More Isles vs. Kings Notes

• The Star’s Randy Covitz has this piece today: “Islanders Have More Than KC Game On Their Mind”

• I don’t like the implication in this Newsday story that Tavares won’t play on Tuesday. If it’s accurate that Tavares will play four preseason games total, and he played on the 16th, will be playing today (20th), and both games against the Devils (23rd & 29th)...that means he won’t be playing Tuesday night. I hope the article has that wrong. KC fans deserve to be thrown a frickin’ bone here.

• If you want to brush up on the Kings and Islanders, check out Puck Daddy’s season previews here (NY) and here (LA).

Islanders vs. Kings Game Preview

New York Islanders vs. Los Angeles Kings

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 • 7:00
Sprint Center • Kansas City, Missouri

I can’t speak for the rest of the city, but I’m excited for what I believe will be the 87th NHL game played in Kansas City. The first 86 were made up of two Scouts preseason games, 80 Scouts regular season games, and four preseason games between 1998—2008. The Blues played in all four of the recent preseason games, which means Tuesday’s game will be the first played in Kansas City to not feature a team from Missouri. To make up for the lack of a regional team, I think AEG was banking on the Islanders appearance generating a buzz in KC. As far as I can tell, that hasn't happened. I think KC fans understand the Islanders are not on the brink of moving here, and that we’re being used as a bargaining ploy again. Not exactly inspiring stuff.

In spite of all the nonsense surrounding the game, I’ll just be soaking up the game itself, enjoying the unbeatable atmosphere of a live NHL game taking place in my home town.

The Sprint Center has cooked up this ad for the game. The Kings have posted an interview with assistant coach Jamie Kompon about the two Kings games in Kansas City. It sounds almost like an AEG promo for the Sprint Center:

John Tavares Watch: The much heralded Islanders rookie made his NHL debut on September 16th in Edmonton, but has sat out three of the Islanders’ first four preseason games. That means we’ll be seeing either his second or third game. He didn’t get a point in his first game, so perhaps KC fans will be treated to his first NHL point.

That’s all assuming he’ll play Tuesday night - something I fully expect, but I’ll breathe easier once he’s officially announced.

Here’s some video of Tavares in Islanders training camp:

Looking Back at the Sprint Center's First Hockey Game

A week from the moment I’m writing this, I’ll be sitting in the Sprint Center taking in an NHL hockey game. I’m starting to get excited. Seems like a good time to take a look back at last year’s preseason game between the Blues and Kings.

Fair or not, the game was viewed by many as an “audition” or test of Kansas City’s potential to be a successful NHL market. If it was a test, the venue passed with flying colors. It was clear that watching hockey was in mind during the design of the building. There seems to be no debate that it would be a first-class NHL rink. That much was pretty well known, but it was still a thrill to see that promise fulfilled, if only for one brief night.

More scrutinized was the attendance figure. The crowd was strongly pro-Blues; I don’t know if that was a reflection of a decent Blues fanbase in Kansas City, or if a lot of fans made the trip from St. Louis. Probably a little of both. The announced attendance was 11,603. I’m still not sure if that’s a good number or a bad one - it all depends on how you want to spin it. The Associated Press recap unequivocally stated it was “good numbers for a preseason game.” I dug into attendance numbers from last year’s preseason, and the average attendance in 95 games not played in Kansas City was 14,517. In that regard, 11,603 is clearly not a good number. A factor that was pointed to as hurting attendance was the game being played on a Monday. In Puck Daddy’s comment on the game, Paul McGannon was quoted as saying, “If we have that game on a Friday or Saturday or even a Sunday afternoon, it’d be sold out.” Saying attendance was hurt by virtue of the game falling on a Monday seemed reasonable to me - at least until I noticed that there were seven other games played on the very same night that drew an average of 14,527.

But if you want to spin it in KC’s favor, here is some ammunition for you: the Kings played two games that night, with a split squad in Kansas City and another in Los Angeles. In LA, only 8,221 showed up. The Kings played a total of four preseason games at home, and averaged 10,255. The Blues played three at home, and averaged 11,986. So KC was right on par with the performance of the hometown fans. You could also point out that the Islanders drew under 4,000 for a couple of their preseason games.

Sitting in the rink that night, I remember wishing there was a lot more people. Looking back with some perspective, the attendance was...fine. I’m certainly not convinced that preseason games between out-of-town teams are worth much as a measuring stick of KC’s viability as a market, but there are few if any concrete ways to measure such a thing, so attendance takes on an inflated importance.

As for the game itself, I wasn’t sure what to expect - I'd never seen an NHL preseason game. I wasn’t sure if guys would be phoning it in or if there would be a bunch of young guys killing it trying to make an impression with their team’s suits. As I recall, the game started off at a torrid pace, and I was thrilled. But 8:20 into the game, the first penalty was called, and there were regular whistles the rest of the night as the teams piled up 20 combined penalties, and the game never could settle into a good flow or pace again.

Davis Drewiske earned the distinction of scoring the first goal in arena history soon after the second period was underway. Drewiske, on the penalty kill, got the puck high in the St. Louis zone, and flipped a quick shot/dump-in towards the net. Blues goalie Chris Mason seemed utterly surprised that Drewiske had taken the shot, and the puck fluttered past him. Mason definitely should have stopped it. Besides that one lapse, all four goaltenders were stellar. Jonathan Quick of the Kings foreshadowed the solid rookie year he was about to have (21-18, .914, 2.48), stopping all 19 shots he faced.

According to the Star, “Kings president Tim Leiweke was emphatic that one of the club’s phenoms, 19-year-old defenseman Drew Doughty...(would) make his pro debut in the Sprint Center.” I kept an eye on Doughty throughout the night, and came away impressed. He didn’t do anything especially eye-popping that I recall, but he seemed calm and in control for a kid playing his first NHL game. He carried the puck through the neutral zone and gained the blue line confidently several times. Another guy that I was happy to see was Ted Purcell of the Kings - I lived near Cedar Rapids, Iowa during the time Purcell played in the USHL for the Cedar Rapids Rough Riders and had seen him play many times there.

The Kings seemed to have the game in hand with a 2-0 lead late in the third period when Paul Kariya banged in a gift-wrapped rebound on the power play. (Appropriately, all three goals came on special teams.) This fired up the crowd, and the final minutes had a buzz as the Blues attempted to tie it up. I had no rooting interest in either team, but at this point I was rooting for overtime so that the game could be stretched out a bit more. The Kings held on.

After the game, I marvelled that my drive home would take all of 15 minutes. Every NHL game I’d gone to before was hundreds or thousands of miles away, and so involved a long and expensive trip there and back. I turned to my wife: “I could get used to this.”

Related reading:

Puck Daddy: The NHL’s Exhibition in Kansas City: Pass or Fail?
Puck Daddy: Scouting the NHL’s Chances For a Return To Kansas City
St. Louis Game Time: Blues Open At Kansas City
Associated Press: recap
Canadian Press: Kings Beat Blues In Kansas City (slightly lengthened version of AP story)
NHL.com: scroll down to Making a Statement
ESPN: box score

Scouts Notes: January 1976

• January 1976 proved to be a tumultuous and tortuous time for the Scouts. In doing research on the first year and a half of the Scouts existence, I’ve been somewhat surprised by the number of bright spots. The losses were never far apart when the Scouts played, but a nice victory here or individual performance there seems to have kept things from getting too bleak. Throughout the ’74-’75 season, there was reason to think the Scouts could take a large step forward the next year, and in the first half of ’75-’76, it appeared the Scouts were taking that step. They even had the playoffs in their sights halfway through the year.

But the occasional good times disappeared for good in 1976. The Scouts entered a free-fall that would end with their demise a few months later. Their captain was traded, their coach resigned amid controversy, and the losses piled up at a dizzying rate.

• Appropriately, the month started off with a couple of Scouts getting clubbed by the Philadelphia Flyers. Guy Charron received a seven-stitch gash above his eye and Craig Patrick a broken nose, both courtesy of high sticks from the Broad Street Bullies. “What we need is a couple of guys in here to do the same thing,” said coach Bep Guidolin. “It should be tit for tat. We ought to bring in a couple of butchers who can’t even skate.” (1/2/76 Times) There was a small bit of good news as Denis Dupere returned to the lineup in limited duty after separating his shoulder in practice the day after the first game of the season.

Fans were treated(?) to a Freddy Fender concert after the game.

• After dropping their fifth straight game on the 7^th, Bep said, “We can’t sit back and wait too long to make a move. And we better do it quick while we still got a shot at the playoffs. I can still hear people in the stands who are sticking with us.” (1/8/76 Times) Bep didn’t have to wait; Simon Nolet, the prize of the ’74 expansion draft, captain of the team from day one, and the previous season’s team MVP, was shipped to Pittsburgh the very next day. (C) Ed Gilbert, another original Scout, went with him, and in return the Scouts received (F) Chuck Arnason and (D) Steve Durbano. Durbano was one of the top enforcers in the game at the time. He was third in the league in PIMs at the time of the trade, and finished the year at the top of the list. Guidolin had one of the “butchers” he was asking for. Little good it did them however, as the Scouts went 1-29-8 (.128) after the trade.

Bep said Durbano would “fire up the whole team and a whole building full of people.” (1/9/76 Star) Management no doubt hoped that adding a goon to the roster would stimulate ticket sales.

Arnason and Durbano debuted with the Scouts on the 10 ^th against the Rangers. Both got their names on the score sheet by assisting on a Denis Dupere goal in an 8-4 loss.

• Guy Charron was named captain on the 12^th.

• GM Sid Abel wasn’t done trying to shake the Scouts out of their miserable play. On the 14^th, while in Detroit, Abel sent (RW) Buster Harvey to the Red Wings in exchange for (RW) Phil Roberto an hour before the game. Both players dressed that night, just not for the teams they were expecting in the morning. According to Star reporter Steve Marantz, “Aside from Roberto’s face the Scouts looked the same: Terrible. Goalie Denis Herron continued his swoon in the nets, allowing two short-handed goals and a couple other bad ones among the 30 shots he faced.” (1/15/76 Times)

• After the game against the Red Wings, a group of eight players or more missed Guidolin’s curfew. Guidolin apparently singled out (D) Larry Johnston, and slapped only him with a fine and one-game suspension, served in the next night’s game at home against the Maple Leafs. Seven players came forward in Johnston’s defense, protesting they had also missed curfew. All were fined. “The fines levied by Guidolin come with the Scouts locked in a 9-game losing streak, the longest in their 2-year history, and with several roster changes having been made in the last 10 days. The Scouts’ performance has become increasingly ragged and it was suggested by one departing player that they had become fearful and apprehensive about their security. Several players have indicated privately that communication between Guidolin and the team has deteriorated and that the players’ confidence in Bep has dwindled. ‘I have not lost control of the team,’ said Guidolin yesterday.” (1/20/76 Times)

“Guidolin’s ultimatum to Abel (on the 21^st) was either defenseman Larry Johnston be sent to Springfield of the American Hockey League or he would resign…Abel held a team meeting (on the 21^st) Guidolin did not attend and afterwards told Guidolin that Johnston would remain with the team. An hour later Guidolin informed Abel of his resignation.” –Steven Marantz (1/22/76 Times)

Joe McGuff did a great job summarizing events leading to Guidolin’s resignation:

• While the coaching mess was unfolding back in Kansas City, Wilf Paiement was the Scouts sole representative at the All-Star game in Philadelphia on the 20^th. Paiement said, “I think Guy (Charron) should have made it too. I gotta thank Guy and Craig (Patrick) too for being picked. The other guys have helped. I owe this to my teammates.” (1/17/76 Star) Wilf’s Campbell Conference fell to the Wales Conference 5-7. He does not show up on the score sheet, and the Star had no report on his appearance that I saw.

• Abel was forced to step behind the bench the very day that Guidolin resigned, as the Scouts hosted the Blues and ran their losing streak to ten. Abel didn’t feel too comfortable behind the bench, despite having coached 961 NHL games between 1954 and 1972. “‘I never did feel adjusted,’ he said. ‘I lost my voice. I was really afraid I’d have too many men on the ice or something. One time we didn’t have enough.’” (1/22/76 Times)

Abel was behind the bench for just two more games, both losses. The second game he coached was on the 23^rd in California, and is notable for being goalie Bill Oleschuk’s only game with the Scouts. Oleschuk managed to stop 48 of the Seals’ 52 shots but took the loss as the Scouts could only score once. Oleschuk would go on to play 54 more NHL games, all with the Colorado Rockies between 1977—80. Oleschuk got the start because #1 goalie Denis Herron was laid up in the hospital for a week with a kidney stone. (Did I mention this month didn’t go so well for the Scouts?) Bill McKenzie played all of the other games in Herron’s absence.

• After Abel’s final game as a coach, he said, “I kind of enjoyed myself tonight.” (1/26/76 Star) Nevertheless, new coach Eddie Bush stepped in on the 28^th in Minnesota. Bush had a 26-game NHL playing career between 1938—42 for the Red Wings; Abel was a Red Wing at the time as well. Bush had spent 25 games as a player with the Kansas City Greyhounds of the American Hockey Association in 1938-39. The bulk of Bush’s coaching experience was in the amateur Canadian junior OHA league. His 32 game stint with the Scouts would prove to be his only shot at coaching in the NHL, and he would only enjoy one win.

Of Bush’s first game in Minnesota, a 9-3 loss, Star reporter Steve Marantz wrote the Scouts “shortcomings have become almost second nature. The forwards backchecked sporadically, the defensemen mishandled the puck, and everyone was caught out of position.” (1/29/76 Star) The only Scouts footage that I have ever seen comes from Bush’s first game. Skip ahead to the four-minute mark to see the Scouts getting torn apart by the North Stars:



The Scouts dropped their 14^th straight in Pittsburgh the next night, far and away the longest losing streak in the Scouts short history. Simon Nolet and Ed Gilbert both tallied points for the Penguins that night.

• The Scouts returned for Bush’s KC debut on the 31^st, another game against the Penguins. The Scouts managed a tie, their only point on the month. Despite the losing streak, Tanya inspired a season-high turnout of 12,471 fans.

• The brutal month ended with a 0-13-1 (.036) record, and drew an average of 9,250 in the eight home games. The press had gotten no wind of it if owner Ed Thompson had begun searching for a way to get the rid of the team.

Scouts Notes: December 1975

• December of ’75 saw the last of the border-line respectable hockey that the Scouts played before the unimaginable collapse in the second half. At the end of the month, their record stood at 11-22-4 (.338). They’d played 37 of the season’s 80 games, which put them on pace to win 12.8 more; instead they managed just one in the remaining 43 games. Unbelievable.

• Mike Baumgartner’s NHL career consisted of just 17 games, all with the Scouts early in the ’74-’75 season. On December 14, 1974, Baumgartner took a slap shot in the face. By early December of ’75, Baumgartner was forced to give up any hope of returning to hockey, and Ken Rudnick penned this piece for the Star:

• The month opened with what may have been the finest win in Scouts history, as they managed to beat the mighty Canadiens 6-5. Wilf Paiement recorded the only hat trick in team history. The Canadiens entered the day with a six game winning streak and an imposing 18-4-3 record. They would cap their season with a Stanley Cup while going 12-1 in the playoffs. Ken Dryden had been the goaltender for the six straight wins, and coach Scotty Bowman decided to rest him for what he must have thought would be an easy win at Kemper Arena. So Michel Larocque got the start for the Habs, and was blitzed for goals from Robin Burns, Craig Patrick and Paiement in the first eight minutes. The Canadiens managed to right the ship after that, but the damage was done, and the Scouts hung on for the win. The two wins the Scouts enjoyed in Boston rank right up there with this one, but the fact that this one came at home and with the bonus of Paiement’s hat trick make it arguably their finest night. Robin Burns thought so: “This has to be the biggest win we’ve had in our two years. For the players, fans, everybody.” (12/4/75 Star) Coach Bep Guidolin got a little excited on the bench: “I didn’t know how to change lines. It was like being high on something, it was like, well, I don’t know, like out of sight.” (12/5/75 Star)


• Defenseman Gary Bergman was the grizzled veteran of the ’75-’76 Scouts. Ken Rudnick had this piece in the December 11^th Times on Bergman fighting through one last year:

• On the 16^th, Rudnick had this to say about the Scouts’ netminding stalwart Denis Herron:

• After a 4-1 win against the Red Wings on the 19^th, the Scouts had an impressive 7-6-2 record at home for the year, but would manage only one more victory in the remaining 25 home dates.

• The sports editor at the Kansas City Star during the mid-’70s was Joe McGuff. He was an institution in the Kansas City sports scene, and his “Sporting Comment” column covered all aspects of KC sports. Here are three articles from McGuff that appeared in December ’75; the first focuses on Wilf Paiement after his hat trick, the second on Guy Charron’s stellar play, and the third is a wrap-up of Kansas City sports happenings in 1975. The last one doesn’t touch on the Scouts much, but is a good read for those interested in Kansas City sports history in general:



• On the 28^th, the Scouts visited one of their favorite foes, the California Golden Seals. The Scouts skated to a 3-1 victory. Here is what the standings looked like the next morning:

The top three teams in each division made the playoffs, and the Scouts where just one point behind third place St. Louis. They would end the season 36 points behind the Blues and a playoff berth. I have no idea what caused such a monumental collapse; hopefully I’ll have a better idea once I’ve read through the microfilm for the remainder of the season. (The Scouts relative success through the first half of the season seems to have rested on outstanding goaltending from Denis Herron and the scoring of a very small group of forwards. To hazard a guess, perhaps I’ll find that Herron’s play fell off slightly and the top forwards cooled off in the second half.)

• Alan Eagleson was the head of the NHLPA at the time, and made waves by proclaiming six NHL franchises were “shaky” in terms of viability. He named Kansas City, Washington, Minnesota, Atlanta, California and Detroit as the weak franchises, and proposed consolidating them to four teams. The Scouts were forced to refute the claim, though the front office by this time had to be pulling their hair out behind the scenes. “‘The Scouts are not shaky, definitely,’ said Ed Thompson, president of the Scouts. ‘Alan Eagleson should stick to his law business and stay out of things he knows little about.’…‘Sid Abel, Scouts general manager, was equally emphatic…‘There’s no worry as far as we’re concerned.’” (12/3/75 Times)

• The Scouts went 5-9-0 (.357) for the month, and drew an average of just 7,809 for the six home games.

Quick Links

• From the Hamilton Spectator:
  

  “Speculation in NHL circles suggests league executives have been working to find prospective owners to buy and move the (Coyotes) to Kansas City, Las Vegas or even Winnipeg.
  
  They want to block any move to Hamilton because relocating the Coyotes kills the promise of a huge expansion fee for a second team in southern Ontario.”

  There doesn’t seem to be any evidence to support those statements, so I wouldn’t put much stock in them.
  
  
• A long interview with Islanders owner Charles Wang in which Kansas City is brought up numerous times. Wang says he plans to be in KC for the preseason game September 22nd. He also repeatedly says that if the Lighthouse Project (which would include a new rink for the Isles) is not approved by October 3rd, all options will be open. Maybe the most interesting part of the conversation to me was when the host asks if Wang would be interested in owning a team that is located somewhere other than Long Island; I’ve always assumed he wouldn’t, but he indicates he may like to stay in the league even if the Islanders relocate. Of course, everything coming out of Wang’s mouth right now is calculated to put pressure on the powers that be to approve the Lighthouse Project.
  
  
• Don’t forget to get your tickets to go hang out with Charles on September 22nd.

Scouts Notes: November 1975

• November of ’75 got off to a rough start for the Scouts, getting shutout first in Toronto and then in Philadelphia. In Philadelphia, they were not merely shutout, but completely blown out of the water by the score of 10-0 (an identical score to a game in Philadelphia the previous season). This ended a brutal five game losing streak in which the Scouts were shutout four times and outscored by a total of 25-2. The streak came to an end with a 3-2 home victory over the Golden Seals on the 5^th.

• After that game, the Scouts power-play stood at a dismal 3 for 63 (4.86%). It improved to 13.07% by the end of the season, but special teams were abysmal all year: they finished dead last in both power-play percentage and penalty-kill percentage (72.88%).

• After earning a tie against the Maple Leafs at home in their next game, the Scouts embarked on a seven game road trip. The American Royal rodeo kept them out of Kemper for 20 days. They earned three points in the seven games by virtue of a victory against the Rangers and a tie in St. Louis. The Rangers were in the midst of intense upheaval; stars Derek Sanderson, Gilles Villemure, Eddie Giacomin, Brad Park and Jean Ratelle had all recently been shipped out, and Phil Esposito was still brand new in town after a blockbuster trade with the Bruins. After the Scouts scored their sixth goal in their 6-4 victory, Rangers fans rained down chants of “Ed-die, Ed-die” in protest of the Rangers shipping their beloved goaltender Giacomin out of town. Rangers goaltender Dunc Wilson flipped them the bird.

• Guy Charron and Denis Herron seem to be the only Scouts who played decently early on in the season. Herron couldn’t get many victories, but he got a lot of credit from the press for impressive play and keeping the Scouts in games they otherwise didn’t deserve to be. Wilf Paiement started the year ice cold. He told the Star, “I’m not relaxed like I was last year. I can’t sleep.” He broke out if it towards the end of November (but then missed the last two months of the year with an injury).

• The team returned home on Thanksgiving, November 27^th, to host the Blues. The Scouts treated captain Simon Nolet to a 3-2 victory on his 34^th birthday, and fans were treated(?) to a performance by the Hudson Brothers after the game.

• The Scouts record for the month was 3-8-3 (.321), and attendance for the four home games averaged 8,167.