Dave Lozo's Bag Skate: NHL Gets It Right with Moving Tributes After Shootings

NHL gets it right with tributes

The NHL does a lot of things that make you question whether it's an international professional sports league or a fantasy football league run by a guy who does things to benefit his friends.

Whether it's selective enforcement of CBA rules—arbitrarily deciding which cap-circumventing contracts are punished because they circumvent the cap, retracting punishments for circumventing the cap despite none of the facts of the case changing, allowing a player still under contract with a team to work in the front office—paying to keep destitute teams afloat while allowing others to relocate or having a huckster purchase a franchise despite having no money, the NHL does a lot of things that make you wonder how it stays afloat.

Say what you want about the NHL's Old Boys Network, but the NHL also showed last week why that network can also work as a community that's unrivaled by any other sports league.

In the wake of the separate incidents in Canada that took the lives of two soldiers, Cpl. Nathan Cirillo in the shootings and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent in a hit-and-run, the NHL paid tribute to both the soldiers and the first responders in a ceremony before games in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto on Saturday night.

It was emotional, beautiful and perfect. For a country of 30 million that tends to unite over hockey, this coordinated effort to tie together a country that was feeling the hurt of these tragic events was a sight to behold. Hearing a nation sing "O Canada" together at arenas—and by some indications, at home as well—was exactly what they needed.

"When something happens like that, an unfortunate situation in the world, in Ottawa here, to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those guys, it really shows our respect," Devils rookie and Manitoba native Damon Severson said to Chris Stevenson of NHL.com. "I think as players of a sport, any sport, the people who work with our police task force, it shows them we really do appreciate that."

Andre Ringuette/Getty Images

It's easy to take something like this for granted, especially in America, where shootings have become commonplace.

But consider the reaction of Major League Baseball, which had a chance before the start of a World Series game to pay tribute to those soldiers but chose not to. Just like the NHL, MLB is an international sport with a team in Toronto, yet there was no moment of silence, no "O Canada" before the Royals and Giants took the field.

While there was plenty of time to organize the tribute Saturday, on the day of the shootings, the NHL snapped into action. In Pittsburgh, in a game between the Penguins and Flyers, "O Canada" was played despite the contest featuring two American teams. In Edmonton, there was an especially emotional rendition of the anthem and a moment of silence.

Andre Ringuette/Getty Images

There was also a moment of silence before the third game on the schedule between the Sabres and Ducks. There were similar tributes in other games in the days that followed.

The fourth game on the Wednesday schedule, between the Senators and Leafs, was postponed.

This isn't being written as a "look how much better hockey is than the other sports" type of hand-wringing that makes hockey fans feel so good. It's being written to show that while the NHL is a corporation, a gigantic money-making operation that will take fans and hold them upside down until all their money falls out of their pockets at an outdoor game, there is a real sense of community in the hockey world that may not exist in the other leagues to a similar extent.

This is just something to keep in mind the next time someone says the NHL is soulless. They are more machine than man now, but every so often, the human side comes out, and that's a good thing.

Bill Smith/Getty Images

Chicago Way not suiting Brad Richards

When the Chicago Blackhawks announced they had signed Brad Richards to a one-year, $2 million deal, it was mostly lauded as a steal for a team that needed to upgrade at center. After all, Richards as a replacement for Michal Handzus as the team's second-line center? A guy with a Stanley Cup and 51 points last season? That has to be a steal.

Through eight games, it looks a bit like an overpayment.

Richards has zero goals and three assists in eight games and has seen his ice time slashed. He is averaging 13:21 per game, which is about five minutes fewer than he averaged last season with the Rangers. Richards is only playing 10:47 per game at even strength, about four minutes fewer than last season.

His possession numbers look good, although they can be deceiving: He has a 54.8 percent Fenwick, which is a plus-3 percent relative to his teammates, according to Progressive Hockey. But he has started two-thirds of his shifts in the offensive zone, which aids those numbers and makes his zero goals look that much worse.

Some of Richards' on-ice problems, however, could be adjusting to a new lifestyle off the ice.

Richards had to relocate his family from New York to Chicago and recently became a father. It's not an excuse, and he's not using it as one, as he isn't the first player to become a dad or switch teams.

Speaking to Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune last week, Richards summarized his situation nicely:

"

I probably have to be honest a little bit — it's not the normal way to start a season that I have had the rest of my career. It's not an excuse, either. Lots of people have had children and moved to new teams. I was pretty ingrained in (the Rangers) and it's going to take a little while (to learn) how things are done here.

It's a big difference. I've been pretty much single 80 to 90 percent of my career, let alone having a family. I've never had to juggle getting home to a crying baby or a wife that just gave birth and needs help. That's a separate thing than hockey.

It's way more important in my mind than what goes on here. This is a game that I love and get a great opportunity to do but taking care of a family and raising a kid is going to be a whole different challenge.

"

Based on his track record, the 34-year-old Richards should gather himself and improve on the ice as he gets more comfortable off it. Whether he gets another crack on the second line or has to contribute as a third-line center remains to be seen, but it's important to remember hockey players have lives outside of the rink that can disturb what happens to them on the ice.

Quote of the Week: Jon Cooper vs. Darryl Sutter

(Lightning coach Jon Cooper and Kings coach Darryl Sutter are the two most quotable coaches in the NHL. Each week, we will let you decide who had the best quote.)

It may have been a mistake to think coach Cooper could hang with coach Sutter on a weekly basis.

For the sake of brevity, here's a snippet of what Sutter told reporters Saturday about tracking shots and scoring chances: "I don’t know much, but I can count."

From that same link, Sutter also said: "There are lots of people, quite honest, that sit in the press box that don’t have anything to do."

There's nothing untrue about that statement.

What does Cooper bring to the table this week? The Lightning have been ravaged by injuries in the first few weeks—Victor Hedman, Ryan Callahan, Alex Killorn just to name a few—so beat writer Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times got the answer from Cooper on how to fill out a lineup card.

Because Steve Thomas is old. Get it? Cooper does it again!

Extending Marc-Andre Fleury? Really? No, really?

As someone who has never played professional hockey or worked in an NHL front office, I can't profess to be a smarter hockey person than Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford, who played the game and GM'd the Carolina Hurricanes to a Stanley Cup in 2006.

So when Rutherford says he wants to extend the contract of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, we should accept the opinion of a former goaltender and Cup winner with years of no wait really come on you're going to extend Fleury?

Rob Rossi of the Tribune-Review has the quote that has to be real because he tweeted it but is still quite unbelievable.

"

Writing Fleury column for Wednesday, and check out this quote from Rutherford: 'as long as I'm the GM, he'll be our goalie.' #pens

— Rob Rossi (@RobRossi_Trib) October 21, 2014"

Here's Rossi's full column, which has that quote again, so it must be real.

I know the potential UFA market for goaltenders is bleak: Antti Niemi, Michal Neuvirth and Viktor Fasth perhaps top the group and are no guarantee to be available next summer anyway. So I get it, that out of that group, Fleury is probably the best goaltender available.

And Fleury is very good friends with Sidney Crosby, and there's something to be said about the power Crosby has within that team and how that can be a factor.

But Fleury is, quite frankly, a terrible playoff goaltender and simply can't be trusted to backstop a team to a championship.

Fleury's save percentages the past five postseasons: .891, .899, .834, .883 and .915.

Fleury's .915 over two rounds last year was better than Jonathan Quick's .912, which was good enough to win the Kings a Stanley Cup.

But the Penguins are not the Kings. The Kings are built in a way that all that team needs is average (or in last year's case, slightly below average) goaltending over two months to win 16 games. They are so deep that all Quick had to do was show up at the end of the first round and in the Final to help his team lift the Cup.

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

The Penguins are not that deep in any facet of their game. Average, or below-average, goaltending won't cut it. And Fleury, who turns 30 next month, is probably going to get close to $6 million per season with his next deal, and that's $6 million the Penguins should spend elsewhere.

After five years of being let down by their goaltending, you'd think the Penguins would be ready to try something new, perhaps going cheap on goaltending and fortifying the team in front of the goaltender.

Rutherford, who has said he doesn't plan on running the Penguins long term, is taking a long-term risk when he's only there for the short term.

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me five straight postseasons, shame on the Penguins.

KHL Thing of the Week

(There is some quality hockey that is played overseas that we rarely hear about in North America. This section will highlight that or something else from our friends playing hockey in the KHL.)

Mike Keenan is a legendary coach, a Stanley Cup champion and a good guy to talk hockey with. He is currently coaching Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL, the team that won the Gagarin Cup last year. So Keenan is a good coach who is behind the bench of one of the top teams in Russia.

Keenan also feels really good about a KHL team's chances of beating an NHL team, according to Igor Eronko of Sports.ru, who translated the quotes from Championat.

To be fair, maybe something got lost in translation. Maybe the "games" Keenan was talking about were Candyland and Jenga. I am neither a linguist nor an expert in game theory.

Could a KHL team beat an NHL team? In hockey? Sure. If an NHL team played a KHL team 100 times, no one is saying the NHL team would win 100 times.

Ninety-five times, probably.

The Hockey News ran a piece last year that listed the KHL All-Star starters for that season's big game. Look at that team. Sure, it has Ilya Kovalchuk and Alex Radulov, but come on. Mikko Koskinen in net? Brandon Bochenski? Brandon Bochenski? Really?

If this year's KHL All-Star squad was turned into one 23-man roster and played this year's Stanley Cup champion in a best-of-seven, does the KHL team win a game?

In the words of Daniel Alfredsson, probably not.

Who Is Connor McDavid-ing This Week?

The tank battle for Connor McDavid will be quite the scene this season, as teams stumble over each other to finish last in the standings, thus guaranteeing either McDavid or future American hero Jack Eichel.

Here's how it's looking entering Tuesday:

Gerry Thomas/Getty Images

1. Carolina Hurricanes (0-5-2, 2 pts)

Things looked bleak for the Hurricanes entering last week, as key players Jeff Skinner and Andrej Sekera were returning from injury in time to face Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton in three very winnable road games. But the Hurricanes dug deep and found a way to emerge from that three-game minefield with exactly zero points. If the Hurricanes earn the top pick in the 2015 draft, those three games could go down as three of the most important in franchise history.

2. Buffalo Sabres (2-7-0, 4 pts)

A nearly perfect road trip through California was not to be, as the Sabres came away with a disappointing 2-1 win in San Jose on Saturday to finish 1-2-0 against the Ducks, Kings and Sharks. The Sabres did what they could, being outshot 30-15, but a loss was not in the cards. They will need to be careful to avoid the start of a potential winning streak when they visit Toronto on Tuesday.

3. Winnipeg Jets (3-5-0, 6 pts)

As much as they tried, they could not avoid taking two points from the Hurricanes on Tuesday, but there’s no shame in earning two points in that situation. The Jets went 0-of-5 on the power play and mustered a mere 26 shots on net, but they ran into a brick wall, as Ondrej Pavelec uncharacteristically stopped 21 of 22 shots. The Jets recovered nicely in a 4-2 regulation loss on Friday to the Lightning, but once again, Pavelec came to play Sunday in a 2-1 overtime win against the Avs. The Jets will look to avoid a hot streak as they begin a four-game road trip Tuesday.

Goal of the Week

A shorthanded 2-on-0 that results in a beautiful goal will be the goal of the week every week. Those happen every week, right?

Questions and Answers

(Got a question? Tweet me @davelozo or email me at [e-mail], but please don't call before 9 a.m. I will answer any of your questions about hockey or whatever if it's a good question.)

It's hard for me to judge. Maybe the referees let too much stuff go and that allowed things to boil over. Maybe that incident was unavoidable. Maybe this is the team the Sharks are now they pay John Scott. It's hard to say. It's certainly not the first time a brawl occurred late in a four-goal game.

Here's video of the line brawl, which seems mild by comparison to other incidents of similar ilk.

Look, the Sharks were reeling and had lost four straight before facing the Ducks. There's no love lost between these teams, so it was already a combustible situation before the puck dropped. Scott got two games for leaving the bench on a legal line change to fight (which is one of the weirder suspensions, as fighting is OK but not if you do it right away, I guess) and that seems fair.

Losing Scott for two games while the Ducks lose Ben Lovejoy for six to eight weeks because he broke his finger punching Joe Pavelski seems like a pretty good trade-off for the Sharks.

No.

Well, yeah. They've got a real solid group of six, with Roman Josi, Seth Jones, Ryan Ellis, Mattias Ekholm and Anton Volchenkov. They have a sneaky good top four, and that doesn't yet include Jones on a consistent basis. If Jones is your No. 5 D-man, you've got something pretty decent.

And it also helps to have so many players who went to school in the Preds system with Barry Trotz before being passed over to Peter Laviolette this season. If you didn't have a two-way game, you didn't get to play for the Predators.

But really, a lot of it is Shea Weber and Pekka Rinne. If a team spends 30 minutes a game with one of the league's best defensemen and goaltenders on the ice, that team is way ahead of the curve. It's why having Zdeno Chara and Tuukka Rask is such an advantage. Same with Drew Doughty and Quick in Los Angeles.

With Rinne missing more than 50 games last season, I think a lot of people forgot how hard it is to consistently beat a team with him in net.

War? Would it be war if you lived near two pizza places and a third pizza place opened, only that third pizza place was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and was always ready to give you the specific pizza you craved?

War? That's a war I can get behind.

(But seriously, Friends is a show that is so dated today that no one should ever binge watch it on Netflix because it could be harmful to one's health.)

I looked over the Wild's remaining schedule, the biggest obstacle standing in the way of a perfect finish is five games against the Nashville Predators. Perhaps it's best if you lower your sights a bit and hope to lose those five games after regulation.

1. Canvas shoes. Ankle socks, white. Jeans that I may not have washed in quite some time. Boxer briefs. A v-neck white undershirt. A long-sleeved shirt I bought at The Gap. Or J.C. Penney. A smug smile of satisfaction that defies my situation.

2. Probably.

Point projection for Jonathan Drouin: 62

Best Brad Pitt film, based on hair: Legends of the Fall (for joke/hockey purposes, I wanted to say A River Runs Through It because his character is named Paul MacLean, like the Sens coach, who has the best lip hair in the NHL)

Topping on a pizza: Anything but ham and/or pineapple

Ben Stiller, national hero: No

If you have to ask, you don't deserve the banana walnut pancakes in the first place.

All statistics via NHL.com.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.