Doubleheader Night, Part I: How to Coach a Hockey Game

Of all the moves that will guarantee an extension for John Ferguson, the removal of ossified Pat Quinn and the hiring of technocrat Paul Maurice is the one that will do it.
Wednesday night’s win over Tampa should be sealed in a vault, to be taken out and reviewed whenever you want to see a fine bit of string-pulling. Maurice simply outcoached a Stanley Cup winner on the opposite bench. Notes from a scorecard after the jump . . .

Photo of the Day: Cujostled

JOHN ULAN/CANADIAN PRESS

Curtis Joseph gets iced by Oleg Saprykin on Monday night.

Into the weekend: From Pro-Line to No-Line

Time to wrap things up, looking ahead to the annual exercise in masochism known around JABS Mansion as Browns Weekend. It's even supposed to rain. Joy.

But first, with all this idiocy at Queen's Park about outlawing online gaming advertising, a word about the province-run sports lottery, which ought to be sued for false advertising after they played chicken (again) last Sunday, taking the Bengals game off the board. In other words, it's not such a bad weekend to be away after all.

On to the usual . . .

One last read. The New York Times' Vincent Mallozzi caught up with Joe Frazier in Philadelphia this week:

Ten pounds heavier, but millions of dollars lighter, according to Frazier and the marketing people who work with him. Over the years, Frazier has lost a fortune through a combination of his own generosity and naïveté, his carousing, failed business opportunities and a deep hatred for his former chief boxing rival, Muhammad Ali. The other headliners from his fighting days — Ali, George Foreman and Larry Holmes — are millionaires.
But while Ali has benefited from lucrative licensing agreements and remains one the world’s most recognized and celebrated athletes, Frazier lives alone in an apartment one staircase above the gym where he and others train young fighters in a run-down part of town.
“This is my primary residence,” he said. “Don’t matter much. I’m on the road most of the time, anyway.”

One last e-mail. Monday's Notes from a Weekend post wondering where the hell all the hats were when Mats Sundin completed his hat trick brought this one to raise hopes that there is some life in the old ACC-mausoleum-on-Leaf-nights after all, from Aunt Wendy:

My two nephews, Steven, 19, and Matt, 23, were at the game, sitting in the Gold section (I might add that this was a once in a lifetime ticket for them, to celebrate a 19th birthday) behind the Flames bench and when Mats scored his 500th and third of the game in overtime, both of them, along with several others, threw their hats on the ice!
Steven, the 19 year old, had just bought his hat a couple of weeks before (camaflouged Leafs hat, of course!!) and hesitated for only a second in throwing it, sure that he would be able to buy another one after the game, only to be disappointed in finding out that particular hat was no longer available!
So there's at least one hat in a pile of them, that truly was thrown in the best of moments, with no regrets afterward, although a little disappointment.

One last salute. To Eric McErlain, whose Off Wing Opinion is one of the best hockey-centric sports blogs around. Eric has been picked up by NBC Sports, so check him out.

One last view. Joe (Jellybean) Bryant, otherwise known as Kobe's dad, dunks on Kareem (thanks to the TBJ's J.E. Skeets).

Sports around town.  The Pattison Canadian International has a field of 10 at Woodbine on Sunday, along with the E.P. Taylor as good as it gets for major-league thoroughbred racing in these parts - although according to Jennifer Morrison, the heavy rain of this week isn't exactly what International favourite Go Deputy likes.

Watching. Well, whatever comes up in front of me - I'm away, right? But Real Madrid-Barcelona is one of those matchups that carries some potential for fireworks, Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. on GOLTV.

Pooch punts. Jinks the Viszla went 0-5 last week. Which is, frankly, amazing. I mean, 2-3 or 1-4 is just crappy. But 0-5? That's perfection. This weekend he's scarfing down: KANSAS CITY +5, Denver -4 1/2 (BAD Dawg!), New England -5 1/2, HOUSTON +9 1/2 and the NY JETS -3 1/2.

More great moments: Michel Therrien vents

Following on the Lee Elia retrospective of a couple days ago, e-mailer Cliff sends in this one - "While not quite Jim Mora grade, it was classic material" , he writes - a what-the-hell-they-don't-care postgamer from Penguins coach Michel Therrien last season:

"I think that's their goal - to be the worst defensive squad in the league ... There's a lot of guys don't care. They pretend to care. I know they don't care."

Notes from a weekend

Around the world in a post, even if I haven't had much time to link anywhere but the most nearby places:

The Raptors are invisible no more. This may or may not be good news, depending on how you view preseason games on triple-digit TV - or if you view them or that region of the binary universe at all. The Raptors added yesterday's preseason game (boxscore), while advertising their final two home preseason games -- against Maccabi on Thursday, and against the Cleveland LeBron's on Sunday night. It's the scoreboard feed, mind you, but it is the local team, Chuck and Jack and Norma and the rest. An improvement, that, on the dark screens in the offing last week.

LUCAS OLENIUK/TORONTO STAR

Bosh, Nesterovic: Just add Bargnani and serve hot, Sam.

As for yesterday, a couple of little items from said broadcast. Anthony Parker looks like a poor (and slightly smaller) man's Shane Battier. And Andrea Bargnani does have a lovely shooting stroke, as Jack Armstrong noted between fouls, and wasn't shy to go down in the post and demand the ball - this kid just oozes hoops class. Otherwise, no real surprises, to me, anyway. One thing I'd love to see before this exhibition season is out, as a preview to what we should be seeing later on: Mitchell to give a frontline of Nesterovic, Bosh and Bargnani some minutes together.

Other stuff:

Mats Sundin's tour de force Saturday night was the latest display of shoot-first, ask-later excellence from the revitalized captain. But correct me if I'm wrong here - I didn't see a single hat on the ice after Sundin's game-winner. If any hat trick deserved it, this one was it. Are we too cool for that, too, Toronto? Best pressure performance of the night, though, may have been the relief pitching of Cassie Campbell, stepping in for snowbound Harry Neale on Hockey Night in Canada and handling it pretty smoothly.

Argos DB Byron Parker had another superb afternoon on Saturday and is putting together a pretty remarkable stretch of football -- seven interceptions in nine games, and four of them returned for TDs, since signing on Aug. 6.

Petr Cech is still in hospital after that awful collision Saturday, with a fractured skull. The accident, and an ensuing injury to backup Carlo Cudicini, has touched off a debate about goalkeepers' vulnerability.

Blog fave Neate Sager weighs in on How Detroit Built their Miracle Team. Not even knowing who they're going to play in the World Series, the books already have them favoured pretty handily.

An NHL stat I'd like to see

A truism from the (pardon the expression) New NHL™: Special teams are important. A key stat, the PP and its PK flipside. But what I'd like to see: stats kept on fouls committed, and who they've been committed against. The NBA (at least on fouls in the act of shooting) and soccer keep track in their play-by-plays of both ends of the candle, but the NHL, as far as I can see, does not.

Tim Larsen/Associated Press

Gionta: A natural hat trick AND three power-plays created.

I'm not being geeky here. Okay, perhaps a little. But in an age of new statistical paradigms, wouldn't this go further to defining a player's worth? Over at Raking Leafs, Mike noted this week how much more valuable (binkie alert) Kyle Wellwood is because of the fouls he forces opponents into making. It was on display again last night, a lovely little feint at his own blueline leading to an errant stick tap that put the Devils on the penalty-kill.

I kept a scorecard from last night's game on fouls (my call on the infraction, not the official one) - who committed them and (in bold here) who the foul was committed on, along with the ensuing PP result:

First period
Ponikarovsky Tor hooking foul on Gionta, NJ = penalty killed
Brylin, NJ hooking foul on Wellwood, Tor = PP goal, O'Neill
Second period
Peca, Tor tripping foul on Gionta, NJ = penalty killed
Third period
McCabe, Tor hooking foul on Brylin, NJ = PP goal, Gionta
O'Neill, Tor roughing foul on Brodeur, NJ = penalty killed
Gill, Tor interference foul on Gionta, NJ = PP goal, Gionta

A pretty clean and tidy game here - some nights would be a lot messier. But look again, at the contributions of Brian Gionta. Besides that natural hat trick, he created a hat trick of power plays, and scored on two of them. That's outstanding New NHL™ work on the ice, and on and off the official scoresheet.

And while we're at it, on the subject of stats I'd like to see, how about fouls committed? The NHL has always put penalty minutes together, so majors and misconducts are lumped in with two-minute minors. To me, fouls committed and fouls forced are as important and directly related to those power-play numbers you see being tossed around every night. They're telling numbers, and tailor made for the way the game is being played now.

Long weekend links

Some links and e-mails that caught my eye over the long weekend:

First, Kukla's Korner had a fine post from George Malik on where the Penguins' new ownership and hockey fans might be best served if the team is eventually moved - and it's not southern Ontario:

The economic giant that is Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, as well as their biggest investor--the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund--have as much interest in competing for dollars as OPEC does in sharing their oil wells.
So, in the unlikely event that the Penguins were to move, where would they go? Kansas City? Las Vegas? Houston? Seattle?
How about Winnipeg?

Just in time for the World Series semifinals, Idolator presents the worst national anthems. Take Them Out of the Ballgame, please:

Scott Stapp ("God Bless America," 2004 World Series, Game 4): Is it the punctuating breaths? The fact that he seems to have forgotten how to pronounce the "ve" sound in "love"? His introduction as "the voice of Creed"? Or is it just that he's Scott Stapp, and even when he's not inflicting his lyrical Jesus complex on the world, he's still flat and completely insufferable?

Monday was the anniversary of Tom Cheek's passing. Neate Sager remembers.

Whatever happened to Wayne Ruiney? Richard Williams investigates.

And one more. E-mailer Chuck Smith Murphy sends in this on Kyle Wellwood:

Kyle Wellwood is simply a young Adam Oates looking for someone to finish off his fine playmaking ability. Could Mats be the guy for Kyle? Players like Kolovchek and Ovechkin are perfect matches for Wellwood's considerable playmaking skills.
Last year was particularly frustrating to see Pat Quinn limit Welly's ice time. He averaged more points per minute played than other other Leaf player. Yes PPM -Points Per Minute played is the most important offensive stat a coach needs to monitor, but many coaches don't understand that concept yet.
The Leafs may not realize it right now, but this guy is the cornerstone of the franchise once Mats Sundin retires. The team with a long history of extremely poor player management has to make sure he stays a Leaf for a very long time.

I was at the Leafs game last night, sitting in the greens, my first game in three years. I'd just said it for about the fifth time this season - "If this guy had a shot, he could book his all-star ticket right now" - when Wellwood, apparently tiring of deking the puck into the goalie's pads, simply blasted away and wired one past Alex Auld.

So maybe he does have a shot after all. In the bigger picture, it proves one thing. Although there's a time and place for everything, including Pat Quinn with the Leafs, there's no better illustration of the necessity for a coaching change this season than Wellwood's development from last year's spare part into this year's first-line, power-playin' dipsy-doodler.

Into the (long) weekend: Banner night

Wednesday night's pregame ceremony raising banners for Salming, Kelly and the late Hap Day provoked this from one e-mailer:

FRANK LENNON/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

Baun: Deserving of a banner?

The fact they chose #21 in honor of Salming and overlooked Bobby Baun, who also wore the number and played on (four) Stanley Cup winners and scored one of the most famous Stanley Cup goals ever. Baun was there, invited I believe by the Leafs, but why not twin the honor with Salming like they did with Kelly and Hap Day?

Baun was one of 11 Leafs to play on their four Stanley Cup winners of the 1960s. He played with Toronto from 1956 to '67, went away in the expansion draft (to the California Seals) and came back for a last hurrah from 1970 to '73. That's a lot of meritorious service, and that goal in the 1964 Cup finals will always be recalled by fans of a certain vintage. On the other hand, it's not like Baun was anything other than an rugged, stay at home defender. That goal was his combination Henderson/Willis Reed Moment - Baun never made an all-star team. Does he belong up there with Bower, Mahovlich et al? Sounds like a (long) weekend assignment (for anyone over 40, that is).

One last read. Dave Feschuk's column on the NBA's shorter training-camp practice regimen got this rejoinder from Mark Cuban: I wish I was allowed to write this.

One last letter to Gary Bettman. Aaron Reynolds, part of the JABS Baseball Roundtable, sounds off in Batter's Box on the advertising links on the NHL's redesigned website, including scam survey offers and pirated streaming TV:

Gary, someone who works for you is approving this junk and allowing it to be put on the NHL's website. It's a serious disservice to your fans, and a major embarassment for the NHL -- this is the league's flagship site, supposedly the number one place to go on the internet to read about hockey. Why are your people tarnishing the reputation of the NHL for a relatively miniscule amount of money?

One last story. In the current (October issue) When Saturday Comes, a look into the uncertainty surrounding the age of Newcastle's recent signing Oba Martins, reported to be six years older than what was listed on the website of his former club, Inter Milan. Apparently the discrepancy was not a result of a doctored birth certificate, but had its roots in the Nigerian Football Association's website, where the webmaster was in a dispute over being paid and hadn't bothered to update erroneous information:

Suddenly the webmaster was public enemy number one in Nigeria. The culprit was traced and theatrically arrested, with police staging a dawn raid at his house. He was put in jail until he'd agree to cooperate by revealing the password needed to change the site.

One last appeal. ArmchairGM, a wiki-type blog, is looking for contributors, especially on the CFL. Any blog with a posting on Irish Road Bowling is pretty fine in my books.

Sports around town. Up at York, it's the final women's hockey tuneup before another season starts next week - U of T meets York. And oh, but we have to mention it - the 0-5 U of T football Blues, minus their suspended coach, meet Western at Birchmount Stadium.

Watching. Yankees at Tigers, Friday, 8 p.m., Sportsnet. You mean the playoffs are on? And the Tigers are in them?

Punters' corner. I'm giving Jinks the long weekend off from the arduous task of handicapping. Happy Thanksgiving.

Opening night puck notes

Opening night reviews are in. And in movies as in hockey, it's the same notes being pounded over and over. A few blurbs:

"The Leafs put up numbers before the game but couldn't do it on the ice." Paul Hunter

JON GARDINER/REUTERS

Briere: Lovely finish.

"Mats, poor Mats. On pace for an 82-goal season. Unfortunately, so is his team." Rosie DiManno

"The Mats Sundin-needs-a-winger crowd was silent until the first three minutes or so." Bruce Arthur

"How many times am I going to hear "who's going to score on this team?" before I start clenching my jaw and talking back to the little voices in my head. I get it. We all get it." Bitter Leaf Fan

You get the idea. The preseason book on the Leafs - other than Sundin, where are the goals going to come from? - was the pounding. And to think, only 81 more nights of this. Bring on the NBA, please. If there's one thing I like better than watered-down leagues and overhyped teams, it's lots of it.

Thanks to the Centre Ice package, there was heavy PiP action between Leafs-Sens and Sabres-'Canes at the JABS Grotto. Here's what the Sabres did that the Leafs didn't/couldn't do: surprise the goalie, in this case Cam Ward. Two goals on redirected shots, and a lovely finish from Daniel Briere - deke to backhand, top shelf - for the shootout winner. It's not exactly fitting to compare the "Work in Progress" Leafs with the Cup-contending Sabres and yes, Martin Gerber was good for Ottawa, but as Dave Shoalts noted in the Globe, they did make it awfully easy for him at times: too many pucks "obligingly fired ... into Gerber's stomach."

Bigger story this morning is Jim Balsillie buying the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is the same fellow, recall, who recently put out $50,000 to extend exclusive rights to NHL hockey at the Copps Coliseum.

Question of the day: A new name, for if (when?) the Pens move (just don't count on Hamilton being the destination). Penguins in Motion, say.

NHL Preview: Bloggers Roundtable, Part III

It's game day, finally, arriving just in time for the final chapter in this latest Bloggers Roundtable. Funny how that timing works.

In Part I, it was all cap management and a first look at the Northeast Division. Part II looked further into the Northeast, with the Canadiens, Senators and Sabres getting the once-over. (In order of the panel's preference, it's a close call at the top between Ottawa and Buffalo, with Montreal next best behind them).

So here it is, the Leafs on the grill along with some quick predictions -- then it's your turn in the comments. It's Part III - let's get to it then . . .