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The NHL Needs Mark Cuban

Steven Ovadia — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:13:35 +0000

Who will buy the Dallas Stars?

I guess no one knows, but Mike Heika says he keeps hearing the name Doug Miller.

Miller has experience with minor league hockey in addition to running a non-hockey Dallas-based business.

The interesting name, though, is Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, who was recently brought in by Mike Modano to look into a possible Stars’ ownership role.

Cuban’s an outspoken NBA owner, occasionally a distraction, but always candid and more importantly, always keeping his team’s best interests in mind.

In other words, the kind of owner the NHL lacks.

Can you imagine Cuban sitting by if the NBA shut down its season for the Olympics and NBC decided to move a key game to cable?

The NHL seemed blase about the snub when the league and the owners should have been outraged. I get that ice dancing is a huge ratings draw, but if the NHL wants to grow the game, they need to expose the game to new people. The Olympics is a huge opportunity to do that, but it’s a more challenging prospect when a huge game, like U.S./Canada, is relegated to cable.

And you would think that since NBC has an NHL game package, they would want to do everything they can to get new people watching hockey.

NBC is taking the quick ratings grab rather than taking a risk on a more long-term ratings prospect. Obviously, it’s NBC’s right to do so, but it would be nice if someone in the league stood up for the game and called NBC on its short-sightedness.

It’s the role Cuban was born to play.

Stars Grab Lehtonen to Start Planning for Next Season

Steven Ovadia — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:08:36 +0000

I like the Kari Lehtonen to Dallas trade because it gives the Stars options at a position where they’re vulnerable.

The Stars will soon be parting ways with goalie Marty Turco. If he’s not traded, he won’t be re-signed next season.

Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk doesn’t want to wait until the off-season to get his goaltending future straightened out. He wants to have some contingency plans in place, so the Stars don’t find themselves without an NHL-quality goalie next season.

Lehtonen can fill that role.

Dallas gave up the prospect Ivan Vishnevskiy for Lehtonen, which seems like a steep price. In fact, for that kind of prospect, I would have thought they could have almost gotten Ilya Kovalchuk.

But even given Lehtonen’s price, assuming he can get in some solid games, it’ll make negotiating with other goaltenders a lot more relaxed. Instead of agents using Dallas’ lack of a goalie to force the Stars to overpay for free agents, at least now Nieuwendyk can walk away and say the team already has a goalie they’re comfortable using.

Devils Need To Be Active at Trade Deadline

Steven Ovadia — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:54:57 +0000

Everyone is looking at Atlanta, wondering where they’re going to trade Ilya Kovalchuk.

But don’t forget to keep an eye on New Jersey, a team that also might be active before the trade deadline.

Not so much for Kovalchuk, but for a goal-scoring center who can help out on the powerplay.

I don’t think Kovalchuk is enough of a consistent two-way player for the Devils to be interested. Plus, he would be way too flashy of an acquisition for New Jersey. And of course, he’s not a center.

But Matt Cullen from Carolina? He could be a good fit. He’s a play-making center more than a pure goal-scorer. But he does have 11 goals on the season. That would put him in sixth place in goals on the Devils.

Cullen is also an experienced powerplay point man. He’s got just one goal this season, but he still seems to have his big shot.

I’ve also heard vague rumblings about Mike Modano coming to the Devils as a rental. I doubt he would leave Dallas, but one variable is the Stars’ GM: Joe Nieuwendyk.

Nieuwendyk won a Cup with the Devils acting as a key center. He took all of the important faceoffs and kept everyone honest in the defensive zone. It was a very specific role, but one he seemed to enjoy. Is he possibly selling Modano on that same kind of role, plus the chance to win another Cup?

Modano could be interested if the Dallas playoff picture gets irreparably bad before the trade deadline.

Nieuwendyk Too Patient in Dallas?

Steven Ovadia — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:54:23 +0000

Mike Heika has a nice column reminding fans how long it took Dallas GM Bob Gainey to build a championship team.

By Heika’s math, it took around three years, so current GM Joe Nieuwendyk has some time. Fans seem to be losing patience as Nieuwendyk seems quite content to see how many of the Stars younger players are going to pan out.

It’s not a bad strategy for Nieuwendyk to take, given that it allows him to know exactly what he has and what he doesn’t. But for fans, it’s a very slow process. And at the end of the evaluations, Nieuwendyk could discover he doesn’t really have what he thought he did.

Since so many NHL GMs come out swinging, making trades just to make trades, and trying to either win right away or surrender their season immediately, it’s nice to see a GM with an even keel. Having said that, I’m not sure if Nieuwendyk is giving coach Marc Crawford the kind of players he needs to run his system. Heika touched on this in the email newsletter, but Crawford’s system depends on defensemen driving the attack. It’s all about that first pass out of the defensive zone springing the forwards, with defensemen shooting the puck on net, and forwards either redirecting shots or grabbing rebounds. The Stars don’t have that defenseman. Ironically, they once did, but they let Sergei Zubov leave for the KHL.

So Nieuwendyk gets points for patience, but might want to pay a little bit more attention to where his team is right now, personnel-wise.

Goodbye, Mike Penner

Steven Ovadia — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:54:47 +0000

This weekend, the sportswriting world lost Mike Penner of the LA Times.

Penner was probably best known for his brilliant writing about his decision to become a woman. His byline changed to Christine Daniels. He subsequently returned to living as Mike Penner.

Penner covered the Ducks when they first joined the NHL and it seems he might have played a role in the team’s decision to go from being a Disney attraction to an actual hockey team.

Obviously, Penner went back quite a bit, to the days when the LA Times covered hockey…

Not hockey related, but Penner seemed to be a sweet person, too.

Also, an interesting tidbit out of Dallas, from Mike Heika’s mailbag:

Q: Hey Mike, when the boys are playing at the AAC, it seems like I’ve seen Alex Auld sitting at the opposite end of the bench from where Marty sits when he isn’t playing. … Am I remembering right? And if so, what kind of goalie logic is behind that?

HEIKA: I asked Alex Auld, and he said that his experience is that people on the center ice end of the bench get hit with a puck a lot more than people on the goal-side end of the bench. That’s his reasoning for not sitting in the “traditional” goalie spot on the bench – purely from a safety standpoint. Maybe Marty Turco will soon follow suit.

So yeah. In case you were wondering, Auld likes to avoid pucks hitting him both on the bench and on the ice.

Finally, my take on Carolina’s Jim Rutherford, the MacBeth of GMs. This guy is all about making decisions and then reversing them.

Crawford Mellows in Dallas

Steven Ovadia — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:47:34 +0000

Dallas coach Marc Crawford is mellowing and maturing.

He realizes his overplayed his angry coach hand in Los Angeles, and it caused him to first lose his team and then his job.

So now in Dallas, he seems to be on more of an even keel.

Which has to be a little bit frustrating sometimes, given the Stars’ scoring struggles.

I think a huge part of that is the residual effect of coach Dave Tippett. Dallas still doesn’t look 100% comfortable playing a more offensive system. I’m assuming eventually the team will adapt to Crawford’s coaching.

Or maybe Crawford will just shift to a defensive system and tell everyone he decided to change things up.

Also, over in Jersey, Jamie Langenbrunner makes the case against composite sticks, which lets players shoot the puck harder than with wooden sticks. Langenbrunner hypothesizes this is causing more injuries.

Langenbrunner didn’t discuss the fact that composite sticks seem to break constantly. I wish the NHL tracked shots that didn’t get off because the stick snapped.

Being the Line Change Not Always a Great Idea

Steven Ovadia — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:12:32 +0000

Mike Heika did his weekly question-and-answer session with his readers and while it’s all usually really good, I wanted to spotlight one of this week’s answers from Heika:

Q: What do you feel are the reasons for the Stars’ road success this year? And why hasn’t that success been duplicated at home?

HEIKA: Those are two good questions. My guess is the Stars have been able to turn off their brains a little more on the road and just play simple hockey. The team at home gets its choice for matchups on line changes, and I think coaches and players get wrapped up in that stuff. When you don’t have control (on the road), I think you just put your head down and play. This will be a really tough road trip, so we’ll see how the Stars respond.

Every NHL coach should have this answer posted in their office. Or at least Jacques Lemaire in Jersey and Marc Crawford in Dallas.

You see this “trouble at home” problem fairly frequently during an NHL season. Especially with match-up oriented coaches. Players are so worried about the match-ups, they don’t fully concentrate on the game; they’re only interested in getting off the ice for the “right” match-up. And that’s how a team like New Jersey can be unstoppable on the road and average at home.

Also, will Rick DiPietro’s return save the Isles? When/if he’s healthy, his puck-handling and passing could turn the Islanders into an offensive juggernaut. It’s a huge if, but one worth exploring.

NHL Is a Two Financial Tier League

Steven Ovadia — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:53:42 +0000

Forbes released their annual NHL franchise valuations and things actually look pretty good for the league. Or at least for some of the franchises. The average operating profit was $6.1 million, aggregate income increased, as did average franchise value.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t an across the board thing for the all of the franchises. While successful teams like Pittsburgh, Washington, and Chicago are doing great (as one might expect), other franchises like Nashville, Atlanta, the Islanders, and, of course, the Coyotes, are struggling. Here is the Forbes valuation chart.

One thing the article doesn’t mention that I’m curious about: the Stars and Avs, two seemingly successful franchises, lost $10 million and $11 million in value, respectively. I’m not sure if that’s a business loss of some kind that has nothing to do with the actual franchises, or if something else is going on.

Looking at the list of struggling franchises (and I’m assuming Dallas and Colorado aren’t actually struggling, that they just lost some value this year), you can’t help but wonder when the NHL is going to contract. You have wildly successful teams rubbing elbows with teams that can’t fill their arenas and can’t attract a buyer. Why not cut the fat and streamline league profits?

Speaking of value, the Blackhawks are about to see some return on their investment in Marian Hossa: he’s expected to begin contact drills this week, putting him one step closer to making his season debut. Like everyone else, I’m very curious how/if he’ll fit in with the rest of the team.

Also, here is my look at Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s demand to be made the starting goalie in Anaheim.

Darwin: ‘Hull Evolved More Than Most’

Steven Ovadia — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:29:27 +0000

Tim Panaccio took a quick look back at Brett Hull’s career.

That amazing wrist shot from the circle? It was actually his dad, Bobby Hull’s, idea. Which is shocking, since Bobby Hull is synonymous with the slapshot. But the elder Hull said the quicker NHL game required a quicker shot.

It’s funny how we’ve come full circle. You rarely see anyone scoring off the rush from the circles. And as great as Brett Hull was, I don’t think he’d have nearly as many of those kinds of goals if he played his prime in the modern NHL. Goalies are simply too big and there’s too much traffic in front of the net to score with any kind of regularity from that far out.

In fact, if I was going to tell a young player to develop any particular shot, I think I’d suggest they work on a slapshot — something that can get through to the net. Not that it would lead to many goals, but the ability to rocket the puck in from the blueline can certainly set up other people for goals.

And that’s really one the neat things about hockey. The game evolves (and sometimes devolves) over time. What works for one generation doesn’t work for another. The ability to evolve is what separates the good players from the great players. Brett Hull developed his wrist shot because it worked. But I have no doubt if he had played in the current era, he would have developed a mammoth slapshot that would have scared the padding out of opposing goalies.

Also, my latest column on how coaches tend to put too much faith in the impact of speed is up.

Stamkos Busts the Bust Myth

Steven Ovadia — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:54:50 +0000

Are we too impatient with first-round draft picks?

Maybe.

Even though he finished last season relatively strong, Steve Stamkos was written off as a bust, or at least as someone with the potential to be a huge bust. Now, 10 games into Tampa’s season, Stamkos has nine goals and five assists and looks like a real NHL presence. In fact, Stamkos leads Tampa in goals so far this season.

Vinny Lecavalier says the Lightning are average now, but are close to becoming much better.

There are certainly a lot of nice pieces to work with. It makes you wonder just how much damage Barry Melrose did in his short tenure as coach, if the team is just snapping out of its malaise now.

Maybe the Lightning should see if Alexandre Daigle is available. I wonder if Tampa coach Rick Tocchet could get him going.

Speaking of coaches, Marc Crawford coached his 1,000th game last night. Interestingly, none of Crawford’s 1,000 games has included his starting an NHL-quality goaltender. Look it up.

Over on Bleacher Report, I wrote about how some NHL teams are so deep, no injury seems to be able to stop them.