The NHL has gone out of its way to manufacture the perception of a crisis with its unilateral decision to abandon realignment for next year while simultaneously launching an attack on the NHLPA for the union’s refusal to approve the plan without receiving the information it is entitled to.
What is clear though, after the league pulled the plug, is the reflex of so many within the media as well as the NHL’s fan base to throw the first stones at labor regardless of the facts.
What employee, given the contractual right to approve changes in working conditions, would simply waive it under pressure from his or her employer to meet an artificially imposed deadline?
Would you? Really?
* The absence of a grand conspiracy, which no one for a moment ever believed existed, should not obscure the disgraceful officiating over the final minutes of the Winter Classic that raised eyebrows among viewers across the continent.
And even if the NHL essentially had no choice other than to levy a significant fine against John Tortorella once the Rangers’ coach meandered into Oliver Stone territory, the league also should have taken a good, hard, public look at the stream of potential game-changing calls by the officiating team of Ian Walsh and Dennis LaRue that somehow all went one way.
“Typical Montreal,” is what a fuming Peter Laviolette charged when the Flyers coach’s team had inscrutable calls made against it last month in the Canadiens’ barn.
“Typical Philadelphia,” is what Jan. 2 looked like, indoors or outdoors.
* It is impossible to imagine how Brendan Shanahan could have kept a straight face or a semblance of dignity announcing Dan Carcillo’s mere seven-game suspension for wantonly sending a helpless Tom Gilbert crashing into the end boards just moments after explaining, “It is important to note Carcillo is a repeat offender who has been suspended or fined nine times previously during his NHL career [and] in fact he was suspended two games for boarding two months ago.”
Seven games for a 10-time offender. Which begs the question: Has the Board of Governors already neutered the Department of Player Safety?
* When people such as Tortorella and Toronto general manager Brian Burke bemoan the loss of the day when players could “police” the game themselves, you wonder whether they have any memory of the pre-instigator rule era in which thugs routinely slashed, hacked, speared and by any other means attempted to goad stars on the opposition into dropping their gloves.
Maybe those in that camp should watch tapes of a few Islanders-Flyers games from that era and take a gander at what Behn Wilson and his ilk constantly pulled against Mike Bossy in the days of wilding and bench-clearing brawls.
The instigator has nothing to do with people like Carcillo or the repeat offenders who are a liability to the league. Beyond that, the 2-minute minor plus the 5-minute fighting major and 10-minute misconduct that are charged against an instigator provide no meaningful barrier to prevent a teammate from protecting/answering for an assault victim.
There may be no easy answers in the crusade to end head-hunting in the league, but elimination of the instigator is no answer at all.
* The best part of the Rangers’ pregame video at the Garden is hearing the great Jim Gordon intone, “This is New York Rangers Hockey.”
The worst part is the omission of Neil Smith from highlights of the celebration of 1994. Is the shot of the general manager with the Cup too much to ask?
If Mike Keenan can work for MSG and even coach the Rangers in the outdoor alumni game, then it is far past time for this Soviet-style scrubbing of Smith from franchise history to end.
* In honor of Scott Niedermayer’s number being retired in New Jersey, our area’s all-time No. 27’s: 1. Niedermayer, Devils; 2. John Tonelli, Islanders; 3. Alex Kovalev, Rangers; 4. Ted Irvine, Rangers; 5. Mike Rogers, Rangers. Honorable Mentions: Michael Peca and Derek King, Islanders. Unmentionable: Willie Huber, Rangers.
In honor of future Hall-of-Famer Patrik Elias’ 1,000th NHL game, all with New Jersey, our all-time No. 26’s: 1. Elias, Devils; 2. Dave Langevin, Islanders; 3. Patrick Flatley, Islanders; 4. Dave Maloney, Rangers; 5. Peter Stastny, Devils. Honorable Mention: Matt Moulson, Islanders. Unmentionable: Rocky Trottier, Devils.
If I were Henrik Lundqvist, I’d have just hung up on that unctuous fool of a talk radio host.
It was humorous, by the way, to listen to Mike Milbury fulminate against Tortorella on the NBC Sports Network for his remarks as if the commentator had a shoe in his hand without full disclosure of the time he attacked the league’s integrity during the 2002 playoffs against Toronto while he was the Islanders’ general manager.
* Finally, I see that Tortorella will coach one of the All-Star teams in Ottawa. Well, there goes the roster spot for Sean Avery.