Hockey Newsletter - November 7, 2000
Note to Mr. Gretzky: Don't let the dog out
Sean Burke is the King of the Pipes™. Between the pipes, that is.
While Patrick Roy is making all the headlines with his record-breaking wins and door-breaking sins, the big Coyote has quietly become the best goaltender of the young hockey season. This modern-day Suitcase Smith (he's protected the mesh for New Jersey, Hartford/Carolina, Vancouver, Philly, Florida and Phoenix) has been a perennial disappointment, dropping into each new clubhouse pegged as "the one to get 'em past the first round."
But maybe this year, without the limelight, without the trade deadline playoff pressure, maybe Sean Burke will have the big year everyone has always expected from him.
That is, unless the Great One starts micro-managing. As part-owner and director of hockey operations, Wayne Gretzky is poised to make changes to the team... er... that is... the team tied for first place with such lofty clubs as the Avalanche and the Blues.
Pouty-faced Nikolai Khabibulin and Whiny-Pants Claude Lemieux are sitting on the sidelines, just licking their chops waiting for the call from their ol' buddy Gretz. And if it comes, we're gonna have to wonder what kind of hockey sense the guy really has off the ice.
October's Player of the Month Sean Burke deserves a quiet stay in the desert to prove he really is one of the premiere goalies. Don't let him out. Woof woof.
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Who's hot
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Martin Lapointe. Talk about taking advantage of the moment. This tough right (Red) winger has always played in the shadows of such scoring greats as Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan and Sergei Fedorov.
Lapointe has been a consistent 2nd or 3rd line power forward in Detroit for
the past 8 years, but this year he's leading the team with 8 goals. Huh? He's never scored more than 16.
So what's going on? For one thing, his integrity. His devotion to the Red Wing organization has pushed him to fill the gap left by injured Captain Stevie. And then there's always the fact that at the end of this season, Lapointe becomes an unrestricted free agent. Now's a good time to make sure all the GMs know just how valuable he is, don't you think?
Who's not
It's too early to send the Minnesota Wild or the Columbus Bluejackets to the CTVSportsnet.com doghouse just yet. Instead we're going to pick on one of those big shot Original Six teams.
Montreal? Too easy. Boston? Too obvious. New York? There's plenty of time to rag on those geezers. Toronto? Stay tuned. Detroit? Not while Martin Lapointe is hot. Which leaves the desperate Chicago Blackhawks.
Oh, sure, they've picked it up a notch after an awful 5-game losing streak, but make no mistake, these guys can stink BIGTIME! Besides the always-great Tony Amonte and the tragically pathetic Jocelyn Thibeault, can you name one player on this 2000-01 squad?
Thought not. Gone are the Hulls and the Halls, the Belfours and the Haseks, the Roenicks and the Chelioses. Those guys got bums in seats, but these days the stands look mighty empty (and this in a town where the awful Cubbies get standing-room only crowds day in day out.)
Blackhawk management(that would be Mike Smith) seems to be taking a page out of the Red Wing strategy book: stack your roster with Russians and Europeans and wait for finesse to win out over force. But how long will fans who worship the working class Bears, Sox and Cubs, fans who remember the great Bulls, put up with a fair-to-muddling team made up of outsiders? Nothing but a Cup would do, think we.
Ouch! Volume 1
Quite a pantheon of greats filling up the injury chart these early days. As always, Montreal players past and present (we count 5) make quite a substantial showing. And though the league is cracking down on clutching and grabbing, head-cracking is still leading in the injury race:
Paul Coffey - Concussion
Adam Deadmarsh - Concussion
Mark Recchi - Concussion
Keith Primeau - Concussion
Chris Drury - Knee
Steve Yzerman - Knee
Saku Koivu - Knee
Vladimir Malakhov - Knee
LW John LeClair - Back
Keith Tkachuk - Back
Martin Brodeur - Groin
Owen Nolan - Hernia
Jeff Hackett - Fractured right hand
Daniel Alfredsson - Hip
Mattias Ohlund - Eye
NHL Expansion 2000 DX
Expansion 2000 -- it slices, dices, chops and grinds! Well, it grinds anyway. And Jacques Lemaire, the trap-loving coach of the Minnesota Wild, is the target of a lot of the grind in the CTVSportsnet.com chatter house.
Armenius says:
"One of the most boring games I have ever seen in my life last night - Wild and Oilers. Except for maybe when (Lemaire) was coaching the Devils. So much for expansion opening new doors and growing the fan base. How can anyone call this hockey?? I recommend that the networks NOT televise any games where this master of the trap is coaching. "
LM concurs:
"Jacques Lemaire will tell you that he's not paid to entertain people, just to win games...and that is exactly why he should be fired."
who u kiddin makes a point:
"He's coaching the only way for his team to have a hope of winning - they don't have enough offensive talent to go up and down the ice with the 'big boys.' You can't fire the guy for doing the job with the players available to him. If you don't like this type of hockey tell Bettman to go back to 24 teams. Drop those 'huge' hockey markets in Florida, the Carolinas, Arizona, So.Cal, Dallas, Tennessee, Georgia and Ohio."
Armenius gets the last word:
"It's amazing that the league recognizes this as a major problem in the "entertainment" aspect of the game, tries desperately hard to help by enforcing the interference; and yet, these type of teams find a way to bring the level back to snore. Larry Robinson has nearly the same players that Lemaire had, yet he has found a way to play to a higher level and win. It has nothing to do with the 'experience' level of the players. Most of these guys have proven themselves on other teams as well. You can't drag me back out to watch these guys the next time they're in town."