Thursday, October 18, 2007

 

Recommended Reading

Today's column by Bruce Dowbiggin in the Herald is excellent (precisely the right amount of colourful rhetoric), and a terrific rebuttal to Mark Spector's meanderings the other day (as designed, no question).

Tyler makes some excellent points On Blogs and the Media.

That noted, my favourite piece at mc79hockey recently is Dennis' Coming Back Boulerice.

Lastly, Al Maki brings up the Alex-for-Alex trade rumour at Globe on Hockey, and Mirtle and the Hat do a nice job of swatting it away. Two things I didn't know when I wrote about this yesterday: 1) Tanguay has a no-trade clause, and 2) this rumour first surfaced before training camp started.

Surely Tanguay can't help but be a bit insulted by all this. For one, the idea that he'd be traded for a significantly inferior player. And secondly, it would appear that -- seriously -- some person or people just looked at things in June/July and said, "Hey! Tanguay's a wuss, and Keenan's a hardass -- I bet he'll be looking for a trade where he can continue to be a wuss without fear of reprisal!" It's ridiculous.

Flames and Oilers both play tonight. I believe Andy is in the basement, so feel free to use this thread for game predictions and comments as the urge arises.

Comments:

Coming off four days' rest and contemplation, the Oilers will maul the Coyotes in the first period, then settle in for a comfortable 5-2 win. Goals by Cogs, Gagner, Horcoff (2), Hemmer.
 


Matt, Bruce's article is a great read and does bring up a good point. But what is does not answer is that have player wages been hurt by the new collective bargaining agreement? So far the answer has been no.
 


"Excellent" and "Bruce Dowbiggin" never go together. Especially when he is proudly showing off his union jacket.
 


But what is does not answer is that have player wages been hurt by the new collective bargaining agreement? So far the answer has been no.

Really? I thought that the NHL told us that they made 75% of revenue before and now they're stuck at 55%. How is that not a hurt on player wages?
 


I would guess because revenues have grown considerably over the past 2 1/2 years?
 


The way Dowbiggin spelt Roloson's first name makes my head hurt.
 


I mean, Tanguay is a pussy. So, you know...
 


Dowbiggin spots Mark Spector crossing the blue line with his head down:

Because they can't distinguish between the NHL and The Game. One's a business, the other's a myth perpetuated by Hockey Night In Canada. One's a faded imitation of every scheme tried by the NFL, NBA or Major League Baseball and the other's a column about protecting the sacred trust of The Game by pointing to the charade of the Levitt Report.

If journalism had Rock 'Em Sock 'Em collections this would go with the opening credits.
 


(P.S. Tanguay's a wuss)
 


So is Hemsky
 


Good game by the Flames. I thought, aside from the 5 on 3's, that they looked pretty good. The two penalties which caused the 5 on 3's were mostly bad luck as rolling pucks simply flew in unexpected directions for Regher and Phaneuf.

Some more thoughts - The PPV broadcast still sucks. Most notably the league scoreboard was simply awful. Apparently Ovechkin scored a goal for New Jersey in a game where they got shut out, so that's pretty interesting. Also, they had Guerin spelling Guirin. Very amateurish.

Aucoin did not have a good game. He must have flubbed half a dozen clearing attempts. He also seemed to have a lot of trouble hitting the net. Also, even though he's no great shakes, I was glad to see Hale in the lineup instead of Eriksson. Eriksson needed to be punished for that godawful performance against Colorado.

Huselius looked great, again. Also, anyone who says Tanguay is a wuss clearly didn't see him be the first man into the scrum after Thornton punched Iginla in the head.

Go Flames!
 


RAFFIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!
 


I believe this keeps the Flames record of 2goal scorers intact as Langkow potted a pair tonight. I know its early but Daymond is chugging along at a goal a game pace.
 


Daymond had 2 goals and a Gordie Howe Hat Trick.

According to the post game show on the Fan, the Flames set some sort of record with 7 consecutive games with a 2 goal scorer. Which seems like a pretty weird record for anyone to have kept track of. But whatever. They will no doubt extend it on Saturday with at least 4 players scoring two or more goals in a 13-1 romp over the Oil.

Go Flames.
 


What was with Iggy doing the Tootoo Flop on that play with Thornton tonight? That was very un-Iggy.
 


Well that's ten minutes of my life that I won't get back.

Because they can't distinguish between the NHL and The Game. One's a business, the other's a myth perpetuated by Hockey Night In Canada. One's a faded imitation of every scheme tried by the NFL, NBA or Major League Baseball and the other's a column about protecting the sacred trust of The Game by pointing to the charade of the Levitt Report.

Stunningly bad journalism, and less "rock'em sock'em" than "lightweight slap fight".

I do wish Dowbiggin would educate us on why the Levitt report is a charade. Of course than would rewuire him to read it (unlikely) and understand it (even more unlikely.

.

I heard Stauffer on the radio the other day joking about the labour dispute in the NLL (Lacrosse). After joking about how nobody cares anyways, and admitting he hadn't followed it at all, he remarked that the players must be idiots. His sidekick du jour commented that he thought it was the SOB union leader (whose name he didn't know) leading them down the garden path.

If some sports guy on CHED was spouting off with the same level of ignorance, but taking the opposite side (those evil bastard owners!) ... would that make it better or worse?
 


How many people even know what the centre of the labour debate is? As I understand it, it's the owners wanting status quo, plus minor pay hike for players, while the players want to get rid of the salary cap (which does, in fact, keep them from making enough to survive -- marquee players apparently only make about $25K/yr and it goes down from there).

What gets me is, was it necessary to axe the season right from the get-go? I mean, this is indoor lacrosse. Weather is not a factor as it would be for, say, field lacrosse. Fine, you're running into the NHL playoffs, which might cause a conflict (since I know several people who are lacrosse and hockey fans), but is that enough? Does this accomplish more than the Bettman strategy, to maintain hope until the last? Is it more efficient? Or is it a form of capitulation? And how does this affect the NLL's efforts to bring lacrosse into the mainstream? I remember during the NHL lockout, they played the All-Star Game here in Calgary and broadcast it on NBC. The NLL now has a deal with Versus, but have not been seen on broadcast since. Where do they go from here?

So many good questions that would make for some good discussion. But apparently, even though lacrosse is just as much "our" sport as hockey is, a single own-goal in the middle of October is more important than the cancellation of an entire season of a professional sport. Too bad.
 


BoA v1.0 2nite. Perfect time for a post guys...
 

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