Hockey players prima donnas? Yep
PITTSBURGH-Hockey players are the nicest people in pro sports. This is a time-honored media cliche, which has its roots in the days when NHL players came to training camps with a cardboard suitcase and the best wishes from everyone at the general store in their one-stoplight Canadian home town.
The stereotype has endured, even though today’s NHL player is just as likely to come from halfway across the globe or the campus of a United States university.
Most hockey players are decent, friendly people. For that matter, so are most pro football and baseball players.
We’ve also seen hockey players who can be as selfish (Brett Hull), erratic (Theo Fleury) and selectively uncooperative (Jaromir Jagr) as the exceptions in the other major sports.
Your perception of how nice hockey players are may depend on whether you’re trying to earn a living coaching them.
No major sport allows players to dictate policy the way hockey does.
It’s happened more than once in Pittsburgh. Gene Ubriaco and Kevin Constantine were undermined by player rebellion. Hall of Famer Scotty Bowman was banned from Penguins practices at the request of the players.
The Philadelphia Flyers took time during a first-round playoff series this year to vent their dissatisfaction about coach Bill Barber. The Flyers lost and Barber was fired.
The Washington Capitals missed the playoffs this year, despite having the NHL’s sixth-highest payroll. The Capitals estimated their operating losses at $22 million.
Still, they were committed to bringing back coach Ron Wilson for the last year of his contract. That changed on Friday and Wilson was abruptly fired a month after he’d been assured his job was safe.
What happened? General Manager George McPhee admitted his decision was swayed by conversations with several players.
The Washington Post reported veterans Olaf Kolzig, Ulf Dahlen and Calle Johansson all complained about Wilson’s style.
Early reports did not finger Jagr as one of the dissidents, which will probably come as a shock to Constantine and Ivan Hlinka.
So we know this about hockey players – they’ll go back on the ice immediately after getting 20 stitches sewn into their heads. They’ll throw themselves in front of a puck fired at 90 miles per hour. They’ll slug it out with anyone who wants to fight.
But they draw the line if a coach tries to yell at them.
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Who can rewrite history?
The Candy Man can.
John Candelaria recounted his 1985 departure from the Pittsburgh Pirates this way in an interview posted on the team’s official website:
“It was tough, but it was time to go,” he said. “They were dismantling the team and there had been a little bit of frustrations over the (previous) few seasons. Sadly, it was time. But it’s part of baseball.”
For those who don’t recall, Candelaria sought a trade after Manager Chuck Tanner asked him to leave the starting rotation to fill the vacant closer’s spot.
When he didn’t immediately get his way, Candelaria started referring to General Manager Pete Peterson as a “bozo” and even decorated his locker with a “No bozos” sticker.
When the Pirates took a commercial flight back from California, Candelaria complained publicly that the Galbreath family treated its thoroughbred horses better than the baseball team it owned.
Candelaria stood on first base one day during batting practice, loudly singing, “Please release me … let me go.”
The Pirates eventually traded him to the California Angels, after Peterson had been fired.
Peterson, by the way, had been grieving that year following the death of his wife. He grew so frustrated with Candelaria that he challenged him to fight in the dugout at Shea Stadium one afternoon.
Candelaria’s version seems to have left out a lot of those details.
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The main argument for a new publicly-funded arena is that the current arena is outdated.
Yet that doesn’t seem to be a deterrent to a lot of the attractions that use the building.
The NCAA said it was fine for the basketball tournament games that were staged there in March. Last week, the Rolling Stones announced it would be one of the venues on the band’s next tour.
Outsiders see it as an acceptable venue because they don’t lust for the premium seating and luxury boxes that the Penguins do.
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The World Wrestling Federation lost a copyright dispute and can no longer call itself the WWF. It’s WWE now.
Update your tattoos accordingly.
John Mehno can be reached at johnmehno@lycos.com