Can You Feel It? It’s Hockey Season!

It’s been some time since I posted a collection of random hockey thoughts. Through the summer I mostly hung out and talked hockey on twitter conversing with the fantastic, and I mean fantastic, hockey community there.

With not much to speak of in the hockey world over the summer, with the exception of a couple of snafusby the Chicago Blackhawks and the neverending Coyotes debacle, the twitter hockey community was a great place to get my hockey fix.

I even tried to help out NHL.com correspondent and hockey blogger Paul Kukla with his NHL column this summer.  However, even on the slow hockey news days of August, he still didn’t like my advice…check out what he wrote:

Tyler of NHL Digestsuggested a few topics — “Free agents taking pay cuts; older Russians heading home; and goalies left unsigned. If all else fails — Avery, Emery or Burkie!” Some great topics without a doubt, Tyler, but some of them would take some deep research on my part, and I need sleep.

Paul hit the nail on the head in that column with regard to how fans are just itching to get some hockey news from “on the ice”.  Well, fellow fans, that time has come!

Over the past week it has sure been nice to get some actual hockey news. The rookies are back on the ice and the veterans are back in their respective communities and getting ready for another season of hockey goodness.

Too Much Time On Our Hands

Prior to this past week I was itching for anything hockey related. So deprived of the game that I set out to make an NHL player birthday calendar consisting of the birthday and birthplace of every hockey player to play in the National Hockey League.

Am I obsessed? Maybe. But, I take solace in the fact that I am not alone in my hockey pursuits.

In fact, Dirk over at On The Forecheck created an even more complex tool this summer. Upon the release of the 2009-2010 NHL schedule, Dirk created a spreadsheet that details the amount of travel that each team logs during the season. This data is not frivolous. Travel and fatigue can seriously play a role in the performance of players and, therefore, can influence the outcome of a game.

 Yes, this is the time of year when we hockey fanatics start to get excited. Between praying that the acquisitions our favortie team made over the summer will finally put us over the top, to poring over stats in the quest to create the ultimate fantasy hockey team…Indeed, this is a great time of year!

The Montreal Canadiens Magazine

Of all the hockey magazine’s available, I have to say that I am quite impressed with “Canadiens”, the official magazine of the Montreal Canadiens. It’s not just because I am a huge Montreal Canadiens fan, but the magazine has a great mix of entertainment, hockey, and personal stories of the Canadiens players, staff and legends.

My Favorite issue of the magazine from 2008 is a great example.

Not only did I find out the three favorite Montreal restaurants that Patrice Brisebois frequents, but also checked out 15 songs on the iPod of Tom Kostopolous (A classic mix of Metallica, Pearl Jam, and Nickleback).

The magazine always has a nice feature article that is several pages in length on the career and life outside of hockey of one current Canadiens player.

In a previous issue, Alexei Kovalev was featured and readers were treated to an inside look at Kovalev outside of hockey. I had previously heard that Kovalev was a licensed pilot, but this article went into greater detail about his flying career, his frequent flights to New York, and the plane that he owns.

Forget the Playoff Beard – Check Out The Mustache!

One of the more humorous articles in the issue, and a favorite topic of mine, is a look back at the best mustaches that have graced the faces of previous Canadiens players.

Larry Robinson received my vote as the former Habs rearguard sported an excellent handlebar style mustache throughout the 1970’s.

Younger Canadiens fans might remember a more recent Captain of the Canadiens, Mike Keane, who sported a beautiful blonde ‘stache as late as 1996!

A great quote comes from the mustache article in the Canadiens magazine:
“Current Canadiens GM, Bob Gainey, wisely left his perm and cookie-duster where they belong – in the ‘70s”

The First Kiss

In honor of Valentine’s Day, several players also remarked on who, where, and how they got their first kiss. I’m not sure what team that Tom Kostopolous played on, but apparently his entire team got kissed at the World Pee-Wee Tournament in Quebec – not too bad if I do say so myself!

Even if you’re not a fan of the Habs, I highly suggest that you take a few minutes to read an issue of Canadiens magazine if you get the chance.

Joe Sakic Versus Steve Yzerman

The following is a compilation of hockey links from the NHL Digest Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/nhldigest.  I’ve added some additional comments around these links.  I hope you enjoy them!

Joe Sakic’s Retirement

With Joe Sakic expected to officially retire on Thursday, Adrian Dater wants to know who was better – Sakic or Yzerman? http://ff.im/-4Yxzr

That’s a tough call.  Both had the intangible qualities of leadership and both are certainly in the best class of people both on and off the ice.

Adrian outlines some statistics in his article- They are eerily similar!

Stanley Cups Yzerman 3, Sakic 2.
Career pointsYzerman 1,755, Sakic 1,641.
Career playoff points: Sakic 188, Yzerman 185.
Postseason goals: Sakic 84, Yzerman 70.
Conn Smythe trophies: Sakic 1, Yzerman 1.
Olympic MVP awards: Sakic 1, Yzerman 0.

Sakic’s retirement and the turnover rate of Avalanche coaches got me thinking. How cool would it be if Joe Sakic pulled a “Gerry Cheevers” becoming the team’s coach the following season after his retirement?

According to @weeklyslapshot the name even (kinda) works: “Easy to confuse Joe Sakic with Joe Sacco… LOL”

Both players were very influential to me as a young hockey player and their careers so close statistically, it comes down to just Stanley Cups. That said, if I had to choose, I choose Steve Yzerman.

Free Agent Signings

@dchesnokov reported that former Detroit Red Wing and free agent, Jiri Hudler, will play for Dynamo Moscow of the KHL (per Sovetsky Sport).

Kuklas Korner had a translation of Hudler speaking on why he signed in Moscow  http://ff.im/-4YxWa

The article at Kuklas Korner has some great speculation as to the actual advantages to this signing for the Detroit Red Wings.  In particular, Detroit doesn’t have to give up anything in the form of money or draft picks and they retain Hudler’s NHL rights.  It is possible that when Detroit clears some salary cap space, in a year or two, that Hudler could be lured back to the Red Wings.

The Anaheim Ducks have signed Saku Koivu to a one-year, $3.25 million contract. via TSN http://ff.im/-4XYB4

There was much speculation that Koivu would go to Anaheim to play with Teemu Selanne for one season prior to Selanne’s retirement.  That speculation came true and Koivu stated for the record that Selanne did influence his decision to join the Ducks.

According to @TBLightning http://twitpic.com/9pn47 – The Tampa Bay Lightning have agreed to terms with former Minnesota Wild defenseman Kurtis Foster.

More Hockey Links

RT @BladeTape Gillian Ferrari & Jayna Hefford have signed with BladeTape for the ’09-’10 hockey season! 2 of the best female players around!

Does anyone know of any certified medical doctors that have played in the NHL other than Randy Gregg?

Wednesday was also useless NHL Trivia day over at the NHL Digest Facebook page – check it out!  http://bit.ly/a7LfI

NHL Digest Twitter Hockey Links

*This is a new feature of NHL Digest, so please feel free to let me know your thoughts.

I am very active on twitter, sharing thoughts and links at www.twitter.com/nhldigest. That said, I thought it would be great for everyone to log all of my Twitter posts for the day into one place!

If you like it, let me know and I’ll update it daily in the “Hockey Links” Category!

On This Day in Hockey History

On July 5, 1995 the New York Islanders hired Mike Milbury as their head coach, taking over for Lorne Henning.

On July 5, 1979 the Boston Bruins named Fred Creighton as their new head coach, replacing Don Cherry.

NHL Links

Do The Blackhawks Believe Hossa Is Jinxed? http://ff.im/-4Q385

NHL finalizes investigation into Blackhawks qualifying offers – Looks like the issue could be dead. http://ff.im/-4PRKv

The Penguins’ five-year plan, executed in four! – by @Mirtle http://ff.im/-4PMJs

Did Tampa Bay tamper with Mattias Ohlund? – by @Sean_Leahy http://ff.im/-4PLfk

Plenty of stuff about McSorley that you likely don’t know. http://ff.im/-4PGhW

Ottawa journalist wears Heatley jersey in public as an experiment…Good for some laughs! http://ff.im/-4PFYg

Hossa says he chose Chicago because “They have a chance to win the Cup”. Sound familiar? http://ff.im/-4PFDu

Touted Swedish goaltender, Jonas Gustavsson, expects to sign in the next couple of days http://ff.im/-4Pw9V

Los Angeles Kings Q&A with their newest player Ryan Smyth http://ff.im/-4Pdhu

Leafs new signing, Exelby and Ron Hextall weigh in on Heatley debacle  http://ff.im/-4OzLR

Upcoming on NHL Digest

Monday morning I will be featuring an interview with Washington Capitals strength and conditioning coach,Mark Nemish, on NHL Digest.

Again, please feel free to leave comments and suggestions and be sure to follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/nhldigest.

Also a new feature for NHL Digest is the ability to comment on an article directly from twitter! All you have to do is respond with an “@” reply to the Tweet with the article link in it and your comment will be added to the comments section below the article.

If you’re on Facebook, please hook up with almost 700 other hockey fans at the NHL Digest Facebook Page!

Hockey Thoughts for 2009-07-04

• #Blackhawks could be in serious trouble due to improper qualifying offers! (Not a joke) http://ff.im/-4Me4j #
• Lots of player movement, but little improvement says Duhatschek http://ff.im/-4Mhbp #
• The Colorado Avalanche have traded Ryan Smyth to the Los Angeles Kings. Details to follow http://ff.im/-4Mq17 #
• On this note…I’m heading to bed http://bit.ly/PQ5wG
  No way to top that tonight I’m afraid! #
• NHL Free Agency Drama http://ff.im/-4MtL1 #
• Thanks to those who have already commented on my NHL Free Agency Drama post! http://ff.im/-4MtL1 Happy 4th of July to my USA Tweeps! #
• Mike Knuble was born on the 4th of July! The newest hockey player in the nation’s capital was born on Independence… http://ff.im/-4Nsxf #
• 4th of July Question – Who is America’s Best Hockey Player? http://ff.im/-4NRl1 #

How To Fix The NHL All Star Game

Even before the starting line-ups for the 2009 edition of the National Hockey League All-Star Game were released, it was very apparent that there was something wrong with the voting process. In fact, the NHL.com programmer’s right pinkie was barely off the enter key before something smelled foul with the online fan balloting.

Word was out just hours after voting opened that fans of the Montreal Canadiens were stuffing the virtual ballot box in hopes of having the entire Eastern Conference starting line-up filled with Habs as Montreal hosted the All-Star game as part of their 100th Anniversary season celebration.

When word of Montreal’s devious plan hit the street, hockey fans rebelled as fans of other franchises banded together to do a little ballot stuffing of their own.  Along with the legions of fans voting online for their favorite players, tech savvy fans developed “voting bots” that automatically cast votes through the fan balloting system. The “bots” were eventually debunked by the league and the final results are said to be authentic, but the damage had already been done.

This season’s All-Star voting debacle trumps even the most memorable campaign from a couple of years back – Vote for Rory! While the Rory Fitzpatrick campaign made a mockery out of the fan voting system set up by the NHL at that time, it’s worse this time around as multiple players were involved and the league should have learned it’s lesson.  Fool me once…fool me twice!

How to Fix The All Star Game

While it is obvious that having the fans vote for the All-Star game starting line-up is a very smart business decision for the NHL, the system by which the voting takes place undoubtedly needs some fine tuning.  The NHL has been pounding the marketing and communication doors down trying to increase fan interaction in order to cultivate the game.  That said, it is highly unlikely that the league will leave the fans out of the All-Star Game process.

The basic concept behind fans voting for their favorite players is a classic business case for market research.  Notwithstanding any tampering of the votes, the NHL is basically asking the fans who they would most like to see and giving fans what they want.  When the process is boiled down to the basic  concept we can see how appropriate the fan-balloting theory is.  It is only the voting methodology that is flawed.

Given those facts, even the most Anti-All Star Game hockey fan should be able to see the marketing value in hosting the event. I agree that the integrity of the league and the All-Star Game comes into question when there is obvious tampering with the votes by fans (and in the case of Vote for Rory the league as well).  It is important that we strike a balance between the need for fan interaction and the maintenance of integrity for the game.

The game itself is just part of the attraction and, much like the Winter Classic, the league develops associated events that fuel the ambiance and build energy surrounding the on ice activities.  In order to build that excitement, fans must feel as though they are included – part of the event rather than just an observer.

Jason Kay from The Hockey News had this suggestion that seems plausible because it retains the fan interaction, provides more fan incentive, and maintains the integrity of the sport and the game.

If it remained important to have some fan participation, hold a contest in which two lucky winners got to pick the starters in conjunction with each side’s coaching staffs or executive boards. That would draw visitors into websites (that can’t be the driving reason behind fan balloting, can it?) and eliminate the risk of a non-worthy player being selected.

Hockey fans were informally polled on Twitter.com and asked for their thoughts on how the voting process could be improved – here are a few of the responses:

Scott Schofield – Have a combination of fans, writers, coaches vote on a group of players based on stats. Rid the system of fan bot voting.

Kyle Roussel – Have the NHL create “packages” of starters based on stats. Fans vote for their fave package, then vote for rest of the rosters.

Chris Lucas – Fans “need” to vote to fuel interest. Simply limiting to one vote per IP (Internet Service Provider) would go a long way.

Dana Forsburgh – Let fans vote, but not for the starting lineup. Leave that to writers, coaches etc.

Cameron Frye – Votes should be limited by IP address or teams should be voted on by the players.

Matt Trevors – Make the game count, like in MLB. winning team gets home field in the world series. How about winning team gets extra home game?

If you agree, disagree or simply want to add your own two cents on how to make the All Star game better please feel free to drop a comment here or track me down at www.twitter.com/nhldigest.

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