http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/NHL- ... tch-011511
Its an interesting take... could the Sabres be in the same boat? What are your thoughts?
Canadian teams have trouble rebuilding
Updated Jan 16, 2011 1:48 PM ET
It's the American way.
One by one, NHL teams south of the border have done the "destroy and rebuild from the rubble" thing.
It doesn't even take imagination anymore. It's been done plenty.
Pittsburgh's done it twice: once to get Mario, once to get Sid. Chicago did it and wears the crown. Washington. Los Angeles. St. Louis. Florida. The Islanders. Tampa Bay. Carolina. Boston.
Some call this common sense, the only way to win, particularly in the salary cap era. The stats say it's a 50/50 proposition at best.
In Canada, however, it's not been embraced on the same scale. Only the Edmonton Oilers, really, have chosen to go there — and even then you could argue bad decisions and bad players took them to that inescapable conclusion.
Also, you could argue that the Oilers haven't gone as far as, say, Washington did in the pre-Ovechkin season when the Caps dumped every conceivable athlete of value and used 51 players (Owen Fussey, Mel "The Mangler" Anglestad) to take a run at Alexander the Great.
That brings us to the Ottawa Senators and the Calgary Flames, the latest Canadian clubs faced with the possibility of tearing the whole kit-and-kaboodle to the ground and starting over. Like the Maple Leafs before them at the end of the Mats Sundin era, the Sens and Flames seem to be stubbornly rejecting the notion that their chances of winning with their existing core of talent have evaporated.
Were they U.S.-based clubs with deteriorating fan bases, the choice to start down the path of deliberately losing would be easier. In most markets, it's feast or famine with the fans. With far less media scrutiny, who's going to nitpick or analyze what you're doing?
But in Ottawa and Calgary, there are demanding fan bases to try to please, and significant numbers of media members watching your every step. Like Edmonton, these also are teams that have been to the Stanley Cup final in the past decade, which means there are fans and believers who think that just maybe a tweak here or there might do it.
So the Sens, having staved off disaster and possible firings by beating the Islanders on Thursday, are holding on to what's left of the core group that got them to the '07 final against Anaheim.
Calgary, meanwhile, already has started to change directions by canning GM Darryl Sutter and letting his assistant, Jay Feaster, take over on an interim basis. Only four players remain from the '04 squad that lost to Feaster's Lightning in the Cup final, but they are the key figures, including Jarome Iginla, Miikka Kiprusoff and Robyn Regehr.
Saturday marked their first visit to Toronto to confront Dion Phaneuf since last winter's trade, but that was a deal about trying to win last season, not rebuilding. The chances of Calgary going down the same path as the Oilers seem remote, at least right now.
It also wouldn't be easy there. The Flames are an older team, and they also have a dozen contracts they can't move without the players giving their OK. It's easy to say that the Flames should rip apart their team. Not so easy to execute.
Ask Brian Burke how easy it is to collapse a roster in Canada and go with kids. You hear calls for his firing every day. In Edmonton, it's all fine now, but if there's no sign of life in 18 months, expect trouble.
Does ownership in Calgary have the stomach for such a process? Or in Ottawa? Eugene Melnyk is no longer the white knight who saved the Sens. In Calgary there's been a shift, with the well-respected Murray Edwards now at the head of the ownership group.
Even if they wanted to dump out, the Sens are married to Jason Spezza and his contract, while the Flames might have to go the expensive "buy out/bury in the minors" route, like the Leafs did with Darcy Tucker, Tie Domi, Andrew Raycroft and Jeff Finger in recent years.
Despite the Oilers' approach, it's not yet the Canadian way to throw in the towel and sink like a rock. But times, they are a-changing.
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