Tag Archives: tsn

The Trade Deadline Was a Dud. But it Was Fun Watching Highly-Paid TV Stars Twiddle Their Thumbs

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

As I made it pretty clear in this space, I was not a believer. I did not think that the 2011 NHL trade deadline would produce much drama, nor would it produce any deal that would change the course of the final six weeks of the National Hockey League season.

It didn’t. In fact, the biggest trade took place well before the deadline when Chris Stewart, Kevin Shattenkirk and a conditional second-round draft pick was sent to St. Louis from Colorado in exchange for Erik Johnson, Jay McClement and a conditional first-round draft pick. My pal, A.J. Jakubec at the TEAM 1200 called it the closest thing to a blockbuster before the deadline and it was the closest thing to a blockbuster after the deadline passed on Monday.

There were 16 trades in the NHL on Monday involving 35 players and 12 draft picks. The biggest involved Winkler Manitoba’s Dustin Penner who was sent from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for an extremely good prospect, defenseman Colten Teubert, a first-round pick in 2011 and a conditional 2012 pick.

Here were the other highlights(?):

2) The Vancouver Canucks had an interesting day. The Canucks dealt defenceman Even Oberg, mostly of the Moose and a third-round pick, to Florida to acquire veteran forward Christopher Higgins. And they sent Moose forward Joel Perrault to the Ducks to acquite forwards Maxim Lapierre and Mac Sharp.

3) Calgary acquired veteran forward Freddie Modin from the Atlanta Thrashers for a seventh-round pick.

4) Washington picked up veteran centre Jason Arnott from New Jersey in exchange for forward David Steckel and a second-round pick in 2012. The Caps also got defenseman Dennis Wideman from Florida.

5) Phoenix acquired defenseman Rostislav Klesla and forward Dane Byers from Columbus for forward Scottie Upshall and defenseman Sami Lepisto.

6) And Atlanta picked up veteran defenseman Radek Dvorak and a fifth round pick for forwards Nicklas Bergfors and Patrick Rismiller.

Las Vegas oddsmakers had the over/under at 27.5 for number of trades on Monday. We took the under and won quite easily. Meanwhile, watching those poor guys on TSN try to make Deadline Day seem interesting was quite a comedy. Frankly, if it wasn’t for the pre-deadline day pissing match between Bob MacKenzie of TSN and Nick Kypreos of SportsNet, it would have been duller than dishwater.

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The Bombers Are Back. That Means It’s Crazier Than a LeBron News Conference Around the ‘Peg

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ 2010 Canadian Football League campaign has begun. That means the Loonie Season has returned to Winnipeg.

You might have thought LeBron James’ uncomfortable and embarrassing news conference on ESPN (TSN or ESPN North in Canada) was crazy, but the way the two local newspapers in Winnipeg lead the cheers for the local football side — as long as the football side does what the newspapers want — is a non-stop source of comic relief.

On Sunday, the Winnipeg Sun told us (and this is the lead to the story) “The special teams saviour is on his way back to town.” Huh? Seems Derrick Doggett has returned to the Bombers after being released by the Pittsburgh Steelers and now, all is well. Derrick Doggett?

Yep, that’s it. One player will change the entire special teams performance of the Blue Bombers, a performance that has been pretty shaky so far this season.

So, hey, thank goodness Derrick Doggett is back. Obviously the Cup is on its way.

Yeah right, after two games in an 18-game season, let’s start telling people that the Bombers are another step closer to a Grey Cup championship because a special teams player has returned. That’s just stupid.

Wha…? Huh? It’s not? The big paper has been giving us that kind of stuff since February? The things you miss when you aren’t paying attention.

In fact, the folks at the Winnipeg Free Press were so certain that the Bombers were the best team in the league after they drilled 0-2 Hamilton 49-29 in the season opener, that they had to dial it back a bit on Saturday morning.

Honest to goodness, the Free Press wrote this headline after the Bombers lost on Friday: “Cup parade put on hold.” Cup parade? The only people in the city who had anointed the Bombers as potential Grey Cup champions were the sports writers at the Winnipeg Free Press (other writers at the Free Press will tell you that). Now they’re backing off?

The cheerleading over there is a joke. Not even head coach Paul LaPolice has suggested – not even a teeny, tiny bit – that the Bombers are contenders for anything. He’s been clear, “Let’s just see what happens and hopefully this team can compete.”

Cup parade? That’s almost the stupidest thing I’ve ever read in a newspaper. Even in a bad one.

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As Predicted, Sale of the Coyotes to Reinsdorf is in Jeopardy

Posted on May 6, 2010 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

Darren Dreger mentioned it Thursday night on TSN, but we suggested it three weeks ago on the FAN 960 in Calgary.

There is still no guarantee that Chicago billionaire Jerry Reinsdorf is prepared to become a millionaire by purchasing the Phoenix Coyotes from the NHL. In fact, Dreger reported that Ice Edge Holdings has been asked to return to the negotiating table in case the Reinsdorf deal craters.

As we expected when this deal with the city of Glendale was originally proposed, it was unlikely Reinsdorf had suddenly become interested in buying a team he had no interest in buying six months ago. Reinsdorf is a very wealthy man and a shrewd franchise owner and if he’s checked the books in Phoenix lately, he knows the Coyotes have lost at least $30 million this season and perhaps as much as $50 million.

There is no reason to believe Reinsdorf is jumping at the opportunity to buy this franchise even with a sweetheart rental deal at jobing.com Arena.

Listen, moving the Coyotes to Winnipeg is still unlikely at this stage, but it’s not entirely far-fetched.

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Why Does Anyone Care About Cheap Shots to the Head? TSN’s Monster Voice Sure Doesn’t.

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

You have to give TSN credit. No matter the sport, the network provides sports fans with wonderful pictures. Not surprisingly, those pictures can be too good on occasion.

Monday night, after the Flyers’ Dan Carcillo “bludgeoned” (play-by-play man Gord Miller’s word, not mine) Bruins’ forward Steve Begin with an elbow to the head — and two referees completely missed it — Begin jumped all over Carcillo with a high-stick to the face. The officials didn’t miss the retaliation, of course (NHL officiating is almost as bad as major league umpiring which is almost as bad as that giant rule-busting fix known as the NBA), and Begin went to the box.

But that wasn’t the awful part.

The awful part came when color analyst Pierre McGuire called Carcillo’s shot “a clean, hard hit,” while a half a dozen replays (beautiful close-up shots, too, that looked spectacular on my giant HD TV) showed that Carcillo deliberately took a shot at Begin’s head with his freakin’ elbow.

So stop it, mainstream media! Stop whining about head shots. Because when you’ve decided to call a deliberate elbow to the head a “clean, hard hit,” then all these calls for severe penalties for head hunting seem pretty hypocritical.

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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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Thompson says, “…there will be some dramatic events this week.”

Posted on June 29, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

On Wednesday, the National Hockey League’s free agent season will begin and according to Tom Thompson, the assistant general manager of the Minnesota Wild, “I’m sure there will be some dramatic events this week.”

Assuming they aren’t signed between now and Wednesday morning, the Sedin Twins, Marian Gaborik, Mattias Ohlund, Dwayne Roloson, Ales Kotalik, Marian Hossa, Chris Neil, Mike Comrie, Mike Cammalleri, Todd Bertuzzi, Mike Komisarek, Mathieu Schneider, Alex Kovalev, Alex Tanguay, Saku Koivu, Mark Recchi, Maxim Afinogenov, Ryan Bayda, Erik Cole, Patrice Brisebois, Tom Kostopoulos, Brian Gionta, John Madden, Johnny Oduya, Brendan Shanahan, Derek Morris, Nik Antropov, Martin Biron, Antero Nittymaki, Viktor Kozlov, Miroslav Satan, Petr Sykora, Rob Scuderi, Hal Gill, Todd Marchant, Jay Bouwmeester, Martin Havlat, Sami Pahlsson, Ian Laperriere, Joe Sakic, Jere Lehtinen, Jordan Leopold, Mikael Samuelsson, Marc-Andre Bergeron, Martin Skoula, Vernon Fiddler, Greg de Vries, Stephane Veilleux, Rob Blake, Mike Grier, Claude Lemieux, Travis Moen, Nolan Baumgartner, Jason Jaffray, Jason Krog and Mats Sundin, along with more than a hundred others will be unrestricted free agents..

Even some of our old friends — Shane Hnidy, Teppo Numminen, Tyler Arnason, Nikolai Khabibulin, Colton Orr and Phillipe Boucher — will be free on Wednesday. It’s going to hit the fan this week and you can bet as many teams as possible will be involved.

In fact, during the draft, Brian Burke made it clear he’ll be a buyer: “We’ll be involved on July 1,” Burke told reporters in Montreal. “The door is open for business at noon and that’s when we will start to get involved.”

He’s not alone.

“There will be moves that will get a lot of people talking,” said Thompson. “There is going to be a lot of interest in the hockey world all over North America that’s for sure.”

But why? Why so many UFAs?

“It’s partly because of the cap,” said Thompson, via telephone from his office in St. Paul. “The thing about the salary cap system is that it forces people to make choices. Because you’re restricted by how much you can spend, if you decide to do one thing, you can’t do another. It’s what makes great organizations or not-so-great organizations. You can’t have everything anymore.

“If there is one thing the cap has done, it’s put every team on an equal playing field and the smartest hockey people will be successful.”

The other thing it does, is forces team’s into last-minute decisions. It forces them to meet deadlines. It allows players to know exactly how much they’re worth. And it makes people like the Sedin Twins, who want long term deals worth at least $62 million each, worry about their decisions just as long and hard as Shane Hnidy or Jason Krog, who just might be out there looking for work.

I’d hate to suggest anything specific will happen on Wednesday. Nobody knows. But here are five things that might happen…

1) The Sedins don’t get the money they’re after in Vancouver. Mike Gillis re-signs Mattias Ohlund and signs Marian Gaborik.

2) The Sedins end up in Toronto with Brian Burke, the man who drafted them in the first place, and who will dump a pile of dull, old contracts to make sure he has the dough to sign them.

3) The Flames will sign Bouwmeester, let Cammalleri ($3.6 million) and Bertuzzi ($1.95 million) go and have plenty of money to sign the roll players he needs (he’s already dumped Jim Vandermeer and his $2.3 million deal).

4) Bob Gainey will go on an unprecedented signing frenzy and get Komisarek, Brisebois, Kostopoulos, Schneider and Tanguay signed. Saku Koivu will end up with his brother, Mikko, in Minnesota.

5) At least 50 players will change teams.

Unlike the dull-as-dishwater trade deadline television snooze, TSN, Rogers SportsNet and the Score will have an actual reason to telecast Free Agent Frenzy Shows. This should be nuts.

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The NHL Draft Starts in less than an hour in Montreal: Here’s what we’re looking for…

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Will it be John Tavares of the OHL’s London Knights, Matt Duchene of the OHL’s Brampton Battalion or Victor Hedman of the Swedish Elite League’s Modo? That will be the biggest question on everyone’s mind as this year’s draft gets rolling in Montreal.

The 2009 NHL Entry Draft begins in less than half an hour and here the three things I’m expecting:

1) I just have to think that if the Islanders don’t trade their pick to Toronto, a team that really, really, really would like to draft Tavares, then the Isles will take Hedman simply because they’re an Eastern Conference team that needs to upgrade on defence and is a young guy who has already played against men with Modo in the Swedish Elite League.

However, if the Islanders are more concerned about image than winning next year, they’ll take Tavares and sell him as the next Sid the Kid.

2) Apparently this wild — and very, very stupid –  rumour that the Boston Bruins were going to give up Phil Kessel and a draft pick for Leafs Tomas Kaberle was as dumb as we thought.

Originally “broken” on TSN, we’re now told by the Toronto Sports Network: “It appears the potential trade involving the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs is at the very least on hold and quite possibly dead. It turns out there was apparently major miscommunication between the two teams.”

Really? Perhaps it was a miscommunication by the mainstream media. TSN originally reported it was Kessel for Kaberle and Toronto’s No. 7 pick. Terrible deal for Toronto, but Boston might like it. Then it became Kessel and a draft pick for Kaberle. Only someone smoking something would have thought was a bright move. In the end, it was none of the above. Somebody made this thing up over cognac in the hotel bar.

3) There will be trades. Somebody is going somewhere. After all, last year’s draft produced a frenzy of pretty big deals.

Toronto really wants a top pick (up from No. 7) to get either Tavares or Brandon’s Brayden Schenn and Brian Burke will do what’s necessary to get the people he wants in order to rebuild that mess in T.O.

Ottawa is going to try to move Dany Heatley but Bryan Murray won’t give him away. Murray’s way too smart to take that bait.

Florida will probably move Jay Bouwmeester — or anybody else with a pulse and a contract. After all, Randy Sexton is now the acting GM and if you remember him in Ottawa, you know he’ll try to make some kind of splash — stupid or otherwise.

The San Jose Sharks will move somebody. Expect it to be Jonathan Cheechoo.

Despite not falling for that dumb Toronto offer (or “made-up” Toronto offer), Boston might still try to move the disgruntled Phil Kessel.

And don’t be surprised if Tampa tries to get Tavares and then, if they do, they’ll have Stamkos and Tavares in the fold, so then Lightning GM Brian Lawton will trade Vinny Lecavalier to Montreal.

And finally, don’t be surprised to see Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger, J.S. Giguere and a bunch of “older” Calgary Flames change teams tonight.

OK, get out the sodas and chips and let’s go watch some kids get rich.

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On to the Second Round: We like Chicago in an upset, Pens in a thriller plus the Wings and Bruins.

Posted on April 30, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

For the longest time, we have believed that the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs is the most exciting.

What the hell, there are 16 teams. Of course, it will be exciting.

This year, however, we seem to be a little more enthused about Round 2. After all, in Round 1 this year, it went pretty much as we expected — and when I say “we,” I mean everyone who follows hockey closely.

With the exception of those who always believe (for reasons I still don’t understand) that Detroit will be upset in the first round, most hockey people picked at least six of the opening round series correctly.

For the record, here at rcsportsblog.com (you can follow us on twitter), we went 7-1 in the first round. The only outcome we did not select correctly was, of course, Anaheim’s upset of Jonathan Cheechoo’s San Jose Sharks.

Round 2 will provide us with two spectacular match-ups: Chicago and Vancouver and Pittsburgh and Washington. I can almost guarantee that those two series will double the excitement we saw in any series in Round 1.

So on with the show. Here’s our look at Round 2 of the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs…

ROUND TWO

EASTERN CONFERENCE

No. 1 Boston Bruins vs. No. 6 Carolina Hurricanes

The Bruins played wonderfully in taking out the Montreal Canadiens in the opening round in four straight games. Everything about this team, that now has home ice advantage throughout the playoffs as long as it keeps winning, screams “Eastern Division Champion!” Tim Thomas has been sensational in goal, the big defence led by Zdeno Chara and Dennis Wideman moves the puck quickly and does a solid job of clearing the zone and the forward lines were nearly flawless in Round 1. And while we took Carolina to knock off New Jersey in Round 1, the dream ends here. The Bruins dominated the Hurricanes during the regular season, winning all four meetings by a combined score of 18-6. There is no reason for that to stop. Bruins in five games.

No. 2 Washington Capitals vs. No. 4 Pittsburgh Penguins

On the surface, this looks like a great series/ Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin of the Caps against Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby of the Penguins. Big names, big stars, should be exciting. However, the Capitals took three of four from the Penguins during the regular season and Washington’s only loss was the result of a shootout. Pittsburgh beat a tough Flyers team in six games, mainly because Philly’s goaltending was lousy. The Caps have not had lousy goaltending since the day head coach Bruce Boudreau decided to go with Simeon Varlamov. Still, the Caps were lucky to beat a dysfunctional Rangers team. Pittsburgh in seven games.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

No. 2 Detroit Red Wings vs. No. 8 Anaheim Ducks

The Red Wings should waltz through this second round match-up against a team that was very lucky to make the playoffs. Thanks to the fact the San Jose Sharks seldom if ever bring their A game (or raise their level of play) to the playoff dance, the defending Stanley Cup champs get a team with a hot goalie and not much else. This season, the well-balanced, well-disciplined Red Wings went 3-0-1 against Anaheim. As TSN says, “The Red Wings sacrifice individual glory for what is best for the team, which speaks to the professionalism of those inside the organization.” Detroit has the best team in the NHL and while I love the Ducks’ Teemu Selanne and Randy Carlyle, the Red Wings win in four games.

No. 3 Vancouver Canucks vs. No. 4 Chicago Blackhawks

Potentially, this is the best and definitely, the most exciting series of the second round. The teams went 2-2 against each other this season and this series should go right to the wire every single night. Both teams have exciting young players and, frankly, a match-up of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp against the Sedin Twins  and Alex Burrows, is more intriguing to me than the Crosby-Ovechkin dance. Ultimately, this series will come down to goaltending. Is Nikolai Khabibulin as good as Roberto Luongo when it counts? Stay tuned. This will be a dandy. Right now, I like Chicago in seven games. 

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No more.

Posted on January 9, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

I have shut off Rogers SportsNet for the final time. At least, until February of 2010.

 

I was just sitting around tonight enjoying Bob McCown’s little rip into Gary Bettman on McCown’s radio-show-on-the-TV (from the days when I co-hosted the show, I think it’s called Prime Time Sports), when Bob throws to a break and the first commercial message is another one of those cutesy “I Believe” Olympic promos.

 

You know, “I Believe,” too. Trouble is, it’s January of 2009 and the stinkin’ Vancouver Olympics don’t start until February of 2010.

 

Sorry, but the Games are 13 months away and I’m sick of them already. Thanks SportsNet.

 

Too bad the Flames’ and Oilers’ games aren’t on TSN.

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