Tie Domi, one of the biggest cheapshot artists skating on NHL ice, was up to his usual tricks again. With less then a minute left in tonight's game, Domi decided to attack Shaun Van Allen for no apparent reason. Nevermind that Van Allen is wearing a full visor because of a facial injury. Nevermind that if he wanted a fight Chris Neil was on the ice at the time.

I wonder if the next time Domi gets suspended he'll call another press conference to cry like a little girl. (0) comments

For tonight's Ottawa-Toronto matchup, CBC decided to switch up the usual team of Bob (Cole) & (Harry) Neale. The new crew consisted of Chris Cuthbert on play by play, Neale on colour (of blue) commentary and Glen Healy on the newly created position of ignorant Leaf homer. After listening to the game tonight, even Sens fans are longing for the days of Bob and Neale alone.

Neale and Healy were brutal. Whoever decided to pair these two up on a national broadcast should be tortured in the most painful manner possible. It was impossible to judge Cuthbert's call because he barely got a chance to do his job. Cuthbert got stuck with twin boat anchors on the broadcast.

It seemed like Neale and Healy were having a love in to decide who could be crowned the president of the Maple Leafs booster club. They would ramble on for minutes while the play was on about nothing of any interest. Healy would try and crack jokes which were as funny as a funeral.

Neale and Healy appeared to be watching a completely different game then the one that the CBC was showing. After Marian Hossa was blatantly elbowed in the face by Brian McCabe to the extent that Hossa had a bright red mark the size of an elbow on his face, Neale stated while watching the replay that, "McCabe might have gotten the elbow up".

Neale started off the night talking about the "Battle of Alberta" and stayed at that level of consistancy the rest of the night. He declared that Lalime had better stats in the regular season then the playoffs even though Lalime has a better career goals against average, save percentage and winning percentage in the playoffs then he does in the regular season.

If Glen Healy was never heard from again, it would be too soon. (0) comments

Tyler Wright is claiming that Jordin Tootoo bit him during last night's Nashville-Columbus game. Tootoo is claiming he doesn't know if he did or he didn't but that Wright had his hand in Tootoo's face.

Hey Tyler! If you don't want your hand getting bitten then keep it on your stick! There's no way that anyone, even those from way up north, are going to be able to get their teeth into your fingers if you've got your gloved hand wrapped around your stick. (0) comments

Ottawa lost out to Vancouver to host the 2006 World Junior Championships.

According to tsn.ca, Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson, chairman Allan Matthews, and Canadian Hockey League commissioner David Branch are the voting members on the selection committee.

I wonder if it is a coincidence that two of the three voting members are from British Columbia? Or that Bob Nicholson is a former college teammate of Canucks President, Brian Burke? (0) comments

While being interviewed by Dave Hodge on TSN, Gary Bettman said that a new CBA structure was needed to fix all the league's problems which "are obvious to everyone" claiming that 76% of the league's gross revenues go to the players. He claimed that the biggest problem right now in discussions is that the PA doesn't want to discuss how much of a share the players should get.

I don't doubt that the players don't want to discuss a percentage of the revenues. How can they believe someone who twice during the interview brought up affordable ticket prices as a goal of the new collective bargaining agreement? Anyone who's taken an economics course at university should understand that the CBA has nothing to do with ticket prices. Ticket prices are dictated by what the owners think can bring them in the most money. That is all based upon consumer demand. Smart businesses don't project revenues to cover expenses - they project revenues to be maximized.

If Gary Bettman can make baldfaced lies on national television, why should the PA believe anything else he has to say? How can they? The only way they see they get their fair share is through a system that allows teams to spend whatever they can afford to spend. They don't want to negotiate a share of the gross revenues because who knows how accurate those figures are. It's like negotiating with a car saleman. What he tells you the dealership paid for the car and what they actually paid for it could be two totally different things.

Some people are going to say that all the two sides need to do is get an accounting firm to do an independent audit of the books. I got three words for that. Arthur, Anderson and Enron. (0) comments

The dumbest rule in hockey, and one that should be changed ASAP, in my opinion is the rule that nullifies a powerplay if the attacking team scores during a delayed penalty.

Why should a team lose their powerplay just because they were able to score while having the same number of players on the ice as their opponent? If a team can take advantage of being able to pull their goalie, they shouldn't lose out on a powerplay.

Take this situation. A player is going in on a breakaway with the opposing defenceman right behind him. The defenseman give the player a nasty two hander across the hands which the referee raises his arm to signify a penalty. The player shrugs off the slash and beats the goalie for a goal. Since he scored, the penalty is nullified but the player would have scored regardless of the slash. Shouldn't the defenceman pay for his offence? (0) comments

the Phoenix Coyotes. In my books anyways.

I love the simplicity of the design and the logo. I love the distinctive colour. I wouldn't be upset if they lost the shoulder patch with the Arizona flag but otherwise I think it's great.

Brick red and white as a team's colours. Modern yet basic. Someone could point that out to the Atlanta Thrashers with their blueberry yogurt third jersey that features a kaleidoscope of colours.

(0) comments

I've noticed a strange occurance this year at the Corel Centre this year. I've seen people wearing Toronto Maple Leaf gear to games at the Corel Centre on Saturday nights when Ottawa's opposition isn't Toronto. Last Saturday the Sens were blowing out the Rangers at the Corel Centre while the Leafs were in Montreal facing their historic rivals in a meaningful matchup.

So why were there two guys wearing Leafs gear in the row in front of me cheering for the Rangers? And it wasn't like they were with other people who might be Senators fans. They came alone. Why wouldn't they be watching the Habs and Leafs on CBC?

I don't really know for sure but I can speculate on the reasons.

They hate the Sens more then the Leafs so they'd rather cheer against the Sens then cheer for the Leafs.

They find Senator games more exciting to watch then Toronto games.

They like paying $4.50 for a mediocre beer.

They like to ogle the ice girls and Brigitte, the perky young airhead that's the ingame host at the Corel Centre.

Who knows for sure, but I tend to laugh when Leaf fans on discussion boards talk about Senator fans' obsession with the Leafs.

# posted by BlackRedGold : 11:29 AM

(0) comments

Ted Leonsis appears to be passionate about his Washington Capitals. Unfortunately, he took things a little far recently by getting into an altercation with a fan.

Leonsis has been taking a lot of heat from Capital fans because of the team's performance. But that doesn't excuse getting into physical confrontations with fans.

Leonsis seems to be involved in all the trade discussions that the Capitals are having. From media reports it appears that GM George McPhee has to run all his trades by Leonsis first.

I understand that Leonsis wants to win. I understand that Leonsis cares about the team. But Leonsis isn't the guy who should be deciding who the Capitals put on the ice. He also shouldn't be putting his hands on one of the dwindling number of Capital supporters.

I think now is the time for Leonsis to sell the team and take a step back. There's nothing saying you can't be a fan if you're a former owner. You can afford a suite. You just can't afford to keep running your franchise into the ground. (0) comments

In the upcoming CBA negotiations the league wants "cost certainty" which appears to mean a salary cap, while the players are opposed to this concept. As a fan I'm also opposed to a hard cap for all teams because it will mean forced mediocrity. A team gets too many good players and they can't afford to keep them all under the cap. But the league wants to find a way to stop a team from spending millions on mediocrity like the Rangers. Here is my solution.

Put a salary cap on teams that don't make the playoffs. If you missed out on the playoffs last year, you can't spend as much as you want the next year. The playoff teams can spend what they want. In the examples I'm using below, the numbers don't mean much. I don't pretend to know where things should be negotiated. They are just ballpark ideas to clarify the example.

I think the best way might be to even make it a two tiered cap. Teams that have a chance at the first pick overall, can have a salary cap of $25M while teams that don't make the playoffs but don't get a chance at the first overall pick in the draft lottery get a salary cap of $30M.

This will force a bad but expensive team to rebuild. The Rangers won't be able to sign free agents. They'll have to draft and develop young players to have a hope while they can blame the league for "forcing" them to ignore the free agents.

The players association probably wouldn't object significantly to this. Usually, the teams bidding on the top free agents are the better teams in the league. The market won't change significantly. There will still be a free market with over half the teams in the league.

My solution to handling the problem of a team over the cap works like this.

A dispersal draft for all teams over the cap when training camp starts.

Each team will have to provide a list of players that when removed from the roster will get the team under the cap.

The team losing the player is still on the hook for all of his salary minus the league mininium which the drafting team will assume. This will ensure that overpaid players can be moved.

The draft will have the reverse order of the entry draft (i.e. Cup winner first then order of standings). This will pressure teams to trade for players before the draft so that the Cup winner doesn't benefit.

If the team doesn't lose enough players to get under the cap, they'll have to continue to provide players to the draft until enough players are taken to get them under the cap.

# posted by BlackRedGold : 10:27 AM

(0) comments

It seems that most reports dealing with the Rangers talk about how they have lots of talent but no chemistry or they've got lots of offense but no defence or goaltending.

How about they don't have much of anything except players who used to be a lot better then they are now?

Forwards reach their prime around 26. All the Rangers big name forwards haven't seen that age in a long time. They might have been really good back at 26 but now they're just mediocre to good. And to win in the NHL you have to have really good players who are really good now. Otherwise, someone could dominate the league by signing Gretzky, Coffey, Kurri, Bossy, Trottier, Fuhr, Potvin, Lafleur, Howe, etc and put them in the lineup.

It's talent not chemistry that's the Rangers problem.

(0) comments