A not crackpot K-Rock Pot notion: the Kingston Senators

The spirit of late, great Kingston sportscasting institution Max Jackson demands sharing the idea that a reader sent word of a Facebook group advocating for the Ottawa Senators' American Hockey League affiliate to play out of the K-Rock Centre.

Feel free to put file that in the Just Crazy Enough To Work desktop folder.

"The timing is right for Kingston to bring in better hockey. Elton John came here, why not the Baby Sens.

"Consider that Kingston is geographically located right in the center of Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto. The games featuring these teams would be rather exciting for the city.

" ... The capacity for a hockey game at the K-Rock Centre is 5,700 patrons. There are only 8 AHL teams that averaged higher attendence than that last season. Binghamton averaged 3,629.

"... It's closer to Ottawa so they (the Senators) can move players and personnel much easier. Also, Sens fans could easily make the drive down from Ottawa to see a game. That's much tougher to do with Binghamton."

It would never happen in a billion years. Merely mentioning it verges on, "What, renovating the restaurant you don't own, or pending 200 million dollars you don't have?" territory.

Still, as a connoisseur of blue sky thinking applied to sports, it is not all that as insane. An AHL team moves into Kingston bearing the colours of the Senators, who have built a pretty solid following in the city due to Rogers Sportsnet's regional broadcasts. The Frontenacs franchise then relocates down Highway 401 to Cornwall, where the Royals could be reborn. The Cornwall Civic Centre complex is still up to Ontario Hockey League standard.

It fits in with two broader trends in sports. One is that Major League Baseball and NHL teams have a preference for having their Triple-A farm team close to home. In baseball alone, the Cleveland Indians, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies have managed to partner up with a Triple-A team in the same state just within the past three seasons. (The trade-off, mind you, might not be all that great for the Senators. A player would not have to clear customs if he is meeting the team in Ottawa, but keep in there are times they call someone up during a U.S. road trip.)

The second is the AHL is probably going to try to grab a share of smaller-sized Canadian markets, especially the longer Canada is underserved by the NHL. It already went into Abbotsford, B.C., whose metro population (159,000) is about the same as that of Kingston (153,000). The arrival of the Abbotsford Heat, who are the Calgary Flames' affiliate, hasn't been a slam dunk. The Heat averaged 3,700 fans, but there are questions about the financial burden taken on by the city.

The rub is Kingston already has assumed the financial burden and needs to find a way to get more revenue out of the building. In any business, one way to do this is offering something new, changing the formula.

The Frontenacs might be past the point where they're part of a normal ebb and flow with attendance and on-ice results. Twelve seasons without a playoff series win, with the same general manager (quoth Mark Potter from late 2008: "If Larry Mavety survives in Kingston, junior hockey won't") has made it look like stagnation.

The move to the K-Rock Pot, which the OHL Arena Guide calls "an easy rival of Oshawa's GM Centre as the best new arena in the league" has not helped grow their fanbase past their 2,300 to 2,800 loyalists. The Fronts had the same percentage decrease in attendance this season, despite a 25-point improvement, as the nearest rival, the Belleville Bulls, did while dropping off by 50 points. Their radio broadcasts have been on three stations in as many seasons.

Some that is poor management. Some of it is pause to wonder if the market for the OHL is ever going to recover in Kingston. The one certainty is the city has hockey fans, as evidenced by the sellouts for the world junior exhibition games in 2008 and the turnout of 5,100 for the Brampton Battalion-Frontenacs Game 7 loss.

The Baby Sens moving in would be a cool change. That team could average 4,000 fans across 41 home dates (seven more than the OHL's 34), if the pricing point was kept realistic.

The AHL is a better calibre than the OHL. The Senators, who have talked about holding their rookie camp in Kingston in September, would continue to solidify one of their satellite centres.

Owner Doug Springer could make more money, but would have little to no say over coaches and player personnel. It's win-win.

Obviously, a handful of people joining a Facebook group asking for a Kingston AHL team is not a news story. Kingston should be getting more from its top level of hockey. The city needs more people attending events at the K-Rock Centre. The Senators could always use a way to keep chipping away at Toronto and Montreal's powerbase.

Last, but not least: Ottawa Senators fans would have a reason to go to an arena which is actually located downtown.

(For anyone wondering: getting into this has nothing to do with a certain critic of the Frontenacs now being on the junior hockey beat. Now, your humble agent is sufficiently addicted to self-Googling to have heard a few variations of, "Now that Neate is covering junior hockey, will he say the same things about the Frontenacs?"

Short answer: no. Longer answer: no, but not for reasons you might think and did you really just refer to yourself in the third person?

The tone probably will change because youth condemns and maturity condones. It is time for an attitude adjustment. The hope is the Frontenacs would allow bygones to be bygones, presuming they ever heard about this site.

Of course, that's a totally self-serving statement after suggesting the current team leave town on the say-so of some Facebook users.)

Fronts: Harvey Rosen's big lie — Mem Centre better for RBC Cup than the K-Rock Centre

When you're buying flowers for your mum this Easter weekend, remember that a Rosen should be red (faced).

The Kingston Frontenacs might still be playing if they could shut a team down the way they have stymied the Kingston Voyageurs' RBC Cup bid.

It's a laugh-and-a-half to see the great wool-pull Kingston Mayor Harvey Rosen is engaged in as he tries to justify why the Vees must use the ancient Memorial Centre rather than the newish, costly-ish K-Rock Centre if they earn the right to host the 2012 RBC Cup. "The majority of teams in the Junior A leagues across the country are from smaller towns and they play in smaller arenas." ... "If you put three thousand fans in the K-Rock Centre, which is the most the RBC Cup could hope to draw, it's half full and you feel there's something not quite attractive about what's going on."

The Fronts' forwards should be as good at deflections. The downtown arena is losing money, in an election year, and rather than stand up to Fronts owner Doug Springer, Rosen tries to reverse course. This is a hilarious coming from someone who blamed fans when the Springer Frontenacs were drawing far less than 3,000 fans. He didn't call it "something not quite attractive going on" then. And if spectator support is such a big concern, why was the Clarkson Cup staged at the K-Rock Centre? There's no way a women's game not involving national teams drew anything close to 3,000 people.

It's understandable, admirable even that the Springer Frontenacs have put their foot down, since there is an off-off-off-off-off-off-chance they are still going in next season's OHL playoffs come May 2012. Granted, they are coming off their "best post-season showing" (the local broadsheet's phrasing) in 12 years, since it took them until Game 7 of Round 1 to bow out to Brampton.

Kingston fans and taxpayers deserve a lot better than puffery and half truths. They were told the city needed to splurge on a downtown arena to land big events and are now being told it is ill-suited for staging a big event, and that the RBC Cup is not a big event. Debate the glamour of the RBC Cup all you want, but the money out-of-town teams and their supporters spend is just as good as their major junior counterparts.

The onus isn't totally on Springer, but it's pretty clear who is calling the shots. It is not out of the realm of possibility he's seeing it as win-win if venue issues sink the Vees' bid. The Vees already had to defer it from 2011 to '12, so not to coincide with the Fronts' Hail Mary of a bid for the 2011 Memorial Cup. Some random guy hinted at this two weeks ago:

"Kingston Frontenacs owner Doug Springer will never let another team host a national championship at the K-Rock Centre, his petty fiefdom that he doesn't actually own or operate. You have to keep dates available for that huge playoff run (all the way to the second round!) that he's been promising Kingston since 1998, don't you know.

"In no way is this a suggestion Springer and his Frontenacs ... (are) actively trying to sandbag another Kingston team's bid to land a national tournament ... in no way whatsoever."

The Fronts actually have every right to do so; their 2011-12 season might be a going concern when the RBC Cup comes around in May. And Katrina Bowden might be waiting in my apartment when I come home from work tonight. Perhaps it is not politic, but Rosen should just be honest about the circumstances. It doesn't take King Solomon to see there is a compromise, where the Vees could be prepared to use the K-Rock if it's available. Common sense should prevail, even as it's getting harder to recall that exists, where Kingston and junior hockey is concerned.

Imagine having a state-of-the-art arena sit empty while a national championship takes place across town. No amount of nostalgia for old "hockey barns" will override that embarrassment.

It has been 892 days since Doug Springer promised to do "whatever it takes" to bring a winner to Kingston.

Frontenacs: Seventh sign of obtuse ownership

Wow, that was close. The Kingston Frontenacs almost had to play hockey in April.

Some, albeit no one with a shred of objectivity, were ready to call the season a Mav-ssive success long before the Fronts faceplanted with a 5-2 loss to the Brampton Battalion in Game 7 of their first-round series on Tuesday.

Another response, once we get past the banging-your-head-against-wall stage, is to laugh like hell, an emotion that's often been provoked during the dismal dozen seasons Doug Springer has owned the team. To sum up, the Frontenacs are the only top seed in the OHL playoffs to lose in the first round this spring. Only one of the other seven went more than five games in their series. Barrie, Mississauga St. Michaels and Windsor, the other three teams bidding for the 2011 Memorial Cup, each swept their series 4-0. Please keep in mind Kingston's opponent finished with only 62 points, nine less than the worst playoff team in the OHL's other, better conference. Also make note that Brampton had the edge in shots on goal in six of the seven games (no word what the tally was in shots at the net).

One has to believe the players gave all they could reasonably be expected to give, in light of the knowledge they're smart enough to know they're playing in a messed-up organization. The handwriting was on the wall once Ethan Werek went down with a MCL injury in Game 6. Regardless, the burn is still on Springer and GM Larry Mavety for once again displaying their knack for promising everything and delivering nothing.

The Frontenacs actually hit their attendance target in Game 7 for the first (and last) time this season, drawing a crowd of 5,133. The hell of it is wondering how much the casual fans' impressions will be coloured negatively by the team's flat effort in do-or-die game. On top of that, there was veteran leader Brian Lashoff literally leading with his head, drawing a double minor for head-butting that led to a Brampton power-play goal, plus two abuse-of-official game misconducts after the Battalion put in the empty-net clincher. It exacerbates when you lose and do don't it graciously.

Meantime, it's another early exit for a franchise which keeps saying it's going to be different, but never makes fundamental changes. It's not like someone did not see it coming last spring. The Frontenacs were trying to do just enough of a patching job that would allow them to get into the second round of the playoffs, earning them another five-year free pass from the public.

People weren't buying it this time. The club hit its original attendance target of 3,500 just eight times in 34 regular-season home dates. In the playoffs, even with the healthy turnout for Game 7, it averaged just 3,498.

Now they go into an off-season needing to replace their No. 1 (and only) goalie, Tyler Beskorowany, blueliners Lashoff and Jaroslav Kruzik (who became the second Front in recent years to quit the team mid-playoff series), and first-line forward Nathan Moon. That's a lot of 19-year-old talent to replace, especially since they're supposed to be hosting the Memorial Cup.

One wishes to not have to write these posts year after year to the attention span-challenged whose collective memory doesn't go past the Fronts' most recent win. None of the arguments about how change is needed with the Frontenacs -- a new role for the owner, new management -- have stopped being valid since the Fronts were among the 80% of OHL teams which make the playoffs. Getting the equivalent of a participant ribbon does not make you elite.

There is nothing like being right. Well, the Frontenacs reaching the second round would have been much sweeter, since it's getting harder to recall what that was like. At least there is another Game 7 on Wednesday, Kingston Vees vs. the Oakville Blades, where the Limestoners might win.

It has been 889 days since Doug Springer promised to do "whatever it takes" to bring a winner to Kingston.

Fronts: Season's lowest attendance for Game 3

No doubt people were waiting for the playoffs to get a true reflection of Kingston Frontenacs attendance, i.e., once the comps and freebies were no more.

Well, they had 2,285 on Tuesday for Game 3 of their series against Brampton on Tuesday. That was lower than any announced crowd the Fronts had during the regular season. It is also barely half of the original attendance target of 4,500 for playoff games at the K-Rock Centre.

You can rest assured the sycophants in Kingston will either ignore this, claim it's a fabrication or ignore the argument and attack the person making it. That's how they roll.

Frontenacs show true colours — deep shades of pathetic

Good friend Tyler King was a "bringer of reality" vis-à-vis the Kingston Frontenacs' "less than one per cent" chance of winning the host bid for the 2011 Memorial Cup.



The Fronts tend to have a strong reaction to someone having the audacity to point out straight facts, like that Kingston has not won a playoff series since 1998 and is ninth overall in the OHL and the other shortlisters for are first (Barrie), second (Windsor) and fourth (Mississauga) in the league. For instance, they could Twitter-block him, like they have done with others.

God forbid professional journalists who love Kingston should have any right to give an informed opinion.

Kinger and others didn't ask for this role, but they'll play the part of offering a honest critique of a franchise which believes the media is there to offer a free pass. Meantime, the Frontenacs would have to hand out a lot of free passes to fill the arena for the playoffs.

Frontenacs: All-star game fail falls on feckless Springer

The problem with Doug Springer is if you say the staging of the OHL all-star game was a spectacular flop, he'll only hear the word spectacular.

So, is it worth wasting a beautiful mind pointing out Wednesday night's gong show at the K-Rock Centre was a "no" vote in a referendum on whether Springer and his organization (loose usage) are fit to continue running the Frontenacs? The announced crowd of 3,206 — reversing the first two digits would put you a lot closer to the actual figure — sends the message loud and clear. Were ours a just world, Springer would be starting negotiations to sell the team to Gregg Rosen, who owns the Kingston Kimco Voyageurs.

Rosen, unlike Springer, has shown he knows something about icing a winning team. Fans can also lean in to embrace the Vees without peeking to look out for the next knife in the back.

There's no equivocation, no hair-split. It was a sad sight. The inflated attendance figure was only 60 per cent of the K-Rock Centre's capacity. Host teams for an OHL all-star game typically fill, at minimum, 85% of their seats. This is from a city which was a Hockeyville finalist not too long ago and has close to the highest attendance in CIS football, outdrawing larger cities.

It also fell short of the original attendance target (3,500 per game) set by Kingston city council when the Frontenacs moved into their taxpayer-provided puck palace two years ago. It's another level of fail when you factor in that it's Feb Fest week in Kingston, which brings people out of their homes and put thems in a civic-minded spirit than they would otherwise be in during the depths of winter. An anchor on Rogers Sportsnet wondered kiddingly if someone had pulled a fire alarm at one end, where the seats were completely empty. Wow, was it ever wise to emphasis this was a test run for hosting the Memorial Cup.

The only solace is knowing people who follow junior hockey closely are aware it is not the market, or the arena. They understand that withdrawal in disgust is not apathy (assist to Michael Stipe). There were sellouts in Kingston for world junior exhibition games in 2008. The town got on the bandwagon for the Queen's Golden Gaels during their Vanier Cup run and for the Junior A Kingston Voyageurs during their post-season run last spring.

This disaster falls squarely on Springer, who rightly got booed before a ceremonial faceoff.

You can't even say the gloves are off, and not because there is no fighting in an all-star game. They've been off for a while. This is an owner whose franchise looks like a serious threat to make it 12 seasons without winning a playoff series, the longest drought in the Ontario Hockey League. (Oh, every team is entitled to a bad decade.) The promised attendance bump from moving from an old hockey barn, the Memorial Centre, to the spiffy K-Rock Centre, has not materialized.

Any regular reader of Fronts Talk is well-aware there is a lot more wrong with the franchise than right. There is a laundry list of deep-seated concerns about the team's all-around lack of accountability with players' conditioning and discipline (on and off-ice), with giving support to billets who agree to be surrogate family to players, with keeping the arena fan-friendly and meeting media obligations.

(On the last count, two weeks ago after a shutout loss in Ottawa coach Doug Gilmour set a land-speed record to get out of the arena. Then again, a former Toronto Maple Leafs captain would not have much experience dealing with a media scrum.)

Through it all, one wonders what is Springer's deal with holding the Frontenacs hostage. Is it like Rogers Communications' deal with the Toronto Blue Jays, just owning it to own it and maybe eventually you buy the arena and make some real coin? One shudders at that possibility, especially since the price tag would be sure to be a lot less than $43 million.

If that's the long-term plan, then Springer should be big enough to write off any criticisms as sticks and stones. He should not be strong-arming the local media into removing commentators who have spoken critically of the team (trust me, it's happened). It is pretty glaring that the local media consistently punts on using its power to draw attention what is so blatantly obvious. Loose Pucks noted "the half-full building was a topic of discussion" during the OHL skills competition, but you could scarcely hear a critical word from any the media outlets in Kingston.

The Whig-Standard should be about 90-95% off the hook, since it has always dealt with the Doug Springer (and Larry Mavety) problem by high-roading it and providing a model sports section, one that has diverse coverage and doesn't overdose on hockey to the exclusion of amateur, high school and university sports. (Go on their website. Today they've managed to cover the all-star game and Ontario men's curling championship in Napanee and also find space for a feature on a St. Lawrence College basketball player. That's more good hyper-local sports content than some of the former Osprey dailies have in a week.)

Getting back to the point, though, it is well past time to point out Doug Springer has yet again embarrassed the city he purports to represent. This oracle (pretentious, much?) has said little since honestly, it's all in syndication at this point.

From this vantage point, one may only write, "The public perception of Springer seems to have cemented. He can't win in Kingston. The only way out of this mess is a change in ownership" (January 7, 2008) and, "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" (June 5, 2009) so many times without seeing those who have a larger bullhorn use theirs.

The Frontenacs have become the kings of empty promises and pathetic spin-doctoring. The optics are loud and clear: Springer doesn't give a fat rat's ass about running a class organization, and neither should you. Good on fans for staying home.

That brings it back to the crux of the Doug Springer problem. His organization will not reason or look in the mirror, or wear its many mistakes with player personnel and promotion. They dropped the ball with the all-star game big time and they'll still act like they did the city a friggin' favour by embarrassing it on national television. If past behaviour is any indication, they and their legion of sycophants, the Springer Suckers, will try to shout down anyone who points this out, typing with two fingers and cap lock key on. (Bring it on, he said, typing from his one-bedroom apartment in Ottawa.)

Meantime, the death knell continues for an OHL market. Springer will never run out of excuses or scapegoats, but the fanbase has run out of patience. Cannot blame them.

It has been 835 days since Doug Springer promised to do "whatever it takes" to bring a winner to Kingston.

Frontenacs: Bad policy as usual

Never look for logic with the human comedy which is the Kingston Frontenacs, unless you want your head to hurt.

The Frontenacs say they are bidding for next season's Memorial Cup, so what do they do? Trading for a player who will be too old for major junior hockey next season. According to Loose Pucks, GM-for-life Larry Mavety is working on a trade with the Saginaw Spirit that "would send an overager to Kingston, while Saginaw would get a young player and picks. No idea when this is happening now."

Please don't ask: How Frontenacs owner Doug Springer and his pet dinosaur can be earnest about hosting a Memorial Cup in the future, while mortgaging the team's prospects at being competitive in 2010-11; how they can expect to get the Memorial Cup when more stable, seriously run franchises such as Windsor, Mississauga-St. Michaels (which as per Tony Ambrogio, is bidding) are in the running; and how this is anything but bad-hockey-as-usual from the only team, in a league which is cyclical in nature, which is 0-for-the-2000s at winning a playoff series.

Honestly, this site, laugh if you must, is for trying to talk about positives, so that's why there is not much to say about the Frontenacs. Anyway, any time Loser Suit Larry is talking trade, this comes to mind.

Lisa: Do you really think you can get our dental plan back, dad?
Homer: Well, that depends on who's the better negotiator, Mr. Burns or me...
Bart: Dad, I'll trade you this delicious doorstop for your crummy old Danish.
Homer: Done and done.

Please don't ask why the people in Kingston who raise these questions, such as Mark Potter, get treated as pariahs.

Fronts: Trivia about a trivial franchise

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?

Fronts: Kingston mayor puts the 'gall' in Cha Gheill!

Like Kinger says, a good hockey town supports good hockey.

Someone needs to put that in a memo for Kingston mayor Harvey Rosen, even though it falls under the heading, "I didn't know it was possible not to know that."

It's funny. A quick Google News check reveals His Worship's hypocrisy on the local sports front over the past week. The first match for Rosen is a press release announcing the mayor will be one of the speakers at today's rally honouring the Vanier Cup champion Queen's Golden Gaels (woo-hoo!). The second is from last week where he questioned "why there aren't more bums in the seats" at Kingston Frontenacs games, adding, "Kingston likes to pride itself on being a hockey city. I wonder."

Some would wonder how the mayor in good conscience can attach himself to a winner while expecting fellow sports-likers to support an abject loser such as the Springer Frontenacs, where the bums are in the owner's suite. Frankly, that stinks worse than TSN missing almost the whole first quarter of the Vanier Cup.

The Frontenacs are honouring the Golden Gaels before their game on Friday, as well they should. Some would say it assures people of seeing a great Kingston team at the K-Rock Centre between now and the Junior A Voyageurs hosting the RBC Cup in 2012.

No doubt a few wags this week have made variations on the same joke. Now that the Vees (central Canadian Junior A champions) and Queen's have each won a major championship (woo-hoo!), the Springer Frontenacs had better hurry up and win something. It works on so many levels. It's funny 'cause it's true.

It's also tragic. Everyone knows the Fronts can never win as long as Rosen's little buddy Doug Springer and the Frontenacs owner's pet dinosaur, GM-for-life Larry Mavety, are both around. What are they, sixth in the OHL's Leastern Conference? Do they get a parade for that too, Mr. Mayor, even though anyone with a brain knows sixth place is a garden-variety feat?

Point being, it was all kinds of wrongheaded for Rosen to fault fans instead of turning to the real culprits. As Kinger said on Fronts Talk:

"To imply that the fault lies with the fans for not showing up shows not just a lack of understanding of the real situation, but a condescension towards and contempt for the hockey fans that made his downtown arena idea a possibility.

"How dare he impugn what I will always defend as one of the greatest hockey fan bases in the entire country.

"How dare he say anything but how honoured he is to preside over a city of such hockey intelligence; the birthplace of hockey and home of so many of its greatest historians and appreciators.

"How dare anyone bemoan the unwillingness of this city's working class to shell out money for inflated ticket prices and downright egregious concessions!

"It's not our fault, Mr. Mayor - it's the fault of the plutocrats who control this city, who try to foist never-ending mediocrity on a city that deserves much better, and expect the populace to be grateful that they're giving them time of day.

"People demand better than that because Kingston deserves better than mediocrity.

"It is the consumer's right to decide where his or her money is best spent.

"How can a man like Mr. Rosen, who made his mark as a savvy businessman, not understand the everlasting mantra that the customer is always right?

"You can't shame people into going to hockey games."

That feeling has been there for a long time, so don't be saying this is cynically timed with the Gaels' triumph. Saying so would be half-right, but not how you might think. It took this long since, as a Kingston expat, it seemed better to focus on Queen's playoff run, which embiggened the smallest man (I would know). However, eventually one's face needs a rest from smiling so much. So, you focus on the Fronts, who could make Giada De Laurentiis frown.

The whole truth is you could write this about the Springer Frontenacs pretty much whenever. That makes Rosen's remarks nuttier than a pecan log. How could someone who lives in Kingston be so tone-deaf as to why the populace has tuned out the Fronts? They have the same doofi in charge who got them into this mess. Small wonder only diehards come out to the sterile K-Rock Centre.

It was fair to give it a chance at the start of the season and steer clear of snap judgments. The Fronts also lost their best NHL draft-eligible defenceman, Erik Gudbranson, for an extended period. That bought them a mulligan.

However, the progress that was promised has not materialized. The above-linked Kingston Whig-Standard article, written by a good and honourable reporter who is not normally on the sports beat, says the team is "hovering around .500." In fact, the Frontenacs have only 11 regulation-time wins in 30 games, a paltry total in such a weak conference. (Two of their 13 total victories have come in 4-on-4 overtime, which is not a good assessment of a team's true talent).

Of course, Springer also wants to host the Memorial Cup next season because the Frontenacs are so competitive with those Western Conference teams. They only got outscored 29-12 during a five-game stretch vs. the West; each of the four losses was by at least three goals.

There are trace elements of Doug Gilmour's influence on the ice. For instance, the players actually seem to have a screw's clue about defensive positioning, which no Mavety-led team has been accused of since 1990.

It all comes back to Springer retaining Mavety, the general mangler. How can Rosen be so willfully blind? Well, he did gave Springer a sweetheart deal on use of the K-Rock Centre. He did sign off on revenue projections most people knew would be unreachable so long as Springer refuses to get the crayon dislodged from his brain, which would give him the 30 missing IQ points he needs to realize his hockey operation is 30 years out-of-date.

You might remember coach "The Trades That Were Made, I Did" Gilmour had to hold out his knuckles to be rapped when the Frontenacs were called before city council last winter over their mediocre record marketing plan. The party line was that it was Gilmour's team with his hand-picked players.

Then their draft looked suspiciously like a Mavety draft. (It's an open secret in OHL circles the Frontenacs are so clueless they actually ask 67's GM Brian Kilrea in Ottawa to make recommendations for their picks.) Then they traded for middling veterans to try to squeeze out a playoff spot in a league that only lets 80% of its teams into the dance. They failed to convince a local talent, Kingston Voyageurs centre Brock Higgs, to cast his lot with them (can't imagine why). Higgs has only been selected for the Canadian Junior Hockey League all-star game and accepted a scholarship to Rensselaer, which is as good at it gets when it comes to getting a Lexus education while playing U.S. college hockey. Remember, he's there for the degree.

(Anonymous apologists will claim Higgs could not help the Frontenacs. This stunning bit of logic ignores he is a comparable player with former Voyageur Mike Farrell, who seems to be helping the Frontenacs.)

It is ugly. Mavety has finger on the button and this man's touch is like iodine on a potato, forever blackening. As Mayor Rosen would say, you wonder if Gilmour is going to stay on once they don't get the Memorial Cup in 2011 (again). You wonder if about the team's commitment after it got waxed 4-1 at home two Sundays ago by a Plymouth team playing its third road game in 2½ games. (The Whalers went from being so weary they couldn't complete a 20-foot pass in the first period to winning easily.)

One would sense it if there was a change of culture around the hockey club. It's not there. As TVCogeco's Mark Potter said last winter, if Larry Mavety survives in Kingston, the OHL will not.

Even more ironically, while Rosen had the gall to call out long-suffering fans, Mavety has been thumbing through The Big Book of Bad Hockey for the right act of ass coverage. His usual move this time of season involves trading a quote-unquote unhappy or underperforming player (whose agent and potential future NHL team want him somewhere where there is actual interest in professional development), on the premise a talent dump will make the team better. This year, that favourite from the playbook is called "The Taylor Doherty."

Last season, it was "The Josh Brittain." Next season, it might be "the Ethan Werek." It doesn't actually stop the franchise from spinning its wheels. It works like a charm in terms of self-preservation and brain-baffling BS.

All that, and Harvey Rosen expects people to show up. Presumably, in the spirit of the late, great Max Jackson's sign-off ("if you can't play a sport, be one!"), Rosen will realize he was way out of bounds to criticize fans. He's a bright enough man to see the difference between the teams in Kingston.

Rosen was at the Vanier Cup. He must have heard people who would know say the Golden Gaels' success flows from their cerebral and classy coaches and permeates the entire program. The spirit emanates from the king. The Frontenacs are stuck with an owner who is a rare combination of arrogant and wrong and a GM who has outlasted his usefulness.

It has been 772 days since Doug Springer promised he would do whatever it takes to bring a winner to Kingston. Who knew Harvey Rosen has needed someone to toss him a clue line for at least that long? C'est la vie, and Cha Gheill!

Mediocre journalists bow down to their King and saviour

To know Tyler King, or "Bobcat Jr." as some dubbed him during his tenure at CFRC 101.9 in Kingston, is to know you're seeing the sui generis of the next generation of awesome Canadian sports broadcasters.

It's a pleasure to spread the word Kinger received a bursary award from Sports Media Canada during its annual self-back-patting gala last weekend in Toronto. It's a huge honour and one hopes the adjective also applies to the amount of the cheque.

" 'The guy is very good,' notes Toronto Sun TV critic Bill Harris after reviewing King’s demos. 'He's calm … better than a lot of guys working professionally today that I've seen … I say show him the money!' "

It's nice to see him identified as "Tyler King of Bath, Ontario." It's nicer that he won. The niciest part is anticipating saying, "I knew him when," as his crony, associate and well-wisher, in that I don't wish him any specific harm.

Tyler seems to learns so much each year that you figure he must look back and go, "Wow, I wasn't that smart 12 months ago," even though he is one of the smartest people in the room. A lot of people get into the media and just go with what worked before, lather, rinse and repeat, without even contemplating whether the audience is being served. Kinger always strives to find what works and reshape it to tell a better story. Tyler is not a tack-to-the-middle type, which is going to carry him a long way.

Whatever he gets, he gives back tenfold. It was true at CFRC 101.9 and TV Cogeco in Kingston in 2007, 2008 and '09 and it will be true in 10 years. Way to go, Kinger.

The other recipient was Jesilou Tongio, a Ryerson student. The correct spelling of her name was obtained from her Twitter. Take note, OMDs. (Robert Carnell at Salt Water Music will be the only one to get the joke.)

Kingston Whig-Standard sports editor Mike Koreen is a previous winner, as his brother, Eric Koreen, now of the National Post.

Fronts: Not Gud! Great-branson gone for a month

Keeping the other site functioning has been a chore, so there hasn't been time to veheme about the Kingston Frontenacs.

Know this much: Erik Gudbranson's knee injury? TSN's Bob McKenzie Tweeted the big defenceman is "out minimum four weeks."

Great! Don't worry, Doug Gilmour is going to figure it out.

Related:
Top NHL draft prospect to miss a month (Sun Media)

Fronts: A Fine case for a lawsuit!

How many 18-year-olds could you get a picture of drinking? Many of them. Yet Soo Today, for reasons that have to be pretty goddamn original since there's nothing in our journalistic experience that would possibly justify this, chose to run a picture of newly minted Kingston Frontenacs forward Michael Fine getting his drink on next to a story about the trade between the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and Fronts.



"Despicable" is the word which comes to mind. Fine had been sent home by the Greyhounds for disciplinary reasons and told to wait for a trade. However, context is everything in the media. The article offers nothing to explain why there's a picture of a minor getting booze poured down his throat. There is no photo credit to explain how the picture was obtained.

Anyone's issues with alcohol are private and personal so long as he/she is not driving drunk. How do you know, unless you're inside the velvet rope in junior hockey, whether someone has a serious problem or simply the normal teenage issues with alcohol? Lots of people drink before achieving the age of majority (a lot don't, too) and their picture does not end up on a legitimate media outlet's website, so-called.

It is understood that there probably is a lot of gossip going around over why Fine was kicked off the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (whose general manager, Dave Torrie, has made a public objection to the picture being published), so such a picture might have seemed like a smoking gun.

Your guess is as to Soo Today's motivations as as good as any. Blame the TMZing of the media, blame small-town ignorance and insecurities ("Fine didn't realize how lucky he was that in Canada, we force someone to move 500 miles from home to pursue a career in pro hockey! We'll show him!").

Speaking from rather hard-won personal experience, it says here Fine, whose former team's home arena was the Steelback Centre for a time, should explore a lawsuit. The case law with libel and defamation in Canada is that the media has less leeway in smaller population centres. The Soo is not a very big place. Fine and the Frontenacs play a game in the Soo in about five weeks. Knowing the fringe element you get in junior hockey barns, someone is going to take that picture and blow it up to 24" by 48" size and hold it up on a stick.

Honestly, the reaction on this end would be the same even if Fine was not playing for my hometown team, the Kingston Frontenacs. No reasonable person is saying, "Great, we traded for a party boy." It's more live and let live, teenagers will be teenagers. The Frontenacs potentially gave up quite a bit (conditional draft choices which could become second-, third- and fifth-rounders across the next four years) if Fine plays to potential. Let's get real, though, this it is not the first time a hockey team traded for a player who had trouble sticking to the straight and narrow in his former city. It will not be the last, either. It's funny how this turns up about a junior hockey player most casual sports fans have never heard of, while no one knows why Dany Heatley ended finding his way to San Jose (just saying).

This is being written without knowing anything about Fine beyond stats and scouting reports, maybe it even looks good on him. No one presumes junior hockey players are saints, no one is going to be shocked by a Facebook-ish picture of a drunk teenager, so why do that? There's something to be said for showing some couth. Shame on Soo Today.

Fronts: Mike Farrell's beauty goal

Mike Farrell's sick short-handed goal was the lede in the Kingston Whig-Standard's Frontenacs game story on Monday — and it is not hard to see why. It was clearly the greatest moment in amateur or professional sports history, and Kingston history, too, since Brady Olsen was skating for the Queen's Golden Gaels.

Please do not pull a Kinger and point out it is ironic some people cheering for Farrell today just a few weeks ago were claiming Brock Higgs would have been in tough to make the Frontenacs, when Higgs was arguably more effective than Farrell during the Kingston Kimco Voyageurs' soul-stirring, life-affirming playoff run last spring. There is being right and being nice, and that was a nice goal. It's all bygones-be-bygones with the Frontenacs off to a 3-2-0 start (3-0 within the Eastern Conference, although two of those wins were over a suspect Niagara IceDogs teams).

(Clip via the Twitter of Steve Dangle and Puck Daddy.)

Fronts: Parks and re-creation; Mavric jets off to Rangers

The Kingston Frontenacs at least managed to get pared down to two goaltenders: Mavric Parks was the one to go, returning to his original team, the Kitchener Rangers, for a fifth-round draft choice.

Parks was one hell of an instinctive goalie. Maybe too good. He was prone to letting the occasionally softy, since the Frontenacs' defence often wrote checks no netminder could cash. He'll probably do OK in Kitchener, which won't necessarily mean Kingston was wrong. That will depend on how will John Cullen works out as a backup, how often he can spell off Tyler Beskorowany.

At some point, there will be an omnibus post about the Frontenacs' outlook. The regular-season opener at Niagara is coming up fast!

Related:
Top Gun Goalie Returns

Celebrating 25 years of Shawn ... with 25 Shawns

It would not to do to ignore the Big Two-Five of the Official Brother of Out of Left Field. Shawn Sager is celebrating today, actually more like tonight. The forecast calls for this evening to be legen — wait for it — dary!

My brother Shawn hopefully will not mind a tacky birthday post. Of all the Sagers, Shawn is most comfortable with being on display, at least judging by the 937 photos of him on Facebook.

Shawn is a person whom everyone wants to know and good tends to come to people who have that kind of charisma. He is making his way in the world and whatever he does, his family is glad that he has seldom let them know a dull moment. He is also the one redheaded guy in the world who tans well.

A 7½-year age gap and being opposing tintypes — a social butterfly and a hermit crab — works against Shawn and I having a lot of shared experience. Shawn bridges that gap because he will walk in and sing, deadpan a line from a movie he just watched, or make a face. Shawn has introduced his uncool eldest sibling to Jon Lajoie, Eastbound & Down and How I Met Your Mother. Point being, the way Shawn lets you in on his sense of the off-beat affirms that there is a lot in common.

You become brothers by chance, but you become Bros by choice. It's great having a sibling who knows the difference. Here's hoping he has fun and that tonight ends with a classic case of guy-on-the-ground. (Ask him about that one.)

In honour of his 25th, here are 25 contributors to the lore of Shawns, whatever the spelling.

1. Sean Connery: Probably the coolest man who ever lived.
   
   
2. Shawn Carter: Better known as Jay-Z. Might yet take Connery's title.
   
   
3. Chone Figgins: A Swiss Army Knife of a ballplayer for the Los Angeles Angels who is up for anything, third base, second base, the outfield. He is leading the American League in bases on balls and runs scored while on-basing around .400, making him a Seamhead's pride and joy.
   
   
4. Shaun of the Dead: Hilarious 2004 zombie comedy which re-invented a genre while also respecting what preceded it, like Shawn Sager.
   
   
5. Shawn O'Sullivan: Canadian boxer who won a silver medal in boxing at the 1984 Summer Olympics, a few weeks before our Shawn was born. The timing of those events makes him my brother's unofficial namesake.
   
   Sager family fact: Our mom was pregnant during three consecutive Summer Olympics. I thought better of mentioning this during a an interview last year with Greg Joy (silver medallist in high jump at the 1976 Montreal Games)
   
   
6. Shaun White: A fellow ginger kid who won a gold medal in snowboarding at the Turin Olympics and apparently is a fan of the movie Anchorman. Should not be confused with Sean Whyte (B.C. Lions kicker) or Sean White (Chicago White Sox pitcher).
   
   
7. Sean "Diddy" Combs: Whatever you think of the arrogance of saying, "It's hard to throw a party that lives up to its legend," it's a statement for the times. That time was Rome just before the fall.
   
   
8. Wallace Shawn: His life arc reminds us no matter how serious-minded one is, you'll probably be more widely remembered for something on par with Gossip Girl, so lighten up already!
   
   
9. Shawn Johnson: The reason why most North American men who watched the Beijing Olympics are doomed to eternal damnation.
   
   
10. Shaun Marcum: For his sake, here is hoping he is back in the Blue Jays starting rotation next season.
    
    
11. Shawn Sage: One letter away from being a member of the family, but with the reddish hair, he pretty much qualifies if he's interested. The Toronto based alt-pop singer has a big enough following to have warranted an appearance on CBC Radio 3.
    
    
12. Shawn Crahan: Lead singer in Slipknot, who turns 40 this month!
    
    
13. Sean Penn: Those two Academy Award-winning performances come and go, but Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High is enduring.
    
    
14. Shaun Wright-Phillips: Midfielder for Manchester City. Shawn was a pretty fair high school soccer player, so this list needed a footballer.
    
    
15. Sean Avery: Has a lot in common with Shawn Sager. They both spent all or part of their teens in Kingston, Ontario and are fashion-forward with their eyewear.
    
    
16. Shawn Colvin: Singer-songwriter whose hits include Riding Shotgun Down The Avalanche.
    
    
17. Shjon Podein: Earned a Stanley Cup ring in 2001 with the Colorado Avalanche.
    
    
18. Shawn Marion: The Matrix!
    
    
19. Chaun Thompson: Eight-year NFL veteran who has played his entire career with the Cleveland Browns and Houston Texans, which is why his name doesn't ring a bell.
    
    
20. Shawn Graham: Premier of New Brunswick, where our Shawn lived for a time.
    
    
21. Shean Donovan: Current Ottawa Senators winger was not in Shjon Podein's league in either spelling or hockey playing, but we need 25 for this list.
    
    
22. Sean Young: Amazingly, the Blade Runner curse is not used to explain what happened to her career.
    
    
23. Shaune Bagwell: Never heard of her before Monday, but apparently she is a "classically trained ballerina" with a "genius-level IQ," a handful of screen credits and a swimsuit calendar for sale.
    
    
24. Shawn Ashmore: He played Terry Fox in a TV movie!
    
    
25. Shawn Watson: Offensive coordinator for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Our sister Trina is working in Omaha! We love her equally, of course, but coming with a list of Trinas for her next birthday is going to be tough.

Fronts: Sixth is something sweet? Barrie that notion

One would at least think that Kingston Frontenacs and Barrie Colts could at least colour-coordinate, since they trade so often.

It only cost Larry Mavety a fourth-round pick to add 215-pound grinder Andrew Clouthier, whom the Colts "just didn't have room for" in their deepish forward corps, quoth a Barrie sportswriter. Of course, part of the reason Clouthier was the odd man out is that Barrie's "nine guys with 20 goal potential" and "three legitimate scoring lines" (OHL Prospects) include two former Kingston first-round draft choices, Josh Brittain and Luke Pither.

That coveted sixth-place finish in the OHL's Eastern Conference can almost be tasted, keeping in mind that it will have a fair bit to do with randomness as well as skill.

This, of course, is not so much about Clouthier, who might add some jam and make sure teams don't take liberties with the skill players such as Ethan Werek, Nathan Moon, first-round draft pick Alan Quine and offensive defenceman Brian Lashoff, who came over in the Brittain trade.

The point is the obvious: It's a shopworn stratagem for Mavety to trade a potential three- to four-year asset, a draft choice, for a player who might be out of junior hockey next season. It's already happened a couple times this summer. Cynics and apologists alike might point out that last season Mavety twice acquired players who were already out of major junior, so this would represent an improvement.

One also needs to be clear-eyed about the Frontenacs ending up about sixth in the conference. The team should be better and much easier on the eyes (and nerves). However, the Killer B's, the Brampton Battalion (league runners-up last season) and Belleville Bulls ('08 runners-up) are in bona fide rebuilding mode. The tide seems to be out in Niagara and Oshawa.

Those random circumstances are going to influence whether the short-term thinking Mavety subscribes to will appear to have worked. People in Kingston need to take that into account rather than plan a celebration in Springer Market Square if they just happen to make the playoffs.

No one is down on Kingston making the playoffs and maybe winning a post-season series for the first time since 1998, especially if you pay municipal taxes in that city or happens to be a city councillor planning to run for re-election in November 2010. (It seems to have been forgotten the revenue projections the K-Rock Centre include four home playoff dates.)

One should be able to look at a franchise's track record and know whether it has a capacity for rebuilding. Finishing sixth is nice, for a moment. Since 1998-99, when the OHL expanded to 20 teams, no team has won the league championship after finishing lower than fourth in its conference. Only two, the 1999 London Knights and 2007 Sudbury Wolves, have reached the league championship.

Brampton and Belleville appear to be aware they are the bottom of a cycle. With Kingston, it's hockey as usual. There will be a playoff appearance this season, which is going to seem kind of unusual. And if that's not a sad commentary on the Frontenacs organization ...

Related:
Frontenacs acquire forward from Barrie (Sun Media)
So long, Clouthier, hello draft pick (Barrie Examiner)

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

The Frontenacs performance in their first two preseason can best be described by the wise words of Kanye (or Daft Punk, whatever floats your boat) the team looks "harder, better, faster and stronger" than last year. A 5-2 win over the Ottawa 67's followed up by a 4-2 win over the Bellville Bulls are both encouraging signs.

Remember this is a team that was winless in eight preseason games last season, on the road to a disastrous season. Early on for the Frontenacs things are looking much better. It is a very different team than took to the ice last summer not only has the work rate seemed to have improved but also the technical skill level.

Doug Gilmour has a team of players who get the system and are seemingly intelligent players which was certainly missing last season. As the Detroit Lions have proved preseason results can be very misleading and the Frontenacs success may just be fueling the false hope but something feels different this season.

- Offseason acquisition Tyler Beskorowany seems to be the man for the job between the posts. Mavric Parks looked very under confident against Bellville and had several mistakes that went unpunished. We've yet to see John Cullen this preseason, who was solid but unremarkable last year with the Frontenacs. Beskorowany was commanding against Ottawa and looked up for the number one role.

- Colt Kennedy has always been a hardworking effective player, but tonight against Bellville he was the best player on the ice for Kingston. He scored the winner, was forcing turnovers inside the Bellville blue line, and creating chances in the absence of the big name forwards.

- Draft pick Alan Quine hasn't been hugely influential in the two preseason games, but he is certainly not out of his depth in the OHL. He has been forechecking well and working hard, he may not be a great goal scorer, but he will certainly carve out a fair amount of chances for Kingston this year.

- Although the Frontenacs undoubtedly have some very talented players on the team it has never been a problem of them not being able to produce it is the guys below them not chipping in which has hurt the Fronts. Against Bellville the Fronts proved that they can score even with out Ethan Werek, Nathan Moon, Brian Lashoff and Taylor Doherty in the lineup.

- The Frontenac powerplay in both games looked like a powerplay. The Frontenacs were maintaining possession of the puck for most of the time that they had a man advantage, they were passing it around inside the opposition blue line and creating chances. With several lines getting a shot on the powerplay, all of them looked exponentially better than last season.

- Frontenac giveways inside their own zone are as inevitable as Larry Mavety staying on with the Frontenacs for another year, but the number of mindless giveaways does seem to have decreased.

- The Frontenacs seem to be getting into good positions much more often than last season. This may be down to having more fast skaters on the team who can beat their man or just playing against weakened opposition. Either way it is another encouraging sign.

Is all of this praise an overreaction to two meaningless exhibition games? Probably, but lets enjoy it while we can.

Fronts: Beskorowany literally a big piece of the puzzle

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.

(And hey, they managed to get radio coverage.)

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.)

Fronts: Clean slate and you're still throwing stones

As Kinger's hero has been wont to say, "Words mean things." Especially when those words are centred, bolded, italicized and put in enlarged type.

"They told me they had a deal with Kingston and would I accept it? I thought about it for a couple of days and said no ... I want to try and go for it in case it's my last year in the OHL."

— Guelph Storm forward Matthew Sisca, on why he turned down a trade to the Kingston Frontenacs

The story is from Monday, but what the hell. Good on the Kingston Whig-Standard for alerting readers to how owner Doug Springer's ramshackle franchise is viewed across the league.

The intent here is not to rip, but to convey that the Frontenacs long ago reached their limit with trading in fallacies. It seems best to head off the hype now rather than after the fact. Making the playoffs in a weak OHL Eastern Conference will not be proof there is a rebuilding program, pure and simple. By the same token, their collection of forwards with Ethan Werek and defencemen with Erik Gudbranson (who is wearing an alternate captain's A for Team Canada at the Ivan Hlinka world under-18 tournament this week in Europe and got a glowing notice in Sports Illustrated) is as good as they have had since 2005-06. Doug Gilmour has shown some promise as a coach.

One would say this is a critical year for the future of major junior hockey in Kingston. It should become a political hot potato if the primary tenant at the city of Kingston's $43-million downtown arena continues to be an also-ran at the box office and in the standings as 2009 becomes 2010. It goes double with an election in November. (Picture Mayor Harvey Rosen saying, "Again? This stupid province.")

Another subpar season will further the perception, as per the Sisca quote, that Kingston is the league's Siberia.

The situation with Brock Higgs is illustrative. Higgs is a Kingstonian who was drafted by the Frontenacs in 2008. Long story short, he elected to play Provincial Junior A across town with Kingston Kimco Voyageurs and go for a NCAA scholarship. His plan is to play at Canisius College in Buffalo, where he can play hockey, get an education and be tip taxi drivers generously.

This is kind of adaptation of a comment left some time ago at the awesome OHL Prospects. It kind of lays out why it is understandable a Kingston prospect would not want to play for his hometown club. Higgs is on NHL Central Scouting's radar screen, but he is no sure thing to get drafted.

It is far from a stunner that Brock Higgs would not jump to play for the Frontenacs. If you'll indulge me...

The player said in June it 'looks like' he is returning to the Kingston Kimco Voyageurs and will go to Canisius in 2010. He is 17 years old with the right to change his mind.

There is the education package if you end up going to a Canadian university after major junior. However, as OHL alum Jason Cassidy explained, it's determined by how high a player was drafted. Higgs was a fifth-rounder.

Meantime, and who knows how much stickiness this has with agents and parents, the Frontenacs are the franchise which was sued by a former player after Larry Mavety tried to deny him his education package. As the player, Brody Todd, told the Toronto Star (Nov. 26, 2006): "I was disgusted how they held this (education package) back from me after playing in the league for five years ... If I hadn't pushed and sued, I likely would have ended up with nothing."

There is a lot of antipathy among the sporting class in Kingston toward the Fronts.

Their owner, Springer, has a reputation for not being accountable to fans. They have not had a playoff series win since he bought the Fronts in the late 1990s, but he refuses to change the general manager. Meantime the city of Kingston, which was just ranked as one of Canada's worst-run cities in a Maclean's magazine report, built a $43-million downtown arena, thus making every Kingston taxpayer a stakeholder in the Frontenacs.

Nevertheless, when the city council tried to cover its butt last winter by demanding the Frontenacs appear at a public meeting to discuss their "marketing plan," (wink, wink), Springer refused to take questions. Instead, he had his PR person and Gilmour (who had been in the league for about 30 games at the point) speak.

It's also telling that whenever players on their way out of town are asked what they'll miss most about Kingston, they invariably pause and say, "The people, the city." It's never the organization.

The Frontenacs have a bad reputation. They need to change the culture, since as of right now, they're not part of the fabric of the community, in the manner of other major junior teams.

People in Kingston are pretty savvy. They know there's no rebuilding taking place as long as Springer interferes in hockey decisions and as long as Gilmour follows in the footsteps of Mavety, simply settling for making the playoffs. The attendance spike they got from Gilmour lasted about one game.

As for Higgs' personal choice, who knows? It could be his family is big on education. The Kingston paper had a feature on Higgs during the Voyageurs' playoff run which noted his older sister goes to Queen's University, a pretty prestigious academic institution.

Canisius is also a first-rate Catholic college. As a school in a border town, it is also sensitive to the academic needs of Canadians. There is a young woman from Ottawa who plays basketball there, Steph MacDonald. She pointed out to the Ottawa Sun two years ago that one of the determining factors in choosing that school was not having to worry about getting her credits accepted if she applied to do a post-graduate degree in Canada.

The OHL is a place to be for a high-end talent who's got a great shot at being drafted at age 18. I'm always coming from the perspective of being a Kingston fan — paraphrasing what Roger Ebert says about writing for the Rupert Murdoch-owned Chicago Sun-Times, the Frontenacs are my team. Doug Springer just happens to own it. It's a childish attachment, I know.

However, a fan has to be clear-eyed. There are a lot of reasons why Higgs would go the NCAA route. The advisers for another Kingston lad, Scott Harrington, made it known before the OHL draft that he did not want to be drafted by the Frontenacs. The "out" the Frontenacs had was that Harrington was not a clear-cut No. 2 overall pick, he was somewhere in the top 5-10 picks, plus they are fairly well-stocked on the back end with Gudbranson, Taylor Doherty and Brian Lashoff.

None of this is cut-and-dried. The situation can change quickly with a young player. If Higgs does report to the Frontenacs, I'll gladly eat my words. How's that for an out clause?

Admittedly, that is inflammatory rhetoric for mid-August, but the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Springer set the bar last September when he told play-by-play man Jim Gilchrist during a between-periods interview that the team's goal was "top four" in the East. A season later, they have more talent and a reasonable facsimile of a coach with Gilmour, so why let Springer move the goalposts?

Long post shorter, they should get better. Werek should have a shot at a 40-goal season. Greatbranson will rattle opposing forwards' teeth during his draft year. However, let it be said this franchise is not starting with a clean slate.

It has been 658 days since Doug Springer promised to do "whatever it takes" to bring a winner to Kingston.

Incidentally, here is what S.I. said about Greatbranson:

"Fast and fearless, Erik Gudbranson captained the Kingston Frontenacs last season despite being just 16 years old. The 6-3, 185-pound blueliner struggled in camp, but is regarded as a Mark Stuart-type: solid in his own end, strong skater and a great leader."

(He actually only wore the C for a handful of games, but still, Sports Illustrated.)

Fronts: Radio silence from now on?

Kingston Frontenacs fans have always appreciated irony (just Google "coping mechanism"), so they'll like this: a team whose arena bears the name of a hometown radio station might not have a hometown radio broadcaster this season.

International man of mystery Tyler King posted on Fronts Talk he has "had three reliable people" inform him Corus Entertainment did not renew its radio rights to the Frontenacs. This would potentially cut off fans, since some road games are not telecast and not everyone who wants to tune in subscribes to TVCogeco (you can stream OHL games on the league's website, but it'll cost you). This is an opportunity, not another chance to bash.

The hierachy of needs here are 1) offering some ideas if indeed this is the case and 2) concern for the team's long-time radio voice, Jim Gilchrist, who deserves much better than being shunted aside with no one trying to find a solution.

It is hard to see the Frontenacs finding a taker among the six commercial FM stations in Kingston, not simply because Springer and GM Larry Mavety (get well soon, Mav) have alienated so much of the team's potential audience over the past decade.

In the larger picture, big media is all about "the next cost-cutting move in journalism" (Sports Biz With Darren Rovell, July 23). It's part the economy, part greed, too. In the NHL, at least three teams are simply simulcasting the TV audio this season, as Puck Daddy noted earlier this week. CTVGlobeMedia, as the CFL rights holder in Canada, does something similar on The Team 1200 in Ottawa. If you turn on the radio right now, there is the TSN commentary from Rod Black and Duane Forde, a few seconds behind the TV.

Close to home, Kingston's radio fare is a pretty good reflection of the ridiculous level of media concentration in Canada. Corus, Rogers Media and CTVGlobeMedia each own two FM stations. It is hard to the other two stepping in, especially if there is little promise of big ratings. Puck Daddy put hockey radio broadcasts into perspective.

"It doesn't have the romanticism of baseball radio. It doesn't have the necessity of football radio, a fact to which any fanatic husband or wife asked to run an errand on an autumn Sunday can attest.

"But hockey radio is vital to fans who can't catch the game on television (especially if they're in a market with untelevised games) or in the arena. It's also vital as an ancillary, or at times alternative, source of commentary and news for a given team. If the homers in the TV booth are insufferable, turn down the volume and pop on the headphones, right?"

The two Rogers-owned stations (K-Rock 105.7 and KIX 93.5) are likely a non-starter, since the latter station already carries the Ottawa Senators, which would create conflicts.

CTVGlobeMedia owns an adult contempary station (FLY-FM, 98.3) and a modern rock station (98.9 The Drive). One can't see hockey being a good mesh with those formats, plus as we saw throughout this spring, that company's you know their definition of "local" seems to infer that everyone lives up the street from a television studio in California.

There is 88.7 FM in Napanee. It's a 6,000-watt station, though. Can you even get it from downtown Kingston?

Translation: The Fronts could be SOL. It is not entirely their fault, although if the team had gone 40-18-10 instead 18-40-10 last season, do you think this would be happening? It is more the nature of the radio beast. A major junior team whose market includes an all-sports station or an AM station which is still going strong (such as CFRA in Ottawa or AM980 in London, where Norman James' two-hour sports show debuted on Friday.

1. Work with TVCogeco by streaming its commentary and make it available in the K-Rock Centre. You know how at a drive-in theatre, you tune your car radio to get the audio? They could do that for the fans who bring portable radios to home games.
   
   
2. Partner with K-Rock 105.7 to stream games online. For home games, doing a 15-minute long pre- and/or post-game show over the air is also an option, since it adds something of value for people as they arrive at the arena or wait for their cars to warm up after leaving.
   
   The bonus is there are people in place if the team makes a playoff run and there is enough widespread interest to justify putting the games on a FM station.
   
   
3. Put the games on CFRC 101.9 FM the year after Kinger graduates from Queen's, just to mess with him. That is not a serious suggestion.
   

All of this seems pretty reasonable, if a deal can't be struck with a radio station. It's important to have a contingency plan and a major sports operator such as Springer has an obligation to help provide a media product that offers something of added value to fans. The Rogers Jays do this with their excellent radio team of Alan Ashby, Jerry Howarth and Mike Wilner.

Not having a broadcast alternative to people who don't get TVCogeco further weakens the Kingston Frontenacs brand, which has been weakened considerably in recent years by the team's lack of success and anger at Springer for refusing to make fundamental changes in the organization. The point in writing this is to offer some reasonable ideas such as working with existing partners to better serve the fans. Another hope larger media will realize it is a story if Jim Gilchrist, who has commentated Kingston games for 22 seasons, is sidelined.

It was newsworthy in the past when CFRC, which has a very small but fiercely loyal audience, had its future hanging in the balance. This is newsworthy, too, even if the Frontenacs in characteristic fashion don't want people to know their business.

(To be clear, that is just stating a preference as a reader, making it known. The media is stretched thin these days, which makes it harder to do stories outside of game coverage and features, because there is an opportunity cost, but people want to read 'em.)

Anyway, to the Frontenacs, don't be closed off to the notion of an Internet-only broadcast if doesn't work out with a commercial station (and one hopes it does). It might be swinging with the times and it build ties to the community. It's publicity. You fellas have not been drawing them in the way you have in the past.

It's time to get creative, and no, that doesn't include making the players model in fashion shows. (Language not safe for work, nor endorsed by this site.)