From: am2x+@andrew.cmu.edu (Anna Matyas)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey
Subject: Media blasts Craig Patrick
Date: 8 Oct 92 16:50:54 GMT
Organization: H&SS Dean's Office, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA


I'm reprinting this article (WITHOUT PERMISSION) from the Oct 8th issue
of the Pittsburgh  Post-Gazette newsfax.  I'm doing this for the benefit
of those who are interested in a perspective on Patrick's "last minute"
coaching
decision.  This is just one man's opinion but I think it's -- uh --
interesting.  (In the interest of time I'm not capitalizing or proofreading,
so bear with me.)

Mom.

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patrick shows his arrogance in treatment of bowman
(by ron cook)

craig patrick, the general manager, is easy to like.  do you need more
proof than the two stanley cups?  how about the incredible talent the
penguins put on the ice every night?

craig patrick, the person, is becoming easy to dislike.  you can sum up
the ugly creature he has turned into since the penguins won their two
cups in three words: smug, arrogant and unaccountable.

patrick long has treated information about his hockey team as if it were
state secrets.  it's a joke, really.  remember the playoffs two years
ago? he didn't want to reveal which of ulf samuelsson's wrists was
injured even though ulfie's arm was in a sling.

but patrick's secretiveness has gone far beyond that of a normal team
official.  he has reached the point he doesn't want to answer for
anything to anyone, least of all the fans who plunk down as much as $38
a ticket to watch the penguins.  he will get away with his pomposity as
long as the team keeps winning and the fans keep putting their fannies
into those expensive seats.  neither figures to last forever.

it's obscene the way patrick operated this summer.  he humiliated scotty
bowman, a man who deserved better, dickering with him about a contract,
insinuating he was greedy, using that as an excuse for not rehiring him
as coach.  we're talking about an organization that found $42 million
for mario lemieux.  it couldn't find an extra farthing or two for the
nhl's all-time winningest coach? the truth is patrick didn't want bowman
as coach even after bowman had saved his behind last season after bob
johnson became ill.

patrick offered the job to eddie johnston but couldn't buy out his
contract with the hartford whalers.  patrick turned back to bowman only
after he decided he didn't want to coach and that it wouldn't be fair to
the team to turn it over to its troika of assistants.  the announcement
of bowman's hiring was made tuesday, only hours before the season
opener.  patrick gushed about how bowman was his man all along.  it was
nauseating.

patrick is blessed, though.  as much as he botched to coaching
situation, he still wound up with the right man.  he's forutunate bowman
is driven hard by his ego.  bowman has 908 coaching victories and
despearately wants 1,000.  he has won six cups and hungers for more. 
his goal is to put his records so far out of reach they might never be
touched.

it's too bad, in a sense.  it would have been nice if bowman had told
patrick what he could do with his coaching job and his arrogance.

patrick needs to hear that from somebody.
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Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey