Atlanta Hockey is no more

The Clarion Content has long derided the National Hockey League for its move into warm weather United States cities. Locally, the Carolina Hurricanes have been the exception to the rule. The exception proves the rule? Bringing the Clarion Content's northeastern Original Six hockey biases to the table, we have never bought into hockey in warm places. This is the national sport of Canada. This week the NHL agreed.

The Atlanta Thrashers were the weakest warm weather franchise this side of the Phoenix Coyotes (in bankruptcy and league receivership while sucking money out of the City of Glendale). True North Sports & Entertainment bought the Atlanta franchise and is moving it to Winnipeg, Manitoba. The underlying premise? Canada loves hockey. How much? Winnipeg sold out its 13,000 season ticket plans almost immediately.

Atlanta is lukewarm about all of its sports teams. The team was 28th in attendance in a 30 team league. Hockey doesn't play well in warm weather cities. Only one warm weather city is in the top half of the league in attendance, though to be fair San Jose, just outside the top half, plays to sellout crowds.

Bottom line, this was an obvious move for the league.

Next up what Canadian city takes the Phoenix Coyotes?

Rangers and Knicks both make the playoffs

The New York Rangers and the New York Knicks are both in the playoffs at the same time for the first season since 1996-97. Eons have passed. Whole careers in both sports have started and ended. How long ago was that? Boris Yeltsin was running Russia and Bill Clinton was running America, coincidentally with much the same methodology.

In the 1995-96 offseason, the Rangers had made the karmic sin of letting the Captain and the bringer of Lord Stanley's Cup to 8th Avenue, Mark Messier, walk, over money. It was stupid and petty. The Rangers and their fans paid the penance of seven straight seasons of missing the playoffs, plus a year lost to a lockout. It was a dark time in Madison Square Garden.

Shortly after the Messier free agency debacle, the Knicks dealt Patrick Ewing. Dave Checketts and Scott Layden came in from Utah on a mission to destroy the Knicks. They brought with them Shandon Anderson and Howard Eisley. They signed Allan Houston to deal that the franchise has still not recovered from, for it started the cataclysmic chain of events that led to the Isiah Thomas hiring, which spiraled to and through Starbury and Larry Brown. The Knicks have made the playoff once in the last nine years, getting swept out of the first round by the heartless Vince Carter and the ignominious Toronto Raptors in 2003-04.

By 2003-04 the Rangers had brought back Messier, but he was forty-three and not going to carry the team the way he once did. They missed the playoffs for a seventh straight year. They dealt away signature stalwart and future Hall of Famer, Brian Leech. The next season brought the NHL lockout and the league has never been the same. The Rangers have tasted to the playoffs a few times since, but the Garden faithful have been waiting on the Knicks.

This year has been one of revival for the Knickerbockers, though it was nearly snuffed out at mid-season though a disastrous deal brokered by owner James Dolan with a whiff of Isiah Thomas behind the scenes. Knicks fans are desperate, so desperate that any playoff appearance will make this season a success. The Rangers had to win the last game of the season, against their hated arch-rival, the New Jersey Devils, and then sweat out a Carolina Hurricanes loss to know that they had qualified for the postseason. As a reward, they get the top seeded Capitals and their star leader, Alexander Mikhaylovich Ovechkin.

Hey, Jim Mora, at least the New York teams, the tenants at the world's most famous arena, are in the playoffs!

Ducks Anti-Semitic?

The Anaheim Mighty Ducks are facing a lawsuit accusing their organization of systematic Anti-Semitism. A lawsuit filed Tuesday in Orange County, California, Superior Court alleges that coaches for the Bakersfield Condors, the minor league affiliate of the Ducks, repeatedly made anti-Semitic remarks and denied player Jason Bailey ice time because he was Jewish.

Reportedly, Ducks officials downplayed the allegations and had the Condors coaches write letters of apology. Both Condors coaches were suspended in 2009. The Bakersfield Californian reported that the reason was related to Bailey, who has now been traded out of the organization.

Brilliant NHL All-Star game revamp

Shanahan was an eight time All-Star himself.

As we tweeted just a few minutes ago, the Toronto Star is reporting that the NHL All-Star game has a brilliant new wrinkle. They have eliminated the standard, old, passionless conference versus conference battle and are going to implement, this year, a radical suggestion from former player, now NHL VP, Brendan Shanahan.

They are going to nominate captains and pick teams like they were playing pick-up. The captains will still be selecting from a pool of players voted on by the fans. Reportedly, the NHL's All-Star weekend will kick off with the captains picking the teams, playground style, on live television.

Should be captivating stuff. Great innovation, NHL, you go!

The NHL All-Star game is North Carolina this season.

Rangers rookie opens with a hat trick

The New York Rangers center Derek Stepan scored three goals, a hat trick, in the first game of his career. Stepan, who is twenty, became the fourth player in National Hockey League history to score three goals in his debut. Stepan was captain of the USA gold medal team at the 2010 World Junior Championships, where he led all scorers. The Rangers got a 6-3 win over Buffalo and Vezina Trophy winning goalie Ryan Miller. Read more here in the NY Times sports page.

Streaming hockey

Our local Carolina Hurricanes are leading the N.H.L. into a new 21st century era and model of sports broadcasting delivery. The New York Times reports that the Canes are live-streaming all of their preseason games on broadband this month; by using their in-house video feed and the play-by-play from their radio broadcasts. The NHL has seen the light, the groundswell of positive response from the fanbase, and plans to follow suit. The Canes home market is the technologically savvy triangle between Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill, N.C. The N.H.L.'s chief operating officer, John Collins, says the league is close to an agreement under which many of its 24 U.S. based teams would provide broadband and wireless live-streaming of games in local markets.

Read more here in the Triangle Business Journal.

Break-up the Kings?

Kings leading scorer Anze Kopitar

The Clarion Content has never seen the Los Angeles Times put the L.A. Kings hockey team at the top of the sports page. Yesterday, they did. Even as the Lakers won in Portland for the first time in half an decade. The Kings won their ninth in a row. They came back on the perennial powerhouse Detroit Red Wings from a 3-0 deficit. The Kings are 17 games over .500 and tied for 3rd in the Western Conference.

Is L.A. starting to notice?

Tortorella

King Henrik reigns in the Garden

One game after the Rangers other worldly goalie, King Henrik stood on his head to win the Rangers a three games to one first round series lead, the Rangers Coach John Tortorella lost his head. First he overreacted and benched superpest and raconteur Sean Avery for committing a couple of dumb penalties at the end of Game 4. Tortorella has never been in Avery's corner. He derided Avery when he was still an announcer, before he became the Rangers head man. Our impression at the Clarion Content is that Tortorella has the small man complex. He is the sort who is threatened by a loose cannon like Avery.

His short-sighted scratching of Avery had the Rangers off step from the get go in Game 5. Scotty Gomez clearly missed the pesky Avery on his wing. Then Tortorella compounded the Rangers woes by losing his head, first squirting water on a fan behind the Rangers bench, then flinging a water bottle that hit a spectator in the head. He has been suspended for Game 6. No loss. Hopefully somebody orders him to put Avery back in the line-up. Of course, it is ultimately going to come back to Henrik Lundqvist and his ability to stand on his head, when all about him are losing theirs.

In a rich irony, the Rangers will be coached by assistant Jim Schoenfield the last coach to be suspended by the NHL for a playoff game.

Finale at the Spectrum

The forty-two year old Philadelphia Spectrum closed last week with a 76ers win. This was the house where Moses declared it was gonna be, "Fo' fo' and fo'!" and then with Dr. J led the 1983 Sixers on a twelve win and one loss championship run. The Spectrum was a powerful homecourt advantage and those Sixers teams would have won a few more titles if it hadn't been for Bird's Celtics and the Jabbar-Magic Lakers. They were the third wheel to one of the greatest rivalries of all-time.

The Spectrum is a building located in one of the biggest parking lots on the East Coast. The parking lot area in downtown Philly off the I-95 is so vast that the new home of the Philadelphia Eagles was built in the parking lot of the now imploded Veteran's Stadium. The Spectrum stood even as it was replaced by the First Union Center as the home of Sixers and Flyers.

It would be nice if the Flyers, who dominated in the Spectrum in the era of the Broad Street Bullies, got to play one more game their, too. They won two Stanley Cups there. They also became the first American franchise to beat the legendary Soviet Red Army team doing it at the Spectrum. The building also hosted the 1976 NBA and NHL All-Star games during the height of the bicentennial celebration.

Rangers win Avery's MSG return

The New York Rangers won Sean Avery's return to Madison Square Garden today beating the Eastern Conference leading Boston Bruins. Avery left his last home game in the Garden with a lacerated spleen signaling the Rangers final gasp in Game 3 of their second-round playoff series against Pittsburgh. Today he was a pest from the get-go triggering action and setting up opportunities.

His teammates found the back of the net four times against flopping fish Manny Fernandez, the Boston back-up goalie who had a very soft game. In contrast the Rangers gold medal netminder Henrik Lundqvist was steady as usual. The Rangers have now won three straight with a big game coming up Monday against the Carolina Hurricanes, a team chasing the Rangers for a playoff spot.

Hooray for Avery

Sean Avery made a triumphant return to the New York Rangers line-up last night. The Rangers defeated the horrid, New York in-name-only, Islanders last night in the arena fondly known as the Nassau Mausoleum. The Rangers who had been winless in their last nine games on the road managed to break out of the slump and are now 2-1-1 under new coach, John Tortorella. They are in a furious race for the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. The Clarion Content had been agitating for Avery's return. In his last stint with the team, the Rangers were 50-23-13 with him and 9-13-3 when he was out. As for the Rangers other new acquisitions, forward Nik Antropov and defenseman Derek Morris, we will be consulting with our metro New York hockey sources and get back to you posthaste. Unlike some other Rangers supporters, here at the Clarion Content, we trust Glen Sather's hockey instincts.

BU wins the Beanpot

Congratulations and a shout out to Boston University on winning the 57th Beanpot Championship this weekend in Boston. Twenty-nine titles in fifty-seven tournies is mighty impressive for the Terriers. The Beanpot tournament began in 1952 and in its second year moved into the old Boston Garden. Over the years BU has gotten the better of its intra-city rivals. The three other Boston schools that contest the Beanpot every year are Boston College, Harvard and Northeastern. It helps the prestige of the tournament that the schools are annually among some of the top tier of college hockey programs.

Gladly

Word one the street is that it is possible that... the New York Rangers may be reacquiring controversial winger Steve Avery.

The Clarion Content is all for it. Yes, we know Avery is a super pest, and a chippy player. Personally, we loved his harassment of the Devils Marty Brodeur. It was so outlandish that the NHL responded with a rule change the next day. Hey, many of our editorial staff grew up Rangers fans in a Bobby Clarke era, it is nice to have a guy like that on the Rangers side for a change. Last time they did, in the person of Esa Tikkanen, the Rangers were winning and contending for Cups. (Of course, Mark Messier was the keystone, but Tikkanen was a foundation piece player.)

We never did understand why the Dallas Stars and the NHL reacted so harshly to Avery's comments about his ex-girlfriends. We had thought it was America, not Canada that had the puritan streak. We couldn't (and can't) imagine why Avery wasn't filing a grievance about his suspension. Seriously, the thuggery, the deliberate attempts to injure like knee-to-knee checks, the boarding, the slashing, that the NHL has seen go on with less penalty than Avery has faced!?! We can't believe he has been banished since November. The NHL has enrolled him in its NHL/NHLPA behavioral health program. Yikes, holy thought police.

No respect

Caps defenseman, Mike Green

Earlier this week we alerted you, dear reader, to the fantastic season the Washington Capitals of the NHL are having. Unfortunately, the NHL's All-Star balloting did not reflect it. The Washington Capitals only got one All-Star, the all world Alexander Ovechkin. The fans selected the starters. They can, in this modern era can not only vote at the rinks and on-line, but also via text message for their favorite team as a straight ticket as it were. In a political machine worthy example of ballot box stuffing, the fans selected only Pittsburgh Penguins and Montreal Canadiens for the Eastern Conference starting line-up.

The reserves are selected by the league office and the general managers of the individual clubs. The Clarion Content is no Caps fan, but for them to only get one All-Star is an egregious oversight. Ovechkin, one of the two or three best players in the league, was undeniable. But where were the G.M.s to correct the imbalance with center Nicklas Backstrom and defenseman Mike Green? Backstrom is 5th in the East in assists and 7th in points. Green leads Eastern Conference defensemen in goals and points-per-game, and he is third in total points and fourth in plus/minus rating.

The league showed no respect for the Caps. Read more analysis of how it went down here at the DC Sports Box.

One more note, the New York Islanders have now dropped 14 straight on the road. They need one more loss to match the team record after getting spanked in Calgary last night. Go, Islanders, go! The Clarion Content believes you can shatter that record.

Hockey update

Save for the New York Rangers and the playoffs the Clarion Content does not devote a lot of editorial energy to hockey coverage. However, two notes crossed our path today that we had to pass along.

Did you realize the Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals are 17 and 1 at home? 17 and freaking 1!!! Wow. These are the "We have never won a Cup" Caps. Long mired in mediocrity, they have never sniffed being this good. The Caps are on fire, having won eleven of twelve. They are running away with the NHL's Southeast Division.

Which brings to our second note, locally the Carolina Hurricanes are second in the division, but a full ten points behind the Caps. The Canes who have found a way to take home Lord Stanley's trophy, unlike the Caps, are playing the New Jersey Devils tonight in Raleigh. This means the Canes are likely to get their asses kicked. The Devils have won eight of the last ten meetings between the two clubs. The Devils have blowing their doors off too, winning four of the last five times, by three goals or more. Ugh.

The Clarion Content is no fan of the Devils, but we have to give credit where credit is due. At sixth overall in the Eastern Conference the Devils have been playing remarkably after losing future Hall of Fame goalie Martin Brodeur to injury.

Valiquette 2-0, shuts out Leafs

You'll remember about a week ago, when we called your attention to the hot start of the New York Rangers and their all world goalie, Henrik Lunqvist. After last night, back-up goalie, Steve Valiquette is 2 and 0 following a regulation shutout and a shootout win for the Blue shirts in the world's most famous arena.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, the ghost of an original six team, which hasn't won a Stanley cup since the Johnson administration, were the victims. Valiquette who had a strong year as the back-up last year, played nine of the ten games he started on the road. He was especially gratified to get the shutout at home. The crowd stood and chanted "Valee! Valee!" as he turned back five Toronto shots on a later 3rd period power play. He said later, "That gave me goosebumps. And now I know how Henrik feels."

The Rangers are off to a 6 and 1 start.

Lundqvist 3 and 0

The New York Rangers are 3 and 0 for the first time since 1989. It must be a pleasure to play in front of the best goalie in the world. Despite being the gold medal winning goalie in the Olympics with his native Sweden, Henrik Lundqvist remains underrated. ESPN the magazine gave the cover, on the week of their hockey preview, to Washington's Capitals star left wing Alex Ovechkin. The New York area media continue to defer to the future Hall of Fame goalie playing in New Jersey, Martin Brodeur. Will this be the year the NHL wakes up and gives Lundqvist his props? The Clarion hopes so.

Did you notice?

Hockey hardly makes waves in its off-season outside of the hotbeds: Canada and Detroit, of course, plus the hardcore, bedrock fans in the other locales. So if you live in neither of those places, and you are not a hardcore hockey fan, you may not have noticed.

Jaromir Jagr signed with Russian hockey club Avangard Omsk. The terms of the contract were not disclosed. The club plays in Siberia. Siberia!

The Clarion has been saying for some time now that the price of fossil fuels was going to enable Russian sports teams to raid Western talent with impunity (ever since we read about Diana Taurasi.)