…..and Holy Jumpin!…right in the 10th spot.

Wayne Gretzky has been saying it for two months now. Don’t get too excited. You win a few and you are in the playoff picture. You lose a couple or three, and you are right below the line. You just can’t get too high, nor can you get too focused on the line that separates the playoff teams from the outsiders. You also can’t lose more than three games in a row. You have to manufacture points, no matter how tough.

You really have to learn from experiences. Last season when the Coyotes were looking strong and were right in the hunt, they narrowed down an actual number that was needed to make it. They openly spoke of “HUGE” must-win games, and when they didn’t win them, well, the morale, from everyone involved in the team, went south. You could see it on everyone’s faces and in their demeanors. How could you not show it? It was much too black and white. The problem with that is when you lose. What is there next? When you say it is the biggest game of their lives, and they lose, what do you do the next day? How can you get them to re-group and re-energize?

The game was in Vancouver, a must-win that ended up being a tough, hard-played, 3-1 loss. They played well. Very well. The next night in Edmonton, the Coyotes battled back to tie the score 4-4 in the third period, only to lose focus and the game 7-4. For all intents and purposes, the season, and the team morale, was done.

The lesson is much clearer now than it was then. You can’t give up. As the Coyotes lost steam and the playoff poise needed, the Oilers took that win from the Coyotes and battled so hard, they came from below the Coyotes and nearly snuck in. They missed it by just three points. I am sure they learned an awful lot from that experience. They will be in the race until the bitter end this season, I guarantee it.

The Coyotes will too, as Wayne Gretzky has an uncanny knack of keeping things in the present. He also learned from last season and that is why he analyzes the game so well, especially after losses. He breaks it down as a simple matter of fact.

The last few games, losses at San Jose and vs. Buffalo, the power play has gone 0-13.

The effort and spirit of the team was excellent. The execution on the PP was not. He doesn’t take away all the good things that were done, he gets right to the point.

Big players that get on the PP have to be big players. They have to be difference-makers at important times. He will play the heck out of Olli Jokinen and Shane Doan in games at Nashville and at Detroit.

He will also put rookie Kyle Turris on a line with Jokinen and fellow rookie Mikkel Boedker, as they ended the last game against Buffalo with many good chances.

It doesn’t get any easier for Gretzky and company, but maintaining an even, business-like approach for every game, and for every morning the team wakes up and looks at the standings, will be essential when it comes to making the playoffs.

- Panger

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

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.

Live From Wayne Gretzky’s is 2-hours of live, 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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For the first time in front of the Phoenix media, Wayne addressed the issue of the current state of financial affairs for the Phoenix Coyotes. He and his team had been peppered with questions throughout the most recent road trip through Canada.

Here is what Wayne had to say today:

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Yes, there are issues and yes, the team has asked the league for and will get assistance in finding potential investors.

- Todd

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.

Listen below for my hockey wish list as we get ready to start 2009.  A tradition that we provide each year for the first Coyotes broadcast after Christmas.

Remember these views do not reflect those of the Phoenix Coyotes, National Hockey League or their sponsors … simply my thoughts around this great game.

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Back to the ice for the Phoenix Coyotes today as they are in Los Angeles to face the Kings.  Happy Holidays!

- Todd