Still Falling Apart

If there's a lasting legacy from the Alan Eagleson years at the NHL Players' Association, it could be described in a simple phrase that could be the union's motto.

Never trust anyone, either inside or outside the association.

Don't trust the NHL or the media, and don't necessarily trust anyone inside the union, some of whom from time to time must be purged for counter-revolutionary thoughts and actions. In rapid succession, the union has turned on three executive directors in less than five years, sometimes explaining what happened, sometimes not. It's like China in the 1960s, even more so given that while in theory a democracy, the hockey union is controlled by a small clutch of hired executives and player reps while the vast majority of NHL players don't give a hoot or are waiting to be told what they think.

So Paul Kelly has followed Ted Saskin and Bob Goodenow out the door, and the release from the NHLPA this morning regarding Kelly's departure was downright hilarious in its unwillingness to provide the hockey world with any specific information on why Kelly has been ousted.

This morning's release said the executive committee "voted overwhelmingly" to dump Kelly, the man who put Eagleson in jail, and said it followed an "in depth analysis of the NHLPA's operations."

Everyone is reading something into this, that it's the result of the unseen hand of Goodenow, or the departed former ombudsman Eric Lindros, or hardliners like Chris Chelios and Dwayne Roloson, the people who got rid of Saskin after he was found to be spying on association e-mails.

Must be a nice office to work in, huh? So comforting to always know the guy who's working in the office beside you may be secretly plotting against you. Goodenow and Saskin had a parting of the ways, and Kelly and Lindros were at each other's throats for months. Now it's lawyer Ian Penney and ombudsman Buzz Hargrove that may have led the charge against Kelly, men who were supposedly under his charge at the union.

Eagleson, way back when, was seen as too close to the league, and he betrayed the players. Now, the union seems incapable of ever fully trusting its leadership, or at least putting someone in place who isn't immediately the object of a coup attempt.

Meanwhile, most players simply want nothing to do with the union, not surprisingly given the way the organization collapsed during the 2004-05 lockout. The players now know that when push comes to shove there will be those among them that will jump ship and seek to cut their own deal, that the Europeans in the group will simply pack up and head home to play if there's another work stoppage, all of which adds to the internal distrust that has come to be the main feature of this dysfunctional organization.

The NHL general ignores the thoughts of the union because it can, because the union is too busy fighting itself to mount an effective opposition to policies and programs of the league with which it might disagree. Players are now coughing up more than 20 per cent of each and every paycheque to an escrow fund that few understand. The league has ignored the NHLPA on topics like franchise relocation and television, and now will once again have little or no idea who they should be dealing with at the union.

Does any of this matter to hockey fans? Not really, although in theory, a well-organized union could serve as an effective counter-weight to the league. But in general most fans believe the union does little of value for the game - the wonderful Goals and Dreams program would be one exception - and is there simply to serve the needs of wildly rich hockey players.

Talk that a more hard-line approach is required by the union is nearly laughable now that the league knows that it can break this weak-willed bunch just as easily in 2012 as it did in 2005. There is no rival league and there is no other meaningful employment option for hockey players who draw hundreds of thousands of dollars in paycheques.

Maybe Kelly wasn't hardline enough for some. But he was practical and reasonable. His biggest error may have been a naive belief he could trust those with whom he was working.

The knives at the NHLPA, it seems, are never actually put away.

Team Canada Camp Wrap Up

Lecavalier at Olympic camp: Feeling good after surgery

Nonsense in Arizona

To me, the NHL’s position on the Phoenix Coyotes has never been as preposterous as some would believe.

It wants a team in that large U.S. market, or more specifically, believes that a successful, efficiently run club would do just fine and be of benefit to the league.

You and I and the NHLPA may not agree, but it’s not a preposterous position.

That said, the latest NHL maneuver, to buy the Coyotes itself, try to sell them to a third party or relocate the team for (hopefully) a profit is such an extreme manipulation of the process that it exposes the NHL to the three most damaging charges its harshest critics would hurl in its direction, such as:

1. The NHL is willing to do anything to stop Phoenix moving to Canada, but wasn’t willing to do the same thing when Winnipeg and Quebec City were pulling up stakes and heading south.

Why didn’t the Bettman administration buy the Jets or the Nordiques to make sure they wouldn’t move? Why was the league less worried about decreasing the number of Canadian teams to six from eight than it is about maintaining a position in a large market that appears to have a limited appetite for the sport?

“The fact is, the biggest litmus test ultimately was nobody wanted to own a team there. And when the marketplace decides that it doesn’t want to own a team there, it has no future,” said Bettman back in ’96 when the Jets were leaving Manitoba.

To those who would accuse Bettman of being anti-Canadian, this is useful stuff.

2. It makes the league appear to be carrying water for the Maple Leafs, acting as the burly security guard blocking the door at a swanky club so the Leafs can dine on sushi inside without having to deal with the riff-raff.

It’s like 1991 all over again, with Hamilton suspiciously rejected while smoke-and-mirror expansion bids from Ottawa and Tampa Bay were accepted. Hamilton at least had an arena, and its interesting now that one of the reasons the NHL is carting out to explain the difference between the Phoenix situation and that of Quebec City and Winnipeg is that there’s a state-of-the-art arena in the desert built largely at taxpayers expense and the league has a responsibility to that. Well, so did Hamilton.

Then and now, it appears, at least, that the NHL will do anything – anything – to protect the Leafs’ turf.

3. The sense that this is an ABB (Anybody But Balsillie) exercise grows. Its sort of like when Ken Dryden went out to search for a new GM for the Leafs and discovered himself. The NHL, faced with a situation in which Balsillie might be the only bid, suddenly believes it should own the team itself.

Imagine the potential conflicts if the league is successful and operates the team for the 2009-2010 season. Say Shane Doan decides to club Mike Modano, and after a hearing the league rules that Doan shouldn’t be suspended. Or imagine a disputed Coyotes goal late in a game that is reviewed back in Toronto and is ruled legal and decides the match. Or lets say the Coyotes are suddenly able to swing a lopsided trade with the Minnesota Wild, owned by Bettman loyalist Craig Leipold.

All these legal and financial gymnastics just to keep Balsillie out. Just more ammunition for Bettman’s critics.

Ouches Mounting

CALGARY

Good thing they got all that insurance stuff worked out.

Team Canada lost a third player to an injury concern today when Simon Gagne left camp after aggravating a groin problem during Monday's workouts. The Philadelphia forward had surgery during the summer.

He joins Ryan Getzlaf, who hasn't practiced because of hernia surgery, and goalie Cam Ward, who is dealing with ongoing back problems.

New Leaf Beauchemin has tough competition

Extras Or No Extras?

CALGARY

Patrick Kane isn't the only would-be Olympian with taxi issues.

All the competing teams, as it turns out, are still uncertain whether they will be permitted to carry a three-man taxi squad for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver next year. Those extra players were allowed in Turin in 2006 but were supposed to have been eliminated for 2010.

Not so fast, says Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson. Now, he said yesterday, some of the European countries are suggesting they'd like to have that comfy cushion for the hockey competition in Vancouver, and so the rules may yet change again.

Good idea or bad idea?

In Turin, Canada had Jason Spezza, Eric Staal and Dan Boyle along for the ride as taxi squad players, but none of the three were used. With 13 forwards and seven defencemen on a 22-man roster - two more than the NHL uses on a nightly basis - plus a No. 3 goalie who doesn't dress, there seems to be less need to have that kind of player insurance against insurance.

All the countries have to have their rosters submitted by Dec. 31st, but if a player is injured between Dec. 31 and the beginning of the tournament - happened to Ed Jovanovski last time - he can be replaced.

It's hard on coaches to have taxi squad players around who are either grousing that they deserve to play or looking at the coaches with hopeful eyes every time their name is called. You can't run an effective practice, either, with 26 players, so the taxi squadders are really left on the outs.

Finally, for a country like Canada, it allows coaches to hedge their bets rather than make the tough decisions before the tournament starts. 

So better off without the taxi squads. But better off this was already decided with less than six months to go. 

Let the Analysis Begin

At first, the name Andy McDonald jumps out at you on the list of players who will take the ice tonight in Calgary at Team Canada's orientation camp.

What's he doing there?

Not that the pride of Strathroy, Ont. is any slouch, exactly. In fact, he's a very good NHL player.

FREDERICK BREEDON/AP

Andy McDonald has wheels and that's got him on the radar.

But when you peruse the rest of the names on the roster, and if you were there in Turin three years ago when Canada couldn't score and finished seventh in the men's hockey competition at the Winter Olympics, McDonald's inclusion begins to make more sense.

Speed, man. Speed to burn.

The Canadian team looks to have loads of size and skill at every position, and oodles of forwards who are big-time NHL attackers.

But is there enough speed? In Turin, many things didn't quite gel, and part of the reason was that so many players hadn't played at all the previous season due to the NHL lockout and still had rust on their skates when the Olympics rolled around. But Wayne Gretzky clearly emphasized big, skilled players over smaller, skilled players, so Sidney Crosby sat at home while the odious Todd Bertuzzi played and Bryan McCabe was given shifts while Dan Boyle watched as an alternate.

Teams with industrious and quick players like Finland and Switzerland were able to shut Canada down. The blazing fast Russians did the same.

For this camp, McDonald would probably be the fastest Canadian candidate followed by Patrick Marleau, Marty St. Louis and Eric Staal. Crosby, like Wayne Gretzky and Joe Sakic, has the ability to appear very fast because of his anticipation and hunger for offence.

The fastest Canadian defenceman in the world would be Brian Campbell of the Chicago Blackhawks, but he's not even at this camp.

The caveat to all this, of course, could be that because the 2010 tournament will take place on an NHL sized rink rather than the larger European surface, speed might not matter quite as much while size and strength could be critical. If you keep Robyn Regehr on defence and send Mike Green packing, maybe that's why.

But what's the correct formula?

McDonald, clearly, is in Calgary because of his wheels. Obviously, speed is something Steve Yzerman and Co. are already thinking about.

Not Clearing Up Anything

So Dany Heatley's no longer a coward for failing to explain himself.

Now he just looks like a suckhole unwilling to live up to his obligations for reasons that appear to be at best flimsy.

Heatley claimed today he wants out of Ottawa because his role has been "diminished." Strange, given that he averaged between 18-22 minutes of ice time last season, and finished this year by playing 22:24 and 23:07 in the final two games of the regular season.

Doesn't sound like fourth liner minutes, does it?

Nobody's buying it. It may be that he doesn't like the new coach, Cory Clouston. Or it may be something else entirely relating to what has been a poisonous, destructive hockey environment in Ottawa since the club made it to the Stanley Cup final. Or it may be, as one NHL general manager says, that Heatley is simply a player who "wants nothing to do with the hard part of the game." The GM was speaking about Heatley on the ice, but it could also extend to his off-the-ice attitude.

What Heatley did not address today was any obligation he may or may not feel to fulfill his end of the enormous contract he signed two years ago, other than saying he'll show up at the Sens camp next month if necessary to keep the paycheques coming.

Moreover, playing the "diminished role" card makes him look like anything but a team player, particularly when you look at teams like Detroit on which players like Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk accept less ice time for the good of the team.

Sens GM Bryan Murray isn't having much luck moving the winger, and clearly he's tried. Problem is, there isn't much of a market out there for a one-dimensional goal-scorer who has found two NHL cities not to his liking and apparently has very specific needs for fitting into the team concept of hockey.

He might get you a few goals. But it doesn't seem likely you can win with him.

The Untouchable Cito

In his first go 'round with the Blue Jays, Cito Gaston could never get reasonable credit for his work, even when it resulted in two world championships. For years, the call-in shows featured caller after caller lamenting Gaston's managing abilities and wondering what the club would be capable of if Tony LaRussa, say, was in charge.

It was terribly unfair. Never really made much sense.

Curiously, however, what we're hearing and seeing these days is the reverse juice of those years and the way in which Gaston is regarded in the Toronto sports culture.

Now he doesn't win. And he can do no wrong. Caller after caller on the radio shows skewer J.P. Ricciardi, with Vernon Wells a close second, yet Gaston remains untouched.

Speculation is rampant over whether Ricciardi will be back, or whether Paul Beeston will translate his interim presidential status into something more permanent.

But there's little debate on whether Gaston should be back, or is the right man to lead this franchise. The closest we've heard is Cito himself suggesting he might like to have more time to play golf, but hardly ruling out another year in the dugout.

Since winning the '93 World Series, Gaston's managerial record is less than scintillating, with a .463 winning percentage in parts of six major league seasons with no playoff berths. Gaston's Jays winning percentage from '94-today is worse than Jim Fregosi (.515) and John Gibbons (.500) during their respective terms in office.

Yet both Fregosi and Gibbons were chased out of town, while Gaston has gone from No. 1 scapegoat in the winning years to Mr. Untouchable in the losing years.

Never an unkind word is said any more about the manager who once never got nearly the credit he deserved. He is part of the corporate Rogers program to sucker Blue Jay fans into focusing on the past rather than the current state of affairs, a program that includes Beeston, the ugly blue "vintage" uniforms worn on Friday nights and the recent "anniversary" celebrations of the '92 and '93 champions.

Gaston's classy, laid back demeanor has something to do with his teflon status in his second stint as Jays manager, as does his obvious affection for the city compared to Ricciardi, who prefers not to live here. But perhaps it's more about the fact that every unsuccessful team - and even some successful ones - have to have a lightning rod for criticism.

On a team blessed with talent, Gaston was that lightning rod.

On a team mired in mediocrity, others get that dubious honor. And he just cruises, with essentially no ongoing examination of his work and it's results.