Another Poll, Same Results

So 63 per cent of Canadians who call themselves hockey fans want fighting in the game according to a poll in the Star today.

And 61 per cent of Canadians in general think fighting should be banned. And that leaves us where?

Well, in the same place. A similar poll a couple of months ago showed basically the same results, which were discussed over and over in this blog.

The pro-fighting crowd believes this should, in some way, end the discussion.

Ah, don't think so.

The reality is that 37 per cent of hockey fans don't like fighting, and without a shred of evidence to support it, my guess would be that's a share that has increased steadily over the past 25 years.

But the pro-fighting crowd still rules the roost, which means in the NHL, North American minor pro hockey and major junior hockey in Canada engaging in a fight generally only means a five-minute major.

But sanctions continue to crowd around the actions of fighters, including new ones proposed by NHL general managers just last week.

So the days when fighters set their own agenda are over. And the day when fighters in most leagues - including the NHL - are booted for fighting aren't far off. A decade, perhaps.

Change takes a long time in a sport as deeply-rooted in tradition as hockey. When I grew up in the 1970s, bench-clearing brawls were common, and there were just as many folks willing to justify them as there willing to provide rationales for fighting today.

Eventually, bench-clearing scraps were legislated out of existence.

Today, there are new rules against fighting in the OHL and QMJHL. Last week, instead of getting rid of the instigator penalty, the root of all evil according to the pro-fighting crowd, NHL GMs voted to use it more aggressively.

So change is a-coming, and the tide is unstoppable. Hockey, the great game that it is, will only be greater when fighting vanishes from the landscape. Of course, those of us who don't need it in the NHL only have to wait about a month when the element that some argue is so indispensable to the game totally disappears during the NHL playoffs, the most meaningful time of the year.

So, those of you that love it so much when the gloves get dropped, wrap yourself in today's poll if it makes you feel better. And enjoy the last few days of the NHL fighting season. I'm sure the game will be so lousy without fighting once the playoffs begin you'll find something else to watch.

But understand your days of being in the majority are dwindling. Enjoy it while you can. And let the argument rage on!

Scattered Thoughts for A Monday Morning

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Martin Brodeur tied the NHL wins record on Saturday.

When it comes to Martin Brodeur, one can only wonder what might have been and marvel at what is.

If Brodeur had entered the NHL 17 years ago as a member of an Original Six team or even one of the NHL's more high profile franchises, his reputation and profile would have been that much larger even if he hadn't accomplished that much.

He almost certainly would be better paid.

As it is, Brodeur, tied today as the winningest goalie in NHL history with Patrick Roy, wakes up today as the 60th highest paid player in the NHL. Nine goalies - Evgeny Nabokov, Cristobal Huet, Tomas Vokoun, Marty Turco, Miikka Kiprussof, J.S. Giguere, Nikolai Khabibulin, Roberto Luongo and Henrik Lundqvist - earn a higher salary than Brodeur, a near laughable reality.

Choosing to be a Devil for so long, and choosing to take less to leave more for teammates in the salary cap era, has created this unusual economic story, unusual in that none of the netminders listed above have accomplished anything close to that which Brodeur has accomplished.

CHERRY BOMBS

Interesting on Saturday night to hear and see Don Cherry rail against those who spent the week providing coverage of the fighting issue off the GMs meetings in Florida rather than focusing on the playoff races.

So the guy who talks fighting every single week, rain or shine, whether there's a reason at hand or not, is suddenly cheesed off that fighting it being discussed.

Okay, sure.

It's right up there with Cherry professing to be upset because somebody else - Alex Ovechkin - is behaving too flamboyantly.

Or holding up Bob Probert - major drug and alcohol problems, frequent run-ins with police - as a model of what a Detroit Red Wing should be while at the same time professing to lecture to kids.

Ahh, nothing like a whiff of hypocrisy.

FAMILIAR PHANEUF

Don't know about you, but watching Dion Phaneuf play on Saturday night against the Maple Leafs sure reminded me a lot of the type of game Bryan McCabe used to deliver regularly at the ACC.

Those who watch the Calgary Flames play regularly would tell you that's Phaneuf's game, all over the map and with constant improvisations, particularly in his own end. Can't see him on the Canadian Olympic team at this point.

RULE BOOKED

Interesting to see that the instigator rule is already being called more aggressively. In Sunday's tilt between the Rangers and Flyers in Manhattan, Philly captain Mike Richards levelled Nikolai Zherdev with a fierce but clean hit. Dan Girardi of the Rangers jumped in to fight Richards, and was subsequently assessed 2, 5 and 10 for instigating.

That's exactly the way in which that penalty needs to be used. What's interesting still, however, is that Richards is forced to go to the box for five minutes simply for protecting himself when all he did was deliver a legal check.

For doing so, he gets pummelled and penalized, which still makes it a good trade-off for the Rangers, right?

The correct penalty would be a game misconduct for Girardi. That would be fair.

HEAD GAMES

In the Saturday game between the same two teams, meanwhile, Richards was given an elbowing penalty when New York forward Brandon Dubinsky faked as though he'd been hit in the head in the open ice when the contact had really been shoulder-to-shoulder. Despicable, really.

If the NHL wants to head such soccer-style shenanigans off at the pass, they'd suspend Dubinsky for a game.

HAVE MERCY

A mercy rule in a major international tournament featuring professionals?

Sorry, but that makes the World Baseball Classic a write-off for me.

WALKS LIKE A DUCK

Brian Burke could never have imagined that he'd have left Anaheim for Toronto and ended up with the more successful team.

But that could end up being the case. As of today, the Ducks have 70 points in the NHL standings, just one more than the Maple Leafs. Playing in the tougher Western Conference, of course, has something to do with it, but it sure is evidence of how the 2007 Stanley Cup champions have fallen.

Moreover, with Burke gone, the Ducks are rarely newsworthy any more. It was largely because of him that a team in Orange County, California somehow became one of the most talked about clubs in the NHL.

DESERT STAR?

Just as Sidney Crosby was a big part of the reason the Penguins stayed in Pittsburgh, its worth wondering if John Tavares could ending up meaning the same. . . to the Phoenix Coyotes.

Don't look now, but a Phoenix team that was in striking distance of a playoff berth at the all-star break has crashed to earth and is now in striking distance of the Islanders for dead-last overall in the NHL.

Tavares, quite obviously, would give the Coyotes a true marquee name in the desert for the first time since they moved there from Manitoba. Having Wayne Gretzky coach hasn't sold tickets, but a player with star quality might.

And if he goes to Long Island? Quite frankly, at this point I wouldn't wish that on anybody.

GENERALS NEVER SURRENDER

Tavares' former junior team, the Oshawa Generals, ended up missing the OHL playoffs by a single point, an impressive showing, really, by a team that gave up the present for the future in dealing Tavares to London.

Kudos to GM/head coach Chris DiPiero for keeping the Gens competitive.

Thursday Mail Bag

Usually, the meeting between two teams after a big trade is a much-anticipated collision. Somehow, tonight’s game between the Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning doesn’t shape up that way.

It was only last week, of course, that the Bolts peddled goalie Olaf Kolzig, defenceman Jamie Heward, minor-leaguer Andy Rogers and a fourth round pick to the Leafs for minor leaguer Richard Petiot. This, of course, was a cash-for-draft-pick deal, although some have tried to say that Heward may soon play and therefore it adds up to more that a well-camouflaged purchase of a fourth round selection.

Wrong. In fact, when the Lightning tried to involve Anton Stralman the deal, it was almost called off. This was never going to be a straight hockey deal.

Instead, it was one between a wealthy team (the Leafs) and a team bleeding red ink (the Lightning). The salary cap era, it seems, has not completely leveled the playing field.

Now on to this week’s mail bag:

Q: Hi Damien,

Just curious as to what you think of the Guy Carbonneau firing. As a Habs fan, I'm still split on it. The timing of it however, is rather interesting to say the least. On a side note, I think the expectations of, and with such a young team, has a lot to do with their season thus far.

Graham Jack,

Ottawa

A: To me, the Canadiens lost their mojo a bit this season. Last year, they had offensive power and a certain swagger. This year, well, there seemed to be more uncertainty than anything else about who the Habs wanted to be. I wasn’t surprised Carbonneau was fired or that Gainey took over, particularly given the controversy emanating from the Montreal dressing room over the social choices of some members of the team. I think Gainey knows that the only way to understand what’s going on inside his team is to go behind the bench and find out.

Q: Hi Damien,

Greetings from the land of the Coyotes and sunshine.

After reading the comments of one George Laraque of the Habs and his thoughts on the idea of fighting in the game, he calls the latest ideas as "stupid" He says he is at the end of his career and is sticking up for others. I know he has been in the league for quite a while and only because of the skill (?) he has. My question is what kind of a salary has a person like him been able to accumulate over the length of his sojourn in the NHL? Enough to make statements like this?

Curtis Sleeman, Mesa, Arizona

A: Over the past 13 years, Laraque has made about $9 million in NHL salaries, including a high of $1.275 million in the 2003-04 season while with the Edmonton Oilers.

Given these times of economic constraint, it’s interesting that NHL teams still insist on paying millions of dollars to players who usually skate between 5-10 minutes per night.

Q: My question concerns the link between trade deadline and general managers meeting and how it affected this years deadline.

In the three seasons after the lockout the NHL held GMs meetings a week to ten days before the trade deadline and we saw 25 trades with many top line players traded. This year the NHL decided to have the GMs meetings after the trade deadline and for all intent and purposes the deadline was a slow and uneventful day. With Olli Jokinen the only real top line player traded while Bouwmeester, Gaborik, and Kaberle stayed put.

Do you think that not having the GMs meetings before the deadline had an affect on the trade market?

Joseph Ierfino, Gormley

A: Perhaps, but issues like the North American economy and concerns over the future direction of the NHL salary cap had more to do with it. I don’t think that in this day and age GMs have to meet face-to-face to make a deal. That said, there has been enough new blood come into the GM ranks in recent years – Scott Howson, Brian Lawton, Mike Gillis, Steve Tambellini, Ray Shero – that perhaps that the relationships between those GMs and other veteran types have yet to be formed.

I think this may change again next year. Detroit GM Ken Holland, for one, thinks the GM meetings should sandwich the trade deadline, with two days of talks before and two days after. All this said, without trades on their minds, the GMs were able to focus totally on issues at hand regarding the game (fighting, head shots, etc.) during their meetings this week and most commented it made for better discussions.

Q: Hi Damien,

Historically as a life-long leaf fan, I have not liked your point of view very often but have lately began sharing your opinion in recent articles. I have a few questions and you can choose which ones you would like to addess:

1.  It seems you are not so critical of Leaf management since Burke has taken charge, is this you respect for Burke or you satisfaction that regardless of who is President, that they have full control of hockey operations now?

2.  Why do you think Jiri Tlusty is still in the minors after tearing it up down there offensively?  To develop more defensively, to give the Marlies a fair shot in the playoffs, etc?  Also, where do you see him next year and beyond as far as potential.

Joe Akey, Shenzhen, China

A: Burke is a very experienced man with a recent Stanley Cup ring and a plan. He is in charge, ownership is out of the way (for now) and there is a strong recognition within the organization that some short-term pain is necessary to build a winner. I guess I understand why you might say I’m less critical of management now, but at different times I over the past 20 years I’ve have had positive and negatives things to say about all the management teams, whether it was Floyd Smith, Cliff Fletcher, Ken Dryden, Pat Quinn or John Ferguson running the show.

On Tlusty, he’s in the minors where he’s supposed to be, learning his craft. That’s where he should have been all along. Now, as he’s emerging as a dominant AHL player, his next step will be to crack the Leaf lineup in an offensive role next fall.

Q: Hi Damien,

I work with a hardcore Habs fan that could hardly wait until trade deadline day to see what Montreal was going to do. He was picking and choosing which Leafs were going to be wearing the Rouge, Blanc et Bleu by the end of the day.

When it was all said and done, the Habs ended up not doing anything and a couple of the players he thought Montreal would have been interested in, either didn't move or went elsewhere. Is it a case where Gainey really didn't want to do anything, or was it a Burke expecting too rich of a price for what he was offering, plus not wanting to help conference and lifetime rival Montreal make a playoff run?

John Lockwood,

Kingston

A: I think Burke would have traded with any team. The prices were low all around, and even the Buffalo
offer for Dominic Moore came in the final 90 minutes before the deadline. As far as what Montreal
did, or didn’t do, Gainey made his player moves well before the deadline (Mathieu Schneider, Glen Metropolit) and then replaced Carbonneau as coach. When you add it all up, the Habs did as much as anyone else.

Q: Damien,

Do you know if Burke has done anything to improve the scouting department of the Leafs? Fine and dandy having all these lovely mid round picks but who do they have out at the junior rinks these days, the same cast of characters that unearthed three Belleville Bulls all those years ago? That is something that is not readily reported on, unless it's an executive being let go like Al Coates. How do the Leafs currently compare scouting talent wise with the best teams?

Regards,

Ian Eggleston, Queensville

A: It’s hard to compare team-to-team, and it depends on whether we’re talking amateur scouting or pro scouting. In both areas, the Leafs have constantly shuffled personnel over the past 15 years, with different scouts coming in and leaving with each new administration. I think the current amateur team led by Dave Morrison is going to get a chance to prove what it can do. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised to see most or all of the current pro scouting group replaced. It’s been a weak point of the Leafs for a long time, and the acquisition of veteran pros like Jamal Mayers, Ryan Hollweg, Jeff Finger and Lee Stempniak certainly did not betray a pro scouting department that is particularly sharp.

Q: With the availability of prospects through trade declining, will we be seeing better and younger players available as UFAs? Will more and more Antropov-type players be available due to financial considerations? I mean, this is a 28-year-old who has scored more than 25 goals and he's being let go. In the pre-lockout NHL, no one was free until after 31, so the free agency situation has already changed dramatically. What can we look forward to?

Gabe Byatt, Fort Simpson

A: It depends. For a while, teams were locking those types of players up to long-term deals. Now, with clubs shying away from long term contractual commitments, that may change. This summer it seems likely that Jay Bouwmeester and both Sedin twins, among others, will be UFAs. In general, teams are having to make tougher decisions on players, and they’re having to make them earlier.

 Q: Hi Damien,

 My feelings towards fighting are just about the same as yours.  I do have a question about the new approach to 'staged' fighting.  As these fights are  obviously coincidental, no team is shorthanded.  The goons are off for an extra 10 min but don't usually play more than 4 min in a game anyway.  Is this really a deterrant to the goons or the teams?

 Thanks,

 Matt Binks,Sudbury

A: Great question. If Derek Boogard gets five and 10 for a first period fight, is it really going to bother the Minnesota Wild much? That said, I wonder if part of this is banking on the embarrassment factor. Just as players don’t like to be called for diving, I doubt enforcers will want to be identified as having “staged” a fight. Maybe they’ll just find another way around it.

Q: Hey Damien,

Any chance that the Leafs sign Dominic Moore this summer? Or does he get the money he wants elsewhere? I really like his game and his character, but I applaud the leafs for not over-paying. Also - did the Leafs get fleeced on Nik Antropov? Surely a consistent 20-goal man is worth more than a 2nd rounder alone. Cheers!

Ben Birchard, Toronto

A: There’s a chance the Leafs could re-sign Moore, but they won’t be offering the two-year, $3.4 million contract they were offering before the trade deadline. They were willing to overpay then (at least in their estimation), but it won’t be the same in July. Fleeced on Antropov? The price was the price. If people won’t pay more, that’s what the market will bear. Having had Antropov around for a decade and believing he had become a player who didn’t mind winning or losing, the Leafs simply wanted to move on.

Q: Hey Damien,

Just a quick question; whatever happened to Ryan Hollweg? Why not give him some playing time instead of signing Hamilton. Seems like a waste of money to me.

Joel C., Toronto

A: I agree. Hollweg was a waste of money. He’s where he belongs now, in the AHL with the Marlies. He blew his chance to be taken seriously when he hit St. Louis rookie Alex Pietrangelo from behind on opening night and got suspended. This one one of Cliff Fletcher’s more pointless moves, spending a fifth round pick to acquire Hollweg from the Rangers. Surely Ben Ondrus could have done the job and the pick could have been saved. Trading for supposed toughness rarely works out. As far as Hamilton, the Leafs needed a body and he had 27 goals in 128 games split over the past two seasons between Carolina
and Chicago. Besides, whether we’re talking budget or cap space, wasting or not wasting money is the least of the Leafs’ problems.

Every Thursday, Damien Cox answers your questions in The Spin, only at thestar.com. Click here to submit a question. **Note: please follow the link above to send a question to Damien. Questions posted in the comments section may not make it to the mailbag. Thanks.**

The Commish Vs. The Enforcer

NAPLES, Fla.

Gary Bettman isn’t the slightest bit concerned that his league’s top heavyweight, Georges Laraque, has proclaimed new proposals aimed at clamping down on NHL fighting are a “joke.”

“I’d like to talk to Georges about it one-on-one,” said the NHL commissioner today as the GMs meetings wrapped up. “Somebody told me he said he wished that people who understand the game and fighting had participated. Well, the sub-committee that focused on fighting included Paul Holmgren and Kris King, who collectively had more than 250 fights.

“Not everybody is going to like everything. . .I think these rules aren’t so far off the mark with things (Laraque) would be comfortable with.”

Laraque, after hearing new proposals on fighting voted upon by the league’s general managers, told TSN, “They might as well take fighting out of the NHL” and said they were the “stupidest thing ever.”

Oddly, Laraque made headlines a few weeks ago by saying he was in favour of rules that would make fighting safer. Most of his fights, of course, occur off faceoffs, the so-called “staged” fights, and he was embarrassed last year when a hidden microphone caught him arranging a fight on the ice with another player, ending the conversation with, “Good luck.”

The league’s GMs voted on Tuesday in favour of proposals that would give extra 10-minute misconduct penalties to participants in staged fights and the increase use of the instigator in cases in which players are responding to a clean hit on a teammate.

The league will also instruct linesmen to break up fights in which one of the participants is losing badly more quickly, but couldn’t come up with a proposal to make it mandatory for players to wear helmets in fights. That, of course, got a lot of attention after Whitby Dunlops defenceman Don Sanderson died in January after striking his head on the ice during a fight, which motivated the Ontario Hockey League to make it illegal to fight without a helmet.

Bettman pronounced himself pleased with the new measures proposed by the GMs.

“Greater enforcement of existing rules as they relate to the instigator, I think that makes sense,” said Bettman.

“In response to the trend over the last eight years of fights off the faceoff being up 30 per cent, and the notion of giving a penalty for that kind of fight as opposed to the guys who are out there to play hockey, made sense.

“The notion of having the linesmen being a little more aggressive if they think a player is vulnerable made a whole lot of sense. As far as helmets, because of the visor issue people were concerned about the ramifications of not taking helmets off. You have players like Jarome Iginla and Mike Richards who, when they fight, take their helmets off. We’re going to take a further look at what a mandatory helmet rule might entail.”

Bettman said the GMs believed it was time to have a thorough discussion on fighting.

“We always try to be self-aware and self-analytical,” he said. “We were of course very mindful of the Sanderson tragedy. . .the group felt it was something we needed to talk about and needed an analyze. But as a group we felt it was important not to have a knee-jerk reaction.”

The NHL commissioner said he knows the new proposals won’t end the debate on fighting, but he doesn’t see a ban on fighting in the NHL any time soon.

 “Fighting has always been an emotional issue,” he said. “In terms of any interaction I’ve had with hockey executives, coaches, players and fans, the overwhelming sentiment is that its part of the game and there’s no burning desire by people who have a large interest in the game to get rid of it.”

Taming the Lunacy

NAPLES, Fla.

There are those who believe all fighting in hockey is wonderful.

There are those who believe it's all idiotic.

Then there are those that believe some fighting in hockey is necessary and meaningful while just some of the fights are idiotic.

The NHL knew it couldn't please the first crowd or the second, so it's going for the third.

Today, the league's general managers approved recommendations aimed at curbing so-called "staged" fights and those scraps that occur as a result of teammates coming to the supposed rescue of other teammates.

No longer will two players be permitted to line up for a faceoff and then drop their gloves immediately after the puck is dropped without receiving extra penalties. Starting next season, the league will assess automatic 10-minute misconducts to players in those situations, while referees will be given lattitude to decide how involved two players have to be in the play before they can drop their gloves.

In 500 fights this season up to the first week of February, 108 fights occurred right after a faceoff, a occurance that has increased 30 per cent in the past eight years.

Similarly, another 118 fights occurred because one teammate was coming to the aid of another after an illegal or legal hit, an increase of 27 per cent over the past eight years. On 85 per cent of those occasions, the original hit was clean.

To curb those types of fights, the GMs decided to ask officiating staffs to more aggressively hand out instigator penalties.

So while the NHL won't ban fighting, it also understood it had to respond in some way to the public furor over fighting caused by the death of senior hockey defenceman Don Sanderson in January.

So more than 45 per cent of the fights that had occurred this season by the first week of February are of a type that will receive extra penalties next season. The GMs proposals, of course, have to be rubber stamped by both the league's competition committee and the NHL board of governors.

In essence, Gary Bettman's administration decided to take a stand against the type of fights few support, although it stopped short of booting players from the game who engage in staged fights or respond to a clean hit on a teammate by starting a fight.

"What we're saying is that if you're going to fight, it's got to be a real fight," said league vice-president Colin Campbell.

The league didn't come up with new regulations on the removal of helmets during fights, nor did it decide to respond to the request of the players union for new regulations on head shots.

So not everyone will be happy with what the GMs have decided today.

Then again, with hockey in Canada making everyone happy is impossible.

Inside the GM Meetings

NAPLES, FLA

It was the little bit of inside drama on the first day of the NHL general managers meetings.

As NHL Players Association executive director Paul Kelly made his presentation to the GMs on Monday, New Jersey Devils president/GM Lou Lamoriello rose to his feet to ask a question.

Lamoriello, for years a member of the New York Yankees board, told the assembled group of a chapter in Joe Torre’s recent book “The Yankee Years” in which the gory details of baseball’s love affair with steroids were laid out.

The admission this winter by Yankees star Alex Rodriguez that he had been a regular steroid user hit the baseball world like a hurricane. Given baseball’s reluctance to admit for years that it had a steroid problem, and given that baseball’s players union simply ignored what was going on, Lamoriello asked Kelly when the NHL players union was going to smarten up and realize that it was time to be proactive and enact a tough drug-testing policy as soon as possible.

Instead of waiting for a problem to develop, Lamoriello reasoned, hockey should be a model professional league, going out of its way to demonstrate that its players were clean at a time when sports fans are wondering just who is cheating and who isn’t.

Right now, hockey’s drug testing program excludes out-of-competition testing during the off-season, one of the reasons former WADA chief Dick Pound dismissed the NHL’s testing program as a “sham.”

Kelly told The Star last night that the players plan to address the drug testing issue this summer.

“The players will. . .respond to the league concerning whether improvements to our existing program are warranted,” wrote Kelly in an e-mail. “I was a chief drug prosecutor for over three years and have a fairly strong view on this issue. Even though I have seen no evidence to suggest that we have a performance-enhancing drug problem in our sport, it is an issue that will be reviewed and discussed in a serious manner with our membership.”

Players, of course, would complain that having more extensive testing would be an invasion of their privacy and question their integrity. The reason for more meaningful testing, of course, would be to prove hockey doesn’t have a problem and add legitimacy to its athletes.

Moreover, baseball proved that the problem began when steroids went from being used by the outlaw element of the game to something players believed they had to do to keep up and stay in the majors. That essentially left the clean players in the minority, and now has tainted all who played in the dirtiest era from 1998 to 2002.

Could hockey ever end up in the same trap? Lamoriello would argue that the best way to make sure that never happens is to act now, not wait until trouble starts to brew.

A Change in Attitude . . . But Not Completely

NAPLES,Fla.

NHL players are demanding tough new rules on head shots.

Well, sort of.

NHL Players Association boss Paul Kelly told NHL general managers at their meetings today that 75 per cent of players want new rules imposed on reckless, intentional blows to the head.

But the union stopped short of calling for a crackdown on all hits to the head, such as in the Ontario Hockey League where all blows to the head regardless of intent are penalized.

“Hits to the head are the most significant concern on the part of the players,” said Kelly. “I would say better than three-quarters of the players believe we need to have a new rule on hits to the head that protect players.

“We’re not looking at all hits to the head. There are accidental and inadvertent hits that don’t cause a great deal of injury. You do have situations where you have large players hitting smaller players and they are going to make contact with the head.

“But we are talking about the unsuspecting player, the guy that’s in a vulnerable position who gets hit by a player who either intentionally or recklessly targets the head of that player. And whether he strikes him with his shoulder or some other body part it’s the view of the players that those types of hits need to be eliminated from the game.

JULIE JACOBSON/AP

Witt suspended five games for his Feb. 26 hit on Hagman.

“It’s a pure safety issue.”

It sounds like a drastic change, except that the league is already clamping down on those types of “intentional” hits to the head with heavier suspensions. Two weeks ago, Islander defenceman Brendan Witt received a five-game suspension for an elbow to the head of Maple Leaf forward Niklas Hagman.

Kelly said the rule the players advocated would be similar to the current hits-from-behind rule and would give officials room to assess a minor, major or match penalty.

“Right now you can blind-side a guy, see him coming through the neutral zone looking away to catch or receive a pass and you can drop your shoulder straight into his head. It’s a perfectly legal and appropriate hit. We don’t think that’s correct. We think that’s a serious safety issue,” said Kelly.

“That’s the type of hit we want to see eliminated from the game and you can’t do it simply by preaching respect to the players. You’ve got to put more teeth into it. You’ve got to deter this type of conduct.”

Several seasons ago, Chris Neil of the Senators nailed Chris Drury of the Sabres with that type of open-ice hit and wasn’t even penalized, so presumably that type of incident would fall under the new rule proposed by the union.

REUTERS FILE PHOTO

Few will forget the aftermath of Stevens vs. Lindros.

But the devastating hit by Scott Stevens in the 2000 playoffs on Eric Lindros – a crushing shoulder hit to the hit when Lindros was caught with his head down – would probably still be allowed according to the union’s proposal. It would be up to the referees to determine if the player delivering the hit was intentionally targeting the head of his opponent, an awfully tough judgement to make in many circumstances.

NHL history shows that when such judgement-type rules are put in place, they generally aren’t enforced in all but the most obvious situations. But when the league eliminated hooking from the game in 2005, it did so by making it a “no tolerance” rule.

Interestingly, while NHLers seem to understand that hits to the head can cause irreparable damage, they seemingly make no connection between those and the violent punches to the head featured in each and every hockey fight.

Instead, according to Kelly, players like fighting at the levels it is now.

“Players believe that fighting plays an important role in the sport,” said Kelly. “Players believe that fighting to a large degree does cut down on the violence in the sport. They believe it cuts down on stickwork and other play. It protects the star players and the smaller players.”

Kelly also said players support playing in the Olympics beyond 2010 in Vancouver

“Players strongly support continued Olympic participation after Vancouver ,” said Kelly. “They believe it’s good for the game. They understand the issues of the owners, but they think it’s a positive.”

Coming of Age

Women's sports at all levels have exploded over the past decade offering opportunities to athletes that simply weren't available before.

Now female coaches are slowly getting the same opportunities, particularly here in Canada.

The national women's hockey team, of course, is ably coached by Melody Davidson, who succeeded the very successful Daniele Sauvageau.

No one had to tell Hockey Canada a woman could do that job as well as a man.

The national women's soccer program, meanwhile, recently hired Italian Carolina Morace as the successor to Even Pellurud. Morace is the first woman to coach the national program.

Whether it's soccer, hockey, baseball or other sports, more and more women are getting opportunities to coach in situations that once were reserved for men.

It's the system, quite clearly, maturing as young women who were once athletes move into the coaching ranks.

For a GTA example, check out the female hockey squad at Appleby College in Oakville, probably the province's top high school program that features Brianne Jenner, the captain of Canada's national under-18 women's team.

Three years ago, Appleby rarely won a game, but the school had the foresight to hire Bradi Cochrane, a former member of the Beatrice Aeros senior program to coach and recruit.

Yesterday, Cochrane's squad finished off a spectacular double by winning the Conference of Independent Schools Athletic Association (CiSAA) championship in overtime over Nichols School of Buffalo, a best-of-three series that went the limit and came down to yesterday's thrilling final in western New York.

The win came two weeks after Appleby captured the prestigious North American Prep Hockey Association championship over Wyoming Seminary of Pennsylvania.

Despite being one of the most promising female hockey coaches in the country, Cochrane remains in the minority in women's sport. One recent study showed that of more than 417,000 accredited coaches in all sports in Canada, less than 30 per cent are women. The Canadian Coaching Association recently completed a three-year pilot project designed to get more women involved in community and elite coaching.

So the times are a-changing. Slowly, but surely. Winning, of course, will pave the way.

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Live Q&A

Damien Cox hosted a Q&A off yesterday's NHL trade deadline.

Q: Damien,

I'm slightly surprised that some people are disappointed with what Brian Burke was able to accomplish at the trade deadline yesterday. What were they expecting? To trade Stajan for a first-rounder? It seems as though this is probably the worst time possible to begin a rebuilding process - at the beginning of prolonged economic difficulties for the league where many teams are wary of taking on salary and shedding draft picks and less expensive younger players. But I'm a Leaf fan, so I'm used to bad luck by now.

I'm wondering whether you think Burke will actually start signing younger free agents this summer as he mentioned at the press conference or whether he will wait until next summer when the cap will probably drop below $50M and he might be able to pry away some good talent and prospects from teams looking to dump salary?

David Smith, Toronto

A: You're always going to get people who are either surprised or disappointed at whatever the Leafs do. That's the beauty of being in such a passionate hockey market. To me, Burke did what he could. No team can move forward without having a reasonable number of draft picks year after year, something the Leafs have proven, and with three picks in the top 60 now at least the Leafs have a chance to begin a more intelligent draft and develop program. This is a team that needs to draft in the first and second round for at least 3-5 years.

Regarding free agents, I'm sure Burke will be looking for opportunities, but only those that fit with the concept of having a playoff worthy team in three years and a contender in five. If he can get 25-year-old Jay Bouwmeester he'd be thrilled, but even then salary and term will be critical areas for even rich teams like Toronto.

Q: Damien,

For the life of me, I don't understand why the Leafs would pick up Martin Gerber off waivers. Wouldn't the club have been better off letting Pogge play a consistent stretch to finish off this meaningless season? Cujo could have filled in as necessary along the way.

Josh Lavine, Toronto

A: I don't totally get it either. My guess is that there wasn't another goalie they could use with the Marlies, for starters, and that they didn't want to deviate from their plan of giving Pogge little tastes of action. If you bring him up for the final quarter of the season, then suddenly if he isn't in the NHL next season, it's a failure. Also, he's a restricted free agent this summer, so the less he's in the NHL right now, the less bargaining power he has. I know the Detroit Red Wings are one franchise that keenly understands the financial value of bringing players along slowly because of those precise considerations.

Q: Damien:

I know you preached patience with Tlusty, but six more points last night suggests that either his linemate Tim Stapleton is a magician at the AHL level or Tlusty is a very good prospect. Or both. Any word on how Leaf management feel about him and will/should he remain at the Ricoh for the rest of the season?

Danny Daewoo, Seoul

A: Not sure whether you're asking about Tlusty or Stapleton or both. I would tell you the Leafs are pleasantly surprised at Tlusty, although there was no shortage of people in the organization that believed he had the smarts and hockey sense to be a good NHLer if given enough time. Next fall will be his chance to make the NHL to stay, and being dominant at the AHL level is the biggest step he's taken so far. Stapleton is a journeyman pro who will get opportunities now and then over the next couple of years if he stays in the organization. But he's not a long-term answer.

What That Was All About

AP FILE PHOTO

Nik Antropov’s Leafs career is over after being drafted 10th overall 1998.

The Maple Leafs started the day with five picks in this summer's draft, selections in the first, third, fifth, sixth and seventh rounds.

They ended it with eight picks, adding two second rounders and a fourth, as well as an extra conditional selection acquired in the Nik Antropov deal with the Rangers.

Nothing spectacular, but certainly necessary. Instead of having one pick in the top 60 selections, the Leafs should have three in the top 50. Instead of having two picks in the top 120, the Leafs now have five.

That's how the restocking of the prospect cupboard starts.

Most intriguing was the complicated deal with Tampa Bay that arrived well after the 3 p.m. deadline and required special approval from NHL headquarters. The Leafs added the contracts of Olaf Kolzig (injured, out for the season), Jamie Heward (concussed, out for season), oft-injured AHLer Andy Rogers and a fourth-round pick for Marlie defenceman Richard Petiot.

What the heck was that all about?

Basically, the Leafs bought a fourth-round pick (actually Carolina's) from Tampa for about $500,000. The Lightning, a franchise absolutely spurting red ink, was willing to sell that pick just so they don't have to pay Kolzig, Heward et al for the rest of the season. They saved even more dollars by dealing away Mark Recchi and Steve Emminger.

Whether Rogers or Petiot might be a viable NHLer one day is almost beside the point.

So while on paper the Leafs can boast of a goaltending lineup of Curtis Joseph, Martin Gerber and Kolzig, it's a virtual group, really, that would only be meaningful if it was 1999.

Check back with Damien's blog Thursday at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A on all the trades and what it means moving forward. Click here to submit a question now for tomorrow's discussion.

Dominic Moore, acquired after waivers last year by John Ferguson, re-signed by Cliff Fletcher and traded away Wednesday by Brian Burke, netted a second-round pick, a net gain for the Leaf organization.

And what of Antropov, the 10th overall pick in 1998, moved to Manhattan for a second rounder?

Well, the Leafs got a lot of years of service for the Kazakh. We watched him grow from a skinny, confused kid with little ability to speak English into a power forward with scoring ability, not to mention a gentleman and a father.

Was he a bust? Well, he didn't become a star, but look at the other players taken in '98. After Vinny Lecavalier went first, the order went David Legwand, Brad Stuart, Bryan Allen, Vitali Vishnevski, Rico Fata, Manny Malhotra, Mark Bell, Mike Rupp and then Antropov.

Based on that group, Antropov was a very successful pick by the Leafs. At the end, he was traded because he wasn't good enough for the dollars he'll be looking for as a free agent to a team that's at the very early stages of a long rebuilding period. And if he pans out for the Rangers and helps them win two playoff rounds this spring, the Leafs will get an additional fourth rounder.