Blueshirt Boggle

USA Upset by Belarus

The struggling Al Montoya [left] did not start Team USA's game against Belarus last night. But when Cory Schneider was shelled early, he came in in relief. His first shot, from outside the blue line, eluded him, sealing the upset early on for Belarus. Read the straightforward press services report here, Damien Cox's more entertaining take here, and Hockey Future's prospect-oriented report here.

The Ranger web site as usual has a complete WJC update, focusing not on Montoya's poor performance but on Lauri Korpikoski, his key power play goal helping Finland overcome a 4-1 deficit a 5-4 win over Sweden. Check the News tab on the home page for links to how non-WJC prospects are faring during the tournament.

Lyle Richardson, aka Spector and Prince of Pucks, continues to pump out required reading at a rate that is remarkable considering the lack of hockey action. The other day he wrote about the issue of NHL exposure, today he takes on Jeremy Jacobs, the mega-hawk skinflint owner of the Bustin' Bruins. At the end of the latter article, Richardson reports a rumor that the league will make one more proposal before letting the season waste away.

Regarding the exposure factor: the NHL obviously has a plan to save itself that includes busting the union to reduce costs and then "re-launching" the NHL with a new marketing plan that includes certain use of shoot-outs to break ties, despite the enduring distaste hard-core hockey fans have for it. Which begs the question: if Gary Bettman was able to sell owners on the re-launch concept, why do they continue to predict financial ruin for the league? If the so-called re-launch can ratchet up revenues another notch while GMs continue to act more reasonably, as they have the past couple of years, why exactly is there a lockout?

Oh, yeah: greed. Forgot about that one.

We left you to draw your own conclusions about Rob Ray in our report yesterday. Consider this: Ray "retired" after the 2002-03 season to join the Buffalo broadcast team (we say "retired" because it was forced -- no one wanted to sign the free agent goon). He came out of retirement to play six games for Ottawa at the end of the season. Ottawa will not re-sign him, so he is once again "retired" -- the excuse the NHLPA used to get back at him for bucking their party line. His future is therefore with management, back in the broadcast booth. Clearly, though still a member of the PA, Ray is playing his hand for the benefit of his future bosses.

You remember Rob Ray, right? He's the guy who forced the NHL to write down one of its unwritten rules about sportsmanship when he started to employ tearaway jerseys to gain an edge in fighting. Now, every time someone's jersey tie comes loose during an altercation and they're sent to the locker room with a misconduct penalty, they can thank the sportsmanship of Rob Ray.

Drawing Conclusions

Gary Bettman has been the target of many public poundings. Now it's Bob Goodenow's turn. A member of his players' association, Rob Ray [left], has sued for lockout pay he says was denied him because of comments he made saying he would cross picket lines. He said Goodenow assured him personally he would be taken care of, but now has been deemed ineligible as a retired player. Ray played six games last season after coming out of the Buffalo broadcast booth and is an unsigned free agent. Draw your own conclusions.

Also on Goodenow's case was Bobby Clarke, the Philly GM who was a hated rival when he captained the Broad Street Bullies. Clarke puts blame for the entire impasse on Goodenow's shoulders. This is the same Bobby Clarke who defended Alan Eagleson to the end, even after it was proven how extensively he defrauded Clarke and is fellow players. Draw your own conclusions.

Nigel Dawes was again on the scoresheet in a Canadian rout in the World Juniors, with two assists in a 9-0 pasting of Germany. The Pack's streak was ended in a loss to Worcester. Charlotte won in a shoot-out after tying the game with two second left in regulation.

[Photo courtesy of NHL Enterprises]

Junior Rangers

Big night for North America and Ranger prospects in the WJC. The USA won its game with Al Montoya as usual in net and with Ryan Callahan [left] scoring, while Canada routed a tought opponent, Sweden, with Nigel Dawes potting one of eight goals. As before, the best single round-up centering on Ranger prospects is at the Rangers' web site. Dawes leads a new Hockey's Future update on Ranger prospects in the CHL.

Hartford won another shoot-out, something they do regularly. But it came only after they blew an early lead in a manner that caused coach Ryan McGill to bench many of his front-line offensive players for lack of intensity. This is not the first time he had to do this to Jozef Balej and Jamie Lundmark -- Dominic Moore joined them in the doghouse this time around. [McGill's brother Bob, coach of the Oshawa Generals, was relieved of his duties there.]

The Rangers lost to themselves in NHL.com's Quest for the Best tournament -- lost to an earlier incarnation of themselves, the 80s Oilers. In the simulated tournament which pits the best Cup winning teams of all time against each other, Mark Messier's 1994 Rangers met up with his 1984 Oilers, but the Oilers were ten years younger, in their prime, and had this Gretzky character. Glenn Anderson came to the 1994 Rangers at the very end of his career. He was at the top of his game a decade earlier, and was indeed the MVP of the simulated series.

Here's a trio of lockout-related stories for anyone still interested -- a lot of re-hash in these pieces, what with progress having ground to a complete halt, so not much news from Spector on possible last-ditch hope in the January 14th Board of Governors meeting, Kara Yorio on the NHL's fuzzy math a couple of weeks too late, or Stan Fischler with his weekly bits and pieces MSGN.com column.

[Photo courtesy of the New York Rangers]

Long Read on a Slow Day

Still quiet on most fronts. Not much to report. Hartford was back in action after six days off, winning its game in Bridgeport -- Dominic Moore continues to quietly lead the Pack offense while higher profile players continue to struggle. Charlotte lost its game, though Juris Stals scored as the undermanned Checkers attempted a comeback.

Best reading of the day on the lockout -- only reading of the day, actually -- is a long review of Gary Bettman's NHL stewardship by Joe Lapointe of the Times, with commentary from all quarters, including some interesting views from sports business figures.

Read closely and you can see that the NHL has grown dramatically and successfully during Bettman's tenure, exactly as he planned, via marketing and expansion (and some help from a 1994 Cup winner that made hockey front page news for a change). The so-called financial woes are a sham -- the money is there and will start growing again as the economy expands.

Juniors Take Over Hockey World

Used to be this time of year, the NHL would impose a trade black-out, the theory being not to ruin anyone's Christmas by trading them. This year, the only black-out is a news black-out, as everyone takes the holiday off from covering a league that is taking an entire season (or two) off. Only the ever-reliable Larry Brooks is in action with his usual Sunday column, telling us that the NHL's ploy to make the players think they're about to cancel the season will not work on a PA galvanized by the NHL's prior ploy in rejecting the 24% salary rollback.

Otherwise, the WJC dominates the hockey news. In opening game action, many Ranger prospects took to the ice, a couple making a difference in their games. Coverage is all over the place -- the best place to get a Rangercentric point of view is the Rangers' web site, where every prospect's contribution is specifically noted. The biggest result was the USA's 5-4 win over Russia, with Al Montoya getting the win between the pipes.

What Will Santa Bring This Christmas?

Happy holiday from Blueshirt Bulletin!

Illustration by John Coutihno

The World Juniors take over center stage, the biggest stage theyv'e ever been on thanks to the NHL lockout. Team previews can help you track Ranger prospects on the various teams -- Nigel Dawes (Canada), Al Montoya and Ryan Callahan (USA), Lauri Korpikoski (Finland), Ivan Baranka (Slovakia), and Jakub Petruzalek and Zdenek Bahensky (Czech Republic).

For those more inclined to looking back than looking forward, CNN/SI.com has taken a page out of Blueshirt Bulletin in providing a recommended reading list. Money Players by Bruce Dowbiggin was on our list and is on this one too. We're in the middle of reading the third book on CNN/SI's list, Ballad of the Whiskey Bandit, the story of a Hungarian third-string hockey goalie who became the country's best known bank robber (a true story, and a good one too).

SportsLine.com provides the requisite parody of A Night Before Christmas, wondering what will happen to the grand old men of hockey due to this lockout. The home page photo is of our own grand old man, Mark Messier, praying. Whether he is praying for a proper send-off, as the caption suggests, or for one last long-term Ranger contract, as Ranger fans fear, is hard to tell.

It has been suggested that it is not in the interest of the NHL's plan to declare impasse for the NHL to formally cancel this season. Yet that is what everyone believes will happen January 14th when the Board of Governors convenes with Commissioner Gary Bettman. Sherry Ross at the News puts in her two cents on the story.

Charlotte again the only prospect action in Rangerstan -- Lee Falardeau scored another goal in a winning cause, his tenth of the season. Maybe there's more pulse in the guy's game than we ever imagined. Maybe it's just the ECHL.

The old cup is half empty, cup is half full cliche takes on a whole new twist at Canada.com where someone wrote a retrospective titled "A look back: year in hockey not all bad" -- the issue here is not whether the cup is half empty or half full, but what exactly is in the cup he's drinking out of.

Deep Freeze

The NHL is going into a deeper freeze than we experienced up here at Lake Naomi the past few days. That leaves us with little to recommend by way of reading for today. This would be a good time to catch up on Stan Fischler's MSGN column, or read about Bobby Holik's portfolio of vacation homes in the lead paragraph to Kara Yorio's Sporting News column.

Maybe this is a good time to check in on the Worldstars barnstorming tour of Europe, especially since their 7-6 win last night was keyed by a pair of ex-Rangers, Alexandre Daigle netting a pair of goals and Anson Carter leading the comeback. Two consecutive AP reports called Carter a Ranger -- you'd think someone there would check their facts. Carter is one of several ex-Rangers on FoxSports' list of players in decline -- but Ranger fans knew that already. Alex Kovalev and Tony Amonte are also on the short list of eight. I guess we'll be seeing one or two of the others in New York as soon as play resumes.

The only Ranger-related action to report on is Charlotte's loss last night. Not much to say about the prospects in the report, even though a couple figured in the scoring.

'Tis the Season...

Christmas metaphors have descended upon us in the absence of NHL hockey. "Silent Night" is Bruce Garrioch's theme for darkened NHL arenas (although all NHL arenas are darkened on Christmas even when they're playing). More relevant is Garrioch's lucid explanation of how impasse scenarios would work. Be prepared -- read it. Over at ESPN.com, the season of giving is the theme for the ever-optimistic John Buccigross, who thinks the impasse can be broken if only the parties would negotiate from each other's point of view. Yes, Virginia -- there really is a Santa Claus!

More cogent analysis of the situation at FoxSports, where Spector takes on the NHL's ludicrous revenue sharing proposal, in which small-market, below-cap teams like Ottawa, Calgary, and Tampa would give up revenue to cash cows in New York, Boston, and Chicago due to their superior playoff achievements. As they say on South Park and Everybody Loves Raymond -- Holy crap!

Philadelphia is one big market team that would contribute to revenue sharing because of their playoff success. That is only one reason they do not truly support Gary Bettman, even though Ed Snider publicly backed him last week. The big thing, though, is that, off the record, Snider and Bobby Clarke do not want anyone telling them how much to spend and who to spend it on.

Fans who think a salary cap will lead to lower ticket prices should listen to Gary Bettman: not the same, he says, dismissing any linkage between a salary cap and a ticket price cap, even though he will swear to high heavens that high salaries lead to high ticket prices (even while every sports economist in the world will tell you it's exactly the other way around).

Otherwise, hockey news is so slim that the major coverage today goes to WJC exhibition games played by Canada and USA. Thanks to Chado for alerting us to Al Montoya being on the cover of THN -- our copy hasn't come in the mail yet.

All those shots Eric Lindros took to the head haven't affected his ability to think off the ice -- the once but not future Ranger is at the University of Toronto studying economics during the lockout.

PokerRoom.com has invited the NHL and NHLPA to settle its dispute over a game of Texas Hold-em. We love Texas Hold-em as much as anyone else who has read Positively Fifth Street (run out right now and get it if you haven't), but this is a game of Chicken the NHL and PA are playing, not anything requiring sophisticated strategic thinking like Texas Hold-em.

Too Quiet on the Western Front

Just about a week has passed since the mutual rejection society shut down the NHL, and after a few days of exasperation and indignation on the part of participants, pundits, and fans, it appears that no one cares anymore. Nothing, nada. The NHL is history. Good -- maybe the deafening roar of silence, apathy, and disinterest will wake those idiots up.

Meanwhile, for the Rangers, the prospect beat goes on. McKeen's Hockey has put out its list of top 100 prospects, with goalies separated into a top 30 of their own. The Rangers own a full 20% of the top ten goalies -- Montoya (#5) and Lundqvuist (#7) -- plus three more players on the top 100, though only Tyutin ranks high (#7 overall), with Jessiman (#62) and Korpikoski (#74) down in the lower depths. You have to read a summary of the results at the Ranger web site because McKeen's wants you to pay to see their articles.

The best possible prospect may be there for the Rangers to pluck. Sidney Crosby's agents are figuring out how to make him a free agent if there is no CBA and hence no draft in 2005. The Rangers are taking all the blame for the shape of the NHL, even though the truth is they are only partly at fault, so they might as well get their money's worth and grab Crosby while the grabbing's good. After all that money wasted on aging overpaid underachievers, how fitting would it be for the Rangers to suddenly become model citizens and let Toronto make the Crosby move? Read about Crosby at THN.com while pondering all that.

The Pack made it a clean sweep of their weekend slate with another shoot-out win over Portland, the second time they've done that to the Pirates in three days. Jozef Balej continued his resurgence by scoring one of the shoot-out goals, though that doesn't make it into the box score for some reason, and Jamie Lundmark hopefully kindled a resurgence of his own with another shoot-out goal. Charlotte won the back half of their two-game set against the Texas Wildcatters, with Lee Falardeau scoring for the second straight game, this time the game winner instead of a wasted goal.

Finally, even with the NHL shut down, an NHL owner has been pushed into bankruptcy by a player. Todd McFarlane named one of the characters in his Spawn comic series Tony Twist and was successfully sued by the former NHL enforcer of the same name for hurting his reputation -- the Twist character is a violent New York mob boss. McFarlane had to declare bankruptcy because of the award given to Twist. McFarlane is a member of the Edmonton Oilers' ownership group. Wonder how Gary Bettman is going to "twist" this one in his favor?