2009 NHL Free Agency

The Stars have re-signed Jere Lehtinen to a one year deal worth 1.5 million, with an additional million in possible incentives. The cap is 2.5 million.

Hockeybuzz.com has the Stars cap hit at $45.2, but their actual dollars committed to next season is only $41.5 million. With 11 million in cap space, ordinarily we’d expect to see some big, big things today…or at least something. But no dice. According Mike Heika, the Stars internal budget is something closer to 45 million (or even less). Tom Hicks can’t afford to pay any more, apparently. His problems with the Rangers and Liverpool is limiting the Stars bid for a Stanley Cup. Something that has the locals rather restless.

To compound matters, Jonas Gustavsson is holding the Leafs and Stars goaltending situation hostage, refusing to make a decision before Free Agency as he previously said he would.

So while the Stars wait, goalies Craig Anderson, Ty Conklin and Scott Clemmensen are all signed or otherwise very nearly signed this afternoon. The goalie pool is shrinking and the Stars will get whatever is leftover after Gustavsson likely chooses Toronto.

Meanwhile the defensemen are dwindling as well, though I have yet to see a Zubov rumor today.

So where are we? We re-signed Lehtinen. Ok. We have a real nice group of forwards. Mr. Nieuwendyk’s job over the course of the next several weeks is to figure out the defense situation, the backup goaltender, and the combination to Hicks’ safe. Because we need some money.

Anyone want to buy the Texas Rangers? Stars fans will thank you.

Stars throw curveball, draft Scott Glennie

Scott Glennie of the WHL’s Wheat Kings is the newest Dallas Stars. With Magnus Paajarvi Svensson and Dmitri Kulikov still on the board, few expected the Stars to select the young right wing. The TSN crew was sure the Stars would go defense, no doubt remembering their history, but the Stars went for a playmaker and made a bold strike.

Glennie had 70 points in 55 games with the Wheat Kings last year.

Read about Glennie:

http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2009/jun/26/dallas-stars-select-scott-glennie-8th-pick-nhl-dra/

http://www.mynhldraft.com/2009/NHL-Draft-Profiles/Scott-Glennie

By all accounts he’s a skilled playmaker, a hard worker, and most importantly…fast. Speed is a big plus with me and I welcome it with open arms.

The knocks on him are strength, and the defensive end. Even with Marc Crawford at the helm, I truly hope that defensive responsibility will continue to be a hard requirement to get on the ice as a Dallas Star, as it always has been.

A lot of fans evidently don’t like the pick, judging from the initial reaction. Just wait and see. It’s a draft full of 18 year olds. The vast majority of them are petty far away from “can’t miss”, even in the top 10. I would have liked to have seen them take Kulikov, but Kulikov went to the Panthers at fourteen! (They lose Bouwmeester and gain Kulikov, maybe that will ease the pain in South Florida)

No Americans taken in the top 10 since 1993.

How about that Pronger trade? I don’t think a penalty prone, crying, aging defenseman is worth all of that. Good for Anaheim there.

The Stars have 5 additional picks tomorrow.

The 10th anniversary of greatness

10 years ago today the Stars reached the pinnacle of their existence. Their existence so far, anyway. 10 years ago tonight (technically the wee hours of tomorrow) Eddie Belfour showed us what it felt like to be completely overcome by joy. The stuffy old Canadian media had to write about a Stanley Cup Champion from Dallas, freaking Texas. Glorious.

And the city of Buffalo…well, I feel for you, Buffalo.

I actually didn’t see the game. Not much of it anyway. I had to work that night despite my best efforts to get out of it. 10 years ago I had just completed my junior year of high school and was working in fast food. I had a radio up there and listened to as much of the game as I could. Playoff overtime hockey is even more terrifying on the radio. I had to work until midnight, and my Stars kept the cup warm that night, and they waited for me to get home so that we could celebrate together. I think I caught all of the third overtime before Mr Hull mercifully ended it.

I have of course watched the game since in it’s entirety.

The official Dallas Stars web site has been running the most excellent recap of the games on the road to that cup, and you can find game 6 here: http://stars.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NHLPage&id=32455. Unfortunately it seems that the NHL Network isn’t going to help us re-live the memories today.

Watching those old highlights makes me remember how great that team was. Watch the video at dallasstars.com. Look at how fluid they are through the neutral zone. Look at the organization. Look at the decisive defensive plays. The shot blocking. The commitment. Their confidence and trust in each other is evident in every frame of that video. They were a cohesive unit that was clearly, no matter how much of Brett Hull’s skate lace was hanging over the crease, the better team.

It’s ok to look back and remember, but it’s not ok to try and recapture that team going forward. Brett Hull and Joe Nieuwendyk’s hirings have been questioned by many as Tom Hicks trying to re-live those days. Many even wanted Guy Carbonneau to coach the Stars. Might it take the retirements of Zubov, Lehtinen and Modano to truly move on? Last year when the Stars moved on to the second and third rounds the AAC swelled with Hatcher, Belfour and Carbonneau  jerseys. A lot of old timers showed up and expected to quite literally party like it was 1999. As much fun as it is to remember, I am sometimes bothered by the extent to which the fan base and organization seem infatuated with the past.

It’s time for Brenden Morrow and Marty Turco and Mike Ribeiro to focus on getting their cup.

Wild pass on Tippett. Moog/Barnes to stay with Dallas

Excellent choice, Minnesota. Dave Tippett’s Stars often floundered about in March and then had very disappointing playoffs. Todd Richards of San Jose Shark fame can surely top Tippett because, after all, who knows more about playoff disappointment then the San Jose… Ah never mind.

In all seriousness, the Wild need to learn to score goals. They need to score them badly. Dave Tippett, praised though he is, isn’t the right man for a club that has trouble scoring goals.

Meanwhile in Dallas, Marc Crawford confirms that Stu Barnes and Any Moog will stay with the team. This is curious for a couple of reasons. First, I’m not sure what connection, if any, exists between Crawford and Barnes.

Stu spent half of the practices in last years injury plagued season skating drills in practice with the third and fourth lines, filling out the lineup wherever the need arose. It was his first season as an assistant, and he wasn’t behind the bench, but rather up in the General Managers box. It seems as though Stu(uuu) got a good word from Les Jackson, the players, or interviewed well on his own. I wonder what his duties will entail.

Andy Moog must be bound to Marty Turco by a very strong, other worldly force. Here comes a new coach and a new GM, and they fire Dave Tippett and keep the guy behind that rather interesting goaltending situation last year? Let’s assume it’s Moogs ability to bring along the young fellas that saved his job in Dallas. Then again, Moog has been leaving Turco alone in recent seasons, popping in only when there’s a problem that needs fixing. Maybe the new regime will prompt some more attention from him, and in turn a more focused Marty Turco.

So you want Dave Tippett to coach your team?

I don’t blame you. I kind of want him to coach my team as well, but I’m starting to think this whole Marc Crawford thing isn’t a big practical joke that Joe’s playing on all of us.

It is widely believed that Tippett will coach in the NHL next season. The short list is Minnesota, Calgary and New Jersey. The thought of Dave Tippett coaching a team that will play the Stars four times next year is not a pleasant one. I love you Dave, but have you ever considered the Eastern seaboard?

Should your team land the former mustachioed bench boss, here is what to expect:

He will be stone faced: Don’t expect to see much fire out of this guy. He’s not Joel Quenneville. He’s not going to stare anyone down Barry Trotz style. He’s not going to have a come to Jesus meeting every time the team loses two in a row. He will keep an even keel. He will be cool and collected. He exudes professionalism. It seeps from his pores. I’m not saying that he won’t yell at the occasional ref, but you may sometimes wonder, as you gaze at the bench from your seat in the arena after a series of silly mistakes, “Why won’t he yell at the team???” But don’t worry, most of the time he won’t need to.

He will roll four lines: Better start loving that 12th forward on your roster because you may see him more often. Some coaches (like the Stars new guy) will lean on their skill guys, sending them out there more and more as the game goes on or as the situation requires. Tipp will roll everyone out there, all night long if he can get away with it.

He will demand responsible hockey: Do something stupid on Friday, and guess what happens on Sunday there Mr. Young Player? Your minutes are going from 12 to 5. Ask Fabian Brunnstrom. Have a good time. Maybe defensive responsibility first is a Dallas thing more than a Tippett thing, but I think it’s something that will stick with him.

He will change things up. Mercilessly: Lose a game? Lose a period? Line change time! Tipp likes to play with the combinations on an hourly basis. Mike Modano played on a line with nearly every winger the team had last year, and the occasional center (Brad Richards, though briefly). Mike Ribeiro has seen the man to his right go from Lehtinen to Hagman to Brunnstrom to Eriksson to Neal and all the way back around again over the course of the last few seasons. All coaches do this, you say? Yeah, OK. I promise you that Tipp will do it a little bit more. In his 6 years here it was the thing I found the most irritating by far.

He will make you better: Bottom line. For all his in game tinkering and painfully generic and uninformative sound bites given to the press, his tragic lack of his old mustache and his stoic, passionless nature, he will make you better.

Stars fans cheer Guerin as he hoists Cup

Bill Guerin hoisting the Stanley Cup on Joe Louis ice. Sounds like something I dreamt up in 2005 (That’s right, in this fantasy the Red Wings are in the Eastern conference and the Stars won game 7. Try to keep up); But it came true in a manner tonight as the Penguins slayed the dragon and got the girl. The sexy, silver, 35 lb girl.

Although he’s done it before, I was elated to see Guerin with the cup and his big beard. He wasn’t with us for a long time, but he’s one of the most likable guys in the league and I have a lot of respect for him. He still has a house here if I’m not mistaken (or did last year, anyway; Perhaps because he can’t sell it). He calls in to the local radio station from time to time and I imagine he’ll be doing so in the days to come.

Some might say his relationship with that Bob and Dan radio show endears him to the Stars fan more than his lacking performance in a Stars uniform did. I won’t argue. Congratulations, Billy. We were pulling for you.

Parting shots as the season ends:

-If allowing 5 goals (game 5) at the Joe is on the path to winning the Stanley Cup, sign Marty Turco up, baby!

-Boy, they were really letting Bettman have it good…

-Max Talbot, you can play on my team any day, my friend.

-Kronwall, Franzen and Holmstrom: You guys should open some kind of “how to commit blatant penalties without getting caught” summer camp. That kind of knowledge is priceless.

-Marion Hossa: It was yours, man. It was on your stick so many times in the Finals and you did nothing. What are you going to do now?  I bet all that money makes it hurt less. Choker.

-Did Boucher meet any of the requirements to get his name on the Cup? He played in game 6, right?

That was a hell of a post-season, but the off-season and the moves the Stars need cannot come soon enough for their fans. Bring it on.

Crawford:”An exciting brand of hockey”

Kings and Canucks fans are rolling their eyes, judging from what I’ve been reading on the blogs the last 24 hours.

In a press conference stuffed full of generalities, niceties, and clichés, (a year in the broadcast media really sharpened his skills in the field of talking and saying nothing) this was the only thing I found useful:

“We won’t be vastly different from the way we were before; this team already has a strong set of core fundamentals. If you watch the two teams that are playing right now in the Stanley Cup Finals, you see two teams that play an exciting brand of hockey. It’s a lot about skating, it’s about speed, it’s a lot about pace and it’s a lot about tempo and those are the main facets that have been a part of every team that I’ve coached. You really do have to look at your team and adjust to the people you have, however.”

That paragraph fills a great many of you with fear and loathing. Fear of the unknown and loathing for what he did in Vancouver and Los Angeles, respectfully. This morning on Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket, Crawford admitted that he changed too many things, too quickly in Los Angeles. He said he changed everything they did there completely, from the hockey to the trainers and doctors, to the people handling the equipment, every coach, every everything. He said this was a mistake.

We won’t be vastly different from the way we were before; this team already has a strong set of core fundamentals.

I am always leery of someone going out of their way to say “we’re not going to change.” More often than not it means “we’re going to change.” In this case we have the qualifier “vastly”, and I hope he meant what he said. Some change is needed, obviously.

If you watch the two teams that are playing right now in the Stanley Cup Finals, you see two teams that play an exciting brand of hockey. It’s a lot about skating, it’s about speed, it’s a lot about pace and it’s a lot about tempo and those are the main facets that have been a part of every team that I’ve coached.

Speed. Pace. Tempo. To me those sound like things that probably, though not necessarily, translate to more shots on goal. More shots on goal generally translates to more goals.

Teams that took the most shots last year did pretty well. There are a million other factors, obviously, but the philosophy en vogue right now in the NHL is puck possession, speed, higher shot totals, etc. Speed is something this blog complained about frequently last year. If Crawford can coax a faster defense to offense transition, the Stars could benefit greatly.

“You really do have to look at your team and adjust to the people you have, however.”

Ah and there’s the catch. The teams that play successful up-tempo hockey have forwards that play a better two way game than the Stars have. More importantly they boast better blue lines and more consistent goal tending.

Up tempo hockey, tempered with a modest defensive responsibility can work in this league. Nieuwendyk’s swift, decisive actions so far paint the picture of a man who knows exactly what he’s after. Until he shapes the roster to fit his vision, it’s impossible to say if Crawford and “An exciting brand of hockey” are right for this team.

Tipp out. Crawford in.

Joe Nieuwendyk didn’t waste any time in making a big, bold strike did he?

When trying to compose a coherent paragraph or two in such a tumultuous time, it’s hard to choose a definitive road to take. “What did Dave Tippett do wrong?” is a question that comes to mind. “What can Marc Crawford do better?” is another.

Rather than pick the pieces apart this morning and dissect the past (why did he get fired?), or prognosticate the future (how is Crawford different), maybe we should just sort of take a 35,000 foot view of this thing.

The Stars fired a coach under whose guidance they collected points at a 62% clip over the course of 6 seasons. (64%, excluding this past, injury riddled season)

The view from 35,000 feet suggests that Joe Nieuwendyk, Jeff Cogen, and Mr. Tom Hicks think that Marc Crawford can do better. Evidence suggests otherwise as Crawford has a significantly worse winning percentage (55%) in his career.

That seems counter intuitive to me.

But he won a Cup, you say? That was 13 years ago, and he had the best goaltender. Ever. I don’t want to hear about what anyone did 13 years ago. Guess what Mike Modano was doing 13 years ago?

Joe Nieuwendyk has been the General Manager for 11 days. 11 days. And his first official act was to fling the franchise from it’s safe perch into a pit of uncertainty. Ken Hitchcock and Dave Tippett may not be the sexiest names in the business, but they made this thing a consistent, serious competitor for more than a decade with a structured, defensive style. That, as they say, is about to “go by the wayside.”

Look at this sentence from Crawford’s Wikipedia entry:

Despite Vancouver’s regular season success, they only managed to win one playoff series during Crawford’s tenure and, compounded by the Canucks’ failure to make the postseason in 2005–06, Crawford was let go by management on April 25, 2006, and replaced by Alain Vigneault

How many words do you need to replace in that sentence to make it fit on Dave Tippett’s Wikipedia page? It’s not that many, I’ll tell you that.

At the very best, if they’re lucky, the Stars are hiring what they’ve had.

They’ve changed the General Manager. They’ve changed the coach. Ok.

Guess what?

The roster is still the same. They’ve still got problems on defense. They still need a backup goaltender. They’ve still got the 8th pick in the draft. They still don’t have any money to spend on free agency, and they still don’t have very many attractive trade chips with which they’d be willing to part.

The view from 35,000 feet looks exactly the same as it did before. They’re still going to try and fix those holes on defense. They’re still going to hope like hell they stay healthy. They’re going to re-rack and have another go next year with the same basic plan they would have anyway.

I think this is called change for the sake of change, no?

TSN Reports Dave Tippett fired

TSN reports that the Stars will or have fired head coach Dave Tippett.

Color me surprised, though maybe I shouldn’t be. I think Dave Tippett is an excellent coach, I think he squeezed every last ounce of effort out of these guys at various times in recent years. I don’t think it was his idea to get Sean Avery, I don’t think it was his idea for Brenden Morrow, Brad Richards, Sergei Zubov, Steve Ott, Jere Lehtinen and a host of others to miss significantly huge portions of the seasons last year. I don’t think it was his fault that the Stars didn’t bolster their blue line upon losing Norstrum, Boucher and Zubov. I think he got a lot out of the rookie and sophomore players on this team. I don’t think it was his fault that Marty Turco had a sub par year.

The special teams, you say? Yeah, you could pin that on him.

And yet so often in professional sports, the coach pays the price?

Even if it’s just that Nieuwendyk wants his own guy in there, and that’s completely fair, I think Dave Tippett did nothing but a great job and probably doesn’t deserve to get fired. Thems the breaks, I guess.

Not a lot of names come to mind on available, experienced, accomplished guys to compliment a veteran team like this one.

Those are some kneejerk thoughts. More as this story develops…

Like it or not, NBC is necessary

“NBC doesn’t deserve game 7.” “The NHL manufactured game 7.” “NBC loves Sid.”

There’s a lot of garbage floating around the blogosphere this morning about the events of Game 6 and about the upcoming Game 7 on Friday night, most of it coming from people who have deeply, deeply invested themselves in the proceedings emotionally. I think a lot of us are just happy to have one more game to watch this year.

The NHL fan in general is probably tired of Detroit (especially in the Western Conference) being here seemingly every year, and they’re probably sick of seeing Sydney Crosby every single Sunday on NBC’s game of the week. I know I am; But this Stanley Cup Final has delivered in a big way for the game that we love and I think it’s a series that should be celebrated by the hockey fan. We essentially get Hockey-Super Bowl on Friday, and NBC is even going to do us the honor of broadcasting it to all 6 million of us that give a rat’s ass.

The notion that NBC doesn’t deserve Game 7 is a confusing one to me, though I understand the underlying emotional impetus of the sentiment. It’s not uncommon to feel that being the big fish in a small pond is a better arrangement. Loyalty and all of that come in to play. There are those who say that “Hockey is a fringe sport that should cater to it’s hard core fans first and foremost. It’s never going to be as big as the other major sports.” Well, OK…but this is a business. The league is a money making venture. The games are on television so that money can be made. Period. I don’t buy the notion that you can alienate hard core hockey fans in the United States. Where else are you gonna go? You want your hockey. We all do.

Even with record numbers for a Versus broadcast in Game 5…

NEW YORK, N.Y. (June 8, 2009)–VERSUS, the exclusive cable television home of the National Hockey League (NHL), garnered a 2.8 national HH rating and averaged 3,448,431 viewers for its Game 4 telecast of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final on Thursday, June 4, when the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Detroit Red Wings at Mellon Arena to even the series 2-2. The game, which peaked at a 3.4 HH rating between 10:15 and 10:30 p.m., was the highest-rated and most-watched Stanley Cup Final game on cable since 2002. VERSUS, for the 8:00-10:45 p.m. time period, was the top-rated cable network in the country among all key male demos. LINK

…NBC is the better choice.

3.4 million viewers on Versus. When the true numbers come in for Game 6, how many will it be? 5 million? 6 million? You’ve got to get on NBC as often as you can if you’re the NHL. Maybe they’re not the girl you came to the dance with, but you’ve got a much better chance of scoring, so to speak.

The Sports Business Daily says the ratings for Game 6 were down 6.8% from last years’ Game 6. I wonder if the fact that last year they got “that there big ‘ol metal cup out” and paraded it around the ice had anything to do with it. Considering that the NHL went up against the NBA head to head this year during Game 6, and the Cup stayed in the case, the 6.8% drop looks like a victory to me.

How is it that last season the NBA Finals started the day after the NHL finals concluded? And this time around they’re practically neck and neck? The number of playoff games in either sport can vary wildly from year to year, and this year the NHL got stuck between NBC (and the new Jay Leno prime time show) and the NBA. I don’t know that there’s much the NHL can do. Starting a week or two earlier wouldn’t solve much because the NBA playoffs would still be happening (a greater number of games even, in earlier rounds) and NBC would still be finishing up the prime time television season. A week later and you could still have the NBA; A month later and you risk unbearable ice in July for the Finals. What can you do?

As for the idea out there in Wing land that the NHL wanted a game 7, or wants Sid to have a ring: Well, let’s just stack up all the things Kronwall and Holmstrom get away with out there against the entire Penguin roster and see what the score is. Kronwall should still be in the box this afternoon for all his interference, to which a blind eye is turned.