Just Dead Wrong

Hard to believe four experienced NHL officials could get a call so wrong.

Did the misguided first period expulsion of defenceman Niklas Kronwall from Game 3 of the Western Conference final on Friday night between the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks decide the game? No, but it sure changed it, particularly since the Wings were already without star forward Pavel Datsyuk in a game won by the Hawks that ensured this year's Stanley Cup final will begin no earlier than June 5.

But in a playoff season in which the NHL has gotten so many calls wrong time after time, Kronwall's was arguably the worst miscarriage of justice outside the inexplicable non-suspension of Carolina forward Scott Walker for his goon sucker punch on Boston's Aaron Ward.

Who actually made the call? What was the explanation? The NHL needs to explain itself on this one. And apologize for screwing up so badly.

Kronwall, arguably the best hitter in the sport today, caught Chicago's Martin Havlat with a crushing blow just inside the Blackhawk blueline as Havlat tried to control a loose puck that was clearly in his skates.

Kronwall's elbow was down, and Havlat was knocked cold.

As Hockey Night in Canada pointed out so expertly with video evidence, neither referee put his hand up on the play to signal a penalty. Then, out of thin air, Kronwall was banished from the game with a five-minute interference major and game misconduct, a preposterous call.

The Wings killed it off and, after falling behind 3-0, fought back to force overtime before losing. Would Kronwall have made a difference there? Maybe, and having to play the entire game with five defencemen probably wore the Detroit blueliners down.

But there was just no need for the call. Even worse, clearly one of the on-ice officials simply made it up after seeing Havlat on the ice and deciding something illegal must have happened without actually seeing a foul. It wasn't even close to interference because Havlat was in possession of the puck, and so the play wasn't remotely like the late, blindside hit by Anaheim's Mike Brown on Detroit's Jiri Hudler in the previous round.

Sorry that Havlat got hurt, but hockey's a contact sport and Kronwall's hit was absolutely clean.

What a screwup by four officials who should be reprimanded for such an egregious error in a playoff game of that magnitude.

Pre-Weekend Musings

Nice to see nice guys finally get their shot.

Now, there was more than one deserving candidate for the GM job in Minnesota. But the fact Chuck Fletcher, a young man who has certainly put in his time leanring the hockey business, ended up getting the job is a positive story. Fletcher, son of Cliff, had a brief shot running a team back in 2001 with the Florida Panthers, but this is really his first bona fide opportunity to develop and manage a club.

It's a nice situation to step into. You don't have to worry abouit selling tickets, there are already some nice pieces in play and its a market that knows the game. What will be interesting will be to see how Fletcher is different from his predecessor, Doug Risebrough, and how he's different from his Hall of Fame father.

The nice part is that no one will say he got the job because of his famous dad. Chuck Fletcher earned this opportunity.

Other stories on the go:

-- First Martin Brodeur was the victim of a stunning Carolina comeback. Then Roberto Luongo couldn't hold the fort against Chicago. Now Cam Ward, seen as the dark horse in the race to be Canada's No. 1 goalie in next year's Olympics, gets blasted for a six-pack by the Pittsburgh Penguins in a game Carolina really needed to have.

More and more, it's looking like this is a decision that's going to have to wait. Whoever is the hottest goalie next January gets the job. If Detroit wins the Cup again, does Chris Osgood at the very least get an invitation to the Team Canada orientation camp in August?

-- So here's how this works. If both conference final series are sweeps, the Stanley Cup final begins next Thursday. If either goes longer than four games, the Cup final waits until June 5th at the earliest.

And ends just before the Super Bowl. Ridiculous.

-- Not going to say "told you so" about the Jays starting to slide 'cause I didn't. I was one of the many hoping this could be real. The city could use a winning franchise. But losing five of six to Boston/New York sure undercut the legitimacy of the Jays early season excellence. Now they need to get back on the winning track very, very soon or people will be more than happy to start ignoring them again.

-- Not sure that I get Jim Balsillie's exuberant optimism that an NHL team for Hamilton is just around the corner. Not sure I get why he thinks a heavy P.R. campaign in Canada is going to make a difference. On the other hand, you sure do get the feeling that there's a big, big twist coming in this story before it's all decided.

-- Pavel Datsyuk is the most dominant goal-less player I've ever seen.

-- Kris may have won American Idol. But I'm betting Adam has the bigger career.

-- Not sure I know how much a Hamilton franchise would hurt Buffalo. But I am sure two U.S. Senators have absolutely no idea.

And you're telling me the Sabres can't survive because a team is 100 kilometres away with a border between them? Then they ultimately won't survive.

--

All Quiet Before the Legal Storm

PHOENIX--Waiting for this town to get all worked up about the potential loss of the Coyotes is a waste of time. It's just not going to happen.

That's not an insult or criticism, just a fact. This is a city where about 7,000 households on average watch Phoenix games on TV, an indication there just hasn't been the kind of grassroots growth in support of this NHL franchise that was once imagined.

Could there ever be? Depends on who you talk to. Today, in another steamer expected to see the thermometer jump over 40C, there's more local interest in tonight's American Idol finale than there is in the bankruptcy proceedings set to begin in a few hours downtown.

It's kind of like one of those old westerns with the false front buildings. There's a hockey team here, but is there anything real behind it? Who knows.

From a news point of view, the biggest worry is that nothing will be decided today, that Judge Redfield T. Baum will listen and then require time to make an intelligent decision. That said, bankruptcy proceedings tend to move quickly because people are looking for their money, and both sides in the Coyotes dispute are looking to expedite matters.

The primary issue today is who controls the Coyotes. If it's the NHL, well, it's probably bye-bye Jim Basillie, at least until the next NHL team gets in trouble. The hockey club may, however, stay in bankruptcy, with the league using that process to cut the best possible deal for new owners trying to make a go of it in Phoenix.

If it's Jerry Moyes - good news for Balsillie - then you almost certainly will see an NHL appeal, and the entire business will get dragged off to another court.

Unfortunately, this may all get stickier at a time when the NHL's unfortunate post-season schedule may be about to dissolve all the positive momentum generated by the terrific second round of the playoffs.

It'll be 10 days from now until the Hurricanes and Penguins get to Game 5, if the series gets that far. It'll be 11 days before the Hawks and Wings get to Game 6, if necessary. The Pittsburgh-Carolina series has a pair of two-day breaks in the middle of that competition, while Detroit and Chicago have three sets of two off-days during that series.

This approach is deadly to the rabid hockey fan who has spent the last month watching at least one game every night. Now, it becomes more of a guessing game as to when the games will be played at a time of year when outdoor options become increasingly attractive even to the worst couch potato.

As well, with fewer games, there's more room for non-playoff stories to become prominent. If this bankruptcy process drags out and gets nastier, there's going to be an awful lot of bad ink out there for the NHL.

Those of us looking for compromise, something that would give Balsillie a chance to make a go of it in Hamilton while offering a good faith opportunity for some business group to make hockey work in Phoenix, appear likely to be disappointed.

But we'll know more in a few hours.

Setting up the semis

Different Seasons, Different MVPs

So if the Stanley Cup playoffs ended today because Gary Bettman needed to spend more time working with Jim Balsillie, Sidney Crosby would be the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as MVP, right?

PABLO MARTINEZ/AP

Crosby in his office.

There would be other candidates. If Anaheim can sneak past Detroit tonight Jonas Hiller will start to get mentions. If it goes the other way, you can't ignore goal-machine Johan Franzen. Should Carolina prevail in Boston tonight Eric Staal will be viewed as a big reason behind the Canes' third conference final appearance in six years. Chicago? Right now, the list of candidates is too long, with youthful captain Jonathan Toews possibly leading the pack.

But still, at the end, it would be Crosby. With 12 goals in 13 games, and the majority of them scored from the messy, dangerous areas near the enemy net, Crosby is proving himself to be the consummate NHL post-season warrior. Alex Ovechkin was generally terrific in seven games against the Penguins and certainly had more dash, but Crosby delivered the true substance in the end.

That one-on-one rivalry - Crosby vs. Ovechkin - will next be played out in Vancouver next winter.

Still, its interesting that while Crosby wasn't even a finalist for the Hart Trophy as regular season MVP this year - Ovechkin, Evgeny Malkin and Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk were - the Nova Scotian has outshone all three in the playoffs. They've all been good, mind you, and even though Datsyuk hasn't got the numbers he's been a dominant performer for the Red Wings against the Ducks.

But Crosby, bolstered with the experience of getting so close to the Cup last spring, has been better. It certainly complicates the debate over who is the best player in the world right now, doesn't it.

If it was four weeks ago, most would say Ovechkin.

Today? Hard to look past what Crosby is doing.

And you'd rather have the guy who can do it in the playoffs.

Another Year For Canada To Wait

That '93 Habs team just looks better and better as the years go by.

That was the last Canadian-based NHL club to capture the Stanley Cup, and the elimination of the Vancouver Canucks Monday night by the Chicago Blackhawks ensured that it will be at least 2010 before Canada gets another NHL champion.

REUTERS PHOTO

Daniel Sedin and other Canucks hang their heads.

Damn Hawks. On their own, they knocked out two of the three Canadian contenders, the Flames and the Canucks, creating a long summer of soul-searching in both Calgary and Vancouver.

But first things first. Monday night was a spectacular night for the sport of hockey, and the NHL.

All the negative stories in the world - the corporate brawl over the Phoenix Coyotes, the absurd non-suspension of Carolina's Scott Walker - couldn't obscure the fact that two games Monday night, the Canucks-Hawks thriller and the OT contest between Washington and Pittsburgh, delivered as much of everything as a hockey fan could want.

You can take your 1-0 and 2-1 games if you want them. Me, the 5-4 Caps win and the 7-5 Chicago triumph represented hockey at its best, a terrific combination of skill, hitting and passion that produced an entertainment package that no other sport could match if the NHL could ever find a way to deliver it on a consistent basis.

It's the greatest game on earth, particularly when it's allowed to be.

We'll leave the Caps and Pens for now since there's another game in that series to be played. Chicago, meanwhile, roared back from a 4-3 third period deficit and in so doing obliterated the myth of Roberto Luongo for now, if not for good. Luongo gave up 21 goals in the six-game series and is now a career .500 goalie in the post-season at 11-11. How on the basis of performance and results he could be projected as Canada's starter in the Olympics next winter strains the imagination. In fact, right now, he would be No. 3 in my books behind Martin Brodeur and Cam Ward.

The good news for the Canucks braintrust led by GM Mike Gillis is that Daniel Sedin delivered two beautiful, clutch goals, which should make it at lot easier for Gillis to throw millions at the Sedin twins this summer.

Ex-Leaf captain Mats Sundin scored a nice goal Monday night, but his dream of being part of a Stanley Cup winner - if that was indeed the point of going to Vancouver - ended once again in disappointment. Retirement now again stares Sundin in the face and while he ended last year with most believing he had miles still left on his chassis, there's far less belief in that notion now.

The Hawks, meanwhile, look likely to face their Original Six rivals Detroit in the Western Conference finals, with the Red Wings holding a 3-2 series lead on Anaheim heading into Game 6 Tuesday in Orange County. That would be a memorable matchup, the natural successor to the brilliant Pittsburgh-Washington clash which, unfortunately, will have to come to a conclusion Wednesday night in the District of Columbia.

Patrick Kane's hat trick paced the Hawks Monday night, but this is a hockey team that plays with breathtaking exuberance and doesn't seem to realize it shouldn't be experienced enough to get this far into the NHL post-season. The Hawks were within a few minutes of going down 3-1 in the series to Vancouver, but fought back late in Game 4 to create overtime and then win it.

They were the big Canadian killers in these playoffs, and who would say now they have no chance of taking this all the way to a championship?

Awful Optics

REUTERS

Carolina's Scott Walker swings at Boston's Aaron Ward.

It's the same old hockey story played over and over and over.

One team falls behind by three or four goals. In the final minutes, the sore losers, in an attempt to either "set a tone" for the next meeting or actually injure an opponent or two, load up on the cheap shots. Some see this as manliness, intelligent people see it for the chicken-hearted display it is.

We've been seeing it through the NHL post-season, with face washes and punches in the hundreds of scrums that are allowed to take place after virtually every whistle.

Yesterday, we saw more of it, and in games that were blowouts.

First, in the dying seconds of the Anaheim-Detroit game with the Wings ahead 4-1, Ducks defenceman Sheldon Brookbank, normally tethered to go no further than the opponents blueline, swooped in all the way to the faceoff dot and crosschecked Detroit centre Darren Helm to the ice.

There was a penalty called as time expired, but what did it matter? Game was over, Brookbank got his free shot in and everybody says, "That's hockey."

Later, in a more serious incident, Carolina's Scott Walker cold-cocked Boston defenceman Aaron Ward in the final moments of what was a 4-0 Bruins victory.

The picture says it all. There's Ward, with his hands by his sides, and there's Walker, with his glove off ready to pop his opponent with a punch that may or may not have broken Ward's orbital bone.

If it's during a hard-fought game, the incident never happens. But the game was out of hand, Walker didn't like the treatment Ward was giving Matt Cullen and he knew it was free cheap shot time.

Will the league do anything? Its sounds unlikely, although there will be a hearing on the matter today in New York. In fact - you're gonna love this - the league will probably RESCIND part of the in-game punishment handed down to Walker for the instigator penalty he received.

So it may not just be that Walker won't be suspended. He may be partially vindicated, with some of the 17 penalty minutes he was given taken away.

Basically, the thinking may be that it was up to Ward to defend himself, not up to Walker to restrain himself.

Hard to believe, but that's where this may be headed. Moreover, Ward and Helm both showed that the players on the team that is winning a lopsided game basically become pinatas for the sore losers on the other side.

Solution? Well, if Brookbank had to serve his two-minute minor to start Game 6 in Anaheim tomorrow, do you think his own coach, Randy Carlyle, would allow him to get away with his cheap shot?

Walker got his 17 minutes worth of penalties with only 2:47 left in the third period. What if he had to serve those penalties at the start of Game 6 in Raleigh tomorrow night?

This we know. Suspensions don't seem to slow these guys down.

Coyotes, Blue Jays and Ducks, Oh My

Russia Surging Towards Olympics

It surely seems the stars are aligning for Russia to reclaim Olympic hockey glory.

Russia had the three best players in the NHL this season, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Malkin and Pavel Datsyuk. Without any of them, the Russians captured a second straight world championship title today in Bern, Switzerland, erecting an early 2-1 lead over Canada and then making it stand backstopped by the goaltending of Ilya Bryzgalov of the Phoenix Coyotes.

It was also the third straight victory by Russia over Canada in a big international contest, including a quarterfinal clash at the 2006 Olympics in Turin and last year's world championships gold medal game in Quebec City.

But the main reason to believe Russia might be able to win the Olympic men's hockey tournament for the first time since 1992 is that finally it appears to have unity with its national program.

After the fall of the old Soviet regime, Russian hockey was for a time erratic internationally because the newfound freedoms of Russian players in the west clashed with old-time attitudes of how the national team should be run. Players refused to play for the motherland, and a series of coaches failed to gain control over the national program.

"It often felt as though our coach had no role on this team," said forward Maxim Sushinsky in a famous critique of one-time Soviet great Alexander Yakushev after he coached Russia to a disgraceful finish at the 2000 worlds in St. Petersburg.

"It was almost as if he didn't exist."

Viacheslav Bykov, however, seems to have changed all that. The longtime national team star, who took over from Vladimir Krikunov after Turin, has guided the Russians to the last two world titles by combining available NHLers with players from the Kontinental Hockey League and producing teams with both powerful offences and a committment to team play.

Bykov, who played much of his career in Switzerland, won four world titles and two Olympic golds as a Soviet/Russian player, and at 48 years of age seems to be the perfect bridge between the old Soviet hockey powerhouse and the new Russia.

He will coach Russia at the Vancouver Olympics next year, giving the Russians continuity between the world tournament and the Olympics. Alexey Morozov has captained the last two world championship teams and will likely be Russia's captain in Vancouver. Meanwhile, KHLers like Oleg Tverdovsky, Alexander Ragulov and Alexei Perezhogin played very well today and could be part of the Russian Olympic team.

Interestingly, while Russia was supposed to be weak on the back end at the 2009 worlds, they were able to shut down Canada today except for a first period goal from Jason Spezza.

Again, as in Turin and Quebec City, it seemed like Canada lacked the footspeed to out-maneuver the Russians at key moments, although Bryzgalov had to be outstanding. Longtime Canadian national team stalwarts like Shane Doan, Dany Heatley and Martin St. Louis didn't exactly clinch spots on the Olympic team with their performances in front of Olympic boss Steve Yzerman.

Attention will now turn to the players that Yzerman will invite to Canada's summer orientation camp in Calgary, a list that could include 40 players or more. Youngster Steve Stamkos scored seven goals for Canada at the worlds and might get an invite, while the goaltending picture appears wide-open, particularly if Roberto Luongo once again can't make it past the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

By contrast, the Russians seem more settled with continuity from back-to-back world titles and ownership of the three best players in the world right now.

You could certainly argue they should be the favourites to win it all in Vancouver.

Topic of 2nd team in Southern Ontario is not going away