In today's Calgary Sun, Jeremy Roenick fesses up to some nefarious tactics employed by Coach Mike Keenan during the 1992 Stanley Cup Finals vs the Pens:
"In the 1992 Stanley Cup, I got slashed by Kevin Stevens, and Mike threw a cast on my hand and put me in front of the media to get a point across to the league and the officials that I was getting cheap-shotted. He made me a guinea pig -- it was kind of embarrassing -- but what Mike says, you do. Mike is a genius when it comes to head games and getting into the referees' or players' heads. He's crazy -- very slippery, very sly. He can manipulate a lot of people with what comes out of his mouth. That's just a talent."OK, now I have several thoughts about this admission:
- 1992 was also the year Mario Lemieux was slashed by Adam Graves which actually did break his hand and cause him to miss the majority of the Ranger series and the first game of the Bruins series. Keenan's decision to have Roenick put a cast on his hand seems like it was meant to be a comparison to what was done to Lemieux, which got Graves suspended.
- Roenick calls Keenan a "genius when it comes to head games and getting into the referees' or players' heads". Not sure why he says that because it sure doesn't seem like Keenan got into any ref or player's head that series. Unless the Pens allowing 5 goals in game 4 of their 4 game sweep constitutes successful mind gamesmanship in Chicago. Again - the Black Hawks did not win a game in that series, so what did Keenan do that earned the 'genius' tag?
- Now here's the real rub: Mike Keenan is a very respected coach who has been in the league a long time and has had some success (he is living off his one Cup win with the Rangers in 1994. He has had moderate success elsewhere but no shortage of controversy). He's kind of like the Bobby Knight of the NHL. Some analysts and other cro-magnons who constitute a large percentage of people the NHL puts on TV love Keenan. So that is why this accusation by Roenick won't lead to anything and will likely lead to more people criticizing Roenick (who is not free of controversy in his career either) than Keenan. But the question is: how is what Keenan did (and others have surely done at other times) different than what these same analysts decry as embellishing actions by players in order to draw penalties? Outcry against embellishments by players, such as throwing the head back, putting the hand over the face/mouth and falling down, is loud and clear from many. I say that what Keenan did is worse and certainly not a 'talent' as Roenick says. They are both attempts to get into the heads of either refs or other players to get them to make a call or change the way they play to benefit your team. The difference is that the player "embellishes" in the heat of the game and has to do so in a split second reaction to something that occurred in the course of the fastest game man plays. Keenan chose to employ his "embellishment" after clearly thinking about it rationally for a while, not on the ice in the heat of battle, but afterwards when all emotion should have eroded. The difference is the same as, though nowhere near the same severity as, the difference between manslaughter and murder. Yet we will continue to hear all about how awful player "embellishments" are but nothing about the even worse crimes committed by coaches.
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