College of Sports Media Game of the Night:
The hottest team in baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies, open up a three game set against the Chicago Cubs who are on a bit of a streak themselves. The Phillies have won eight straight games and lead their division by at least six and a half games. The Cubs have won four and are looking to close the two game gap over division leading St Louis. Fifth starter Rodrigo Lopez (1-0) gets the call for Philly. He’ll need to be impressive as his job is on the line. Before the all star break the Phillies signed Pedro Martinez to a one year deal, but wouldn’t be available to the team until at least July 30. On the mound for the Cubbies is their only all star Ted Lilly (9-6). In Lilly’s last start he held the Cardinals to only four hits over eight innings and earned his 100th win.
It has taken a long time, but word out to Tampa Bay tonight is that, once again the wagging tongues have been right and those denying the stories may have been full of coyote shit. John Romano has an excellent piece on just how ugly it has become in Tampa, in direct contrast to what all the parties have said publicly of late. Here’s a sample:
“There is unrest in the ownership group. There is dissension in the ranks. And, almost one year to the day after OK Hockey took control of the franchise, the possibility of a messy divorce between bickering owners is a real possibility. Oren Koules and Len Barrie are scheduled to have a meeting today with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to determine which one of them will have the authority to make decisions for the franchise. In essence, the commissioner is determining custody of a hockey team.”
WOW- that doesn’t sound like the harmony we have been fed for months on end does it? The today, by the way is in reference to Tuesday….but wait, there is more:
“And so the humiliation of an ownership group reaches a new crescendo. If you thought it was bad when Dan Boyle called them liars, or John Tortorella described them as cowboys or Barry Melrose accused them of being meddlers, then this is worse. This makes them look like complete incompetents. Which, hopefully, is the message Bettman delivers.”
Recall, if you will, it was Bettman that allowed these two guys to buy into his league, the same league he won’t let that damn renegade Balsillie into…
“They tell stories of various indiscretions, some minor and some serious, in the offices of the St. Pete Times Forum. They hint at money woes and personality clashes. They suggest this is a franchise in disarray, and one whose brand is being devalued in the eyes of fans and sponsors.”
What, inquiring minds want to know is a serious indiscretion in this instance????
So who should get the reins of this derailed freight train?
“This should be the moment that Bettman hands control to Barrie. Please, do not misconstrue that as a vote of confidence in Barrie. This is, after all, the guy who predicted the Lightning would win the division when, in reality, Tampa Bay won fewer games than any team in the NHL. He is the guy who has had public squabbles with Tortorella and Melrose. And he has, along with Koules, fibbed every step of the way. But his shortcomings as the day-to-day boss are only suspected. Koules’ have been confirmed.”
It’s amazing that these guys actually have a team left at all…
“Too many people have said too many unkind things to not wonder about Koules’ management style. To say there is unrest in the front office is to put it mildly. Koules has made the majority of the day-to-day decisions for the past year, and it’s getting harder than ever to have any faith when he stands before you now. Admittedly, this is nasty business, trying to figure out who should be in control. Both men have heavy financial investments in the team, and both obviously want to see the Lightning succeed. But, today, the fissure seems wide. The talk is that Koules wants to keep Lawton as GM, wants to trade Lecavalier to get out from under his $85 million contract and wants to pare the payroll to the low $40 million range. Barrie is not as solidly behind Lawton, wants to build around Lecavalier and is in favor of signing some free agents to get the payroll closer to $50 million.”
And there in the middle is Bettman, like Leslie Nielsen in the Naked Guy, “Please disburse, there is nothing to see here…”
One wonders just how long it will be before some of this stuff starts to stick to the commish? I mean the days of the Stanley Cup Finals he is in bankruptcy court, then, just days before the draft he is mediating a battle between two of his most recently approved owners. I guess the good news, for now anyways is that neither of these guys has been charged with fraud or anything along those lines…. This story will be everywhere tonight and tomorrow- for one I want to hear Glen Healy talk on a subject! Can you imagine, for one second the calls Bettman has to make or take every time one of these stories breaks…the guy is out there trying to sell a few franchises and this shit keeps popping up! Talk about a bad month!
As I have written in this space before (with all due respect to Happy Howie) the NHLPA intends to enter battle with the NHL over the suspension of one Sean Avery. You see, neither Paul Kelly nor Glenn Healy have learned a single thing from the mistakes of yesteryear. The public will NEVER, I repeat NEVER support the players when they continue to act like a UNION. There are times, when people screw up, make mistakes that you don’t have to worry about precedent and you have tell a person to take their lumps. The PA refuses to do it. Maybe, and this is ok, they just don’t care about public sentiment. I have no problem with that, it is entirely their prerogative. But don’t come out and claim unfair coverage or ask for equal coverage when you don’t really care about the court of public opinion.
“TORONTO (December 5, 2008): NHLPA Executive Director Paul Kelly’s statement regarding the suspension of Sean Avery for six regular season games:
“While the NHLPA does not condone Sean’s comments, which were clearly inappropriate, the discipline imposed by the Commissioner is unprecedented both in its severity, as well as the process by which it was handed down. We have also seen signals from the Dallas Stars that Sean’s contractual rights might be challenged. We are monitoring the situation as it develops, and we will evaluate all legal options as the circumstances warrant. In the meantime, our first priority is supporting Sean’s efforts to learn from his mistake and move forward in a positive manner.”
What always is lost in these situations is the victim. Here the victim is Dion Phaneuf right? Just as in all other issues like this the PA comes running to the defense of the offender to the chagrin of the victim. That is what unions do right. Funny how when the media (berger) were rambling about the awful things Cliff was going to do to Mccabe Healy came a running to McCabe’s defence even before there was an action. When Tampa threatened Dan Boyle there was no such defence from either Mr. Kelly nor his kilt wearing pal (at least not publicly). When all eyes are on the NHL for all the wrong reasons (averygate) the PA comes a running. Nice of the PA to mention Dion Phaneuf in that press release wasn’t it? I mean that shouldn’t be their first priority; it never is. Always concerned with “prisoners” rights ahead of victims. It’s the PA way….
By the way I am officially sick of the Sean Avery affair. Here’s hoping the stars waive him and send him to the minors. They still have to pay him and then there is no beef. Except, according to Howie, no free agent will EVER want to sign again in Dallas if that is how they do business, right???!!
Why write after 2 periods? Well I am doing the best I can to stay away. The first period was as bad a period as I have seen the leafs play all season. Seriously I thought it was 2007 and Paul Maurice was behind the bench….
I can only imagine what Ron Wilson said to the fellas in between periods as they leafs played much in the second, and actually won the period 1-0.
Interesting stats of the game so far:
Antropov
Kubina
Ponikarovsky
Stajan
All minus three (-3) so far…
Can someone tell me what the bozos in Tampa where thinking when they dumped Dan Boyle?
Leading the Leafs in ice time (14:54) Luke Schenn
I think Kypreos drank too many red bulls before the telecast, did he just suggest that the Sharks took it easy on purpose in the 2nd?????
I have the sharks winning 6-2; LT says 5-4 leafs….. question is can I last another period….
Edit- as I write this, news breaks that the Leafs signed Mikhail Grabovski to a one-year contract.
Dan Boyle has, according to many sources agreed to waive his no trade clause this morning. Make no mistake about it, this has ramifications on both the leafs and the league in general. Lots of pundits have opined that there would be tremendous pressure on McCabe not to waive his no trade clause. Clearly, with Boyle going first the road has been paved for others like McCabe to follow.
All along this was about money. McCabe and his agent thought they could strong arm the buds into buying him out. That wasn’t going to happen. In the end, McCabe like Boyle will come to his senses and realize that the best decision for him and his family will be to get out of dodge. The leafs, like the lightning are not the evil empire for asking their respective defencemen to waive their no trade clauses.
McCabe is a victim of the contract he signed. He got big bucks and with that came big expectations. In this market every mistake (which usually ended up in his own net) was magnified. It has become untenable. It simply doesn’t make sense to the leafs or the player for him to continue here. Players who were in similar situations have seen their careers flourish elsewhere, Larry Murphy went on to win Cups with the Red Wings and Jason Smith has had a very nice career in Edmonton.
Attached is this mornings interview with Cliff Fletcher on the Fan 590. I attach it in that I think you can hear in Cliff the reasonableness that was so missing in the last regime. I think if you listen carefully enough you will also here the same thought process with respect to McCabe.
Lastly, I find it odd that he says in the interview that Mats Sundin claimed to have told Cliff that last season was one of his (Sundin’s) most enjoyable. From a career perspective I can see how putting up great numbers would bring satisfaction to him, however form the standpoint of this is a team game and the lack of success the team did not experience makes is a puzzling comment. I would think that with everything that went on, and the finality of 3 years without a playoff birth Sundin would have hated what went on, or maybe hoped that a team leader would.
