Im not sure when I feel worse for the coaches I know. When they get fired, and take temp gigs on our TSN panel. Or when they get re-hired, and start peeling more years off their lives with the relentless stress and scrutiny of an NHL head-coaching job. I saw it in Paul Maurices eyes as he stood at the podium Monday in Winnipeg, answering a question about accountability on his team. Maurice is one of the best men Ive met in hockey, and might be the single most polished media presence there is in the NHL coaching ranks. But as that question was asked, he swallowed hard, the veins bulged a little in his neck, and he answered, I could f----- make you cry in that room. You could see him catch himself after he said it, and moments later he would apologize for the profanity. But he meant it. It was raw, real, and...understandable from a coach of a struggling team, whose collective character was being called into question. Mos blue moment spoke volumes. No matter how cool and composed you are, coaching in the NHL in 2014 can make you lose your f----- mind.* (*I wrote flippin Mom. Promise. The editors just dashed it for effect.) We used to get 20 games before we had to deal with the real pressure, but now these guys are feeling it three or four games in, says longtime NHL coach Marc Crawford, who is currently coaching in Zurich in the Swiss-A League. I think its because of the increased intensity of the coverage, especially in Canadian markets, and the parity in the league. A week into the season and if you arent doing well, everything gets questioned — coaching, goaltending, captaincy. Ive faced a lot of scrutiny in my time, but Ive never seen it at this level. On the second day of training camp, Toronto Maple Leafs coach Randy Carlyle was asked if he thought Phil Kessel hated him. Before his team had played a single pre-season game, he was listed as the Vegas odds-on favourite to be the first NHL coach fired. People speculate endlessly about Mike Babcock coming to Toronto next year like there is already a vacancy. You feel like Carlyle should be over in the corner jumping up and down waving his arms yelling, Hello!?! Over here! Still the Leafs coach! Just sayin! Ive come to expect the unexpected in this market, Carlyle told me back at training camp. The most trivial things somehow become stories. It bothers me that my friends are upset by it, that my family gets upset. He maintains he doesnt get upset. I dont believe him. When you guys are ranking the top five coaches on the hot seat before the season starts, I think its just the stupidest thing in the world, says Crawford. Where else in society do we do this? Do we list the top five teachers to be fired, the top five executives? NHL coaches get paid very well and no one is going to feel sympathy for us, but lists like the ones you do are ridiculous. Err...Well this is awkward. That weird section of the column where you use a Marc Crawford quote saying youre part of the problem that youre writing about. I suddenly feel like Leo DiCaprio when he realizes hes the insane killer at the end of Shutter Island. Oopsie. Crows right. The panel, The Quiz, Sportscentre — its all part of this Godzilla of scrutiny the coaches have to deal with when theyd rather just be playing with their whiteboards, designing new breakouts. Crows also right when he says they wont get sympathy from most. As tough as the gig has become, Crawford and every other ex-NHL coach would kill to get back in the league, and be stuck in the middle of this media mayhem again. Such is the drug. But I do feel for them. Mostly because Ive seen what theyre like when they arent coaching: relaxed, stress-free, excited as kids at a birthday party when their pizza arrives at intermission. By my count, weve had a full rosters worth of ex-NHL coaches on our panel over the years — Maurice (twice), Crawford (twice), Ron Wilson, Mike Babcock, Peter Laviolette, Tom Renney, John Anderson, Craig MacTavish, Andy Murray, Bobby Francis, John Tortorella, Mike Keenan, Joel Quenneville and Claude Julien (both for just one Tradecentre appearance), Kevin Constantine, Mike Milbury, and Pierre McGuire. Only McGuire and Milbury were content being full-time broadcasters. The rest were between jobs, and the panel is a decent place to watch a lot of hockey, and maybe keep your name fresh on the mind of the next general manager who decides a change of direction is needed. I still get asked all the time, What is (insert coach/panelist here) really like? The answer is almost always the same: Really nice guy. In other words, not at all like the guy you see ripping the reporter in the post-game scrum, trying to climb over the partition to get at the opposing coach, or grabbing certain body parts (that have to be pixeled out on Sportscentre) to make his feelings clear to an official. General television/life rule: when we have to pixel out your junk, youve had a bad day. I get asked about Tortorella more than anyone else. He is the poster boy for how opposite a personality a man can have when he isnt in front of the microphones every night defending his power play. When he was at TSN, Torts was church-boy polite. Shy almost. He would struggle not to doze off during the double-headers because his usual bedtime is 9pm. Our top-ten lists show the one or two short clips when he got angry on the panel, ripping Sean Avery and The Quiz. The endless replays of those brief soundbites warp everyones memory of the five months Torts spent with us. Reality is, he was mostly calm and quiet (to a fault for television), and said almost nothing controversial. Then he got the back behind the bench in New York, and later Vancouver, and...well we all watched it. I checked in on Torts this week. He sounds happy (if you can actually sound something in a few texts), spending most of his time keeping up with the careers of his two grown children, and working with his wife on animal welfare causes (they have a house full of rescued dogs). I tried to ask a couple of hockey questions, but he chose not to answer, opting instead to just ask about my kids...and dogs. Wounds still too fresh, I assume. Peter Laviolette is another of my ex-panelist favourites - smart as a whip with a dry sense of humour. Hes off to a great start in Nashville and will likely be there a long time. But Lavy is also acutely aware of the tenuous position of the NHL head coach - always just one long losing streak away from...another potential panel temp job. I reached him the other night, looking for some insight on Filip Forsberg, the young Swede who is off to a great start with the Predators. He gave me a couple of quotes about what a good young player Forsberg is, then began the following text exchange: Cheap MLB Jerseys Authentic .com) - Devon Johnson ran for a school record 272 yards with four touchdowns and No. Ben Gamel Jersey .7 million, one-year contract.The deal, announced Friday, includes a $50,000 performance bonus if the left-hander appears in 60 games. http://www.cheapmarinersjerseys.com/?tag=cheap-robinson-cano-jersey . -- Canadian ski cross star Marielle Thompson accomplished two goals in one race Saturday. Hisashi Iwakuma Jersey . Darren Collison and Blake Griffin scored 23 points apiece and the Clippers beat the Suns 112-108 Wednesday night, their fourth win in a row and 17th in the last 19 games. Mitch Haniger Jersey . Belfort was originally schedule to fight Chris Weidman at UFC 173 on May 24, but a Nevada State Athletic Commission ban on testosterone replacement therapy forced the former light heavyweight champ to withdraw.CANCUN, Mexico -- Its the upperclassmen who know Wisconsin coach Bo Ryans system best. Their experience showed Tuesday as the No. 10 Badgers blunted a Saint Louis surge to win 63-57 and advance to face West Virginia in Wednesdays finals of the Cancun Challenge. Four juniors figured prominently in the win that has kicked undefeated Wisconsin (7-0) off to its best start of the Ryan era. The Badgers have not opened the season with seven consecutive wins since starting 11-0 in 1993-94. "The upper classmen have done a great job of passing on the system so to speak," Ryan said Tuesday. Juniors Traevon Jackson scored 16 points and Frank Kaminsky added 12 Tuesday in a game that saw the Badgers execute Ryans trademark disciplined defence and heads-up offence. Some stellar individual performances helped, too. Kaminsky grabbed eight rebounds and had four blocks that helped the unbeaten Badgers (7-0) to a 20-15 halftime lead. Jackson stepped up to help squash a second-half run by Saint Louis (5-1) that made it a 5-point game with 1:10 to play. Robe Loe led the reigning Atlantic 10 Conference champion Billikens with 15 points, Austin McBroom had 14 and Dwayne Evans added 12. Blocked shots and early fouls by Saint Louis were factors in the first half, where the lead changed hands five times until 5:42, when Kaminsky blocked McBrooms layup attempt and Bronson Koenig made a 3-pointer to give the Badgers a 20-15 lead. Kaminsky had four of the Badgers seven blocks in the period. The 7-foot-tall Kaminsky also drew Saint Louis 10th team foul of the period, putting Wisconsin in the double bonus, and the Badgers converted five free throws in the final three minutes. Saint Louis finished with 25 personal fouls to 17 for Wisconsin. The Billikens trried to rally on a layup and dunk by Loe, but Wisconsin juniors Josh Gasser and Duje Dukan responded with layups of their own to make it 31-23 at the half.dddddddddddd. Saint Louis shot 31.3 per cent from the field in the period compared with Wisconsins 47.6 per cent. Wisconsin opened the second half on a 6-2 run that included two layups by Kaminsky, forcing a Saint Louis timeout, then shot five more unanswered points for a 40-25 lead at 14:05, their largest lead of the game. But then Evans, benched in the first period after committing three fouls, re-entered the game and recharged the Saint Louis offence, driving into the paint and drawing fouls to score four free throws and a layup in a little over a minute to make it a 10-point game at 9:56. Jordair Jett scored a jumper, then had a chance to make it a 6-point game, but missed the free throws and Wisconsin withstood the Saint Louis burst, extending their lead to 50-38 with 5:16 to play on a layup by Dekker and a Kaminsky jumper. But Saint Louis rallied again, with Dekker accidentally tipping in a shot by Evans, and Loe hitting a jumper and a free throw to make 5-point game with 1:10, to go. But the Billikens turned it over and Jackson hit two free throws to make it 58-51. Loe and McBroom hit back-to-back 3-pointers for Saint Louis, but the Badgers held off the run, with Jackson scoring 10 points in the final 3 minutes. Jackson led all scorers with 7 free throws on 7-of-10 shooting. Kaminsky scored a Wisconsin single-game record 43 points against North Dakota on Nov. 19 and ranks among the Big Ten Conferences top 10 in scoring, averaging 17.3 points per game. Wisconsin beat Oral Roberts 76-67 Saturday and Saint Louis beat Bowling Green 74-47 to advance to the semifinals. 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