Snowman On Fire

Went to my first game at the Rock last night, and all I can say is “wow.” This is a building meant for hockey, it’s a building that is a delight in which to see a game, and to enjoy yourself between periods of the game. The Devils christened it properly with a 6-1 drubbing of the Lightning. How else to summarize except to point out that Jay Pandolfo, the hardest working defensive winger in the NHL, recorded his first career hat trick tonight? It was a fitting conclusion, especially since the goal was originally credited to Vishnevski (and I was screaming “Cousin!! Cousin!!” from deep in Section 21), and I can only imagine what a collection of Halloween headgear would have accumulated on the ice. On the other hand, it’s the Devils’ new den, so some scary helmets are most appropriate.

About the Rock:

From the huge logo on the floor of the entry tower, to the three-times larger than life Patrik Elias, the high school and college jerseys dotting the concourse to the murals and bits of Devils history, it’s clear you’re in a hockey arena, and one that was designed by, for and about the Devils. The only other rink that gives me that feeling is Princeton University’s Baker Rink, because it’s not about the merchandising of the game but rather the game (and team) itself. I’m not going to mind walking 4 blocks in the freezing cold, even if it’s raining or snowing, knowing what’s ahead. There is simply no comparison to any other NHL rink, because this one isn’t shared with any other team. You know the feeling you get when you come home for Thanksgiving? Imagine that 41 times a season.

Some of our ticket group buddies who went opening night told pre-Halloween horror stories about getting in and out of Newark due to construction, congestion and confusion. Using the Prudential Center parking maps off of the Devils web site, coupled with a little Googling, we were fine. The trick is to stay off of Route 21 and use Broad, Market and Raymond. Coming in off of I-280 East, take the 1st Street exit and avoid the entire Stickle Bridge construction mishegas.

Total time from Livingston to Green lot: 20 minutes. From lot to seats: 10 minutes, down a very well lit Mulberry Street. From lot back to Livingston: 25 minutes. It sometimes took that long to get out of the parking lot at Giants stadium, after waiting and standing on a bus for 10 minutes. The police were helpful, the parking lot attendants gave reasonable directions, and it was a much better travel experience than I had expected. Leaving the arena, going north on Broad Street, the police metered the traffic out of the lots, the side streets and into the 4 travel lanes on Broad to avoid backups. Cont-izod-al Arena traffic control had 25 years to work this out, and failed.

The only negative of the night (besides Oduya, but I’m foreshadowing): check out Section 118. I took that picture near the end of the first period, and there were literally five people in the entire mid-tier section. The announced attendance stood a bit north of 13,000; the capacity is over 17,000. Sure, it was Halloween, and the Devils have yet to start truly carving out their own piece of the Rock, but I’ll bet there were scantily over 17,000 butt cheeks in seats tonight. Lou must get more local support — not just $10 student tickets, but filling up the upper and end sections at a good price. If you didn’t have fun last night, you definitely were a zombie (or Tampa Bay’s Holmqvist).

About the team:

Tonight’s game was the equivalent of a coyote (one Mad Dog) pissing all over to mark its turf. The Rock has seen its first win, first hat trick, and first game by a blueliner taller than half of the Nets backcourt. I think Martin St. Louis had trouble seeing over Malmivaara’s jockstrap. We were eager to remind him of this, repeating a line from the opening sequence of “Slap Shot” perhaps a few too many times. I’m only sorry I didn’t get to hear Chico on the broadcast having a party with Olli’s pronounciation. But give the big guy his props: He may skate like Zdeno Chara, but he plays “D” like the big Bear as well, and was +2 on the night. Despite crashing into Marty while swinging the puck behind the net, he had a good opening night.

Oduya needs to work harder and just simplify his game. Standing and swinging his stick while Richards controlled the puck on the power play was the genesis of the Tampa goal: play the puck, play the body, or take away the passing lane. Can’t do all three, or try to do them, or change your mind part way through: you give up control and Richards feeds LeCavaLier (I’m going to mess up the capitalization of his name just to piss him off, Johnny Most style).

Vishnevski played well. Used the body, controlled the puck, and uncorked a bullet from the point. Even if we’re not related, he’s cool. Overall, the defense seemed to have a much better sense of where to be, and where to be going, especially in getting the puck out of the defensive zone.

Most improved award: Zubrus. He controlled the puck with his size, since he has little speed. Instead of getting caught behind the net and turning the puck over, he bulled through, finding Madden for a nice goal which Zubrus essentially manufactured out of hard work and tenacity.

On top of everything else, Brodeur looked very good — solid glove work, rolling over to block the upper part of the net when down on the ice, great lateral movement.

Supposedly the Devils ran head to head sprints in practice. Here’s my take on how the bottom of the order worked out:
1. Malmivaara. Number of letters in his jersey and overall wind resistance slow him down.
2. Brookbank. Slow but thoughtful. If he was in your English class you’d love when the teacher called on him, because he’d spend the rest of the period saying something surface-level deep, but articulated so slowly the bell rang before you realized he hadn’t read the book either.
3. Me, going at full speed with no possibility of stopping, after a good 8 or 9 stroke acceleration. And I’m the one the Friday night gang nicknamed “Slow White.”
4. The Oreo mascot, who sometimes gets to play in the “all mascot” halftime game at Princeton University basketball games. Unfortunately, he has no mascot arms, limiting his ability to play offense or balance on skates.
5. Zubrus. He’s that slow, but if he’s going to play positional hockey, use his size and his head, he can plod to his heart’s content, and I’ll even give him my spot in the speed rankings. He earned it.

Winner, eleven — that is, on the eleventh goal of last night’s Devils-Thrashers game (11 goals? In a Devils game?? Hello, Coach Sutter!). I was hoarse from yelling at the television and radio broadcasts but all’s well that ends well. In this case, there was ample material for holler-backs.

The Good: Elias gets his first goal, and nets two goals and a very pretty assist on Zajac’s tying goal. The Devils didn’t give up when they were down two goals, and after squandering single-goal leads. Strong, solid forecheck, including the last power play of the game which may have been the best I’ve seen in three seasons. The days of long-range bombing from the point, typically resulting in a blocked shot, a riccochet to start a short-handed attempt, or the puck clearing the attack zone, are over and done. Precise passing and shooting through open lanes. Tying all of the good together: Elias fires from the top of the slot, rebound comes to the right where he scoops it, fires back to Martin, who re-feeds Patrik for the game-winning goal. Puck control, skating hard to make time and space, and shooting through lanes rather than into shinpads.

The Interesting and Good: John Madden has re-emerged as a goal scorer. Not that he had ever lost the touch, but I think in previous seasons he was forced into a role of sheep-dogging the opponent’s top-line, over-watched center-pieces to the point where he was playing defense instead of pivot, with or with-out overt over-hyphenation for emphasis. I think my son puts it best: “Maddog is a hard worker.” When teenagers recognize work, you know it’s valuable and valued. When you go from two scoring lines to three, it’s a big deal for your opponents. Half of the Devils goals last night came from the Madden-Pandolfo combination.

The Bad: I always follow games through live caps at 2 Man Advantage because their photo editing captures the mood so perfectly. It’s like enjoying one of the old Monkees TV shows with the cutaway jokes to make a visual pun. Last night they challenged Brodeur to stop a beachball (but stopped short of suggesting he couldn’t make do with a pitchfork, both a Devilishly good utensil and the best for spearing wayward plastic). I’m not so sure it was Brodeur, more of the weak defense on the weak side (again) and a complete lack of attention to the wings on the weak side. A possible breaking point in the game came when Kovalchuk was left unmolested on the left side, with Dave Clarkson just behind the play. When the “D” is back, cutting down the shooting lanes, the wings have to fill in and take away the passing lanes. Nobody got between Kovalchuk and the puck from the cross-zone pass to the one-time that eluded Marty. Partly a rookie mistake, partly bad defense. If the Devils are going to play a more aggressive offensive game, then the natural by-product is that they’re going to have more goals scored against them — this goes both ways. But I’d much rather see the Devils win 6-5 than lose 2-1. Any day.

The Ugly: Bobby Holik. How his crease-crashing that resulted in Brodeur looking up at the Thrasher’s third goal was not a penalty escapes me. Why give the captain-C to a player with the loyalty of a cat and the leadership qualities of a high school locker room bully? To top it off, our brilliant TV commentators relayed a story that Elias and Holik had spoken when Holik was given the “C”, just as Patrik had his revoked, randomness rooted in their Czech heritage. Maybe if Elias races across the Hudson to pimp his contract, there will be some kind of similarity here, but then we’d have to talk about Gomez.

So we will: Elias has 4 points (2 G, 2A) and Gomez has half of that, only thanks to a miserable assist late in last night’s Senatorial smackdown. If Gomer was on his way to 63 helpers, he should have quadrupled his output. Personally, I think the relative economics lesson here is that there’s half a Gome$$ separating the two. Double oof.

The game’s not over yet, but it looks like the Devils will end up tied for the worst record in the NHL after tonight’s fiasco in Florida. There are probably a dozen little things wrong, but in the overall scheme of “new Devils hockey,” there are three obvious abominations:

Defensive positioning. Guys standing around, or leaving the weak side of the net wide open. Four white shirts down low, and nobody on the point. Even our squirts know how to start a breakout, and there’s nothing to start if your wings are down low. Hel-low?

Offense. Not just lack of goals, but lack of attempts to score goals. Shoot the puck. We adore Patrik Elias with religious fervor, but he needs to fire the puck at the net. Earn that “C” back, Patty. Which leads to the clincher….

Leadership. Gionta taking multiple minors, including a dumb one for delay of game (on a backhand pass over the glass), six straight minors, random efforts all indicate that someone other than Sutter needs to step up and straighten out the helmets. Establishing leadership means taking some risks, being creative, and what Mark Cuban calls “doing the work.” Even if the refs aren’t.

It’s a rare combination of dumb and dangerous to predict the entire season based on four games, but 1/20th of the way through the season the Devils have a pair of points. That puts them on pace to match Philadelphia. Last season.

I’ve spent the past two weeks messing around on Facebook, checking out a variety of groups, starting some of my own, and trying to see just how hard it is to create an online community. Join me in Youth Hockey Managers or New Jersey Devils bloggers or even the appropriately named but quiescent Church of Patrik Elias (hey, the hockey book in flight has a chapter entitled “The Hagiography of Patrik Elias” so I felt this was a good omen).

What’s the big deal? Lots of them. I’ve learned that the more friends you have, the more effective you are in mobilizing a community. I’ve found that my various circles of associates (work, hockey, local, writing) are nearly disjoint, and that makes it even harder to stimulate some sort of group activity without polling or prodding individuals. Mostly, though, I’ve ingested some of the long tail of user generated content, gotten a feel for the demographics of the online place (seems like more than half of the users are less than half of my age), and discovered a few surprises (like my company’s CEO, a writer friend, and a former Princeton professor who coined the phrase “Hero of the Revolution” to describe anyone who ran against the grain, before he became the grain in the Princeton administration).

It’s worth a look, even if it’s just to join the Cam Janssen Fan Club.

Patrik Elias is suing his former agent to the tune of $2 million. This got very little local coverage, aside from this clip in the New York Post. Normally, agent-player disputes aren’t newsworthy, but in this case my eyebrows went up.

Point 1: Elias was underpaid for his first few seasons with the big club. Putting a large percentage of that money into something as illiquid as life insurance is dumb.

Point 2: $25 million (some report $30M) in life insurance? Elias wasn’t married at the time, had no real dependents, and most likely very few liabilities. Certainly nothing that would demand the equivalent of about 8 years’ of salary. Life insurance is sold to generate premiums for the selling agents. Pure and simple. Those premiums of $2.5M would generate some very large paychecks. Especially in the early years; there’s a reason the life insurance salesmen go to “President’s Clubs” in Hawaii and Tahiti while their customers rationalize vacations at the Holiday Inn of Edison, NJ as a fair exchange for peace of mind. Another case of the customers’ yachts.

Point 3: The Merrill Lynch Rule is dead of as May 15th, 2007, having been struck down by a US Court. More formally known as a provision in the 1940 Investment Advisors Act that exempted broker-dealers (who charge commissions for sales of products) from the higher fiduciary standards enforced for registered investment advisors who charge only fees for their advice and counsel, the Merrill Lynch Rule let financial agents get away with conflict of interest. In short, it used to be that if you charged a fee and earned a commission, you got preferential treatment when it came to suitability, appropriateness and the trustworthiness of your advice. “Preferential” meant that you didn’t really have to care about the customer’s interests as long as you sold the product while you had an “investment relationship” (as evidenced by the fee-based wrap account) with the customer, even if there was a conflict of interest. I hope Elias has a really good lawyer on his side.

Point 4: Agents should work for the players interests. Check out some of the other trails left by these guys, including advising Yashin to hold out against the Islanders, and you have to wonder if the Merrill Lynch rule can’t be very broadly applied here.

It’s a shame that Elias gets mired in something like this, especially after a rough playoff patch when he couldn’t find the net. But perhaps this also sends a message to other agents that part of the reason that beer and Hamilton are so closely related in sports venues is due to their self-interests. Fans don’t want large contracts; fans want loyalty, want to see their favorite players stay in one place longer than a single contract term, and want to see their kids have fun without paying through the nose.

It’s time for Devils fans to put on the foil. If you’re a Slapshot fan you get the reference, otherwise put some foil on your knuckles, pull your favorite comfy chair in front of the big screen, and start hollering for the good guys in red and black to score some goals.

Hard to believe it’s been three weeks since I’ve written. In that time the Devils gave us hope, with a nice dismissal of Tampa Bay, some solid defense and a whopper of a Gomer-goal. Then they watched it slip away due to shoddy defense, strange bounces and a general lack of attack.

Here’s what I think.

I think Gomez proves he wants to stay in NJ. He’s playing hard, coming up with big shots (and sometimes even a goal) when it counts, and if he could keep from turning the puck over, the Devils would have a chance. I hope Lou remembers this, win or lose, in July.

I think Rafalski is pricing homes in Edmonton. Turnovers? Lack of pressure? He looks like he’s mailing it in half of the time. Not to put all of the blame on Rafalski, as White looks just as sleepy, and Lukowitch is responsible for more bad icing than a Shop Rite bakery’s remaindered goods department. Hello, defense? Hit somebody. Move the puck. CLear the low slot. Stay at home, and make it count. As the Under Armour ads say, “Protect this house.” Or else Saturday will be the last hockey game that house sees.

I think Jamie Langenbrunner might be the next Claude Lemieux. I hope he gets the angry veins popping out of his neck, there goes the quiet Minnesota boy kind of fire in his butt that he can convey to the rest of the team. He’s John Belushi in Animal House crossed with the weird Jimmy kid who made the killer shots in Hoosiers.

I think Patrik Elias needs to show why he’s wearing the “C”. C’mon, Patty, one goal in nine games? Assists are good, but after eight — yes, eight — shots in Game 4, there wasn’t a single goal to show for it. Don’t be so fancy, just fire the puck at the net. As we tell our teenage baseball pitchers, don’t aim, just fire it in there.

In a possible bad combination of superstition, karma, and swag, I’ll be on a plane to Japan while the game is in progress, and won’t know if the season continues until the wee hours of Sunday morning. But I’ll have on the lucky t-shirt at 35,000 feet while the Bubba will be there to cheer in person. Maybe I’ll even put on the foil, if I can convince the Japan Air Lines flight attendants that it’s not a weird American thing. Well, it is, but it’s what I think that counts.

Friday the 13th is lucky for hockey heads in New Jersey. It’s Patrik Elias’ birthday (and at age 31, that’s 13 backwards), and it’s Bubba’s 13th birthday. That’s Bubba, holding up a sign we made for last night’s Devils game. Rough translation: “All the best for your birthday tomorrow”. Seems to have worked twice, with Elias notching a goal and an assist (and probably tipping in Rafalski’s shot, even though Dr. Murray didn’t see the change in flight path). The funniest part of the sign making and waving was the reaction of the guy standing behind Bubba in the picture. He asked us if we spoke Czech, thinking he’d found a lonsman in the Meadowlands. No such luck, but he agreed that our birthday wishes were a sign of good things to come.

Not the prissy ballet movie.

“Turning point” as in I can see into spring hockey from here. The Star-Ledger today proclaims that the Devils win also thrusts them into crisis, with Lukowich suffering from a possible concussion, White nursing a hand injury suffered during pre-game and Gionta still limping around with a groin pull.

Last night’s game against the Penguins gave me hope that the Devils can make a deep run into the playoffs, because when it came down to stopping some of the most difficult players in the shootout, Brodeur was anti-hat-trick perfect: 0-for-3. Going the other way, Elias potted his second shootout goal of the year (in 10 tries) by showing that he’s truly a student of the game. He went so wide as to force Fleury to the side of the net, and then as Elias skated across the crease Fleury had to shuffle-step to maintain his square position. Elias smoked him, 5-hole, in between steps. It’s one of those spectacular Elias moves we see every now and then (remember the puck kick off the skate heel during last year’s Rangers playoff sweep?)

But there are oh so many questions as well.

Does Scott Gomez want to go hunting for a new team next year? Don’t get me wrong, I love Scott Gomez, I’ve played golf with Scott Gomez, I have a jersey autographed by Scott Gomez, an I’m not Scott Gomez, but even I can smell a brain fart from Pittsburhg. A bad turnover on the power play led to the Pens’ short-handed goal and his ugly semi-pass, semi-flop put the puck onto Malkin’s stick to start the game-tying play. Not smart hockey from a guy who is usually pretty heads up.

With White and Lukowich in the press box, the Devils need another defenseman. Too bad David Hale is in Calgary. Maybe Matvichuk can be signed, at only a slight premium over Lukowich’s salary, or perhaps it’s time to bring Dan McGillis back from Lowell. Before you chuckle, consider that McGillis is the 2nd leading scorer for the Lowell Devils, he’s +11 and he has nine power play goals. Why not re-integrate him into the club as one of the points on the power play, particularly if ESPN.com is right about Rafalski being pursued by Edmontom in the off season? Wonder how McGillis made the transition from non-player to play-maker? He got simple. Doing the basic things, staying at home and playing defense. Kurt Kleinendorst (Lowell’s head coach) is a master of making things simple, which, as Charles Mingus once pointed out, is the mark of true genius.

Barring the M&M team arriving in the swamp, how about bringing Olli Marmivaara up (technically, down from Lowell, but we’re talking leagues and not compass points)? He’s just plain huge, at 6-7, he’s a tough 27 year old, and he’s played nearly every game for Lowell this year. A workhorse. A big workhorse. And think how much Doc and Chico could have butchering his name every third shift.

Finally, the NHL made a big deal out of suspending Chris Simon indefinitely for his clothesline hit on Ryan Hollweg. Fair echoes of Bertuzzi’s hit on Steve Moore lead to more repercussions. However, it seems like punishments are meted out somewhat randomly. Cam Janssen got a 3-game suspension when no penalty was called on his flattening of the Leafs’ Kaberle, but when Lukowich clearly takes an elbow to the head during last night’s game, not only is there no call but there’s no follow-up from the league.

Fifteen games to go, 30 points on the line, a bunched up pack of teams near the top of the Eastern Conference. The turning point puts us in the season’s homestretch.

The annual “100 People of Power and Influence” fills the current double-wide issue of The Hockey News, as it does to start every new calendar season. Once again, it reads like an alumni listing of the Old Boys’ School; while last year the list was 99 men and one woman, this year THN added Hayley Wickenheiser at slot 95 to make it 98 Men Of Power and Influence and oh yeah, two women too. If this list is supposed to be about influence on hockey, in hockey, and through hockey, then it had better reflect the demographics of the sport and the fan base. Rows of GMs, mainstream media broadcasters, league executives and some NHL players is a microcosm of what is wrong with the NHL Nation today: it’s not expanding.

Women’s hockey remains missing in (fun) action. I had a lot more fun watching the USA women play in Torino than the men. Women’s hockey is alive and well around the world, but you’d never know it from the Hockey News list. It’s supposed to be about “hockey” not “men’s professional hockey”, right? Angela Ruggiero is a glaring omission. Olympic athlete, youth athletics advocate, community service leader for the NY Islanders, and autobiographical author. Influence grows communities. Second on the missing list is Laura Halldorson, women’s ice hockey coach at the University of Minnesota. Her bid for a hat trick of national championships was spoiled by Wisconson, coached by Miracle on Ice alum Mark Johnson. Halldorson was instrumental in the growth of ECAC women’s hockey and Laura’s work helped ensure that the efforts of the top college women’s player would be recognized in the Patty Kazmeier award, named after her late Tiger teammate.

College hockey is not represented. Not every NHL player gets drafted right out of high school or juniors. For many hockey players, NCAA-sanctioned hockey is the top of their career, and they’ll go on to play ECHL or European hockey for a year or two before putting the college degree to work. Those players remain fans of the game, and if THN’s list is supposed to be about power and influence in the game, it has to include the programs that can build life-long fans. Boston Bruins tickets pale in comparison to Bean Pot ducats in the city that knows more than beans about hockey.

Hockey may be for everyone, unless you’re on the list. Jarome Iginla is “the face of hockey in Canada”, and he’s the sole minority on the list. The NHL has a variety of diversity programs, again intended to expand the reach, scope and fan base for the game, but none of that work shows up in this list. How about Ice Hockey in Harlem, or the Newark Devils Renaissance effort underway to make hockey accessible in and around the Devils’ new building? Broadcasters on the west coast are making a big deal of Georges Laraque’s transformation from enforcer to play-maker — isn’t that what the new rules were supposed to highlight? This year’s list isn’t only a huge majority of white men, it’s North American white men. Europeans? Russians and Baltic states? Diversity comes in many flavors, and it generally drives expansion of your talent arena, fan base, and power pool.

Where are the fans?. Maybe I’m just having trouble with the preponderance of mainstream media on the 2007 list. But with the number of message boards and blogs that focus on hockey, sometimes exclusively on hockey, why not at least acknowledge the fans and their direct participation in the marketing of the sport? The NHL’s “invitation only” blog effort is a start, but it’s league-centric; check out Hockey’s Future boards for a taste of unedited hockey wisdom or Off Wing Opinion and its daily dose of random non-press clippings from the mouths of the lowly fan (that would be us bloggers). Please, acknowledge that the game needs fans, and in particular fans in seats, for the “new economic certainties” to be long-term positive for the players, the league and ultimately, those same fans.

It wouldn’t be a new year if I didn’t make some predictions for next year’s list, so here goes:

Mark Cuban. I’d love to see him get involved with the Penguins. And he’d help fix a lot of the fan outreach issues.

Patrik Elias. I was happy to see Marty Brodeur on this year’s list, but he’s rostered because of his work on the competition committee and his Olympic efforts. His book was a good read, and Marty truly understands using the players to market the game. Elias demonstrated many of the things that the league wanted out of the new labor agreement: he took a hometown discount in his unrestricted free agency year, he signed a deal with a no-trade clause, he’s wearing the captain’s “C” on his sweater a year after nearly dying from a hepatitis infection, and he remains a genuinely good guy playing good hockey and leading the first-place NJ Devils into the second half of the season. If the Devils have a good second half and second season, then Elias deserves some props.

Linda Cohn. Am I the only one who read’s Linda’s missives on the ESPN NHL pages?. She’s a dyed-in-the-blue hockey fan, former hockey player, great commentator, fan agitator, and story aggregator. At the risk of sounding like the bridge of Genesis’ “Dodo”, she definitely has power and influence. Or does The Hockey News ignore all other media (see point about blogs above)?

There was a short blurb in ESPN: The Magazine about Colorado’s Paul Stastny switching numbers so that he can don his dad’s digits: 26. Got me thinking…..Elias wears number 26, previously sported by Peter Stastny during his time with the Devils. I’ve wondered why Elias chose 26, especially when he wore 25 and 22 in Albany (although they were taken by Jason Arnott and Claude Lemeiux at various times). A potential but unlikely explanation is that 22, 25 and 13 (his birthday) were unavailable (no Devil has ever worn #13, which seems weird given that the team’s crest invites all kinds of evil juju anyway, adding triskaidekaphobia to the mix might actually be a double negative kind of thing) so he doubled 13 and got 26. More likely is that Elias joined the big club shortly after Peter Stastny departed, and he took the logical Czech digits.

I’m always fascinated as to why players choose the numbers they do. Mogilny was 89 to honor the year of his defection and escape from Russia. Jagr’s 68 is a tribute the independence of Czechoslovakia, precursor to the Czech Republic. Crosby wears his birth year (87). Gretzky did an alliterative stint on Mr. Hockey and got 99. It’s not often that there’s a story behind the numbers, but the stories tend to add to the richness of the fan experience.