Pension Plan Puppets - All Posts

Nearly the Freakin' Weekend

2013-05-17T11:47:21Z

Nearly the weekend links

Thoughts From Dave Nonis' Presser

This raises a lot of questions about Nonis being at the helm.

What Went Wrong?

DGB with excuses from NHL's losers.

US Routs Russia to Reach WC Semis

USABestHockey

Backhand Shelf Podcast

Talking playoffs and stuff.

Sure is quiet now. Too quiet.

[Thursday's FTB] Picking Up The Pieces

2013-05-16T11:42:27Z

As a matter of fact, you can stream his press conference live at 11:00 a.m. EST over at the team's official site. Watching Nonis in the booth during Game 7, he was completely emotionless throughout the whole game, whether his team was up 4-1 or... that other thing. Should be interesting to hear his thoughts.

Just a few links, today:

Sober second thoughts: The "Meltdown in Beantown"
From Cam Charron.

2013 Calder Cup: Morgan Rielly learning about the pro game with the Marlies
The latest from Kyle Cicerella.

Hockey Isn’t Fair
Says Ellen Etchingham.

Court of Public Opinion: Raffi Torres did another borderline illegal thing
No one surprised. From JB.

On the Leafs, lockouts, blowouts and checking-out

2013-05-14T21:00:08Z

It shouldn’t be this hard to be a fan.

I didn’t watch much of the Leafs playoffs this year. Of the seven games I watched four, maybe five. About the same amount I watched of the tremendous LA – St. Louis series.

I missed some of the games due to other commitments: getting kids to and from Girl Guides, choir lessons and Hapkido classes. I also had hockey games of my own to play. Some games I skipped by choice.

As much as I wanted to embrace this year’s Leafs, as much I was thrilled by the play of Phil Kessel, James Reimer, Jake Gardiner and James van Riemsdyk, part of me checked-out and I’m not sure if or when I’ll return.

The biggest culprit is the lockout.

The loss of half a season of hockey was nothing more than a craven cash-grab. A work stoppage that could have, and should have addressed certain deficiencies in the game and, more importantly, tried to fix the broken revenue model. Instead, it was nothing more than the filthy stinking rich taking a bigger slice of the pie from the disgustingly wealthy.

For this, we lost half a season of hockey. I resent that and I resent that hockey fans are expected to come blindly rushing back. Like a million George Smileys, cuckolds too thrilled by Lady Ann's return to stop and think about what's gone on.

The second culprit is the culture of hockey.

Hockey Night in Canada has become almost un-watchable. Actually, un-listenable is the better word. The technical aspects of their coverage remain best in class while the talking heads are remedial at best. It takes something away from the match when I have to watch on mute rather than suffer the toxicity of Glenn Healy’s snark, the vapidity of Craig Simpson and the simpering affectations of Jim Hughson (who managed to blow the call on Bergeron’s series winning goal). The sound of a period ending has become the cue to change the channel or leave the room.

Pity poor Elliotte Friedman – the man who should be hosting the panel, picking the guests and leading the next wave of intelligent hockey coverage. Instead, he’s surrounded by PJ Stock, a semi-cogent former jock who appears to be suffering from aphasia, and Kevin Weekes a hockey parody/ better dressed version of Tex Boil ("That’s right ~~Edna~~ Ron"). This is the best our billion-dollar broadcaster can offer.

The third and final culprit is the so-called brain trust of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The guys in charge who decided to play face-puncher hockey and got lucky when they out-ran the percentages in a lock-out shortened season. The men who wanted Kiprusoff. The group who thought it was a good idea to play two goons in the opening game of the playoffs. The deep thinkers who played AHL defencemen while Jake Gardiner sat in the press box.

It was only when injuries forced their hand that the Leafs finally iced all of their best players. The Leafs playoff MVP might be Mark Kostka’s finger. Think of that. If Kostka hadn’t broken that finger, Jake Gardiner would still be in the pressbox and the Leafs likely wouldn’t have lasted five games against the Bruins.

When it comes right down to it, the worst mistake of this Leafs season didn’t involve blown coverage, a badly timed pinch or an allegedly weak glove hand. The worst mistake of the Leafs season involved nothing more than Randy Carlyle, a disposable pen and the nightly line-up card.

Had Carlyle and Co. iced the line-up that skated in games five through seven for the majority of the season, this Leafs team likely threatens to win the North East, gets a better draw in the post-season and doesn’t play the Bruins on the road. That’s the fulcrum of the Leafs season right there. Instead of going with talent, the Leafs went with face punchers. The bad roster decisions and player utilization that started in January cast the team’s fate in May.

Somehow I suspect this angle of roster management will not be discussed in the papers. Nor will it be the hot topic on the sports panels populated by b-list and c-list talent – executives who were not good enough to stay in the game and journeymen players who appear to have suffered repetitive head injuries. It will go without comment among the chattering classes who supposedly matter. Another reason I have begun to tune out...

It shouldn’t be this big of a challenge to embrace your team and go all-in, but the culture of professional hockey is driving me away. It’s keeping me from watching NHL games, it's driving me away from my TV and radio, and it’s why I won’t watch hockey the rest of these playoffs.

It shouldn’t be this hard to be a fan but this spring, more than any other, it certainly is.

Welp.

2013-05-14T11:00:03Z

That sucked.

Leafs Eliminated In Game Seven, 5-4 in OT

2013-05-14T04:37:13Z

I was thinking throughout the day about what I would write here if the Leafs won or lost. For once, I was actually thinking about what I could write if the Toronto Maple Leafs won a playoff series. About the speedy underdog with young kids trying to steal a series. About a comeback, about the excellence of individual players, and about two teams with deep forwards, strong goalies, and questionable defense.

I thought about what I would write if they lost. I could talk about the marginal gains, the fortunes that got us here, the young core, and a close series. We could laugh at the haters who thought the Leafs wouldn't see the first or the fifth playoff game, let alone seven, and enjoy a year where we didn't care about the draft lotto.

I wasn't ready to have a win taken away. I wasn't ready to have victory slip through the Toronto Maple Leafs' fingers, like a predictable punchline. I wasn't ready to have hope - dare I say confidence - so close to the end of a game, and to have that slip through the Toronto Maple Leafs' fingers. I wasn't ready to have a collapse undercut a close series: everyone should remember the series that made Bruins fans sweat, but no one is scared of a monster they can laugh at. Win or lose, I was going to write about a series the Leafs could - and should - be proud of. Instead, I got a horrible bait and switch: an unloseable situation that the Leafs managed to lose.

But one historic collapse later, here we are. I haven't re-watched the game-winning goal. I haven't looked at the matchups, I haven't looked at the shot differentials, I haven't even done enough to string together more than this "recap." I'm not sure I will for a few days. It's still tough to remember what happened - "surreal" doesn't normally apply in sports quite like this. The autopsies will come: first the jabs, then the stats, and soon the armchair analysis of needs and of management. For now, the gap is filled with shock where Leafs fans thought they couldn't be shocked.

I've been exposing my girlfriend to the sport I love so much. It has been great to have a period of such pure emotional investment in a sport and seeing it infect someone else. In a way, it's the essence of fandom: I may cheer for laundry, but I do it with such an intense emotional connection that it ignites passion in those around me. It's that passion - especially in sharing it with others - that has made this past week and a half so intense, so emotional, so enjoyable. It's that enjoyment that has me counting down the days until our shortened offseason is over, the red line gets repainted, and a familiar but different roster of names takes the ice. For the last recap of the 2012-2013 season: Go Leafs Go.

Game in Six.

The End.

2013-05-14T02:09:46Z

Derp.

Leaf of the Day: The last team - the guy wearing snowshoes

2013-05-13T19:00:10Z

I missed most of Game 7 vs Detroit in 1993. I had a date.

Clearly, I had no idea when I made the date that the Leafs were going to be where they were. It was a funny series. The Leafs had been shelled in the first two games in Detroit, gutted out a couple tight wins at home and then won an overtime game in Detroit to go up 3-2. Game 6 was a disaster. Detroit got untracked and tore them to shreds at home. I remember that Shawn Burr had scored just as I was parking the car to put Detroit up by a goal. That was the last play I heard.

Coming home that night, I'd actually forgotten all about the game. The radio was tuned to some music station or other and "Help!" by the Beatles was on. As it finished, the DJ said, "This goes out to all the Leaf fans out there..."

"Oh, crap, " I thought.

"...who can't believe that THE LEAFS JUST WON!!!"

"WHAT?!?!?" Instantly i flipped over to the FAN just in time to hear what was likely the 30th replay of Bowen's call of the Borschevsky goal. Needless to say, I made sure for the rest of the spring that I was never otherwise occupied on hockey night.

You can make some parallels between this season and that one. A lot would be stretches. I tend to feel that this club has more of a '99 Quinn vibe than a '93 Burns one. What's true of both of those and seems to me to be true of this one, too, is that they were special because they were great rides unencumbered by any kind of fan expectation. The teams weren't expected to win anything and generally weren't even picked to make the playoffs much less win a round. The whole experience was a bonus and it made it doubly-enjoyable. In subsequent years, we'd come to expect a decent playoff round. It was still fun, but never quite the same as the time the team was playing entirely with house money.

(And just for the record - nope, don't regret going out that night at all.)

I don't have a decent segue into Allan Stanley, except that a lot of his success must have had the same kind of feel to it. Booed out of New York and abandoned by Boston as too old, Stanley came to Toronto, found a new lease on life at 32 and played a decade of his best hockey, making three Second-Team All-Star berths and four Stanley Cups. Could have been a lot worse.

Stanley came into the league in 1948 with a ton of fanfare. Originally a Bruin prospect, the Rangers traded three players and $70,000 cash to get him. This was a ton of money for a hockey player, particularly one that had never played an NHL game. He was sold to the fanbase as a franchise-altering kind of guy. When he got to the Rangers and was simply very good, the reaction was extremely hostile. Even though, by all accounts, there was nothing actually wrong with his play, he didn't save the Rangers and paid the price for it.

After six years of hearing it from Rangers fans, he was moved first to Chicago and then on to Boston, which was enjoying a mostly-forgotten run as the best NHL team not located in Montreal. He missed the 1957 playoffs with an injury, which the Boston GM felt was key to Boston's Cup Final loss that spring (even more important than guys named Maurice RIchard, Jean Beliveau et al, apparently). He was with them for another Final the following spring.

Heading into 1958, the Leafs were looking for defense and asked the Bruins about a blueliner named Bob Armstrong. The Bruins declined, but offered Stanley, now 32 and never exactly fleet-footed at the best of times (hence the nickname "Snowshoes"). Punch bit on this and for the cost of one Jim Morrison, Stanley was a Leaf.

Paired with Tim Horton, Stanley was a success for the next decade. The Leafs made a late dash for the playoffs that year and then surprised Boston in the first round. He made his first All-Star team in 1959-60 and led the Leafs to a second Final. Starting in 1962, the Leafs would win four of the next six Cups.

In the early going, Stanley offered a fair bit of offense. He hit for between 9-10 goals and 33-35 points each year between 1959-60 and 1961-62. As he aged, he tended to stay home a lot more and let Horton do the skating. My grandfather used to grouse that you'd never see Allan Stanley on the far side of centre. It still worked for him, though. He was still a Second-Team All-Star at age 39.

In the 1967 playoffs, Stanley was 41 and the second-oldest player on the team. He only picked up two assists, but both came on key goals in series-deciding wins. As the Leafs shocked Chicago in the first round, Stanley fed Red Kelly who then set up Pete Stemkowski for the insurance marker. In Game 6 against Montreal, he picked up an assist on the opening goal by Ron Ellis, feeding Kelly again for the shot that would produce the fat rebound Ellis jumped on. On the second goal by Pappin, it was his hit that knocked Larose off the puck and freed it for Pulford to send up ice. On the empty-netter, it was Stanley who took the draw against Jean Beliveau, winning the puck back to Kelly (again), who sprang Pulford, who then found Armstrong streaking down the right side. Armstrong's empty-netter would clinch the victory. (It seems that had there been third assists, Stanley would have done rather well. It kind of goes to his reputation as a player who would do a lot of things right that never showed on the scoreboard.)

Stanley never played another playoff game for the Leafs. They missed out in 1968 due to a prolonged January swoon and his last season was spent as a Flyer. He was key in that last Cup, though, even though it only shows up as a pair of assists.

As for tonight, I have no predicitons. I can forsee almost any outcome. That's what makes it fun. :)

Recent Boston Bruins Game Seven Losses

2013-05-13T16:00:03Z

Much has been made about the oodles of playoff experience that the Boston Bruins possess. The sheer number of games dwarves the Leafs' pitiful playoff experience much like comparing Henrik Zetterberg's playoff beard to Matt Frattin's. Yes, the Bruins won three game sevens on their way to winning a Stanley Cup in 2011.

However, within that experience there lies a strain of failure in game sevens that has manifested in home games. Not only that, they've done it against teams that seemingly overcame long odds from the overmatched Capiitals hanging on by the skin of their teeth on the back of a fearless young goalie (sound familiar?) to the miracle Philadelphia Flyers that overcame a huge series deficit to stun the Boston faithful on home ice (hopefully this will sound familiar soon).

Of course, none of this probably matters other than providing a glimmer of hope in the way that seeing Ivan Drago bleed helped give hope to Rocky in Moscow. Here are the big bad Bruins catching a right hook right in the kisser. Enjoy!

Pension Plan Puppets - All Posts

Nearly the Freakin' Weekend

[Thursday's FTB] Picking Up The Pieces

On the Leafs, lockouts, blowouts and checking-out

Welp.

Leafs Eliminated In Game Seven, 5-4 in OT

The End.

Leaf of the Day: The last team - the guy wearing snowshoes

Recent Boston Bruins Game Seven Losses

2012 Conference Quarterfinal vs. Washington (1-2L)

2010 Conference Semifinal vs. Philadelphia (3-4L)

2009 Conference Semifinal vs. Carolina (2-3L)

2004 Conference Semifinal vs. Montreal (0-2L)

1979 Conference Final vs. Montreal (4-5L)