(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] hereward.livejournal.com at 04:25pm on 03/06/2004
I have sympathy for Calgary because I have family there and the team was dismal until Sutter and Kiprusoff arrived. I don't know what kind of a guy Darryl Sutter really is, but what he is doing with the press conferences is making himself a lightning-rod for all the criticism and controversy, trying to take the pressure off his players, so they can perform well in the most important games many of them will ever play. He's also playing the "we're the underdog, we're conspired against" card to get his team to mentally circle the wagons, to develop an us against the world siege mentality. These are tried and true successful coaching approaches that many of the greats have employed.

The other thing you can't argue with is his success. He took his Sharks team to the conference final, and now he has a Calgary team of muckers (with Iginla and a hot goalie) that has been out of the playoffs for ages and has them 2 wins away from the Stanley Cup. The guy is a superb motivator.

I like TBay. I think they play a classy, attrative style of hockey and have accumulated a bunch of bright young talent and one of the best goalies in the world. The Lecavalier hit was totally a dangerous cheap shot and Nieminen deserved suspending, in my view.

But Calgary has earned where they are, through some excellent coaching and team discipline, as well as some stellar individual performances. Canada loves the underdog team playing with grit and desire (and not much else), which is why I can walk down the streets here in Toronto and see red Flames jerseys all over the place.

Just 2 cents (Canadian) from yr. friend, JSw.
[parent entry] [link] [reply]
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] debg.livejournal.com at 05:40pm on 03/06/2004
I have very strong feelings about dirty players. I think that if your team enforcer - Niemenen, our guy McClaren, Donald Brashear, whoever - puts a deliberately dirty hit on another player that injures them? The suspension should be for as long as the player they injured is out. If it ends the other player's career, make it a one-season suspension. That would cut down on the crap, and also on the need for bullshit press conferences in which the coach, whose fault it really is, takes the heat.

I spent a chunk of my early life in Alberta, but I'm rooting for Tampa Bay all the way, because I loathe Darryl Sutter, in the same way I loathe Jon Gruden in football. I despise the mentality of "all my men are really little schoolyard bullies, so let's motivate them by picking a player at random and fucking his career" coaching. It makes me want to vomit. Sutter, when he was here - and JS, we had plenty of time in San Jose to check out Sutter - did it to Alexander Korlyuk; it should be pretty obvious, after this season and the playoffs, that Korky is a brilliant player. He lost two years of his career to Sutter's "every flea needs a littler flea to piss on so I guess you're it and I'll use you to scare the other players" crap. It makes me want to spew.

And we had personal experience of that crap from Jon Gruden, since the player he chose to terrorise was our daughter's boyfriend, Jerry Porter. I really fucking hate coaches who pull that. Why not treat your players as if they were adults, you know?

Gah. Sorry. Yes, it's a major major bugbear for me. I'm not arguing that the Flames deserve to be where they are - they played brilliantly. But if the team isn't acting like fuckheaded thugs - and make no mistake, they don't play that way unless the coaching staff encourages that - then the coach doesn't need to act as a lightning rod.



[link] [parent] [reply]
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] askye.livejournal.com at 02:32am on 09/06/2004
I've taken a few days and I think I'm in a not so excited omigod this is exciting kind of mind frame. Now that the passion of the moment is over I'm kind of feeling like "Well...maybe I need to watch more hockey before I don't like a team." But, I dunno, I'm still having problems liking Ignilia...maybe it's over exposure, I'm sure some people are sick of hearing about Martin St. Louis. And how he's short. I swear it got to Lana's Parents Are Dead proportions.

The series was very exciting and I'm glad it went to Game 7 ... just so I could see what it was like. Although I've read on a few websites (nhl.com, si.com...maybe some place else) opinions that the games weren't exciting. That the series, was in fact, not very exciting hockey and there was no artistry.

I guess I didn't realize that hockey was supposed to have artistry. Frankly I thought it was fast paced and exciting and even the low score didn't bother me. In fact both my parents now consider themselves hockey fans.

[link] [parent] [reply]

December

SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
      1
 
 2
 
 3
 
 4
 
5
 
 6
 
 7
 
 8
 
 9
 
 10
 
 11
 
12
 
 13
 
 14
 
 15
 
 16
 
 17
 
 18
 
19
 
 20
 
 21
 
 22
1
 23
 
 24
 
 25
 
26
 
 27
 
 28
 
 29
 
 30
 
 31