Should Canada be broken up?

Was the title misleading enough? This isn't an article supporting Québecois or Western secession, but one supporting breaking the Great White North into Canada-West and Canada-East for the World Junior tournaments.*

You may be asking; Amrit, why would you even dream of this? You may also be planning a fire-bombing of my house. I would ask you not to do the second, but I will answer the first question.

First off, we're too dominant. Yes, it's possible to be too dominant. Since 1988, Canada has won 13 of its total 15 gold medals. In other words, teams other than Canada have only won nine times. NINE! Now, you may be saying, "Amrit, that just means we're awesome, stop your damn whining!" But I contend that this dominance is bad for the sport.

While Canada pours significant amounts of money into its junior and development programs, that spending isn't really justifiable for anyone else... because they don't have the results to back up any extra investment. Russia won three bronze medals in a row between 2005-2007, and has won the last two bronze medals. Do you think the Russians are going to put more investment into a program that doesn't seem capable of pulling off a gold medal win?

Further, support for junior hockey in places whose names don't start with "Ca" and end with "da" goes down. As sports fans in Ottawa show time and time again, it doesn't matter how much your team tries, or the style of hockey they put on the ice, if you're not winning, no one cares.

Seriously, take the Czech Republic. Arguably a hockey country (anyone who's been to the tourist area in Prague knows what I'm talking about), they have a successful domestic league and a solid history in the World Juniors, having won 14 medals as the combined Czech Republic-Czechoslovakia (but only three in the non-Communist era). We've all seen the strength of the Czechs in the NHL, why doesn't it translate into the World Juniors? Well, when they get beaten by scores like 8-1 (Canada v Czech Republic, their worst loss in the tournament last year), what incentive is there to follow them? Seriously -- the photo above was taken during 2008's IIHF World Junior tournament in the Czech Republic... look at those packed seats!

Canada is probably the only country that really gives a toss about the World Juniors, and it's got a lot to do with the fact that the team is a consistently dominant force. Unfortunately, Canadian dominance is leading to the rest of the world giving up... it's time to even out the field.

Split Canada down the middle for the World Juniors, make the tournament more even, and the level of competition should increase. Otherwise, all we're going to see is the red'n'white kicking the shit out of everyone for years to come (the pre-tournament warmup games are certainly giving us a hint of that... 6-2 over Sweden, who've won the last two silvers, and 3-0 over Finland last night... the Finns managed a grand total of 17 shots).
-----------
* How much do you love that map? For serious! Windows 7 is pretty awesome... MS Paint has stuff like "crayon" and "oil brush".

Canada's Olympic hockey jerseys hit the interwebs

As you may have seen on Icethetics and Puck Daddy, Canada's 2010 Olympics jerseys leaked. They are these:



I both dislike and like them. I like them in that they're simple, Canadian and the weird little pattern inside the maple leaf is First Nations artwork. Classy.

I dislike them because of the fact that THE CANADIAN HOCKEY FEDERATION LOGO IS STILL ON THE JERSEY, which you may remember being the problem in the first place. Secondly, while I like the idea of the First Nations artwork, I think it makes the maple leaf look sloppy. We should be embossing the artwork into the main body of the jersey, as Puma did during the 2006 World Cup (to the right is Ghana's jersey, Ghana's soccer team being known as the Black Stars).


EDIT -- Apparently the national federation logo is allowed to be on the jersey, it's just not allowed to be the main crest. That's why Sweden's jersey still has the circle with the ship in the top left corner. So I guess my only real problem with the jersey isn't actually a problem at all. That said, I think they would still look better with the embossed pattern being on the body of the jersey rather than the crest.

Greetings from away! (again)

Hello interworld!

Similar to this time last year (maybe a little earlier in the month, but nevertheless) I'm off on vacation during summer, and have decided to compile a list of thoughts. That said, this list should be more sport-related than the last one.

1. Golf should never, ever be an Olympic sport. I could live with Rugby 7s being in the Olympics, it's a great sport, it might increase rugby's popularity (not just league, union or 7s, but as a whole) and is evenly contested (the alleged problem with softball and baseball). Don't get me wrong, the concept of the amateur athlete competing in the Olympics is totally false, and that's not the argument against golf. It's a bit like tennis in the Olympics -- they're nothing special, just another blip on the Championship circuit. For every other sport, the Olympics are something really special, something to work towards, something to take your game to a higher level for. For tennis it's just another tournament, except with less prize money. And I feel that's what would happen with golf.

2. I've been watching Czech league hockey as they compete for the Tipsport Hockey Cup* (I think it's this thing... but it's clubs so I'm confused now) and have come up with three conclusions. (a) You don't really notice the ads on the jerseys unless you look for them. (b) I love big-ice hockey, there's so much space, defense needs to be more positional, hits need to be more thought out (and the Czechs love to throw hits, I didn't know it either), and transfer between defense and attack is unbelievably fast. It's really entertaining. (c) I like no-touch icing, it's safer and doesn't seem to kill the game all that much.

2a. Where else can a lowly North American like me continue to watch Hasek do the worm on ice?


3. Czechs drink some weird, weird hard liquor. There's Becherovka, which is a 'must-have' drink that tastes like a mouthful of herbs. There's just about 5 different colours of absynthe, and a cannabis flavoured absynthe, not to mention cannabis flavoured vodka, rum and all kinds of other drinks (including tea).


4. Czech beer is fantastic. Doubleplus delicious.


5. There are souvenir shops galore in Prague, and a lot of them sell North American sport-related Matryoshka dolls. It's weird to be in central Europe, and seeing a little Russian doll painted up like a Montreal Canadian, another one painted up like Tony Romo, one beside that in Chicago Bulls strip, and finally a nondescript Boston Red Sock to finish up a row of bizareness. (I couldn't be bothered to resize my own ginormous digital camera picture, so I'm ripping this one off the internet... much like all the other pictures. It does the trick).


Anyways, as you read in yesterday's post from Phil, England seemed to do pretty well against the Dutch. Unlike Phil, I think England are actually capable of winning 2010's World Cup for two reasons:
1) With a solid, first-choice keeper in goal who doesn't play for West Ham, England can be a force to be reckoned with (as long as the media doesn't tear their confidence to shreds... read; Robinson, Paul whose gaffe against Crotia [which I still argue was Neville's fault] continues to haunt him)
2) Spain won their second Euro 44 years after winning their first. England won their first World Cup in 1966. There ya go.

Hello-o-o-o-o-o!

Well... as hiatuses (hiatii?) go, this was one hell of a long one. But we can explain! I promise. I was doing a summer school program at Queen's castle in Herstmonceux (would recommend it to anyone who was pondering doing it), Phil's doing something important and Milway's extremely lazy.


But, I'm done my summer program, Phil remembered that he has opinions on things and Milway's still lazy, but also watching baseball, so this blog should get up and at 'em in short order.

On the docket for the near future:

I'll be talking about The Ashes cricket series between England and Australia (and will go on an Amrit-vs-CBC style rant... except about the BBC!!! DRAMA!), and who knows, maybe I'll delve into the Heatley thing... because that hasn't been done to death. Phil will be writing about the ridiculousness of the transfer window in football lately (non-Premier League too), and Milway might write something too. Who knows.

Anyways, once again - sorry for the extended break. I know all three of our readers have been pulling their hair out for months wondering where we went... well... we went to SchoolTown. Don't hate.

Expect new stuff tomorrow!

PS -- the picture. I typed "back from vacation" into Google Images and that popped up... it was so awesome I couldn't help but use it.

Team Canada sweater released

Mostly because I haven't seen this anywhere but Icethetics, I've decided to throw it up here.

In November, I put up a post about how the IOC is finally forcing Team Canada hockey to move away from its classic logo, as no country is allowed to display their national sports federation logo during the Olympics. As such, Hockey Canada was forced to find something new.

Something new has arrived. Well, something new arrived months ago, but I just found out about it.

Behold: Team Canada's new sweaters.


I, for one, really like it. The colour is awesome, described by designer David Young as "Canadian blood red". The logo is classic, harking back to the Canada Cup days, but modern. Plus, it'll make my 1976 throwback sweater a little more modern (which has its good and bad points to it).

Either way, I was really worried about what they were going to do with the new Team Canada sweaters, but I really, really like this.

Good job, Hockey Canada!

EDIT: August 14, 2009. Hockey Canada's 2010 Olympic jerseys were leaked... see them here.

Hartsburg fired

Unbelievable.

Please refer to my past rants on firing coaches too early, I don't like repeating myself and I am literally shaking with rage right now.

I was pretty excited when Hartsburg came, but really, really hoped the Senators organization would grace him patience as he was taking on his first major coaching role in just under a decade.

This was, of course, the perfect year to bring in an inexperienced coach. This year's Senators are probably the worst team we've had in a very long time - slow defence, unproductive and single-plane offence, no goaltending. No coach could possibly be expected to really succeed with this unit at their disposal. I hate to tell you this, Bryan, but Craig Hartsburg isn't Gordon Bombay. He can't take the shittiest team ever and make them beat evil Icelanders to win the Junior Goodwill Games*.

So, after 48 games, they're giving him the boot. Another good coach gets thrown to the wolves because someone in the higher echelons of an organization can't get their shit in order. This is the season when all Ottawa's dumb management decisions finally caught up with them, and Hartsburg is being made to suffer for it.

Shame, shame, shame.

----------
* I don't know where all the Mighty Duck references came from, but I'm running with it

Holiday book report

So, as the school year wrapped up and went into exam-mode, and the forced readings from the university stopped rolling in, I finally had a chance to do a little pleasure reading.

While in years past, pleasure reading has ranged from Roméo Dallaire's Shake Hands With The Devil to the Spike Milligan war memoirs to Tom Clancy to Grisham, this year I went for sports books, in the form of Jeff Pearlman's Boys Will Be Boys and Don Cherry's Hockey Stories and Stuff (ghostwritten by Al Strachan).

First, Boys Will Be Boys is an unbelievably detailed (and somewhat raunchy) foray into the world of the dynasty Cowboys of the 1990s. The book hooks you right away with the story of Michael Irvin taking a pair of scissors to Everett McIver's neck during Dallas' 1998 training camp. It gives a brief history of the Cowboys, a look at how they were during the Landry years, then the details begin. Pearlman holds a great balance between talking about the personal, and the football. It's a bit like a good episode of Friday Night Lights, amazing football with equally amazing personal.

The description of what the cleaning ladies' had to do when they came in to fix up the White House (a house the Cowboy players bought in an affluent Dallas neighbourhood), the stories about players drinking, snorting coke and enjoying the company of members of the fairer sex gives the reader an introduction to the lives of the self-declared Gods of East Texas.

Pearlman is also careful to present all characters is both positive and negative lights, giving the reader the opportunity to recognize that, while there were no saints, there were no devils either. All the stories of player actions, coaching bugger-ups and owner bugger-ups are counterbalanced by stories of all their positives. Jimmy Johnson is presented as an absolute son of a bitch with clear preference for players, but he's also shown as an amazing coach who does care for everyone who wears the blue star on the right side of their head. Stories about Michael Irvin's drinking, snorting, sexing and hazing are counterbalanced by glowing testimonials to his work ethic and his love for all his teammates (in most cases).

I had a lot of trouble putting Boys Will Be Boys down until I finished reading it (which may have cost me some marks on my UN exam), but it was well worth it. Definitely a good read for any Cowboys fan (such as myself), and also an excellent read for anyone who's looking for a good laugh and an interesting piece of nonfiction.

Thanks to Bucholtz for lending me the book!!

Next on the docket, a book I mentioned a few weeks ago as something I'd like as a Christmas present, Don Cherry's Hockey Stories and Stuff did not dissapoint me. The fact that I had to pay for it kind of sucked, and the fact that I couldn't wait until I was on the plane to read it also sucks, but is a bit of a testimonial to how good it was.

Well, it's good under the right circumstances. Essentially, it's 221 pages of disjointed, often rambling stories (written in Don's English), about his time as a player (coming up through the ranks as a kid and shuttling around in the junior leagues), as a coach (in the minor's and NHL) and as a broadcaster. The book follows no chronology, a story about his last game at the Bruins will be followed by a story about him languishing in the minors, will be followed by a story about him commentating will be followed by a story about his dad.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

The book is vintage Cherry, and it's a bit like reading Coach's Corner for a few hours. Or, better still, is just like Cherry wanted it to be: a book where it would seem "just like we were sittin' down, tellin' stories in [his] own language." It's hilarious at times, when he's doing quotes of some of the French-Canadians who played under him (like Jean Ratelle), they're done in a quasi-French accent. He refers to Peter Mansbridge as Peter Mansfred. His stories are no holds barred, he'll openly call out players, he unapologetically recounts smashing players' faces in, you really feel like you're getting a glimpse into the world of Don Cherry.

Though it can be hard to follow at times (you have to re-read some of the anecdotes every now and then because he does indeed tangent in them), it's easily one of my favourite books from this year and strengthens my resolve to one day, finally meet Don Cherry.

Thanks once again to Sherry at Scarlett Ice for originally posting about the book coming out.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Gary

I didn't plan on talking about this since everyone else has. But sometimes, you need to avoid studying for an exam somehow and writing about Sean Avery is the best option*.

6 games. Six games. SIX GAMES!?! Are you kidding me?

That's more than Kostoupolis got for his beauty on Van Ryn (3 games).
More than what Roto-Ruutu got for his introducing his elbow to Laperriere's eye ( 2 games).
In the same league of suspension time as Pronger got for stomping on Ryan Kesler's leg (8 games).

Really? Calling out Dion Phaneuf is more offensive to the esteemed Mr. Bettman than Kostoupolis potentially putting an end to the career of Van Ryn? As offensive as Chris Pronger testing the fortitude of Kesler's tibia?

The NHL so unbelievably hypocritical, it's almost shocking. Last year was trying to figure out why Chris Simon got 30 games for the same crime Pronger committed mere months later (see above).

What this debate seems to centre around is how offensive Avery is to women. The term "sloppy seconds" and his treatment of a female Nashville fan are the stories that come up.

Greg Wyshynski over at Puck Daddy explains why the term sloppy seconds isn't actually offensive, and how he wasn't insulting women as a group. For the over-veiw: the term sloppy seconds is insulting to the male involved, not the female - "dude you're only getting my sloppy seconds, don't be proud." Insulting? Yes. Would Dion Phaneuf have torn Avery limb from limb on the ice? I'm sure Elisha would have gotten in on that. Is it offensive to all women everywhere? No, Gary, it isn't.

Secondly, the treatment of the Nashville fan. Vulgar? Yes. But she attempted to start a confrontation with him, while he was in the penalty box, immediately after the fight. She admitted to harrassing him on the ice since he was an LA King. She seems to have made it her life's work to taunt and humiliate Avery, and she admits that he's noticed her before (how couldn't he - her season ticket is the seat beside the away penalty box). What this one comes down to is that this woman, for years, has been trying to get a reaction out of him, and she finally got one. When she got one, she was taken aback and was horribly offended. That's unbelievably poor, on her part, not his.

Yes, Avery is supposed to be a professional, but he's also human. As someone who is routinely found with his foot in his mouth, I can, to some degree, sympathize. I myself have said things about an ex in the heat of the moment that I regret. I have indeed reacted when people call me out during a game. Am I proud of it? No. But you move on.

Avery is the victim of his situation at Dallas. Last year, Dallas couldn't fail, all four lines were rolling and scoring, and the defense was solid. This year, Dallas' defense couldn't be shoddier (the sophomore drop, perhaps?). Marty Turco is letting everyone and their grandmother score a goal on him. The offense isn't rolling.

If Dallas was successful, no one, in that locker room or anywhere, would be overly concerned. He's irritating, but that's just Avery, pay no attention to the strange man in the short pants, children. But Dallas isn't successful, and Avery's wearing the goat's mask. Mind you, he's doing nothing to help his situation.

At any rate - he doesn't deserve 6 games from the NHL. The Dallas Stars should have been able to handle this within the organization as conduct not befitting someone in the Black and Green. They weren't given that option, and the NHL successfully turned Avery into the Dallas sideshow, and has put the Stars even further under the microscope. For the rest of the year, people will be watching and analyzing everything Dallas does as an effect of Avery. Win or lose, it will be because of Avery.

----------------
* It's a social history of popular music exam... I'm not exactly shitting bricks

There is no original name for this sports blogpost

Oh man I'm funny*. Truth be told, there's lots in the past week that I've wanted to write about:
1) The Sens finally seemingly passing their slump by beating the Rangers and the Leafs... before falling to the Isles
2) Spurs falling into their slump by losing to Everton. My God that was annoying, Spurs had the more chances and everything *grumble grumble*
3) New Zealanders getting pissed off at Wales because they the Taffies stood up to the Haka by... staring at the All Blacks. No matter though, all Tri nation teams dominated the Six Nations and the weight of international rugby talent in the southern hemisphere was more than confirmed. Only the Aussies lost... and that was only one game. Unbelievable.

All that having been said the reason for this post is this. Up until Phil's post on the Gooners last Tuesday, this blog never had a physical picture in a post. Well, the times they are a-changin', and I'm bloody tired of seeing Cesc Fabrigas' mug everytime I open this page. As such, it's time for a shot back.



-------------------------
* Re: title of this post

Dear Santa, I've been good this year...

... so if you'd be so kind as to let me find this book under the tree on the morning of December 25, I would be much obliged.

Sincerely,
Amrit

PS - Thanks to Sherry at Scarlett Ice for the heads up

A day later, but still good

So, Kill McGill didn't quite go to plan. Long story short: 3-0, one 'fight', outshot by a little more than double, and learning that the best way to climb out of a 3-0 deficit in the third does not involve spending half the period on the penalty kill.

That's about all I have to say about that, on the blog anyway. I should have a web article about the game going up soon enough, and Andrew live-blogged the hell out of that badboy over on Sporting Madness.

Also, I've decided that the press box at the Memorial Centre is easily the scariest thing I've ever set foot in, and odds are I won't do it again. Even Eric (the civil engineer) said that he couldn't work out how the balls it stays in the air. Needless to say, odds are I won't be watching a game in or under the bloody thing. Unfortunately I can't seem to find a picture of it, but that's all the more incentive to go out to a Gaels home game and see it for yourself!!!

Eventful week for those guys who make me embarrassed to wear my jersey

I used to wear my Sens jersey with pride. Of late, I've been wearing it for appearances.

This week has been abysmal for the Sens, absolutely abysmal*. A 4-0 drumming in Montreal, followed by a game against a team they were "more evenly matched with", at home no less, and they were on the receiving end of a 3-1 whoopin'.

Also - Daniel Alfredsson, our unflappable captain, finally flapped. After the Montreal game, apparently emotions were running high at practice as the team couldn't get it right... and he put his stick through the glass at The Bank. Again - he put his stick. Through the glass. This is bearing in mind that rink-glass can usually bear the weight of Derek Boogaard skating full-speed into another big dude without breaking**. It's good to finally see the boys showing a little emotion, but it's unfortunate that it didn't carry over into the next outing.

At any rate, I'm thinking the tension in that dressing room would require a chainsaw (or an electric poultry-cutter) to cut through. Jarkko Ruutu, God love him, is a fucking idiot for the hit on Laperriere, and he bloody deserves it. There's a line between trying to draw penalties and showing off physical dominance, and putting someone's life in danger. You learn that stuff when you get taught hitting. Jarkko: keep them elbows down and my love for you shall grow - but don't make us look bad.

So tonight provides the opportunity for redemption: the second half of the home-and-home with the Islanders, the Sens will be visiting Long Island. I have but one word of advice for you, oh mighty men in red: don't fuck it up.

Lastly - for Queen's hockey fans, I'll have something up on tonight's Kill McGill game up tomorrow. For students - puck drops at 7:30 pm, be there, it's free with your student card. There's really no excuse. Unless, of course, you're going to Dylan. But still.

-------------------
* Abysmal is a great damn word
** Boogaard putting himself through the glass in a rookie game between the Blues and Wild a few years back. After they replaced the glass, they put a masking tape man on the glass, I guess so he'd see the glass? Who the hell knows. Point is - Derek Boogaard only breaks glass when he makes contact with nobody. I'd love to see a fight between him, Chuck Norris and Vin Diesel. That would be awesome.

Team Canada must swap logos

February 26, 2009: UPDATE - Team Canada released its new sweater, I approve.
August 19, 2009: UPDATE - Team Canada's Vancouver 2010 jerseys are here

The IOC has finally cracked down on Canada's national hockey jerseys.

This summer I noticed something odd - the American footie side at the Olympics played their first few matches with masking tape over the logo on their kit. I found out later it was because no jersey, in the Olympics, is allowed to have that national sport's federation logo on the jersey.

To make it easier to understand what I tried to just say: you're allowed to have your flag, or the words USA, or whatever you want - but they can't have the United States Soccer Federation's logo on the kit during the Olympics.

You may have noticed that, for (at least) the past 10 years, Team Canada hockey has had Hockey Canada's logo on the front of their jerseys.

Well, the IOC has finally decided this practice must end, apparently us Canadians have been defying the Olympic Committee for a long damn time.

So, for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics - the Canadian men's and women's hockey teams will be sporting new jerseys - certainly for the first time in my memory. I'm excited to see what they come up with, but sad to have witnessed the end of an era.

Ovular domination ends so soon, but continues so strong

So, Queen's dominating ovular-ball-game-teams went 1 for 2 this weekend. (For non-Queen's sports stuff, scroll down).

Our football team had a pretty shitty performance at Richardson in the semifinal, falling to the University of Ottawa GeeGees 23-13, ending Yates and Vanier dreams.

This brings up my major problem with this first-round bye business. Yes, it's nice to not have to play a game when everyone is, but it makes for some serious focus issues. Games allow teams to center and focus in a way that practice can't. Queen's hadn't played a game for two weeks before the game against Ottawa, and they came out absolutely flat. A play-by-play rundown of the game can be found here. I was hoping that the punt-block safety at the end of the game would be the momentum turner our boys in gold needed, but unfortunately they just never got it going and fell into shambles. Dream season turns into nightmare I suppose.

Our rugby team, on the other hand, continued it's kickassery with a convincing smashing of the Western Mustangs, in a repeat of the game I traveled down to London to cover (see game report here and here). Western played the exact same game it did during the regular season, but Queen's didn't react. This gave Western no opportunity to exploit Queen's being a man-down, and the Gaels pushed forward for a 19-8 win, setting up a second final featuring the Gaels. They'll be playing in Markham against the McMaster Mauraders next weekened - I encourage all Queen's sport fans to travel down on the fan bus to watch what must be Queen's best varsity squad.

In pro-sport news:

Spurs are rolling! 'Arry is fucking fantastic, we took a 2-1 win over Keano's new side Liverpool at the lane over the weekend. Mind, it was on a late goal by Pavlyuchenko, and the other Spurs goal was a Carragher (sp?) own goal, but whatever, I'll take it! 7 points on 3 matches is a definite improvement from the start of the season, where the Lilywhites couldn't be counted on to get 3 points from 7 matches. On a related topic - how on-target were Phil's predictions?? Jesus!

The Leafs (I hate to, but I have to put it in*) had an amazing comeback against the Rangers on Saturday, one that actually got me out of my seat. I like the Rangers (see below), don't get me wrong, but that was one hell of an exciting performance. The Leafers have been putting on a pretty decent show this year, and I couldn't be more pissed.

The Sens took one point out of the weekend after a shootout loss to Tampa, leading to an incredibly interesting article on the Sens Army blog regarding the game and our shootout lineup which, frankly, is retarded. Also, I've come to like Ruutu. The world might be imploding.

Finally - my dominance in NHL 09 has been qualified by a tournament win. The Rangers (Yours truly), Sabres (Apps), Capitals (Eric) and Flames (Conal) went head-to-head in a round robin/knockout tournament over the weekend. The Rangers were weak on defense, but the offense was their saving grace, allowing 10 goals but scoring 13 in the round robin, this compared to most games ending 1-0 or 2-1 over 3 games. The final was fought out between the Rangers and Sabres and, in a dramatic overtime plagued by ill discipline by the Sabres, the Rangers put the game home to take the first ever NHL 09 gold. Another tournament should follow, here's hoping the result is the same!**

----------
* That's what she said
** This entire paragraph was unneccesary

The Sens changed their entrance song? Also known as the 'Every Link is a YouTube Link' article

Quoi le merde??

So apparently the Sens have changed their classic entrance song to some ditty by a band called Rev Theory. This ditty, in fact.

Now, I must ask - double-you-tea-eph? It seems to be in a long line of weird pre-game fuckups the Sens organization has been getting up to in the past year.

Is it just me - or is he the biggest fail soldier ever? His helmet almost falls off a few times, the mic keeps cutting out, he's not all that ripped, and he doesn't look like a fucking CENTURION, which is the bloody point, isn't it? Fuck, I'm still bitter.

At any rate, I don't really understand the point of changing the song. Or at least, to that particular Rev Theory song, who have a much better hockey song that someone put to hockey clips, and is awesome.

Anyways, there's an increasing (dare I say it) Americanization of everything we're doing over at The Bank of late. The Spartan: from California. Rev Theory: from Massachusets (sp?*). Most of this wishy washy ridiculousness? Things you'd expect to see at a game in Tampa to try to excite fans who aren't already excited.

PST. Sens organization! Canadians already like hockey! We're already excited! Really, I promise. The kitchy bullshit isn't neccesary! You don't need to try to excite us with fancy laser-light shows and Spartans and all that jazz. Just the montage of our team during the classic Roman-themed badassery track is nice, that's all. Really. I promise.

Thanks to James Gordon at Hockey Capital for posting his article where I found out about this and finding the clips that I ultimately borrowed.

Oh, and for your enjoyment. God Bless Hocky indeed.
------------
* My english teacher used to put "sp?" besides words that weren't spelt right, I've kept the tradition alive. Even on MSN.

Hockey does the splits while rugby steamrolls

Pretty decent two day show for the campus teams I was watching.

Rugby
Gaels 70 - 3 University of Toronto Varsity Blues

Rugby performed the steamroller act we all know only too well against the lowly Varsity Blues over at Richardson Stadium. No one felt it necessary to tell me that as I stood shivering against the weather at Kingston Field before finding out about the location switch. A short cab ride over, and I asked a fan the score. The game kicked off at 1, I arrived at 1:20 - the fans had already lost count of the score. Now the scoreline isn't much of a surprise given the outcome of the last Gaels v Blues rugby match, but I thought the weather might have actually made an impact today.

Let me paint this picture the best way I can - miserable. Absolutely miserable. High winds, freezing cold, pouring rain (my notebook fell apart), not dry even under the makeshift tents set up at the endzone. The field was in such poor condition that a few tries were missed as a result of players sliding through the try zone and not getting the ball down in time. Absolutely. Fucking. Miserable.

But the talent prevailed, and the Varsity Blues' season (unsurprisingly) came to an end on the rainswept fields of Richardson Stadium. Next match for the Gaels - the Western Mustangs. This time they'll be visiting here, I went down to London to cover the last Western match (a dramatic 12-12 draw). Since we drew that one on a last-play try, I'd be interested to see how this one goes. There's some bad blood between the teams, many of the players know each other pretty well, suffice to say I'm really looking forward to next weekend.

Hockey
Gaels 2 - 5 Carleton Ravens
Gaels 4 - 1 University of Toronto Varsity Blues

Friday night against the Ravens was an unfortunate game for the Gaels. They forechecked tenaciously, took the body hard*, and all-in-all just made life hell for the Ravens. Then they scored on a goaltender's mistake, and the Gaels lost their tenacity. Queen's started to regain their confidence towards the end of the period after a short burst of Carleton dominance, but couldn't buy a goal and, late in the second, Carleton made it 2-0 on a powerplay goal. The third period was just flat unfortunate for the Gaels, they pulled one back 1:20 in, and allowed three goals (scoring one halfway through).

Saturday night, Queen's seemed to figure it out. U of T is a formidable opponent (as far as hockey goes), there's a divisional rivalry and, judging by the hits and the talk of the players (I was sitting near the penalty boxes), personal rivalries there too. Some iffy refereeing throughout the game, a lot of no-calls and over-calls, but somehow the refs didn't lose control of the game. Queen's had one hell of a first period, scoring two goals in less than a minute and their third goal 8 minutes after that, taking a 3-0 lead into the period break (after killing a minute-long 5-on-3). The second period was largely a stonewall by Queen's. Toronto took 10 shots on goal (their lowest, believe it or not, period shot-count of the game), but Queen's survived. The third period saw UofT pull one back about halfway through, but Queen's pulled it back on an empty-netter with 39 seconds left (yeah, the OUA got it wrong there - they said it was with 30 seconds left. Pft). Solid night overall, though.

My biggest concern with the hockey team after this weekend is the defense. The Toronto game was hallmarked by some exceptionally clutch saves by goalie Brady Morrison, but it could have easily gone the other way. The Gaels were outshot 41-29 against Carleton and 38-18 against the Varsity Blues. Something that definitely needs to be remedied, as it's been said before - Morrison's good, but he's no Gibb**.

Oh, and also - the Sens fucked the bed tonight. That's about all I have to say about that.

------------
* That's what she said
** I can't find any of Gibb's stats from this season at Laredo, but then the CHL season is about as fresh as the OUA one so, watcha gonna do. At any rate; this is what they say about him on the team page.

Explaining the picture, or "I don't usually spend my evenings in briefs throwing money around my bedroom"

Mike Commodore.

The man who looked like a lollipop during the playoffs. One of the few players in the world who has two Stanley Cup rings and deserves neither.

Also the man who I thought would help turn around my Sens last year (not to be).

That said, when this picture hit the interwebs, one of the lesser-skilled players in the NHL was grabbing front page attention (of the Columbus Dispatch*).

Lots of theories were thrown around about the picture - the most popular among those I know was that it was him celebrating his Columbus-granted payday for his shit performance in Ottawa (I know many bitter Sens fans).

Well, Greg Wyshynski over at Puck Daddy managed to speak to Commodore about the picture - pretty decent explanation. I like it when rich people do stuff that regular people do.

That said, I'm skeptical that he's a team leade-... wait. He's at Columbus. Nevermind.
----------
* I jest, he was also on the front page on a variety of blogs.

Who you boo to?

My poor attempt at rhyming in the title has been noted.

This blog post comes on the tail of more displays of a strange phenomena I've been noticing over the past few years: home crowds booing the home team. The point of just-too-muchery occurred when England thrashed Kazakhstan 5-1. The one, of course, was created by an Ashley Cole epic fuckup - leading England supporters to boo him at every touch of the ball for the rest of the game.

Every Spurs game this season has led to the home team being chorused by a series of boos, due to their poor performance. The Red Sox were being booed in the fifth inning at Fenway today due to their giving up 4 runs early to Tampa.

There's a point of ridiculousness to booing the home team. Every fan has limits to their patience, especially in the world of professional sport. After paying ridiculous sums to get tickets to a game (£33 minimum adult ticket at WHL, $30 minimum for standing room at Scotiabank Place, $59 minimum for tickets to any game next season at the new Texas Stadium), fans don't want to see their team get shellacked.

It brings to mind a very important question: are fans paying ridiculous sums to go the game for the atmosphere and to support the home team, or are they paying for a few hours of solid entertainment?

I personally don't ever see myself booing my own team at the church which is the home stadium (whether it be Wembley, White Hart Lane or Scotiabank Place), but I also don't have the funds go so often enough to remove the novelty of being at the game.

There are situations where booing the home team is justified. If it's getting to the tail end of the season and the team has stopped trying (as we saw with Spurs last year, or with teams who get out of playoff contention and give up), it's justified to boo the home team. You've paid an unreasonable sum to go see your team - if they don't give a shit why should you?

That said, if your team is trying, as we're seeing from Spurs this year, it's beyond unreasonable to boo them. They're not playing well, but booing them is not a justifiable response - and when December comes around, I'll be cheering full volume for the Lilywhites as they take on Fulham on Boxing Day (assuming I get tickets), no matter their performance.

Same with the England scenario: Ashley Cole is one of my least favourite footballers in the world. It takes a lot for an Arsenal and a Spurs fan to agree on hated players, but he's on that list. That said, everyone's made a bugger-up in a match... for him to be booed for the rest of the match is unreasonable, foolish and, indeed, "crazy".

What are some of these fans trying to accomplish? Booing your home team while they're playing well does nothing but demoralize them, and reduce their level of play. That said, while your home team is trying hard to overcome demoralization to play better, and the home supporters are booing them - it's nothing but counterproductive.

So come on you home supporters of all teams and leagues - show support for your side and wear your colours proudly!!!

Youth Movements

With the NHL North American season kick-off just around the corner, all 30 teams are finalizing their 23-man rosters. I noticed an interesting trend: a continued prevalence of 18 and 19-year olds.

No less than 9 picks* from the 2008 Entry Draft, as well as many more from the 2007 Draft, have made their opening-day roster:
1. Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay
2. Drew Doughty, Los Angeles
3. Zach Bogosian, Atlanta
4. Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis
5. Luke Schenn, Toronto
8. Mikkel Boedeker, Phoenix
9. Josh Bailey, New York Islanders
14. Zach Boychuk, Carolina
28. Viktor Tikhonov, Phoenix

And the 6th overall pick, Nikita Filatov, is in the AHL, so there is a likelihood that he will get called up at some point as well.

I understand that many of these players could be returned to their junior teams before they play their 10th game, but this is exceptional. Last year, only 4 draftees made their debut. And one of them (Kyle Turris, Phoenix) played in just 3 games.

Why is this? It could be associated with the lowering of the age to be an Unrestricted Free Agent. Or it could just be that these guys are that damned good, that at 18 years old, they can compete with the best players in the world. Or all of these teams are in rebuilding years and feel that they are looking to the future and letting their kids play.

Indeed, Phoenix has 10 players on their roster who were born in 1985 or later, LA has 8, STL has 7.

Will this trend continue to next year? There is no reason not to expect John Tavares and Victor Hedman (the consensus top 2 in the 2009 Draft) to be playing in the NHL right from the start. After that, I haven't read enough draft material to know where everyone projects.

This is more of an NBA or NFL draft mentality, where there are no minor leagues, so players have to make that jump immediately.

Whatever the reasoning, we could be looking back in 20 years and see how remarkable this past draft actually was.

On the other end of the age spectrum, I don't know what is more insane:

Chris Chelios was drafted in 1981 and has still played in 100 less games than the one person Ron Francis, who was taken in the same year, or Jamie Moyer and Greg Maddux both played for the 1987 Chicago Cubs, and are now on opposite teams in the National League Championship Series.

--

*I only looked at the 1st round, so I may have missed someone, but I doubt it

Game the second and Queen's sport stuff

Sorry for the delay folks.

Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to watch the game yesterday as I was covering Queen's lacrosse, so I'm not going to bother with a game recap because... well... the one I'd give would be a lot less useful than this, this or this.

That said, it was 3-1.

On to Queen's sport:

Football
Queen's 80 - 0 York

The starters came out midway through the third quarter... and the second/third strings beat up on the Lions too. What is it with Toronto-area universities being so shitty at ovular-ball related sports?

Next weekend sees the CIS #2 Gaels take on the U of O GeeGees at Richardson. It'll be on The Score... which is unfortunate because the stadium the student side will be empty... before and after halftime. That said, it is fortunate because (hopefully) I'll be able to watch the game on TV. It'll be the Gaels' last real test before playoffs start, and hopefully it'll be a huge confidence boost. That said, week 8 is against Waterloo so I can't imagine we'll be going into the playoffs on a low.

Men's Rugby
Queen's 106-0 Trent

Men's ovular-ball-sport for the win! It would appear our rugby team is chugging along nicely, and setting an OUA record along the way. That said - Trent got beaten 99-0 last year (the game was called to avoid further embarrasment), so this wasn't much of a test. The test is this Friday, when the Brock Badgers (last year's OUA finalist and the team that beat us) is coming to Kingston Field. Be there! Brock's lost some of their key guys from last year but their core is more or less still together... it'll be one hell of a game!

Men's Hockey
Queen's 0-2 Western

Looks like there was no party-spoiling - we beat them on our Homecoming and they beat us on theirs. The men's home opener did not have a strong scoreline (for a Queen's fan), but I wasn't there... so we'll wait for the home opener this week to see how they're playing. Wait, fuck. Thanksgiving. I won't be there for that game either, but if you're in town, our boys have their home opener against York this Friday night and that weird Oshawa school-like thing on Saturday afternoon.

Women's Soccer
Queen's 0-1 Ottawa
Queen's 6-0 Trent

Solid split - Ottawa's one hell of a team, but Trent isn't a team we should be losing to... and we didn't. Good result for a young side, but I didn't see the game. That said, Andrew will have more analysis in The Journal tomorrow.

Men's Soccer
Queen's 5-0 RMC
Queen's 2-0 Trent

Holy fuck. Men's soccer finally had a weekend worth talking about... and I wasn't there. Again, Andrew will break it down later, but this has been a really unsuccessful season for the boys and this will be a good confidence boost for them.

No Queen's wins (that I know of) happened in sports that I don't typically cover, so I'm not going to get into it - but in short, women's hockey lost, women's rugby lost, men's lacrosse won, women's lacrosse lost-lost-won... that's it I think.