The Hockey Stop

Darren Pang is one of the most respected hockey analysts in the NHL. But his Freudian slip on TSN (thanks to the GetReal Hockey blog for catching this) when talking about the benching of Montreal Canadians defenseman P.K. Subban, who happens to be black, is sure to open up the question of race in professional hockey that has always simmered under the surface.

Basically, Pang said that Subban, whose freewheeling offensive style is apparently not to the liking of Habs coach Jacques Martin, should model himself after another young defenseman -- St. Louis Blues player Alex Pietrangelo, who happens to be white. Pang meant to say that Pietrangelo plays the "right way." But what he said instead was that he plays the "white way." Thus the Freudian slip.

Now, Pang is not a racist and later apologized for the unfortunate remark. But, as hockey becomes more diverse and reaches beyond Saskatchewan farm boys, the racial question is unavoidable.

As much as Don Cherry and others would like every player to have the personality and playing style of Joe Thornton, that just isn't going to happen. And nor should it. The many European players from Russia, Sweden and other countries bring their own unique style to the game. And there are an increasing number of African-American, African-Canadian, Asian, Hispanic, Native American, Jewish and other non-WASP players in the league. And that is a great thing for the NHL because not only does it make it more diverse on the ice, but in the stands as well.

An example of the potential to bridge the racial divide in hockey is evident in the Atlanta Thrashers. The city of Atlanta has a large, educated and affluent black community, but many African-Americans traditionally have not embraced hockey because it is seen as a white sport played by mostly rural Canadians. But the Thrashers have a ton of black players -- Dustin Byfuglen, Evander Kane, Akim Aliu, Johnny Oduya, Sebastian Owuya and Nigel Dawes. That represents about 20% of the black players in the NHL. Hopefully that will translate to more fans in the seats at Phillips Arena. The fact that the Thrashers are surprising almost everyone by winning a lot of games so far this year should help as well.

While Pang didn't intend to, his comment will hopefully open up a much needed discussion on race in hockey. The trend towards diversity is a healthy one for hockey, and hopefully there will be a time when the benching of a player is only about his play on the ice, and not the color of his skin.

Here is the video:

Félicitations! Congratulations to the Montreal Canadiens! As this legendary franchise revives the Montreal Magic on its 100th anniversary by defeating the Washington Capitals in the first round and Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round -- both in Game 7 -- the question must be asked: How did this team sneak into the playoffs as an eighth seed?

Montreal's mediocre regular season left nearly every sane person on the planet believing that the No. 1 seed Caps would destroy the Habs in four games in the first round. It must have been one of the biggest spreads in the history of Vegas odds makers.

But the Canadiens and their Super Slovakian goaltending wonder Jaroslav Halak and heavy hitter Hal Gill frustrated and confounded Alex Ovechkin and his band of scoring machine gunners to claim the series and become the first eighth seed to come back from a 3-1 deficit to beat a No. 1 seed.

So they upset the Caps and moved on to face the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. So every sane person on the planet said, OK, so they beat the Caps, but Washington was horrendous on the power play, relies too much on its offense and there is no way Halak can stand on his head for another series, especially against the playoff-built Pens.

So when Pittsburgh scored four times on the power play in four tries in Game 1 and brought Halak down to earth, it seemed to vindicate all those pundits and critics who blamed the Caps' "system" for the epic fail.

And so Sports Illustrated in their latest issue decided that Sidney Crosby is the better player than Ovechkin, after all he has a Stanley Cup and a Gold Medal. Of course everyone conveniently forgets that team Canada and team Pittsburgh won those championships. Ovechkin has collected tons more individual awards than Crosby has. So I ask you -- to all those Pens fans who jumped on Ovechkin after the Caps lost to Montreal, where was Crosby tonight besides watching Montreal score from the penalty box? I hear crickets chirping. Only silence.

Sorry but Sid the Kid could not save the Pens from Les Habs. Not tonight in Game 7. So let history be the final judge. When their careers are finished, let's see who has more individual and team triumphs and I'll bet it will be Ovechkin.

But again, congratulations to the Montreal Canadiens on their unbelievable run in these Stanley Cup playoffs.

Vive les Canadiens de Montreal!

In no other sport is there as much of a difference between the regular season and the playoffs than hockey. And in no other sport is there as much parity in the playoffs as in the NHL.

Just ask the New Jersey Devils, Buffalo Sabres and the best team in the regular season -- the Washington Capitals. They will all be sitting at home watching the Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens battle in the Eastern Conference second round.

But put aside the Devils and Sabres, I'm going to focus on the one area the Caps are sorely lacking in, and it wasn't the atrocious one-for-30-something power play. The biggest lesson of all? DEFENSE wins championships, not offense.

Offense gets a team 121 points, a 50-goal scorer and a Presidents Trophy in the regular season ... and a first-round ticket to the golf course.

This is perhaps the hardest lesson to learn in all of sports, because defensive, er, deficiencies can be easily masked in the loosey-goosey regular season when it is easy to simply outscore other teams night after night if you have Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom, Fleishmann and Green on your side.

But oh how the playoffs are a different story. Things tighten up more than the Republicans in Congress, and every little mental or physical error is magnified a hundred times.

For example, Mike Green is a Norris Trophy candidate and has been compared to Paul Coffey as the one of the best offensive defensemen in the NHL. But Green was left off Team Canada because of his penchant to turn the puck over or take a stupid penalty at just the wrong time. Of course his lack of defensive skill and smartness is forgotten quickly in the regular season. But when he takes a cross-checking penalty in the offensive zone near the end of a first period in a Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs and Montreal scores to make it 1-0, well then Green is really exposed.

And Ovechkin was bottled up the whole series by Hal Gill. He did an amazing job of containing Alex the Great during the series. And let's get this straight, I love Ovechkin but he is no Sidney Crosby. I was at the Caps-Habs Game 2 and I heard a Caps fan behind me chanting "Crosby Sucks!" What? What planet are you on buddy? Crosby sucks? Is this the same Crosby who scored the game-winning goal for Team Canada to win the Gold Medal in Vancouver? Or maybe it is the same Crosby who took the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Stanley Cup Finals two years in a row and won the Stanley Cup last year? Is it that Crosby? And what has Ovechkin accomplished team-wise? Nothing. Until he does, it is painful for me to say, but Crosby is King and Ovechkin is an Imposter.

And what is the biggest part of defense in the playoffs? Goaltending of course. And Habs goalie Jaroslav Halak was nothing short of brilliant and deserves the comparisons to Patrick Roy and Ken Dryden. The Caps goalie Semyon Varlamov was great too, but Halak was better and that was the difference.

So what do I hope the high-flying Caps learn from this Game 7 loss, and last year's Game 7 loss to Pittsburgh, and the year before when they lost in Game 7 to the Flyers?

DEFENSE WINS STANLEY CUPS.

I just got back from the Verizon Center and what a game! The hero for the Washington Capitals tonight was not Alex Ovechkin but center Niklas Backstrom who is known around the league more for his sensational passes than his scoring ability.

But on a night when the Caps had to win against a resurgent Montreal Canadiens team that shocked them in a 3-2 Game 1 overtime victory, it was not Alex the Great who grabbed the headlines but his unheralded linemate from Sweden who capped off a hat trick in overtime for a 6-5 comeback win that sent myself and 18,000 other long-suffering Caps fans into a frenzy.

This was the most unlikeliest victory with the way the game started. The Canadiens scored on their first two shots against Caps netminder Jose Theodore, and coach Bruce Boudreau's long leash disappeared as he pulled Theodore for backup Semyon Varlamov with the Caps' backs against the wall down 2-0 in the first period.

But the Habs kept charging as they built up a 4-1 lead in the second period off two goals by Andrei Kostitsyn as the stunned crowd at VC sat in silence.

After Backstrom scored to make it 4-2 at the end of the second period, Ovechkin, who was already playing a much more physical game than the first, scored his first playoff goal to make it 4-3 at 2:56 into the third period. Ovechkin then had one of his three assists on the night to feed Backstrom to tie the game at 4.

But Les Habs came right back to the take the lead off a goal by Tomas Plekanec with only 5:06 remaining.

With the Caps almost down and out, talented rookie defenseman John Carlson tied the game with 1:21 left.

That set up Backstrom's heroics in overtime as he scored 31 seconds into the extra session to send the series back to Montreal tied at 1.

The atmosphere is absolutely electric right now in this win-starved city. Even as I type this from my parent's condo in downtown Washington, I can hear Caps fans honking on the streets in celebration and walking the sidewalks screaming in victory, "Let's Go Caps!"

The Bell Centre will be rocking in hockey's holy city of Montreal, but for one night at least I'm going to enjoy the greatest victory I've ever witnessed in my many years as a Washington Capitals fan.

Montreal Canadiens fan Ryan Stotland, 22, is bringing his Le Tricolore (3 Colors) jersey and his bike to South America on a 12,000 kilometre (7.5 thousand mile) journey to raise awareness and funds for two causes -- climate change and skin cancer.

His four-month, seven-country expedition, which has already raised over $110,000 and is currently rolling through Ecuador, has been recognized by the Habs in a video message endorsing his charitable efforts.

The Habs are making news themselves with the announcement today that the storied franchise's sale to the Molson family has been approved by the NHL Board of Governors.



The ownership change comes the same week Montreal celebrates its 100th anniversary, culminating with Friday's game against Boston at the Bell Centre.

Hopefully, Ryan will be able to watch his Habs celebrate their 100th season wherever he will be in South America.





Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin has been suspended two games by the NHL for a knee-on-knee collision with Carolina's Tim Gleason during Monday's 3-2 Caps victory in Raleigh.

Ovechkin exited the ice with a sore knee following the hit and the MRI results have not yet been made available to the media so he is officially listed as day-to-day.

I attended the Caps-Sabres game at Verizon Center last week in which Ovechkin received a game misconduct and was ejected from the game after a hard check on Buffalo's Patrick Kaleta.

According to the NHL rulebook, a total of three game misconducts in the general category during the regular season results in an automatic one-game suspension. The general category includes charging (Buffalo game) and kneeing (Hurricanes game) so it wasn't a given that Ovie would have been suspended.

Here is the Game Misconduct rule:

23.1 Game Misconduct Penalty - A game misconduct penalty involves the suspension of a player or goalkeeper for the balance of the game but a substitute is permitted to replace immediately the player or goalkeeper so removed.

23.3 Fines and Suspensions – General Category - In regular League games, any player or goalkeeper who incurs a total of three (3) game misconduct penalties in the “General Category” and exclusive of other designated categories, shall be suspended for the next League game of his team. For each subsequent game misconduct penalty, the automatic suspension shall be increased by one game. For each suspension of a player or goalkeeper, his Club shall be fined one thousand dollars ($1,000).

OTHER NEWS:

• New Jersey Devils radio color analyst Sherry Ross made history last Wednesday by becoming the first woman to provide play-by-play of an entire NHL game in English.

• The NHL Network is currently previewing on The Dish Network. It is available to basic cable subscribers on channel 403, but not in HD. The promising network provides nightly highlights, live look-ins, full game broadcasts and expert analysis.

• Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens, the longtime former home of the city's NHL team, is being renovated after 10 years of neglect. The $57 million facelift will transform the historic arena, which opened in 1931, into a retail and recreation complex.