On a day when Canada's streak of consecutive victories ended at 20, the USA made a huge step towards a second U-20 World Junior Hockey Championship title with a 3-2 victory over Russia in the Czech Republic on Saturday.

The WJC lacks sufficient coverage here in the United States, while our Cousins in Canada can watch all the Maple Leaf games on live TV.  It was no surprise the NHL Network had highlights of Canada's momentus loss but none of the US's victory.

And that is a shame.  Just last year, Patrick Kane was lighting the lamp for the USA, not the Chicago Blackhawks.  Two more future NHLers, James vanRiemsdyk (drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers) and Kyle Okposo (New York Islanders) were on that team last year, and are doing quite well this time around.  Okposo also just signed with the Islanders, and will join them after the WJC is over.

USA Hockey is doing its part by having all of the American games via audiocast on the organization's web site, but that is cold comfort for holiday hockey fans like myself who have ached to see American WJC games on TV for twenty years.  

Lost in the shuffle is Nashville Predators prospect goalie Jeremy Smith, who has allowed just 5 goals in the first three games.  When the US gets good goaltending, anything can happen.

TV viewers in the US should demand that some regional network accessible to a majority of cable and satellite subscribers purchase access to these games.  If I had a choice between endless (and largely meaningless) college bowl games and international hockey, I'll take the latter every time.

There are enough of these players who will play in the NHL (in big media markets) next year to make it work.  There are enough players on College and Junior programs --like the Wisconsin Badgers and Minnesota Golden Gophers--right now to give more viewers a reason to watch, too.

Read more here: http://www.usahockey.com/world_junior_championships_2008/default.aspx?id=213536&DetailedNews=yes

A response to Sweden ends Canada

To follow up on the outstanding cartoon about Michael Vick in yesterday's New Orleans Times-Picayune, sportswriter John DeShazier has written an editorial worth reading.

A few highlights from DeShazier's column (and emphasis, mine):

"Too often, "keeping it real" means keeping company with trouble, staying "true" to your roots means staying dumb as a door knob, refusing to "sell out" means selling yourself short and your supporters a bill of goods.

That explains how a man like Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who has adulation and salary almost beyond measure, gets caught in a despicable mess that results in a federal indictment tabbing him with dogfighting and dog killing.

And if you're not sick of that kind of stupidity, I'll be sick enough for you and a million others.

Sick, tired, disgusted, disappointed and angry at watching a procession of young, talented, black men who have everything to lose continue to contort themselves into positions from which they can't untangle, mostly because of a set of unwritten rules that are so idiotic they don't warrant the ink it would cost to write them down."

And DeShazier continues:

"I'm not suggesting athletes turn their backs on the communities from where they came. Most return as heroes and inspirations, and others will do the same in the future. They can and will give back, can and will sow seeds that blossom into something beautiful in places where beauty left and wasn't expected to return.

But they can't live there anymore."

Read the entire article: http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-31/1185001962295770.xml&coll=1

Photo Credits:

http://sp1.mm-a8.yimg.com/image/4027663162

http://sp1.mm-a8.yimg.com/image/4010653109

This Michael Vick cartoon appeared in this morning's edition of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and this is Pulitzer material.  The cartoonist is Steve Kelley.

Enjoy.

http://blog.nola.com/stevekelley/2007/07/20_july_2007.html

Chris Paul is the face of the New Orleans Hornets, the franchise embodied in one person.  If he were here, walking down the streets of New Orleans, the locals might yell to him "Hey, Chris, where y'at dawlin'? 

For those of you in Rio Linda (thank you very much Rush Limbaugh) "where y'at" is a familiar greeting to friends and family in the Crescent City which means "how are you" or "how have you been?"

CP3 would hear it ...if he were here. 

Paul made an appearance at the NBA Draft fest for Hornets fans at the New Orleans Arena back on June 28.  To his credit, he has not been idle, either.  I checked Chris' website, Chris Paul .com and I found some of the things he has been doing:

--Chris sponsored a Habitat for Humanity event in Winston-Salem, NC in June and will host another Habitat Fundraiser there over a weekend in September. No doubt his growing up in the area and attending Wake Forest forged very strong ties there.

--Chris has held a basketball camp in Oklahoma City and just completed one in Winston-Salem. Oklahoma City has hosted the Hornets for most of the last two NBA seasons since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in August of 2005.  Paul was drafted just two months before the storm, so Oklahoma City has been the only home he has known in his professional basketball career.

Said one mother at the Oklahoma City event as quoted in The Oklahoman:

"I was really curious whether they were going to have the camp because I knew the (Hornets) were going back to New Orleans. I think it means a lot that (Paul) stayed here and did this for the kids. And he's present at the camp. That was one of my concerns, would he actually be involved? And he is."

My question is: why was no CP3 camp scheduled for New Orleans?  Why has Chris not shown the commitment to kids and fans in New Orleans that he has in OKC? 

In New Orleans, youths are starved for summer goings-on every year.  A CP3 basketball camp may have helped keep some "at-risk" youths off the street and, possibly away from trouble.  The Hornets have indeed held a basketball camp in New Orleans, and it was attended by Hornets F-C Hilton Armstrong.

But, Chris Paul was not there.  The face of the franchise.  According to the team website, there will be one more camp in the area from July 30th-August 3rd with a Hornets' player to-be-named-later.  Chris, can you volunteer for that one, please?

 

Please do not misunderstand.  CP's commitment to charity is not in question.  His commitment to charities in storm-ravaged New Orleans, almost two years after the fact, is.  If the Hornets are here for the long haul--a debatable question for sure--then Paul must be prominent in the community, like, say Reggie Bush of the New Orleans Saints has been.

 

City Park's Tad Gormley Stadium was underwater after Katrina

 

Bush made a $50,000 donation to a local high school and is involved in a charity to restore Tad Gormley Stadium, one of the city's only venues for high school football.  Surely there is a gym or basketball court that needs refurbishing somewhere in New Orleans.  The CP3 Memorial Gym has a nice ring to it.

The Hornets have tickets to sell.  The key to selling those tickets is having the Hornets' highest profile player in the public eye constantly.  Being the part of the recovery of the city of New Orleans gives Paul many opporunities daily to make a positive impact.  As people move back to the New Orleans area, with a Saints team with a waiting list for season tickets, it sure makes sense to make people aware that the Hornets have more tickets to sell than they have buyers at this point.  Why not get a running start on those sales with Paul leading the charge?

Paul helping the recovery and helping sell tickets seems like a win-win proposition for the Hornets and the city.

I don't know where Paul is these days, now that we're well into the NBA off-season.  But I know there is a city, somewhere--at 30 degrees north latitude and 90 degrees west longitude--desperate for a hero and a champion.  In Post-Katrina New Orleans, we cannot have enough of them.

 CP3, where are you? 

Post Script 7/21/07: I read in the NFL Czar's Blog an entry from May in which he reported that Reggie Bush has actually made another $50,000 donation to the same school again in 2007.  Just another hundred-thousand reasons to thank Bush and wonder when Chris Paul will make that kind of impact in New Orleans.  See link below for details.

http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/NFL_Czar/2007/05/29/Another_shot_at_Tuna#comments

Photo Credits:

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9G_Rq.ZXJ1GbwEAbDOjzbkF/SIG=11vsftnfo/EXP=1184804377/**http%

http://www.neworleanscitypark.com/support/img/tgflood.jpg

http://logo.cafepress.com/8/154848.1125678.jpg

Overcoming adversity, in spite of nearly insurmountable odds, was no rare occurrence in the life of former USA Hockey head coach Herb Brooks.  Sadly, Brooks died in an automobile accident in 2003, and was inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2006.

 

But if Herbie were here, Bob Bradley could take a lesson or two from the 1980 US Olympic Hockey coach that he might apply to his current US Men's National Soccer team.  I consulted Kevin Allen's book, USA Hockey: A Celebration of a Great Tradition (Triumph Books, 1997) for some insight as to what lessons Bradley might glean from Brooks.

 

Lesson #1: Believe: You know the deck is stacked against you, but you play to win anyway. 

The 1980 US Olympic team was far less talented relatively than Bradley's US Soccer squad at the Copa America.  Most of Brooks' (pictured left) players had never played professional hockey, and all of Bradley's roster for the Copa were professionals.  Much less talented than the opposition, but professionals nonetheless.

Through most of the 20th Century, professional players were not allowed in Olympic Hockey tournaments.  The Soviet Union was able to field the best team in the world because their players were technically in the Red Army, and therefore, eligible to play in the Olympics.  But, make no mistake, the USSR team of 1980 was unquestionably the best in the world.  Allen writes that the Soviets inflicted a 10-3 thrashing of the same US Olympic team that would beat them and win the Gold medal just a week before the games.  The year before, they had beaten an NHL All-Star team 6-0.

When Brooks said he wanted to win the gold medal in Lake Placid, not many believed he could, maybe only Brooks himself.

Lesson #2: Turn to humor: Laugh at the opposition to break them down to mortals.  Herb made his players laugh at the mighty Soviet right wing Boris Mikhailov by comparing them him to Stan Laurel of "Laurel and Hardy" fame.  He told his players in jest "You can beat Stan Laurel, can't you?"                                      

                  

Mikhailov and Laurel (left)                                                                                                                                     

In the "Miracle on Ice"game, the US played against legendary Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretiak, the Dominek Hasek of his era.  When the USA tied the game 2-2 with one second left in the first period, the Americans had already shown the Soviets to be human, and it was coach Viktor Tikhonov who stunned the crowd by pulling Tretiak and inserting backup goalie Vladimir Myshkin at the start of the second period. 

By that point, the laugh was on the USSR.  Pulling Tretiak was just what the Americans needed to prove to themselves that they could win.  Psychologically, the removal of Tretiak was a huge roadblock that got removed, according to Allen.  Bradley can do the same with his opposition (see below).

 

 

 

Argentina's Lionel Messi.........................And Fast Times' Jeff Spicoli (You D**K!)

                                            

  

Lesson #3: Carpe Diem: Seize the Day

 

Brooks was a master motivator and strategist.  His players saved their best performances for when it mattered most.  Mike Eruzione, of course, scored the game-winning goal to beat the Soviets 4-3 to advance to the gold-medal game in 1980.  Goalie Jim Craig must have thought he was being shot at, he turned so many rubber biscuits aside to preserve the Americans victory in the tournament.

According to Allen, Brooks read note card to his team before the USSR game.  It said: "You were born to be a player.  You were meant to be here."  Brooks was hard on his players.  He rode them mercilessly at times to instill in them a sense of teamwork and shared responsibility.  By the time the Olympics came around, they all understood there would be no tomorrow if they lost.  Again, Allen writes that champagne awaited the US players after the victory against the Russians and no one touched it.  They would still need to beat Finland (which they did, 4-2 the following day) to win the Gold Medal.

 

 

It seems impossible, but miracles can happen.....

But wait a minute, Soccer is not Hockey.... Soccer and Hockey are different sports, to be sure.  Bradley's Copa team had no practice time, and Bradley was so consumed with the Gold Cup, he must not have given the Copa America any preparation time in his mind before beating Mexico 2-1 in the Gold Cup final.  

Brooks had almost a year to prepare for the Olympic games, and weeded-out the best 20 players and molded them into a team.  Bradley had no such opportunity.  However, it is not beyond possibility that Bradley already has in mind the 25 or so players who likely represent the USA in South Africa in 2010, should they qualify.  The time for molding the clay is now.

Also, Brooks used a hybrid style of European technical skill with North American-style grit and toughness.  A similar hybrid can exist for soccer between European tactics and molding it with South American athleticism and creativity.

Herb Brooks could teach a lot to Bob Bradley.  It's too bad he's not here to do it, for those who knew him, Brooks was a man that oozed confidence and enthusiasm.  He was infectious with his desire to teach and coach.  Bradley would do well to read up and follow Brooks' example.

 

                          

 Psst....hey Bob, are you listening?

 

Photo Credits:

 

http://www.legendsofhockey.net/graphinduct/ind06brooksBio01.jpg

http://mama.indstate.edu/users/kirillov/graphics/hockey/boria.gif

http://www.lettersfromstan.com/images/stan_history2.jpg

http://www.netwalk.com/~truegger/ftrh/DICK10.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Lionel_Messi_31mar2007.jpg/200px-

http://i.cnn.net/si/si_online/covers/images/1980/0303_large.jpg

http://images.ussoccer.com/Images/cms/ussf/bb(2)309x320.jpg