To Mr. Kelley

When I started attending university in 2002, I began listening to the FAN 590, in particular Prime Time Sports, in a vain attempt to become smarter about stuff (Hi Bobcat). Radio host Bob McCown would have different co-hosts on the show like Stephen Brunt, Jeff Blair, and one writer from way down in Buffalo named Jim Kelley (No, not the quarterback). What surprised me, although he was an accomplished "hockey guy", was his knowledge of most if not all topics discussed on the show; Jim Kelley was knowledgeable, opinionated reporter and columnist who never shied away from controversy (ie. The off-ice incident with Dominic Hasek in 1997), and always stood behind what he wrote and said.

For the past eight years, I always looked forward to hearing Prime Time Sports and took extra delight in hearing what Jim Kelley had to say when he would co-host some weeks, and then on Wednesday afternoons from his home in Buffalo. I remember once years ago when Bob McCown went down sick during a show, and Kelley filled in mid-show! Jim Kelley never missed a beat, and the show went on without a hitch. I thought Sportsnet hit the jackpot when they gave him a column on their website, and I found his hockey writings to be "top corner" stuff.

Hockey was not his life, however, because his commitment to family and his values remained close to his heart. In an unforgiving profession of beat writing with long hours, long flights, and long trips away from home, Jim Kelley's dedication to family remained paramount as the quality of time spent meant more than its quantity. It was during the ride to work with my Dad I found out Mr. Kelley passed away today at the age of sixty-one, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

With the passing of the coach Pat Burns last week, I didn't write anything because of other commitments and that I didn't know enough about the late Mr. Burns to write something of substance. Nevertheless, Jim Kelley wrote a thoughtful piece about the man before he, too, would pass away. Although I never had a chance to meet him, I tried to emulate him in my writing and could never quite get it right; I suppose this way of writing will have to do...

Thank you, Jim Kelley, for what you meant to this do nothing writer north of Buffalo. My thoughts and prayers go out to Jim Kelley's family and friends.

For a more fitting tribute, please tune in to Sportsnet.ca.

Dear Competition Committee...

To the humble staff of the NHL Competition Committee: Please consider the following rule changes to the game, which will bring excitement back to the game of hockey, and will quash any post-trade deadline rumours of match-fixing in three-pointer, shootout finishes.

1) Three points for regulation win, two points for overtime win, one point for overtime loss, no points for regulation loss. This may irk Montreal Canadiens fans, whose side of the late 70's holds team records for most wins, points, and highest winning percentage in a season. However, please consider if Boston, the Islanders or Toronto had three expansion teams and a team in decline in their division, then they would win four Cups in a row as well.

2) Introduce the "own goal" statistic to the NHL. I have less difficulty explaining why the league credits Lanny McDonald with Steve Smith's winner in '86 than I do explaining who gets credit for this little number.

3) Fire your NHL marketing staff. Stipulating the home team will wear the dark uniform, and the away team white uniforms will not get more fans through the door or sell more jerseys. Change them back, and give pink slips to the marketing staff as you show them out the door. In westerns, the hero wears the white hat; get my drift?

NHL Standings: Olympic Style!

One of my friends (Hi Ben) is a Maple Leafs fan (pray for us please). We are riding the high of a near-perfect regular season record the city of Toronto did not see since EA Sports launched NHL '94 and revolutionized sports gaming. The current NHL standings do not tell the whole story, however, since the NHL care more about how teams lose games than win them. For instance, all wins in regulation, overtime and shootout are worth a HUGE two points...HUGE...

Anyway, losing in overtime or in the shootout earns one point, and losing in regulation gives you nothing. Why not give proper credit to winning in the quickest possible way? Three points to your team, and you can get back to your pad from the arena in time to watch Dancing With The Stars, if that is your kind of thing? Keeping fans overtime while winning gives you two points, but the other team steals one point for dragging the night onward and putting your date to sleep in the seat next to you.

Does that point system look familiar? Of course, the Olympics used that in the 2010 Winter Olympic hockey tournament last winter. One of the best things the Olympics ever did; Sidney Crosby agrees, too.

Here is the link to the current NHL standings I found online on NHL.com.

If the NHL used the Olympic point system, the standings would look like this. In the event of ties, I broke them with regulation wins, overtime wins, and so on, and then goal difference a la football (the other football):

Eastern Conference:

1. Toronto (1), 12 points (3W-1OW-1OL-0L)
2. Pittsburgh (5), 11 points (3W-1OW-0OL-3L)
3. Tampa Bay (4) , 11 points (3W-1OW-0OL-1L)
4. Washington (2), 10 points (2W-2OW-0OL-1L)
5. Montreal (6), 10 points (3W-0OW-1OL-1L)
6. NY Islanders (3), 10 points (2W-1OW-2OL-1L)
7. Atlanta (7), 8 points (2W-1OW-0OL-2L)
   
8. Philadelphia (8), 7 points (2W-0OW-1OL-2L)
9. Boston (9), 6 points (2W-0OW-0OL-1L)
10. Florida (10), 6 points (2W-0OW-0OL-2L)
11. Carolina (11), 5 points (1W-1OW-0OL-2L)
    
12. NY Rangers (12), 4 points (1W-0OW-1OL-2L)
    
13. Buffalo (14), 4 points (1W-0OW-1OL-4L)
    
14. Ottawa (15), 4 points (1W-0OW-1OL-4L)
    
15. New Jersey (13), 3 points (0W-1OW-1OL-4L)
    

If I am an Islanders fan, I would enjoy the season while I can because against under the Olympic point system my team is over-achieving; underachieving this year are Pittsburgh and Washington. The Penguins (+7) have better goal difference than the Lightning (-1) as of the morning of October 19th, 2010. If I want to watch a hockey game and get home in time for HOUSE, I'm going for Montreal (Hi Jordan...and Michael...and Andrea...and Sean).

Western Conference:

1. Chicago (1), 12 points (3W-1OW-1OL-2L)
2. Colorado (3), 10 points (2W-2OW-0OL-2L)
3. Dallas (2), 9 points (1W-3OW-0OL-1L)
4. Nashville (4), 10 points (3W-0OW-1OL-0L)
5. Detroit (5), 9 points (2W-1OW-1OL-1L)
6. Los Angeles (6), 8 points (2W-1OW-0OL-1L)
7. Vancouver (8), 7 points (2W-0OW-1OL-2L)
8. Anaheim (9), 7 points (2W-0OW-1OL-3L)
9. St. Louis (7), 7 points (1W-1OW-2OL-1L)
10. Edmonton (10), 6 points (2W-0OW-0OL-2L)
    
11. Calgary (11), 6 points (2W-0OW-0OL-2L)
    
12. Columbus, 5 points (1W-1OW-0OL-2L)
    
13. San Jose, 4 points (1W-0OW-1OL-1L)
    
14. Minnesota, 4 points (1W-0OW-1OL-2L)
    
15. Phoenix, 4 points (1W-0OW-1OL-2L)
    

You get more bang for your buck in Nashville (YEEHAW)!

Dallas has more to gain from the old "two points for a win" system! Someone get Gary Bettman on the phone! I knew this conspiracy involved Tom Hicks! They should be in fifth!

Anger. Manage it.

I'm pretty sure Mr. Wisniewski is a nice guy. From his picture he is a hockey player, but before today if I saw him on the street, then I would assume he is one of three things:

1) Accountant
2) Salesman
3) Electrician

Why then are we most memorable when we are at our worst? Do people really remember the last thing you did? James Wisniewski is not a hockey player, according to today's news media, he is an angry individual that lost complete control for a photographed and videotaped split second. I do not excuse his behaviour at all, but what I cannot excuse is the "anger first, watch later" attitude of today's culture.

Every person can be angry, and at times each person becomes angry over someone or something. Whether it is a scrum in front of the net in a hockey game, being cutoff on the highway, or the annoying classmate or workmate who bothers you and spills coffee on your presentation albeit accidentally, people have the tendency to become angry. Who let it be known you could "fly off the handle" or "lose complete control"? Still, instead of addressing the issue at hand filmed the incident to review it later on the 11:00 news?

There are things to be "angry" about: The injustice of going across town to school because the neighbourhood school will not admit people with your skin colour (Brown v. Board of Education, 1953), defending a friend when someone slanders them, or playing fair while a member of the opposing team tries to get under your skin. Anger is something everyone has, but how we use it shouldn't make us angry people. Besides, you never know who will be watching...or recording.

Check out the story on TSN.ca, but be warned: It's not for young 'uns.

THE "RIGHT NOW" MOMENT: Based on a true story

Plante versus McNeil, Dryden versus whatshisname, Roy versus Penney: The list of classic goaltending decisions by one hockey franchise goes on and on. The heavyweight battle between Halak and Price, for the vaunted starting role of backstop for hockey's most prestigious franchise, swayed back and forth for at least three years, before being decided in Anaheim of all places.

After Game 4 of the 2010 Eastern Conference Semi-Final between Les Canadiens and the Pittsburgh Penguins, which ended with the Habs winning 3-2 and Halak showered with praise, I scoped out the NHL website to find the EXACT moment when everything changed for Jaroslav Halak, the Montreal Canadiens, and my friend and longtime Habs fan Michael Smith. My search began with Halak's profile page; clicking on Game Log, I scrolled down the list of regular season games featuring Halak. You almost miss it, but once you see it you know it is there (Data credit to NHL.com)!


I clicked on that particular night, read the box score, and then searched YouTube for the game.

It was after the Olympic break; Jaroslav Halak sown the first seeds of upstart greatness in the 2010 Winter Olympics carrying his home nation Slovakia to the semi-finals of the men's hockey tournament, and almost upsetting Team Canada. Back with his team, Halak was riding the bench as he often did as a competitor for the starting job as goaltender for Montreal. Other NHL teams had starting goaltenders: Pittsburgh has Fleury, New Jersey has Brodeur, Detroit has no one but Howard, and San Jose has Nabokov. Similar to the NFL and quarterbacks if you are on an NHL team with two goaltenders, then you don't have a starting goaltender!

On March 7, 2010, everything changed.

In today's culture, every person looks for, what Darrell Green calls, the "right now" moment. The fable of "rags to riches" usually begins in anonymity following a crisis. Wally Pipp had a headache, Drew Bledsoe had a collapsed lung, Lester Pearson retired as Prime Minister of Canada, and a bike went missing in Louisville, Kentucky. Whether it is known or not at that "right now" moment is unclear, however what a person does with that "right now" shapes the lives of everyone around and beyond. Ask Lou Gehrig, ask Tom Brady, ask Pierre Trudeau, and then ask Muhammad Ali. There were no excuses, no reasons to run and hide, and no avoiding the issue; for Jaroslav Halak the "right now" moment came, and he never looked back.

It remains to be seen if the Halak story reaches acclaimed status, but for "right now" he is doing alright ;)

(Special thanks to NHL.com, Wikipedia, and YouTube)