Brent Sutter pulls a Nick Saban

Fit or no fit (and on paper it’s probably a good fit), the rest of the hockey world is not basking in the southern Alberta lovefest of Brent Sutter becoming head coach of the Calgary Flames.

Why? Can you say Nick Saban?

For those who don’t know the story, football coach Saban incurred disdain from his former NFL colleagues when after two seasons with the Miami Dolphins, he repeatedly announced he would stay with the team – only to resign and coach the next season with the University of Alabama.

And here we are with Brent Sutter – who adamantly denies he is leaving the Devils to coach the Flames – low and behold.

“I believe it was Monday, June 8 that I had officially resigned my position with the New Jersey Devils as their head coach.” Brent Sutter (when writing about the Flames, we can no longer use just a surname) did extol words about the tremendous respect for New Jersey general manager Lou Lamoriello, how he was like a father figure, that he understood the situation. With Lamoriello allowing the Flames to talk to him, he adds, “I’m not sure under normal circumstances that would happen.”

Regardless of what the locals might think, know that the warm and fuzzy feelings are not mutual. In fact, as Lamoriello stays publicly silent, Devils’ owner Jeff Vanderbeek is not. He told the Newark Star-Ledger, “It leaves a bad taste in your mouth.” Exactly how the NFL fraternity feels about Nick Saban.

At the time of his resignation, Brent Sutter was not happy about spending so little time with his daughter. It is believed his family did not accompany him to New Jersey because his daughter was so close to graduation, and being uprooted from friends is a devastating blow to any teenager.

“I was going to be re-evaluating things on a yearly basis because of family and personal situations. With Lou and myself, the dialogue has been outstanding. We’ve always had strong communication.”

Certainly, the Flames could use a strong hand to run the team. The city was all but certain a Sutter would end up behind the bench, but that it would be Darryl. In any case, Brent Sutter will instill that same accountability factor. Whether he will be any more successful than Mike Keenan is yet to be determined. After all, Brent Sutter’s Devils made first-round exits in the same seasons that Keenan coached the Flames.

Still, he claims he was not thinking about the Flames when he made his announcement in Newark. “When I did resign from my position, I was very content and perfectly fine with the fact I may never ever coach again in the National Hockey League.”

That’s good because chances are this will be his last NHL coaching job. Hopefully, he’ll make the most of it.

But while his actions will share the same distaste as Saban’s, he’ll never be the pariah that is Bobbie Petrino. The former Atlanta Falcons coach quit his team with three games left in the season, left a four-paragraph letter in each player’s stall on their day off, and the next day was on national TV singing the pig suey song as head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks.

The Last Team Standing

There is probably some irony in the fact that, historically, Canada’s national game has been lacrosse. So how fitting is it that the last professional sports team to play is a National Lacrosse League team: the Calgary Roughnecks. And play they did – all the way to winning the Champion’s Cup.

However, regarding its opponent, it says a lot about a team’s character when it had to play in three different home buildings this season and rumors abound about its demise following this Champions Cup. That the New York Titans have even made it this far shows how strong that team’s bond is. It also held the defending champion Buffalo Bandits to just three goals in the Eastern Final.

The Roughnecks came into this game having set the record for the longest shutout streak in the playoffs (holding the San Jose Stealth scoreless until 24 seconds into the fourth quarter of the Western Final) and recording the first game-winning goal by a netminder (Matt King threw the ball into the opposing net at 14:59 in the first quarter of the same game).

It’s the Titan’s first trip, but the Roughnecks have been here before. Getting to the final takes more than just winning. Riggers’ T Devan Wray tries to explain.

“I don’t know if I can really put a finger on it. There are a lot of the same faces we had last year. It’s a matter of everyone getting more familiar with each other, buying in and really starting to believe in what we’ve got going on in the locker room. We’ve been healthy all season long. We’re continuing to strengthen the relationships between teammates.”

Meanwhile, the Titans have its best player back in its lineup after injury in Casey Powell.

Coach Troy Cordingley was named NLL Coach of the Year and while Wray says he is very intense and his will to win is strong, the entire coaching staff also shared the same cohesiveness as the players. Much could be said on the other bench.

Even though the Necks defeated the Titans 12-10 in February, regular season gets thrown out with the bathwater when it comes to playoffs. D Andrew McBride adds, “They didn’t have their best player (Powell) in the lineup.”

On the floor, F Tracey Kelusky opened the play with a shot stopped by G Matt Vinc. Play was halted to fix the game clock wasn’t working, then the Titans opened the scoring with a power play goal by Pat Maddalena with Mike Carnegie in the box for illegal cross checking at 1:31.

Tracey Kelusky evened up the game on a two-man power play advantage at 4:26.

The Roughnecks dominated loose balls, while Titan defense kept a hold on the shooting lanes in front of Vinc. It was a tough battle throughout the entire game. Calgary mostly held a slight lead or the game was tied. It was good entertainment for the 13,042 in attendance.

The Titans never let up. Vinc played solid in goal facing 50 shots, while Riggers’ G Matt King faced 42. The final score: 12-10.

It’s a satisfying victory when you can do it in front of a home crowd. It’s something the team, even those that were here before in 2004, will savor.

D Andrew McBride: “Opportunities don’t transpire that often to be back. A lot of guys have played many years and have not won a championship. We didn’t celebrate the Western Conference championship too much. We’ve had one goal in mind all year. It’s to be a champion.”

D Bruce Cobb: “In a short season, if you have a lot of injuries, it can be tough to recover. We haven’t had maybe four, five man games lost to injury. That helps with chemistry, too.”

Devan Wray: “It’s not about individuals. Without everybody working together, it just doesn’t happen. It’s as important for me to win it for the rest of the locker room as it is for me.”

NLL final to rock the house in Calgary

Sacrifice, honor, glory – these are the traits that cover the theme of the naval exhibit of Calgary’s Military Museum, where the Calgary Roughnecks held its pre-game press conference on Friday. The venue couldn’t have been more perfect. It’s the message the team wanted to take to the Western Division final, and ultimately the National Lacrosse League final.

It’s difficult to put a finger on what it takes to get that far, but there are six on the floor who knew what it felt like to win the final exactly five years ago in 2004. That’s when the Roughnecks beat Buffalo for the Champions Cup. Five still wear the uniform: Devan Wray, Kaleb Toth, Tracey Kelusky, Andrew McBride, and Kyle Goundry. The sixth was the man who stood behind them: Coach Chris Hall. However, this time, Hall is positioned behind the San Jose bench.

The man motivating the Necks this year was also name the NLL Head Coach of the Year – Troy Cordingley. He guided the team to a 12-4 record and in just his second season, has earned a trip to the final. Ironically, Cordingley was also behind the Buffalo Bandits’ bench when his team lost the 2004 final to the Roughnecks.

The Western Final was some kind of game. In the first half alone, five goals by Tracey Kelusky and one by Matt King – the goalie, who also had an assist. The Necks outshot the Stealth 31-20 at the half and continued to roll over its opponent throughout the second half.

By the end of the third quarter, it was 15-0 for the Roughnecks, which outshot the Stealth by this point: 45-29. You could feel it in the building – Cup fever.

However, some of the bubble burst when King’s shutout was taken away in the first few seconds of the 4th when the Stealth came fast off the faceoff and scored two quick goals. But the Roughnecks held them back to only four goals and a
17-5 final. Final shots: 53-47 Calgary.

The ultimate goal was finally realized: the NLL Champions Cup will be held at the Pengrowth Saddledome on Friday, May 15 at 7:00 PM. The Roughnecks will play Casey Powell and the New York Titans – who defeated the Buffalo Bandits 9-3 to clinch the Eastern Division title. Hopefully, there will be more than the 9,639 that were in attendance for the Western Final.

A promising season goes to waste

There is no doubt that during the first two thirds of the season, everybody in Calgary was thinking Stanley Cup. On paper, this was every bit the team and more so when compared to the 2004 squad.

The addition of Todd Bertuzzi and Mike Cammalleri seemed a great fit. Bertuzzi has given the team some grit, while Cammalleri punched in enough goals to surpass his best season (34) with the Los Angeles Kings. At the NHL Entry Draft, General Manager Darryl Sutter was finally able to land the player he has wanted for so many seasons: Olli Jokinen.

That was then. This is now.

Bertuzzi has not scored since March 1, and Cammalleri had not scored since March 23 before punching two in at the season finale against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. Jokinen hasn’t scored since March 24.

The Flames were 2-3-0 in its last five games; 4-6-0 in its last 10 coming back to the Pengrowth Saddledome for the wrap-up. Fortunately for the team, the last game ended on a win.

This last contest was also the fifth consecutive game that the team has played shorthanded – the second game dressing only 15 skaters. Shorthanded because of key injuries to three key defensemen: Cory Sarich, Dion Phaneuf, and Robyn Regehr and left wingers Rene Bourque and Curtis Glencross. Shorthanded because of a balance sheet.

How can a team dress shorthanded in five of the most crucial games of the season when it is battling for a home playoff date? Two words: salary cap mismanagement. There was no contingency plan if its key contributors were hurt.

The club had to send Dustin Boyd to the minors in lieu of John Negrin because keeping him in the lineup would have put them over the cap. Bringing up Negrin still didn’t help much because the team has no funds left to fill a fourth line.

Think back to Jarome Iginla’s very first appearance in Calgary in April 1996. It was Game Three of the first round against Chicago. The closest Iginla every came to a Cup final was 2004, when the Flames went seven games with the Tampa Bay Lightning and lost – and this season. It was this season when Iginla became Calgary’s all-time points leader. It was this season when the club led the Northwest Division for much of the year. It was this season when the Flames were considered one of the best home teams. The club was 13 points ahead in the division and then something happened during an early March extended road trip.

After two road wins against Ottawa and Philadelphia, the Flames then lost three in a row, ending the trip with an 8-6 loss to Toronto and a 3-4 record. The team wasn’t able to regroup. Meanwhile, the Vancouver Canucks found some life and knocked at the lead to the division. The Flames fell from third to fifth place in the Western Conference.

Losing games is one thing, especially due to key injuries. But not being able to dress enough players? You’ll be hard pressed to find an NHL insider who has ever seen that before. It’s a sad testament to see such a promising season whittle away to almost oblivion.

So the pulse around Calgary is the team will be lucky to survive one playoff win in what will be expected as an early exit to the post-season.

One has to wonder what a first-round exit will mean for next year. New coach? Likely. New general manager? Perhaps. New upper management? Also a possibility. You can’t fault the players on this one. Injuries have certainly played a key role, but not being able to dress enough players to field a game is as undeniable as a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty call.

But on the upside, we hear that Jacques Lemaire is available. There is also good news on the economic front. The Flames are still considered one of the league’s most viable franchises. The black ink has flowed in since 2004.

A look ahead to the playoffs

It could be déjà vu all over again. The last time the Flames faced Chicago in the first round of the playoffs was 1996. The outcome wasn’t pretty and the team missed the post-season for eight consecutive seasons thereafter.

Of course, the one guy who was there is the team captain Jarome Iginla. “That was a lot of years ago, and it’s also a new opponent.”

True, but if the regular season has anything to say, it’s not looking promising. The Blackhawks came out the victors in every single contest.

The only thing the team can do is to break down each of those game films and see where they can do better.

“Other than that, it’s a question of who wants it more,” adds Mike Cammalleri. “I’d say we’re due. We’re going to take the positives and say we’re due to have some good games against them.”

The Flames are expected to finally field a full roster come the first game, although Coach Mike Keenan won’t say which of the injured will be returning. But one has to wonder how playing so many games shorthanded has affected the players overall. Eric Nystrom is probably tired of talking about it.

“We were sick of using excuses about being down manpower and stuff. We’ve got a lot of guys in this room that can put the puck in the net and play good hockey.”

Yes, the Flames were unlikely heroes to reach the Stanley Cup final in 2004, but no matter how promising this season was made out to be, the final few weeks are the measuring stick for the momentum coming into the playoffs. Add in Chicago, and well, maybe the team will surprise us.

Face the media trend

Face it. If the NHL wants to survive as a going concern, it has to get with the times.

Yes, it has revamped its Website to include interesting blogs, live video and audio feed, and numerous other features. The updates on the media site score sheets are still two to three minutes behind the actual game clock, but it has improved. (See the National Lacrosse League site at www.nll.com for actual real time updates.) However, its media credential policy still lives in the Dark Ages.

There is an old saying -- maybe it's this writer’s old saying: if you want to find your target audience -- go where they go.

We are in the middle of a media revolution: out with traditional and in with new technology. It's ever changing but those that learn and move with the ebb and flow of the Internet will likely find more success than those stuck in the old traditional formats that are drying up.

For example, many have stopped buying newspapers because a) they pile up faster than you have time to read them and b) it is a pain in the backside to take the bulky weight of them to the recycling bin. But more so, people are getting their news and sports online and through cable television because it's instantaneous; it's easy; and you get a broader viewpoint.

Here are the facts:

• The high fixed costs of printing and distribution are not going down any time soon.
• The Rocky Mountain News, which closed its doors in February, was said to be failing in 2001 when it joined forces with the Denver Post; owner E.W. Scripps Co. says it lost $15 million in Denver in 2008
• The Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, and Boston Globe shut down their foreign bureaus; Time and Newsweek downsized their foreign correspondents (LJWorld.com)
• The Tribune Co., owners of Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, is in bankruptcy proceedings and outsourcing its foreign news coverage; the New York Times is in financial trouble
• (Pew Internet and American Life Project November 19 to December 20, 2008): 70 percent Internet users get their news online; 45 percent get sports scores online; 29 percent listen to live or recorded radio broadcasts; 36 percent get their news online daily; 29 percent look for their hobby or interests online daily; 15 percent look for sports scores online daily
• (Statistics Canada, June 2008): 73 percent of the population 16 and older go online for personal reasons; 68 percent are online every day; men stay online longer than women; most online users earn over $95,000; 84 percent of online users have some post-secondary education
• (The Conference Board and TNS): close to 16 percent of Internet-using U.S. households watch television broadcasts online; 3/5 of those that watch online broadcasts say it’s more convenient
• Television networks have lost 17 percent of its 18- to 49-year-old demographic to Internet TV (comScore)
• (Awareness Inc.) 93 percent of organizations surveyed use some form of unpaid social media in an era of declining marketing budgets

Howard Kurtz adds insight to this issue on his CNN show Reliable Sources and with this column: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/02/28/ST2009022802422.html.

The NHL and other like organizations cannot ignore what is happening. The desired demographic is online, not on the networks or reading newspapers. Pew reported in December 2008 that 74 percent of adults use the Internet and if you look at the demographic breakdown – it’s exactly who the NHL is trying to reach to keep its business afloat.

18-29: 87 percent use the Internet
30-49: 82 percent
50-64: 72 percent
65+: 41 percent

And the higher the income, the more Internet use.

One of the jobs of PR departments is to control the company message; whereas the media’s job is to relay the message to the general public that doesn’t have the upfront access. For the organization, the media actually provides free advertising. If the media organizations all dried up overnight, the NHL would not have a venue to market its business.

Because the mainstream media industry is changing, NHL PR departments have to rethink their priority heirarchy when it comes to media importance. They can no longer afford to “diss” the electronic media, as they may be the last ones standing in the new era that is taking place at this very moment. That doesn’t mean accrediting every Tom, Dick, and Jane that has a sports blog or Website. But if the NHL brass actually took a moment to click on the most frequented sites and blogs that are continually updated and those with writers that are serious about writing, the NHL might consider adding those outlets to the list.

Look no further than the presidential campaign of Barak Obama to see where the future is going in media. He brilliantly incorporated social networking (Facebook and Twitter, etc.) as part of his marketing campaign. As of this writing, there are 5,842,010 supporters that have joined his Facebook page and 393,269 Twitter followers.

Rick Sanchez of CNN, who calls his show “Your” newscast” has basically changed the way his fellow anchors deliver the news overnight. He skillfully incorporates viewer feedback through Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, reads and shows some of the comments live. He has 63,383 followers on Twitter.

The time is now for the NHL to get with the times. It owes it to its fans.

The "G" Word

It would appear the Wayne Gretzky phenomena is over. We're just not that into him anymore. At least that's what it appears when Calgary's Pengrowth Saddledome security staff are saying the extra crew they brought in for today's hockey game with the Phoenix Coyotes was all for not. There was barely anyone (fans) lined up to see him.

On the other hand, that might be from seven straight years out of the playoffs. Just ask the Flames about that. (It was pretty easy to get tickets pre-2004, when the Stanley Cup run was in Calgary.)

But lack of popularity is the least of The Great One's worries. He may not have a team to coach next year.

The Coyotes are in dire straights, such that Gretzky is spending much of his time focusing his players towards the ice instead of whether or not they will continue to get paychecks. The team is in fast need of a financial bailout. Although so far, it has no appointments with Congress but rather is seeking an investor. The National Hockey League is expected to step in should not meeting payroll becomes a reality. The Yotes are forecast to lose around $45 million by the end of the season and that could force it into bankruptcy.

Not making the playoffs for ever doesn't help attract donors. And obviously, the Gretzky factor matters not -- only if some rich guy is excited about the prospect of being in partnership with him. However, when it comes to that many millions, it's doubtful hanging out with the former #99 will make up for those winged dollar bills flying out of the window into Neverland.

New season, new look, new commissioner

January 10, 2009

First, the big news of the day. Many were surprised to hear that Commissioner Jim Jennings resigned today. His reasoning: "I feel that I have accomplished all the goals I set out to do at the NLL. I want to spend some time with my family before pursuing other opportunities and taking on the next challenge."

Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer George Daniel will take over effective immediately. He was president of the New York Titans in 2007.

Jennings has been at the helm since 2000. While the league has grown and expanded, and franchise values have gone from $250,000 to $5.6 million, there have been some serious questions about Jennings leadership. While the NLL All-Star and Championship games are televised on network TV, it could be much better.

There is a strong online following for the NLL, but let's face it, the league is marketing-challenged. Probably the biggest faux pas was the league playing "chicken" with the Players' Association last year, when the league announced it was canceled -- then changed its mind a week later. All the goodwill that was collected up until then had been erased. The diehard lacrosse fans still showed up, the people on the fence, the ones the league needs to get to one game to get them hooked -- they assumed the league was dead. Even some media did. That's on Jennings' watch. It's like as good things happen on one side, the league shoots itself in the foot on the other to balance things out.

But we have a new season underway and a new commissioner. The Calgary Roughnecks also have a new look -- in the front office and the office itself. The team moved to new swankier quarters, with a workout facility and room for the new staff to move around.

I'm writing this in the first quarter of the Roughnecks home opener versus the Edmonton Rush and am staring down at an awful lot of empty seats. What happened to the 11,000 to 12,000 that have attended these games for the past number of seasons? Let's hope this isn't a trend.

This is a fantastic league to follow. It has a good online presence, which is where most fans learn about the game. It has so much potential. Let's hope the new commissioner will provide some stability and sustain its growth.