Congratulations to the Calgary Stampeders, certainly a deserving Canadian Football League champion after that 22-14 victory over the Montreal Alouettes on Sunday.
In one of the great snoozers in Grey Cup history, Sandro DeAngelis kicked five field goals while most outstanding player Henry Burris hit Brett Ralph for a touchdown as Calgary played just well enough to beat a Montreal team that put up 0 points in the second half.
So now that we’ve laid the CFL to rest for another season (at least until Mike Kelly is named Blue Bombers’ head coach later this week or early next week), it’s tim to catch up with the NHL.
We’ll do that by giving you an update on th things we’ve nattering about on the 92-CITI-FM morning show this week…
1) We’re just about a quarter of the way into the 2008-09 National Hockey League season and if the playoffs started tomorrow, only three of the six Canadian-based teams would be participating.
In the West, Vancouver is third, Calgary is seventh and Edmonton is 10th. In the East, Montreal is fifth but Toronto is 11th and Ottawa is 12th. Both the Leafs and Senators have a combined total of 14 wins, fewer than the first-pace Rangers.
Seeing Toronto out of the playoffs is no surprise, but nobody thought that, at the quarter pole, Ottawa would have seven wins in 20 games.
2) We’ve been talking quite a lot about the deal that sent talented Lee Stempniak to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for defenceman Carlo Colaiacovo and centre Alexander Steen. A lot of Toronto fans have said good riddance to Steen, a young guy they felt was underachieving.
But while Steen always said he loved playing in Toronto, this trade is the best thing that ever happened to his career. In St. Louis, he’ll not only get some much-needed ice time (the Blues have three centres — T.J. Oshie, Paul Kariya and Andy McDonald — on the shelf), but he’ll play for a guy who adored his dad, Blues head coach and former Jets assistant, Andy Murray.
Stempniak is a worker who should help the Leafs, but Steen is a legitimate talent who will get ice time and support in St. Louis and in all likelihood will develop into an outstanding player.
3) Since we have just passed the quarter pole in this ‘08-09 NHL season, it’s probably time to look up, w-a-a-a-a-y up. To the top of the NHL’s Eastern Conference.
See who’s on top? that’s right, the Boston Bruins.
Who would have thought? The 14-3-4 Bruins have 32 points and while they’re tied with the Rangers overall, they’ve played three fewer games.
So how does it happen? Well, it would be nice to say the offensive brilliance of Marc Savard is the reason, but in fact, it’s not. It’s defence and goaltending. From Zdeno Chara to Shane Hnidy to Tim Thomas, the Bruins are No. 1 defensively in the NHL and as a result, they are the No. 1 in the East.