Welcome to the Healthy Scratch

After a week of Google Analytics showed me that nobody reads any of this except me, I decided to split Red Glory into two weblogs.

Formula 1 content remains on Red Glory.

Hockey content is now here at the badly named Healthy Scratch.

I did this because a couple of the blogs I follow for hockey perspective were celebrating their one-year anniversary this week -- and I've been doing this longer. OK, all of a month longer, but still longer. So it occurs to me that since I've done all of no promotion for the 'blog, I should consider doing some. And to make the blog more palatable for potential link exchanges, I should split the content up.

I'll let you know how this goes.

Update: ok, I have to go through the history and see how many back-links to older articles there are... because they are not there any more.

Update II (The Updatering): This has been done, backlinks should work properly again.

It's Cherry's Fault

MD Blames Don Cherry For Hockey Violence

A Toronto neurosurgeon speaking at a Regina seminar about concussions in hockey says the promotion of an aggressive style of play by commentators like Don Cherry is contributing to serious injuries in the sport.

"He's a negative influence," Dr. Charles Tator told CBC News in reference to Cherry, a popular personality on Hockey Night in Canada. "The aggressive, lack-of-respect hockey that he preaches — we need to get that out of the game."

Cue the baying hounds.

Enough Brain Damage Already

Enough Brain Damage Already:

[...]Mr. Burke is regarded as one of the smartest thinkers in hockey management, perhaps in part because he never went through the mind-numbing apprenticeship that is an NHL playing career.[...] In Russia, as it happens, hockey culture evolved out of low-contact soccer traditions rather than from the arts of war and, as a result, clever puck movement is still prized over mindless pugnacity.

This is why my favorite kind of hockey is four-on-four sudden-deathvictory overtime hockey. Even in the NHL, the guys can't screw around hitting each other -- they have to play the game.

Know what I hate?

(Part 2 of a continuing series)... yeah, well too bad, I'm gonna tell you.

I hate this current "The Senators Are Awful On The Road" schtick that is popular through the blogosphere. Why did they earn this? Because they want 1-3-1 on their recent road trip. So let's review:

• Boston: The Senators stole a point from Boston. Anyone who tells you otherwise is planning the Stanley Cup Parade down Elgin for this June an idiot.
• San Jose: The Sens roll into California suffering jet lag and somehow don't manage to beat one of the best teams in hockey in their own rink. Somehow this is a surprise to people?
• Los Angeles: The Kings are fourth in the west, but are tied with the leading Sharks on points. Again, somehow the Senators don't manage to beat one of the best teams in the league in their own rink.
• Phoenix. The Coyotes are sixth in the west, and therefore should be playing to the same level that the Senators are playing at, but only if you totally ignore the fact that the schedule thus far this year has flattered the Senators efforts. Charitably this could have gone either way. Realistically... well, it didn't go our way, did it.
• Anaheim. Ok maybe I rated them higher than they deserved, but this game was by no means a gimmie.

When you start the season with a soft, leisurely extended home stand against tired, travelling teams who are playing back-to-backs with a marathon road trip, well it is no wonder the results were different.

If you step back from the last-5 or last-10 perspective everyone gets stuck into, you'll see that this team is barely holding on to the bottom of the playoff positions, which is about where we expected the team to be. Yes this road trip was bad. Yes they were flattered by the early schedule. But you know what? On average, we're getting about what we expected.

Once the Senators get into the softer, tired, dispirited teams (Anaheim and Philadelphia, just to pick two names from a hat) then naturally they do better against them.

Don't Throw Elliot Under The Bus

The Senators drop another one on the road. So far this road trip we have an OT-loss in Boston, losses in San Jose, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Today we are up for Anaheim, and let us all be honest that a win today is highly unlikely.

Of the lot, the point salvaged in Boston was a gift, as would be a point stolen today in Anaheim. Realistically, the results of this road trip are about as can be expected.

At the beginning of the year I had my doubts about this team. I hoped that Michalek and Cheechoo would combine to compensate us somewhat for the loss of Heatly -- and I think we can all agree that Michalek has exceeded our expectations. Mike Fisher is on pace for a career year. Alfredsson continues to lead in all areas of the game save goaltending. LeClaire has made some incredible moves to keep the team in games they had no business being in.

The problems that have come up were not entirely unexpected: Kovalev was always referred to as enigmatic (which is a fancy five dollar word meaning inconsistent). The team still lacks at least two top-four defencemen, no matter what miracles Volchenkov and Phillips have been working. Karlsson showed though his stint in the AHL that his game on the small ice is steady, and now he needs to add the NHL caliber polish to it. Defensive discipline in general is, as it seems always to be, a continuing problem for this team.

Some problems were unexpected. Cheechoo was always assumed to be an under performer, but has turned out to miss even those expectations. Jason Spezza can't find the back of the net, something which nobody saw coming. And LeClaire was taken out for a month while riding the bench -- something which will make this year's highlight reel when the season's story is properly told.

Combine this with scheduling circumstance which granted the Senators a soft schedule of abnormally soft opponents, many of whom were playing far more frequently than the Senators and travelling much more, let the Senators draw out some more wins than perhaps they should have. Now, when the shoe is on the other foot -- with the Senators travelling more and playing game after game after game -- the losses are starting to pile up the same way the wins did earlier.

I'm not saying this team is as bad as this road trip is making them look. But they are by no means as good as they looked at home, either. The truth is somewhere in between, which is where they stand today -- tied for seventh in the east, grimly hanging on to a playoff spot.

The one thing I am going to say though is that I don't blame Elliot for the Senator's woes. I think that Elliot is a fine goalie who is being let down by the guys on the ice in front of him. I think he's been thrown into the deep end here and since he isn't a #1 goalie then we are seeing the results. Maybe LeClaire could have stolen some of these games that the rest of the team have been trying to give away, but then again maybe not. But ragging on Elliot is not going to fix anything.

The bottom line is that the team needs to get it done at both ends of the ice, and on this road trip they have not been doing that, and Brian Elliot just can't work miracles.

Gameday Prediction: Senators at San Jose

My quick prediction: Sharks win in regulation. Final 3-1 or 4-2.

Why?

• The Sharks are the best team in the league. Ottawa is not. Edge: Sharks.
• The Sharks are playing at home, Ottawa is on the second game of a road trip and is out of their timezone. Edge: Sharks.
• The Sharks have Dany Heatley. Ottawa has Brian Elliot, who is a fine backup goalie, but come on, he's a backup. Heatley vs LeClaire might have been interesting. Heatley vs Elliot is a bit of a foregone conclusion. Edge: Sharks.

Hopefully there will be a highlight reel tomorrow morning.

Oh, and I for one don't want to see some juvenile "revenge" dished out on Heatly. He left, let's move on and play some hockey.

Hockey Night In Toronto

There's a reason why CBC prefers the Toronto game nationally:

The absence of the Toronto Maple Leafs cost Hockey Night In Canada at least 250,000 viewers on Saturday night. The show’s 7 p.m. ET game, with the Leafs playing, had been averaging more than two million viewers. With Toronto idle on Saturday, a large segment of the southern Ontario market tuned out and the audience dropped to 1.783 million. Hockey Night aired three games: Washington Capitals-Montreal Canadiens went nationally, with Calgary-Columbus and Boston-Ottawa seen regionally.

(Previously.)