Cox Bloc Canadian Tour: Calgary

Well, this whole Sundin situation is working out great, huh? After their impressive performance in the JFJ Deathwatch, mittenstringers and the Leafs have once again combined to produce a predicament where as a fan, you feel depressed and kind of embarrassed no matter how it ends. It's the hockey equivalent of watching Home Improvement reruns.

As it looks highly possible that none of the NTC 5 will be moved by Tuesday, we can look forward to several articles attempting to goad Leafs fans into booing one of Toronto's greatest players and leader, so they can have something to point to when using their "Leafs fans are brain-dead and fickle" template for future columns. You know, the one they alternate with "Leafs fans are easily satisfied sheep."

It makes one want to take a vacation, so thankfully today we're kicking off our Cox Bloc Canadian Tour (opening act: Slik Toxik). We're teaming up with writers in every NHL city, and Ottawa, to take the mittenstringing pulse of the nation. Up first is Canada's wrestling capital, as Metrognome at the always-excellent Five Hole Fanatics hips us to Bruce Dowbiggin's trolling and the warm, urbane charm that oozes from every Darryl Sutter interview. As the greatest interviewer of our time would say: Respect.

CB: What are the dynamics of the media market in your town? Competitive? Brain dead and chummy?

MG: As far as I can tell, the media is relatively friendly in Calgary. Both with the Flames organization and with each other. Some writers are free-lance and their stories may appear in both major newspapers (Calgary Herald, Calgary Sun). Some of them occasionally sit in on the local sports radio channel as well (Fan960). Like any business, I'm sure some rivalry exists, but nothing overtly antagonistic or spiteful. At least in view of your average consumer schmo like me.

Are the press harshly critical of the team, mindless boosters, or somewhere in between?

Like any market, the criticism tends to run the gambit between fawning to vehement denunciation. Perhaps more the former than the latter here in Calgary though. As such, the mean, median and mode of talk in the media tends to land on "mildly supportive". It's fairly rare that individual players will be excessively "picked on", for example. A lot of the stars and more fan-favored players will typically "get a pass", even if they're struggling. A piece may bring up the fact that, say, Jarome Iginla hasn't scored a lot recently (for instance), but it's unlikely it'll be nasty about it. For another example, the Flames struggled relative to expectations last year. Afterwards, there seemed to be as many columnists supporting Jim Playfair as there were ones calling for his head if I remember correctly.

What is the relationship between players and press? Front office and press?

The players and media are pretty friendly. That seems to stem from guys like Jarome Iginla and Craig Conroy who are almost always willing to do interviews and are invariably smiling when doing them. It probably also comes from the lack of smear-pieces that are produced in town: both parties seemed motivated to keep the relationship "on good terms". The last time I can remember a player snapping at the media in scrum was Alex Tanguay when he was recently asked if he'd like to "remain in Calgary" ("That's a stupid question" was his obvious response).

The front office and the press is another matter. While Ken King tends to appear approachable and magnanimous during his interviews and public appearances, management tends to be very tight-lipped and guarded around the media in general. In addition, Daryl Sutter often has the air of man who is forced to suffer fools during each and every press conference. He clearly doesn't enjoy that aspect of his work and also clearly holds a number of the members of the Calgary media in contempt (most obviously: Jermaine Franklin from TSN and Eric Francis of the Sun). Occasionally, Sutter will offer up an interesting, in-depth interview to the radio station or a lucky scribe, but, more often than not, he has the tone of an annoyed scholar lecturing school children when dealing with the press.

Any long-running feuds, scapegoatings, smear campaigns, or fawning?

I honestly can't think of any, partially because the Flames as they exist now weren't the Flames of the mid-to-late 90's. The guard has changed completely (and more than once), so there's precious little time to build up any sustained animosity or love-affairs. There are couple of writers that will tend to leap upon any chance they get to criticize the direction of the team in general or Sutter's decisions in particular (Bruce Dowbiggin of the Herald and the aforementioned Eric Francis spring to mind), although their "scare pieces" often have the feel of populist head-line grabbing (ie, a ploy to sell more papers) than an actual out-and-out feud.

Who is the best sportswriter in your town, and why?

There are a lot of them and I have gravitated away from the media over the last few years, so this is a tough one for me. The first name that springs to mind is, of course, Eric Duhastchek who I think is a stellar sportswriter. Unfortunately, while he's a Calgarian, he doesn't tend to cover the Flames on "day-to-day" basis: he concentrates on more "global concerns" in the NHL.

A couple of Herald writers, Scott Cruickshank and Jean Lefebvre, tend to be pretty balanced and responsible when they report on the team. They've almost made the leap into "new media" by offering a daily blog, which is worth a few points in my books. Their "Inside the Flames" is one of the few MSM blogs I reference daily and have as link on my own humble site.

There's a veritable host of other guys that tend to be "good". George Johnson, Randy Sportak to name a couple. Bruce Dowbiggin swings from interesting to aggravating, sometimes in a single piece, so I would put him in the middle/bottom of the pile.

Who is the worst?

I'm going to have to go with Eric Francis. He's the guy that will immediately declare a state of emergency if the team loses 4 games at the start of the year. He's the biggest "Chicken Little" in the Calgary media, and usually his opinion pieces on the team will be rife with shallow reasoning and over-the-top predictions of doom and gloom. The thing about Francis is he actually isn't that bad if he's doing some factual reporting.

Is Steve Simmons syndicated in your area? How do you feel about that?

I don't think so and I'm glad. Although, I don't habitually read the MSM anymore, so that could very well be false.

How knowledgeable are the fans? Any irrational loves, hates, bees in bonnets?

Fans are hard to gauge, because the loudest and most outspoken tend to be the most irrational. Take after-game talk radio for instance. Losses can often result in loud and drunken demands to trade Iginla and "shake the team up".

If I were pressed, though, I'd say the fans are pretty damn educated about the team and the sport relative to a lot of markets. Calgary is big enough to have a large base of supporters without being so big that the fanship is swelled by lots and lots of fickle mush-heads.

As for "amore": fans in town love Iginla. They love Kiprusoff and, by and large, they love Daryl Sutter (Dion Phaneuf is working his way into that holy trio). The first 3 were the figureheads that pulled the franchise out of it's nearly decade long slump as NHL bottom-feeder and punch-line. As such, they have a lot of currency with the folks in town. It's fairly difficult to harshly criticize any of those listed in public or on a messageboard without being flamed, leapt upon or drawn and quartered. I would predict that another year or two of mediocrity will begin to drain Sutter's "goodwill" account with the fans and owners alike, however.

As for hates or bee beset bonnets, I can't think of any that are consistent or chronic. Like every team, Calgary has it's guys that get picked on sometimes for one reason or another (Amonte, Friesen and Andrei Zyuzin drew the "goat" straws last year), particularly after losses or bonehead errors. But nothing I would call persistent or overly irrational.

What do you want to see more or less of in your local sports pages/media?

I guess I read less of the media these days because:

1. The analysis is often, as genius Peter Griffin would say, "shallow and pedantic". As I understand it, though, that is a necessary limitation of the medium: it has to remain relevant and broadly accessible. Im sure a large faction of casual fans only care enough to look up the scores and the "general" health of the team without having to learn about advanced stats or coaching strategies. That tends to be pretty unfulfilling for an obsessive and experienced hockey nut like myself, however.

2. Thanks to their relationship with the players and team - a relationship they no doubt wish to nurture so it'll continue in perpetuity - the sportswriters sometimes aren't critical enough of the players, coaches, etc. (in my opinion anyways). In addition, they tend to parcel out the facts almost apprehensively, if they seek them out at all. Bland puff pieces like "Rhett Warrener is a healthy scratch tonight...let's see how he feels about that", with accompanying player quotes saying all the right things fill a lot of column space an awful lot of the time. Rarely is there a will to challenge a bland, cliché quote from a player/coach or investigate a particular situation very deeply. For example, Tony Amonte was suddenly scratched in the middle of the season last year by Jim Playfair. There were rumblings afterwards that Tony was angered and insulted (even though his play had been subpar) and that Playfair actually apologized to Tony afterwards. This version of events was cobbled together by drive-by quotes, water-cooler whisperings and the like. No official version was ever properly pursued or reported to my knowledge. The primary advantage the press has over amateur pundits like myself is access to the source and factual reporting. I just wish they'd do a lot more of it and yield a lot more interesting stories than the same old run of the mill, zip-a-dee-doo-da fluff pieces. If there's a conflict in the dressing room, I'd like to know what it is and why it's happening. I'm not saying I want a lot of gossip, but I do want to know if there are significant conflicts behind the scenes that may be skewing the clubs performance.
   

 How fucked are the Leafs?

From my seat out here in the west? About as fucked as Lindsay Lohan at a coke and gin party I'd say. Keep in mind, though, things could be worse: you could be cheering for the Edmonton Oilers.