z_The Hockey Page - Toronto Star

Cup memories

With the Leafs in Tampa tonight against the defending champions, a story of time, place and Lightning that's worth revisiting this morning, just in case you missed it the first time around: On the road with the Cup.
Dirk Shadd, a photographer with the St. Petersburg Times, writes a delightful remembrance about travelling around Europe and North America with Tampa Bay's Stanley Cup the summer before last, in a Romenesko posting that includes this Before Sunrise moment (there's no permalink to Shadd's story, you'll have to scroll down to the third entry in the linked post to find it):

I think the real significance of this story hit me after one all-nighter in the Czech town of Pisek. As dawn approached, I found Lightning player Stan Neckar lying on his back on the cobblestone sidewalk near a 14th-century bridge, the oldest in the Czech Republic. Two baguettes served as pillows beneath his head; he was hugging the Cup to his chest.
He told me he had taken the Cup to the bridge to watch the sun rise and think about his life.
"You realize it's the last hour and that could be the last time," he said. The seldom-used member of the team cried hard, tears of joy. "Even when I had a kid, I never cry. Even when I'm injured."

Only thing about this is that it leaves me wanting more -- of his impressions. Shadd's work on what was a summer-long project, "Stanley's Summer Tour" has already been out there for a while, and it's fabulous, just the thing to get you through your morning coffee.

Oh, and the Leafs reads for ya:

Darcy Tucker, limping after taking a shot off the foot, may not play tonight: "I think I have been a lot like the team. How the team is going is a reflection of how I'm going." (Um, I don't get it, either.)

With the Dec. 1 deadline to sign restricted FA players for this season, the Leafs  re-signed injured Karel Pilar (Although he's skating with Marlies, there's no word when he might be back with Leafs).

Lance Hornby at the Sun has a nice one about how the puck from Ed Belfour's career win No. 447 was bought for $100 and delivered to the goalie just before the team bus pulled out of the rink in Florida.
(C.Y.)

History in an unlikely place

Leafs win 2-1 last night in Florida, thanks almost entirely to Ed Belfour, who ties Terry Sawchuk with 447 wins, second on the all-time list of goaltending victories.
A comparison, quickly, on the top three in that category, and the differences are far less than you might expect with all the changes to the NHL since Sawchuk's heyday:

Patrick Roy 1,029 games, 551 wins, 2.54 GAA
Sawchuk    971 gms, 447 W, 2.51
Belfour       871 gms, 447 W, 2.45
Jacques Plante 837 gms, 437 W, 2.38
Tony Esposito 886 gms, 423 W, 2.92
Martin Brodeur 751 gms, 412 W, 2.19
Curtis Joseph 812 gms, 407 W, 2.74
Glenn Hall 906 gms, 407 W, 2.49
Grant Fuhr 868 gms, 403 W, 3.38
Mike Vernon 781 gms, 385 W, 2.97

It's in the much longer playoff season of the contemporary NHL where you really see differences:

Roy 247 gm, 151 W, 2.30 GAA
Sawchuk 106 gm, 54 W, 2.54 GAA
Belfour 161 gm, 88 W, 2.17 GAA
Plante 112 gm, 71 W, 2.14 GAA
Esposito 99 gm, 45 W, 3.07

AP PHOTO

Terry Sawchuk, left, spends a little quality time with a couple of friends, Sid Abel and Stanley.

Now to the links off last night's game. As Paul Hunter points out, the setting around the rink last night was the last place you'd expect hockey history to be made, and the name of Sawchuk to be invoked, "amid the strip malls in the urban sprawl of south Florida in a game that lacked much emotion or excitement."

My take was a little more succinct, but along the same lines: Empty seats, horrible ice, some truly bad penalty calls (including one Olle Jokinen dive that was straight out of the Jurgen Klinsmann stylebook) and that lame snarl over the house p.a. that punctuates every stoppage. This is Gary Bettman's NHL, not mine.

Here's Belfour on Sawchuk: "It's unbelievable to be in the same ballpark as him". And from Rosie DiManno's column, more Belfour: "He was a fierce competitor. He was very acrobatic out there and obviously very brave, not wearing a mask for most of his career. I'm just honoured to be tied with him."

Okay, so the quotage wasn't great. By Belfour's standards, it was Lincolnesque. And just like the Ol' Railsplitter, or Sawchuk in the crease, he's standing tall.

Speaking of down memory lane, here's a little something for ya: Joe Nieuwendyk at 39, skating out his sunset years.

Other stuff: the Sun's Al Strachan riffs on the Leafs' power play; And remember the Mike Danton story? The CBC looks at the case tomorrow night, including some taped conversations that'll make your head shake, reports Chris Zelkovich.
(C.Y.)

---

Riding in on Chris's rain-coattails this morning, as we do our morning look around the league for some good links; let's keep with that all-time goalie great theme.

If we pick up on that all-time wins list, there's Curtis Joseph with 407. Tied with Glenn Hall (for now). After a rough training camp, Cujo's quiet start has turned into a full-blown howl, and the calls of MVP are being heard. Last Saturday, Don Cherry called him the best goalie going right now and he might be right.

Joseph's got 11 wins for an inconsistent Coyotes team, to go with a tiny 2.12 GAA and .932 save %. Those are "old" NHL numbers. And they've got Cujo on the Olympic radar.

Wayne Gretzky says Cujo will get full Olympic consideration if he keeps it up, and he should. Gretzky always says he'll take the players who are playing best at the time (hello Mr. Pronger, Mr. Blake, Mr. Niedermayer -- Mr. McCabe is in the waiting room) so why not Joseph? (SW)

Over-and-overtime

You'd think Chris was travelling with the Leafs this weekend, working all that overtime -- somehow he managed to get the morning off. But life goes on. And on the weekend, it went on... and on... and on... heck, even the CFLers got into the OT spirit.

Leafs, shootout losers Friday to Hurricanes (thanks a lot, referee), then back home to trump the Habs in overtime (thanks a lot, referee). Proof that in even the hockey world the forces of good and evil will balance out: Leafs were wondering why video replay wasn't used in Carolina to give them what appeared to be Sundin's overtime winner, only to lose in yet another shootout (more on that later).
Then, back at home Saturday and a penalty call just in time for extra time and, yup, Sundin gets his OT goal, Leafs avoid the dreaded shootout, Canadiens go home fuming and Leaf Nation is back in balance.

AP PHOTO

No dice on the poke-check from Mikael Tellqvist Friday night.

Today, Leafs hit the road for a mini three-game road trip. Panthers (hey, Joe Nieuwendyk is supposed to play!), Lightning, Thrashers -- three teams below them in the standings (Tampa's played 26 games for 29 points, Leafs played 24 games for the same). A quick look at the East:

Ottawa       36 points
NY Rangers  35
Carolina       31
Montreal      32
Buffalo        29
Philadelphia  29
Toronto       29
Tampa Bay   29
----
NY Islanders 25
New Jersey  24
Atlanta       22
Boston        21
Pittsburgh   20
Washington 18
Florida        18

Leafs are 1-3 in shootouts this season. Allan Ryan has the stats: they've taken just nine shots in four shootouts. Eric Lindros has their only goal.

Maybe it's too early or just too silly to do this, but even just two extra points in the standings puts Buds deeper into the playoff picture and closer to fourth seed and some of that home ice advantage. (more importantly nobody wants that 8th seed and date with Ottawa in the first round - hands up if you wanna play the Senators in the first round. They've played the fewest games in the league (21) and are tied with Detroit with the most points (36).

But we won't hate on the shootout today. Not after Satruday's 15-rounder at Madison Square Garden.

A quick look around the league shows the Bruins deathwatch is still going, and the undertaker is looking this way. The coach is too often the goat when a team is struggling, and today we spot a mention of Paul Maurice as a possible new man in Beantown.

Tonight, Leafs meet Florida, formerly known as 12-game losing streak. Paul Hunter has their sad story and the trade rumours. Not that trading Roberto Luongo will help:

''Our poor goalies have been getting killed out there", says Gary Roberts.

One lineup note from Ken Campbell this morning Colaiacovo back on the Buds' blue line. (SW)

Dope talk

So Dick Pound figures a third of NHL players are juiced.
Pound has already been hit by denials from predictable quarters, the NHL and players' association shocked and appalled. Over at Sports Matters, Avi Schaumberg crunches WADA's own numbers to cast doubt over His Royal Poundness's calculator. Buried in the Globe and Mail's report this morning, too, is an allusion to the fluidity of the term "performance-enhancing", something to always bear in mind -- one man's chili pepper is another's cold pill; and how can you classify designer drugs when there are no tests yet to detect them?
Pound has never been shy about going through the media to make his case. He comes across as trying way too hard to be the Elliot Ness of sports doping, his long association and history at the IOC, an organization that makes FIFA look like a nursery school, inspiring nothing but skepticism, if not outright disdain. There's so much grandstanding, the temptation is to sound the clarion: Test Dick Pound.
Only problem with that approach is that it amounts to throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
The drugs are out there, new ones and better ones and impossible to detect, and there's still enough gray area that tougher testing penalties or not, someone's going to be taking them to get an edge.
That's not as good a headline, though. If Pound insists on putting a number on it, a little supporting evidence is the least to ask.
Or, in the way we put it around here:

Dick Pound is talking.
A rush of blood to the head
and calls of "shaddup"!

One more thing before the weekend: it wouldn't be a week without the Leafs shuffling the lines would it? And don't look now, but Marius Czerkawski has re-appeared. And fer crissakes, on the No. 1 line with Mats Sundin yet, as Pat Quinn gets on the loafers from Wednesday's non-effort.
Here's your latest combos out of yesterday's practice, from Ken Campbell:

Tucker-Sundin-Czerkawski
Domi-Lindros-Steen
Ponikarovsky-Allison-Antropov
Stajan-Wellwood-O'Neill
(In an emergency, break glass line: Kilger-Wilm-Belak)

(C.Y.)

One of those nights

Tom Fitzgerald, the former Leaf turned Bruin, had this to say about last night's one-sided Boston win at the ACC, which followed a tirade from his boss about the "dysfunctional" B's:

"They weren't on a six-game losing streak. We were. Desperate hockey is where we're at and we're still desperate."

Ownership rants can backfire, but this one seems to have to work like a charm, as Andrew Raycroft put it to Dave Perkins: "The understatement of the century."
Still, a strange night. Boston's obvious motivation was answered by the Leafs with passivity, lack of offence, dumb penalties and Ed Belfour. Nobody in blue and white played well -- Barely settled into my chair, the Leafs were outshot 10-0 early and I was writing in my notes "this is the worst they've looked since the Ottawa game" (slight exaggeration there -- against Buffalo and Washington since, they've looked as bad, at least for period-long stretches).
Only one game. Doesn't mean much at all.
But come to think of it, taking a page out of Jacobs' approach and assembling the Leafs owners for a rag on the team's play might not be a bad idea from time to time. Imagine. The Teachers, the bank and Larry each speaking their piece. Might even get the Platinum Clubbers to their seats on time.

On to other business, and regular poster Carla hits a haiku out of the park (with a little dash of the Ogden Nash, too -- very nice):

Jason Allison
January molasses
Faster? The latter.

Poor girl's being force-fed turducken and football down in Salt Lake City today, and she comes up with this gem. An example to us all. Think you can do better? Bring it on.

Taking off the Leafs glasses for once, we find super agent Rich Winter has entered the Ted Saskin fray. I've been trying to stay away from this one, as it goes on and on, but what I find interesting is that finally someone is taking the focus away from bylaws, and due process and throwing some harsh light on THE DEAL:
Among Winter's complaints, writes Rick Westhead in The Star -- Who authorized Trever Linden to negotiate a salary cap; How Bob Goodenow was removed; and voting based on a synopsis of the CBA that fixed the escrow figure at "no more than 1 or 2 per cent" when it will likely wind up at 15 per cent.

Meantime, welcome home and happy (U.S.) Thanksgiving, Jiri Fischer.
(C.Y.)

It's Hockey Haiku

Hockey haiku. It's everywhere.
The other day, regular poster Jlo sent this one off the post and it went right over my head -- my personal McGuire mute button must've been on -- as he defended his defence of the excitable one:

That's not a haiku.
I stand by Pierre McGuire:
He knows his hockey.

And consider this, from last Saturday's helping of Bob Cole, who sometimes speaks in nothing but haiku:

How do you say it,
I asked, is it Chuck or Chook?
Il-ya Koval-CHOOK.

Now it's your turn. Spencer and I want your haikus, from the delicate to the blazing. (Yes, I know. This is not a new idea, but hey, we steal from everyone.)
We'll highlight the best of 'em -- if the response is good enough, perhaps we'll have one of our clean-off-the-desk giveaways to our favourites. If it's as good as I think it will be, it's a regular feature:

So bring 'em on now,
Like a McCabe blueline blast,
or Pierre, muzzled.

On to the linkage:

Last night's Crosby-Ovechkin game within the game is the talk this morning, Paul Hunter in Pittsburgh to note that "if the measure was artistic merit, the victor was the NHL." And this is just a hunch, but after yesterday's word from Mario, the rumbles to put Crosby on Team Canada are just beginning.

The Leafs are considering retiring more sweater numbers. And with Boston in town tonight and the Leafs going for five in a row, it's Eric Lindros' 700th NHL game. 

James Mirtle riffs off Spencer's Top NHL Lines posting from yesterday:

The line to watch of those listed is that out in L.A. Consider that Conroy wasn't even part of the line for the first 6-7 games of the season and you get a small idea of how good they've been the past dozen games. I'd wager they've been the league's best line over that period.

Interesting sidenote from Mirtle, too, out of last night's Rangers shootout win over Buffalo as the Sabres switched goalies during the shootout, after an injury to starter Noronen apparently got worse. That's their story, anyway.

Oh, and for Jiri Fischer new, check over in JABS.
(C.Y.)

Hot pickup lines

A busy morning. After yesterday's slim pickings, we'll go with one from category A and a goodly bunch of those links from the B side:

First, what's the line du jour in the NHL (And I don't mean, "two minutes for hooking")? That's the question Spencer, that hard-workin', hard-livin', puck-lovin' kid tries to answer with some numbers he crunched just for you.

This will result in much envy here in the CoHU. Sure, the Leafs have this warming trio going right now in Allison, Ponikarovsky and Antropov, to go with their No. 1 line of Sundin, Steen and O'Neill. But no one is writing anything down in ink. In the 416, the Leafs don't have lines so much as they go out on a date. If it's good, they make plans to go out again few nights later. And so on, and so on, until the inevitable meeting in the drawing room with grumpy poppa Pat, when he asks them about their intentions and they run out of the room screaming.

Okay, enough tenuous digressions.  Here they are, the NHL's top troikas with their stats through Sunday's games. No surprise who's on top, and thanks for this, S.W.:

Spezza-Heatley-Alfredsson: 95 pts, +58
Forsberg-Gagne-Knuble: 88 pts, +49
Savard-Kovalchuk-Hossa: 79 pts, -4
Demitra-Frolov-Conroy: 78 pts, +31
Jagr-Straka-Nylander: 78 pts, +3
Lecavalier-Modin-Prospal: 71 pts, +23
Thornton-Murray-Samsonov: 68 pts, -8
Hemsky-Horcoff-Smyth: 65 pts, +6
Staal-Cole-Stillman: 64 pts, +25
Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom: 62 pts, +29
Naslund-Bertuzzi-Morrison: 61 pts, +16

Oh, and you wanted some Toronto equivalents:

COLIN MCCONNELLl/TORONTO STAR

Leafs at practice. How do they line up against the best?

Sundin-Steen-O'Neill: 41 pts, -6 (but Sundin's missed 9 games)
In 9 games since Sundin's back: 25 pts, E -- projected over 21 games is 58 pts, E

Ponikarovsky-Antropov-Allison: 37 pts, +6 (last 2 games since together: 10 pts, +3 -- projected over 21 games is 105 pts, +31 and absolutely ridiculous.)

Any surprises here (apart from somehow overlooking the Wellwood-Belak-Domi grouping)?

And on to a busy morning on the links:

Paul Hunter has a nice one looking at Crosby and Ovechkin as they hook up for the first time tonight in Pittsburgh:

One gets the impression that Crosby wouldn't be caught dead wearing the tie-dyed shirt, torn jeans and red running shoes that Ovechkin showed up in one day at the Caps' training facility. Besides, Lemieux would never let him out of the house dressed like that.

Hunter's pulling double duty too -- less than a week after his turn with the ballet, for pete's sake -- with a bit of news. Mario Lemieux says he may not want into the Olympics, if it means taking up a spot for someone like a Spezza, a Staal or (surprise) a Sidney Crosby:

"There's too many good young players now. To take a spot because of your name, that wouldn't be right for Team Canada or myself."

Hmmm. Are you listening, Stevie Y?

Frightening story last night, as Wings' Jiri Fischer had a seizure on the bench and his heart stopped beating, stunning the Joe Louis Arena crowd and putting Detroit in shock. Fischer was given CPR, an auto debrilllator was used and he was taken to the hospital, where last night he was reported to be alert and upbeat, and his condition was listed as stable:

"What happened basically is, Fisch was out on a shift, he came off, he was standing there with his teammates, or sitting on the bench, and he had a seizure," Babcock said. "He fell forward and then ended up on his side. Right away, as soon as we got aware of what was going on, we got it stopped."

In Leafs world, Jeff O'Neill missed a skating-only conditioning session yesterday to undergo tests on his shoulder.

And Neil Stevens at CP, one of the finest people you'd ever want to meet in this business, writes of a new book that'll no doubt show up on the upcoming JABS Christmas book thread, A Season of Loss, A Lifetime of Forgiveness: The Dan Snyder and Dany Heatley Story.

It's raining hats

It's a quiet morning here at the CoHU, so we'll go easy, and throw some softball links at you:

Start you off here -- what happens when you get a hat trick on cap night? Watch. (WMV required; thanks to the HF Boards for the link).

While watching HNIC Saturday night, you'd think Steve Yzerman had just questioned the parentage of Tie Domi or something, the way they were going at it on the Satellite HotStove mutual admiration society. Yzerman said of this postmodern NHL "it's not hockey", and while the Hotstovers were all nodding their heads, I say -- siddown Stevie. Sure, you've earned the right to your opinion, and yeah, it may not be the hockey you've grown used to, but that's not a bad thing (and by the way, he wasn't complaining before the Wings went three games without a W).

Leafs are off till Wednesday, but here's your daily fix: Paul Hunter takes a look at Alek Ponikarovsky, who was (wait for it) shooting the puck on Saturday night. Even scored a couple, and the line of Poni, Allison and Antropov had a strong game: "That was only their second game together but it has the potential to be a strong unit for us," said Pat Quinn.

Also at ESPN.com, Scott Burnside takes a look at job security around the league, and no surprise, but Columbus and Boston management are feeling the heat.

The Sun's Mike Zeisberger empties his notebook and looks ahead to next June's draft and probable No. 1 Phil Kessel.

It's old, but in case you missed it: Terry Frei at ESPN.com on the morning skate. (One thing worth mentioning, perhaps, from over at the NBA, where teams are curtailing or at least changing the timing of their equivalent, the shootaround, while the NHL retains this game-day ritual, a legacy of the 1972 Summit Series.)

Some off the rink news: Russian club files suit against Caps' Ovechkin; and if you must, Trent Klatt's website has a page of reaction around Steve Larmer's resignation from the NHLPA, including the full Larmer I-quit letter.

(C.Y.)

Case for the defence

The Leafs have a nice little string going, and Ken Campbell hits it right on the head in his morning gamer off last night's tidy 4-1 win in Boston against the limpid limping (thanks, Matthew) Bruins (another one of those broadcasts from "Canada's sports leader in high-definition" that wasn't available in HD):

In their past two games, the Leafs have taken a total of just eight minor penalties and have surrendered only one goal while killing them. In the new NHL, power plays are so important that you'd better make sure you're not getting your lunch handed to you 5-on-5 on a regular basis. In their past two games, both wins, the Leafs have given up one 5-on-5 goal.

Those penalty stats  are a bit skewed, too, by the double minor O'Neill took in the last two-plus minutes last night, well the Bruins had turned into human white flags. Up until recently, the Leafs were good for a couple of dumb stick penalties a night -- I haven't seen one since a careless O'Neill trip in the first period at Montreal last Saturday.

Which brings me to a question -- is it just me, or do you see the referees changing the way they're calling the game? It was noted last night on the broadcast that players who dump the puck in are being ridden off into the boards now with some gusto, and although that seemed to be a penalty a month ago, it's not now.

There are, too, at least one or two occasions a game now where apparent penalties aren't called (last night, it was a cross-check on O'Neill in front of the net; based on just impressions, the front of the net area does seem to be a little more vigorously contested of late). The Leafs are playing with some added discipline (finally!), but it also looks to me like the refs are letting a little bit more go -- although I'd love to hear some opinions from those of you who are watching more games from elsewhere around the league than I confess I am right now.

I had some defensive stats to throw at you, but I've left them at work and will update this later when I get into the office next week.

Meantime, here's some good reads, some of them I've been hoarding after yesterday's technical-difficulties day made for a compressed posting:

Ace hockey scribe Paul Hunter gets dressed to kill as an extra in the National Ballet Company's Swan Lake production, and compares the pas de deux to a cross-ice pass -- a great morning read from one of this paper's best writers:

It is when the dancers traipse off the stage and drop the elegant facade, that one gets a better understanding of how hard they push themselves. Unheard over the orchestra is the panting as they gasp for their breath and grab for water bottles, not unlike a hockey player after a tough shift. Unseen are the pained expressions as they stretch and contort their bodies, limbering up for the next scene.
There's nothing like the image of a swan maiden, doubled over, spitting in to a garbage can to dispel the notion that this is easy.
(snip)
As for myself, my task at yesterday's matinee consisted mostly of standing and nodding the odd time, a role made for a sports reporter.

Ace blogger Eric McErlain has his weekly podcast out -- and also this week, he writes about taking up an invitation to attend a Caps game in owner Ted Leonsis's box (Imagine -- a blogger getting that kind of recognition. Nice job Mr Owner. Nice job Eric).

NHL.com has a bunch of blogs going, including one by 24 star Elisha Cuthbert. (If pushed, I'd take a blogging seminar with Elisha over an invite from Larry Tanenbaum).

Hockey Analysis has tinkered with its Entertainment Index (yeah, I couldn't resist, that's me with the comment about adding minus points for Pierre McGuire on the broadcast)..
(C.Y.)

What team is this

Leafs are in Boston tonight, looking to extend themselves to a third successive win.

This is a little more than your garden-variety November night on the schedule. It's a division game, for one thing, but also more importantly, they've been icing their most complete and excuse-free lineup of late, making some conclusions into focus. Finally, observers can judge something that's been up for debate since the beginning of the season -- just what's the identity of this team, anyway?

This argument can be contrived -- I mean, in a 30-team league where talent is spread so thin, some are just crap and you leave it at that -- but any group with playoff aspirations gets some kind of shorthand attached to them that sums up what they're about. Big team, grinding team, speed team, finesse team, veteran team, young team -- that kind of thing. So I want to know -- what are these Leafs? C'mon, not everyone at once. Lance Hornby at the Sun touched on it today, so can you.

Some links for you (and sorry for being so late with this, but you know what happens with these computers sometimes. More to the point, you know what happens to me with computers sometimes. We just don't get along):

Ken Campbell, on a reconnaissance mission in Boston, finds the Bruins "hungry, motivated and irritable."  Which sounds a little (and only a little, maybe just the hungry part) like, well, this guy. (Thanks to a pair of essentials, Vancouver Canucks Op-Ed and James Mirtle, for the tip).

Everybody's in denial -- the state, not the comments guy, although I'm sure he'll pop up soon -- about ongoing reports of friction between the triangle of Allison, Quinn and JFJ: "In Toronto, these are the stories you hear here. What happened and what was reported are two different things." (Ed. note -- *Yawn*).

Rosie DiManno looks at Tomas Kaberle, content with his role as Bryan McCabe's server.

(C.Y.)