NHL cooks books with overtime fraud
4-on-4 for the birds When you lose, you don't deserve a point
RED FISHER
Freelance
Saturday, January 11, 2003
CREDIT: DEAN BICKNEEL, CALGARY HERALD
Calgary's Brayden Dunn watches his favourite team, the cash-strapped Ottawa Senators, for what might be the last time Thursday during the Sens' pregame skate at the Saddledome in Calgary.
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Let me see if I have this right: the Florida Panthers, one of the NHL's surprise teams this season, went into last night's 42nd game with 12 victories, 12 losses, nine ties and eight overtime losses. Forty-one points in 41 games: a proud .500 record.
The Canadiens, after 42 games, have a record of 17 victories, 16 losses, five ties and four overtime losses. Forty-three points in 42 games: uh-uh: they're at .512.
Am I missing something here?
Ask anyone who has ever played any game, and they'll insist you lose, you lose. Assuring teams going into overtime of a point, even if you lose, is a fraud. It's for the birds. The Panthers were not a .500 team in their first 41 games, no matter what the NHL's version of cooked books tell you: my Aberdeen School arithmetic has them moving along at a .402 trot. As for the Canadiens, they're .464 awaiting tonight's visit from the Buffalo Sabres.
As you know, it's not as if I haven't mentioned it before, but I'll say it again: you lose, you lose. Everything about the five-minute overtime is for the pullets: the fact that it's four-on-four after playing five-on-five for 60 minutes and that a losing team gets a point, but isn't credited with a loss, while the goaltender is, doesn't add up.
I'm not giving up on this. One of these years, I'm hoping the NHL gets the point: when you lose, you don't deserve one.
My kind of guy: He has been sitting in one of the seats at the Forum and later at the Bell Centre - more often than not within a stick-length of the players, for 18 years. Dr. Eric Lenczner would be watching, questioning, hoping and enjoying the Canadiens when they were putting together a winning night, hating it when they were losing.
I have known him as a friend and as an admirably-talented physician on a professional and personal basis, and now that he has resigned as the Canadiens' team doctor, I can tell you the organization has lost one of its most valuable employees.
Happily, not entirely, Canadiens president and Lenczner fan Pierre Boivin was saying yesterday, because he'll remain available to the team as a consultant in his field of orthopedics.
"Eric no longer will have game-day duties," Boivin confirmed. "He'll be less involved than he has been all these years, but I know he'll be there for us whenever he's needed."
Lenczner's resignation comes in the wake of the Canadian Medical Protective Association's decision to withdraw malpractice protection for team doctors who work for NHL, NBA, NFL and major-league baseball teams. Lenczner wasn't comfortable with the new policy, which came into effect on Jan. 1 and applies only to team doctors - not consultants.
David Mulder, the Canadiens' chief physician, remains with the team. Thus far, Boivin hasn't heard from general physician Vincent Lacroix.
Not unexpected: If you're asking, the answer is I'm not surprised the NHL came down with a wallet-jarring $50,000 fine on Canadiens GM André Savard and $25,000 on coach Michel Therrien for their "abuse of officials" at game's end of Tuesday's 3-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils. Even Savard must know you can't lose it the way he did going after referee Kerry Fraser. It went far beyond the norm of what is perceived as criticism of a bad call, or calls.
You should know I'm also not surprised the fines aren't 'conditional.' There have been cases where an off-ice executive has been fined, let's say, $25,000. All he's asked to deliver to the players' emergency fund is $5,000, and if he's not involved in another incident over a certain length of time, the fine's remaining 80 per cent is wiped off the books.
Not this time: Savard will have to pay the entire amount. So does Therrien. Both fines are in Canadian (Canadiens, perhaps?) funds.
Mutual admiration: If something like this doesn't make you feel warm and fuzzy all over, it's your own fault.
Noted NHL scouts Pete Mahovlich (Atlanta), Warren
Rychel (Phoenix) and former Ottawa Senators GM Marshall Johnston, now scouting for Chicago, were at Thursday's Canadiens-Rangers game. You guessed it: they were talking hockey.
This time, they were discussing the scoreless scuffle involving Chicago and Phoenix the night before with, as you'd expect, special attention on the two young goaltenders who recorded shutouts: Chicago's Michael Leighton (31 stops), who got his overtime shutout in his first NHL game, and the Coyotes' Zac Bierk (40 stops), who recorded his first shutout in 29 NHL games.
What they didn't know is that after the game, Chicago forward Steve Sullivan offered the game puck to Phoenix goalie Bierk.
"Give it to Leighton," Bierk told Sullivan. "He deserves it."
Coach wanted: I don't know about you, but I've been tossing and turning the last 10 days or so wondering who's likely to be named head coach of the Atlanta Thrashers.
GM Don Waddell, who has taken on the post on an interim basis, says: "The process is going faster now. I haven't interviewed everybody I want, but I've spoken to everybody." (Say what?)
Terry Murray, who was the first name mentioned to succeed Curt Fraser, remains in the mix. Former Colorado coach Bob Hartley was interviewed on Tuesday. Murray is a scout with the Flyers. Hartley is unemployed for now, but is being paid for this season and next. In other words, Hartley doesn't have to worry about putting vittles on his table even though he says this about his profession:
"In coaching, you accept that you walk along a cliff every day. If you happen to step on the wrong rock one day, you might be at the bottom of the cliff."
Something new, not borrowed: Say hello to Mighty Ducks coach Mike Babcock, who, apparently, doesn't belong to the same library and reads from the same book as most NHL coaches and players.
Babcock's Ducks found their shooting irons in a 5-3 victory in Colorado on Thursday, but lost
1-0 twice in three preceding games - despite outshooting their opponents. In other words, they played well enough to win.
"If you're making sandwiches for the kids," Babock said, "you just don't say: 'There's some baloney,' even though they like cheese and lettuce and tomatoes on it. That's not good enough. The good-enough meter isn't good enough."
Telling it like it is: Love him or hate him, you can expect the genuine article from Philadelphia coach Ken Hitchcock.
I can't think of any coach, other than Hitchcock, who would tell reporters that while he regards it as an honour to be behind the bench of an all-star "game" a fourth time, he'd prefer staying at home during the break in the schedule.
"It's a kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing," he said. "You go there to represent your team, but when you have been there three or four times, you understand how long the season is and the rest is something you look forward to."
Team Clinic: You've got to feel for the Los Angeles Kings, who've been decimated by injuries this season and now are back in the pack in the pursuit of a Western Conference playoff spot. In their last six games, they haven't had fewer than eight players on the sidelines.
Jason Allison, who hasn't played since re-injuring his knee on Dec. 22, made it back in time for a 5-4 loss to Edmonton on Thursday for an Oilers team playing without Mike Comrie and Anson Carter. Allison, however, played despite a severe head cold.
"We're happy to have Jason back whether he has chickenpox, measles or appendicitis," said L.A. coach Andy Murray before their sixth loss in seven games.
The numbers game: OK, so the season is only half over, but is there a better Big Three in the running for coach-of-the-year honours than Jacques Lemaire, Dave Tippett and Marc Crawford - all the while saving space for Jacques Martin? Their teams made remarkable progress this season, starting with Crawford's Vancouver Canucks with an NHL-high 19 points.
Minnesota is the only other team to post a double-digit improvement (11), while Ottawa is nine points ahead and Dallas seven.
San Jose is the only double digit loser, down 13 from a year ago, while the Rangers are 11 behind last season's pace, followed by Calgary (9) and Buffalo (8) going into last night's games.
Around the NHL: When you're talking power birthday parties, don't look beyond yesterday when the Bell Centre's hockey staff held one for the Canadiens' director of team services Michèle Lapointe, the NHL's best. Gentlemen aren't supposed to mention birthday numbers when a lady is involved, but I suspect Ms. Lapointe is in her mid-20s. ...
Do you think my great and good friend Gary Bettman can arrange to solve Ottawa's money problems and the sale of the Buffalo Sabres in time for next month's All-Star Game in Florida? I mean, isn't that when the league celebrates excellence? Right now, there isn't a whole lot to celebrate until he announces that attendance is up by 1.5714 per cent. ...
Go ahead, I dare you to tell me you knew it all along that the struggling Canadiens would be only four points behind the Boston Bruins halfway through the season. Tells you something about how much goaltending means to a team, doesn't it? ...
If I'm a Florida Panther, I'm asking for overtime pay. Iron Mike Keenan's bunch has gone into overtime an NHL-high 20 times during the first half of the season. They're only eight short of the NHL record. ...
Where would the New York Rangers be if they hadn't won their four games against Carolina this season? It's the first time in the 24-season history of the Hartford/Carolina franchise that the Rangers have swept their season series. ...
Say this about Bill Lindsay, who was dispatched to the Hamilton Bulldogs yesterday: whatever he had to give to the Canadiens, he gave it all when he was allowed to play. ...
I know where Boston GM Mike O'Connell is coming from when he says he won't trade defenceman Kyle McLaren "unless it's right for us," but the Bruins aren't in a position to pick and choose. They need help now. ...
If all of you (well, almost) are wondering why Billy Tibbetts wasn't in the lineup for Thursday's dance with the Canadiens, it's because as a convicted felon, he is not allowed to enter Canada.
