Any savvy junior hockey fan believes he has a system for dealing with Sunday games where the visitors are winding up a 3-in-3 road trip.
Typically, the hometown team gets to pump in a few goals past a hung-out-to-dry goaltender. Or you steer clear, thinking it will be a dog of a game where the hometowners play down to the level.
Then there are the Kingston Frontenacs. Two of the past three Sundays, the Frontenacs have hosted a Western Conference team on the final leg of 3-in-3. They managed to score one goal in those two games. True story.
Oh, and when Nathan Moon got a misconduct during Sunday's 2-0 loss to Owen Sound, coach Doug Gilmour responded by:
A) Sending him back to the dressing room; B) Benching him for the rest of the game; C) Admonishing him in the media afterward; D) Pretending nothing happened.
The correct answer is E) Asking Larry Mavety what to do?
Doug Gilmour has his big goalie: The Kingston Frontenacs just announced they have added 6-foot-5 Dallas Stars second-round draft choice Tyler Beskorowany from the Owen Sound Attack.
Beskorowany got drafted on upside. Part of the reason he was available was that the Sound Attack has another NHL-drafted big 'tender, Scott Stajcer (a fifth-round pick of the New York Rangers), who is a year younger. That's a big piece of the story, although it doesn't mean the deal should get panned from a Kingston perspective.
The upshot is that Beskorowany was added for relatively little, with centre Bobby Mignardi and a 2010 fourth-round pick going to the Sound Attack. One would have to figure that Beskorowany, after splitting the games almost 50/50 last season is Owen Sound, is coming in assured that he will start the season as the No. 1 netminder with either John Cullen or Mavric Parks as the backup. The people who have time invested in Beskorowany would like him to play more than 37 games and if he's as good as his NHL draft status indicates, then he should.
Some scouting reports have noted Beskorowany, who had a 3.64 goals against average and .902 save percentage with Owen Sound, has some issues with controlling rebounds. This is where you keep your fingers crossed the Frontenacs are going to be much tighter with their, cue Harry Neale, defensive zone coverage.
Parks' play in the first half of last season might have been worth a couple wins for a foundering Frontenacs team. However, even his biggest supporter will admit he had a proclivity to follow up a string of great saves by letting in a soft goal. One would hope he would rise to the challenge of having to earn his playing time after being the only option for much of last season, whether that is in Kingston.
(Kinger notes in the comments that adding a 19-year-old goalie is only a one-year move. The Frontenacs are notorious for this, but picking up a NHL-drafted goalie could also be a focal point.)
Meantime, the gang at Fronts Talk directed attention to the news the Fronts have found a radio partnership with, wait for it, 88.7 myFM in Napanee. (I would ask my parents how it sounds, but they might not be able to get from their RR1 Napanee address; just kidding, but only a little).
Far be it to put a spin on owner Doug Springer's contention that putting broadcasts on a 6,000-watt adult contemporary station will "help the team win fans in outlying areas" by saying he might want to prioritize keeping fans in Kingston's core.
Today is not the day for that. Please save smart remarks about a Kingston team having its games on a Napanee station that might be hard to get in parts of Kingston, or that trading for Beskorowany is only proof Mavric Parks is indeed one of the OHL's top goaltenders, as an anonymous commenter contended earlier this week. It's all on the up and up. Most of the commentariat has been that Gilmour has upgraded his complement of forwards and defencemen and now he has a NHL-drafted goalie.
(Although, it is almost like they are taunting Kinger. They trade for a goalie who is the same height, has the same first name and put the games on a radio station in his technically adopted hometown and make sure it's station whose signal is not much more stronger than CFRC 101.9 FM. Well played.)
Protocol dictates one wish Larry Mavety a full recovery, regardless of everything else which has gone down, lo, these past 11 seasons.
"Kingston Frontenacs general manager Larry Mavety is recovering in hospital after having heart surgery on the weekend. The 67-year-old has been around either the Belleville Bulls or Kingston Frontenacs franchises for most of the past 30 years. There is no doubt he has to be listed among the top 'characters' in the Ontario Hockey League." — Loose Pucks
It would be in poor taste to speculate about what this means in the long term. There is always an awareness that Larry Mavety, the old hockey lifer and nice man by all accounts, comes before all the appellations cogitated in this corner (The Royal Mavesty, general mangler, and so forth).
At the same time, this is a Frontenacs organization which puts a higher priority on silencing criticism than addressing why anyone would possiblycriticize them.
(In the past few weeks, there have been a few cryptic references on Fronts Talk to TVCogeco commentator Mark Potter "only doing post-games this year." For several years, Potter has been a mainstay on an OHL roundtable intermission feature which airs on most local cable broadcasts across the province, so one has to wonder what's up, although it's doubtful traditional media would explore it since it's not of general interest.)
Doug Gilmour, with all 45 games' OHL coaching experience to his name, is assuming the GM's duties. The kneejerk response might be that there is not a lot going on in mid-July, but looking around the Internets, the Kitchener Rangers apparently pried up-and-coming defenceman John Moore away from Colorado College in the NCAA. The Ottawa 67's just signed their first-round draft choice, D-man Cody Ceci. There is a lot to do and it's in the hands of a novice hockey man.
Get well, Mav. The venom will be there when you get back. It's aimed at your boss who refuses to get with the times.
It has been 632 days since Doug Springer promised to do "whatever it takes" to bring a winner to Kingston.
Rest assured, the Kingston Frontenacs are still generating post fodder, even though it's the off-season and they haven't announced a trade or whether they have signed any draft picks beyond the first-rounder.
New England Hockey Journal has a look at whether Ethan Werek being drafted — irony alert! — by the Boston Bruins. Meantime, there's the ripple from coach Doug Gilmour telling Sun Media he would "one hundred per cent" want to work for Jim Balsillie if he brings a NHL team to Southern Ontario, right in the Toronto Maple Leafs' backyard.
It seems best to start with Werek, since it's less likely Fronts fans have seen it:
" 'He had a tough start to the year but really picked it up as things went along,' said another NHL scout, one who has followed Werek since his days with the Stouffville Spirit of the OPJHL. 'I think Doug Gilmour taking over behind the bench helped bring out the best in Ethan; he’s big, thinks the game well and has a quick release and accurate shot. He can both set up the play and finish it off, and he finishes his checks and plays with an edge.
" 'While his skating isn't the best, I wouldn't say that it's poor either. He could stand to get quicker, but he’s also showed that he can get there when he needs to.' "
The irony of Werek being a possible pick for the Bruins is that he was bound for Boston University before he opted to report to the Frontenacs.
As he has previously, Werek touched on why he didn't go to Boston U:
"Werek was picked ninth overall in the 2007 OHL Priority Selection by Kingston. At first, he spurned the OHL, determined to join legendary coach Jack Parker’s BU squad, even going the extra step to graduate from high school early. However, when there wasn’t enough room for him at BU in 2008-09 and, faced with another year of junior hockey, this time with Indiana of the USHL, Werek altered course and embraced the opportunity to play for one of the OHL's most storied franchises.
" 'It was a tough decision ... I wanted to go to BU and be a part of that great hockey tradition and outstanding academic institution. When things fell apart, and it was looking like I would have to play another year of junior hockey, it was just something that I felt would hurt my development. I give all the credit in the world to Coach (Jack) Parker and his staff; they were all extremely supportive and understood my decision, but it was one of the most difficult things I've had to do."
That does put the lie to any claim that Werek reporting was any validation for Frontenacs management (ignore the folderol about the Fronts being "one of the OHL's most storied franchises," since they are certainly in the top 20, keeping in mind the OHL has only 20 teams).
Incidentally, the article provides some material for the spin doctors in K-Town, noting "23 of the club's 40 losses were by one goal." That kind of ignores they lost 50 games when you count overtimes and shootouts. Really what 23-of-40 talk says is that this team was no good at winning tight games in the third period. Also, eight of their 18 wins were by one goal. Come to think of it, they won in overtime in Gilmour's debut, with Werek scoring the winner in the dying seconds, and beat London when Werek scored the tie-breaking goal with four seconds to play, on a crazy bounce. Thank goodness for randomness, or it might have been a 16-win season.
The hope, of course, is that the Frontenacs will be improved enough to at least treat Kingston fans to some playoff hockey at the K-Rock Pot next March (and maybe even the first week of April). Hope is tempered by being honest about the organization and not echoing the party line about Larry Mavety being an "astute hockey man" or landing the OHL All-Star game goes farther toward hosting a Memorial Cup than icing a competitive team.
(Owner Doug Springer, of course, said at the outset of last season the team's goal was "top four" in the Eastern Conference. Does this mean he won't celebrate if the Frontenacs finish anywhere from fifth to eight in the East and make the playoffs? Don't hold your breath.)
As for what Gilmour said, it was music to the ears to hear a decorated former Leafs captain say, "First and foremost I played for the Leafs ... but for hockey fans in this area it would be great. From the Leafs standpoint it would create a rivalry. I'm not here to go against the rules or start fighting with Gary Bettman. All I'm saying is that it could work. I don't see a downside." It shows he cares.
From a Frontenacs fan's perspective, though, it's just idle talk. The understanding all along, as it always is with a junior coach, is that if a NHL or AHL team comes calling, you pretty much bid him adieu and wish him good luck. It's the same as it is when a player moves up to The Show. Besides,Mark Potter noted on Kinger's radio show six months ago that pro teams would be quick to show an interest in Gilmour once he showed the barest sign of success. Meantime, he seems
It would be a hoot if Balsillie succeeds in moving a team to Southern Ontario and ends up having a couple former Leafs in the organization. It would be just like how the WHA Quebec Nordiques raided the Montreal Canadiens for players in the 1970s. A lot of dominoes have to fall for that to happen. Gilmour will be there in September ... beyond that, well uh, a man makes a contract with an eye to breaking it, not making it.
It has been 599 days since Doug Springer promised to do "whatever it takes" to bring a winner to Kingston.
(Digression: It's not clear if Gilmour necessarily was raised as a Leafs fan. Kingston was always Switzerland when it came to the Canadiens-Leafs rivalry. Geographic distance, general resentment toward the big city and a local conceit than Kingston was of a more discerning taste than other cities of similar size meant it was never really part of Leafs Nation. It had Leafs fans, Canadiens fans and lots of Boston fans, since the Bruins had a farm team there in the 1960s and there was a connection with Harry Sinden, Wayne Cashman, Don Cherry and Freddie O'Donnell having coached or played for Boston in the 1970s.
Gilmour was born in 1963, so he's too young to really remember the Leafs' last Stanley Cup, but he would have been coming of age while the Habs were winning six Cups in the '70s and the Leafs were mediocre, my how times have changed. The Whig-Standard once ran a childhood photo of him in full hockey gear, wearing a Canadiens sweater. Those colours don't run, just sayin.')
Hearing the little rich kid talking about his last-place team some day hosting a Memorial Cup is a little rich.
Poor Doug Springer. Here he is, tryin' to throw what's left of the Kingston Frontenacs fanbase a friggin' bone, he goes and gets the OHL All-Star Game for next February, and still people are cynical. God forbid they would be upon hearing that getting the all-star game makes getting the Memorial Cup likely, when that tends to rests more on a team's competitiveness than the opulence of their arena, as the Fronts found out once before. Seeing Springer trumpet this aggravates the accumulated frustration of the last 11 seasons and makes people all tense in the chestal region.
Damn that David Branch. Why did he have to play his consummate politician's role with platitudinous remarks such as, "Undoubtedly when you host an event like this, it only serves to enhance opportunities for going forward for other special events ... when teams held the all-star game or one of our Canada-Russia games, I think it held them in good stead when it came to successful bids (for the Memorial Cup)."
There is no begrudging David Branch for what he said. He's a politician. It's more of a fevered dream to imagine him getting his Dean Wormer on and putting the Frontenacs on double-secret probation instead of talking about them hosting a Memorial Cup.
Point being, people in K-town are right to scoff when they read or hear the Frontenacs owner saying, "We're thrilled the commissioner is looking at it that way. It's all possible because we have what we believe is the best facility in the Ontario Hockey League." The Frontenacs highers-up should maybe try to worry about winning a playoff series this century before they start bidding to host the Canadian Hockey League's championship tournament.
To sum up, the Frontenacs are hoping they will be competitive enough to host the Memorial Cup by 2014 (Windsor is a lock to get the tournament in 2011). Sure, and the Deltas in Animal House were hoping their midterm grades would really boost their average:
It's not that the hardy souls who have hung in through thin, thinner and Springer won't go to the OHL All-Star Game. There is nothing wrong with having the event; the complaints are more about the owner's perceived attitude.
It's by most accounts a decent enough event. It could also be a huge love-in for Kingston native Taylor Hall prior to the 2010 NHL draft, since his Windsor Spitfires team typically makes only one Eastern swing a year, usually during the first half of this season. There could be some fun, fan-friendly events with the players on the outdoor rink at, wait for it, Springer Market Square in downtown Kingston. The CHL Top Prospects Game is probably a sweeter plum, since outside the junior hockey diehards who have a Shea Kewin replica jersey, there's a better chance statistically of getting 40 players you'd want to see from the 60 CHL teams than the 20 in the OHL.
The Kingston area, for all the complaining about the K-Rock Centre's location and the total lack of attention of detail during its construction (the home team bench isn't connected to the dressing room, so if a player has an equipment problem, the trainer can't leave the bench until play is stopped, for instance), has come a long way in a short time in terms of hockey facilities. The Kingston Kimco Voyageurs, who play at the Invista Centre, are talking about hosting either a regional or national Junior A championship. The Clarkson Cup, the Canadian women's championship, was held at the K-Rock Centre in April. Neighbouring Napanee's less than five-year-old Strathcona Paper Centre was the site of last fall's national under-18 women's hockey championship and will be for the 2010 Ontario Tankard for men's curling.
There are a lot of hockey events out there which would probably work well in Kingston, such as the World Under-17 Challenge, the Telus Cup (Canadian midget championship) and perhaps an IIHF Women's World Championship, given that public enthusiasm for buying tickets to women's hockey might be on the wane. People shouldn't look down on bringing in any of those events. (Granted, it's not perfect, since Queen's has no campus arena and summer-sport athletes are somewhat SOL due to the lack of a proper outdoor running track. Kingston's high school track and field championships had to be held in Belleville).
By that token, though, at some point Springer has to figure out that he has stop trying to put a Mercedes-Benz façade on a broken-down beater of an OHL franchise. Trading off Doug Gilmour's celebrity as coach while retaining The Royal Mavesty (Rhymes With...) as general manager smacks of this. The same goes for getting the all-star game and talking about the Memorial Cup after a 50-loss season. Granted, after seeing talk that Kingston would likely stand a shot at hosting, "Well, 2014 is when Larry Mavety's 17-year plan should really kick in."
Springer isn't going anywhere. The best to hope for is attitude adjustment in the front office. The Frontenacs are in a Bill Wirtz scenario and are crying out for a Rocky Wirtz, who made over the Chicago Blackhawks after his dad died. It is possible for someone to go from a bad owner to a good owner. George Steinbrenner had that metamorphosis. Mark Cuban is headed in that direction.
Until that happens in Kingston, though, people are right to be cynics about anything coming from the Frontenacs. Right now, Doug Springer could find a way to make cars run on consommé and people would still turn up their noses.
It has been 591 days since Doug Springer promised to do "whatever it takes" to bring a winner to Kingston.
A discussion on NHL Home Ice about Kingston Frontenacs centre Nathan Moon spoke to the poor job junior hockey's longest-running gong show has done with player development.
Russ Cohen and Shane Malloy, during The Hockey Prospect show on Saturday, mentioned Moon while talking about Pittsburgh Penguins prospects.
Very little would come as a surprise to those who follow the Fronts closely, or are familiar with how general mangler (not a typo) Larry Mavety has kept the franchise in the stone age when it comes to nurturing talent, Doug Gilmour's presence as coach be damned.
Malloy: "He (Moon) makes nice passes, he does some offensive things, but he needs to learn play away from the puck. I'd like to see more intensity and dedication, see him win more of the 1-on-1 battles."
Cohen: "You do wonder how long he has been getting by on that really good offensive ability ... I know he had averaged a point a game the past two seasons, but you have to take those numbers with a grain of salt. He needs to be able to show a better all-around game." (Emphasis mine.)
Each stressed Gilmour's coaching could be a boon to Moon's development. That optimism is certainly appreciated, since it's an article of faith it will get better in Gilmour's first full season, since hey, it can't get worse than 50 losses in 68 games.
(Granted, one can hear the spin-doctoring from nine months away. It will be framed as a great triumph if Kingston merely makes the playoffs next season. This means ignoring that 80% of the teams in the OHL get in and owner Doug Springer said at the start of last season their goal was "top four" in the Eastern Conference.)
By most accounts Moon improved during the second half of last season, particularly after being made for a healthy scratchy for a game just after Christmas. The hope here is he'll blossom, although Cohen noted that he probably needs to be in a different NHL organization than the Penguins, who have Jared Staal as their flippin' third-line centre.
Point being, though, what Cohen and Malloy said about Moon's flaws was a familiar refrain to anyone who's had to suffer His Royal Mavesty's creaky act in Eastern Ontario for the past two decades. The man's concept of hockey was hermetically sealed some time around 1989.
Gilmour seems to get that the Fronts need to build from the defensive end. However, it will take years to undo the damage Mavety has inflicted, yet he's still there since Springer in his infinite wisdom has given him a new four-year contract.
It's pretty clear what is implied when learned hockey minds are wondering, as Cohen did about Moon, if an 18-year-old NHL-drafted player is just getting by on natural ability. It ties in with a previous point that the Frontenacs are, to bogart Bucholtz's phrasing, "Unimaginative talent evaluators (who) tend to go with guys who are generally thought to be good by the scouting community." They're slave to orthodoxy when it comes who to take and don't do enough to help them get better once they're there.
(To go back to that point about early-year bias in hockey scouting, Nathan Moon's birthday is January 4. Josh Brittain, the 2006 first-rounder who was traded away last fall, was born one day earlier, Jan. 3, 1990.)
To use an academic analogy, it's as if Kingston, thanks to teams drafting in reverse order of their finish in the standings, gets the players who, as 16-year-old midget players, could get "soft A's" without studying much. Unfortunately, under Professor Mav, they don't learn how to work.
Relatively few players can pull "soft A's" at the OHL level. Detroit Red Wings forward Dan Cleary, for several years, is an example of Mav's hockey machine. Cleary got by on ability when he played for Mavety in Belleville in the 1990s, but he floundered in the NHL until he was 27. It's not a coincidence that he struggled after spending three years for the losingest coach/GM in OHL history. Cleary found his way to a progressive NHL organization, eventually, and his career has taken off.
Meantime, the Frontenacs' former rivals down down Highway 401 seem to be able to find puck-chasers whose grades, to torture the analogy, were "good enough to get in." Cases in point from the Bulls would include Shawn Matthias, Mike Murphy, P.K. Subban and Eric Tangradi. None of them was a first-round pick in the OHL draft, but all are now rising prospects in a NHL's teams system. OHL Prospects also deems the Bulls to have had the league's best defensive forward, Cory Tanaka, whom Duane paid homage to a few months ago. Tanaka should get a shot at the pros.
The Bulls were able to realize if you took a 75% student who studied hard, they could be just as good. Instead of soft A's, they got "Hard B's."
Gilmour told Rogers Sportsnet on Friday that he has two years left on his contract. There's no getting past the fact Mavety is still around the organization. The game passed him by before most of the Frontenacs' current players were even born, yet Springer keeps him around instead of surrounding Gilmour with people whose experience and understanding are actually relevant.
It has been 556 days since Doug Springer promised to do "whatever it takes" to bring a winner to Kingston.
(Meantime, this is inside baseball, but do you think the Frontenacs website has any news about defenceman Erik Gudbranson, an Ottawa native, being invited to Canada's under-18 selection camp? Don't kid yourself. The Belleville Bulls, however, had a mention of Shawn Lalonde and Stephen Silas being invited to Hockey Canada camps.
Point being, this organization is no closer to learning how to do right by players just because it has a celebrity coach. Not to spread outhouse graffiti, but this might be the greatest message board comment ever left about the Kingston organization:
"Many years ago, a player was traded from Plymouth to Kingston. When the player left Plymouth, he was allowed to take his skates, his sticks, warm ups, pads, gloves, etc. Several years later, he was traded from Kingston. He had to return all of his equipment, right down to his jock strap. If you are a player, do you want to go to Kingston knowing that they are too cheap to let a player keep his jock? Or knowing that you may get a used jock? News of such cheapness gets around. Agents — oops, I mean advisers — let prospects know that some teams are better than others to play for.
Stuff that should bounce off you like raisins off an Oldsmobile ...
Alex Rodrígueztold a Cleveland columnist that "basketball and golf" are his favourite sports — two weeks after he told a Toronto writer he "can't get enough of" hockey. It's like someone — call him Steve S., no, too obvious, S. Simmons — got sucked in Rodriguez's PR spin.
The fact the prison (Pittsburgh Instition) that Mike Danton has been moved to is actually closer to David Frost's house than the one he was at before.
Being over 30. It means 29-year-old MP Pierre Poilievre is no longer your generational representation in the House of Commons. When the best defence for someone is that he is not necessarily racist, just an idiot, maybe he shouldn't be in Parliament.
Doug Gilmour was interviewed on Rogers Sportsnet during the Red Sox-Jays game last night. Talk about timing: The Jays had lost nine in a row, so they talk to the coach of the Kingston Frontenacs. And what happened during the same inning Gilmour was interviewed? The Jays scored five runs and won the game, so Gilmour was responsible for a turnaround that might only last one game — just like with the Fronts.
(Actually, Peter Zezel must have been pulling some strings.)
Christian Lacroix filing for court protection. It's tough to feel symapthy for a company which sold clothes which people couldn't fit into even if they could afford them.
Something to be grateful for is the British practice of listing the home team first in a sports schedule, which opposite to how it's done in North America. It eliminates the confusion that arises when the TV listings say, "Breakfast at Wembley." Sometimes it takes a second to realize there's no team called Breakfast.
Lastly, the line of the week from TV Feeds My Family, on the morally bankrupt Save Local TV campaign: "The Canadian network program buyers are down in LA right now, doing their damnedest to save local television. Somehow — even though they all say they're broke — they'll come back from the annual LA screenings with most of the 22 new U.S. network offerings."
It's always nice to do a mash-up of two unrelated items to point out the unflattering truth about the whole durned human comedy which is the Kingston Frontenacs.
The first item is that Pat Curcio, a good, young coach (and former Ottawa 67) left the London Knights, where he had been assistant coach the past couple years, to coach an ECHL team. The second is that a one-time Fronts draft choice, Stefan Thompson, was traded within in the Ontario Junior Hockey League.
This isn't a testimonial to either Curcio as a coach or Thompson as a player. The point is, though, this all goes to show how Frontenacs owner Doug Springer and general mangler (not a typo) Larry Mavety have little to no idea how to identify value, or realize what has value.
No one is saying Curcio is the next Mike Babcock. London fans on the NOOF seemed generally happy to have Jacques Beaulieu back as assistant coach. However, he has put in the time honing his craft as a coach and as a personnel man. Curcio turned out solid teams with the Pickering Panthers. The Panthers, since Curcio left in 2007, have won just 26 games in two seasons. They had seasons of 26, 30 and 29 wins the previous three years, so evidently, he knew how to win with a less than perfect organization, which is a good prereq for a candidate to coach the Frontenacs.
He's someone who has put in the time to warrant a shot at running a major junior team, but the Frontenacs would rather put a local celebrity who's a coaching novice behind the bench. One can easily imagine that Doug Springer wouldn't even be able to answer if you asked him, "Who is Pat Curcio?"
It's a similar story with Thompson, who was taken in the third round (49th overall) in 2007 and appeared in one game over two seasons. Who knows what he could have done with more of a chance, although the Fronts keep saying they need goal scorers and he is a 6-foot-1, 190-lb. forward who was close to a point-per-game player in Junior A last season.
The point is Mavety and Springer undervalued a third-round selection. The Frontenacs got only two regulars out of the draft, Ethan Werek and Taylor Doherty, whom they got in the first two rounds. Those were gimmes (and two years later, each of them has the label of "project" heading into the NHL draft. The Hockey News draft preview calls Werek a "project forward," but is generally positive about him.)
The Belleville Bulls' third- through sixth-round picks from 2007 all played regularly last season (Andy Bathgate, Brett Mackie, Luke Judson and Robert Stellick). The Bulls bided their time while some of them played in Junior A or midget during the season after being drafted. It is a similar story with the Ottawa 67's. The Soixys also drafted four regulars after the Frontenacs took Thompson: Brian Birkhoff, Jon Carnevale, Riley Sonnenburg and Marc Zanetti. They also took a NCAA-track player, Ben Sexton, who might get taken in the NHL draft next month.
That's what can happens when a team takes the priority selection seriously and follows up with later-blooming players who aren't ready for the OHL at age 16, which very few are. TVCogeco's Mark Potter has pointed out that the notion of "draft and follow" is pretty much a foreign concept to Larry Mavety. It's a stretch to say any draft choice who isn't OHL-ready gets tossed away like something stuck under your windshield wiper.
Again, there is every hope (not the same as confidence) the magic of a Doug Gilmour makeover will reveal itself once he's had a full season. It's nice, thanks to rhetorical devices such as Pat Curcio and Stefan Thompson, to be reminded how the Frontenacs got in such a mess and why it's doubtful the people who created it are the ones to clean it up, even with Gilmour's reflected glory.
Couple of Werek notes:
Faceoff Factor believes the Pittsburgh Penguins, might take Werek with the 28th overall pick (which seems to be a consensus opinion):
"Werek is a funny combination of board work, goal line work, and a pretty even keel of offensive abilities. He keeps getting bigger, and as he does so, he’s continuing to get better in traffic. He can play wing and should has a high potential to become a top-six guy someday. The 6-foot-2, 195-lb. center will be playing under the tutelage of Doug Gilmour next year and, along with Moon, will have a great opportunity to hone his offensive and defensive abilities. In his rookie year, Werek had 64 points (32 goals, 32 assists) in 66 games."
Werek is rehabbing after having a blood clot in his ankle which required a MRI
The music video the 1992-93 Maple Leafs made was kind of an oral legend, passed from one member of the tribe to the next, in a sort of you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it tone — until now. Far be it to think hockey would ever get on a sports/pop culture bandwagon nearly a decade late.
There is half a mind to stand outside Doug Gilmour's house, Lloyd Dobler-style and play this on a boom box until he buys a majority stake in the Kingston Frontenacs from Doug Springer. (Clip via Puck Daddy.)
The first draft of The Gilmour Era looked a lot like a Larry Mavety draft.
Ours is not to say whom the Kingston Frontenacs should have taken in the Ontario Hockey League's priority selection. No one knows for certain with 16-year-old hockey players. It's the sporting equivalent of trying to parallel park with pizza dough over your eyes. The point is simply that Frontenacs owner Doug Springer and his general mangler (not a typo) are making hometown hero Doug Gilmour the point man on all things hockey-related, yet their selections today followed some of Mavety's patterns. No one is a cynic on draft day, however. You're always hoping for the best as a fan.
(First things first: Read Mike Koreen's profile on Kingston Vees goalie Shawn Sirman.)
The hope on draft day is always that it's the next step toward that long-awaited victory parade down Princess St. in Kingston, ending at Springer Market Square, when the Frontenacs finally win a playoff round the Memorial Cup. The Fronts had four of the first 42 selections, including No. 2 overall selection Alan Quine from Ottawa, and eight among the first 102, so there was a chance to improve the team's overall talent level. The hope is always that they're going to have a winning team some day, but it's hard not to notice how Mavety didn't deviate from some of the tendencies that have marked his previous efforts.
Get some big guys who can put the puck in the net. The first three picks went for forwards. After Alan Quine ("nifty centreman," is that the right cliché?) in the first round, Kingston used its two second-rounders on 6-foot-1, 205-lb. Steven Broek from the Belleville area (he had a big tournament at the OHL Cup) and Brett Morgan from Mississauga, listed at 6-1, 180. They can use some size up front. Most of the message-board scuttlebutt says Morgan plays with some edge.
Draft local, they might actually report. Two defencemen off the same Brockville-area AAA midget team, Clark Seymour and Ben Hutton, were taken in the third round (32nd overall) and fifth round (100th overall).
At least this was no repeat of 2006, when the Fronts didn't take a d-man until the eighth round. That played no part in the team having one of the worst defensive records in the league the past two seasons. It was a coincidence, like everything else which happens with the Fronts.
Only a jackass would ever use the team's record over of an arbitrary timespan like, say, the last 11 seasons to build an argument that's it's not a good idea for Doug Springer to give Larry Mavety a new three-year contract.
It's never too early to pick a goalie! You cannot go wrong by being slave to conventional thinking, especially with the position which is the toughest to evaluate at any level of hockey, let alone with 16-year-olds. Frank Palazzese was considered the third-best goalie available, so you better believe Kingston took him when he was still there in the fourth round, 69th overall. The thing is, they need goaltending.
Here is hoping Palazzese becomes the first goalie to be drafted and developed by the Frontenacs since Andrew Raycroft at the turn of the century (the 21st, not the 20th, wiseass).
Palazzese is the first goalie Kingston has taken this high since Matt Hoyle in 2006. Hoyle's life, it's sad to report, has completely fallen to pieces after he passed on the Frontenacs, to point he is now at some school called Harvard University.
At least he did not end up in a bad way like the former No. 2 overall choice who spurned the Kingston Frontenacs, Wes O'Neill, of whom Mavety said last August, "Last I heard, he was in the East Coast league." (O'Neill, who got a free four-year education at Notre Dame, has since made his NHL debut this season with the Colorado Avalanche.)
Love those London-area kids, but do they love you back? Some Googling will turn up speculation that centre Ryan Davidson (fifth round, 97th overall) could have gone as high as the third round. Davidson is from the same London, Ont., midget program as two players from Mavety's 2005 draft who never panned out for Kingston, Andrew Wilson and Justin Taylor. Taylor, who was taken around the same point (104th overall) as Davidson, never reported to Kingston, which traded him to, wait for it, the London Knights.
Try to appease the ass-talkers. Goodness knows a lot of bandwidth and bile has been spent pointing out the Belleville Bulls have a slightly better draft record than Kingston, not that there is any carryover into the on-ice results. Coincidence, eh?
In 2005, the Bulls turned up future NHL first-rounder Eric Tangradi, who's from the Philadelphia area, and future two-time OHL goalie of the year Mike Murphy, a Kingston native, in the middle rounds. This time around, Kingston took a forward named Eric from Pennsylvania and a goalie from Kingston. Here's hoping Eric Neiley and Nathan Perry, the sixth and eighth-rounder, will turn out OK.
None of this is meant to say you can infer anything about a player based on who else the team might have taken. But wouldn't you feel a lot better about the team drafting a goalie, or a player from a particular town, if it had fared better in that regard?
Will they play somewhere close to Peoria? Thirteenth-round pick A.J. Jarosz is the second player from Illinois whom Mavety has taken in the past three years, though probably not as quid pro quo for apparently renting out the team nickname. The previous player was Cody Murphy, who is set to join the NCAA Frozen Four runners-up, Miami (Ohio), next season. At least the Fronts had good taste.
Your guess is as good as any how it's going to turn out, as a fan, you have to do your part to sell hope. The future would seem so much brighter if it wasn't for that crazy little thing called memory.
The Kingston Kimco Voyageurs, after a 4-2 Game 4 win last night over the Oakville Blades, are a win away from the Ontario Junior Hockey League title. Kingston-born Mike Murphy has backstopped the Belleville Bulls, the city's "spring team" since the one actually located in the city seldom makes it beyond the solstice, to the OHL Eastern Conference final for the third consecutive year. (Is it too early to talk about Murphy leading Bellevegas in an OHL final vs. Kingston's Taylor Hall and the Windsor Spitfires?)
Meantime, over in a forgotten corner of the toy department, the Kingston Frontenacs keep on keepin' on. In the midst of a recession, with a big building to fill, celebrity coach Doug Gilmour, has been nearly invisible in the city as they try to sell hope for 2009-10. The club is also set to apply its faulty, no-account approach to the OHL draft in a month's time. They're drafting No. 2 and it's hard to screw that up. One beauty of sport is sometimes you can succeed in spite of yourself. That's kind of been the basis for GM-for-life Larry Mavety's entire front-office career.
Granted, bringing the Springer Frontenacs into a discussion about the Voyageurs almost sees to cheapen their accomplishment. Of course, if owner Doug Springer had ever given fans something to celebrate as he has on promised multiple occasions, the Vees would not seem unique.
On Kinger's sports show on CFRC 101.9 yesterday, TVCogeco and K-Rock 105.7's Tim Cunningham said you'd have to go back to the old Kingston Aces senior team of the late 1960s and early '70s for the last time a local hockey team had the city in such thrall. And Tim is an apposite observer of Kingston athletics if ever there was one.
The Vees have three chances to close out the Blades, beginning with Game 5 on Easter Sunday in Oakville. Every contest has been a one-goal game so far, since Adam McAllister sealed Friday's game with an empty-netter with 15 seconds remaining (although Kingston had 2-0 and 3-1 leads). Goalie Shawn Sirman, who has committed to play college hockey at Maine last season, made 38 saves. Oakville's one win so far, in Game 3 last Wednesday, required 19-plus minutes of overtime after the Vees had wiped out a three-goal lead on the road.
Words fail, really, and speaking of fail, there's the Frontenacs. As Tim noted, Gilmour should be "a lot more visible in the community ... he's a great asset and I don't think he's being used appropriately."
In other words, Gilmour has been a ghost since the season ended. That seems like a strange tack to take with the legendary former Leafs captain. An astute hockey fan might remember that overworked flunky Jeff Stilwell tried to blame the team's attendance problems on the recession during that farcical appearance before Kingston city council in February, when they were called on the carpet to (wink) talk about their marketing plan. Gilmour's presence, people were told, would help bring out more fans, so why he is not front and centre trying to help the franchise maintain its base of fans? People everywhere, although Kingston is cocooned somewhat since it's a government/university town, are evaluating their discretionary spending.
Season tickets for an OHL team which gives a contract extension to its general mangler (not a typo) despite having lost 99 of its last 141 games doesn't offer the necessary bang for one's buck. Oh, and they've gone 11 seasons without even making it to Game 7 of a first-round playoff series, let alone the second round.
A sizable chunk of people who have devoted their attention to the Vees for the past few weeks are probably the same season-ticket holders who were disguised as empty seats on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons this past winter at the Kingston Ratepayer Centre. They wouldn't mind some further reassurances that Gilmour is committed. He's shown excellent potential as a coach, but the point remains that the Fronts need a lot more than smart coaching before people believe in the franchise again.
Writing on sportsnet.ca this week, Gare Joyce said that, "... a few jackals in the Toronto media suggested that (Gilmour) was a publicity Band-Aid solution for a foundering Frontenacs franchise, one-and-out."
Joyce is in the know, but a fan's reasoning is that hiring Gilmour was a PR move if there is no evident sign of changes to the franchise's management structure. The second is there is no reason to speculate if Gilmour is in Kingston, hitting the hustings and trying to sell hope.
Meantime, the OHL draft is in a month. The Frontenacs could hit a home run, but they'll be swinging with their eyes closed.
Doug Springer and Larry Mavety, who has tenure despite the failures of the past eleven-ure, have a pretty sweet setup with the draft. Their out is that the scouts make the picks. Mavety just rubber-stamps their recommendations, so it's not his fault. Gilmour is now supposed to have more say over decisions on players, which raises the question of why in the name of Sam Pollock Springer has given Mavety a new three-year contract.
(Today's Whig-Standard notes that Daryl Borden, whom Mavety once chanced a second-round pick on, has backstopped the Brantford Golden Eagles into the Ontario Junior B championship. Once again, Mavety helps build winners everywhere except with the team which employs him.)
It could be that one report this week the Fronts were committed to drafting a forward with the No. 2 pick was erroneous. One would hope so, since that's a stupid approach. You don't draft based on the makeup of the club's roster. You're drafting high because the team is deficient throughout, not just at one position, so take the best player. The Fronts, coming off a 50-loss season, can use help everywhere. You can never have too many good defencemen, even as 17-year-old Erik Gudbranson and 18-year-old Taylor Doherty are both off at the world under-18 tournament.
The team could be headed toward another manifestation of their obsession with taking a "big guy who can score" instead of a top-end defenceman, even though the latter is a must-have in the OHL. In 2005, Mavety's scouts took Luke Pither (undrafted by the NHL, but having a good playoffs with, wait for it, Belleville) ahead of Drew Doughty, now a regular for the L.A. Kings at 19 years old. In '06, the scouts took Josh Brittain (a NHL fourth-rounder) ahead of future Atlanta Thrasher Zach Bogosian, who played in the NHL this season at age 18.
The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds will take Daniel Catenacci No. 1, since he's a speedy forward and an Italian, which will play well with the paisans in the Soo. Kingston defenceman Scott Harrington, who's moved up to the Vees for the playoffs, will be available, as is another d-man, Justin Sefton from the Kitchener-Waterloo area.
It's not some ass-talker's place to say who the Fronts should take. Then again, it shouldn't be Larry Mavety's place to say it either. Long post short, the Vees are a win away from a championship, and it's not clear who's steering the ship known as the HMCS Royal Mavesty.
It has been 536 days since Doug Springer promised to do "whatever it takes" to bring a winner to Kingston. Having three former Fronts on the Voyageurs doesn't count.
(The photo of Budd Light is not gratuitous. The character in those beer commercials is played by an actor named Ryan Farrell who once played provincial Junior A hockey in Calgary, whereas Mike Farrell -- same surname! -- scored the game-winner for the Vees on Friday. It is totally relevant to the narrative.)
Ethan Werek shed some light, sort of, on what prompted him to report to the Kingston Frontenacs.
It's mostly worth pointing out only for the fact Werek's arrival was heralded as a great affirmation of the Kingston franchise, GM-for-life Larry Mavety and by extension the enabler of the general mangler (not a typo), owner Doug Springer. Others of sound mind, if not body (join a gym, Sagert) believed Werek reported to help his status for the 2009 NHL draft (he's now rated 24th by the International Scouting Service and is getting some OHL rookie-of-the-year buzz). The interview he did with The Team 1260 in Edmonton wouldn't disabuse anyone of that notion.
On the events that summer which caused him to de-commit from Boston University and join the Frontenacs:
"In the end, I have no regrets about what happened. The thing was with that, I finished high school a year early and I wanted to finish off at my high school. I've been going there since Grace 3 and I wanted to finish off there. In the off-season, I approached my options. I was thinking of maybe going to BU a year early, but their team was a pretty skilled team this year and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get the ice time in my (NHL) draft year to maybe get shown, so... Kingston's been a great fit. I'm going to Queen's here, which is a top school. I'm just getting my education and playing in the OHL and I couldn't be happier."
One of the hosts followed up with a question about whether coming to Kingston was "simply an exposure aspect" with Werek doing into his draft season:
"I think that was a big part of it. Going to college, as a freshman, you kind of have to start near the bottom and work your way up. College, you only play 30-35 games. In the OHL you're playing 67, so it's more pro development ... it was a tough decision and something I'll always think back to, but in the end I'm happy with my decision."
He could have played that many games in the USHL, though. Later, he was asked, "Would you have gone to BU this year?"
"I would have rather to gone BU this year, start my university, I was just kind of laying out my decision until I was done high school."
The odd part about that is Mavety kept saying in 2007-08 that Werek would play for Kingston. The player says that all along, he wanted to give it a year to make his choice. The bottom line, it more less worked out. Werek has showcased himself for the draft, Mavety is somehow still in Springer's employ and that continues to provide much mirth for this blog and for The Kinger.
There is a semi-serious point that it is really ridiculous how early hockey players have to make a choice to pursue the major junior or NCAA stream. Perhaps Werek is just a different dude for bucking the system. There is little reason to doubt Werek's sincerity, since the alternative is to believe Larry Mavety.
It has been 485 days since Doug Springer has promised he would do "whatever it takes" to bring a winner to Kingston.
Brock Otten at OHL Prospects had some observations about the Kingston Frontenacs' legitimate prospects after seeing them in action in St. Catharines earlier Sunday.
Suffice to say, those who follow the Fronts with clear eyes might not be surprised by Otten's observations. (Kingston lost 4-1 to the Niagara Ice Dogs, thanks for asking.)
Forwards
Ethan Werek — "The best player on the ice for Kingston, no question. Werek was just about the only player generating real offensive chances for the Fronts ... I think this guy is a big NHL draft riser as he continues to get better and better."
Nathan Moon (Penguins draft pick) — "I see the flashes of skill, but I don't see the effort level. The Fronts went down 4-0 at the beginning of the 2nd period, and he appeared to just give up. He stopped battling for loose pucks, and began to float."
Colt Kennedy — "I'm not sure how much offensive ability he really has, but he's a good energy guy ... I've heard he is getting some minor attention for the 2009 draft though and could end up as a late pick."
Defencemen
Taylor Doherty — "He was a complete non-factor. On the first Ice Dog goal by (ex-Frontenac Thomas) Middup, he failed to tie up his man going to the net, and Middup was able to bang home a juicy rebound. I don't think he attempted to rush the puck up ice once this game and looked tentative and scared with it on his stick. Early in the third period, he took a lazy hooking penalty in his own zone and I don't think he saw the ice again in the game. This was also the first game I've noticed his skating being a potential issue."
Erik Gudbranson — "He actually showed more of a physical edge than I had seen before from him and he appears to be becoming more confident in using his size to his advantage ... He has great puck skills and a big shot, so it's disappointing to me that Coach Killer doesn't have him out there gaining experience on the PP."
Brian Lashoff — "He enters the offensive zone effortlessly, and does a good job running the point on the powerplay, although I'd like to see him move around a little more as I found him to be a little stiff at the point."
Doug Springer no doubt figures he should get credit just for showing up.
Poor leaders don't die, they just snake away. Springer, whom the Kingston Frontenacs belong to in deed but never in the way they belong to fans, blew a chance to prove he's better than most kinds of dirt (not that fancy store-bought kind; that stuff's loaded with nutrients). It was the momentous occasion when the Frontenacs brain trust went before city council to answer for the team sucking out loud not having a successful marketing plan to draw fans to the Kingston Ratepayer Centre.
Surely the chief cook and bottle-washer would have the couth to take questions from the duly elected representatives of the city which built a $43-million toy for him to play with (and perhaps run into the ground so he could scoop it up for pennies on the dollar, like the Blue Jays did with the former Skydome).
Surely, you jest. Springer made it clear he would not take questions, not now, not ever. Save Our Kingston Frontenacs sets the scene very well:
"Springer appeared only to introduce Jeff Stilwell and The Manchurian Coach (Doug Gilmour -- ed.). He instructed councillors to direct their questions to 'the two experts that are most qualified.' A convenient way to avoid accountability; always the top item in Springsy's repertoire. What’s he afraid of, anyway?"
Somehow, "the two experts that are most qualified" are a rookie coach with five wins in 26 games and the franchise's resident Waylon Smithers/Bob Cratchit (poor Jeff Stilwell is so overworked that he deserves two pop-culture references).
It meant Doug Gilmour had to pull on his economist hat to answer questions about the cost of parking at the arena. What would Gilmour know about parking? He's the coach; he's in the building when people are pulling into the lots. It was a gong show, exactly what Springer wanted.
One keeps hoping that Springer, one of these days, will wake up. At least he ended up having to admit, ipso facto, that neither he nor GM-for-life Larry Mavety (who was, we were told, off at a league meeting) are homogenously unqualified to speak to why their team has not won a playoff series since 1998, when they have been the two constants in the organization across that entire span. Also, in the chain of command, if the GM was indisposed because he was attending a meeting, wouldn't it fall to the assistant GM to take his place? Assistant coach Tony Cimellaro, who's outlasted several head coaches, has that title, but clearly it's only a title.
It's quite a contrast between Doug Gilmour last night and the Doug Gilmour who was feted by the Toronto Maple Leafs and Hockey Night in Canada 72 hours earlier. Please make note of how he reaches up and scratches his face right when he says, "Doug," referring to Springer (40-second mark). That seems to be his tell.
You have to love the "let's not make excuses for Mav" line. People have been making excuses for Mavety for only the last 11 seasons.
Gilmour also said, "The trades that have been made, I did, so don't blame them, it was me." That was pretty shrewd, since it cut off the ill-informed councillors from asking about the moves made before Gilmour was hired, such as releasing team leader Kyle Bochek, trading for a player who had moved up to the AHL, or having almost nothing to show for the December 2007 trade of Cory Emmerton, save for rookie Charles Sarault. Please bear in mind that was only in the 12 months immediately before Gilmour's hire. There is so much more.
Then there was Stilwell, a good man caught in a corrupt system, enduring a grilling from city councillor Vicki "Hellraiser" Schmolka (Save The Fronts' splendid sobriquet), the one it-getter on council. The only other exception was Rob Matheson, who asked Gilmour pointedly what the Frontenacs plan to do to get top prospects to report to the club. Gilmour didn't have an answer, which is pretty glaring when the No. 1-ranked prospect for the OHL draft, defenceman Scott Harrington, is from Kingston.
Long post made short, Springer, the flourishing miserably fop got his farce. No one really believes he's lower than dirt and he had no legal obligation to explain himself, since a lot of what the politicians are doing in Kingston amounts to closing the barn door after the cows got out. Morally, ethically and professionally, he owed it to people to take questions and explain,
It was a sham and that is a shame. It just goes to show how it never changes with the Kingston Frontenacs. The franchise's hard-done-by fanbase had a rare good 24-48 hours last weekend, between the underutilized Ethan Werekscoring the game-winner in the dying seconds to knock off John Tavares and the London Knights and the ceremonies for Gilmour in Toronto. (Mark Potter of TV Cogeco had a killer line, saying Werek had to find a way to score, since he probably wasn't going to get a spot in a shootout. Incidentally, three of Gilmour's five coaching wins have been by a goal and Werek has scored or set-up the game-winning goal in all three.)
It all turned to mud on Tuesday. It's comical how it reverts to form the very second the national media stop paying attention to Gilmour. This is what Springer wanted, though. He is there, always, even when he doesn't want to be there.
You'd end with "damn him," but you can't damn someone who, as an OHL owner, lacks a conscience, couth or fully functioning brain. Springer might be able to if he wanted to, but that's clearly not in his interest.
It has been 470 days since Doug Springer promised to do "whatever it takes" to make Kingston a top team.
The analogies with Doug Gilmour fall short, just like the Leafs have so often.
The best stab at fighting through any ambivalence on the eve of Gilmour's big night in Toronto, is that for two years, 1993 and '94, he embodied something that courses through Canadians on a chromosomal level. Plain and simple, he was embodied by what he didn't have, which is like next to godliness in the Great White North, eh.
There's a passage in Roy MacGregor's cult hockey novel (hacky to be quoting, true), The Last Season, which better explains why "great and being loved can be two different things" in sports, hockey in particular (assist to Cox Bloc). A small-town hockey coach, Ted "Sugar" Bowles, closes a pregame pep talk to the protagonist's team, "What makes a shark truly unusual is what he doesn't have. And that's a swim bladder ... A shark has to keep moving constantly. A shark does not float, like other fish. He has no swim bladder, see. He can't let up for a minute and that's what makes him top dog."
Gilmour, in 1993 and '94, was our shark. Either you got him or you never could. It's just like how five of Kingston's other favourite sons, the Tragically Hip, are rock gods in Canada but have seldom charted in the United States. Both were too particular to their time and place to translate very well.
He had to keep moving. In the end, that gets a player more attention than those who have the supple arrogance of grace, which is what doomed Mats Sundin to being Tall Poppy Syndromed. There were better playmakers in the NHL during Gilmour's prime years, such as Adam Oates, or Pat La-La-Lafontaine. There were comparable good undersized players, such as Theo Fleury. For two-way centremen, Steve Yzerman and his three rings come to mind.
None of them stretch across 1993 to 2009 like Gilmour, now the Manchurian Coach of the Kingston Frontenacs.
Please keep in mind it was the Leafs, post-Harold Ballard and pre-Ontario Teachers Pension Plan. Down in Kingston, where ol' Pal Hal had been in the clinker for a couple years in the '70s (he was in Bath Institution, next door to the "Millhaven maximum security" that the Hip mention in the first verse of 38 Years Old), there were boys and girls willing to cheer for the dismal Leafs, instead of the still majestic Montreal Canadiens or the Edmonton Oilers.
There was no pinpointing the low point. My best friend Neil Acharya often talks of the day in 1988 when Mark Potter, the sports anchor at CKWS, led off with, "You'll never believe what the Leafs have done this time," alluding to the infamous Russ Courtnall-for-John Kordic trade. There is an argument it might have been a good deal for the Leafs.
In '89, Floyd (Trader) Smith dealt away the draft choice which the New Jersey Devils used to draft Scott Niedermayer. Ballard died in '90. In '91, Cliff Fletcher came in as GM. In the early hours of '92, Fletcher made The Trade to get Gilmour.
Go ahead and laugh, but the Game 7 overtime win over the Red Wings in the first round in 1993 was, wait for it, legendary. They could have played that series 10 times and the Red Wings, with Yzerman, Paul Coffey and Sergei Fedorov, would have won eight or nine times. Bob Cole's sum-up at the unlikelihood of it all, "I am going to talk to Cliff Fletcher and Pat Burns and I am going to ask them to pick my numbers for the lotto next week," still raises chill bumps.
It is pretty easy to see Gilmour and look back at '93 and get bogged down in bathos. It could never be so linear at age 16. You're such a jumble of hormones, half-thoughts and trying not to get your ass kicked just for living. (Aside: That's different from being 32 how? Well, the ass-kickings only come in the figurative sense.)
It was a pretty good place for an average guy to start self-medicating with sports, music and such. Kingston's Doug Gilmour had the year of his life leading the Leafs sadistically close to the Stanley Cup final. The Hip — there was a young, hockey-haired Gord Downie in a team picture from 1978-79, the goalie on the far left of the front row, hanging at Henderson Arena in Amherstview — had just come out with Fully Completely. The Blue Jays were on their way to back-to-back World Series championships in baseball; Queen's had won the Vanier Cup in football. After Wayne Gretzky's high stick-Kerry Fraser's no call-Dave Ellett's skate happened, the hockey gods came through with a makeup call. Another good Kingston boy, Kirk Muller, scored the Stanley Cup-winner for the Montreal Canadiens a couple weeks later.
Doug Gilmour was defining, no two ways about it. He was a smart player and he had the look, the one that landed him the nickname Killer. He'd worked for everything, from making it to the NHL after being a seventh-round pick to playing his way on to Team Canada in '87. He made hockey seem a little closer just as it drifting away from people in heartland Canadian towns (remember, the year of Gilmour was also Year 1 of Gary Bettman). Maybe it is like seeing your high school yearbook photo, especially when you see the clips from Don Cherry's Rock 'Em Sock 'Em videos, but there's no deniability.
Sixteen years later, it might be just random accessed memories. It is no more important nor more interesting than the Winnipeg Jets of the '70s or the 1982 Vancouver Canucks are to people who grew up in another time or place. There is still the burn every Leafs fan has to live with, knowing his best was not enough to silence the "Sixty-seven!" chants.
For me at least, it is complicated further since, as a rookie coach, Gilmour is now of an embarrassing gong show being perpetrated by Doug Springer, owner of the Kingston Frontenacs. The joke making the rounds is that Gilmour, can no longer be called Killer. That nickname belongs to Brian Kilrea in Ottawa.
There is a symmetry to Gilmour's foray into coaching. Say whatever you want about him as a coach (and people have), but like a lot of ex-jocks, he's just trying to figure out where he fits in, like everyone else. It makes him one of us, OK sure he has a lot more money, but Saturday we will be applauding one of our own.
Today's theme, "You'd be excused for thinking ..."
... Senators owner Eugene Melnyk and the crying Giants fan are one and the same. ("Anybody that says we should blow up this organization should get their own bomb and go blow themselves up." Brutal.)
... Nothing Doug Gilmour — Dougie! — did before he played for the Leafs matters . It's forgotten that he was nails in the greatest hockey series ever played, the 1987 Canada Cup, which seems to have been left out of the official hagiography (give Steve Simmons credit for noting he was just as good in Calgary as he was in Toronto).
... The biggest Super Bowl story is how many or how few middle-aged sports columnists have been sent there by their newspapers. No disrespect to the heroes on Prime Time Sports who chewed this over for far too long yesterday, but it's a non-issue. Super Bowl coverage is paint-by-numbers pack journalism and the best stories are found someplace else.
... All the sportswriters who referenced John Updike's famous essay about Ted Williams probably never read any of Updike except his famous essay on seeing Ted Williams' last home run. Poz is a glorious exception. Anyone who would call it "the Ted Williams article" (Maclean's) needs to do more reading.
... the shorter version of CBC's defence of Mike Milbury using the word "pansification" was that, "People are so stupid they don't even realize it's a gay slur."
... Everything about the Detroit Lions organization has to be changed, but they must not touch the Honululu blue colour scheme. ... Friday Night Lights is the one prime-time show which is most willing to dig into the effects of the recession on average Americans, but it will probably be cancelled before it can.
... The reason the press conference announcing the end of Ottawa's 51-day transit strike was delayed was because everyone had to walk. Apparently, the drivers' union reps left for the press conference in a 40-foot-long limousine — well, they couldn't take the bus!
This post is worth nothing; this is worth noting
Check out The Tao's thoughts on William Houston leaving The Globe & Mail.
Minnesota Wild GM Doug Risebrough, coming clean on the Doug Gilmour deal with the Leafs 17 years ago, "This general manager does know one thing. The only Stanley Cup Doug Gilmour ever won was as a Calgary Flame." The nerve of him. How dare someone who was on five Stanley Cup-winning teams take a dig at Leafs Nation.
The Atlanta Braves signed high school pitcher named Yoshinori Yamarin. Presumably he was the Japanese pitcher the Blue Jays were said to be pursuing the other day. (What's Japanese for Tnstaapp?)
This post is worth nothing, but this is worth noting
Please note that ex-Leafs captain Rick Vaive told globesports.com, "If they had a questionnaire for each player, I think people would be surprised by the number of players in the NHL who would say they don't want fighting."
It's too bad NHLPA boss Paul Kelly would never do that. Since when do union leaders ask workers about safety concerns
Only in Leafland can a coach's celebrity count for more than whether the celebrity can coach.
The OHL needs to pass a new rule: Teams can't honour a visiting coach who's been behind the bench for fewer games than the Ottawa 67's Brian Kilrea has seasons. It's on another level of fail when said coach works for Doug Springer. (Irony: Kilrea's last visit to Kingston is on Wednesday.)
Perhaps Barrie Colts owner Howie Campbell, given that half the teams in the OHL are down at the gate this season, can be excused for honouring Kingston Frontenacs coach Doug Gilmour Saturday before his Colts pinned another loss on the league's donkey team. Anything to sell tickets, right? He shouldn't be, though.
Speaking as a Frontenacs and Leafs follower, Gilmour has to be looked at as a newbie coach in in the OHL's worst organization. That is what he is today. The Fronts have four wins in the past two months, even though they are an improved team. People have to stop looking at what Gilmour did for Toronto back in 1993 and '94. It's like The Sopranos: It's over.
It was a rookie mistake for Gilmour to take part in something that has almost nothing to do with his current role in hockey.
So what if "the Colts organization wanted to do something special for Gilmour, to quote theBarrie Examiner? You could read into that that the Colts highers-up are such big Leafs fans that they thought gosh darn golly gee what the heck, let's honour Number Ninety-Three, Dougie Gilmour so we can say Barrie did it before our big-city cousins in Toronto do it Jan. 31. (About that: Gilmour says he bought the Kingston players' tickets for that game; one report suggests otherwise.)
Kilrea, who is in his final season, deserves every tribute he gets for what he's done in the OHL for more than 30 seasons. It cheapens what's being done for him and long-time assistant coach Bert O'Brien around the league when OHL teams get carried away with honouring ex-players on the flimsiest pretense.
The Mississauga St. Michael's Majors held a sweater retirement several weeks ago for Hall of Famer Dave Keon, on the premise that he played for the original Majors decades ago when they were based in downtown Toronto. The Colts were even more out of line — the team didn't even exist when Gilmour played in the OHL.
Granted, the Colts might have something akin to executive privilege. They have the right since they have won as many OHL championships as the Frontenacs have playoff series in the past 13 seasons — once! Also please keep in mind, Barrie started as an expansion team in 1995, while the Frontenacs, under their oblivious owner, Springer, and GM-for-life Larry Mavety on, have merely been reduced to an expansion outfit.
Not knowing much about Howie Campbell, it's presumable he, like anyone with a measure of sanity, would plan major changes if his team was dead last in the 60-team Canadian Hockey League. Springer won't even comtemplate that, which has given rise to a persistent rumour he's sabotaging the Frontenacs so that the city-owned K-Rock Centre's revenues will fall so low that the city council will put up it up for sale, where he'll swoop in like Rogers did with the Skydome.
Well, what other explanation is there for why the owner of a 9-31-8 team with the worst goals-for and goals-against totals in OHL carries on like the only change fans deserve is from the arena's vending machines? Paraphrasing someting Dr. Cox (the character on Scrubs, not his Toronto Star namesake) once said, the only way Springer could be more useless right now is if he actually were the wall of the K-Rock Centre.
Springer is on record as saying Mavety is an "astute hockey man," which has become an Internet meme among Frontenacs fans. In light of the fact Gilmour let it drop late last week that he would be "consulting with Mav," about how to improve the team, Springer seems dead set against making any changes. To once again quote Sacred Heart's prickly Perry, that makes him worse than useless.
(Scrubs references, Sagert? Someone is single and works odd hours.)
Last summer, when everyone and her/his dog knew that The Royal Mavesty was returning as the permanent interim coach, but Springer held off on any announcement until the deadline passed for season-ticket holders to renew their seats. That might not happen again. A humble suggestion might be that season-ticket holders should start letting the team know how they feel about renewing..
(Typical of the no-account Kingston front office, the only e-mail listed on the website is that of Jeff Stilwell, the P.R. man. In other words, the P.R. guy is more accountable than the general manager and owner-president-governor who signs his paycheques.)
In other words, in light of all that, it's impossible to sit idly by and watch the Colts contribute to the charade that having Gilmour behind the bench is making any big difference in Kingston. As a sidebar to this, it's kind of funny that Gilmour told the Toronto Star that he got the Frontenacs players "all tickets up in the nosebleeds," for his tribute night. He might have been joking, or maybe this is just gossip dignified in print:
"When Doug Gilmour's jersey is honoured at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night, his Kingston Frontenacs players will be in attendance. But he had nothing to do with getting them tickets. Turns out, Mike Zigomanis of the Penguins, as a goodwill gesture to his former junior team and knowing nothing of the Gilmour ceremony, bought 34 tickets for the Fronts players to watch the Pens play." — Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun
Who knows and who cares bought the tickets for the players.
It might have been a joke that has backfired on Gilmour's part. Well, nine wins in 48 games is a joke, but one cannot say the Gilmour experiment has backfired.
It's worked perfectly. The big reason Springer and Mavety hired Gilmour, in the absence of being able to get quality applicants because the word is out on those two, was to trade off his celebrity and deflect attention from the ramshackle organization. Shame on the Barrie Colts for helping the sham seem legit.
C'est la vie in the world of the Springer Frontenacs.
The Manchurian Coach, Dougie!, gave more assurances that he is coming back next season. Left unsaid is that if Doug Gilmour knows he's coming back, then ipso facto, that means owner Doug Springer must not be planning any major changes, specifically with GM-for-life Larry Mavety. Meantime, the Fronts got some nice left-handed compliments in an out-of-town paper.
Far be it to criticize one's own corporate brethren, but the Cornwall Standard-Freeholder had an article day that started off with a nice human interest angle on David Murphy, the Fronts' TV play-by-play man. Murph (not Murph Dog, that would be Jan Murphy from the Whig-Standard) is a good guy. He used to work in Cornwall.
Then it veered off a little into this travelogue that took swipes at the team's record and the wind coming off the lake. The latter is off-limits to outsiders, by the way. Only long-time Kingstonians and Queen's students f.
"There isn't a bad seat in the place, and some of the best of the 5,700 that are available often sit empty. The original expectations of 3,300 per game haven't been met, largely because the Frontenacs continue to be a bad team, 20 games under .500.
"Kingston Canadians graduates include Cornwall's Steve Seguin, and other former NHLers Mike O'Connell, Mike Gillis, Ken Linseman, Tony McKegney, Tim Kerr and Bernie Nicholls.
"Kingston Frontenacs graduates and NHLers include Cornwall's Chad Kilger, as well as Brett Lindros, Craig Rivet, Jan Bulis and Sean Avery.
"Problem is, that's a roll call that spans decades. (The Canadians entered the OHL in 1973; they became the Frontenacs in 1989. The Canadians only once won a regular season division title. Neither version has ever played in the OHL finals.)
"But go if you get an opportunity. Go for the sightlines, go for the excellent calibre of OHL play, go for the endzone restaurant and the roomy concession areas and gift shop."
Shorter version: The team sucks (and were Kinger here, he'd point that it was 3,500 a game and that one division title in 1994-95 came during the Frontenacs era), but it's still strange. The gist of it is seems to be that the Frontenacs are terrible, the walk from the car to the K-Rock Centre can be "a most unpleasant trek" due to the winds, but really you should go, because you can be back in Cornwall by midnight.
The Fronts are home to the Erie Otters tonight. Good sections of seats are still available.
The analogies with 
Only in Leafland can a coach's celebrity count for more than whether the celebrity can coach.
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