khandor’s sports blog

Despite the best efforts of this corner to assert otherwise over the course of the last 2+ years, there are still a fair share of individuals who would try to suggest that the image which exists of Toronto, Canada in the hearts and minds of most American-born professional athletes is that of a backwater wasteland.

Well … for the  benefit of those people:

Why Pro Athletes Love Toronto

Today, however, Toronto is a road trip just about every pro athlete looks forward to. Some say the city has a cool, international vibe that increasingly stands out. Some like the plentitude of cheap concert tickets—a boon for athletes with big posses—or the convenience of the must-be-19 drinking law. (Rookie guard DeMar DeRozan of the Raptors, who is 20, was ordering chocolate milk at dinner before his teammates told him the good news).

Athletes get a warm welcome at the city’s relatively libertine gentlemen’s clubs which, according to a spokeswoman for the Toronto Convention and Visitors Bureau, tend to “clear out the champagne room” for visiting athletes. And it helps that the tentacles of the tabloids and gossip Web sites rarely extend this far into the frozen north. “People like to come here to party,” says Raptors power forward Chris Bosh.

Basketball stars like LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Jamaal Magloire of the Miami Heat (a Toronto native) have come to Toronto for fun—even during the NBA offseason. Since the Buffalo Bills began playing annual games at Toronto’s Rogers Centre (formerly SkyDome) in 2008, an increasing number of NFL players have started passing through “the 416,” which is the city’s area code. Baseball players, who’ve been coming here since 1977 to play the Blue Jays, have good memories.

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From a reputable source like the Wall Street Journal, no less.

Nuff said.

The Sunday afternoon a nation stood still …

… and, then, cheered as ONE.

The next instalment of the all-time great Canada-Russia hockey series will take place at 7:30 PM this evening during the men’s quarter-final match-up at the 2010 Vancouver Olmypics. 

Heroes come in a variety of different shapes and sizes.

Will there be a new one born tonight in the history of Canadian hockey?

Sometimes …

someone, although fairly non-descript by most other measures, simply seizes the moment, and somehow … 

Summit Series, September 1972

does something which is completely extraordinary.

Other times …

someone simply executes a relatively unsung role to perfection, and in the process, allows others to succeed in spectacular fashion …

Canada Cup,1987

To wit:

Keep your eyes on the far left of the screen, at the 1:31 mark of the 3rd period, when Wayne Gretzky, Larry Murphy and Mario Lemiuex begin their 3-on-1 break which eventually led to the winning goal. Pay particular attention to the ensuing slow-motion replays.

Do you see the hook play made by Dale Hawerchuk [future Hall Of Famer], on Russia’s #27, preventing him from completing his back-check?  

If Hawerchuk had not made this specific play …

Might #27 have been able to catch up to Lemiuex and disrupt the entire sequence of events?

If this infraction had been whistled by the official on the play …

Would Team Canada have still been able to score the winning goal, in the 2-on-1 situation with just Gretzky and Murphy?

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In team sports, there are always an infinite number of small, individual plays made in a game which contribute to one team, either, winning or losing.

What was once reserved exclusively for a cornucopia of US college football bowl extravaganzas has now been supplanted by the National Hockey League’s feautured regular season contest, played annually on this date, on an outdoor rink, where so many of us first learned to love the game. 

Nov 22 2003, Commonwealth Stadium

Jan 01, 2008, Rich Stadium

Jan 01 2009, Wrigley Field

Jan 01 2010, Fenway Park - Live Stream

If you’re a real “player” at-heart … it doesn’t get any better than this. 

Although this story first appeared last weekend, it deserves a special place [and a page of its own] in the “Site Map” of this blog.

The Leafs Abomination
“Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment has massive resources, which is a good thing. I’ve seen a real lack of foresight in the use of those resources to really gain a competitive advantage. Personnel, scouting procedures, processes, development, all those things,” Button says. “I couldn’t fathom how pennywise and pound-foolish they were. I mean, if development and recruiting are going to be key parts of your operation – and they need to be – well, I’ll tell you what, you blanket the earth. You use your resources. If you can’t spend some of your resources on player acquisition (because of the salary cap), you spend it on developing players. You make sure you’re as sharp as anything. In my time there, I thought that was severely lacking.”

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Kudos galore to Dave Feschuk and Michael Grange, two of the best journalists who happen to patrol a sports beat in the Greater Toronto Area.

Mandatory reading for Maple Leafs and Raptors and TFC fans everywhere!

Related:

Winning Isn’t Everything

Burke rips into Heatley, agents
“For a player to quietly and professionally ask for a trade, that’s fair ball for me. For a player to pop off and say he wants out or leak it, in my mind you are now no longer interested in your team. If you’ve done that you’ve handicapped them, you’ve handcuffed the GM,” said Burke.

“As long as you are on that team, you owe them to maximize the asset, and once you’ve taken that step, sorry I don’t accept that.”

Burke said he would not deal a player who went public with a trade request.

“I’m not blaming Dany, this could be the agent,” said Burke. “When you have players come ask you for a trade, I tell the players, `Don’t finish that sentence, because once you ask, I’m going to move you.’ If a player says `I want out,’ you’re darn right you’re going. I’m not kissing anyone’s ass to play in my town, so to hell with you, don’t finish the sentence. My second rule is: If I hear about this, then you’re not going anywhere.”

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There’s a good reason Brian Burke failed to take the Vancouver Canucks to the Stanley Cup Finals.

There’s a good reason Brian Burke ran away from the Anaheim Ducks lickady-split in the aftermath of winning just 1 Stanley Cup … built largely on the backs of players who were mostly acquired by his predecessor.

Talk like what you see above, concerning this … i.e. “Don’t finish that sentence …” and, antiquated Rules of Engagement which read like, i.e. i.e. “If I hear about this, then you’re not going anywhere.” … are the characteristics of an ‘old school’ GM who is never going to succeed in a MAJOR WAY in the modern-day world of sport which exists today.

You can WRITE that call down in STONE.

Do you see Ken Holland making statements like THAT? How about Jimmy Devellano? Or, Lou Lamoriello? Or, Jim Rutherford?

Unfortunately, the Toronto Maple Leafs will repeatedly fail to re-build their once proud franchise under the mis-guided blustery Leadership Style of Brian Burke, unable to capture multiple Stanley Cups along the way … which they most assuredly have the resources to do … even though yours truly sincere hopes that that specific call is one that comes up nothing but snake eyes in the immediate years ahead.

Making a loud to-do over NOT having ANY interest in the acquisition of a player in the situation of a Danny Heatley, who is currently employed by ANOTHER team in the NHL?

Please.

Mr. Burke needs to give his own head a good shake and get down to the nitty-gritty business of actually building the Toronto Maple Leafs.

For the first time in 38 years … now that’s a long time … Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals was won by the ROAD team.

Kudos to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2008-2009 Stanley Cup Champions, who were 6 points out of the 8th and final playoff spot, on Feb 16, with 25 games left in the regular season, when they dismissed their head coach [Michel Therrien], hired rookie Dan Bylsma, and turned their fortunes around.

The Hockey Gods smiled on the Pens last night … which is exactly what it takes to get the job done in adverse conditions against a championship-calibre opponent.

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Penguins march to glory
The kids are all right. In fact, the kids on the Pittsburgh Penguins are more than all right, they’re Stanley Cup champions.

Superstar Sidney Crosby, limping on his left leg after a second-period hit and playing just one shift in the third, became the youngest captain in NHL history to hoist the Stanley Cup when the Penguins shocked the Joe Louis Arena crowd with a 2-1 win last night over the Detroit Red Wings.

At just 21, he’s two years younger than Wayne Gretzky when the Great One first lifted the Cup.

“It was a lot heavier than I thought, but it was worth it,” said Crosby, who played only 32 seconds in the third because of his injury and watched the rest from the bench. “It’s a dream come true.

“It’s everything you imagine and more. It’s all the sacrifices you’ve made, and your parents. It’s what all your coaches have done for you.

“All these people I wanted, I wanted to do it for. And the guys sitting next to you.”

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The King is dead. Long live the King!

According to a report heard last night on The Sports Network [TSN], the last road team to win a Game Seven in the Stanley Cup Finals was the Montreal Canadiens … back in 1971, 38 years ago!

June 9, 2009 … prior to Detroit’s Game Five victory, which gave them a 3-2 lead in this series … the posted wagering line on the outcome of the Stanley Cup Finals was:

Pittsburgh Penguins +131
Detroit Red Wings -141

If told on that day these teams would be playing a Game Seven, with a posted line of:

Pittsburgh Penguins +175
Detroit Red Wings -185

Would you have felt good about the opportunity to cash in on the Red Wings at -141?

Yours truly did, most definitely.

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It should be another hum-dinger this evening, at The Joe, with the home team eventually celebrating their 5th NHL Championship in the last 12 years [excluding the lockout season].

The Detroit Red Wings, under the ownership of Mike Illich, and the expert direction of Jimmy Devellano and Ken Holland, have been a Prime Example of “How a Top Notch Organization Goes About Its Business, which just happens to be Winning.”

… then, perhaps, it’s high time the accused SHOULD be convicted.

Greed-driven MLSEL doesn’t deserve a single penny
Other than the sultans of Bay St., the days when it was possible for someone to take their family to a Leafs game ended about the same time the team paraded the Stanley Cup to city hall. Not that there has been a lot to see since MLSEL and the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund took control of sports in this city.

MLSEL is to sports what the Titanic was to shipping. It makes lots of money, it’s full of all the beautiful people — and it always ends up dead in the water.

That this business — and it is business more than it is a sports enterprise — needs protection money after it has pillaged the local populace is an utter abomination.

It is not MLSEL that needs protection from Baum. It’s southern Ontario hockey fans.

They have had to watch a franchise that was once a national icon degenerate into a corporate logo for selling everything from concerts to condos. The hockey? Abysmal. And, that’s being polite.

The MLSEL mess doesn’t stop with just hockey. Everything they touch makes an ash of itself. Show me a Raptors star and I’ll show you a guy who left town in a huff — mostly because he got tired of being surrounded by garbage year in, year out.

They were lucky. They got to leave. The fans just got a ticket renewal with a price increase.

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What’s commonly known to as, “Going Yard.”

Kudos to you, Sir!

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“But, hey, how long does it take to figure out nothing plus nothing equals MLSEL?

And that’s what they should get.”  - Bill Lankhof
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