Before I get to this week's topic, I would like a big thank you to my daughter, Madeline, for writing last week’s blog for me on women's hockey. Maddy is now back at Middlebury and has already started her off-season workouts.
Now on to the topic at hand.
As you all know, teams that are striving to secure a playoff spot are running out of time to stake their claim. With each team only having 5 or 6 games left, points are at a premium.
The NHL hockey games of late have been great; very intense, and very spirited. It is a great time to have cable TV and a remote. With each passing night of hockey, the playoff picture becomes slightly clearer.
Nine of the sixteen playoff spots have been clinched. Four teams have not yet clinched a spot but barring a late season collapse they should make it. The wild card spots in each division are a little tougher to predict, and I don’t think they’ll be decided until the last weekend of the season.
As I’ve mentioned before, I always cheer for my former teams to do well down the stretch and into the playoffs. Beyond that, as a Canadian, I always pull for as many Canada-based teams as possible to make it to the postseason. Here’s a little update as see I things.
While two of my former teams (Philadelphia and Detroit) have been playing great hockey down the stretch, the others aren’t faring so well.
Calgary has been eliminated for quite some time but remains one of the hardest working teams in the League. That makes them prime spoilers for the other teams fighting for a spot in the post season. They have done well in that role -- ask the New York Rangers -- but there is only so much solace you can take from being a "good spoiler" that is headed for the NHL Draft Lottery.
The Leafs and the Sens have self-destructed in recent weeks and while they are not yet mathematically eliminated it doesn’t look good. This was somewhat expected with the Senators but the Leafs collapse -- last night's win notwithstanding -- has been pretty epic.
Things are bad up here in Canada when it comes to the NHL playoff landscape. As of today it looks like the Montreal Canadians will be the only Canadian team in the playoffs.
As much as I want the Canadian teams to do well and am glad at least the Habs are in to represent Canada, I will have a tough time actually cheering for Montreal in a playoff series against... well pretty much anyone! Sorry, Habs fans. It's just my rooting interest.
To myself and many people, the Habs and the Leafs are kind of like the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL. They are ubiquitous up here north of the border, and non-Habs and non-Leafs fans feel like the teams get shoved down their throats at times. I rooted for the Leafs growing up and later played for the team, so I still hold a place for them in my heart (although my playing stint in Toronto was during a rough time in the team's history).
The Canadian-based teams that were in the playoff race have fallen off the pace. The Canucks, Jets, Senators, and (probably) the Leafs will all be golfing soon.
Anyway, when teams drop out of the playoff race, the question that’s always raised by the fans and media is what went wrong and what has to be done to fix it. Some of the thoughts, comments, suggestions and theories are way off base.
This debate goes on in every city and I it certainly isn’t exclusive to hockey. In listening to and reading the various reports or theories about the demise of their hometown team I quite often chuckle, because the vast majority of the so-called experts don’t have a clue.
At the risk of co-opting what Paul Stewart wrote yesterday, I am not a huge fan of all the new-age statistics that have taken over the game. Too many folks base their opinions on stats and now there is a stat for everything and many of these new stats obscure the picture TEAM picture of what's going on in a game.
Really, the only stat that means anything -- especially this time of year -- is wins and losses.
I get that the fan base needs to vent and the media has to sell newspapers or generate clicks for their Web sites. I enjoy participating in the debates, too. But you will never get me to buy into an argument that the Senators won't make the playoffs (and this just a hypothetical example) specifically because of where Chris Phillips or some other player or two fall on some statistical spreadsheet chart that takes their job on the ice out of context.
Opinions differ, I realize that. Mine are based on having played in the NHL for over 1,000 games but that doesn't make me automatically right and someone else automatically wrong.
So the question remains: What went wrong with the playoff contenders who appear likely to miss out? This is how I see it.
To a large degree, the answer goes back to the start of training camp -- or even to last summer before the teams reported. Just like any work place, you can quite often gauge the companies’ success by its employees. The dressing room is no different.
These are the questions I seek to answer -- ones that will never be found on a stat chart, no matter how fancy.
* What is the mood of the team throughout the season? * What is the make up of the team? * Is there the right mix of players for all the roles that need to be filled? * Are there take-charge players in the dressing room? * What kind of character is there in the locker room? This includes players who rarely dress for games and guys who may be having statistical down years. * Are there cliques within the team? * Are they eager to play for one another? * Are they eager to play for their coach? * Are they a confident squad that keeps on an even keel? * Did they show up in shape and are they ready to go?
The one that unfortunately is far too common these days is this: are the players proud to be a playing for that organization or are they merely playing for their contracts?
The three attributes, in my opinion that any team or any organization has to have in order to be successful are 1) Leadership, 2) Attitude, and 3) Commitment.
I have said many times that I did not know what it took to be a professional until I got traded to Philadelphia. I was in my 4th year in the NHL and Captain of the Calgary Flames, one would think that I would have understood this, but I did not. In Philadelphia they had the leadership in Bobby Clarke, Paul Holmgren, Jim Watson, Tim Kerr, Bill Barber etc.
The attitude of commitment to winning and caring about the team crest and traditions came from owner Ed Snider and it rubbed off on the entire organization. That entire organization had a single-minded commitment to winning!
In my opinion, if any of these things are missing in training camp then you have a team that is not ready to compete and most likely will falter down the stretch drive. At the first sign of any adversity, the team will fold and just go through the motions.
Yes, they will say all the right things in the interviews (“We’re not giving up, have to go back to the basics, etc…) but if they did not have the right dressing room makeup back in September they will not have it in March and April. That's true even if they had a good record in the first half to three-quarters of the regular season.
All the stats in the world cannot make up for the one question that has to be asked “Does this team have what it takes?…
I have to be honest here. When I look at the team that has been assembled this year in Toronto, I see lots of individual talent. But I don't see the combination of elements -- including the leadership component -- that it takes to make it to the playoffs and compete to at least win a round or two.
And now I will leave you with one final question. Why aren’t General Managers fired nearly as often as coaches? They are the ones that are supposed to put together the team.
We’ll hash that one out another time!