Enstrom comes up big for Jets
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$19 $0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then billed as $19 every four weeks (new subscribers and qualified returning subscribers only). Cancel anytime.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/06/2017 (2471 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Steve Lyons: Hello there. How’s it going? Plenty of intrigue during Wednesday night’s expansion draft — Chris Thorburn was not the name I expected to be announced when it came to the Jets player chosen by the Vegas Golden Knights. Looks like Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff — with a huge assist from Toby Enstrom — managed to stickhandle through the expansion draft process without much effect on his current or future roster.
Have to admit, I was surprised last weekend when Enstrom decided to waive his no-movement clause so the club could protect seven forwards instead of just four. I’m betting Chevy had some preliminary discussion with Vegas GM George McPhee and was able to re-assure Toby ahead of the decision, but the veteran defenceman still left himself in a bit of limbo.
Listen, I’ve always been a defender of Enstrom’s value to the team and I think he still has a place in the Top 4 on this club. I know he can get into trouble at times when he has to defend deep in his own zone, but the thing about him is he has an uncanny knack for keeping the puck in the opposition’s end of the ice and intercepting neutral zone passes and is above-average at getting the puck out of his zone so the amount of time he spends in his own zone is less than most players. The biggest criticism I hear about him is he’s too small and his contract’s too big. In today’s game, where speed — not size — is the growing trend, I think Enstrom’s puck-handling skills and hockey smarts will continue to be valuable. And if you don’t want to accept my opinion on it — all I’ve ever heard from teammates and his coaches is what an excellent player he is. As for the contract, that’s just how it works with veteran players: they get paid more than they are likely worth at certain points of their careers. It’s like that in most workplaces — get over it.
The most complimentary emails I ever get about these exchanges are from folks who generally like when we get ‘extra ranty.’ How was that? And while I’m at it — is it ever going to be summer around here?!
Paul Wiecek: I bought a sunflower at Home Depot this month and it died in two days — which tells you everything you need to know about summer so far.
The single most valuable service Toby Enstrom has ever performed for this team was agreeing to waive his no-movement clause. That’s faint praise in a way, I suppose. And you and I are never going to agree on the overall utility of an NHL defenceman who topples over in a strong breeze. I like my NHL defenceman the same way I like my Slurpees — extra large.
But I’m also genuine in my praise of Enstrom’s handling of this. You know what it looks like when a defenceman with an expired ‘best before’ date and a bloated contract refuses to waive his no-movement clause? It looks like Dion Phaneuf sticking the shiv in the Ottawa Senators, who were forced to cough up a top pairing blueliner in Marc Methot to Vegas because Phaneuf was too selfish to do the right thing.
These players are always talking platitudes about putting the interests of the team before themselves — until it actually means something and then, hey, every man for himself, right? Enstrom earns a lot of latitude from me this coming season for actually walking the talk.
Steve: I recall you poking fun at me when I first suggested in one of these exchanges that Toby should do the right thing for the team and waive that clause, and I quote “I think it’s sweet that you actually think a professional North American athlete might do something for any reason other than his own self-interest. It’s the 1950s calling — they say you forgot your yo-yo down at the malt shop.”
I know you are an ‘old school’ guy but the league is changing and smaller players with speed and skill — forwards and defenseman — are much more prevalent.
By the way, in the 1950s do you think a guy wearing shorts and a polo shirt would be spotted sitting in the second row of an awards banquet — who was the dude behind Gretzky in Vegas last night?
Paul Wiecek: You prove my point on Enstrom precisely — it is exceedingly uncommon for a professional athlete to act in anything other than an entirely self-interested way. I thought that when I wrote that back then and I think that now and that’s precisely why Enstrom gets a break from me moving forward for acting in such an unexpected way.
The path to success in today’s NHL isn’t small and fast — it’s big and fast. You want small and fast, that’s simple — go sign Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir to man your blueline. Big and fast is a much rarer commodity — on the blueline and in life generally — but the NHL teams that have it are the ones that were still pounding it out late into the playoffs this year.
The only thing stupider than a man wearing shorts to an event where everyone else is wearing a suit is a man wearing one of those ‘shorts suit’ abominations, where a guy matches a suit jacket and tie to shorts. In what world does a guy put on one of those things, take a look at himself in the mirror and say, ‘Man, I look fantastic.’
Fellas, no one, ever, wants to see your legs. Period. It’s nauseating.
Steve: Generally, I like awards shows — the Academy Awards; the Golden Globes; the Emmys. I even like the Geminis lol… but if I wasn’t being paid to watch that show from Vegas on Wednesday night to see who got plucked from the Jets roster, there’s no way I last more than a few minutes. The guy hosting was someone named Joe Manganiello and he was terrible. I guess his claim to fame is being in the Magic Mike movies with Channing Tatum — he was sure to mention that a couple of times — and being a huge Penguins fans; he’s from Pittsburgh and he went on and on and on about the Penguins and his adoration for Sidney Crosby. Oh, and being pals with Channing Tatum. The whole schtick was — nauseating is the right word, thanks.
I’ll admit to a certain degree I watch awards shows to look at the clothes — Man, NHL players sure wear some great duds. Auston Matthews had a killer sports coat and Connor McDavid got my vote for best suit.
Paul: I was not paid to watch that Vegas circus Wednesday night and so I didn’t. And I don’t think I missed much.
If you believe the usual gasbags, that Vegas team that got drafted this week was the greatest, most stupendous thing ever. TSN’s Dave Poulin actually said, with a straight face, that the Knights are a playoff contender right now. And Frank Seravalli — also from TSN (see a pattern here?) — proclaimed Vegas GM George McPhee as being “in the early running to follow (Nashville’s David) Poile as GM of the year.”
Ever wonder why TSN always seems to get the 30-second Twitter scoops on the latest NHL trades? It’s because they are the most reliable source of all the propaganda NHL teams want you to hear.
That Vegas team is going to be surprisingly awful next season. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Vegas paid a $500-million expansion fee in exchange for an unusually generous expansion draft that McPhee could have used to build a modest contender right out of the gate. But to McPhee’s credit, he opted instead to forego some short-term early success in exchange for loads of draft picks that will make this team a long-term contender down the road if he drafts wisely.
McPhee might be a GM of the year — but it will be five years from now, not next spring. As for contending this year, the only thing the Knights are contending for this upcoming season will be the first overall draft pick next year. Deadspin says the over-under on regulation wins for the Knights next season is a dozen. I’m taking the under.
Steve: I wish hockey season would end already — maybe then summer would arrive.
I was doing a little research this week — I know, that always shocks you when an editor does research — and what I concluded is the Bombers not only look stacked on the field this season, but compared to the other teams in the CFL I would suggest they have the best trio of coaches steering the ship.
Mike O’Shea, of course, is the main man at the helm, but his duo of co-ordinators — Paul LaPolice on offence and Richie Hall on defense — hands-down have the best cred when stacked up against the other teams’ co-ordinators in the CFL.
LaPolice has 14 years experience in the CFL now; was a head coach for three years and took the Bombers to the Grey Cup in 2010 and was the Riders receivers coach when they won Grey Cup in 2007 and OC when they went to Cup in 2009. Hall was part of the Riders coaching staff for 15 seasons; was head coach of the Eskimos for two seasons; is a three-time Grey Cup champ, winning two of those as a defensive coordinator for the Riders.
Only three other teams have former head coaches as co-ordinators: Jeff Reinebold is DC in Hamilton; Mike Benavides is DC in Edmonton and Corey Chamblin is DC with the Argos. There’s a number of co-ordinators I’ve never even heard of.
As far as experience and qualifications go, Lapo and Hall are No. 1 and I think that will be a huge key in the Bombers finally breaking that Grey Cup curse this season.
Paul: I had my doubts about LaPo returning to Winnipeg: he was fired as head coach here because his offence was chronically lousy and his reputation throughout the CFL as a good offensive mind simply wasn’t borne out by the numbers. Want to do some research? Pick any statistical measure you’d like and go through LaPo’s offences in the CFL over the years. You will find his numbers are decidedly ordinary.
But having said all that, he’s made the very most out of the offensive weapons Kyle Walters has given him in this go around and that LaPo offence right now is the very best part of this Bombers team heading into this season. My hat’s off to the guy.
But I’m not sold yet on Richie Hall’s defence. They forced a lot of turnovers last year but by any other measure, Hall’s defence was a laggard in 2016. And it didn’t look much better to me in the preseason, particularly getting walloped the way they did last week against what was basically Edmonton’s B-team. On paper, the Bombers defence should be better this season. But Hall remains the question mark until he proves otherwise.
It seems you think the fact both Bombers coordinators are former head coaches gives the Bombers a leg up this season. I don’t think that’s necessarily ever true. And I think in this case, in particular, you’ve got two coordinators who were failed former head coaches. I’d take two former successful coordinators over that any day.
Steve Lyons: I think their experience in the league and their ability to manage systems and players is an attribute that should not be under-estimated. Maybe it’s that both helped the Riders win Grey Cups and I did grow up in Regina as part of Riders Nation.
The NHL just released the 2017-18 schedule — the Jets visit Vegas just once this season on Friday, Nov. 10. They play the Coyotes in Phoenix the next night. Not much chance of getting into trouble in Nevada on that trip. Ten out of 12 games in February are at home — that could be an important month if they’re in the thick of things at that point.
Was just chatting with a co-worker in the cafeteria — he’s wearing shorts; I told him your theory and he says he’s going to use Google translate to send you a missile in Polish. He mentioned something about his female friends liking his calves. Man, they were white.
Paul: North American males are almost unique in their belief that it is perfectly fine to wear shorts to work or a nice restaurant or out on the town. It’s the fastest way to spot a Canadian or American tourist anywhere in Europe or Asia — he’s the doofus wearing shorts.
The release of that NHL schedule has proven me wrong — yet again. I genuinely thought there was no way Gary Bettman and the league’s owners would ever be so suicidal as to walk away from the biggest sporting showcase in the world — the Winter Olympics. You want to grow hockey internationally but you don’t want to send your very best to the Olympics? Madness. But with the sked now out, I guess they’re actually going to do that.
Lesson learned: never underestimate the stupidity of the National Hockey League. There’s a reason America’s Funniest Videos reruns continue to draw bigger ratings than playoff hockey in the U.S.
Steve: I’m one of the few folks I know who is happy the NHL is not sending its players to the Olympics. I know the Games are hardly amateur-athletes events anymore, but all of the attention given to the pros and dream teams has taken so much of the spotlight away from the somewhat-amateur athletes who make up most of the participants at the Games.
I am so glad you won’t have to write about how this Jet or that Jet is feeling about playing in the Olys and I’m glad we will be able to focus our attention on the speed skaters, the skiers, the curlers and the figure skaters again.
Paul: I’m also relieved. The most fun I ever had covering a Winter Olympics was in Turin in 2006 when the Canadian men’s hockey team crapped out early and Cindy Klassen stole the whole show.
The biggest loser in all this, aside from the NHL itself, is the sports media industrial complex in this country that counted on NHLers in the Olympics every four years to fill hundreds of hours of talking heads time, not to mention the padding of some fat expense accounts. I can’t wait to see how those guys justify their existence with a hockey team of Canadian no-names in South Korea.
I’d invite them down to curling but I don’t want to ruin a good thing.
Steve: I see your Yankees have come crashing down to earth — are you even watching any ball this season? Did you happen to catch Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig giving Cleveland Indians fans the finger — both by the way — after hitting a home run a couple of weeks ago? I also recently watched a video where Reds’ Joey Votto got the best of some front-row hecklers — great stuff. It got me to thinking — if fans can go nuts and bang on the glass and yell shit at the players, why not let the players fire back a few salvos? If you thought Jose Bautista’s bat flip was in your face, imagine some of the ‘entertainment’ this would create. The NFL has loosened the rules on TD celebrations; hell, throw it all out the window!
Paul: I used to have Jets tickets at ice level right next to the visitors penalty box. That made for some lively evenings and a drunker version of myself and some friends were tying into Theo Fleury one night when he brought the heckling to a standstill with the zinger: “Look, if you want me to autograph your lunchboxes, just say so.”
Every word of that is comedy gold. I’ve never admired an athlete more.
Steve Lyons: Time to get back to my real job, but one final thing: Since we were on the subject of amateur athletes, Winnipeg has a chance to see some great young ones when we host the Canada Summer (If that ever happens) Games from July 28-Aug. 13.
It appears the local organizers have done a great job leading up to the event and I think it’s going to be fun to get out and watch some events we don’t get to see very often.
I think I will try to get out to see some events. The rowing is in Kenora — I’ll pop by for a swim and some food afterwards.
Paul Wiecek: Yeah, I think most people in this province aren’t going to realize just how big an event the Canada Summer Games really is until it actually gets here. That’s a monstrous undertaking — a mini-Pan Am Games. Hopefully, the locals will support it this summer the saw way we did the Pan Am Games back in 1999.
Speaking of Kenora, big jack biting over the weekend. Water’s low this year — they’re running out of places to hide.
Paul Wiecek
Reporter (retired)
Paul Wiecek was born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End and delivered the Free Press -- 53 papers, Machray Avenue, between Main and Salter Streets -- long before he was first hired as a Free Press reporter in 1989.