Penalties are us

I've been quiet these last few weeks, absorbing the enormity of the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, helping where I could, with my blood, with my money, but the time has come to talk hockey, to get back to a semblance of normalcy, to look at this Phoenix Coyotes pre-season like the disappointment is has so far been.

Since the departure of 14 of our players from last season, I have listened to the rhetoric about this team making the playoffs the first year, about the young and hungry players, about the youth and the speed. Any of those things may or may not be true, but what we've seen on the ice so far only tells me that this is a team without discipline and without direction, and one that has spent the better part of the last three games in the penalty box. Young and hungry is apparently a euphemism for immature hotheads.

The Arizona Republic summed it up in a sentence. "The official scorer had so much trouble adding up all the penalty minutes, he wrote 'Help?' on the final score sheet where the totals were supposed to go."

Forty-one penalty minutes against Anaheim. Forty-eight penalty minutes against Vancouver. And in their second game against the Ducks, a whopping 72 minutes in penalties.

Young? Hungry? Fast? Maybe. But maybe we really DO need to rename this team the Glendale Goons, as suggested in our local media.

Let me share just one example. Daymond Langkow, the "replacement" for our departed All-Star first-line center, Jeremy Roenick. After being hit by an elbow from a Mighty Duck, Langkow retaliated by throwing a dangerous, two-handed crosscheck to the back of the Duck player's neck. Both players were given game misconducts and five-minute majors, but Langkow's included an intent-to-injure call, which carries an automatic disciplinarian review by the NHL. And this isn't the first time that Langkow has lost his cool. I know that the Coyotes are looking for a new identity, but is this really the identity we want? Roenick can scrap with the best of them, but to throw a cheap shot like this? Never.

Maybe things will settle down once the season starts. Maybe. But maybe we have replaced talented goal scorers with bully wannabes, and rather than looking at a play-off run in April, we will be counting up penalty minutes and winning whatever dubious award is given in that category.

Character Assassins

It didn't take long to see which player the "message board" fans would turn on now that their favorite whipping boy's Tkachuk and Roenick are gone. No more comments on "Tkachoke" or complaints about "Roenick the puck hog" (except for those people who can't seem to let it go). Oh no. New victim. New names to call. Now we have "Claudia" Lemieux. And the season hasn't even started yet.

Of course, this fan cynicism is only fueled by columns like the one that appeared recently in the Valley Tribune, a character assassination on veteran player Claude Lemieux.

In this article, written by local columnist Scott Bordow, claims are made that Claude is hated in the locker room and disrespected by the other players. Considering that the Coyotes have overturned more than 1/2 of their roster since the end of last season, how can there be any sentiment at all regarding Lemieux in a locker room full of people who barely know each other? Disgruntled about his pay? Lemieux played for the league minimum while waiting for his buddy Gretzky to take over the team, which at times looked like it wasn't going to happen at all.

What is the purpose of a column like Mr. Bordow's? Stirring up the pot? Planting sour grapes about a player so that when he's traded the fan base already dislikes him? Nitpicking about Claude not showing up for the final season game after he was given permission not to do so? Mr. Bordow must be spending a lot of time on the Coyote's message boards across the internet. He's beginning to sound like the whining, nitpicking, critical "fans" that make it a practice of posting the same kind of drivel.

Claude Lemieux was brought to Phoenix to help the Coyotes in the play-offs. The fact that they didn't make the play-offs last season, and are unlikely to make them this season or next is not Claude's fault. In retrospect, Gretzky made a mistake in signing his friend Claude when at the same time he cut loose the very players that would be necessary to get the Coyotes into the play-offs and thus utilize the very skills he brought Lemieux to the team to use.

There is no room in sports journalism for character assassination. Critical analysis of team performance, of course. Bitching and whining about dedication or lack of by specific layers, undoubtedly. But character assassination for the sake of assassination dirties all our hands. Have some soap, Mr. Bordow, or put your column on the gossip page where it belongs.