That sounds a little more serious than "doesn't backcheck"
by Quisp on Oct 24, 2010 12:19 AM PDT
in Schadenfreude
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PrintWhen Terry Murray scratches someone (e.g. Alexander Frolov, Brian Boyle, Teddy Purcell -- I'm living in the past, I know), it's almost always because of a specific lapse, and if it's not punitive (Frolov) then it's a kinder/gentler granting of "perspective" (Purcell). But it's always a hockey problem.
When I read this afternoon that Kovalchuk was a healthy scratch, I assumed he was being Froloved. After all, Kovalchuk is not exactly known for his two-way play. But this article from ESPN makes it sounds like something deeper:
New Jersey Devils scratch $102 million man Ilya Kovalchuk against Buffalo Sabres - ESPN
High-scoring forward Ilya Kovalchuk is in the New Jersey Devils' doghouse. The $100 million left wing was benched by rookie coach John MacLean for Saturday night's game against the Buffalo Sabres for undisclosed reasons. "He knows (why)," MacLean said after the Devils' 6-1 loss to the Sabres. MacLean refused to say what Kovalchuk did to get benched, and he wouldn't say whether the star forward will be back in the lineup for Sunday night's game against the rival Rangers in New York."I'll make that decision in the morning," MacLean said.
Kovalchuk, who took part in the pregame skate on Saturday morning, was not in the Devils' dressing room after the game. Team president and general manager Lou Lamoriello didn't accompany MacLean to the postgame news conference. MacLean refused to say whether his decision was related to hockey. "I'm not discussing it," MacLean said. "It was my decision. I made it. He knows. I spoke to him and that's where it's going to stay." [...] Zach Parise, who scored the Devils' goal on Saturday, found out that Kovalchuk wouldn't be playing just before the game. He had no comment on the decision. [...] None of the players seemed to know why Kovalchuk wasn't in the lineup. "You have to ask the guys who make the decisions," Devils captain Jamie Langenbrunner said.
It's going to be interesting to read the interpretations of this in the MSM and the blogs in the morning. My uninformed thoughts:
- I don't think this is about Kovalchuk's performance. He's been playing well enough, from what I've seen. And if it were a matter of correcting some aspect of his game, that's harmless enough; MacLean would just come out and say it, wouldn't he? Because this cryptic "he knows what he did" stuff makes it sound bad.
- If there had been some insubordination, wouldn't the players know what happened? I'm thinking back to the Sean Avery / Mark Hardy incident. Whatever happened, I don't think it happened in front of the other players.
UPDATE on that point:
- My guess is, Kovalchuk told MacLean (or he told Lamoriello) that this whole "New Jersey hockey" (i.e. defensive system) thing wasn't going to fly. The Devils had won their last game -- 3-0 wasn't it? -- and there was much talk of the return to Devils hockey. I don't think (actually, nobody thinks) Kovalchuk has any interest in playing that suffocating, defensively-disciplined, low-scoring (if not actually a "trap") brand of hockey.
- As I said the other day, MacLean has about six more games to claw his way back to .500, or he's going to get fired. His job is on the line. He made some changes and the team won. Why would Kovalchuk have a problem with the coach after the team won?
- Remember Gretzky and Robbie Ftorek? Ftorek wanted his superstars to be accountable. McNall wanted his superstars to be happy. Goodbye stern-taskmaster Ftorek, hello lenient star-friendly Tom Webster.
- But I don't think Kovalchuk is as tight with Lou Lamoriello as Gretzky was with Bruce McNall.
- And Lamoriello has groomed MacLean for years.
- And Lamoriello built the Devils based on that boring "trap" defensive system hockey. It won him three cups. Bruce McNall didn't care about "systems." He wanted stars.
- (As an aside, wasn't the whole $102MM/17 years thing a total Bruce McNall kind of move?)
- Questions about who is steering the ship have already been raised (did Lamoriello want this deal, or was it ownership?). If Kovalchuk, just two weeks into his fifteen year tenure, is in a tug-of-war with the first year coach, I wouldn't even know where to begin to draw the flow chart of that corporation.
- MacLean knows he answers to Lamoriello. I don't know what the relationship between Lamoriello and ownership is. And the $
102100MM question seems to be, who does Kovalchuk think he answers to?
For more, see: Coaching Hot Seat: All John MacLean Edition.
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This is scandalous in the most literal sense
The more MacLean and the rest of the NJD brain trust try to hush up exactly what’s going on, the more apparent it becomes that this is not a hockey decision. And the harder they push to keep the skeletons inside the closet, the more people will talk about it, so they will get no peace at all by waiting until it blows over. It won’t blow over.
"Prepare your bladder for imminent release!" — Invader Zim
I wonder what Kovalchuk thinks about all of this?
Does he and his family believe that he made the right decision to sign for 15 years? If he plays tomorrow, I might just watch the game to see how the team reacts.
They didn’t play very well tonight and none of them knew he wasn’t playing until they got to the rink for the pre-game skate.
E.J. Hradek said via his Twitter feed that he believes that MacLean wouldn’t have done it without Lamoriello’s blessing.
So yeah, if you buy into the notion that LL signed IK on Vanderbeek’s orders but against his better judgment, it seems like the question of who’s in charge of this franchise is about to go from messy to toxic.
"Prepare your bladder for imminent release!" — Invader Zim
Remember after the playoffs last year?
There was a lot of grumbling from Devils players that Kovy was basically given free reign to do whatever he wanted by Lemaire.
Wouldn’t be surprised at all if Kovy expected a free reign and MacLean isn’t having it.
After the 2nd Period of Opening Night "Best Period of the year" DevonPSU
Contributor to Lighthouse Hockey not sure if I'm the Sniper or the Enforcer.
Dodged a $100-million bullet
Thank God this guy is not a King. The Devils, usually one of the most blue-collar, honest teams in the league, is quickly becoming dysfunctional on a New York Rangers level. I think both parties are feeling massive regret right now: the Devils for signing IK and IK for signing with the Devils. Somewhere, Dean Lombardi is thinking, “I told you so.”
If LL retires and publishes a “tell all” book with an IK signing chapter I’ll be one of the first to order a copy.
IMO, dating back to his Atlanta days IK’s personality clearly made him a bad fit for any serious team. I’ve always pegged him as a type of marque player that’s used as a perennial draw for fans stuck with a backwater club. Had he stayed in Atlanta he could have everything…except a cup.
Are Teemu Selanne and Melanie Griffith Twins?
A commenter on Puck Daddy last night put it less delicately
I think the exact quote was: “I’m sure the Los Angeles GM is wetting himself with laughter right now.”
"Prepare your bladder for imminent release!" — Invader Zim
As Devils fan allow me to chime in because like with any team outside perception seems to be a bit different from the reality.
First off the Devils didn’t change they way they were playing come the Montreal game vs. the way they played the previous games. The only difference was that Marty was very outstanding and bailed them out when once again they had a bunch of defensive breakdowns. I said after the first period that I thought they were going to collapse again in the second, which has been their mo this season. Didn’t happen that game because Montreal was terrible. Still the style of play was the same so the theory that Kovalchuk said he wasn’t going to play that way afterwards has to be false.
That said, Kovalchuk played terrible in Montreal and hasn’t played great over all. He has been a turnover machine. I think this benching might have been part of the process to sort of “fix him” from being that one-on-one player to being more complete. BTW, I think he would become a better offensive player as well if he played that more complete game. Trying to go one-on-four isn’t going to lead to much offensive success. Though I don’t know if that was the game to do it. Especially when the rest of the team is struggling.
I don’t think MacLean will be fired soon just because of how many coached they have gone through and that at that point the season would be lost. It is looking to be more of a transition year for the Devils going from the older group to a younger group.
Finally, I would make the Ftorek comparison. Ftorek was nuts as a coach in all of his stops. In NJ he famously threw the bench on the ice during a game. There are also stories of him leaving his assistants (Robinson and Fetisov) at the practice rink on the road and that they eventually wen tot Lou to undercut him. He was fired 10 games to go in the season and the team ended up going to go on to win the cup that year.
Stupidly, I based my "Devils hockey" comment on how the game was reported by (I think) NHL on the Fly.
Of course, the “narrative” they choose is frequently going to be suspect, as I know because half the time they talk about the Kings I want to saw my own head off. I believe what they said was something about Brodeur wanting them to go back to playing the way the Devils have always played.
I’m confident you’re right about the potential for IK to score more by counterintuitively playing more of a team game, within the system. This is something I’ve been harping on for a couple of years now re the Kings. There is a tendency to make it either/or, it’s an offensive free-for-all or it’s the trap. But it’s not.
I think that MacLean scratching Kovalchuk now suggests desperation. MacLean’s, not the Devils, or Kovalchuk’s. It makes me think he thinks he’s about to get canned, unless he acts boldly and turns the ship around.
I guess I disagree, though, that if MacLean were fired the season would be lost. It’s early. It’s the perfect time to wipe the slate clean. But I don’t know what LL’s point of view is. For all I know, he would sooner double-down on MacLean. I don’t know.
And I think the notion that this is, essentially, a rebuilding year for the Devils would result in some human sacrifices to be made. The Devils were supposed to be a cup contender, not a lottery pick contender.
Wait till this year.
Oh, I forgot: THANK YOU for the valuable perspective. I hope you stick around...
Wait till this year.
Ftorek
Was always rumored to be one of the many possible coaching replacements for the Islanders during Milbury’s reign. I was always so happy he never got hired.
After the 2nd Period of Opening Night "Best Period of the year" DevonPSU
Contributor to Lighthouse Hockey not sure if I'm the Sniper or the Enforcer.
Yeah, I wanted to piggyback @Quisper's comment -
thanks for posting. i’ll take a blogger/fans’ perspective over a journalists’ 4/5, assuming the fan can form complete sentences. sad state of affairs, that. thankfully, we have the intraweb.
anyway, this IK guy is obviously someone many Kings’ fans are still interested in keeping tabs on, i hope you comeback and post again should you feel we get something wrong about your team. and good luck the rest of the way. as someone who wanted IK to come to la (i’m guessing you were delighted when he stayed a devil), i can’t help but sympathize with devils’ fans for how this season has started. it’s great to see that douche fail, but not at an entire organization’s expense.
Dean's Wisdom
As I read this I have great respect for how Dean played this. Kovalchuk is a fucker and his agent is an asshole. The Devils will have fifteen years of this jerk. That is a very, very long time, longer than most marriages. Not signing him may be the best thing ever to happen to the Kings.
Initially I was very critical of DL for not signing this guy. In retrospect he had it right. Could have ruined a lot of what he has worked so hard for.
It does seem like a power move by the coach. Isn’t that what every healthy scratch of a star comes down to? “Yes, you do have to listen to me.” But while it’s easy to jump to conclusions that either Kovy or the coach is being unreasonable here, it’s weird that even the rest of the players don’t know why. His play on the ice didn’t warrant it. Refusing to comment doesn’t quell the drama. I’m confused by what McLean gains from this secrecy.
I hope he at least tells his team what message he was trying to send.
In Dinglebarn We Trust
He was late to practice by 20 minutes.(I heard)
In an Ideal world I would have all ten fingers on my left hand so my right hand could just be a fist for punching.
Tom Gulitti of the Bergen County Record reports that IK was late to a mandatory team meeting. I guess I can buy that narrative; new coach needs to establish his authority, etc.
The lack of communication with the rest of the team seems a little curious, though. The point of punishment, to use a French expression, is to encourage everyone else (especially when you’re punishing someone with a high profile). Perhaps MacLean trusted that everyone else would connect the dots on their own since, presumably, they were on time.
"Prepare your bladder for imminent release!" — Invader Zim
What doesn't ring true about that is that the players had no clue what was going on;
clearly if IK had been late to a team meeting, they would have known, and would have said something like “no comment.” Not “we have no clue. it’s stupifying” or whatever they said. i would have to say being late to (or skipping) a team mtg has to be about the most common reason for disciplinary action. The fact that this is all coming to light now, instead of yesterday, makes it seem like spin.
It’s so easy to say, “late for a meeting, no one is above the rules, he sits.” and no one would have complained. well, maybe people with tickets to the game.
Wait till this year.
Yeah, even if the cover story is largely true, certainly it was not handled smoothly.
Plus, the quotes attributed to MacLean really sounded like he was dealing with suppressed anger; I could practically see his neck muscles bulging at the effort to keep his temper. That suggests something worse than a mundane disciplinary matter.
"Prepare your bladder for imminent release!" — Invader Zim
I'm as enthusiastic a fan of Dean as anyone
Have been almost since Day 1, which is a point of pride with me. I think I understood what he planned to do with the Kings a lot earlier than many longtime Kings fans and backed it to the hilt.
But let’s not forget that he came dangerously close to landing IK, in the sense that he kept the door for a long time and offered as much as $80 mil over 13 years. That’s still a pretty hefty offer. And I was surprised that he was willing to go that high, for that long a term. I don’t think IK is worth quite that much.
So let’s not get too revisionist and rave about how Dean “wisely passed” on IK. He wasn’t a teetotaler passing the bottle to someone else without taking a swig. I think he actually kind of got into a bit of an auction for IK (something I didn’t think he would do at all), and his wisdom lay in understanding that he had reached the point where he just couldn’t go any higher. But anyone who shops on eBay or goes to live auctions can figure out how to do that kind of reckoning.
In other words, IK would have become the Kings’ albatross instead of NJD’s if Dean had had his way. And for us, if IK had put on a Kings uniform and then underperformed and caused problems in the locker room, it would console us not a whit that the Kings were paying him ‘only’ $80 mil instead of $100 mil, and over ‘only’ 13 yrs. instead of 15 yrs.
"Prepare your bladder for imminent release!" — Invader Zim
There's a big difference between a tradeable contract and an untradeable one.
And a big difference between $5.33MM and $6.66MM. The argument about whether Kovalchuk would have come here and acted like a primadona is misleading since he didn’t come here because he’s a primadona, so he couldn‘t have come here, because he’s a primadona. If he hadn’t been a primadona, he might have come here, but then we wouldn’t have the primadona problem, because he wouldn’t be one. if my grandma had wheels she’s be a wagon. Spellcheck says that not how you spell primadona, or spellcheck, for that matter.
Wait till this year.
agreed, a huge dfference between the two cap hits. That is the difference between 2 role players or the having to walk away from another player because you have to leave cap room. I have limited knowledge from the Kings POV on trying to land Kovi but it seems DL had a number that he would not go over in fear it would hurt the team down the road. If that was 80 million then he walked away. Is that not what happened?
In an Ideal world I would have all ten fingers on my left hand so my right hand could just be a fist for punching.
It's a combination of many things going against Kovalchuk.
1. He signed an outrageous contract that wasn’t even approved the first time. It directly impacted the make-up of the team, specifically with regards to not being able to field a full roster due to salary cap issues.
2. NJ is off to a slow start, some of which has to be attributed to Kovalchuk and his contract. If he had started the season red hot, it would be a different story entirely I think.
3. Being reportedly late to practice is probably the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I'm not trying to be a conspiracy theorist, really I'm not, but the late to team mtg story sounds made up.
the players said they couldn’t imagine why IK was scratched. if you’re late to a team mtg, that’s an obvious infraction, so their surprise wouldn’t make sense. it’s like you skip first period and then no one in the class can figure out why you got detention.
also, as i said somewhere (here?), if that’s all it was, why be coy about it? if maclean’s people skills are that bad, it doesn’t bode well. but see my next post on this, because it may shed some light (or not).
Wait till this year.
Certainly, I can buy that the team meeting thing is a thin cover story
i.e., I’m willing to give NJD the benefit of the doubt because I’m not that close to the situation, but yeah, it doesn’t quite pass the smell test.
if that’s all it was, why be coy about it?Yes, that’s the rub. If it’s just an infraction of team rules and an isolated incident, why not just come out and say so and be done with it? And not coy, so much as tight-lipped (as in suppressing anger because you’re almost fearful of what you’ll say); I read a couple of accounts that said that LL was at the arena but studiously ducked the press that night. Key people were acting like something ugly had just happened, something that they wanted to deny and forget as soon as possible.
"Prepare your bladder for imminent release!" — Invader Zim
Personally, I don't think being late to a team meeting warrants a benching.
Unless it has been a pattern for Kovalchuk and MaClean got fed up? Agree that it all looks kind of shady but you know what they say about desperate times and all.
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