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Comparing Johnsons By Misiko Abuabe
Published Courtesy of the Blue Canary Press "I brought my daughter to a game and all we saw was one Johnson after another. It was like a friggin parade!" Victoria Blitz fan Ilnotra Gupta. Mr. Gupta's sentiments have been echoed around the league by countless fans, especially those of the most recent expansion teams. And while Mr. Gupta was wearing thick coke-bottle glasses, he was not far off in his assessment. In order to load more bums in seats, the G.M.s of NAHL teams have been making their Johnson's more prominent. To quote Mr. Vilder of the Sacramento Bottom Feeders, "We've got to give the fans what they want, and right now they are asking for Jonsson. In fact they are saying the more Jonsson the better. As a business man am I going to say, no Jonsson for you? No, I'm going to put my Jonsson right in their face whenever I get a chance. We need to splatter what is successful all over our public relations posters and flyers." Down the road in liberal San Francisco, Jason Aguanno has followed suit. Even though his Johnson has not made as big of numbers as Vilder's Jonsson, the fans love him anyways. "While he is not as big, we are still very happy with him" says Dr. Aguanno. "I know he is a big favorite with all the varied groups among the San Francisco crowd. I know its hard to swallow, but we've even had people come right up and kiss him after a win". However, it is in Victoria where the Johnson craze has really asserted itself. There, G.M. Mark Ihnat of the Victoria Blitz is so lucky as to have two Johnssons. Still not feeling well enough endowed and suffering some popularity with the fans, Ihnat recently went out and picked up a third Jonsson. Unfortunately, because of production problems Mr. Ihnat had to recently release one of his original members and is now left again with only two Johnsons. "We hated to sever ties with our original Johnson, but he was just too soft and we needed more muscle. Our new Johnson is stronger and more consistent. Not only that Kenny should be able to work with Hans in order to score." If you don't like watching Johnson then your only opportunity is to see a Blind River Roadkill game. There Mr. Houle has no Johnson to play with it. "We've never had a Johnson" he explains, "And I don't think we ever will. We've tried to grow one in our system but it hasn't worked out. Now I'm thinking we can get by without one. We are a lot prouder to have a hard working Heinze. Now we just need to convince our fans not to envy other teams." While Mr. Gupta of Victoria and his daughter may have been disgusted with what they saw in Victoria, don't be surprised if this recent Johnson craze continues to grow. In 2001, as the league becomes more offensive, look for each team to add more support to their Johnsons, in a constant desire to get bigger, better, and of course more fan friendly.
Read other articles by Misiko Abuabe at www.bluecanarypress.webprovider.com
Quarterly Report
By Jim MacKenzie
Blue Canary Press
With a quarter of the season gone, it is time to
take a quick look to see how the latest NHL expansion teams are doing.
Here are the first quarter report cards
San Francisco Earthquakes B+ -
with a strong draft the Earthquakes have proven that they make sizable
enough "tremors" in the tough Western Conference. While they
have not "shaken" the core of the league, G.M. Aguanno has his
team going in the right direction. Currently in 10th place the
Quakes are only one of 2 franchises who seem at this point to have a
legitimate chance of "seizing" a placeoff berth.
Sacramento Bottom Feeders B- the
only thing that is keeping the Bottom Feeders afloat is their new place in
the Eastern Conference. While Vilder complained bitterly that the
Earthquakes (who did not even have to pay an expansion fee) were given their
spot in the Pacific Division, the extra travel hasn't hurt the team at all.
In fact with 9 road wins you would think that Vilder would want to keep his
team as far away from Sacramento as possible. They are currently
leading the pathetic Southeast division and stand 6th in the Eastern
Conference.
Nashville Predators C+ Nashville's pick ups of
absolutely no one important would tend to make you think that they have no
chance of wining anything in the Western Conference. And while they
actually do not, they are still looking pretty good losing.
Nashville's biggest problem is Nashville. There are so many huge
hockey fans in the state of Tennessee that their players are constantly
being bothered by the reporter (Stan Chumpwater who also does fashion and
movie reviews) that is covering them. The players will have to keep
their focus away from the limelight if they want to continue their
domination of such team as the Blitz (already 3 wins against them).
Victoria Blitz C as long
at the Blitz have the Wild and the Flames to beat up on they will continue
to accumulate points. However, Ihnats' strange offseasons moves which
included the offloading of several prominent free agents such as Tverdovsky
has truly hurt this club. Tied for 12th overall in the West the Blitz
will have an outside chance of making the playoffs, but it must hurt to see
the Predators ahead of them in the standings.
Atlanta Thrashers C+
without having the big money of big market teams such as Blind River and
Victoria, the Atlanta Thrasher organization has put together a strong team
which will rival Sacramento in the not so tough Southeast division.
Their biggest problem will be losing breath while they explain over and over
again what a thrasher is and then finding someone who cares.
Blind River Roadkill D+ G.M.
Brian Houle disposed of all his free agents in the offseason including
franchise player Darcy Tucker who asked for only a 5% raise in salary.
Keeping only Scott Thornton on his team, the Roadkill have sunk back to
their woeful state of two years ago. The good news is that Houle knows
how to come back from a deficit and they are on the right side of the
standings. HIs team which is currently 13th in the conference only
needs to be a little bit better to pass a whole bunch of brutal teams (Canadiens).
Minnesota Wild F Minnesota's
tactic of not sending one representative to this years draft backfired when
they found they had no players on their roster that weren't already on the
Bottom Feeders or the Earthquakes. As a result they scrambled picking
up waterboys and girls from various Minnesota YM and YWCAs. Minnesota
is currently second last in the Western Conference without a hope in making
the playoffs. Considering this Minnesota's second go round as a hockey
city, three strikes and your out for good.
Columbus Blue Jackets F beginning
with a ridiculously stupid name and an equally ridiculous city to put a team
in, the Jackets expansion draft sucked at the begininng of the year.
They elected not to even bid on free agents such as Madden, Stefan, and
Leclerc and instead signed a bunch of lackeys to minimum salaries.
What's more they are in a ridiculous city and have a ridiculously stupid
name. They are currently last in the West. P.S. their
uniforms suck too.
EASTERN CONFERENCE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NORTHEAST DIVISION GP W L T OTL PTS GF GA HOME ROAD OTTAWA 26 15 7 4 0 34 84 61 8-2-3 7-5-1 TORONTO 27 14 7 4 2 34 88 63 8-5-3 6-4-1 BUFFALO 24 13 8 2 1 29 67 61 9-2-2 4-7-0 BLIND RIVER 27 9 14 4 0 22 66 79 5-6-3 4-8-1
MONTREAL
27 9 15 3 0
21 69 82 5-7-1 4-8-2
BOSTON 27 8 14 3 2 21 65 95 5-6-3 3-10-0 ATLANTIC DIVISION GP W L T OTL PTS GF GA HOME ROAD NEW JERSEY 25 12 8 5 0 29 83 63 6-5-2 6-3-3 PITTSBURGH 25 12 9 3 1 28 73 68 6-6-1 6-4-2 NY RANGERS 27 13 14 0 0 26 90 96 6-7-0 7-7-0 PHILADELPHIA 26 11 11 4 0 26 64 71 6-6-2 5-5-2 NY ISLANDERS 25 7 12 4 2 20 57 71 4-7-1 3-7-3 SOUTHEAST DIVISION GP W L T OTL PTS GF GA HOME ROAD SACRAMENTO 27 12 11 4 0 28 85 84 3-8-3 9-3-1
WASHINGTON
26 9 10 6 1
25 62 69 7-3-3 2-8-3
CAROLINA 25 10 11 3 1 24 58 69 5-5-2 5-7-1 ATLANTA 25 8 10 6 1 23 68 80 4-7-2 4-4-4 TAMPA BAY 25 9 12 2 2 22 74 90 7-3-1 2-11-1 FLORIDA 25 5 11 5 4 19 53 70 2-8-2 3-7-3 WESTERN CONFERENCE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CENTRAL DIVISION GP W L T OTL PTS GF GA HOME ROAD ST LOUIS 24 17 4 3 0 37 82 46 10-1-1 7-3-2 DETROIT 28 16 9 1 2 35 86 75 7-7-0 9-4-1 NASHVILLE 27 10 11 5 1 26 65 69 4-7-4 6-5-1 CHICAGO 27 10 13 2 2 24 69 78 3-8-0 7-7-2 COLUMBUS 27 7 18 1 1 16 50 88 5-11-0 2-8-1 NORTHWEST DIVISION GP W L T OTL PTS GF GA HOME ROAD COLORADO 26 19 4 3 0 41 85 54 12-1-1 7-3-2 VANCOUVER 28 15 8 3 2 35 99 78 9-5-2 6-5-1 EDMONTON 29 14 11 4 0 32 83 78 9-3-4 5-8-0 VICTORIA 27 11 13 3 0 25 75 83 6-5-1 5-8-2
CALGARY
29 6 13 6 4
22 58 87 1-9-4
5-8-2
MINNESOTA 27 7 15 4 1 19 54 71 4-6-3 3-10-1 PACIFIC DIVISION GP W L T OTL PTS GF GA HOME ROAD SAN JOSE 24 16 5 3 0 35 76 49 8-2-1 8-3-2 DALLAS 25 14 7 3 1 32 70 52 8-3-1 6-5-2 PHOENIX 27 13 8 6 0 32 72 63 7-4-1 6-4-5 LOS ANGELES 27 12 9 6 0 30 91 81 6-2-3 6-7-3 SAN FRANCISCO 27 11 8 8 0 30 90 83 7-3-3 4-5-5
ANAHEIM
28 9 12 4 3
25 72 89 4-7-1 5-8-3
2000-2001 NAHL Season Profile
The Summer Is Over!
By Jim MacKenzie
NAHL Weekly
Another long and boring summer of sports is over
and Americans wake up today to find that hockey has once again made its return
to the cable speciality channel airways. While, most Americans will go
back to sleep for another 6 weeks, others may flip while watching a boring
basketball preseason games, an NFL romp, or a beer commercial they have
already seen 44 times (though they probably still laugh at it). Here for
them, is a breakdown of the NAHL talent pool, some strengths and weaknesses of
each team, and possibly some advice if they want to enter a NAHL fantasy pool,
cause why bother watching sports if your not betting on it.
Team: Victoria Blitz
Years In Existence: 4
Regular Season Trophies: 2
Playoff Trophies: 1
Money in the bank: $1,390,000
Team:
Draft Philosophy - Round 2 Winners! Blitz
ownership have oft been critized in the Victoria Herald for their
penny-pinching ways (moist towellettes in the dressing room instead of
towels, paperback novels used instead of jock cups). Never, did they
have more to scream about then when the Victoria Blitz walked away from the
first round with only one player on their roster, being outbidded on 4 of
their 5 top selections. However, The Blitz denounced these critics by
generously speding their money on the remaining players in the draft and
ended up having more top 10 paid players than any other team. What
resulted was a even-balanced team chosen from all NHL demographics without
one overall dominating star player.
Strengths -
The Blitz scouts have had an uncanny talent in spotting players as has been
proven by 2 consecutive league championships. The Blitz have above all
the most balanced team in the league with all 15 players bidding to make a
contribution. The Blitz did not invest their money in prospects that
may pan out in a couple years but spent money for players who could produce
now. They have not also heavily invested in one player, making it easy
for them to offload non-producing players. Ihnat also has drafted only
1 expansion team player and has favored forwards, who generally have more
upside potential, picking up a whopping 12.
Weaknesses -
The Blitz lack one obvious star player sure to overcome his 1999-2000
stastistics. Players such as Jokinnen, Sloan, Mironov, and Johnson all
have great potential but a lot will be determined by their ice-time and the
players that are ahead of them on their teams. The Blitz will be
counting on picking up free agents, but are for the first time in the
unusual position of not being the team with the power to necessarily outbid
for a coveted player. They also lack any players with NAHL history,
wiping the slate screen on their heralded history.
Players:
Old faces - None
Gnarly Veterans/Smooth Faces - 9 to 6
Forwards/Defencemen - 12 to 3
Expansion players (Atlanta, Minnesota, Nashville, Columbus) - 1
Surprise Player ? Rob Valicevic- Lots of
offensive upside - how much ice-time will he get?
Most Possible Dud? - Gary Valk - Toronto's
loaded now with better big men
Biggest Waste of Cash? - Olli Jokinen - not
really, unless he stays forever on the 4th line
Team: Blind River
Roadkill
Years In Existence: 4
Regular Season Trophies:
0
Playoff Trophies: 1
Money in the bank:
$1,500,000
Team:
Draft Philosophy - Go deep! The Blind
River Roadkill went deeper into the draft list then any other team relying
on their scouts to pull another Tucker from the midst of obscurity.
The Roadkill spent a great deal of money on their number one choice Janne
Laukanen who should see a lot of power play time on an offensive team (he
was also a NHL.com possible sleeper hit). They also got one of the prize of
the drafts in Steve Heinze (bid on by 3 teams). The Roadkill, were the
first team to complete their roster which was largely due to the fact that
they picked players no other teams bid on. They are counting on
players like Garpenlov, Laperriere and Stapleton to come back to their
former days of glory.
Strengths -
The Roadkill had a very successful draft in the extent that they got almost
all of the players they were after. They also have enough money to
compete for whatever scraps are left over in the free agent pool.
Their big guns like Laukannen and Heinze should help the team to good start.
Weaknesses -
The Roadkill, statistically speaking, are at the start of the campaign, the
weakest team in the league. Meaning that if you went purely by points
from last year they would finish in last place. Of course, past
records have proven to be a poor determiner in predicting point totals, but
the Roadkill will have to count on some players rejuvenating their careers.
They will also have to hope that the Florida Panthers keep all their
journeymen on their active roster.
Players:
Old faces - Scott Thornton (Conn Smythe Trophy
winner 1999 BRR, 3rd year), Richard Matvichuck (from SBF 3rd year)
Gnarly Veterans/Smooth Faces - 11 to 4
Forwards/Defencemen - 9 to 6
Expansion players (Atlanta, Minnesota, Nashville, Columbus) - 2
Surprise Player ? Ian Laperriere- Is he over his
two years of sophmore jinx?
Most Possible Dud? - Cam Stewart? Cam who?
Biggest Waste of Cash? - Janne Laukannen?
For a million dollars he better be getting a lot of ice time.
Team: Sacramento
Bottom Feeders
Years In Existence: 4
Regular Season Trophies: 1
Playoff Trophies: 1
Money in the bank:
$880,000
Team:
Draft Philosophy - $ and youth. The
Sacramento Bottom Feeders counted once again on the deep wallet of eccentric
entrepeneur Johann Vilder. It was no surprise that Vilder's group threw
a large wad of money at the player they knew they must have, Patrick Stefan.
Around him they spent little money to pick up an exceedingly young team of
unproven defenceman (Buzek, Phillips, McLaren, Roszival, Johnson, McCabe and
Skoula) in hopes that some of these prospects may in three years make it to
the big time. The Bottom Feeders now count on a weak free agent pool and
hope to move ahead in the early standings to make back some cap money. Near
the end of the draft, Horne picked up a pinch of veterans which he felsl were
needed in order to bolster an early start.
Strengths - The
Bottom Feeders probably got the long-term best player in the draft. They
also lead the league in former first round selections (having even 2 players
chosen 1st overall in the NHL) as well as in youth (their average age is under
25). They also have 3 proven NAHL veterans who can help the rookies
through the daily grind of NAHL poverty.
Weaknesses -
The Bottom Feeders youth could very well backfire on the team if a large
number of their prospects do not pan out. They may end up with a minor
league team of Briere type players which they feel they most hold on to
because of their promise. They have also taken a big gamble on
concussion prone Stefan. He will have to make impact now and for years
to come. They will only be able to pick up marginal players in the free
agent draft. The team also leads the league in expansion players
counting on 5 players to find ice-time on these teams.
Players:
Old faces - Jason Weimer (from the BRR - 3rd
Year), Chris Phillips (3rd year), Tom Fitzgerald (3rd Year)
Gnarly Veterans/Smooth Faces - 4 to 11
Forwards/Defencemen - 7 to 8
Expansion players (Atlanta, Minnesota, Nashville,
Columbus) - 5
Surprise Player ? - Sergei Brylin? Voted by
NHL.com as one of 5 sleeper players to watch. Had an excellent preseason
playing with Mogilny and Arnott
Most Possible Dud? - Glen Wesley? An old
defenceman on a team filled with old defencemen
Biggest Waste of Cash? - Patrick Stefan? Is
anyone worth this cash? Did the Bottom Feeders have to overbid by such a
large amount to feel secure enough that they would get their man?
Team: San Francisco
Earthquakes
Years In Existence: 1
Regular Season Trophies:
0
Playoff Trophies: 0
Money in the bank:
$1,900,000
Team:
Draft Philosophy - Heavy On Top! The
largest unknown going into the 2000-2001 expansion
draft was the philosophy of the Earthquakes led by silicon valley doctor
Jason Aguanno. Even though San Francisco sportsfans wouldn't know any
different - the Earthquakes had probably the best first round of the draft.
The Earthquakes wound up with many of the draft's gems largely due by the
underbidding (VB) and non-bidding (SBF, BRR) on the league's best prospects.
However, the veteran teams got their comeuppance as they outbid the Quakers
in later rounds. This led to the Earthquakes picking up 4 free players
at the end of the draft. In turn, this lowered their money output
considerably but also lowered the skill level in the bottom portion of their
team.
Strengths -
The Earthquakes easily have the best top 6 of any other team in the draft.
They were able to sign highly coveted John Madden (rumored as 1st overall)
as well as strong prospects such as Kvasha, Pellerin and Robitaille.
They also have a great deal of cap room to work with meaning that they
should be able to pick off the better free agents as the season continues.
Weaknesses -
After their top 6 the Earthquake team becomes a lot weaker. They ended
up being overbid on a number of players in later rounds, and ended up with
marginal players who they most hope will have career seasons. They
also have an inexperienced G.M. in Aguanno and have not as yet hired a
coach, assistant G.M. or any scouts. It will be interesting to
see how they handle the intricacies of NAHL governance.
Players:
Old faces - Oleg Kvasha (from VB, 2nd year),
Mike Wilson (from VB 2nd year)
Gnarly Veterans/Smooth Faces - 10 to 5
Forwards/Defencemen - 11 to 4
Expansion players (Atlanta, Minnesota, Nashville, Columbus) - 2
Surprise Player ? Kevin Hatcher- Chosen in last
round. Had great preseason with Carolina and is American
Most Possible Dud? - Mike Wilson - already once
NAHL waste matter
Biggest Waste of Cash? - Alexei Zhitnik?
Old, ugly, pouty russian on his way down? or ready to rebound?
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