Just Wondering
Eric Desjardins retired this week. Although he finished his career as a hated Philadelphia Flyer, I always liked Desjardins. He was a good, sometimes very good, NHL blueliner who carved out a lengthy NHL career.
Yet I will remember Eric Desjardins as more than merely a good, sometimes very good, blueliner who played at a high level in the NHL for most of his 17 seasons in the league. I'm also going to remember him as a champion, and in my book, that means Eric Desjardins is remembered as way more than just a good, sometimes very good, blueliner.
Contrast my feelings on Desjardins to what I felt when Pavel Bure, due to knee troubles, announced his retirement. Bure was a very good, sometimes great, player, but he never won a Cup. In the NHL, winning the Cup matters the most.
Why is that I'll remember Bure's beautiful dashes around the ice fondly but I'll also remember Desjardins, a less phenomenally artistic player than Bure, just as fondly?
Because Desjardins won the Cup and Bure didn't.
Is that right? Is that how it should be? Why is that way?
But, at least for me, right now--speaking as someone who never watched either player perform for MY team--that's how it is.
Right? Wrong? Silly? Stupid? Please enlighten me.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Random Comment
I promise, well, I am actually not going to promise, but I am going to try to promise, that this is the last Malkin-related post (for a bit).
But seeing that Malkin opened a prison-themed restaurant in Russia, my response was something along the lines of "What in the world was he possibly thinking?"
I wondered if Malkin was bright enough to be making a cynical, sarcastic commentary on his current situation with his Russian team, or if he was perhaps just making a cynical, sarcastic commentary on his society.
Seriously. Think about in America. With all our love of "freedom" as an idea if not an actuality (I'll spare my political viewpoints here, but I'll admit that like most Americans, I'm sometimes more likely to worship the idea of freedom than be vigilant enough to insist on the continuous exercise of every freedom), can you imagine us going to a prison-themed restaurant? Seriously. Even if one of our superstars opened such a restaurant. What would our initial response be? Why would our initial response be that way?
If Russians will end up going to Malkin's restaurant, why will they go?
What does that say about America? About Russia? About the whole Malkin saga with his Russian team and the NHL?
Again--I'm not stating anything outright here, just asking questions that I want to think about some more--and encourage others to think about more as well.
I promise, well, I am actually not going to promise, but I am going to try to promise, that this is the last Malkin-related post (for a bit).
But seeing that Malkin opened a prison-themed restaurant in Russia, my response was something along the lines of "What in the world was he possibly thinking?"
I wondered if Malkin was bright enough to be making a cynical, sarcastic commentary on his current situation with his Russian team, or if he was perhaps just making a cynical, sarcastic commentary on his society.
Seriously. Think about in America. With all our love of "freedom" as an idea if not an actuality (I'll spare my political viewpoints here, but I'll admit that like most Americans, I'm sometimes more likely to worship the idea of freedom than be vigilant enough to insist on the continuous exercise of every freedom), can you imagine us going to a prison-themed restaurant? Seriously. Even if one of our superstars opened such a restaurant. What would our initial response be? Why would our initial response be that way?
If Russians will end up going to Malkin's restaurant, why will they go?
What does that say about America? About Russia? About the whole Malkin saga with his Russian team and the NHL?
Again--I'm not stating anything outright here, just asking questions that I want to think about some more--and encourage others to think about more as well.
More on the Malkin Situation
As I previously noted, I've spent much of the past thirty-six hours online, eagerly trying to glean the latest news on the whole Malkin saga from blogs, message boards, and Russian news sources. (Yes, obviously I am seriously desperate for Malkin to come to the Penguins if I'm seeking to gain credible information from such sources--I realize this.)
In spite of the twenty-first century feel for how I'm obtaining news and information about the Malkin affair, I nevertheless feel as though I've been transported back to the late 1980's. Sure, I'm getting all my information from the Internet. Sure, unlike the 1980's, I'm quickly able to get information from Russian news sources, and with a click of a button, I'm able to translate Russian into something in English where at the very least, "the gist" of the translated article more often than not gets through and makes sense. Yet in terms of the feel of Malkin leaving his team's training camp in Finland, in terms of the tight-lipped comments or lack thereof from the Penguins and from the NHL--wow. Is this seriously what it felt like in the late eighties?
Back in the late eighties, I was a child of about five or six and had no clue about the geopolitical context of the world in which I lived. One of those silly e-mail forwards that was passed around mentioned that students who graduated high school when I did never grew up with the threat of nuclear war. Seriously, this was my world as a child and an adolescent. I didn't know what it was like to be in a perpetual Cold War. I never experienced nuclear bomb drills throughout all my years of attending school. This was the context in which I grew up, and that context translated to my love of hockey and understanding that hockey was an international sport.
While I watched hockey in the late eighties (at age 5, Paul Coffey was my first favorite player when he arrived from the Oilers in 1987), I really got into hockey about the time my team started winning championships. When I turned eight and Jaromir Jagr arrived as a rookie from Czechoslovakia, Jagr quickly replaced Coffey as my favorite player. Jagr's the best example I can think of as to how my relationship with hockey is so different than that of even a generation before me. Jagr didn't have to defect to come to America (granted, I'm certain strings were pulled, and I'm certain Craig Patrick and the Penguins helped to ensure Jagr's arrival in Pittsburgh). But with the Berlin Wall down, with the Soviet Union crumbling, wow, presto--Jagr was free to come to America and be a star, and so he did.
Along with Jagr, dozens of other talented Soviet-bloc Europeans began to arrive in the NHL. Soviet-bloc Europeans, now free to come to the NHL, began to be drafted where they rightfully should have been drafted if teams had known for sure that the European players would be available to come and play in the NHL. And thus as I grew up and started writing about the Penguins when I got bored in school (suggesting line changes and potential trades was often more interesting than typical middle school work), it became natural to root for European players. I had never really known a NHL without Russian or former Soviet-bloc players. I cheered for Jagr, the two Samuelssons (Ulf and Kjell), Martin Straka, Alexei Kovalev, Aleksey Morozov, and Darius Kasparitis as they arrived in Pittsburgh. My Penguins teams of the early nineties had a slight international flair, but when Detroit began winning Cups in the late nineties, I never questioned the very eastern European make-up of their roster. This was the NHL I'd known, really, since Jagr had arrived in Pittsburgh in 1990. I knew an international NHL, knew the stereotypes that went along with a player's particular nationality, and I knew that a team that wanted to win in my NHL needed to have the right mix of European and North American players.
So why is the Malkin saga such a big deal? Probably, because, really, I've never known "that" NHL. The world where players had to choose to defect, knowing that they'd probably never see their homeland or families again, that's a world I know only through reading Sports Illustrated articles and watching television documentaries. But it's not a world that I actually know in the sense of knowledge gained by experience.
Yet as I thought about it, I realized that players like Petr Nedved and Alexander Mogilny do know "that" NHL and the geopolitical context that used to exist in the world. Nedved was seventeen when he arrived in Canada and announced he wanted to defect. I cheered for Nedved when he was a Pen and always enjoyed watching him play (as you might have guessed, aesthetic play is highly appealing to me). Yet today Nedved is a veteran NHL player, a streaky player, and recently one whose marriage to a supermodel was extremely important to him. But at age 17--he just made a decision and did it? He didn't know--not for sure--that the world would change as it has. He didn't know that he would have the chance to see his parents again and to return his homeland. He didn't know any of that, and at 17, he's saying, I'm defecting.
Alexander Mogilny might be languishing in the minor leagues and he might be suffering from injuries that have hurt his play (actually there's no might about those things), and while his story is different than Nedved's, Mogilny, too, defected. Sure, Mogilny had already been drafted by the Buffalo Sabres and knew he would have a real shot at the NHL. But still, even at twenty, he was just a kid. And again--wow--he just defected. I remember reading in a Sports Illustrated article sometime during my high school years about Mogilny turning to friends, searching for the meanings of once strikingly familiar Russian words; I think one word was "dinner." Leaving one's family and country, that was par for the course when a player defected, but to lose your native language also? The fact that I still remember reading that sliver of information years later tells you how much it stuck with me.
So all I know of Nedved and Mogilny are the stories of the children who defected, of the young men who both for awhile struggled to carve out an effective niche in the NHL, and who both in time became extremely effective NHL players. Likewise, I know that many believe the best days of both players are behind them. But that's the thing. I know the almost-complete story. While perhaps I should have referred to Nedved and Mogilny as young men when they defected (such a move required all those character traits of skill and guts and heart that both players were routinely accused of lacking at some point in their NHL careers), Nedved was the equivalent of a high school student when he defected; Mogilny of a sophomore in college. Kids. They were kids. But we know the end result--we know now that the world did change, that the USSR did crumble, and we know Mogilny and Nedved took a risk that rewarded them handsomely financially and in other ways as well.
Yet being caught up in the Malkin saga in 2006, wow. Is this what it felt like in 1989 to be a Buffalo Sabres fan and wonder what would happen with the Mogilny kid? Or is this what it felt like to be a junior hockey fan who watched that kid Nedved play? Because when it comes to Malkin, geopolitically speaking, anyway, I don't know what is going to happen. Is Malkin going to be allowed to play in North America? Will he be allowed to play for Russia in international events? How will the intrigue surrounding Malkin be resolved? Perhaps more importantly for me as a Penguins fan, if and when Malkin does arrive, how's he going to do his first season? And after that? What's his career trajectory going to be? Who knows? I don't know, but it's going to be exciting to watch. It's already exciting from the sidelines as I scan the Internet, hoping for new information, hoping that somebody is going to clue me in and really let me know what's going on with Malkin.
One final thought to close: My junior year of college, I was on a hockey kick, and I had to write a short screenplay for a writing class. I made up a fictional character, a 17-year-old Soviet named Pavel, who defected from the Soviet team at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. The first two pages of the script I loved and those pages worked; the rest of the script I hated and those pages, needless to say, didn't work so well. But there was one thing that everyone could agree about: Pavel's page 1 decision to defect to North America revealed a tremendous amount about his character. In a single decision, my fictional character announced who he was, what his dreams were, and who he desired to be.
Maybe that's why it's been so nice and fun to follow the Malkin saga over the past thirty-six hours. Because if it's not true that he left Finland and if he really is staying in Russia for another year, then oh well, sigh, ho-hum, my Pens still need a second line center, and maybe Malkin's not yet (not saying he never will be) a player determined to get to the NHL.
But if any of these reports are true, if Malkin really has left his Russian team, then he's telling the NHL and fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins exactly what we want to know. He's telling us who he is, what his dreams are, and who he desires to be--he's telling us he wants to play in the NHL for the Pittsburgh Penguins. And if Malkin really is telling us that, well, it's a story that, this time around, as a grown-up, I want to watch, relish, and simply just enjoy.
For now, the cautious "Who knows?" holds, yet I hope very soon, for example, by the start of the 2006-07 season, my "Who knows?" is said in reference to the question "What's Malkin's career going to be?"
As I previously noted, I've spent much of the past thirty-six hours online, eagerly trying to glean the latest news on the whole Malkin saga from blogs, message boards, and Russian news sources. (Yes, obviously I am seriously desperate for Malkin to come to the Penguins if I'm seeking to gain credible information from such sources--I realize this.)
In spite of the twenty-first century feel for how I'm obtaining news and information about the Malkin affair, I nevertheless feel as though I've been transported back to the late 1980's. Sure, I'm getting all my information from the Internet. Sure, unlike the 1980's, I'm quickly able to get information from Russian news sources, and with a click of a button, I'm able to translate Russian into something in English where at the very least, "the gist" of the translated article more often than not gets through and makes sense. Yet in terms of the feel of Malkin leaving his team's training camp in Finland, in terms of the tight-lipped comments or lack thereof from the Penguins and from the NHL--wow. Is this seriously what it felt like in the late eighties?
Back in the late eighties, I was a child of about five or six and had no clue about the geopolitical context of the world in which I lived. One of those silly e-mail forwards that was passed around mentioned that students who graduated high school when I did never grew up with the threat of nuclear war. Seriously, this was my world as a child and an adolescent. I didn't know what it was like to be in a perpetual Cold War. I never experienced nuclear bomb drills throughout all my years of attending school. This was the context in which I grew up, and that context translated to my love of hockey and understanding that hockey was an international sport.
While I watched hockey in the late eighties (at age 5, Paul Coffey was my first favorite player when he arrived from the Oilers in 1987), I really got into hockey about the time my team started winning championships. When I turned eight and Jaromir Jagr arrived as a rookie from Czechoslovakia, Jagr quickly replaced Coffey as my favorite player. Jagr's the best example I can think of as to how my relationship with hockey is so different than that of even a generation before me. Jagr didn't have to defect to come to America (granted, I'm certain strings were pulled, and I'm certain Craig Patrick and the Penguins helped to ensure Jagr's arrival in Pittsburgh). But with the Berlin Wall down, with the Soviet Union crumbling, wow, presto--Jagr was free to come to America and be a star, and so he did.
Along with Jagr, dozens of other talented Soviet-bloc Europeans began to arrive in the NHL. Soviet-bloc Europeans, now free to come to the NHL, began to be drafted where they rightfully should have been drafted if teams had known for sure that the European players would be available to come and play in the NHL. And thus as I grew up and started writing about the Penguins when I got bored in school (suggesting line changes and potential trades was often more interesting than typical middle school work), it became natural to root for European players. I had never really known a NHL without Russian or former Soviet-bloc players. I cheered for Jagr, the two Samuelssons (Ulf and Kjell), Martin Straka, Alexei Kovalev, Aleksey Morozov, and Darius Kasparitis as they arrived in Pittsburgh. My Penguins teams of the early nineties had a slight international flair, but when Detroit began winning Cups in the late nineties, I never questioned the very eastern European make-up of their roster. This was the NHL I'd known, really, since Jagr had arrived in Pittsburgh in 1990. I knew an international NHL, knew the stereotypes that went along with a player's particular nationality, and I knew that a team that wanted to win in my NHL needed to have the right mix of European and North American players.
So why is the Malkin saga such a big deal? Probably, because, really, I've never known "that" NHL. The world where players had to choose to defect, knowing that they'd probably never see their homeland or families again, that's a world I know only through reading Sports Illustrated articles and watching television documentaries. But it's not a world that I actually know in the sense of knowledge gained by experience.
Yet as I thought about it, I realized that players like Petr Nedved and Alexander Mogilny do know "that" NHL and the geopolitical context that used to exist in the world. Nedved was seventeen when he arrived in Canada and announced he wanted to defect. I cheered for Nedved when he was a Pen and always enjoyed watching him play (as you might have guessed, aesthetic play is highly appealing to me). Yet today Nedved is a veteran NHL player, a streaky player, and recently one whose marriage to a supermodel was extremely important to him. But at age 17--he just made a decision and did it? He didn't know--not for sure--that the world would change as it has. He didn't know that he would have the chance to see his parents again and to return his homeland. He didn't know any of that, and at 17, he's saying, I'm defecting.
Alexander Mogilny might be languishing in the minor leagues and he might be suffering from injuries that have hurt his play (actually there's no might about those things), and while his story is different than Nedved's, Mogilny, too, defected. Sure, Mogilny had already been drafted by the Buffalo Sabres and knew he would have a real shot at the NHL. But still, even at twenty, he was just a kid. And again--wow--he just defected. I remember reading in a Sports Illustrated article sometime during my high school years about Mogilny turning to friends, searching for the meanings of once strikingly familiar Russian words; I think one word was "dinner." Leaving one's family and country, that was par for the course when a player defected, but to lose your native language also? The fact that I still remember reading that sliver of information years later tells you how much it stuck with me.
So all I know of Nedved and Mogilny are the stories of the children who defected, of the young men who both for awhile struggled to carve out an effective niche in the NHL, and who both in time became extremely effective NHL players. Likewise, I know that many believe the best days of both players are behind them. But that's the thing. I know the almost-complete story. While perhaps I should have referred to Nedved and Mogilny as young men when they defected (such a move required all those character traits of skill and guts and heart that both players were routinely accused of lacking at some point in their NHL careers), Nedved was the equivalent of a high school student when he defected; Mogilny of a sophomore in college. Kids. They were kids. But we know the end result--we know now that the world did change, that the USSR did crumble, and we know Mogilny and Nedved took a risk that rewarded them handsomely financially and in other ways as well.
Yet being caught up in the Malkin saga in 2006, wow. Is this what it felt like in 1989 to be a Buffalo Sabres fan and wonder what would happen with the Mogilny kid? Or is this what it felt like to be a junior hockey fan who watched that kid Nedved play? Because when it comes to Malkin, geopolitically speaking, anyway, I don't know what is going to happen. Is Malkin going to be allowed to play in North America? Will he be allowed to play for Russia in international events? How will the intrigue surrounding Malkin be resolved? Perhaps more importantly for me as a Penguins fan, if and when Malkin does arrive, how's he going to do his first season? And after that? What's his career trajectory going to be? Who knows? I don't know, but it's going to be exciting to watch. It's already exciting from the sidelines as I scan the Internet, hoping for new information, hoping that somebody is going to clue me in and really let me know what's going on with Malkin.
One final thought to close: My junior year of college, I was on a hockey kick, and I had to write a short screenplay for a writing class. I made up a fictional character, a 17-year-old Soviet named Pavel, who defected from the Soviet team at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. The first two pages of the script I loved and those pages worked; the rest of the script I hated and those pages, needless to say, didn't work so well. But there was one thing that everyone could agree about: Pavel's page 1 decision to defect to North America revealed a tremendous amount about his character. In a single decision, my fictional character announced who he was, what his dreams were, and who he desired to be.
Maybe that's why it's been so nice and fun to follow the Malkin saga over the past thirty-six hours. Because if it's not true that he left Finland and if he really is staying in Russia for another year, then oh well, sigh, ho-hum, my Pens still need a second line center, and maybe Malkin's not yet (not saying he never will be) a player determined to get to the NHL.
But if any of these reports are true, if Malkin really has left his Russian team, then he's telling the NHL and fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins exactly what we want to know. He's telling us who he is, what his dreams are, and who he desires to be--he's telling us he wants to play in the NHL for the Pittsburgh Penguins. And if Malkin really is telling us that, well, it's a story that, this time around, as a grown-up, I want to watch, relish, and simply just enjoy.
For now, the cautious "Who knows?" holds, yet I hope very soon, for example, by the start of the 2006-07 season, my "Who knows?" is said in reference to the question "What's Malkin's career going to be?"
On Malkin
So I've spent the past thirty-six hours reading message boards and translated Russian news articles. I don't trust Russian news sources, and I know better than to believe everything written on blogs and on message boards.
Yet it's obvious that something is up. I'm not going to assume Malkin will be wearing a Pittsburgh Penguins uniform next season until his NHL contract is signed and whatever issues need to be resolved with his Russian club get resolved (which seems likely to happen through the legal system).
On what Malkin means to the Penguins as a player; I'd rather not repeat myself, so just see my previous post on "Malkin is Coming?" Those statements still hold true. So here's to hoping everything works out for Malkin to be playing center on the same team as Sidney Crosby this season.
So I've spent the past thirty-six hours reading message boards and translated Russian news articles. I don't trust Russian news sources, and I know better than to believe everything written on blogs and on message boards.
Yet it's obvious that something is up. I'm not going to assume Malkin will be wearing a Pittsburgh Penguins uniform next season until his NHL contract is signed and whatever issues need to be resolved with his Russian club get resolved (which seems likely to happen through the legal system).
On what Malkin means to the Penguins as a player; I'd rather not repeat myself, so just see my previous post on "Malkin is Coming?" Those statements still hold true. So here's to hoping everything works out for Malkin to be playing center on the same team as Sidney Crosby this season.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
When’s Training Camp Start?
I am so tired of reading about business transactions in the hockey section of the newspaper. Yes, Sam Fingold signed a letter of intent to buy the Penguins from Mario Lemieux’s group. Yes, the respective ownerships of the Pirates and Steelers have convinced me that ownership really does make a difference in putting a quality team on the ice. Of course I want the Penguins to stay in Pittsburgh; of course I want a new arena to be built—but I want those things to happen because of how much I love hockey.
Because I love hockey, then, I am eager to start reading about hockey in the hockey section. I want to read about how many minutes per game Sidney Crosby expects to play. I want to hear about potential defensive pairings on the blue line and start musing about potential line combinations. I want to read about the game of hockey.
Right now, however, here’s my list of three things I’m looking forward to seeing ON THE ICE:
1. Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger on the same power play. I’m going to have to stay up late to catch an Anaheim game, and you know what? The thought of watching a Niedermayer-Pronger power play means that I really think I can deal with a few hours less sleep if I get to see the on-ice magic Brian Burke expects to see.
2. Can Jaromir Jagr continue his resurgence and can the Rangers go further this year? Jagr has already earned a future place in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but watching Jagr this past winter was a beautiful reminder of why Jagr deserves a place alongside other Hall-of-Fame players. Plus, Jagr’s going to turn 35 this year, and at some point, age catches up (a sad but accepted fact of hockey). But I don’t want age to catch up this season—can I see another year of a future Hall of Famer dominating as he did in so many previous seasons?
3. All of the Penguins’ draft picks that will (hopefully) come to training camp this year. Seriously, who knows, maybe somebody I’ll look back fondly on the 2006-07 training camp and note that five future All-Stars and three future Hall of Famers were on the ice? Maybe?
So, yeah, seriously, when does the puck drop—at least for training camp? In a month or so?
The puck can’t drop soon enough.
I am so tired of reading about business transactions in the hockey section of the newspaper. Yes, Sam Fingold signed a letter of intent to buy the Penguins from Mario Lemieux’s group. Yes, the respective ownerships of the Pirates and Steelers have convinced me that ownership really does make a difference in putting a quality team on the ice. Of course I want the Penguins to stay in Pittsburgh; of course I want a new arena to be built—but I want those things to happen because of how much I love hockey.
Because I love hockey, then, I am eager to start reading about hockey in the hockey section. I want to read about how many minutes per game Sidney Crosby expects to play. I want to hear about potential defensive pairings on the blue line and start musing about potential line combinations. I want to read about the game of hockey.
Right now, however, here’s my list of three things I’m looking forward to seeing ON THE ICE:
1. Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger on the same power play. I’m going to have to stay up late to catch an Anaheim game, and you know what? The thought of watching a Niedermayer-Pronger power play means that I really think I can deal with a few hours less sleep if I get to see the on-ice magic Brian Burke expects to see.
2. Can Jaromir Jagr continue his resurgence and can the Rangers go further this year? Jagr has already earned a future place in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but watching Jagr this past winter was a beautiful reminder of why Jagr deserves a place alongside other Hall-of-Fame players. Plus, Jagr’s going to turn 35 this year, and at some point, age catches up (a sad but accepted fact of hockey). But I don’t want age to catch up this season—can I see another year of a future Hall of Famer dominating as he did in so many previous seasons?
3. All of the Penguins’ draft picks that will (hopefully) come to training camp this year. Seriously, who knows, maybe somebody I’ll look back fondly on the 2006-07 training camp and note that five future All-Stars and three future Hall of Famers were on the ice? Maybe?
So, yeah, seriously, when does the puck drop—at least for training camp? In a month or so?
The puck can’t drop soon enough.
J.D.’s Been Busy
So last summer the St. Louis Blues sold Chris Pronger*, but this summer, with John Davidson at the helm, the Blues are eagerly working free agency to become, quite quickly, a competitive team. While the free agent signing list of the Blues is long and reads rather impressively, I can’t help but wonder how all of these signings are going to gel as the collective unit that is a team. I see two possibilities: 1.) The free agency signings quickly help the team to compete for a playoff spot. 2.) The free agency signings help the team on paper but don’t translate to effective change on the ice.
Although I’m more of an Eastern and far Western conference girl (Canucks, Oilers, Ducks, I enjoy watching), I’ll be watching curiously to see which of those two possibilities comes to fruition in St. Louis and how that fruit influences John Davidson’s future decision-making.
* Sold is a harsh term. Yet seeing Pronger play (dominate is a better word for what went on) throughout the 2006 playoffs, well, one wonders how St. Louis didn’t demand more for Pronger. (One should also note that I am firmly convinced the Penguins sold Jaromir Jagr to the Washington Capitals; however, the Penguins apparently sold a defective product to the Capitals, one that wasn’t repaired until the 2005-06 season in New York. On the other hand, as Pronger’s dominant play showed, the Oilers did not receive a defective product, not as long as on-ice performance alone is the sole determinant of a quality product.)
So last summer the St. Louis Blues sold Chris Pronger*, but this summer, with John Davidson at the helm, the Blues are eagerly working free agency to become, quite quickly, a competitive team. While the free agent signing list of the Blues is long and reads rather impressively, I can’t help but wonder how all of these signings are going to gel as the collective unit that is a team. I see two possibilities: 1.) The free agency signings quickly help the team to compete for a playoff spot. 2.) The free agency signings help the team on paper but don’t translate to effective change on the ice.
Although I’m more of an Eastern and far Western conference girl (Canucks, Oilers, Ducks, I enjoy watching), I’ll be watching curiously to see which of those two possibilities comes to fruition in St. Louis and how that fruit influences John Davidson’s future decision-making.
* Sold is a harsh term. Yet seeing Pronger play (dominate is a better word for what went on) throughout the 2006 playoffs, well, one wonders how St. Louis didn’t demand more for Pronger. (One should also note that I am firmly convinced the Penguins sold Jaromir Jagr to the Washington Capitals; however, the Penguins apparently sold a defective product to the Capitals, one that wasn’t repaired until the 2005-06 season in New York. On the other hand, as Pronger’s dominant play showed, the Oilers did not receive a defective product, not as long as on-ice performance alone is the sole determinant of a quality product.)
Rangers Musings
I was pleased to see that the Rangers resigned former Penguins defenseman Michael Rozsival this week. Rozy’s play for the Rangers last season was what I had hoped to see him achieve as a Penguins defenseman. While Rozy never played quite so well while wearing the black and gold, I was glad to see him rewarded with a nice contract. I was also glad for the Rangers team; Rozsival at his current age is certainly a better defender than is an aging Brian Leetch (yes, I’m well aware of how sad that sentence is to fans of the game and older Rangers fans, but sadly, it’s true).
Still, I’m nervous about the Rangers upcoming 2006-07 season, and it’s not just because their 2005-06 season ended with being swept out of the playoffs by the Devils. Last year, Rangers fans might have hoped and dreamed of a turnaround, but fans at Madison Square Garden weren’t expecting anything. When the Swedish rookie became "Henrik the Great," when Jaromir Jagr returned to his former dominance and fans chanted "MVP" at Jagr, and when the entire team meshed so well with Coach Tom Renney, the fans, and the New York media, well—it was an unexpected but very pleasant surprise.
However, beginning with the 2006-07 training camp, expectations of the fans and media are going to be ramped up. It is not going to be enough to be above .500 or competing for a playoff spot. If Henrik the Great suffers a sophomore slump, or if Jaromir Jagr fails to be near the top of the NHL in scoring, or if the team merely wins as many games as it loses to start the season, there are going to be cries of discontent coming from fans and media members. It’s also worth noting that the players themselves will probably be discontent if they fail to meet the higher expectations.
The Rangers are still not deep enough to be unaffected by an injury to a player like Jagr or even by a few injuries scattered throughout the roster. Having watched Jagr in Pittsburgh for so many years, having enjoyed seeing him rediscover and again deploy his amazing talents in New York last season, I still feel anxious about what happens to the Rangers and Jagr when something goes way off course. I hope Jagr’s matured, I hope his teammates like Shanahan and Straka will help stay the course, but I’m just wondering how the much higher expectations are going to influence—for better or worse—the course of the 2006-07 Rangers season.
I was pleased to see that the Rangers resigned former Penguins defenseman Michael Rozsival this week. Rozy’s play for the Rangers last season was what I had hoped to see him achieve as a Penguins defenseman. While Rozy never played quite so well while wearing the black and gold, I was glad to see him rewarded with a nice contract. I was also glad for the Rangers team; Rozsival at his current age is certainly a better defender than is an aging Brian Leetch (yes, I’m well aware of how sad that sentence is to fans of the game and older Rangers fans, but sadly, it’s true).
Still, I’m nervous about the Rangers upcoming 2006-07 season, and it’s not just because their 2005-06 season ended with being swept out of the playoffs by the Devils. Last year, Rangers fans might have hoped and dreamed of a turnaround, but fans at Madison Square Garden weren’t expecting anything. When the Swedish rookie became "Henrik the Great," when Jaromir Jagr returned to his former dominance and fans chanted "MVP" at Jagr, and when the entire team meshed so well with Coach Tom Renney, the fans, and the New York media, well—it was an unexpected but very pleasant surprise.
However, beginning with the 2006-07 training camp, expectations of the fans and media are going to be ramped up. It is not going to be enough to be above .500 or competing for a playoff spot. If Henrik the Great suffers a sophomore slump, or if Jaromir Jagr fails to be near the top of the NHL in scoring, or if the team merely wins as many games as it loses to start the season, there are going to be cries of discontent coming from fans and media members. It’s also worth noting that the players themselves will probably be discontent if they fail to meet the higher expectations.
The Rangers are still not deep enough to be unaffected by an injury to a player like Jagr or even by a few injuries scattered throughout the roster. Having watched Jagr in Pittsburgh for so many years, having enjoyed seeing him rediscover and again deploy his amazing talents in New York last season, I still feel anxious about what happens to the Rangers and Jagr when something goes way off course. I hope Jagr’s matured, I hope his teammates like Shanahan and Straka will help stay the course, but I’m just wondering how the much higher expectations are going to influence—for better or worse—the course of the 2006-07 Rangers season.
Is Shero Repeating Patrick’s Mistakes?
The Penguins did not renew Craig Patrick’s contract because the team Patrick constructed last summer failed to make the grade in the new NHL. The Penguins hired Ray Shero as the team’s new general manager so that the former assistant general manager of the Predators could build a NHL team prepared to compete in the twenty-first century.
Unfortunately for him, Shero has been saddled with some of Patrick’s "mistakes." If Sergei Gonchar ever again consistently plays like he did for the Washington Capitals, then maybe that 5-year, $25 million contract will seem like less of a mistake/problem/albatross. While I wouldn’t necessarily call Patrick’s signings of John Leclair and Mark Recchi last year pure mistakes, and both players certainly can provide veteran leadership on a team, Leclair in particular should not be expected to play top-line minutes as he did when he was in his prime.
Yet my concern is that Shero in some sense has not learned from the mistakes of his predecessor in the general manager’s role. Shero is not pursuing a second line center (not that there are many centers left available on the free agent market, anyway) because he expects Malkin to be in Pittsburgh. Stop if that sound byte sounds a little too familiar; didn’t Patrick likewise expect Malkin to be in Pittsburgh? Didn’t Patrick fail to have a contingency plan for a second-line center should Malkin not be available to play in Pittsburgh? It’s the same familiar song when it comes to relying on Jocelyn Thibeault to back up Marc Andre Fleury. What if Fleury goes down with an injury and can’t play for ten games—we’re relying on the oft-injured Thibeault as a competent back up when he hasn’t shown he can play competently at the NHL level in a few years? Didn’t we deal with the lack of reliable goaltending issue for much of the early part of the 2005-06 season? Do we really need to repeat such mistakes? Has Shero really learned from what Patrick got wrong last year?
In some sense, of course, I know that Shero indeed has learned from Patrick’s mistakes. Shero appears to be building a team where different players have different roles. He appears to be finding role players to support his crop of young, talented, former extremely high first-round draft picks. He appears to know that the new NHL demands a team built on skill and speed but also a team, not a group of individuals. Yet if Shero is expecting Dominic Moore to play as a second-line center (third-line center is something I’m currently game to try) or expecting players to fulfill a role, whatever it might be, that a player can no longer fulfill (Jocelyn Thibeault, playing 20 NHL games in a season?), the Penguins are going to be in trouble.
I like many of the moves Shero has made thus far this summer: I was glad to see Fleury and Moore signed this week. While I don’t expect the Penguins general manager to share emergency contingency plans with me, I do expect that Shero actually has emergency contingency plans in place for certain gaping holes that could appear on the 2006-07 roster if he really expects his team to be even marginally more competitive than last season.
The Penguins did not renew Craig Patrick’s contract because the team Patrick constructed last summer failed to make the grade in the new NHL. The Penguins hired Ray Shero as the team’s new general manager so that the former assistant general manager of the Predators could build a NHL team prepared to compete in the twenty-first century.
Unfortunately for him, Shero has been saddled with some of Patrick’s "mistakes." If Sergei Gonchar ever again consistently plays like he did for the Washington Capitals, then maybe that 5-year, $25 million contract will seem like less of a mistake/problem/albatross. While I wouldn’t necessarily call Patrick’s signings of John Leclair and Mark Recchi last year pure mistakes, and both players certainly can provide veteran leadership on a team, Leclair in particular should not be expected to play top-line minutes as he did when he was in his prime.
Yet my concern is that Shero in some sense has not learned from the mistakes of his predecessor in the general manager’s role. Shero is not pursuing a second line center (not that there are many centers left available on the free agent market, anyway) because he expects Malkin to be in Pittsburgh. Stop if that sound byte sounds a little too familiar; didn’t Patrick likewise expect Malkin to be in Pittsburgh? Didn’t Patrick fail to have a contingency plan for a second-line center should Malkin not be available to play in Pittsburgh? It’s the same familiar song when it comes to relying on Jocelyn Thibeault to back up Marc Andre Fleury. What if Fleury goes down with an injury and can’t play for ten games—we’re relying on the oft-injured Thibeault as a competent back up when he hasn’t shown he can play competently at the NHL level in a few years? Didn’t we deal with the lack of reliable goaltending issue for much of the early part of the 2005-06 season? Do we really need to repeat such mistakes? Has Shero really learned from what Patrick got wrong last year?
In some sense, of course, I know that Shero indeed has learned from Patrick’s mistakes. Shero appears to be building a team where different players have different roles. He appears to be finding role players to support his crop of young, talented, former extremely high first-round draft picks. He appears to know that the new NHL demands a team built on skill and speed but also a team, not a group of individuals. Yet if Shero is expecting Dominic Moore to play as a second-line center (third-line center is something I’m currently game to try) or expecting players to fulfill a role, whatever it might be, that a player can no longer fulfill (Jocelyn Thibeault, playing 20 NHL games in a season?), the Penguins are going to be in trouble.
I like many of the moves Shero has made thus far this summer: I was glad to see Fleury and Moore signed this week. While I don’t expect the Penguins general manager to share emergency contingency plans with me, I do expect that Shero actually has emergency contingency plans in place for certain gaping holes that could appear on the 2006-07 roster if he really expects his team to be even marginally more competitive than last season.
Malkin is Coming?
Little brother’s comments hit the nail on the head. People are just starting to realize that the Russian mob running hockey over there might not be such a good thing, said little brother in his typically droll understatement. For what it’s worth, I wholeheartedly concur with this sentiment. However, what I want to focus on now is how Malkin coming over or not coming over can and will influence the Penguins’ fortunes in the 2006-07 season.
So let’s say somehow, Malkin gets out of his Russia, signs his entry-level deal with the Pens, and meets the expectation that Alexander Ovechkin set when he said he believes that Malkin will succeed him as winner of the Calder Trophy. Let’s presume that in Crosby and Malkin, the Penguins have two extremely young but still proficient first and second line centers. (And by the way, with any young rookie playing his first season in a different country, be aware that’s quite a presumption.) Let’s further assume that everything else goes right. Marc-Andre Fleury develops as a goaltender who makes the big save and steals a few games, the young defensemen develop, Sergei Gonchar plays like he did a few years ago, and the team gels. With the team gelling, the power play and penalty kill work at above-average levels. Even assuming all those things go right, the Penguins—with Crosby and Malkin at center, and all that other stuff clicking—are still, at best, a borderline playoff team.
Yet now let’s imagine that Malkin, for certain reasons out of the control of the NHL and the Penguins, remains in Russia this year. Let’s further assume that all those other things go right. The same good things happen: Fleury develops as a goaltender, defensemen learn to execute the NHL game successfully, and other players perform to their potential. Even with all those wonderful things happening, the 2006-07 Pens will still have a gaping hole on their depth chart because the team will not have a legitimate number two center. Without Malkin, even with every other thing gelling and clicking, the 2006-07 Penguins are out of the playoffs for another year.
Back in the land of reality, it’s probable to assume that all the good things the Penguins want to see happen in the 2006-07 season will not occur. Someone is going to get injured at some point in the year, and someone’s development is not going to be as linear or as quick as the team would expect or anticipate. Moreover, the Penguins core players remain—in terms of NHL service time and in terms of the good old-fashioned age measurement—young and thus inexperienced. Generally, it is simultaneously fun and frustrating to watch talented, young, and inexperienced players grow and develop into the players they have been projected to be. Realistically speaking, even if many good things happen, the Penguins cannot and should not count on "all good things" occurring in terms of the development of their young core.
Which is why Malkin coming over here is so important. With Malkin and everything going right, the Penguins are a borderline playoff team. Without Malkin and everything going right, the Penguins lack a real second line center and will probably again be selecting very high in the 2007 entry draft. Without Malkin and with everything going wrong, the Penguins are again in the running to win the NHL lottery draft. With Malkin and with some things going right and some things going wrong, while the Penguins probably need to rely on the misfortune of other teams to sneak into the playoffs, at least the Penguins will be in the hunt for a postseason berth for much of the season.
As any Penguins fan should know, second line centers are important. The Penguins were never legitimately a contender until Ron Francis became a second line center behind Mario Lemieux. Of course the Lemieux-Francis duo of two Hall-of-Fame caliber centers was a rare pleasure. Yet don’t discount the importance of a second-line center. In today’s NHL, one-line teams cannot even make it to the NHL postseason.
The Penguins need Malkin to be competitive. The question is, Will they get him in time for next season?
Little brother’s comments hit the nail on the head. People are just starting to realize that the Russian mob running hockey over there might not be such a good thing, said little brother in his typically droll understatement. For what it’s worth, I wholeheartedly concur with this sentiment. However, what I want to focus on now is how Malkin coming over or not coming over can and will influence the Penguins’ fortunes in the 2006-07 season.
So let’s say somehow, Malkin gets out of his Russia, signs his entry-level deal with the Pens, and meets the expectation that Alexander Ovechkin set when he said he believes that Malkin will succeed him as winner of the Calder Trophy. Let’s presume that in Crosby and Malkin, the Penguins have two extremely young but still proficient first and second line centers. (And by the way, with any young rookie playing his first season in a different country, be aware that’s quite a presumption.) Let’s further assume that everything else goes right. Marc-Andre Fleury develops as a goaltender who makes the big save and steals a few games, the young defensemen develop, Sergei Gonchar plays like he did a few years ago, and the team gels. With the team gelling, the power play and penalty kill work at above-average levels. Even assuming all those things go right, the Penguins—with Crosby and Malkin at center, and all that other stuff clicking—are still, at best, a borderline playoff team.
Yet now let’s imagine that Malkin, for certain reasons out of the control of the NHL and the Penguins, remains in Russia this year. Let’s further assume that all those other things go right. The same good things happen: Fleury develops as a goaltender, defensemen learn to execute the NHL game successfully, and other players perform to their potential. Even with all those wonderful things happening, the 2006-07 Pens will still have a gaping hole on their depth chart because the team will not have a legitimate number two center. Without Malkin, even with every other thing gelling and clicking, the 2006-07 Penguins are out of the playoffs for another year.
Back in the land of reality, it’s probable to assume that all the good things the Penguins want to see happen in the 2006-07 season will not occur. Someone is going to get injured at some point in the year, and someone’s development is not going to be as linear or as quick as the team would expect or anticipate. Moreover, the Penguins core players remain—in terms of NHL service time and in terms of the good old-fashioned age measurement—young and thus inexperienced. Generally, it is simultaneously fun and frustrating to watch talented, young, and inexperienced players grow and develop into the players they have been projected to be. Realistically speaking, even if many good things happen, the Penguins cannot and should not count on "all good things" occurring in terms of the development of their young core.
Which is why Malkin coming over here is so important. With Malkin and everything going right, the Penguins are a borderline playoff team. Without Malkin and everything going right, the Penguins lack a real second line center and will probably again be selecting very high in the 2007 entry draft. Without Malkin and with everything going wrong, the Penguins are again in the running to win the NHL lottery draft. With Malkin and with some things going right and some things going wrong, while the Penguins probably need to rely on the misfortune of other teams to sneak into the playoffs, at least the Penguins will be in the hunt for a postseason berth for much of the season.
As any Penguins fan should know, second line centers are important. The Penguins were never legitimately a contender until Ron Francis became a second line center behind Mario Lemieux. Of course the Lemieux-Francis duo of two Hall-of-Fame caliber centers was a rare pleasure. Yet don’t discount the importance of a second-line center. In today’s NHL, one-line teams cannot even make it to the NHL postseason.
The Penguins need Malkin to be competitive. The question is, Will they get him in time for next season?
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