The Place Will Be Rockin' 'cause it's Hockey Tonight!

I am looking so forward to tonight's Penguins-Caps game. The series has been a series of punches and counterpunches and so emotional. You know Alex and Sid will be fired up and it's going to be up to Mike Green (almost invisible) or Evgeny Malkin (partly cloudy) to make the difference for their teams. The goalies are pretty much even at this point but you really have to give it up for Simeon Varlamov and what he has been able to do with Washington this spring.

Saying that, I keep coming back to the thought that if Pittsburgh wins tonight that they will go to the Stanley Cup finals. If the Caps win, I'm not so sure. They seem to be dancing like a snow fence: bend-but-don't-break. The Penguins have been getting much more even pressure on Varlamov. Does the rookie stand on his head and will the Capitals past Pittsburgh?

It's really a toss-up in every sense. So, in the event of a toss-up, conventional wisdom says to hang your hat on the known at the expense of the unknown. Mark Andre Fleury is the known. He carried the Penguins to the finals last season and has played in many more "big spot" games than Varlamov.

The Capitals, however, are at home and in front of a crazy amount of boisterous red shirts. That doesn't mean anything, I guess, but maybe that extra energy is like crack for the team.

The Head says: Pittsburgh. The Heart says: Washington. Caps 4-3.


Two other series have now gone to a seventh game. Tomorrow night, the Ducks return to The Scene of the Crime for CSI: Joe Louis Arena.

Last night's game warmed the very cockles of everybody's Old Time Hockey hearts. There's nothing wrong with a little aggression to send a message in a hockey game. And by "little aggression" I mean "face-washes" and "wrestling punches".

The Ducks have some of the old school snarl that grates on their opponents like too much sand in your shorts at the beach. The Red Wings walk that aisle and they know they're better than you. What's not to love?

So if we put that series to the test we see that (My Name is) Jonas Hiller has been superb slowing down the Red Wings assault. The Ducks have been winning through a bullying game. Chris Osgood is the Red Wings goalie and whenever he gets kicked, he Chumbawambas and gets up again.

I'm loathe to do the whole car thing but I guess we can do a "suppose" with lawn mowers.

Do you want the precision mower that gets in tight corners or do you want the one that chops down everything in it's path but isn't quite as reliable? (Keep in mind this is being written by a man who has never mowed a lawn in his life.)

I'm picking against Nick Lidstrom for the first time ever: Ducks win game seven and go on to meet Patrick Kane, Jonathan "I've never met any of Patrick Kane's sisters" Toews, and the rest of the boys from Chicago.


The Bruins and Hurricanes renew hostilities also on Thursday night.

Have there ever been a more annoying bunch of bandwagoneers than the Bruins fans? I went to Bruins games in Boston many times over the years and on TV, this new group of crazy Lucic followers are taking it to A Whole New Level.

I mean, there's always the fans who just get caught up in the playoffs and stuff but when you're in an office and there's a woman you've worked with for ten years comes in wearing a LOOCH t-shirt and has never even dropped any inclination that she liked hockey before this, you're left to only wonder.

As an impartial observer who loves the game, I realize that it would be very cool for the Bruins to win the Stanley Cup if only to shine a light on the city. On the other hand, the sense of entitlement of most Boston Sports Fans is nauseating. Red Sox fans are one thing. They want you think that they don't stink even though they're keeping an eye on the Yankees all the time. (Full disclosure: I grew up rooting for the Yankees.)

Patriots fans are jaundiced. They think it is a birthright to be in the Super Bowl.

The Celtics bandwagoneers'll bolt in the night once reality sets in after that NBA title last year. (Full disclosure: I grew up a Celtics fan.)

Saying that, I like Tim Thomas more than I like Cam Ward--even thought Ward won a Cup for Carolina back in the day. I like Eric Staal (Tavares = E. Staal 2.0) more than any of the other Bruins forwards. I like Chara more than all of them.

So what does this mean: I'm sorry if you read this, Mr. Bob Wells of Branford, CT, but I think the Hurricanes have a darn good chance tomorrow night...but the Bruins will go on to the Conference Finals.

Actually, Bob, that should make you happy. Hated to swerve you like that...but 1972 was a long time ago.

--

In other news...

PointBlank has a great story about Josh Bailey. Click here.

Tim Jackman has been signed to a one-year contract extension through the 2009-10 season.

The Isles have rewarded the committed Tim Jackman with a one-year extension.

We're thrilled for Tim, who is the kind of guy the younger Islanders can look up to for professionalism and dedication to the game. He's been called a leader while he was in Bridgeport and with all of the call-ups and kids involved with the big club, it's believed that Jackman's natural leadership will be key as the Isles move forward in 2009.

It's been talked about and written elsewhere how Jackman rededicated himself to his career by hiring a trainer and improving his skating--and all that hard work has paid off.

An nyiforlife.com EDITORIAL: How Professional Sports Leagues Can Learn from MLS

It's funny to me to read about how other leagues are interested in the MLS model now that the recession has hit. It wasn't that long ago that the media was mocking them for how they do business (here I am thinking of PTI) and now MLS is the only league growing when others are hurting.

The main thrust (if you can call just shouting a thrust) of the argument on PTI was that all of the teams under one umbrella of management negates the competitive nature of team vs. team in the marketplace for players and results. Noted soccer expert Tony Kornheiser even called the league a joke to operate in this manner; and he is on the record so very, very many times as being a soccer detractor. And we all know that he does not think before he speaks.

Michael Wilbon is not without blame here, even though he sort of endorsed DC United signing Freddy Adu to a contract even though Adu wasn't yet able to drive himself to the games or practice.

Now comes word that the Arena Football League has ratified a new business model with it's players' union and that the league expects to be fully functional for the 2010 season.

And guess what? The new business model is described as a whole heck of a lot like the MLS model.

For those who aren't familiar, the MLS model is essentially that the leaders meet and decide what it is going to cost to run a team before each season. A salary cap is decided and given to the MLSPA to ratify. Each of the teams pay into a pool and the league manages that money. Traditional ownership does not exist in the league; instead the teams own shares in the league to run and team and are called operators. Each operator runs a business with a specific team in a specific market like a traditional owner would. If one of the operators wishes to divest from the league, the opportunity to be the operator of that team would be sold to another bidder by the league and the outgoing operator would be compensated with the proceeds of the sale equal to their "stock" in the league.

Okay, so I have over-simplified, but that is pretty much how it goes. The salary cap works in a similar manner to the NBA salary cap in that there are roster exceptions and exemptions for certain players.

Say a player is signed to a MLS contract worth 300K but the salary limit per player is 100K. Well, that means that the 200K that is over the cap becomes the responsibility of the team operator who wants to add this player to his squad. Each team gets a limited amount of these Exceptional Player exceptions so that one crazy renegade operator doesn't tilt the apple cart too much.

(David Beckham is the big exception here. The league reportedly paid a major part of his salary from a general fund and he had all sorts of licensing deals through the league that inflated his salary to much higher than the "average" MLS superstar.)

The AFL was humming along similarly for a long while until the new money infiltrated the league in the early part of the decade. Once the players formed a union, all salaries had to be made public and therefore, all salaries went up as players and agents could compare one player to another statistically and salary-wise. Free agency and the promise of big-time NBC money that never materialized also drove up salaries.

(That's why it was a lazy argument back in the day when the media liked saying that the AFL on NBC was out-drawing the NHL TV-wise because anyone with half a brain could look at the numbers for both leagues and figure out that the AFL was the new kid in town and that the ratings would slide whereas the NHL was an established entity with over 90 years of credibility behind it. You're noticing the new car smell is off NASCAR now, aren't you?)

Of course, there were other issues that lead to the rapid decent of the AFL. First off, they seemed to go out of their way to upset the hardcores by allowing unlimited substitutions on both sides of the ball. One of the most intriguing aspects of the traditional Arena game was that many of the players on the field were Ironmen who had to play both offense and defense. Linebackers became running backs and receivers became defenders, etc. John Elway, part owner of the Colorado franchise, pushed for this change and once it passed, it took away a lot of what made Arena Football "special" and different in the eyes of their most ardent fans.

Crazy expansion would be another issue; as the league went to different cities where the style of play was not understood by the average person who would attend the game. Many of the newbies expected outdoor football in a pinball machine and the nuances of playing winning arena football is much different indoors than the strategy is outdoors.

As an outsider, it seems to me that you should be able to make money with an AFL team. You market it as an alternative (and go back to the summer schedule when rinks are empty) and not as a little version of what you see outdoors in the fall and winter. Of course, everything seems easy when it isn't your money.

Marketing MLS is a bit of a different road because you have to get credibility with the ex-pats in America who follow their leagues from back home. You need to build up your game as real sport and not just a grown up version of the game every little kid plays in the suburbs...which is the unfortunate way many in this country see the world's game.

So, this MLS business model...could it work for the NHL? Probably not.

If the league were in true peril, then perhaps it could. But what we have seen is that the NHL and the NBA are funded by some very serious dudes with some very serious coin. In the AFL, and to a lesser extent, MLS, you're dealing with owners who don't have the capital that the ownership in other leagues has. And what makes that dangerous is that when you get eager and competitive owners with a little bit of money who want to roll the dice with the big boys, you'll find a much slimmer margin of error. In a business where losses simply have to be expected and absorbed, those losses are compounded by the fact that the teams often are paying rent on the arena.

MLS was smart from the beginning and have been smart under the leadership of commissioner Don Garber to stick to the model and develop ancillary income around the game and the league. They've resisted the urge to grow too fast like the AFL did with the false promise of NBC money and they've had to reorganize into (or, back into) a more prudent model.

Anyway, just an editorial on a slow week for the Islanders. We'll be running a series of these over the summer involving all sorts of topics so if you have an idea or would like to write for the site, contact me at the address above.

What's the deal with the lack of updates?

Well, the deal is that I have been too freaking busy to type...but here goes:

THE WINTER CLASSIC: I loved it. Loved it. Two admitted rivals playing outdoors and Bob Costas getting frostbite on his self-importance. Good times.

Wrigley Field was just an outstanding place to have the game. The whole presentation was great; Costas aside. I half-expected him to pull a LB move and whine about the "shrine of basebore" that is Wrigley Field was hosting a hockey game. Thankfully, he did not.

He also didn't pull out his Ogie Oglethorpe story from last year. I figured it was his only hockey story.

Being the resident hockey guy in the office has it's privileges. For one, no one is asking me to join any fantasy sports leagues. But the down side is that whenever anything happens in the game, I get asked about it 150 times a day. And since the mainstream media only plays the stupid stuff, well, you can guess what I hear.

Anyway, the next day at work, a couple people thought they had a great idea and they said that the league should play the All-Star Game outdoors every year on New Year's Day.

Um, no. What makes the Winter Classic so special and unique is that it is a real game. It's a real game that counts in the standings. The ASG is simply a place for the sponsors of the league to kick back and hobnob with NHL power brokers. The players and the game are almost an afterthought. The game becomes a high-priced game of shinny and the science of skating big circles is examined for three hours and we all get tired of it after the first period anyway. They can say it is about the fans all they want, but it ain't. It's about the sponsors.

So let's keep the Winter Classic what it is: a classic. It means something. Don't mess with it.

THE ISLANDERS KEEP LOSING: Is it me or does Scott Gordon look like he is about to explode on the bench some times? After the Isles let the Oilers kick back two goals to lose 3-2 the other night, I thought our coach was going to spontaneously combust right at the Rexall Centre.

This losing leads to trade talk. Big props to Doug Weight for sounding like a guy who wants to stay and help the kids. Same for Billy Guerin. The team can play all the kids they want but unless they have professionals who have had solid careers to guide them, the team is going to be a mess. Players and fans throughout the league trust Guerin and Weight and you can see how guys like Okposo and Josh Bailey look up to them when their getting real life lessons on the bench and during timeouts. Hopefully, the Isles can keep guys like that around to help usher in the next generation.

I want them to keep guys like Trent Hunter and Richard Park too. And Mark Streit. If Streit doesn't go to the All-Star Game, I'll eat my hat without condiments. It will be really sweet for him to return to Montreal as an All-Stat when the Canadiens didn't respect his all-around abilities.

Newsday makes a compelling argument that Weight should represent the Isles too. I like the argument and I am wondering if Bettman can make a Commissioner's Pick and add Weight to the Eastern Conference All-Stars. At least with two Islanders the skills competition will be more fun to watch.

And all this ragging on the ASG today is strange because even though I always say I won't watch it, I always do.

CANADA WINS GOLD: Sweden tried trash-talking, but it didn't work. The Canadians breezed by the Swedes in the World Junior Championships to win the gold medal for the fifth-straight time.

John Tavares was the most outstanding player in the tournament and trust me, he put to rest the race between he and Victor Hedman over who is going to be the first overall choice in this year's entry draft. The knock on Tavares is that he isn't a great skater but so what? You can teach skating. You can take power skating classes from ads you see in the back of The Hockey News from Laura Stamm and get better at it. What you can't teach is a nose for the net. You can't teach skill and you can't teach strength on the puck and body control.

The tournament itself is just hyper-exciting. John Buccigross mentions it on ESPN.com. At the same time that Canada and Russia were playing, the NFL playoffs were on TV and by sheer emotion, you'd have to pick the hockey over the football. Seeing the passion and (yes, Don Cherry and Pierre McGuire) heart of the fans in Ottawa as they passed the world's largest Canadian flag across ScotiaBank Place was inspiring. Canada is a country that truly loves their hockey. They cared more than the guy with three beers whining about his fantasy league did sitting in San Diego.

And, um, by the way. About that Tavares kid? The Islanders are currently leading the race to having the most ping pong balls in April. Just sayin'.

RUUTUU BITES MAN: One of my favorite headlines growing up was TREE BITES MAN. It was in the local paper when Tree Rollins, then of the Atlanta Hawks, tried to take a bite out of crime and allegedly chomped down on Celtics' super-pest Danny Ainge in a playoff game when I was like eleven. The Celtics probably pasted Atlanta that year and I don't remember who won but I do remember TREE BITES MAN.

Now the evidence (as seen on NHLN's On The Fly) pretty much clearly shows Ottawa's Jarko Ruutu biting the gloved thumb of Sabres tough guy Andrew Peters last night in Buffalo, the league has to hold a hearing to decide how to proceed with a suspension and/or fine.

Here's your pull quote from Jarko: "Nothing happened there," Ruutu said to TSN. "His fingers were by my mouth but I didn't bite him."

Video evidence shows differently. Already the guys in Buffalo who sell the bootleg t-shirts in the parking lot are printing new ones with the phrase: Ruutuu Bites on them. You just know they are.


Isles are in Calgary tomorrow night.

Economics

Here's something I was debating with a buddy of mine. Well, not much debating, because he is a Senators fan and he found it insane that someone would give a guy like Wade Redden 39 million over six years and a no trade clause. I mean, who is stupid enough to do that? Was there a gas leak at the Garden this July that was covered up?

Anyway, I mentioned that when you see the games on TV that it is strange because the top bowls are full and there are empty seats in the lower sections. What that means to me is that the core fans are going to the games but the corporations and businesses (who already paid for their tickets) are not even taking clients out to schmooze. That means that revenue for the NHL and the NBA in these bad economic times is essentially "locked in" because those companies have already paid for their expensive season tickets and suites. I mean, Gary Bettman was pooped on for mentioning this but c'mon, give the guy a break. He is right on this one. The NHL and the teams had already collected the bulk of their cash before the economic situation hit the fan earlier this fall.

Taking that into consideration, you have to think that next year, for the NHL, the cap is not going to drop as dramatically as some people (who are not thinking this through) may believe. If the salary cap has to be a certain percentage of the money the league takes in this season--and it does--it may actually go up a little bit because of all of these locked-in dollars (advertising; TV, season tickets, etc.) that the league has already collected. NEXT year is when we could see some serious-ass corporate belt-tightening that will affect the bottom line (and the cap) for the NHL in 2010-2011.

What does this mean for right now? Well, for one thing, it's way better to be at the floor of the cap (just over 40 million) than it is to be scraping the ceiling. It also means that a team like Pittsburgh could be seeing their window closing a little faster than they expect it to after handing out long-term, pricey deals to Sid the Kid, Malkin, Fleury, and perhaps Jordan Staal. Look what happens in the NBA: you get two or three guys making all the money and then your screwed because you can't find second-tier complimentary players to round out the roster to make a competitive team.

In the NFL, it is the same deal. Tom Brady was given a lot of credit for "getting it" when he took a below-market deal to keep the Patriots competitive. The Colts pay so much money to Peyton Manning that they can't keep a running back. Think of that next time you see Peyton in another commercial.

I guess what I am saying is that right now, with the economic circumstances facing this country and the world, laying in the weeds and waiting for better days to strike is a very smart thing to do. Throwing good money after bad money (the old Rangers model) never got the teams anywhere in the standings. It just inflated the middle class of player in the NHL. (Think I am wrong? See Holik, Bobby.) As things get better, maybe the Lighthouse gets approved, and the fates of our beloved franchise are turned around. Sticking to the course and treading water is maddening for the present but it just may pay off in the future.

Islanders sign first-round pick Josh Bailey to three-year, entry-level contract

NewYorkIslanders.com reports that Josh Bailey celebrated his 19th birthday today with a three-year entry-level contract with the New York Islanders. Bailey, a center, was selected ninth overall in the draft this past June and has been attending Islanders training camp. The contract is a standard NHL entry-level contract.

“This is an exciting day for the organization as we continue to build our team with young players like Josh who have very bright futures,” said Islanders General Manager Garth Snow.

Click here for the full story.

What Versus Does Right

Here at the home office, we like to think we have some reasonably decent opinions. Here's one you're all not going to believe in: we like Versus and we think they do a good job. So there.

As you'll recall, we live in Comcast Country. That means we get Versus and we don't even have to pretend to look for it. We also get the NHL Network and we are aware that it is on channel 276. So, you know, take that you whiny losers who complain you can't find the channels! It's just like your mother said: you can do anything if you try. Dumbass.

So, yeah, I like the way my favorite sport is covered on Versus. I think they do a good job. They'd be better if they dumped Brian Engblom, but that is a minor penalty for being trite and lame. Sure, there are other things they could do better, but overall, they're pretty good.

Now that I've complimented them and they all have a big head, I do have some suggestions on how they can do better. If it comes off as backhanded, then it's backhanded. Nothing I can do there.

Let's start with the greatest complaint out there; being that The Home of Hockey doesn't have a proper highlights show.

There's a couple of ways to attack this one. The most obvious would be just to run the NHLN's On The Fly show overnight and after the games. A simulcast would not be out of the question here. Comcast owns part of the NHLN and they own Versus. How hard is it to arrange this sort of thing? I don't know for sure, but it can't be too bad. Besides, don't we all need Dan Pollard and Gary Green to be on American basic cable?

The one thing that sticks out as a hold up to me might be the fact that the NHLN in Canada is sort of run by TSN and TSN is either owned or affiliated with ESPN so those bastards may not want "their" programming from Canada on a competitor in the USA.

So, if you can't do that, why not have Keith Jones, Bill Patrick, and that other mullety fellow hang around until, say, midnight and do a proper wrap-up show? Then, Mr. Versus Programmer, you can run the thing all night over and over like Sportscenter and you've got inexpensive programming that fills up blocks of broadcast time. Run your infomercials in the 6-9 AM slot and then run the NHL show again from 9-10 AM. After that, go back to shooting stuff until the games are on in the evening. Everybody wins! The hockey people who make up the bulk of your audience are served...you get the infomercial money...and the outdoorsy types who are currently indoorsy get to watch hunters shoot animals. Genius!

I don't know that there are a lot of complaints about the studio show. Keith Jones is fun and is a bit of a character but he is likeable. Bill Patrick is light-years ahead of Bill Clement with the hosting stuff. The real loser of the bunch is Brian Engblom; who can only be explained away by using his only TV move: Engblom has never met a cliché he didn't like. (See what I did there? I USED a cliché to make a point ABOUT a cliché! Can I work in TV now?)

And it isn't just the clichés. The man is just pure boring. Guys like Pierre and Milbury have personalities that blow you out of the water whether you like them or not. Engblom breeds indifference...which ultimately makes him a fist magnet after years and years of wondering how the guy got a TV job in the first place. No energy and no enthusiasm at all.

Last, let's tackle the announcers. The PBP guys are mostly solid dudes and are led by, of course, Mike Emrick. There's no one better in any sport than Doc and we all know that. I will argue this to the death!

Behind him is Joe Beninati, who is the regular Caps announcer and I think he is really good. He's always prepared, tells a story along with the game, and he brings a certain amount of excitement to his calls. He's saddled with another cliché lover, Darren Elliot. Elliot is okay in that non-offensive way where nothing he says makes you feel either good or bad at what you're watching. In a word: not great.

So, you know, more points to Joe for keeping his energy up during the games he works with Elliot.

John Forslund is the other main play-by-play caller. He cracks me up. You see, Forslund used to do Hartford Whalers games so I got to see a lot of his work back in the day and let me tell you, that professional announcer voice he uses now is not what he started out with. His work is fine and he calls the game well and whatnot, but that fake voice he uses just cracks me up. It's like if that Pimpled-Faced Teenager from The Simpsons was trying to sound important or something.

I know many people who are sort of split on Eddie Olczyk. Personally, I really enjoy how Edzo works with Doc. Both come off as excited to be there and have an obvious passion for the game. Did we ever get that vibe from Gary Thorne and Bill Clement? Well, yeah. Sometimes we did. But too often, didn't you get the idea that Thorne was on cruise control and that Clement was trying even though his partner wasn't giving him much to work with? Plus, let's never forget the embarrassing night when they were doing an Islander game and Carol Alt joined them in the booth. The two of them acting like giddy schoolgirls at a freaking Jonas Brothers concert instead of trying to be professional--and by the way--middle aged.

And to everyone who whines about the NHL not being on ESPN, think about what you're asking for. Sure, it would be nice to have NHL2Night again and all, but it ain't happening. They don't like us. I mean, they hired Pierre LeBrun for the website and all and that is great but if you remember back when they did broadcast the NHL, what did they do between periods? Did they send it back to a studio to talk hockey? Nope. They went to a stupid Sportscenter update that spent more time showing highlights of other sports like the NBA and college basketball than they did showing highlights of other NHL games being played around the league and whatnot. Personally, if I am tuned into a hockey game, I really don't care about what is happening in the NBA that night. If that's how they're going to treat it, then forget it.

Therefore, in short, I maintain that instead of bitching about what we don't have, let's be happy for what we do have. Could it better? Of course. But what Versus gives us now is still better than the alternative.

Sillinger News and European Expansion

First off, according to Newsday, Mike Sillinger is probably not going to be ready for camp next Friday.

Greg Logan reports that Sillinger suffered a bit of a setback in his rehabilitation from his microfracture surgery on his right hip this July. Sillinger complains of being tight and not having a full range of motion yet and does not know if he'll be ready for the season opener on October 10th.

Quite a blow for the classy Sillinger. Hopefully Mike can make a full recovery and he'll be back on the ice sooner than later. Logan mentions that Rob Blake came back from similar surgery last year while playing for the Kings and both guys are in similar situations age-wise and have a similar amount of experience. Actually, with all of the Stanley Cup and international games Blake has played, he probably has more miles than Sillinger does.

A guy like Mike Sillinger just seems to be the kind of player that is super-important when you're fielding a team of young and impressionable kids. You're not going to surprise Sillinger with anything because he has been through all sorts of situations in his career. He is, by all accounts, a consummate professional and has always struck this outsider as the kind of leader that would be good for the organization after his playing career is over; if he is interested in that sort of role. He's got a wealth of experience playing on rebuilding teams, championship-caliber teams, expansion teams, teams with expectations, and teams that surprised the league.

Here's hoping that Sillinger can come back and help lead our boys back to where they need to be.


NHL European Expansion

In other news, there seems to be a little chatter around the media about NHL European expansion. Bill Daly had some interesting speculation in the Globe and Mail about a possible European Division being added to the league in the next ten years. He trotted out that grand ol' nugget that a major percentage of NHL.com's traffic comes from Europe and that those cities and countries that are hockey hotbeds may end up being part of an expanded NHL.

Pierre McGuire also checked in, reminding us all that almost 30% of the NHL's players are not North American. Seems to be a valid point there. He probably made his point real loud, too!

One thing that gets me when they talk about European expansion--and let's not forget that this was talked about as far back as the late '80s for you older hockey fans--is that no one seems to consider that the league itself would have to find markets in Europe that are able to sustain an NHL outfit.

What do I mean by "sustain"? Well, they're going to have to afford it! We see this now with the new Russian KHL: some teams have the bucks and others don't. How can we bank on these European economies? I mean, right now the Russian economy looks from the outside like it is totally booming but let's not forget that there is a wide-wide-wide disparity between the rich and the not-so-rich in that country. Those who have the money have a ton of it (manufacturing and/or oil production) and the working class is still lacking a lot of necessities.

It all comes down to this: the Russian companies and the state-run industries may have the cash to play this very expensive game, but does the average Alexei Six Pack have the money to go to watch the players play? There's no real TV money to prop up the league and if you can't get people into your building, it becomes a money-losing proposition real quick.

Also, what happens when these companies stop making money hand-over-fist? The first guys they're going to look to get rid of to save money are going to be the big ticket players.

I guess what I am saying is that talking expansion into Europe is all well and good but man, something like this has to vetted a little more thoroughly than giving $700 bucks to a private investigator to take a look into the background of John Spano. Let's all take a deep breath and push away from the table before we get too excited, you know? Couldn't we just move the Thrashers to Winnipeg and call them the Jets instead?

Goodbye, August!

August is simply the worst month to be a hockey fan.

In June you have the finals (whether you have a horse in the race or not) and the entry draft.

In July you have free agency and the yearly shenanigans of some new crazy ownership group trying to make a splash.

Then, in August, you get nothing. It's quiet. Sure, this year we had the Mats Sundin saga (seriously, Mats. Get off the pot) and the continued misadventures of the Tampa Bay Lightning (good luck with Meszaros over Boyle) and whatever is played on the NHL Network.

But mostly, you get nothing. It's like we've all been banished to watching clip after clip from the upcoming Best of Hillbilly Jim and Uncle Elmer DVD. I don't know about you, but I can't takes no more!

So here we are. Mark Parrish is still a free agent and even though Chris Botta thinks it would be a mistake to bring him back, I am still holding out hope. Sure, he only scores goals in bunches but last time I checked, you win hockey games by scoring goals. Would Parrish be taking time away from the young guys coach Scott Gordon is trying to develop? Maybe...but it wouldn't be much. I still think you can add Parrish and maybe one of the remaining free agent defensemen out there with some experience like a Bret Hedican or even Marek Malik. As the Isles have proven over the last couple of seasons, you really can't enough defensemen.

No truth to the rumor that our armed forces are now treating prisoners to DVD's of Hillbilly Jim and Uncle Elmer as torture, either. Not that it wouldn't work; we just can't confirm it.

For those who asked me about the hockey cards, I have actually bought six more packs since last report and no Islanders. Not even the guys who aren't on the team anymore. I did pick up the Kyle Okposo rookie from a popular auction site that we won't name but as of this writing, said Okposo has not arrived at it's new home.

Special thanks to those who wrote in wondering where I was over the past few weeks. Well, I was around but I just wasn't moved to write anything because, as we said, nothing was happening. I've tried watching Islanders Illustrated but I'm not exactly the biggest fan of watching TV on the computer so that has been hard. Overall, a decent show though. Slight thumbs up because of my TV-on-the-computer bias.

Also, to everyone who wrote to me about the Comcast travails, I feel your pain. Shocking how much people like to vent about cable companies. And yes, I know Cablevision blows too, even though I don't get their (ahem) service.

Long story short--for those who wanted to know about resolution--is that we got everything squared away....sort of. Chalk it up to a huge nightmare. Also, a warning to anyone who is a Comcast customer that wants to order WWE 24/7--Comcast still does not offer the full programming slate that the WWE makes available. They've not showed any NWA TBS shows in August and did not show either the Stampede episode from 1986 a lot of people are talking about or the Terry Funk Film Session that I desperately wanted to see in July.

September is Ric Flair month. I hope to hell that everything is offered as it is supposed to be...but I am not holding my breath. Suffice to say, Comcast still sucks.

And yes, if I flip on the channel and the full programming as listed on the WWE website (and other carriers' websites) then I will post the good news here. Don't hold your breath.

Free Agency is Almost Upon Us. Don't Expect Much

With the renewed interest in trying to build the franchise back up by playing the kids, the Islanders will still have to sign and pay some veteran players to make the floor of the NHL salary cap. In case you missed it, the cap for this upcoming season is $56.7 million and the floor is just a shade over $40 million. The Isles are nowhere near $40 million for the upcoming season--and Greg Logan is reporting that the team bought out Shawn Bates this week-- so somebody out there is gonna get paid.

The McCabe rumors in Toronto are purely speculation at this point. In fact, both dailies in TO (the Sun and the Star) are reporting that Leafs "management" are mulling over the prospects of just having Bryan McCabe sit home and not attend training camp if he is not moved by then. Because of his no-cut/no-trade contract, the Leafs can't even send McCabe to the AHL Marlies to keep his salary off the big club's books like some teams have done with overpaid players from previous regimes.

Naturally, because McCabe's wife is from Long Island and the family has a home there, the media think the Isles should just be happy to take this egregious salary off the Leafs hands without some other kind of compensation. Chris Botta mentioned that the Isles need to have the deal sweetened before anything like this could happen and man, I happen to agree.

What it surprise me if McCabe played for the Islanders this season? No. Not at all. It would surprise me if the Islanders gave up anything more than a conditional pick for McCabe and some other considerations (cash or picks) from Toronto. The CBA, as currently constructed, does not allow for one team to assume a large chunk of a player's contract while he plays on a different team than the one he signed the contract with. Brian Burke is trying to get that one changed but as of right now, no dice. Of course, there are other ways of "compensating" any team that takes on McCabe's contract. This is the NHL. There's gonna be a loophole.

Other rumors floating around have the Islanders making a play fro superpest Sean Avery. I could write books about why I don't want this to happen. ESPN's Scott Burnside makes a great point with a quote of Avery's where he said that he never wants to play in Canada because Canadians take hockey too seriously.

Umm...come again? Do you want to get behind a guy and pay him when you know that hockey isn't his first priority?

If Avery ends up playing for the Islanders--and I think he would really, really like to do so now that the Rangers have given up on him--I'll be about as happy with him as I was during the Yashin Era. He's wearing the sweater and all, but he'll embarrass me nonetheless.

Saying that...the Isles could use some of his hyper-competitiveness. Is it worth putting him in the room with a ton of impressionable kids? Do we need Blake Comeau and Kyle Okposo thinking that interning at Vogue is a better idea than playing hockey and working at their real careers? What happens between him and Mike Comrie when Avery hits on Hilary Duff?

It's just a nightmare waiting to happen. I was one of the few who loved what the Islanders did at the draft (although people are starting to come around if I am to believe what I have read) and the last thing they need is to bring a disturber like Avery into the room to brainwash the kids.

Ideally--and I don't know how much is left in the tank--I would like to see the Isles go for Brian Rolston; who almost signed with the Islanders when he went to the Wild earlier in his career. Rolston is a hard worker who gives all he has on every shift. If he is willing to play with the kids and show them the light, then I would be all for overpaying Brian Rolston for two or three years so that he can work with Richard Park, Mike Sillinger, Bill Guerin, and Brendan Witt and mold the next generation.

Enjoy this weekend and all the speculation. Come Tuesday, the landscape of the league is going to change. There really is no off-season any more in professional sports.

We'll have more on Shawn Bates upcoming once the news of his buyout becomes official.

All-Star Rick DiPietro

Newsday reports that Rick DiPietro will be representing the Islanders in the Eastern Conference team as a reserve for the All-Star game scheduled Jan. 27 at Philips Arena in Atlanta. This will be 26-year-old Ricky's first All-Star game..and it is gonna be so cool. Rick is just starting to get his props throughout the league. A hyper-competitive guy like Rick is going to be fired up during the skills competition.

Also, Jeff Tambellini will represent Canada in the American League All-Star Game later this month in Bighamton. Tambellini is also putting up Kyle Okposo in his home now that Okposo has made it to the Bridge. That's what I call a fun fact.

And yes, I stole that picture from our good friends at nhl.com. I have it on good authority that the NHL is not litigious in any way and understands that the internet is the freaking wild frontier!

Alexander The Great; Isles in Calgary tonight

By 7:00 this morning, three people had asked me if I heard about the Ovechkin contract. Everyone of them also asked me if he was worth it.

Let's see: 13 years and $124 million. That's kind of money is hard to wrap your head around. That is a shade higher than $9.5 million bucks a year.

We know that Sidney Crosby signed with the Penguins at the boutique price of $8.7 million a year just so his contract would be the same as his sweater number. I don't think anyone would argue that Crosby is a better player than Ovechkin is either. In fact, I guess if you're looking at it, Ovie would come in third behind Sidney and Vincent Lecavalier as far as who the best player in the NHL is right now. Of course, further examination of the toys each man is playing with makes the Lecavalier ranking perhaps a bit high because when he looks on his wing, he sees guys like Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis. When Ovechkin looks on his wing, what does he see? Nothing like Lecavalier has, for sure. Also, when Crosby looks over and sees a guy like Colby Armstrong, he shrugs and knows that he also gets to play with Evgeni Malkin. Ovechkin simply does not have that luxury. I guess that makes him #2.

Ovechkin is probably the most marketable Russian player since Sergei Federov--and he is leaps and bounds more comfortable under the bright lights than Federov ever seemed to be. Ovechkin is a kid who freaking loves the game and his enthusiasm for playing reminds me of Brett Favre's. He's a likeable kid with sick skill and that is what the Capitals are banking on--he'll be as great as he is for thirteen more seasons--at least.

Ted Leonsis was quoted in every report saying that he is a gambler. Well, for an organization like the Washington Capitals, this is a gamble that you need to take to build credibility and relevance for your club. The $9.5 million a year is a huge chunk of change, don't get me wrong, and I wonder about the Caps' abilities to surround him with players to help Ovie succeed, but I make this deal too if I have to. If Ovechkin had been traded, the Caps cease to be even a pretender to anything in the NHL for years to come. And if he had been allowed to make it to the end of the year without a contract and had been a restricted free agent, don't you think that 28 or 29 teams are calling him ASAP to talk contract? Hell, I might have called him to see if he'd play for the Islanders!

But see, this isn't the same thing as it was when Leonsis paid Jaromir Jagr all that money. Well, in a way it is--the Caps needed credibility and Jagr needed money--but paying Jagr a lot of money to play disinterested, unmotivated hockey was a big mistake. Jagr does not--and never did have--the intangible "it" that Ovechkin does. Jagr is by all accounts a sullen, less gregarious person who prefers the corner of the room than the spotlight. Think about it--when he was with the Penguins, Mario was the big star. Ron Francis was a big star who probably ran the room simply by just being Ron Francis. That left Jagr off to the side away from the glare--and he was strikingly successful because he didn't have the pressure that Mario Lemieux ever had.

Alexander Ovechkin is 22 years old. Sign him to a six-year deal and he could leave you as a free agent at 28 and in his prime. This is why DiPietro and Mike Richards and Ovie are getting these real long deals. Now, the Caps have locked up Ovechkin until he is 34 and in the home stretch of his career. There's no risk of him going anywhere so you can sell him as the face of the franchise for years to come. He is the cornerstone--just like Rick DiPietro is for the Islanders and Mike Richards is for those freaking goony Flyers.

In other stuff, have you heard about this Okposo kid? He's in Bridgeport right now and the media is all over him as if he was vacationing in Mexico with a marginally talented reality show hairdo. I normally check in on the 'Tigers at connpost.com and today there are a few articles about Kyle Okposo and his professional debut tonight in Binghamton, NY. Lucky for him, too: the Soundtigers are having one of those wonderful three-games-in-three-days AHL stretches. I would guess that he is not going to play in that last one because conditioning is going to be an issue and the guy just got back from the WJC in the Czech Republic.

The family is kicking around whether or not to make the drive to the Bridge Saturday night to see his home debut. If we do make it, expect some live stuff in this space from the game. If not, we'll monitor the Sound Tigers and we'll have some impressions of his game on Monday morning.

And tonight, if there isn't enough going on, the Islanders are wrapping up the western swing with a game against the Flames in Calgary. Calgary has been playing really well of late, 6-2-2 in their last ten. Jarome Iginla is just plain sick, rocking with 60 points at the half-way point. Old hand Adrian Aucoin is back to form, projected for a 40 point season as a plus-player after escaping the negativity and injury bugaboo of Chicago. Aucoin is listed day-to-day (aren't we all?) so I'm not 100% sure he will be playing against the team he made his soup with in the early part of the decade.

The Isles stop over in Ottawa Sunday night to play the Senators before heading home to face Montreal Tuesday night at the Coliseum.

NHL Winter Classic

Who here didn't see any of the Winter Classic? (If anyone raises their hand, it's just shameful.)

Man, I just have to say that game was the most fun I've had watching television in a long, long time. And I swear the thing couldn't have been scripted better with Crosby winning the game in the shootout. The snow and sleet was just such a spectacle that made for great TV. I even forgot how much I hate Bob Costas during the game! That is how great it was. Just an excellent experience. Big ups to the NHL and NBC and the hearty souls of Buffalo who just proved to be about the best fans around by keeping the energy up for the whole game.

New NBC hairdo Mike Milbury said something interesting, too, so now he is beating Brett Hull 1-0 as far as NBC analysts have gone. He said that the "hockey purists" are a pretty cynical bunch but that the entire atmosphere was great for bringing the game back to it's roots. And Costas even tried to make it about him with his between periods story about "the real" Ogie Oglethorpe. Let's just say that Old Man Winter wasn't the only thing blowing around Ralph Wilson Stadium on Tuesday. Not even a power-tripping egomaniacal midget could ruin the day--a Great Day for Hockey, as Badger Bob would say.

The Winter Classic was a Cinderella story--and it's a good lesson for the fans of other sports. Sometimes, it really just can be about the game. Yesterday wasn't about the ratings or the long stretches where the ice was being fixed. The Winter Classic was a celebration of hockey and the people who love it. It was a chance for our beloved sport to
stand up and put on one heck of a show. And I loved it.

To close this out, I just want to mention the WWE angle that they're doing with Ric Flair. If anyone missed it, Vince McMahon told Flair that the next time he loses a match, that Flair has to retire. Look--no one is a bigger Flair fan that I am but at almost 59, maybe it is time to get out of the ring.

This past Monday, in a match with Triple H, Ric Flair's career was saved by Mr. McMahon's house elf, William Regal, who came down and hit the Nature Boy with brass knux so that HHH would lose by DQ and would therefore, not qualify for the Royal Rumble.

The buildup to the match was great and a lot like the buildup to Starrcade '93 where Ric vowed to retire if he didn't beat Vader for the WCW World Title. The match itself was very old school in psychology and told a good story. In fact, it pains me to say it, but Trips needs to be praised because the man simply can pull off any style he needs to
when he wants to do it.

I'm interested in this angle enough to Tivo RAW and FF through it to see what they are doing with the Nature Boy. It's probably the last thing that Vince can do to grab my attention and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in that line of thinking.

Isles win; Sim Injured; Meyer on Waivers

How is that online petition coming?

After watching the Islanders' victory over the Sabres last night, one thing becomes very, very clear: this is going to be a team that no one wants to play. Up and down the bench, Ted Nolan's boys have what Peter Laviolette calls "jam". They're as aggressive without the puck as they seem to be with the puck. The up-tempo style is fun as heck to watch.

Mike Comrie potted another two goals and Chris Campoli added another with a laser knuckleball (I know, that doesn't sound right but if you saw it you know what I mean) in the first. DiPietro was solid in the cage and made a couple of his patented long passes out of the zone--one of which was tapped by The Tank to the captain who made another pass to Comrie to set up a tasty backhander past Ryan Miller that broke a 1-1 tie early in the third.

Not all the news last night was great. Jon Sim left the game with a knee injury. Sim, an impressively relentless forechecker, bounced around like a pinball out there last night but ended up missing a check and crashing into the boards. He's to be evaluated today but the FSN crew speculated that Nolan may have to dip into the Soundtigers roster for a replacement player to suit up on Monday afternoon due to the expected swelling around Sim's knee. Jeff Tambellini sort of springs to mind, doesn't he?

Also--and we noticed that he was not announced to the crowd before the game so something had to be up, Freddy Meyer was placed on waivers by GM Garth Snow on waivers for the purpose of assigning him to Bridgeport. According to the FSN crew, Meyer has until noon today (Sunday) to clear waivers and report to The Bridge if he's not claimed by another NHL team looking for defensive depth.

Meyer's assignment/departure will put the Islander roster to one below the 23-man maximum, opening the way for Snow to finally sign free-agent defenseman Bryan Berard, who has actually had to pay his own expenses to practice with the Islanders since training camp ended. It's been a poorly kept secret that Ted Nolan has planned to have Berard QB the power play for the Isles.

New Year's Day in Buffalo

Did anyone else have a problem trying to watch the Islanders' pre-season game last night on Islanders TV? It would have been great to check it out even for a little while even though I really can't stand "watching TV" on a computer. Plus, (The Ninth Wonder of the World) Tivo has ruined me forever because we time-shift a lot and record everything we watch.

Everyone in my office seems to feel the need to come up and tell me that they are surprised that the NHL was able to sell 41000 tickets in a half-hour for the outdoor game in Buffalo on New Year's Day. To be honest, I was a bit surprised as well. I thought it would take an hour. Good for the Sabres fans who got first crack at the other 30000 seats for the game. I'll be watching intently on New Year's Day. It will be a great day for hockey.

Have we all noticed how the so-called non-hockey media are whining about how stupid it is to schedule this game on New Year's Day, when all of the big college football bowl games are played? I don't even care about college football and even I know that the BCS championship games are played on other days than New Year's Day? Really, if there is any stupid move here, it is by the college football people. They used to literally OWN New Year's Day and then they started shifting these games around to maximize TV revenue and all that and now the big games are not appointment viewing any more like they once were. Used to be that college fans could plop on the couch and settle in for an entire day of good games. Now they all get spread out over a week or more.

The NHL and their TV partners have a real chance to showcase a unique event here. Highlights will be all over local and national newscasts and the potential is there to have some really good TV if we get a little help with the weather. How fun would it be to see the Sabres and Penguins skating around with a little snow falling from the sky and 71000 hearty Buffalo souls enjoying the elements and the game as it was intended to be played? I can't wait.

Training Camp is open in Moncton!

Were you like me, scouring the stores to see if Hallmark makes a "Training Camp is Open!" card for your friends and family?

Some great news: Eric Cairns has returned to the Islanders. From Chris Botta's Point Blank blog, it seems that Cairns called Garth Snow, said he was retired, and wanted to get involved in the alumni-side of things. In fact, he is in Moncton with the team, ready to do what is needed. Great to have the big guy back. It's great to see how much Mr. Wang and the management team have embraced the alumni. Without them, the fans and the team have no history. Remember how the Gang of Four and Don Maloney wanted the Cup years buried? Embarrassing.

The Islanders also acquired center Ben Walter (the son of Canadiens and Capitals captain Ryan Walter) and a conditional second-round pick in the 2009 draft from the Boston Bruins on Sept. 11 for former first-round selection Petteri Nokelainen.

At first glance, this looks like a steal for the Isles, doesn't it? We're getting a guy with classic NHL pedigree and an ability to put up fine numbers in the AHL (24 goals and 43 points in 73 games for Providence last year) for a guy who has been injured and inactive a lot for the Sound Tigers since he has been drafted in 2004.

This move doesn't mean that the Isles felt "safe" giving up on Nokelainen...it just seems to be part of an overall move league-wide to get the team a little more North American. With Walter, the team knows what they're getting. He's proven himself to be a quality AHL player and now you know he will be given every chance to skate a regular shift for the big club. Getting the chance is all a player can ask for and Ted Nolan proved one thing in his first season with the team: everyone gets an opportunity if they earn it. Look at guys like Richard Park and Mike Dunham last year. They went from attending camp on tryouts to playing key roles for the Islanders' drive to the playoffs.

Speaking of Mike Dunham, Dunnie ended his 10-year playing career this past Monday to become the goaltending coach for the team.

Another solid move for the team. Dunham played well in stretches when the team needed him (at the beginning of the year) and then had difficulty shaking out the rust toward the end after playing caddy for Ricky for so long. Dunham has been around the guys and must have an excellent rapport with DiPietro and Dubie--he was one of the big cheerleaders on the bench for Dubielewicz as he played Cinderella in the last few games to get the Isles to the dance.

Last but not least, be sure to check out Botta's blog for the story on new Islander captain Bill Guerin's visit to the Islanders offices and introduced himself to all of the worker bees in the office. He also ended up arranging lunch for everyone working hard for the team. I've been in office jobs all my life and that little effort means so much when building on a positive foundation. We're not going to miss Ryan Smyth in the least. We've got a solid new captain who wants to lead and wants to be a part f what is happening on Long Island.

Here's the link.

http://nyipointblank.blogspot.com/2007/09/bill-guerin-buys-lunch.html


Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the Isles official site is using the picture of Bryan Berard that was posted and edited here on this blog by my wife. Good job, Honey!

Semi-Radical NHL Schedule Idea

Well, that title is going to get attention, eh? Actually, I figure that making the NHL schedule is pretty difficult when you consider that every rink has certain needs that the league needs to work around, etc. But a few years ago I had this weird idea for a series of games around the Christmas and New Year's holidays that would be almost an in-season mini-tournament. Here it is:

The basic premise of the series is that some people (not me) think that the NHL season sort of hits a lag in December because that stretch is before the playoff pushes begin and because December comes as the afterglow of the new season has sort of worn off.

The NHL needs to exploit the fact that there are lots of college students home from school around the holidays and they are wanting to party and get involved in something. That's what college students do. The Islanders do a fantastic job with the Havoc Zone tickets full of boisterous college kids who just want to cheer for our boys as loud as possible. These kids really come across on TV and radio very, very well and definitely add some crazy atmosphere to the whole game experience.

Why not kick it up a little bit?

Here is what I propose: a mini-tournament between three teams who are as local to each other as is possible. Each team could do like the Islanders and Rangers do for the Pat LaFontaine Trophy (do they still do that?): put up some money for charity that goes to the tournament winner. Again, have some kind of trophy involved for bragging rights and promote the hell out of it.

For our purposes, we use the three tri-state-area teams: the Islanders; Rangers; and Devils. Each team plays the other home and away over the month of December and early January. Of course, that makes our tournament only four games long for each team for a possible 8 points in total. In the event of a tie at the end of the tournament, the teams can split the money they've put up between the two charities. Heck, if the two tied teams are playing in a game that night, then why not hold a separate, after-game shootout to decide the tournament winner that is "off the NHL books"? It just seems to be super-easy way to inject a little more excitement into some holiday games.

There are 30 teams in the NHL. Here is how we can break everything down scientifically:

Eastern Conference:
Islanders; Devils; Rangers
Flyers; Capitals; Penguins
Sabres; Maple Leafs; Hurricanes
Bruins; Canadiens; Senators
Panthers; Lightning; Thrashers

I know that some of these "regional" breakdowns aren't looking too regional. That's okay because the Hurricanes need to be put somewhere and they have a strong regional rivalry with the Sabres already. The Atlanta Thrashers are natural rivals with the Panthers and Lightning in the Southeast Division. I know that The Capitals are also in the Southeast but they have Patrick Division history with the Flyers and Penguins as well. It also becomes kind of a mid-Atlantic regional thing.

Of course, say the Nashville Predators do get moved to Hamilton, Ontario. They would end up playing in the Leafs and Sabres series. We can fix it if we need to because it's all a dream anyway!

Western Conference
Ducks; Sharks; Canucks
Flames; Oilers; Avalanche
Red Wings; Blues; Blackhawks
Wild; Blue Jackets; Predators
Kings; Stars; Coyotes

Pulling Ryan Smyth and the Colorado Avalanche into the Battle of Alberta is just too much fun. (By the way, this is one Islander fan who is not faulting Smyth for wanting to be closer to home and in the Western Conference.)


Bringing the Kings and Coyotes together is an easy one too. Gretz and the Coyotes going back to LA where he was the biggest thing to hit that hockey market is a wonderful opportunity to create and foster a rivalry. The Stars get tossed in there because they're simply in a weird spot geographically from the rest of the league. Should make for some good fun games though.

Again, if the Predators were to move to Hamilton, then they would probably have to switch conferences. I don't know how that would work out geographically; and let's never forget that the Maple Leafs fought for years to get switched back to the Eastern Conference after whining (a familiar thing in Leaf Land) about the huge travel demands that were keeping them from winning the Stanley Cup for all those years. So, you know, right there, we know that the Leafs are not going to move west no matter what happens.

Brent Sutter

Can't escape the news all over the place that former Islander captain Brent Sutter is going to be coaching the Devils this season. I was a big fan of Brent's back in the day and I wish him nothing but the best of luck with the Devils. This so would be harder to swallow if we didn't have Ted Nolan coaching the Islanders, wouldn't you think?

Other news from around the league that intrigues me:

Sheldon Souray signed to play in Edmonton. I have to admit that I am glad that nothing came true regarding the rumors that the Isles were in the chase. Don't get me wrong, I think Souray is a heck of a player, but that gaudy -28 at even strength scares the heck out of me. Edmonton (stop me if you've heard this one before) overpaid for Souray--to the point of a five-year, $27 million contract. The guy certainly can bring it with that shot of his and watching both he and Marc-Andre Bergeron on the powerplay together would have been fun...it just wouldn't be $5.2 million dollars a year fun. Fiscal responsibility may not get you in the papers, but it does leave the team with cap room to improve the Islanders throughout the season. Losing Smyth was a crusher but it is hard to argue with anything the Islanders Jedi Council has been doing this summer.

Also, how cool is it that the Sabres will be hosting the Penguins on New Year's Day in an outdoor game at the Bills' stadium? I know the well-known (and shouty) hockey experts on ESPN's Around the Horn think it is a bad idea because of the college bowl games on New Year's Day but I think it is a great idea to have the outdoor game on January 1. Nobody cares about 85 freaking bowl games and no matter how many people watch it, highlights will be all over the news because it is so unusual. If there are 85 football games featuring teams no one cares about and one hockey game that is played outdoors featuring some of the most hearty fans and, oh by the way, the best player in the sport, it's going to get attention. Anything with Sidney Crosby in it that is used to sell the game is a good idea. I am seriously considering the Buffalo
road trip from Connecticut in the middle of winter!

Remember how last year there was that talk about the Isles and Rangers playing an outdoor game at Yankee Stadium? Well, that would have been great stuff. We're probably lucky it didn't happen because last winter was such a mild one. I wonder if it got approval from everyone involved (NHL; NBC; etc.) and then George Steinbrenner shot it down. We may never know. The Boss is getting up there these days and he might be dribbling his mush on one of those fancy Yashin-esque turtlenecks he
uses to hide the waddle.

Speaking of Yash, his agent is telling people that unless they cough up a contract worth a minimum of $2 million per, his client is going to play the next season in Russia. I think that means that Alexei is going to be very, very cold this winter.

Last but not least, David Beckham is arriving in the states today. Normally this space is not reserved for the gossip pages, but Beckham's arrival is a big deal. As a fan of Major League Soccer, I sort of see him as a necessary evil in growing the game on these shores. I guess he can still play but he is going to have to be something more than special to get his LA Galaxy out of last place.

The Stanley Cup Finals on NBC

First, a little bit about me.

For whatever reason, I don't take very much personally. That's just how I am. Oh, sure, when I get pissed it is all but over, but for the most part, I just let a lot of stuff roll off of me. Overall, I think I am fairly easy going.

(OK, I just had a friend read that. He told me I am full of crap and wants to remind me that I can hold a grudge forever with a ferocity that is both blinding and violent. I think that is a winning combination. He thinks that it would be better to add that I am not reactionary--which is good--but that I am quite calculating, when I need to be. So there it is.)

Anyhoo, when (ahem) "people" rip the sport I love, I tend to get super-pissed. Why? Well, because most of these so-called experts are commenting on a sport for which they have no understanding...or, they have ulterior motives in doing so. Lazy potshots from a fat guy at a typewriter make for easy copy.

What do I mean? Well, for starters, we all can complain that ESPNBAFL treats hockey like it is all but irrelevant. And yes, the NBA is treated as the supreme be-all and end-all in the sports universe that is brought to you by ESPNBAFL and is sponsored by a million other things. Why is that? Well, ESPNBAFL owns the rights to show the NBA on their television networks and they bow to the almighty NBA commish, David Stern. Less people on average watch NBA basketball than do daytime soap operas. Is that for real? Doesn't matter as long as I say it enough because then people will start believing it. See--it's a lazy potshot from some dude sitting at a keyboard.

Which brings me to my point: instead of constantly worrying and whining about the people outside the game not watching the sport, maybe it is time for the freaking NHL to look toward and cater to the people who are already hooked. Some douchy USA TODAY TV reporter is never going to get over his dislike of hockey but the 2 million people watching the games on NBC in the US should not be forgotten. The standard newspaper media of old dudes who think baseball and Lebron are the only games in town need not apply. Nobody reads newspapers anymore except for ink-stained reporters who are only worried about their backsides and people in public toilets. I say, let them all take their lazy whacks at us all they want. We need to let it roll off of our backs. That includes the hyper-sensitive Canadian media as well. We know you think you're the caretakers of the game. We got it. But we love this game too. Shouldn't matter where you live.

NOW, that is a long way to go in an attempt to tell you that on Saturday night, I am pretty sure that I watched the most perfect TV telecast of hockey that I have ever seen in my life--and it was on NBC. Somebody needs to speak up and say that Mike Emrick; Ed Olczyk; and Pierre McGuire are probably the best announcing team the sport has ever had in the states. I will not argue this point.

I'll listen to Mike Emrick read the freaking phone book because I know that no matter what happens, he is going to put all he has into making that phone book seem exciting as hell. The love he has for the sport comes through so clearly when he speaks. He sets Edzo up to do his job and do it well. I mean, Ed pulled out the video chalkstick immediately and showed the viewers that Anaheim had only four men out there for a faceoff right before Anton Volchenkov scored the Senators' second goal. It was priceless, time-sensitive stuff--and Ed had Doc learning along with the viewers at home. Imagine the simplicity--actually showing us what happened!

Even the between periods stuff is gold. The tension between Brett Hull and Bill Clement jumps at the viewer while they are talking because body language speaks louder than anything either of them can say. Brett often comes off as dismissive of Clement, and he shouldn't be. Clement is way better at being the master of ceremonies in the studio than anyone ever thought he would be because, let's face it, Clement was an excellent analyst for years. And the third man in, Ray Ferraro, certainly told us all what he thought about Ottawa's Jason Spezza and his play in the first two games when he said Spezza had been "jittery, confused and intimidated." Wow. An indictment and extreme candor. Imagine any of the talking heads trying that in another sport. I don't think Chris Berman will be ripping Mike Vick for anything bigger than a loss of focus if Vick blows chunks in the Falcons first few games this year. And yet, Chicken Parm knocks this stuff night after night...and he is right!

Last--and certainly not least--is Pierre McGuire. Pierre has reached the exalted status of Budding Genius in my home. I rarely give anyone credit for just broadcasting a sport or the news but Pierre is just a freaking treat to listen to. His perch between the benches lends itself to some interesting points for Doc and Edzo; if only because of his proximity to the game. The interviews with players as they enter or leave the ice are great because they allow for actual emotion from the game and not the robot answers hockey players are apparently bred with. Plus, the guy knows exactly when to pop in between Doc and Ed and rarely, if ever, are any of the guys talking over each other. Most importantly, none of them are shouting unless the play encourages actual emotion from three guys who genuinely love the sport.

So, after ripping the network for leaving the playoffs to show some nags run around a dirt track dragging underweight midgets, it says here that we hockey fans have got to give it up for the men of NBC. The network might be stupid but no matter how you look at it, the way they present the game to the MILLIONS OF FANS IN AMERICA WHO LOVE HOCKEY, shows that whomever is in charge of these broadcasts loves the game too. And that is a very, very good thing.