Dallas waiting for stars
Here we go again in Dallas.
The Stars are off to an uneven start. They lost a bunch to start the season, now they’ve won a bunch. But one constant has been the lack of production from the two cornerstones on which they’ve built the team’s foundation with nearly $20 million a season. Through 19 games, Tyler Seguin had just three goals, popping in his fourth in Game 20. His wingman, Jamie Benn, had just one.
And for the second year in a row, Seguin and Benn have frustrated their higher-ups to the point that one of them has voiced their frustration again.
Last year it was team president Jim Lites, this year it’s head coach Jim Montgomery. Asked early last week by reporters if he was disappointed in the lack of production from his well-paid superstars, Montgomery answered “Very disappointed.”
Are you seeing any signs of progress, he was asked.
“No. Are you?” he responded.
Montgomery’s remarks came after the Stars dropped a 3-2 overtime game in Winnipeg in which the Jets’ big guns Patrik Laine and Mark Scheifele scored. Seguin and Benn were held off he board for the 14th time in 18 games.
Montgomery was asked if there were any remedies.
“Reduce ice time, we’ve tried,” Montgomery said. “We’re trying video, 1-on-1 sessions, all those things. They got to decide that they want to be a difference maker. I mean, look who scored for the Jets. We got really good big goals by (Mattias) Janmark and (Radek) Faksa and that’s our third and fourth line.”
As rip jobs go, it wasn’t on par with Lites’ callng the pair “horse (expletive)” last year, but the point was made.
Benn, for one, told reporters he wasn’t frustrated.
“You get pretty much at least one Grade-A scoring chance a game,” Benn said.
“You either put it in the back of the net, or you don’t. From there, you either continue to get chances in each game or you try and set your teammates up. There’s chances there, just got to find a way to put it in the back of the net.”
If the Stars respond to Montgomery the way they did Lites — they scrapped their way into the playoffs and took eventual Stanley Cup winner St. Louis to double overtime of Game 7 — then they should be fine. Seguin wound up with 33 goals and Benn 27. After going 1-7-1 to start the season, the Stars were 9-1-1 in their last 11 going into the weekend. Not bad, considering they were getting minimal contributions from their two best players. It safe to assume Seguin and Benn will eventually get going.
But with the competitiveness of the Central Division, it was best for Montgomery not to wait any longer.
But the fact that those in charge feel they need to go to the whip on Seguin, who just signed a max eight-year deal last summer for an annual salary of $9.85 million and, Benn, who has five more years at $9.5 million, has to be a little bothersome.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The trade that sent Seguin to Dallas was not a good one for the Bruins, but it wasn’t nearly as good for the Stars as people believed.
What’s next for HNIC?
I would like nothing more than to chalk up Don Cherry’s sacking to the intolerant cancel culture that is infecting society today, especially when you consider some of the hysterical reaction to the former Bruin coach’s Coach’s Corner segment on Hockey Night in Canada last weekend, his last. But whether or not you believe he should have been fired over it, it’s hard to defend what was, at close listen, an out-of-bounds shot at Canada’s immigrant population, however vague and rambling it may have been. It takes a lot of projecting to get to the widespread charges of racism, but that’s neither here nor there. It was xenophobic. The league doesn’t want or need that kind of talk, nor does the Royal Canadian Legion, which has benefited from Cherry’s work in support of veterans for decades.
I was watching it live and, admittedly, not paying close attention. My initial thought was that he was taking a shot at too-cool-for-patriotism hipster urbanites in downtown Toronto for not buying and wearing the symbolic poppy in support of veterans. That was until the uproar occurred and was able to hear it again and heard the “you people who come here.” The “you people” part was the supposed dog whistle that had people up in arms. To these ears, that was not as damning as the “who come here” part. Instead of it being old Uncle Grapes chastising what he saw as an apathetic populace, he was targeting a certain subgroup. Had his cohost Ron MacLean challenged him on it right then, which he’s done in the past with some of his more off-center opinions, Cherry may have had a chance to realize what he said and rephrase it. Cherry didn’t get the mulligan, and he paid a big price for it.
What’s next for the segment that was Coach’s Corner? Who knows. But before the suits at “Hockey Night in Canada” do the roll-out of the next big thing, it would be nice to hear them explain all the things that they deemed to be inbounds from Cherry over the years.
Kovalchuk sits
From the Bullet Dodged Department: The Bruins were one of the teams who was hot and heavy for Ilya Kovalchuk in their neverending quest to beef up their right side. They lost out to the Los Angeles, and now the Kings don’t feel exactly like winners. Since signing the then-35-year-old Kovalchuk to a three-year year deal worth $6.25 million per season, the Kings have gotten 19 goals and a minus-36 in 81 games.
Now coach Todd McLellan has decided to bench Kovalchuk indefinitely, and the coach has the backing of the last-place Kings’ GM Rob Blake.
“It’s not a great situation,” captain Anze Kopitar told reporters. “Kovy is a good guy. There’s nothing wrong with the attitude or anything. For whatever reason, it is not working on the ice.”
York honored
Jerry York has been a local treasure for decades, but from Monday night on, he’ll belong to the entire hockey world. The Boston College coach will become the fifth NCAA hockey coach to be inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, following Lou Lamoriello, Herb Brooks, Bob Johnson and John Mariucci. York is the only one of the five to spend his entire career in the college ranks. He’s proven that you can win — 12 Frozen Fours, five NCAA titles — without being surly about it. Congrats to the pride of Watertown, an HOFer on and off the ice.