BY HOWARD BERGER
The Fan-590 Radio, Toronto
WHAT A DIFFERENCE a year makes! We have now been once through the
calendar since the National Hockey League shut down for business, and
later took the unprecedented step of canceling an entire season because
of labor strife. It was on September 15th of last year that
commissioner Gary Bettman made the initial announcement at the Westin
Times Square hotel in New York, and just more than five months later
(February 16th) � at the same cursed location � that he pulled the plug
for good. Though Bettman is claiming that hockey fans throughout the
league are clamoring for the puck to drop once again, we will soon
begin finding out for ourselves exactly what effect the lost season had
on the NHL.
We already know, with crystal clarity, what effect it had on the
Players Association, which got slaughtered in the ugly skirmish.
Choosing not to negotiate during the course of the previous CBA;
gambling that the owners would weaken; losing an entire season's worth
of salary; getting stuck with the 24 percent rollback it presented as a
solution, and then having a salary cap shoved down its collective
throat, is the biggest aggregate calamity that has ever befallen a
professional sports union � and that includes the NFL. In fact, it has
to rank as one of the most imprudent and destructive courses of action
in management/labor history. And it's no wonder that the P.A. has been
fissuring at the seams in recent days, attempting to hold itself
together in the throes of such a humiliating defeat.
Unlike the owners, however, we can safely predict that the players will
recover. Many, in fact, already have. There was a clear air of
resignation towards the end of the lockout, as the result became
inevitable. Knowing they would never recoup their lost wages, the vast
majority of NHLers seemed determined to look ahead, realize how
fortunate they are to be making superb money in the world's best hockey
league, and move on. There is certainly no sense of gloom or defeat
among players on the Toronto Maple Leafs. Of that, I can assure you.
Though Tie Domi and Bryan McCabe expressed consternation over the Ted
Saskin debacle, the lockout has been all but forgotten in the Leafs'
dressing room.
What remains entirely unresolved is the degree to which the league will
recover from its self-inflicted wound. Though the owners clearly won
the battle, the war rages on, and nobody is sure how many casualties
lay ahead. As such, the NHL governors have wisely refrained from any
public expressions of victory. Despite Bettman's typically cheerful
forecast, we do not know how many of the league's 30 markets will
bounce back. And, if a number of them only bounce back to their
pre-lockout levels, nothing will have been gained.
Still to be determined is how the sporting public will react in the
non-traditional hockey markets, which comprise roughly half the league.
There are two ominous possibilities: a) the relatively small core of
loyal fans will express its anger by refusing to buy tickets, as
baseball followers did for several years after the ridiculous
cancellation of the 1994 post-season. Or, b) an unprecedented wave of
post-lockout indifference will prevail. Either poison could be life
threatening. What the NHL is surely hoping for is that hockey fans will
have missed their fix last season, and will eagerly return in even
greater numbers, buoyed by the promise of increased entertainment value
through the new rules agenda.
Every situation � good or bad � remains a possibility.
THE NHL DID MAKE A VEILED promise to be more "media friendly" once it
returned from exile. But, those of us who regularly cover the Maple
Leafs could barely suppress a snicker. And, predictably, the Leafs have
expended more energy on media paranoia in the first three days of
training camp, than on anything directly related to the team. This
reaction extends from general manager John Ferguson, who seems intent
on operating a boot camp. As with Lou Lamoriello in New Jersey, every
minute aspect of the organization falls within Ferguson's grasp. The
difference of 20 years experience and three Stanley Cup championships
seems not to matter.
During the first day of training camp workouts, on Tuesday, Ferguson
nervously and repeatedly huddled with his media relations personnel to
issue instructions on how to "handle" reporters. And, he did so in full
view of the media throng. Initially, we were roped off like prisoners,
behind a ribbon-barrier directly beside the players' path to the
dressing room, until it was conceded there was not nearly enough space
to accommodate the posse of television cameras. Or, perhaps,
sufficient-enough room for the players to pass by. A sensible
compromise was struck, and reporters were "released" to an area of the
Ricoh Coliseum passageway that encircles the entire rink, seven or
eight rows up from the boards. A player entering or exiting the ice
would have to purposely deviate 10 to 15 feet from his normal route to
find himself entangled with the media.
This logic, however, did not impress upon Ferguson, who immediately
held his third "summit" of the day. Reporters were ordered up into the
stands until a solution could be reached. All of this, by the way,
while the first training camp sessions were taking place down below.
Ultimately, a brain-wave prevailed. The dressing room doors were swung
open to the media folk, who went about their business in a thoroughly
professional atmosphere.
Even more of a head-shaker for reporters is Ferguson's insistence that
we not venture within shouting distance of his hockey staff. In any
other training camp, the few media members who so desired would quietly
amble up alongside a scout to procure opinion on a prospect. Casual
conversation would ensue � usually among people quite familiar with one
another � and no threat would be posed by either party. Not with
Ferguson. His throng of scouts, coaches and AHL personnel must be
separated from media members by at least one full section of seats.
Lest the "secret" to the club's uninterrupted string of championships
be divulged. This paranoia reached absurd levels on Wednesday, when a
line of "police tape" was fastened to the aisle seats in the arena's
upper section, from the bottom row to the top. A sinister-looking
female guard was placed in the aisle way, and signs that read "HOCKEY
STAFF ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT" were posted every few feet.
Ahhh yes... the new "media friendly" NHL.
As an aside, this is no reflection at all on the Leafs' diligent press
agents � Pat Park and James Lamont � who have bent over backwards thus
far in camp to accommodate us, and counteract the neurosis above them.
HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOMS in Toronto were on full alert Tuesday, after
it was learned that veteran Jason Allison had skipped the Leafs'
initial training camp scrimmage. Hyperventilating Leaf fans were seen
walking aimlessly along city streets � the full scope of the disaster
barely registering. Relief efforts in New Orleans were deleted from
news reports city wide, as details of the Allison catastrophe filtered
in. Only when it emerged that the centerman was routinely resting a
minor hip-flexor ailment did calm begin to prevail.
Another cataclysm resulted from a solid bodycheck on Eric Lindros in
the same Tuesday scrimmage � delivered by a rookie defenseman (Steffan
Kronwall ) trying to make an early impression. Never mind that Lindros
immediately bounced up and later dished out several punishing blows of
his own. It seems that every time the Big "E" bumps his head on the
kitchen cupboard this season will result in pages of newspaper sidebars
and hours of discussion on talk radio. It goes with the territory in
hockey crazed Toronto.
AS THE NHL AND ITS REFEREES continue to emphasize how the "new"
standard of officiating will be adhered to this season, both parties
should be wary of going overboard once the puck is dropped. Hockey fans
are routinely hearing predictions of three and four-hour games, as the
players adapt to the latest claims of zero tolerance in obstruction
fouls. Somehow, a delicate balance will have to be struck. The last
thing on earth that perturbed hockey fans want in the post-lockout era
is a stoppage in play for a penalty call every 15 seconds. The
NHL absolutely must make an immediate, positive impact coming off the
lost season, and boring its paying customers to tears won't accomplish
that.
Hockey's entertainment value will be more critical than ever in the new
season. Prudence and solid judgment must be applied by all parties.
E-mail yours truly at
[email protected].
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger •