Crossing the Blue Line

Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers (left) tussles with Sean Avery (right) of the New York Rangers.

Wayne Simmonds is a professional hockey player (a right winger) for the Philadelphia Flyers who is about to play his fourth season in the National Hockey League.  Mr. Simmonds is 6' 2", 185 pounds, 23 years old, will make $1.5 million this season and hails from Scarborough, Ontario.  Nothing about Mr. Simmonds is exceptional in the NHL except for one thing:  Wayne Simmonds is black.

There were 29 black players in the NHL last season, an average of less than one per team.  The (former) Atlanta Thrashers had the most with four.  Many of those players were bi-racial.  29 black players out of approximately 700 total players in the NHL.

Mr. Simmonds was the centre of a racial controversy in the hockey world last week when a fan in London, Ontario threw a banana peel in front of Simmonds as he attempted a shot in a shoot-out.  He avoided the banana peel and scored a goal.  Media outlets all over North America immediately played up the story.  Simmonds took the high road and only expressed surprise it happened in Canada.

If you Google "Wayne Simmonds & banana," you will find about 900 news articles written about the racial incident directed at Mr. Simmonds in the past week.

Sean Avery is a professional hockey player (a left winger) who plays for the New York Rangers who is about to play his twelfth season in the NHL.  Mr. Avery is 5' 10", 195 pounds, 31 years of age, will be (over) paid $4 million in the final year of his contract and grew up in North York, Ontario - the same province as Mr. Simmonds.

Sean Avery - the pest every hockey fan loves to hate.

Avery is what is known in hockey as a "pest" or "agitator."  Unlike most agitators in the NHL, Mr. Avery has also been known to score the occasional goal.  He has reached double digits in goals scored - 10 or more - five times.  But it's Avery's mouth, not his goal scoring, for which he is most famous.  Or infamous.

Most infamously, Avery walked into the visitors' locker room in Calgary, Alberta in December of 2008 and asked the reporters in the room to gather around him.  He told them he wanted to make a statement.  Avery had previously dated Canadian actress Elisha Cuthbert (24), and she was then dating Defenceman Dion Phaneuf - a star player on the hometown Calgary Flames.  After he had everyone's undivided attention, Avery told the assembled media the following:

"I'm just going to say one thing. I'm really happy to be back in Calgary; I love Canada. I just want to comment on how it's become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds. I don't know what that's about, but enjoy the game tonight."

Ouch.  If a player like Avery, who is primarily paid to be a pest - get under the skin of an opponent  - is willing to say something like that in public to a large media gathering, imagine what he is capable of saying out on the ice to try and get an opposing player off their game.  The NHL suspended Avery six games for the crude remarks.

So it was a little ironic this week, when the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers met in an exhibition game, that Wayne Simmonds, not Sean Avery, got into hot water during a trash-talking scrum by calling Avery a "faggot" during the game (Avery has been an outspoken proponent of gay marriage in New York).

Trash-talking to try and distract an opponent is a long tradition in most professional sports, and the NHL is certainly no exception.  Only this time the homophobic slur was apparently heard live on the TV broadcast and it was so easy to read Simmonds' lips that they were blurred out in Canada on that evening's hockey highlights and news broadcasts.

Just a week after the banana peel incident, Simmonds was now on the other side of the racial/hate debate.  And to make Avery, who regularly is voted by hockey fans as the most hated player in the NHL, look even remotely sympathetic is no small feat.

So the debate became in today's politically correct world, in which every word from every public figure is scrutinized, is it too much to ask of our athletes to keep p.c. in the heat of battle?  I don't believe for a moment that Simmonds is homophobic, or that Avery is a racist, but that word was the quickest thing Simmonds could think of to get back at Avery.

On the other hand, as the rarest of beings in the NHL - a black player - should Simmonds have been even more aware of not making disparaging remarks about another minority group?  After all, the only thing more rare than a black player in the NHL is an openly gay player.  There aren't any.  Never have been.  Notice I'm saying openly gay, not just gay.  I'm sure there are gay players in the NHL.  Dozens.  But in the macho, testosterone-driven world of professional sports, they are forced to stay in the closest - just as they are in baseball, basketball and football.

In the abstract, I really don't care what professional athletes do or how they behave.  Juice up all you want on steroids, beat up your wives and girlfriends, drive drunk and kill your dogs.  I think it's crazy to look at professional athletes as any kind of role models just because of their proficiency in sports.  All it means when a guy can hit a ball a long way is that he can hit a ball a long way.  That's it.  Nothing less and nothing more.

The problem I have is when their bad behavior - the steroids and racial and homophobic trash-talking, etc. - trickles down below them to the Junior leagues, the high school leagues and then the youth leagues.

In other words, whatever hate speech players like Avery and Simmonds are using in the heat of the moment to gain an edge over an opponent - and many of these derogatory words that we never utter in polite society are freely spoken dozens of times throughout an NHL hockey game - the kids are going to pick up on and use as well.

And that - just like making Sean Avery look sympathetic - is not good for the game.

Captain's Ice

An informal "Captain's Ice" practice at Sharks Ice in San Jose, CA.

September is to hockey fans what March is to baseball fans.  Even if your team has come up short in the playoffs year after year ("Sharks, cough, cough, Sharks"), when each September rolls around and the Men of Winter prepare for another season, every true fan (or "finatic," in San Jose) is hopeful that this is finally THE YEAR.

The San Jose Sharks have been one of the most consistent teams in the NHL the past thirteen years - missing the playoffs only one time - and winning their division the past four straight seasons, but they just haven't been able to get over that final hump - an appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals.  They have appeared in the Conference Finals each of the past two seasons - the only NHL team to do so.

So after another off-season of big trades - thank goodness they were able to dump Heatley; now get ready to fall in love with dazzling young defenseman Brent Burns - free agent signings and other player moves, every true Sharks fan is ready to start the season and see what the 2011-2012 model Sharks can do on the open road.

All the players who were disappointed, beaten down and injured at the end of last season are now fresh and healthy.  The new arrivals are ready to prove they belong here.  The younger players from last season are ready to make a step up - take it to the next level - and prove they can be reliable veteran performers in the Bigs.

Each NHL season really starts in mid-August at the "Captain's Ice" practices.  NHL players and prospects who live in the Bay Area, including several who still live here but haven't played for the Sharks in years, gather together every weekday morning from 10:00 - 11:00 a.m to start to get the feel back in their hands and legs, and work on their conditioning, before the start of training camp.

NHLers can do a lot of off-ice training in preparation for another season, but ultimately the only way to get in shape to play hockey is to play hockey. 

Sharks forward Ryane Clowe stops for a picture.

I stopped in at Sharks Ice in San Jose (a four rink complex owned by the Sharks that is the only ice rink in San Jose) to watch this morning's Captain's Ice practice.  The rookies and prospects report to Training Camp this Friday, September 9th.  The informal morning Captain's Ice practices will continue through next week for the veterans, as they prepare for the start of training camp on Saturday, September 17.

If you're a hockey fan, I highly recommend coming out to Sharks Ice and watching one of the practices.  There's no charge and you can get up close to these talented pros, and get a much better idea of their size, speed and skill than if you were watching a game from the upper deck of the Shark Tank.

The Captain's Ice practices are also a great time for fans to interact with their favorite players.  The crowds are few, there were about 25 fans at today's practice, and the players are very accommodating of requests for photographs and autographs.

Former Shark Jonathan Cheechoo signs an autograph.

All the players I watched  today after practice were incredibly patient and gracious with the fans, taking the time to stop and take pictures and sign autographs for every fan who was waiting after practice.

It was also fun to see these grizzled veterans, many of whom ended last season looking pale, beaten and battered, now looking so fresh and tanned, sporting grins and smiles like little boys renewing their love of the game, and ready to go.  Coaches aren't allowed on the ice during these early "unofficial" practices, there isn't any hitting and no one keeps score, so it's just like the pond hockey of their youth.  Just a four on four scrimmage, or what the Canadians call "shinny" hockey.

They ran a few drills for thirty minutes to get warmed up and then broke into two teams to scrimmage.  It was funny to watch the pros trying to count the light and dark sweaters (a true hockey fan never calls it a "jersey"), taking them off and on to try and even out the teams, just like I've seen my boys do themselves hundred of times.

Sharks goalie Antti Niemi poses for a fan.

Brad Stuart, a former Shark who lives in San Jose in the off-season, but plays for the Detroit Red Wings during the season, came off the ice after the initial drills and before the scrimmage, leaving the remaining group with an odd number of skaters.  As he started to skate off, several of the other players started yelling, "Stewie, Stewie, come back and play, Stewie!"  Just like little kids out on the pond.

After thirty minutes of "shinny," they finished with some interval skating drills, skating hard for a couple of laps and then resting for a couple, over and over again - until they were all hunched over, out of breath, and barely able to skate.  All trying to push themselves as far as possible.

Will this be The Year for the Sharks?  Many people have been asking that question for the past ten years, only to have it answered "no" each April or May.  I would argue this is the best team, on paper, in Sharks history.  It seems like all the ingredients are there.  Winning any championship always requires some luck, drive and lots and lots of hard work.  And that work has already started as our Boys in Teal prepare for another season.  Is this The Year?  I don't know, but I can't wait.

(Note:  This is the first blog post where I actually took all of the pictures.)