Thursday, May 10, 2007
Shane Doan lunacy overshadows Team Canada and NHL playoffs. Briefly.
I love to read about Canadian history especially through the 20th century where we were at the forefront of so many of the most important things to happen in the world. I talk about several of these moments in time every occasion I have to speak publicly and I try and leave the house every day with something, anything, that has the Canadian flag on it. This makes me a proud Canadian, not a special Canadian by any means but I am without question someone who is fiercely proud of our Country. It made sick to my stomach to have to read, listen and see the gutlessness, the absolute farcical events of last week that saw several of our politicians grilling Bob Nicholson of Hockey Canada over the selection of Shane Doan as our captain at this year’s World Championships.
Gilles Duceppe, Jack Layton and Dennis Coderre or anybody else of a political persuasion who have voiced a concern over Shane Doan’s captaincy because of this unfounded verbal incident almost a year and a half ago – these politicians are vermin. They are despicable and an abject farce given their roles as our leaders. To think that time was spent to have Mr. Nicholson come in to attend to this 17-18 months after an investigation was conducted by the NHL which treats these matters very, very seriously, to think that time was taken by members of our government sets us back a hundred years in my view in the eyes of the world. When you’ve got Rene Fassel of the IIHF backing you up, which Team Canada does in this case, that folks says a lot about which side of the coin we all should be on this issue.
I was born in Montreal. My mother is from a small town north of Quebec City. I love the province; I have many, many family members that live there still and numerous friends. I’m a die hard Hab fan. I say all this because it’s so easy these days to take a gratuitous shot at the Bloc Quebecois. They are so disjointed. Thank God their control, such as it was, appears to be waning at the moment. I do not know of a more hypocrite bunch of jerks than those in that political party with their Bill 101 and every other element of their separatist attitude. Why not drag Ted Lindsay into court for his verbal infractions against Rocket Richard? Mr. Lindsay has admitted numerous times in countless interviews that he called the Rocket ‘a frog’ although I think we all know it was much worse than that. What’s stopping a full investigation into all slurs against French players going back as far as we can trace? Oops, probably just gave those morons an idea. It would be their first. Suffice to say this was the lowest moment ever in the history of hockey as far as I’m concerned. Not Bertuzzi-Moore. Not Green-Maki, not the Richard Riot, Shore-Bailey or even Masson-McCourt, the only on ice murder in Canadian hockey history. None of that matches this shameful display of Canadian politics if you can call it that. Thank God and I mean that sincerely, Thank God Mr. Nicholson and every other power that be from Steve Yzerman right on down have continued to tell these misguided idiots to get stuffed. I’d love to tell them a whole lot more.
On the hockey front, got a few right last series, got a few wrong. Ottawa and Buffalo got the wins I was calling. Same with Anaheim but for the second time Detroit has surprised me. Those are two huge playoff series victories for the Senators. I believe Buffalo are the better hockey club. I think the Sabres are every bit if not more so, destined to win a Cup much like Senator faithful extol in many a radio call in show however, I simply cannot go against the Senators right now. They have stepped up and to be honest the fact they are having this success without Hossa, without Chara, without Havlat, I absolutely love. For those of us who live here in the Ottawa area, we’ve got to listen to people phone in or write in to our dailies and complain about those players not being here and how it will hurt us in the playoffs then in the next sentence say that Jason Spezza has to do more corner work for the Senators to be successful. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. This is a very new group by and large to the sport. They have turned on to this team over the past decade since they’ve gotten good and other than not needing an explanation for an offside or an icing call there is very little difference with the main stream Ottawa Senator fan and a Nashville Predator fan. But they’re having a great ride with this team and I think it’s going to continue. I’ll call the Sens in six games over the Sabres.
I really think that Detroit is going to miss Mathieu Schneider. That’s an easy statement to make obviously. His six points in 12 games are not outstanding by any means but his 30+ minutes a game are definitely going to be missed. Lidstrom and Chelios picked up the slack through the rest of game five and then game six but this is the start of a new series against arguably the most physical team in the NHL so I predict that Detroit will not be able to stay with the Ducks over this best-of-seven. Hasek maybe could step up again and steal this one. Anaheim is four years removed from their Cup final run but Detroit is five years beyond their last Cup triumph. They should be a great series, both of them.
Coming soon to a TV station near you, a new reality show; “how to be an incompetent politician.” Be well folks and we'll talk to you next week.
Liam Maguire
Gilles Duceppe, Jack Layton and Dennis Coderre or anybody else of a political persuasion who have voiced a concern over Shane Doan’s captaincy because of this unfounded verbal incident almost a year and a half ago – these politicians are vermin. They are despicable and an abject farce given their roles as our leaders. To think that time was spent to have Mr. Nicholson come in to attend to this 17-18 months after an investigation was conducted by the NHL which treats these matters very, very seriously, to think that time was taken by members of our government sets us back a hundred years in my view in the eyes of the world. When you’ve got Rene Fassel of the IIHF backing you up, which Team Canada does in this case, that folks says a lot about which side of the coin we all should be on this issue.
I was born in Montreal. My mother is from a small town north of Quebec City. I love the province; I have many, many family members that live there still and numerous friends. I’m a die hard Hab fan. I say all this because it’s so easy these days to take a gratuitous shot at the Bloc Quebecois. They are so disjointed. Thank God their control, such as it was, appears to be waning at the moment. I do not know of a more hypocrite bunch of jerks than those in that political party with their Bill 101 and every other element of their separatist attitude. Why not drag Ted Lindsay into court for his verbal infractions against Rocket Richard? Mr. Lindsay has admitted numerous times in countless interviews that he called the Rocket ‘a frog’ although I think we all know it was much worse than that. What’s stopping a full investigation into all slurs against French players going back as far as we can trace? Oops, probably just gave those morons an idea. It would be their first. Suffice to say this was the lowest moment ever in the history of hockey as far as I’m concerned. Not Bertuzzi-Moore. Not Green-Maki, not the Richard Riot, Shore-Bailey or even Masson-McCourt, the only on ice murder in Canadian hockey history. None of that matches this shameful display of Canadian politics if you can call it that. Thank God and I mean that sincerely, Thank God Mr. Nicholson and every other power that be from Steve Yzerman right on down have continued to tell these misguided idiots to get stuffed. I’d love to tell them a whole lot more.
On the hockey front, got a few right last series, got a few wrong. Ottawa and Buffalo got the wins I was calling. Same with Anaheim but for the second time Detroit has surprised me. Those are two huge playoff series victories for the Senators. I believe Buffalo are the better hockey club. I think the Sabres are every bit if not more so, destined to win a Cup much like Senator faithful extol in many a radio call in show however, I simply cannot go against the Senators right now. They have stepped up and to be honest the fact they are having this success without Hossa, without Chara, without Havlat, I absolutely love. For those of us who live here in the Ottawa area, we’ve got to listen to people phone in or write in to our dailies and complain about those players not being here and how it will hurt us in the playoffs then in the next sentence say that Jason Spezza has to do more corner work for the Senators to be successful. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. This is a very new group by and large to the sport. They have turned on to this team over the past decade since they’ve gotten good and other than not needing an explanation for an offside or an icing call there is very little difference with the main stream Ottawa Senator fan and a Nashville Predator fan. But they’re having a great ride with this team and I think it’s going to continue. I’ll call the Sens in six games over the Sabres.
I really think that Detroit is going to miss Mathieu Schneider. That’s an easy statement to make obviously. His six points in 12 games are not outstanding by any means but his 30+ minutes a game are definitely going to be missed. Lidstrom and Chelios picked up the slack through the rest of game five and then game six but this is the start of a new series against arguably the most physical team in the NHL so I predict that Detroit will not be able to stay with the Ducks over this best-of-seven. Hasek maybe could step up again and steal this one. Anaheim is four years removed from their Cup final run but Detroit is five years beyond their last Cup triumph. They should be a great series, both of them.
Coming soon to a TV station near you, a new reality show; “how to be an incompetent politician.” Be well folks and we'll talk to you next week.
Liam Maguire
# posted by Liam Maguire @ 1:15 PM 
