So now that we are a day removed from the NHL's trade deadline, or, as Tony Kornheiser put it, "a national holiday in Canada", we can objectively look back at what was, in the end, an eventful day for the league.
The Pens acquisition of Marion Hossa from the Thrashers surprised many, as the consensus seemed to be that Montreal or Ottawa were the frontrunners for the sniper's services. But with the addition of Hossa and Hal Gill to the line-up, Pittsburgh is loading up for a championship run this year, which makes sense in the wide open Eastern Conference. I only hope for their sake that trading away such great young talent as Colby Armstrong and Angelo Esposito doesn't come back to bite them.
Staying in the East, Washington seems to be priming themselves for a playoff push, likely followed by a first-round loss. The Caps picked up Cristobel Huet from Montreal for a 2nd round pick, and took Matt Cooke off the hands of the Canucks. Will either of these moves make the Capitals a contender? No. Will the addition of old man Sergei Federov from Columbus? No. But it will be fun to watch, and I for one look forward to seeing both Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin in the post-season.
In the West, Dallas and my beloved Sharks made big splashes by getting Brad Richards and Brian Campbell, respectively. However, in the deep and talented Western Conference, those moves may end up being moot. Anaheim seems poised for another Cup run, and Detroit is always strong, their recent struggles notwithstanding.
One more point on the deadline; there are a lot of people out there who blame Mats Sundin for not waiving his no-trade clause. Two things to keep in mind: first, he's not the only one, as Bryan McCabe, Tomas Kaberle, Darcy Tucker, and Pavel Kubina all did the same thing (thankfully, as Kubina was set to go to San Jose on Monday, and, if that happened, no Brian Campbell for my boys.) Second, someone who has dedicated 13 years of his life to one organization, and more importantly, one city, deserves the right to say, "I want to stay." Any Leaf fan that chooses to jeer their captain for exercising his contractual right and stay in the city he loves should be ashamed of himself. Sundin is the best Leaf of the last 10 years, and one of the best ever, and Toronto sports fans should be honoured to have him play in blue and white, not fretting over the loss of 2 top prospects and a first round pick.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
The New Liar's Club
A day after Roger Clemens and Brian MacNamee testified before Congress regarding the former's alleged steroid and HGH use, we are no closer to understanding anything about the situation at hand.
It appeared from the testimony that neither Clemens nor MacNamee has any credibility left; both were shown to be liars, or, at least, very sketchy in their recollections of the events in question.
Skipping the argument that such discussions should or should not take place under oath in front of Congress (they shouldn't), the fact remains that players such as Clemens and Barry Bonds are but two of dozens of baseball players who have taken performance-enhancing drugs.
All of this talk about baseball, by the way, takes away from the fact that football, basketball, hockey, track and field, and cyclists either are or likely are taking some sort of booster that is against the law.
It's all a matter of degrees, and the consensus seems to be that Roger Clemens taking legal drugs to boost his health to pitch are fine, and him taking illegal drugs to do the same thing is a crime beyond words.
I am not a part of this consensus.
You can say all you want about "protecting the kids", but if there are kids who decide that taking drugs like these to enhance their performance, then blame their parents, not Clemens and Bonds.
It still remains that baseball completely ignored drug use in the past 10-15 years, and they are now paying the price. Getting shady trainers to testify against superstars is not going to solve the problem, either for Congress or for baseball.
To me, there is one simple solution: acknowledge that the league screwed up, and move on. Banning players like Clemens and Bonds from the Hall of Fame ignores the accomplishments they achieved before their alleged steroid use, and the league would be better off if they admitted cupability in this mess, and led the charge from here on in to a clean sport.
Will this happen? It's about as likely as Shoeless Joe and Pete Rose getting into the Hall. But, here's hoping.
It appeared from the testimony that neither Clemens nor MacNamee has any credibility left; both were shown to be liars, or, at least, very sketchy in their recollections of the events in question.
Skipping the argument that such discussions should or should not take place under oath in front of Congress (they shouldn't), the fact remains that players such as Clemens and Barry Bonds are but two of dozens of baseball players who have taken performance-enhancing drugs.
All of this talk about baseball, by the way, takes away from the fact that football, basketball, hockey, track and field, and cyclists either are or likely are taking some sort of booster that is against the law.
It's all a matter of degrees, and the consensus seems to be that Roger Clemens taking legal drugs to boost his health to pitch are fine, and him taking illegal drugs to do the same thing is a crime beyond words.
I am not a part of this consensus.
You can say all you want about "protecting the kids", but if there are kids who decide that taking drugs like these to enhance their performance, then blame their parents, not Clemens and Bonds.
It still remains that baseball completely ignored drug use in the past 10-15 years, and they are now paying the price. Getting shady trainers to testify against superstars is not going to solve the problem, either for Congress or for baseball.
To me, there is one simple solution: acknowledge that the league screwed up, and move on. Banning players like Clemens and Bonds from the Hall of Fame ignores the accomplishments they achieved before their alleged steroid use, and the league would be better off if they admitted cupability in this mess, and led the charge from here on in to a clean sport.
Will this happen? It's about as likely as Shoeless Joe and Pete Rose getting into the Hall. But, here's hoping.
Monday, February 4, 2008
I've Never Been So Happy To Be Wrong
24 hours after the upset to end all upsets, it still seems hard to believe: New York Giants 17, New England Patriots 14. 18-0, and then...18-1.
There were, of course, many factors that gave the Giants the win: excellent pass rush, timely catches, a consistent running game, and so on, but to me, the greatest factor in the upset was the Patriots' inability to control the ball offensively. All year, Tom Brady and company were able to beat their opponents any way possible; short passes, long passes, play action, and, towards the end of the season, running the ball. On Super Sunday, Laurence Maroney was non-existent, and the Giants defense shut down everyone on the Pats' receiving corps not named Wes Welker, who, if the Pats won, would certainly have received the MVP award.
One more point on the game: I didn't have the cahones to pick the Giants, even though I wanted to. All credit to Mike Ditka, who was the only member of ESPN's countdown show to pick New York, and, of course, John Smylie, who was even really close on the final score.
Now, to copy one of my favourite writers, Chris Zelkovich, here's my Good, Bad, and the Ugly from the coverage of Super Bowl XLII:
The Good:
- Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, the Fox commentators for the game, didn't mention the Pats pursuit of perfection until about the 5 minute mark in the 4th quarter. They left the empty rhetoric to the 4 hour pregame show and focused on the game itself. Great job.
- All the postgame coverage on both Fox and NFL network focused on the Giants' win, instead of the easier trap of directing their attention to the Pats' collapse. The game belongs to the winners, and the interviews should also.
- Curt Menefee, the host of Fox's pregame show, questioned Jimmy Johnson's opinion of Bill Belichick's tactics during the season, asking if the praise of Belichick was because of the friendship between the coaches. It's not often that a host will openly question the integrity of an expert on his panel. Good work.
The Bad:
- There were two significant issues with the clock in the first half, but only one of them was from the game itself. On the Giants' opening drive, 2 minutes were suddenly taken off the clock after the commercial break. Was there a time warp or something?
- In the postgame scrum, Marshall Faulk of NFL network told Giants coach Tom Coughlin that he liked Coughlin's term of "green zone". As Faulk said it, Deion Sanders beside him rolled his eyes so far back, he could have seen the inside of his skull. Wouldn't PrimeTime realize he's on camera there?
The Ugly:
- Okay, CTV, I get it, Dexter and Jericho are debuting this month. The 20-odd commercials for each only makes me want to watch it less. Next year, mix up the ads; your viewers aren't going anywhere.
- When Bill Belichick walked off the field with 1 second left in the game, not only did Chris Myers and the rest of the reporters covering Belichick's press conference ignore the issue, no one talked about it afterwards, either last night or today. When Randy Moss walked off in Minnesota, he was villified. What Belichick did was worse, since he's in charge of his team. It was a classless move by a classless man, and the media completely ignored it.
There were, of course, many factors that gave the Giants the win: excellent pass rush, timely catches, a consistent running game, and so on, but to me, the greatest factor in the upset was the Patriots' inability to control the ball offensively. All year, Tom Brady and company were able to beat their opponents any way possible; short passes, long passes, play action, and, towards the end of the season, running the ball. On Super Sunday, Laurence Maroney was non-existent, and the Giants defense shut down everyone on the Pats' receiving corps not named Wes Welker, who, if the Pats won, would certainly have received the MVP award.
One more point on the game: I didn't have the cahones to pick the Giants, even though I wanted to. All credit to Mike Ditka, who was the only member of ESPN's countdown show to pick New York, and, of course, John Smylie, who was even really close on the final score.
Now, to copy one of my favourite writers, Chris Zelkovich, here's my Good, Bad, and the Ugly from the coverage of Super Bowl XLII:
The Good:
- Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, the Fox commentators for the game, didn't mention the Pats pursuit of perfection until about the 5 minute mark in the 4th quarter. They left the empty rhetoric to the 4 hour pregame show and focused on the game itself. Great job.
- All the postgame coverage on both Fox and NFL network focused on the Giants' win, instead of the easier trap of directing their attention to the Pats' collapse. The game belongs to the winners, and the interviews should also.
- Curt Menefee, the host of Fox's pregame show, questioned Jimmy Johnson's opinion of Bill Belichick's tactics during the season, asking if the praise of Belichick was because of the friendship between the coaches. It's not often that a host will openly question the integrity of an expert on his panel. Good work.
The Bad:
- There were two significant issues with the clock in the first half, but only one of them was from the game itself. On the Giants' opening drive, 2 minutes were suddenly taken off the clock after the commercial break. Was there a time warp or something?
- In the postgame scrum, Marshall Faulk of NFL network told Giants coach Tom Coughlin that he liked Coughlin's term of "green zone". As Faulk said it, Deion Sanders beside him rolled his eyes so far back, he could have seen the inside of his skull. Wouldn't PrimeTime realize he's on camera there?
The Ugly:
- Okay, CTV, I get it, Dexter and Jericho are debuting this month. The 20-odd commercials for each only makes me want to watch it less. Next year, mix up the ads; your viewers aren't going anywhere.
- When Bill Belichick walked off the field with 1 second left in the game, not only did Chris Myers and the rest of the reporters covering Belichick's press conference ignore the issue, no one talked about it afterwards, either last night or today. When Randy Moss walked off in Minnesota, he was villified. What Belichick did was worse, since he's in charge of his team. It was a classless move by a classless man, and the media completely ignored it.
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