Selling the Team?
I’m glad it looks like Mario Lemieux won’t be selling the team to out-of-town buyers. I want the Penguins to stay in Pittsburgh. I want the Isle of Capri plan to come through for the team.
However, Mario Lemieux isn’t dumb by any stretch of the imagination. If the Isle of Capri plan comes through, then the team is immediately more valuable—they have an arena that will help them make money and an already entrenched local and loyal fan base. But if the Isle of Capri plan falls through, and no arena work gets done (hint, hint, local pols, better start doing something soon) by season’s end, well, the team is immediately more valuable because it is a free franchise, free to go wherever, to some degree.
In any case, I want the Penguins to stay in Pittsburgh, and I’m happy that it looks Mario won’t be selling to out-of-town buyers. But local fans and politicians beware, if nothing goes through on an arena this season, don’t be surprised when the Penguins are sold to out-of-town buyers (for a greater price) in less than a year's time.
.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
The Wrong Question
Dad and I were having a phone chat about the Penguins and Jordan Staal’s name got brought into the conversation. Dad referenced a particular talk show host in Pittsburgh (one who shall remain nameless, not one of whom I’m fond). Dad said the talk show host contended that saying, "Staal doesn’t look out of place" isn’t really what we should be aiming for—and I agree with the host.
If a general manager or coach is asking himself, " Does Staal look out of place here?" that general manager or coach is asking himself the wrong question. When it comes to players like Staal who come with a particular high draft pick pedigree, well, such a player should not merely not look out of place in the NHL. Such a player, even at a young age, should already be a good player. Granted, such a player isn’t going to be the best player on the ice or perhaps even among the top five on your team, but such a player needs to stand out as a good NHL player. Not as a good young NHL player, not as a player who shows the glimpses of being good eventually, but as a player who is already a good NHL player.
Think back to Jaromir Jagr’s first NHL season. Jagr wasn’t yet the dominant superstar he would later become, but he was already a goal-scorer, already capable of scoring points, and already a very good NHL player. In his good play, fans saw the glimpse of the greatness that was later to be. To take an even more extreme case, look at Sidney Crosby’s rookie season. There were games when Crosby was good, games when he was very good, and a few games when he was great and when he was already dominant. Granted, Crosby broke Mario Lemieux’s team rookie scoring record, so it’s probably safe to say—barring catastrophic injury or illness—that Crosby is a once-in-a-generation player.
While not all high draft picks are going to be once-in-a-generation players—indeed most will not be—when teams are deciding if one of their high draft choices is NHL-ready, they shouldn’t be looking to see if the player merely "doesn’t look out of place" at the NHL level. They need to know if the player is already capable of contributing at a good level, and in the player’s play at the NHL level, they need to be able to see glimpses of future greatness and dominance. And frankly, in the view of this fan and wannabe GM, a player like Staal needs to play at a level where he can learn what greatness, control, and dominance of the game should be. If Staal is merely capable of being an average NHL player now, he should not yet be in the NHL. If Staal is capable of being a good NHL player—a la Jagr or even slightly less than that—in his first season, then fine, he can stay in the NHL. But if we’re merely saying, "You don’t look out of place," that’s not the point. That can never be the point with players like Staal. Because you do want them to look out of place, to some degree—you want everyone’s eyes to be drawn to them because of how their skill and talent stands out and towers over that of other players. "You don’t look out of place" isn’t what you’re going to want to be said of Staal five years into his NHL career, and it’s also not what you want to hear at the nascent point of his professional career.
All that being said, this fan—if she had Ray Shero’s job—sees no harm, particularly considering Evgeni Malkin’s shoulder injury—to keep Staal on the roster for the first few games of the season. Let the kid get his feet wet in the NHL; let him get a taste, and let’s see how he fares in the real, live NHL games. For very practical financial reasons (let’s say Staal and Malkin have extremely productive careers from the outset, do you want to be signing both to ridiculous contracts in the same year?) as well as for personal development reasons (often players are harmed far longer by rushing them than by waiting a year), this fan would then send Staal back to his junior team for the remainder of the season and allow him to dominate there. Unless, of course—unless he proved to be, let’s say, the third or fourth best player on the Penguins team and one who could help make the team immediately competitive. Yet even then—the question has to be asked—do you want Staal to help now, or do you want him to learn how to dominate and be able to dominate in two or three years time when the Penguins are seriously built to take a run at the Cup?
Ask yourself the right question. And for the sake of Penguins fans, let’s hope that Shero and his coaching staff, et. al are asking themselves the right question when it comes to Jordan Staal.
Dad and I were having a phone chat about the Penguins and Jordan Staal’s name got brought into the conversation. Dad referenced a particular talk show host in Pittsburgh (one who shall remain nameless, not one of whom I’m fond). Dad said the talk show host contended that saying, "Staal doesn’t look out of place" isn’t really what we should be aiming for—and I agree with the host.
If a general manager or coach is asking himself, " Does Staal look out of place here?" that general manager or coach is asking himself the wrong question. When it comes to players like Staal who come with a particular high draft pick pedigree, well, such a player should not merely not look out of place in the NHL. Such a player, even at a young age, should already be a good player. Granted, such a player isn’t going to be the best player on the ice or perhaps even among the top five on your team, but such a player needs to stand out as a good NHL player. Not as a good young NHL player, not as a player who shows the glimpses of being good eventually, but as a player who is already a good NHL player.
Think back to Jaromir Jagr’s first NHL season. Jagr wasn’t yet the dominant superstar he would later become, but he was already a goal-scorer, already capable of scoring points, and already a very good NHL player. In his good play, fans saw the glimpse of the greatness that was later to be. To take an even more extreme case, look at Sidney Crosby’s rookie season. There were games when Crosby was good, games when he was very good, and a few games when he was great and when he was already dominant. Granted, Crosby broke Mario Lemieux’s team rookie scoring record, so it’s probably safe to say—barring catastrophic injury or illness—that Crosby is a once-in-a-generation player.
While not all high draft picks are going to be once-in-a-generation players—indeed most will not be—when teams are deciding if one of their high draft choices is NHL-ready, they shouldn’t be looking to see if the player merely "doesn’t look out of place" at the NHL level. They need to know if the player is already capable of contributing at a good level, and in the player’s play at the NHL level, they need to be able to see glimpses of future greatness and dominance. And frankly, in the view of this fan and wannabe GM, a player like Staal needs to play at a level where he can learn what greatness, control, and dominance of the game should be. If Staal is merely capable of being an average NHL player now, he should not yet be in the NHL. If Staal is capable of being a good NHL player—a la Jagr or even slightly less than that—in his first season, then fine, he can stay in the NHL. But if we’re merely saying, "You don’t look out of place," that’s not the point. That can never be the point with players like Staal. Because you do want them to look out of place, to some degree—you want everyone’s eyes to be drawn to them because of how their skill and talent stands out and towers over that of other players. "You don’t look out of place" isn’t what you’re going to want to be said of Staal five years into his NHL career, and it’s also not what you want to hear at the nascent point of his professional career.
All that being said, this fan—if she had Ray Shero’s job—sees no harm, particularly considering Evgeni Malkin’s shoulder injury—to keep Staal on the roster for the first few games of the season. Let the kid get his feet wet in the NHL; let him get a taste, and let’s see how he fares in the real, live NHL games. For very practical financial reasons (let’s say Staal and Malkin have extremely productive careers from the outset, do you want to be signing both to ridiculous contracts in the same year?) as well as for personal development reasons (often players are harmed far longer by rushing them than by waiting a year), this fan would then send Staal back to his junior team for the remainder of the season and allow him to dominate there. Unless, of course—unless he proved to be, let’s say, the third or fourth best player on the Penguins team and one who could help make the team immediately competitive. Yet even then—the question has to be asked—do you want Staal to help now, or do you want him to learn how to dominate and be able to dominate in two or three years time when the Penguins are seriously built to take a run at the Cup?
Ask yourself the right question. And for the sake of Penguins fans, let’s hope that Shero and his coaching staff, et. al are asking themselves the right question when it comes to Jordan Staal.
Roses and Raspberries
Great Players and Shoulder Injuries
Roses to: Players who can play the game of hockey the way Jaromir Jagr and Evgeni Malkin can.
Raspberries to: Shoulder Injuries, Shoulder Surgery, Potential Shoulder Surgery
Mom’s scouting report turned out to be a bit too prescient for my liking. If you recall, Mom, upon seeing Malkin play for the first time, exclaimed, "He’s like a baby Jagr!" And now, apparently Malkin is like Jagr in more ways than just style of play.
At the current moment, the Rangers are saying Jagr’s status for the season opener is uncertain. Jagr had shoulder surgery, but the Rangers and doctors, apparently, aren’t convinced that Jagr’s shoulder is yet ready for the rigors of actual NHL games. Thus, the Rangers could be starting their season without their best player.
While Malkin hasn’t yet assumed the role of best player on the Pittsburgh Penguins, Malkin did show—before the shoulder injury felled him in his first game—that he was definitely ready to make a contribution to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Without Malkin and without a healthy Malkin, the Penguins lack a second line center. The Penguins never had a legitimate second line center all of last season, and the only reward that came from last year’s miserable record was the prize of Jordan Staal in the NHL entry draft. Point being, having a more than legitimate #2 NHL center in a healthy Malkin, the Penguins can be competitive on most nights. With Malkin injured, well, which players look to be the top prospects for next year’s NHL lottery draft?
Beyond anything else, the thing that sucks about shoulder injuries is that I’m not going to get to see Jaromir Jagr be Jaromir Jagr to start the season (and I’m one who thoroughly enjoyed the return of the Jaromir Jagr I’d known and loved in the 90’s last season). If Malkin ends up sitting out a few weeks, I’m not going to see Malkin for awhile, and if he does end up needing surgery on his shoulder, well, it’s going to be almost a full year (or it could be) until I actually get to see the kid whom Mom compared to a young Jagr.
And as a hockey fan, well, I want to see Jagr and Malkin healthy, and I want to see Jagr and Malkin playing. Best wishes to both for a full, fast recovery and regaining of full strength in their injured shoulders—because, really, I just want to see Jaromir Jagr be Jaromir Jagr and Evgeni Malkin be Evgeni Malkin.
Great Players and Shoulder Injuries
Roses to: Players who can play the game of hockey the way Jaromir Jagr and Evgeni Malkin can.
Raspberries to: Shoulder Injuries, Shoulder Surgery, Potential Shoulder Surgery
Mom’s scouting report turned out to be a bit too prescient for my liking. If you recall, Mom, upon seeing Malkin play for the first time, exclaimed, "He’s like a baby Jagr!" And now, apparently Malkin is like Jagr in more ways than just style of play.
At the current moment, the Rangers are saying Jagr’s status for the season opener is uncertain. Jagr had shoulder surgery, but the Rangers and doctors, apparently, aren’t convinced that Jagr’s shoulder is yet ready for the rigors of actual NHL games. Thus, the Rangers could be starting their season without their best player.
While Malkin hasn’t yet assumed the role of best player on the Pittsburgh Penguins, Malkin did show—before the shoulder injury felled him in his first game—that he was definitely ready to make a contribution to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Without Malkin and without a healthy Malkin, the Penguins lack a second line center. The Penguins never had a legitimate second line center all of last season, and the only reward that came from last year’s miserable record was the prize of Jordan Staal in the NHL entry draft. Point being, having a more than legitimate #2 NHL center in a healthy Malkin, the Penguins can be competitive on most nights. With Malkin injured, well, which players look to be the top prospects for next year’s NHL lottery draft?
Beyond anything else, the thing that sucks about shoulder injuries is that I’m not going to get to see Jaromir Jagr be Jaromir Jagr to start the season (and I’m one who thoroughly enjoyed the return of the Jaromir Jagr I’d known and loved in the 90’s last season). If Malkin ends up sitting out a few weeks, I’m not going to see Malkin for awhile, and if he does end up needing surgery on his shoulder, well, it’s going to be almost a full year (or it could be) until I actually get to see the kid whom Mom compared to a young Jagr.
And as a hockey fan, well, I want to see Jagr and Malkin healthy, and I want to see Jagr and Malkin playing. Best wishes to both for a full, fast recovery and regaining of full strength in their injured shoulders—because, really, I just want to see Jaromir Jagr be Jaromir Jagr and Evgeni Malkin be Evgeni Malkin.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Musings on the Rangers and Jagr
I probably shouldn’t admit this, but Jaromir Jagr is probably my favorite hockey player of all time. Paul Coffey’s skating originally got me intrigued by hockey (I was five then), but when Jagr arrived in Pittsburgh (I was eight), I took an immediate liking to how he played the game. Sure, I’ll admit as a young girl and teenager, I liked the flowing hair and Jagr’s goofy grin, but most of all, I just liked the way he played the game. Jagr was aggressive on the ice. Jagr didn’t dive when players tried to pull him down; he just skated with two and three people on his back during the years in the mid to late nineties when obstruction fouling ruled in the NHL. Early in his career, Jagr dipsy-doodled over the ice, always strong on the puck, and danced around defenders. As he developed more strength, he learned to plow through defenders while still doing some dipsy-doodling. And when Jagr finally became Jagr—the player who’d win multiple league scoring championships and play on an injured groin and lead his team to a playoff victory series—well, wow, I just loved to watch Jagr play.
Jagr’s last season in Pittsburgh soured many people on him, but not me. I guess it’s probably because I had too many fond memories of Jagr and all that he had done in a Penguins uniform for me to get really angry and bitter with him. Jagr had always been a little moody and neurotic—not that his neurotic moodiness really affected his on-ice production much at the peak of his career—and I accepted his personality as part of what it meant to love Jags the player. I still loved Jagr the player even in a Capitals uniform and even though he certainly wasn’t performing like the Jaromir Jagr I knew and loved. And last year, when I watched my Penguins team fall flat, I cheered from a distance for a rejuvenated Jagr. Because Jaromir Jagr playing at the peak of his game is good for the NHL and great for the game of hockey.
However, Jagr’s great season didn’t end so great. He fell short of capturing the league scoring championship and injured his shoulder in the first round of the playoffs, an injury from which he’s had to recuperate all summer. A recent issue of The Hockey News informed me that questions still abound about the Rangers, as they should. The Rangers are still seeking "respect," according to the article.
But respect has to be earned, and as I mentioned earlier this summer, I’m concerned about the Rangers this upcoming season. Recent events have only made me more concerned. Jagr claims he hasn’t been able to work as he would have liked this summer due to his injury, and I believe him. I also believe that if Jagr believes he hasn’t been able to work out as well as he wants to and Jagr believes he’s not ready for the season, that’s a huge problem. Because as Jagr’s mind goes, so goes his fate, and as goes Jagr’s fate and fortune, so goes the fate and fortune of the Rangers season. Likewise, while I understand why doctors and coaches are keeping Jagr out of preseason games in order to ensure his shoulder can withstand the pounding that will no doubt come when the season commences, Jagr has always been a player who believes scrimmages are important to be in game shape. Whether Jagr can just step on the ice and pick up where he left off before his injury last season is moot point. If Jagr believes that he isn’t ready or capable of picking up where he left off last season, he and the Rangers will have a huge problem on their hands.
A sluggish start by Jagr could lead to a slow start overall for the Rangers, and I’d be lying if I said—given Jagr’s past history (keep in mind that I still love Jags)—that shouldn’t concern Rangers partisans. Because a slow start in a New York market where fans and media expectations are going to be amplified given the renaissance that occurred during the regular season last year, well—just look out.
I don’t even know that I have advice for Tom Renney or Glen Sather or Rangers fans about what to do if Jagr gets off to a slow start or if the team starts out the season at a sluggish pace (saying, winning at the same rate as they lose, or perhaps even slightly worse than that, to begin the year). But given the experience of loving and cheering for Jagr for the better part of 16 years now, have patience until he gets to the point where he believes the shoulder injury and off-season won’t affect him. Sure, if you can work the mind trickery to get him to believe that before the start of the season, bravo and terrific for you.
But when it comes to Jagr, believing he can do it—at this stage of his career—is what matters the most. Pouncing on other players with doubt might be the right way to go, but for Jags—just as a warning for fans, media, et. al—it’s generally not the way to go.
Yet, seriously, I’m hopeful. Hopeful to see Jagr again play like the player who was the best player in the world. Even in a Rangers uniform. Because, as age and injuries show, best player in the world lasts for a finite amount of time.
So here’s to wishing Jags and the Rangers a great season in the window of time still left, while I cheer for my team, hopeful that our window of time in Pittsburgh remains long after Jagr’s hung up his skates for good.
I probably shouldn’t admit this, but Jaromir Jagr is probably my favorite hockey player of all time. Paul Coffey’s skating originally got me intrigued by hockey (I was five then), but when Jagr arrived in Pittsburgh (I was eight), I took an immediate liking to how he played the game. Sure, I’ll admit as a young girl and teenager, I liked the flowing hair and Jagr’s goofy grin, but most of all, I just liked the way he played the game. Jagr was aggressive on the ice. Jagr didn’t dive when players tried to pull him down; he just skated with two and three people on his back during the years in the mid to late nineties when obstruction fouling ruled in the NHL. Early in his career, Jagr dipsy-doodled over the ice, always strong on the puck, and danced around defenders. As he developed more strength, he learned to plow through defenders while still doing some dipsy-doodling. And when Jagr finally became Jagr—the player who’d win multiple league scoring championships and play on an injured groin and lead his team to a playoff victory series—well, wow, I just loved to watch Jagr play.
Jagr’s last season in Pittsburgh soured many people on him, but not me. I guess it’s probably because I had too many fond memories of Jagr and all that he had done in a Penguins uniform for me to get really angry and bitter with him. Jagr had always been a little moody and neurotic—not that his neurotic moodiness really affected his on-ice production much at the peak of his career—and I accepted his personality as part of what it meant to love Jags the player. I still loved Jagr the player even in a Capitals uniform and even though he certainly wasn’t performing like the Jaromir Jagr I knew and loved. And last year, when I watched my Penguins team fall flat, I cheered from a distance for a rejuvenated Jagr. Because Jaromir Jagr playing at the peak of his game is good for the NHL and great for the game of hockey.
However, Jagr’s great season didn’t end so great. He fell short of capturing the league scoring championship and injured his shoulder in the first round of the playoffs, an injury from which he’s had to recuperate all summer. A recent issue of The Hockey News informed me that questions still abound about the Rangers, as they should. The Rangers are still seeking "respect," according to the article.
But respect has to be earned, and as I mentioned earlier this summer, I’m concerned about the Rangers this upcoming season. Recent events have only made me more concerned. Jagr claims he hasn’t been able to work as he would have liked this summer due to his injury, and I believe him. I also believe that if Jagr believes he hasn’t been able to work out as well as he wants to and Jagr believes he’s not ready for the season, that’s a huge problem. Because as Jagr’s mind goes, so goes his fate, and as goes Jagr’s fate and fortune, so goes the fate and fortune of the Rangers season. Likewise, while I understand why doctors and coaches are keeping Jagr out of preseason games in order to ensure his shoulder can withstand the pounding that will no doubt come when the season commences, Jagr has always been a player who believes scrimmages are important to be in game shape. Whether Jagr can just step on the ice and pick up where he left off before his injury last season is moot point. If Jagr believes that he isn’t ready or capable of picking up where he left off last season, he and the Rangers will have a huge problem on their hands.
A sluggish start by Jagr could lead to a slow start overall for the Rangers, and I’d be lying if I said—given Jagr’s past history (keep in mind that I still love Jags)—that shouldn’t concern Rangers partisans. Because a slow start in a New York market where fans and media expectations are going to be amplified given the renaissance that occurred during the regular season last year, well—just look out.
I don’t even know that I have advice for Tom Renney or Glen Sather or Rangers fans about what to do if Jagr gets off to a slow start or if the team starts out the season at a sluggish pace (saying, winning at the same rate as they lose, or perhaps even slightly worse than that, to begin the year). But given the experience of loving and cheering for Jagr for the better part of 16 years now, have patience until he gets to the point where he believes the shoulder injury and off-season won’t affect him. Sure, if you can work the mind trickery to get him to believe that before the start of the season, bravo and terrific for you.
But when it comes to Jagr, believing he can do it—at this stage of his career—is what matters the most. Pouncing on other players with doubt might be the right way to go, but for Jags—just as a warning for fans, media, et. al—it’s generally not the way to go.
Yet, seriously, I’m hopeful. Hopeful to see Jagr again play like the player who was the best player in the world. Even in a Rangers uniform. Because, as age and injuries show, best player in the world lasts for a finite amount of time.
So here’s to wishing Jags and the Rangers a great season in the window of time still left, while I cheer for my team, hopeful that our window of time in Pittsburgh remains long after Jagr’s hung up his skates for good.
Yet, Concern….
In the midst of my eagerly looking forward to the Penguins upcoming season, two palpable clouds hang over my anticipation of the coming season. Even as I know I’ll get to watch my Penguins play in Pittsburgh this season, doubts abound.
The first doubt, the one that I want resolved quickly, is assurance that Malkin will actually be legally permitted to play for the Pittsburgh Penguins this season. I know I’m going to have to wait for that decision to come down—but until that decision comes down, I’m certainly not going to feel confident that the Penguins are good to go with 2 legitimate NHL centers to man the team’s top two lines. I can’t do anything but wait for the Malkin saga/situation/drama/legal issues to be resolved. But in the midst of eagerly hearing Mom’s scouting report, well, let’s just say I want that issue resolved, presto, pronto, in favor of my Penguins, of course.
Yet the other issue that’s lurking is really a much larger issue. My parents have already bought tickets for a Penguins-Rangers game a weekend when I’ll be in Pittsburgh, so I’m already looking forward to that game. However, recent news that a Canadian is now the front-runner to buy my franchise is making me, well, leery. Because this Canadian has deep ties to the area where he’s currently living, and because he’s previously been known to want to relocate the team, well, sigh. Plus, there’s also the fact that no ground has yet been broken on a new facility in Pittsburgh and the Penguins lease is up at the end of the year. And while I have fond memories of Mellon Arena (then the Civic Arena) from the days when Lemieux, Jagr, et. al put on nightly displays of firewagon hockey at its best, the fact is that the arena is aging. Aging is a polite way to put falling into a state of disrepair. Aging is a polite way to say that the team and the city need a new arena with 21st century amenities in order to do business in the current century. But the slots license deal is still a mess ( I agree with one local Pittsburgh sports broadcaster who claims the slots license deal "reeks to high heaven"), and the end result is the Penguins don’t have to stay in Pittsburgh next season.
So sure, I want to see Crosby and Malkin star. I want to see what will happen as Fleury and Jordan Staal develop, too. I want to see how GM Ray Shero plans to build a contender.
But over all that excitement and anticipation, come the doubts, and the doubts aren’t fleeting. Because I’m a grown-up and I know that if the new owner doesn’t get what he needs when he needs it, my team—the Pittsburgh Penguins—is no more. And then, well, when I’m counseling patience with our young, talented team throughout this winter because of what will one day come to fruition, well, am I really counseling patience for the future of my Pittsburgh Penguins?
In the midst of my eagerly looking forward to the Penguins upcoming season, two palpable clouds hang over my anticipation of the coming season. Even as I know I’ll get to watch my Penguins play in Pittsburgh this season, doubts abound.
The first doubt, the one that I want resolved quickly, is assurance that Malkin will actually be legally permitted to play for the Pittsburgh Penguins this season. I know I’m going to have to wait for that decision to come down—but until that decision comes down, I’m certainly not going to feel confident that the Penguins are good to go with 2 legitimate NHL centers to man the team’s top two lines. I can’t do anything but wait for the Malkin saga/situation/drama/legal issues to be resolved. But in the midst of eagerly hearing Mom’s scouting report, well, let’s just say I want that issue resolved, presto, pronto, in favor of my Penguins, of course.
Yet the other issue that’s lurking is really a much larger issue. My parents have already bought tickets for a Penguins-Rangers game a weekend when I’ll be in Pittsburgh, so I’m already looking forward to that game. However, recent news that a Canadian is now the front-runner to buy my franchise is making me, well, leery. Because this Canadian has deep ties to the area where he’s currently living, and because he’s previously been known to want to relocate the team, well, sigh. Plus, there’s also the fact that no ground has yet been broken on a new facility in Pittsburgh and the Penguins lease is up at the end of the year. And while I have fond memories of Mellon Arena (then the Civic Arena) from the days when Lemieux, Jagr, et. al put on nightly displays of firewagon hockey at its best, the fact is that the arena is aging. Aging is a polite way to put falling into a state of disrepair. Aging is a polite way to say that the team and the city need a new arena with 21st century amenities in order to do business in the current century. But the slots license deal is still a mess ( I agree with one local Pittsburgh sports broadcaster who claims the slots license deal "reeks to high heaven"), and the end result is the Penguins don’t have to stay in Pittsburgh next season.
So sure, I want to see Crosby and Malkin star. I want to see what will happen as Fleury and Jordan Staal develop, too. I want to see how GM Ray Shero plans to build a contender.
But over all that excitement and anticipation, come the doubts, and the doubts aren’t fleeting. Because I’m a grown-up and I know that if the new owner doesn’t get what he needs when he needs it, my team—the Pittsburgh Penguins—is no more. And then, well, when I’m counseling patience with our young, talented team throughout this winter because of what will one day come to fruition, well, am I really counseling patience for the future of my Pittsburgh Penguins?
Palpable Excitement
I can’t deny that I’m really excited about the upcoming Penguins season. Although I’m not in Pittsburgh, my mother’s first scouting report on Malkin got me extremely excited. Mom’s 1-sentence report "He’s like a baby Jagr!" was an exclamation, and then she proceeded to describe Malkin’s strength on the puck, and how he, like Jagr, could just throw opposing players off him while holding onto the puck.
Well, hip hip hurray. I can’t deny being excited about the possibility of seeing two players of the caliber of Crosby and Malkin center the Penguins first two lines this winter. Likewise, I can’t deny the fact that I still don’t believe my Penguins are anywhere near ready to contend for the Cup—the goalie is still young and unproven, and our defense, well—the less said about our depth at defense and on the wings, the better.
But I grew up watching Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr star for the Penguins. I grew up watching the best hockey player in the world, followed by the best hockey player in the world. I grew up watching teams that had winning records every year because two of the best players in the world played for my team.
And the idea that I, as an adult this time around, get to watch young kids like Crosby and Malkin potentially develop into players who are recognized as the best in the game, well, it’s just plainly exciting. It’s plainly something I’m eagerly looking forward to watching. Because, what with all the memories I have of the highlight reel goals of Lemieux and Jagr, I know watching Crosby and Malkin play and create new highlight reels is just going to be tons of fun and sheer pleasure.
I can’t deny that I’m really excited about the upcoming Penguins season. Although I’m not in Pittsburgh, my mother’s first scouting report on Malkin got me extremely excited. Mom’s 1-sentence report "He’s like a baby Jagr!" was an exclamation, and then she proceeded to describe Malkin’s strength on the puck, and how he, like Jagr, could just throw opposing players off him while holding onto the puck.
Well, hip hip hurray. I can’t deny being excited about the possibility of seeing two players of the caliber of Crosby and Malkin center the Penguins first two lines this winter. Likewise, I can’t deny the fact that I still don’t believe my Penguins are anywhere near ready to contend for the Cup—the goalie is still young and unproven, and our defense, well—the less said about our depth at defense and on the wings, the better.
But I grew up watching Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr star for the Penguins. I grew up watching the best hockey player in the world, followed by the best hockey player in the world. I grew up watching teams that had winning records every year because two of the best players in the world played for my team.
And the idea that I, as an adult this time around, get to watch young kids like Crosby and Malkin potentially develop into players who are recognized as the best in the game, well, it’s just plainly exciting. It’s plainly something I’m eagerly looking forward to watching. Because, what with all the memories I have of the highlight reel goals of Lemieux and Jagr, I know watching Crosby and Malkin play and create new highlight reels is just going to be tons of fun and sheer pleasure.
Garth Snow Did What?
So in the midst of work and life, somehow I missed the news this week that Garth Snow signed Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro to a 15-year-deal worth 67.5 million dollars. Yes, I did a double-take too. A 15-year-deal? 67.5 million dollars in guaranteed money? Seriously now, this is how Snow wanted to begin his career as Islanders general manager?
When it comes to long-term contracts for millions of dollars, general managers have the potential to look like geniuses or buffoons (and buffoons is putting it mildly). To be perfectly frank, DiPietro, provided no injuries or other things come his way (a big if for any hockey player) looks like he can be a competent and even above-average NHL goaltender for many years. Yet the rational, logical side of my brain asks the question, What in the world was Snow thinking? Or not thinking? The rational, logical side of my brain concurs with my little brother’s sentiment that Garth Snow is clearly trying to become the new Craig Patrick of NHL GM’s. (Little brother, by the way, is not referring to Patrick when he was swinging deals for Ron Francis and Ulf Samuelsson, but the Patrick of more recent seasons who did such things as trade Markus Naslund for Alek Stojanov and Jaromir Jagr for, well, let’s not even go there.)
Because here’s the thing when it comes to long-term deals for any player. You are TIED to that long-term deal. You are TIED to that player. With a long-term deal, if your player suddenly doesn’t perform at his labeled price tag, well, guess what? There is no way you’re going to get anywhere near equal value in a trade because no other team is going to want to be a legitimate trading partner. You’re tying, bonding, binding, yourself to one specific player for an incredible length of time, and I don’t care if that player is one of the best in league history in the prime of his career (which DiPietro most definitely isn’t), it’s still incredibly risky.
Making risky moves can pay off in the NHL, and sometimes making risky deals pays dividends. If DiPietro ever performs to capabilities he’s shown at various times throughout his career and becomes one of those "money" goalies who can steal a playoff series for his team, then maybe his deal looks cheap and looks like a great idea. (However, the idea of the Islanders, under current ownership, actually qualifying for the playoffs, remains a laughable concept.) And I would not be surprised if there is a season or two, or even a period of multiple seasons throughout his career, when DiPietro’s contract ends up looking like a bargain. But the thing is, honestly, 15 years is such an incredibly long time. Sure, with the advent of modern conditioning, goalies can play stronger games for much longer, but still—what happens when you have a goalie, past his prime, in his late thirties, still pulling down a ridiculous salary? At the time when, let’s say, you’ve drafted another young goalie to replace the goalie who was your franchise goalie. What happens when the young, brash DiPietro is the wily veteran—a competent back-up but not a goalie you want to play 70 games a season anymore and you’re still paying him the same salary? Isn’t that contract going to look like a ridiculous albatross?
Although I hated the one economics class I was forced to take in college, I’ve heard of "inflation," and perhaps current Islanders GM Snow believes that inflation will ultimately make DiPietro cheap. Yet right now, in the present moment, I’ve got to come down on the side of little brother. Unless we’re talking about a once-in-a-generation player a la Gretzky or Lemieux, you don’t do 15-year-deals. Period. And even with those once-in-a-generation players, you’d best be careful. Because who knows what kind of injuries and health problems can occur? Seriously? And even with the deal’s apparent qualification for "retirement due to injury," one can have injuries that affect your level of play and yet still not be forced to retire due to such injuries.
Of course, I have to qualify everything. I won’t be surprised if there is a season or two or even a few more where Snow’s unorthodox signing will make me, and other bloggers and prognosticators like me, look incredibly foolish. Yet over the long-term? The long-haul that is 15 years?
Well, it looks like my previous post from this summer is holding up:Islanders rookie GM Garth Snow is definitely learning on the job.
Also—as an aside—a part of me wonders if Snow would have attempted to sign DiPietro to such a long-term deal if they hadn’t been good buddies as teammates? A part of me wonders if DiPietro would have signed such a long-term deal if he and Snow hadn’t been friends? Because, for something so unorthodox, well, other considerations had to factor into this decision, at least in my opinion.
Over the next fifteen years, we’ll have to wait and see if my opinion and those of little brother and so many others ultimately win out over those of rookie GM Snow.
So in the midst of work and life, somehow I missed the news this week that Garth Snow signed Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro to a 15-year-deal worth 67.5 million dollars. Yes, I did a double-take too. A 15-year-deal? 67.5 million dollars in guaranteed money? Seriously now, this is how Snow wanted to begin his career as Islanders general manager?
When it comes to long-term contracts for millions of dollars, general managers have the potential to look like geniuses or buffoons (and buffoons is putting it mildly). To be perfectly frank, DiPietro, provided no injuries or other things come his way (a big if for any hockey player) looks like he can be a competent and even above-average NHL goaltender for many years. Yet the rational, logical side of my brain asks the question, What in the world was Snow thinking? Or not thinking? The rational, logical side of my brain concurs with my little brother’s sentiment that Garth Snow is clearly trying to become the new Craig Patrick of NHL GM’s. (Little brother, by the way, is not referring to Patrick when he was swinging deals for Ron Francis and Ulf Samuelsson, but the Patrick of more recent seasons who did such things as trade Markus Naslund for Alek Stojanov and Jaromir Jagr for, well, let’s not even go there.)
Because here’s the thing when it comes to long-term deals for any player. You are TIED to that long-term deal. You are TIED to that player. With a long-term deal, if your player suddenly doesn’t perform at his labeled price tag, well, guess what? There is no way you’re going to get anywhere near equal value in a trade because no other team is going to want to be a legitimate trading partner. You’re tying, bonding, binding, yourself to one specific player for an incredible length of time, and I don’t care if that player is one of the best in league history in the prime of his career (which DiPietro most definitely isn’t), it’s still incredibly risky.
Making risky moves can pay off in the NHL, and sometimes making risky deals pays dividends. If DiPietro ever performs to capabilities he’s shown at various times throughout his career and becomes one of those "money" goalies who can steal a playoff series for his team, then maybe his deal looks cheap and looks like a great idea. (However, the idea of the Islanders, under current ownership, actually qualifying for the playoffs, remains a laughable concept.) And I would not be surprised if there is a season or two, or even a period of multiple seasons throughout his career, when DiPietro’s contract ends up looking like a bargain. But the thing is, honestly, 15 years is such an incredibly long time. Sure, with the advent of modern conditioning, goalies can play stronger games for much longer, but still—what happens when you have a goalie, past his prime, in his late thirties, still pulling down a ridiculous salary? At the time when, let’s say, you’ve drafted another young goalie to replace the goalie who was your franchise goalie. What happens when the young, brash DiPietro is the wily veteran—a competent back-up but not a goalie you want to play 70 games a season anymore and you’re still paying him the same salary? Isn’t that contract going to look like a ridiculous albatross?
Although I hated the one economics class I was forced to take in college, I’ve heard of "inflation," and perhaps current Islanders GM Snow believes that inflation will ultimately make DiPietro cheap. Yet right now, in the present moment, I’ve got to come down on the side of little brother. Unless we’re talking about a once-in-a-generation player a la Gretzky or Lemieux, you don’t do 15-year-deals. Period. And even with those once-in-a-generation players, you’d best be careful. Because who knows what kind of injuries and health problems can occur? Seriously? And even with the deal’s apparent qualification for "retirement due to injury," one can have injuries that affect your level of play and yet still not be forced to retire due to such injuries.
Of course, I have to qualify everything. I won’t be surprised if there is a season or two or even a few more where Snow’s unorthodox signing will make me, and other bloggers and prognosticators like me, look incredibly foolish. Yet over the long-term? The long-haul that is 15 years?
Well, it looks like my previous post from this summer is holding up:Islanders rookie GM Garth Snow is definitely learning on the job.
Also—as an aside—a part of me wonders if Snow would have attempted to sign DiPietro to such a long-term deal if they hadn’t been good buddies as teammates? A part of me wonders if DiPietro would have signed such a long-term deal if he and Snow hadn’t been friends? Because, for something so unorthodox, well, other considerations had to factor into this decision, at least in my opinion.
Over the next fifteen years, we’ll have to wait and see if my opinion and those of little brother and so many others ultimately win out over those of rookie GM Snow.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Patience is a Virtue
"Patience is a virtue, but not one of mine," my best friend frequently says. Fortunately, my best friend, bless her heart, is not a diehard Penguins fan like me. Because during the 2006-07 season, Penguins fans are going to have to internalize the belief that patience is a virtue.
I’ve already explained why I believe patience is going to be necessary when it comes to Evgeni Malkin, but frankly, Malkin is not the only player on this team with whom fans and coaches alike are going to need to have patience. Sidney Crosby, phenomenal as he was last season and still is, remains a kid. Hopefully Crosby gets his "yapping" at officials under better control this season, but there are going to be occasions (hopefully very few) when the fact that Crosby is nineteen will supersede his incredible talent.
Even more so than Crosby and Malkin, however, are the young defensemen the Penguins will presumably have playing top 4 or top 6 minutes this year. Unfortunately, whether fans or coaches like it or not, the only way young NHL defensemen learn how to play defense in the NHL is by playing defense in the NHL. Knowing that mistakes are going to be made and then learned from, coaches have got to put the young defensemen on the ice and just let them learn by playing the game. Given that the Penguins do not have a Chris Pronger or Scott Niedermayer to pair with their young defensemen and to help cover up youthful errors, well, the inexperience of our defensemen will be put on display mostly every night until our defensemen gain enough experience to know the right play and how to execute the play. And watching that while screaming at the TV about how that’s been the third time in as many games that a defenseman got beat because he’s not as strong on the puck as a forward isn’t going to make that defenseman gain strength any quicker. Like it or not, Pens fans are going to have to be patient.
Oh, and on that patient bit? Ask Hartford Whalers fans (any still remaining) and St. Louis Blues fans how long it took Chris Pronger to become Chris Pronger. Heck, even ask Glen Sather to remind you that it took him half a season to convince Paul Coffey (yes, the Hall of Famer who later starred for the Penguins) to rush the puck up the ice. Ask any coach who’s had to coach a young, talented defenseman, and ask that coach if the player really put it altogether in his first or second season—and the answer is generally going to be, Not yet.
That doesn’t mean coaches need to tolerate repeated mistakes, and it doesn’t mean fans should back off all criticism of young players. It just means be aware of what you’re getting. When it comes to Ryan Whitney and Noah Welch, you’re getting young, talented defensemen. Are they talented enough? What’s their talent level really like; what’s their career going to look like?
The answers to those questions are "We don’t know yet." And in the midst of beginning to discover those answers in the 2006-07 season, the truth of rooting for a talented but very young team remains:
Patience is a virtue.
"Patience is a virtue, but not one of mine," my best friend frequently says. Fortunately, my best friend, bless her heart, is not a diehard Penguins fan like me. Because during the 2006-07 season, Penguins fans are going to have to internalize the belief that patience is a virtue.
I’ve already explained why I believe patience is going to be necessary when it comes to Evgeni Malkin, but frankly, Malkin is not the only player on this team with whom fans and coaches alike are going to need to have patience. Sidney Crosby, phenomenal as he was last season and still is, remains a kid. Hopefully Crosby gets his "yapping" at officials under better control this season, but there are going to be occasions (hopefully very few) when the fact that Crosby is nineteen will supersede his incredible talent.
Even more so than Crosby and Malkin, however, are the young defensemen the Penguins will presumably have playing top 4 or top 6 minutes this year. Unfortunately, whether fans or coaches like it or not, the only way young NHL defensemen learn how to play defense in the NHL is by playing defense in the NHL. Knowing that mistakes are going to be made and then learned from, coaches have got to put the young defensemen on the ice and just let them learn by playing the game. Given that the Penguins do not have a Chris Pronger or Scott Niedermayer to pair with their young defensemen and to help cover up youthful errors, well, the inexperience of our defensemen will be put on display mostly every night until our defensemen gain enough experience to know the right play and how to execute the play. And watching that while screaming at the TV about how that’s been the third time in as many games that a defenseman got beat because he’s not as strong on the puck as a forward isn’t going to make that defenseman gain strength any quicker. Like it or not, Pens fans are going to have to be patient.
Oh, and on that patient bit? Ask Hartford Whalers fans (any still remaining) and St. Louis Blues fans how long it took Chris Pronger to become Chris Pronger. Heck, even ask Glen Sather to remind you that it took him half a season to convince Paul Coffey (yes, the Hall of Famer who later starred for the Penguins) to rush the puck up the ice. Ask any coach who’s had to coach a young, talented defenseman, and ask that coach if the player really put it altogether in his first or second season—and the answer is generally going to be, Not yet.
That doesn’t mean coaches need to tolerate repeated mistakes, and it doesn’t mean fans should back off all criticism of young players. It just means be aware of what you’re getting. When it comes to Ryan Whitney and Noah Welch, you’re getting young, talented defensemen. Are they talented enough? What’s their talent level really like; what’s their career going to look like?
The answers to those questions are "We don’t know yet." And in the midst of beginning to discover those answers in the 2006-07 season, the truth of rooting for a talented but very young team remains:
Patience is a virtue.
On That Other Penguins News and Musings on Goaltending
So the Penguins signed another goaltender. I haven’t yet done any research on this goalie, so as of yet, I can’t comment on him specifically. But I do think the Pens needed more organizational depth when it comes to goaltending, and if this kid provides that even for the minor league levels, so be it.
Am I the only one who’s still not keen on the idea of relying on Thibeault to back up Fleury this year? Seriously?
Also, on another note, while drafting 18-year-olds is often a crapshoot, there are times when I feel that "crapshoot" is never more evidenced than by how certain (not all) goaltenders develop or, more precisely, fail to develop. Scanning through hockeydb.com this summer (a lovely web site you should definitely check out), my brother noted that Trevor Kidd was drafted before Martin Brodeur. The response to such a selection years later, is, of course, "What was so-and-so thinking?"
And Eddie Belfour? The goaltender who might be old and past his prime now but who remais one of the NHL’s winningiest goalies? If little brother has informed me correctly, Belfour was never drafted. A free-agent pick-up who turned out to be near the leader board of all-time NHL victories for goalies.
Granted, I want Marc-Andre Fleury to become the money goaltender who can backstop Stanley Cup winners and keep the Penguins in games until Crosby, Malkin, et al, put on their show. But if for whatever reason that doesn’t happen, here’s to dreaming that Penner, the goalie about whom I know very little, turns out to have a career as great as Belfour’s or even a moment where he shines in the limelight as did Frank Pieterangelo back in the spring of 1991.
So the Penguins signed another goaltender. I haven’t yet done any research on this goalie, so as of yet, I can’t comment on him specifically. But I do think the Pens needed more organizational depth when it comes to goaltending, and if this kid provides that even for the minor league levels, so be it.
Am I the only one who’s still not keen on the idea of relying on Thibeault to back up Fleury this year? Seriously?
Also, on another note, while drafting 18-year-olds is often a crapshoot, there are times when I feel that "crapshoot" is never more evidenced than by how certain (not all) goaltenders develop or, more precisely, fail to develop. Scanning through hockeydb.com this summer (a lovely web site you should definitely check out), my brother noted that Trevor Kidd was drafted before Martin Brodeur. The response to such a selection years later, is, of course, "What was so-and-so thinking?"
And Eddie Belfour? The goaltender who might be old and past his prime now but who remais one of the NHL’s winningiest goalies? If little brother has informed me correctly, Belfour was never drafted. A free-agent pick-up who turned out to be near the leader board of all-time NHL victories for goalies.
Granted, I want Marc-Andre Fleury to become the money goaltender who can backstop Stanley Cup winners and keep the Penguins in games until Crosby, Malkin, et al, put on their show. But if for whatever reason that doesn’t happen, here’s to dreaming that Penner, the goalie about whom I know very little, turns out to have a career as great as Belfour’s or even a moment where he shines in the limelight as did Frank Pieterangelo back in the spring of 1991.
The Last Malkin Post (For the Moment)
(Until It’s time for another one)
Okay, so Evgeni Malkin has arrived in North America. More specifically, young Mr. Malkin is now attending the Penguins rookie camp.
I’m going to refrain from speculation about the off-ice mess and circus surrounding Malkin. (Really, there are no better words than circus and mess to describe a general manager invoking phrases like "sports terrorism," among other threats.) For one, speculating about off-the-ice issues, such as potential legal actions by the Russians, is pointless. So I’ll set aside that off the ice idle speculation for the moment.
Instead, because this is a hockey blog, I’m going to focus my speculation on what Malkin’s arrival in North America means to the Penguins, assuming Malkin will be legally able to suit up in a Penguins jersey come opening night. In the midst of Malkin’s sojourn to the United States, and the ensuing interviews Malkin has given through an interpreter, several facts have become abundantly clear. Malkin desperately wants to play in the NHL. Malkin was under pressure—if not threats, then certainly pressure—to remain in Russia. Malkin is twenty-years-old and was listening to a bunch of people tell him several different things.
Among all those facts about Malkin—and they’re all relevant to the 2006-07 Pittsburgh Penguins—what is most salient is the fact that Malkin is a twenty-year-old kid who just arrived in a foreign country. While Malkin is used to being a star in Russia, he is going to have to adjust to the demands of the American media and become accustomed to American culture. He’s also going to have to learn English. Unlike Sidney Crosby, who came into the league at age eighteen speaking his native language and having been used to dealing with the media from the age of thirteen, Malkin is going to have to make off-the-ice adjustments. It’s the off-the-ice adjustments that the Penguins management and Penguins fans are going to have to keep in mind throughout the 2006-07 season.
For a moment, think back over the years to various players who’ve arrived from Europe or Russia. Think back on their first seasons in the NHL. For every player who took the NHL by storm while learning a foreign language and adjusting to a new culture, there are certainly more players who struggled at least a few times, and possibly more than just a few times, that first season. Learning the NHL game can be a transition enough, but couple that with everything going on off the ice, too? No matter how much money a player is making, the transition is never without struggle. Sure, Penguins fans all remember Jaromir Jagr’s pretty playoff goals during the 1991 Stanley Cup run, but Pens fans might forget that Jagr didn’t begin to settle in comfortably in Pittsburgh until Jiri Hrdina arrived in December of 1990.
Which brings me to Sergei Gonchar. Moan as Penguins fans might about Gonchar’s defensive lapses, etc, Gonchar’s most important role on the Penguins this season has absolutely nothing to do with quarterbacking the power play, killing penalties, or even teaching the young defensemen. No, this year Gonchar’s main responsibility, on and off the ice, is going to have to be Evgeni Malkin. Gonchar is going to have to serve as mentor, friend, counselor, and translator for Malkin. Sure, Penguins fans, if they want, have the right to fuss at Gonchar for subpar defensive play. But I, for one, am going to withhold my fussing at Gonchar so long as Gonchar is doing his job (on the ice and off the ice) in helping Malkin adjust to the NHL game and to North America. So long as Malkin is producing and beginning to adjust and perhaps showing signs of flourishing, and so long as Malkin credits Gonchar for helping him out, well, guess what, I’ll just have to deal with an occasional boneheaded Gonchar play.
I’m aware of the fact that I’m a cynical person, and Pens fans who saw Crosby and Ovechkin take the NHL by storm last year might wonder why I’m so insistent about "lowering expectations," so to speak, for Evgeni Malkin. The cynical side of my brain asks, Do you remember who the last Penguin to be called the best player in the world not yet in the NHL was? Yes, folks, that was one Aleksey Morozov, currently the reigning MVP of the RSL but never a dominant or consistently even a very good player in the NHL. Of course the logical side of my brain knows that Malkin plays a very different style of game than Morozov, a game that is far more suited to the NHL than Morozov’s. I also saw Malkin more than hold his own against NHL players in the past winter Olympics. Yet the logical and cynical sides of my brain still meet and cry out, "Please don’t expect this kid to be perfect right away!"
Because that’s the thing. In all the interviews, in every quote that’s come out of newspapers, what stands out is that Malkin is still a kid. An extremely talented kid who’s going to have to adjust to North American ice and North American culture. Sure, hopefully Malkin’s talented enough to "just be himself" on the ice surface when everything off the ice is new.
Yet a fact holds for Penguins coaches, Penguins players, and Penguins fans, and that’s this: Be patient with this kid.
Hopefully we won’t need patience. Hopefully Malkin repeats what Ovechkin did last year, in a way that’s unique to his particular skill set.
But if he doesn’t do that immediately—be patient. That advice has to go to Coach Therrien and Sergei Gonchar as well as other Penguins players.
Less than two years after he arrived in North America, Jaromir Jagr took over the Rangers series after Adam Graves slashed Mario Lemieux’s hand. Sure, Pens fans had previously seen what Jagr could do—but not the way we saw it in that series. So guess what, really, if I’m expecting Evgeni Malkin to turn out to be as good or better than Jaromir Jagr, I really don’t have low expectations. I have high expectations. I’m just saying, don’t be surprised, angry, or impatient if those high expectations aren’t immediately fulfilled in the 2006-07 season.
Celebrate if immediate success comes, of course, but if not, well…just know that time eventually brought us Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr in the prime of their careers.
Take time to wait on Malkin to become what his decision to leave Russia shows he wants to be—a dominant NHL player.
(Until It’s time for another one)
Okay, so Evgeni Malkin has arrived in North America. More specifically, young Mr. Malkin is now attending the Penguins rookie camp.
I’m going to refrain from speculation about the off-ice mess and circus surrounding Malkin. (Really, there are no better words than circus and mess to describe a general manager invoking phrases like "sports terrorism," among other threats.) For one, speculating about off-the-ice issues, such as potential legal actions by the Russians, is pointless. So I’ll set aside that off the ice idle speculation for the moment.
Instead, because this is a hockey blog, I’m going to focus my speculation on what Malkin’s arrival in North America means to the Penguins, assuming Malkin will be legally able to suit up in a Penguins jersey come opening night. In the midst of Malkin’s sojourn to the United States, and the ensuing interviews Malkin has given through an interpreter, several facts have become abundantly clear. Malkin desperately wants to play in the NHL. Malkin was under pressure—if not threats, then certainly pressure—to remain in Russia. Malkin is twenty-years-old and was listening to a bunch of people tell him several different things.
Among all those facts about Malkin—and they’re all relevant to the 2006-07 Pittsburgh Penguins—what is most salient is the fact that Malkin is a twenty-year-old kid who just arrived in a foreign country. While Malkin is used to being a star in Russia, he is going to have to adjust to the demands of the American media and become accustomed to American culture. He’s also going to have to learn English. Unlike Sidney Crosby, who came into the league at age eighteen speaking his native language and having been used to dealing with the media from the age of thirteen, Malkin is going to have to make off-the-ice adjustments. It’s the off-the-ice adjustments that the Penguins management and Penguins fans are going to have to keep in mind throughout the 2006-07 season.
For a moment, think back over the years to various players who’ve arrived from Europe or Russia. Think back on their first seasons in the NHL. For every player who took the NHL by storm while learning a foreign language and adjusting to a new culture, there are certainly more players who struggled at least a few times, and possibly more than just a few times, that first season. Learning the NHL game can be a transition enough, but couple that with everything going on off the ice, too? No matter how much money a player is making, the transition is never without struggle. Sure, Penguins fans all remember Jaromir Jagr’s pretty playoff goals during the 1991 Stanley Cup run, but Pens fans might forget that Jagr didn’t begin to settle in comfortably in Pittsburgh until Jiri Hrdina arrived in December of 1990.
Which brings me to Sergei Gonchar. Moan as Penguins fans might about Gonchar’s defensive lapses, etc, Gonchar’s most important role on the Penguins this season has absolutely nothing to do with quarterbacking the power play, killing penalties, or even teaching the young defensemen. No, this year Gonchar’s main responsibility, on and off the ice, is going to have to be Evgeni Malkin. Gonchar is going to have to serve as mentor, friend, counselor, and translator for Malkin. Sure, Penguins fans, if they want, have the right to fuss at Gonchar for subpar defensive play. But I, for one, am going to withhold my fussing at Gonchar so long as Gonchar is doing his job (on the ice and off the ice) in helping Malkin adjust to the NHL game and to North America. So long as Malkin is producing and beginning to adjust and perhaps showing signs of flourishing, and so long as Malkin credits Gonchar for helping him out, well, guess what, I’ll just have to deal with an occasional boneheaded Gonchar play.
I’m aware of the fact that I’m a cynical person, and Pens fans who saw Crosby and Ovechkin take the NHL by storm last year might wonder why I’m so insistent about "lowering expectations," so to speak, for Evgeni Malkin. The cynical side of my brain asks, Do you remember who the last Penguin to be called the best player in the world not yet in the NHL was? Yes, folks, that was one Aleksey Morozov, currently the reigning MVP of the RSL but never a dominant or consistently even a very good player in the NHL. Of course the logical side of my brain knows that Malkin plays a very different style of game than Morozov, a game that is far more suited to the NHL than Morozov’s. I also saw Malkin more than hold his own against NHL players in the past winter Olympics. Yet the logical and cynical sides of my brain still meet and cry out, "Please don’t expect this kid to be perfect right away!"
Because that’s the thing. In all the interviews, in every quote that’s come out of newspapers, what stands out is that Malkin is still a kid. An extremely talented kid who’s going to have to adjust to North American ice and North American culture. Sure, hopefully Malkin’s talented enough to "just be himself" on the ice surface when everything off the ice is new.
Yet a fact holds for Penguins coaches, Penguins players, and Penguins fans, and that’s this: Be patient with this kid.
Hopefully we won’t need patience. Hopefully Malkin repeats what Ovechkin did last year, in a way that’s unique to his particular skill set.
But if he doesn’t do that immediately—be patient. That advice has to go to Coach Therrien and Sergei Gonchar as well as other Penguins players.
Less than two years after he arrived in North America, Jaromir Jagr took over the Rangers series after Adam Graves slashed Mario Lemieux’s hand. Sure, Pens fans had previously seen what Jagr could do—but not the way we saw it in that series. So guess what, really, if I’m expecting Evgeni Malkin to turn out to be as good or better than Jaromir Jagr, I really don’t have low expectations. I have high expectations. I’m just saying, don’t be surprised, angry, or impatient if those high expectations aren’t immediately fulfilled in the 2006-07 season.
Celebrate if immediate success comes, of course, but if not, well…just know that time eventually brought us Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr in the prime of their careers.
Take time to wait on Malkin to become what his decision to leave Russia shows he wants to be—a dominant NHL player.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
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.
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.
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?
Sunday, July 30, 2006
On the Arena Bit
I love hockey. I love politics, too. But I don’t like when hockey and politics mix at all. Politics is about The West Wing and idealistic notions (that are too often delusions or at the very least illusive illusions) about making a difference in real issues. As for hockey, well, hockey is where I can see beauty and skill and talent, and hockey is pure, unbridled, passionate, pleasure and joy.
Anyhow, a man who has previously talked about moving the franchise to Kansas City has signed a letter of intent to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins. I will feel much better about the Pittsburgh Penguins keeping that name when plans for a new arena are actually solidly in place, you know, when, plans are set in stone, and it’s clear there will be an arena built in Pittsburgh and the team will stay.
That hasn’t happened yet. I’ll continue to follow my team—the Pittsburgh Penguins—throughout the upcoming season. Truthfully, I’m far more interested in seeing how individual young players develop, grow, and blossom than I am in reading about the minutia of economic and city planning details. Sure, I love politics, but I prefer to keep my politics (a practical enjoyment) separate from my hockey (a pure enjoyment).
Still, in the 2006-07 season, nothing will make me cheer harder and louder than actually finalizing plans for building a new arena in Pittsburgh (and by that, I mean planning and building gets started, like, immediately). Unless, of course, Crosby’s young Penguins manage to pull off a miracle and bring the Cup home to Pittsburgh.
But what I really want to see—and it shouldn’t be a miracle—is construction workers starting to build a new arena in Pittsburgh before the end of the 2006-07 hockey season.
√
I love hockey. I love politics, too. But I don’t like when hockey and politics mix at all. Politics is about The West Wing and idealistic notions (that are too often delusions or at the very least illusive illusions) about making a difference in real issues. As for hockey, well, hockey is where I can see beauty and skill and talent, and hockey is pure, unbridled, passionate, pleasure and joy.
Anyhow, a man who has previously talked about moving the franchise to Kansas City has signed a letter of intent to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins. I will feel much better about the Pittsburgh Penguins keeping that name when plans for a new arena are actually solidly in place, you know, when, plans are set in stone, and it’s clear there will be an arena built in Pittsburgh and the team will stay.
That hasn’t happened yet. I’ll continue to follow my team—the Pittsburgh Penguins—throughout the upcoming season. Truthfully, I’m far more interested in seeing how individual young players develop, grow, and blossom than I am in reading about the minutia of economic and city planning details. Sure, I love politics, but I prefer to keep my politics (a practical enjoyment) separate from my hockey (a pure enjoyment).
Still, in the 2006-07 season, nothing will make me cheer harder and louder than actually finalizing plans for building a new arena in Pittsburgh (and by that, I mean planning and building gets started, like, immediately). Unless, of course, Crosby’s young Penguins manage to pull off a miracle and bring the Cup home to Pittsburgh.
But what I really want to see—and it shouldn’t be a miracle—is construction workers starting to build a new arena in Pittsburgh before the end of the 2006-07 hockey season.
√
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)