Via Eric McErlain, the NHL now has a deal with Amazon’s Unbox video download service. DRM issues aside, this is good news for the NHL, which is fast becoming more in step with the online movement. I just wish they’d sign a deal with the Joost people.
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The League has decided not to suspend Ville Nieminen for his hit on Brett Lebda Saturday afternoon. If I didn’t know not to expect justice from the NHL, I’d be shocked and angry. Now, I’m just disgusted. Once again, the League drops the ball on dealing out proper punishment. (via. Kukla’s)
Starting Monday, Kris Draper will have his own blog on the NHL’s fan community service, NHL Connect. Apparently, he’ll be answering fan questions, previewing and reviewing games, writing about the team’s acquisitions, and discussing the excitement about the playoffs. Sounds like a good way to get in touch with Kris and the best part about it is that it’s free, unlike Red Wings World. (via NHL Connect email newsletter)
Jordin Tootoo has always left a bad taste in my mouth, but previously, he was just an annoyance. However, after last night, I see him in a new light. It could be a little bias, as he tried to take out Mathieu Schneider twice. Why does any team feel they need a guy who can go out there and lay on nasty hits and pretty much just put the other team in danger? I’m all for hitting/checking and even fighting–but there’s a right way and a wrong way. Leaving your feet to try to lay a huge hit is not acceptable. I have no doubt that if Schneider had not jumped out of the way, he would have been injured. And when fighting, generally you want to square off first and then fight–which I’m sure is what Bootland would have expected.
The only thing Tootoo brings to his team is this type of rough play. He generally would be put in the same category as a Kirk Maltby or Sean Avery. However, those two players have other benefits. Avery has 32 points this season, including 12 goals. While Maltby has a mere 8 points this season, his defensive game has been valuable to the team for years. You’ll always see Maltby out on the PK. So what does Jordin Tootoo bring along with his antagonistic style? With 2 goals, 6 points, 98 PIM and a +/- of -12, not much. His +/- is the worst on the team by 6. Last night, he had two shots. Most of what he did on the ice was simply going from hit to hit. And his hits are not standard hockey hits–they are risky.
The way that Tootoo plays seems to be evidence of something very disturbing going on in the NHL today. There is a lack of respect among opposing players. There was the Bertuzzi attack on Moore, the McSorley incident, the McLaren hit on Zednik, the cheap shot Janssen laid on Kaberle, and most recently, the Simon incident. These are the most wide-known of the past few years. But there are also a lot of hits that go unpenalized and unpunished. Take, for instance, the Raffi Torres hit on Jason Williams earlier this season. It was obvious charging on a guy with his head down, but there was no call made and no action taken by the NHL. The League is more interested in making the game exciting than protecting its players. If these types of hits continue to go unpunished, they will not stop. Even when the NHL does hand out suspensions, they are almost laughable. A 20-game suspension for Bertuzzi when Moore will never play again? A 25 game suspension for Simon when, had his stick been 1 inch or so lower, he could’ve easily killed Ryan Hollweg? No penalty, fine or suspension for Torres, when Williams had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher? Here’s a reminder of what Bobby Orr said after the hit on Williams:
“I don’t want to see hitting taken out of the game, I love hitting in hockey, but if someone puts his shoulder into a player’s face, if he puts anything — an arm, an elbow, a glove — I think that player should get a penalty. Definitely, it should be a penalty. We are having players getting knocked unconscious before they even hit the ice and carried off on stretchers. How can that be legal? When did hitting someone in the head with your shoulder or any part of your body become part of the rules? Anything above the neck, it’s wrong.
“Hey, I got hit a lot when I played and I didn’t get hit in the head with checks. Players didn’t always hit like that. To me, that’s not part of bodychecking. I mean, don’t you have to be responsible for your actions? If you hit a guy in the face with your stick by accident, you’re going to get a penalty. Two minutes, four minutes, five minutes, something. If you go to bodycheck a guy and you hit him in the face or head, and injure him, that’s legal? That’s fair? That’s not a penalty? I’m sorry, I don’t think that is right. It should be a penalty.”
The high-stick penalty has forced players to always be aware of where their stick is and what it is hitting. Why do they not have to have the same responsibility for their shoulders? In the NFL, if you hit a player in the head, it’s a penalty. It doesn’t matter if it was on purpose or not, it’s a penalty.
The NHL needs to take a serious look at what’s going on in the League and do something about it. This means harsher punishments for these types of hits. With some of these hits, the officials did not see it. Perhaps they need to be able to go to a replay every time something like this happens, and if they see it there, to be able to asses a penalty. Maybe it would help to institute post-game handshakes after every game.
The general population already has the Slapshot view of hockey. Incidents like Bertuzzi-Moore and Simon-Hollweg just increase this perception, especially when the NHL doesn’t do much about it. We all know that is not the image the league wants. But as long as there are guys like Tootoo, whose sole purpose is to run around and hit as many people as hard as possible, that is the image the NHL will have.
Christy Hammond has the details, as does James Gunner. Apparently, the Wings lobbied for the new system, which would help them get higher picks if they do end up getting eliminated in the first round. However, the condition that says regular season division title winners won’t get low placement kind of negates any advantage the team might have, if their history is any indication. Maybe they see a change in fortunes coming.
Update (5:50 PM): The press release:
NEW YORK (March 12, 2007)—The National Hockey League (NHL) today announced that NHL Center Ice, the League’s out-of-market subscription package, will now be available to fans in the U.S. and Canada on NHL.com. NHL Center Ice Online provides fans the opportunity to watch up to 40 games per week through a broadband connection on their personal computer or laptop.
NHL Center Ice Online features comprehensive game coverage through the regular-season finale on April 8, plus select games from the Stanley Cup Quarterfinal and Semifinal Rounds (all games subject to local blackout). Current NHL Center Ice television subscribers can purchase NHL Center Ice Online for half price with proof of television package purchase.
“This is another step in the League’s effort to make its content available, across multiple platforms and screens, while preserving the critical relationships between our clubs and local rights-holders,” said Keith Ritter, President, NHL Interactive Cyber Enterprises. “Other than being at the game, there is nothing of greater interest to our fans than seeing broadcasts of live game action.”
Fans wishing to purchase NHL Center Ice Online can log on to NHL.com or CenterIce.NHL.tv to register. NHL Center Ice Online is a portable service; once registered from a home location, the service can be accessed remotely throughout the U.S. and Canada.
The NHL has chosen Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading global service provider for accelerating content and business processes online, to be the technology provider for its NHL Center ICE online service.
“We are excited to support the NHL’s launch of its first Internet TV experience to hockey fans in the U.S. and Canada,” said Bill Wheaton, Vice President, Digital Media Solutions, Akamai. “For a growing number of consumers, the Internet is becoming their main source for the most up-to-date content on sports, news and music programming. Akamai provides sophisticated online media delivery solutions, enabling forward-thinking companies such as the NHL to address the increasing interest in Internet TV content and programming.”
NHL Center Ice is currently available in the U.S. and Canada on the following League cable and satellite distributors: DirecTV, Dish Network, iNDEMAND, Bell Express Vu, Rogers, Cogeco, Access, Eastlink and others.
- Matt
The package is $119. Just go to centerice.nhl.tv to sign up to watch up to 40 games a week online, if you have broadband internet.
With the NHL Network’s “NHL On the Fly” also now available online, that’s two big video announcements today by the League.
Looks like Jimmy Devellano has gotten a little dose of reality as far as the subject of a possible move to the East for the Wings is concerned.
In yesterday’s Free Press, the team senior VP was quoted by Helene St. James as saying,
“I can assure you if anybody from the Eastern Conference moves West, we’ll be the Western team to go East.”
In that same piece, St. James had a counter-quote from NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly that took the Wings’ argument and negated it by basically saying they’re too big a draw in the West to switch conferences.
Well, Devellano heard the comment from Daly and went from confident and brash to becoming the martyr spokesman of a persecuted team. He told the Windsor Star’s Dave Waddell,
“There’s no question we’re the victim of our popularity. That’s been the case for a number of years now.
“The reason is because we’ve produced excellent clubs year in and year out. We’re the team in the United States in my opinion.
“We’re needed by NBC and Versus and we’re needed to draw in other rinks in the Western Conference. It’s just a fact.”
Whatever truth there is in that (and there’s a lot, obviously), it sounds whiny and probably won’t help the team much in convincing other owners to let them move. I can see it now: “Come on guys, we make you more money than any other team in the West, but we hate the travel. So, uh, vote ‘yes’ and let us move to the East so you can have half-empty arenas every night rather than just the nights our boys aren’t in town.”
The Wings’ only hope is that the Western owners realize that the Pens are going to be an enormous draw themselves. Then again, they’d be more likely to respond, “Well, then we’ll keep both of you and give up Columbus.”
This gets into another aspect of this situation that Devellano touches on: the parochial selfishness of NHL governors. With regard to the failed vote on schedule format change, he had this to say:
“The resistance is mostly in the east because of travel advantages. New Jersey can go to most of their road games by bicycle after dinner.”
And the Wings are going on five-game road trips two time zones away.
To Devellano, the Wings are due to be repaid by the rest of the league, as he says they supported the cap system as a fix for the NHL’s financial troubles, knowing it’d hurt their ability to dominate the market.
“We don’t have a major problem with that, but at the same time nobody wants to make any sacrifices for us.”
Of course not, Jimmy. Not only did the team’s success create a dependence on the draw the Winged Wheel brings, it brought about feelings of jealousy and envy. There’s no way the other owners are going to go out of their way to help the Wings as long as they’re just good enough to cause Joe Fan to buy tickets.
(via Snapshots)
If you watched the Game last night, you probably noticed that the refs’ orange armbands were replaced by silver. Well, according to ESPN, the change will become permanent next year in an effort to create continuity between the League’s new logo and the officials’ uniforms.
Personally, I think it’s a completely unnecessary change because I liked being able to locate the refs at a glance and orange stands out much better than the new silver. But no one asked me, obviously.
… Drew Sharp’s bi-, tri-, or whatever-monthly piece on hockey is out today and this time he’s spouts off on how the Wings need to acquire Peter Forsberg and how they need to do it whatever cost. Sharp believes that even Forsberg at 60% on the third line would be the answer to the Wings’ playoff question (in my opinion, if he comes here and is on the third line, there’s a problem). What about Forsberg at 0%? With that ankle problem, the man might not even finish the season.
The Wings have taken a risk on Dominik Hasek, another player with health questions, and have been successful so far. However, it cost them very little to go with Hasek and his health issue is entirely preventable. With Forsberg, they’d have to give up a lot to acquire him only to inherit his chronic ankle problems and have to hope some kind of solution can be found, even though there probably isn’t one.
Forsberg is an incredible competitor and will play if he can, but what if he can’t? This isn’t about throwing around money, like it was with Hasek. It’d be about throwing around the team’s present and future, as someone from the current roster and someone in the system plus a draft pick would have to go.
Say he comes to Detroit and is able to play. Great, but in the end, Forsberg will be gone this summer, especially if he ends up having a great finale and postseason. The Wings wouldn’t be able to hold on to him, whether because he’d retire or because he’d sign elsewhere. Would it be worth it? If the Wings win the Cup, of course the answer is “yes,” but not otherwise.
… Some more thoughts on the new jerseys after seeing them during the All-Star Game:
Given that the league is serious about these things, they need to start thinking about implementing an equipment change as well. The shoulder pads, especially, are too big and make the players look like they’re suiting up for the Colts or Bears.
The jerseys are too tight around the forearm.
If the League was trying to elminate individualist uniform cues a la the No Fun League, they failed. Everyone looked neat and clean before the game, but within minutes of the puck dropping, the jerseys of certain players had somehow ridden up over their pants and straps were flapping in the wind.
Other than that, they looked fine, for the most part, though the East All Stars’ jerseys were painfully white.
Update (10:05 AM): … John Niyo reports that the IIHF has proposed a new transfer agreement with the NHL that includes Russia, saying such an agreement would help the Wings’ efforts to sign Igor Grigorenko. That’s true, but, even if the NHL and IIHF don’t get a new deal, I’m not too worried about the Wings’ chances of signing Igor if they really want to. They do have some experience in nabbing Russian players, after all. - Matt
… Helene St. James looks today at the possibility of the Wings switching to the Eastern Conference if Pittsburgh ends up moving to a Western city. According to senior VP Jimmy Devellano, “if anybody from the Eastern Conference moves West, we’ll be the Western team to go East.”
Devellano sounds pretty confident there, but it doesn’t look like it’d be that cut and dry, as St. James found out from NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly:
“Detroit would clearly have a strong case, but by the same token, there are other teams in the Western Conference that kind of depend on Detroit being in the Western Conference, so … there’s always balancing involved that would involve a lot of debate, I’m sure, with respect to what you do with the realignment. But hopefully we never get there. At least at this point.”
So the Wings could continue to be screwed just so teams like Phoenix can charge double when they come to town? Nice.
Of course, we won’t know for sure until the Pens’ mess is figured out, which apparently will come soon, according to Bettman, who supplied St. James with this gem: “It’s urgent, but it’s not imminently urgent. It will be shortly.”
If the Pens do move and the League does allow the Wings to move East (rather than, say, Columbus), they’ll be ready. They’ve been wanting it for years. And you know the governors will be interested in a schedule format change if Sidney and Company move to the West. Those Eastern owners that were so selfish this time around will change their stance real quick in that case.
… David Waddell of the Windsor Star looks at what the Wings will try to get at the trade deadline: a forward. Ken Holland feels the team has plenty of depth on defense, with three players in the AHL that are NHL-capable, but they are not quite so strong up front because of youth and inexperience in the minors.
Waddell says they’d like a top-six forward and mentions the team has an interest in Peter Forsberg, should he become available. Holland, though, isn’t hung up on Foppa and believes the market will have some other big names worth pursuit.
He has $2 million to play with and by the time the deadline rolls around, 3/4 of any player’s salary will already have been paid, so they can go after a $7-8 million guy, as Waddell points out.
It will be very interesting to see what move Kenny tries and how it works out with team chemistry, which is very good at the moment. (via Snapshots)
