Cuddy Shark

Scuttle the shootout

The shootout as a method to decide games in the National Hockey League after
65 minutes is a lame way to determine a result.
In truth, a penalty shot contest really seems like a soft way to declare an
outcome in what is a fast-paced, full-contact sport.
Rooted as the shootout is in international hockey where it has determined
world and Olympic championships — what, like there’s no time at these things
to finish because there’s an ice rental due on the local Olympic ice palace
at the top of the hour? — the shootout removes the team concept which is so
important to hockey.
Clearly, the shootout was one of the most gimmicky changes introduced to
excite fans following a lockout season. But, after one season and like most
novelties, it’s a concept already starting to wear thin in appeal, in part
because fans see it for what it truly is — a gimmick.
Goals are supposed to be scored in hockey as a result of bashing and
banging, digging and deking. Passing and pressure on the opponent. Not
skating one-on-one at a leisurely pace without enemy pursuit.
The NBA doesn’t solve games with a game of H-O-R-S-E. Baseball doesn’t have
hitters launching homers off a batting tee instead of a 10th inning. Nor do
quarterbacks throw passes through a tire hanging from the goalposts to
decide football games.
The NHL did produce some exciting overtime hockey last season with teams
assured one point and lining up four-on-four. And shootouts were fun for a
few weeks.
How about this, for a thought.
Maintain the four-on-four overtime session for five minutes. But if the game
ends in a tie, both teams receive nothing.
You want frantic pace? At least fans will be assured teams are leaving it
all out on the ice for the full duration of overtime.

Shame on the national soccer body

The Canadian Soccer Association should be ashamed.
Truth is, the national soccer governing body owes an explanation for its decision to overturn an Ontario level ruling to send a deceiving, selfish team to the national under-18 championships in Laval, Quebec on Thanksgiving weekend.
Yes, Anthony Camacho, the coach of the London Forest United Flames girls under-17 squad responsible for the travesty it brought to amateur soccer, was slapped with a suspension effective until March 2008 for neglecting to properly register the team at the under-18 level after it won the under-18 Ontario Cup title and a chance to compete in Laval. Obviously, the CSA agreed somebody did something wrong.
Technically, the coach's role as ringleader of the disgraceful debacle that included the Flames flip-flopping leagues in mid-season escaped punishment.
After his team secured a berth at the under-18 national championships, he proceeded to make a mockery of the game with actions that included forfeiting matches and sending overmatched replacements to defend the ground his Flames abandoned in a very competitive, top-notch Ontario Youth Soccer League under-17 league. Meanwhile, the team competed in another league where it earlier forfeited games as it competed in the OYSL.
That suspension, for what it¹s worth, actually works out to one full season on the sidelines. His actions were deserving of so much more.
To recap: After playing a shell game with two leagues and upsetting a large number of teams and league schedules over the course of the summer, it was ruled by the OSA the Flames should not represent Ontario at the national final. Instead, the Ontario Cup runner-up Oshawa Kicks were awarded the berth.
Until, that is, the CSA stepped in at the final moment and overruled the Ontario body on appeal, rendering useless the fundraising efforts of the Kicks and travel plans.
A lot of bad messages were sent during this ordeal. I¹m not certain the CSA's was necessarily the worst of the lot, but it certainly shares consideration along with the Flames antics at least to tie for the lead.
For those who care, the Flames won silver medals.

Seeking the true North

Hey, has anybody seen the North Conference of the Provincial Jr. A Hockey League?
This was supposed to be a difficult, no-nonsense conference this season with the Collingwood Blues expected to take a run at the Aurora Tigers, Newmarket Hurricanes and Stouffville Spirit in an effort to crack the Big Three, which has dominated the standings in recent seasons.
Well, the Tigers (11-0) and Blues (8-3-0-1) are living up to their end of the bargain and have already lapped the rest of the field.
The same cannot be said, however, of the Spirit and Hurricanes, whose respective starts to the season have been far from satisfactory as the teams sit with eight and seven points, respectively, in 10 starts. Worse, the York Region rivals seem intent on matching each other stride for stride in an early season march to mediocrity.
The Spirit were the initial victim of the expansion Orangeville Crushers, on home ice no less. Then the Orangemen recorded their first laugher in embarrassing the Hurricanes by five goals last Friday in Orangeville. Coming off a run to the league final a season ago, Stouffville had some
holes to fill, to be sure. But the wealth of returnees, particularly in the forward ranks, should be enough to get past some of the teams to which they have lost.
The Hurricanes? Well, it's a noble gesture to load up the roster with tons of local players. It¹s quite another to be scuffling along with a roster loaded with too many players not up to playing at this level of hockey.
Simply, there appears just too much duplication of players which is better if those players happen to be first and second liners.
All said, it's been a disappointing opening month for two teams from which a lot more is to be expected.

GMHL helping deteriorate midget minor hockey

Kevin, I would think it more offensive to the sensibilities for anyone to believe signing up in a hockey program which, for no particular reason other than marketing purposes, and certainly with no credible evidence, purports itself as Junior A.
Observing hockey as you have from the dad’s seat for 24 years ought to tell you one thing —  that there’s not enough players out there to fill a 36-team league such as the Provincial Jr. A Hockey League, much less three other Tier II leagues in the province.
Easily, at least half of the current teams in the Provincial league could fall through the ice and the quality of the league would be vastly improved to a level approaching what Junior A should be.
Somebody once may have declared it open season for every hockey nut with a few bucks to start up a junior hockey team in every burg in the land, but I do get the idea that starting up a league and putting a misleading label on it is as ludicrous.
On another note, how difficult is it to see that the GMHL is helping deteriorate the midget level of minor hockey? How can it not since it focuses on the very players who should be playing at that level. Perhaps too many people may blinded by the reality that it is a business playing on the gullibility of a hockey public willing to cut a check for their kids to play hockey at the ‘junior level’. That is a market which seems to know no bounds.
Call it super-midget. Call it midget-plus. Please don’t call it Junior A.

Olympic-sized rink nice, but impractical

The Magna Centre in Newmarket is to include four arenas — three regulation-sized rinks and an Olympic-sized jewel with seating for more than 1,000 specators.
Why?
It is a noble gesture to construct a rink with international dimensions and one which the National Hockey League likely should have dictated to member teams when they were building new digs during the past two decades or so.
But who is going to willingly want to call this rink home?
Every user group will agree that it could use more ice time.
Will the Newmarket Minor Hockey Association put the enlarged ice surface to good use? Who knows? Possibly, although there is little advantage to playing on an enlarged ice surface as opposed to traditional ice floe.
One must wonder, though, who else, with the ability to draw an audience of that size is going to even want to use that ice surface?
Not likely the Newmarket Skating Club, which is comfortably set up at the Ray Twinney Complex. Its ice shows and carnivals draw crowds too large to be accommodated at the new joint.
The Newmarket Hurricanes? Doubtful the Jr. A franchise would be eager to move out of the bowl at the RTC in favour of a smaller seating facility.
Unless, of course, the plan is to rip down the RTC one day in the not too distant future. The place is 20 years old, which seems to be beyond middle age for facilities in Newmarket these days.
Quaker Pool, after all, reached its 30s and is now a flat piece of real estate awaiting its next orders.
The real need for ice in the community has nothing to do with Olympic dimensions. It is the adult leagues, the rentals and, yes, youth groups, too.
Maybe it’s nice to say we have an Olympic-sized ice surface in our midst. But that’s as far as it goes.

Is there really room for yet another 'junior' league?

My buddies and I are thinking of starting up a hockey league.
We can call ourselves anything we want, if we choose, and if we can persuade folks to buy into it. Bully for us.
That pretty much describes the game plan of the Greater Metro Hockey League, which somehow has the audacity to incorporate the term Junior A into its name.
The latter operates, it claims, to develop players for the next levels of hockey. A noble sentiment, to be sure. Oddly, in doing such, it is a program which many see as a detriment to the health of minor hockey.
That’s because in a market already stretched beyond its limits by teams seeking quality players born during the years 1986 to 1990, there already exist far too many teams for the good of junior hockey.
At the Junior A level, or Tier 2 as it is commonly known, there exists 35 teams. Toss in a bunch of Junior B teams in a number of leagues across the province, which, in effect, is the same calibre, and, well, there just are not enough qualified junior hockey players to go around.
So how is it a new hockey program can spring up out of nowhere and call itself Jr. A?
Hockey Canada did not sanction the program so one can suppose it could call itself the NHL, if it chose to do so. Clearly, given that the top junior-aged players are playing elsewhere, it is not of Junior A calibre, as washed down as that level itself may be.
Ironically, it was only at the outset of the 2005-06 season Hockey Canada moved to strengthen minor hockey at the fading midget level. HC did so by vastly reducing the number of so-called under-aged players each team could sign to junior rosters. Teams at the Jr. A level, for instance, are limited to using just two each. Levels below are forbidden to use age-restricted players, leaving them to play at their properly designated age groups.
Then along comes the GMHL, offering a place to play its definition of junior hockey for kids willing to bite at their bait.
Make no mistake. The folks running the GMHL believe they are providing a service to the hockey community.
In a province where junior hockey is already watered down, along comes a league created to provide a ‘junior’ hockey venue for clients of the Bob Russell Hockey Enterprises, a hockey business which “recruits” around the world for its hockey boarding school. In this case, that would be the Bradford Rattlers.
By the way, my buddies and me are thinking of calling ourselves, oh, let’s say, Team Canada. Is that taken?

FIFA, NHL learning from each other

A bit addicting this World Cup stuff.
But one might think the really catching thing is the bug FIFA contracted from the National Hockey League.
Judging by the crackdown on fouls so far into this World Cup in Germany, it would seem FIFA president Sepp Blatter was in fact the applying the teachings of commissioner Gary Bettman to the so-called beautiful game. This thing looks like an early-season NHL game when players, coaches and fans didn’t know what the heck was going on with the referees and their whistles.
This World Cup seems to have gone nuts-over-heels in trying to keep up with hockey.
Bettman is not shy about accepting accolades for the cleaned-up image of his sport. Blatter, on the other hand, has been taking heat because his referees are calling too much and spoiling the flow of play.
As the tournament, which most of the world outside North America considers to be the greatest on Earth, moves into the quarter-final rounds today, the whirlwind pace rivaling the early rounds of the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament has slowed and paused to allow for reflection.
By any standard, some terrific games have been played.
Some nasty games have been played, too. Record numbers for yellow and red cards to the point where one might wonder if a blend of the two colours might not be recommended.
It at least seems like scoring is up a bit, too.
It seems strange now to recall hockey had become soccer in recent years. Rife with 1-0 and 2-1 games, the NHL product had been lulled to a near-standstill. This we now understand for certain because we witnessed during the past hockey season just how terrific the sport can really be when skilled players are permitted to shine rather than be mauled, clutched and grabbed. Now, it turns out, 6-5 playoff games with power plays from start to finish are actually pretty entertaining fare.
Perhaps, unfortunately, for soccer, there existed no build-up period or regular season in which officials, players and fans had a chance to adjust their games. Sadly, the new philosophy of stringent refereeing was conducted in an on-the-run fashion and under the glare of the world’s spotlight.
Unlike his NHL counterpart, Euro-Bettman is appearing to show signs of retreat as tournament officials are criticized, ridiculed and dismissed by world media for calling the game too tightly.
But if soccer follows hockey’s lead and is able to clean up the blatant crap that goes on in a game, pretty soon maybe we’ll be hearing those soccer hooligans bemoaning the following sentiment: “Went to a soccer game the other night and a hockey game broke out.”

Clean-shaven post-season a hairy proposal

One would think during the National Hockey League’s work stoppage, which wiped out the entire 2005-06 hockey season, that at some point in time, the issue of playoff beards might have been broached.
Guess not.
Scraggly looking hockey players lost enough on the collective bargaining agreement, one supposes, that the order to lose facial hair would have been a welcome clause to the final pact. Alas, somehow the issue, or making it permissible to remove a beard while a fella’s team still playing remains locked in the vault of deep, dark secrets.
The deep-seated superstition is the shaving of a beard somehow could impact on a team’s success.
No one wants to be the guy messing with team karma by placing shaving gel and a Gillette to face until that fella’s team is once and for all removed from the tournament.
Now here we go into the final pairing of the tournament with the Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers squaring off and, yikes, it resembles a showdown of Grizzly Adams and the Bearded Lady.
It would have been appropriate to have the CBA include a clause permitting players to return to a clean-shaven look immediately after each round without penalty from the hockey gods. That way, no more than two weeks worth of growth would be able to amass on a fellow’s mug.
As it stands, two months of scratchy, unattractive facial growth can make a fan’s eyes water just imagining what might be living in that mass of hair.
Remember when Rocket Richard got two minutes for looking so good? Must have been during the regular season.

Rule changes may cost parents plenty

It’s costly news for goaltenders in minor hockey as Hockey Canada regulates equipment.
The governing body for hockey in this country announced at its recent annual general meetings in St. John’s, Nfld. that professional goalies will soon be joined by goalies at all levels of hockey in adhering to reduced equipment sizes.
Actually, the biggest losers in Hockey Canada’s announcement regarding reductions in goaltender’s gear to come into play for the 2008-09 season are not necessarily the goalies, but their parents.
You see, as the regulations governing equipment seep into the minor hockey ranks, parents are about to lose a valuable tool in reducing the high cost of sticking a kid in front of the net to stop, not score, pucks.
Playing goal is easily the most costly position on the ice, and perhaps in any team sport. It costs thousands of dollars in gear even before a goalie places a blade on the ice.
As it stands, parents are able to re-sell equipment their child has outgrown to another party in an effort to defray the cost of a new set of gear. No big deal, right?
Well, it likely will be a big deal. For who is going to buy illegal gear for their kid to wear?
Young goalies and their parents do have a grace period. But they will be obliged to purchase new equipment to meet specifications for the 2008-09 season, matching those adopted by the NHL this season.
The goalies will soon adapt to the size change. But one might wonder how many would-be goalies will be chased from the game because they can’t afford the equipment.
Maybe minor hockey associations ought to consider the possibility of decreased fees for goalies.
Or, since we’re in an era of radical change, even let them play for free.

Time to rethink RBC tourney disaster

Hockey Canada has nobody to blame but itself for the Royal Bank Cup tournament that concluded Sunday night at Brampton in almost complete anonymity.
Hosted by the Streetsville Derbys, a team with very little fan base, a mediocre on-ice record in recent years and an apparent inability to organize much beyond a penalty shot, the national body might have been wise to poke around, kick some goalposts and ask a few questions before awarding its Canadian Jr. A Hockey League crown jewel.
In retrospect, the tournament turned out pretty much the way everyone anticipated.
As it stands, the event to produce the champion for Jr. A hockey in this country is viewed in most corners a colossal embarrassment. The crowning insult was a nationally televised final in which a smattering of fans — reported to be 900 and change — turned out to the cavernous Powerade Centre in Brampton to watch the Burnaby Express pound the Yorkton Terriers, 8-2.
That the other 35 teams in the Provincial Jr. A Hockey League were obligated to purchase $1,000 worth of tickets couldn’t even prop up attendance figures so miserable officials stopped posting them early in the week-long event.
It would take a miracle for Hockey Canada to consider southern Ontario as a venue any time soon when it is handing out the event. Then again, considering the tournament never really has caught the public fancy in Ontario, maybe it’s time to let it go. Previous national championships in Sudbury and Ottawa are recalled as flops, too.
Publicly, HC is blaming the RBC dud on a variety of issues, ranging from competition against the Stanley Cup playoffs to the lack of a home crowd for the host side because it was forced to move all the way from Streetsville/Mississauga to Brampton to stage the five-team tournament. Get real.
It is more likely a great many potential fans were turned off by the presence of a host team with little profile and which didn’t deserve to be competing in the first place. Geez, the Derbys had not even played a game since February after losing a first-round playoff series.
As a comparison of entries in the RBC, consider that the Derbys had half (27) the wins of the next closest competitor, Burnaby Express (54). At the top was Fort William North Stars, which represented the Ontario Hockey Federation and brought a nation-best 61 regular season and playoff wins into the tournament.
Maybe Ontario doesn’t deserve to host this prestigious event. However, it wasn’t a fair test of the market. It may take a long, long time before we learn otherwise.
In truth, perhaps the event truly belongs in small-town western Canada.