Monday, March 31st

1 - Ralph Goodale Wrongfully Accused

This probably won't mean much to anyone, but Ralph is my MP, and since I was rather critical of him for his involvement in the so called Income Trust Leak, I thought I'd post this.

2 - For those of you who didn't watch Hockey Night in Canada last Saturday, here's what you missed. Classic. H/T

3 - In another episode of 'What is Wrong with the Toronto Maple Leafs and their Fans', Sportsnet Columnist David Bastl encourages the Leafs to adhere to the same policies that got them where they are today. Bastl's article is entitled 'Draft Shmaft', which is a phrase I'd use to sum up the off-season in Toronto for the past 15 years, not boldly proclaim a new direction for a struggling franchise. I wouldn't even call it a new direction, the Leafs have been trying to fix their problems through Free Agency for years. So what should the Leafs do? Get rid of McCabe, Kaberle, Kubina, Tucker, and Raycroft, in exchange for prospects and picks, and prepare to be bad for a couple of years.

UPDATE (Tuesday Afternoon): It appears as though Mr. Bastl didn't enjoy the critisism he was getting (and he was getting a fair bit of it on the Sportsnet website). The title of his post has been changed from 'Draft Shmaft' to 'Drinking the Blue Kool-Aid', which is what Bastl thinks opponents of his ideas are doing. He's also made some changes to his article. Here's his new opening paragraph(s):

Now that the off-season for the hockey club is near, everyone drinking the blue
Kool-Aid wants to focus on the NHL draft and which prospect the Leafs will
welcome into the organization.
That's fine -- if you like playing the lottery and dreaming of a better team for tomorrow with an untested talent -- but a date the club should be even more excited about is July 1st which is the start of free agency. More importantly, it could be known as the start of the Jeff Carter era with the Maple Leafs.

Not to be a jerk or anything, but playing the lottery and dreaming of a better team for tomorrow worked out rather nicely for Pittsburgh, Edmonton, Washington, and Chicago. Keep in mind that Edmonton's succuss is due to homegrown draft picks like Sam Gagner, not RFA acuisition Dustin Penner. Edmonton also had a solid foundation of young talent in place before they began chasing RFAs, which is something Toronto lacks. Next season you'll be able to add L.A. and St. Louis to the four teams listed above. Also, if you doubt that Bastl has switched things around you should note the web address, the last part of which goes: david_bastl/2008/03/31/draft_smaft/.

4 - Believe it or not, there is a difference between fighting, and senseless violence. Here's the Calgary Sun's Eric Francis:

Pardon me for interrupting the national debate on fighting brought on by
Jonathan Roy, but what he did has nothing to do with fighting.
A fight generally involves two willing participants who, through the heat of the battle, wind up throwing 'em. What Roy did was an attack, a mugging. It was bullying
- a problem every school board in Canada is trying hard to combat these days.

Couldn't have said it better myself (although that likely won't stop me from trying sometime in the future). Like Francis, I also believe the Roys were given sweet-heart sentences. They should both be gone for the play-offs. Also, like Francis, I have never seen Zack Stortini win a fight (but that likely won't stop him from trying either).

5 - If you thought I'd do a post without mentioning this, you were wrong. At least Mendes has the guts to admit he was wrong. I'd forgotten all about his prediction.

6 - As a current (some would say former) athlete I hate the idea of an Olympic boycott. Why take away something Olympic athletes have trained years for. The problem is, if you want to hit China where it hurts, the smart thing to do would be to boycott the Olympics. This is supposed to be a big coming out party for China. It won't look good if nobody shows up. The people I'm really upset with are the members of the IOC (International Olympic Committee) who decided to politicize the games when they gave them to China. If I'm not mistaken, they gave the games to the Chinese thinking the good will would cause China to be on its best behavior. Now that it's apparent that China isn't, the IOC is nowhere to be seen (or heard). Disgraceful.

7 - From CTV:

Some of Stephane Dion's top advisers are planning to press the Liberal leader in
the coming days to dump Michael Ignatieff as deputy leader, CTV News has
learned. Dion said today he has great confidence in Ignatieff and no one
should worry about rumours. Ignatieff insisted on CTV's Question Period on
Sunday that he has not been disloyal, saying his job "is to make (Dion) the next
prime minister of Canada." But some in the Dion camp believe that that
Ignatieff, Dion's former leadership rival, is privately undermining the Liberal
leader with critical and disdainful remarks.

You have to wonder where CTV news learned this from. An 'Anonymous Source' perhaps? It's getting to the point now where I have a hard time believing any stories that don't have a name attached to their origin.

8 - In closing, a note from the National Post that may or may not interest those of you currently attending the U of C. Discuss.

M.O.F

Sunday, March 2nd

1 - I need to get something off my chest now, just so I can say 'I told you so' in a couple of months. This trade is horrible, absolutely horrible. How so? Well, let us count the ways. First, Hossa is not exactly known for his play-off prowness. I won't hold his play-off performance from last season against him, because the entire Thrasher team forgot to show up, but his record in Ottawa wasn't exactly astounding either. Second, Colby Armstrong and Erik Christianson are fast, scrappy, and not easily intimidated, which is exactly what you need for a long grinding play-off run. They can also burry the puck if you give them a half-decent scoring chance, which is something Hossa fails to do regularily in the play-offs. And then the Penguins picked up Hal Gill? Why God, why? Anyone who thinks these deals makes the Penguins legitimate Stanley Cup contenders is dreaming, but I'd love to be wrong.

2 - You know it's a slow business day in the world of journalism when papers start printing garbage like this (and I do mean garbage). I wonder if the writer intended for this piece to be taken seiously? At this point, I think he did:

All right, what's with that cow kick?

The shootout in the New NHL is fabulously compelling, but those players
who produce that little heel-of-the-skate-boot-to-the-buttocks filip in the
game-deciding breakaway contests are starting to grate, aren't they?

What IS that?

Sweet-mother-of-mercy, man. It works doesn't it? For some reason the cow kick seems to get the goalie everytime, and it shouldn't surprise anyone that this is only used in the shoot-out, when you're not in danger of being caught from behind by a back-checker. I can't for the life of me figure out why this move would grate anyone so much. This really came out of the blue.

Some of these other moves -- and Marek Malik's now-legendary
stick-between-the-legs goal is the ultimate -- are entertaining, sure. But let's
not overindulge on such icebound cotton candy.
I mean, go ahead, try to
picture in your mind's eye, say, The Rocket at full tilt, his famous piercing
eyes aflame, collecting the puck at centre and steaming in on some terrified
goalie in a shootout. And then executing that cow kick thingy? I don't think
so.

S'il vous plait. (Puh-leeeze!)

It's enough already with that cow kick.

Here's another thing I can't see the Rocket doing: steaming in on some terrified goalie while wearing a visor. Puh-leeeze. Enough with the visors already. In honor of this column I propose that the next CBA agreement include a clause that penalizes players finacially for scoring shoot-out goals in ways that would never work in a real game. Oh, the goal is also disallowed.

3 - An interesting article (click) for all of you in Rider land who are concerned about the Riders off-season transactions.

4 - Nice, the two top guys the Leafs want for their vacant GM post are currently employed as GM's by other NHL teams, one by the Montreal Canadiens. I have to admit, trying to skimp off other teams like this isn't exactly making me feel sorry for t he Leafs. Two questions: (1) Why would Burke want to leave his sweet heart set-up in Anaheim to join the Leafs? (2) Does anyone actually believe Bob Gainey would make it out of Montreal alive if he left the team for Toronto?

5 - This would be a lot funnier if it didn't hit so close to home.

M.O.F.