The View From Wisconsin

I'm excited and yet jaded when I heard the news about XM Radio and Sirius planning on merging later this year.

I'm excited because this means that I can finally listen to all of the major sports on my XM radio, but I'm jaded because I know the FCC and the FTC won't let this one go by the wayside.

The term "monopoly" doesn't get thrown around lightly in DC, but it's already being used to describe this merger.

The problem is, of course, that no one else outside of XM and Sirius provide satellite radio coverage in North America. And that means that the FTC would have to allow XM/Sirius to operate as a monopoly - which wouldn't be a good thing for consumers.

My fear is that if the two don't merge, one of them will end up going belly-up anyways. And my biggest fear is that it'll be XM Radio.

I didn't see if this got posted previously, and it's an old one - but it's worth re-posting.

1. Canada is the greatest resource of hockey knowledge in the world. Players, coaches, front office personnel and fans know more, care more and play harder than anyone else in the game.

If this is true, why did it take them 50-plus years to finally win another Olympic gold medal? There are a lot of mediocre-to-bad players that come out of places like Brantford, Parry Sound, Moosaskin and such than there are good players. For every Wayne Gretzky, there are 100 Brant Myhrres. And if Canadian coaches are so smart, why have so many been fired repeatedly? Look at the late Roger Neilson; he was fired from several teams, including the Maple Leafs. (The Leafs, all by themselves, are proof that Canadian ownership is no better than American pro sports ownership.)

2. Cities and locales that have successfully maintained major and minor professional hockey consistently over the last 50 years are the only such locales that will successfully sustain a NHL franchise in the future.

I'm not sure I'd say that Ottawa "successfully maintained" anything over the last 50 years. Ditto Edmonton and Calgary. I don't see much to this exercise, because there are plenty of locales that meet this standard that have lost NHL franchises - like Minnesota, Hartford, Winnipeg and Quebec City. The city of Chicago didn't exactly "take" to the Blackhawks when they began play in the NHL in 1924. In fact, for the first few years of their existence, an AHA team was arguably the more popular franchise. And the fans that used to pack in the upper deck of the old Chicago Stadium are now taking their kids to the Allstate Arena in Rosemont to watch AHL hockey.

3. Hockey scouts are founts of knowledge about the game of hockey and the NHL's franchises. Scouts have seen enough hockey to be able to predict how a player will do in the NHL.

The only thing hockey scouts know about an NHL franchise is whether or not they've paid them recently. A scout's job is to evaluate talent on the basis of skills, not on actual playing ability or projections of what they would do in the NHL Any scout who labels a kid as a "50 goal scorer" is just guessing. A kid from some Division III school who gets a tryout at an AHL training camp is just as likely to score 50 in the NHL as a kid who has been touted from his first game in juniors as being a 50-goal scorer in the NHL. And just because a scout says that a player has all the playing skills necessary to play in the NHL, that doesn't mean he won't go off and do something stupid - whether it's roll a Hummer at 85 mph with a BAC of .020 or simply refuse to be a team player by not passing the puck. Remember: for every scout who found a Sakic or a Selanne, they also found 20 Smiths and MacKenzies who they swore would be NHL material - and yet never made it past the very low minors.

4. For a team to be a true Stanley Cup contender, they must have one or more elite players on their roster.

In other words, if you don't have someone who's either a.) won a Stanley Cup, b.) won a major piece of NHL hardware, or c.) scored 50 goals in the NHL, you don't have what it takes to win the Stanley Cup. If this is true, then how in the hell did Anaheim and Minnesota make it to the Conference Finals? Marian Gaborik wasn't considered an "elite player" until after the fact. The only way you become a Stanley Cup contender is to score more goals than you give up and win hockey games. That's all. Names only take you as far as the press clippings. If names won Stanley Cups, the Rangers would have five by now.

5. A team needs to be willing to spend money on elite players to be able to contend for the Stanley Cup.

Don't tell this to Lou Lamiorello. Or to Doug Risebrough. Lou got the Devils to their fourth Cup finals in eight years because he evaluated talent that he drafted or signed and developed, kept what he wanted and traded away for better players the ones he didn't. Risebrough drafted and developed young, defensive-minded players who could buy into Jacques Lemaire's defensive-oriented system. It's better if a team can evaluate talent, know how much to spend for that talent, and get the most out of that talent. Eventually, if the team is accurate with its assessments, they will have elite players on their team - without having to pay exorbiant free agent salaries.

6. The neutral zone trap is extremely boring hockey and prevents player from opening up and scoring at will.

It's also an incredible example of finesse hockey. The trap that everyone complains about is the concept of players doing everything they can to prevent the puck carrier from entering the attacking zone. It's also impossible to pull off on a regular basis. Back in the 1980's, a football coach by the name of Darrell "Mouse" Davis came up with the concept of the four-wideout "spread" offense, because of a simple truth of the game - you can find more good players who can catch passes than you can find ones who can properly defend a pass. The trap is a reverse of that theory - the more you force a team to make "perfect passes" to break through the defense, the more likely you are to make a mistake - and the better suited you are to take advantage of that mistake.

7. The elimination of the two-line (offside) pass would encourage "cherry picking" at a team's attacking blue line.

The neutral zone, as it stands right now, is only 54 feet wide. That isn't a whole lot of territory to cover - which is shown by the effectiveness of the neutral zone trap and the left-wing lock. So, a pass from your own defending zone to a player on the other side of the red line isn't such a bad concept. I do have a problem with legalizing passes to a player from the defending or neutral zones into the attacking zone, however, so this rule shouldn't be completely eliminated. But come on - you want to see the "boring" neutral zone trap go away? Make the one thing that defeats it easier to do.

8. No-touch icing would eliminate the strategy of dump-and-chase line changes.

And this would be bad... how? Players would just have to learn that they have to launch the puck from the attacking side of the center line instead of just blindly firing the puck up the ice. And I don't know about you, but the idea of watching the goaltender corral the puck, then a defender setting up behind the goalie and play "how do we break out today?" is about as much fun as watching ice melt.

9. The disadvantage of having European players on a team is that they don't know as much about the game, and they are always one bad situation away from going home to play hockey back over at home.

This is almost as bad as racial profiling. The old prejudices against Europeans (that they don't like to hit, they're selfish and moody) still linger in the modern NHL. Truth is, if you were several thousand miles from home, and things weren't working out for you in your chosen field of work, you'd be looking for ways to get home. You might also get a little stir-crazy from not knowing the language, the customs, or even where to go to get a good serving of your favorite home-cooked meal. That doesn't mean that these guys aren't playing their hardest.

10. The history of the Original Six franchises is one of hallowed legends and lore that every hockey fan knows and loves. That history also proves why the National Hockey League is the greatest ice hockey league on the face of the Earth.

A quick read of the book Deceptions And Doublecross would lead you to believe otherwise. Considering that the NHL itself was formed out of spite for one team owner, and that all involved in its formation were some of the most sneaky and underhanded individuals who ever set out to run a business, it's amazing that the NHL went as far as it did. The NHL essentially wrested control of the Stanley Cup away from its trustees and declared itself the be-all and end-all of all things ice hockey. Truth be told, during the Original Six era, there were probably several AHL and IHL teams that had better players than the NHL - but there was no room for them, because the NHL refused to expand until 1967. Oh, and the "Original Six" concept is a myth in and of itself: Only one team in the modern NHL was a part of the NHL from the moment it began, and that is the Montreal Canadiens. The Maple Leafs were nothing more than an "expansion team" brought in to replace the Blueshirts franchise of the despised Eddie Livingstone.

11. Hockey fans in Canada are more passionate about the game than fans in the United States; US fans are more likely to go to a hockey game to watch fights than a good goaltending match-up.

If hockey fans in Canada are so passionate about the game, how do you explain Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Quebec and even Montreal losing their major-league hockey franchises since 1921? Yes, it's true: between 1921 and 1998, all eight of these cities had at least one of either an NHL, WHA or PCHA/WHL team. And all of these cities lost their teams. Montreal went from being a hockey hotbed with several major hockey teams in 1909 to having only one with the demise of the Maroons in the 1930's.

As for fans in the US, look at Dennis O'Leary from Boston - he's a gung-ho hockey fan from a gung-ho hockey city. He's done a lot in recent days to spread the word about the game. His favorite player is Bobby Orr, not some thug goon from the "Big Bad Bruins" era. And, if fans would rather watch fights, how do you explain the success of the Minnesota Wild? They're not exactly known for getting penalties five minutes at a time, but they are known for very stingy goaltending. And they have a waiting list for their season ticket holder list.

12. Fighting is a part of the game of hockey.

That is like saying throwing at the batter is part of the game of baseball, or that flagrant fouls are part of the game of basketball. That's just a load of BS. Fighting (or what's known as "fisticuffs" in the rulebook) is a penalty. The rules are clear: you fight, you're off the ice for five. Of course, if you're a stiff who doesn't care if he's not on the ice all night, a five minute major might be seen as a godsend. The NHL isn't serious about doing anything about fighting, but if they were, it wouldn't take too much: just change the rule to include an automatic five for both parties, and a game misconduct for the player deemed to start the fight.

13. Ties are also a part of the game of hockey.

Speaking as a fan who had to sit through the 2002 Major League Baseball All-Star Game debacle, I can only say this: HELL NO! I don't care if the game is baseball, football, hockey, soccer, tic-tac-toe or tiddlywinks - ties just out-and-out suck. Now, there is a cure for this, but it's the one thing that would be the hockey equivalent of the DH: the shootout. Most of your Euros are familiar with it, as are your junior players and your IHL graduates. It sends your season ticket holders home knowing that they saw a game where there was a winner and a loser. And, with the five-man shootout format, it takes a team effort to win the shootout.

14. The game of hockey is a much better game live and in person than on TV.

A recent article about the NHL and High-Definition TV made it clear that the NHL knows what its drawbacks are when it comes to televised hockey: you can't see the whole ice in the smaller format camera feed. So why not do what movie producers do with their films and make games available in a "wide screen" letter-box version? You can put scores on top and in-game updates on the bottom, while allowing the fan the view from "the entire ice" so they can see the play develop. Better still, try putting those Eye-In-The-Sky remote cameras suspended over the rink so the viewer can see the up-ice rushes. There should be a better way to see the game than it's presented now, and it shouldn't take some gimmicky thing like "FoxTrax" to do it.

15. Great hockey teams are built from the goal outward.

This adage should actually be something like this: "The easiest way to put together a good hockey team is to start with a great goaltender." This doesn't explain the success of the Vancouver Canucks, of course. The truth is, great hockey teams have great players on them, who contribute regularly to the success of the team. It naturally follows that one of the great players should be a goaltender. However, there are few goaltenders who are consistent enough to win year in and year out. If you have great players in front of a goaltender, regardless of his talent level, he plays much better. Guys like Grant Fuhr and Eddie Mio probably would be forgettable if they hadn't had talent like Gretzky, Kurri, Messier and Coffey in front of them night after night.

16. Slap Shot was an accurate representation of minor professional hockey in the US during the 1970's.

Yeah, right. There are so many things that the movie "made up" about minor league hockey - like the fact that the Federal League used a single-elimination playoff tournament - that it's only borderline truth. Yeah, there were some colorful players like the Hansons, and the scene at the beginning of the movie with the s--tfaced drunk forward are plausible, and divorces and "free love" were frequent all over North America at the time. But an announcer who was that clueless about hockey? And that much fighting - well, okay, there was a lot of fighting in pro hockey at that time - but really, fighting in the playoffs? Uh-uh, wouldn't happen. The reason why Slap Shot is so popular among hockey fans is that there's an element of the truth in it - long bus rides, maniacal fans, strange things happening on ice, colorful players.

17. Players who wear face visors are more likely to be hit and high sticked than if they weren't wearing them.

This is like the old argument about helmets and going into the corners. "The more safety equipment a player has on, the more likely he's going to be reckless in his play." I don't buy that. I think, in the light of what happened to Bryan Berard and other notable high-sticking incidents, the visor should almost a no-brainer. With the speed of the puck and the ferocity of hits, eye protection should be the rule, and not the exception. Any argument against them isn't being realistic about their benefits.

18. The best hockey sweaters in the history of the game are the Canadiens "bleu, blanc et rouge" uniforms.

I can tell you right now that people in Detroit, Toronto, Boston, New York and Chicago disagree vehemently. What makes a good hockey sweater - and they're called sweaters, not jerseys, by the way - is pretty much a matter of taste. I have always believed that simpler is better, and that a good, descriptive logo beats something generic or overly cartoonish. I've always liked the original San Jose Sharks teal away sweaters, with the Shark logo and the white/black stripes and the block numbers.

19. There is not enough hockey talent in the combined Canadian, US and European hockey systems to sustain the current number of teams in the NHL.

Yes there is. The problem with the European part of the equation is the incentive to jump across the big pond. Most players in the major Euro leagues - Finland, Sweeden, Germany, Italy, Russia - believe that the quality of play in their leagues is at or just above the AAA minor league level (the AHL/IHL level of talent). The typical European player believes - and somewhat rightly, if I might add - that unless they're playing at the elite level, in the NHL, why should they bother uprooting themselves to play the same quality of hockey as they would playing for pro teams in their homeland? Ask any US or Canadian hockey players who have made the jump to Europe as to how that long-term move feels, especially when you're in a country where almost no one speaks your language on a daily basis and a good McDonald's is hard to find.

As for the US/Canadian side of the equation: if it wasn't for the major juniors and the US Colleges, the NHL could have boat-loads of more young talent than any other sport on the continent. The age limits and the existence of juniors and college hockey have made the NHL an older league by fiat. If NHL GM's decided to just put good young talent on the ice night after night, and let the veterans get old and slow very fast, the juniors and college talent pool could become secondary to the development of players. And the NHL could, conceivably, add four to six more teams.

20. The NHL and the NHLPA are headed for a long, extended labor dispute that will result in one or more franchises ceasing operations, and - in a worst-case scenario - the death of the NHL itself.

I would have to believe that, despite all the hard-line talk between Gary Betteman and Bob Goodenow, neither one is really interested in having their livelihoods eliminated out of pure stubbornness. Of course, the NHL was founded out of spite, greed and stubbornness, but that was back when such behavior was fashionable. There has been so much talk and fretting and fussing about this season, and how the World Championships will end one day before the agreement expires. So much talk, in fact, that any sort of a lockout or strike would be perceived as utter failure on the part of the NHL. The sad truth is that the NHL isn't sport #4 in the eyes of the American public anymore. That privilege goes to NASCAR and its Winston/Nextel Cup series. Both sides realize that any sort of extended work stoppage will hurt that position.

That doesn't mean that there won't be grumblings and gripings. Training camps may not open on time. Some harsh words may be said - more than likely by Bill Wirtz, who's trying to play Steinbrenner in all this. But I think, in the end, cooler heads will prevail. Besides, the NHLPA's current proposal is so reasonable that I think even lunkhead Wirtz could be convinced to play under that system.

NOTE: Okay, so I was wrong about point 20. That's not a bad batting average.

There's no place to go but up for most teams - though some fail to do that.

But today is when it all starts again - and it won't be over until (hopefully) sometime in October.

On other news:

• There's been a tizzy as of late over the possible identity of "Eklund" from the hockeybuzz.com website. Supposedly, he is none other than Dwayne Keith Klessel, the keyboard player for a band from Philly known as the Grey Eye Glances.
  In the grand scheme of things, with young men off in Iraq fighting insurgents, homeless people in New Orleans, genocide victims in Darfur, and people buried under several feet of snow in NY state - does it really matter who the heck Eklund is?
  Yeah, maybe he is just some keyboardist for a bar band from Philly. So what? He got people talking, and now everyone's grudging him for making a few bucks.
  Yeah, I am tiffed over the "lifetime pass" thing myself. I know why he changed things mid-stream, though: money doesn't stay around long if you only charge people once.
  Truth be told, I don't really care who he is. He's a hockey fan, and he's impressed with the Predators. That's a plus to me.
• All the hype and hoopla behind the trade for Peter Forsberg, and what happens? The Wild spoil the party with a 4-1 win in front of a packed crowd at the GEC. Did we piss off the Hockey Gods or something?
  
• Today's the NBA All-Star Game, live from Vegas, baby. Not that I'm particularly excited or anything, but you have to wonder how it's going to pan out today. If it's the lowest scoring game in All-Star history, you'll know what happened the last two days.
• I had a good joke about Anna Nicole Smith and cremation, but in the interest of good taste I won't share it. It's not good to speak ill of the dead. Though I could almost see California having a law banning the burning of silicon...

Looks good, doesn't it?

Best of luck to Uppy and Parent. I don't think Scott was long for this organization, to tell the truth.

Meantime, we get one of the best damn players in hockey, even if it's only for a few months.

I like it, I love it, I want some more of it. :)

Five things for a snowy Monday in Southeastern Wisconsin:

Five things that have to happen before the NHL (or any other league) puts a team in the Las Vegas area:

1. The city needs a new arena and/or stadium, built to major-league standards. The Thomas & Mack Center is a nice place and everything, but it isn't an NHL or NBA palace. It also doesn't have the luxuries that an arena build in the last 10 years or so has (the T&M is over three decades old). To be taken seriously, Las Vegas has to heed the words of Ray Kinsiella's muse: "If you build it, they will come."

2. There has to be corporate support for a new team – and not just the casinos. Someone other than the resort people need to put their money down to sponsor the team. The lack of corporate support has been a major thorn in the side of many current franchises – including Nashville – and without this, no owner in their right mind would move their team here. The casinos aren't reliable as long-term supporters, due to the mercurial nature of the gaming industry.

3. There has to be some visible means of support from the fans – meaning Personal Seat Licenses and season ticket pledges. This is the other half of the "support" equation. The city has to try to encourage those who live in "The Meadows" to put their money where their mouths are – sign up and put a deposit down for season tickets for any team that would play there in the future. And, a promise to keep those tickets for a certain number of years wouldn't hurt, either.

4. The city has to convince one or more of the major sports to have a team play a regular season game (or series, in baseball) in the city, preferably in the brand new venue. Yes, the NBA All-Star Game is nice, and it does showcase the city as a potential home to a franchise, but it's just a one-shot, fly-in and fly-out thing. What kind of crowd would you get if you have two teams that aren't playing for either pride or a title facing off in your city? In the NHL, have three sets of teams come in on three separate nights to play a single game in the city, and see what the reaction is to the game.

5. The issue of sports wagering has to be addressed by the casino sports books – to the league's satisfaction. Obviously, the issue of accepting wagers on games played by the team are primary, but the issue that any sports league has about the city is wagering on their sport in any one of the sports books – period. It is primarily for this reason that there will never be an NFL franchise in Las Vegas, since betting on football is the biggest money maker for the casinos and sports books in Nevada.

Five things you probably didn't know about me (and were too afraid to ask):

1. I routinely drive the western end of the oldest Interstate highway in the state of Wisconsin.

2. I own a baseball card of a man with my last name – to whom I am not directly related; and a football card of a man whom I am indirectly related but have met only sparingly in the last 10 years.

3. I have never set foot in the state of California.

4. The only place I have ever set foot outside of the continental United States is Ontario, Canada.

5. When I attended opening night of Miller Park in April of 2001, it was not only not the first National League game I had ever attended, but it was also not the first baseball game I had ever witnessed indoors.

Five things about the 2007 edition of the Nashville Predators:

1. This team goes out onto the ice every night, expecting to win. These aren't your father's Predators; no longer do we sit there, try to outwork the other team, and hope and pray that we can get a lucky break and maybe win. No, this team goes out expecting to come out on top when the final horn sounds. It shouldn't surprise us in the least that we're leading the league in points; that's exactly where we're supposed to be with this bunch of players.

2. Right now, the Predators have, arguably, the best goaltending tandem in the NHL. Vokoun and Mason are in the same class – if not outright better – as that of Anaheim's Giguere and Bryzgalov, San Jose's Nabokov and Toskala, and Detroit's Hasek and Legace. Neither one may end up winning the Vezina Trophy this year, but the Jennings Trophy (lowest GAA) isn't completely out of consideration.

3. This team has depth. The joke in the old Bud Light Hockey Falls advertisements is true about this team: their second line is as good as the first. We have three legitimate scoring lines on this squad, and we have defensive pairings that other teams would kill to have. If that's not enough, consider how this team did with the loss of Scott Nichol to a suspension earlier this year, and the other various injuries we've had. In the recent past, injuries would have sunk us. Right now, we're still sitting atop the heap of the NHL. That says something – especially when we can call up a guy from Milwaukee and not miss too much on the blue line.

4. Even our weak points are actually strengths, if you look close enough. I've pointed out elsewhere that the Preds take their share of shots on net, but over 40% are blocked or miss the net. Of the percentage of shots that actually make it on net, a good chunk of them go in – so even though it's frustrating to be outshot nightly by the opposition, it doesn't mean it's a bad thing. And the other thorn in the side, the power play, isn't as bad as we make it out to be. The Preds are in the top third of the league on the power play in terms of efficiency. This is a team that is capable of scoring on the power play any and every time – and the only way it doesn't happen is if they make a mistake.

5. We have players on this team with championship experience. Don't believe me? Look around: Erat and Vokoun have played on a World Championship winning team, and at the Olympics; Upshall and Zanon have Calder Cup wins under their belt, and Tootoo and Weber played for the Admirals during the '06 CC Finals. Arnott has won the Cup; Kariya played in the finals; Radulov has a Memorial Cup win under his belt.

Five worst moments in my life:

1. My mother's death in 1980.

2. My grandmother's death in 1985.

3. September 11, 2001.

4. Watching the Hershey Bears skate off the ice of the Bradley Center with the Calder Cup in 2006.

5. Watching Gorman Thomas strike out to end the 1982 World Series.

Five best moments of my life:

1. My marriage to Sarah Lehner in October of 1993.

2. My graduation from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 1989.

3. June 9, 2004, and watching the Milwaukee Admirals win the Calder Cup on TV live from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

4. Super Bowl XXXI, the Green Bay Packers winning their first Super Bowl in nearly thirty years.

5. February 16, 2001; my first ever visit to the Gaylord Entertainment Center. Despite the fact that Evgeny Nabokov shut out the Preds, I was in love with the place and the team from that moment onward.

I'm really feeling great about myself right now. I don't care what others think about me, or anything like that.

I've got a great wife, a great family, and a nice place to live. Who could ask for anything more?

Packer fans can tell you exactly what happened. Rex Grossman is not an NFL quarterback.

They managed to fool people for 20 weeks. They couldn't fool people when they got to the Super Bowl.

Tony Romo has a better shot at winning the Super Bowl than Rex does. Which, by the way, I think he may end up doing in short order.

Anyways - some sidelong observations about another Super Bowl where I had no rooting interest:

• The NFL ad at the two-minute warning was, in a word, awesome. The Brett Favre segue at the end just clinched it for me. Now I know why he went and announced he'd be back in 2007 - so there wouldn't be widespread panic after that spot aired.
  
• The GoDaddy.com ad wasn't as impressive as I thought it'd be. Candace Michelle is always easy on the eyes, but the schtick is getting a bit old.
  
• The various Coke commercials were good stuff. Imagining a Rube Goldberg-like method of how a Coke machine works is funny in and of itself.
  
• At halftime, while Prince was dancing about in the South Florida rain, I did what any hockey fan would do - went over the stats from the Ducks-Preds game from Saturday.
  

An update on some other news of interest:

• I'm not saying that it's cold, but the other day when Sarah and I were at Sam's Club, I ran out to the car to pull it up so we didn't have to spend as much time in the cold, loading and unloading. I took the large 32 oz. soda we had purchased at the snack bar, and before I got out the door, the straw opening spilled a little bit. By the time I got to the car... it froze. The beads of soda had started to solidify - and that's just from me walking to the car.
  
• I am now the proud owner of a Canon PowerShot S3 IS digital camera. The old FujiFilm Finepix 2300Zoom wouldn't take pictures anymore - to my consternation. So far, I'm happy with what little I've been able to find out about it. I did find out that the viewfinder has a focus method that allows those of us who are blind as a bat to take photos without glasses.
  
• My diet is reaching ups and downs as of late, mostly due to caloric intake and carbs. However, I'm buoyed that it's not unusual, especially due to the weather. I'm still on target to get to 186 lbs. within a month. I'd like to get within shouting distance of 150 by the end of the year.