Devils are much like Canucks
Both are trying to rebuild on the fly and play a game that’s less than exciting
In honour of the Trump inauguration, here’s something else you wish would just go away: the musings and meditations on the world of sports.
n If the Vancouver Canucks wanted to know what they’ve become, they got a clear and scary picture from the New Jersey Devils on Sunday.
Like the Canucks, the Devils are trying to rebuild on the fly. Like the Canucks, the Devils are caught in a no man’s land where they’re just good enough to hang around a playoff spot but aren’t bad enough to land the premium draft picks that are essential to their rehabilitation.
The result is a team that’s forced into a structured style — and we all know what that means — because they don’t have the talent to play any other way.
Yes, that style, coupled with above-average goaltending, produces some results. It’s just not enough to make either team relevant. Before Monday’s games, the Devils sat 12th in the East with 45 points. The Canucks sat 10th in the West with 46 points. The Devils have scored 101 goals and allowed 129. The Canucks have scored 111 and allowed 130.
Even the lineups are spitting images of each other. Taylor Hall leads the Devils with 11-17-28, although he’s missed nine games. Bo Horvat leads the Canucks with 13-17-30 in 45 games. Take away the age difference (Hall, 25; Horvat, 21) and the two players couldn’t be more similar.
Behind them are a collection of veterans who are past their best-before date: Mike Cammalleri, Travis Zajac and P.A. Parenteau have combined for 69 points for the Devils; the Sedins and Loui Eriksson have 73 points for the Canucks.
Will it get better? Eventually. The Canucks have the making of a decent blue-line and a high-end offensive prospect coming in Brock Boeser. The Devils had six picks in the first four rounds last year and have youngsters Miles Wood and Pavel Zacha on their NHL team.
But both teams are at least a couple of years from turning their programs around. In the meantime, they’re asking a lot from their fans to watch while they get there.
n The conceit in Seattle is the Seahawks still have the core of a championship team, that the window hasn’t closed for Russell Wilson and his colleagues.
But with each passing season, the Seahawks look to be farther and farther away from the team they once were. This year they gambled on a young, cheap offensive line and it cost them dearly. They still don’t know if Thomas Rawls is the answer at running back. And the once fierce defence has lost its intimidation factor, especially on the road.
One supposes there’s a road map back to the Big Game for Pete Carroll’s team. If the offensive line emerges as a difference-maker next season, if Rawls and/or C.J. Prosise can carry the ground game, if the defence finds its swagger again, the Seahawks will remain an elite team.
But that’s asking for a lot of things to go right, especially when the Hawks aren’t exactly trending in the right direction.
It’s galling they lost home-field advantage in the playoffs with their loss to Arizona at CenturyLink in their penultimate regular-season game. But that’s kind of the point. They weren’t good enough to beat a 7-8-1 Arizona team when it mattered. They also lost to the Rams, Saints and Buccaneers and tied the Cardinals when a win in any of those games would have given them the first-round bye and home field in the post-season.
Sorry, championship teams don’t lose those games.
n In the Seahawks locker-room after the loss in Atlanta, defensive end Michael Bennett cursed out a TV reporter who suggested the Hawks didn’t put enough pressure on Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan.
This wasn’t a quick f-bomb. It was an ugly tirade in which Bennett threatened the reporter, called him every name in the book, then pointed out he, Bennett, is in the NFL and, “What’s you doing with your life?”
This was one week after cornerback Richard Sherman threatened to ruin the career of another reporter, before imposing a media blackout which lasted two days. Sherman said it was a “privilege” to listen to him at the podium.
You can learn a lot about a team when they’re winning. You learn even more when they’ve lost.
Here are the quarterbacks playing in this weekend’s Conference championship round: Tom Brady, first ballot Hall of Famer; Aaron Rodgers, first ballot Hall of Famer; Ben Roethlisberger, Hall of Famer; and Matt Ryan, likely Hall of Famer.
That’s the greatest group of quarterbacks ever assembled in the NFL’s final four. A couple of years ago it was Brady, Rodgers, Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson. Back in ’93 it was Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Troy Aikman and a fading Joe Montana with Kansas City. No one else is close.
It says something that, with one tweet about Congressman John Lewis, Donald Trump could turn Georgia, the reddest of states, against him.
But this is what kills me about Trump. During the campaign, he revelled in his tough-guy image and created a toxic environment with any number of insults and outrages. But now that he’s about to step into the White House, he whines because he isn’t treated with the respect and deference due his office.
Sorry, Don, you can’t have it both ways. If you’re going to be a jerk, be a full-time jerk. At least people will know who they’re dealing with.
Finally, in Atlanta the Georgia Dome is being replaced with the $1.5-billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Dome is 24-years-old. It was paid for by public money and it still fairly sparkles. But Atlanta wanted an outdoor stadium — the new joint will have a retractable roof — and a Super Bowl — they’re getting one in 2019.
The deal was put together with $600 million in public money with little pushback from the city and state. At least this part is good. The last event for the Georgia Dome is schedule to be a monster-truck rally in March.
In San Diego, meanwhile, the citizens were offered a similar deal and said, essentially, ‘Are you nuts?’
OK, this over-simplifies matters a tad but this remains one of the most important ongoing stories in professional sports.
For over two decades, fans in a number of cities have had to choose between their conscience and their heart. San Diego made a completely rational choice. Atlanta didn’t but they don’t seem particularly bothered by their decision. They will have their team and their glorious new facility.
San Diego, meanwhile, struggles with a sense of loss, hurt and outrage. They expected their affection for the Chargers would count for something. Like so many who’ve gone before, their affection was betrayed.
Maybe the lesson here is don’t grow attached to your team. Treat it for what it is, a business and an entertainment vehicle and not an integral part of your community.
But it’s never that easy. Fans get sucked in because they want to believe their teams stand for something important and maybe they do. It’s just not as important as the profit motive.
In the end, Chargers owner Dean Spanos is moving the Chargers to L.A., a city that doesn’t want them, to play in a 27,000-seat soccer stadium for two years before becoming the second tenant in Stan Kroenke’s pleasure palace. “I have no choice,” Spanos said. Not true. We all have choices. Some are just easier to live with.