Liam's Lament
No. 45 - Sept 10, 2001

Spezza stands up for himself.

Some musings on the hockey world on the brink of NHL training camps opening coast to coast. Stan Fischler guested on the show with us (September 10) and as is usually the case, the hockey maven had the predictions flying. Eric Lindros will play the full season in New York and will play well. The Rangers and the Islanders will both make the playoffs. Bold statements. My heart is with Lindros but my head says at some point in time the wear and tear will catch up with him. Granted he had the year off and the player who he is most often compared too, Pat Lafontaine, did not have such a luxury still, I think it's a long shot for the Big E to last the season with the Rangers. Lafontaine played a total of 38 regular season games over a two year stretch in the mid nineties and a subsequent season of 13 games in 1996-97 and yet despite the green light from every single doctor he visited it was a mid ice collision with teammate Mike Keane in a game played against Ottawa that eventually ended his career. It wasn't a cheap shot from an opponent, a head shot, a hit from behind, no, it was a collision with a teammate. Whether Eric has legitimately only had two concussions as Glen Sather states or not, he has had his world rocked big time and I just don't think he'll hold up for the year.

Long term contracts. For starters who can understand how Mike Milbury operates? Many of his transactions the past few years have been difficult to read. Milbury finds himself in relatively un-chartered waters in terms of performance as a GM. The last man to steer a club out of the playoffs for six straight seasons was Lynn Patrick with the Boston Bruins in the late fifties and early sixties. That was in an era when the revolving door for coaches and subsequently poor performing GM's moved very, very slow. Eddie Johnston with Pittsburgh and Max McNab with Washington each had a five year concurrent stretch of early play on the golf course. Throw in Frank Boucher's name with the Rangers in the early fifties and that's all there's been in the NHL for the last fifty years in terms of a measuring stick for GM's who have missed the playoffs in 5+ consecutive years.

Actually the most puzzling of all with regards to the Islanders might be the Mike Peca signing. If I'm not mistaken he would have taken 3.5 from the Sabres before things went south big time between those parties. Now Milbury signs him for 4 million per. What gives? I don't get it. Which is why I found the discussion regarding Rod Brind'Amour so interesting on today's show.

Joining us for that was Chuck Kaiton from the Hurricane broadcast crew. Now, right off the bat I know that for the most part these guys are going to toe the company line however the points Kaiton used to illustrate the value of Brind'Amour carry more weight than when one attempts to defend Yashin in the same vein. Brind'Amour was given a five year contract extension with an option for a sixth year for a total of 30 million dollars. Besides that the Hurricanes wrote in a no-trade provision which elated the 12 year NHL veteran. The former Notre Dame Hound was scheduled to make 4,250,000 this coming season and he would have been unrestricted at year's end. The contract represents a nominal raise on his yearly salary for a player who has been to the second round of the playoffs five times including 1997 where he led the post season in goal scoring for the Flyers that year. Factor in his effectiveness in both ends of the ice, his ability to take draws, second only to Yannick Perreault last season for players who took at least 500 draws and his obvious leadership skills and you have a player pretty close to the complete package. On the other hand you have Yashin..............................
Right, where was I? Upon further review, if you lock up a quality player even for six years, it's a good move.

The last comment in this missive is a comment on Jason Spezza, number two selected this past June in the NHL Entry Draft. Spezza participated in the Ottawa Senators rookie tournament this past week in Hull, Quebec and his puck handling skills were amazing. I'm really looking forward to seeing him in the main camp. Even more impressive however was his spirited scrap with 6'6" Martin Podlesak from the depth charts of the Phoenix Coyotes. Both players were throwing them from the floor and Spezza took a total of 14 stitches in three different places on the old coconut. Podlesak was bandaged up big time over his nose and had a very ugly swelling growing on the side of his face. He was still drained after the game and he was a scratch the following night. Always great to see a young, big man defend himself and that's just what Spezza did. It kind of reminded me of J.P. Parise's story about checking Guy Lafleur. Parise was the highest point scoring winger in the NHL in 1970. He was a pugnacious in-your-face type of player and he was recounting the story of playing against Guy Lafleur his first few seasons in the NHL. Parise said he would routinely slash and hack at the young number 10 with very little retribution. One day that all changed, 1974 to be precise. Parise said he chopped Lafleur only to be on the receiving end of a wild wallop seconds later and an invitation for a dance, hockey style. "Well" he said, "I guess the honeymoon is over with this guy." It took Guy three years to feel comfortable in the NHL and despite the presence of the Pierre Bouchard's, Larry Robinson's and Gilles Lupien's you still have to occasionally stand up for yourself. Spezza did this in his second game with a Senator uniform on. Very commendable.

Liam Maguire
liam1@ca.inter.net