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I apologize for not getting in earlier to comment on Riley Cote's retirement. My computer froze midway through a lengthy blog on Monday night and I lost what I wrote.
Cote is the type of guy who is hard not to root for. He took ECHL-caliber hockey talent and turned it into a three-plus season NHL career, suiting up in 156 regular season games and 3 playoff tilts. He did it through a tremendous work ethic.
Cote wasn't a true heavyweight and he lost his share of bouts, but he never backed down and he played the enforcer role honorably. Unlike some other recent NHL fighters, Cote fought for his team and not on his own agenda. Cote will always be best remembered by Flyers' fans for his quick two-punch KO victory over Tampa Bay's Andre Roy.
More important than anything he did on the ice, Cote is one of the friendliest, most approachable and most caring athletes you could hope to meet. He's a perfect example of not judging a book by its cover. To see him after a game -- face and knuckles bruised, (formerly) shaggy hair all over his face, heavily tattooed -- could be an intimidating sight except for his disarming personality. Cote is the type of guy who gets to know other people by name. He is also passionate about his charitable work for multiple sclerosis and actively involved in the community.
Cote will be missed in Philadelphia but it is nice to see that he will still be part of the Flyers' organization as an assistant coach with Adirondack.
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I'm really not sure what to think about the NHL deciding to reopen Chris Pronger's contract, among several others signed last season. I am 99.9% certain that Pronger isn't going to wind up playing anywhere else, but as far as the immediate ramifications (Flyers having to restructure his contract, possible fines, etc) I suppose we will have to wait and see.
All I can say for now is that I agree with those who say the league is making itself look foolish. The fact that there was (and still is) a loophole in the CBA that allowed for front-loaded contracts designed to reduce a player's cap hit coupled with waiting so long to do anything about it does not reflect well on the league.
I understand that this situation has everything to do with the next CBA but in a league in which the "reward" for building a championship caliber club is being forced to promptly dismantle it due to the salary cap -- and in which the league's main priority seems to be propping up the financially weakest teams at the expense of the stronger ones-- I think the Bettman administration is walking a dangerous line within the ownership ranks. The NHLPA is still in disarray but the owners are no longer nearly the united front they were in 2004.
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Today's Across the Pond on NHL.com will look at the latest venture of former Flyers assistant coach Ted Sator: taking on the head coaching job of Croatian team KHL Medvescak Bears. The globetrotting Sator has had one of the most colorful and extensive coaching careers of any active bench boss in the world.
Sator's time in Philadelphia was brief, but notable.
If not for Sator, the Flyers (and the NHL) never would have profited from the services of Dave Poulin. After his collegiate career and graduation from Notre Dame, Poulin was prepared to walk away from hockey and take a job with Procter & Gamble. Sator, who was the Flyers skating coach at the time as well as the head coach of Swedish minor league team Rögle BK Ängelholm, convinced Poulin to play in Sweden. He then recommended the player to the Flyers. The rest was history, as Poulin went to enjoy a solid NHL career and become one of the best captains in Flyers' franchise history.
Also, with the exception of Bernie Parent, Sator was the coach to whom the late Pelle Lindbergh felt the closest. When there was something that Pelle needed to say to the coaching staff and couldn't express his feelings perfectly in English -- or else wanted it to remain confidential without getting back to head coach Mike Keenan -- he sometimes went to Sator and said it in Swedish. Sator, who taught himself the Swedish language and used the language exclusively (even to Poulin) while coaching in Sweden, always made himself accessible to Lindbergh in that way.
Sator served as a full-fledged assistant coach to Keenan in 1984-85 and then left the Flyers after the season to accept the head coaching job with the New York Rangers. He was behind the New York bench when the Rangers upset the Flyers in the first round of the 1986 playoffs, five months after Lindbergh's death.
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