Coaches have extinguished firewagon hockey

Thank goodness for the North American team, which gave us a glimpse of attack hockey once again

So there it goes, my only flicker of reason why I was watching the World Cup. When the Russians finally won a big game in a big international tournament, shutting out the Finns 3-0 Thursday, it meant the end of the road for the most exciting team we’ve seen come around probably since the Wayne Gretzky-era Edmonton Oilers.

The players on team North America, skating a million miles per hour and averaging almost 50 shots a game, brought attack hockey back to life again, if only for a couple of weeks.

St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock told Sportsnet it was “must-watch hockey.” Mike Babcock, the Canadian coach who will get gobsmacked next week when he has to go back behind the Toronto Maple Leafs’ bench, said it was, “spectacular to watch.”

To have that type of hockey for 80-plus games in an NHL season would be nice, but it’s unreasonable. For starters, there’s not that much talent on one team.

But the biggest impediment to a game once known as firewagon hockey is people like Hitchcock and Babcock and the coaches who smother creativity.

A young player who shows even a hint of imagination and brings some risk to their game is nailed to the end of the bench.

Coaches don’t care about style points. They just care about winning, and winning gets them to the playoffs. That keeps them gainfully employed for another year.

It was said to me by a coach more than once that the game’s changed. And it has, to a degree. But it’s still the same game, same puck, played on the same ice.

Difference is there are three coaches on the bench now, another one upstairs, a goalie coach and a video guy, all analyzing and breaking down the game nine ways to Sunday.

If coaches had hockey cards, their profile shot would be in front of the laptop going over video.

They’ve got the game choked to death, a tiring display of monotonous systems and cycles.

I remember Guy Lafleur telling me his former linemate, Jacques Lemaire, wanted Lafleur to start dumping the puck into the opposition’s zone when Lemaire took over as the Canadiens’ coach.

Lafleur, of course, balked, and Lemaire pressed. Guess who won? Lemaire went on to architect the most boring hockey imaginable in a lengthy coaching career.

I suppose I’ll be watching Canada and Russia tonight because it’s, well, Canada-Russia. And Alex Ovechkin is one of a few players I’d pay to watch.

With the playoffs under way, ticket prices at the Air Canada Centre have jumped to $500/ per seat face value, and we’re not talking about the golds. Sportsnet, who’s very future may depend on the revenues it gets from hockey after signing the massive, billion-dollar TV deal, keeps telling us about and showing us fans who live and breathe and hang on every play on a televised game. I don’t get it. This much, however, I’m positively certain: after watching Connor McDavid, Johnny Gaudreau and Jack Eichel dash around the ice, tuning in to watch David Desharnais or Leo Komarov Saturday nights ain’t cuttin’ it.

Nobody asked me, but…

What’s the problem with

Phil Kessel’s Tweet this week, clearly directed at the U.S. national team’s front office? By now you know Kessel wrote, “Just sitting around the house tonight w my dog. Felt like I should be doing something important, but couldn’t put my finger on it.” He was clearly referring to being left off the team’s World Cup roster, despite a brilliant playoff last spring. I never met Phil Kessel, but I don’t like the way he carries himself. And his idea of timing is all wrong. But for David

Backes and Derek Stepan and the rest of the Yanks to get all bent out of shape about the Tweet is foolishness. Perhaps they should be a bit more concerned about a little more pressing matter – they’re awful play on the ice … Every time I hear Katarina Roxon, the more happy I am for the Paralympian from Kippens who won gold in Rio.

She’s bright, energetic, intelligent, personable and a real credit to Newfoundland … Hard to believe Roxon’s been consistently one of the best disabled swimmers in the world despite training her whole career in a 25-metre pool. Newfoundland has only one 50-metre facility, the Aquarena in St. John’s. Not sure it would be possible for a world-class swimmer to contend for an Olympic medal if they only had the 25-metre bathtubs to train in … Will be interesting to see how the Montreal Canadiens goaltending situation plays out. Carey Price and either newcomer Al Montoya or Mike Condon will start in Montreal. That will leave either Montoya or Condon and Zach Fucale and rookie Charlie Lindgren battling for two jobs in St. John’s. The odd man out will play in ECHL Brampton … Same thing with the Canadiens’ blueline. Looks as if there will be eight players vying for seven spots – Shea Weber, Andrei Markov, Jeff Petry, Alexei Emelin, Nathan Beaulieu, Mark Barberio, Greg Pateryn and newcomer Zach Redmond. They could assign one to St. John’s, hoping he will clear waivers, or Montreal could do to one what it did to Jarred Tinordi – sit him in the press box and let him rot … St. John’s senior softball got every scrap of historical info you’d want, and more, thanks to Bill Barron. St. John’s baseball has nothing. Maybe baseball should look at getting a grant, hiring a student, and sending him/her to the library all summer to look up this stuff … When Heather

Healey faced Troy Croft last week, it marked the first time in St. John’s baseball two international baseball medalists faced each other at St. Pat’s. Healey, throwing a senior game for Feildians, recently won a gold medal with Canada in the Women’s Baseball World Cup in South Korea. Croft, hitting for Gonzaga, was a member of the Canadian team which won gold at the 1991 world youth championship in Brandon, Man …