Stern talks contraction, milestone for Ryan Smyth, and whining Willie Mitchell.
It’s something we’ve been wondering if we’d hear since about 2002. It wasn’t the tiny, perfect commissioner Gary Bettman talking contraction last week however, it was NBA boss David Stern.
He’s worried about markets where teams are for sale, but there are no buyers. Can you think of a time when the NHL hasn’t had at least two of those on the go at any given time over the past decade?
"The issue of contraction is one that has to be discussed in the context of collective bargaining with the players … if there are markets where there may not be buyers for teams that are looking to be sold, that raises the issue of contraction," Stern said.
Those words are heresy in Bettman’s world, where the game is always growing and Versus is still a good idea.
If a current NHL owner talked contraction? He’d be fined for sure.
But what if Bettman said it, and Wayne Gretzky came out in agreement?
"How much would it hurt the league if we lost teams? It wouldn’t hurt it. It might make it better," Magic Johnson said in response. "I think if you take away a couple teams, the talent level goes up and the league will only benefit. So I don’t see a problem with that."
It just makes too much sense ever to happen, doesn’t it?
Bad Hair, Good Heart
I’ve always thought that Ryan Smyth, who has stayed out an extra few moments after every warmup in his career to toss five or six practice pucks to kids in the stands, was a special guy.
Well, on Nov. 6 the Los Angeles Kings winger will play his 1000th NHL game. That’s 5000-6000 people over the years who went home with a souvenir and a special place in their heart for the game of hockey. If Smyth doesn’t go in the Hall as a player, maybe he should go in as a builder.
Smyth is flying his old Edmonton Oilers training staff — Barrie Stafford, Ken Lowe, Lyle (Sparky) Kulchisky — in for the game and putting them up in L.A. And he’ll have a nod for a dear and departed scout named Lorne Davis, who all but grabbed Glen Sather by the lapels back in 1994 when the Oilers were picking pretty boy Jason Bonsignore at No. 4 overall, and demanded Sather take Smyth at No. 6.
As it turns out, Smyth is the second player from that draft class to play his 1000th game, behind another first class guy: Daniel Alfredsson, a sixth-rounder (133rd) in ’94.
Willie Ever Stop?
Somehow Willie Mitchell never considered running for president of Mom’s Against Head Shots after he clocked Chicago’s Jonathan Toews with a clean check last season, concussing the young Blackhawks star with a shoulder to the chin.
But ever since Mitchell had his head down and was concussed on a clean hit from Evgeni Malkin — Mitchell flew into the boards and hit his head — the L.A. Kings defenceman grabs every microphone he can to berate the league for its work on head shots.
Asked about the Rick Rypien suspension last week, he said: "My opinion is that everyone has made a big issue out of this and I think there’s other things that are going on in our game that are much more severe. Whether it’s headshots — and I keep going back to that — and the lack of action on that.
"It’s something we’ve seen the NFL start to do and hopefully our league follows suit. The game’s faster, guys are bigger, it would be nice to see if they protected the players a little more."
Yeah Willie. Because the NHL hasn’t spent much time on head shots over the past two seasons.
Where do you think Willie has been? Surely not watching the Malkin hit on video.
Somehow Mitchell became convinced it was a bad hit, and it became someone else’s fault. Youtube that hit and tell me it isn’t a hit from the side that lands directly on the arm stripe of Mitchell’s jersey, while the puck is on Mitchell’s stick.
It was sad to see Mitchell get a concussion, but sadder still that he feels he has to blame everyone else for it.
Consistency Issues
Olli Jokinen has three assists and no goals in eight games for Calgary. Dustin Penner has three goals and no assists in six for Edmonton.
Both are big studs and integral cogs in their team’s fortunes, and neither has started the season like they plan on fulfilling those hopes.
In Calgary, the Flames can carry Jokinen for a while if they can keep the offence up, hoping that he’ll come around eventually. In Edmonton, Penner is supposed to be the offence while the kids learn what it takes to be an everyday NHL player.
Both players have serious issues with consistency, showing up some nights, but generally loafing through more games more often than not.
At 28, you’d think Penner would have it figured out by now. Then again, at 31 big Olli doesn’t have a clue what it means to lead a team into battle every night.
If either of them had a quarter of Ryan Smyth’s heart, they’d be All-Stars every year.
