Gary Doak Signed By Islanders - Player Role As Shoot Out Specialist

OK, now that I have your intention, the Doak signing is not true. But, perhaps for a moment you thought it was, because nothing from the Islanders really surprises us anymore. What is driving the Islanders into the ground is Charles Wang and a myriad of poor choices he has made as owner of this team.

In any business, leadership at the top sets the strategy and culture within an organization in its pursuit of success. It is interesting to look at rankings of the best and worst owners in the NHL. The top 5 are listed below:

1. Mike Ilitch, Detroit Red Wings
2. Jeffrey Vanderbeek, New Jersey Devils
3. Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle, Pittsburgh Penquins
4. Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment, San Jose Sharks
5. Peter Karmonos, Carolina Hurricaines

The worst 5 are provided below:

1. MLSE, Toronto Maple Leafs
2. Alan Cohen, Florida Panthers
3. Charles Wang, New York Islanders
4. Atlanta Spirit, Atlanta Thrashers
5. Predator Holdings, Nashville Predators


Source: Sports Illustrated, May 2009

I think these lists are relatively accurate. Frankly, I would add Ted Leonsis of the Washington Capitals to the list of the best. He is a bright guy, has built a fine organization, has a capable GM and arguably the best coach in hockey. Strong ownership is a huge differentiator for a prospective player when they consider the +/-'s of a given city. Quality ownership attracts the more talented players, it's that simple. Strong owners have infiltrated their organizations with outstanding hockey people that are extraordinary at judging talent.

Another addition to the worst owners list would be Jeremy Jacobs of the Boston Bruins. He has owned the Bruins for more than thirty years without a Stanley Cup. While I do believe Jacobs is on the right track, as Peter Chiarelli and Cam Neely are quite capable, he stuck far too long with Harry Sinden and he is still paying the price for it. As for the order of the poorly ranked owners, I maintain Charles Wang is unquestionably the worst. Just look at his track record as founder of Computer Associates (CA). For me this served as a really accurate predictor of what was to come with the New York Islanders when he became part owner in 2000 and full owner in 2004.

While at CA, Mr. Wang's career had considerable controversy. He spearheaded over fifty takeovers. In most cases these takeovers were followed by immediate firing of top management and key employees. The most despicable of these practices included forcing the employees of newly acquired company to sign new employment contracts on-the-spot at a company meeting with no prior warning - employees who refused to sign at the meeting or wished to have the contracts reviewed by a third party prior to signing were summarily fired. Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle once quipped, CA is where all good software goes to rest. Once a really good software company was acquired by CA, typically its employees and customers ran like the wind.

In 2000 a civil action lawsuit accused Wang, co-founder Russell Artzt, and President Sanjay Kumar of wrongfully reporting $2.5 billion of revenues in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000. This was done with the intention of inflating CA's stock price.  Since 2000, four other class action suites have been filed against CA, all of them specifically cited Wang.

So, the NHL in its infinite wisdom, approves Mr. Wang becoming owner of the Islanders. What ensued has been a series of poor decisions that is driving this once storied franchise into the ground, let's take a look:

1. Keeping Mike "Gimme Your Shoe" Milbury in place too long. Milbury's tenure as Islander GM was littered with poor trades. He traded away Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Bryan Berard, Eric Brewer, Darius Kasparaitis, and Bryan McCabe; goalies Roberto Luongo and Tommy Salo, as well as forwards Olli Jokinen, Todd Bertuzzi, Tim Connolly, and Raffi Torres. Chara, Brewer, Luongo, Jokinen, Connelly, and Torres trades were conducted by Milbury under Wang's ownership. "Gimme Your Shoe" also selected Rick DiPietro first overall in the 2000 draft when both Dany Heatley and Marian Gaborik were available. To make matters worse he signed this mediocre unproven goalie, DiPietro, to a ten year $67 million dollar contract that Wang had to approve. This crappy contract and the salary cap will encumber the Islanders for years.
2. Fires GM Neil Smith after 40 days. Wang gave Smith very little latitude in personnel and staffing decisions. Instead Wang wanted to subject the GM's decisions to ratification by a committee of advisors. Can you imagine what draft day in a circus like this would be like?
3. Senior Advisor Pat Lafontaine quits after 10 days on the job.  Guess the advisors were not on board with this approach either.   
4. Hires Garth Snow as General Manager. NO experience at all. Great goaltender, no clue on how to run a hockey club.
5. Rescinds access to blogger Chris Botta for reporting facts about the Islanders. Seems Mr. Botta expressed his disagreement with the recent firing of Islander coach Scott Gordon. Botta indicated Gordon was in a "no win" situation given the only way the Islanders are meeting the cap floor is via massive buyouts. He also cited DiPietro's ridiculous contract and Snow's ineptness at constructing a hockey team.  

How much longer can the NHL keep Jim Balsillie on the sidelines?

Colin Campbell and the Demise of the NHL

You gotta love it. Hockey season is in full swing and as of this writing five of the six original teams have winning records. The only exception is the Chicago Blackhawks at 10-10, but we'll let that slide because they are the defending champs, so really all is good with the NHL...or is it?

Actually, the NHL has a really big problem that needs to be addressed post-haste. You will recollect my blog dated March 13, 2010 entitled Colin Campbell and Player Safety. In this entry I questioned Campbell's competence and pointed out he imperils player safety. I stated this for the following reasons, as it relates to his decision not to suspend Matt Cooke for his hit on Marc Savard:

1) You ignored Matt Cooke's track record - he is a repeat offender.
2) You are confused between incidental and intentional contact.
3) Two wrongs do not make it right. You got the Richards incident wrong and you got the Cooke incident wrong as well.
4) Rare player outrage. Credible players across the league such as Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Mark Recchi are surprised at your decision.
5) You are inconsistent in your rulings. Cooke suspensions were meted out when he checked Artem Anisimov and Scott Walker. In the case of Anisimov, the elbow was flagrant; less so with Savard, but the intent to injure was still there.
6) You are incapable of interpreting the rules. Rule 21.1 is applicable here. Either you do not understand the rule or, in the interest of self-preservation, you elected not to apply it.

Quite frankly, I was perplexed by this decision not to suspend Cooke. But I believe we now know why. Check out this email from Colin Campbell to NHL officiating director Stephen Walkom:

To Stephen Walkom/Tor/NHL@NHL
Subject Re: Delayed Penalties/High Sticks 02/#/2007 4:24 pm

A bend in the road is a dead end if you round the corner and Dean Warren is standing there. Your answer re: his high stick calls and the score of the game were horse [bleep]. The 3rd call on [player] was while they were down 5 on 4 and on a def zone face off vs that little fake artist [player] I had him in [city] biggest faker going. And Warren fell for it when he grabbed his face on a face off. Your supposed to see the act, not call the embellishing act. Dean Warren has to go with [referee] There must be a way to get rid of this guy. Is there a way we can tract (sic) and total minors called by referees this year. We could then get the minors they call per game. ... or with 2 [referees on the ice] it is impossible? Warren and [referee] out of [club's] games. Give them to [referees].

Really scary folks, according to the Puck Daddy blog, Campbell is referring to a game between the Bruins and Florida Panthers on February 24, 2007. Let's decode this email, Dean Warren was the referree, Gregory Campbell (Colin Campbell's son) got three minor penalties, and Marc Savard played for Campbell when he coached the New York Rangers. The fake artist being referred to here is Bruins' Marc Savard. So there you have it, you now know why there was no suspension for Matt Cooke's hit on Savard!

Actually, these emails from Campbell are a bit incendiary and cause me great concern about the integrity of the game. Noted Boston Globe Sports Columnist Kevin Paul Dupont wrote an excellent article in the Boston Globe earlier this week about the same subject, you can read it at:
http://www.boston.com/sports/hockey/bruins/articles/2010/11/16/actions_by_top_nhl_enforcer_should_draw_a_major_penalty/?page=full

In this article Dupont suggests Campbell might be better served by keeping his opinions to himself instead of ranting in an email.

As long as Colin Campbell is in his current role, every NHL game I watch will now be viewed as just a little less than authentic. Colin Campbell must go!

Stay thirsty my friends....

A New Season Upon Us

First, apologies for the lack of blog entries since June, but I have a good excuse. I've been filming Dos Equis beer commercials over the summer...

Well a new season beckons, but first we talk about last year's Stanley Cup Champion, the Chicago Blackhawks. A tremendous hockey team for the most fanatic and arguably the best fans in hockey. The scary thing about this team is they will be formidable again this year. Any team with Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Patrick Kane, Jonathon Toews and Patrick Sharp is enough of a nucleus to make another run. Yes they have had some housecleaning and yes they have let go some great players (a legacy of Dale Talon snafu's) but the Hawks are still loaded; their leadership, Stan Bowman and Joel Quenneville, are tremendous judges of hockey talent.

There a few other items on my mind. One troubling development is the high number of UFA's still looking for a place to work, you can view the current list at:

http://espn.go.com/nhl/freeagents/_/type/available

There are some big names on this list, particularly goaltenders. What is concerning here is a trend developing in the NHL to bring lesser quality players into the league sooner. These young players come in at entry level salaries in order to get a given team under the cap. This is a big sore spot with college coaches losing players to the NHL and the Canadian Junior leagues. Think about it, when a kid is lost mid-season, the scholarship is lost and it's real difficult to replace the player. I believe college hockey is at the crossroads if this does not get fixed. In fact, I am willing to bet this single issue will drive Boston University coach Jack Parker into retirement. The other collateral damage is the NHL-fan watches watered down talent who prematurely push more capable UFA's out of the league. No winners here, except possibly the KHL.

Well now that I am on my soapbox, why step off? Interesting article in today's Washington Post in the Free For All section. A disgruntled Tony Eckert writes-in that the area's premier sports franchise (Washington Capitals) warrants coverage commensurate with the team's performance. I agree with Tony, I've been saying this for years. My recommendation, if you really want to get a clue with what is going on in the NHL, is to check out the Boston Globe Sports Section at:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/#globesports

other suggestions are the Toronto Globe and Mail or reading Red Fisher of the Montreal Gazette, in fact here's a good article he wrote about Bobby Orr in today's Gazette:

http://www2.canada.com/montrealgazette/columnists/story.html?id=d4f013d5-e3d7-4c53-aa5c-25b78d0b95e2

These publications are not Caps-centric but are a more preferred alternative to the Post. Ahh, the Internet, we aren't stuck with Washington's hockey writing. Incidentally, Red Fisher states Bobby Orr was the best ever, he's right but Ovechkin is really, really getting close.

Hey Caps Fans

In today's Boston Globe there is an article by Fluto Shinzawa that Caps Fans should checkout. Shinzawa's article discusses last week's combine for lesser known teenage draft prospects. He mentions there were only three GM's spotted: Washington’s George McPhee, Columbus’s Scott Howson, and Phoenix’s Don Maloney. There was only one NHL coach in attendance, Bruce Boudreau from the Caps.

The article points out this combine is where the Caps uncovered John Carlson (from Natick, MA)and made him their 27th pick a couple of years ago. The same article points out it is unlikely the Caps will sign UFA's Joe Corvo, Shaone Morrisonn, and Milan Jurcina.

This article raised a couple of different questions in my mind:

1) Perhaps other GM's and coaches (maybe the Bruins) may want to attend these combines. There really is a correlation between judgment of hockey talent and fielding a winning team - I believe the Caps are the gold standard here. Just think if the B's could judge talent, they may have picked Carlson instead of Joe Colborne (16th pick in the same draft).

2) If the Washington area is a considered a hockey market, why doesn't the Washington Post and Times get a clue and start writing about it - this includes the off-season. Come on Tarik El Bashir wake up, the hockey world is really busy this time of year. Despite the Caps not playing, you have got to write about the upcoming draft, the UFA's and speculate on some off-season strategies across the league. I am going to help you in the interim and offer Caps fans access to the best hockey coverage in the US, its called the Boston Globe Sports Section:

http://www.boston.com/sports

As a bonus, I am going to throw in today's article I referenced:

http://www.boston.com/sports/hockey/bruins/articles/2010/06/06/wings_havent_given_bruins_much_of_a_lift/?page=4

At some point we will get some real hockey coverage in the Washington newspapers, until then we will go the Globe.

The Drought Is Over

How can anyone not be pulling for the Chicago Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup? What a turnaround with this franchise. You really have to admire this fan base, I would put them up with anyone in the league; this includes Boston, Montreal, Washington, Detroit and Philadelphia - the Hawk fans (and the Hawks for that matter) are the real deal.

The Blackhawks have not won the Stanley Cup since 1961, they will be fixing that drought shortly. I remember going to the old Chicago Stadium in the late 80's to watch a regular season game between the St. Louis Blues and the Hawks. Both teams were having poor seasons and not going to make the playoffs, but that did not matter to the fans, they still went nuts and it was easily the loudest game I have ever attended.

Think about what the Hawks fan has been through. Under owner Bill Wirtz, he would not allow home games to be televised. He once commented the best season for him was when the Blackhawks went to the Stanley Cup finals and lost in seven (7) games - this way he maximized his gate receipts but did not have to pay his players a Stanley Cup bonus! True story. How could a franchise ever develop a winning tradition with an owner like this? It is no coincidence that once Bill Wirtz left the scene, to be replaced by his son Rocky, the demeanor of the Hawks changed immediately. The organization became fan friendly, they re-engaged former players, they drafted good players, eventually put them on long term contracts to keep them around and they allowed home games to be broadcast locally. Well deserved, well managed, Hawks in six (6) games.

The Ship is On Its Way

I have just managed to pull my head out of the oven after last Friday's Bruins loss. What a mess and I don't know where to start, actually I do. Some of you students of history may recollect in 1630 the ship that carried John Winthrop to the Massachusetts Bay Colony also carried more than 10,000 gallons of wine and three times as much beer as water. Who was planning to drink all this? Not Bruins fans, they weren't around yet.

So what happened? A weak scoring team that loses its leading scorer, Marco Sturm, made it really difficult to overcome the momentum Philadelphia put together. The Bruins have good goal tending, good defense, but no scoring. One of only four teams to lose a best-of-seven series after taking a 3-0 lead. You have to be kidding me. I like the young defensemen Johnny Boychuk but I am scratching my head over his quote after the game “I wouldn’t say we choked. We had a chance to close it out . . . If you want to say we choked, I’m proud of the way we battled. I’m just in shock that we’re not playing anymore.’’ I'm shocked your not playing anymore Johnny and I'm shocked you choked! In fact we will memorialize this event by adding it to the "Crappy Feeling Index", I have placed it at Number 7 behind the 1978 - AL Playoff Red Sox loss to the Yankees. The list now is expanded to eleven events.

In the spirit of John Winthrop, I have commissioned a reenactment ship full of libations for Bruins fans, it's crossing the mid-Atlantic and working its way to Swift's Beach in Braintree, arrival is expected sometime this weekend. Help is on its way Bruins fans!

The Caps, The Red Sox and The "Crappy Feeling Index"

Okay, here we go. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Alright, we are now ready to discuss the Washington Capitals first round elimination by the storied Montreal Canadiens - one of the biggest upsets in the history of the National Hockey League.

Prior to diagnosis of the Caps, it is somewhat therapeutic to put this upset in context. By context I mean how this loss compares to other sports upsets I have witnessed over the years. To do this, I gauge how crappy I feel after the loss and how long the crappy feeling lingers with me. Below I have compiled my "Crappy Feeling Index". It's really straightforward, a 10 is really crappy, a 5 is somewhat crappy and a 1 is not crappy at all, perhaps diffident. So here we go:

1. 1987 - Marvin Hagler split-decision loss to Sugar Ray Leonard (9.5)
2. 1971 - Bruins playoff elimination to Canadiens, Ken Dryden in goal (9.0)
3. 1974 - Bruins Stanley Cup Final loss to Flyers (8.5)
   
4. 1986 - World Series Red Sox loss to Mets, Game 6 (8.5)
   
5. 1986 - World Series Red Sox loss to Mets, Game 7 (8.5)
6. 1978 - AL Playoff Red Sox loss to Yankees, Buck F&&%#ing Dent (8.0)
7. 1975 - World Series Red Sox loss to Reds, Game 7 (8.0)
8. 2010 - Capitals playoff elimination to Canadiens (7.5)
9. 2008 - Super Bowl XLIV Patriots loss to Giants (7.0)
10. 1976 - Mass State HS Hockey Championship Braintree loss to Winthrop (6.5)

I'm getting a bit fired up just assembling this list. You can also see how much the Red Sox help one deal with upsets. On the scale of relativity using the "Crappy Feeling Index" as a barometer, the Caps loss is not too bad.

Now that we are done rationalizing, what happened to the Caps? I hear all this blather that the power play was terrible and they could not penetrate the perimeter, perhaps true, but you should still win games when you have 53 and 41 shots respectively. The Caps problem is not offense. The Canadiens had a hot goalie who stood on his head for two games. Frankly, Team Canada would not have done any better job scoring against the Canadiens than the Caps did. Team Canada would have won, however, because they would have allowed fewer goals; therein lies the issue with the Caps - defensive talent.

They got beat by a mediocre Canadiens team that will not get by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the next round of the playoffs. The Caps need no overhaul though, instead they need a couple of defensemen. Here's the good news, they have John Carlson who will get even better next year and Karl Alzner who will be more than ready for the NHL. To complement them, they need to go out and get one really imposing defensive defenseman, someone like a Zdeno Chara, Chris Pronger (in his prime), Hal Gill or Tyler Myers type. More good news, to get this defensive stalwart they have some good players to offer in a trade: Mike Green, Shaone Morrisonn, John Erskine, Jose Theodore, Milan Jurcina and Brendan Morrison. It will be tricky from a salary cap perspective to bring in this big D-man because Nick Backstrom's contract is up and I expect him to sign for between $7 and $7.5m per year.

Don't mess with this Caps team, get some defensemen, not too much else needs to be done here.