Will this finally be Maple Leafs' year?

Jesse Joe · 09-29-2009, 10:26 AM

You got a love The Leafs ! ~gl~

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.co...article/807098

Jesse Joe · 09-29-2009, 10:31 AM

And love The Habs as well ! me & George Stromb !

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.co...article/807096

charlene · 09-29-2009, 11:18 AM

ya gotta love 'em..
and Jays are playing like they should have all year..
lol

RM · 09-29-2009, 11:55 AM

Speaking of hockey.......what's all the to-do about the Phoenix Coyotes being sold to the Canadian billionaire and moved to Hamilton ? The NHL is against it and has made a significantly lower bid for the team.

Would Hamilton be too close to Toronto ? Didn't Hamilton have a hockey team at one point ? I'm confused.

charlene · 09-29-2009, 12:39 PM

Hamilton is an hour from toronto but this area could support two teams..
the little pissant that runs the NHL doesn't like Balsillie (who owns RIM/blackberry) .
There's a great football rivalry between Hamilton and Toronto..and there's many fans in the area who also support Buffalo hockey..

RM · 09-29-2009, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlene

There's a great football rivalry between Hamilton and Toronto

Oh, that's what I was thinking of........

Thanks for the info.

Jesse Joe · 09-29-2009, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlene

Hamilton is an hour from toronto but this area could support two teams..
the little pissant that runs the NHL doesn't like Balsillie (who owns RIM/blackberry) .
There's a great football rivalry between Hamilton and Toronto..and there's many fans in the area who also support Buffalo hockey..

the little pissant that runs the NHL... Char

You have it right Char, I think it would be time for that little weasel to go try & run something else.

Hamilton,Toronto and Ottawa, all 3 teams would have their Arena full at every game. Great hockey city's...

Wondering what Gretzky is going to do next ?

Anyway Char this thursday night, it all begins famous rivalry, Montreal against Toronto
in To !

jj · 09-29-2009, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlene

There's a great football rivalry between Hamilton and Toronto..and there's many fans in the area who also support Buffalo hockey..

and Bills football, lol, not a joke actually

the TiCat / Argo rivalry typically determines who is the most and second most cruddy team in the league each season (even the lowly Winnipeg BlueBombers beat the boatmen last week)

last week when i drove by little old Ivor Wynne Stadium you could feel the old CFL post game buzz (even though it was a Montreal blowout) that used to exist back when the Argos played at CNE Stadium when they had the wooden bleachers, lakeside...they should tie a wrecking ball to the tip of the CN Tower and demo that concrete Rogers centre, yuck

do the 'Cup bound' (lol) Leafs have any Canadian born players? Kessel Shmessel....Bettman Shmettman

Jesse Joe · 09-30-2009, 05:32 AM

Will Cup come back home?

Published Wednesday September 30th, 2009

A Stanley Cup parade in Calgary or Vancouver? It could happen

THE CANADIAN PRESS

How about a Stanley Cup parade down Robson Street? Or maybe a championship celebration on the Red Mile?
The Canadian Press' hockey writers have pulled out a crystal ball to make some predictions about the upcoming NHL season and see Vancouver and Calgary as the teams most likely to end the country's 17-year Stanley Cup drought.

Roberto Luongo continues to be the cornerstone of the Canucks and has a revamped blue-line working in front of him. In Calgary, the arrival of defenceman Jay Bouwmeester should provide a major boost to a 98-point team from a year ago.

Ultimately, though, we think the champion will again come from an American city and it should be one heck of a final between two resurgent hockey markets in Boston and Chicago.

Can you imagine the excitement surrounding an Original Six matchup?
We see a Bruins team that has skill and depth at every position coming out on top of that one. That means hulking Bruins captain Zdeno Chara will lift the Stanley Cup after first helping his team win the Presidents' Trophy with the best record in the regular season.

It's bound to be a much longer year in Denver, where the Avalanche look like they could slide to last place in the 30-team league. Our biggest concern comes from the retirement of Joe Sakic and loss of Ryan Smyth, along with the lack of top-notch goaltending.
Don't be surprised to see better things from the Dallas Stars.

Everything went sour in a hurry last season, but we expect a healthy Brendan Morrow and Brad Richards to turn Marc Crawford's squad back into a playoff contender in the Western Conference.
In the East, the Carolina Hurricanes seem most likely to take a step back -- continuing their strange good-year, bad-year trend. They made it to the final four last spring but should find it tough to qualify for the post-season this year.

That could leave coach Paul Maurice in a vulnerable position and a candidate to become the first man replaced behind the bench. However, he's far from alone in that category judging by the number of coaching changes that were made last season (recall Chicago's Denis Savard getting replaced less than two weeks into the season).

There isn't any compelling reason to believe the league's major offensive awards will go to anyone outside of the Big Three -- Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin. Those players have shown they're in a league of their own, prompting us to believe the awards gala in Las Vegas will have a similar feel to last year.

We're predicting Ovechkin scores 70 goals, capturing the Rocket Richard Trophy and Hart Trophy as league MVP for the third straight year. However, Malkin should win another scoring title, taking the Art Ross Trophy largely based on his assists.

Other players will obviously make impacts.
Philadelphia's addition of defenceman Chris Pronger over the summer made headlines, but we believe another blue-liner will make an even bigger impact on his new team. Don't be surprised if Matthias Ohlund's arrival in Tampa turns out to be an important move -- particularly because he'll play with rookie Viktor Hedman, who we're installing as the Calder Trophy favourite.

The free-agent signing we see as being the biggest flop was Marian Gaborik, the oft-injured forward who's been given US$37.5 over five years from the New York Rangers. It won't be a surprise to see him collecting a big chunk of that money from the trainers' room.
The biggest hockey event of the coming months will happen with the NHL season on hiatus, when the world descends on Vancouver for the Winter Olympics. There are five or six countries that will enter that tournament with gold medal aspirations and we don't think the home side will be the one that emerges victorious.

Instead, we think Sweden will win a second straight Olympic gold.
Of course, making predictions comes with the same danger as chasing the latest trend. Eight months from now, we'll likely look back and wonder what we were thinking.

RM · 10-01-2009, 02:52 PM

Well, I see a judge has ruled out Balissie as an owner. Is there a possibility the NHL (if they can sweeten their offer) might go ahead and move the team to Hamilton anyway ?

charlene · 10-01-2009, 03:43 PM

Putting the team in Hamilton would mean butts in the seats, a new (or refurbished) arena and a great rivalry..not gonna happen tho.

from Mr. Balsillie:

To all Make It Seven supporters:
From the beginning, my attempt to relocate the Coyotes to Hamilton has been about Canadian hockey fans and Canadian hockey. It was a chance to realize a dream. All I wanted was a fair chance to bring a seventh NHL team to Canada, to serve the best unserved hockey fans in the world. I believe I got that chance. I respect the court's decision, and I will not be putting forward an appeal.
Nobody can deny that we are now a big step closer to having a seventh NHL team in Canada. It doesn't matter who owns that team. When that day comes, I will be the first in line to buy a ticket to the home opener.
I want to take this opportunity to thank my family for all their love and support. I also want to thank the more than 200,000 fans who supported the bid online and the countless others who contacted me personally to show their support. This bid always was about the game we all love.
Thank you,
Jim Balsillie

latest:
Phoenix Coyotes to Stay at Least One More Year, the 29 Fans Left Stand and Cheer by Mark Ritter
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Scribe Written on October 01, 2009
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) Vote Now! - Author Poll
Did the judge make the right decsion?

Yes No Maybe vote to see results The battle between Jim Balsillie, the NHL and, more specifically Gary Bettman, has finally come to a close.

In the end, Judge Redfield T. Baum, who had been taking his sweet-ass time ruling on the bankruptcy case, turned down bids by the National Hockey League and Research In Motion Tycoon Balsillie on Wednesday.

The decision to exclude both bids hardly comes as shock, but Balsillie’s decision not to appeal the matter did come as a shock to some.

In an emailed statement to those that supported Balsillie’s “Make it Seven” campaign, Balsillie stated, “All I wanted was a fair chance to bring a seventh NHL team to Canada, to serve the best unserved hockey fans in the world. I believe I got that chance. I respect the court's decision, and I will not be putting forward an appeal.”

Balsillie showed a lot of class in not choosing to drag the matter out in the courts any longer.

In the end, Balsillie doesn’t care who owns the team, (although with the amount of time and resources Balsillie invested I am sure he would have loved the opportunity), he just wanted to open the eyes of the NHL and its fans to the huge untapped market in Hamilton drooling at the prospect of bringing an NHL franchise to its city.

So, Where Are We Now?

The projected losses for the Phoenix Coyotes have been set around $70 million for the 2009-10 season.

Clearly, after losing over $390 million since the team was moved from Winnipeg to Phoenix, the NHL will have little choice but to move the team to another market, which is all Balsillie was trying to do in the first place—albeit in a rather aggressive manner.

For now, the NHL, which contends has had control of the Coyotes' franchise since November of 2008, will continue to support the franchise, which means the 29 other NHL owners will be on the hook for a good chunk of “quan."

To say that the NHL and its cronies have bumbled this situation from day one is an understatement.

The NHL may—in its minds, anyway—have “saved face,” but the reality is fans in Phoenix will not be showing up anytime soon and, for the most part, the NHL has come out of this with a reputation as a Mickey Mouse League.

In the end, we are right back where we started from.

The NHL and its owners will have to absorb some very big losses, there is no ownership group stepping up to purchase the Coyotes, and there is a pile of debt swirling over the Phoenix franchise and the city of Glendale.

Clearly, there are no winners here, just losers—especially the city of Glendale, the NHL, and the Phoenix Coyotes fans.

There is no way in hell that the Coyotes can survive in the desert. Relocation is the only option and I suspect they will be on the move at the conclusion of the 2009-10 season.

If the NHL thinks it can make a go of it in Phoenix, they are on a lot of non-prescription medication.

Fact is, the ship has already sunk and now it’s all about recovery. The players, the city of Glendale, the Coyotes fans, the arena staff, and the team itself will all be left for the circling vultures to dismember.

The Coyotes were 36-39-7 last season and finished 13th in the Western Conference.

I suspect the team will continue to struggle this season...mehhh, no matter—nobody will be in the stands anyways, right?

RM · 10-01-2009, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlene

for the most part, the NHL has come out of this with a reputation as a Mickey Mouse League.

Sounds right.

So I understand the ruling : the judge upheld the NHL's right to decide who owns a team and where the team is located. Might they approve another owner who also would move the team to Hamilton after the 2009-10 season ?

charlene · 10-01-2009, 04:50 PM

http://www.reuters.com/article/sport...5906J820091001

Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd, also offered to buy the team and move it to Ontario, Canada, but on Wednesday, Judge Redfield Baum of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Phoenix rejected bids by the NHL and Balsillie. Balsillie does not plan an appeal.

Baum left the door open for the NHL to resubmit its $140 million bid, after rejecting Balsillie's $242.5 million bid, saying it did not protect the NHL's right to select its owners and where teams would play.

Baum called the team's operating losses of more than $270 million from 2004 to 2008 "devastating".

"He's basically given them (the NHL) a road map on how to get the bankruptcy court's approval," said Marc Ganis, president of Sportscorp Ltd, a Chicago sports business consulting firm. "Obviously, the NHL would be foolish not to take the opening."

If the NHL buys the team, analysts said its losses would force a move because Glendale was unlikely to offer the team a deal that would make staying there worthwhile.

It is generally not expected that the NHL would retain ownership of the team for more than a year or two, which could be enough time to find an owner willing to keep it in Arizona

RM · 10-01-2009, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlene

It is generally not expected that the NHL would retain ownership of the team for more than a year or two, which could be enough time to find an owner willing to keep it in Arizona

I appreciate you passing along the info, regardless of how befuddling it is.

I understand the NHL's desire to tap into the Phoenix market, but there's already professional football, basketball, and baseball teams located there. In this economy, I see little hope for hockey to succeed.

I dunno.....Hamilton sounds like where it belongs.

charlene · 10-01-2009, 06:08 PM

Bettman (the little pissant as I call him) had dreams of putting hockey in the sunbelt..places that hockey really isn't big for fans..and fans are the ones who pay the bills. fans aren't showing up in those markets and the losses are huge.
he can't stand to be show he's wrong..and he won't give in for any reason. It's been 8 years of losses and a viable new owner with deep pockets was willing to do whatever it took to get get that team out of debt and move them to a market where all NHL team owners would make a profit..
Bettman is a small minded little man who needs to be replaced. He has caused so much ill-will within the NHL and certainly the relationship between fans and the teams...
Time for him to hit the bricks..

jj · 10-02-2009, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlene

dreams of putting hockey in the sunbelt

yeah, he (even with Gretzky's LA move years back, what a man will do for a woman) failed miserably and should have given it up a decade ago, when even the orange puck and Fox 'pinball-like' tv coverage flopped

i hope that Canucks aren't forced to watch Sat afternoon hockey playoff games again next spring...Hockey Afternoon in America could never become the ritual that HNIC is

I feel there are the same number of wonderful US hockey fans today (no more or less) than there were 40 years ago, back when there were 4 teams south of the border...i'm glad the buzz is back in Chicago

btw, to answer your question, jesse....no

Jesse Joe · 10-02-2009, 09:50 AM

I heard last winter on HNIC, that in Tampa Bay, if you bought tickets to a Lightning's game you would also have a free hamburg, hotdog & beverage to feast on while watching the game. lol

Every time the Canadiens play against Tampa Bay in Florida, they get their biggest turn out... Lot's of vacationing Quebecers in the winter months in Florida.

And of course there are more Canadiens Jerseys in the stands, than the local team.

Jesse Joe · 10-02-2009, 09:55 AM

In California, there are certain rides you go on @ Disneyland, and they gave you free tickets to a NHL hockey game ! Woopee... !!!

RM · 10-08-2009, 10:53 AM

They're not off to a very good start.

What's the logic behind awarding a point for taking a game into overtime ?

They've lost all 3 games they've played, but their record is 0-2.

I don't get it.

Jesse Joe · 10-08-2009, 11:15 AM

It's a new rule RM.

It used to be if you lost a game in overtime or no overtime, you had no points...

But now if 2 teams can make it to overtime, they each get a point and then the winner gets the other point.

After 5 minutes of overtime, if it is still tied, they go to a shoot out. One team has to win. No more tie games, either they win or they lose.

Does not make much sense to me either.

Maybe the rule was made by Char's friend 'the little pissant' ?

charlene · 10-08-2009, 01:50 PM

I HATE the shoot out..a team sport becomes a one on one game and the first three periods are moot other than stats for individual players. hate it.
And Gustavsson took the loss the other night even tho he came in when they were losing..arrghh!

jj · 10-08-2009, 05:06 PM

yeah, just like when the season went to a whopping 84 games (from 72?prior to that 50something), historic stats became skewed or meaningless

total team points in the season is now almost meaningless to me when trying to trend...the psychology it (the OT loss point) brings in to play during the last 5 minutes of reg time is interesting but odd...depends on what phase of the season and if you are playing interdivision opponent as to whether everyone coasts into OT or mroe preferably are frantically trying to win the 2 points in reg time so the opponent doesn't get the 1

i didn't know the shootout loss showed in the goalie stats, i havent been in a pool for a while to i haven't paid attention

but even though there is some new stats and trophy for the most shootout goals, those goals are NOT included in the season scoring stats ...i know that cos last time i was in a pool and Sundin scored in the shootout, i never was awarded a point!

speaking of Sundin, i find it humourous that his career ended in a "little puff" in Vancouver

jj · 10-09-2009, 06:43 AM

i guess the shootout is necessary so that tv broadcast don't over run into news time, etc

i don't enjoy it either and the all star game shootout thing is even more ridiculous, same with the NBA slam dunk, imo

i do enjoy the dropping of a player for the 4 on 4 OT though...and i think after 5 minutes, if still tied it should go to 3 on 3....etc, etc until it may just be the goalies left playing 'Showdown'...if it came to that, this is the type of shootout i would enjoy

YouTube - 78 showdown gilbert perrrault vs rick...

ahhh, memories....trivia: they used to tape the show in Markham (when it was still 'country'), it was good ice

charlene · 10-11-2009, 03:31 PM

Psychology 101 and fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/b...ple-leafs.aspx

also: comments at link.

Now for a pause while we discuss sports.

One of the lesser-recognized manifestations of the particular psychosis that afflicts fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs is the ongoing need for a bum.

The Leafs need a saviour. That much is recognized. They've been wandering in the desert for 42 years, longer even than the Israelites, and no salvation in sight. The fans, understandably, are a bit restless, and like to have a ready target on which to concentrate their bile. That's why they also need a bum.

The bum is the guy Leaf fans choose, usually from among numerous candidates, to treat as if he alone is responsible for the fact the team stinks. Leaf fans know that's not the case -- they like to think of themselves as sophisticated observers of the game, even while buying every available ticket for a losing team, so somewhere deep in their subconscious they appreciate that Leaf problems are deep-rooted, the result of decades of mismanagement, lethargic ownership and too much easy money.

But it's easier to pick a player and let loose their lungs. They hounded Larry Murphy relentlessly for the better part of two years, convinced he was too old, too slow and overrated as a defenceman. They booed him right up to the time he was traded to Detroit, where he became a key part of a team that won two Stanley Cups. Turns out it wasn't Larry's fault that the Leafs stunk; the problem was that they had such a lousy defence they had to rely too heavily on Murphy, one of the few guys with skill.

Later they homed in on Aki Berg, who had a bad habit of giving the puck to players on the other team (not that he was alone in that). They harassed Berg right out of the league: he headed home to Finland, where he was no doubt a lot happier than toiling on the Leafs blue line.

They got on Andrew Raycroft, who tied a record for wins one year and was a bum the next. Raycroft had some real issues, not least the fact that he was so even-tempered it was hard to tell whether he'd won or lost. Fans like to think the players care; a player who can shrug off one loss after another gets on their nerves. Raycroft bounced to Colorado along with Darcy Tucker, who wasn't even-tempered at all.

Lacking Raycroft to boo, Toronto fans looked around for a new stiff and decided on Jason Blake. Blake scored 40 goals for New York Islanders and signed a big contract with the Leafs as a free agent. Shortly after arriving he learned he had cancer. Leaf fans couldn't understand why that might affect his play, and weren't satisfied with his first year on the team, filling radio all-in shows with demands that he be traded or, better yet, dumped. Hah, that'll teach him. Upset by a little cancer. In his second season led the team in scoring, and flies around the ice these days like a mad housefly, but Leaf fans haven't forgiven him yet and probably won't until he helps some other team win the cup.

The latest Leaf to earn bum status is Vesa Toskala, the goalie. Toskala wasn't very good last year, which was blamed on injuries and a crappy defence. This year he's healthy and the defence has been upgraded, but he's still been letting in goals by the bushel. As usual there's an excuse: the Leafs have a new goalie coach and he's trying to get Toskala, at 33, to change his style. The guy has been playing the same style since he was five, and has had three lousy games trying to adapt to the new approach, but that's more than enough for the fans. He's a bum. He should be traded, or benched, or sent to the minors, or forced to move in with Aki Berg. Something.

The fans want the coach to play the new goalie, Jonas Gustaffson, who has completed exactly one NHL game, and part of another, in which he wasn't too bad. He lost both games and let in five goals, but he looked more confident doing it than Toskala.

Toskala is said to be ticked off, and who can blame him? Three games into the season the fans are in a panic, and the coach appears to be listening to them. The team is supposed to be in a long-term rebuilding program, emphasizing patient decision-making, but can't even wait until the end of the first week to start fiddling with the plan.

Gustaffson, who had a heart problem before he'd even started a game, now has a groin problem, so Leafdom is stuck with Toskala for now. If he wins two straight games he'll be a hero. No one ever said the fans were consistent.

RM · 10-14-2009, 05:41 PM

I found this surprising :

Cleveland, OH (AP) - A seven-year old boy was at the center of a Cuyahoga County courtroom drama yesterday when he challenged a court ruling over who should have custody of him.. The boy has a history of being beaten by his parents and the judge initially awarded custody to his aunt, in keeping with child custody law and regulation requiring that family unity be maintained to the highest degree possible.

The boy surprised the court when he proclaimed that his aunt beat him more than his parents and he adamantly refused to live with her. When the judge then suggested that he live with his grandparents, the boy cried and said that they also beat him.

After considering the remainder of the immediate family and learning that domestic violence was apparently a way of life among them, the judge took the unprecedented step of allowing the boy to propose who should have custody of him.

After two recesses to check legal references and confer with the child welfare officials, the judge granted temporary custody to the Toronto Maple Leafs whom the boy firmly believes are not capable of beating anyone.


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