Open letter to all the whiners in the NHL

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/stephen_cannella/10/27/inside.nhl/index.html

STFU!

"The reason nobody is hitting is because if you run at a guy and miss or he slips past you, you can't put your stick on him to hold him up," Avalanche forward Ian Laperriere said after a surprising gentlemanly 6-4 loss to the Canucks last week. "That and nobody knows yet what is a penalty and what isn't."

People aren't hitting because clutching and grabbing is actually being called?

For shame!

Seriously, all this whining about too many penalties, not enough hitting, and the style of play in the "New NHL" has got to stop. The league has seen little to no backlash due to the lockout, so I don't see why people in the game should be complaining. I'm betting MLB would like to know how the NHL has avoided the same sort of backlash that they felt after merely cancelling the playoffs.

I'll take wide open, skating hockey every day of the week over the clutch and grabfest that the NHL had become. I won't miss the fighting and the battling in front of the net as long as the skilled guys in the league are allowed to do what they do best.

And I hope everyone else sees why guys like Laperriere really are crying. To me it sounds like Ian is figuring out that he doesn't have much of a future in the "New NHL".

For that I have to say: Too Bad.

My dream Yankees offseason

I want the Yankees to make two huge offseason moves:

Get Leo Mazzone to be the pitching coach and lure Theo Epstein to NY to replace Brian Cashman.

Epstein is a free agent and the Red Sox apparently aren't even offering $1 million per year to stay on as their GM.

And the Yankees have gotten permission to talk to long time Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone to replace departed pitching coach Mel Stottlemyer.

I seriously can't think of a better 1-2 offseason punch than adding arguably the best pitching coach in baseball and the architect of the 2004 Red Sox that reversed the curse.

At a minimum, it would be worth $3 or 4 million a year to lure Epstein just to see the reaction that the move would get from Red Sox Nation. And I'd love to see Bill Simmons' reaction since he said himself that Red Sox fans can't complain about anything for 5 years since they finally won the World Series.

And maybe Mazzone could turn the Yankees' pitching staff into more than it has been over the past few seasons.

Given that adding Mazzone and Epstein wouldn't add to the Yankee's luxury tax payments, The Boss should back up a couple of Brinks trucks right now.

Give Mazzone $2 million a year and Epstein $3 or 4 million a year.

Heck, that would be less than half of the money that comes off the books with Kevin Brown's contract expiring..............................

Jokes of the day

Any Red Sox or Yankees fan that tries to rationalize their team's flame job in the playoffs. The top two payrolls in baseball shouldn't combine to win all of 2 postseason games.

Now it will be interesting to see who does the bigger implosion this offseason.

Will it be Boston by letting Johnny Damon walk, trading away ManRam, and perhaps most importantly letting Theo Epstein leave town as a free agent?

Or will it be the Yankees where not only are three big contracts expiring (Kevin Brown, Bernie Williams, and Hideki Matsui), but also GM Brian Cashman's deal is up and Joe Torre could be replaced as manager. Lou Pinella is a free agent after all and it's not like King George hasn't flown off the handle before after a similiar melt down.

Some other jokes:

- OLN blacking out Sidney Crosby's network TV debut in an attempted cash grab to extort cable and satelite providers into moving OLN onto basic tiers and thus move more cash into their coffers.

- Not switching Game 1 of the ALCS to Thursday and moving Game 1 of the NLDS up a day to allow the Angels to get one day of rest prior to Game 1 versus the White Sox.

- The NFL's tuck rule. I know it's a homerific call this week because the rule took a safety away from the Redskins, but the rule is just as dumb today as it was when the Pats got lucky versus the Raiders a few years back.