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Tumultuous Time Period - Dec 28, 2009 - Vol. 63, Issue. 13  – Alan Adams

THE GRATEFUL DEAD said it best:

Lately it occurs to me

What a long, strange trip it’s been…

The words from the iconic song Truckin’ sum up what has transpired in and around the NHL since the annual People of Power & Influence list last graced the pages of The Hockey News.

Hit rewind on the PVR.

Wasn’t it a year ago when commissioner Gary Bettman was telling anyone and everyone who would listen the Phoenix Coyotes were on financially stable ground?

And Paul Kelly? Wasn’t he firmly in charge of the NHL Players’ Association?

Now hit pause.

The Coyotes’ bankruptcy saga brought to light the seamier side of the NHL and shows how the commish played with words when he spoke about the economic health of the financially strapped team.

Bettman isn’t Pinocchio, but if nothing else, we’ve learned to take a lot of things he says with more than a grain of salt.

As for the NHLPA, how ugly was it to watch the union eat its own, again?

Kelly was the third consecutive NHLPA executive director to get swallowed up in the dirty world of political infighting. He joins Bob Goodenow and Ted Saskin on the list of deposed executive directors since 2005.

Say what you want about Bettman, but the long-serving commissioner, who is No. 1 on the 2009-10 PoP list, is a winner.

The Coyotes remain in Phoenix, at least for the time being, and because of that you can add another notch in Bettman’s win column, along with a few other victories he has racked up during his tenure. (Did someone say salary cap?)

A quick perusal of the power list shows many of the usual suspects remain in the top 100. Some of the movers and shakers have dropped, while others have been promoted. Others still have cleared waivers and are on the outside looking in.

If you met Dan Bylsma in an elevator, you would never know he took a team from 10th place in the Eastern Conference to a Stanley Cup championship in a matter of months. That’s a powerful performance by the coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who began last season behind the bench in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the AHL.

Meanwhile, why is a man better known in baseball circles suddenly so powerful in the world of hockey? Simple: Donald Fehr is guiding the NHLPA through its troubled waters and counseling a committee that is revisiting the union’s controversial constitution. Fehr is also lending a helping hand to a second committee that’s been struck to find a new executive director. Fehr is a power pinch-hitter for the union; now, let’s see if he can come through in the clutch.

Dany Heatley isn’t a great public speaker, but he’s an influential goal-scorer who made the list for reasons more wrong than right. Heatley recognized the power of his stick (and “no-movement” clause) and decided to dictate a deal to a desired destination. Call Heatley’s move from the Ottawa Seantors to San Jose Sharks – not via Edmonton – the power trade of the year.

We’d be remiss not to look ahead to the 2010 Olympic Games in February. Mike Babcock has broad shoulders and, as coach of Canada’s Olympic team, carries the weight of a nation on his back as he heads to Vancouver. Fair or unfair, the Games will be judged by whether or not Canada mines gold.

Slava Bykov never played a game in the NHL, but will be in Vancouver as coach of Russia’s talented team. A coach’s job is important, of course, but Bykov’s role in bridging the divide between the country’s two biggest hockey big-wigs, Slava Fetisov and Igor Larionov, helped quell allegiance-based problems in the Russian dressing room. Russia is again an on-ice powerhouse and Bykov is a big reason why.

In assembling this list, we bounced names and candidates off a couple dozen people who know the game inside and out.

Readers may not agree, but, hey, one man’s hamburger is another man’s filet mignon.

And if, as some people suggest, this list has no bearing, why does my inbox fill up with the bios of potential candidates and why am I given the personal cell numbers of NHL players who can vouch for someone?

Two weeks after the list is published, I’ll start anew.

And I can’t wait to see whether it will be a long, strange trip again.

Let us know what you think below.

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