Snowman On Fire

When my kids were little and tele-marketing was all the dinner time rage, I used to put them on the phone with the hardiest of cold callers. I thought of it as fair play; they were interrupting my family team and my dinner for some unwanted spiel about credit cards, home loans, timeshares, or other bad uses of my money (looking back: leading indicator of today’s messes!). Instead, they got a 3-year old who asked them what their favorite color was, what they were wearing, if they liked hockey (that would have been Lil’Bubba) and other questions, in a true test of wills to see who would hang up first.

Mid-afternoon today I got a call (on the home line, no less) from the NJ Devils asking me if there were any Devils fans at home. Mistake. They got the maturity-equivalent of the little kid on the line, and instead of buying from them, I sold:

To quote the Gen Y employees trying shake up NASA, everything you know about community, demand creation, marketing, distribution and audience is wrong. Today’s hockey fans aren’t the same ones who grew up watching games on WOR or WPIX (thankfully, because most of them became Rangers fans, for the much-proffered reason that “they were on TV.” If Gilligan and the Skipper played hockey, Rangers fans would follow them, too). We get our news, data and updates online. We have friends we haven’t met or heard, but enjoy their self-published voices. We join groups because they seem like a good idea, even though only one in ten has some utility once the first laugh has damped down.

Now I’m waiting for the second call from the Rock: you obviously know where to find me.

I discovered that Elias has a Facebook fan page a few weeks ago, and while it’s short of content (for now), it takes you to some interesting places and seems to be populated somewhat regularly with syndicated news feeds. A few emails back and forth, and perhaps some trackbacks from his sports management team, and I ended up on Elias’ blog roll; his Facebook page now has a badge on the sidebar of this blog.

If you’re on Facebook, check it out, become a fan, and be vocal. Or at least feed the Czech language comments through an online translator if you want creative Rock signage ideas. If you’re not on Facebook, then you don’t know that Elias has his own church. He probably doesn’t know that either, which is partly what makes it fun.

Increasingly, Facebook is being used to create vibrant communities ranging from a few people (check out those of us who favor “mixed crustaceans” on Facebook) to a few thousand - the Washington Capitals use Facebook and other social media to alert fans when there are last-minute tickets available for a game. It’s a great way to keep your most die-hard fans in the loop, and at least make them feel like they’re getting direct access without media filtration, time constraints, language barriers, or non-hockey aware editorial types intermediating the bit stream. Octagon promises that Elias will begin putting up content on a regular basis.

In the meantime, he’s had a great two games - Friday night’s goal was a thing of beauty, the kind of play that made Bubba and me move him to the top of the favorite Devils list; Saturday’s 3-point night made all of the difference in the game. Maybe it’s me; maybe I just haven’t been watching enough Devils hockey with my travel schedule, but Elias was moving more, creating space and time with the puck, being aggressive on the forecheck, and playing well, like Patrik Elias. It’s the kind of (TV) face time that we love.

Attention Devils Fans: Don’t panic.

As reported by Tom Guiliiti and others, Marty Brodeur is out 3-4 months having his distal biceps tendon (that goes through/around the elbow) surgically repaired. I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV or in my blog, but I have to believe that this isn’t a sudden or a new injury, but a continued re-aggravation (or injury past the point of short-term rehabilitation) for Brodeur. It’s pretty close to what Kevin Weekes did and had repaired over the summer, and if you watched last night’s Sabres-Devils game, Weekes didn’t look worse for the wear and repaired tear.

Don’t panic. Here are five reasons not to completely brown your shorts on this otherwise nice fall day:

1. Kevin Weekes is an NHL goalie. Not every team has a Brodeur, yet each year, fifteen other clubs manage to make the playoffs without him. Some do it by platooning two guys in the crease. Kevin Weekes is one of those caliber guys. He’s an NHL goalie with experience (in addition to being a nice guy) who will play under pressure.

2. Everybody will step up. I think this is one of the most mis-understood issues in sports. Talk to people who follow football, and you’ll hear that injuries to key players do not affect games as much as people think. On cue, everyone should say “Ooh, but what about Tom Brady” to which my answer is “What about the other 21 starters on the team?” Maybe the Patriots just aren’t that good aside from Brady. The Giants certainly proved it last year. But I digress. Immediately, your mindset as a Devils player changes. Score more goals. Play better defense. Don’t rely on Marty making the outrageous plays; make some of your own. We’ll see what Captain Langenbrunner does now.

3. This may incent management to get some blueline help. How many times have you heard “Brodeur is a third defenseman” during a broadcast? Clearly, the Devils need defensive help now. Not another goalie; they have some solid goaltending. Help in front of the net, so that visitors Buffalo-ing into the Devils zone don’t rip off 20 shots in the first period again. Now would be a good time for a big trade or signing, and would deflect both the media and fan attention away from the Brodeur theater.

4. Long-term injuries should not preclude short-term thinking. Remember when Elias contracted Hep A and missed most of the season? There wasn’t a countdown to his return or a feeling that all was lost, even though he was the team’s leading scorer five years in a row. When he came back he was a man on fire. This is long but not season-ending long. Marty could be back in the net in March, with a dozen games to go. He could still break various records this year [ed note: see next thought, though] and be back for the playoffs. If you are already thinking about the playoffs, then you’ve skipped all of the work that has to precede that run. Jim Craig once said that he broke periods down into 5-minute chunks, and treated each one as a game within a game. Think of the 08-09 season as eight separate 10-game seasons. The first one went 6-2-2 (compare to 3-6-1 last year, just to level set here). It’s possible Marty is back for the last one or maybe two of them. Five to six 10-game mini seasons in the interim. Break it down, and treat it as a series of short-term objectives, and the longer-term issues fade into the background. As I like to holler from the stands, “lots of hockey left”.

5. Marty is going to get emotional, physical and media rest. “Marty is tired” comes up way too much, especially as the season wears on and the playoffs arrive. I’d certainly never vote for an injury to force rest, but this will help Marty recharge in every way possible, including reducing strain from the media glare. He’s a professional athlete who trains well, and will be ready to go when he’s cleared to play — and I’m betting that he makes it a spring time to remember.

Feel better, Marty — on your time and schedule, not anyone else’s. The fans will still be here, cheering for your recovery, your return, and your redefinition of the record books.

Expectations were high tonight for Devils fans: Briere was going under the knife, Marty was in net, they hadn’t lost to the Flyers at home since 2004 and well, the Flyers haven’t won since last season. After a first period of weird bounces, the Devils were nursing a lead, but then it came unglued. Marty looked half-asleep in net, the Flyers never stopped skating, and there was a parade of goals for the bad guys in white. Langenbrunner left the game with an unspecified injury (not Langs, on top of Rolston and Holik?) and the rest of the team seemed to forget how to play Devils hockey. I’m just about doubled over after watching this one.

The top line looked good in the first few games but has been invisible since Rolston’s injury. Elias hasn’t touched the twine since Game 2, and despite 8 shots on net versus the Stars he didn’t get on the scoresheet. Tonight he was a turnover machine, for no apparent reason — Vrana has speed on the other wing and Zubrus is making room in the slot - why not control the puck if your linemates are creating space and time for you? When asked to take a penalty kill face off in place of the penalized Madden, Elias was lost - lost the face off, lost his check, and lost the battle that turned into the tying goal 6 seconds into a power play. Call me cynical, an arm chair coach, a dilletante manager, and merely an adult player, but Elias seemed to be mailing this one in. Langenbrunner would yell at him if he was on the bench - and perhaps that’s part of the issue.

Down low, on defense, it seems like simple things are eluding the Devils - picking up a loose guy, lifting the stick, controlling the flow in the low slot. White’s slamming his stick into the net after the 5th Flyers goal kind of says it all - don’t blame Marty, Colin, figure out how you and Madden managed to get out muscled in your own zone.

We can only hope that tomorrow is better, and that there’s some serious hollering going on under the low-numbered seats at the Rock right now. And that Langenbrunner is merely bruised and not bent. And that Marty gets a night off to just rest up for next week, and doesn’t insist on playing less than 24 hours after a fistful of goal thrashing.

All streaks must end - Flyers going winless, Devils beating them at home, forward lines remaining consistent over multiple games. And each new streak, each new good thing, starts with something simple — mostly those things that were missing tonight.

I’ll admit it: bloggers tend to read each other’s blogs, and probably some large percent of my readership comes from John, the -ookies, Josh/Patty/crew, and my parents. Actually, once you subtract out the usual suspects, I think the Snowman gets more views from random Google searches than from a dedicated and loyal base. But I digress….

John Fisher’s In Lou We Trust is a regular read of mine, and this entry about Patrik Elias’ fan page forced me to click through and become a fan. Well, more of a fan. We already have the signed jerseys, hats, pucks and sticks; we have more Elias swag than the Devils Den, and somewhere upstairs in the maelstrom known as the Bubba Lair there are approximately 700 Patrik Elias hockey cards that chronicle his career from Albany to the strike (at which point hockey cards became less interesting).

So just how nuts can you go over Patty? How about his Czech language vanity site that has some really funny “back when” photos of Lil’Patty and the history of his hair coloration. Wish I spoke Czech, because it seems like there’s better game by game commentary there than on any NHL affiliate site (hullo, Inka, help please?). I’m now an Elias follower on Twitter, such that social media imitates real life. Here’s hoping that Elias’ twitters go beyond “first post” status and give us some interesting commentary; it’s hard to live your life publicly 140 (non-accented) characters at a time, but that fuels the fandemonium as well. And before anyone says “hej, why are you posting Elias’ twitter feed on your blog,” uh, that’s the idea — the more people who follow him, the more of his fan base he can reach in micro-content update form, and the more connected those fans feel. It’s a good thing, coupled with the Facebook and web presences.

According to the Devils team website, Elias is wearing the “A” again this season, along with John Madden. I can’t remember seeing a formal announcement of this, so perhaps it’s a subtle entree to a season in which predictions of the Devils’ demise are so frequent they go past the point of Clemensy. Perhaps it’s Sutter’s implicit call on Patrik to return to the winger of years past. Or maybe it’s just time for Patrik to be the Czech point among himself, Holik and Vrana. According to that ancient Sports Illustrated piece, we know what the “A” resolves to for Holik - and I, for one, can’t wait to see it resolve in person.

Under 48 hours, 2 days of work, and one Jewish Holiday to go.

Richard Stevens’ Diesel Sweeties is a laugh riot. I read it religiously, daily (and even on religious days, like today) and always get a good laugh. Any good artist makes you fill in the visual gaps, whether it’s leaving out every shingle or brick in a painting or forcing an appreciation for pixel aliasing when you’re wearing the red-n-black.

If you want your own hand (tablet) drawn, 8-bit pixel party shot, complete with slimming transform, anti-aging bits, and appropriate derisive expression (and the Islanders aren’t even in the vicinity of the Rock yet!), all this can be yours for a very nominal fee.

I find myself in a strange position this first week of October: There’s baseball on TV, and I am only counting the days until hockey coverage begins. In every fall since I’ve been able to carve out sports-watching time (read: after the great sleeplessness of having two toddlers), I’ve been able to cheer for some combination of New York hardball teams. This season was one to forget across the entire Tri-State area: this may be the first year I didn’t blog once about Major League Baseball until after the regular season reached its regular and final conclusion.

There were highlights: I completed my annual Willie Stargell pilgrimmage, enjoying Chicken on the Hill, sporting my Cooperstown Classic t-shirt with a large snowman on the back, watching the Pirates get demolished by Joe Torre’s Dodgers. I watched with interest as Will Venable started in a game for the Padres, joining fellow Princetonian Chris Young in the lower left hand corner of the nation. After those small flashes, though, there weren’t many other bright spots. Kind of a sad season for baseball around here.

But here’s a parting thought: anyone who blamed Joe Torre for the sad state of the New York Yankees should carefully check this week’s NLDS box scores. The Dodgers are doing more damage to the Cubs than a decade’s worth of Bartman incidents. Torre has a hodgepodge of slightly muted stars, cast off from other teams - Manny Ramirez, Juan Pierre, Nomar Garciaparra - and he’s made them into his team. So perhaps I am watching baseball, slyly, out of the corner of my eye, hoping that Joe Torre is vindicated for the wonderful years he poured his heart and soul into the Bronx.

Livingston’s own Dale Reinhardt is going pro - specifically, he’s been signed to a contract wth the Bakersfield Condors of the ECHL, and has been invited to camp starting next week with the Ducks’ AHL affiliate, the Iowa Chops (talk about lipstick on a pig….). As youth hockey gets underway once again, inevitably some young players are tagged as having the potential play hockey professionally. Here’s an inside look at what it takes to go from the local rink to the D-1 arena to a hockey paycheck:

Dale, tell us a bit about your youth and college hockey careers.

I played at the NJ Colonials till Bantams. Then as a Bantam moved to the Devils where I was part of the Devils Bantam National Championship team. Then I went to High School at Delbarton and won a State Championship as a Sophmore, was a three time all-state selection and hold the school scoring record. [ed note: with 247 points in 4 seasons]. I then went to College Of The Holy Cross, a part of the Atlantic Hockey’s D-1 conference (there is sometimes confusion with Holy Cross’s conference and division due to its size.) At Holy Cross I rank 8th all-time in points and goals and 7th in assists in the school’s D-1 history. I was also a part of a huge upset in college hockey history when we beat Minnesota in the opening round of the NCAA tournament as the 16th seed in a 16 spot tourney, advancing the to Elite-8. I was also a nominee for the Hobey Baker award this year.

What are some of your youth hockey highlights?

I have numerous great youth hockey memories. Certainly winning the National Championship as a Bantam and State Championship as a Sophmore at Delbarton. However, I think my best memory was my first year of squirts while at the Colonials. I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to play up a level. I was of Mite age but was permitted to play on the Squirt AAA team with my brother and my father as coach. Being that my brother [ed note: Tyler Reinhardt] and I are 2 1/2 years apart we never really got a chance to play together and this was a unique and memorable year and probably my most enjoyable as well.

All of my coaches had a unique part in shaping me as a hockey player. I mentioned earlier that my father coached me for a good part of my life. He did not play much hockey growing up but was a football player and a good athlete. Like me, was slightly undersized as a football lineman, and as a result needed to be smarter and faster than his opponents in order to compete. These were things that he instilled in me. He taught me to learn the game, and be able to out think my opponents and anticipate their actions. He also taught me to have passion. He coached so passionately that it rubbed off on me. He also always coached with great character and dignity. He taught me to carry myself in a similar manner.

A second influence as a coach on me was [New Jersey Devils Youth Hockey Head Coach] John DiNorcia. John continued what my father had started in terms of teaching me the intelligence of the game. John is a great X and O’s coach. Another thing I took from John was to play with confidence. He always seemed to have a great confidence level in every player he put on the ice and I think that transferred to his players. This can go a long way in helping a young players game. Finally, I have to mention is Bruce Shatel. Bruce may be the most competitive, passionate coach I ever met. He taught me great lessons in work ethic and desire. These lessons could not have come at a better time in my hockey life, what most would call a turning point. I was in high school and was a borderline D-1 to D-3 player. Really where I ended up depended on me and the decisions I made. Bruce always made me accountable for my play, whereas some coaches may have let a bad game or shift slide because of my overall performance. I needed this push and am indebted to Coach Shatel for it.

With such great experiences in youth and high school hockey, what advice do you have for young players and their parents?

The most important thing I can say to any parent with a young kid playing hockey is to ensure that your kid is having fun. This will lead to
success. Don’t push your kids too much!!! and also don’t let hockey consume your life. Play other sports as a young kid, this will help you better develop all the skills you will need as a hockey player later in your life. Playing D-1 hockey isn’t the only goal, though. My brother Tyler played D-1 club hockey at the University Of Rhode Island, and played some great competition including winning a national championship there. He made very lasting friendships and had a wonderful experience.

There is only so much you can control so have fun, work hard, and let happen what happens. Also, if your aspirations are to play college hockey, pay attention to the fact that the adjective is “college” — you have to have good grades to acheive that goal. School is as important in this process as your hockey ability. There are roughly 60 D-1 colleges and 1,200 D-1 college players every year. You are competeing against an enormous pool of players for 1 of 1,200 spots. If you have poor grades your chances are pretty much cut by about two-thirds. If it comes down to you and another player of equal ability, a school will take the better of the two students.

What other factors do you think shaped your path?

While I worked very hard I was also very fortunate. Playing at Holy Cross arose as an opportunity while I was unsure of what to do next; I was thinking of going to play juniors in the EJHL when I went to the US National Team Development Programs Select tournament. (Holy Cross hockey coach) Paul Pearl was a coach of the Massachuetts region select team and we played them. I happened to have a good game and he called and the rest is, as the saying goes, history. Going from college to pro was a very similar situation. After our season ended this year I was unsure of my future, searching for jobs and considering hockey possibilities. I did not have a great senior year at Holy Cross and was unsure of my chances to move on professionally. I went up to the rink one day after our season to ask coach Pearl his opinion of my chances. It just so happened that earlier that day he had received a call from the Bakersfield Condors and they were interested in signing me to end their season. I went out and played phenomenally and again the rest is history. So really I have never expected any of the success I have had, but I have just continued to try and keep my head down and working hard and let whatever happens take its course.

While the Boston area has a strong religious diversity, one often overlooked religion is ice hockey. What was it like playing in a part of the country with deep Original Six roots and the legacy of Bobby Orr? What were your overall experiences gonig from high-end high school hockey to D-1 college hockey?

I could not have had a better college experience than I had at Holy Cross. However, I am certain my experience is much different from those at Harvard or BC or BU. The biggest difference in hockey terms were that everyone you are playing with was the best on their team wherever they came from. Everyone was excellent. The difference between a first line guy and a (scratched) guy sitting in the stands was tiny and came down mostly to execution and work ethic. I came into my freshman year at Holy Cross at 18 years old and having no idea what to expect. The next youngest guy on the team was 20 years old. I was not nearly in the physical shape that was necessary for me to compete at the D-1 level. I sat our first 10 games because I was out of shape and underprepared. However this motivated me more than it discouraged me. I knew I was as good, or better than the players playing ahead of me. I got my chance to prove it and seized the opportunity. By the end of the season I was playing 2nd line and never looked back.

The biggest hockey difference is the speed. Everything happens much more quickly than in youth hockey. The transition for me went more smoothly than some others because I always prided myself on being an intelligent player and was able to anticipate and make decisions quickly in order to keep up with the speed.

Talk about playing professional hockey - getting paid to play a game you so clearly love.

The opportunity to play professional hockey is not something I am taking lightly. I feel very privileged and exhilirated. My life-long dream was to play D-1 hockey and I attained that goal. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine having the opportunity to play professionally. To me this is all gravy, but I am going to work extremely hard and see where it can take me. I will again try and seize the opportunity as I did in college.

Each year, the NHL draft takes center stage as soon as the Stanley Cup finals are over, and yet it seems like any number of exciting players show up undrafted, unranked and sometimes undiscovered - the Red Wings (and Devils) Brian Rafalski and Tampa Bay’s Jeff Halpern just to name two. Do you think the ice is being levelled a bit?

I think we are already seeing the widening spectrum of teams scouting outside of the typical “hockey hotbeds”. This is proven by the success of New Jerseyans in recent drafts. I don’t think there is too much emphasis on the draft in hockey as there are many routes to the NHL. Certain organizations, like Anaheim (NHL affiliate of the Condors and Chops), are becoming very widely known for developing their own talent.

I last saw you on the ice with our NJ Devils Atom clinic, sporting purple gloves and a smile.

Hockey has given me so much, and I have learned huge amounts from my coaches. I like to give back to the young kids playing today any little thing I can, even if it is just to increase the level of enjoyment at the practice. I would love to aid these kids in acheiving the same level of enjoyment from hockey that I have acheived and to experience what I have.

Anaheim already has NJ product George Parros on the roster. Any chance you’ll add more West Orange talent to Orange County?

I admire George greatly, especially knowing how difficult it is to accomplish what he has in just a few seasons. I would love to be able to lace up the skates next to him, but I am not getting ahead of myself. He and I would make a quite funny looking line [ed note: Parros is listed as 6′ 5″, 230 pounds and Reinhardt is 5′ 7″ and tips the scales at 175 pounds]. We’ll see.

The night after the Devils played the last game of their 2007-2008 season, I ordered the pile of sports books that had collected on my nightstand and began devoting former hockey-watching hours to reading. I had picked up Jack Falla’s Home Ice based on a blurb for it in some other hockey-related reading, and Saved came as an amazon.com recommendation. Read them in that order, saw a bit of an autobiographical cameo in the fictional Saved (I don’t think you can write a purely fictional hockey novel), and blogged about how much I enjoyed them. Falla’s writing made me forget the bad parts of last year’s Devils campaign and had me wishing for cold weather and clean sheets of ice on which to experience the good parts all over again, one year later.

An amazingly happy thing happened after I wrote that blog entry in April: Jack Falla commented in these very online pages. Whether he discovered it through vanity Googling or because his agent found and forwarded the link, it was the same electric jolt to me. In the comment, Falla tipped a book that would be published in the early fall (now), and an idea for another novel.

I’m looking at my pristine copy of Open Ice, the sequel to Home Ice, with the amazingly sad realization that this will be Falla’s last book. Falla died Sunday morning at the age of 62. The hockey world has lost a voice of the people, not someone interested in ratings or controvery but a simple explanation of why we find a simple game fascinating. In Open Ice, Falla conveys how a chance mention of Montreal great Jean Beliveau in his first encounter with his (future) wife immediately cemented the relationship; having met Beliveau once, for 3 minutes, I could immediately relate to the backstory. That’s sports writing ascended to a hockey cathedral in its own right, to borrow another phrase of his.

THN’s Ken Campbell gives a solid review of Open Ice as well as some well-deserved parting words (at the end of that post).

I’m hitting control-Z on the other two books in progress now, and picking up Open Ice tonight, sure that Falla’s last shift as a writer was as spirited, fun, and memorable as his others. That’s the way the game should be played.

[cross-posted to my work blog]