REPORT: Gretzky OUT for 2010, Lowe IN; Quinn OUT, D.Sutter IN; BERT CRIED

[BlueAndWhite]

Iginla, Gagne and Nash didn't contribute offensively, but they didn't take away from the team as much as Bertuzzi did by his stupid penalties. That put him in the minus column whereas they, along with Draper, were merely zeroes.

Heatley played well enough. Not great. Not good. Well enough. Hardly a ringing endorsement, but not a condemnation either.

Thornton is Thornton. He floats. He drifts. He takes entire periods off. He rates barely above Bertuzzi simply because he didn't take boneheaded penalties. That would involve effort on his part, which is lacking at most times. And before you rip into me, I like Thornton. I just know what he brings to the table. Which is mediocre effort given his talent.

I don't know why you are so adamant that Bertuzzi took stupid penalties.

In fact, only Iginla took less penalties than Bertuzzi (amongst the group mentioned).

Nash had the second highest number of penalty minutes amongst forwards (He had 10 to Lecavalier's 16 but Vinny had a 10 minute misconduct penalty), yet he completely escapes your wrath. And since you keep referring to quality of penalties, Nash's penalties TRULY fall into the bonehead category.

There might have been only ONE or TWO penalties taken by Canada in the entire tournament that wasn't stupid (Foote's penalty on Selanne that might have saved a goal) and the penalty against Blake (where Blake didn't even do anything).

Yet somehow, someway - Bertuzzi with his three minors gets the royal shaft.

I don't know Rick, it just seems like you don't like the guy.

 

[Rick Middleton]

I don't know why you are so adamant that Bertuzzi took stupid penalties.

Two of his three stand out in my mind. His penalty on a Canadian PP where he got cut off from the puck by the defender, and rather than hustle or try to make a play, he grabbed the guy from behind and pulled him down. The 2nd is obviously the killer in their game versus the Russians.

No, I don't particularly like Bertuzzi, but that hasn't coloured my opinion of his performance in the Olympics. He was terrible. Saying that other players played poorly doesn't take away from the fact that he was terrible.

 

[Egil]

I think we need a full time Team Canada coach and GM. No more using NHL GM's and coaches. It should be a well paid position and get NHL quality coaches.

 

[BlueAndWhite]

He was terrible. Saying that other players played poorly doesn't take away from the fact that he was terrible.

Which leads me back to my initial point - if 10 players were terrible, I don't see how you can single out just one.

 

[turnbuckle*]

Once again Boohoozi lives up to his name.

 

[The_Eck]

Bert =

 

[deandebean]

I can't understand why they would go with another NHL manager. Go the junior way: an independant scout/recruiter. No conflicts of interests there. Why can't it be clean at the pro level, while at the juniors, it is?

 

[arttk]

Which leads me back to my initial point - if 10 players were terrible, I don't see how you can single out just one.

Because the spot light has been on Bertuzzi and Gretzky the whole tournament. Everything he does magnifies and the things he does (if it is just as bad as the stuff every other player is doing) looks worse because implicitly you are paying more attention to him and you remember him more specifically.

 

[Phanuthier*]

Maybe it'll wake these guys up. Iginla and Bertuzzi have slept walked through the year thus far.

BTW, Eric Francis is a beat righter, but has made some correct calls. Do I think Gretz is out, Lowe is in? No. Do I think Darryl Sutter is coach? No, especiall not with Lowe as his boss. Darryl Sutter - best I can tell - doesn't want a boss. If he gets offered a position on Team Canada, he wants coach and GM or nothing.

 

[Takeo]

Oh jeez. Talk about overreaction. Boo-hoo.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Oh jeez. Talk about overreaction. Boo-hoo.

ITA. Canada underachieved, but is it really necessary to blow the whole place up? Frankly, I think you'll see more significant changes in the way the U.S. team is managed/organized.

 

[8snake]

I agree with Barry Melrose (not that I often do) about Mike Babcock being the best choice to coach Team Canada. He's a defensive minded coach who can adapt his philosophy when coaching great skill and talent. Detroit is just as offensively creative, but have become a much better forechecking team and playing as well defensively as they did during the 97-98 Cup teams. The Wings are always well-prepared, the opposition is always well-scouted, and overall attitude and work ethic has increased ten-fold with his arrival. Just my opinion but Babcock is more qualified to coach Team Canada than Sutter, no question.

 

[GKJ]

then can we get rid of Pronger and McCabe for 2010? Please?

a healthy Pronger would have played much better, that said he probably should have stepped aside

 

[Rick Middleton]

Which leads me back to my initial point - if 10 players were terrible, I don't see how you can single out just one.

The article singled him out. I commented on the article. But that still doesn't take away from my contention that he was the worst forward. You say that others played poorly. I don't disagree. I contend that he was the worst of the bunch.

Why? Because as I pointed out, his actions actually cost Team Canada. The others were mere passengers.

 

[BlueAndWhite]

The article singled him out. I commented on the article. But that still doesn't take away from my contention that he was the worst forward. You say that others played poorly. I don't disagree. I contend that he was the worst of the bunch.

Why? Because as I pointed out, his actions actually cost Team Canada. The others were mere passengers.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree because I don't think Bertuzzi was the worst of the bunch.

In fact, IMO Rick Nash took more penalties (and they were bonehead penalties) and was less productive offensively than Bertuzzi.

 

[friction]

By all means ... neither will be there.

I'm not sure why not...unless their skill levels drop in 4 years.

Pronger will be 36, McCabe would be 35, I don't think it's out of the question, especially with Chelios playing at age 44, to see both of them in Vancouver, with a good chance of them playing in Siberia in 2014

 

[Phanuthier*]

I agree with you on this one.

Bertuzzi clobbers Moore, and feels bad afterwards.
Bertuzzi takes a meatheaded penalty, and feels bad afterwards.

What do they have in common? That he's a complete moron on the ice. I don't care about his character after the game, I care about how he conducts himself on the ice. And as we have seen, his IQ drops a good 30 points as soon as his skates hit the ice. And this has cost his team, be it the Canucks or Team Canada.

Quite frankly, Bertuzzi is too slow and too large a liability to bring back to Team Canada for 2010. Is he a talent in the NHL? No doubt. But he's not the kind of player that I'd want to dress to win games internationally.

Totally agree

Tack on a 17 game suspension in junior, and a 10 game suspension the year before the Moore incident.

 

[KrisKing*]

Suspensions don't a bad hockey player make. Rocket Richard was suspended for punching out a ref. If you ask me that's a lot worse than what Bertuzzi did to a fellow player. In today's p***yfied nhl Gordie Howe would be suspended every other game.

 

[Hedberg]

I don't believe the speculation of Gretzky leaving. There are no "inside sources" and I don't think Darryl Sutter's game would work on the big ice.

And the article said Iginla cried as well as Bertuzzi.

 

[Hedberg]

Tack on a 17 game suspension in junior

Link?

 

[Rakiet*]

I don't believe the speculation of Gretzky leaving. There are no "inside sources" and I don't think Darryl Sutter's game would work on the big ice.

And the article said Iginla cried as well as Bertuzzi.

ah....a bias canucks fan has popped by...I suggest that you read this and tell me where it says Iggy was crying, and this is the only part that mentioned him:

Word out of the Canadian hockey team's dressing room is Jarome Iginla and Todd Bertuzzi were two of the hardest hit by the loss to Russia. Iginla sat stunned in full gear for more than 20 minutes before undressing. With tears in his eyes, Bertuzzi apparently apologized to all his teammates for his interference penalty that led to the game-winner ... Is it just me or does German speed-skating hottie Anni Friesinger know exactly when the cameras are on her, cueing her to unzip the top of her body suit after a race?

 

[Blades of Glory]

The Olympic disaster wasn't Gretzky's fault, it wasn't Quinn's fault, it was the players fault. This, unfortunately, is the typical sports drama: the team loses, coach/GM gets canned/resigns, even though the players are 98% at fault for it. Wayne Gretzky put an all-star team together, it had all the talent, all Pat Quinn needed to do was formulate lines and do a little coaching. He did that, the team didn't come together.

Gretzky could have made better decisions regarding personnel (Staal, Crosby, Marleau), but he still put together a team capable of winning Gold easily.

 

[Free Edler]

a 10 game suspension the year before the Moore incident.

Which, of course, you neglect to mention was for leaving the bench to prevent his teammate from getting pummelled by a knuckledragging buffoon in Scott Parker.

 

[NJ_Devil_Boy]

Report : UM...who cares. 2010 is four years away.

 

[Tricolore#20]

I think we need a full time Team Canada coach and GM. No more using NHL GM's and coaches. It should be a well paid position and get NHL quality coaches.

I agree.

Team Canada's coaching and management should be separate from the NHL, since having affiliation with NHL clubs leads to compromised decisions, which may not be in the best interests for Hockey Canada. As you have mentioned, the job would have to be extremely well paid and become very high profile in order to attract high quality coaches, who could make enough income and have enough influence without having to coach an NHL team. I really like the international soccer model, where coaching the big national teams is a tremendous position for any coach to hold. However, that might not be feasible in hockey.

In football, qualifiers (for the World Cup, or the continental championship) are played year round keeping a coach busy. In hockey, beyond the Olympics and perhaps the World Cup (if still existant in the future), Canadians in general don't follow international hockey. I'm not sure whether being Canada's coach full-time, year round would be satisfying for guys like Hitchcock, Martin, Sutter, etc, if they only coached the best players for 2 weeks every 2 years. They probably wouldn't be satisfied coaching the World Championships, or various other tournaments a national team is sent to either, considering for them the biggest prize of all is the Stanley Cup. Whether coaches want to take that route or not, I like the idea of having a full time national coach/manager who can select players without the biases that mar the selection process today.