Fronts: The publication is benign; the owner is a cancer

This bears further checking out: Save The Fronts reports Kingston Frontenacs owner Doug Springer barred a freebie publication from being distributed at the K-Rock Centre.

Please keep in mind that it's come to the point in Kingston where many Fronts diehards will believe almost anything about Springer, including that he would spike Hockey Now, a pretty benign publication. It just so happens that the very paper gave a plug several weeks ago to Save The Fronts saying, "A fan site dedicated to ousting GM Larry Mavety (who they call the Royal Mavesty) and owner Doug Springer is gaining a lot of traction with area fans and makes some very strong points."

(Interlude: Puck Daddy has posted Oshawa's James DeLory's slash on Nathan Moon.)

It is entirely believable that Springer would see to it that Hockey Now be removed from the K-Rock Centre. He is reputed to be thin-skinned, but scions of the prominent families in a small cities do not expect to have their actions questioned by people who are not astute enough to have been born into affluence, let's try to see both sides.

Trying to control or suppress media coverage is a common trait trait of legendarily bad sports owners. Harold Ballard barring female and certain individual reporters from the Leafs' dressing room at Maple Leaf Gardens. Chicago Blackhawks fans had to wait for Bill Wirtz to leave this vale of tears before they could watch home games on local TV. Springer, similarly, has been known to tell people, that if it was up to him (it isn't, it's an OHL policy), Frontenacs home games wouldn't be televised, even though, when his regular seats were among the fans at the Kingston Memorial Centre, he was known to follow the first period from his living room before deciding whether to risk being heckled by fans. In other words, he's entitled to his entitlement, but Frontenacs fans are not.

It's also quite possible this is a misunderstanding. Hockey Now doesn't have drop points at every arena in Ontario. However, it should give Springer pause to wonder why a bloc of the franchise's loyalest, most hardcore fans are given to assuming the worst about his organization and also believe some apologists would look the other way if the owner paraded down Princess Street in a state of undress. Someone got the ball rolling with creating such a toxic atmosphere.

It has been 476 days since Doug Springer promised to do "whatever it takes" to bring a winner to Kingston.

(Congrats to Fronts centre Ethan Werek for being named International Scouting Service OHL draft prospect of the week.