Off Wing Opinion

Who needs to watch Slap Shot when you can just go to Danbury to see the real thing?

Their owner is facing criminal assault charges after attacking a linesman. One of their players was suspended from the league for life yesterday for an ugly incident at the opponents' bench. They lead the United Hockey League in penalties, about 1,000 minutes ahead of most of the other teams.

They are hockey's brashest goon show and the first-year Danbury Trashers are apparently quite proud of the black eyes they are dishing out to opponents and bringing to their league.

And it is Trashers, not Thrashers. Their owner, James E. Galante, made his money in waste disposal.

"Right from day one, they've said they wanted to be the bad boys of hockey, the most-hated team, the Evil Empire," Adirondack coach Marc Potvin said yesterday. "It comes right from the top. That's what they've sold their fans. I think they'll find it's unwelcome in our league and it's unwelcome in any league."

By the way, it looks like their example is catching on elsewhere in town.

Thanks to Joe Tasca for the links.

With the NHLPA scheduled to have a membership meeting in Toronto, Mario Lemieux made sure to drop an interesting tid bit into Sunday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Officials of the league and the NHL Players' Association have not met since last Saturday, when talks in New York sputtered and the cancellation of the 2004-05 season three days earlier was reaffirmed.

Lemieux and Phoenix managing partner Wayne Gretzky, two of hockey's most-respected figures, were invited to participate in that session by the NHLPA. They accepted, in the belief that the union planned to submit a new CBA offer, with a salary cap of $45 million as its centerpiece.

"The only way that Wayne and I would have gotten involved is because we believed there was a new proposal coming from the Players' Association," Lemieux said. "We were told by some of the players we were talking to that there would be a new proposal on the table at the $45 [million] level."

No such offer was forthcoming, however, and NHLPA officials said later they never intended to make one. They insisted they went to New York only because the league had requested a meeting.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman subsequently suggested the NHLPA had "set up" the league to inflict a public-relations blow. Lemieux avoided such inflammatory rhetoric, but acknowledged he felt he was misled by the players, even though he hasn't figured out their motivation for doing so.

"It's a mystery to me," he said.

The season may be cancelled, but the PR war continues . . .

The WNBA's Sue Bird got to see Jaromir Jagr play hockey up close during her tour of Russia.

But after experiencing Jagr up close for 2+ season here in Washington, I think she's entirely too excited about it.

Over at Hockeyfights.com, Marc DesRosiers has posted an interview with Sharks Assistant Coach and former MHL tough guy Tim Hunter. Early in his career, he had the good fortune of tangling with another legend, Nick Fotiu.

I hate to admit it, but I love this stuff:

I fought Nick in MSG late in the game after I had beaten up Don Maloney. He speared me at the face-off and then dropped his gloves and stepped back. I dropped mine after thinking this would be a tough fight. I took a small step and he reached out and drilled me on top of my helmet and I was thankful I had one on, or I would have had a serious head ache. That was about it, my helmet exploded and I just held on. I learned not to walk into a punch.

Thanks to PJ at Sharkspage for the link.

I don't have the emotional attachment to former CBC broadcaster Chris Cuthbert that many of my Canadian readers, including James Mirtle, might have. But from my time watching NHL Center Ice, I've come to admire his work, and hate to have seen him shown the door so unceremoniously.

But as I've noted before, the CBC seems to have a thing for abusing the talent, that is, if the talent has the nerve to get out of line.

Did Steve Moore file his lawsuit against Todd Bertuzzi and the Vancouver Canucks organization in Denver because there was a better possibility of a large financial judgement? Tom Benajmin seems to think so.

Now before some folks go off half-cocked to bash Tom, just remember, here in the U.S. folks like me have been screaming for tort reform for a long, long time. And in a roundabout way, that's all Tom is arguing for here too.

UPDATE: James Mirlte chimes in.

After my post about NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman yesterday, my friend Chuq Von Rospach had this to say:

Bettman works for the NHL. He is, in fact, the public representative of the Board of Governors. They are, if you think about it, either the owners or GMs of the 30 NHL teams. That includes people like Bobby Clarke and Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. He is a phone call away from anyone involved in hockey, whether it's Don Cherry or John Ferguson. Someone please tell me: who could Gary Bettman possibly hire who could be better council and be a more knowledgeable hockey person than the people Bettman already works for, with, and around?

In one form or another, I've made this same point about Bud Selig and Major League Baseball, essentially calling Selig a stalking horse for the rest of the league's owners. So why is it that I can recognize that in MLB, but not in the NHL?

In the past, I've also argued that fans ought not to get terribly upset about the excesses we've seen in sports because, after all, "it's just business." But because I'm so spitting mad at the league, the owners and the players, I've lost that critical distance one needs to make a rational and informed judgement about the situation.

Perhaps Bettman doesn't deserve all the blame, and neither do Bob Goodenow and all the rest. But after about eight months of nothing but labor news when it comes to the NHL, I'm afraid I've reached my limits when it comes to rationality.

Consider this for a moment: The NFL will be back and on the field for the 2005 regular season before the NHL returns to the ice -- and that's under the best possible timetable. In fact, it's probably almost as likely that the NFL playoffs will be underway before the NHL rises from suspended animation.

So rationality be damned. I want all the folks responsible for this to feel some serious pain, and I want the fear of God put into them and their marketing plans. I want them trembling that we won't come back. I want them to think their league will collapse under its own weight, leaving their lives, fortunes and sacred honor ruined forever.

We're fans after all, and when you mess with us, you can't exactly expect a rational response, now can you?

Great interview with the long-time enforcer on what ails the game (if you haven't read enough already).

Thanks to Skip Sauer for the link.

The Ice Block is the handiwork of our buddy, David Singer. Check it out right now.

That would be on the hockey operations side of things inside the NHL. Steve Ovadia thinks so:

An experienced NHL person would know something is strange about this situation. Bettman just doesn't see it.

He's a businessman (supposedly).

Let him handle the business side of things. But he really needs someone to pitch in and take over the hockey side of things. Otherwise we're going to be watching NHL games on UHF stations at 3 in the morning. And guess what? The score will be 0-0.

This is an important point, and one we shouldn't ignore. Indeed, when the dust finally settles, Bettman's course in forcing the lockout may prove to be the correct one (though I have my doubts). But there shouldn't be any doubt that the stewardship of the game itself, and the entertainment value of the product on the ice, has suffered over the last ten years.

He needs some help there. And a real leader shouldn't be afraid to ask for it either.