Legen, wait for it, Gary! Leeman vs. Savard

Not to oversell it, but Down Goes Brown's latest installment of Great Obscure Moments in Leafs history is required reading if you were born in Ontario between 1972-81 and grew up following the blue and white. A brawl between Norris Division teams with Santa Claus looking on? It was nice to be one of the children instead of wondering why someone wouldn't think of them.



By the way, Maple Leaf Gardens P.A. announcer's Paul Morris' method of announcing penalties was awesome.

Hoserdome 2009: Day 12ish

1. The fall comes in the same manner that led to the rise, that's the definition of hubris, right? The Flyers were rolling in a must-win game vs. the Penguins. Daniel Carcillo picked a fight with Maxime Talbot, the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied and the Flyers were toast. Fighting still has a purpose in hockey: Waking up a more talented team. Maxime Talbot knew as much when he shushed Philly fans.
   
   
2. There is irony to the fact Jim Schoenfeld is suspended New York coach John Tortorella's replacement for Game 6 of the Rangers-Capitals series, since he's the only other coach to be suspended for a playoff game. Don't pretend Schoenfeld's past behaviour is a factor in the series. The "have another donut, you fat pig" incident was 21 years ago; he was 35 when it happened and 56 now.
   
   
3. Capitals tough guy Donald Brashear's high hit on Blair Betts is a major off-day story now that Washington has forced a Game 7 vs. the Rangers. (And Shaone Morrisonn is accused of biting a dude?)
   
   
4. Hockey commentators like to emphasis the importance of winning faceoffs. It turns out that advantage, on average, only lasts for about 11 seconds. Obviously, it's still important with 30 seconds left in a one-goal game.

New York Rangers, Washington tied 3-3 — The Rangers looked ready to go home once the Capitals went up by two in an eventual 5-3 win. Really, from a fan's point of view, that's not such a bad thing since their whole game was to ride their goaltender and wait for the other team to make a mistake. It can work, but not if Henrik Lundqvist is going to be human after bailing out the Rangers so often.

Again, the Brashear hit. NBC showed footage from the pregame warmup that showed the winger cross the centre-ice red line before chirping Rangers winger Colton Orr. Crossing the red line during warmup is an automatic misconduct penalty in many amateur leagues.

Washington's top defenceman Mike Green seems to have found his form. It should be a cakewalk for the Capitals.

New Jersey, Carolina headed to Game 7 — A quality series is likely to be affected by the ice conditions, which is the reality but also regrettable. The forecast high for Newark on Tuesday is 31C, which could cause havoc.

Who's playing Monday

Chicago leads Calgary 3-2 (9:30, TSN) — The Blackhawks have been able to played their game, smart and fast, more often than not since about the midway point of Game 4. Giving Miikka Kiprusoff a mercy pull was a classic Mike Keenan move; make the guy play better by making him hate you. Historians differ, but this a management technique was supposedly invented by Joseph Stalin.

Anaheim leads San Jose 3-2 (10:30, CBC) — One sentiment is that San Jose would not have needed overtime if they were truly intent on coming back in the series. It's just a gut feeling.

Credit the NBA commentators for pointing out Carcillo didn't pick his spot. The beauty of still having fighting in hockey is that allow an idiotic player to screw up his team's season.

Snark break...

Hey, we'll always have cheaper beer at the ballpark ...

Doug Smith, on the endless (and ignored by the media) Raptors/Rogers/TSN2 controversy: "Where to look next? How about the sponsors? How about letting them know that, say, you won’t shop at whatever store the omnipresent Galen Weston owns? Or you won’t get your car serviced by whatever bailed out auto giant buys an ad?

"Where to look next? How about the sponsors? How about letting them know that, say, you won't shop at whatever store the omnipresent Galen Weston owns? Or you won’t get your car serviced by whatever bailed out auto giant buys an ad?" That would be Loblaws, and Ford, to name but a few.

Former Buffalo Sabres tough guy Larry Playfair (1,812 PIMs), to ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun: "I think, in my lifetime, there will be no more fighting in the National Hockey League. I think the day is coming. And that's OK. The game is so much better than when I played. The game is skill on skill. It's fun to watch."

Perish the cynicism over Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz buying the city's Golden Baseball League team. Some would say he made made $400,000 investment in the Cracker Cats in hope Edmonton will build him a $600-million arena.

Doesn't Katz know that the owner of a Canadian-based NHL team (if not a Canadian-based owner of a NHL team) should be trying to build a soccer stadium miles from the city core, where most of the footy-minded folk live? That's how you do it.

Remember, death is not an option: Who's more credible, Gary Bettman talking about the Phoenix Coyotes or Eugene Melnyk talking about the Senators' prospects?

Honestly, not a headline about Bernard Madoff, but about basketball: "Boomers lick their wounds."

The unspoken scandal about the teenage camera operator in Oshawa who was reassigned for talking to Don Cherry: That so many city-owned OHL arenas are run by private American firms. Ask everyone how that arrangement is working out in Kingston.

OK, so NCAA hoops won't be on your radar screen for another month, but Duke had its worst loss in almost 20 years last night. Hey, you look happier already.

Snark break ... Yamarin away

The Snuggie is being advertised on prime-time TV ... there's an omen.

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?)

Apparently the NHL is equivalent to Spam, or something.

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
• Cox Bloc expanded its scope to the hinterlands of Ontario outside the 416 area code for its most recent post and well, a lot of innocent people were harmed.

Hockey logic...

There is journalist and reader fatigue from the Great Canadian Hand-Wring over hockey violence, but you can stand for one more editorial.

Karlo Berkovich, a veteran sportswriter at the Waterloo Region Record, took the starch out of of some of the game's leaders, notably NHLPA boss Paul Kelly and OHL commissioner David Branch, whose league has banned players taking off their helmets before fighting.

"...you could also read (no doffing your helmet rule) another way -- that Branch is perfectly fine with fighting; he just wants fighters to keep their helmets on, not only to avoid injury but, c'mon, so one day, when a (Don) Sanderson incident happens in the OHL, the league can avoid a lawsuit.

"As for (the NHLPA's Paul) Kelly, he's hilarious. It's imperative that players must be protected from hits to the head. He's talking cheap shots, elbows to the chops (which the sainted best leader in the history of the known cosmos, Mark Messier, is always praised for). Those are no-no's. Hits to the head via a punch in a fight? Hey, by all means, boys, feel free. And take off your helmets while you're at it.

"(Kitchener Rangers player Mike Mascioli's) quote about not being happy about it because jobs will be lost is also unintentionally a scream. How about he look at it another way: learn to play properly and you'll have no worries.

"Not that any of this will convince any of the lunatics who continue to run the asylum, though. So to come full circle, let 'em. It could be -- as we've now, unfortunately, experienced -- their funeral."

One big sticking point seems to be that Branch and Kelly are fine with half measures; in the former's case, anything to make this go away at least until next season. They're both politicians, versed in the art of the possible, and they have to manage the egos of some of those short-tempered puckheads, so there is some understanding.

Journalistically, there is some hypocrisy. It's one thing to have a good argument and not to attack people rather than their points, but it's better if you learn it, live it, love it. It is tough not to think that some of the same commentators who are coming on all serious now were the same ones who would be chuckling away in the press box when a scrap broke out on the ice.

Personally, I'm the exact opposite. When a fight starts, the hands stay folded in my lap, but there is awareness that until the rules change or the hockey mentality changes, a team which doesn't have an enforcer s vulnerable to opponents taking liberties with their players. On Dec. 12, the day Don Sanderson was critically injured, that was a topic of discussion on Kinger's show, Offsides, with respect to the Kingston Frontenacs. Their players were being run all over the ice because management, in its wisdom, had traded away tough guy Peter Stevens. Thankfully, no Kingston player has been seriously injured, either from an overly aggressive check or from fighting.

Once again, the changes that would work to eliminate fighting from hockey go way beyond rule changes and some editorializing journalists. Good on Berkovich for telling it like it is.

(Hockey Night in Canada clip captured by MisterDB from Fronts Talk. whose YouTube channel is a veritable treasure trove of Kinger's between-periods interviews on TV Cogeco in Kingston.)

Related:
Hockey fighting: The lunatics run the asylym, so let 'em (Karlo Berkovich, Waterloo Region Record)

Don Sanderson's death: A swirl of thoughts

Far be it to expect people to stay from the fighting-in-hockey rubric on the day Don Sanderson died.

That is how the media works, for good or ill. No doubt you have your thoughts, so if you are so inclined, read the symposium and leave a comment.

Michael Den Tandt, Sun Media, "Hockey fights have to stop": "Proponents of fighting in hockey will argue that such accidents are exceedingly rare. They'll say that most hockey fights end with nary a bloody nose on either side. They'll repeat, as they always do, that fighting is an integral part of the game, without which it would be somehow less Canadian.

"Bollocks.

"Can anyone who has gotten a taste of World Juniors action in Ottawa in recent days doubt that hockey is better off without the incessant scuffles and mock battles that now impede the Canadian game, at virtually every level?

"Elite hockey players are just that. They're not trained fighters. Most have no idea how to throw a punch."

Ryan Hollweg, Toronto Maple Leafs forward, via citynews.ca: "It's part of the game and things like that happen sometimes. You gotta try not to think about it and go about your business."

Ken Campbell, The Hockey News, "Sanderson's death must re-open fight debate": "... if the people who run this game are unwilling or feel they are unable to do something about this blight on a great game, then perhaps it might be time for those who make the laws to do it for them."

Jamal Mayers, Leafs forward, via citynews.ca: "... it's a terrible story. It should never come to that. To think that it happened in somewhat of a recreational game makes it even tougher on the families and my heart goes out to everyone involved."

Roy MacGregor, The Globe & Mail: "Hockey discipline needs a fighting chance": "Accident or non-accident is not the debate here, but what can, and must, be done to remove as much violence from the game as would still allow hockey to be a collision sport requiring tenacity from its players.

"It seems simply obvious that heads require as much protection as possible in the game. This would include simply doing up the chin straps supplied with each helmet. (Though how not doing it up became a hockey "fashion" is as unfathomable, as is how doffing one's helmet before fighting became part of hockey chivalry.)"

Patrick, commenter at the Toronto Star: "Fighting is in NHL hockey because THE PLAYERS want it in. Until the 700 or so players in the nhlpa put up a protest fighting will never leave the NHL game.

Last, but not least, here's a take from someone who knew the young man.

Don Sanderson, 1987-2009, hockey player

Don Sanderson is dead. The 21-year-old defenseman for the Whitby Dunlops died last night from the injuries he received in a hockey fight Dec. 12.

At the heart of hockey's Code of Intimidation there has always been the silence. What happens in hockey stays in hockey. The shroud of silence blanketed those who got hurt and those that did the hurting. It was insurance, a guarantee that the outside world would never disrupt the comfortable culture of intimidation within the sport. The silence meant outsiders could never make a case against on-ice violence." -- Bruce Dowbiggin, The Meaning of Puck

Silence. Throughout the heartland of hockey violence is met with indifference and silence. If you never played the game, you can't understand.

Todd Bertuzzi was misunderstood by those liberal, urban sissies. He paid his price. Steve Moore was a whiny little punk. He should have known better than to hit a star with an open ice check. Clean or not, there had to be a price to pay. It was the code. A code that had been followed in hockey for generations and the same code Don Sanderson was following when he fought Brantford's Corey Fulton last month.

And now he's dead. What happens in hockey stays in hockey.

For years the mantra of the sport's apologists was that no one ever got hurt in a hockey fight. Fighting was to be encouraged. It helped stop players from engaging in truly dangerous practices like slashing and high sticking. Let the boys play.

It was a fluke. It could have happened anywhere, any time. It wasn't the fight that killed him, it was his head hitting the ice. My buddy knew a guy that hit his head off the ice while coaching his boy's novice team. Could happen to anyone.

We can anticipate the arguments. There is no need to tune into Coach's Corner for Sanderson's two-minute eulogy. He was a good Canadian boy. He wouldn't want the fuss. He certainly wouldn't want to be a martyr used by enemies of the game to attack the code. They never played the game.

We'd ask him what he thinks about it. Except he's dead. From a hockey fight.

So instead, silence. The code lives on.

What happens in hockey stays in hockey.

Related:
A Hockey Tragedy (Damien Cox, The Spin)
Previous:
The horror, the horror... frankly, it's beyond our ken (Dec. 15, 2008)