Musical Coaches, Baseball, Regis Philbin, and Jerseys

Before I get to today's topic, a few little things I'd like to share.

First, I have to say that I absolutely love Jay and Dan from TSN FoxSports1. I was really sad to see them leave TSN, but watching their first episode on American networks makes me feel like they're in good hands.  I'm still a fan.

But you know who isn't a fan? Regis Philbin.  He was on one of the sports channel's segments this morning, and had a few things to say to the Canadian duo:

Not sure if trolling, or just mad.  Why you heff to be mad, Regis?  Either way, this definitely made me laugh.

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Second, I'll give a quick shout-out to Team Canada at the Little League World Series.  They were eliminated earlier today after losing to Panama.  It got kinda ugly, lasting only 4 innings in a 12-0 blowout. The Canadians leave the tournament with a 1-2 record.

Despite the blowouts to both Panama and Taiwan in the first game, they played hard and deserved to represent our country on the world stage.  Expectations, as usual, weren't very high on our team, but we were well represented nonetheless. Congrats to the remaining teams and good luck for the rest of the tournament.

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Third, I created a couple of new concepts that I'd like to share.

This first one is of the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL.  Named after famous wrestler Bret "The Hitman" Hart.  He also founded and part-owned the team.  Like his wrestling outfit, the Hitmen's original jersey made black and pink badass, something almost impossible in the world of sports.  Since then, the team upgraded their logo and look, changing the colours along the way.  Well fooey with that, I like what the Hitmen pink stood for.  So I brought back the pink, kept their new cleaner logo, and gave it more Calgary flavour by giving it the Flames' style of the mid-90's.

This was made for a contest at HockeyJerseyConcepts.com. The Hawthorne, California police department wanted to set up a youth hockey organization that would give the sport of hockey to youth that cannot afford to be in sports or activities.  They got an equipment grant from the NHLPA, and wanted an artist to design their jerseys to show city spirit, pride of the police force, and to be a "badass" cool jersey for these kids to wear.  I'm all for that.  So I created the logo using a police badge outline, stars, sticks, and wings to give this jersey a unique flair of pride.  I kept the main colour a "police blue", while adding light blue, black, and white.  I also gave them the Anaheim Ducks' jersey style because, well its just that cool of a jersey, but deserved to be in better colours.  I mean, double blue, thats the best colour combination a jersey could have!

Besides maybe black and pink ;)

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So finally to what I wanted to talk about, which is the question:

Who won the game of Musical Coaches?

This off-season had a lot of coaches fired, hired, moved, traded, etc.  Which team got the best deal out of it?

Buffalo Sabres: 

Fired: Lindy Ruff

Hired: Ron Rolston

Lindy Ruff in my mind is a legendary coach, but his time in Buffalo was over when players stopped listening to his messages.  That tends to happen to any coach, good and bad, at some point.  Unless you're Barry Trotz apparently.  His replacement, Ron Rolston, has a ton of NCAA coaching experience, but only 2 years experience coaching in the AHL.  He was signed during last season in Buffalo, and had a .565 winning percentage, not a bad start at all.  Still, his inexperience is going to be the downfall of a struggling Sabres franchise for a few seasons yet.

Dallas Stars:

Fired: Glen Gulutzan

Hired: Lindy Ruff

Interestingly enough, Ruff landed with the team that effectively stole a Stanley Cup away from him in 1999.  A veteran, no-nonsense coach that can lead a young group of players (and possibly straighten Seguin out for good) to great heights.  

Tampa Bay Lightning:

Fired: Guy Boucher

Hired: Jon Cooper

I never really liked Boucher as a coach.  His style really didn't jive with the roster he had, who (besides goaltending) should have been a highly competitive team during his tenure.  He is replaced by Jon Cooper, an inexperienced coach in the NHL, but has had wild success in the AHL for the few seasons he's been there, winning the Calder Cup in his 2nd season in Norfolk, then the following year leading Syracuse to the best record in the league until he was hired by Tampa Bay.  Despite his success, his leash will be short, given the expectations of this team.

Vancouver Canucks:

Fired: Alain Vigneault

Hired: John Tortorella

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I don't like the sounds of this.  I love Tortz as a coach, but his hard-nose, physical style of play, along with the short leashes he gives to younger players, will not fit well with the Canucks, unless he has a total change of heart when he's there.  AV is a great coach, but his message wasn't getting across to the Canuck players, and he couldn't spark them to playoff success.

New York Rangers:

Fired: John Tortorella

Hired: Alain Vigneault

To complete the coaching trade, we have AV replacing Tortz in New York.  Unlike Vancouver's situation, I'm really excited to see what Vigneault can do with a dependable cast in NY.  

Edmonton Oilers:

Fired: Ralph Kruger

Hired: Dallas Eakins

Kruger was a smart, savvy veteran coach, but couldn't adapt to the NHL game from his home in the Swiss league.  Eakins is getting his first stint as an NHL coach in Edmonton, and has been coaching the Toronto Marlies of the AHL, with reasonable success.  His style will benefit Edmonton, but lack of experience will hinder this young team.

Colorado Avalanche:

Fired: Joe Sacco

Hired: Patrick Roy

This is my favourite coaching hire since Anaheim nabbed Boudreau.  Sacco's coaching record has been mediocre at best, barely making the playoffs once out of 4 seasons.  Patrick Roy was brought in to single-handedly reform the team, being head coach and head decision maker in Colorado.  He ran the whole show in Quebec in the QMJHL, winning the Memorial Cup in his rookie year and keeping Quebec a dominant team since.  His experience will no doubtedly be questioned, as will his antics.  But he's the kind of guy that can fire up a young team like Colorado and get them playing full-hearted hockey, and thats something the league seems to be missing right now.

So who do you think won the off-season for coaches?  My say would be New York, but potentially Colorado.  Anyway, let me know what you think, and thanks for reading!

The Kessel Trade, Part ??

Alright, so I had my fair share of personal posts, and shameless self promoting for most of my posts so far, so its back to a legitimate opinionated piece.

I really wanted to talk about the Kovalchuk retirement-thing, but I really feel that there's too much fog covering the thought process there to really make a fair assessment.  So I'm doing this instead.

The question of "Who won the Kessel trade?" question has been a popular question amongst hockey fans for quite some time.  And for the most part, it seemed like most fans could agree that Seguin was the better investment and best fit for his team than Kessel is in Toronto.  But then, just after Boston was able to oust Toronto in the playoffs, Seguin faltered, and ended up being shipped out of town before really making an impact in Boston.  So the question is in full debate mode once again, and I decided to have my take.

Lets first look back at the day of the trade, and the pieces that were moved.  Toronto got Phil Kessel for essentially 2 First Round picks, and 1 Second Round pick.  Thats a pretty lofty price, but immediately with that trade, and the acquisitions Toronto made prior with Komisarek, Gustavsson, and Orr, Toronto looked legitimate.

While Phil Kessel had a good year, scoring over 30 goals, the Maple Leafs come dead last in the east.  They claim 2nd in the draft lottery, giving Boston (already a good team) the 2nd overall pick, which turns out to be Seguin.  Right now, this trade must blow for the Maple Leafs. If they were going to pay that much and suck, they might as well have waited and have the "next big name" all to themselves.

After a strong Toronto start, they, along with Kessel, start to suck again.  Seguin starts slow, but develops into a useful player.  Not the star everyone hoped for, but at the time much better than Kessel. But it was Boston's turn to make a trading error, receiving Kaberle from Toronto for Joe Colborne and a couple of high picks.  So the Kessel trade is essentially now "Kessel, Colborne and a slightly downgraded 1st round pick for Seguin, Kaberle, and 9th Overall pick (Dougie Hamilton)".  At that point, looking up to now, Toronto won the trade.  Kaberle is worthless in that deal, and Hamilton has star potential but is a huge liability on defence, on a team that's cup window does't have room for project players.  But back to that later.

At the end of that season, Toronto again misses the playoffs, but Kessel regains his star form.  Seguin, while on a division-winning team, is scratched for most of the early post season.  But once he starts playing playoff hockey, he comes out with a bang, carrying them over Tampa Bay.  Unfortunately for Seguin, he was again pretty useless during the cup finals when they won over Vancouver.  Still, he was just a rookie, but the jury was still out on him.

The next season, Kessel gets 82 points in 82 games.  Seguin gets 67 points in 82, slightly lower, but he's still younger and on a team with more offensive options.  Hamilton gets 72 points (as a Dman mind you) in Junior.  Right now, Boston is slightly winning the trade.

This last season, Kessel gets 52 points in 48 games, while Seguin can only manage 32.  Kessel also leads the team to their first playoff appearance in what seems like forever.  They were eventually taken out in a 1st Round epic against Boston, where Seguin was nowhere to be found.  Hamilton played well for Boston for his experience, but was clearly still a liability for the Bruins at his age.  At this point, if nothing happened for the rest of the summer, I'd say Boston won the trade on their future potential.  However, something did happen, Seguin was traded.

So if you look at the trade for the assets that the teams have now, it would be Kessel and Colbourne, for Hamilton, Loui Eriksson, Joe Morrow and Matt Fraser.

Numbers time:

Salary crunch: TOR: $6million   BOS: 8million

Kessel: 504 games, 379 points, good leader on upstart, young team with potential, dependable
Colbourne: 16 games, 6 points, solid AHL player with potential

Eriksson: 501 games, 357 points, might have better numbers in Boston, equally comparable to Kessel
Hamilton: 42 games, 16 points, lots of potential to be a star D, but needs work.
Fraser: 13 games, 3 points, fair potential, but nothing stands out about him
Morrow: 66 games (AHL only), 19 points, too early to tell, but probably potential 2nd string Dman.

The only other pieces involved with this deal (to the extent of my knowledge) is Tyler Biggs for Toronto, and Reilly Smith for Boston.  But it should be noted that while Boston got Eriksson, they lost Rich Peverley to Dallas as part of that deal, so the Kessel-Eriksson comparison is a little hindered by that, for what the teams had to get/give up to get there.

So after the big trade this summer, and all of the statistics mentioned, who really wins the Kessel trade?

Kessel is a core piece to the Toronto puzzle that is finally starting to take shape, while Eriksson is added as a fitting replacement for Seguin.  Without looking at the rest of the teams, I think Boston has received more "bang for their buck" versus Toronto, and I think they have some pieces that will be great for the future build up of this team.  So Boston is the long-term winner of this deal, for now.  But in the now, for next season, Toronto is most certainly the winner.  It will take time for Eriksson to adjust to the Boston system, and for their prospects to grow.  Kessel is part of a core group in Toronto ready to make the playoffs once again, and have received help from other acquisitions this summer, most notably David Clarkson.  Phil Kessel is also probably the best player mentioned anywhere as part of this deal, and Toronto still has him, so thats also a sign of winning.

So I guess it depends what your definition of "winning a trade" is.  But, even though I'd say Boston "has the best chance" to be long-term winners of this deal, the future is too uncertain.  Right now, Toronto is the better team with Kessel than Boston was with/without Seguin.  So Toronto got it right after all.

But of course, this is just my view on it.