The gaps in Kelly Hrudey's logic last night on his Behind The Mask segment during the Calgary-San Jose game were bigger than his five-hole used to be when he played in the NHL.First, there's the Vote For Rory thing. The hockey establishment, being in a sport "that makes a fetish of conformity," (hat tip to Stephen Brunt), is getting really weirded out by this fan movement to get Rory Fitzpatrick elected to the All-Star Game. Wayne Gretzky's apparently irked over it, and on Coach's Corner last night, Don Cherry was at his wit's end pleading for Fitzpatrick not to go if elected.
Hrudey not only parroted Cherry -- how about coming up with your own opinion, Kelly? -- but made it sound like Fitzpatrick was vowing to bayonet small children or something. He was practically pleading, "I hope someone, like a coach, or his agent, tells him he shouldn't go."
Fine, Hrudey apparently doesn't get it. Like it or not, the the Vote For Rory campaign is bringing the NHL more publicity than it can get from 1,000 TV spots of Joe Thornton eating breakfast. If the league can't stand getting publicity for something its own PR guys couldn't come up with on their own, so be it.
Besides, how can Fitzpatrick possibly demean a game where players go at half-speed and the score typically ends up being around 14-12? How can he demean a game that Brad Marsh once scored a goal in? How can you demean an event whose format (Campbell vs. Wales, Eastern vs. Western, North America vs. the World) gets changed every five or six years? How can you demean an event that's so irrelevant that barely anyone noticed it wasn't even held in '05-06?
Not only that, but Hrudey took an even dumber position in the same segment, tsk-tsking L.A. Kings fans for booing goalie Dan Cloutier after he gave up a goal from outside the blueline in a game last week. Yes, Kelly, someone paying $50-$100 for a ticket has no right to let Kings management know how they feel about a goalie who is dead last in the NHL in goals-against average and save percentage continuing to start game after game.
By the way, what's worse? Hrudey's timing -- L.A. lost 7-0 to Nashville last night, with Dan the Man giving up six goals on 27 shots before getting ejected for spearing -- or the fact he tried to justify his anti-booing stance by saying it sets a bad example for kids and teaches them bullying is OK?
Some would say that message was sent last fall when Hockey Canada put Steve Downie on the world junior squad just weeks after his then-OHL team was shamed by a hazing scandal. As the captain of the Windsor Spitfires at that time, Downie had an option to stop that garbage, but skated on it. Most of the media helped sweep it under the rug. What did Kelly Hrudey have to say then?
It's just sad that this is what passes for expert opinion on Hockey Night in Canada, although it's no different from most broadcasts that employ ex-jocks. Hrudey's kind of notorious for taking his talking points directly from whatever the silent majority among current NHLers are quote, unquote thinking. It's too bad, since if he wanted to, he might be able to make some valid points. Thing is, he probably doesn't want to and his bosses probably won't make him.
Wild 3 Red Wings 2 (overtime): Most fans have accepted 4-on-4 overtime and the shootout, but what if it ends up enabling a bad team to make the playoffs? The Wild, who got the OT winner from Pierre-Marc Bouchard (left in picture) after Pavel Datsyuk gave it away just inside the Minny blueline, now have a league-high 11 wins in OT or shootouts. In games actually decided in the first 60 minutes, they're 7-15. Yet they're ahead of Calgary -- 17-13 regulation record --for the last Western playoff spot. It's one thing for the shootout to make an extra bit of a difference, but that much of a difference?Capitals 3 Leafs 2: There's the breakfast of champions, and the Leafs will wake up on Christmas Eve morning to dine on whatever the last-place team in the Northeast Division eats, since they slipped behind Boston and Ottawa. With Mike Peca, Kyle Wellwood and Alexei Ponikarovsky all out injured, the Leafs played just well enough to lose against the steadily improving Caps, as Olie Kolzig continued his renaissance season with 35 saves. (No doubt to the delight of D.C. Sports Chick.)
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That's all for now. Enjoy your Christmas Eve. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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2 comments:
Yes, the Caps win was quite delightful, especially seeing it in person!
Even worse was watching Hrudey during the After Hours segment with Patrick Marleau.
Marleau lived in Hrudey's guest house when the two played together, and Hrudey made sure he let us know about it.
That's all he talked about (and forced Marleau to talk about) for the first half of the interview. He even had his daughter call in to ask Marleau a question about putting together a Barbie dream house.
Garbage!
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