Sunday, January 3, 2010

“Flames have returned to defense-first philosophy - NHL.com” plus 4 more

“Flames have returned to defense-first philosophy - NHL.com” plus 4 more

Flames have returned to defense-first philosophy - NHL.com

Posted: 03 Jan 2010 11:00 AM PST

CALGARY -- In order to move forward this winter, the Calgary Flames had to take a good look back.

Specifically, back to the 2003-04 and '05-06 seasons -- when, with current club GM Darryl Sutter behind the bench, they enjoyed the two most defensively sound seasons in franchise history.

Well, the Flames have hit the midway point of the 2009-10 campaign under Darryl's brother Brent, and obviously the new guy is hammering his message home.

After 41 games, the 24-12-5 Flames have allowed just 98 goals. Heading into Sunday's action around the league, that average of 2.39 goals allowed per game was sixth behind Chicago (2.15), New Jersey (2.23), Phoenix (2.30), Buffalo (2.33) and Boston (2.38).

A far cry from the defensively carefree days of Mike Keenan, under whom the Flames were 23rd in team defense in 2008-09 -- leading Darryl Sutter to comment following Keenan's exodus: "We were, quite honestly, fortunate to be a playoff team."

A defense-first philosophy "has been the makeup of our club," Brent Sutter said Saturday night following the Flames' 3-1 win over Toronto. "You know all the games are going to be tight games, and it's going to be that way the rest of the year. There's no easy nights."

If they keep up their pace, the Flames would allow 196 goals this regular season -- falling between the '03-04 total of 176, and the '05-06 figure of 200.

Goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff has enjoyed a personal renaissance, with the league's fifth-best goals-against average (2.16) and third-best save percentage (.928) prior to Sunday.

But Kiprusoff has also been bolstered by Brent Sutter's strident demand for constant support from all five skaters in front of No. 34 -- with a priority on defense, and no tolerance for offensive cheating or freelancing.

"Start focusing … on offense and, all of a sudden, you end up being a team that's giving up 40 or 45 shots against, and our chances of winning those games aren't very good. We have to play our game," Brent Sutter said recently.

"There's nothing wrong with winning games 2-1 or 3-2, because that's what we are as a team."

Speaking of those close games, only Curtis Glencross's empty-net goal against the Leafs on Saturday prevented the Flames from winning their third straight by a 2-1 score.

So far this season, the Flames have been involved in 13 games that have seen a total of three goals or less — with a 7-3-3 record in those games.

That compares favorably to similar situations in '05-06 (25 games, 14-6-5) and '03-04 (31 games, 16-13-2).

"You have to be able to win those games in order to be successful," Glencross told NHL.com Saturday. "We've been talking about keeping our shots (against) down for Kipper, and again tonight we had 25 shots against. That's a number we want to stay under.

"And it's part of our neutral-zone play and our forecheck," Glencross added. "The more the puck's in their end, the less opportunities they have in ours."

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Brown’s coaching philosophy nearly mirrors Nick Saban’s - TideSports.com

Posted: 03 Jan 2010 11:00 AM PST

Imagine a less intense version of Saban, the University of Alabama's head coach, but just as driven to win.

Try to picture Saban with an acquired down-home Texas manner instead of an all-business, no-time-for-small-talk demeanor.

If such a man existed, he might be Mack Brown, 58-year-old head coach of the Texas Longhorns. Because as different as Saban and Brown might appear to be, their approach to winning football is eerily the same.

Like Saban, Brown has a national championship ring, won four years ago in the Rose Bowl against Southern Cal. Like Saban, Brown has turned a program with a long winning tradition back into a national power, with Texas having posted nine consecutive seasons of 10 wins or more and looking for its sixth straight bowl victory.

And, like Saban, Brown has his team undefeated and playing for a national title.

Brown seemed to channel Saban at Saturday's BCS National Championship Game press conference at ESPNZone in Downtown Disney, often mimicking the same themes that Alabama's coach stresses.

Asked about the key to maintaining success, Brown talked about recruiting and building the program by attracting top players — the same formula Saban has used to turn the Crimson Tide's fortunes around in his three-year tenure.

"I would think first it's the high school football in Texas," Brown said. "We've got 20 million people, we've got great high school coaches, we get homegrown athletes each year. We've been there now for 12 years so we've had good runs, so young guys want to come to Texas — it's kind of the place to be.

"This is a game about recruiting. It's a game about good players, and then you've got to be able to manage them and they've got to fit your school. I think that's our key."

Saban preaches the virtue of focusing on the process rather than the result, of getting his players to concentrate on doing what they need to do each play and each day rather than on the rewards that come from doing those things.

Brown echoed that philosophy when discussing the wisdom he had gained from Texas' 2005 national title run.

"We felt like the No. 1 think we learned was you can't continue to talk about the game, you've got to talk about the process," Brown said, "because you've got to do whatever you've done to this point to get here — all week and all month.

"We feel like you have to do great job with the preparation. Then you have to relax and play, understanding there's so much at stake — but if you think about what's at stake and don't prepare properly it will jump up and bite you."

Don't get the idea Saban and Brown were separated at birth. While they may have a common vision on how to win at college football's highest level, they have different ideas about some parts of the job.

Saban has talked of the BCS title game in terms of a business trip, and, for the head coach, part of that business means participating in press conferences. Asked if he was having fun at the press event, Saban forced a smile.

"Is this fun?" he said. "What's fun for me is practice. I really enjoy practice, I really enjoy being around the players, I really enjoy the teaching part of it.

Brown, on the other hand, wants to stop and smell the roses on the way to the game at Rose Bowl Stadium.

"I'm having fun being here," Brown said. "I've always enjoyed the journey. … What we feel is this is a wonderful opportunity for the University of Texas fans to be proud of their football program. What a great thing for our faculty and our administration, our parents … and we want our players to enjoy it.

"We got up early and had strong meetings this morning, we had a very physical and tough practice, we went back and watched film, but we want them to enjoy Disneyland. It's one of the most wonderful places in world for entertainment, and this is one of the rewards they get for winning and being in the last game of the year."

Reach Tommy Deas at tommy.deas@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0224.

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Shea Weber delivers Predators a win - Nashville Tennessean

Posted: 03 Jan 2010 01:02 PM PST

When it came to snapping their respective goal drought, Predators Shea Weber and Jason Arnott subscribed to the same philosophy on Saturday: Just keep hammering away and you'll score eventually.

The two players combined for 17 shots — almost half their team's total — and scored the Predators' game-tying and game-winning goals, as Nashville came from behind to beat Anaheim 3-1 in front of an announced crowd of 16,654 at Sommet Center.

Weber piled up 10 shots on goal, tying his own franchise record for defensemen, and snapped an 18-game scoreless drought late in the second period. He fired three quick shots at the net and the third — from near the blueline — rocketed over the shoulder of Anaheim goalie Jonas Hiller to tie it at 1-1.

It was Weber's first game since getting selected to the Canadian Olympic team this week, an achievement he said was a relief.

"You can see it was almost like a weight off his shoulders," Predators Coach Barry Trotz said. "He's got so much jump. Everything is firm and crisp and clear. He's back to what we're used to."

Weber also picked up an assist on Arnott's game-winner with 9:49 left in the contest. He flipped a short pass to Arnott as the two players skated over the Ducks' blueline, and Arnott rifled a wrist shot over Hiller's left shoulder.

It was the seventh and final shot of the game for Arnott, who'd tied a season high by going without a goal for nine straight games.

"It was almost like a little joke in here," Arnott said. "Everyone was laughing at me because it just wasn't going in the net … Finally it did. It's a relief."

Center David Legwand added an empty-net goal just before the final buzzer to seal the third straight win for the Predators.

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Struggling for a voice in China - Los Angeles Times Blogs

Posted: 03 Jan 2010 11:36 AM PST

China flag parade

On New Year's Eve, E.L. Doctorow, Don DeLillo and other writers gathered on the steps of the New York Public Library to call for the release of Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo. On Christmas Day, Liu had been sentenced to 11 years in prison for his part in creating Charter 08, a document calling for greater freedoms and democratic reforms in China.

CBS News reported on the New York event. China, Doctorow said, "can't move forward when its poets and writers and artists, its thinkers and intellectuals are muzzled in silence. Under such conditions the genius of a nation withers and dies."

In our Sunday books pages, we look at two books by Chinese authors who, despite having been sent to Mao Tse-tung's labor camps, have not been silenced. Xiaoda Xiao's "The Cave Man" is a fractured novel that reflects the damage done to a man thrown into solitary confinement:

In the world Xiao portrays, logic has been thrown out the window, and the fear of prison and torture lingers at the edge of everything. This is true even on the outside, where, rather than being treated with sympathy, prisoners such as Ja Feng are ostracized as shameful and considered unworthy of being part of the world.

Er Tai Gao gives his prison experience an entirely less metaphorical treatment in "In Search of My Homeland: A Memoir of a Chinese Labor Camp." He was sent to a labor camp in 1957 for publishing, as a 20-year-old art and philosophy student, an article on beauty. Reviewer Robert Faggen writes:

The Jiabiangou Camp was in the Gobi Desert; tens of thousands of people sent there for re-education and self-criticism died in the largely useless task of digging ditches to drain salt from the terrain. Gao's term had no limit; the party would decide when he had been "re-educated." As Gao unfolds his powerful story, he appears bemused by the hairsplitting distinctions between "reform" and "re-education." His inner compass remains true as ignorant armies of task forces and slogans march back and forth across his mental landscape.

For now, Liu's sentence remains unchanged, although perhaps the attention his case has gotten will help speed his release. U.S. Embassy First Secretary Greg May said America is "deeply concerned by the sentence," adding that "persecution of individuals for the peaceful expression of their political views is inconsistent with internationally recognized norms of human rights."

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Soldiers rehearse for the National Day parade in Beijing in September. Credit: Zhou Chao / EPA

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Business book reviews: "Never Fly Solo" by Rob Waldman; "Warren ... - Dallas Morning News

Posted: 03 Jan 2010 01:02 PM PST

Warren Buffett on Business

Edited by Richard Connors

(John Wiley & Sons, $24.95)

Most books about Warren Buffett deal with his investments. This one deals with how he manages his businesses, and his philosophy can be summed up in five words: "People are your greatest investment."

Buffett clearly walks that talk. In the 42-year history of Berkshire Hathaway, not one of the CEOs of his major operating businesses has voluntarily left for another job.

Richard Connors captures Buffett's management insights from shareholders' letters, conversations and essays. The high points:

Corporate culture. At Berkshire Hathaway, the culture dictates the controls. Buffett keeps things simple with low overhead, no quarterly goals or budgets, and no standard personnel system. You'll never hear "Everybody else is doing it" as a justification. "When someone offers that phrase as a rationale, in effect they are saying they can't come up with a good reason."

Communication. Full disclosure is the only disclosure. Reports shouldn't "trumpet earnings projections and growth expectations," the book says. "Managers that always promise to 'make the numbers' will at some point be tempted to make up the numbers." A corollary: "Face your big troubles. Don't sweep them under the rug."

Management principles and practices. The headquarters staff at Berkshire Hathaway totals fewer than 15 people; there are no human resources, legal, public relations, investor relations or strategic planning departments. The CEOs of the operating businesses have wide latitude on how they run "their" businesses.

Hiring. Look for three things: intelligence, energy and integrity. Employees also have to be passionate about what they do.

Never Fly Solo

Rob Waldman (McGraw-Hill, $24.95)

Rob Waldman, a former fighter pilot, knows the value of wingmen who work as a team to complete the mission. But before you enlist your wingmen, you have to know your mission. Without trust in yourself and belief in your flight path, no one will want to fly with you.

Waldman doesn't believe that self-motivation alone dictates success. Show others your commitment by putting forth consistent effort. Make every day an action day.

And despite the missiles – and there will be some – in your flight path, stay focused. By acknowledging that plans don't usually go as planned, you develop the confidence to adapt to situations. Anticipate adversity by developing contingency plans. Wingmen are valuable resources when plans require tweaking. Know when and whom to ask for help.

To deal with adversity, Waldman offers his Three R's: refocus, refuel and retool. Refocus on why you started your mission. Think about the passion that drove your choices and action. Consistent daily effort doesn't mean becoming a workaholic. When your energy is low, it's an indicator that you need to take time off to refuel. Use wingmen to help you retool; they offer perspectives and skills that can add to your toolkit.

Key take-away about choosing your wingmen: "Don't spend major time with minor people."

Jim Pawlak reviews business books for The Dallas Morning News.

bizbooks@hotmail.com

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