Off Wing Opinion

That's a question Selena Roberts of the New York Times asked this morning about David Frost, the agent for troubled St. Louis Blues winger, Mike Danton:

But whenever someone tried to cut Frost off, he managed to regenerate his tail by convincing folks of his magical powers to produce hockey legends.

Many lapped it up, some in positions of power. Bob Goodenow was among them as the executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association. Goodenow provided Frost instant entree into young players' lives and established a line of credibility for the Canadian Yoda. In 2002, the players association approved Frost's application to become a sports agent.

With a record like Frost's, which included assaulting one of his own players during a game, one has to wonder why he got approval in the first place. John Gardner, president of the Gretater Toronto Hockey League, had an answer for Roberts:

If Frost exacerbated Danton's state of mind, consider Goodenow's odd role in perpetuating this troublesome link. "Frost coached Bob Goodenow's son," Gardner said, referring to Joe Goodenow, who once played for Frost in the Canadian junior program.

If Goodenow's son prospered under Frost, was Goodenow sending a message to those suspicious of Frost?

Goodenow did not respond to an interview request about Frost, but he did slip behind Ian Penny, the players association's associate counsel, who oversees agent certification. In response to questions about whether Frost received preferential treatment or if his legal brushes were taken into consideration, Penny's e-mailed answer was lame, evasive and canned: "David Frost filed for agent certification in 2002 and met the requirements for certification."

Makes one wonder what you would have to pull not to be approved.

The NHL took advantage of the off day in the playoff schedule to announce the names of the finalists for the league's seven major awards. I can't recall exactly who said it, but I'm with the writer who once said that the NHL gives out as many awards as they do at the end of Summer Camp -- making sure to award enough so absolutely nobody feels left out (a problem it probably shares with the folks who handle voting for the Hockey Hall of Fame).

Another little factoid that the NHL doesn't talk about very loud is the fact that the winners have already been determined. The list of finalists in each category are simply the top three vote getters for each award. But if you do things this way, you get a chance to create a news story on an off day.

Without further delay, the nominees are:

HART MEMORIAL TROPHY
(MVP to his Team)
Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils
Jarome Iginla, Calgary Flames
Martin St. Louis, Tampa Bay Lightning

How the heck did Martin Broduer elbow his way into this category? Sure, he had a great season, and there's little doubt in my mind that he's the most valuable part of the Devils' defense first system, but MVP? And without Scott Stevens in the mix, we got to see just how vulnerable Brodeur could really be come playoff time.

As for the other two, how can you argue with Iginla? Undoubtedly the MVP out West, he's carried the Flames on his back all year long. But as good as he was this season, his numbers aren't as good as as they were in his breakout season two years ago. But when it comes to breakout seasons, was anybody better than Martin St. Louis? These days on ESPN, there are more than a few SportsCenter anchors who try to out-French one another when it comes to pronouncing his name. "Mar-tahn San-looie" over and over again. It's like that old Jimmy Smits skit on SNL. WINNER: Martin St. Louis

JAMES NORRIS MEMORIAL TROPHY
(Outstanding All-Around Defenseman)
Zdeno Chara, Ottawa Senators
Scott Niedermayer, New Jersey Devils
Chris Pronger, St. Louis Blues

In a lot of ways, this season may very well have been Chris Pronger's best, as he was the only thing left holding together the Blues on the blue line after Al MacInnis and Barrett Jackman were lost for the season. Certainly Scott Niedermayer was in a similar position this year, having to pick up the captaincy in mid-season after the departure of the aforementioned Stevens. And part of me will always wish that Niedermayer escapes from New Jersey, and hooks up with a Western Conference team that would allow him to showcase his talents on the offensive side of the puck more often. But the pick here is Zdeno Chara, a man who has steadily improved every season he's been in the league, and now has managed to develop his game offensively. The man is force on both ends of the ice, and right now he's the game's most dominating defenseman. WINNER: Zdeno Chara

FRANK J. SELKE TROPHY
(Outstanding Defensive Forward)
Kris Draper, Detroit Red Wings
John Madden, New Jersey Devils
Alyn McCauley, San Jose Sharks

I've been a John Madden fan for a couple of seasons now, and while he turned in another solid performance this year, it wasn't nearly as dominating as he's been in the past. At the deadline a year ago, the San Jose Sharks traded Owen Nolan for Brad Boyes, a first round pick, and Alyn McCauley. One year later, and it looks like the trade would have been a steal for San Jose if they had swapped Nolan for McCauley straight up. Every time I look at San Jose's roster, I can't quite believe just how deep they are. As good as McCauley has been, I have to give this award to Draper. He scored more goals, had a better plus/minus, and most critically, had more shorthanded goals and points. WINNER: Kris Draper

THE VEZINA
(Outstanding Goaltender)
Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils
Miikka Kiprusoff, Calgary Flames
Roberto Luongo, Florida Panthers

Only one stat matters here: faced more shots than any other goalie in the history of the league. WINNER: Roberto Luongo

LADY BYNG
(Sportsmanship and Gentlemanly Conduct)
Daniel Alfredsson, Ottawa Senators
Brad Richards, Tampa Bay Lightning
Martin St. Louis, Tampa Bay Lightning

Folks who don't know hockey terribly well regularly scoff at the Lady Byng, but I've always liked it. Last year, Alexander Mogilny of the Maple Leafs publicly dissed the award after he was announced as a finalist last year, and then proceeded to win. The Hockey Gods have yet to exact their vengeance up on him, bit his time will come. WINNER: Martin St. Louis

CALDER MEMORIAL
(Rookie Of The Year)
Trent Hunter, New York Islanders
Andrew Raycroft, Boston Bruins
Michael Ryder, Montreal Canadiens

Early on, Trent Hunter looked like the favorite here as he led all rookies in goal scoring, but he fell off the pace, with Michael Ryder overtaking him down the stretch. But no rookie was as important to his team as Andrew Raycroft, who wins this going away. WINNER: Andrew Raycroft

JACK ADAMS
(Outstanding Coach)
Darryl Sutter, Calgary Flames
John Tortorella, Tampa Bay Lightning
Ron Wilson, San Jose Sharks

My first instinct here was to go for John Tortorella, but the Lightning were already on the upswing last year, so I reconsidered. Then I thought about Ron Wilson, but then I rememebered how all the building blocks were already in place before he arrived in San Jose a little more than a full season ago. But then I remembered how long it had been since the Calgary Flames had made it to the playoffs, and how far back they actually had to come to get there this year. Darryl Sutter wins over Wilson in a squeaker. WINNER: Darryl Sutter

With one round of the playoffs in the books, now might be a good time to look in on my hometown Washington Capitals. While the regular season might have ended with a whimper, the offseason promises to be an exciting one, complete with the number one pick in the draft, along with two other first rounders that could turn into prospects, or be shipped out of town for veteran players to rebuild around.

The latest rumor in Caps land has the team swapping its two lower first round picks, and a second rounder to move into the top five of the draft and snatch Medicine Hat defenseman Cameron Barker. As for the first overall pick, the talk is still all about Alexander Ovechkin, despite the fact that the player transfer agreement between the NHL and the International Ice Hockey Federation is set to expire at the end of this season.

The Caps' minor league affiliate, the Portland Pirates, are putting together a pretty good run at the Calder Cup. After dumping the Providence Bruins in the first round, the Pirates, led by Alexander Semin's seven points in just two games, the Pirates took a 1-0 lead last night in their semifinal series against the Hartford Wolfpack with a 3-1 win.

Back up with the big club, the front office announced that the team would cut ticket prices by an average of 11 percent next season -- probably an inevitability given the way this season ended. In the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, MCI Center was an absolute morgue, with seats in the lower bowl going at 50 percent of face value and less via local scalpers. But with a lockout looming, one has to wonder what fans will be willing to put up hard earned cash for a season that might never happen.

The native Quebeckers on the Tampa Bay Lightning are all keyed up for playing their hometown favorites, the Montreal Canadiens, in the Eastern Conference Semifinals:

``I don't think ghosts are going to win it for them,'' St. Louis said. ''I'm not 14. Know what I mean?''

There was no disrespect in [Martin] St. Louis' voice. You see, Marty was 14 once. He grew up in the Montreal suburb of Laval, where the Canadiens' famed bleu-blanc-rouge sweater with the big ``C'' and an ``H'' inside it was de rigueur for any kid. St. Louis still wears No. 26 for Mats Naslund, the prized squirt playmaking Canadien of his youth.

``I was Naslund, too,'' said Lightning winger Andre Roy, who grew up north of Montreal.

Marty corrected Andre.

``I was Naslund.''

They smiled.

``We were all Mats Naslund,'' St. Louis said.

For those of you too young to remember Mr. Naslund, click here. He was a pretty good little player.

Why have the San Jose Sharks been so successful this season? Part of the reason might be a neat little piece of technology head coach Ron Wilson and his staff imported from their days working with the Washington Capitals:

The tech-savvy Sharks, who are now in the conference semifinals in the race for the Stanley Cup, are using a "bench monitor" to mark, review and zoom in on plays, and make adjustments to their strategy on the fly. The device also helps illustrate "coachable moments."

A digital video recorder hooked up to a server records the game and then wirelessly transmits the data to a tablet PC. Hunter can then use a stylus or a remote to mark key moments in the game -- like a goal for, goal against, power play or penalty kill -- so that he can return to them with a quick click. He can diagram over the video as well.

"We're able to make edit marks on the streaming video and then go back and replay those," Hunter said. "You can review why you got the goal or why the team broke down.

"We can show a player, 'Here's a situation where you might have been able to exploit the passing lane of the opponent.' Later in the period this might prove to be beneficial," he said.

Additionally, coaches can take prerecorded video from the DVR and call it up on the bench monitor during the game to illustrate how an opponent acts in a particular situation.

Thanks to Puck Update for the link.

News is getting scarce around the Mike Danton story, but there are still a few tidbits out there worth noticing -- like one piece that reports that the 19-year old woman who allegedly collaborated with Danton on his contract hit, asked for help from a friend who had worked as an intern with a local sherrif.

As for Danton himself, he's still in stir back in Cali, and the Marshalls aren't saying when he's coming back to St. Louis. Meanwhile, the Winnipeg Sun has uncovered more disturbing stories about Danton's agent, Dave Frost, including a few comments from his unnamed mother-in-law:

And one of the families associated with Frost, a well-known hockey name, has watched as their teenage daughter inexplicably left home, moved in and eventually married Frost. "I've asked my daughter to come home," the mother said, pleading that her identity be protected. "My daughter is an idiot. She will not listen. I said to her 'This is the FBI we're talking about here. Now's your chance. Get away from him and come home.'

"I don't know what control he has over her. But he has always had this control."

Would somebody tell me what the point is of concealing the identity of Frost's mother-in-law?

Instead of a detailed wrap-up, why don't we just go to Off Wing correspondent Josh Crockett, who is on the scene in TO:

This city has gone totally insane... we're almost 3 hrs postgame now, and no sign of a letup (my hotel is about a mile north of the Air Canada Centre, and it's basically a continuous low-intensity, large-scale riot from ~8 blocks north of here all the way down to the arena).

Click here for photos detailing the mayhem.

Montreal 2 Boston 0: Two years ago in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, ex-Boston Bruins defenseman Kyle McLaren KO'd Montreal Canadiens winger Richard Zednik with a vicious elbow to the head, ending his season immediately. Last night, Zednik returned the favor, scoring twice to give Montreal a 2-0 win, and a 4-3 series victory over the Bruins. It marked the first time in franchise history that the storied Habitants won a series after trailing 3-1. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ledger, it marked the first time in team history that the Bruins had ever blown a 3-1 series lead.

In the Boston Globe:, Michael Holley reviews the psychodrama that is Bruins hockey:

The final was 2-0, and it's still hard to figure out what's more frustrating. Is it losing to the hated team that the organization's fathers and grandfathers also lost to? Is it the biggest playoff collapse in franchise history? Or is it the feeling that the 104-point regular season is as useless this morning as one of those Mylar blankets from yesterday's Marathon?

A few minutes after it was over, all you could hear was a cluster of cheering fans from Montreal. You never forget those sounds, especially when all you want is silence. This was the season in which the prodigal Bruins began moving toward reconciliation with many of their hardened fans. They made it as far as the front porch, but now it seems as if they've run off for the hills again.

No one is going to forget this.

The next question for Boston: where do you apportion blame for this loss? You can't tag Captain Joe Thornton, who played the entire series shot up with pain killers. You can't blame goalie Andrew Raycroft, who did all he could to keep Boston in the series.

Who else? How about the General Manager, who did everything he could at the trade deadline to upgrade the lineup? Can you blame the rookie coach, who helped put together a 100-point season that all came to naught?

I have no answers. Just like the Bruins didn't when it came to a relentless Canadiens team that shook off failure, tightend up defensively, and had one incredible line (Zednik, Saku Koivu and Alex Kovalev) carry them to victory. It marked the second time in three seasons that the Habs had disposed Boston in the first round -- both times from the depths of the playoff bracket.

Montreal now gets Tampa Bay, a series that promises to be lots of fun.

Montreal wins series 4-3.

Calgary 3 Vancouver 2 OT: Oh how I tried to stay up to catch the end of this game. But as time wore on, and the clock passed Midnight in the East, I couldn't help but begin to waver. I got half-way through the second period, and got to see Jarome Iginla, a comparitive youngster turning into a playoff monster before our eyes, score the first goal of the game.

At that moment, even though much of the action had flowed up and down the ice, one goal seemed like more than enough. I made my way to bed, but took the laptop along and propped it open in my darkened bedroom to pull down the audio stream of the radio broadcast from Calgary, and a broadcast team giddy with disbelief that they might actually make it to the second round.

So I laid down and listened in the dark, listened as the widely-despised Matt Cooke tied it up for Vancouver, and the energy seemed to suddenly leave the play-by-play duo. Their mood lifed again as the man-child Iginla (could he really have been traded for Joe Nieuwendyk?) fought through check after check in my mind's eye to give Calgary the lead again, 2-1.

The ground must be shaking back in Viking, I thought.

But then, tragedy once more, as Cooke, the Jim Leyritz of the NHL, tied it up again with less than six seconds to go.

That was all I could take. I closed my laptop, resigned to the fact that I would have to wait till morning for the result.

Of course, the joke was ultimately on me, as it only took Iginla 1:25 to find Martin Gelinas with the pass that earned the Flames a trip to Detroit.

Calgary wins series, 4-3.

In St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch is reporting that Mike Danton's agent, Dave Frost, was actually the target of the contract hit that Danton was arrested for attempting to arrange last week. Since the charges were filed last week, the identity of the alleged target has been concealed by authorities.

Twinned with that news in the paper, is a lengthy profile of Frost, a Toronto-based player agent who is well known for his run-ins with hockey authorities in Canada, as well as what can fairly be described as his extraordinarily close relationships with the players he represents:

Frost's relationship with Danton has been fodder for Canadian newspapers for the better part of a decade. In its 1999 profile of Frost, the Toronto Sun quoted a woman in Sarnia, Ontario, who had hosted Danton while he played for a local team.

The newspaper wrote that the woman became concerned about Frost controlling Danton and contacted the team's management about it.

The woman, Bonnie Gardner, was quoted as saying Danton was "a nice kid, but he changed when Frost was around. To me, Frost's a scary person. I don't like him."

Frost has been quoted as saying he doesn't care what people think of him, and that his players have excelled in school and on the ice.

"I didn't come into this business to make friends," he was quoted as telling the Toronto Sun in 1999. "I've heard the brainwash stuff, that I brainwash players. You know how crazy that is? If I was that smart, I would brainwash 20 of them and we would go win the Stanley Cup."

The Toronto Star fills in a couple more details here. And if you re-read the official complaint against Danton, and sync it up with the latest information, the pieces are starting to fall into place. The fear of being "left", the threats of having an out of control personal life exposed to St. Louis management -- these are two action that a player agent like Frost could credibly threaten to do.

And with Danton being Frost's only NHL client, it's easy to see how Frost might try to manipulate the situation, and do all he could to keep his one and only meal ticket out of jail.

Meanwhile, Danton's alleged accomplice in this bizzare plot, 19-year old Katie Wolfmeyer, was released on $100,000 bond after a hearing at a Federal court in East St. Louis yesterday. This despite the fact that prosecutors asked the judge to keep her in custody:

Afterwards, Wolfmeyer's lawyer, Don Groshong, said releasing her was "the right thing to do," adding that she has been co-operating with police. The tall blonde, who wore black cotton pants and a black shirt decorated with a large, silver

"K," was arrested late last week and remained in custody over the weekend. She was led into the courtroom in handcuffs clutching a tissue, which she used several times to dab her eyes during the 45-minute hearing.

While refusing to comment on specifics of his client's case, or on the nature of the relationship between Danton and Wolfmeyer, Groshong said evidence will show Wolfmeyer was "a young girl smitten by a hockey player."

"She's the victim in this. She's been lied to by everybody," he said.

Elsewhere in the paper, ex-USA Today columnist Bryan Burwell has a pretty good idea where this story is headed.

UPDATE: Now Frost is claiming he wasn't the target at all.

The saga of St. Louis Blues winger Mike Danton is getting curiouser and curiouser. The big news today concerns an interview Danton's father, Steve Jefferson (as has been explained before, Danton changed his name two seasons ago), gave with multiple newspaper, radio and television outlets:

``I feel empty. I don't know how to get in touch with Michael. I haven't been able to talk to him in a long time. I'm lost,'' Jefferson said.

It wasn't always that way. Once, he says, his eldest son had a normal, loving relationship with the rest of his family. That all began to change, Jefferson said, once he was introduced to David Frost, a former coach who now works as an agent for NHL players, including Danton.

Frost is a controversial figure who once pleaded guilty to assaulting one of his own players during a playoff game. He's been accused of having an unusual degree of control over players.

``I blame myself for introducing Michael to David Frost," said Jefferson, who described how Frost soon became more than just a coach to the young man then known as Michael Jefferson.

"That man has ruined my son
1000
's life."

In the same Toronto Star article, Frost fired back, and provided some additional spin on Danton's arrest:

If Danton did in fact try to hire a hitman, says Frost, it may have been partly because of paranoia stemming from sleeping pills or painkillers he was taking.

``He was on some meds that we think have led to some of the paranoia and ... his state of mind wasn't clear. I still believe he was delusional in thinking there was a hitman or whatever," said Frost.

``The problem stems from a deep-rooted problem from the past. And the past demons have affected his mental state and he was delusional and paranoid."

As it turns out, this isn't Danton's first run-in with the law, as the Toronto Globe and Mail noted this morning. Unfortunately, nobody is talking about any of those incidents, which apparently involved both Danton and Frost.

More questions than answers, I know, and this passage from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch sums it up as good as any other account:

Questions outnumber the answers as to what the individual parties can say about the arrest and the charges as the parties are severely limited in what they can say. Representatives for Danton said information shedding light on Danton's background, why specifically he legally changed his name and why he had gone to lengths to avoid his father would be clear in the future. Also unknown is the identity of the acquaintance mentioned in the criminal complaint. The report is written as if to indicate that the acquaintance was the target of the alleged murder for hire.

Just who is this unnamed target, and why exactly does his identity remain unknown?

Holy John Buccigross! A story about hockey and punk rock on the front page of the Wall Street Journal (subscription required)!

By day, architect Anthony Spagnolo dons business clothes, squeezes into a cubicle and studies floor plans for office-building renovations. By night, he pulls on a hockey uniform, climbs on stage and belts out songs like "Zamboni Driving Maniac":

Before and after and in between
One man's mission, the ice he'll clean
He's fueled by hockey, fueled by beer
Run you down if you get near...

Mr. Spagnolo, 30 years old, is the lead vocalist in Two Man Advantage, a Long Island, N.Y., band in a tiny but feverish musical subgenre known as puck rock. He and his four band mates compose and play songs about hockey, a sport that for decades inspired very little music that couldn't be played on a Wurlitzer between whistles.

Their pounding tunes use such hockey staples as hip checks, loose teeth and ice-resurfacing machines as fodder for lyrics. One fan favorite, "I Had a Dream About Hockey," describes the band's obsession:

I had a dream about hockey
and I tossed and turned...
when I woke up I had my skates on...

Moments like this just make life worth living.

Apparently, these guys just played Washington, D.C., and I never heard about it. I'm bummed, as it would have given me an excuse to wear my Islanders jersey in public and not be completely embarassed. Check out their Web site here. Much to my chagrin, their t-shirts are currently sold out.

Home Depot carries paint in NHL team colors.

The first round pretenders continued to fall over the weekend, with the Islanders walking the plank first on Friday in Tampa. For the first time since Game Two of the series the Islanders put in an honest effort, but it was all for naught when Isles defenseman Kenny Jonsson turned the puck over the Fredrik Modin at the Islanders blue line in OT. A few seconds later it was all over, courtesy of a Martin St. Louis rising cannon shot that rocketed over Rick DiPietro's shoulder and into the net for a 3-2 Tampa Bay win, and a 4-1 series victory. While the Lightning advance to the second round, the Islanders now face an offseason where nearly all of their players are no longer under contract, save for the highly paid but low-producing Alexi Yashin and Michael Peca.

Joining the Islanders on the first tee at Bethpage Black this week are their neighbors in New Jersey, who meekly laid down their defense of the Cup with a 3-1 loss to Philly on Saturday. It was only a day later that the Devils announced that head coach Pat Burns has Colon Cancer -- leading the Devils into a postseason with more questions than any in their recent history.

Elswhere on Saturday, Detroit finally rid us of the meddlesome Predators, downing them 2-0 on Saturday afternoon, and securing a 4-2 series win. I had planned to watch the game at home here in Northern Virginia, but the local ABC affiliate decided to switch coverage to the Flyers-Devils at the last minute. Unfortunately, nobody was home at Comcast Cable, and they continued the blackout the NHL Center Ice feed of the Detroit-Nashville game. The result: two channels airing the Devils-Flyers game, just the situation the anachronistic television blackout rules were devised to avoid.

Note to the NHL: If I pay to see all of the games, you shouldn't be blacking out any broadcast. Besides, are your ratings so high these days that it even matters?

That same afternoon, the Avalanche finished off the Stars, 5-1, taking their series 4-1, and blasting my own Stanley Cup prediction out of the water. It's hard to believe that the Stars went into the third period tied, 1-1. It was then that the wheels came off, and another Pierre Lacroix hidden treasure, Marek Svatos, got a chance to prove that the presence of Paul Kariya and Teemue Selanne in the Colorado lineup are rather superfluous.

Fortunately, we still have three series left alive, and a trio of Game Seven showdowns over the next two nights. On Saturday, Les Habintants held off Boston once more, 5-2, to force a Game Seven back in Boston on Monday night. With the back to back wins, and the realization that two of Boston's victories came in OT, the series has taken on a whole new complexion. Off Wing reader Jerry from Drummondville, Quebec, says that Montreal's Claude Julien is cleary outcoaching Boston's Mike Sullivan, nullifying Boston's top line, and freeing Alex Kovalev to become a playoff monster.

Later that night, completing a beautiful Hockey Night In Canada, the Flames stormed back from a 4-0 deficit to tie the Canucks in regulation, only to eventually lose in the third OT courtesy of Brendan Morrisson, 5-4.

I know the hockey gods are smiling upon us. Why? Because they let the Battle of Ontario get to a seventh game. First, Ed Belfour authored another 2-0 shutout of the Senators on Friday, and then we were treated to another multiple OT game, with Mike Fisher finally ending the pain in the third OT, giving Ottawa a 2-1 win.

But the mighty city of Toronto remains defiant:

"It was a hard-fought game," Leafs forward Joe Nieuwendyk said as he scurried for the team bus. "We would have liked to end it now but this is no time to hang our heads.

"It just shows the importance of winning that final regular-season game."

Nieuwendyk was referring to the Leafs' 6-0 blowout of the Sens on April 3, a victory that allowed Toronto to finish one point ahead of Ottawa in the Eastern Division standings.

The result was home-ice advantage for Toronto in the first round, an edge the Leafs now will attempt to exploit.

"That's what you play 82 games for," defenceman Bryan McCabe said. "It's something you hope you don't have to use, but now that we're in this position we'll take it."

Of course, we would have never gotten to OT had Ottawa's Patrick Lalime not made a wonderful pad save in the closing moments of regulation to get the Senators into OT in the first place. Unfortunately, we have to wait until Tuesday night for Game Seven.

For readers looking for news on the Mike Danton arrest, and the accompanying speculation about his personal life, click here, here, and here.