Blog Dec 3
Had a lot of fun on the ‘Marek vs Wyshynski’ podcast Friday afternoon with the Brian Burke story of challenging Kevin Lowe to a barn fight (and isn’t there just something delicious about the term ‘barn fight’?) which got me to thinking a couple of things:
1 – Who do you think the toughest GM in the NHL is?
Hmmm, good one.
I think it comes down to two: Philadelphia’s Paul Homlgren and Washington’s George McPhee. McPhee is also, pound for pound, one of the toughest players to ever suit up in my estimation. Garry Howatt would top that list, but I digress.
2 – Has something like this ever happened before where two rival GMs roll up the sleeves and brush up on their Marquees of Queensbury rules?
Well, we’ve seen coaches go at it before or at least try to go at it. Jacques Demers and the late Herb Brooks tried to mix it up during a spirited Detroit-Minnesota game. Also, Pat Burns infamously tried to get at Kings bench boss Barry Melrose during the Los Angeles/Toronto 1993 semi-finals.
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But those four gentlemen never actually came to blows.
Washington Capitals GM George McPhee however, was involved in one such altercation. After a preseason game against the Chicago Blackhawks, he stormed into the Hawks room and belted Chicago coach Lorne Molleken in the face. McPhee, ironically was incensed over Molleken’s use of "goon tactics" against the Caps in the game. Molleken dressed seven tough guys for the game forcing the Caps to scratch Peter Bondra and Adam Oates from the contest for fear they would get hurt. Dave Manson cross-checked Steve Konowalchuk in the head and received a one game suspension in a game that featured several fights. Washington forward Trevor Halverson suffered a career-ending concussion after fighting three times in the game. McPhee was suspended for 30 days and fined $20,000.
Another such scuffle occurred in 1957, when Maple Leafs General Manager Howie Meeker punched owner Stafford Smyth "between the eyes" after a heated exchange between the two men.
A little known story involves an owner and a skater, as former Detroit Red Wings owner Bruce Norris confronted Parker MacDonald at a team function. Apparently, Norris tried to strangle the winger before players separated the two. It is believed that Norris may have been over-poured that evening.
Brian Burke, by the way, has seen a couple of GMs almost come to blows over a player. As documented in John Farris’ excellent book "Behind the Moves: NHL general managers tell how winners are built", Burke tells the story of a Montreal and Minnesota GM came close to slugging it out.
"In my first year with the league, I think it was 1993, we had a GMs meeting at The Ritz on Dana Point in California. I thought Bob Gainey and Serge Savard were going to have a fight. Montreal had signed a contract that Gainey, who was the Minnesota GM at the time, didn’t like. Gainey started giving it to Serge and the next thing you know they were face to face…yelling in French and English. I remember Gary Bettman saying, ‘What are we going to do? It looks like they’re going to fight.’ I said ‘we’re going to watch’. I was actually looking forward to it. (Laughs). People were pushing tables out of the way because it looked like they were going to go. Then, Bob Gainey called a (GM) meeting and kicked everyone (who wasn’t a GM) out of the room except me and Bettman. In that meeting, Gainey went right back at Savard. He felt Savard had overpaid one of his own players and (screwed) up the salary structure. To this day I’m amazed they didn’t fight."
On a side note, this GMs book by Farris is one of the most fascinating hockey reads I’ve had in a long time. We’ve all read plenty of books about players, coaches, referees but there is very little if anything written about the craft of assembling and running an NHL team from a GM’s point of view. "Behind the Moves" is an enormous undertaking that transcribes just about every aspect of putting a hockey team together, told by the men who’ve done it. We’ll have Farris on the podcast very soon.
And speaking of assembling teams…..
Hockey Canada has only been denied three players for the World Junior tournament. To nobody’s surprise they are: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Tyler Seguin and Jeff Skinner. None of which have had any previous tournament experience. That still leaves the door still open for players such as Erik Gudbranson, Brett Connolly, Devante Smith-Pelly and Ryan Johansen. When the Blue Jackets were in Calgary last week, officials from Hockey Canada met with Columbus GM Scott Howsen to see if he had made a decision whether Johansen would be allowed to suit up for the tournament. While he didn’t commit, he also didn’t say no, which is encouraging.
One thing that will remain consistent with Hockey Canada: players will have to attend the Dec 10-14 camp if they’re going to play on the team. From a team building point of view, Hockey Canada learned long ago that parachuting NHLers into the tourney isn’t the best idea.
As always, when the 41-player list of camp invitees came out there were plenty of "well why not this guy?" comments and questions. Topping that list were defencemen like Stuart Percy, Dylan McIlrath and Duncan Siemens. Discipline was probably the reason the last two weren’t brought to camp and I’d imagine Hockey Canada agonized over the Percy decision. Having said that, if there’s an injury to a blue-liner between now and when camp opens on Dec. 10, I’d fully expect Percy to get the first call. Hockey Canada loves the fact that he has big tournament experience after going to the finals in the Memorial Cup last year.
And what about the crop of three extraordinarily talented 16-year olds playing major junior hockey? Why weren’t Sean Monohan, Hunter Shinkaruk or Nathan MacKinnon (who had 5 goals against the Quebec Remparts on Saturday) invited? Hockey Canada is sensitive about bringing young kids to camp, who will probably be cut in favour of older and more experienced players. This is considered a 19-year olds tournament after all. As a matter of fact Hockey Canada has only ever brought along five 16-year olds to the championship tournament in it’s history: Wayne Gretzky, Eric Lindros, Jason Spezza, Jay Bouwmeester and Sidney Crosby.
A final thought about Hockey Canada. As much as president and CEO Bob Nicholson has praise heaped on him, (and for good reason, he’s done a masterful job with the program and is one of the most progressive voices in all of hockey) the young up and comer in the organization is Brad Pascall, who’s work assembling teams at every level is not going unnoticed in the NHL. The 41-year-old Pascall has been with Hockey Canada since 1995 and while many believe he’s the perfect fit to replace Bob Nicholson as head of the organization, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone in the NHL scooped him up before Hockey Canada gets the chance to can promote him.