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Drugs, plus-minus and Sarah Palin: Inside NHL’s Competition Committee
The Great NHL Email Dump earlier this week, courtesy of the discovery phase of its concussion lawsuit vs. dozens of ex-players, has been correctly termed a “treasure trove.”
We covered a number of the emails in this post, which included Colin Campbell’s jocular relationship with reporters, Brendan Shanahan’s level-headed talk on player safety and that time Gary Bettman had NBC give Brett Hull a taking-to.
But one other document in the dump caught our eye this week: the minutes from an NHL Competition Committee meeting from 2009.
The Competition Committee is a combination of players, general managers, NHL and NHLPA executives that discusses the state of the game and votes on ways to improve it, with those recommendations voted on by the general managers and the Board of Governors.
You can read the full document here, and it’s worth your time if you’re interested in the byplay between executives and players behind closed doors:
A few of the most interesting takeaways…
DRUG TESTING
It’s interesting to see here how the NHL’s drug testing policy evolved.
Currently, each club will be subject to team-wide no-notice testing once during training camp, once during the regular season and individual players will be randomly selected for no-notice testing during the regular season and playoffs. In the offseason, there is “a league-wide maximum of 60 tests may be conducted” and individual players will be randomly selected for no-notice testing.
In 2009, there was no testing in the playoffs or the offseason, and commissioner Gary Bettman wanted both. Not because the NHL had a PED problem, but so that they could “strive to be a leader” in that area.
The rest of the debate:
We’re still not exactly sure what “in an intimate moment” means in the tale that Paul Kelly tells.
But as a result of these talks, NHL drug testing has widen its scope over the years.
MONTREAL OUTDOOR GAME
Oh, what could have been.
In the Montreal Canadiens’ seemingly endless centennial celebration, there were substantive talks about bringing an stadium game to Olympic Stadium. And it was discussed inside the competition committee as well, with their enthusiasm unfortunately never leading to a game.
Here’s more outdoor game talk:
Gotta love Ryan Miller already thinking ahead to a massive outdoor game in Detroit. And interesting to see how protective they were of the Winter Classic in 2009, and now they hold an outdoor game basically every 15 minutes today.
PLUS/MINUS
We imagine these meetings can be a collection of random tangents, and it doesn’t get much more random than a full-throated rebuke of the plus/minus stat from former Washington Capitals forward Jeff Halpern.
We’re going to go ahead and guess that it’s still on that radar, in some dark corner, nearly out of range.
(Please note that players are still getting a minus for empty netters.)
THE SARAH PALIN HOCKEY MASK
Finally, here’s a fun one, as part of a discussion with Julie Grand of the NHL:
So, um, maybe Ray Emery didn’t just volunteer to lose his Mike Tyson mask in 2006?
What’s interesting about the Palin goalie mask is that one was actually created in 2008:
We were unaware any NHL goalie wanted to wear the mask during the game, but apparently someone petitioned the League and was rejected.
Also, good to see that supporting an Autistic children’s charity on one’s mask doesn’t violate NHL rules…
Please read the full competition committee notes, especially the section on fighting, in which we learn guys who have staged fights hate having their staged fights be called “staged.”
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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
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