When the clock strikes three, just do nothing

Daniel R. Levitt, SABR:

When the Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 1918, it was their fifth triumph in the fifteen years of the modern classic. The club had the best player in baseball, outfielder-pitcher Babe Ruth, another top hitter in Harry Hooper, star catcher Wally Schang, and four other pitching stars — Carl Mays, Dutch Leonard, Joe Bush, and Sam Jones — each younger than 27. With the ending of the Great War, Ernie Shore, Duffy Lewis, and other stars were returning from military service. Local fans were optimistic — not only because the ballclub was loaded with talent but because Bostonians had become accustomed to great teams since the early days of professional baseball.

Within a few years all of the above players were gone, mostly traded or sold to the New York Yankees, and the Red Sox had become a laughable franchise, finishing dead last in nine of eleven years from 1922 through 1932. Boston Red Sox' owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the Yankees for $125,000 and a $300,000 mortgage on Fenway Park.

Edmonton Oilers - In 1978, acquired Center Wayne Gretzky, Goaltender Eddie Mio and Left Wing Peter Driscoll from the Indianapolis Racers (when both teams were in the World Hockey Association) for $700,000 and future considerations. The Racers were losing $40,000 per game. The money was not enough to keep the Racers alive; they folded that December.

Los Angeles Kings - the Kings received from the Edmonton Oilers Wayne Gretzky, Defenseman Marty McSorley and Left Wing Mike Krushelnyski for Center Jimmy Carson, Left Wing Martin Gelinas, $15 million in cash, and the Kings' first-round draft picks in 1989 (later traded to the New Jersey Devils – New Jersey selected Jason Miller), 1991 (Martin Rucinsky), and 1993 (Nick Stajduhar). The Oilers' owner Peter Pocklington was burned in effigy outside Northlands Coliseum. Gretzky himself was considered a "traitor" by some Canadians for turning his back on his adopted hometown, and his home country.

Boston Bruins - In 1964, trade Goaltender Ken Dryden to the Montreal Canadiens for Right Wing Paul Reid and Defenseman Guy Allen, whom the Bruins coveted. Allen nor Reid ever appeared in an NHL contest. Dryden's regular season totals include a .790 winning percentage, a 2.24 goals against average, and, most incredibly, winning 258 games and losing only 57 games while recording 46 shutouts in just 397 NHL games. He won the Vezina Trophy five times as the top goaltender in the NHL. Dryden played on six Stanley Cup winners in his eight year Hall of Fame career.

If a rival team owner calls and mentions cash, listen carefully. If not, hang up the phone. No matter what happens at the 3 o'clock NHL trading deadline on Wednesday, it will never match the Ken Dryden deal. The best trades are the ones that aren't made.



Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Man behind the glass takes advantage of second chance

Jeff Jacobs, Hartford Courant:

May 21, 1994 - General Manager Paul Holmgren did more to unify the Hartford Whalers than anybody in recent team history. Holmgren fired head coach Pierre McGuire after six months. It was more than a great idea. It was justice.

In 15 years of covering the NHL, we had never seen a coach so universally disrespected and disliked within his own organization.
McGuire fancied himself two parts Scotty Bowman and one part Bob Johnson.

McGuire privately said after a game how he outcoached the other guy. It turned out to be a superhuman leap of faith on his part.

At 32, McGuire was the youngest head coach in the NHL. When a young man is so headstrong, so emotional, so calculating, such a control freak, so full of ambition and so full of himself, he will either rocket to the top or crash.

As a first year assistant with the Hartford Whalers, McGuire told the team that "he would personally shut down Pittsburgh Penguins Center Mario Lemieux" in the October 17, 1992 contest. Lemieux' linemate Kevin Stevens scored four goals while Mario had only four assists.

On the bench, players said McGuire would taunt the other team, saying he couldn't believe the opposing coach was allowing him certain line matchups. This braggadocio led Pittsburgh's Jaromir Jagr to mock McGuire. Pierre got Jagr for an illegal stick, and after Jagr jumped out of the penalty box, he scored on a breakaway. Although he had scored big goals in two Stanley Cup championships, Jagr called this overtime goal the biggest of his life because he humbled ``that know-it-all.''

After McGuire was fired, Whalers' Captain Pat Verbeek called it "the best thing that could have happened to the Whalers." He said that his teammates had no respect for McGuire and players would refuse to play if he were retained. In 1995, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman ruled that McGuire would forfeit half of the remaining salary owed to him by the Whalers for providing confidential coaching evaluations that had been prepared while employed by Hartford to the Edmonton Oilers.

McGuire became a scout with the Ottawa Senators, but the stint lasted only two months when the entire coaching staff was fired in January, 1996. He became the radio analyst for CJAD broadcasts of Montreal Canadiens games. When TSN re-acquired the Canadian national cable rights to NHL hockey in 2002, McGuire was hired as its lead hockey analyst.

McGuire joined NBC Sports after they acquired the rights to NHL games in 2006. He usually works as an "Inside the Glass" reporter with the lead broadcast team of Mike Emrick and Ed Olczyk. His hockey knowledge is seemingly endless. Pierre can rattle off almost every player’s college and juniors team. Also, he loves to add random facts about a players’ personal life.

Hockey players need strength, pain tolerance, endurance, explosive speed and maximum conditioning to endure the rigors of their sport. NHL players simply never coast. Despite all the demands the sport and coaches put on NHL players, it seems that hockey players, more so than other athletes, realize how lucky they are to play their sport professionally and relish the opportunity to put on a uniform and play before adoring fans.

And they hate that Pierre McGuire speaks for them.

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy