Category Archives: 2010 Winter Olympics

Deadline Day Can Tell Us a Lot About the State of the NHL.

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

It was trade deadline day in the NHL Wednesday and it was a good day for… the American Hockey League’s Manitoba Moose. Amazing.

Moves by the Moose’s parent club, the Vancouver Canucks, meant that Vancouver’s AHL affiliate got to add centre Yan Stastny and veteran defenseman Brad Lukowich. That just about summed up the 2010 NHL trade deadline day. It didn’t do much at the NHL level, but quite a lot at the AHL level.

It also meant that the Ottawa Sun’s 300 rumours were all wrong. Or made up.

There were a record 30 trades made on deadline day involving 55 players and 27 draft picks and not one of them could be called a blockbuster. In fact, here was the trade deadline in one, single word: Dull.

Of course, that’s what a salary cap will do.

Because of the cap, instead of taking a big plunge in a search for stars that could lead teams to a Stanley Cup – oh, yeah, and cost a lot of money, too — the buyers made a lot of small deals that didn’t change their cap levels much. That’s why, after making seven small deals and being well under the cap, the Phoenix Coyotes were Wednesday’s big winners.

That didn’t make the other NHL owners happy, but by adding a bit to their own payroll, the Coyotes got considerably better. They acquired Derek Morris from Boston, Wojtek Wolski from Colorado, Mathieu Schneider from Vancouver and Lee Stempniak from Toronto. Sure, when a team the league bought for $140 million is likely going to lose between $50 million and $70 million this year, it would definitely piss off the some of the owners of other NHL teams because they not only have to foot the bill for the losses, but also to improve the club.

Of course, if the Coyotes don’t make the playoffs, they’ll lose the $70 million end, not the $50 million end. With only six weeks left in the season, the players acquired at the deadline won’t really cost that much.

Meanwhile, deadline day was a perfect time to illustrate the wait-until-next-decade attitude of the Toronto Maple Leafs. On Tuesday the Leafs dealt Alexei Ponikarovsky to Pittsburgh for defenseman Martin Skoula and middling prospect Luca Caputi.

The Leafs then sent Skoula to New Jersey for a fifth-round draft pick. In other words, the Leafs sent a big forward who will play on a line with Sidney Crosby – and was probably their best player — to Pittsburgh in exchange for a fifth-round pick and the slow, journeyman Caputi.

Now isn’t that an illustration of the state of the Toronto Maple Leafs?

Deadline day was good for something.

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Jonathan Toews Could be the Best Hockey Player in the World.

Posted on March 2, 2010 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

If there was one thing we learned from that wonderful Olympic hockey tournament it’s this: Winnipeg’s own Jonathan Toews could very well be the best hockey player in the world.

Amazing then, that Toews was the 13th forward selected to Team Canada and for many of the Eastern experts who “pre-picked” their own Canadian Olympic teams, Toews wasn’t good enough to be considered.

But then came the Olympics and Toews proved how good he was. Especially when the gold medal was on the line. The captain of the Chicago Blackhawks not only scored Team Canada’s first goal in the gold medal game, but for the next 2 1/2 periods, he was, consistently Canada’s best player. In the end he was named the tournament’s top forward and a tournament all-star, but more importantly, he had an Olympic gold medal and Canada was back on the top of the hockey world.

So no, Jonathan Toews is not the best goal scorer or the best passer or the best checker or the best penalty killer or the best power-play specialist or the best shooter or the best stickhandler or even the best captain. But he’s in the Top 3 in every one of those categories and if you throw in winner and leader, then he IS the best hockey player in the world.

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Spectacular Finish to a Great Hockey Tournament.

Posted on February 28, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Before the beginning of the 21st Olympic Winter Games, most hockey experts predicted it would be the greatest hockey tournament ever held. At the end of yesterday’s spectacular gold medal game, the experts were right.

What a spectacular hockey game yesterday. Sidney Crosby scored the winner midway through the overtime period to give Team Canada a 3-2 win over the United States in exactly what a gold medal hockey game should be. Fast, tough, skilled, brilliant, close.

Winnipeg’s Jonathan Toews, a tournament all-star, scored Canada’s first goal, Corey Perry scored the second and the Canadian defence hung in long enough to allow Canada’s greatest young player to win it.

As a result of that game, Canada finished the Vancouver Games with a national record 26 medals: an Olympic record 14 golds, seven silvers and five bronze medals, good for third place in the medal race and tops in golds. And it came to end after one of the finest hockey games ever played.

Interestingly, Crosby was the hero yesterday, but no one had any doubt that U.S. goalie Ryan Miller was the best player in the tournament.

While Crosby’s overtime winner gave Canada a wonderful victory, Miller was named the tournament’s most valuable player and the best goaltender in the Olympics. Miller also made the final tournament All-Star team alongside teammates Brian Rafalsk and Zach Parise, Canada’s Toews and Shea Weber and Slovakia’s Pavol Demitra.

Once again, it was a sensational gold medal game — a sensational game that ended a sensational tournament. Twenty years from now, you’ll remember where you were when Sid the Kid scored the winner.

Bravo.

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Vancouver Olympics Coming to an End. Will This Be the Last Big Media Olympics in North America?

Posted on February 27, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

One big hockey game to go. And, yes, despite Pavol Demitra being only a crossbar away from a potential Canadian collapse and a Slovakia-USA gold medal game, I still believe Canada will bounce back, beat the Americans and get a chance to party like they’re female hockey players.

Someone asked me on Saturday if enjoyed the Olympics. Well, that’s a tough question. I loved the hockey. Period. I enjoyed some of the sports with the mute button on. Others? If the Olympic gold medal was on the line in a judged sport (figure skating, aerials, moguls, short-track — which shouldn’t be a judged sport but from what we saw in Vancouver, it is — etc.) and they decided to hold it in my backyard, I wouldn’t open the drapes to watch it. Judging at every possible level of sport is so frustratingly phoney, it’s just impossible to watch without laughing out loud.

Other than that, I did enjoy the Games. Especially ski cross, snowboard cross and long-track speedskating. I also enjoyed all of them with no sound on the TV. Frankly, if CTV and TSN had just one announcer  per sport — one of the professional play-by-play guys like Rod Black or Rod Smith (especially Rod Smith) — the Games would have been quite enjoyable. But when Catriona LeMay Doan or one of the other fawning, bullshit artists opened their mouths, I wanted to gag. Thank the lord for the mute button.

As my pal Mike Richards said on the Fan 960 in Calgary last week, “Here was a typical comment by one of the CTV analysts: ‘Yes, Rod, what a wonderful athlete who has worked so hard all her life for this special moment because you know Rod, winning is better than losing. That’s right Rod, winning is good. Losing isn’t good. We like winning, Rod. All Canadians like winning. She likes winning. Winning is better than losing.’”

Click.

After all that phoney pre-Olympic hype, the I-Believe-Own-the-Podium hogwash, the Games were a nice diversion. But will this be it for big, popular Winter Games?

These Vancouver Games were huge. It was in North America, in a great city, and the North American media was all over it. But with newspapers struggling mightily, with TV networks (in Canada, at least) cutting to the bone and losing big money and with all those shoestring internet operations trying to save every penny to pay for content, the people who travelled to Vancouver aren’t going to go to Sochi, Russia in four years. Especially for a Games that will be held with a nine-hour time difference (to CST).

Meanwhile, only three cities in the world have shown any interest at all in 2018.

It was fun to celebrate Canada’s performance in Vancouver. After all, it was an Olympics held in prime time. But do you remember what happened in Turin? Did you watch much of that at all hours of the night? Will you stay up to 3 a.m., 4 a.m. to watch in Sochi? And if the NHL chooses not to participate, will you even bother with hockey?

A lot can happen by 2014, but right now, I’d say this Vancouver Winter Olympics was the last great North American party for a long, long time.

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Nicholson Defends Women’s Olympic Hockey. Logic Dictates he Is Wrong.

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Full disclosure: I like Bob Nicholson. A lot. No one has ever done more for Canadian international hockey than he has. Ever. He’s the greatest Hockey Canada (or Canadian Amateur Hockey Association) president of all time. And this, coming from a guy who had enormous respect for Murray Costello.

It takes no argument for me to agree with anything Bob Nicholson says. Except today.

As long as the IOC has decided to drop women’s softball and not allow women’s ski jumping in the Olympics, Jacques Rogge is right. You have to put women’s hockey on notice. The Olympic tournament was a dual-meet at best and a sick joke at worst. As Canada and the United States continue to improve dramatically, the rest of the world gets worse.

Start with the semifinals. The U.S. embarrassed 2006 silver medalist Sweden 9-1 while Canada made quick work of Finland — the third best team in the world — 5-0. Heading into the final, Canada had outscored its opposition 46-2 while the United States had outscored its opposition 40-2. That’s not a competition. It’s a four-game default disguised as a hockey tournament.

On Friday, Nichoson did exactly what he had to do. He defended women’s hockey. It’s his job even though he knows he doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Nicholson told the Canadian Press, ”Rogge should watch hockey more than just at the Olympics because it is getting better.”

Really? Rogge’s position means his interest is in the Olympic tournament and only the Olympic tournament — as it should be. The rest of it doesn’t matter. Canada and the U.S, have completely dominated women’s hockey since the discipline was admitted to the Winter Olympics in Nagano in 1998. The only time the U.S. and Canada did not appear in the gold medal final was in Torino in 2006 when the Swedes (who seemed to be improving at the time) upset the U.S. and then got drilled by Canada in the gold medal game.

Since then, Sweden has gone backwards while Canada and the U.S. have improved even more dramatically than one might imagine.

“There must be at a certain stage an improvement, we cannot continue without improvement,” Rogge said. ”There is an improvement in the number of nations and we want to see this wider.”

Women’s hockey has a problem. There are only two Olympic-level countries. The IOC kicked out women’s fast pitch softball even though a dozen countries were nipping at the heels of the dominant Americans. Once softball was dumped, you had to figure women’s hockey was next on the IOC’s radar.

Thursday night’s Canada-U.S. game was terrific. The rest of the tournament was a horrible, sick joke. It was a waste of time, effort and money. This isn’t 1930 anymore. If other countries can’t compete after a dozen years and as Cassie Campbell pointed out on CTV, the funding in other countries has either stopped or been limited, then what’s the point? Get rid of it.

Although, I’ll admit, if the IOC decided to allow Canada and the U.S. to play a best-of-seven Olympic championship in 2014, I could go for that.

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Why Worry? We Didn’t. Canada Will Win Gold.

Posted on February 25, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Did we not tell you? There was nothing to worry about. This Canadian men’s hockey team at the Games of the 21st Winter Olymooad is about as good as it gets.

It only took a little controlled scrimmage against Germany on Tuesday night to get all the ducks in line.

After what happened on Wednesday night, I just hope our Canadian boys are practicing their podium dance.

For the first time in 50 years, Canada has beaten Russia in an Olympic hockey game. The last time Canada beat Russia in an Olympic hockey game, it was Squaw Valley in 1960. However, for what we got to watch Wednesday night, it was well worth the wait.

Corey Perry scored twice as Team Canada drilled Russia 7-3 in a quarterfinal match that had a lot of Canadians worried. But why? This was a dominating performance by the Canadians who outshot their old rivals 42-28. Canada will now meet Slovakia — that’s right Slovakia — in the semifinal on Friday night. Slovakia managed only 14 shots on goal but still beat defending gold medalist Sweden 4-3 in the late game Wednesday, a game that ended on Thursday morning.

In the other semifinal, the United States will face Finland. The Canada-Slovakia semi goes tomorrow at 8:30 live on 92-CITI-FM.

Well, you know what? If Sidney Crosby, Chris Pronger, Joe Thornton and Scott Niedermayer show up for this Olympic hockey series on Friday, there is no telling what Canada will do to its opposition.

On Wednesday, during that 7-3 win over the Russians, Drew Doughty, Jonathan Toews, Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaff, Shea Weber and Duncan Keith, the younger players on the team, were absolutely outstanding as Canada moved into the semifinal. If the the big, veteran stars show up and play to their potential this weekend, no other team will be close.

When you consider that on Tuesday night, Head Coach Mike Babcock was able to work out his line matchups, get his team some confidence with Roberto Luongo in goal and just allow his boys to go out put up an eight-spot in that game against Germany, it was almost a lock that in 24 hours the Canadians would follow that up with another big win. They’re on a roll now and that roll started on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, as we expected, Canada blew out the Russians and now our country’s best hockey players have a nice, clean skate to the gold. Stop worrying, friends.

Here’s my only prediction: It will be Canada-Finland on Sunday afternoon.

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No Worries. Shootout Win is Hardly the End of the Games.

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

In the end, they won. Team Canada, beat the Swiss 3-2 in a shootout in their second game of the 2010 Winter Olympics Thursday night and avoided a potentially embarrassing scenario.

Not surprisingly, for many Canadians this was a traumatic experience, but if you stop and think about it, it’s par for the course. Even when the Canadians won gold in 2002 in Salt Lake, they didn’t rip it up early in the tournament. In fact, Canada was lucky to qualify for the quarterfinals after losing 5-2 to Sweden, sneaking out a 3-2 win over Germany and tying the Czechs 3-3. Then Canada barely beat the Finns (2-1) in the quarters. However, Sweden lost 4-3 to Belarus in their quarterfinal match (the upset of the Century can happen to anybody) and Canada got a free pass (7-1) into the finals.

So on Thursday, Canada was taken to a shootout by a well-coached team with great goaltending, a team that gave the Americans a run for their money in a 3-1 loss.

Sure, on paper the Swiss team can’t match up to Canada and every number, except the one on the scoreboard, suggested they did not. Canada outshot the Swiss 46-23 and had absolute territorial control, but give the Swiss — and especially their coach — some respect. Steinbach’s Ralph Krueger, once again, did a tremendous job to convince his team to play aggressively and with abandon — especially on the penalty kill — against a better opponent. It’s what the Olympics are supposed to be (would you rather have the lopsided mess in women’s hockey?) and we should congratulate the Swiss, not rip the Canadians.

Let’s face it, Jonas Hiller, one of the best goalies in the NHL, played brilliantly, and what might have been a 10-2 blowout turned out to be a 2-2 tie. It happens. Goalies can win hockey games all by themselves.

Frankly, this just sets up the opportunity for a wonderful game on Sunday night. Canada-USA will be sensational and even though Canada is already through to the quarterfinals, this will be an important statement game against a very good opponent.

And guess what? Canada will have to watch out for Ryan Miller, the U.S. goaltender who, like Hiller, is one of the best in the game. This isn’t going to be easy.

So go get your Team Canada jersey, pop open a Coke and tune into CTV for Sunday night’s battle. I guarantee, it will be the highlight of your Olympic weekend.

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My Bad. Wrong Guy.

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Evidently, I screwed up.

It wasn’t James Duthie who started the excuse machine (see yesterday’s rant), but it was someone. My eyes are not as good as they once were, but my ears are still pretty good.

I received this missive from Greg McIsaac at TSN:

Hi Scott,

In your blog at rivercitysports.com yesterday you quoted James Duthie as saying “We shouldn’t blame the athletes for failing to win medals at these Games.  It’s not all about medals.”  At no point has James Duthie said (or hinted) anything close to this.  We would appreciate if you would write a retraction and or an apology on your blog.

While we appreciate your right to criticize our broadcasts, we would also appreciate you ensuring that your facts are accurate before publishing them.

Thank you,

Greg McIsaac
Director of Communications, TSN

Greg, you’re welcome. I’ll go back through my PVR and make the correction. For now, it wasn’t Duthie. But it WAS somebody.

Let’s not make excuses for athletes when in fact, it wasn’t the athletes who created this “I-Beleive-Own-the-Podium,” hogwash. Canadians were sold a bill of goods. Canadians were led to believe there were a load of medals out there, when it’s now becoming very clear that the Winter Olympics isn’t that easy.

To win seven medals, three gold, in the first eight days of the Games is miraculous. A little truth in advertising would have made this entire exercise much more enjoyable.

For now, my apologies to Duthie who is a great broadcaster. I will find the exact source and address it accordingly.

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Uh, Oh. The Hype is Catching Up

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Vancouver, we have a problem.

Earlier this week, CTV’s/TSH’s James Duthie hinted that “We shouldn’t blame the athletes for failing to win medals at these Games. It’s not all about medals.”

Oh, really?

Thursday night, David Pelletier and Elizabeth Manley nearly wept when Canadian figure skater Patrick Chan fell on his behind. The excuses for Chan’s missed opportunity were vomit-inducing.

We talked about this before the Olympics began. The Canadian government started it all with the silly “Own the Podium” program. Then CTV and TSN created that absolutely ridiculous I Believe campaign, suggesting Canada could win the Medal Count (all we had to do was believe) and choosing a group of Canadian athletes that were “destined” to be medal winners.

Many weren’t. Others were.

Regardless, Canada has done very well at the Games. Granted, Canada’s athletes have not owned the podium, but fourth place for a country of 30 million is pretty decent. However, what the national media promised Canadians has not come to pass. Now, the national media is starting to rev up the excuse machine.

No wonder I’ve been watching most of these Games with the mute button on.

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Another Day of Olympic Glory

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Thoughts from an Olympic television junkie…

Thought about going to my local Cineplex to watch the Team Canada-Norway game on the big screen at the theatre. Sally and I even drove over to inquire about prices. $11.45 to watch daily with come-and-go privileges and $34.95 for a full Olympic pass.

Pass.

I bought this big HDTV for a reason and as fun as it might sound, watching hockey in a theatre with a bunch of other Team Canada fans, it wasn’t worth $23. Especially after it became clear that we might be the only ones in the theatre.

So back home we went, huddled down in front of the big TV, popped our own corn and got ready to yell Go, Canada, Go! (No, not that stupid corporate cheer that the “I Believers” wanted us to yell).

Two things from Tuesday…

1) If pairs and men’s figure skating is any indication, then Will Ferrell’s Blades of Glory was a documentary.

2) The men’s Olympic hockey tournament opened and to no one’s surprise, Team Canada walloped Norway 8-0.

The Canadians got off to a slow start, but once the Norwegians were spent (boy, those guys came out hard in the first period) and almost as soon as Canadian head coach Mike Babcock put Jaroma Iginla on a line with Sidney Crosby and Rick Nash, the Canadians exploded.

Iginla finished with the hat-trick, Crosby had three helpers and Roberto Luongo had to make only 15 saves to record the shutout. Canada outshot Norway 42-15 and it probably could have been a lot worse, but a number of tipped shots just whistled wide.

It was the most goals Canada has scored in an Olympic game since the NHL was permitted to participate in 1998 and yet, still, if I were a tall forehead with the Edmonton Oilers, I’d find a way to acquire Norwegian goalie Pal Grotnes.

Canada plays the Swiss on Thursday. We won’t be going to the theatre.

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