Commentary
Try to figure hockey and its recent coaching changes PITTSBURGH – Scotty Bowman and Kevin Constantine left NHL coaching jobs last week.
Both, of course, are members of a large regional group, Pittsburgh Penguins coaching alumni.
Bowman stepped down from the Detroit Red Wings after placing his name on the Stanley Cup for the ninth time.
Constantine was fired by the New Jersey Devils, who hired him to salvage a season that was spinning out of control last January.
Bowman leaves at age 68, a Hall of Famer who owns just about every coaching record.
Still, his departure came as a mild surprise because Bowman is consumed by hockey.
He said, “I think it’s just time to enjoy what the other people enjoy quite a bit of, too.”
Which he will. As soon as he finds out what that is.
Meanwhile, Constantine has every right to wonder why he’s settling a contract he signed less than five months ago. The Devils were in danger of missing the playoffs when he took over on Jan. 28. He led the team to 20-8-2-1 record and third place in the Eastern Conference.
Constantine was hired because Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello was convinced his team had gone soft under Larry Robinson.
Constantine restored order.
Yes, the Devils lost in the first round of the playoffs. But they lost to eventual Conference champion Carolina, the series went six games and the games were close. A break here or there and Constantine’s stay with the Devils may not have ended after 136 days.
Lamoriello didn’t articulate a good reason for making a change other than he seems to like Pat Burns better than Constantine.
If that’s the case, perhaps he should have hired Burns last January, saved the organization some money and spared Constantine the emotional turmoil.
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Hundreds of thousands of people tuned into Saturday’s New York Yankees at Mets game just to see if Mets starter Shawn Estes would throw a baseball at Roger Clemens.
For all those sappy Roger Angell essays about green cathedrals and sun-splashed afternoons, there’s nothing like good old bloodlust to draw a crowd.
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Give credit where it’s due:
Pirates chief announcer Lanny (Hi, Friends) Frattare called out a couple of players for not hustling during last week’s series at Anaheim.
He noted that Pokey Reese was home run trotting on a ball that didn’t clear the fence and wondered aloud if Brian Giles was giving maximum effort on a ball he’d hit.
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Interesting call for the Steelers on quarterback Charlie Batch.
If they sign him, they have an NFL-tested alternative should Kordell Stewart get injured or falter. Of course, there’s also a chance Batch won’t get into a game for anything but mop-up work.
As a backup, he could be signed at a relatively modest price. The complication here is that the Steelers just signed backup Tommy Maddox.
But if something happened with Stewart, would the Steelers be better off with Batch or Maddox as the starter?
Conventional wisdom used to be that a team was pretty much sunk if it lost its starting quarterback. Not necessarily. The New England Patriots won the Super Bowl last year with Tom Brady replacing the injured Drew Bledsoe.
Batch needs a job and would like to be in Pittsburgh. Do the Steelers feel they need the extra insurance at quarterback?
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New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick noted that ABC used nine announcers on its coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals.
He calculated that was one announcer for every 14 viewers.
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Penguins GM Craig Patrick said he lets his scouting staff handle the draft.
Considering how poorly the Penguins have drafted over the last 10 years, maybe a more hands-on approach is something to consider – particularly when a non-playoff season provides extra time to prepare.
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How do you miss a target as big as Roger Clemens?
You can e-mail John Mehno at: johnmehno@lycos.com