The Rangers Tribune

THIS WEEK IN HOCKEY: Why Marty Brodeur Deserves Some Appreciation

This Week in Hockey is a weekly column in which assistant blogger Michael Spinner (@MichaelSpinner) shares and discusses the major storylines in the National Hockey League from the past week.

Keep the ‘Maaaaaarty’ chants coming, folks.

There are few experiences for a New York Rangers fan better than a game against the hated New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden with the Rangers putting in a multitude of goals against the New Jersey netminder. The ‘Maaaaaarty’ chant is one of the most fun experiences a Rangers fan can have, and when you combine that particular chant with the scorn ‘Marty’ receives for his enormous honeydew-shaped cranium, and his demonstrated John Edwards-like family values, when Rangers fans remember the last 20 years of their existence, one of the fondest thoughts they will consider is letting #30 for the New Jersey Devils have it. It truly is an experience to behold.

So, if Martin Brodeur is back with the New Jersey Devils next season – a big ‘if’ – keep the chants coming. Keep the scorn directed at him. Get inside of his head. Tell ‘Fatso’ what you think of him. He has earned every chant he has received for the simple reason that he is the long-time starting goaltender for one of the Rangers’ most competitive rivals.

However, while chanting his name, it is time for Rangers fans – and hockey fans in general – to at least acknowledge that when Brodeur finally decides to hang up the skates, he will do so as the greatest goaltender in the history of the National Hockey League.

That’s right, Rangers fans. No need to proclaim fondness for Martin Brodeur. But, the time has come to at least show respect for the kind of player we will all say, “I remembered when he played” in 30 years, the same way we say it about Mario Lemieux, Brett Hull, and some of the other greats from this hockey generation. (Note: For sake of hockey fandom, we will avoid using any Wayne Gretzky parallels.) Brodeur has earned it. He is the greatest to ever play his position, and a fourth Stanley Cup will only solidify this fact. So the moment has come to embrace the greatness that is Martin Brodeur – even if we don’t like it.

With the above statement typed, somebody please pass the hand sanitizer … a bar of soap … and some Mylanta.

As painful as it is to think, and as much as the statement may lead to the scorn of Rangers fans everywhere, the fact is that we have never seen a run of excellence from an NHL goaltender like we have seen from #30 on the New Jersey Devils. Hockey has had its all-time great goaltenders, and for every argument in favor of Brodeur, there is one for Patrick Roy, another for Jacques Plante, Tony Esposito, Ken Dryden, and others. However, never has one had a run like what we have seen from Brodeur. He is the greatest, will retire as the greatest, and enter the NHL Hall of Fame as the greatest goaltender we have ever seen … while representing the New Jersey Devils.

Yuck.

Why Brodeur above the others? He has remained healthy enough to play in an unbelievable 1,191 regular season games, winning 656 of them to claim the status as the all-time wins leader in NHL history. Second on the all-time wins leaderboard is Patrick Roy, who was victorious more than 100 times fewer than Brodeur. Keep in mind here that Roy did not lose a full season to an NHL lock-out, while Martin Brodeur did. Had the 2004-05 season been played, Brodeur easily could be pushing 700 career regular season wins. After 1,191 regular season games, Brodeur has allowed his fair share of goals, but at the same time, his 2.23 career goals against average is downright anemic. He has faced somewhere in the vicinity of 25,000 shots on goal, and saved .913 percent of them. Among modern-era goaltenders worthy of consideration for being declared ‘the greatest,’ only Dominik Hasek had a better save percentage - .922.

In addition to the pure statistics, Brodeur’s NHL records (beyond wins) are just incredible. He has played in more games than any NHL goaltender in history, won more than any goaltender, of course he has lost more games than any other goaltender but that comes with the territory of playing so many games. Brodeur has logged more minutes and recorded more shutouts than any goaltender in NHL history.

When it comes to the playoffs, where legends are supposedly born, Brodeur’s numbers sparkle even more, despite the fact that the post-season brings with it stronger competition and higher stakes. Brodeur has played in 200 NHL playoff games, and recorded 24 shut-outs … meaning he averages about one shutout per seven-game series – a rate of more than 10% of the post-season games he has started. In the post-season, his winning percentage is the same as his regular season record (55%), but his goals against average (2.01) and save percentage (.919) are actually better than what he has accomplished during the regular season. Oh, and by the way, Brodeur has been to the playoffs 16 times (including the present season), leading the Devils to five Stanley Cup Finals, and a minimum of three Stanley Cups.

A fourth championship would mean that Martin Brodeur has led the New Jersey Devils to a Stanley Cup during 25% of the times his team qualified for the playoffs. Considering the length of Brodeur’s career, 25% is quite the number particularly during an era of incredible NHL parity and a salary cap.

In addition, do not forget four Vezina Trophies, a Calder Trophy, and two Olympic Gold Medals.

THIS WEEK IN HOCKEY: An ‘Ovious’ Decision in Washington; Other Musings Through Two Rounds of Playoffs

This Week in Hockey is a weekly column in which assistant blogger Michael Spinner (@MichaelSpinner) shares and discusses the major storylines in the National Hockey League from the past week.

An ‘Ovious’ decision in D.C.

Just as quickly as the Dale Hunter ‘era’ began as Head Coach of the Washington Capitals, it has come to a stunning conclusion. Hunter is on his way back to Canada, the Capitals are in the midst of their second coaching change of the season, and the unknowns surrounding one of the most successful National Hockey League franchises of the last decade are deep and strong enough to snarl D.C. traffic.

A year after earning top-seed in the East for the Stanley Cup playoffs, there is no franchise in the National Hockey League at a crossroads the way the Washington Capitals are. However, fortunately for the D.C. faithful, the path to a return is clear … and should the Caps entertain another potential Stanley Cup run during the next season, Dale Hunter may be the man to thank. During his brief tenure leading the Caps, Hunter established a new identity for the Capitals, gave them a direction that brought the Caps within a goal of reaching hockey’s final four, and in his departure, Hunter showed the Capitals and their brass the first, biggest, and most important key to success …

It is time for the Washington Capitals to part ways with Alex Ovechkin.

This notion may seem preposterous to many of you, particularly those who follow the Capitals closely. After all, ‘The Great 8’ has been the face of this franchise since 2005 as he emerged as one of the most talented and dynamic offensive players in the sport. With Ovechkin skating with the likes of Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom, and others, the Capitals quickly became the greatest show on ice. Under the guidance of Bruce Boudreau, Washington simply overwhelmed teams with their scoring punch, regularly breaking 100 points while playing the wide-open, run-and-gun hockey that looked like a video game at times. Whether you liked the Boudreau-led Caps or not, they were fun to watch.

But as great as those Boudreau teams were during the regular season, they were not built for playoff success. The Caps’ formula remained the same for years – regular season wins followed by playoff disappointment … a Stanley Cup Cinderella during the winter that hit midnight once winter turned to spring. While the Caps were scoring goals in bunches, the rest of the league became more rugged, defense-oriented, and opportunistic on offense. As the grind of the playoffs wore on, the Capitals’ potent offense seemed to wear out, and the only time the Stanley Cup found its way to D.C. was to visit the White House.

During Boudreau’s final 1+ season in Washington, he tried in vain to install a more defensive-minded system, and failed. However, Dale Hunter soon entered, and despite some down times during the 2011-12 regular season, things began to change late in the season, and certainly during the playoffs.

The 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs saw a version of the Capitals that was finally built for a deep post-season run. With upstart Braden Holtby in net, and a greater commitment to rugged, defensive hockey that emphasized shot-blocking in a way that even John Tortorella had to be proud, the Capitals dispatched second-seeded Boston in the opening round of the playoffs, and was a goal away from eliminating the top-seeded New York Rangers one round later. This did not happen by accident. The Capitals were a tough out during the playoffs, tougher than they were at any point during Boudreau’s tenure in D.C. While the Caps still had the Ovechkin-led firepower to create offensive opportunities in bunches, they did not do so with a cost to their defensive efforts. The Capitals’ offense during the post-season was, for lack of a better term, opportunistic, meaning that the Caps saw defense as their top priority, and when goals were needed, Ovechkin and company were unleashed. The formula nearly worked as had the Capitals held on for six more seconds during game five of their series with the Rangers, they likely would have advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.

However, a big part of the ‘formula’ devised by Hunter was to limit Ovechkin’s minutes, to the point where he saw the ice only slightly more than a fourth-line forward until game seven rolled around. Ovechkin was almost behind safety glass for much of the playoffs, with a giant sign that read, “Break open only when a goal is needed” on his chest. Otherwise, Ovechkin was an occasional player on the ice … albeit still arguably the most dangerous offensive player in either series.

So, when the dust settled, the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs proved to be a rebirth for the Washington Capitals as a Stanley Cup contender, but this time, the Caps were a completely different team. In terms of style and philosophy, the Caps were no different than the Bruins or Rangers, and if anything they played better hockey overall than the Rangers during their second round series. Being that this new ‘Capitals way’ only began recently, logic will dictate that with a full season to hone their craft if, and when, a coach is hired to stay the course charted by Hunter, this team will only get better.

But the only way for the Caps to complete this particular journey will be without Ovechkin, as difficult as that sounds. Defense-first hockey clearly is not in the cards for ‘Ovi.’ Under Boudreau and then Hunter’s leadership where defense and discipline were emphasized above all, Ovechkin suffered career-lows in goals and points, and for long stretches during the regular season and playoffs, seemed completely lost on the ice.

Remember game seven of the Capitals-Rangers series? It’s hard to remember Ovechkin ever playing a game as poorly as what we saw on the ice at Madison Square Garden. Ovechkin was careless with the puck, useless without it, and almost counterproductive. Much of the reason for his ineffectiveness was a great defensive game by the Rangers, and a hot goaltender, but Ovechkin was terrible even in the open ice. By the end of the series, it was clear that a disconnect existed between Ovechkin and the Capitals’ system.

Of course, Hunter is gone now, so perhaps a new coaching staff will get through to Ovechkin, but Hunter marked the second Head Coach who could not do so, simply because during a Hall of Fame caliber career thus far in Washington, Ovechkin made a name for himself by playing creative hockey, and scoring goals for a team that did not play defense-first hockey. Now, Ovi is merely a square peg on a team devoted to the round hole … and with massive expectations created by Ovi’s reputation and a contract that accounts for a $9.5 million cap hit annually until 2021, it is hard to imagine that we will ever see the Ovechkin of old in Washington D.C.

All of which is why the Capitals should use this retooling opportunity to trade Ovechkin, allowing both sides to begin anew. It is a fact that without Ovechkin, the Capitals are a very good and very deep hockey team. It is equally factual that Alex Ovechkin is still one of the most talented hockey players in the world, and still very much capable of carrying a team on his shoulders, while leading the league in scoring. However, for almost every professional athlete nowadays, there comes a time when a change of scenery becomes the best thing for both sides … and it would appear that Ovechkin has reached that point in Washington D.C.

Why now? Because with a largely ineffective Ovechkin, the Capitals were a goal away from the NHL Final Four this season. Ovechkin had every opportunity to be the hero and lead the Caps to the Conference Finals for the first time during his career, but failed to do so. He did not deliver during two overtime games against the Rangers, and failed to score during a game seven when he seemed to play every other shift. Yet still, the Caps were right there to the very end of the series. This means that trading Ovechkin will sting, but certainly not derail the Capitals.

The time is right now because Ovechkin will bring a ton of trade value to a franchise seeking the final pieces of the puzzle for a Stanley Cup run. A team like Tampa Bay has a bunch of draft picks coming up, massive salary cap space, and one of the best minor league systems in hockey … meaning a ton of prospects. In sports terms, this is known as trade bait. While Tampa Bay desperately needs depth at the blue-line and a top-notch goaltender, they may have enough cap space and trade commodities to reel in Ovechkin, and still become a better defensive team. If not Tampa Bay, how about St. Louis or Los Angeles … two teams in the Stanley Cup hunt with built-in powerhouse defenses, but lacking a scoring touch? There are also franchises such as Montreal and Toronto who desperately need an infusion of energy, where Ovechkin could carry the franchise through a rebuilding phase the same way he did in Washington D.C.

Ultimately, it is hard to imagine that Alexander Ovechkin can take the Washington Capitals any further than he already has … and equally hard to imagine that the Washington Capitals can rely on Alex Ovechkin as their top player and Team Capitan any longer. Rarely in sports do we see a player of the caliber of Alex Ovechkin traded during what should be the prime of his career, but in this case it might be the right move for both parties involved … as well as whomever would be the recipient of Ovechkin. The question is: Do the Capitals have the organizational guts to make the boldest of moves?

THIS WEEK IN HOCKEY: Clean Up This Mess… Because It’s The Cup

This Week in Hockey is a weekly column in which assistant blogger Michael Spinner (@MichaelSpinner) shares and discusses the major storylines in the National Hockey League from the past week.

If variety is indeed the spice of life, let me be the first to present a radical concept that the National Hockey League should immediately employ for the 2012 post-season. You know, some variety to spice things up a little bit, in order to appeal even more to the masses. It’s a complete shift in gears, a paradigm change if you will, but ultimately, the NHL will likely benefit greatly from such a radical transformation. It’s time for the NHL and its member teams to get unique, to become original, and to present to the viewing public something we have yet to see during the 2012 playoffs …

It is time for the NHL, its teams, and participants to actually play hockey.

Of course, we have seen plenty of hockey games since the playoffs began about a week ago. There were dozens of contests, on ice, with one team scoring more goals than the other. Most of these games were actually quite close. The concepts have been ‘hockey-like,’ and at times we have seen long stretches of games that appear to resemble the sport we all know and love. However, for the most part, what we have seen on the ice throughout the League since the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs began is nothing short of a freak-show on ice of WWE proportions.

As much as many hockey fans cheer when the gloves drop during hockey games, and hard hits are beloved by fans who yearn for rugged play, what we have seen – repeatedly – during the first week of the current post-season has been nothing short of an abomination for anybody with a vested interest in the NHL. The volume of head-shots and illegal checks have been just obscene, the number of fighting majors has been completely absurd when considering this is the time of year when fighting is generally kept to a minimum. And the number of times the hockey world has collectively held their breath – and not for good reason – has been just too much for a league that claims to be taking painstaking efforts to clean up its act in the name of player safety and public concern.

So it’s time for the NHL to do just that. Enough of the shenanigans. Enough of the pitched battles. Enough of the ‘hockey code’ that dictates an eye for an eye vigilante justice. And enough of a Vice President of Hockey and Business Development, also known as chief disciplinarian, who cannot seem to get his act together regarding what is an offense punishable by sanction and what is not.

In short, it is time for the National Hockey League to reclaim the very sport it oversees.

Why now? Four words for you: Because it’s The Cup.

Let’s put it this way: When was the last time the NFL offered a catchy slogan to encourage viewers to watch the Super Bowl, or its post-season as a whole for that matter? How often does Major League Baseball take unique steps to secure viewership in its post-season and World Series? The NBA? All of the other professional sports have to do is announce the schedule, and the viewers follow. But not the NHL.

The reality for the NHL is a conundrum that the League seemed to be on the verge of solving. On one hand, the Stanley Cup Playoffs is the most exciting post-season in all of sports. There is nothing like it. Hockey in the post-season takes on its own special character, as if the game changes once the playoffs begin. The Stanley Cup is undoubtedly the most difficult team sport trophy to achieve, and the pursuit thereof makes for some incredible, compelling television.

On the other hand, viewership for the NHL post-season is always a challenge. Not because of the product, but because hockey just has not achieved the mainstream attention that the other professional sports have achieved. So, the NHL has to conduct such marketing efforts as the absolutely phenomenal ‘History Will Be Made’ campaign, and the more recent ‘Because It’s The Cup’ campaign. Essentially, the League is trying to entice viewers to watch playoff games because the Stanley Cup – with all of its honored tradition and theatrics – offers causal hockey viewers television that cannot be seen at any other time of the year. From the standpoint of the League, the Stanley Cup Playoffs are hockey at its best, and it wants the best possible ratings to secure sponsorships, and also increase the popularity of the sport. After all, if a casual fan watches a very good Stanley Cup Playoff game, logic would dictate that they will tune in again.

It’s the right business plan and marketing model, and it makes perfect sense. The NHL does not have the following that the other professional sports leagues can attest to, so methods such as what we have seen from the League to attract viewership are the right thing to do. However, these methods of viewer enticement are the right thing to do only if one absolutely essential element is present … the games are the product the NHL wants to offer.

In other words, the entire business and marketing model surrounding the Stanley Cup Playoffs can only be effective if the League is putting its proverbial best foot forward on the ice.

In 2012, that is not happening.

Instead of the rugged, smash-mouth intensity we are used to seeing during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, 2012 has brought to a national stage everything the League is supposedly trying to avoid regarding player-conduct on the ice. The games have been full of smash-mouth intensity, but unfortunately, the term ‘smash-mouth’ is being taken literally, and applying to the head, face, and neck of too many participating players.

After a regular season during which every NHL Executive from Commissioner Gary Bettman down to whomever oversees Zamboni maintenance has preached player safety and increased accountability, during less than a week of post-season play – when the stakes are arguably their lowest of the spring – we have seen one player smash another’s head/face into the boards like a professional wrestler doing so into a turnbuckle; a player go after a goaltender’s head; at least two instances of head-hunting against players who missed significant time this season due to concussions; and a series where the first three games produced eight ejections and more than 150 minutes in penalties.  

On top of all of that, there have been countless fights, dirty checks, and illegal stick-work with intent to injure to make a league commissioner stand up and proclaim that ‘enough is enough’ and take decisive action.

THIS WEEK IN HOCKEY: The Rangers Tribune's Picks for the 2012 Regular Season NHL Awards

This Week in Hockey is a weekly column in which assistant blogger Michael Spinner (@MichaelSpinner) shares and discusses the major storylines in the National Hockey League from the past week.

So we’ve reached the end of the 2011-2012 NHL regular season, and now the fun really begins! When you think about it, what happens during the next two months will almost entirely erase the memory of what transpired during the previous six months. That is the beauty of the NHL and the Stanley Cup – it is the hardest team trophy in sports to achieve because all of the rhetoric in sports that applies to a ‘second season’ when the playoffs begin.

It’s going to be one heck of a ride, but before it commences, one last column to cover the regular season. Before we know it, the Stanley Cup Champion will be crowned and all eyes will be on Las Vegas on June 20 for the NHL Awards Show. Here is a look at the different awards, as well as our picks regarding their winners. 

JACK ADAMS AWARD (NHL COACH OF THE YEAR):
Winner - John Tortorella, New York Rangers
Runner-up – Ken Hitchcock, St. Louis Blues

After last week’s column about John Tortorella, and his outstanding effort as Head Coach of the New York Rangers this season, there is not a whole lot to say. One point from that column to be underscored: Looking at all of the major contenders for this award (Hitchcock, Barry Trotz, Darryl Sutter, etc.), Tortorella did the best job this season coaching his team out of anybody when considering pre-season expectations. Two seasons ago, Ollie Jokinen missed the ‘Shootout Heard Around the World’ (or at least around New York City) and the Rangers missed the playoffs. Last season, the Rangers were dispatched in five games from the first round of the post-season by the Washington Capitals. 2011-2012? Many were merely hoping for a repeat playoff appearance for the Blueshirts, but Tortorella upped the ante. Despite competing in arguably the toughest division in hockey, the Rangers defied all expectations and earned the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference Championships, as well as top seed in the East. There are several coaches in the running for the Adams Award, but Tortorella did the most with what seemed to be the least at the beginning of the season, and therefore deserves to be honored as NHL Coach of the Year.

By the way, if you missed the unabridged version supporting Tortorella for the Jack Adams Award last week, it was quite breathtaking … and you can find it here: http://www.rangerstribune.com/the-rangers-tribune/2012/04/this-week-in-hockey-tough-guy-torts-is-the-best-coach-in-hockey.html?tw_p=twt

BILL MASTERSON TROPHY (PERSEVERANCE, SPORTSMANSHIP, DEDICATION TO HOCKEY):
Winner – Max Pacioretty, Montreal Canadiens
For Some Reason the Likely Winner – Matt Cooke, Pittsburgh Penguins
Intriguing Possibility – Jaromir Jagr, Philadelphia Flyers

This is one award you have to love … even if you do not know exactly what it is for. Every NHL club has the opportunity to nominate a member to win an award for the exemplification of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. The idea is to reward an NHL player who has overcome some sort of adversity in order to resume a successful hockey career, play the game the right way, and take time to give a little something back … all of which is personified by Montreal’s Max Pacioretty.

During what was a disaster of a 2011-2012 season for the Montreal Canadiens, one of the big bright spots was the play of Pacioretty, who will likely be the cornerstone of a rebuilding effort by the Habs. Pacioretty missed the final 15 games of the 2010-2011season and entire post-season for the Canadiens after suffering a neck injury and concussion. You know, the kind of injury that could end a player’s career. Not only did Pacioretty come back healthy, he came back better, leading Montreal with 33 goals and 32 assists, while playing in 79 games. On a brutal Montreal team, Pacioretty finished a +2, and on a team with a bit more fire-power, Pacioretty is likely a 100-point player.

For sake of this particular award, even more important than his numbers was what Pacioretty did off the ice. After sustaining the injury a year ago, Pacioretty launched the Max Pacioretty Foundation, to help the Montreal General Hospital Foundation raise the funds needed towards acquiring a Functional MRI machine for their Traumatic Brain Injury Center. In other words, Max Pacioretty suffered a potentially traumatic brain injury a season ago, and recovered to enjoy a stellar season, while in the process establishing a foundation to help those who suffer a similar injury to what he suffered. During an era of sports when so much attention has been given to head injuries, Pacioretty did his part to help find a solution and/or treatment – and he did so locally for his hockey club. This is the kind of act this award was created for.

The smart money, if you regularly listen to or read the opinions of hockey experts, is of course is on Matt Cooke because he enjoyed a successful season on the ice while finally not being a complete and utter goon during the process. He had 19 goals, 19 assists, and only 44 penalty minutes, after seemingly averaging that many penalty minutes per game during previous seasons. With all due respect for Cooke’s efforts towards professional rehabilitation, it would be a disgrace to the memory of Bill Masterson and all of those who have earned this prestigious if (and probably when) Cooke is honored.

Exactly what kind of adversity did Cooke overcome to enjoy such a fine season? After all, being a jerk and hunting heads is not adversity … it is a character flaw. Since the 2008-2009 season, Cooke could have ended the careers (or even worse) of too many players to count. His disgusting behavior on the ice was not a measure of adversity to overcome, it represented a player for an organization that seems to be above the rules in the NHL to begin with, taking the NHL’s soft stance on the Penguins to an extreme, and people getting hurt as a result. Remember Marc Savard? He might be playing right now if Matt Cooke were to have been thrown out of the league years earlier like he should have.

It is not the overcoming of adversity when one stops being a jerk and starts following the rules … that is called growing up, and there is nothing that can compare Cooke’s triumph over challenges to Pacioretty. To insist that Cooke deserves the award is to set the wrong example for hockey. A guy gets honored for finally obeying the rules? Ridiculous.

Jaromir Jagr is an interesting possibility. While an unlikely winner of the Masterson Trophy, Jagr is worthy of consideration. After all, Jagr spent three years out of the NHL while playing in the KHL, which is a totally different world from the hard-hitting, blue collar nature of NHL hockey. Despite his advanced age, and time spent out of the league, Jagr was solid for the Flyers all season, finishing third on the team with 54 points during 73 games. Jagr proved to be dangerous every time he touched the puck, and his comeback is a feel-good story for the NHL this season. Jagr is not the most popular guy in several cities where he played, but the man is likely a Hall of Fame hockey player, and his return this season was a great storyline in the NHL … even if it was in Philadelphia.

NHL Destroying Its Own Integrity

Enough is enough. 

The National Hockey League chose not to discipline Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik for his injury-intended knee-on-knee hit with Derek Stepan in the third period of Thursday’s game at the CONSOL Energy Center.  They did not even bother to hold a disciplinary hearing over the phone for Orpik to discuss his dirty move – one they are supposedly trying to remove from the game all together. The League wasted no time laying down a $20,000 fine to Rangers head coach John Tortorella after he furiously lashed out against the Pittsburgh Penguins organization afterward, however. A $20,000 fine for speaking his mind on what should’ve been a multi-game suspendable hit that Derek Stepan was lucky to walk away (at least we think) uninjured from? Even to the most casual of fans, something there doesn’t sound right. 

The NHL has been called out many a-time on their bias towards the Pittsburgh Penguins and owner Mario Lemieux. Commissioner Gary Bettman singlehandedly revived the franchise by allegedly staging the draft lottery so that the Pens ended up with the first overall pick in the 2005 Entry Draft just after the lockout year. That pick was used to reel in superstar Sidney Crosby, who continues to be the face of the franchise and the League to this very day.

Helping to get the Penguins organization back on their feet was clearly not satisfying enough for Mr. Bettman, though. Since 2005, the NHL - as in Bettman and company - has formed a protective forcefield around Crosby and the Pens. We’ve repeatedly witnessed the one-sided officiating and league-wide decisions that always seem to favor Pittsburgh. We’ve seen Crosby and his club pushed to the Stanley Cup Finals in back-to-back years. We’ve even seen him appear in two Winter Classic games before a majority of the league was able to participate in one. 

All of that alone warrants a complaint and even outrage to a degree, but what occurred over the past two days has put the love affair between the NHL and the Pittsburgh Penguins at an all-time high. It’s to the point where Bettman no longer feels the need to attempt to disguise or hide the favoritism. 

What John Tortorella said on Thursday night was the 100-percent accurate truth. It was a statement that has been on the minds of fans, players, coaches and management throughout the league for a number of years now, but he was the first to build up the courage to come out and publicly say it. 

Tortorella knew that that there would be no further discipline beyond the game misconduct to Brooks Orpik for what was done to Stepan. This is why he made the point that if a Ranger had pulled a stunt parallel to Orpik’s on either Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin, Bettman would've immediately been dialing the phone of Brendan Shanahan with orders to apply a suspension for the play. 

The ironic thing that Bettman may not have completely thought out is that by fining Tortorella $20,000 for exposing the NHL by lashing out against the Pens, the League has now pretty much proven Torts’ point perfectly. They’ve proven that the price tag to maintain the previously mentioned forcefield around the Pens is a hefty 20K directly out of the coach’s pocket. 

Well done, Mr. Bettman. 

Unfortunately outside opinion does not seem to faze the leader of what is now becoming a corrupt sport in many ways. Like I said, the commissioner no longer feels the need to even disguise this double standard that is applied to the Penguins. There is a severe conflict in interest here that sees Bettman make decisions that will better the League’s annual revenue rather than better the integrity of the sport. 

The social media reaction to yesterday’s announced fine to John Tortorella says it all. Media outlets and their beat writers who would normally remain quiet or at least subdued on an issue such as this came out and used words such as “appalling”, “disgusting” and “embarrassing” to describe the way in which the NHL handled the situation. The overwhelming majority was against the League’s decision on this one. 

And by all means, it is not only the Rangers making public statements here. The Philadelphia Flyers also got into a heated postgame dispute over the Penguins last weekend, in which Flyers assistant coach Craig Berube referred to Crosby and Malkin as "two of the dirtiest players on their hockey team." Head coach Peter Laviolette was so enraged that he raised himself onto the boards during the game just so he could get a message across (literally) to Penguins coach Dan Bylsma. Bylsma, of course, hid behind his assistant coach the entire time, and Laviolette, meanwhile, would be handed a $10,000 fine of his own. 

Berube wasn’t telling a folktale, either. Evgeni Malkin is a dirty player despite the fact that he is one of the more talented forwards in the world. The NBC Sports broadcast displayed this in last Sunday’s match between the Pens and Flyers, showing replays of Malkin jabbing his stick into opponents and throwing punches behind the play, all of which just so happened to be unnoticed by the officials. 

The same argument, to an extent, can be made for Crosby. Remember this slew-foot on Ryan Callahan last season that also went unnoticed? Or what about Sidney’s comments yesterday stating that John Tortorella’s gamesmanship is “garbage”? Isn’t that equivalent to Torts calling him a whiner? Not in Bettman’s skewed eyes. 

Not only did the League not discipline Crosby for those comments, but they went ahead and promoted them on their official Twitter: 

Crosby calls remarks from @NHLFlyers and @thenyrangers "garbage." Story: bit.ly/IgkknZ

— NHL (@NHL) April 6, 2012

That’s just a downright embarrassment. Crosby and the Penguins can truly do no wrong, huh? 

The argument made in this article, by John Tortorella, Craig Berube and many others can no longer be disputed. The signs pointing to the NHL’s favoritism are everywhere we turn, and the fact that they are handing out substantial fines to those who expose them only further proves the point. 

The question now is when does it stop? Or, better yet, how will it be stopped? 

Well, for starters, Tortorella and the Rangers could always appeal the fine. The downside of that is the resulting indirect prices the Rangers would pay come playoff time (i.e. one-sided officiating, suspensions, fines etc.). They wouldn’t want to deal with such odds working against them by causing a distraction from the task that they should be focused on. 

Also, the Rangers organization, as well as others who may have been direct victims of the Pens-bias, could continue to speak out and simply absorb the fines that will come their way. Of course, once again, the ultimate outcome would probably not be in their favor. 

That leaves the job up to us; media, bloggers, fans, broadcasters and what not. The more often the League is exposed for their corruptness, the more negative attention it will bring to Gary Bettman and the powers that be. This past week has done wonders in exposing them already, and the League helped that along itself with its retaliatory actions, but this week alone simply was not enough. 

Tortorella receiving a $20,000 fine for speaking his mind while Brooks Orpik gets off scott-free for attempting to injure someone is absurd. The NHL has basically denied the coach his freedom of speech, or at the very least has done its best to manipulate what is said about the favoritism. It’s disgusting.

Knee-on-knee hits, head shots and even playing the puck from the bench are all legal actions based on the NHL's lack of discipline this week - not even the proverbial slap of the wrist is required. But somehow a coach speaking his mind (and the truth) on an opposing player/organization is worthy of a $20,000 fine. Ridiculous.

The issue at hand is only going to grow worse and create more problems as time goes on. There’s no telling when, exactly, it will all come to an end, or if it ever will. 

But as of right now one thing is for sure: the League is rapidly destroying its already declining integrity.

Hello, lockout 2012-13. 

THIS WEEK IN HOCKEY: Stop Believing the Hype; Scheduling Snafus; Endorsement of a new point system

This Week in Hockey is a weekly column in which assistant blogger Michael Spinner (@MichaelSpinner) shares and discusses the major storylines in the National Hockey League from the past week.

Stop Believing the Hype

So wait a second … Pittsburgh is not the automatic winner of the 2012 Stanley Cup? It’s all we’ve been hearing about for weeks now. The Penguins won eight straight games in January, and then enjoyed 11 consecutive victories from late February through the middle of March. Hockey ‘experts’ agreed they were the only team favored to win the Stanley Cup, and all but closed the door on the 2011-2012 post-season, weeks before the playoffs actually began.

After all, the Penguins were once 10 points out of first place in the Eastern Conference and cut the deficit to a single point … and then they got Sidney Crosby back. As far as hockey talk anywhere was concerned, the Stanley Cup should have been sent to Pittsburgh and returned sometime in June of 2013, when maybe, just maybe, somebody else could win it. This was fine by me, I had my spring all mapped out anyway. Instead of rooting for the New York Rangers and their hopeful attempt to win the Stanley Cup after a magnificent season, I found better use of my time with items such as learning French so I could become General Manager of the Montreal Canadiens anyway.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the coronation, the Pittsburgh Penguins proved to be mere mortals after all. They allowed the Ottawa Senators to score eight goals in regulation time … then lost  to the New York Islanders – yes the Islanders of all teams – twice during a three-day span. Remove Pittsburgh’s 5-2 win over New Jersey from the equation, and during their last three losses to Ottawa and the Islanders twice, the Penguins have been outscored 18-10 … hardly the kind of defensive numbers a team needs to win 16 post-season games.

In other words, the Pittsburgh Penguins are good, even scary good, but to suggest they are the only team with the goods to win the Stanley Cup would be absurd. Sure, they can score goals in bunches, but we’ve seen a team do that for several years on-end, and not go too far in the post-season. That team was known as the Washington Capitals, and while the Caps spent years as the greatest show on ice, they were also living proof that there is a formula to winning a Stanley Cup, and that formula has nothing to do with scoring enough goals to cover up defensive deficiencies … an offense-first formula that seems to be what the Penguins have operated on since Crosby’s return, and it is proving to not be good enough for Pittsburgh to be the last team standing.

None of this is to suggest the Penguins cannot or will not win the Cup, but at the same time, all their success from February in March accomplished was to make them the NHL Flavor of the Week, and give zero indication as to what is about to happen in the playoffs.

‘Flavor of the Week’ should actually become an award the way the NHL media is operating. This year more than ever, as soon as a team wins a few games, the analysis thereof becomes an exercise in ‘Cupology’ instead of an admission that a winning streak is nothing more than that, and there really is no way to predict how things will play out in the post-season.

It’s amazing how quickly a team becomes this Flavor of the Week in the hockey media, and how much faster they fade away. In October, the Washington Capitals were all but proclaimed the Stanley Cup Champion after a 7-0 start. A series of struggles and coaching change later, and the Capitals are on the verge of an early vacation this season.

Then we had the Boston Bruins, who began November with a 10-game winning streak, and made it 14 wins during 15 games into December. After two straight losses, the Bruins won another seven in a row, and entered the New Year as ‘the greatest team in hockey history.’ They scored a ton of goals while ending 2011 by winning 21 out of 24 games, but then Timmy Thomas decided to skip a White House visit, the Bruins started to lose, the lights in Madison Square Garden went out, and the Bruins seemed to have been forgotten … even though they will almost certainly be the #2 seed in the Eastern Conference for the upcoming playoffs. Why can’t the Bruins win the Stanley Cup? The just won it last year, and the team is pretty similar to that one. However, as far as hockey pundits seem to be concerned, the Bruins are non-existent these days.

And don’t forget the New York Rangers … the same Rangers who have been the top team in the Eastern Conference since prior to Christmas. After a 6-1 stretch in early February, the ticker-tape parade plans began to take shape, but during a 3-6 stretch in March, everybody seemed to abandon the Ranger bandwagon, and fans even started questioning the aptitude of Henrik Lundqvist, and whether or not John Tortorella should keep his job. Based on what Rangers fans have said on Twitter, this team – which is in a dog-fight for the President’s Trophy – is the worst 100+ point team in the history of hockey, and has no business competing in the playoffs. Not one hockey ‘expert’ has recently stated publicly that the Rangers have a chance at all to win the Stanley Cup, which is interesting when considering that they could finish the season with the best record in hockey.

And within all of this ‘hype’ we had the Detroit Red Wings win 21 straight home games to earn invincibility status, the Philadelphia Flyers enjoy a 7-1 stretch in March that included four shutouts for Mr. Universe, and the Vancouver Canucks broke 100 points … again.  Every time something of note happened for these teams, they were declared the favorites to win the Stanley Cup … and every one of these teams at some point recently have been counted out.

With a laundry list of teams declared to be the ‘favorite’ to win the Stanley Cup, what’s a hockey fan to do to make sense of all of it? It’s simple: Stop believing the hype. Pittsburgh’s play during their long winning streak (or winning streaks) was remarkable, especially considering that most of it was without Crosby in the line-up, but it was also a winning streak in January, followed by a winning streak in March, when the most important winning streak has to come in April and May. The Green Bay Packers had one heck of a winning streak this past season as well, and never actually won a playoff game because the regular season has nothing to do with the playoffs. Don’t believe me? Four words for you: The New York Giants. This is why breaking down teams in terms of whether or not they are a Stanley Cup contender is such a flawed practice because if a team is hot on Monday morning, it does not mean they will remain that way by Sunday night.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are absolutely a threat to win the Stanley Cup this season, but if they in fact draw the Philadelphia Flyers for the opening round of the playoffs, they are equally a threat to exit the playoffs after the first round. In fact, if the New York Rangers finish as the #1 team in the East and face the Buffalo Sabres for the first round of the playoffs, is it a safe bet that the Rangers will advance with the way Buffalo and Ryan Miller have played recently? Of course it isn’t.

Ultimately, 16 teams will compete in the post-season, and while some teams enter the playoffs better than others, there is not a single announcer, journalist, or ‘expert’ in the sport who can honestly say which one of them will be the best, and all of this coronation work that we have seen this year is not an exercise in expertise, but instead is the effort of somebody with a public following who took time to look at a team’s schedule, determine why that team is playing well, and declare them to be the odds-on-favorite to win it all.

This is why anybody with an interest in the NHL should be absolutely offended by the recent coverage of the Pittsburgh Penguins. As good as the Penguins have been as of late (despite their most recent struggles), the reality is that the Penguins are one of many ultra-talented teams in the league who have had periods of remarkable success this season, and rough stretches as well. But those covering hockey during recent weeks hyped the Penguins as if they are the beginning of the next great hockey dynasty when they may not finish the season as the highest ranked team in their own Conference, Division, or even their home state.

Of course, if Pittsburgh wins the Stanley Cup, these experts will say they provided exclusive analysis months in advance which gives viewers and readers all the more reason to continue to buy their bridges, and if they lose there will be some sort of cosmic external factor such as a lack of stamina for Sidney Crosby or the lighting at Madison Square Garden. After all, it could not possibly be the case that a team outperformed the hockey media’s Flavor of the Week, could it?

What hockey needs is a way for analysts to cover the league the same way other sports are covered. Sure, the Green Bay Packers received a ton of media attention this season as a Super Bowl favorite, as did the New England Patriots. However, no NFL expert ever took their eyes off of the New Orleans Saints, San Francisco 49ers, and Baltimore Ravens. Even when the Patriots finished the regular season undefeated four years ago, there were other teams afforded spotlight coverage because of the incredible parity in the NFL. In addition, NFL ‘experts’ learned a long time ago that because a team is good during the regular season, it does not always translate into a Super Bowl Championship, and vice versa. If that were the case, the New York Giants would not have won either Super Bowl they captured during the last four years. The NHL has no less parity than the NFL, but this ‘any given Sunday’ dynamic exists within the NFL media, but has been largely ignored by those covering hockey.

Hockey is a different sport in the way it is covered as it seems like when it comes to NHL coverage, there is one team, and then there are the rest. When the Red Wings were unbeatable at home, hockey media could not focus on anybody else, and when Pittsburgh had their run only to then get Crosby back, one would have thought the Penguins had 32 home cities the way they were covered.

The reality is simple: There is no team trophy in sports more difficult to capture than the Stanley Cup. Not the World Cup of Soccer. Not the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Not the Jake Steinfeld Cup (Lacrosse fans will enjoy that one). The Stanley Cup is the gold standard of team grit, determination, depth, and – for lack of a better term – courage during the playoffs. To become the Stanley Cup Champions, a team has to win the 16 most physically and mentally demanding games of their season, after already having played 82 brutal games. Over the course of four rounds of the playoffs, a lot can happen to a team to allow them to go on a shocking deep run, and even more can happen to lead to a ‘favorite’ exiting the playoffs early.  Nobody can predict will happen once the playoffs begin, a point that is especially true in 2012 … and the regular season certainly has little or no bearing on what will happen once play begins in April.

What we do know is there are a lot of items to be covered by hockey ‘experts’ during the regular season, none of which can accurately portray who the real favorite is to win the Stanley Cup. So perhaps it is time for those who cover the NHL to stop believing the hype and focus on the games, and when a team gets hot or cold, simply acknowledge that these things tend to happen over the course of an 82-game season. Otherwise, the NHL might find itself in the uncomfortable position of seeing a team win the Stanley Cup that the public knows little about since they never received the coverage that the ‘favorites’ earned by winning some games here and there during the regular season.

THIS WEEK IN HOCKEY: On Roger Goodell, Bounty-gate, Peter DeBoer, and our Hockey Image

This Week in Hockey is a weekly column in which assistant blogger Michael Spinner (@MichaelSpinner) shares and discusses the major storylines in the National Hockey League from the past week.

It was not too long ago when one of the biggest allures of professional sports was the image that the world-class athlete was somehow less mortal than the rest of us. Particularly in sports like hockey and football, but really for just about any sport, these icons of the sports world received such a following because they seemed to be super-human. How many times do we see professional athletes do the physically impossible? It’s one of the things that makes the viewing of sporting events such a special occasion … even for those of us who do it every day.

Today, we are in a very different world as sports fans, a time when the same athletes at the highest levels of sport are proving to be far more human than we ever thought. Was there ever a time before the present that the biggest name athletes held the perception of vulnerability that they hold today? How is it possible that Peyton Manning could have missed an entire season of football? The man is built of iron, isn’t he? What do you mean that the superman with the super arm can be so injured that he cannot play for a season? It’s not supposed to be that way in sports.

The reality is the those playing the games are no more fragile than they were decades ago, but the difference today is we know more than ever the long-term impact of playing sports dangerously, and for the first time active steps are being taken to make sure athletes are protected.  The games need to be safer, and sports executives everywhere are taking major initiatives to do so … not because they are seeking to change their sports, but because they have to. So when overt action is taken to make sports unsafe, the world is taking notice more than ever before, and individuals such as league commissioners are acting.

What is amazing is the difference between the reaction of commissioners such as NHL leading man Gary Bettman and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell when faced with situations that are not completely different from one another. We saw such differences this past week.

On Monday Night, we had ‘Brawl-Gate’ as New Jersey Devils Head Coach Peter DeBoer made a controversial decision hours before the opening face-off of the Devils game against the New York Rangers. Instead of opting to begin the game with a line involving superstars Ilya Kovalchuk or Zach Parise for a contest with huge post-season seeding implications, several hours before the drop of the puck, DeBoer opted to start with tough-guys Ryan Carter, Eric Boulton, and Cam Janssen. If a premeditated or ‘pitched’ battle exists in the NHL, this was it. DeBoer sent the message loud and clear, he wanted a fight. The decision forced New York Rangers Head Coach John Tortorella to make a counter-move. Does Tortorella start with a regular unit and risk having them drop the gloves for a street-fight on ice, where the best-case scenario was losing three key players for five minutes, or does he fight fire with fire? Tortorella chose the latter, and three seconds into the game, the NHL was suddenly thrust into the spotlight for reasons the league cannot be happy with.

Two days later, and not far from Madison Square Garden, the National Football League was thrust into the spotlight for not completely unique circumstances. NFL Commissioner Goodell announced sanctions for ‘Bounty-Gate,’ after New Orleans Saints Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams was proven to have offered financial rewards for injuring players on opposing teams, and Saints brass including Head Coach Sean Payton and General Manager Mickey Loomis were proven to have known about Bounty-Gate, and assisted in its cover-up. During an era when the health and safety of NFL players is on the forefront of the league’s strategic plan, this situation representing nothing short of a complete embarrassment to the league. The NFL has completely changed the way it promotes player safety in recent years, and in the middle of it, the New Orleans Saints decided the league’s direction did not apply to them, casting a massive black eye on Goodell’s initiatives, and his desire to control the violence of professional football to allow players to play with the physical costs being minimal.

Ultimately, there were few similarities between the situations faced in New York City during the early part of the past week. The hockey situation represented a controversial, yet common practice in the NHL … pitched battles. The football situation was completely different. While it is possible – and entirely probable - that game-plans have existed to try to knock an opposing player out of the game, these ‘bounties’ were kept hidden from public view, and therefore did not present damage of the league’s image the way the Saints situation did. A bounty system certainly could have happened before. But never in the history of sports were members of a franchise found to have not only engaged in such a brutal breach of the standards of integrity of the game, but to have lied about the issue as well.

But within the fundamental differences between ‘Fight-gate’ and ‘Bounty-gate’ there is also one compelling similarity, and the reaction of the respective leagues to this particular similarity speaks volumes regarding the value system of both organizations. While the circumstances surrounding both ‘Gates’ were very different from one another, the impact on their respective sports is very much the same. Both situations shared the premise that a coach made an overt decision to place players of an opposing team at a greater risk for injury than they would have faced under normal game circumstances.

Remember one thing, neither the Monday night fights at Madison Square Garden nor the New Orleans Saints bounty system were initiated by players … they were efforts singularly initiated by coaches. This dynamic gave both commissioners some common ground with which to operate. You see, when it comes to the health and safety of professional athletes, or even athletes at any level, above all, it is up to coaches to hold themselves to higher standards than anybody else associated with the game. Coaches have a tremendous impact regarding what takes place in competition, and part of the responsibility of being a coach is to take all steps necessary to win, but within the framework of honoring the game itself. What Peter DeBoer and the New Orleans Saints coaching staff share in common here is that both may have acted in what they felt was the best interests of their respective teams, but at the end of the day, they put the standards, integrity, and image of their sports in tremendous peril.

Imagine the fall-out had either ‘Gate’ resulted in serious injury? Had a member of the New Jersey Devils broken the jaw of a member of the New York Rangers, or issued a punch that led to a major concussion, what could DeBoer have said to defend himself, or what could the league have done to protect its image? More importantly, had such injury taken place, would DeBoer, the New Jersey Devils, and the NHL been subject to legal liability? From the football standpoint, one fundamental question has yet to be answered: Was a bounty ever paid to a member of the New Orleans Saints for an injury to another player that proved to be serious? If the answer is ultimately a yes, the fallout floodgates will truly open, from the standpoint of both league (or franchise) image and legal liability.

Ultimately, both ‘Gates’ represented a clear and unconscionable threat to the very value system under which their sports operate. Professional Hockey and Professional Football in 2012 are every bit as physical, action-packed, and to an extent violent as they were even decades ago. However, in the name of image, plays that put player safety in peril are being forced out of both sports. On Monday night, a coach made a decision that marginalized this very image for hockey. Putting three fighters on a forward line to start the game had nothing to do with hockey, and everything to do with sending a message. DeBoer himself all but admitted this fact:

"I guess in John's world you can come into our building and start your tough guys, but we can't do the same here. He's either got short-term memory loss or he's a hypocrite." DeBoer said.

In other words, when you are Peter DeBoer, two wrongs do make a right. Because Tortorella allegedly started ‘tough guys’ at some point in New Jersey, DeBoer felt the obligation to do the same in New York because, you know, payback was far more important than the image of professional hockey. Instead of starting a usual line-up and after the game proving to possess the ethical high-ground by perhaps telling the media something along the lines of, “I thought about starting the game with fighters because of what John did during the last time we played in New Jersey, but we at the New Jersey Devils hold ourselves to higher standards,” DeBoer decided that retribution was far more important.

What DeBoer did was basically serve as the proverbial class bully and announce that a classmate would be met in the schoolyard at recess for a butt-kicking, with recess being the opening faceoff for this game. He was offended by something that may or may not have happened in New Jersey, and his only recourse was revenge via dropped gloves and punches intended to hurt members of the New York Rangers … kind of like a bounty system without financial reward.

DeBoer’s desire to see fists fly was so blatant that he had the audacity to essentially announce his intentions hours before game-time to allow Tortorella to stew over the decision. The Devils Coach easily could have made the brawl appear to be spontaneous by putting his ‘goon line’ on the ice as part of a shift change immediately after the opening face-off, but he chose to allow emotions to rise for hours before the first drop of the puck. This decision was no ethically different than telling a player to injure another player as part of a game-plan.

And three seconds into the Rangers-Devils game Monday night, DeBoer made sure the post-game headlines had nothing to do with a huge hockey game and everything to do with a trio of fights that had nothing to do with the game itself. Not because of a disagreement on the ice, but because of the decision of a coach. The ‘goon’ image of professional hockey was put on full display, and this image the NHL has been painstakingly attempting to put forth was essentially slapped in the face.

What did Gary Bettman do? Absolutely nothing. No fines, no suspensions, not even a public reprimand in order to send the message that such decisions by coaches have no place in the game of hockey. Not a peep from Bettman in the name of the integrity of the sport and the image of professional hockey.

Across town, when faced with proof of a bounty system by the New Orleans Saints, Roger Goodell suspended a Head Coach for an entire year, a Defensive Coordinator for at least that long, a General Manager for half of a season, and fined the organization severely, including the loss of draft picks. Why? Not because of the deterrent effect and an attempt to rid football of bounty systems forever. At no point did Goodell ever mention a deterrent. Instead, all rhetoric coming from the NFL was about the league’s image, holding coaches to higher standards when it comes to player safety, and an unflappable desire of the league to protect its players.

Goodell himself made this point crystal clear, saying, "It is our responsibility to protect player safety and the integrity of our game, and this type of conduct will not be tolerated. We have made significant progress in changing the culture with respect to player safety and we are not going to relent. We have more work to do and we will do it."

THIS WEEK IN HOCKEY: Protecting the Crosby Investment; Rule Change Review; An NHL-less Europe

This Week in Hockey is a weekly column in which assistant blogger Michael Spinner (@MichaelSpinner) shares and discusses the major storylines in the National Hockey League from the past week.

Protecting the Crosby Investment

And just like that, ‘Sidsanity 2011-2012: Part II’ is upon us.

It’s amazing how fast the priorities of the National Hockey League, and all of its entities, change when #87 on the Pittsburgh Penguins is around. When Sidney Crosby is out with an injury, the league is singularly focused on the game itself, its playoff races, and compelling storylines within a season. But, the moment there is a hint that Crosby is on his way back, the league becomes a virtual TMZ within itself. There are press conferences, rumors, a ‘Sid Cam’, and everything else short of a ‘Sid Returns’ theme song to play every time there is Crosby news, kind of like what CNN will utilize when there is breaking news to report.

It is not too much of a stretch to say that Sidney Crosby’s return to action this season is almost as big of a story to the NHL as the Stanley Cup Championship, simply because while a Stanley Cup Champion is crowned annually, a talent like Sidney Crosby comes along only one or twice per hockey generation. And with the 2011-2012 edition of the NHL so void of superstar ‘faces’ of the league, there is a ton a stake regarding Crosby, and whether or not he can return … and return effective.

So there the collective hockey world was last Tuesday night, many of us watching the Rangers face the Carolina Hurricanes on the NBC Sports Network. And like a major world event, during the pre-game show, we had sudden breaking news that Crosby would make his return on Thursday when the Rangers would host the Penguins for a pivotal game in the Eastern Conference playoff race. However, while making the right decision to promote Crosby’s return to the point of overkill, particularly when considering the importance of Crosby to the league, NHL executives made the wrong decision for Crosby himself.

Crosby announced his return on Tuesday evening for a Thursday night game. Immediately, NBC announced the game would be televised nationally on the NBC Sports Network, after previously only being scheduled for the franchise’s respective local networks. The ticker on all sports networks announced Crosby’s return, and throughout the Rangers-Hurricanes game, there were frequent advertisements for viewers to see Crosby’s return in 48 hours. In fact, the NBC Sports Network seemed to immediately forget that the game itself had tremendous meaning for the Eastern Conference playoff race, and suddenly it seemed as if the game was all about Crosby, and nothing else. Just like that, the status of the Rangers and Penguins heading into Thursday’s game was secondary to the main event – the return of #87 … almost as a savior to the NHL.

We get it, Sidney Crosby is important to the league … it is a different league without him. Somebody has to be on the cover of NHL publications, video games, and prominently on merchandise, and if it is not Crosby, at this moment there really is nobody else. Henrik Lundqvist is an elite goaltender, Steven Stamkos is an elite scorer, and Evgeni Malkin could be pound-for-pound the best player on the planet right now. But all of them fall a close second to Crosby in terms of aura for the league’s bottom line. Nevertheless, as much all of the hoopla surrounding Crosby’s return may have helped the NHL’s bottom line in the form of ratings and interest, it also did Crosby himself a complete disservice as he is taking heroic measures to continue a career that may still end prematurely due to repeated head injuries.

Put it this way, Crosby returning Thursday night was a big deal, but in all reality, it was not the lead  headline for Thursday night. Going into the game, the Penguins had enjoyed a nine-game winning streak to pull within six points of the recently-inconsistent Rangers. A Pittsburgh win, and the Penguins were on the fast-track to Eastern Conference supremacy, and potential home ice through the first three rounds of the playoffs. A Rangers win would have all but secured the top seed in the East for New York. This was as close to a regular season playoff game as we have seen this year, but an outsider never would have known. In fact, it is questionable as to why the game was not scheduled for the NBC Sports Network anyway considering the magnitude of the contest.

At no point during Tuesday night’s promotion of the game, as well as during Wednesday and Thursday’s advertising for the NBC Sports broadcast, did the network even hint that the game itself had any significance. One could easily have thought that it was a meaningless regular season contest and nothing else, with the exception of Crosby’s triumphant return. Even during the game, there was far more focus on Crosby than the game, even though it was really a good hockey game until mid-way through the third period.

The Penguins won the game, 5-2, to make the hunt for the top seed in the Eastern Conference into a true battle during the final weeks of the season. Only late in the game was this dynamic thoroughly discussed. By then, Crosby had seen the last of his 16 minutes of ice time, and the focus of the game turned from the Crosby show, into the dynamic that the game itself created.

This Crosby-first spotlight may have worked to draw bigger ratings, but it also did a tremendous disservice to two teams and 39 other professional hockey players who participated in the game. Essentially, the NBC Sports Network – either via prompting by the NHL or independent decision – made the game about one player, basically ignoring the fact that both teams have enjoyed tremendous 2011-2012 seasons thus far, and were battling for the most important two points the league has awarded this season. As much as Malkin of the Penguins and Marian Gaborik for the Rangers have been sensational this season, the night was all about Crosby.

THIS WEEK IN HOCKEY: Tough Times in Toronto; Goats on Ice; March of the Penguins; The Sin Bin

This Week in Hockey is a weekly column in which assistant blogger Michael Spinner (@MichaelSpinner) shares and discusses the major storylines in the National Hockey League from the past week.

Tough Times in Toronto

A lot has happened since the Toronto Maple Leafs last claimed a Stanley Cup: Watergate came and went, two members of the Bush family occupied the White House, we sent a man to the moon, and the New York Mets won a World Series … twice! The year was 1967, ‘In the Heat of the Night’ edged out ‘The Graduate’ for Best Picture, and ‘Light My Fire’ by The Doors and ‘Respect’ by Aretha Franklin were the two biggest songs on the airwaves. I, of course, am entirely too young know about any of this, but I would envision that it was a slower-paced utopian society where mail was only sent and received by hand, cars were built much better than they are today, and the New York Islanders did not yet exist.

And, at the time, Toronto was the center of the hockey universe, winning their fourth Stanley Cup of the decade, en route to what was a guarantee of a dynasty to rival the hated Montreal Canadians for world hockey supremacy.

That is … until they started losing.

As far as the ‘Original Six’ go, since 1967, if the Montreal Canadiens are the New York Yankees of the NHL, the Toronto Maple Leafs are have securely fastened themselves into the role of Chicago Cubs. They have had some good teams, but their single conference championship, and zero appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals during the last 45 years has taken its toll on the city. Let’s not forget, this is Canada we’re talking about here. Toronto is the home of the Hockey Hall of Fame for crying out loud! Toronto natives and residents would probably give up anything short of breathing for a shot at the Stanley Cup, kind of like the way New York Rangers fans were starved for a Cup back in 1994, only in a city with far less to do and focus on. For all of the frustration Rangers fans felt during 54 years of Stanley Cup desertion, chances are there was the celebration of a championship by the New York Giants or New York Yankees to tide Rangers fans over. While the Toronto Blue Jays won a pair of World Series not too long ago, in Canada, the World Series is a mere cheeseburger compared to the filet mignon that only the Stanley Cup could provide.

So when the Leafs went into a complete tail-spin recently, and appeared to be on the verge of yet another season without the playoffs – Toronto has not seen the post-season since prior to the lock-out of 2004-05 – change had to be made. After all, only two franchises have not seen the playoffs since the lock-out, and if the Florida Panthers continue to win, Toronto could be the only one left pretty soon. The media demanded change, the fans literally called for it, and finally last week, Brian Burke delivered, replacing Ron Wilson with Randy Carlyle.

But in his delivery of a coaching change, Burke also opened a massive can of worms. Namely, and somehow this information has proved to be elusive during my lifespan as a hockey fan, Toronto is the most obscenely insane hockeytown on the planet. And ‘obscenely insane’ is neither a compliment, nor slang term of art to describe the passion and devotion of their fans … we’re talking clinical insanity here. I’m not sure if it’s something in the water, or the cold and snow, or perhaps just simply being the largest city in Canada (where the official currency is ironically called the Loonie) that does not desire secession, but one look at the hockey culture in Toronto, it is clear that the issues surrounding the Maple Leafs have less to do with the product on the ice and the fact that the team’s nickname is grammatically incorrect, as it has to do with the way this team is perceived and followed.

Let’s call it like it is … it’s been a tough, tough year for hockey in Canada. In the spring we had horrific hockey riots after the Vancouver Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Finals (which is not the slightest bit funny), marking 18 years since a team north of the border has won the Stanley Cup (which is very funny). In the fall, we had ‘Language-Gate’ when the Montreal Canadiens performed the ultimate sin of firing an unsuccessful head coach, and replacing him with a coach who did not speak fluent French. And now, we have the two most storied NHL franchises in Canada – Toronto and Montreal – slugging it out to see which franchise will win the race to become the biggest hockey disaster in Canada.

For my two cents, I will submit that no matter where Toronto finishes in the standings when compared to Montreal this season, the Maple Leafs are successfully becoming the gold standard for hockey futility in Canada. As much as residents of Montreal deserves every bit of scorn and ridicule for the whole Randy Cunneyworth/French thing, at least the effort to push for a French-speaking coach is due to a desire of the Province to maintain a certain degree of culture for its flagship sports franchise. As I wrote not too long ago, there is something romantic (for a lack of a better term) regarding the desire of the Montreal fans to have a French-speaking coach.

The issues facing Toronto are because, well, people are nuts.

Like the Chicago Cubs, the Leafs – who really should be the Leaves – are good on occasion, but even when they are competitive, they find a way to break people’s hearts. The difference is that the Cubs have embraced the role of ‘loveable loser’ and even got cute enough to hire Theo Epstein as General Manager during the winter. The fans seem to be almost inspired by the futility of the Cubs. It’s almost comical. In Toronto, the losing has become a bit like a disease, and infected an entire city. Tortononians have been known to skip work and school on trade deadline day, pass season tickets on to relatives in their wills, and pretty much stalk the team in a manner that can only be characterized as obsessive.

This year, the Maple Leafs have actually begun taping practices and showing segments on television … kind of like 24/7 every week, which is a great thing for the fans, but an unbelievable spotlight that no team would want. The fans regularly dissect the team’s play and make their thoughts known, which could be a good thing, if the team were any good – but the Maple Leafs are not. Toronto is one of the biggest revenue franchises in hockey, with demand for tickets being insatiable, and sponsorships through the roof because of the flash-mob-on-steroids culture of Toronto hockey.

And the media … for anybody who thinks the New York media can be tough, hell hath no fury like the Toronto press corps. After reading many of the articles and blogs about the Maple Leafs during the last week, it is clear that the media acts with a sense of entitlement regarding how they cover the team. In some ways, it is almost as if the Toronto Maple Leafs somehow report to the Toronto media. They’re forced to answer tough questions, and when coaches and players do not provide open answers, they are forced to deal with the label of being difficult or complicated, or worse. Those who fail to serve the Toronto media in a favorable fashion are branded the bad guys by the media, allowing obsessive fans to really pounce.

This entire media/fan obsessive dynamic came to a head last week when the unsuccessful tenure of Ron Wilson as Head Coach came to an end. As the Leafs limped through February like a wounded dog, the Toronto media pretty much fired Ron Wilson on a daily basis, literally asking Brian Burke when the change would happen. During a loss to Florida – a game that would prove to be Wilson’s last behind the bench – the fans basically chanted ‘Fire Wilson’ from start-to-finish. Finally, the mercy kill took place, and Burke made the change …

All of which only opened the floodgates. For all of the coverage the futility of the Columbus Blue Jackets receive, and for all of the New York Islanders jokes we can make, the one place in hockey that has to be the most difficult to work is the Toronto Maple Leafs. The events surrounding Ron Wilson’s firing are living, breathing proof of this. Take a look at what happened:

During his March 3 press conference to discuss the firing and hiring transaction, Brian Burke made two interesting points – points that bordered unbelievable. First, he stated, “After the last home game, it was clear to me it would be cruel and unusual punishment to let Ron coach another game in the Air Canada Centre … I would obviously prefer that fans not boo, but I think if you buy the ticket, that’s the right you have, so long as you’re not saying something racist or homophobic or obscene, you can say what you want. I wasn’t going to put Ron through that again … “

He then proclaimed that, “They (the media) can’t get a coach fired. They can accelerate it by a few days maybe, but I don’t blame the media for this one bit.”

Ok, I will grant that I have never served as General Manager of an NHL franchise, but I find it very difficult to believe that Brian Burke spent time gauging the reaction of the fans and the media to the play of the Maple Leafs as part of his decision-making process. He basically said he made the move when he did because the fans were in mob-mode, and the media was on a feeding frenzy … all of which would be great if ice hockey were a democratic process. But, this is not democracy, it is sports, and if the fans are not happy with the performance of the coach, that is not a reason behind the timing of a coach’s removal. And the media line? The media can accelerate the firing of a coach?? What rational part of the human psyche dictates this as being good professional policy?

In other words, Brian Burke tacitly admitted that if he is considering a coaching change (or likely any other change for that matter), if the Toronto fans and media are angry enough, it will hasten the transaction. I hope Randy Carlyle chews on that one for a while if he doesn’t lead the Maple Leafs to the post-season for a couple of years, and endures a losing streak. “Hey boss, how are things going? I don’t know, Randy … let me pick up the newspaper, and listen to the fans tomorrow night.”

The NHL is a sport and a business. This is not ‘Canadian Idol’ where Alan Thicke will come out as host, line up the current coach and other coaching candidates, and ask native Canadians to put down their Molsons and vote for whether or not they want to make a change. This is professional ice hockey, and all Brian Burke did last week was ruin any shred of credibility he has as an NHL General Manager. He essentially empowered the Toronto media and fans to not only continue their behavior, but to become even more fervent in their convictions. Under the Burke regime, the statement is basically that if the fans and media want something bad enough, they will get it faster than if they should show a degree of patience. If playing for or working with the Maple Leafs is a professional pressure cooker, the stew just got a heck of a lot hotter.

In reality, what Burke accomplished was to do everything within his power to extend his career as long as he possibly can. The Maple Leafs are not a terrible hockey team, as their impressive start to the 2011-2012 season demonstrated, but there are some clear deficiencies in depth, defense, and goaltending on this team. As the recent trade deadline approached with the Maple Leafs in the hunt for a playoff berth, Burke did not do a single thing to address these issues (i.e. a veteran goaltender). Why? If the reports are true, Burke proclaimed that he did not want to destroy the rebuilding effort he is overseeing to basically make a move or two that would allow the Maple Leafs to capture eighth place in the standings, and a quick first round playoff exit … all in the name of the greater effort to win a Stanley Cup soon.

So, in other words, Burke essentially made sure his team remained deficient on the defensive end of the ice and in goal, therefore not allowing Ron Wilson to be any more successful as Head Coach than he was – therefore ensuring that the Head Coach would fail, but the General Manager would keep his job. Why? Because anytime a General Manager in any sport is willing to openly discuss ‘rebuilding’ it is code for him to say, “We are not any good, but if we proclaim a rebuilding effort, I will probably get 4-5 more years at this job.” Moves at the trade deadline? No way … we need to stick to the ‘rebuilding plan’ because getting embarrassed in the playoffs is more detrimental to my career longevity than sticking to some sort of plan to get better internally that takes more time, and therefore gives me a few more paychecks.

If Brian Burke were really interested in a genuine rebuilding effort, he would have brought in a young, up-and-coming Head Coach to cultivate whatever young talent he has in the system. Instead, he brought in a total disciplinarian in Randy Carlyle to lead the team, for the likely reason that Carlyle has held the Stanley Cup as a Head Coach, and lends some credibility to Burke’s mission to win one. Randy Carlyle has as much place leading a rebuilding effort based on youth that Rick DiPietro has writing a book on injury prevention. The move was made because the fans wanted a change, the media demanded a change because it has been nearly 50 years since Toronto won a Stanley Cup, and hiring somebody who led a team to one is a way to re-establish some credibility. End of story.

And when you combine this massive cop-out with Burke’s buttering up to both the media and fans by essentially empowering them to be a part of the decision-making process, you get a sense as to what Brian Burke was really thinking. As he put it, the Toronto Maple Leafs are an 18-wheeler driving off of a cliff, and the truth is they are not getting better anytime soon. But by convincing the ravenous media and fans there is some sort of cosmic plan to win a Stanley Cup, Burke did not buy a new coach for the franchise … be bought more time for himself.

THIS WEEK IN HOCKEY: 2012 Trade Deadline could be Sather’s Legacy; Trade Deadline Winners; Ron Wilson Canned

 This Week in Hockey is a weekly column in which assistant blogger Michael Spinner (@MichaelSpinner) shares and discusses the major storylines in the National Hockey League from the past week.

2012 Trade Deadline and Glen Sather’s Legacy

If by looking at this headline, you’re thinking that this column is going to offer a sarcastic, brutal, and mildly outrageous indictment of Glen Sather as General Manager of the New York Rangers, you might as well stop reading, and we’ll see you next week.

But if you want to put some serious thought into Sather’s role as Rangers’ GM, and how February 27, 2012 could be the date that defines his legacy in his position, keep reading, because it is an interesting and important topic for NY Rangers fans. After all, by doing almost nothing on February 27 as the 2012 NHL Trade Deadline approached, Sather might have made his boldest statement of all, leaving a team in Stanley Cup contention as-is despite many noted imperfections.

It’s become all too easy for Rangers fans to jump aboard the ‘Fire Sather’ bandwagon in recent years. Sather has been Rangers General Manager since 2000 – close enough to the last Rangers’ Stanley Cup Championship for the memory to be fresh in the minds of Rangers fans, but far enough removed from the Title that Rangers fans were clamoring for another one. Sather’s hiring was met with a lot of fan-fare, but for a long time yielded some challenging results. There was Bryan Trottier, Scott Gomez, Wade Redden, Chris Drury, Tom Renney, and several other transactions that just didn’t seem to pan out.

But in a lot of ways, the NY Rangers have essentially had two Glen Sathers as their GM, a fact that fans have all too often failed to acknowledge. When Sather joined the Rangers, there was not a salary cap, and long-term contracts in the NHL were a rarity. The lock-out of 2004-2005 changed a lot for the NHL business model, and while it took some time, Sather eventually adapted. He shifted gears from the free-spending aggressive contract Santa Claus to free agents to become a rather disciplined businessman when it comes to the Rangers salary cap. At some point, about the time that Sather hired John Tortorella to be the Rangers coach, Sather realized the trend in sports to focus on the draft to stockpile talent, and with the right free agent signing here and there, a solid team could be built. Once this process started for the Rangers, the team gradually improved to the point where this year’s team is not only challenging for NHL supremacy, but it is substantially young as well. There is a new ‘Rangers way’ on the ice and in the conference room, and while Tortorella gets a ton of credit for this paradigm shift, Sather deserves his fair share of credit as well.

In other words, how much criticism does Sather really deserve? When Gomez and Drury were signed on the same day, did anybody think that was a bad move? Wade Redden was a disaster, but for every Redden signing, you have the draft of a Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan Callahan, and several other solid draft choices, many of which have yet to make it to the NHL. There was also the signing of Marian Gaborik, which thus far has been successful, and trades for players such as Brandon Prust and Ryan McDonagh, who have been key cogs in the Rangers development this season. While it is so easy for fans to point to Redden to knock on Sather, every single member of the Rangers current roster – a team that fans have established a complete bond with – became Rangers under Sather’s watch. He built this team. And this past Monday, he made a decision to keep this team together, drawing a line in the proverbial sand that this is the team that will challenge for a Stanley Cup in 2012. More importantly, Sather decided to not abandon the youth movement he started. He kept his prospects in place, showing confidence that the likes of Derek Stepan, Michael Del Zotto, Brandon Dubinsky, and Carl Hagelin will continue their development, and Tim Erixon, Christian Thomas, J.T. Miller, and Chris Kerider will become NHL-ready fast enough to compliment the current Rangers core and keep the Rangers Stanley Cup competitive for years to come.

It was not an easy decision for Sather. The current NHL has so few existing or potential superstars, that when the opportunity to obtain a player like Rick Nash presented itself, it was hard to say no. And for Sather, his decision to stand pat was a complete lose-lose if the Rangers fail to win a Stanley Cup. Had the Rangers traded for Nash, and lose in the playoffs, fans would blame Sather for mortgaging the future on one player who did not get the job done. If the Rangers don’t win the Stanley Cup with this team, fans will say that had the Rangers traded for Nash, the team would have won the Cup.

For Glen Sather and the Rangers, it’s a catch-22, and it’s completely unfair.

I get it, it is so easy to knock on Sather for some of the moves he has made during his tenure at Madison Square Garden. Sather has rarely shied away from the big, bold move, and during his tenure, many of these moves did not pan out as planned. But, that is the life of a General Manager in any sport. It’s a hard, thankless job … that is, unless you bring home a championship. Rewind back to this past August when New York Giants GM Jerry Reese basically declared that he was not going to make any major personnel moves despite losing Steve Smith to the Eagles, Kevin Boss to the Raiders, waiving several key offensive linemen, and seeing Plaxico Burress sign with the New York Jets. How many New York Giants fans wanted to keep Jerry Reese in his position at that point? Not many. Roughly a month after the Giants won the Super Bowl, Reese is on the fast track to the team’s ring of honor for staying the course, and believing in the Giants way. It worked. Not only did it work, but Smith, Boss, and Burress combined to provide about as much offensive fireworks and post-season success to their respective teams as Michael Jordan brought to the Chicago White Sox.

Jerry Reese rolled the dice by doing nothing, and was rewarded with New York Sports immortality. Six months later, Glen Sather did the same thing despite the incredible talent that Nash possesses. Will Sather be rewarded the same way? We will find out soon enough as the roster we have seen every night thus far is the one that will go for the Stanley Cup next month.

I personally admire Sather for not acquiring Nash. He allowed his plan to see itself through to the end. As I discussed last week while covering the Trade Deadline moves for the Tampa Bay Lightning, the NHL is no longer a league where a prospect has to spend years in development in order to be NHL-ready. For the Rangers, as Carl Hagelin has proven, the right kind of athlete with the right kind of mentality can be NHL ready pretty quickly. Players such as Tim Erixon, Christian Thomas, J.T. Miller, and Chris Kerider are going to be solid NHL players while players such as Marian Gaborik, Ryan Callahan, and Brad Richards are still producing at a very high level, and Henrik Lundqvist is still the best goaltender on the planet.

In other words, as great of an acquisition as Nash would have been, he is one hockey player. The collective efforts of the prospects the Rangers kept by not making the deal for Nash will have a bigger impact on the success of this team during the next few years then Nash ever would have had, and as players such as Hagelin, Derek Stepan, and a slew of young defensemen including Michael Del Zotto and Ryan McDonagh continue to mature, this Rangers team is all but destined to remain at the top of the standings for several years ahead.

Maybe this team makes a run to the Cup this season if the Rangers pull the trigger on the Nash deal, but by losing several prospects and suffering an almost insurmountable salary cap hit, it is likely that all of the Rangers Stanley Cup eggs would have congregated in the 2012 basket had Nash become a Ranger. But, as much as Sather was willing to part with a ton of talent to acquire Nash, he made the right decision by thinking bigger picture when Columbus simply got greedy. In doing so, Sather set the stage for this franchise to be in the Stanley Cup for potentially the remainder of this decade.

You know what, Rangers fan, as much as there have been some difficult moments during the Glen Sather tenure, anybody who has enjoyed the product on the ice this season and the direction of the franchise owe the General Manager a lot of credit, the same way Jerry Reese has receiving heaps of praise for staying the course with the New York Giants. The Wade Redden days are over. Scott Gomez is in Montreal for the moment. Chris Drury and Donald Brashear are not in the NHL anymore. This Rangers team that is in first place in the Eastern Conference was built by Glen Sather and, like Reese, this past Monday, Sather made the statement that the Rangers are ready to take a Stanley Cup run seriously. If in fact this prophecy comes true, Glen Sather’s place in NY Rangers history is secure … even if Sather for some reason is not the Rangers GM when the Cup comes back to Broadway.

There are some Rangers fans that may not want to admit it, but Glen Sather, right now, is one heck of an NHL General Manager. How many teams can claim the world class talent the Rangers have right now with their top players, alongside a slew of young prospects who seem destined for NHL greatness? Sather did this, and this past Monday, he made a decision – or indecision – to see his plan come to fruition.

Imagine being Sather on Monday? Was there a clear right or a clear wrong regarding a trade for Nash? Probably not, but at least the decision Sather made left the success or failure of this particular decision on the team as a whole that Sather built instead of just one man. It was the right move because too many times Sather has been down this road as Rangers GM, and too many times what seemed like the right man to bring into the organization became the wrong decision.

This past Monday, the New York Rangers had the best man to be the GM overseeing the right move regarding Rick Nash. The man who built the team that is not only in first place in the Eastern Conference, but also has one of the youngest rosters in the NHL. The man who built this franchise and battled back from what seemed like imminent failure only a few years ago. Where things stand right now, Glen Sather is the General Manager of the New York Rangers, and after the statement he made on Monday, New York Rangers fans should be quite proud of that fact.