Lemieux needs to do more

By Bob Smizik
http://communityvoices.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/sports/bob-smiziks-blog
Monday, February 14, 2011 12:15 AM

In taking on the NHL and commissioner Gary Bettman, in a calling out the goons and thugs of the league, in demanding change within the game, Penguins owner Mario Lemieux took an important step in addressing what ails his sports.

But it was just a first step, just a baby step.

Mario needs to say more. He needs to do more.

There is no owner in the NHL who commands the respect Lemieux does. When he speaks, players listen, owners listen, the commissioner listens, the fans listen.

Lemieux could do more to change the image and the reality of the NHL than any person on the planet. He saved the Penguins as a player and as an owner. Now he can save the league. If he wants to badly enough.

It would not be easy. Lemieux is not a reformer. He’s not a guy to go around pressing an issue. But if he really wants change, he has the bully pulpit from which to create it. No owner is more respected and no ownership group, and that would mean billionaire Ron Burkle, has the financial clout to pull this off.

Issuing a four paragraph statement and doing nothing else will accomplish little. In case you missed it, here is the statement Lemieux issued on the Penguins website yesterday afternoon.

“Hockey is a tough, physical game, and it always should be. But what happened Friday night on Long Island wasn’t hockey. It was a travesty. It was painful to watch the game I love turn into a sideshow like that.

“The NHL had a chance to send a clear and strong message that those kinds of actions are unacceptable and embarrassing to the sport. It failed.

“We, as a league, must do a better job of protecting the integrity of the game and the safety of our players. We must make it clear that those kinds of actions will not be tolerated and will be met with meaningful disciplinary action.

“If the events relating to Friday night reflect the state of the league, I need to re-think whether I want to be a part of it.”

Lemieux was addressing the game Friday in which the New York Islanders and the Penguins combined for 65 penalties that totaled 346 minutes and including 10 ejections. There were 15 fighting majors and 20 misconducts in the game that set records for both teams for most combined penalty minutes.

It was an embarrassment to the sport but in actuality just an enhancement of what happens too often in NHL games. Lemieux was unhappy with the punishment assessed by the league against the Islanders and he had a right to be. What was particularly galling was the Islanders were fined only $100,000. The figure should have been at least $500,000 because this attack on the Penguins and the integrity of the sport was clearly orchestrated more from the executive offices of the team than the locker room.

Of course, before Lemieux could be a truly effective agent for change, he’d have to clean up his own house. And that would mean Matt Cooke, a third-line winger who is regarded as one of the dirtiest players in the game.

Lemieux can’t preach reform -- can’t expect to be taken seriously -- until he does something about Cooke. He could get rid of Cooke, which would be a last resort. He could first talk to Cooke and let him know what will and will not be tolerated by the Penguins.

If Cooke cleans up his act, Lemieux gains credibility. If Cooke does not clean up his act, Lemieux gains credibility when Cooke is released.

Lemieux started a great thing yesterday. That was the easy part. Now comes the hard part. He has to be willing to get his hands dirty. But it will be worth it.


Lemieux’s hypocrisy clouds his message

By Nicholas J. Cotsonika, Yahoo! Sports
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl
Feebruary 13, 2011

UNIONDALE, NY - FEBRUARY 11: The New York Islanders and the Pittsburgh Penguins mix it up during the second period on February 11, 2011 at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

When Mario Lemieux speaks, we listen. When he blasts the NHL and insinuates he might want to leave it – even if out of anger, even if only for effect – our jaws drop.

But when he rips the actions of others and ignores the crimes of his own team, we shake our heads, too. He comes off as a hypocrite, and his message – even if legitimate – might get lost.

The owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins released a statement Sunday on his team’s Web site, calling the now infamous brawl-filled 9-3 loss to the New York Islanders a “travesty” and a “sideshow,” saying the league failed to send a strong enough message with the discipline it imposed. The last line was the kicker.

“If the events relating to Friday night reflect the state of the league,” Lemieux said, “I need to re-think whether I want to be a part of it.”

The statement was time-stamped at 2:10 p.m. It wasn’t minutes old before a flurry of tweets focused not on what Lemieux said, but what he didn’t.

I was one of the many who immediately thought of Matt Cooke, the Penguin who concussed the Boston Bruins’ Marc Savard with a blindside hit last season, the Penguin who stuck out his leg on the Washington Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin last Sunday, the Penguin whose hit from behind on the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Fedor Tyutin on Tuesday night resulted in a four-game suspension.

If Lemieux really wanted to make a statement, he could have said or done something about Cooke. Especially with Penguins star Sidney Crosby out with a concussion, he could have gone off on league issues – from the head shots to the head injuries to the line brawls to the goalie fights overshadowing the tight playoff races. He could have included Cooke in the discussion without even mentioning his name by simply saying even his own team hasn’t been blameless. But he didn’t.

Maybe it’s unreasonable to expect him to. Look at what happened when the Bruins’ Andrew Ference talked about teammate Daniel Paille after Paille’s Feb. 3 hit on the Dallas Stars’ Raymond Sawada. Even though Ference called it a “bad hit” without calling Paille a bad guy – and it was a bad hit, resulting in a four-game suspension – Ference was excoriated by some for breaking the code. That was a player talking about a teammate; imagine an owner talking about one of his players.

“It’s definitely a different thing,” said Ference, who once played with and for Lemieux in Pittsburgh. “Honestly, what was all blown up about our team was a joke. It wasn’t a problem within our locker room at all. I could definitely see where management starts talking about players, it could be a little more uncomfortable.”

Ference’s frankness made his comments all the more powerful, though. Can you imagine what would happen if Lemieux, one of the greatest players in hockey history, who has a reputation for class and rarely speaks publicly anymore, played the superstar statesman and took a stand? Instead, he just looks like an angry owner.

“Hockey is a tough, physical game, and it always should be,” Lemieux said in the statement. “But what happened Friday night on Long Island wasn’t hockey. It was a travesty. It was painful to watch the game I love turn into a sideshow like that.

“The NHL had a chance to send a clear and strong message that those kinds of actions are unacceptable and embarrassing to the sport. It failed.

“We, as a league, must do a better job of protecting the integrity of the game and the safety of our players. We must make it clear that those kind of actions will not be tolerated and will be met with meaningful disciplinary action.”

Take Friday night in a vacuum, and Lemieux has a case. The game included 346 penalty minutes, third-most in the NHL since 1990. The Islanders’ Matt Martin sucker-punched the Penguins’ Max Talbot. The Islanders’ Michael Haley, up from the minors, jumped on Talbot and then took on Penguins goalie Brent Johnson, drawing Penguins enforcer Eric Godard off the bench. The Islanders’ Trevor Gillies elbowed the Penguins’ Eric Tangradi in the head, then mocked him as he headed off and Tangradi lay on the ice.

This was premeditated retaliation for an earlier battle with the Penguins.

It was a travesty. It was a sideshow. And the result? Gillies received a nine-game suspension, Martin a four-gamer. Haley got nothing. The Islanders were fined $100,000, but general manager Garth Snow and coach Jack Capuano got nothing, too. Bruins veteran Mark Recchi, a former Penguin, said Lemieux was right, that “it wasn’t strong enough.”

The one who received the stiffest penalty was Godard, who received an automatic 10-game suspension for leaving the bench, plus empathy from a fellow enforcer.

“The rule’s the rule,” the Bruins’ Shawn Thornton said. “I’m not going against what the league did. But it is unfortunate that it’s set in stone and it’s automatic, because I mean, put in the same situation, seeing a teammate laying there, seeing another guy on the ground and then another guy going after your goalie, I mean, I wish I had the money to afford jumping off the bench in that situation.”

The problem is, you can’t take Friday night in a vacuum. Who led the league in fights entering Sunday’s games? The Penguins, with 61, according to hockeyfights.com. Who led the league in penalty minutes? The Penguins, with 1,101. Who led the league in majors? The Penguins, with 63. Who ranked second in game misconducts? The Penguins, with eight – two fewer than the first-place Islanders. Who was one of four teams with a match penalty? The Penguins.

Oh, and then there’s Cooke’s old act.

Lemieux needs to re-think whether that should be part of the league, too.

Nicholas J. Cotsonika is a hockey writer for Yahoo! Sports.