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Dixon: New Panthers coach Kevin Dineen keeps his door open
It seems like having a sense of humor is a bit of a must for any coach, even if he’s never had Alex Kovalev on his team.
The Florida Panthers’ new hire, Kevin Dineen, fits the bill. When asked what his former Portland Pirate players would say if questioned about what kind of coach he is, Dineen quickly quipped, “I would hope they would tell you a few lies.”
Beyond the jokes, Dineen talked about a desire to have constant communication with his charges, including both informal chats and scheduled meetings at regular intervals. What’s striking about speaking to Dineen is how he stressed that learning isn’t just for young players. Feedback might be more crucial for players still trying to find peak form, but Dineen said when he was a player, he always craved information, even well into his 30s. Chances are, that mindset is part of why he became a coach in his post-playing days.
“Players still want to develop,” he said, citing new Florida vets such as Ed Jovanovski and Jose Theodore.
In addition to the aforementioned desire to learn, Dineen’s family history in the game also seems to make him a natural for life behind the bench. Like Kevin, his father, Bill Dineen, also played in the NHL. He then went on to coach in the defunct pro Western League, the World Hockey Association, the American League and the NHL basically every season from 1969-70 to 1992-93, when he coached Kevin on the Philadelphia Flyers. Kevin’s brother, Gord Dineen, also turned to coaching after his NHL career came to an end and has spent the past seven seasons in the AHL.
So coaching must be in Kevin’s blood, too, right?
“Before I think I resisted that comment because you’re always looking at different options and how your career path is going to play out,” he said.
Dineen spent the last three years of his playing days with the Blue Jackets, retiring after the 2002-03 campaign. From there, he joined Columbus’ front office in a player development capacity and spent three or four days a month with the team’s prospects in Syracuse. He credits former Crunch coach Gary Agnew for giving him the leeway to skate with players and get a sense for what it’s like to be around a team in that capacity. In 2005, he decided to make the jump to coaching and found a willing dance partner in former Anaheim Ducks GM Brian Burke, who hired him to coach in Portland.
Dineen may have initially eschewed the path blazed by his family members, but there’s no doubt in his mind hanging around the Houston Aeros as a kid, while the team was winning Avco Cup championships with his father at the helm and Gordie, Mark and Marty Howe on the ice, had a huge effect on him.
“I think if there’s one thing my dad did, it’s that he always had an incredible amount of character players, specifically in Houston when we were down there,” he said.
Dineen has his work cut out for him trying to get the Panthers in the playoffs for the first time since the spring of 2000, but he believes Florida has brought in players with the right DNA to succeed and he plans to lean on that open communication policy with his troops as they try to turn things around. Discussions will be frequent, but the bottom line will be the same, in this case once again delivered with a touch of tongue-in-cheek.
“If we agree to disagree,” said Dineen, “I win because I’m the boss.”
Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His column appears Wednesdays.
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.
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Dixon: Carey Price keeps it cowboy in Montreal
In a lot of ways, Carey Price’s official title for his summer sporting passion is the same as his unofficial position in the winter.
In warmer months, Price bops around his home province on the British Columbia Rodeo Association circuit taking part in the team roping event with his buddy Wade McNolty. The short saddle strokes of team roping go like this: a steer is released from a chute and one cowboy, the header, is responsible for roping the animal’s head and turning it 90 degrees, allowing the second cowboy, known as the heeler, to ride in and rope the hind legs. As you would expect, this is all done as quickly as possible.
McNolty is the header, Price is the heeler, which, when you swap out one vowel, is precisely the role he played as the Habs’ healer last season. While rodeo and hockey might at first blush seem as different as a horseshoe and a skate, Price noted there is some overlap between his two positions.
“Goaltending and heeling are pretty similar because you have to be able to read what’s going to happen before it happens,” he said.
I caught up with Price recently because he is one of 25 players profiled in a book my THN colleague Ryan Kennedy and I are co-authoring called Young Guns II, set to be released under The Hockey News banner in the fall. Among the things we touched on was the satisfaction and peace of mind Price gets from spending the off-season chasing around steers and soaking in the sun.
“It’s fun to go to the small towns on a weekend and hang out with all my friends and try to make a check like everyone else,” he said.
The BCRA bills itself as an amateur/semi-pro circuit, so as you’d expect, the checks are certainly nothing like the ones Price collects on his $2.75-million salary with Montreal. He certainly earned every penny last year, tying Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo for the league lead in wins with 38. Because Price was drafted fifth overall by the Habs in 2005, won WJC gold in spectacular style in ’07, then earned playoff MVP honors in the American League with the Hamilton Bulldogs just months after that, Price is one of those guys who seems like he’s been around forever and must be about five years older than he actually is. It’s hard to believe he’ll turn just 24 when he celebrates his birthday next Tuesday.
Speaking with him, you get the sense Price felt like his own head was spinning at times during the ups and downs of his first three years in a hockey-mad city. Just as it’s not hard to forget how young Price really is, it’s also easy to overlook the fact that his roots are riding horses in a remote central B.C. community of less than 400 people.
“Twenty years old as a starter playing in Montreal, that’s a big step coming from Anahim Lake,” he said. “You have to be careful, because it takes time to mature and be able to carry yourself. I think a lot of the first three years was just learning how to manage everything.”
With four years under his belt buckle now, Price really seems to have sunk into himself. He acknowledges that at times during those early years in Montreal, he felt the pressure to alter who he was a bit in an attempt to blend into his big, bright new surroundings. But that issue has been roped in.
“You get a hard time because I’ll show up to the rink in a dirty 4-by-4 and cowboy boots,” he said with a chuckle. “But at the end of the day, that’s who I am.”
Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears Wednesdays.
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.
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Dixon: Factors beyond UFA additions will make Capitals a force
In our most recent issue, The Hockey News assigned every team a grade based on its off-season moves. Buffalo and San Jose both earned an A-minus for their terrific summer shuffles, but the only true ‘A’ handed out went to the Washington Capitals.
We loved the veteran savvy and grit Washington acquired when they brought in goalie Tomas Vokoun, defenseman Roman Hamrlik and forwards Troy Brouwer, Jeff Halpern and Joel Ward. But beyond those new faces, a couple other factors are going to help make the Caps a force this year. Namely, internal growth and the increasing hunger to finally get over the hump.
Speaking to the former point, one off-season transaction that didn’t get a ton of play outside the D.C. area was the re-signing of blueliner Karl Alzner. Last year, Alzner and fellow youngster John Carlson formed the Caps’ No. 1 tandem. The two have a notable history together, having won a pair of Calder Cups with the Hershey Bears in 2009 and ’10.
Said Carlson of the familiarity with his blueline buddy: “That’s big for your defense partner, you know him so well as a person and as a player, you know what he’s going to do out there and he knows what I’m going to do.”
Carlson, who was named to the all-rookie team in June, said once he and Alzner proved worthy of the coaching staff’s trust last year, the two just took off. Even accounting for some growing pains, this ‘D’ duo figures to be one of the league’s best pairings in very short order.
As for their recent playoff shortcomings – the Caps haven’t advanced past Round 2 in the Alex Ovechkin Era, including last year’s second round sweep at the hands of Tampa Bay – questions about a team’s character inevitably arise. But don’t forget some of the toughest, yet necessary, sporting lessons are delivered through losing.
Carlson touched on that with regard to his club’s loss to the Lightning, while also alluding to the fact setbacks can cultivate a hunger in a team that eventually morphs into the extra bit of will required to finally become a winner.
“It’s a learning experience,” Carlson said about a month after the Caps were bounced. “Our team is a very young team still and we’ve got a chance to do something special for the next few years, so it definitely isn’t the end of the world.”
“But it’s not a good feeling, losing, no matter what happened. That wasn’t good enough for our team, we weren’t satisfied with our effort. We’ve just got to have a good summer now and get back into camp and remember what happened last year and try to learn from it and build and grow.”
Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears Wednesdays.
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.
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Dixon: Wooing UFAs a whole new ballgame
Judging by what occurred this off-season, signing UFAs has become nearly as much of a team effort as scoring and preventing goals.
When Brad Richards became the most prominent man to hit the open market, teams waited in line to make their pitch. The Los Angeles Kings sent an eight-man delegation to the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, where the office of Richards’ agency, Newport Sports, is located. The building was also visited by Tampa Bay GM Steve Yzerman and members of the Toronto Maple Leafs staff. Richards ultimately signed with the Rangers, who didn’t make an in-person pitch, but did have the trump card of a successful pre-existing relationship between Richards and Blueshirts coach John Tortorella from their Cup-winning days in Tampa.
Still, Columbus GM Scott Howson, who made a splash by trading for and ultimately signing offense-minded blueliner James Wisniewski, believes getting in the same room with a prospective signee is of serious significance. “It can be really advantageous to get in front of the player,” Howson said. “That 1-to-1 personal contact is really important. The player gets to look you in the eye and see what you’re about, or try to see what you’re about, brief as the time is.”
Teams have always made strong, in-person pitches to prospective signees, but the process is evolving now to include entourages that represent all aspects of the organizations, mainly because under a salary cap system, the total dollars being offered by interested parties are more or less the same, even if some clubs are more willing to front-load deals. “Before, you’d just say, ‘all right, someone just blew me out of the water outspending Team X; I have no choice, you kind of have to go,’ ” said Paul Krepelka, an agent with the Orr Hockey Group. “Now, very rarely is that the case, so all these other factors play a huge role.”
Those factors, as one might guess, often include the player’s projected role on the team and the overall direction of the club. But it can also be about the way players are treated within the organization and how a player’s family can make a home in a new city. Huge dollars usually carve out a direct path to anybody’s heart, but with more emphasis than ever being placed on secondary considerations, negotiation rooms have become filled with people who can speak to those concerns. “I think it’s become more sophisticated, more professional, more people involved,” Howson said. “We certainly had our owner, John P. McConnell, ready to talk to people.”
The Kings’ presentation to Richards reportedly included messages from Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant and none other than Wayne Gretzky himself. You have to think any team would be happy to have No. 99 lobby on its behalf and Krepelka said feedback from current players and potential new teammates does carry a lot of weight. However, while he understands why teams with the means to get celebrities to endorse their city would pull that string, he doesn’t think it does much to sway typically down-to-earth NHLers: “Hockey players, as we all know, are a unique breed and I don’t think they pay any attention to that nonsense. They don’t care if Jay-Z is telling them to come to New York.”
This article orginally appeared in the August, 2011 issue of The Hockey News.
Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears Wednesdays.
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.
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Dixon: The influence of players on adding free agents
In an era where the Marlon Brando method of signing free agents is no longer an option, many other factors are gaining significance when it comes to players deciding on a new home.
Once upon a time - or more specifically, in the pre-salary cap world - wealthy teams could mimic Brando’s Godfather character and simply make an offer a player couldn’t refuse. Under the current system, the total dollars proposed by interested teams is more or less the same, though the dynamic of deals can change depending on a club’s willingness to front-load a contract.
Still, as we’ve discovered working on a number of articles that will appear in the August edition of The Hockey News, a host of other considerations are driving the decisions of free agent players. One of the things that’s really come into play is the word of fellow players who could potentially be new teammates. It seems only natural that players would place a lot of value in the word of another member of the fraternity, especially when fraternizing amongst NHLers who aren’t teammates has become so prominent over the years. But those conversations carry even more weight when the freight offered by interested teams is a wash.
“For the most part, the players trust the players,” said Paul Krepelka, an agent with the Orr Hockey Group. “A GM or a coach can come on and give a great sales pitch, but if you’re calling your buddy and say, ‘Give me the truth,’ if he backs that up, great, if he doesn’t, the player is going to believe the player.”
Scott Howson knows that. The Columbus Blue Jackets GM believes the No. 1 factor in wooing a free agent is getting in the same room with the player so you can properly and clearly convey your thoughts in terms of how he fits into the lineup and what you’re prepared to do to get him there. But it sure doesn’t hurt to have a little backup on the pitch. In that vein, a couple Columbus players lobbied James Wisniewski before the offense-minded defenseman signed on to join the Jackets as noon on July 1 loomed. One was star Rick Nash; the other was Jared Boll, an old buddy of Wisniewski’s.
“We had it from both angles,” Howson said. “We had a player who is a superstar in the league talk to him about his belief in the team and what a great place it is to play, what a great place it is to live and then we had Jared Boll, who James knew from before and was friends with, talk about the same thing.”
It’s probably fair to assume the primary reasons ‘The Wiz’ wanted to be in Columbus was the opportunity to be an all-around defenseman and $33 million over six years. But the fact he made his final call only after fielding a couple calls is indicative of a growing trend on July 1.
Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears Wednesdays.
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.
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Dixon: Maple Leafs' Bozak will be better in diminished role
Usually when a pair of new centers roll into town, talk quickly turns to how they might help out a team’s existing wingers.
In the case of Toronto Maple Leafs acquiring pivots Tim Connolly and Matthew Lombardi, the biggest benefactor may be another middleman, Tyler Bozak.
On Tuesday, Bozak signed a two-year deal worth $1.5 million annually. Though his actual salary was only $875,000 the first two seasons of his NHL career, his cap hit was $3.7 million, thanks to the performances bonuses in his contract that had to be accounted for.
So his cap hit drops a couple million and his spot in the lineup slides from top-six forward to third- or fourth-liner, but life is about to improve for Bozak in the context of his value to the team.
When the Leafs outbid other interested clubs for Bozak’s services when he was a 23-year-old NCAA free agent coming out of the University of Denver, the organization had a gaping hole at center that thrust Bozak much higher on the depth chart than he should have been.
If Bozak had been an actor, not a hockey player, he would have graduated from Juilliard, done one Trident commercial, then been cast as the leading man in a Hollywood blockbuster. And if that flick had been appropriately named, it would have been called, Set Up To Fail.
Adding Connolly and Lombardi to a mix at center that also includes Mikhail Grabovski means that while the Leafs still don’t have a bona fide No. 1 guy, they’ve got three capable No. 2’s. If one of those guys slides to wing, with Lombardi seemingly the most likely candidate, that would allow Bozak to slide into a No. 3 hole he’s very well suited for, especially now that he’s got a couple years of experience under his belt.
Let’s get this out of the way; Bozak’s team-worst minus-29 rating last season doesn’t exactly invoke images of Bob Gainey. But Toronto was a pretty gruesome outfit for half the year and playing most of the season with Phil Kessel - he of a minus-20 rating - may have helped Bozak get a couple more goals, but it was never going to improve his defensive stats.
Fact is, Bozak led the Leafs with a 54.6 winning percentage in the faceoff dot and became a very reliable penalty-killer by season’s end. Of the forwards who took a regular turn in Toronto’s lineup, only Tim Brent and Colby Armstrong averaged more shorthanded ice per game than Bozak’s 1:48.
In a perfect world, your third-line center would be a touch bigger and more physical than Bozak, though, in keeping with the well-established tradition of players from Saskatchewan, he’s certainly not afraid to get in the mix. But if Bozak is slightly smaller than would be ideal, he also has more speed and skill than you’d expect to find in the three-hole.
Now that he’s no longer miscast, take two of his NHL career will make for much better viewing than the first one.
Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears Wednesdays.
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.
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Gabriel Landeskog: THN's No. 3-ranked draft prospect
A goal, a glare and Steve Spott was sold.
Before Spott was benefiting from Gabriel Landeskog’s beautiful mash-up of skill and will, he was burned by it while serving as an assistant coach for Canada at the world under-18s in Fargo, N.D. in 2009. A 16-year-old Landeskog, playing against some guys who had already turned 18, was representing his home county.
“There was a kid on Sweden who had a full cage on and he scored a goal against us on the power play and as he came by our bench he kind of stared us down,” Spott recalled. “And in the back of my head, although I was coaching Team Canada, I had my general manager’s cap on for Kitchener and I said ‘I better find out who that kid is.’ ”
That kid is a stereotype-smashing Swede who doesn’t just play like he grew up in Canada’s prairies, but talks like it, too. When Landeskog speaks about wanting to learn English at a young age because he knew it would help smooth the path from Stockholm to his dream of becoming an NHLer, it’s with an accent thinner than most runway models.
“I started paying attention in English class pretty early back home,” he said.
Drafted third overall by the Plymouth Whalers in the 2009 CHL import draft, Landeskog refused to report because he had already forged a bond with Spott and the Rangers, who expected they would be able to take him at No. 6. A trade was arranged and a relationship grew between the Swede and a city that takes its junior hockey very seriously.
“You don’t become the Kitchener Rangers’ captain, especially a Swedish-born player, without having character and grit and the intangibles to handle the media in this city,” Spott said. “For us, this is the Green Bay Packers of junior hockey. It’s front page every day.”
Coaches are usually loath to make comparisons between prospects and players who’ve already established themselves as NHL stars. But Spott sees such striking similarities between Landeskog and former Kitchener captain and current Flyers ‘C’ bearer Mike Richards that he enthusiastically makes the correlation. For evidence, Spott cites the way Landeskog, a left-shooting right winger who turned 18 in November, takes young players around the team’s weight room and out for dinner. With skates on, the similarities become even more pronounced.
“He just does those things ‘Richie’ did when he was with us,” Spott said.
Added fellow Ranger and Maple Leafs prospect Jerry D’Amigo: “He works for pucks and grinds. He has skill, too. A lot of players can’t blend those two things.”
Landeskog relishes the physical game. The idea of supplementing skill with a little smash was introduced by his dad, who played two years in the Swedish League. It took the youngster a little while to strike the perfect balance, but the end result emboldens Spott to declare Landeskog will one day be an NHL captain.
Other top players in the draft might have one higher gear talent-wise, but Spott points to a 200-foot game and the ability to generate chances through creativity and pure perseverance as Landeskog’s greatest strength.
“I know this draft pretty well,” Spott said, “having coached at the national level and with Team Canada and I can tell you there’s not a player in this draft who’s ready to step in like Gabriel.”
This article originally appeared in THN's 2011 Draft Preview.
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Dixon: Thoughts on Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final
If someone had told me two weeks ago, on the eve of Game 1 of the Cup final, that a fortnight later we’d be hunkering down for Game 7, I wouldn’t have found it that far-fetched. I would have expected that person to tell me we landed at the decisive game because one team was able to squeak out three one-goal wins, despite being blown away in three inglorious defeats. Sounds about right – and good for the Bruins for hanging tough and taking those close ones despite getting smashed in the other contests.
OK, so there were some cracks in the crystal ball.
But here we are, at the conclusion of the oddest final series anybody can remember, drowning in storylines before the fifth Game 7 in the past eight Cup finals. With an end to the intrigue finally in sight, here are some fast, final questions to ponder before the 2011 Cup is raised.
• Will the antics end? There’s been no shortage of scuffling after the whistle in this series, featuring everything from finger chomps to Brad Marchand dishing out jabs like he’s the heavyweight champion of the world. But with so much on the line, will the boys reel it in and just play hockey?
• Who will be this year’s Max Talbot? Remember that huge save Marc-Andre Fleury made on Nicklas Lidstrom to preserve a 2-1 lead in the dying seconds of the ’09 final between Detroit and Pittsburgh? That only happened because Max Talbot jumped up from the shadows to bag both Pens goals. Candidates for making the hump-to-forever-hero leap this time? How about Chris Kelly for Boston and Jannik Hansen for the Canucks.
• Can Ryan Kesler have the game of his life? Somebody with skill has to fight through his ailments and make something happen offensively for Vancouver. Kesler still feels like the best bet.
• Can you overstate how important this game is to both sides? No. Winning three rounds to get to the final is so hard with the league’s current competitive dynamic. It’s so rare to get there, meaning it’s all the more devastating when you don’t finish the job.
• Overtime, anyone? The last Cup-deciding seventh game to require extra time occurred in 1954, when Tony Leswick’s winner allowed Detroit to down Montreal. A six-year-old Bobby Orr probably had to go to bed before the game was over.
• Can the Conn Smythe be won by anybody but Tim Thomas? Maybe. But win or lose, the Boston stopper has made one heck of a case. The working theory around THN is you win the Conn Smythe based 50 percent on what you did in three rounds leading up to the final and 50 percent based on what you do in the big show. Thomas scores well in part one and fantastic in part two.
But there’s still a little hockey left to be played. And God knows nothing is out of the question in this series.
Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears Wednesdays.
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.
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Dixon: Maxim Lapierre does his best to distract Bruins in Stanley Cup final
For all the Maxim Lapierre haters out there right now, it’s genuinely surprising Milan Lucic and Mark Recchi are both fans. What else can you conclude from them adopting Lapierre’s Game 2 finger taunt to Patrice Bergeron and incorporating it into their own arsenal of shenanigans in Game 3?
Imitation is still the sincerest form of flattery, right?
The supreme irony with the vitriol that seems to flow from Lapierre’s actions is that the guys who want to lose their mind on him are also his biggest enablers. Lapierre’s antics are akin to a child throwing a tantrum; it’s only effective if you pay attention.
But the Bruins and countless other clubs haven’t been able to help themselves, which in truth is a credit to Lapierre’s antagonistic aptitude. We all know the ability to agitate is something that’s valued in hockey, provided the player can stay on the right side of the ledger when it comes to penalties drawn versus penalties taken.
When Lapierre is a plus player in that category, he’s doing something more for his team than his third-liner skill set would otherwise allow him to. Not everybody can be a fastball pitcher; some guys have to throw junk to stay in the big leagues and Lapierre has recognized his ability to burrow under people’s skin has made him less interchangeable with other middle-of-the-road talents. That’s not to say there’s a limit to where the lunacy can carry you, but we’ll get to that later.
Those who dislike Lapierre on the basis he’s a dirty player should note he’s been suspended just once in his NHL career, which is two fewer times than that, ahem, cheapshot artist Danny Briere. Lapierre gets away with stuff left and right, you say? Really? Don’t you think he’s got a whale-sized target on his back in the eyes of the NHL justice department by now?
Those who dislike Lapierre because he’s a diver should remove whatever team-themed colored glasses they’re wearing and realize a fundamental fact of hockey; every team employs players who dive. That doesn’t make it right, but it does make it common.
Lapierre’s approach while the play is going on isn’t radically different than a lot of other NHLers out there. Someday, he’ll have to realize the post-whistle stuff reaches a saturation point, which, as Bruins coach Claude Julien pointed out, is at least likely part of the reason Lapierre has played for three teams this year. There will come a time when he’ll either have to reel it in or run the risk of becoming completely irrelevant.
But right now, Boston players are wagging fingers instead of turning cheeks. That’s rooted in a flawed maxim and it means Lapierre won’t change a thing.
Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears Wednesdays.
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.
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Dixon: Bruins must not be underestimated in Stanley Cup final
While most acknowledge the disparity in talent levels between Boston and Vancouver is not on the same scale as the staggering geographical chasm between the two cities, you’d be hard pressed to find any prediction that states the B’s will win the Cup. That trend won’t be bucked here.
But it seems somewhat odd to me that a team as good as Boston and with as many different competent components to its club is more or less being brushed aside as a serious contender.
Maybe that’s just a nod to how good this Canucks club really, really is. The consensus entering the conference final was the club that won – but didn’t touch – the Clarence Campbell Bowl as West champs would go on to win the whole enchilada. I’d be picking San Jose to beat Boston had the Sharks emerged from that series, which means it’s that much more of a slam dunk to side with Vancouver. But the Bruins aren’t some one-trick pony that’s gone further than it deserved to based on blistering goaltending or out-of-his mind play by one star having the run of a lifetime.
Depth is the word most associated with Vancouver, but it applies to Boston, too. The Canucks’ top two lines will almost certainly outscore the Bruins’, but the latter’s bottom two trios – and in particular, Michael Ryder and Tyler Seguin – have the potential to impact games on a larger scale than the former’s.
Closing the gap on those first two lines is a tall order that will be left for the tallest guy in NHL history. The Canucks have a deeper and overall better blueline than Boston, but Zdeno Chara represents a single-man shutdown show Vancouver can’t answer. If he can find a way to befuddle either the Sedins’ synergy or the Ryan Kesler Express, it will go a long way toward improving the Bruins’ chances.
Boston has the chops to win a couple games on merit, which means if Tim Thomas can steal one the B’s are in business. Both Thomas and Roberto Luongo come with some question marks, but Thomas has shown an innate ability to show up every time his team really needs him. At this point, I like his chances of impacting the series in a seriously positive way than Luongo’s.
Vancouver’s top-to-bottom strength and complementary high-end skill have rightly placed them as Cup favorites. But if you think Boston stopped to gather some smoke and mirrors en route to the west coast, you’re in a haze. The Bruins have enough in the barrel to compete with the Canucks and keep this a close series.
Then all they have to do is get the puck to Nathan Horton.
Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears Wednesdays.
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.
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Clarifying procedure in the NHL's concussion "quiet room"
Given the murky nature of the injury, perhaps it’s only appropriate there’s a little fuzziness surrounding concussion protocol.
When the NHL board of governors moved to implement new regulations with regard to the treatment of head injuries in late March, the term “quiet room” quickly gained prominence. So, too, did the notion any players taken to that area were required to spend a minimum of 15 minutes there. Not so, according to Dr. Ruben Echemendia, chair of the NHL’s Concussion Working Group, the body that initially made the so-called quiet room recommendation to the league.
“The 15 minutes that has been talked about in the media is a fallacy,” Echemendia said, a fact that was confirmed by the league office. “It really is the amount of time that’s necessary to conduct a thorough evaluation.”
The most significant purpose of the quiet room is simply to remove players who may have sustained a head injury to a location that is free of distractions, where the team physician can conduct a variety of tests. The area itself is often the trainer’s room or perhaps even the coach’s room.
“At the bench, it’s very difficult to assess the kinds of factors that are associated with concussions, like learning and memory and attention and concentration, with all the distractions that go on in a playing environment,” Echemendia said.
Philadelphia Flyers trainer Jim McCrossin is also a member of the Concussion Working Group. He said, typically, a trainer will make an initial evaluation on the bench, which could lead to further inspection at an isolated location. There, a player will be put through the SCAT 2 exam, which stands for sport concussion assessment tool. He’ll be required to perform small motor skills tests, such as standing on one leg, and asked a number of questions, from “Who hit you?” to “Can you say these four numbers back to me in reverse order?”
“All those little things that an athlete would be able to do normally, are they able to comprehend everything you’re asking and do it for you?” McCrossin asked.
NHL protocol dictates the SCAT 2 be administered by the team physician, but not because trainers aren’t capable of giving the test, rather because another player might need their attention on the bench.
Concussions are notoriously tricky to diagnose, but the sooner one is detected, the better the chance a player will avoid further damage from sustaining a second.
“Are we going to be 100 percent all the time? I don’t believe so,” McCrossin said. “Everybody is a little bit different when they present with these things. But we’ve got to start somewhere and it’s a pretty darn good start.”
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Dixon: Why Roloson is the right call and the Sharks should stay the course
A trio of thoughts now that we’re down to three teams left in the Stanley Cup chase…
• I liked Guy Boucher’s decision to start Mike Smith in Game 5 and I think the Tampa bench boss is doing the right thing by going back to Dwayne Roloson for Game 6.
Smith deserved to start because he was providing stable goaltending and with Boston reeling after blowing a 3-0 lead in Game 4, I thought as long as the Lightning weren’t done in by bad goals - like the ones Roloson had been letting in too frequently - they had a good chance to get a series lead.
Thanks in large part to Tim Thomas’ ability to bounce back, that didn’t happen. Now, to win this series, you have to figure Tampa must win at least one game it doesn’t deserve to, because Boston is the better squad and will be so hungry to get to the final.
Roloson may have hit a rough patch, but he gives Boucher and the Bolts a better puncher’s chance because he’s demonstrated an ability to get hot fast.
• Last week, I wrote a column for the current issue of The Hockey News that more or less stated teams that consistently contend, yet ultimately fall short of a championship, should be less inclined to “blow it up” than in years past because winning the Cup is so much harder than it used to be.
Naturally, tweaks are necessary when a club like Washington can’t make it past the first two rounds in four consecutive years, but with star players so hard to come by, are clubs really better off making wholesale changes in the hope of a better future?
The San Jose Sharks are, of course, the poster boys for not achieving their ultimate goal. But if you’re Sharks GM Doug Wilson, are you going to tear down a team that has made the conference final in consecutive years and, potentially, will end up losing to the eventual Stanley Cup winner in both 2010 and 2011? Joe Thornton has finally proven himself to be a great playoff player and leader; the young corps is coming together nicely; and the team’s desire to win, in theory, should be growing stronger with each passing unsuccessful year.
I’m sure Wilson will look at any and all ways to improve the team, but in a league where the margin for error is so thin, it’s tough to imagine blowing apart a very good team packed with players either in or just entering their prime.
• We won’t be breaking any news by suggesting Patrice Bergeron is playing like a Conn Smythe candidate, but it’s worth re-iterating.
Ryan Kesler is appropriately garnering much acclaim for his two-way performance, but it’s interesting to note Bergeron actually has a marginally better points-per-game mark with 15 in 14 contests this spring, as opposed to Kesler’s 18 in 18.
Kesler is winning a healthy 54.7 percent of his draws, but Bergeron’s whopping 62.9 mark is the best of any player left in the playoffs and his plus-10 rating trails only the plus-11 showing of teammate Zdeno Chara.
If the Bruins go all the way, look for Bergeron to skate off with post-season MVP honors.
Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears Wednesdays.
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.
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NHL Playoff Recap: Will one bad goal be the beginning of the end for Boston?
GAME 4: LIGHTNING 5, BRUINS 3 – SERIES TIED 2-2
THN’s Take: When Tim Thomas left his net to play a simple dump-in less than seven minutes into the second period, his team was in complete control of the game and series. Seconds later, he was franticly scrambling in vein to get back in position, missing badly on a low shot to the corner by Teddy Purcell.
It’s hard to imagine one bumbled clearing attempt could completely alter the trajectory of the East final, but that’s sure how it seems right now.
Just 1:03 later Purcell had his second of the game and Tampa had cut a 3-0 first-period hole into just a one-goal deficit before the middle frame was half over. Thomas and the Bruins looked discombobulated the rest of the way, as the Bolts once again showed why betting against them is a bad idea.
Bruin-beater Simon Gagne, who scored the game-winner, has six goals in his past eight playoff games versus Boston. In stark contrast to the frenetic play of Thomas, Mike Smith settled his team down after replacing an ineffective Dwayne Roloson in the first frame. Smith stopped each of the 21 shots he faced and made a number of huge saves early in the second to prevent Boston going up by four.
From where we’re standing, Smith is Tampa’s Game 5 starter.
After winning just 43 percent of their draws in Game 3, the Lightning came away with 60 percent of the faceoffs in Game 4. The Bruins have to feel good about having two of a possible three remaining games at home, but the Bolts’ ability to strike quick and unwillingness to wilt has made what was starting to seem like a tune-up for the final a serious battle for Boston.
Three Stars1. Teddy Purcell - Got the Bolts back in the game with one goal built on hustle and a second built on skill, when he rifled a shot just under the bar.
2. Mike Smith - His puckhandling made a real difference for Tampa. He looked big and steady in the net and, despite having a rough season, it’s important to remember he’s had good stretches of play in the NHL.
3. Patrice Bergeron - When he scored his second of the game - while shorthanded - to put Boston up 3-0 late in the first stanza, the Bruins’ first Cup final appearance since 1990 seemed about 100 minutes of hockey away. The fact it’s not anymore has nothing to do with Bergeron, who was a two-way force again.
The Black HoleTim Thomas - With the exception of his Game 3 shutout, Thomas has not looked good in this series. In Games 1, 2 and 4, he’s allowed 13 goals on 110 shots, giving him an .882 save percentage. That’s a far cry from his record-setting .938 mark in the regular season. The good news for Boston is this guy has made a living by battling when he’s down.
POLL:Who was your first star of the game?
The NHL Game Night Recap will get you caught up with all the playoff action. THN will name our Three Stars for each game and tabulate the results after each series. First Star = three points, Second Star = two points, Third Star = one point.
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NHL Playoff Recap: If both give best, Bruins just better
GAME 3: BRUINS 2, LIGHTNING 0 – BRUINS LEAD SERIES 2-1
THN’s Take: The Boston Bruins haven't just won two games in the series, they've won two different ways.
After combining for 18 goals over the first two river-hockey contests, Boston and Tampa both clamped down during the Bruins' 2-0 victory in Game 3. The B's are starting to separate themselves from Tampa, as it's becoming increasingly apparent that when both clubs are at their best, Boston is just a little bit better.
After missing the first two games with concussion-related issues, Patrice Bergeron returned and immediately re-asserted himself as a big presence in the lineup. He won the game's opening faceoff and went on to win 64 percent of the draws he took. His prowess at the dot helps Boston control the puck and dictate the terms of the game.
Tampa is a team that thrives by kicking in the door when the opposition provides a crack of daylight, but Zdeno Chara's large shadow kept the Bolts' skill players in check all night. Tampa's defense is starting to buckle under the pressure of Boston's deep set of forwards and that trend will only be exacerbated as the series wears on.
You have to wonder if Tampa coach Guy Boucher can continue to regularily run out Marc-Andre Bergeron, who's having a real tough time defensively on the blueline.
Three Stars1. Tim Thomas - You know the Bruins' never-by-the-book stopper is on when he's making saves after completing a 360-degree spin in the crease, as he did in the first period of this game. Thomas got his first shutout of the post-season after looking shaky in Game 2.
2. David Krejci - Not to be out done by Bergeron, Krejci picked Tampa pockets an incredible 72 percent of the time in the faceoff circle. Boston's top-line center is really driving the bus right now, netting 11 points in his past seven games.
3. Zdeno Chara - The big man took down Tampa's top line all night. The Black HoleSteven Stamkos – With Vinny Lecavalier's line drawing the attention of Chara and Dennis Seidenberg, Steven Stamkos has got to step up and produce against the B's lesser blueliners. This may be his first foray into the post-season, but the kid has got to do more of what he's capable of, which is bury goals.
POLL:Who was your first star of the game?
The NHL Game Night Recap will get you caught up with all the playoff action. THN will name our Three Stars for each game and tabulate the results after each series. First Star = three points, Second Star = two points, Third Star = one point.
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Dixon: Why the Red Wings would be a good fit for UFA Tomas Kaberle
Game 2 of the East final was likely Tomas Kaberle’s best game as a Bruin, which is very good timing considering Game 1 was his worst.
As you’ve no doubt heard by now, Kaberle’s stint in Boston has not gone according to plan, save for the bottom-line fact the B’s sit just three wins away from playing for the Cup. After his miserable Game 1 showing against Tampa, which included a brutal giveaway at the side of the net, the hue and cry from the locals was inescapable. Kaberle’s two-assist performance on Tuesday night, when Boston evened the series, should buy him a little reprieve, as will the fact, at this very moment, Tyler Seguin could probably run against New England Patriots golden boy Tom Brady for mayor of the city and have a good crack.
Even with a better performance in Game 2, Kaberle saw just 15:25 of ice time, less than every Boston defender except Adam McQuaid. At the other end of the spectrum was a tough European defender who provided an offensive spark and played a game-high 31:25. You know Dennis Seidenberg, right? Seidenberg, who sits tied for fourth among D-scoring in the playoffs with eight points in 13 games, is doing a great job from the No. 2 spot on the blueline Kaberle figured to fill. In fact, you wonder if Boston wouldn’t now be in the conference final for a second straight year had Seidenberg not missed all of last year’s playoffs with a lacerated wrist.
All this is meandering to the musing that it’s difficult to see how Kaberle, who’ll be a 33-year-old free agent July 1, will be wearing a spoked ‘B’ next year; so how about a winged wheel?
To be clear, this is nothing more than my own wheels spinning well in advance of the annual off-season musical chairs session. But for a number of reasons, I can’t shake the feeling Kaberle would be a nice fit in Detroit. First off, when Eric Clapton (among others) sang “Nobody knows you/when you’re down and out,” he obviously forgot about the Red Wings. Todd Bertuzzi, Danny Cleary, Patrick Eaves and Brad Stuart are just the most recent examples of guys who the Wings claimed, cleaned up and got back to making the most of their abilities.
And really, Kaberle has only had a tough few months, so it’s not like we’re talking about some kind of reclamation project here. Who knows, by the end of the playoffs he could already be back to 22 minutes of smooth play a night. But the fact he’s been a consistent contributor for more than a decade in the league means he’s still going to command a salary in the $4-million range, which Boston would have to think long and hard about shelling out. Especially the way Seidenberg - signed through 2013-14 - is playing behind big man Zdeno Chara, who’s also locked up long-term.
The Wings, meanwhile, pride themselves on the puck-possession game at which Kaberle typically excels. Detroit also doesn’t have a defenseman of significance signed beyond next season, so there’s an inevitable reshuffling around the corner. Squeezing Kaberle under the cap for next season will be tough if Nicklas Lidstrom comes back, but that’s a nice problem to have.
Kaberle may yet become the defenseman he’s always been with the Bruins as they continue to chase down a championship. But if that doesn’t happen, I bet he could put the pieces back together in a place where the template for career recovery is well entrenched.
Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears Wednesdays.
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.
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Dixon: Washington Capitals must trade Mike Green
I didn’t want to be that guy, but I can’t help it.
My least favorite huff-and-puff refrain in the wake of a good team getting bounced from the playoffs is “Trade Player X.” But I’m breaking my own rule because it seems so blatantly apparent the Washington Capitals need to trade Mike Green.
Let the eye-rolling from the establishment begin.
I understand it’s easy to point fingers and suggest GMs need theirs to be itchier on the trigger when good teams flame out, but for a number of reasons, moving the defenseman makes sense.
First and foremost, if Caps GM George McPhee made it known Green was up for grabs, a number of teams would be kicking the tires hard enough to knock the bolts loose. Yes, he’s had some injury troubles, but he’s still only 25 and his annual cap hit of $5.3 million is on the books for just one more year, at which time he becomes an RFA. Green led all defensemen in scoring in both 2008-09 and 2009-10, earning a Norris nomination in the latter campaign.
If you want to find clubs that would be interested in Green’s services, start at the bottom, as in where Columbus (29th) and Florida (30th) ranked in terms of power play efficiency. The Blue Jackets have been in search of an offense-oriented defenseman since their inception and the Panthers could pad the youth movement by adding a guy who is just entering his prime.
Green is a dynamic player whom the Capitals can only afford to move because 21-year-old John Carlson has demonstrated he’s going to be a two-way force in the league. Washington is also facing the harsh reality of having almost $51 million worth of cap space already devoted to 18 players next year. Deleting Green’s salary from the books would alleviate some strain and possibly help the team retain UFA-to-be Brooks Laich, whose gritty, two-way game is exactly what this team will need larger doses of to succeed.
The reason the Capitals have Green and Carlson to begin with is because management has done an outstanding job finding quality players outside the top end of the draft. Green was taken 29th overall in 2004; Carlson went 27th overall in 2008 and Dmitri Orlov, a talented Russian who is likely to join the team in the next year or two, was snagged 55th overall in 2009. All this means Washington has laid the groundwork for the inevitable loss of stars that a salary cap system dictates. It also means the club is likely to make the most of any picks it acquires for Green, as the cycle of replenishment continues.
Green’s year, right up until the end when he missed the Caps’ final playoff game with a hip flexor, was obviously marred by injuries, so it’s vital to note this is not a plan of action based solely on how things went this season. This is a cumulative assessment, drawing on the fact Green just hasn’t quite been the player Washington needs him to be in the post-season. And let’s face it, when a team as good as the Caps fails to make it past Round 2 in four consecutive years, something has to give. Shipping out a still-young player capable of winning a Norris Trophy in the next little while is not something that should or would be taken lightly.
But whether it’s because the salary cap forces its hand or just due to annual disappointment, changes, on some scale, are coming to Washington – and Green going makes the most sense.
Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears Wednesdays.
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.
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Dixon: What Tyler Seguin can learn from James van Riemsdyk
A number of things are already going well for the Boston Bruins this spring. Actually, everything except Tomas Kaberle is going well for the B’s.
Ironically, the one thing that’s working hardest against Boston in its second round series with the Flyers might also, in a roundabout way, still be working in its favor.
At this juncture of the playoffs, it’s impossible to watch Philly without noticing the impact James van Riemsdyk is having. The second year power forward, who turned 22 on Wednesday, is easily the Flyers’ most dangerous player right now, even ahead of big-game Briere and playoff scoring leader Claude Giroux.
The question for Boston - besides, “How do we stop this guy?” - has to be, “How close is Tyler Seguin watching this guy?”
Seguin and van Riemsdyk will never be the same type of player, but they do share very similar circumstances. Both were drafted second overall, JVR in 2007, Seguin in 2010. After spending two college seasons at New Hampshire, van Riemsdyk joined the Flyers for his first NHL season in 2009-10. Seguin jumped directly to the big show this season, but, like JVR, struggled to adapt. In fact, van Riemsdyk’s troubles spilled over to this year, when he was a healthy scratch in four consecutive November games.
Now, it’s rare for him to go consecutive games without scoring a goal.
Seguin, still only 19, hasn’t skated for the Bruins in the playoffs and while van Riemsdyk did suit up for most of Philly’s games last year, he didn’t see a ton of ice, scored only three goals and was a scratch for Games 2 and 3 of the final.
If you’re a Bruins fan, you’ve got to be hoping Seguin is soaking in what JVR is doing and embracing the simple lesson that things don’t come easy at the NHL level and, regardless of how talented you are, there’s typically some tough times en route to realizing your potential.
The questions about van Riemsdyk centered around the fact that, despite his 6-foot-3 frame, maybe he wasn’t aggressive enough to make a real impact on NHL games. The issue, from an outside perspective, was JVR getting the confidence required to walk onto the ice armed with the simple, yet crucial “I belong and I can do this” realization. That assertive attitude is something Seguin has yet to demonstrate.
Whether he gets a chance to discover it during these playoffs remains to be seen. Nobody is coming out of the forward group the way things are going for the B’s right now, but injuries can strike at any time and my suspicion is Boston will be playing a lot more hockey this spring – as in, there is a great chance the Bruins will be in the Cup final – so Seguin should keep those skates sharp.
In the meantime, he can make the most of his press box experience by witnessing the success of a fellow youngster who was recently in a situation comparable to his and allow that to imbue him with the belief he can follow suit somewhere down the road.
Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears Wednesdays.
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.
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Canadiens Watch: Tough off-season decisions loom for Montreal
As one of 29 teams that will eventually come up short in their goal of winning a Stanley Cup, the Montreal Canadiens can turn their attention to the off-season.
And the summer months will be busy for GM Pierre Gauthier, as he tries to mold this team into a winner. While the Habs ultimately came up well short of being a championship contender, there were some positives to extract from the season. First and foremost, obviously, is the play of goalie Carey Price, who, at 23, established himself as one of the best puckstoppers in the league. P.K. Subban’s emergence on defense was a nice development for the club and there’s some hope Lars Eller and David Desharnais are about to become players who can consistently contribute some offense.
But Montreal remains miles away from being a true contender and that’s not going to change over the course of one off-season. The two big questions facing the club are how to re-tool a defense corps riddled with free agents and how Scott Gomez and his bloated contract fit into the team’s future.
Dealing with the defense, Gauthier has indicated he’d prefer to retain Andrei Markov, who has battled injuries the past two seasons and played just seven games in 2010-11. It’s easy to forget because of all the time he’s missed, but Markov makes a big difference in the Habs lineup because he handles the puck so well. As long as the 32-year-old isn’t looking for absurd money or term, Gauthier should try to re-sign him, along with Hal Gill because he’s been such a steadying influence on Subban.
In that case, contributors Roman Hamrlik and James Wisniewski would likely be allowed to walk.
As for Gomez, what once felt like an extreme move – banishing him to the American League, where his $7.4-million average salary wouldn’t count against the cap – has to be considered now. To his credit, Gomez accepted responsibility for his awful season and he’s a well-liked player in the room. But his huge stipend is a massive roadblock for Montreal, specifically in its never-ending search to find a big, point-producing center. If Gauthier wants to make a bold move that will give the organization greater flexibility, he has to look hard at moving Gomez to the minors.
This article was originally published in Metro News. For more hockey commentary, check out Metro Sports.
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Dixon: 20 burning Stanley Cup playoff questions
In this line of work, the questions come fast and furious this time of year. More specifically the question - “So who’s gonna win it all?” - is on the mind of friends, sports-talk radio hosts and anybody who delivers anything to The Hockey News office.
But the matter of who will be crowned Cup champ is still a very distant issue. There are far more pressing matters to be addressed and since all we’ve been doing is trying to provide answers lately, we felt justified in throwing 20 burning questions of our own on to the playoff fire.
• Is there a more important Game 1 than the tilt between Chicago and Vancouver?
• How many goalies will see action for the Washington Capitals this post-season and will their fate be tied to it being as few as possible?
• When you consider everything it takes to succeed in the playoffs, is there a skater you’d take on your team before two-way wonder Pavel Datsyuk?
• Good showing for Buffalo’s Tyler Ennis in last year’s playoffs; can he do it while more people are watching him this time?
• Only one top-four seed advanced from the first round in the East last spring; can the top seeds sweep this April?
• If Nashville finally wins one round, where do the Preds stop?
• Young D-men John Carlson and P.K. Subban had strong playoff debuts in 2010 before they were technically even rookies. Can they both meet expectations as freshmen blueliners who are essentially expected to do a bit of everything for their clubs?
• Will Ducks defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky get respect or be exposed now that everyone is watching?
• If things go poorly for their teams, could Cory Schneider and Tuukka Rask be Game 3 starters?
• Is Alex Ovechkin going to play like he was shot out of a cannon now that the games really mean something?
• Are we going to see his arch-rival at all?
• If Boston learned its painful lesson, are the B’s the team to beat in the East?
• Why does it feel like Phoenix might take down the Wings?
• Was the fact Steven Stamkos scored in his final regular season game, after netting just four in his previous 27 outings, a good harbinger for Tampa?
• Do the Canadiens skaters really think it’s fair to ask Carey Price to play like Jaroslav Halak?
• Can Chris Pronger make his fourth trip to the final in six post-lockout seasons?
• Can Cody Hodgson and Maxim Lapierre at least soften the blow of Manny Malhotra’s loss in Vancouver?
• Are Staal brothers Marc and Jordan about to improve on their already quality reputations by thriving as go-to guys?
• Is this finally San Jose’s…ah, forget it.
• Does it get any better than this?
Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears Wednesdays.
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.
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THN.com Blog: Stan Smyl knows Canucks must make most of Stanley Cup run
Stan Smyl pauses to draw a deep breath before answering the question and you’re not sure if it’s because he’s contemplating the subject matter for the first time or because he never stops thinking about it.
“Boy,” Smyl exhaled. “Thirty years goes by quickly.”
If you have any familiarity with Vancouver Canucks history and the fact life can sometimes feel like somebody hit the fast-forward button, you probably guessed Smyl was marvelling that Vancouver’s first of two appearances in the Stanley Cup final occurred almost three decades ago in 1982.
That was the Roger Neilson-coached group that went 30-33-17 in the regular season, then caught fire in the playoffs, only to be felled by the dynastic New York Islanders in the final. The Isles won four straight games to earn a third consecutive Cup and Smyl, who had 18 points in 17 games that spring, admits his club was overmatched from a talent standpoint. Still, Game 1 required extra minutes to settle the affair and had things gone the Canucks’ way, Smyl believes it could have at least slightly changed the complexion of the series.
“Would we have won in the end?” he asked. “I’m not sure, but I think it would have given us a bit more confidence as a group that we could beat them.”
Between that moment and the present, the Canucks had another showing in the final, when Smyl’s replacement as the heart and soul of the franchise, Trevor Linden, led a group that posted an extremely modest 41-40-3 regular season mark to within one win of a title, coming up short against Mark Messier’s Rangers in a series for the ages.
So, it would seem, the Canucks are making progress, just not at any tremendous rate.
This all provides a backdrop for a team hoping to celebrate its 40th anniversary season in style. Smyl is a senior advisor to GM Mike Gillis with the current edition of the Canucks, a squad that won’t be looking for any side-street route to the final this year. Vancouver has locked up its first Presidents’ Trophy and has posted a fourth 100-point season in five years. The team has tried to fill the holes Smyl and the rest of the management group felt were its undoing in recent years in the hopes of providing passionate fans across the province of B.C. with a happy ending, at last.
For the Canucks themselves, it’s a carpe diem edict from Smyl, who knows the events of a couple months can linger on for a lifetime.
“It’s happened so quickly,” he said of the time that’s passed since ’82. “And that’s what players have to grasp when the playoffs start is, before you know it, it’s over.”
Ryan Dixon is a writer and copy editor for The Hockey News magazine, the co-author of the book Hockey's Young Guns and a regular contributor to THN.com. His blog appears Wednesdays.
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.
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