December 15, 2011
Fischler: Head Injuries, Realignment
by Stan Fischler/Columnist
CHRIS PRONGER'S latest injury -- concussion symptoms -- coupled with the troubling uncertainty surrounding Sidney Crosby has turned medical issues into as much an attention-getter as the games themselves. The Flyers captain means as much to his club as Crosby to the Penguins. Which means that the media focus – more than ever – moves to the good and welfare of players. This, in turn, puts more pressure on Brendan Shanahan and, of course, Gary Bettman to ensure the safety of the players. Ditto for Donald Fehr of the NHL’s Players Association.
GOSSIP
The Commissioner’s realignment plan is clever beyond words. Among other positives is the fact that it allows for an easy replacement franchise should the Coyotes not find a buyer within a reasonable amount of time. Thus, the two most obvious geographic possibilities as replacement teams are Seattle and Quebec City. For an assortment of reasons – NBC preferring an American rep; a Seattle-Vancouver rivalry – the governors want another franchise in the Pacific Northwest. Also, there is bigger money – as in Microsoft – to back a Seattle team than one in French Canada. ... This is a rarity and proves that video replay does more to embarrass the on-ice officials than ever before. A few weeks ago Islanders’ defenseman Travis Hamonic was erroneously penalized for a delay-of-game penalty against San Jose even though video clearly showed that his clearing attempt hit the glass. The ensuing Sharks power play cost the Islanders a victory. Then, it happened to the young defenseman yet again last Saturday night. This time – with his team leading the Penguins by a goal – Hamonic cleanly checked Brooks Orpik. The Penguins defenseman’s own stick inadvertently hit Orpik in the head drawing blood. Hamonic got ejected from the game for a five-minute major whereupon Pitt tied the game, gained momentum and went onto victory. “It’s very frustrating for me,” says Hamonic. “I never go for an opponent’s head and on this play it was his own stick that hit him.” ... Many pundits will argue that the Bruins have the best one-two goaltending tandem in the league. They may get a disputatious retort from John Tortorella. Martin Biron has proven to be a superb one-two stopper behind Henrik Lundqivst. “The greatest thing about Marty,” Tortorella says, “is he’s such a great teammate. He keeps the room loose. He’s a veteran guy that understands his role, which is very important. And he’s won games. Look at his record since he’s been with us.” ... One of the compelling questions surrounding the *Devils’* immediate future centers on a center. Specifically, just what the return of injured Travis Zajac will have on the scoring potential of Zach Parise.
REALIGNMENT – A HARD LOOK AT THE PLUS-MINUS
Our national correspondent Vince Comunale examines the NHL’s future alignment plans.
“You can’t please all of the people all the time.”
That bromide holds when it comes to the NHL’s realignment plan.
There are many pros and cons.
Let’s review: Conference A features Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose and Vancouver.
As with most new conferences, this one keeps the traditional rivalries intact.
With Conference A having eight teams, it makes for an easy exit for the Coyotes to relocate and not have to totally re-align again. The only negative is that there will be more travel to the Eastern Time Zone.
For example, this season Edmonton only visits eight teams in the Eastern Conference. Next season the Oilers will visit all 15 teams in the Eastern Conference.
Now instead of the Oilers having about eight road games starting at 5:30 p.m. local time, the number will double.
However, many would argue that this is a small price to ensure that cities such as Calgary and Edmonton get to see the likes of Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin every season.
Conference B consists of Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis and Winnipeg. It shapes up neatly for every franchise except Winnipeg, the lone Canadian team in the Conference.
The Jets will have to cross the border for every divisional road game.
That’s 21 times just to play within the division, not to mention all of the other U.S. cities outside of Conference B.
Winnipeg’s geographic location is like an island; it really isn’t close to any other NHL cities.
St. Paul is the closest city to Winnipeg and this new Conference sets up the possibility of a new rivalry growing between the Jets and Wild.
A positive is that Dallas will be in a Conference where the majority of the teams are in the same time zone.
Currently, Dallas’ division rivals are spread across three different time zones, the majority of which are two time zones away.
Additionally, instead of traveling to Anaheim, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Jose three times a season, the Stars will only have to make one visit a season to each of those cities.
Conference C features Boston, Buffalo, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Toronto. At first glance, two of these teams wouldn’t seem to belong here, but, in the long-run, this will turn out to be a good thing for Florida and Tampa Bay.
Those franchises will be playing multiple times in hockey-crazed cities such as Montreal and Toronto.
Rivalries may actually form, whereas the bitterness never really built to a boiling point for these teams playing against the likes of Carolina and Atlanta.
Nine trips from Florida across the Canadian border may not be ideal, but, I’m sure that the Canadian teams won’t mind six dates in sunny Florida in the middle of Winter.
Lastly, Conference D features Carolina, New Jersey, the New York Islanders, the New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington. This division boasts the best rivalries in the NHL.
The Conferences proposed will please the majority of players. Most executives are happy with the new structure. The one negative will be the playoff setup.
It guarantees that we’ll never see a Crosby versus Ovechkin matchup in the third round. The latest that Penguins and Capitals could meet would be the second round.
Further, this format guarantees that by Round Three of the playoffs many of the biggest television markets will be eliminated.
An additional problem is the potential for extreme distance between opponents in the third round.
In this system it’s possible for Vancouver and Tampa Bay to meet in Round Three of the series and New Jersey and San Jose to meet in the other third round match-up.
In this case, if the winners of the two series wound up as San Jose and Vancouver, then the entire Central and Eastern part of North America would have no rooting interest at all in the Stanley Cup Final.
The NHL put more thought into the playoffs aspect of this than needed. The NHL playoffs have always been the best in all of sports and there was no need to change it.
The East versus West format has been successful for decades. Surely, a complicated formula of television ratings, revenues, travel costs, etc. went into figuring out this playoff format, but sometimes common sense and logic should take precedence.
Canadian television may have had something to do with this new slat. It should be noted that all but one Conference, Conference D, has at least one Canadian team in it.
This fact gives greater odds to a Canadian team at least reaching the third round, thus keeping the Canadian television market interested deep into the playoffs.
MORE GOSSIP
While anti-fighting sentiment reverberates among columnists, fighters themselves have the perfect squelch. (N.Y.) Daily News hockey writer Pat Leonard asked the Rangers’ Brandon Prust about the issue and got a mouthful. “More guys would get hurt. You’d have people running around, going after top players. There have to be consequences for going after a (Marian) Gaborik or a (Brad) Richards. Fighting is an honorable thing to do. A cheap shot is not. When you fight, you’re standing up for a teammate. You look a guy in the eye, ask him if he wants to go, he says he wants to go, and you fight. Elbowing someone in the head is cowardly.”
