That CCL Thing

- Jason Davis

So here we go again. Two MLS teams start their CONCAChampions campaigns tonight. After the thrilling, but ultimately disappointing, story of Real Salt Lake to start the year, the tournament that has remained such an MLS bugaboo is back to twist our gonads.

MLS has five teams in the group stages, a new high. Presumably that means a better chance that one or two of those teams can make strong runs deep into the tournament, though some of that will be down to luck. A couple of these clubs have fairly daunting task ahead of them just to make the knockout rounds. Real Salt Lake was a special team through the 2010-2011 tournament. It remains to be seen if any of the MLS clubs in this edition are worthy of that label.


I'll be honest: it doesn't seem like it from where I'm sitting. LA is a good team, might win the Shield and just added a quality (if pricey) striker to augment their attack. But like any LA team of the last few years, their always good for a shocker every now and then. If they have one at the wrong time in the CCL, there won't be a chance for them to do an RSL. See: last year's qualifying series against Puerto Rico.

So there's hope for the Galaxy, partly because they want to wash the taste of last year's debacle out of their mouths. As for the rest of the MLS contingent, FC Dallas should do the league proud. There's not reason to doubt Hyndman, and although Maicon Santos is cup tied and can't play in the competition, the Hoops have the firepower necessary to get them through. Their group is made of a Tauro (Panama), Toronto FC, and Pumas. One seriously tough out, with second place easily attainable if they put forth a reasonable effort. Pumas is planning on playing a reserve side about FCD tomorrow night. That means winning the group should be the goal.

I don't know what to make of the Sounders' chances. Getting off to a good start tonight is crucial, and I hope to see them come through at home. No reason they shouldn't, though stranger things have happened.

And I'll leave TFC aside. As their rebuilding project continues, it's almost impossible to believe they're ready to surprise in the CCL. The win over Real Salt Lake might provide some confidence, but playing in Panama is no one's idea of a picnic.

Here's a good preview of the group stage from Scott French, complete with first round schedule.

I'm certain to be around on Twitter tonight as the games go one, so go ahead and follow me.
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Shanahan: Letang assumed risk, Max Pacioretty suspended 3 games

One of the hallmarks of the Brendan Shanahan-led NHL Department of Player Safety has been a shared responsibility between the player hitting and the player being hit.

The high hit administered by Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty on Saturday night that broke the nose of Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang offered its share of challenges, from the principal of contact to Letang placing himself in harm's way. In the end, the NHL suspended Pacioretty for three games, and here's why:

From the NHL:

Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty has been suspended, without pay, for three games for delivering an illegal hit to the head of Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang during NHL Game #331 Saturday night in Montreal, the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety announced today.

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and based on his average annual salary, Pacioretty will forfeit $26,351.34. The money goes to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.

The incident occurred at 16:46 of the third period. Letang suffered a broken nose as a result of the hit. No penalty was assessed on the play.� Pacioretty will miss games Nov. 30 at Anaheim, Dec. 1 at San Jose and Dec. 3 at Los Angeles. He will be eligible to return Dec. 6 vs. Columbus.

As for the hit, Shanahan made it clear: Letang knew what he was getting into but cutting down the middle of the ice, but that's not an invitation to skull-bash him.

From Shanahan on the DoPS video:

"As Letang crosses the blue line, his head is up and his winger is driving to the net. In spite of the fact he knows a check is imminent, he still makes the decision to put the puck on the net. Cutting through the middle like this, all players accept the danger and expectation that a full body check may be looming. Letang makes the decision to sacrifice his body, and must accept the possibility of taking a hit to make the play.

"However, what no player should expect is that his head will be picked and made the principal point of contact on such a hit. "

Pacioretty argued that Letang's body positioned changed on the shot, and he couldn't avoid this contact. The NHL disagreed.

Marek made the argument on our radio show today that Letang put himself in a dangerous position and must suffer the consequences. I argued that the NHL, in 2011, is attempting to take the danger away for the players who choose to do what Letang did, which is have the nerve to shoot the puck when there's an onrushing defensive player.

The onus is on the hitter here as, frankly, it should be if we're going to mandate player safety. The operative phrase isn't "don't hit the player"; it's "don't make the head the principal point of contact." It's really not asking for too much other than concern for your fellow player. It was a dangerous hit, the League doesn't want to see it anymore.

Was three games too much? It's one more than we guessed. For a guy with no priors, two would have been fine. But as a wise man once said of a hit he felt was dangerous: "I'm not talking a big number, I don't know, one game, two games, three games...whatever, but something to show that it's not right."

(Please don't confuse this for "Pacioretty is a hypocrite for breaking a guy's nose" nonsense. Because it's nonsense.)

So how will the Canadiens react to this? An inkling from Mike Boone of Hockey Inside/Out:

Let the anguished howls begin. This is three games more than Zdeno Chara got for his hit on Pacioretty.

It's also three games more than Ryan Malone's hit on Chris Campoli. And three games more than Milan Lucic got for knocking Ryan Miller out of action.

Gentlemen (and ladies):�Start your conspiracy theories.

It's also three more games than either Dave Steckel or Victor Hedman received back in January. If we're going there.

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Puck Previews: Boudreau on rift; suspension outrages Pacioretty

Back by popular demand, here are your Puck Previews: Spotlighting the key games in NHL action, news and views as well as general frivolity. Make sure to stop back here for the nightly Three Stars when the games are finished.

Preview: St. Louis Blues at Washington Capitals, 7 p.m. This is going to be a surreal night in D.C., as Capitals legend Dale Hunter makes his coaching debut following the firing of Bruce Boudreau. The team has lost 5 of 7. His number hangs from the rafters. He owns one suit. His practical jokes are legendary. He will have, as he said on Monday, butterflies in his tummy. Alex Pietrangelo is out with the flu for the Blues. Caps killer Jaroslav Halak is between the pipes. Jason Arnott returns to DC after a stint with Washington last season. Follow Yahoo! Sports NHL columnist Nick Cotsonika as he watches the game from DC.

Preview: Florida Panthers at Carolina Hurricanes, 7 p.m. Kirk Muller makes his debut for the Canes against division-leading Florida and his former teammate Kevin Dineen.

Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins at New York Rangers, 7:30 p.m. The Pens have Robert Bortuzzo and Alexandre Picard from their farm team in Wilkes-Barre, as Kris Letang didn't take part in the gameday skate. Here are some keys to the game from Blueshirt Banter.

Preview: Phoenix Coyotes at Chicago Blackhawks, 8:30 p.m. Great battle tonight between the Coyotes' penalty kill (fourth in the League) and a Blackhawks power play that's been a buzz saw lately. Meanwhile, Dan Carcillo is back after being a healthy scratch and, also, is going to host his own weekly music show on WGN called "The Bomb Shelter." All Neil Diamond. Just a guess.

Preview: Nashville Predators at Calgary Flames, 9:30 p.m. It's Brian McGrattan night! Should the Calgary Flames trade Jarome Iginla? Here's a great post that examines a Malkin To The Kings Iginla rumor, and a trade to Dallas.

Check out previews and updated scores for all of today's games on the Y! Sports NHL scores and scheds page. For tonight's starting goalies, check out Left Wing Lock.

Evening Reading

? Bruce Boudreau on an alleged rift with Alex Ovechkin: "It's so far from the truth," Boudreau said. "We got along, I think, famously." [ESPN]

? Max Pacioretty disagrees with the NHL's 3-game suspension for his hit on Kris Letang, as well as with the NHL relating it to the Cooke/Savard affair. Furthermore: "I haven't been hitting very much at all this season because I never know what the outcome is going to be," continued Pacioretty who leads the team in goals with 10 so far in 2011-12. "To be completely honest with you, I'm afraid to throw a hit because when you're on the forecheck, the defenseman turns his back to you and puts himself in a vulnerable position. It's hard for a player when people are expecting you to finish your checks." [Canadiens]

? Red Fisher rips the Penguins for allowing Letang to return to the game. [Gazette]

? Sidney Crosby would like to put the brakes on any "feud" with Bryan Murray: "It's ridiculous. It's a play that happens in every game. I guess that it's me, it's dissected and analyzed a hundred times more. I really think they're making something out of nothing. If they want to keep beating it around, they can. I don't have anything else to say about it. I think it's ridiculous we're still talking about it three days later, to be honest with you." [National Post]

? Is Roberto Luongo a backup goalie? [Globe & Mail]

? The Rangers have kicked the tires on Bobby Ryan reports the NY Post. As have roughly 28 other teams, and parts of Europe. �[SI]

Puck Buddy Comment of the Day: Patrick on Jeremy Yablonski, banned for the year by the KHL:

This guy doesn't even deserve to be on any ice on this planet and that goes for the rest of them. I understand that you need someone that knows how to fight when your guys are getting nailed on the ice, but these guys are just out there to fight anyone and everyone. I am all for fights in NHL, but when its like this, its just pathetic and should be charged with who knows what. They are looking to kill someone and if they kill someone they will just hide behind the skates and say it was an accident and get away with it and make the rest of the hockey leagues around the world look bad.

We're pro-fighting and anti-death, for the record.

Bold Prediction: Jaroslav Halak spoils Dale Hunter's debut in Washington.

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D.C. United roster status

With the decision not to renew the contracts of nine players, D.C. United trimmed more than $830,000 from the payroll. If Charlie Davies departs, that figure would rise to more than $1 million.

The acquisition of Robbie Russell from Real Salt Lake will probably take up at least $100,000, Perry Kitchen has graduated from his Generation Adidas exemption and counts toward the primary budget, and MLS MVP Dwayne De Rosario?s contract is solely United?s responsibility. (Toronto FC was on the hook for most of DeRo?s salary in 2011.)

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Erik Cole paid for Louis Leblanc?s parents to see his first NHL game

There probably weren't a lot of people in the Montreal Canadiens organization happy with Brendan Shanahan's decision to suspend Max Pacioretty for three games, but if you were looking for one, I'd suggest 2009 1st round draft pick Louis Leblanc.

Down a forward, the Canadiens fired up the old claw crane and plucked Leblanc from their minor-league affiliate in Hamilton on Monday. Two days later, he dressed in his first ever NHL game, a 4-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

Leblanc registered 1 shot and 2 hits during 7:52 of icetime Wednesday night, so it wasn't a impactful debut for the Point-Claire, Quebec native. Still, it was a massive career milestone, one that his parents were in attendance to witness.

And that's where this story gets sort of cool. Were it not for Erik Cole, they wouldn't have been.

During last night's broadcast, Canadiens' announcer Pierre Houde explained that Cole had taken it upon himself to ensure the Leblanc family was able to witness their son's big day firsthand, paying for their cross-continent trip himself.�Pretty cool.

According to the Montreal Gazette, Leblanc got the call-up while he was on his way to a Guns n' Roses concert in Hamilton, so clearly his budget for expensive tickets was tapped right out. Lucky for Leblanc, Cole has quite a bit of disposable income these days.

Leblanc's special day was also a special day for the Canadiens' scouts, who have not looked particularly good since the 2007 draft. Leblanc is the first Canadiens' draft pick in three years to play for the big club. From the Globe & Mail:

Since the 2007 draft, which yielded Max Pacioretty (whose suspension has enabled Leblanc's call-up), P.K. Subban, Yannick Weber and Ryan McDonough (now of the Rangers), the Habs have had precisely zero of their own draft picks play even a single NHL game.

Not good.

True, the Habs have a veteran group and are usually a playoff team, but they've drafted 25 players since picking Minnesota high-school player Scott Kishel 192nd in 2007 (Kishel is in his fourth year at Minnesota-Duluth). Only four of those guys (Leblanc, Gabriel Dumont, Joonas Nattinen and Alex Avtsin) have even played a game in the AHL.

Yow. One assumes Erik Cole won't get many more opportunities to be so generous.

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The Survey Heard 'Round The World

- Jason Davis

I don't know whether to laugh or cry over the news that MLS sent out surveys looking for information on the strength of Baltimore as an MLS market. On the surface, which is the way 99.9% of the interested parties are viewing it, it looks like a clear sign that United is not long for DC. Should a move up I-95 come to pass, it would represent the biggest sin ever perpetrated against a group of MLS fans. Yes, people were undoubtedly crushed in Miami, Tampa, and San Jose when their teams were ripped away from them. Those situations pale in comparison to taking a team like DC United, with the history of support its has, out of Washington.

And for the uninitiated who might be suggesting that it's not a big deal, Baltimore isn't that far away, it's really not a relocation at all: wrong. Baltimore is not DC, nor should United fans be expected to simply trek up to the Charm City because MLS asks them to.

But there are still more questions than answers here, and the survey doesn't in and of itself confirm that DC definitely is moving to Baltimore. Those who have been paying attention should not be surprised by this news, unless the surprise comes from the rather obvious nature of the survey. Of course MLS knew fans would catch wind of it, because if they didn't, they're naive beyond any reasonable possibility. Here come the questions.

Knowing that dissemination of the survey would get back to DC supporters, did the league simply choose to absorb the negative reaction, or was observing and documenting that reaction part of the point? No one in DC's city leadership, beyond Marion Berry -- whose support for a stadium was about his constituency and not soccer or DC United itself -- has shown an interest in helping the club find a solution within the District. If the league asks fans to give their opinions about MLS in Baltimore and United's rabid fan base rise up to voice their displeasure, could it have a positive impact on the dialog between the city and club? There's an argument to be made that -- either through willful ignorance or unhealthy myopia -- that the city doesn't quite know what it has in United. Pushing aside the debates about public funding and the value of stadiums to a locality, if enough people make enough noise over the survey and its implications, it might give leaders food for thought on soccer's place in the city.

But probably not. While I think some effect is possible, more like this is what it looks like: DC is out of options, Will Chang (and the league itself) is hemorrhaging money, and there is real value in polling soccer fans in the Mid-Atlantic for their thoughts on an MLS team 40 miles north of DC. Whether it was wise to do so in the manner they chose, with the inevitability of it becoming a news item, is a separate can of worms.

The worst part of this, and why I don't begrudge United fans their (over)reaction, is that the fans are utterly powerless. Attendance for United games hasn't been at traditional levels recently, but as the club improves, there's no reason to think the numbers won't climb back into a very respectable range. This isn't FC Dallas. United fans are committed, for better or worse, and the quickest way to turn them against the league is to take their club away. Forty miles might as well be continents for most of them.

Here then, is the crux of the matter and why the survey is ultimately so troubling: we do not know if MLS is doing everything in their power to keep the team in DC. Even protestations to that effect by the club and the league won't assuage fears the MLS and United are anxious to take the path of least resistance and move up the interstate rather than explore each and every possibility in the nation's capital. From there, the questions get trickier, up to and including things like just how far out into the suburbs it would be okay for DC United to build a stadium if doing so enabled them to stay "DC" at least in spirit. Some of the locations bandied about in recent years are in the Dallas-to-Frisco distances, meaning they bring with them the very real possibility that fans in the city proper and the interior suburbs won't make the trek. DC is not Dallas insomuch as they've always been in one place and have always had good support, but that doesn't mean the same fate couldn't befall them.

Chang is looking for investors. If he finds them, does staying RFK become more tolerable? Is MLS helping him in the search, or is he on his own? How much influence does the single-entity all-for-one business model play into determining the threshold for when it becomes more attractive to go rather than stay? I would never assume to think MLS sees the United fan base as replaceable, but perhaps there are delusions about how much of the current fan base would make the drive to Baltimore for home games. DC-based Oriole fans did it for years before baseball returned to DC, so why wouldn't some here swallow the realities of the intransigent DC stadium situation and help fill the gap?

Everyone is trying to flesh out exactly what this thing means. If MLS thought they were muddying the waters by including five different clubs as choices for whom respondents would like to see moved to Baltimore, it was a rather transparent charade. It's inconceivable that the league would move any other team than United and risk cannibalizing the DC-Baltimore soccer fan base, leaving DC United to rot in RFK while FC Dallas or Columbus or the other of the other teams listed moved into new digs in Baltimore. To include Philadelphia and New York on the list is farcical.

Excuse the incomplete thoughts - I thought it important to post something on the survey, but am pressed for the time to spit them out in a more coherent form.

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Assessing Hunter’s First Game Behind the Bench

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