Influential US Hockey writer rips OLN

[Draftnik]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/columnist/allen/2006-03-30-allen-season-observations_x.htm

He has no connection to ESPN.

[Fast B]

You can make a case that [Dion Phaneuf] deserves to be the league's rookie of the year above Ovechkin or Pittsburgh's remarkable Sidney Crosby.

Horsecrap. Crosby has been dominant on a horrible team. He was by far the best player on a team that included Mario Lemieux and Ziggy Palffy. That alone puts him right up there with Ovechkin - though I will admit that Ovechkin has been better.

Phaneuf has been quite good - but not great - on a playoff team which is already known for being strong defensively. He makes some impressive hits, but most of his offensive production is on the power play, and I wouldn't even call him the best defenseman on his team.

If anybody besides Ovechkin has a better shot at the Calder than Sid, it has to be Lundqvist. And even he has Jagr to back him up - Crosby has nobody (unless you consider Jani Rita and Andy Hilbert to be comparable).

[Stoosh]

1. Disagree with him about Phaneuf. He's been impressive, no doubt. But Ovechkin's going to score more than 50 goals and 100 points on an awful team. Crosby's probably good for 90 points - with a little luck he could get 40 goals and 95 points. With that talent those guys have had to work with for most of their respective seasons, those are phenomenal numbers. Phaneuf'd been great, but he's just gonna have to take a back seat here.

2. Completely agree with him about OLN. I just don't see anything promoting their games. Would it kill them to buy some airtime on a more visible network and run some ads? Other networks do this all the time for their shows.

I don't see a four or five-nights-a-week recap show like ESPN used to do with NHL2Night (back in the mid 1990s, NHL2Night was on every night, and they did hockey games four nights a week), either. And why isn't the NHL taking a more active role behind this?

Then again, I'm probably expecting too much. This is a league that has been lambasted by sports fans for years because it didn't promote its own players. They emerge from a season-long lockout and what's the centerpeice of their ad campaign? Two generic hockey teams and a played-out war reference.

3. I liked his comments about the NHL GM's taking an approach to the cap the way NFL people do. If I'm an NHL owner, I'm creating a front office position whose sole responsibility is to work the cap.

4.

If the Bruins are considering Craig Patrick as their next general manager, it has to be noted that while Patrick's resume shows plenty of management success in his years in Pittsburgh, the truth is that Patrick's player acquisition record last summer was worse than Boston's recently fired Mike O'Connell.

Kevin Allen's one of the best hockey writers in the states, but we really need to get him to stop printing stuff like this.