Mike Chen's Hockey Blog

Putting Rules On The “Intent” Rule

by Mike Chen on 11/19/09 at 04:20 PM ET
Comments (13)

I might be in the minority here, but I support the idea behind the “intent to blow the whistle” rule. Refs are human and that means that they need to take time, however minuscule it is, to comprehend what they’re seeing, grab the whistle, and blow it. That part makes sense.

That being said, I think last night’s Brad May no-goal was a pretty spectacular job of backpedaling by the league. The problem with a rule based around something intangible like intent is that there’s no real way to quantify it. When you take intent and interpretation and third-party input, there’s no way it can come out clean. Because of that, close (or in May’s case, not so close) calls get tossed into this gray area where nothing good comes out of it.

But maybe there’s a way to add a little black-and-white to that gray area. Cue up your Thomas Dolby LP here.

Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Brad+May, Officiating,

Hockey Songs Vs. Cricket Songs

by Mike Chen on 11/18/09 at 02:02 PM ET
Comments (4)

The boss sent this piece from British paper The Guardian over to me yesterday. It’s a view of puck rock (the punk sub-genre, not the occasional feature I run interviewing hockey folks about their music tastes) and Vancouver’s punk pioneers DOA from across the pond. This particular passage amused me:

Our introduction to the genre comes courtesy of Vancouver punk veterans DOA. Hold on, there’s a story, courtesy of their label’s website: “A short time ago, Canadian-punk godfather Joe “S***head” Keithley was sourly contemplating the namby-pambyness of the new National Hockey League style. As he reached for the solace of a beer, he thought: “Hey, damn this corporate NHL crap! Let’s give the people some real rough and tumble on the ice!”

...

If you’re really into ice hockey, this is probably a massive laugh. As a Brit, however, it is all slightly bewildering. Here, hockey is a game played by public schoolgirls with bruised ankles, so it’s easy to lose track when watching the New York Raiders battle the Chicago Blackhawks. Luckily, we have a regional alternative – step forward Leeds band Geoffery Oi!Cott, cricket-themed punks who lovingly translate the gentle thwack of leather on willow into rowdy terrace anthems like (Cricket) Bat Out of Hell and Dawn of the Dickie Birds. Proof, again, that if you can think of a topic which might be amusing to cover through the medium of song, punk has probably already got there first.

Is it just me or is there a huuuuuuuuuuuuge difference in a punk song being inspired rough-and-tumble old-time hockey and...the gentlemanly sport of cricket? This might get me in trouble with some of our readers over in the UK, but punk’s always been about speed and attitude. You’d think the land of Sid Vicious would know this. Cricket’s like baseball except it can literally last all day, and I don’t know about you guys, but as much as I like baseball, there’s very little that’s punk about it. Here’s an example of cricket:

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Tags: Music,

Off Topic: Writing About Writing

by Mike Chen on 11/17/09 at 04:10 PM ET
Comments (0)

Disclaimer: This post is way, way, way off topic, so if you have no interest in writing or publishing, feel free to politely ignore this. Otherwise, read past the jump.

Filed in: Non-Hockey | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink

Triple-Dipping On Ticket Prices

by Mike Chen on 11/16/09 at 01:59 PM ET
Comments (3)

We all know that the NHL is a gate-driven league, and that depending on which market you’re in, tickets can be extraordinarily high. It’s all supply and demand, and what many North American pro teams have done is partner with TicketMaster to create what is in essence a legalized scalping system. It’s generally known as TeamExchange, though some teams have branded it something different, like the Sharks and their Power Play Ticket Trader.

How does TeamExchange work? While much of it is driven by supply and demand (you’re not going to find many, if any, of these tickets for teams that aren’t regularly sold out), there is a model to help the rich teams get richer. It’s important to note that this isn’t necessarily a club-specific way to gouge the fan; it’s just the way tickets are going in pro sports and live events in general. In other words, this isn’t something to blame a certain team or a certain league or a certain commissioner about (but feel free to if you want.)

Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Ticket+Prices,

Should The Sharks Re-Sign Patrick Marleau?

by Mike Chen on 11/11/09 at 01:30 PM ET
Comments (3)

He’s been their best player so far this season, and was the team’s MVP from last year. He’s the all-time leader in franchise points, a consistent short-handed threat, and one of the team’s faceoff leaders. Tally that all together and it makes sense for the Sharks to re-sign Patrick Marleau before he hits unrestricted free agency status this July. Of course, logic doesn’t always come into play in the salary cap world; more importantly, does Marleau even want to stay in San Jose?

Since the beginning of his NHL career, Marleau’s been in and out of the Sharks doghouse, either with the fans or his coaches. Both Darryl Sutter and Ron Wilson had their moments with Marleau, though Wilson at least recognized how to properly develop Marleau to his full potential. Fans and media have slagged him off and on throughout his career, usually for either being too soft or too quiet. The bulk of the blame from last year’s first-round defeat against Anaheim was shared between Marleau and Joe Thornton, despite most objective pundits’ views that the series was far from the usual 1 vs. 8, and that Marleau was playing with a bad MCL.

That being said, Marleau didn’t talk publicly about his no-trade clause or contract status this summer other than telling season ticket holders that he wanted a chance to “prove the naysayers wrong” in San Jose. He’s lived up to his end of the bargain, but is he simply driving up his asking price this off season?

Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Patrick+Marleau, San+Jose+Sharks,

25 or 30?

by Mike Chen on 11/09/09 at 12:00 PM ET
Comments (17)

Joe Starkey, columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, recently stated something that we’ve heard off and on over the years: that the NHL needs to contract. Now, I’m guessing Starkey is saying this from a talent perspective instead of looking at economics, because he’s not saying “These troubled markets need to be addressed.” Rather, he states that five teams should go, then states which ones he’d cut off.

The “three to five teams should disappear” argument pops up from time to time, but I think if you realistically consider how the talent would actually be redistributed, it’d make much less of a difference than one might think.

Here are some numbers to consider:

-20 players suit up for each NHL game, 18 skaters and two goalies. Three guys sit in the press box.
-If you lopped off five teams, that’s about 16% of the league. To correlate that, that means that theoretically three or four guys could be redistributed throughout the league—could, not would.

So let’s take Starkey’s notion of killing Florida, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Phoenix, and either LA or Anaheim (we’ll pick Anaheim since I doubt even in this scenario the NHL would allow the Kings to go). How much would NHL rosters actually change? Would the talent level of the league significantly improve?

Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Contraction,

Fear The Fehr

by Mike Chen on 11/09/09 at 01:20 AM ET
Comments (5)

Uh oh. The NHLPA’s looking at the one place I don’t think any of us want them to. From The Hockey News:

Donald Fehr, who plans to retire in March 2010 as the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players’ Association, will serve as an advisor on both the search for a new executive director to replace Paul Kelly and to help draft a new constitution for the NHLPA.

If you don’t know who Donald Fehr is, this sentence from Wikipedia is all you really need to hear:

Fehr led the players union through the 1994 Major League Baseball strike and subsequent World Series cancellation.

The sound you just heard was Gary Bettman rushing to the executive bathroom.

Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Donald+Fehr, Gary+Bettman, NHLPA,

How To Get Kicked Out Of Honda Center

by Mike Chen on 11/02/09 at 06:56 PM ET
Comments (6)

How many times has the drunk guy next to you yelled, “Ref, you suck!” during a game? How many times were you that guy? Did you think the people around you were offended? I doubt it, and I think the majority of readers would agree.

Ok, well, what about carrying a sign that says that? After all, if we can mock Chris Pronger or Sidney Crosby or whoever else is Public Enemy #1, shouldn’t it be ok to mock the refs? This is pro sports we’re talking about here.

Now put something like “Ref, You Suck” on a t-shirt and, well, that’s apparently over the line, at least at Honda Center.

Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Arenas, Honda+Center, Referees,

What Tarnishes A Legacy?

by Mike Chen on 10/30/09 at 11:46 AM ET
Comments (0)

A few weeks ago, I heard a debate on XM Home Ice regarding the Hall-of-Fame worthiness of Theo Fleury. The discussion didn’t involve his numbers per se, but rather whether or not his battle with addictions immediately disqualified him from such an honor. The hosts acknowledged that Fleury’s issues were tied into horrible childhood abuses, and he didn’t have the proper outlets for dealing with them. Nonetheless, they generally felt that the Hall of Fame was the type of honor that shouldn’t be bestowed on people who’ve given into their personal demons—even when the context of what caused them is somewhat understandable.

I found this debate in my head revived with this week’s revelation that tennis great Andre Agassi used crystal meth and covered it up during a time when his personal and professional life were spiraling downward. Suddenly, critics were coming out to say that his entire legacy was tarnished, some even saying they couldn’t look at Agassi the same way.

Me? I tried to look at Agassi the same way I look back at Fleury—they’ve made choices that they’re not proud of, but they’re honest about it and they’ve grown from it. They weren’t cheating during their performances, so why should it take away from Agassi’s Grand Slam wins or Fleury’s career goal totals? They’re human, and they made human mistakes in their personal lives. I don’t think that should be terribly shocking. Even if their actions violated a league/association policy, that’s a suspension and a fine at most, not a giant asterisk next to their career accomplishments.

I’m sure this point can be debated and picked apart from every possible angle, but I’m of the mindset that as long as the substances in question don’t enhance performance, then any sort of honor should be based strictly on the person’s career in the sport—not their personal demons. That’s why I view these situations as different compared to something like the Barry Bonds fiasco.

Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Hall+of+Fame, Theo+Fleury,

Primeau And Who Else?

by Mike Chen on 10/29/09 at 11:28 AM ET
Comments (0)

The boss pointed out this radio interview with Keith Primeau the other day, who discussed his views on the whole hits-to-the-head thing. It’s one of the most outspoken things I’ve heard from a well-known player and it’s clear that his view is strong and definite—and it makes me wonder why we haven’t heard from further players this way.

After all, this isn’t just their livelihood, it’s their life (as Primeau points out). As much as we debate about a potential penalty for hits to the head, I think we can all agree that we don’t want to see guys who are three, four, five years out of retirement still dealing with post-concussion syndrome. As a refresher, here are just some of the wide range of symptoms you can get from post-concussion syndrome, and remember that there’s no definite stopping point with any of them:

Filed in: | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Concussions, Keith+Primeau,

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About Mike Chen’s Hockey Blog

Mike Chen prides himself in being the only hockey writer integrating puck discussion with both Morrissey quotes and Star Wars references. Since 2004, he’s blogged about all things hockey and currently contributes to FoxSports.com, the Battle of California, and RotoRob.

Questions? Comments? Hate mail? Contact Mike here.