Maple Leafs are “so damned soft they’re sickening”

  Of the Toronto commentators who make a living pontificating on the Maple Leafs, few, if any, speak more candidly than Bill Watters of AM640 radio and  Rogers Sportsnet.

   Watters has made it clear many times that he’s a fan of the general manager, Brian Burke, and the team, for which he worked as assistant general manager in the 1990s. But he’s also a critic.

  Last week, he asserted that Burke’s self-imposed edict of freezing player moves over the holiday season was basically ridiculous. He added that if you’re one of the MLSE owners you should be wondering: What is this guy doing? We want the team improved and he’s passing up a potential chance to make a deal because of his much publicized largesse toward the players? He’s got his priorities mixed up.

   I’d add this: Generally, the Leaf players are given a soft ride by the reporters covering the team and also by most of the commentators in the city. Too many reporters — not all — carry on as fans rather than journalists. See Leafs TV, for starters.

   So, when Burke signals to his players, by way of the movement freeze, that they’re receiving preferential treatment compared with those on other teams, he’s just giving them another reason to think they’re special, when they don’t deserve to be. Special? Precious might be a better word.

   Still with Watters, the perennial question asked in Toronto this time of year is: How can the Leafs perform so well some nights and not others? Why are they so inconsistent? They go into Pittsburgh and defeat the Stanley Cup champions and then they lose to the lowly Edmonton Oilers.

   The answer to that mind-numbing puzzler? It’s very simple, but good on Watters for stating the obvious, anyway: THEY’RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH. They don’t have enough talent. They can play above their talent level occasionally, as they did in Pittsburgh, or even for a few games, but they don’t have the ability to perform at that level every night.

   They’re also a soft team. On Am640’s Leafs Lunch today, Watters put it this way, “They’re so damned soft it’s sickening.”

   Yep. There was an incident in the Pittsburgh game on Sunday that said a lot. Jason Blake, a little guy who’s played pretty well for the Leafs this season, was pushed head first into the boards by Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik. It was a dangerous play. Blake hit the boards at full speed. He could have been badly hurt.

   The Leafs’ response? There might have been a shrug, but nothing else. Nobody came to Blake’s defense, although Toronto did get a power play out of it. But here’s the kicker. Blake, a little shaken but able to get to his feet, was nearing the Leaf bench when Pittsburgh’s Maxime Talbot went after him, because Talbot, confirming you don’t need to be very bright to be a hockey player, thought Blake had faked his fall into the boards. Talbot grabbed Blake, gave him a push and said something to him. What did the Leafs do? They did nothing.  These are the guys who were supposed to be “truculent, belligerent,” etc. What a team.

 Changes at the Globe

  Roy MacGregor, who has been news-side at The Globe and Mail for several years, is joining the sports department as hockey columnist. This is good news for sports readers and also the newspaper. Roy, a journalist and author of fiction and non-fiction books about hockey, loves the game and is a gifted story teller. Also, reporter Hayley Mick of the Globe’s lifestyle section moves to sports. There could be further changes in sports.

Covering the news on Team Canada

   We’ll give TSN a big edge over Rogers Sportsnet on covering the selection of the Canadian Olympic hockey team leading up to the announcement earlier today.

   At about 7:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, TSN’s Bob McKenzie basically broke the story on who would be chosen for the team. He got two players wrong. Jay Bouwmeester wasn’t picked for the defense and Jeff Carter was ultimately dropped from the group of 13 forwards. But he correctly reported the rest.

   Now, you could say that McKenzie had an advantage over the competition because TSN is Hockey Canada’s TV rights holder and business partner. But, why would Hockey Canada assist TSN in scooping its big announcement?

  Sportsnet’s decision to air a preview show at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, 13 hours before the announcement, was a good one. That late in the day, it was assumed Sportsnet would have fresh news to report. Nick Kypreos, John Shannon and Gord Stellick did provide some interesting analysis. But, there was no news, despite the fact McKenzie three and a half hours earlier had reported what he said was the roster. Nobody at Sportsnet said, “These are the Team Canada players, according to our sources.”

   This morning, TSN aired a live 30 minute show leading up the noon announcement during which McKenzie revised his original story, correcting his Bouwmeester and Carter picks.

  In contrast, Sportsnet’s morning preview consisted of a re-run of the 11 p.m. Tuesday show. By then, the information was old.

 All in the family

   You could describe Bob Nicholson’s Hockey Canada as a pa and ma operation in which pa, which is to say president Bob, minds the store while also applying some level of influence, passive or otherwise, to book deals given to ma, Lorna Schultz Nicholson.

   Perhaps we’re overstating this relationship, but Lorna has done very well as an author of Hockey Canada books who also happens to be married to the company’s president. She has written several books licensed by Hockey Canada, three of which carry the Hockey Canada imprimatur on the cover. The most recent is titled Home Ice: Canada’s 2010 men’s Olympic Hockey Team Guide.

  Now, Nicholson would likely argue that Lorna was a good choice to write these books. She has penned several works of fiction, most of them for children, plus a few non-fiction tomes. You can find them at her website here.

   Perhaps Lorna was, among all the fine hockey authors and journalists in Canada, best qualified to produce this official Olympic team guide, but we doubt it.

   This is a case of privileged access and perhaps nepotism, which suggests (a) Nicholson is so dense as to not understand what nepotism, or the appearance of nepotism, is, or (b) so arrogant as to not care.

   This much we do know: Lorna has received some plum Hockey Canada book assignments. Given her relationship with the boss, she should have never accepted them.

  Happy together?

   For the Team Canada announcement, which was carried on CTV, TSN and Sportsnet, we saw Daren Millard of Sportsnet holding a microphone bearing a CTV flag. On the panel, Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet was flanked by two members of the opposition, TSN’s James Duthie and Bob McKenzie. As far as we know, there was no fistfight on the set, but the guess here is McKenzie and Kipper, two fierce battlers for information over the past 10 years, aren’t close. But that’s how it will be for the television coverage of the Olympics in February. CTV and Rogers will combine its resources to produce programming disseminated over several platforms.

  A good team?

 There wasn’t much criticism, in fact there was basically none, from the TSN-Sportsnet experts on the Canadian team selected by Steve Yzerman and his staff. Still, Sportsnet’s John Shannon made some good points on the Tuesday night show. He thought Martin St. Louis deserved to be on the team (he’s not), given that he’s playing very well, ranks 5^th among Canadians in NHL scoring, is a veteran of Stanley Cup and Olympic games, and would have given the team some jump and major speed off the wing.

   Shannon also wondered about Martin Brodeur, who is likely to be Canada’s starting goaltender. I think goaltending could be a weakness for Canada. Stellick leapt to Brodeur’s defense, reminding us that he has a record 104 shutouts. Yes, very impressive, but just what a career stat has to do with what Brodeur may or may not do in Vancouver is anybody’s guess.

Should Canada’s hockey team be favoured at Vancouver? No

  In advance of Wednesday’s Team Canada announcement, let’s pick the  early favourite to win the Olympic men’s hockey tournament.

  Canada will be playing in front of a wildly enthusiastic home crowd. And the North American ice surface will be something of an advantage to the Canadians and Americans. But don’t kid yourself. The top ranked team in the tournament won’t represent the host country. It will be, or should be, Russia.

   The Russians will be led by arguably the two best players in the world in Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, as well as two more major offensive stars, Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk. The goaltending of Evgeni Nabokov, Ilya Brzygalov and Semyon Varlamov should be solid and so, too, the defense, anchored by Andrei Markov and Sergei Gonchar.  Sweden, the defending Olympic champions, will be strong in all three positions. The Americans, back-stopped  by Ryan Miller, will be the team nobody wants to play.

  Canada? An excellent team led by Sidney Crosby, but, like virtually every Canadian entry in an elite international competition, it will struggle to put the puck in the net. That’s why Canadian general manager Steve Yzerman should be putting a priority on offensive talent rather than checkers. You have to assume the scorers will care enough to back check and pay attention in their own end. If  it’s a choice between Martin St. Louis and Mike Richards, you go with St. Louis.

  As for goaltending, you could argue the Russians, Swedes and Americans are in better shape than Canada which will likely start Martin Brodeur, who didn’t play well in Turin four years ago, with Roberto Luongo and Marc-Andre Fleury as backups.

  Hockey Night In Canada’s Don Cherry had it right when he said Yzerman, when making his final decisions, should give priority to the guys who have played well from October to December. Achievements from a year or two years past count for nothing in a short, extremely competitive, high pressure war that is the Olympic hockey tournament. For that reason, as well as his offensive skills, defenseman Drew Doughty should be on the team.

   Canadian hockey cheerleaders like to say this country is so overflowing with talent that it could send two teams to the Olympic tournament. That’s true, but would either win? Canada’s 12^th forward may be superior to Russia’s 12th, but I’ll take Russia’s core ahead of Canada’s. We’ll see.

• Who should be the captain of the Canadian team? Crosby, of course, but for those fretting about putting too much pressure on Sid, appoint co-captains, Crosby along with one of the veterans. That’s what was done for the 1984 Canada Cup team. Wayne Gretzky, the kid, shared the captaincy with veteran Larry Robinson.
•  Leafs TV game analyst Greg Millen made this comment during a Leafs game last week: “You just can’t teach those things to kids. They learn them at a young age.” Yes, perfectly clear.
•  It was finally said by TSN’s Pierre McGuire late in the Canada’s 16-zip win over Latvia: It was ugly. He might have noted also that an A-tournament doesn’t include dogs like Latvia.
• Weren’t you thrilled that CTV’s Toronto affiliate, CFTO, managed to air clips of newscasters Ken Shaw and Christine Bentley carrying the Olympic torch? We all were moved.
•  Under the headline “Events that brought a tear to eye,” Toronto Star reporter Paul Hunter cited, among the decade’s most memorable, Scotty Bowman hoisting the Detroit Red Wing’s 2002 Stanley Cup. Pardon us for keeping a dry eye while watching a celebration by an arrogant, generally disagreeable hockey guy.
• A scene that really was moving was the Canadian women hockey players celebrating their gold medal triumph at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics after defeating the Americans and overcoming perhaps the most dishonest officiating, by an U.S. referee, seen at an Olympic Games, not counting, of course, the corrupt figure skating judging.
• I’m sorry, but TSN’s The Reporters trying to compare Jordan Eberle’s last-second goal against Russia in last year’s junior tournament semi-final to Paul Henderson’s winner in 1972 is just ridiculous.

Pierre McGuire, on the junior event, head shots and Olympics

With TSN’s coverage of the world junior hockey championship starting Saturday, I talked to game analyst Pierre McGuire about the tournament, his analysis, the Olympics and the NHL.

 How does the Canadian junior team compare to last year’s championship team?

  Similar, except they don’t have the quick strike offense that they had with John Tavares. Tavares was spectacular in the tournament last year, so they don’t have that one player who can take the game over the way Tavares did.

  Yet, I think before it’s all said and done, Taylor Hall will be one of the players that everybody will be talking about from Canada.

  Which player will make the biggest impact in the tournament?

 I think Jordan Eberle for Canada will probably make the biggest impact, because he’s been through it before. It’s in his home province (Saskatchewan). He’s a tremendously talented player. Even though he was great last year, his game is even better this year.

  The guy who hasn’t been drafted and will probably make the most noise, especially for Canada, will probably be Taylor Hall. I’m not saying he’s Mark Messier but there are so many characteristics that Messier had that Taylor Hall has, with his skating style, his ability to score off the rush. He goes right through people. So, you can see why a lot of people think he will be the first overall pick in the entry draft this summer.

   Canada has been dominating this tournament and it seems as if it’s played in this country every other year. (This is the second consecutive year for a Canadian venue.) Is that a potential problem for the tournament’s status internationally and acceptance in other countries?

  The one thing I would caution people on. If you look back to the last five gold medals, there were always points in the tournament where it looked really bad for Canada. They don’t win in Leksand, Sweden, if not for Jonathon Toews and Carey Price. They don’t win the Czech Republic but for some unbelievable goaltending from Steve Mason. They don’t win last year in Ottawa – they were down 3-0 to the United States – if it’s not for Tavares and a meltdown by the American coaching staff. And they don’t win the tournament last year if Jordan Eberle doesn’t score with no time on the clock against the Russians.”

 Is your game analysis for junior games different than what you do for an NHL game?

   We’re trying to sell these players to a Canadian viewing public, because people don’t know who these players are. They don’t have the luxury of playing on national TV every week. So, our job is to educate the population on who these players are, where they come from, what’s their family situation, what are the good stories about them, and go from there.

  As the tournament goes along and the people become more familiar with the players, then we do more of an NHL style of analysis.

  The biggest thing is not to be a cheerleader. I think we’ve been very fair – Gord (Miller) and I both, we’ve been doing it for so long – not to be a cheerleader and get wrapped up in the moment. But also to make sure we instruct people in terms of where these players comes from, who these players are, and who the coaches are, where they come from, who these young people were coached by growing up and how they got to this level.

  When a junior player makes a mistake, do you go easier on him than you would a pro who makes the same mistake?

  I don’t know if I’ll go easier on him. I’ll just phrase it differently. A few days ago, (Canadian player) Nazem Kadri had a bad turnover in the neutral zone. So, what I said was during the game if he wants to get elevated minutes in the tournament, he’s got to eliminate those kinds of plays from his game. If that’s an NHL player, I’m going to say, the coach is definitely not going to accept that. It’s just unacceptable for a professional player.

Let’s talk about the NHL. Should head shots be illegal?

  I think so. I’ve been saying that for 10 years. I think any blow to the head, much like the NFL, any blow to the head should be a penalty. And, if it’s a vicious, on-purpose blow to the head, then it probably should be five and a game. I really think that blows to the head should not be acceptable. And people who say that if you take head shots out, you’re going to take hitting out, case in point where that fails is the Ontario Hockey League. It’s arguably developing as many or more pro players than any league in the world. Yet, OHL has taken the head shot out and it hasn’t hurt the development of the league or the development of their players.

  Should the NHL participate in the Olympics after Vancouver?

  Yes, I think the NHL should always participate in the Olympics. I’m not saying it should be all the players. I think maybe you look at an under-23 or an under-21 situation, but I do think the NHL should be visible at a world class event like the Olympics.

Do you anticipate any surprises when Steve Yzerman announces the men’s Canadian Olympic team?

  Probably one or two, but not major surprises. The goalies are pretty set, Fleury, Luongo, Brodeur. I think the top six defensemen are pretty set. There’s probably a battle for the seventh spot between Drew Doughty and Jay Bouwmeester. Up front, I think most of the centre-ice men are set and most of the left wingers are pretty set. There might a couple of questions on right wing. There could be two name players who do not make the team who play that position.

How Don Cherry changed hockey’s culture; weekend audiences

Let’s start by giving credit to Don Cherry for pursuing goals that would make hockey safer for children and professionals.

   He’s been right to advocate no-touch icing. And his campaign against hitting from behind was commendable.

   It’s also worth saying that the Don Cherry whom people know personally is a good person. He loves the game. There’s nothing phony about his positions. He is a true believer and he’s extraordinarily popular.

   So, when Toronto neurosurgeon Charles Tator called out Cherry for being a “negative influence” on the game, it was hardly surprising that a large share of the Canadian media would rush to Cherry’s defense.

   The Hockey Night In Canada commentator got in his own licks yesterday by loudly dismissing Tator as a misinformed publicity seeker.

   Earlier in the week, Cherry’s supporters went on the offensive.  This editorial in the Barrie Examiner, north of Toronto, under the headline, “Cherry promotes a tough, clean brand of hockey,” was typical of many of the opinion pieces. Greg Wyshynski at Yahoo Sports argued that “Charlie Tator” had used Cherry as a pawn to publicize his crusade against head injuries.

  But, before we organize a lynching, let’s focus on reality. A “tough, clean brand of hockey” referred to by the newspaper cannot include fighting, because fighting is against the rules. A foul isn’t clean. Arguing, as Wyshynski does, that Cherry’s complaining about a lack of respect among today’s players places him solidly on the side of the angels is pretty weak.

   Over three decades, Cherry has promoted two things. He has promoted hitting and he has promoted fighting. Every once in a while he will air a clip and pay his respects to somebody who has made a skilled hockey play, but not very often.

   The consistent subtext to everything he says is: No matter how talented you are, you’re less than a real hockey player if you’re not willing to drop the gloves or deliver a big hit. And it helps a lot if you’re a Canadian.

    Has he “changed the culture” of hockey, as Tator asserted? He has played a significant role in changing the culture of hockey. He is by far the most influential commentator in Canada. Hockey Night is the most watched sports telecast in the country. Generations of kids, future hockey players, have grown up listening to his message.

  Today, the NHL workplace is far more dangerous than it was even 20 years ago. There are more cheap shots and many more fights.

  When the biggest, meanest hits of a particular week are glorified, the impressionable will strive for even bigger and meaner hits, and maybe, just maybe, they will include hits to the head.

  Tator, an expert on brain injuries, was attending a seminar on concussions when he made his comments about Cherry. He also stated, hopefully, that if Cherry “took a strong stand against hits to the head, it would help.” The good doctor probably shouldn’t hold his breath. Cherry wouldn’t even take his calls last week.

   And just to underline his position, Cherry aired a clip on Saturday after he denounced Tator. It was the one in which David Koci, whom Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau described as a no-talent thug, delivered a hit along the boards to Mike Green. It was a classic cheap-shot. It was from behind. Green had his back turned. He didn’t see the Colorado forward coming.

   Who was to blame for this incident? According to Cherry, it was Green, the victim, because it was his responsibility to be aware that Koci was on the ice.

 “It’s absolutely ridiculous to do stuff like that,” Cherry said.

  Cherry didn’t mean it was ridiculous for Koci to run Green into the boards. Oh, no. It was ridiculous that Green (a) was not aware Koci was on the ice (b) had his back turned and (c) apparently did not have eyes in the back of his head.

     A sharp contrast to this lunacy was a segment on TSN’s Friday night NHL game. The subject was Reggie Fleming, the deceased former NHL fighter who was found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease that causes behavioral abnormalities and dementia.

  Fleming was the first hockey player known to have been tested for the disease, which was also found in several former NFL players. TSN did its own research and discovered that Fleming fought far fewer times during his era than today’s pugilists. He was always close to being the busiest fighter in the NHL in the 1960s, tossing them four or five times a season. But today’s leading fighters will drop his gloves more than 20 times.

  You will continue to hear the argument that fighting doesn’t cause serious head injuries, although explaining that to the parents of Don Sanderson would be difficult. He was the amateur player who died from a head injury suffered during fight last season.

  Ultimately, perhaps, the final word on workplace safety, specifically head injuries, won’t belong to commentators or even the NHL. TSN’s Bob McKenzie said during the Friday night show, “Whether the NHL likes it or not, it’s going to be dragged kicking and screaming into an era of legislation because this is becoming an athletic pandemic.

 “What’s going to happen with (U.S.) Congress being involved, medical authorities being involved, it’s going to go beyond the game of hockey. It’s going to become societal, and, when that happens, people in hockey are going to lose a little control about how the rules are governed. It’s going to become illegal. Within five years, you are not going to be allowed to hit anybody in the head.”

Weekend audiences

Hockey

 CBC Hockey Night In Canada pre-game: 900,000 viewers.

 Hockey Night Game 1, Boston-Toronto, Minnesota-Ottawa, Montreal-New York Islanders, 1.876 million.

 Hockey Night Game 2, Washington-Edmonton, 729,000.

 NHL on TSN, Friday, Toronto-Buffalo, 862,ooo;  Washington-Vancouver, 880,000.

 Regional hockey, Rogers Sportsnet: Nashville-Calgary, Saturday, 214,000; St. Louis-Vancouver, Sunday, 418,000.

Football

NFL regional, CTV,  Sunday, 820,000

Sunday Night Football, TSN, Minnesota-Carolina, 510,000.

Basketball

 New Orleans-Toronto, CBC, Sunday, 255,000.

Soccer

Manchester City-Sunderland, Saturday, Sportsnet, 113,000.

Alpine Skiing

GMC Series, Saturday, CBC, women’s downhill, 63,000; men’s downhill, 217,000; Sunday, CBC, men’s giant slalom (Quebec-West only), 117,000.

Bobsleigh/skeleton

 World Cup, Saturday, CBC, 191,000.