Is the curse still alive?

From The Daily News of Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2007 . . .

Almost nine years have passed since Marc Habscheid guided the Kamloops Blazers into the WHL’s championship final.
There, of course, the Blazers fell in five games to the Calgary Hitmen.
And, despite the apparent success, Blazers management chose not to renew Habscheid’s contract.
The same thing had happened in May of 1995, just days after the Blazers had won their third Memorial Cup in four seasons. That time it was general manager Bob Brown who was asked to leave. It was, management said, time to go in a new direction.
Since then, well, who knew there were so many new directions?
And whether it’s the Curse of Brownie or the Curse of Habby, it’s hard to deny that the Kamloops WHL franchise lives under a black cloud. Not only that . . . this is a black cloud with the ability to impact all who come in contact with the organization.
Even if you scoff at this kind of stuff, you have to admit that two plus two is starting to add up to bizarre. And it’s a bizarro world in which the Blazers organization lives.
In case you missed it, the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins put right-winger Mark Recchi on waivers Tuesday. Besides being a local hero who enjoyed two glorious seasons as a player with the Blazers, Recchi now is one of the team’s five co-owners.
It was just last season when Recchi, whose home is in Pittsburgh, scored his 500th NHL goal. He signed a one-year contract worth US$1.75 million over the summer. Would this be his last season, people wanted to know, or might there be another one?
Recchi was going to play on a line with Sidney Crosby and maybe Evgeni Malkin. Everything seemed to be going so well. And then Recchi and his pals bought the Blazers.
On Monday, the Penguins played host to the Phoenix Coyotes. It was Mark Recchi Bobblehead Night as they saluted him for scoring his 500th NHL goal in January. On Monday, Recchi, with eight points in 19 games, was a healthy scratch for the sixth straight game and the seventh time in eight games.
Defenceman Darryl Sydor, however, was in the Penguins’ lineup.
Sydor signed with the Penguins over the summer, after spending 2006-07 with the Dallas Stars. Sydor, who had a strong season with the Stars, was going to add some much needed experience and stability to the Penguins’ defence, something that was seen as the club’s weakest link.
Prior to Monday, Sydor, who played three-plus seasons with the Blazers, had been a healthy scratch for five of the club’s previous six games. He caught a break when Sergei Gonchar injured an ankle, which is how Sydor got back into the lineup. Sydor has played more than 15 minutes in each of the last two games and should play tonight when the Penguins open a three-game western swing against the Oilers in Edmonton. Pittsburgh is to meet the Flames in Calgary on Thursday and the Canucks in Vancouver on Saturday.
Chances are that they will be in Vancouver without Recchi. If he isn’t claimed by today at 9 a.m. Pacific time, the Penguins can buy him out, assign him to the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, or keep him on their 23-man roster. Recchi last played in the minors in 1989-90 with the IHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks.
It is expected that if he isn’t claimed the Penguins will negotiate a buyout of his contract.
It also is interesting that the four NHL players who are involved in the Blazers ownership group all are playing for last-place hockey teams.
Going into last night’s action, the Penguins were last in their division and ninth in the Eastern Conference, tied for the final playoff spot.
Right-winger Jarome Iginla is the captain of the Calgary Flames and he has good numbers. But his Flames were last in their division and 13th in the Western Conference, five points shy of a playoff spot. And head coach Mike Keenan pretty much threw goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff under the bus earlier in the week.
And then there’s Shane Doan and his Phoenix Coyotes. They are, well, they are the Coyotes, the dogs of the desert. Doan, their captain, is having his usual decent season. But the Coyotes were 14th in the West, seven points out of a playoff spot.
Meanwhile, the WHL team that now is under the ownership of Doan, Iginla, Recchi and Sydor — along with Vancouver-based businessman Tom Gaglardi — looks to be taking on water.
It came out of the exhibition season with a 6-1 record and the future appeared bright.
Since then, however, the frowns have outnumbered the smiles. The general manager/head coach has been fired. There are those within the organization who are preparing resumes. The winds of change, they feel, are still blowing.
And they know those winds won’t blow away the Curse of Habby or the Curse of Brownie, or whatever it is that seems to have this franchise by the throat.

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca.