Wilco, without a doubt the best band in the world at this moment, released their latest album last week.  Titled Wilco (The Album), it was eagerly anticipated by a legion of fans and music media who, for the most part, have shared a similar sentiment about the new release…

While the album’s good, it’s not necessarily up to the high standards of past Wilco offerings. 

Which is unfair, and probably inaccurate, to already have decided the fate of a release a scant seven days into its public life (yes, it was available earlier on the band’s website).  Still, take your pick of some of their earlier work…Being There, Summerteeth, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost Is Born, Sky Blue Sky.  All fine albums, with each one setting up massive expectations for the next release.  And so far, Jeff Tweedy and crew have managed to scale those self-inflicted peaks, though in each case, it’s taken some time for fans and critics to have their eyes opened to the gems contained within.

In an earlier life, I reviewed new releases by a wide spectrum of bands.  What always bothered me was the need, due to the magazine deadline, to pass judgement on an album after only, at the most, a half-dozen listens.  Some records/CD’s require time to reveal all their hidden beauty; a cursory listen may turn up the radio-friendly hits, but not the real gold underneath.  If anything, a music reviewer/magazine should be required to revisit a reviewed album six months later.

While listening to Wilco’s latest offering on the way to work today, the immediate lukewarm reaction to it reminded me of much of the hockey world’s reaction to what GM Bob Gainey has done with the Montreal Canadiens in the past two weeks.

After watching his team take a nosedive after the All-Star break, firing head coach Guy Carbonneau, taking over behind the bench himself, and getting swept by the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs (all this during the overblown 100th anniversary celebrations), Gainey is understandably under considerable pressure to improve the lot of the Canadiens for the 2009-10 campaign.

He’s cast his lot with underachieving goaltender Carey Price, which might, in part, explain why Jacques Martin was brought aboard as head coach.  Gainey was facing a summer of significant roster turnover, as a number of players were set to become unrestricted free agents on July 1st.

While many in the media, and fans as well, were curious as to how Gainey would manage this off-season, most pointed to the fact that the Habs would benefit from having a lot of cap room to play around with.  Surely they’d be able to land the big stud centre the team has lacked since…since…Pete Mahovlich???

What about the Vinnie rumours?  How about Gaborik or Hossa?  Should they keep Komisarek or go a different direction?  And what about Kovalev and Kaptain Koivu?

So many questions, and Gainey began to answer them by engineering a pre-July 1st trade with the similarly underachieving New York Rangers.  Suddenly, Scott Gomez was a Hab.  That deal seemed to knock over a series of dominoes, which ended up revealing the names of Hal Gill, Mike Cammalleri,  Brian Gionta and Jaroslav Spacek, not to mention Perry Pearn.

Almost immediately, the reviews on Montreal Canadiens (The Album) were mixed, at best.  Were the Habs a better team now than they were in April?  Did they address any of the myriad of issues that faced this team going into the summer?  Are all these players too small?  Okay, Hal Gill excepted, but in his case, is he too slow?  Where’s that stud centre we’re all been clamouring for?  Why allow Kovalev to leave…and for Ottawa of all places?  Has he ever spent any real time there?  (To butcher Sinatra…I wanna sleep in the city that never wakes up).

Some have noted that Gainey and his Canadiens have moved neither forwards nor backwards with all these free agent signings and trades, but rather they have moved sideways.  As in, yes, things have changed, the team sports a new face today, but to what end?

This past weekend, a few of us from NHL Home Ice made the 10-hour car trip from Toronto, down over to Chicago (the home of Wilco), to catch the Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley on July 4th.  Being baseball season, there are White Sox and Cubs stuff everywhere in that town.  The NFL Bears were well represented, as were the Bulls.  Even noticed a couple of guys wearing Blackhawk caps, and more than a few shop windows displaying Blackhawk jerseys.

Regardless, for all the justified hype about the re-emergence of the Chicago Blackhawks, the Windy City is first-and-foremost an NFL town, then a baseball town, then the Bulls, and then the Hawks, make no mistake about it.

While we were there, the scandal involving possible contract errors by the Blackhawks were all the buzz back in hockey country, meaning Canada.  It was on the general sportscasts, as each and every hockey-related story is.

Nary a peep in Chicago, and I was monitoring the local television stations, and had my AM radio with me to listen to 670 The Score.  They had a brief mention of it, before going back to discussing the pennant chances of the Cubbies, and what Jay Cutler meant to the Bears.

Yet in Montreal, a hundred or so fans of the Canadiens held a rally to demand that GM Bob Gainey re-sign Alex Kovalev.  Have they seen Kovalev actually play these past few seasons?  Madness, I tell you.

Blackhawks’ GM Dale Tallon can screw up by signing over-priced over-rated free agents Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet, and the hardcore fan base in that city will pillorize him for it, but he doesn’t have to face the same degree of pressure as a Bob Gainey, or a Brian Burke, or a Ken Holland.  While it’s on the radar, hockey gets lost in cities such as Chicago.  Let’s face it, hockey gets lost in almost every American city.  Make no mistake about it.

Yet in Canada, where apparently we have nothing better to do, every story is magnified, often far beyond its relative importance.  But that’s the way it is up here in Hockeyland.  Which helps to explain the overwhelming number of thumbs down reviews about Gainey and his moves so far this off-season.  We all think we know better up here.  There’s no allowance to actually see what these new acquisitions might do come October, we’ve already passed judgement.

50,000,000 critics can’t be wrong, but like all those stellar Wilco albums, this one will take some time to see if Gainey has engineered a masterpiece, or if all those signings were just the thrashings of a desperate man.

- Mick Kern

It’s not like the Baseball Hall of Fame, where fans and media engage in debates as to which cap the likes of catcher Gary Carter should don when he was finally enshrined in Cooperstown.  The Kid came to fame with the Montreal Expos, but reached the pinnacle of his career with the 1986 New York Mets, combining clutch hitting and some fortuitous bounces in downing the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox as New York’s 2nd team became the toast of the town after winning the World Series.

Even though the player has a say in the decision, the tall foreheads at Cooperstown have the final word, and they went with the tricolour of the now defunct Expos, which did not sit well with Mr. 7-Up, who no doubt envisioned a healthy amount of appearance money flying away, thanks to the prospect of having to sign his John Hancock on BHOF memorabilia bearing the logo of a dead franchise, instead of the mighty Mets. 

Carter himself publicly showed his disdain for that choice, when he was recently introduced at the Baseball All-Star Game.  Festooned in the distinctive Expos cap, he also made a point of holding up a Mets cap.  There was no sign of a Dodgers, or Giants cap, even though he also suited up briefly for those franchises.

William Scott Bowman didn’t have to make that choice when he was handed the gold key to the Hockey Hall of Fame back in 1991.  At that point in his storied career, Scotty Bowman had won five Stanley Cups as the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, in addition to three Cup Final appearances with the expansion St. Louis Blues.  Bowman’s tenure in Buffalo did not end in the manner he would have liked, and after a few years in TV, he returned to the league with the emerging Pittsburgh Penguins.

At the time of his departure from the Sabres, Bowman was already one of the greatest NHL coaches of all-time.  If he had never again stepped behind an NHL bench, his legend was sealed.  As life would have it, Penguins’ head coach Bob Johnson was struck with brain cancer, and tragically passed away in November of 1991.

The defending Stanley Cup Champions mourned for their beloved coach, and got back to the business of defending their title…with Bowman as their new head coach. 

The Penguins were a juggernaut, and swept aside Bowman wannabe Mike Keenan and his Chicago Blackhawks in the Cup Final.  Bowman won likely his most unexpected Cup, which just added to his legend.

Except there was a considerable backlash building against the Master.  There were many who clung to the faulted belief that anyone could have coached the late 70’s Canadiens to victory, that all Bowman had to do was open the door on the bench.  The same surface criticism was levelled at Bowman about these talented Penguins, and it only intensified the following spring when the heavily-favoured Pens fell in Game Seven overtime to David Volek and the New York Islanders.

Bowman moved on to the eternally under-achieving Detroit Red Wings, and initially experienced a bumpy ride with the Wings, including a sweep in the 1995 Final at the hands of the New Jersey Devils, coached by former Bowman disciple Jacques Lemaire.  Suddenly, the naysayers were emboldened with fresh evidence that Bowman was overrated.

Undaunted, the Red Wings did what any champion does.  They refused to panic.  They didn’t blow things up and start again.  They stayed the course, made the changes they deemed logical, and were rewarded with back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998.

The 1997 celebration remains, for me, the most joyous post-game celebration I have ever watched on television.  The pent-up frustrations and expectations of Red Wing fans finally had a platform for release, and Bowman took part in the festivities, donning skates and hoisting the Cup.

The Master would put an appropriate exclaimation point on his stellar career, capturing the Cup one final time in 2002, his final year behind the bench.  In total, William Scott Bowman won nine Stanley Cups, and led a team to the Final on an additional four occasions.

He set seemingly unassailable records for games and Cups won.  Along the way, he alienated players and fans alike with his style, but both parties understood one plain fact about Bowman.  He was a winner.

So when Bowman decided to jump ship and join the resurgent Chicago Blackhawks as an advisor (joining his son Stan in the Chicago front office), he once again exhibited a perfect sense of timing.  The Master tested the wind, and knew which way it was blowing.

During a recent game against the Red Wings, the TV cameras found Bowman in the crowd, surveying the game unfolding in front of him.  Which got me to thinking.

If Bowman was not yet in the Hockey Hall-of-Fame, and someone had to choose which NHL sweater or cap his plaque would display, which team would he represent, particularly if one was only to consider his record as an NHL head coach?

Statistics don’t always present the entire picture, but they’re a pretty good starting point.   Let’s agree that his days with the Blues and Sabres are not in the discussion, despite his early success with St. Louis.  His six plus years in Buffalo are without doubt the most disappointing of Bowman’s NHL career.  His time with Pittsburgh wasn’t long enough to warrant inclusion either.

Which means, rather obviously, it comes down to his legendary stint with the 1970’s Montreal Canadiens vs. his more recent success with the one modern dynasty still operating in the National Hockey League, the Detroit Red Wings.

In Montreal, Bowman returned to the organization he got his start in, including a Memorial Cup win in 1958.  After a power struggle in St. Louis, Bowman left and took over the reins of the Canadiens, who the season before, had won the Stanley Cup with an underrated team that featured rookie Ken Dryden in net, and was captain Jean Beliveau’s final year in the league.  The trouble was, head coach Al MacNeil was called out by Habs’ icon Henri Richard concerning ice-time during the playoffs, which the French media ate up, and even though the Pocket Rocket tried his best to calm the waters after the season was over, the damage was done.

Bowman got the job, though that 71-72 team lost in the first round in six games to New York Rangers, who made it all the way to the Cup Final, only to lose to the Bruins.

The next season, Bowman steered the Habs to first place in the East Division. in the process losing only 10 games, as Montreal regained the Stanley Cup.  But the best was yet-to-come.

After losing Dryden to a contract dispute, Montreal came up short in ‘74 and ‘75, the years of Bernie Parent, Bobby Clarke, and the Broad Street Bullies.  The emergence of superstar sniper Guy Lafleur, the maturing of the Big Three on defence, the addition of effective role players such as Bob Gainey and Doug Jarvis, and the return of Dryden all added up to a dynasty, one that won four straight Stanley Cups between 1976 and 1979.

It was on the strength of these magnificent teams that the legend of Bowman was forged.  By the time he left for Buffalo, Bowman had won five Stanley Cups in five Final appearances during his eight years with Montreal, and compiled a gaudy 419 wins in only 634 regular seasons games, as well as posting a .714 winning percentage in the post-season.  These were truly Hall-of-Fame numbers.

Fast forward to the late 1990’s, and Bowman behind the bench of the Detroit Red Wings.  During his nine-year head coaching tenure in Michigan, Bowman won three Stanley Cups in four appearances.  He won 414 regular-season games in only 706 games, and his playoff winning percentage was an impressive .642.  Along the way, in part thanks to an additional two games added on to the regular season NHL schedule, Bowman’s 95-96 Wings set a league record by winning 62 times that season, two better than the 76-77 Canadiens, coached by Bowman.

The overall numbers are similar.  The Montreal numbers are slightly more impressive, though one has to factor in the circumstances under which these two franchises operated.  The late 70’s Canadiens were the most powerful team in a league that still featured a number of weak sisters.  The Habs were challenged by the young Islanders, and the very talented Boston Bruins, but managed to overcome all obstacles during that four-year run.  Montreal and Boston were among the powerful teams that fattened their averages against the likes of the Cleveland Barons, Washington Capitals and Minnesota North Stars.

By the time Bowman was hoisting the Cup with the late 90’s Red Wings, the landscape of the NHL had changed considerably.  Thanks to better training techniques, better coaching, better goaltending, and a resulting tighter style of play, there was more parity in the league than when Bowman was with Montreal.  There were less opportunities to feast on the unfortunate, which meant less inflated numbers.  Taking all that into account, Bowman’s final stats with the Red Wings compare very favourably with his halcyon days in Montreal.

In the end, both incarnations of Bowman are deserving of accolades.  And despite what the great unwashed may rant about on internet billboards, not just anyone could have coached these teams.  It takes a special kind of coach to be able to juggle all the demands of a talented group of athletes, each of whom believes they have what it takes to be on the first line, or start in net. 

A large number of books have been written about Bowman and his coaching style.  Suffice to say, Bowman is arguably the greatest head coach in NHL history.  His two greatest stretches of accomplishements happened in Montreal, and Detroit.  Each incarnation was impressive to behold.  My heart says Scotty Bowman is first-and-foremost identified with the Montreal Canadiens, but my head says that his most impressive coaching job was with the Red Wings.

The better question might be, who would win in a best-of-seven battle between the 1977 Montreal Canadiens and the 1997 Detroit Red Wings?

- Mick Kern

After a night of boring hockey between the Anaheim Ducks and the Detroit Red Wings, we were rewarded with two, two mints-in-one, great hockey games on Wednesday evening.

Most of the attention will be garnered by the Capitals-Penguins tilt in Pittsburgh, and for good reason.  The Penguins had to win Game Three, because there wasn’t a Basille chance in the NHL that they’d climb out of a 3-zip hole against the Caps. 

Right out of the gate, the puck somehow finds Ovechkin and I’m sitting on the couch, thinking this is the final proof that the Gods of the Montreal Forum have surveyed the lay of the land, and have chosen the Washington Capitals as the true heir to the throne.

But a hockey game is sixty minutes long, at least, and the rest of the evening featured entertaining hockey in a great old barn that I’ll be sad to see go.  The much-maligned Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby performed like the superstars they are, as the hometown Penguins outplayed the visitors for large stretches of this game.

Not that the Capitals rolled over, not by any means.  They got fantastic goaltending, once again, from Simeon VarLAmov, which begs the question…what happened to all the nay sayers who thought the Caps pulled the trigger way too quick when they booted Jose Theodore out of the crease after their game one loss to the New York Rangers?  Where would they be if they had kept ole’ Jose in the net?  Yup. Golfing.  Enjoying the good life.

This kid is the real deal.  So much so, if Todd McFarlane is reading this (and he should be, seeing that I’ve bought enough of his McFarlane Sports Picks figures over the past eight years), fire up that kiln and come up with a nifty looking VarLAmov figure, please.

The Penguins could only put two past The Kid, before Washington tied it up late, sending this one into overtime.

Forget all those silly ideas we heard this past week about tinkering with overtime.  Is nothing sacred in the NHL???

Both teams went at it in the extra frame, and the Penguins found the back of the net, turning this officially into a series.  Amazing what one goal can do.

Still, as good as that game was, the Bruins-Hurricanes battle in North Carolina was better.

What’s with these Hurricanes?  Deep within those sharp-looking red uniforms, still beats the unappreciated heart of the Hartford Whalers.  This team never seems to get the same attention as everyone else left in the playoffs.  Many probably didn’t watch (or couldn’t) the Hurricanes-Devils series in the first round, and that is a shame.  That was fine hockey.  That’s the type of hockey I hope will develop every time they drop the puck.

The same thing seems to be developing in this Boston-Carolina matchup.  The Bruins had to be considered the favourite coming into the series, and I did pick them to win, though my heart is with the Hurricanes.  Both Cam Ward and Tim Thomas have been putting on a goaltending clinic, and what’s great is that both gentlemen have a different style.  It’s been fun to watch.  As good as gorgeous goals are, nothing beats an amazing save.  Kudos to Jonas Hiller and his ilk, but these two guys in this series are much more fun to watch.

Both the Bruins and Hurricanes came out and started Game Three with a purpose.  If you were at the arena, and paid top dollar for your seats, you got your money’s worth.  Same thing if you invested time in front of the TV.

The ongoing battle between Eric Staal and Norris Trophy candidate (and winner, if I had a vote) Zdeno Chara has been intriguing to watch develop.  The line matching, or more accurately, the Staal matching that Bruins’ head coach Claude Julien has been doing has been masterful, though the ‘Canes have managed to get Staal out on the ice without his shadow a couple of times, and they were decisive moments.

This one also found it’s way into overtime, and the home team won, grabbing a 2-1 lead in the series.  Both teams are playing a level of hockey that has me counting the hours until they drop the puck for Game Four.

What all this means is that whatever teams emerge from both series, it’s setting up to be a heck of an Eastern Conference Final.

Quickly on the ongoing Jim Balsillie sage.  How EXACTLY do you pronounce this dude’s name?  Is it BALL-SILLY?  Or is it BALL-SLEE?  Or could it be BALL-SI-LEE?  Last year, I called the front desk at the RIM headquarters, and asked that question.  They said go with BALL-SILLY.

I’ve heard all three pronunciations in the past twenty-four hours.  No doubt the NHL head office pronounces it in a completely different manner.

Regardless of what happens with Balsillie and the money-bleeding Phoenix Coyotes ($200 million dollars lost since 2001???  If the Coyotes made cars, they could quality for federal funding), there remains a few points to be made about the feasibility of relocating an NHL franchise to Canada.

1.  There would realistically be a finite amount of places you could successfully place a team in Canada.

2.  Southern Ontario could be one of those places, but nowhere else springs to mind.  You can rule out Winnipeg and Quebec City.  Many of the same problems that they were saddled with back in the mid-90’s persist, though there are entire websites set up to debunk these theories. 

The crucial thing to keep in mind is, can an NHL franchise exist in a specific market even when all the external factors are against it?  The team has been lousy for three or four seasons, the economy has tanked, the bloom is off the rose?  What then?  Sure, most cities will support a winner, but that’s no way to build a solid foundation for a franchise in any sport, outside of maybe the NFL.  Not everyone can win.  Not everyone can make the playoffs…though I think the NHL is working on that.

3.  If Balsillie eventually ends up with his own NHL team, and is permitted to move them to Southern Ontario, what would happen to that franchise if he became disinterested in the team years from now?  Would Hamilton, or Kitchener-Waterloo, or Vaughn have enough of a corporate culture to draw upon for economic support?  My guess is no.  Even a second team in Toronto is not guaranteed to be a success.  The Maple Leafs will always be number one.  They would be the Yankees to Balsillie’s Mets.  Both can prosper, but the newcomer will never be the top dog.

4.  How does a move into the Southern Ontario market affect a team such as the Buffalo Sabres, and maybe even the Detroit Red Wings, particularily since the economy has gone in the toilet, and any recovery in the next couple of years most likely will largely pass over the Rust Belt?

5.  How much influence do the Toronto Maple Leafs have in the backrooms of the NHL?

6.  Should the NHL just broker some sort of deal/understanding with Balsillie, since the guy doesn’t appear to be going away, and one gets the feeling this is a man who gets what he’s after, no matter what the cost?  It might be advisable for the NHL to avoid the courts, for what if they lose, and set a precedent for future franchise movement? 

The league understandably wants to retain control over who gets into their club, and where teams can move.  Having said that, the league has a rather poor track record when it comes to letting various riff-raff into the league as owners.  As arrogant as he may be, Balsillie has got to be a few steps up from those crooks.

7.  And on that note, is this just the first (or maybe second) break in the dike?  If, for some reason, Balsillie is successful, does that mean by the next Monday, after months and months of court battles have finally been put to bed, three or four other teams will be clamouring for their own sugar daddy?  Actually, they already are.

8.  How do the Phoenix Coyotes approach the upcoming 2009-10 season?  What will be their season ticket hook this year?  “Last Chance Hockey”?  How about “You Never Came To See Us Before, Why Not Try Us Now Before We Leave Town”.  Talk about a tough sell.

9.  What happens to Gary Bettman if Balsillie “wins” this battle, or the next one, or the next one?   Or the next one?

10. Most importantly, if the team were to move to Southern Ontario, what would their uniform look like?  I’d buy one, but I’m saving up to buy that nifty looking McFarlane figure of VarLAmov.

- Mick Kern

Less than a minute to go in the game.  The net at the other end of the rink is empty, the goaltender cooling his heels on the bench.  The visiting team is desperate, needing a goal to tie the game and send it into overtime.

The puck is dropped, and a mad scramble ensues.  The visitors keep the puck hemmed in the zone, and launch a volley of shots, but not one finds the back-of-the-net.  To the fans of the home team, the seconds on the overhead clock drag at an infuriatingly languid pace.  To the fans of the visiting team, it’s all over in a flash.

In this case, the Washington Capitals were unable to put the puck past Henrik Lundqvist for the tying goal, and the hometown Rangers escaped with a 2-1 win, and take a 3-1 stranglehold on their best-of-seven series.  What would have to be classified as the biggest upset in the first round is all set up to be completed in the next couple of days.  The Rangers will get three cracks at it.

If the Caps had been able to score the equalizer, MSG would have been deflated, and Washington would no doubt have entered overtime with all the momentum.  That’s how much things can change on the strength of one solitary goal in such a situation.  But it was not to be.

Name me one other sport that is blessed with the same edge-of-your-seat excitement.  In a key baseball postseason game, when the bases are loaded, and there’s nowhere to put the hot-hitting batter, and the bullpen is exhausted, and the closer has to come in with a pitch in the strike zone, and the crowd is on its feet, and the noise is deafening, and their cheers help keep winter away for a few more hours…well, that’s close.

In football, when a team is in the red zone, and the defence has to hold, late in the game, and the crowd is on its feet, and you can’t hear yourself think, well, that’s also pure gold.

But hockey has them both beat, because of the fluid nature of the game.  No other team sport features the constant ebbs and flows of hockey, due to the fact it’s played on ice, with grown men on skates.  The speed of the game, and the unpredictability, and the endless possibilities that are presented when the linesman drops the puck, all add up to create pure magic.

It’s games like the Rangers/Washington tilt that remind me why we slog through an overly long regular season.

On the other hand…Goodnight Montreal.  The Party is Over.

In truth, it ended sometime in January, but people were having too good of a time to notice it.

So much for the overblown 100th Anniversary Season.  Starting Monday morning, half price on all memorabilia.  Everything must go, including a large number of free agents.

I think I finally get what GM Bob Gainey was trying to do with goaltender Carey Price.  Unlike a lot of Montreal fans, Gainey no doubt knew that this team wasn’t deep enough to make a long run in this year’s playoffs.  His man in net is, without a doubt, young Mr. Price.  Why not throw him right in and get his feet wet, toughen him up using live ammo.

Trouble is, that strategy can backfire horribly if the goaltender’s confidence is shaken to the point he doubts the very things that carried him this far.  That has always been my worry with how Montreal has handled Carey Price.  He’s now played in three playoff series over two straight seasons, and he hasn’t looked good in any of them.

Mind you, this year’s edition of Les Canadiens were nothing to write home about, and my mother actually asked me to stop with the emails.  The real test for Montreal will be this summer:

- which unrestricted free agents do they attempt to keep?
- can they coax any key unrestricted free agents from other teams to sign here?
- is Gainey preparing to clear cap room in order to try to trade for Vincent Lecavalier?
- will this team finally get physically bigger, now that they’re been pushed around
   for two straight playoff years?
- who will be the head coach of this team?
- will GM Bob Gainey keep his job?  Does he still want the job?
- is this team for sale, or not?
- entering his third NHL season, it’s time for Carey Price to begin to
   realize the immense potential he has.

That’s a lot of stuff for one off-season.  The best news?

It’s the 101st season for the Canadiens.  Time to forget the distractions and get down to business.

Just wait ’til next season!  Go Bruins.  You guys look good.

- Mick Kern

The 2009 ESPO Award winners in bold

Dick Irvin Award (Top Radio PxP)

Rick Jeanneret (Buffalo)
Chuck Kaiton (Carolina)
Mike Lange (Pittsburgh)
Peter Maher (Calgary)
Dan Rusanowsky (San Jose)

Chris Kontos Award (Breakout Player)

Zach Parise
Loui Eriksson
David Krejci
Scott Clemmensson
Devin Setoguchi

Donald Trump Trophy (Executive of the Year)

Scott Howson
Doug Wilson
Peter Chiarelli
Mike Gillis
Dale Tallon
John Davidson

Ted Turner Award (Top Newsmaker)

Sean Avery
Martin Brodeur
Fighting in Hockey
Tampa Bay Lightning (owners, coaches)
Cherry/Ovechkin
Where will Mats Sundin sign?

Bobby Orr Trophy (D-man of the Year)

Shea Weber
Nick Lidstrom
Zdeno Chara
Mike Green
Duncan Keith

Mickey Rooney Award (Best Little Man)

Martin St. Louis
Brian Rafalski
Patrick Kane
Pavel Datsyuk
Michael Camalleri

Guy Lafleur Trophy (Comeback Player of the Year)

Patrick Elias
Michael Ryder
Martin Havlat
Patrick Marleau
Simon Gagne

John Ferguson Award (Top Fighter)

Zack Stortini
Raitis Ivanans
George Laraque
Wade Belak
Milan Lucic

The Cougar Award (Top Player over 35)

Dwayne Roloson
Nick Lidstrom
Ray Whitney
Daniel Alfredsson
Mark Recchi

Michel Bergeron Trophy (Coach of the year)

Claude Julien
Brent Sutter
Barry Trotz
Andy Murray
Paul Maurice
Ken Hitchcock

Rodney Dangerfield Award (No Respect)

Ray Whitney
Loui Eriksson
Brad Boyes
Mike Ribeiro
Patrick Elias

Tony Esposito Award (Best Goalie)

Tim Thomas
Steve Mason
Mikka Kiprusoff
Evgeni Nabokov **
Niklas Backstrom
Roberto Luongo

Carl Voss Trophy (Rookie of the Year)

Steve Mason **
Bobby Ryan
Pekka Rinne
Blake Wheeler
Drew Doughty

Gordie Howe Trophy (MVP) and The Espo Fan Award

Evgeni Malkin
Alexander Ovechkin ** wins both
Sidney Crosby
Zach Parise
Evgeni Nabokov
Mike Richards

NHL on NBC analyst Mike Milbury joined Scott Laughlin to preview the NBC Game of the Week between the Wild and Red Wings and Mike talked about the Devils slide, Norris Trophy predictions with Scott Laughlin on Hockey This Morning

Former Bruins forward Don Marcotte talked about his career with Scott Laughlin

Boston Bruins defenseman Dennis Wideman appeared on Hockey This Morning with Scott Laughlin and talked about the Bruins long layoff and their surprising season

Veteran sniper Mark Recchi has been picked up by the Bruins.

The price they paid to the Tampa Bay Lightning were young players Matt Lashoff, and Martins Karsums.

Recchi has put up points with every team he has played for.  This season in Tampa, Recchi had 45 points in 63 games.  He began his career back in 1988-89 with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and was a member of their 1991 Stanley Cup Championship team.  Recchi reached a career-high 123 points with the 93-93 Flyers, including 53 goals.  Recchi has also been a member of the Canadiens, Hurricanes and Thrashers.

Defenceman Lashoff was the Bruins’ 1st round pick (22nd overall) in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft.  Right winger Karsums was a 2nd round choice in 2004.

Boston also received a 2nd round draft pick in 2010.

The high-flying Bruins have picked up defenceman Steve Montador from the Anaheim Ducks; Petteri Nokelainen goes the other way.

Montador was in his first season in Southern California, having played previously with the Panthers and Flames. 

Nokelainen was taken in the first round (16th overall) by the New York Islanders in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, and has spent parts of the past two seasons in Boston.

Like most years, I taped the NHL All-Star Competition, and watched it later, when domestic duties allowed.

Like most years, I fastforwarded through most of the dreck that is the on-ice interviews.  Really, what’s the point of most of these over earnest feel-good gabs?  Sure, the guys are having fun.  Great.  I can determine that by watching them on-the-ice.  Nothing like clubbing the viewer over the head.

Props to Elliot Friedman of CBC; when he asks questions, he doesn’t pull against the overall tone of the evening (ie: We’re Having Fun), but he manages to ask one question that is pertinent to the season, and he poses it in such a way that it’s not an intrusion to the overtone tone of the evening (We’re Having Fun).

Maybe the best example of that is how he approached his quick hit with Vincent Lecavalier.  To not ask Lecavalier about the rumours of him going to the Canadiens, while the All-Star Game is in Montreal, would have done a disservice to the hockey fan watching at home.  Even better, Friedman asked him a straight-up question.  He didn’t put Lecavalier in the corner, but neither did he lob him a softball, like most of the “NHL-friendly” TV talking heads would have.

And, in case you missed it, Lecavalier received the loudest, and longest, ovation during the introduction to the Skills Competition.

The one image that will perpetuate itself on the internet, and YouTube, and in the hearts of the biggest NHL PR hacks on all the television networks, will be the one of Alexander Ovechkin being outfitted by Evgeni Malkin with a Tilley hat, and Canadian flag, and grabbing two sticks for one of his turns at the trick shot competition.

Yes, I laughed.  Not one of those “oh my God, what will these crazy hockey guys think of next” laughs.  More of a lighthearted chuckle.  Which is what the Ovechkin-Malkin hijinks was, a lighhearted moment.  Good footage for the highlight shows later.  Maybe Sports Illustrated will pick it up.

But that’s all it was, a small (manufactured) novelty within the heart of a greater novelty.  The aforementioned TV hacks will parade it out like it was the greatest thing since…since…well, since heated blades, but NHL apologists tend to do that with most insignificant trivia.

As a hockey fan, I didn’t completely buy the whole Malkin and Ovechkin make peace spin.  Or at least I don’t want to.  That supposed feud is (was?) one of the more delicious story lines of the current season.  Imagine if the Capitals and Penguins meet in the playoffs?  Imagine if the Penguins pull up their socks.

One of the PR hack myths I can’t stand is the constant hammering by some commentators (including here at NHL Home Ice) that ALL the players are great guys, and ALL the players are just wonderful to be around, and ALL the players are just like kids when they get out on the ice, and ALL the players consider it an honour to be at the All-Star Game, etc…

The staged Malkin-Ovechkin hat trick will only be more fuel for that artificial fire.  Anyone, such as myself, that dares to approach The Event from a different angle will be summarily dismissed.

So, let me repeat this for the record.  The Malkin-Ovechkin hijinks was cute.  A nice moment in an otherwise uneventful event.

Yup, the rest of the skills competition took a lot of skill…to keep watching it.  Don’t get me wrong; back when this was first introduced (1990???), I was a big proponent of the idea.

What a great way to showcase the individual skill of NHL players.  And all in a pre-packaged soundbite/highlight clip manner.

The trouble is, like anything, what was new slowly becomes familiar.  They try to jazz it up every so often, so effort points have to be given out for trying to revive the contest, but when the highlight of the evening was Ovechkin wearing a Tilley hat on a breakaway, well, honestly examine it yourself.

Honestly look at it.  Don’t look at the All-Star Game Competition, and for that matter, the entire All-Star weekend and see it as you wish it to be.  See it how it really is.

No, I am not one of the fans or media in Montreal this weekend.  There’s little doubt being at the epicentre of All-Star events would change my perception of them somewhat. 

But here’s the thing, most of the fans, and sports media, and non-hockey sports fans, also aren’t in Montreal this weekend.  What is presented on the old television screen is the reality that will be remembered.

The YoungStars game was boring, but really, what could one expect?  The actual All-Star game is such a waste of time (which is why I won’t be taping it); removing a couple of players on each side and having a smaller game of shinny is not the recipe for success.

The entire All-Star weekend works best as a hockey convention.  Have the fan zones, have the meeting of the so-called minds, get all the players together in their team uniforms and have a fancy practise.  Why spoil everything with a game?

Unless.

Unless the NHL were to, say, marry up the Outdoor Game with all the fanfest all-star stuff. 

No, I’m not advocating playing the All-Star Game outside.  I’m for putting that lame dog down.  Instead, hold the All-Star festivities around the Outdoor Game.  Keep some semblance of fan voting for the various skills competition, keep the fan fest stuff, have the meeting of the minds…and then, on the Sunday, actually play a real NHL game outdoors.

For example, this weekend, it would have been the Montreal Canadiens against, say, the Boston Bruins.  For two points.  Or maybe three.

Hey, Montreal fans already sent half the team to the event anyhow, so we’re almost set.

By merging the two events, the league could possibly generate more attention for itself, outside of the usual hockey media.  The Outdoor Game, at least right now, is on the radar of the U.S. sports media.  The All-Star game isn’t.  But putting the two together, what’s there to lose?

And Ovechkin could still wear his Silly Tilley hat.

- Mick “Fedora” Kern

Hubert ‘Pit’ Martin passed away following a snowmobile accident in Quebec this past week. Pit played 16 seasons in the NHL with Detroit, Chicago, Boston, and Vancouver. He joined Scott Laughlin and Mark Napier on the NHL Alumni Hour in September 2007. Pit begins the interview talking about his first NHL game with the Red Wings.

Now that the biggest non-secret in the hockey world is finally official, that Brian Burke is done with the Anaheim Ducks and is searching for greener pastures, there’s been non-stop speculation as to which NHL team he’ll lay his hat with.

Ever since the Toronto Maple Leafs’ arrogantly made it known that they were going to conduct an exhaustive search for the “best hockey general manager in the world”, most pundits believed that man would be Burke, particularly when the Detroit Red Wings did not want to part ways with Ken Holland, and Hurricanes’ GM Jim Rutherford turned down the job.

But is Brian Burke as good as he’s being made out to be?  Oh sure, he won the Cup with the 2007 Ducks, and that’s a heck of a lot more than most NHL teams have accomplished recently, but is he really a hockey Messiah?  Some teams no doubt believe so, and one would have to think there’d be a number of organizations lining up to get this guy onboard.

The safe money is on Burke ending up in Tarana, but there are other intriguing possibilities for Uber-Burke.  Let’s take a quick look at the contenders…

1. TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
 - if a GM could ever somehow manoeuvre around all the sharks in this dysfunctional organization, and win the Stanley Cup, he would be proclaimed Prime Minister of Canada the next day, thanks to the grass roots support for the Maple Leafs across the Great White North…and it helps that Burke has dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship.

2. CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS
- the cold-hearted, cut-throat manner in which they gassed head coach Denis Savard clearly shows that the new Hawks management will stop at nothing in an effort to win a Cup before the equally historically sad-sack Maple Leafs do.  Also, current Chicago GM Dale Tallon is accustomed to coming out second, though usually it was thanks to the spin of a roulette wheel.

3.  BOSTON BRUINS
- wait, they’ve got a GM who’s done a very good job rebuilding this team that hasn’t won the Cup since before anyone in North America knew who Tretiak was.  Regardless, Burke lives in the area, and he’d be home for dinner almost every night.  That really cuts down on the cost of brown-bagging it.  That way, Boston could low-ball their offer to Burke, thus keeping a proud Bruins’ tradition alive.

4.  WINNIPEG JETS/LAS VEGAS STARS/HAMILTON PREDATORS
- word has it a number of wannabe team owners have approached Burke to run their hockey affairs when-and-if they are granted an NHL expansion franchise, or one of the weak sisters relocates.  But since NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman recently stated that all thirty teams are fine, well, then no-one’s moving, and only a bunch of crazies would venture down the path of expansion during these turbulent economic times.  Okay, so this option is very much alive.

5.  TORONTO BLUE JAYS/TORONTO ARGONAUTS/TORONTO RAPTORS
- well, this is somewhat contingent on choice number one.  If Burke doesn’t get the Maple Leafs’ job, maybe he could spin his magic with the Jays, Argos and Dinos as well.  Not that he could do any worse than what those teams have been through recently.  And he would be in the city for the inevitable failure of the man the Leafs chose as GM instead of him, which would give the hockey panels on Hockey Night in Canada, TSN and Sportsnet enough material for the next year that they would only have to mention Mats Sundin when he actually does something.

6.  GENERAL MOTORS
- okay, so the consensus pick for best general manager in the National Hockey League is Ken Holland, and he’s currently working for the Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings, one of the few companies in Michigan that’s actually successful these days.  The former Big Three have taken a big hit, bigger than most companies have, and speculation is that once-mighty GM is lurching towards bankruptcy.  The industry always talks fondly of the days of Lee Iacocca, and Brian Burke is kind of the NHL’s version of the chairman.  Besides, it might be the closest he gets to the Stanley Cup in the next few seasons, though I understand the Anaheim Ducks have a pretty good team.

7.  THE WHITE HOUSE
- actually, come to think of it, that position’s recently been filled.  But Burkie could always try again in four years time.

8.  THE BEATLES
- okay, maybe not the White House, but what about the White Album?  Paul McCartney doesn’t need the cash, but he craves the spotlight, while apparently Ringo Starr is very busy these days, so don’t send him anything.  Now what could Ringo be that busy at?  His garden?  Woodworking?  That kick-ass triple CD set he’s been working on that’s going to revolutionize popular music as we know it?  Maybe,  just maybe, the remaining Beatles are secretly practising in some garage somewhere in England, preparing for their return to the stage.  Enter one Brian Burke.  The Beatles Mark II are going to need a great frontman who’ll look good slinging a Rickenbacker 325.  Burkie’s most definitely the Lennon in this equation.  He’s clever, inquisitive, sarcastic, and doesn’t suffer fools easily…though I can’t really picture Burkie giving peace a chance, particularly when it comes to his feud with Kevin Lowe.

9.  SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
- if any one person could breath life into this sad, tired franchise, it would be Brian Burke.  He’d dominate the show the way Chevy Chase did during the show’s first season, and in the manner of John Belusi during his all-too-short glory days.  Problems might arise when Burkie demands that he gets to say “Live From New York”, handle the opening monologue, and anchor Weekend Update every show.  Then again, they could always get Sarah Palin to host, she doesn’t have a lot to do these days.

10.  NHL HOME ICE
- if Burke ends up getting the job in Toronto, it wouldn’t take all that long to make the trek up on the Yonge subway line and drop by our studios to impart his wisdom.  I don’t think we’re hiring at the moment, but there are always intern opportunities.  We’re got a bubble hockey game, Joe Thistel will often spring for pizza, and who’d want to pass up a chance to hang out with Rossy?

- Mick Kern