Fading Away

WARNING TO READERS: THIS IS AN ANTI-FIGHTING HOCKEY BLOG. IF AVERSE TO SUCH DISCUSSIONS, AVERT YOUR EYES AND PLACE HEAD FIRMLY BACK IN THE SAND.

"In the not-too-distant future, it'll be, 'You fight, you're out."

These were words that had to put a chill in the heart of every red-blooded Canadian who believes with all his heart and soul that fist-fighting was and continues to be an integral part of hockey.

They were spoken by Canadian Hockey League commissioner David Branch in a radio interview with The Fan 590 on Thursday night as he commented on the decision by the Quebec junior league to institute a variety of anti-fighting rules in response to the messy Jonathan Roy incident from last spring.

(The disclaimer that preceded this post, by the way, is out of courtesy to those who believe I write on fighting endlessly and constantly. The truth is, I rarely do, but be prepared to hear this from respondents who can't actually argue the point. I will also be cleverly invited by those same folks to restrict my future writings to badminton and figure skating.)

Basically, Branch was suggesting that the die has been cast, that the hockey world is gradually rejecting fighting as part of the game and soon, while it will still appear, combatants will simply be ejected from the game. Which is all I've ever espoused.

It would be nice, of course, to see Gary Bettman echo these comments, but you'll probably never hear that. He continues to believe there's a constituency and an important one that must be served by including at least one bout per NHL game, and sometimes a few. More than that, he's spent years trying to convince people that he actually knows the game, and would be terrified to take a position that "purists" would slam him for. I've long believed Bettman believes fighting is a waste of everyone's time, but thinks he can't say so.

Remember, fighting was actually up in the NHL last season. According to hockeyfights.com, the bible of such matters, there were 664 fights in the NHL last season, an increase of 33 per cent from the 2006-07 season. That said, last year's figure was down about 16 per cent from pre-lockout numbers, which leaves one scratching one's head about the trend here.

Branch, however, seems to think fighting is on its way to the extinction list, and those who run the Q seem to be of the same mind. Truth is, there is little of it these days, and the bulk of the practioners are specialists employed by teams and managers who believe the presence of such a player is a deterrent and thus necessary to the success of a club.

Well, last season the Detroit Red Wings were dead last in the NHL with only 21 fights. Yet the "pansies" of the league still managed to win the Cup a year after the Anaheim Ducks led the league in fighting and won it all.

What does that prove? Well, probably that you can win by brawling, but it's not a necessary component for a championship team. The lone argument, really, is that to some fighting is entertaining, and you are left to wonder why those who adore it so much don't watch the real thing, like boxing or martial arts or ultimate fighting.

Like mandatory shields, a ban on fighting - meaning game misconducts for those who scrap - is inevitable in hockey. Just expect the NHL to be the last league to make it happen.

Interestingly, Anaheim's Brian Burke continues to be the No. 1 proponent of fighting in the game. Should he come to Toronto at the end of this season, you can bet his first move would be to make the Maple Leafs more "black-and-blue."

Whether that's the right direction for any team given current trends in the game is certainly open to debate, although if fighting is up again in the NHL this season, Burke may still be on the right track.

Winning and Meaning

Of course a 10-game win streak means something. Of course it means all that was supposedly bad about the Blue Jays is now good.

Well, of course it does, but with one caveat.

If you believe that the Jays have truly accomplished something meaningful over the exciting two weeks, that J.P. Ricciardi deserves to stay and a bunch of players will carry this over into next season, then you also have to believe the opposite.

That is, if the Jays now lose five in a row, Ricciardi et al are bums and need to go.

If that's how you evaluate a pro sports team, by the length of their latest winning streak or slump, then you have to go both ways. Wins mean security and contracts extensions, losing must mean comprehensive change and mass firings.

The smart fan, of course, simply enjoys the 10 wins for what they were, a combination of skill and luck at a time of year when expanded rosters change the elements of the game to some degree.

Beyond that, this streak means no more than the 8-0-2 rush with which the Maple Leafs finished the 2005-06 NHL season.

That wasn't exactly a harbinger of good times ahead was it?

Nor, as colleague Dave Perkins pointed out when the Leafs were putting that season-ending streak together under Pat Quinn, did the 34-18 finish of the '98 Jays under Tim Johnson.

Or the 19-7 finish in '03 that led directly into a 67-94 record the next season.

It's not that winning when the games don't matter is meaningless.

It's just not particularly meaningful.

If Paul Godfrey and Jays ownership have their heads screwed on right, they'll evaluate Ricciardi on the basis of his entire record since 2001. They won't just look at Travis Snyder and marvel at the farm system, but will examine the entirety of the youth and prospects that have been acquired under Ricciardi's reign.

Finally, they'll have to understand that this is a team that has never been to the post-season with Ricciardi at the helm.

Logically, that will be a fact that only the wilfully blind will choose to ignore.

So Much For Stability

It would seem the Argonauts ownership and top brass weren't at all impressed with the team's performance in Montreal on the weekend.

A week after supposedly saving his job by beating Hamilton, head coach Rich Stubler is out this morning as head coach two days after losing 45-19 to the Alouettes, with the CFL's all-time winningest coach, Don Matthews, coming back as `head coach for the third time.

Yep, that Don Matthews.

The Argos have an 11 a.m. press conference scheduled for this morning, with the participants being GM Adam Rita and CEO Pinball Clemons. It's not clear whether Stubler will be retained in any capacity, only that Matthews, who coached the team in 1990 and from 1996-98, winning two Grey Cups, is back.

He's 69 years old now, and has been rarely heard from since he quit as coach of the Alouettes in October, 2006, citing health reasons. He has 231 career wins - 49 with the Argos - as well as nine Grey Cup appearances and five titles.

The shakeup comes on the heels of Hamilton firing Charlie Taaffe as its head coach yesterday. Winnipeg traded running back Charles Roberts to B.C. last week and tried to trade Tom Canada to the Tiger-Cats for linebacker Zeke Moreno yesterday, meaning the three bottom-feeders in the East Division - Toronto, Hamilton and the Blue Bombers - are all desperately trying to save their seasons.

Stubler's run as Argo head coach ends after 10 games and only four wins, with the team's once proud defence, of which he was the chief architect, crumbling. Former league MVP Kerry Joseph, after playing strongly against Hamilton on Labour Day, struggled in Montreal and Stubler wasn't afraid to say so afterwards.

Having a losing record and publicly criticizing the star player is a formula that rarely keeps a head coach in place very long.

Stubler, who took over from the highly popular Clemons, was criticized internally for being too insular in his approach and for being too critical and hard on his assistant coaches. He came out his shell and was much more open with the media on the weekend in Montreal, but it was too late to save his job, with Clemons and co-owner David Cynamon at Molson Stadium to watch the debacle first-hand.

Going to Matthews is a big gamble, for his last days in Montreal weren't pretty. That said, he and Rita are very tight friends, and generally speaking, his players have always loved playing for him. While he has a gruff exterior and has traditionally held the media with disdain, he prefers to run a loosey-goosey operation, demanding only that the players be prepared and ready to perform on game day.

The Argos brought in a bunch of new players on Monday, and more changes may be coming. With Winnipeg coming to town on Friday, more victories are necessary to make sure the Boatmen at least make the post-season. Moreover, with the threat of the NFL and the presence of the Buffalo Bills in the marketplace, the Argos need to try and put a more consistent, entertaining offensive product on the field, particularly with scoring in the CFL way up this season.

The club failed to qualify for the Grey Cup last November when the big game was held at the Rogers Centre, a major disappointment for ownership. Clemons decided he'd had enough of coaching, and giving Stubler the job after years of being defensive co-ordinator was a decision met with some disagreement within the organization because of Stubler's prickly ways. He rarely spoke publicly while running the Argos' highly respected defence, and seemed generally uncomfortable with the spotlight when thrust into the head coaching position.

Whether the Argos can turn the season around under Matthews is unclear. The defence just isn't what it was, and Joseph has been inconsistent, even after his backup, Michael Bishop, was traded away to Saskatchewan, ending an ongoing quarterback controversy.

The team has been toying with the idea of trying to sign former Saskatchewan running back Kenton Keith to bolster its iffy running game, but haven't been able to come to terms with the back.

In Toronto football circles, Matthews is as big a name as Clemons, and bringing him back, at the very least, guarantees the club will grab some headlines.

Like It Was Scripted

So the Patriots lose Tom Brady. And Brett Favre plays hero in his Jets debut.

And now the Pats and Jets meet next Sunday in the Meadowlands.

Man. Just like somebody wrote it down beforehand to make the NFL season a little more dramatic, as if more drama is required.

So the questions were clear afterwards.

Was the hit on Brady fair or dirty?

Was Favre good or damn lucky?

The Brady hit first. Kansas City safety Bernard Pollard, blocked to the ground, made a hustle play by retrieving his momentum and hurling himself forward.

At Brady's knee, as it turned out, nearly a carbon copy of the play that shredded the knee of Cincinnati QB Carson Palmer in the 2005 playoffs.

A legal play, sure. But if Pollard had leapt in the air and swatted Brady across his well-protected head, there would have been a 15-yard penalty. Maybe a follow-up fine.

The Pollard hit is a play that just can't happen in any league in which quarterbacks are valued, which is every league.

If defensive players can restrain themselves from blows to the head, they can restrain themselves from those types of hits to the knee, even if they are in essence the result of extra effort.

Dirty? No. But something that needs to be legislated against.

Now on to Favre. The blind TD heave was Chansi Stuckey was a total fluke, and Favre admitted afterwards that there were times he "just winged it" in the victory over the Dolphins. After all, he just got his hands on the playbook.

He was 15-22 for 194 yards and two touchdowns, pretty solid, and it was a goofy game at times, with the Jets forced to run plays at different times because their placekicker was injured.

With Favre you just never know what is hastily designed, sandlot stuff, and what's just good karma.

But you throw that ball that he threw to Stuckey in the playoffs, and it gets picked off.

Green Bay can tell you all about that.

So the Pats and Jets play next week, and the jumbled AFC East also includes the interesting Buffalo Bills, very impressive in winning their opener over Seattle. Trent Edwards isn't the name that Brady and Favre are, but then again, he's probably readier to go than Matt Cassell and he's better than Chris Simms, or Daunte Culpepper, or whoever the Patriots turn to now.

The Unsanitized Version

Every once in a while people in sports drop the cliches and the company line and actually speak their minds.

It happened twice this week.

At the U.S. Open in New York, Serbian star Novak Djokovic was exultant in his hardfought victory over American Andy Roddick after Roddick had, either jokingly or otherwise, essentially accused Djokovic of faking injuries to get time outs during matches.

Interviewed on court afterwards, Djokovic made special mention of beating Roddick in the U.S. at his favourite tournament, then blasted Roddick for turning the crowd against him with the injury accusations.

"That was not nice," said Djokovic.

As the crowd booed, Djokovic didn't back down and try to play nice in the sandbox, but instead continued to lament Roddick's pre-match comments.

"You guys (the crowd) are against me because they think I'm faking everything," said Djokovic, a fan favourite at last year's events for doing on-court impressions of Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova.

Gutsy, and now we'll see how he's greeted for tomorrow's semifinal against Roger Federer.

Former Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella, meanwhile, let his hair down in an interview on Ottawa radio, the gist of which was subsequently picked up by the St. Petersburg Times, in which he blasted the new Lightning ownership team of Oren Koules and Len Barrie as "a couple of cowboys."

"I have zero respect for them," said Tortorella.

Tortorella accused Koules and Barrie of "lying" to the traded Dan Boyle, said they were trying "to reinvent the wheel" in Tampa and suggested the acquisition of defenceman Andrej Meszaros from the Senators was "a hell of a deal for Ottawa."

Just settin' 'em up and knockin' 'em down, folks. Wonder what the next owner who considers hiring Tortorella will think of those spicy words.

Tortorella, interestingly, has just signed on as an analyst for TSN, essentially replacing the departed Mike Milbury, another outspoken hockey man. Tortorella, however, told the Tampa Tribune that viewers may have a mistaken impression of what he's like.

"There's this perception of me that I'm some kind of ranting and raving lunatic and all I do is rip people, but that's not the case," he said.

That must have been the "filter on" day.

Simultaneous Transactions

Interesting that Pat Quinn and Bryan McCabe would be in the news in the same week.

Once, the two men were key collaborators in the attempt to bring the Stanley Cup back to Toronto. Quinn played the heck out of McCabe, turned him into a Leaf blueline workhorse, and McCabe responded with his best NHL seasons.

Then the star faded for both men in Toronto. Now Quinn has got a new coaching gig, and McCabe a new hockey home.

First Quinn. Clearly the man wants to coach again in the NHL, and it's surprising he hasn't received a chance. You have to be impressed that his gigantic ego didn't get in the way of taking first the under-18 Canadian coaching job last winter, the 2006 Spengler Cup and now the reins of the Canadian national junior team for this year's world championships in Ottawa.

He won gold with the under-18s and silver at the tricky Spengler, more international hardware to go with his gold medal from the 2002 Winter Olympics and championship work from the 2004 World Cup.

Maybe these competitions are Quinn's calling, even more than NHL work.

After all, it's curious that in a quarter-century of coaching in the NHL with Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Toronto, often with very good teams at his disposal, the 65-year-old Hamilton native didn't win a damn thing.

But when in charge of a Canadian entry for a tournament, he's almost a lock, with the dismal finish of the country at the 2006 Olympics the only major blemish on his international coaching record, a result that probably had more to do with some very questionable player selections.

By the end with the Leafs, he was the wrong man for the job. But in short tournament-type events, however, he commands immediate respect, and it could be where his straightforward, simple message of skating and puck control works best. Moreover, with no fighting in these international events, Quinn's worst bully instincts don't bubble to the surface.

He certainly deserves credit for not thinking the under-18 posting or the national junior job are beneath his dignity at this stage of his long career. The focus on Team Canada at the world juniors in Ottawa will be excruciating, and he's certainly handled the limelight before.

Now a little more on McCabe.

In responses to this blog and a column in The Star this week, some took offence at my suggestions that this deal that sent McCabe to Florida was less than a brilliant transaction for the Leafs. Some suggested that it was a flip-flop on my part to suggest for a number of years that McCabe had played below his abilities and was overpaid, but then to argue that when he was dealt, the trade wasn't good enough.

Well, that's not a flip-flop at all.

To say McCabe needed to be shipped out of town is one point. But then you don't just give him away. It's ridiculous to say any deal, no matter how it was structured, was a good one for the Leafs to make and to disagree is a flip-flop.

Well, if the Leafs had thrown in Tomas Kaberle along with McCabe and fourth rounder, would that have been a good deal for Toronto? Of course not.

Maybe there wasn't more out there. But maybe there was, and the Leafs were unwilling to wait patiently as the season progressed to find a trading partner because they were obsessed with moving McCabe for public relations reasons.

It's interesting, for example, to compare the Leafs trade of McCabe to Florida and Tampa's deal with San Jose that made Dan Boyle a Shark.

McCabe and Boyle aren't identical commodities. Boyle is two years younger, but like McCabe, received an outlandish contract from the Lightning before being dealt, a six-year, $40 million extension that could prove to be one of those millstone-like contracts to have on the books. Like McCabe, Boyle had a no-trade provision in his deal.

Like McCabe, Boyle has been bothered by injuries the past two years, hurting his production to some degree.

But while the Leafs had to throw in a draft pick and swallow McCabe's $2 million bonus just to get overpaid, 29-year-old Mike Van Ryn (two more years at $3.35 million) out of the Panthers, the Lightning, in exchange for Boyle, received promising 23-year-old blueliner Matt Carle, San Jose's 2006 first round pick Ty Wishart, a first round pick next June and a fourth rounder in 2010.

That's a promising package of youth and picks.

Again, McCabe and Boyle aren't exactly the same commodity. But they're not completely different, either. In fact, McCabe's significantly cheaper for the next three years.

So sure, McCabe had to go. But couldn't the Leafs have done better?

And if the cap room gained over time by the deletion of McCabe is really the main gain and the driving philosophy of the Leaf organization behind the swap, why would the team be offering Mats Sundin multiple years at $7 million or more, thus swallowing up much of that cap room if Sundin were to accept?

The name of the game for the Leafs shouldn't just be accumulating cap room. It should be accumulating prospects and draft picks, something more difficult to do when you're trading draft picks at the rate Cliff Fletcher has been in recent months and all but giving away former all-star defencemen.

Protecting Assets

Aside from the fact that Barry Melrose was going to be hired as the new head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, this qualifies as the summer's worst-kept hockey secret.

Bryan McCabe's going to be dealt by the Maple Leafs to Florida today, with the holdup in the deal that was worked out weeks ago being that McCabe needed to be paid a $2-million bonus yesterday before the Panthers would finalize the deal. McCabe's already relocated to Florida, and while it's not hard to believe he'll play a lot better outside of Toronto, which became his personal purgatory, you have to wonder if refusing to be traded last winter has worked out well for him, given that he's now been shunted aside to join the endless mediocrity in Florida.

Meanwhile, so much for the constant bleating of those who said it would be impossible to trade McCabe and his five-year, $29-million contract.

Can't say this is a bad trade for the Leafs, and can't say it's a good one that will help significantly. It certainly shouldn't be heralded as any great achievement, for having to move McCabe is really a sign of failure for both the team and player after he was signed to his lucrative contract and managed to play out only two of the five years in Toronto before finding it impossible to stay any longer. Mike Van Ryn is four years younger and the Leafs gain some salary cap flexibility, although with the club's payroll now at $46 million and the cap at $56.7 million there didn't seem to be an urgent need to chop salary.

It's the final nail in the coffin of the comfy cartel that was the Muskoka Five, but more than anything, its another piece of intriguing evidence on the manner in which the Leafs have struggled terribly to manage assets in the post-lockout era.

Cast your mind back two years to the middle of the 2006-07 season. Mats Sundin was a point-per-game centre, McCabe a 57-point offensive threat from the blueline, Darcy Tucker a respected 24-goal shooter, Andrew Raycroft a reasonably solid workhorse goalie and Kyle Wellwood an emerging talent who ended up with 42 points in 48 games that season.

For that group of five players, which partially comprised what the team described as its core, the Leafs have harvested very little, although Sundin, theoretically, might still come back (Why in the world would he?). Well, they've harvested Van Ryn, a draft pick and whatever other bits might accompany the deal today. Otherwise, zippo.

You can blame John Ferguson Jr. or whoever you want, or the nature of no-trade contracts or the difficulty of operating in a cap world.

But these are the facts. The Leafs had those assets, overvalued most of them, held on to some of them too long and ended up with little in return when those assets were moved elsewhere. The Leafs used to be able to compensate for this type of weak, wasteful management when they could just go out and buy as many players as they needed, something that's been a lot more difficult to do since the end of the lockout to end all lockouts.

In fact, the Leafs had to pay Tucker, Raycroft and now McCabe to go away, just as they did with Tie Domi and Ed Belfour. The reminder of Tucker, for instance, won't be a young player or draft pick but the $1 million annual cap hit that will show up on the Leaf books for the next six years.

Anyway you cut it, this has been a period of horrific asset management for the Leafs, one of the reasons the cupboard looks distressingly bare as they head into a season in which winning 30 games will likely be a significant challenge.

Rhythm of the Sporting Seasons

Spectacular day for Labour Day football. A good day to get back at it.

August is gone, and we move into a new time on the sporting calendar. The CFL is getting serious, the NFL is getting ready to start, the U.S. Open tennis is into its second week, hockey training camps are in preparation and the baseball season is into the final lap of the regular season. Didn't make it to a game in the final year of Yankee Stadium, but did get to Cleveland (Indians) and Erie (Seawolves) on a late-summer baseball trip, so can't complain.
But let's talk Argos and Cats today at Ivor Wynne. Despite all the hype, it's not a do-or-die contest. Not even close.

Only Montreal has more than three wins in the east, which means that with 10 games left, there's more than enough time for either Toronto or Hamilton to re-group, make up ground and grab a playoff berth down the line, cross-over game or no cross-over game.

Today doesn't decide the season for either club, despite what you may have heard.

Everybody in Argo-land wants to blame Rich Stubler, and the head coach always gets the brunt of the grief. But this is an organizational thing, with the stability of the past few seasons now a distant memory. Turnover is in the air, veteran stalwarts like John Avery, Eric England and Noel Prefontaine have been lost in recent seasons and the steadying hand of former president Keith Pelley is no longer on the scene. This is less about a team without talent and a coach who can't coach than a team that is in a state of flux from top to bottom.

A win or loss today won't change that, although a win would make everybody feel better.
In Hamilton, finally, there's at least optimism and a sense of team personality. This is a team that runs the ball and then runs it again, whether oft-injured Jesse Lumsden is in uniform or not.

Not sure how that plays out down the line, but for a team that desperately is trying to remember how to win, leaning on a powerful ground attack and making the team persona revolve around that is a solid approach.

Casey Printers should get the start, but how long before Richie Williams gets the call if Printers struggles again?

It should be a dandy on a blessed September day. But do-or-die? Not even close in a league in which teams in bigger holes than the Argos and Cats have climbed out just in time before.

Not even close at this time of year.