Too bad no one likes a loser. There are no vintage Sonny Liston bobblehead dolls, no 1968 Baltimore Colts commemoration videotapes of the 1968 NFL Championship on eBay, and hardly anyone remembers who lost each of the Stanley Cup Finals of the 1980s.
The hometown Majors of Mississauga lost (again) to the Saint John Sea Dogs in the Memorial Cup Final today by a 3-1 scoreline. Two early Sea Dog goals in the first really put the issue beyond doubt for the 5000+ spectators in attendance. I suppose no one likes a loser, and when you beef up the team for one year and then have to blow it up for the NHL Draft or cap restrictions, the next thing to follow would be the hockey team.
Take it from me: Next year is the last year for the Majors in Mississauga, and maybe also for the Battalion in Brampton. No one likes a loser in this town, and since 1967 no hockey team in the GTA ever hit it big.
Congratulations Saint John Sea Dogs for winning this year's ultimate prize for junior hockey; we hardly knew ya.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
CLASSIC: Saying This Will Get Me Killed
To celebrate the recent accomplishments of the Vancouver Canucks, which won the Western Conference Championship against the San Jose Sharks in a five game series, I am reposting an old post about the 1994 Vancouver Canucks. To Robin of HIMYM, please don't tackle me and jump up and down on my spine like last time. The fellas at the hospital have a bet going as to when I will come back for another hip replacement, and I have fifty big ones on the over! Thanks o_O
The Vancouver Canucks only reached the 1994 Stanley Cup Final because of the 2-3-2 playoff system. No team in professional sports would give up home team advantage, play three consecutive road games, and lose the advantage of line changes against the same team for the sake of travel expenses. Wait, actually they would in baseball because they do it all the time, and in basketball because the Finals is fixed anyway (More basketball = More TV ratings = More exposure for sponsors).
Congratulations to the Canucks again for making believers out of all Canadians far and wide...well most Canadians (Phil laughs at the NonSENSe fans).
The Vancouver Canucks only reached the 1994 Stanley Cup Final because of the 2-3-2 playoff system. No team in professional sports would give up home team advantage, play three consecutive road games, and lose the advantage of line changes against the same team for the sake of travel expenses. Wait, actually they would in baseball because they do it all the time, and in basketball because the Finals is fixed anyway (More basketball = More TV ratings = More exposure for sponsors).
Congratulations to the Canucks again for making believers out of all Canadians far and wide...well most Canadians (Phil laughs at the NonSENSe fans).
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Fun with NHL Re-Alignment
So your southern division rivals, the Atlanta Thrashers, are packing for places colder, a little more hockey friendly, and Canadian. What do you do? If you are Alexander Ovechkin and you like seeing the sunshine for more than twelve hours a day on a consistent basis, then you petition for a hasty NHL re-alignment ^_^ INSERT OBLIGATORY OVECHKIN HIGHLIGHT PACKAGE (I apologize for the music choice; it wasn't mine)
How can you change the alignment of the teams so Ovechkin & Co. don't need to stand out in the minus forty below wind chill of Winnipeg waiting for the team bus to warm up eight nights out of the year?
- Move Atlanta to Winnipeg (THIS IS THE MAIN THING)
- Wave to Jets fans
- Move Atlanta/Winnipeg from the Southeast Division to the Central Division.
- Move Nashville from the Central Division to the Southeast Division.
- Form a band with Alex Ovechkin, Mike Fisher, and Carrie Underwood. Call the group "The Hy-Vee's"
- Move Minnesota from the Northwest Division to the Central Division.
- Move Winnipeg from the Central Division to the Northwest Division.
- Rename the Northwest Division the "Canada West" Division.
- Laugh at Colorado.
- Wait five minutes for Phoenix fans to get the bill from the subsidiary package they gave to the NHL for "minding the store".
- Repeat (10), if necessary.
- Take picture of Phoenix' face.
- Post picture on Facebook.
- Laugh.
- Repeat (14), if necessary.
INSERT ANOTHER GRATUITOUS OVECHKIN HIGHLIGHT PACKAGE:
Mississauga, Relevancy, and the Memorial Cup
On this installment of "What I Am About To Say Will Probably Get Me Killed!", something I learned while blogging about the Great Canadian Game: Never dis the Great Canadian Game! However, if you live in Mississauga and you want to mention more than a few things about junior hockey, you are not alone.
Sportsnet announcers Rob Faulds, Peter Loubardias, and Sam Cosentino are excited about the 2011 Memorial Cup in Mississauga. Counting the artist that put together the colourful front cover of the Wednesday edition of the Mississauga News, the number of people I know who are excited about the Memorial Cup reached a grand total of five and a half. Our great Mayor Hazel McCallion counts as one and a half (it's so possible)!
Owen Sound won this year's installment of the OHL Championship against the Mississauga...the St. Michael...no wait, let me get this right: The St. Michael's Majors of Mississauga in a thrilling and irrelevant seven-game series. No one will remember who won the OHL championship if the team you are playing against will not only host the season-ending tournament for the more prestigious and newsworthy trophy, but win it all because they bought their way in. With no exit ramp off the neighbouring 400-series highway, traffic along Matheson and Kennedy streets will become even more congested during the upcoming junior hockey bash. Adding insult to injury, Mississaugans ignored their hockey team with the scant hope of hosting the games to generate a cash flow, and give people a reason to come to the Hershey Center. Mississauga had another junior team before the Majors departed the cozy confines of Maple Leaf-happy Toronto for better attendance figures, and exposure.
Don Cherry's Mississauga Icedogs where a stable for future NHL talent like Chris O'Sullivan and Jason Spezza, but low expectations, the refusal to draft European players, and the personality of the team's fanatical owner put off city dwellers off the first installment of junior hockey (In the opinion of the writer, the idea of junior hockey working in Mississauga probably wouldn't get off the ground save the discovery northern neighbours Brampton were about to get a team. Call this keeping up with the Jones'). Failed Memorial Cup bids couldn't save the IceDogs from leaving for the Niagara valley where they continue to suffer from packed stadiums, relevancy in the eyes of their growing support base, and being the only game in town...?
Meanwhile, back in Mississauga, I drove past Matheson boulevard to catch a glimpse of the early fanfare along the street that will welcome Canadians from across the country to the stadium: Nothing. No pennants, no balloons, and no sign of anything culturally significant happening just outside the stadium property. There is a commercial featuring the Majors' players in a tune-up for the Memorial Cup tournament: I must admit, if they used actors and dressed them up as hockey players, I would still have no clue who they are. I can't really blame the players for trying; after all, in the age of free agency, salary cap restrictions, and professional egomaniacs, it is the TEAM people cheer for and celebrate...if they are winning...something relevant. The Memorial Cup is that last relevant thing Canadians seek after.
The tournament format, however, does its best to hamper the efforts of the Cup to bring a sense of relevancy and importance to the great game of hockey in this country. Four teams, three of which are the champions of all three of Canada's junior leagues the Quebec Major, Ontario, and Western junior leagues, join the host team to play in a round-robin tournament, with three teams going to the playoffs. As the first place team receives a bye to the final, the second and third place teams play in a 'semi-final' with the winner playing the bye team in the penultimate game. Short of "Everybody Gets A Trophy Day" tournaments, this always make me cringe.
Maybe they will call them the "Ontario Majors of St. Michael playing out of somewhere in Michigan"...don't laugh, it's happened before (Hi Jets fans).
Sportsnet announcers Rob Faulds, Peter Loubardias, and Sam Cosentino are excited about the 2011 Memorial Cup in Mississauga. Counting the artist that put together the colourful front cover of the Wednesday edition of the Mississauga News, the number of people I know who are excited about the Memorial Cup reached a grand total of five and a half. Our great Mayor Hazel McCallion counts as one and a half (it's so possible)!
Owen Sound won this year's installment of the OHL Championship against the Mississauga...the St. Michael...no wait, let me get this right: The St. Michael's Majors of Mississauga in a thrilling and irrelevant seven-game series. No one will remember who won the OHL championship if the team you are playing against will not only host the season-ending tournament for the more prestigious and newsworthy trophy, but win it all because they bought their way in. With no exit ramp off the neighbouring 400-series highway, traffic along Matheson and Kennedy streets will become even more congested during the upcoming junior hockey bash. Adding insult to injury, Mississaugans ignored their hockey team with the scant hope of hosting the games to generate a cash flow, and give people a reason to come to the Hershey Center. Mississauga had another junior team before the Majors departed the cozy confines of Maple Leaf-happy Toronto for better attendance figures, and exposure.
Don Cherry's Mississauga Icedogs where a stable for future NHL talent like Chris O'Sullivan and Jason Spezza, but low expectations, the refusal to draft European players, and the personality of the team's fanatical owner put off city dwellers off the first installment of junior hockey (In the opinion of the writer, the idea of junior hockey working in Mississauga probably wouldn't get off the ground save the discovery northern neighbours Brampton were about to get a team. Call this keeping up with the Jones'). Failed Memorial Cup bids couldn't save the IceDogs from leaving for the Niagara valley where they continue to suffer from packed stadiums, relevancy in the eyes of their growing support base, and being the only game in town...?
Meanwhile, back in Mississauga, I drove past Matheson boulevard to catch a glimpse of the early fanfare along the street that will welcome Canadians from across the country to the stadium: Nothing. No pennants, no balloons, and no sign of anything culturally significant happening just outside the stadium property. There is a commercial featuring the Majors' players in a tune-up for the Memorial Cup tournament: I must admit, if they used actors and dressed them up as hockey players, I would still have no clue who they are. I can't really blame the players for trying; after all, in the age of free agency, salary cap restrictions, and professional egomaniacs, it is the TEAM people cheer for and celebrate...if they are winning...something relevant. The Memorial Cup is that last relevant thing Canadians seek after.
The tournament format, however, does its best to hamper the efforts of the Cup to bring a sense of relevancy and importance to the great game of hockey in this country. Four teams, three of which are the champions of all three of Canada's junior leagues the Quebec Major, Ontario, and Western junior leagues, join the host team to play in a round-robin tournament, with three teams going to the playoffs. As the first place team receives a bye to the final, the second and third place teams play in a 'semi-final' with the winner playing the bye team in the penultimate game. Short of "Everybody Gets A Trophy Day" tournaments, this always make me cringe.
- Invariably, the host team always maxes out its credit card to buy junior hockey's best talent in lieu of winning the bid to host the Memorial Cup tournament, so regardless of winning the championship of the junior league you know the "best team" will be there.
- The round-robin process is a mess in itself. The organizers already determined which two teams will play back-to-back games; you receive bonus points if you figured out one of those teams will not be the St. Mike's Majors. If you must play with four teams, at least give teams a carrot for winning their first game. The following example will require two stadiums in the same city: Play games A and B at roughly the same time, and give the winners a day off. Game C will feature the losers the next day, and Game D will have the winners of A and B coming together. The last day of the round-robin will feature match-ups of teams that didn't play against each other before, but playing one after the other.
- The Canadian playoff system is a joke: Everyone but the last place team gets in, but two teams are equally horrible there is a "not quite" playoff between both to determine which of the "not quite" playoff teams goes to the "playoffs"? How can we shake our heads and point fingers at the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks for qualifying for the NFL playoffs because they won their division, which is the only time in a non-strike year this occurs, and in the same breath call CFL football "God's gift to professional sports" where losing teams enter the playoffs and win the Grey Cup ALL THE TIME?! Well, things could be worse; they could use the curling playoff format o_O
- Four teams doesn't really work for me, and neither do byes. If you want the regular season count for something, why not give the best junior team in all the leagues an honourary invite to the Memorial Cup tournament. Plus, everyone likes dynasties, so give last year's champions an invite as well. So you have the host team, OHL champion, QMJHL champion, WHL champion, the defending champion, and the year's statistically best team all in the same tournament! Six teams playing fifteen games with five minute overtimes (3 points for a regulation win, 2 points for OT win, 1 for OT loss, 0 for being a noob), and then four teams play in a PROPER knockout tournament for the MemCup.
- Why do they bother with CHL team ranking? It's not like you get anything for being first in the nation anyway, or should you?
- What's the deal with the "Semi-Final"? There is only one 'semi-final'; what happened to the other one? Call it what it is: Playoff, wild card playoff, divisional playoff, whatever you like. Don't get all fancy throwing around "semi" because it makes the game sound more important than it is. Semi means half, so naturally you assume there is another half when there isn't. Confused? I sure am...
Maybe they will call them the "Ontario Majors of St. Michael playing out of somewhere in Michigan"...don't laugh, it's happened before (Hi Jets fans).
Sunday, May 15, 2011
From Vacation Time to Vancouver Time
It's always good to take a little time away to keep the family business from going into the red while the boss goes away on vacation.
Thanks to everyone for being so patient with me while I spent the last two weeks in charge of the office, hence there were no new blogs for "Behind Blue Lines". Just a coincidence my parents' vacation started and ended during the NHL Conference Semifinals. With the Stanley Cup playoffs now into the Final Four, I can talk hockey again ^_^
San Jose got a scare from the Detroit Red Wings after losing their 3-0 lead in games in their Western Conference semifinal series. Although they won the seventh and final game of the series, I doubt this snakebitten bunch from San Jose, who are known for choking in big games, will put up much of a fight against the Vancouver Canucks. If you are Canucks fan, you must feel pretty good: There are no New York-based teams in the playoffs, so there is a good chance of them winning Lord Stanley's Cup.
I remember the 2004 Flames, and how the whole country minus Edmonton got behind captain Jarome Iginla, gabby Craig Conroy, Martin Gelinas, Coach Sutter, and the other Hardhat Heroes in their surprise quest for the Cup. While Vancouver is the best team in the league, I don't sense the same level of national excitement over the 2011 Canucks. They are not underdogs, they don't fight against the NHL establishment led by Gary Bettman, there is no controversy surrounding the referees (unless Kerry Fraser comes back), and they never had to rally from behind during their playoff campaign. So why aren't we all followers of the Vancouver Canucks, but we stand behind the 2004 Canada Flames?
I remember when Peter Mansbridge interviewed Jarome Iginla for The National during the Cup run of 2004, and the Canada vs USA overtones before and after games during the Stanley Cup Final against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Calgary, at that time, embodied the heart of the Canadian spirit, and since there were Canadians from different backgrounds from different parts of the country one could identify with one or two of their players. I don't sense that with Vancouver: The Sedins are from Sweden, Ryan Kesler is from the States, and Roberto Luongo is from Montreal. The Canucks are an international team of superstars, so while it is easy to get behind Vancouver I have difficulty backing the Canucks.
While the Tampa Bay Lightning are fresh in my mind, I am encouraged by the Lightning model: They are a model for present and future NHL teams in the Southern United States to follow. Committed ownership backs hockey guys who know how to pick good players, and think goalie-out instead of scoring-back. Plus, none of the gimmicks which saw the Hurricanes' Stanley Cup Party of 2006 stop at the end of the parking lot of the arena. The Lightning and Bruins are two good teams with hockey guys in charge like Steve Yzerman and Cam Neely/Peter Chiarelli, respectively. The Eastern Conference Final between both teams should be a good series.
Thanks to everyone for being so patient with me while I spent the last two weeks in charge of the office, hence there were no new blogs for "Behind Blue Lines". Just a coincidence my parents' vacation started and ended during the NHL Conference Semifinals. With the Stanley Cup playoffs now into the Final Four, I can talk hockey again ^_^
San Jose got a scare from the Detroit Red Wings after losing their 3-0 lead in games in their Western Conference semifinal series. Although they won the seventh and final game of the series, I doubt this snakebitten bunch from San Jose, who are known for choking in big games, will put up much of a fight against the Vancouver Canucks. If you are Canucks fan, you must feel pretty good: There are no New York-based teams in the playoffs, so there is a good chance of them winning Lord Stanley's Cup.
I remember the 2004 Flames, and how the whole country minus Edmonton got behind captain Jarome Iginla, gabby Craig Conroy, Martin Gelinas, Coach Sutter, and the other Hardhat Heroes in their surprise quest for the Cup. While Vancouver is the best team in the league, I don't sense the same level of national excitement over the 2011 Canucks. They are not underdogs, they don't fight against the NHL establishment led by Gary Bettman, there is no controversy surrounding the referees (unless Kerry Fraser comes back), and they never had to rally from behind during their playoff campaign. So why aren't we all followers of the Vancouver Canucks, but we stand behind the 2004 Canada Flames?
I remember when Peter Mansbridge interviewed Jarome Iginla for The National during the Cup run of 2004, and the Canada vs USA overtones before and after games during the Stanley Cup Final against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Calgary, at that time, embodied the heart of the Canadian spirit, and since there were Canadians from different backgrounds from different parts of the country one could identify with one or two of their players. I don't sense that with Vancouver: The Sedins are from Sweden, Ryan Kesler is from the States, and Roberto Luongo is from Montreal. The Canucks are an international team of superstars, so while it is easy to get behind Vancouver I have difficulty backing the Canucks.
While the Tampa Bay Lightning are fresh in my mind, I am encouraged by the Lightning model: They are a model for present and future NHL teams in the Southern United States to follow. Committed ownership backs hockey guys who know how to pick good players, and think goalie-out instead of scoring-back. Plus, none of the gimmicks which saw the Hurricanes' Stanley Cup Party of 2006 stop at the end of the parking lot of the arena. The Lightning and Bruins are two good teams with hockey guys in charge like Steve Yzerman and Cam Neely/Peter Chiarelli, respectively. The Eastern Conference Final between both teams should be a good series.
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