Dani Alves' Bite Against Racism

Dani Alves instantly became my new hero on Sunday, with a simple action that made a complete mockery of a moronic racist fan.  In Europe, there is a disgusting practice that happens in far too many stadiums, where fans at soccer matches will direct racist abuse at black players, including shouting monkey calls when they are in possession and throwing bananas at them.  There are certain stadiums that are worse than others, and the clubs are subject to punishment from governing boards when it happens (usually), but it has been impossible to stamp it out thus far.

Dani Alves, who is Brazilian, has been subject to this many times in his career playing in Spain, but watch his classic response yesterday as a banana flies past him and on to the field while he lines up to take a corner kick.


It is rare that  athletes can express a sense of humour on the pitch, but here is a brilliant example.

Teammates of Alves and other supporters showed their solidarity by tweeting photos of themselves eating bananas.  Dani took a stupid action with racist implications, and owned it in such a casual and dismissive way.  Way to bite racism Dani!

STOP THE PRESSES! Sens edge an opponent in Powerplays for the first time this season

It was bound to happen eventually, and personally, I was hoping they would make it to the twenty game mark, but alas the streak is over!  Overshadowing their comeback win against the mighty Bruins last night was the fact that the Ottawa Senators had more power plays than their opponent for the first time this season, a mere 19 games (or 23% of the season) in to the 2013-2014 schedule.

This landmark accomplishment was in doubt, even late in the 3rd period.  With just over 3-minutes to play, and the power plays notched at one a piece, Dennis Seidenberg knocked Bobby Ryan out of the game with an elbow to the face.  With the stance set by the league on headshots, especially illegal ones involving an extended elbow with the head as the principle point of contact, the debate amongst most fans would be whether Seidenberg would receive a 5 minute major and a match penalty, just a 5 minute major, or maybe a more lenient double minor or minor penalty.  Those who have watched all 19 Senators games this season would have correctly predicted the actual outcome: No penalty.

Following the precedent set by this non-call, Jarome Iginla then decided to make a similar hit on the very next play, throwing his shoulder into the head of Cory Conacher.  Iginla was justified in questioning the call, given that it was much less dangerous than that of Seidenberg, but you could give the benefit of the doubt to the officials in recognizing that they missed the first one, and tried to make it up with this one.

So the Senators have a 100% winning record in games where they receive an advantage in powerplays.  If that trend holds, that is 4 wins over the course of the season.  Cue the Woo Hoo music!

UPDATE: I made light of the Seidenberg elbow because it seemed like a given that a suspension was inevitable.  After waiting all day, it is now confirmed that despite it being: 1) An illegal hit using an elbow 2) A hit that targeted the head, 3) The head of the opponent was the principle point of contact, and 4) an injury resulted from the hit; Dennis Seidenberg will face absolutely no disciplinary action.  I was puzzled by the decision to suspend Eric Gryba in last year's playoffs, but I thought it would at least clear up what was suspendable in the future.  I am now really starting wonder which Ottawa Senator slept with Gary Bettman's wife.

Karlsson vs. Subban - Thursday Night Matchup

The first time I saw these two players play was live at the 2008 World Juniors Hockey Championship.  While all the hype was about Victor Hedman coming into the tournament, Karlsson and Subban were by far the standout players once the games had been played, along with the amazing performance of Jordan Eberle.

On Thursday evening they meet up again, and unlike in last year's playoffs, both players appear to be fully fit (although rumour is that Karlsson is still well away from 100% recovered from his Achilles tear, which is a scary thought).

Karlsson comes into the game with 17 points in 15 games, and Subban with 15 points in 16 games.  All other contenders are well off this pace.

But I want to draw particular attention to Karlsson's numbers.  15 games in, during a period in which Ottawa have not played good hockey, Karlsson is on pace for 93 points.  93.  I am always wary of projections, because there are a lot of games left to play, and chances are he will cool down, but if the team as a whole starts clicking as it was expected to do with the additions of Ryan and MacArthur, it is possible that his point output could also increase.

So keeping in mind that this is a longshot, how significant would a 93 point season from a defenseman be?

Put it this way, only 7 players in the history of the NHL have ever achieved it.  They are:
- Bobby Orr
- Paul Coffey
- Ray Bourque
- Denis Potvin
- Al MacInnis
- Brian Leetch
- and Phil Housley

That is pretty good company.  Looking forward to the Matchup Thursday night.  Which one of these young stars do you think will put in the better performance?

"The refs have it in for us!" - Is there any truth to this statement?

UPDATE (OCT 28th) - 11 games into the season and Ottawa still haven't played one game in which they have had more power plays than their opponent.  They are now -33:18, still almost double the 29th place team.  They are also one of 3 NHL teams that have not had 1 second of 5-on-3 time.  Colorado meanwhile, have plummeted from 6th down to 26th in PP-PK time, upholding their unenviable trend from the past 4 seasons.
____________

As a Senators fan who recognizes my own bias, I sometimes think that I am guilty of discounting legitimate issues, attributing my concerns to my own fan allegiances.  But after watching another game in which it seemed the Ottawa Senators could not buy a powerplay, I started trying to remember the last times the Senators played a game in which they had more powerplays than the opposition.  It hasn't happened in 5 games this season (BUF 4-3, TOR 6-1, LAK 6-4, SJ 5-3, ANA 5-1).  And come to think of it, it hasn't happened very often, in a long time.  It seemed like I had to go back to the days of Jacques Martin, when Ottawa was winning Presidents trophies, when Ottawa was spending more time on a regular basis on the attack rather than penalty killing.

So I started doing some digging, and the statistics are actually quite shocking.  In this case perception is reality.  There are two teams that would seem to have reason to ask questions about the consistency with which they find themselves being penalized and not getting powerplays.

These two teams are Ottawa and Colorado.

I used the Powerplay time to Penalty Kill time gap as the preferred indicator, and stats are recent up to the morning of Monday October 14th.  The PP:PK time stat is not without its flaws: Teams that score early into powerplays would decrease their PP time, and teams that allow goals early in penalty kills would decrease their PK time.  But it accurately allows us to overlook the meaningless penalties assessed in the dying seconds of a game, when the teams don't actually gain an advantage, and also accounts for "neutralized powerplays", when a team has a powerplay cut short by being assessed a penalty during their own powerplay.  Most importantly, the focus on the gap means that it is looking both at penalties taken, and power plays awarded.  A team could be a "dirty" team that takes lots of penalties or gets assessed lots of fighting majors, but this team could also be receiving an offsetting amount of powerplays and still have a small gap.

So here are some highlights (or maybe lowlights!):

• The Ottawa Senators have not had a season in which they had more Powerplay time than Penalty Kill time since 2006-2007
• Between 2007-2008 and 2013-2014, the Ottawa Senators have spent 352 more minutes killing penalties than playing with a man advantage (This is just shy of 6 full games).  The Colorado Avalanche, during the same stretch spent 103 minutes more killing penalties than playing on the PP.
• In the 2011-2012 season, the Colorado Avalanche were in a league of their own, with a -114 minute PP : PK gap.  The 29th place team had to kill 34 minutes fewer, and the 1st place team (CBJ) were 216 minutes clear of them at +102.
• On average, between 2007-2008 and 2013-2014, the Ottawa Senators have found themselves 27th in the league in the PP : PK time statistic, never reaching higher than 22nd in 2008-2009.  Their second highest finish was 27th.  Colorado Avalanche were on average, 18th during the same span, but ranged as high as 4th and as low as 30th.

What does this mean?

First off, allow me to say that I do not think this to be some kind of conspiracy.  I don't think there is any match-fixing going on, especially not for Ottawa or Colorado games.  But sometimes, statistics can tell a story that suggests there may be some latent influence occurring.  Personally, I think that the fan influence during Montreal and Toronto games take away the home ice edge for 6 to 8 of Ottawa's 41 home games, and the yells and screams for penalties from these particularly boisterous groups of away fans probably gain the opponents some calls.  There is also the issue of reputations and rapport with the refs.  We all remember the publicized instance of Dan O'Rourke calling Erik Karlsson a "diver," and of course there were the Cory Clouston years where the young coach demonstrated an inability to bite his lip and let go of the bad calls in the way that Jacques Martin could (to a fault).  During that time, some of our young players followed suit, joining in on the yapping and probably not earning themselves any benefit-of-the-doubt.  Are there other factors at play?  I don't know, but at least I know that I am not crazy now that I have looked up the stats. Let me know what you think.

Raw spreadsheet data below:

Season	Team	PP : PK time	Ranking in NHL
2013-2014	OTT	-23:53:00	30
	COL	10:12:00	6
2012-2013	OTT	-28:34:00	27
	COL	-68:34:00	29
2011-2012	OTT	-71:39:00	27
	COL	-114:00:00	30
2010-2011	OTT	-74:00:00	29
	COL	-56:01:00	26
2009-2010	OTT	-46:16:00	27
	COL	12:12:00	12
2008-2009	OTT	-24:24:00	22
	COL	08:48:00	16
2007-2008	OTT	-83:02:00	28
	COL	69:38:00	4
2006-2007	OTT	27:15:00	12
	COL	35:04:00	10
Total 2007-2013	OTT	-351:48:00	27.1428571429	Average
	COL	-102:41:00	17.5714285714

Sportchek surprise me and deliver excellent customer service on soccer gear

I am a firm believer in letting businesses know when their poor customer service has led to losing my business.  Well refreshingly, I thought I would share a positive story about Sportchek, stepping up to the plate to honour a warranty on a 13-month old soccer ball.  Here is the letter I wrote to the company:


I am writing in to commend your staff at the Kanata Centrum location.  As someone who has worked extensively in customer service training, I am a discerning consumer, and unfortunately in my day to day shopping experiences I see too many instances where I think that the staff are in desperate need of better training.  Ian, the store manager did an excellent job, as did Lorne, the initial person who took my call.

As an avid soccer player who currently plays on 5 teams, I finally convinced my wife last year that it would be worthwhile investing in a high-end ball, specifically the Tango 12 Fifa official match ball that was used at the Euro 2012.  We are a relatively frugal family, so this was no easy pitch, given that the ball was $150 before tax.  But I told her that for the amount that I play, it would be worth investing in a quality product and also pointed out the 2 year guarantee that came with the Tango 12.

She got it for me for my birthday last year and it was my prized possession for this past year, until after a recent game, I noticed one of the bonds between two of the panels had broken and there was now an open flap revealing the internal bladder.

I know that dealing with manufacturer warranties can be a major headache so I was afraid to break the news to her.  I contacted Adidas and they recommended that I contact the store where it was purchased directly as the first step.  I expected to encounter roadblocks and get policy recited to me about manufacturer warranty vs. retailer warranty etc. and thought I might be faced with a negative situation trying to get this dealt with, based on the average state of customer service at the typical retail chain store.

Lorne took my call and did about as well as I could have coached anybody to do.  He was empathetic to the situation and listened to me.  He said that store policy was a 60 or 90 day return policy, but he also said that they want to do whatever they can to ensure customer satisfaction and he even offered a potential solution.  He checked the inventory and found that there was one Tango 12 left in stock, and he would put it on hold for me until I could bring my defective ball in for the sporting goods manager to inspect.  That way, if the damage did seem to be a legitimate manufacturing defect, I could get the ball switched right away.

I came in and unfortunately the sporting goods manager was not in, so I spoke with Ian at the front cash (not knowing he was the store manager at this point).  I told him the history, and he offered to fill out a work order so that they could speak with Adidas on Monday (since it was the weekend) and go from there, since the ball was no longer covered by the store warranty.  I mentioned my previous conversation with Lorne, and said I would be really appreciative of avoiding another drive to Kanata (since my wife only came this far originally since the 2 sportcheks that were closer did not have the ball in stock originally), and also of avoiding being without my beloved Fifa-match ball for longer than necessary.  Ian was good at letting me know they would do whatever they could to facilitate it as fast as possible, and that he would keep the last in-stock Tango 12 set aside for me.

I figured this was as good as I could hope for, so accepted leaving my ball there to await further word on Monday.  While in the parking lot explaining the situation to my wife, my cellphone rang.  Ian, the store manager was on the line and said that if I was still nearby, to come back and we could switch for the replacement ball right then and there.  He said he thought about it, and didn't want me to have to keep running around and waiting, and that the store would work it out with Adidas directly.  This just absolutely made my day!

It was actually a perfect example of one of the techniques that can be used to maximize customer satisfaction - Empathize, Downplay what can be done, then surpass their expectations with your solution.  Doing this can make a customer happier than if nothing had gone wrong in the first place.

I go through lots of sports equipment, and while price is important to me, good customer service is equally important - Sportchek Kanata stepped up and took ownership of the problem, even though they could have passed the buck to the manufacturer.  I have a soccer blog, I am a prominent player in Ottawa's largest adult soccer league, and I have over 100 teammates if you count my 5 current teams and teams that I sub for.  You can bet on which store I'll be directing people to for their soccer gear from now on, and as you know, word of mouth recommendations from respected peers is one of the best forms of advertising you can get [Note - "Respected" may be a stretch but it sounded good didn;t it?].

Thanks to Ian, Lorne, and Sportchek Kanata Centrum.

Gryba's Suspension is Good News for the Sens

Against the bulk of expert analyst opinion, Eric Gryba was suspended for yesterday's hit on Lars Eller.  This may benefit the Ottawa Senators or any other team facing the Habs.  P.K. Subban was the most dominant player on either team yesterday, and his impact could be the difference in this series.  But if the Gryba hit is used as a benchmark for suspension, then P.K. Subban will have to alter his game which was perilously close to the edge yesterday.

Two hits he laid in the first period appear for example.  The hit on Chris Neil - Personally, I thought it was one of the best hits I've seen in a long time.  Full credit to Chris Neil for popping right back up on that one and trying to pretend that it didn't hurt - The mere fact that he didn't go after Subban right after tells me that it hurt a lot.  Later in the period, Subban tries the same hit in open ice on Dan Pageau - Pageau got his head up at the last minute and narrowly avoided having his jawbone fly into the 3rd row.

Looking at the replay, there is clearly contact with Neil's head, but as with the Gryba hit, (or so it looked to everyone other than Shannahan) it is incidental as the principle point of contact was the body, and then the head.  If Gryba's hit was suspendable, then you can bet there is going to be a very close eye on similar hits that result in incidental head contact in this series.  Subban is an emotional player and could struggle by trying to play more conservatively.  It isn't easy for a player to play contrary to their instinct.  But if Subban continues to fire himself full speed at players, exploding upwards as he did yesterday, he is risking a suspension and the Canadiens lose their best player.

Gryba was a borderline to make the roster, and won't be a huge loss.  But now that a new precedent has been set, in terms of an "acceptable line" for players to follow when hitting, it could be a big impact on these playoffs as a whole.