Blueshirt Boggle

Rhetoric Ratcheting Up Again

The Post reports today that NHL-PA meetings are forthcoming in the next week, with some optimism about a new spirit of compromise on the part of owners. "Team officials have privately assured players that the militant stances of Jeremy Jacobs and other hawks are not representative of ownership at large." Meanwhile, despite the news that the NHL has no plans to use replacement players next fall, an apparent victory for moderate owners over hawks at last week's Board of Governors meeting, the PA has applied for union certification in the provinces of Quebec and British Columbia -- if certified, replacement players would not be allowed in those provinces.

Bill Daly responded strongly to the suggestion that players without contracts come June 1 (for draftees ) or July 1 (for RFAs) could be declared free agents via legal action. "The status of all players will be determined in collective bargaining," he told the Ottawa Sun. While that is true (and was echoed by a PA statement), it does not say anything about what a court might decide if faced with a legal challenge in the absence of a CBA. Part of the NHL's problem is wanting to have its cake and eat it too -- it wants existing NHL contracts, like Jagr's and Holik's, to run down by a year for the missed year, but it also wants restrictive rights to extend by the same year. It can attempt to impose its will over the PA in CBA negotiations, but such impositions are not possible in a court of law. What might also sway a court of law is something like this: "one of the reasons [draftees] had not been signed was because teams were told they would be able to sign draft picks at a lower rate if they waited for a new CBA," writes Bruce Garrioch -- a statement that smacks of collusion.

Charlotte spotted Gwinnett a first period goal before roaring back for a 4-1 win that put them ahead 2-1 in their best of five playoff. Three of the four goals were scored by Ranger prospects -- David Liffiton, Dwight Helminen, and Ryan Cuthbert. The Checkers can clinch the series at home this evening. Hartford also plays tonight, with coach Ryan McGill "exasperated by the inconsistency of some top players" (according to the Hartford Courant's Bruce Berlet) and lack of mental preparedness. The winner of tonight's match will take a 3-2 lead with a chance to clinch the series on Saturday.

Kootenay came back from a 4-1 deficit to force overtime, with Nigel Dawes igniting the comeback with a goal, but lost to Kelowna in overtime. That pushes the Ice to the brink, a 3-1 deficit in games that will be difficult to overcome. Prince Albert also mounted a comeback in their game vs. Brandon, scoring four goals for a 4-2 win, tying their series at two games apiece. Rick Kozak had an assist and 33 penalty minutes, racked up in two separate skirmishes. Ottawa swept its series with Peterborough with an OT win -- Jakub Petruzalek did not contribute much to the clincher, going scoreless and -2 as the Petes came back from an early deficit to force OT. Former Ranger assistant coach Dick Todd is Peterborough's head coach. Former Ranger Daniel Lacroix coached Moncton (and Ranger draftee Bruce Graham) last season, but was relieved of his duties after the Wildcats were eliminated from the QMJHL playoffs last week. Lacroix's dismissal was unreported, the news focusing instead on his replacement, former Adams Trophy winner Ted Nolan, who has been blackballed by the NHL since losing his job in Buffalo.

Lots of Losses

Jamie Lundmark was one of the heroes of game three, when the Wolf Pack took a 2-1 lead in their opening round series vs. Lowell. Last night, he was one of the goats, his slashing penalty giving Lowell a five on three on which they converted both ends en route to a 3-2 win that evened the best of seven playoff. Lundmark partially redeemed himself with a goal, but Dominic Moore and Jozef Balej were benched for lackadaisical play. Charlotte's best of five series with Gwinnett, even at one game apiece, resumes tonight, with coach Derek Wilkinson making do with a revolving door of a roster.

Nigel Dawes assisted on an early second period goal that tied Kootenay's playoff game with Kelowna at 1-1, but the Rockets scored exactly one minute later to regain the lead and cruise to a 4-1 win that gives them a 2-1 lead over the Ice in their series. Prince Albert suffered a similar fate, losing 5-1 to allow Brandon to take a 2-1 lead in their series. Ranger prospects Dane Byers and Rick Kozak did little more than rack up penalty minutes at an alarming rate. In US college ranks, Greg Moore was named captain of the University of Maine team -- Moore was profiled in the last issue of Blueshirt Bulletin, praised as much for his leadership as for his team-leading 14 goals.

Bob Goodenow has been accused in some quarters of stalling in the PA's negotiations with the NHL over the ongoing lockout. Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun provides one possible reason for the tactic: "Several agents told the Sun," he reports today, "if there's no CBA in place by July 1 -- the date players must receive the required qualifying offers -- they are prepared to take legal action to get their clients declared unrestricted free agents." The players in question are not typical over-30 UFAs, but young guns like Jarome Iginla, Marian Hossa, Dany Heatley, Joe Thornton, and Rick Nash. If draft-eligible super-prospects like Sidney Crosby and Gilbert Brule take a similar course, there could be a massive free for all if and when the NHL ever resumes play.

Filling Hugh In

A review in the Times of Cablevision's dispute with Time Warner over the price for the MSGN and FSNY networks that has 2.4 million New York cable subscribers blacked out of CVC's sports programming (what's left of it -- the Mets, for one last season). The Times also has a piece on junior phenom Sidney Crosby, a good excuse for us to say to Ranger management: sign him! Take advantage of the lockout and go get him -- there's no CBA, no draft, no restrictions. Do it.

Waiting for the next game in Hartford's opening round playoff series, Bruce Berlet of the Courant writes about one of the heroes of the last game, Jamie Lundmark. In Charlotte, the Checkers forged a 3-0 lead on goals by Ranger prospects Ryan Glenn and Dwight Helminen, plus a Glenn assist, and then proceeded to blow it before winning 4-3 in overtime to knot their series with Gwinnett at one game apiece. Jakub Petruzalek's Ottawa 67s grabbed a commanding 3-0 series lead with a 4-3 win over Peterborough last night -- Petruzalek was held scoreless.

On such a light news day, here's an interview with Hugh Jessiman by Blueshirt Bulletin contributor Patrick Hoffman:

PH: How did you get hooked on hockey?
HJ: My dad took me to the rink when I was age 4. I would skate until night time. What really got me hooked was watching Don Cherry Rock’em Sock‘em hockey tapes. I actually learned a lot from them. I would watch highlights in the morning and then go out and try to recreate those situations in my driveway until night.

PH: Growing up, who were your favorite teams and players?
HJ: I grew up watching the Rangers, players like Brian Leetch, Mike Richter, Adam Graves, Alexei Kovalev, and Mark Messier. I also loved Wayne Gretzky. I went to see him in person at MSG when he was playing for the Kings. It turned out he was out of the lineup for the night! It was a tough day for me!

PH: Growing up, was making the NHL a priority or was it more like a dream?
HJ: I would never say it was a priority until it started to become more realistic. When you are young, it is a dream to play in the NHL, but as time passes, you become wiser and start to believe in yourself and understand how important confidence can be.

PH: What was it like to be drafted by the New York Rangers?
HJ: It was a great experience to be drafted by the Rangers. They have great history. But what I didn't know when I was drafted is how professional the organization is. There are great people throughout the organization, a great environment.

PH: What is it like knowing that you potentially have a nice future in the NHL?
HJ: It is a nice feeling but with that comes the feeling that I still have a lot of work ahead of me. Like the old saying states, "No sweat, no sweet". I know I have to work really hard in order to be even referred to as an NHL player. The Rangers have helped me along in this process and I plan on succeeding for them.

PH: What did you expect going into your first Rangers prospects camp?
HJ: I have been to prospect camps for the Rangers since I have been drafted. I just expect to be well prepared, mentally and physically, for anything. I have learned a lot about work ethic off the ice, using the off-season to prepare myself for the season.

PH: Which current NHLer would you compare your playing style to?
HJ: I would like to say Joe Thornton. I like to dish the puck quite a bit but I can score too. I am not overly physical but I definitely do throw my weight around on the ice. I like watching Thornton because he has great vision and hands.

PH: Tell us what it was like to recover from the serious injury you sustained last November.
HJ: It was a tough year for me. It was depressing, but with time came motivation to come back stronger from this injury. I worked really hard to get back in the lineup for the end of the year but unfortunately had some tough puck luck. I will come back better than ever next year though.

PH: How did it feel to rejoin your college mates on the ice after your injury?
HJ: It really meant a lot to me to come back and be with the guys for the final stretch. There really is nothing like chatting it up with the guys and lacing up the skates. I missed that for three months so obviously I was pretty excited to get back in the swing of things.

PH: What do you hope to accomplish in the future?
HJ: I want to be a successful NHL player and I want to win a Stanley Cup with the New York Rangers. I'd be more than happy with just that!

Taking Over the Worlds

The World Championships take center stage in this year of microscopic attention to events normally overlooked. And taking center stage at the WCs, which open Saturday in Austria, is Jaromir Jagr, who graces the roster previews (same CP story) at both Sportsnet and Slam! In the absence of its top players (Forsberg, Sundin, Naslund, Lidstrom), Sweden is taking an interesting approach -- eight players from SEL champion Frolunda, including starting goaltender Henrik Lundqvist (another Indian is Ronnie Sundin, a veteran of one AHL season in Hartford and one NHL game, as a Ranger of course). Joining Jagr on the Czech team are once and future Ranger Martin Rucinsky, twice the ex-Ranger Jan Hlavac, former Czech Posse member Radek Dvorak, and current Ranger prospect Petr Prucha, who made the team as a dark horse after a monster playoff season in helping lead Paradubice to the Czech Extraliga title.

A Jamie Lundmark face-off set up Ken Gernander's game winning goal as Hartford rebounded from a game two loss to post a 4-1 win and retake the lead in their playoff series vs. Lowell two games to one. Wolf Pack week in review and week ahead from NYR.com, as usual. More as promised on Charlotte's opening game OT loss to Gwinnett from Cliff Mehrtens of the Charlotte Observer.

Theo Fleury was as sore a loser as the public has ever witnessed after his senior team was eliminated in the Allan Cup semifinals Saturday. The Horse Lake ringer acted more like a horse's ass in the wake of the embarrassing loss, which was welcomed gleefully by the local fans. Robert Tychkowski of the Winnipeg Sun freely quoted the volatile one-time Ranger bust: "The only reason this tournament sold out was because of yours truly right here," he quotes Fleury as saying. "We all know it and I'm going to say it: Once again Theo Fleury puts hockey on the map when it needs it the most." Actually, points out Tychkowski, "the thing was sold out before Horse Lake qualified, but you never stop a guy when he's rolling."

So he continues to quote Fleury: "A guy that carries a lunch-pail to work every day, a frustrated human being, he doesn't want to face his problems head-to-head, so who's the perfect target? Theo Fleury. He's had success, he's had fame, he's had fortune. Those people have to yell at me to make themselves feel better about themselves. You know what, I'll take the high road." Wow! We'd hate to see what the low road would look like. Probably something akin to a chicken dance. (More on the story from Tychkowski at Slam! Sports.)

Late Sunday Night Playoff Update

Hartford was smashed by Lowell in game two of their playoff series, losing 2-1 in a physical contest. Charlotte lost their opener vs. Gwinnett 2-1 in overtime late Sunday evening (more on the game tomorrow). In nearly four periods of play, Charlotte gave up 62 shots on goal. Theo Fleury choked in the Allan Cup semifinal, managing one lone assist as the Horse Lake Thunder lost to underdog Thunder Bay 7-5. Thunder Bay went on to win the Cup the next day. In the OHL playoffs, Jakub Petruzalek scored another goal as Ottawa took a 2-0 series lead with a 3-0 win over Peterborough. In the WHL, Jess Rubenstein reports:

"Nigel Dawes had a hand in all three Kootenay goals as the Ice tied up their series with the Kelowna Rockets 1-1 with a 3-2 win. His fourth goal of the playoffs got the Ice going, but his assists wound up making the difference. Dawes now has five points in his last two games. For his efforts (which included a fight!) Dawes was named the game's first star. Meanwhile, Dane Byers was third star of his game for scoring what turned out to be the winning goal as Prince Albert evened their series with Brandon 1-1, also with a 3-2 win. His fourth goal of the playoffs was matched by fellow Ranger prospect Rick Kozak, who added his fourth goal of the playoffs."

Another Rainy Saturday

The WHL playoffs resumed last night. Jess Rubenstein reports from the west coast: "Dane Byers scored his third goal of the playoffs but it wasn't enough as his Prince Albert Raiders lost Game One of the Western Conference finals 4-2 to the Brandon Wheat Kings. Byers took twelve minutes in penalties due to a fight at the end of the second period which really hurt the Raiders' chances. Fellow Ranger prospect Rick Kozak was scoreless. In the Eastern Conference Finals, Nigel Dawes had two assists but his Kootenay Ice lost Game One of their series to the Kelowna Rockets, also by the score of 4-2. This series is expected to be the closest of the two conference finals as these teams were the best in the WHL, finishing 1-2 in the regular season."

Glen Sather and his co-owners in the WHL were able to get their wish to move to Canada without uprooting their current team from its existing locale in central Washington. They were awarded an expansion franchise in British Columbia after selling their stake in the Tri-City Americans, based in Kennewick, Washington, to local interests (the team GM and a local investor) as well as NHL players Stu Barnes and Olaf Kolzig. Ranger prospect Marcus Jonasen captained the Amerks last season.

Henrik Lundqvist was named European Player of the Month for March by Eurohockey.net, which concerns us mainly because the announcement is accompanied by a nice article about the goaltender who has moved to the head of the Rangers' formidable class of netminders after his stellar championship season in Sweden. The article takes us deeper into his past -- we didn't realize he has a twin brother, Joel, a center who plays with him for the Frolunda Indians and who was drafted ahead of him in the third round in 2000 by Dallas -- and takes a look ahead to his future journey to North America to join the Ranger organization. Lundqvist is still playing, starting in net for Sweden in the World Championships, though he is unlikely to win another title there considering that the team in front of him will be thin of his nation's top talent.

The Wolf Pack return to the ice for Game Two of their series vs. Lowell tonight with bulletin board quotes from Lowell's coach to fuel them -- complaints about Pack coach Ryan McGill whining to the refs. Bruce Berlet reports in the Hartford Courant that Martin Grenier will be returning to action, replacing Ivan Baranka, who made his Hartford debut in Game One.

The act that may have broken the logjam, that may have changed the course of the lockout, is reported in full by Tim Panaccio of the Philadelphia Inquirer. In one outburst, power broker Jeremy Jacobs may have had his power broken when he abruptly told Bob Goodenow last Tuesday that there was no point in further NHL-PA meetings if the PA wasn't prepared to compeltely give in to the NHL's longstanding demands for league-wide revenue linkage at 54%. A day later, at the Board of Governors meeting, saner heads seemed to prevail and even Jacobs came out optimistic that a deal would be brokered that would allow the NHL to resume play next season without having to resort to replacement players.

Empty Arenas

Hartford drew first blood in its opening round series with Lowell, cruising to a 5-2 win behind a pair of goals by Alexandre Giroux. Game 2 will be played on Saturday night, even if only two thousand or so fans show up again. Attendance woes also make the Charlotte Checkers' sudden playoff success a dubious achievement financially. Notes the Charlotte Observer: "In its two home playoff games, the Checkers averaged just 2,217 fans, less than half of the 5,048 who came to regular-season games." Seems counterintuitive to those of us who follow the NHL, but in the ECHL, teams must pay players for playoffs, while ticket sales become harder due to lack of time to promote them -- especially lucrative group sales.

Times remain tough for Cablevision, starting with their world famous arena, Madison Square Garden, which will be dark for yet another spring. Both the Rangers and Knicks are not participating in postseason play, the Rangers for the eighth straight year, due to the lockout this time around. "The financial impact of losing the Rangers to the lockout is $42.7 million," writes Richard Sandomir of the Times -- hard to tell what exactly he means, but he is likely referring to arena revenue loss due to the absence of Ranger hockey. Meanwhile, Time Warner and Comcast won the Adelphia bid on which CVC was the competitor, and Time Warner said afterwards they'd be interested in acquiring Cablevision's cable network should the Dolans ever consider selling.

Jakub Petruzalek was highly instrumental in helping the Ottawa 67s win the first game of their OHL conference final series 3-2 in overtime. He had a first period goal and assisted on the OT winner. According to the Ottawa Sun, coach Brian "Kilrea praised Akeson, Kaspar and Petruzalek for their efforts last night, and said the trio was Ottawa's top line." Theo Fleury had two goals as the Horse Lake Thunder won big again (7-2) in the Allan Cup finals. A lengthy Edmonton Sun article about the Thunder had little on Fleury other than a classic photo of the sneering winger.

ESPN's acquisition of the rights to broadcast Monday Night Football could have a significant impact on the NHL. "We believe that any rebuilding of that property would benefit from having ESPN behind it," ESPN Executive VP Steve Shapiro said, according to the Post. "We would like to do a deal, but that deal needs to be on our terms." That probably means that the network will only pick up its June 1st option to cablecast the NHL next season for a price less than the $60 million it is currently set at.

Back to Prospecting

Charlotte completed a comeback from a 2-0 deficit in games by coming back from a two-goal deficit to win the deciding game of their opening round series vs. Columbia. They did it on a natural hat trick by Lee Falardeau, who scored a second period power play goal, the third period equalizer, and the overtime game winner. Falardeau had just returned to the Checker line-up after a brief call-up to Hartford. Columbia's side of the story, not much of one, can be found here. Charlotte's second round best of five series vs. Gwinnett starts Sunday in the Atlanta area. Bruce Berlet previews Hartford's playoff against Lowell, opening tonight. His paper, the Courant, also profiles Pack captian Ken Gernander. And at NYR.com, the Wolf Pack week in review and week ahead.

Hockey's Future has their latest tally of the Rangers' top twenty NHL prospects. As always, Fedor Tyutin heads the list. Henrik Lundqvist shot up after his stellar season in Sweden to overtake Al Montoya, who disappointed this year. We're pleased to see that many of the prospects we've covered extensively in Blueshirt Bulletin have made the list or have improved their ranking -- Lundqvist, Nigel Dawes, Bruce Graham, Brandon Dubinsky, and Dominic Moore. We're surprised that Finnish players Jarkko Immonen and Lauri Korpikoski rank so high (fifth and sixth), especially Korpikoski after a season that can only be characterized as bad. We're equally surprised that Ivan Baranka fared no better than honorable mention, behind defensemen Thomas Pock, Bryce Lampman, and David Liffiton, none of whom appear to be better prospects right now than Baranka despite having played at a higher level this season (AHL or AHL-ECHL).

Lots of discussion today about the bombshell announcement after the Board of Governors meeting that the NHL will not attempt to employ replacement players at the start of next season. New York area reporters weigh in here (Larry Brooks is not impressed), here (his Post colleague Mark Everson), here (Joe Lapointe of the Times), here (Alan Hahn of Newsday -- "Neither Islanders owner Charles Wang nor Rangers owner Jim Dolan were available for comment."), and here (Stan Fischler still fixed on the idea that the PA will never settle with Goodenow in charge). Other pundits weigh in at their usual locations (sorry, too many to link to today). Everything still seems for the moment at least to boil down to what we said in our previous report -- saner heads appear to have prevailed at the NHL level, realizing that extraordinary PA concessions have already been won and that the threat of scabs was no threat at all, and that all that really remains to be negotiated are numbers satisfactory to both sides (still no easy feat).

Theo Fleury is back in the spotlight, with his senior team, the Horse Lake Thunder, competing for the Allan Cup. Fleury and Gino Odjick combined to score three goals in the Thunder's 9-2 rout last night, with Fleury scoring one and assisting on both of Odjick's power play markers. With attention focused on him again, Fleury is back to being his old controversial self, railing against Canadian racism in a Slam! profile and denying that he is being paid big bucks to play for Horse Lake.

Slumbering Owners Wake Up

There are two types of owners in the NHL. The smart ones and the greedy ones. The smart ones are the ones who have done well in the NHL, the ones who know that you make money by building a winner or by vertically integrating your franchise with state of the art arenas or cable TV networks -- or better yet, both. The greedy ones are the ones who have not been able or willing to do that, or who are not satisfied with what they have (as is the case with a couple of original six owners).

So far in this ruinous lockout, the greedy owners have been able to make the smart ones turn greedy too, with the promise of windfall profits if the league proves successful in capping salaries at a low level. But today, the smart ones won out. After the Board of Governors meeting, the NHL announced that there will be no hockey next fall without a new CBA -- i.e. no replacement players. The smart owners realized that the threat of replacements was no threat at all, that the players had nothing to gain by capitulating now to a system they are sure to get anyway via impasse and implementation, that the players had more to gain by giving replacement hockey a chance to fail than by avoiding it. The smart owners realized that their best hand, short of coming to terms with the players, was to not have any hockey at all, to let the lockout continue.

Jeremy Jacobs, who was solely responsible for the breakdown of talks with the PA on Tuesday, as well as with exposing once and for all for all to see how his agenda has been driving this impasse, finally was not allowed to get his way. The man whom Stan Fischler just yesterday called the top power broker in the NHL has (apparently) had his power broken. With the PA having given in on so many issues, right down to agreeing to a salary cap linked to league-wide revenues, the smart owners realized there was little to be gained by continuing to be greedy. An agreement, somewhere between the PA's idea of revenue linkage and the NHL's already infamous 54%, now appears to be achievable -- as long as the smart owners can carry forth the momentum they gained today.

Ironically, the greedy owners stand to gain so much more by following the lead of the PA and the smart owners, in the form of meaningful revenue sharing, than by following their own scorched earth policies. Except for Jacobs and Wirtz -- no one is going to be sharing revenue with them, they are going to be sharing with other truly needy franchises rather than continuing to line their own pockets at the expense of their loyal fans.

Who's Kidding Whom?

As expected, no progress was made in the latest round of NHL-PA negotiations in New York yesterday, despite the appearance of optimism after the PA agreed to a form of revenue linkage during the prior round. Each side as usual blamed the other for the result. "It’s clear that [Goodenow] wants to drag this out as long as possible," one NHL source told Stan Fischler of MSGN.com, while another said, "The [NHLPA] did a lot of talking but none of it moved the process forward.” On the flip side, Ted Sasking of the PA said, "The NHL is not serious about developing new concepts and remains fixated on measuring all of our proposed concepts against a linked, hard-cap system. I fail to see how we can make any progress if the NHL maintains their single-track approach."

In the past, dueling statements like these were little more than he said-she said propositions. This time, though, there is an additional piece of news from the meeting, as reported by the CP's Pierre Lebrun: "Boston owner Jeremy Jacobs, according to a source, sparked a heated exchange when he said the PA's concept did not deliver the linked system his side was looking for -- 54% of league revenues. The union responded by saying its concept was not supposed to deliver that figure, or the league's version of linkage. That pretty much ended the six and half hour meeting."

The PA has offered a 24% salary rollback, has given in on a salary cap, and has even capitulated on some form of linkage to revenue. All that is left is to work out the numbers to everyone's satisfaction. Apparently, the only number the NHL is interested in is the one they started at: 54% (though the problem remains, 54% of what exactly, because what the NHL has offered up so far in terms of their notion of revenue is not an accepted definition of revenue in anyone's book except theirs).

The PA continues to insist that some form of meaningful revenue sharing between teams accompany their concessions. "There's not going to be any agreement until they get all of the owners on the same page," a source told Alan Hahn of Newsday. "There cannot be this partnership with the players until they have a partnership among themselves." Thus the difference in the PA's concept of linkage relative to the league's: "The union has proposed unique team-based payroll floors and ceilings based on an aggressive revenue sharing plan," says Larry Brooks of the Post. Says a CP/TSN.ca article on today's Board of Governors meeting: "Revenue sharing is expected to be on the table. Bettman has been trying to garner support to adopt a system that would see the more successful clubs give money to small-market clubs." But the main topic of the meeting today is expected to be replacement players.

In Ranger-related news, Bruce Berlet talks to Jozef Balej about his disappointingly inconsistent season, contrasting it to his excellent year last year. FoxSports.com has a preview of the AHL playoffs, including Hartford's opening round series vs. Lowell, which starts tomorrow evening. Lee Falardeau and Rory Rawlyk will be back with Charlotte tonight for the deciding game of their opening round series vs. Columbia. Cablevision has increased their offer for Adelphia to over $17 billion but are still offering nearly $1 billion less than Time Warner and Comcast, though their all-cash offer may make up some for that in the eyes of the bankruptcy court that will decide the final award. Former defenseman Rudy Poeschek, who started his career as a popular Ranger enforcer, will serve 60 days in jail after an ugly driving incident in Florida. "I think it would probably be in the best interest of everyone if you left the country," the judge said in agreement when hearing of his plans return to his native Canada.