Snowman On Fire

First the strong words: Forget the comparisons to Bobby Holik. Scott Gomez is the next Alex Rodriguez, in the eyes of the fans, the league, the press, sports agents and possibly youth hockey players. Tough call? Absolutely, and not one I’ll make in publicly lightly, because as a person I still think Scott Gomez is mostly a good guy. Don’t ever confuse business success with personal and brand integrity. Gomez has assured himself of business success (financially); he’s still got his personal integrity (in terms of being approachable, kid-friendly, and an outstanding spokesman for hockey diversity); but he’s taking a brand hit. That’s the A-rod comparison.

Let’s go down the list one demographic at a time:

In the summer of 2007 it’s a parade of free agents who form a veritable Clustrmap of player movement. Continuity in rosters builds a fan base; it helps drive attendance and loyalties in kids who eventually pass those on to their kids. When the players that your kids adore take off, either their loyalties go to an out of market team or their interest in the home team declines. Neither is good for the long-term health of the league. Just because the salary cap forms a nice big allowance doesn’t mean owners have to spend the whole thing; spending less on players and then building a local fan base through local broadcast television rights, local cable coverage, or even community outreach like low-cost ticket distribution will ensure the “financial certainty” that figured so prominently in the lockout settlement. Paying players to jet set between teams only ensures that at some point, owners are going to scratch their heads trying to figure out how to de-cap-itate a long-term contract with a player who is nursing a sore groin for what seems like half a season.

Final A-Rod comparison: Mike Greenberg of ESPN Radio claims that A-Rod is going to escape from New York this year, setting up “the biggest free agency” in recent history. Ask the kids who follow baseball if they care. None of them want to be A-Rod, proving that maybe the Beatles were right: Money can’t buy you love. But it can buy you a pair of centers.

Yes, I’m profoundly sad that the Devils season has ended. As many of the Devils said in the press, they had a team that could have gone far in the postseason, and now three seasons in a row have ended with the Devils going no better than 5-5. Could have is the operative phrase, but I’m equally worried about the this team suggestion that somehow this year’s roster is going to change dramatically.

If it changes for the better, I’m all for it. The Devils looked horrible on defense. Turnovers in their own end, lack of a quick break out, and an inability to clear the big guns from Tampa Bay and Ottawa out of the slot. The Devils were clearly out-coached. Not that the Ottawa top line was that much better than New Jersey’s top line, but more than 80% of Ottawa’s goals came from those three guys. Whatever the Madden line was doing to shut them down wasn’t working, and in all honestly, probably wasn’t Madden, Pandolfo and Brylin’s fault. If you keep doing the same things and expect different results, without any other context switches, it’s a sign of insanity. The same thing goes for the attack side; I could count how many shots Ottawwa blocked but it would only emphasize that the Devils attack consisted of throwing the puck toward the net and hoping for a tip-in. Everyone caught on to it after the first few games, and more crisp passing, cycling and quick shots were in order. But see above regarding turnovers.

I’m betting on changes at the blueline. I’m also betting that Lou doesn’t hold on to both of Rafalski and Gomez, and my public opinion is that if that’s the case, Gomez should stay. He had a great playoffs and he scored when needed. There’s chemistry on the EGG line (when healthy) that could promote them into the ranks of Heatley-Alfredsson or Lecavalier-St. Louis in terms of consistent offensive threats. With Brylin on the fourth line for the last game, it’s clear that his stock is falling, so the Devils are short of quality centers. And finally, if Gomez crosses the Hudson to wear a blue shirt, he will be the subject of more fan derision than Bobby Holik. It’s not always about money.

Anybody know a good head coach?

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.

Hockey players continue to come up big against autism. April is Autism Awareness Month, in addition to being the start of the NHL playoffs. After last night’s 3-assist playmaker performance, for which he got zero props from the local media (making him the zero-th star of the game?), Scott Gomez showed up in the post game show with an autism awareness hat:

Closer to home, Assist From Bubba is nearing the closing date for this year’s effort, having raised over $2,700 this year. And Bubba himself is going to be on Nick News on April 29th, 8:30 pm (in all US time zones), in a piece on special needs hockey programs.

Gomer’s punch line comes across much funnier than he probably meant it to be, and his heart is (as always) in the right place. He’s definitely the star of the game for promoting diversity and autism awareness, the best assist of the night.

Scott Gomez is a good guy.

This is basically public knowledge, as he’s been the community face for NHL’s hockey diversity efforts for years. He’s never quiet about inviting his family in the LA area to games when the Devils travel to SoCal, and he uses his own father as an agent.

I have more first-hand knowledge of Gomer-goodness, having played one round of golf with him during an NHL charity event in 2003. He doesn’t have the most beautiful form in the game, but he muscles the ball like a champion. He laughs at his shots and yours. He didn’t mind that he probably should have worn a helmet with me in his foursome.

Friday afternoon, my son and some of his friends were wolfing down cheeseburgers at a local diner-like restaurant — nothing high-end, nothing fancy, just large plates of good food. One of the younger brothers pointed to a table in the corner, where Scott Gomez was seated. Gomer came by, talked to the boys, signed autographs, and was a big kid for a few minutes. Note to Lou: this is how you build a fan base for the future. All four of those boys will remember the Gomez signing long after whatever Gomez signing happens this summer.

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.

I ended up with a free half hour yesterday, thanks to an unusually quick doctor’s appointment. Seizing upon the good fortune, and the proximity to South Mountain Arena, I popped into the last half hour of the Devils practice. Watched the first power play unit work out a bit, and saw lots of practice on play below the hash. Heard some shouts when shots missed wide, and it’s a good sign when it’s someone other than the coaches doing the yelping. As the players were leaving the ice, Elias fired two buckets worth of pucks into the net, one-timing a store’s inventory of rubber with perfect consistency. It was a thing of beauty to watch.

Practice makes perfect. We say it to our kids repeatedly, and we mean it. With tonight’s game against Montreal tied 1-1 deep into overtime, the Devils had a face off in the attack zone. Gomez won the draw, to Rafalski, to Elias, who just exercised the muscle memory from yesterday. A thing of beauty to watch, especially with a lonely snowman — all of 8 seconds — left on the OT clock.

Elias has 5 points in 3 games in a 6-day span. Zajac is playing Calder-quality hockey, but the rookie to watch is Johnny Oduya. Quick hands, quick feet, and a great view of the ice. It’s remarkably hard to find out anything about him, other than he was drafted by the Capitals in 2001, and never signed a contract, playing in his native Sweden instead. hockeydb.com shows only two players with that surname, one of whom happens to be his brother, Fred “Knuckles” Oduya. So if he says his brother used to fight with him, there’s some circumstantial evidence to that effect. Aside from showing up with 3 assists and a handful of penalties in online reports, he’s hard to find via search engine (the brotherly love reference was 3 pages Google-deep).

Here’s the tip-off to why he’s a winner — I asked him for an autograph as he was leaving the ice (which he gladly provided), and he gave me a look like (a) he was surprised I knew his name (b) he was surprised someone wanted his autograph and (c) that it was pretty cool. Thanks, Johnny, it was pretty cool of you, attitude and style wise.

We got bumped last night. More specifically, our youth Devils hockey game was bumped 30 minutes later by the NHL Devils, who wanted a sheet of ice this morning. Such is life when you share your home rink with a professional team; they get dibs, next up, quarter on the machine, and any other euphemism for cutting in line. I’d like to brag that Lou Lamoriello called me to relay the schedule change, but life is much more mundane: The big Devils called the rink, the rink called our club, the club called me, and I called our team and our opponents.

The Devils played last night, beating Ottawa in the second 3-2 game of the week, and then departed for Toronto. Why-o-why with YYZ in the plans did they need ice this morning? Rehab time. Numbers 23 and 24, Gomez and Matvichuk, doing skating and shooting drills to work the parts of their bodies recently repaired or re-injured. Gomer was smiling more than wincing, which I take to be a good sign for his recovery. With only a one-year deal in his pocket, it’s critical for Gomez to get healthy, play healthy, and make a contribution or his market (and trade) value drop quickly.

And “Want to see my groin injury?” is a terrible conversation starter.

Hockey is a simple game. Sticks made from trees, skates handed down to you from older family members, pucks that have seen happier days, ice where you can get it. At least that’s the Norman Rockwell-meets-Canada version of simple. Even with $200 Warrior sticks, custom-molded skates, pucks that are carefully chilled by our team’s puck carrier, it’s still a simple game. Skate hard, shoot hard, pass to your teammates, play your position.

The mental game is hard. In an hour, we face a tough league opponent in our Pee Wee division. “We” is not me, personally, as I’ll be running the clock and scoresheet and cheering quietly, mumbling within the bounds of being an off-ice official for the game. But “we” is our team, today somewhat smaller in numbers due to soccer tournaments, concussions, knee injuries, and religious events. A quarter of our team is not playing today, and you can’t ask 12 year olds to step up a quarter more than they have. It will be a mental game, of who wants to be the fastest, strongest, and smartest hockey player.

I could say the same things about the NHL Devils. There are games when they look brilliant, and games when they look like a quarter of the team didn’t make the game. It’s not just the defense — they’ve scored all of five goals in three games. It’s not lack of intensity, as Cam Jansen has redefined “knucklehead” with his knuckles on someone else’s helmet. It’s not bad penalties, because they’ve been playing cleanly. Here’s what it is: a limp power play. Lack of drive to the net, or guys setting screens in front. Too many shots from the point that have no prayer of deflection, because either there’s nobody there to deflect them or they’re shot into a maze of shin guards.

Tonight the Devils skate down one more: Gomez is home with a re-aggravated groin injury. Sorry to see him off the ice but happier to see him treating this before it turns chronic. For the other tail-n-horns guys up in Montreal, skate one more: one more step, one more drive to net, one more pass to the open guy (if he’s open), one more check along the boards. Everything starts with one more, whether it’s shots or goals or power plays or nice saves. And that starts with the mental game, going one more than the physical game.

Lou Lamoriello has his hands full. He needs a coach that the players will respect and to whom they’ll respond. He needs to sign a line or two of free agents, and shore up the blue line with more speed and less size. What’s a GM to do first?

Here’s my guess: build a base, then sign Elias. Prediction: we see Scott Gomez with a deal done soon, maybe by the end of the month. How do I know? A trick taught to me by a former McKinsey consultant: look at the cars in the parking lot. Speculate about a deal, people in town, or who’s at work in a particular building by checking out the rides. There were cars at South Mountain this week, parked in the players’ lot. That’s someone on the path to a permanent exit or an extended stay in New Jersey. While trying to survey the situation and not overshoot Dunkin’ Donuts, I can’t lay claim to specific information, but I’d lay even money that I spotted the Gomez-mobile (yes, I do know what it is, and yes, it is unique among the players).

If I’m right, it would be a good deal.