The U.S. Hockey Empire

There's no question the United States has had some glorious moments in international hockey.

The quirky reality, however, is rarely have the Americans been able follow up on one of these great victories with comparable success, or any success at all.

That's certainly been the case this year at the world junior hockey championships in Alberta. The U.S. won a surprise gold in 2010 (Saskatoon) with a team that wasn't supposed to be ready to compete until the following year in Buffalo. Instead of that triumph beginning a mini-run of success at the event, the U.S. produced only a bronze in Buffalo and this year can finish no higher than seventh after upset losses to Finland and the Czechs.

It's a similar pattern that followed other breakthrough years at the WJC. In 1992, the Americans captured a bronze and looked to be on their way up. Instead, they won only one medal over the next 11 tournaments until they took the gold in 2004. After that, they captured only a single bronze in the following five WJC events.

The same goes at higher levels. In 1960, the U.S. won Olympic gold in Squaw Valley, then won only one medal (silver, 1972) in the next four Games.

Then there was the Miracle on Ice in 1980, supposed to be the moment that put the U.S. on the international hockey map. Instead, the Americans went the next five Olympics without winning a single medal.

Finally, the U.S. victory at the 1996 World Cup of Hockey was supposed to signal a new era of American power in world hockey. Instead, the Americans haven't captured a best-on-best title since, although they did win Olympic silver in 2002 and 2010.

Nobody doubts that the U.S. is a legitimate world power now, or that the country is the source of some of the world's top hockey talent.

But the results over the decades internationally have been curiously sporadic, marked by an inability to follow up on major success with more of the same. Maybe it's the structure of USA Hockey that doesn't lead to consistent results, or the way American teams are constructed for these major international events. These days, it's certainly not a question of talent.

Quirky, to be sure.

 

 

 

Embracing Mediocrity

It matters not, this contract extension Ron Wilson is gloating over. Or at least, it changes nothing.

He makes the playoffs, he'll stay as Leaf coach. He misses, he won't. This extension is mostly about feathering his nest, at least in terms of certainty. He'll get his money, which is apparently what he wanted under his tree and Brian Burke was happy to provide.

What does matter, in a larger sense, is that this is an undeniable instance of Burke's hockey club openly embracing mediocrity.

Miss the playoffs three straight years, then get to 14th overall in a 30-team league with a weak defensive record (25th out of 30) and the worst penalty killing (30th out of 30) in hockey and the coach responsible for it all gets a handsome, multi-million reward.

"Winning if necessary but not necessarily winning." It was a cheeky, mock phrase applied to the Leafs that originated in the Steve Stavro ownership days, but rings just as true today.

This extension proves it.

Wilson and Burke have talked ad nauseum about getting rid of "blue-and-white disease" in the dressing room. But there is no greater expression of blue-and-white disease, basically defined as accepting what others would see as average result as excellence, than that which Burke has delivered in extending Wilson at this time.

Mikhail Grabovski and John-Michael Liles, both in the last year of their contracts, must play on without new deals.

But not Fibber Ron. He gets taken care of.

This is why people in Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton, Montreal, Calgary and Winnipeg chortle "plan the parade" every time the Leafs win two in a row.

Mediocrity is celebrated in Leaf-land like no place else in hockey. Hell, mediocrity pays in Toronto like no place else in hockey.

Eventually, should the Leafs not make the post-season and Wilson is jettisoned, Rogers and Bell may also want to know why the lame-duck Ontario Teachers Pension Fund had any business approving such an contract extension, particularly with another NHL lockout in the offing.

But Wilson, for now, gets to gloat. Enjoy it, coach.

 

 

 

The Complications of Losing

Failing to win the right to negotiate a contract with Japanese pitching ace Yu Darvish has created a rather nasty three pronged problem for the Blue Jays and their owners, Rogers Communications.

1. The ballclub still needs a No. 2 or No. 3 starter, depending on how you slotted Darvish into the rotation. That could be a little more costly now that teams that own such players but might be willing to trade them now know the Jays are a little more desperate for an arm today.

2. To be transparent or not to be transparent? Let's say the Jays bid $51.6 million and were outbid by Texas by a relatively measly $100,000. They may want their fans to know that, to understand just how aggressive they were in the effort to land this player at a time when some (many?) wonder whether Rogers will pay for top-flight talent.

But let's say the Toronto bid was $20 million. Or even $30 million. Let's say the Jays were badly outbid and didn't really understand the market they were in. How to explain that to their fans if they choose to make their bid public?

Finally, there's a strategic component here, that Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos might not want to let other clubs know his team's bid so as to reveal too much about the way in which the club is doing business these days.

If anything, the rampant speculation of the past week and the expectations created by that speculation should make it abundantly clear to Rogers/The Jays that if they don't tell the world what their bid was, it will only lead to all kinds of rumours, some of which will not be flattering.

3. The failed bid for Darvish will certainly convince many Jays fans that the club has tens of millions of dollars to spend, and should now spend it on other talent rather than keep it for a rainy day. In fact, given that a lucrative contract would have been required to lock up the Japanese star, there was a lot more money made available here by Rogers than just the posting bid. Are we talking $70 million? $80 million? More?

Forget trying to tell those fans that spending that much on Darvish is a different kettle of fish entirely than spending $200 million or more on Prince Fielder. By being involved in the bidding, the Jays have opened their wallet, and fans won't want to see it closed again, particularly at a time when some will be wondering if the Jays will matter less to Rogers now that it and Bell co-own majority interest in the Leafs and Raptors.

All in all, what Anthopoulos had hoped would be a victory celebration has now turned into a complex public relations problem mixed with a vacant spot in the pitching rotation. All the goodwill built up by the GM and the team over the past two years is now at risk if he can't find a palatable way to explain this to the club's fan base while maintaining the sense this club is building a winner.

 

 

 

Monday Morning Chatter

So this is officially Yu Darvish week in Toronto, right?

Not really. We'll find out probably around 9 p.m. tonight if the Blue Jays even get to try to negotiate a contract with the Japanese right-hander, and if that happens, it will be another month or so of chatter and speculation and debate about a player who may or may not be able to fill a major hole in the Jays rotation next season.

For the Jays, it's all good. This - assuming the Jays are the highest bidder - alters the public conversation to some degree, making Alex Anthopoulos look aggressive and Rogers willing to spend to get better. If Darvish doesn't sign, the Jays can claim he wanted too much and all that's been lost is the time spent chasing Darvish.

Me, I'm thinking the development of centre fielder Colby Rasmus will have a lot more to do with whether the Jays progress next season than if Darvish is signed. Then again, both wouldn't be bad, right?

Other items of note:

--Of Leafs top players - Phil Kessel, Joffrey Lupul, Dion Phaneuf - none are nearly as accomplished defensively as they are offensively. That's the team's mindset. It's different in Chicago, say, where two-way centre Jonathan Toews sets the tone, or in Boston, where Claude Julien's defence-first approach means everyone has to check, or in Detroit where Pavel Datsyuk is a superb defender.

Don't get me wrong. The Leafs are fun to watch and all, sort of in the same way Doug Carpenter made it fun to watch the club again two decades ago. But they're really testing the odds to imagine that being in the bottom five of the NHL defensively will result in a playoff berth. 

--It's always a mistake to look at concussions to individual players as only meaningful until those players return to action.

For my money, Kings blueliner Drew Doughty hasn't been quite the same since he was hit and concussed by Erik Cole, then of Carolina, in late October, 2010. In the same way, to me Tomas Kaberle was never quite the same after he was concussed by a late hit from New Jersey's Cam Janssen in 2007. In that light, the subsequent bout between the late Wade Belak and Janssen that supposedly "evened" the score seems even more laughable.

--Windsor's Ty Bilcke is now up to 22 fights on the OHL season with Christmas still a week away. That's a pathetic statement on the modern game all on its own, as bad as Gary Bettman's "maybe it is, maybe it isn't" comment on whether fighting in the NHL is an inherently dangerous pursuit. What's really sad is the way Bilcke parrots the "just standing up for my teammates" nonsense. Enough of that particular lie, okay? These guys fight 99 per cent of the time for themselves and only themselves.

--The biggest junior news on the weekend was the acquisition of Minnesota prospect Charlie Coyle by the Memorial Cup champion Saint John Sea Dogs. Coyle, orginally drafted by San Jose and included in the Brent Burns/Dany Heatley deal last summer, bolted Boston University just ahead of the academic police and just days after the team's leading scorer, Islanders draftee Corey Trivino, was kicked out of school after being charged with sexually assaulting a fellow student.

Coyle was courted by four QMJHL teams and finally agreed to join Saint John, a rather unusual mid-season situation. What clinched that deal is unclear, but in a world where there's all kinds of rumours about monies paid under the table to junior stars, there's bound to be speculation on this front on this transaction. Coyle is currently with Team USA for the upcoming world juniors and will join the talent-loaded Sea Dogs after the tournament.

--Losing on Sunday was probably the best thing that could have happened to the previously unbeaten Green Bay Packers. Now all the debate about the final weeks of the season, and whether they should go for a perfect mark or rest key players, is moot. They can just go about their business. Losing that game makes a Packers' Super Bowl win more likely, not less so.

--The Bills have now lost seven in a row, games in which $59 million quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick has thrown 12 INTs and only eight TD passes, a slump that is putting the future of head coach Chan Gailey in serious doubt after a strong start to the season.

"If we don't get this thing cleaned up, we're all going to be looking for jobs next year," cornerback Drayton Florence told the Buffalo News. "Myself included."

The staggering regression of the club also changes the southern Ontario dynamic after it was at least worth theorizing that an improved Buffalo team might be able to make further inroads into this market, particularly with the Argos so awful and boring.

Now, the Bills are terrible again, Fitzpatrick doesn't look like a franchise QB and the Argos have added a new head coach and a new star quarterback.

Suddenly, the Bills don't look like very much of a threat at all.

--it only makes sense that receiver Andy Fantusz would be the apple of the Argos' eye when the CFL free agent season opens Feb. 16. But it seems unlikely he'll be in the Double Blue, at least if he's looking for $200,000 or more per season, the rumoured asking price.

This is where the acquisition of quarterback Ricky Ray has a trickle down effect. As it stands, GM Jim Barker will be asking two or more Argos to take pay cuts, plus he's got free agents to sign as he tries to fit 42 players under a $4.35 salary cap. When you're paying one player $400,000 or more, it gets tricky in a hurry. Fantusz would have to want to come to Toronto at a discount.

One last thought on the Ray trade with Edmonton. The Argos gave up QB Steven Jyles, kicker Grant Shaw and their first round pick in the Canadian draft (second overall) in the deal. Don't forget, however, that they also gave up their first round pick last year to get Jyles. This is a very slippery slope.

NHL News Cycle on Overdrive

It has been a torrid three weeks of newsmaking in the NHL.

Not just small stories, either. Big juicy ones, seemingly every day.

It started in late November with the firing of Bruce Boudreau in Washington with Dale Hunter as his replacement, and the firing of Randy Carlyle as Anaheim's head coach soon after. Less than 72 hours of he was fired, Boudreau was hired to replace Carlyle with the Ducks, and Carolina joined the fray by firing of Paul Maurice, with rookie Kirk Muller brought in to coach that struggling club.

Then came NHL realignment in four conferences and the bombshell report on the death of Derek Boogaard. Then the $1.3 billion sale of MLSE to the combined forces of Rogers and Bell. Then L.A. canned head coach Terry Murray, with Darryl Sutter apparently set to take over next week.

Then Sidney Crosby was lost again with recurring concussion issues, and in quick succession Claude Giroux, Jeff Skinner, Milan Michalek and Chris Pronger were also diagnosed with concussions. Pronger's condition is so serious he is gone for the season. On Friday came the stunner that Mike Milbury had been charged with assaulting a 12-year-old boy on a hockey rink, and was subsequently relieved, at least temporarily, of his Hockey Night in Canada and NBC duties.

Now today's news. Saturday is generally a quiet day for the NHL news cycle, but today arrived with a pair of significant stories.

First Montreal sacked head coach Jacques Martin after less than three years on the job and just 20 months after the Habs' memorable playoff run that began with a stunning first round upset of Washington in what became the spring of Jaroslav Halak.

With only 13 wins in 32 games to start the season, there was trouble brewing in Montreal that the early season firing of one of Martin's assistants, Perry Pearn, couldn't address on its own. The acquisition of Tomas Kaberle and his big contract last week seemed to be a move aimed to shake up the club, but when the Habs fell this week to a Philly team that was missing Giroux and Pronger, GM Pierre Gauthier decided to make a move.

Still, the Habs sit only two points out of a playoff berth, and just two points behind the struggling Maple Leafs. The elevation of Randy Cunneyworth, a fellow with a distinguished minor league coaching career, may be enough to change the fortunes of the Habs, particularly if Cunneyworth can rouse an offence that has fallen to 20th in the league.

The dismissal of Martin, meanwhile, demonstrates the different standards of Montreal compared to Toronto, a team that has missed the playoffs for three straight seasons under Fibbin' Ron Wilson and is going to be in a dogfight to make it this year, yet GM Brian Burke pronounced Wilson his team's No. 1 star this week.

Not to be outdone, the Ottawa Senators made a big splash by trading for centre Kyle Turris, sending defenceman David Rundblad and a second round pick to Phoenix for a player who had held out earlier this season to force a trade out of Arizona.

The Sens, the NHL's worst defensive team this season, added more offence at the expense of the inexperienced Rundblad, a talented puck-mover who was a team worst minus-11 in 24 games. The addition of Turris came just a few days after the conclusion of the Nikita Filatov experiment, with Filatov headed back to Russia after failing to make a mark in the nation's capital. Rundblad, meanwhile, had been acquired from St. Louis in June, 2010, for a first round pick, 16th overall.

Turris, just 22, was the third overall pick of the 2007 draft and has done little to justify that selection ever since. He has 46 points in 137 NHL games in which he was also minus-22. After refusing to sign with the Coyotes this season, he finally did, and in six games back had failed to register a single point.

In theory, he and Jason Spezza could make a productive centre ice duo in Ottawa. But Turris has to actually show he can produce in the NHL, something he wasn't able to do with a Phoenix team that has been good enough to be a playoff squad the last two years despite being owned by the NHL.

The Sens are just a point out of a playoff berth despite allowing a league-high 116 goals, and with Michalek gone indefinitely.

 

The Best of the Best

Lou Marsh Trophy voting day. Always circled on my calendar, particularly as long as I've been privileged to vote on Canada's most coveted athlete-of-the-year award.

Tough year to evaluate, in many ways. Going in, I know who I'd love to see win, but won't see win. But I would say it was the finest performance by a Canadian athlete I witnessed in 2011.

That came in September in Tel Aviv, Israel when Vancouver's Vasek Pospisil, previously known mostly for teaming up with Milos Raonic to beat Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in a doubles match the year before, nearly singlehandedly pushed Canada's Davis Cup team past the highly-ranked Israelis and into the World Group for the first time since 2004.

Davis Cup isn't exactly at the top of Canada's sporting agenda, largely because we've rarely accomplished much in the 111-year-old competition, which is one of the largest in the world with 130 participating nations. Israel had been a world semi-finalist two years earlier, and Canada went into the competition as a significant underdog largely because Raonic, the country's top singles player, had been off for three months following hip surgery.

As it turned out, Raonic played only one match, lost, and then couldn't play his singles match. Pospisil, meanwhile, started by defeating Israel's No. 1 player, Dudi Sela, teamed with veteran Daniel Nestor to upset the highly-ranked Israeli doubles team and then, in the final match before an incredibly hostile crowd, won his final singles match over Amir Weintraub - the player who had beaten Raonic - to give Canada the victory.

It was a stunning, spectacular performance by Pospisil over three days in wilting heat, and vaulted Cansda into a tie with highly ranked France this coming February in Pospisil's hometown of Vancouver.

With big names like Patrick Chan out there, few will remember Pospisil's performance in today's Lou March voting. Heck, if a tennis player gets any votes, it will probably be Raonic.

But let it be noted here that Pospisil, to my mind, delivered a memorable and noteworthy performance that day in Tel Aviv. He won't win, and probably shouldn't, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't remember and acknowledge his achievement.

Back To The Crosby Watch

This was supposed to be over. But it's anything but over.

Just a week after NHL commissioner Gary Bettman blithely dismissed findings linking a serious brain condition (CTE) to hockey, the league got a stark reminder today that brain injuries (formerly known by the more benign term concussions) are still the No. 1 issue facing the sport with a setback to Sidney Crosby's comeback.

Crosby didn't want to make that big of a deal about it. But he couldn't practice, or didn't feel well enough to practice, and admitted he was a bit confused by it all. No big hit, nothing like the David Steckel collision, yet symptoms are back and everyone who loves the sport is worried.

Primarily, it brings into question something many people were surprised at, and that was the contention of Crosby's doctors during an August press conference that once he returned at "100 per cent," he would not be a compromised athlete. In other words, he would be no more susceptible to further brain injuries, so it was stated, than a player who had never had a single concussion.

For several weeks and eight games, we had reason to believe that was true. Crosby seemed just as good as ever, and in fact, he seemed a little chippier and more aggressive, as Nick Foligno and David Krejci would agree.

But now it's all on hold again, and rather than Crosby being no more likely to get another concussion than anyone else, he seems to have re-injured himself without a major collision. That was the same thing that happened to Matthew Lombardi of the Maple Leafs last season while with Nashville, and Lombardi has returned, so there's no reason to believe yet that Crosby can't come back again, and soon.

But is this to be a recurring theme? More important, you have to wonder if Crosby will have to significantly alter his style of play to be able to play all the time, whether his ability to play in the nastiest traffic the game can offer will have to be something of the past in order to keep himself available to the Pittsburgh Penguins on a regular basis.

Questions and more questions. We're back to that for the world's best player.

 

 

A Sporting Juxtaposition

One day, news that a hero playing the American pastime had tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.

The next, an all-American football star with a mind for ways of the Lord showed once again you should never write him off and anything is possible when he's involved.

What a weekend of messages to the sporting public, first with reports of National League MVP Ryan Braun's positive drug test - yet to be announced officially because he has filed an appeal - mixed with another remarkable day in the divine pigskin world of Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos.

With less the three minutes left and the Broncos trailing the Chicago Bears 10-0 on Sunday, it looked like Denver's five-game winning streak with Tebow at the helm was over and that the young quarterback's inability to throw the ball at an NFL level had finally been thoroughly exposed.

Except then he started hitting his receivers. Seven-for-seven on a TD drive that brought the Broncos to within 10-7, with the Bears playing a soft prevent zone. The Broncos went for the onside kick and didn't get it, although they should have, and it looked unlikely they'd get the ball back.

But weird things happen when Tebow's involved in a football game. In this case, veteran Chicago running back Marian Barber inexplicably ran out of bounds on a second down playing, stopping the clock and giving Denver a chance to tie the game with the ball on their 19-yard-line with less than a minute left.

Again, Tebow moved the Broncos down the field, his passing suddenly accurate and good for big chunks of yardage. With two seconds left, Denver placekicker Matt Prater lined one up from 59 yards out and in the Mile High altitude and made it easily to send the game into OT.

Again, fates seemed to turn against Tebow and the Broncos, with Chicago winning the coin toss and driving into Denver territory. Already in range for kicker Robbie Gould, Barber ran the ball up the middle and appeared to break free until a Denver linebacker reached back and yanked the ball free.

Denver ball, and hero time again for the son of missionary parents. Tebow moved Denver just far enough that Prater could win it from 51 yards, giving Denver it's sixth straight triumph and writing another chapter in the most remarkable football story of the season.

Tebow, for reasons not entirely clear, is a polarizing figure, particularly in the U.S. where matters of religion, particularly Tebow's brand of fervent Christianity, can be controversial. Some don't like his prosletyzing, and indeed, when the camera went to him after the winning kick he clearly pointed upwards and said, "Thank the Lord."

Not sure what the practicing Christians on the other sideline may have thought about that.

He's flamboyant, but not in the self-aggrandizing, look-at-me way we're used to seeing in the NFL. Finally, in a pure football sense, he does so much wrong throwing the football that he drives purists crazy. Sometimes, it looks downright ugly. But three of his six wins have been in OT, and it was remarkable to see him find his throwing range on Sunday when it mattered most.

Aaron Rodgers is the best NFL quarterback these days as he proved on Sunday again against the Raiders, and Tebow simply can't come close to Rodgers for technique, accuracy or productivity.

But he's clearly a leader, he's been a winner in the pros just as he as at the University of Florida, and his unorthodox, leftie style clearly causes headaches for NFL defences.

It's not sure whether his supporters outnumber his detractors, or the other way around, but he's the story of the year, and a real story, a nearly unbelievable story.

Braun, who led the Milwaukee Brewers to their first divisional title in three decades, seemed to be the same kind of story, and he appears determined to fight the allegations against him despite the fact no major leaguer has done so successfully since testing began in 2004. His representatives of talking of highly unusual circumstances - there's always the Richard Gasquet excuse, which was that he tested positive for cocaine after kissing a girl in a nightclub - and this may drag on for weeks, maybe into February.

Juxtaposed with the Tebow story, it's an example of how sports can produce such stark contrasts in storylines, in this case the fiery Christian unwilling to be told he's not good enough and the disgraced, sickeningly rich ballplayer unwilling to admit guilt.

Both athletes, it's fair to say, shocked their sport on the weekend.

 

 

 

 

Here We Go Again

It was Dec. 1, 2010 when the story first broke in The Star that Rogers Communications was going to buy a majority share in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.

Everyone immediately downplayed the story, and when it didn't immediately happen for months the tale went in many different directions, even including Wayne Gretzky at one point, and has now come full circle.

It's Rogers again, and maybe now for real. But not alone.

The two companies, Rogers and BCE, that in the last few months couldn't come to a relatively simple agreement on Olympic coverage after 2012, may join forces and in one sensational, unconventional move buy the 79 per cent stake in MLSE currently controlled by the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund.

Yes, the same pension fund that said just a matter of days ago it had decided to take the Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC, the Air Canada Centre, Leafs TV, Raptors TV and the rest of the giant company off the market.

At any rate, multiple media reports late Thursday night had Rogers and BCE, which own Sportsnet and TSN, respectively, set to jointly buy out the pension fund in a $1.3-$1.4 billion deal that would, if it comes together, drastically alter the local sports landscape.

Rogers would own the Blue Jays, the Rogers Centre (home of the Jays and CFL Argonauts) and a portion of the Leafs, Raptors and the ACC. In other words, Rogers would have a stake (nobody's saying what the percentages are yet) in every major sports franchise in the city plus it's two largest sports and entertainment venues.

That's unprecedented. Some will argue it's not even healthy in a town where the Argos are the only team to have won a championship in the last 18 years. Or even played for one.

Under this reported deal, BCE would have a piece of the Leafs, Raps and the ACC, and the biggest result of all of this could be the formation of a new entity, some kind of new sports broadcast network for southern Ontario. Or not. Maybe this deal blocks that from ever happening. Right now, the Jays are exclusive to Rogers, while both TSN and Sportsnet carry Leaf and Raptor games. TSN has exclusive rights to the CFL, while Rogers has an agreement with the NFL's Buffalo Bills to play regular season games in Toronto.

How, exactly, Rogers and BCE would split this up will be fascinating. Larry Tanenbaum, it's being reported, would maintain his 20 per cent share, and likely remain chairman. But the inability of Rogers and Bell to solve that puzzle of sharing MLSE and all its broadcast/internet tentacles was, according to a Globe and Mail report, apparently part of what killed their $1.4 billion offer for MLSE in late November. The two have worked together as partners in the Olympic consortium that broadcast the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and will also broadcast next summer's Summer Olympics in London.

Several major rights deals are coming up in the next few years, and with Rogers and Bell together on this deal, if it happens, the bidding for those rights - NHL, CFL - becomes fascinating. As it stands, nothing would change on local hockey rights until 2015, and nothing on national hockey rights until 2014. There are already suggestions that along with BCE having to sell it's 18 per cent share in the Montreal Canadiens, part of this deal might see the two companies form some kind of independent company to maintain an arms length relationship between the teams and the broadcasters.

It always made sense to many that one of these broadcast giants would bid on MLSE because they could value the programming element like no other entity.

Now it may happen. Or more rumours and speculation may happen. Who knows, maybe more Gretzky. Not the worst idea, and apparently he's in town. Totally coincidental, surely.

But this proposed (rumoured? imminent?) deal would be like none other in pro sports. It's outlandish. Utterly sensational. Certainly better, one would imagine, than having some U.S. equity fund buy MLSE. People seem reasonably happy with Rogers' ownership of the Blue Jays. It would keep all these teams in Canadian hands.

But how the hell it would all work? Well, that's gonna take some explaining.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Changing Look of the NHL

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif.--Maybe the NHL Players Association will shoot down the entire new realignment scheme, making the four conference discussion moot.

It could happen. Once you get this close to another round of collective bargaining, anything is possible between employer and employee.

But let's assume the proposed realignment will be in place for next season, which of course also pre-supposes there will be a next season and not a lockout or strike.

And let's assume the league comes up with some good names for the new conferences. The Orr Conference? The Howe? The Pat Burns Conference? The Mario Lemieux?

All kinds of possiblities there, and the league hasn't even started to think of possible names, or how they'll be decided.

One thing for sure. It will make some happy, and some not so happy. If you super-impose the new alignment on the current NHL standings - less than meaningful because you're dealing with very different schedules - you'd have two teams (Washington, San Jose) that as of today would be in the playoffs but out under the new scheme, and two teams (Ottawa, St. Louis) that are in under the current alignment but would miss under the four-conference plan.

That's starting an argument right there. As is the fact its a little easier to make the playoffs in a seven-team division than an eight-team group. As is the possibility that a team might be in the top four in one conference while a team with a better record wouldn't be in the top four of another.

All kinds of squabbles, then, lie in the offing.

And of course there's also the debate about what should happen after the first two rounds when the conference winners are left standing. Re-seed? Bracket?

What's clear, meanwhile, is that realignment will alter how you think about your favourite team, and probably how that team thinks as well.

Look at the Leafs. They'd be in third place in their new seven-team conference as of today, with Boston in first, Florida in second, Buffalo in fourth and Ottawa, Montreal and Tampa Bay on the outside looking in.

But really, their mindset, and that of five other teams in that conference, would become finding a way to beat Boston, and they'd start designing their team and making moves with the aim of beating Boston. No longer would they have to worry about Pittdsburgh, the Rangers, the Devils, the Capitals, the Islanders, the Flyers or the Hurricanes, at least not as rivals for a playoff berth or a division title.

Instead of worrying about 15 teams, you're now worried about six, or seven, depending on the conference.

That should heat up rivalries significantly. Theoretically, the Leafs would look to muscle up for the Bruins, and much less about matching Pittsburgh's skill.

It'll be a subtle new way of thinking. Assuming it happens. . . .