Open Ice Hitter is now on facebook as Open Ice Hitter - Pure Hockey Star Pheonix blog link : http://communities.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/blogs/openicehitter/ HITS OF THE DAY 
Sept 6 - With the Devils securing of a big fish, they are now over the salary cap, so yeah, the bean counters get to smudge up the team ….that means the Devils are going to lose depth, something they did in the initial acquisition of Kovalchuk, and something they can’t really afford to do anymore. It has been pointed out by more than a few that in getting Kovalchuk on the team, the Devils are making a mistake. Different names are being thrown around in the media, and it doesn’t matter who, somebody is going to have to go off the roster …… of the names, a question comes up regarding Zubrus and Salvador – Who gave all that cash to those guys in the first place ??? - The Bruins going to Belfast to play is awesome …. If there is a perfect match of an NHL team and a European city, this is it. The Belfast Giants will pad their roster with players from some of the other teams in the UK league, (not likely to bring back former Giant Theo Fleury however ). This is a great way to show off the game, and what better audience than Belfast for the Beantown crew …. - Still shaking my head at Pierre Gauthier for trading Jaro Halak. Honestly, was he not paying attention over the last few years ?? Price has not played well aside from a few good runs as rookie. He has actually been lit up to the point of embarrassment in the playoffs by the Bruins and Flyers….. Sure, Price was a high draft pick, and is still a potentially solid NHL goalie. That doesn’t help the Habs right now, and that is what the Habs meagre roster hopes to achieve, is success right now. Alarm bells were sounded long ago regarding the thought that if Price continues to struggle in Montreal, and the fans keep hounding him, it will ruin his career …… Sept 4 - The embarrassment known as the Kovalchuk thing this summer is over, with the Devils and Grossman / Kovalchuk getting their way, paying lip service to the idea of good faith, but looking shady, shady at the end …. The Devils insistence that they dealt in good faith is totally laughable, a situation Lou usually avoids. Whatever, it is over and done with, the lawyers have made a complication of something that a bit of honesty would have set straight long ago ( talking about long term contracts ), and Kovalchuk will stay in the NHL. On to the part the fans really care about, the actual game, Kovalchuk will see some team mates go out the door, and the pressure will be like nothing he has ever known. Lou will heap the pressure on Kovalchuk, the media and fans will, he will face pressure from Russia due to this huge deal ….. and he is going to have to be a worldbeater on an aging Devils squad thin on talent with a rookie coach ….. Elias is over the hill, same for Rolston. The defense is built for only one zone. Brodeur may be starting to slow down, and has not been good in recent playoffs. A recipe for disaster has been written. Oh the irony if the Devils find themselves as a team in the 8 – 12 place range in the next season or two ….. - Chris Stewart signs on with the Avalanche, bringing his big body presence and goal scoring to the ice in Denver after a breakout year. Stewart is only now starting to get a bit of press, even though he was a highly touted junior in Canada. His older brother Anthony broke the family name into the media before Chris did, but hasn’t been able to stick in the big league. The youner Stewart has taken a leading role in the rebuild of the once powerful Avalanche franchise … lets see if he is up to the challenge as teams start to focus on stopping him around the net…. Sept 3 - Little guy Mike Comrie will suit up for the Penguins this year, for a paltry ( ??? ) half million bones …. This should be a good fit for both parties, as the once highly touted son of The Brick boss Bill Comrie looks to stay in the loop known as the NHL …. Comrie came to prominence after leaving the University of Michigan to play for the Kootenay Ice, where he promptly lit up the Western Hockey League for half a year before joining the Oilers in the NHL ( The move to the Dub was made to force the Oil to sign the dimunitive pivot or face losing him as a free agent ) Comrie has never lived up to expectations at the NHL level, but has been a decent player none the less ….. Who remembers his tilt with Kovalchuk ?? Dandy …… - Regarding the comments of Larry Kelly, “ agent “ for Marc Savard, pondering the role of Gary Bettman in the hockey world, well, it is almost impossible to lend any creedence to anything an “ agent “ says about the best interests of hockey in general, since it seems that the only thing “ player agents “ are concerned with are dollar signs in their clients accounts, which would have a direct bearing on their own bank accounts …. Kelly would have some credibility if he were to come out and say something like, “ Marc is going to play until he is 45, guaranteed, and he will be an offensive force every year for the big dough he is getting paid “, or maybe for his next client, he could try something like this “ My client really wanted $4 million per year, but you know what, he is going to take $2 million, which is a lot of cash, and leave the team with some money for somebody else … “ Sept 2 - Carey Price signs on the dotted line with the Habs for a report $2.25 mill per …. It is all on the line for Price, who is the starter now in Hab land, in this day and age when players don’t necessarily earn their money or their job …. Habs GM Pierre Gauthier has all of his eggs in one basket now, very early in his stint as Habs GM. And for Habs fans, well, hope for the best, but Price’s play to date in the NHL does not justify either his cash or his new job ….. anybody who wants to argue or contend this stance need only watch game film of Price in any of his playoff appearances, where the Flyers and Bruins both destroyed him ….. - Another player signing is Sam “ Twerp “ Gagner, staying with the Oilers… The shine has really come off of Gagner since his rookie year, and he may benefit by having the trio of Hall, Eberle and Paajarvi in town, giving the press a new focus, and also giving Gagner somebody to play with. Had a good conversation with Dan Tencer of CHED in Edmonton, who points out that it is too early to write off Gagner as a bust, since the “ twerp “ is only 21…. Tencer figures Gagner as a second line center, and says it is time for everyone to realize that Gagner is not an elite player like his former team mate with the London Knights, and draft mate, Pat “ Taxi “ Kane …. - Anti Niemi goes to San Jose for $2 mill per …. Thought his agent had him figured at about $4 mill ?????? What happened Bill ??? …. What happened was, Niemi only has half a season in the NHL under his belt, and yes, he has a Cup ring, for which he owes a huge debt of gratitude to his team mates, because to call a spade a spade, Niemi did not play all that well in the playoffs … in short, he hasn’t actually been around long enough, or proven himself, to merit anything more. Got that Bill Zippo ???? Aug 28 - What to say about the news that Paul Kariya will sit out a season because of post concussion issues …. Thanks a lot, Gary Suter, who initially injured Kariya with one of the most blatant cheap shots ever in the history of hockey. Of course, it was a long time ago, people forget, and back then, cheap shots weren’t that big of a deal. Suter was a well known player, and personal politics have always played a huge role in hockey discipline. Kariya had the potential to be a superstar, but the Suter crosscheck to the face was a serious blow to Kariya, and the dimunitive speedster never really reached his potential after that…. Odds are that Kariya will not return to the NHL, too bad for a player who could be very exciting to watch…. - Oh, the gong show that Jay Grossman is putting on for the sake of saving face to his client, Ilya Kovalchuk. A few will drink the koolaid, no doubt, but Grossman isn’t fooling many. He has one client likely headed to jail in Arizona, and another client, supposedly the greatest free agent ever, who is closing in on training camp time with no contract …. The moral of the story is greed, and the fact that you might get all the green, but people look down on you for a lack of sensibility - Still shaking my head at The Hockey News prediction for a Vancouver Stanley Cup win …. Guess none of the scribes at THN noticed the shaky goaltending of Luongo at the Olympics, the poor goaltending of Luongo in the playoffs, or the continued soft play of the Canucks featured offensive players ….. Dan Hamhuis and Keith Ballard are not feature defenseman, they are 3-4 d-men, and Manny Malhotra is a 3rd line player at best… despite all this, a majority of THN staff figure the Canucks for worldbeaters ….. okay…… OFFSEASON BREAK Aug 16 - Okay, time to unload on Brian Burke. And to clarify, Burke is definitely a character. But he is not going to turn around the Toronto Maple Leafs. Open Ice Hitter said that from Day 1 of his hiring, and has stuck by our claim that Burke is highly over rated as a GM. His mishandling of Tomas Kaberle is the latest indicator of the fact that Burke is not a hockey genius or miracle worker. Here is how it goes : If Burke was looking to trade Kaberle, but planned on retaining him if he couldn’t get a deal he was happy with, he should have never gone to the media with the fact that Kaberle was being shopped. That information should have never left his office. Burke mishandled this deal about as badly as he possibly could have. Burke should have also realized that in the current “ market “, where player values are totally skewed by factors not always relating to their performance, he was not going to get high end players in return for a defenseman who is not physical, does not provide an intimidating shot from the point, and who controls the puck nicely at the point, but doesn’t actually lead his team onto the scoresheet. Check back to when the Leafs actually made the playoffs, even then Kaberle did not tear up the stats column. Burke overpaid greatly for Phil Kessel, though Kessel has provided the Leafs with their one and only scoring threat. Burke has put together a tough blueline, but they aren’t going to move the puck for him. And in signing a bunch of college free agents, Burke is hoping to find a late blooming gem. At best, Burke might get a second line player out of that group. His prize pick from the 2009 draft, Nazem Kadri, was unimpressive at the 2010 World Junior Tournament, and is not ready for the NHL. Burke may keep him on the team for the full season, and if that is the case, it will be a situation similar to Sam Gagner in Edmonton, where the kid is on the big team even though he isn’t good enough to be there. All that being said, Kaberle will help the Leafs, as he is the only puck mover they have from the back end. The reason for that is another colossal blunder by the Leafs, that being the signing of Jeff Finger …… As for Leafs ownership, it is doubtful that they care about any of this trivial stuff, since the team rolls in the cash day after day…… Aug 15 - Good story posted up by Rich Chere of the Star Ledger on Charlie Finley, who owned the now defunct California Golden Seals ….. a team that was gone before I was old enough to be a hockey fan, but had a short and fascinating stint in the NHL ….http://www.nj.com/devils/index.ssf/2010/08/before_lou_lamoriello_devils_m.html - You know it is the middle of summer when hockey sites post multiple articles on Tom Kaberle and a potential trade ….. Brian Burke has gotten unbelievable press on this issue for 2 years, and it is very likely that Kaberle will not even be dealt, due to Burke not accepting the fact that Kaberle is only a good defenseman, not a gamebreaker ….. - Can’t wait to see where Anti Niemi ends up playing this year, and don’t be at all surprised if it is the KHL or Europe …. Niemi’s agent, Bill Zito, who badly overplayed his meagre hand, and failed to realize his client rode the coattails of a very good team to glory, may have to change his name to Bill Zippo …… - The Hockey News 2010-11 yearbook is out, and as always, contains some good stuff, and some eyebrow raising, headscratching material. Will get a feature article posted up today, but for now, here is a tidbit : They pick the Canucks to win the Stanley Cup……. That is not a misprint ……. Aug 9 - There is some justice to be had, as the arbitrator Richard Bloch sides with the NHL and declares the contract prepared by Jay Grossman to be a sham and a farce, and in violation of the CBA between the league owners and players union. Everybody knew this to be true, the only question was whether or not some lawyers with too much time on their hands, like Grossman, could foul things up so badly and make enough of a legal mess, that an arbitrator would take the easy way out and give Kovalchuk his money. This sets an excellent precedent for the league, and brings back a bit of credibility to the league, as it seemed to be heading down the same path as some other sports, turning into a greedfest for star players ….. It will be interesting to see what Grossman’s next move is, as he is clearly steering the boat for Kovalchuk. Note to Kovalchuk : Wake Up. It is not too late to get a decent contract in the NHL and save some face. As far as getting more green than Ovechkin, Kovalchuk is not at the same level as Ovechkin, and should realize this, instead of continuing to be greedy and foolish. - A goal scoring phenom from years gone by will play another season, as Teemu Selanne has agreed to another year in Southern Cal with the Ducks. Still a slick and dangerous player, Selanne will play in a supporting role for a Ducks team that will struggle somewhere in the range between 6th and 12th place in the Western Conference - Another tough day for the Oilers today, as The Hockey News has picked them to finish in 15th spot in the Western Conference…… this hot on the heels of the team being the butt of Evgeni Nabokov jokes at a Russian press conference days ago. Realistically, the Oil will likely be dead last again in the West, but there is always hope, and if Tom Renney handles his young snipers properly ( a very big if ), the Oil could get as high as 10th in the Conference…… THN picked Florida as cellar dwellars in the East, but one has to remember the THN staff is loaded with Leaf fans. Florida will be better than Toronto. Likely doormats in the East are the Leafs or Islanders….. Who will score for the Leafs? Who will stop the puck??? Aug 7 - Rough day for the city of Edmonton following comments from Evgeni Nabokov, wherein Nabokov belittles the central Alberta city as a place nobody wants to play. Not the first time this comment has made the rounds …. Maybe Edmonton doesn’t have the lustre of Los Angeles or the allure of New York City, but for anyone who has been to Edmonton, either for a game, or to spend time in the city, as far as cities go, Edmonton is alright. The river valley is scenic, Whyte Avenue is fun, and though it is not a giant metropolis, the place does not deserve the Siberian reputation that has been pinned on it. Oh yeah, for the record, playing a game for a living is a privilege. More and more, hockey players are needing to be reminded of that. I guess if they don’t like it, they can go play in Russia…… - That being said, the KHL is cutting into the depth and quality of the NHL. No top flight stars have gone to the KHL, but a lot of 3rd line depth players, like Max Afinogenov and Pavol Demitra have gone to the easy street league. Though the league is supposedly kept afloat by an oil baron / billionaire, it doesn’t seem to be going away. The way to solve this problem is for the NHL to change the salary structure it uses, so players don’t feel that they aren’t making enough money ….. pay them based on performance, and use the lure of playing in the world’s best league, and getting paid money you and the team actually earn, to keep all the best players in the NHL. - Mike Modano as a Detroit Red Wing will be worth seeing, for the spectacle at the very least. Hard to believe the one time baby faced PA Raider is now a 40 year old vet wrapping up his career….. - Yes, Louis Leblanc made the right choice in leaving the NCAA to play major junior hockey. If you are a top flight hockey prospect, major junior is the way to go. If you are slight of frame, or a late bloomer, then NCAA hockey is the better choice. More games and more practices are provided in the major junior loop…… - More than a few opinions can be found in which the Chicago Black Hawks will be a 2011 contender, and have handled the off season money challenges brilliantly. The truth is, this summer has been a total disaster for the Black Hawks. They made some good choices, like moving Kris Versteeg, but overall, the loss of depth has ruined the team, and instead of making nice, like everything is okay, the media types writing how smart and savvy Stan Bowman is ( irrelevant points, the Hawks are in a bad situation, and nothing Bowman could do would change it ) should just call a spade a spade and realize the Hawks will not get anywhere to close to the Cup Final for years to come….. it has been awful watching the team get dismantled, and I am no BlackHawk fan. You want to pick a whipping boy, a good place to start is Bill Zito…. Aug 2 - Apologies if the summer break disrupted the best hockey commentary on the internet… Open Ice Hitter is back in action, and not a moment too soon…. - Never before has a Stanley Cup winner be so dismantled as the Chicago Black Hawks. With the team walking away from the salary awarded to goalie Anti Niemi by some goofball delusional arbitrator, $2.75 million per, the Hawks are closing in on 50% turnover. By the time they demote Huet and clear a bit more salary, they will have turned over half of their roster. Say what you want, but this is not good for hockey. BlackHawk fans have been ripped off by foolish management and the cancer that is known as the sports agent. The BlackHawks may or may not make the playoffs, but it is a sure bet that they will not be winning another Stanley Cup anytime soon, as the career paths of Toews and Kane will again mirror those of Hull and Mikita ….. It is going to be mighty fine watching to see where Niemi goes, and what he signs for. Don’t be surprised if he ends up in the KHL. Anybody watching the Stanley Cup Final would have been witness to a less than stellar showing by the Chicago goalie, as he fought pucks and flailed about in the crease - In to replace Niemi is Marty Turco from Dallas. Turco goes immediately onto the hot seat, as expectations will be unrealistically high, and his track record under the gun is not so good. This is an opportunity for Turco to bounce back and regain some respect as a franchise goalie, and that is what he will have to be for the Hawks to have success - Longtime brawler Donald Brashear looks to be done his NHL career after a weird salary dumping deal to Atalnta. Brashear is no longer the legit NHL player he once was, but no doubt, he still enjoys chucking the knuckles …. Will see if he winds up enforcing for anybody this season - Be interesting to spend time in the Calgary front office and see how Darryl Sutter interacts with replacement in waiting Jay Feaster……… though a hat tip is deserved by the Flames for re-signing Ian White, one of the most under rated players in the NHL - All the talk of the Bruins trading Marc Savard make a person wonder what the Bruins are trying to prove. If they lose Savard, they lose their ace setup man, and fall from the potential elite of the East …. - As for the continuing trade rumors and Tom Kaberle, it has gotten to the point of who cares????? Burke has used this one second tier, aging defenseman to keep himself in the news, and honestly, while Kaberle is a slick skating and poised defenseman, he is not a gamebreaker. If the Kings could get him for a third round pick, he would be useful for tutoring the wicked stable of prospects on the West Coast, but he is not the magical key to success for any team, not now, and never was…. |
