Category Archives: Blog

Is Cheveldayoff Waiting for the Future? Or Should the Future Be Now?

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
Blake Wheeler 264x300 Is Cheveldayoff Waiting for the Future? Or Should the Future Be Now?

Blake Wheeler heads to the net.

TAMPA — Watching the Winnipeg Jets get shut out in Montreal on Sunday afternoon should have been the last straw for those Winnipeg Jets fans who would actually like to see their team in the playoffs this spring.

Patience is wonderful. All Jets fans understand that the plan from the start of this season was to build slowly and surely through the draft, develop the players in the system and see where the concept would lead.

Unfortunately, the Jets brass also said it expected to make the playoffs this year. That was the goal: Make the playoffs in 2012.

Sadly, if the Jets don’t get a scorer or two between now and the trade deadline on Feb. 27, it’s unlikely that part of the bargaining will be kept.

We’ll say it one more time: The Winnipeg Jets can’t score goals. Period. Sunday afternoon at the Bell Centre in Montreal, the Montreal Canadiens shut out the Jets 3-0. Winnipeg hard chances to score, they simply couldn’t finish.

As a result, the Jets finished a four-game post-all-star-break road trip by scoring three goals in regulation time in four games to finish the trip 2-2-0. Carey Price made 23 saves to get the shutout on Sunday while Thomas Plekanec led the Habs with a goal and an assist. It’s not like the Habs had been setting the NHL world on fire. They’d lost three straight going in and were dead last in the East.

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Captain Andrew Ladd has 16 goals, but he hasn't scored in his last seven games and has one in his last 10.

The 24-24-6 Jets are still in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, six points behind eighth-place Toronto and five back of the Florida Panthers, the first place team in the Southeast Division.

All is not lost. At least, not yet. But at some point, this Jets team will have to figure out a way to score some goals. Consider this:

1) The Jets are the lowest scoring team in the NHL’s Eastern Conference, averaging just 2.38 goals per game. The Islanders are averaging 2.43 goals per game while the Buffalo Sabres are averaging 2.41 goals per game.

2) Since the all-star break, the Jets have won 2-1 in a shootout (Philadelphia), 2-1 in overtime (Tampa), lost 2-1 in regulation (Florida) and lost 3-0 (Montreal). They have three goals in regulation and four if you add in 10 minutes of overtime.

3) The team;’s leading scorer, Blake Wheeler, has 10 goals and 35 points and is 77th in scoring in the NHL. The team’s leading goal-scorer, the concussed Evander Kane, has 18 goals and is tied for 39th in the NHL. Andrew Ladd has 16 goals, but he hasn’t scored one goal in the past seven and has only one in the last 10.

4) The Jets, as a team, are minus-21. That’s 24th in team plus-minus in the NHL.

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The Jets need Evander Kane to come back and score.

5) Since the New Year, the Jets are 5-10-1. They have scored 22 goals in regulation time in those 16 games. they have been shut out four times and are 3-3-0 in 2-1 games. All three of their wins have come in extra time.

Defensively the Jets have been solid. No one can argue that the Winnipegs play hard. Ondrej Pavelec and Chris Mason have both been outstanding in goal, as well. But unless this team can start to score more than one goal a game on a consistent basis, it won’t go anywhere this season — even with a stretch of eight straight games at home coming up at the end of this month.

It might be time for GM Kevin Cheveldayoff to think about doing something to find a scorer. If nothing else, maybe he could add a tough guy so Blake Wheeler, just about the only guy on the team who actually goes to the net, doesn’t have to drop his gloves with the likes of P.K. Subban and defend his team’s honor from the penalty box.

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Three Straight Games With a Single Goal in Regulation: Jets Need to Start Scoring Soon.

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
Ondrej Pavelec 4 259x300 Three Straight Games With a Single Goal in Regulation: Jets Need to Start Scoring Soon.

Ondrej Pavelec has been very good.

TAMPA — It might sound like a broken record, but the Winnipeg Jets need to start scoring some goals. Even with Dustin Byfuglien and Alexander Burmistrov back in the lineup, the Jets have continued to find goal scoring a difficult task. And heading into Montreal today, they might need to get their heads around this current scoring slump.

This past week the Jets played three road games. They beat Philadelphia 2-1 in a shootout, the beat Tampa 2-1 in overtime and they lost to Florida 2-1. In three games, the Jets scored three goals in regulation time. Total. If you were an NHL goalie, playing for the Winnipeg Jets and your goals against average was 2.00, you’d have lost three straight games.

Fortunately, Ondrej Pavelec was better than that and Winnipeg survived with a record of 2-1-0 (sadly, Chris Mason gave up two and didn’t survive it). However, despite the fact that Winnipeg’s defensive game has been terrific and the Jets have certainly had some chances to score, this team and its collective hands of stone have simply scored enough goals to win enough games to puncture that 8th-place playoff line. After all, in Sunrise on Friday night, the Jets had a chance to cut Florida’s lead in the Southeast Division to one point, but they lost 2-1 and now they find themselves five points back. That loss was a heartbreaker.

This weekend, some of the Jets suggested to a local newspaper that all the team needs to do is go to the net and “score some greasy goals.” Trouble is, they go to the net. Hard. They simply don’t have players with enough goal-scoring ability.

wheeler1 300x195 Three Straight Games With a Single Goal in Regulation: Jets Need to Start Scoring Soon.

Blake Wheeler: Nobody Goes to the Net Harder.

Nobody in the NHL goes to the net harder than Blake Wheeler, who has just been a monster up front this season, and yet he has 10 goals and 25 assists ad is 77th in scoring in the NHL. He’s the Jets leading scorer. That’s not good enough. The team’s leading goal-scorer, the concussed Evander Kane, has 18 goals and is tied for 36thin goal-scoring.

However, barring a sudden scoring streak (while a couple five-goal games would help, it might not matter), the fact remains that if the Jets can keep their collective heads about them for the next week, the team’s crazy schedule might be enough to get them into the playoffs.

And frankly, “crazy” is the only way to describe what the National Hockey League’s schedule makers did to the Jets this season. This is a schedule that has not done the team any favors. They played seven of 11 games on the road in October, eight of 13 games on the road in November, then 12 of 14 at home in December, then nine of 13 on the road in January.

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Evander Kane: Jets Need Him Back.

That’s goofy. Based on the fact the Jets are 15-8-2 at home this season and 9-15-4 on the road, a more consistent schedule might have helped them. True, it might not have made any difference at all, but one suspects that when your schedule is consistent, there is a better chance you will play a more consistent brand of hockey. As good as the Jets have been in front of their seventh-man this season — and especially as good as goalie Ondrej Pavelec has been in his own building — they have been quite mediocre on the road. Long road swings will do that to a team.

In December, the Jets played 12 of 14 games at home and went 10-3-1 to get as high as sixth in the East. Then along came January with nine of 13 on the road and the Jets went 4-8-1. They also scored a meager 21 goals in 13-plus games. It didn’t help that Winnipeg lost a pair of home games — 2-0 to San Jose on Jan. 12, and 2-1 to New Jersey on Jan. 14 — this month, but head coach Claude Noel isn’t quite so worried about a small glitch at the MTS Centre. He has, however, made it clear: “We have to find a way to start winning on the road.”

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Dusrin Byfuglien: His Return Hasn't Changed the Jets Offensive Fortunes

For the next week, it doesn’t get a whole lot easier for the Jets. After playing in Montreal Sunday, they come home on Tuesday night to play the Leafs and then go back out onto the road meet Washington on Thursday and Pittsburgh on Saturday. Then, after playing the Islanders at home on the 14th, they go to Minnesota on the 16th. That’s four out of the next six on the road.

It’s a tough stretch, but if they can hover around .500 hockey through those road games, they’ll get a real treat in late February and early March: They play eight consecutive games at home from Feb. 17 to March 5.

600px Winnipeg Jets Logo 2011.svg 2 300x300 Three Straight Games With a Single Goal in Regulation: Jets Need to Start Scoring Soon.As of Sunday, the Jets find themselves 24-23-6, still 10th in the East. However, despite being 10th, they are only five points behind ninth-place Toronto and third-place, Southeast-leading Florida. They are not out of the playoff hunt by any stretch.

If they can stay within striking distance of the Leafs and Panthers over the next week, they will get a marvelous chance to make some noise at the end of February. In fact, if they can coax three wins out of the next six, Winnipeg’s Seventh Man might just have a say in who makes the playoffs in the East.

Of course, they’d better find a way to score some goals. No matter how good your checking lines and goaltenders are, you are going to lose more 2-1 games than you win. Even in the low-scoring NHL.

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The Coach and The Doc Take… The Patriots

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
tom brady surgery 218x300 The Coach and The Doc Take... The Patriots

Tom Brady

TAMPA… HEADING NORTH — There are people in the Heartland who believe that if Eli Manning wins Sunday’s Super Bowl, he’ll pass brother Peyton in all levels of the game. With a win on Sunday, Eli will be the bigger winner. Eli will be the greater leader. Honest, Eli will be a better quarterback than Peyton.

Poppycock.

Here are the numbers: Peyton has been named MVP four times, Eli none. Peyton has been to the Pro Bowl 11 times in 12 seasons; Eli, twice in eight seasons. Peyton has been first-team All-Pro five times, Eli none. Peyton’s career passer’s rating is 94.9, Eli’s is 82.1. Need more? Didn’t think so.

Peyton has one Super Bowl ring; Eli has one Super Bowl ring. Trent Dilfer has one Super Bowl ring.

Peyton is a better quarterback than his brother. Easy.

However, this weekend, Eli could join his brother with a ticket to the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, and that’s something nobody would expect with Eli’s numbers. If Eli ties Ben Roethlisberger and claims his second Super Bowl ring this Sunday aevening, Eli will punch his ticket to the Hall and that’s a surprise in itself.

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Eli Manning

This season, Eli was fourth in passing yards in the NFL with 4,933, 13th in passing percentage at 61.0, fifth in completions with 359, sixth in TD passes with 29 and seventh in interceptions with 16. He didn’t really have a great year, leading his team to a 9-7 record in the regular season, but he has been superb in the playoffs and that’s definitely when it counts the most.

Of course, on Sunday, Nov. 6, Manning threw for 250 yards and two touchdowns as the Giants beat New England 24-20. If Manning can do it again on Sunday, his legacy is set.

Sadly, The Coach and Dr. Football aren’t sure he can. In fact, our two experts — two experts who had terrific seasons picking winners this year — believe that Eli just might get his butt handed to him.

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Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis

SUPER BOWL XLVI

THE 2012 NFL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME FOR THE VINCE LOMBARDI TROPHY

SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT 5 P.M. CST

 

NFC Champion New York Giants (12-7) vs. AFC Champion New England Patriots (15-3)

Line: Patriots by 3.5

Super Bowl Sunday is widely regarded as the Thanksgiving Day of sporting events, and wings have become its turkey-like centerpiece. Americans will scoff down 1.25 billion chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday alone, as well as 8 million slices of pizza, 46 million pounds of potato chips and 71 million pounds of guacamole, probably before Madonna hits the stage.

That’s a good afternoon.

There happens to be a football game as well. Here are a few predictions. New England’s Tom Brady will throw for a bunch of touchdowns. And after each one, NBC will remind us that he is married to a “super model”. Giants Eli Manning will also throw a bunch of touchdown passes, and after each one NBC will show his brother Peyton cheering him on from some millionaires suite. NBC will also remind us that Eli and Peyton are brothers as if we didn’t know.

Anyway, expect the Patriots to get their revenge and cover the 3 ½ point spread.

This season the Doc was 174-92 straight up and 149-117 against the spread. The Coach, who picked both the Giants and Patriots two weeks ago, 178-88 straight up and 146-120 against the spread.

DR FOOTBALL: PATRIOTS TO WIN AND COVER.

THE COACH: PATRIOTS TO WIN AND COVER.

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It’s Official: For the NHL, the Jets are a Rousing Success!!!

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment
8420529e3ab735ca810247d1155004ef getty 135150807 300x205 Its Official: For the NHL, the Jets are a Rousing Success!!!

The fans deserve a salute.

TAMPA — While sitting in the press box between a group of NHL executives on Thursday night, an official-looking list from the National Hockey League was passed around.

It was a list of the NHL’s gate receipts, ticket sales and ticket prices through Jan. 31, 2012. It confirmed everything Jets fans have known since the season opener against Montreal back on Oct. 9.

The Jets are 13th overall in NHL receipts per game even though Winnipeg’s rink is the smallest in the NHL at 15,004. Winnipeg makes $1.24 million per game. According to the NHL, last year in Atlanta, the Thrashers made $331,000 per game.

The Jets also had the seventh most expensive ticket in the NHL in average price at $76.41 per seat.

Montreal is No. in gate receipts at $2.058 million per game ($1.965 per game last year). Toronto is No. 2 at $2.004 million per game ($1.981 million per game last year). Montreal’s average ticket price is $96.44 per seat while Toronto’s is $105.94 per ticket.

56187890 gary bettman mark chipman attend news conference winnipeg 300x185 Its Official: For the NHL, the Jets are a Rousing Success!!!

Mark loved the move from Atlanta. Gary? Not so much. Until now, one guesses.

At the bottom of the list — at No. 30 — in game per game gate receipts is Phoenix (no surprise) at $387,364 per game. Last year, the Coyotes averaged a meagre $378,925 per game.

Those Coyotes numbers make it all the more unbelievable that Commissioner Gary Bettman has three buyers in Phoenix who are prepared to keep the team in the Arizona desert.

How come Gary Bettman has the ability to find stupid people with lots of money who are eager to piss it down a toilet? I keep looking for those guys and just can’t find them anywhere.

(Note: To the commenter below — from the Globe and Mail: “True North considered a number of different pricing plans before deciding on the one it unveiled. Tickets will range between $39 and $129.” On the secondary market, ticket prices are obviously high. The original market was $39-$129.”)

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Big Win Tuesday. Now, Will the Jets Make a Move?

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
138025484 slide 300x248 Big Win Tuesday. Now, Will the Jets Make a Move?

Ondrej Pavelec makes another huge save.

TAMPA — Tuesday night in Philadelphia, the Winnipeg Jets won a huge hockey game.

In fact, when Bryan Little scored the shootout winner, it was more than just a win in the 51st game of a long season. It might have been the most important win of 2012.

For 65 minutes on Tuesday, the Winnipeg Jets went toe-to-toe one more time with the Philadelphia Flyers at the Wells Fargo Centre and for the third time this season the Winnipegs emerged victorious. Chris Thorburn scored his first goal of the year in regulation time (and it was a goal scorer’s goal); Little fired the only goal of the shootout; Blake Wheeler played 23 minutes, had five shots on goal and was an absolute beast; and Ondrej Pavelec made 27 saves as the Jets beat the Flyers for the third consecutive time.

Blake+Wheeler+Winnipeg+Jets+v+New+York+Islanders+7fwjkhB6mjml 264x300 Big Win Tuesday. Now, Will the Jets Make a Move?

Blake Wheeler playing like a beast.

“That was a big two points for us,” Jets head coach Claude Noel said after the game. “We were wearing down in the third period, but we found a way to win the game.”

It’s true. A Jets team without Dustin Byfuglien, Alexander Burmistov and Evander Kane did wear down in the third period, but they played well enough defensively to hang in long enough and get the bonus point in a shootout. For the first two periods, however, the Jets actually outplayed the Flyers in Philly and they definitely deserved that extra point.

However, they still can’t score. The Jets have scored only 21 goals in 13-plus (counting overtime) games in 2012, but if they continue to check as well as they did against the Flyers on Tuesday, they’ll win a lot more games than they lose.

So here’s the deal with the trade deadline just three weeks away: as they head into Tampa tonight, the Jets are 23rd overall in goals scored at 2.47 per game. The team’s leading scorer, Blake Wheeler, has nine goals and 33 points. He is 87th in scoring in the NHL. The team’s leading goal scorer, Evander Kane, has 18 and is tied for 29th in the NHL but was in the midst of a 10-game goal scoring drought when he suffered a concussion and was lost indefinitely.

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Evander Kane's return will help.

The Jets have scored 126 goals in 51 games this season. Within the Eastern Conference, only the Islanders (120 in 49) and Sabres (120 in 51) have scored fewer. Of course, while the Jets have 126 total, they scored nine in one game against Philadelphia. The Jets are actually one game away from being the lowest-scoring team in the Eastern Conference. As a group the Jets are also a minus-18.

In the month of January, the Jets went 4-8-1. To date, the Jets are 23-22-6 on the season. Last season, as the Atlanta Thrashers, they were 23-19-9 after 51 games. In 13-plus games (counting two overtimes) this month, the Jets have scored a meagre 21 goals.

Now, to be fair, they played part of the month without Kane, Zach Bogosian and Alex Burmistrov and they played the entire month without their all-star, Dustin Byfuglien. At the start of the season, everyone knew this team was thin, but January has proven that little nugget beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Now it’s February and it starts tonight here in Tampa. It has become quite clear that the Jets need scoring help. This is not a team that takes nights off. It’s work ethic is pretty much beyond reproach. Still, the people who run this team know it can’t score. And it becomes especially weak up front when certain players — like Byfuglien, Kane and Burmistrov — go down with injuries.

So as the 2012 trade deadline looms (Feb. 27), what should Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff and his brain trust do? Does he move his veteran grinders and build for the future? Or does he deal prospects and draft picks, try to find a scorer and take a run at the playoffs?

Right now, the Jets could use three things:

1. A scorer, obviously, but that’s not an easy thing to acquire. For example, if Ryan Getzlaff or Bobby Ryan are actually available in Anaheim, who could the Jets trade to get them? Who would interest a team like the Ducks? Making trades are an art AND a science and big ones don’t just happen over a glass of cognac at the all-star break. We are not naive enough to believe these trades are made easily. You have to give to get and the asking price just might be too much.

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Designated Fighter Chris Thorburn.

2. A tough guy. The Jets don’t always open up enough space for the guys who can put the puck in the net. They’re also at a point where they need Chris Thorburn and Mark Stuart to fight for them. Yes, yes, we all want fighting eliminated from hockey, blah, blah, blah, but the fact is, fighting has not been eliminated and the Jets don’t have a guy who can stop a player like Shawn Thornton of the Bruins from running their goalies and pounding the crap out of defensemen they need in the lineup. They also need a guy who can drop the gloves on the road, win a fight without getting hurt, not hurt the team’s skill level by being in the box for five minutes and give the club a pick-me-up.

3. Depth. Two injuries and this team can’t recover. The Pittsburgh Penguins have the personnel to stay in the hunt without Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang. The Jets lose Dustin Byfuglien and Zach Bogosian and it’s downhill all the way.

When the team arrived in Winnipeg at the start of the 2011-12 season, Cheveldayoff and company made it clear that the new organization would be patient. They would not do anything rash and would build with youth and draft picks. After all, they have 3-5 years of sold-out buildings and they know their fans will also be patient and wait for them to build a legitimate contender.

Trouble is, they’ve talked all year about making the playoffs. The two aren’t necessarily exclusive, but…

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Why I’m Betting the Pats on Sunday

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Scott Taylor| 2 Comments
tom brady photos11 219x300 Why Im Betting the Pats on Sunday

Tom Brady

I believe Tom Brady is a winner. It’s not a lot more complicated than that.

I’m not sure the New York Giants can cover Brady’s tight ends and I don’t think the New England Patriots’ defense is as “bad” as the experts at ESPN tend to think.

And that’s at the heart of why I’m placing my money at the sports book at the Mirage in Las Vegas on the Pats.

Super Bowl XLVI will be much more than just a football game. For one thing, next Sunday’s battle will be indoors and that means weather won’t have anything to do with the outcome. Not that it favored one team over the other anyway – both teams play outdoors in the Northeast – but it means that skills won’t be compromised or even eliminated by cold, rain, wind or snow.

This is also a revenge game and there isn’t any greater motivation than revenge. Both coaches and both quarterbacks competed against each other in Super Bowl XLII. However, there will be no Michael Strahan back this time to get Brady out of his rhythm. The Giants beat the Patriots 17-14 in 2008. The Patriots are still steaming over that one.

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Justin Tuck

However, to be fair, the Giants defense is still formidable and it will be up to the Pats offensive line to try and find a way to shut down Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul.

“Look at ’07. That was pretty much the reason why we were in the game, because we kept him off-rhythm,” Tuck told a news conference in East Rutherford, N.J. on Saturday. “Obviously he is the main reason why they are successful.

“The way to kill the snake is to take off his head. The way to kill an offence as potent as that one is making sure you take care of Brady. Our defensive front will put a lot of pressure on itself to make sure that we do our best to get after him.”

It’s obvious to the Giants that this year’s Super Bowl is all about the Pats quarterback. He’s either going to win it or the Giants D-Line is going to win it and as good as the Giants have been the past two weeks, I still like Brady.

This time, however, the Patriots aren’t 18-0 heading into the Super Bowl. They’re 15-3 and they know what it’s like to lose. Although in Brady’s case, losing hasn’t come very often. His playoff record is 16-5 and he’s tied with Joe Montana for most career playoff wins.

Need more reasons?

Aaron Hernandez cropped 200x300 Why Im Betting the Pats on Sunday

Aaron Hernandez: Can the Giants cover the Pats tight ends?

Super Bowl XLVI will be the fifth time Brady and his head coach Bill Belichick have appeared together in the Super Bowl, They have already won three times.

This season, Brady was second overall to Drew Brees in passing yards with 5,235. He was second to Aaron Rodgers in yards per completion at 8.6 yards per catch. He was fourth in passing percentage behind Brees, Rodgers, and Tony Romo(?) at 65.6 per cent. He completed 401 passes in 611 attempts. He was third behind Brees and Matthew Stafford in number of completions.

Now there has been talk that Brady is nursing an injury. The training staff say it’s an injury to the non-passing shoulder, but the way he missed some of his targets in the AFC Championship game (and I will concede that he was lucky to win that one), I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d been hurt much worse than the club’s medical staff let on.

Still, he survived the championship game with a 23-20 victory and even he will admit that he has struggled in the last four or five Pats playoff games. However, he says he’ll be at his best in the biggest game of the year.

“You try to be at your very best in the biggest game,” Brady said in his final news conference before heading off to Indy. “My teammates really count on that. Certainly, I count on that. There’s a lot of preparation that goes into that.

“Playing with confidence and anticipation and understanding the game plan and going out and executing it when it matters the most. That’s what it’s going to take.”

When you set out to lay your money down at a Vegas book – or even on a Sport Select ticket in Canada – you try to take every fact and intangible into consideration. When I look at the Giants I see a team that wasn’t very good during the regular season but has peaked in the playoffs. I see a terrific quarterback (Eli Manning) with a Super Bowl championship on his resume, a pair of efficient runningbacks (Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs) and a big-play receiver (Victor Cruz) who can change a game. I also see a sensational defense that’s at the top of its game.

But I don’t see Tom Brady and to me, he will be the difference next Sunday.

lombardi trophy Why Im Betting the Pats on Sunday

The Prize

We’ve had a great year in 2011-12 and I figure this wager will just top it off. The Doc and The Coach will have their picks and, of course, all of their rationalizations here at RC Sports Blog on Thursday.

So here’s the deal: The NFC champion New York Giants will meet the AFC champion New England Patriots for the National Football League Championship and the Vince Lombardi Trophy at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis at 5 p.m. CST this coming Sunday.

When it starts and ends my money will be on the favorite (3 points) New England Patriots to win 35-27.

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The Week That Was…

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

It’s been a crazier week than normal in the World of Sports. It’s time to weigh in on the seemingly non-stop lunacy:

AllStarTimThomasImage2 300x253 The Week That Was...

Tim Thomas

1) Tim Thomas didn’t join his team when the Boston Bruins were honored at the White House this past week.

The guy is free to do what he pleases but it cannot be argued that he put his political views ahead of his teammates.

In the meantime, I don’t need to say anything about Tim Thomas. I’ll leave that to American goaltender Cory Schneider, a one-time popular member of the old Manitoba Moose:

“I have no problem with his personal beliefs, but [Thomas] can suck it up for an hour, say, ‘hi,’ and be with the team, and avoid all of this,” Schneider told The Vancouver Province.

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Cory Schneider

Schneider, who hails from Marblehead, Mass., and played collegiately at Boston College told The Province that he believes Thomas “should be more appreciative of the opportunities he’s been given by playing in the United States.”

“Respect the [presidency],” Schneider said. “He plays for Team USA and he has no problem making millions of dollars in the USA, but he can’t go say ‘hi’ to the President? You get a lot of benefits living in the U.S. and he should have a little bit of respect for that.

“It’s about putting your own agenda aside to do something with the team whether you like the guy or not.” 

2) I guess you can call it “The NHL All-Star Game” if you want to, but here in Winnipeg, anyone who watches it will probably be watching it on a dare. With not one single Winnipeg Jets player in the game to go with the fact Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Nick Lidstrom, Jonathan Toews, Teemu Selanne, Ilya Kovalchuk, Brad Richards, Loui Eriksson, Patrik Elias, Marty St. Louis, Nicklas Backstrom, Vinny Lecavalier, Bobby Ryan and Anze Kopitar were either not chosen or are just not participating (for whatever reason), this is an “All-Star Game” in name only.

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Nick Lidstrom: All-Stars? Anyone?

When you’ve reached the point that one-hit wonders like Jamie Benn, Jason Pominville, Alexander Edler(?), Dion Phaneuf (gawd, the voting is stupid), Logan Couture and Dan Girardi are all-stars and there is not ONE Winnipeg Jet, this game is a misnomer. The fact it will be a no-hit 14-12 afternoon of pond hockey doesn’t even matter anymore. If there aren’t all-stars or a player in the game from every team, what’s the point?

Oh, I know, all it is is an excuse for NHL executives to have a party. I get that. Still…

Here in Winnipeg, people just can’t understand the NHL’s stupidity: Or, if nothing else, the NHL’s inability to grasp a feel-good story.

When it comes to the Jets, the NHL dropped the ball on this one. Frankly, the Jets should have had a whole line at the all-star game in Ottawa. The Return of the Jets to Canada was the feel-good sports story of the year in this country and if the NHL wanted to milk a feel-good story, it should have had a few Jets for the international media to talk to at the mid-winter classic.

Now they can just talk to real all-stars like Alex Ovechkin, Teemu Selanne, Jonathan Toews, Ilya Kovalchuk and Sidney Crosby. Oh yeah, they aren’t there either.

Like always, the NHL missed a great PR opportunity because as happens far too often, the NHL still doesn’t know a really good story when one steps on its throat.

In the meantime, the NHL has another problem, a credibility problem. Regardless of how they want to spin it, the NHL would have a better “all-star” game if, say, somebody invited those players who chose NOT to go to Ottawa, to appear for big money in Vegas or New York or L.A. on the weekend. Now that would have been a game.

Meanwhile, other than a nice excuse to have a small mid-season convention in a member city, the 2012 “No-Star Game,” is a sad joke.

And here is what makes it truly sad: The ONLY thing the media has talked about for two days is which player would be selected last when the teams are picked. That’s it. That’s all they got.

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Arizona's Platinum Uniforms

3) Nike, which did wonders with the University of Oregon Ducks uniform this year (Man, I loved those Rose Bowl helmets), has now turned its attention to college basketball.

These unis are called “Hyper Elite Platinum,” and they will be worn by Connecticut, Kentucky, Duke, Florida, Syracuse, Arizona and NorthCarolina. They’re different and kind of fun and they’ll look pretty decent on national TV.

Here is the schedule for when these uniforms will be worn:  UConn vs. Notre Dame (1/29), Kentucky vs. Tennessee (1/31), Duke vs. Maryland (2/11), Florida vs. Tennessee (2/11), Syracuse vs. USF (2/22), Arizona vs. UCLA (2/25) and UNC vs. Maryland (2/29).

I like them. Once.

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Wondering What 162-0 Might Feel Like

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
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From MLB

Yes, it was a shocker. Even for those of us who live and die with every Detroit Tigers pitch, swing and off-field transaction.

Yesterday, in a deal that involved not only general manager David Dombrowski but also owner Mike Illitch, the Tigers announced that they had signed free agent Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder to a nine-year $214 million contract.

Major League Baseball called it the fourth richest contract of all time.

With the signing, the Tigers can now do various things with their batting order and fielding alignment. They can use Fielder and Miguel Cabrera as co-first-basemen.co-designated hitters. Fielder plays 81 games and is the DH for 81 games and vice-versa.

Or they can play Fielder at first, move Cabrera back to third (his original position) and go and find another DH such as Vladimir Guererro or Johnny Damon, to replace the injured Victor Martinez. Of course, as Harold Reynolds suggested on MLB Network last night, there is no reason Cabrera couldn’t play leftfield as he did in his last season with the Marlins.

Regardless, this makes the middle of the Tigers batting order massive. After all, Fielder once hit a home run to the upper deck at old Tiger Stadium — when he was a 12-year-old goofing around with his dad, Cecil.

I guess we’ll go out and have a Little Caesar’s Pizza to celebrate. And help Illitch pay the bills.

Wow, I always wondered what 162-0 might feel like.

Just kidding. Jeesh. 160-2.

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10 Things on My Mind After a Sunday on the Couch…

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

When you spend an afternoon watching football on television — oh, my gawd, I’ve just spent a month of them — you think about crazy stuff.

Like did CTV finally put the Olympic rings on its logo bug in the corner of the screen? Did it finally occur to them that this is and Olympic year? Or, how in hell can a referee come to the conclusion that Ahmad Bradshaw didn’t fumble with 2:21 to play on his own 20 yard line? I guess, a referee that blew his whistle w-a-a-a-a-y too soon.

Those are the things you think about when a game takes almost 4 1/2 hours to play.

In fact, I wrote down 10 of the things I was thinking about…

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Steven Tyler

1. How can Steven Tyler be a judge on American Idol when he can’t sing a lick? I guess the same way Mike Milbury can pass judgment on the job being done by an actual working NHL general manager after Milbury himself destroyed two franchises — and one, the Islanders, still hasn’t recovered. It has nothing to with his ability to sing. It has everything to do with the fact he passes judgment on other people.

2. Did I miss something? Did Joe Flacco not outplay Tom Brady by about a mile and a half? Damn, Flacco was good yesterday.

3. Was Brady hurt more than anyone would let on and while the Patriots said it was his non-throwing shoulder, when he missed a wide-open Rob Gronkowski by 20 feet, it looked as if he had bigger problems than that.

4. Boy is young Winnipeg Jets star Evander Kane getting beaten up this week. He really must have done something to piss off a city that is so madly in love with its Jets that, when you actually think about it, not one of them could possibly do anything wrong. I’m not sure Kane did anything at all, but suddenly people all over Winnipeg are convinced he did.

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Ahmad Bradshaw

5. Just watched the replay of the Bradshaw fumble again. It was a fumble. Sorry. In fact, that call was so bad it looked like the fix was in. I’m sure the officials can find a way to justify it with the old “quick whistle” excuse but I agree with Niners coach Jim Harbaugh: “It looked like a fumble,” Harbaugh told Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. “Every play that happened in the game except that one was played out to the conclusion of the play.” That call was just horrible. Maybe the officials just believed that after they screwed the Giants twice in Green Bay last week, it was time to make it up. There had to be some reason.

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Dwight Howard

6. Guess the Orlando Magic aren’t thinking about trading Dwight Howard anymore. At 11-4, the Magic are the No. 2 team in the East, a half a game ahead of Miami. Meanwhile, Howard is averaging 20.2 points and 16 rebounds a game. I wouldn’t trade him either.

7. The best thing that happened this week to the rest of MLB’s American League? The Texas Rangers paid $52 million to negotiate with Yu Darvish and then $60 million over six years to sign him. Now they say they’ve pulled out of the Prince Fielder Sweepstakes. If I were the Tigers or the Yankees or the Angels, I’d fear Prince Fielder — especially in a lineup that already boasts Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, Ian Kinzler, Adrian Beltre and Michael Young — a lot more than a Japanese pitcher who just might be the next Diasuke Matsuzaka, or maybe even Hideki Irabu.

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Tiger

8. Flipped over to watch the golf tournament from PGA West on Sunday and dozed off. Can’t wait for Tiger to show up at Pebble Beach on Feb. 6. At least there will be something to watch. Man golf is dull without Woods. Of course, we should be OK this week. The Golf Channel should have plenty of coverage from Abu Dhabi where Tiger opens his 2012 season.

9. Even though he said, “You don’t have to worry about me jumping off a ledge,” I still feel sorry for Baltimore Ravens kicker, Billy Cundiff. Missing a 32-yard field goal at the NFL level (whether it’s to send a game to overtime or was just pooched sometime in the first quarter) has to make you sick to your stomach. Not surprisingly, I got three Facebook messages which essentially read: “The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have announced the signing of kicker Billy Cundiff.”

10. Speaking of the Bombers, many Winnipeg football fans are upset that the Bombers haven’t done anything at all to get better this off-season. Why worry? They didn’t do anything at all last winter and they went to the Grey Cup.

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Our NHL All-Star Break Award Winners

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
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Alex Ovechkin

It could be argued that Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin are the two most talented players in all of hockey.

But of course, Crosby has been out for almost an entire year with a concussion and Ovechkin, although he’s trying to change his game, hasn’t quite come to grips with his coaches’ demand for a more defensive approach to the sport.

As a result, for different reasons, hockey’s two greatest talents have been missing.

For fans and fantasy players, that’s not great news. For other players, however, it’s an opportunity to step up, score some goals, become leaders and make a name. One man’s disappointment is always another man’s opportunity.

As a result, a whole collection of new, young stars has risen to the top in the National Hockey League this season. Names that might not have been well known a year or two ago are now getting the respect that their coaches, teammates and a whole lot of scouts believed they always deserved or, at least, would earn.

nhlasg2012logo Our NHL All Star Break Award WinnersWe’re now just a week away from the NHL’s Mid-Winter Classic, the All-Star Game in Ottawa. At that game, you will no doubt be introduced to a number of young players who could, one day, take up the mantle that has been left virtually untouched since Crosby’s injury.

You will no doubt also recall some old names that have been stars in this league and are clearly stars once again. The one thing that this year’s all-star game will bring clearly to mind is the names of the players who should be honored at the end of the 2011-12 season.

In order to set you up for the big game in Ottawa, here’s a look at the players who should be honored at the mythical midway point of the campaign. These are our seven major award winners for the opening half.

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Evgeni Malkin

The Hart Trophy, Most Valuable Player: Our winner is Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins and our runners up are Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers and Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers. nhl.com gave us a pretty clear outline of what Malkin has done in order to almost single-handedly keep the banged-up Penguins in the heart of the Stanley Cup playoff race:

“Since Crosby exited the lineup on Dec. 5, the Penguins have limped to a 9-9-0 record in his absence. If not for the heroics of Malkin things could be a whole lot worse. In those 18 games without Crosby — and not to mention Kris Letang one of the NHL’s best offensive defenseman who returned to the lineup after a two-month absence on Thursday — Malkin has 15 goals and 15 assists. He has factored in 30 of the Penguins’ 53 goals during that time (56.6 percent) and has been on the ice for a whopping 34 (69.8 percent) goals during that stretch.”

Malkin has also taken over as the NHL’s scoring leader (54 points) and he’s kept the Penguins within the Top 6 in the Eastern Conference.

Our runners-up are Giroux who is more responsible than anyone in that Flyers lineup for keeping Philly in the Top 5 in the East and Lundqvist, because the Rangers have 62 points and are first in the East for only one reason: goaltending. 

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Henrik Lundqvist

The Vezina Trophy, the Best Goaltender: Well, if he’s almost the MVP, Henrik Lundqvist is certainly the best goalie. The runners-up are Jonathan Quick and Jimmy Howard.

Lundqvist has played 34 games and has a 1.93 goals against average to go with his .936 save percentage. He’s 20-10-4 and has saved the first-place Rangers on more than one occasion.

Howard has played 39 games and is 28-10-1 with a 1.98 goals against average and .926 save percentage while Quick is 20-11-9 with a 1.92 GAA and a save percentage of .934. Frankly, if the Rangers aren’t first in the East and Lundqvist doesn’t make so many game-saving stops, I’d look at Quick as the best goalie in the game this year.

Of course, there is also that two-headed monster in Boston. Tuukka Rask is 11-4-1 in 16 games with a 1.61 GAA and a .946 save percentage while Tim Thomas is 19-9-0 in 30 games with a 2.02 GAA and a .936 save percentage. Turn those two guys into one and you have the best goalie in the world.

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Adam Larsson

The Calder Trophy, Rookie of the Year: There are three players I love for this award at the midway point of the year. Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins leads all rookie scorers with 13 goals and 22 assists. Adam Henrique in New Jersey is next with 13 goals and 21 assists. And then there is New Jersey’s Adam Larsson, a big, powerful defenseman who is logging 22-25 minutes a game.

If I had to vote today, Larsson would get my vote. It’s tough enough to learn to become a regular defenseman in the NHL. Larsson, the No. 4 pick overall last spring, has not only learned, he’s instantly become one of the best rearguards on a defensive minded team. In fact, he’s the No. 1 defenseman in the Devils lineup right now.

At 6-foot-3, 210-pounds he has all the tools to play the position but the fact he can skate, hit and clear the front of his own net, makes him, potentially, one of the great players of the future in the NHL today.

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Zdeno Chara

The Norris Trophy, Best Defenseman: We still love Nick Lidstrom and always will, but this year, Zdeno Chara, all-star captain and leader of the Boston Bruins, has been remarkable. He won his first Norris Trophy in 2008-09, and has been the Bruins rock ever since. He is currently on a pace to set career highs in assists, total points, and plus/minus, all while being the most imposing force on defense in the game – anywhere on the planet.

Our runners up are Nick Lidstrom (of course) of the Detroit Red Wings, and Shea Weber of the Nashville Predators for reasons that are obvious.

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David Backes

The Selke Trophy, Best Defensive Player: There is only one choice for the Selke this year and while Ryan Kesler, Pavel Datsyuk, Jonathan Toews and Patrice Bergeron will get a load of support from the media voters, there is only one guy who passes the best defensive forward test at every level.

Centre David Backes of the St. Louis Blues covers the opposition’s best line on every shift. He starts most shifts as the centre in his own end and wins most of his faceoffs – and almost all the important ones. In fact, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock sends Backes out on to the ice 63 per cent of the time when his team has to start with a faceoff in its own end.

Backes also leads his team in scoring with 14 goals and 19 assists, is a plus-13 and is the leader on the power-play AND the penalty-kill. He’s also a leader on a team that is a remarkable 28-12-6 this season. He was snubbed by those selecting the players to attend this year’s all-star game and he’s been snubbed by the media mob that wants to give Toews an award, but won’t give him the Hart Trophy. Still, quite clearly David Backes is the best defensive forward in the game.

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Teemu

The Lady Byng Trophy, Most Gentlemanly Player: I don’t even have a runner-up for the Lady Byng. There is only one player who is even in the mix: Teemu Selanne.

The fact that he plays the game with passion, is the 15th leading scorer at age 41, seldom gets a dirty penalty, is beloved throughout the league and is such a class act at every possible level that there is no greater gentleman in all of hockey, makes this award a no-brainer. In fact, he should get it as a lifetime achievement award for being both a great player and a great human being.

I frankly, don’t care about anyone else. As one of my colleagues, Jonathan Willis, recently wrote: “This award really should go to a guy like Selanne, who has shown over a long career that he’s a superb player and someone who has exhibited exceptional sportsmanship throughout his career.”

Can I get an Amen?

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Paul MacLean

The Jack Adams Trophy, Coach of the Year: Absolutely no doubt about it, Paul MacLean of the Ottawa Senators is the coach of the year. Our runners-up would include Ken Hitchcock of the St. Louis Blues and Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings.

MacLean, the former Winnipeg Jets rightwinger has the Senators in fourth place in the East with a record of 27-16-6. A man who learned his coaching philosophy as a player and as an assistant to the very accomplished Babcock in Detroit, MacLean has taken an Ottawa team that was 32-40-10 (13th in the East) last season and nearly equaled that win mark by the all-star break.

There is no doubt that MacLean’s efforts have taken a team that was expected to miss the playoff this year and turned it into a team that is now three points out of first place in the entire NHL.

Babcock has Detroit in first overall with 63 points and what makes him great is his ability to handle some huge egos and make the gifted Red Wings play as a team. Meanwhile, Hitchcock replaced Davis Payne early in the season and in a very short time coaxed the Blues into fourth in the West.

By the way, I have no problem with those people who promote the efforts of Alain Vigneault in Vancouver, Barry Trotz in Nashville and John Tortorella with the Rangers. They’ve all done great work.

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