Commentary
Pens should find another post for Kehoe and let Brooks coach team PITTSBURGH – Rick Kehoe is a fine man who only knows 100 times more about hockey than most of his detractors.
He’s been in the Penguins organization for nearly 30 years and there should continue to be a spot for him.
A different spot.
It isn’t his fault that the Penguins are going to miss the playoffs for a second consecutive year. Injuries ruined whatever chance the team had last season and the talent gap this year is obvious.
Aside from Mario Lemieux and Martin Straka, the Penguins don’t have many accomplished players.
They have some young players who appear to have talent but some are so lacking in fundamentals, direction and confidence that they’re virtually useless. General Manager Craig Patrick can’t go out and spend money on free agents and he can’t count on immediate help from the draft, even if the Penguins get a prime position.
But Patrick does have the ability to make the situation better by getting the maximum out of the players the team has.
Assuming the Penguins are going to continue to be young and inexperienced, there’s a man already in the organization who might be perfect to coach them.
The only question is whether Herb Brooks would want the job. He turned down the New York Rangers over the summer but those were different circumstances. Brooks knows about the intensity of New York, having coached the Rangers and New Jersey Devils. He knows about the expectations that dog the Rangers because of their free-spending habits.
But coaching the Penguins would be an entirely different situation. Because of their circumstances, the Penguins are going to need a teaching environment in which players can grow. Who better for that than Brooks, who shaped winners at the college level and coached the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” Olympic team?
Take the young players currently on the roster and the almost-readies at Wilkes-Barre and turn them into Professor Brooks’ freshman class – with Lemieux as an added bonus.
You want structure and systems? You want classroom-on-ice practice sessions? You want someone who can motivate, communicate and forge an “us against the world” underdog mindset to unite a team? You want someone who’s not going to tolerate slacking?
Brooks is your man.
At a young 65, he might be willing to take on this unique challenge. There are no prima donnas, just players who want to succeed and need to learn how. It could be his most rewarding NHL experience.
There’s a practical side, too. Hiring Brooks might actually help keep fans interested through another non-playoff season. Some people might stick around if there’s an expectation the Penguins are actually building something and will improve over the course of a season.
Brooks is already on the Penguins’ payroll as Director of Player Development. His mission wouldn’t change a bit if the Penguins coaxed him to go back behind the bench.
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The ever-shrinking sportscast within local TV news only heightens the appreciation of Fox Sports Pittsburgh’s seven-night-a-week Pittsburgh Sports Tonight.
It’s a local version of the “Sportscenter” concept, thankfully free of the silliness that has afflicted ESPN’s flagship show. Viewers get a solid half hour of information, which is more than they’d get in a week of watching the sports segments in the news shows.
The best part is you get the highlights without enduring all of local TV’s most annoying tricks: Phony “Breaking news” warnings, exclusive opinion polls and a weather forecast that drones on longer than an Iron Butterfly drum solo. (That last one is a ’60s reference, kids. Ask your parents).
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One of the beauties of the sports world is it allows, even encourages, a total disconnect from reality.
The Penguins played the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, right around the same time that President Bush was fielding questions about this nation’s possible entry into war.
In the Arena pressroom afterwards, a guy asked, “Anybody hear what the President said?”
To which another media type replied, in total seriousness, “You mean Mario?”
Sports correspondent John Mehno can be reached online at: johnmehno@lycos.com.