Worth Resolving

See, there really is nothing for either side in this fight.

Having teams cook up bizarre, front-loaded contracts that whittle down to $50 a season in the 45th year doesn't help NHL players in general. It may help teams like Chicago win the Stanley Cup, but the vast majority of NHL clubs don't benefit from these kind of deals that most GMs see as a form of cheating.

Everybody knows how much money is on the table for the players. It's set out in the collective bargaining agreement. It's just a question of how its divvied up. The more Ilya Kovalchuk gets, the less somebody else gets, or at least the bigger the escrow cut that comes the way of the average NHL player.

So if the NHL and the NHL Players Association are really using the 48-hour extension in the Kovalchuk decision to hammer out some kind of mid-CBA agreement on how to handle these deals, it's probably a good thing for everybody. Well, everybody except maybe Kovalchuk. And a few others.

Larry Brooks of the New York Post delivered an intriguing scoop late Wednesday night in which he reported that the league has offered to approve the newest Kovalchuk contract with the New Jersey Devils, and stop threatening to invalidate a few other similar deals, if the union agrees to some new rules that will make these kinds of contracts less attractive to teams in the future.

Brooks also reported that if the PA doesn't agree to these terms by 5 p.m. on Friday, commissioner Gary Bettman will reject the Kovalchuk deal, invalid Roberto Luongo's new contract with the Vancouver Canucks and hold a more formal probe into Marian Hossa's contract with the Blackhawks.

This is some heavy poker.

It's a tough fight for the union, particularly given the fact it doesn't have a leader. Moreover, 80 per cent of the players in the league don't benefit from these kinds of contracts. In fact, through the escrow system, you could argue these deals are under-written by the vast majority of players.

That said, there's pride on the line here. If the union agrees to these conditions with two years still to go on the existing CBA, it's essentially allowing clawbacks in the middle of a contract. 

The league, meanwhile, would still be under the gun to deliver some form of punishment to the Devils for attempting to circumvent the salary cap in the first place. If Bettman can cut a deal with the players union now, and then chooses to let the Devils off the hook, he'll have some explaining to do to about 20 other franchises.

Lots to look for in the next 48 hours. 

 

The Expected Result

Who knows? An arbitrator could, theoretically, shock the hockey world today.

But most don't expect that to happen, and instead it's likely Ilya Kovalchuk will officially become a New Jersey Devil, with his controversial 17-year, $102 million deal approved.

Arbitrator Richard Bloch has promised his ruling by 5 p.m. today, It remains curious to many NHL observers that it was the Devils and GM Lou Lamoriello that offered up the front-loaded contract, which pays out $99 million of the value over the first 12 years in a deal designed to keep the annual cap hit at a manageable $6 million.

If the deal was ruled illegal under NHL rules, the 27-year-old Kovalchuk would become an unrestricted free agent again, and it's believed the Los Angeles Kings would  be first in line to try and sign him, although Jersey could re-work the deal. Assuming Kovalchuk's contract's contract isn't struck down, the Kings may again turn their attention to Tomas Kaberle of the Maple Leafs, knowing that division rival San Jose is already bidding to acquire Kaberle before his no-trade clause kicks in again next Sunday at midnight.

Along with the Sharks, those teams still interested in Kaberle are thought to be Boston, Tampa Bay and St. Louis. If the Devils were to lose Kovalchuk they might look to make a deal for Kaberle, but few expect that to happen.

The league rejected Kovalchuk's contract as an attempt to circumvent the salary cap, which is of course exactly what it is, an effort to squeeze $65 million worth of players under a $58 million cap, basically.

Problem is, the league has approved similar contracts in the past, and the loopholes exist in the CBA that allow these kind of financial arrangements. Moreover, both Chicago and Philadelphia made it to last spring's Stanley Cup final with these kinds of contracts on their roster, which makes it seem they offer a competitive advantage to teams willing to sign them.

It's seems almost certain these long-term, front-loaded contracts won't be permissable after the current CBA expires in two years. The question now is how many teams will try to use the loophole while it exists, and whether the NHL will continue to try to fight.

Live NHL draft Q&A

Damien held a live chat Wednesday at noon, answering readers' questions about the NHL draft:

Live: Post-Stanley Cup hockey Q&A

Damien held a live Q&A Thursday morning, answering readers' questions about Chicago's Stanley Cup win and what lessons the Leafs might learn from it.

Live hockey Q&A with Damien Cox

Damien held a live Q&A today at noon, answering readers' questions.

Of Stars and Playoff Berths

Join Damien Cox at 12:15 p.m. Monday for a live hockey Q&A.

Yes, it's amazing to watch the Phoenix Coyotes vying for first in the west. Folks will be reading this as a comment on the coaching and ownership abilities of Wayne Gretzky, and you can see why.

But in terms of departed star power and its results, it's hard to look past the Atlanta Thrashers, who seemed to be giving up on their season when sniper Ilya Kovalchuk was dealt to the New Jersey Devils but instead have now closed to within one point of an Eastern Conference playoff berth.

The Thrashers swept the stumbling, goaltender-less Flyers over the weekend after beating both Buffalo and Ottawa last week and are hot on the trail of eighth place Boston. While ex-Leafs may be killing the Calgary Flames — could you believe Vesa Toskala got the start last night in Minny? — they're powering the Thrashers' playoff drive as Nik Antropov and Pavel Kubina play key roles.

GM Don Waddell took the public hit for not signing Kovalchuk, but the reality was this wasn't a team that could pay one player $9- or $10 million a season and hope to flourish. Now, without Kovalchuk, they're playing better hockey.

So much for star power.

Meanwhile, Kovalchuk's future as an unrestricted free agent will be fascinating to watch. He didn't exactly light it up last week when he came to town with the Devils. Despite all the talk that the KHL will come calling with an offer of $15 million a season, some attendance numbers out of the IIHF this morning provided some sobering news about just how big the Russia-based league actually is.

St. Petersburg leads the KHL in attendance and they only draw about 9,400, sixth best in all of Europe and less than half of what the top European team, Bern in Switzerland, draws. AK Bars Kazan, one of the better known franchises, has average attendance of around 5,000 a game. Avangard Omsk employs Jaromir Jagr and attracts about 9,200 per match.

Given these numbers — the KHL is ambitiously looking to expand to the Czech Republic and Sweden — you have to wonder about exactly how real the threat is that somebody is going to come calling with huge money to throw at Kovalchuk. His agent, Jay Grossman, is no doubt thrilled to have the KHL as leverage, but it will be interesting if he can use a Russian team to create a bidding war for a player only a handful of NHL clubs — if that — will care to throw big money offers at.

The dwindling number of Russians that are in the NHL seem inclined to stay here. That includes Nikolai Kulemin of the Maple Leafs, who in a story by Paul Hunter of The Star on the weekend said he's not looking to jump back to his homeland as a free agent this summer.

Right now there are only 26 Russians in the NHL, about a third of the number there were a decade ago. Whether the KHL actually ever becomes a rival league to the NHL is a story that has yet to play out.

The Myth of Revenge

And the moral of the story is?

Well, despite all the talk and all the cavemen who suggest knocking a few teeth out will teach this guy or that guy a lesson, and how the removal of the instigator penalty would fix all that ails the NHL, the reality is that revenge is a nearly impossible commodity to purchase or otherwise acquire in this league.

MARY SCHWALM/AP

Not much of a payback for Boston fans against Matt Cooke.

Think about it. Of all the dastardly crimes committed over the past 20 years in the NHL, on how many occasions was revenge truly exacted by the victimized party, or parties?

The truly deranged might say Todd Bertuzzi on Steve Moore in response to a hit on Markus Naslund, but in that one terrible moment, Bertuzzi did nearly as much damage to himself, the Vancouver organization and the futures of his GM and coach as he did to Moore.

You might say Darren McCarty on Claude Lemieux, but did it change Lemieux's game because he and McCarty went toe-to-toe? Did it somehow make it seem at all that matters were square over Kris Draper's crushed face?

Really, the only true sense the Wings got revenge was that they beat the Avalanche in an important hockey series.

Last night in Boston, there was no chance revenge was going to be possible for the Bruins on Matt Cooke unless they found a way to seriously injure him by legal means or otherwise, or if they took it to the Stanley Cup champions and won an important hockey game.

But injuring a guy like Cooke isn't easy. He may be a rat, but he's tough and experienced and had been through that situation more than a few times before. He was prepared, and the only way Shawn Thornton could really accomplish much was to get extra shots in after the linesmen jumped in - hey, isn't that against the vaunted "code"? - and all that did was earn him 10 minutes of extra penalty time.

The Bruins, meanwhile, aren't a good hockey team. They traded away Phil Kessel, don't have Marc Savard and have watched as Tim Thomas slowly become a backup.

Beating the Penguins on this night would have been a big surprise.

So revenge was not accomplished, which has some lunkhead sportswriters in Boston frothing at the mouth even more than usual. What did they think the Bruins were going to be able to do to Cooke? Knock his teeth out? He already was absent a few.

Did they think fighting Cooke would somehow bring Savard back from the deep dark cloud in which his life is now enveloped?

It's always thus. Did the Florida Panthers get revenge on Mike Richards because Bryan McCabe confronted him? Richards can handle himself, and David Booth still isn't close to be the same again.

Did the Leafs make Cam Janssens pay for his cheap-shot on Tomas Kaberle by having Wade Belak fight him? 'Course not. Janssens carried on and Kaberle, I'd argue, is only now getting back to being the player he was.

There's this myth in hockey that fighting somehow evens the score, and it almost never does, either because the perpetrators of various acts are thugs in the first place and able to fight as well as anyone who might challenge them - Chris Simon, Marty McSorley, Steve Downie - or they are like most NHLers, extremely well conditioned athletes who can deal effectively with a pugilistic encounter by grabbing on.

Moreover, like many things in life, there's this romantic belief that in the misty past hockey players were like English knights, settling differences honorably and like gentleman. It's just not true. They used to swing sticks at each other's heads. Cheap shots were plentiful. There were rats and cheap shot artists in the game then. Rocket Richard once said that to understand the time when he played would be understand how violent it was.

The good old days of the NHL never existed. But some convince themselves that they did, that in those days players knew how to take care of their differences and "police" the game.

You know, like Ted Green and Wayne Maki. Eddie Shore and Ace Bailey. Folks, those Broad St. Bullies weren't protecting or policing anyone - they were using intimidation as a tactic.

Fact is, whether it was hockey back then or the way it is now, nothing was going to even the score for Cooke's hit on Savard. Justice is only possible through a third party, and in this case the NHL failed itself and its players badly, while the players union has all but deserted the scene. But the absence of true justice through those means didn't change the facts that getting even was going to be next to impossible for the Bruins.

People who believed revenge was going to be exacted by the Bruins last night are thus more frustrated today than they were yesterday and are, presumably, oblivious to the moral of the story.

The Hits Just Keep On Coming

Sheesh. You'd think Colin Campbell could get one day off.

But with the hockey world still in a state of alarm over the Matt Cooke-Marc Savard hit from last week, and with the Penguins and Bruins set to meet again this Thursday to possibly renew hostilities, Campbell had to shake his head Sunday when another tricky file landed on his desk.

This time, it featured the league's reigning Hart Trophy winner and current scoring leader Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals. Ovechkin was given a major and game suspension 12 minutes into the first period yesterday of a much-anticipated game with the Chicago Blackhawks for boarding Hawks blueliner Brian Campbell.

This wasn't NHL grunt versus grunt. This was two of the highest paid players clashing, with Ovechkin rudely shoving Campbell from behind into the end boards after Campbell had hustled back for a loose puck and transferred it to a nearby teammate. As he rolled into the boards, Campbell's neck and right shoulder took the brunt of the impact, leaving him gasping for breath on the ice for several minutes.

Ovechkin knew immediately he'd done something wrong, and seemed to wave towards Campbell as if to apologize. After first going to the penalty box, Ovechkin absorbed some trash talk from Hawks forward Troy Brouwer en route to the Washington bench and, ultimately the dressing room.

NBC analyst Pierre Maguire suggested that a double minor would have been appropriate, unaware, apparently, that no such penalty is in the rule book for boarding. It's either a deuce or a major.

While Ovechkin was tossed and NHL officials quickly reviewed the incident, he won't be suspended. Otherwise, he might have been in even hotter water after already being suspended once this season for two games for kneeing Carolina's Tim Gleason Nov. 30.

In between, Ovechkin decked Jaromir Jagr during the Olympics with what was a shoulder to the jaw at mid-ice, leaving some to suggest it was a head shot. He wasn't penalized or suspended.

As it stands, there will be continued suggestions that Ovechkin has become increasingly reckless in his play this season. Reports out of Chicago Sunday night suggested Campbell could miss the rest of the regular season with injuries sustained in the hit.

Meanwhile, the NHL in general seems in a state of amber alert over head shots and bodychecking in general, with every tough hit drawing calls for penalties, suspension or revenge.

Rather than reduce the furor, the league's plan to legislate against head shots starting next fall seems to have increased the controversy and made it even more difficult for officials to differentiate between legal hits and illegal ones. In the Leafs-Islanders game, Dion Phaneuf was cracked from behind by Islander goon Matt Martin with a hit far more dangerous than Ovechkin's, yet received only a minor.

It's a guessing game.

Still, the big story from a Washington perspective yesterday was how Ovechkin was tossed, the Caps fell behind and yet still managed to fight their way back to win 4-3 in overtime on Nicklas Backstrom's spectacular unassisted goal. In so doing, the Caps passed the 100-point mark for the sixth time, but the earliest in club history, while the performance of Antti Niemi did nothing to quiet speculation that a strong Chicago team may not have the goaltending to go deep into the Stanley Cup playoffs.

NHL to Crack Down on Head Shots

BOCA RATON, Fla.—It won't happen until next season, which is too bad.

The new rule on head shots approved today by the NHL's general managers won't kick in until the 2010-11 season, which means there could be another incident like Sunday's Matt Cooke-Marc Savard ugliness during this regular season or the playoffs with the league helpless to do much about it.

"It's impossible to say to the referees, this is a call you now have to make tonight," said NHL vice-president Colin Campbell today.

First, the players and referees have to be educated and trained on the new head shot rule. The the rule must also be approved by the NHL's competition committee and the board of governors, both of which will happen in June.

That said, if there's an incident tonight or next week that mirrors the Mike Richards hit on David Booth last fall, the hit that finally changed the thinking of most GMs, there's going to be an outcry.

"People are going to be asking why didn't we do anything," agreed Leafs GM Brian Burke.

As reported in The Star today, the new rule will have three components:

• a hit primarily to the head from the side or the back will be illegal. One from the front which sees the shoulder contact the head is still okay.

• a minor or major penalty will be assessed. It's also possible a game misconduct could be tacked on.

• serious offences will likely include supplementary discipline, with an emphasis on repeat offenders.

"We're taking what is now a completely legal hit in our rulebook and saying that in the future its illegal if it is to the head," said Campbell.

The vote by the GMs was unanimous. Campbell, meanwhile, said he still hasn't decided whether to take action on the Cooke incident. Speculation is that there will be a hearing and Cooke — already suspended twice previously this season — will be reprimanded, but there will be no suspension 

The league also approved a measure to fund the implementation of the four-man officiating system in the American Hockey League next season. The NHL will provide about $600,000 to the AHL, which will use the four-man system in about 40 per cent of the regular season next year and the playoffs.

A New Year, A New Rule

BOCA RATON, FLA.--Don't worry hockey fans. Stand down, Mike Milbury.

The NHL isn't ready to take the hitting out of hockey. Anybody who thinks probably dreams every day about the wonderful possibilities of going back to the old no-helmet days, horsehair goalie pads and tube skates.

What the NHL's general managers will do on Wednesday, it appears, is propose a new rule that will limit the ability of players to strike opponents in the head with shoulder hits.

That's really all we're talking about.

Scott Stevens, were he still playing, would still be able to lay out Eric Lindros, were he still playing, in the same way he did back in 2000. Straight on, elbow down, shoulder to jaw.

There's no appetite out there to take that type of hit out of the NHL game.

But what NHL players won't be able to do any more without penalty and possible suspension is crack another player in the head with a shoulder pad from the side or the back.

Is that going to irretrievably alter the sport? No, of course not.

The guiding philosophy behind the new rule will be to protect "vulnerable" players, or players who simply cannot see a dangerous hit coming and can't protect themselves. It was drawn up by a group of eight GMs today and will be presented to the all 30 execs today for final approval.

"We've all got to look at the bigger picture," said Pittsburgh GM Ray Shero, whose player, Matt Cooke, was the latest to deliver one of these controversial hits when he laid out Boston's Marc Savard on Sunday.

Savard may miss the rest of the season, according to Boston GM Peter Chiarelli. NHL vice-president Colin Campbell has not yet decided whether Cooke should face supplementary discipline.

The rule would be implemented for next season, but would have to be approved by the NHL competition committee - which includes five players - and the league's board of governors.